In memoriam: The White Sox's other losses in 2019

From left: Barry Latman, Rocky Krsnich and Johnny Romano

In chronological order:

Rocky Krsnich

Born: Aug. 5, 1927
Died: Feb. 14, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1949, 1952-53

Rocco Peter “Rocky” Krsnich played 120 games over three seasons with the White Sox, hitting .215/.294/.335 at third base. He came from a Wisconsin family that produced two other ballplayers. His brother Mike enjoyed a couple of stints with the Milwaukee Braves starting in 1960.

Rocky Krsnich earned his look by slugging 20 homers and batting .318 for Memphis of the Southern Association at age 21, but he never quite matched that production at any level again. That said, his obituary paints a picture of a well-rounded individual, including actual painting:

After baseball, Rocky worked for CIT Corp. for years in Wichita, and eventually in KC as an executive vice president. Rocky had many interests, as a talented artist/oil painter and jazz enthusiast. He was an ideal father, imparting a sense of equality of all people, and diverse interests of all kinds.

John Romano

Born: Aug. 23, 1934
Died: Feb. 24, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1958-59, 1965-66
SABR Bio

For White Sox fans, Romano is best known as one of many promising young players traded by Hank Greenberg in an ill-advised attempt to shore up the roster of the defending American League champs. Romano, who hit .294/.407/.468 over 53 games to provide some power for the Go-Go Sox, was shipped to Cleveland after the season with Norm Cash and Bubba Phillips for a less-than-inspiring four-player package headlined by the aging Minnie Minoso. Johnny Callison and Earl Battey were also dealt during that time.

Romano went on to have a terrific five-year run with Cleveland, averaging 18 homers and a 123 OPS+ and making four All-Star teams.*

(*They played two a year at that time.)

The Sox probably could have afforded to trade away one of Romano or Battey, but dealing them both in the same winter hurt their plans for after Sherm Lollar.

The White Sox were able to get him back in time for the 1965 season, while they might’ve wanted Romano for the first two of their 90-win seasons during the decade, GM Ed Short got him back in time for the third. That was an equally lopsided trade, but this one worked out in the White Sox’s favor. Along with the last two good years of Romano’s career, the Sox also received Tommy Agee and Tommy John. My goodness.

(Fun fact: The second-most similar batter to Romano according to Baseball-Reference.com? Yasmani Grandal.)

Mike Colbern

Born: April 19, 1955
Died: March 8, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1978-79

Colbern, a catcher, was fast-tracked to the majors two years after being selected in the second round of the 1976 draft out of Arizona State. By current standards, Colbern was probably rushed, but he was hitting .283/.339/.470, and the White Sox needed help, and that’s how it went.

Colbern only played in 80 games for the Sox, batting .259/.279/.348 with five walks to 61 strikeouts over 32 games. He owned the franchise record for the most walkless plate appearances to start a season before Jeff Keppinger broke it in 2013. He didn’t surface again in the majors after 1979. His path back with the Sox was closed off when they signed Carlton Fisk in 1981, and the Sox traded him after that season to Atlanta for the immaculately named Butch Edge. He found no success there, either.

While Colbern played in the majors, the vesting requirements for lifetime medical insurance and pension benefits were four years of service for both. After the strike in 1981, the requirements were lowered to one day of service time for medical benefits, and 43 days for a pension.

But the requirements weren’t applied retroactively, and because Colbern never surfaced in the majors again, he was denied both. A legal fight for them defined his post-career life. He was one of principal plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit representing more than 1,000 pensionless players against Major League Baseball. Along with the claim that they should have been eligible for pension and medical benefits, Colbern also alleged that teams issued cortisone shots to players without informed consent.

Colbern said the teams’ overreliance on such shots contributed to his health problems, which were numerous. A 2011 Arizona Republic story said Colbern took 22 pills a day, some of which were prescribed to manage his bipolar condition. He also spent periods of time homeless.

He and hundreds of other players did receive payments over two years from Major League Baseball in 2011 as a sort-of settlement. Colbern’s was worth $1,850.

Scott Sanderson

Born: July 22, 1956
Died: April 11, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1994

A graduate of Glenbrook North High School, Sanderson contributed to teams on both sides of Chicago. He pitched six seasons with the Cubs, contributing an 11-9 record and 3.94 ERA to the division-winning club of 1989.

Five years and four organizations later, a 37-year-old Sanderson provided some veteran ballast to the rotation of a White Sox team that led its division before the strike ended the season. With Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Wilson Alvarez and Jason Bere ahead of him, the Sox only needed Sanderson to turn the rotation over. He served that purpose, at least over the first three months of the season, going 7-2 with a 3.48 through June. His last six outings weren’t as kind, and he was eventually replaced in the rotation by Scott Ruffcorn, who would have even worse problems.

When baseball resumed, Sanderson signed with the Angels, and rode out the remainder of his career in Anaheim. He worked as an agent after his playing days, but suffered a stroke and battled throat cancer in the last years of his life.

Gene Stephens

Born: Jan. 20, 1933
Died: April 27, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1963-64
SABR Bio

Stephens was a left fielder by trade for the Boston Red Sox in the 1950s, which means his opportunities were limited by the presence of Ted Williams. Granted, he Stephens got his first crack at the majors as a 19-year-old because Williams served in the Korean War, but his opportunities were compromised afterward, and it chafed at him. From his SABR bio:

Stephens said he wondered for a long time what might have happened if he were an everyday player. “It was tough,” he said. “For about 15 years, I couldn’t talk about it after I quit playing. I was hurt. I wanted to play and I knew I could play.”

That said, he distinguished himself in one regard. On June 18, 1953, he became the first player since 1900 to collect three hits in an inning, tallying a double and two singles off three different Detroit pitchers during a 17-run outburst.

He served the same purpose when coming to the White Sox in 1963 at age 30. Stephens hitting .252/.344/.377 over 88 games in his two years on the South Side, but he started only 39 of them.

Barry Latman

Born: May 21, 1936
Died: April 28, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1957-59
SABR Bio

It’s fitting that a pitcher nicknamed “Shoulders” got his start in the City of the Big Ones. Barry Latman, built like a triangle, broke into the majors in 1957 at the age of 21, the start of an 11-year swingman career. He never quite seized any opportunity to secure a rotation spot, but he gained Al Lopez’s faith by posting a 0.76 ERA over 48 innings in 1958, then contributed 156 effective innings between starts and relieving for the pennant-winning White Sox of 1959. He went 8-5 with a 3.75 ERA that year, but he didn’t appear in the World Series.

Latman was traded after the season to Cleveland for Herb Score. The Indians got the better half of the deal, as Score was pretty much washed up at the time and nowhere near the pitcher Al Lopez remembered in Cleveland. Latman ended up basically replicated his 1959 season over the next five years — 150 to 180 innings, half of his appearances starts, an ERA around 4.00, with the exception of a down year in 1963.

Latman was also notable for being a prominent Jewish athlete who observed the high holidays and honeymooned in Israel. His appearance in Pat Jordan’s “A False Spring” shows what he had to put up with:

[The White Sox locker room] was raucous and profane, with none of that self-contained and muted efficiency so evident in the Yankees’ dressing room. At one point as a I dressed, Norm Cash, wearing a towel around his waist, began to prance about the room and yell in a shrill voice, “Call for Mr. Levy! Call for Mr. Levy! Call for Mr. Levy!” He stopped only when Barry Latman, the team’s Jewish pitcher, lunged at him. The two men grappled and fell to the floor. It took five of their teammates to separate them.

Kelly Paris

Born: Oct. 17, 1957
Died: May 27, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1988

Paris was a journeyman infielder who appeared in 92 games over five seasons for four different teams. The last of those stints came with the White Sox, as he played 14 games for the Sox during August of 1988. He and Sap Randall came up that month as injury replacements for a hard-luck White Sox team that lost Greg Walker to a seizure and Ivan Calderon to a shoulder injury.

Paris had overcome injuries of his own, and his own doing. He missed the entirety of the 1987 season after suffering a broken back, sternum and ribs in a one-car drunken-driving accident. He’d battled alcoholism before, but the accident was a reality check that caused him to quit drinking.

The White Sox gave Paris an opportunity to write a comeback story, and it culminated in 44 plate appearances that stands as his best work. He hit .250/.250/.455 and hit all of his three MLB homers over those 2½ weeks, including a two-homer, five-RBI game off Mark Langston on Aug. 13.

Unfortunately, an on-field injury ended his MLB career five days later, as he tore muscles in his left arm in a collision at first base at Tiger Stadium. He wasn’t able to return from that one, but he ended up going into coaching afterward.

Don Mossi

Born: Jan. 11, 1929
Died: July 19, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1964
SABR Bio

From 1954 through 1965, Don Mossi put together a pretty nice career, going 101-80 with a 3.43 ERA, mostly for the Indians and Tigers. He wasn’t a regular in a rotation until his age-30 season, as Al Lopez liked to leverage his left-handed pitchers against lineups who were vulnerable to them, but he contributed out of both starting and relief roles.

Unfortunately, he’s best known for his looks. He was called “The Sphinx” and “Ears.” In Ball Four, Jim Bouton said Mossi “looked like a cab going down the street with its doors open.” Bill James went further than anybody, calling Mossi “the complete five-tool ugly player” in “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.”

Mossi’s ears looked as if they had been borrowed from a much larger species, and reattached without proper supervision. His nose was crooked, his eyes were in the wrong place, and though he was skinny he had no neck to speak of, just a series of chins that melted into his chest. An Adam’s apple poked out of the third chin, and there was always a stubble of beard because you can’t shave a face like that. He looked like Gary Gaetti escaping from Devil’s Island.

The card bearing his visage inspired an ironic birthday party for 12 years, although the people who started it lost the ability to make fun of him after calling him on the phone and finding him to be a decent guy.

Tom Jordan

Born: Sept. 5, 1919
Died: Aug. 26, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1944, 1946

Jordan, who passed away 10 days shy of his 100th birthday, was not only the oldest living Major League Baseball player at the time of his death, he was the last living player born in the 1910s.

Jordan got a couple cups of coffee, batting .267/.279/.383 over combined 61 plate appearances with the White Sox before a trade sent him to Cleveland. He hit his only homer with the Indians.

That number doesn’t reflect his power, as he slugged 231 homers over 17 minor-league seasons, most of which were spent in the Southwest. The Oklahoma native seemed to prefer the minors to the majors, as he didn’t care for big cities and the pay wasn’t terribly different. Aside from one more plate appearance with the St. Louis Browns in 1950, he got his wish.

Joe Keough

Born: Jan. 7, 1946
Died: Sept. 9, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1973

Keough, a fourth outfielder, spent parts of six seasons in the majors and accumulated 971 plate appearances. His last one was his only trip to the plate with the White Sox in 1973. He entered the game as pinch-hitter and grounded into a game-ending double play.

The league’s expansion in 1969 helped solidify his standing in the big leagues, as the Kansas City Royals selected him from the Oakland A’s in the fourth round of the raft. He hit just .187 over 70 games that year, but he managed to make history with his 12th-inning single that gave the Royals their first-ever victory in their first-ever game. That pinch-hit appearance is the one to remember him by.

Val Heim

Born: Nov. 4, 1920
Died: Nov. 21, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1942

Heim, a left fielder out of Plymouth, Wisc, played just 13 games in his MLB career, all for the White Sox, and all in 1942. He hit .200/.294/.267. World War II interrupted his career. He served in the Navy Air Corps on the island of Saipan, then contracted rheumatic fever after returning to the States. While he returned to organized baseball in 1946, he never made it back to the big leagues.

When Tom Jordan passed away, Heim inherited the mantle as the oldest living big-leaguer. The Lincoln Journal-Star wrote a story about him weeks before he died, and said he herded cattle on foot until the age of 93.

Ted Lepcio

Born: July 28, 1929
Died: Dec. 11, 2019
Played for White Sox: 1961
SABR Bio

Much like Keough, Lepcio only spent five games with the White Sox toward the end of his career. Before that, he was a utility infielder with some pop for the Boston Red Sox.

The White Sox purchased him from the Phillies in April, then released him in May after just three plate appearances. He spent the remainder of the year with Minnesota and called it a 10-year career after that.

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
13 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Patrick Nolan

Pfft. “Aging Minnie Minoso”. At the time of the trade, the guy wouldn’t retire for another 21 years (4 decades under Hawk measurements)

Joliet Orange Sox

Great article but I think there’s a typo in the year Mossi died.

Willardmarshall

Fascinating, as always…. The Ruffcorn and Mossi links especially recced….

As Cirensica

Mike Colbern’s life looks incredibly sad. Poor guy.

MrTopaz

So you’re telling me Latman had some seriously over-developed… lats?

Also: Jesus Christ, Bill James. Have a heart.

Don Larsen’s on the team for next year.

As Cirensica

Luis Robert signed extension per Jeff Passan, he will be the CF from day 1

knoxfire30

yipppeee

soxfan1974

Val Heim was herding cattle until he was 1993 years old?

MrTopaz

Herding cattle until you’re almost 2,000 years old is some very Old Testament stuff.

metasox

“five-tool ugly”
that’s great