After the last 1961 minor league season of the Houston Buffs, it wasn’t long before the weeds of neglect, damage from Hurricane Carla, economics, and the wrecking ball took out old Buff Stadium forever.
Three writers captured my attention more than all others during the post World War II era of the Houston Buffs. One was the late Clark Nealon of the Houston Post and Houston Press. A second was the man who now has become over the years my friend and role model, the great Houston writer, Mickey Herskowitz; and a third has been that fellow out east in the county of the Baytown Sun, the man who always seemed to write what we Buffs fans were thinking and feeling, the late, but still wonderful in print Fred Hartman. – Harris County named a tall bridge over busy waters after him. Remember? And that high bridge is a fitting tribute. The man had the ability to lift Buffs fan spirits, indeed, like a high bridge over deeply troubled emotional waters. And one of those times happened in the last game ever played by the Houston Buffs back on Thursday, September 21, 1961, when the club lost in Game Six of their American Association Championship Playoff Series with the Louisville Colonels at Busch/Buff Stadium.
September 21, 1961 was the date of The Last Buffs Picture Show as a minor league city. Here’s how Fred Hartman covered it for the following morning edition of the Baytown Sun:
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Defeated Buffs Bow Out
By Fred Hartman
Houston (Sp) – Twenty-one years ago, at the end of the 1940 baseball season, the Baytown Oilers were fighting for the Houston Post semi-pro championship.
Jack Waters hit the last Houston Buff HR of all time on 9/21/1961.
They fought their way into the semi-finals, and promoters of the tournament stupidly forced the Oilers to have to win three games in one day to win the title.
They won the first two in brilliant fashion, Then their weary muscles failed them, and they fell apart in the finale.
It was a sad thing to see – just as sad as the complete fall(ing) apart of the Houston Buffs Thursday night as they were shellacked, 11-4, by the Louisville Colonels.
It was a historical defeat for it came in the last game of professional minor league baseball ever to be played at Busch (f0rmerly Buff) Stadium. Next year the fledgeling Houston Colts will begin play on a new south end field in the National League.
Busch/Buff Stadium has been the scene of some great evens and now they are gone.
It was at home plate that Dizzy Dean and his bride were married. It was there that Joe Medwick used to rattle the boards as 1961 Buff first baseman Pidge Browne has been doing. It was there that Carey Selph battled to the death as a great inspirational star. It was there that Bill Hallahan’s southpaw plans won him big league opportunities. It was there that Kenny Boyer began his climb to fame.
And all that is left is memories and the ignoming (ignominy) of the final game, when the Buffs, trying too hard, fell apart. How else, for instance, can you explain the seven errors, five by the hustling shortstop, J.C. Hartman,
If you want one lingering memory of better things, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are, you can always remember the home run stroked by Jack Waters in the ninth with a Buff on board and the homelings behind, 11-2.
In Jerry Witte fashion, Waters hit a circuit clout far over the left field wall, It soared high and far, and Jack took only three steps from home plate before he knew he had the big one. He trotted around the bases with feeble applause of only the faithful who were there at the end.
And the last record(ed) play was a brilliant one. Jim Campbell slashed a hard hit ball through the box. The Colonels second baseman had been edging that way. He made a great play on the ball, and an even greater throw to first to beat the Buff catcher by a step.
Thus did Buff Stadium – we never did like the Busch appellation – stumble in(to) the past on a sour note that never could replace the sweeter moments that victory and sensational plays had produced in the 33 years since that opener in the summer of 1928.
Baytown is now a live and highly expectant major league suburb. It couldn’t have happened until that final out wrote finish Thursday night.
~ Fred Hartman, Baytown Sun, Friday, September 22, 1961, Page 7.
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The old stadium had barely weathered Hurricane Carla only days earlier than the Buffs’ last home game. It’s slightly amazing that the place could have been repaired for play by the last games played there against Louisville on September 20th and 21st of 1961.
Tags: 9/21/61, Fred Hartman on Houston Buffs, Last Game of the Houston Buffs
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 28, 2014 at 8:14 pm |
I remember playing in the old park after it closed. My cousin told me that other kids had been doing it. Off we went for our day of adventure. That and the gravel yards on the Gulf Freeway made for great fun when ever we played.
June 28, 2014 at 8:55 pm |
Bill: Is there a box score for this final game?
June 29, 2014 at 12:43 am |
Tony – I’m sure there is a box score for the final Buffs game in both the Houston Chronicle and Post for 9/22/61, but we would have to retrieve it from a local library or news data storage facility, I don’t have Internet site contact with either of the digital files of either the Chronicle or Post,if they even exist. Others may know better, but I am under the impression that neither paper is yet available over the Internet,