The Pecan Park Eagle

There was a fourth villain in this group, however, and he was far worse than all of the others because of his prodigious ability to slam monster-like Ruthian home runs, blows that exploded local hope like one of those mushroom cloudy atomic bombs we’d all witnessed in wild-eyed fear in the movie theatre newsreels.

And his name was Jerry Witte.

Jerry Witte had cracked out 46 homers at Toledo in 1946. The “46 in ’46” had landed him a late season call up by the parent club St. Louis Browns, but that didn’t work out too well for Jerry at age 31. After another bad start with the Browns in’47, Jerry found himself back at AAA Toledo for the balance of the season.

After the ’47 season, Witte was dealt to the Red Sox, who assigned his contract to their AAA Louisville club. Owner Dick Burnett of the Dallas Eagles then acquired Jerry Witte as one of the veteran bonecrushing players he pulled together for his ’49 Dallas Eagles.

The ’49 Eagles broke fast from the gate, crumbling every foe that came up on the schedule until a couple of things began to happen. – Their veteran players ran out of gas – and their pitchers failed miserably. The club of villains fell miserably Still, in 1949, Jerry Witte crushed 50 home runs in the Texas League and, to me at least, it seemed as though he hit them all against our Houston Buffs. Our ’49 Buffs had little hope, anyway, but what they did have was quickly stomped into the dirt beneath the grass at Buff Stadium by a predictable barrage of homers that flew off the bat of the slugging right handed hitting first baseman.

After the ’49 season, Dallas sold the contract of JerryWitte to the St. Louis Cardinals, who in turn then assigned the former Eagle AAA Rochester. Due to an overstocking of younger first basemen at Rochester and Witte’s desire to play in a warmer climate, Jerry was reassigned to play for the ’50 Buffs on June 11, 1950. As I said in the 2003 book on his life and career that we wrote together, “A Kid From St. Louis,” learning in the Houston Post the next morning  that Jerry Witte was now a Houston Buff was roughly the emotional equivalent to me of learning that Darth Vader suddenly had been dealt to the forces of the light. My favorite enemy had been instantly transformed into my biggest life hero.

Jerry Witte and I wouldn’t really connect personally until the September 1995 Last Round Up of the Houston Buffs, but we quickly made up time for all the years we lost.  Jerry Witte and his wonderful wife Mary are both gone now, but I shall both love and miss each of them forever. They were like second parents to me – and their seven lovely daughters became like seven sisters, as well. There’s nothing I would not do for any of them, if it were  in my power. They are all just such good souls – the kind we need more of in our harvest of American people.

Jerry and Mary Witte were both down-to-earth midwesterners who retired in Houston after Jerry’s three seasons with the Buffs (1950-52). All seven of their lovely daughters are quite accomplished people professionally, but all have retained that basic one-two punch of integrity that once flowed so readily from their mom and dad: (1) say what you mean, and (2) do what you say.

May the memory and the values of Jerry and Mary Witte live on forever in the middle of our everyday lives. Such is the stuff of real heroes – that the practice of love for and loyalty to others always outweighs all ambitions to use other people for selfish  personal gain. You don’t befriend people because of how useful they may be to you. You befriend people because it’s the right way to be – in a world where heroes really aren’t just determined by the names on their uniforms, but by the actions of the people who wear them.