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By BEN WALKER (AP) - 11 hours ago

NEW YORK - Tommy Henrich, nicknamed "Old Reliable" for his knack of delivering clutch hits for the New York Yankees, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Henrich died in Dayton, Ohio, the team said.

Henrich was a five-time All-Star outfielder who joined the Yankees in 1937 and finished in 1950, winning four World Series championships. He missed three seasons while serving in the Coast Guard during World War II.

Henrich hit the first game-ending home run in World Series history, leading off the bottom of the ninth inning with a drive against Don Newcombe to beat Brooklyn 1-0 in the 1949 opener.

"He was extremely good in big games, games that meant something," former teammate and family friend Bobby Brown told The Associated Press by telephone from his home in Texas.

"If we were ahead 10-1 or 10-2, he was just average. If we were behind 10-1 or 10-2, same thing. But get him in a big game and he was terrific," Brown said. "We didn't call him 'Old Reliable.' We just knew he was 'Old Reliable.'"

Yet Henrich's most famous at-bat may've been a time when he didn't hit the ball.

In Game 4 of the 1941 Series against the Dodgers, Henrich struck out to seemingly end the game. But Brooklyn catcher Mickey Owen dropped the third strike, and Henrich raced safely to first base.

Given another chance, the Yankees rallied for four runs in the ninth inning for a 7-4 win and a 3-1 Series edge.

Henrich hit .282 with 183 home runs and 795 RBIs. He twice led the American League in triples and topped the AL by scoring 138 runs in 1948. Late in his career, he moved from right field and finished as a part-time first baseman.

Henrich played in the World Series in 1938, 1941, 1947 and 1949, and won championships every time. He hit one home run in each Series.

"I am saddened by the loss of Tommy Henrich, who was truly one of my personal favorites," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "'Old Reliable' was beloved by his Yankee teammates."

Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford were among Henrich's Hall of Fame teammates. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, pitcher Virgil Trucks is now believed to be the oldest living Yankee at 92 years.

Henrich was born in Massillon, Ohio, a city known for its football prowess, and was longtime friends with famed coach Paul Brown. After retiring, Henrich was a coach with the Yankees, New York Giants and Detroit Tigers.

Bobby Brown had stayed in touch with Henrich, and said he last saw him about four years ago. Brown said he got a phone call from Henrich's daughter on Tuesday informing him of the death.

"Tommy was a darn good ballplayer and teammate," Berra said in a statement released by the team. "He always took being a Yankee to heart."

"When I came up in 1947, he taught me little nuances about playing the outfield. Being around Tommy made you feel good, whether playing cards or listening to him sing with that great voice. He was a proud man, and if you knew him, he made you proud, too," Berra said.

Henrich hit a career-high 31 home runs in 1941 and had 100 RBIs in 1948.

A private memorial service is scheduled for Saturday.

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Glasgow-born songwriter and musician Eric Woolfson, one of the key figures in The Alan Parsons Project, has died.

He recorded a string of albums with record producer Alan Parsons, as well as writing his own musicals and writing and producing songs for other artists.

Woolfson, 64, had been battling cancer and died in London on Tuesday night, his friend Deborah Owen said.

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VIENNA - Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka, whose controversial works in metal, paint and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public died Saturday, Austrian media reported. He was 81.

The Austria Press Agency cited gallery owner Ernst Hilger as announcing Hrdlicka's death in the daily Die Presse. Telephone calls late Saturday to Hilger's private number as well to his downtown Vienna gallery, which frequently exhibited Hrdlicka's works, were not returned.

Hrdlicka's sculptures, drawings and paintings are known as much for their artistic subtlety as their controversial themes. His religious works, in particular, drew protest from believers who considered them blasphemous.

Among his better-known works are his cast iron sculpture of a prostrate figure covered by barbed wire in downtown Vienna. The starkly disturbing "Memorial Against War and Fascism" has been occasionally defaced since it was unveiled in 1991.

Known to have been deeply influenced by his studies of the mentally ill during the late 1960s, Hrdlicka turned to a figurative expressive style meant to provoke his audience to confront the world's anguish, pain and misery. For him, art was agitprop and he understood his life as an artist as a mission to educate the public to oppose war and violence.

An atheist who espoused communist beliefs, he married religious themes with topics considered taboo among believers. One of his last exhibitions "Religion, Flesh and Power" was exhibited last year in the museum of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. A central work based on the Last Supper was removed on orders of Vienna's Cardinal Cristoph Schoenborn after protests that it depicted Jesus and his apostles as homosexuals at an orgy.

Born in Vienna Feb. 27, 1928, Hrdlicka first was apprenticed as a dental technician before starting studies at the Academy of Fine Arts under Josef Dobrowsky and Albert Paris Guetersloh. Later he participated in Fritz Wotruba's sculpture class until 1957.

Just seven years later, after a series of exhibitions in Austria, he was chosen to represent Austria in the Biennale in Venice. He taught at fine art academies in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Berlin, before returning to the Austrian capital and a professorship at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna.

His oft-cited dictum, "all art comes from flesh" is reflected in his later works. For Hrdlicka, art that avoided the human condition was nothing more than decoration and not to be taken seriously.

Hrdlicka was also sought after as a set designer on opera and theater stages across Europe.

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OKEMOS -- Al Dorow, a 1951 All-American and famed quarterback at Michigan State University, has died.

News 10 received a call Monday from Dorow's family: The 80-year-old succumbed that morning to bone cancer at the Okemos Health and Rehabilitation Center.

Dorow, from Imlay City, Mich., quarterbacked the Spartans in 1950 and 1951 before entering the NFL draft in 1952. He played for the New York Titans of the American Football League and also played in the Canadian Football League before returning to Michigan State as an assistant coach.

We spoke to Henry Bullough, who served with Dorow as an assistant at MSU and also played alongside him as an undergraduate.

He said Dorow was the first in a long line of great quarterbacks at State and decribed him as a "great Spartan."

"If you wanna draw a picture of a Spartan, there's one," Bullough said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=209630

Renowned santur virtuoso Faramarz Payvar dies at 77

Payvar had a stroke eleven years ago and was not able to continue his career afterwards.

Faramarz Payvar was born in 1932 in Tehran into an aristocratic family of artists. His father, Ali Payvar, was both a painter and professor of French at the University of Tehran. Payvar's mother was also interested in the arts in general and music in particular. She was aware of her son's talent and encouraged him to play the instrument.

At the age of 17, Payvar began his musical career by studying with renowned Iranian musician Abolhassan Saba (1902-1957). He studied the Radif repertory and played the santur with Saba for eight years before he graduated from his mastership class.

Payvar was highly skilled on the santur and soon became very famous. After Saba's death he began to study with four other masters: Nur-Ali Borumand, Rokneddin Mokhtari, Abdollah Davami, and Haji AqA Mohammad Irani.

In 1958, Payvar began teaching the santur at the National Music Conservatory, which was established by the veteran musician Ali-Naqi Vaziri. Four years later in 1962, Payvar received a scholarship and went to England to study English.

He graduated from Cambridge University in 1965 with an advanced degree in English. At the same time he studied Western music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he lectured on Iranian music and also made some recordings.