The Pecan Park Eagle

Early 1950s: Former Houston Buff and Cardinal prospect Russell Rac (Center) with Don Blasingame (Left) and Rip Repulski (Right). Rac is the only one of the three who saw no major league playing time.

Former Houston Buff Russell Rac has died quietly of natural causes at the age of 81 at his home in Galveston following a lingering illness. The Galveston native passed away on October 11, 2011, surrounded by surviving family members. Rac was born in Galveston of June 15, 1930.

Russell Rac, BR/TR.

Prior to his retirement as a professional baseball player, Rac played out a respectable eleven season minor league career from 1948 to 1958, hitting .289 over the course of his service time and collecting 1,318 career hits and 161 home runs. At 5’9″ and 185 lbs. during his playing days, Rac was a speedy outfielder with a compact swing that contained some real power pop.

Unfortunately for Russell Rac, he played in the higher minors during the reserve clause era that closely limited the flow of talent to the then only 16-team major leagues. Had Rac played in today’s free agency era of 30 MLB clubs, he most certainly would have received the opportunity for some big league “ABs” and garnered some defensive innings, but he was a man of the 1950s, playing for the most talent-loaded farm system in the game with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rac entered and exited the game at early ages. He took his first professional time at bat when we was only 18 in 1948 and fresh out of high school. He left his last pro game in 1958 at only age 28. I’m not sure of Russsell’s reasons for the early exit, but sadly too,  the door of asking Russell Rac about such things is now passed. He left in 1958 and he never played another pitch of professional ball from that point forward, although he kept up his contact with friends in baseball and was one of the veteran Houston Buffs who attended “The Last Round Up” reunion of the club that former team president Allan Russell sponsored in September 1995, just four months prior to his own death in January 1996.

As a St. Louis Cardinal farm hand, Russell Rac took his first professional time at bat as a Houston Buff in 1948. He later did short tours with the Buffs in 1951, 1952, and 1954, even being here long enough to crush a home run against the New York Yankees in a spring training game at Buff Stadium that I also witnessed in early April 1951. As a kid in those days, little Russell Rac looked like a giant in my eyes that magical day, but I wasn’t making roster decisions in those days. Before we knew it, Rac had been shipped away from Houston again.

Russell Rac returned for full seasons as an outfielder for the Houston Buffs in 1955, 1956, and 1958. The Buffs won the Texas League pennant in 1956 and then went on to capture the Dixie Series championship in six games over the Atlanta Crackers.

Rac enjoyed his greatest hitting success as a Houston Buff. He hit .312 in both 1955 and 1958, also hammering 21 homers and 98 RBI  in ’55 and 12 HR in ’58.

Rac took special pride in his power ability. He once sent me a copy of a Spanish-language sports page from Venezuela that detailed the highlight accomplishment of his entire career.

In a single nine-inning January 8, 1956 game he played for Pastora in the Venezuelan winter league, Russell Rac crunched four home runs before the day was done. At the time he did it, Rac was only the eighth player in professional baseball history to have accomplished the feat, becoming among the heatedly passionate fans of that region something like the legend of Babe Ruth, Paul Runyon, and the god Thor, all rolled into one.

The people of Pastora may have eventually forgotten that day, but Russell Rac never did. Unfortunately for Russell Rac, the St. Louis Cardinals apparently forgot about the 4-homer game even before the first pitch of the 1956 season. For Rac and dozens of others, spring training in 1956 led only to another higher minor league assignment, far away from the madding crowds of major league attention. Russell Rac took it for three more minor league years and then retired.

Rest in peace, Russell Rac. Sorry we never got to have that cup of coffee on the seawall that we once talked about. The loss is truly mine.