Mel Queen dead at 69

Graham's Cracker · Post #1 » by **Graham's Cracker** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:44 pm

Blue Jays player development sr advisor Mel Queen dies at 69. He was a big part of franchise's growth

RIP Mel.

Hoopstarr · Post #2 » by **Hoopstarr** » Fri May 13, 2011 5:48 pm

Huge loss. He basically re-made Roy Halladay after he was demoted to single A. He was a big influence on Carpenter and many other home-grown pitchers. He was a big fan of Aaron Sanchez and I was looking forward to him grooming Sanchez as our next great starter. RIP, Mel.

s e n s i · Post #3 » by **s e n s i** » Fri May 13, 2011 6:03 pm

rest in peace

Post #4 » by **Schad** » Fri May 13, 2011 6:22 pm

Very sad; Mel was a great coach and a mainstay in our organization.

Michael Bradley · Post #5 » by **Michael Bradley** » Fri May 13, 2011 7:09 pm

Here is a nice article about Queen's influence on Halladay, written about 7 months ago.

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/ne ... 2&c_id=phi

evilRyu · Post #6 » by **evilRyu** » Fri May 13, 2011 7:13 pm

this is sad news. RIP Mel Queen.

Wo1verine · Post #7 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:28 pm

this is sad news. RIP Mel Queen.

Back2back2back · Post #8 » by **Back2back2back** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:47 pm

RIP Mel Queen.

Graham's Cracker · Post #9 » by **Graham's Cracker** » Sat May 14, 2011 2:16 am

The veteran coach started by telling Halladay he was “stupid.” Then he ran a virtual boot camp for Halladay, rebuilding his delivery, teaching him new grips for his pitches and helping him develop a new mental approach.

“There’s no one I made that drastic a change to and verbally abused the way I did Doc,” Queen said after Halladay won his first Cy Young Award in 2003.

“There aren’t many people that would have gone through what I put him through. I had to make him understand that he was very unintelligent about baseball. He had no idea about the game.”

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/05/13/mel-queen-former-jays-coach-dies-at-69/

youngLion · Post #10 » by **youngLion** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:20 pm

@Shawngreen15 had this to say about Queen today on twitter:

"I just heard that my former Blue Jays coach Mel Queen died. A great friend and the wisest baseball man I met in 16 years in baseball."

High praise from a good hitter.

J Dilla · Post #11 » by **J Dilla** » Sun May 15, 2011 4:15 am

Kid Vicious · Post #12 » by **Kid Vicious** » Sun May 15, 2011 11:06 am

To this day, he remains the Blue Jays Manager with the greatest winning % in our team's history. And he will likely have that record for as long as the Jays are around.

At the end of the 1997 season, Cito was fired with 5 games to go. Queen bravely took over the team and led them to a 4-1 record.

It's sad when the athletes/managers you followed as a kid start to die...I guess that's just life.