All-Star team. I guess I dont have a tendency to go into things in much depth. Steve Nobel. The 1972 season, when Blass won 19 games and made the National League All-Star team, was his best in terms of numbers. Longtime City of Fort Myers director of golf Rich Lamb passed away after a long health battle. When I was a boy, I used to make up those fictitious games where I was always pitching in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series. He tried not to think much about baseball, and he didnt work on his pitching. His two Series victories, by contrast, were momentous by any standardand, indeed, were among the very best pitching performances of his entire seven years in the majors. The sun will come up tomorrow. Most of all, perhaps, he sustained his self-regard by not taking out his terrible frustrations on Karen and the boys. Lamb was 67 and had been in the hospital a week or . 64 books | 59 friends Michele Neeson. In spite of it all, Blass has kept his humor and has enjoyed life. The gamethe White Sox vs. the Orioleswas a close, 31 affair, in which the winning White Sox pitcher, John McKenzie, struck out seventeen batters, in six innings. Blass, it should be understood, was not the same kind of pitcher as a Carlton or a Gibson. The distance between the minors and the majors, always measurable in light-years, is probably greater today than ever before, and for a man making the leap in the wrong direction the feeling must be sickening. It wasnt so bad, Blass told me. So as long as Im ahead of him, Ill keep on throwing him sliderskeep going that way.. But it never happenedBlass saw to it that it didnt. Blass once told me that there were at least seventeen theories about the reason for his failure. Pitcher Ron Reed singled, driving in two more runs, and was wild-pitched to second. Karen was born April 2, 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, to Samuel Selden La Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK19. On April 24, 2014, the Jamestown Jammers hosted a special event in Warren featuring Pittsburgh Pirates player and announcer Steve Blass. In 1973, Steve Blass was an extremely successful and useful big-league pitcher. His decline, however, was partially attributable to his failure to stay in shape. He was wearing slacks and a T-shirt and an old sweater (he had a golfing date later that day), and he looked very young. Id throw the ball up, and then Id be diving into the weeds for pop-ups or running back and calling for the long fly balls, and all. It is directly behind the overlapping hand and glove of the dancers, and it binds and recapitulates the lines of force and the movements and the theme of the work, creating a composition as serene and well ordered as a Giotto. Stephen Robert Blass (born April 18, 1942) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator. The frustrating, bewildering part of it all was that while working alone with a catcher Blass continued to throw as well as he ever had; his fastball was alive, and his slider and curve shaved the corners of the plate. He has a tendency to go after that kind of pitch. Karen M Lamb. In this business, you bet on character. Steve was startled by the unfamiliar view. Steve Blass, the longtime Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster and former pitcher, will retire at the end of the 2019 season, he announced at a press . On March 24th, Steve Blass started the second game of a doubleheader against the White Sox at Bradenton. Don Osborn, a gentle man in his mid-sixties, says, Steves problem was mental. Now, after ball one, Ill give him a medium-to-slow curveball and try to get it over the platejust throw it for a strike., Now I throw him a real slow curveballa regular rainbow. Here are pictures from November 2022 show. View the profiles of people named Karen Lamb on Facebook. He struck out some players with his fastball. In Steve Blass's first big league start he outdueled future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, pictured above. He always found something to hold on toa couple of good pitches that day, some little thing he had noticed. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. All this was said with an air of summing up, of finality, but at other times that evening I noticed that it seemed difficult for Blass to talk about his baseball career as a thing of the past; now and then he slipped into the present tenseas if it were still going on. He has been married to Karen Lamb since October 5, 1963. He lost the will to win. Then suddenly, he lost his ability to pitch and it never returned. I worried about not contributing to the team. Select this result to view Karen Louise Blass's phone number, address, and more. Bill Blass. Near the end of an article I wrote about that 1971 World Series, I mentioned watching Steve Blass in batting practice just before the all-important seventh game and suddenly noticing that, in spite of his impending responsibilities, he was amusing himself with a comical parody of Clemente at the plate: Blass. John Terry and Wayne Bridge, Chelsea Football Club. First of all, Im going to try to keep him off base if I can, because they have so many tough hitters coming up. At one point, he leaned forward a little and peered into the Pirate dugout and murmured, Is Dock Ellis over in his regular corner there?, but for the most part he kept his eyes on the field. Then, in the fourth, there were a couple of bases on balls and maybe a bad call by the ump on a close pitch, and suddenly there was a complete reversal. Way to go. We both laughed. District Office in California. Steve Blass weighed 165 lbs (74 kg) when playing. You have no business being there, performing that way as a major-league pitcher. He could do rat soundsthe noise a rat makes running. They have two children. Perfect. The catcher is Manny Sanguillen, of the Pirates, and his leaping teammate is pitcher Steve Blass, who has just defeated the defending (and suddenly former) World Champion Baltimore Orioles by a score of 21, giving up four hits. Anyone who takes the trouble to write a man who is suffering deserves to be thanked, he told me. Just a couple of weeks ago, he walked those same streets, had breakfast at Collin's Diner, still across from the surviving portion of the depot where he spoke on Steve Blass Day, Oct. 22, 1971. Sometimes I think I got to hate the frustration and pain of this more than he did. In this segment he reminisces about . He didnt quite make the big club when training ended in the spring, and was sent down to the Pirates Triple A club in Columbus, but the call came three weeks later. With Joe Browns permission, he left the Charlies and flew West to consult Dr. Bill Harrison, of Davis, California. 79 (18 1942) Steve Blass/. What pleased him most that year was his consistency. Im not a student of pitching and Im not a psychologist. The fastball is my best pitch, but Id get right to the top of my delivery and then something would take over, and Id know even before I released the ball that it wasnt going to be in the strike zone. He went the full distance in eleven of the thirty-two games he started, and averaged better than seven and a half innings per startnot dazzling figures (Steve Carlton, of the Phillies, had thirty complete games that year, and Bob Gibson, of the Cards, had twenty-three) but satisfying ones for a man who had once had inordinate difficulty in finishing games. His was, to be sure, a famous victorya close and bitterly fought pitchers battle against the Orioles Mike Cuellar, in which the only score for seven innings had been a solo home run by the celebrated Pirate outfielder Roberto Clemente. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The former Karen Lamb, who will celebrate her 49th anniversary with Mr. Blass today [Friday], came from an athletic family. Lamb, who leaves . Karencita Blass. Karen Blass (Limited edition) See Photos. Known as. Nobody knows, but some speculation is permissibleindeed, is perhaps demanded of anyone who is even faintly aware of the qualities of Steve Blass and the depths of his suffering. It was the swing that put Richie back on his heels like that. Later on, Richie Zisk hit a homer off Gibson, on a three-and-two count, and Blass murmured, The high slider is one of the hittable pitches when it isnt just right. The big hit of the game was a triple to left center by the White Sox catcher, David Blass, who is ten years old. The first half of the season, I was atrocious, and I lost all my confidence, especially in my fastball. He still knew most of the hitters in his league, and, probably as well as any other pitcher around, he knew what to pitch to them in a given situation. He was always the same, day after day. (He is six feet tall, and weighs about one hundred and eighty pounds.) The really strange thing is that after this trouble started, Steve never showed any feelings about his pitching. Dave Giusti (He is one of the great relief pitchers in baseball. I promised he would have no control problems. That figure and his record of eighty-four walks in eighty-nine innings pitched were the worst in the National League. Big-league baseball isnt easy, yet you can stand it when things are going your way. He is friendly and informal, with an attractive smile. As a result, he was of very little use to the Pirates even in batting practice. Danny Murtaugh and Bill Virdon (who is now the Yankees pilot) both expressed their admiration for Blass but said they had no idea what had happened to him. Resides in Buffalo, NY. He won a World Series title in 1971, earned an All-Star selection the following season and retired from the diamond a few . SSG STEVE BLASS passed away on March 11, 2013 at the age of 27 in ESTHERVILLE, Iowa. I said, Hes ready, we can use him! Funny. They have also lived in Pittsburgh, PA. Karen is related to Meghan Chandler Blass and Chris F Blass as well as 2 additional people. There are Oedipal elements here, of course, that are attractive to those who incline in such direction. At eleven that same night, they reboarded the bus and drove to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for their next date, arriving at about nine in the morning. When Ted Simmons stood in for the visitors, Blass said, Hes always hit me pretty good. Most painful of all, perhaps, was the fact that the men who most sympathized with his incurable professional difficulties were least able to help. My first big-league autograph was Hank Majeski., Blass grew up into an athletea good sandlot football player, a second-team All-State Class B basketball star, but most of all a pitcher, like his father. Pete Rose is leading offright? He had another pretty good outing against the Cardinals, for no decision, and then started against the Mets, in New York, on September 21st, but got only two men out, giving up four instant runs on a walk and four hits. Only ten holes separated his two aces. or. Blass put on his warmup jacket and trotted to the outfield to run his wind sprints. Following his rousing success in 1972, Blass was inexplicably bad in 1973. These are routine pitching mistakes, which almost all pitchers are guilty of from time to time, and Blass worked on them assiduously. The Pirate organization had been extraordinarily patient, but was, after all, in the business of baseball. Earlier in the same summer, he also experimented briefly with transcendental meditation. ), The Pittsburgh organization signed Steve Blass right out of Housatonic High in 1960, and he began moving up through the minors. Roland Hemond, the general manager of the White Sox, was at Bradenton that day, and he said, It was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen in baseball.. Maybe I should have come right out and said he seemed to have lost his will to fight, but its hard to shock somebody, to keep bearing in on him. Every accomplishment, every stage of the gameyou have no idea how much he loved it, how he enjoyed the game.. Of all the mysteries that surround the Steve Blass story, perhaps the most mysterious is the fact that his collapse is unique. All rights reserved. I was a total Indians fan, completely buggy. Invariably, they asked him how much money he was earning as a player; then they asked if he thought he was worth it. In the photo, Karen Blass looks extremely pretty in a large straw hat, and all three male Blasses are wearing Pirate uniforms; the boys uniforms look a little funny, because in their excitement each boy had put on the others pants. Blass was enjoying himself, and it seemed to me that the familiarities and surprises of the game had restored something in him. It was pretty funny to see people looking at me. Suddenly, a New York cop remembered a long-ago murder. As with the other aspects of the game, statistics define his work andday by day, inning by inningwhether he is getting it done. Blass never pitched well in the majors after Clementes death. He and Karen Lamb were married in the fall of 1963, and they went to the Dominican Republic that winter, where Steve played for the Cibaeas Eagles and began working on a slider. And if we were home, Id get up about seven in the morning, before anybody else was up, and go downstairs and make myself a cup of coffee, and then Id get the newspaper and open it to the sports section and just Just soak it all in., We thanked Joe Brown and said good night, and as we went down in the elevator I asked Steve Blass if he wanted to stop off in the clubhouse for a minute and see his old friends. The Pirates had scored again in the eighth, but the Orioles had responded with a run of their own and had brought the tying run around to third base before Blass shut them off once and for all. Sport is no longer a release from the harsh everyday American business world but its continuation and apotheosis. David and Chris have come through it all in fine shape. This is one reason that athletes are paid so well, and one reason that fear of failurethe unspeakable chokingis their deepest and most private anxiety. I knew I wasnt capable of going in there, he said. Write Karen Blass' 1st recommendation. Joe Brown had told Blass that the end of the line might be approaching. Sign Up. Over on the right, another player, the pitcher, is just past the apex of an astonishing leap that has brought his knees up to his chest and his feet well up off the ground. I remember it was raining as we came out of the tunnel in Pittsburgh, and I drove straight to Forbes Field and went in and found the attendant and put my uniform on, at two in the afternoon. Brooke Lamb, 42 Karen Prosser Ann Patricia Hampton Colleen, 65 Jerry Grice, 78 Cindy Grice, 73 Karen Walliker, 72. has lived in Boring, OR Sandy, OR Gresham, OR Boise, ID As part of the Golden Retriever family, they are widely known for being loyal, fun-loving, intelligent, gentle, extremely trainable, and are often called "the perfect family dog." Please contact me if you have any questions. Hey, you can really see how it works from here, cant you? he said. The sinking fastball tends to tail off just a little., Well, now we come back with another slider, and Ill try to throw it inside. Blass walked the first two men he faced, and gave up a stolen base and a wild pitch and a run-scoring single before retiring the side. Other elite athletes have experienced the same loss of ability. How much is Steve Blass worth? Finally, Murtaugh came out very slowly to the mound and told Blass that he was taking him out of the game; Dave Giusti came in to relieve his old roommate. But I couldnt always share that, and I didnt have his ability to keep things under control.. . In the end, it was talking to people that did it. The Charlies did a lot of travelling by bus. . Intelligent, knows how to win. Tony Bartirome, the Pirate trainer, who is a close friend of Steves, thought he was pitching as well as he ever had. Steve Blass was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates who helped them win the World Series in 1971 and was an All Star in 1972. Well, Ill start him out with a good, tough fastball outside. Never. She paused, and then she said, I think he directed his anger toward making the situation livable here at home. Blass had started the game in Toledo, and he was so disgusted with his performance that he got back on the bus without having showered or taken off his uniform. The Blass family room was trophied and comfortable. Once you start maintaining a plateau, youve got to be absolutely sure what your goals are.. There is rarely an explanation for this, whether the slump has lasted for two games or a dozen, and managers and coaches, when pressed for one, will usually mutter that pitching is a delicate thing, oras if it explained anythinghe got back in the groove.. in physical education at Syracuse. Ralph Garr grounded out. God, that was an awful trip, he said. This was a late-afternoon date in the Upper St. Clair (Pennsylvania) Recreation League schedule, played between the White Sox and the Orioles on a field behind the Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary SchoolLittle League baseball, but at a junior and highly informal level. share to facebook . I dont think anybodys ever said that maybe I just lost my control. I really think thats one of the things thats helped me in baseball.. CELEBRITY GOSSIPY BIO. The phone numbers for her are (712) 273-5345 (Frontier Communications of Iowa, Inc), (712) 320-3324 (United States Cellular Corp.Frontier Communications of Iowa, Inc). mark of 2.28 and Catfish Hunters 2.49 in the A.L. Quick Facts She was born on 1953-01-31. He tried pitching from the outfield, with the sweeping motion of a fielder making a long peg. Virdon remained calm, although he was clearly puzzled. Ive got to work very carefully to him, because when hes hot hes capable of hitting it out anytime., Well, the sliders only been fair today. 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