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Astros Now Sitting in the Catbird Seat

July 6, 2017

Astros Now Sitting in the Catbird Seat

 

30 Games over .500 and 16 games up in the AL West on July 4th, the Houston Astros find themselves sitting in the 2017 season catbird seat as the widely lauded “best team in baseball!”

The Astros are doing all they can do to make sure that they do not fall out of the Catbird Seat come October.

For one thing, the Stros have got Field Manager A.J. Hinch and his staff watching carefully over everything they do.

For another, the Astros have got All Star players like Carlos Correa and George Springer, whose esprit de corps does not allow the club’s raging fire for winning to cool to an amber glow.

They’ve also got fiery young All Star pitchers like Lance McCullers to keep them mowing down enemy club bats.

And they’ve got future Hall of Fame little guy Jose Altuve playing everyday like the fellow he sees in his own reflection every time he takes the field.

It’s not a perfect world in Houston. HOLY TOLEDO! Sometimes we may be driving home with the game broadcast going on and, HOLY TOLEDO, we miss the familiar sound of the late Milo Hamilton one more time. Then we snap back to thinking that the current radio guys, Robert Ford and Steve Sparks, are doing a pretty good job on their own.

Speaking of media people, we do miss TV’s 30-year play-by-play guy, our old friend Bill Brown a whole lot, but the the new team of Brad Kalas and Geoff Blum is doing a great job finding their own voice as a team for the ROOTS TV broadcasts of Astro games. And they picked a great season to start their Astros coverage.

And when the ROOTS boys run dry on something to say in the booth, they can always rely on field reporter Julia Morales to come up with something nearer the game action that draws everyone’s attention.

 

Here’s Looking at You, Kid!

And finally, these last five photos simply show how the Astros now look to the other four American League West clubs looking up at them in early July 2017 – and in the last one, how the AL West clubs now appear to the Houston Astros club from the Catbird Seat:

(Above) The Los Angels Angels view of the Astros in July 2017.

(Above) The Texas Rangers view of the Astros in July 2017.

(Above) The Seattle Mariners view of the Astros in July 2017.

(Above) The Oakland Athletics view of the Astros in July 2017.

(Above) The Houston Astros view of the other AL West clubs from the Catbird Seat in July 2017.

 

Keep up the good work, guys! We are loving it in Houston!

Yum. Yum. Yummy.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Where Did All the Pitchers Go?

July 4, 2017

Here’s SABR analyst Bill Gilbert’s July 4th Report on the June 2017 month of the high-flying Houston Astros baseball season.

 

Where Did All the Pitchers Go?

By Bill Gilbert

June was a challenging month for the Houston Astros as four of the five pitchers that were in the opening day starting rotation hit the disabled list. As a result, thirteen of the team’s 27 games in June were started by rookies and the results weren’t pretty. Fortunately, Mike Fiers, the only member of the original starting rotation that remained healthy, came on strong in June (3-1, 2.32 ERA) after pitching poorly in April and May and Brad Peacock came out of the bullpen to post a 3-1 record with an ERA of 3.33. The Astros increased their AL West Division lead from 11 to 13.5 games over the second place Los Angeles Angels in June.

The Astros are at the halfway point at the end of June with a record of 54-27, the best in the major leagues. Credit has to go primarily to the offense. They had a .294 batting average in June raising the average for the season to .283. Both figures led the major leagues and the Astros also lead the majors in on-base percentage (.348), slugging average (.483), runs (5.54 runs per game) and home runs (128). The batters also have the fewest strikeouts in MLB with 544. They have 4 regulars hitting over .300 and 7 batters with 10 or more home runs.

For the first time ever, the Astros will have 3 position players starting in the All-Star Game, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer. Pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr. were also selected to the team.

The Astros used 17 pitchers in June including outfielder Nori Aoki who mopped up in a 13-4 loss to the Yankees. Moves between the majors and minors were made on almost a daily basis to keep fresh arms in an overworked bullpen. The pitching situation should improve in July. McCullers made two starts in late June and Keuchel, who last pitched on June 1, may be available after the All-Star break. Charlie Morton didn’t pitch at all in June and may also be available at the break. Collin McHugh, who hasn’t pitched at all in the regular season, is reportedly making progress but his return is uncertain. The Astros are expected to acquire another starting pitcher before the trading deadline on July 31.

Despite the pitching staff injuries, Astro pitchers have a 3.92 ERA for the season, 6th in MLB and they lead the majors in strikeouts with 830. The bullpen is deep and has been effective; leading the majors in strikeouts (369) wins (19) and saves (24).

The Astros started the month of June with a three game sweep of their former nemesis, the Texas Rangers, in Arlington as part of an eleven game winning streak. However, the Rangers made partial retribution later in the month by taking two out of three in Houston, leaving the season series at 7-3 in favor of Houston. The teams don’t play each other in July. Another highlight in June was a four-game series sweep at Oakland later in the month. The July schedule is relatively light with only 24 games because of the 4-day All-Star break. Other than 2 games at the beginning of the month with the Yankees, the Astros don’t face the stronger teams in July.

 

Bill Gilbert

billcgilbert@sbcglobal.net

7/3/17

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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The Dome and NRG: How Close is Close?

July 4, 2017

Astrodome Reflection in NRG Wall
2005
Photo by Bill McCurdy

 

How close is close? This photo I took of the Astrodome’s reflection upon the eastern glass walls of what is now called NRG Stadium back in 2005 speaks to the question.

Neither superstructure has moved an inch closer or further away from each other in the twelve years that have passed since this shot was taken, but it’s hard to say what the distance now is between the two groups that support the future of each? NRG is still the love-child venue for the NFL Houston Texans, the Houston Rodeo, and various other special promotions and concerts that play throughout the year. If anything, one gets the impression that the NRG multipurpose event sponsors are simply now stronger and richer than they were in 2005, having established the annual Texas Bowl at the end of the college football year – and another strong gate college football opening game as the other bookend on that sport, plus, adding some March Madness basketball games and one national championship as upgrades on the big truck events that apparently have some attraction to a few fans.

What NRG does not have now is that extra paved parking lot space they would own by the anticipated demolition of the neighborly abandoned house next door. In 2005, the Astrodome was still living out the early years of its “abandoned waif in the storm” period. That was the time in which some people were starting to speak wistfully about their “growing up with the dome” memories and gently waking up to the awareness that the Astros had been allowed to skip out to their new Enron Field digs downtown with the county having no exit plan for “what happens next” or any budgeted funds to put any plan into motion for bringing new life to what was also coming more to life as one the world’s unique pieces of architecture – and as important to Houston as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.

Uh! Oh! The motivations for saving the dome were growing after 2005. Supporters begin to gather and organize around two basic ideas: (1) They want to keep the Astrodome because of what it had meant to them and the history of Houston; and, (2) They felt both the desire and the duty to preserve the Astrodome for what it meant to the history of world architecture and the reputation of Houston as a city that saw a tough job, but found a way to legitimately preserve the Astrodome for generation to come. As a complete thought, local preservationists, with steely support from Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and the Harris County Commissioner’s Court all went to bat for the Dome and managed to push through an affordable plan to renovate the Astrodome and make sure that it shall belong to the ages in a respectful way.

Now it’s time for the action part of the plan – and uncounted millions of us await the initiative of an ongoing digital progress report via the Internet.

Our original question still stands, but with the obvious human adaptation that needs to be added. – How close are Judge Emmett and his Astrodome Supporters group to working with Bob McNair and the Rodeo People to make this change as smooth and jointly beneficial as possible? And, if the answer here is anything from “nowhere” to “ambiguity” – does that mean we still face an underhanded play of political pot holes to get the Astrodome running in its new life?

Hope not. Houston’s ability to rally together here in behalf of the Astrodome is big. That incredibly close structure in the column header photo will soon enough again be speaking with a beating heart. And she will be close enough to kiss you too, NRG.

And kisses “hello” are so much nicer than kisses “goodbye”.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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Freedom is the Fox and We are the Hunters

July 3, 2017

 

Even as an adolescent “scholar”, I wondered about the final third facet of Thomas Jefferson’s famous “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” inclusion in our American Declaration of Independence, but not because I didn’t like it, but because I was already old enough to know that some of the things I’d already found it fun to pursue in the name of happiness could get you in a little trouble. So, if my limited experience, and what I saw also happening to my friends also were also true pursuits of happiness, what were we supposed to get from Mr. Jefferson’s message?

The rub was – I wasn’t old enough at age sixteen to understand that my confusion about the third part was based upon my immature grasp of the second part – that thing that Jefferson called “liberty”.

Like Janet Joplin sang, about a dozen years beyond my salad days, some of us recognized “liberty” as a synonym for “freedom” – and, as Janet belted it out a half generation later, we already found ourselves holding onto only a slightly tougher version of “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Freedom is never just another word for “nothing left to lose”. Freedom is the “fox” that invites that misunderstanding for the sake of hiding that there always is a consequence – a price to pay – for everything we do – even those things we do in the name of freedom.

Want to try out the freedom of living rich in your pursuit of happiness? Go ahead and live off this credit card with that five-digit line of credit you received in the mail, Mr./Ms. College Graduate, and don’t worry about a thing. You will hear from us when it’s time.

Freedom is the fox. And we are the hunters on the “pursuit of happiness” trail. Count on the fox showing up at any time – and maybe even bringing some low profile friends from the same lair when he arrives. And remember too. Some of the costs we pay for our naivete or ignorance or blindness or stupidity – or plain old passion – simply come in the form of prices that go painfully beyond money. These are the ones that bring us to blood, sweat, and tears.

The quick answer to this universal dilemma goes like this: Every disappointment causes a certain kind of pain. Get the lessons of that pain and we don’t have to repeat that same experience. Fail to get it – or fail to even look – and it will be back – in some similar form – until we either get it or suffer loss at a more expensive or deadlier level.

How about simply avoiding the pursuit of happiness altogether?

The alternative is the attempt to live in risk-free seclusion from disappointment in our pursuits of happiness – to breathe quietly without living – and that’s no life at all.

As best I can see it now, freedom as a real state of independence only becomes possible when we come to realize that it is only one hemisphere in another large universal ball that includes responsibility as its other half. – We only get to keep the freedom we see if we come also to see that each freedom we claim has a responsibility that goes along with it – and that includes our understanding that others have the same rights and responsibilities we enjoy and embrace.

If none of us give each other the right to be different from us, then none of us are really free. Or responsible. Or independent.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, EVERYBODY!

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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2017 Astros: Artists of the Miracle Rally

July 2, 2017

If Vincent Van Gogh had been watching the bottom of the 8th in the Astros Game 2, 7-6, rally win over the Yankees on 7/01/17, here’s what he might have painted in celebration of that starry night.

 

Indeed, the 2017 Houston Astros are the Michelangelo of the Miracle Rally in major league baseball, but maybe we should allow some credit also to Vincent Van Gogh for the “Starry, Starry Night” level quality that showed up in the bottom of the 8th of Game 2’s 4-run rally and 7-6 victory margin over the Yankees on Saturday. If you are a Houston fan, it was just that star-splendidly beautiful – with daubs of color and light spread all over the place from that winning double down the left field line by Yuli Gurriel off ace NY reliever Aroldis Chapman. That skimming sideboard bumper and bouncer off the far left field corner wall drove home the tying and eventual winning runs at a time in which a missed pitch by Gurriel would have put the home boys back on the field – still a run back – with no guarantee they could hold on, prevent further Yankee scoring in the top of the 9th, and then reignite things again in their last chance time at bat shot by finding those tying and winning runs in a second wonder rally.

No need for “what-if” wondering here about last night. The Astro Artists got it done in the 8th. And that proved enough.

On a less confident level, it will be interesting to see if our current Astros pitching staff can actually improve with rest. If not, some arms need to show up that can help keep all this great hitting ability and terrific baseball savvy together for victory in all those short series hills that have to be climbed at the end of the year.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

 

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SABR Not Attracting Young People

July 1, 2017

Who am I?
(a) Civil War Sec. of War Edwin Stanton?
(b) SABR Member John Doe?
(c) Yankee Reliever Mike Stanton?

 

My dear St. Thomas fellow writer friend, Rob Sangster, sent me this link to an article that appeared yesterday in the July 30, 2017 New York Times. It was called “Baseball’s Analytics Society Sees a Problem: Avg. Age, Members” and the writer was fellow named Filip Bondy. It proved to be yet another valid take on news that goes way beyond baseball – and that is, that younger Americans, and I would add Millennial age people to the foreground of that growing face of change, are no longer interested in many cultural pursuits that still captivate their aging grandparents.

SABR, indeed, is a perfect demographic example of the issue.

SABR (THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN BASEBALL RESEARCH) was the brainchild of L. Robert Davids, who on August 10, 1971, gathered 15 other baseball researchers at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, to form the organization. The 2017 annual SABR convention, in fact, is now underway through tomorrow,  June 28-July 2), and that’s undoubtedly inspired the timely Times piece. I’m guessing the convention may have hosted 8-10% of its total 5800 person membership in New York and that most attendees were older than the just-under-60 average age – and that most were male – and that all possessed at least one ready-to-wear cap and/or jersey from his favorite team and that he had gray hair with a probable gray beard to match.

Going to a small group SABR discussion in July, especially if the AC is not working, can invite fantasized memories of what it must have been like to attend a Lincoln cabinet meeting at the White House during the summers of 1862, 1863, 0r 1864. I recall going to a SABR meeting in Houston on summer night, some time in the past four years, and sitting near a fellow whose face and facial hair reminded me so much of Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, that I just couldn’t resist dropping a harmless goodbye line on him at meeting’s end.

“Goodnight, friend! – And please say hello to the President for me when you get home! – Will you please?'”

I then explained what I said and he got it. He even knew who Edwin Stanton was. And he probably also knew that Stanton had never had a time at bat in any early 19th century base ball game either. I should have checked him out for his depth of peripheral knowledge about the early history of the game. Maybe next time. When Lincoln doesn’t need him home so much and will allow him to borrow the SABR time warp passage key.

Hope you get where I’m going with this seems to be – meandering set of observations. The SABR mind leaves no stone unturned. Although some younger people might argue the nuance of irony that “the SABR mind leaves no thought unstoned” as their own sober review of us.

In case you’re wondering, I am neither stoned now – nor do I ever get stoned. I simply enjoy a playful mind at a time in my life in which I’ve come to realize certain truths. To me, it is more important that our children survive in ways that are important to them than it is to keep alive commitments that are important to us. As long as they can grow in their capacities for giving others, including those who come after them in age, the right to be different from them too, things should work out for our kids. And for baseball too.

Baseball will always be bigger than SABR, no matter how many ways some of our members create to measure the game’s productivity. SABR was never placed here as the answer to what’s missing from baseball. Maybe nothing is missing. Maybe all some people are doing is what egos always try to do. That is – to put their own marks on the face of the game. The game doesn’t need to be shorter. And it probably will not get much longer. We need to stop and simply ask ourselves: What is it I get out of baseball that fills my life so sweetly? Or completely? Or Whatever?

Give any subject the right question – and chances go way up that you may find the truth in ways that were never before available.

Along that line, we have made some terrific progress in the way we frame fresh starts over the past sixty years. When I finished undergraduate school in 1960, for example, it was all about going for the answers in life that would guarantee a complete journey to the land of “happily ever after.”

So much for that one.

There now seem to be more of us who’ve come to realize over time, through our own sometimes painful experience, that it’s more important to get the right questions about living in peace and love today, each day, moment to moment, in the here and now, one breath of life at a time.

Give it a try. Ask the questions of yourself. For yourself: If I am spending this much of my life engaged in so many ways with baseball, what am I getting out of it? Really?

And then maybe it will begin to make sense why many of the much younger population feels little attraction to SABR. They are not us. They have their own needs. And they may need baseball differently than we do.

Here’s the referenced link that sparked this modest epistle:

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Farrell and Owens: The Vaudeville Act

July 1, 2017

In real life, they called themselves the Dalton Gang.

 

Another fantasia adventure with former Colt .45 pitchers Turk Farrell and Jim Owens. I never met Owens, but I did have lunch with Turk Farrell and two other guys at the Old Capitol Club on Halloween Day in 1972. We all arrived at 11:00 AM, ostensibly to discuss a community service project, but we didn’t finish until 2:00 PM – and it was mostly liquid – most of the time we were there. By that time, Turk was retired from baseball, but he was a great social companion that only moment I ever spent any personal time with him. Five years later, when Farrell was killed in a car accident in England, the sorrow was deepened for me by that one day of contact. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

At any rate, bear with me here. The following parody of an old vaudeville act was inspired by an article and cartoon I received overnight from Darrell Pittman. You may find those base source materials more interesting than this little Saturday morning parody that decided to write itself through me today. Knowing the number from “Gypsy” upon which it’s based, may or may not help. The inspirational article follows as the conclusion of this rather lengthy column.

Farrell-Owens Vaudeville Act Parody

(Sung to the Chorus number “Extra! Extra! From the movie “Gypsy”)

Bullpen Occupants Chorus:

 

Extra! …. Extra!

Hey, look at the bullpen

Historical news is being made!

 

Extra! …. Extra!

We’re drawing a red line

Around the biggest scoop of this decade!

 

A barrel of charm? …. Not much!

A fabulous thrill? …. No way!

The biggest little headline …. in vaudeville!

 

Presenting! …. In person!

That 2-Man Bundle of pitching dynamite

Farrell and Owens! …. alias Turk-n-Stein!

 

[applause]

 

Turk-n-Stein:

 

Hello, everybody! ….

Our act’s called Turk-n-Stein!

…. What’s yours?

 

Turk-n-Stein Singing in harmony:

 

Let us …. Entertain you!

Let us …. Pitch our style!

 

Let us pitch a few tricks!

Some old and then …. Some new tricks!

We’re very versatile!

 

And if we pitch good

You’ll feel good …. Sure should!

We want your spirits to climb

 

So LET US …. Do our DAMN THING!

And we’ll put the NL …. On its ear!

And YOU’LL have a good time too …. Colt fans

 

We said …. You’ll …. Have …. A real good …. Time!

 

(Turk-n-Stein tap dance off stage right to an up tempo beat orchestration of “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”!)

Thank you, Darrell Pittman for this contribution.

Legible Re-Print of the Farrell-Owens Article

Transcribed by Darrell Pittman

Victoria Advocate, July 3, 1965:

 

Astros’ Farrell and Owens Run Lively Act in Houston

By TOM TIEDE

Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

 

NEW YORK (NEA) – If ever a member of the Houston Astros baseball team becomes the first man to go into orbit without a space ship, Dick Farrell and Jim Owens can take credit for the launching.

 

The daffy duo of the Texas pitching staff once owned a nine-foot boa constrictor and one of the places they kept it was on the couch of their, uh, pad.

 

“The snake and the couch matched perfectly,” chortles Farrell. “So we invited guys in to sit down. A few people went flying out of the room, believe me.”

 

The Farrell & Owens act has been an almost continuously running feature in major league cities since the turn of the decade. Performances have been largely after dark, in pubs and ball parks.

 

Reviews have been mixed. Had they played in the American League, Boston might have banned it.

 

The Throwing Thespians are no strangers to bottle or battle. Once, in an attempt to divide and conquer, Philadelphia’s Gene Mauch assigned the two to different rooms on the road.

 

Farrell & Owens would have none of it. They kept their television sets blasting until 5 a.m. every night for a week. At the end of the sleep strike, many members of the bleary-eyed Phillies threatened to quit baseball. Mauch relented and tossed them back together.

 

Other clubs took firmer action. When Farrell completed what the Los Angeles Dodgers considered a “half-hearted” season (8-7) in 1961, the Bums’ brass was hedging on whether or not to keep him.

 

Farrell made up their minds for them. He pushed teammate Norm Larker into a motel swimming pool – fully clothed – and was promptly unloaded to Houston.

 

In Texas the Farrell-Owens routine is the best on the bill. Without them the Astro home bookings, even in the new theater, would be unspeakably dull.

 

For example, Farrell livens things up by admitting he throws spitters. It’s illegal as marijuana, of course, but he bluntly confessed a few years back that he served a wet one to Stan Musial.

 

“Everyone loads them up once in a while,” he pointed out.

 

Now 29 apiece, Farrell & Owens claim they’re rounding the corners off their act. “I don’t want to spoil my chances of making more money,” says the former. “You’ve got to grow up some time,” says the latter.

 

But the high spirits are still there.

 

Drop around their pad some time for a lift.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Houston DJ Icon Paul Berlin Has Died

July 1, 2017

PAUL BERLIN, 86
1930-2017
REST IN PEACE

 

Legendary Houston Disk Jockey Paul Berlin is dead at age 86 at his home in the city, following a brief illness. For whatever reason, we only learned of his passing today, thanks to a thoughtful reader that sent us the link to this nice article by David Barron of the Houston Chronicle.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Radio-disc-jockey-Paul-Berlin-dies-at-age-86-11243111.php

The date of Paul’s death and Barron’s article already are a week old from the June 23, 2017 moments they each occurred. Thanks for the nice job you did, David Barron! and thank you, especially, Paul Berlin, for being the guy that played the soundtrack of our lives for all of us young pups who started the long climb to coming of age listening to you spin the music that came from two main AM radio station places in the early 1950s – and those included KNUZ and KILT.

Most of us chose KNUZ because that’s where you were.

Through those sound wave portals at KNUZ came the basic original stomp-and-boom rock and roll music that was Chuck Berry – and Little Richard – and Elvis Presley – and Jerry Lee Lewis – and Fats Domino – and Buddy Holly – and all the lesser individual light single artists and great groups – like the Pretenders – to get our blood passions flowing on a connection link to each other – as our early selfish adolescent tastes spelled out what we wanted for ourselves and from each other in life – and how we wanted “happily ever after” to turn out in the long run – whatever that was.

Paul Berlin was our Pied Piper – and he didn’t even need a flute or a Nottingham Forest suit of clothes to get us there. He just had to be the young adult figure in our lives who seemed to know how to talk with us in ways that didn’t scream new rules in our ears – and even someone who could make some of the same mistakes that some of us also made and live to learn from these and move on.

Amazing! Only yesterday I was sharing an old Paul Berlin story with a friend of mine who now lives in Memphis. Berlin was a native Memphian, getting his start in radio there before moving to Houston in the early 1950s. The story I shared was legendary Paul Berlin. He used to describe Memphis as the only city in the country that had been built on a bluff – and run on one too. I always understood that the city itself, indeed, was built upon a topographical bluff above the high eastern bank of the Mississippi River, but I never really understood the other part. Assumption always flows in my mind that it had something to do with political chicanery at city hall or the chamber of commerce.

I’ve got to share this next story because it’s the primary incident of reference I had in mind – and it deserves to be remembered as maybe a lesson that also spared some of us the same kind of fate down the line – and not something that gets shoved away and buried under an avalanche of “wonderful Paul Berlin” tales – which are OK too. They simply aren’t everything. And this is certainly no hack at the wonderful character of the man that was Paul Berlin. We loved him for the very reason he may have gotten into some short-term trouble over what happened here. – Paul wasn’t that much older than quite a few of us back then and, as we all get to learn in some way, immaturity is not restricted to ages ending in the syllable “teen”.

Once Upon A New Years Eve

I can’t remember the exact year, but it had to have been some time in the 1954-59 range. It was a New Year’s Eve – and Paul found himself working that night – and maybe with a little help from the same stuff that a lot of people imbibe on New Year’s Eve who aren’t working. As listeners, all we could tell, and maybe that’s all it was, is that Paul seemed a little different that night. – Different, as in “silly different.”

He began to kid that he had brought some reading material to keep himself company as he worked alone on a night that everyone else was celebrating as the world’s biggest annual party night.

It was when Paul named the three books he’d brought to read – and then followed that revelation by pointing out to us over the air the irony of the authors’ names for each that his working shift suddenly was ended for the night by someone else at the station – and Paul got the rest of the night off.

The books Paul Berlin named were “Under the Grandstand”, “Yellow Stream”, and “Antlers in the Treetop”. Perhaps, you are familiar with the names of their authors – and why this information shortened Paul’s workload that long ago New Year’s Eve night.

If Paul ever talked about that night again, I do not recall. We were just glad to get him back on the air at his normal times. And, who knows? Maybe Paul helped model a jam that a few of us were able to avoid down the road because of our concern for him.

Sweet Dreams, Old Friend

Here’s the link to Paul Berlin’s obituary. His memorial service is planned for late July.

http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Paul-Berlin&lc=7472&pid=185903552&mid=7459752

Godspeed, Paul Berlin. Rest in Peace. And say hello to Chuck Berry for all of us.

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

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Shrine of Eternals Induction Day: 7/16/17

June 30, 2017

A Baseball Reliquary Reminder:

By Terry Cannon on June 27, 2017 in news Re-published here in The Pecan Park Eagle in the implicit hope that our California colleague, Terry Cannon, will not mind our efforts to expand his good news and wry baseball historian’s honorable sense of value and humor all wrapped into one voice further out to an even broader audience. The link to the publication site that owns this eloquent presentation in behalf of The Baseball Reliquary is as follows:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/2017/06/shrine-eternals-induction-day-july-16-2017/

 

The Baseball Reliquary will present the 2017 Induction Day ceremony for its nineteenth class of electees to the Shrine of the Eternals on Sunday, July 16, 2017, beginning at 2:00 p.m., at the Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library, 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, California. Doors to the auditorium will open at 1:30 p.m. Admission is open to the public and free of charge. The inductees will be Charlie Brown, Bob Uecker, and Vin Scully. The keynote address will be delivered by Dave Mesrey. In addition, the Baseball Reliquary will honor the recipients of the 2017 Hilda Award, Cam Perron, and the 2017 Tony Salin Memorial Award, Dr. Richard Santillan.

For further information, contact the Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net. The 2017 Induction Day is co-sponsored by the Pasadena Public Library and is made possible, in part, by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Following is a brief preview of the afternoon’s festivities:

The program will commence with an Induction Day tradition: the ceremonial bell ringing in memory of the late Brooklyn Dodgers fan Hilda Chester; everyone who attends is encouraged to bring a bell to ring for this much-anticipated sonic cacophony. The National Anthem and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” will be performed by the SYMPHOMANIAX, the flagship musical quartet representing the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra.

 

Cam Perron (right) with former Negro League player Roosevelt Jackson, who turns 100 this December.

The first presentation will be the Hilda Award, established in memory of legendary Brooklyn Dodgers fan Hilda Chester to recognize distinguished service to the game by a baseball fan. The 2017recipient, CAM PERRON, began writing letters to veteran players of the Negro Leagues when he was in middle school. While his initial purpose was to obtain the players’ signatures, Perron soon became obsessed with the Negro Leagues, and the unsung heroes of those bygone leagues who were so unrecognized in the world of sports. Perron’s hobby had turned into a passion, and by his freshman year in high school, he began organizing annual Negro League reunions and reconnecting players who had been out of touch for over 50 years. Not only has he located over 100 previously undiscovered former Negro Leaguers, but he has been instrumental in obtaining pensions for many of the players through a program offered by Major League Baseball, a payout that was often life-changing. A 2016 graduate of Tulane University, Perron, now 22 years old, continues his important Negro Leagues research and regularly communicates with former players. He was recently spotlighted on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

Dr. Richard Santillan

The second presentation will be the Tony Salin Memorial Award, named in memory of the late baseball author and historian, and established to recognize individuals for their commitment to the preservation of baseball history. The 2017 recipient, DR. RICHARD SANTILLAN, has taught Chicano Studies for the past 45 years in the California State University system. A founding member of the Latino Baseball History Project at California State University, San Bernardino, Dr. Santillan has, since 2011, served as the lead author for the Mexican American baseball book series in conjunction with the Arcadia Publishing company. This summer, the series will release its eleventh book on Houston and Southeast Texas, and its twelfth book on El Paso. Three more books will be released in 2018 on the San Gabriel Valley (Southern California), Kansas City, and Sacramento.  To date, nearly 2,500 vintage photos and stories have been published, the most comprehensive photo collection to be made available to the public in the history of baseball research on Mexican American communities in the United States. The philosophy of the book series is to showcase Mexican American baseball and softball photos through the lens of race, class, gender, political and civil rights, the border, prejudice and discrimination, and how baseball and softball served as political tools to advance equality and social justice. Dr. Santillan and his wife, Teresa, recently donated their Los Angeles Dodgers collection, one of the largest private Dodgers collections in the world, to the Baseball Reliquary; it is housed at the Institute for Baseball Studies at Whittier College.

Dave Mesrey

Following the award presentations, the 2017 keynote address will be delivered by DAVE MESREY, a Detroit, Michigan-based writer, historian, and preservationist. A founding member of the Navin

Field Grounds Crew, the grassroots collective of baseball fans which worked to preserve and maintain the site of Detroit’s Tiger Stadium from 2010-2016, Mesrey and the NFGC are now hard at work with the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium to restore an old Negro Leagues ballpark near Detroit. Mesrey is also founder of the Bird Bash, Detroit’s annual tribute to the late, great Mark “The Bird” Fidrych (Shrine of the Eternals Class of 2002). A self-described Birdbrain, Mesrey has written extensively about the 1976 American League Rookie of the Year.

Charlie Brown

The keynote address will be followed by the formal induction of the 2017 class of electees to the Shrine of the Eternals. Born in 1950, CHARLIE BROWN is the stocky, round-headed kid created by the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. The embodiment of our aspirations and failures, Charlie suffered the ignominy of loss and disappointment with the grace and aplomb that only a cartoon character can muster. The setting for many Peanuts morality plays is the baseball field, a perfect arena for Charlie’s whimsical, thought-provoking, funny, and pathetic exploits. From his perch atop the pitching mound, Charlie imagines himself as the reincarnation of Christy Mathewson, preparing to zip a blazing fastball, puzzling knuckler, or nasty fadeaway past the opposing batter. In point of fact, however, Charlie has only one pitch, a slow straight ball, that is batted with such force back through the mound that the ensuing line drives routinely undress him. He fares even worse as manager: by one count the career record for the Peanuts team is 2-930, the two wins coming on the heels of forfeits. Charlie embraces and embodies awfulness. While the other kids are celebrating Mickey Mantle, Charlie extols the talents of one Joe Shlabotnik, a noodnik no-talent washout. It appears laughable, but there’s a real wisdom in this: there can be only one Mickey Mantle, but anyone can be Joe Shlabotnik. Yes, Charlie Brown may be a blockhead, but in his unshakeable belief in himself and his imagination, he will always be a winner. Charlie’s induction will be introduced and accepted by CRAIG SCHULZ, the youngest son of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz.

Bob Uecker

Born in 1935, BOB UECKER underwhelmed fans with six season’s-worth of uninspired play as a lowly backup catcher (career .200 batting average) for the

Braves, Cardinals, and Phillies (1962-1967). Proving an exception to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s maxim about the absence of second acts in American lives, Uecker would discover unexpected celebrity and a brand-new career after retirement from the game. A natural, wry wit mixed with self-deprecating humor that mocked his baseball ineptitude enabled him to achieve pop culture stardom. Well-received guest spots on The Tonight Show led to appearances in TV ads for Miller Lite beer and other products, culminating in a recurring role in the sitcom Mr. Belvedere. Uecker’s unlikely and successful transformation continued to develop in baseball-themed comedies (like Major League) and a host of other entertainment vehicles. Uecker has been the radio broadcast voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers since 1971, and was honored by the Hall of Fame in 2003 with its Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. Due to his broadcasting commitments with the Brewers, Bob Uecker will be unable to attend the ceremony. His induction will be introduced and accepted by JAY JOHNSTONE, former major league outfielder, author, and raconteur, who played for eight teams during a twenty-year big league career. Johnstone was one of the game’s craftiest pranksters and best storytellers, as he recounted in his three books: Temporary Insanity, Over the Edge, and Some of My Best Friends Are Crazy.

Vin Scully

Born in 1927, VIN SCULLY served as the urbane and lyrical voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 years. Considered by many the greatest sportscaster of all time, the always eloquent and gentlemanly Scully was admired far beyond the reach of local airwaves: he also broadcast a total of 28 different Fall Classics to a national audience. His iconic calls of the Bill Buckner muff in 1986 and Kirk Gibson’s heroic home run in 1988 have now passed into the realm of the Homeric. Scully’s descriptions of events occurring on the diamond, entwined with vivid reveries, poetic anecdotes, and spontaneous riffs retrieved from his vast store of baseball memories, have enthralled generations of baseball fans. His retirement at the end of the 2016 season was a milestone in baseball history, widely commemorated across America, culminating with the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to him by President Obama at The White House that November. Due to a previous commitment, Vin Scully will be unable to attend the ceremony. His induction will be introduced by LISA NEHUS SAXON, a trailblazing sportswriter who was one of only three women in the U.S. who covered Major League Baseball full-time from 1983 to 1987. While working as a beat reporter and sports columnist for daily newspapers in Southern California for more than two decades, covering the Angels, Dodgers, Raiders, and major college football and basketball, Saxon steadfastly fought for equal access and equal pay, paving the way for women who followed her. As a special bonus, Los Angeles folk singer and music historian ROSS ALTMAN will perform a song he has written for the occasion, entitled “Vin Scully From the Bleachers.”

Donald R. Wright Auditorium

Free parking is available in the University of Phoenix underground parking structure, which is located just north of the Pasadena Central Library on the corner of Garfield Avenue and Corson Street. The entrance to the parking structure is on Garfield.

Before and after the ceremony, we invite you to visit the Baseball Reliquary exhibition, Game Changers, which is being presented from July 3-July 30 in the display cases in the North Entrance, Humanities Wing, and Centennial Rom of the Pasadena Central Library.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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If It Can Draw your Blood, It’s Not Paranoia

June 30, 2017

Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, Retired
US NAVY and Former Captain of The USS CAINE
A Reportedly Good Friend of a Gunnery Mate named Johnny Temple.

“Johnny told me some time ago about the problems he’s been having with certain umpires and their unfair treatment of him. When he asked me what I thought he should do about it, I did what I’ve always done. I weighed out all the issues with geometric precision, just as I did that time on The Caine, when all those leftover strawberries from the Captain’s table in my quarters turned up missing.

As per usual here, some things just didn’t add up. I recommended to Johnny that he follow the oldest rule in my book in his case too.

“Johnny,” I said, “you’ve got some things here that could be due to coincidental fallout actions, things that were unpleasant to you, but nonetheless, never the result of any malevolent intention by these certain umpires. – You also have some strong reasons to believe your fears that these crummy guys are out to get you and that they won’t stop until they do.

“In cases like yours, there’s only one way to go. And that is to never disregard the voices of suspicion. They will not go away until they are proven correctable.

“Til then, they will come in the dead of night and wake you up in a cold sweat. And this will go on until the guilty parties are caught in their act of conspiring against you and proper justice is executed upon them – and also upon any others we have yet to identify who may be aiding their evil plan.

“Until judgment day is yours, buy you a pair of these steel ball bearings and roll them around in your hand like I do when the pains of suspicion get too bad. It won’t solve the problem, but it will help reduce the attendant symptoms of involuntary drooling and sporadic bouts of incontinence. I don’t know what else I’d do without my balls.”

~ Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, Retired
US NAVY and Former Captain of The USS CAINE

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Thank you again for the refreshing content of this ancient article from the Victoria Advocate, Darrell Pittman. We liked the late Johnny Temple and will hope this flare up with the men in blue was little more than a bad short-term case of the Baseball Player Problems with Authority Virus.

 

Victoria Advocate, July 2, 1963:

Temple Charges Umpires Unfair

HOUSTON (AP) – Fiery Houston Colt infielder Johnny Temple – thrown out of three games this year and fined each time – says there are “six or seven umpires in this league who are out to get me.”

Temple said he could produce a witness who heard a National League umpire say he was “out to get” him. He did not identify the witness.

“I’ve got to get some protection from somewhere,” Temple said Sunday night following the Colts game with St. Louis in which the veteran infielder engaged in a heated conversation with plate umpire Frank Walsh over a called strike.

Temple didn’t get the boot Sunday night as Colt manager Harry Craft rushed onto the field to intercede.

Walsh called a strike on Temple and Temple said something. The umpire said something, too. Then Johnny flared. That much was obvious from the stands.

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The source face for this column

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“Whatever you do, Johnny, don’t forget the silver balls!”

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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