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’47 Buffs: Earlier Seedling of Houston Strong

October 6, 2018

(1947) Buffs Climax Great Year as Class of Dixie (Series)

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Epps, Beers Aces to Finish;

Houston’s ’47 Attendance Reaches 475,637

By Johnny Lyon, Houston, Texas

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Houston’s greatest baseball season is history.

Finis was written on the 1947 books at 10:22 PM, October 3, when Hal Epps, Houston’s most popular performer, smacked a base hit into center field with two on, two out and two strikes on him in the inning to give the Buffs a 1 to 0 victory over Mobile and the Dixie Series title in six games.

For the 10,675 spectators who watched that final game the conclusion was fitting and just ~ Epps breaking up the duel with a hit and Clarence Beers hurling a shutout in which he spaced four singles and allowed only one Mobile player to reach second base, that on an error.

All season long, it was Epps supplying the stickwork when a bingle was most needed and Beers coming through with superb pitching performances. Hal (Epps) led the team in hitting during the regular season and in the Dixie Series hit .375. A 25-game winner in the regular season, Beers won four and lost one in the Texas League playoffs and Dixie Series, three of the victories being whitewashings.

Everything the Buffs set out to do they accomplished.

When they hopped into the lead for the first time, May 9, they were determined to hold it until July 4 so they could win the site of the All-Star game.

Eight Out of Ten in Last Week

Although there were shaky moments in the drive down the stretch, the Buffs remained in front, displaying their mettle by taking eight of ten in the past week to shade Fort Worth by one-half game.

Tulsa bowed in four straight games in the playoffs and Dallas a victim in six contests in the (Texas League) finals. The Buffs really broke the backs of the (Dallas) Rebels in the fifth game when, held hitless and runless for six innings, and trailing, 6 to 0, they rallied in the last three frames for an 8 to 6 triumph.

Mobile went ahead of the Buffs in the Dixie Classic, two games to one. But the Buffs again had the bounce and took the next three, with Jack Creel and Beers fashioning shutouts in the fifth and sixth games.

The Dixie Series Players’ Pool was $25,681.90 with $15,415.14 going to the winning Buffs. This was the largest pool since 1931 when Birmingham won in seven games over the Buffs, who boasted one of the game’s great turnstile magnets, Dizzy Dean.

From the opening game in April until October 3, when the Dixie Series ended, Houston attracted 475,637 cash customers for its 86 games. This included 382,275 for its 77 Texas League games at home, almost 100,000 better than the loop record set in 1946 by San Antonio, 51,577 for home league playoff games, and 29,952 for three Dixie Series clashes.

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STANDINGS AT CLOSE OF 1947 DIXIE SERIES

TEAM LEAGUE WINS LOSSES W % GB
Houston Buffs Texas League 4 2 .667  
Mobile Bears Southern Association 2 4 .333 2

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Houston Pitching and Batting Statistics for the 1947 Dixie Series

’47 BUFF AT BATS POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA
Solly Hemus 2B 6 27 5 8 1 0 0 1 .296
Billy Costa SS 6 22 4 3 0 1 0 0 .136
Eddie Knoblauch LF 6 19 3 9 1 0 0 5 .474
Johnny Hernandez 1B 6 23 2 5 3 0 0 3 .217
Hal Epps CF 6 24 3 9 2 0 0 7 .375
Stan Benjamin RF-LF 4 14 3 4 1 0 0 3 .286
Vaughn Hazen RF 4 17 1 5 0 0 0 2 .294
Tommy Glaviano 3B 6 20 5 7 0 1 0 1 .350
Jack Angle 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Gerry Burmeister C 3 11 1 1 1 0 0 3 .091
Joe Niedson C 5 13 3 5 2 0 0 4 .385
Doc Greene C 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Al Papal P 2 7 0 2 0 0 0 1 .286
Jack Creel P 2 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 .143
Pete Mazar P 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Herb Moore PH 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1.000
Roman Brunswick P 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Clarence Beers P 2 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 .143
Charley Sproull P 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
BATTING TOTALS   6 213 31 61 12 2 0 30 .286
                     
’47 BUFF PITCHING W-L G CG IP+O R H SO BB HB WP
Al Papai 2-0 2 2 18+0 4 17 6 2 1 0
Jack Creel 1-1 2 1 14+1 4 13 10 8 0 0
Clarence Beers 1-1 2 1 14+2 6 13 4 2 0 0
Pete Mazar 0-0 1 0 01+2 0 1 0 0 0 0
Roman Brunswick 0-0 1 0 02+0 2 2 1 0 0 0
Charley Sproull 0-0 1 0 02+1 1 2 1 1 0 0
PITCHING TOTALS 4-2 6 4 53 IP 17 48 22 13 1 0

Reference Sources:

An article by Johnny Lyon, The Sporting News, October 1, 1947, Page 25.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 5 Comments »

High Noon at Texas and Crawford

October 5, 2018

 

 

Cast and crew members of the film “High Noon” watch the World Series opener between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants during a  break in filming, Oct. 4, 1951. From left: Otto Kruger, Thomas Mitchell, Gary Cooper, an unidentified studio staffer, Grace Kelly and Lon Chaney Jr.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Charles Handel. Thank you, Tony Cavendar, for bringing this photo to our attention and stirring the muses of inspiration for the modest parody that follows.

 

High Noon at Texas and Crawford

Friday, October 5, 2018, 12:00 PM

Do not forsake us, Houston Astros
On our World Series Way
Do not forsake us, Houston Astros
Move, move along

We do not know what fate awaits us
We only know we must be brave
And we must face the teams that hate us
Or lie like cowards, all craven cowards
Or lie like cowards in our graves

Oh, to be torn ‘tweenst love and duty
Supposin’ we hit like Punch and Judy
Look at that big hand move along
Nearin’ high noon

They made a vow while in spring trainin’
Vowed they would win with no complainin’
We’re not afraid of death, but, oh
What will we do if you leave us?

Do not forsake us, Houston Astros
On our World Series Way
Do not forsake us, Houston Astros
Move Houston Strong, move along

Just move on, ~ move along
Keep movin’ on, ~ move along

Silence, followed by a mixed voice choral pleading finish

of one-note shouted, unsung words:

Take the next eleven ~ and we’ll all go straight to Heaven!

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POST FIRST ALDS GAME OUTCOME NOTE

Friday, October 5, 2018

4:45 PM CT

WE WERE NOT FORSAKEN!!!

The Houston Astros pulled out both the pitching and the power, defeating the Cleveland Indians, 7-2, in Game One of the 2018 ALDS, to go 1-0 in the series as they also reduced their total wins needed for another World Series title from 11 to 10.

The great Justin Verlander deservedly got the win with a little help from his friends, plus four solo shot home runs to left by Alex Bregman, George Springer, Jose Altuve, and Martin Maldonado and two RBI singles from Josh Reddick.

The Astros have the greatness to win it all. The rest remains in the hands of the three special baseball gods that control all final outcomes in every game. ~ And their names are Destiny, Luck, and Fate.

That being said, and for those of us who share these inclinations, let’s simply enjoy the prize served up to us fans by the Houston Astros on this glorious opening day of the MLB 2018 Post-Season Playoffs.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

 

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 1 Comment »

Astros-Brewers: World Series Odd Couple

October 4, 2018

Cartoon by Bill McCurdy

 

They owe their common ground to Bud Selig. As such, they are the only two clubs in modern 1903 forward baseball history to have been members of both the American and National Leagues, leaving both of them with World Series possibilities that are only available to their two-club shared potentials.

The Houston Astros are the only American League club to have made a previous World Series appearance as a National League member. They did it, as all of you know, when they lost, 4-0, to the Chicago White Sox of the AL in 2005.

The Houston Astros were later coerced by the then active baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, into transferring from the NL to the AL as a condition for gaining his office’s approval of their franchise sale to new club owner Jim Crane.

The Houston franchise, one that had been an NL club since their 1962 first season as an expansion team, then moved to the AL in 2013. As such, they became the first and only formerly based NL club to make that major change in league affiliations.

The Astros NL-to-AL league change in 2013 set up a baseball first when the club then won their first World Series in 2017. In so doing, the Houston Astros became the first and only MLB former NL club to have returned to the World Series as an American League team. As we all know too, this one happened last year, when the 2017 Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 4-3 first victory in the World Series.

It is a record the Astros hold that will never be tied, unless some other NL club is bamboozled into change in the future by the political needs of some other future baseball czar and then manages to become the second NL-to-AL franchise transfer to win  World Series as an AL representative.

One team exists in 2018 with a still on-the-table possibility of matching the Astros accomplishment in reverse, at least, prior to Game One of the 2018 NLDS playoffs. That team, ironically, is the Milwaukee Brewers, the former property of Bud Selig, the even later former commish who forced Houston to the AL.

Brief Brewers History. The Brewers started out as a 1969 AL expansion club known as the Seattle Pilots. After a failed first year out west, the franchise was purchased by Bud Selig and backers and moved to a midwest city, where they played the next 28 years (1970-1997) as the Milwaukee Brewers, a continuing member of the AL.

When the Brewers opened shop in 1970, the fans of Milwaukee were no rube strangers to the World Series. During the (1953-1965) period in which the city served as home to the Milwaukee Braves, that club had won in 1957 and lost in 1958, facing the New York Yankees each time.

The AL Milwaukee Brewers finally reached the World Series in 1982, losing 4-3 to the AL representative, the St. Louis Cardinals. In do doing, the Brewers had lost the World Series in their only time there as an AL club. It was the same pattern in reverse for the Astros when they later lost their one shot at a World Series win as an NL club in 2005.

The Brewers moved to the NL in 1998 in another schedule-balancing move, but have yet to reach the World Series as an AL club. Prior to their 2018 NLDS series with Colorado, their chances for this year are alive and well. And that’s important to their Astros tie as one of the two living two-league franchises.

Only the Brewers have the ability to repeat in reverse what the Astros have done. ~ That is, lose your first shot at the World Series in one league and later win your first World Series as a member of the other.

Speaking as an Astros fan, let’s hope it doesn’t happen in 2018

Another Interesting Relevant Thought: In 1997, Milwaukee owner Bud Selig seems to have volunteered the Brewers as the club to move from the American to the National League as a solution to MLB’s schedule balancing problems. In 2012, and in search of another scheduling balance solution, he seems to have used his power to force an imminent move from the National to the American League by the Houston franchise as a condition for getting his approval for the sale of the Houston Astros to the Jim Crane group. ~ A few ticks of the clock later, we’re watching Bud Selig getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I don’t get it. ~ No, that’s not it. ~ I don’t want to get it. It makes The Hall of Fame sound like it may be located in Cooperstown, DC.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 1 Comment »

New Name-Dropping Astros Art

October 3, 2018

Minute Maid Park by Daniel Duffy
It is built upon the names of every player in the history of the Houston MLB franchise through a certain unspecified date.All of their names have been written in to form the shape, color, and scope of the ballpark the club now occupies in 2018.

 

Darrell Pittman sent me the link to this discovery yesterday. As with all things commercial, other than what we once in a blue moon send to publishing houses as a book proposal, we have no business interest in the artist’s sale of prints to this work, but we will look into it as a matter of subject interest and personal curiosity.

The one word that leaps to mind here for me is “tedium” to the nth degree. Compiling the lists, using the names without repeating or omitting any from inclusion, had to have been one formidable challenge.

Of course, some will argue “so what” to the possibility of numerous errors, including misspelled names. “Whose going to ever know the difference or prove you wrong” would be their rationale.

“Tedium” answers that you will be answerable for errors, even if others never know.

One far more difficult drawing along these same word or name inclusion lines would be a multi-color drawing of The Pentagon in Washington, DC based upon every single different word used in all new weapons proposals submitted to all branches of the service during this current fiscal calendar year. (“JK” big time here.)

Here’s the link to Daniel Duffy’s site and further information about the availability of prints:

https://t.co/MEbruOZAa0

MMP Player Name Book

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | Leave a Comment »

Houston Had Fine Season (in 1962)

October 3, 2018

Another timely news article contribution by baseball history researcher Darrell Pittman.

Victoria Advocate
October 2, 1962

As The World Turns

Winning over 60 games in their first big league season, drawing a gate of almost a million fans, and finishing 8th in field of 10 teams, including a finish higher than one club that had been there forever, the Chicago Cubs were ~ well ~ those were simply achievements that could not contain the grins of pride and joy of every baseball fan in Houston over the success of their brand new Colt .45s!

If we could do that well in our first season, how long could it possibly be before we brought home a World Series championship?

In 2018, we know the answer to that one too, don’t we?

Now, as we prepare to watch the Houston Astros do all they can to win 11 more games in the post-season for a second straight year and, hopefully, come home with our second World Series title in a row, our question about the future has shifted ever so slightly.

Our wonder now spins around this mystery. ~ How long will we be able to simply hold onto the  World Series title in a way that’s remindful of the Casey Stengel-directed New York Yankees and their 5-year dynastic run from 1949 to 1953?

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

 

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | Leave a Comment »

Astros Clinch Record 103 Wins

September 30, 2018

Pictures of the Moment
Astros Win Record Game # 103
September 29, 2017
Astros Ryan Pressly Gets Called Strike 3 on Jace Peterson of O’s

 

The Astros outfielders did their little victory dance to celebrate the occasion. Now, on Sunday, 9/30, the Astros have a chance to expand their club season wins record to 104 in the last game of the regular season at Baltimore.

 

It sometimes remains hard for me to comprehend how far we’ve come in Houston as a major league city since our innocent beginnings against the Chicago Cubs on April 10, 1962. Our inner core of professionals who have built this house from Day One have all done their contributing parts, as have our players, owners, and moments of success and disappointment on the field. They have all been great teachers ~ and the seasons themselves have all provided fans with teaching points that have helped us come to terms with Great Expectations as they are brought crashing to the shores of a partisan club MLB season beach.

All of them, not just the Crane-Luhnow-Hinch team, have done their parts, even when it was personal experience over time instructing us avid fans from the lessons of our own pain as an opportunity to recalibrate our own often excessive expectations.

Nobody expected any kind of big success in our first big league year of 1962, As a result, no one was surprised or disappointed when the original Colt .45s finished in 8th place in the NL. By 1971, however, when the renamed Astros still had not found a way to being a serious contender after ten years in the big leagues, fans were beginning to ask the adult version of a child’s favorite  question on long boring auto trips: “Are we there yet?”

Had this business of being an Astros fan been an academic course, many people would have earned their master’s degrees over the two-season course of 1979-1980. The Astros were finally getting close enough to feel the burn when a pennant suddenly slipped away at the last moment, the cries of disappointment slipped into agony: “Oh! This hurts bad! I don’t know if I can take much more of this! Come on, Astros! Let’s make it right for once!”

The baseball gods saved the Ph.D in disappointment for 1986 and the 16-inning playoff game loss to the Mets in the Astrodome: “C’mon, Knepper! How do you pitch so well for 8 innings ~ and then go out there and blow a 3-0 lead in the 9th? ~ We had Scott going for us tomorrow! ~ But now there is no tomorrow! ~ Damn! Damn! Damn!”

For those who missed their doctorates in 1986, there was 1998, the year of Randy Johnson and those randier San Diego Padres: “Thanks for trying, Mr. Dierker, but you couldn’t bat for them too! ~ Besides, it’s beginning to look like the baseball gods just have it in for Houston!” (Bad symptom development here. ~ When a subject begins to personalize disappointment with the ideation that some external force is working against him or her, the road now leads to Paranoia and not to Paradise.)

2005 finally brought Houston its first World Series, but not without cost. This was the year that the Astros were stopped from an easier clinch of the pennant at home when a late inning bomb by Albert Pujols of the Cardinals over Brad Lidge of the Astros forced the NLCS back to St. Louis for one more game. Houston had to use Roy Oswalt to take the game, but that move forced manager Phil Garner to start an unready Roger Clemens in Game One of the World Series in Chicago against the White Sox. ~ The Astros got swept by the White Sox, leaving their longtime fans to choke on their fears of the outrageously sadistic baseball gods: “Oh well,” one Astros fan muttered. “Maybe, the next time we get to a World Series, we’ll only lose by 4 games to 1.”

Ugh!

The gutters got cleaned in 2017 as the Astros walloped their way through the cream of baseball’s hierarchical royalty franchise crop. They beat the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Dodgers in some of the most convincing and thrilling games ever played.

Houston Strong did it all! ~ And now it’s getting ready, hopefully, to do it again ~ and this time, as the club that now holds the record for most regular season franchise wins over the course of a single season.

Thank you, Astros, and simply know this too. ~ Most of us who have been watching you from your 1962 start no longer expect anything from you! ~ We simply believe in you ~ and the idea that, if what we go into together in the name of love is meant to be, it shall be!

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 2 Comments »

Mark Wernick: “Til The Last Man Is Out”

September 25, 2018

Mark Wernick’s Scorecard in the Game of the Big 8th.
Even the smudge marks sweat allegiance to his caring.

 

How deep is your fandom in the destiny and fate of the Houston Astros? And what do you do when the opposition scores 5 runs in the top of the 8th to take a 5-1 seemingly deadly lead over the local heroes on a night when the boys are home and hitting at their too often fatally anemic pace?

Do you stay or do you go? 

This e-mail I received the other day from friend and colleague Mark Wernick in the wake of the 9-run rally in the bottom half of the same 8th inning by the Astros in Game Two in the immediate wake of the recently concluded three game series sweep of the Angels not only speaks for itself to the questions we now put forth, ~ it also qualifies for elevation of Mark’s work to column status as a man who thinks, writes, breathes, bleeds, cries, and sweats baseball with all the other deepest blue fans of our great game.  ~ So here goes.

Mark Wernick

 

Til The Last Man’s Out

By Mark Wernick

I didn’t finish the tallying for this scorecard – too exhausted. If you can read it, you’re amazing.

This was actually 2 games. Justin Verlander out-dueled Jaime Barria over 6 innings in the first game, 1-0, and Ryan Pressly shut down the Angels in the 7th. Verlander yielded one hit, no walks, and struck out 11, while Pressly yielded 2 hits, no walks, and struck out 2. So the Astros defeated the Angels in the first game, a 7 inning pitchers duel, by a score of 1-0.

The second game only lasted 2 innings, but it felt like 7 innings. Hector Rondon set the table for the disaster to follow, his 3rd consecutive poor outing. Rondon immediately walked the 8th inning leadoff man, pinch hitter Eric Young, Jr, (slash line .210/.257/.314), who is extremely fast and a base-stealing threat.

Young immediately stole 2nd base. Then pinch hitter Francisco Arcia, hitting .233 with 5 doubles in 90 at-bats, pounded a double to drive in Young with the tying run and blow Verlander’s masterpiece. Rondon did manage to strike out the next batter, whereupon manager Hinch replaced Rondon with the usually reliable Joe Smith.

Smith proceeded to have one of the most disastrous outings I’ve ever seen by a relief pitcher. He faced 5 batters and made a throwing error on the first batter to put two runners on base ahead of the best hitter in Major League Baseball, Mike Trout.

Trout then launched a 414 foot home run into left field orbit. That’s 2 batters and 3 runs, putting the Astros in a 1-4 hole. Then Smith yielded an infield hit to Shohei Ohtani and walked Justin Upton.

Then a passed ball by Brian McCann allowed the runners to move up to 2nd and 3rd. Then Andrelton Simmons just missed a three-run homer to left, the ball bouncing off the concrete wall in left center, barely below the yellow line. The ball was hit so hard that the ricochet came back to the fielder fast enough to enable the defense to keep Upton at 3rd, but Ohtani scored to make it 1-5, Angels. Mercifully Hinch pulled Smith, who faced 5 batters and retired no one. Collin McHugh then came in and put out the fire.

I was at this game with my old buddy from San Antonio, Stephen Smolins. We looked at each other at the end of the inning, shrugged, and then looked at the multitudes filing for the exits. “Wanna go?” I asked. “I’m in no hurry”, he answered. I was glad he said that. I’d have gone without a whimper if he had wanted to leave, but I preferred to stay to the end.

I told my friend a story about a game I attended with my son and my cousin and her husband in New York in 2004 as a lesson in leaving early. Here’s the box score and the play-by-play of that game. It will be self-explanatory. My cousin (may he rest in peace) decided to leave the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees trailing to San Diego and Trevor Hoffman (in his prime) 0-2.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/box…/…/NYA200406130.shtml

By way of very brief summary, we remained, and the Astros scored 9 runs in the bottom of the 8th, nicely capped by a monster 2-run homer by Jose Altuve, who went 3 for 4 with a walk and was the Altuve of old. So the Astros also won the second game, 9-5. Very glad we stayed!

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And all of us are the richer for the fact you wrote, Mark Wernick. Thank you for turning the hose of that eternal flow of passion for the game of baseball you channel upon all the rest of us.

Things are looking sweeter by the day. The Astros’ 5-3 win over the Blue Jays last night has taken us to 99 wins on the year and a reduction of our magic number for clinching the AL West title from “3” to “2”. ~ Oakland kept it from further shrinkage on Monday by later taking their game at Seattle by a 7-3 count.

If the Astros win and the A’s lose today, the AL West is ours and manager Hinch can rest and plan his use of personnel for the playoffs through the end of the regular season this coming Sunday.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 3 Comments »

Explosive 8th Saves Astros, Not Justin

September 23, 2018

How many wins would Cy Young have today were he to be reborn as the same talented pitcher, but playing the game anew under a pitch count?

 

This morning we learned that the 14-total runs 8th inning of the Angels @ Astros game at MMP last night, Sat, 9/22/18, was the highest scoring stanza of the 2018 season for all MLB teams. It saved the Astros from losing ground to Oakland and, for that, we Astro partisans are grateful. Unfortunately, it did not spare starter Justin Verlander from another lost “W” credit that in every way ~ every way ~ beyond the poorly fitting rules of pitching win credit belonged to the mighty Astros ace.

Get this firmly in mind. ~ Verlander ate up his pitch count in six innings. While he was there, Astros had squeaked out a 1-0 lead that would have qualified him for the win, had the club been able to protect the lead without once giving it away later to a tie or deficit.

While Verlander worked those six innings, he gave up only one hit, he walked none, and he struck out eleven. He now has a league-leading 280 strikeouts on the season, his highest “K” count to date for any season he’s pitched so far in his Hall-of-Fame-likely career. He also left the mound last night with a 16-9 record from previous 2018 W/L earnings, and he left too with a season ERA that now has descended to 2.60 on the season.

Reliever Ryan Pressly struggled, but was able to protect the 1-0 lead in the 7th, but Hector Rondon and Joe Smith came on in the 8th and gave up 4 earned runs and 1 unearned run before Colin McHugh came in to quell further damage going into the bottom of the 8th.

At 5-1 LA going south in the 8th, and in spite of all the old “it ain’t over til it’s over” wisdom, the Astros goose looked cooked and ready for the gravy-ladeling.

It wasn’t meant to be. The Astros answered the Angels with a 9-run wake-up bomb that saved the game and the day as a much needed pennant chase win. And, oh yes, the rally also produced a “W” for Colin McHugh as the pitcher of record for this two outs of work and presence in the game at the time of the big Houston run explosion.

Roberto Osuna finished the game in the 9th to seal the victory for the Astros and “the pitcher of record,” Colin McHugh.

Nothing against McHugh here, but the question still stands, in spite of all the tedium and inconvenience that would come from a needless reassignment of wins and losses over all eras of play.

The current rules fit most eras of baseball, except for the recent times of relief pitcher assignments and now the use of pitch counts on starters. Baseball is a different game today. No matter how good they are, starters today aren’t going to get many wins today for a five to seven inning good job if they are pitching for a club that gets them poor early inning run support.

Verlander is 16-9 by the current rules. By rules that are more up-to-date, he could already be at least 20-5 or better. Surely he would have been the winner last night by rules that valued his contribution to the win as greater than the 2/3 inning contribution of McHugh.

Just my two cents. The actual conditions of change should be carefully considered by baseball’s greatest experts on how the use of pitchers has changed the game. Otherwise, stop keeping W/L stats. These grow more meaningless to distortional by the game and season under the traditional rules still in place.

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Top Ten AL Batting Averages 

Thru Games of Sat., 9/22/18: 

BATTING AVERAGE

1. Betts • BOS ~ .339

2. Martinez • BOS ~ .329

3. Altuve • HOU ~ .317

4. Trout • LAA ~ .316

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AL WEST SCORES, 

Thru Sat., 9/22/18:

Houston 10 – LA Angels 5.

Oakland 3 – Minnesota 2.

Seattle 13 – Texas 0.

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AL WEST STANDINGS

Morning of Sun., 9/23/18

TEAMS

WON

LOST

PCT.

GB

Houston

97

57

.630

 —-

Oakland

94

61

.606

   3.5

Seattle

85

69

.552

 12.0

LA Angels

75

80

.484

 22.5

Texas

65

89

.422

 32.0

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SCHEDULE BALANCE FOR

HOU, OAK & SEA:

DATE

HOU

OAK

SEA

9/23

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/24

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/25

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/26

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/27

@BAL

TEX

9/28

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/29

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/30

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:,
Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 3 Comments »

More-Famous-Elsewhere Houston MLB All Stars

September 20, 2018

 

1950 Phillies
Looks Right!

I remember it well. It was 1965 and I had just picked up an early Astros game over the radio in New Orleans. “What do they mean, “Houston pitcher Robin Roberts looks in for

1965 Astros
Looks Wrong!

the sign?” ~ I still had failed to get used to the sound of Robin Roberts’ name being spoken as a pitcher for our newly re-christened Astros. The guy was the crown jewel pitcher for the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies club they called “The Whiz Kids.” ~ These Houston Astros were closer as a match to being a club that might qualify in 1965 by Roberts’ current age of 38 for re-designation as “The Wheeze Kids”.

The following is simply a nine-man roster of former Houston MLB players who were far more famous for their big league work elsewhere. Four of them (Roberts, Rodriquez, Fox, and Mathews) were even great enough to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

The More-Famous-Elsewhere Houston MLB All Stars

Pitcher ~ Robin Roberts

Catcher ~ Ivan Rodriguez

1st Base ~ Pete Runnels

2nd Base ~ Nellie Fox

3rd Base ~ Eddie Mathews

Shortstop ~ Felix Mantilla

Left Field ~ Tommy Davis

Center Field ~ Tommy Agee

Right Field ~ Willie Crawford

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Top Ten AL Batting Averages 

Thru Games of Wed., 9/19/18: 

BATTING AVERAGE

1. Betts • BOS ~ .334

2. Martinez • BOS ~ .331

3. Trout • LAA ~ .317

4. Altuve • HOU ~ .315

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

AL WEST SCORES, 

Thru Wed., 9/19/18:

Seattle 9 – Houston 0.

Oakland 10 – LA Angels 0.

Tampa Bay 9 – Rangers 3.

 ********************

AL WEST STANDINGS

Morning of Thu., 9/20/18

TEAMS

WON

LOST

PCT.

GB

Houston

95

57

.625

 —-

Oakland

91

61

.599

   4.0

Seattle

84

68

.553

 11.0

LA Angels

75

77

.493

 20.0

Texas

64

88

.421

 31.0

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

SCHEDULE BALANCE FOR

HOU, OAK & SEA:

DATE

HOU

OAK

SEA

9/20

LAA

9/21

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/22

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/23

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/24

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/25

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/26

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/27

@BAL

TEX

9/28

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/29

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/30

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

 

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

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 4 Comments »

The Ecstasy and the Agony of Baseball

September 18, 2018

“I had to hit that pinch hit grand slam against the Astros last night! – With my season stats at Seattle, I was well on the way to being out the door and back to living in a van ~ down by the river!” ~ Dan Vogelbach (not Chris Farley)

The Ecstasy of Marisnick and the Agony 0f Vogelbach

That sums up how we got to feel it in Houston last night. It was Seattle’s turn to feel the happy ending version of the same script. For our rendition here, it was a tale of a few 8th inning numbered pitches.

TOP OF THE 8TH, Hector Rondon now pitching, Astros still holding on to the 1-0 lead they’ve precariously protected from the Bottom of the 4th inning ~ to this moment. ~ Here’s what happened in a nutshell of pitches:

SEATTLE BATTING …. Hector Rondon pitching his first inning in relief for Houston:

Pitch #2: Lefty Nelson Cruz laces a single to center field.

Kristopher Negron enters as a pinch runner at 1st for Cruz.

Pitch #4: RHB Ryon Kelly is retired on a diving shoestring catch in center by Jake Marisnick!

Pitch #6: LHB Kyle Seager dumps a dying quail single to left field as Negron moves to 2nd.

LHB Robinson Canoe enters as pinch hitter for Cameron Maybin.

Pitch #8: Robinson Can is retired on a second diving shoestring catch in center by Jeff Marisnick!

Pitch #12 : On a 1-2 pitch, Denard Span takes an arguably missed strike to call to go 2-2 in the count.

Pitch #14: Span walks; Seager to 2nd; Negron to 3rd; bases loaded!

LHB Dan Vogelbach enters as a pinch hitter for Guillermo Heredia.

Pitch #17: Vogelbach hits a grooved middle-of-the-plate Grand Slam HR into the Astros RCF bullpen.

The Mariners take a 4-1 that will hold up as the final, most disappointing-in-Houston final score! The fielding heroics of Jake Marisnick are wasted and lost as a legend with a happy ending! The chance for Houston to expand its lead over 2nd place Oakland is gone for the day! And now one of the club’s deadly late game relievers has to both put this game’s outcome on short memory while he tries his hardest to remember that waist-high over the middle of the plate is no place to deliver a fastball ~ especially when the other team has the bases-loaded and he’s trying to hold on to a one-run lead late in the game.

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

Top Ten AL Batting Averages 

Through Games of Mon., 9/17/18: 

BATTING AVERAGE

1. Betts • BOS ~ .337

2. Martinez • BOS ~ .328

3. Trout • LAA ~ .3181

4. Altuve • HOU ~ .3179

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

AL WEST SCORES, 

Thru Mon., 9/17/18:

Seattle 4 – Houston 1.

Tampa Bay 3 – Rangers 0.

 LA Angels (did not play).

Oakland (did not play).

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

AL WEST STANDINGS

Morning of Tue., 9/18/18

TEAMS

WON

LOST

PCT.

GB

Houston

94

56

.627

 —-

Oakland

90

60

.600

   4.0

Seattle

83

67

.553

 11.0

LA Angels

74

76

.493

 20.0

Texas

64

86

.427

 30.0

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

SCHEDULE BALANCE FOR

HOU, OAK & SEA:

DATE

HOU

OAK

SEA

9/18

SEA

LAA

@HOU

9/19

SEA

LAA

@HOU

9/20

LAA

9/21

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/22

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/23

LAA

MIN

@TEX

9/24

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/25

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/26

@TOR

@SEA

OAK

9/27

@BAL

TEX

9/28

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/29

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

9/30

@BAL

@LAA

TEX

 

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

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball, culture, History, Houston | 6 Comments »

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