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Some Firsts in Colt .45 History

March 14, 2011
 

Some "firsts" performed by the nearly anonymous.

Thanks to Bob Hulsey for planting these bees under my bonnet – and thanks also to Bob for supplying The Pecan Park Eagle with his personal Colt .45 notes and those of Gene Elston, the iconic broadcaster and Ford Frick Award winner who was there to see it all happen as well or better than any other figure in Houston MLB franchise history back in the spring of 1962.

Forty-nine years ago, in early to mid March 1962, the brand new Colt .45s took the field in spring training at Apache Junction, Arizona as the first game representatives of Houston in the major leagues. Bob Hulsey’s materials served as a nudge that, while we have done a good job posting all the “regular season official firsts”  from April 10, 1962, the date of the Houston Colt .45s’ Opening Day debut in the National League with an 11-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Colt Stadium, but not much on capturing the actual firsts from exhibition game play.

This report doesn’t catch them all, but here are a handful of firsts from earliest play that we need to note, or footnote, for Houston baseball game action posterity (and thanks to the notes of Bob Hulsey and Gene Elston on all accounts):

First Game: March 10, 1962; The Colt .45s visit the Los Angeles Angels for a game in Palm Springs, California.

First Starting Lineup: March 10, 1962: (1) Al Heist, cf; (2) Bob Lillis, 2b; (3) Norm Larker, 1b; (4) Roman Mejias, rf; (5) Jim Pendleton, lf; (6) Merritt Ranew, c; (7) Don Buddin, ss; (8) Bob Aspromonte, 3b; (9) Bob Bruce, p.

First Run: March 10, 1962; Bob Aspromonte scores on an error by Marlan Coughtry.

First Hit: March 10, 1962; Roman Mejias singles off Eli Grba. Mejias goes 3 for 4 on the day, with a double that may have been the first extra base hit in franchise history but I would have to see a box score or full game report to accurately report that accomplishment as a fact.

First Team Loss: March 10, 1962; Colt .45’s lose to the Angels, 7-3; first starter Bob Bruce takes the first club pitching loss.

First Home Run: March 11, 1962; In a second game, 8-7 loss to the Angels at Palm Springs, Jim McDaniels blast a three-run home run for the first long ball in franchise history. With 13 hits, it probably also is Houston’s first double-digit hit game, but, again, box score confirmation is needed.

First AB for Rusty Staub: March 12, 1962; back at Geronimo Park in Apache Junction for their first home game, the Colt .45’s lose for the third straight time in their brief history, dropping a 6-1 decision to the San Francisco Giants. Taking over for starter and loser Ken Johnson, Dean Stone becomes the first franchise reliever in history to pitch three perfect innings, retiring all nine men he faces. Rusty Staub strikes out swinging as a pinch hitter in the fourth inning of his professional debut.

Scored 1st team winning run.

 

First Team Win: March 13, 1962; Houston travels to Tucson, Arizona to pick up their first victory as a major club, a 2-1 win over the Cleveland Indians.

First Pitching Win: March 13, 1962; Starter Jim Umbricht earns the first win in franchise history, helping his own cause with an RBI single in the second inning.

First Team Winning Run & RBI: March 13, 1962, with Jim Pendleton on second base in the third inning, a god of anonymity named Jack Waters singled up the middle to provide what would prove to be the winning run in a 2-1 first ever victory for the Colt .45s over the Indians. Journeyman major leaguer Jim Pendleton scored the first winning run in franchise history and journeyman minor leaguer Jack Waters provided the first game-winning RBI in Houston major league ball.

Jim Pendleton would go on to play often as the left fielder for the 1962 Colt .45’s, batting .248 in 117 game appearances before finishing his career as a Colt .45 minor leaguer in 1963. Pendleton batted .255 for eight seasons (1953-1959, 1962) as a big leaguer and  .293 as a minor leaguer over ten years of ball he played variously for teams below the majors from 1949 through 1963.

Jack Waters ran through a less blessed baseball field of dreams over the years, but his eventual fate matched Pendleton’s retirement after the 1963 season. Waters simply never got a major league at bat in one of the regular season games. Waters batted .279 for twelve seasons (1952-1963) in the minors. His .268 BA with 12 home runs as a BR/TR outfielder for the last 1961 Buffs club helped him get the spring training opportunity with the Colt .45’s the next spring, but his age and lack of impressive productivity in camp eventually got him demoted to the fate of  finishing out his career as a minor leaguer in 1962 and 1963.

At least, Jack Waters can now look back and still know that time will never erase his one major accomplishment in baseball, even if its value has no cash translation. Once upon a time, Jack Waters knocked in the first winning run in Houston major league baseball history. Back then, anything you could do to show that winning baseball existed as a possibility for Houston was important to the fans, even in those early and almost always forgettable early exhibition games, and Jack Waters was the first Colt .45  to pull the trigger on that hope.

As a member of the 1961 Buffs, I only remember Waters now as a non-flashy, unremarkable, but steady guy. It was enough to get him a spin and no one can ever take away from the man that short-lived stroke up the middle that makes Jack Waters today a forever footnote in team history. I would love to show you his picture, but Jack Waters didn’t stay here long enough to leave much of a visual impression that he had ever even been to Houston.

Good day, Jack Waters, wherever you are!

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Baseball All Star Game: First and Best

March 12, 2011

The AL won the 1948 Game in St. Louis, 5-2.

All Star Games were the brainchild of a Chicago newspaperman named Arch Ward, and this was back in the early 1930’s, when baseball was pretty much the only game in town and the true national pastime. There was no NBA back then and the NFL survived as hardly anything more than a minor diversion in a handful of midwestern and eastern cities in the dead winter months of a nation that had yet to taste the attractive lure of television. Major League Baseball, sixteen clubs that lived and played in the north from the Atlantic Ocean to St. Louis, plus hundreds of minor league clubs and thousands of semi-pro and amateur teams were the residence of America’s active investment in the game – and all other fan fannies found comfortable places to sit in thousands of great to rickety ballparks across the land.

Mr. Ward saw the intensity of rivalry that  existed between his own two home clubs, the AL Chicago White Sox and the NL Chicago Cubs, and he witnessed the fierce loyalty of each fan group and their equally intense hatred for their opposite numbers in the same city. It didn’t take him long to hatch his plan for an annual baseball all-star game that would capitalize on the appeal of such a contest and to gain support for holding the first MLB All Star Game in Chicago at Comiskey Park on July 6, 1933. Babe Ruth would hit the first home run in All Star Game history on that day and the AL would defeat the NL by a score of 4-2 before a large crowd.

From 1933 through 2010, eighty-one All Star Games have been played out in just about every ballpark that every city in the Big Leagues. Each league has enjoyed runs in which one club dominated for extended periods of time, but the running tally on games won today is about as even as it could be. The National League has won 40 games, the American League has taken 39 contests, and there have been two ties, one in 1961 and the most recent in 2002.

That last tie produced embarrassment too. Essentially, the game had to be stopped in extra innings as a 7-7 tie in Milwaukee on July 9, 2002 because both teams had used up all their pitchers earlier in service to the goal of getting everyone into the game. Commissioner Bud Selig had to make the call of stopping the game as a tie – and he had to do it in own back yard of Milwaukee. There was no place to hide or cover up the fact that baseball, under Selig’s watch, had not come into this situation with an adequate game plan for dealing with this kind of situation.

Disregarding the old adage that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” Commissioner Selig then followed the 2002 All Star mistake by pushing through a change in the All Star Game format. In an effort to make the game more about managers handling their personnel for the sake of winning, the All Star Game winner from 2003 forward  was anointed as the determining factor in which league club would enjoy home field advantage in the World Series.

I hated the new rule then and nothing has changed. Next to the Designated Hitter rule, the All Star Game power over the World Series is my second most hated variance from the traditions of baseball. I didn’t like the annual rotation of World Series home field advantage over giving the honor to the World Series club with the best season record, but even that formula seems more fair than the determination of that important edge by players who most probably will not be in the World Series themselves.

Having said that, I Still think the MLB All Star Game is a better contest than either its NFL or NBA counterparts. The NBA Game is little more than a basketball version of a non-stop home run contest or, borrowing from its own homer form, a non-stop slam dunk contest where it’s all about scoring with flair and playing no defense. The NFL all-star contest is little more than a sandlot game played at the end of the season as the Pro Bowl, using popular players who have survived the season among the walking wounded.

Three MLB All Star Games have been played here in Houston, in 1968, 1986, and 2004. The National League took the first one, 1-0, and the American League has captured the last two, 3-2 and 9-4. The first two of these Houston games were played at the Astrodome; the 2004 game took place at Minute Maid Park.

Over the years, baseball has tried various combinations for selecting their All Star rosters. 1957 proved that job could not be left up to the fans totally. That was the year that Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot boxes, assuring that their hometown Reds, deserved or not, would be the starting lineup for the National League at seven positions. Only first baseman Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals had survived the voting ruse. The travesty was obvious, and traceable to an organized scheme in Cincinnati to print an overwhelming number of ballots for use by Reds fans. The facts gave  the Commissioner easy, but also embarrassing grounds for intervening and making sure that seven Reds would not start for the National League in 1957. Commissioner Ford Frick appointed Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to replace Reds outfielders Gus Bell and Wally Post in the starting NL All Stars lineup.

The Cincinnati debacle of 1957 resulted in the vote being taken away from the fans until 1970. Until that time, managers, coaches, and players picked the teams, a system I would prefer to the Internet fan-blitz voting en mass we have returned to use through 2011. Let the field personnel pick the position players from their peer opponent teams of their same league. Let the All Star manager pick his own choice group of healthy, deserving, and available pitchers. And forget about fans picking their Mendoza Line (.200 BA) favorites for positions they do not deserve this year – no matter how great they have been in the past. Then play the game as a real game. Don’t substitute to showcase unless you want each club to carry a roster of fifty players each into the game.

And please ditch that hogwash award of World Series home field advantage to the league that wins the All Star Game. While you’re at it, give that deserved advantage to the league champion who finishes with the best season record. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out the tie-breaker rules that will govern those years when two teams enter the World Series with identical records.

OK, so as baseball fans, we retain the right to dream on, form opinions, and make recommendations to all the baseball moguls who get paid the big bucks to do right by baseball on purpose. We don’t expect you to be perfect. We jut want to see you get it right more often than not. The All Star Game will never be perfect either, but imperfect as it may be, the Baseball All Star Game remains as the first and best of its kind. I believe we can make it better by taking the voting away from Internet geeks and ditching that bogus connection of the All Star Game to the World Series. Fans will still support the game, if they know the most qualified judges, the players, managers, and coaches themselves, are picking the best rosters based on current year productivity.

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Freudian Slips Field Psychiatric All Stars

March 11, 2011

"Yes, this is our Freudian Slips team logo. I trust that my open-mindedness shall be duly footnoted for the ages." - Sigmind Freud.

“The Freudian Slips” is the team name I’ve chosen for my greatest psychiatric club of all time. So, here they are, listed by picture, in batting order, and by position, the nine greatest figures in the history of psychology. With each player, also, we have asked each all star to give us a brief soundbite answer to the question: “What is the game of baseball all about on at its deepest level of ontological meaning?” I am convinced that you shall find our Freudian Slips player answers both convincing and appropriately rooted in their individually established credos and previous publicly stated contributions to our understandings of life in general.

Starting Lineup for The Freudian Slips and Their Answers to the Question: “What Is Baseball All About?”:

(1) Sigmund Freud

(1) Sigmund Freud, SS-Mgr. “We all possess only one psychic energy tank for all matters pertaining to love and labor. As a result, I have only two rules for my players: (a) Leave love alone on the days we labor at baseball; and (b) Play the game as though you are trying to beat out your fathers for the undivided attention of your mothers. That’s it. Our time is up.

“Oh, yes! Pay your fee to my mother, the receptionist, on the way out and, by all means, would you like a prescription for cocaine? It will pep you up inside, keep you going till supper.”


(2) Carl Jung

(2) Carl Jung, LF. “For the longest time, I was relegated to left field for my strong beliefs in the collective universal unconscious. This brought about some stigmatization and abandonment of me by Herr Freud and his sexual energy crowd, but that’s of no concern to me now. I’m dead, like almost all of my Slips teammates.

To understand baseball, we must all dig down deep into ourselves for the lessons of the collective unconscious. The wisdom of the ages awaits us there. It is from the collective unconscious that we outfielders first learn how to play the wind, the sun, the effect of different pitchers upon specific hitters in certain game situations, and to always try to throw ahead of the runner and be sure to hit your cut-off man on throws back into the infield.

As for hitting, Yogi Berra said it best. Forget all my theory in volumes of effort at such a game moment. As Herr Berra said, ‘One cannot think and bat at the same time.’ “

(3) B.F. Skinner

(3) B.F. Skinner, 1B. “As the father of operant conditioning, I have proven beyond the shadow of all doubt that change is effected by the consistent introduction of the same stimulus to the same subject over time. If you want to become a better batter, you must get more at bats; if you want to get better at fielding ground balls, you must be willing to take infield practice.

“Summary: Baseball is about doing things over and over again until you either get them right to the best of your ability or otherwise prove that you are too stupid and inept to learn.”



 

 

(4) William James

 

(4) William James, RF. “For me, the value of  truth is always relative to the perception of importance it holds for the individual. As longs as I am able to hold onto and defend that kind of idea, I shall be able to stand in the “right field” no matter where I am.

“So. as for the value of baseball, the truth is. it’s very important to western civilization, but you must perceive that it even matters more than soccer for my words to make any sense.

“Perception is reality. If you don’t believe that its ‘three strikes and you’re out,’ I may only conclude that you shall continue to stay in the batter’s box, awaiting the next pitch.

“Would you like to wind my cuckoo clock?”

 

(5) Franz Mesmer

(5) Franz Mesmer, C.  

“As the researcher in charge of all the first studies of  animal magnetism, I was a natural selection for the position of catcher. Other people have always been attracted to me. Some even say that they find my gaze to be downright ‘mesmerizing.” Yes, that’s me, the grandfather of the early work that leads to the later evolution of hypnosis. Pretty nice contribution, don’t you think?

“As for the importance of baseball, it’s big. I didn’t grow up with the game, but I’ve been going to games at all the heavenly parks on a regular basis ever since I discovered hot dogs. For me, hot dogs truly are an ‘out-of-this-world’ experience. That’s how I came to a discovery of my own playing abilities. – Now, if you will excuse me, I need to find a mirror. It’s time for my staring break.”

(6) Eric Fromm

 

(6) Eric Fromm. 2B. “If I am to play well as the second baseman for the Freudian Slips, it shall not happen because I ‘have’ the position. It will be because I am that man – the best they could find.

Baseball is important, but it should be great based on the extant greatness of the players themselves, and not based as simply another hokum culture in which success is measured by who makes the most money by the aura of their their prospects for greatness in the future and the ways their representatives convert these into stupefying multi-year contracts.

 

 


(7) Jacob Moreno

 

(7) Jacob Moreno, 3b. “As the father of psychodrama, and the starting third baseman for the Freudian Slips, I never saw a game situation that lacked drama. Some players may lack drama, but the game of baseball, never!

Baseball is important because it gives all of us who play it well the chance to be superstar thespians with our emotional investment in the play itself. I love nothing better than those times I have to swagger in on bunts down the line. The barehand pick up is my style. And the horse-whip throw to first in time to nail the runner is my execution. From there it’s a chin in the air gaze of triumph and trash-walking mock of the batter in my saunter back to the bag.

(8) Carl Rogers

 

(8) Carl Rogers, CF. “Like the core of an onion, the importance of baseball is only revealed when we peel off the layers of everything it is not to discover what remains. – The beauty of baseball is not about how much money you make, or having Cameron Diaz as a girl friend, or being forced by contract to visit sick children in hospitals, it is about the inner passion that flows from the heart of the game itself – and the heart of the game itself operates on the three great pumps of faith, hope, and love.”

 

 

 

 

(9) Charlie Sheen

 

(9) Charlie “WIld Thing” Sheen. “What’s baseball about? … DUH!! ………. WINNING!!!”

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My Presidential Baseball Team

March 8, 2011

1860: Lincoln Had a Baseball Cartoon Long Before the Birth of Babe Ruth.

Abe Lincoln may have ben the earliest public figure to ever have been characterized by a cartoon depicting a symbolic baseball theme, but this much is sure: e got there before Babe Ruth or any of the other great stars that were about to break upon the scene of American consciousness. The cartoon here basically depicted Lincoln running for President carrying the heaviest bat (on issues) and making the most of his “time at bat.”

In another arguably quantum waste of time, I decided to design my own expanded presidential roster of the forty-three men wo have held down the forty four places in our history. It’s off by one, as you will recall, because one man, Grover Cleveland, held the job twice as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.

What I’ve done is assign each president o what I thought would be their best position on the club. The first  man listed at each position is my starter and I’ve also included some comment on how the style of each man on the pitching roster may have effected his performance and style on the mound. Another unique feature of this club is that every man here derives his uniform number from his order in the presidential succession line, a number that de facto is retired from repeated use by others for that very reason. Since Grover Cleveland earned two numbers, he uses 22 on his back for home games – and 24 on the back of his roadie garb.

Here it is: My Presidential Expanded, All Inclusive Baseball Club Roster:

1 George “General” Washington: George owns the #1 hole. He was first in peace, first in war, and usually his namesake Senators were last in the American League back in the day.

40 Ronald “Dutch” Reagan: Dutch never wanted his work on the mound to result in a taxing experience. He always double-checked the catcher’s signs because, as he once said, it is always best to “trust, but verify.”

44 Barak “Aloha” Obama: When his popularity as a starter faded, Obama adopted the public relations strategy of the 1942 Phillies. He bought an advertising sign at the Washington ballpark that read: President Obama uses Life Buoy Soap! A disgruntled unemployed fan quickly scrawled a few more words on the sign. They read: “AND HE STILL STINKS!”

37 Richard Milhous “Tricky Dicky” Nixon: Does not trust any signs from any catcher, manager, or coach. He gets by with some slimey weasel-like pitches that are basically illegal and potentially dangerous to the batter and the public in general. When asked how a brand new ball can end up with four to five cut marks after only one Nixon pitch, all he will say is: “I am not a crook!”

42 William Jefferson “Slick Willie” Clinton: (See previous two entries.)

32 Franklin Delano “FDR” Roosevelt: Every time he finds a rule in the game he doesn’t like, or simply has an argument with an umpire, he stops the game to have the matter investigated by an executive office problem-solving committee. These committee actions inevitably lead to the recommendation that a whole new federal agency be created to deal with the problem from here to eternity. Once the new agency is created, opponents are invited to the White House for a fireside chat on how they have no choice but to get used to it.

35 John F. “Jack” Kennedy: I was a “Kennedy Kid’ new college graduate when JFK won the White House. JFK was my hero. “Ask not…” and all that went with it were the winds that moved my sails. Then. As time went by. Things changed. And I woke up with less gilded faith and trust in any politician, left or right. Before my “awakening,” to the true nature of humanity, I had no idea about JFK and Marilyn Monroe, the gangster lady, or the historical record of Papa Joe Kennedy and his philosophy. All of that alters my perception of JFK as a pitcher for this club. As I see him now as a pitcher, he leans heavily on Papa Joe Kennedy as his pitching coach. And Papa Joe constantly tells him: “Never forget, Jack, it’s not how great a pitcher you are, but how you pitch on the days when the money scouts show up. In pitching, and in all things, it’s not what you are, but what people think you are that counts.”

36 Lyndon Baines “Hand-Crusher” Johnson: A very deceptive mound ace. Makes batters think they are getting something they want and then breaks off pitches they can neither resist nor afford.

22 H/24 A – Grover “Double Duty” Cleveland: “Double your pleasure. Double your fun. Count on Grover and his twin bill gun.”

18 Ulysses S. “Happy Hour” Grant: Goes right after each batter. May choose to dust every man in the opposition’s batting order their first time up. Believes he will always win any battle of attrition over time. Constantly pushes the intimidation button from “play ball” to “last out.”.

33 Harry S. “Give-Em-Hell-Harry” Truman: Harry’s A-Bomb fastball often results in teams throwing in the towel and conceding the game prior to the completion of a full nine innings.

43. George W. “Dubya” Bush: Has pretty good natural ability, but can’t find the words to explain his pitching philosophy. Tends to pitch impulsively and get into jams that he can neither understand nor get out of without great casualty to others. Every time his coaches say that they need to talk with him about the “quagmire” problem, Dubya thinks they are talking about a low spot on his Crawford ranch where water tends to collect and stagnate.

Now, here’s the rest of the roster without further comment:

Catcher

27 William Howard “Billy” Taft

31 Chester A. “Chet” Arthur

23 Benjamin “Benny” Harrison

First Base

41 George Herbert Walker “George” Bush

38 Gerald “Gerry” Ford

20 James A. “Jimmy” Garfield

Second Base

31 Herbert “Suck-Em-Up” Hoover

7 Andrew “Andy” Jackson

25 William “Bill” McKinley

Third Base

26 Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

12 Zachary “Zach” Taylor

29 Warren G. “Lover Boy” Harding

Shortstop

3 Thomas “Scribbles” Jefferson

4 James “Shorty” Madison

30 Calvin “Harpo” Coolidge

Left Field

28 Woodrow “Woody” Wilson

13 Millard “Millie” Fillmore

39 Jimmy “Peanuts” Carter

Center Field

34 Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower

11 James K. “Salad” Polk

19 Rutherford B. “Gabby” Hayes

Right field

16 Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln

17 Andrew “Andy” Johnson

15 James “Dude” Buchanan

Utility Infielder

2 John “Big John” Adams

5 James “Jumpin’ Jim” Monroe

6 John Quincy “Little John” Adams

Utility Outfielder

8 Martin “Marty” Van Buren

14 Franklin “Frankie” Pierce

Designated Hitter/Infield-Outfield

9 WIlliam Henry “Hammerin’ Hank” Harrison

10 John “Tomahawk” Tyler

That’s it. Suggested changes or lineups by comment are both requested and welcomed!

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Worst. Baseball Team. Forever.

March 7, 2011

Most of you know the story, but it bears repeating for the faint of heart who only now may be digging in to the research feast that is baseball history. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders have almost forever been the worst team of all time – and they likely shall retain that title from here to crack of doom. The reasons for both extreme assignment and prediction is one and the same: The Cleveland Spiders were the unfortunate product of an 1899 condition in baseball that will not (must not) ever occur again,

Here’s how it happened, starting with the bottom line on final results. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders finished their National League season with a record of only 20 wins against 134 losses, bad enough for last place in the 12-club circuit. The Spiders finished the year a full 84 games behind the first place Brooklyn Superbas – and  35 games behind the 11th place Washington Senators. The season was a total waste. Whereas, nearly 389,000 fans showed up to watch the 3rd place Philadelphia Phillies play at home, only 6,088 fans turned out to watch the hapless Spiders play in Cleveland.

Here’s the deal. A fellow named Frank Robison owned the Cleveland Spiders, but then, as the rules of the game then permitted, he also bought the St. Louis Perfectos of the same league. For some reason, the National League could neither spell “conflict of interest” nor foresee the obvious problem coming from this dual ownership situation. All they apparently saw was Robison as the man who would keep the St. Louis franchise from folding.

What they got was deserved.

Robison effectively turned his Spiders club in Cleveland into a farm club of service to the St. Louis Perfectos, almost immediately transferring Cleveland’s biggest stars, including future Hall of Famers Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, and Bobby Wallace, to St. Louis. That pattern was the operative two-way elevator for the balance of the season.  Cleveland players who did well moved up to St. Louis, and vice-versa.

Cleveland rage set in pretty quickly. Fans were so outraged that fear for the safety of available Spider players forced the club to play the balance of their many remaining home games on the road.

Dual franchise ownership was banned after the 1899 season, but that action came too late to alter the role of the Cleveland Spiders as the worst. club. ever.

One Cleveland tradition did take root in 1899 – and it wasn’t losing. In 1899, they signed Chief Sockalexis, the first Native American big leaguer of true big league playing ability and value – and they got keep him in Cleveland beyond their unfortunately unforgettable season. That fact would historical importance for another reason. Once Cleveland got passed naming their new American League club the “Naps” in honor of star player and manager Napoleon Lajoie, they became the Cleveland Indians in 1915, a named adopted in honor of Chief Sockalexis, the only good thing to come out of 1899 in Cleveland beyond the rule against dual team ownership itself.

Spiders may appear sinister, but humans are the really nasty trap-builders. “Oh! What tangled webs we weave!”

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Another Great Photo

March 4, 2011

Monte Irvin (left) and Larry Doby handled shortstop and 2nd base for the 1946 Negro League champion Newark Eagles before their big roles in the integration of Major League Baseball.

I just love this photo of Monte Irvin and Larry Doby as teammates on the 1946 Newark Eagles, when they played as middle infielders, no less, on a championship team. Both went on to major roles in the early days of Major League Baseball integration – and both eventually won enshrinement in the Ball of Fame at Cooperstown as outfielders, not infielders.

Larry Doby played for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers. He became  the first black player in the American League by breaking in with the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947, about three  months after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in the National League as a Brooklyn Dodger. Irvin, who previously had been the primary candidate for the groundbreaking role that eventually passed to Jackie Robinson, played his first game for the New York Giants on July 8, 1949, arriving in time to be a major cog in the incredible wheel version of the Giants that came from way back in AUgust to nip the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1951 NL pennant with Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard round the world.”

Monte Irvin batted .293 lifetime and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973. Larry Doby hit .283 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998. There is no question in my mind that both men received deserved credit also for their earlier successes in the Negro Leagues. The two Eagle buddies also would later face off against each other when their New York Giants and Cleveland Indians met in one of the most surprising outcomes in championship series history. The 1954 Indians set all kinds of records for winning that year, but their resume didn’t help them against the heart-tenacious Giants, who swept the Series in four games. This was the year of the famous “catch” by Willie Mays in deepest center field at the Polo Grounds.

Speaking of iconic photos, “The Catch” by Mays gave us one of the most famous plays in baseball history.

The Catch, 1954.

Remember? …. I thought you would.

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Best Baseball Player Born on Your Birthday

March 3, 2011

Monte Irvin, Hall of Fame. His WAR stat says he's not even among the top 5 players born on February 25th. No wonder many fans are turned off by the stat heads. These scientific people inevitably fail to measure the one quality that combines with ability to produce greatness - and that's the heart that flowed through Monte's game like the blood of life..

At a site called Wezen Ball.Com, a fellow named Larry Granillo has written a fun little piece called “The Best Player Born on Your Birthday.” As an exercise in personal amusement, Granillo has listed the top five MLB baseball players born on each day of the year, based on players with the highest “WAR” ratings who were born on that date.

“WAR” stands for “wins above replacement.” It is a statistic that attempts to measure a player’s contributions to his team’s wins in comparison with how a mythical replacement player from AAA might have performed under the same circumstances. (Ouch! It almost hurt to explain even that much of a stat that I neither fully understand or believe in. All I know is – any stat that leaves Monte Irvin off the list of top 5 players born on February 25th relative to guys who made it there is suspect in my book.)

If you really want to learn more about “WAR” – here’s a link to Baseball Reference.Com and an explanation:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Wins_Above_Replacement_Player

If you simply want to check out who “WAR” says are the five best ball players born on your birthday, here’s a link to the Granillo article. If you are an Astros fan, make a note of all the Astros listed as the best players on certain dates in history. The next Astro up on that scale is our own Jimmy Wynn, who has his next birthday coming up on March 12th. According to his “WAR” rating, our Mr. Wynn is the best player born on that date in history.

http://www.wezen-ball.com/other/other/the-best-player-born-on-your-birthday.html

Have fun. That’s what this exercise is supposed to be about.

And thanks to Bill Rogers of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society for sending this material to me.

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Oldest Ex-Big Leaguer Looks the Part

March 2, 2011

Pitcher Connie Marrero, 99, now Oldest Former Big Leaguer!

At last, we have a “World’s Oldest Living Former Big Leaguer” who looks like he might be open to a comeback trial. If he makes it to his August 11, 2011 birthday anniversary number 100, maybe some club in the pennant race will give the fiesty Cuban hurler Connie Marrero  a second try.

There remains some controversy over Marrero’s actual birthdate. Baseball Almanac and Baseball Reference, our two major online encyclopedic sources, both still list the old Cuban’s birthday as April 25, 1911.  Some more recent sources, including Wichipedia and Biographican, claim that newer studies have confirmed the birthdate from Cuban birth records as August 11, 1911. Either way, Connie Marrero remains the oldest living former big leaguer. The next man, Ace Parker, 98, wasn’t born until May 17, 1912.

Connie Marrero posted a 39-40 record with a 3.67 ERA in a five-year stint of work for the Washington Senators from 1950 to 1954. He was a little guy at only 5’7″ and 158 pounds, but he fought both fiercely and deceptively. He threw and batted from the right side.

Marrero’ style was colorful and his moves on the mound were designed to aid deception. On writer described him as more closely resembling an a dumpy-looking little Hispanic grocer in a baseball “costume.” Another wrote that his delivery reminded them of an orangutan delivering a 16-pound shot put to the plate. Forget the ridicule, scribes. The great Ted Williams said this of him: “Let Marrero get that first pitch over for a strike and you’re in big trouble.” I’ll go with Teddy Ballgame as a better judge of how the little Cuban looked to batters.

After his Senators career, Marrero returned to his native Cuba, where he remained active in Cuban baseball for the remainder of his playing and coaching days. He is still honored as something of a national hero in Cuba, but he has no pension or great reserve of money to support him into these olympian leaps into old, old age. Today he lives in a simple room in the home of a cousin, but he still gets around town some and, as the lead photo suggests, he has retained his fire and his sense of humor.

Here’s a list of the ten oldest former big leaguers by age and birthdate:

1. Connie Marrero, 99 (8/11/1911 0r 4/25/1911, take your pick).

2. Ace Parker, 98 (5/17/1912).

3. Alex Pitko, 96 (11/22/1914).

4. Ralph Hodgin, 96 (2/10/1915).

5. Nick Strincevich, 95 (3/01/1915).

6. Mike Sandlock, 95 (10/17/1915).

7. Benny McCoy, 95 (11/09/1915).

8. Freddy Schmidt, 95 (2/09/1916).

9. Art Kenney, 94 (4/25/1916).

10. Eddie Joost, 94 (6/05/1916).

Interestingly,  of the 61 oldest living former big leaguers, all are 90 years of age and older.

For the record, here’s a baseball card look at Connie Marrero as the old right hander appeared during his five-year year career as a Washington Senator in the early 1950s.

Hang in there, Senor Marrero. Some riches aren’t measured at the bank. If you are happy being nearly 100 and can walk the streets of your town with the love and respect of others, and still feel the music of your youth juicing through your system, you are richer than a lot of people much younger with a whole wad of cold hard cash alone.

Thanks for giving baseball your all too. Everything I’ve read and tried to learn about you says that you were one of those men who made baseball proud internationally by the way you played the game with your whole heart, soul, and self.

And early 100th Happy Birthday, too! – Whenever that actually may be!

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Spook Jacobs, Dead at 85

March 1, 2011

At 5'8", 155 lbs., Spook Jacobs needed paper weights in his shoes to hold down 2nd base on windy days.

Former MLB second baseman Forest Vandergrift “Spook” Jacobs is dead at age 85. Spook passed away at the Delaware Hospice Center in Milford, Delaware on February 18, 2011 following a period of failing health. Spook had lost his wife, Bobbi, at the same facility last summer after fifty-five years of marriage and had been in decline since her death. The couple is survived by their two sons and grandchildren.

The former infielder for the Kansas City Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates (1954-1956) had been a favorite of mine since his playing days with the Fort Worth Cats in 1953 – and in spite of the fact that he represented the opposition to my hometown Houston Buffs. Spook was the kind of guy I always hoped my Buffs would find a way to acquire because of his scrappy, hustling, never-say-die attitude on the field. In that regard, Jacobs stood as tall as anyone on the field.

It just didn’t happen. Jacobs moved up to the big leagues for a brief three-year spin in 1954, but it wasn’t with the  parents Dodgers. They dealt over to the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League in 1954, who then moved to Kansas City in 1955 as the next step in their gradual move to Oakland and the West Coast.

Jacobs got his nickname “Spook” for his uncanny ability to bop a few weak balls over the heads of infielders for Texas League singles. I can only tell you where I think the “spook” aspect comes into this description from what I saw as a fan at Buff Stadium. Our fan reaction from the stands was bad enough. I can only imagine as an old outfielder myself how it looked from the field.

Sometimes Jacobs could unload a sound on a batted ball that made it seem that he had just taken one over the fence. You could even see the fielders flinch back in first reaction before the visual reality of the ball’s arc became apparent: Infielders held their ground and turned to watch the ball in play; outfielders headed back on the side where they first thought the ball was hit.

Then came the visual reality: The ball was going to do well to even clear the infield. Suddenly, infielders had to peddle back fast to try to make the play. Outfielders in play, if they even had the chance, had to hustle forward in the hope that their first moves back not made them look too silly. Then, more often than not, the ball would drop in for a bloop hit, just out of reach from the “spooked” fielders.

It was a good enough act to get Spook Jacobs to the big time for a short while. He had no power, but plenty  of game. Jacobs broke into the majors for the first time at age 28 on April 13, 1954. In that first game, Jacobs did something no other major leaguer had done before him. He reached base on hits in the first four times he came to bat as a big leaguer. The performance would not be repeated until years later, when Delino DeShields broke into the big leagues and did the same act. Amazingly, DeShields was also a Delaware native.

Bobbi and Spook Jacobs

After three seasons with the Athletics and Pirates, Jacobs left the majors with a .247 career MLB batting average that included no home runs. He continued playing minor league ball through 1960, ending a 14-season minor league career (1946-1953, 1957-1960) with an impressive .300 batting average. His 6,537 minor league at bats included only 9 home runs. The man just wasn’t born to be a banger.

About 2003, I finally had a chance to meet Spook Jacobs at a baseball dinner in St. Louis. We spent a pleasant evening in conversation about many things, including his ability to “spook” that ball over the infield. “I have no explanation for it,” Jacobs said. “It was just one of those things that I did.”

Oh well. It was good enough to buy Spook Jacobs a ticket to the majors. It was good enough, also, to get Spook selected for the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. Jacobs was born in Cheswold, Delaware on November 11, 1925.

I’m just glad I got to spend an evening with the man. Forest “Spook’ Jacobs was a very nice guy to spend time with – and he never seemed to run out of either breath or baseball stories.

Rest in peace, Spook Jacobs. Amidst all the big names of 1950s baseball that are now passing, we shall miss you too.

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Adieu to the Duke

February 28, 2011

The Duke of Flatbush.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Duke Snider died Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011, at a convalescent hospital in Escondido, California. He was 84 and his cause of death was announced by family as due to “natural causes.” Snider’s health apparently had been in a state of quiet decline for some time.

The loss of the Duke inspires all the expected reminiscence about his major role among Brooklyn’s “Boys of Summer” and New York City’s “Big Three” center fielders of baseball during the 1950s. Mantle, May, and Snider – who was the best? Once the writers started coming at that angle from places other than Brooklyn, Duke Snider most often came out on the short side of highest praise, but he was still a great one, and many held onto him as their choice over Mays and Mantle in spite of all arguments to the contrary.

Why so? How could old #4 of the Dodgers have won the votes of any writer other than the biggest of homers? Duke wasn’t as fast as either Mays or Mantle. And, as a pure lefty batter, he certainly could not hit left-handed pitching as well as either the right-handed  Mays or the switch hitting Mantle. And, as a middle class kid from Los Angeles, he was never the stuff of lyrical fiction that Mays of Alabama and Mantle of Oklahoma always were as kids playing their way out of poverty with strong natural talent and that good old “love of the game.” In fact, at one point in the 50’s, Snider even sank his sympathy card further by telling a writer that he would not even be playing baseball were it not for the “big money.”

In the end, Snider ranked high by having great defensive skills, including one of the best arms in baseball, an ability to stay out of the army and off the disabled list, and a clear and elevated presence, year in and year out, among the statistical hitting leaders of the National League. In 1955, for example, and at the heart of the Mantle-Mays-Snider years in New York, The Sporting News named Duke Snider as the Major League Player of the Year as a tribute to his complete game. In 1955, Duke finished among the top three in the National League in batting average, slugging average, hits, runs, runs batted in, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases, and stolen bases. Wow!

Duke Snider may have lacked all the full athleticism of his two big center pasture rivals, but he could still cover the ground and execute most of the same sensational “out” plays with far more grace and style than either Mays or Mantle. And when the Dodgers left Brooklyn for LA after the 1957 season, Snider almost singlehandedly became the face of hero abandonment for the entire Burrough of Brooklyn. The Noble KIngdom of Flatbush had lost its Duke!

Snider’s 18-season career included 11 years as a Brooklyn Dodger (1947-1957), 5 years as a Los Angeles Dodger (1958-1962), 1 year as a New York Met (1963), and 1 final ironic year as a San Francisco Giant (1964).

For his career, Snider batted .295 with a slugging average of .540 and 407 home runs. The Dodgers retired his uniform #4 after his retirement and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. Duke scouted for the Padres and Dodgers after his playing days were done before settling into a long career as a broadcaster for the Montreal Expos.

Center field is a little less graceful this Monday morning. The Duke is dead.

God bless you, Duke. Wherever you are now, we know you will make the catch on whatever comes your way.

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