Broadcaster Bob Starr Dies at 65

Bob Starr, 65, the Angels’ lead radio announcer until he retired in January because of poor health, died Monday at his home in Orange of lung fibrosis.

Starr, according to friends, never fully recovered from Legionnaires’ disease, which he contracted in the fall of 1993.

When first stricken, Starr was hospitalized for 10 days and barely survived. Legionnaires’ disease, a lung infection, was so named because it killed 29 people who had attended an American Legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel in 1976. The disease is believed to be caused by dirty air-conditioning units.

Richard Brown, former Angel president and a longtime friend of Starr’s, served as the broadcaster’s attorney in recent years. Brown said he had negotiated a new contract with the Angels for Starr shortly after Christmas.

“I was concerned about his health at the time because he had so much trouble breathing,” Brown said. “I remember asking him one day, ‘Bob, are you sure you are OK?’ He said, ‘No, I’m not certain I’m OK.’

“A few days later he called and said he was going to have to retire. I called [Angel President] Tony Tavares to let him know.

“I tried to call [Starr] several times after that and never got a call back. Baseball and sports have lost one of the good people.”

Starr, whose broadcasting career spanned 41 years, had two tours of duty with the Angels--1980-89 and 1993-97--totaling 15 seasons. He was also the radio voice of the Los Angeles Rams from 1980-89 and again in 1993.

He also had eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and three with the Boston Red Sox.

Bill Ward, who as longtime general manager at Angel flagship station KMPC was Starr’s boss, said, “He was a wonderful gentleman, a wonderful broadcaster. I remember he would always greet me by saying, ‘Good evening, Mr. President.’ It may have been a joke, but it sounded good anyway. He said it with such class.”

Tim Mead, longtime Angel publicist and now vice president of Disney’s Anaheim Sports division, remembered Starr as a man of grace and good cheer.

“He was very kind and very gentle,” Mead said. “It was like he knew everybody, liked everybody and found the good things in everybody. He was as far from a self-promoter as anybody you’ll ever deal with.”

Angel broadcaster Mario Impemba, who began working with Starr in 1995 after nearly a decade in the minor leagues, appreciated that quality daily, but perhaps never more than in September of 1996, when Eddie Murray and the Baltimore Orioles visited Anaheim Stadium. With his next home run, Murray would join Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as the only major leaguers with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits.

In the eighth inning, Starr announced Strike 1 on Murray, then invited Impemba to take over, thinking Impemba might like to announce it if Murray hit that milestone home run.

“It floored me,” Impemba said. “I didn’t believe he would do that for me.”

Impemba declined--”I didn’t think it was right,” he said--and Murray failed to hit a home run.

Impemba said Starr was a friend from Day 1.

“He went out of his way to make me feel comfortable,” he said. “It’s an ego-driven business, and a lot of guys wouldn’t have done what he did.”

Starr is survived by his wife, Brenda, and two sons, Mark and Jim. Funeral arrangements are pending. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the American Lung Assn., 1570 E. 17th St., Santa Ana 92705.

Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this story.