Knobby's Dad Succumbs to Alzheimers...Dies at Age 74

[b-ball-lunachick]

My thoughts and prayers are with Chuck and the Knoblauch family...this is a tough illness to live with, and I know it weighed on Chuck a lot these last few years...it was especially difficult when his mom felt she couldn't really leave his side to even come see Chuck when he needed her...maybe it will be a relief in some ways, but I'm sure still a very tough loss for their family.

Texas baseball coach Ray Knoblauch, father of Chuck, dead at 74
By MARK BABINECK
Associated Press Writer
March 18, 2002

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news/ap/...knoblauch.html

HOUSTON (AP) -- Ray Knoblauch, the father of Kansas City Royals outfielder Chuck Knoblauch and the coach who led Bellaire High School to four state baseball titles in 25 years, died early Monday of Alzheimer's disease. He was 74.

Ray Knoblauch left Bellaire in 1986 with a 598-225 record, then spent seven years working for the Houston Independent School District before returning as Bellaire's pitching coach from 1994 to 1997, when he retired.

Knoblauch was a pitcher with the Texas League's Shreveport club in the 1950s before going into teaching and coaching. Brothers Charles and Eddie, an outfielder for the Houston Buffs in the 1940s, also played minor league ball.

Bellaire already had a 1960 state championship trophy when Knoblauch took over the program the next year. The southwest Houston-area school remained a power throughout his tenure, winning titles in 1962, 1971, 1978 and 1986. The Cardinals were runners-up three other times.

``If I'd lost (the last game) it'd be easier,'' he said of quitting coaching. ``Every time I didn't get in the playoffs I told my wife I was going to quit. I couldn't stand losing. I'm a poor loser. Luckily, the last four years were pretty good.''

The final title came even though perhaps the program's greatest product -- his son Chuck -- missed most of the season with injuries.

``One thing that separated Ray and made him stand alone was that he was the first baseball coach to completely separate his program from football domination, which is King Kong in Texas,'' said current Bellaire coach Rocky Manuel, who said he was hand-picked by Knoblauch to take over the program in 1991.

Knoblauch is survived by his wife, Linda, and six children. Funeral arrangements were pending, though burial was scheduled for Thursday at Forest Park West Cemetery in Houston.

[Chris]

At this point it may be somewhat of a relief for the family.

RIP

[Luvtino]

How sad. I am sure the loss is monumental for the family, but perhaps there is some relief that he is no longer suffering. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends at this
time.

[Carissa]

That's so sad. My thoughts and prayers are with Chuck and his family.

[Sascha]

sad....

[# 21 Forever]

This is so sad! My thoughts and prayers are with Chuck and his whole family!

[wexy]

My condolences to Chuck and his family. Now his dad will no longer suffer from this horrible disease. May he rest in peace.

[sperica]

very sad.

coming from a family that has dealt with alzheimers i can imagine how hard this has been on the entire knoblauch family. my thoughts and prayers are with them all.

[Sixty one]

I just read that Chuck Knoblauck's father died at the age of 74 in Texas from Alzheimer's disease. He was a very successful baseball coach on the high school level and his son was his prize pupil. I feel sorry for Chuck and send my deepest sympathies to him and his family. I wonder how much of this affected Chuck when he was with NY?

[SkooterPhil#10]

Originally posted by Sixty one
I wonder how much of this affected Chuck when he was with NY?

This didn't happen recently? It's news to me.

[Michaels07]

Agree with your sentiments.Chuck Knoblauch`s mind should be clear now.The only way you will find out, is to obtain knoblauch again for left field. I don`t think so.

[Carissa]

Originally posted by Sixty one
I wonder how much of this affected Chuck when he was with NY?

Luna posted the article in Around the Majors. But I do think that it affected him a lot. How could it not?

[jroll10]

Originally posted by cdmirra
Luna posted the article in Around the Majors. But I do think that it affected him a lot. How could it not?

Yep. I'm getting to the age now where a lot of my friends have parents, fathers mostly, who suffer from this disease. And it's a horrible burden for them to have to bear. It's a hard thing to say, but death in some cases is almost a blessing.

[Bozidar]

I'm glad that he's now at peace, and the healing can begin.

Buck up Chuck.. you've still got that piece of you that is your father, deep down inside, and you'll never lose it.

This disease is terrible

[iloveny]

Originally posted by sperica
very sad.

coming from a family that has dealt with alzheimers i can imagine how hard this has been on the entire knoblauch family. my thoughts and prayers are with them all.

I couldn't have said it better myself . I hope all the best to Knobby and his family. I also have alzheimers in my family also and know what it is like. This is a very sad day and I wish the Knoblauch's all the best.

[Jersey Yankee]

I too have had a very respected member of my family come down with Alzheimers. It can be very trying for the family, especially for the person homecaring the person with this.

I wish Chuckie the very best and my sincere condolences to his entire family.

Knoblauch won four titles as prep baseball coach

Monday, March 18, 2002
Associated Press

HOUSTON -- Ray Knoblauch, the father of Kansas City Royals outfielder Chuck Knoblauch and the coach who led Houston Bellaire High School's baseball team to four state titles in a storied 25-year career, died early Monday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 74.

Ray Knoblauch left Bellaire in 1986 with a 598-225 record, then spent seven more years working for the Houston Independent School District before returning as Bellaire's pitching coach from 1994 to 1997, when he retired for good.

[snip]

[Coney36]

My condolence to Knobby and his family. Any illness - not only Alzheimers - is tough for the individual and their families. I don't know anyone that has Alzheimers, but my family does have a background with diabetes, which if not controlled right, can be devastating, as we learned with my grandfather several years ago. I hope now that Knobby can move on now, knowing that his father is in a better place...

[RootN4Rocket]

God bless them. In health care I have seen first hand the toll Alzheimer's takes on a family.

Initial stages are so scary for the patient.The end stages are devastating on the family. I can not tell you how many times the caregiver goes before the patient.

This disease is so cruel. I hope the Knoblauch family can heal and move forward. They are in my prayers.

[b-ball-lunachick]

Originally posted by Coney36
My condolence to Knobby and his family. Any illness - not only Alzheimers - is tough for the individual and their families. I don't know anyone that has Alzheimers, but my family does have a background with diabetes, which if not controlled right, can be devastating, as we learned with my grandfather several years ago. I hope now that Knobby can move on now, knowing that his father is in a better place...

I agree with you 100% coney36 -- having personally watched loved ones die of cancer, diabetes, etc....I think people were just emphasizing how difficult this particular disease can be on the family because often it is more difficult for them, than for the patient...the patient is often in their own world, while the family struggles to not only be the caregiver, but the caregiver who is not even recognized by that loved one anymore...in a sense, by the time that Alzheimer patient dies, the family has already mourned the loss of the person they knew and loved because they were technically lost to them some time before...it's a tragic disease, not more tragic than others, just unique in that sense...

[24YankeeHeart42]

This is so sad, but in a way it must be relieving as well. My thoughts and prayers are with the family.

[ConnYankee]

So sorry to hear the news.....

[Sandman]

My prayers are with Chuck and his family as well.

[caroline331]

my thoughts and prayers are with Chuck and his family.

My family dealt with Alzheimers in my great grandfather, who died when I was 15. I'll still never forget the last time I saw him when my aunt was trying to say that I was my mom's daughter and he had no clue who my mom was.

Devastating disease. I hope science will find a cure or treatment soon

[Carissa]

Legendary Bellaire coach Knoblauch dies of Alzheimer's, leaves lasting influence
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1300337

Ray Knoblauch died in his sleep early Monday morning, surrounded by an assortment of friends and family members who had gathered around his hospital bed over the last few days to celebrate the life of one of the most successful high school baseball coaches ever.

Knoblauch, 74, who died of Alzheimer's disease, compiled a 598-225 record as head coach at Bellaire High School during a 25-year career that included four state championships and three runner-up finishes.

Among the dozens of players who went on to productive careers at a variety of levels in professional baseball after playing at Bellaire was Chuck Knoblauch, the coach's youngest son, who was part of four World Series championship teams during 11 seasons with the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees.

"The longer I've played, the more I learned how many people my dad touched," said Knoblauch, now an outfielder with the Kansas City Royals. "I can't tell you how many guys have come up to me in spring training the last few years and told what playing for my father had meant to them. He really left a remarkable legacy."

Ray Knoblauch, a native of Bay City, Mich., was a pitcher with the Texas League's Shreveport club in the 1950s before hurting his arm and becoming a teacher. He arrived at Bellaire in 1961 with a no-nonsense approach that made him alternately feared and respected by the hundreds of players who helped build a program that remains one of the best in the nation.

Before he departed at the end of the 1986 season, Knoblauch had won championships in 1962, 1971, 1978 and 1986. His seven appearances in the state tournament are the most for a Class 5A coach in Texas.

Knoblauch spent seven years working for the Houston Independent School District before returning as an assistant under current Bellaire coach Rocky Manuel in 1994. He was pitching coach on the 1994 team that went 36-3 and won the state championship.

He remained involved in the program until shortly before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1998. The baseball field at Bellaire was renamed Ray Knoblauch Field.

As word of his death spread Monday, tributes came from all over the country. His friends and former players portrayed him as a man of few words, someone who loved the teaching aspect of his profession as much as the competition and the winning.

In the last hours before his passing, stories of his life and career were told and retold amid tears and laughter.

"We talked about the good times," said Keith Kilgore, the Fort Bend ISD athletic director who was an assistant coach for Knoblauch for five seasons beginning in 1967. "We honored him. We told stories and laughed. We didn't deal with the pain and suffering of the last few years."

They remembered the Bellaire outfielder who broke one of Knoblauch's unbreakable rules by swinging at a 3-0 pitch. The player spent the remainder of the game running laps at the football stadium next door to the baseball field.

And there was the time one of Knoblauch's best players, outfielder Johnny Moses, went to get a drink of water during a game and was gone too long to suit the coach.

Knoblauch left the dugout to find Moses, brought him back to the field and had him spend the remainder of the game running laps.

There was also a softer side.

In the early 1950s, Knoblauch saw a pretty girl sitting in the stands during one of his minor-league games in Augusta, Ga. He asked her for a date by sending a batboy into the stands with a note addressed to the girl's mother. That note resulted in a courtship that became a 48-year marriage to wife Linda.

Other friends remembered when the Minnesota Twins played the Astros in an interleague game at the Astrodome in 1997. Before that game, the Astros honored the Knoblauch family by having Ray throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Chuck.

Hundreds of Bellaire fans and former players turned out for that game, and although Ray Knoblauch wasn't much for showing his emotion, his pride was evident.

"He was a tough guy to read," Chuck Knoblauch said, "but I know he was proud. He was beaming that series."

Manuel, who has forged a remarkable legacy of his own at Bellaire, said Knoblauch's accomplishments included more than simply winning games.

"He was the first high school coach to use a stopwatch to time a pitcher's release and a catcher's throws," Manuel said. "He was one of the first coaches to use videotape. You're talking the '60s and '70s, when those things weren't done. He was one of the founders of the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association, and he was the guy who got the Texas High School Baseball All-Star Game going at the Dome.

"He forged a path for all other Texas high school baseball coaches. He showed high schools there could be other sports besides fall football and spring football.

"He had some great players at Bellaire, but I always thought his strength was in taking an average or good player and making him play great. What's interesting is looking around baseball and seeing how many of his former players are now coaches or front-office executives on the professional level. It's like there's a whole Bellaire fraternity out there."

One of those former players is Scott Nethery, who played for Bellaire from 1976 until 1978, then went on to play at Texas Tech and is now a scout and special assistant to the general manager for the Atlanta Braves.

"A lot of guys stayed in baseball because of him, but a lot of guys went on to become great doctors or dentists or whatever because of him," Nethery said. "He showed you about structure in your life and discipline and things like that.

"On the baseball field, he showed us how to play the game the right way. He'd already built a great tradition by the time I got there. You knew that if you made the baseball team at Bellaire, you were involved in something special. He wasn't a big talker, but he commanded respect by the way he taught the game."

Ray Knoblauch last saw Chuck play in person when he traveled to San Diego to watch the Yankees finish a four-game sweep of the Padres in the 1998 World Series.

"He wasn't in good shape then," Nethery said, "but when I brought up the name of a pitcher we'd played against, all of a sudden he perked up. He was an amazing man."

Ray Knoblauch is survived by wife Linda and their two sons and four daughters. The family has asked that contributions in Knoblauch's honor be made to the Alzheimer's Association of Houston.

His funeral will be at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Cyril's of Alexandria, 10503 Westheimer. Viewing will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Forest Park Westheimer Funeral Home, 12800 Westheimer. Burial will be at Forest Park West Cemetery.

"He really had a remarkable life," said Mark Knoblauch, Ray and Linda's oldest son. "He was a teacher, but he was a competitor, too.

"He really believed in doing everything the right way, and I hope that's the legacy he has left to those of us who played for him and knew him."



RAYMOND M. KNOBLAUCH, 74, of Houston, died Monday morning, March 18, 2002, in Houston.

Mr. Knoblauch was born in Bay City, Michigan on January 26, 1928 to Adolph C. Knoblauch and Veronica McMullen Knoblauch. He had lived in Houston since 1953. Mr. Knoblauch graduated from the University of Houston in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science in Education, and received his Masters Degree in Administration. He coached at Hartman Junior High from 1959 to 1960 and was head baseball coach at Bellaire High School from 1961 to 1986. Mr. Knoblauch retired from the Houston Independent School District in 1993 as an Athletic Administrator. He was a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association, Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association which he co-founded, American Association of Baseball Coaches and the Houston Professional Baseball Players Association.

Mr. Knoblauch was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Francis, George, Eddie, and Jack Knoblauch; sisters-in-law , Ruby, Margaret, Lou and Susan Knoblauch; and his granddaughter Angel Craft. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Linda Knoblauch; four daughters, Susan Reinbach and her husband Max, Laura Howe, Karen Grenrood and her husband George, and Patricia Craft and her husband David; sons, Raymond Mark Knoblauch Jr. and wife LuAnn, and Chuck Knoblauch and his fiance' Stacey; a brother, Charles Knoblauch and his wife Mary; twelve grandchildren, Elise, and Max III Reinbach, Alicia and Leslie Howe, Courtney Hererra, Matthew Gonzalez, Hallie, and Raymond Mark III Knoblauch, Cameron, Carter, Connor and Caroline Craft; a great granddaughter, Emily Hererra; and three nieces, Madeline Knoblauch, Jackie Noe and Pat Knoblauch.

Friends are invited to visitation with the family from 6:00 P. M. to 8:00 P. M. Wednesday, March 20, 2002, at Forest Park Westheimer, 12800 Westheimer Road, where a Vigil for the Deceased will be held at 7:00 P. M. in the Chapel. Funeral Mass will be Celebrated at 11:30 A. M. Thursday, March 21, 2002, at St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church, 10503 Westheimer Road, with Rev. Christopher Shackleford, Celebrant. Rite of Committal will follow in Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery.

The family would like to express their gratitude to Zella, Wanda, Deborah, Bertha and the other staff members of Sharpview for all of the love and kindness shown to Mr. Knoblauch and his family during his illness. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be sent to the Alzheimer's Association, Greater Houston Chapter, 6161 Savoy Drive, Suite 240, Houston, Texas 77036.

http://www.legacy.com/houstonchronic...ersonId=262150

[LilChief]

How sad. May he rest in peace. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

[NYYfan24]

May he rest in peace. My prayers are with Chuck and his family!

[Barb51850]

Very sad news. My thoughts and prayers are with Chuck and his family.

Barbara

[NYYCutie47]

My sympathy and prayers are with the Knoblauchs

[sanfranciscojetergirl]

My Uncle has Alzheimers and it so hard to deal with, just within one month when from knowing who I was to not knowing me at all. I have to say it was hard. I thought are with Chuck and his Family.

[Danmel]

Losing someone who has a dementia illness is a very slow and painful process. The father he knew died a long time ago- it is really like a lot of little deaths each time the disease robs you of something else- It is very hard and while on one level death is kind of a relief in these situations, it is never good and is always sad. My sympathies are with the Knoblauch family and all who suffer through these kinds of losses/

[Superunknown]

At least they can take some small consolation in the knowledge that his suffering is over. Alzheimer's is such a horribly cruel disease. My heart aches for Chuck and his family.

RIP, Mr. Knoblauch

[JeanC]

My Deepest Sympathies go out to Chuck & His Family during this sad time.

May They Find the Peace that their Dad & Husband now have.

May they Remember the Good Times They Had With Their Dad & Husband.

[Yanks4eva1]

My deepest sympathy to Chuck and his family.

Dee