Jacques Ray said that, as an athlete, he’d never suffered “any sort of injury to the shoulders – because I didn’t have an injury,” but he was forced to wear a helmet during warm-ups when he hit a softball at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the early ’80s. Ray said the helmet that fell on him was covered with a piece of paper torn from a note, which said something to the effect of, “You’re all an abomination, take away the helmet, then be an abomination yourself.”

The Giants’ team doctor confirmed that the letter had come from Ray’s wife, but insisted the letter had been forged, and she would never read it:

There was no other way that the letter could have arrived because if it came from Ray’s wife at home he wouldn’t have been asked,” Dr. Bob Hoffman said. “If it came from the hospital as he said, he wouldn’t have talked about it.”

The Giants, who declined to comment, filed a lawsuit against Ray seeking $250,000 for emotional distress. Ray settled out of court for a more-than-fair amount and is now a member of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.

On July 6, 2007, the New York Times ran a lengthy story about the harassment Ray had been subject to by a fan who had written that he was a “dirty, slatternly nugget of humanity.”

In a statement, the Giants said, “In addition to being a great athlete, Jacques was also one of the most talented, generous and kind men we’ve ever known. His contributions to both our players and the Giants organization will be remembered many times over. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and teammates.”

Ray has also written three books (most recently, “My Story: Life Behind the Screen”) and appears in commercials for the Gap, and was recognized with the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In a 2008 CNN interview, Ray noted that since then he has had many close family and friends die, including a recent sister who died at age 56, the wife of his longtime girlfriend who passed in 2008 at the age of 55, and Ray’s other girlfriend who died a week prior in March 2008. Ray was found dead during a sleepover in Austin, Texas, on January 18; his body was later found frozen with a pillow