Sports takes: RIP K.C. Jones and Phil Niekro

ANOTHER BIG LOSS FOR THE CELTICS: The death on Christmas Day, at age 88, of Boston Celtics legend K.C. Jones, was another huge loss for the Celtics in a little more than a month’s time, coming after the death of Celtics legend and broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn in November at the age of 86. Like Heinsohn, Jones won NBA titles both as a player and coach with the Celtics; Jones won eight championships as a player alongside Bob Cousy and Bill Russell and then another three as a coach, as an assistant to Bill Fitch in 1981 and two more as the Celtics’ head coach, as he beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the thrilling 1984 finals and then beat the Houston Rockets in 1986 with the team that included the Big Three and Bill Walton. (He won a
12^th NBA title as an assistant coach with the Lakers.)
There were many heartfelt eulogies to Jones written, but none more fitting than Bob Ryan’s column in the Dec. 27 edition of The Boston Sunday Globe. Ryan in that piece made a compelling argument that Jones was the perfect person to fill the coaching job when the firing of Bill Fitch after the 1983 season created a vacancy. Ryan argued that Jones was a calmer personality after Fitch, who was Type A to the max.
Jones, Ryan and others pointed out, was the ideal person to lead a Celtics’ team that was chock full of superstars including the Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish as well as Bill Walton and DJ – Dennis Johnson.
Jones, like Heinsohn is an NBA Hall-of-Famer and has his number (25) hanging in the rafters at TD Garden; he will be sorely missed and his passing is one more negative aspect of 2020.
RIP PHIL NIEKRO: Baseball lost its record seventh Hall of Famer of 2020
when knuckleballer Phil Niekro died in his sleep Saturday night at 81 after a long battle with cancer. The famed ballplayer set the standard for the difficult knuckleball and finished his career with a win-loss record of 318-274 and a 3.35 ERA, according to Niekro’s Associated Press obituary. Niekro played most of his career for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and finished his career with the Yankees Indians and Toronto Blue Jays before signing a brief contract with the Braves, where he made one last start in 1987 before retiring at the age of 48.
A Sox tie: One big Red Sox connection to Niekro is that he’s credited with helping Red Sox standout hurler Tim Wakefield perfect his knuckleball after he joined the Red Sox in 1995.
A record for the ages: Niekro’s obituary revealed a rare record that he's held since setting it in 1979 and it’s one that, in this age of openers, pitch counts and runaway analytics, will likely never be broken: Niekro is the last pitcher to win AND lose 20 games in the same season in this case 1979, when Niekro at age 40, made a career-high 44 starts, and completed 23 of them, for the Braves, compiling a 21-20 record for the Braves, who went 66-94 that year,
The passing of Niekro is just one more reason for Baby Boomers to feel their age as he’s the seventh Hall of Famer of the last 60-plus years to die in 2020. The other six were: New York Yankee southpaw Whitey Ford; St Louis Cardinals outfielder and super base stealer Lou Brock and power pitcher Bob Gibson; Detroit Tiger superstar Al Kaline; Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine” second baseman Joe Morgan; and New York Mets, Chicago White Sox and Red Sox (for half a year in 1986)  pitcher Tom Seaver.
Thanks for the memories and may all of those baseball greats rest in peace.