Don Baylor, Red Sox Playoff Hero, Dies At 68

BOSTON, MA — Don Baylor, the former American League MVP with the Angels who played in one memorable season in Boston before being traded the next year, has died. Baylor reportedly lost a battle with multiple myeloma. He was 68.

"Don passed from this earth with the same fierce dignity with which he played the game and lived his life," his wife, Rebecca, said in a statement, per ESPN.

Baylor helped the Red Sox make the World Series in 1986, hitting 31 home runs and 94 RBIs. His ninth-inning, two-run home run in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series to pull Boston within one of his former Angels team is one of the most important hits that no one talks about in Red Sox history. Dave Henderson's home runs later in the ninth and 11th innings overshadow it to this day. The Red Sox would lose the World Series to the Mets in crushing fashion.

Baylor was one of the league's premier power hitters during his 19-year career, winning the AL MVP award in 1979. He was traded from the Yankees to Boston right before the 1986 season, then was traded to Minnesota in 1987. He finally won a World Series with the Twins before retiring.

Baylor, an Austin, Texas, native, hammered 338 home runs and drove in 1,276 runs in his career. He led the league in being hit by a pitch seven times, including a career-high 35 for Boston in 1986.

He went on to become the first manager of the Colorado Rockies and helmed the Chicago Cubs.

Photo caption: Baylor (left) embracing Marty Barrett after Red Sox win ALCS. (AP Photo/Peter Southwick)