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.