Biggest 'miss(es)' by the DL Committee 2016

[Sir Creep 7,070]

Patrick Harrington Jr will simply go without saying, but there--I said it.

Today we lost 96-year old Monte Irvin who is a 'hit' for two teams in my little 16-team DP. Yet he strikes out with our illustrious committee.

​And the lady in waiting, Joey Feek. SMH

 

​That's all I got, but it's a start. I think these are all legit big misses by the Committee, Harrington Jr being totally totally TOTALLY inexcusable. I've no idea who is on said Committee but damned if they read a single post we put on here.

​SirCreep

[Sir Creep 7,070]

Please fix the title fonts (DL not Dl lower case, and the E should be lower case).... my laptop got angry with the angry image and when I backspaced it posted and formatting got askew is all I can think. Alas.

TIA.

[CaptainChorizo 1,976]

I'd say Harrington is the only real major miss. Irvin was old but looked in decent heath in recent photos when you google his name,add to that he is only someone who would be known to hardcore baseball fans and isn't a lock for the required obit.

 

And Feek is certainly a case of noteworthy enough to Obit but kind of not famous enough under the unspoken rule of who is picked under the top 50 list every year.

[Death Impends 7,953]

I recall when Bonnie Franklin, who was a similar case to Harrington since both had the same sitcom as their biggest claim to fame, fell ill, the reaction here among UK posters was "I've never heard of her or anything she appeared in" so presumably the same goes for Harrington. Daily Mail being the US chaser it is assured an obit for both of them but DL doesn't pick people who you have to fall back on the Mail on.

 

DL isn't known for picking baseballers either unless it's someone like Joe DiMaggio (who was indeed a DL hit) whose fame transcended his field and outside the US. And I feel like we've gone through why Feek was never going to be on the DL enough times as is.

[Handrejka 1,903]

I recall when Bonnie Franklin, who was a similar case to Harrington since both had the same sitcom as their biggest claim to fame, fell ill, the reaction here among UK posters was "I've never heard of her or anything she appeared in" so presumably the same goes for Harrington. Daily Mail being the US chaser it is assured an obit for both of them but DL doesn't pick people who you have to fall back on the Mail on.

 

DL isn't known for picking baseballers either unless it's someone like Joe DiMaggio (who was indeed a DL hit) whose fame transcended his field and outside the US. And I feel like we've gone through why Feek was never going to be on the DL enough times as is.

 

When Bonnie Franklin died I wondered why none of the obits mentioned St Elsewhere until I realised I'd confused her with Bonnie Bartlett. She wasn't well known over here, Pat Harington Jr I'd vaguely heard of but not sure why.

 

I don't thin there has been a big Ariel Sharon type miss yet, but they'll come.

[Deathray 2,940]

• David Bowie
• Kitty Kallen
• Pat Harrington
• Robert Black
• Silvana Pamanini
• Ed Stewart
• Alan Rickman
• Glen Frey (was publically unwell to boot)

 

Will keep this updated until the end of the year with what I consider to be big misses by the committee - a sort of very long list of people the committee could of had.

[Handrejka 1,903]

 

• David Bowie
• Lemmy Kilminster
• Kitty Kallen
• Sian Blake
• Pat Harrington
• Robert Black
• Pavel Srnicek
• Silvana Pamanini
• Ed Stewart

 

Will keep this updated until the end of the year with what I consider to be big misses by the committee - a sort of very long list of people the committee could of had.

 

 

Lemmy died last year and in what way is a minor EastEnders actress a big miss? She was likely already dead when the committee were drawing up their list anyway.

[Deathray 2,940]

 

 

• David Bowie
• Lemmy Kilminster
• Kitty Kallen
• Sian Blake
• Pat Harrington
• Robert Black
• Pavel Srnicek
• Silvana Pamanini
• Ed Stewart

 

Will keep this updated until the end of the year with what I consider to be big misses by the committee - a sort of very long list of people the committee could of had.

 

 

Lemmy died last year and in what way is a minor EastEnders actress a big miss? She was likely already dead when the committee were drawing up their list anyway.

 

 

Point taken, they'd have both been dead last year.

[CaptainChorizo 1,976]

 

• David Bowie
• Kitty Kallen
• Pat Harrington
• Robert Black
• Pavel Srnicek
• Silvana Pamanini
• Ed Stewart

 

Will keep this updated until the end of the year with what I consider to be big misses by the committee - a sort of very long list of people the committee could of had.

 

Srnicek died in Dec and didn't fall into a coma until that month as well. It's very likely he would have been picked by the committee had he survived a few more days.

[JiroemonKimura 95]

I'd say Sir Nicholas Winton was the most retarded miss by far in 2015. I mean, Ken Kercheval, who was 80, and just an ordinary actor vs an internationally recognized British humanitarian, who was 106?

 

For 2016, I think the only reason Harrington was not on the list is that he is not a hugely prominent person internationally. (In fact I wasn't even certain he would get a UK obit!) I think the biggest miss of the year will probably be Tony Booth or Howard Marks.

[Toast 16,118]

Ken Kercheval was in Dallas, so widely known among Brits over a certain age.

[Lewd_Squirrel 331]

Angus Scrimm was a decent miss, for this year. I'd guess.

[Vinegar Tits 605]

I've only heard of Pat Harrington Jr because I've just read Mackenzie Phillips' autobiography (ooh, now there's one to watch if she relapses) and so have vaguely heard of One Day At A Time. I don't think it was shown in the UK - I certainly don't recall watching it and I probably would have done had it been on here.

 

Most people don't care about baseball in the UK so Monte Irvin is unkonwn.

 

As for other people mentioned, only Robert Black could have a contender but even then he wasn't *that* old and wasn't known to have any recent ailments (it looks like he died of natural causes, so...). Bowie, despite the heart attack over ten years ago, wasn't even on the radar. So hardly big misses from the DI team.

[Toast 16,118]

I agree with Vinegar Tits, there have been no obvious misses so far by DL standards.

 

Ed Stewart was another unexpected death following a stroke, he wasn't known to be in poor health.

 

You need to keep in mind that the DL is not as cosmopolitan as the DDP. The committee are looking for people who are known in the UK, so US sports personalities are unlikely to figure, as are obscure US TV actors unless they have been in something that is popular in the UK.

[Paul Bearer 6,099]

 

• David Bowie
• Kitty Kallen
• Pat Harrington
• Robert Black
• Pavel Srnicek
• Silvana Pamanini
• Ed Stewart

Will keep this updated until the end of the year with what I consider to be big misses by the committee - a sort of very long list of people the committee could HAVE had.

FIFY

[En Passant 3,740]

I had always considered "the list" to be people the average resident of the uk would have heard of, have I been labouring under a misapprehension?

 

I appreciate that Sir C and a number of others are not uk residents, however calling someone relatively unknown in the UK a "big miss" for a UK centric list seems inappropriate.

Likewise folks famous in baseball, gridiron, basketball, nascar etc. aren't people most in the UK will be familiar with. We aren't likely to know much about aussie rules either (as an example) and nobody that I've seen has suggested we should.

 

I always considered this quite separate from "obitable" and thus a good pick for a personal team.

 

Now, I may well not be even close to "average" but I'd never heard of Pat Harrington Jr.

[charon 4,943]

Not even close to having a miss imo.

 

None of the ones mentioned were anything more than long list material.

[Toast 16,118]

Now, I may well not be even close to "average" but I'd never heard of Pat Harrington Jr.

 

Nor me.

[Spade_Cooley 9,513]

Had never heard of Pat Harrington before picking him and until his obituary went up I realised I'd confused "One Day at a Time" with "One Life to Live".

[Spade_Cooley 9,513]

Biggest Misses? Must be talking about my wife!!!!

[time 8,581]

I'd heard of Pat Harrington Jr from when I lived in The States 20-plus years ago. Hadn't heard of him since until his name appeared on these fora.

 

Not a big miss imho.

[gcreptile 10,963]

One reason why I cannot really make my own Shadowlist is that I can't quite make my mind up about the standards that should apply to it. Should I just go for hits and beat the committee or should I also follow their own considerations when it comes to general obitability and/or notoriety plus UK relationship?

 

Well, and then what I think are "their" considerations could also be my own faulty interpretation. For example, I guess that they are going for "relevant" people, but then they also have Liz Smith (?), or the occasional low-hanging fruit (possibly Woodhead, or Erich Priepke, or even Luise Rainer). And some picks that are simply boring and not exactly logical (Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lester Piggott).

 

I guess the personal eccentricities of the committee members also factor in.

 

Personally, I think they should go for interesting, widely obitable personalities, who maybe die not in this year, but in the next or the second-next at latest. They should also pick people that attract page views, that have interesting lives and so on.. Ronnie Biggs was a perfect pick for that, and I'm not sure, but I think that his case got me to the Deathlist.

Anyway, I think neither Pat Harington nor Joey Feek were misses, neither Andrew Smith nor Michel Delpech nor any cancer celebrity. Kitty Kallen maaaaaybe. David Bowie, can't really fault them for that. Noone really knew about his apporaching death unless you believed the rumours around 2010 and thought that his heart attack in 2004 was the sign of a relatively short life. But I wouldn't have given him a slot for so many years built on rumours.

 

That said, I complain AGAIN about not having Howard Marks, Hugh Hefner and Robert Mugabe on the list. All are widely obitable and have had interesting lives. They might not all die this year, if I had to guess it's going to be 2 out of 3 in random combination, but these misses will be unfortunate. I think they'll also regret not having Helmut Kohl on there. And they might have included Jenny Diski, too. There should be people on the list who are sort-of "in" on the "joke" of deadpooling, in that they discuss their own death very publicly.

 

Edit: Ah, and I forgot about Sumner Redstone.

[Toast 16,118]

I guess that they are going for "relevant" people, but then they also have Liz Smith (?), or the occasional low-hanging fruit (possibly Woodhead, or Erich Priepke, or even Luise Rainer). And some picks that are simply boring and not exactly logical (Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lester Piggott).

 

Liz Smith is very well known in the UK as a comedy actress who habitually played dotty old ladies. By her own admission, she has always looked like a little old lady! She has appeared in many popular sitcoms and would be instantly recognisable to most Brits, even if they didn't remember her name. She retired several years ago and is said to be in poor health.

 

Lester Piggott is far from boring. He was for many years the champion flat race jockey with record numbers of Classic wins, and was known even to people who did not follow horse racing. He is famously tight-fisted, and shockingly was jailed for tax evasion some years ago. He is not much in the limelight these days, but holds legendary status in the UK and Ireland. That said, I have not heard anything that suggests he is likely to keel over any time soon.

[gcreptile 10,963]

 

I guess that they are going for "relevant" people, but then they also have Liz Smith (?), or the occasional low-hanging fruit (possibly Woodhead, or Erich Priepke, or even Luise Rainer). And some picks that are simply boring and not exactly logical (Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lester Piggott).

 

Liz Smith is very well known in the UK as a comedy actress who habitually played dotty old ladies. By her own admission, she has always looked like a little old lady! She has appeared in many popular sitcoms and would be instantly recognisable to most Brits, even if they didn't remember her name. She retired several years ago and is said to be in poor health.

 

Lester Piggott is far from boring. He was for many years the champion flat race jockey with record numbers of Classic wins, and was known even to people who did not follow horse racing. He is famously tight-fisted, and shockingly was jailed for tax evasion some years ago. He is not much in the limelight these days, but holds legendary status in the UK and Ireland. That said, I have not heard anything that suggests he is likely to keel over any time soon.

 

Ah, good to know, thanks. From my point of view, I'm having trouble with Liz Smith because my internet searches always prefer the US gossip lady.

[Toast 16,118]

Liz Smith as Nanna in 'The Royle Family'.