[Deathwatch] Joe Bauman, athlete, 83

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Many thanks to a frequent submitter for this one - Ed.

Minor-League HR King Joe Bauman, 83, Dies

By TIM KORTE, AP Sports Writer

Joe Bauman, whose 72 minor-league home runs in 1954 stood as a
professional baseball record until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001, died
Tuesday. He was 83.

Bauman died at in Roswell, N.M., where he played for the Roswell
Rockets of the Longhorn League during the 1950s.

He succumbed to pneumonia, a complication from an Aug. 11 fall during a
ceremony to rename the old Fair Park as Joe Bauman Stadium. He broke
his pelvis in the fall and remained hospitalized until his death.

Bauman hit 72 home runs in 1954. He played in the Class C Longhorn
League, one rung above the lowest minor-league level of the time.

"I'm proud of it, even if it's just minor-league trivia," Bauman told
The Associated Press in a 1995 interview.

It was a single-season record that lasted 47 years, but Bauman's feat
wasn't widely heralded because it happened in the minors.

"He was such a modest person. He didn't toot his own horn," said Jim
Waldrip, a former teammate and close friend. "He just hit a lot of home
runs, and he was a better fielder than a lot of people thought."

Bauman was watching on television at his home when Bonds hit No. 73 in
2001.

"I never thought it'd last this long, to be honest," he said at the
time. "I was watching on TV when Barry Bonds hit that last one. It
didn't bother me or anything. I just thought, `There goes my record.'"

Bauman, a left-handed first baseman, was 32 when he hit .400 over 138
games in 1954.

For decades, he fielded telephone calls from reporters and others who
were curious about his accomplishment.

Bauman was a hulking man at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds when he hit 337
homers in nine minor league seasons.

He hit 46 homers for Roswell in 1955 and retired during the 1956
season. Like many minor-league stars of his time, Bauman never reached
the majors.

The Boston Braves, who once owned his contract, tried to send him to
Atlanta of the Southern Association but wanted to cut his salary. After
four years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Bauman was tired of
taking orders and walked away.

"I told them that I could make more money selling 24-inch shoestrings
on any corner in Oklahoma City," he said.

Born in Welch, Okla., on April 16, 1922, Bauman grew up in Oklahoma
City.

He spent eight seasons shuttling among several minor-league stops.

In 1948 while with the Boston Braves organization, Bauman reached
Milwaukee of the American Association ? one step from the majors.

But the next spring, instead of pursuing a job in the majors Bauman
decided to play semipro baseball in Elk City, Okla., where he ran a
service station along Route 66.

Three years later in 1952, Bauman returned to the minors, this time
playing for Artesia (N.M.) of the Longhorn League.

After two seasons, Bauman moved 40 miles north to Roswell after
agreeing to $1,000 per month with a $1,000 signing bonus.

He settled in Roswell, running a service station and later working for
a beer distributor until his retirement in 1984.

Bauman said he earned about $3,000 each summer, thanks to "fence money"
? where fans stuck bills through the fence after his home runs.

"One night he made $254 from a home run, which was twice what most
ballplayers made in a month," Waldrip recalled. "And for every home run
Joe hit, a packing plant in Roswell would give him a cured ham. That
always kept some of the other players in food."

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary