Bill Windle was a first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates
in 1928 and 1929, playing a total of three games.
Willis Brewer Windle was born in Galena, Kansas, on December
13, 1904, to William, a livery barn operator, and Myrtle Windle. He had two significantly
older siblings, Guy and Mamie. By 1910 they had moved to 2318 Virginia Avenue
in Joplin, Missouri, where William continued in the same line of work. In 1920
they were living at 815 Pine Street in Texarkana, Texas; the two older kids
were out of the house, Willis was 15, and William’s occupation was given as
owner of “horse & mule ma…,” the last word being indecipherable, at least
to me. But by the time school started that fall they were back in Joplin, where
Willis went to high school. He lettered in baseball, basketball, and football
all three years, and track as a senior. A 1927 article in the Joplin News-Herald, headlined “Choosing
Joplin’s Greatest Athlete Proves Hard Job for Sports Critics,” named Willis and
Buford Potts as the two leading candidates:
Opinion as to who is the better—Windle or Potts—is about evenly divided. Both were unusual football players, and both furnished their share of thrills in every game. They both were stars in basket ball, Potts at center, and Windle at forward. In the other two sports, baseball and track, Windle was to the former what Potts was on the cinders—a sparkling performer…
Among the other athletes mentioned in the article were two
of Willis’ cousins, Jewell and Wayne Windle, both slightly older. We’ll be
seeing Wayne again later. The verse accompanying Willis’ photo in his
senior-year (1923) annual read:
You may soon join the Yankees, here’s hoping that you do.
But don’t, Bill, for your School’s sake, be Jack Keefe number 2!
Jack Keefe was the main character and narrator in Ring
Lardner’s 1916 collection of baseball stories, You Know Me Al, which inspired a comic strip that was running in
newspapers in 1923. While Willis’ photo is identified as “Willis Windle,” the
verse shows us that people were calling him “Bill.” During his professional
career, the newspapers mainly called him Willis early on, and mainly Bill
later. I’m going to go with Bill, starting now.
Bill made his professional baseball debut on May 18, 1923,
for the Joplin Miners of the Class C Western Association, as mentioned in the
next day’s Joplin Globe:
With the ink scarcely dry on his high school diploma, Bill Windle, former Red and Green football star, covered himself with glory when in the second inning he smacked a two-base hit down the third-base line, driving in Jimmy McLaughlin with the Miners’ first counter.
Bill long has entertained an ambition to enter the ranks of professional baseball and he made an auspicious start yesterday. In addition to punching out his timely single [it was a double a second ago], he covered first base in grand style, accepting thirteen chances without a bobble.
Somewhere around the beginning of July it was decided that
Bill needed more experience before he was ready for the Western Association,
and he was optioned down to the Paducah Indians of the Class D
Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee (Kitty) League. A few weeks after that he was
transferred to Guthrie of the Class D Oklahoma State League. No stats are
available for any of his stops that season.
Once the baseball season ended Bill quickly decided to
attend the University of Missouri. He starred for the freshman football team,
then somehow was able to play baseball in the spring despite having played
professionally—that should have made him ineligible. I didn’t find any mention
of him playing football during his sophomore year, but he starred for the
varsity baseball team; in his junior year, 1925-26, he played varsity football,
basketball and baseball.
I don’t know whether he started his senior year at Missouri,
but if he did he didn’t finish it, and in the spring of 1927 he was back in
professional baseball, with the Salisbury Colonials of the Class C Piedmont
League. He hit .309/.363/.482, with 48 doubles, 12 triples and nine home runs,
104 runs, and 85 RBI in 573 at-bats. He led the league in doubles, in stolen
bases with 38, and in errors by a first baseman with 26. On September 10, the
last day of the season, it was announced that he had been sold to the
Pittsburgh Pirates. Salisbury had finished last in the first half of the split
season, but first in the second half, and played a best-of-five championship
series against first half champs Raleigh. After the second game Bill was
sidelined with what turned out to be appendicitis, and lost the chance not only
to play in the rest of the series, which Salisbury won in five games, but also
to finish the season in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates would go to the World
Series.
In 1928, before spring training even started, the Pirates
optioned Bill to the Columbia Comers of the Class B Sally League. They had
acquired Sparky Adams to play second base, which allowed them to move George
Grantham from second to first, so they wanted Bill to go somewhere he could
play regularly. He hit .306, but with much less power than in 1927: 18 doubles,
nine triples, and two homers, for a slugging percentage of .389, in 504
at-bats. On September 11 it was announced that he was being recalled by the
Pirates, and he left Columbia after their final game on the 15th. He
got into his first major league game in Brooklyn on the 27th, when
he replaced Grantham at first in the middle of the sixth inning with the Pirates
down 6-0, in the second game of a season-ending doubleheader. He came up to bat
with one out in the eighth and doubled, then after another out scored on a
single by Fred Brickell. That was his only at-bat of the season, and later in
life he would joke that he led the National League in batting that year.
The 1929 Joplin city directory shows Bill living at 649
Jaccard Place, with mother Myrtle, now a widow. He went to spring training with
the Pirates, but they assigned him to the Omaha Crickets of the Class A Western
League. The Omaha World-Herald
reported on April 9:
WINDLE ASSURED OF STEADY PLACE AS FIRST BASEMAN
New Cricket Player, Former Missourian Collegian, Hits Double, Two Singles in Practice Game.
…Windle led with a double and two singles in three times up in the abbreviated game. The kid is there as a hitter and can play the first bag as well as Snake Henry did back in 1926. Pug Griffin will never get the job back unless he waylays Windle with a sap some dark night.
Pug Griffin didn’t get his job back—he got moved to the
outfield. Bill spent the whole season at first base, batting second and fourth
in the order, and had a big year. He hit .342 with a slugging percentage of
.523, with 29 doubles, eight triples, and 21 home runs in 597 at-bats, with 124
runs scored and 33 stolen bases, and led the league in errors by a first
baseman with 32. On September 18 the World-Herald
ran this item:
Windle to Finish Baseball Season with Pittsburgh
First Baseman Willis Windle of the Crickets left Tuesday [17th] night for Pittsburgh to finish the season with the Pirates, having been recalled by the club by which he is owned. With the National league race just about decided in favor of the Cubs, Windle expects to play quite a few games with the Pirates the next two weeks. Windle will winter in Omaha, returning here after the season closes October 6.
He actually only got into two games. On the 20th,
at home against Boston, he pinch-hit for first baseman Earl Sheely in the
seventh with the Pirates ahead 10-2 and struck out, then remained in the game
at first. And on the 27th, in St. Louis, he played one inning at
first after Sheely had been removed for a pinch-runner.
It seems as though the Pirates’ opinion of Bill had somehow
taken a hit, as on November 4 they sold him to the Newark Bears of the Class AA
International League (and then a month later they purchased Gus Suhr, who would
be their first baseman for the next decade, from the San Francisco Seals). The
sale was reported in the Sporting News
of November 14 under the headlines “NEWARK TRYING TO CORNER MARKET ON FIRST
BASEMEN” and “Addition of Willis Windle from Pittsburg, Gives Bears Four
Initial Sackers; at Least Two Will Probably Be Used in Strengthening Deals.”
I couldn’t find Bill in the 1930 census; Myrtle was living
in Joplin with his sister Mamie and her family. He beat out the other three
contenders for the Newark first base job, and was leading the league in batting
average at .402 in late May. He wound up at .331 with a .505 slugging
percentage, with 29 doubles, 14 triples and 12 homers in 537 at-bats, with 98
runs, 103 RBI, and 23 stolen bases, and did not lead first basemen in errors.
On March 12, 1931, in Joplin, Bill got married, to Alta
Agnes “Faye” Famuliner; then, presumably, he left for spring training with the
Bears. He
had an off-year, hitting .269/.323/.403 with 15 doubles, four triples and nine
home runs in 372 at-bats in 117 games. On December 3 he appeared on Newark’s
reserve list, then two weeks later the Sporting
News reported: “In all probability, Willis Windle will be sold or traded.
Rochester wants him to succeed Sisler.” Rochester, also in the International
League, got him, though not until February; the Sporting News reported on February 25:
ROCHESTER BUYS WINDLE TO FILL ONLY POSITION OPEN ON INFIELD
Newark Sells First Baseman After Refusing Several Offers from Red Wings Last Season; Wilson Will Go to Third Base if New Shortstop is Obtained
ROCHESTER, N.Y.—The big open spot in the Red Wings’ infield at first base has been filled by the purchase of Willis (Bill) Windle from the Newark Bears. The deal was announced by President Warren C. Giles of the Red Wings, although the cash consideration was not stated.
Windle was purchased from the Grizzlies upon the recommendation of Skipper Billy Southworth, who has seen enough of Windle the last two years to know what the young fellow can do.
Southworth was after Windle several times last season and from August until the end of the schedule several offers were made to the Bears for the player, but all were turned down. The close race for first place between the two teams probably caused the Bears to refuse the offers to trade players for Windle.
Last season, Windle suffered a severe slump, batting .269. He appeared dissatisfied at Newark. He did not display the enthusiasm he showed in 1930, when he batted .332 [actually .331], stole 23 bases and batted in 103 runs. Because of Windle’s dissatisfaction, there were rumors from time to time last year that he would be traded to another team.
Skipper Southworth believes Windle will return to his 1930 form with the Red Wings. Billy always has been able to handle players of Windle’s temperament and sees no reason why he should fail in this case.
The switch made a happy man of Windle. He wired President Giles of his feelings and he said he felt confident the Wings would not regret the purchase.
To balance the 1932 edition of the minor league champions, Windle is the right type of ball player. He is a left-handed hitter who can clout them over the Stadium’s right field wall once in awhile and he has speed. Were Windle not a southpaw batter, it is likely he would not have been purchased.
The news was in the Omaha
World-Herald the next day:
Windle, Once Packer Signed by Rochester
Bill Windle, who used to hold down first base for the Omaha Packers [actually they changed their name from Crickets to Packers the year after he played for them], will play with Rochester this season, Omaha friends have been informed. Windle was under contract to Newark last year, but when offered a contract calling for a 34 per cent reduction refused to sign. So Rochester purchased him and he has signed a new contract.
Windle had a bad year in 1931, batting only .269, claiming his poor showing was because of his dissatisfaction with conditions at Newark.
Bill started 1932 playing first base for Rochester, batting
leadoff, but after 36 unimpressive games he somehow made his way to the Toronto
Maple Leafs of the same league. After 19 games there, where he hit .200 with no
power, he was optioned to the York White Roses of the Class B New
York-Pennsylvania League. He only lasted 13 games there before the Eastern
League folded and York was able to scoop up a first baseman they liked better.
This took place on July 27, and that seems to have been the end of Bill’s
season. A 1975 article on Bill said that he “was sold to Rochester for the 1932
season. One day he hit second base wrong on a slide and broke a vertebra. His
playing days were over.”
His playing days were in fact not over. From the November
24, 1932, Sporting News:
WINDLE GIVES TOOTH FOR EYE
Bad Vision and Lame Back That Resulted in Batting Slump Due to Faulty Molar.
JOPLIN, Mo.—Bill Windle’s back went lame on him last summer and his batting mark started fading in the midst of his second season in the International League. Physicians examined him, searched for the trouble and found nothing wrong. After repeated failures to locate the trouble, Bill gave up in disgust, came home to Joplin and said “he was through with baseball.”
After two months’ treatment on an injured vertebrae and the back as sore as ever, Bill took matters into his own hand, visited a clinic in Kansas City and there had an eye tooth extracted. It was discovered the tooth had caused all the trouble in the back and also weakened his right eye.
The tooth was yanked two months ago and now the southpaw first sacker, who starred two years ago with the Newark Bears, declares he is as fit as ever and ready for another fling at the game which has kept him busy since his school days.
Windle had several contracts offered by AA clubs after he decided to retire, but would not accept because of his physical trouble and poor showing at the time he quit. Bill was rated one of the best first basemen in the minor leagues during his 1930 season with Newark, and believes the remedied optic will be focusing around the .335 mark by next spring.
Omaha World-Herald,
February 26, 1933:
MANY SEEKING JOB AS PACKERS’ PILOT
Haney, Wahoo Sam Are Among Applicants; Favor Windle
Barney Burch is trying to decide on a manager for his Western League entry, providing the Western decides to operate.
There is no dearth of managerial talent and several of those seeking to pilot the Omaha club are familiar to local fans.
Among them is Fred Haney, who used to play third base. Burch sold him to the big leagues.
Willis Windle, who played first base for Omaha in 1929 is another applicant, and Wahoo Sam Crawford, still another, is one of baseball’s immortals.
There are a half dozen lesser lights.
Burch admits that Windle has the inside track. The lusty clouter is now the property of the Montreal club of the International league, but has advised Burch that he can obtain his release, providing he lands a managerial job.
Windle was one of the most popular latter day players to sport the Packer [Cricket] colors. A good hitter and a dependable fielder, he would fit in nicely.
The Western League did operate that year, and Omaha was in
the league, but there were a lot of complications as the team was forced into
bankruptcy and Bill’s old friend Pug Griffin was given the receivership and
became the manager. On March 2 it was reported that Bill had been signed by the
New Orleans Pelicans of the Class A New Orleans Pelicans. From the March 12 New Orleans States:
Windle, With Pelicans, Played Against Tulane
Two boys who, in other years, appeared on the local football fields in the roles of friendly enemies, are now aspiring for regular positions on the Pelican baseball team. Willis Windle, who is making a bid for the first base job is a former Missouri player. He was a star halfback on the team that tied Tulane here, 6 to 6, in the second game of the 1925 season. Incidentally, that was the year the team captained by Lester Lautenschlaeger went through the entire season unbeaten, and also gained national prominence by beating Northwestern.
“I’ll never forget the two games I played with Missouri against Tulane,” said Windle the other day at the ball park. “Our battle here in 1925 was a real one. One of our players had his leg broken in the first play of the game. The following year when Tulane came to Missouri to play us, the battle was fought on a terribly muddy field and ended in a scoreless tie. Tulane gave us a real battle in each contest.”
The Pelicans released Bill on April 7, and in mid-May he
signed with the Oklahoma City Indians of the Class A Texas League. He played
first base for them the rest of the way and hit .278/.344/.370 with 16 doubles,
nine triples, three homers and 16 stolen bases in 468 at-bats.
On March 30, 1934, the Houston
Chronicle reported that “Bruce Sloan, Oklahoma City outfielder, who signed
his 1934 contract, will be shifted to first base to take the place of Willis
Windle, who hasn’t signed his new contract.” That was the only mention of Bill
that I found from 1934, and apparently he didn’t play baseball. But he wasn’t
done, and in 1935 he turned up with the Gladewater Bears of the Class C West
Dixie League; he played first base in 60 of the team’s 132 games and batted .310
with a .400 slugging percentage.
In 1936 Bill was back with Gladewater, now in the East Texas
League, still Class C and with most of the same teams as the 1935 West Dixie
League. He played 135 games, all at first base, and hit .288 with, again, a .400
slugging percentage, on 34 doubles, eight triples and three home runs, and 31
stolen bases.
The December 3 Sporting
News listed “Wayne Brewer Windle” on the Gladewater reserve list, cousin
Wayne’s first name with Bill’s middle name, which begins a year of confusion
for the researcher. Throughout the first three months of 1937 there were
newspaper stories naming Bill as the new manager of the Texarkana Liners, who
were the Gladewater team transplanted, and also newspaper stories naming Wayne
as the new manager. Stories naming Bill would include details about his
previous career, and stories naming Wayne would include details about his, so
it wasn’t as simple as printing the wrong name—the different reporters were
reporting on different people. The last reference to the Liner manager as Wayne
that I found, though, was from an April 12 game report; since he was called
Bill for the rest of the season, plus he was playing first base (Wayne was
normally a shortstop), and the timeline fits in with Bill’s subsequent
movements, I feel pretty confident that it was Bill.
Bill played himself at first base, as I just said, and
batted himself sixth. The season seems to have been pretty uneventful until
July 16 and a game described in the Sporting
News of July 22:
Sit-Down Strike in Texas
JACKSONVILLE, Tex.—A sit-down strike was staged by the Texarkana Liners in the fourth inning of an East Texas League game with the Jax here, July 16, following Umpire Ed Keller’s action in ordering Manager Bill Windle of the Liners out of the game. As Windle left, he instructed his men on the bench to sit tight. They did—and there was no more ball game. Keller forfeited the contest to Jacksonville and Windle and Pitcher Bill Vandenberg drew fines.
Also in the same issue:
July 18: Bill Windle resigns as manager to become business manager of Texarkana East Texas League club, with Eddie Hock, late pilot of Monroe, succeeding him as manager.
The Monroe Twins of the Cotton States League and the
Texarkana Liners were owned by the same man, R.W. Burnett. He announced that
Monroe would have to drop out of the league because the Vicksburg team was
doing so, then moved Monroe’s manager, Hock, to Texarkana along with some of
the players, while moving Bill to the business manager position. However, the
rest of the Cotton States League voted not to let Monroe and Vicksburg leave,
and said they would have to finish the season even if the league had to take
over the teams. Burnett kept control of the Monroe team but promoted one of
their players to manager and kept Hock at Texarkana. On July 29 Bill,
supposedly the business manager at Texarkana, turned up playing first base and
batting second for Monroe. He played for them through August 1, then
disappeared. (Confusingly, in November 1938 cousin Wayne was part of a group of
Texarkana citizens who bought the team from Burnett, and he became the business
manager.)
The next mention of Bill I found was in the Joplin Globe of October 17: “Mr. and
Mrs. Willis Windle and son, Philip, of Texarkana returned last week from Osceola
to continue their visit with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cole [sister Mamie and her
husband] and Mrs. Mary James.” The same paper reported on October 30: “Mr. and
Mrs. Charles B. Davis of Osceola and Mr. and Mrs. Willis Windle and son,
Philip, of Texarkana, who have been the guests of Joplin relatives, left
yesterday for a vacation visit in Corpus Christi, Tex.”
Bill and Faye apparently really liked their vacation visit
in Corpus Christi—they stayed there for the rest of their lives. Bill opened a
tourist court at 3625 Timon Boulevard in the North Beach area, calling it
Koronado Kourts. In April 1938 he joined the North Beach Kiwanis Club, and in
the following years was seemingly part of every club and committee in town,
often as chairman: the Community Chest, the city softball leagues rules
committee, the Corpus Christi Recreation Board, the Methodist Church’s church
visitation group, the Coastal Bend Tourist Association, the Masonic Lodge, the
City Park Board, the City Planning Commission. He organized North Beach’s Boy
Scout troop, and coached the Kiwanis Club junior baseball team.
Along the way
he and Faye had a second son, William. Early on they lived on site at the
Kourts, but by 1946 had moved to 139 Naples Street.
On July 1, 1975, the Corpus
Christi Times ran a feature article on Bill, from which I have drawn a few
facts for this post. Here's some of it:
Appendicitis, Vertebra Ruined a Budding Career
By Al Carter, Sports Staff
Let it be said at the beginning that the name of Willis B. Windle is not strange to newspaper columns. He has been a successful motel owner on the Bayfront for 37 years. He was a driving force in efforts to improve North Beach in the fifties.
It is always mentioned, but rarely dwelled upon, that Bill Windle was a professional baseball player during the early days of the Depression.
Visitors may pack his Koronado Kourts daily, but few will realize that the owner once played on the same Pittsburgh Pirate team in 1928 and 1929 as Paul and Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor, Glenn Wright and Burleigh Grimes…
Appearing in only three big league games does not limit Windle’s story-telling. He was once a much-publicized minor league holdout. He once played ball in the Midwest under an assumed name. He once was benched for refusing to go along with a scheme to cover up his manager’s extramarital activities…
Windle chuckles now when he thinks of how baseball has changed since his playing days.
“When I joined the Pirates as a rookie in 1928, we got $3.75 a day meal money,” Windle said. “We rookies were thrilled to death. I had just come from the Sally League where you got $1.75 a day. Now they get something like $23 a day meal money.”
Windle shakes his head even more when he sees first basemen play his position today.
“It’s disgraceful some of the things you see at first base,” he said. “Jim Bottomley, Bill Terry, Joe Judge and the ultimate, George Sisler. Those were the great first basemen. Now they just put a guy there who can’t play anywhere else. I see more ball games lost at first base today.”
…Such experiences “I wouldn’t trade for anything,” Windle said.
“My only regret is that I didn’t make full use of the talents God gave me. If only He would have given me a little more intellect to go with the talent, I sure would have appreciated it.”
Bill was 70 years old at the time of the article; at some
point after that he retired, and he and Faye, who had had a career as a nurse,
moved to 1111 Ocean Drive. On December 8, 1981, five days short of his 77th
birthday, Bill passed away at a Corpus Christi hospital. Faye followed him in
1990.
(Cousin Wayne had died back in 1954.)
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