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Bob Willard
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Location: Blogs . |
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| Posted by: Content Administrator |
1/14/2007 |
Steven Herce asked me to provide some information about the "good old days" of Rice baseball. I'm sure he arrived at this decision because I have to be one of the oldest Rice players still around. I was the only civilian on the 1945 Rice team. All of the rest of the players were in the Navy V-12 Program. During the 1946 season I was helping the US Air Force and then came back and caught for the 1947, 1948, and 1949 teams.
There were six teams playing baseball in the SWC in those days. Arkansas did not play baseball in the conference and, of course, Texas Tech and Houston were not in yet. We played 15 conference games each year, two at one college and one at the other. We traveled everywhere by bus, however in 1945 we did go by train because of the gasoline shortage. Usually Rice only played 3-5 non-conference games, all against local area semi-pro and college teams.
In the 1947 through 1949 seasons Rice had about six or seven players on a full baseball scholarships. The rest of the squad was filled out with basketball and football players and walk-ons. Needless to say we didn't win many games, but we had a lot of fun. The lone exception was that 1945 team. We played UT in Austin the last two games of the year to decide the SWC Championship. We had to win both games to be champs. UT's field had a rock cliff inside the outfield fence from left field to right center. The grade of the cliff in left field was such that the left fielder could scramble up the cliff and catch fly balls, at least the UT left fielder could. The visiting left fielders usually fell down. The cliff widened and became steeper as it got toward center field. A 400-foot drive to center would land on the cliff inside the fence and stay there while the batter circled the bases. Texas beat us 17-3 in the first game, but in the second game the score was tied in the ninth. Their left fielder looked like a mountain goat scrambling up and down the cliff making catches all day. As you might imagine, Texas' winning run scored when our left fielder fell down trying to go up the hill and the fly ball fell safely. That was the best year Rice had in a 27-year span and five of us did make the All-SWC team, which was the most in one year until 1995. Most of the V-12 players came back to Rice after they completed their service requirements.
In those days the Rice baseball field was behind the old tennis courts about across the street from the current site of Baker Hall. It also was the football practice field. Occasionally when both teams were practicing at the same time, during batting practice we would try to hit long drives to right field into the football practice. We thought that it was funny, but Coach Joe Davis did not. I can still here him threatening us. There was no fence around the outfield, so very few home runs were hit. In fact, A&M and Texas were the only fenced fields in the SWC. Rice would play Texas and A&M at Buff Stadium, the minor league park located where Finger Furniture is now. The Rice field had temporary bleachers on the first and third base lines and no admission was charged. On a good day we would have 150 to 200 people in attendance. There was a backstop behind home plate that was only about 10 feet high. As a result, many of the foul balls ended up in the tennis courts even during the tennis team's matches. Sometimes the field worked to our advantage. In 1949 Baylor had a power hitting team that just needed to beat us to beat out UT for the championship. Without a fence we played our left and center fielders 375 to 390 feet from the plate. They caught five or six drives that would have been homers and we beat Baylor both games. Thinking back I'm sorry we gave the "tea sippers" the championship. Texas won the SWC each year that I played. They always had strong well-rounded teams. Their starting pitchers were Murray Wall, Charlie Gorin (both later major leaguers) and Bobby Layne. Layne never lost a game at UT, although twice Rice knocked him out of the box only to have Texas rally and keep him undefeated. By the time he graduated he had lost a lot of velocity off his fastball due to getting hit in football.
Another practice during the “good old days" was that there were no conference umpires. Each school used local umpires. As you might imagine, there were quite a few "homer” decisions. In 1948 Jess Neely and I should have both been thrown out of the game at A&M for what we said to the home plate umpire on a play at the plate. I blocked the plate and tagged the runner three feet up the line, but the umpire called him safe. That was the winning run. SMU beat us on a similar call by a Dallas umpire. Wayne Graham's father was one of the better umpires in the area. A&M would not use him because he wouldn't give them all of the close calls.
Thus, the "good old days" of Rice baseball were not that good. The golden years of Rice football were coached by Jess Neely and the golden years of Rice basketball were during the 1940's, but the golden years of Rice baseball are happening now under Wayne Graham. Let's all meet at Reckling Park and enjoy the fun.
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