Uel Eubanks

 

Uel Eubanks pitched in two games for the 1922 Chicago Cubs.

Uel Melvin Eubanks was born February 14, 1903, in either Quinlan (as is currently credited) or Royse City (as he put on his draft registration), Texas; both are ENE of Dallas. In the 1910 census his family is living in precinct #7 in Dallas. Their address is listed as 18 Border Street, but their neighbors are at 102, 117, and 109, so that doesn’t seem likely. Nearby streets are Rockwood, Lee, 11^th, and Louanna; I couldn’t locate this neighborhood in present-day Dallas. William N., 31, a collector for a loan company, and Maggie E., 27, have been married for ten years and own the house. The children are Eunice, 9; Uel, 7; and Burton, 2. One child is no longer living.

William and 16-year-old Uel are each listed in the 1919 Dallas city directory, living at 604 Storey Avenue. William is a hoseman for Engine Company #15 and Uel is a clerk for J.W. Scrimshire.

In the 1920 census, taken in January, the address is listed as 604 S. Storey Street, “on Border,” still in precinct #7; in the column for “own” or “rent” is an unidentifiable squiggle that is clearly neither an O nor an R. William has only aged eight years since 1910, to 39, while Maggie E., now listed as Eva, is 37. William is now a foreman for the city department, Eunice has moved out, “Ewell,” still 16, is a carpenter, Burton is now Bert and is 12, and added are four-year-old Frank and one-year-old Loraine.

In the 1922 city directory Uel is listed under “Ice Dealers,” still at 604 S. Storey. By then he was a star pitcher in Dallas semi-pro ball, and that summer he signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs and went straight to the major-league roster. He made his professional debut on July 20, at home against the Dodgers. He came in to pitch at the beginning of the eighth with the Cubs behind 10-1, and allowed the 11^th run, also striking out Zack Wheat for the first out. He then led off the bottom of the inning at the plate; let’s go to the AP story on the game:

Uel Eubanks, an iceman, discovered in Texas by Scout Jack Doyle and signed by the Chicago Cubs, made his major league debut when it appeared the Brooklyn Dodgers had the Cubs hopelessly beaten, and started a rally which netted Chicago six runs and threw a scare into the easterners. Eubanks stepped away from the ball and at the same time swung, crashing out a two base hit. After the team batted around a pinch hitter went to bat for the iceman, and the rally ended.

Uel didn’t get into another game until August 25, at home against the Phillies. He again came in to pitch the top of the eighth, but this time the Cubs were ahead, 26-9, having scored ten runs in the second and 14 in the 4^th. He faced ten batters, but only retired two of them, with three hitting singles, three walking, and two reaching base on errors—eight runs were charged to him in his two-thirds of an inning, but only two were earned. The Phillies added six runs in the ninth to make the score 26-23, the highest scoring game in major league history.

Uel didn’t pitch any more that season; I don’t know whether he remained on the roster the whole time. That was the end of his major league career. He had an ERA of 27.00 in 1 2/3 innings, but on the other hand he had a 1.000 batting average and a 2.000 slugging percentage.

In 1923 Uel pitched eight games for the Greenville Staplers of the Class D East Texas League, quite a comedown from Chicago, with a 4.31 run average (I don’t know how many of the runs were earned) in 48 innings. Then he pitched around Dallas. The September 2 Dallas Morning News listed the rosters of the amateur teams participating in the city championship tournament, and Uel was on two of the teams: Childers Builders of the Boosters’ League, and Dallas Milk Company of the Lone Star League. (The other teams were Simms Oil Company of the Boosters’ League, Cadillac and Dallas Power and Light Company of the City Association League, Dallas Telephone Company of the Commercial League, Crowdus Drug Company of the Federal League, Trezevant & Cochran of the Insurance League, Armstrong Plovers of the Maco League, John’s Pie Company of the City American League, Dodson-McConnell of the City National League, Stickle Lumber Company of the Dallas City League, Texas Furniture Cubs of the Merchants’ League, and First Methodist Episcopal of the Major Sunday School League.)

After that I didn’t find Uel in any newspapers until 1927. In 1924 and 1925 he was in the Dallas city directory as in ice dealer, living at 604 S Storey. On July 26, 1926, he married Miss Elsie Prescott in Dallas; however on December 9, 1927, Miss Elsie Prescott married D.B. Boyer in Dallas, and I don’t know what happened in between there. On May 5, 1927, Uel was mentioned in the Morning News as a possible starter for Victory-Wilson against Schepps-Kleber (“two of the fastest amateur teams in the city”) in a benefit game for the Disabled American Veterans of the World War. And in the 1927 city directory he still has the South Storey address but instead of ice dealer it says “Beckley Cleaners.”

From the Morning News of April 1, 1928:

Possum Eubanks’ back is pretty well cooled off now, so he is going to pitch for a while.

Roc Izard says that he is certainly glad Possum hasn’t reported to Tyler. Roc is taking his Texas Furniture crew down there Sunday.

Uel, from this point on often referred to as Possum or, occasionally, Poss, did report to Tyler, the Tyler Trojans of the Class D Lone Star League, with whom he spent the season. On May 13 the Morning News reported that he was in town looking around the sandlots for players to take back to Tyler with him. He had a 14-6 record for the Trojans, with a 4.55 run average in 186 innings in 31 games.

In early 1929 Uel was pitching for Oak Cliff Presbyterian in Dallas’ American Sunday School Baseball League before reporting to spring training with Tyler. He only pitched four games for the Trojans before moving to the San Angelo Sheep Herders of the West Texas League, also Class D. For them he had an 8-8 record and a 3.16 ERA, in 174 innings in 26 games, with 78 strikeouts and just 31 walks. That year he got an entry in the San Angelo city directory, listed as a baseball player living at 127 W College Avenue; after his name the name “Ollie” appeared in parentheses, which suggests that he had a wife named Ollie living with him.

In February 1930 it was reported that Uel was returning to the Sheep Herders, but he doesn’t seem to have pitched for them that season. In June he was back in amateur ball in Dallas, pitching for Anderson Furniture, and in mid-July he returned to the professional ranks with the El Dorado (Arkansas) Lions of the Class D Cotton States League. He pitched a four-hitter against Vicksburg in his second appearance for the Lions, but still ended up with a 6.10 ERA in 62 innings in ten games, with 49 walks. Uel apparently didn’t get counted in the 1930 census, but he did return to the Dallas city directory, where he and Ollie are shown at 7950 Maple Ave, with a business called Possum Place, whatever that was; that was the last I found of Possum Place, or of Ollie.

In 1931 Uel was out of professional baseball, and I found no other references to him. In the spring of 1932 he was pitching amateur ball in Dallas, as reported in the April 10 Morning News:

Batsmen of the Merchants League sighed in relief when they learned that Possum Eubanks, veteran pitcher of the Oak Cliff Merchants, had joined the Henderson, Texas, nine with Babe Mimms and company. Last week Possum set the Van Winkle’s Sports down in a shutout.

Henderson didn’t have a professional team, so that must have been either amateur or semi-pro. At any rate, by early August Uel was back in Dallas, pitching for Hart Furniture. 

His trail then goes cold until July 1935, when he makes his debut with the Henderson Oilers, now part of the Class C West Dixie League. He pitched five games for the Oilers, three of them starts, with a 1.97 ERA in 32 innings.

On June 23, 1936, Uel pitched for the Kilgore Braves of the Class C East Texas League, losing 3-2, but he didn’t pitch enough innings for them to appear in the final stats. After his stint in Kilgore he pitched twelve games for the Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Bucs of the Class C Western Association; he was fourth in the league in ERA at 3.53, with 47 walks and 54 strikeouts in 79 innings—and a fielding percentage of an embarrassing .786.

From Sports Editor John Galloway’s “Sports Slants” column in the Hutchinson News, March 15, 1937:

Incidentally, if Pitcher Euel “Possum” Eubanks signs a Bartlesville contract as it is expected he will, here’s a prediction that he will be one of the loop’s outstanding curvers. A giant in physique, Eubanks was coming along fast at the tail-end of the 1936 campaign.

Uel did re-sign with Bartlesville, now known as the Blues instead of the Bucs. In early June there were reports that he would be named manager, but that didn’t happen; on June 18 he pitched a three hitter, on July 16 he lost 16-4, and on July 17 he quit the team, as reported in the July 19 Hutchinson News:

Possibly Hutchinson’s 16 to 4 victory Friday night had something to do with it. Anyway Eul “Possum” Eubanks, Blue hurler, has resigned to take a job with an oil company at New London, Tex., scene of the disastrous school gas explosion last winter.

Uel’s Bartlesville stats were were a 6-10 record and 4.68 ERA in 127 innings in 20 games, with 42 walks. New London is east of Dallas, near Louisiana, but somehow he ended up in Borger, in the Texas panhandle, pitching for the semi-pro Huber Carbon Company team. At the end of July they were in Denver for the big Denver Post semi-pro tournament, which featured big names and prize money. Rogers Hornsby, just fired by the St. Louis Browns, was on the Bay Refiners team of Denver. From the August 6 Denver Post:

HIGH SPOT OF TOURNEY IS SCHEDULED TONIGHT

NEGRO STARS AND BORGER, TEX., CLASH IN FEATURE AT 8:30 P.M.

Both Teams Are Undefeated and Texans Are Out to Stop March of Chocolate Whizbangs; Brewer and Eubanks Will Pitch.

Undaunted by the perfect defensive record and latest bombing of the Bay Refiners by the Negro All-Stars, the Huber Carbons of Borger, Texas, cream of the southwest, will take the Merchants park field Friday (tonight) at 8:30 confident of stopping the Chocolate Whizbangs.

The Texans and champions of the Dominican Republic will enter Friday’s game unbeaten in three Denver Post tournament contests. Both are already in the money, but the victor will be heading toward the championship with the rich reward accruing to the top team.

Riding the crest of their pulsating 7-5 triumph over their fellow Texans from Pampa Thursday night, the Borger blasters yelled, “Bring on the Negro stars.”

Manager Roy Story declared, “I think those All-Stars can be knocked off, and we’re going to do it. We’ll be in there trying from start to finish. This ball game means a difference of thousands of dollars, if we whip them and go on to win the tournament, so we’ll shoot the works.”

Informed the All-Stars pitching selection was Chester Brewer, long, lanky righthander, Manager Story said. “We have a good chance to beat Brewer.”

Story will start “Possum” Eubanks, leading pitcher on the Bartlesville club of the Western association until he joined Borger July 15 [the date can’t be quite right]. A righthander with good control of his speed and curves, Eubanks has the confidence of his mates who believe he will be hard to hit under the lights.

The Dominican Republic team included, besides Brewer, Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Leroy Matlock, Showboat Thomas, and Sam Bankhead. They had not been scored upon in their first three games; they beat the Borger team 17-1, knocking Uel out of the game with six runs in two thirds of an inning. Two nights later Uel pitched an inning of relief in a 14-7 loss to the Halliburton Cementers of Duncan, Oklahoma, who then beat the Dominican Republic and Satchel Paige 6-4 before losing the championship game in the double elimination tournament, 11-1, to Leroy Matlock.

Uel’s professional career was now over, and if he continued to play semi-pro or amateur ball I didn’t find any references to it, not that there would necessarily be any. The 1940 census shows Uel, age 37, and wife Lorraine Eubanks, age 28, not his sister, living at 315 S. Beckley Avenue in Dallas, renting, one of four households at that address. It says they lived at the same place in 1935, which I suppose is possible. Uel is the proprietor-owner of a café, worked 48 hours the previous week, and is listed as having completed the 7^th grade, while Lorraine has one year of college to her credit.

On November 5, 1940, seven months after the census was taken, U.M. Eubanks and Loraine [sic] Corn got married in Rockwall County, just east of Dallas. Apparently it was time to make it official. Uel’s obituary would mention a daughter, Uelaine, who I imagine was born to him and Lorraine sometime after the 1940 census.

Uel filled out a draft registration card on February 16, 1942. He gave his address as 309 S. Beckley, and the “person who will always know your address” is S.A. Black, apparently his mother’s second husband, at the old Eubanks family home at 604 S. Storey. Uel is self-employed, 6-3, 225, with gray eyes, brown hair, and light complexion.

In the 1947 Dallas city directory “Uell” and Lorraine are living at 613 S Storey. Uel is operating a barbecue at 306 S Beckley. In July 1948 Uel’s father died at age 68. On July 30, 1950, a real estate classified ad ran in the Dallas Morning News:

30 FT. ON BECKLEY

Just 2 doors off Jefferson. Now occupied by Poss Eubanks, must be sold by Tuesday. Exclusive.

Y-8-8876 FAGG M-1850

Uel passed away on November 21, 1954, at age 51, at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, of a cerebral hemorrhage, due to acute clotting defect, in turn possibly due to cirrhosis. Under other significant conditions were listed cirrhosis, what looks like “G.S. hemorrhage,” and possible hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He was listed as a painting and roofing contractor, living at 312 South Cumberland in Dallas. Lorraine was the informant.

From the next day’s Morning News:

U.M. Eubanks, Ex-Chicago Pitcher, Dies

Uel Melvin (Poss) Eubanks, 51, a former Chicago Cub pitcher from Dallas and 50-year resident here, died Sunday in a Dallas hospital after a brief illness.

Eubanks played on sand lot and semi-pro teams in the Dallas area for several years before joining the Chicago Cubs of the National League as a pitcher in 1922. He played for several years with various minor league and semi-pro baseball teams after injurying [sic] his collar bone pitching for the Cubs [I didn’t see anything about that anywhere else].

Eubanks, a native of Royse City, moved to Dallas as a child with his parents and had lived here most of his life. His residence was at 312 South Cumberland. He was in the construction business.

Surviving are his wife and a daughter, Uelaine Eubanks and his mother, Mrs. Eva Black, all of Dallas; two brothers, Burton C. Eubanks of Dallas and Sgt. James F. Eubanks of Alaska; two sisters, Mrs. C.D. Todd of Dallas and Mrs. Horace E. Gill of Okmulgee, Okla.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Monday in the Dudlty [sic] M. Hughes Funeral Chapel, 400 East Jefferson, with Dr. Thomas W. Currie, pastor of the Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church, officiating. Burial will be in Laurel Land Memorial Park.

Pallbearers will be Arch Lambert, Charles Sanford, L.W. Sanford, Wilbur Sanford, J.D. Keys and Robert Young.

A shorter but similar obituary ran in the Sporting News on December 1. Lorraine remarried in 1977 and passed away in 1982.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/E/Peubau101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eubanue01.shtml