Baseball Hall of Famer and all-time Pittsburgh Pirate great Ralph Kiner died yesterday at the age of 91. As someone on Facebook noted, it is hard to feel sad at the passing of a gent who lived such a full and rich life in his 91 years as did Kiner. Such a life should be celebrated, and not mourned, said the post.
If you are a Pirates fan, even if, like me, you are one who began following the Bucs well after his career was over, you certainly know all about Ralph Kiner - about all the home run titles, about taking advantage of "Greenberg Gardens" at Forbes Field, and about waiting to leave what was most likely a losing ball game until you saw Kiner get his last at bat in the game.
Many baseball fans today know only of Kiner, one of the New York Mets original broadcasters who was prone to sometimes hilarious malapropisms. Not if you're a Pirate fan, though. You know what great player he was - the first truly great power hitter the Pirates ever had.
I don't necessarily believe in this sort of thing, but surely some sort of karmic convergence took place yesterday with Kiner dying on February 6, which is also the birth dates of baseball's first power hitter, Babe Ruth, and the man to whom some current Pirates fans compare Kiner, Pedro Alvarez.
RIP Ralph Kiner.
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