Stevens: Baseball ghosts fill Bell Park

link David Stevens

The history of eastern New Mexico usually begins with Clovis Man about 13,000 years ago, then skips to Billy the Kid at Portales Springs and usually ends up in Norman Petty’s rock and roll recording studio.

But my favorite regional ghosts began gathering in a field of dreams on East Seventh Street in Clovis at least 86 years ago.

The history of Bell Park came up last week in an email announcing former Albuquerque Journal reporter Toby Smith has written a book about minor league baseball in eastern New Mexico and West Texas. “Bush League Boys” includes Clovis tales and focuses on the 1940s and 1950s.

Professional baseball in Clovis goes back to at least 1923.

We know this because, in 1923, the Clovis News reported a popular Clovis Cubs outfielder identified only as Caffey — even baseballreference.com doesn’t know his first name — was sold to an Amarillo team for $300.

A 1923 preseason report in the Roswell Daily Record tells us Caffey was among the better players on a Clovis team that was expected to be “fast.”

I’ve not spent enough time in morgues to figure out the address where Caffey roamed, but multiple newspaper articles report Cavalry Park was in the same place as Bell Park as early as 1929. It had room for 1,800 spectators and hosted baseball games as well as boxing matches.

They called it Cavalry Park because the 111th Cavalry National Guard Unit kept its horse stables in the same complex.

The name changed to Bell Park on March 10, 1938, when the Clovis city commission renamed it in honor of Commissioner Geo. W. Bell, a rabid baseball fan who died a week earlier.

Clovis High School plays baseball there today.

Most historical Clovis baseball players are not household names, but veteran sports reporter Mike Higgins of Hereford compiled a list of at least nine players who appeared in the Major Leagues and played or managed at least one game for a Clovis team.

Brothers Paul and Dizzy Dean are by far the best known Clovis Pioneers.

They co-owned the team in 1949 and 1950 and Paul was the manager.

Dizzy Dean, the Hall of Fame pitcher, did little more than root for the club, but he did appear in one game.

The Associated Press reported Dizzy rapped a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning of Clovis’ 7-2 win over the Lubbock Hubbers on July 8, 1949.

“That was most of his action for the night besides speech-making and coaching,” AP reported.

Dizzy was in Clovis for “Dizzy Dean Night,” helping promote the struggling ball club.

The evening may well have been the highlight of the Deans’ ownership of the Pioneers. The team finished last in 1949 and seventh in the eight-team league in 1950.

Several Clovis professional baseball teams had forgettable seasons, despite enjoying brief Major League affiliations with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

But it’s not the won-loss records that make me want to visit the early days of Bell Park and Cavalry Park.

I wish I could have seen Wilcy Moore in action as a teenager.

I came to know him as a Muleshoe farmer in his 70s and 80s. But I wish I could have seen him in a Pioneers uniform in 1948-49, when he hit over .300 with 29 home runs, 18 triples and 494 total bases.

I also wish I could have watched him get married at home plate.

And I wish I could have asked him to introduce me to his uncle, also named Wilcy Moore, who pitched in the World Series for the 1927 New York Yankees and was Babe Ruth’s roommate.

I wish I could have watched Ray “Power” Bauer hit just one of his 19 home runs in 1948.

I’d like to hand him a dollar bill through the backstop, which was custom back in the day, and tell him thanks for his service to our country when his best baseball years were interrupted by World War II.

And I wish I could talk to that outfielder Caffey, wherever he played, and ask him about the great controversy in 1923 when, the Roswell Daily Record suggested, some teams were maybe not to be trusted when it came to staying within salary limits.

And how did he feel about being traded to Amarillo for cash?

And, oh yeah, Caffey … What was your first name?

David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]