Obscure sports trivia

Brett Favre is one.

 

Yes!

 

Neil O'Donnell? Frank Reich? And Tony Eason, for sure. Can't remember if Ken O'Brien started one SB for the Bengals.

 

Boomer Esiason is another.

 

all gotten: favre, Eason, Esiason, O’Donnell

 

I'm not going to ask a question, but I ran across a pretty obscure, and sad, list: Baseball Suicides: MLB Players Who Committed Suicide | Baseball Almanac

I do not remember that Hideki Irabu, Doug Ault and Mike Flanagan committed suicide.

 

that’s a freaky list. two that I know the stories well: the Marty Bergen case (he slaughtered his family first) and Chick Stahl because of the long mystery of his last words. “I just couldn’t help it. It drove me to it.”

 

Is Flanagan the most successful player on that list?

That sort of says something.

 

I put this on the NBA thread, but I should crosspost it here, too: Nixon’s “plumbers” broke into Larry O’Brien’s office.

 

Donnie Moore is probably the most well known because everyone assumes the home run he gave up in the 86 ALCS led to it. A lot of guys were young, but I don't know how many were active players.

Looked up Irabu, Ault and Flanagan, and they were having monetary and/or marital problems.

 

I remember reading a story on Willard Hershberger; I think he was found in his hotel room during a road trip. And of course I remember Donnie Moore.

Missing from the list is Don Wilson, the Astros' hurler in the 1970s. Didn't he die from carbon monoxide poisoning? I always assumed that was a suicide.

 

Which major-league team did not have the name of its home city on its road uniforms for the first 60 years of its existence?