MY LIFE IN 1955
EC's Tryin' To Survive in '55
It's mid-September and time for the Dixie Series, the Minor League Double A Championship between the playoff winners of the Southern Association and the Texas League... it's special this year... my Mobile Bears will go up against the Shreveport Sports in a best-of-seven game series.
I don't have the box scores of the first two games... the New Orleans Times-Picayune didn't include them in the paper... just the scores of the game... however, they did print the box scores for games three and four.
EC had the time of his life following this group of Bears, watching them throughout the season at Hartwell Field... seeing them get better and better as the season progressed... seeing them sizzle down the stretch, making the playoffs the last day of the season, upsetting league champion Memphis in the first round and whipping the Birmingham Barons for the Southern Association playoff championship... and then topping the season off by sweeping Shreveport in four straight games and remarkably capturing the Dixie Series... the last time Mobile won the Dixie Series was in 1923 when they defeated the Fort Worth Panthers four games to two... in 1947 Mobile won the pennant, but lost to the Houston Buffaloes in the Dixie Series four games to two.
EC was with the Bears every game of the way, either at Hartwell Field or glued to the radio listening to Jack Bitterman and his ticker-tape reports and recreations on WABB radio.
EC listened to the first two Dixie Classic games on the radio from Shreveport and then watched the last two before really good crowds at Hartwell Field... 5,000-6,000 at each game... the Bears were lucky to average 1500 a game during the season... sadly Mobile twas not a good baseball town, but the Bears were there for almost 50 years.
Mobile won the opener behind Ralph Mauriello, a big hard-throwing right-hander... he blanked the Sports 8-0 on five hits.
Game two is one of the greatest games I ever experienced in my life... it was an unforgettable game... Shreveport scored 9 runs in the first three innings and led 9-0... EC was stunned and heartbroken... but, lo and behold, guess who won?... EC's beloved Mobile Bears... we rallied, recovered, rebounded and won the game 10-9 in a huge comeback victory.
After that poor Shreveport didn't have a chance... the Bears blistered them 11-6 and 9-2 to sweep all four games.
Chris Kitsos SS (.249 BA/7 HR), Dick Young 2B (.266 BA/11 HR/89 R), Ray Shearer CF (.280 BA/7 HR/50 RBI), Jim Gentile 1B (.290 BA/28 HR/109 RBI), Jim Baxes 3B (.293 BA/18 HR/69 RBI), Herb Olson C (.269 BA/12 HR/57 RBI), Ralph Rowe LF (.275 BA/7 HR/49 RBI) and Ted Bartz RF (.272 BA/.12 HR/65 RBI) were really special to me... pitchers were Ralph Mauriello (18-8/2.76 ERA), Earl Mosser (10-6/3.38 ERA) and Connie Grob (11-9/3.41 ERA)... left-hander Fred Kipp joined the team late in the season and went 4-2 as a starter with a really fine 2.34 ERA... Kipp had a season in 1958 with the Los Angeles Dodgers (6-6/5.01 ERA)... Kipp started 9 times and relieved 31 times... Bob Walz (8-7/3.46 ERA/54 games) was the fireman and number one bullpen guy... there were no closers then.
Jim Gentile was the best of the lot... he starred with the Baltimore Orioles for three seasons before Hall of Famer Eddie Murray took his spot in the batting order... Gentile hit .302 in 1961 with 46 homers and 141 RBIs... he finished third in the MVP voting... Gentile spent 9 seasons in the Majors with 179 homers, 549 RBIs and a .260 BA.
I got to talk to Walz often at Crawford Playground where I played ball... all of us kids thought it was cool to hang out and actually talk to a Mobile Bear player... almost daily, he would sit in the sun with his shirt off at the park during the morning and try to pick up pretty ladies playing tennis on the courts... Walz was a good-looking guy with a body like a Greek god... I think the ladies liked him... Walz was a big reason Mobile made the playoffs... he played another 7 seasons, mainly in Triple A ball... 1955 was his best year, although Walz did well for the Denver Bears in 1959, going 8-8 with a 3.04 ERA in 48 relief appearances... Walz retired in 1960 at age 30.
It was a magical season and one EC will never forget.
Looking back on it, 1955 was a much better year than I thought it was.
