The Pecan Park Eagle

A Page from Satchel Paige History

September 17, 2013

Satchel Paige, The Hero of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Contrary to the popular belief of some people, there was a lot written about Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige in newspapers back in the early days of his Negro League career. It simply was erratic and inconsistent – and impossible to mount over time by any accurate statistical analysis of credible data.

But it was there in varied forms.

Through these excerpts from a rather lengthy report on many other factors, here’s how the Bismarck Tribune reported the success of Mr. Paige in their September 5, 1933 edition of the paper after Leroy led the local club he played for through a a critical Labor Day series weekend. It begins with four bold type layered headlines:

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TWO VERDICTS AND WINS, TIE IN OTHER

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Reached Dramatic Peak Sunday When Satchel Paige Out-pitched Willie Foster

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CRUSHED VISITORS MONDAY

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Two Teams Will End Their Seasons Next Sunday With Contest At Jamestown

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Winning two games and earning a tie in the other contest of a three-game series with Jamestown over the Labor Day weekend, Bismarck’s potent baseball club decisively advanced its claim for the unofficial state championship.

About 7,000 fans saw the series which reached its dramatic peak in the tenth inning of Sunday’s game when Satchel Paige singled in a run from second base to win his own game with Willie Foster and came to a roaring end Monday when Bismarck routed both of Jamestown’s mound aces, Barney “Lefty” Brown and Willie Foster, to win an 11-5 verdict in a walkaway.

Bismarck will play its last home game Wednesday evening when it battles the strong Dickinson club at the city park beginning at 6 o’clock.

Finale at Jamestown

……. Besides outpitching Foster in a brilliant mound duel Sunday between the two greatest hurlers in colored baseball, Satchel Paige, Bismarck’s elongated right-hander, knocked in all three of Bismarck’s runs to nip Jamestown 3-2, Satchel’s last single coming dramatically in the 10th inning to score Oberholzer from second and end hostilities for the day.

Paige Whiffed Fifteen

Besides restricting the visitors to six hits in ten innings, Paige whiffed 15 of the visitors. Foster, the colored race’s great southpaw, was nicked for seven safe hits and in flurries of wildness, intentional and unintentional, gave 10 free tickets to first base. ………

Figures Tell Story

Bismarck probably be without the services of Satchel Paige this week, though it is possible he will return here for the winter and next season. Paige Tuesday was tentatively planning to accept an offer to pitch for the Easterners next Sunday against the Western All-Stars in a feature game between colored teams as a World’s Fair feature at Chicago. Willie Foster will pitch for the Western club.

More than a thousand fans turned out for the Saturday night game here, 4,000 for Sunday’s game and 1800 for the Monday contest. A special train from Jamestown Sunday brought nearly 500 here to swell the crowd into probably the largest turnout in North Dakota history.

– Bismarck Tribune, September 5, 1933, Page 6.

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If we only had that working time machine today, Bismarck could have had the largest turnout in Baseball History back on the Labor Day weekend of 1933.

Tags: Satchel Paige
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First Game at Rice Stadium: September 30, 1950

September 16, 2013

63 Year Old Rice Stadium in 2013. – GO OWLS!

The following (AP) story appeared in the Sunday, October 1, 1950 edition of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Thank you Newspaper Archive (dot) Com for making this kind of wonderful information available to the digital world:

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Rice Triumphs, 27-7, on Glass’ Passing

HOUSTON, Sept. 30 (AP) – Quarterback Vernon Glass, who didn’t see much action last year, threw four touchdown passes tonight as Rice’s Owls walloped Santa Clara, 27-7, in an intersectional game that dedicated Houston’s new stadium.

A near capacity crowd of 68,000 saw the 21-year old senior from Corpus Christi, whose talents had been hidden for two years by the quarterbacking of Tobin Rote, come into his own.

Decimated by the loss of Rote and 20 other letterman from the team that won the Southwest Conference championship last year and drubbed North Carolina, 27 to 13, in the 1950 Cotton Bowl game. Rice looked like it again had the makings of a major football power.

Glass completed 12 out of 21 passes as Rice totaled 217 yards in its first aerial offensive of the new season.

A blocked kick and two fumbles set up three of the Owls’ touchdowns, but Glass, who previously had enjoyed only fleeting moments of glory, gave Santa Clara nothing but trouble all night.

Outweighed Santa Clara, 1950 Orange Bowl champions, warded off two Rice touchdown bids with sporadic exhibitions of defensive brilliance.

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Historical Notes: Rice left end Bill Howton scored the first points in the new Rice Stadium in the first quarter when he caught a pass from Glass on the Santa Clara 35 and raced it home to the end zone for the first touchdown in the brand new history of the venue. – In the third quarter, Abraham Dung of Santa Clara reeled in a pass on the Rice 22 and scored with it to post the first opposition TD and score in the new book on Rice Stadium.

Happy 63rd Birthday, Rice Stadium!

Tags: Rice Stadium History
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1968: About That Houston 100-Points Game

September 15, 2013

The 100-6 UH football victory over Tulsa in the Astrodome on 11/13/1968 is one for the ages.

The 100-6 UH football victory over Tulsa in the Astrodome on 11/23/1968 was one for the ages.

It was a game that either should have been rescheduled or declared a TKO at halftime. Instead, it played out as one of the most lopsided college football games in history and certainly the scoring record game for any football team, pro, college, or high school that ever put on the pads to duke ’em out in the Astrodome.

It was Saturday evening, November 23, 1968, and the site was the Astrodome. The 11th ranked UH Cougars were scheduled to play a ho-hum game against the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa University, but nobody really gave the Oklahomans much of a chance that season against the highly regarded cats from Houston. Doubly aced by a fast and strong running back named Paul Gipson and a hip-gyrating speedy wide receiver known as Elmo Wright, the Cougars were prepared to attack by ground or air in the Yeoman veer offense as well or better than most clubs that year. And they also had two better than adequate QB’s in 1968 in starter Ken Bailey and back up Rusty Clark.

Although they never used it as an excuse, to my knowledge, Tulsa had a good excuse for what was about to unfold that night in Houston. The Tulsa team had been hit with a flu epidemic during the week leading up to the UH game. Some players were too ill to make the trip to Houston and others who did travel may have been either still too ill to play or just coming down with the bug on game day. As a witness to this incredible shocker, I had never seen a team play with less energy, speed, strength, or drive. Tulsa that night was a team that was only technically present.

Contrary to our UH haters mythology, the Cougars caching staff did not really try to embarrass or run up the score. By the early fourth quarter, UH Head Coach Bill Yeoman had removed his first string offensive starters, but the guys who took their places weren’t trained to lay down when they ran through a club that made almost no effort to tackle. Late in the game, it looked as though the final score was going to be 86-6, a bad enough differential tally with only three to four minutes left on the clock. I forget the exact time that remained, but not what happened next.

Larry Gatlin C&W Singer UF Football 1968

Larry Gatlin
C&W Singer
UH Football 1968

Larry Gatlin, normally a defensive back, and much later a Country and Western SInger and composer, was inserted into the game as a wide receiver with the ball on the Tulsa 25 yard line. They were supposed to just grind it out, but the rare chance for Gatlin was apparently too fat to miss. He and back up QB Rusty Clark teamed up for an easy 25 yard TD pass, which I think may have been the only TD of Gatlin’s college career. I’m not sure about that, but he sure acted as though it were.

On the sidelines afterward, you see Coach Yeoman talking hard and fast to both Clark and Gatlin and he didn’t appear to be congratulating either of them

93-6. Ouch. Tulsa again gets pushed back for another punt from deep in their own territory with about one minute left in the game.

Unbelievable. A special teams guy named Simpson corrals the ball on the fly about the Cougars 40 yard line. Some people on the UH sidelines are flashing palms to the ground, as if to say “just go down”.

Simpson doesn’t go down. The next thing we see is Simpson weaving himself through a field of “zombie tacklers” and taking the ball all the way to the house, almost with no time left. – It is now UH by 99-6 and blood lust time.

The Cougar fans are chanting in unison to UH kicker Terry Lieweke: “MAKE THAT KICK! – MAKE THAT KICK! – MAKE THAT KICK!” – It isn’t the proudest moment in sportsmanship history, but that is the path that voyeur gratification travels when the energy of the mob gets fully behind the idea of witnessing a triple digit football score.

Lieweke makes it. The historic final score is Houston 100 – Tulsa 6.

Here are the box score stats and facts on scoring in the game:

Field Activity	TULSA	HOUSTON
First Downs	12	37
Yards Rushing	86	555
Yards Passing	78	207
Return Yardage	0	111
Passes-Caught-Int	20-11-4	16-10-0
Punts-Average Yards	9-27	1-40
Fumbles Lost	2	0
Yards Penalized	25	102

Score by Quarters	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Final Total
TULSA	0	0	6	0	6
HOUSTON	14	10	27	49	100

Scoring by Quarter	Scoring Details
First Quarter
HOU – Gipson 35 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 7-0
HOU – Wright 60 pass from Bailey (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 14-0
Second Quarter
HOU – Lieweke FG 36 yards	HOU, 17-0
HOU – Bailey 1 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 24-0
Third Quarter
TUL – Burkett 14 pass from Dobbs (Kick failed)	HOU, 24-6
HOU – Bell 21 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 31-6
HOU – Gipson 17 Run (Kick failed)	HOU, 37-6
HOU – Wright 66 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 44-6
HOU – Gipson 14 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 51-6
Fourth Quarter
HOU – Heiskell 7 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 58-6
HOU – Stewart 19 pass from Clark (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 65-6
HOU – Strong 26 pass from Clark (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 72-6
HOU – Peacock 34 pass interception (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 79-6
HOU – Clark 11 Run (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 86-6
HOU – Gatlin 25 pass from Clark (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 93-6
HOU – Simpson 60 punt return (Lieweke kick)	HOU, 100-6
Venue: Astrodome; 11/23/1968	Attendance: 34,089

Dr. Phil McGraw
TV Psychologist
Tulsa Football 1968

Paul Gipson could have made a run at close to 500 yards rushing, had he played the entire game. As it was, he still racked up 289 yards rushing on 29 carries.

UH went into the Tulsa game as the nation’s offensive yards per game leader with an average of 552.9 yards per contest. The Cougars more than topped that mark by racking up a total of 762 yards against the Golden Hurricane.

What recently reminded me of the game was an appearance by Dr. Phil McGraw on the Dave Letterman Late Show the other night. Dr. Phil was a Tulsa lineman that night in the Dome back in 1968. He even used the 100-6 game to illustrate why he bears such great humility about his personal accomplishments in football.

I think Dr. Phil’s experience that long ago evening in Houston may have been the real reason he settled on psychology as a major and went on from there to help Oprah and finally – to get his own television show. If that is what happened, please don’t blame UH for running up the score on Tulsa. – Blame the Cougars for driving Dr. Phil into our daily lives on television.

Tags: Houston 100 - Tulsa 6 (1968)
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1975: Aggies Wave Goodbye to Texas University

September 14, 2013

Aggies? Waving goodbye to Texas University?

Well, back in 1975, they sort of did. For about eight days. But the goodbye was gone for sure in less than a month. You just don’t dump an arch-rival that easily because, even in those years you beat them, you still have to win the other big games on your schedule. And 1975 stands out as a good example as we all variably roll, gig, hook, or just plain watch our ways today into another of those college football “Game of the Century” Saturdays.

On the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1975, the Texas Aggies (9-0-0) entertained their arch-rival competitors, the Texas Longhorns (9-1-0), at Kyle Field in College Station before a record crowd of 56,679 in an afternoon temperature of 84 degrees with no rain. The 1975 Aggies of Coach Emory Bellard were 9-0 going into the game ranked # 2 in the nation. All they had to do to win a berth in the Cotton Bowl and position themselves for a run at the national championship vote was to beat UT, then beat Arkansas at Little Rock on December 6, then defeat highly regarded Georgia in the Cotton Bowl. Led by fiery linebacker Ed Simonini and Bellard’s wishbone offense, the Aggies perched themselves for a serious run at greatness.

The Friday leftovers day part went extremely well.

Early in the game, UT QB Marty Akins went out with a re-injured knee and had to be replaced by freshman Ted Constanzo.

“We were able to key on Earl Campbell when Akins went out,” Aggie middle linebacker Robert Jackson said. “Our bench went crazy when Akins went out. We felt we could beat them with Akins in there, but we were glad to see him go. He’s a great options quarterback.”

The Aggies went on to win the game over UT by 20-10.

“I don’t want to see any of that stuff in the papers about how (Texas quarterback Marty) Akins would have made the difference,” Simonini said. “We played with some people hurt too.”

Texas Coach Darrell Royal was gracious in defeat. “I would like to see something happen to Ohio State so that if they (A&M) take care of business we could have another national champion here (in the State of Texas).”

Wow! Talk about class delivered with a measured reminder. At this point in history, Royal and UT had garnered three national championships in 1963, 1969, and 1970.

The high-scoring Horns were limited to only 6 points and 113 rushing yards, the lowest total by a Royal team in three years.

“They (A&M) played as solid a game as you can play,” Bellard said. “They played other games as well too, but I guess this would be our greatest victory.”

It would remain the greatest Aggie victory. The Aggies went up to Little Rock the next week for their December 6th game with Arkansas and got drubbed, 31-6, sending the Razorbacks to the Cotton Bowl as tri-champions of the SWC along with UT and A&M – and sending the Aggies to the Liberty Bowl for a 12/22/1975 date with USC.

In his last game as coach at USC, John McKay guided and watched his Trojans blank the Aggies, 20-0 in the Liberty Bowl for a 10-2 closure collar on a successful 1975 Texas A&M football season, but not one that would end in a national championship – or even mark itself as a new period of dominance over UT for the Aggies.

“Close, but no cigar” is the perennial or occasional contender’s anthem. If that phrase were a song title, it would play more often, in more places, than even Elvis could have imagined.

Tags: Texas A&M-UT 1975
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KLEE-TV: A Rainbow in Black and White

September 13, 2013

On Saturday morning, or late Saturday afternoon, January 1, 1949, a few thousand residents of the Greater Houston Area awoke from their celebrations of the previous evening under the impression that the big party was now over again for another year. They were partly right. And partly wrong.

A little change was scheduled for that date. It would start quietly, but it would soon enough alter all our lives forever, from the way we get our news to the way we seek out entertainment, from the way we organize our personal lives to the way we interact with others.

Television was coming to Houston at 5:15 PM, CST, on Saturday, January 1, 1949, and, even though few of us realized it at the time, nothing we could possibly experience would ever again be quite the same. It was a rainbow on perspective that first came to us only literally in black and white, but that would change with advancements in technology that now collide in so many dazzling far-reaching ways with advances in digital microchip technology that we now associate with all our varied, always growing uses of simulated reality over the Internet.

Back in 1888, my grandfather was a 22-year-old one-man band owner, writer, and editor of a little newspaper in South Texas known as The Beeville Bee. Without a telegraph connection to the outside world, he had to rely upon mail reports and new people passing through town for information on all events beyond the township. With the coming of Western Union that year, grandfather wrote with unbridled joy: “The telegraph lines have been fully completed and Beeville is now in total connection with the outside world.”

Grandfather was technically right, but visitors to Beeville in 2013 might be willing even now to argue the point of Beeville’s “total connection with the outside world.” Some old backwaters don’t stir so easy, but grandfather would have been there all the way, working for the cause of the little guy, if he were still around. And he would have relished being wired to the Internet in service to that purpose.

All of us have some bead on the earlier generations in our families who would have loved or hated the explosion of change that began with the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and now the computer sciences, but how many of us were awake to the scope of change that would soon enough follow the little back and white picture box that fairly quickly found its way into every American home? It started so quietly.

Here’s how the Galveston Daily News used three one-sentence paragraphs on Saturday, January 1, 1949 to announce the coming of television that day to Houston:

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Houston to Get First Television Saturday

Houston, Dec. 31, (AP) – Television comes to Houston at 5:15 p.m. Saturday with the formal opening of KLEE-TV.

W. Albert, owner of the station, estimates that there are 2,000 television sets in Houston.

First program to be televised here will be a musical show.

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Wonder what the musical show was. Maybe it was “Dancing with the Stars.”

Tags: the coming of television
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Hurricane Carla Darkened Buffs’ Last Days

September 12, 2013

Gone With The WInd: Buff/Busch Stadium in Houston after one dance with Hurricane Carla, September 11, 1961.

Gone With The WInd: Minor League Baseball at Buff/Busch Stadium in Houston after one dance with Hurricane Carla, September 11, 1961.

At 2:00 PM CST on Monday, September 11, 1961, Hurricane Carla slammed into the Texas coast near Port O’Connor as a Category 5 storm with winds of 173 MPH. By nightfall, it had made its way through Houston, leaving a mass of destruction in its wake, including the outfield fences at “Busch” Stadium.

The demons of nature had done something that no serious baseball game scheduler would have ever put forth as a plan. By necessity, Carla had forced the Houston Buffs and the Indianapolis Indians to play their entire first round playoff series for the 1961 American Association pennant in the Indiana city. Tied at a game each when Carla struck, the Buffs played Games 3, 4, and 5 at the Indians home park with some powerful winds of their own, winning Game 3 by 5-4 on a 9th inning solo HR by Jim McKnight, taking Game 4 by 4-3 on a deciding HR by J.C. Hartman, and finishing Game 5 with a 10 scattered hits shutout by young Dave Giusti. Pidge Browne and Jack Waters both homered in the 6-0 Game 5 as last Buffs Manager Harry Craft put one more feather in his “H” cap on his way to becoming the first major league manager of the new Houston Colt .45s in 1962: Harry Craft was the last Houston Buffs manager to lead the club to a post-season series victory in their long minor league history. The 1961 Houston Buffs had defeated the Indianapolis Indians, 4 games to 1, in Round One, playing all five games away from their home base because of the hurricane.

It was also the end of the line for minor league success in Houston’s last season prior to becoming a major league city. Even though local community spirit abounded for better results against Louisville in the finals in response to the Buffs counter-attack upon adversity by their capture of an all road game playoff series.

“Busch Stadium fences have been restored and the park is in first class condition ready for the Buffs return.” – Baytown Sun, 9/18/61. Proud “old Buff” Stadium had weathered the storm, but the Buffs themselves were about to get blown away by a talented Louisville club. In effect, the series between the Buffs and the Louisville Colonels signaled the end of Houston’s road dominance. Louisville took Games 1, 2, and 3 at home, creating a hole from which the Buffs would not recover.

But they did make it interesting.

On Tuesday, September 19, 1961 the Buffs returned to their restored fence home and took the Louisvillians in 12 on a game-winning single by Pidge Browne in the bottom of the 12th.

On Wednesday, September 20, 1961, the Buffs came out blasting, using a 2-HR game by Pidge Browne to crush the Colonels by 10-5 and narrow their deficit in the Series to 2-3. One more game of hurricane magic and the Buffs would be back into a winner-take-all game for the pennant.

It was not to be.

On Thursday, September 21, 1961, Louisville was unstoppable on offense and Houston forgot what gloves and arms were for on defense. The Colonels bombed the Buffs 11-4 on 13 hits while Houston committed 7 errors in the field – 5 alone by shortstop J.C. Hartman. The Kentuckians had prevailed as the 1961 American Association Champions of 1961.

The wonderful now late Fred Hartman of the Baytown described this last hurrah of the Houston Buffs best:

~ “DEFEATED BUFFS BOW OUT” by FRED HARTMAN, BAYTOWN SUN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1961 ~

Twenty-one years ago at the end of the 1940 baseball season, the Baytown Oilers were fighting for the Houston Post tournament semi-pro championship.

They fought their way into the semi-finals and the promoters of the tournament stupidly forced the Oilers to have to win three games in one day to win the title. They won the first two in brilliant fashion. Then their weary muscles failed them, and they fell apart in the finale.

It was a sad thing to see – just as sad as the complete fall apart of the Houston Buffs Thursday night as the were shellacked, 11-4, by the Louisville Colonels.

It was a historic defeat for it came in the last game of minor league professional baseball ever to be played at Busch (formerly Buff) Stadium. Next spring, the fledgling Houston Colts will play on a new South end field in the National League.

Busch-Buff Stadium has been the scene of some great events and now they are gone.

It was at home plate that Dizzy Dean and his bride were married. It was there that Joe Medwick used to rattle the boards as 1961 first baseman Pidge Browne has been doing. It was there that Carey Selph battled to the death as a great inspirational star. It was there that Bill Hallahan’s southpaw plans won him big league opportunities. It was there that Kenny Boyer won his climb to fame.

And all that is left is memories and the ignoming (sp) of the final game when the Buffs, trying too hard, fell apart. How else, for instance, can you explain the seven errors, five by the hustling shortstop J.C. Hartman.

If you want lingering memories of better things, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are, you can always remember the home run stroked by Jack Waters in the ninth with a Buff aboard and the homelings behind, 11-2.

In Jerry Witte fashion, Waters hit a circuit clout far over the left field wall. It soared high and far, and Jack took only three steps from home plate before he knew he had the big one. He trotted around the bases with the feeble applause of those faithful who were there at the end.

And the last record play was a brilliant one. Jim Campbell slashed a hard hit ball through the box. The Colonels second baseman had been edging that way. He made a great play on the ball, and an even greater throw on the ball to first to beat the Buff catcher by a step.

Thus did Buff Stadium – we never did like the Busch appellation – stumble in(to) the past on a sour note that never could replace the sweeter moments that victory and sensational plays had produced in the 33 years since that opener in the summer of 1928.

Baytown is now a live and highly expectant major league suburb. It couldn’t have happened until that final out wrote finish Thursday night.

~ Fred Hartman, Baytown Sun, Friday, September 22, 1961.

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Thanks to Mike Acosta and Darrell Pittman for supplying the image that invited the search that led to the material that made this article possible as a product of fresh research. Every ounce of fact and truth we discover and save together is mighty in its importance to the aggregate big picture in the long run.

Now we know that Houston won its last minor league game on 9/20/61. We know that Jack Waters hit the last home run in Buffs history. And we know that Jim Campbell‘s 4-3 groundout on a sharply hit ball up the middle was the last play in Buffs minor league history.

Tags: Hurricane Carla Hits Buff Stadium, Last Hurrah of the Houston Buffs
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Buff Biographies: Rip Repulski

September 11, 2013

Former Houston Buffs outfielder Eldon John “Rip” Repulski (6’0″, 195 lb.) (BR/TR) was born October 4, 1928 in Saux Rapids, Minnesota. Straight out of high school at the age of 18, Rip began his 7 season minor league (1947-52, 1961) and 9 year big league (1953-61) careers with Class D West Frankfort, Illinois in 1947, although he did continue his higher education at St. Cloud State University near his home town during the off-season.

Rip Repulski had a career minor league batting average of .290 with 101 HR and a career MLB mark of .269 with 106 HR – not bad for a guy with good speed and an adequate arm as a center fielder.

Rip’s two seasons as a Buff were both limited by the parent Cardinals desire to push him up through the system at a speedy basis. He arrived in Houston late in the 1950 season, coming up from Class A Columbus, Georgia in time to play 37 games and hit .256 with 2 HR for the ’50 AA Buffs. The following year, Repulski played center field for the ’51 Buffs only long enough to hit a measly .217 with no HR before the Cards moved him up to AAA Columbus, Ohio by a need or design that had little to do with his actual performance on the field.

Rip Repulski played 4 MLB seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1953-56), 2 years with the Philadelphia Phillies (1957-58), 2 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1959-60), and 2 years with the Boston Red Sox. That Dodger hitch allowed Rip to pick up a World Series ring with the 1959 Los Angeles club, but I would assess his best season as having been 1954 when he hit .283 on the back of 19 HR and 79 RBI for the Cards.. He also hit 23 HR for the 1955 St. Louis club, but his numbers were down in other areas.

As a kid, I recall that we Buff fans got a pretty breezy volume of writer’s ink on the coming of Rip Repulski and what he could mean to the team’s Texas League chances. He simply wasn’t here long enough to do very much and, while he was here, he didn’t do anything he could write home about.

Such was the often experienced life span of minor league fan hope back in the day.

Rip Repulski passed away in Waite Park, Minnesota on February 10, 1993 at age of 64.

R.I.P., Rip.

Tags: Houston Buff Biographies, Rip Repulski
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Former Astro Bill Heath Is September SABR Hit

September 10, 2013

Bill Heath today says he's spent the last forty plus years building an accounting and financial planning firm. He was back in his first element talking baseball on subjects that generated everything from laughter to empathy to reflection.

Bill Heath today says he’s spent the last forty plus years building an accounting and financial planning firm. He was back in his first element Monday, talking baseball on subjects that generated every reaction from laughter to empathy to reflection.

Former Astro catcher Bill Heath was a solid line drive hitter last night, Monday, September 9th, as the main speaker at the monthly meeting of SABR In Houston inside the always beautiful Inn at the Ballpark, catty-cornered across the street from Minute Maid Park on the SW corner of Texas at Crawford.

Mixing a crisp brand of his own talent for expressing clarity, self-deprecation, humility, wisdom, and the point-of-view that only comes full-blown to those who make it in the big leagues on a marginal very limited playing time basis. Heath gave us a great thumbnail on how important it is to maintain a winning attitude, if one hopes to stick for any time in the big leagues.

74-year old catcher Bill Heath (5’8″, 175 lb.) (BL/TR) (DOB: 03/09/39) had a 4-year MLB career (1965-67, 1969) as a bench guy with the White Sox, Astros, Tigers, and Cubs. He hit .236 for his 227 times at bat, garnering only 7 extra base hits (six doubles and one triple.)

Bill Heath speaks; Bob Dorrill (foreground) and others listen.

Heath says he was proud of his stolen base record of having never been caught stealing as a baserunner. He stole one base successfully and never tried again.

Heath blames the Astros for ruining his MLB chances by destroying his confidence. After one unsuccessful time at bat for the 1965 White Sox, Heath was traded to the Astros that winter and promptly followed up by hitting .301 in 55 games for the 1966 Astros, and getting hits of some of the greats of the game – greats like Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson. “It didn’t matter who I faced that year, ” Heath says, “my belief in my ability to hit was unshakeable.”

That changed in 1967. Heath says he came to camp that year, expecting to play more, based on his previous good year, but instead, he found himself riding the pines and coming up only rarely as a pinch hitter. “I started putting pressure on myself. but that just made it worse. I just lost confidence in my ability to hit and never got it back.” By the time the Astros traded me to Detroit that same ’67 season, my bad confidence just came in the bag with me. By 1968, I was back in the minors, missing out on the Tigers’ World Series title run in 1968.”

The Cubs signed Heath for 1969 and the little catcher got to be a member of the great Cubs team that just ran out of gas in September 1969 to make way for the “Miracle Mets.” Heath blames Durocher for the Cubs swoon. “Leo just wore the starters out. By September, they were gasping for air, but Durocher wouldn’t rest anyone. As a result, I got to miss out on another World Series opportunity.”

“I was about done after 1969,” heath says. “I played another year in the minors with Tacoma in 1970, but that was my swan song in organized baseball. I was offered a coaching job in the minors with the Cubs, but I had no interest in doing any more of those long bus rides in the country. I was ready to go home and build on my new career in accounting.”

By 1970, the USC graduate Heath was working on completing a correspondence course in accounting through the University of Chicago. By 1972 he had become a CPA and had established his new practice in his new home town of Houston. And, he says, he and the business are still going strong.

Bill Heath nodded a personal hello to the man who had been the Astros travel secretary during his brief stay with the Astros. SABR member Tal Smith was in the audience for Heath’s talk.

Other speakers last night included Chris Chestnut, who presented a new Saber-metric formula for evaluating the relative value of pinch hitters. You will have to attend the next article or lecture that Chestnut plans to do to get the lowdown on this subject.

Mike Vance stressed the importance of everyone getting out the vote on November 5 in favor of Referendum Proposition #2. According to Vance, the outcome of this referendum vote will determine the final fate of the Astrodome. For time-critical news and endorsements, please check out the following website for further information:

https://www.facebook.com/OurAstrodome

Joe Thompson provided a brief survey of his master’s thesis work on Marvin Miller, the attorney whose strategies brought the MLB Players Union into position for becoming the powerful force it is today.

Chapter leader Bob Dorrill reported on SABR 43 in Philadelphia; gave a brief positive report on our almost completed Early Houston Baseball book; and, he began the general outline of things we need to be considering now in our plans for SABR 44 in Houston next summer.

And finally, Herb Whalley administered the monthly baseball trivia quiz.

A good time was had by all.

PS: Don’t look now, but former Astro 3rd baseman Chris Johnson of the Atlanta Braves is now leading the National League with a batting average of .329. The guy’s only 28 years old, so, please remind me: What did the guy do wrong? It doesn’t look like Johnson’s confidence was hurt one bit by the deal to Atlanta by way of Arizona.

Tags: Bill Heath, September 2013 Houston SABR Meeting
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Don Buddin: Houston’s 1st MLB Shortstop

September 9, 2013

Don Buddin (L) celebrates a road win with Houston Colt .45 first baseman Norm Larker at some point in his brief 1962 local job as the club’s shortstop.

When the Houston Colt .45’s took the field at Colt Stadium to play their first-ever game in the major leagues on April 10, 1962 against the visiting Chicago Cubs, an almost 28 years old fellow named Don Buddin trotted out to play shortstop as the first man in history to handle that job for our local heroes. He batted eighth in the order; he played errorless, uneventful ball in the field; and he went oh for three at the plate. Along with pitcher Bobby Shantz, Buddin was the only regular to go hitless in the Colts’ 13-hit, 11-2 mashing of the Cubs that monumental day in Houston baseball history.

Don Buddin (BR/TR) (5’11”, 178 lb.) only had 40 total games in the early season of 1962, but his coming and going, to and from Houston, are both summarily interesting, if nothing else beyond the fact that he really was in actuality our town’s first big league shortstop.

Let’s retrace how he got here:

The Colts already had a couple of candidates for shortstop courtesy of the special 1961 National League expansion draft that was held for the purpose of stocking both of the two new franchises awarded to Houston and New York so they could begin NL play in 1962. The New York club, of course, was set to be called the Mets. Infielders Eddie Bressoud from San Francisco (#1) and Bob Lillis (#5) from St. Louis were both drafted by Houston with the shortstop position in mind, but Bressoud would never see a field shot at that job.

Don Buddin
1st Shortstop
Houston Colt ,45’s
April 10, 1962

On November 26, 1961, Houston traded Bressoud to the Boston Red Sox for shortstop Don Buddin. Then, on July 20, 1962, Houston looked at Buddin’s .163 for 40 games and sold his contract to the Detroit Tigers. Buddin would hit well enough at Detroit to bring his total season average up to .196 by year’s end. Meanwhile, as these things so often go, Eddie Bressoud batted .277 with 14 homers for the 1962 Boston Red Sox.

Don Buddin’s 6-year MLB career was done after 1962. He took a .241 career MLB batting average with him. Eddie Bressoud finished a 12-year MLB career in 1967 with a .252 batting average.

Don Buddin was born on May 5, 1934 in Turbeville, South Carolina. He passed away on June 30, 2011 in Greenville, South Carolina at the age of 77.

At least you got there first, Mr. Buddin. Thanks for contributing to our local history by being there on record as our first Houston Colt .45 shortstop.

Tags: Don Buddin, first Houston MLB shortstop
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Saturday Night Memories

September 8, 2013

The Met and the Loew’s (to the left above), along with the Majestic on Rusk were the Big 3 Houston movie house downtown back in the day.

Once Upon a Time, during the Reign of King Elvis and the Knights of the Rockin’ Round Table, a kid who wanted to impress his steady girl friend on a normally lame and calm Houston Saturday Night had only one sane, affordable choice. He took her downtown to a first-run new movie at one of the “Big Three”, the Metropolitan or the Loew’s State on Main, just north of the Lamar intersection, or a couple of blocks further north on Main and a half block to the left on Rusk for a show at the Majestic.

The Kirby on Main was OK for buddy movies, like the time my East End friends and I stayed downtown after leaving classes at St. Thomas to take in a double feature showing of the original Dracula and Frankenstein films at the Kirby, but those weren’t good date movies until we were all old enough to access cars for drive-in movie dates. Drive in movie theatres and horror shows were a natural for teenage dating on the snuggling level, as “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” would soon enough prove by 1956, but they didn’t work worth a flip at indoor houses, at least for me. Indoor theatres and horror movies just made girls want to go home as they sometimes also lectured all the way, “I can’t believe you took me to that horrible movie.”

No, the Kirby was cheaper, but they showed older movies and what used be known as first run “B” movies. “B” movies also usually featured unknown to lesser known actors, simple scripts, cheap production, and black and white only prints. Some were also good enough to be revered today on the Turner Classic Movies cable TV channel as just that – classics. – That simply wasn’t how they were seen back in the day.

For myself and most of the people I knew, those Saturday Night Memories were only made possible by our abilities to hold down minimum wage jobs at grocery stores that started clerks at fifty cent cents an hour and checkers at seventy-five cents an hour. And most us worked eight to twelve hours on Saturdays before we got off to start our own ideas of fun. We had to plan our pending carefully.

Although we may not have put it out on a spreadsheet at the time, we did have to plan for economy rides or luxury splurges. We had no debit cards or access to credit lines in which today’s spending could be put off to some farther down the road day of reckoning. In our day, we either had the money for it – or we couldn’t buy it. And downtown dating on a Saturday night in Houston took only cold hard cash.

Here’s a reconstructed look at Saturday Night Dating Expenses, circa 1956:

Downtown Movie Expense	Economy Model	Luxury Model
Gas @ 25cents per gallon	$ 0.50	$ 1.00
Nearby Parking	.00	.50
2 tickets @ $ 1.25 each	2.50	2.50
Pop Corn @ $ 0.15 a bag	.15	.30
Cokes @ $ 0.10 each	.20	.20
After movie burgers (2)	.00	.60
After movie fries (2)	.00	.30
After movie cokes (2)	.20	.20
Carhop Tip	.05	.10
TOTAL EXPENSES ->>>>	$ 3.60	$ 5.70

The dating scenario around here was pretty routine. – Go downtown for an eight o’clock movie. Then drive out South Main to Prince’s or Stuart’s for burgers, cokes, and fries. And then maybe a half hour of gazing at the lake in Hermann Park and listening to the car radio – or getting out to visit with the ducks – and then getting your date home at the time you promised her mother she would be there.

We didn’t do drugs or booze so much back then, and maybe we were a little bit boring too, but so what. We were solid. And we loved our city, our state, our country, the game of baseball, – and the idea that we each had a shot at making our lives matter someday. And so much of those Saturday Night plans were centered on the illusionary search for our soul mates.

Someone in our cultural mentoring pool back in the days of King Elvis forgot to tell us the whole truth about love: You have to first find your own soul before you can really find your soul mate – and no one else in this world can do that for any of us. It is our job alone through the painfully born wisdom that spawns from personal discovery.

That being said, I still wouldn’t trade my Saturday Night Memories of Houston for anything in the world.

Tags: memories of coming of age
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