St. Louis baseball legend Stan Musial dies January 19, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, People, Sports.add a comment
Stan Musial, the greatest player for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and one of the city’s most beloved figures, died at age 92 on Saturday, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other media outlets.
We’ll let sports writers across the globe wax eloquently about Stan the Man’s awesome batting statistics and his humble public persona. Obviously, St. Louis sits as a prominent city on Route 66. But here’s the most relevant point — Musial played a role in sparking the writing career of a man who helped led the Mother Road’s revival in the 1990s, Michael Wallis.
It started when Wallis, at age 12, won an essay contest and earned at trip to a Cardinals game. Wallis’ father was given a box seat, while the boy was escorted to the home team’s dugout. We’ll let a 2011 article in Urban Tulsa tell the tale:
So excited he could barely breathe, he quickly found himself ensconced on the Cardinal bench between two of his heroes, third baseman Ken Boyer and outfielder Stan “the Man” Musial — the former on his way to becoming a St. Louis legend and the latter already there. To this day, Wallis can recall the peculiar aroma of sweat and tobacco juice, even urine, permeating the filthy, dank dugout, ballplayers being the vilest of professional athletes in terms of their personal habits.
But the young dugout visitor felt no revulsion to the smell. To him, it was merely another element in an experience that was nearly incomprehensible in its grandeur.
“I was catatonic,” Wallis said, laughing, recalling how he sat glassy eyed and slack-jawed among the spitting, swearing, crotch-scratching ballplayers for two and a half hours before the fabled Musial ended the proceedings with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth to win it for the Redbirds — the perfect end to a perfect day for the young visitor.
Riding home in a limo after the game, Wallis’ father gazed at the autographed baseballs his son received and said: ”You know, this writing is not a bad deal.” The younger Wallis agreed.
Wallis later became the author the best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road,” which spurred the renaissance of Route 66.
Expect a lot of glum faces and remarkable stories about Stan the Man in the next few days in the Gateway City and much of the Midwest. Having once lived near St. Louis for a number of years, I can attest that it’s difficult to exaggerate how esteemed Musial was.
(Photo of the Stan Musial statue and the Gateway Arch by ChrisGoldNY, via Flickr)
Frank Pastore, former Big Texan speed-eating champion, dies December 17, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in People, Restaurants, Sports.1 comment so far
Frank Pastore, a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher who ate the fabled 72-ounce steak dinner at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in a record 9 1/2 minutes in 1987, died Monday from complications after suffering severe injuries in a motorcycle accident.
Pastore’s death was announced by KKLA radio, a Christian station in Glendale, Calif., that hosted “The Frank Pastore Show” for nearly nine years. Pastore suffered severe head injuries a when a car hit his motorcycle on Interstate 210 in Duarte, Calif., on Nov. 19.
Pastore pitched for seven seasons with the Reds from 1979 to 1985, then with the Minnesota Twins in 1986. He compiled a 48-58 record. He landed with minor-league Oklahoma City in 1987 before retiring. Pastore’s baseball career probably was shortened when a line drive broke his elbow during a game in 1984. But the experience led him to Christianity.
But inhaling the big steak dinner at the Amarillo, Texas, landmark seven times in less than an hour — including the one in record time — remained one of his biggest claims to fame. He wrote in a column about it for Townhall.com:
The first time I did it was in February 1976, on my way to my first Spring Training with the Cincinnati Reds, and I did it in 21 minutes. That fall, on my way home, I completed it in 19 minutes. The next spring, 17; on the way home, 15; the following spring, 13; then 11 on the way home in 1978.
My fastest time—and the world record for almost 21 years—was set in May 1987 in which I did it in 9½ minutes. I thought it would be my last time through town, since my career was coming to an end, and I was right. I haven’t been back to the most famous steak house in the world since then.
I’ve always been so proud of The Record. In many ways, I’m more known for The Steak than I am for my 8-year mediocre pitching career or my radio show in Los Angeles.
Pastore also recounted in the Big Texan’s self-published “Story of the Free 72-oz. Steak” book:
“Every year, when I went to and from camp, I stopped at the Big Texan. I ate the steak as fast as I could and used a full bottle of A-1 steak sauce. I always ordered cheesecake and coffee, afterwards. [...]
“I was pitching for the minor leagues. The fans would come up to me after a game for my autograph. The first couple of times this happened, I was thrilled, but I quickly learned that my fame wasn’t from baseball, it was because of the 72 oz. steak!”
Competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut beat Pastore’s record in 2008 by gobbling the 72-ounce steak dinner in 8 minutes, 52 seconds. Remember, the dinner doesn’t include only the 4 1/2-pound steak. It also features a salad, dinner roll, baked potato, and a shrimp cocktail.
“You know, these professionals are taking all the fun out of gluttony,” Pastore quipped upon hearing the news.
UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has published an obituary. The article mentions that comments during Pastore’s final radio show were eerily prescient about his ultimately fatal crash.
Route 66 Marathon becoming a big-time event November 19, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Sports.add a comment
It’s been about 24 hours since the Williams Route 66 Marathon finished in Tulsa. The event is less than a decade old, but it’s become huge. The evidence:
- It sold out weeks before the starting gun, and the total number of participants was in the thousands.
- Tonight, the event already will be taking registrations for the 2013 race, which is Nov. 23-24.
- The overall winner — Curtis Huffman of Wessington Springs, S.D., in 2 hours, 39 minutes, 24 seconds — and a quick perusal of the finishers showed the marathon has attracted runners from all over the country.
- An apparent world record was set during Sunday’s big race. Camille Herron of Warr Acres, Okla., ran the entire 26.2-mile course in a head-to-foot Spider-Man costume. Not only did her time of 2:48:51 break the costumed-marathon record by 20 minutes, but she was the first female finisher in the Tulsa race.
- Even slowpokes in the event get a big welcome at the finish line.
The marathon course, if you’re wondering, includes small portions of 11th Street, Southwest Boulevard, and Second Street — which which were alignments of Route 66. The course itself is a great way to see Tulsa in general.
UPDATE 11/22/2012: Here’a a video produced by Fleet Feet Sports of Tulsa:
Tulsa’s Rose Bowl now is home to youth training center October 25, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in People, Preservation, Sports.add a comment
The historic Rose Bowl building along 11th Street (aka Route 66) in Tulsa now has become the home of the One Hope Tulsa training center for youth, according to a report from KTUL-TV in Tulsa.
The station reported:
This organization reaches out to disadvantaged and at-risk students through sports and tutoring. Rex Blankenship, the One Hope Training Center President, says his family grew up knowing how important sports, education, and faith are in life. He also says research shows, students involved in these type of varsity sports are 75 percent more likely to graduate.
“We introduce them to new sports besides basketball or soccer and to help them to see that they could maybe excel in one of those areas,” says Rex Blankenship.
The program already reaches two hundred kids each week but with the new basketball court and the place to grow they are expecting more.
On One Hope Tulsa’s website about the Rose Bowl’s history, it said:
New ownership came to this distinctive landmark at the beginning of 2012 as One Hope Vision Ministries purchased the building with plans to restore the outside of the Rose Bowl to its original historical appearance while renovating the interior for use as a youth training center for sports clinics, tutoring, and mentoring relationships.
The page shows the new layout of the Rose Bowl, with the basketball court on one section and a large, open “sports turf” area on the other. A library, classroom, coffee shop, kitchen, welcome center, media game room, and tables and viewing areas are found on the sides.
The distinctively shaped Rose Bowl at 7419 E. 11th St. (aka Route 66) was built as a bowling alley in 1961 until its closure after two arson fires in 2005. After it closed, AMF slapped the facility with a noncompete clause, rendering it useless to be reopened as a bowling alley.
Chris Whinery of Whinery Mortgage renovated the facility and reopened it as the Rose Bowl Events Center in 2008. However, the 33,000-square-foot building opened only sporadically.
First-timer breaks record at Mother Road Marathon October 15, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Sports.add a comment
A first-time marathoner at Sunday’s Mother Road Marathon not only won the race, but broke a course record in the process.
Andrew Webb, 22, of Webb City, Mo., finished the 26.2-mile course on Route 66 from Commerce, Okla., to Joplin, Mo., in 2 hours, 46 minutes, 4 seconds, according the Joplin Globe. It broke the record of 2:51:57 by Ryan Kramer, of Des Moines, Iowa, in 2010.
Webb, who had competed on the Missouri Southern cross country team until March, had never competed in a race longer than 10 kilometers before Sunday. However, it seems he excels at the longer distances.
“I quit running for Missouri Southern,” Webb said. “There was about a three month period where I wasn’t running at all. My mom called me and said the Joplin Road Runners were having a meeting, so I attended it in June. They gave me this workout schedule. I did everything on it, and obviously it worked out.”
Webb won the race by two minutes over George Bene, 43, of Joplin, who also was running at a course-record pace.
Krystal Schwartz, 24, a soldier at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, was the top women’s finisher at 3:28:19.
The Globe said about 700 runners participated in the annual event, which also included half-marathon and five-kilometer races.
About 640 people ran in the event last year, so the Mother Road Marathon saw about a 10 percent increase in participation in 2012.
Early owner of 66 Bowl dies October 2, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Signs, Sports.add a comment
Wiley Bell, one of the founders of the now-closed 66 Bowl in Oklahoma City, died at age 95 about a week ago, according to an obituary in The Oklahoman newspaper.
The bowling alley sat along original Route 66, which is now known as NW 39 Expressway. Bell was manager of 66 Bowl from 1964 through 1978; he told The Oklahoman in a 2009 interview that the house remained open 24 hours “in the early years” because bowling was so popular and everyone wanted to learn how to play.
The 66 Bowl closed in 2010 after an investment by the current owner soured, and now is a grocery store. The famous 66 Bowl sign was purchased at auction by Team JYD, a design firm that says will eventually restore it.
Bell earned a Bronze Star in World War II, and rolled a perfect game at another local bowling alley in 1962. He eventually was inducted into the Oklahoma City Bowling Hall of Fame.
Edmond softball complex will take on Route 66 and Pops theme September 20, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants, Sports.1 comment so far
A new softball complex being built on the east edge of Edmond, Okla., will feature a Mother Road theme, reported The Oklahoman newspaper.
The $5.7 million project for four softball diamonds broke ground Wednesday.
The complex entrance will be four miles east of Interstate 35 on Second Street. The concessions and restrooms will have a Route 66 theme, similar to that of Pop’s Restaurant, which is about a half-mile farther east.
Construction is expected to start next week and last for about a year.
The money comes from a sales tax for capital improvements approved by voters in 2000.
An artist’s rendering of the restrooms and concession areas can be seen here. And, yes, it does look like the cantilevered canopy and main building that is Pops.
