A wartime ball player, when he came up, Bill "Bud" Black played part of one season for Detroit in 1952 before entering the army in 1953. While stationed at Ft. Leonord Wood, Mo. Black and fellow servicemen and future major leaguers Whitey Herzog and Jerry Lumpe led the Ft. Wood Hilltopers to the 1953 National Baseball Congress (NBC) semi-pro national championship and defeated the perinial powerhouse Wichita Boeing Bombers in the championship game.
The following year, the NBC disallowed service teams from entering, so the three players joined the defending Missouri state semi-pro champions, Springfield Generals, at the 1954 NBC tournament and unexpectedly swept through the first six games, to again reach the finals against the Boeing Bombers. Springfield disposed of Wichita once, before the Boeing Bombers came back to win a potential tournament ending game, 7-6. With a final and deciding game hanging in the balance, army officials discoved that the three players had been flying back and forth from the All-Army baseball tournament in Colorado and forbid a return. Without the hitting of Herzog and Lumpe and the pitching of Black, Boeing distroyed Springfield the next day. Following his release from the army, Black returned to the Tigers in 1955-56 with little success.
� R. Aton has authored a History of Professional Baseball in Springfield; written the biography for NFL Hall of Famer Leo Nomellini in the Scribners Encyclopedia of American Lives, and is currently writing a general history of baseball in Springfield, Mo.
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Copyright © 2004 by R. Aton. Posted June 24, 2004.
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