Back in the swing

There are two seasons: Winter and baseball.

-- Bill Veek, owner

Chicago White Sox

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.

-- Rogers Hornsby, second baseman

St. Louis Cardinals

Baseball fans rejoice! Major League Baseball's pitchers and catchers officially reported to their teams' spring training camps Tuesday, and the Razorback baseball team plays its home opener at 3 p.m. Friday.

Bella Vista Historical Museum hosted nearly 20 baseball fans for a Hot Stove League meeting Jan. 22. Another meeting is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, led by local baseball memorabilia collector Steve Morrow.

"Hot Stove League" refers to the sport's off-season when old-time baseball fans would gather around a hot stove in the commmunity during the cold winter months, discussing their favorite baseball teams and players -- and perhaps, politics and the weather. These days, the term refers to the off-season player transactions -- and rumors and speculation -- that occur between seasons.

"Who remembers reading The Sporting News when it was a newspaper?" asked Chuck Pribbernow of Bella Vista, wearing a Milwaukee Brewers cap that day in January. "It ran minor league box scores and transactions -- there was no free agency then. It was pure baseball. Players loved playing the game and were not paid (as well as they are today). Hank Aaron worked a a car dealership. That's Hot Stove League stuff."

On Sunday, Morrow will share a few items from his collection, and Roger Scoles and Gary Grosnickle, both of Bella Vista, will share some of their stories from their early 1950s minor league baseball days. Participants also are encouraged to bring their own memorabilia and share their own stories.

A GOOD YEAR

Grosnickle spoke via phone Tuesday about his last season with the Paducah (Ky.) Chiefs, a minor-league team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals at the time. He especially remembers his last year with the team.

In 1955, Grosnickle's team won the Kentucky--Illinois--Tennessee League (KITTY League) championship, with a 64--39 record, reads the team's website. "We had a terrific ball club," Grosnickle remembered. "They put all the all-stars for the league together, and we beat the all-star team.

"And I was fortunate enough to win the most popular player at Paducah that year," Grosnickle continued. He explained the honor came after a season of ballots from the fans.

Recalling that year, Grosnickle humbly decided his "hustle" endeared the fans. "I was very active in leading the team," he said. "It was my spirit, my hustle to keep the team alive. As a catcher, you have the whole field ahead of you. You've got to keep them in the right spots, keep them active."

As a catcher, he had a pretty strong arm, Grosnickle continued. "I threw players out a lot, and I threw a lot out at first base, when they would lead off too far."

Grosnickle also fondly remembered the Paducah team's manager, Ray Wilson, who had a .304 batting average that year, according to baseballreference.com. "He was an older gentleman, who still played. He was a good second baseman. That really helped our team."

Grosnickle ended that championship season with a .286 batting average, the website records.

Today, Grosnickle still follows the Cardinals, he said, but he calls himself a fan of the New York Yankees. "It's the great history of the team and players," he said.

About six years ago, at a Razorback baseball game in Fayetteville, Grosnickle got to meet Bobby Richardson, a New York Yankees second baseman with two Gold Gloves and the Most Valuable Player award of the 1960 World Series. Grosnickle got a ball signed by the former Yankee and a picture with him. "That's when I started liking the Yankees," he said.

LONELY FAN

Kevin Tomlin of Neosho, Mo., represented his Pittsburg Pirates, during the January Hot Stove meeting at the museum. He said he had been a fan since the team won the World Series in 1971.

"Being a Pirates fan was a lonely existence in southwest Missouri," Tomlin said. "I even lived in St. Louis and had to put up with Cardinal fans for three years. The Pirates have always been a part of my life and always will.

"My favorite memory dates all the way back to Tuesday," he continued.

Tomlin showed a birthday card with the group gathered. Sent by his daughter to celebrate his 54th birthday, the card included a handwritten greeting from Tomlin's favorite player, Manny Sanguillen. Sanguillen was Pirates catcher during the team's six playoff berths in the 1970s.

SOUTHSIDERS

Sharon and Jim McCann of Bella Vista proudly represented their team around the stove wearing Chicago White Sox gear from head to toe to the museum in January. The couple even wore team T-shirts proudly displaying "Together since 1963," the year they were married, on the backs.

"Are you a Southsider," somebody asked.

Yes, he was, Jim McCann answered and told of going to White Sox games as a child and sitting in the bleachers of Comiskey Park for 5 cents admission. He recalled 1959 when the "Go, Go Sox" -- with his favorite player Luis Aparicio at shortstop and Nellie Fox at second base -- claimed the American League championship and Chicago's air-raid sirens sounded in celebration.

The Chicago Tribune related the incident in a story: "Fire Commissioner Robert J. Quinn ordered a celebratory five-minute sounding of the city's air-raid sirens. The late-night wail, at a time when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's threat to bury America was still fresh, frightened tens of thousands of area residents. Many rushed to the streets. Others herded hysterical children to shelter. 'We had seven children under 9 and woke them all up when the sirens screamed,' said Mrs. Earl Gough of the South Side. 'We said Hail Marys together in the basement.'

"Quinn apologized but also argued that the incident provided 'a very good test' of the area's readiness, which he found wanting. Mayor Richard J. Daley claimed Quinn acted in accordance with a City Council proclamation that 'there shall be whistles and sirens blowing and there shall be great happiness when the White Sox win the pennant.'"

Sharon McCann had her own White Sox stories to tell.

"My mom was a really big baseball fan," she said. The family would take the bus and train to White Sox Park on ladies day. McCann, her mother and her sisters all got in free on those special days, and her little brother got in free because he was young.

But one day, the family crossed town to see a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. "We had to pay 25 cents for the girls to get in. Because of that, I don't like the Cubs. I am not a fan," Sharon McCann said emphatically.

Jim McCann ended the Hot Stove meeting with a Chicago sports story. He worked in a men's clothing store on the town's famed Michigan Avenue. Local professional sports players appeared in advertisements for the store, and often would come in to shop -- players like Ernie Banks and Ron Santo of the Cubs, he listed.

"I was only in my 20s. It was a thrill," Jim McCann said. "Every single one of them were first-class people. They would talk to you. They would give you tickets. They were all gentlemen -- I can not say the same for some certain athletes, but the baseball players were always gentlemen."

NAN Our Town on 02/16/2017