The Pecan Park Eagle

The following five photos have these traits in common: (1) They are each photos of big moments in baseball history; (2) They each were taken during the widely agreed upon post World War II Era of 1946 to 1960; and (3) each were the figurative fulfillment of that magical expression about “catching lightning in a bottle;” and (4) all you need is magic to make something memorable – and a rarified photograph of the moment simply makes it harder to forget.

Here are my favorite examples from the post-World War II period:

October 15, 1946: Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash from First to Home.

October 15, 1946: Slaughter’s Mad Dash: It’s Game Seven of the World Series at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox are tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Enos Slaughter is at first base with two outs and Harry Walker is the batter.

Walker takes off for second base on the hit and run when Walker follows through with a lazy, looping single to left center. As BoSox center fielder Leon Culberson lumbers after the ball, Slaughter hits second and rounds the base for third. Culberson makes the cutoff throw to shortstop Johnny Pesky as third base coach Mike Gonzalez puts up the stop sign for the dashing Slaughter.

The mad man runner ignores the halt sign and rounds third base, heading for home. The pivoting Pesky takes a halting look at the action and then let’s go a not even close throw to the plate.

Slaughter slides home safe for a 4-3 lead that holds up for a St. Louis final winning score in Game Seven, delivering the World Series to the Cardinals on a late-in-the game mad dash from first to home by Enos Slaughter on a Harry Walker dumping hit that should’ve never been anything more than a single.

October 5, 1947: Gionfriddo's Catch.

October 5, 1947: Al Gionfriddo’s Catch: It’s the World Series again, the Yankees are losing 8-5 to the Brooklyn Dodgers in the bottom of the sixth of Game Six when Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio comes to the plate with two runners on base and a chance to tie it all up with the long ball.

DiMaggio launches a blast that seems destined to reach the stands at the 415 feet mark, but late inning substitute left fielder Al Gionfriddo, all 5’6″ of him, races far across the field to reach over the fence and make the catch, denying Joe and the Yankees a game-tying homer at the 415 feet sign. The Dogers go on to win Game Six by 8-6, but lose in Game Seven to the dynastic Yankees.

Not just by the way, the Gionfriddo photo is every inch covered in fame by another photo of this moment I like, but did not have available for this article. That’s the photo of Joe DiMaggio kicking the sand near second base when he realizes that Gionfriddo has just robbed him of the game-tying home run.

October 3, 1951: The Shot Heard Round the World.

October 3, 1951: The Shot Heard Round the World: If you’ve read this far, you probably already know the story by heart. The 1951 New York Giants were already a team powered by miracles when they reached the great cliff threat of their pennant-driving season. Coming from 13.5 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers in August, the Giants had fought back to tie the Dodgers for first place on the last day of the regular season.

Now, here they were in the bottom of the 9th of the third and deciding game of a playoff contest with the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. With two runners on base and one man out, Bobby Thomson was coming to bat to face reliever Ralph Branca.

At 3:57 PM, Eastern time, Bobby Thomson unloaded a line drive home run that just shot its way into the left field stands like a Revolutionary War cannonball. For even larger reasons, the firing of that baseball oFf the bat of Thomson would be remembered to this day and forever as “The Shot Heard Round The World.” The Giants won the game and the in the biggest roaring walk-off victory of all time.

THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! ~ THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! ~ THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!

September 29, 1954: The Catch.

September 29, 1954: The Catch: It is arguably the most famous baseball photograph of all time. Running hard to the afr distant stands in deepest center field of the Polo Grounds in Game One of the 1954 World Series, Willie Mays of the New York Giants brings home the catch of Vic Wertz’s long drive in the very inning of play, setting a downward tone that the heavily favored Cleveland Indians will never escape.

The New York Giants sweep the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series, four games to none. Willie sweeps defensive baseball history with “The Catch,” bar none.

October 13, 1960: Maz's Homer Beats Yankees!

October 13, 1960: Maz’s Homer Beats Yankees! In one of the most exciting Game Sevens of all time, little Bill Mazeroski came to bat for Pittsburgh in the bottom of the ninth at Forbes Field to face Ralph Terry of the Yankees with the score tied at 9-9.

Then “Maz” did something he wasn’t famous for doing. He poked a hard liner drive to left field that just kept on climbing. Left fielder Yogi Berra first started backing up as though he would have a play. Then we see Berra turn to watch. He is watching the ball sail over the wall and out of the park. Bill Mazeroski has just unloaded a World Series winning walk-off home run for a 10-9 Pirates win and joyous bedlam in the Land of Three Rivers.

Not so joyous in The Bronx or the home of their manager. Because of the loss, the Yankees fire manager Casey Stengel in spite of the fact that he had won ten pennants and seven previous World Series titles in his twelve seasons (1949-60) as the Yankee mentor.

In one more sidebar of mindless action, a 14 year old Pirates fan named Andy Jerpe retrieves the World Series winning homer ball outside the Forbes Field wall and he takes it to Bill Mazeroski for an autograph. The kid apparently never thinks to give it to Mazeroski or make a trade and the celebrating Pirates never think about a way to save the ball either. And who knows where the Hall of Fame representatives were on this day. They sure weren’t on hand back in that era trying to obtain and preserve historical artifacts.

The short of it is this: The Jerpe kid takes the signed Mazeroski major artifact baseball home with him. Some time later, an effort is made to locate the kid and the ball. The searchers learn the worst. The kid needed a ball for sandlot games at some point and put it in play. The magic Mazeroski home run ball was then worn down and finally lost.

Oh well, At least we aren’t likely to lose our famous photos – not once they are digitalized, anyway.

Have a nice day, everybody. And take care of what’s valuable to history.

1948 Houston Buffs: Zooming In, A Photo May Raise More Questions than it Answers.

The 1948 Houston  Buffs had a tough act to follow. They had to take the baseball stage on the heels of the 1947 Buffs, a tenacious club that won both the Texas League pennant and the Dixie Series championship. As it turned out, the ’48 Buffs, also playing under ’47 Manager Johnny Keane and with several players from their championship year, could only make it to third place and a full ten games back of the first place and eventual pennant-winning Fort Worth Cats. The ’48 Buffs lost to Tulsa in the first round of the Shaughnessy Playoffs.

I used the featured team photo of the ’48 Buffs to crop and display an individual picture of Jim Basso in yesterday’s article on the Buff who knew Hemingway. Remember this one? It shows up pretty darn crisp and clear:

Jim Basso Never Came To Bat for the '48 Buffs.

Before Jim Basso ever came to bat for the 1948 Houston Buffs, he was dealt away, ending his three season status (1946-48) as a member of the club. Based upon his length of time with five other clubs in 1948, it is fairly safe to assume that this photo of Basso in the team photo of the Buffs was taken in the spring or very early part of the season.

What else is in the photo, however unintentional it may have been?

The fan isn't smoking; it's a print negative scratch.

When I first saw the fan second from right in the photo, I thought we had a live photo of someone actually smoking in the grandstands, which many fans did in wild abandon back in 1948. It turns out that it was simply a scratch on the negative that had created this illusion.

What’s not an illusion is that all these young guys were there early to see a game, we presume. It could be that fans or family members were allowed into Buff Stadium just to watch the team photo shooting, but that isn’t likely. The issue that throws e off here is the casual attire of team President Allen Russell. He usually went suit and tie on game days so we can’t really be sure if maybe it was an off-day or just early enough in the day for Russell to change later. Still, if Russell dressed formally for games, you would think he would have done the same for the team picture. It’s possible to think ourselves into a corner on mysteries at this level.

Sporty Allen Russell in 1948 Team Photo Corner.

The sporty shot of Buffs President Allen Russell also reveals more seated civilians over each shoulder. Based on their youthful appearance and body language, I’m guessing they are “kids from the ‘hood” who came early for Knothole Gang seating who got to roam the better seats prior to the start of each game. We did that all the time back in the day.

It must be a long while prior to game time. Otherwise, Allen Russell wouldn’t be smiling that broadly with all those empty seats lurking behind him.

Somebody had a game date this day.

Way back there in the stands, we see a young couple seated, with a lonely lurking twerp seated sort of glumly behind them. The couple’s presence adds more weight to the possibility that this photo was taken early on a game date. As I recall our culture in that era, one didn’t usually get a date to simply go watch  practice or a team photo shoot at Buff Stadium.

The silhouette of these buffalo medallions confirm that Buff Stadium, indeed, is the site of our 1948 Houston Buffs team photo.

A total of eighty 36″ in diameter steel buffalo medallions once rimmed the exterior walls of Buff Stadium from 1928 to 1961. Two of these medallions hang today in the Houston Sports Museum at Finger Furniture. A few others are scattered among individual owners and I have one that was given to me by former Buff Jerry Witte and his family for historical safekeeping. It will eventually go to a place yet to be determined which can guarantee its preservation and display for history in perpetuity.

For now, here’s how this unmistakable symbol of Buff Stadium looks this morning in the space above my head where I write each day:

Eighty of these beautiful medallions once rimmed the exterior walls of Buff Stadium.

There is much in a photo. This one starts out showing us the faces of a team. It then ends up raising the question we all have to answer for ourselves: How much part are we each willing to play in the preservation of history.

Think about it. Then get out there and give the world your answer. No contribution can be too large or too small. If you do nothing more than join SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, you will be helping all the rest of us take a giant leap forward – and this is not a commercial. It’s simply a fact. SABR works for baseball.

For more information about SABR in general, check out the national organization:

info@sabr.org

For more information about the Houston-based Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR, contact group leader Bob Dorrill at

E-Mail:

Meanwhile, enjoy your old photos even more. And have a nice day.