Dead Celebrity Alert

NEW YORK — The sign man of Shea Stadium died Thursday.

Karl Ehrhardt was a fixture at Mets games from 1964 through 1981, famous for holding up tailored signs after key plays that displayed his pleasure or frustration with the team. …

Ehrhardt’s block-lettered signs served as color commentary for both fans in the stands and TV viewers at home. He carried dozens to each game, some witty, some biting.

“Jose, Can You See?” was a regular when Mets outfielder after Jose’ Cardenal struck out. “It’s Alive!” was for hitters who broke out of a slump. …

Only the Mets 1969 World Series victory left him speechless. The sign he raised high after the last out read, “There Are No Words.”

At one point he had about 1,200 signs to choose from. … Read full obituary

Georgia Frontiere, the owner of the National Football League’s Rams for nearly three decades and the first woman to take control of a league franchise, died Friday. She was 80. …

She had been hospitalized with breast cancer for several months, her children said in a statement posted there.

Frontiere, an occasional night-club singer and chorus line performer who hoped to become an opera star, was thrust into the pro football world in April 1979 when her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, drowned in the ocean while swimming near his Florida home. … Read full obituary

REYKJAVIK (AFP) — Bobby Fischer, who died on Thursday aged 64, was a high school dropout who may have been the greatest chess player of all time, but ended his life in eccentric seclusion.

The US-born player had lived for the last two years in Iceland, after serving eight months behind bars in Japan in a new twist to a life that had gone downhill ever since his moment of glory at age 29.

The Brooklyn-bred genius made headlines around the world when he wrested the world chess title from Soviet domination in 1972, beating world champion Boris Spassky, in a Cold War chess showdown in Reykjavik known as the match of the century. …

Despite having a Jewish mother, Fischer was a vicious anti-Semite, using broadcasts at far-flung radio stations to accuse Jews of everything from his legal woes to an alleged conspiracy to kill off elephants. …

The reclusive Fischer’s return to the spotlight began on September 11, 2001 when he rang up a Filipino radio station to hail the “wonderful news” of the terrorist attacks and launch a profanity-laden anti-Jewish tirade. … Read full obituary

Johnny Podres, who became the most beloved ‘Bum’ of all pitching Brooklyn to its only World Series title before the team moved to LA, died Sunday at Glens Falls Hospital in upstate New York. He was 75. His wife, Joan, said he was being treated for heart and kidney problems and a leg infection. …

The stocky south-paw was a elected to four All-Star games and was the first MVP in World Series history, becoming a hero to every fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by finally beating their cross town rivals after, losing five consecutive years to win the 1955 World Series. … Read full obituary

Christopher Bowman, the former U.S. figure skating champion dubbed “Bowman the Showman” for his flair on the ice, died Thursday of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40.

Bowman was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner’s Lt. Joe Bale, who wasn’t immediately able to provide more details about the possible drug overdose. Bowman’s body was found at a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend, Bale said. …

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating’s bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented, with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the U.S. men’s figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.

He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992. … Read full obituary

Poker legend David “Chip” Reese, a renowned cash-game player and the owner of three World Series of Poker bracelets, died Tuesday. He was 56.

Eric Drache, a close friend of the family, said Reese called his doctor at 10 p.m. on Monday complaining of pneumonia symptoms but never went to a hospital and died in his sleep. He was found by his son early Tuesday morning at his Las Vegas home. …

Born in Centerville, Ohio, Reese was considered by many of his peers to be the best all-around poker player in the world. He made his first trip to Las Vegas in 1973. Once there, his play proved so successful that he opted to drop out of Dartmouth College to play poker professionally. He had been a Las Vegas resident ever since. … Read full obituary

The Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died in hospital this morning after being shot at his home in Miami. Taylor, a first-round draft pick for the Redskins in 2004 and Pro Bowl alternate last season, had his femoral artery severed when he was shot in the leg during an apparent robbery. …

Taylor was airlifted to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment, but despite reportedly squeezing a nurse’s hand at one point, never regained consciousness following heavy blood loss. …

…[Taylor and his girlfriend] had been woken by loud noises, at which point Taylor retrieved a machete he kept in the bedroom for self-defence. A gunman then apparently burst into the bedroom, and fired two shots, one of which struck Taylor. Neither Taylor’s girlfriend, nor the couple’s one-year old daughter was harmed. … Read full story

Joe Kennedy, who last pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays during a seven-year major league career, died early Friday morning while at home with family in Florida. He was 28.

The cause of death could not immediately be determined, agent Damon Lapa said.

After going to bed early, Kennedy woke up at about 1:15 a.m. Friday and collapsed as he was leaving a bedroom at the home of his wife’s parents, Hillsborough County sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said, according to The Associated Press. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue took Kennedy to Brandon Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, she said. … Read full obituary

CINCINNATI — Joe Nuxhall, who was the youngest player in major league history and the beloved “old left-hander” on Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts, died overnight following a bout with cancer, the team said Friday. He was 79.

Nuxhall’s health problems multiplied in recent years but couldn’t keep him away from the game or the broadcast booth for long. He had surgery for prostate cancer in 1992, followed by a mild heart attack in 2001.

The cancer returned last February, when Nuxhall was preparing for the Reds’ spring training in Sarasota, Fla. The broadcaster called some games last season even though his left leg was swollen by tumors. He was hospitalized again this week.

He retired as a full-time radio broadcaster after the 2004 season, the 60th anniversary of his historic pitching debut. … Read full obituary

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Max McGee, the unexpected hero of the first Super Bowl and a long-time challenge for Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, died Saturday after falling from the roof of his home, police confirmed. He was 75.

Police were called to the former Green Bay receiver’s Deephaven home around 5:20 p.m., Sgt. Chris Whiteside said. Efforts to resuscitate McGee were unsuccessful.

McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when he fell, according to news reports. A phone message left at a number listed for an M. McGee wasn’t immediately returned. …

Inserted into Packers’ lineup when Boyd Dowler was sidelined by a shoulder injury, McGee went on to catch the first touchdown pass in Super Bowl history in Green Bay’s 35-10 victory over Kansas City in January 1967. Still hung over from a night on the town, McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two TDs. … Read full obituary

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Al Oerter was destined to become an athlete, although he often wondered what he might have been if not for a chance meeting with a discus. …

The discus great who won gold medals in four straight Olympics to become one of track and field’s biggest stars in the 1950s and ’60s, died Monday of heart failure, less than two weeks after his 71st birthday. …

Oerter won gold medals in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968. Oerter and Carl Lewis are the only track and field stars to capture the same event in four consecutive Olympics. Oerter, however, is the only one to set an Olympic record in each of his victories. … Read full obituary

Popular former West Coast premiership player Chris Mainwaring will be remembered for his central role in establishing the Eagles as a formidable force in the AFL both on and off the field.

The charismatic wingman, who died overnight, aged 41, was one of the club’s most recognisable figures as they became the competition powerhouse of the early 1990s, after entering the AFL in 1987. …

Blond, good looking and a keen surfer, he enjoyed a reputation as a larrikin and a party boy during his playing days.

Following his retirement, his ongoing popularity and understanding of the game helped him establish a media career.

He worked for the Seven Network in Perth as a newsreader and sports reporter, as well as working on Perth radio. … Read full obituary

British former world rallying champion Colin McRae was believed to have been killed in a fatal helicopter crash at his home on Saturday, police told AFP.

Four people died in the crash at Jerviswood near the town of Lanark in southern Scotland, Strathclyde Police said.

There were no survivors and formal identification of the bodies was not expected until Sunday.

The Times Online is reporting that it is feared that McRae’s son Johnny, another child and another adult were killed in the crash. …

The Scot won the 1995 World Rally Championship and was the runner-up in 1996, 1997 and 2001.

He was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996. … Read full obituary

HINSDALE, Ill., Aug. 27 (AP) — Charles Albert Comiskey II, grandson and namesake of the Chicago White Sox founder and a former front-office executive and co-owner during the Go Go Sox years in the 1950s, died in his sleep at his home here on Sunday. He was 81. …

His family name is one of the best known in Chicago sports, and Comiskey left his own mark in helping to remake the White Sox and send them to their first American League pennant in 40 years in 1959.

The White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf credited Comiskey, known as Chuck, with playing an important role in developing the resurgent Sox teams of the 1950s during his stint in the front office. … Read full obituary

The thing about Phil Rizzuto was he made people smile. No, that’s wrong. He made people laugh — at his jokes, but mostly at him.

Take his induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1994. The “Scooter,” as he was known, walked to the podium and the thousands in the Cooperstown, N. Y., audience had to bring out their hankies to wipe away the tears. Not because they were sad. Rizzuto made them laugh that hard.

Rizzuto, who would have been 90 in September, died Tuesday from pneumonia after living his last several years in declining health at a West Orange, N.J., nursing home.

This is a sad time for everyone who knew Rizzuto, the diminutive kid from Brooklyn who made it as a slick fielding shortstop for the Yankees and later became their beloved broadcaster. … Read full obituary