Backroads and Ballplayers #76
Stories of the famous and not-so-famous men and women from a time when baseball was "Arkansas' Game." Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly is always free and short enough to read in one cup of coffee.
World Series: Dodgers vs. Yankees Again - Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks in Little Rock - Western Arkansas League Part II
Yankees Dodgers AGAIN?
Expected yes, but commonplace no!
I grew up in the Yankees/Dodgers era. It seemed that one, or often both, were in the World Series every year. In those years, a disproportionate number of young Arkansans chose to be Yankee or Dodger fans. I chose the Yanks, and Mickey Mantle was my guy. I was 14-years old when the “Mantle” Yankees won their last World Series in 1962. The Dodgers won two of the next three.
That “changing of the guard” coincides with the last six years in the career of an incredible Dodger lefty named Sanford Koufax. For those of you too young to remember Sandy Koufax, he had a losing record for half of his 12-year career, yet he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in his first year of eligibility. He received more votes than Yogi Berra!
I would be coaching women’s basketball at Arkansas Tech and have two sons before the Yankees and Dodgers met in another World Series. By that time I was a disenchanted Yankee fan and reluctantly transitioning to a Cardinal fan.
The last time the two rivals from the 1950s met in the series was the Fall Classic of 1981. The Dodgers prevailed and for the first time there was a three-way tie for World Series MVP. Yes, one of those was Steve Yeager!
Although these old rivals are separated by thousands of miles rather than a short subway ride, this promises to be a classic. I have to be for the Yanks.
Willie, Hank, and Ernie Banks play in Arkansas.
The date was October 10, 1955. On that evening 69 years ago, three of the greatest players in the history of the game played in Little Rock, Arkansas. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks joined other Black major leaguers on a barnstorming tour immediately after the Dodgers upset the Yankees in the 1955 World Series. On a Monday night of a week dominated by the upcoming Arkansas-Texas Football game, fewer than 3,000 fans showed up at Travelers Field to see what one sportswriter called the “best team ever assembled”
Surprised? So was I.
As lost stories go, this one has to rank as one of the most significant and certainly among the most obscure. Dr. Roy Whitehead, professor Emeritus of Business Law at the University of Central Arkansas, was there. Whitehead was a 19-year-old college freshman at Arkansas Tech. The story of that historic game and Dr. Whitehead’s memories of that evening highlight the lead story in Only in Arkansas this week. The link can be found below. Please share this amazing lost story in Arkansas baseball history.
A Forgotten Night in October: Willie, Hank, and Ernie Banks Play in Little Rock
The Western Arkansas League Part II
If you missed Part I, you might prefer to read it first.
The Western Arkansas League members were familiar rivals before the 1924 season having operated as a semi-pro league for several years. In the new minor league, WAL players would no longer have to be residents of the county where the team was located, and teams contracted players with a 12-player roster limit and a $1200 salary cap.
Realistically, the Western Arkansas League was the last stop for minor league players near the end of their careers and a proving ground for young men with high hopes of escaping the coal mines and farms for a pro baseball career. Although competition in the WAL was not comparable to established minor leagues, the league produced some good players and featured some interesting characters.
The Russellville Miners’ leader was a power-hitting first baseman from Bates, Arkansas, named Jimmy Johnson. Johnson had been an outstanding shortstop prospect in Oklahoma before being shot in the throwing arm in a 1921 altercation. Now relegated to first base, Johnson would eventually become the Miners’ manager.
One of the Miners’ starting outfielders, Collins “Pug” Edwards, dropped the nickname Pug and assumed the middle name “Plowboy” for a well-publicized political career in Oklahoma. Edwards was more of a factor in Oklahoma politics than as a player in the Western Arkansas League.
The Dardanelle White Sox would rely on college players who were allowed to play for pay in the WAL and retain their eligibility. Among these players was Carey Selph of Ouachita Baptist College. The Western Arkansas League was the first stop on a 10-year pro baseball career that led Selph to 141 games in the major leagues. Ola native Walter Jacoway, also a Ouachita student, was the White Sox pitching ace. Jacoway was tabbed as a sure major leaguer before arm trouble doomed his career a few years later. Bill Metheny, who later became a legendary coach at Clarksville, manned one of the Dardanelle outfield spots.
The oddly named Atkins Boys featured the league’s most feared pitcher, a big right-hander from Choctaw named Claud Bradford. Bradford would conveniently forget some birthdays and continue to pitch in the minors well into his forties, though claiming to be about 35.
The managers of both the Clarksville Reds and Ozark Bears were the major attractions of their teams. Clarksville player-manager Albert “Red” Basham had been a rising minor-league star before a fall during a mistletoe hunt stalled his career. At age 31, Basham still could play well enough to be one of the WAL’s most feared hitters.
The same could not be said for Ozark player-manager Virgil “Red” Day. The fidgety, tobacco-spitting Day was one of the most colorful managers in the league. Unfortunately for Ozark, at age 36, the once successful minor league hurler was well past his prime. The part-time schoolteacher was the best pitcher the Ozark Bears had, but even loading the ball with tobacco juice did not make him effective. Baylor pitching ace Carl Alexander “Jake” Freeze pitched in one weekend series in Ozark. The following year, after being named All-Southwest Conference, he got a brief look as a Chicago White Sox pitcher.
The Paris Blues had one of the league’s top pitching prospects until an unfortunate incident stymied Paul Johnson’s baseball career. Johnson was called up to Class C Springfield in late August and stopped off at his home in Washington County on the way. There he was shot in the chest with a shotgun by his father-in-law in an incident the Springfield Republican called “family differences.” Johnson recovered, but he was never the same dominant pitcher he had been before the encounter.
Listening Back Home
Luther Whillock of the Bee Hive Cafe has provided a fan roost in the private dining room of the cafe where games will be received play-by-play over long-distance telephone when the team is away from home. Large groups of fans who could not make the games have been “listening in.” A small admission is charged to help pay for the special wire. —Dardanelle Post-Dispatch 5-15-1924
Despite the unconventional small-town profile of the members of the Western Arkansas League, the loop held together and completed the scheduled 60-game season. The only minor league season in the history of the Arkansas River Valley was competitive until the very end.
The season was divided into two 30-game halves with the champion of each half meeting in a series for the overall championship. With one game to play in the first half of the season, Russellville only had to win against Clarksville to clinch the pennant. Two unfortunate errors by outfielder Bill White led to a painful loss and a tie with Dardanelle. The Russellville Courier did not take it well…
It’s a horrible story mates, but it must be related! The dreadful details have been related over and over again by Russellville fans since Tuesday, but the incident is not closed until it is recorded with cold type.
We refer of course to the race for the pennant, which seemed safely clinched by Russellville until a fly ball bounced from Bill White’s mitt as if it had struck an inflated punching bag. Russellville Courier Democrat 6-26-1924
Dardanelle swept the Miners in a best 3 of 5 playoff to claim the first-half pennant. The sportswriter for the Dardanelle Post-Dispatch was in a better mood than his Russellville collegue.
. . . no returning champions of any cause ever received a more enthusiastic reception than was accorded the members of the Dardanelle baseball team when they reached the home bank of the Arkansas River last night. Dardanelle Post-Dispatch 7-17-1924
The second half of the spilt season was just as competitive. After 30 games, Russellville, Clarksville, and Atkins were tied at 18–12. Unfortunately, the title would not be decided on the field. Atkins had “borrowed” a pitcher from the Little Rock Travelers for a game with Russellville in the last week of the season. The Atkins win was declared a forfeit, thus making the Miners’ record 19–11, a game ahead of both Atkins and Clarksville.
Russellville and Dardanelle met to decide the overall champion. This time the Miners were the dominant team winning three straight in the playoff.
Next to the Democratic Primary and the National Convention, the thought and attention of Russellville the past few weeks has been centered on the pennant race in the Western Arkansas League. Some will say that baseball came first in interest, but being loyal Democrats as well as a fan, we include all three as important events of the summer. Most people were fairly well pleased with the results of the election and the convention, and in the matter of baseball, all were absolutely satisfied with the superlative result. Russellville Courier Democrat 8-28-1924
Who were those men who played in the only year the Western Arkansas League brought minor league baseball to the Arkansas River Valley? The conclusion of the historic summer of minor league baseball in Russellville, Atkins, Dardanelle, Paris, Clarksville, and Ozark concludes with Part III on November 4.
Book ordering information: Link
Welcome new subscribers. Have you missed some posts? Link - https://jyeager.substack.com/
That quote from the Russellville Courier is about as good as it gets!
Oh. to have a time machine to see that 1955 game!