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Cincinnati Reds great Joe Morgan, one of the greatest second basemen to ever play the game, has died, according to numerous reports. He was 77. He died at his home Sunday in Danville, California, a family spokesman said Monday.

Morgan was suffering from a nerve condition, a form of polyneuropathy.

Morgan's death marked the latest among major league greats this year: Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Tom Seaver and Al Kaline.

Morgan was a two-time NL Most Valuable Player, a 10-time All-Star and won five Gold Gloves. The 5-foot-7 dynamo known for flapping his left elbow at the plate could hit a home run, steal a base and disrupt any game with his daring.Most of all, he completed Cincinnati\u2019s two-time World Series championship team, driving a club featuring the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez to back-to-back titles.

Morgan's tiebreaking single with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 7 in 1975 gave the Reds the crown in a classic matchup with Boston, and he spurred a four-game sweep of the Yankees the next season.

In a 22-year career through 1984, Morgan scored 1,650 runs, stole 689 bases, hit 268 homers and batted .271. But those stats hardly reflected his impact on the game.

Source: WLWT5

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CHICAGO (AP) — Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, who made his mark as one of the NFL’s best all-purpose running backs and was later celebrated for his enduring friendship with a Chicago Bears teammate with cancer, has died. He was 77.

Nicknamed “The Kansas Comet” and considered among the best open-field runners the game has ever seen, Sayers died Wednesday, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Relatives of Sayers had said he was diagnosed with dementia. In March 2017, his wife, Ardythe, said she partly blamed his football career.

Sayers was a blur to NFL defenses, ghosting would-be tacklers or zooming by them like few running backs or kick returners before or since. Yet it was his rock-steady friendship with Brian Piccolo, depicted in the film “Brian’s Song,” that marked him as more than a sports star.

“He was the very essence of a team player — quiet, unassuming and always ready to compliment a teammate for a key block,” Hall of Fame President David Baker said. “Gale was an extraordinary man who overcame a great deal of adversity during his NFL career and life.”

He became a stockbroker, sports administrator, businessman and philanthropist for several inner-city Chicago youth initiatives after his pro football career was cut short by serious injuries to both knees.

“Gale was one of the finest men in NFL history and one of the game’s most exciting players,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “Gale was an electrifying and elusive runner who thrilled fans every time he touched the ball. He earned his place as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”

Sayers was a two-time All-American at Kansas and inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as well. He was selected by Chicago with the fourth pick overall in 1965, and his versatility produced dividends and highlight-reel slaloms through opposing defenses right from the start.

He tied one NFL record with six touchdowns in a game and set another with 22 touchdowns in his first season: 14 rushing, six receiving, one punt and one kickoff return. Sayers was a unanimous choice for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Sayers followed that by being voted an All-Pro during the first five of his seven NFL seasons (1965-71). But he was stuck on a handful of middling-to-bad Bears teams and, like Dick Butkus, another Hall of Fame teammate selected in the same 1965 draft, he never played in the postseason. Sayers appeared in only 68 games total and just two in each of his final two seasons while attempting to return from those knee injuries.

Butkus said he hadn’t even seen Sayers play until a highlight film was shown at an event in New York that both attended honoring the 1964 All-America team. He said the real-life version of Sayers was even better.

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We're very sad to report that legendary comedic actor John Witherspoon has passed away.

According to Deadline, Witherspoon died suddenly at his home in Sherman Oaks, California on Tuesday, October 29. He was 77-years old.

“It is with deepest sorrow that we can confirm our beloved husband and father, John Witherspoon, one of the hardest working men in show business, died today at his home in Sherman Oaks at the age of 77,” Witherspoon’s family said in a statement to Deadline. “He is survived by his wife Angela, and his sons JD, Alexander, and a large family. We are all in shock, please give us a minute for a moment in privacy and we will celebrate his life and his work together. John used to say ‘I’m no big deal’, but he was huge deal to us.”

The actor is probably best remembered for his roles in Ice Cube's "Friday," "Next Friday" and "Friday After Next" movies.

Witherspoon was also the voice of Robert Freeman in the popular animated series "The Boondocks."

Other television and film roles included appearances in "Black Jesus," "Soul Plane," "Vampire In Brooklyn" and "Hollywood Shuffle."

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Norwegian gunman Anders Breivik could avoid prison after two psychologists found he was insane during his July 22 massacre.

If a court agrees with that assessment, the self-declared anti-Muslim militant cannot be sentenced to prison but will be subjected to compulsory psychiatric care, prosecutors told reporters in Oslo.

 
"The conclusions of the forensic experts is that Anders Behring Breivik was insane," prosecutor Svein Holden said, adding Breivik was in a state of psychosis during Norway's worst peacetime massacre.

In Norway, an insanity defense requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged.

That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions.

The 243-page report will be reviewed by a panel from the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine, which could ask for additional information and add its own opinions.

The head of that panel told had reporters in July that it was unlikely that Breivik would be declared legally insane because the attacks were so carefully planned and executed.

Breivik admitted killing 77 people last month, including eight in a bombing in central Oslo.

But the 32-year-old right-wing extremist denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe.

The two psychiatrists, in their report, concluded that Breivik lived in his 'own delusional universe where all his thoughts and acts are guided by his delusions'.

In a rambling manifesto posted on the Internet before the attacks, Breivik wrote that his arrest would open 'the propaganda phase' of his operation to ignite a war to defend Europe against a supposed Muslim takeover.

Investigators say Breivik set off a fertilizer bomb outside the government headquarters on July 22, killing eight people, before heading to an island retreat, where youth sections of Norway’s governing Labour Party were gathered for their annual summer camp.

Disguised as a police officer, he opened fire on scores of panicked youth, shooting some of them as they fled into the lake.

Sixty-nine people were killed on Utoeya island before Breivik surrendered to a police SWAT team.

The carnage left Norway shocked and continues to haunt a nation that sees itself as peaceful and tolerant.

An online manifesto attributed to Breivik sheds light on his choice of targets. In it, he lays out a blueprint for a multi-phase revolution, targeting left-leaning political elites he accuses of destroying their own societies by admitting large numbers of immigrants, especially from Muslim countries.

His actions were widely condemned, including by the anti-Islamic bloggers and groups that he cited prolifically in the document.

Oil-producing Norway, home to the Nobel Peace Prize, is known for its open society and relative prosperity, but the attacks sparked a public debate about immigration, security and a legal system which never had to cope with such an event.

Source: Daily Mail

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