Tiner, 1-of-a-kind master of many trades
Bobby Tiner could beat you many ways in various sports.
Stories by Jim Bailey
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Veteran coach Parker still going strong
Jimmy “Red” Parker bobbled a ball at second base — he rarely did such a thing — and W.T. Watson of Southern Arkansas was safe at first base. Then Watson bunted…
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Braves cool off Cards, for the moment
Shortly after the 20th century turned, when the St. Louis Cardinals started winning pennants at a more rapid rate, some baseball expert pegged the Redbirds “th…
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Arkansas pitchers proving tough to hit
Veteran, skillful, well-traveled, left-handed Cliff Lee (Benton, Arkansas Razorbacks) has spent several years residing in Arkansas while earning his considerab…
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Yearning for the days of Jersey Joe
A few weeks ago, welterweight boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. won a fight worth about $32 million.
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Ingram engraved name on local lore
By the age of 82, James (Sonny) Ingram of North Little Rock had collected 100 or more victories over amateur boxers in various tournaments. From 1952, when he …
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Robinson’s return stirs memories
Brooks Robinson played baseball at Lamar Porter Field, and Bill Valentine umpired there, and both were on hand several days ago for a bountiful fund-raising ef…
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Hall calls for all-hit, no-field Jolley
Had the baseball rules been changed during the third decade of the 20th century, Smead Powell Jolley could have been turned into a designated hitter almost imm…
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Cardinals soar in supertough Central
The way they are playing, it seems as though the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates should be in a virtual tie atop the National Leagu…
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Cathey lacked size, not confidence
When Elmer Smith retired as a football coach, he spent much of a year privately publishing his memories in This Really Happened. He wrote this about his favori…
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Wilson’s Tigers still proud, still gather
In the middle to late summer, some 25 years ago, it became customary for one of the younger employees at the University of Arkansas to drive Coach Wilson Matth…
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Robinson, 76, not one to give up easily
Brooks Robinson has spent the past several years recovering from several grim injuries and illnesses, but in the middle of last week, he said confidently in a …
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Winning makes Mayweather rich
No wonder fight promoters can’t resist shoveling millions of dollars toward Floyd Mayweather, Jr., as long as he wins all 44 of his matches.
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Arkansas was home to many solid trainers
At the age of 23 in 1971, Tom Hankins was barely back from Vietnam when he registered for an amateur boxing tournament. He didn’t win that one but he came clos…
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Hudlin stirred Travs’ pot during wartime
Willis Hudlin, a long-time Cleveland Indians pitcher, retired in 1940 and looked forward to settling down as “a chicken rancher” near Hot Springs. Instead, Ark…
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42 sparks memories of Robinson’s life
Near 6 p.m. on the evening of Jan. 31, 1919, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born somewhere near the Grady County town of Cairo in southern Georgia, a few miles no…
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Muleriders remain baseball hit with fans
MAGNOLIA — The past 33 or so baseball years have been so successful for the Southern Arkansas Muleriders that wishes of their home fans quite often are rewarde…
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Dallas County Hall houses vintage talent
Sometime during April in 1952, while the Southern Arkansas University baseball team took batting practice, a man old enough to be called elderly parked his car…
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140-70 loss some going-away party
After more than 50 years, few people would recall that the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys defeated the Southern Arkansas Muleriders 140-70 at Russellville on the fi…
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Germany invades, takes over division
Believe it or not, American boxing was made for heavyweights (many people used to insist), but that was before Germany started landing a lot of heavyweight tit…
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Hall has grown while speeches shrink
There have been 55 annual Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame banquets since 1959.
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Impressive season and quiet ending
Soon after the 2012 football season opened, veteran fans of the Great American Conference teams (previously known as the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference) r…
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Mayweather, like Marciano, a rarity
Rarely does the boxing industry turn up an undefeated pro fighter — especially a heavyweight champion — but Rocky Marciano managed it: 49 fights, 49 victories,…
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Melons a bust, mascot malfunctions
Some 12 to 15 years ago, as Arkansas Travelers General Manager Bill Valentine was preparing for a midsummer Ray Winder Field doubleheader, a farmer (who happen…
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Moore, famed fighter, astute observer
When Archie Moore was about 25 years into his boxing career, he paused long enough to insert a chapter in The Archie Moore Story, naturally dictated or written…
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50 years ago, Travs played long ball
The Arkansas Travelers’ first Class AAA team, in 1963, was only a modest success but it featured bombers like Dick Allen, Cal Emery and John Hernstein. That cl…
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Sports editor once had hold on Martin
Ben Epstein was the sports editor of the Arkansas Gazette from some point in the mid-1930 s until 1943, when he went East and joined the New York Daily Mirror,…
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Baseball loses two greats in one day
By now I’m sure you’ve noticed that two baseball Hall of Famers, Stan Musial, 92, and Earl Weaver, 82, died Saturday.
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Valentine gets Travs slogans to stick
Former Arkansas Travelers General Manager Bill Valentine said recently, “It’s funny how sometimes you can develop a saying if the media picks it up and you con…
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Tales of yesteryear’s legends age well
Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe was pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1934 World Series, scarcely a year or so after graduating El Dorado High School.
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Otis, the ‘pro’ coach, lost eight twice
Two far-apart generations of Razorbacks football fans, 1950 and 2012, started those seasons with high hopes and ended in despair. The 2012 record is sufficient…
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Long day ended with yawn, victory
Not at all recently, in fact some 50 years ago, a constable on patrol at Amagon in northeast Arkansas pulled over a college bus and handed out a speeding ticke…
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No Louis, but plenty of prize money
Slightly more than 20 years ago, former Trumann middleweight contender Pete Mead issued a privately published boxing book, Blood, Sweat and Cheers. He surveyed…
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Years ago, coaches paid modest sums
The late John Barnhill possibly was the first Arkansas Razorbacks football coach to stir much interest in what his salary might be. Even by 1945 standards, it …
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Crews shifted gears in the open field
Of all the touchdowns I saw Donald Crews score for the Southern Arkansas Muleriders some 60 years ago, the two that most impressed me didn’t even count This wa…
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Jones Jr. gave U.S. heavyweight lift
Few Americans can recite the names of the world heavyweight champions. (Yes, there are two of them, two natives of Ukraine.) Wladimir Klitschko holds three of …
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Pitts rides Arkansas-or-bust career plan
The crossroads of Gaylen Pitts’ baseball career in the spring of 1969 caused him to regard it as his now or-never, make-or-break year. George Silvey, one of th…
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Muleriders coach benched the reserves
A strong possibility exists that five Southern Arkansas University athletes set endurance records 60 years ago by playing 200 consecutive minutes across the sp…
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Picking fight KO blow for columnist
Some 35 years ago, an Arkansas Democrat sports columnist (who had never boxed seriously) sought a match with a pro bantamweight.
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Stengel ruins Bearden’s good thing
Superstar sluggers and pitchers are usually destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The late Gene Bearden had an incredible year as a left-handed knuckle ball …
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Last at .340 for career all about hitting
Of the 14 major league baseball players whose lifetime average was .340 or better, the late Ted Williams was by far the most recent. And he retired 62 years ag…
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St. Louis still making right moves
Last year in the waning weeks of the 2011 season, not many St. Louis fans held much hope for a Cardinals’ club stumbling into September, 10 1/2 games behind. S…
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Foster made tough plays look ‘routine’
Some 60 years ago, Travis Foster enjoyed everything about baseball except striking out or walking.
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Sugar Ray best by game and name
It rarely required a hard-core boxing fan to inform anyone that Sugar Ray Robinson, who died at 67 in 1989, ranked “pound for pound” as the all-time greatest.
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Vanishing ball still intriguing mystery
Some 10 or 12 years ago, I thought we’d heard the last of the disappearing baseball controversy. It seems, however, that during each decade, someone else surfa…
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Moore had lots of managers, success
When light heavyweight champion Archie Moore was battering 10 hapless challengers from 1952-1960, he grew bitter at the shrinkage of his empire.
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Orioles got to enjoy Robinson, Kell
Brooks Robinson signed a Baltimore contract when he graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1955. A wise “birddog” signed Robinson for the Orioles.
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Washington seeing some Series signs
No World Series game has been played in Washington, D.C., since Oct. 7, 1933, when the New York Giants closed out the Washington Senators in five games. Nowada…
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Robinson next AIC star to join Hall?
Some basketball heroes of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference in the 1950s (Deward Dopson, E.C. O’Neal, J.P. Lovelady, Ken Saylors, Jimmy Culp, etc.) had t…
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Pirates still trying to shake losing ways
On July 25, 2011, Sports Illustrated noted that “the Pittsburgh Pirates shared the National League Central Division, tied with the St. Louis Cardinals and tied…
