Before we turn the calendar to 2026 it’s time to take a look at the notable figures from Wisconsin’s baseball history who we lost in 2025, and it’s been a difficult year on this front: Ten former Milwaukee Brewers and six former Milwaukee Braves are among those who passed away this year. Thank you to Stathead, David Schultz and the sources linked below for their help compiling the names and details on this list, presented chronologically:
Felix Mantilla, age 90, died on January 10
A native of Puerto Rico, Mantilla signed his first professional contract with the Boston Braves in 1952 for a signing bonus of just $400. The 1950s were a difficult time to be a Puerto Rican player in the U.S. minors: Mantilla’s extensive SABR Bio notes that he and Henry Aaron were among the first non-white players on their Class A team in Jacksonville. Mantilla persevered and reached the majors, although the team had moved to Milwaukee by the time he played his first MLB game in 1956. He played mostly off the bench as a utility infielder over six seasons in Milwaukee, where he appeared in eight games across the 1957 and 1958 World Series. Mantilla was a World Series Champion, an All Star and, as noted by Jay Horwitz, one of the last surviving members of the original 1962 New York Mets.
Following his retirement Mantilla returned to Milwaukee and his greatest baseball legacy may have come during that time, as he co-founded the Felix Mantilla Little League on the city’s south side in 1972 and it remains active to this day. Mantilla’s passing was marked by statements from the Brewers and Milwaukee Common Council President Jose G. Perez, among others. He also had extended obituaries at his funeral home, the Journal Sentinel and RIP Baseball.
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Bob Uecker, age 90, died on January 16
Tens of thousands of words could not possibly capture the legacy of one of the most iconic figures in the history of baseball in Milwaukee. Uecker, a Milwaukee native, spent the first two of his six MLB seasons with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962 and 1963. He appeared in 297 regular season games across three franchises and was a part of the 1964 Cardinals World Series-winning team, but his life in the sport extends far beyond that relatively brief tenure.
Uecker’s second act in baseball began with an estimated 100 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where he first received the nickname “Mr. Baseball.” Following a legendarily brief stint as a baseball scout, Uecker moved into the broadcast booth with WTMJ and the Brewers Radio Network and remained there for 54 years. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence, and he’s also a member of the National Radio and Wisconsin Sports halls of fame. Among other places, Uecker has been honored with statues both inside and outside of American Family Field.
Uecker’s passing was noted, of course, in a variety of media outlets including The New York Times and at MLB.com. Milwaukee Record also has the full video of the celebration of life the Brewers held in his honor in August.
Bobby Malkmus, age 93, died on February 23
A New Jersey native, Malkmus signed his first professional contract with the Boston Braves in 1951 but put professional baseball on hold when he was drafted into the military in 1952. He returned to baseball in 1954 but needed four more seasons to crack the major league roster with the Braves, who by that point had moved to Milwaukee. Malkmus was an infielder at a time when the Braves had a bevy of options there and appeared in just 13 games in his debut season in 1957 before being left unprotected in that year’s Rule 5 Draft and being selected by the Washington Senators.
All told, Malkmus played 268 games in the majors for the Braves, Senators and Phillies and received MVP votes following the 1961 season, his lone full-time year at the MLB level. Malkmus and Felix Mantilla’s passings this year leave just three surviving members of the Braves’ 1957 World Series championship team and two members of the 1958 pennant-winning team. Malkmus has a SABR Bio written by Gregory H. Wolf and an entry at RIP Baseball.
Tommie Reynolds, age 83, died on March 19
An eight-year major leaguer with a reputation for being a solid defender in the outfield, Reynolds joined the Brewers in a 1972 trade and played the final 72 games of his MLB career for Milwaukee, although he would go on to play six more seasons for the Brewers at the AAA level. He was also an Army veteran, a seven-year minor league coach and a minor league manager for three years in the Athletics organization.
Reynolds’ Baseball Reference Bullpen page notes that he was the cousin of nine-year MLB outfielder and four-time MVP vote recipient Floyd Robinson. He has an obituary from his funeral home and an entry at RIP Baseball.
Marshall Edwards, age 72, died on April 15
The third of three Edwards brothers to make his major league debut, Marshall spent three seasons in the majors with the Brewers from 1981 to 1983 and appeared in 160 regular season games, primarily in the outfield. Despite collecting just 80 hits and five walks in his MLB career Edwards managed to attempt 32 stolen bases, succeeding 21 times. He was also a member of the first two postseason teams in Brewers history, playing in two games in the 1981 ALDS and a total of four in the 1982 ALCS and World Series. His Journal Sentinel obituary notes that he made a leaping catch in Game 5 of the ALCS to help send the Brewers to that Series, their only one in franchise history.
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Edwards’ twin brother Mike played in the majors with the Pirates and A’s from 1977-80 and their younger brother Dave was a Twin and Padre from 1978-82. Edwards has an extended SABR Bio by Rick Schabowski and an entry at RIP Baseball.
Tom Brown, age 84, died on April 24
Brown wasn’t a former Brewer, Brave or Wisconsin native, but he is a former baseball player perhaps best remembered for something else he did in Wisconsin. Brown had a brief MLB career as a first baseman with the 1963 Washington Senators before retiring from that sport to focus on football, where he was a defensive back and punt returner as a member of the 1965 NFL Champion and Super Bowl I and II winning Packers.
Brown is one of just 67 players to appear in a game in both MLB and the NFL, and only seven have done so since his last NFL game in 1969. Cliff Christl of Packers.com and RIP Baseball both have obituaries for him.
Vic Harris, age 75, died on April 26
A longtime successful minor leaguer who struggled to convert that success into major league stardom, Harris got the last of his eight big league seasons with the Brewers in 1980. By that point he had accumulated nearly 700 hits and a career .280 batting average with a .363 on-base percentage and .401 slugging across nine seasons in the minors but had struggled to find consistent playing time or performance and had been traded four times. His ability to draw a walk was perhaps underappreciated at the time but it wasn’t enough to make up for a .217 career batting average, including a .213 mark in 34 games for the 1980 Brewers. Unwilling to give up on baseball at age 30, however, Harris took his talents to Japan and spent three seasons with the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Harris’ SABR Bio notes that following his playing career he worked as a fire dispatcher in the aerospace industry, but later returned to the game as an instructor for MLB’s Urban Youth Academy. Harris’ funeral home page does not appear to include an obituary but does include pictures from his playing days and beyond.
Jack Curtis, age 88, died on May 12
A three-year MLB pitcher who spent a portion of the year with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962, Curtis’ brief tenure in Milwaukee is probably best remembered for his attachment to a pair of notable transactions: He was the player the Braves received in return when they traded All Star pitcher Bob Buhl to the Cubs and he was traded to Cleveland with longtime Braves first baseman Joe Adcock later that same year.
In between those two transactions Curtis pitched 30 of his career 69 MLB games for Milwaukee. His RIP Baseball entry notes that he pitched over 500 innings and won a combined 39 games in the minors across two seasons in 1959 and 1960 before making his MLB debut. He was done as a professional player following the 1967 season when he was just 30 years old but had already logged over 1700 known innings (and several of his games are unaccounted for). Curtis’ funeral home page has more on his life, while the RIP Baseball link above has more on his baseball career.
Rich Rollins, age 87, died on May 13
A ten-year big leaguer and an All Star in 1962, Rollins is likely more familiar to Twins fans than Brewers fans: He spent his first eight MLB seasons there, including four as a regular at third base, and played in three games in the 1965 World Series. By the end of the 1968 season Rollins had played several down years in a row, however, and the Twins left him unprotected in that fall’s expansion draft. That’s how he became an inaugural member of the Seattle Pilots and their Opening Day third baseman.
The following season Rollins followed the team to Milwaukee, where he picked up another claim to fame: In the third inning on Opening Day the Brewers called him off the bench to hit for starting pitcher Lew Krausse, making him the first pinch hitter in Milwaukee Brewers history. He has a SABR bio written by Rick Schabowski and an entry at RIP Baseball.
Jason Conti, age 50, died on May 17
Conti’s story is perhaps one of the more unlikely to lead to MLB success in recent memory: Before the MLB Draft format was altered to a set number of rounds teams were allowed to keep selecting players until they were done. That’s how the Padres were able to select Conti with the third pick in the 74th round in 1993, the 1669th overall selection that season. Conti passed on a pro contract and went to college, where three years later the Diamondbacks selected him in the 32nd round, the 965th overall pick. Despite having been passed over a combined 2632 times across a pair of drafts, four years later he made his MLB debut.
Conti had played partial seasons with the Diamondbacks and Rays when the Brewers acquired him before the 2003 season, but they sent him back to the minors after just six April games. He rejoined the team in August and collected five of his seven RBI in a single game in September, powering the Brewers to a 7-5 win over the Cardinals.
Conti was working as an executive chef when he suffered a stroke and passed away a week later. He has an entry at RIP Baseball and an extended obituary.
Johnny O’Brien, age 94, died on June 13
In the 1950’s O’Brien was part of one of the rarest feats in MLB history: He and his twin brother Eddie were a double play combination for the same team. The New Jersey natives and Seattle University alums were signed by the Pirates as “bonus babies” before the 1953 season, meaning both received a signing bonus large enough that the rules of the time did not allow them to be assigned to the minors. Teams usually buried players like this at the end of their benches, but the Pirates heavily featured theirs, playing each brother in 89 games with Johnny primarily playing second base and Eddie at shortstop. Per RIP Baseball, the O’Briens are one of just four sets of twins who played as teammates in known MLB history.
By 1959 Eddie’s career was over, however, and Johnny was on to his third team when the Cardinals traded him to the Milwaukee Braves. He played 44 games for the Braves that season but struggled at the plate and was released, ending the MLB portion of his career. He had also been an All American basketball player in 1953 (before being drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks but opting to play baseball instead), and following his playing career he returned to Seattle and served as the assistant director for the Kingdome, Seattle’s then-new domed sports facility which would eventually host the Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics and North American Soccer League’s Sounders.
Johnny’s grandson, Riley, has since followed in his footsteps to the major leagues and pitched at that level in four of the last five seasons. The elder O’Brien was a guest on the Effectively Wild podcast in 2017 to discuss his career and alongside Riley in 2019 to discuss Riley’s ascent in the minors. In addition to the aforementioned RIP Baseball entry, Seattle University has an obituary featuring a slideshow of O’Brien photos through the years and he has a SABR Bio written by Tim Herlich.
Diego Segui, age 87, died on June 24
Only one Cuban-born player in MLB history has pitched in more games than Diego Segui (likely future Hall of Famer Aroldis Chapman), and Segui certainly accumulated some stories on the way. Segui was originally signed by the Reds and, according to his RIP Baseball entry, signed out of the Arizona/Mexico League by the Kansas City Athletics while still under contract to his original club. While with Kansas City he relieved 59-year-old legend Satchel Paige in his final MLB game. He played for the A’s in two MLB cities and spent a season with the Washington Senators before being left unprotected in the expansion draft and selected by the Seattle Pilots. Segui was one of the best players on that Pilots team, pitching 66 times (including eight starts) and posting a 3.35 ERA across 142 ⅓ innings. Segui would have followed the Brewers to Milwaukee, but he was traded once again, returning to Oakland.
Segui was one of the most effective pitchers in baseball for the A’s during that 1970 season and went on to pitch for them in the 1971 postseason and later in the World Series for the 1975 Red Sox. All told he logged over 1800 MLB innings in 15 seasons across six franchises (including being the only player to appear for both the Pilots and Mariners), and his son David went on to play in the majors for 15 more seasons across seven teams. He’s a member of the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame, the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame and the 2024 winner of the Negro League Baseball Museum’s Jose Mendez Beisbol Legend Lifetime Achievement Award.
In addition to the aforementioned RIP Baseball Entry Segui has a SABR Bio written by Joanne Hulbert.
Dave Parker, age 74, died on June 28
A 19-year MLB player, the 1978 National League MVP, a seven-time All Star, two-time World Series champion and a Silver Slugger with the 1990 Brewers, Parker passed away less than a month before he was scheduled to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. Milwaukee was one of the late and brief stops in Parker’s career but he was still impactful, hitting .289 with a .330 on-base and .451 slugging, earning his final All Star appearance and Silver Slugger Award and, if the decades-old rumors are to be believed, convincing Robin Yount to pass up more money and finish his career in Milwaukee.
Parker and Dave Jordan co-authored an autobiography on Parker’s life in baseball in 2021, although much of the Brewers-related content ended up being cut from the final version and published online in 2022. In addition to that, Parker has a SABR Bio written by J.G. Preston, a New York Times obituary and an entry at RIP Baseball.
Sandy Alomar, Sr., age 81, died on October 13
A Puerto Rican infielder nicknamed “The Iron Pony,” the patriarch of the Alomar baseball family began his MLB career with an RBI single on a day where he played shortstop in both games of a doubleheader in Milwaukee. Alomar, still only 20 years old, was playing the first two of 1481 MLB games of a career that would span the next 15 years. He played the first three of those seasons with the Braves, two in Milwaukee and one in Atlanta, before moving on to the Mets, White Sox, Angels, Yankees and Rangers. He was an All Star with California in 1970, the first of back-to-back seasons where he played in every game and led the majors in plate appearances.
Alomar stayed in the game as a coach and scout for many years following his playing career but eventually transitioned over to being best known as Roberto and Sandy Jr.’s father. The Alomar sons combined to play in nearly 4000 MLB games, be selected to 18 All Star games and play in four World Series.
The elder Alomar has a SABR Bio written by Irv Goldfarb, MLB.com and Associated Press obituaries and an entry at RIP Baseball.
John Morris, age 84, died on October 15
A native of Delaware, Morris had pitched just a handful of times in the majors but had experienced some success with the 1968 Orioles when he was left unprotected in the expansion draft and selected to be a member of the inaugural Seattle Pilots. Morris pitched just six games for the Pilots in their first year but had more success after following the team to Milwaukee, where he swung between the bullpen and starting rotation and posted a 3.83 ERA in 141 innings.
Before signing to play baseball Morris had been an All-State football player in high school and was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. Morris has an entry at RIP Baseball.
Bernie Smith, age either 84 or 88, died on October 18
Another member of the inaugural Brewers, Smith signed with the Mets in 1962 but was believed to be 28 years old and yet to make his major league debut when they traded him to the then-Seattle Pilots in 1969. Newsweek’s obituary for Smith later reported that he was actually 32, not 28. The younger age is still listed on his Baseball Reference page.
Nonetheless, by July of the following year the team had moved to Milwaukee and so had Smith, as he was called up to play in their outfield. He had a productive but brief rookie campaign, batting .276 with a .382 on-base and .382 slugging in 44 games, but struggled to repeat that performance in 1971 and returned to the minors, where he stayed until he retired as a player in 1972. He later managed two seasons in the minors, becoming one of the first black managers in an integrated league.
In addition to the aforementioned Newsweek obituary, Smith has an obituary at Nola.com.
Andy Kosco, age 84, died on December 19
It’s easy to picture Kosco, a 10-year MLB outfielder, with a suitcase with a lot of stickers on it. As an amateur free agent he signed with the Tigers but they released him in 1964 and then he signed with the Twins, was sold to the Athletics, was selected by the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft, was traded to the Dodgers and then traded once again to the Brewers. The Brewers traded starting pitcher Al Downing, who would win 20 games for the Dodgers the following year, to get him.
Kosco, meanwhile, was a corner outfielder who finished his career batting .236 with a .273 on-base and .394 slugging. He spent one season in Milwaukee before moving on to the Angels, Red Sox and Reds. When he played his final MLB game in 1974 there were 24 teams and he had, at least briefly, been under contract with ten of them. His obituary mentions he replaced Mickey Mantle at first base in the Hall of Famer’s final MLB game in 1968. In addition to that obituary he has a notice of his passing at MLB Trade Rumors and a SABR Bio written by Norm King.