Longtime major league hitting coach Rick Down died on Wednesday at 68 in his Las Vegas home after a lengthy illness, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Down spent 27 years with major league clubs and most notably was a hitting coach for the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles from 1993 to 2003. Although he topped out in Triple-A as a player, Down was well-loved as a coach while overseeing some of the top offenses of the past 30 years.