Phil Rizzuto and some of the others we lost in 2007

In 2007, we lost our share of heroes and good people.

Let me start with Phil Rizzuto, the great Yankee shortstop who played with Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. He was one of 12 Yankees who played in 5 consecutive World Series titles, 1949-53. I never saw Rizzuto play but he was great on the field and later as TV announcer. For my dad's generation, he was a great star on the field. For my generation, he was a great TV announcer.

We lost E. Howard Hunt, who was one of the players in the Watergate drama;

Thomas F. Eagleton, who was selected and deselected for VP by Democrat nominee Sen. McGovern in 1972. In the end, Eagleton got a bum rap but life is not fair;

Bowie Kuhn, who led major league baseball during the chaotic early days of free agency. Unfortunately, free agency and the baseball union have killed the role of the commissioner;

Eddie Robinson, great coach and inspiration for a lot of young people;

Boris N. Yeltsin, the man who had the guts to get on top of a tank and challenge the Kremlin. He wasn't perfect but he had courage;

David Halberstam, great political author and baseball fan. I love 1964 a book about the end of the "Mantle-Berra-Ford" Yankee dynasty. He also wrote The summer of 1949, another book about the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry;

Clete Boyer, the least known player in the great Yankee teams of the early 1960's. His brother, Ken, was the 1964 NL MVP.

Ruth Bell Graham, the wonderful Mrs. Graham. She played a vital role in Billy Graham's ministry;

Lady Bird Johnson, a wonderful First Lady;

Bill Walsh, great 49ers coach and one of the nicest guys in NFL history. He clearly ranks with Lombardi, Landry and some of the other great coaches;

Michael Deaver, the great strategist. He was one of Pres. Reagan's best advisers;

Luciano Pavarotti, the great tenor. What else can you say?

Paul W. Tibbets Jr., military pilot. This is the man who flew the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima;

Henry J. Hyde, one of my all-time favorite Republicans!

Hank Bauer, another Yankee from the Casey Stengel teams that won so many pennants in the 1950s. In 1966, he managed the young Orioles to a shocking sweep of the veteran Dodgers in the World Series.

Time passes and good people move on. We will miss most of them. 

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