The Pecan Park Eagle

Seating Capacity of the New Fertitta Center

March 10, 2017

“HOW MANY FANS WILL A FERTITTA CENTER SEAT WHEN A FERTITTA CENTER FINALLY SEATS FANS?”

To Greg Lucas ~ Dear Greg: My intended e-mail answer to your question simply blossomed in the process into a column today.

You and I both wanted to know what the intended full capacity for fan seating at the new Fertitta Center at UH will be. As of now, we still don’t have that answer.

Via an old UH friend today, I finally got the website link to the new Fertitta Center that will be going up on the UH campus in replacement of the Hofheinz Pavilion. A lot of new donor costs jump out at you at the website, but not so much the actual seating capacity for Cougar basketball.

Want to sit court side, with all the service and bigwig hobnob mobility? $100,000 extra bucks will get you in the door 0f a special court side area for two seats there – and, if your math’s that good, as is your bank account, $200,000 will kick open the door on four tickets of apartness from the hoi pal-oi – but you do have to sign up somewhere, I think, to get the cost factored in to including the actual tickets, parking, sales taxes, and other contributions to UH that may be tied into your ticket purchaser contract.

Regular people seats look pretty much like the same sight lines that existed at Hofheinz, but there’s no easy way to find (if it’s even there) any actual round up of capacity ticket numbers that these general admission places make available to the buying public either.

All I can conjecture from my five-day old last visit to Hofheinz is this: Unless you are able to rise from your seat with all the agility and quickness of a very tall Olympian gymnast, you won’t have anything to see, anyway, but already risen backs on shots at the goal.

These are not particularly UH problems to solve, but issues that exist at all basketball venues. That being said, and speaking now for The Pecan Park Eagle, we do think that UH needs to be more clearly forthright about the new venue’s seating capacity.

What is the projected overall seating capacity for basketball at the Fertitta Center? I called the media people at UH earlier this week – just asking for a simple bottom line number – but nobody ever got back to me.

Is the matter of venue seating capacity in 2019 simply too complicated for a UH graduate from 1960 to understand? Or is it simply made harder to grasp by some new approach to “dynamic seating and pricing” that we consumers couldn’t possibly begin to grasp?

Good old home TV. And there’s no danger of getting infected by the viruses and germs that lingered near the table I reached for cookies and other gratuity sustenance that UH made available to us last Sunday when we showed up to see the last game played at Hofheinz.

Who knows, maybe some of us got sick on the last free meal that UH ever handed out on Sunday, March 5, 2017?

No more “Eat ‘Em Up” of free food for this old Cougar – at UH campus functions, or any place else where people double dip chips or pick up food with their hands and then put it back on the public offering plate on a change of mind. I’ve been paying for the bug I picked up all week.

Oh yeah, back on the venue capacity topic, the dazzling data on the new Fertitta Center is right there to view in 3-D at the Fertitta Center website. Check it out:

uhcougarpride.com/fertittacenter

Regards,

Bill McCurdy, UH Class of 1960

___________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Seating Capacity of the New Fertitta Center
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Faces of Past Speak Loudly to Future

March 9, 2017

We never dressed like these dudes at Buff stadium back in 1950. In fact the coat over the shoulder look used here was nothing more than “product placement” for “Mosk’s Store for Men” – Sadly, the only thing “right” here is the 100% white face look of the general stadium crowd. In 1950, segregation forced black fans to sit in their “own” separate section down the far right field line. That’s one of the shames of Houston in this shameful old world.

Staying home today with one of those dripping viruses and sweaty feelings that you really don’t want to share with anyone else, I chose to swaddle my mind in the comfort food thoughts of memorabilia I keep in boxes for just such occasions as today. Well, that’s not exactly true. This stuff has been following me around since I was 8 to 10 years old, just waiting for one of these days to come along that elevates something from the piles to rise briefly from the sediment of sentimentality to full “needful thing” status – if only for a day.

Today it turned out to be this four-pages-in-all cardboard scorecard from the 1950 Houston Buff Texas League baseball season. 1950 was hardly a memorable year for the Houston Buffs. The team stank, finishing 8th and cellar-last at 61-93 – a full two games back of the 7th place Shreveport Sports – and 30.5 games back of the first place Beaumont Roughnecks and their two future MLB stars, infielder Gil McDougald and catcher Clint Courtney. And, oh yeah, the great and strange Rogers Hornsby was the manager of our little brother city to the east’s whip-ass ball club too, a fact that galled the bloody bejabbers out of our Cardinals-proud Houston fans.

Hornsby was intimidating. How many times did he walk past some of us Houston Knothole Ganglings in silence, only for all of us to decide by his snarling looks that this probably was not a good time to ask for his autograph. We simply weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer back then. There was never going to be a good time to ask for that old toad’s signature. (Yes, I said “toad” – and not that other four-letter “”t” word that comes to mind, but it would have fit here just as well, if not better.)

That’s Joe D. on the right wall behind the concession stand prices feature. He’s pushing Chesterfield as his milder choice in cigarettes.

Look at those concession stand prices, folks. This was back in the days when nobody had credit cards that made buying stuff seem cheap. Back then, you either had a dime or you didn’t buy. Then, when the day came that even a march of dimes couldn’t buy you the time of day, some marketing genius figured out that we had to have credit cards to make stuff still feel cheap, even if it no longer were.

For a lot people in 1950, you were either from Houston – or just passing through because your corporate oil patch company “boss of your life” had sent you here to do whatever it was you did that was of value to them. And that was OK, sort of, if you came from the South – or other parts of Texas where it’s also hot as blazes during the summer – but that wasn’t so true when it came to the carrot and stick problem that companies had sending many people to Houston back in 1950. There was nothing “cool” about living in Houston to valued corporate workers from milder, more sophisticated climates, at all. And that’s what’s so cool about these two adjoining ads in the 1950 scorecard. Air conditioning and television were poised to sweep through Houston like a decade-long “norther” of social change. Houston was on its way to becoming cool in all the ways that count – and that includes the assault that has taken place upon the ignorant and totally uncool hand of segregation and racism – a quieter battle that continues to this day.

By 1957, our little family home in Pecan Park was whipping up summer-long “northers” inside – thanks to two window units that seemed to cover the needs of our little one-bath sideboard house. By the fall of 1957, I was even taking a UH biology class on home TV – something that would have seemed like a tale out of Buck Rogers back in 1950. My only reservation was the timing of the lecture. Seriously folks. Who really wants to wake up early enough to watch an animal autopsy on television while they are trying to wake up?

I guess I did, ( see carrot and stick here) because it ultimately worked for me.

If you want a better look at the rosters of these two Texas League clubs, check them out at these two links to the 1950 Beaumont Roughnecks and Houstons Buffs at Baseball Reference.com:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=b15e635a

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=e03e7218

The 1950 Houston Buffs will always resonant with me for three things: (1) They made me jump for joy when I learned at breakfast one early June 1950 morning that Jerry Witte was now joining the club from Rochester; (2) They made me laugh when I saw fat little Buff manager Benny Borgmann bring the starting lineup out to home plate the first time in those blousy skirt-like shorts the Buffs started wearing to supposedly boost the gate with lady fans; and (3) They made me cry myself to sleep when the Buffs lost to Shreveport on the last night game of the season, missing out on a Buffs tie for 7th place with the Sports that would have spared us from the dead last place all-by-ourselves-alone finish that fell upon us as a result.

I could spend another two weeks about the life lessons that jump out at me from the finding of this old scorecard, and probably will. I just won’t write about them. Your time would be better spent looking for your own reminders of your own life lessons. We all have them. And they just wait around for the day that we revisit them for all there is to learn from even our long ago distant experience with joy, discovery, and occasional disappointment.

Take care of yourselves, folks. And thanks for allowing me the time to rattle.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Faces of Past Speak Loudly to Future
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8th Youngest Ever MLB Pitcher Dies at 90

March 8, 2017

Harry MacPherson
8th Youngest MLB Pitcher in History
Dead at Age 90 in Florida on 2/19/17

Obituary for Harry MacPherson

http://www.kays-ponger.com/obituary/178669/Harry-MacPherson/

(transcription in full follows below):

Harry W. MacPherson, 90, passed away on February 19, 2017, in Englewood, Florida.

Whether he was on the golf course, enjoying a walk in the woods or taking to the ski slopes in New Hampshire, Harry MacPherson was a born athlete who believed life was best spent on the move.

Sports enthusiast, animal and nature lover and caring father and husband, Harry will be dearly missed.

Harry was born in North Andover, Massachusetts. At the age of 17, he was one of the youngest players to be recruited to the National Baseball League. A right-handed pitcher for the Boston Braves (1944), Harry also played in the minor league for several teams, including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas and others, through 1952. He served in the Navy during World War II.

When he met his true love, Wanda Lee Kenney, he traded in baseball for family life and found a new career with New England Telephone. Harry spent 30 years with the phone company and retired as an engineer in 1984.

Harry and Wanda, who passed in 1997, enjoyed a long and fulfilling retirement in Florida. Their later years included many rounds of golf, beach picnics, beautiful sunsets, family visits, time with their three adored grandchildren and endless laughs and good times with dear friends.

Harry leaves three children, Donald MacPherson and his wife, Robin MacPherson, Jon MacPherson and Linda MacPherson Davidson; three beloved grandchildren, Brian MacPherson, Todd MacPherson and Mack Davidson; and his little Schnauzer, Duchess.

A memorial celebration will be held in the spring. Expressions of sympathy, in lieu of flowers, can be made in Harry’s memory to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation at Alzinfo.org.

Lemon Bay Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. You may express your condolences to the family at lemonbayfh.com

___________________

Harry MacPherson
Had a Career ERA of 0.00
For I MLB Inning Pitched
August 14, 1944

Harry William MacPherson (July 10, 1926 – February 19, 2017)

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

(transcription in full follows below):

Harry William MacPherson (July 10, 1926 – February 19, 2017) was a right-handed pitcher who appeared in one game for the Boston Braves in 1944. At the age of 18, he was the eighth-youngest player to appear in a National League game that season. He was born in North Andover, Massachusetts.

MacPherson is one of many ballplayers who only appeared in the major leagues during World War II. On August 14, 1944 he came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning of a road game that the Braves lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-0. Facing four batters, he allowed one walk and no runs in his one inning of work. His lifetime ERA stands at 0.00. MacPherson died February 19, 2017 in Englewood, Florida.

MacPherson gave up no hits in his one-inning afternoon in the sun as an 18-year old MLB pitcher, but he did manage to strike out one batter in his single shot big time appearance.

That’s one more inning, one more strike out, and one more scoreless, hitless inning on a big league mound than the rest of us few million ancient wannabes ever chalked up over the same relatively long ago period of time on the 20th century calendar.

Minor leagues (6 Seasons, 1946-1951)

MacPherson went on to a 37-31 minor league career record, but never pitched again in the big leagues. His time included a 6-4 mark for the 1948 Texas League foes of the Houston Buffs, the Dallas Eagles. Harry’s minor league page at Baseball Reference.Com incorrectly shows him as being 17 when he pitched his one big league inning for the Braves, but that display is incorrect. MacPherson already had turned 18 in July 1944, one month and four days earlier than his August one time MLB shot as an 18-year old right-handed pitcher.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/macphha01.shtml

Godspeed, Harry! Sounds like you and your sweetheart, Wanda, had a pretty nice extended ride through our little valley of cheers and tears. May the God that Is Love continue to bless your surviving family and other close friends, even though your physical presence has now moved on.

And thank you too, Matt Rejmaniak and Mike McCroskey for sharing your e-mail about the passing of one of baseball’s once youngest MLB pitchers.

We couldn’t find any immediate documentation on Mike McCroskey’s claim that Harry MacPherson became known as “The Boston Blanker”, but we will be most happy to print further comment on how this came to be – from Mike – or from whomever has anything on how that came to be. These guys who made it to the big leagues for all these “one-and-done” moments shall always have a place in the history of the game too. Their resumes may not glow like those of Cy Young and Walter Johnson, but they too once glowed briefly – even if it were only for one inning of one afternoon in a losing cause at Pittsburgh on an otherwise hot and pointless game being played out in the dog days of a wartime season summer.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: 8th Youngest Ever MLB Pitcher Dies at 90
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Rainy Days and Paraprosdokians Make Me Glad

March 7, 2017

“A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger! … With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States! Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice! Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!”

What is a “paraprosdokian“? Merriam-Webster doesn’t even take a swing. The word is not contained in their dictionary.

Cut the chase. Go to Wikipedia and get an “ah-ha” answer.

As Wikipedia explains it, a “paraprosdokian (/pærəprɒsˈdoʊkiən/) is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.^[1] Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, but they also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a form of syllepsis.”

If that definition falls short of clarity and failed simplicity, give a listen to a few. You either will find that you already know what they each are, or else, immediately you will see that they are little more than just another attempt by the human egos of scholarly types to make something easy sound harder to understand than it really is.

As kids, we picked up on a few of these babies from the generation ahead of us. They weren’t presented to us as paraprosdokians. We just quickly caught the humorous part of each we heard on our own tickle. So much so, that we even started making up our own.

A couple of these paraprosdokians we learned from the great generation of American males fell down upon us during our younger adolescence. And that explains why the only two oldies I still recall had to do with chasing girls with, how else can I put it? In today’s terms, each example is also a model for inappropriate social pursuit:

“Head for the roundhouse, Nellie! He’ll never corner you there!”
“She was only a stableman’s daughter, but all the horsemen knew her!”

Did you catch the double-meaning aspects of each, especially in the second part of the second one? The phrase “horse manure” brays loudly in our ears.

At any rate, without the fancy “P” word ever setting foot in our minds, we were quick to come up with some of our own. And many of these spun off our 13-14 year old shared interest in the Lone Ranger television show we all faithfully watched.

Here’s an example:

Because the Lone Ranger and Tonto were always chasing the bad guys to their hideout shack back in the mountains, The Ranger and his faithful (Native-American) companion, Tonto, were constantly devising new ways to sneak up on the bad guys and spy on them before making the big retribution run inside for the sake of justice, guns blazing.

So, in our versions, we chose to take a “what if things go wrong” approach and put those words into the mouth of the always present invisible program storyteller voice:

“The Lone Ranger had stayed behind to eavesdrop on the Black Bart Gang and had managed to disguise himself as the cabin shack’s front door. Tonto was riding up hard on the place after sending for help from town by wire. Unaware of the Lone Ranger’s disguise plan, he feared for his boss’s life and raced to force himself through the front door, six guns a blazing. Before the Lone Ranger could make his disguised presence as the door clear to his faithful Indian companion, Tonto shot his knob off.”

“OY VEH, SILVER, AWAY!”

____________________

Thank you, Ed Szymczak (St. Thomas HS Class of 1956), for setting this whole line of thought in motion with that list of 17 paraprosdokians you emailed earlier to The Pecan Park Eagle. Enjoy them all, everybody. Since we never know when our last moment is coming, we may as well spend it laughing, if at all possible.

The Ed Szymczak List of Paraprosdokians

*1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it*

*2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you…. but it’s still on my list.*

*3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.*

*4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong*

*5. We never really grow up…. we only learn how to act in public.*

*6. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.*

*7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.*

*8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.*

*9. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.*

*10. In filling out an application, where it says, “In case of emergency, notify….” I answered, “a doctor.”*

*11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.*

*12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to guarantee a second skydive.*

*13. I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.*

*14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.*

*15. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.*

*16. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.*

*17. I’m supposed to respect my elders, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to find one now.*

____________________

* NOTE: The Pecan Park Eagle especially loves # 14. People who get this one do really well in politics. Listen to the power of its core thought: To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. If you plan a bullet train that connects Dallas with Houston, – and the thing ends up connecting Dallas with Lake Charles, Louisiana, you just explain that you were looking for a way from the start to get Texas’ gambling money out of the state quicker and that this was your goal all along. Of course, if that’s the best story you can come up with, you had better have another plan already in motion to move to Lake Charles too and run for Governor of Louisiana at your earliest point of eligibility and opportunity. Such a gubernatorial campaign could brim you over the top of swamp country success and float your boat into an ocean of paraprosdokian expression.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Rainy Days and Paraprosdokians Make Me Glad
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Lights Now Out at Hofheinz Pavilion

March 7, 2017

Rainy Days and Goodbyes Go Together
First Game, UH 89 – SW Louisiana 72.
Last Game: UH 73 – E. Carolina 51.

On Sunday, March 5, 2016, at 3:00 PM, or thereabouts, the last basketball in history at Hofheinz Pavilion on the UH campus finally got started, Inside from the rain, a fairly good, but far from full house crowd showed to turn the clock and the pages of history on another Houston sports edifice for the last time – even if they are only doing a $20 million dollare renovation on a $2 million dollar basketball pavilion, circa, 1969. If they do their job right, we shall all, hopefully, not even recognize where we are when the place re-opens in a couple of seasons under a new name and a fresh face.

It was a rainy day for the game between our Houston Cougars and the East Carolina Pirates, but we didn’t see any people shedding tears over the loss of the old place. And, as one who had not even been to see a basketball game on campus in 25 years – since my own son was kid enough to want to go – it was easy and quick to see why – sometimes – out with the old – and in with the new – is the only song in town.

Unlike the architecturally significant Astrodome structure, Hofheinz Pavilion has about as much historic or sentimental value as an abandoned and rusty strip center in Sugar Land – still standing, but leaning badly – somewhere near all the new growth of class, good taste, and power in that far southern moon in orbit today around Planet Houston. Hofheinz today is awful, especially if you are a senior with some serious mobility problems.

The descending slippery-from-the-rain court-side aisles have no support bars to grasp. Then, once, or if, you get to your assigned seat, everyone in the aisle has to stand to let you pass them. The same problem exists in reverse for bathroom runs, food, or going home moves prior to game’s rend.

Caution: Make sure you don’t follow my lead by forgetting your cane at home – and be sure that you only bring your good bladder with you. One that peaks too quickly to capacity – and/or one that leaks too fast in slow, slippery walking company – are both probably reasons contributing to the poor attendance by older fans with physical disability limitations at Hofheinz. – “It just ain’t worth it, as things are, friends, even if the team IS winning. The new place has got be a lot smarter and more comfort-conscious than the old place came to be.

But all of Hofheinz’s issue aren’t time-evolutionary. – The place didn’t suffer an amputation of its now missing hand rails. They simply weren’t ever there. – Just another cost-saving decision that someone had to make back in 1969, when the place was going up on a peanut butter and jelly budget.

Don’t get me completely wrong. I’m not here to smack my UH for what was not done in 1969. I didn’t need handrails in 1969 either, any more than the students or younger alums need them now. All I’m saying is “Go Coogs! Let’s get it completely right this time.”

Not just by the way, but lasting 48 years (1969-2017) as an active arena says a lot for the old place itself. And historically, Hofheinz Pavilion was important. – It was the venue made possible by Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney in the UH 71-69 “Game of the Century” win over UCLA at the Astrodome on January 20, 1968. It was the place that served as the first temporary home of the NBA Houston Rockets once they moved here from San Diego in 1971. And it was a place that featured world class entertainment performances by people like Elton John and so many others that the full list from the Wikipedia story on Hofheinz Pavilion is enough to make all heads swim.

Check out the Wikipedia history on Hofheinz Pavilion. It does the old place proud.

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

My favorite Hofheinz shows were by rock and roll icon Chuck Berry – and by the Broadway touring company that presented “Jesus Christ, Superstar”.

My favorite personal memory is that Hofheinz Pavilion will always be the place I received my doctoral degree on June 7 1975 from former Governor Allan Shivers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. It’s hard to believe that UH and UT once had a working relationship between them possible, but stranger things happen. Of course, 1975 was back in my own academic hippie looking era. I will always believe that Gov. Shivers gave me a certain look and back-tug on my degree – before releasing resistance with a smile and (I guess) a congratulatory handshake.

____________________

Elvin Hayes and Bill McCurdy ~ An Earlier Moment in Time

Last Dance.

The evening ended as it needed to conclude. The Cougars beat the Pirates, 71-53, and in touching call-up at game’s end, some of great names in Cougar basketball history were called upon to take the floor for one last hurrah from their grateful fans.

The last word for sure was pure eloquence. The great Elvin Hays took the last shot at a basket on the Guy V. Lewis Court and – of course – it was nothing but net.

____________________

A Joke from that UT@Hofheinz Graduation Night.

As we were filing out from our Hofheinz Pavilion UT post-graduation in 1975, someone in the audience apparently collapsed, inspiring a standby witness to shout loudly – so that most of us could hear, but not see, what was going on:

“Is there a doctor in the house?”

At first, no one ran to render aid, but about 500 of our voices almost laughed the Hofheinz roof into orbit as a result of the first two times the question was shouted.

Fortunately, it was just someone who had passed out from the tedium of what usually is a long and boring evening for almost all who get forced into coming to this sort of thing.

_____________________

Auld Lang Syne

I want to thank old Phi Kappa Theta brother and friend Bruce Biundo and his son, John Biundo, for inviting me to go with them to see the last game at Hofheinz Pavilion. It was great running into another brother, Richard Kirtley – and his lovely wife Laura Kirtley after the game. Richard played football at UH back in the day – and Laura served up spirit as a UH cheerleader. Wow! I was also in their wedding party in the summer of 1967 – and, unless my math has gone totally south on me – that means that Dick and Laura have a 50th wedding anniversary coming up this summer too. Thanks to all of you for being part of my life – and for allowing me to be part of yours.

In some ways, the buildings we most revere are like the relationships we build with some people over time. The more love we put into them, the more we hate the thought of ever having to say goodbye.

Rest in Peace, Hofheinz Pavilion – and rest assured as you do. You will never be forgotten by all of us who shall love and protect forever the ground you have rested upon for the past 48 years.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Lights Now Out at Hofheinz Pavilion
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A Tal’s Hill Reflection # 1

March 5, 2017

A Tal’s Hill Reflection # 1: Sunday, March 5, 2017

“WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING WARNING TRACK! ! The Little Ladies of the Wall will keep our center fielders from cracking their heads on the shorter porches as we all watch the homers taking off into the beautiful Houston sunsets to the west of our Crawford Street baseball crib!”

____________________

Stop! In the name of love
Before you break our hearts

Stop! In the name of love
Before you lose ten starts

Think it over, Mr. Marisnick
Think it over, Mr. Springer

Think it over, Mr. Call-Up-Guy-From-Fresno

Think it over

____________________

Fortunately, the new shorter center field fence at Minute Maid Park will have a warning track, but the center fielders will need to remember that the center field fence itself is now going to be 30 feet closer to them than ever before. Any outfielder that forgets and runs into it is going to have to learn the same lesson the my paternal grandfather, Willis Teas of Floresville and San Antonio, Texas once tried to teach me as a kid on one of the times we picked him up at Union Station, the same site as the present MMP. I asked him (and most probably not in these exact words) what would happen to a person who fell from the top of the multiple-stories high railroad station tower?

“It would kill you, Billy,” Grandpa (we called him “Papa”) said, as we sauntered casually past Union Station. Papa dressed like a pipe-smoking Connie Mack. And his eyes glanced back and up to the top of the building as we walked south from it on Crawford toward our family car. “It would kill you, all right,” Papa continued, “but it wouldn’t be the fall that did you in. – It would have been the sudden stop provided you by the sidewalk itself that finished the job. – So, try not to fall off any tall buildings, grandson. I’d miss you.”

Try to hear Papa’s words, Jake and George! The same is true when you’re playing center field in any ball park. We can’t think of any speedy outfielder’s career that was ruined alone by running hard to make a play, but the sudden stop created by walls, for old-timers like Pete Reiser, probably is the reason we now have warning tracks in the first place.

You didn’t need a warning track with Tal’s Hill. Its presence was warning enough, but that’s all changed now. The new center field warning track is a much quicker reach now at MMP.

As fans, we just hope you guys give yourself the time you need to make the mental adjustments to this new important playing condition.

Sometimes, “stop in the name of love” is a good thing. A very good thing. And we are now no longer talking about the danger of walls alone.

Back to baseball. – Can’t wait for you guys to get home and start the regular season.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tags: A Tal's Hill Reflection # 1
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Richie Ashburn ~ Believe It Or Not ….

March 4, 2017

ashburn-beieve-it-or-not2_edited-1

Believe It Or Not …. Richie Ashburn was not the kind of lady-killer this absolutely true Robert Ripley story sort of makes him out to be, but the facts on this one have long been witnessed, evidenced, written about and epistled into one the minor halls of bizarre baseball history. Once upon a time, during an August 17, 1957 home game between his Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Giants, future Hall Famer and virtuoso foul ball pitch count-booster Richie Ashburn managed to hit the same female fan twice in a single time at bat with hard struck foul balls. The first one hit Alice Roth in the head. That hard stroke was enough to raise the “Alice Doesn’t Sit Here Anymore” sign above her dangerously close stadium seat location and put her on a stretcher as the first step in her transportation to a hospital.

Once was not enough for Richie Ashburn. He subsequently managed to line a second stinger off poor Alice’s leg as she was about to be carried away.

Here is a link to one of several great stories about the this curiously arcane moment in baseball history:

http://www.billy-ball.com/2010/04/denard-span-and-richie-ashburns-foul-ball-not-an-april-fools-story/

I liked the above referenced article because of the views we get on her grandson’s reaction to the experience. Want more? Just Google “Ashburn hits woman twice in one time at bat” and watch what falls your way.

Believe it Or Not …. Cartoon Creator Robert Ripley had a reputation for either consciously or consciously connecting his two lesser stories in each of these newspaper versions. Ashburn is obviously the headliner in the above featured triad, but we are left to answer a couple of questions for ourselves about what Robert Ripley was thinking.

Believe It Or Not …. What is more deadly? …. Touching the skin of a Golden Poison Dirt Frog? … Or sitting close enough at a game to feel the touch of a baseball fouled off your head and leg within two minutes of the same Rich Ashburn time at bat?

Believe It Or Not …. Which is faster? …. A ticking clock at the top of Mount Everest? …. Or a decision by Richie Ashburn at any altitude to steal a base – or foul off another dumb pitch?

____________________

Alice’s Resting Spot

and a tip of the cap to earlier times, Arlo Guthrie, nad Alice's Restaurant all in one.

… with a tip of the cap to some earlier times, Arlo Guthrie, and the idea-world-horizon menu at Alice’s Restaurant …. all rolled into one.

You can get all the foul balls you want – at Alice’s Resting Spot
But some of those fouls come in pretty hot – at Alice’s Resting Spot
Sit right down – but try to watch your back
When guys like Richie – take a foul ball hack
You can get all the foul balls you want – at Alice’s Resting Spot

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Richie Ashburn ~ Believe It Or Not ....
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Happy 106th Anniversary, Union Station at MMP!

March 2, 2017

Union Station in Houston
Opened March 1, 1911
The Ballpark at Union Station
Later Opened on March 30, 2000

Happy 106th Anniversary, Union Station at MMP!

Thanks to our eye-on-the-ball freelance contributor, Darrell Pittman, we almost caught the Union Station building at Minute Maid Park quietly celebrating its 106th anniversary on the March 1st actual day it happened back in 1911. We missed our congrats by a day or two, depending upon whether you go by the central zone Greenwich Mean Time – or the computer clock calendar that governs our publication dates. – Either way, that narrow sin belongs to The Pecan Park Eagle, not Darrell. At any rate, here is the whole story, as harvested by the always-lurking-in the-halls-of-relevant-history Mr. Pittman from the the ancient pages of the Dallas Morning News:

Union Station
Story Headlines
Dallas Morning News
March 3, 1911

The Verbatim Story from the Dallas Morning News, As Reassembled by Darrell Pittman

NEW UNION STATION AT HOUSTON IS OPEN

FORMAL DEDICATION OF STRUCTURE MADE WITH OFFICIAL CEREMONY.

COST ABOUT $1,000,000

Prominent Railroad Officers Attend Ample and Commodious Structure – Well Arranged.

Special to The News.

Houston, Tex., March 2 – Union Station, the new passenger depot of the Houston Belt and Terminal Company, regarded by railroad men as being the most commodious, accessible and convenient in Texas from the viewpoint of railroad employes as well as the travelling public was formally dedicated Wednesday night when the new edifice was thrown open to the public with a reception, Music and speecgmaking. Several hundred people visited the massive structure, among them being many prominent officials from other railroads and the officials of the Houston Belt and Terminal Company and its supporting lines were heartily congratulated for providing Houston with such a handsome building.

Col. Ball Makes Presentation

Col. Thomas H. Ball, general counsel for the Houston Belt and Terminal Company, speaking from a bower of palms high up in a balcony, formally presented the station to the city of Houston.

City Commissioner Gaston, representing Mayor Rice and the city of Houston, accepted the building in the spirit in which it was tendered and the two speaker dwelt upon the fact that Houston at last had a union passenger station worth of the name. Adolph Boldt, secretary of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, also contributed a few remarks.

Railroad Men Present

Among some of the prominent visiting railroad officials who were present were G. F. Pettibone, vice president and general manager of the Santa Fe, Galveston; W. E. Maxon, general superintendent of the Harvey Dining Houses, St. Louis; S. A. Kendig, industrial agent of the Santa Fe, Galveston; J. Paul Cowley, chief clerk to second vice president of the Santa Fe, Galveston; D. O. Collamer, tariff inspector of the Santa Fe, Galveston.

New Business Section

Erected at a cost of nearly $1,000,000, the new station is considered perfect from the standpoint of location, architectural beauty and convenience. Situated only six blocks from the heart of the business section of the city, with good street car facilities, the station supplies a long-felt want. The waiting rooms, the arrangement of the ticket office, the baggage department, the trackage facilities and the dining accommodations, in fact, every department were all carefully studied and mapped out before the building was started. With ample ground space the builders were able to plan a passenger terminal which is said to be unexcelled in the Southwest.

The interior arrangement of the spacious waiting room is one of the conspicuous things about the new station. Supported by fluted columns the ceiling rises to the second story and the lone great room occupies the entire depth of the building from Crawford street to the train shed behind. Lengthwise of the building this main waiting room stretches almost from Prairie to Texas avenues, furnishing passageway and seating room for hundreds of travelers at one time. This is the white waiting room; the negro waiting room at one end of the building being large and comfortable.

Decorations Are Beautiful.

The decorative finish of the entire interior of the building is also a conspicuous feature. Imported marble – rose de Rance – from France has been used lavishly in the waiting rooms and adjoining portions of the ground floor, such as the ladies and children’s rest rooms and accessories. It is said that no such stone has ever before been used in a Texas building, and its unique texture will always be an object of interest to passers through the building.

The dining room will be under the management of the Fred Harvey concern, which bespeaks the best of service in that respect. It will be one of the largest eating houses under the Harvey management. This will be located in the south end of the building on the ground floor.

Back of the main waiting room will be a gigantic “midway” where people may stand while waiting for the arrival of trains. This space is more than 100 feet wide and one whole block in length. It is covered with a high roof, and will be cool and airy in summer. There is standing room for 1,000 people in this midway.

Trains Scientifically Handled.

The midway is separated from the train tracks by gates and an ornamental fence. All trains will back into the train sheds, obviating the necessity of passing locomotives. Trains will back in and head out, and the arrangement of tracks permits the uninterrupted movement of several trains at one time. Movement of trains will be directed and controlled from a signal tower and the interlocking system first made famous at the great St. Louis Union Station, will practically eliminate chances of accidents.

Only one-half of the ground available for train tracks has been used up to the present time. The remainder of the grounds will be held in reserve for future expansion. Train sheds and trains sufficient to accommodate eighty of the longest coaches comprise the present equipment in that respect. Between the tracks and under the sheds elevated concrete and cement walk, full width, have been built, and clean, dry and comfortable walking is thus assured.

Stories May Be Added.

The second and third stories of the building have been occupied by the general offices of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad Company. The building is so constructed that additional stories may be added without disturbing the lower floors, and officials of the company state that sooner or later three additional stories will be added. The exterior of the first two floors is constructed of a gray sandstone, the third story with red brick, and the edifice is crowned with a broad and slightly inclined roof of light green tiles, making a color effect which seems in harmony with the climate and surroundings.

Roads Using Station.

This station is at present being used by the lines of the Frisco, the Rock Island and the Santa Fe, which are the supporting lines of the Houston Belt and Terminal Company. Rates have been furnished all of the other Houston lines, however, and it is possible that sooner or later all of them will use it, with the exception probably of the Harriman lines. It is known that the Katy officials are considering the use of the station, and it is believed that the San Antonio and Aransas Pass officials will also decide to use it. Its location and connection with other railroads make it the most accessible station in Houston.

~ Dallas Morning News, March 3, 1911, (Re-transcribed by Darrell Pittman for easier legibility.)

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Happy 106th Anniversary, Union Station at MMP!
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RIP: Ned Garver Dead at 91

March 2, 2017

Ned Garver, 5’10”, 180 lbs.
Born: in Ney, OH, 12/25/1925
AL RHP: 1948-1961
Won 129, Lost 157, ERA 3.73
Died in Bryan, OH, 2/26/2017
At 91, Rest in Peace, Sweet Ned!

Ned Garver was a much better role model than Fiction’s Joe Hardy

As a baseball card collecting, sandlot baseball playing, and summer Game of the Day listening kids of the Post World War II era, many of us were blown away by the accomplishments of pitcher Ned Garver during the 1951 season.

And how could we not be?

As a smaller sized right handed pitcher for the lowly St. Louis Browns, all Ned did in 1951 was win 20 games for a club that finished eighth and dead last in the American League while still losing 102-games as a club – in spite of all that one fellow named Ned Garver did to play the game as though he had a chance to help his club reach the World Series. If it did nothing else, the Garver accomplishment managed to get through its message to thousands of us who could only follow major league baseball from the boondocks via radio, The weekly Sporting News, and whatever our local newspapers cared to print for us on a daily basis.

The 1951 Garver accomplishment was loud enough to reach and capture many of us out here – even converting many us to scattered allegiant, sometimes quietly so, followers of the St. Louis Browns. In 1951, the kids in our town followed the Texas League Houston Buffs, a farm club of the NL St. Louis Cardinals. The City of Houston was no fertile ground for the cultivation of Browns fans, after all, for another good reason, One of our big Texas League rivals, the San Antonio Missions, were a farm club of the St. Louis AL club. When the Missions came to play our Cardinal-dressed out Buffs, they came dressed out in the brown and ornage apparel of their own mother ship club.

Ned Garver did not turn us against our Houston own, but he did convert some of us kids into Browns fans who already had bought into the message that those things in life we give our hearts to full bore have a chance to succeed. Nobody in baseball modeled that belief better than Ned Garver did back in 1951. To me, he will always be the man in reality to beat out the fictional Joe Hardy from “Damn Yankees” – or even Roy Hobbs from “The Natural” – for what’s possible when, in the real world, the qualities of talent, commitment, determination, luck, and the blessing of the baseball gods come together, but only when they can all get behind the lead force of individual heart. With heart, we may all be able to push beyond the horizon of our current perspective and find the real potential of our possibilities. Without our own heart involvement , all the forces of support we can think of, all blowing as a mighty gale behind us, will not get us there.

Bill McCurdy (L) and Ned Garver St. Louis Browns Luncehon St. Louis, MO May 1996

Bill McCurdy (L) and Ned Garver
Annual St. Louis Browns Luncheon
St. Louis, MO
May 1996

Garver Career Stats

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garvene01.shtml

Ned and Dolores Garver
St. Louis Browns Banquet
St. Louis, MO
2007

Garver Obituary

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/763548?referrer_id=878183

Garver the Humorist

Over the years, New Garver served as either the toastmaster or lead speaker at just about every annual St. Louis Browns Fan Club Luncheon we held in St. Louis. We have neither the time or space to cover all the things he said here, but this one example should support the point we are hoping to make about their spontaneous (or well planned) quality. Asked once by a dinner guest if the fans in St. Louis ever gave the Browns a hard time for their losing ways, Garver just smiled as the guest concluded his somewhat bloviated version of the same idea. “Our fans never booed us,” Ned Garver offered, in that same straightforward midwestern tone he always used. Then he added: “They wouldn’t dare to boo us. – We outnumbered them.”

Our Loss

The St. Louis Browns, the Game of Baseball, the State of Ohio, the USA, and People Everywhere, especially including those of us who came to realize the influence he had come to be in our lives, all of us – just took a big loss in the passing of this good man, Ned Garver. The thing we get to keep is all the love that came with the life lesson gifts he instilled in so many of us by simply being all of the caring human being he really was born to be. And so lived to be. For 91 years, 2 months, nd 1 day.

Bob Feller (left) and Ned Garver; Two of our favorite pitchers of all time
Photo by Associated Press

An Aside to Bill Veeck

“Hey, Bill! Here comes the guy who helped make your legend what it grew to be. Maybe you really did explain your reason for not granting Ned Garver a raise after 1951 because “we (the Browns) could’ve finished last without you”, but maybe not. All we know, Mr. Veeck, is that you personally could never have left the planet as the most magical owner in baseball history without the earlier presence of Ned Garver on your 1951 Browns club.”

Rest in Peace, Ned Garver

We shall miss you – and love you – forever.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: RIP: Ned Garver Dead at 91
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Time Travel to Favorite Astros Moment

February 28, 2017

Time Travel to Favorite Astros Moment.

Please Note. We don’t think our SABR fellow, Cliff Blau, is a Houston baseball fan, but Cliff definitely stands as the archetype for those who think like him – but who ARE Houston Astros and/or Colt. 45s fans – but who ARE NOT Cliff Blau.

The reason this explanation is needed stems from the fact our website column headline, Time Travel to Favorite Astros Moment, is written to imply two facts that may not be observable to some: (1) that the single word “Astros” includes the three-year period of time (1962-64) in which our only MLB franchise to date was known as the Houston Colt .45s; and (2) that the word “Moment” includes literal moments of history to other extended periods of time or simply single games in franchise history.

My newspaper grandfather, whom my father and I were both named for, taught me many things about getting out a periodic column in newsprint that still apply in the 21st century to the digital world of blogs, And I’ve hungered for a lifetime to learn from the man who died (1913) nearly a quarter century prior to my birth (1937) through the files of work he did (1886-1913) for his own real newspaper, The Beeville (TX) Bee.

“If you have written a great headline that cannot fit into a nice-sized one-line space, figure out a way to cut it back until it, at least, rests easy on the front page as a good-enough one-liner.” ~ William O. McCurdy, Editor, The Beeville Bee, 1886-1913.

W.O. McCurdy
Publisher and Editor
The Beeville Bee
1886-1913

For this exercise, let’s use that little whirly-lights machine from the current NBC series, Timeless. On Timeless, the characters even have a wardrobe department that allows them to dress for the time period they plan to visit on planned trips. In that show, they are restricted from traveling to any time period in which they were already alive as an earlier version of themselves. Apparently, their program bosses feared that catastrophic events might occur from any of the travelers meeting up with those earlier faces of their still ongoing lives. – We are going to suspend that limitation here due to the fact it would eliminate many of the places some of you older H.G. Wells types might want to visit in the all fairly recent history of the Houston MLB franchise. All we ask in return, is that you try hard to stay away from any version of your former self – and that you promise not to try to seek out any old lost loves – and that you neither make any effort to erase all traces of anyone you actually met and mistakenly married.

Can you dig it? – If so, here are some moments to consider as destinations for your one trip back in Astros History travel time. Of course, you are free to name anything Astros that’s more important to you. Your travel itinerary is not restricted to the ideas from this list.

All we ask is that you play fair in return by posting a comment below on where you plan to go. Otherwise, this attempt at digital interactive play is a failure and The Pecan Park Eagle is totally wasting your time and ours.

Thank you. – Thank you very much.

Some Suggestions for Astros Time Travel

First Game in Regular Season History, April 10, 1962: Houston Colt .45s defeat the Chicago Cubs, 11-2, at Colt Stadium.
Don Nottebart Wins 1st Franchise No-Hitter, 4-1, over Phillies at Colt Stadium; May 17, 1963.
Ken Johnson loses, 1-0, no-hitter to the Reds at Colt Stadium, April 23, 1964.
Larry Dierker’s 1st Game as a Houston pitcher: September 22, 1964, his 18th birthday, vs. the San Francisco Giants.
First Game in the Astrodome, April 9, 1965: Houston Astros defeat the New York Yankees, 2-1; Mantle hits first Dome HR.
First Season Astros Game in the Astrodome; a 2-0 loss to the Phillies; April 12, 1965.
Jimmy Wynn Hits 3 Homers in Astrodome, 6-2, win over the Braves; June 15, 1967.
Don WiIson wins 1st Astrodome No-Hitter by 2-0 over Braves; June 18, 1967.
Astros Win 24 inning marathon with Mets in Dome by 1-0; April 15, 1968.
Larry Dierker Gets 6-0 no-hit win over the Expos at the Astrodome; July 9, 1976.
Ken Forsch No-Hits Braves at the Astrodome by 6-0; April 7, 1979.
J.R. Richard Fans 15 Reds in 13 innings; 3-2 win in 13 innings keeps playoff hopes alive; September 21, 1979.
Astros Lose, 5-3, in 10 innings to Phillies in Astrodome; October 11, 1980: miss 1st shot at 1st World Series.
Astros Lose, 10-9, in 10 innings to Phillies in Astrodome; October 12, 1980; Miss 2nd shot at 1st World Series.
Nolan Ryan Gets 5th No-Hitter at Dome by 5-0 over Dodgers; September 26, 1981.
Jim Deshaies strikes out first 8 Dodgers he faces in 4-0 Dome win; September 23, 1986.
Mike Scott No-Hits Giants, 2-0, on last day of season; September 25, 1986.
Astros lose, 7-6, in 16th to Mets at the Dome; miss chance for NLCS Game 7 with Scott the Mets-Killer pitching; October 15, 1986.
Darryl Kile No-Hits Mets, 7-1, at the Dome; September 8, 1993.
Jeff Bagwell Cranks 3 HR (2 in one inning) at Dome; Astros win, 16-4; June 24, 1994.
Astros in Biggest Comeback Win Ever (from 11-runs down); Beat Cardinals, 15-12; July 18, 1994.
Astros win 1st Game at Enron Field by 6-5 over the Yankees; March 30, 2000.
Astros Defeat Braves in NLDS at Minute Maid Park by 7-6 in 18 innings; October 9, 2005.
The Pujols Game: Monster HR beats Astros, 5-4, at MMP; forces NLCS Game 6 in St. Louis; October 17, 2005.
Astros win 1st NL pennant, 5-1 over Cards in SL behind Oswalt; October 19, 2005.
Astros Swept, 4-0, in World Series by White Sox; October 22-26, 2005.
Craig Biggio gets 3,000th MLB hit at MMP; June 28, 2007.
Game 4, 2015 ALDS: Astros Blow Great Shot at the ALCS with 6 outs to go; must see again to believe; October 12, 2015.
PLEASE DISREGARD THE # 29. This wonderful self-numbering program would neither allow me to stop at “28” nor to simply erase # “29” without erasing all of the other numbering that preceded it. Go figure.

____________________

Just punch your own time-travel clock please and then post a copy of your time-warp wormhole exodus plan.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Time Travel to Favorite Astros Moment
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »