The Pecan Park Eagle

Mr. Mayor Himself, Hal Epps!

During their 1947 Texas League and Dixie Series championship season, they called Hal Epps by a nickname that fit well with his ability ti patrol the deep central pasture at Buff Stadium. Hal Epps was known as “The Mayor of Center Field’ for the speed, agility, arm, and intelligence he brought to the job as center fielder for the Houston Buffs.

Epps also was no slouch on offense in 1947. He batted .302 in 136 games, banging out 24 doubles, 15 triples, and 6 homers along the way. “Clutch” could have been his middle name, Time and again, Epps supplied the key hit in a late inning Buffs rally. He was the guy that you wanted at the top of the order and the fellow you wanted in center when it was time to take the field.

Beyond watching my dad play, Hal Epps was the first outfielder that ever drew my attention in the summer of 1947. I was nine years old and watching Buffs baseball for the first time in my life. I wasn’t analyzing anything back then. All I knew is that I wanted the Buffs to win and that Hal Epps seemed to be a big part of helping the Buffs reach that outcome, Right after second baseman Solly Hemus, my first Buffs hero in 1947, Hal Epps rode into my mind and imagination next as the great rescuer of hope for victory. As a kid, Solly Hemus and Hal Epps were the guys I wanted to se coming to the plate more than any others when the Buffs really needed a run to get back into a game. Funny thing is – that wasn’t a hard crush to embrace. Those were the same Buff players that most grown ups wanted to see in the clutch as well.

Hal Epps (BL/TL) was born in Athens, Georgia on March 26, 1914. He played a 15-season minor league career (1934-43, 1947-49, 1950-52) and a 4-season major league career with the St. Louis Cardinals (1938, 1940), St. Louis Browns (1943-44), and Philadelphia Athletics (1944). Epps batted .300 as a  minor leaguer and .253 as a big leaguer. His defense was always impeccably strong. He simply didn’t hit well enough (or lucky enough, often enough) to get more opportunity in the big leagues during that very talent-crowded, totally owner-controlled era of the reserve clause.

Hal Epps had a long, scattered-over-time history with the Buffs, playing for the club in 1936-39, 1941-42, and  1947-49. Following his retirement from baseball after the 1952 season, Hal settled in Houston and lived out his life quietly from there as a steel worker, raising his family and being the good dad and father that we all aspire to be, He cared nothing for the spotlight or making speeches – and he held on to a kind of shyness about public appearances or utterances for the rest of his days.

I didn’t get to meet Hal Epps, one of my first two Buff baseball heroes,  until the September 1995 Last Round Up of the Houston Buffs. He was quiet, friendly, and reserved, but very real. Everything about the soft-speaking gentleman said, and without words, “this is who I really am. I’m just grateful to have lived out my life as i did with no regrets.”

Who among us could ever really ask for anything more? And how many of us actually pass into our sunset years with that kind of honest settlement with ourselves that fully in place? If we come close to the peace of an aging Hal Epps, we are most fortunate. Crowds made Hal nervous, but he was happy with himself and how he had lived his life. And he loved the game of baseball to the end.

Hal Epps passed away in Houston at the age of 90 on August 25, 2004 and he was buried in a military service held at the National Cemetery on Veterans Memorial Highway as a result of his honorable military service in World War II. By the way he lived his life and played the game of baseball, Hal Epps left this world as a distinguished example of how one member of the “Greatest Generation” walked those values of integrity and loyalty without even trying.

That is just who he was. I simply was blessed to have crossed his path on a golden late summer Sunday in 1995.