1960: Coors Beer, a White Sweatshirt and Night-Driving Glasses

In 1960 I played softball for the Coors team in the Riverton, Wyoming league. In those days all softball was fast pitch, and my position was first base.

Our uniforms didn't have the black and gold colors Coors uses on their cans and labels, but instead was a beautiful royal blue. COORS was written across the chest in bright red as were the numerals on the back. As well, we wore red caps and leg socks. Those outfits really looked sharp. Mine looked even better because I had a long-sleeved, tight-fitting jersey that was a gleaming white. I wore that jersey under my uniform shirt. But after four games I was hitting about .125, something like 2 for 16. Discouraged, I left the jersey off one night and began to hit. I never put it back on. The damned thing must have tied up my shoulders a bit, enough apparently to affect my swing. After it had been shucked, I had a very good season at the plate.

The early game always started before dark. Just before sundown there would be a glare that made it hard to see pop flies and such. It was too dark for sun glasses and the lights really had no effect at that time of day. So, I got the bright idea that a pair of night-driving glasses was the solution. One evening I bought a pair at the drugstore and went out to play. Well, the glasses didn't help a bit with balls hit in the air, but they made it difficult to see ground balls as well. Oh well, another failed theory.

The thing that caused me to think of all this now and why I wanted it in this blog was one of the opposing pitchers. One of the league teams, Susquehanna Western, a uranium mining outfit, had a pitcher named Gentry. This guy Gentry didn't wear his team's cap, but wore a Detroit Tigers cap with the script D instead. I shook hands with him a few times after our teams had played, but never asked his first name.

Could this maybe, just maybe, have been Rufus Gentry? That would explain the cap. Rufus Gentry had played some for the Tigers, starting 30 games in 1944, but, more importantly, had, sa I recall, pitched the shutout for Dallas in the seventh game of the Texas League playoffs in 1947 against the hated Ft. Worth Cats. In Ft. Worth, no less. This made him one of my real heroes. Was he this Gentry? I don't know. I was too timid to ask his first name.

Pitchers, 1946

I certainly remember Hank Oana. He was the best pitcher in the league, winning 24 games. My dad recalled that he was once a Pacific Coast League outfielder. It's not surprising that he was the best hitting pitcher in the league as well.

Beyond Hank, things become a little more iffy. Well, I know Lefty Altizer was on the staff for the whole season. Lefty's real first name was Quentin I believe. I've no idea what his record was. He was always in the starting rotation, and, since the team was so good, it's probably safe to assume he won a fair amount more than he lost.

I'm pretty certain Bob Gillespie was with the team most all if not all of '46. Bob may have been our second best pitcher. I think he was in AAA in 1947 and was with the Chicago White Sox in '48.

Bobby Hogue, our ace in '47, was with Dallas for some of '46. I feel pretty sure of that. But how much work he got... ?

And there, from my memory, you have it. My recollections of the Rebel pitchers for 1947 is a good bit better. But that comes later on.

Look up Hank Oana's bio on the web or in a baseball encyclopedia and invariably his reference will show a nickname of "Prince." I never heard him called that, though. He was always just called Hank by anyone I knew. That year Hank must have faced Fort Worth outfielder Eddie Snider quite a few times. No, I don't think Eddie picked up the nickname "Duke" until after his Texas League days. But suppose they both had had the nicknames then and had gone by them, we'd have had the "Prince" facing the "Duke" a lot. Interesting.