RIP Ray Fosse

[Hitmen77]

Former A's and Cleveland catcher and long-time A's announcer Ray Fosse has died at age 74 after a long battle with cancer. He was part of the A's early 70s dynasty and played for the '73 and '74 World Series champs. He's probably best known for Pete Rose's infamous collision with him at the plate in the 1970 All-Star Game that seriously injured him.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/...-star-n1281485

Fosse was a class act as much as Pete Rose isn't.

[voodoochile]

I don't blame Rose for that hit. That was the way the game was played back then. If you blocked the plate without the ball, you got hit. Its still a rule but players do not do it anymore. Rose played all out all of the time. I doubt that he was trying to end Fosse's career or anything like that. Like him or hate him, that's the way the game was played and Rose played everything to win. Even an all-star game.

No... No it wasn't. Running over a guy in an exhibition game is pure utter bull****. This wasn't a playoff game or even a meaningful in season game, it was a freaking ASG. Glad the days of this meathead macho bull**** are behind us.

[Paulwny]

No... No it wasn't. Running over a guy in an exhibition game is pure utter bull****. This wasn't a playoff game or even a meaningful in season game, it was a freaking ASG. Glad the days of this meathead macho bull**** are behind us.

Even back then the ASG wasn't important to the players. I remember reading that Berra, Ford and Mantle, after they were removed from the game, were seen sipping drinks and watching the last few innings in the air port lounge.
The game is actually more important to the fans.

[Bird Of Prey]

No... No it wasn't. Running over a guy in an exhibition game is pure utter bull****. This wasn't a playoff game or even a meaningful in season game, it was a freaking ASG. Glad the days of this meathead macho bull**** are behind us.

You're wrong. back then All-Star games meant something more to the managers and players involved. they played to win. Fosse was blocking the plate and got nailed. Why was he blocking the plate in the first place if he was just "playing in an exhibition game"? He could have stepped to one side and tried to tag Rose out with his glove. But he didn't. He blocked the plate. Ever see Mike Souscia(sp?) play for the Dodgers? Those who tried to knock him over when he blocked the plate usually got the worse of it. When you think about it, the catcher really has an advantage on a collision because he has protective gear on and if he goes low he can really mess up a guy who tries to bowl him over.

I do like the new rule about not taking out the catcher or any other position player in order to reduce injuries. But don't tell me that Rose did the wrong thing because By the Rules of the game and the way the game was played back then, Rose did the right thing. What would you have him do anyway. Give himself up and be out? For a team that wanted to win the game? Think that the media and his teammates wouldn't have skewered him for doing something like that?

[Paulwny]

From Bleacher Report

The old-timers now point to the collision between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse as Exhibit A for proof that the All-Star Game really mattered in the old days and how it was always a competitive affair.

In reality, competitiveness in the All-Star Game was just as much a problem in the 1970s as it is now. Leonard Koppett of The Times wrote in 1974 that the All-Star Game was a "social event" prone to "ordinariness." And for the players, merely "being there is the thing."

[LITTLE NELL]

When Rose plowed into Fosse it was a period in time that the NL dominated the ASG winning 19 out of 20 from 1963 to 1982 and NLers played the game to win, it was a matter of pride with them while to the ALers it was just an exhibition game. The tide started to turn in 1983 when the 50th anniversary game was played at Comiskey Park with the AL breaking an 11 game winning streak by the NL.

[Bird Of Prey]

When Rose plowed into Fosse it was a period in time that the NL dominated the ASG winning 19 out of 20 from 1963 to 1982 and NLers played the game to win, it was a matter of pride with them while to the ALers it was just an exhibition game. The tide starting turning in 1983 when the 50th anniversary game was played at Comiskey Park with the AL breaking an 11 game winning streak by the NL.

Absolutely, Nell. I remember several players back then who were proud of dominating the American League. Now all-star games are all bull**** "exhibitions". It all pretense and no game at all. In all sports. Baseball to me is the last sport (along with Hockey) where players actually give a **** enough to play well and not just mail it in in their all-star game. Maybe the young generation loves the circus **** and all of the glitter. I don't know. But I never understand playing any sport when you don't play to win and to play well. For that matter, it was the same in life and business.