1951 Pittsburg Browns and Big Bertha

There are 19 individuals in this photo and here is my best attempt at identifying them. From left to right: Hugh B. Lott Jr., Laverne Schneider, Frank Johnson, Dick Drain, Joe Beatka, Frank Winkler, Kenneth McGee-head turned to left, person with hand on shovel-unidentified but is definitely a female, Bob Ottesen, Loyd Wayne Simpson, Joe Carolan-(I think), Robert Wesley James (I think), Pat Gosney, Lloyd Koehnke, George Wegerek, May be Lowell McMillen, guy with head barely visible is not identified, Bill Enos-turned around, mining company employee and Stan Costales. Anyone wanting to add to or correct me on any of this identification, feel free to do so.

 

Look closely: The hand on that big shovel belongs to a female. Look at the fingers, the length of the sleeve as compared to the guys and the bun hair-do. Do you agree that has to be a female? If not, justify your position.

 

The KOM League

Flash Report

for the week of

June 28 thru July 3, 2015

 

Note: This report is also posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/19185443761/

 

Wonder of wonders, the previous Flash Report received a huge boost in readership by virtue of it being picked up and placed in the Sunday June 21st edition of a newspaper in a former KOM league city. If you read the last Flash Report concerning James Albert Murphy now is the time to play “Guess What Newspaper Printed It.”

 

Okay, time is up. What was your guess? In the previous report the names of former Pittsburg, KS, Ponca City and Miami, OK players were mentioned. So, if you guessed a newspaper in any of those three cities carrying the article you are as wrong as those who picked the Milwaukee Brewers to be in first place on the 4th of July of this year.

 

Once something is written you wish like mad you had left some things unsaid and added other things. To illustrate my point Wayne Simpson told me that after he left Pittsburg he was confronted by Tedd Gullic, the manager of the Bartlesville Pirates, who was upset he didn’t get a chance to add him to the Bartlesville roster. At that time Gullic had just lost future big leaguers Ronnie Kline and Brandy Davis to the New Orleans Pelicans. Now, I’ve given a hint as to what newspaper picked up on the last Flash Report and shared it with their readers. If the hint isn’t clear enough here’s the link:

examiner-enterprise.com/sports/local-sports/story-reveale...

 

There is a common trait that the article generated in both the Flash Report and Bartlesville newspaper—very little comment.

 

References to check:

www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&am...

 

www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&am...

 

www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&am... (Ed note: I learned long ago NEVER to do a Google search for Brandy Davis. What you will find, under that search, has nothing to do with baseball or the guy who my wife and I called “Friend” prior to his death.)

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A brief respite:

 

If my memory is still functioning, I recall only two comments from the previous Flash Report that dealt directly with the late Mr. Murphy. One comment came from someone who sounded like Lawrence Welk, or a broken record, for the three word comment was “Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.” I noticed that the Bartlesville newspaper was overwhelmed with one comment on the story.

 

Another link that story had with Bartlesville was Charles “Buddy” Closs. Prior to showing up with Miami, in 1951, he had initially pitched for a brief time, in 1949, with the Bartlesville Pirates.

 

So, where am I? I think I mentioned last time I’d make some comments on the things shared with me by the fellows from the 1951 Miami Eagles, if it was possible to ascertain five to ten people had any interest in reading it. I think 10 people said in one way or another “Go for it if you don’t have anything better to do.

 

So, I’ll start with Wayne Simpson and then move on to Delbert Wichtendahl.

 

•

Wayne Simpson first tried out with the St. Louis Cardinals and later the St. Louis Browns after he go out of service in 1950. He had graduated from an agriculture high school in 1947, in three years, but elected to gone on to Roxanna, Ill. High School for another year, since it was brand new and it offered him a chance to complete four years of secondary education.

 

After graduating from high school he joined the US Navy. He tried out for both of the St. Louis teams ad good enough to be offered a $5,000 bonus by the Cardinals but he thought by signing with the Browns his trip up the baseball ladder would be much faster. He later go to know Roy Sievers who was nearly four years his senior. As they did with Simpson later, the Cardinals offered Sievers a $5,000 bonus and he turned it down thinking the road to playing big league ball in his hometown of St. Louis would be much greater by inking a pact with the “lowly Browns.” By the time Simpson was signed by the Browns, Sievers was playing in the big leagues.

 

Simpson has had a long friendship with Sievers since his early days in professional baseball that didn’t happen until 1951. After graduating from Roxanna High School Simpson spent two years in the U. S. Navy aboard a submarine. Following his one season in the KOM league he was back in the service for another four years which about sealed any baseball hopes he had. However, he never gave up on the game. Although he is now in his 85th year he maintains a great deal of interest in his vocation and avocation as a baseball card dealer. Late last year Sievers called him and said he was going to visit a casino in the area and invited Simpson to come along for breakfast. Simpson recalled that Sievers was still “pissed off” that the Browns gave Simpson a $100 bonus and didn’t give him anything. Of course, the Browns of that era were a bad organization, in Simpson’s words, and they didn’t spend any money, mostly because they didn’t have any.

 

Simpson always admired the talent of Sievers and might well be the trivia expert on the former big league star’s career. He pointed out to me that Sievers is the only man to hit pinch hit homers in both of the major leagues.

 

Coming back from his first tour of duty in the submarine corps, the Browns sent Simpson to spring training at Pine Bluff, Arkansas who then assigned him to Pittsburg, Kansas for the 1951 season. There he was managed by Bill Enos who at the time, in Simpson’s words “Was a bachelor, a close watcher of the stock market ticker tape in the hotels where the teams stayed, a decent man and a stickler for rules.”

 

One of the things for which Enos was famous involved the time the Pittsburg club left on their road trip. They always met in front of Otto’s Café on North Broadway Ave. at precisely 3:00 p.m. for all games except when the team traveled to more distant towns such as Ponca City and Bartlesville in Oklahoma. Simpson recalls that Enos would sometimes leave prior to the announced time. He recalled walking toward the meeting place one afternoon and while it was prior to the departure time, the Pittsburg bus was headed out. Although he was spotted, carrying his equipment, Enos refused to stop the bus and let him board.

 

At that juncture Simpson recalled doing an about face and stuck up his thumb as a hitchhiker. The destination that evening was Bartlesville and when he went on the field Enos approached him and exclaimed “You showed me something today .”When Simpson asked him what that was Enos proclaimed “You proved to me you want to play.”

 

Simpson played most every game with Pittsburg during his three month stay with the club except for a game in Ponca City. The team arrived in typical 100 degree Oklahoma weather and in checking into the Jens-Marie Hotel they were tired and hot. A man in an adjoining room knocked on Simpson’s door and offered him a cold beer. Simpson said that he wasn’t allowed to imbibe in a “cool one” previous to a game and the fellow offering the beer told him to drink it after the game. Before the game Enos was making the rounds of the rooms and spotted the beer. Without any discussion he told his young third baseman not to even put on the uniform that night for he wasn’t going to play.

 

In that era none of those team buses were air-conditioned except the one the Independence Yankees rented from a Greyhound subsidiary in Coffeyville, Kansas. Simpson recalls that no matter how hot the team bus got his wouldn’t allow the players to have a cold soda on those one to five hour trips. Once confronted as to why he had the rule of no cokes on the bus, Enos responded that someone could step on a empty bottle and break an ankle. In that era all the soda bottle were glass, so it was probably more of a danger getting cut than breaking a bone. Anyway, that was the thinking Enos had brought with him through a baseball career that had begun in 1939.

 

In mid-August Simpson was summoned by Enos to met him at Otto’s Cafe. When he walked in Simpson said Enos said very tersely. “Pack your bags and get out.” Then, Enos added “The incident in Ponca City didn’t have a thing to do with your release.” That was the cruelty of baseball in that era. There was always a fresh supply of “raw meat” ready to replace a player on the roster.

 

One thing that got a player released was when someone in the organization, of influence, had a relative or friend who wanted to join a certain club. Simpson’s recall of the event was that his replacement’s father was an executive with the St. Louis Browns who had once also pitched for them. He recalled seeing his replacement during fielding practice and saying to himself “And, they are replacing me, with him?” Wishing to identify the replacement I went over a list of every member of the 1951 Pittsburg Browns with Simpson. Only one player on that team I could identify as having a father who played major league baseball was Ted Koenigsmark but his father, Willis, pitched for the “other team” in St. Louis, in 1919. All the information at my disposal only indicates Pittsburg having two regular third basemen that year and other than Simpson the other guy carried the last name of England with a first name of James. Now, if someone can trace England’s father’s work history and find that he played for the Browns this part of the story will be complete.

 

With the news of his release Simpson was ready to board the Greyhound and head back to eastern Illinois but prior to leaving Otto’s, Enos said to the recently discarded ballplayer “Hang around.” In that era there was an unwritten pact that guys with teams with major league affiliation were prized commodities with other teams in the league who operated as independents and managers of those major league affiliated clubs would recommend a departing player to the independent teams.

 

Shortly, Simpson was making the short trip from Pittsburg, Kansas, down old Highway 69 to Miami, OK. Upon arriving in Miami, Simpson first met Tommy Warren who he declared was the best manager he ever had. He recalled Warren as a guy who never got on to him for anything other than admonishing him to “lay off the high, hard one.”

 

Simpson recalled that the Miami club was a lot more cohesive group who got along well and did off-field things together. When he got to Miami he saw one player on a daily basis who didn’t look like a ballplayer and did nothing by the book. He was once described as having to play the outfield for a lack of any place else to put him. When the ball was hit to him he didn’t know where to throw it so he always aimed it in the direction of the pitcher.

 

It is about time to bring Delbert Wichtendahl on to the stage for he had some vivid memories of the outfielder was “all hit and not field.” He recalled as proclaiming “I’m the greatest hitter there is.” He recalls that everything the guy did in swinging at the ball defied baseball orthodoxy but somehow he always managed to put the bat on it and frequently.

 

When people who look for “The Best Ever” in KOM lore I always advise them to take a peek at the minor league career of James “Windy“ Eldridge.. www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=eldrid001jam This guy was on a tear hitting nearly .500 in 1953 when he was injured. In spite of his injury, which was severe, he “limped” to a .407 batting average. I wish I had the citation I read many years ago but it documented how he, barring the injury, might have been the first .500 hitter in baseball history outside the Little League.

 

Wichtendahl had joined the Miami ball club prior to Simpson’s arrival. He was there the night manager Tommy Warren made off with the wrist watches and billfolds of the player’s under the ruse that he would keep on eye on them during the game. That chore usually went to Hubert “Whispering” Brooks of Benton, Arkansas. However, Brooks pitched that evening and Warren stepped up to offer his “help.”

 

When queried about the loss of the billfold and wrist watch Wichtendahl said that he didn’t lose a wrist watch for he didn’t own one but he finally had his billfold returned with the money still in it. At that point I said to him that he was the first player from that team that I ever heard from who got his valuables returned.

 

On October 28, 1931 Wichtendahl entered this world in Whittemore, Iowa. He developed into a hard throwing left-handed pitcher who was on an 11-man high school team, in 1950, that was the scourge of most all opponents in the Hawkeye state. In the state championships he hurled a no-hitter, striking out every batter he faced in the seven inning affair. In the next game he fanned 10 and attracted the attention of a Brooklyn Dodger scout. Shortly thereafter he was on an all night bus ride to Hazard, Kentucky to pitch for that Dodger minor league club managed by Max Macon in the Appalachian league.

 

What the Dodgers were looking to find out was if the 18-year old, who threw 96 mph could get the ball over the plate. Wichtendahl experienced culture shock when he arrived in “the hills.” He wasn’t sure if the locals were going to love the farm boy from Iowa or in his words “Shoot me.”

 

Well, they didn’t shoot him and in the spring of 1951 he was invited to the Dodger camp at Vero Beach. In any early exhibition game he was given the starting role against the Brooklyn Dodger regulars and shut them down 3-0. He didn’t attribute his performance as spectacular but rather claimed the Dodgers didn’t want to get hurt batting against a wild young lefthander.

 

As the cut down time arrived it was decided Wichtendahl would join George Scherger’s KOM outfit in Ponca City, Oklahoma. At least, while still being a Class D team, Wichtendahl was not going back to the hills of Kentucky.

 

What Wichtendahl experienced at Ponca City was the vast resource of Brooklyn Dodger talent. On that pitching staff with him at one time or another were 14 other guys who wanted to make a name for themselves. Joe Stanka, Dick Wiegand, Lloyd Brazda, Cliff Ohr, and Eldon DeRoin won the bulk of the games for Ponca City that year and thus guys like; George David, Don Smith, Ralph Cascella, Walt Hines, Roland Alexander, Joe Gravino, Mike Krmpotic, Gerald Foreman and Frank Alessandro were like Wichtendahl, looking for another team.

 

After appearing in six games for Ponca City, Wichtendahl was headed east to Miami, Okla. It was a good year for “Lefty” as he posted an 8-2 record, had a respectable earned run average and struck out more than he walked. And with only four wild pitches charged against him he proved not to fit the mold as “A wild lefty.”

 

There are always memorable stories no matter how long or short the stay was with any ball club. While pitching at Ponca City their first baseman, Stan Santo, fielded a ground ball and attempted to get the runner going from first to third. His mighty heave made it as far as the pitchers mound where it came in contact with Wichtendahl’s left temple and that’s all he remembered until waking up in the hospital.

 

While still at Ponca City his catcher during a contest with Miami, the team he would join later, was Gerald Boldt. The legendary minor leaguer, Gaspar del Toro, was a bit cocky in the minds of the pitcher and catcher in that game and Boldt gave the sign for Wichtendahl to “Stick the ball in the batter’s ear.” Dutifully, adhering to his catcher’s signal Wichtendahl threw the high hard one at Del Toro and he stepped back and the ball made contact with something other than the left ear. Wichtendahl turned to watch that “high hard” one clear the left field wall, easily.

 

At that juncture it was time for me to share my story, Wichtendahl, as to why Del Toro could hit a ball so far if he made contact. He used a 44-ounce Rogers Hornsby model Louisville Slugger. It was tacked and held together with white tape. I know for I still have it. During a visit to Carthage one evening in either late May or June, Miami was to play twi-light doubleheader. Tommy Warren didn’t want Del Toro using that bat and promised me it would be mine if I hid it from him for both games of the twin-bill. I’ve told this story many times and most of the readers are tired of it. However, I did say that that old bat, or its twin brother, is about 10 feet or less from where I’m sitting.

 

To make life interesting while on bus trips and to draw crowds the teams come up with various promotions. Catching animals released onto the ball field was always fun and games for the country boys and frightening to the big city boys. Miami had a contest prior to a game in 1951 where they released chickens and if one of those was captured the player received $1. The greased pig capture was more difficult and thus reaped $3 to the team holding on to the slippery animal. Simpson recalled his partner in the roundup was Jim McHugh, from Philadelphia, and he sensed that his big city teammate was afraid of both the animals they pursued that evening.

 

On road trips Tommy Warren would lead the team in gambling on license plates. Simpson recalled that Warren would always chose to play the Missouri tag numbers and his opponent would have to take the Oklahoma license numbers. The short story on that was “Missouri had more numbers on its plate than those from the Sooner State.”

 

It is likely that the Ponca City boys had more fun on their bus trips than did Miami. After a game at Pittsburg the young Dodger players loaded up and headed toward Oklahoma. They had lost the last game of the series and George Scherger wasn’t too happy to begin with. After stopping for some food and gasoline the team was loaded on the bus and awaiting Scherger’s return to the bus after paying all the bills. When Scherger got back to the bus or better yet, where the bus had been, it was gone. While Scherger was away the boys decided to make some “cat calls” in the direction of some of the Pittsburg “cuties” and the police were summoned. They ordered one of the players, which I think may have been Joe Stanka, to drive the bus to the nearby police station. That is where Scherger eventually wound up and not too happy at that.

 

Those are a few memories of two guys who played for three different teams during the 1951 KOM season. Wichtendahl accomplished something few ever did in that he played eight positions in a game that year for Ponca City. Scherger wouldn’t let him go for all nine positions since there weren’t any catcher’s mitts for lefties. However, I suspect that Wichtendahl was the only KOM player ever to play the left side of the infield who was lefthanded.

 

No matter what any of those guys experienced in the 1951 it was always difficult to top Tommy Warren. He pitched a no-hitter against Iola that year and on the day the judge’s decision came down that he would be sent to prison at the close of the season, I made the trip with the Carthage team to Miami and Warren pitched and threw a two-hitter against us.

 

A trick question might be “When did Warren appear in his last game at Miami?” Well, the year wasn’t 1951 but the next one. After arriving at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Warren managed and played for the prison team inexplicably called “The Outlaws.” Wayne Simpson recalled that he had two brothers who played for Northeastern Oklahoma Juco at Miami and in 1952 that team played the “Outlaws” in a spring exhibition game. I would give all the nickels I own to have been able to speak with Warren after that game to get his comments on how it felt to return to the scene of many diverse memories.

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Featured team of the week

 

And now we come to the second in a fifty-week series of remembering a specific KOM league team. I hope I don’t spend as long on the remaining 49 teams as I did on the 1951 club. If I do that I’ll be around for another 200 weeks with this stuff and no one could handle that.

 

During the days of the Pittsburg Browns era in the KOM league on of the most productive items in that era was “Big Bertha.” Don’t get of me. Bertha was the workhorse of the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Company. In looking for creative ways to depict a baseball team the Pittsburg Browns had a team photo taken in front of the largest coal bucket ever made. www.worldslargestthings.com/kansas/bigbrutus.htm

Eleven years after the team photo was taken, Bertha was succeeded in the coal digging business by her son, Brutus.

 

During one of the field trips during the 1996 KOM reunion at Pittsburg, Kansas a large group of former players made the trip to West Mineral, Kansas and recalled that Brutus was no where near as large as his mother, Bertha. Here is a link to the team photo taken in front of Bertha in the mid part of the 1951 season. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/19185443761/ The faces in the photo are totally from my recall from the time I was visiting team batboy for them on a couple of occasions when they came to Carthage. There are five guys I couldn’t identify so if you recognize a face I missed I’d love to add you as the photo editor of the KOM Flash Report and Old Photo Store. The names of the guys in the photo are on the Flickr site just cited.

 

Members of the 1951 Browns for at least one game were: “D” after name indicates deceased.

David Warren Barrows-D

Batboy-William Bartley- Whereabouts or fate unknown

Joseph Paul Beatka-D

Russell H. Bland Jr-D

Joseph Leduc Carolan-D

Peter Aull Cerick-D

Stanley Costales-D

George Sousa Dias-Probably still living in Hawaii

Richard Lee Drain-D

George V. Edwards Jr.-D

James Robert England- D

William Donavan Enos-D (Player-Manager)

Herb Fleischer-Whereabouts or fate unknown

Lloyd Edsil “Pat” Gosney-D

Anthony F Grundmeyer- Last known to be in Iowa.

RobertWesley James-From Datto, AR whereabouts or fate unknown

Charles Wallace Jenks-D

Lloyd Ervin Koehnke-Last known to be in Orlando, FL

Theodore Robert Koenigsmark-Last known to be in Forest Park, GA

Russell Paul Letterman-D

Hugh Benwick Lott Jr.-Killed in National Guard plane crash in 1959 at Peoria, IL

Josep hFrancis Lyles-D

Robert Kenyon McEvilly-Last known to be in Joliet, IL

Kenneth Merle McGee-D

Lowell A. McMillen-Last known to be in Park Rapids, MN

Robert John Ottesen-D

LaVerne Cleo Schneider-Last known to be in Winslow, IL

Loyd Wayne Simpson- Spoke with him this week on telephone in Godfrey, IL

Thomas T. Skole Jr.-Last known to be in Marietta, GA

Frank Albert Vaselenak-D

Walker first name unknown-In one game as pinch hitter—could have been misprint.

George Gregory Wegerek-D At time of death was known on talk radio as Dan Gregory

Fred C. Wehking Jr.-Last known to be in St. Louis, MO

Loren H. Weigelt-D On roster but never got into a game. From Spokane, WA

Roger Garon Whitehouse-Last known to be in Hillsboro, IL

Oscar Charles Wigman Jr.-D

Frank P. Winkler-Last known to be in Detroit, MI

Robert L. Zuccarini-I get my e-mail from Bob from his home in Savannah, GA

 

Although Pittsburg wound up with a 40-80-1 record, they escaped the cellar because Iola was in the league that year. The team was never going to scare anybody with their hitters with the exception of Bob Ottesen who could whack them out of the park. I recall him hitting one on the night of July 1, in Pittsburg, and the public address announcer saying he did that for a child born to him and his wife the previous night. As I recall Ottesen launched two bombs in the night doubleheader and sent Carthage down to a double defeat. That was the same night I was left behind at the Pittsburg ball park and thought I’d never see home again.

 

Numbers for the pitching staff weren’t eye-popping but Pat Gosney and Joe Beatka won 23 of the 40 games Pittsburg posted in the win column. The rest of the pitchers had to look to their earned run averages to feel good about their season. The leader in that department for the Pittsburg moundsmen was Lowell McMillen. One of the most vivid memories of the 1951 season was the bench jockeying at which Walt Babcock of Carthage excelled.

 

It was traditional that a pitcher who had pitched the previous night would be the third base coach. Lloyd Koehnke had pitched the previous night for Pittsburg and was at his coaching station when Babcock bellowed out “Koehnke, if you don’t ship up they are going to send you to Wheeling.” Koehnke was a nice guy and very polite. He turned to the dugout and asked “Where’s Wheeling?” Babcock replied “Wheeling horse manure, you dummy.” Koehnke turned around and never replied during the rest of the game to Babcock’s razzing. And, I add that like Harry S. Truman, Babcock used the barnyard name for the horse “offering.” And on that note I’m out of here.

 

 

 

Done