Rod Beck Dead At The Age of 38 :(

by gocubs40 on Jun 24, 2007 2:03 PM CDT Comment 29 comments

Sad day for baseball.

I don't have a link yet but it is on ESPNews.
I liked Rod he was a great pitcher.

From Wikipedia:
Career statistics
Win-Loss 38-45
Saves 286
ERA 3.30

Teams

San Francisco Giants (1991-1997

Chicago Cubs (1998-1999)

Boston Red Sox (1999-2001)

San Diego Padres (2003-2004)

Career highlights and awards

3-time All-Star (1993-94, 1997)

Relief Man of the Year (1994)

Led National League in games (81, 1998)

5-time Top Five in saves (1993-95, 1997-9

4-times first in games finished (1993-94, 1997-9

His 286 career saves ranks him 22nd on the all-time list

RIP

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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has Len/Bob said anything yet?

by cashcowsquirtingsourmilk on Jun 24, 2007 2:11 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Not Yet

but they will

by viewfromthebleachers on Jun 24, 2007 2:12 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Here's a link.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2914994

Neifi, we hardly knew ye.

by Krande on Jun 24, 2007 2:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Another link

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2007/06/rod-beck-rip.html

by amisaid1 on Jun 24, 2007 2:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

This

was rumored early this morning, and it was discussed in the open thread.

Sad that it turned out to be true.

RIP, Shooter.

by Josh77 on Jun 24, 2007 2:43 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Aw, man

Absolute shame....he was really, one of us. A regular guy that just happened to play MLB. A Throwback.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 24, 2007 3:05 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

all around good guy..

One of my favorite stories about him is how he parked a crappy RV in the parking lot when he went down to AAA for a rehab stint. I believe that it was with the Cubs.

by fuzzycubfan on Jun 24, 2007 3:45 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That wasn't a rehab stay

That was 2003. He missed the whole of 2002 with arm problems and then signed with the Cubs on a minor league contract. The agreement was that the Cubs had to let him go as a free agent if they didn't call him up by June 1 and another team wanted him.

He spent the first two months of the season in Iowa playing for the I-Cubs. He was pretty dominating (O.59 ERA) but by June 1, the Cubs didn't have a roster spot for him and he left for the Padres.

That season in Iowa he lived in his trailer in the I-Cubs parking lot, drinking beer and shooting the bull with any fan who wanted to stop by after the game.

by Josh77 on Jun 24, 2007 3:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yep, those were fun days ...

He'll be remembered in Iowa for being that friendly guy with the RV who pitched for the I-Cubs.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2003/0515/1554407.html

What a shame, indeed. He seemed like a cool human being. R.I.P.

Rob Dibble is a juvenile. Why is he on my XM radio? Why is he on my TV? Please, just, make him stop.

by iowaBear on Jun 24, 2007 5:56 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, and that was

the Pads last year at Qualcomm (they needed somebody to close, Hoffmann was hurt) so the Pads did many retro nights -- Shooter looked great running out to the mound in that plain '69 Padres uniform. (It was before the uniform went nuts with the mustard and brown) He looked as if he came right from that era, when players didn't make squat.

He didn't perform very well in SD, and his time was up. But he was greateful to be back.

Apparently, he had returned to rehab? At least that's what Bruce Bochy was quoted as saying over at ESPN.com, via the AP.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 24, 2007 4:35 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Returned to rehab?

I didn't realize he had a problem. What type rehab was he in?

Very sad story, at his age it's not something you expect. I hope his family copes well. RIP Rod Beck.

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. - Robert McCloskey

by pageian on Jun 24, 2007 5:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

He didn't finish

2004 with the Pads, was ineffective -- and may have started drinking heavily. I believe he went into alcohol rehab at that time.

There's no other word outside of the Bochy quote "...he was back in rehab." I also have read nothing of his family. I know he was married with (I think) 2 kids -- but there's no mention of them yet.

Maybe he was estranged from his family.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 24, 2007 10:16 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

His 2003 numbers...

look pretty damn good (36G 3-2 1.78 20SV 11BB 32K).

It was 2004 with the Padres that he lost it.

E - N - O - D

by bison on Jun 24, 2007 5:21 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

RIP Shooter

You helped make 1998 an exciting year.

by LT on Jun 24, 2007 5:38 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Shooter

One of my all-time favorite Cubs - I had no idea he'd had abuse problems. Why do so many people get involved with drugs? The guy had so much to live for - a wife and two kids are left behind. I'll always remember him coming into that one-game playoff vs. the Giants in 1998, going on fumes, and getting Joe Carter out with a 75 MPH fastball to end the game. One of the most exciting games I've ever been at.

"Hello again, everybody. Harry Caray from Wrigley Field on a beautiful day for baseball."

by danimal15 on Jun 24, 2007 6:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Damn

Me and a few friends got to meet him at one of the Photo Days they used to have at Wrigley Field back in 1998 against the Brewers. It was the same day that the Bulls celebrated their championship at Grant Park.

Got my picture with him and everything over by the Cubs bullpen while a very young Kerry Wood was throwing bullpen.

Damn. This is a shame. He seemed like the kind of guy you could call "buddy".

R.I.P., buddy.

Go Cubs. There. Original enough for ya??

by Floyd on Jun 24, 2007 6:54 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Motion......

Al....

Please expand the 100 greatest Cubs list by 1.

I contend if Mitch Williams, Rick Wilkens and Jerry Morales made the list, Rod Beck was certainly as important as the aforementioned 3 players and certainly very valuable in the 1998 playoff run.

Anybody agree?

The best defense is a good offense

by kcjones on Jun 24, 2007 9:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Good point

I wonder how he was missed. Certainly more impactful than some of the ones you mention.

"Hello again, everybody. Harry Caray from Wrigley Field on a beautiful day for baseball."

by danimal15 on Jun 24, 2007 9:51 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

How can anyone of us forget?

That swinging arm in the 9th inning. The Shooter was an icon in '98 with the Cubs. He had nothing left at the end of the season and found a way to get guys out. He had guts, we could use another Shooter, and yes, top 100 for the fu man chu look if anything!

This is Harry Carray, goodbye from Wrigley Field and So Long Everybody.

by mrcubsfan on Jun 24, 2007 10:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely Agree

His untimely passing aside, anyone who holds the single season save record HAS to be a top 100 all-time Cub.

Santo Forever!

by BeerCub on Jun 24, 2007 11:12 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Cubs single season save record...

... is held by Randy Myers, 53 in 1993. Beck had 51.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Jun 25, 2007 4:03 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah.....

...I realized that later. Still and all, over 50 saves in one season should get him on the list.

Santo Forever!

by BeerCub on Jun 25, 2007 11:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm pretty meh

when it comes to the Padres, and sometimes, I hate the damn team, but I was so behind Shooter in 2004 when he was picked up by the Pads.

He did come up with a few good saves, but he walked a tightrope in every one....I guess my support was my little way of thanking him for 1998, I guess. It was sad when he was cut.

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 24, 2007 10:20 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I also agree, lets go with 101

n/t

by San Diego Smooth Jazz Man on Jun 24, 2007 10:20 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

This makes me incredibly sad.

The 1998 season is what made me into a Cubs fan, and he was my favorite Cub. Every time Beck came into the game it was an adventure, and yet miraculously he'd always get the save. He epitomized that team - an unlikely baseball player on an even less likely playoff team.

I was at his final game, appropriately enough at Wrigley field. He came out to disappointingly little fanfare (I really thought Cubs fans would give him an ovation), gave up 2 warning track sac flies and was DFA'd the next day.

I got to meet Beck this winter, at the Cubs convention. He was incredibly nice and polite, just exuded that same happy love of the game and the fans that made him famous.

I have no doubt that right now there's a shitty RV sitting in a heaven's parking lot, the door and cooler open for anyone who wants to hang.

Rest in peace shooter.

by Wreckard on Jun 24, 2007 10:24 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Close calls

It did seem like every time Beck came into the game, he would allow the tying run to get to third and the winning run to get to second. It didn't matter if he started with a one run lead or a three run lead, he still got himself into trouble.

And then got out of it.

"Don't think; it can only hurt the ball club."

by Jesse Guam on Jun 25, 2007 10:44 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

RIP Mr. Beck.

It always seems to be the good ones, doesn't it?

Besides the obvious - Go Irish.

Z. He doesn't need an exclamtion point. He is one.

by PopeFlick on Jun 24, 2007 10:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Such Sad News

'98 was such a magical year, and Rod Beck was such a big part of it. I loved the fact that he seemed like a regular guy that pinched himself that he got paid to play a game he loved. I loved when he came into a game in the ninth because he never looked he had the "stuff" to get people out (towards the end of that year anyway), but he almost always found a way to do it. As a 48 year old lifelong Cub's fan, the only postseason Cub's game I've ever attended was the '98 One Game Playoff against the Giants. I'll never forget "The Shooter" beating Joe carter to end it with a pitch that had nothing behind it but smarts and guts.

RIP Shooter, and thanks for the memories.

by cubrandy on Jun 25, 2007 12:43 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

My Rod Beck memory

The 1998 season was memorable in a lot of ways, but the one-game playoff at Wrigley is something I will never forget. I was doing a college internship in Florida at the time, and was watching the game on ESPN during a party my roommates and I were having, but which I was completely ignoring since I was 100 percent focused on the game. I remember my friends--none of whom were from the Chicago area and had any clue as to how much the Cubs meant to me--looking on with sort of a bemused, detatched bewilderment that I could completely ignore the party at hand for a baseball game. Eventually, I became the evening's free entertainment, as watching me watch the game was apparently more entertaining than anything else going on in the apartment. After Joe Carter popped up to Mark Grace, I remember leaping for joy and sending my fellow party-goers into a fit of laughter. And for the rest of the night, I was the life of that party!

Thank you, Rod Beck, for that wonderful memory. I'll always remember "The Shooter". A rubber arm, a full repitoire of slow junk, ice water in his veins and a whole lot of heart. He may have been a Giant for most of his career, but in my book, he will always be a Cub. RIP, Shooter.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Jun 25, 2007 12:59 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs