Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Former major league pitcher Jose Lima has died at the age of 37. His wife says he died of a heart attack.

Jose Lima's 1993 minor league baseball card with the London Tigers of the Double-A Eastern League.

Jose Lima began his big league career in 1994 with the Detroit Tigers. He won 89 games in a career that saw him pitch for the Tigers as well as Houston, Kansas City, the L.A. Dodgers and the New York Mets where his big league career ended in 2006. The Dominican righty was a 21 game winner with the Houston Astros in 1999 and that earned him a spot on the National League All-Star team. Lima is also known for being the winning pitcher for the Dodgers in Game 3 of the 2004 National League Division Series against St. Louis. It was the Dodgers first post-season win since the 1988 World Series clincher.

"Lima Time" in Canada came in 1993 with the London Tigers and in 2009 with the Golden League's Edmonton Capitals. I had the priviledge of watching Lima pitch twice for London during the 1993 season. He wore number five for them and he graciously signed my game program even though he was the starting pitcher that day. Even though I lost that program, I still had his baseball card pictured above. Despite finishing that season with an 8-13 record with a 4.07 ERA, Lima showed his major league potential by striking out 138 batters in 177 innings.

Condolences to his family and friends. He will be missed.

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Sunday, May 23 2010 @ 08:02 PM EDT.

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mathesond - Monday, May 24 2010 @ 12:55 AM EDT (#215479) #

Joe Posnanski has a typically great write-up/tribute on his blog. And post #34 on the BBTF thread is heartwarming, at the very least

GregH - Monday, May 24 2010 @ 09:57 AM EDT (#215484) #

In 2004, my sons were 9 and 8 and had been playing baseball for two years. We watched that entire post-season on television for the first time. My older son decided he was a Dodgers fan for the post-season and was horrified when St. Louis seemed unstoppable against them. I still remember watching the game Lima pitched in Dodger Stadium, which was the Dodgers' first post-season win since 1988. Lima's oversized personality seemed to come through the screen right into our rec room, and my son became a Lima fan. Even though he realized later that Lima was not that great a pitcher, he is still devastated by his most untimely death.

Baseball has lost a great character and there are far too few of those in the game anymore. He will indeed be missed.

VBF - Monday, May 24 2010 @ 03:28 PM EDT (#215493) #

This was a player who would jump into the stands, pick up a little girl who was hit by an errant BP foul ball and track down her father as I witnessed in 2005 (once she was fine, he brought her out onto the field). A tremendously good person.

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