Update 6-12-2025
Omaha, Beeks, and In Case You Missed...
This week’s post about Omahogs, Chris Curry, and “Oil” Smith was one of the most read Backroads and Ballplayers Weeklys of the year.
Here is your second chance. Backroads and Ballplayers #109
Finding the Last Loss, Getting it Wrong, Jalen Beeks, and more “Oil”
Here We Go in Omaha…
Baseball is the game of our summers, but because of the annoying intrusion of classes, college baseball doesn’t work that way. College baseball ends before summer begins.
Eight outstanding and lucky teams have arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, to end a season that began in winter and usually ends in a week of thunderstorms. Seven teams will lose their last game. In reality, that was the destination from the beginning: to play until finding one last terminating loss.
There is only one way to escape that devastating conclusion: become an NCAA Division I National Champion.
It all starts here…
Charles Schwab Field, Omaha, Nebraska
Jun 13 (Fri) 1:00 PM CT Arizona vs. Coastal Carolina
Jun 13 (Fri) 6:00 PM CT Louisville vs. Oregon State
Jun 14 (Sat) 1:00 PM CT Murray State vs UCLA
Jun 14 (Sat) 6:00 PM CT LSU vs. Arkansas
So, where are Texas, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Georgia, Oregon, and defending champion, Tennessee? Obviously, the selection committee did a poor job of selecting and seeding the teams, or maybe selecting the teams is hard!
The NCAA could have delegated that task to the college coaches themselves. They know the game. The coach’s poll released at the end of the regular season indicates the guys who know best may not have done a better job.
USA Today Coaches Poll May 25:
North Carolina
Texas
LSU
Vanderbilt
Arkansas
Georgia
Oregon
Florida State
Oregon State
Auburn
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On Being Wrong - Jalen Beeks
Jalen Beeks is the one and only Arkansas-born (Prairie Grove), former Razorback, active in the major leagues.
Beeks became a Free Agent in October of 2024. As the free agents dropped off the list in the spring, Jalen Beeks’ name remained. One highly regarded “expert” suggested correctly that Beeks was probably not going to get an offer. He had been pretty good in the last quarter of the season in Pittsburgh, but his “body of work” was not eye-catching.
On March 10, the Astros did the expected. They signed Beeks to a minor league contract. Twelve days later, he and the Astros parted amicably, and on March 26, the Arizona Diamondbacks, looking for a lefty bullpen specialist, signed Beeks to a one-year contract.
Beeks has had some good seasons, made a few million dollars, and he could have gone home after seven years as a good major league pitcher. They might have asked him to stand for recognition at Baum-Walker and interviewed him between innings of a Razorback game, but Beeks obviously thought he could still pitch in the big leagues. He was correct.
As of today, he has made 32 appearances, with a 3.03 ERA. He has eight Holds and a Save as the left-handed middle-inning guy in the Diamondbacks’ bullpen.
Those paid to know those things did not really know:
Jalen Beeks has been the unsung hero of the Diamondbacks' bullpen—Sports Illustrated
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More “Oil!”
In my review of the “Best of the Lost” Arkansans, this week’s guy was a feisty old-school catcher named Earl “Oil” Smith. “Oil” was as close to Earl as New Yorkers could get. He was outstanding as a trash-talking catcher and very good as a player. Unfortunately, his mischief has remained more prominent in his biography than his accomplishments as a hitter and catcher.
Below is an account of one somewhat dubious tale of one day in the baseball life of Earl “Oil” Smith.
Philadelphia Inquirer, 7-10-1921:
A police detective who attempted to search the private lockers of the New York Giants at Polo Grounds for liquor today had his curiosity curbed by Earl Smith, catcher of the club. Smith refused, demanding to see a warrant. The detective announced that he was acting under orders to make the search and would do so if he had to fight it out. Smith invited him outside at once.
After a short and furious encounter in which he got the worst of it, the detective left in a hurry for reinforcements. He did not return.
After an investigation that Smith never expected, a more accurate version of the first version of Smith’s fisticuffs emerged. It seems the fight involved Smith and one of the team’s coaches, a fellow named Cozy Dolan. Dolan’s obvious injuries ultimately led to the details of the fight.
Smith was fined $200 for the incident, a large sum by the usual misbehavioral penalties. Only in Smith’s ranking of right and wrong would a fight with a policeman be more acceptable than beating up one of his coaches.
The above story is somewhat true. The details are accurate if you believe the account of a historically combative catcher named Earl Sutton Smith.
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I would always be honored to have Oil be MY teammate 😁😁😁