The Pecan Park Eagle

Russell Rac
The Early Years

Russell Rac (5’11”, 188 lbs.) (BR/TR) was a slugging, speedy, good-natured outfielder for the Houston Buffs intermittently from his very first handful of hitless professional times at bat at age 18 in 1948 to his eleventh and last season as a full-time, .312-hitting 28-year-old Buff in 1958. Rac came by his affinity for Houston quite honestly. He was born in Galveston on June 15, 1930 and grew up a Buffs fan as also honed his playing skills at the Island City’s Ball High School.

Rac played for the Houston Buffs for parts or all of seven seasons out of his eleven years total (1948, 1951-52, 1954-56, and 1958). He batted .289 with 161 HR over the course of his minor league career. Russell never made it to the big leagues with the always talent-heavy St. Louis Cardinals, but that was more due to their abundance than any deficiency in Russell Rac. In today’s market, Russell was the kind of guy who could have played several years in the big leagues.

Two Rac home run feats come to mind: In early April 1951, Russell Rac homered against the New York Yankees in a 15-9 spring training loss by Houston to the Bronx Bombers at Buff Stadium in the waning days of spring training. At age 21, Rac was not the youngest player to homer in that game. An 18-year old kid named Mickey Mantle also hit one out for the Yankees before the day was done. – The other home run story came to me directly from Russell Rac. He once showed me a newspaper account to back up his story, but I couldn’t read the whole thing. It was all in Spanish, but I do understand the word “quatro” as “four”. I saw it in the headlines of the article that Russell pointed out to me.

Russell Rac
The Later Years

The story? One year in South American ball, Russell Rac belted four home runs in a single game!

Russell Rac was one of those compact guys that could really pile some distance into a baseball when he caught it with those quick wrists on the sweet spot. After baseball, Russell Rac remained active in those periodic reunions of the Houston Buffs and he was there with a bells-on spirit for the 1995 Last Roundup  of the Buffs.

Some people never give up on the joy of living life as a celebration. In my experience with him, Russell Rac was one of those people. He also never abandoned his joy for the game of baseball. And like most good old time baseball people, he always seemed to have time for another good baseball story.

Sadly, we lost Russell Rac a couple of years ago. He died on October 11, 2011 at the age of 81.

Keep smiling, Russell. – That’s how most of us will always remember you.