The Pecan Park Eagle

Movie Glimpse of the 1925 World Series

February 27, 2016

The 1925 World Series
Pittsburgh @ Washington
On a windy and chilly afternoon.

It’s only a short film, but it’s far more recent producers have pulled it together with a little jazz piano background to make up for the silence. It’s still a valuable glimpse of the times and some of the more recognizable figures of those days. As we all know and regret too well, we don’t have an overrunning supply of moving action films from those earlier times.

A uniformed Walter Johnson greets the visiting Babe Ruth, who is only a viewer of the action in 1925. A couple of unfamiliar players do a rowboat imitation on the sidelines prior to a game at Griffith Stadium. A tall distinguished fellow with a mustache (not President Coolidge) throws out the first ball. Some poor Pirate hitter gets whacked by an inside fastball from Walter Johnson. Players run the bases like the fastest sugar ants any kitchen has ever seen. Commissioner Landis is there, wearing a top coat on a sunny day that also could have protected him from the blizzard of the century, had there been one. A couple of close-ups give most of us a long, long look at two once wildly famous faces that a lot of us young guys no longer recognize at all. The Griffith Stadium crowd, or crowds, depending on how many contests this film takes in, appear to be booked to capacity. A flag shadow on the field shows the wind to be blowing mighty hard – undoubtedly the reason for all the heavy clothing. Things look cold and clear. And one scene, looking in from the left field stands, shows the infield dirt full of divots and footprint holes – and the infield grass to be rough to clumpy to dying. You don’t get the impression that anything like our contemporary ground crews are coming out to smooth the dirt or hand pick the bad grass. After all, its 1925. The field has been good enough all year. Maybe they fixed it up once they got the World Series out of the way. Oh yes, one more thing, even though you can’t hear him here, and you may be getting tired of me calling his number this week, but I must mention the fact that Graham McNamee did the radio broadcast of all seven games of the 1925 World Series.

Here’s the movie link:

The actual 1925 World Series must have been a pretty exciting one. Walter Johnson of the Senators won a couple of early ones, enough to give Washington a 3-2 lead in games going back to Pittsburgh for the last game or two, if needed. The Pirates proceeded to edge the Senators, 3-2, in Game Six and then they finished their World Series victory with a 9-7 win over Walter Johnson in Game Seven.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Film from The 1925 World Series
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Graham McNamee: Too Big to Fail

February 26, 2016

Graham McNamee
The ballpark couldn’t hold his range of talent.

Thanks, Stan-From-Tacoma, for providing all of us at The Pecan Park Eagle to hear use the link you’ve provided to hear the sonorous baritone voice and superbly regional-free diction of Graham McNamee directly from these ancient radio broadcast recordings.

We have followed your suggestion by first clicking onto archive.org

Then we printed out “Coca Cola Top Notchers” in the “search” line provided there.

If you fill in the “search” line with the name “Graham McNamee”, you also get a large selection of the man working “on the air.”

What we got from Stan’s suggestion were two links that both work to the same March 19, 1930 evening program, “The Coca Cola Top Notchers,” featuring Graham McNamee as Master of Ceremonies for a half-hour program of easy listening to soft music of that era performed by the Coca Cola String Orchestra and some singing – all fitted around the idea that this was a good format for bracketing an interview by iconic sports writer Grantland Rice with future Hall of Famer Ty Cobb – and all planted smack dab in the middle of the musical program.

Get it? Rice and Cobb were the top-notcher cake portion of the show. Everything else was pretty much “relax … think Coke … drink Coke … listen to the music … and float away in your living room easy chair.” McNamee served as ringmaster and Coke-huckster for the show’s commercial interests. McNamee’s beautifully-honed sonorous baritone voice and superbly regional-free diction simply flowed into mellow meandering with the solidly pre-Cambrian advertising era message. “Things really do go better with Coca Cola,” the flow of things suggested, especially when you allow yourself to drink Coke – and to give yourself over to the beautiful music and a “Shirley Temple evening” voyage into relaxation – one that will not leave you struggling with a hangover the next morning.

As to how the show got the two-years-retired Ty Cobb to appear on this live NBC radio show from New York City in dismal March, it probably wasn’t too tough. By this time, Cobb was knee-deep in Coca Cola stock and ready to help everything go better for himself with Coca Cola too.

Graham McNamee’s job on the show made it easier to see why his pioneering role in baseball got lost in the muddle of the things he did on the air in actuality. Can you imagine Red Barber being awarded the Frick for introducing, or maybe even singing, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life, At Last, I Found You” over the radio? Only the great Graham McNamee possessed both the talent and the almonds to pull that one off.

Such is the fate of those who are the first in the room to both possess and put to plentiful use the talents that this little boomer invention and commercial industry called “broadcast radio” cried out for someone to do. For most, if not all of his career, McNamee literally had no peer as a multi-talented radio performer. He did baseball, boxing, football, and other sports. He served as MC on several radio variety and musical shows, including the Rudy Vallee Show. He sang opera numbers over the radio; he even substituted for Rudy Vallee, at least once, as the singer of a show, or shows, the star had to miss because of some other commitment. McNamee did all these things – not because “nobody did them better” – but because nobody else did them – period!

And buried in this pile of singularly broad media talent and accomplishment was the fact that Graham McNamee truly was the template builder for real-time baseball radio broadcast play-by-play artistry. And that individually historical contribution has now been rescued from the land of the lost that blurred his pioneer role and denied him the honor that the Ford C. Frick Award reaffirms by the Hall of Fame’s selection of Graham McNamee as the recipient for 2016. – He should have been the first person selected. That will always be my opinion, but it also shall always be my grateful opinion that justice that shows up late is always far superior to justice that gets lost forever.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Graham McNamee: Too Big to Fail
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You’re On The Air: A 1926 Review

February 25, 2016

You’re On The Air (By Graham McNamee, 1926):

A Contemporary Book Review Published in the Helena Independent

September 12, 1926

Radios, which have brought the world into closer contact, reunited families and long lost friends, are now a common piece of furniture in American homes. On January 1, 1926, there were 5,200,000 receiving sets in the United States alone.

Graham McNamee, announcer for WEAF, the largest New York City broadcasting station and author of “You’re On The Air,” is heralded the country over as the outstanding radio announcer. McNamee has acquired the ability to individualize and particularize every emotion, whether he is announcing a world series baseball game or a prize fight. The radio may be a marvelous invention and still be as dull as ditch water unless it allows the play of personality. A machine amounts to less than nothing unless a man can ride it. McNamee has been able to take a new medium of expression and through it transmit himself – to give out vividely (sic) a sense of movement and of feeling. Of such is the kingdom of art.

In his book, “You’re On The Air,” published by Harper and brothers, and written in collaboration with Robert Gordon Anderson, McNamee takes you back stage and explains the integral mechanism of the radio. During the past four years, he has broadcast world series games, prize fights, foot-ball games, president’s addresses, and innumerable ground operas.

McNamee was raised in St. Paul and in 1920, with the help of his mother, he studies vocal under such teachers as Madame Esperanza Carrigue. After a successful career as a vocalist, he became interested in radio and in 1922 became announcer for WEAF.

The radio game is young, for up to 1922, it was practically unheard of, but in the last four years, fortunes have been made and lost, huge factories have sprung up all over the land, tens of thousands of radio stores have been opened and the air is full of myriad voices spreading news and messages, music and song, to a listening world.

“A broadcaster should have an acquaintance with literature and of sports, a pleasing voice, a good disposition and control of his temper, as well of the microphone through which he is announcing,” says Mr. McNamee. “One in training for such a position should never, even in off hours, indulge in strong language. If he does not swear off swearing, he is apt to get mixed up sometimes through habit, and use expressions that are all too descriptive, particularly in broadcasting a stirring baseball game or a rattling good prize-fight.”

The perfect teamwork of operators, plantsmen, program makers, the mastery of that vast tangle and network of wires, the accuracy and synchronization, the timing of the programs to a split second, are as much of a poem as any ever written in print – and it gives a new respect for the achievement of man.

~ Helena Independent, September 12, 1926, Page 14. *

Graham McNamee

Once in while, intentionally or inadvertently, news writers draft some thoughts for history. This review was one of those times. Our only regret at The Pecan Eagle tonight is that we are unable to give individual writing credit where it is due. This piece was journalism at its finest. The review captures Graham McNamee as a man ahead of his times, a man who reached far, and taught many, the art of the craft that is live event broadcasting. The fact that McNamee’s world grew larger than baseball alone should never have been a diminishing factor of his role as the trail-blazing father of the play-by-play broadcast. As the author of this piece plainly stated: “A machine amounts to less than nothing unless a man can ride it.” – Graham McNamee both rode the bull and wrote the book on baseball play-by-play over the radio. A couple of kids we remember as Red Barber and Mel Allen, among all others of their great generation, grew up with an open mind and full ear to what McNamee was teaching all of them.

Congratulations again, Graham McNamee, on your 2016 Ford Frick Award. ~ Your day of vindication is at hand by this recognition from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: 1926, Graham McNamee on Broadcasting
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Finally! Graham McNamee Takes Frick Award!

February 24, 2016

Graham MacNamee 2016 Ford Frick Award Winner The Father of Baseball Radio Play-By-Play Interviewing Babe Ruth during the 1923 World Series

Graham McNamee
2016 Ford Frick Award Winner
The Father of Baseball Radio Play-By-Play
Interviewing Babe Ruth during the 1923 World Series

It almost was enough to restore my ancient innocent belief that justice over time is inevitable.

What is disturbing to me is that it took this long for me to get the news that became public on December 9, 2015, a full two and a half months ago. I finally got it today, February 23, 2016, when I picked up my Spring 2016 copy of “Memories and Dreams” and read the wonderful story by Bill Francis on Page 29.

And my attention tardiness soon didn’t matter. The man who invented play-by-play finally got in – finally got the Hall of Fame honor he always has deserved. After this long parade of broadcasters – who all benefited from the traction he left on the road of telecommunications via radio – McNamee brought baseball to the fore as one of the great “theaters of the mind” that ever longed for the company of human ears.

Here’s an interesting sidebar: I just ordered a few copies of McNamee’s 1926 book, “You’re on the Air,” for a little project I had in mind – without knowing a thing about the play-by-play pioneer’s selection for the 2016 Frick Award. And Francis, the article writer, turns around and uses the very quote that caught my eye:

“You must make each of your listeners, though miles apart from the spot, feel that he or she, too, is there with you in that press stand, watching the movements of the game, the color and flags; the pop bottles thrown in the air….Gloria Swanson arriving in her new ermine coat; McGraw in the dugout, apparently motionless, but giving signals all the time.” ~ Graham McNamee, “You’re on the Air”.

I’ve never known if my favorite McNamee story was actual or symbolic, but I like it, anyway, because all the other things I’ve read elsewhere suggest that, indeed, Graham McNamee was the man brought real-time, present tense description of game action to life for the radio audience. The story goes that McNamee started working as a side man to the great early 20th century, Grantland Rice, as the latter tried his hand at translating his reflective writing eloquence into something fun and useful to voice business of describing a live baseball game.

Apparently, it wasn’t much fun or Rice’s cup of tea. Let’s say the play was a ground out to shortstop.

Rice’s style was to call it as he might have written it – after the game and in past tense. The radio might hear the bat contact and some audience cheers or boos as the play unfolded. Rice waited in silence for the play to be completed and then reported something like: “Brown hit a ground ball to Jones at shortstop, who then threw to ball to Johnson at first for the out.” – It was not engaging, at all.

As the story goes, real or symbolic, one day, Rice got fed up doing this thing in the middle of a game. “Here,” Rice supposedly said to McNamee, “you take over, I’ve had enough of this business.”

Supposedly again, Graham McNamee then took over like a silent co-pilot with a better flight plan and McNamee began his groundbreaking real-time coverage:

“Ruth stands in there. …. He swings hard … and it’s a long and high fly ball to right field … right fielder Tobin turns and waves … bye-bye … and the Yankees take a 1-0 lead over the Browns in the bottom of the fourth … as the Babe smiles and waves to the home crowd … What a guy!”

For years, I’ve been one of those people who felt that McNamee’s omission from the Frick Award stood as one of the great “overlooks” in the business of baseball awards. Then I talked it over once with 1992 Frick winner Milo Hamilton and got one of the two worst reasons for the absence of Graham McNamee from serious Frick Award consideration.

According some, (1) Graham McNamee wasn’t a pure baseball man. He did other sports and non-sporting events. – And how spurious is that kind of thinking? Look at the long row of excellence we get from broadcasters today who understand the differential process of doing sports on radio versus television. A play-by-play person has to be grounded with an understanding of each sport he or she does, but the TV/radio differences are the real litmus test on versatility for most – not the sport in itself. Of course you have to know the game.

Milo Hamilton gave me a reason that made no sense. Milo felt that Graham McNamee didn’t broadcast baseball long enough to deserve serious consideration. Really, well, if that’s the litmus test, I guess we had better take down the historical plaques at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Like Graham McNamee in baseball radio broadcasting, the Wright Brothers didn’t fly long enough to be recognized and honored for their contributions to the science of manned flight.

Congratulations, Graham McNamee! ~ This summer, you will finally get the recognition in Cooperstown that you always have deserved!

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Graham McNamee is 2016 Ford Frick Award Winner
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1909 Champs Had Former Houston Player

February 23, 2016

Bill Abstein, 1B
1909 Pittsburgh Pirates
~ in a game against the Cubs in Chicago.

Bill Abstein broke into professional baseball as a 21-year old 2nd baseman for the Houston Wanderers of the Class C South Texas League. The Houston club acquired their nickname that last season of Fair Grounds Base Ball Park by losing their venue to changing times and the need to play out their season on the road with an identity that fit their circumstances.

Young Bill Abstein apparently did OK with the inconvenience of living on the road. He hit .310 in 135 games, collecting 168 hits that included 30 doubles, 8 triples, and 12 home runs.

Following a couple of good years with Class A Shreveport (1905-06), Abstein made it up for a few big league break-in games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1906. After two more “seasoning” years (1907-08) at Providence, “Big Bill”, as Abstein was called at only 6’0″ and 185 pounds, was back in the big leagues for a full season with Pittsburgh. This time, he was there as the Pirates’ regular 1st baseman for 135 games and 2 additional game appearances, hitting a respectable .260, with 20 doubles, 10 triples, and a single homer.

By playing for Pittsburgh in 1909, Bill Abstein had written himself into baseball history as the first 1st baseman for the first Pirates World Series Champions and one of the team pieces that fit around the powerful field leadership of the great future Hall of Fame shortstop, Honus Wagner. The Pirates defeated Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers in 1909, with Wagner literally rubbing the ball into the face of the Georgia Peach on the latter’s glaring spikes-high attempt at stealing 2nd base by the art of intimidation. Wagner stopped him. And Cobb didn’t try that again with The Flying Dutchman.

We are not certain what happened to Bill Abstein after the 1909 triumph, but he was assigned to the Jersey City Skeeters minor league club for the 1910 season. After hitting .261 at “Jersey”, Abstein was dealt over to the St. Louis Browns where a .149 batting average with his new American League club would prove to be his last shot at the major leagues. Abstein would play 7 more seasons in the minor leagues and finish his career after the 1915 season with an unspectacular career record as a hitter.

But he did get to the show. He did play with one of the greats. He was a member of the first Pittsburgh Pirates World Championship team. And he did get his start in Houston.

Here’s the link to his career record at Baseball Reference.com:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=abstei001wil

Honus Wagner

“Dot’s Miller!”

One of my all time favorite baseball sidebars concerns another true rookie member of the 1909 Pirates, a fellow named John Barney Miller, who played 2nd base, but was never known by either his legal first or middle names.

It happened this way, goes the story: A Pittsburgh writer was watching the rookie fielder make one incredible play after another at 2nd base during infield practice on the first day of full spring training for the Pirates. Not recognizing the young man by name, he quickly hurried over to Honus Wagner to ask as the players came off the field.

“Who’s the kid at 2nd base, Hans?” the writer asked. “He looks great!”

“That kid over there?” Honus asked, as he smiled and pointed at Miller, feigning surprise.

“Yeah,” the impatient writer confirmed, “that kid!”

“Oh,” Wagner said, “dot’s Miller” (as in “that’s Miller”, but not understood by the writer as such.) Wagner spoke English with a rich Dutch/German accent

John Miller became Dots Miller forevermore from that day forward, following the writer’s story on the brilliant play of the young rookie. If Miller ever attempted a correction, we have not found a written mention of it. Apparently, rookies in those days didn’t care what you called them as long as a manager wrote down a name of who they thought they were – into the starting lineup.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Bill Abstein of the 1909 Pirates
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Frivolous Lawsuits Were Not Born Yesterday

February 22, 2016

A wagon carrying 2 women and a boy was left by the curb as the frightened horses pulling it broke loose, raced through a department store, and came out the other side on a race to the river where they both drowned.

A wagon carrying 2 women and a boy was left by the curb as the frightened horses pulling it broke loose, raced through a china shop, and then came out through the door on a mad dash to the canal, where they both drowned.

“A fair, but frail daughter of Eve, in a Michigam [sic] city yesterday, was sentenced to thirty days in prison and to pay a fine of $50 for drunkeness [sic]. When she heard the sentence she hurled a heavy inkstand at the Judge’s head. He dodged, and the missile flew through the window and fell to the pavement, the ink splashing over a lady’s elegant silk dress and totally ruined it. The lady, in trying to shake the ink from her dress, frightened a team of spirited horses, that ran away with a carriage containing two ladies and a child, upsetting a fruit stand and throwing the ladies on a butcher’s cart while the child was fastened [?] in a bunch of telegraph wires about ten feet above the sidewalk. The team could not be stopped, and continued on their flight, finally plunging through the plate-glass windows of a china shop. They ran through the entire length of the store, spreading destruction on every hand; ran out of the door, leaped into the canal and were drowned. Now they talk of calling [?] on the Judge for damages because he dodged the inkstand.”

~ Idaho Semi-Weekly World, December 11, 1885, Page 1.

… on their fated way to the canal.

____________________

Another “diamond in the rough” story-find by the one-and-only Darrell Pittman. Thanks again, Darrell, for being The Pecan Park Eagle’s nose for serious ancient news confirmations, as well as our recorder of quirky events at any point in news-reported distant history. Not to make light of today’s story and its sad chain of improbable events. This one was scary serious to the two ladies and child in the wagon – and deadly serious to the horses that died in the canal.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: tossed ink bottle leads to death of two horses.
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Astros Hire 1st Female MLB StrengthTrainer

February 22, 2016

According to this Tweet from Mark Berman of Channel 26 in Houston, the Houston Astros have hired the first female strength and conditioning trainer in MLB history:

https://t.co/TZ45QxqMk2

Her name is Rachel Balkovec. Here’s how Brian McTaggart describes her in his linked column at mlb.com:

“Balkovec, 28, was a catcher at the University of New Mexico and received her master’s degree in sports administration from LSU, where she served as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach. A recommendation got her the position with the Cardinals, and she later was the volunteer strength and conditioning coach with Arizona State. She spent the previous two years with the Cardinals as their Minor League strength and conditioning coordinator.

“With the Astros, she’ll work as the strength and conditioning coach for their Gulf Coast League affiliate and will travel to the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic six or seven times a year to supervise the three strength coaches that are down there. And she’ll be blazing a trail along the way.”

~ Brian McTaggart / MLB.com | @brianmctaggart | 4:15 PM ET, Monday, 2/29/2016.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15307444ddd88a88

Balkovec achieved her gender break-in status with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012 and now joins the Astros to help their players and minor league prospects learn about their own needs for nutrition and strength exercising programs that work best for athletes with baseball ambitions. We are simply happy to report that another unspoken barrier to female participation in the preparation of players for action has now been removed and that Houston is acting in support of the move already started by the Cardinals.

Rachel Balkovec in the weight room as a Cardinals Employee.

Let’s be clear about what we are applauding. We are not applauding the creation of jobs in baseball for the sake of making room for women. We are applauding the hiring of women for jobs that need to be done by whomever has the qualifications to do them, regardless of gender.

Forty years ago, except for a few pioneers like the wonderful Anita Martini of Galveston, there were no female sports reporters or broadcasters until people like Anita showed that up to be a mere sexist block to jobs that any qualified woman could also do. In 1974, it was Anita Martini, with help from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and then Dodgers outfielder Jimmy Wynn who broke the barrier on females from entering the clubhouse for post game interviews with players. It happened on a late season Dodgers trip to the Astrodome when Lasorda allowed Martini into the Dodgers’ visitor clubhouse at the Dome with the male reporters after the game. In so doing, the open door for women reporters to do their jobs after games on the same level as men was on its way to becoming the norm that no longer bats eyes or raises eyebrows in 2016.

Here’s one article I found about Rachel Balkovec’s work with the Cardinals:

http://www.stlsportspage.com/CARDINALSBASEBALL/tabid/91/entryid/1329/rachel-balkovec-succeeding-in-ground-breaking-role-with-cards.aspx

Here’s another, a Q&A session with Ms. Balkovec:

http://www.trainwithpush.com/blog/first-female-strength-coach-in-baseball-qa-w-rachel-balkovec

Rachel Balkovec
Getting Ready to Go to Bat for the Astros!

Welcome to Houston, Rachel Belkovec. ~ We Astros fans also welcome whatever you may be able to teach our players and prospects what they need to do for the sake of becoming even more fit for the big leagues and also reaching and winning the World Series.

Thanks again to Darrell Pittman for calling this hiring to our attention. It is a newsworthy step in the right direction as a move earned by this talented young woman’s ability and not a hiring by political entitlement.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Astros hire Rachel Belkovec as strength and weight trainer.
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Fair Grounds Park Marker Goes Up With Smiles

February 21, 2016

Fair Grounds Park Milam at McGowen Houston Texas 1st Local Home of Professional Baseball 1888-1904

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park
Milam at McGowen
Houston Texas
1st Local Home of Professional Baseball
1888-1904

Behind the efforts of Houston historian/Master of Ceremonies Mike Vance, the Harris County Historical Commission, and the Texas Historical Commission, the plaque that memorializes Fair Grounds Park, at the block bordered north and south by Milam to the west and Travis to the east, and east west at its northern boundary by McGowen in the Midtown area of Houston, is now done. The featured plaque shown above went up as planned on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 11:00 AM before a small and genteel crowd of avid preservationists and baseball history fans.

The local and state historical groups appropriately covered the new plaque behind the Texas Flag until it was time for the presentation.

This beautiful rendition of Fair Grounds Base Ball Park was painted and copy righted by incredible SABR artist Patrick Lopez in 2014.A very limited number of prints are still available for $25 from SABR thru local chapter President Bob Dorrill by e-mail at BDorrill@aol.com

This beautiful rendition of Fair Grounds Base Ball Park was painted and copyrighted by incredible SABR artist Patrick Lopez in 2014. A limited number of prints are available for $25 from SABR thru local chapter President Bob Dorrill by e-mail at BDorrill@aol.com

Mike Vance and Harris County Historical Commission member Debra Sloan with the new historical plaque.

Mike Vance and Debra Sloan of the Harris County Historical Commission survey the first few moments of the new Fair Grounds Base Ball Park plaque’s public exhibition at Milam and McGowen.

Chris Varela of the HCCC also joined Mike Vance for a photo of the City of Houston's Proclamation of support for the marker. Gayle Davies and Will Howard of the HCCC also were present for the dedication, but we missed our opportunity for getting their photos too. Sorry, folks.

Chris Varela of the HCCC joined Mike Vance for a photo of the City of Houston’s Proclamation of support for the marker. Gayle Davies and Will Howard of the HCCC also were present for the dedication, but we missed our opportunity for getting their photos too. ~ Sorry, folks.

According to Mike Vance, seven individual proclamations were received in support of the marker dedication: Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Governor Greg Abbott, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Senator Ted Cruz, State Senator John Whitmire and State Representative Garnett Coleman all sent notices of support that today, Saturday 20, 2016, was dedicated by them all as “Fair Grounds Base Ball Park Day in Houston and the State of Texas.” And, as Mike Vance also notes on his Facebook page, this was a united show of 4 Democrats and 3 Republicans. It was almost enough to revive our hope for a system that once got things done by cooperation.

Debra Jaynes of the HCHC also joined Mike Vance for the letters of and declarations of support for the Fair Grounds Base Ball Park plaque.

Debra Sloan of the Harris County Historical Commission also joined Mike Vance to help announce the letters and declarations of support for the Fair Grounds Base Ball Park plaque.

Our vintage base ball folks showed up dressed for the occasion. (L>R) Robert Pena and Joe Thompson of the Houston Babies; Janeen Schneider and Tony Cavender of SABR; Bob Dorrill of the Babies; and Bob Copus of the Barker Red Sox. After the ceremony, our 1860s era uniformed guests quickly exited through the time warp weep holes from which they came.

Bill McCurdy and Bob Copus Old friendships are link an ancient oak tree. They possess the power to branch into all kinds of growth directions - especially when one of those limbs is vintage base ball and another is the history of "God's Game".

Bill McCurdy and Bob Copus
Old friendships are like an ancient oak tree. They possess the power to branch into all kinds of growth direction – especially when one of those limbs is vintage base ball and another is the history of “God’s Game”. ~ The Pecan Park Eagle.

Janeen Schneider and Sarah Smith, both of SABR, share a moment together. They probably are discussing the many names these grounds claimed over the years, including the year in which they may have been the first base ball park in the world to have its naming rights sold to either the highest or only bidder. In 1895, the grounds were named for the short-lived and long ago defunct local newspaper, the Houston Herald. As a result, the place officially was known as “Herald Park” for a single season.

Mike Vance and his wife, Mary Vance, are both bright and passionate historians whose apparent support for each other is obvious. And we, the people of Houston, are the beneficiaries. ~ You are both "jolly good" at what you do. - Thanks for a great day in Houston.

Mike Vance and his wife, Anne Vance, are both bright and passionate historians whose apparent support for each other is obvious. And we, the people of Houston, are the beneficiaries. ~ You are both “jolly good” at what you do. – Thanks for a great day in Houston.

And thanks too to Mr. Greg Jacobsen, the owner of the property that now occupies and uses the land that once hosted the Fair Grounds Base Ball Park for more contemporary commercial purposes. Without your supportive permission to the premises installment of the historical marker today, this beautiful moment in time could not have happened. Beyond the “thanks too” we offered initially, let’s amend that expression to “Thanks Forever.” Because that’s what today was all about. Now and Forever. That’s the way real love works. And that’s the way all really passionate love for history works. And that’s what happened today.

_____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Dedication of the Fairgrounds Base Ball Park Historical Plaque.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

More News of the 1888 Houston Babies

February 20, 2016

The Houston Base Ball Club 1889 Primary Tenants Fair Grounds Park Milam @ McGowen Houston, Texas

The 1889 Houston Base Ball Club
(Our Search for a Photo of the 1888 Club Remains a Work-in-Progress)
Primary Tenants
Fair Grounds Park
Milam @ McGowen
Houston, Texas

Bearer of New Houston Babies Uniforms is Almost a Gunslinger *

“G.H. Genslinger, a member of the Texas Base-ball Association, was in the city today on his way from New Orleans to Austin. Mr. Genslinger has in his possession the new uniforms of the Houston “babies”.

~ Galveston Daily News, May 15, 1888, Page 5.

New Item Headline Assigned to this Item by The Pecan Park Eagle, 2/19/2016. Unfortunately, no description of the uniforms was included with the social note. What was most important about this news from 5/15/1888 – a full description for history of the uniforms? Or the fact that Mr. Genslinger passed through town with the uniforms in his possession? – That’s right, the newspapers weren’t writing for history, but over time, they are often the only source we have for finding information that was never reported directly or recorded officially. – And that, dear friends, takes in about 95% of the matters we need to resolve by social research. – Years ago we had a description of the original Houston Babies uniforms as being olive green of color with red lettering and red leg stockings. Sadly, we misplaced the citation, but we are reasonably certain that it exists in the early March 1888 reports from the Houston Post. We will attempt to find it again, but we do not possess access to the Houston Post at our “News Archives” Internet newspaper resource.

____________________

Rock-a-Bye, Babies! Dallas Hams Dam Houston Pitcher Flood! Ham Makes Babies Sleepy, 7-1 *

“Houston, August 5 (1888) – About 1200 people witnessed the game (at Fair Grounds Park) between (the) Dallas (Hams) and (the) Houston (Babies). As predicted, the visitors won hands down. From the very start Dallas began to pound (Houston pitcher) Flood all over the field, much to the surprise of the average Houstonian, as he has heretofore been very effective against them.

“In the first inning, Hanlon, the umpire, was struck by a quickly pitched ball and injured severely, necessitating his retirement. Godar of Houston and Crothers of Dallas were agreed to by both teams to umpire the game to a close. Several pretty plays were made by both sides, but the maroons proved themselves too strong for the babies, and gently rocked them to sleep by the tune of 7 to 1. …”

~ Galveston Daily News, August 6, 1888, Page 7.

The anonymous 1888 reporter for the Galveston Daily News didn’t really need any help from The Eagle in the matter of finding a placement for the “rock-a-bye, baby” metaphor. All we did was move it to the headlines and change the emphasis to sleep being a bi-product also of too much “ham” consumption. “Damming the Flood” was also a sucker punch phrase application in this instance, but it is still fun writing it out here. – Also, I suppose we may presume that the two stand-in player umpires must have done a fair job. There were no further reports of fights or riots after the regular umpire was retired by a “quickly pitched ball.” Those quickly pitched balls are still far more dangerous than the underhand lob pitches our 2016 vintage Houston Babies see in their 1860s rules contests against the Barker Red Sox, the Katy Combine, and the Motor City Strikers, but our modern Houston preservationist players of the classic early base ball game are not all quite as young as these players from the 19th century were in their time. – Our “Blind Tom” umpire and most of our 2016 Houston Babies players are advised to watch out for the high lob pitches too. If a player isn’t careful, he could get hit on top of the head.

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Tomorrow, Saturday, February 20, 2016, at 11:00 AM, at the corner of Milam and McGowen, is the time and place we turn out to hear Mike Vance and the local and state historical groups dedicate the memorial plaque to the site of Houston’s first significant base ball park. Please join us. Base ball uniforms and 19th century attire is encouraged, but not required. And it’s free, but the sale of books and art on Houston baseball and important local historical parks will be for sale. The dedication ceremony itself will start promptly at 11 o’clock AM. The actual program will only last for 30 minutes, but there will be some hobnobbing time for those who want to talk local history, I’m sure. You will be out in crisp time to enjoy the rest of Saturday and maybe a lunch in some new or favorite old place in our downtown, midtown, or museum district areas. – We live in a great city – and the plaque dedication ceremony will be a great way to throw out the first pitch of a beautiful Saturday in the Bayou City.

Hope to see all of you tomorrow!

_____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Houston Babies Base Ball in 1888
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1888: Some Rough Times at Fair Grounds Park

February 19, 2016

Fair Grounds Park, 1888
Houston, Texas
Original Art Copyrighted By
Patrick Lopez

The 1888 Houston Babies were “the Good Guys” in this town back in the day. No doubt about it. If you don’t believe it, read the Houston Post coverage of the first season of the Houston Babies and the fledgling Texas League. “The Bad Guys”, on the other hand, were any team that stood in the Babies’ way on the road to sweet victory, but none more so than the mean and often discourteous Galveston Giants.

Predictably, the perspective on good guys and bad guys identification most often depended upon the location of the newspaper reporting on the game. Sometimes, however, one local newspaper would take published exception to the way another newspaper from the same community reported on matters, if the reporting source felt the other paper was not standing up for their own city – or treating the issue fairly. – Wouldn’t it be nice in 2016 to have another newspaper in Houston again – one that was large enough to wake up the Houston Chronicle every now and then on their often droll and partisan coverage of the news as the only newspaper in town?

Here’s how the Galveston Evening Tribune covered another report, apparently from the Galveston County Daily News, on the alleged miscreant behavior of two Galveston players in a game played against Houston at the Fair Grounds Park prior to this May 1, 1888 Tribune report. The Galveston Evening Tribune column headline on that date read as follows:

PRETTY ROUGH – The Statement Made by The (Galveston County Daily) News as to the Disgraceful Conduct of the Galveston Ball Team – The Report is Not Believed.

And so the article says –

The Galvestons are out on a tour of the state and it was hoped that the players would so conduct themselves, both on and off the field, as to win the respect of the public. It is possible for a man to be a gentleman under all circumstances, although he may not be a ball player. These preliminary remarks are based on reports that have reached Galveston – reports that every lover of the national game in Galveston most heartily wishes may be untrue.

Here are some sample paragraphs from the Houston Post and (they) apply to the Monday’s game.

“Manager Sullivan of the Galvestons wants clean ball playing and will stick fines to Pujol and Stallings for their hoodlumism yesterday.”

“If the umpire cannot manage Pujol, turn him over to the police. People do not pay their money to witness an example of hoodlumism. Nor do ladies occupy the ladies’ stand to hear startling, dirty talk to the umpire.”

The correspondent of the (Galveston County Daily) News at Houston furnishes a lot of stuff this morning that is not only sick(en)ing but untrue. It is pronounced untrue for the reason that the Houston Post of today makes no reference to anything of the kind and it is safe to say that if the Galveston players behaved as the News says they did that the (Houston) Post would have referred to it both elaborately and extensively. The Post says of the game:

“The Houston Babies redeemed themselves yesterday by playing the prettiest game of ball ever witnessed in Houston. They were mad with themselves for playing so listlessly on Monday and to ease their conscience they fairly wiped up the earth with the Galveston Giants. They jumped on (Galveston pitcher) Stallings with both feet and lined him right and left. (Houston pitcher) Flood pitched a beautiful game and was beautifully held by (Houston catcher) Lohbeck. Dunn, the new (Houston) man, showed up strong in the field and at the bat, and is dandy on the coaching line. The other (Houston Babies) players covered their territories in handsome style.”

~ Galveston Evening Tribune, May 1, 1888, Page 5.

And so it was. Another tempest in a teapot went away with the cooling of a road trip, but others would follow, full steam. That’s been the history of baseball, in all of its varied era, time and place beginnings.

Reminder: The Dedication of the Historical Plaque at the Site of Fair Grounds Base Ball Park, Milam at McGowen, is this Saturday, February 20, 2016 @ 11:00 AM. Please join us for this free public celebration of another important moment in Houston Historical Preservation.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: 1888, Fair Grounds Park Fracas in Houston
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