The Shaughnessy Playoff System is the invention of Frank Shaughnessy, the General Manager of the minor league Montreal Royals back in the early ’30s as a device for giving the top four teams in an undivided league a chance to play each other for the league championship in an established format of games. The system was first deployed after the 1933 baseball season in the International League. It soon spread in popularity throughout baseball and into other sports as a way to create broader support among fans of several teams at season’s end. In other words, the post-season playoff system spread the hope and pumped the gate as though it were an offer that could not be refused.
The most common schedule format was to pair the Number 4 team against the Number 1 team – and the Number 3 team against the Number 1 team in Round One. With home team advantage going to the higher rank team, a best four games of seven series in each case determined which two teams advanced to Round Two, or league championship series – with the highest ranked team from the regular season again receiving the home club advantage in the scheduled of a final series based on the best four wins of seven format.
Here’s how the 1951 Houston Buffs made out in the Texas League Playoffs and the Dixie Series Championship that followed. The Buffs finished first in 1951 with a record of 99-61. They opened as hosts to the Beaumont Roughnecks, who tied with the Fort Worth Cats for fourth place place with records of 84-77. Beaumont won the nod as a playoff team by defeating Fort Worth, 4-2, on the road in s one-game playoff for the number four slot in the Shaughnessys. – The third place Dallas Eagles (85-75) took on the second place San Antonio Missions (86-75) in the other first round game. For purposes of brevity, we will only follow the Houston path here.
ROUND ONE, GAME ONE: BEAUMONT @ HOUSTON, Tuesday, 9/11/51: When Vinegar Bend Mizell came down with a mysterious sore throat and had to be hospitalized at nearby St. Joseph’s, manager Al Hollingsworth of the Buffs started veteran righthander Fred Martin. Beaumont Manager (and future first manager of the Houston Colt .45’s) Harry Ctaft started former Buffs star Clarence Beers. – Beers beat the Buffs, 4-1, as catcher (and future Buff) Frank Mancuso led the Roughnecks with three key hits.
Beaumont led Houston in the Series, 1 game to none.
ROUND ONE, GAME TWO: BEAUMONT @ HOUSTON, Wednesday, 9/12/51: Righthander Octavio Rubert starts for Houston, but he is quickly knocked out. Things look bad, but reliever Jack Crimian comes in to hold the Buffs close as the they chip away at a 4-0 Beaumont lead. With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Jerry Witte enters the game as an aging and tired pinch hitter. Witte singles to left center, plating two runs that put the Buffs ahead to stay by 5-4.
Beaumont and Houston are tied, 1-1, in games won.
ROUND ONE, GAME THREE: HOUSTON @ BEAUMONT, Friday, 9/14/51: With Mizell still in the hospital, knuckleball ace Al Papai starts for Houston against Beaumont’s Hal Schaeffer. Papai loses a pitching duel by the score of 1-0.
Beaumont leads Houston, 2-1, in games won.
ROUND ONE, GAME FOUR: HOUSTON @ BEAUMONT, Saturday, 9/15/51: Still no Mizell. The troubled Buffs turn to the right hander Loel Passe nicknamed Black Mike Clark because of his deep-set eyes and matching dark mood. Clark black moods Beaumont, shutting them out, 2-0, to square the Series and guarantee its return to Houston.
Beaumont and Houston are tied games won, 2 games each.
ROUND ONE, GAME FIVE: HOUSTON @ BEAUMONT, Sunday, 9/16/51: With Mizell still out, Fred Martin starts again. He holds Beaumont down as Houston rips through several Beaumont pitchers. Jerry Witte leads the Buffs’ hitting attack by going 3 for 5 with a homer. Buffs win, 7-4.
Houston now leads Beaumont in the Series, 3 games won to 2.
Meanwhile, San Antonio has defeated Dallas in seven games and awaits the winner between Beaumont and Houston.
ROUND ONE, GAME SIX: BEAUMONT @ HOUSTON, Monday, 9/17/51: There is no day off as the Series shifts back to Buff Stadium. Ocatvio Rubert of Houston and Hal Schaeffer of Beaumont hook up in a pitchers’ duel that goes into the bottom of the 8th tied at 1-1. Larry Miggins breaks it up with a two-run homer shot over the left field wall off Schaeffer to put the Buffs ahead to stay by 3-1. Jack Crimian comes in to put Beaumont down in the ninth and the Buffs have advanced to the final round.
Houston wins the Series with Beaumont, 4 games to 2.
ROUND TWO, GAME ONE: SAN ANTONIO @ HOUSTON, Tuesday, 9/18/51: Al Papai mystifies the Missions by the consecutive final score of 3-1. Larry Miggins again homers. This time, it’s a no-doubter to far left field that provides the final tally of the evening.
Houston leads San Antonio in games won, 1-0.
ROUND TWO, GAME TWO: SAN ANTONIO @ HOUSTON, Wednesday, 9/19/51: Mike Clark starts against Hoot Gibson of San Antonio. Paced by Jerry Witte’s two-run double, the Buffs jump Gibson for a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. With some late relief help again from Jack Crimian, the Buffs hold on to take a 4-3 second victory over San Antonio at Buff Stadium. I was there for that one. My dad’s boss invited dad and me to see the game with him from his first base line box and I was in “Buff Heaven.” It was my first experience with a playoff game and the Buffs won!
Houston leads the Series in wins, 2 games to 0.
ROUND TWO, GAME THREE: HOUSTON @ SAN ANTONIO, Thursday, 9/20/51: With Fred Martin again filling in for the still ailing Mizell, the Buffs crush the Missions, 11-5, at Mission Stadium. They are standing in the pennant’s doorway.
Houston leads San Antonio in the Series, 3 games won to none.
ROUND TWO, GAME FOUR: HOUSTON @ SAN ANTONIO, Friday, 9/21/09: Houston defeats San Antonio to complete a four-game sweep on their ride to the Texas League pennant. 5-3 is the final score as Jerry Witte’s 3-run homer in the 6th inning provides the winning margin. Octavio Rubert and Jack Crimian hold down the Missions one final time.
Houston wins the Series and the Texas League Championshp, four games won to none, over San Antonio.
By winning the Texas League pennant, the Buffs qualified to play the Birmingham Barons (83-71) the Shaughnessy Playoff winners of the Southern Association crown in the Dixie Series. The Dixie Series had been established in 1920 as the southern higher minor league equivalent of the World Series. In the years it was played (1920-1942, 1946-1958), the Dixie Series always featured the winners of the Texas League against the winners of the Southern Association.
Houston participated in eight Dixie Series contests, winning in 1928, 1947, 1956, and 1957 – and losing in 1931, 1940, 1951, and 1954. So, now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag, what happened in 1951? For one thing, Mizell got sick again. For another, they played pretty good baseball in Brimingham too, and the Barons caught Houston when they were dead tired. Here’s the gist of it, by game:
DIXIE SERIES, GAME ONE: BIRMINGHAM @ HOUSTON, Thursday, 9/21/09: An overflow crowd of 11,343 showed up at patriotic banter-covered Buff Stadium. In the pre-game, Buffs President Allen Russell even brought in a band. They played “Dixie” in honor of Brimingham – and “The Eyes of Texas” in honor of Houston.
Jimmy Pearsall, George Wilson, and Marv Rackley were the Barons’ big guns; famous major league vagabond Bobo Newson and Mickey Haefner were their top pitchers; and Red Marion (Marty’s brother) was the Birmingham manager.
Vinegar Bend Mizell was back, but Hollingsworth declined to start him in Game One. Octavio Rubert got the nod to face lefty Mickey Haefner of Birmingham. – The barons blast Rubert all over the place. Pearsall and Rackley both go four for four, and Jerry Witte of the Buffs cracks two doubles, but to no avail. Birmingham wins the opener, 7-3. Haefner picks up the win; Rubert is tagged early and ends up with the eventual loss.
Brimingham leads the Dixie Series in games won, 1-0.
DIXIE SERIES, GAME TWO: BIRMINGHAM @ HOUSTON, Friday, 9/22/09: Vinegar Bend Mizell finally starts for the Buffs against Ralph Brickner of the Barons. Second baseman Ben Steiner scores the only run of the game in the bottom of the first, coming home from second base on a sharp single up the middle by Buffs center fielder Roy Broome. Mizell just dominates the Barons today, striking out 14 and allowing only four hits in pacing the Buffs to a 1-0 victory
Birmingham and Houston are tied in Dixe Series games won, at one each.
DIXIE SERIES, GAME THREE: HOUSTON @ BIRMINGHAM, Sunday, 9/30/09: 16,681 fans mostly Birmingham fans show up for Game Three to watch Fred Martin of Houston square off against the legendary Bobo Newsom of Birmingham. The game is scoreless until the top of the 6th, when Roy Broome triples and Eddie Kazak is then walked intentionally by the Bobo to set up a double play situation with Larry Miggins coming to bat.
Mr. Miggins has other plans. He launches a deep home run over the wall in left field to give the Buffs a 3-0 lead that will hold up as the final score, with a little relief help from Mike Clark.
Houston leads Birmingham in Dixie Series games won, 2 to 1.
DIXIE SERIES, GAME FOUR: HOUSTON @ BIRMINGHAM, Monday, 10/01/51: Al Papai of the Buffs faces Jim Wallace of the Barons in Game Four. It’s another pitcher’s duel, but Jim Wallace of the Barons breaks it up in the late innings with a home run that gives Birmingham a 3-2 win.
Houston and Birmingham are tied in Dixie Series games won at two a piece.
DIXIE SERIES, GAME FIVE: HOUSTON @ BIRMINGHAM, Tuesday, 10/02/51: Birmingham home-boy Bobby Bragan, manager of the Fort Cats, creates a minor stir when he tells a local newspaperman that Hollingsworth and the Buffs should win because they are playing AA ball with AAA talent. Hollingsworth is briefly enraged by Bragan’s remarks, but quickly gets back to the business at hand. – Mizell starts for Buffs again against Brickner. Going into the bottom of the 6th, Mizell is in command of a 2-0 lead and looking good when, suddenly, he gets sick on the mound and has to be taken out. It’s never known from there if his illness was a new one – or just a flare up of the old one that kept him out of most of the post-season. All we know for sure is – his second illness proves fatal to the Buffs. With Mizell out of the game, Birmingham tees off on relievers Fred Martin and Jack Crimian for a 4-3 rally win over the Buffs.
With the Series going back to Houston, Birmingham leads in games won, 3 to 2.
DIXIE SERIES, GAME SIX: BIRMINGHAM @ HOUSTON, Thursday, 10/04/51: Black Mike Clark gets the nod to face Mickey Haefner as the Dixie Series moves back to Buff Stadium. Unfortunately, Haefner picks this date to pitch the greatest game of his career. Haefner has a perfect game going for him through seven innings and enough runs to win the game and Series, but he tires in the eighth. The Buffs get to Haefner for two runs and three hits, including a double by Jerry Witte, but its too little, too late. Haefner puts a cap on the ninth and Birmingham wins the 1951 Dixie Series, four games to two over our Houston Buffs.
I heard the last out on my bedside Philco radio. When we lost, I turned it off and skipped the post-game comments of Loel Passe for the first time in history. All I wanted to do was quietly cry myself to sleep, which I did. I didn’t read the sports pages the next morning or even talk about the game or series. It was another two weeks before I picked up the morning paper again. I wanted to make sure that Clark Nealon and the other writers were done with baseball and were now covering football. I didn’t want to hear about or discuss the Buff’s’ loss with anyone. I would use football to take my mind off the hurt until spring, when it was time for the real game to take over the land again with all the new hope it always brings.
Sometimes I’m reminded of certain former members of the Houston Buffs by the e-mails I get from people with a special interest in same. Yesterday I received a request for research assistance from a fellow named Ken Hogan, a guy whose doing background work right now for what he describes as a “booklet” on a cousin who played for the Houston Buffs in 1933, a BL/TR catcher named Ken O’Dea.
So, how does a guy get a nickname like “Tomato Face?” Let us count the ways he may have earned it honestly from the baseball culture, especially back in the old days.
should be a welcome breeze after all that Clark has been through over the course of 2009 and his brief thirteen-game career as the guy who was appointed to bring this train-wreck of a season into the station over the last few miles of its beleaguered journey.
As all Astros fans await the decision on who will take over the reins as the new full-time field manager of the club in 2010, it’s fair game time to talk about the kind of man who might best fill the bill. I sure can’t talk about it as a baseball insider, but as a forever Houston major league team fan since that first season in 1962, I’m like the rest of my crowd in the sense that I have my own strong opinions – and the first is easiest to express:
The six foot tall, 164 pound stringbean righthander named Jack Dalton Creel was born on April 23, 1915 in a little place called Kyle, Texas. From 1938 through 1953, Creel amassed a fifteen season record of 179 wins, 157 losses, and an earned run average of 3.37 Throw in the 5-4, 4.74 W-L, ERA record he recorded in his one 1945 season with the St. Louis Cardinals and you’re looking at a pretty fair country resume’ for a fellow who played it all out during one of baseball’s most heavily talented personnel eras.
A few years ago now, my best friend and all time greatest baseball hero got to throw out the first pitch at an Astros game in the place we now call Minute Maid Park. The date was Friday, August 3, 2001. My late friend and hero was a fellow named Jerry Witte.
Houston Baseball”s two Hal Smths were always being confused for one another. It didn’t help clarity much that they played ball in the same era and, worse, that they played the same position and both batted right handed. I’ve forgotten how often the same statement would come up from different friends at games during the 1962 first seson of the Colt .45s: “Oh yeah,” they’d say, “I remember that guy at catcher, that Hal Smith. He played for the Buffs a few years back.”
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 