Best Collision Catcher Ray Fosse Dies At 74


Strong-armed gunner Ray Fosse, whose career was turned upside down when he was defeated by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star Game, died Wednesday. He was 74 years old.

His wife of 51 years, Carol Fosse, said in a statement on the internet that he died after a 16-year battle with cancer. He did not say where he died.

Fosse was a budding talent for Cleveland when he formed his first All-Star team in 1970 at the age of 23. He made 16 home runs and 45 runs in the All-Star break. He would reach .307 with a career-high 18 homers that year; He also scored 55 percent of those who attempted theft and earned the first of two Gold Gloves.

Rose’s home was at the Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, in the 12th half of the All-Star Game, when Rose jumped over Fosse to record the winning run, breaking and splitting Fosse’s left shoulder.

X-rays taken right after the event came back negative, and Fosse never missed a playing time. In a game in Kansas City two days after the All-Star Game, he couldn’t raise his left arm above his head, but caught nine innings. It was later determined that his shoulder was not healing properly.

Rose has been widely criticized for what many see as an unnecessarily vulgar play in a show game. He then defended himself by saying, “If you can’t get the bag, there’s no point slipping into a bag.”

Fosse made it to the All-Star team again in 1971. But he was never an All-Star again and never had a season as good as 1970 during his 12-year career with Cleveland, Oakland, Seattle and Milwaukee.

He was traded to Oakland in 1973 and helped the Athletics win two World Series titles. He finished his career with a .256 batting average and 61 home runs in 924 games.

Raymond Earl Fosse was born on April 4, 1947, in Marion, Illinois. He was a first-round pick for Cleveland in 1965 and made his major league debut two years later.

In addition to his wife, he has two daughters named Nikki and Lindsey among the survivors.

Fosse became a broadcaster for Athletics in 1986 and continued to run into the 2021 season.

In 2015, 40 years after the incident, Fosse told the Associated Press that he had arthritis, had five knee surgeries, and had a stiff neck as well as two shoulders that he never straightened.

Of course, he knew it wasn’t all due to Rose’s All-Star Game blow. Much of this was the result of the difficulties of being a catcher.

At that time, there was no one to say ‘Don’t play’,” he said. “I continued. This is something I take with great pride.”

The collision with Rose, she once said, was “something people would keep talking about whether they were alive at the time or if they watched the video and saw the result.”

“There have been some harder hits,” he added, but “the fact that it’s just an All-Star Game, they’re always voting on the highlights or weak spots of the All-Star Game, and that always seems to be at the top of what people are talking about.”

The New York Times contributed to the reporting.



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