Update 11-14-2024
Arkansas Connections and In Case You Missed….
A friend once asked me if I could connect every guy who played big league baseball in the first half of the 20th century to an Arkansas story. Thinking about that challenge reminded me of an old game called “Six Degrees of Separation” or something like that. The idea is that all people are six or fewer connections away from each other, the friend of a friend, appeared in the same movie, or played on the same team.
I doubt that I can connect every ex-major leaguer to Arkansas, but I can connect two Arkansas guys to a baseball bat and a “hitting” legend. How about that? Well, not exactly a bat, but a category of bat-like instruments that have been part of baseball for 150 years or so.
I am talking about a “fungo bat.” I never owned one, but when I was the women’s basketball coach at Tech, I hit imaginary ground balls with a fungo bat in the batting cage a time or two. They are long thin and about 1/2 the weight of a standard bat. Old coaches can hit tossed-up outfield flys and ground balls for an extended time without getting tired. One baseball historian surmised that “a fungo bat looks like a cross between a baseball bat and a broomstick.”
Arkansas’ Otis Brannan (Greenbrier) was nearly killed by one. In 1924, Brannan, who was one of Doc Williams’ Faulkner County guys, was playing minor league ball in Ardmore, Oklahoma. During a pregame practice session, a coach ill-suited for the task was hitting ground balls to the infield and flies to the outfield simultaneously. While fielding a ground ball at second base, Brannan was struck in the head by a line drive meant for the outfield. Brannan almost died from the injury, and it took him two years to return to pro baseball. By the way Brannan, also played with Shoeless Joe Jackson if you need that connection. Backroads and Ballplayers 1918 p. 44
Bobby Winkles’ (Swifton, Tuckerman) old friend Jimmie Reese, who was one of his coaches when Winkles managed the California Angels, is the uncrowned “King of Fungo Hitters.” According to Winkles, when it comes to fungoes, "Jimmie Reese is No. 1 and the rest of us are eighth, ninth, and 10th."
Stories of Reese’s skill with a fungo bat followed him throughout his career. Some are true, some are dubious, and all of them are part of the legend of the “King of Fungo.”
As one story goes, Jimmie Reese once shot an 82 on an 18-hole golf course using nothing but a putter and a fungo bat. In one pre-game challenge, Reese hit a flagpole from 100 feet away on his first swing. He “pitched” batting practice with a fungo bat throughout his coaching career.
By the way, Jimmie Reese also roomed with Babe Ruth, in case you are ever called on to connect Babe Ruth and any of the dozens of Arkansas pro baseball players associated with Dr. Earl Williams, any Arkansan who played for Bobby Winkles, or knew Jimmie Reese.
Jimme Reese died in 1994 while in his 19th season as a coach with the Angels. He was 92 years old.
In case you missed it.
This week’s Monday post featured Arkansas Major Leaguers 2024 and Preacher Roe
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