John Vukovich, who despite a career .161 batting average, played in parts of 10 seasons and on two World Series champs, and then served as a longtime coach (and interim manager) for the Phillies, passed away at age 59 today from the effects of a brain tumor.
Vukovich was on the 1975 Reds, but was traded to the Phillies in August. In 1980, Vukovich was joined on the squad by an unrelated player with the same surname, George Vukovich. The Cy Young Award winner for the Brewers was Pete Vuckovich.
Vukovich hit just six home runs in his career, but four of them were against a fairly august group: Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Mickey Lolich, and Sparky Lyle. Vukovich's homer against Koosman was a game-ending homer.
Jayson Stark has a post on Vukovich (bah, I got inventive and left off the h in the last comment) which isn't blockaded like the standard insider stuff.
Say hi to Whitey Ashburn and the Tugger for me :(
The MLB.com story is nice too: http://tinyurl.com/29fhdw
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