Baseball could practically fill a lineup card with those who died. Plenty of games would no doubt be won with a rotation of Johnny Sain, Joe Niekro, Pat Dobson and Moe Drabowsky, with Steve Howe and Larry Sherry coming out of the bullpen. Johnny Callison would join Puckett in the outfield, nailing any runner who dared test him.

The big bat would belong to Jim Lemon, while Jose Uribe would scoop up balls at shortstop. Rod Dedeaux, the longtime Southern California coach, would be on the dugout steps, and Syd Thrift would make all the moves in the executive suite.

In Auerbach, basketball lost someone who produced 16 championships as coach and general manager, tormenting countless referees in the process. He also nurtured some of the sport’s greatest players, and it didn’t matter in the least if they were black.

“Red had come to be our basketball soul and our basketball conscience,” NBA commissioner David Stern said.

There also was the death of Paul Arizin, the Philadelphia Warriors guard voted one of the NBA’s top 50 players. Ray Meyer, the Chicago coaching icon who became synonymous with DePaul basketball, died at 92.

Boxing said goodbye to Floyd Patterson, always dignified, and the first two-time heavyweight champion, as well as Willie Pep, the “Will o’ the Wisp” featherweight champ who fought for 26 years. Trevor Berbick, a former heavyweight champion who spanned the Ali and Tyson eras, was killed in Jamaica, a nephew among those charged.

In football, receivers Jack Snow, Ron Jessie and Theo Bell died this year, as did running back Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, longtime Eagle Vic Sears and Tom Nugent, the developer of the I formation.

Also mourned were hockey’s Bernie Geoffrion and his big slap shot and Bob Mathias, the two-time Olympic decathlon champ who went on to become a California congressman.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

In golf, Nelson made us remember what it means to deliver a year like the one he did in 1945 — 18 wins, 11 of them in a row, a streak among the most untouchable in all sports. But golf also marked the death of Patty Berg, who won an LPGA-record 15 major titles and was one of the tour’s founders, and Earl Woods, the architect of son Tiger Woods’ game.

Dying on the track was driver Paul Dana, a 30-year-old rookie with the Rahal-Letterman team. He was killed during a race warmup in Florida.

In television, Curt Gowdy died at 86 after broadcasting just about everything, from the Olympics to the World Series to the first Super Bowl to fishing. He beguiled viewers with an easy, comfortable voice that the writer John Updike likened to “everybody’s brother-in-law.”

“He’s the last of the dinosaurs,” NBC’s Dick Enberg said. “No one will ever be the voice of so many major events at the same time again.”