The Pecan Park Eagle

Last of the Living Former Browns

August 18, 2015

In 1902, the original Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the St. Louis Browns. From 1902 through 1953, the St. Louis Browns, won only a single American League pennant and that was in the 1944 WWII year in which much of their Brownie good fortunes were attributable to the fact the Yankees and several other clubs were missing key players to military service while the St. Louis entry fared well with older players and draft-deferred flat foots. The Browns lost to their St. Louis NL rivals, the Cardinals, in six games in the 1944 World Series.

Over the years, the Browns were known best for finishing last or next to last; the great Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler, who also led the city’s greatest AL club, the 1922 Browns, to a one-game finish behind the Yankees; the single pennant of 1944; Willard Brown hits the first American League HR by a black player for the 1947 Browns; the Barnum & Bailey world of new-in-1951 owner Bill Veeck; the August 19, 1951 appearance of 3’7″ Eddie Gaedel as a pinch hitter; Satchel Paige; Fan Manager Night, also in 1951 under Veeck; and Ned Garver winning 20 games for a last place Browns club that won only 52 games the entire season.

The Garver feat led to one of the most memorable anecdotes in baseball history. When Garver asked for a raise in 1952, owner Veeck is said to have turned him down with a very simple explanation: “No way. We could have finished last without you.”

After a couple of years of falling attendance, more losing baseball, chicanery with also suffering Cardinals, and political pressure from the AL owners who wanted to get rid of Bill Veeck, the Browns were sold to Baltimore interests after the 1953 season. They were re-christened as the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.

The St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Browns Fan Club has existed since 1984 for the purpose of keeping alive the memory of the St. Louis Browns baseball club. The Pecan Park Eagle wants to thank current president Bill Rogers for sending us this new list of the current surviving Browns players. With death of former shortstop Bud Thomas on Saturday, August 15, 2015, the list of living former Browns now has dropped to only twenty names.

The 20 Surviving St. Louis Browns Players

Through 8/16/2015

From Oldest to Youngest by Name, Birthdate, and Age in 2015

01) Chuck Stevens 07/10/18 – 97
02) Tom Jordan 09/05/19 – 94
03) Dick Starr 03/02/21 – 94
04) George Elder 03/10/21 – 94
05) Neil Berry 01/11/22 – 92

06) Johnny Hetki 05/12/22 – 93
07) Jim Rivera 07/22/22 – 93
08) Tom Wright 09/22/23 – 92
09) Billy DeMars 08/26/25 – 90
10) Ned Garver 12/25/25 – 90

11) Frank Saucier 05/28/26 – 89
12) Johnny Groth 07/23/26 – 89
13) Ed Mickelson 09/09/26 – 89
14) Roy Sievers 11/18/26 – 89
15) Hal Hudson 05/04/27 – 88

16) Al Naples 08/29/27 – 88
17) Billy Hunter 06/04/28 – 87
18) Joe DeMaestri 12/09/28 – 87
19) Don Larsen 08/07/29 – 86
20) J.W. Porter 01/17/33 – 82

______________________________ (c)

Tags: 8/16/15, living former st. louis browns
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Living Browns Dwindle Down to Precious Few

August 17, 2015

Bud and Janet Thomas
With Stan Musial
At the Annual Browns Banquet
St. Louis, 2003

Former St. Louis Browns shortstop John Tillman (Bud) Thomas died of natural causes at age 86 in Sedalia, Missouri on Saturday, August 15, 2015. Bud’s passing brings a touch of irony also to the taste of sadness that those of us knew him even slightly felt for a really good man, now gone.

http://www.mclaughlinfuneralchapel.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1642412

Bud’s death occurs only four days shy of August 19, 2015 – and the big celebrations planned by the Eddie Gaedel Society for the one and only under four feet tall vertically challenged little person ever to have achieved one plate appearance in the big leagues on that same date in 1951. Thomas’ own debut for his one 1951 tail-end season big league career came exactly two weeks after Gaedel’s only game. Bud Thomas only played 14 games himself in that one-and-done big league one-season tour, but he did go 7 for 20 – imprinting his name in the record books with a .350 limited service career batting average. – Not bad for a guy who went on from baseball to becoming a superstar educator and world class wood carver.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/thomabu02.shtml

We also wrote a column on Bud Thomas for The Pecan Park Eagle four years ago:

Bud Thomas: One MLB Shot and Gone

Eddie Gaedel was gone from the big leagues after one game in 1951. Bud Thomas was gone from the big leagues after 14 games in 1951. The St. Louis Browns disappeared into baseball history altogether after 1953. And now the surviving members of the fabled American League club that left the midwest to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954 are down to a precious few.

The death of Bud Thomas leaves only 20 living survivors of the American League St. Louis Browns franchise that played as such from 1902 through 1953. St. Louis Browns Historical Society President Bill Rogers is checking that number for me. We should have that confirmation sometime on Monday, August 17th. When we do, the number and names of the list will be added here to the column.

St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club President Bill Rogers also recently sent me this photo show of the 2013 Browns luncheon in St. Louis. Check it out. One of them is Don Larsen, the only former Brown to also later play as a Houston Colt. 45 and Astro. Catcher Clint Courtney did go to spring training with the 1962 original Houston Colt. 45’s, I think, but he didn’t make the club. Former catcher Les Moss also served the Astros as a pitching coach some years later. – You will find a number of other familiar names in the slide show, and they all are now attached to some quite less familiar faces, if your memories of these older Browns players are all from ancient baseball cards:

http://www.photoshow.com/members/brogers9/all

Watch out for the sands of time, folks. When it comes down to our material presences and impressions on the social and physical landscape of this planet, the sands of time eventually take us all – and all we do in physical imagery form. Better that we remember the multi-colored electricity of life’s great energy daily – and never lose heart in the power of Love on the day that darkness comes to us personally on this physical plain. Any day may not have to be so dark, if we can honestly accept that God is Love – and that Love never really dies. It remains, even when those who love us leave via death – and it stays – to whatever extent we are able to embrace the concept of forever that is the driving force we embrace in the only time zone that ever really exists – the here and now of each ever-changing moment in the day.

God Bless You, Bud Thomas, old friend! And May God Bless our Memory of the St. Louis Browns – and all else that we hold dear as a spiritual force of Love and Life.

______________________________ (C)

Tags: Former Brown Bud Thomas has died., pendng confirmation., Surviving Browns Now Down to 20
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Aug. 19, 1951: Eddie Gaedel Walks into History

August 16, 2015

The Pecan Park Eagle will be there in spirit in Spokane too on August 19th – even if we cannot be there in person, as planned.

Go, Eddie, Go!

In case you have not yet heard it yet, which is probably a safe guess, the new anthem of the Eddie Gaedel Society, verse and chorus, is presented below – hopefully for your amusement and edification. It’s simply one of our little pieces of pure joy indulgence in the game of baseball and a modest ode to one of my personal favorite characters in the game’s history.

We are hoping to receive a digital transcription of the choral video that performs it for its first official performance at O’Doherty’s Irish Grille & Pub in Spokane, Washington this coming Wednesday, August 19, 2015, the 64th anniversary of Eddie Gaedel’s singular appearance as an MLB pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns against pitcher Bob Cain of the Detroit Tigers as the lead-off man in the bottom of the 1st inning of an afternoon game at Sportsman’s Park.

Gaedel Society Founder and annual banquet organizer Tom Keefe is responsible for initiating the entire tsunami of energy that has risen from the deep as a monster wave of love in honor of the one and only Eddie Gaedel.

Thanks, Tom! – Faith moves mountains a lot faster when someone shows up to lead the effort with a shovel. And you are the living proof of that truth.

Addendum: Here’s a link also to how how the new Los Angeles Chapter of The Eddie Gaedel Society plans to celebrate o August 19, 2015. If you live in that area, you may want to check out their contact information or simply join them in the fun.

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/2015/08/eddie-gaedel-day-celebration-august-19-2015/

Hail, Eddie!

______________________________

The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel

The Now Official Anthem of The Eddie Gaedel Society

(Verse, Melody and Chorus: All may be sung to the tune of

“Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer”)

By Bill McCurdy, 1999. (Minor Revisions, 03/15/2015)

Verse:

You know Pee Wee and Scooter and short guys named Patek,

And Wee Willie Keeler – as small as a flyspeck,

All little people who drew baseball paychecks,

But, do you recall,

The most famous baseball short guy of them all?

Melody:

Bill Veeck, the Brownie owner,

Wore some very shiny clothes!

And if you saw his sport shirt,

You would even say, “It glows!”

All of the other owners,

Used to laugh and call him names!

They wouldn’t let poor Bill Veeck,

Join in any owner games!

Chorus:

Then one humid summer day,

Veeck signed a tiny man.

He smiled like a kid in a Panama suit,

Squeaking, “Play me – when you can!”

Melody:

His name was Eddie Gae-del,

Inches short of four feet tall!

He never played much baseball;

He was always just too small!

He wasn’t small on courage,

Eddie saw the larger plan.

Took his heart out of storage,

Making him the bigger man!

Chorus: 

Then one day in Sportsman’s Park,

Eddie went to bat!

Took four balls and walked to first,

Then retired – just like that!

Melody:

Oh, how the purists hated,

Adding little Eddie’s name,

To the big book of records,

“ Gaedel” bore a blush of shame!

Now when you look up records,

Look up Eddie’s O.B.P.!

It reads a cool One Thousand,

Safe for all eternity!

Hail, Eddie!

______________________________ (c)

“HAIL, EDDIE!”

Tags: The Eddie Gaedel Society
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A Baseball/Life Dictionary/Thesaurus Project

August 15, 2015

“Let’s see…what’s the baseball word or concept for that sort of thing?”

The long season of baseball has been compared to the long run of life for as long as most of us have been reading the thoughts of others. Not assuming here that it’s never been done before – since all things really have – but maybe its time to honor that metaphorical relationship between baseball and life by developing our own, always-building, never-finishing list of words, concepts and definitions for a “Baseball-to-Life Dictionary and Thesaurus”.

The ones listed below are simply the few that we’ve come up wit here at The Pecan Park Eagle since I started thinking about this possibility this Friday afternoon. Please feel free to include your own additions, changes, or subtractions from the ones I came up with – and with no air of great expectation or exaltation. Those are not my bells. My bells are truth, humor, passion, creativity, connection to others and history, and making sure that anyone I ever work with gets both the right to think differently from me and get full credit for whatever they contribute.

If this little exercise ever turns into a book, anyone who makes a definition contribution here that goes to print will get a byline credit that is unmistakably their own.

Simply let your mind range. – What is there about baseball that reminds me of life? What is there about life that reminds me of baseball? – What occurs? – Is it a word? – Or a concept derived from life or baseball? – What strikes me as either ironic or funny? – And can I find the words to express my thoughts?

Most of all – let it be lie a sandlot baseball game! – Keep it fun! _ And don’t do th one thing that destroys all real creativity: Don’t take yourself – this fun – me or anyone else – too seriously. – That’s not what the sweet spot of life, or baseball, is all about.

Then leave your contributions – and those you invite others to contribute – as a comment on this column. And we will let marinate and stew for a few months.

My gosh! There are two active ancient columns here at TPPE that have taken on lives of their own. Maybe we baseball fun fans can do the same with this idea for putting together an egalitarian baseball fan baseball/life dictionary/thesaurus

“Old Houston Car Dealers”

Old Houston Car Dealers

and “Early Houston TV Programs & Personalities”

Early Houston TV Programs & Personalities

Here’s the list I did as our primer. It will help putting things together, someday, if that ever happens, if you culd write up your contributions in the form I used below.

Most of all – keep it fun! 🙂

Our Starter List of Suggested Entries

Can of Corn (can-of-corn): concept; anything in life that comes easy.

Dictionary (diction-airy) noun; def.: a speech condition among players whose post-game comments inevitably fail to rise above light and airy statements on the cliche level of “we have to keep taking each game one day at a time.”

Grounder (ground-er) noun; def.: a person who never raises his or her eyes high enough to see the sunshine beyond the rain.

Human Rain Delay (human-rain-delay): concept; def.: anyone whose late appearance in a group function arrives like a windy storm of rain at the ballpark due to his or her lack of concern or sensitivity to how they suddenly may have interrupted or shut down what was going on prior to their arrival. As with the storm, the original game of group interaction only resumes after the human rain delay has dropped his or her load and moved on.

Luhnowtics (loo-now-tics): noun; def.: baseball people who subscribe to the administrative tenants of Luhnowcy. (See Luhnowcy.)

Luhnowcy (loo-now-see): noun; def.: a baseball administrative belief system based upon two major propositions: (1) that an overpaid mediocre club must prepare to be the worst poorly paid club in the game before it can ever hope to become the best club in baseball; and (2) if that new best club in baseball’s players then insist upon becoming overpaid for their accomplishments, which they inevitably will through their agents, that it is better to again go through the process of talent dumping and re-loading with younger, more controllable players than it is to yield to the demands of agents for aging talents that are unlikely to be worth the compensations they seek for new multi-year contracts.

Paranoids (pair-of-noids): noun; def.: a couple of distrustful HGH users who are inseparable due to their mutual fear that whoever leaves will betray the other about their safe blood and urine sources.

Playing Manager (playing-manager): concept; archaic def.: a manager who also appears on the roster as an active player; modern def.: a manager who simply doesn’t take his job that seriously.

Psychopath (psych-a-path): noun; def.: a base runner who uses mind games and physical mimicry as a variant on trash talk to successfully steal bases against a now mentally compromised pitcher, his catcher, and the other infielders.

Ruthian (ru-thi-an): adjective; def.: anything that happens in life that is larger than life itself.

Squeeze Play (squeeze-play): concept; def: a trade offer from an out-of-the-running club to send the arguably best pitcher in baseball to a contender in late July in the final year of the ace’s big contract in exchange for six major-league ready AAA-level minor leaguers.

______________________________

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My Regrets and Apologies

August 13, 2015

THE PECAN PARK EAGLE
2009 ~ 2015
Column # 2,031

I didn’t need the stress on top of the shingles product of stress that I’m already dealing with, but that’s simply the price we all pay on some level for our ongoing contact with the world – even when that contact outlet is also our hot-button channel to joy and passion in life.

I am writing here to express my regrets and apologies to anyone else out there who was offended by the column I wrote earlier on “The 2015 Annual Stella Awards”, based on information sent to me by a friend. It was intended as a humorous treatment of frivolous lawsuits, based on that unsolicited information – and my personal experience with another friend’s windshield sunscreen cover many years ago.

The 2015 Annual Stella Awards

At no point did I intentionally, or even carelessly, decide to send you bad information. That’s not what we do here at The Pecan Park Eagle – or ever will do, as long as I’m around this place as editor and principal writer. We may make mistakes, at times, but we will not ever try to mislead or misinform you. And when the question arises, even by deflection, expect me to be on it like a cat on a June Bug every time.

I simply made the mistake of thinking that readers would take this piece lightly for what it was – material to entertain more so than to seriously inform. As it turns out, and as does happen humanly often enough, I was wrong on that count.

One of our readers, “shinerbock80” wrote this comment at the column file:

“This list dates back about 15 years. And while they might sound amusing, they are not true. Try this. link. It’s an interesting and thorough read. http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

“The Winnebago story is a decades old urban legend. My dad told me that one when I was a child in the 1970s.

“Furthermore, the original Stella Liebman case in 1994 was when she was handed a cup of coffee that was 190 degrees. In other words, an almost boiling cup of liquid handed to a 79 year old woman through her car window. When she removed the cup’s lid to add cream and sugar, the car was parked in the parking lot. She got third degree burns and was hospitalized for 8 days. McDonalds, btw, refused several settlement offers before losing the jury trial in which her attorneys argued that the coffee being served was much hotter than that served at other establishments and much hotter than a reasonable person would expect. Whether you believe that she deserved the big jury award or not, the true story shows that the woman was not stupid or negligent.”

My pre-cursory response to the later decision I made about writing this column was to leave my personal reply to “shinerbock80”, who happens also to be a respected colleague:

“I was writing for humor – not for history. My apologies for offending your more fundamental view of anything that goes to print.

“If all I ever wrote was biblically based, we would all be in deep doo. Maybe I should footnote all my columns with the following notations:

“(1.) Take me seriously;

“(2) Caution: humorous Intent is attempting an escape; and,

“(3) Don’t be so snarky about what you read this time. This one launches as the Internet ramblings of a restless, but somewhat likable and caring soul who does not write to please others – unless that just happens naturally.

“Have a nice day and please know this too: In spite of the great “oil and water” gulf that seems to often separate us by our very different intellectual inclinations and experiential perspectives, that I do very much respect your tenacious support of many of the same common community goals that I share with you.”

To my colleague, to everyone else, all I can add is this: By now you’ve probably figured out that The Pecan Park Eagle is not the network news, the History Channel, National Geographic, or even Sports Illustrated, but we do aim for quality at whatever fallible level that may be possible. – We will never intentionally misinform (unless we are writing fiction and misinformation is a plot carrier) – and we will always strive to correct factual errors here as they come to our attention as being really important to correct.

All we ask today is that we all lighten up around here. The Pecan Park Eagle isn’t going to cause World War IV (I think we are already involved in an unannounced World War III) – or is it likely to bring about world peace or a cure for all disease. Around here, we will settle for a gentle summer rain on a hot August day as the model for our publication ambitions – or a smile that refreshes the spirit.

PS: I do have to say this much about the unfortunate recipient of monetary justice, Stella Liebman. – We hope that McDonald’s never again handed any customer of any age a scalding hot drink through a car window with one of those funky-sticking plastic tops already clamped down upon its dangerous contents.

Please feel free to leave a written comment. I promise not to write another “heavy” column again, any time soon, if ever.

Thanks, shinerbock80, for implicitly inspiring me to write this piece.

______________________________

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Luck, Be a Lady This Year

August 13, 2015

“Luck, Be a Lady Tonight!”

Unbelievable – until we remember that the Houston Astros are members of the American League West.

The Astros finished their roadkill trip with a satisfying 2-0 win over the Giants Wednesday afternoon and then flew home more merrily back to Houston in a far better mood than they had any right to expect – EXCEPT for the fact they play in the American League West.

They left home after sweeping the Angels back on Sunday, August 2nd, for a 9-game road trip with a 2-game lead over the Halos. They flew home on Wednesday night, August 12th, with another horrendous 2-7 toad trip record, but they would later find sweet sleep in Houston in the knowledge that the Angels had fallen to the White Sox on the road in Chicago, 3-2, and that the Astros still had the same 2-game lead over 2nd place LA that they had carried with them into the start of this now-closed, otherwise forgettable, road trip.

The Angels had managed to match the 2-7 record the Astros registered on the road over the same game span by dropping a 13-inning game to the CWS at their place late Wednesday night.

Add to the magical roll of these dice the fact that the Rangers also lost their third straight game yesterday, and the Astros also had increased their lead over 3rd place Texas to 5.5 games. The Rangers had punched the Astros for a sweep to start this trip, but again. – they seem to be falling back into the pack, just a tad.

Roll ’em again, Astros! – Roll those Blacked-Eyed Susans again while they are still smokin’!

I still think that it is going to take more than “luck” for the Astros to go all the way this year, and, like most of you, I could write all day on the large to little deficiencies in the 2015 Astros game that support my own reservations – and I have no doubt that most of you could too.

Anybody want to take base-running lessons from Preston Tucker after Wednesday’s game, for example?

The fact remains, as Greg Lucas stated as a comment yesterday. This is a much better ball club than the one we have all lived with for the previous four seasons. This is a good ball club with good management. The Astros are now – and for the foreseeable near years to come – one of the contenders – and that is flat-out exciting again!

Will luck be enough to help the Astros overcome their weaknesses this year – and take it all?

Don’t count on it. – But do not count it out either.

After all, a baseball miracle is simply one of those junctions in the game in which luck overrides probability.

Tags: the role of luck in miracles
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The 2015 Annual Stella Awards

August 13, 2015

Annual Stella Awards – 2015

Years ago, I remember meeting a friend for lunch on one of those Houston summer days that are still pretty much the same every year around here, come August.

As we left the restaurant, my friend invited me to take a look at the product warning that had been transcribed into the windshield sun screen that he had been using in his car to reduce the heat upon the car seats after a long locked up stay in the summer sun.

The sign read: “Do Not Attempt to Drive Your Car While this Sunscreen Is Still in Place, Covering the Windshield.”

Do I hear a few “duhs” going off in your brain. They did for me too until my lawyer friend explained that someone using this product had once attempted to drive without removing the sunscreen, an action that quickly resulted in a collision and some minor injuries to the product-blinded driver.

That same-blinded driver then sued the sunscreen company for failing to warn him of the dangers inherent in attempting to drive with the product still covering the windshield. I was told that the plaintiff won his suit, leading to the additional language, stating the reality that 99% of all drivers should be able to understand without written explanation. It was simply another legal-language “CYA” move to protect the company against a second suit by the next idiot who tried to drive bind with the help of their product.

They had now been warned.

This memory from my more innocent-thinking years came roaring back to me when another friend, Miriam Edelman, sent me a copy today of the results for the 2015 Annual Stella Awards.

The Stella Awards are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased hot coffee. Stella had taken the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving.

What could possibly have gone wrong?

The Stella Awards now are extended in some kind of rank ordered way to the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. during a given year.

Here are the not-so “magnificent seven” Stella Awards for 2015, starting with what we suppose is the one with the least shock value to the one that totally breaks contact with the mind of ordinary reason:

SEVENTH PLACE
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The storeowners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the fact that the running toddler was her own son.

SIXTH PLACE
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. xTruman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.

FIFTH PLACE
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ’em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

FOURTH PLACE
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor’s beagle – even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

THIRD PLACE
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

SECOND PLACE
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a nightclub in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000, plus dental expenses.

FIRST PLACE
This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home.

As with the window sunscreen company before them, and God and West’s only knows how many other manufacturers that have done the same, Winnebago changed their vehicle manuals as a result of this suit, just in case any of the other members of the Grazinski family are in the market for a mobile home that drives itself.

_____________________________

Posted in The 2015 Annual Stella Awards | 3 Comments »

Another Astros Road Trip to Hell Nears End

August 12, 2015

“ONLY ONE MORE GAME LEFT TO PLAY ON THIS ASTROS ROAD TRIP!” – AVERAGE ASTROS FAN

It’s important to keep in mind that the Astros’ 7th loss in their 8th game of this mercifully about-to-finish 9-game road trip at San Francisco last night, after all, was to Madison Bumgarner, but it’s still hard to take that our Houston-based 2nd biggest home game winner in the American League is also tied with the Boston Red Sox as the 2nd worst road club in the Junior circuit. Were it not for the fact that the Los Angeles Angels of our ALC division have a similar Jekyll and Hyde record this year as home winners, but roadkill losers, it’s not likely that the Astros would be holding on to first place by their fingernails as they are currently.

Take a look at these two charts on the top five home winners and top five road losers in the American League for 2015 through all games of August 11th and draw your own conclusions, if any.

The Astros left home for this 9-game swing with a licking-their-chops 2 game lead over the Angels after a sweep of the Halos at home. They will come home today with a current road trip tab of either 2-7 or 1-8 with only luck to thank for the fact that may still be able to retain a tie or one game lead for 1st place in the ALC.

We have no personal memories of any club that every got all the way to the Word Series and then also won – on luck alone. Our pitching has not always been bad during this stretch, but we are still watching the Astros staff suffer critical moment failures that give away winnable games. Our hitting also has devolved into something that is almost totally dependent upon the “bash or bust” performance of players who only reach base when they have a chance to trot around the bases.

Our base running and defense continues to be spotty and our shortage of higher average and OBP table-setter hitters continues to rob us of all the other scoring opportunities that are the heart of a consistent winning team.

What do these two charts say to you? The Pecan Park Eagle encourages your comment on this question – and the main one that’s on all our minds. – Where do you see the 2015 Astros season going from here? And do the Astros look for other personnel changes now – for the sake of saving the team’s current season chances?

Check out the charts, your own reflections – and let us hear from you via a public comment at this column.

TOP 5 AL HOME GAME WINNERS THROUGH 8/11/2015)

TOP FIVE	HOME WINNERS	WON	LOST	WINNING %	GAMES BACK
1	ROYALS	39	18	.684
2	ASTROS	38	18	.679	0.5
3	BLUEJAYS	37	21	.638	2.5
4	TWINS	35	22	.614	4.0
5	ANGELS	36	23	.610	4.0

TOP 5 AL ROAD GAME LOSERS (THRU 8/11/2015)

TOP FIVE	ROAD LOSERS	WON	LOST	LOSING %	GAMES BACK
1	TWINS	21	34	.382
2 tie	RED SOX	23	35	.397	0.5
2 tie	ASTROS	23	35	.397	0.5
4	ANGELS	23	30	.434	3.0
5	ATHLETICS	24	29	.453	4.0

Thanks very much!

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Tags: ROAD CLUB BLUES
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1951 Buffs Won 3 of 4 Games in 2 Days

August 11, 2015

July 4, 1951: Jerry Witt'e HR in 9th carrries Buffs to walk off 2-0 win over Bob Turley and the San Antonio Missions in first game of a 2-day DH fest at Buff Stadium.

July 4, 1951: Jerry Witte’s HR in 9th carries Houston Buffs to walk-off 2-0 win over Bob Turley and the San Antonio Missions in the first game of a 2-day double header fest at Buff Stadium.

The 1951 Texas League Champion Houston Buffs didn’t have a 13-man pitching staff. In fact, their total active roster included only 19 players. Unlike the 2015 Houston Astros, the ’51 Buffs could only have afforded 13 pitchers, if two of them always had been capable of covering the two uncovered regular position spots that would have opened up on their 19-man roster as a result of the heavy pitching investment.

1951 was a different era, of course, and Houston was then a AA minor league city and farm club of the St. Louis Cardinals at a time when the normal rosters for any of the Texas League teams was limited to 6-8 pitchers at any dynamic time. Pitchers had to be inning-eaters for best results as starters – and also be ready to relieve, as needed. The strong survived; the weak did not; and many simply pitched and covered their injuries until they couldn’t do it any longer.

The late Jim Basso, a 1946-47 Houston Buff and 17-year minor leaguer, used to tell me the story this way: “You bet we played hurt. If we didn’t play, somebody else was going to be wearing our jockstrap in the next game. That also meant we had to keep our mouths shut about injury and try to play through it, if we could. Nobody who thought they had a chance at the big leagues wanted to lose their place in line, even if playing through that injury resulted in you doing permanent damage to your ability to play the game at all. We were the nobodies of baseball. Only the big league stars got rest and good medical attention. What we nobodies got from public knowledge of our injuries was to be pushed aside while the club found another healthy nobody to take our place.”

Back on July 4th and 5th in 1951, the Houston Buffs entertained the San Antonio Missions in back-to-back scheduled doubleheaders at Buff Stadium. The first place Buffs won 3 of the 4 games played Houston used 6 total pitchers in the 4 games and San Antonio used 7. The Buffs got 3 complete games from Fred Martin (win), Octavio Rubert (win), and Vinegar Bend Mizell (win). San Antonio got 2 complete games from Bob Turley (loss) and Jack O’Donnell (win) – It should jump off the page that all 4 wins in the two-day, four-game marathon were complete game pitchers.

Total Pitcher Use, Double DH Schedule, SA@HOU, July 5-6, 1951:

CLUBS	G1	G2	G3	G4	Total
San Antonio	1	3	1	2	7 pitchers
Houston	1	1	3	1	6 pitchers

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Wednesday, July 4, 1951: An Independence Day crowd of 11,251 crammed Buff stadium for a doubleheader contest between the 1st place Houston Buffs and the visiting 3rd place San Antonio Missions. SA ace Bob Turley entered the game in quest of his 15th season, but he and Buffs starter Fred Martin had still not settled things in Game 1 through 2 outs in the bottom of the Buffs’ 9th.

Then, 25 year old Larry Miggins cracked his second double of the game to left and Turley now faced the potential Buffs winning run on 2nd. After briefly debating an intentional walk to slugger Jerry Witte, the Missions decided to pitch to him.

Big mistake.

Jerry Witte took Turley’s pitch on a sky rocket ride into the twilight Houston summer sky for a 2-0 Buffs win and only the SA pitcher’s third loss of the season.

In Game 2, Octavo Rubert went all the way for the Buffs in a 5-2 win over the Missions. Ed Albrecht of SA took the loss after leaving the game after 3 innings, trailing 3-1. Hoot Gibson and John Pavlick finished the game for the Missions in relief.

Thursday, July 5, 1951: 6,308 fans showed up at Buff Stadium to watch Jack O’Donnell of the Missions scatter 7 hits and strand 11 Buffs in Game 1 for a 6-0 San Antonio win and their only victory in the not-so-unusual-for-the-era-back-to-back game fest. First-time Buffs starter Bob Clear took the loss as relievers Dick Bokelmann and Elroy Joyce followed as the only Buff relievers in the four-game DH jam.

In Game 2 of the of the second-day DH, Vinegar Bend Mizell went all the way in a 2-1 Buffs victory that was finally won in the bottom of the 9th when Vann Harrington scored from 3rd base on a surprising sac fly try caught the Missions by surprise to end the game. Bill Elbert started Game 2 for San Antonio,but left with a bothersome finger callous after 5. Hoot Gibson took over in the 6th and was around in the 9th as the SA man to take the loss.

That’s baseball. Always different, but always the same. It just depends on how we look at what’s really important to us in our attraction to the game that got served up early to so many of us like an errantly predictable fastball down the middle of the plate.

Support data for this column was derived from the files of both The San Antonio Evening News and the San Antonio Light on the connective publication dates of July 5-6, 1951.

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Tags: back-to-back doubleheaders in 1951
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Today’s Game was a Short Course on Life

August 10, 2015

The Oakland A’s counter- rallied their way to a 5-4 win over the Houston Astros Sunday in the bottom of the 9th by 5-4. This pictured celebration was from an earlier A’s walk-off win, but the ritual was pretty the same thing we saw today from agony of defeat Astro side.

Had Rembrandt been a surrealist, he would have painted the top of the 9th inning Sunday in Oakland for beleaguered fans of the Houston Astros. After falling behind, 3-1, to a two-run spot by the Oakland A’s in the bottom of the 8th, the Astros came roaring back with the full weight of baseball fantasy pushing their sails, causing a moment of instant euphoria for Houston fans and another three outs for unreality to commandeer the commentary judgment of play-by-play Astros road guy, Alan Ashby.

The dream sequence covered the first three Astros batters in the visitors’ 9th: Carlos Gomez singled; Carlos Correa singled, sending Gomez to third; and Colby Rasmus then jacked an international flight HR to right that suddenly lifted the Astros from 3-1 down to 4-3 up!

Of course, all Houston fans were jacked too, but this was a road game. It wouldn’t be over until the Astros finished batting and again took the field one more time and tagged the A’s with three more outs without allowing any further Oakland runs.

The impression came through here that someone either forgot to share this reality with Mr. Ashby – or Mr. Blum either, for that matter.

Marwin Gonzalez followed Rasmus as a pinch hitter for Luis Valbuena and lifted a can of corn fly ball out to left field off former Astros reliever Fernando Abad. There was no comment from the booth that surfaced as an expression of hope for more runs. There was another orgiastic replay of the “Colby-Jacked” homer, almost as though we already had all of what we needed – or worse – that the game was really over and the Astros were just hanging around to catch their breaths before they went back out to 1-2-3 formally finish the A’s.

The camera focused on three glum-looking A’s on their own bench. “That’s what it looks like in the A’s’ dugout,” says Ashby.

At one point, Ashby also paused to publicly ruminate this question: “Wonder what Angels fans will think when they see that score the Astros put up in the 9th?”

Then Chris Carter batted and did his thing. He went out on a high infield pop fly to the second baseman that was made more difficult by the brilliant sun sky.

Then came Jason Castro, who also popped out, this time to the shortstop in shallow left.

“Castro’s 0 for 4, but it doesn’t matter,” said Ashby, as the coverage went to break with yet another replay of the Colby-Jack, great fade away music and no further words.

The Ashby thought, “it doesn’t matter”, raced through my mind. Of course it matters. We haven’t won anything yet. The Astros could have used more than a one-run lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

You probably watched or read about the rest of the game. From an Astros standpoint, the bottom of the 9th was another Stephen King horror show as the A’s came back against Luke Gregerson to load the bases with two outs and lefty Josh Reddick coming to bat.

On a 1-1 pitch, Reddick lashed a hard line shot low back to the left side of the mound. It was a nanosecond faster than Gregerson’s reflexes to catch it for the final out and it bounded away off his wrist just long enough to score the tying run from third base.

Danny Valencia then finished the home team revival by singling to left – and turning the 2-run bottom of the 9th rally by the A’s into another heartbreaking road loss for the visiting Houston Astros.

Look, I’m not trying to beat up on Alan Ashby. I like him. And I admire his ample baseball moxie. He just needs to consider never saying again in a live game that any lost scoring opportunity doesn’t matter. They all matter. And he really knows that they do.

The three lame/lamb at bats that followed the Ramus heroic 3-run homer in the top of the ninth did matter.

What matters about this game is the especially cruel way it slipped from our grasp – and how this sort of thing so accurately reflects the way the long season of baseball so accurately portrays within the game experience itself some of the hardest life lessons we all must either face or get creamed by in everyday life:

Things aren’t always fair; worthwhile goals are never easy reaches; never take anything for granted; don’t count your money until the market bell rings in the afternoon; never count your chickens before they hatch; and never think you’ve done all you can do to assure your best chance for a win; and – very important here – even days like today can be our best teachers, if we are willing to learn from the pain of all that went into making it happen.

We could talk about the lessons of this one game from here to New Years Eve and still be putting together a seminar on all of its value as a summer course for managers and GMs.

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Tags: Astros lose heartbreaker to A's
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