Update 2-26-2025
In Case You Missed the Lost Story About Howard County’s Carl Boles…
“I am Carl, not Willie.”
As the 1962 National League regular season moved into September, the pennant race between the San Francisco Giants and their bitter archenemy, the Los Angeles Dodgers, had become one of the most hotly-contested races in decades.
“When I came out of the clubhouse and walked on the field, I got a standing ovation. People were clapping and yelling. I tipped my hat and took a bow. When I got closer to the dugout, I could hear mumbling, then the fans started booing. My number was 14. Willie was 24.” – Carl Boles
Continue reading the Carl Boles story at Only in Arkansas.
Happy Birthday, Preacher!
Elwin Charles Roe would have been 99 years old today. Seventy years after his last big-league game and sixteen years after he died in 2008, Preacher Roe remains one of the most talked-about Arkansans in major league history. In my visits to historical associations around Arkansas, the “grandpa stories” about relatives playing with and against Preacher are among the most common…and the most likely to be true!
In the summer of 1936 for reasons I can’t determine, Elwin Roe spent the summer in Russellville and played for the Russellville Jeeps in the Coal Belt League. The Coal Belt was one of the state’s top semi-pro leagues, and that summer Preacher would have played teams in Clarksville, Coal Hill, Ozark, Fort Smith, Paris, and Charleston. When he wasn’t needed by the Jeeps, Roe played for Dover in the Pope County League. He would have pitched in Hector, London, Bernice, Moreland, Appleton, and Ball Hill.
He played for Morrilton in the state semi-pro tournament in 1936, and on several occasions, he pitched for the Fort Roots Veteran’s Hospital. Add his experience in the Arkansas River Valley to all the games he played for teams near his home in Viola. When someone mentions, “My grandpa played against Preacher Roe, I always assume that he did.
Scott Goode, Harding University Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information, wrote a meticulously researched chapter on Preacher in my book, Hard Times and Hardball. (p.264)
Dr. David Jerome, who also contributed an outstanding chapter in Hard Times and Hardball, has a biography of Preacher expected to be released in 2025. Judging from his earlier book on Bill Virdon, the Preacher Roe biography will be outstanding.
In Monday’s Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly, I will revisit the complicated story of World Series hero Gene Bearden.