Did You Know Squiggy Used To Be a Baseball Scout?

When I learned that David Lander had passed away yesterday at the age of 73 following a long battle with MS, I did not think of Squiggy - the character he played on Laverne & Shirley (alongside Michael McKean who played Lenny) but the fact that Lander was a MLB scout. 

Lander was friends with Bill Bavasi. During Bavasi's tenures as general manager of the Anaheim Angels in the 1990's and the Seattle Mariners during the mid-2000's he hired Lander as an associate scout. While Lander was still on Laverne & Shirley, he was a minority owner with the Portland Beavers - then the Triple AAA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Although Lander was born and raised in New York City, he rooted for the Pirates especially during the 1960 World Series and collected a lot of money betting his neighbors on the outcome of the series. It could be said that Lander was the only happy person in New York when Bill Mazeroski took Ralph Terry deep.

Lander was a man after my own heart keeping score of the games he listened to on the radio, watched on TV or attended in person. While he lived nearly half of his life with a debilitating disease there can be little doubt his love of baseball kept him going until the final out. R.I.P.