Death among the living

 

I came across this card while researching a topic a couple days ago.

I have this card, acquired fairly recently in my attempt to complete the 1970 Topps set. I had no idea of its significance.

It is the only card of Paul Edmondson. Even though he started 13 games in his first major league season in 1969 and pitched fairly well, he'd never have another card. He'd never pitch in another game.

He was killed in an automobile accident the day after his birthday in February 1970, and so his card is another one of those cards that was pulled from packs after the player had passed. I thought I knew all the examples of players who died during their careers, of cards issued of players living when the photo was taken but no longer living when the packs were opened.

Roberto Clemente, Don Wilson, Danny Frisella, Yordano Ventura, Ken Hubbs. I've written about some of them on the blog.

Here is another one.

I don't like writing about this one, not on this day, the anniversary of the boat crash that killed Steve Olin and Tim Crews.

It's not that I have any connection to either of those players. It's because March 22 is the day my daughter was born. It's a day of life, to celebrate life.

I don't like acknowledging death on this day. But I found myself reading about the crash and a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of it.  It was more horrible than I remembered, probably because I was 27 when it happened, still five years away from being a father, and now I am 56 with a daughter who is three years away now from being 27.

Steve Olin was 27 when he died. So was Paul Edmondson.

 

 

Tim Crews was 31. He was driving the boat. He was legally drunk, although that likely wasn't the sole reason why he drove into the pier.

I received this card that Crews signed from reader Richard. He said it was a favorite of his but it was time to let it go. To a Dodger fan.

Crews was on the Indians when he died, but I had known him only as a Dodger and that's the only MLB team he played for during his abbreviated career.

He was the first Dodger player that I knew who had died during his career. There had been a couple of Brooklyn players who passed while still playing long ago, but Crews was the first Los Angeles Dodger.

I don't remember how I found out about the accident. I would imagine it was the next day at work. This was a few years before the internet, so it's likely I read about it on the wire on our computer in the small bureau office where I worked. Perhaps my co-worker told me about it, he was always up on the latest sports news more than I was.

I know I felt it. Crews was a Dodger. Olin was my age. I had barely heard of him before the accident. He had a break-out year in 1992, appearing in 72 games. But I was a National League fan.

Now it's almost 30 years since Olin and Crews died. And anytime I see the anniversary of the accident brought up on this date, I go out of my way to avoid it because this isn't the day I want to hear about that stuff.

And now I'm the one bringing it up.

Finally time to realize there's death among the living, I guess.

It's a shame though.