Backroads and Ballplayers #92
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 finish in one cup of coffee.
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Adopted Sons: Ray Winder and Bill Dickey, Black History Month Feature: The Claybrook Tigers, and an Opening Day List
Adopted Sons - Ray Winder Rescues Bill Dickey
Making a presentation in Searcy, I made the mistake of leaving Bill Dickey off a list of major leaguers from White County, Arkansas. Those folks will be quick to remind anyone who mentions Bill was born in Bastrop, Louisiana, that he has been forgiven for that moment in his life when he had the misfortune to be born in Louisiana.
I agree. Bill Dickey is from Arkansas. The minor detail of his birthplace can be overlooked. After all, the home of the Arkansas Travelers is named Dickey-Stephens Park in honor of Bill, his brother George, and the sports-minded Stephens family.
Ray Winder became owner Robert Allen’s point man immediately after Allen purchased the Montgomery franchise in the Southern Association and moved the team to Little Rock. Winder was treasurer, public relations director, business manager, and road secretary. He helped Allen build a competitive roster, and perhaps most importantly, he watched over the Travs’ volatile manager, Kid Elberfeld.
Allen returned the favor in the 1920s by sending players Winder’s way during the six years Winder was learning the general manager ropes in Oklahoma. Among those optioned to Muskogee was a green young catcher named Bill Dickey.
The Catcher and the Baseball Man
In May 1926, Bill Dickey was going home. He was 19 years old but so discouraged with pro baseball that he was giving up. He had started the season in Little Rock with lofty expectations, but after less than a month, his batting average hovered around .200, and his defense was worse. The intricacies of catching were a mystery.
When things looked hopelessly bleak for the discouraged young catcher, he caught a break. On May 8, a Little Rock franchise in a financial crisis sold Dickey to the Minneapolis Millers. The Travs, heading for the Southern Association cellar and struggling at the gate, needed cash flow more than a .200-hitting catcher who seemed lost behind the plate.
Although Minneapolis had high expectations for their new prospect, he was not ready to be a starting catcher in Class AA, one step below the majors. The Millers sent Dickey down to Muskogee in the Western League to a team where fellow Arkansan Ray Winder was general manager. Winder immediately recognized a teenager in a career crisis, but the Muskogee executive’s expertise was not catching skills. He had something else to offer Bill Dickey.
Dickey would later explain, “[Winder] sat down and talked to me like a father.” The general manager convinced his young catcher that he had what it took to be a big leaguer, but it would not be easy. “Why don’t you give it a year at least? You have played less than a month.”
Dickey went to work on his skills, and with Ray Winder as his personal career counselor, he was soon on the right track. Unfortunately, the Muskogee franchise folded in mid-July, but once again, Winder arranged a situation for Dickey that led to even more success. The rejuvenated young catcher finished the year back in Little Rock and continued to thrive in familiar surroundings. While their shared Arkansas connection drew Winder to Bill Dickey, the general manager also saw something in his protégé others had missed.
William Malcolm Dickey was born in Bastrop, Louisiana, on June 6, 1907, but the family moved to Kensett, Arkansas, when Bill was a child. His dad was a railroad man who had grown up playing on semi-pro teams in Tennessee, and he passed his love of the game down to his sons. Bill’s older brother, Gus, played on semi-pro teams around the Dickey family’s new home, and his younger brother, George, would eventually spend 13 seasons in professional baseball.
Bill grew up in a semi-rural small town where Sunday baseball was the weekend entertainment. He played on the Kensett town team as a teenager and later starred at nearby Searcy High School. In the fall of 1924, at age 17, he enrolled at Little Rock College. The Travelers signed him the next summer after he caught the eye of manager Lena Blackburne while subbing for a friend in a semi-pro game. Eighteen-year-old Dickey played in ten games for the Travs in the summer of 1925.
After bouncing between Muskogee and Little Rock in 1926, Dickey spent 1927 in Jackson, Mississippi, in the Cotton States League. He hit .297, and his catching skills improved, although he was primarily a hitter and just good enough to get by as a catcher. Later, when looking back at his defensive skills in his first years of pro baseball, Dickey would classify himself as a “lousy catcher.”
In the perplexing world of early 20th-century minor-league finance, Jackson waived their rights to Dickey after the 1927 season, allowing him to be signed by New York Yankees’ scout, Johnny Nee. The scout was so convinced he had found a big-league star that he proclaimed, “I will quit scouting if this boy does not make good.”
Nee kept his job. Dickey spent most of the 1928 season back in Little Rock, where he played on a fifth-place club with fellow Arkansans Rube Robinson, Jimmy Moore, Footsie Blair, and Cliff Shaw. He hit .300 for 60 games with the Travelers. In August, with the Yankees short of able-bodied catchers, he was called to New York City by way of a three-game stop in Buffalo.
On August 15, 1928, 21-year-old Bill Dickey struck out in his first major league at-bat, pinch-hitting for catcher Benny Bengough in an 8–4 loss to the White Sox. In less than a week, Dickey had gone from playing at Kavanaugh Field with Rube Robinson, Footsie Blair, Jimmy Moore, and Cliff Shaw to Yankee Stadium in a lineup with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Tony Lazzeri. Fifteen games into the 1929 season, Dickey had won the catching job on the Babe Ruth- Lou Gehrig Yankees. To fall back to a worn cliché, the rest is history!
In every review of his life story, Bill Dickey gave credit to Ray Winder for the turning point in his career.
February is Black History Month - This week’s feature: The Claybrook Tigers
From Only in Arkansas February 2013, The Legend of the Claybrook Tigers
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Spring training has begun.
Below is an opening day list for each MLB team:
Angels: March 27 at White Sox (Time TBD)
Astros: March 27 vs. Mets (Time TBD)
Athletics: March 27 at Mariners (10:10 p.m. ET)
Blue Jays: March 27 vs. Orioles (3:07 p.m. ET)
Braves: March 27 at Padres (4:10 p.m. ET)
Brewers: March 27 at Yankees (3:05 p.m. ET)
Cardinals: March 27 vs. Twins (4:15 p.m. ET)
Cubs: March 18 vs. Dodgers (6:00 a.m. ET in Tokyo)
Diamondbacks: March 27 vs. Cubs (10:10 p.m. ET)
Dodgers: March 18 at Cubs (6:00 a.m. ET in Tokyo)
Giants: March 27 at Reds (4:10 p.m. ET)
Guardians: March 27 at Royals (4:10 p.m. ET)
Mariners: March 27 vs. Athletics (10:10 p.m. ET)
Marlins: March 27 vs. Pirates (4:10 p.m. ET)
Mets: March 27 at Astros (Time TBD)
Nationals: March 27 vs. Phillies (4:05 p.m. ET)
Orioles: March 27 at Blue Jays (3:07 p.m. ET)
Padres: March 27 vs. Braves (4:10 p.m. ET)
Phillies: March 27 at Nationals (4:05 p.m. ET)
Pirates: March 27 at Marlins (4:10 p.m. ET)
Rangers: March 27 vs. Red Sox (4:05 p.m. ET)
Rays: March 28 vs. Rockies (4:10 p.m. ET)
Reds: March 27 vs. Giants (4:10 p.m. ET)
Red Sox: March 27 at Rangers (4:05 p.m. ET)
Rockies: March 28 at Rays (4:10 p.m. ET)
Royals: March 27 vs. Guardians (4:10 p.m. ET)
Tigers: March 27 at Dodgers (7:10 p.m. ET)
Twins: March 27 at Cardinals (4:15 p.m. ET)
White Sox: March 27 vs. Angels (Time TBD)
Yankees: March 27 vs. Brewers (3:05 p.m. ET)
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