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Lyman Bostock's Death
- Lyman Bostock
- Baseball Player
- November 22, 1950
- September 23, 1978
- Shooting
He was one of baseball's rising stars, who'd already secured one of the first big free agent contracts. But his was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Born in Alabama, Lyman Bostock's father of the same name was a baseball star in his own right in the Negro Leagues. But the two men were estranged, especially since Lyman's mother moved him to Gary, Indiana in 1954. Four years later, they were off to Los Angeles.
He quickly excelled at baseball and was eventually drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 1972. After several successful seasons starring for the Twins, Lyman went home to L.A. in 1977 as one of the earliest big bucks free agents, to play for the Angels.
Around that time, Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees had a candy bar, the Reggie Bar, named after him. Bostock saw his image on a soda can.
The end was completely unexpected. Towards the end of the 1978 season, after playing in a Saturday afternoon game against the White Sox in Chicago, Bostock took off for his old nearby home town of Gary, to visit an uncle. They were in the company of two women who were family friends, giving them a ride home, when one of the women's estranged husbands stalked them and in a jealous rage, fired a shotgun blast into their car.
Bostock caught the blast in the right temple, his promising career – and life – ended.