John Virtue establishes Mickey Owen’s experiences in Mexico as much different than the barnstorming participants of Max Lanier’s All-Stars. Like them, however, Mickey Owen received an offer that was too good to refuse from Jorge Pasquel. Pasquel offered Owen a $12,500 signing bonus on top of a salary $15,000 per year for five years to serve as the player-manager for the Torreón team. Owen’s 1945 contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers paid him $12,500.[1] Owen tried to use Pasquel’s offer to leverage more money from the Dodgers, but Branch Rickey didn’t even return Owen’s call.[2]
At one time an all-star catcher, Owen was probably most infamous for allowing a passed ball on what could have been the last out of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series. Tommy Heinrich swung through strike three, but Owen couldn’t retrieve the ball in time to throw out Heinrich at first. Heinrich eventually scored and the Yankees took the game and eventually the series.[3]
Owen got cold feet on the way to Mexico and called Rickey. Rickey told him to look for another team and return to Brooklyn. Pasquel, meanwhile, was applying his own pressure, threatening to sue Owen for breach of contract. When Owen and his wife read a newspaper article suggesting that Rickey didn’t want him to catch for the Dodgers, they made their way to Mexico.[4] Needing a catcher to replace the injured Salvador José “Chico” Hernández, Pasquel assigned Owen to the Azules of Veracruz as a catcher.[5]
At that time, Ramón Bragaña was serving as the player-manager for the Azules and remained in the capacity until a dust-up following a supposed home run hitting exhibition by the legendary Babe Ruth. Ruth, visiting Mexico as a guest of Pasquel, was slated to demonstrate his home run hitting prowess against hittable balls thrown by Bragaña. Unable to hit any of Bragaña’s offerings for what would be a home run, Ernesto Carmona, serving as the Mexico City manager, accused Bragaña of trying to make Ruth look bad. Bragaña huffed off the mound, and he and Carmona came to blows in the clubhouse afterwards resulting in Bragaña’s suspension. Now needing someone to manage the Azules team, Pasquel appointed Owen as interim manager.[6]
Owen wasn’t happy in Mexico, however. John Virtue points to Owen’s upbringing in the Ozarks of Missouri and lack of exposure to Blacks as teammate or managers as being one source of frustration for him. Thomas Quiñones, a Black pitcher from Puerto Rico, quit the Azules because of Owen’s treatment of black players. Pacquel removed him as manager of the team after Quiñones quit the Azules but Owen as the team’s catcher. Owen’s status as catcher lasted until shortly after a July 25th game against Monterrey in which Claro Duany attempted to score from second on a double steal. Instead of simply tagging Duany at the plate, Owen knocked Duany to the ground. Duany jumped up swinging. and Owen received a beating for his questionable sportsmanship. Within the week, Owen and his wife left Mexico for Brownsville, Texas, paying a $250 taxi fare to get back to the United States.[7]
Once in Brownsville, Owen petitioned for reinstatement in major league baseball. His petition was denied by Commissioner Happy Chandler.[8] Unable to play major league baseball, Owen returned to the Ozarks and became “a farmer, not by choice, but by compulsion.”[9] Owen was happy to be with his family, but he missed baseball.[10]
It didn’t take long for Owen to get involved in baseball. By the end of June, he had organized the Mickey Owen’s All-Stars penciling himself in as catcher.[11] The All-Stars may also have been referred to as the Springfield Generals as team owner C. E. Russell, Owen, and his son Charley visited Sedalia to observe the drawing of teams for the state semi-pro tournament to be held at Sedalia.[12] Owen’s Generals ran into Hugh Bisges who had been cut for whatever reason by the Iola (Kansas) Cubs. Bisges struck out thirteen while allowing only five hits leaving Owen’s to wonder why a minor league manager would dismiss such a solid pitcher.[13]
Meanwhile, Owen and Pasquel duked it out in the courts. Owen sued for the remainder of his salary as a player-manager in 1946 and his potential salary for 1947 to 1950. Ultimately the suit didn’t end well for him as he was ordered to pay Pasquel $35,000, causing Owen to declare bankruptcy.[14]
To pass his time and earn an income while the case plodded through the court system, Owen entered Duncan’s National Auction school at Creston, Iowa. Once certified, Owen was expected to serve as a field representative for the Purebred Livestock Service Company of Des Moines.[15]
With weekends open while attending auctioneer school in Iowa, Owen decided to sell his services and baseball name to the highest bidder. The Council Bluffs Browns were the first bidder, hiring Owen to play against the Millard, Nebraska team in July.[16] Soon other teams started to jump on Owen’s bandwagon. Schuyler, Nebraska, hired Owen to catch against the Omaha Rockets on Labor Day and Humboldt, Iowa, hired him for a game to be determined.[17]
The Lenox Time Table suggested the Owen would don a Viking suit for two of the three games scheduled for Stanton’s Baseball Day on August 7th. Owen played with the Stanton Vikings on July 27th when the Vikings beat the Council Bluffs Boosters by a score of 11 to 9. The Time Table proclaimed it was a great thrill to see Owen in action.[18]
Owen was criss-crossing the Midwest as he was scheduled to play against the North Platte Plainsmen in a game played in Lexington, Nebraska, the following Sunday.[19] With his schedule filling up, he and the Humboldt baseball association settled on him appearing for Humboldt against the Bancroft Lions on August 18th.[20]
1,700 fans gathered in Humboldt, Iowa, to see Owen catch.[21] 2,000 fans attended a Tuesday night game at Felber Park at Hartington, Nebraska.[22]
Owen was the hitting hero for Norfolk, hitting three inside the park home runs against Plainview. The Norfolk Daily News offers some insight into how a major league catcher legged out ab inside the park home run indicating that the landing point for the second home run was somewhere “back of the centerfield light poles” allowing the ball to roll “almost to the fence some 500 feet away.”[23]
The Central City Republican hoped on September 4, 1947, that “a large crowd will turn out to give” Mickey Owen and Lefty Haines “a chance to show their skills.”[24] Owen hoped so as well as he was playing for a percentage of the take over and above the average crowd. If the crowd were to small, his take home pay could be quite small as he played for a grand total of $14.85 in a late September Sunday game for the Lyons club.[25]
Even after the end of the baseball season, Owen used his baseball fame to draw people to his auctions.
Owen’s ban from major league baseball for challenging baseball reserve clause ended in June of 1949. He eventually returned to the majors with the Chicago Cubs. Ironically, he actually had no actual contract with the Dodgers when he left for Mexico, but his ban allowed towns across Iowa and Nebraska to add major league talent to the roster if only for a single game.
[1] John Virtue, South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Racial Integration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.), 137.
[2] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 138.
[3] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 138.
[4] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 138-39.
[5] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 148.
[6] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 148-149.
[7] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 150-151.
[8] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 151-152.
[9] “Mickey Owens, Now a Farmer, Longs for Baseball Days,” Globe-Gazette (Mason City, IA), March 12, 1947, 15, Newspapers.com.
[10] “Mickey Owens, Now a Farmer.”
[11] “Mickey Owens All-Stars to Play Today,” Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, MO), June 29, 1947, 12, Newspapers.com.
[12] “Mickey Owen Was Here,” Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, MO), July 9, 1947, 12, Newspapers.com.
[13] “Legion, Stags Win, Tweedies Split in Sunday’s Games,” Daily Capital News (Jefferson City, MO), July 15, 1947, 3, Newspapers.com
[14] Virtue, South of the Color Barrier, 152.
[15] “Owen to Join Iowa Semi-Pros; Then Learn Auctioneering,” Oelwein Daily Register (Oelwein, IA), July 19, 1947, 3, Newspapers.com; “Mickey Owens to Join Council Bluffs Semipros,” Courier (Waterloo, IA), July 20, 1947, 31, Newsapers.com.
[16] “Owens to Join Iowa Semi-Pros;” “Mickey Owens to Join Council Bluffs.”
[17] “Mickey Owen to Appear Labor Day,” Colfax County Call (Schuyler, NE), July 31, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com; “Mickey Owens to Catch for Local Ball Team Soon,” Humboldt Republican, August 1, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[18] “Mickey Owens Comes to Stanton on August 7,” Lenox Time Table (Lenox, IA), August 7, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[19] “Baseball Fans,” Stapleton Enterprise (Stapleton, NE), August 7, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[20] “Mickey Owens Catchers Aug. 18,” Humboldt Republican, August 8, 1947, 3, Newspapers.com.
[21] Humboldt Republican, August 22, 1947, 4, Newspapers.com.
[22] “Bloomfield Wins 1-0 Over Independents,” Cedar County News (Hartington, NE), August 21, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[23] “Third Circuit Drive Breaks Up Game in 9th,” Norfolk Daily News (Norfolk, NE), August 27, 1947, 5, Newspapers.com.
[24] “Mickey Owens and Lefty Haines Will Play for Kernels,” Central City Republican (Central City, NE), September 4, 1947, 1, Newspapers.com.
[25] “Miscellany,” Oakland Independent and Republican (Oakland, NE), September 18, 1947, 6, Newspapers.com.
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