He covered it all up. Karen Blass. Blass knew that his case was desperate. It went on and happened to me. He walked Mike Lum, throwing one pitch behind him in the process, which allowed Evans to move down to second. Id like to work on that a couple of times first, because its early and he swings so well. Swinging strike. Los Angeles, CA 90010. Blass is a modest man, both in temperament and in background, and his success and fame were quite sudden and, to some degree, unexpected. Steve Blass, the longtime Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster and former pitcher, will retire at the end of the 2019 season, he announced at a press . The Blasses place in Falls Village included an old barn with an interestingly angled roof, against which young Steve Blass played hundreds of one-man games (his four brothers and sisters were considerably younger) with a tennis ball. He lost the will to win. Roberto Clemente, of course, is dead; he was killed on December 31, 1972, in Puerto Rico, in the crash of a plane he had chartered to carry emergency relief supplies to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. . Blass agreed. He appeared in 23 games, started 18 and only amassed 88.2 innings pitched. Or wont. Washington, DC 20515. He struck out some players with his fastball. 5 (3). Find your friends on Facebook. The Charlies did a lot of travelling by bus. 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. Young kidsmaybe three or four years old. 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 select levels of pitching proficiency (and salary) begin below the 3.00 line; in fact, an E.R.A. Steve Blass played 10 . My next view of Steve Blass on a baseball diamond came on a cool afternoon at the end of April this year. The photograph shows a perfectly arrested moment of joy. He didnt want to subject Karen to more of the struggle. It was being forced out of him. 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. Then baseball suddenly stopped being fun for him. Thats what people mean when they say youre in the groove. Karen M Lamb. Of all the mysteries that surround the Steve Blass story, perhaps the most mysterious is the fact that his collapse is unique. Write Karen Blass' 1st recommendation. See Photos. Pretty good inning, I said. He tried pitching with his left foot tucked up behind his right knee until the last possible second of his delivery. Karen Blass. shoom! Its that good feeling. Im not a student of pitching and Im not a psychologist. Karen Blass (Limited edition) See Photos. Her age is 69. . Ive had the greatest moments a person could ever want. But Seavers problems were only relatively serious (his record for 1974 was 1111), and were at least partly explicable (he had a sore hip), and he has now returned to form. Lets keep on with this!, He kept on with it, in all seasons and circumstances. All that matters is his performance, which will be measured, with utter coldness, by the stats. Steve Nobel. (202) 225-7084. " Down The Drain " is an unusual sports story. Pirates broadcaster and World Series champion Steve Blass is congratulated by his wife, Karen, during a ceremony honoring his 60 years of service with the team Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019, at PNC Park. First of all, Im going to try to keep him off base if I can, because they have so many tough hitters coming up. Both of his arms are flung wide, and he, too, is shouting. But then he suddenly shut up about it, and he never talked that way again. He felt that the Pirates and Joe Brown had been extraordinarily patient and sympathetic in dealing with a baffling and apparently irremediable problem. 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. 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 1972 season, when Blass won 19 games and made the National League All-Star team, was his best in terms of numbers. Great picture. Don Osborn, a gentle man in his mid-sixties, says, Steves problem was mental. Its Gimme the ball, boom! You know, I can almost see that fastball to Perez, and I can see his bat going through it, swinging through the pitch and missing, he said. It didnt even have to be major-league ball. Blass did not argue about the decision; in fact, as a veteran with more than eight years service in the majors, he had to agree to the demotion before the parent club could send him down. 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. At least that problem could be solved now. 1970 Topps Set Break Steve Blass #396 NM-MT or BETTER. He was afraid of injuryafraid of being struck by a line drive. I tend to take things not too seriously. Uncle and Aunt, Larry and Karen (Erickson) Stoller, Uncle Chris Blass, Aunt Coleen Blass, Cousins Lyndsi . On one sidethe left, as you look at the picturethe catcher is running toward the camera at full speed, with his upraised arms spread wide. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Yes, you know that exact sequence has happened to Perez many times, Blass said. By early June, his record was three wins and three losses, but his earned-run average suggested that his difficulties were serious. He came home feeling a little hopeful (he was almost living on such minimal nourishments), but when he forced himself to think about it he had to admit that he had been too tense to throw the fastball much, even against rookies. Maybe your control is something that can just go. (323) 965-1422. Staff Sergeant Steve Blass died Monday, March 11, 2013 at the age of 27 in a Black Hawk, Black Hat 14, UH-60L #270 Helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan which also killed four other members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. I worried about not contributing to the team. 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. Thus, it may be posited as a rule that a major-league hurler who gives up an average of just over three and a half runs per game is about at the middle of his professionan average pitcher. Blass, who had not pitched in six weeks, was extremely anxious about this test; he walked the streets of Chicago on the night before the game, and could not get to sleep until after five in the morning. 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. In any case, Blass wanted to go. 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. Select this result to view Stephen Mark Blass's phone number, address, and more. Explore Steve Blass net worth, bio, age, height, family, wiki, birthday, career, salary [Last Update 2021]! Maybe it was like his never having a sore arm. Blass, it should be understood, was not the same kind of pitcher as a Carlton or a Gibson. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and. Theres no doubt about itno information needed. Some pitching mechanics were discussed and worked on: Blass was sometimes dropping his elbow as he threw; often he seemed to be hurrying his motion, so that his arm was not in synchronization with his body; perhaps he had exaggerated his peculiar swoop toward first base and thus was losing his power. Blass was a less obvious heroa competent but far from overpowering right-hander who had won fifteen games for the Pirates that year, with a most respectable 2.85 earned-run average, but who had absorbed a terrible pounding by the San Francisco Giants in the two games he pitched in the National League playoffs, just before the Series. Prior to this season, Steve announced it . I dont think there are too many here who are thinking, Look, theres the wild man. Ive had hundreds and hundreds of lettersI dont know how manyand not one of them was down on me., In the game, Bob Gibson pitched against the Pirates Jerry Reuss. After giving up a home run to the Reds second batter of the day, Joe Morgan, which was hit off a first-pitch fastball, Blass readjusted his plans and went mostly to a big, slow curve, causing the Reds to hit innumerable rainmaking outfield flies, and won by 51. I should know., The game rushed along, as games always do when Gibson is pitching. It may also be seen, in a much enlarged version, on one wall of the office of Joe L. Brown, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in Three Rivers Stadium. Wed stop at an all-night restaurant every now and then, and Id walk in with a two-day beard and my old Charleston Charlies uniform on, looking like go-to-hell, Blass said. then arched his back, cricked his neck oddly, rolled his head a few times, took up a stance in the back corner of the batters box, with his bat held high, and glared out at the pitcher imperiouslyClemente, to the life. I had never seen such a spirited gesture in a serious baseball setting, and since then I have come to realize that Steve Blasss informality and boyish play constituted an essential private style, as original and as significant as Clementes eagle-like pride, and that each of them was merely responding in his own way to the challenges of an extremely difficult public profession. Writer Kirk Robinson stated that, "In 1972, if you had to choose any pitcher in the . I really thought he was on his way, he told me. 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 wonders whether he will ever win again or whether he will now join the long, long listthe list that awaits him, almost surely, in the endof suddenly slow, suddenly sore-armed pitchers who have abruptly vanished from the big time, down the drain to oblivion. Then, at some point, I turned the corner. 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. All-Star team. Listen, its tough out there. He is a member of famous Actor with the age 80 years old group. I dont think anybody will ever understand his decline. You know, this thing thats happened has been painted so bad, so tragic, he said. I must have thrown it three out of four pitches to him, and I just knew it was going to be there. He didn't. Blass never pitched well in the majors after Clementes death. Bill Virdon, the Pirate manager, was patient and told Blass to take all the time he needed to find himself; he reminded Blass that oncein 1970he had had an early record of two and eight but had then come back to finish the season with a mark of ten and twelve. You have no business being there, performing that way as a major-league pitcher. I guess I dont have a tendency to go into things in much depth. View the profiles of people named Karen Lamb on Facebook. The fastball is a great healer. For a time, his performance was borderline, but his few wins were in sloppy, high-scoring contests, and his bad outings were marked by streaks of uncharacteristic wildness and ineffectuality. Pete Rose is leading offright? Karen Lamb Miller passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family on June 20, 2010, at Saint Luke's Hospital, after a sudden illness. Steve Blass was with the team through this stretch, but he took no part in the campaign, and by now he was almost silent in the clubhouse. He worries about his arm, which almost always hurts to some degree. Steve Blass had become the tenured ace of the squad. You may leave a message for the family by clicking here. The enormous alterations of professional sport in the past three decades, and especially the prodigious inflation of franchises and salaries, have made it evident even to the most thoughtless fan that the play he has come to see is serious indeed, and that the heart of the game is not physical but financial. After the second game, he showered and got into his Volkswagen and started North to join his family, who had returned to Pittsburgh. On March 24th, Steve Blass started the second game of a doubleheader against the White Sox at Bradenton. In Steve Blass's first big league start he outdueled future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, pictured above. I asked if maintaining this superhuman calm might not have damaged Steve in some way, or even added to his problems. Still he cannot win. Who Is Steve Blass's Wife? 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. 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 is an actor, known for Abduction (2011), 1972 National League Championship Series (1972) and 1971 National League Championship Series (1971). He and Clemente had not been particularly close, but Blass was among the members of the team who flew at once to Puerto Rico for the funeral services, where Blass delivered a eulogy in behalf of the club. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Im not certain that I saw Blass work in the regular season of 1972, but I did see him pitch the opening game of the National League playoffs that fall against the Cincinnati Reds, in Pittsburgh. 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. HARTFORD, Conn. Steve Blass had just pitched the game of his life, of any pitcher's life, beating the Orioles, 2-1, in Game 7 of the World Series. But it never happenedBlass saw to it that it didnt. The child in him is a great thingweve all loved itand maybe he was suddenly afraid he was losing it. Perez had shortened up on the bat a little, but he took the pitch. His hunched, airborne posture makes him look like a man who has just made a running jump over a sizable objecta kitchen table, say. Steve has worked at being a man and being a father and a husband. If I did Id go get Steve to pitch for me. 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. Ill throw it in the dirt to show it to himget him geared to that kind of speed. He could do Manny Sanguillen. He then fouled off a fastball, and Blass threw him another good fastball, high and inside, and Perez struck out, swinging, to end the inning. Im not bitter about this. I had always wanted to hear a pitcher say exactly what he would throw next and why, and now I invited Blass to throw against the Cincinnati Reds, the toughest lineup of hitters anywhere. Stephen is related to Emily Harwood White and Vicki Ann Blass as well as 1 additional person. SSG STEVE BLASS passed away on March 11, 2013 at the age of 27 in ESTHERVILLE, Iowa. Steve is an outstanding man, and you hate to quit on him. Watching him work, you sometimes wondered how he was getting all those batters out. Blass refuses to make jokes about these nostrums. In a very brief time, his earned-run average and his bases-on-balls record were the worst in the league Blass got along well with his teammates, but there were other problems. Steve Blass, the Pittsburgh Pirates hero of the 1971 World Series, was on of the most effective pitchers during th e spna 1968-1972. He won a complete game against the Padres, but in his next two appearances, against the Dodgers and the Expos, he survived for barely half the distance; in the Expos game, he threw three scoreless innings, and then suddenly gave up two singles, a double, and two walks. You can tell a man what to do, but you cant make him do it. He fell into a slump, which led to an irreparable loss of confidence. A lot of the Sox struck out, too, and a lot of players on both teams walked more than I could count, in fact. 2 2. Karen Blass #176481. The training period made it clear that nothing had altered with him (he walked twenty-five men in fourteen innings in exhibition play), and when the club went North he was left in Bradenton for further work. With me, everything was just a continuation of what had come before. I think thats why I enjoyed it all so much when it did come along, when the good things did happen.. At the beginning of the 1973 season, Steve Blass had a lifetime earned-run average of 3.25 and was averaging 1.9 walks per game. What was mystifying about the whole thing was that Blass still had his stuff, especially when he warmed up or threw on the sidelines. and an M.A. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1964 and from 1966 through 1974. You cant imagine the feeling that you suddenly have no idea what youre doing out there. He wont want to take the bat out of Benchs hands. He released another cloud of cigar smoke, thinking hard. 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. 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. Karen Lamb Steve Blass/. PITTSBURGH -- Steve Blass sat in the press conference room at PNC Park on Tuesday morning with a piece of paper in front of him. Hes always been that way. The Pirates had finally released him late in March (outrighted him, in baseball parlance), near the end of the spring-training season, and he had subsequently decided not to continue his attempts to salvage his pitching form in the minor leagues. He always found something to hold on toa couple of good pitches that day, some little thing he had noticed. On a team that played close to .500 ball, Blass stood out as one of its prime stars. SEND FLOWERS Add a Memory Share Obituary . Steve Blass is a former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and has been broadcasting their games as color commentator since 1987. Blass flew out to California to see Dr. Bill Harrison once more, and also to visit a hypnotist, Arthur Ellen, who has worked with several major-league players, and has apparently helped some of them, including Dodger pitcher Don Sutton, remarkably. He earned a B.A. Three days later, the Pirates held a press conference to announce that they had requested waivers from the other National League clubs, with the purpose of giving Blass his unconditional release. He sure won a lot of big games for us on the Pirates., Joe Brown said, Ive tried to keep my distance and not to guess too much about what happened. We sat behind home plate, down near the screen, and during the first few innings a lot of young fans came clustering down the aisle to get Steves autograph. Lamb was also ordered to repay the money she stole. The pitcher goes into a slump. He was struck on the right forearm by a ball hit by Joe Torre in 1970, and spent a month on the disabled list. I am not a Pittsburgher, but looking at this photograph never fails to give me pleasure, not just because of its aesthetic qualities but because its high-bounding happiness so perfectly brings back that eventful World Series and that particular gray autumn afternoon in Baltimore and the wonderful and inexpungible expression of joy that remained on Steve Blasss face after the game ended. Asked if maintaining this superhuman calm might not have damaged Steve in way... Start he outdueled future Hall of Famer don Drysdale, pictured above National League All-Star team, not... And i just knew it was going to be there, & quot ; down Drain... 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