Ray Fosse ✝

Fosse\'s career was marked by injuries. He made his Major League debut in Cleveland late in the 1967 season, but spent 1968 in the minor leagues. Returning to the Indians in 1970, he platooned alongside Duke Sims. In the first half of 1970 he posted a .313 batting average with 16 home runs and 45 runs batted in. He hit in 23 consecutive games beginning June 9, the longest American League hitting streak since 1961, and was chosen as a reserve for the 1970 All-Star Game by Earl Weaver, the American League manager.\n', ' Arguably, Fosse is best known for a violent collision with Pete Rose at home plate during the last play of the 1970 All-Star Game. Initial x-rays revealed no fractures or other damage, but a re-examination the following year found that Fosse had sustained a fractured and separated shoulder, which healed incorrectly, causing chronic pain that never entirely resolved. Rose asserted that he was simply trying to win the game, and that Fosse — who had moved a few feet up the third-base line to receive the throw from Amos Otis — was blocking the plate; but Rose was widely criticized for over-aggressive play in an exhibition game. Fosse went on to play 42 games in the second half of the season, hitting .297 and winning the American League Gold Glove Award.\n', ' In 1971 Fosse batted .276 with 12 home runs and 62 runs batted in, but was kicked in his right hand during a brawl against the Detroit Tigers on June 20, sustaining a gash that required five stitches and sidelined him for more than a week. When he returned he tore a ligament in his left hand during an at-bat against Denny McLain, forcing him to miss the 1971 All-Star Game. He did manage to win his second consecutive Gold Glove Award. When Cleveland pitcher Gaylord Perry won the American League Cy Young Award in 1972, he gave Fosse credit for his success: "I\'ve got to split it up and give part, a big part, to my catcher, Ray Fosse. He kept pushing me in games when I didn\'t have good stuff. He\'d come out and show me that big fist of his when I wasn\'t bearing down the way he thought I should."\n', '