The Pecan Park Eagle

Archive for 2013

World Series Histories: Red Sox and Cardinals

October 31, 2013

Congratulations to the World Champion Red Sox! – “B” STRONG – YOU ARE!

What a World Series! With Big Papi seeing the ball as if it were a grapefruit, the passionate talented Boston Red Sox took the World Series in six games – and winning one at home for the first time in 95 years. Any last vestige of the Bambino Curse is now removed. These guys played like the best team in baseball’s two great cities and deserved to take home the gold. I loved Big Papi’s post-game remarks, especially his dedication of the MVP award he took hands down to the people of Boston.

The following is just a little quick thumbnail I did overnight (with the help of Baseball Almanac) on the result records in the World Series for both the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. I hope you find some things of interest in this data.In each separate team report, there are three tables for your inspection:

Table One shows the linear, year by year results record for each team, by series won and lost game totals and locations (home or away) for the start and finish of each series.

Table Two shows how each team fared in each contest by total games played.

Table Three shows how each team did when they variously started and ended at home or away.

Please feel free to comment or question. I’m hoping my words here are as clear as bottled water.

Here we go, starting with the 2013 World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox:

TABLE 1: BOSTON RED SOX RECORD IN WORLD SERIES: 1903 – 2013:

Team WS #	YEAR PLAYED	WINNER OF SERIES	LOSER OF SERIES	GAMES W & L	BEGAN WHERE?	ENDED WHERE?
1	1903	RED SOX	PIRATES	5-3	HOME	HOME
2	1912	RED SOX	GIANTS	4-3	AWAY	HOME
3	1915	RED SOX	PHILLIES	4-1	AWAY	AWAY
4	1916	RED SOX	ROBINS	4-1	HOME *	HOME *
5	1918	RED SOX	CUBS	4-2	AWAY	HOME
6	1946	CARDINALS	RED SOX	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
7	1967	CARDINALS	RED SOX	4-3	HOME	HOME
8	1975	RED S	RED SOX	4-3	HOME	HOME
9	2004	RED SOX	CARDINALS	4-0	HOME	AWAY
10	2007	RED SOX	ROCKIES	4-0	HOME	AWAY
11	2013	RED SOX	CARDINALS	4-2	HOME	HOME

HOME GAME, BUT PLAYED AT BRAVES FIELD, ALSO IN BOSTON.

TABLE II: RED SOX RECORD IN WORLD SERIES BASED UPON VARIOUS MULTIPLE GAME OUTCOMES:

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES/ GAMES W OR L	RED SOX SERIES WINS & LOSSES
4 WINS – 0 LOSSES	2 WINS – 0 LOSSES
4 WINS – 1 LOSS	2 WINS – 0 LOSSES
4 WINS – 2 LOSSES	2 WINS – 0 LOSSES
4 WINS – 3 LOSSES	1 WIN – 3 LOSSES
5 WINS – 3 LOSSES	1 WIN – 0 LOSSES
TOTAL WINS – LOSSES ————->	8 WINS – 3 LOSSES

HISTORY NOTE: TO BEAT THE RED SOX IN A WORLD SERIES, A CLUB HAS TO TAKE THEM TO THE FULL 7 GAMES. – THROUGH 2013, THAT’S THE ONLY WAY THEY LOSE.

TABLE III: RED SOX RECORD IN WORLD SERIES BASED UPON HOME/AWAY STARTS AND FINISHES:

RED SOX BEGAN/ENDED	SERIES W-L RECORD	W %
HOME/HOME	3-2	.600
HOME/AWAY	2-0	1.000
AWAY/HOME	2-0	1.000
AWAY/AWAY	1-1	.500
TOTALS 1903-2013	8-3	.727

The Boston “Americans”/Red Sox appeared in 5 of the first 15 World Series played from 1903 to 1918, winning them all, but never again after 1918 until 2004. Most fans held to the belief that the “Curse of the Bambino” was respomsible for the club’s inability to win after owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth the New York Yankees prior to the 1920 season. More also added that the curse had been totally erased once the Red Sox repeated their victory in the 2007 World Series, but a few still held to the belief that the long shadow of the Lost Babe would not be truly, fully gone until the Red Sox again won a Series at home. Their 2004 and 2007 victories wrapped up on the road.

Last night, October 30, 2013, the Boston Red Sox won it all at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918. That last hangnail stigma has now been impressively and decidedly breached for the first time in 95 years. That low hum you may still be hearing this morning is nothing more than the last few remaining solar gurgles in the final death rattle of the “1918 Curse of the Bambino” that once kept a lid on further Red Sox victories in the World Series for 86 years (1918-2004).

“Ding! Dong! – The Witch is Dead! – And ‘Boston Strong’ is Alive and Well!”

Now let’s take a look at the same details as they apply to the St. Louis Cardinals, starting with the fact that there’s no cause for curse here that we know of:

Table I: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS RECORD IN WORLD SERIES, 1926-2013:

Team WS #	YEAR PLAYED	WINNER OF SERIES	LOSER OF SERIES	GAMES W & L	BEGAN WHERE?	ENDED WHERE?
1	1926	CARDINALS	YANKEES	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
2	1928	YANKEES	CARDINALS	4-0	AWAY	HOME
3	1930	ATHLETICS	CARDINALS	4-2	AWAY	AWAY
4	1931	CARDINALS	ATHLETICS	4-3	HOME	HOME
5	1934	CARDINALS	TIGERS	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
6	1942	CARDINALS	YANKEES	4-1	HOME	AWAY
7	1943	YANKEES	CARDINALS	4-1	AWAY	HOME
8	1944	CARDINALS	BROWNS	4-2	HOME *	HOME *
9	1946	CARDINALS	RED SOX	4-3	HOME	HOME
10	1964	CARDINALS	YANKEES	4-3	HOME	HOME
11	1967	CARDINALS	RED SOX	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
12	1968	TIGERS	CARDINALS	4-3	HOME	HOME
13	1982	CARDINALS	BREWERS	4-3	HOME	HOME
14	1985	ROYALS	CARDINALS	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
15	1987	TWINS	CARDINALS	4-3	AWAY	AWAY
16	2004	RED SOX	CARDINALS	4-0	AWAY	HOME
17	2006	CARDINALS	TIGERS	4-1	AWAY	HOME
18	2011	CARDINALS	RANGERS	4-3	HOME	HOME
19	2013	RED SOX	CARDINALS	4-2	AWAY	AWAY

THERE WERE NO “AWAY” GAMES IN 1944. BOTH CLUBS WERE FROM ST. LOUIS, PLAYING IN THE SAME BALLPARK THEY SHARED AS HOME DURING THE REGULAR SEASON.

TABLE II: CARDINALS RECORD IN WORLD SERIES, BASED UPON VARIOUS MULTIPLE GAME OUTCOMES:

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES/ GAMES W OR L	CARDINALS SERIES WINS & LOSSES
4 WINS – 0 LOSSES	0 WINS – 2 LOSSES
4 WINS – 1 LOSS	2 WINS – 1 LOSSES
4 WINS – 2 LOSSES	1 WINS – 2 LOSSES
4 WINS – 3 LOSSES	8 WIN – 3 LOSSES
TOTAL WINS – LOSSES ————->	11 WINS – 8 LOSSES

TABLE III. CARDINALS RECORD IN WORLD SERIES BASED UPON HOME/AWAY STARTS AND FINISHES:

CARDS BEGAN/ENDED	SERIES W-L RECORD	W %
HOME/HOME	6-1	.857
HOME/AWAY	1-0	1.000
AWAY/HOME	1-3	.250
AWAY/AWAY	3-4	.429
TOTALS 1903-2013	11-8	.579

A few facts jump off the page. For one, look at the Cardinals’ history of seven game World Series. 11 of their 19 Series trips have gone to seven – and the Cards have won 8 and lost 3 – totals alone that match the whole record for the Boston Red Sox in all 11 of their World Series appearances. – Also, watch out when the Cards get to start and finish a Series at home. They are 6 wins and only 1 loss in that column.

Both the Red Sox and the Cardinals will be back to The Show. They are each too well-organized and dedicated to winning to stay away long, but I did get the feeling last night that the Cardinals may be starting to play old. Beltran, Molina, and Holiday are no spring chickens. Age and dead spots in the batting order will need to be addressed. As for the Red Sox, I really loved David Ortiz’s post-game declaration, “I’M BACK!” Also, that Dustin Pedroia is great – a real old school firecracker. The Red Sox need to rattle his family tree and childhood neighborhood for the possibility of more like him.

Finally, I would really like to see the Red Sox stage a very special throwback uniform night at Fenway in 2014. – Just call it “House of David Memorial Night.”

Tags:BOSTON RED SOX, St. Louis Cardinals, World Series
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1903: The First Final World Series Game

October 30, 2013

1903 World Series Game 8 Line Score / Box Score
1903 World Series Game 8 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pittsburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	3
Boston	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	x	3	8	0
Pittsburgh Pitcher(s)						Boston Pitcher(s)
Deacon Phillippe (L)						Bill Dinneen
Pittsburgh Home Runs						Boston Home Runs
None						None

Line Score Courtesy of Baseball Almanac.

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The date was October 13, 1903. The Boston Americans (not yet Red Sox) had just polished off the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0, at Huntington Field in the Hub City to take the first World Series of the modern 20th Century Era of major league baseball before a crowd of 7,456 fans that had braved the threat of rain to be there for a chance to croon in a victory chant with a few alcohol-inspired choruses of the team’s love song, “Tessie”.

Here are a few snippets of how the Boston Globe reported this first explosion of “World Series Winner’s Joy and Jubilation the following day in their October 14, 1903 edition:

HEADLINES: — “OUT WITH THE CROWD, — IT WAS A GLORIOUS DAY FOR THE FANS, — ENTHUSIASM RAN RIOT IN FOURTH. — ROOTERS AND THEIR BAND IN EVIDENCE. — CHEERS AND MELODY FOLLOW EACH OTHER. — GREAT GAME IS REPLETE WITH THRILLING SITUATIONS. — WILD SCENE AT THE FINISH OF THE CONTEST. — PLAYERS CARRIED ON THE SHOULDERS OF ADMIRERS.”

——————–

“Tessie” Was the First Reported Word: “Tessie,” an obscure maiden whom somebody loved in a ragtime melody, wasn’t much in the place (yesterday) which the librettist and composer built for her. But she has a place in history. She will go tunefully tripping down the ages as yhr famous mascot that helped the Boston Americans win three out of four at Pittsburg(h), capture the final game at Boston and with it the title – champions of the world.”

“Sung by the thundering ensemble at the Huntington av(enue) baseball grounds yesterday afternoon, “Tessie” was there when anything worth doing was done. “Tessie” was never carolled for any four-flush proposition; her chaste salutes were only for that which wins the laurel wreath.”

——————–

Threat of Rain Held Crowd to only 7,456: “Last night more than 10,000 men from Boston and its distant environs were saying, as they heard the score, ‘If I only had been sure they would play, I would have been there.’ There were nearly 8,000 people there who took the chance, whose confidence would not be shaken by the lowering sky, the threatening overcast or the possibility of slippery grounds. They were there to see the world’s championship won, and to participate in the spectacular demonstration in honor of the ‘greatest team of ballplayers on earth.’ ”

——————–

Pre-Game Fun: From 12-2 PM at the grounds, fans started showing up, including the privileged “Royal Rooters” and their band of musicians and copies of the lyrics to “Tessie”. Singing, drinking, eating, and adrenalin-pumping were the order of the day prior to the field arrival of the players.

——————–

2 PM, Boston Players Arrive: “About 2 o’clock, the first good excuse for melody and cheers came with the appearance of Parent, Stahl, and Dougherty, all of whom cavorted about chasing balls for some minutes. Then came Collins. When he appeared, the mighty Rooters arose in a bunch and chanted that gurgling reminiscent masterpiece, ‘Down Where the Wurzburger Flows.’ ”

“There were cheers and more cheers.”

“Enter Cy Young in a red sweater, followed by a great noise. Cy got down to work in the field chasing grounders.”

“As each player made his appearance on the field, the Rooters gave him a cordial greeting.”

——————–

2:15 PM, Pittsburgh Players Arrive: “When, at 2:15, the Pittsburg(h) Pirates ran upon the field with Capt. (Fred) Clarke and Hans Wagner at the head, Charlie Lavis (of the Royal Rooters) called for three cheers for Clarke. Three lusty ones were given and the Pittsburger lifted his cap.”

——————–

Warm Up and Picture Time: “The limbering-up process went on for 20 minutes. Every battery of each nine was out taking the kinks out of their arms.”

“Then for 10 minutes the players of both nines posed for group photographs for several artists.”

——————–

The Game: Boston scored 2 in the bottom of the 4th and one more in the 6th to win, 3-0, and take the first World Series from Deacon Phillipe and the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5 games to 3. Bill Dineen pitched Boston to victory with a 4-hit shutout, getting Honus Wagner on a swinging strike three to wrap up the game and the series.

——————–

Post-Game/Fans Carry Players Off the Field. Like it or not, the Boston players were grabbed by fans and carried off the field by the insanity that reined on this rain-scary championship day . Only Ferris escaped their grasp and Jimmy Collins almost became a human wishbone: “Jimmy Collins was nearly dismantled because the crowd that had his right leg insisted on going in a different direction from the party that held possession of his left one.

Once rescued, the players did not linger for another ovation any longer than they had to, slipping away or into the clubhouse until the coast was clear. ~ “But the great crowd stayed, cheering until the rooters formed in line behind their band and uncovered while ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ was being played. Then they marched across the field and out of the backfield gate.”

It is highly probable that the saloons and bars of Boston did a fairly brisk evening of business during the evening hours of October 13, 1903. After all, those were fairly intemperate times when it came to celebrating great victories and there was no Dr. Oz Show around in those days to advise Bostonians in advance on the healthiest ways to celebrate great victory and joy.

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

Tags:1903 World Series
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The Sportswriter Artist of Written Word Pictures

October 29, 2013

Grantland Rice at Work.

Grantland Rice was the caviar of sportswriters back in the 1920s, in the days prior to television, readily available next day sporting event movies, or all the other visual media we have built into our smart phones and our Internet-wired lives of today. That culture of the 1920’s pulled upon the man’s artistic talents to write for the newsprint reporting sources about the games that people play in stadiums for big money as if he were the eye of all who could not be there to witness that particular event in person. And he did it with words. But he did it with words that rapidly connected in the mind’s eye of readers as pictures in the present tense. Over time, Rice’s story of the crushing Notre Dame victory over Army at the Polo Grounds in 1924 may be his second most famous surviving example:

“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.”

~ Grantland Rice, October 18, 1924, describing the Notre Dame backfield that buried Army in a football game at the Polo Grounds.

Rice has been honored by some and criticized by others for being a myth-maker for his tendency to write about sports figures he liked in ways that actually embellished upon their actual accomplishments. As best I can tell, this disagreement rag on Rice’s powerful writing ability bore little wind from critics in his own era. And that makes sense. Rice wrote about people like Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Knute Rockne – figures who were perfectly capable of inspiring mythology in the words of almost any writer who took them on as contemporary subjects.

On the other hand, one could reasonably argue that comparing four undergraduate Notre Dame football players to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was slightly overstated. But it was pure Rice. And Rice could not take an event like that Saturday afternoon ND-Army blow-out and put it in words that read like house paint on the side of an old barn from the very start.

The talent and style of Rice in typed form was a visual medium. Ironically, when Grantland Rice was asked to try his hand at early baseball game broadcasting, he behaved more like a financial savant who could figure out a company’s equities from observing the stock market prices on a given day, but couldn’t balance his own checkbook any given day. On the air, he lapsed into past tense reporting, waiting until a play had been completed before reporting it in bare bones past tense words over the air. Broadcasting was not his medium and he soon gave it up.

But give him the dramatic moment, like the time Grover Cleveland Alexander came out of the bullpen for the Cardinals in Game Seven of the 1926 World Series with the bases loaded and two outs to fan Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees and protect a 3-2 Cardinal lead that would hold up as the final score, and Rice became the best next day friend to the hinterlands as their version of a moving picture account:

“Yankee Stadium, New York – Oct 10 (1926) – For just one brief moment in the seventh inning the screeching and the roaring gave way to a sudden hush, gripping in its intensity as the straining eyes of the crowd looked out across left field.

“Under the heavy shadows of this silence that seemed to be part of a dark day, the Yankees had the bases full, there two out and the Cardinals were leading 3-2 with Tony Lazzeri waiting at the plate. And then as suddenly as it had stopped, the screeching and the roaring broke into a new wave of greater sound as an old, familiar sight came shuffling in from a hidden bull pen in left field. He came on shuffling side by side as the same old badly fitting cap cocked on top of his head as if balanced there by a trick.

“He paid no attention to the emotional salvo of thousands who had turned from cheering a Yankee rally to pay tribute to an old arm that was on its way to put the home club down.

“So it was that Alexander, 10 years in the service, last of the grenadiers, came to the mound again to send his ‘whoos!’ ball whizzing through at the vital moment of the seven-game series. Here was the spot where $50,000 rode on every pitch and every swing, where a base hit meant a Yankees victory and the end of Lazzeri meant the end of Yankees hopes.

“Jess Haines had just given way to the old master who now stood looking at Lazzeri before he began to pitch. Without a quiver or tremor, unhurried and unworried, old Aleck started back to work. Strike – strike – ball – strike – and the old timer started to the bench again with the winner’s end rolled up inside his tobacco-soaked glove.

“It was upon this last pitched ball that struck Lazzeri out that the young, hard-fighting Cardinals rose to the baseball championship of the world. Needing both games on New York turf to reach the peak of fame and the top of the golden pyramid, they beat the Yankees 3 to 2 in the seventh and decisive game in spite of the brilliant pitching of Waite Hoyt and Herbert Pennock that, with even fair support, would have shut the Cardinals out.”

~ Grantland Rice, October 10, 1926

Grantland Rice is arguably best remembered for these lines from his poem, “Alumnus Football”:

“For when the One Great Scorer comes

To mark against your name,

He writes – not that you won or lost –

But how you played the Game.”

Times change, but true genius transcends time. I’ll take Grantland Rice and his beautifully descriptive prose and poetry over Tweet-Script any time. By the same token, I’ll also take our own gem, Mickey Herskowitz over all the self-anointed generals and the several house-paint dabbers who pass themselves off as sportswriters out there today.

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

Tags:Grantland Rice
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This World Series Lining Up Freaky Finishes

October 28, 2013

Maybe Game 5 will produce the first 40 run inning in World Series history!

Honestly. Have you ever seen anything like the endings they’ve put on World Series Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis?

Game 3 was really something wild. It’s been forever since I last saw an “obstruction of the base runner” call – and I’ve never seen that call end any game, let alone, a World Series game.

Then young Mr. Wong comes along in Game 4 and gets picked off as the base runner at first with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and Carlos “Playoff Hitting Legend” Beltran coming to bat as the potential tying run for the Cardinals!

OUCH!

How would you have liked being rookie Kolten Wong as he returned to the Cardinal clubhouse after the game? If, indeed, he did return?

Yeah, I know. Stuff happens. But, Geez-us! You just don’t get picked off base, or make the last out any other way as a base runner to end a World Series game with a serious power threat coming to the plate as the potential tying run. That is, unless your name is Babe Ruth – and it’s Game 7 of the World Series and your Yankees are only down 3-2 to the Cardinals, but Pete Alexander just walked you because you are Babe Ruth and the potential tying run, even if it brings up one of your dangerous “Murderers’ Row” mates, Bob Meusel, to the plate as the potential game and World Series winning team batter.

What did Ruth do in that circumstance back in 1926? He got himself thrown out trying to steal second base, ending everything. The Game. The Series. The New York fan cheers. The post-season winner’s share. All was lost on an easy out Hornsby tag at the bag of a sliding slow runner.

Yankee fans were livid, but they would get over it. Babe Ruth had the kind of power and persona that made it easy for fans to forgive and forget his failings. It wasn’t too long before a large percentage of the fans seemed to have forgotten Ruth running the Yankees to the bitter end of the 1926 World Series. Instead of Ruth’s ill-considered play, Game 7 in 1926 would be remembered as the time old Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander came out of the pen in the bottom of the 7th to strike out Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees with the bases loaded and two outs to protect and eventually batten down the St. Louis 3-2 margin of victory.

Poor Mr. Wong. He doesn’t have the Ruthian formula for promoting mass fan amnesia. And this is the social media era, a time when people possess both the ways and means for stirring up hostile lamentation. On the right side for Wong, this also is an era in which many people suffer from short attention spans and a dedicated stand against learning much of anything from the pain of personal experience. In effect, he has a good shot at slipping through the wormhole of bad memory and. if manager Matheny’s memory is also awful, maybe even getting picked off again as a World Series pinch runner.

Wonder if a pinch runner has ever been picked off base to end two consecutive World Series games?

If not, we still get to wonder all day this Monday. – What kind of weird ending, if any, awaits us tonight in Game 5?

*******************************************************************************

“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

Tags:Weird World Seties Game Endings
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Babies Drop Two at George Ranch

October 27, 2013

Blind Toms and Vintage Teams Play Ball in the Noon Day Sun!

The Houston Babies (0-2) dropped both games they played today at George Ranch, losing 9-5 and 5-2 to the Katy Combine in a DH dose of shellac. By the time a fresh version of the Boerne White Sox finally arrived from their abode near San Antonio, the Babies were done for the day, but Katy managed to patch together enough of a lineup to take them on in a single game. Boerne (1-0) blasted the worn out Katy (2-1) nine, 8-0, to become the only club on the day with a perfect record.

The Publisher, Editor, Writer, and Chief Bottle Washer of the Pecan Park Eagle was a little under the weather and unable to attend today’s festivities, but our crack field reporter and beat writer, Mike McCroskey, who also bore the double-duty job of filling in for our cruising Babies mentor, Bob Dorrill, as the Babies Manager of the Day took us on as well. Do you think the Yankees ever could have gotten Joe Torre to both manage their club and write up the game stories too?

Thanks for all you do, Mr. McCroskey; you are a one in a million friend and fan of the grand old game.

Ladies and Gentlemen, settle back and enjoy our star reporter’s festival and game day report from George Ranch on Saturday, October 26, 2013. By the way, Mr. McCroskey also took the pictures used here. All I did was the title and Photoshop work on the photos and the mechanical work of posting this wonderful (but also sad because we lost, but that’s baseball for you) report:

*****************************************************************

HOUSTON BABIES DROP DH WITH KATY COMBINE; BOERNE WHITE SOX TAKE SINGLE GAME WITH KATY.

BY Mike McCroskey, Special Reporter for The Pecan Park Eagle

On a cool, crisp autumn day with a bright blue sunshine-filled sky overhead clustered with billowy white clouds, weather reminiscent of when the World Series games were played during the day, Texian days at the George Ranch welcomed Vintage baseball with a day made for baseball. The Katy Combine and Houston Babies squared off at 10:00 A.M. to the delight of record attendance crowds. The Babies, managed by first time manager Mike McCroskey, subbing for the vacationing Bob Dorill (somewhere upon a sea in the North Atlantic) were a little short-handed as many of the regulars failed to show. However, many eager cranks got their first chance to experience the thrill of vintage baseball as a result. The first call for volunteers found no shortage of willing participants. The game day began, as game days should: Both teams in the field, a short prayer remembering missing Departed Houston Baby, Larry Joe Miggins; and thanking our veterans. Then both teams came together in a group on the field, singing the Star Spangled Banner prior to the first pitch.

Bill Hale (far left) is a veteran Babies player in our George Ranch Field of Dreams.

Brian Ketchum of Fort Worth, Texas started in center field and led off the Babies bottom of the first with a hit., later coming around to score the game’s first run on a solid double by Shortstop Mark Hudec. He was joined by newcomer Tim Murphy, a guest of pitcher Bill Hale. Tim started the game in left field and singled in his first at bat in the second inning, coming around to score on a 2 rbi single by Babies septuagenarian second baseman, Phil Holland.

The Katy Combine, however, were the masters of the big inning, scoring 7 runs in the second inning, which proved to be decisive in what ended in a 9-5 Katy victory. Ira Liebman of the Sugar Land Skeeters, also, debuted in this game at first base, making several spectacular hustle plays after overcoming some early inning jitters. We, also, had a couple of Katy players filling in for the Babies in the outfield, scoring one of the Babies’ runs. And speaking of good fielding, the Babies turned not one , but two 6-4-3 double plays in what turned into a late inning defensive battle.

Vintage Ball is Our Reminder that Baseball is Forever.

Tom Hull led the Katy Combine, scoring a run in all 3 of his at bats in the 5 inning game. His 10-year old daughter, Gracie, pinch ran for McCroskey in a failed pinch hit appearance. Speedy Meghan McCroskey was absent this day due to excessive homecoming week commitments.

Game 2, found the Babies short a couple of more players. Brent Hopkins of Pearland started at shortstop, and his 10-year old son Blake started in the outfield. Young Blake got on base twice and scored one of the Babies 2 runs. Tim Mahoney played his second game in the outfield, and Alex Jimenez, literally walked on to the field and reached base in each of his 2 at bats in this quickly played 5 inning game. Gracie Hull started in left field and played the entire game.

The Combine were again the masters of the big inning, scoring 5 runs in the bottom of the first which held up for a 5-2 victory. Tom Flores led the Combine with a pair of hits in his only 2 at bats, scoring the first run in the big 5 run first. The first of the Boerne White Sox players began showing up in the middle of this game.

The horizons of baseball are always a possible reach in our sandlot brains. All it takes to get there is the long ball of never giving up on your dreams.

By this time, players had worked up quite an appetite, and the George Ranch treated all to a delicious home-made chili and Frito dish that was eagerly consumed by most. Seconds were had by many and more of the Babies left. However, the rest of the Boerne White Sox arrived and game 3 of the set was soon underway. It was agreed that this would be a 7 inning affair as it was the last game of the day. Babies first baseman, Ira Liebman, started at 3rd for the Combine as they were one man short at game time.

We don’t care if we never get back!

The White Sox had come a long way to play and were on their game this afternoon. The chili laden Combine could not get it going against the Boerne nine, who repeatedly made sparkling fielding plays in what resulted in an 8-0 shutout win for the Sox. Several players had pulled muscles, and little Gracie Hull made about 8 pinch running appearances in this game, never once reaching first. She did, however, score a run after going in to pinch run for a Boerne player at third base.
The ultimate, “rub salt in your wound” play came on the game’s final at bat. Combine third baseman Dave Flores hit a sharp grounder back to the Boerne pitcher known as Sparty. Sparty had pulled a hamstring muscle earlier and Gracie had run for him in his last 3 at bats. Anyway, this time, Sparty fielded the ball, and then hopped, one-legged, to first base for an unassisted putout on Dave, as the cranks and teams, oohed, awwed, and laughed!

Quite an “in-your-face” ending; and quite a day for vintage baseball.

Vintage Base Ball: It’s the place where art and science, faith and fact, all come together. It is also the childhood fire in your heart that never left you, even when your childhood did.

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

Tags:Houston Babies, Vintage Base Ball
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Once Upon a No-Tsu-Oh Time

October 26, 2013

Miss Ima Hogg and friends ready themselves for the big No-Tsu-Oh carnival parade during one of the years of the early 20th century annual Houston dip into community fun.

Back in 1899, as Houston churned toward its plans to celebrate the end of one century and the beginning of another, a local social group known as the Houston Houndz came up with an idea for a week-long carnival, one modeled after Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They called it No-Tsu-Oh (Houston spelled backwards) – and it came complete with plans to crown a reining carnival ruler to be known as King Nottoc (cotton spelled backwards).

Theses silly carnival name-christening plans apparently came across to Houstonians of that era as stupid as they still sound today. People didn’t like it, and they stayed away in droves, at first, from offering their support.

As 1900 drew near, however, the appeal of a week-long party won out over any objections to its identity wrappings, proving once again the truth of that ancient adage: “It doesn’t matter what it looks, feels, sounds, or smells like – as long as it tastes good.” And No-Tsu-Oh tasted so good to Houstonians that they kept on celebrating it annually through about 1918, when the United States entered World War One. After the war, it never resumed. Houston had changed and moved on into the robust working, growing, entrepreneurial city that it needed to be beyond any needs to stop and smell the roses as the center point of community life, as they ubiquitously do in New Orleans.

Another old expression evolved as the standard for comparing the cities of New Orleans and Houston by the middle of the 20th century: About New Orleans, the wisdom grew that most people there work to live. In Houston, however, where so many people are corporate transfers; they live to work.

As an independent Houstonian who absorbed a large part of his graduate school time and practical life experience as a student of Tulane and an everyday New Orleans resident, I would express the difference between life in the two cities in this way: In New Orleans, people don’t just stop to smell the roses. They stop to become full-time gardeners. In Houston, however, most people who do stop to smell the roses are more often awakened to the potential for selling roses themselves at a cheaper market price.

It’s Saturday. Have fun.

And while you are getting ready for the day, here’s an early turn of the 20th century story from the Brownsville Daily Herald of October 30, 1905 about one of the early No-Tsu-Oh festival plans:

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WEEK OF FUN

FOUR GORGEOUS PARADES IN SIX DAYS

SPECTACULAR DISPLAYS – HORSE RACES EVERY DAY

FINE SOWS AND CONFETTI ON THE HIKE ALONG

A week of frolic. Here is the place to have it. The carnival that made Houston famous is No-Tsu-Oh. and this year the biggest festival ever known in Texas has been planned.

The No-Tsu-Oh carnival has no object but to spread mirth. It does not mix this with any exhibition that savors of dullness. There is fun of every kind, fun for everybody, wholesome, unshackled, untainted, sparkling fun. The carnival of 1905 begins November 13 and continues the rough the night of November 18.

Horse races every day of the No-Tsu-Oh carnival is a new and big feature this year. Some of the best racers of the country will be on the Houston track. There will be running, trotting and pacing races.A feast is in store for the lovers of this, the most inspiring of all the sports. Every facility has been provided to accommodate the crowd at the race track, and some novelties wiil be put in to make the Houston races lead all others in point of interest.

The “Hike-Along” this year will resemble the Pikeaway of last year, though a superior lot of shows have been secured. This will be the fun center; about it will rotate about all the frolicking that can be put into one week.

The triumphal entry of King Nottoc to the city of No-Tsu-Oh will occur Monday morning of carnival week amid the ringing of bells, the sound of whistles and the firing of guns. There will be mpunted march of the gayly decorated knights and princes of Saxet from all the realm of Tekram.

(Editorial Note: I’m assuming you picked it up. – Saxet is backwards for Texas; Tekram is backwards for market. Those folks really got carried away in the celebration of their own, uh … cleverness.)

In spectacular effect and scenic magnificence, the No-Tsu-Oh Ball of 1905 will surpass all previous events. On this occasion the King and Queen will be crowned and revealed to the public. The ball room will be a garden spot of beauty, and when graced by the sprite-like form of the dancers, dreamland will be made a reality.

Be in Houston November 13-18, 1905. The No-Tsu-Oh carnival, (is certain to be) the greatest ever.

~ Brownsville Daily Herald, October 30, 1905. Page 1.

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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In Sports, Denial is not just a River in Egypt

October 25, 2013

Denial Is not just the name of a river in Egypt.

Denial is not just the name of a river in Egypt.

It’s an old joke, but it totally fits the way professional and collegiate sports teams and programs often handle impending personnel decisions, especially when they feel pressured by both fans, plus the ink and electric press. In today’s social media world, that is merely a pressure that sports entities are under 24/7, all year, every year, and, unless your club is winning everything, it turns negative on a dime – or something like someone establishing a new record for “pick-sixes” in four consecutive games.

While he was employed as head coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, gypsy genius mentor Nick Saban denied up and down that he had any contact or interest in the open head coaching job at the University of Alabama. A few days later, he was signing a contract to take over the program on a contractual basis that would have taken any reasonable great one and his agent far more than 72 hours to hammer into self-absorbing shape. And now that Saban has opened the NCAA spigot on national championships in football for smiling Alabama fans, we feel certain that his original deal has since yeasted into one that better measures up to the kind of money trough that opens up to sports figures who deliver the goods in their respective marketplaces.

The 1953 Cincinnati Redlegs (who did not call themselves the “Reds” in 1953 due to the word’s association back then with communism) denied up and own the street that all their loud locker room screaming had anything to do with their unhappiness and desire to be rid of manager Rogers Hornsby, but on their way to a sixth place finish, the club fired him with seven games to go and turned over the team to interim manager Buster Mills. It was Hornsby’s last managerial stop, but like most of the others, it came about with a few “hip-hip-hooray” cheers along the “ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead” player song trail.

As far as I can tell, and I could be as wrong as rain in any recent Houston spring, Rogers Hornsby had no friends. He had no friends because nobody liked him. Nobody liked him because he never gave anyone anything to like about him as a human being. He had a Hall of Fame ability that has caused more than one pundit to describe him as the greatest right hand hitting batter in the history of the game, but that was it. When the season ended, the famous story about him sitting in a chair and staring out the window until spring training began again had another angle to it beyond his obsessive love of the game. He also stared out the window through the winter because he had no social skills or needs to be with people on any other basis. Oh, he didn’t stay by the window all the time. If there was a parimutuel horse betting operation or track nearby, you could count on The Rajah to seek it out and put it into play.

Hornsby had no need for people. He had a big need for horses that ran for the money.

Back in 1950, the late Buddy Hancken of later Houston Astros coaching service was managing in the minors away from his home in Beaumont. So, he did the right thing. He rented out his house for the season to Rogers Hornsby, who was taking over as manager of the Beaumont Exporters of the Texas League. When the season ended and Buddy returned home, several of his neighbors stopped by to welcome him home and thank him for returning. “That Rogers Hornsby fellow was the most unfriendly person I’ve ever tried to meet,” one neighbor offered.

We could write a book on the subject, but why not just have some fun here on what may be the Ten Biggest Rivers of Denial in Sports for 2013?

Here are my offerings, even if it may be months, or years in some cases, before the real lies bubble to the surface:

10) “It was never about money to me. I just loved playing the game at a high level of accomplishment.” – Alex Rodriguez, Third Base, New York Yankees.

9) “We’re very much behind the current plan to save the Astrodome. The last thing we want is to see it torn down and turned into a parking lot.” – Bob McNair, Owner, Houston Texans.

8) “The American Alliance for Mixed Martial Arts is totally in support of their new, very simple, but healthy approach to concussion-avoidance: “Beat the other guy’s brains in before he bashes in yours.” – Joe Kapzulli, Commissioner, American Alliance for Mixed Martial Arts.

7) “The Chicago Cubs are totally committed to winning the World Series in the 21st Century. We also will not reach 2108 without having won at least twice.” – Theo Epstein, General Manager, Chicago Cubs.

6) “Even if we are going through a little rough spell at 2-5, I still think that a healthy Matt Schaub is the QB who can best get us back in the winner’s circle.” – Head Coach Gary Kubiak, Houston Texans.

5) “I have no interest, nor have I had any contact with anyone about the open coaching job at USC.” – Kevin Sumlin, Head Coach, Texas A&M.

4) “Mack Brown is both a class act and great developer of talent. He is our coach for the foreseeable future.” – Chairman, UT Board of Regents.

3) “We are all going to miss Bud Selig when he retires. A fairer man never served as Commissioner of Baseball.” – Jim Crane, Owner, Houston Astros.

2) “I like the Selig rule that allows the All Star Game winner to be the determining factor in home field advantage for the World Series because it takes away the records of the teams actually competing and gives the decision over to people who most likely will have nothing to do with the actual playing of the World Series.” – Joe Baseball Fan, Anywhere, USA.

1) “I have no interest, nor have I had any contact with anyone about the open coaching job at UT.” – Art Briles, Head Coach, Baylor.

Have, a nice weekend, everybody. – TGIF!

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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The Great 1949 Owls Roll NC in the Cotton Bowl

October 24, 2013

The Rice Owls of 1949 were a True Bird of Prey!

The 1949 Rice Owls were a great football team, the kind of national quality team that this fine Houston university both deserves and, hopefully, will have again. Look. – If Stanford can do it, and they do, year in and year out, then so should the Owls be able to put themselves in the driver’s seat of a college club that again combines brains and athleticism for the sake of elevating Rice to that highest plane of achievement in college football.

The 1949 Owls went 10 and 1 on the year, coming within 8 points in one game against the always tough LSU Tigers of going undefeated on the season. That 14-7 loss to the Tigers came on the heels of a season-opening pasting that Rice put on Clemson, 34-7, and it was followed by a 65-o slaughter by the Owls of New Mexico State before going into a perfect romp of all their seven Southwest Conference rivals to finish their championship season at 9-1 as the reining SWC king and the designated league host of the once fabled Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Beginning with their iconic coach, Jess Neely, the 1949 Owls were names I only heard over the radio or read in the Houston Post, but they were still heroes to me as an 11-year old Houston kid. I still get chills from reading or hearing any of those familiar Owl names today.

Jess Neely. – Tobin Rote. – Billy Burkhalter. – Froggy Williams. – All American center Joe Watson. – These names lit the house for both the university then known as Rice Institute and the City of Houston back in 1949.

And here’s how Dan Shults of the Baytown Sun covered the Rice Owls’ final triumph of the 1949 season in a 27-13 victory over Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and the North Carolina Tarheels in the Cotton Bowl on Monday, January 2, 1950:

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RICE POWER, PASSES TROUNCE TARHEELS, 27-13

North Carolina Team Outclassed by Owls

by Dan Shults

Coach Jess Neely’s machine-like Owls put on a bruising exhibition of power and arterial artistry in Dallas’ mammoth Cotton Bowl yesterday to stun the North Carolina Tarheels, 27-13, before a sellout crowd.

Rice’s blocking was superb, and by far the outstanding feature of the game. The Owls waited until mid-way to score their first touchdown, but they clearly demonstrated their superiority early in the first period, taking the opening kickoff and driving the length of the field before bogging down on the Tarheel 13.

Rice’s first touchdown was a thing of beauty, and demonstrated perfection in football. Quarterback Tobin Rote flipped a short flat pass to the hard-running Billy Burkhalter, who already had two men running interference for him, while more was forming quickly on down the field. Burkhalter took the aerial on the Tarheel 40, and the North Carolina boys began to fall like dominoes lined up in a row. There were at least five perfect downfield blocks that paved the way for Burkhalter. Joe Watson, Rice’s All America center, turned one Tarheel defender a complete flip with a vicious block. Froggy Williams kicked the extra point and the Owls led, 7-0.

Rice’s second touchdown was set up on a twisting, turning 16 yard run by Burkhalter that put the ball on the Tarheel seven. With time running out, Gordon Wyatt thundered over center for the touchdown and Williams converted to put the Owls ahead, 14-0.

The Owls scored again in the third period and early in the fourth period to lead, 27-0.

North Carolina made its two touchdowns late in the final quarter, the last coming with only 47 seconds to go. Charley Justice showed of the stuff that made him an All America, but his play was overshadowed by the hard running of teammate Billy Hayes.

The Tarheels drove 65 yards for their first TD. Only seven yards from paydirt, Justice hit Paul Rizzo on the two and he stepped over the goal.

It was Rizzo who made North Carolina’s final TD. Justice started out around his own left end, found himself trapped, and lateraled to Rizzo who went over. The play covered eight yards.

Rice’s Williams came through like a true All American, ending his brilliant career in a starring role. It was he who scored the third Rice TD on a great catch and run down the sideline.The Owls had the pigskin on the Tarheel 17 when Rote hist Williams on the 12. The fine-running end wheeled and cut for the sideline, where he tight-roped it to the goal line, shaking off one North Carolina tackler on the way.

Williams was in North Carolina’s hair during the entire game. With Rote flipping ’em, Williams caught aerials all over the field, and in addition kicked three out of four extra points.

~ Excerpt from a game coverage article by Dan Shults that appeared in the Baytown (TX) Sun on Tuesday, January 3, 1950, Page 6.

The 1950 Cotton Bowl, Dallas Texas, January 2, 1950

CATEGORIES	RICE	NORTH CAROLINA
First Downs	18`	16
Net Yards Rushing	226	174
Net Yards Passing	152	80
Total Net Yards Offense	378	254
Passes Complete/Attempt	11/19	9/22
Interceptions/Yds Return	1/27	1/0
Fumbles: Lost/Total	1/2	1/3
Punts	4	6
Average Punt Return YDS	43	38
Yards Punts Run Back	36	11
Number of Penalties	3	4
Yards Penalized	26	30
Yards Kickoffs Run Back	37	77

TEAMS	QTR 1	QTR 2	QTR 3	QTR 4	~	FINAL
RICE	0	14	7	6	~	27
UNC	0	0	0	13	~	13

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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1957: Russian Moon Creates Debate

October 23, 2013

As a sophomore undergraduate at the University of Houston when the Russians launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957, I subsequently watched a lot of my fraternity brothers and other friends transfer their majors into the basic sciences and engineering as a result of the new “gitty up-let’s go- we’re already behind the Reds-and we can’t trust the Russians” space age just dropped out of the sky upon us faster than any of us could realize that Houston was now only a few short years away from becoming home to something called “NASA” and the title-holder of the phrase, “Space City, USA”.

It all began on the foundation of everything that came to be during the Cold War relationship between our country and the U.S.S.R. – It all began in competitive distrust for each other. And for those of you who weren’t around in 1957, I cannot even begin to adequately describe our national shock, shame, disappointment, distrust, and, yes, fear – that exploded from the realization that the Russians had beaten us on the first leg as the first nation to put a satellite into space. If you can read between the relatively calm lines written by John Blakeslee, you will rub elbows with every negative emotion I’ve described here.

Just another thought for the liner facts column: Had there been no Sputnik, there might never have been a place named the Astrodome, eight years later. Sputnik set up the progression of facts that eventually led to the appointment of our new covered sports stadium as the Astrodome. Had there been no Sputnik, who knows, things may have developed differently enough to have changed everything that followed in reality.

Anyway, keep your heads up – and your spirits soaring. There’s hardly a modern technology or condition that has not come to us as a result of the once-upon-a-time space race that really got banging down the road with Sputnik. Besides, its fun to think about subjects other than baseball or football every now and then. – Those sweet subjects will always pull us back when our hunger for them always returns.

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Russian Moon Creates Debate

By Alton L. Blakeslee, Associated Press Science Reporter

New York (AP) – In its third day of life, the Russian moon is creating some trail of confusion concerning three intriguing questions:

Is Sputnik – Russian for space satellite – making some space studies, such as temperatures or space’s shooting star?

Is it telling about them in a radio code?

Will the U.S.S.R. inform other nations of what it learns in this maiden voyage into space?

Russia’s rocket scientist, Dr. A.A. Blagonravov, says Sputnik is only broadcasting radio signals so it can be tracked, and is not studying temperatures, or other events in space. And it’s not broadcasting anything in code, he adds.

But in Moscow, a prominent scientist says that Sputnik is counting hits by meteorites out in space. The moon would have to report this by some code. One possibility is that, due to language translation difficulties, this scientist was referring to future moons, not to Sputnik the First.

A Moscow broadcast says that Sputnik has provided knowledge “of great scientific value,” but gives no details. This could refer just to observations of its orbit, giving clues about air density in space, or to knowledge useful in launching and directing future moons into desired orbits.

Some U.S. scientists listening to Sputnik’s beeping signals detect changes which they say sound like a code.But they quickly add that this could be a practice test of a presently meaningless code. Codes will be essential in any future moons to radio back reports of what is learned in space, since the moons can’t land back home.

Dr. Blagronavov yesterday called Sputnik an experimental or test shot and said it was outside the International Geophysical Year (IGY).

Both nations have agreed to share fully everything their IGY moons learn.

Asked on a TV program NBC-Youth wants to know whether the Russians would share information about Sputnik, he replied:

U.S. scientists observing it can learn very useful information for launching their own satellite.

Experiences of Sputnik could help the Russians in subsequent launches and the United States with its first one.

Dr. John P. Hagen, director of the American Moon project Vanguard, said in a telephone interview that the Soviet radio signal appears to contain a code.

“It could well have no meaning other than to practice a code transmission,” he said. “This would be expected. It’s hard to tell if it represents real information.”

He explained that the 20 megacycle radio signal from Sputnik shows a series of pulses about a third of a second long, with a modulation or change in that pulse.

Dr, Blagonravov explains the variations are due to physical laws producing them as a speeding object proceeds or recedes from a given listening post.

He told IGY scientists that the moon carried only radio equipment, circuits and batteries for tracking purposes. He confirmed that Sputnik weighs 184 pounds.

U.S. scientists calculate that electronic equipment and batteries weighing this much could be packed inside Sputnik’s small size with the rest of the weight made up of iys outer shell.

~ Camden (NJ) News, October 7, 1957, Page 2.

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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1960: Oilers Win 1st Official Game, 37-22

October 22, 2013

George Blanda (#16), QB of the 1960 Houston Oilers

The weekend of September 9-11, 1960 marked the birth of the new American Football League as the time for the eight club circuit’s first four official games. Here are a few notes to help you keep track of the teams this UPI report is actually talking about. Because of certain changes and double uses, it may be confusing to newcomers as to how these mascot names have sometimes evolved, disappeared, or mutated into favor in some other cities over time:

Boston Patriots: Boston is still good enough as an identity for the Red Sox, but not the Pats. Infected by the marketing era of trying to make each club more appealing to a larger fan base area, they later became what now are, the New England Patriots. Hmmm. Makes you wonder how the Boston Red Sox ever managed to stay popular without also becoming the New England Red Sox, doesn’t it?

Buffalo Bills: They always were. Always will be. And always remain the same old Buffalo Bills. – Now, does that all three time stations description of the Buffalo Bills also make them “God”? My guess is – “only in Buffalo”.

Dallas Texans: There’s a scent of missed irony here, among current television media people covering the 2013 NFL, at least. Maybe it’s just old news that no longer matters, but I will express it here, anyway. Last Sunday, when the Houston Texans lost 17-16 to the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, they fell to the club that was originally known as the Dallas Texans. That is, before they moved from Dallas to Kansas City and became the Chiefs as part of the NFL-AFL war settlement.

Denver Broncos: The Broncos won the first official league game over Los Angeles on Friday, 9/09/1960. They have remained over time who they always were – the Denver Broncos.

Houston Oilers: Most of us in Houston know this one by heart. When the club deserted us in 1997, they took our identity with them to Tennessee to play briefly there as the Oilers before adopting an old New York moniker and becoming the Tennessee Titans that still are today.

New York Titans: This club has no common team history with the bunch now operating in Tennessee. They had to change their nickname for the best of reasons. – The early years performance record of the New York Titans was no better than the success mark of the great steamer Titanic. All their hitting ran them straight into business icebergs that sank the ship every season. You guessed it. – They changed their name to the New York Jets and were later saved by Joe Namath.

Los Angeles Chargers: The club eventually moved south to become the club they still are today, the San Diego Chargers.

Oakland Raiders: Theirs was the perfect identity for the “Somali Pirates” of professional football. Like Jean LaFitte too, the Raiders sometimes pulled up stakes for safer ground, but always returned to their home in the waters of Oakland. Today their middle years playing out as the Los Angeles Raiders almost seems like a bad dream that never really happened. – But it did.

In The Beginning

Now let’s take a brief look at how Houston and the others did on their first weekend of regular season play back in 1960 as the American Football League:

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Pro Football Round Up

OILERS WHIP RAIDERS, 37-22;

CHARGERS NIP TEXANS, 21-20

By United Press International

National Football League castoffs provided most of the thrills in the American Football League’s first weekend of operation, but the fans hardly knocked down the doors to watch the new pro loop’s debut.

Still, the turnout in Boston was encouraging; three of the four games were exciting, and the well-heeled and optimistic backers of the infant league were banking on the closeness of competition to help make their venture a financial as well as an artistic success.

Heavy Downpour

The New York Titans were victims of bad weather Sunday as only 9,607 (5.727 paid) turned out in a heavy downpour to see the team’s impressive victory over the Buffalo Bills, 27-3. A crowd of 12, 709 watched the Houston Oilers spoil the Oakland Raider’s first home appearance, 37-22.

At Los Angeles Saturday night, 17,724 paid to watch the home town Chargers whip the Dallas Texans, 21-20, in a battle of two of the AFL’s best teams. Boston drew the biggest house of the weekend Friday night when a crowd of 21,597 attended the Denver Broncos’ 13-10 upset victory over the Patriots.

60,000 Paid

That added up to about 60,000 paid admissions for a whole week’s schedule, but if the American Leaguers were disappointed, they didn’t show it.

“We had a bad break in the weather,” said president Harry Wismer of the Titans. “But we looked good in winning. We knew it might take a few games for the league to catch on. As the fans become aware of the close, exciting football in this league, I’m sure we (will) do better.”

NFL Refugees

George Blanda, Al Dorow, Jack Kemp, and Ben Agajanian, all refugees from the NFL, played important roles in weekend victories.

Blanda, a 12-year handyman with the Chicago Bears, passed for four touchdowns, kicked four conversions, and an 18-yard field goal in Houston’s victory over Oakland.

The outweighed Raiders gained a 7-7 halftime tie and went ahead in the third period when Ed Macon ran back a pass interception 42 yards for a TD. Blanda then passed 32 yards to Bill Groman and three yards to Johnny Carson, putting the Oilers ahead. Blanda’s field goal and an eight-yard touchdown run by Dave Smith put the game out of Oakland’s reach.

Billy Cannon, highly publicized L.S.U. All-America halfback, gained 59 yards in 12 carries for Houston.

~ excerpt from the Oxnard (CA) Press Courier, Monday, September 12, 1960, Page 9.

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Save the Dome!

“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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