Frank pitching for McKell
Since I was a kid, I've loved baseball.
I played the sport throughout grade school, junior high, and high
school. And, even in my middle age, I played in the local Ohio Valley
League. Like most every youngster, I dreamed of playing professional
ball. As I got older I found out one of my relatives had a brief
stint in the minors. That drew my undivided attention. With the help
of a relative or two and the Internet, I found out he was quite an
influential figure in Florida sports history.
James Frank Callihan (known to everyone as “Frank”)
was born December 22, 1933 to George P. and Sophia Mae Callihan in
South Shore. George was my great-uncle, my grandpa Martin Leslie "Happy" Callihan's brother. My mother was the Happy's daughter.
Six foot five, 215 pound Frank Callihan
(known as “Frank”) became a “strong-armed,” left-handed
pitcher for McKell High School. He was a standout in baseball, and
the talented athlete also played on the basketball and football
teams. Frank was selected to play with the Class A Senior All-Stars
in a charity basketball game at Grant Gym, but he declined to
participate in the game since he wanted to preserve his high school
baseball eligibility. He impressed everyone his last two years in
high school.
In July 1952, Frank was signed to a
contract by Hank Mazza, southeastern representative of the St. Louis
Browns. He received a bonus of an undisclosed amount at the time.
Mazza said the Browns had matched offers by the Cincinnati Reds and
the Chicago Cubs. Callihan was a Rule 5, Draft B selection.
Frank was scheduled to be sent to
Aberdeen South Dakota in Class C ball (the Aberdeen Pheasants) and
probably optioned out to Independence Missouri in Class D ball to get
experience.
As Frank's career progressed, he
pitched for the 1953 Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Judges of the Cotton State
League. That season, the 19-year-old had a record of 12 wins and 11
losses with an ERA of 4.77. He started 23 games and pitched 156.2
innings.
The Class C Judges finished 3rd
in the league that year with a record of 65-60 – 14 games behind
the Meridian Millers. The Judges lost in 1st round of the
playoffs.
The Pine Bluff Judges joined the Cotton
States League in 1930 and promptly won the league championship that
season. When the league folded after the 1932 season, so did the
team. However, the Waco Cubs of the Dixie League moved to town the
following season and took on the Judges name. They remained in the
East Dixie League the following season and then joined the reformed
Cotton States League in 1936.
The team was inactive
between 1941–1947 during World War II but rejoined the league for
the 1948 season. In 1955, they moved to Meridian, Mississippi and
became the Meridian Millers.
Frank in Spring Training
Frank Lucchesi managed
the Pine Bluff Judges during the 1953 and 1954 seasons. He eventually
became the manager of three Major League teams: the Philadelphia
Phillies (1970–72), Texas Rangers (1975–77) and Chicago Cubs
(1987 as interim manager), posting a career win–loss record of
316–399 (.442).
In 1953 Lucchesi led the Pine Bluff Judges to
65-60 record, leading a team that lacked in talent to a winning
record. Lucchesi was able to improve on the poor pitching and hitting
of 1952, flipping the Judges to the top half of the league in both.
Frank Lucchesi would leave Pine Bluff
after the 1954 season. While Frank Lucchesi would only spend part of
two seasons in Pine Bluff, he took a piece of Pine Bluff along with
him on his journey: his wife, who was a Pine Bluff native.
Frank Callihan never became a Major
League star, but instead, he became a legend at Jacksonville,
Florida's Bolles High School – a college preparatory and boarding
school in Jacksonville – as a coach and football announcer. He was
the voice of the Bulldogs for many years, broadcasting their football
games on radio.
Frank also coached Major League
standout Chipper Jones at the Bolles School where Chipper was a
two-way player. He chalked up a 6-3 record with 87 strikeouts and a
1.89 ERA as a pitcher while hitting a .391 batting average with seven
home runs, earning First Team All-State honors.
In 1989, Jones played football and
baseball, winning First Team All-State honors in both sports and
winning a state championship in baseball. He also notched the
Tournament MVP honors and held an 11-1 pitching record with a 0.81
ERA in 84 innings pitched, and 107 strikeouts. In his senior year,
the Bulldogs were the state-runner up while Jones compiled a 7-3
record with a 1.00 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 79 innings on the mound,
while hitting .488 with 14 stolen bases.
Jones won the Gatorade Circle of
Champions Florida Baseball Player of the Year, Regional Baseball
Player of the Year and Runner-up National Player of the Year. He was
the first pick of the 1990 Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta
Braves.
Chipper spoke very highly of his
association with Frank Callihan. Jones led his Braves franchise to
its lone World Series title in 1995, and represented it eight times
in the MLB All-Star Game.
A first-ballot Major League Hall of
Famer in 2018, Braves star Larry “Chipper” Jones clubbed 468
homers, batted over .300, and got on-base at a .401 clip. The Braves
legend tallied the 10th-highest percentage in balloting history.
Frank Callihan died May 10, 2010, in
Jacksonville, Florida. He was preceded in death by his four siblings
– Helen, Paul, Ruth, and Clyde. He was survived by "E"
Callihan, his wife of 45 years; his son, John; his daughter, Dana
Lawrence; his daughter-in-law Lendy Callihan; his son-in-law Roy
Lawrence; four grandchildren: Kalen and Tyler Callihan, and Sam and
Charlie Lawrence; and his sister-in-law Doris Callihan. He was buried
in Oaklawn Cemetery.
Upon Frank Callihan's passing, the
Jacksonville paper wrote this shining tribute ...
“Frank
Callihan will always have a place in Jacksonville high school sports
history. The longtime Bolles faculty member died Monday morning
following a stroke. He was 76.
“It was
Callihan, who in 1989 as Bolles’ athletic director, hired then-Lee
High football coach Corky Rogers to take over the school’s program.
Nine state championships later, the Bulldogs are the most successful
football powerhouse in Florida with Rogers still at the helm. No
school in Florida can match Bolles’ 10 state titles.
“'Frank was
the person who hired me,' Rogers said. 'Even when his health wasn’t
the best, he never had a down day. He was a very intelligent man. A
kind, humble, Christian man. I never heard anyone say a negative
thing about him. There have been a couple of people that left us
recently that helped Bolles become what it is today. Frank is one of
those people.'
“We lost a
good Bulldog,” Bolles president and head of the school John E.
Trainer Jr. said in a statement. 'The voice of Bolles football is
gone.'
“Bringing
Rogers to Bolles was Callihan’s most notable contribution to the
school, but certainly not his only one. Callihan served as the
play-by-play radio announcer for Bolles’ football team for 34
years, covering the school’s Class 2B state championship season
last fall.
“'His radio
broadcasts were always very special for us,' Rogers said.
“Callihan was
a part of one of Bolles' best football traditions, teaming with color
analyst Somers Randolph from 1989-2004. Randolph died in 2006 at the
age of 72.
“In his 31
years at Bolles, Callihan also served as a social studies teacher,
and helped coach a variety of sports.
“He came to
the school in 1966, working as a dorm parent and part-time coach. In
1970, he became a full-time teacher at the school. He retired from
teaching in 1997. Callihan's love for Bolles inspired him to write a
book Gimme a B, chronicling his time at the school.”
Somehow,
though we were relatives, I never got to know Frank Callihan. We did
live a great distance apart. That probably made it difficult to
visit. I may have had the pleasure of meeting him at a family funeral
or the like, yet I truly don't remember. In fact, no one in the
family ever shared his legacy with me. It seems that following a
recent suggestion from my niece Cindy to explore his life has led me
to a beautiful awareness of a truly fine man … a talented baseball
player, but so much more. Much thanks to another relative, James
Bergman of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for his valued assistance in this project.
Jiggs, Clyde, Helen, and Frank Callihan
__________________________________
Note – If you don't know much about
the Browns, there was a day when there were two teams in
St. Louis. And while the Cardinals were a mainstay and became one of
the most successful franchises in Major League history, the Browns …
not so much. The Browns existed from 1902-1953 in the American
League and managed just 11 winning seasons over that span. They lost
more than 100 games eight times, finishing dead last in the AL 10
times.
In 1951, Bill Veeck, the colorful
former owner of the Cleveland Indians, purchased the Browns from
Bill DeWitt. In St. Louis, Veeck extended the promotions and wild
antics that had made him famous and loved by many and loathed by
many others.
His most notorious stunt in St. Louis
came on August 19, 1951, when he ordered Browns manager, Zack Taylor
to send Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot 7-inch, 65-pound midget, to bat as a
pinch hitter. When Gaedel stepped to the plate he was wearing a
Browns child's uniform with the number 1⁄8. With no strike zone to
speak of, Gaedel walked on four straight pitches, as he was ordered
not to swing at any pitch.
The stunt infuriated American League
President Will Harridge, who voided Gaedel's contract the next day.
Veeck also promoted another publicity stunt in which the Browns
handed out placards – reading take, swing, bunt, etc. – to fans
and allowed them to make managerial decisions for a day. Manager
Zack Taylor dutifully surveyed the fans' advice and relayed the sign
accordingly. The Browns won the game against the Philadelphia
Athletics, whose venerable owner Connie Mack took part in the
"Grandstand Managers" voting (against his own team).
But, after all of those losses and
dwindling crowds, the Browns packed up and moved to Baltimore and
became the Orioles. But, they kept their minor league affiliate, the
Aberdeen South Dakota Pheasants.
The Orioles would soon trade away most
of the remaining talent from the Veeck era (including Sievers,
Wertz, Turley, and Larsen), and it would be several years before the
franchise finally began to win.
__________________________
“Upon hearing about the local Pine Bluff team and the 'many things of prowess of the Pine Bluff nine,' the sporting men of the Cairo, Illinois baseball team arranged a game with Mr. Wiley Jones. Jones being so confident in his local team not only agreed to the baseball game in Pine Bluff, but also bet all the money they could cover and agreed to give the Cairo baseball club the whole gate receipts if they won.
“One thing Mr. Wiley Jones did not
know was that the Cairo sporting men were 'wise in their
generation.' The Cairo club went out and collected professional
players far and wide. They went to St. Louis and rented the National
League Browns battery of Bill Kissinger and Klondike Douglass from
St. Louis manager Chris Von Der Ahe.
“Armed with a team good enough for
any company, the Cairo ball club, accompanied by hundreds of betting
men from St. Louis, appeared in Pine Bluff. Thousands of people from
as far away as Texas and Missouri came to Pine Bluff to witness the
game, and it was said that the betting money 'flowed like water.'
“The shock to the locals was terrible. By the end of the day Wiley Jones was out $7,000, the editor of the local newspaper lost $2,000, and the crowd about $6,000 more.
“Jones was nearly crazy, but his business sense reasserted itself during the long hours of the night. He scheduled a game with another team in Arkansas and promptly hired the Cairo club to represent him. The Cairo club accepted his money, skinned the other club alive, and won back Jones’ money.
“Such is ball in Arkansas”
_______________________________
Sources
Hays Carlyon. “Longtime Bolles
announcer Frank Callihan dies following stroke at age 76.”
hays.carlyon@jacksonville.com.
http://www.jacksonville.com/article/20100510/SPORTS/801252511.
“Frank Callihan.” Baseball
Reference.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=callih001jam
“Wiley Jones/ Pine Bluff Hustled For
Over $15,000 on Baseball Bet.
https://pinebluffbaseballhistory.wordpress.com/
“The Story of Professional Baseball in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
1887-1955.”
https://pinebluffbaseballhistory.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/wileyjones-pinebluff-hustled-for-over-15000-on-baseball-bet/
January
28, 2016 by yankeebiscuitfan
https://dutchbaseballhangout.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/minor-league-history-cotton-states-league/
No comments:
Post a Comment