Hall of Famer Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League, died last night.

I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Doby on a radio program about six years ago, and he was a very classy guy. He broke into the American league only a couple of months after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, and faced some extremely trying circumstances. But he came through it without bitterness and with his class intact.

There is a great generation of icons that is leaving us, with Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Enos Slaughter, Harry Caray, and Juck Buck passing away over the past few years. We need to appreciate the Stan Musials, the Bob Fellers and the Buck O'Neils while we still have the chance.

And last night was the one-year anniversary of Jack Buck's death, which as a Cardinals fan, I still haven't fully processed. My old friend Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a nice column yesterday marking the occasion.