HARDBALL WITH TOM BALL

Professor Carlson’s interview with Tom Ball is at TOM BALL BASEBALL ⚾ INTERVIEW (squarespace.com)

by Larry Carlson ( lc13@txstate.edu )

With a name like Tom Ball, you just had to be born to stand out as a sports star.

And the Houstonian did that, shining boldly in football, baseball and basketball at Lamar High in the late 1960s and early '70s.  

Ball's athletic excellence led the Houston Rotary Club to recognize him as the Bayou City's top athlete in any sport.  He was on every school's hot list for baseball.  As a junior, Ball fired a two-hitter to lead the Redskins to a 1-0 win over Midland Lee in the state championship game.

But Tom told me last week, he was also recruited as a quarterback  by every school in the Southwest Conference, except Texas.  He was just about set to skip over the SWC teams, though, to play football and baseball for a very solid independent, right there in his hometown.  Coaches at he University of Houston were more than accommodating about permitting Ball to play two sports for the Cougars. 

But that's when the fates intervened, in the form of a very influential UT grad and Longhorn booster.

The man offered up a car as an incentive to steer the young pitcher/shortstop west for his college plans.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I GET that," Ball laughed, recounting the enticement.

And so it was that Tom's father showed his athletic son the way to Austin.

The elder Ball's persuasive skills paid off for the son, and the Longhorns.

Strong-armed Tom Ball ended up patrolling the outfield at Texas, playing for Cliff Gustafson on four SWC championship teams, ones with stellar pitchers such as Burt Hooton, Ron Roznovsky, Martin Flores, Jim Gideon and Richard Wortham.  The last three of Ball's Texas teams ('72-'74) punched tickets to the College World Series in Omaha, posting an astounding 154-24 overall record. 

This writer was a fan in attendance at a majority of UT home games at Clark Field back then, and Ball always left an impression with me as not just a helluva ballplayer but a guy who seemed to be getting supreme joy out of the moment, every moment.  Intense but always smiling and laughing, riding opposing players from the dugout steps, backslapping teammates and squeezing pure joy from baseball.

When I got the chance to interview him for this TLSN piece, Tom's big personality boomed through the phone, exuding a sunny outlook on life.  He's still capitalizing on the finance degree he earned forty-nine years ago, busy with his own company but always looking forward to more fun and games via watching baseball, going bird hunting or playing lots of golf.  And he leads a Bible study group.

He reveled in sharing memories about UT teammates and college life in general.  I asked him about favored hangouts for the boys in burnt orange back in the days and he had a ready roll call.  "Oh yeah, The Orange Bull, The Bucket, The Flagon," he reeled off.  Then Ball related a story of a teammate who stayed late to imbibe at one watering hole, long after everyone else had just a few pops and left. According to Tom, the guy wasn't feeling so perky when gametime arrived the next day.  "But he hit for the cycle," Ball cackles.

There was more laughter in his voice as he told me of a golf tradition with several Longhorn teammates competing against friends up in Steamboat Springs, an event that will return again this summer .  The gang has a name for their own version of the Ryder Cup using the abbreviation of the states of Colorado and Texas, in that order.  You can probably guess it.  

The aptly named Tom Ball -- the man who fittingly capped his career at Texas by being selected to the All-College World Series team -- has long been proficient at sports, business and having fun.

The old 3 speed Camaro that launched his status as a lifelong Longhorn is long gone.  But if life is a highway, Ball is still revved up for everything down the road.