That's the old ballgame Shreveport, chapter 25 (They played and stayed)

Chapter 25

They played … and stayed 

  
MIKE MASSEY -- A middle infielder whose 10-year pro baseball career began in 1915, he was in the National League with the Boston Braves for 31 games in 1917, batting .198 (his 18 hits were all singles). He played for the Shreveport Gassers in four consecutive years (1918-21), but only as a regular in the 1919 championship season when he hit .256 in 129 games. He became a 50-year Shreveport resident, worked in the oil and gas business, and died Oct. 17, 1971, in Shreveport at age 78.

     WALTER STEPHENSON -- A catcher from North Carolina, nicknamed "Tarzan,"  he played for the 1938 Shreveport Sports (90 games, .223 average, seven home runs) after three seasons in the majors (1935-36 Cubs, 1937 Phillies). He hit .279 overall in 32 games, including a .385 average (10-for-26) for the 1935 National League champion Cubs. He struck out in his only at-bat in the 1935 World Series. After Shreveport, he played two more minor-league seasons and was on the 1941 Sports roster, but no statistics are listed. He then made his home in Shreveport for the bulk of his life. Died July 4, 1993, age 82.


NOTE: Homer Peel, player-manager 1939-40, featured in chapter 7.

     CLARENCE “BILL” GANN -- A right-handed pitcher, who first played pro ball in 1939 and was a starter for Beaumont (Texas League) in 1941 and 1942 (15-9 record), he came to the Shreveport Sports after World War II. In 1946-47, he pitched in 71 games, 313 innings, with an 18-23 record, and had a streak of 37⅓ scoreless innings. After one outing in 1948, he went to manage the Sweetwater (Texas) Sports in the Class D Longhorn League and was their ace pitcher (20-7 record, 247 innings). He also was the manager-pitcher the next two seasons in Texas, 1949 at Class D Corpus Christi and 1950 at Class B Greenville. He ended his minor-league career with a 105-88 pitching record, then became a longtime Shreveport resident. Died Dec. 22, 2005, in Shreveport, age 86.

  

     BOBBY WILKINS -- He already had been a major league when he was the Shreveport Sports' main shortstop from 1949 to 1951 and a reserve in 1952, then a longtime Shreveport resident and Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department employee. In his second pro season, at age 21, he was with the Philadelphia Athletics, owned and managed by the famed Connie Mack. During World War II,  the majors were void of experienced talent, so Wilkins was with the A's in 1944 and '45. In 86 games, he hit .257, with six doubles and seven RBI. With the Sports, he played in 458 games and batted .240. A backup to Joe Koppe in 1952, he played his last two seasons (1953-54) with Augusta, Ga. (South Atlantic League), and was the manager the first year. Then he became a longtime employee of the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department. Died (long illness) Jan. 20, 2010, in Shreveport, age 87.

     AL MAZUR -- The Shreveport Sports' light-hitting but dependable second baseman from 1946 to 1949, he was the playing manager for the Monroe (La.) Sports (Shreveport's Class C farm team) in 1950 and '51, then retired from baseball and returned to Shreveport, and for the next 33 years was the chief probation officer for the Caddo Parish juvenile court. Alphonse Joseph Mazurkiewicz became Al Mazur and from 1937 to '51 --  with four World War II years in the military -- he played 1,400-plus minor-league games at second base. In 1941, he was in Triple-A (at Louisville) in the Boston Red Sox organization, then came to Shreveport. For the Sports, he hit 28 doubles in 1947 and 11 home runs in 1949. His 1951 Monroe team won the pennant in the Cotton States League. Died Feb. 6, 2008, in Shreveport, age 91.

NOTE: Mel McGaha, player-manager 1953-57, featured in chapter 12.      

EVERETT JOYNER -- A left-handed hitter, for three seasons (1954-56) he was a line-drive machine for Shreveport, and he literally made himself at home. Originally from Mississippi and after U.S. Marine Corps service, he spent five seasons in the St. Louis Cardinals' system, then came to the Sports in 1954. As they won the Texas League regular-season title, he had league highs of  213 hits and 47 doubles, and his .328 was fourth-best in the TL. He batted .294 for the 1955 team that won the league playoff championship, and in 1956 -- as fellow outfielder Ken Guettler hit 62 home runs -- Ev was second in the league with a .344 average, and his league-best 201 hits included 43 doubles and 13 home runs, and he had 91 RBI. His collective Shreveport batting average was .323; in 13 minor-league seasons, he hit .306. After the Sports, he played five more seasons, a couple in Triple-A and his final two seasons (1960-61) as a visitor to SPAR Stadium with the Nashville Vols (Southern Association), where he batted .307 and .308, with 17 homers and 75 RBI one year and 40 doubles and 78 RBI the next. Then, as with ex-Sports Bobby Wilkins and J.W. Jones, he became a 26-year Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department employee, reaching the rank of captain, and an ardent supporter of Baptist league baseball in Shreveport. Died Dec. 23, 2017, in Shreveport, age 91.

     J.W. JONES -- The catcher from North Carolina was a quiet, tough competitor and team leader who was with the Shreveport Sports for seven years (3 games in 1951, full seasons 1952-57), mostly as a durable backup player, rarely a star and a starter mostly only in 1953 and 1957. In 10 minor-league seasons, he batted .264 with 28 home runs and 175 RBI. When the Sports' franchise moved to Victoria, Texas, in 1958, he went with it, then in '59 was in the Texas League for an eighth year as a bit player with the champion Austin Senators. Also in '59 -- his final season -- he had a three-game stop in Atlanta (Southern Association); he batted 1.000 (2-for-2). He then went to work in the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department, eventually reaching the rank of major, and umpired high school and American Legion baseball for years. His older brother, Willie "Puddin Head" Jones, was the Philadelphia Phillies' starting third baseman for a decade (1949-59), including their "Whiz Kids" World Series team in 1950.

     SCOTT GARRELTS -- A gangly (6-4, 195) right-hander from Buckley, Ill., he was a first-round draft pick by San Francisco in 1979.  He was not impressive for Shreveport in 1981 -- 3-8 record (13 starts) with a 4.44 ERA. But after bits for the MLB Giants in the next three seasons, he became a star with a 64-47 record and 48 saves over six years (1985-90). He appeared in 256 games in those first four years, then made 29 starts in 1989 and 31 in '90. In 1989, he had a 14-5 record and 2.28 ERA for the National League champion Giants, started two of the NLCS games and won one, then started (and lost) Game 1 and Game 4 of the earthquake-delayed World Series. An arm injury curtailed his MLB career after '91, although he stayed in the minors through '95, including two Captains games in 1992. He married a Shreveport girl and became a resident.

     ROMY CUCJEN -- Drafted out of Arizona State and signed by the San Francisco Giants in 1984, he was versatile, capable of playing every infield spot. He was with the Captains for 30 games in 1986, then full seasons in 1987 and '88 (batting .268 and .248). After two solid seasons in Triple-A with other organizations, he retired from pro ball and settled in town, becoming baseball coach at Evangel Christian Academy for 14 years (1991-2004), with a Class A state championship in 1995. Starting in 2003, he became president of FungoMan, a company that developed and distributed automated baseball practice machines.