By Edwin Cooney
Last Thursday, March 29th, 2018, the 150th year of professional baseball’s age began. What hasn’t changed is that hope in the breast of every teams’ fans that October will bring a prideful victory. What has definitely changed from1869, the year professional baseball was born, to 2018 is who plays the game.
Neither time nor space enables me to fully address the many differences in the backgrounds and culture of nearly 150 years. However, I thought it would be fun to share the personalities of a few players whose names you might not know.
If you’re interested in both baseball and politics as I am, you may know Jim Bunning, probably the most successful combination of ballplayer and politician. After all, Bunning was elected to the United States Senate from Kentucky and to the Baseball Hall of Fame via the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
However, I think that Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell is more intriguing. Although he was born in Leakesville, Mississippi on Thursday, August 13th, 1930, he was raised in Vinegar Bend, an Alabama hamlet about 75 miles northeast of Mobile. In the summer of 1948, he attended a two-day camp in Biloxi, Mississippi which was held by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the last pitcher to work that first day and he proceeded to strike out three men on just nine pitches. The Cardinals were impressed. However, what Mizell remembered most was the terrific storm that swept over the area the following day which forced the Cardinals to cancel the second day of the tryout. “If I hadn’t been able to pitch on that first day,” Mizell mused in later years, “I’d have never joined the Cardinals.” Mizell, a left-hander, pitched for 13 major league seasons. His most successful year was 1960 when he went 13-5 thus “pitching” the Pirates into the World Series. The Yankees bombed him in the third game at Yankee Stadium, but he finished his career two years later with a winning record of 90-88. After his career was over, he moved to North Carolina where he first worked in sales management for the Pepsi Cola Corporation. Almost simultaneously, Mizell entered GOP politics and was rewarded with his election to Congress in 1966. He remained in Congress until 1974 when, like many of his fellow Republicans, he was unseated by the Watergate scandal. Even more impressive was his ultimate appointment to high executive office by Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush. Vinegar Bend Mizell died of a heart attack on Sunday, February 21st, 1999 in Kerrville, Texas. A fine pitcher, a good and useful citizen, and a splendid gentleman, Mizell was part of what Tom Brokaw has called “The Greatest Generation.”
When it was all over, Wilmer Mizell left his name in the record book and his hometown on the map.
From the days of its infancy up until the time Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier,” most ball players were basically white Anglo-Saxon “dirt farmers” and blue collar workers. Baseball may have been their careers, but most players had to work for a living during the off season.
One such player was Louis Norman “Bobo” Newsom. He really was a character! Born Sunday, August 11th, 1907 in Hartsville, South Carolina, Newsom was called “Bobo” because that’s what he called himself and everybody else. He played ball in the big leagues for 20 years — winning 211 games and losing 222. Three times in his career, he won 20 or more games in a season. Three times he also lost 20 or more games. His best season was 1940 when he won 21 and lost only 5 for the pennant-winning Detroit Tigers. After beating the Red’s ace starting pitcher Paul Derringer in Game One of the 1940 World Series, Bobo’s father died of a heart attack at their Cincinnati hotel. His family took the body back to South Carolina for burial, but Bobo stayed with the team. Before the 5th game, he announced that he would dedicate that day’s victory to his father. He did win that game. Two days later as he prepared to pitch Game 7, he was asked if he’d also dedicate that victory to his dad. “Why no,” he said. “I think I’ll dedicate this victory to myself.” The victory didn’t happen: he lost the game two to one.
American League Umpire Red Jones used to tell the story about the time Bobo called his third baseman Eddie Yost over to the mound for a chat: “Hey, Bobo,” said Bobo. “I wish you’d play a little deeper on guys trying to bunt. You’re so young and fast, you’re beating my fastball to the plate. It’s embarrassing, Bobo!” exclaimed Bobo.
While driving to spring training in 1932, he accidentally drove his car over a huge cliff and miraculously survived the crash with only a broken leg. As he recuperated, he kept writing to Cubs owner P. K. Wrigley to point out what a fine pitcher he’d acquired when he got Bobo. Then, when he was mostly recovered, Bobo attended a mule auction and managed to get kicked in that same leg by one of the animals. Bobo had to heal all over again.
Then, there was that season opener Bobo pitched in Washington D.C. with President Franklin Roosevelt in attendance. Early in the game he was struck in the jaw by a throw from third baseman Ossie Bluege and broke his jaw in two places. He then refused to leave the game saying through clenched teeth, “When the President comes out to see Ol’ Bobo pitch, Ol’ Bobo ain’t gonna let him down.” He remained in the game and beat the Yankees one to nothing on a four hit shutout. No pitcher had either more luck or more lack of luck. Newsom was friendly, funny, and exasperating. He is one of the few pitchers to have a losing record and yet to remain long enough in “the Bigs” for twenty seasons. Bobo Newsom died on Friday, December 7th, 1962 in Orlando, Florida. Don’t you wish you’d at least met him?
Today’s players are better conditioned, better paid, and much more secure than Vinegar Bend Mizell, Bobo Newsom, or even Jim Bunning, for that matter. However, in the tradition of their “dirt farming” coal or zinc-mining forebears, the game owns their hearts as much as it does their investments and accounts. After all, they’ve inherited America’s national pastime!
Oh, by the way, don’t let anyone tell you that no player has ever stolen first base, because it’s not true. Perhaps that’ll be a story for next opening day!
RESPECTFULLY SIBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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