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Three Great Future Managers from the 1937 Houston Buffs Roster

November 26, 2010

Over the years of their total existence in the 20th century as the Houston Buffaloes, or Buffs, our minor league baseball club produced some pretty fine baseball players, Tris Speaker and Dizzy Dean, most notably. come to mind. In 1920, Mr. Speaker also went on to become the first former Buff to win a World Series as a major league manage . He was followed by four other ex-Buff players who managed at least one big league club to a World Series crown. This total list of five former Buff World Series Winning Managers includes Tris Speaker, Eddie Dyer, Danny Murtaugh, Walt Alston and Johnny Keane – a quietly spoken testimony to Houston as baseball’s version of football’s “Cradle of Coaches,” or, more accurately in this case, a baseball “Cradle of Managers.”

Numerous other former Buffs, including men like Solly Hemus, have also done some quality time as big league field generals, but probably no year ever equalled what happened in the tough off-production year of 1937. That was the season that two future World Series winning managers and another pretty good one stumbled through a low finishing time as players for the low-performing 1937 Buffs.

John Watkins also returns to The Pecan Park Eagle as a guest columnist this morning to bring us that story. – Bill McCurdy:

Houston Buffs: A Cradle of World Series Winning Managers.

Three Great Future Managers from the 1937 Houston Buffs

By John Watkins, Guest Columnist jnowat@gmail.com

The 1937 season was not a memorable one for the Houston Buffs, who finished seventh in the Texas League with a 67-91 record, 33.5 game behind first-place Oklahoma City. Attendance dropped along with the Buffs’ winning percentage, avraging fewer than 1,000 fans per home game. One highlight of the dreary season was the league’s second all star game, played July 17 at Buff Stadium before a crows of more than 8.000.

The fans also caught a glimpse of three Houston players who would become major league managers: Johnny Keane (Cardinals, 1961-1964; Yankees, 1965-1966), Walter Alston (Dodgers, 1954-1976), and Herman Franks (Giants, 1965-1968; Cubs, 1977-1979).

Johnny Keane

Johnny Keane was in his third season with the Buffs in 1937. At age 25, he was a veteran ballplayer with seven professional seasons under his belt. In 1935 and 1936, he was the Buffs’ regular shortstop, but in 1937 he played primarily at third base and hit .267 in 158 games. Thereafter, the Cardinals made him a player-manager in their organization, and that proved to be his path to the major leagues, where he was a coach and manager. The 1935 season was pivotal in this change in direction. That year, Keane was hit by a pitch and suffered a skull fracture that left him near death for two weeks.

After managing in the low minors, Keane returned to the Buffs in 1946 for what became a three-year stint as manager. In 1947, the team finished first with a 96-58 record, nosing out the Fort Worth Cats by a half-game. While the Buffs swept Tulsa in the first round of playoffs, however, the Cats lost to Dallas in seven games. Houston then dispatched Dallas, four games to two, to win the championship and went on to defeat Mobile in the Dixie Series. Keane moved up to Rochester, the Cardinals’ farm team in the Class AAA International League in 1949 and led the Red Wings to a first-place finish the next season. After another year in Rochester, he served seven seasons in the Triple A American Association before joining the Cardinals in 1959 as a coach under manager Solly Hemus, his second baseman on the 1947 Buffs.

When the Cardinals dismissed Hemus in July 1961, Keane was given the top job. In the tumultuous 1964 season, his Redbirds overtook the faltering Philadelphia Phillies to win the pennant by one game and then defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. St. Louis owner Gussie Busch had fired general manager Bing Devine when it appeared that the Cardinals had no chance to catch the Phillies, and at that time he was reportedly planning to fire Keane at the end of the season. After the World Series, however, Busch was prepared to offer Keane a multi-year contract. In a stunning development, Keane resigned to take over the Yankees from Yogi Berra, who had just lost his job.

In New York, Keane inherited a team in decline. With several players benched by injuries in 1965, the Yankees fell to sixth place with a 77-85 record. The next season was worse. Through the first ten 10 games, New York’s record stood at 1-9; through 20, it was 4-16. At that point, the Yankees fired Keane and replaced him with Ralph Houk. The team was then last in the American League, and that is where it finished the season. On January 6, 1967, Keane died of a heart attack at age 55 in Houston, where he had made his home since 1935. He is buried at Memorial Oaks Cemetery.

Walt Alston

Walter Alston was 25 years old in 1937 but only in his third year as a professional player, having graduated from Miami University in his native Ohio before joining the St. Louis “chain gang.” A first baseman, he split the season almost equally between Houston and Rochester, the Cardinals’ Class AA farm club in the International League. For the Buffs, Alston hit only .212 in 65 games. He fared better in Rochester, batting .246 in 66 games.

The year before, he was called up to St. Louis at the end of the 1936 season and got into the final game, against the Cubs at Sportsman’s Park. It turned out to be his only appearance in the major leagues, and it came about when Cardinals first baseman Johnny Mize was ejected arguing with the umpire over a called strike. Alston made one error in two chances and struck out in his sole at-bat.

The Cardinals made Alston a player-manager in 1940 when he took over their farm team in the Class C Middle Atlantic League. He was there for three seasons and then had back to Triple A as a player for Rochester in 1943, but the Cardinals released him before the season ended. By that time, former St. Louis executive Branch Rickey had moved to the Dodgers, and he hired Alston as a minor-league manager. Starting in the Class B Interstate League in 1944, Alston steadily moved up in the Dodgers’ organization, reaching Triple A Montreal of the International League in 1950.

After four seasons in Montreal, Alston took over the Brooklyn club in 1954. He managed the Dodgers for 23 years, leading them to four World Series titles (the first in Brooklyn in 1955, the others in Los Angeles) and seven National League pennants. He was known for his studious approach to the game and for signing only one-year contracts with the Dodgers even as multi-year contracts became common. His 2,040 wins as a manager rank ninth on the all-time list. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983 and died at age 72 on October 1, 1984, in Oxford, Ohio.

Herman Franks

Herman Franks appeared in only 10 games for the Buffs in 1937 and hit just .130 in 23 at-bats. A 23-year-old catcher, he had begun his pro career five years earlier. Franks spent most of the 1937 season at Sacramento, the St. Louis affiliate in the Class AA Pacific Coast League, where he hit .265. He eventually made it to the Cardinals for 17 games and 21 plate appearances in 1939, but the club sold his contract to Brooklyn in early 1940. Franks was the Dodgers backup catcher in 1940 and 1941 under manager Leo Durocher, who became a mentor. After Franks was discharged from the Navy after World War II, he played alongside Jackie Robinson on the Dodgers’ Montreal farm team that won the 1946 International League pennant.

In 1947, Branch Rickey named Franks as player-manager of the St. Paul Saints, the Dodgers’ Double A affiliate in the American Association. In August, however, Connie Mack told Rickey that the A’s needed a backup catcher, and Franks was sent to Philadelphia. He also played for the A’s in 1948. The next season, Durocher, by then the Giants’ manager, hired Franks as bullpen coach. Franks also made his final appearance as a player that season, going 2-for-3 in one game.

According to Joshua Prager’s book, The Echoing Green (Pantheon 2006), Franks played a crucial role in Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round The World,” the home run off Brooklyn’s Ralph Branca in the 1951 National League playoffs that won the pennant for the Giants. On Durocher’s orders, Prager says, Franks was stationed in the team’s center-field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds, where he used a telescope to steal the Brooklyn catcher’s signs and relay them to the Giants’ coaches and hitters.

As a manager, Franks had very good teams in San Francisco but finished second four consecutive seasons despite winning more than 90 games three times. (In 1965 and 1966, the arch-rival Dodgers won the National League, and in 1967 and 1968, the Cardinals captured the pennant.) Franks was not as successful in his three years with the Cubs, who finished no higher than third and never won more than 81 games. Franks died at age 95 on March 30, 2009, in Salt Lake City.

Tags:Baseball, History, Houston Buffs
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Watkins On Houston Kid Baseball: 1950.

November 21, 2010

Back in 1950, when organized kid baseball was just getting started in Houston, former Houston Buff and 1931 World Series hero Watty Watkins stepped up to the plate as one of the first really qualified adults to work with this new wrinkle in local baseball.

Friday’s very-much-alive guest columnist, John Watkins, sent me these materials on Watty Watkins and the Town House Buffs. They are materials from a story sent to him by Mike Mulvihill, a former Houston kid baseball star and old high school classmate and friend of mine. In fact, Mike sent me these same materials awhile back. It’s just taken me this long to realize what a great column they would make for TPPE.

The headline, pictures, and article that are the work of today’s posthumous guest columnist, former Houston Press and Post writer John Hollis, now deceased, but alive forever as a hard-punching wordsmith on the local sports scene of yesteryear. I don’t have the date on this piece, but it was sometime in the late summer of 1950, the club’s first year of existence, and it was written for the long moribund Houston Press. Another old friend, classmate, and Pecan Park Eagle reader, Jack Murphy, also played for the Town House Buffs, but during a later season.

TEXAS CHAMPIONS - The eyes of Texas shone directly on the young baseball heroes pictured herein, Houston's Town House Buffs, as they captured the Texas Teen Age baseball title at Galveston last week. Front row, in the usual order, Ken Stevens, Paul Nabors, Anthony Falcone, Leighton Young, Eddie Gore, Paul Fahrenthold, Luke Cash. Back row, John Given, Ora Massey, Father Wilson (head coach), Mike Mulvihill, Joe Landy, Dick Grant, Angelo Vasos, Jim Exley, Jim Daigle, Fred Morgan, Watty Watkins & John Schuler.

WATTY WATKINS, WORLD SERIES HERO OF 1931,

HUSTLES HARD TEACHING TOWN HOUSE BUFFS

By John Hollis, Houston Press Sports Staff (1950)

It looked like a crucial World Series game, the way the big man in the gray sweatshirt and Brooklyn Dodger baseball cap was “sweatin’ it out” in the third-base coaches’ box.

Watty Watkins: Sold on kid baseball.

“C’mon, get me some runs,” the big guy yelled. “Be a hitter up there.” He clapped his hands together encouragingly, shifted from one end of the box to the other, then stood with hands on hips as the third Town House Buff on the inning tapped an easy grounder to the shortstop.

“One of those days”

Walking over to the fence that encloses the Houston Teenage League’s Cougar Field, George (Watty) Watkins, always the aggressor who loves to win, grimaced painfully:

“This is just one of those days where nothing goes right. This Town House club hasn’t lost a game all season.”

“You been working with ’em long, Watty?” we asked.

“Yeah. I’ve sorta been helping Father Wilson. The Pro ball association assigned me to the club.” Watty grinned. “This Teen-Age League is just what the kids needed. And we’ve got plans for enlarging our operations for next year. Here’s what I’ve suggested…”

“Ought to Be More”

The big red-faced gent’s enthusiasm was contagious. He was a study in enthusiasm as he outlined his pet plan for helping kid baseball next year. We couldn’t help but think, “This baseball is great. Here’s a guy who spent his years in the ‘Big Show,’ won a World Series with a home run, a real good old pro who’s known all the big thrills and who’s getting probably a bigger one now out of helping kids.”

Watty finished his outline …

“… there oughta be 13 leagues like this around town. There oughta be enough so’s every kid who wanted to could have a chance to play. It’s not only good for kids, it’s good for baseball.”

That 1931 Homer

We nodded … then asked, “Say Watty … that George Watkins who hit the homer to win the 1931 World Series for the Cardinals … was that you?”

Watty grinned. “”Yes sir! It was me all right. We beat the (Philadelphia) Athletics in that one. They’d beaten us the year before. I remember that hit. … It was the deciding game and tied up, 2-2. We went into the third inning and Andy High got on base (for us). Gabby Street, the (Cardinals) manager, told me to go go up there and hit the first pitch, if it looked good, and if it didn’t, to move up a step for the second pitch. Well, that first pitch came in there about letter-high. I hit it … a line drive to right. … i hit is so hard on a line that I didn’t think it was going to be a homer. I ran as fast as I could until I reached second base. Then I realized I’d put it outa the park.”

“That home run meant a difference of $3,230 to us each in the players’ share of the World Series gate. Gues you could call it a real ‘money hit’ at that, huh?”

“Who’d you hit it off of, Watty/”

“George Earnshaw. He threw me me a fast ball. Hit one off him in the 1930 series, too. It was my first World Series and my first time at bat. He threw me a fast one then, too.”

“”Then I had to room with the guy when we both were sold to Brooklyn a few years later,” Wally chuckled.

“Those 1931 Cardinals were the greatest there’s ever been,” Watkins recollected. “They had everything. Who’s the greatest pitcher I’ve ever seen? … Carl Hubbell … the greatest pitcher who ever picked up a baseball. He had all the stuff in the world, the good curve, screwball, fast ball, the change, and lots of control. I was in the stands that day he fanned the six batters in a row in the 934 All-Star game. I remember Charlie Gehringer doubled, then Heinie Manush walked. That brought up Babe Ruth.”

“Hubbell looked at Ruth, then backed off and loosened his belt, hitched up his pants and threw three straight pitches past him. Ruth never touched a one. Then he fanned Gehrig and Foxx. And I think Foxx was the only one to even get a piece of the ball. He fouled one back into the screen.”

“Hubbell, you’ll remember, went on to fan Al Simmons, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, and Lefty Gomez to record what is acknowledged (as) the greatest pitching performance in the history f the All-Star game. Still, the American Leaguers won that one, 9-7.”

Watty, who outfielded for the Dodgers after service with the Cards, was a Houston Buff in 1928 when the Buffs beat Wichita Falls for the Texas League title. A member of the Houston Professional Baseball layers Assn., with the pro baller’s immense interest in kids, Watty’s teaching ’em what he knows now.

Tags:Baseball, History, Houston Buffs, St. Louis Cardinals, Watty Watkins
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A 1st Goodbye to Drayton McLane

November 20, 2010

No One Else Will Ever Walk Quite as Tall in These Boots!

As our entire little baseball world knows by this time, Saturday morning, Drayton McLane, Jr. has now announced that he is putting the Houston Astros up for sale after eighteen years of family ownership. The news came officially at a press conference conducted personally by Drayton yesterday at Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston.

That press conference itself speaks volumes. This was no corporate announcement, no impersonal and cold statement about an impending change in control of our National League baseball club, and no basis for concluding that this change will be one for the better. No, this press conference was conducted by the flesh and bone, mind and spirit, body and soul owner and leader of the Houston Astros, the one and only Drayton McLane. Jr.

There will never be another Drayton McLane, Jr. in Houston’s baseball future – and there may never be another individual face and voice that speaks so strongly and visibly for the ownership of the Houston Astros. Given the general cost of things these days, and the current flow of ownership patterns, the next “face” of the Houston Astros is most likely to be the talking head of some corporate or syndicated group and be subject to a number of controls that presently do not not impinge upon the public utterances of Mr. McLane.

We are going to miss Drayton McLane, Jr. as Houstonians in ways that have yet to register this early in the game of change. For me, it is close to a feeling of saying goodbye to a distant old friend upon the early news of his impending retirement.

Drayton and I are close in age. We were in college separately at Baylor and Houston back in the 1950s, coming of age in different Texas cities under different economic circumstances, but both invested in the values of that earlier period, even though we were not destined to meet until much later in life.

I met Drayton McLane, Jr. in 2004, while I was involved as a volunteer in a project that pertained to the preservation of Texas baseball history. Drayton was both engaged and supportive of our goals and even took it upon himself to address a number of historical preservations at Minute Maid Park that are very important to the story and legacy of the Houston Astros. The retirement of Larry Dierker’s uniform #49, Jimmy Wynn’s #24; Jeff Bagwell’s #5, and Craig Biggio’s #7 have all taken place on Drayton’s watch since the club moved downtown in 2000.

It is our hope that the club’s unofficial plans to create an onsite museum honoring local baseball history will continue in some form in spite of the now impending sale of the franchise. Such a move would send a strong message to whomever the new buyers turn out to be that Houston is a city that cares about its history with the game – and that this historical cord is the real binding force behind our fans’ abilities to offer strong support for the Astros. Kill that caring – and a new owner could be left with only casual fan support during pennant-contending seasons only.

I think of Drayton McLane, Jr. as a remote friend. We don’t travel in the same social circles, nor do we inter-commerce, but we each are products of the same earlier Texas era, and we both care about history, Houston baseball, and particularly, the Houston Astros. That’s a lot of common ground to cover. When I hear from Drayton by e-mail, with a comment about something I’ve said or written, it’s always welcomed and invariably upbeat.

During his eighteen year ownership period (1992-2010 & counting), Drayton McLane, Jr. has taken the Houston Astros into their new downtown ballpark at Union Station (2000) and presided over the club’s first and only pennant and World Series appearance (2005). He has received praise and criticism, both for being a tightwad and also a spendthrift with certain players, but he has never surrendered his contact with the fans in the ballpark and his salesman’s encouragement that we are all responsible for making Houston a champion.

Stories of Drayton’s expectations for his employees are now the stuff of legend. Word on the street is that game days were times in which anyone with any hopes of “moving up” often showed up at the ballpark at dawn and stayed until midnight. However exaggerated that claim may have been, the disappearance of certain Astros employees over the years suggests that burnout and attrition cleared several names from the administrative “prospect” list.

It occurs to me that buying a major league sports franchise is a lot like getting yourself elected President of the United States. Both are apparently instant routes to public hatred – and you may find yourself condemned in both cases for what you do and what you fail to do. The difference-maker is that the owner of a sports franchise finds redemption in winning a championship. Winning the World Series would make all Houston Astro fans happy.

American presidents, on the other hand, don’t have a single thing they could deliver that would make everyone happy. Even if we had full employment, a robust economy, no racism, and affordable health care, there would still be large groups of people out there, unhappy about something.

Well, we aren’t losing a president, nor an owner who delivered that “one-win-pleases-all” World Series victory, but we are losing the only owner whoever got us to a World Series, and I, for one, am going to miss him.

Take care, Drayton, and please stay in touch. Your personal welfare remains important to many of us.

Tags:Baseball, Drayton McLane, History, Houston Astros
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Watty Watkins Wows ‘Em in ’31 Series!

November 19, 2010

In the above photo, Watty Watkins slides under the tag of Mickey Cochrane of the Philadelphia A’s to score a big run for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1931 World Series.
The following article was written for The Pecan Park Eagle by John Watkins, the great-nephew of George “Watty” Watkins. Watty Watkins was an early hero for the Houston Buffs over four seasons of work (1925-26, 1928, 1937) that encompassed the beginning and end of his professional baseball career. He was an important member of the 1928 Buffs club that became the first to play in the new Buffalo Stadium on their way to victory as Texas League and Dixie Series champions. Watty also enjoyed a seven season big league career (1930-36) with the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies. and Brooklyn Dodgers. The Pecan Park Eagle is deeply indebted to John Watkins for this personal vignette memory of an important tong ago moment in World Series history.
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Bill, your post the other day with the memorable baseball photos prompted me to scan the above attached photo of Watty Watkins for you. It reminds me of the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter’s slide into home following his “mad dash” from first base in the deciding play of the 1946 World Series.
The Watkins picture is also a big moment in World Series history. It is an Associated Press photo from the first inning of Game Seven of the 1931 World Series. The catcher is Mickey Cochrane of the Philadelphia A’s, and Watty is scoring the second St. Louis run of the game. For the era, it’s a pretty good action shot.

The play came about this way. Andy High of the Cards, playing in place of the injured Sparky Adams, led off the inning with a bloop single to left. Watty followed with a Texas Leaguer of his own, and Frankie Frisch sacrificed the two runners to second and third. With Pepper Martin at the plate, A’s righthander George Earnshaw threw a high outside pitch that bounced off catcher Mickey Cochrane’s glove and rolled to the wall. High scored on the wild pitch and Watkins took third. The flustered Earnshaw walked Martin, who promptly stole second.

Earnshaw recovered to strike out Ernie Orsatti, who was in the lineup because Chick Hafey, the N.L. batting champion, was in a terrible slump. But Cochrane could not handle the pitch and had to throw to first to retire Orsatti. Watkins immediately broke for home in what Giants manager John McGraw called “a daring play” in his newspaper column written during the Series. First baseman Jimmie Foxx “threw late and low to Cochrane,” the New York Times reported, “the ball scudding out of the tangle [at the plate] as Watkins slid into Cochrane and both went down.” Martin advanced to third as Watkins scored, but Jim Bottomley struck out to end the inning.

Two innings later, High and Watkins again got back-to-back hits. High lined Earnshaw’s first pitch to center for another single. Watkins also swung at the first pitch he saw and, as McGraw wrote, “drove it over the top of the right field grand stand against the wind.” Those two runs proved crucial, as the A’s scored twice in the ninth against a tiring Burleigh Grimes before Bill Hallahan got the last out with the tying runs on base.

The 4-2 victory resulted in the Cardinals’ second World Series championship and avenged their loss to Connie Mack’s Athletics in 1930. While Watkins, a Houston resident and former Houston Buff outfielder, had played a key role in the seventh game, two other ex-Buffs — Martin and Hallahan — were the hitting and pitching stars of the Series. Pepper hit .500 and stole five bases, and Wild Bill won two games, registering what would today be called a “save” in the finale, while allowing of only one earned run in 18-1/3 innings of work on the mound.

Tags:Baseball, History, St. Louis Cardinals, Watty Watkins
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The 1963 All Rookie Colt .45 Lineup Game

November 18, 2010

The Colt .45s' All-Rookie Team Back row: Brock Davis (LF), Aaron Pointer (RF), Jimmy Wynn (CF) Middle row: Glenn Vaughan (3B), Sonny Jackson (SS), Joe Morgan (2B), Rusty Staub (1B) Front row: Jay Dahl (P), Jerry Grote (C) (c) Houston Astros

In late 1963, the two-year old Houston MLB franchise found itself in a position that would become even more familiar as the years of trying to field a winner grew in numbers. Late September in Houston is deep into football season. A baseball club that’s finishing near the bottom doesn’t draw very well at the gate against the competition from professional, college, high school, and kiddie game football in the State of Texas as the clock ticks closer and closer to October.

So, in what seemed like a good promotional idea to pique the interest of the curious fans, and maybe give people a glimpse of better days to come, the Houston Colt .45s decided to promote a game on September 27, 1963 that would feature an all rookie starting lineup against the club’s even more hapless expansion club brothers, the New York Mets.

The starting lineup for Houston read like this: (1) Sonny Jackson, SS; (2) Joe Morgan, 2B; (3) Jimmy Wynn, CF; (4) Rusty Staub, 1B; (5) Aaron Pointer, RF; (6) Brock Davis, (LF); (7) Glen Vaughan, 3B; (8) Jerry Grote, C; & (9) Jay Dahl, P.

Six other rookies would also enter the game before Carl Warwick broke the theme in the bottom of the 8th at old Colt Stadium in a pinch-hitting role as the first veteran player to enter the game.

It was a fun experiment, but the major hopes for victory and a big crowd got snuffed out pretty early. Only 5.802 fans showed up to watch as New York jumped to an 8-0 lead through the first three innings. The Mets won the game by a final score of 10-3.

For an account of how the game played its way to the door, let’s go back and follow the action through the eyes and words of Houston’s greatest sportswriter. Here’s how Mickey Herskowitz covered the game for the Houston Post:

Mets Wallop Colt Rookie Lineup, 10-3
by Mickey Herskowitz
Houston Post, Saturday, September 28, 1963

Houston’s team of tomorrow found the going rather rough in the here and now Friday night. The New York Mets, the big bullies, whomped them, 10-3, in the opener of the season’s final series at Colt Stadium.

As promised, Manager Harry Craft started an all rookie line-up, and he stuck by it through thin and thinner. Fifteen Colts saw service before a non-rookie, Carl Warwick, entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth. The Mets took advantage of Houston’s youth, as the saying goes, to pound five pitchers for 15 hits and make life easy for Lefty Al Jackson.

Carl Warwick: 1st vet in game as 8th Inning pinch hitter.

Nevertheless, the night was an historic one for the Colt .45s.

Chunky Jay Dahl, a 17-year-old southpaw from California, became the youngest pitcher to start a game in the majors since Joe Nuxhall made his wartime debut for the Redlegs in 1945, at 16. Von McDaniel was a mature gentleman of 18 when he made headlines for the Cardinals in 1957, fresh out of high school in Oklahoma.

Dahl, the first of three rookie southpaws to perform for the .45s, gave his all, and the Mets took it. They scored three in the second — with the help of two errors — and five more in the third, strafing Dahl and Danny Coombs for seven hits. That gave New York an 8-0 lead at the end of three, and a crowd of 5,802 faithful Colt fans settled back to a long, quiet evening.

One of the highlights of the game came in the next inning, when the Mets seemed headed for another big rally. But with runners at second and third and one out, Lefty Joe Hoerner struck out Tim Harkness, and the crowd appreciated it. They cheered loudly, and a moment later the inning was over.

You could forgive the Colt rookies if they were a bit jittery Friday night. Five of them had never played pro ball before this year, and three of them were starting for the first time in a major league game, sort of. It may be stretching a point to say that Dahl had a major league lineup behind him. And if you wanted to be unkind — and why not? — you could say it was doubtful that he had one facing him.

The Colts started their greenhorn squad for the novelty of it, and out of curiosity, and just possibly for the sake of a little publicity. There was no reason to be disappointed, except, that this ended Houston’s four-game winning streak.

Ol’ Casey Stengel didn’t exactly play fair. He started his best pitcher, Jackson, who is even tough on adults. Al wasn’t at his sharpest Friday night, but the Colts could do little with the several chances they had.

Joe Morgan Tripled in 9th.

Jackson gave up 11 hits, and at least one Colt reached base in every blessed inning. But he struck out eight, and Houston left 12 bodies on base. Al more or less coasted to his 13th victory against 17 defeats. Rusty Staub scored the first Colt run in the fourth and drove in the second an inning later, and then Joe Morgan tripled home the last one in the ninth. There were .45s at first and third when Jackson retired the next three hitters to end the game.

Jim Wynn and Aaron Pointer were the only Houston starters old enough to vote Friday night. When the rookie Colt pitchers got in trouble it was Staub who walked over to give them a comforting word, as befits a veteran of 19.

Dahl, Coombs and Hoerner — all southpaws — went the first six innings, before rookie right-hander Jim Dickson came on. Dick Drott pitched the ninth, giving up the final Met run. Hoerner, 24, and up from San Antonio, did a fine job in his three-inning chore, blanking the Mets on two hits and striking out two.

The average age of the Houston team that took the field Friday night was 19 years and four months, a fact that has been rather widely advertised. So it was duly noted in the press box that when Rod Kanehl replaced Frank Thomas in left field in the eighth, it lowered the Met average to 32 years and four months.

The fact that the Colt rookies failed to win did not exactly ruin the night. They provided some sort of thrill on almost every play as typified by Brock Davis in left field. He overran one base hit and dropped a fly ball for an error, then made two spectacular catches, one facing the wall in left center and another into the Houston bullpen.

So the Colts still need one victory to surpass last year’s total, and they send Don Nottebart after it Saturday at 1:30 PM against New York’s Craig Anderson.

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Thank you, Mike McCroskey, for suggesting this game as a great subject for this column.

Tags:Baseball, History, Houston Colt .45s
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Extra Base Hits and RBI Leaders

November 17, 2010

Hank Aaron finishes his most famous extra base hit in the company of the two bozos who invaded history.

As important as it is to get on base in the game of baseball, it’s also vital to have people in the lineup that can bring those ducks in off the pond once they land there. By and large, the best work in this regard is performed by the hitters who are capable of getting the extra base hit. RBI is fine here as a measurement, but RBI is an EFFECT stat that is largely the result of a CAUSE stat, like “hit”, and most often from a big CAUSE stat like “extra base hits.”

I’m not one of these people who chases the meaning of life down some ten place decimal point, but I do enjoy a look at something like these two Top 50 Lists for Career Extra Base Hits and RBI for some safe general confirmations. To no big surprise, Hank Aaron is both the cause and effect leader of what power baseball produces over time.

Stay with me here for a simple thought for a second, but I have to think about it to hold onto it. This isn’t “E” equals “MC Squared,” but it fits in with my comments yesterday about why having players in your lineup who can get on base often – is always important to winning:

Extra Base and RBI leader Hank Aaron played with a number of teams that put men on base fairly often. As a result, his prodigious number of extra base hits became the cause of more runs batted in than any other player has ever before, or since, produced.

Of local note, we find that former Astro Jeff Bagwell ranks at #39 on the all time extra base hit list and is also tied for the #45 spot on the RBI list with Tris Speaker. Craig Biggio checks in even higher on the extra base hit list at #30, but is way off our charts here at #155 on the all time RBI list. Had Biggio not batted first or second for so long, he could have been a far more prodigious RBI man, but that’s OK. He was just fast and too good at getting on base to move him back in the order. When you’ve got a guy leading off who can start the game with a runner on second, you leave him there. Craig Biggio holds the National League record for home runs by the lead-off batter to start the game. On 53 occasions, Biggio’s lead-off wall-bangers traveled a few extra feet and became leadoff homers. Rickey Henderson holds the MLB record in this category with an amazing 82 lead-off game-starting homers.

Again though, the subject today is extra base hits as the major cause of runs batted in.

Check out how often that seems to be true for so many others among the leadership in both categories below. Cap Anson of the 19th century small-ball era is the major exception as a basic singles hitter who also ranked high enough with his frequent “dinks” to place 3rd on the RBI list.

Then I hope you simply enjoy finding your own confirmations and exceptions to the general rule that getting men on base and then sending a great contact-making power hitter to the plate is not a bad way to go for managers seeking genius status in the media.

Have fun!

TOP 50 EXTRA BASE HIT LEADERS

Rank	Player	Extra Base Hits	Bats
1.	Hank Aaron+	1477	R
2.	Barry Bonds	1440	L
3.	Stan Musial+	1377	L
4.	Babe Ruth+	1356	L
5.	Willie Mays+	1323	R
6.	Ken Griffey	1192	L
	Rafael Palmeiro	1192	L
8.	Lou Gehrig+	1190	L
9.	Frank Robinson+	1186	R
10.	Carl Yastrzemski+	1157	L
11.	Ty Cobb+	1136	L
12.	Tris Speaker+	1131	L
13.	Manny Ramirez	1122	R
14.	George Brett+	1119	L
15.	Jimmie Foxx+	1117	R
	Ted Williams+	1117	L
17.	Alex Rodriguez	1116	R
18.	Eddie Murray+	1099	B
19.	Dave Winfield+	1093	R
20.	Cal Ripken+	1078	R
21.	Reggie Jackson+	1075	L
22.	Mel Ott+	1071	L
23.	Jim Thome	1043	L
24.	Pete Rose	1041	B
25.	Andre Dawson+	1039	R
26.	Sammy Sosa	1033	R
27.	Frank Thomas	1028	R
28.	Luis Gonzalez	1018	L
29.	Mike Schmidt+	1015	R
30.	Craig Biggio	1014	R
31.	Rogers Hornsby+	1011	R
32.	Ernie Banks+	1009	R
33.	Gary Sheffield	1003	R
34.	Honus Wagner+	996	R
35.	Al Simmons+	995	R
36.	Jeff Kent	984	R
37.	Carlos Delgado	974	L
38.	Al Kaline+	972	R
39.	Jeff Bagwell	969	R
40.	Chipper Jones	966	B
41.	Tony Perez+	963	R
42.	Robin Yount+	960	R
43.	Fred McGriff	958	L
44.	Paul Molitor+	953	R
	Willie Stargell+	953	L
46.	Mickey Mantle+	952	B
47.	Billy Williams+	948	L
48.	Dwight Evans	941	R
49.	Dave Parker	940	L
50.	Eddie Mathews+	938	L

+ = Hall of Fame Member

Bold Type = Active Player in 2010

TOP 50 RBI LEADERS

Rank	Player	Runs Batted In	Bats
1.	Hank Aaron+	2297	R
2.	Babe Ruth+	2213	L
3.	Cap Anson+	2075	R
4.	Barry Bonds	1996	L
5.	Lou Gehrig+	1995	L
6.	Stan Musial+	1951	L
7.	Ty Cobb+	1938	L
8.	Jimmie Foxx+	1922	R
9.	Eddie Murray+	1917	B
10.	Willie Mays+	1903	R
11.	Mel Ott+	1860	L
12.	Carl Yastrzemski+	1844	L
13.	Ted Williams+	1839	L
14.	Ken Griffey	1836	L
15.	Rafael Palmeiro	1835	L
16.	Dave Winfield+	1833	R
17.	Alex Rodriguez	1831	R
18.	Manny Ramirez	1830	R
19.	Al Simmons+	1827	R
20.	Frank Robinson+	1812	R
21.	Honus Wagner+	1733	R
22.	Frank Thomas	1704	R
23.	Reggie Jackson+	1702	L
24.	Cal Ripken+	1695	R
25.	Gary Sheffield	1676	R
26.	Sammy Sosa	1667	R
27.	Tony Perez+	1652	R
28.	Ernie Banks+	1636	R
29.	Harold Baines	1628	L
30.	Jim Thome	1624	L
31.	Goose Goslin+	1609	L
32.	Nap Lajoie+	1599	R
33.	George Brett+	1595	L
	Mike Schmidt+	1595	R
35.	Andre Dawson+	1591	R
36.	Rogers Hornsby+	1584	R
	Harmon Killebrew+	1584	R
38.	Al Kaline+	1583	R
39.	Jake Beckley+	1578	L
40.	Willie McCovey+	1555	L
41.	Fred McGriff	1550	L
42.	Willie Stargell+	1540	L
43.	Harry Heilmann+	1539	R
44.	Joe DiMaggio+	1537	R
45.	Jeff Bagwell	1529	R
	Tris Speaker+	1529	L
47.	Sam Crawford+	1525	L
48.	Jeff Kent	1518	R
49.	Carlos Delgado	1512	L
50.	Mickey Mantle+	1509	B

+ = Hall of Fame Member

Bold Type = Active Player in 2010

Tags:Baseball, History
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Baseball’s On Base Leaders

November 16, 2010

Ted Williams:Nobody Wins Til Somebody Gets On.

When I was a kid baseball fan, back in the post World War II days, all we cared about were batting averages and home runs when it came to picking our biggest heroes.. As we got older, most of us came to see that a lot of the guys who did these things well didn’t necessarily propel their clubs to pennants. Harry Walker stands out as a hitter who batted for a high average by getting a lot of dink hits when they didn’t mean much in a game. Walker’s .363 batting average in 1947 for the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals (10 games) and 7th place Philadelphia Phillies (130 games) won him a batting championship, but didn’t help his Philly club all that much. Ralph Kiner of the 1940s and 1950s also is a poster boy for how a mighty home run hitter alone cannot elevate a club from the doldrums. Hall of Famer Kiner played out nine of his ten major league seasons for perennial losers Pittsburgh and Chicago of the National League.

The thing is this: To win n baseball, a club needs a lot of batters in the lineup who have an ability to get on base – some way, some how. Once that happens, the high average and home run hitters grow in importance to the goal of scoring runs and winning ball games.

Today we take a quick look at the all time leaders in OBP (On Base Percentage).

Using the Wikipedia explanation, which makes the stat as clear as any explanation I could find or conjure up on my own, “On-base percentage is calculated using this formula:

$OBP = \frac{H+BB+HBP}{AB+BB+HBP+SF}$

where

NOTE: Sacrifice flies were not counted as an official statistic until 1954. Before that time, all sacrifices were counted as sacrifice hits (SH), which included both sacrifice flies and bunts. Bunts (sacrifice hits since 1954), which would lower a batter’s on-base percentage, are not included in the calculation for on-base percentage, as bunting is an offensive strategy – often dictated by the manager – the use of which does not necessarily reflect on the batter’s ability and should not be used to penalize him. For calculations of OBP before 1954, or where sacrifice flies are not explicitly listed, the number of sacrifice flies should be assumed to be zero.”

I’m not really sure how baseball handles catcher interference calls, those rare instances in which a batter is awarded first base because a catcher’s glove is extended so far over the plate as to make contact with the bat on a swing. These interference calls are very infrequent and my guess is that they would simply be added as both an “ABCI” on the bottom and a “CI” on the top of our OBP equation. (If any of you know for sure, please leave a comment.)

At any rate, here’s our list of the Top 15 Career OBP Leaders through the 2010 season, plus their OBP percentages and years of MLB service.. Please note that the list is heavily sprinkled with Hall of Famers, shown in bold type:

1. Ted Williams, .4817 (1939-1942, 1946-1960)

2. Babe Ruth (.4740) (1914-1935)

3. John McGraw (4657) (1891-1906)

4. Billy Hamilton (.4552) (1888-1901)

5. Lou Gehrig (.4474) (1923-1939)

6. Barry Bonds (4443) (1986-2007)

7. Bill Joyce (.4349) (1890-1898)

8. Rogers Hornsby (.4337) (1915-1937)

9. Ty Cobb (.4330) (1905-1928)

10. Todd Helton (.4284) (1997-2010)

11. Jimmie Foxx (.4283) (1925-1942, 1944-1945)

12. Tris Speaker (.4280) (1907-1928)

13. Albert Pujols (4250) (2001-2010)

14. Eddie Collins (.4244) (1906-1930)

15. Ferris Fain (.4241) (1947-1955)

Look! Ted Williams and Babe Ruth were great players, all right, but not simply because of their abilities for hitting for average and power. These guys could be counted on to reach base almost half the time they each came to bat. Get on base enough – and your club is going to score and knock in the runs it needs to win in baseball. Sometimes we jump into complexities of analysis so fast that we bypass the obvious main goal in the game: to score more runs than the other guys do.

Tags:Baseball, History, on base percentage
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Baseball’s Strikeout Kings

November 15, 2010

Nolan Ryan also holds the MLB record for most "noogies" dished out in a single game.

Top Twenty Career MLB Strikeout Pitchers:

(1) Nolan Ryan – 5,714

(2) Randy Johnson – 4,875

(3) Roger Clemens – 4,672

(4) Steve Carlton – 4,136

(5) Bert Blyleven – 3,701

(6) Tom Seaver – 3,640

(7) Don Sutton – 3,574

(8) Gaylord Perry – 3,534

(9) Walter Johnson – 3,509

(10) Greg Maddux – 3,371

(11) Phil Niekro – 3,342

(12) Ferguson Jenkins – 3,192

(13) Pedro Martínez – 3,154

(14) Bob Gibson – 3,117

(15) Curt Schilling – 3,116

(16) John Smoltz – 3,084

(17) Jim Bunning – 2,855

(18) Mickey Lolich – 2,832

(19) Mike Mussina – 2,813

(20) Cy Young – 2,803

Hall of Fame Members (11)): Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Walter Johnson, Phil Niekro, Ferguson Jenkins, Bob Gibson, Jim Bunning, & Cy Young.

HOF Eligible, But Not a Member (2): Bert Blyleven & Mickey Lolich.

Recently Retired, Not Yet Eligible for HOF (6): Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz. & Mike Mussina.

Still an Active Player (1): Pedro Martinez.

Throwing strikeouts over time probably gets you in the Hall of Fame, unless your name is Bert Blyleven or Mickey Lolich – or you’ve had your reputation stained by redundant accusations and hard evidence of steroid use and had your reputation for natural greatness burned beyond recognition by guys hiding in gyms who are ready to testify against you in exchange for witness protection guarantees.

Look for Bert Blyleven to finally get the votes he needs to make it into the HOF in 2011. He’s been building in support for a while now and came fairly close in 2010. He should have been there years ago, but late is better than never – or far superior to induction after a guy dies and can’t be there to see it happen.

I look for Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux to make it into the HOF in their first years of eligibility, but I’m not that high on the early, if ever, chances for John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, or Mike Mussina. I’m not saying an induction case could not be made for all three, I just don’t think that any of them performed on the consistent blue chip level that we associate with Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux – nor will the former three possess the popular support among voters that belongs to Johnson and Maddux on a first ballot.

As for Roger Clemens, I’m afraid his steroids stain is going to be an obstacle to the HOF for years to come, if not forever. The shame of it is that we all know that Roger Clemens had a major talent and incredible work ethic that carried him to great accomplishments. He didn’t need steroids to have a HOF career and he is really innocent of using the stuff unless he’s ever proven guilty.

The problem is two-fold: The “denial politics” of baseball may impede the issue from ever getting settled in court, but the public conviction of abuse in the minds of fans may be all that’s needed to keep Roger Clemens from receiving the kind of post-career recognition that he deserves for his natural ability and highest level baseball accomplishments.

Tags:Baseball, History, Pitching
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Union Station 1912

November 14, 2010

Union Station in Houston, 1912.

Last night I attended the Second Annual Knuckle Ball, the benefit that honors the late Joe Niekro in the fight against brain aneurysms. This year it was held in the great hall or rotunda of Union Station in Houston or, as it is better known today as the administrative offices of the Houston Astros and the opening face on Crawford Avenue for Minute Maid Park, home field of our National League ball club.

The place reeks with Houston history.

I thought last night, as I often do whenever I’m in that place long enough to be reminded of its full context for me as a kid who grew up in Houston: “This is where we used to come pick up Papa when he came to visit us from San Antonio.” It was a happy memory. Papa was my grandfather on my mother’s side

If you got here early for a train back in the day, you were supposed to wait on these long wooden benches in the Great Hall until it got here. As kids though, we had to move around. We also enjoyed testing the echos of our loud calls against the hard marble walls of the place. As best I remember, nobody tried the echo trick at the Knuckle Ball last night.

Drayton McLane, Jr. and the Houston Astros have done a wonderful job of preserving an important Houston architectural structure in the way they have restored Union Station to much of its former glory. It probably looks better now than it did in the first place, when it served as Houston’s rail window on the rest of the country.

In 1928, you could take the interurban line from Union Station to the baseball games at Buff Stadium.

Long before Union Station ever became the hub of our Houston baseball world, it served as the central depot for taking people the four miles or so they needed to travel to reach the new Buffalo Stadium that first opened n Houston on April 11, 1928.

If we had a time machine cranked up and were ready to go, wouldn’t you love going back there at least once to take that same train out to the ballgame on the first Opening Day of the new ballpark? The Buffs were opening against Waco in 1928. Branch Rickey, General Manger of the Cardinals, and Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis were going to be there too.

Buff Stadium. Don’t you want to go there now? What a trip that would be! And what a great opportunity to see how Houston actually looked, smelled, and tasted back in the late halcyon days of the so-called Roaring Twenties.

I would have been tempted to also take a 1928 side trek to the Heights and check up on how a certain little 12-year old girl was doing. In 1928, that little girl would have been my future mother. Then I get to thinking harder about why mass time time travel probably never will happen, and for reasons that go way beyond the Laws of Physics governing time/space worm holes that impose certain barriers in reality that fail to dampen our theoretical attraction to the possibility. That being said, if millions of us suddenly became like a legion of time-traveling Marty McFlys, bouncing “Back to the Future,” we would probably manage to change enough destiny to assure that many us were never born, anyway. Once establishing a case for altering history and assuring our own states of non-existence in the future, we would simply disappear completely, having never existed in the first place.

I cannot believe all of that stuff now pours out of my brain on a Sunday morning after simply sitting in an historical spot for one brief evening last night. Now I need to grab some oatmeal and a firm anchor on the fact this is Sunday, November 14, 2010.

Have a peaceful and restful Sunday, everybody.

Tags:America, culture, History, Houston, Personal
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

A Rice-UT Football Memory

November 13, 2010

A Special Moment in Rice Football History. - from the Fondren Library Collection.

On a football Saturday in 2010, nearing the end of a season in which the Rice Owls could use the energy boost and the UT Longhorns couldn’t feel much worse about football than they already do, here’s a one-photo pictorial of a magical moment for the school out on South Main here in Houston, one that sweetly unfolded on the road in a football game played in Austin a long, long time ago.

On October 27, 1917, 93 years ago, Rice Institute, as it was then known, sent a band of young men over to the playing field at Austin to take on the University of Texas in a game of football. The Owls had not fared well in their three previous meetings with the Longhorns, losing all of these Austin-played games by scores of 16-2 in 1916, 59-0 in 1915, and 41-0 in 1914.

1917 turned out to be a different story for Rice.

The photo shows running back Tony Bell scoring the first touchdown that Rice would ever score against UT – and he did it on an afternoon in which the feisty Owls went on from there to defeat the Longhorns by the shutout score of 13-0 for their first ever victory over the men in orange. I want to thank historian Mike Vance for “reminding” me that the 1917 game also was played in Austin. Rice would finally get UT for a home game in Houston in 1918, but the Owls would lose 14-0 to a Longhorn squad that would go 9-0 on the season.

As for 2010, Rice and UT fans, get ready to chalk it up as another floater down the river of no return while you each hope, pray, work, and play for better luck and good fortune in the next rattle out of the destiny box.

Tags:History, Rice-UT Football
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