At that point, he said, I was looking for even a little bit of successone good inning, a few real fastballs, anything to hold on to that might halt my negative momentum. First of all, Im going to try to keep him off base if I can, because they have so many tough hitters coming up. (202) 225-7084. Sustaining this kind of control over a stretch of, say, one hundred and thirty pitches in a seven- or eight-inning appearance places such excruciating demands on a hurlers body and psyche that even the most successful pitchers regularly have games when they simply cant get the job done. He walked Mike Lum, throwing one pitch behind him in the process, which allowed Evans to move down to second. There is no doubt that during the past two years he didnt react to a bad performance the way he used to, and you have to wonder why he couldnt apply his competitiveness to his problem. When Ted Simmons stood in for the visitors, Blass said, Hes always hit me pretty good. This famous photograph (by Rusty Kennedy, of the Associated Press) does not require captioning for most baseball fans or for almost anyone within the Greater Pittsburgh area, where it is still prominently featured in the art collections of several hundred taverns. Joe Morgan stood in, and Blass puffed on his cigar and looked at the ceiling. He was wearing slacks and a T-shirt and an old sweater (he had a golfing date later that day), and he looked very young. I dont know the answer, Bill Virdon told me in the Yankee clubhouse. I worried about not contributing to the team. He earned a B.A. Thats a good feeling. Ill throw it in the dirt to show it to himget him geared to that kind of speed. His decline, however, was partially attributable to his failure to stay in shape. He's been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1944 and became fiction editor in 1956. People in the sections near us kept calling and waving to him. A letter-high fastball, with good mustard on it., Now Ill do it again, until I missbust him up and in. It may also be seen, in a much enlarged version, on one wall of the office of Joe L. Brown, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in Three Rivers Stadium. They have two children. He would tell me about it, and get angry and hurt. 0:56. Karen Lamb March 18, 1948 - December 7, 2020 Karen Lamb was born on March 18, 1948 and passed away on December 7, 2020 and is under the care of Casdorph & Curry Funeral Home. Karen was born April 2, 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, to Samuel Selden La I am not a Pittsburgher, but looking at this photograph never fails to give me pleasure, not just because of its aesthetic qualities but because its high-bounding happiness so perfectly brings back that eventful World Series and that particular gray autumn afternoon in Baltimore and the wonderful and inexpungible expression of joy that remained on Steve Blasss face after the game ended. Of all the mysteries that surround the Steve Blass story, perhaps the most mysterious is the fact that his collapse is unique. 28 . The pizza disappeared rapidly, and then David and Chris went off upstairs to do their homework or watch TV. Famous Baseball Player Steve Blass was born on April 18, 1942 in Connecticut. The booing from the fans, at first scattered and uncomfortable, grew louder. . Some of them mentioned Rex Barney, a Dodger fastball pitcher of the nineteen-forties, who quit baseball while still a young man because of his uncontrollable wildness; Barney, however, had only one good year, and it is fair to say that he never did have his great stuff under control. People named Karen Blass. The phone numbers for her are (712) 273-5345 (Frontier Communications of Iowa, Inc), (712) 320-3324 (United States Cellular Corp.Frontier Communications of Iowa, Inc). You know, old men dont dream much, but just the other night I had this dream that Steve Blass was all over his troubles and could pitch again. Bradenton, FL Upper St Clair, PA Upper Saint Clair, PA. Stephen Blass. I mean real hell. Finally, of course, one must accept the possibility that a great many players may have suffered exactly the same sort of falling off as Blass for exactly the same reasons (whatever they may be) but were able to solve the problem and continue their athletic careers. Well, the day before that first workout I woke up at four-thirty in the morning. Karen Blass lives in Pittsburgh, PA; previous city include Bradenton FL. Later, I saw him in front of his locker with his arm around his father, Bob Blass, a plumber from Falls Village, Connecticut, who had once been a semi-pro pitcher; the two Blasses, I saw, were wearing identical delighted, non-stop smiles. He needed continuous game experience if he was ever to break out of it, and he knew he no longer belonged with a big-league club. He says he hated the idea of hitting and possibly sidelining one of his teammates, but he is convinced that this anxiety was the result of his control problems rather than the cause. He could do Manny Sanguillen. They have two children. Prior to this season, Steve announced it . He worries about his stuff. He knew that Virdon was not going to use him, but whenever the Pirates fell behind in a game, he felt jumpy about the possibility of being called upon. He joined the team in Chicago on April 16th, and entered a game against the Cubs the next afternoon, taking over in the fourth inning, with the Pirates down by 104. I remember it was raining as we came out of the tunnel in Pittsburgh, and I drove straight to Forbes Field and went in and found the attendant and put my uniform on, at two in the afternoon. He was afraid of injuring someonehitting a hatter with a fastball. Karen@Goldlamb1.com. Frank Tepedino singled, driving in two runs, and Steve Blass was finally relieved. Of course, there was a hell of a lot less of that from him in the last couple of years. Its no big thing, but suddenly its gone. He paused, and then he laughed in a self-deprecating way. Steve Blass had become the tenured ace of the squad. Lets keep on with this!, He kept on with it, in all seasons and circumstances. We sat behind home plate, down near the screen, and during the first few innings a lot of young fans came clustering down the aisle to get Steves autograph. SSG STEVE BLASS passed away on March 11, 2013 at the age of 27 in ESTHERVILLE, Iowa. Blass has known the best and the worst of Pirates seasons on a personal level. In the old days, he used to get mad at himself after a bad showing, and sometimes he threw things around in the clubhouse. Well, I really did it. Steve Blass pitched in parts of 10 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The pitcher is knocked about, often by an inferior rival team, and leaves within a few innings; asked about it later, he shrugs and says, I didnt have it today. He seems unsurprised. It was the swing that put Richie back on his heels like that. Later on, Richie Zisk hit a homer off Gibson, on a three-and-two count, and Blass murmured, The high slider is one of the hittable pitches when it isnt just right. 'The Mooncatcher's Rescue' by Karen Lamb is available online. It was kind of scary.. (Blass is myopic, and wears glasses while watching television and driving. Its something he has always felt very strongly about, and I have to give him all the credit in the world. The Cubs won, 20, but Steve gave up only two hits and one earned run in the five innings he worked. Joe Morgan is strictly a fastball hitter, so I want to throw him a bad fastball to start him off, he said. I must have thrown it three out of four pitches to him, and I just knew it was going to be there. Joe Brown had told Blass that the end of the line might be approaching. His body is tilting toward the center of the picture, his mask is held in his right hand, his big glove is still on his left hand, and his mouth is open in a gigantic shout of pleasure. They never came. Youre afraid to lose a friend, and you want to go easy on him because he is your friend. I worried about being traded. I guess I dont have a tendency to go into things in much depth. The Blasses place in Falls Village included an old barn with an interestingly angled roof, against which young Steve Blass played hundreds of one-man games (his four brothers and sisters were considerably younger) with a tennis ball. But after this began, when he was taken out of a game he only gave the impression that he was happy to be out of thererelieved that he no longer had to face it that day. The team was still in Atlanta, and Virdon called Blass into the game in the fifth inning, with the Pirates trailing by 83. Then, in late February, 1974, Blass reported to Bradenton with the other Pirate pitchers and catchers. He gave up two runs in the second, but he seemed to throw without much tension, and he even struck out Bill Melton, the Chicago third baseman, with a fastball. Both of his arms are flung wide, and he, too, is shouting. share to facebook . Morgan, I decided, eventually singled to right on a curve in on the handlea lucky hitbut then Blass retired his next Cincinnati hitter, Dan Driessen, who popped out on a slider. Karen Blass, 79. He sure won a lot of big games for us on the Pirates., Joe Brown said, Ive tried to keep my distance and not to guess too much about what happened. He was almost alone now with his problema baseball castawayand he had reached the point where he was willing to try practically anything. But Steve Blass never had a good day in baseball after this thing hit him.. He wont want to take the bat out of Benchs hands. He released another cloud of cigar smoke, thinking hard. Im not a student of pitching and Im not a psychologist. Karen Lamb Miller passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family on June 20, 2010, at Saint Luke's Hospital, after a sudden illness. Blass knew that his case was desperate. What pleased him most that year was his consistency. Maybe thats what Id like to believe, he said. He had mechanical difficulties, with some underlying mental cause. of less than 3.00 certifies true quality in almost exactly the same fashion as an over-.300 batting average for hitters. Steve Blass, who is now thirty-three, is out of baseball, having been recently driven into retirement by two years of pitching wildnessa sudden, near-total inability to throw strikes. Lamb was also ordered to repay the money she stole. There was no game there, or anythingI just had to see how it looked.. After that last game, Baltimore manager Earl Weaver said, Clemente was great, all right, but if it hadnt been for Mr. Blass, we might be popping the corks right now.. I took some of these hard questions to Blasss colleagues. He was in great physical shape, as usual, and his arm felt fine; in his entire pitching career, Blass never experienced a sore arm. [1] [2] He was the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology 's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999). "I had all kinds of games, with different, very complicated ground rules. It didnt even have to be major-league ball. You can tell a man what to do, but you cant make him do it. He made brief appearances in two games against Pirate farmhands, and threw well. With Steve, everything is right out in the open, Karen said. Ive never been a goal-plannerIve never said Im going to do this or that. In any case, Blass wanted to go. I promised he would have no control problems. We sure missed it., For the final three innings of the game, Blass and I moved upstairs to general manager Joe Browns box. You know, this thing thats happened has been painted so bad, so tragic, he said. He appeared in 23 games, started 18 and only amassed 88.2 innings pitched. Thats what happened in that World Series game, when I kept throwing that big slop curveball to Boog Powell, and it really ruined him. He is a member of famous Actor with the age 80 years old group. Her age is 69. Steve was startled by the unfamiliar view. Im going to try to throw strikes and not get too fine. I dont know, she said. With Joe Browns permission, he left the Charlies and flew West to consult Dr. Bill Harrison, of Davis, California. Los Angeles, CA 90010. Toward the end of his 30-minute speech . I dont think anybody will ever understand his decline. shoom! Its that good feeling. I guess Herb Score was my real heroI actually pitched against him once in Indianapolis, in 63, when he was trying to make a comebackbut I knew the whole team by heart. As a result, he was of very little use to the Pirates even in batting practice. His salary at the beginning of 1971the year of his two great Series winswas forty thousand dollars; two years later, it was ninety thousand, and there were World Series and playoff checks on top of that. Home Real Estate, LLC. In the summer of 54, when they won that record one hundred and eleven games, I managed to find every single box score in the newspapers and clip it, which took some doing up where we lived. or. Lots of other stuff. Blasss best friends in baseball are Tony Bartirome, Dave Giusti, and Nelson King (who, along with Bob Prince, is part of the highly regarded radio-and-television team that covers the Pirate games). Young kidsmaybe three or four years old. With me, everything was just a continuation of what had come before. It was a good trip, because it gave him time to sort things out, and somewhere along the way he decided to give it up. Known as. Somehow, he didnt show any emotion at all. 1970 Topps Set Break Steve Blass #396 NM-MT or BETTER. How old is Steve Blass? He could do Roberto Clementenot just the way he moved but the way he talked. Nobody knows, but some speculation is permissibleindeed, is perhaps demanded of anyone who is even faintly aware of the qualities of Steve Blass and the depths of his suffering. Who Is Steve Blass's Wife? Karen Blass #176481. Please take a peek at some examples of my animation, illustration and artwork here below. They can bury you before you even get started. Oh, no, he said. The photograph shows a perfectly arrested moment of joy. Perez is not a good high, hard fastball hitter, Blass said. How many seasons did Steve Blass play? The fastball is my best pitch, but Id get right to the top of my delivery and then something would take over, and Id know even before I released the ball that it wasnt going to be in the strike zone. Karen Lamb, widow of former Milwaukee Mayor Henry W. Maier, speaks at the Milwaukee Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in this undated, submitted photo. The third result is Stephen M Blass age 40s in Summerland, CA in the Summerland neighborhood. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. . He won a complete game against the Padres, but in his next two appearances, against the Dodgers and the Expos, he survived for barely half the distance; in the Expos game, he threw three scoreless innings, and then suddenly gave up two singles, a double, and two walks. Swinging strike. He was an infielder before he became a trainer, and played one season in the majorswith the Pirates, in 1952): Steve is unique physically. Ive had good luck against him with that sort of stuff.. His eyesight went bad. I remember the vivid contrast in styles between the two stars in the noisy, floodlit, champagne-drenched Pirate clubhouse that afternoon. Near the end of an article I wrote about that 1971 World Series, I mentioned watching Steve Blass in batting practice just before the all-important seventh game and suddenly noticing that, in spite of his impending responsibilities, he was amusing himself with a comical parody of Clemente at the plate: Blass. In the sixth, Blass walked Darrell Evans. I know what Ive done in baseball, and I give myself all the credit in the world for it. If I did Id go get Steve to pitch for me. He is thirty-fivedark hair, a mustache, and piercing brown eyes): Steve has the perfect build for a pitcherlean and strong. Bill Virdon, the Pirate manager, was patient and told Blass to take all the time he needed to find himself; he reminded Blass that oncein 1970he had had an early record of two and eight but had then come back to finish the season with a mark of ten and twelve. William Ralph Blass (June 22, 1922 - June 12, 2002) was an American fashion designer. One of the teams always had to be the Indians. The game he picked was against the Cubs, in Chicago, on September 11th. I can still recall how Blass looked that afternoonhis characteristic, feet-together stance at the outermost, first-base edge of the pitching rubber, and then the pitch, delivered with a swastika-like scattering of arms and legs and a final lurch to the leftand I also remember how I kept thinking that at any moment the sluggers of the Big Red Machine would stop overstriding and overswinging against such unintimidating deliveries and drive Blass to cover. But Seavers problems were only relatively serious (his record for 1974 was 1111), and were at least partly explicable (he had a sore hip), and he has now returned to form. Professional sports have a powerful hold on us because they display and glorify remarkable physical capacities, and because the artificial demands of games played for very high rewards produce vivid responses. 1 bid. They have also lived in Pittsburgh, PA. Karen is related to Meghan Chandler Blass and Chris F Blass as well as 2 additional people. The Blass family room was trophied and comfortable. Von McDaniel, a younger brother of Lindy McDaniel, arrived suddenly as a pitcher with the Cardinals, and disappeared just as quickly, but two years pitching hardly qualifies as a record. Lamb was 67 and had been in the hospital a week or . I tend to take things not too seriously. His wife is Karen Lamb (5 October 1963 - present) ( 2 children) Steve Blass Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Age 35 / Jul 1986. mark of 2.28 and Catfish Hunters 2.49 in the A.L. I thought it might be the end for me. Tony Perez was the next batter. Not just the stars but all the guys on the bench, like George Strickland and Wally Westlake and Hank Majeski and the backup third baseman, Rudy Regalado. His hunched, airborne posture makes him look like a man who has just made a running jump over a sizable objecta kitchen table, say. On many other teams, he would have been no more than the second- or third-best starter, and his responsibilities, real and imagined, would have been less acute. The child in him is a great thingweve all loved itand maybe he was suddenly afraid he was losing it. Its only nickel psychology, but I think theres a lost kid in Steve. He worries about his arm, which almost always hurts to some degree. I think there are things weighing on him, and I think he may be so angry inside that hes afraid to throw the ball. Still he cannot win. In 2009, he sent a record of a completely different variety that demonstrated his ability to still be accurate at something: he posted two holes-in-one in a single round of golf. Clemente loved it. For three innings, he escaped serious difficulty. His speech is on ano. His military honors include Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal (2), Army . Select this result to view Stephen Mark Blass's phone number, address, and more. Spouse: Karen Lamb (m. 1964) Net Worth: $1.5 Million. Perez had shortened up on the bat a little, but he took the pitch. You have no business being there, performing that way as a major-league pitcher. In his first start, against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, he pitched against Don Drysdale and won, 42. 111 books | 680 friends Kirsty. This was understandable, for he was in limbo. 'The Mooncatcher's Rescue' is out now, published by Walker Books, illustrated by Lia Visirin. 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