Where Have
You Gone
Fred Beene?
UPDATE!!
When I was about 10 years old, my father Richard bought season box seats to the now-defunct Oklahoma City 89ers. They were the Triple A franchise of the Philadelphia Phillies at that time and the year was 1979. It was a great summer and everyday at the ballpark was a blast.
My younger brother Rick went to elementary school with a another kid named Darrell Beene, whose dad Fred pitched for the 89ers. Fred Beene was nearing the end of his professional baseball career, but he was trying to make it back to "the show" for another cup of coffee with Philly.
We invited Darrell to play on our Little League team - and his dad showed up to a couple of our games. When we went to see Fred and the Niners play, Darrell would prowl around the clubhouse and the dugout of All Sports Stadium looking for goodies and keepsakes to give to me and Rick. He must have given us several dozens of official American Association baseballs along with numerous cracked bats - and the waistband from Keith Moreland's jockstrap!
Fred first pitched in the majors for the Baltimore Orioles, then for the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians. In 112 appearances over seven years (1968-1975), Beene had a 12-7 record with eight saves and a 3.62 ERA. His best year was in 1973 with New York when he was 6-0 with a 1.68 ERA in 19 games. I haven't a clue why Beene never stuck with New York. They had no other pitching at the time. Maybe it was because he was kind of little for a major leaguer at 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds. He was a great control pitcher. In 1979, the 89ers won the Western Division of the American Association and faced the Evansville Triplets in the championship series. OKC eventually lost to Evansville (led by future Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers star Kirk Gibson). It was really sad when that season ended because we knew that the Beene family would move back home to Texas. There was no guarantee that Fred would be with the 89ers the next year. In fact, in the minors, it's rare for anyone to stick around more than one season with any given club.
We lost touch with "Beenie" after a year or so. I remember the last thing I got from Fred was an autographed baseball inscribed: "To Todd, Thanks for being Darrell's good friend and for being such an exceptionally good kid - Fred Beene." Beene, who was 37 when he pitched for the Niners in 1979, would be 59 years old now. It would be nice to know what he and Darrell are up to these days. If you know anything about Fred or Darrell Beene and their current status, would you let me know?

UPDATE! Fred Beene is alive and well everybody! On June 3, I received an e-mail from Mr. Beene who just happened to find this website on the internet. Here are a few of his comments (and hopefully more to come):

"This is really neat! I was just cruising around on the net and came upon your site. I have just retired from 20 years of scouting for the Milwaukee Brewers. Well, actually I retired last October.

"Darrell is married and has two children - a boy who turns 3 in July and a girl who is 8 months old. They are our only grandchildren. Our daughter, Monica, who was born in OKC, is now also married but no children yet. We live in Texas and have a 2-acre place out in the country, about 15 miles east of Huntsville, Texas. It's about a 7.5 hour drive to OKC.

"I scouted many games in OKC, both college and professional. The Brickyard (the Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark) is really a nice stadium. I checked your site out. You are really into it.

"Darrell became a TV media person and is the TV director of the television ministry at our church. He's really a very talented guy in the field. He also has a side business of selling fireworks. He has about 20 stands and has recently started building fireworks warehouses... He does pretty good but it is very hard work for about 3 months of the year. I spend most of my time messing around the house and on the net. I have been a big fan of the old computer and the WWW. I just can't believe that you can have the world right at your doorstep. I see that you have made full use of it.

"I have been toying with putting up a website but can't seem to come up with anything interesting... When Carolyn, my wife, came in and saw your "Where Have You Gone Fred Beene," I thought she was going to cry. She remembers you guys and your dad and how he let Darrell on the team even though he had never played and you had already chosen your team. She really thinks Darrell is going to be surprised and thrilled at seeing this.

"Your website is very interesting and you have done a good job for those baseball (fans) out there. I still get autograph requests nearly every day. The net has been a big impetus to that arena, also. I enjoyed OKC and really did like the people there. I also scouted all over Oklahoma, not just OKC, but OKC was my favorite place to work out of. I stayed there many times in the summer for a week to 10 days covering the 89ers and Redhawks. I was a supervisor for about the last 12 years I scouted and also specialized in covering pitchers for about 2 years as we tried something new. I really enjoyed scouting...

Fred Beene's 1973 Topps Card
With Yankee Stadium Facade
In The Background

"I was looking at your favorite movies and noticed one was missing. It's pretty new and perhaps you haven't seen it yet, but it is one of the good ones. I haven't seen "61*" but will now that you have critiqued it for me. The move I am talking about is "The Rookie." It's done very well and accurately. Just for your inside information, I signed the "rookie" in 1982 in my first year of scouting with the Brewers. Jimmy Morris was in junior college at a school in Texas called Ranger JC. He had a very good arm but quickly began having arm troubles. We eventually gave up on him and released him after he tried one brief comeback following his first surgery.

"Toronto then gave him a try, which failed, and he finally gave up and went back to Brownwood, Texas, to teach school and coach. He was a great athlete. The facts as presented in the movie are very accurate. The scout who held the tryout camp where he was discovered is my best friend in scouting. He was with the Phillies when I played in OKC and actually scouted me when I played for the 89ers. His name is Doug Gassaway. He used to kid me a lot about that and how old I was. Anyway, Jimmy Morris is out of baseball, but they wrote a book and made this movie and he is now a wealthy person. Anyway, it was nice seeing your little deal on me on your site and even before I read where you actually wanted to hear from "someone" I planned to drop you a note. I will tell Darrell as soon as I see him. By the way, he only lives about 500 yards from me. Take care - Fred Beene"

Thanks, Fred, for taking the time out to give one of your fans a thrill of a lifetime! I never anticipated that Fred Beene would be the first to respond to this piece, but I am so glad he did. In the future, if I can get photos and more commentary about Fred's playing days (he has some good memories of the Yankees!) I will share them here at Baseball Todd's Dugout! So keep looking.

Todd Newville, Darrell Beene, and Rick Newville
With The "Bleacher Creature"
At An OKC 89ers Game In 1979