Independence 1948 late season roster

KOM Flash Report

For week of

January 15, 2017

 

www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/32105835606/

 

On January 20 the KOM league writing project will have outlived the presidential terms of; Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama. If I outlive the term(s) of Donald Trump I’ll be an old guy and probably won’t recall what the acronym, KOM, stood for. But, it gave a million fans seven years of high level Class D baseball and has given me 24 years to relive that era with a bunch of people and to introduce it to many others. Thanks for hanging in there for all these years and often burdensome reports.

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Leftover from last week:

 

Not many people pulled up the Independence Yankee photo from last week. Therefore, I’m expanding on it for this week.

 

Back Row: Tom Gott, Paul Slaughter, Al Pilarcik, Charlie Joe Fontana, Malone Battle "Bones" Sanders, Bob Hamric, Jim Finigan, Jim Davis and Nick Ananias.

 

Front Row: Paul Nichols, Harland Coffman, Dennis Jent, Bill Bagwell, Al Thune, Gabe Padilla, Lou Michels and Art Quigley. Seated: Ray Haley, Doreece Abbott and Dick Duda.

 

Those in the photo still living on January 1, 2017 are: Gott, Fontana, Hamric, Nichols, Bagwell, Haley and possibly, Gabe Padilla. His fate or whereabouts has never been determined.

 

In 2007 another team photo of this same team was shared in this forum. In fact, there were three team photos taken that year with about the same cast of characters. Each was taken of the team after Bones Sanders replaced Goldie Howard as manager. I have made mention of the fact, numerous times, that the old spit ball pitcher, Burleigh Grimes, was behind the managerial change and even served as interim manager of this team between the time of Howard's departure and Sanders' arrival.

 

Two members of this team eventually played major league baseball, namely, Al Pilarcik and Jim Finigan. These two fellows made frequent trips back to Independence, over the years to visit the Don Day family who operated the Hilltop Motel where many of the players resided. When I first spoke with Pilarcik he said that when arriving in Independence he fell in love with the people. Eight years last he fell in love with a young lady and returned there, in February of 1957, with the former Theresa Grish, to spend their honeymoon. Think of it—a honeymoon in Independence, Kansas in the middle of winter.

 

Ballplayers, especially the single ones, formed long and lasting friendships with townsfolk who looked after them and followed their careers long after they had departed Class D baseball for higher classifications, even the major leagues.

 

At the close of the 1948 season Bill Bagwell, Jim Finigan, Ray Haley, Nick Ananias, Al Pilarcik, Jim Davis and Charlie Joe Fontana pooled their meager finances and purchased a gift for the Day family. It was a beautiful horse which the Day family cared for and loved for 48 years. At the time of Mrs. Day’s passing her daughter, Rosie, made the trip from Sparks, Nevada to attend the funeral and to settle the estate. Upon her trip back to Sparks she made sure the horse was well cared for and she took it home with her.

 

After a short time the newest owners of the horse, Rosie and husband Lee Baldrick, felt as though Nevada wasn’t the best place for it. In numerous e-mails and letters that horse was mentioned. I was never asked if I could care for it or even if I wanted it in the first place. One summer morning I was mowing my yard when a truck pulled up and the driver advised that he had a heavy object for me. I asked from whence it came and when he said “Nevada,” I was aware that I was about to be the guardian of a nearly 50-year old horse.

 

When I looked at the crate the first thing I saw was a black leg and shiny hoof. My first thought was “What is my wife going to say?” Over the years of writing about the KOM league I had received many pieces of memorabilia but nothing like a magnificent horse. When other things like KOM league uniforms, ball gloves, baseball bats, scrapbooks, photo albums, baseball card sets, baseball registers and guides, et. al. showed up my wife would exclaim “What are you going to do with that stuff?” But, being an animal lover the gift that the 1948 Independence Yankees presented to the Day family was “a horse of a different color.”

 

Coming as a complete surprise, my wife admonished me to bring it into the house and give it a prominent place. And, I believe this is the 21st year it has set on a shelf just behind the desk where I’m seated. This steed has a rich dark color with a golden mane and a golden removable saddle that is as in as good condition today as it was 49 years ago. All parts of it are made of solid brass. I believe I have shared photos of it in different forums over the years I would place it as an attachment to this report but I know that it would receive little to no attention. Billy Bagwell, when visiting my home a few years ago saw the horse and remembered it. He told me the money he and six of his other teammates raised to purchase it was $110. I wonder what the price on such an item would be today? For my way of thinking it is now priceless. Sometimes I ponder what will become of the relics of the past that I have accumulated with regard to the KOM league. I’m sure they will never mean to another person what they mean to me but I’m sure that I have had enough traffic from my grandsons, past that horse, that it will have a “Home on the Range” after I become fertilizer for the grass that grows to feed future generations of horses.

 

Let’s all hum “Home on the Range” as I ponder what to include to close out this report. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KlZuk5N2co You might wish to leave your player going after hearing that song. There is good stuff to follow, most likely better than anything I’ll be able to pen to close out this second report for 2017.

 

One photo URL reference, mentioned in any Flash Report, might get a “look see” but if I place two references, the second is ignored. In fact, the photo for this report was shared last week and it didn’t even register on the Richter scale. Forty times as many people viewed the photos of the Iola Indian pitchers sitting in the grandstand, being very casual, than they did the 1948 Independence Yankees posing for a team photo and exhibiting their best behavior.

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The rest of the 1948 Independence Yankee story.

 

Like most minor league teams the Independence Yankees had a large number of players. In 1948 Independence had 35 different players appear in one or more games and had three managers. Goldie Howard served the first 10 days of the season until being replaced by Bones Sanders but due to Sanders distance from Independence, Burleigh Grimes filled in for a few games.

 

Take a look at the photo and there are 18 players, one manager and one batboy shown. A brief synopsis shows the young man was a bright person. Here is a brief tribute to him. Doreece Dixon Abbott was born in Pawhuska, OK in 1937 and was thus 11 years old in this photo. At that time he had 28 years of life remaining. He married in 1957 and after college he was an engineer for Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas before being transferred by that company to Seattle, Washington, around 1962. This following item, taken from a chemical engineers publication, shows that the former batboy was a "high flyer."

 

Patented May 29, 1973

SPACE STATION WITH SOLAR GENERATORS-- It has already been proposed to equip artificial satellites with solar generators of high power (of the order of 1 kilowatt or more), made up in large panels for extending outside the satellite, but stored at the start in the fuse cap so that their deployment takes place only in space. Some of these solar panels are flexible, and are folded or rolled up for storing; they are then deployed by means of extensible fittings so that their active surface is spread out. Such systems of flexible, deployable solar panels are well known in aero-space engineering and reference may be made in this respect to various projects mentioned by Doreece D. Abbott in an article entitled Lightweight large area solar arrays pages 772 to 777 in the publication 4th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference Washington D.C., September 22-26, 1969 of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

 

He passed away 1976 in Seattle. The last reference I ever found on the former batboy was that he was baptized into the Latter Day Saints faith some 22 years after his death.

 

The rest of the team

 

Roster members of the 1948 Independence Yankees not appearing in any team photo were: Max Buzzard, Robert Childs, John M. Cochrane, Richard “Stokes” Dodson, Robert Mack Ehrlich, Paul J. Flores, Robert Joseph Hasten, James Talmadge Hudson, John C. “Beanstalk” Hurley, Robert Leroy Loddeke, James E. Petitt Jr., John Reynolds, Bruce Otto Schroeder, Lilburn Smith, Ermon Barrett Sparks (became a Dr.), Robert Paul Swiderski and Clarence Wheeler.

 

Of all the aforementioned names the only three for whom I can’t account are John Reynolds, Bruce Otto Schroeder and Gabriel Padilla. But, I’m pretty sure I know where both Schroeder and Padilla are residing.

 

The missing man

 

Whenever I have spoken with a former member of the Independence Yankees, from that season, they always inquired about one player. Each remarked they had lost contact with him over the years and never knew why. Since I was interested in locating every former KOM leaguer I too was struck by the “lost trail” on that member of the team.

 

When you know a person’s age, place of birth and all that type of information you are sure that you can find them. Over the first couple of years of writing about the KOM league I found nothing on this former member of the 1948 Independence club. Then, it happened. And, when I found out what became of the guy I wish I hadn’t. In short, when the fellow was old enough to know better he made a fatal decision. At the age of two-score ten and one he had a girlfriend. One morning, in a fit of rage, he went after her with a pistol. She ran from the house with the former ballplayer in hot pursuit. An off-duty fireman, in a Midwest town of 17,000 people, saw what was unfolding and interceded on behalf of the damsel in distress. According to the newspaper accounts the former ballplayer turned on the Good Samaritan and killed him on the spot. After shooting the fireman, and not being able to keep up with his girlfriend, the former ballplayer entered his garage and put a bullet into his head and ended his life on April 4, 1978.

 

So, now you know that not all KOM baseball stories wind up with everyone living happily ever after.

 

That concludes another report unless someone cares to know more about any member of the 1948 Independence Yankees that I haven’t addressed to their satisfaction.

 

Done