KOM League Flash Report for Week of 10/9/2016 Photo of the 1947 Chanute, KS A's

The “Real” KOM League

Flash Report for

Week of October 9, 2016

 

 

On October 6, 2016 a preliminary report was posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/30037985332/ At that time I mentioned that some updating would be done in the next 24 hours. One of the things mentioned in the report was Billy Hoeft and the relationship to Don Biebel. In the report Biebel was urged to get in touch and provide some comments about his boyhood friend and high school teammate. Biebel read the report, at his Sacramento, CA estate, and it started a three way e-mail party among him, Bill O’Donnell of Durham, NC and myself, right here in Columbia, MO. Like most things that get mentioned in these reports they expand. The story turns out to involve a number of young men from Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s high school baseball team of 1949. Three of them made it to the major leagues in ways some people might never guess. So, to be up to speed for the next Flash Report, you might wish to study up on William Frederick Hoeft, Donald Floyd Biebel and Laurence Henry “Dutch” Rennert.

 

To make it easy to do your research here are a few links to the aforementioned trio:

Don Biebel

www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=dutc...

Billy Hoeft

www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=dutc...

Dutch Rennert

www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=dutc...

 

And, while you are looking ahead you might wish to take a look back, one decade, to a story found in the Columbia, Missouri Tribune from September of 2006. One recipient of this report is Bill Clark and he doesn’t have a computer. His son prints these reports and gives them to him. So Casey doesn’t need to print out the following link. Bill you can go back to your old files and dig out the one wrote wrote about the KOM league reunion in 2006 at Carthage, Missouri.

archive.columbiatribune.com/2006/sep/20060920Feat001.asp

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Recommended reading

 

If you are limited in your time and interest in reading this report I suggest you go directly to the obituary of Vincent Nicholas Kokenge and see how it dovetails to the obituary shared seven years ago with that of Martin Claude Reisch. Each pitched for the 1947 Chanute Athletics and probably the only game Reisch ever started, Kokenge finished.

 

As with most reports an attempt is made to include a photo of the team on which a deceased member played. Vince Kokenge and Martin Reisch may or may not have been present when the 1947 Chanute A’s team photo was taken. There are two players in the back row that I have not been able to identify even with the help of five guys who are in that photo. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/30037985332/

Here are those who were there when the “family” portrait was taken:

Front Row: Earl Anstaett, Lou Bejma, Bobby Johnson, Jack Jordan and Francis Urban.

Middle Row: Sam Dixon, Sheldon Lewis, Charles Kunkle, Don Phillips and Bob Phillips.

Back Row: Team President W. C. McCullough, Joe Eperasy, Rex Simpson, Unidentified, Unidentified (Possibly, Vince Kokenge), Bernie Tye, Jake Thies and Charles Bates-Manager.

 

There are two -major league players in that photo. One had been there and the other headed in that direction. If you don’t know who they were look it up. If you are still stumped and interested in knowing, let me know.

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A personal request:

 

Put yourself in this scene. It is a cold, dark morning on December 1. You are a member of a service club and it meets before the sun comes over the horizon and you are expected to drive to the meeting site, sign in, listen to a few announcements, eat breakfast and listen to some old guy drone on about something that happened when Harry Truman was President of these United States. Gosh, I miss Harry. By the way Harry Truman was in the same town, Columbia, Mo., where the presentation will be made, when Franklin Roosevelt died.

 

Back to the issue. Put yourself in the place of the service club members who have to appear to be interested in what the speaker has to say that has been lined up by the program committee chairman. On top of that that speaker appeared before that same group three years earlier.

 

Now, put yourself in the shoes of the speaker. The chances are the same speech could be presented once again but since the speaker is senile he can’t recall what was presented. Most likely a few members of the service club would remember and they’d either leave in disgust or heckle the speaker off the platform.

 

So, in short, that is where Yours truly stands, or sits, as the case may be, as his last appearance in a public forum rapidly approaches. The most daunting task of any speaker is to follow the three “C’s” of public speaking. If you need a refresher they are: Clear, Concise and Ceated.”

 

Now I come to my point. If you were in an audience to hear a speaker talk about something that transpired 63-70 years ago and only knew the general topic was about baseball, what questions would you pose? Tough job, right? Well, I’m asking my “vast” e-mail family to join me at the service club. No, no, not in person but by sending along a question or two that you would ask if you had to get up early and trudge through the early dawn hours in order to keep your perfect attendance record intact.

 

If you send a question, that is selected to use in my presentation, you will be given full credit for your effort and if you happened to have played professional baseball I will even embellish your career by 10 or 15 points in batting average or a have a dozen more wins tacked on if you were a pitcher.

 

There are no restrictions to the kind of questions that will be considered. I fully expect about six people to respond to this request and with that I’ll probably use my verbosity skills to fill the full 30 minute time requirement and maybe empty a meeting hall in a lot less time than that. Send me a question or two. Thanks!!!

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Vincent Kokenge

 

www.legacy.com/obituaries/argusleader/obituary.aspx?n=Vin...

 

Sioux Falls, SD ~ Vincent N. Kokenge, 93, died on 9/28/16.

 

Funeral services will begin at 11 AM on Friday, 10/7/16 at George Boom Funeral Home in Sioux Falls. Visitation will begin at 5 PM on Thursday at the funeral home with the family present to greet friends from 5-7 PM. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation.

Vincent Nicholas was born on Sept.12, 1923 in Sioux County, IA to Joseph & Catherine (Kellen) Kokenge. He was raised and received his education in Sioux County attending and graduating from Paullina High School in 1941. It was as a child that Vince developed a love of baseball. Playing ball out of Granville, IA Catholic High School, Vince eventually signed to play minor league baseball with the New York Yankees organization in Quincy, IL. That dream of the "bigs" did not come to pass, but he did spend several years in Iowa and Nebraska as a baseball player. From baseball Vince moved on to throwing a hook from the left side as a bowler. In 1989 Vince was inducted into the South Dakota Bowlers Association Hall of Fame.

Vince was united in marriage with Delores Kroeger on 11/10, 1947. In 1967 he started Kokenge Painting Service, a business he owned and operated until his retirement in 1988.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife, Delores Kokenge; 6 children: Mike (Marcia) Kokenge, Larry (Colleen) Kokenge, Kathy (Jim) Lang, Cindi (Tony) Ruggiero, Pam (Jeff) Cox, and Ron (Barb) Kokenge; daughter-in-law, Michelle Ward; 22 grandchildren; 40 great grandchildren; 2 great-great grandchildren; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Vince is preceded in death by his parents; son, Douglas Kokenge; and brothers: Raymond and Virgil Kokenge.

 

Ed comment:

 

A couple of notes were received about the death of Mr. Kokenge and I shared this with Jack Morris, baseball necrologist. “Vince gave me a lesson on how to pronounce his name many years ago. The "g" is silent and he told me to say the word ‘cocaine’ and I'd be pronouncing his name correctly. Baseball Reference didn't show what handed he was but he was a lefty.”

 

Baseball Reference officials aren’t going to change anything without some type of documentation and I shared this newspaper quote from the Iola, Kansas Register. For documenting that fact it is contained in the Iola Register. June 28, 1947--Vince Kokenge. a lefty, who lost to lola 5-3 Wednesday night, was called on to finish the game and he performed reasonably well. He retired his first two batters, but Hal Fortine then drove a triple to left to. score (Ken) Aubrey and (Bill) Chandler.

 

A little more background. Kokenge was the batboy for the Sioux City Cowboys of the Western league in the mid-1930's. He was the batboy while Hal Luby was on that team. I suspect that was 1935-36. While with the Chanute A’s, in 1947, Kokenge posted a 3-6 record. His nickname with his teammates was Cocaine.

 

With the death of Vince Kokenge the number of former 1947 Chanute A’s players, still living, are down to four: Gerald Cross—Ft. Smith, Ark., Sam Dixon—Lawrence, Kans., Robert H. Peel—Hutchinson, Kans., and Frank Urban former Carthage resident who now lives in Springfield, Mo.

 

Bob Peel has long operated a women’s cosmetic supply company in Hutchinson, Kansas and has traveled the world in that capacity. However, nothing comes close to an experience he had in 1985 from Oct. 7 thru 10. He was aboard the Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, when it was hijacked by Palestinian Liberation Front thugs. He saw the entire episode unfold, even the death of Leon Klinghoffer. Don’t have space to rewrite that event from 31 years ago this week but here is a refresher course site: www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&am...

 

One member of the 1947 team was never found. His name was Rice Martin. He attended the University of Missouri in the spring of 1947 and then showed up in Chanute for a short time. The Chanute newspaper said that he attended Missouri University and listed his hometown as St. Louis but no trace of him was ever found.

 

Could this be Rice Martin? After looking at the 1947 Chanute roster for over two decades something finally clicked in that vacant spot above my shoulders. The only instance that I ever found the name, Rice Martin, was in a Chanute sports column. However, there was a Martin Claude Reisch who was born 8/27/1924 in St. Louis. He was in the Army from 7/5/1943 to 4/8/1946. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that he went to the University of Missouri in 1947. Reisch appeared in the same May 28, 1947 sports column as does the late Vince Kokenge.

May 28, 1947--Chanute's starting pitcher, Martin Reisch, pitched only to four batters —Bugs Redden, who doubled, Paul Box, who singled, Ken Aubrey a walk and Bill Chandler, who singled. Two scored on Chandler's hit. Vince Kokenge, a lefty, who lost to lola 5-3 Wednesday night, was called on to finish the game and he performed' reasonably well. He retired his first two batters, but Hal Fortine then drove a triple to left to score (Ken) Aubrey and (Bill) Chandler.

 

Conclusion: After 25 years of carrying Rice Martin, on my database of Chanute A’s, I officially and ceremoniously deleted his name this past week. The person was Martin Claude Reisch and he passed away June 17, 2009 in Ft. Worth, Texas. Although, I’m not 100% sure, those four Iola batters he faced on May 27, 1947 may well have represented his entire professional baseball career. When I spoke with Reisch some 20 years ago our conversation didn’t cover that subject.

 

In the August 4, 2009 edition of this seldom seen and even less often read publication I shared the obituary of Reisch. Four months after his passing his wife also died. Here is Martin’s obituary:

 

***

Martin Claude Reisch, 84, retired news bureau manager for Bell Helicopter Textron, died Monday, June 8, 2009.

Service: Memorial Mass will be at 2:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, with rosary at 2, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2016 Willis Lane, Keller.

Martin was born Aug. 27, 1924, in St. Louis, Mo. He pitched in baseball's minor leagues alongside some up-and-comers including Yogi Berra. A veteran of World War II, Martin was called to serve under Gen. Patton following the D-Day landing at Normandy.

After the war, Martin moved to Denver, Colo., where he met and married Elodie. He was the first civilian to work at the U.S. Air Force Academy, serving as sports publicity director. He later joined the Rocky Mountain News as sports columnist. During this time, he also wrote a weekly sports column for the Denver Catholic Register and hosted a bowling radio show interviewing personalities such as Don Carter. In 1966, Martin moved to Fort Worth to join Bell Helicopter Textron as chief of national media. He retired from Bell after 21 years.

Martin was always active in church and school activities. He coached Little League, was an assistant Cub Scout master, headed parish committees, and was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus.

Martin and his wife of 60 years, Elodie, traveled the world together and enjoyed spoiling their many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his son, John Reisch.

As a final act of generosity, he has willed his body to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth to be used for educational purposes.

Survivors: His wife, Elodie; children, Norman and wife, Pat, of Colorado, Jim and wife, Sandy, of Dallas, Bill and wife, Betty, of Bedford, Mary Colette and husband, Don McCall, of Mansfield, Madonna Trujillo of Fort Worth, Annette and husband, Frank Kearns, of Bedford; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Published in Star-Telegram on 6/17/2009

For a photo of Mr. Reisch you can go to the following URL and it will also contain the obituary that is included in this report.

www.legacy.com/obituaries/dfw/obituary.aspx?n=martin-clau...

(Ed note: There is a possibility that URL is no longer active, since this posting seven years ago.)

 

Ed note:

(This note was also written seven years ago at the time Reisch’s obituary was posted.)

 

Just so the readership knows that I know, one aspect of the obituary is not factually correct. The statement made that he played in baseball’s minor leagues with Yogi Berra is incorrect. Reisch may have played against Berra in St. Louis kid team baseball, but I cannot document that either. Some of you former St. Louisans my remember Reisch and you can fill me in on his non-professional history.

 

For Reisch to have played against Berra, in the professional ranks, old Yogi would have had to have played in the KOM League. Reisch’s career with Chanute was less than five games as a pitcher, in 1947. The Chanute newspaper from that era reported that Reisch’s nickname was “Specs.” Of course, the wearing of glasses was rare in that era and organizations frowned upon young ballplayers wearing them. Bob Field played for Miami, Okla., in 1946, and he told me it nearly cost him a chance to play for that club due to wearing spectacles

 

A quote from the September 17, 1957—Long Beach, Independent. Ken Sanders, UCLA grid boss, said "I doubt if anyone could name any players on the Air Force Academy team which UCLA plays Friday night, but we could because we wanted some of them . . . namely halfback George Pupich and guard John Dolan.”.. ..” “The Air Force is going after the same type of kids we are…good scholars who can run off tackle!" said Martin Reisch, Air Force Academy publicity chief.

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Comments about last week’s report

 

Well you outdid yourself!! This one will take a while to go thru everything! Will start with the pictures of Alphie - boy has he grown up.

 

Know my Pop is reading over my shoulder with the rest - so many names of so many guys he would recall & some I even recognize after following the Hall reports.

Am recovering from stem cell injections into right knee week ago Tuesday. Used bone marrow & fat this time so am hopeful it will do the job. Dang arthritis is a literal pain!!

Keep these reports coming. The "crossing Johnny Hall" has a great ring!!—Barb Eichhorst—St. Louis.

 

***

`nother good one john Jim Skog—Davenport, Iowa

 

Ed reply:

 

Thanks for the encouragement. One other reader has also said he enjoyed it. That would be Walt Babcock. I think you two got together on this one.

 

***

A good read after your no report time. How did you get in the Carthage stadium with your grandson? I wanted to get in a couple of years ago to see the blue seats with the plaques on them. Weren't they acquired from Atlanta? Because of your mother's story, I know how you do enjoy fried green tomatoes. Immediate mystery: World Series and November election results. Jim Jay-Kansas City A’s batboy 1956-57

 

Ed reply:

 

I got in the Carthage Stadium for I knew where the keys were. Alan Bull was overseeing the place and I went over to his office on the park grounds and told him I wanted in.

 

I don't much care who plays in the World Series so I can't care much who wins. I know who is playing in the other fall classic and I do know where I stand on that subject. In fact, I don't believe anyone is undecided. I think some people use the line of "undecided" line in order to get attention or to be paid for their vote. Yes, money does go to people to vote for certain individuals. In fact, when I get those harassing robo calls I ask the person if their candidate is prepared to pay me more than their opponent has promised.

 

I never answer a telephone poll, honestly. Last time I was a 25-year old female Latino who is leaning toward Gary Johnson.

 

****

 

Hi John--Enjoyed all the stories of (Darryl) Strawberry, (Dick) Wakefield etc. I grew up 20 miles from Rochester, NY and remember when Johnny Antonelli got the big bonus of about 50K, I believe. That sure sparked me with enthusiasm for my own pitching dreams.

One of the great HS pitchers was Billy Hoeft of Oshkosh HS (Wis) I think he graduated in 50 or 51. Signed with Detroit. Had a 15 year MLB career.

Thanks for all of your writing for us baseball junkies ! -- Bill O—Durham, NC

P. S.

The mind is a weird thing. Inside it I am about 18 looking at myself be 82.

 

Ed reply:

 

Thanks for the comments. I recognize all the names you mentioned I agree with that statement about 18 and 82. It reminds me of the little boy sitting on the curb crying. An older man came up and asked the boy why he was crying and the reply was "I can't do what the big boys do." At that moment the old man sat down beside the boy and commenced crying with him.

 

Ed comment:

 

Billy Hoeft’s high school catcher was Don Biebel. Biebel was signed by the Chicago Cubs and by virtue of that was assigned to Carthage, Mo. for part of the 1950 season and all of 1951. Don managed in the Cub organization after his time looking after me on road trips and making sure I had something to eat, especially at Miami, OK one night. He wound up be the traveling secretary for the Chicago Cubs as well as the last public relations director for the Kansas City A’s. I still call him a friend when he takes the time to read these reports and responds. Come on Don, send me a note about Hoeft.

 

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I could read this type of material and stories forever as I long to remember the (Baxter Springs) Whiz Kids and setting in the stands and watching games as a toddler. My dad told me many stories about what was going on later in life.

 

My cousins came down from Iowa and they were older. Back then they used to give out snow cones or popsicles for baseballs returned to the concession stand. As we were getting ready to go home the floor board in the back seat was covered with baseballs. My cousins told my father that they got tired of eating them and just put the balls in the backseat. He of course made them return them. Thomas Drake

 

 

***

 

JOHN, I SEEM TO REMEMBER MICKEY ROBERTS FROM MY STAY IN CARTHAGE IN 1951. DID HE GO TO THE U. OF MISSOURI AND HAVE A SISTER ABOUT MY AGE. I BELIEVE I MET HIM ON THE OCCASIONS HE WOULD COME HOME TO CARTHAGE FROM COLLEGE. MAYBE A BAD MEMORY. WALT Babcock—Cape Cod, Mass.

 

Ed reply:

 

You probably are thinking about Terry Roberts who was Mickey's cousin.. He attended MU on a football scholarship and was an All Big Seven lineman. Mickey didn't graduate from high school until 1952. He may have come around with some of the guys you ran with such as Jim McKinney, Charlie Scott and Danny Woodward. Mike didn't have any sisters.

 

Babcock’s reply:

 

THANKS, FOR REVIVING MY MEMORY. YOU ARE CORRECT. THANKS, WALT

 

Ed reply:

 

I'm correct, as always, right?

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A former Independence Yankee-- John M. Bachar Jr. still churning out the numbers.

 

A member of the 1947 Independence Yankee pitching staff was John M. Bachar Jr. not to be confused with Medar Joseph Backers another pitcher on that team. Bachar was born in Chicago in 1928 and Backers in Detroit in 1927. Over the years I communicated with Backers who died in St. Clair, Mich. in 2010.

 

For many years Bachar has been a statistical guru in the California system of higher education and now writes for Progressive Magazine in his emeritus status. While playing in the KOM league he was a student at Northwestern University. If you want to know more about him here is a link. www.laprogressive.com/author/john-m-bachar-jr/

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Once again, the conclusion

 

Defying all the odds of time and finding material about an old league that went belly up at the end of the 1952 baseball season, this concludes another report. Will there be another one? The answer to that question basically depends upon the feedback received.

 

Done