1948 Independence Yankees KOM Flash Report for week of August 28 thru September 3, 2016

The KOM League

Flash Report

For week of

August 28 –September 3, 2016

 

Intro.

 

This issue is an abbreviated report compared to most of its predecessors. It can be attributed to many things not the least of which is reader interest/input. If you make it through this issue it won’t be much better or worse than the ones coming before it. There are a couple of photos attached to this report you may wish to view on the Flickr site

www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/28915810790/

www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/29130297361/ This is the site where the Flash Report is posted.

 

Most likely giving those two sites was a real dumb move on my part. Now, you won’t have to read this report. However, should you do so you will find the citation in the body of the report that goes along with what is being said at that point.

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Passing of Denis Jent—Independence Yankee-1948

 

For two decades I got to know Denis Jent pretty well and he pulled off something no one has ever done in my home. He smoked a cigarette inside it, although it was in the basement. That was over 15 years ago and it won’t be replicated.

 

Over the course of holding KOM league reunions certain participants performed their various talent shows. Bill Bagwell was known for doing his routine of a guy whose suit was too large. Howie Hunt and Bernie Tye majored on their comedy acts and Jent had a card trick that he performed each time the group met. That is what he was doing in my basement the day he pulled out a cigarette. He was coming to the conclusion of the card trick about the same time he was headed for a nicotine fit. So he and the guests begged to allow him to continue and that is how there was smoke in my house.

 

Jent was a member of a very talented 1948 Independence Yankee team that featured future big leaguers, Al Pilarcik and Jim Finigan. He accomplished some pitching feats at both Independence and Joplin that lasted one year until Bob Wiesler came along and topped them. Jent was high on the New York Yankee list of prospects when he reported to Phoenix, Arizona for a training session in early January of 1950. During the first day of the session, Yankee coach, Jim Turner, told him to get his glove and go to the mound. Jent explained he hadn’t thrown a pitch since the Western Association season concluded the previous September. Turner told him he was a young man and it wouldn’t hurt him to pitch without warming up.

 

Well, to make a long story, less so, Jim “The Milkman” Turner was wrong. Jent told me more than once he knew his arm was not the same after that afternoon stint in Phoenix. He tried hanging on for a while even after the Yankees, who ruined him, released him. But, after his baseball career concluded he worked as an iron and steel worker where he did the dangerous and “exciting” tasks of riding the beams skyward in constructing skyscrapers.

 

My first meeting with Jent came in 1995 when he drove to Columbia, MO from Indianapolis, Ind. for a program I was conducting at a local library during the morning and a picnic in the park that evening. I couldn’t believe anyone would drive that far for such an event but he and scores of others did likewise. That is when the revival of the old KOM league was on. Each year we had “official” reunions he would make the trip and upon arrival he’d mention that he had encouraged Al Pilarcik to come with him but could never talk him into it.

 

At our first meeting he told me he had something that he wanted to give me. It consisted of his left-handers Mort Cooper, Rawlings baseball glove and his spikes. I wondered at the time what I’d do with that stuff but kept it around and other guys kept adding to the cache so that now I could probably outfit a baseball team with equipment. This site shows the cap worn by all Independence teams and the spikes and ball glove of Jent. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/28915810790/

 

Time was shared with Jent during the good and bad times. The bad times consisted of the death of first wife and one of the good times was when he remarried. Another of the good times was when he called to say that he had quit smoking and was feeling better for doing so.

 

My heroes of the KOM league who later became my friends are exiting the stage at a far too frequent pace. When I learn of the death of a former player one of the first things I do is to send a note to their former teammates. The problem now with doing that is there aren’t too many left with which to share that news. And, in sharing the news you take the risk that those former teammates still around are in no state of mind to remember the deceased. Yep! My efforts are closing in on being futile.

 

Following are the fellows from the 1948 club Independence who may or may not remember Denis Jent;

Clarence A. Wheeler—Shawno, Mich.

Paul Nichols—Dawsonville, Georgia

Paul Flores—Garden Grove, Calif.

Charlie Joe Fontana—Mobile, Ala.

William Bagwell—Homer, Louisiana

Raymond Haley—Elgin, Ill.

Robert Hamric—Austin, Texas

James Talmadge Hudson—Cheraw, South Carolina

James F. Pettit—St. Louis, Missouri

Bruce Otto Schroeder—Salt Lake City, Utah (Record books don’ t show him with Indy, but he was.)

Gabriel John Padilla—Tygh Valley, Ore.

 

In 1948, the Independence Yankees took team photos early in the season, mid–season and then when they won the league title. This site shows one of the team photos. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/29130297361/ Not being one to stir up controversy I have listened to many conversations of the 1948 team members who always held they were better than the 1949 team that got a lot of attention due to having Harry Craft as manager and guys like Lou Skizas, Bob Wiesler, Steve Kraly and Mickey Mantle on the roster who made it to the big leagues.

 

Obituary of Denis O’Neal Jent

 

Denis O. Jent , 86, went home to be with the Lord on August 19th, 2016. He was born on January 17, 1930 in Warren County, Kentucky to Joseph and Alice (Gammon) Jent.

 

He retired from Ironworker's Local 22 and was a member of the Mooresville Masonic Lodge No. 669 F & AM, the Murat Temple, and the Scottish Rite. A George Washington High School baseball pitching standout, Denis was drafted by the New York Yankees upon graduation in 1948 and played in the Yankees farm system for 8 years.

 

Denis is survived by his wife, Judith Jent, daughter Sheila Crawford, daughter Carla (Paul) Baase, son Daryl Jent, 12 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his parents, his wife Patricia (Leeper) Jent, his son Michael Jent and his son-in-law Carlie Crawford, his brother Norman Jent.

 

Madison Avenue Funeral Home, 5141 Madison Avenue, Indianapolis, with the services starting at 1:00 p.m. Friends may call from 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. on Monday, August 22, 2016 at G.H. Herrmann

 

Denis will be laid to rest in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Greenwood, Indiana. Memorial contributions may be made to Shriner's Hospital for Children . Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.ghherrmann.com

Published in the The Indianapolis Star on Aug. 21, 2016

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De ja vu

 

Jack Morris sent me the obituary on Denis Jent and to follow that up sent this note. “John, for once, I’m sending you an article on someone who’s still with us.”-http://www.swtimes.com/sections/features-columnists/pam-cloud/ex-ballplayer-goes-distance.html

 

After reading the aforementioned URL I wondered if Jack was telling me, in a kind manner, that I had made an error in the previous Flash Report. In that report I stated that Robert Field was the lone surviving member of the 1946 Miami, OK Blues. That is a correct statement considering only the regular season. However, if a team made the playoffs that year they could select one player from another club who wasn’t in the playoffs. The idea was each team should go in as strong as possible and if they had an injured player they could bolster their chances of competing by taking on a “fresh face.”

 

Thus, Miami selected Gerald Cross from the Bartlesville Oilers. Miami lost in the first round of the playoffs and it turned out the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t want him in 1947 so Miami placed him on the reserved list for 1947. Meanwhile Fido Murphy of the Topeka Owls switched his KOM franchise from Chanute to Miami and he didn’t want Cross either. When the 1947 season rolled around Cross wound up at Chanute the town Murphy had ditched in favor of Miami. Such were the ways of minor league baseball. Cross didn’t last the season at Chanute and also played that year in the Sooner State league.

 

After reading the article Jack Morris had sent, which was very early in the morning, more like late night, some things didn’t fit. I read it once more and thought to myself “Self, I’ve read this before.” I knew that Cross was a member of the “Over 90” club and the article still had him in his 80’s. Upon closer scrutiny I found the article had been written in 2013. But, it was a good article and although I believe I shared it three years ago it is still good enough for a rerun. Especially, this week, when I’ve experienced a slow news cycle. So, here is the old article.

 

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Baseball has consumed much of Gerald Cross' life.

 

But these days, he prefers to watch it or read about it rather than playing it and coaching it.

 

At 88, Gerald hasn’t spent much time on the diamond lately unless it was catching a Razorback game or watching family members play. Gerald had just returned home from work yes, I said work at age 88 — when I darted by Albert Pike and Hendricks this week.

 

Gerald’s early years took him from a Lavaca ballfield to the minor leagues to a war combat zone.

 

Born in Greenwood and raised in Barling, Gerald went to school in Lavaca and played baseball for the local team. His first experience with baseball came at age 8.

 

I lived next door to a man who coached kids, explained Gerald, the widowed and divorced father of six and grandfather of 11. “He got me to play. The first time I got a uniform, I slept in it.”

 

He played American Legion baseball as a teenager, winning three state championships. Scouts were starting to take note of the competent catcher, and Gerald left for Florida in 1940 to play ball in the minor leagues until a war started. Gerald was drafted into the Army in 1941 during World War II and spent time in Germany with the 104th Timberwolf Division under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Terry Allen.

 

It was during the Battle of the Bulge they sent me to Germany,” Gerald explained, sitting in the living room of his home, with an open Bible on one side of his recliner and a copy of “The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood resting on the nearby fireplace hearth. I was on the front for about a year in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.

 

I’d hate to do it again, but I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience, he said, adding that he later joined the Air Corps.

 

Even during his service time, Gerald and other soldiers would form a team and play baseball. He just couldn’t get it out of his system.

 

Upon his return home, Gerald went back to playing baseball for farm teams for the St. Louis Cardinals organization and the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, making MVP two years. He was living the life of a rock star, surrounded by girls, parties and alcohol.

 

I spent $100 a day just partying, said Gerald, who married Alma in 1951 and raised six children with her. “I was living the wild life. I was still doing it the first time I got married. I got myself in a lot of trouble.”

 

Gerald said there was a time when he thought he was really going to make baseball a career.

 

There was a time I thought I was really gonna go a long way in baseball,” Gerald said, looking at a framed photograph of himself as a young 16-year-old baseball player. “But at a wild party one night, we had a little scuffle and the front part of the house was about 14 foot high. I got knocked off that night and landed on my shoulder. There went my baseball career.”

 

When baseball ended for him, he went to work at Auto Parts & Tire in Fort Smith.

 

I didn’t know a generator from a starter, but the man hired me, said Gerald, who settled down to provide for his family. “We changed the name later to Fliteline Motors. We got into the rebuilt motor business.”

 

The business grew internationally, with shipments all across the United States and into Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland.

 

We were selling everywhere, he said, noting that they were among the top 15 in production in the country on motors. As cars changed, so did the successful business.

 

When his children started playing ball, Gerald started coaching. He coached his son’s American Legion team and was convinced to coach a men’s softball team, which he led to seven consecutive state championships and four regional championships.

 

We came in the top 5 in the world three times, Gerald said, pointing out the framed photos of the Fliteline Softball Team hanging on the wall above the couch.

 

If you can recruit right, you can play right, Gerald added, noting that a man shouldn’t take himself so seriously. “That’s my theory in anything. And if you can laugh at yourself, you keep it real.”

 

Gerald quit coaching shortly before Alma died in 1979; Gerald remarried and later divorced. He retired once from Fliteline but didn’t know what to do with himself, so he went back to work.

 

All these years and I’ve only missed 10 days, said Gerald, who has taught a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church for 51 years.

 

Will he retire again?

 

When I die, he said with a sly grin.

 

Where will my travels take me next week? Gerald’s dart toss says I’m headed to the area near Country Club and Valley Road, which is where Gerald used to live. I’m darting there next.

 

Ed comment:

 

My first conversation with Gerald Cross took place nearly two decades ago. As with most of the guys the conversation encompassed their memories of former teammates. All the guys who ever played with Jack Bumgarner remember him for his athletic ability and some rather weird talents that no one else could do like stand on his head and pitch. You’d have to have seen it to believe it.

 

Not every guy who played with Jack Bumgarner knew he was the slightly older brother of James who shortened his last name to Garner and made a pretty good living in movies and on television. Cross was one of those guys who were shocked to learn that one of his 1946 teammates followed his brother into acting later in life. Most of Jack Bumgarner’s post baseball life and before joining the Screen Actors Guild was that of being a professional golf instructor.

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Forty-three walks

 

I happened to run across the pitching feat of a guy called Alex Swails in the media of that era. When researching the year Bob Field was the batboy of the Hutchinson, KS Pirates In 1938 Swails walked 32 Ponca City, OK batters while pitching for the Muskogee, OK Reds and Hugh Kittle (that had to be Hub Kittle) of Ponca City walked 11. I read a lot of details about that game from different sources and wondered what became of Swails. That is when I learned the former pitcher from Kingstree, South Carolina went into the Army in 1942 and stayed through 1945. This is burial site. If you click here you’ll find his name wasn’t Alex, among other things.

www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=106004...

 

What would be interesting to me is the pitch count for that game. He was a big side-arm pitcher and he must have been dragging at the end of that game.

 

Swails went to Clemson when it was an agriculture and military school. On Ancestry.com were some photos of him while he attended that institution.

 

The foregoing was a KOM league extra and to learn more about that “walking” game just search the Internet and with all the information available it will make you an expert and in line to take over this publication at any time you decide to do so.

 

 

Done