A Couple of Yankee Passings

We learned over the weekend that a pair of 1950s Yankees had passed away on Friday. Both played for Casey Stengel, and alongside the singularly named legends Yogi, Mickey and Whitey.

Jim Coates (above) broke in briefly on the 1956 champions. A few years later, he found his niche as a versatile swing-man, starting and relieving from 1959 through '61. The Virginia native's numbers dropped off the next season and in 1963, he was swapped for Senators reliever Steve Hamilton, a trade that worked out well for the Yanks.
I met Jim in the winter of 2011 at a New Jersey card and collectibles show, and he was a fine gentleman who fondly looked back on this time in the Bronx. Jim Coates, whose 2012 memoir was titled Always a Yankee, was 87.

I never met Irv Noren, and was a little too young to remember him as player. But for several seasons, he was a useful fourth outfielder -- especially in 1954, when he reached career highs in homers and batting average. One of many Yanks who wound up being traded to the Kansas City Athletics, he later played for the Cardinals, Cubs and Dodgers. Thus, over the course of his career, he was teammates with a virtual wing of Cooperstown: Mantle, Ford, Berra, Musial, Banks, Drysdale and Koufax. Later, he coached for the 1970s A's, where he worked with Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter. The Jamestown, New York native moved to Southern California with his family as a teenager, where he played semi-pro basketball with another multi-sports legend, Jackie Robinson. The subject of the documentary, The Pride of Jamestown — an Interview with Irv Noren, which is posted on YouTube, the 11-year major leaguer passed away at 94.