One of my favorite columns

       Sometimes a writer walks into a wonderful column or story subject. And that's what happened here.

       I was reminded of this column written a little more than 39 years ago. Found it on the old Shreveport Journal files on newspapers.com, and it was sentimental to read it again.

       This was an award-winning piece in the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association contest; in this case, the 1985 awards presented in July 1986.

       It was not a first-place award; it finished second in its category. Fine. Contest judging always is subjective, so we accepted -- with gratitude -- whatever the result.

       Winning awards is not why we chose the sportswriting/newspaper business, but they were a reminder that on a particular story, column or project, you did a good enough job to impress someone. 

       Doing the job well day after day -- and, well, helping sell newspapers -- was my personal aim. Didn't always succeed, sometimes in fact failed miserably, and had to move on. 

       Worked with many better writers and editors, some of them repetitive award winners. But awards did come this way occasionally, and every now and then, there is a reminder of the work involved. And it's fun to think back on that.

      This particular column came from a night when I covered a Texas League baseball game at SPAR Stadium, the (very) old home of the Shreveport Captains. It happened to be the Fourth of July, 1985.

       Sat down with an elderly man, a familiar season-ticket holder as he was making his return to the ballpark for the first time that season, and the first time as a widower. 

       Wasn't particularly looking to write a story or column, but simply to say hello to the gentleman, Mr. Eugene Hemard, who was 87. The story/column found us.

       Turned out to be a sweet piece, or maybe a bit bittersweet because Ms. Mamie wasn't there.

       Read it, and I hope you appreciate it. (And, yes, the photo is from when I was 38 years old. Don't look much like that anymore.)

 

Don't take your cheap shots at the I-Bowl ... or Shreveport

     Another year, another cheap-shot bashing of the Independence Bowl ... and Shreveport.

     Before we examine this further, let's make this clear: We don't like it, at all.

     But it is part of the bowl scene, and it happens far too often. However, the latest "analysis" -- by a Brigham Young fan-boy who happens to write a blog -- was a low blow of epic proportions.

     And to see him referred to as a "reporter," that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. This is a JAG -- just a guy -- sitting in the stands, a BYU supporter who happens to reside not in Utah but in Arkansas.    

UAB's football players were happy with their
 Independence Bowl trip ... and victory. (WVTM photo)

     His "observations at the Independence Bowl," and I won't dignify them by giving you his name or even a link to his "effort," was simply sour grapes because his BYU team, despite its No. 13 national ranking, came to Shreveport and fell flat against a much more determined UAB team.

     The cheapest shots were at the "rundown" conditions this guy saw while he was in Shreveport. And, yes, we know they are there. (There are rundown areas, we will counter, in every city of any size. We live in a really nice city, a big city -- Fort Worth, Texas -- but we could take you to some areas you wouldn't like.)

     Yes, Shreveport's Fair Grounds Field -- just down the street on the Fairgrounds from Independence Stadium -- is an eyesore. That's no secret. But what's that got to do with football? 

     Boarded-up business places? Same thought as above. If you go places, they'll be there. What's that got to do with football?

     Enough of that crap. If you read the junk this guy wrote, you will find excuse after excuse for why BYU lost this game, including the Cougars' underwhelming performance. To say that no one has heard of UAB is ignorant; that university's football rise, a resurgence after a two-year hiatus, is a helluva good story.

     UAB's record since 2017: 43-20 record (most victories by a Conference USA team), twice conference champion, three-time West division champ, bowl-eligible all five years, two bowl victories ... and a victory over its highest nationally ranked opponent -- No. 13 BYU.

     We will concede that maybe the nation's No. 13-ranked team deserved a more prestigious bowl trip. But the fact -- fact! -- is that one of the three bowl options for BYU is with the Independence Bowl.

     If BYU didn't qualify for a New Year's Day Six bowl game, or if the Cheez-It Bowl in Arizona did not have an available spot for the Cougars, they were bound to play a Conference USA team in the Independence Bowl. And that's what happened.

     So much for the whining.

     And talk about hypocrisy: Two weeks earlier, our BYU blowhard's blog was titled "Why the Independence Bowl is fine." 

     Here is what it concluded: "... The Independence Bowl has some prestige to it. The bowl game has been around since 1976 and has some prestige to it. The Bowl Game has been around 1976 and has it's own stadium. No colleges play in the Independence Stadium on a regular basis and it seats 50,000 people.

     "Compare that to other bowl games like the Bahamas Bowl, Camellia Bowl or the Quick Lane Bowl and thinks don't sound so bleak. The actual bowl game is a good bowl and has plenty of history."

     (Editing 101: You don't capitalize Bowl Game, and "it's" should be "its." Just pointing that this is no professional writer, or reporter, doing this.)

---

     We have seen criticism of the I-Bowl for decades, really. Our friend Paul Finebaum -- once a Shreveport Journal sportswriter -- has done his share. He's still our friend.

     This BYU blog brought to mind the aftermath of the 1983 game (Air Force vs. Ole Miss) and a professional cheap-shot column by then-Denver Post sports columnist Woodrow Paige Jr.     

      It was -- like this year's I-Bowl -- a miserable weather day. That's happened a lot over the years, unfortunately; the ultimate was the 2000 "Snow Bowl" (Texas A&M vs. Mississippi State). A rare Shreveport snowstorm left the field in a white blanket, with TV coverage hard to make out, and it's still being talked about. (Terrific game, though; Mississippi State won 43-41 in overtime.) 

     Back to 1983: Paige, who was at the Denver Post for 35 years and, at age 75, is still a columnist in Colorado and a regular ESPN "mouth," took Shreveport and the I-Bowl apart in a scathing column. Bush league.

     We at the then-afternoon Shreveport Journal were impressed -- depressed? -- by the column that, at editor Stanley Tiner's direction, ran above the masthead on Page One on the Tuesday after Paige's column in the Sunday Denver paper.

     And we also began a week's worth of Journal readers being invited to offer their response/comments to Mr. Paige, with the assurance they we would be forwarding them to him. (As if Woodrow cared.)

     It really was kind of fun, and it certainly helped fill our pages for a week, and maybe even helped us sell some papers. 

     Personally, I wrote a story centering on the two competing teams' athletic directors' views of the I-Bowl, and that included much praise and some constructive criticism from them.

     We left in Shreveport in 1988, but we are interested in what happens there because it is -- always will be -- my home city (so is Amsterdam), and (repeating) we don't like criticism from the outside or inside. 

     To be honest, it is disappointing to see how much criticism from Shreveport-Bossier people I saw on Facebook this week. We know the place has issues (too much crime/too many homicides, questions on leadership, declining neighborhoods, a shrinking newspaper, etc.).

     What is not being considered is that, almost without exception, is that the teams that have been Independence Bowl participants -- the school officials, coaches and players -- have praised how well they are treated during bowl week in Shreveport. That was the case again with UAB ... and BYU.

     Bowl director Missy Parker Setters and her staff and the I-Bowl committee every year during their very best to put on the best show they can. The community has provided financial support, even in tough times, and certainly ticket sales are affected by marginal weather. But the Independence Bowl has persevered all these years ... 46 years.

     Wrote about this on this blog nine years ago. Here is the link to that one, and we still feel the same way. Read it, change the year to 2021, and it'll work.  

     https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-spirit-of-independence.html

      Don't let the BS -- stories, comments, a wayward blog by a non-reporter -- get in the way of what the Independence Bowl has achieved. It remains a point of pride for Shreveport-Bossier.  

In 1984, Mulkey's writing was gold

      For five months in 1984, Kim Mulkey was on our team -- the Shreveport Journal sports department. 

     Just as in every phase of her life, she was very good at what she did. She could have been a sportswriter.

     (Don't laugh. It is a noble profession. And don't you forget it. Somebody has to do it. 

      Her spectacular four-year basketball career at Louisiana Tech finished -- with a fourth consecutive women's Final Four appearance -- Kim was entering the next phase: Trying to make the United States women's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

      She made it ... and helped her team win the gold medal. 

      And during the journey -- the tryouts, the team selections, the practices, the exhibition games, the trip to LA, the Opening Ceremony, the time in the Olympic Village, and the Olympic competition itself, she told the story ... in the Shreveport Journal. 

     In 14 segments, beginning April 19, "Kim Mulkey's Olympic Diary" appeared on the Journal sports pages. 

     Here is the promo for the start of the series:

     Kim had played for U.S. teams in international games for three years and had been one of college basketball's best women's players during that time. So she was a natural for the tryouts. 

     She was a natural for the Journal, too.

     The idea was generated -- as were many stories in the paper in those late 1970s/1980s years -- by the paper's editor, Stanley Tiner. 

     We took it from there ... and so did Kim.

     Believe me, it took some effort on her part. She had to write out, or type, her stories, and then make a call to the Journal sports department and, as I recall, dictate her words to us. On our end, it meant typing it into our computers and preparing it for the next day's editions.

     We had the easy part. Kim could write. She needed very little help, maybe a little editing here and there. Of course, her stories were excellent ... good reads, in newspaper terms.

      She was, after all, a summa cum laude college student; the sportswriters at the Journal were not.

     So it was time-consuming for Kim, between her basketball tryouts and travels.

      As I recall, her pay was a few million dollars short of what she's made as the women's head basketball coach at Baylor (and now LSU), or even a few thousand dollars short as an assistant coach for 15 years at Louisiana Tech.

     I think she did it for the good of the country ... and the Journal. It was a free ride.

     It was a pleasure to team up with her, and I remember that Journal readers enjoyed her stories. By then, she had been the "darling" of Louisiana Tech women's basketball fans for four years, the little point guard with the pigtails. The  big winner, the champion.

     Truth is, she had fans, too, in the Journal sports department (see Jerry Byrd's column) and also The Times, where our friend Jim McLain covered the Lady Techsters' story for many years.

     So her stories were gold for us, and the U.S. team -- coached by Pat Head Summitt, by then not quite the legend she would become at the University of Tennessee -- earned its gold by beating South Korea in the title game (remember, Russian athletes boycotted the LA Games in '84).

      Kim wasn't the only Louisiana Tech player to mine that gold. So did center/forward Janice Lawrence.

       (Lawrence was the Final Four's "Most Outstanding Player" when Tech and Mulkey won a second consecutive national championship in 1982. The Lady Techsters lost to Southern California, led by Cheryl Miller, in the 1983 championship game, 69-67, and 1984 semifinals, 62-57.)

     Here is how Kim ended her final "Olympic Diary" story, which ran in the Journal on August 8, the afternoon after the previous night's gold-medal game and ceremony:

       You probably know the rest. A lot of her dreams have come true ... and now, at LSU, there are more dreams and more goals. 

       The Journal is no more, having folded in 1991. Kim Mulkey's story rolls on ... and it's been a golden adventure.

The uncrowned champions: Fair Park baseball, 1960

     Let's start with the point of this piece: The 1960 Fair Park High School baseball team got robbed ... got screwed ... got  a raw deal.

     Yes, it's been 60 years and to review it now might be pointless. Not going to change history to write about it, but it's worth not forgetting.
      One of the greatest examples of bad sportsmanship at the high school level we ever encountered.
       Actually, it was "before my time" -- I never saw a high school athletic event until the next year -- but for history buffs of North Louisiana and state athletics who learned of this, and or those who remember it, it still resonates.  
     It was an "infamous" incident in Louisiana sports history. 
     Fair Park High School in Shreveport is no more, the facility at 3222 Greenwood Road -- right across the street from the Louisiana state Fairgrounds -- now serves as a middle school.
  The glorious Fair Park history, fall 1928 to spring 2017 (so 90 school years), remains. So many great alumni, so many great athletes and teams, state championships in football (1952), basketball (1963, 2006), boys track and field (1980) and -- especially -- in baseball (1957, 1963, 1965, 1970).
     But not 1960 baseball. Those Indians were -- and are --  the uncrowned state champions.
      They were "eliminated" in the state semifinals. But only because they chose not to play out a terribly unfair situation; they chose not to give in to their opponents' petulant (and misguided) demands or their juvenile behavior.
      The opponent was Istrouma of Baton Rouge, the best-known school for athletics in Louisiana for years.
      Istrouma: A football dynasty (eight state championships in a 13-year period, 1950-62, 8-0 in title games); perennial contender (but never state champ) in track and field; and -- note -- state finalist in baseball five times in eight years (1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964).
      But champion only once ... 1960. Should not have been.
      Two umpires called off what looked like a certain Fair Park victory in Game 3, the deciding game, of the best-of-three semifinal series with Istrouma. Fair Park was ahead 5-0 after three innings when darkness hit, and the umps stopped the game before it became "official."
      The umps -- their names were Shelly Carpenter and Perry Wiggins -- robbed Fair Park. 
      But so did the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and its commissioner, T.H. "Muddy" Waters. 
      Game 3 never should have been started that day (Wednesday, May 11). That was so clear afterward. But not that day. 
     By the time Game 2 ended, it was 5:20 p.m. Starting Game 3 was the umpires' fateful decision. That, and not putting a stop to Istrouma's obvious tactics and even declaring a forfeit. By the rule book, they could have. 
     Then, the next day, Waters and the LHSAA executive committee refused Fair Park's protest and they refused to punish Istrouma. In fact, they sided with Istrouma's demand that Game 3 would be played at Istrouma.
    Fair Park asked for the replay to be at a neutral site, suggesting Alexandria. Istrouma and the LHSAA practically laughed that off.
      Waters would not intervene. No, he not only backed Istrouma and the umpires, he also blamed Fair Park and he blamed the media for shabby reporting (gee, how original).
      He took the chicken-spit way out.        As our old friend Jerry Byrd Sr. would have said: GUTLESS.
      (In fact, Jerry did write basically that, as did three other Shreveport sportswriters of the day. And from points south -- Alexandria, Lake Charles and even Baton Rouge -- there was agreement that this whole thing stunk.
---
      In the best-of-three semifinals series -- 2-of-3 was the  format for each round of the Louisiana top-class baseball playoff format from 1954 to '67 -- Istrouma won a coin toss and chose to be host for Game 2 and a potential Game 3. 

       It was a rematch of the two tribes of Indians (same nicknames/mascots) and a logistical repeat of 1957 when Game 1 -- with Fair Park as host -- was played at Shreveport's main baseball facility (Texas League Park in '57, SPAR Stadium in '60).
       In both cases, visiting Istrouma won Game 1 -- 2-0 in '57, 7-5 in '60 (Fair Park fell behind 7-1, then scored four in the seventh inning).
       In '57, Fair Park won Games 2 and 3 in Baton Rouge, 8-3 and 14-4 for its first state baseball title. Its head coach, Milford Andrews, was in his first year at the school; he was still the FP coach in '60.
      The Istrouma coach was Tommy Bell. He was the real villain here.
      He had been a football and baseball star at Istrouma and Southeastern Louisiana College in the early 1950s and would return to coach in both sports at both alma maters. But he gained a reputation -- not a good one -- with many people on one May day in 1960.       
---
      What was most controversial was that when Istrouma felt it was going to lose Game 3, it went into repeated stalling tactics, as directed by Coach Bell.
      The attempt was to delay the game as often as could be, stretching it to the point where darkness would force the game to be called. 
       So twice Istrouma changed pitchers after a pitcher had made only one pitch. Each change required six warmup pitches.
        Then an Istrouma pitcher, taking plenty of time between pitches, resorted to trying to walk a Fair Park batter on purpose, just to stretch out the inning. When the FP batter swung at a wild pitch, the Istrouma pitcher hit him with the next pitch, obviously with intent.
      So the next two FP batters struck out as quickly as they could, and FP returned to the field for a fourth inning that didn't happen. 
      But it was getting late, and getting dark, and the umps said "enough."
     But there were other factors. Rain delayed Game 2's start for about 20 minutes and then it went 10 innings. Fair Park won it 5-4 as its pitcher, left-hander Sammy LaDatto, held Istrouma to two hits (singles by future major-league third baseman Dalton Jones).
       Then, as the Istrouma pitcher was given 10 minutes to warm up for Game 3 (LaDatto stayed on the mound for FP and just needed to loosen up), Andrews and FP officials pleaded with the umps and Istrouma people to have the game played the next day. Denied.
      LaDatto again shut down Istrouma's offense, and he hit a two-run homer in the second to give FP all the runs it needed. But after it got to be a 5-0 game, time -- and daylight -- ran out. With a stalling assist from Istrouma.
      No lights at the field, so no chance to end the game that day.
       The Fair Parkers were peeved, getting nowhere with the umps and the Istrouma people, and having been harassed by Istrouma fans. Andrews decided to take his team home by bus, and Fair Park school officials filed a formal protest to the LHSAA.
---
      Waters and the executive committee decided that they could not -- and would not -- overrule the umpires' game decisions. 
      Baseball rules then were that, without five innings played or 4 1/2 (with Fair Park batting as the home team), the game would not be official and would need to be replayed from the start. No "suspension" allowed.
      No neutral site. And no Game 3.
      Fair Park's viewpoint was that it had made one trip to Baton Rouge, and would not return. Certainly not to face more potential harassment -- and trouble -- at Istrouma.
      And, so, the 1960 FP Indians were pulled out of the playoffs; it was declared a forfeit. FP took the "moral" victory over the unethical Istrouma choice.
      Waters, in a subsequent letter to newspapers explaining his decisions, said he felt BOTH teams were guilty of stalling and that there had been no LHSAA rules violations in this case, so he could not interfere with the umpires' calls.
      More controversy followed the next week. DeLaSalle (New Orleans) wanted to play its home game(s) with Istrouma in the championship series at night.
      Again, Istrouma refused. Again, Waters took Istrouma's side. No night games allowed ... unless by mutual consent.
      Then Istrouma won the state championship in a three-game series, losing 2-1 in New Orleans and then winning Games 2 and 3, 7-3 and 6-2, in Baton Rouge.
     Cheese champions, The Shreveport Times sports editor/lead columnist Jack Fiser would call them. 
---
     Istrouma's stars were Dalton Jones, who signed out of high school with the Boston Red Sox and in four years reached the majors (a nine-year MLB career, six in Boston, three with the Detroit Tigers); and two pitchers, Teddy Payne and Jack Vaughn.
     Payne, a lefty, had an 11-0 record and was selected as the Player of the Year" on the All-State team. BUT he was the Istrouma pitcher who intentionally hit the Fair Park batter in the "stall" segment.
      Vaughn, a bulky right-hander, was his conference's outstanding pitcher in the mid-1960s at Southeastern Louisiana. In his senior season, Tommy Bell was his SLU coach.
     But Bell lasted only two years on the SLU staff. He subsequently returned to high school coaching in Baton Rouge, then went to prison -- financial transgressions -- and, after his release, died at a fairly young age.
---
     No guarantee that Fair Park would have beaten DeLaSalle in a title series. But Istrouma did, so let's just make an assumption. 
     It was a talented Fair Park team; many of the kids were involved in at least two sports, many played in college, a couple in the pros. 
     Pitching was deep. LaDatto, although his record (5-3)  was deceiving, was selected for the All-State team just as he signed a pro contract (with the Cleveland Indians). Two other pitchers, Charlie Johnson (7-0) and Dean Bounds, would go on to be all-conference college pitchers; Calvin Carroll also pitched in college.
     The only sophomore starter, Phil Johnson, would go on to be a two-time All-State catcher and LSU's starting center in football on teams that won Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl games.
      The entire infield -- first baseman Charlie "Sam" Wilkinson, second baseman Jimmy Keeth, shortstop Paul Labenne, third baseman Paul Solice -- made All-City. So did outfielder Richard Groves.
      Solice was a two-time All-State choice and played two years of pro ball (Baltimore Orioles' system). 
      Labenne, a three-sport star at Fair Park, was a standout football and baseball player at Louisiana Tech. 
      Wilkinson -- "Sam" or "The Chief" -- also made All-State and played some college ball (Centenary). He was involved in pro baseball (Houston Astros' visiting clubhouse manager), then was the longtime trainer/equipment man at Louisiana Tech University. (Personal note: He was the nephew of our decade-long neighbors, and forever friends, in Sunset Acres.) 
       Outfielder Thomas Mitchell was a two-sport starter and went into coaching, as did a reserve outfielder and future coach of the 1970 state-champion Fair Park baseball team, Doug Robinson.
      Another outfielder starter, Buddy Worthington, was the older brother of a future Fair Park basketball-baseball state championship player (and All-State, all-college conference shortstop) David Worthington. 
      Even the team's manager-statistician, Frank "Spike" Bright, was a star. A junior in the spring of 1960, as a senior a year and a day later, he won Louisiana's Class AAA mile-run state championship. (He was our role model; we were both three-sports manager-statisticians, school newspaper and yearbook sports editors. I succeeded him as Louisiana Tech's football statistician. But no track mile run for me, thank you.) 
      Andrews was selected as the state's "Coach of the Year." He stayed at Fair Park for one more year. 
      All the honors were small consolation. These Indians' final record was 22-5. It could have, should have, been 25-5.
      What Istrouma did was bush-league. To blame Fair Park for any wrongdoing was ridiculous. 
       For Muddy Waters and the LHSAA committee to even consider what Istrouma claimed was a misjustice. Sure, Waters denied "being scared" of Istrouma principal Elton "Little Fuzzy" Brown, but he sure as heck sided with him (facts be damned, or twisted).
      To blame just the umpires, that was a copout. Weak. What's fair matters. What's not fair smells.
      Even after only 60 years. Still gripes me.
      Fair Park's uncrowned state champion, yes. A lesson in morality and sportsmanship -- or unsportsmanship -- to be recalled. A team, and a controversy, not to be forgotten.
      (Parts 2 and 3: Newspaper coverage) ... 
https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2020/04/fair-park-faithful-and-shreveport.html

https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2020/04/fair-park-faithful-and-shreveport_2.html

Paul Labenne, 1960

Fair Park faithful and the Shreveport writers were outraged (2)

---
March 22, 1960, The Shreveport Times (mostly T.H. "Muddy" Waters' letter ...)

Fair Park faithful and the Shreveport writers were outraged (1)

     There was extensive coverage, and much debate, over the Louisiana Class AAA Fair Park-Istrouma baseball semifinal series controversy of 1960.
     Shreveport writers were outraged. What a surprise.
     They felt Fair Park -- which chose to forfeit the decisive Game 3 and the series, thus a chance at the state championship the next week -- 
got a bad deal and made the right call.
     Included here, and in another take, are stories and columns written then (hope you can read them; you might have to "zoom" your view).
     Articles are by The Shreveport Times prep writer Bill Baker (who covered the games), Times assistant sports editor/columnist Jim Dawson, Fiser, and our man Byrd, the Shreveport Journal prep writer.
      There also is a letter written to the Journal sports pages by Stanley R. Tiner, the 1960 Fair Park senior class president and Louisiana 4-H Club president, future newspaper columnist/editorial writer and longtime editor (starting at the Shreveport Journal for a decade-plus).
     And, there were columns by Alexandria Town Talk sports editor Bill Carter and Lake Charles American Press sports editor Truman Stacey. 
      Even Fair Park Pow Pow ((school newspaper) sports editor Frank "Spike" Bright blasted Waters and the LHSAA; the Pow Pow faculty advisor had to tone down his rhetoric.
      We'll give you some highlight segments. But most telling was this viewpoint from Baton Rouge State-Times sports writer Mike Cook, as published in a Shreveport Journal story (key sentence: "In my opinion, Istrouma was 100 percent wrong ..."
      More than anything, Cook's comments -- he was a partial Baton Rouge guy -- should have convinced Muddy Waters and LHSAA executive committee members that what Istrouma was claiming was a crock.

Jack Fiser column, The Shreveport Times, May 22, 1960

---
      Bill Baker (game story, May 13): After it became evident that the Shreveport team had the second game well in hand, Istrouma coach Tommy Bell ordered his team to pull every stalling tactic in the book. ... 
     (Later in the story) ... Istrouma's fantastic stalling tactics.
      Stanley Tiner (Journal letter, May 13): Istrouma High School's supposed diamond romping powerhouse and "Muddy" Waters, big chief of the Louisiana High School Athletic Assn., have combined forces to form a mass of unfairness and sporting lowness that leaves the darkest blotch in the history of the Pelican State.
     "... Jack Benny has trouble getting laughs that the affair deserves and truly this deserves many laughs for it makes one big joke out of baseball.
     "Istrouma High School and Commissioner Waters can be proud of their feat of misjustice because no one else will be."
      Baker (May 14, taking the lead column spot given him for a day by Fiser): "The writer ... would like to commend Fair Park for its decision and its high principles in not resuming the playoffs  under the conditions set forth by ... T.H. "Muddy" Waters and Istrouma High School. 
     ... Fair Park officials, coaches and players should certainly be congratulated on their stand. There is certainly a difference between "legality" and "morality." Istrouma stood on its "legal" rights while Fair Park chose the "moral" road.
      Jerry Byrd (May 16): When Istrouma turned a baseball playoff game into a comedy with the entire state as an audience, the athletic assn. officials and committtees join the procession of clowns and the so-called LHSAA sportsmanship code committee becomes another big joke.
       Ha ha.
       Bill Carter (May 18): Commissioner T. H. Waters is being unfairly criticized because he ruled against the protest by Fair Park. But he had no choice. He couldn't overrule the umpires' decision. ...
      Istrouma, long one of the state's most respected athletic teams, can't be too proud of its victory. It was a cheap one. But the umpires are actually to blame.
      When there is a home team, there is always a chance of an umpire not having the courage to do his duty when it means ruling against the host.
     From "Muddy" Waters' letter (critical of media coverage): There is an amazing failure to dig deeply enough to learn the facts behind a case. By presenting half-truths and by cleverly wording (cq) opinions, the writer can make the implications sound any way he wants them to and the damage done to the high school athletic program, in the eyes of the general public, is inestimable, since most readers do not often weigh their opinions but take them at face value."    
     Carter again (May 21): If everybody had taken their time to check the rules, or even contact the commissioner, none of this would have been necessary.
      From this corner, it looks like the only real guilty parties were the umpires who allowed the farce between Istrouma and Fair Park.
      Jack Fiser (May 22, a segment titled "The Aroma of Cheese"): The lingering bad taste from the whole mess results from State High School Commissioner Muddy Waters' apparent inclination to get all his data from the Istrouma side, and to let an important championship be decided by  thread-bare technicalities rather than toss in a mixture of common sense, as a commissioner is supposed to do in controversial matters.
     "... The impression lingers that Waters was too eager to accept the versions of the row furnished by Istrouma officials and Baton Rouge umpires, and not eager enough to make sure justice was done.
     Waters, he concluded, was "accessory to a cheese championship."  

Shreveport Journal story, May 13, 1960

Shreveport Journal, (Stan Tiner letter), May 14, 1960

Bill Baker column,, The Shreveport Times, May 14, 1960

Jerry Byrd column, Shreveport Journal, May 16, 1960

Bill Carter column, Alexandria Town Talk, May 18, 1960

"Fame" for Lee Arthur Smith, the big country kid

     To begin -- and paraphrasing John Denver's great song -- thank God for this country boy.
     Do not have a personal connection to Lee Arthur Smith, except one face-to-face interview in 1975 and one phone interview in 1987. Have not talked to him otherwise.
     But we are so proud of and so happy for the big country boy from Castor, Louisiana -- or next-door Jamestown, if you want to extend his home territory.

     Lee Smith's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, many believe, is long overdue. If they had let me have the only vote, it would have happened years ago.
     But as of Sunday, it is reality, and we had two immediate reactions:
     (1) Love it. He is one of our favorites, he "belongs" to North Louisiana.
     (2) Wonder what Jerome Holtzman would have thought today?
     (Many baseball fans, and almost every baseball writer, know the name Jerome Holtzman. There is a personal story here, centered on Lee Smith. Read on.)
     The tall and then-lanky baseball and basketball star from Castor High School I interviewed for a Sunday sports story in The Shreveport Times (April 20, 1975) grew into an imposing, thick hard-throwing right-handed pitcher -- one of the top relievers/closers in baseball history.
     The Times and Shreveport Journal were always his home-area newspapers, even after he left for fame in Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and other major-league stops. 
     And the personal connection: That part of Bienville Parish is familiar to us. My wife, Beatrice, grew up in Jamestown -- where Lee was born and, in young adulthood, resided in a huge new home.
     Little did I know when I made the visit to Castor in 1975 how connected to that area I soon would be, how many visits to Jamestown were headed. Nor did we know where Lee Smith was headed.
     In The Times story in 1975, a "pullout" quote from Lee read: "I like playing basketball ... more than baseball. But if I get a good enough offer in baseball, I'll sign."      
     Seven weeks after the story ran, Lee Arthur was picked in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Chicago Cubs, the 28th pick overall. The Cubs scout who recommended him -- and soon signed him -- was a baseball legend, Buck O'Neil.
     But he did not give up basketball. The next couple of times I saw him was when he was a member of the Northwestern State University basketball team playing against Centenary (he played some as a reserve 6-foot-5 forward) in the 1976-77 season.
     Saw him again in 1978 and '79 when he came to SPAR Stadium in Shreveport as a pitcher (a starting pitcher, incidentally) for the visiting Midland Cubs (Texas League).
     By 1980, his sixth pro season, Lee made it to the majors.
     For 18 consecutive seasons (16 full seasons), he pitched in the big leagues. So that was 1,022 regular-season games -- only six starts (five in 1982, none thereafter) -- and four postseason games (two with the Cubs in 1984, two with the Red Sox in 1988).
     When he retired -- at age 40 in 1998, after 12 minor-league games -- he was the alltime leader in MLB saves (478). 
      He since has been surpassed, by Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601). But, gosh, that's pretty nice company.
      Which is why members of the "Today's Game" Hall of Fame committee selected Lee for the Hall (along with White Sox/Orioles designated hitter Harold Baines, a "marginal" choice in our view).    
      And what's fitting is that next July 21 in Cooperstown, Lee Arthur Smith will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame on the same day as Mariano.
     Although he wound up pitching for eight major-league teams, it is with the Cubs that Lee is most associated. So we borrow from the bleedcubbieblue.com web site: 
     "Lee Smith was a dominant Cubs closer from 1980 until he was traded away after the 1987 season, including three 30-save seasons and being the closer on the Cubs' 1984 
National League East championship team."
     Which bring us to the Jerome Holtzman part of this story.
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     One December day in 1987, for about five minutes, it was me vs. Jerome Holtzman debating the merits of relief pitcher Lee Arthur Smith.
     He was one of America's greatest sportswriters, baseball writers. Me? A nobody from Shreveport covering major-league baseball winter meetings [for The Times] at the Dallas Anatole.
     It was the only MLB winter meetings I ever covered; Mr. Holtzman probably covered more than 50, and everything important in the sport for that long.
     It was the day Lee Smith was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Boston Red Sox. Mr. Holtzman was delighted; I was aghast at his delight.
     We were both in the room when the trade was announced. Dammit, I didn't like his reaction, and he came to realize that. As if it mattered, or he cared one little bit.  
     Please don't disparage the big kid from Castor.
     Jerome Holtzman, for five-plus decades, covered the Cubs and White Sox, usually for a half-season each, and here -- from Wikipedia -- is how highly regarded he was:
     "His influence and viewpoints made him something of a legend among newspapermen. Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who was sports editor of the [Chicago] Sun-Times for part of Holtzman's career, called him 'the dean of American baseball writers,' and went on to say, 'He never smiled, but he had the keys to Cooperstown. No major leaguer ever got into the Hall of Fame if Holtzman didn't want him there. He had tremendous sources. He was writing about the possibility of a baseball players union and a baseball players strike long before anyone else.' "
     OK, but by December 1987, Mr. Holtzman was not at all a Lee Smith fan. And I was.
      Holtzman never forgave Lee for a large failure in the 1984 National League Championship Series and, what's more, a difficult 1987 season.
      In the 1984 NL Championship Series, the Cubs -- with a 2-1 games lead in the best-of-five series, and one victory from breaking the 1945 curse -- lost Game 4 to San Diego  when Lee gave up a walkoff home run to Steve Garvey. The Padres then won Game 5 and went to the World Series.  
     From bleedcubbieblue.com again:     
     Smith had a rough year in his final year with the Cubs in 1987, with 12 blown saves and at times was booed off the mound. At the end of that season, it was felt that the Cubs needed to move on from him and he was traded to the Red Sox for Al Nipper and Calvin Schiraldi, one of the worst deals in recent Cubs history. Smith would go on to post six more 30-save seasons and three of more than 40, although he pitched in just one more postseason ..." 
     Mr. Holtzman's negative views on Lee, as I remember it, had to do with Lee's blown saves, ballooning weight and sore knees -- items referenced in my column from the '87 winter meetings.
     But when new Cubs director of baseball operations Jim Frey was asked about that, he praised Lee, even after he had traded him (at Lee's request, incidentally).
     "Wait, I've been one of his biggest defenders when some others in Chicago weren't," Frey is quoted in my column. "He almost never refuses the ball, he gets up and throws every day, he can work several days in a row, he's reliable, and he's not an old man. This guy is a horse, and he's been a horse.
     "We know we're giving up one of the premier stoppers. ..."
     My column includes numerous quotes from Lee. I do not remember this, but obviously I talked to him by phone that day. He made it clear that he was ready for a change of scenery from Chicago, and he was upbeat -- as he always was.        
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      Here is an irony to Jerome Holtzman's view of Lee Smith then: One of Holtzman's greatest contributions to baseball is that he was the creator of the save statistic. He came up with that in 1959, and it was adopted as an official statistic beginning in the 1969 season, the first official new stats category since the RBI (run batted in) in 1920.
     So, maybe Lee Smith owes Mr. Holtzman thanks, no matter what the man thought in 1987.
     And when he retired from newspapers in 1999, Mr. Holtzman was named official history of Major League Baseball, a position he held until his death (stroke) in mid-July 2008.
     But, gosh, I wish he had been easier on Lee that December day in 1987.
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      After Lee's playing career, he was a minor-league pitching instructor for a long while, including the San Francisco Giants' chain, which put him in Shreveport to work with the Captains during the 1990s.
      So the accompanying photo was taken at Fair Grounds Field. 
       It was fitting because Shreveport was the "big city" for the country boy from Castor (and Jamestown).  
       And now we can say that we were fans of this Baseball Hall of Famer for decades.
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       Posted this on Facebook today, repeating it here ...
       Many, many stories written about Lee Smith over the years. This is the best story -- July 1987, Shreveport Journal, by Teddy Allen and John James Marshall, a first-place national award-winning story, a great read.
      http://www.designatedwriters.com/classic/lee-arthur-smith/?fbclid=IwAR0AyNyoevMRfex29ojdGrgi5Isys0duqi4ssv0NgIeGklZSZlbm9Ur6Lk8
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