John Cerutti Passes Away

[treble]

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=100794

 

TORONTO (CP) - John Cerutti, a former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher who became a television analyst for the team, was found dead in his hotel room Sunday morning, the baseball team announced.

 

Cerutti was scheduled to attend an 11 a.m. production meeting with Rogers Sportsnet in preparation for Sunday's broadcast of the Jays' final game of the season. Police and emergency medical workers found the 44-year-old American dead in his hotel room at SkyDome.

 

The Jays said in a statement it was believed Cerutti died of natural causes and foul play was not suspected.

 

The team also said Cerutti had played golf Saturday in Toronto with members of his family.

 

The ball club said it would make no further comment.

 

``It was an unbelievable shock,'' Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said. ``It goes to show how unimportant wins and losses are at a time like this.''

 

Cerutti, from Albany, N.Y., was Toronto's first-round draft pick, 21st overall, in 1981.

 

He joined the Blue Jays in 1985 and spent six seasons with the club. The left-hander signed with Detroit as a free agent following the 1990 season, missing Toronto's World Series titles in 1992-93.

 

His career record was 49-43 with a 3.94 ERA in 229 games.

 

Cerutti began his Blue Jays broadcasting career in 1997 as a colour commentator for CBC. He spent the past three seasons as lead analyst for Rogers Sportsnet.

 

Cerutti is survived by his wife and three children.

Damn. I really didn't like the guy much as an analyst, maybe working with someone like Rob Faulds will do that to you, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. I missed the first few innings of today's game and was wondering why Faulds was working by himself.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

I am not familiar with Cerutti's work, but it is a shame to see anyone die young like that. A real black mark on an already disappointing season for the Blue Jays.

[treble]

Like I said, maybe it's because he was working with Rob Faulds (who's probably one of the worst play-by-play guys I've seen/heard), but his work wasn't that stellar (examples like, 'it's hard to hit a pitch out of the strikezone' stick out). A real shame, though, especially since he'd often not go on west coast road trips with the team to be at home with his family in Florida.

[CanadianChris]

Like I said, maybe it's because he was working with Rob Faulds (who's probably one of the worst play-by-play guys I've seen/heard), but his work wasn't that stellar (examples like, 'it's hard to hit a pitch out of the strikezone' stick out).

It's not because of Faulds. He was horrible on CBC as well.

 

But yes, this truly is a shame.