The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston Babies Had a Cow…E-I-E-I-0

June 29, 2016

HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-O
And on this TEAM they had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
(2008)

HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-O
And on this TEAM they had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
With a moo moo here
And a moo moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Nothing but a moo moo
HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-BOO

HOUSTON BABIES lacked good FORM
E-I-E-I-O
And in bad form they signed a pig
E-I-E-I-O
With a oink oink here
And a oink oink there
Here a oink, there a oink
Everywhere a oink oink
HOUSTON BABIES stank it up
E-I-E-I-OINK

HOUSTON BABIES lived bad FORM
E-I-E-I-O
And in bad form they bought a duck,
E-I-E-I-O
With a quack quick here
And a quick quack there
Here a quack, there a quick
Everywhere a quick quack
HOUSTON BABIES waddle to the BARN,
E-I-E-I-OUCH

HOUSTON BABIES don’t PERFORM
E-I-E-I-O
They make a bad trade for an ancient horse
E-I-E-I-O
With a neigh nay here
And a nay neigh there
Here a neigh, there a nay
Everywhere a nay neigh
HOUSTON BABIES rode a dead HORSE
E-I-E-I-OUT

HOUSTON BABIES played a LAMB
E-I-E-I-O
He didn’t play hard – didn’t give a damn
E-I-E-I-O
With a baa boo here
And a boo baa there
Bad throw here – Bobbled catch there
EVERYWHERE A BAD SHOW!
HOUSTON BABIES fast went LAME
E-I-E-I-COUCH

HOUSTON BABIES finally LEARNED
E-I-E-I-O
Fired the ZOO – and their fortunes turned
E-I-E-I-O
With a young ace here – an old guy there
A little luck here – and a lot of luck there
HOUSTON BABIES won some games
E-I-E-I-O

HOUSTON BABIES – NOW a TEAM
E- … I-E- … I-OOOOOOO ……..

____________________

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

Don’t Forget the “GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

If you don’t know what that is, please check out these three groundwork columns in The Pecan Park Eagle and, if you agree with us, please follow through with making your opinion known directly to the Astros, ASAP!

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Parody Ode to Old McDonald
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Houston SABR Notes: June 27, 2016

June 28, 2016

LARRY DIERKER CHAPTER
HOUSTON, TEXAS
JUNE 27, 2016

Jim Kreuze did another great program booking job for the June SABR meeting of the Larry Dierker Chapter last night. He recruited former MLB pitchers to speak last night. Jim Foor, a lefty, was a 1st round draft pick of the Tigers (1971-72) and he also played a season with the Pirates (1973). Andy Cavazos of the Cardinals (2007) , a righty, also talked at the meeting.- Foor and Cavazos each spoke on their little known, but familiar to thousands of other everyday player roads to the big leagues. In that regard, Foor and Cavazos were sort of like baseball’s version of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. And, hey, that’s big. Most of us never came close to playing in the big leagues, let alone get any mention by Shakespeare in any of his works.

Jim Foor

JIM FOOR, RHP
DETROIT TIGERS (1971-72)
PITTSBURGH PIRATES (1973)

Jim Foor also was a member of the original 2008 20th century version of the Houston Babies. He and his wife Sandy Foor were two of our brightest spots of support to our earliest vintage base ball team in the games at Lone Star College up in Conroe. In our first game against the Saw Dogs at the Lone Star field, the Babies were getting initiated into the old-ball game by the more experienced home team. Bob Dorrill and I were both sort of coaching in the opener when, suddenly, Babies pitcher Foor called time out and asked me to come to the mound for a conference. I walked out there and all the infielders joined us.

“What’s up, Jim?” I asked.

“Coach,” Foor answered with a tongue-in-cheek question of his own. “Would this be a good time for me to start signing autographs? You know, sort of as a strategy for distracting the hitters?”

Jim Foor was not only a pretty fair St. Louis-born pitcher, he was, and still is, a funny and fun guy to be around, as is his irrepressibly sunny, cute and witty wife, Sandy Foor.

At one point in his full-of-laughs presentation, Foor told us the story of his first day in spring camp with the 1973 Pirates. He approached Pirate slugging star future Hall of Famer Willie Stargell and said, “I know who you are!” To Foor’s surprise, Stargell smiled and came right back with “and I know who you are too!”

Spotting former Astro pitching ace Larry Dierker in the crowd, Foor asked, “Hey, Larry, you faced Willie Stargell pretty often, didn’t you?” – “Reluctantly” was Dierker’s one-word affirmation.

Andy Cavazos

ANDY CAVAZOS, RHP
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (2007)

Andy Cavazos was just as funny and entertaining in his own way. Andy was there last night with his beautiful wife, Sonja Cavazos, and his parents. After being drafted by the Rangers, the young Texas-born Sam Houston State pitcher ended up breaking into the big leagues for his only MLB time in 2007. Andy Cavazos is a big, big man. At 6’3″ tall and full bearded, and wearing a Colt .45s baseball cap, he impressed me as a double-take copy of Evan Gattis. In fact, once planted, that doppelganger-from-a-distance resemblance to the current Astros DH/C became an image I never fully expunged. The difference was kept clear by Andy’s modest, but very funny stories about his short time with the Cardinals. In my experience, at least, Andy Cavazos is a lot funnier than Evan Gattis ever dreamed of being.

A shy person, anyway, Cavazos says he worried a lot, at first, about being sent back to the minors. Manager Tony LaRussa apparently preferred veterans to rookies. As a result, Andy said that he decided early to be as inconspicuous as possible. “The way I figured it,” Andy said, “if they either forget or don’t know I’m here, they cannot send me down to the minors.” His comment was straight out of the Ensign Pulver character (Jack Lemmon) in the old Navy movie, “Mr. Roberts”. In the movie, the new scary Captain of the ship (James Cagney) was in command for 18 months before he accidentally discovered that Ensign Pulver was even on board.

Hang in there, Andy. You did a great thing to even reach the Cardinals for a single season. You and Jim Foor both were major speaker hits before the members of SABR last night – and those five beautiful minor league championship and all star game rings that you showed us also were very special baseball life accomplishments that few ever get to take home as keepers.But you did. It almost goes without saying, but no one can ever take those accomplishments away from you. You did it, man!

Wayne Chandler

The Astrdome Scoreboard Sowing off part of it's HR display. ~ Just one of its many gifts to the game!

The Astrdome Scoreboard
Showing off part of it’s HR display.
~ Just one of its many gifts to the game!

Wayne Chandler also spoke last night. John was the man who operated the amazing Astrodome scoreboard from 1965 through most of the time that revolutionary feature was in use. Fortunately for Chandler, he was already separated from the scoreboard by going into private business when NFL Oilers owner Bud Adams forced the removal of the scoreboard for additional football seats in the 1990s. Wayne concedes that the scoreboard’s removal saddened him greatly. If you are unfamiliar with this amazing pioneer work of art in displayable event animation, check out the following column and audio-visual examples from the Astrodome scoreboard years:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19710

Chandler was the man who made it go for whatever activity was taking place in the dome for years and that included, baseball, football, basketball, boxing, the rodeo, and everything else. When asked which of these things was his biggest moment, Chandler immediately answered that it was the UH-UCLA basketball game of January 20, 1968, when over 50,000 showed up to watch the two top ranked NCAA teams play before the then largest ever college basketball crowd to play the so-called “Game of the Century.” UH won, 71-69, that night, but later lost to UCLA in the first round of the Final Four championship weekend played elsewhere. The 1968 Astrodome game put college ball on the map of network competition for building audiences in prime time for the sport. College basketball would never be a minor commercial interest again.

Chandler also said that he knows a lot of Judge Roy Hofheinz stories that he can never tell, but he said it with a smile. Wayne Chandler feels that Judge Hofheinz Hofheinz has never received the kind of permanent recognition for his accomplishments that he deserves.

Trivia Contest

Mike Vance moderated the trivia contest that was again won by Greg Lucas. Greg will prepare the trivia contest for our next SABR chapter meeting,

Summer Meeting Schedule

Chapter Leader Bob Dorrill implored us all to remember the summer schedule and to get our ticket money for the August MMP game meeting into Jo Russell, ASAP.

There will be no SABR meeting in July 2016.

Our next SABR meeting is scheduled for Saturday, August 27, 2016.

SABR meeting in the Board Room of Minute Maid Park
Start time 4:00 PM
Speaker: Reid Ryan
Promotion: Jose Altuve Gold Glove Bobbleheads for ticketholders
Tickets: $31.00 for the game. No ticket is required for the meeting
Checks should be made out to the Houston Astros
Mail your checks to: Jo Russell, 15021 Kimberly Court, Houston, TX 77079

Money is due by by August 1st.

____________________

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

Beautiful Minute Maid Park
Of
The 436′ Deep Center Field We Love

Don’t Forget the “GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: 2016, Houston SABR Notes: June 27
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Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

June 27, 2016

Beautiful Minute Maid Park
Home of the Houston Astros

You don’t have to care about the removal of “Tal’s Hill” as many of us do. If you simply care about the 31 feet shorter center field fence distance that comes with this plan, it should be enough to involve you enough to make your opposition to these changes known to the club powers-that-be. Please read the two previous columns on this issue of why we think this matter is important. The decision belongs to the Astros, but, since we Houstonians and Harris County residents are part owners and the primary fan base of the Houston Astros, we think that we share both a right and responsibility for standing up against a move that stands to turn our unique and beautiful Minute Maid Park into the home run band box it is likely to become – no matter how many assurances we get from the club that “it won’t be so bad.”

Not so bad? Then either prove it before you do it, Astros! ~ And prove to us how Astros pitchers of the future are going to fare as well with no center field area left as the only potential graveyard for long fly balls!

Readers, if you really don’t care, then chill out and watch what happens if this change goes forward. If you like watching pinball machine games, you are going to love what you are about to get!

On the other hand, if you do care, your only hope is to make your voice known to the Astros decision-makers. It’s their decision and they are all capable of listening to the fans who stand together against unwanted change. If you do nothing – or simply don’t want to get involved – than don’t bother to complain later if these proposed field changes go through as approved for 2017. – But keep this thought in mind. – Do you remember what happened back in the 1990s when no one spoke up against Oilers Owner Bud Adam’s demand that the great animated scoreboard be removed and replaced with more seats for football? Right! We lost one of the Astrodome’s great features and the NFL Oilers still ended up leaving Houston for greener pastures when the city and county rejected his later demand for a new all-football stadium.

If only a few people respond to this appeal, the worst that can happen is that the Astros will either be drawn into one or all of these potential conclusions: (1) People don’t really care what the Astros do to the ballpark; (2) If these changes help the club win the World Series, fans won’t care what the field looks like or how it plays, even if the bandbox destroys the special advantage that some home club pitchers, especially, now enjoy with their abilities to seduce long fly ball outs to center field; and (3) So much for The Pecan Park Eagle. Who reads them, anyway?

The Eagle can live with any dismissive conclusions that this campaign brings to us. We don’t write to float an ego kite. As was true with our sandlot salad baseball days, we like to write because we love to breathe. And we breathe the truth about what we think and feel – about baseball, our City of Houston, and life in general.

If you haven’t read them, here are the links to out first two articles on the plight of Minute Maid Park. Our case for fan action is all laid out in these, including the contact information you will need to make your opinions known to the Houston Astros.

Thank you, readers and fellow fans, and thank you too, Houston Astros, for all you do to bring us the best in baseball player quality hope for a World Series championship. We also acknowledge that your decision about those changes to the field of play ultimately belongs to you. We simply strongly disagree with you on what these changes will bring to the character, history, and play-ability of dynamic, watchable baseball at our needs-no-change unique Minute Maid Park.

Here are the links to the two previous related columns:

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

We’ll be back to easier, lighter subjects tomorrow. The rest of the ride in this matter of Minute Maid Park is up to the rest of you – and that especially includes the decision-makers for the Houston Astros. We have no desire to “win out” over you. We do want to entreat you to re-think an issue about fixing something that really isn’t broken and doesn’t need to be fixed. Your flexibility in this matter, we are convinced, would be perceived as a sign of your strength. Also, there should be plenty of other space elsewhere to expand revenue streams that do not require the usage of any space from Tal’s Hill, even if it means expanding to include some current external space, without sacrificing the home field advantage and dedicated history of our all-around current field configuration. External space contiguous expansion could also be more convenient for enterprises that remain open to the general public on all those days throughout the year in which no ballgames are being played. – That’s just our two cents opinion. On these revenue stream matters, we are a very affordable business consultant.

Regards to All,

The Pecan Park Eagle

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

The Future of Minute Maid Park

June 25, 2016

Today’s article is a brief follow-up to yesterday’s “Save Minute Maid Park” column.

Save Minute Maid Park

Here are the two points we hope were made clear in yesterday’s column, plus two more items that need to be added for the sake of full transparency. We want the Astros to leave the playing field alone, as is, and always has been – as the most fun baseball park in the big leagues:

The Pecan Park Eagle is not trying to tell the Houston Astros how to run their business – as long as those decisions do not seriously and permanently impair or destroy our unique and dedicated ballpark – or the quality of baseball it affords us to watch in our unique home digs.
We are saying that when the Astros make a decision to eliminate a unique feature of the ballpark – one that also has been respectfully dedicated from the start to someone who has been more important than any other front office person to the development of the Astrodome, the Astros, and our MLB history than any other individual – while, even more importantly, also consequentially converting the ball park fence distances to those of a band box for commercial reasons – and taking away our pitchers’ home team advantage of learning how to get batters to retire themselves by hitting fly balls far away into the Polo Grounds quality abyss of space in center field – that it becomes our right and responsibility as fans and long-term supporters to protest a move that is both a slap at our park’s uniqueness and the man – Tal Smith – for whom Tal’s Hill is named – as well as a destruction of a home field advantage for some of our elite and savvy pitchers – and an invitation to boredom for the many of us who think that all those faraway fly ball chases and triples are more exciting than the increased redundancy of cheap distance home runs.
We very much appreciate the vast improvement in the quality of the Astros’ competitiveness over the past three years and we do recognize that it takes money to place and keep that kind of result in motion. We simply believe that severely altering the way our ballpark plays is not justifiable or in service to that end. We think that the proposed changes are going to flatten out the field into a boring spectacle of “baseball pinball” as the major result – and we are not dissuaded from that opinion by club justification responses for bringing the fences in closer that amount to little more than statements of “it won’t be so bad.” To that position, we say, prove it. We don’t believe it. And we remain certain that the exciting Gonzalez triple Wednesday night, in the final game of the Angels’ series, will forever be more fun to watch than the cheap home run it would have become had the new shorter distance wall already been in play this past week.
Better yet, leave the field dimensions and Tal’s Hill alone. Find some other ways to enhance revenue streams on the property without destroying the way our unique park plays out as a thing of special beauty.

Make Your Opinion Known. If we do not stand together as a larger voice of protest, we have no basis remaining for complaint when the worst happens to what has been our beautifully unique Minute Maid Park. This two-column editorial at one modestly devoted-to-Houston baseball site is not enough in itself without your strong voices of support.

Readers who agree with The Pecan Park Eagle are encouraged to contact the leadership of the Houston Astros at the following regular mail and e-mail addresses and make their own opinions known in this matter – One caution. – We know the e-mail address for Reid Ryan is correct at “astros.com” and we are presuming that our guesses on the e-mail addresses for Jim Crane and Nolan Ryan may also work. My apologies, but “The Eagle” doesn’t often fly into the social circles of any of these three good men. In fact, we only have Reid Ryan’s e-mail address because, as President, he’s the public face of the Astros. So, bear that in mind, and, if your e-mails to Mr. Crane and the elder Mr. Ryan should fail, please use the U.S. Mail addresses also provided. They still work, even in this digital age.

For what it’s worth, our transmissions to all three Astros leaders went out three hours ago and there was no notice of blocked, failed, returned, or erroneous address. And those are all good signs.

One More Perspective on the Issue of Speaking Up. We knew the risk when we decided to speak up on this issue. We know that, if no one else joins us in speaking up, and in large enough numbers, our considered pleas in this matter shall be easy to disregard as the mad ramblings of a lone, or small in numbers group of malcontents who haven’t yet learned not to get in the way of big business. How you respond is now up to you. You may choose to register your opinions with the powers-that-be, and spread the word to everyone else you know who feels the same as we do – to do the same. Or you may choose to sit back and not get involved and watch what happens and doesn’t happen. If you choose the latter route, then please don’t bother to complain once all the things we have been talking about here have taken place in reality.

Thank you for your time – and your attention. Now here’s the acid test of your resolve, You are all free to write – or not to write. By now, early Sunday morning, we are reasonably sure that all of the e-mail addresses are alive and in play. And we know for certain that the Crawford Street mailing address is totally good.

Please Go To Bat for MMP! ~ Then hand the bat to someone else who feels as we do!

____________________

Mr. Jim Crane, Owner and Chairman

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: jcrane@astros.com

____________________

Mr. Reid Ryan, President, Business Operations

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: rryan@astros.com

____________________

Mr. Nolan Ryan, Executive Advisor

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: nryan@astros.com

_____________________

Thank you.

Respectfully offered,

Bill McCurdy

The Pecan Park Eagle

______________________

Go Astros in Kansas City! – We will take all the first round TKO wins you can dish out!

______________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: The Future of Minute Maid Park
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Save Minute Maid Park

June 24, 2016

Tal’s Hill
Minute Maid Park
Home of the Houston Astros

Save Minute Maid Park

Tonight, The Pecan Park Eagle chooses to use this off-day on the Astros’ regular season AL schedule to tilt at a specific windmill, even if the effort amounts to little more than “pi**ing into the wind”. The subject deserves the support of anyone who cares about the preservation of the unique playing surface and fence distances of Houston’s Minute Maid Park – and the accurate history of Houston MLB level baseball. The Astros plan to proceed with the postponed plan to remove Tal’s Hill and the in-play flagpole it contains after the 2016 season, ostensibly for the safety of players, even though no center fielder has been injured beyond an occasional fall by either feature in the 17 seasons these features have been in play since the park first opened in 2000.

We safely presume that the real reason for this removal of what makes MMP unique among all big league parks is not player safety, but the club ownership’s desire to convert that 30 some odd deep and wide space in far center field into retail space and new revenue streams for the organization. We get that. And they have every right to look for new ways to streamline and expand their revenue avenue for the sake of a competitive and expensive MLB operation, but not if it cheapens the value of the game that is played on the team’s home ground – or the history of the franchise. “The Hill” was named for Tal Smith, the man who did more than any other administrative person over the first fifty years to raise and develop all that happened for Houston during our long tenure in the National League.

In brief, here’s what we think is important to the issues raised by the current plan for the removal of Tal’s Hill:

The elimination of Tal’s Hill is matched, if not surpassed, by the damage of bringing those fences in from 436′ in deep center to about 405′ feet as the deepest depth reading. With the left field line already at 315 feet and right field set at 325 feet, MMP becomes a band box for a plethora of cheap and boring home runs. Anyone who tries to tell us differently hasn’t done a careful precise study of the actual home run percentage increase that shall occur as a result of this change. Neither have we. Do a one year study of ball flights and departure heights that is congruent with the actually proposed distance and fence heights of the new fences and prove us wrong.
All we know for sure is that the beautiful triple by Marwin Gonzales that scored George Springer from first base last night with the go-ahead run against the Angels was one of the most exciting plays one could ever hope to see on any baseball field. Since that ball landed high on the wall above Tal’s Hill, we know for sure that under the propose new shorter dimensions, it would have been simply another routine and uninspiring home run.
Converting the venue into a redundant homer park deprives smart pitchers like Dallas Keuchel from having the kind of season he experienced in 2015. Like others, Keuchel learned that getting hitters to loft those high flies to dead center’s death valley was his compensatory salvation for those short porches in left and right. Turn center field also into a “normal” MLB center field and the edge is lost for our pitchers’ developed home cooking style of keeping that ball in play through the center as much as possible. Visiting pitchers don’t have the time to wise up to this strategy. If we do not preserve the center field edge, we may as well forget about seeing any future Astros pitcher breaking Keuchel’s consecutive wins record at home without a loss.
As for the Tal’s Hill features themselves, please leave them alone. The hill – the in-play flagpole – and the man that area is named for – Tal Smith. – He is part of our rich history.
We shall presume that you shall find a spot for Tal Smith in that Astros Hall of Fame and Museum we understand you are planning to build at MMP. We also think you are doing a wonderful thing by that move, and that you are aware that leaving Tal Smith out of any Houston Baseball Hall would be on the oversight level of leaving Alexander Cartwright out of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.
We also hope the Astros will consider locating their Astros Hall of Fame and Museum in that area behind home plate that is accessible to the Texas Avenue entrance, one block east of its intersection with Crawford Avenue. The fans will love it – and history will remember all of you who acted to preserve and respect our rich Houston baseball history in an accurate manner.
Thank you for your time here. Your attention to these important specific issues is imperative to the job of helping the preservation movement that now is alive and well in Houston in so many ways. We are no longer the city that simply tears down or throws away viable continuity and history when its time to make money in some new way – and without regard for all the still practical viability (the deep center fences, for example) and history that we take to the trash in the process of serving short term cash needs.
Readers, please make your opinion known – here and to the Astros.
In summary, the Tal’s Hill issue is a two-headed snake. (a) it’s about preserving the integrity of our unique stadium history; and (b) it’s about keeping the distances in center field that make MMP unique and extremely important to our Astros pitchers.

Respectfully Submitted,

The Pecan Park Eagle

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Save Minute Maid Park
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Jackie Price: The Duke of Baseball Dexterity

June 23, 2016

“Batter Up~ Pitcher Down!”
Jackie Price

We did a column on the darker side of baseball’s most athletic baseball clown back on February 5, 2014. It was entitled, “Jackie Price: Fatal Sadness of a Baseball Clown”. If you have never read it, we invite you to do so. Here’s the link:

Jackie Price: Fatal Sadness of a Baseball Clown

Today we invite you to take a small look at a film we found on Baseball Almanac of Jackie Price, performing at his best, throwing three baseballs simultaneously and accurately to three different men – and then doing the same trick standing on his head with no assistance.

Here’s the link to the Baseball Almanac Jackie Price page. The specific film link is down the front page of that site and easy to find by the first picture you will see.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/videos.php?p=priceja01

Jackie Price could do so much more on the baseball field than that one short film could hope to ever produce. At Buff Stadium, one time, we got to see him run down faraway fungo fly balls as the driver and lone occupant of an open jeep, driving with one hand – and catching with the other. He didn’t miss a single catch.

God Bless you again, Jackie Price. It was a dark day for the human race when the forces of unshared despair took you from us. Your public persona and incredible performance was an inspiration to us all. If only you had been able to deal with your demons.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Jackie Price: The Duke of Baseball Dexterity
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game

June 22, 2016

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park By Patrick Lopez ~ As advertised earlier this year for the February 20, 2016 dedication of the old park's location as an historical Houston site.

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park
By Patrick Lopez
~ As advertised earlier this year for the February 20, 2016 dedication of the old park’s location as a historical Houston site.

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game

Here’s how the Galveston Daily News reported a now more appreciated iconic moment in Houston baseball history with only a mild notation and no fanfare on July 2, 1904. Historical appreciation for the importance of the moment, especially by our fifty-miles-away neighboring Galveston media, simply wasn’t present beyond the minimal allowance that this “was the last game at the park”:

____________________

ANOTHER GAME FORFEITED.

Houston Won the Game Played with Beaumont.

Special to The News.

Houston, Tex., July 1. – Houston this afternoon took another game forfeited by Beaumont under the decision of Secretary Farrell. The Beaumont club did not appear at the park and the decision went to Houston. The other game was played, and was won by Houston on the good work of Sorrell in the box. The visitors got only one hit off him. The team gave him strong support. This was the last game at the park.

~ Galveston Daily News, July 2, 1904

_____________________

Houston defeated Beaumont in the actual last game played on July 1, 1904, with pitcher Sorrell of Houston throwing a complete game, 1-hit, 3-0 shutout of Beaumont. The actual appearance of the above scripted article, complete with the box score, follows this notation. Thanks again to Darrell Pittman for providing the Pecan Park Eagle with this classic reminder that the significance of most detail matters in history serves best over the low flame grill of time. Even today, details are not so microwavably apparent in the moment that some would hope to have us believe they should be. Maybe some things of far greater frame, like the assassinations of Lincoln or JFK, the tragedy of “911”, and, in sports, even the last night incredible comeback of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals are obviously significant in the near moment of their occurrences, but little nuts and bolts matters that hold together the history fabric of a long-time process, like the growth and development of baseball in Houston, are much slower to relish appreciation for their less obvious contributions, if at all.

The variably referenced ball park at the corner of Travis and McGowen, south of downtown Houston, was formally dedicated by the name “Fair Grounds Base Ball Park” as a historical site on February 20, 2016. A permanent plaque was installed at the SE corner of the Milam and McGowen intersection. Mike Vance of the Harris County Historical Commission served as Master of Ceremonies for the Saturday morning ceremony that also represented support from the State of Texas Historical Commission. It was nicely attended by a good showing of local baseball history supporters.

____________________

“Buffalo Walking”
(at Fair Grounds Base Ball Park)
~ a more lyrical view of the venue
By Patrick Lopez

_____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game
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Baseball Reliquary Doing Great Things

June 21, 2016

Baseball Reliquary Doing Great Things

The dictionary defines the word “reliquary” as “a container or shrine in which sacred relics are kept.”

As such, the “Baseball Reliquary” is described as is “a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities.” Los Angeles County, California is the Baseball Reliquary’s base sponsor, with other support coming from private donors, registered membership in the activities of the organization, and the apparent fire and synthesis of creative forces that come together to develop the reliquary collections and creative presentations that spawn from this passionate base of association among those who care about the baseball culture, its rich history, and the muses of expression that bring our national pastime forever back into the foreground of our consciousness of the game’s incredibly large contributions to the life and language of our broader American social face.

To borrow from the unforgettable Reggie Jackson, we are impressed from afar that Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary, also seems to be “the star that stirs the drink” for what already has transpired as the precious gifts of obliquely conscious artifact preservation and original music and poetic contribution come to mind. Because of the creative juices at play here, the Reliquary even contains a soil sample from the original 1845 Elysian Field location among the items in its collection, and they are about to sponsor a performance of original folk music songs about some of the most famous players and characters in the history of the game.

Here’s the material that went out to the world on April 2, 2016 about what sounds like an amazing day of entertainment in Pasadena, CA on June 25, 2016. For those readers who live in the So-Cal area, this sounds like a “don’t miss it” opportunity. For the rest of you, my apologies for not getting the word out earlier, but I just learned today what’s planned for this coming Saturday. Here’s the flyer:

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The National Pastime: Musical Presentation by Ross Altman, June 25, 2016, Pasadena, CA

By Terry Cannon on April 2, 2016

THE NATIONAL PASTIME Musical Presentation by Ross Altman Co-sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary and the Allendale Branch Library Saturday, June 25, 2016, 2:00 p.m. Allendale Branch Library, 1130 S. Marengo Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106

Ross Altman Photo
Courtesy of Jesse Saucedo

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Baseball is a metaphor for life. It has a larger-than-life hero (Babe Ruth); it has a flawed hero (Pete Rose); it has a patriotic hero (Ted Williams); it has hubris (Roger Clemens); it has a colossal failure (“Casey at the Bat”); it has a symbol of America’s greatest tragedy – racism – and our determination to overcome it (Jackie Robinson); it has comedy (“Who’s on First?”); it has poetry (Jim Murray); it has a tragic disease (Lou Gehrig); it has mental illness (Jimmy Piersall); it has a cautionary tale (Mickey Mantle); it has a song (“Take Me Out to the Ball Game”); and above all it has a history. So does life. Los Angeles folk singer Ross Altman celebrates them all in his new show, “The National Pastime,” on Saturday, June 25, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., at the Allendale Branch Library, 1130 S. Marengo Ave., Pasadena, California. The program is free of charge, and light refreshments will be served. Come out to the Allendale Branch Library and Play Ball!

Ross Altman has a Ph.D. in English. Before becoming a full-time folk singer, he taught college English and Speech. He now sings around California for libraries, unions, schools, political groups, and folk festivals.

“The National Pastime” is co-sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary and the Allendale Branch Library. The program is supported, in part, by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

List of songs and ballplayers to be featured (though not necessarily in this order):

1) “Mickey Mantle” (Mickey Mantle)

2) “Pride of the Yankees” (Lou Gehrig)

3) “There Was Babe” (Babe Ruth)

4) “Old Number 9” (Ted Williams)

5) “Mr. Baseball” (Pete Rose)

6) “Ballad of Jackie Robinson” (Jackie Robinson)

7) “Knuckleball Blues” (Phil Niekro)

8) “LA’s Poet Laureate” (Jim Murray)

9) “The Rocket” (Roger Clemens)

10) “Civil Rights and Baseball”

11) “Who’s On First?” (Steve Bilko)

12) “Fear Strikes Out” (Jimmy Piersall)

13) “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”

~ Flyer Info from The Baseball Reliquary

Sounds great, Terry! And thanks for the incidental confirmation that I’m not quite as crazy as some may think. I’ve never had the opportunity to have taken my little gardening digger to Elysian Field, but I do have a healthy collection of the home plate area soil from Eagle Field in east Houston, where our Pecan Park Eagles once flew high on the sandlot of our Houston-based dreams. And I’ve even handed out a couple of small decorative bottles of the precious turf to a couple of surviving members of our 1950 club. My bottle sits in my office – with a steel ID wrist bracelet I used to wear back in the day wrapped around it.

For those of you who may be interested in joining, supporting, or simply learning more about the Baseball Reliquary, please contact Executive Director Terry Cannon at terymar@earthlink.net

Keep the passion burning, everybody. In the end, we all come to realize that our passion for living is the only juice that keeps us breathing all that makes life beautiful. And the folks at The Baseball Reliquary seem to understand that relationship very well.

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Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Baseball Reliquary Doing Great Things
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Three Inner Baseball Rules Questions

June 20, 2016

Beyond “balls and strikes”, there are subtle rules questions which sometimes elude us who have been playing and then watching the game for seventy years. We’ll own up to that always challenging affliction, when it rears its head, like now, and even invite any of you who know the definitive answers to dive in here, chapter and verse, and enlighten us on the correct ruling in each of these two cases. We also have what may be more of a “baseball culture” question that connects to one of these recently generated game questions. Please give us a comment on any or all of the three total questions.

Item No. 1: In our column “You Win Some, You Lose Some” of the other day, we reported on the facts of a ruling from 1949 Houston Buffs game. Here’s that reported again:

HOUSTON, June 4 (AP) — The Shreveport Sports scored two runs in the seventh to come from behind and take a 3-2 protested decision from the Houston Buffs here Saturday night. The Sports’ runs came with one out when [Lewis] Davis doubled with [Howard] Auman and [Vernon] Petty on base.

Manager Del Wilber of Houston protested the game with two out in the third inning with Bud Hardin at the plate. Hardin swung at a pitched ball and when the bat connected with the ball, the bat broke in two with the ball rolling into fair territory. The top part of the bat then hit the ball for the second time, knocking it into left field over third base.

The umpires first ruled it a base hit and Hardin held first base. However, following a consultation between the umpires, it was ruled that any ball hit a second time on the same play by a bat, the batter is out.

~ Galveston Daily News, June 5, 1949.

Question No. 1: Were the umpires correct in calling Bud Hardin out for hitting the ball twice with his bat on the same pitch? Buffs manager Del Wilber didn’t think so and protested the game. His presumptive thinking was that this incident didn’t fit the existing rule that prohibits a batter striking at a ball twice on the same pitch. What made it different? Once the bat broke into two pieces, it was no longer a bat but a piece of flying junk – and completely out of the batter’s control on any second contact with a piece of wood that was no longer a bat. This piece of wood struck the ball – knocking it into left field for a base hit – which it might have been done had the ball collided with anything else solid enough that suddenly appeared in the field of play – like an animal running across the field and causing the ball to be redirected to an unreachable place in fair territory by incidental contact. We support Wilber’s protest on this one, but it’s doubtful the Texas League allowed his protest. They would have been forced to think too much to see the point we are trying to make here. – We’ve always presumed this “batter out” rule for double-bat contact on one pitch was to punish the intent of any batter who fouled a ball at the plate and made it an easy target on low bounce rises from the first contact in that home plate area to be golfed again by the batter by intent with a very quick second swing contact with the same one-pitched ball. In the Hardin case here, there was no intent to strike the ball twice since flying pieces of wood lack the capacity for intentional action in any situation without intentional human action putting a piece of wood in motion for that purpose in a way that could be predicted and controlled – and, obviously, the human element of control was totally missing in this matter.

Given these suppositions, what do you think, or know, of the Wilber case for protest on the basis of the fore-stated grounds?

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Item No. 2: A scoring question that arose from an OOTP (Out-Of-The-Park) simulation baseball game I played a couple of nights ago.

The Facts: As manager of the home team 1951 Cardinals, my club was trailing the Phillies, 8-2, going into our time at bat in the bottom of the 7th. We then scored 5 runs in that frame, highlighted by a grand slam HR by Bill Howerton. We were really pumped. Going into the top of the 8th, we now trailed by only 8-7, with two more innings to go. We could take this thing, if our pitching could only hold down the Phils from scoring again in the 8th or 9th.

Del Ennis led off the top of the 8th by blasting a 2-2 pitch from reliever Dick Bokelmann to left center for a double. Then, with a 1-0 count on catcher Andy Seminick, it happened.

Here came the rains. And although rain isn’t too visible in sim baseball, it apparently was enough for the robotic umpires to call the game, My Cardinals lost, 8-7, after coming back from being 6 runs down and allured again by hope that 2 more innings to play might be enough time and space foor a redemptive miracle rally win.

But no. That was all now taken away by programmable weather.

Question No. 2: When a game is called because of rain in the top of the 8th, doesn’t the score revert to the winner being the team that was leading through the 7th? That would have made the Phils an 8-7 winner over the Cards and erased the double by Ennis in the 8th, right? That is not the way OOTP handled it. OOTP scored it an 8-inning game, shortened by rain, even though Del Ennis and Andy Seminick (for one pitch) were the only batters to appear in that inning. The double by Ennis remained in credit in the box score. I love the OOTP game, but I think they have a program flaw to take care of here.

Question No. 3: This was a frustrating game to lose in simulation. I can only imagine how touch it would be to comeback from that far down in a real game and have the game-chances then killed by a rain out. How long do you think real umpires would take to call a real game that got this close in the manner this one did – this late in the game?

Let us hear from you!

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Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Three Inner Baseball Rules Questions
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Happy Fathers Day 2016

June 19, 2016

Dad and Me
Beeville, Texas
1939

When I was growing up (and I say that in deference to the fact that, for some of us, growing up seems to be a never-ending experience), my father always had the same advice for every disappointment I had in baseball, with girls, or any other pursuit of happiness or meaningfulness in my early life.

“That’s just one of those things,” Dad would say. – It didn’t always help, but it was bloody consistent. And I’m glad to understand better now that it was just Dad’s way of saying back then what we’ve all heard and come to lean upon in times of disappointment today. ~ “S*** Happens”. And, sometimes, it’s enough to simply have someone around that we love and respect to remind us of the fact. It sets the tone for the rest of the lesson that comes later: Whether we once lost the big game of our youth, or failed to hit in the clutch, or had our heart broken by losing the first big love of our life, or suffered some kind of academic disappointment, or were unable to reach what we once thought would be the pinnacle of our working career, or so be it. Time provided the missing rest of the lesson: “S*** Happens.”

As time passed, we learned that, while disappointment hurt us, it didn’t kill us. And it may even have made us stronger. If we also figured out the lesson of the pain, and the role we played in setting up our own disappointment, we even may have walked away with a small piece of wisdom that has kept us from going through the same old “ain’t gonna work this time either” delusion that suckered us into the same hurtful sting from an ancient dead bee in other earlier, but similar instances.

Thanks, Dad! Life’s pains hit. “Stuff happens.” But over time, if we learn from these predictable rocks in the road on Ego Lane, they each turn out to be “just one of those things” that are put in our way for us to either learn from – and then go on from there with our lives in a fuller state of wisdom – or to simply die or go insane repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Happy Fathers Day, William Oscar McCurdy II! ~ You have been physically gone from my life for over two decades now, but your love remains in my heart, as does mine for you, my sweet father. It still reaches out to you and your passionate soul in that other realm you now call home.

In the Name of Our Undying Love ~ Happy Father’s Day ~ And the Same to All of You Other Dads Out There too! ~ We Hope This Sunday Is Special for You Also!

~ The Pecan Park Eagle

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Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags: Happy Fathers Day 2016
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