KOM League Flash Report for 9/7/2021

KOM League

Flash Report

for

September 3, 2021—It was started on this date

and completed 9/7/2021

 

In days gone by this report was shared weekly and sometimes more often. Then it turned into a “weakly” version. In recent times it has become a “weakly,” monthly endeavor. For those brave enough to endure it the most recent edition is posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/51432724852/

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A few hours after transmitting the previous Flash Report a note was received from Crowley, Louisiana that a former Independence Yankee and longtime supporter of all the efforts to keep alive the memory of the KOM league was not doing well.

 

On Easter Sunday a telephone call was revived from this fellow and he and his nephew spent a few minutes speaking with me.. The caller told me he was coming up on his 92nd birthday and still had fond memories of his buddies from his days in Independence.

 

Here is the note received on August 3, 2021. “Just a small note to let you know Mr. Jim is in the hospital and not expecting to survive his stay. I don’t know how many players are left but I suspect very few. Mr Jim is 92 years old and has only a nephew and niece as close family. He now resides in Crowley, Louisiana but originally came from New York. He has many friends that check on him regularly with the most ardent is my brother Robert Clayton who sees him daily and I would say that treats him as the son he never had. Know God know peace. No God no peace.-”-Kelly Clayton—Crowley, LA

 

A message was sent to Mr. Clayton requesting him to pass on my best regards to Jim Belotti and that he was in my prayers. Further, I advised him that it would be appreciated if he would keep me informed of Belotti’s condition.

 

Well, things happen. Two days later I was taken on a fast trip, with my wife at the wheel, through the middle of town toward my eventual high rise luxury suite on the east side of the city. There I was initially greeted by many more folks than ever attended a church service I conducted. They were all stern-faced and did things to me that had never been done previously.

 

Not long afterward I was being greeted by young ladies and some gentlemen wanting to know if I was comfortable and what they could do for me if I wasn’t. My wife who had weaved her way through early morning, rush hour traffic, brought an I-pad to me later that day and it became my companion during the overnight hours as sleep was a stranger. Around 3:30 a. m., on August 6, a message appeared on the I-pad that Jim Belotti had passed away. It was another of those moments where you realize a part of your past is gone.

 

With nothing to do but lay in a bed and being poked with needles and other such fun things it was possible to send a note to the Necrology group contact, Jack Morris,that another former player had hung up his spikes. The following is the obituary.

 

www.crowleypostsignal.com/obituaries/james-belotti

 

Private services were held Monday, Aug. 9, at Louisiana Funeral Home and Crematory in Broussard for James A. Belotti of Crowley who died Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, after a long and successful life at the age of 92.

 

At the age of 19, Jim began his career playing baseball for the Minor Leagues. He played from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1955. He had the opportunity to play for the 1949 Independent Yankees with team member Mickey Mantle.

 

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served his country from 1951 through 1953.

 

In the early 1960s he was the owner of Fred’s Drive Inn in Lake Charles and in 1966 he opened “Big Jim’s” Mobile Homes on Cameron Street in Lafayette with his wife Wanda for 21 years.

 

He was also known for his racing days at Evangeline Downs in the 1960s and 1970s for Bel-Rob Farms.

 

Mr. Belotti was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Wanda Robinson Belotti; his parents, Anthony Belotti and Virginia Milo Belotti; and her sister, Rita Belotti Reid, all of New York.

He is survived by numerous nieces and nephews and his caretakers / friends who took care of him, Robert Clayton, Susie Guillot and Gloria Guillory. Louisiana Funeral Home and Crematory was in charge of arrangements.

 

Ed comment:

 

There are things that aren’t apparent to the casual observer on first glance. For example, the deceased player baseball under two names and umpired using the name found in the obituary. A as a member of the Independence Yankees he was known as Jim Bello.

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Son of 1950 KOM batting champ made contact

 

During those long nights in the hospital the I-pad was my constant companion. Scanning the incoming mail it was a total surprise to hear from the son of the 1950 KOM league batting champion. I recall that at one KOM league reunion, Bunny Mick, who was the playing manager for the 1950 Independence Yankees, for the first part of the season, approached Stan Gwinn and informed him he would not have won that title had he not been sent along to the Kansas City Blues. Gwinn took it in a good natured way and told Mick he would have won by even a great margin had Mick stayed for the entire season.

 

Message from Stan Gwinn III. “My name is Stan Gwinn III. My father was in the Ponca City Dodgers in 1950 and held the batting record for the league that year and the Home Run record. He passed away in 2009. As part of his estate I have several autographed baseballs that he kept from those days. I would like to donate them to you if you are interested in them. I know he cherished those mementos and I have no use for them personally as that was a little before my time. I do have some memories of the travels but not the games. I was born in Sept. 1948. If you would like them please send me your address and I will ship them to you.”

 

Ed reply:

 

Thank you so much. I would love to have them. I enjoyed your dad immensely at the KOM reunions and the many years I shared my newsletters with him.

 

There are five members of the 1950 Ponca City Dodgers still living. Maybe I can remember them. Gary Anderson, Loren Doll, Clyde Girrens, Harry Crandall and one more that I will have to check out who may still be around.

 

Your dad always had fun telling his teammates he played at Yale. The eastern and west coast boys didn’t catch on. (Stan Gwinn was born at Yale, Oklahoma and moved to Tulsa where he graduated from high school.)

 

Comment:

 

This is the other player from 1950 who played at Ponca City. He donated millions of dollars to USC. I knew his wife died and wanted to check things out before I made any statement about his status

rossier.usc.edu/roger-rossier-ma-63-edd-72-inducted-into-...

 

For the record, the home run champion, in 1950, was another Ponca City Dodger. His name was

Willard Davis from Enid, Oklahoma who hit 2l.

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John Arthur Leslie—1949 Carthage Cubs

www.gracefulmemorialchapel.com/obituary/john-leslie

 

John Arthur Leslie was born on October 10, 1929 in Mitchell, Indiana. He moved with his family to Anderson, Ohio where he attended Anderson High School outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. While growing up in Ohio, John would go hunting in the morning before school and his father would give him 3 bullets and was told to bring home three kills or do not come home. Needless to say, he became an expert shot.

 

While in High School, John was an accomplished athlete in Baseball, Football, Basketball and Track. In Track, he qualified for the Ohio state track meet in the discus and competed in the Ohio State University Football Stadium. John graduated from High School in May of 1947 and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs baseball organization and played in the minor leagues as a pitcher from 1947 to 1950. He would always say that playing baseball was the only way to get off the farm and when asked why he wanted to be a pitcher he said “Because everyone else wanted to be catchers and I wanted to be on the field”. During his time as a professional baseball player, he played against some of the game’s greatest players such as Mickey Mantle.

 

In 1950, John was drafted in the Army but when he went to the draft site, he slipped out the window and went to enlist in the newly formed United States Air Force. John served in combat during the Korean War and remembers sailing past Hawaii on his way to the Asian continent. John comes from a proud family that has served their country in uniform. John’s father served in World War I where he was wounded 14 times in battle with the 37th Division and he had two brothers serve in World War II. He also had a family dog that was drafted into the Army that was killed in action during World War II. John is preceded in death by his Mother (Ethel), Father (Arthur), 3 brothers (Del, Dee, Buck), his x-wife (Margaret). Nephew (Gary Leslie) and grandson (Jason Leslie).

 

During the war, John met his first wife Margaret in Sacramento, California and they had 4 children. Kent, Kathy, Kelly and Kurt. After separating from the military, John relocated with his family to Houston Texas and tried to revive his baseball career. But due to an injury sustained while serving, he could no longer perform at a professional level. So, he began his career working in the family hardware store called Krus Hardware. For the next 55 years, John worked for various lumber companies and sold building materials to builders who built many of the homes in the Houston area. One of his favorite sayings was “to be a good salesman you have to sell yourself first”. John tried to retire several times but missed his friends in the building business and thought if he was going to hang out with his friends, he might as well get paid to do it. John finally retired from full time work at the age of 88 but always talked of going back to work. John was an avid golfer and bowler and very competitive at both.

 

John is survived by his sister Peg Leslie. 4 children and their spouses: Kent Leslie and wife Patty, Kathy Haas, Kelly Kuhen and husband Sam, Kurt Leslie and wife Romona. He has 10 grandchildren: Russell Leslie, Dustin Haas, Dana Haas, Melissa Standlee, Khrista Hildibrandt, Allen Kuehn, Timothy Kuehn, Lauren Leslie, Kalyn Leslie and Camryn Leslie. He has 21 great grandchildren: Eddie, Allen, Tynlie, Branson, Johnathan, Zoe, Melody, Raylynn, Jasmine, Lacie, Clayton, Logan, Sierra, Dominick, Dylan, Reece, Kyillah, Aspyin, Khaemyn, Serynity, Paisley, and Porter. John also had 1 Great-Great Grandchild, Elaina Rose. He is also survived by his nephew Rex Leslie and his niece Delores Leslie.

 

Ed Comment.

 

A photo of Art Leslie is included in the link to his obituary which is carried at the beginning of this article. In the book “The KOM League Remembered” a team photo of the 1949 Carthage Cubs appears on page 65. Art Leslie is in that photo but doesn’t appear where the caption indicates. In publishing three books that page represents the very worst mistake made by either the writer or the publisher. For the sake of being kind this writer will take the blame. The error was pointed out to the publisher and they promised to make it right in the second printing. The problem was, there was no second edition.

 

In the photo shown in the book just referenced, Art Leslie is the third guy from the far left in the back row. Anyone who purchased that book and didn’t get an errata statement from me it isn’t too late to request one.

 

In that 1949 Carthage Cub photo are two ex-major league batboys; Johnny La Porta of the Chicago Cubs and Ed Garrett of the Cincinnati Reds. Much has been written about that oddity in earlier, seldom read, KOM league books, newsletters and Flash Reports.

 

References:

•

Sporting News Players Card— digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/147632...

 

If you have access to Ancestry.com his player profile is contained at the Baseball Questionnaire link. If you don’t have Ancestry.com, it is still there. In researching his baseball career as shown on the Baseball Questionnaire he had an uncle by the name of Delbert Lee Leslie. His Sporting News Players Card indicates he was around the game for a decade. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/133699...

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Miles Morris Mack-Ponca City 1951-52

 

Date of Birth: November 29, 1928

Died on: November 06, 2020

Morris “Mo” Mack, 91, passed away peacefully on November 6, 2020.

 

An Army vet, Mo spent his whole life in Aberdeen. He is an alum of Aberdeen Central and attended Northern State University.

 

Mo is survived by his wife Shirley and brothers Marty and Pudy.

 

Mo was preceded in death by his parents Andrew and Lena; daughter Trish; and nine brothers and sisters.

 

Ed comment:

 

To put it mildly the foregoing notice of the death of the Ponca City Dodger third baseman doesn’t begin to cover a very interesting man and a guy I met under scary circumstances as the Carthage batboy. It was a mid-May game in 1951. This story has been told in much more detail in previous documents but this was the quickie account that was shared with e-mail partners, recently.

 

To e-mail inquirer #1.

 

Mack was playing third base. Wayne Baker, a newly acquired catcher from the Topeka, Owls, hit the ball most everyone thought cleared the left field wall. Tom Kordas the Carthage centerfielder was on second base and was casually trotting home. Kordas only had one weakness as a player, he was slow afoot. By the time he realized the ball was in play he had reached third base. Mack then realized the ball was in play and headed toward the plate to back up the catcher. He and Kordas were twin images headed straight toward me as I was raising up from picking up the bat. I didn’t know what direction to move and to this day I don’t know how I escaped being trampled by one of those two guys.

 

To Carthage Cub players—Walt Babcock and Don Biebel

Walt I suspect you and Biebel recall the Ponca City third baseman from 1951. He about planted my carcass at home plate when I went out to gather the bat after “Two Ton Baker” hit a double that I thought was a homer. Tom Kordas was coming at the plate from the fair side of the base and Mack was coming down the foul side of the line yelling for me to get out of the way. I can make a better story out of it but it was one of my many bonehead batboy mistakes.

 

Babcock’s reply:

I always thought “MO” was a very good player and you could tell he liked the game. Why did he ask you to get out of the way? I though he was the kind who liked to run over batboys.

 

Biebel’s reply

Love it if we had a picture of that.

 

In response to Biebel he was informed that memory was indelibly etched on my brain to which he responded “Ouch it must still hurt.”

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Bob Gordon—1952 Bartlesville/Pittsburg Pirates

 

www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/20727442/Robert-Bob-P-G...

 

Robert P. Gordon, 88, of Hollidaysburg, formerly of Claysburg passed away Friday April 9 at home. He was born May 16, 1932 in Claysburg, son of the late Samuel S. and Geraldine (Amick) Gordon. He married Jean Roudabush on September 23, 1951 at Grace United Church of Christ, Claysburg.

 

Surviving is his wife, two daughters Crystal L. Gilchrist and husband Andrew of Schwenksville and Cynthia G. John and husband Clayton of Claysburg, 5 grandsons Robert, Joseph, David, Christian and Ian, 10 great grandchildren, 3 siblings Samuel, Regina and Daniel, 2 aunts Fleta and Helen and many nieces and nephews.

 

Bob was a 1950 graduate of Greenfield-Kimmel High School, where he was voted class president. He received a varsity letter in three sports all 4 years of school and signed a professional contract to play baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 

He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.

Bob was a member of Grace United Church of Christ, where he served as president of the consistory, adult Sunday School teacher and sang in the choir. He retired from Veeder-Root in 1982 and then worked for Martin Oil Company for 20 years and retired again from CTR Supply in 2019.

Bob was a member of the Claysburg American Legion, Woodbury Lodge F&AM, Valley of Altoona Consistory, President of Claysburg Economic Development, Inc., a founding member of the Claysburg Area Community Theatre and, along with his wife, a member of the Claysburg Hall of Fame. He also served as a Greenfield Township supervisor for several years.

 

He enjoyed playing music and DJ’ing, mowing grass and spending time with his grandsons and great grandchildren.

A memorial picnic will be held at the Claysburg Area Community Park in Claysburg, May 15, 2021 between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Those wishing to remember Bob can join the picnic anytime throughout the afternoon. A picnic lunch will be served.

 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to any of the following Claysburg community organizations:

 

Ed comment:

 

At the first KOM League reunion ever held it was in Pittsburg, Kansas. Bob and Jean Gordon arrived a day early and they had dinner with my wife and I at a local steakhouse. Both Bob and Jean were a little weary as they had gone all over the town of Pittsburg attempting to find the places they got to know as a young married couple. Bob asked me how to find the couple they rented from that summer, after the team moved there from Bartlesville. It was an easy question to answer. I asked what their last name was and their approximate age. Bob and Jean remembered the couple had to be in their mid to late 60’s. At that point I took a menu and jogged down 1952-1996. I told Bob that had been at least 44 years ago. I urged him to add the 44 to at least 60 and those folks would now be over 100 years of age and if they weren’t deceased they most likely would be in a nursing home and probably unaware what the KOM league ever existed.

 

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Harold Mack Groves

wwwfindagrave.commemorial/182335982/harold-mack-groves

 

A 1947 graduate of Southeast High School in Kansas City was a young man by the name of Harold Mack Groves. He was born in Kansas City two days before Christmas in 1929. Although it was rather easy to trace his early life it was beyond my ability to catch up with him when researching the history of the KOM league.

 

Groves had a total of seven days with the 1949 Independence, Kansas Yankees as his Sporting News Index card reveals. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/64688/... Also that card indicated he was picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates on November 3, 1949 and was scheduled to play the next year for the Bartlesville Pirates of the KOM. However, he was released, in late April, prior to the start of the 1950 campaign.

 

Groves served in the U. S. Army during the Korean War attaining the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. After the war he moved around to places like Plymouth, Michigan and the greater Chicago area as an employee of Western Electric. He passed away August 1, 2017 and was buried at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood City, Illinois.

 

Information given in his brief death notice didn’t state his place of death but other research indicates he was residing in Sycamore, Ill. at the time of his passing. Like his wife, the former Reva Hohl, of Lyons, Kansas, who he married in 1950, he may have passed away in a DeKalb hospital. That, at present, isn’t confirmable.

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Still searching

 

There was a young pitcher for the 1946 Carthage Cardinals by the name of Robert Louis “Frenchy” Cloutier. He was born August 18, 1928 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. There is plenty of information about him on the Sporting News Index card digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/49876/... and the Baseball Questionnaire. The link to the Baseball Questionnaire isn’t provided since it is an Ancestry.com item and most of the readership doesn’t have access to it.

 

In the Baseball Questionnaire he gave his size as 5’11” and weighing 155. He was a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Hull, Quebec. He listed his off-season job as a government clerk with hobbies being hockey, golf and softball. He stated he had been with Carthage for one month in 1946 and Mt. Airy in 1947 for the same amount of time. On his questionnaire he calmed to have posted a 14-6 record in his first year of professional baseball. What he obviously meant was his record in his first full season which was 1948 with Peekskill, New York. The record books show he won 13 games for that club . He wasn’t at Carthage long enough to have posted those numbers.

 

If Mr. Cloutier is still alive he would be 93 years of age. If someone north of the border knows anything about him it would be nice hearing from you. If alive, he joins Cloyd Boyer and William Eckensberger as the only survivors of the 1946 Carthage club.

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Finishing the report

 

In searching for former KOM leaguers many avenues are traveled. In some instances more is learned about an in-law or distant relative than the former player. During my recent sojourn in the luxury suite of Boone Hospital there were many hours to spent on such adventures. One trip led to locating the father-in-law, mother-in-law and the “great” father-in-law, if such a relationship exists in the genealogy vernacular, of one of the oldest former KOM leaguers.

 

Obituaries of the three folks, cited in the previous paragraph, were like none ever encountered in my few decades of genealogy pursuits. Be assured they will not be printed in this report. However, if you find yourself in a situation with nothing better to do and curiosity overcomes you a request for the link to those unusual obituaries will be furnished.

Done