Backroads and Ballplayers #20
Stories of the famous and not-so-famous men and women from the days when baseball was "Arkansas' Game." Always free and always short enough to finish in one cup of coffee.
Hot Springs Baseball Weekend, The Babe, an “Extraordinary Joe,” and Remembering Mike
Hot Spring’s Baseball Weekend is less than a week away, and this year’s event promises to be one of the most popular in the six-year history of the annual festival celebrating the city’s baseball heritage. Appearances by four Hall of Famers highlight the weekend’s activities which also include an open meeting of the Arkansas Chapter of SABR (guests are welcome), a sports card show, and a showing of the documentary film, Fastball. Amazingly, all the events are free!
“Goose” and “Lefty” are joined by Wade Boggs and Rollie Fingers at HSBW #6
Hot Springs has become a year-round baseball destination, and the annual celebration weekend is the city’s signature baseball event. Although Arkansas’ Spa City is hundreds of miles from a big-league ballpark, this year’s lineup will feature four Hall of Famers for an event that has become one of the most anticipated late-summer festivals in Arkansas.
“What a great lineup of true baseball legends we have for fans this year,” said event chairman, Steve Arrison, of Visit Hot Springs. “With all the changes that were introduced in the game this year, I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting questions for fans to exchange with our guest celebrities.”
Returning for the Sixth HSBW are Steve Carlton and Rich “Goose” Gossage, two of the most popular guests from previous weekends. Lefty and Goose will be joined by Wade Boggs, one of baseball’s all-time great hitters, and intimidating relief pitcher, Rollie Fingers. Boggs and Fingers are guests at the popular event for the first time.
Originally a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, Steve Carlton was a three-time All-Star in St. Louis before spending most of his career as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. In 15 seasons with the Phillies, Carlton led the league in wins four times, winning 20 or more games five times. The 10-time All-Star would go on to win a total of four Cy Young Awards and a Gold Glove Award in 1981. On Sept. 24, 1983, he became only the 16th pitcher to win 300 games. Carlton was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1994.
Also back by popular demand, is Rich “Goose” Gossage, who has quickly become a local favorite. Gossage, a nine-time All-Star, retired after the 1994 season. The hard-throwing righthander, with an intimidating stare, finished a 22-year big-league career with nine different big-league clubs. His lifetime statistics include a 124-107 record and a 3.01 ERA in 1,002 games. Goose has 310 career saves. He logged 1,809.1 innings pitched and struck out 1,502 batters. Gossage was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Wade Boggs, a 12-time All-Star third baseman, ended his 18-year (1982-99) major league career with 3,010 hits, a .328 batting average, and a .415 on-base percentage. Boggs reached base safely in 85 percent of his 2,432 career games. He spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox, before finishing with the Yankees and Rays. In his last season with Tampa Bay, he became the 23rd member of the 3,000-hit club. Boggs was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005.
Known for his signature handlebar mustache, Fingers was one of the most outstanding relief pitchers of the 1970s and 1980s. Fingers finished his career with 114 wins, 341 saves (a record at the time), 1,299 strikeouts, and a 2.90 ERA. The durable right-hander worked 1,701.1 innings in 944 major league games. In 1981, pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, Fingers won the American League MVP Award and the Cy Young award. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005.
The festivities kick off on Friday with a showing of the documentary, Fastball. The film, narrated by Kevin Costner, features a cast of baseball legends and scientists who explore the magic within the 396 milliseconds it takes a fastball to reach home plate and decipher who threw the fastest pitch ever.
Arrive early Saturday and attend a meeting of the Arkansas Chapter of SABR (guests welcome) and a Sports Card Show in the Convention Center Plaza Lobby.
Schedule of Events:
Friday, August 25
7 p.m. – Free Screening of the documentary movie Fastball
Saturday, August 26
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. — Society for American Baseball Research Meeting (Non-members welcome) – Convention Center Room 102
10 a.m. – 3 p.m. — Baseball Card Show Open – Plaza Lobby
10 a.m. – 11 a.m. — Talking Baseball with Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. Hot Springs Convention Center – Horner Hall
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. — The Goose Is Loose – Hall of Famer Goose Gossage on the State of the Game
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. — Rex Nelson Talks Pitching with Hall of Famer Steve Carlton
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. — Wade Boggs: Stories from the Batter’s Box
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. — Ask the Pros featuring Goose Gossage, Wade Boggs, Steve Carlton, and Rollie Fingers
*Al Hrabosky had an unexpected situation arise and will not be at the 6th Annual Hot Springs Baseball Weekend*
Babe Ruth and Joe Bauman Home Run Legends
Babe’s Gator Farm Homer
On March 17, 1918, a “big fellow” who was mostly a pitcher (24 wins in 1917), was pressed into service in a spring training game in Hot Springs because of a shortage of outfielders. Babe Ruth was 23 years old and although he had hit a couple of home runs in 1917, he was counted on to be the Boston Red Sox ace hurler. His 35 complete games as a pitcher had led the league the previous season.
The Babe would hit two homers in that spring game played at Whittington Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The second home run the big pitcher hit that day became a landmark event in a career filled with legendary feats. The historic blast sailed over the right-field fence, across the street, and landed in an alligator farm some 500+ feet away. Fans for both teams stood up and cheered, astounded by how far the homer traveled.
The Boston Globe had this to say postgame:
…(homer #2) not only scaled the right-field barrier but continued on to the alligator farm, the intrusion kicking up no end of commotion among the “Gators.”
In 2011, Hot Springs baseball historian Bill Jenkinson and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau Steve Arrison hired an engineering crew to measure the distance from where the Whittington Park home plate once stood (now a parking lot) out to the still-existing alligator farm. Using old photographs, modern satellite imagery, and tree markers, the ball was determined to have traveled at least 500 feet. Obviously, The Babe became a legend and his exploits helped make the home run the most exalted batting feat in baseball. Today visitors to the site of the Babe Ruth Whittington Park blast can stand at the home plate mounted in the parking lot across from the Alligators Farm.
An Extraordinary Joe
Baseball fans do love home runs.
In the summer of 1941, the Newport Dodgers had an experienced team that won both halves of the league season. They also had a couple of green teenagers who roomed together in a home in Newport, Arkansas. One of the youngsters would become a legend in the American Southwest and have a prestigious annual award named in his honor. The other young man also had a pretty good baseball career. His name was George Kell and his plaque can be found in Cooperstown, New York. Kell’s roommate that season was a recent high school graduate from Oklahoma named Joe Bauman.
Joe Bauman was a big man, at least 6’4” and 250 lbs. He owned a filling station in Roswell, New Mexico, most of his life, and he played a little pro baseball. “Big Joe” was George Kell’s roommate when they played together as teenagers for the Newport Dodgers in the Northeast Arkansas League. None of those biographical facts make Joe Bauman a celebrity, but a prestigious annual minor league award is named in his honor. He must have accomplished something significant.
Joe Willis Bauman was born April 16, 1922, in the small town of Welch, Oklahoma, up in the northeast corner of the state near Commerce, where another baseball player made a name for himself a few years after Joe had moved to Oklahoma City.
“Big Joe” attended the same high school as Allie Reynolds, historic Capitol High in Oklahoma City, but he never enjoyed the fame Reynolds achieved as a member of six World Series Champions as a New York Yankee.
Bauman played with Dale Mitchell on the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company semi-pro team. Mitchell played more than 1,100 big league games with a .312 lifetime batting average, but he is best known for taking the called third strike that ended Don Larsen’s perfect World Series game in 1956.
After signing right out of high school, Joe Bauman spent the first week of the 1941 season with the Little Rock Travelers. He had played in three games and gone hitless in 10 plate appearances before joining George Kell in Newport. The Newport club was an affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, managed by a 38-year-old minor league veteran named Merle Settlemire. Settlemire was assisted by Brooklyn scout Tom Greenwade. The scout had signed Kell the summer before, and, according to the Arkansas Gazette, Tommy Greenway [sic]was helping the manager in “whipping the team into shape.”
Greenwade had been pitching in various semi-pro and independent leagues since the early 1920s, and at age 36, his playing days were limited. His success as a scout was just beginning. The signing of future Hall of Famer George Kell would mark the beginning of a distinguished career, highlighted in 1949 by the signing of another Hall of Famer named Mickey Mantle.
The Newport Dodgers of 1941 dominated the Northeast Arkansas League. Although the club won both halves of the league schedule, only Kell, Greenwade, and, of course, Big Joe Bauman, achieved lasting baseball fame. While his roommate, George Kell, made the jump from the Northeast Arkansas League to baseball stardom quickly, Bauman took a detour.
Shortly after the 1941 season ended, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Bauman spent the next four years working in a defense plant and serving as a coach for the Naval Air Station in Norman, Oklahoma. With many pro baseball players in the military, the competition was good, and Bauman came out of WWII a much better player than when he entered. At age 24, he still had time to start a baseball career.
He found a spot in the Boston Braves organization in 1946, playing for the Amarillo Gold Sox in the West Texas-New Mexico League. Bauman, who had hit three home runs in his initial pro season, batted .301 and hit a league-leading 48 home runs. In 1947, Bauman raised his batting average to .350 with 38 home runs. He was obviously not the same guy who hit .215 at Newport, Arkansas.
After a disastrous promotion to a Class A team in Hartford, Connecticut, Big Joe gave up his brief pro-baseball dream, went home to Oklahoma, and opened a Texaco station on Route 66. He settled in back home pumping gas and fixing flats at the station while playing semi-pro team at Elk City. The Elk City Elks won the Oklahoma state semi-pro title in 1949, 1950, and 1951, but a chance for a new start and a promise of a modern filling station lured Joe back from the semi-pro ranks to the minors in the Longhorn League in 1952.
Thus began one of the most implausible four-year hitting performances in the history of professional baseball. Playing in New Mexico, first with Artesia and then Roswell, Bauman thrived in the thin air and home run-friendly ballparks of the Longhorn League, Big Joe averaged 55 home runs a season from 1952 to 1955.
The most astounding of those seasons was 1954, his first year with the Roswell Rockets. He entered the last two weeks of the season with 55 home runs, 14 short of the minor league record. With the aid of a four-homer night on August 31, Bauman finished the year with 72 home runs, a minor league mark that still stands today. His stats for 1954 are mind-boggling, 72 home runs, 224 RBIs, and a batting average of .400.
Bauman played one more full season in 1955. He hit 48 home runs for the second-place Rockets team that featured a big righthander from Monkey Run, Arkansas, named Dean Franks. “Big Dean,” whose career is featured in my new book Hard Times and Hardball, won a league-leading 27 games as the Rocket’s ace pitcher.
An off-season injury hobbled Bauman in 1956, his last season in pro baseball. He continued to run his Texaco station in Roswell and later became the sales manager in a beer distribution business. Joe Bauman Stadium in Roswell bears his name as does the annual award given each year to the minor league home run leader. Joe Bauman died in Roswell in 2005. In 2021, the Joe Bauman Award was won by M. J. Melendez of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
Of course, in a Roswell, New Mexico, story, there must be an extraterrestrial connection. In Harry Turtledoves’ 2009 tale of aliens and a Texaco station, called The Star and the Rockets, the central character is gas station operator, Joe Bauman.
While in Arkansas’ Baseball City…
Take the Hot Springs Baseball Trail
Visit Majestic Park
19-Hour Getaway to Hot Springs
Hot Springs National Park
A Tribute to Mike Dugan:
JULY 17, 1954 – FEBRUARY 4, 2021
Chairman of Hot Springs Baseball Weekend
If you have missed some posts, click this link to access previous columns.
If you are interested in purchasing my latest book, Hard Times and Hardball, the book is available at Dog Ear Books, Russellville, Bookish Emporium, Heber Springs, Petit Jean Coffeehouse, and Amazon.
To order signed books click this link for details on ordering directly.
I will have books for sale at Hot Springs Baseball Weekend and I will be at the Faulkner County Museum (behind the courthouse) Sunday, August 27.
For those who haven't been, I definitely endorse the Hot Springs Baseball Weekend! Goose Gossage, in particular, does not seem to have much of a filter on his opinions, so he is quite entertaining.