The Pecan Park Eagle

Who is the Bobble Head Supposed to Be?

July 31, 2015

The New Craig Biggio Bobble Head

This is going to be a short column because of some routine medical tests scheduled for me this Friday morning.

This subject doesn’t need words. A single look at the bobble head pictured up top will do. It’s the same one the Astros plan to give away in honor of Craig Biggio.

But who does he really look like? – Take the following one-question quiz and go straight to the head of the class!

Multiple Choice: Who does the Craig Biggio bobble head most closely resemble?

(a) Craig Biggio

(b) George W. Bush.

(d) Jeb Bush

Please leave your answer in the comment section below.

Someone with the Astros must have commented something like the following when this shipment arrived and was first opened: “Holy Toledo! We ordered Craig Biggio – and look who we got!”

Also, please feel free to leave your own comments below on how this may have happened.

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Tags: Craig Biggio Bobble Head
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Correa to Altuve to Whomever Spells Greatness

July 30, 2015

Carlos Correa, SS
Houston Astros
2015

Look. We’ve been around the block with successful and failed baseball blue bloods all our lives. We also recognize that we are looking at a couple of guys very early in both their careers, but we will say it anyway. It doesn’t take a genius to see that 20-year old rookie shortstop Carlos Correa – and 25-year old five-year veteran second baseman Jose Altuve – may just be shaping up even this early as one of the finest middle infields any club ever enjoyed pairing up on the same defense at the same time, from youth and still growing on their individual and joint play ways to a still unreached prime for both by age and experience.

Altuve is now hitting again like the little monster that won the AL batting average championship in 2014 with a .341 mark. His .305 mark through 7/29/15 is now only 110 hits short of the 225 total he compiled last year; his 9 HR already are 2 more than he had for the entire 2014 season; he leads the AL in stolen bases with 28 in 2015 (exactly half his 2014 total); and he is adjusting beautifully to the AL pitchers’ book adjustments made to him after last year’s breakout at the plate.

Correa is playing like a veteran at the plate and in the field. He already is showing hi ability to adjust to the initial adjustments that the pitchers have mad on him and is now hitting .299 on 50 hits in 42 games, with 9 homers, same as his full season keystone partner, Altuve.

On defense, the 6’4″ Correa and the 5’6″ Altuve are playing ball at an astounding level. No random “Mutt and Jeff” size-contrast pairing could ever hope to have played the way these guys play by instinct and natural ability. In less than a week’s time, Correa and Altuve both have shown us two of the most incredibly brilliant, and as Bill Brown expressed it last night on the ROOTS Network telecast, “almost impossible” individual plays on defense that some of us ever have seen completed successfully on a baseball field at critical points in two critical plays.

Last Saturday, Carlos Correa went deep into the hole at shortstop to field a ball that seemed sure of scoring the winning from third base for the Royals at home in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. He somehow managed to make the grab and swirling, gyrating throw to first in time to get the runner and send the game into extra innings. The Astros didn’t win the game, but it was to no fault of young Mr. Correa that they did not. It was the most amazing play I think we’ve ever seen.

Until last night.

Jose Altuve, 2B
Houston Astros
2015

Last night, Wednesday, 7/29/15, Jose Altuve chased a sharply hit grounder up the middle that seemed destined for center field and a rally hit for the visiting rival Angels here at MMP. Almost leaping, he snared the ball as he stumbled to the ground in the process, with his body moving away from first and seemingly in no position to do any further damage to what now, in a nanosecond, appeared to be shaping up as an infield single.

But no!

Suddenly, Altuve is lunging to another falling knee stand as he whips the ball through the air on a true, speedy, but short of the mark course to first. Kudos to Astros first baseman Jon Singleton here. Singleton scoops up the miracle throw with a ground-sweeping catch and the “seeing eye single” had been sent to the baseball optometry office of Dr. Altuve for a “4-3, GO” prescription.

I have never seen – any second basemen, anywhere, at any time, under any tougher circumstance, since 1947 – make a better play!

As we already most recently discovered, there is a certain hallowed hall in the northeastern forests of America that honors MLB players who can do this sort of thing for twenty years. Let’s just hope that these two incredibly athletic and intelligent young men will be here to elevate the middle infield of the Houston Astros forever as the best shortstop-second baseman combination of all time.

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Altuve Play Video Addendum: Mark W. was kind enough to post this link to a replay of the Altuve web-gem in the comment section. Thanks, Mark! That one deserves a seat up here too:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13343286

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Tags: Correa & Altuve: On the way to middle infield greatness
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Mike McCroskey: Who Should the Astros Go For?

July 29, 2015

Mike McCroskey wants to know: Who should the Astros try to acquire prior to the July 31st trade deadline?

Good friend and Super Astros Fan Mike McCroskey sent me a group e-mail that he apparently mailed to several other SABR members late last night. I liked it so much that it became an easy pick as our primary Pecan Park Eagle subject in our column for Wednesday, July 29, 2015. Here it is, exactly in the form that Mike framed it by e-mail. – What do the rest of you Astros fans think of Mike’s pick? And who – or what need – would you like to see the Astros try to fill before the July 31st trade deadline – and what cost?

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Trade Deadline Nears (July 31st)

By Mike McCroskey

Just for fun as the trade deadline nears. Who would you like to see the ‘Stros trade for and why would this person be available?

I think we have enough pitching and am not a fan of the payroll that Cole Hamels would command as we have a lot of kids approaching arbitration.

My pick, even though we have Springer and Lowrie set to come back soon, would be Adrian Beltre of the Rangers. He’s 36, still one of the best fielders in the game. Colin Moran is supposedly our 3rd baseman of the future in about 2 years. The Rangers are fading and may be in the market for some prospects and willing to dump him in order to rebuild. He would definitely be an improvement over one of our .198 hitters. I would give up Valbuena in the deal.

What do y’all think, and who would be your pick to acquire?

Mike McCroskey

Please post your picks and thoughts in the column section that follows this column.

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IMPORTANT SECOND BUSINESS SUBJECT! SABR members, please read and ACT TODAY!

One More Deadline is Coming on July 31st for members of the Larry Dierker SABR Chapter who said they wanted tickets for the big game that follows our August 22nd SABR meeting at MMP. If you don’t get your money in to Mark Hudec by this Friday, you will have lost your ticket to a game that looms to be a sellout for a strategic contest in the AL pennant race by that date:

Please read and act upon the following message today! The deadline is only two days from now!

7/28/15: Urgent Message to Larry Dierker SABR Chapter Members from Chapter Leader Bob Dorrill:

This coming Friday, July 31, is the deadline for submitting your check, if you have not already done so, to attend the SABR meeting and Astros game on Saturday, August 22nd.

Please mail your check at $46.00 per ticket to:

Mark Hudec

235 River Grove Road

Sugar Land, TX 77478.

The game is sure to be a sellout with the pregame ceremony for Craig Biggio and the free Biggio jerseys for the first 10,000 attendees.

As previously announced, GM Jeff Luhnow is our special guest and we will also hear reports on the Hall of Fame weekend just past. Our meeting starts at 4:00 PM.

Thanks to all who have already reserved seats. As of today we have 47 signed on. You do not need a ticket to attend the meeting.

Bob Dorrill
bdorrill@aol.com

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Tags: Mike McCroskey: Who should the Astros try to acquire?, SABR GAME TICKET DEADLINE IS 2 DAYS AWAY!
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Old Timers Games Go Back To The Good Old Days

July 28, 2015

Galveston Daily News, July 30, 1921:

Thank you again, Darrell Pittman, for your research contribution of the following wonderful story.

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OLD TIMERS TEAM WINS BY 11 TO 6

Cy Young, Lajoie, Altrock, Jess Burkett and Other Bygone Stars Play.

By Associated Press

Cleveland, July 29 (1921). – Old time professional baseball players, some of whom played with Cleveland as far back as 1878, today defeated a team of veteran sand lotters by 11 to 6, the event being one of the features of Cleveland’s 125^th anniversary celebration.

This earlier 1910 photo Cy Young at Cleveland made hm look as though he were already in shape for an old-timers' game. (Photo by Photo File/Getty Images)

This earlier 1910 photo of Cy Young at Cleveland made hm look as though he were already in shape for an old-timers’ game.
(Photo by Photo File/Getty Images)

Cy Young, the only pitcher who ever won 500 major league games, went to the box at the outset of the contest with Chief Zimmer, his old catcher, behind the bat. Each was well over fifty years of age. The famous old battery worked two innings, being followed by younger pitchers and catchers, including Nick Altrock, the comedian of the Washington American league club, who was an added feature.

Only two hits were made off Young. He struck out two batters and gave one base on balls.

The old timers’ infield was the same that played for Cleveland in 1902, 1903, and 1905. Charlie Hickman on first, Nap Lajoie on second, Terry Turner at short and Bill Bradley on third. Not an error did it make. In the outfield such famous old stars as Jess Burkett, now coach for the New York Giants; Harry Bay. Elmer Flick, Ollie Pickering, Larry T. Mitchell and Bunk Congalton.

Others who participated were Neal Ball, who alternated at shortstop; Fred Gatch, Paddy Livingston and Rosenbach, catchers, and Earl Moore, Albert Nelson and Heinie Berger, pitchers.

~ Galveston Daily News, July 30, 1921

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Tags: Cy Young pitches in 1921 Oldtimers' Game
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Yesterday’s Moment in the Cooperstown Sun

July 27, 2015

THE CLASS OF 2015: Left to Right ~ Craig Biggio, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez.

New Hall of Fame inductee Pedro Martinez spoke warmly of his three brothers at the Cooperstown ceremonies on Sunday, July 26, 2015. His older brother Ramon Martinez may have lacked his younger sibling’s numbers over the course of his own 14 year (1988-2001) MLB career, but he still finished with 135 wins against only 88 losses, highlighted by the 1990 season in which we won 20, lost 6, and worked 234.1 innings at a 2.92 E.R.A. rate and led the NL as a LA Dodger with 12 complete games.

A younger than Pedro Martinez brother narrowly missed pitching in the big leagues and a third brother apparently never came close, but Pedro thanked them all. And openly told them of his love for them during his Hall of Fame induction speech. For the Martinez brothers, it was a proud and happy day for family and a large contingent of fans and supporters from the Dominican Republic that made the trip to Cooperstown to show support for their native son and the chance to take pride in the baseball accomplishments of their island nation.

It was a great finale moment when Pedro Martinez called upon the older fellow Dominican Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal, to come forth to the podium and hold with him their nation’s flag as a way of giving the individual moment over to the celebration of his honor as a Dominican Republic national accomplishment.

The love for his family, his country, and the game of baseball was visible in the words, eyes, and spirit of Pedro Martinez as he addressed the crowd of his family and fans at Cooperstown yesterday. And their love and support for Pedro shown back unto him in smiles, cheers, tears, and shouts of national joy. It was a beautiful day all the way around. Even from home, those of us who comfortably watched in HD TV over the MLB Network also got to run the bases on one more reminder of why the game of baseball is so special to us.

The people who play our game care deeply. An intense, closer-to-the-vest expression of love for family came through in the more somber delivery of Randy Johnson. Randy did raise the pitch a might when he said that his two months in Houston at the end of the 1999 season were his best moments in baseball. He proudly acknowledged that his ten wins against only one loss as an Astros ace were his most effective career season moment. And John Smoltz came through like the big joyous kid he apparently still loves to be in his approach to life, but the love poured freely from him too. The son of two accordion teachers in Lansing Michigan had grown up to be a Hall of Fame pitcher with the unique ability for succeeding as both a starter and a killer closer.

Then there was our Houston guy, Craig Biggio, the lead-off induction speaker. The Hall of Fame program planners must have liked their chances with Biggio leading off. He did yesterday what he has done so often during his career. He got the program started by hitting a home run with every thought and full emotion he expressed. I’ve already written the following as a comment of my own on yesterday’s column, but it bears repeating here. – Craig’s induction speech was the most eloquently anchored, humble, honest and acknowledging acceptance talk I’ve ever heard from an inductee at Cooperstown. I’m pretty sure I heard MLB host Harold Reynolds say it was the best he’d ever heard too – and that was just after Biggio had concluded what he had to say. – Craig even told former second base coach Matt Galante that “if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here today.” – Matt was moist eyed and another sentence short of a full cry. – What a great, great total moment for Craig Biggio, his family, the Astros, the fans, and the whole City of Houston. And, as “Ole Diz” always liked to say, “It was a great day for baseball!”

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Tags: The 2015 Baseball Hall of Fame Talks
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Congratulations, Craig Biggio!

July 26, 2015

He was the kid from Seton Hall that the Houston Astros drafted with the 22nd pick in the 1987 amateur draft. (Shown here at the start of his career with Steve Russell, Director of the Mid-Mon Valley Hall of Fame in Donora, PA and son of former big leaguer Jim Russell.)

He was the 20-year fighting heart of the Houston Astros who Just happened

He was the 20-year fighting heart (1988=2007) of the Houston Astros who Just happened” to collect 3,060 career hits along the way! Along the way, in 2004, he was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of fame.

He was, and still is, the man who put the light into the lives of the Sunshine Kids!

He was the good father, tjhe important mentor, and great coach who celebrated his MLB retirement by leading the St. Thomas Eagles and his two sons to two state baseball championships.

He was the good father, the important mentor, and great coach who celebrated his MLB retirement by leading the St. Thomas High School Eagles and his two sons to two state baseball championships.

In early 1965, he and three other derving others, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and and Pedro Martinez, were lected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In early 2015, he and three deserving others, (L-R) John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez, were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Today, Sunday, July 26, 2015, Craig Biggio and the three other members of his class will be induxted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at beautiful Cooperstown, NY.

Today, Sunday, July 26, 2015, Craig Biggio and the three other members of his class will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at beautiful Cooperstown, NY. – Congratulations to them all, but especially to our heart of Houston guy!

THE CLASS OF 2015: Left to Right ~ Craig Biggio, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez.

Please add your own congratulatory note to Craig Biggio to the comment section that follows this column. It’s time to go public with our appreciation for what this one humble, quiet-spoken man has meant to the Astros, our local baseball culture, the history of baseball, the City of Houston, and the lives of so many children born to affliction that they certainly did not deserve.

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EAGLE FIGHT NEVER DIES!

Tags: CRAIG BIGGIO'S INDUCTION INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
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Pretty as a Picture, But Astros Fail to Frame It

July 26, 2015

How many outfielders can do what Willie once did?

When Astros shortstop Carlos Correa went deep in the hole and made that inspired desperate grab and throw for out number three in the bottom of the 9th tonight against the Royals, the winning run for KC went dying on his race to the plate from third. Correa already had given the Astros their only run of the game on an earlier sac fly. Now his beyond the pale super hero abilities had carried us into extra innings – and all amped up to break a 1-1 tie and keep the streak of total success against Kansas City going one more time.

That prospect was as pretty as a picture, but the Astros couldn’t frame it. Everybody can’t be Carlos Correa. Can they? Even Carlos Correa can’t be Carlos Correa every time. Can he?

Not really.

The top of the 10th started hopefully, as Astros left field Preston Tucked laced a nice solid opposite field single to left. But then Chris Carter lined out to KC 2nd baseman Omar Infante, who was able to double off Tucker at first for leading too far into his run before he saw that the ball had not cleared the infield. That double play killed Houston’s last hope for the night as Colby Rasmus quickly fanned to end the inning.

Then came the bottom of the 10th and the Royals scored a man from second base on a two-out dying quail single to right to take the game, 2-1. They were put in that position to win after Paul Orlando singled to right with one out. For whatever reason, Orlando waited until the next batter, Jared Dyson, flied out on a hard hit ball to right field. Orlando then stole second base and soon after scored on Alcides Escobar’s dying bird one-bagger. Will Harris was the pitcher of record for Houston in the game’s losing walk-off hit conclusion.

We’ve got a good team in Houston again, finally, but losing still is going to happen every now and then in the long season, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it. I hate losing. It no longer keeps me up at night, as it did as a kid, when my old Houston Buffs lost. My pain now from the Astros losing is far lighter, relative to more important issues in life, and pretty much restricted to the losses that occur late in what I like to think of as “winnable games”.

To keep it simple, a “winnable game” to me is any game that goes into the last three innings either tied or separated by only two runs in the 7th – and only one run in the 8th or 9th. Stat-Heads would be more likely to express this idea in a more refined scientific way as any late inning game in which both teams retain a fairly equal probability of winning.

Saturday’s game with the Royals was such a game. Carlos Correa’s defensive gem in the bottom of the 9th took the win away from the Royals. The Astros then gave the momentum back to KC in the top of the 10th when young Mr. Tucker ran himself into an avoidable double play, setting up the loss of what could have been the table-setter for an “Astros win”. It just didn’t happen Saturday night.

Sunday is a brand new day. And this Sunday is one of those days that the “Big Bear” takes the mound.

Time and Hope are always the best cures for disappointment. And we have reason to hope over night in this case.

PS: Rookie outfielders should also work on trying to tune into the sound of the bat on the ball to help judge “come in or go back” on those harder to see line drives hit straight at them. Maybe that doesn’t work in big league venues, but it sure used to help me – and I needed the help.

Having said that, we recognize that the chances of getting fooled by the flight of the baseball are high for most of us mortals. But that’s also why most us mortal wannabes never made it anywhere close to the big leagues without buying a game ticket.

Of course, outfielders should do everything in their power not to drop a pop fly, even if it is human for just about everyone, with the exception of Willie Mays in his prime, to sometimes do so. My sympathies do go out to Mr. Tucker on that one. Had there been a large rock in left field, I’m sure that he would have found a way to locate its dark side.

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Tags: losing winnable games
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Who was the last MLB lefty to play 2nd Base?

July 25, 2015

On August 18, 1983, NY Yankee lefty first baseman Don Mattingly was pressed into action as the second baseman for one out in the resumption of a game successfully protested by the KC Royals. It went into the books as a game played on July 24, 1983. – It was part of the fall-out from the George Brett pine tar incident.

If you know the history of the George Brett pine tar incident intimately, you already know the answer to this sort of bogus-sounding, but technically accurate question. It was Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees, who played second base for the last Kansas City Royals visitor out in the resumed-by-protest game from July 24, 1983 at Yankee Stadium that finally was played to a new finish on August 18, 1983.

In brief, the original game was one of those contests that baseball history will never forget, especially if you are the now Hall of Fame 3rd baseman and slugger George Brett, his Kansas City Royals teammates, or the Kansas City fans.

In the original game, Brett had just banged a two-out, two-run homer off Yankee reliever Goose Gossage in the top of the 9th to give KC a 5-4 lead over the Yankees.

And that’s when the caramel corn hit the fan!

Yankee manager Billy Martin protested the home run, claiming that the pine tar on Brett’s bat went too far up the handle to be legal – and citing the rule that under these circumstances, the batter should be declared out. Not too much later, it came out in the media that Martin had been holding this information to himself about Brett’s heavy pine tar bat for quite a while, just waiting for the best time to use this protest to an umpire.

And what better time to use it? George Brett had just given his club a one-run lead in the 9th with a two-run homer?

The home plate umpire carefully measured the pine tar on Brett’s bat and ruled in favor of Martin. Brett was declared out, erasing the HR and ending the game as a 4-3 Yankee win. What happened next was unforgettable. As soon as George Brett got the news from his sitting position in the Royals dugout, he jumped to his feet with all the ire of the Incredible Hulk.

In a New York favorable minute, George Brett became the all-time moving picture of pure unadulterated rage!

For an animated version, see You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4442NQclanM

The Royals quickly protested the game to American League President Lee MacPhail, who explained that the rule was there to keep pine tar from ruining game use balls – and essentially not there to punish batters who may inadvertently used too much, but with no intent of creating an unfair hitting advantage for themselves. The game was rescheduled for resumption with the Brett homer again reinstated as legitimate for a 5-4 KC lead with two outs in the top of the 9th. Because of their behavior in the original game aftermath, however, Brett and KC manager Dick Howser, were both retroactively ejected from further play or presence in the game’s continuation, as was KC teammate Gaylord Perry for his efforts to hide the pine tar bat from the umpires and protect it from further inspection.

A lot of hi-jinx behavior from NY Manager Billy Martin and the Yankees occurred as a result of the MacPhail decision, but the bare 4-outs-to-go dribble of the contest finally occurred on August 24, 1983, an original off-day for both clubs when the Yankees already were home and the traveling Royals were in the neighborhood, on their way to Baltimore. Yankee Stadium was virtually empty, except for the few fans who could present ticket stubs from the original date for free admission on the conclusion.

As a symbolic protest, Yankee manager Martin played pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and left-handed 1st baseman Don Mattingly at 2nd base for the one-out they still needed to bag to finish the top of the 9th for the Royals.

As it turned out, neither Guidry nor Mattingly had to face a challenge in the field. Yankee reliever George Frazier struck out KC’s Hal McRae to conclude the top of the 9th and Royals reliever Dan Quisenberry took out the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th, 1-2-3, to end the game that will never stay quiet in the history of baseball mind-gaming.

For further details, check out this Wikipedia report:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tar_Incident

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Tags: pine tar bat incident
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Davis O. Barker: A Great Baseball Story

July 24, 2015

The title of this column could be taken either of two ways. It’s either the wonderful story of Davis O. Barker of Jacksonville, Texas, an extraordinarily talented researcher of ancient baseball history – or it is the almost gifted-over tale of a one-armed former Texas player who once served as an early business partner of Judge Roy Hofheinz and an ally of the latter’s early 1950 attempt to secure a big league club for Houston. That one led to Hooper’s involvement in a failed attempt to bring the St. Louis Browns franchise to Houston after the 1953 season, a move that actually went to Baltimore in 1954 as the rebirth of the Orioles.

In this case, “A Great Baseball Story” is the one that Davis O. Barker already has written in his careful notes and his own word constructions about “Dick Hooper, A One-Armed Shortstop and An Amazing Texas Entrepreneur”. Barker could now turn this whole column into a treasured greater length and analytically explored book on baseball history – or he could simply rest in the knowledge that he has now written in a cogent time-milestone style format the incredible tale of William Newton “Dick” Hooper in oak-nut form for all time through this one singularly impressive Pecan Park Eagle Column.

Thank you, Davis O. Barker, for all the good things you do for the history of our game of baseball.

Sincerely, Bill McCurdy, The Pecan Park Eagle

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Dick Hooper
An Amazing Below the Radar of Fame Texan

“Dick Hooper, A One-Armed Shortstop and An Amazing Texas Entrepreneur”

By Davis O. Barker

Introduction ….

It is a baseball story …

It is a Houston-related story …

It is an interesting story …

Dick Hooper was a one-armed baseball player from Conroe who starred at Baylor and UT. He became one of those post-depression Houston oilmen ….

Though I have written a few vignettes concerning his baseball story, I have not written the entire tale (until now*). It was quite by accident that I put the baseball player’s story together with the oilman’s story and they were the same person … to my knowledge, his story hasn’t been told …

The featured photo is a picture from Hooper’s days at UT. The material that follows is a timeline of what I have located in various newspapers over the years.

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* Editor’s Note: There isn’t a single timeline feature here in the story of Dick Hooper that could not be greatly expanded in book form – and, in the process, other timeline facts most probably would also find the daylight of discovery. That’s simply the way of all complex story material. As for the essentials, this highlight story of the incredible Mr. Hooper has been ready for some time. And its author is Davis O. Barker.

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The Milestone Story Trail ….

WILLIAM NEWTON “Dick” HOOPER

Born: November 17, 1891 in Cass County, Texas

Died: September 4, 1960 in Houston, Texas

Burial: Oakwood Cemetery in Conroe, Texas

Dick Hooper is the son of Dr. William Nelson Hooper who relocated his family to Montgomery County near the turn of the century and set up a very lucrative practice as a physician and surgeon in Conroe. Before his death in 1927, Dr. Hooper was able to acquire substantial parcels of land in the area that would eventually be of great value when a major oil field was discovered. The Dr. Hooper Oil & Royalty Company, still in existence today, was established in his name.

January, 1905: As a young boy, Dick Hooper is seriously wounded by a shotgun blast while hunting. The injury results in the amputation of his left hand and arm below the elbow.

1908-1909: In spite of his injury, Hooper adapts to the loss, and, using his natural skills and personal tenacity as his firing pistons, he soon tars at shortstop for Conroe’s semi-pro team.

1910-11: Hooper attends Baylor University and is selected Captain and Coach of the Bears’ “Scrub Team”; during the summers, he continues to excel in the state’s semi-pro circuits.

Dick Hooper
Baylor University
Baseball, 1912

1912: Dick Hooper joins the Baylor varsity baseball team and becomes a star outfielder on the conference championship team. He is selected to the All-Conference Team. Again demonstrating his adaptability and his fighting spirit, he supplements his income umpiring semi-pro games and often returns to Conroe during the summer to play with the local semi-pro team.

1913: Hooper transfers to the University of Texas, where he is ineligible to participate on the school’s varsity squad, but he is named captain of the “Texas Outlaws”, and independent team made up of Longhorn baseballers who are not eligible to participate in official games. He also umpires collegiate games in the Austin area. An he often returns to Conroe during the summer to play with the local semi-pro team.

1914-1915: Dick Hooper becomes a star centerfielder for the Longhorns, being chosen All-Conference in the second of those years. During the early summer of 1914, he is hired as a substitute umpire for the Texas League, working games in Austin when the regular umpire was unable to make it. As an umpire, he becomes a fan favorite and receives positive reviews from the players and management. Late in the summer he takes over as the Playing Manager for Lufkin’s team in the independent East Texas Tomato League.

1916: Dick Hooper is chosen by his club as the Longhorn baseball team captain, however, he is declared academically ineligible just two weeks into the season. In June 1916, he is signed as the bench manager for the Lufkin Lumbermen in the Class D East Texas League. Primarily performing as the third base coach, he also appears in a few games as pinch hitter and pinch runner. However, the league folds after about a month of play. It proves to be Hooper’s only professional baseball experience.

1917: During the spring, Hooper is hired as Head Baseball Coach at Southwestern University in Georgetown. During the summer, he is hired as an official umpire by the Texas League.

1918: Hooper serves as a collegiate umpire in games involving Texas colleges.

1919: Dick Hooper continues his umpire service, this time, as an umpire in El Paso in the outlaw Copper League, the El Paso City League, and he also works other semi-pro games in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. During the off season, he takes a job with the Federal government as a deputy collector in southwest region for the Internal Revenue Service.

1921-1923: For three seasons, Dick Hooper manages the semi-pro team in Brenham. He likes the city so much that he makes Brenham his year round residence.

1924: It was a case of natural selection. for the people of his new home town. In the spring of 1924, Dick Hooper is hired as Head Baseball Coach at Brenham High School.

Then, as life so often does, events unfold to alter the course of this Texas dynamo of grass roots baseball. After the death of his father, and the discovery of oil on his most of his father’s extensive land holdings, the family of Dick Hooper talks him into returning to Conroe for the sake of operating the family’s new-found oil business. The business is extremely successful and its resulting Dr. Hooper Oil & Royalty Company still exists today.

At some point, at a time still unknown to us, Dick Hooper moves his main office to Houston.

In the mid-1940’s, Hooper and Judge Roy Hofheinz form a corporation that purchases several radio stations in the region. As technology advances, they consider acquiring a television station. The company is not a success, but the two entrepreneurs became long-time associates.

Early in 1950, Dick Burnett, East Texas oil man and owner of Dallas’ Texas League team, begins a move to create a third major league. Likely a South Texas interests to North Texas interests reaction in response, Hooper, Hofheinz, and other wealthy Texans begin to put together a group to bring a team to Houston.

When Burnett’s plan runs out of steam, a group headed by Hooper and William A. Smith, Houston banker, contractor, and oilman, contact former Houstonian transplant Eddie Dyer – former major league pitcher and current manager of the St. Louis Cardinals – to represent them in negotiations to purchase majority stock in the St. Louis Browns franchise and move it to Houston. The attempt proves fruitless, but when the Browns come up for sale a few years later the group again inquires about the team. Again they fail and the Browns move to Baltimore for the 1954 season. However, the seeds are forever planted in the concept of Houston having a major league team.

Dick Hooper passed away in 1960 and was buried in the family plot in Conroe.

In the late Seventies, his sister Lady Hooper Schaefer donated land worth about $2 mllllon to Baylor University in memory of her brother, Dick Hooper, a Houston oil man, and the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center was built at Baylor.

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Editorial Conclusion, The Pecan Park Eagle. Today, some fifty-five years past the death of Dick Hooper, his name continues to fly well below the radar of large scale public awareness, but the effects of his energies remain intertwined with our everyday lives. Any fan of the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Texas Longhorns, Baylor Bears, or Brenham Cubs, just to name his primary connections by direct contact or implied impact, knows him well. As do the lives and contributions of countless others out there who were inspired by this man to overcome their own ideas about personal disadvantage for the sake of reaching their own goals of accomplishment – against all odds – the name of Dick Hooper shall live on through the impact it already has made upon the lives of us all.

It is our job to be good gardeners and giving innovators on the landscape of life that awaited us all when we got here – and to not allow any perception we hold about our personal disadvantage, or the cruel and violent actions of others, to deter us from the beautiful ongoing pursuit of possibility that is the life fully lived.

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Tags: Dick Hooper, One-Armed UT Player
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A Club that Could WIn the 2015 AL West

July 23, 2015

“IF OUR CLUB PLAYS THE ’27 YANKEES, I’D HAVE TO SWITCH SIDES FOR THAT GAME, BUT MARK McGWIRE OUGHT TO BE ABLE FILL IN FINE FOR ME.” – BABE RUTH.

Speaking of building a little muscle and power into a lineup, do you think the Astros might have a chance at the 2015 AL West with this lineup of the greatest hitters of all time by career home runs?

The lowest total guy in the mix is Hornsby at second base, but what the heck? He also sports the second highest batting average in MLB history and is .577 slugging average is not too shabby either.

I could not resist moving Ernie Banks back to shortstop and leaving Alex Rodriguez on third. There’s not another power outcome that works better, in my opinion.

Our Pecan Park Eagle Greatest HR Power Lineup of All Time

POSITION	PLAYER	HR/BA/SA
CATCHER	MIKE PIAZZA	427/.308/.545
FIRST BASE	ALBERT PUJOLS	549/.315/.587
SECOND BASE	ROGERS HORNSBY	301/.358/.577
THIRD BASE	ALEX RODRIGUEZ	673/.299/.577
SHORTSTOP	ERNIE BANKS	512/.274/.500
LEFT FIELD	BARRY BONDS	762/.298/.607
CENTER FIELD	WILLIE MAYS	660/.302/.557
RIGHT FIELD	HANK AARON	755/.305/.555
DH	BABE RUTH	714/.342/.690

Keep in mind too that the totals above are only completely good going into all games of Wednesday, July 22, 2015, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are both still active and quite capable of changing their personal numbers before the clock strikes midnight. In case you are interested, and going into tonight’s games, Alex Rodriguez is now 4th on the career HR list and Albert Pujols just passed Mike Schmidt for the 15th spot.

As for a batting order on our Eagles Power Dream Team,, here’s how the Eagle chooses to line ’em up:

1) Willie Mays, CF

2) Rogers Hornsby, 2B

3) Babe Ruth, DH

4) Barry Bonds, LF

5) Hank Aaron, RF

6) Albert Pujols, 1B

7) Alex Rodriguez, 3B

8) Ernie Banks, SS

9) Mike Piazza, C

Here’s the greater challenge: Try to come up with a lousy batting order for these guys. – These guys could win a game against the 1927 or 1939 New York Yankee clubs, even if they had the Enron Field version of Jose Lima starting for them and the Minute Maid Park version of Chad Qualls pitching in relief against those two great teams.

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Tags: Greatest HR Power Lineup
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