The Pecan Park Eagle

It’s a beautiful book. Rigorously researched and fact-checked for three-years, 2011-2014. Edited and organized by our SABR chapter team  for broad and specific treatment of Houston baseball history in an exhaustive reach for the inclusion of good and accurate information about the flow of adult amateur, organized baseball for children,  semi-pro, women’s, and black baseball in the greater Houston community in parallel to the professional game that was taking hold of the future. It started with the city’s creation in 1836 by developers from New York, one of the principal states that was tinkering with the new “base ball” game when our gulf coast Texas giant first opened his eyes to find that his “creators” had brought a bat and ball mentality with them to the Southeast Texas plains and marsh lands.

A number of people in the SABR family, including Editor Mike Vance, Chapter Chair Bob Dorrill, SABR members Mickey Herskowitz, Marsha Franty, Tony Cavender, Joe Thompson, Patrick Lopez, Harold Jones, Herb Whalley, John Watkins, Tom Murrah, Tom Trimble, yours truly, Bill McCurdy,  plus non-SABR members Darrell Pittman, Susan Pittman, Steve Bertone, Lance Carter, Story Sloane, and Sumner Hunnewell, – all these people, plus all the others who gave us help from within the systems of information we sought from archivists, employees of libraries, universities, and baseball organizations, – all these people aided in our determined deep-dredge search for the truth

The writers of the manuscript included Mickey Herskowitz, Mike Vance, Bob Dorrill, Joe Thompson, Marsha Franty, Steve Bertone, and yours truly, Bill McCurdy.

Patrick Lopez is responsible for the beautiful watercolor graphics that depict baseball in 19th century Houston.

Mike Vance was the editor and procurer of most photos used in the book – and he was most responsible for the beautiful final layout, with the assistance of the fine production crew at Bright Sky Press.

The former Buff Jim Basso family contributed a previously unpublished photo of Ernest Hemingway with their father for use in our book.

National writer and pure-blood Houstonian Mickey Herskowitz wrote the important factually-bound “Afterword” section that bridged the gulf on how Houston transitioned from minor league town to major league city.

In summary, “Houston Baseball, The Early Years: 1861-1961” is now a template for all other communities who choose to write their own stories about how baseball came and thrived in their own communities.

And, as I’ve said and written often in the past two months, our book is now one for the ages. It belongs to all of us who brought it to life as the fine work of social research it is in fact. It is our shared legacy that we have put in motion a piece of important Houston history that would not have existed, had we each not done, all we could. There are no small contributions on a performance stage this important to history. If you only feel you showed up  to listen, out of caring, your presence alone empowered someone else on the  team to do something different that proved positively critical to the final product.

Thank you. Our shared legacy is forever. And who knows what it may inspire us to do next as either individuals or a group?

Have a nice Memorial Day Weekend, Everybody!

“Buffalo Watching”
~ an original work of art
by Patrick Lopez

October 4, 1998″ “Turn out the lights. – The party’s over.”

The 1998 National League Division Series between the Central Division Champion Houston Astros (102-60) and the West Division Champion San Diego Padres (98-64) was supposed to be the year our southeast Texas guys finally made it to the World Series.Second year manager Larry Dierker had just led the Astros to their second straight trip to the playoffs with their best season record in history. GM Gary Hunsicker had pulled off a great trading deadline deal with Seattle that brought towering right-hander Randy Johnson to town in time to post a 10-1 record that pushed the boys over the top.

The Astros were heavily favored over manager Bruce Bochy and his San Diego Padres in their best three of five game series for the right to play in the NLCS, but again, one more time, it wasn’t meant to be.

Padre starters Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock provided the start and finish “book end” wins over the Astros in Games 1 and 4. Randy Johnson (0-2) took the loss in each. And San Diego catcher Jimmy Leyritz provided the offensive buzz with three home runs that proved critical to San Diego victory.

When all was said and done, the normally high-scoring Astros had scored only 8 runs in their 3-1 NLDS loss to south-most SoCal that is the always cool old San Diego.

To add to the bummer, the Astros were unable to retain Randy Johnson for the 1999 season as he was soon=as=he-got-here-gone to Arizona in 1999 and the chase for championships dreams elsewhere.as another club’s big dreams meal ticket.

Losing in 1998  was different from those near-miss losses that many of us were around to endure in 1980 and 1986. When 1998 was over and done, I felt as Tom Kleinworth expressed it in his comment on an earlier playoff loss column. ” I was depressed after the 1980 and 1986 playoff, ” Kleinworth noted. “After 1998, I was just angry.”

You know what, Tom? I don’t think Mr. Dierker was too happy about it either.”

Here are the four line score summaries. I don’t even want to get into the hyperbole of how they lost:

Game 1, September 29

Astrodome in Houston, Texas

Larry Dierker Chapter
Houston

Last night at the June 19, 2014 monthly meeting of SABR’s Larry Dierker Chapter at the downtown Westin on Texas at Crawford, the group’s Houston Baseball, The Early Years, went on sale with all but one of the authors present for signings.

Chris Chestnut delivered an interesting report on one of those single  game major leaguers (and whose name I have quickly forgotten) who played about ten years ago but racking up only a strike our before hitting into a triple play and then a double lay in his only three times at bat. My apologies to Chris and his subject for adding the obscurity of being nameless to this brief history of frustration and disappointment.  – At least he had his day in the MLB sun that the rest of us could only fream bout.

Young Ted Williams had no idea where his head would finally end up..

 Tony Cavender then gave us a pretty good summary of the 800 plus page new biography on Ted Williams called “The Hid”. This treatment even includes the details of how Williams’ head was severed when he died for storage in an Arizona crogenics lab in the hope of the distant day it wll be brought back to life as the second coming of Ted Williams. Some of us also learned from Tony last night that Ted’s unscrupulou son also shortly after his father and that he also willed that his own head be severed for storage at the Tucson facility. And so it was.

The second Williams noggin freezing raised this question for me: If  the Arizona lab took on the skull and contents  of both Ted Williams and his son after their deaths, did the facility offer  the Williams family the “doubleheader rate” for these services?

No one was sure.

A representative from the Astros RBI Summer Baseball and Softball Leagues for boys and girls made an appeal for volunteers to help the organization play their games this summer as scoreboard and scorekeepers. All games are played ay the Jimmy Wynn complex on Victory Drive near Acres Homes on Monday  Friday, 6:00 PM through 10:00 PM.

If you are interested in helping, please call the Houston Astros Urban Youth Academy (UYA) as soon as possible, @ 281-260-9166,

Herb Whalley wound up the evening with the story of 2013 adventure visit too all major league ballpark. Herb says he enjoyed the views in San Francisco and Pittsburgh better than all others. The interior of closed Tampa Bay stadium was his least favorite view. Funny thing is, and maybe not so surprising, those three parks are my two most favorite and single least favorite too – and I’ve only seen them on TV.

Thanks for another nice gathering of the SABR faithful.

Bob Dorrill brought us up to date on  plans for the SABR 44 National Convention (July 30-Aug. 03). We need volunteers – and we need items for the silent auction. If you can help in any way, please get in touch with Bob Dorrill, ASAP. His contact info is listed below – which is also the best way to order our new SABRA-Legacy Houston Baseball History book.

Have a nice Tuesday afternoon, all of you ancient Moody Blues-zers!

It’s been brought to my attention by another Pecan Park Eagle reader that they are having trouble posting a public comment on our columns, but getting all kinds of bizarre messages and reactions from WordPress that only serve to block leaving their written thoughts on-line in the space that follows each comment.

I have been unsuccessful in getting help from WordPress, so far, with this issue.

Now I’m asking all of you to use this technical problem post as a column in which as many of you as possible try to leave  public comments below, just to see if the process works for you. You may write whatever you wish, of course, but a simple four-letter typing of “test” will do. – And please don’t hold back because a number of others seem to be getting through. If there’s a problem, I want to build a broad data bank that we can dump onto WordPress in a formal request for help.

Again, leave the “test” comment below in the “Leave a Reply” box, treating this post as though it  were a normal column.

If you cannot get  through to leave a comment, please e-mail me with the details of your problem accessing the comment section.

houston.buff37@gmail.com

Thank you very much.

~ Bill McCurdy

ASTROS CATCHER LUIS PUJOLS PREPARES FOR A PLAY AT THE PLATE ON PETE ROSE OF THE PHILLIES DURING THE 1980 NLCS.

Back in 1980 the Houston Astros played the Philadelphia Phillies in a Best 3 of 5 Games National League Championship Series. The teams came back to the Astrodome in Houston for Games 4 and 5, with the Astros leading the Series 2 games to 1 and needing only one more victory to take the NL pennant and make their first trip to the World Series. It was no lead pipe cinch. The Phillies had been to two modern World Series in 1915 and 1950, but they had yet to win. And on October 11, 1980, the Phils still had some fight left in them.

Game 4, Saturday Afternoon, October 11, 1980, @ the Houston Astrodome: If you were at the game, you probably remember the top of the 4th inning controversy that ultimately went against the Astros. It didn’t cost the Astros the game, but it seemed to set in motion a chain of events that led to one of those famous historic defeats in City of Houston athletic experience.

This “bad news bears” play is best recalled through the eyes of the UPI writer who described it in real time for the newspapers of the following day:

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Triple Play dropped, Phillies catch up

HOUSTON (UPI) Vern Ruhle insists he caught the ball. Dallas Green says he didn’t. Doug Harvey isn’t sure.

A bizarre double play, which triggered a twenty-minute controversy, occurred in the fourth inning of Saturday’s National League Championship Series game and nearly cost the Philadelphia Phillies a 5-3 triumph over the Houston Astros.

The play came about when Bake McBride and Manny Trillo were on first and second after having singled to open the inning. Gary Maddox, the next batter, then hit a soft, broken-bat line drive which Rule gloved near  his left foot. The only question was: Did he catch it or trap it? Even the videotape replays can’t tell for sure.

Harvey put his palms down, indicating the ball was not caught. But Ruhle, knowing he had caught the ball, threw to first to double off Trillo. When first base umpire Ed Vargo’s hand went up into the air to signal an out, Phillies manager Green and a number of players raced to the field to protest.

While they were arguing, Astros first baseman Art Howe ran down to second base and tagged the bag for what he felt should have been an inning-ending double playsince McBride was standing down on third. Second base umpire Jerry Crawford signaled an out and then all bedlam broke loose.

For twenty minutes, the Phillies argued with the umpires and finally, after the umpires converged by themselves and then with National League President Chub Feeney. McBride was waived back to second and the double lay was allowed.

Harvey said the final decision was reached because his view of Ruhle’s catch had been blocked by the batter and that therefore he was relying on the judgment of Vargo and third base umpire Jerry Engel, both of whom Harvey thought had a better view of the play.

“When he (Maddox) made contact, he leaned over and blocked out my view,” Harvey said. “My immediate reaction was that (the) ball was half speed and that it might come up short. Well, I gave a no-catch sign at first.hen I looked up and saw the charge of people coming at m. I immediately called time and conferred with my umpires.

“Ed Vargo who was at first said it was a catch as did Jerry Engel at third.  We ruled that the runner at first was out, but that the runner at third could go back (to second) and not be out. I felt that my no-catch call put the runner at second in jeopardy. He went to third base on my call. I felt the runner at first broke mmediately and could not have got back no matter what my call was.

“The jeopardy rule has been in the rule books for a long time. It gives the umpires the power to It gives the umpires the right to correct a mistake if he feels his (unclear or erroneous) call has put the runner in (a) bad position. That’s exactly what happened.”

GREEN, HOWEVER, was adamant that Ruhle never caught the ball.

“We must have been watching different games,” Green said. “What I saw and what they  saw were not the same game. It was efinitely a trap. It was neither a double play or a triple play.. It should have been men on second and third and one out.”

Green originally protested the game following the call, but withdrew the protest when the Phillies won. Astros manager Bill Virdon also protested the game on the grounds that (the controversial play) should have been (ruled) a triple pay, but his protest was disallowed by Feeney because the play had no effect  on the outcome of the game.

Ruhle said he definitely made the catch.

“As far as I’m concerned, I caught the ball. That’s why I went to first,” Ruhle said. “(Astros catcher) Luis (Pujols) pointed to first. Evidently, there was time for me to go to second too.  He (Pujols) was the first one I could see and I figured he could see the play better than I could.

“It was real close as far as me catching it. I reached out as far as I could. It hit the edge of the webbing and came up in my glove. Had I not thought I caught the ball, I would have looked to third base (for a force out).

“Why didn’t they give us the triple play? The play was continuous. You can’t call time out in the middle of a play.”

~ United Press International, Suburban Chicago Daily Herald, October 12, 1980, Page 33.

__________________________________________________

After all the 4th inning hoopla, the Phillies failed to score. Through seven, the Astros held a 2-0 lead, but the Phillies bunched enough hits in the top of the eighth to take a 3-2 advantage, with the Astros tying the game and sending things into extra innings with one run of their own in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-3 tie.

In the top of the tenth, Greg Luzinski of the Phillies double down the left field line to score Pete Rose, who also had to knock over Astros catcher Bruce Bochy to secure the goahead run, Manny Trillo then singled to plate Luzinski with the second Phils run in the tenth. The Phils’ 5-3 lead held up as the final score as the Astros went down in order in the bottom half. The Series was now tied at games a piece,

Game Five, Sunday EVENING, October 12, 1980:

For many Astros fans, deciding Game Five of the 1980 NLCS with the Phillies was just as frustrating as our deciding home Game Six loss to the Mets six years later in the 1986 NLCS.

Moving into the top of the eighth, the Astros had just taken a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh on a three-run scoring frame and Nolan Ryan was taking the mound for the club that was now only six outs away from their first National League pennant.

Everyone in the Dome was energized. The gates of The Promised Land were only two shut-em-down innings away. Nolan Ryan … wait a minute … allow me to re-phrase this sentence the way it actually felt at the start of the eighth …. Nolan “Freakin’ Awesome” Ryan was about to defend us Houstonians from any collapse of heart and good intentions on the homestretch furlongs part of the road  to baseball happiness. It just needed to be acted out accordingly.

Didn’t happen!

Before we could sneeze or get our plans settled about where we planned to celebrate, the Phillie marched to the plate in the top of the eighth and filled the bases with three singles off the foreboding arm of the legendary Ryan Express. These nettlesome hits included an infield hit by Bob Boone and a bunt single by former Astro Greg Gross. And they did it all with nobody yet retired as an out.Two Phillies runs crossed the plate when Pete Rose walked and Keith Moreland grounded out. The Astros lead had been trimmed to 5-4 with one out and Phillies runners now on second and third.

A single by Del Unser then tied the game at 5-5 and Many Trillo’s two-RBI triple gave the Phillies a 7-5 lead as the top of the eighth version of the Hindenburg landing in Houston finally wrapped. The Astros had taken a deep penetrating turkey fork to the breast in that late stanza, but they weren’t quite dead. Not yet, anyway.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Astros managed to tie the game at 7-7 on RBI singles by Rafael Landestoy and Jose Cruz. Neither team scored in the ninth and the game went into extra innings at 7-7.

In the top of the tenth, Del Unser and Gary Maddox produced a run that would prove prove to be the finally fatal fork-stab by the Phillies offense off Astros reliever Frank LaCorte. as Dick Ruthven came on in the bottom of the tenth and retired Houston in 1,2,3 order. The Phillies had won their third National League pennant in history.

It would be another 25 years before the near-miss Astros would win their first NL pennant in 2005 and go “0 for 4” against the White Sox in the World Series.

Take Heart.

Have a nice weekend, everybody. And pleasant memories and dreams to you too.

Try to remember: Our day will come. We’ve got to have heart. And we’ve got to believe. Anything less drops us all into the dark abyss that allows for no survivors.

We are Houston. In every way we can be  Houston. And we have not built this great city by giving up, but by learning from our mistakes and past disappointments what works and what doesn’t. And by never separating soul from all that’s important to the success of anything that survives and flourishes in Houston.

WATCH OUT, CUB-HATERS!
The Cubs are NOT The Biggest All Time Losers.

You probably read or heard the other day that the Chicago Cubs have now lost 10,000 games over the course of their entire MLB history. That’s a lot of losses, but, before an Cub-Haters out there get too horsey about it, also take into account that two other still existent franchises out there have preceded the Cubs past the 10,000 Loss level without anyone saying or writing a thing about it.

One of the most interesting pages at Baseball Reference.Com keeps track of the total Win/Loss record for all teams at this link:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/

The old “win some, lose some” philosophy doesn’t apply to the records on this page. If a club plays far beyond a century, as many of these clubs have, you move into “win a lot, lose a lot” territory, sometimes to the surprising drumbeat of unexpected findings.at the bottom line. For example:

(1) The Phillies (10,483)  and Braves (10,178) have both lost more MLB games than the Cubs (10,001) over the course of all their total lifetimes. How come we didn’t hear as much about those clubs hitting 10,000 losses as we did the Cubs? Do other  fans really hate the Cubs that much? I don’t, but I’m still hooked on the fact that Billy Williams and Ron Santo both came through Houston as Buffs and the fact that I always loved Ernie Banks. Plus, Wrigley Field is my kind of ballpark and Chicago used to be my kind of town for long weekend visits. Great, great people there – and great, great food – and a devotion on the north side to the Cubs that will never die. True Chicagoans are not like so many of the Cub-jersey wearing trolls that come to Minute Maid Park when the team is in Houston. They are first class friendly and baseball knowledgeable.

(2)  Only three clubs have passed the 10,000 franchise career Wins mark – and none of them are the Yankees:

The leaders in Wins are the (a) Giants at 10,718; (b) Cardinals at 10,400;(c)  Pirates at 10,072; and (d) Yankees at 9,967.

(3) Our relatively short-lived Astros have an overall record of 4,064 Wins, 4,272 Losses, and a Winning Percentage of .488.

I’ll leave the other observations, calculations,, imaginings and personal musings to the rest of you. Have fun with a very interesting page,

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“Houston Baseball, The Early Years: 1861-1961″ is available now for check and money orders, but please end no cash. Credit sals will be established later.

For United States orders, send $49.95, plus $5.95 shipping on one book, $6.95 on two books. Mail your check, endorsed to “Houston Baseball”,  with a clearly printed book-receiving address to:

Houston Baseball

c/o Bob Dorrill

2318 Crimson Valley Ct.

Houston, TX 77345-2101

For orders from outside the USA, please check on the cost of shipping for a 4 lb. book from Houston to your address and add that amount to the $49.95 book price before sending your order with a clearly printed book-receiving address to Mr. Dorrill at the same address listed for domestic orders.