A downer of a topic for New Years Day
January 1, 2024
In the two boxes where I store my baseball cards from the 1970s, the cards within each box are divided into three separate groups. The names and meanings of each group will become clear as this process moves along, but today I’m presenting two players in what I have dubbed the Order of Lyman Bostock (or OLB for short).
I mentioned in my first post that Lyman Bostock was killed on a September night in 1978. After his California Angels team had lost to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Bostock visited a relative in nearby Gary, Indiana. He was shot and killed, as the car he was riding in was stopped at a red light. This violent act snuffed out what could have been a hall-of-fame career, and it makes as much sense to me in 2024 as it did forty-five years ago (which is to say, none at all).
So Lyman Bostock has become the namesake for a grouping of baseball players who appeared on at least one baseball card during the 70s, but died before reaching his 70th birthday. There are currently 100 players this applies to, and two of them will be discussed on this, the anniversary of their passings.
The first one, Dan Frisella (or “Danny” as he was called on most of the cards he appeared on), was killed at the age of 30, in a dune buggy accident near his home in Phoenix on New Years Day, 1977. The card I have of him is from 1973, and the “Dan” moniker is puzzling, since the Topps Company that issued the card referred to him as “Danny” in their 1972 set, and again in 1974, ‘75, ‘76 and ‘77. And why they released a card for him in 1977, months after he had passed away, will forever be a mystery to me.
The second one, Paul Lindblad, was a pitcher who won three World Series rings in his career, two with the Oakland A’s and a third with the 1978 New York Yankees. Lindblad died at the age of 64 on New Years Day in 2006, after nearly a decade of battling against early-onset Alzheimers.
The contrast between their respective demises could not be any more stark. Is it better to die suddenly in a violent accident in our youth, or at the end of a long period of physical and mental decline? Neither loss could have been easy for family and friends to accept, but fate is the one with the final say in the matter.
As this year progresses, I’ll present a number of players, who were either born on that date—if they are still with us on earth—or the date that they passed away, should that be the case. The common thread is that all will have appeared on at least one baseball card that I have in my possession during the 1970s. I’m looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.
Until tomorrow….