Like many of you, I grew up wired by my parents and childhood culture to give credit where credit is due. That’s why this column is tagged as “Thank You, Bob Kerler!” and not “Pecan Park Eagles Acquires a few Former Houston Buff Player Contracts and some Other Collectible Goodies!” Had it not been for Mr. Kerler, by the way, who also happens to be a man I’ve never met, there wouldn’t be any treasured acquisitions to talk about, anyway.

Credit and appreciation also goes out to reader and frequent constructive critical commentator Cliff Blau, an associate of Mr. Kerler, for initially writing me that the latter might have some Buff stuff for me – and apparently he even wrote to me before he mentioned the ‘”gift” or “for sale matter” to Mr. Kerler. When I thanked Cliff for the information by e-mail, I then heard from Bob Kerler by the same route..  He said he did have something he wanted to send me – and that was five player contracts from the 1960-61 seasons, the last two years of the club’s existence, He would not take any payment. He simply wanted me to keep the one I liked best and he suggested that I come up with MY own plan for passing the other four on to other most interested SABR members. These items arrived at my PO Box in late April and I picked them up on April 27th.

Each contract came with a baseball card for each signed player, and an 8X10 aerial view glossy of Buff Stadium as it appeared in its last two seasons of baseball service in 1960-61. As shown above here, there is also one 8×10 glossy of Houston Buffs General Manager Spec Richardson presenting an award watch to the 1960 Buffs great left fielder Billy Williams. No explanation accompanies the Williams photo. It is most probably some ind of MVP gift, and almost certainly Busch/ne Buff Stadium where the presentation is taking place. I had never seen this terrific photo previously. According to printed information on the back, it was developed on 9/10/1960 by the Lloyd Koenig Studios at 1720 Leeland, an address fairly close to the ballpark.

These original five contracts also came with corresponding baseball cards and 1960 ballpark 8×10 aerial photos. A couple of days ago, several additional original and signed Houston Buffs contracts from t960-61 arrived, courtesy of Bob Kerler, along with a most unnecessary apology, dated 5/01/2014: “Dear Bill, All these guys were in the Bigs at one time or another. Sorry – I don’t have the cards to match. Distribute tem amongst your friends as you see fit. Fond Regards, Bob (Kerler)”

WOW! What a guy this fellow Bob Kerler is! I tried to offer his a copy of our new book, “Houston Baseball, et al” from my private author stock, bt he turned me down, saying he couldn’t accept such a valuable gift in exchange for the things he was just trying to send home. Then he turned around and sent us a check for a purchased copy. Maybe the interlacing red letters “UH” logo on Bob Kerler’s home address mailing sticker had something to do with his generosity, from one older to Cougar alum to another far more ancient one. We dedicated Cougars are like that sometimes when it comes to the giving of ourselves  to good causes.

Kerler graduated from UH in 1975, but moved to New Jersey then and hasn’t been back to Houston since that time. He does have a tie to famous Cougar. He says he took English Lit at UH in a 1973 class with Larry Dierker.

At any rate, here’s an inventory table of that has come in as gifts from Bob Kerler. I will bring this material to our May 19th SABR meeting for everyone else’s inspection. Maybe we should just keep them as the start of a long-term preservationist program. They bear more historical impact value as a group and splitting them among ourselves destroys the group collection, and, upon further review of my first thought about locating and returning the Harry Craft to contract to his family, sometimes, families don’t really care, or else, they get hooked on the idea that their  loved one’s artifacts have some unrealistic monetary value and they then act to keep these items from real preservation as historic items. That’s a consideration we should include in our decision on what we do with these things.

Meanwhile, here’s a summary inventory of what we have received in two gifts to our SABR chapter from the generous Mr. Bob Kerler, a SABR brother from New Jersey:

(1) 15 Original Signed Houston Buff Player Contracts for the Following Players and One Manager from 190-1961: Richard Cole, Harry Craft, Ed Donnelly, Jim Fridley, Dave Jolly, Al Lary, Morry Martin, Jim McAnany, Ray Noble, Al Schroll, Art Schult, Roy Smalley, Jr., Marcellino Solis, Moe Thacker, and Marion Zipfel.

(2) 5 Baseball Cards, one each, for Harry Craft, Moe Thacker, Al Schroll, Art Schult, and Marcellino Solis.

(3) 4 8×10 glossy  aerial photos of Busch Stadium in Houston from the 1960-61 era.

(4) 1 8X10 glossy photo of Houston Buffs General Manager Spec Richardson, giving an award watch to Buffs left fielder Billy Williams at Busch Stadium (1960).

By the way, some of you know that I had been looking into the specific reason(s) for Harry Craft’s “one dollar per month” salary and strange position as the fourth and final manager of the Houston Buffs in their last season of 1961. As it turns out, those two  factors were both tied to the administrative game plan of the the Buff’s major league contractual parent, the Chicago Cubs, in those days. Here’s how Tal Smith explained it in an e-mail reply to my inquiry:

“Hi Bill,

 “As you know, the Buffs had a working agreement with the Cubs in 1961.  The Cubs were still employing their “college of coaches” concept which meant there were rotating managers at the major league level.  This also affected staff assignments for the Buffs and resulted in the Buffs having four different managers during the 1961 season.  Two of those – Lou Klein and Harry Craft – also served terms managing the Cubs. 

 “After his major league managerial stint, the Cubs assigned Craft to take over as mgr. of the Buffs in mid July.  Craft was being paid by the Cubs, but rules at that time required the minor league manager to technically be under contract to the minor league club (presumably so that he would be under the direct jurisdiction of the minor league president and the National Association office).  Therefore, the $1 contract.” – Tal Smith.

Grady Hatton, Fred Martin, and Lou Klein preceded Harry Craft as managers of the Houston Buffs in 1961. Craft, of course would go to also serve as the first manager of the new 1962 MLB Houston Colt .45s.

The above photo is the one we received as four copies of an 8×10 glossy of Busch Stadium in 1960-61. After 1961, the future of the old Buff Stadium looked pretty bleak as Judge Hofheinz announced plans to build Colt Stadium as a temporary venue on the property that would one day serve as the base for the new domed stadium off OST and Fannin. Its fate was sealed in September 1961 when Hurricane Carla struck a few deadly blows to the ballpark’s structure.. The damage and other commercial plans for the ballpark’s location sealed the deal on its not-too-distant demolition a few months later.

To get a much better feel for the history of the Buffs and Buff Stadium, please make sure you order a copy of our brand new SABR Chapter book, “Houston Baseball: The Early Years, 1861-1961.”

And you SABR members – please bring your thinking caps with you to our May 19th SABR meeting. Are we, as a chapter, ready to step into an active  preservationist role by the way we handle a gift to me that was really intended as a gift to Houston?

What do you think?