That's the old ballgame Shreveport -- acknowledgements

     Acknowledgements

     It has been "a project" that took more than two years to compile. But thinking about professional baseball in Shreveport, studying it, and researching it has been practically a lifetime experience.

     To put together the material in these 30 chapters brings to mind what the great, zany Casey Stengel was quoted as saying.

     After his New York Yankees clinched the 1958 American League championship, the old manager supposedly said: "I realize I couldn't have done it without the players."

     (Just to be sure, he said it again a few weeks later after the Yankees won the World Series.)

     So ... I could not have put together this material without help from a lot of friends.

     To begin, John Andrew Prime -- former reporter/writer for The Shreveport Times with a deep interest in local history -- suggested the topic and provided guidance along the way.
     A huge assist from John James Marshall -- state-champion quarterback (Jesuit High-Shreveport, 1976), Shreveport Journal sportswriting/editing regular in the 1980s -- who opened the door for research on newspapers.com.

     The great bulk of this material came from those Times files, and also from other newspapers that somehow tied into Shreveport baseball.  

     Whatever we gathered from the pre-1950s days, much it was from the writing of Shreveport Times sports editors Joe Carter (1922-47, his column was titled "Raspberries and Cream") and Barney Ghio (1947-51, ''Barney's Corner.").

     But so much of the 1950s/early 1960s Shreveport Sports material came from the writing of then-Times sports editor Jack Fiser ("The Inside Corner"), a superb wordsmith, a columnist who would have been a star in any market.

     And no one covered Shreveport baseball longer -- or better -- than Bill McIntyre at The Times, before, during and after his 15-year stint as sports editor. 

     McIntyre was my first boss at The Times -- he was an encyclopedia of sports knowledge -- and my association with Fiser was for much of my sophomore year at Louisiana Tech University when he was the sports information director. I have so much admiration for those two "mentors."  

     No one knows more about the 1980s Shreveport Captains than John James Marshall. No one knows more, or wrote more, about the 1990s Captains and early 2000s city teams -- or most every sports subject in the area -- than Scott Ferrell, whose three-decades stay at Shreveport newspapers now has him as the overall editor of The Times.

     Their help with my "project" was invaluable.
     Thanks to JJ and to Teddy Allen -- the "Designated Writers" team, my co-workers at the Journal in the mid-1980s -- for publishing a few of these chapters on their Designated web site.

     There were, over the last five decades, many, many sportswriters in Shreveport who left their piece of baseball coverage, and some material was gleaned from most of them.

     Taylor Moore, who was part of the Captains' ownership for 25 years and the team's general managing partner, was/is a valuable resource. One of the team's ex-general managers  and a good friend of nearly five decades, John W. Marshall III, has always made contributions.

     For photos, there was one major source (other than those photos taken from the Internet): The Texas League office. 

     The great majority of the photos in this project came from the TL office. The 25-year TL president Tom Kayser collected -- through donations from the newspapers and the Captains -- many of The Times and Journal baseball photos.        

     And then, in a great break for this project, Tim Purpura -- former Houston Astros general manager (among several of his baseball-industry jobs) -- succeeded Kayser as TL president and moved the league office to ... Fort Worth. 

      So that worked for me. Tim graciously opened the files in his downtown office to me to dig for Shreveport-related baseball photos. 

      It took several trips. Tim's executive assistant, Jessica McClasky (ex-softball star, current coach), helped by scanning dozens of photos; before that, league intern Tyler King was a big help.
      John Ridge, whose "Shreveport Confidential" site on Facebook is always interesting and who has done extensive research and posts on all things -- athletics included -- in north Caddo Parish, contributed several early day Shreveport baseball photos and clippings.
       There are more photos to be had, in the Times' and Journal negatives files, now located in the LSU-Shreveport archives section. Obtaining those, as well as formatting and publishing a printed book of this material, are in the "maybe" category.

       But for those who are interested in the Shreveport baseball history, it is all online, and the intention here is to at least provide a printed copy of the chapters to various outlets (newspaper, library, TL office, etc.).
       For now, though, we have reached the bottom of the ninth inning on Shreveport pro baseball. We have gathered the material, and we are grateful for all the help we  received.       

Nico Van Thyn
Fort Worth, Texas
August 19, 2019