With all the millions of dollars in the Major Leagues today it’s hard to believe that some of those teams used to barnstorm around the country playing exhibition games to raise money.
But it happened, even as late as the 1950s. And some of those teams, including the mighty New York Yankees, played right here in El Paso.
I know. I covered some of the games.
RON GILLETT, owner of Dos Lagos Golf Course, knows, too. In fact, he was the batboy for the Yankees when they played the El Paso Texans at Dudley Field in 1951. And he did something that many of us who were also there wish we had done: He got some of the Yankees’ biggest stars, including Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, to sign a baseball for him.
He’s kept the ball all these years and heaven knows how much it’s worth. The names are a little faded but still very legible. He put the ball in a glass box soon after he got it.
BUT HOW did El Paso get to host Major League teams and how did Gillett, 12 years old at the time, get to be the Yankees’ batboy?
First, a little history:
George Simpson came to El Paso from Georgia with the National Guard just prior to World War II. He settled in El Paso and became owner of one of the biggest drugstores in the city. Simpson had grown up in Georgia near the home of Ty Cobb, one of the greatest Major League players of all time. He got to know Cobb well and because of that had a great connection to the big leagues. He became the biggest promoter of exhibition baseball games in the history of El Paso. He put on as many as four exhibition games involving big league teams in the spring and also had some big league teams play exhibitions after the Major League season was over. He booked such teams as the old St. Louis Browns, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the New York Giants and the Pittsburg Pirates.
THE YANKEES had never come to El Paso before but because of a scheduling change they agreed to play here one March day in 1951. Ron Gillett’s father, Sam, knew the Dudley Field groundskeeper, Joe Manago. Well before the game, Manago let Ron onto the field and told him to go to the Dudley Field dugout and just sit there.
Ron quietly obeyed. When manager Casey Stengel and third base coach Frank Crosetti got there they just assumed he was assigned to do bat duty.
“I was awe-struck through it all,” Ron says. “Dudley Field was packed. The grandstand was full and many people were along the sidelines.”
RUBEN PORRAS, who had pitched for the Bowie High School Bears when they won the state championship in 1949, was the Texans’ starting pitcher against the Yankees. He got the first two Yankees out then Hank Bauer hit a homerun and Joe DiMaggio followed with another.
“Then,” “Ron recalls, “Yogi Berra came up and hit an even longer homerun. It was way, way over the fence.”
Ron has another recollection of Yogi. “He took some infield practice at second base before the game – with his catcher’s mitt.”
Ron Gillett has just one regret. He didn’t get Mickey Mantle’s autograph. “Mantle was just a rookie and unknown at the time,” Gillett groans.
AFTER THE GAME, Crosetti gave Ron a couple of cracked bats, probably meaning it as a gift of gratitude for Ron’s work. Ron went home, taped them up and used them in basebll games himself.
Ron went on to become a star athlete at El Paso High School and since his father Sam’s death, he has beeen running Dos Lagos Golf Course.
What wonderful memories Ron must have.
And oh, what a treasure that autographed ball must be.