That's the old ballgame Shreveport -- Chapter 2 (the Hall of Famers)

Chapter 2

Baseball Hall of Famers     

      Here are the Baseball Hall of Fame inductees who either played for Shreveport or have ties to North Louisiana:

     ZACH WHEAT -- An outfielder in 1908 with the Shreveport Pirates at age 20 -- Zachariah "Buck" Wheat -- his .268 batting average in 92 games did not foreshadow his future (a .317 MLB average). The next year he was in the National League with the Brooklyn Superbas (forerunners of the Dodgers), the first of his 19 major-league seasons (all but the last one with Brooklyn). He wound up with many club records, significantly 2,884 hits (including 132 home runs in a deadball era). When he was in his mid-30s, he had season batting averages of .375 in 1923 and '24 and .359 in '25. It took decades for him to be honored: A veterans' committee chose him for the Hall of Fame in 1959. Died March 11, 1972, in Sedalia, Missouri, at age 83. 

     BILL TERRY -- He would become a longtime hitting star -- the last National Leaguer to hit better than .400 in a season (.401 in 1930) --  first baseman and World Series-winning manager for the New York Giants. In 1916 and 1917, at ages 17-18, "Memphis Bill" was a left-handed pitcher for the Shreveport Gassers. A second-year pro, he pitched in 11 games in 1916, with a 6-2 record, sterling 1.07 ERA over 84 innings, then spent the full season in '17 -- 14-11 record, 3.00 ERA, 246 innings in 40 games. His bat carried him to the majors by 1923, and he was a career .341 hitter.  As manager, the Giants won the World Series his first year (1933) and also won National League titles in 1936 and 1937, losing to the Yankees in the Series both years. He managed them for nine years -- the first four as player/manager -- and was chosen for the Hall of Fame in 1954. His uniform No. 3 was retired by the Giants. Died Jan. 3, 1984, in Jacksonville, Florida, at age 90.

    AL SIMMONS -- In 1923, the year before he became a two-decade major-league outfielder and major star, Aloisius Szymanski (nicknamed "Bucketfoot Al" for his batting stance) hit .360 in 144 games for the Shreveport Gassers. He moved on to the Philadelphia Athletics and was a .344 career hitter with 307 home runs, a leader on the 1929-31 American League champions and 1929-30 World Series champs. He hit .381 and .390 in 1930 and '31. He had three stints with the Athletics, and also played for six other major-league clubs, then was a coach in the majors. He was selected for the Hall of Fame in 1953. Died (heart attack) May 26, 1956, in Milwaukee at age 56.

     GEORGE SISLER -- At age 39, he was the player-manager of the 1932 Shreveport Sports, whose season was interrupted by a stadium fire, forcing the team to move to Tyler, Texas, in midseason. Sisler, a first baseman, batted .287 in 70 games. Starting with a brief time as a pitcher in 1915, he was a major leaguer for 15 seasons -- almost all with the St. Louis Browns, whom he also managed for three years (1924-26). His 1922 season was one of the game's greatest ever -- a .420 batting average, 246 hits (an MLB record which stood for 82 years), 51 stolen bases, 18 triples. A .340 lifetime hitter, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 and had a long career as a baseball scout and front-office assistant. Died March 26, 1973, in Richmond Heights, Missouri, at age 80.

    WILLARD BROWN -- His nickname was "Home Run Brown," a Baseball Hall of Fame selection in 2006 by a special committee that considered  African-American players/contributors before MLB integration began in 1947. Born in Shreveport, raised in Natchitoches, he was an outfielder with great speed and starting in 1936 was one of the top sluggers of the Negro baseball leagues for more than a decade with the Kansas City Monarchs and also in the Puerto Rican winter leagues. His one shot at Major League Baseball, with the 1947 St. Louis Browns, was an unhappy time and didn't take; he batted only .179 in 21 games and was released. But he did hit the first home run by a black player in the American League, an inside-the-parker off future Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser.  Returning to the Negro leagues, he batted .374 in 1948 and revived his career. He wound up with four seasons (five teams) in the Texas League from 1953 to '56, still hitting home runs (35 at age 39 in 1954) and still a .300-plus hitter. Died Aug. 4, 1996, in Houston at age 81.

     LEE ARTHUR SMITH -- After a long wait and a “second chance” opportunity, as he called it, the Today’s Game committee voted him into the Hall of Fame in early December 2018 for induction in July 2019. The big (6-6, 265 pounds) hard-throwing right-handed pitcher grew up in Castor, Louisiana, some 40 miles southeast of Shreveport in Bienville Parish. He did not play for Shreveport, but he did pitch at SPAR Stadium in the Texas League (Midland Cubs, 1978-79) and it was during that time that he became a relief pitcher, having been tried as a starter at the start of his pro career. He was baseball's all-time saves leader (with 478) and games finished (802) when his 18-year, eight-team career ended in 1997. Drafted in the second round by the Chicago Cubs after his senior year in high school (1975), he made his major-league debut for the Cubs in 1980, stuck for good in 1981, and after five starts in 1982, was a fulltime reliever. He led his league in saves four seasons -- 1983 with the Cubs, 1991 (a National League-record 47) and '92 for St. Louis and 1994 with Baltimore (American League). He pitched in two postseasons (a save and a loss in '84 with the Cubs) and '88 with Boston. His MLB totals: 1,022 games, 71-92 record, 3.03 ERA. He then became a minor-league pitching instructor, including several years with the San Francisco Giants' farm teams in Shreveport.

Lee Smith, left, on one of his many visits to Fair Grounds Field in the 1990s, and as a San Francisco Giants' roving minor-league pitching coach, right. (photos from Texas League office files)

 On his way to the majors, with the Midland Cubs in the Texas League, 1978-79 (TL office photo)

Note: Hall of Fame plaques and player photos above all from Baseball Hall of Fame web site.

The battle with ice cream, cookies and pies

     There is a battle of the bulge raging here: me vs. desserts.
     At our seniors residence facility -- we have been here seven-plus months -- the buffet includes all the desserts you can eat, or ever would want to eat.
     Uh, I love ice cream, cheesecake, cookies, pies, cobblers, chocolate, whatever sweets ... but mostly ice cream. I have been told these things contain calories beyond measure.
     Don't love checking my weight on the scales these days.  Don't love knowing that my shirts and pants fit a little tighter.
     Now a member of the "Trinity Ten" -- that is, the 10 pounds people gain in their first year here. And still almost five months to go.
     What to do? Diet? Are you kidding? 
     Exercise? Yes. Doing at least two classes a day -- either water aerobics, yoga/stretching or strength training -- and some days that includes the six-blocks walk to and from the Downtown YMCA.
     Plus, a couple of lengthy walks a week, less than what was an everyday walk (and had been for some 20 years). 
     Honestly, my feet are beginning to bother me some. But I still feel pretty darned good overall.
     Don't feel good when I check the weight. Have I mentioned that?
     Eat smarter? Sure. Less bread (only wheat bread, not white), very little butter, less potatoes (they give us so many choices here), less pasta (aw, heck, love pasta), less pizza (love that, too).
     More advocados, sardines (yes, sardines), salmon. Fruits (and I love so many) aren't bad, if limited. Don't want term limits there, however.
     More salads would be/should be good, right? How boring.

Here is where the ice cream is available daily ...

     About the ice cream ... two big containers every day here, self-serve. Mint chocolate chip, coffee and butter pecan are my favorite flavors, but the vanilla here is so good.
     Chocolate, or a chocolate/vanilla mix, will do. (Nothing will ever beat the hopscotch we devoured a few decades ago. Ask my wife and my friend John about that.) 
     Here they do have flavors I don't care for, so on those days, I'm good (except vanilla is an every-day choice). So the temptation is there always.
     Do they really expect me to skip the ice cream and the desserts? Really?
     There is a somewhat lesser alternative: yogurt. That also is a choice here at mealtime, a slightly better choice. But still, the calories ...
     The yogurt, however, has to be ordered; it is not self-serve. So at least it has its limits.
     (Save my yogurt for the strawberry-banana mix that turns into smoothies in our blender. But even trying to cut back on those.)

... and here is where we are locked out (thank goodness)

     Well, one good thing happened. Soon after the new dining room, the serving staff began putting a lock on the ice-cream drawers -- after lunch, and again after dinner. So, overnight it is locked up, off-limits.
     Hmmmm. Before that lock arrived, guess the security people saw me going down there for a couple of midnight ice-cream runs. OK, it happened.
     But no more. So those extra calories are no longer an option.
     The personal goal here is to lose that Trinity Ten. It requires willpower, which -- honestly -- is in short supply. 
     It requires fighting temptation. Which means passing up those dessert areas, not even looking in ice cream's direction.
     Need to wrap up this blog because it is time to head for yoga at the Y. And when I get back, it will be time to eat.
     Oh-oh. 
     And then check my weight? Forget it. I don't want to count to ten.       
       
           

That's the old ballgame Shreveport -- Chapter 1 (Ken Guettler)

His 62 home runs in 1956 for the Shreveport Sports — a Texas League record that stands — is the greatest legend in the city's baseball history.
Ken Guettler was the ultimate Shreveport slugger.
It was his only Shreveport season, he turned 29 that May, and he never did much in his three remaining pro seasons, never made the major leagues. But, even for a seventh-place team, he was easily the TL’s “Most Valuable Player” in 1956.
He batted .293, scored 115 runs, drove in a TL-best 143, and broke Clarence “Big Boy” Kraft's 32-year-old league home-run record with his 55th on August 13.
A quiet, compact 5-foot-11, 190-pound right-handed slugger nicknamed “Muscles,” uniquely, his right arm was two inches shorter than his left because of a childhood hockey accident in Bay City, Mich.
He had poor eyesight — bottle-thick glasses — and he was considered a mediocre outfielder, with limited throwing ability because of that short right arm.
But he was the league home-run champion in eight of his years in the minors.
   Starting in 1945, he played 11 years before Shreveport, six in the Class B Piedmont League with Portsmouth, Va., where he hit 41 home runs in 1955 as the team’s player-manager. When the league and the team folded, he needed a place to play. Hence, Shreveport.
As he did with so many players, Sports general managing partner Bonneau Peters knew of Guettler, did his research, and in the winter of 1955-56 signed him to a contract.
   On Opening Day at home, he homered against Houston, then hit three the next night (although the Sports lost in extra innings). By the end of May, he had 18 home runs, including another three-homer game on May 28, and soon he had a new nickname: Kenneth the Menneth.
    In Shreveport's Texas League Park, his trademark was high fly balls that -- mostly -- cleared the fence in left. He had only six homers in June, but cranked up with 24 in July and had 48 total going into August.
    “He hit very few cheap home runs,” Mel McGaha, the player-manager that season, told a Shreveport Journal columnist in the 1970s. “He hit the kind of fly balls that looked like the outfielders would catch. But pretty soon the outfielder would have his back against the fence and the ball would keep going.”
    McGaha recalled Guettler as “a quiet guy, unassuming. Almost an introvert, really. He took everything in stride … I never saw him get too mad.”
    “He didn’t have much personality,” said Jack Fiser, sports editor/columnist of The Shreveport Times in the 1950s who regularly covered the ballclub. “He was very reluctant to talk … he almost never talked about himself much.”
    Guettler’s sister, Selma Pett and her husband Ollie, came to Shreveport in the spring of 1988 to visit the old ballpark where Ken had starred in 1956.
"He was a good-natured person," Mrs. Pett said then. "Out in public, he was shy. In a crowd, he would stand back and hold back. But he was very close to his family. He was a fun-loving fellow. He enjoyed doing things like playing cards and just being with the family."
  In 1957, Guettler had a brief shot in Triple-A ball (with Wichita), but was overmatched and hit only one home run there. Back in Double-A with Atlanta, he had only two more home runs the rest of that soon.
And he kept moving, playing with seven teams in three final seasons, and hitting only 12 home runs in those years. That included a stay back in the Texas League with Dallas in 1958.
    Why his hitting skills left him after the ’56 season “is something we have always wondered,” said his sister. “There was no honest answer for it.”
  He played 21 games in the Mexican League, then played his final pro games at Charleston, S.C., in 1959.
    “I don’t think he was bitter that he didn’t make the big leagues,” Mrs. Pett said in 1988, “but if they’d had the designated hitter when he played, he would have made it. He always said he had been born 10 years too soon.”
    After baseball, Guettler worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Jacksonville, Florida, and he died there of a heart attack on Christmas Day 1977 at age 50.
    “He talked often of Shreveport and the year he had here,” his sister said as she stood on the diamond where Ken Guettler made Texas League history with 62 home runs in ’56. “He was very proud of having done what he did here.”     

     

      

Virtual Reality, and a small-world connection

     Went into the Virtual Reality world Thursday night, and made -- what else? -- a Shreveport connection.
     Go ahead and laugh.
     This is the result of being "drafted" as a volunteer from our seniors retirement community for a tiny role in a promotional video -- a potential fund-raiser -- for a local young doctor's study as part of a national "Mynd VR" program.

What the Mynd VR headset experience looks like (photo credit: Adobe Stock,
from the web site nextavenue.org)

    So I was asked to put on a Mynd VR headset, move my head to activate the videos, and then watch and listen for a few minutes.
     (Wish you could have seen the looks on the people walking past as we recorded this little bit near the front lobby in early evening. Know I looked more alien than I usually do.)
     These Virtual Reality videos, with sound, are right there in your vision, it is like having a front-row seat at a movie. The screen appears huge.
     First picked the "animals" category, which brought up a video of two (cute) kittens exploring a living-room area, complete with three litter boxes (where one kitten only sniffed). Then saw a backyard scene with a dog -- a boxer-looking type -- and his master/trainer -- first chasing a treat, stopping to lift his leg (not in a litter box), and then returning to the man to sit and beg for another treat.
     Next, I selected the "entertainment" section, and among the choices, I went for The Lion King. And so, up came the opening number from the on-stage (Broadway?) play: 5 minutes, 35 seconds.
     A "wow" selection, right there jumping at me (and sometimes, a view from above the stage).
     It was, as I said in the interview afterward, a fascinating experience. And a surprising one; I had no idea of what I was to do, other than to be told I would be wearing a headset for a video, but there would be no speaking part.
     Not sure what they will use, but the doctor did sit to my left afterward and asked questions, and another young man recorded this session.
     Hope it is, in fact, a tiny role.
     But I can tell you this -- and I said this in the interview -- if the purpose is to spur a recollection or get a person's mind moving, especially for those seniors with memory loss, I can see how it would be beneficial.
---

      Here from the myndvr.com web site is what the program is about: 
      MyndVR is a national health and wellness company providing Virtual Reality solutions to Assisted Living, CCRCs, Veterans homes, 55+ living communities and home-health care providers. The company is intelligently curating a vast library of VR content and creating original programming designed to create happy, calming and memorable experiences.
    In addition, MyndVR is working with leading U.S. universities and researchers to study the potential cognitive health benefits for our dynamic and aging population using VR.
    And the site's next headline reads: How VR can benefit the lives of seniors.
---
    Now, about the two young men who came to visit and record the video ...   

Dr. Tariq AlFarra

     Dr. Tariq AlFarra has a name of Turkish descent, but he is all American, a TCU graduate who went to high school in Mansfield, Texas, then did medical studies at the UNT Health Science Center and is working on this project in affiliation with MyndVR.
     In our visit, he was bright and enthusiastic, informative ... and we had fun talking about the TCU campus and all its changes (we lived in that area for 11 years, and saw the campus transformation).
      Two asides: (1) At the UNT Health Science Center, he was part of the Seniors Assisting in Geriatics (SAGE) program which Bea and I have been involved with for several years (and so are many of our fellow residents here); (2) in high school -- Legacy -- he knew now-New York Mets pitching star Noah Syndergaard. 
     (Had to get some baseball in here. There is more coming.)
     Dr. AlFarra is part of the national Mynd VR science team. The co-founder and CEO, Chris Brickler, is based in Dallas. 
     (You can judge Dr. AlFarra's judgement on this: He asked about my age and when I told him 71, he said, "You don't look that old." He also said -- laugh here -- that I looked fit. That is because he has not seen the numbers on the scale, with the 6 -- not 5 -- in the middle.) 

Paul DeHondt

     Also on the team is the videographer, whose first name is Paul. He, too, is a TCU person, a potential 2020 graduate who is studying film, television and digital media.
     He is from Allen, Texas, and Allen High School, which football fans around here know as one of the powerhouse programs in the area and state (along with Aledo and Highland Park).
     While I asked about a viewing a sports video, and Paul was searching for it, Dr. AlFarra asked about my career, and the talk turned -- as it usually does with me -- to Shreveport.
     With that, Paul brightened up. "My whole family is from Shreveport," he said. 
      "What's your last name?" I asked. When he replied, "DeHondt," my memory bank was triggered.
      "You any relation to Rene?" I asked.
      Paul: "That's my granddad."
      Rene DeHondt, who died four years ago, was the "little" quarterback for Fair Park High School in 1953, but more well-known as a standout right-handed pitcher who was signed by the Shreveport Sports in '55 and pitched for them briefly in 1957, part of his four-year pro career.
     He was a lifelong resident of the city and, as Paul reminded, Rene's son Danny, Paul's dad, was a wide receiver for Southwood High and Louisiana Tech University in the early to mid 1980s. Took a moment, but I did recall Danny, and in fact, covered some games in which he played. And he was a very good receiver.
     He and his family live in Allen.
     For you Woodlawn people, Danny's head coach at Southwood was Ken Ivy, his head coach at Louisiana Tech was A.L. Williams -- so two state championship, legendary coaches at our high school in the 1960s and early 1970s.
     Further connection: Rene DeHondt was a junior on the only Fair Park football team to win a state championship in school history (1952, when senior halfback A.L. Williams scored all five of the team's playoff touchdowns).
     It is all connected. Virtual Reality tied in to my small-world connection Thursday night.    
    Virtual Reality has many benefits, and it is a fun experience. If you get the chance, take a look.

Paul DeHondt and his friend Grace Payne
 show off their Mynd VR devices.
They also look good without them.

       
      
           

That's the old ballgame Shreveport -- Introduction

     It is a stretch to call Shreveport, Louisiana, a great professional baseball city.
    An interesting baseball city, yes. A historic one, certainly. And great does apply to two decade-plus periods -- 1946-55 and 1986-97 -- when fans filled the ballparks and Texas League championships were won.

Shreveport Sports jersey, late 1930s/early 1940s

    When you consider the noteworthy baseball names -- players, managers, officials -- who either were affiliated with the Shreveport teams (Gassers, Sports, Braves, Captains and, yes, Swamp Dragons) or came through as visitors, or for exhibition games, it is a strong legacy.
    Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees had their spring training in Shreveport in 1921 before the team had ever played in a World Series, and the Babe hit three home runs in one exhibition game.
     Several teams trained in the city in the early 1900s, and spring exhibitions were a frequent treat for Shreveport fans for decades.
     Dizzy Dean pitched in Shreveport (for Houston) and made many promotional appearances at the ballpark in his broadcasting days.
     Bob Feller, Robin Roberts, Sal Maglie, Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Larsen and Gaylord Perry pitched here. Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson batted here. Honus Wagner and Joe DiMaggio made visits as coaches.

Shreveport Sports road jersey, 1960
(from Ebbets Field Flannels)

     Four Hall of Fame inductees played for Shreveport teams -- from 1908 to 1932 -- and one Hall of Famer grew up in the city in the segregated days of the 1930s and 1940s.
     Four Shreveport players -- Bill Terry, Dick Howser, Bob Brenly and Cito Gaston -- managed World Series-winning teams; another one, Dusty Baker, managed a runner-up.
    One umpire from Bossier City -- Alaric Smith -- called in a World Series.
    A good number of the game's prominent players were from Shreveport-Bossier and across northwest Louisiana.
   And many, many players -- and some managers -- went from wearing a Shreveport uniform to action in the major leagues, some as legitimate stars, some as "cup of coffee" participants.
    Still, consider these other facets ...
   • With the exception of the two periods mentioned above, attendance at Shreveport games was among the worst in its league ... and in Double-A baseball.
    • Although there were many competitive, contending Shreveport teams, league championships were rare -- a 23-year gap, then a 35-year gap). In all, nine Shreveport teams won titles in 86 seasons.
    • Eight times in its history, Shreveport lost its franchise ... sometimes for only a year, such as 1958 because a Louisiana law against integrated games forced the team to leave town. That -- and lagging attendance -- was much the same reason for another abandonment after the 1961 season.
     • Shreveport has been out of "Organized Baseball" since 2002 and, after an independent-league era, altogether since 2011.
     Chances for another minor-league affiliation are slim in the foreseeable future. Because, as of 2019, there is no viable, usable ballpark.
    Shreveport baseball, at least in the "modern" era, also is the story of two ballparks -- Texas League Park/Braves Field/SPAR Stadium, which went from new (1938) to practically falling down (1985), and Fair Grounds Field, new in 1986 and old much too rapidly.
     Still, what was great about Shreveport baseball was the pride many people took in rooting for those teams and those players, and the entertainment, the excitement, the fun they provided.
     It is a legacy worth researching and exploring, and reliving. Enjoy the history.

---

Table of contents 

      Introduction ...

      Chapter 1: Ken Guettler

      Chapter 2: Baseball Hall of Famers

      Chapter 3: Major players

      Chapter 4: Exhibitions/The Babe

      Year-by-year chart 

      Chapter 5: The early years

      Chapter 6: The managers, Part I (1895-1940)

      Chapter 7: Homer Peel

      Chapter 8: The Sports (1925-42)

      Chapter 9: Mr. Pete

      Chapter 10: Building a ballpark, Part I

      Chapter 11: Salty Parker

      Chapter 12: Mel McGaha

      Chapter 13: The managers, Part II (1941-78)

      Chapter 14: The Sports (1946-57)

      Chapter 15: The Sports (1959-61)

      Chapter 16: Segregation, integration

      Chapter 17: The S-Braves (1968-70)

      Chapter 18: Revolving door (1971-78)

      Chapter 19: Life at the old ballpark

      Chapter 20: The managers, Part III, Giants' era (1979-2002)
      Chapter 21: Giant steps (1979-85), Part I
      Chapter 22: Building a ballpark, Part II (1984-86)

      Chapter 23: Giant steps (1986-2002), Part II

      Chapter 24: The final decade, independents (2003-11)

      Chapter 25: They played and stayed

      Chapter 26: The contributors

      Chapter 27: Champions, near-misses

      Chapter 28: The minor players

      Chapter 29: Short subjects

      Chapter 30: A personal journey

      Acknowledgements