Robert Arthur Ramsay (December 3, 1973 – August 4, 2016) was a
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
. He pitched parts of two seasons,
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
and
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
, for the
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...
, then battled
brain cancer
A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...
for nearly fifteen
Early years
Born and raised in
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...
, Ramsay graduated from its
Mountain View High School in 1992. He then attended
Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...
in
Pullman,
where he played
college baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...
for the
Cougars
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...
for four seasons, through 1996.
During his junior year in 1995, WSU won the
Pac-10
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
northern division,
and Ramsay was the starter in the first game of the championship series against southern division winner
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
at
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Pro career
Following his senior season at Washington State, Ramsay was selected by the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
in the seventh round of the 1996 draft.[Robert Ramsay page at Baseball Almanac]
/ref> The Red Sox traded him to the Mariners for Butch Huskey
Robert Leon "Butch" Huskey (born November 10, 1971), is an American former professional baseball player who played in the major leagues primarily as an outfielder in 1993 and from 1995 to 2000.
Early life
Huskey was raised in Lawton, Oklahoma al ...
on July 26, 1999. After the 2000 season with Seattle, Ramsay spent 2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
at Triple-A Tacoma, then was diagnosed with brain cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
(glioblastoma multiforme
Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive types of cancer that begin within the brain. Initially, signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality ch ...
) in early 2002. After surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment, he attempted a comeback in 2003 with the San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...
organization, but it ended his baseball career.
After baseball
Ramsay lived in Pullman in the off-season during his pro career,[ and spent some of his retirement coaching and teaching in ]Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene ( ; french: Cœur d'Alène, lit=Heart of an stitching awl, Awl ) is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the largest city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolita ...
,[ his wife Samantha's hometown.]
The family moved back down to the Palouse
The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primaril ...
at Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, where Samantha, a former Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
and WSU volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
player (setter
The setter is a type of gundog used most often for hunting game such as quail, pheasant, and grouse.
In the UK, the four setter breeds, together with the pointers, usually form a subgroup within the gundog group as they share a common fun ...
),[ became an assistant professor of nutrition at the ]University of Idaho
The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...
in 2010. While she completed her doctorate in education at UI, Ramsay earned a master's.[
]
Death
Ramsay died at age 42 in Moscow in 2016 after suffering a seizure, a complication related to previously diagnosed brain cancer. He had survived over 14½ years since the initial diagnosis.[ His widow died in a storm after being struck by lightning on the ]Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
in 2017.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay, Robert
1973 births
2016 deaths
Major League Baseball pitchers
Seattle Mariners players
Gulf Coast Red Sox players
Sarasota Red Sox players
Trenton Thunder players
Pawtucket Red Sox players
Tacoma Rainiers players
Everett AquaSox players
Lake Elsinore Storm players
Portland Beavers players
Washington State Cougars baseball players
Baseball players from Washington (state)
Sportspeople from Vancouver, Washington
Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
Deaths from cancer in Idaho
Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players