Crazy About Sports: Volume Iii: Great Memories of Special Players, Teams and Events

By James Earl Hester, Jr. and William Clark Davis

Crazy About Sports is a collection of sports stories about many
colorful players, famous teams ad special events during the early and
mid stages of sports development in this country ranging from the late
1800s tolate 1900s. If you like sports, you are sure to enjoy reading
this unique collectiono of stories by James Earl Hester, Jr.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 5, 2006
• ISBN: 9781467027717

Book preview

Crazy About Sports

Great Memories of Special Players, Teams and Events

Volume III

by

James Earl Hester, Jr.

Compiled And Edited by

William Clark Davis

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AuthorHouse™

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AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. The events and situations are true. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book.

© 2006 James Earl Hester, Jr. and William Clark Davis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 9/29/2006

ISBN: 1-4259-5323-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2771-7 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

~ BASEBALL ~

CHAPTER A-1

CHAPTER A-2

CHAPTER A-3

CHAPTER A-4

CHAPTER A-5

CHAPTER A-6

CHAPTER A-7

CHAPTER A-8

CHAPTER A-9

CHAPTER A-10

CHAPTER A-11

CHAPTER A-12

CHAPTER A-13

CHAPTER A-14

CHAPTER A-15

CHAPTER A-16

CHAPTER A-17

CHAPTER A-18

CHAPTER A-19

CHAPTER A-20

CHAPTER A-21

CHAPTER A-22

CHAPTER A-23

CHAPTER A-24

CHAPTER A-25

CHAPTER A-26

CHAPTER A-27

CHAPTER A-28

CHAPTER A-29

CHAPTER A-30

CHAPTER A-31

CHAPTER A-32

CHAPTER A-33

CHAPTER A-34

CHAPTER A-35

CHAPTER A-36

CHAPTER A-37

CHAPTER A-38

CHAPTER A-39

SECTION B

CHAPTER B-1

CHAPTER B-2

CHAPTER B-3

CHAPTER B-4

CHAPTER B-5

CHAPTER B-6

SECTION C

CHAPTER C-1

CHAPTER C-2

CHAPTER C-3

CHAPTER C-4

CHAPTER C-5

CHAPTER C-6

CHAPTER C-7

SECTION D

CHAPTER D-1

CHAPTER D-2

CHAPTER D-3

CHAPTER D-4

CHAPTER D-5

CHAPTER D-6

CHAPTER D-7

CHAPTER D-8

CHAPTER D-9

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

APPENDIX D

APPENDIX E

ATHLETE CROSS REFERENCE

TITLE CROSS REFERENCE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

and editor

REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS

Reading Crazy About Sports brought back deja vu from my childhood in New England. Growing up in the 50s meant baseball, and baseball meant Red Sox. Everyone rooted for the Sox except an uncle, who probably had a death wish and was a die-hard Yankee fan. Oh the banter that went on.

The Summers as I recall were full of background voices of Curt Gowdy on the radio and my dad having his ear pressed tightly to his transistor radio while I heard names like Bob Feller, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra in our kitchen.

Crazy About Sports is an interesting read and is loaded with charming little stories from the eyes of the author.

Anyone interested in sports will be entertained. This book is Delightful!

Marilyn McRaney,

Virginia Beach, Virginia

~

I thoroughly enjoyed Crazy About Sports. It truly connected with my past personal history related to sports. Now that most of my family members are Duke University graduates and we frequently attend their games in North Carolina, I have an even greater appreciation of the sport stories in Crazy About Sports.

Dr. Pam Ives,

Chiropractor,

Norfolk, Virginia

~

Crazy About Sports is a fabulous overview of athletes in all sports groups. So many heroes are brought back together to the playing field in these pages. These stories are historical treasures and a must read for all readers, whether or not one is a sports fan. The stories are so realistic it seems that you are again back at the game watching them play as you are reading the book.

Sybil Jennings,

Current golfer & bowler,

Former basketball & softball player,

Hurdle Mills, North Carolina

~

I had the privilege of meeting the author several years ago and was aware that he wrote stories for sporting magazines, but I really didn’t know just how talented he was until I read Crazy About Sports. For the reader that likes short stories, especially about sports, this book will have great appeal. It is a collection of true stories, some of which are about the author’s own experiences with semi-pro and later-to-become professional athletes. Crazy About Sports has one great story after another, and I highly recommend it.

Kenny Dorsey,

Norfolk, Virginia

~

For the historian or sports buff, Crazy About Sports provides a period aspect of the era’s sports heroes. As a ball player and journalist with astute observation skills, the author’s unique insights into each individual’s background and correlating mid-century statistics are fun to read.

Jim Russell,

Norfolk, Virginia

~

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Crazy About Sports as I am an avid sports fan and former baseball player. It is a wonderfully written selection of sports stories that are truly engaging. The editor, Bill Davis, deserves a great deal of credit for compiling this work and making James Earl Hester’s valuable stories available to us all.

John S. Lynch, Jr.,

Retired Electrical Contractor,

Leonardtown, Maryland

~

I enjoyed very much the accounts of the baseball games and history in Crazy About Sports. All of the stories were helpful to me in remembering many days and nights watching baseball games, and reading daily accounts and statistics of my favorite teams. These stories were especially interesting since a former student of mine, Tom Brewer of Cheraw, South Carolina, became a talented pitcher of the Boston Red Sox during the Ted Williams era.

Lucille G. Sebren,

Educator,

Norfolk, Virginia

~

For all sports enthusiasts, Crazy About Sports is a great read. Not only were James Earl’s stories entertaining, I also enjoyed the facts about the professional athletes. After reading this book, I too can share James Earl’s passion for sports. This book is also great for short story reading assignments from school.

Brittany Neilson,

High School Senior,

Virginia Beach, Virginia

~

The author, James Earl Hester, and I were good friends, and both of us worked for the Courier Times Newspaper in Roxboro, North Carolina. James Earl was a superior journalist, whether for newspapers or magazine publications or straight essays. He was enormously gifted and dedicated his total being to writing, especially about sports and his own experiences in baseball. I very much admired his gift and am thankful to see his sports articles come alive in Crazy About Sports.

Virginia Love Long,

Author and Poet,

Roxboro, North Carolina

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Patricia Hester Davis, for all of the love and support she has given me over the years and especially for her moral support and guidance in publishing this book.

I would also like to recognize all of the Hester Family for their help in collecting these sport stories and allowing me the opportunity to organize and format them in publishable form.

Next, I would like to thank Jim Russell, a valued friend and sports enthusiast, for his many helpful review comments and recommendations for this book.

Finally, I must also thank the author himself, James Earl Hester, Jr., for all of his many years of writing and research about his keen interest in sport events, many of which he was personally involved.

William Clark Davis, Editor

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Crazy About Sports is a collection of sports stories about many colorful players, famous teams and special events during the early and mid stages of sports development in this country ranging from the late 1800s to late 1900s. Although most of the stories are about baseball, the book also includes many stories about basketball, football, and other miscellaneous sports such as softball, golf, and boxing. The author, James Earl Hester, Jr., provides interesting insights into the subtleties of the game. He also attempts to explain the interpersonal relationships and pressures between the players, their managers, and the fans. The details in many of these stories were from the author’s own knowledge and personal experience during his early career as a baseball pitcher himself. In fact, several stories have been included that explain the author’s own successes and failures in his pursuit of a career in sports. The reader might notice some repetition between a few of the stories since the author quite often recalled his own personal experiences when relating to certain events. In spite of this, it was decided to include all stories since each is somewhat unique. The author’s subsequent career as a newspaper reporter and editor further enhanced his ability to provide honest and straightforward assessments of the circumstances around each story.

For the readers’ convenience, various awards and honors received by athletes mentioned in at least one of the three volumes of Crazy About Sports are listed in Appendices A through D. Also, a number of interesting sports quotes and expressions recalled by the author over the years are listed in Appendix E. Appendix F is a list of the website references used to verify many of the facts and figures in the stories. Unfortunately, since the author is now deceased, the original references he used in writing the stories are not available today. Finally, two unique cross references are provided in the back of the book. The Athlete Cross Reference to Titles allows the reader to search for an athlete or individual alphabetically and identify the corresponding volumes, chapters and titles where they are mentioned. Likewise, the Title Cross Reference to Chapters allows the reader to search for a title alphabetically and identify the corresponding book volume and chapter.

The number of available sport stories in Crazy About Sports was too many to include in a single book, so this book (Volume III) is the third of three volumes. Also, an attempt has been made to allocate stories evenly to each volume to provide approximately the same number and types of stories on each sport. This ensures that each volume will be just as interesting and rewarding as the other two in the series. Volumes I and II have already been published and are also currently available.

CRAZY ABOUT SPORTS

VOLUME III

SECTION A - BASEBALL

SECTION A

 ~ BASEBALL ~

A-1 Barefooted Pitcher

CHAPTER A-1

Barefooted Pitcher

When pitching a fastball, James Earl Hester’s whole shoe came apart, exposing his entire foot, and he was about to be relieved.

It was one of my better games. My drop, or down-breaking curve, was breaking to perfection, my fastball had good movement on it, and no one on the other side was doing much hitting. There was only one problem. The shoe on my pitching side was coming apart.

We were playing Longhurst, a suburb near Roxboro, North Carolina, that day. Manager Beck Kendrick had started me as pitcher instead of Stover Davis, who was about as good, if not better. So far, it had turned out to be a good decision; but the way my shoe had begun to give way, there seemed to be no way it could last the whole game.

I was farming that summer and going barefooted most of the time. Although I was in college, I was still a farm boy at heart. The bottom of my feet were as tough as leather.

During the rest period after the noon meal each day, my brother or someone else and I would throw the ball around a little in the front yard. It wasn’t like being engaged in competition with the juices flowing, but it tended to keep one in shape to a certain degree.

I was pitching again for Beck Kendrick and the Kendrick Store team. Manager Beck, an easy-going man with a good disposition, had driven over earlier and asked me to pitch for his team again, and I was happy to oblige. There were a bunch of good boys on the team, and I would be playing the outfield when I wasn’t pitching.

Kendrick’s Store was closer to Leasburg in Caswell County, North Carolina, than it was to my home in Person County, North Carolina. However, for some reason, I had found that a player received more recognition playing away from home than he did at home, with a few notable exceptions.

There was sort of a rivalry on the team between Stover and me. Being fair pitchers, each of us wanted to pitch every game. That was impossible, however, if both were to be kept happy.

Despite this, Stover and I were good friends off the field and have remained so for many years. Both of us were in the Hyco Hunt Club where I was a member from the beginning, despite not being a hunter. However, on the field, our relationship was sometimes like the dilemma a relief pitcher faces. A relief pitcher wants his team to win, of course, but at the same time he wishes there was some way of getting the starting pitcher off the mound so that he would also have a chance to pitch and enhance his own standing on the team.

Things did not always go one’s way, but on this afternoon at Longhurst, I was having my day in the sun. However, my right shoe was about to come apart, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

The toe portion of the shoe on the pitching foot receives a tremendous amount of pressure as the pitcher pushes off the rubber in delivering a pitch. Many pitchers wear shoes where the toe portion on the pitching side has been reinforced. This enables them to last longer but also makes them more expensive. Consequently, I had been wearing an ordinary pair of baseball shoes.

However, now I was about to pay the price for trying to save a little money in equipment costs. I had no extra baseball shoes in my car, and officials certainly weren’t going to hold up the game while I ran uptown to get another pair.

Then it happened. On a fastball to their second baseman, the whole shoe came apart, and my entire foot was showing. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Manager Beck motion for another pitcher to warm up.

Darn, I thought, kicking up dirt with the spikes on my left shoe.

Now Manager Beck was walking slowly toward the mound taking his time in order to give the pitcher time to warm up.

Removing my glasses and wiping my forehead, I said nothing as he reached the mound. What’s the problem, good buddy? Beck asked.

My shoe came apart, I replied.

Got any more in the car? Beck asked.

Naw.

Beck glanced down toward the left field line where the pitcher was warming up. He needs more time, he said. I hate to take you out, as good as you are doing, but what can I do? Nobody else’s shoe will fit your foot.

Now the umpire was trying to get into the act. What’s the trouble out there? he yelled.

Beck reached for the ball. Come in now! he said.

Wait a minute, Beck, I said, hesitating to give him the ball. Let me try to think of something.

What? Beck asked.

I don’t know, I replied. What about—ah—what about me trying it barefooted?

Beck removed his hat and scratched his head. Barefooted?

Yes, I said. I throw barefooted at home all the time. The bottom of my feet are as tough as a prime beaver hide.

But this is an organized game, Beck said. The other team will never go for that.

They might if we appear to know something that they don’t know, I said, hurriedly, removing my shoes and socks and thrusting them into his arms. They don’t know any more about the rule on this thing than we do.

Smiling benignly, Beck walked slowly to the bench, where he threw down my things and motioned for the pitcher that had been warming up to sit down. The catcher then put down three fingers for a drop, and I went into my windup, expecting an objection at any time. However, none was voiced, and I came in with a good pitch for a called strike.

That had broken the ice, and from then on it was smooth sailing. I went the rest of the way to win the game. Pitching barefooted from a mound was as natural to me as throwing on the grass in the front yard. However, whether it was legal or not, I still don’t know.

After the game that day, Stover was the first one to shake my hand. Nice game, Jas, he said, and he really meant it. He would normally have been the one to relieve me had it been necessary, but he was playing the outfield that day, and Beck hadn’t wanted to take him out.

A-2 Baseball Popular in Years Past

CHAPTER A-2

BASEBALL POPULAR IN YEARS PAST

Baseball has long been known as America’s pastime, but its origin has been clouded in mystery with one authority claiming one thing and another something else.

Baseball in years past was a popular sport around my home in Person County, North Carolina. This was true whether an organized game was being played on a school diamond in back of a country store, on a vacant lot, on a cleared field, or in a cow pasture.

I never played an organized game in anybody’s cow pasture, but as a young boy I have sold bottled drinks from an ice-filled bucket in an uncle’s cow pasture while a game was in progress. The field was in good shape, but right field sort of sloped away from home plate making it somewhat difficult for the right fielder to see the opposing batter.

As an outfielder at a later date, I was a good hitter against sorry pitching and a sorry hitter against good pitching. Curve balls gave me a lot of trouble, but I liked to hit against high balls pretty well since I didn’t take a long stride and didn’t hit under the ball.

I hit the ball pretty hard in batting practice, but it sort of bothered me that some of the other players were able to hit the ball further. Then it finally occurred to me that they were long-ball hitters and I wasn’t.

On any given day, I was a better pitcher than I was an outfielder. I was uncertain about fly balls, and good curve balls gave me a fit. However, as a pitcher, I wasn’t consistent. I would strike out virtually everybody one game and hardly be able to get a man out the next. To this day, I have never been able to figure out the exact reason why.

Making my college team didn’t help matters either, for I quickly developed a sore arm and a tight shoulder. On the positive side, I was able to sell a story to the Southern Coach and Athlete about the college athletic trainer who worked so tirelessly on my sore arm and tight shoulder.

Baseball has long been known as America’s pastime, but its origin has long been clouded in mystery with one authority claiming one thing and another something else. However, many experts now claim the game probably originated from the British game of Cricket, or Rounders.

In past years, Abner Doubleday has received credit for establishing the present day game of baseball at Cooperstown, New York. However, the man most authorities now credit with establishing the present day game of baseball is a New York draftsman and surveyor by the name of Alexander J. Cartwright.

A committee appointed in the early 1900s to learn