It was, in the final quarter of the horrible 2020, when it seemed as though society had finally succumbed to its own appetites and irresponsibility, that baseball was somehow being made an example of. So much loss could not be happenstance. Seven Hall of Famers -- signatures to their time and instrumental to the landscape of the modern, postwar game as we know it -- died that year, five between early September (Lou Brock, 81) and late December (Phil Niekro, 81). Before them, in April, it was Al Kaline, Mr. Tiger, who died at 85.
How MLB's 2021 was defined by profound loss and change
