Glory days of summer

Oklahoma's influence on baseball in America is phenomenal. One of every ten of the 14,000 men who have played major league baseball since 1876 have come through Oklahoma. Many of the diamond heroes were born in or died in Oklahoma while others played sandlot, college, or minor league baseball in the Sooner State. Some of the names of the Oklahoma baseball players are legendary ... Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn, Carl Hubbell, Lloyd and Paul Waner, and Dizzy and Daffy Dean. Others are more obscure ... Cat Clanton of Antlers struck out in his only major league at-bat. Lefty Goodell of Muskogee pitched three innings for the 1928 White Sox. Cal Browning of Burns Flat pitched two-thirds of an inning for the 1960 Cardinals. Some of baseball's most intriguing personalities with colorful nicknames such as Allie "Super Chief" Reynolds, Harry "The Cat" Brecheen, Joe "Burrhead" Dobson, Pepper "Wild Horse of the Osage" Martin, Roy "Peaches" Davis, Dorrell "Whitey" Herzog, and "Bullet Joe" Rogan, cut their baseball teeth in Oklahoma. The baseball immortality of Oklahoma players is preserved on the pages of the official record books: Mike Marshall's 106 appearances in 1974; Joe McGinnity's 44 complete games in 1903; Jim Gentile's five grand slams in 1961; Jake Beckley's 23,696 putouts; and Gus Weyhing's 286 hit batsmen, a record that has stood for 97 years and is likely to endure through the next millennium. Oklahoma and baseball are inseparable. The players and their stories are woven permanently into the fabric of American life.