Loyd Wayne Simpson-1951 Pittsburg Browns and MIami Eagles.

Loyd Simpson on and off the field in 1951. Photo taken across the street from Ramsay's Dept. Store at 6th and Broadway in Pittsburg, KS 1951. In mid August he was signed by the Miami Eagles.

 

The KOM League

Flash Report

for

Week of June 21 thru 27, 2015

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Note:

 

This report is an attempt at cutting out much of the verbiage of recent editions. It is a continuation of some of the tales of the 1951 Miami, Oklahoma Eagles. There were some “different” things that happened in minor league baseball. But, much the same could be said of the major leagues. The story in this report is the Miami Eagles version of what the St. Louis Browns did with Eddie Gaedel. www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&am...

 

It may well be that the Miami baseball club got the idea for their “special event” from Bill Veec, and the St. Louis Browns, since it happened at nearly the same time in August of 1951.

 

This report is on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/18805183190/

The person in the photo got $100 to sign with the St. Louis Browns and his buddy, Roy Sievers, got $100 less than that.

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“The Most Obscure KOM Leaguer of Them All.”

Subtitled: “The Best Story I Almost Never Heard.”

2nd Subtitle: “The KOM League’s Eddie Gaedel”

 

Early into my KOM research I observed a name in a Miami Eagle box score from 1951 that I came to assume was a misspelling. But the name remained on my database until I could either validate or refute it.

 

Then, came a few conversations with former members of that 1951 team who validated the last name of the guy appearing in a late season box score that Charles Bud Closs had done prior to his death when he stopped by the KOM League Hall of Memories in the late 1990’s. Delbert Wichtendahl George O’Don Garrison and Loyd Wayne Simpson also put a first name to it….James. Simpson even had a press clipping his mother, who was living in Commerce, OK at the time, found in the Joplin Globe. Here is the article from the October 2, 1951 Joplin Globe. “The body of James Albert Murphy, 27 years old, 13 K Street. N. E., Miami, who was found dead in his room at 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon, was sent yesterday by the David Dillon funeral home to Cooper funeral home at Miami, where the latter will be in charge of funeral arrangements. According to Dr. W. W. Hurst. coroner, Mr. Murphy had been dead from 10 to 12 hours when his body was found. The coroner, alter completing his investigation yesterday, said Mr. Murphy had been under a Miami physician's care for a heart ailment. Dr. Hurst said death was due to a heart attack. Mr. Murphy, an employee of the Coleman Theater at Miami, was on vacation and had checked into the hotel here at 12:30 o'clock Sunday morning. He was born February 22, 1924, in Joplin. Surviving are his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Murphy of Miami and three brothers, Sergeant Richard L. Murphy, with the United States army, and Gerald A. Murphy and Lawrence M. Murphy of Miami.”

 

For many years I knew about the death of James Albert Murphy but not much else. After a little more research, in recent days, I learned that after Murphy was born in Joplin in 1924 that the family moved around the Tri-State mining area to such towns as Galena, Kansas and Picher and Miami, Oklahoma.

 

By the time the 1951 baseball season rolled around, Murphy had forged some friendships with the Miami players and most likely a closer one with player/manager, Thomas Gentry Warren. He was a character in the truest sense of the word but obviously had great sense of empathy for someone less fortunate. In searching through some family genealogy files on Ancestry.com a comment is contained in that documentation that Murphy was born with a hole in his heart. That alone would have most likely curtailed his athletic activities but not his interest in baseball.

 

It was a bit of a mystery to me as to how Murphy attended many Miami Eagle baseball games since he worked at the Coleman Theater and their hours of operation would have conflicted with the starting time of most Miami games. If he worked as a janitor for the theater he would have had more time to attend games. After a little more research that mystery was solved. Wayne Simpson recalls the Miami Hotel was directly across the street from the Coleman Theater. Murphy would meet the team bus at that site and ride out to Fairgrounds Park with them. When the Miami club played at Carthage, MO and Pittsburg, KS Murphy often went along since the team returned to Miami following each game.

 

Some time during that season Tommy Warren told Murphy, who was older than most of the players on the Miami roster, that he would let him realize his goal of playing in a KOM league game. Wichtendahl, Simpson and Closs recall Warren getting a role of toilet paper and making out a crude contract prior to game time. When he approached the two umpires that evening, with his line-up card, Warren handed them the makeshift contract that would make Murphy eligible to appear in a sanctioned league game.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the Miami newspaper where Murphy’s appearance would have been noted in the box score but I recall seeing it. To my knowledge he was inserted into the game in the 5th inning. That was the only inning he played and his career came to an end. There is one thing of which I am sure. Within a month of realizing a dream of playing professional baseball, James Albert Murphy was dead.

 

In a story, that could only be made up in a novel, here are the details of his funeral. “Services for James Albert Murphy. 27 years old, who was found dead in his room Sunday afternoon (September 30, 1951) at the Keystone Hotel in Joplin, will be conduced at 2 o'clock Thursday afternoon (October 4, 1951) at the First Christian church. Russell Martin will officiate and burial will be in Hillcrest Cemetery Galena (Kansas) under the direction of the Cooper funeral home of Miami. Pallbearers will be Harry Ross, Eddie Diebold. Cude Rowe, John Ratliff, Wallace Warner and Tom Warren. Honorary pallbearers will be employees of Miami Theater, Inc.” Here is his burial site: www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=MUR&am...;

 

Conducting the funeral for James Murphy was Rev. Russ Martin who was not only the pastor of the largest congregation in Miami but he was the voice of the Miami Eagles over KGLC radio. And what a voice Martin had. He was as good as anyone on national radio broadcasts of his era. He would be better than 99.99% of those broadcasting games now.

 

But, the most startling item, in the funeral announcement, was contained in the last person mentioned as being a pallbearer. Tommy Warren had been gone from Miami for a month at the time of Murphy’s death and he returned to pay homage to a young man he had befriended. Warren was facing imminent incarceration at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, yet made the trip from Tulsa to say his farewell. In that act alone it showed that Warren possessed some great character traits. I always have claimed that of all the people from the opposing teams that I enjoyed most, as my time as batboy, Tommy Warren was right at the top.

 

Brief look at the life of James Albert Murphy

 

Born in Joplin, MO in 1924--Moved to Picher, OK by 1930--Dad worked on WPA project as a foreman in 1940 at Galena, KS--was an employee of Coleman Theater--Never married.

 

All obituaries of former KOM leaguers are shared with Jack Morris in Coventry, PA who maintains a large database on such information. Here is a note shared with him. “Like many others, Murphy, has to be included in the record books of baseball history as having one plate appearance and going hitless. I think he flied out to centerfield but I’m not 100% sure.” (Someday I will get the answer to that question—That answer came a couple of days later from Delbert Wichtendahl—I did a quick correction to show that Murphy didn’t strike out.)

 

Profile:

James Albert Murphy

Born: February 22, 1924

Place: Joplin, Missouri

Died: September 30, 1951

Place: Joplin, MO—Keystone Hotel

Career: Pinch hit one game. He went to the plate and never took a swing. He walked on four pitches. He scored as he was urged to circle the bases without any attempt by the opposition for a put out.

 

Now, the rest of the story:

 

Prior to springing this story on the reluctant few readers I felt it was necessary to recheck the details of the story through two of the people who witnessed the one game appearance of James Murphy.

 

A telephone call was placed to Godfrey, Illinois and the person on that end of the line was Loyd Wayne Simpson and he was eager to talk about that incident and others from his 1951 season with both Pittsburg, Kansas and Miami, OK. He played with Pittsburg for 90 games until the St. Louis Browns released him. He was eager to get back home to eastern Illinois. However, he said Tommy Warren called him and asked him to join the Miami club for the last seventeen games of the seasons and eventually the playoffs.

 

Another call was made to Wittemore, Iowa where I conversed with Delbert Wichtendahl a hard throwing lefthander who was signed by the Miami Eagles after he was released by the Ponca City Dodgers. Independent teams, like Miami, were always eager to sign players released by teams with big league affiliation.

 

Joplin, Missouri isn’t all that far from where I live, as the crow flies, so I decided a telephone call to former Miami Eagle lefty, George Garrison, would provide another insight into the night Jimmy Murphy had his big thrill. (That didn’t pan out as you will learn if you keep reading.)

 

With input from the guys who played for Miami the night Jimmy Murphy was to make his only appearance in a baseball uniform I was sure that a more complete account of that could be constructed. All of the Miami players with whom I have spoken, over the years, made it clear that Murphy was mentally challenged and the Miami baseball team was another group in the community that went about making the young man’s life as meaningful as possible.

 

Wichtendahl recalls that the game where Murphy was to appear was promoted in the local media and a large crowd gathered for the game. Both Simpson and Wichtendahl recall that Murphy was a tall, slender man who was always neatly dressed. Simpson opined that he looked more like a basketball player than being cut out for baseball.

 

Simpson didn’t recall Murphy’s time at the plate as clearly as Wichtendahl. Wichtendahl remembers that Murphy went to the plate and never swung at a pitch. He took his walk and upon arriving at first base he was urged to go to second, upon arriving there he was sent to third base and when reaching the “hot corner base” he was sent to the plate. So, he ended his baseball career with no official times at bat with one run scored. Whether he was credited with three stolen bases is unknown. But, being able to join Miami for both Simpson and Wichtendahl provided conclusion to their minor league careers and some memories of a bygone they both cherish and enjoyed sharing with me when they were contacted by telephone. Wichtendahl said that he had some newspaper clippings that he would gather and send them to me. In those, he is sure the box score of the game where Murphy appeared is in the collection.

 

Plans to add more to this report got put on hold when I called George Garrison’s home in Joplin, MO and his wife told me he was delivering cookies. She said that he would be busy in the afternoon as his grandson would be pitching in an American Legion game. Thus, I figured Saturday morning would be a great time to call Garrison again. I decided prior to calling Garrison I’d work in the tomato patch which hasn’t been possible for the last week due to heavy rain.

 

As I toiled in the tomato patch the telephone rang and it was a fellow wanting to give back some old copies of the KOM League newsletters that I pass around to those who want to see “the real thing.” The caller lives 30 miles north of me but I knew that as a young man he played basketball at Webb City, MO High School for non other than the aforementioned, George Garrison. At that juncture I knew if I called Garrison, and tried to piece all of our conversation into this report, that it would be a book not a term paper. This report would have at least gone into the double digits, in size, and I started out this week attempting to trim the size of the reports. Never have I been accused of being smart but I can read trends as well as anyone. The trends of which I speak are Flash Report hits on the Flickr site. Since the first of the year the numbers have been: 22921, 13395, 29049, 5707, 10812, 3430, 13815, 1372, 9850, 4635, 8815, 3388, 11599, 6864. 5169. 4892, 1835, 1815 and 1853. The reports have not been posted every week on Flickr.

 

If the foregoing isn’t a downward trend then the St. Louis Cardinal front office isn’t in potentially hot water over alleged computer hacking. Either the interest of the readership has gone into the tank or the baseball photos of the 1951 Miami Eagles are of no interest to the masses.

 

So, next week, if a few people read this report, I’ll have some interesting comments on the baseball lives of George O’Don Garrison, Wayne Simpson and Delbert Wichtendahl.

 

You’ll find some references to big names of baseball’s past if I indeed put out a report next week. I’ll even tell the story why Roy Sievers is still is ticked off at Wayne Simpson for getting a larger contract for signing with the St. Louis Browns than he did. The Cardinals had attempted to sign both and give them sizeable contracts for that era but both chose the Browns thinking they could make it to the big leagues faster with the Browns than the Cardinals.

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I’m really not done but stopping anyway!

 

 

 

Done