One of the Original 80 metal Buffalo Medallions from Buff Stadium in Houston (1928-1961)
Notebook Observations …
1) Stan Musial played his last game in the big leagues 50 years ago last Sunday on September 29, 1963.
2) Tampa Bay defeated Texas last night by a 5-2 count in a special one-game extension of the regular season to determine which club moves forward as the second wild card in the American League playoffs.
3) Evan Longoria in the Texas game was the 7th time he has homered in his club’s last regular season game, pulling him into a one-homer lead over the great Stan Musial in this arcane record category.
4) The Rangers‘ loss to the Rays assures their fans that their club will not disappoint them again in the World Series for the third year in a row.
5) The 2013 performance of the San Francisco Giants is proof that the World Champs in two of the previous three years (2012 and 2010) were not put together as a dynasty, but as a patchwork short-term peak champion that was capable of winning two World Series in three years and then going to seed.
6) Hopefully, the disastrous 2013 record of the Houston Astros has proven to club ownership and management that they can ill afford to let everything go to hell for a fourth year in a row. 2013 wasn’t merely a crash, but a total implosion of hope, awareness, contact, and caring among fans for the fortunes of their club. It was practically impossible to build any affinity for a roster that changed almost daily. All a fan could know for sure was that the new player coming in was going to be another minor leaguer coming in to try and prove himself. Most fans could not even follow the team because of the most screwed-up, greed-driven television plan in club history – and most of those who could get the games stopped watching sometime during the summer, leaving the team with a TV audience of an optimistic 900 fans per game by season’s end. Signing Lance Berkman and a few legitimate lower cost free agents could have been enough to avoid a third straight 100 plus losses season in 2013, but the Astros chose to gut every cost they could find and cast their fates to the widely whispered plan for returning to contention by 2015. That 15-game asteroid-weighted losing streak that took the boys to the finish line this year more truly suggests that the club will be lucky enough, George Springer notwithstanding,, to be even on a clear road to mediocrity by 2015.
7) There used to be a guy named Jackie Price who could do amazing things with a baseball. He made his living at ballparks showing off these skills and even made a motion picture short subject feature which played the whole country showing off his entire amazing routine. Friend Mike McCroskey saw Price in that movie at the late August showing of old baseball films in August at the Museum of Fine Arts, but neither of us could remember his name at the time we discussed it the other day. It finally bubbled up from the ooze of my ancient memories yesterday. (The ooze is always the first place I look for the answer needed for most ancient questions. Then I go to Google, if that fails – and also to check on my memory. I just went there for confirmation – where I learned that Price had been a seven game big leaguer, once upon a time, and to be reminded that he was known in his act as “The Clown Prince of Baseball”.
I saw Jackie Price perform at Buff Stadium once. He shagged fly balls in the outfield while also driving a jeep to catch up with the fungoed baseballs. He caught a fastball pitcher while his back was turned to the mound and he was bent over looking for the ball between his legs. He pitched three baseballs simultaneously through three separately hanging rubber tires from about 60 feet, six inches away. He did all kinds of amazing and dangerous things as the crowd “ooohed” and “awwwed”.
It was a simpler time. And our minds were more simply entertained.
8) Many times, when I start feeling a little disconnected from all the sweet spots of my happy times as a kid and young man in Houston, I think of the eighty metal buffalo medallions that once rimmed the high exterior grandstand walls at old Buff Stadium. They were there before and after my earliest of times. And a few have survived to this day. They are each permeated with the vibrations of all the organ music that ever played in the old park. They were there for all the peak up and down moments of my baseball kid fan seasons with the Houston Buffs. And when I think of them again today, I am no longer alone and disconnected from the heart of my early sandlot baseball joy. I am home.
9) Have a great Tuesday, everybody!
Tags: random thoughts
The Pecan Park Eagle 
October 1, 2013 at 1:53 pm |
The Astros home attendance this year exceeded last year’s total by several thousand (1,651,883 versus 1,607,733). This indicates to me that there is a large fan base here in Houston, even with very poor clubs.
October 1, 2013 at 4:18 pm |
As a kid, I listened to Houston Buffaloes games on my crystal set and tried to imagine what Buff Stadium looked like. In the summer of 1956, I went to my first game there against the Ft. Worth Cats. I still remember walking up and getting my first glimpse of the field and thinking it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. During the game I tried to memorize every aspect of the park, including the ads on the outfield wall; the next time I listened to a game, I could see it all in my mind’s eye. On Sunday, April 16, 1961, I went to Buff Stadium for the last time and watched the Buffs play the Louisville Colonels, who had a young catcher named Joe Torre.
October 1, 2013 at 6:08 pm |
I guess there is some debate over who the real Clown Prince of Baseball was. I always knew Max Patkin, who appeared in the movie “Bull Durham,” as the Clown Prince of Baseball, and he even wrote an autobiography with that title. A little research revealed that former Washington Senator’s pitcher and coach Al Schacht was the first to go by that sobriquet. I can’t say that I’ve heard of Jackie Price, but apparently there was a succession of Clown Princes from from Schacht, to Price, to Patkin.