Don Baylor, a man I was convinced was bulletproof, died early this morning at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 68. The cause was announced as multiple myeloma.
Baylor, who was hit by a pitch 267 times during his 19-year career, never let a single one of them hurt him. Ball bounced off of his big, muscular frame like tennis balls lobbed by one of his kids.
Lest we forget, Baylor was the Braves hitting coach in 1999, a year the Braves won 103 games in one of their last best chances to win it all. Team hit 197 homers that year, which was the year Chipper hit 45 homers and five starters (Andruw 26, Jordan 23, Klesko 21 and Boone 20) had 20 or more. It was our loss that the Cubs hired him to be their manager for 2000.
He also managed the Rockies, and was NL Manager of the Year in 1995, the year Atlanta won it all.
He was active in fund raising for the cause of preventing multiple myeloma with myeloma survivor Met Stottlemyre in the name of pitcher Vern Ruhle, who also died from it at age 55 in 2007. Baylor was first diagnosed with the disease in 2003, while a coach with the Mets. Myeloma attacks the plasma in bone marrow. Most victims die within five years of diagnosis, so it turns out that Baylor was as tough as he looked, after all.
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