UH’S Keenum on Way to Total Offense Record

October 9, 2011

QB Case Keenum (#7) rallies the Cougars en route to a UH 56-3 win over East Carolina at Robertson Stadium on Saturday night. Record-pacing performance by Keenum guides UH to a 6-0 record on the 2011 season and a clear shot next time at the all-time mark for most yards passing in a single collegiate career by any NCAA student athlete in history.

The effort itself was a laugher. The University of Houston Cougars completely dominated the East Carolina University Pirates from head to foot plank at Robertson Stadium Saturday night, scoring eight TDs and holding the opposition to one long and wistful field goal. Doing the best they can to run the table on an admittedly lesser light schedule, one game at a time, the Cougars are simply hoping this week that their efforts are enough to finally rate placement in the one-and-two loss loaded “Top 25” rated clubs.

If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. The Coogs will just keep giving each game and each season their best shot until things get better. “In time,” all good things are possible – as long as we keep trying and never give up. If I hold onto a driving credo, it’s that one – and also the soul-path of all I ever learned in my time as a working full-time student at UH back in the Permian Basin era of the school’s history.

“In Time” is the UH school motto. “In time” and what we each learn from all we try to do “over time” is the key to a life of choice over a redundant life of dumb, repetitive failure. Saturday night in football, the Number One passing team in the country (UH) got better at what they were already doing very well as they also improved remarkably on the defensive side of the ball, picking off four ECU passes and limiting the visiting Pirates to 284 yards of total offense and no touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Cougars steamrolled their speedy, shifty stronger way to 572 total yards and eight touchdowns, with 304 0f those yards coming from passes by Case Keenum, who has now moved into second place all-time on the total yardage leadership chart of all players in collegiate history.

Case Keenum now rides high in good company on the leader board for Total Offense Yards in NCAA History. (Here’s a look at how things now stack up through all the games of October 8, 2011):

1. Timmy Chang, University of Hawaii (2000-2004): 16,910 yards

2. Case Keenum, University of Houston (2007-2011, through 10/08/11): 16.763 yards

3. Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan University (2006-2009): 15,853 yards

4. Graham Harrell, Texas Tech University (2005-2008): 15,599 yards

5. Colt McCoy, University of Texas (2006-2009): 14,824 yards

The Cougars have a bye week on Saturday, October 15th, but Keenum gets his next shot at the 148 yards he needs to take over first place on the list in a home game against Marshall the following week on Saturday, October 22nd.

Go, Case, Go! – And “Eat ‘Em Up, Cougars,” while you’re at it.

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Michael Hogue’s Portrait of Judge Landis

October 8, 2011

The following art and text by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News is reproduced here in The Pecan Park Eagle by written permission from Michael Hogue. Today’s portrait features a look at Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the Commissioner of Baseball who stood in the way of racial integration in organized baseball for the greater part of his near quarter century in office.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is our “Offering # 12″ in this series and a continuation of this fine Texas artist’s work, Portraits of the Negro Leagues. Today’s subject, Judge Landis, was Baseball’s first solo authority Commissioner and the man who got the job to clean up baseball after the World Series gambling and player fix behavior in the infamous 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Thank you again, Michael, for allowing The Pecan Park Eagle to further share the beauty and joy of your work with those readers who care about the Negro Leagues and their place in baseball history.

For more on Michael Hogue’s work, check out his website:

http://www.michaelhogue.com

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Baseball's First Commissioner, 1920-1944, Baseball Hall of Fame, 1944. Landis ruled baseball with an iron fist. When he died, he was immediately elected to the Hall of Fame by a collection of baseball people from that era that still behaved in deference to Landis as though they had no other choice but to instantly accord him the game's highest honor.

 

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News

“(Kenesaw Mountain) Landis helped keep the big leagues segregated. He ordered major leaguers to stop competing against black clubs, reportedly because he was embarrassed by losses. ‘They just aren’t organized,’ Landis said of the Negro Leagues. Homestead Grays first baseman Buck Leonard replied, ‘We were organized, we just weren’t recognized.’ “

 

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UH Big 12 Bypass Is No Surprise

October 7, 2011

A-B-C-D-E-F-G! ...... Won't you come and play with me?

When the Big 12 collegiate athletic conference invited TCU to join them as a replacement school for the departing Texas A&M yesterday, it really came as no big surprise. Over the past 14-15 years, TCU has done everything in the world it needed to do to build favor with the big boy schools that control things in this neck of the collegiate sports world. They had hired successful effective coaches, they had vastly improved their facilities, and they had proven their ability in football against top-flight competition. And along the way, they had turned a healthy profit, become a popular television player, and they had coalesced a supporting cast of power structure and political culture characters to direct and run interference for TCU on their way back to a first tier level BCS conference affiliation.

Today the Houston Post published a Department of Education report on 2009 football income at ten Texas universities. This bottom line tells the story pretty plainly. Look at the figures:

  1. Texas $93.9 million
  2. Texas A&M $41.9 million
  3. Texas Tech $26.2 million
  4. TCU $20.6 million
  5. Baylor $14.4 million
  6. SMU $12.5 million
  7. Rice $12.4 million
  8. UTEP $9.5 million
  9. Houston $7.5 million
  10. North Texas $4.3 million

As the dollar signs show, the University of Houston, my university, is on a later track to the same hoped-for destiny. UH is simply behind TCU on the capital improvements, record on the field, and the development of sociopolitical socko-squad backing for successful arm-twisting among the big boy decision-makers of Tier One college sports. We will get there. We just have to keep working at it. You don’t get the serious attention of a green-eyed monster like Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds of UT until you can hit him in the head with a payday that offends his most egregious fear of loss as an offer he cannot refuse.

That’s how far UH is from getting any positive support from UT that could possibly stack up and outweigh that school’s  historic contempt, disdain, and regret over ever allowing UH into the old Southwest Conference in the first place back in 1976. We of UH do not count on UT ever coming around to our benefit. UH can only rise where UT has no power to prevent UH’s ascent. That says it clearly. UH must do all we are able to do to rise in spite of all that UT may do to actively or passively undermine our UH redemption.

Our University of Houston official slogan serves us well. – “In Time.”

In time, we will get there to Tier One in academics and athletics. It simply isn’t going to be now or anytime soon. And there may not even be a thing called the Big 12 by the time we get there. Those of us who can help at any level simply need to keep doing what we are able to support the Cougar Cause.

It’s a family thing.

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Michael Hogue’s Portrait of Pop Lloyd

October 6, 2011

The following art and text by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News is reproduced here in The Pecan Park Eagle by written permission from Michael Hogue. Today’s portrait features a look at Martin Dihigo, the arguably greatest player of versatility in the history of baseball at every level.

John Henry “Pop” Lloyd is our “Offering # 11″ in this series and a continuation of this fine Texas artist’s work, Portraits of the Negro Leagues. Today’s subject, Pop Lloyd, was widely regarded as the greatest Negro Leagues player in the first two decades of the 20th century. Thank you again, Michael, for allowing The Pecan Park Eagle to further share the beauty and joy of your work with those readers who care about the Negro Leagues and their place in baseball history.

For more on Michael Hogue’s work, check out his website:

http://www.michaelhogue.com

John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, Shortstop. Negro Leagues, 1906-1932, Baseball Hall of Fame, 1977.

Pop Lloyd by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News

“Asked to name the world’s greatest player, a St. Louis sports writer in 1938 replied that in the majors it was Babe Ruth, but in all of baseball it was Lloyd.

“Ruth agreed. He voted Pop Lloyd the greatest player of all time.

“Lloyd, a superb shortstop often compared to Honus Wagner, hit .368 over 27 seasons in black baseball. He was considered the best black player in the first two decades of the 20th century.”

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Houston Fire Museum Worth the Trip

October 5, 2011

The Houston Fire Museum, 2403 Milam Street, Houston, Texas 77006. Telephone: 713.524.2526.

The Houston Fire Museum, located in the Midtown area immediately south of Downtown is simply another of our city’s shouldn’t-be-so-hidden treasures. My son Neal and I visited it last Saturday as a secondary pursuit on the heels of a trip downtown on another research matter. As per always on these late discoveries of local things that have been here forever under my nose, but never tried previously, I regretted not getting here sooner, but “better late than never” prevailed as the ruling ancient wisdom.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $4.00 for seniors, $3.00 for children, and free for toddlers and infants to age two. Free parking is available on Milam Street. Check out the Houston Fire Museum for further details, much more history, and how you may even plan your child’s birthday party as part of your trip to see what used to be Houston Fire Station No. 7.

http://houstonfiremuseum.org/

In brief, the current museum on Milam Street operated as Houston Fire Station 7 from 1899 to 1969. It then went to seed in vacancy for a few years before being approved as a historical site and worthy location for the Houston Fire Museum. Two fire wagons from the horse and buggy era to an early 20th century gasoline engine fire truck are on display, as well as an upstairs dormitory that is set up as the earlier fire department personnel used the place in its active days of service. Check out the website for a more detailed history of the place and these items, but take a look at some of the photos we took of our inside tour.

Two more notes. – Yes, they have a little gift shop on the first floor. – And, yes, people take the kids’ birthday party plan to heart. A group of kids were coming out of a room wearing plastic fire chief hats and with multi-colored balloons in tow as Neal and I made our way into the place to look around on our own.

Safe to say – a good time was had by all. The Houston Fire Museum is simply another of our city’s almost hidden away treasures.

Enjoy the photos!

Historical Marker near the front door of the Houston Fire Museum.

One of the horse-drawn wagons.

another horse-drawn machine.

One of the beds in the second floor dormitory.

The Fire Bell Pole is now blocked by plexiglass.

Dominoes, anybody?

Former Fire Chiefs Line One Wall.

The Chief's Report Desk. - Look's like he's in the middle of a report that will not be interrupted by a failure in his Internet Service Provider.

Neal McCurdy at the Fire Museum Locker Room. The lockers have been converted into display cases for generic photos of life as it was in those earlier eras.

a fire department locker look at early football.

a fire department locker look at early baseball.

remembering entertainers....

and even preserving the memory of P.T. Barnum.

Check out the Houston Fire Museum. Be a kid again. And have fun.

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Michael Hogue’s Portrait of Buck Leonard

October 4, 2011

The following art and text by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News is reproduced here in The Pecan Park Eagle by written permission from Michael Hogue. Today’s portrait features a look at Buck Leonard, the long-time great first baseman of the famously successful Homestead Grays.

Buck Leonard, the so-called “Black Lou Gehrig” of the Negro Leagues is our “Offering # 10″ in this series and a continuation of this fine Texas artist’s work, Portraits of the Negro Leagues. Thank you again, Michael, for allowing The Pecan Park Eagle to further share the beauty and joy of your work with those who care about the Negro Leagues and their place in baseball history.

For more on Michael Hogue’s work, check out his website:

http://www.michaelhogue.com

Walter "Buck" Leonard, First Baseman, Negro Leagues, 1933-1950, Baseball Hall of Fame, 1972.

Buck Leonard by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News

“Known as the ‘Black Lou Gehrig,’ (Buck) Leonard was one of the best-liked players in the game. A feared hitter and exceptional fielder, he played first base for the Homestead Grays team that won nine consecutive Negro National League pennants between 1937 and 1945.

“In 1939, eight years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith asked Leonard whether he wanted to play in the major leagues. But nothing came of the meeting. Thirteen years later, at age 45, Leonard was offered a contract to play in the major leagues. He knew that age was against him and declined the offer.”

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Former Astros in 2011 MLB Playoffs

October 3, 2011

What do these Astro Bobble Heads and figurines have in common? That's right. None has, or ever will finish their playing careers as 100% Astros.

The 2011 MLB Playoffs are now well underway – and with a number of former Houston Astros participating with their new teams. Six of the eight playoff teams have at least one former Astro player on their rosters. The other two, the Yankees and the Rays, boast guys who were traded away as prospects from Houston in major trades that saw each man breaking into the big leagues with teams other than the Astros. We are talking here about pitcher Freddy Garcia of the Yankees and infielder Ben Zobrist of the Rays. Garcia broke into the bigs with Seattle as a result of the 1998 Astros trade with the Mariners for Randy Johnson, Zobrist broke into the majors with Tampa Bay  as the result of a 2006 deal between the Astros and the Rays.

Everyone else here was either dealt directly by the Astros or simply found their meandering baseball way to their current teams in the usual ways that talent moves on the winds of need, opportunity, and desperation.

Here’s how this year’s Houston playoff batch shapes up by team, number, and name:

Phillies (3)

Roy Oswalt, P

Brad Lidge, P

Hunter Pence, RF

Cardinals (2)

Octavio Dotel, P

Lance Berkman, OF

Brewers (2)

LaTroy Hawkins, P

Randy Wolf, P

Diamondbacks (1)

Geoff Blum, INF

Yankees (0)

none

Tigers (1)

Jose Valverde, P

Rangers (1)

Darren Oliver, P

Rays (0)

None

One Final Thought

Oh yeah. There is one former Astros player in a position of high authority with one of the current playoff clubs and you shouldn’t need me to point out who that is. You have already seen his caricatured image on this page.

 

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Michael Hogue’s Portrait of Martin Dihigo

October 2, 2011

The following art and text by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News is reproduced here in The Pecan Park Eagle by written permission from Michael Hogue. Today’s portrait features a look at Martin Dihigo, the arguably greatest player of versatility in the history of baseball at every level.

Martin Dihigo is our “Offering 9″ in this series and a continuation of this fine Texas artist’s work, Portraits of the Negro Leagues. Thank you again, Michael, for allowing The Pecan Park Eagle to further share the beauty and joy of your work with those who care about the Negro Leagues and their place in baseball history.

For more on Michael Hogue’s work, check out his website:

http://www.michaelhogue.com

Martin Dihigo, "El Maestro," Pitcher/Infielder/Outfielder, Negro Leagues, 1923-1947, Baseball Hall of Fame, 1977.

 

Martin Dihigo by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News

“Martin Dihigo, born in Cuba, is the only man inducted into four national baseball halls of fame (Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States). He played both summer and winter ball most of his career and won more than 260 games as a pitcher. In addition to pitching, he played every other position except catcher, usually batting well over .300.”

 

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MLB Playoff Predictions

October 1, 2011

Fearless Forecasts Flow Fast From a 1932 Houston Buffs Jersey.

I meant to get to this business of forecasting the 2011 MLB Playoff Outcomes through the World Series yesterday, but found myself too distracted by other things to get around to it, so, I will get it done now – without changing my original picks as a result of yesterday’s one blow-out win over one of my first round short series picks.

The Playoffs have always been one of my favorite times of the baseball season, even when our home club Astros had no chance of getting there. – Oh wait! I almost forgot! Those times are back! Now we can look forward in Houston to the day when our new homegrown youth crop grows up and puts us back into this same wonderful post-season contention.

These playoffs shape up as another triumph of pitching over slugging, as I see it. Even the powerful blowout of the Rays over the Rangers Friday night was such a statement. In spite of the 9-0 power surge by Tampa Bay on the road, it was the 7-inning 2-hit start by young Matt Moore that striped the Rangers down to Josh Hamilton and nobody else.

In disregard of that blast upon my before-the-fact opinion, I’m going to stick with my pre-Friday private picks in all series, even if it costs me on the accuracy side in this first round best three of five games situation.

Here goes:

Round One / Wild Card Round (Best 3 of 5 Games):

American League: Rangers over Rays; Tigers over Yankees.

National League: Phillies over Cardinals; Brewers over Diamondbacks.

Round Two / League Championship Series (Best 4 of 7 Games):

American League: Tigers over Rangers.

National League: Phillies over Brewers.

World Series (Best 4 of 7 Games):

Detroit Tigers over Philadelphia Phillies.

That’s right. In the end, I expect the Tigers with Justin Verlander and that imported company of pitching Tigers from Detroit, to get the best of Roy Halladay and the arguably best team in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies, in a series that will likely run to six or seven games. Now let’s play the hands we’ve been dealt and find out how right or wrong we all can be.

Please post your own picks today as comments on this column. If you are among the big crowd who thinks that the Phillies own the best starting four pitchers in the big leagues, you may spiritedly disagree with my selections. If you’re from St. Louis, you may even be one of those fans who see the Cardinals rolling into Philadelphia today with enough momentum going for them to even knock the Phils out of the NLCS.

Just let us know here today what you think – before we get too far into some important early games.

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Michael Hogue’s Portrait of Effa Manley

September 30, 2011

The following art and text by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News is reproduced here in The Pecan Park Eagle by written permission from Michael Hogue. Today’s portrait features a look at Effa Manley, the owner of the Newark Eagles, who, as their one time field mentor, also holds the distinction of being the only female manager in the history of American male professional sports..

Effa Manley is our “Offering 8″ in this series and a continuation of this fine Texas artist’s work, Portraits of the Negro Leagues. Thank you again, Michael, for allowing The Pecan Park Eagle to further share the beauty and joy of your work with those who care about the Negro Leagues and their place in baseball history.

For more on Michael Hogue’s work, check out his website:

http://www.michaelhogue.com

Effa Manley, Owner, Negro Leagues, 1935-1948, Baseball Hall of Fame, 2006.

Effa Manley by Michael Hogue of The Dallas Morning News

As owner/manager of the Newark Eagles, Manley is the only female manager in the history of American male professional sports. She overcame racial barriers and gender bias to make her mark as one f the most significant figures on the Negro Leagues.

After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, she lost many players to the major leagues. She spoke out against raiding Negro League teams without compensating them, but despite her efforts, the Eagle had to disband in 1948.

Pecan Park Eagle Footnote: The Eagles may have disbanded as a team playing out of Newark after 1948, but they weren’t through. They moved to Texas under new ownership for two final seasons of Negro League play as the Houston Eagles before giving up the ghost of a lost gate and changing times as all the best black ball players, and their fans, headed for new spots in the formerly all white (or non-American black) ranks of professional baseball.

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