Update 5-30-2025
I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
Cubs Round-One Guys, Dansby, Benny’s Big Night, Indian Ball, and a New Shirt
Coffee Shop, Cubs, and Benny’s Big Night
My friend Harold is the mayor of Section 107 at Dickey Stephens Park. I think that is an appointed position given to him by some other season ticket holders, but a guy who drives from Russellville to almost every Travelers home game deserves a title.
When we sat down for our Wednesday morning coffee and baseball chat, he unexpectedly started talking about the Cubs. It seems the Cubs have come from nowhere to lead their division. Maybe it should not be such a surprise.
The previous night, every Cubs position player in the starting lineup and the starting pitcher had been a first-round draft choice. Included in that group was Dansby Swanson (Vanderbilt), who was taken first in a 2015 draft that also included Alex Bregman (2nd, LSU) and Andrew Benintendi (7th, Arkansas).
Like most Arkansans, I loved the Andrew Benintendi story. From his first season at Arkansas to his sophomore year, the undersized outfielder from Cincinnati raised his batting average 100 points. His home runs went from one to twenty, and he was the consensus best college player in America.
He was the seventh player taken in the MLB Draft, behind two SEC guys. We knew he was better than Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman. Just wait and see. Of course, he has not come close to the big-league career accomplishments of Swanson and Bregman, but he has enjoyed a very good career, continually hampered by injuries.
He was second in the Rookie of the Year vote in 2016. He has been a Gold Glove honoree, an All-Star, and a World Series Champion. For the last ten years, he has been among my first box-score checks each morning.
The evening after we discussed the 2015 Draft at the coffee shop, Benintendi had his best game of the 2025 season. In his sixth game back from the familiar injured list, he went three for five with a home run and four RBIs, making him six for twenty for the week. I still believe he can be a really good player in a healthy season.
Indian Ball and Flys and Skinners
My friend Tom DeBlack called me this week to help with the playground pick-up game theme that I have been exploring in this column. Dr. DeBlack is the unofficial Arkansas Tech “Historian,” having written the history of the University in 2017. I have a great deal of respect for Dr. DeBlack. He is a “historian,” and I write about history (baseball).
Tom is from Nashville, Arkansas. As a well-known native of one of Arkansas’ premier high school football towns, Tom is required to prefer football and deny any interest in baseball.
Faced with this identity crisis, he blames me, his daughter, the Wicks family, his friend Johnny Wilson, and assorted others for forcing him to watch baseball on TV or the ultimate humiliation…attending a baseball or softball game in person.
Despite how it might affect his “Scrapper” prestige, Tom called to ask about a pick-up game he played back in Nashville. He called the game “Indian Ball.” It seems that Nashville’s Indian ball required the batting team to supply the pitcher.
The pitcher tried to throw a hittable pitch, but the batter had to hit the ball to a designated side of second base. All the opposing players, probably excepting the first baseman, played defense on the required side of second base.
I confess that I may not understand all the intricacies of the game, but since it may have been invented by a group of football players, the rules may be vague. Blocking, tackling, and running with the ball may be in there somewhere.
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Bad News - New Shirt
My bud, Ronny Clay, likes the Bad News Hale story. So do I. Telling the story of a good player whose story has been forgotten is my mission, and Odell Hale is near the top of my favorites list. Ronny was so taken by the backstory of a guy who had 100+ RBIs in successive seasons that he sent me a commemorative T-shirt last year. The good news is that the shirt is now part of a collection of shirts that no longer fit.
In order that we continue to honor Bad News Hale, Ronny sent me a new shirt this week that fits my new size much better. Now I wear the new shirt around town and answer the question. “What does 5-6-4-3 mean?”
If you missed the story in Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly in 2024. You can find it below.
His name was Arvel Odell Hale, but he liked the nickname “Bad News.” In case you missed the story of Bad News Hale, a pretty good ballplayer from El Dorado, who was part of an unusual triple play, his story is retold below.
Hale’s 5-6-4-3” walk-off triple play represents one of the most unusual plays in baseball history.
“Bad News”
Arvel Odell Hale was born in Hosston, Louisiana, on August 10, 1908, but, after coming to El Dorado during the oil boom, he called south Arkansas his home for the remainder of his life. He was discovered there by the Alexandria Reds of the Cotton States League in 1929 while playing semipro baseball for a refinery team.
Hale had several nicknames. His Native American ancestry led to “Chief,” a title given to almost every pro baseball player who claimed an indigenous heritage. On his death certificate, his nickname is listed as “Bing,” and in his youth, his family called him “Sammy.” It might logically be assumed he preferred “Bad News,” the nickname he listed on his Baseball Hall of Fame information card.
After four excellent minor league seasons and a 25-game trial with the Cleveland Indians, Hale reached the major leagues for good in 1933. For the next seven years, Odell Hale was not only one of the Indians’ most versatile infielders but also one of the top hitters in the American League. From 1933 until an injury-ridden year in 1940 reduced his effectiveness, Hale averaged a cumulative .294 and 70 RBIs per year, including two consecutive years when he batted in 101 runs.
Bad News Hale was a good player, but his most publicized moment in baseball history came from a line drive he misplayed at third base. On September 7, 1935, Hale started a triple play. That, in itself, is not historic. According to Baseball Almanac, as of the 2023 season, there have been 735 triple plays, but only one like the bizarre fielding anomaly that Hale started that Saturday in 1935.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, Joe Cronin of the Red Sox hit a screaming line drive toward third base. Hale did not react in time to get his glove up to make the play; consequently, the ball ricocheted off his forehead. Seeing the miscue, both base runners took off before they realized the deflected ball had been caught by shortstop Bill Knickerbocker. The startled shortstop threw to second base, where Roy Hughes stepped on the bag and threw to first baseman Hal Trosky for outs two and three that completed the triple play.
Although some legal version of the shift may eventually duplicate the unusual event, the triple play started by Odell Hale that day remains the only 5-6-4-3 triple play in baseball history. To add to the drama, the play occurred in the ninth inning to end the game with a walk-off triple play. Hale batted .304 in 1935, with 101 RBIs, but the day he started a triple play with his forehead remains his most enduring moment.
After his retirement in 1942, Hale returned to El Dorado, where he worked for the Monsanto Chemical Company until his second retirement. Odell Hale died in his adopted hometown in 1980. He was elected to the Union County Hall of Fame in 2012
In case you missed this week’s post about the GAC, Arkansas Tech’s Luke Ray, and a lost story, here is a chance to catch up.
Backroads and Ballplayers #107
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