January 5, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI – Bart Shirley, who first found widespread local notoriety on the Buc Stadium playing surface as a back for the Ray Texans 50 years ago, receives the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fifth Annual South Texas Winter Baseball Banquet on Thursday, February 5.

The dinner, presented by the Hooks, Corpus Christi Caller-Times and ClearChannel Radio, begins at 6:30 p.m. Site is the Port of Corpus Christi’s Solomon Ortiz Center.

Combination tickets for the banquet and January 22 Astros Caravan Luncheon are $125 ($100 banquet; $25 luncheon). For sponsorship information, contact Elisa Macias of the Hooks at 361-561-4673. Proceeds benefit the Miracle League of Corpus Christi.

Born on January 4, 1940, Shirley graduated from Ray in 1958 and attended UT on a football scholarship. He played running back and defensive halfback for Darrell Royal and shortstop for Bibb Falk. The native Corpus Christian was a member of Royal’s 1959 9-2 Southwest Conference championship team which fell to Ernie Davis-led Syracuse in the 1960 Cotton Bowl.

Shirley was also named first-team All-SWC shortstop for the league champion Longhorns later that spring.

After two years on the 40 Acres, he was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent. Shirley progressed through their system at a rapid clip, reporting straight to Double-A Atlanta of the Southern League in 1961, Triple-A Omaha (1962) of the American Association and Spokane (1963-64) of the Pacific Coast League. On September 14, 1964, Shirley made his Major League debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium.

Primarily a shortstop, he worked at second and third as well during three seasons in Los Angeles (1964-66-68). Shirley was a career .204 hitter in 75 games, including six with the Mets in 1967.

After completing his Major League career, he returned to Spokane as player-coach for Tommy Lasorda. Shirley played and coached in Nagoya, Japan’s third-largest city, in 1971-72 and 1976-77. Sandwiched between the Oriental stints were three years as a manager in the Dodgers organization at Daytona Beach (1973), Orangeburg, South Carolina (1974) and Danville, Illinois (1975). Shirley returned to Corpus Christi in 1978 and works in the insurance industry and as a section supervisor at Whataburger Field.

“Bart was obviously an accomplished multi-sport athlete and built an impressive baseball resume over many years,” Hooks President Ken Schrom said. “But more importantly, he’s a wonderful human being. I’ve talked with guys who played with him at Ray and they say he exuded class as a high school student. You’ll never hear an adverse word from or about him. That may seem like a simple legacy, but you couldn’t ask for a better one.”

Past Lifetime Achievement Award winners are Burt Hooton (2005), Brooks Kieschnick (2006), Rudy Jaramillo (2007) and Ox Miller (2008).