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“Gods Do Not Answer Letters”

July 24, 2018

TED WILLIAMS
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Good shot of Williams at the end of a HR swing at some point in the 1947 season.

On Wednesday, September 28, 1960, famous American novelist John Updike did a fairly ordinary thing, especially so for a New England guy and big fan of the Boston Red Sox. He decided to go see the club play their final home game of the season that afternoon at Fenway Park and, if what I’m given to believe was true, with no big designs upon doing a book, column, or article on the experience.

It turned out to be Ted Williams’ last game ever for the Boston Red Sox, one in which his bottom of the 8th solo home run to right field on a cold, damp and windy autumn afternoon would also stand forever as his last action as a major league hitter.

OK. So Updike went there to see the game, but he was a great writer to the bone. And writers never go anywhere or do anything without bringing that presence of mind and emotion with them. All it needs from there is a little jarring from external events and the muses that provide all the internal packaging of the written word, most authentically in ways that seem familiar, suddenly pour forth through the writer to the world in ways that are never to be forgotten.

“Gods Do Not Answer Letters” is such an expression. John Updike wrote it with muse support to explain why slugger Ted Williams, who was notorious for his disdain of fan support acknowledgement, had refused to come out of the dugout to tip his cap in gratitude to the fans who were tumultuously applauding the dramatic act of their anti-hero hitting a last home run in his last Fenway Park plate appearance – and possibly for all time – if he were to also now sit out the last three games that Boston was still on the hook to play from September 30 through October 2.

“Gods Do Not Answer Letters” is the explanation that Updike offered for Williams’ decision to ignore the fans in the article that he wrote for The New Yorker. But remember. Updike had not intended to write “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu”. There simply was no way that this dramatic game was going to fail in its successful efforts to interface with the writer presence of Hohn Updike and not become an article of some considerable erudition.

We’ll never know for sure. Maybe part to some to all of Ted Williams’ decision not to play the last three games in New York was part of – or all of – Teddy Ballgame’s ultimate tip of the cap to all the fans who pled in vain for his consoling and healing recognition after the last HR game of September 28.

By not playing in the last Yankee series, Ted Williams had taken all the fans who saw him hit that career homer on Sept. 28th in Boston with him to the walls of history – as the last fans to ever witness a Ted Williams home run. And suddenly I remember another, this time, well-known godly expression:

The Lord Moves in Mysterious Ways.

The Williams Last HR Box Score

Baltimore Orioles	ab	r	h	rbi
Brandt cf	5	0	0	0
Pilarcik rf	4	0	1	0
Robinson 3b	4	1	1	0
Gentile 1b	3	1	1	1
Triandos c	4	1	2	2
Hansen ss	4	1	2	0
Stephens lf	4	0	2	0
Breeding 2b	2	0	0	0
Woodling ph	1	0	0	1
Pearson pr	0	0	0	0
Klaus 2b	1	0	0	0
Barber p	0	0	0	0
Fisher p	4	0	0	0
Totals	36	4	9	4

Boston Red Sox	ab	r	h	rbi
Green ss	3	0	0	0
Tasby cf	4	1	0	1
Williams lf	3	2	1	1
Hardy lf	0	0	0	0
Pagliaroni c	3	0	2	0
Malzone 3b	3	0	0	0
Clinton rf	3	0	0	1
Gile 1b	4	0	0	0
Coughtry 2b	3	1	2	0
Muffett p	2	0	0	0
Nixon ph	1	0	0	0
Fornieles p	0	0	0	0
Wertz ph	1	0	1	0
Brewer pr	0	1	0	0
Totals	30	5	6	3

Baltimore	0	2	0		0	1	1		0	0	0	–	4	9	1
Boston	2	0	0		0	0	0		0	1	2	–	5	6	1

Baltimore Orioles	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO

Barber	0.1	0	2	2	3	0
Fisher L (12-11)	8.1	6	3	2	3	5
Totals	8.2	6	5	4	6	5

Boston Red Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Muffett	7.0	9	4	4	0	4
Fornieles W (10-5)	2.0	0	0	0	0	2
Totals	9.0	9	4	4	0	6
E–Klaus (2), Coughtry (5). DP–Baltimore 1. 2B–Baltimore Stephens (15,off Muffett); Robinson (26,off Muffett), Boston Wertz (22,off Fisher). HR–Baltimore Triandos (12,2nd inning off Muffett 1 on, 0 out), Boston Williams (29,8th inning off Fisher 0 on, 1 out). SF–Gentile (5,off Muffett); Clinton (6,off Fisher). Team LOB–6. HBP–Pagliaroni (1,by Barber). Team–7. WP–Barber (10), Muffett (4). HBP–Barber (3,Pagliaroni). U-HP–Eddie Hurley, 1B–John Rice, 2B–Johnny Stevens, 3B–Cal Drummond. T–2:18. A–10,454.

Who took over for Ted Williams in left field for the Red Sox in those last three 1960 season games against the Yankees in The Bronx? Check out the first entry in the comment section that follows this column for the answer in case you do not already know and want to play with your mind for that name before it’s simply handed it to you.

A You Tube Look at the Last Ted Williams HR

Now watch this brief, intelligently stated coverage of Ted Williams HR # 521:

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:"Gods Do Not Answer Letters"
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 9 Comments »

Baseball Metaphors

July 23, 2018

CUBS WIN IN WALK OFF!
Pease Note: It’s the loser Phils doing the “walk off”.

Baseball often is referenced by philosophical writers as a metaphor for life, and why not? A full life itself, for better or worse, is very much like the long season of baseball, and it even comes with its own daily grind and periods of variable product outcome and happiness, just as baseball does. So, it’s no big wonder that baseball itself should both lend and feed upon metaphors from other actions in life to sharpen our perspectives on what’s actually happening on the field.

One of my favorite baseball metaphors goes back to the early 20th, or possibly even the 19th century. We never really know for sure when any metaphor is used for certain the first time. They are like unregistered, swift of mind and foot, unregistered guests at some of the biggest hotels in the largest cities in North America. By the time anyone even asks, “where did that guy come from,” they’ve already pulled up and hit the road again, knowing that their names will not be forgotten by anyone whose now heard them. The character I’m thinking of here is “worm burner”.

“Worm Burner”, by the way, was never any biggest voice in the room guy. He was just the name some writer, fan, or player used one day to describes a ball that had been hit back through the infield on its way to the hinterlands at a scorching hot speed without apparently ever elevating one iota of measurable height of distance from the grass.

Then one day, one of those things happened, and some anonymous poet called it what it really was in a mentally visual sense. – This visually literate soul called it a “worm burner” – virtually perfect descriptive metaphor for the action and species of life that had just been most directly affected by such a smashing, low traveling ground ball.

Somebody said it and remembered to say it again. Or somebody else heard or read it and liked it so much that they repeated it and used it elsewhere. And over time, it got so popular that it never lost its home among the vernacular of baseball. And even if it now sits most often on a shelf in the library for archaic expression, it still pops out among all of us who speak, read, and write in baseball English.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how important an expression like worm-burner was to radio broadcasters during an era in which most fans could listen, and probably rarely so, to big league ball as it reached them by radio.

This brings us to two more contemporary metaphors that probably only became such because of the broad-based high quality opportunity that almost all of us now have to watch MLB in HD quality television. Those are two I’ve included in the following simple table – with one cell that shows where they’ve originated – and a second cell which depicts how they have come to be expressed as contemporary baseball metaphors.

I’m not here to argue their exact dates of origin – for all the good reasons previously expressed – but I will say that they each have a good chance of being original to the 21st century. I don’t remember either being in use twenty years ago and they are so dominant today.

Two Contemporary Baseball Metaphors

#	From Early Times	To 21^st Century
1	Game Winning Play	“Walk Off”
2	Pitcher Throws Strike Out	“Punch Out”

Because modern TV so dominates everything it does with multiple angle and capacity high quality pictures at different speeds, we now are able to watch baseball mechanically at home in ways that will always be superior to the one-place / one-distance perspective will each will have at the ballpark. Irony: Whereas, radio cried out for metaphors that provided pictures, television 2018 now cries out for pictures that validate what viewers are seeing on the screen.

“Walk Off” is an appeal to the sight of a losing team walking off the field – something we now see far more often with the growing ubiquity of MLB.Com. The winning team isn’t walking anywhere. They are celebrating all over the place. It’s the losers’ “walk off” that signifies that a game-winning play has ended the game early. The visitor losers are the ones walking off quietly in the background as the home team winners celebrate.

“Punch Out” is a more aggressive expression of what the pitcher’s strike out of a batter has done. And that’s an even longer subject for another time. Television wants to portray pitchers who deserve it to be seen as every ounce and inch the equivalent to offensive home run bombers as players of aggressive intent – and “punch out” carries with it that idea quite clearly.

“Punch Out” may loosely come from boxing’s “knock out”, but let’s face it, if heavyweight champions Muhammed Ali or Rocky Marciano been able to get 12 “punch outs” in a single evening, as Justin Verlander does fairly often, either would have wiped out all his competition for good in three months.

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Tags:Baseball Metaphors
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 2 Comments »

Dierker Discusses 18th Birthday Debut

July 22, 2018

Larry Dierker’s 18th Birthday
September 22, 1964
The day Larry Dierker broke into baseball by striking out the great Willie Mays the first time they faced each other.

At some point in the not-too-murky-distant past, a Houston sports jockey named Craig Shemon did a mid-day live air interview with Larry Dierker over local AM radio station 1590 about the time that one of our great franchise icons broke into the big leagues as a pitcher on his 18th birthday, September 22, 1964.

The interview for radio also was recorded with a video too so we able to watch them have this conversation at Shemon’s broadcast desk.

18-year-old Larry Dierker struck out the great Willie Mays in their first meeting of that game, bronzing forever both the need and justification for remembering this lopsided contest between the classic Giants and the fast-fading Colt .45 identity of the Houston expansion club. ~ A virtual “kid” coming of age had just struck out the legendary “Say Hey” kid from Alabama by way of Coogan’s Bluff.

If only we shall someday find a film of the actual moment it happened ~ Dierker fanning Mays ~ what a treasure that shall be.

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In the meanwhile, here are the box score of the game and the brief Dierker interview. We are lucky enough to have these items, and even more fortunate that destiny long ago played a hand in making the gifted athlete and wonderful human being that is Larry Dierker – a big part of us – as a leader in the Houston baseball community. Without Larry Dierker, things never could have been as great on the positive side of Houston’s growth from 1962 into World Series championship status in 2017 – and hungry for more.

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The Box Score ~

San Francisco Giants	ab	r	h	rbi
Kuenn lf	4	0	3	1
Lanier 2b	6	1	2	0
Alou rf	5	1	2	0
Hart 3b	4	1	1	0
Pagan ss	0	0	0	0
Mays cf	4	1	1	1
Cepeda 1b	4	1	2	3
Haller c	4	1	2	0
Davenport ss,3b	5	1	1	0
Estelle p	4	0	0	0
Murakami p	0	0	0	0
Totals	40	7	14	5

Houston Colt .45s	ab	r	h
Kasko ss,3b	5	0	2
Morgan 2b	1	0	0
Aspromonte 3b	4	0	3
Jackson pr,ss	1	0	0
Bond 1b	5	0	0
Wynn cf	3	0	0
Staub rf	4	0	0
Beauchamp lf	4	0	0
Grote c	3	1	1
Bateman c	1	0	0
Dierker p	1	0	0
Yellen p	0	0	0
Giusti p	2	0	1
Gaines ph	1	0	0
Jones p	0	0	0
Totals	35	1	7

San Francisco	0	3	1		3	0	0		0	0	0	–	7	14	2
Houston	0	0	0		1	0	0		0	0	0	–	1	7	3

San Francisco Giants	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO

Estelle W (1-1)	8.0	7	1	1	6	4
Murakami SV (1)	1.0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	9.0	7	1	1	6	4

Houston Colt .45s	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Dierker L (0-1)	2.2	5	4	2	3	3
Yellen	1.0	2	3	3	2	0
Giusti	4.1	5	0	0	0	3
Jones	1.0	2	0	0	0	2
Totals	9.0	14	7	5	5	8
E–Pagan (20), Mays (5), Kasko (14), Bond (12), Wynn (7). 3B–Houston Grote (3,off Estelle). HR–San Francisco Cepeda (31,2nd inning off Dierker 0 on, 0 out). SH–Estelle (1,off Jones). SF–Kuenn (2,off Dierker). Team LOB–13. Team–13. WP–Dierker 2 (2). U-HP–Lee Weyer, 1B–Jocko Conlan, 2B–Doug Harvey, 3B–Tony Venzon. T–3:02. A–5,608.

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The Dierker YouTube Interview Link ~

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Dierker Discusses 18th Birthday Debut
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 1 Comment »

Rare Footage of ’62 Colts First Game

July 21, 2018

Opening Day ~ April 10, 1962
Colt Stadium in Houston
Bayou City Big League History Begins

I’m learning that it sometimes pays to simply ask YouTube what they have on any given specific past event. This is a clip I found this morning when I asked about film material on the first Houston Colt .45 game on Opening Day 1962. The film direction is extremely poor by today’s standards, but this was April 10, 1962. Fans lacked access to video equipment and we all had to rely upon the professionals to produce really limited amateurish material for history.

There is no voice explanation of what is going on by player name on the field, but you should be able to figure out that what you are looking at early in this brief clip is Bobby Shantz (#42) performing as the first pitcher in Houston MLB history as he strikes out a left handed Lou Brock (# 24) for the Chicago Cubs. It also features Bob Aspromonte (#14) getting what is most probably the first hit in Houston MLB history; Al Spangler (#21) collecting the first triple in team history; and Roman Mejias (#25) rounding the bases and returning to the dugout on the heels of the first Houston MLB home run.

Enjoy and have fun. – Here’s the video link:

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Rare Footage of '62 Colts First Game
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 7 Comments »

A Time Travel Trip to 1931 Yankee Stadium

July 20, 2018

Yankee Stadium, 1931 ~ Timely site photos are great, but you have to see and hear the people in motion to feel the times. This film clip with sound helps get us there.

Before you immediately click the link, please give us a moment to try and put in perspective what we are about to see. It’s quite rare for the era, but what’s in store is a fresh, raw look a long ago Opening Day of the early Depression period, but one that comes in the form of a 14-minute motion picture with the actual sound of what is going on at Yankee Stadium from prior to the Yankees hosting the Red Sox on April 14, 1931.

It’s mostly pre-game stuff, with great shots of Ruth and Gehrig taking batting practice, the field announcer setting things up for the mammoth crowd with little more than great voice projection, superb articulation, and a hand-held megaphone.

Everybody in the house is in full dress ~ everybody whose adult is wearing a hat (and none of these express “NY” in the loving-letters position) ~ and practically everybody, including the ladies, smokes from wherever they happen to be sitting.

New York playboy Mayor Jimmy Walker is shown throwing out the first pitch from his field box front row seat to, most likely, Bill Dickey, the Yankee catcher, and a uniformed band shows up to escort the raising of the American flag on a tall pole down the left side as they move right into a nice job of playing Our National Anthem without anyone in sight taking a knee.

The Yankee black pinstripe on white with bold numbers on the back of all jerseys looks pretty much as it does today, but the players of 1931 and not yet forgotten that the socks are part of the uniform too. There was no effort back then made to pull the pants down to cover the sox to ankle descent depth. The 1931 Yankees displayed the “NY” letter party on their caps, but did not yet show them at all on the heart-side of their uniform blouses. – Did I mention that the uniforms were far blousier in 1931 than they are now? – That one’s pretty obvious.

We were still wearing those blousy and heavy wool uniforms when I was playing CYO League summer ball in the mid-1950s. By the time we finished a game in the Houston summer heat from all the sweat our clothing had absorbed, it felt like we had gained about twenty pounds playing ball. The big leaguers of 1931 got to feel that way pretty much every day.

As for what we can see about the ’31 Red Sox player uniforms, on the other hand, these displayed a long presumably red stocking on the body face of their caps. Their uniforms were blousy “light wool” too, of course.

Managers Joe McCarthy of the Yankees and Shane Collins of the Red Sox were filmed and recorded extending each other a few good sport wishes prior to the first game start, but the season would soon show that neither club had what it took to stop the pennant roar of the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics. The Yankees fished second to the A’s, 13.5 games back; the Red Sox would get lost in the second division dungeon that year, and end up a whopping 45 games behind the Men of Mr. Mack.

To actually see a pan of the Yankee Stadium outfield from 1931 is to invite amazement. The left field stands seem to jut out early, creating an avenue for short homers down the line. Then, as the field moves further to center, the stands disappear, turning the left-center-to-center outfield area into the “death valley” it came to be for so many home run fly ball outs.

The Wisdom of the Bleacher Fans Story. The 1931 recorded announcer also made a comment that inferred that the people in the outfield bleachers probably know more about baseball than the people seated in the prime seats. – I didn’t realize that this impression as such had been around as long as it obviously has. It is, however, not surprising at all. I think it’s tied to a larger social lesson about the fruits of class warfare: “The poor man gets the lesson ~ and the rich man gets the land.”

Finally, here are three more facts to help personalize your trip to the April 14, 1931 game:

(1) The Box Score of the Game below comes to us courtesy of Baseball Almanac.Com. That’s right. The Yankees won 6-3 behind the pitching of future Hall of Fame right hander Red Ruffing. And yes, Babe Ruth did homer in the game.

(2) Make sure you have your sound turned on before you click the link. It makes for an almost surreal landing to arrive, seeing and hearing the world as it was that long ago day in the Bronx.

(3) On this same date, living just a few blocks away from Yankee Stadium, our own favorite native of the Bronx and most venerable member of our Larry Dierker SABR Chapter, Mr. Larry Miggins was then only a 5-year old Irish street kid. ~ Well, our wonderful Larry Miggins is gearing up to turn age 93 next month on August 20th. ~ Expect to hear more from us on that moment for celebration as the time draws even nearer.

Thanks to Patrick Callahan, another of my Eagle brothers from the St. Thomas HS Class of 1956, for calling my attention to the best 14-minute time travel experience that you too are about to see and enjoy. – It’s a beautiful world when we have people like Pat Callahan doing all he can to spread all the good and true joys that are out there.

The Box Score

Boston Red Sox	ab	r	h	rbi
Warstler ss	3	1	1	0
Creeden ph	1	0	0	0
Marquardt ss	0	0	0	0
Scarritt lf	4	0	1	0
Sweeney 1b	4	0	2	1
Webb rf	4	0	0	0
Rothrock 3b	4	0	0	0
Reeves 2b	4	0	0	0
Oliver cf	4	0	0	0
Berry c	3	1	2	0
Moore p	1	0	1	0
Durham p	1	0	0	0
Winsett ph	1	1	1	2
Morris p	0	0	0	0
Totals	34	3	8	3

New York Yankees	ab	r	h	rbi
Combs cf	4	0	2	2
Lary ss	4	0	1	1
Ruth rf	3	1	2	1
Gehrig 1b	4	0	1	0
Lazzeri 3b	3	0	0	0
Chapman 2b	4	2	1	0
Cooke lf	3	1	2	0
Dickey c	4	1	1	1
Ruffing p	4	1	1	1
Totals	33	6	11	6

Boston	1	0	0		0	0	0		0	2	0	–	3	8	1
New York	0	2	0		3	0	0		1	0	x	–	6	11	0

Boston Red Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO

Moore L(0-1)	3.1	7	5	4	2	0
Durham	3.2	4	1	1	1	2
Morris	1.0	0	0	0	0	1
Totals	8.0	11	6	5	3	3

New York Yankees	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Ruffing W(1-0)	9.0	8	3	3	0	7
Totals	9.0	8	3	3	0	7
E–Warstler (1). DP–Boston 1. Warstler-Sweeney. 2B–Boston Scarritt (1). 3B–Boston Warstler (1). HR–Boston Winsett (1,8th inning off Ruffing 1 on), New York Ruth (1,7th inning off Durham 0 on). Team LOB–4. Team–6. CS–Sweeney (1). U–Bill McGowan, Roy Van Graflan, Tommy Connolly.

April 14, 1931 Game Link: Boston Red Sox @ New York Yankees

Please comment. We’d love to know how this experience registered with you. Can you imagine how this crowd might have reacted to a few contemporary fans walking into the stadium in 1931 wearing Yankees caps and jerseys from that era? Who knows? A uniform with # “3” on the back might have produced an earlier birthdate for the phrase “new revenue stream.”

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:A Time Travel Trip to 1931 Yankee Stadium
Posted in Baseball, culture, History | 2 Comments »

Bregman Stats Climbing at the Break

July 19, 2018

What Alex Bregman may look like someday when he’s too old to play any more baseball.

Well, he may not really be Paul Newman, but Alex Bregman is still playing a Cool Hand Luke brand of baseball these days. He works hard at his craft and he fights back fiercely at everything that fate and pitching dementia throws at him, apparently against all odds.

That first observation also begs for another Newman-driven movie title here to theorize why things first stuck in adversity so often bounce back Bregman’s way. ~ Maybe, yes, just maybe, ~ “Somebody Up There Likes Him.”

What happened Monday and Tuesday in Washington was typical of the snapback pattern this guy has in his determination to make something good happen. Monday night, as the only American League contestant in the Home Run contest, Alex had to beat out this mad grinning, much bigger Bluto of a guy from the Cubs in the first round. He pretty much came on like Popeye in the process. With time running out, Alex needed one more homer to force a tie that he probably could have then broken for a first round win in the bonus time he had earned en route.

Alas, the last long drive to deep left center fell about two feet short and Bregman was done. For Monday night, at least. As for how this low AL interest in the Monday Home Run Derby started, we may have gotten our answer Tuesday. Some of them apparently were saving their homers for the Tuesday game itself.

Maybe it just takes a guy like Alex Bregman to see and then take best advantage of every golden opportunity that comes his way. It also helps to be lucky – and also to have a manager like A.J. Hinch, a guy who knew that putting Bregman in the lineup as a sub at shortstop could make a difference at a critical moment late in the game. And wouldn’t you know it? The home boy NLs tied up the game at 5-5 through nine – forcing about the dreaded extra innings and a kid named Alex Bregman leading off the top of the tenth – and standing squarely in the way of the game reaching a player over-use crisis.

Bregman took the count to 2-2 – long enough for Joe Buck to start yakking about the problems of all-star games and player over-usage when – all of a sudden – it didn’t matter.

Remember, the pitcher had two strikes on Alex. ~ Bregman had him right where he wanted him. Alex drove the next ball over the left field fence and into the bullpen. The face and fire of joy took over the Bregman body and soul as he answered every slap of congratulations from his teammates with resounding force and deliriously happy fury.

Somewhere now standing from the best seat in the house, Commissioner Manfred had to be upright for as far as he can rise, applauding, and grinning his head off as he silently screamed his newfound mantra: “Thank God for Alex Bregman! ~ Now I’m off the hook for my own embarrassing Bud-Selig-All-Star-Game tie moment in the bottom of the 17th inning! ~ And, Oh YES! Thank You too, George Springer! Why, I only had to rise once to see the Astros serve the turkey and dressing ~ and then they also quickly poured gravy on it too! What a beautiful, butt-saving, flying-frito deal this is turning out to be! ~ Don’t go far away, Mr. Alex Bregman! You don’t know it yet, but you just won the MVP award, if this lead holds!”

You just read what happened next in the Commissioner’s mind. There was barely time for Bregman to celebrate alone because Astros teammate George Springer then walked to the plate and took the very first pitch thrown since the last dinger went yard and crunched it even deeper to right for an opposite field homer.

The Bregman-Springer two-pitch back-to-backs would stand as a baseball version of the old one-two punch-out to both cheeks of the NL pitching face. The AL then used a series of hits to add the only run scored without homer aid as the game retired to the bottom of the tenth with an 8-5 AL lead looming large. The NL found a way to add their 5th HR for the 10th record homer of the game, but AL 8 – NL 6 would hold up as the final score.

Wow! And wouldn’t you know it! Mr. Bregman was named the game’s MVP. He even got to select a Chevy Camaro as part of the gift package. The rest of the gift was the fact that he got to be seen by millions as he gave the car in person to his mother, who happened to be at the game with his father.

Raise your hands if you have a kid who ever gave you a Camaro?

Yep. Tuesday came with all the character we Houston fans have come to enjoy. It toyed with all the elements we need around here for pleasant dreams from all the “walk-off” redemption wins we’ve enjoyed, courtesy of Alex Bergman. In fact, the first such game of note involving Alex Bregman that most us will remember forever is worth its weight in ways that go way beyond gold or the even lesser value of any new Chevy Camara or Chevy truck.

It was called Game 5 of the 2017 World Series.

Offense Leaders at the All Star Break

The following table shows where the Astros are relative to AL offensive categorical leadership at the 2018 All Star break. Jose Altuve remains the only Astros leader, but even Jose is off the mark in the important batting average category.

As for whose hanging close to the leaders in 2018, it is now Alex Bregman’s name that is appearing most often as the closest Astro in the chase. Bregman is also now hitting .288 and he seems to be on a steady climb from his earlier plateau around .260. If he keeps it up, he’s well on his way to the magical .300 mark gate.

2018 AL Offensive Category Leaders

And Astros Contenders in Each:

LEADER	NAME	TEAM	STAT	NEXT ASTRO	RANK	STAT
BA	MookieBetts	BRS	.359	Jose Altuve	2	.332
GAMES	Jose Altuve	Astros	99	Bregman/Springer	4t	96
HITS	Jose Altuve	Astros	129	no one close
1BH	Jose Altuve	Astros	95	no one close
2BH	E. Escobar	Twins	35	Alex Bregman	2	31
3BH	Y. Sanchez	CWS	9	Marwin Gonzalez	10t	3
HR	JDMartinez J. Rameriz	BRS Indians	29 (1t)	Alex Bregman	12t	20
RUNS	F. Lindor	Indians	85	Alex Bregman	7	67
RBI	JDMartinez	BRS	80	Alex Bregman	6t	64
WALKS	Mike Trout	Angels	86	Alex Bregman	5t	56
SLG %	MookieBetts	BRS	.691	Alex Bregman	8	.539
OB %	Mike Trout	Angels	.454	Jose Altuve Alex Bregman	5 8	.394 .389
OB+SLG%	MookieBetts	BRS	1.139	Alex Bregman	8	.928

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Bregman Stats Climbing at the Break
Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Night of the Hunter: Bregman is All Star MVP

July 18, 2018

Alex Bregman
MVP
2018 All Star Game

Stirred on quietly by the ancient force of Astros fan Tom Hunter’s clairvoyance that something akin to “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was about to unfold when Alex Bregman took the field Tuesday evening for the MLB All Star Game, the young man with cold blue ball-killer eyes took the field with that glinting frozen smile that also inevitably presides on such nights for this young man. It was about to be ~ the most special night for this stealth-filled hunter in his career as a killer of the cowhide-covered orb.

Alex did not come alone with that salivating design.

On a a big game hunter’s night ~ one in which 50% of the 20 total game hits collected by both All Star Clubs were home runs, Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros delivered the great difference-maker with the score tied at 5-5, leading off the top of the 10th for the American League. Bregman’s homer made it 6-5, AL – with Astros mate George Springer immediately following Alex’s blow to left with an opposite field homer of his own to right.

By the time the full extra stanza had been played, the AL had defeated the NL by 8-6, and Mr. Cold-Steel Blue Eyes, Alex Bregman himself, had been named as MVP of the 2018 All Star Game at Washington, DC.

In a night of great power balance, the American and National League teams each registered 5 home runs each.

For further details, please look elsewhere. This js most simply a morning-after visual post of another fresh major moment in the redundantly unfolding joy that is now suddenly available to Houston Astros fans in this era of great talent and accomplishment capacity.

We do want to congratulate our good friend and Pecan Park Eagle reader, Tom Hunter, for calling the shot on Alex Bregman’s big night, several hours prior to the game. Hunter suggested that Bregman was on the brink of drawing attention to himself at the game ~ and in a way that could be tantamount to the spotlight that actor Jimmy Stewart once attained in the movie remembered today as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

It turned out to be “The Night of the Hunter”. By mysterious hunch. By design. By the number of explosions. As an extension of the Home Run Derby. And by the look that could be seen in those Cool Hand Lukish Paul Newman eyes of Alex Bregman.

Late last night, not the night before, Alex Bregman not only affirmed that powerful spiritual hunch of Denver-based supporter Tom Hunter, he flat-out took the Washington evening and turned it into “The Night of the Hunter” for all AL and Astros fans.

Look again into those cool deliberate eyes that you see in the graphic above you, Astros fans, and just be glad and grateful that young Mr. Alex Bregman is on our side!

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Night of the Hunter: Bregman is All Star MVP
Posted in Baseball | 2 Comments »

Houston Sports Poll: Influence or Expectation?

July 17, 2018

Dashaun Watson is No. 1 Pick in 2018 Poll That Alleges Him To Now Be the Most “Influential” Houston Sports Figure.

DALE ROBERTSON’S 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL 2018 HOUSTON SPORTS PEOPLE:

(All of the tabular information shown here, plus all of his previous six year rankings, from 2012 thru 2018 were published in Sunday’s July 15, 2018 Houston Chronicle.) ~

The 2018 List

Rank	Name	Role	Club	Level
1	Deshaun Watson	QB	Texans	NFL
2	Jim Crane	Owner	Astros	MLB
3	Jeff Luhnow	GM	Astros	MLB
4	Jose Altuve	2B	Astros	MLB
5t	James Harden	MVP	Rockets	NBA
5t	Chris Paul	Guard	Rockets	NBA
5t	Daryl Morey	GM	Rockets	NBA
8	Justin Verlander	Pitcher	Astros	MLB
9	J.J. Watt	Defense	Texans	NFL
10	Ed Oliver	Defense	Cougars	NCAA

Impressions

People who control the money and the flow of resources that produce championships ~ and people who devise long-term plans that actually result in championships ~ each share a common bond among fans and the media. Nobody really hangs their hats of hope on requests for patience and time to prove the efficacy of whatever they happen to be doing. Then ~ once in silvery orange-blue moon ~ along comes a logistics savant owner like Jim Crane and a baseball genius like Jeff Luhnow and it’s like the baseball gods left the locks off the doors at their hall of baseball cookie miracles. ~ The result? ~ Here’s your baseball miracle as promised, Houston! ~ Delivered on time, as promised three years earlier, here are your 2017 World Series Champions!

That isn’t the stuff that gets you the number one spot with Dale Robertson. Robertson is listening to the Houston fan heartbeat for great expectation, and, as much as I hate to say it, but have to admit it, Dale is sniffing football, and mainly NFL football, most of the time at the top spot. In the seven seasons that Dale Robertson has been doing these rankings, he’s picked someone from the Texans five times as his number one ranking figure.

Here’s the tabular rundown on # 1 picks:

ROBERTSON #1 RANKED HOUSTON PEOPLE: 2012-2018

YEAR	RANKED #1	ROLE	CLUB	LEVEL
2012	Wade Phillips	Def. Coach	Texans	NFL
2013	Dwight Howard	Player/Center	Rockets	NBA
2014	Bill O’Brien	Head Coach	Texans	NFL
2015	J.J. Watt	Player/Defense	Texans	NFL
2016	Brock Osweiler	Player/QB	Texans	NFL
2017	Dallas Keuchel	Player/Pitcher	Astros	MLB
2018	Deshaun Watson	Player/QB	Texans	NFL

This movie title in a film featuring an earlier Dale Robertson stands well as a headline in a year following a poll when someone other than a Texan was picked for the top spot.

As a matter of fact, it’s a title that works well pretty much any year for describing the #1 pick as most “influential” sports figure in Houston in July, when the appetites of those awaiting the forthcoming NFL season are frothing at the mouth for a QB who comes along and fulfills the “great expectation” of Houston winning a Super Bowl.

Oh yes, making the world forget about Tom Brady in the process also wouldn’t be frowned upon by Houston Texan movers and shakers and other local NFL Joes.

see the “Editor’s Footnote at the end of this column.

About that seasonal help to the poll when the picks are made in July. Some of Dale’s picks may have been helped by the seasonal impact of when lists were made. By July of each year, Houston basketball fans are usually too busy digesting their still recent disappointments to build any new peak expectations for next year. Although, based upon Dale Robertson’s approach ~ and had the Rockets signed LeBron James, it’s easy to see King James pushing Dr. Watson back to the #2 hole in 2018, with no arguments from anyone, but that’s not what happened. And, here we are, at the time of year when we Houston baseball fans are too busy exchanging our fantasy hope for the reality of watching the defending World Champs play ball.

And that leaves the large legion of Houston football fans, many of whom happen to be crossover all Houston sport team fans, where the bait is still the player who can drag his tail in the water like a silver spoon flipper and lure the masses of football fan fishers in numbers through the stadium game dates in the fall.

This year, the heroic Deshaun Watson is the QB of allure. A couple of years ago, it was the forgettable Brock Osweiler. Is Watson for real? He could be, but all we know for sure is that he will have to do more than share time with J.J. Watt and “Scott the Marketing Man” ~ making TV commercials for HEB ~ before Houston has its latest great expectation either finally realized or crushed again.

As one who has been reading Dale Robertson since the time he was roughed up by former Oilers QB Dan Pastorini in an interview that ran into sensitive ground at a tough moment in the season a thousand weeks ago, I already believe that he’s a much bigger football and tennis fan than he seems to be of baseball, but he keeps on trying to cover all the bases that go with his job. ~ I give him lots of credit for his durability, even when I do not agree with his conclusions in this set of rankings for the wrong reason.

That being said, I think we disagree mainly because we interpret the word “influence” differently.

“Influence” always translates to me as “power” and, in that regard, there are no others on this list with more “power” over the fortunes of the three Houston big sport teams than Masseurs Crane, Fertitta, and McNair. That is why I personally would have chosen Jim Crane as my #1 pick in 2018. Crane is the guy who used his power to set up the ground for optimal on-term success in Houston baseball.- How did that work out? And how could it have worked at all, had Crane’s ego needed to take more direct credit for all that Jeff Luhnow did? On the other hand, if we are talking about the “specific influence” of one being able to attract fans by great expectation, it is almost always going to be a player or head coach or field manager that takes the #1 spot. And, most of the time, a magical and talented new QB for the Texans is going to stir up our NFL crazy fans to the Great Expectation (GE) of a Super Bowl ride. – Viewed in that hungry light, I would have to agree with Robertson’s pick of Watson for the top spot as the “GE” giant influence upon that large group of Houston crossover sports fans. Only LeBron James could have beaten Deshaun Watson in Houston from this point in 2018 going forward from mid-July.

Hang in there, Dale Robertson. Maybe Deshaun Watson will finally come through as your cash cow pick.

Editor’s Foot Note: Thank you, Tom Hunter, for setting in motion the serendipity that spread from your reminder to me that there once was a Grade B movie actor, also named Dale Robertson, that once starred in a movie entitled “Return of the Texan”. Due credit is all yours that it lead me to find the movie poster for that less than august film that served here as a visual guide to the extra comments included in conjunction with the movie poster’s use here as a result.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Houston Sports Poll: Influence or Expectation?
Posted in Baseball, basketball, culture, Football, History, Houston | 3 Comments »

Memories of Loel Passe

July 16, 2018

“HOT ZIGGITY DOG ~ AND GOOD OLD SASAFRAS TEA! ~ HOLD ON, FOLKS!”

THE BUFFS/COLTS/ASTROS MAY STILL BE DOWN BY 8 IN THE 7TH, BUT….

THAT BUNT SINGLE MAY AS WELL BE A TRUMPET ~ BLOWIN’ CLEAR ….

…. WE AIN’T DEAD YET!!!”

LOEL PASSE
Houston Buffs Radio Broadcaster, 1950-1961;
Houston MLB Broadcaster, 1962-1976.

“NOW YOU GOIN’, GANG!!!!”

Thank You, Darrell Pittman, for finding and submitting this article for note and credit to Jim Bishop and the Victoria Advocate for their earlier publication on July 20, 1997. Large parts of Houston Baseball history would otherwise be lost were it not for writers like Jim Bishop and this also history-energized South Texas newspaper.

Yeah, we know. The print was a little small, but if you knew, or remember Loel as a broadcaster, we hope it will be worth the squint. Loel was one of the lights that filled in the landscape before we even came close to the level that now fills the house of the current World Champions, the 2017 Houston Astros.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Memories of Loel Passe
Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 7 Comments »

Hero of the 1950 All Star Game

July 15, 2018

Red Schoendienst and Bill McCurdy (L)
Cardinals Club Suite
Busch Stadium II
May 1998

In that limited time I had with Red Schoendienst

In the limited time I had with Red Schoendienst in the Cardinals Suite back in 1998, I was able to tell him how his 14th inning NL game-winning home run in the 14th inning back in the 1950 All Star Game made our entire little Houston sandlot team happy. Red answered my news with a patient smile and a two-pat light slap on the shoulder. All I needed to hear could be seen in the sincerity of the man’s eyes.

That 1950 All Star Game, which we could only “watch” over the radio in Houston during those pre-television days, kept us tied to our home radios for most of the afternoon. And when it was done, we all had some welcome steam to play us away into the darkness of a later than usual stopping point.

The 1950 All-Star Game

(Excerpted precisely from Baseball Almanac.Com)

As the All-Star game entered its third decade, the National League was tired of being baseball’s perennial loser. Trailing 12-4 in All-Star Games and losing the three previous World Series, the National League did not have the fans or American League players respect anymore.

Inspired by their poor showing in the previous decades, the National League resolved to make this year different. The 1950 All-Star Game turned out to be the first to go into extra innings, featured two dramatic home runs and produced some of the finest All-Star pitching ever. As usual, the American League was leading (3-2) in the top of the ninth. Then, Ralph Kiner led off with a long home run that tied the score and set the stage for a three-inning pitchers’ duel.

Larry Jansen pitched for the National League into the eleventh inning while giving up one hit in five innings. Allie Reynolds matched him, taking the American League into the twelfth and giving up one hit over three innings. Pitcher Ted Gray took over for the American League in the thirteenth and maintained the status quo. In the fourteenth, however, the National League fired another leadoff rocket off the bat of Red Schoendienst. He was an unlikely hero as he had sat for ten innings while Jackie Robinson played second. Entering the game defensively in the eleventh, Schoendienst stepped up in the fourteenth and homered into the left-field stands. Even more disheartening was the American League loss of Ted Williams. While making a running catch of a Kiner drive in the first inning, he ran into the wall and broke his elbow. He stayed in the game, visibly injured, and went one-for-four. Later he underwent surgery and didn’t play again until September 15. The National League had gone the distance and made a statement. Finally, they had established a momentum that would last for several years.

1950 All-Star Game 1950 All-Star Game Official Program
1950 All-Star Game Fast Facts
Game Number	17
Date / Box Score	07-11-1950
Location	Comiskey Park
Attendance (Rank)	46,127
1^st Pitch	Connie Mack
M.V.P. Award	Not Awarded Until 1962
League Items	A.L.	N.L.
Starting Pitchers	Vic Raschi	Robin Roberts
Managers	Casey Stengel	Burt Shotton
Coaches	Frankie Crosetti	Jake Pitler
	Bill Dickey	Milt Stock
1950 All-Star Game Fast Facts

1950 All-Star GameLine Score
1950 All-Star Game Capsule
League	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	R	H	E
National	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	4	10	0
American	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	8	1
N.L. Pitcher(s)									A.L. Pitcher(s)
Robin Roberts Don Newcombe (4th) Jim Konstanty (6th) Larry Jansen (7th) Ewell Blackwell (W, 12) –									Vic Raschi Bob Lemon (4th) Art Houtteman (7th) Allie Reynolds (10th) Ted Gray (L, 13th) Bob Feller (14th)
N.L. Home Runs									A.L. Home Runs
Ralph Kiner (9th) Red Schoendienst (14th)									None –

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Houston Baseball Affinity History Notes

15-16 years later, NL right hander Robin Roberts would start and win 8 games for the 1965-66 Houston Astros. … NL shortstop Marty Marion would earlier serve as principal owner and President of the last group to own and run the minor league Houston Buffs from 1959 to 1961 over the last three years prior to the city’s emergence as a 1962 NL expansion club.

The Schoendienst eventual game-winning homer in the top of the 14th at Comiskey Park during the afternoon of the 1950 All Star Game gave the spirit of the Pecan Park Eagles an extra boost as we went into afternoon sandlot competition a little later than usual.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:Hero of the 1950 All Star Game
Posted in Baseball, History, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »