The Cleburne Eagle News (Cleburne, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, June 13, 2013 Page: 6 of 10
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CLEBURNE EAGLE NEWS, JUNE 13,2013, PAGE 6
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CREDIT CARDS
ACCEPTED
$25.00 PER YEAR
$30.00 PER YEAR OUT-OF-STATE
ONE NORTH WALNUT, CLEBURNE TEXAS 76033
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CLEBURNE EAGLE NEWS
Pat Culpepper graduated and was co-captain of the 1958 State
Semi-Final Football Team and center fielder on the 1959 Yellow Jacket
Semi-Final Baseball Team. He graduated from the University of Texas in
1963 with honors, Academic All-American, Co-captain of the 1962 Texas
Longhorns SWC Championship Football Team. He was the Earl Blaik
Scholar Athlete Award winner and elected to “ the Longhorn Hall of Fame
in 1991
Pat has coached at the college level with University of Texas, Col-
orado, Tulane, Baylor and Memphis State and was head coach at North-
ern Illinois University; and coached in High School Football at Midland,
Lufkin, Galveston Ball, Westfield and Cleburne.
Sports Columnist
Pat Culpepper
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to 1-1. Leonard came with a fastball knee high and on the
outer part of the plate. DiMaggio caught it flush and like
a rifle shot, it found its way into left center field for a stand
up double. The cheering didn’t, wouldn’t stop in the stands
and the Yankee dugout throbbed with excitement. DiMag-
gio characteristically didn’t clap or clinch his fist or raise his
arms in triumph. He did it and that was enough. The Yankee
Clipper did nothing superfluous - not in his flowing swing,
the way he chased down balls in center field or ran the bases.
He seemed always in control.
Fans jumped out of the stands at the end of the 9-4 Yankee
victory with pens and score cards thrust at DiMaggio. The
crowd in the field was so great that DiMaggio’s bat was sto-
yA ..............-.......— len between the double header.
I H — V A N <HH ( I DD• I? This was a problem in the second game of the double header.
— — —— L —I DiMaggio had showered and only found out his favorite bat
I only saw him in person one time and that was after he had When DiMaggio went up to the plate for batting practice was gone before his first at bat. He was 0-2 at the plate and
been retired from baseball for quite some time. I was the boys and young men jumped over the bleachers and went up in the fifth inning a new Senator Pitcher, a farm boy from
head football coach at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, to him. “Over, here, Joe?” a youngster held up a baseball and 10Wa named Arnold Anderson who stood 6’3” and weighed
Illinois which is about 60 miles west of Chicago and it was a pen. DiMaggio didn’t know what to do - he needed to take 219 pou nd$, Whothrew incredibly hard, fast balls would deny
hot summer time. The cornfields around Dekalb were head batting practice so he smiled and went to the plate much like 1M ag810 S third at bat getting him on a short fly to center
high and if you took the wrong turn on a country road you had he did on the golf course in Dekalb years later. heid. No one SPoke to DiMaggio in the Yankee dugout and
to back track because you were lost. Sisler had led the American League in 1922 with 246 hits When the seventh inning arrived, it could possibly be his last
The summers are a great time for football coaches =more fam- 51 stolen bases and 18 triples while batting 420 and hit in 41 tme at bat and 0 course the end of a chance at the record,
ily time, brief vacations and lots of golf. So I was on the golf consecutive games. In 1939 Sisler was elected to the Base- A.teammate came over to Joe and suggested he use his bat
course at the Dekalb Country Club with two of my football ball Hall of Fame. Which Was a 36 Louisville Slugger with Joe DiMaggio’s au-
boosters and our Athletic Directors son when we saw him. It In New York radios played in stoops and fire escapes and out tograph pn it • Joe took it to the plate. Anderson threw a high
was across a fairway with trees separating us. Joe Dimaggio, apartment open windows. The play-by-play by the Sena- Tastba toreing Joe to back out.
the Yankee Clipper, was visiting an old New York friend who tor’s Arch McDonald would be broadcast on the airwaves of Ihe youngster on the mound wasn t afraid of DiMaggio and
happen to live in Dekalb. He looked good to me - graceful WMAL all through Washington and the East Coast and even he came again with his heater and DiMaggio lined a single
is a word used in golf for a flowing swing and the two shots in the grotto on Fisherman’s Warf in San Francisco where to tt meld. Ihe first basecoach, the first basemen and even
I saw were just that and he walked with long strides. One of DiMaggio was bom and raised. the hrst base umpire tapped DiMaggio on the shoulders. The
my buddies yelled out to him “Hey Joe” and he turned, smiled Joe’s father, Giuseppe, paced the front rooms of the family crowd would not Stop cheering so DiMaggio touched the bill
and waved and continued on up the fairway for his golfball, house on Beach Street waiting for the news of the streak. He Q hiS cap once only to have the noise osculate until Joe did
The year was 1977 and it was exactly 36 years after the most had three baseball playing sons - Vince, Dorn and Joe. Each 11 a second time. .
famous batting streak ever had taken place. night Joe’s mother, Rosalie lit a candle for Joe and changed After the game reporters encircled DiMaggio as his teammate
The year was 1941 and ominous dark clouds hung over Eu- the flowers in the Catholic icon, hoping to bring Joe luck, and Manager broke through to shake his hand
rope as the German war machine crunched out country after Joe’s childhood baseball buddies from the play grounds of n our age ot SO many athletes who are quick to take credit
country. They seemed unstoppable. North Beach would remind anyone that would listen to how foralthey achieve DiMaggio said ”You have to give Mr.
Americans paid little attention to the military dictatorship in Joe was their “Joe” first. McCarthy some ot the credit if not all of it. He allowed me
Japan but would be shocked in the coming December by the Motion picture cameras would be trained on DiMaggio at his to hit that three-and -0 pitch and it brought me many a good
devastating attack at Pearl Harbor, every plate appearance. This man was the very symbol of Dan to swing at.
But this was summertime and professional baseball was king, the game itself. Only once during the streak did he question A 10 word telegram arrived at the Clubhouse from his Sisler
The NFL was not a challenge as a spectator sport with only a called strike and after he turned back to face the pitcher Saying,, Congratulations, I m glad a real hitter broke it, keep
college football in the fall coming in as a rival in public inter- the umpire said, “Honest to God, Joe, it was right down the 8o1ng, .
est and attendance. People young and old listened on the ra- middle”. Even the evening news broadcasts had to announce DiMag-
dio to baseball broadcasts - planned family gatherings around Washington’s pitcher was Dutch Leonard, a coal miner’s son new streak record as they broke into their world news
them like the heavy weight prize fights with Joe Louis. The from Illinois. He threw knuckleballs, a slow curve and a With ’ the Nazis continuing their march, are now said to be
announcers painted word pictures for their audiences. Listen- stinging fast ball. He had won 20 games in 1939 and with his 225 mies ,rom Moscow.. •.. And this has just come in from
ing in big and small towns from Iowa to Texas to Arizona and jerky wind up was having another strong season. our Nation s Capital — Joe DiMaggio has done it The Yankees
all places where there was no major league baseball. By the As DiMaggio dug in for his first at bat the temperature was suggerhas. hit in 42 consecutive games a new record!”
hot June night of 1941 DiMaggio had a chance to pass George 98 degrees. The cameras were clicking down the first base And W hat 1S So important about this record is the fact that
Sisler’s American League record during a double header at line as he took his wide batting stance and on the second pitch DiMaggio extended the consecutive hitting streak to 56 games
Griffith Stadium the next day. Sisler’s hitting streak was 41 drove the ball to left field but centerfielder Doc Cramer glided before he Was stopped on an afternoon when he hit two shots
games in 1922 and the 26 year DiMaggio was at the very over and made the catch. that outfielders made outstanding plays. Since most all our
center of the baseball world and anywhere he went the auto- In the fourth inning, DiMaggio saw three pitches off the out- hitting records are now held by our steroid generation this is
graph lines metalized as if by magic. If he went to a movie, side comer work the count to 3-0 and when Joe looked to one they couldn t touch. Consistency and overcoming day by
he always sat in the back to limit the number of people who his first base coach it had already been talked about by Yan- day pressure were just part of DiMaggio s incredible run.
would recognize him and come seeking an autograph in spite kee manager Joe McCarthy, Joe was given the green light to canstil recall his wave across the fairway in Dekalb. When
of the movie in progress. swing away even though there was no score in the game. The baseball Was the king of professional sports, Joe DiMaggio
That night in Griffith Stadium against the Washington Sena- result was a pop fly on a knuckleball that was an easy catch Was certainly a prince and will not ever be forgotten as the
tors fans came from New York City, Baltimore and Phila- by the third baseman. number 56 stands as a Mount Everest as far as hitting re-
delphia to pack the stands 31,000 of them, sweating in shirt In the sixth inning with the score 3-0 in New York’s favor, cords 8° in baseball.
sleeves, jammed into the ballpark that only sat 30,600. DiMaggio missed on a Leonard slow curve. The count went
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Oaks, Judy & Oaks, Kelly. The Cleburne Eagle News (Cleburne, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, June 13, 2013, newspaper, June 13, 2013; Cleburne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1532358/m1/6/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Johnson County Historical Commission.