Chuck Negron, of Three Dog Night.
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The band splintered in 1976, and Mr. Negron sank further into the abyss, in large part because of heroin addiction. His millions in savings vanished and, before long, he was living in a Skid Row drug den in Los Angeles. The police often raided crack dealer neighbors but “never bothered us,” he recalled in a 1998 interview with The Las Vegas Sun. “That’s how pathetic we were.”
He hit a particular low one day when he was zonked out on a curb and noticed people gawking. “It’s really embarrassing,” he remembered telling a companion next to him, “these people want an autograph.”
“Chuck, you just peed in the street,” the friend responded. “They don’t know who you are.”
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Virginia Oliver. I’m not exactly sure she qualifies as “notable”, outside of a small circle. But the obit is fun, she led a good life, and it lets me use a tag I don’t get to use as often as I’d like.
On the frigid and crustacean-filled waters of Penobscot Bay, Mrs. Oliver was known as the Lobster Lady. She was a folk hero to Mainers — an enduring, if fading, emblem of the state’s hardy, matter-of-fact work ethic.
“She represented that no-nonsense Mainer who just got up every day and did what they had to do,” Barbara A. Walsh, the author of a children’s book about Mrs. Oliver, said in an interview. “It’s grit and determination.”
During lobster season — from June to December — Mrs. Oliver would wake up at 2:45 a.m., put on overalls and drive her four-wheel-drive pickup truck to the dock. After loading her boat, the Virginia, with bait and gas, she would head to sea before sunrise, hauling lobster pots until lunchtime.
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Mrs. Oliver fished for more than 60 years with her husband, Maxwell Oliver Sr., known as Bill. After he died in 2006, Max Jr. took his spot. “I’m the boss,” she would occasionally remind both of them.
As a general rule, her authority was not to be questioned on land or at sea.
“She was a hard worker, a lovely lady, but you definitely didn’t mess around with her,” Dave Cousens, a lobsterman who knew Mrs. Oliver for several decades, said in an interview. “She had a mouth like a sailor. A lot of things she said you couldn’t print in a newspaper.”
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A few years back, she needed stitches after a particularly obstreperous lobster sliced her finger.
“What are you out there lobstering for?” the doctor asked.
“Because I want to,” she replied.
She was 103 when a fall forced her to give up lobstering. She was 105 when she passed away.
Mickey Lolich, of the Detroit Tigers.
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The Tigers finished 12 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles as they won the 1968 American League pennant, led by the right-hander Denny McLain, who won 31 games and lost only 6 that season in becoming the first pitcher to reach the 30-game milestone in 34 years, a feat that hasn’t been matched since. Lolich, meanwhile, compiled a laudable 17-9 record.
McClain was bested by the future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in the World Series opener, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Despite battling a groin infection that had developed overnight, Lolich pitched the Tigers to an 8-1 victory in Game 2 and hit the only home run of his career, a drive down the left-field line off the Cardinal starter, Nelson Briles.
The Tigers lost the next two games at home and were facing elimination when Lolich took the mound again, once more against Briles, but this time at Tiger Stadium. Lolich yielded three runs in the first inning, but the Tigers managed to rally for a 5-3 victory.
They won again in Game 6, in St. Louis, behind solid pitching by McLain and a 10-run third inning.
The durable Lolich was called on again for Game 7, when he faced Gibson.
With the game scoreless in the seventh inning, the Tiger outfielder Jim Northrup connected on a liner over the head of Curt Flood, the Cardinals’ center fielder, for a two-run, two-out triple. Detroit went on to a 4-1 victory, giving the Tigers their first World Series championship since they defeated the Chicago Cubs in seven games in 1945.
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I have aspired to have the professional athlete physique of Mickey Lolich. Ended up more like Gates Brown.
I was surprised to learn that mickey lolich was not in the hall
of fame. When you look at the number of complete games, innings pitched, ERA , etc. it doesn’t make sense
It is sad indeed to see Mickey Lolich has passed. I remember him from my youth. And I recall walking home from school and stopping at our local gas station where they had one of the 1968 World Series playing on the radio. In the afternoon, no less!
Of course I suspect that modern MLB would not exist if it were not for mostly night games even during the regular season, what with the television money being a huge matter for some of the smaller city teams. I still miss some of the afternoon baseball games during the week, but I also understand how things are.
I also remember listening to my 9 volt battery operated transistor radio late at night when the Tigers of Detroit were playing on the West Coast. It was sometimes hard to get up in the morning after a late game, but it was worth it.
Now that I am old, I can get most games either on television or radio, no matter where they are playing. And since I worked 3rd shift for so many years, I find it hard to sleep like most normal people do. So I quite often will watch or listen to Tiger games that start at 9 or 10 pm here in Michigan.
Some people think of us night owls as vampires, that can’t stand the daylight. But for me the advantage of night shift was fewer bosses or customers flittering about, getting in the way of production when I was perhaps pouring steel or melting multi million dollar heats under high vacuum, that needed full attention to ensure that everything was either safe or that I not make a costly mistake.
As for the Hall of Fame, I must admit that I don’t understand a lot of the choices for inclusion, but I suspect that politics are involved.