Death has owned the sports news in recent weeks, nationally with Hall of Fame baseball players, and also regionally. Columns past, emails and other communiques inspired this addition to the blogosphere:

Julio Becquer, not quite an original Twin, died on Sunday at 88. He had been with the Griffith organization in Washington and was claimed by the Los Angeles Angels in the expansion draft before the 1961 season. He wound being sold to the Phillies in May. He was stuck in the minors before Twins owner Calvin Griffith purchased Becquer's contract on June 2, 1961 and brought him to Minnesota.

As pointed out in obits, Becquer’s moment of Twins’ infamy was a pinch-hit grand slam with two outs in the ninth to beat the White Sox, 6-4, in the first game of a doubleheader on July 4 of that year.

Julio stayed with the Twins through that first season, then wound up in the minors and the Mexican League through 1964.

I didn’t meet him as a player, and I never bought a suit from him in his 30 years working for Dayton’s (as a couple of emailers report to have done), but I did get to know him well through Tony Oliva, and Becquer was an all-time good guy.

I wrote a Julio column on July 4, 2010, and recalled that it was Calvin and his Cuban scout, Joe Cambria, that were able to get Becquer’s wife Edith out of Castro’s Cuba in 1962.

What had been forgotten was this revelation from Julio:

“I was playing for Vera Cruz in the Mexican League (in September 1963). Calvin Griffith called and said, ‘I’ve already bought your contract. Can you get up here?’ I said, ‘I’ll be there.’

“Calvin did that for me because I was one week shy of qualifying for my major league pension. You needed five years. The Twins put me on the roster for two weeks and that gave me my pension. I hadn’t even asked.’’

**

Another Minnesota newspapering legend – Harry Hanson of the Sauk Centre Herald – died in mid-September, one month before Sid Hartman.

Harry was 95. He had been a coach, a teacher and contributed his tales to the Herald for six decades. I was able to hang out with Harry before and after a Sauk Centre football game in September 2007.

The athletic teams carry a great nickname, the Mainstreeters, in recognition of Sinclair Lewis’ notorious 1925 novel, "Main Street.''

Lewis called his location “Gopher Priaire,’’ but people from Sauk Centre, his hometown, saw themselves being impugned and did not like it.

Harry assured me in ’07 that, 80 years later, all those resentments had long ago disappeared in Sauk Centre, but then he added this:

“I remember his funeral in January ’51. He was cremated. They took Sinclair’s ashes to the cemetery to bury them. There was a blizzard. The snow was blowing sideways. Somehow, the urn was opened and the ashes blew away.

“Sinclair’s tombstone is at the cemetery here, but his ashes wound up in Melrose.’’

**

Bob McDonald, the Chisholm basketball-coaching legend, died last month at age 87. Dick Garmaker, another giant figure of Iron Range basketball, died in mid-June also at 87.

Tom Dwyer sent an email with this reminder: Hibbing Junior College lost, 78-76, to Wharton County of Tyler, Texas in the 1954 championship game of the National JUCO tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.

Hibbing’s Garmaker and Chisholm’s McDonald were two of the starters, along with Bill Manney (Hibbing), Bill Guidarelli (Buhl) and Leo Hartman (Chisholm).

Garmaker then went to Minneapolis, where he became an all-time great Gopher, as well as four-time NBA All-Star (1957-60) with the Lakers.

**

On the occasion of my 75^th birthday on Oct. 17th, I wrote a column requesting this gift: super utility player Cesar Tovar, reliever Al Worthington and broadcaster Halsey Hall becoming members of the Twins Hall of Fame.

Numerous emails supporting this idea were received, and also this small anecdote from Jim Gryniewski:

“My dad and mom were at Chanhassen Dinner Theater one night in the 1970s, when the emcee stopped the show to acknowledge that Halsey Hall was in attendance.

“My dad was a big fan of Halsey. He didn’t want people to think badly of Halsey, so he stood up and waved to the crowd.’’

**

Daniel Tonder emailed with his vivid memories of that trio: Halsey Hall’s laugh, Al Worthington sliding his glove up his arm when rubbing the baseball, and Cesar Tovar’s energy.

Daniel also added: “I have written to you before and shared the fact my dad could not stand you. He was very conservative, a total 'homer' when it came to the Twins, and an 'America, Love it or Leave It' type of guy. Some way or another, you offended him a lot.’’

Don’t worry, Daniel. You pointed out three ways I could have offended Dad.

**

The great Ira Berkow, author, long-time New York Times sports columnist and feature writer, was a rookie sports writer at the Minneapolis Morning Tribiune in the mid-‘60s. Sid Hartman was the sports editor and notes columnist, with a far different view of sentences that were descriptive and contained cultural references than Berkow, a wordsmith waiting to be unleashed.

Ira sent an email on the occasion of Sid’s death, and then another after my response.

Berkow 1: “Just read your very honest obit on Sid. In the end, while he was the ultimate homer, a semi-literate writer and even less a grammarian, his energy, his devotion to his "work" and his odd cultivation of friends made him, finally at age 100, a certain kind of marvel.

“I'll always remember my two years with Sid … For quite a while he wouldn't let me write and stuck me on the (copy) desk. One day, some sports writer on the staff had departed, and he had me do a prep story.

“The next day, he gave me my one and only compliment from him, with a slap on the back as I sat at the desk, editing copy, ‘Good story. Keep ‘em short.’ “

Berkow 2: “So many Sid stories, like when he kept asking Zoilo Versalles, week after week, in a solicitous manner, if he was having any success in getting his wife moved from Cuba to America.

“And Zoilo finally said (suspiciously], ‘Seeed, why you keep asking about my wife?’ ‘’

The Twins were facing elimination and tied with Houston 1-1 on Sept. 30 at Target Field. The ongoing question with Jose Berrios for two full seasons and now in this mini-season had been:

Two-time All-Star, yes, but can he be classified as an ace?

On this afternoon, as the Twins as an organization faced an 18^th straight postseason loss, Berrios definitely was that – cruising through five innings, allowing one run, two hits, two walks and striking out four. He threw 47 strikes on 75 pitches.

And showing no confidence in the 26-year-old righthander, manager Rocco Baldelli sent the message in the dugout that Berrios was finished. There was a angry look on Berrios’ face, and certainly this question had to occur with teammates:

“Jose’s throwing like this in a tight ballgame, and we’re hooking him in favor of Cody Stashak?’’

Stashak got the Astros out in the sixth, then gave up a mighty home run to deep right-center off Carlos Correa in the seventh. The Twins couldn’t score, and the final was 3-1.

When the Berrios decision was questioned, the reply from defenders came: “You’re not going to win a game with one run.’’

Which doesn’t change Rocco’s absurd decision to finally get the outstanding Berrios the Twins have been waiting to see in a huge game, and then hooking him after 75 pitches and five innings.

On Tuesday night, the underdog Tampa Bay Rays were facing elimination in Game 6 of the World Series against the deeper, star-laden Los Angeles Dodgers.

The lone advantage of the Rays was that they had Blake Snell, the 27-year-old lefthander, ready to start on extra rest. He had been solid in Game 2 as the Rays evened the Series, and there was hope that on this night Snell would be the same marvelous lefty he was in winning the American League’s Cy Young Award in 2018.

He was all of that and then some. He had a 1-0 lead through five innings, with one hit allowed, no walks … and nine strikeouts. NINE. The Dodgers’ top three of Mookie Betts, Cory Seager and Jason Turner, as good as it gets, had six at-bats against Snell with six strikeouts.

Snell was sharp with all four pitches – so good in quickly striking out Betts, Seager and Turner in the first that I went to my traditional Ron Gardenhire parody on Twitter, opining the ball was really coming out of Snell’s hand, and that he was throwing the fire out of it.

Nothing changed over the next four innings. The Dodgers had zero chance.

Snell popped out A.J. Pollock to open the sixth, then Austin Barnes dropped a single into center. With little hesitation, Rays manager Kevin Cash came up the dugout steps and headed to the mound to replace Snell.

The stunned look from Snell -- and loud profaity -- topped Berrios; anger four weeks earlier. I took it very calmly in the TV den, shouting, “Don’t do this, you idiot,’’ which caused the bride watching her very important Housewives show upstairs to wonder what had gone wrong.

There are negative stats about Snell on his third time facing a lineup, and his rarely going past six innings. But not this Snell, not the way he was throwing all his pitches on Tuesday night. Not with the “Holy Hades!’’ looks he was getting from the Dodgers as they headed back to the dugout.

John Smoltz was on TV saying that when you take out a pitcher and the other team is relieved you’re doing so, that has a tendency to be a bad decision, and he guaranteed the Dodgers were relieved to see Snell leaving.

Later, Cash would admit he didn’t want to Snell to face Mookie a third time, and Mookie would say he was very content not to face Snell for a third time.

Cash went to Nick Anderson, one of ours from Minnesota, great during this mini-season but unreliable in this postseason. He had given up runs in six straight appearances, and it quickly became seven, when Betts rocketed a double down the left-field line, and the Dodgers wound up scoring twice – one charged to Snell, the other to Anderson, but all on Nick’s shoulders.

Tuesday night was the 29^th anniversary of Jack Morris pitching a 10-inning shutout to win the 1991 World Series for the Twins. Famously, manager Tom Kelly came to Morris in the dugout after nine, gave him the “great job’’ sendoff, and Jack said be was fine and demanded the 10th.

No one imagines those days for starting pitching to return – too many numbers stating starters waver when facing hitters for the third time – but, still, there was an urge to get Jack’s reaction to Snell’s hook while that half-inning still was unfolding.

Morris answered, informed that I was among a handful of such calls he had taken in the five minutes since Cash made his march to the mound, and then said this:

“Blake Snell was throwing better tonight than anyone I’ve ever seen in the World Series. These analytics guys we have now think numbers are more important than having an ace at his best on the hill.’’

What would have been his reaction if a manager came to get him in mid-inning while still throwing great, as Cash did Snell? “I don’t know what would’ve happened,’’ Morris said. “It wouldn’t have been good. It might’ve been real bad.’’

And: “We keep seeing it, but taking out a guy who already had struck out Mookie twice … that was unbelievable to me.’’

The Dodgers won the game, 3-1, and the World Series, a result that Kevin Cash deserved for sticking with his numbers, and not believing what he thought were his lyin’ eyes.