JOE MORGAN

When Freddie Freeman and the Atlanta Braves meet Jose Altuve and the Houston Astros, it will be a World Series that's been six decades in the making.

Thomas M. Reich, a pioneering baseball agent with an ebullient, oversized personality who helped players gain multimillion dollar salaries in the early years of free agency, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Tom Reich went to the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne's law school, then became a lawyer in Pittsburgh. “The racism factor back then was awful for the players,” Reich told the Sports Business Journal in 2004. Reich, more than others, had a flair he displayed in the restaurants and bars where baseball officials congregated. He is survived by PK Reich, his third wife; first wife Carole; second wife Judy; daughter Shannon; and brother Sam.

Tyler Naquin hit another leadoff home run and the high-scoring Cincinnati Reds kept rolling, backing Luis Castillo to rout the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-4 for their fifth straight win.

Both winless teams in the majors are defending division champions.

Now that Fernando Tatis Jr. has been placed on the injured list, the San Diego Padres hope their electrifying shortstop won’t be sidelined too long.

Joe Carter met his childhood idol when he won the first Hank Aaron Award in 1986 after leading the majors in RBIs. Hank Aaron. Aaron broke Ruth's record with his 715th home run for the Atlanta Braves in 1974 in former President Jimmy Carter's native Georgia. “He grew up poor and faced racism as he worked to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time. It’s going to be at the Hall of Fame, it was Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, and Frank Robinson.

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, said Sutton died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a long struggle with cancer. (AP Photo, File) (AP Photo, File)LOS ANGELES – Don Sutton, a Hall of Fame pitcher who was a stalwart of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation spanning an era from Sandy Koufax to Fernando Valenzuela, died Tuesday. The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, said Sutton died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a long struggle with cancer. Shortly before the start of the following season, Sutton broke his left leg. Sutton pitched for Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who died on Jan. 7.

Not long after came a seismic jolt, the helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant in the fog-shrouded California hills that reverberated across sports and across continents. Deep into the year, a bookend to Bryant, Diego Maradona died from a heart attack in Argentina weeks after brain surgery, the waves of grief rippling across soccer. The losses, of course, came against a backdrop of a pandemic, its number of fatalities rolled out daily on TV screens. Niekro won 318 games and pitched until he was 48, his knuckleball dancing and mystifying batters across the decades. Kurt Thomas in 1978 became the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world title but lost an Olympic shot in 1980 because of the boycott.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.

Sean Connery and Eddie Van Halen were among some of the more well-known, universally loved celebrities the world lost in October. (CNP/Getty Images)Actress Conchata Ferrell arrives at the CBS celebration of a Monday-night season premiere on Sept. 19, 2007 in Los Angeles. (Getty Images)Pitcher Charlie Haeger of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws a knuckleball against the Colorado Rockies on May 8, 2010. (WireImage for Tractenberg & Co. via Getty Images)American composer Philip Glass and his ensemble photographed in New York City in 1993. (Sygma via Getty Images)American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash during his first visit to London for various public appearances in September 1968.

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)ARLINGTON, Texas – Atlanta Braves fans were still doing tomahawk-chop chants as they filed out of the stadium, real people who replaced the cardboard cutouts players got so accustomed to this season. One game, but a big boost for the Braves in their first National League Championship Series since 2001. “It was awesome — fun to play in front of fans again,” Braves slugger Freddie Freeman said. Riley became the youngest player with a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning of a postseason game or later since Braves star Chipper Jones in 1995. Dodgers: Kershaw, the ace lefty from nearby Dallas, has 19 strikeouts in his two starts this postseason — both wins.

Asked which was bigger in the 4-2 victory against the Houston Astros, Margot said through a translator: “Definitely the home run. He played one game in right field in 2016 and the rest of his time in San Diego was spent in center. “To have the ability to know where you’re at, and kind of be able to say, ‘Forget it, I know I’m going to hit something but I’m going in,’ and still hang on to the ball, was really, really impressive,” manager Kevin Cash said. It was an unbelievable play that he made on the right field line, putting himself in a dangerous place. “Everybody is really, really supportive of him and just so happy for what he's accomplished.”Morton improved to 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA in the last two postseasons.

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan has died. And to his star-powered teammates, Joe Morgan was a driving force, too. “Joe Morgan was quite simply the best baseball player I played against or saw,” Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench texted to The Associated Press. “Small in stature like his idol Nellie Fox, Joe played every game at the highest level. ″Bench probably had the most raw baseball ability of any of us,” Morgan said before his Hall of Fame induction.

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Major League Baseball had its fullest schedule in nearly a half-century Friday with 20 games set to be played, including five doubleheaders caused by postponements for weather, the coronavirus and protests of racial injustice. The last time 20 games were on the schedule was Aug. 4, 1974, when there were nine doubleheaders, the Elias Sports Bureau said. There were 12 complete games thrown that day, including nine-inning efforts by Catfish Hunter, Luis Tiant and Dave McNally. Only three of those 20 games back then took over 2 hours, 40 minutes. On Friday, the Blue Jays needed 2:42 for Torontos 8-7 win in seven innings at Fenway Park.

He took over in Boston, his fifth, in 1985 and guided the Red Sox to the AL pennant the next year. The Mets won Game 7, leaving Boston without a championship until they finally won it all in 2004. The Boston Globe first reported McNamara's death on Wednesday a day the Red Sox were also in New York to play the Mets. Boston won the game 6-5 the same score by which the Red Sox lost that fateful Game 6. Current Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who was the Red Sox skipper when they ended their title drought, said he first met McNamara in Oakland in 1969-70.

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2006, file photo,a Joe DiMaggio 1947 MVP Award Plaque is displayed at a news conference in New York. The plaque features the name and image of Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The other name engraved on the trophy: Kenesaw Mountain Landis. If you have the Jackie Robinson Award and the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Award, you are at diametrically opposed poles, Thorn said. Larkin recalled that shortly after he was voted MVP, he got a call from two-time NL MVP Joe Morgan.

(CNN) - As a young Texas couple were leaving the courthouse for their wedding ceremony, their car collided with a pickup truck, killing both of them, according to CNN affiliate KFDM. Harley Morgan, 19, and Rhiannon Boudreaux, 20, were merging onto Highway 87 in Orange, Texas when the accident occurred. The pickup truck was towing a trailer loaded with a tractor, according to a statement from the Orange Police Department. The newlyweds were leaving an Orange County Justice of the Peace precinct after their marriage ceremony, Lt. Gary Keaton, a spokesman for the department said. Orange County is in the Beaumont-Port Arthur region of southeastern Texas.

A tragic accident took the lives of a young married couple only minutes after saying their vows. 19-year-old Harley Joe Morgan and his bride 20-year-old Rhiannon (Marie Morgan left an Orange County, Texas, courtroom Friday afternoon, and as they pulled out of the driveway their car and a pickup truck collided.

19-year-old Harley Joe Morgan and his bride 20-year-old Rhiannon Marie Morgan left an Orange County, Texas, courtroom Friday afternoon, and as they pulled out of the driveway their car and a pickup truck collided. (KFDM) - A tragic accident took the lives of a young married couple only minutes after saying their vows. 19-year-old Harley Joe Morgan and his bride 20-year-old Rhiannon Marie Morgan left an Orange County, Texas, courtroom Friday afternoon, and as they pulled out of the driveway their car and a pickup truck collided. The groom's mother and sister were behind the couple and saw the collision. Joe and Rhiannon Morgan were high school sweethearts.