Obviously, we die too. This page honors those of our comrades who have gone on before us. Each brought their own style to the Game, and made it more than it ever would have been without them.
B. McArdle
A young man, full of fun, B. McArdle was famed for submitting his 1975 list entirely in rhyme. Rookie of the Year in 1973, he died in 1975 in a fender bender at an intersection in Albany, New York. Everyone else in the car alighted unharmed, but McArdle, riding in the front seat, struck his head on the windshield and died instantly. He was barely in his 20's, and the first of our number to die. He was survived by his brother, gamester J. Smoke, and missed by all.
G. Reaper
G. Reaper died in Anaheim, California, on April 29, 1994, after a long illness. He was, in his own words, "a great six-pointer." A gamester for 15 years, he played with an enthusiasm and spirit that were extraordinary even by Game standards, to the point of discussing his recent scores in his hospital bed just a week before he died. Because of this, we felt he would have wanted his list to remain in the running, and it did.G. Reaper took the lead by one point on November 20th, then held on for 40 incredible days and won a dramatic, almost miraculous, 1994 Gran Prix victory over the Sick Puppies. He loved the Game and went out a winner.
His highlights were many. He capped his career as #4 on the all-time scoring list, with 522 career points on 143 hits. He tallied the 1990 and '94 Gran Prix, a Perriman Pennant, five solos, four Wild Cards, a Silver Bobcat, two Daily Doubles and Rookie of the Year. He finished in the Top Five five times, and had Personal Bests of 65 points, 17 hits and a 5.00 QPA.
While not a physically imposing individual, he had the heart of a lion. On New Year's Eve, 1991, his trip to the post office with his '92 list was blocked by a police line thrown around the Bank of America in Placentia, California, where a hostage crisis was in progress. The post office was inside the line. What did he do? He ducked the tape and sprinted to the mail box. That's the truth, and that's dedication.
Before he died, we asked how he would feel about our awarding the "Reaper Ribbon" each year for High QPA; he wrote back, "It would be nice to be remembered." Remember him we do and shall, as a friend and a great, great gamester.
L. Lantz
L. Lantz died at the age of 80 in 1994. Playing from 1976 to 1983, he scored 98 points on 34 hits. He is best remembered as the dean of the Diner's Club and the Game's Godfather-in-law. His low key style of play was typified by his solo on gentle humorist Sam Levinson.
D. Perriman Sr.
D. Perriman Sr., the Game's Silver Warrior, died peacefully in September of 1994, just four days before his 91st birthday. A first-round Hall of Famer, he began play at the age of 71 and gave us 17 amazing seasons.
He won the 1977 Gran Prix, a tie with G. Conway, clinching on December 26th, setting a new record for Most Hits and winning one of his four Perriman Pennants. He won Doc's Diploma for Class List in 1976 when he rallied for four hits in 12 days, hit his Wild Card (one of four in his career) and scored at the wire on December 31st. In 1981, he set a record for the fastest Silver Bobcat, blazing five hits by February 1st, including three solos. Over the years, he bagged two more Silver Bobcats, a Clete's Cup, 18 career solos, and 357 career points on 152 hits.
His dedication was such that as his eyesight failed, he typed his list with the aid of a flashlight and a magnifying glass. He was a gift to us all, a witty, caring, generous person, a true gentleman, and I know I am not alone in missing him very much.
J. Batterson
J. Batterson was a neighbor and contemporary of D. Perriman Sr., and played from 1977 to 1981. In those five short years, he scored 101 points on 43 hits, tallied 12 solos, won Class List in 1980 and entered the Hall of Fame. Unlike many solo artists, he soloed on picks that people had actually heard of, a host of entertainers and baseball greats such as Jack Oakie, Tim McCoy, Edgar Buchanan, Lottie Lenya, Gracie Fields and Ernie Shore. Like his neighbor, he brought style, enthusiasm and the well-weathered perspective to the Game, and we were all the richer for it. In 1994, we heard that he had died, "a few years back."
Death Warmed Over died suddenly on May 17, 1999, at the age of 39. A protege of Dr. Tom(b), he will be best remembered for his seven-point solo on Replacements' lead guitarist Bob Stinson; the hit propelled him past 125 gamesters, one of the boldest power moves in Game history. Death Warmed Over's enthusiasm and style graced seven years of our play, and he will be greatly missed.
P. Percia
P. Percia entered the fray in 1977 after seeing his sister, N. Percia, make one of the Game's most audacious debuts: In 1976, she won both the Gran Prix and Rookie of the Year. And so the challenge was issued. In his rookie season, P. Percia bested his talented sibling by a 10-point margin and he prevailed again in 1978, this time by a slimmer but sufficient two-point spread. In 1979, N. Percia edged him by four points in what would be his final year of play, but we can be sure he never let her forget that he held a 2-1 edge for the seasons they played head-to-head. Perhaps the score most revealing of his antic personality was his Wild Card on Groucho Marx in 1977. He played the Game with verve, laughter and imagination, as he did all things. Our fellow gamester, P. Percia died July 9, 2001, at the age of 48. He was loved by all and will be missed by all who knew him.
"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person
dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once that a moment is gone it is gone forever."
-- Kurt Vonnegut
Lord, I'm coming Home.