Steve Palermo Dead at 67

LoweTek

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May 30, 2005
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Central Florida
I lived in KCMO (where Palermo lived) for a while. Each winter there was a big fundraising event put on by Bob Costas and Bob Uecker. They would sit on a stage and ad lib in the format of Costas' old show Later With Bob Costas. I honestly do not think it was rehearsed and it was very entertaining. All kinds of KC area sports Illuminati would attend, pretty much any one who lived anywhere near the area. Joe Pos was a KC writer at the time and he would always go. I got to chat for quite some time with Buck O'Neil at one of the events, something I'll never forget. It really was a must attend event.

Invariably one of the guests would be Steve Palermo. He was a very articulate spokesman particularly for the primary beneficiary of the fundraising of the evening which was related to spinal cord injury, a cause for which he became a tireless advocate after his injury.

An umpire named Richie Garcia was Palermo's crew chief and was with Palermo when he tried to stop the robbery that night. I had occasion to hear Richie tell the story of the incident and you cannot come to any other conclusion: what Palermo did was selfless and heroic.

He was a very highly regarded umpire too.

He really was one of the good ones.

RIP.
 

terrynever

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Aug 25, 2005
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pawtucket
Steve Palermo was the third base ump in the Bucky Dent game and also was behind the plate for Dave Righetti's no-hit game against Boston on July 4, 1983. He was a helluva ump who tolerated Billy Martin very well.