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The Bruise Brothers of Baseball All Stars

July 29, 2010

My Big Day with Phil & Joe Niekro, November 2005.

Thinking of the Niekro Brothers this morning lit a fire for putting together an All Star team comprised only of major league brothers. The following is the result of that thought. It may be short on left-handed pitching, but I’ll take my chances going into battle with these Bruise Brothers of Baseball any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The only selection rule I followed was the requirement of using at least two brothers from a family of MLB players.

Here’s the roster for The Baseball Bruise Brothers (Hall of Fame Members in bold type):


Pitching Staff:

* Dizzy Dean, P (150-83, 3.02 ERA)

* Phil Niekro, P (318-274, 3.35)

* Stan Coveleski, P (215-142, 2.89 ERA)

* Gaylord Perry, P (314-265, 3.11 ERA)

* Joe Niekro, P (221-204, 3.59 ERA)

Jim Perry, P (215-174, 3.45 ERA)

Paul Dean, P (87-37, 3.75)

Harry Coveleski, P (81-55, 2.39)

Bob Forsch, P (168-136, 3.76 ERA)

Ken Forsch, P (114-113, 3.37 ERA)

Cloyd Boyer, P (20-23, 4.73 ERA)

* The Five Starters

Position Players:

Sandy Alomar, Jr. C (.273 BA, 112 HR)

Luke Sewell, C (.259 BA, 20 HR)

Ed Delahanty, 1B (.346 BA, 101 HR)

Roberto Alomar, 2B (.300 BA, 210 HR)

Ken Boyer, 3B (.287 BA, 282 HR)

Joe Sewell, SS (.312 BA, 49 HR)

Clete Boyer, INF (,242 BA, 162 HR)

Jim Delahanty, INF (.283 BA, 19 HR)

Paul Waner, LF (.333 BA, 113 HR)

Joe DiMaggio, CF (.325, 361 HR)

Hank Aaron, RF (.305 BA, 755 HR)

Lloyd Waner, OF (.316 BA, 27 HR)

Dom DiMaggio, OF (.298 BA, 87 HR)

Tommy Aaron, OF (.229 BA, 27 HR)

Opening Day Lineup:

Paul Waner, LF

Joe Sewell, SS

Joe DiMaggio, CF

Hank Aaron, RF

Ken Boyer, 3B

Roberto Alomar, 2B

Ed Delahanty, 1B

Sandy Alomar, Jr., C

Dizzy Dean, P

That’s it for me, but let us know your own choices. There were plenty of others out there that qualify for a team of this type. Also, if you haven’t weighed in your support for the Houston Astros retirement of #36 in honor of Joe Niekro, please go over to the past column on that subject and check in with a statement.

Thanks. Here’s the Niekro article link:

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/its-time-to-retire-joe-niekros-astros-36/


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Old Timer Games at the Dome

July 24, 2010

All Time Greats at Dome in ’68 included Satchel Paige & Joe DiMaggio.

Thanks to Larry Joe Miggins, the son of former Buff and Cardinal Larry Miggins, I received this wonderful material on the All Star Games they used to play in the Astrodome during the reign of Judge Roy Hofheinz as Guiding Light of the Houston Astros. The Judge treated his invitees in first class order, honoring the old Buffs equivalently to all those national Hall of Famers during the short time they all convened in the Astrodome for a little fun on the diamond for a few fun innings of recreated greatness.

I’m sorry the above group line makes it so hard to recognize all the great stars that suited up for the 1968 game, so allow me to coast-to-coast their identities from left to tight in slightly larger type. Right here in Houston in 1968, we had Bobby Bragan, Bill Dickey, Allie Reynolds, Ewell Blackwell, Monty Stratton, Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, Johnny Mize, Solly Hemus, Stan Hack, Grady Hatton, Pete Runnels, Lou Boudreau, Ducky Medwick, Harry Walker, Lloyd Waner, and Joe DiMaggio.

Let’s make recognition a little simpler. Here is the panorama, now broken into two cropped sections. left to right, as follows:

Left Side: Bobby Bragan, Bill Dickey, Allie Reynolds, Ewell Blackwell, Monty Stratton, Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, Johnny Mize, & Solly Hemus.

Right Side: Stan Hack, Grady Hatton, Pete Runnels, Lou Boudreau, Ducky Medwick, Harry Walker, Lloyd Waner, & Joe DiMagggio.

All of them legends, and most of them Hall of Famers, were right here on the field level of the Astrodome, competing again on a celebratory level for no greater reason than their love of the game and an ancient desire to stay connected to what happens on the field .

How do you top that 1968 lineup? Well, maybe you don’t, but the 1969 Astrodome All Star Old-Timers’ Game wasn’t exactly chopped liver. In a game that pitted the Houston Old-Timers against MLB Stars from the 1952 National League All Star Team, Stan Musial and Roy Campanella shone pretty bright in their own realms. Here’s how those rosters appeared on the front page of Old-Timers’ Day, a September 1, 1969 publication of the Houston Sports Association:

What a great party that must have been for all those wonderful ballplayers of the greatest generation. I feel privileged to have known and been close friends with a number of the men on the Houston Old- Timers roster – and I wouldn’t trade the time I’ve spent with men like Jerry Witte, Red Munger, Larry Miggins, Frank Mancuso, Solly Hemus, and Buddy Hancken for anything in the world.

Here are a few of the photos and captions for Buddy Hancken, Solly Hemus, Frank Mancuso, Larry Miggins, and Jerry Witte. Unfortunately, the advertising article failed to provide a photo block for Red Munger and several others. Even more sadly, Solly Hemus and Larry Miggins are two of the dwindling survivors in 2010 of that roster from 1969. Please note too, that some of the information below was not copied completely for undistorted reprinting and in some cases it also was not totally accurate. Consult the Minor League Player Data file at Baseball Reference.Com for a a complete picture on the careers of each man featured here:

I’m not sure how either of these games from 1968-69 played out on the Astroturf, nor am I sure how many games were played totally. I just know that they went on long enough for Astro youngsters like Jimmy Wynn to get his fill of autographs from former stars like the great Dizzy Dean:

Jimmy Wynn Gets Dizzy Dean’s Autograph, About 1968. 

Larry Miggins reports that he went 5 for 5 overall in all Old-Timers games at the Dome, which is a pretty good average for any man’s league.

Jerry Witte once told me that Roy Campanella remembered him as a post World War II opponent in the American Association during the 1948 short time that their paths crossed as players for Louisville and St. Paul. “I remember you from Louisville,” Campy told Jerry when they met again at the 1959 Astrodome Old Timers Game.. “You were the guy who always came to the plate stomping bugs in the dirt with the business side of his bat.”

Wow! No wonder Campanella made it to the Hall of Fame. Any catcher with his talent, and there weren’t that many, who could also be that mindful of the little characteristics of a hitter he saw so long ago and not that often is bound to have been a special talent.

The 1969 Dome game also was special in light of the fact that two of its players, Roy Campanella and Stan Musial, had only weeks earlier been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.

I don’t know why we no longer have Old-Timer Games in Houston, but I would imagine that two factors are strongly in play as to why not: (1) liability for personal injuries to ancient warriors is probably more expensive these days, and (2) I don’t think today’s older players care as much about getting out there on the field again as their earlier counterparts once did.

Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong.

Just in case, here’s my starting lineup of former Astros whom I think could still get out there and play three to five innings – as long as they didn’t have to do it again in the same season:

2010 ASTRO OLD-TIMERS

Terry Puhl, rf

Craig Biggio, 2b

Jose Cruz, lf

Jeff Bagwell, 1b

Art Howe, 3b

Kevin Bass, cf

Phil Garner, 2b

Alan Ashby, c

Craig Reynolds, ss *

Doug Drabek, p

* I first suggested Roger Metzger for shortstop, but then, early in the day, Tom Murrah reminded me that I had forgotten an even younger, more available former Astro in Houston resident Craig Reynolds. I agreed so strongly that I made the change here.

Who would you add to the roster or delete from these starters? And please post your comments below. If you are a former Astro player, please feel free to add or delete yourself too. Maybe we can come up with a group that’s so viable we get an Old-Timers Game booked at Minute Maid Park next season.

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Valian’s: Houston’s First Pizza Pie

July 23, 2010

Valian’s, 1955 (Postcard Courtesy of Vito Schlabra)

Valian’s opened on South Main at Holcombe, across the street from the Shamrock Hotel, in 1955, as the first restaurant in Houston serving “pizza pie.”  I’ve written on this subject before, but I only received this beautiful postcard shot yesterday from Vito Schlabra, one of my old St. Thomas High School buddies. The desire to write a few more lines about the first and still best pizza to ever hit town was irresistible.

Unless you grew up Italian in Houston, chances were great heading into the 1950s that you had no idea in the world what a pizza was. Our Texan palates were just that deprived. We liked all kinds of food – and that included chicken, chicken fried steak, and a broad variety of Mexican dishes. Of course, we liked Italian food too – as long as it came in the form of meatballs and spaghetti or macaroni and cheese, but delights like  lasagna, ravioli, manicotti, fettucine, and pizza were not back then even words that ever fell from our lips in everyday speech at hunger time. We were simple cokes and burgers kids.

Then came Valian’s and everything began to change. Forever.

Slow on the draw with things new, I didn’t discover Valian’s until 1957 and the spring of my freshman year at the University of Houston. And it happened on campus during the annual Frontier Fiesta that we staged each spring for the purpose of having fun and throwing our student mean GPA out the window.

One of the fraternities, I think it was Alpha Phi Omega, ran a little cafe they built in our little Fiesta City western town called Yosemite Sam’s. They were selling Valian’s “pizza pie” by the slice. It was the first time I’d ever come close enough to smell that alluring cheese aroma and just had to give it a try. No more than two slices later, I was hooked for life.

There was something different about the unique cheese, tomato sauce, and crisp crust taste of Valian’s pizza that I’ve never tasted elsewhere – and there is nothing even close to Valian’s in the Houston of 2010 that I’ve been able to discover either.

Pizza is not this Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Domino’s bloated “cheese bomb” that these corporate clowns like to disguise as “deep dish.” Pizza is the ultimate “man’s food” – and that includes all simple prepared foods that may be eaten on the spot, heated or cold, with virtually equivalent sensuous satisfaction to the male palate.

When the Valian’s family closed their place on South Main in the early 1980s, they also closed the door on their incomparable recipe for this terrific culinary delight. If only someone in that family knew what it could mean to bring that special pizza back to Houston in 2010. They could blow away the feeble cast of competition inside of thirty days, tops.

One funny pizza memory I have to retell. When I told my mom about Valian’s, she didn’t rush my dad out there to try it. She did what moms of that era did. She went to the grocery store, looking for ingredients, and found even more. She located one of the first “pizza pies” at the A&P on Lawndale near 75th in the still fairly new frozen food section. Knowing nothing more of pizza than the facts that it came frozen and was then called “pie” by both Dean Martin and her beloved son Bill (i.e., “when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore”), Mom bought the product at the store  and brought it home to serve cold and unthawed to my dad as dessert. – I wasn’t around to post any warning.

“What in the Sam Hill hell is this?” I think were my dad’s reported words after he bit once into the still unthawed taste of frozen pizza. Even when I later took my parents to Valian’s, dad would not try pizza prepared the right way. You see, once dad made a decision, there never was a court of higher appeal. He was like that about food and just about everything else. No matter how unfairly it may have occurred, pizza lost its only chance with Dad. It was the word “pie” and the temperature of the frozen food that misled Mom. She knew how to read, but often didn’t. So much for whatever instructions may have come with the grocery version.

Where are you Valian’s, now that Houston could use a really good pizza again?

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Nobody’s Perfect, But …

July 22, 2010

His Error in '21 Series Killed the Yankees.

Fair or not, most people today remember Bill Buckner for the ball that rolled between his legs in the 1986 World Series while he was playing first base for the Boston Red Sox. The error in Game Six allowed the New York Mets to win Game Six and then take the Series in Game Seven after all hope had seen lost. I’d be willing to bet that many people remember the Buckner play incorrectly as the last the play of the Series too, but that’s how the brain rearranges disaster over time.  It always cartoons it to a worse degree.

“My drunk husband not only left me without any money, doctor, but he punched out my cat and ran over my mother as he was backing out of the driveway at fifty miles an hour! – Well, maybe it wasn’t quite all that bad, nor all his fault, but that’s how it still feels to me.”

Bill Buckner wasn’t the first man in baseball to have his whole career tagged with a single disappointing play, nor is he likely to be the last. In fact, life itself plays out that way. It doesn’t matter how much good you’ve done, if you do something outrageously negative or scandalous, and it comes to light, as these things most often do, that is what the world is going to remember about you when your name comes up. Got that one, Mel Gibson?

Early 2oth century shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh had one of those Bucknerian moments in the 1921 World Series as a player for the New York Yankees. It was the first Yankee trip to a World Series and the Babe Ruth-led club had faced off against the more established Giants of feisty manager John McGraw in the first great “Battle of New York” for supremacy in the baseball world.

The best five games won of nine series had been a tough fight. An injury and elbow infection to Babe Ruth had mostly robbed the Yankees of their greatest weapon and the Giants’ superior pitching depth was beginning to turn the tide.

Since both clubs still shared the Polo Grounds as a home field in 1921, all they did each was trade dugouts and home team advantage status on a daily basis – with no off-days for unnecessary travel.

The Yankees started as the visitors, but quickly rocked the Giants by taking the first two game by the identical scores of 3-0. Carl Mays went the distance in Game One, surrendering only five hits, but 22-year old rookie Waite Hoyt matched that dominance of the McGraws in Game Two, giving up on only two hits.

The Yankees led the Series, two games to none.

Games Three saw the Giants explode like a baseball bomb against Yankee hurler Bob Shawkey and his no-relief bullpen buddies as they pounded out 20 hits in a 13-5 romp, following a quick recovery from an early Yankee lead of 4-0. Fred Toney started for the Giants, but yielded early to Jesse Barnes for the coast to victory. As  a Local side note, Franks “Pancho” Snyder went 4 for 5 in this game as the Giants’ catcher, Seven years later, Snyder would manage the 1928 Houston Buffs to the Texas League and Dixie Series championships in the first year of Buff Stadium.

Phil Douglas pitched the Giants even in Game Four, 4-2. Carl Mays started again for the Yankees because manager Miller Huggins had little confidence in his starters beyond Mays and Hoyt. Mays, the same guy who accidentally killed Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman in 1920 with an inside pitch, had a another good game, but the three runs he gave up in the eighth did him in.

After four game, the Series was tied at two wins each for the Yankees and Giants.

Game Five saw Waite Hoyt come back and take his second victory over the Giants and their starter, Art Nehf. The Giants only run was unearned, giving Hoyt an 18-inning ERA of 0.00 and the Yankees a 3-2 Series lead.

And then the worm turned.

With Babe Ruth now out with a life-threatening elbow infection in those pre-antibiotic “good old days,”  Jesse Barnes relieved starter Fred Toney for the Giants again and pitched the McGraws to an 8-5 win over the Yankees and lefty Harry Harper and Company. The Series again was tied at 3-3.

Carl Mays of the Yankees squared off again against Phil Douglas of the Giants in Game Seven. Both men pitched beautifully, but clumsy thinking in the field and a seventh inning error in the field by Yankee second baseman Aaron Ward gave the Giants an unearned run that stood up as the deciding tally in a 2-1 Giants victory. The Giants now led for the first time in games, 4-3, and needed only one more win to take it all.

Roger Peckinpaugh Made It Back to the Series with Washington in 1924-25.

The “visiting” Giants sent Art Nehf out there in Game Eight to face Waite Hoyt and the “home team” Yankees in Game Eight and, once more, both men pitched beautifully in each going the distance. Nehf gave up six hits; Hoyt only 4. Neither man surrendered an earned run, but Hoyt suffered the loss when a first inning error by Yankee shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh allowed a tally that held up as the only run of the game.

The Giants won the 1921 World Series, 5 games to 3. Pitcher Waite Hoyt tied Christy Mathewson’s 1905 record for a 0.00 ERA over 27 innings pitched, but mistakes in the field kept him from sharing Deep Six’s victory lap.

Hoyt must share the blame, even though much of history prefers to put it all on Peckinpaugh.

Hoyt had started Game Eight by walking Dave Bancroft and Ross Youngs. Then, with two outs,  George Kelly hit a routine grounder to shortstop Peckinpaugh for what should have been an easy third out play. As things work out sometimes, Roger muffed it. The ball deflected through his legs into short left field. Then, according to several media witnesses, Peckinpaugh appeared to nonchalantly track it down for a play at the plate that came far too late to get the speeding Bancroft, who had been running from second.

It was only one run in the top of the first, but it held up as the one score in the game and the deciding blow in the World Series.

Peckinpaugh was inconsolable at game’s end over his mistake, perhaps, making it even easier for the press and Yankee fans to pile it all on his back. Shortly thereafter, the Yankees dealt him away to the Red Sox with others in exchange for shortstop Everett Scott and others. Peckinpaugh later got another shot at the Giants as a member of  the 1924 Washington Nationals and this time he played for the winners of a seven-game series. The following season, Peckinpaugh’s 1925 Nats lost a seven-game series to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

What goes around, comes around. Continuously. Roger Peckinpaugh finally made peace with himself over Game Eight of the ’21 World Series. There’s redemption and peace for Bill Buckner too somewhere down the line – and maybe it’s already happened on some quieter plane that none of us could even know about. I certainly hope it has. I always liked Buckner.

On another plane of its importance to baseball history, and for a most worthwhile read on the times and  significance of the 1921 baseball season, pick up a copy of “1921: The Yankees, The Giants, & The Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York” by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg.

If you care about history, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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Baseball’s Most Unbreakable Records

July 20, 2010

Cy Young: 511 Career Wins

What is baseball’s most unbreakable modern record?

In the interest of arguable fair ground, you have to right away discount the zany heights statistical records of 19th century players who took the field to a very different kind of game back then. Old Hoss Radbourn of the 1884 Providence Grays stands gritty and clear as the best example here. Pitcher Radbourn won 59 games in 1884. Think we’ll ever see the likes of that accomplishment again?

Here are my candidates for the most unbreakable records in modern baseball. I heartily invite you to join in with your own choices in the comment sections that follows this column.

My List of Unbreakable Major Modern Baseball Records (Please note that I’m staying away from the arcane or impossible to verify personal marks of players who may not change their underwear all season if they think the digs they are wearing every day serve as the source of some newfound good luck.):

(1) Cy Young’s 511 Career Wins. Cy’s total wins stagger the imagination. Compiling his total during the iron-man era of 1890-1911, it isn’t likely that any modern pitcher will ever again come close to the Young 511 total. Twenty wins for twenty years straight in the 21st century would still leave a pitcher about 111 wins short of tying the record and, these days, it isn’t likely that a great pitcher making today’s money would ever want to pitch long enough and often enough to challenge Cy.

(2) Napoleon Lajoie’s .426 Batting Average in 1901. Ted Williams was the last man to hit over .400 when he posted a .406 mark in 1941. That was 69 years ago and few have come close to .400 since. It’s conceivable to me that another great hitter may come along and hit .400, but topping Lajoie’s .426 all time highest modern era batting average seems highly improbable. Maybe a young Ichiro could have given it a a good run, but we’ll never know. (NOTE: I originally treated the birth of the Modern Era as 1903, the first year of the World Series, because that is the way I’ve thought of it since I was a kid. SABR friend Mark Wernick writes in to remind me of the technicality that the Modern Era is now considered to be 1900, the first year of the American League. Maybe it’s always been that way. I simply never thought of it as beginning until the NL/AL started competing against each other. The difference here is that 1903 makes Rogers Hornsby’s .424 from 1924 the all time one season high BA, whereas, 1900 turns the honor over to Nap Lajoie and his .426 BA from 1901. I can live with passing the baton to Lajoie. Now it’s even more improbable that this record wll ever be broken.)

(3) Cal Ripken’s 2,632 Consecutive Game Playing Streak. I can’t see anyone coming along with the talent, health, drive, and luck to break Cal’s Iron Man record for consecutive games played. Besides, the game has moved even further away from the idea of iron-men performances since Ripken’s retirement – making it even less probable of it ever happening again.

(4) Joe DiMaggio’s 56-Game Hitting Streak. Except for a few other great contact hitters like Willie Keeler, George Sisler, Ty Cobb, and Pete Rose, all of whom made it into the 40-game territory, most of the others conk out in the late 20’s or early 30’s. One other difference: The pitchers in DiMaggio’s day saw the streak as a manhood challenge and wouldn’t dare pitch around him. Except for a few guys today like Roy Oswalt and Carlos Zambrano, most 21st century pitchers and a number of their managers would most likely walk a guy four times if he reached 55 games and it still made more sense to the object of winning to walk him rather than face him.

At any rate, without stretching or straining the point too thin, those are the four records in Major League Baseball that I think are the safest from breakage any time soon, if ever, and expressed here in the order I feel represents safest to least safe.

In general, I think they are all about as safe and certain as death and taxes. What do you think? Maybe I missed something that ought to be added to the list.

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The Post WWII Baseball Trinity

July 19, 2010

(L>R) Ted WIlliams, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio (It took a cigarette ad to bring baseball's "Big Three" together).

In the years following World War II, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees were baseball’s unholy trinity of swat. Of course, they were unholy. They were neither the three natures of God in One Divine Being, nor were they clean of endorsement money from the tobacco industry. Of course again too, cigarette smoking was not the cultural sin in the 1940s and 1950s that it was later to become. Ted, Stan, and Joe were just normal American males as cigarette users, although DiMaggio may have been the only one who chain-smoked through games. The stories of him ducking into the clubhouse tunnel from the dugout between innings at Yankee Stadium are the stuff of legend by now.

All I know is – I had to use the attached crop from an old Chesterfield ad to get the three great ones of my childhood aspiration years in one photo. If they ever made a photograph together, and I’m sure they did, it was too obvious an attention-grabber to miss. No self-respecting news-hound of that era’s All Star Games could have allowed that photo opportunity to have passed every year they were there together – and that was just about every season they all shared in common. I just could not find the expected photo of all three guys smiling and waving bats over their hitting shoulders in one tight pictorial.

I thought it would be interesting to take a brief broad ban look this morning at how The Big Three’s statistical accomplishments and honors compared over the years. Let’s start with tenures of service and batting averages.

Joe DiMaggio started earliest, finished earliest, and played the least time in the big leagues. DiMaggio broke into the majors in 1936, missed three years, 1943-45, due to World War II, and then finished his 13-season career (1936-42, 1946-51).

Ted Williams reached the majors second in 1939. Technically, Williams played 19 seasons in the big leagues, but he also lost 1942-45 fully to World War II and all but 43 games total of the 1952-53 seasons to a second tour as a fighter pilot in Korea. Williams concluded his career (1939-42, 1946-60) with a home run in his last time at bat.

Stan Musial started last and played for the longest tenure of time. Musial’s 22-season career (1941-44, 1946-63) cost him only the 1945 season to military service.

For their careers, Ted Williams batted .344, Stan Musial batted .331, and Joe DiMaggio batted .325. Not a shabby tab for any single outfield that might have had both the good fortune and the bucks to have afforded all three. – Williams, of course, was the only one to ever hit over .400 (.406 in 1941) and Joe D. is the only man (period) to have ever hit in 56 consecutive games (also in 1941). All Musial could do was lead the three-man pack in batting championships with 7 National League titles (1943, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, & 57). Williams finished a close second with 6 American League titles (1941, 42, 47. 48, 57, & 58). Joe DiMaggio won only two American League batting titles in 1939-40.

All three guys could hit for power, but only Stan Musial never led his league in home runs. Williams took 4 HR crowns in the AL with 37 in 1941, 36 in 1942, 32 in 1947, & 43 in 1949. Joe DiMaggio took a couple of crowns, early and late. Joe D. won the AL title with 36 HR in 1937 and again in 1948 with 39. For their careers, Williams struck 521 homers; Musial blasted 475; and Joe DiMaggio hit 361.

On the most runs batted in side, Williams won 4 times (1939, 42, 47, & 49); DiMaggio won 2 times (1941-48); and Musial also won twice (1948, 56). Joe D’s 1941 total of 125 rbi to Ted’s 120 cost Williams the triple crown that year. Williams is the only triple crown winner in the group. Ted took the big trifecta two times, winning the triple crown in 1942 and 1947.

Oddly, Ted Williams failed to win the AL MVP award in his .406 BA 1941 season or in either of his 1942 or 1947 triple crown years. Writers gave the MVP nod in 1941 and 1947 to Joe DiMaggio. Joe Gordon of the Yankees received the award over Ted Williams in 1942. Go figure.

MVP totals include 3 for DiMaggio (AL: 1939, 41, & 47); 3 for Musial (NL: 1943, 46, & 48); and 2 for Williams (AL: 1946 & 49).

World Series Experience. All three stars played only for their original teams: DiMaggio played  for the Yankees; Williams for the Red Sox; and Musial for the Cardinals. DiMaggio, of course, got to play for the most World Series winners. Joe D. played for 10 winners  in 11 World Series tries (1936, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 47, 49, 50, & 51). Joe’s 1942 Yankee loss to the Cardinals was his only disappointment. Stan Musial played on World Series winners in 1942, 44, & 46, losing only in 1943 to the Yankees. Ted Williams got into only a single World Series that his Red Sox lost to the Cardinals in 1946.

DiMaggio played for World Series winners in 1950-51 and then retired. Williams and Musial labored for the all of the 50’s and into the early 60’s, winning nothing more with their teams. Even the greatest stars cannot do it alone.

Williams and Musial both hit from the left side; DiMaggio from the right. The two American Leaguers from California (Williams and DiMaggio) were egoists of the first order; one was just louder than the other. The other guy (Musial) was as humble, nice, and down-to-earth as the people who raised him in the coal country of western Pennsylvania, but so what? All three were baseball greats of the first order.

I personally like Ted Williams as the greatest hitter of the era, Joe DiMaggio as the greatest fielder of his time; and Stan Musial as the greatest all around player from that period of the greatest generation. That was the 1940’s.

The 1950’s weren’t about these three guys. By the mid-50’s, the discussions of the greatest player had shifted to Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, or Duke Snider – with Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, and Al Kaline all showing up soon enough with their own support for recognition.

Keeping those latter guys from the 50’s separate from the mix, what do you guys think of Teddy Ballgame, the Yankee Clipper, and Stan the Man? Who among them was the greatest in your opinion?

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1980: Astros take Playoff with Dodgers, 7-1

July 17, 2010

Texas Baseball Hall of Fame Induction, 2005: Artist Opie Otterstad, Presenter Greg Lucas, Inductee Joe Niekro.

The date was October 6, 1980. By tailspinning into a three game sweep loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on the West Coast, the Houston Astros found themselves facing the same club to break a dead heat tie for first place in the National League West. The winner would advance to play the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League pennant. The loser would go home to a winter of discontent that overflowed with thoughts of what might have been. Whomever advanced and then lost to the Phillies might surely do the same from a steeper cliff, but today the business was about winning the opportunity to simply try.

By an earlier coin flip, LA had won the right to be the home team n the event that the Astros and Dodgers ended up in a tie and needed a playoff. Their LA win on coin flip for the special one-game playoff site was convenient to staging since the Astros were already in town, still trying to recover from dropping a three-game series that left them in a 92-70 identical finish with the Dodgers, anyway, but that didn’t make the game any easier as a proposition for the staggering club from Houston. Down hearts came out of the woodwork with their predictions for our Astros’ full demise, but there was no giving up in us hard-core fans, or in manager Bill Virdon, or in the Astros themselves.

Astros manager picked Joe Niekro (19-12) to pitch the biggest game in franchise history. Niekro would be opposed by Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda’s selection, Dave Goltz (7-10). By league rules, stats from the special playoff game would be included in the regular season team and individual records of each club. Therefore, the stakes for Knucksie Niekro of Houston were even higher. Houston’s first division championship, a shot at the World Series, and a second straight 20-win season were all riding on what he did on the mound this special day.

Houston got on the board early. In the top of the 1st, Terry Puhl reached first base on a leadoff E-4 by Davy Lopes and then advanced to third on a single by Enos Cabell. With Joe Morgan batting, Cabell then stole second to amp the Astros threat into a “runners at second and third with nobody out” situation.

After Morgan fanned, Jose Cruz appeared to reach on a fielder’s choice, but the play at the plate was muffed by the Dodger catcher Joe Ferguson, allowing Puhl to score. With Cabell now on third and Cuz on first with one out, Houston led, 1-0.

Cabell then scored on a Cesar Cedeno ground out to make it Houston, 2-0, but that would be it for the first stanza. An Art Howe single would move Cruz to third, but Dodger starter Dave Goltz would pitch his way out of further harm.

Joe Niekro didn't just throw the ball. He fluttered wobblers by the dozens.

After Joe Niekro retired the Dodgers in order over the first two innings, the Astros added two more runs in the top of the third to increase their lead to 4-0. They got those tallies with the old “Here’s Howe” recipe. After Cesar Cedeno singled and stole second, Art Howe went deep to push the comfort zone a little softer for pitcher Niekro, but nobody was taking anything for granted – not after the standings earthquake the Astros went through in their final series of the season.

After Niekro again stopped the Dodgers in the third, the Astros added a final touch with three more runs in the top of the fourth. After Puhl reached on a bunt single and steal of second, Cabell and Morgan walked to load the bases. Puhl then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jose Cruz – and Cabell-Morgan both tallied on a 2-rbi single by Art Howe. Four rib-eyes? Here’s Howe! Going to the bottom of the 4th, it was Houston 7 – Los Angeles 0.

The Dodgers broke up the shutout in the bottom of the 4th when Dusty Baker singled, moved to second on an error of Steve Garvey’s batted ball by Astros third baseman Enos Cabell. Baker then scored on another single by Dodger center fielder Rick Monday, but that would be it and far from enough in the Dodger cause on this special day in Astros history.The Dodgers threatened again by loading the bases in the 6th, but Niekro shut the door on any further scoring. From there, Joe went into overdrive, giving up only one more hit over the last three innings, a two-out single in the 9th, but that would be all and it for the doomed Dodgers.

Joe Niekro (20-12) had pitched the Houston Astros to a 7-1, 6-hit, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, no earned runs complete game stop on the Los Angeles Dodgers, advancing the Houston Astros to their very first regular playoff appearance in the NLCS. In the scheme of things, Joe Niekro had won the most important game in franchise history to-date and he also had become the first pitcher in Astros history to mark twenty-win seasons for two years in a row.

What else does the guy need to do deserve having his number 36 retired by the Astros? Nothing. He already did it – a long, long time ago. He simply needs to be duly recognized by the retirement of his number 36,

Roy Oswalt takes the mound tomorrow, Sunday, July 18th, with a better than fat chance of tying Joe Niekro for the most franchise pitching wins at 144. If the rotation holds and Roy isn’t traded earlier than the July 31st deadline, Oswalt will get two additional starts at home to either tie or break the Niekro 144 mark against the Reds July 24th and then against the Brewers on July 30th.

Now is the time to act. When something is the right thing to do, now is always the time for action. We just need to hear from the one person in this world who can make it happen as it should – and that man is Drayton McLane, Jr. So far, he’s batting 1.000 on the number retirements he’s called into history and this one is just as obvious. It just fell in the cracks during the John McMullen Astros ownership years and now needs to be restored to the light of its proper place of honor in franchise history.

If you support the hope that the Astros will see fit to retire Joe Niekro’s #36 now, please go to the primary column on that subject and post your strong opinion there. Here’s the link you need to get there.

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/its-time-to-retire-joe-niekros-astros-36/

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Mighty Superstition

July 16, 2010

Hope he's not a pinch hitter with the game and his job riding on what happens this time up..

Those of us who grew up in the baseball sub-culture don’t hold a copyright on superstitions. We simply invented most of them.

Who do you think came up with the two basic superstitions about stepping on long white lines on the ground? Depending on their point of view, a player, and especially a pitcher, may decided that it’s bad luck to step on the white foul line when he’s running, walking, or jogging to his position on the field. On the same team, another guy my believe that it’s bad luck not to step on the line. Other teammates may be working with “white line ideas” that are variants on each touch/don’t touch thought – ideas that they are too embarrassed or superstitious to even share with their best friends.  Example: You have to avoid the line while taking the field, but step on it when you come back to the dugout. Mind-boggling.

The rally cap is supposed to also "turn the game around."

The rally cap is a fairly new collective superstition in baseball. A variant on the old “cross-your-finger-for-good-luck” behavior, players are hoping that the reversal of their caps will also result in a reversal of fortune on the field when their club is trailing in the later innings. Whatever works.

I’m not sure if Hall of Fame shortstop Rabbit Maranville ever personally carried any rabbit’s feet for good luck, but I’m willing to bet you that he had plenty of teammates over his long multi-team career that felt lucky to have a guy with a name like rabbit joining their lineups. Superstition runs silent and deep in baseball. It exists at levels that don’t get talked about openly in baseball.

"You've just been traded to Pittsburgh!"

Sometimes you can’t take a road trip somewhere without running into a sign that suggests good or bad luck. Other times you just have to pass through certain days that are associated with bad luck, notably Friday 13th, but I knew a guy once who was convinced that nothing good could ever possibly happen on the “29th” of any month. He also felt that players should avoid wearing the number “29” at all costs. If a relief pitcher wearing #29 came in and gave up a grand slam, he would just say something like, “What did you expect?” and move on. If the same pitcher got his club out of the jam with a two-out “K” and the bases loaded, he would simply shrug and say, “he was lucky that time.” There is no arguing with the “BIG S!” When superstition exists, it rules. And reason goes on permanent holiday in the area covered by the superstitious belief.

Malevolent Superstitions

The mala ojo, or evil eye, may be more prevalent in baseball countries that also practice voodoo, but that doesn’t mean that players would not try to use it an American-based baseball game. The evil eye is simply based on the superstitious idea that ill fortune can be transmitted from one person to another through a powerfully evil look that has been charged with all kinds of bad wishes. It is nothing to play around with and, as far as I’m concerned, it does all its harm to the would-be sender. Negativity always finds a way to fall back on the sender. You don’t have to be an historian of Captain Marvel comic books to get how that works, but it helps. SHAZAM!

Maligned from the Middle Ages

In this so-called enlightened 21st century, it may be time to put aside the enemies of reason that have haunted society from the dawn of civilization and tortured everyday life for black cats since the Middle Ages. Just don’t count on it happening over night. And don’t jump to any conclusions that it’s gone when people stop admitting that is still has a home in the game of baseball. Superstition is also more of  an old-fashioned word for a form of obsessive-compulsive behavior – and those skins of human affinity are long, strong, and powerful.

This subject is like the game of baseball. Theoretically, it could go on forever. I’ll take rain check on coming back to it at any time, as long as it’s not the 29th of the month. (Just kidding.) For toady, I’d like to comment on a couple of superstitions that haunt our Houston Astros. These are superstitions that some feel may explain our difficulties in reaching and winning the World Series

Just remember. I do not believe in either of these ideas, but some people do:

(1)  The Apache Junction Curse. Because the franchise originally trained in Apache Junction, Arizona at the base of the Superstition mountains, some people feel that the Houston club fell victim to the same curse that befell prospectors who came to this area in the 19th century searching for the gold they hoped to find in the famous “Lost Dutchman’s Mine.” Because the region had been cursed by the Apaches for the disturbance to their scared mountains, seekers would be pulled to the area as though drawn by an invisible magnet. – They would seek, but they would not find! CONCLUSION: The curse rubbed off on the Astros in their 48-year fruitless search for a World Series championship.

(2) The Astrodome Indian Burial Grounds Curse: Similar to the Apache Junction idea, the belief behind this one is that the Astrodome was built on land that once served as a Karankawa or Comanche Indian Burial Ground. I remember discussing this theory with former Astros pitcher Vern Ruble back in the early 1980s, when we were all still recovering from that tough loss in the NLCS to the Phillies at the “Dome. Vern had not heard the legend previously, but his eyes lit up when I told him about it. “That’s it,” Ruhle exclaimed, “That’s got to be it! Otherwise, there is no other good way to explain how we lost to the Phillies in 1980!”

Superstition is mighty, allright. It’s just sometimes mighty wrong.

Beyond superstition, don’t forget to weigh in on the “Retire Joe Niekro’s # 36 Discussion.” Please write your thoughts on the matter in the comment space beyond the following article:

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/its-time-to-retire-joe-niekros-astros-36/

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1951: New York Yankees 15 – Houston Buffs 9.

July 15, 2010

Sorry to be getting this story to you so late. It’s actually my third attempt. The first time I wrote it up back in 2003, it became part of the book I did with the late Buff slugging star Jerry Witte, “A Kid rom St. Louis” in slightly different form. Today’s version is pretty much of a reprint on the column I wrote over at ChronCom, the Houston Chronicle website, on July 7, 2008.

What stirred to repeat it here was the news that longtime Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard has died at age 99. Sheppard had worked the Yankee Stadium games from 1951 through 2006, becoming the franchise’s iconic voice over the process of time.

Thanks to my dad, I got to see the Yankee club that started Sheppard’s career in New York – and that 1951 team included Joe DiMaggio in his last season and Mickey Mantle in his first. And I got to see them both together in the same outfield at Buff Stadium, even getting to stand there on that field with them behind the spillover spectator ropes as a kid fan on the first standing room row.

How blessed can a lucky kid from the East End have been, so, in honor of Sheppard, my father, and the memory of a lifetime, here it is again, one more time.

The Houston Post, April 9, 1951

The date was April 8, 1951. It was a typically hot and humid 3:00 PM Sunday afternoon baseball game at Buff Stadium. Because of the very special circumstances, my dad had driven 13 year old me, my 9 year old little brother John, and my 13 year old Pecan Park best friend Billy Sanders to a pre-season exhibition game at the old ballpark.

The New York Yankees were coming through town to play the Houston Buffs in a single game. The great Joe DiMaggio was set to play center field for the Yankees, with 18-year old rookie spring training phenom Mickey Mantle playing right fieldI. Everybody in Houston wanted to see this game. And it would turn out to be a game and afternoon that all of us would remember forever.

Oh my! I only wish that I had been able to take my Kodak Brownie camera with me to that special game on that particular day, but I learned too late that I had no more film and, with Dad springing for the tickets, I knew better than to ask him for extra money as an advance on my allowance – just for film. Dad had his own ideas about what was important and he didn’t suffer well from requests that seemed extravagant. As a result, 57 years later, you will just have to settle here for pictures that still exist vividly in my mind as best I am to develop them for you in words.

We left for the game only about forty-five minutes prior to its scheduled start. That fact alone bothered me. Since we didn’t have tickets, I worried that we might not be able to get into the ballpark due to an almost certain sellout. Anxiety didn’t matter. Dad already had settled into his “don’t worry about it” mode and there was nothing left for me to do but keep my fingers crossed and pray. Yes, I prayed about stuff like this when I was 13.

When we reached the Cullen Boulevard exit going north up the Gulf Freeway from the southeast, our red 1950 Studebaker immediately oozed into bumper-to-bumper traffic and slowed to an inch-by-inch pace over the last 500 feet of street-trekking into the Buff Stadium parking lot.

“Oh, My God!” I muttered from the back seat.

“Don’t get the Lord involved in this one!” Dad affirmed, as he lit another Camel and began to bongo the steering wheel with his right hand.

I didn’t say it, but I thought it: “If we had gotten the Lord involved earlier, we wouldn’t be going through this and left the house earlier, and with my Kodak Brownie camera already loaded with film!”

By the time we reached the ticket gate, we already knew that we would be lucky if the SRO tickets were still available. Buff Stadium held 11,000-seated tickets, but club president Allen Russell was already roping off about twenty feet from the outfield in left and right field. By taking that measure and just making every ball that flew or rolled into the outfield SRO section a ground rule double, Russell would be able to get an extra 2,500 to 3,000 fans into the ballpark for the big game.

Once Dad bought our tickets for the left field crowd, I didn’t mind at all. I knew that we now had a chance to fight for a front-of-the-rope position deep as possible toward center field – and very near the great Joe DiMaggio.

It happened. We did it. We battled for four spots in left center on the front rope line and won. To our left during the game, the great Joe D. was often no more than fifty feet away. Once he even came over and, running toward us, he caught a fly ball directly in front of us. In my mind I whispered, “Nice catch, Joe!”, but the actual words could not escape my lips. I can still hear the sound of his footsteps as his charge came closer and closer. For whatever reason, I wasn’t worried about him crashing into us. And he didn’t.

I could squint into the further distance and see the young Mickey Mantle in right field. He looked so very young because he was. He was only five years older than my friend Billy and me. I remember thinking, “Wow! In five years, I could be either playing pro baseball too or else, serving with the army in Korea.”

Neither happened. I never had the talent of a Mickey Mantle. And they settled the Korean War before I could get there.

Once in a while during the game, when the Yankees were in the field, I would close my right eye to block out the sight of Yankee left fielder Gene Woodling. As I did, it was to help my fantasy that it was I, not Woodling, playing left field for the Yankees. What an outfield that was on April 8, 1951: Mantle in right; DiMaggio in center; and McCurdy in left!

In my dreams, small things never occurred to me.

The game itself did not disappoint, except for the fact that none of my Yankee adulation had removed my first loyalty to the Buffs. The Buffs jumped on the Yankees early, but couldn’t hold them for the full nine innings.

Going into the 9th, the Yankees led, 13-6, paced by Mickey Mantle’s 5th inning, 3-run homer over our heads and over the double-deck fence in left center that rose behind us. 2-run homers earlier by both Russell Rac and Frank Shofner had not been enough to keep the Buffs in contention.

Then something happened in the 9th that may have never occurred before or since. I know the facts of this story from my interviews with former Buffs slugger Jerry Witte, when we were working on his biography “A Kid From St. Louis” a few years ago.

Jerry Witte had been asking Joe DiMaggio all day for a souvenir bat. Nothing happened until the top of the 9th, when Joltin’ Joe crashed a homer of his own to left with one man on base. As the game moved to the bottom of the 9th with the Yankees now leading 15-6, DiMaggio sent his home run bat over by way of a bat boy as his gift to Jerry Witte.

When Jerry Witte came to bat against veteran hurler Max Peterson with two Buffs on base in the bottom of the 9th, he decided on impulse to use the DiMaggio bat for his last time up against the Yankees.

Lo and behold! Deploying the same bat that Joe D. had used to crank a homer in the top half of the 9th, Jerry Witte unloaded a “Fair Maid Bakery” blast to center field in the bottom of the 9th to make the final score in the game New York Yankees 15 – Houston Buffs 9!

As Witte trotted home at the end of his home run pace, he says he stole a look for DiMaggio in the Yankees first base dugout. He said that DiMaggio was falling all over himself with laughter for having supplied Witte with his weapon of last productive resort.

After the game. Jerry Witte got Joe DiMaggio to sign the bat for him. He still owned the bat at the time of his death in 2002. If there was ever another instance in organized baseball of two players from opposite teams both homering in the 9th, or any other inning, of the same game, using the same bat, I’ve never heard of it.

I will always be grateful to my Dad for taking us to the biggest game in my childhood memory. I’m also glad that he didn’t buy our tickets in advance. Had he done so, we would have missed out on our up close and personal experience in the outfield with the great Joe DiMaggio on a hot April day in Houston back in 1951.

Things do have a way of working out for the best. Sometimes.

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Oswalt Closes on Niekro as All Time Astro Winner

July 11, 2010

One win behind Joe Niekro, Roy Oswalt got to the top in Houston faster than anybody!

As of this day and morning date, Sunday, July 11, 2010, Roy Oswalt has compiled 143 wins pitching only as a Houston Astro from 2001 to 2010. Roy trails knuckleballer Joe Niekro by a single victory  on the list of all time biggest franchise pitching winners. Joe Niekro registered 221 total wins in a 22-season total career (1967-1988) and he bagged 144 of these babies as a Houston Astro hurler in eleven seasons from 1975 to 1985.

The question now is: Which will come first – Roy’s Houston franchise record-breaking win as a pitcher – or his trade for future value to a 2010 title contender in this year of the “Expensive Veterans for Sale As We Build For the Future” campaign down at Minute Maid Park?

Time will tell – and time is short. The trading deadline is coming up on July 31st and, as the Houston Chronicle covers more completely this morning, the Seattle trade of the more affordable Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers has elevated Roy Oswalt to the top rung of most desirable candidates still out there on the vine. Only Roy’s heavy-bucks contract and how much the Astros will have to eat of it to swing a deal stands in the way.

At any rate, if Roy’s going to tie and pass Joe Niekro for the all time lead in franchise pitching wins, he had better get them quickly. In terms of fewest innings pitched to get there, Roy Oswalt already has reached the second rung on the ladder faster than anyone before him.

If we have to give him up, we are going to miss him. As an Astros fan, I will simply hope that the Reds of our own division don’t come up with the best, most workable deal for Roy. His loss to Houston would be greatly compounded if we had to deal with Roy coming back to pitch against us in three home stands each season over the next five to eight years. The only worse trade would be for the Astros to deal Oswalt to the Cardinals. Thank God the Cards are cool on pitching, for now. They are, aren’t they?

For the record, here’s the Top Ten List of Biggest Winners among Houston Pitchers for the entire period of the major league franchise from 1962 through this date in 2010. The list includes the number of innings that each pitcher worked to get there:

(1) Joe Niekro (144 wins in 2270.00 IP)

(2) Roy Oswalt (143 wins in 1923.33 IP)

(3) Larry Dierker (137 wins in 2294.44 IP)

(4) Mike Scott (110 wins in 1704.00 IP)

(5) J.R. Richard (107 wins in in 1606.00 IP)

(6) Nolan Ryan (106 wins in 1854.67 IP)

(7) Don Wilson (104 wins in 1748.33 IP)

(8) Shane Reynolds (103 wins in 1622.33 IP)

(9) Bob Knepper (93 wins in 1738.00 IP)

(10) Ken Forsch (78 wins in 1493.67 IP)

Have a peaceful Sunday, everybody!


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