Chuck Hinton, the first star of the expansion Washington Senators, passed away Sunday. Chuck could have used the new concussion rules:

But Mr. Hinton didn’t reach the major leagues until 1961, when he was already 27. He was seriously injured on Sept. 5, 1963, when he was struck in the left ear by a pitch thrown by the New York Yankees’ Ralph Terry.

Carried from the field unconscious, Mr. Hinton was hospitalized but returned to the lineup after only eight days. He later told The Washington Post that the effects of the concussion hampered his game.

“If I turned my head sharply, I’d see two balls coming up to the plate,” he said. “And in the outfield, it was like running uphill and downhill. At night, there were times when everything had a halo on it.”

He did play well in 1964 and 1965 despite the brain injury.

He continued his success in the game after he left as well, coaching baseball at Howard for nearly three decades and helping to found the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.

“The idea came from Chuck Hinton,” Fred Valentine, who played with Mr. Hinton for the Senators and is vice president of the alumni association, said Tuesday. “Thirty years later, we’ve grown to be one of the strongest associations in sports.”

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.