The Pecan Park Eagle

Here was Carl Warwick’s view from home to the 430 feet away 20-foot high wall in center field at Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas back on June 8, 1957.

Found it!

Two days after the “Carl Warwick Hits Longest HR Ever at Kokernot” column, The Pecan Park Eagle found one brief report in the June 9, 1957 edition of the Odessa American that described how the record Warwick home run left the yard within the context of a game played on Saturday, June 8, 1957 between the Fort Bliss Falcons of El Paso and the home club Alpine Cowboys at Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas:

___________________________________

Fort Bliss Tips Alpine, 10-7

Alpine – (Special) – The Fort Bliss Falcons from El Paso made the home opener for the Alpine Cowboys a dismal one Saturday by defeating the host nine, 10-7.

Fort Bliss overcame a 6-2 deficit with a five-run rally in the sixth and then closed out with a three-run ninth inning.

Jack Shultea was the winner and Jerry Wolff took the loss.

The same clubs play here Sunday at 3 p.m.

Carl Warwick, (the) TCU star playing outfield for Alpine (this summer), hit the longest homer ever blasted out of Kokernot Field. His blow cleared the 20-foot high center field fence, 430 feet from home plate.

Tom Chandler hit  two homers for Alpine and Toby Newton also delivered one for the Cowboys.

…. (Special) – Odessa American, Sunday, June 9, 1957, Page 26.

____________________________________

Watch the streets in Houston this Tuesday, folks. That ice – ain’t so nice.

—————————————————————

01/29/2014: Addendum. – Yes! The Fort Bliss pitcher in that Carl Warwick record home run game was Jack Schultea (spelled with a “c”) of Reagan HS and UH. This morning, the Eagle was able to find a corroborating story from 1958 that shows Houston’s Jack Schultea as a star pitcher for Fort Bliss that following season and another from 1952 that showed him winning the state championship for Reagan HS with a 15-0 record and a finals win over Doyle Stout and Crozier Tech.

Both Schultea and Stout made the 1952 state high school all star team – and Stout also is now the author of the book we mentioned in the first column on this subject, “The Amazing Tale of Mr. Herbert and His Fabulous Alpine Cowboys Baseball Club.”

Small world. Also a reminder of how some early encounters in life sometimes bond two people together by history forever. (See Bobby Thomson/Ralph Branca as a prime example.)

Here’s the copy on the 1958 reference to Jack Schultea:

(1958): “Jack Schultea, pitching ace of the Fort Bliss All Stars, will get the starting call Friday when the Falcons play host to Santa Rita, N.M. at Carpenter Field. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

“Schultea, who has compiled a 3-0 mark and fanned 44 men in 27 innings, returns from leave Friday and is expected to bolster the  team’s attack considerably. Aside from his pitching talents, Schultea is carrying a .600 batting average.

“Having compiled a 6-5 record so far this season, the All Stars only recently bounced back from a double loss to Alpine by edging White Sands Missle Range, 9-8.”

…. El Paso Herald Post, June 25, 1958, Page 32.

______________________

1957 Alpine Cowboys (L>R), Front Row: Pete Embry, Ray Van Cleef, Manager Tom Chandler, Sponsor Herbert L. Kokernot, Coach Chuck Ellis, Carl Warwick, and batboy, squatting, Daryl Mueller. Back Row: Toby Newton, Larry Click, Pete Swain, Nick Herrscher, Gaylord Perry, Butch McCollum, Jim Ward, Bob Bierderman, Ron Debilius, and Jerry Wolff.

Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas is like a baseball oasis in the vast range of lonesome doves, arid deserts, and almost always faraway stony mountains that make up the heart and soul of West Texas. Built in 1947 by rancher Herbert Kokernot, Jr. for 1.5 million dollars, it has been the home of of the constantly reincarnating semi-pro to independent league baseball club known as the Alpine Cowboys almost constantly in some form now for something like 68 years and counting. Now under the control of a group ownership, the fate of the Cowboys remains pretty much of a year to year thing, but there seems always to be a spiritual entity present that will not allow the club and what it represents to die.

Kokernot Field also serves as the home venue of the Sul Ross University Lobos collegiate baseball team as well.

Kokernot Field, Alpine, TX, 2002

Anyone who chooses to write a knowledgeable in-depth story of the Kokernot Field experience in one column on a Sunday morning would be kidding themselves and performing a disservice to readers, but anyone with genuine interest can get a good head start on their own. There’s a volume of information available over the Internet, probably starting with this link as well as any other:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Cowboys

My son Neal and I visited Kokernot Field during the summer of 2002. Neal was considering Sul Ross for his choice of colleges at the time, so we drove out for a site visit at the end of his high school junior year. Kokernot Field was one thing we knew nothing about until we got there, but we were blown away to find this jewel of a park so far removed from our part of the so-called civilized world. It was old and a little used up and neglected by the time we saw it, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how things must have once been. The stadium’s gates and interior were loaded with little extra touches of decor like polished brass baseball plates on the doors, gates, and walls at critical points.

Kokernot Field, 2002.

Over time, I learned that Mr. Kokernot had brought some great ballplayers through his baseball window in Alpine. Players like Gaylord Perry and Norm Cash both played at Kokernot Field, as did greats like Satchel Paige and Ned Garver on a spring barnstorming tour.

Kokernot Field Grandstands, 2002.

Carl Warwick, later of of the Houston Colt .45’s, also played for the Alpine Cowboys in the summer of 1957. While he was there, future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry was a teammate. And also while he was there, Warwick reportedly hit the  longest home run in Kokernot Field history:

“TCU outfielder Carl Warwick, playing with the Alpine Cowboys this summer, recently blasted the longest home run in Kokernot Field history – some 430 feet.”

… Words and Musing by Charles Gillespie, Lubbock Morning Avalanche, June 19, 1957, Page 13.

Wish I could have found the actual game account of that monster shot, but I was unable to pin it down with my normally expansive digital news file account services. Still, Gillespie was a reputable writer from Lubbock. A 430 feet fly ball would probably have cleared most dead center field walls in the big leagues, although the brief event quote does not tell us where Warwick’s big hit left the field of play. Had it been hit to dead center at Minute Maid Park, the ball would still have been six feet shy of departure, but the center fielder would have been required to catch up with it at break-neck speed while running up Tal’s Hill.

Former Colt .45 Carl Warwick and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, 2013,

Perhaps, someone can remember to ask Carl Warwick about his distance record homer at the Colt .45’s discussion panel that will be conducted this coming summer at the 44th Annual Convention of SABR in Houston. Players rarely forget the details of their greatest hits and plays over time. Nor should they.

—————————————————————–

Above is the title to the book that Mar Wernick sent me about the Alpine Cowboys. I would imagine it is available on Amazon.