SAN JOSE, Calif., March 29 (UPI) -- Gus Triandos, a four-time all-star catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, died at his home in San Jose, Calif., his family said. He was 82.
Triandos, who played in Baltimore from 1955-62 and was a member of the team's Hall of Fame, died in his sleep Thursday after a long bout with congestive heart failure, his daughter, Lori Luna, told The Baltimore Sun.
"It was hard for him to get up," she said. "His heart just gave out."
Triandos, born July 30, 1930, in San Francisco, began his MLB career with the New York Yankees in 1953 and went to the Orioles after the 1954 season in a trade that sent Bob Turley and Don Larsen to the Yankees. He hit 142 home runs, 30 of them in 1958 -- an American League record for a catcher at the time.
Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, told the Sun Triandos was "one of my favorite guys."
"He was so good-natured and a wonderful teammate," Robinson said. "I had a lot of laughs and learned a lot from Gus."
Triandos caught the team's first no-hitter, a 1-0 win over the Yankees in 1958, with knuckleball specialist Hoyt Wilhelm on the mound. Triandos accounted for the game's only run with a seventh-inning home run.
"Catching Hoyt was such a miserable experience, I just wanted to end the game," he told the Sun in a 2009 interview.
The Orioles traded Triandos to the Detroit Tigers in 1962. In 1963, he went to Philadelphia where, the following year, he caught a no-hitter for Jim Bunning.
Triandos finished his career with the Houston Astros in 1965.
