The Los Angeles Dodgers were pretty damn good in the sixties. They won three pennants, two World Championships (in 1963 and 1965), and saw five players and one manager enter the Hall of Fame.  

A legacy like that deserves recognition, so on May 23rd the Dodgers honored their sixties’ stars and snapped the above photo. 

What follows are the names of the guys from left to right and what they’ve been up to since hangin’ ‘em up.

Claude Osteen: The three time All-Star and twenty game winner has worked as a pitching coach for the Dodgers, Rangers, Cardinals and Phillies.  

Roy Gleason: Roy doubled for the 1963 Dodgers in his lone Major League at bat. He later became the only Major Leaguer injured during the Vietnam War and won the Purple Heart. Today he works as a car salesman.

Ken McMullen: The infielder/outfielder had two tours with the Dodgers and hit 156 homers in a sixteen season career.

Larry Burright: The second baseman played just three seasons, hitting a combined .205 for the Dodgers and Mets.

Wes Parker: The first baseman won six consecutive Gold Glove awards, then, after retiring, worked as the Reds’ broadcaster and an actor in a number of films.

Tommy Davis: The left fielder drove in a Dodgers’ franchise record 153 RBIs in 1962. His post playing career includes a stint as a Mariners’ coach, and the writing of the book, “Tales From The Dodgers’ Dugout.”

Ray Lamb: The righthander pitched five seasons with the Dodgers and Indians, winning 20 games.

Ron Fairly: The two-time All-Star had a twenty-seven year career as a broadcaster after retiring.

Lou Johnson: The former outfielder still works today with the Dodgers’ community relations department.

Maury Wills: 1962’s National League MVP managed the Mariners in the early eighties and worked as a sports analyst for NBC.

Chuck Essegian: The former utility infielder played in Japan after retiring from the Majors.

Former Baltimore Orioles’ shortstop Bobby Bonner will be a guest speaker at a gospel tent meeting starting June 1st at the First Baptist Church of Caldwell, New Jersey, to celebrate the church’s 160th anniversary. Bobby will likely speak more about his work as a Baptist minister in Zanbia, Africa, than his inability to hit a breaking ball.  

Bobby, you may remember, was briefly considered the O’s shortstop of the future because of his wizardry with the glove. He was such a great fielder, in fact, that he was voted the MVP of the 1980 AAA Rochester Red Wings despite hitting only .241 with 2 homers.

Just behind Bobby in Baltimore’s minor league system was a third baseman by the name of Cal Ripken, and there was speculation that the two would one day form a dynamite left side of the infield for the Orioles.

Unfortunately for Bobby he only regressed as a hitter, hitting an even worse .229 at Rochester the next season. Nevertheless, he still made the big club out of spring training in 1982. He only hit .169 as a back-up to the similarly struggling Lenn Sakata though, and on July 1st manager Earl Weaver wrote Cal Ripken’s name into the line-up card as the shortstop. Cal would play there without interruption another fourteen years. 

Bobby soon found himself back at AAA Rochester and out of the Orioles’ plans. Bobby played two more years in the minors before, following his sixth consecutive season at Rochester, he retired for good.

After hangin’ ‘em up Bobby worked briefly as an announcer for his Rochester Red Wings, then, along with his wife, Becky, became a Baptist missionary in Zanbia, Africa. Over the last twenty years they have helped start over 100 churches and trained over 150 men (sorry, ladies) to be pastors. The couple has four daughters and four grandchildren.

 Bobby recently wrote the following about his life:

“My name is Bobby Bonner. I played professional baseball for the Baltimore Orioles’ organization for seven years; five were spent in the minor leagues and two years playing with the big club. After my seventh year of professional baseball…I decided to retire from baseball at the age of twenty-eight. I am often asked why I gave up playing professional baseball at the peak of my career.”

Really, Bobby? People still ask you that even though you spent your last two seasons in the minors? And was it really accurate to say you were at your ”peak?” Sorry. Ahem. Please continue… 

I had complete peace about my decision. You see, seven years before I got down on my kness, repented my sins…and began to understand my true purpose for being here – to bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ.”

In that case, Bobby, retiring was a good idea. Your hitting probably wasn’t bringing all that much glory and honor to Jesus.

Sorry for all the ribbing, Bobby. In all seriousness Bobby is a very inspiring speaker from what I have read on-line, and if you’re a Christian in the New Jersey area you should get out to see him!

As I go about my job of researching what has happened to our former heroes once they’ve hung ‘em up I find that, for the most part, they’ve gone on to lead macho lives as cops, proprietors of bars, managers, etc. So it was with more than a little surprise that I stumbled upon the fact that in January of 1984 Playgirl magazine released an issue that featured a pair of notable former big leaguers dropping their drawers. (Not that there is anything wrong with that as Seinfeld taught me.)

One of these nudists was former catcher Steve Yeager, who spent fourteen of his fifteen years with the Dodgers and helped them appear in four World Series’, the last of which, in 1981, he shared the MVP award. Though he only hit .228 in his career, he was known as an outstanding fielder and handler of pitchers. He also invented the throat protector catchers now wear after having been struck by a piece of a broken bat while waiting on deck.

After hangin’ ‘em up Chuck Yeager’s nephew did a lot more than just bare his ass for Hugh Hefner. He had a successful career as a minor league hitting coach (“Do as I say, not as I did”), and became the manager of the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League in 2007. He also appeared as Coach Duke Temple in the Major League film franchise, and was an advisor for all three films.

The second player to appear in the magazine was Steve Stone, who, after nine years as a slightly above average pitcher had a brilliant season in 1980. Thanks to a new strategy of throwing mainly curveballs, he made the All-Star team and won the Cy Young Award after winning a staggering 25 games for the Orioles. Sadly for Stone he was out of the game just a year later with tendinitis. He went on to say, “I knew it would ruin my arm, but one season of 25-7 was worth five of 15-15.”

After hangin’ ‘em up Steve Stone also did more than just show off his genitals. He established himself as a beloved announcer who spent fifteen years giving voice to the Cubs’ games in addition to announcing for ESPN and TBS. This March he was named the color comentator for the Cubs’ radio broadcasts.

Beyond announcing (and stripping) Steve has been a Renaisancce man after retiring as he has worked as a restauranteur, poet, chess player, and table tennis player.

If you really want to see their photos in Playgirl you are going to have to seek them out yourself. Personally, I am gonna remember these two as the World Series MVP and a Cy Young winner, and not beefcake. (Which by 2008 I would assume is no longer edible.)

Despite only hitting .205 over a six year career in the Show, Buddy Biancalana’s name is more recognizable today than even some former All-Stars’ thanks to his alliterative name, outstanding play in the World Series for the 1985 World Champion Royals, and for David Letterman instituting a Biancalana count-down calendar when the rest of the world was counting down to Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s All-Time hit record.

Lately it seems Buddy has been making a new name for himself as an “Athlete Whisperer” of sorts. Buddy, who became interested in transcendental meditation after hangin’ ‘em up in order to help cope with problems both physical and personal, has worked with many athletes who struggle with the mental side of the game. His very latest client is the Cardinals’ 2006 first round draft pick,  Adam Ottavino, who missed his last start at single-A Springfield because he needed to clear his head.

Ottavino is 0-4 with an 8.78 E.R.A. this season, but is healthy. He attributes his troubles to trying to adhere to coach’s mechanical adjustments as opposed to simply throwing as he did in college. Buddy will meet with him this week and try to get the kid back on track.

So how will Buddy try to help this former first rounder? Partially by teaching certain breathing and visualization exercises that help athletes have better self awareness, and enable them to adapt more quickly to change.

Ottavino said he plans to take the mound Sunday, so Buddy better work pretty damn fast. Nevertheless, if his track record as a minor league coach and leader of TM seminars is any indication, Buddy just might be able to help.

Joining Sammy Sosa in the “I am announcing my retirement even though most people thought I already had” club is three time All-Star Bret Boone. Bret, who had his best season with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 when he hit .331 with 37 homers and 141 runs batted in, also snagged four Gold Glove awards in his fourteen year career. 

Bret had been attempting a comeback with the Washington Nationals this year, two years after abruptly retiring before the start of the Mets’ 2006 season because of a private battle with alcoholism. Bret’s drinking had been a problem since his halcyon days with the Mariners when he would drink 12-15 beers after a game. His drinking didn’t effect his play then, but as he got older it did, and he lost his enthusiasm for the game.

Luckily for Bret, who came forward about his problem this spring to promote alcohol awareness, he went to rehab in San Diego last year. It was a humbling experience at first he told mlb.com:

“You are sitting there going, ‘I’m Bret Boone. What am I doing here?’ that’s your initial reaction.” Before long, however, he embraced the treatment. “I’m proud I did that,” he told mlb.com’s Bill Ladson, ”I went through it and took the step to cut this thing off.”

Bret, whose father and former major leaguer, Bob, is the assistant general manager of the Nationals, failed to make the big club out of spring training. He played a dozen or so games with the AAA Columbus Clippers, hitting .261, before leaving the minor league team on April 18th to train on his own.

Now that Bret has hung ‘em up he plans to build a new home, to spend more time with his family, and to get back into the game in another capacity, perhaps as a broadcaster.