I played in the Alabama-Florida League for 29 days in 1957, as a member of the Selma
Cloverleafs. The Cloverleafs were managed by former major leaguer, Buddy Kerr.
My given name is Lou Puma. I was a good-field, no-hit shortstop
during my playing days. In 1957, the Selma Cloverleafs were a New York Giants
farm team. I had signed on, and went to Spring Training in Sanford, Florida
in 1957. I had signed for a $500 bonus, the first $250 paid up front,
the second $250 to be paid after thirty days with my assigned team.
After being with Selma for almost 30 days, the Giants wanted to reassign me from
the Cloverleafs to the Hastings Giants of the Nebraska State League.
I didn’t want to go and asked for and got my release. The following year
I signed with the Chicago White Sox and was assigned to the Duluth-Superior White
Sox of the Class C Northern League. My uniform number was « 2 », which was
Nellie Fox’s hand-me-down uniform. Unfortunately, I didn’t
hit my hat size and was released, this time involuntarily. How can you hit
a ball when the temperature is in the 20’s every night, often with snow flurries
falling?
After my release, I decided to go into broadcasting
and my first job was in, of all places, HASTINGS, NEBRASKA!
I
figured God must have wanted me to go there. That career change has led to
a 45-year career in broadcasting which has included stints with ESPN, the first
alll sports television network, and WFAN in New York, the first all sports
radio station in America. Most of those years, I went under the
name Lou Palmer, which was pinned on me by one of my station managers in Hartford,
Ct.
Nowadays, I am very involved with Adult Baseball and
run a league for the National Adult Baseball Association (NABA) in Palm Beach
County, Florida. In 1997, I went on a recruiting trip to start leagues
for our national organization and among my many stops were Birmingham and
Montgomery. One of the attendees at the Birmingham meeting was a young man
from Selma who told me that Bloch Park was still standing, forty years after
I played there. I could not resist a side trip to Selma and wrote an article
for the NABA’s national magazine, Baseball Today.
I also do official
scoring for the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training games, and I often
get to see my former teammate, Larry « Moose » Stubing. Moose
is a VP and scout for the Anaheim Angels and we played together (for 29 days
at least) in the AFL. I also got a chance to meet Brandy Davis (former
AFL manager) the other day. He’s now scouting for the Houston Astros.
Your website has brought back a lot of memories for a kid who fell in
love with baseball. That love affair has not weakened at all!