The six foot tall, 164 pound stringbean righthander named Jack Dalton Creel was born on April 23, 1915 in a little place called Kyle, Texas. From 1938 through 1953, Creel amassed a fifteen season record of 179 wins, 157 losses, and an earned run average of 3.37 Throw in the 5-4, 4.74 W-L, ERA record he recorded in his one 1945 season with the St. Louis Cardinals and you’re looking at a pretty fair country resume’ for a fellow who played it all out during one of baseball’s most heavily talented personnel eras.
Creel broke in with two 15-win seasons in Class D Ball (1938, Taft, 15-7 & 1939 New Iberia, 15-11). He then capped that great start with his best season ever at Class D Daytona Beach with a 22-7, 1.50 ERA record.
Creel struggled with three clubs at Class B and AA in 1941, going a combined 10-11 in the win-loss column. His move to the then A1-level Houston Buffs in 1942, however, saw Jack Creel grab hold of his good stuff and battle forward to a 13-6, 1.92 ERA year.
After going a combined 19-28 in two seasons at AA Cloumbus, Ohio in 1943-44, Creel moved up to the parent club St. Louis Cardinals in 1945, posting a 5-4, 4.74 ERA record as the whole signature on his big league career.
The return of many talenetd Cardinal picthers from World War II in 1946 sent Jack Creel, and many others, back to the minors, where he posted an 8-11, 4.19 ERA record with the now AAA Columbus club.
Jack Creel then returned to the Houston Buffs for three of his most productive years in the minors (1947-49). Jack’s 14-10, 2.63 ERA mark with the Buffs’ ’47 Texas League and Dixie Series championship club was critical to Houston’s success. His work on two far less talented Buff clubs (1948: 12-10, 3.52; 1949: 16-10, 3.38) was important as the bathtub stopper on two teams that headed mainly toward a fuller drain. Thank God for the presence of Jack Creel in lean times. His ability always made victory a possibility and it drew fans to Buff Stadium who might otherwise have stayed home.
Creel spent the next two years with Portland of the AAA Pacific Coast League (1950-51), combining for a record of 21-20 and an ERA in the “low 4s.” Jack Creel returned to Houston to post a 6-11, 3.12 ERA record for a a very bad last place Buffs team. He then moved over to Beaumont of the Texas League in 1952, where he finished his last season in professional baseball with a record of 8 wins, 15 losses, and and ERA of of 5.20.
After baseball, Jack Creel made his home in Houston. He passed away here on August 13, 2002 at the age of 86.
In the end, I look upon Jack Creel as one of those pitchers from my childhood years who always inspired my desire to go to Buff Stadium on the nights he was scheduled to work. The hope of winning gets planted early in baseball fans and its tease about the harvest lasts a lifetime. Pitchers like Jack Creel were excellent gardeners.
Tags: Baseball, Houston Buffs, St. Louis Cardinals
The Pecan Park Eagle 
October 2, 2009 at 8:16 pm |
Bill: Three years in Class D? Then stepping up to Class B, A, and AA? I recall there was a poem written about a player’s life in the old Cardinal chain, starting with “Sic, transit, gloria, I must catch that train to Peoria”.
October 3, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
Tony: Love the Poem! Back in those days, yes, Peoria often was the top of the glass for hundreds of players who had no option other than to quit baseball. – Thanks for commenting directly to the article.
Also this morning, I just received this wonderful e-mail from fellow SABR member Mark Wernick over in Austin:
“Bill:
“I enjoyed your Jack Creel article. When I was at U.T. they had a star pitcher there named Keith Creel, late 70s or early 80s. I assume he’s related. It seems to me like the younger Creel pitched for a high school that wasn’t in the Houston area. It’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t think of it. I think it started with a “D”. Duncanville. Dallas area.
“They’re surely related.
“Keith Creel had a brief major league career, 3 or 4 seasons. He didn’t do very well in the major leagues.
“Mark”
Mark – Thanks for the note on Keith Creel. Yeas, he was pretty darn good at UT, even became the 4th pick in the first round of the 1980 amateur player draft, but fll flat during his four major league seasons with Knsas City (1982-83). Cleveland (1985), and Texas (1987). He han record with Texas in very limited action, but he finished his MLB career with a record of 5-14 and an ERA of 5.60. Keith was born in Dallas, but I can find no reference of any relationship to Jack Creel. With that sort of rare name and the fact they are both native Texans, you would think they would be related somewhere down the line.
Thanks for writing.
– Bill
June 2, 2015 at 3:35 am |
Bill: I found this page after someone sent me an eBay auction for some memorabilia on the Buffs. I decided to see what else I could find on the internet about Jack Creel, since he was my grandfather. As far as I’ve ever known, there is no relation between Keith Creel and my grandfather. I’ve often though that our surname was particularly unique, but I’ve learned over the years that it’s more prevalent in Texas than you might expect.