Thank you, Frank Malzone. RIP.

RIP Frank Malzone. He was an all-star caliber player on some lousy teams. He was probably the second best overall 3b the Sox ever had. I would say Larry Gardner and Jimmy Collins would vie for that honor.

They had a lot of good short-timers at 3b who had a good year or two - guys like Lowell, Mueller, Jim Tabor, Butch Hobson, Adrian Beltre, Carney Lansford, George Kell, Tim Naehring, a few SS such as Rico, Valentin, and Pesky who manned third.

It's too bad he played in the era he played in. He would have stood out more if his career had lasted into the 1967 - 1975 era, but he was a good steady ballplayer.

He was not only an outstanding player (MVP, GG, AllStar) he was also one of the really good guys of that era. Every kid who played 3B had him as their role model, and it enhanced their game. He was just always there at 3B and it was a shock when he wasn't, all those years ago. Now at 85 it's not a shock that he won't be around anymore but, except for his living such a fulfilling life, it is sad. I bet St. Bart's will be packed.

After Malzone retired from the Angels, he immediately became a Red Sox scout. They didn't use the term then, IIRC, but he became the Sox' advance scout and his scouting reports -- like Todd Claus's and Dana Levangie's forty years later -- were crucial during the Red Sox' 1967 stretch run. Advance scouting was just being formally organized at the time: Jim Russo's scouting report helped the Orioles sweep the Dodgers in 1966, and then Ray Shore of Cincinnati would become very famous as an advance scout.  And as Peter Abraham's story had it today, Malzone also was an infield coach specializing in third-base play during spring training.

I remember hearing him interviewed on radio during a Sox' pregame show or rain delay sometime in the 1980s. He spent a long time in the minor leagues before finally making the big club in 1957.  A year earlier he had been given a real shot to take over at third base, but he struggled badly and was sent down to the San Francisco Seals. Malzone said that his wife had suffered a miscarriage just before or early on in his MLB trial in 1956 and that the grief and emotional strain on him and his wife were so severe he couldn't concentrate on baseball. That interview really struck me and reminds me of what I used to often forget: that baseball players are human and are subject to the same stresses and setbacks that "civilians" are. Most of them, anyway.

That's why he ranked Malzone 2nd.

Yes, what JimEd14 said. Boggs is the best 3b the Sox ever had. I'd rank Malzone 2nd based on a combo of quality and longevity. I was just noticing how many good to great one year performances at 3b there were in the history of the Sox. Very few sustained tenures at 3b. I'd say Gardner, Collins, Malzone, and Boggs as far as longevity goes, and Boggs played 3b during 11 seasons for the Sox, although he spent a good amount of time at 1b during his rookie year when Lansford got healthy and Dave Stapleton struggled or was needed at SS for the light hitting Glenn Hoffman.

It's been a sad week for the Sox, losing 86 playoff hero Hendu and a very good man in Malzone who was in the organization for nearly 70 years.

One of Frank Malzone's teammates passed away a couple of days ago.

Frank Sullivan was one of the best pitchers on the Sox during the 1950s. He was a good pitcher, not in the category of a "true ace", but still a good pitcher (probably a solid #2/3 type starter), one who was elected to the Red Sox HOF in 2008.

He's more famous, though, for being depicted in Norman Rockwell's painting along with Jackie Jensen, Sammy White, Ted Williams, Billy Goodman, and a "rookie" entering the locker room.

In the past few weeks, the Sox have lost three prominent players in Dave Henderson, Frank Malzone, and now Frank Sullivan.

RIP Frank Sullivan.