The Pecan Park Eagle

Les Fusselman: Catcher in the Pie.

Les Fusselman of the 1948, 1950-51 Houston Buffs was the personification of what everybody used to think that a stockily built catcher should look like. At 6’1″ and 195 lbs., Les had the physique of a catcher, the posture of a catcher, and the listen-to-me look of a catcher in his eye.

Unfortunately, Les Fusselman also ran and hit like a career minor league catcher who never would be quite strong enough, early enough, to make it for long in the big leagues with a talent-heavy club like the contract owning St. Louis Cardinals, but that’s OK. Les had his place in the higher minors. He was a   steady influence upon the pitching staff of the 1951 Buffs Texas League championship club and he had the catching range and moxie to work with pitchers like wily veterans Al Papai and Fred Martin while also serving as a steady and strong teaching influence upon the up-and-coming lefty star that Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell was becoming.

Les also hit with some pop for the ’51 Buffs, banging 36 doubles, an incredible 5 triples, and 12 homers for a .444 slugging average and a .255 batting average over the course of that championship season. It was enough to win the Western Illinois University alum a short-term trial with the 1952-53 Cardinals. In his two seasons and 43 games at St. Louis, Fusselman would hit a less-than-Mendoza-meager .169 and be sent back to the minors forever.

Les Fusselman’s rare baseball card is supposedly worth $300.00 today. I’d love to have one for my former Buffs collection, but not at that price. I can remember and appreciate Les Fusselman without his card, if need be, and that does seem to be the state of “need” for me on the card level. Meanwhile, I do think Les is another of those guys who could have had an earlier and longer major league career had he played the game today – now instead of then. He just seemed to be in control of things when he conferred with his pitchers during tight game situations. Maybe his age and veteran experience and persona were the keys that carried with through the gate of peer respect. He was as old as any and senior to most on the ’51 Buffs club.

Over the trail of his nine-season minor league career (1942, 1946-51, 1953-54), Le Fusselman batted .274 with 49 homers and a slugging average of .414. His best hitting seasons for average both came in widely separated seasons for Columbus, Georgia of the Sally League. He broke in with a rookie BA of .303 at Columbus in 1942; he also batted .308 for the 1947 Columbus team. These two full season accomplishments (117 and 129 games) were the only times that Les batted over .300 for a single year.

Sadly, Les Fusselman died early. He passed away in Cleveland, Ohio on May 21, 1970 at the age of 49 and he is buried there in the Acacia Masonic Memorial Park. Cleveland was Les’s late-in-life home, but he was born in Pryor, Oklahoma on March 7, 1921.

As I conclude these thoughts, I’ll add the words that always flow through my brain anytime I write about the members of our old minor league club in Houston: Long Live the Memory of the Houston Buffs!