I can't believe some of these deaths, as two sports stars from my youth have fallen.

First, the San Francisco 49ers Freddie Solomon died this week, battling cancer. He was one of the stars on the early 1980s Bill Walsh teams, making way for the phenom rookie Jerry Rice with grace and class. He still contributed, but the teammates worked together to win. Jerry Rice praised Solomon for teaching him much, as Solomon's final season was Rice's rookie campaign.

Then comes news that Gary Carter, the popular Montreal Expos catcher who went on to become more popular in New York as a world champion Met, had also died, again of cancer. In 1986, the Mets shocked the Red Sox and kept their losing streak alive with an improbable comeback in the World Series. Carter seemed like a classy player and good teammate, and I always liked that Carter went into the Hall of Fame as an Expo, where he had dominated his position for so long. It's good he got to compete and win a world championship in his later career but I'm glad he didn't forget his roots with that not-so-storied franchise.

Sure, they had a terrible stadium, but they had a cool name and even cooler uniforms.