SP: Tell me how you got started in professional baseball.
PH:
In 1946, I got out of the service and I was playing in Crestview, Florida.
My wife was from there. At the time there was a guy named Lance Richbourg, he used
to play major league baseball, and he got a semi-pro team started there and
I played with them, and he said he could get me hooked up with either the Yankees
or the Cleveland Indians. He knew the scouts, a guy named Hamilton with the
Yankees and Ivy Griffin with the Indians, and they were supposed to come on a
particular day and watch me. Well, Hamilton didn’t show up so Griffin signed me.
He sent me and Neil Cobb to Cordele, Georgia and that’s where I started in 1947.
SP:
That was pro ball?
PH: Yes, that was the Georgia-Florida
League. That was some fast ball. It was quick. Every team was owned by
a major league club. We were owned by Cleveland. I can’t remember how I left there,
but I left. We had a real bad team! Spring training was great: We played against
House of David and I had good games against them, but I just didn’t do nothing
so I left and went home. I went back to Crestview, and a guy from Andalusia
who saw me playing semi-pro ball against them signed me up. I played 1947 and
48 with Andalusia. 1948 was a bad year and we had a terrible team. Nothing worked.
After ’48, I quit because the postmaster in Crestview told me he’d get me
a job as assistant postmaster if I’d play semi-pro ball with Crestview again
so that’s what I did. I stayed with them for a while, then I started to get offers
from other towns around Fort Walton Beach. I must have played in 8 to 10 little
towns around there like Fort Walton, Bonnifay, and also Graceville. They’d
pay me per strikeout! It was good money: I would get $5.00 or so per strikeout
and if you got 8 or 10 a night or so, that was pretty good money.
SP:
Were these teams in an industrial league?
PH: More or less. These
were small towns and that was their entertainment. The town’s people would dig
in their pockets and pay somebody something to come and play. You’d hit a home
run, they’d pass the hat. You know, after Andalusia I hurt my arm. With the teams
I played on later, friends would get me a job (pitching) just to make some
money. They really couldn’t use me, I wasn’t worth a flip. I think I had a torn
rotator cuff, but back then I didn’t know what it was, but they’d give me a job
and paid me $200 or $300 a month which was pretty good money back then. After
that came the post office job, and after that I managed a bank. Before my pro
career had ended, I had also gone to Pensacola and they wanted to send me to Miami
but I told them « no ». I was married and I figured that was too far to go, so
that’s when I dropped out of professional ball.
SP: Was your post
office job arranged for by the team?
PH: Oh yeah. I was assistant postmaster.
That’s supposed to be a pretty good job. People would have killed me
for it.
SP: You would get assistance.
PH: Yes, While I was
in the service, for instance, I would have people in Bonnifay drive down to Eglin
Air Force Base and pick me up, drive me back to Bonnifay for the game, then
drive me back. That’s a couple hundred miles. That’s pretty nice of them! Most
of them were businessmen and just liked baseball. I was treated very, very well.
SP:
Many of these towns had pro and semi-pro ball competing with
each other for fans. I get the impression that pro sometimes lost out.
PH:
Well, semi-pro was free. People would walk in and if they wanted to donate
they would. It was fun. You can’t imagine the good people I met down there.
SP:
Back to Andalusia, how old were you when you first went there?
PH:
24.
SP: Already married?
PH: Yes. We moved
to the area and rented the basement of a house from the sheriff. The basement
might sound bad, but it was really nice. People in Andalusia were so good to us:
They’d give you you dry cleaning, groceries, I mean they’d just give them to
you.
SP: Tell me about the travel.
PH: It was the most fun!
That ’47 team had the best guys. We got along and there was no fighting or arguing.
It sounds corny buy we’d sing on the bus. Going to a game, we’d see a watermelon
field and we’d pick out a spot where the big watermelons were. When we’d
return that night, we’d swipe some watermelon! We stopped one night to get
some mellon and I was way back in the field with some big ones, so big we could
hardly carry them. We got them on the bus and cut them open and they were all
green. Couldn’t eat any of them. Another time we were coming back from a night
game and we stopped at a little restaurant and a Hav-A-Tampa route salesman was
there, with his truck parked right near where we parked our bus . This guy was
trying to make out with the waitress. We all ate and when we left he was still
trying to make it with her. We went out to the bus and everyone reached in his
truck to grab some candy and cigarettes. The guys just grabbed and ran into the
bus. When we were on our way, we realized that all we had gotten was snuff and
chewing tobacco. We weren’t very successful thieves. We did have fun though.
We used to have towel wars on the bus. We’d take our towels with us to the games
for our showers. We’d get back on the bus and the towels would be soaking wet.
One night, we got in a group and we were throwing towels at Keltys Powell and
Manny Russo. They were up front and we were just wadding them up and throwing
’em at them. Finally we ran out of ammunition. They had them all up front. Keltys
wound up to fire one back at us and caught that bar the runs from the floor
to the ceiling of the bus behind the driver. He just crumpled in pain. There was
no towel wars after that.
SP: Sounds like a fraternity.
PH:
I’ll tell you what, if I had told them then what I feel about them now, they’d
have whipped me, but I loved those guys. You could count on them for anything.
SP:
What was you impression of the level of play in the AFL? Was
it harder than you thought it would be?
PH: It was pretty slick ball,
but I had played some military ball so I had had some pretty good competition:
Ted Williams and those guys.
SP: Did you ever get a chance to pitch
against Ted?
PH: I did, and nobody knew this until two or three
years ago. My mother kept this newspaper clipping and I ‘ve got it. I pitched against
him and he hit into a game ending double play and we won. I never told anybody
because they might have thought I was bragging.
SP: Well, you
could say that Ted Williams went hitless in his career against you.
PH:
Yeah, but I’ll tell you, that ball he hit for the double play was a screamer!
He had hit it to the outfielder and the guy made such a sensational catch that
the running on second just took off and he was doubled easily. It was interesting
talking to Ted Williams. After the game, they had a meeting in the gym at
Eglin Air Force Base and there was probably 30 or 40 people there. He was a nice
guy. He wasn’t great with fans or newspapermen, but other players he treated
well. He told us that in ’41, when he hit .406, Tom Yawkey, the owner of the
Red Sox, offered him a $2500 bonus. He refused it. I doubt that many others know
this except those guys who were present, but he said he refused it and said he
wanted $5000. We asked, « What did you do? », and Ted said, « I got the $5000! ».
He had good years and bad years, and in the bad years he’d give himself a cut
in salary. They were paying him $100,000 back then and that was terrific money.
He told us that one year, before 1944, he felt he had a bad year and cut his own
salary $25,000. You know, he married a girl from Milton, which is near Crestview.
I had an opportunity one time to go to a bird hunt over near Milton and I
couldn’t go. Needless to say, one of the guys there was Ted. I could have kicked
myself.
SP: Were there any players in the AFL that you thought should
have made it that didn’t?
PH: Luther Brown was one. He was quick
like a deer. Another guy was John Hitson. He batter over .300 and it was all
infield hits, he was so fast. Another one was Bubba Donner. I just told him this
in the last year or so, but I said, « Bubba, you reminded me of Marty Marion ».
He was the same size, lanky. He weighed only about 160 pounds. He was good! The
Phillies finally bought him and he deserved it. You know, I often wondered what
happened to Bubba. I went almost 50 years without knowing where he was, then
I think Marvin Walker gave him my number.
SP: Bubba said he weighed
190 when he came down here and 160 when the year ended, it was so hot.
PH:
I tell you something: I weighed around 165 and when I pitched, I might
lose 15 pounds in one game. Then I drink some beer or water and get it all back.
SP:
Who do you remember as being a tough character in the league?
PH:
Perry Roberts. He was a heck of a hitter. He hit close to .400,
and I had my luck with him. In fact, I could get two strikes on him pretty fast,
but that third strike was tough to get by him. On a particular night, he hit
a grould ball down the line to first base and I ran over to cover the bag, and
for no reason at all, I hadn’t thrown at him or anything, he elbowed me and put
me out for two weeks. That was uncalled for. That’s about the only negative thing
that I can think of.
SP: Were fans in opposing cities hard on you?
PH:
No, they just loved baseball. I didn’t have rabbit ears, so maybe
I just didn’t hear any of it.
SP: Crowds were pretty small.
PH:
All except Andalusia. When we didn’t make the playoffs, other teams
were disappointed! They wanted a cut of the money we’d generate.
SP:
They say that when Virgil Trucks had his great year in Andalusia, they’d only
pitch him at home so that they wouldn’t lose the gate receipts he’d generate.
PH:
I saw Virgil pitch a double-header one night in Buffalo, New York,
against Rochester, and I think I’m right about this: He shut them out the first
game and the second game I think he pitched a no-hitter, I’m not sure. I never
saw anyone throw harder than he did.
SP: Did any towns or stadiums
stick out in your mind?
PH: All the towns were basically small towns
without a lot of money in them. Just average people. I guess Dothan had the
best stadium, Wiregrass Stadium.
SP: When you pitched at Andalusia,
did you feel you were going to make it to the majors?
PH: Sure. If
you don’t think you’re going to make it, you aren’t going to make it.