Columbus Confederate Yankees Wore CSA battle flag patch

Considering all the fuss made over public display of the Confederate battle flag a year or so ago, how do you suppose the political correctness police would react to that flag being displayed as a uniform patch on the uniforms of a minor league team?

In 1964, Columbus (Ga.) returned to professional baseball ranks after a four-year absence with an entry in the Class AA Southern League. The team was a farm club of the New York Yankees and operated for three seasons as the Columbus Confederate Yankees.

When the Confederate Yankees took the field, their uniforms included a left-shoulder patch of the Confederate battle flag.

Paul Lukas, an ESPN.com columnist writes the Uni Watch blog, which he calls "The Obsessive Study of Athletic Aesthetics." In August, 2011, he wrote a definitive study of the Columbus Confederate Yankees unique (or nearly so) sleeve patch. You can access it here: Confederate flag patch .

Lukas contacted a number of former players and team officials and surprisingly, almost to a man, they seem to have forgotten that uniform adornment.

The Columbus Confederate Yankees included more than a dozen future major leaguers, including guys like Roy White, Mike Hegan, Ellie Rodriguez, Fritz Peterson, Roger Repoz, etc. They sandwiched a pennant-winning season between a pair of seventh-place finishes.

The CYs had joined the Southern League in 1964 when the circuit was reconstituted from the South Atlantic League and upgraded from a Class A outfit to Class  AA. The Columbus  team remained a Yankees farm club during its entire three-year existence. The Yanks' AA team moved to Binghamton in the Eastern League after the 1966 season. Columbus returned to the Southern League for 1969 as a White Sox farm, and the city maintained a team in the minor leagues through the 2008 season.

There weren't many Negro players on the Confederate Yankees teams, and as Lukas points out, "During the three years when the Yankees wore that patch, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Right Act were passed. Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the 'Mississippi Burning' murders took place, Malcolm X was assassinated, the 'Bloody Sunday' march from Selma to Montgomery took place, the Watts race riots erupted, and more."

Surprisingly, there exists tangible baseball card evidence of the short-lived Columbus Confederate Yankees.

In 1966, the Royal Crown cola bottlers in Columbus issued a set of 20 carton-stuffer baseball cards picturing players and manager (Jack Reed) of the CY. On many of the cards the Confederate battle flag patch is seen. The strip included a 2-1/4" x 3" black-and-white player posed photo. Beneath a dotted line was player biographical details. The bottom of the strip provided details of an exchange program by which a full set of cards and the accompanying album could be exchanged for a case of RC cola and become eligible for a July 31 drawing for baseball equipment and soda coolers.

That program explains the scarcity of surviving cards, especially those that include the complete bottom tab. The album is almost never seen. A group of 14 of the 1966 RC cards, all graded by SGC and all without tabs, was included in the July 27-Aug. 6 Huggins and Scott auction. The lot sold for $96, a tremendous bargain in my opinion.

Couple of Haddix custom coach cards

I've expressed a time or two how much I enjoy seeing pictures of well-known players in their post-playing days as coaches for other teams. It must be the juxtaposition of a familiar face with an unfamiliar uniform.

Naturally, some of my custom cards over the years have featured such subjects.

So it is with my most recent customs, cards of 14-year major league veteran pitcher Harvey Haddix as a pitching coach for the N.Y. Mets and Cleveland Indians, in the styles of 1966 and 1978 Topps, respectively.

Haddix, of course, is best-known for pitching 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves on the night of May 26, 1959 . . . and losing.

The Pirates and Braves were scoreless going into the bottom of the 13th inning. While he had allowed 12 hits, Braves starter Lew Burdette [did you know the family name was pronounced "bird-it" around his hometown of Nitro, W.V.?] had issued no walks and his fielders had played errorless ball to keep the Bucs scoreless.

Haddix lost the game essentially on an error. Felix Mantilla had reached base on a Don Hoak throwing error to open the 13th. Eddie Mathews then bunted him over. Haddix intentionally walked Hank Aaron.

Cleanup hitter Joe Adcock came to the plate, and with a 1-0 count, hit a homer into the right-center stands. Officially, however, Adcock's blow was ruled a double because he passed Aaron on the basepaths; Aaron had thought the ball had landed inside the fence. 

So instead of losing 3-0, Haddix lost 1-0. Initially umpire Frank Dascolli ruled the score ended 2-0, but he was overturned by NL president Warren Giles, who ruled that since Adcock's blow was officially a double, the game ended when Mantilla crossed the plate.

A really excellent account of the game was written in 2009 by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Bob Dvorchak. You can access it here:
Story of game

In tribute to his 12-inning perfect game, the National League presented Haddix with a silver tray bearing the engraved signatures of his teammates, the umpires and the newsmen who had covered the game. A set of 12 mugs accompanied the tray, each mug engraved with the details of how the Braves were retired in a particular inning. 

Following Haddix' death in 2009, his widow consigned the tray/mug set to Hunt Auctions, where it sold on Nov. 13, 2010 for $8,625.

I didn't look real hard, but I didn't see anywhere what Lew Burdette who won the game may have received as a memento.

If you've ever wondered how Haddix got the nickname "Kitten," it dates back to his rookie season (1952) with the St. Louis Cardinals. On the Cards' staff at the time was Harry "The Cat" Breechen, to whom Haddix bore a resemblance. So it was natural the diminutive (5'9", 170 lbs.) new guy became The Kitten.

You can order this card. Unless otherwise noted, all of my custom cards are available to collectors for $12.50 each, postpaid for one or two cards; $9.95 each for three or more (mix/match). Complete checklists of all my custom cards were published on this blog in late May (baseball, football) and July 6 (non-sports). To order, email me at scbcguy@yahoo.com for directions on paying via check/money order, or to my PayPal account.

Conlan made "Christian" of Crandall

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

In his 22-year career as a major league player and manager, Del Crandall earned the reputation as a consummate gentleman on the field.

That wasn't always the case, though, according to Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlan.

In an article by Russell Schneider in the April 9, 1966, Sporting News, Conlan told the story of an encounter with Crandall.

"I was behind the plate in Del's first major league game in Boston in 1949," the umpire began, "and he lasted exactly two pitches.

"He squawked on both and swore at me on the second -- which was all I needed. Del was gone that quick.

"Well, Billy Southworth [Braves manager], whose toughest phrase was 'goodness, gracious sakes,' came out and said, 'Goodness, gracious sakes, Jocko, what's wrong?' I told him 'I'll let Mr. Crandall explain,' which Del did. He told him what he had called me.

"When Southworth heard it, he told Crandall, 'It serves you right. Goodness, gracious sakes, you don't say things like that to major league umpires.'

"To his credit," Conlan said, "Del never swore again that I know of, and several times he's referred to me as 'the man who made a Christian of me.'"

That's a great story, even if Conlan wasn't correct on all the details.

According to baseball-reference.com, the game in which Crandall was thrown out by Conlan was not his first as a rookie in 1949; it actually happened on Aug, 27, versus the visiting Reds.

And Billy Southworth wasn't managing the Braves at that time. He was placed on a leave of absence from Aug 16 through the end of the season, and the team was being managed by Johnny Cooney.

But the loquacious Conlan wasn't the type to let facts get in the way of a good story. 

Hodges also exemplary

In a related vein about players who avoided early umpire-assisted exits, Washington baseball writer Bob Addie reminded readers that -- as spring training drew to a close -- Senators manager Gil Hodges had never been thrown out of a major league ballgame.

That encompassed 2,071 games as a player and three years as a manager. Hodges' Washington team must have given him good cause to swear, finishing last in the AL in 1963, 9th in 1964 and 8th in 1965.

But Addie explained, "Hodges never uses profanity, which is the reason 99 per cent of the time that a man gets chased."

In his playing days, Hodges was known as a good Catholic, who regularly attended mass in Brooklyn.

Long time American League shortstop Joe DeMaestri died Aug. 26 at his home in San Rafael, Calif. DeMaestri's death brings the total of surviving players who appeared in the 1952 Topps baseball card set to 43. DeMaestri was card No. 286 in the set.

DeMaesti played 11 years in the American League: Chicago White Sox (1951), St. Louis Browns (1952), Philadelphia/Kansas City A's (1953-59), New York Yankees (1960-61).

He was a lifetime .236 batter. In 1957 he was selected for the AL All-Star team, but did not play. That season he led AL shortstops in putouts and fielding average. 

In December, 1959, he was traded from K.C. to N.Y. in the deal that brought Roger Maris to the Yankees.

The SABR bioproject has a fine baseball biography of DeMaestri, written by Joseph Wancho, at DeMaestri bio

Here's the current list of living players from '52 Topps.

PLAYER                     1952 TOPPS   BIRTH          TEAM

                        `           CARD NO.      DATE

Wally Westlake           38                    11/08/1920   SLC
Eddie Robinson           32                    12/15/1920   CWS

Sam Mele                    94                    01/21/1922   WSH

Gil Coan                      91                    05/18/1922   WSH

Red Schoendienst       91                    02/02/1923    SLC

Solly Hemus                196                  04/17/1923   SLC

Bob Kuzava                 85                    05/28/1923   NYY
Ed Fitz Gerald             236                  05/21/1924   PIT

Charlie Silvera             168                  10/13/1924   NYY

Irv Noren                     40                    11/29/1924   WSH

Wayne Terwilliger         7                      06/27/1925   BRO

Bobby Shantz              219                  09/26/1925   PHA

Bob Addis                    259                  11/06/1925   CHC

Ned Garver                 212                  12/25/1925   SLB

Ralph Branca              274                  01/06/1926   BRO

Bob Borkowski            328                  01/27/1926   CIN

Randy Jackson           322                  02/10/1926   CHC

Howie Judson             169                  02/16/1926   CWS

Bob Miller                    187                  06/16/1926   PHI

Bobby Morgan             355                  06/29/1926   BRO   

Johnny Groth              25                    07/23/1926   DET

Roy Sievers                 64                    11/18/1926   WSH

Carl Erskine                250                  12/13/1926   BRO

Carl Scheib                 116                  01/01/1927   PHA

Charlie Maxwell           180                  04/08/1927   BRS

Cloyd Boyer                280                  09/01/1927   SLC
Bob Kelly                     348                  10/04/1927   CHC

Tommy Brown             281                  12/06/1927   PHI

Dick Gernert                343                  09/28/1928   BRS

Joe Presko                  220                  10/07/1928   SLC

Bob Ross                    298                  11/02/1928   WSH

Curt Simmons             203                  05/19/1929   PHI

Ted Lepcio                  335                  07/28/1929   BRS

Ike Delock                   329                  11/11/1929   BRS

Del Crandall                162                  03/05/1930   BOS

Vern Law                     81                    03/12/1930   PIT

Johnny Antonelli          140                  04/12/1930   BOS

Dick Groat                   369                  11/04/1930   PIT

Bob Friend                  233                  11/24/1930   PIT

Willie Mays                  261                  05/06/1931   NYG

Tony Bartirome           332                  05/09/1932   PIT

Dick Brodowski           404                  07/26/1932  BRS

Bobby Del Greco         353                  04/07/1933   PIT

Banks on 1955 Red Man custom

The most under-represented National League team in the 1952-1955 Red Man chewing tobacco card sets was the Chicago Cubs.

Despite there being 26 NLers issued each year, 1952-1953, and 25 each year, 1954-1955, only two of the 102 senior circuit cards were Chicago Cubs, and they were both issued in one year, 1953. The Cubs to be found on original Red Man cards are Hank Sauer and Warren Hacker.

My latest custom card is a latter-day attempt to balance that Chicago shortage. I've created a 1955 Red Man-style custom of Ernie Banks.

The '55RM Banks is only my second Red Man custom. A few years back I made a 1952 Red Man "rookie card" of Mickey Mantle. I've still got plans for at least 2-3 more Red Man customs. Watch  this space for developments.

You can order this card. Unless otherwise noted, all of my custom cards are available to collectors for $12.50 each, postpaid for one or two cards; $9.95 each for three or more (mix/match). Complete checklists of all my custom baseball, football and non-sports custom cards were published on this blog in late May (baseball, football) and July 6 (non-sports). To order, email me at scbcguy@yahoo.com for directions on paying via check/money order, or to my PayPal account.

Tony Curry victim of racial violence

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

Lately, I've been reading back issues of The Sporting News from 1957. I'm struck by how often racial issues were reported. 

Big news at the time was the on-going Negro boycott of the New Orleans Pelicans and how it was contributing to that N.Y. Yankees farm team's last-place performance and uncertain future in the Southern Association (Class AA).

There were quite a few column inches in August of that year discussing whether opposing hitters were throwing at young Reds slugger Frank Robinson because he was black. (Minnie Minoso, a black Cuban, led the major leagues in being hit by pitch eight times between 1953-61.)

Frequently, the fact that this or that player was a Negro was mentioned, particularly young players who had been signed or promoted and whom the editors felt might not be well-known to readers.

One of the most troubling incidents in which race was the catalyst involved a carload of six members of the Tampa Tarpons, a Class D Florida State League affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies and a group of shotgun-totting locals at Dade City, Fla. Whether the matter was an incipient lynching or just a handful of crackers having a little fun on a hot summer night is not knowable.

According to a SABR Baseball Bio project article on Tony Curry written by Rory Costello, the incident, which he described as "a sign of the times in the Deep South," unfolded thus.

Following a [Aug. 7 night] game at Leesburg, Tony was in a carful of Tarpons -- white, Latino, and black -- who stopped for milkshakes at a Dade City drive-in. Upon seeing the black passengers, a carhop asked them to move into the shadows, and “it was suggested they leave because there might be trouble.” African-American catcher Charlie Fields added, “Somebody had said something nasty.” As the ballplayers left, three shotgun blasts were fired, and one hit their car. They shook off a pursuing vehicle and went over the speed limit on purpose to attract the police of Zephyrhills. Luckily, there was just one minor injury, from birdshot pellets.

You can read Costello's complete article about Tony Curry at: Curry baseball bio .

In articles written in TSN by Ralph Warner, the six Tarpons were identified as three white players: pitcher Dick Colgan, catcher Vic Collier and shortstop Pete Torres, and three Negroes, Curry, an outfielder, catcher Charley Fields and outfielder Dario Rubensteing .

Warner wrote that "the white players went into the drive-in for food and were to bring out sandwiches to the three Negroes who remained in the car. The white players, while inside the cafe, were asked to move the car. {Editor's note: No doubt the car was initially parked in a spot where its Negro occupants could be to easily seen.] They complied and the firing occurred as the vehicle was pulling out." 

The shots came from a group of men standing buy another car about 20 yards away.

Only one of the Tampa players was hit by the shotgun pellets. Colgan was struck four times in the right arm and shoulder. TSN described the injury as "flesh wounds," that were treated at a Zephyrhills hospital and later in Tampa. 

Warner characterized the matter as an "isolated instance of racial trouble in the Florida State League." Tarpons manager Charlie Gassaway described the incident as "one of those unfortunate things that happen. I think the shooting was done by agitators."

It is difficult and probably unfair, to fall back on stereotypes in assessing the reaction of local law enforcement to the shooting. However, it took two weeks before arrests were made.

On Aug. 21, Pasco County Sheriff Leslie Bessenger. announced the arrests of four Dade City men, whom he described as a contractor, a bar operator, a packing plant worker and a mechanic. The contractor was charged with aggravated assault, the others as accessories. He said he had signed confessions from all four men and that the contractor had admitted he fired the shotgun. TSN did not name those charged.

Bond was set at $2,000 each, with a hearing set for Aug. 30.

It is open to speculation whether any arrests would have been forthcoming if Sheriff Bessenger's investigation had not been assisted by two agents of the Florida Sheriff's Bureau.

Bessenger was quoted, "This does not mean that I was making a half-hearted attempt to break the case. I believe that any hasty or spur-of-the-moment action on my part in a situation such as this would be more in keeping with the mob rule than with the thoroughness expected from an office such as mine. I keenly feel the reflection of such an incident on my office, on our town, our county and the state of Florida as a whole and intend to do all within my power to see that persons responsible are brought to justice."

If The Sporting News ever followed up on the story throughout the rest of 1957, I didn't see it. Whether the matter was an incipient lynching or just a handful of crackers having a little fun on a hot summer night is not knowable 60 years later.

Of the six Tampa players who caught fire that night in Dade City, only Tony Curry ever made the majors; most of the others never rose out of Class D.

Curry hit .253 over the 1960-61 seasons for the Phillies. After four seasons in the minors he returned to the bigs briefly with the Cleveland Indians in 1966.

Dixie Walker called cheap-shot artist

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

Dixie Walker had an 18-year major league career, most notably with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World War II era, 1939-49.

He was a four-time All-Star and led the majors in batting with a .357 average in 1944 and in RBIs with 124 in 1945.

He was nicknamed "The Peoples' Cherce" by Dodgers fans.

But somewhere along the way he acquired a reputation among some opposing ballplayers and at least one writer as a "slug and run" cheap-shot artist.

The writer, Cy Kritzer, detailed the charges in a column in the Sept. 11, 1957 issue of The Sporting News.

Kriyzer was detailing the Sept. 4 fight between Walker, then managing the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Phil Cavarretta, skipper of the Buffalo Bisons. The teams had met in Toronto in a double-header, both games of which were won by Toronto, wresting first place in the International League from Buffalo.

I'll let Kritzer detail the action . . .

The Leafs had won the first game, 4 to 3, and were leading the second, 9 to 1, when Walker started a stormy protest at third base, accusing Bison third baseman Pete Castiglione of pinning down Bob Roselli before the Toronto backstop scored on a wild throw.

'Lou Ortiz, our captain was turning away when Walker swung at him,' said Phil. 'That's when I let Dixie have it. No one is going to swing at one of my players and get away with it, never.'

Walker dashed away from the scrap and wound up at second base in a headlock applied by Glenn Cox, Bisons' pitcher.

'I couldn't hit an old fellow like Dixie [he was 46 at the time],' said Cox, 'so I just let him quiet down.'

According to Kritzer, the only casualty was Bill Serena, a Buffalo reserve infielder, who suffered a "deep fingernail scratch" on his face when he knocked down Cavarretta in his charge to get to Walker.

Walker, Ortiz and Castiglione were expelled from the game for fighting. Kritzer reported that Toronto players did not join in the fighting, but were blocking Bison players to preserve order.

Kritzer then noted that an observer of the fracas was Chicago Cubs scout Lennie Merullo. In 1947, Merullo, then playing shortstop for the Cubs, was fined $1,000 for a pre-game fight with Walker in Ebbetts Field.

"That was another sneak punch and run-away by Walker, too," Kritzer quoted Cavarretta. "I was there, saw it all."

Cavarretta continued "There had been a fight the day before and someone punched Merullo when he was down. No one would tell him, but he suspected Pee Wee Reese.

"When he [Reese] went into the batting cage," Cavarretta went on, "Merullo followed him and demanded to know it it was Reese who punched him. While Pee Wee was disclaiming any guilt, Merullo was slugged from the rear.

"By Walker, of course. He was running to the Brooklyn dugout when Paul Erickson, a Chicago pitcher, tackled him. No fans were in the park because the gates had not been opened. The park police tried to take charge but both teams  decided to form a ring and let Merullo and Dixie fight it out.

"Dixie lost two teeth and took a damn good licking before he cried 'That's enough.' This affair in Toronto reminded me of that one ten years ago. Dixie started this and deserved what he received."

Naturally, there was a rebuttal by Walker in the following week's paper.

"I never ran from a fight in my life and I don't intend to start now," Walker was quoted in an un-bylined artlcle, which included a different account of the 1947 Merullo-Walker fight.

The trouble began the previous night when Merullo had tangled with Dodgers second baseman Eddie Stanky.

The Sporting News issue of June 26, 1947, picked up the action, quoting Peanuts, then with the Cubs . . .

So the next day while Reese (Pee Wee) was in the cage taking his practice swings, Merullo sauntered by  and called Pee Wee and uncomplimentary name, adding "And that goes for your whole so-and-so ball club."

With that, Dixie Walker punched Merullo on the side of the head and the boys were in business. Cavarretta, Merullo's roommate went after Walker but the big Cub pitcher, Paul Erickson, got there first.

He dragged Dixie over to a clear patch of ground, directed that Merullo be brought there, too, and then took charge of forming an arena. Players from both clubs made a big circle around them

I couldn't say who won the fight but they were both going at it real good. A little park cop broke through the ring, but Clyde McCullough grabbed him and tossed him right out again.

Finally a whole bunch of cops broke through and that was it.

Walker's version of the 1947 battle was also presented in the Sept. 18,1957, article . . .

Cavarretta jumped on my back when I was fighting Merullo and he had hold of me around the neck. I finally shucked him off, but he tore my shirt off. Then Erickson drove into my stomach with his shoulder, and I went over backwards, with his shoulder right into me. My shoulder felt like it was paralyzed. That's when I lost a tooth.

Walker continued, "But the thing that really burns me is for Cavarretta to say that I hit Merullo from behind, and then to say I ran."

Walker then revealed that after the fight with Merullo, then-Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey called Walker into his office and rewarded him with a check for $1,000 for his "conduct over and above his duties as a ball player.

In 1957, playing under Walker, the Maple Leafs won their third International League pennant in four years.

Charley Peete . . . Done Too Soon

Editor's note: This is an update to my blog post of June  2, 2009.

    From Pickles Dillhoefer and Austin McHenry in 1922 to Josh Hancock in 2007, the St. Louis Cardinals have, perhaps as much as any Major League Baseball team, suffered the untimely death of its players.
    Probably none was more tragic and poignant than that of Charley Peete in late 1956, who died, along with his wife and three children,  in a commercial airliner crash in South America.
    Peete never appeared on a true baseball card in his short professional career, and on only a couple of collectibles as a minor leaguer. I recently made him the subject of one of my custom card creations, in the format of 1956 Topps. Besides showing you how the card turned out, I thought it appropriate to share Peete’s story with you.
    Various contemporary sources give differing spellings of Peete’s name. An obituary in the local paper said that while an extra “e” was usually attached to his surname in the sports pages, the family said “Peet” was correct. Some sources give his informal name as Charlie, though he spelled it Charley when signing autographs, and used the Peete spelling on all known autographs, occasionally adding a “Jr.,” as his father’s name was also Charles. He was not known to have a middle name.
Peete claimed he was not a sports standout at Norcum High School in Portsmouth, Va., but he played baseball and football and ran track. He ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds and demonstrated an outstanding throwing arm.
    Following high school, he played for various teams in Portsmouth’s competitive black semi-pro circuit. In 1950, at age 21, Charley played briefly with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League, then with his teenage brother Jimmy traveled from southeastern Virginia to participate in the inaugural season of the Manitoba-Dakota League, a professional circuit outside of Organized Baseball. Charley played for the Brandon Greys, whose 32-16 record was tops in the circuit, but who lost the league championship to the Winnipeg Buffaloes in the playoffs.
    The ManDak League was notable for the number of Negro Leagues veterans who populated its rosters. Aging stars such as Leon Day, Ray Dandridge, Lyman Bostock Sr., and Willie Wells, Sr. and Jr. played there. The Minot Mallards even persuaded Satchel Paige to sign a three-game contract (at three innings per game), from whom leftie Jimmy Peete learned a thing or two about pitching as a teammate. Jimmy played in the minor leagues from 1955-59, reaching as high as the Pacific Coast League.
    The Army reached out to Charley Peete after his season in Canada and he served in the Korean War. When he returned to civilian life in 1953, Charley petitioned Frank Lawrence, who owned the Portsmouth Merrimacs of the Class B Piedmont League, for a tryout. Peete had bulked up on army chow and at 190-200 pounds, had packed on such muscle that his teammates called him “Mule,” as in, “strong as a . . . .”
    That strength was manifested in an outstanding throwing arm. One teammate said Peete could “hang blurred ropes” from right field, and that his throws “made a boiling, churning sound” as they went through the air.
    Peete’s timing was good for his entry into Organized Baseball. In 1953 the Piedmont League, comprising teams in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, was in its first year of integration, with seven black players on four of its team as the season opened. Peete was given a uniform and began working out with the ’Macs. A few days later, he was called on to pinch-hit and in his first at-bat he hit a 3-2 pitch for a grand slam home run. He won the right field job and hit .275 for the season. For a brief 10-game period, one of Peete’s teammates on the ’Macs was Negro Leagues star and future Hall of Famer Buck Leonard, who was playing his only games in integrated Organized Baseball.
Peete followed up in 1954 by boosting his BA to .311 and his homerun output from four to 17. The Rochester Redwings, to the consternation of owner Merrimac’s owner Lawrence, an independent operator who had tried to sell Peete to St. Louis earlier that year, drafted Peete for what Lawrence termed a bargain price.
    Peete made the jump from the Class B Piedmont League to the AAA International League for 1955. He was batting .280 for the Redwings after the first month of the minor league season, and the other St. Louis AAA farm club, the Omaha Cardinals of the American Association, purchased his contract to fill a vacancy in center field. The 1955 season was Omaha’s first at the Triple-A classification, the Cardinals having moved the team there from Columbus.
Charley ended the 1955 season at Omaha with a .317 BA, nine home runs and 63 RBI in 99 games. His combined batting record for Rochester and Omaha in 1955 was .310-10-73.
Peete appears in a very collectible team photo of the 1955 Omaha Cardinals. The  Cardinals farm system in the early 1950s was, virtually across the board, prolific in its issue of team pictures and other collectibles. The ’55 Omaha picture is especially nice in that it is printed in rich, full color. The blank-backed, thin cardboard picture measures 6-3/4” x 4-3/4” and was, according to Dan Bretta, who supplied the scan illustrated herewith, a stadium giveaway.
Peete played winter ball in 1955 with Almendares in the Cuban League and Pastora in Venezuela’s Occidental League.
    The 1956 season opened with Peete back in Omaha and hitting well enough that the Cardinals called him up on July 16. He arrived in St. Louis hampered by a split thumb and was able to hit only .192 with little power in 23 games over the month and a day that, as it developed, would comprise his entire major league career. Peete’s unorthodox batting style, which included dipping his bat as he swung, allowed big league pitchers to exploit his weakness on the low inside curve and he struck out in 10 of his 52 at-bats.
    He was returned to Omaha and when he resumed his hot hitting and ended the season leading the Association with a .350 average, he was once again being touted as one of the Cardinals brightest prospects.
    At Omaha in ’56 he was one of 22 O-Cards who appeared in a team-issue “PICTURE-PAK” that is actually a plastic comb-bound booklet of 3-1/2” x 4-3/8” facsimile autographed black-and-white photos. With the 1955 team photo, the picture pack is about the only remotely accessible Charley Peete memorabilia available to today’s collectors.  A handful of Charley Peete autographs are known, but they are not inexpensive. One example on a 3x5 index card has been offered on an internet sales site for $1,600.
    We’ll never know whether Charley Peete would have achieved major league stardom or his collectibles become ubiquitous because he didn’t live to see his 28th birthday. On Nov. 26 he boarded Linea Aeropostal Venezolana’s Flight 253 at Idlewild Airport in New York with his wife Nettie, age 21, their three young children (Deborah, 26 months, Karen, 15 months, and Kenny, not yet a month old), 13 other passengers and a crew of seven for an overnight flight to Caracas, where he was to join the Valencia team in the Venezuelan Association. Charley had begun the 1956-57 winter ball season with Cienfuegos in the Cuban League, but left after a few weeks.
    Just after 8 a.m. on Nov. 27, the pilot of the Lockheed Constellation radioed that he was approaching Maiquetia, Caracas’ seaside airport in a rainstorm. He was two miles away. The plane never arrived; its charred wreckage was discovered later that day in cloud-shrouded 6,700-foot mountains nearby. There were no survivors. It was reported the bodies of the crash victims were buried the next day in Caracas. It is not known whether the Peete family’s remains were ever returned to their Portsmouth home.
    A Little League field in Portsmouth is named for Charley Peete.
   UPDATE: On Aug. 22, 1957, what The Sporting News described as an "elaborate bronze plaque" was permanently mounted on the wall of the stadium concourse. Peete's brother Jim, a pitcher for Reading (Eastern League) in the Cleveland organization, and Charley Peete's mother-in-law, Mrs. Odessa Davis, of Portsmouth, Va., attended the unveiling.
   Since old Rosenblatt Stadium was demolished in 2010, I wonder where the plaque is today?

Doby threw historic first punch

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

I never  would have guessed that 11 years after Jackie Robinson broke the modern major league color barrier, that the baseball media was still keeping track of such things . . . but did you ever wonder who was the first black major leaguer to throw the first punch in a major league on-field fight?

All of the books, movies, tv shows, etc., about Robinson played up the agreement he made with Branch Rickey to keep his cool when things got hot. I don't know if he ever threw the first punch in  baseball fight.

Reading a late-June, 1957, issue of The Sporting News, it appears that Larry Doby, then with the Chicago White Sox, may have been the first black major leaguer to throw the first punch in a rhubarb. The historic moment in baseball race relations came June 13, 1957, at Comiskey Park.

That's according to an article by Shirley Povich of the Washington Post & Times Herald. According to the writer, Doby threw the first punch at Yankees pitcher Art Ditmar, connecting with a "left hook" that flattened Ditmar.

Only seconds earlier, Doby had been flat on his back, having avoided a high inside fast ball from Ditmar in what Povich called a "dust-off situation" where the pitcher could afford to waste a pitch.

In the bottom of the 1st inning, there were two White Sox on base; Nellie Fox having walked and Minnie Minoso having singled. Two were out. Ditmar uncorked a wild pitch that came too close to Doby's head. When the Yankees pitcher ran in to cover the plate, he and Doby "traded insults" and Doby decked Ditmar.

Predictably, the benches cleared. When the brawl was over, Doby, Walt Dropo and Billy Martin had been thrown out of the game. Enos Slaughter, who was not in the Yankees lineup that game, was removed from the bench. Ditmar was allowed to remain in the game because he had not been the aggressor . . . aside from that bean ball thing.

Because American League president Will Harridge was in attendance at the game, assessments against the combatants came swiftly. Doby, Slaughter and Martin were fined $150 each; Dropo and Ditmar were plastered for $100 each.

After the game, Yankees owner Dan Topping said the team would pay the fines on Martin, Slaughter and Ditmar. Harridge had to remind him that was illegal according to AL rules.

Neither Fox nor Minoso had scored during the melee and the Yankees ended up winning the game 4-3.

As is often case in such incidents, there had been recent bad blood between the teams. The White Sox had won the previous night's game 7-6, increasing their lead in the AL to five games over the second-lace Yankees. 

In that game, Yankees pitcher Al Cicotte had twice flipped Minnie Minoso and as the two teams were returning to their clubhouses after the game via a shared ramp, Minoso had to be restrained from going after Cicotte.

Doby never got a hit off Ditmar in 1957, striking out in three of his eight at-bats against him.

Relief specialist Turk Lown dies at 92, 44 1952 Topps 'survivors' left

The ninth oldest man on the list of surviving players who appeared in the 1952 Topps set, relief specialist Omar "Turk" Lown, died July 8 at the age of 92. Lown's's death brings the total of surviving players who appeared in the 1952 Topps baseball card set to 44.

Lown pitched 11 years in the major leagues; all but part of one season with one of the Chicago teams (1951-58 Cubs, 1958 Cincinnati), 1958-62 (White Sox).

Early in his career, Lown became a bullpen specialist. His last start came on Augh. 12, 1953. He pitched nearly 500 games as a reliever. He led the NL in games finished with 47 each in 1956-57, and 37 in 1959.

The SABR bioproject has a fine baseball biography of Lown, written by Adam Ulrey, at Turk Lown  bio.
Here's the current list of living players from '52 Topps.

PLAYER                     1952 TOPPS   BIRTH          TEAM

                        `           CARD NO.      DATE

Wally Westlake           38                    11/08/1920   SLC
Eddie Robinson           32                    12/15/1920   CWS

Sam Mele                    94                    01/21/1922   WSH

Gil Coan                      91                    05/18/1922   WSH

Red Schoendienst       91                    02/02/1923    SLC

Solly Hemus                196                  04/17/1923   SLC

Bob Kuzava                 85                    05/28/1923   NYY
Ed Fitz Gerald             236                  05/21/1924   PIT

Charlie Silvera             168                  10/13/1924   NYY

Irv Noren                     40                    11/29/1924   WSH

Wayne Terwilliger         7                      06/27/1925   BRO

Bobby Shantz              219                  09/26/1925   PHA

Bob Addis                    259                  11/06/1925   CHC

Ned Garver                 212                  12/25/1925   SLB

Ralph Branca              274                  01/06/1926   BRO

Bob Borkowski            328                  01/27/1926   CIN

Randy Jackson           322                  02/10/1926   CHC

Howie Judson             169                  02/16/1926   CWS

Bob Miller                    187                  06/16/1926   PHI

Bobby Morgan             355                  06/29/1926   BRO   

Johnny Groth              25                    07/23/1926   DET

Roy Sievers                 64                    11/18/1926   WSH

Carl Erskine                250                  12/13/1926   BRO

Carl Scheib                 116                  01/01/1927   PHA

Charlie Maxwell           180                  04/08/1927   BRS

Cloyd Boyer                280                  09/01/1927   SLC
Bob Kelly                     348                  10/04/1927   CHC

Tommy Brown             281                  12/06/1927   PHI

Dick Gernert                343                  09/28/1928   BRS

Joe Presko                  220                  10/07/1928   SLC

Bob Ross                    298                  11/02/1928   WSH

Joe DeMaestri             286                  12/09/1928   SLB

Curt Simmons             203                  05/19/1929   PHI

Ted Lepcio                  335                  07/28/1929   BRS

Ike Delock                   329                  11/11/1929   BRS

Del Crandall                162                  03/05/1930   BOS

Vern Law                     81                    03/12/1930   PIT

Johnny Antonelli          140                  04/12/1930   BOS

Dick Groat                   369                  11/04/1930   PIT

Bob Friend                  233                  11/24/1930   PIT

Willie Mays                  261                  05/06/1931   NYG

Tony Bartirome           332                  05/09/1932   PIT

Dick Brodowski           404                  07/26/1932  BRS

Bobby Del Greco         353                  04/07/1933   PIT