Phil Linz

Former Yankee Phil Linz just died. Linz won three World Series with the Yankees, but will always be remembered for an incident first detailed in Jim Bouton's classic Ball Four:

Following Yankee road loss to the Chicago White Sox, Linz was playing a plaintive version of Mary Had a Little Lamb on his harmonica in the back of the team bus. Berra found the sad cowboy style mixed with a children's nursery rhyme a bit mocking of the team, and told Linz to pipe down. Linz didn't hear and kept playing. Berra became infuriated and called back from the front of the bus, "If you don't knock that off, I'm going to come back there and kick your ass." Linz couldn't hear the words over the music, so he asked Mickey Mantle, "What he say?" Mantle responded, "He said to play it louder." Berra walked to the back of the bus to confront Linz. By different accounts, Linz threw the harmonica to Berra or at him, or Berra knocked it out of his hand. Regardless, it became airborne, striking first baseman Joe Pepitone in the knee strongly enough to cut him.

Great story, and begets a question: are there any other instances of people who were part of great things but whose legacy will always be a lone, silly incident such as this?