At 46,  stories like these,  and Kile earlier this year are always cause for pause.  I’ll always remember Porter hitting a 2-out Homerun to break up Mario Soto’s 1-0 shutout and tie the game in St. Louis (the Reds eventually won the game anyway, which made me happy,  but that was a pretty dramatic homerun.  I think that was 1983,   when I was living in Southeast Iowa,  and mywife and I were visting St.Louis, to celebrate the first anniversary of of our first date and first meeting.   This Sept.4,  that will mark 20 years since that first meeting.

Just a few years before,   I had gotten glasses for the first time,  batted left handed,  and my friends nicknamed me Darrell Porter.   50 years old is just too damn young to die.   I wonder what it was that did it. 

The Sports Network – Major League Baseball: “Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) – Former major league All-Star catcher Darrell Porter was found dead in a park in suburban Kansas City Monday. He was 50 years old. “