RIP Gary Vanden Berg

[ilovebeer]

The Brewers long time head groundskeeper past away Monday from cancer. He will be missed.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Very sad to hear this news. He was a great guy and will be missed. RIP.

[1992casey]

Don Walker wrote:

---

Gary VandenBerg, the Milwaukee Brewers longtime chief groundskeeper, died Monday.

 

VandenBerg had been ill with cancer. The Brewers said they would release more details later Tuesday.

[Paul77]

Sorry to hear this. I saw a piece on him some time ago, about dealing with the inevitable. Very sad.

[1992casey]

According to what I heard on WTMJ earlier, the Brewers will be wearing patches on their uniforms, and there's going to be a moment of silence before tomorrow night's game in St. Louis. Along with that. Tony LaRussa interrupted a press conference to acknowledge Gary's passing.

[1992casey]

Here's more information from Tom Haudricourt:

 

Brewers to honor Vanden Berg

 

The spelling discrepancies between the Walker and Haudricourt blog entries led me to do some double-checking. The Brewers front office page, his

son's Brewerfan page, and his son's Baseball-Reference.com page each say "Vanden Berg."

[hawing]

What a shame. I was always impressed that Gary so often took an active role in pre-game groundskeeping, rather than delegate everything to his staff. I'd noticed that he was on the field less this year, but did not know why.

 

My other Gary memory is of an open house that the Brewers had for season ticket holders in February 2003. The service level was open for us to look around, there was a rummage sale, and in particular I remember a grounds crew display in one room which was hosted by Gary. I don't remember what we talked about that day but we still have the little cups of infield dirt that were available to take home.

[AZBrewCrew]

from twitter...

 

Nice touch by #stlcards groundscrew, wearing a special ribbon for #Brewers head groundscrew member Gary Vanden Berg http://yfrog.com/o032219249j

[DougJones43]

I had the pleasure to know and work with Gary for two seasons at Miller Park during my college years. All of the positive things being said about him are completely true. He was a really great guy and I learned a lot from him, beyond just baseball/groundskeeping.

 

Another person who knew GV summed it up very well -- Gary demonstrated that "being successful and being kind are not mutually exclusive."

[TooLiveBrew]

R.I.P. Gary. I hope all of the nice things people are saying about you now were said to you in person.

[JohnBriggs12]

I always wondered if he was from Fond du Lac because the name always sounded so familiar. But even though he and I were the same age and I also grew up there, I don't recall ever crossing paths with him in my youth. I may have, but I just don't remember.

 

My sympathies to his family. He left us far too soon.