The Alabama Florida League Web Site

My brother was what you would call a High School phenom. At 18 years old he pitched 9 No-Hitters in one year, 6 of them were consecutive. He pitched a total of 12 no-hitters during his high school career, and he held several national high school records for no-hitters during his days at Notre Dame High School in Biloxi, Mississippi. I believe that one of his records still stand to this day. Chris' accomplishments drew national attention, and he was featured in Life Magazine(May 19th 1961), Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, The Sporting News, Parade. Life called Chris "The No-Hit Kid" and quite simply labeled him "unhittable". The Biloxi Sun Herald did a follow up story on him about 10 years ago. His exploits brought lots of publicity and numerous scouts to Biloxi in 1961. The mayor awarded Chris the Key to the City and provided display space in City Hall for of his awards and trophies. Unfortunately, in 1969 hurricane Camille destroyed Biloxi City Hall and all of Chris' memorabilia was lost.

I was 8 or 9 years old when Chris became a local legend, and as you can imagine, he was my hero. He was a great pitcher in high school, but Chris' professional record doesn't reflect his overall pitching talent. After high school, Dizzy Dean, who was then a scout, took notice of Chris. Dean flew Chris to St Louis, Cleveland, and New York for tryouts. St. Louis and Cleveland made modest offers, and New York showed little interest. Then the new Houston Colt 45's organization inquired about him, and signed him to a minor league contract, which included a $10,000 signing bonus. He was assigned to the Moultrie Colt 22's in the Georgia-Florida League and pitched there for the 1962 and 1963 seasons. He played under player/manager Jim Walton, coach Chuck Churn and pitching coach, Gabe Paul. Churn once said of Chris that he was the hardest throwing pitcher he had ever seen. Unfortunately, like many young pitchers, he developed a sore arm which prevented him from pitching with the dominance he displayed in his high school years. Moultrie gave up on him and after only 11 games in 1963. Lots of young phenoms don't make it as pros, but I feel there was something different about his situation. Chris fell out of favor with Houston when he “jumped the team” to be with his pregnant wife in Biloxi. Organized baseball considered this a serious offense, and soon found himself between a rock and a hard place: Houston wouldn't release him and because of that, he was unable to sign with any other pro team. His only recourse was to write an apology letter to the Baseball Commissioner asking for reinstatement, but this was a wasted effort, for despite his reinstatement, his sore arm prevented him from returning to his pitching form. Chris, in later years, stated that he felt that the injury was brought on by pitching coach Gabe Paul's tinkering with his delivery. Paul attempted to teach Chris to bend his back because they thought he was standing up too straight. The new delivery didn't affect his back, but it caused arm soreness. Later in life, I asked him if he could have recovered enough from the injury to make a return to baseball. He said that with today's surgery, he could have returned but the medical technology didn't exist back then to correct his injury.
As interesting as Chris' experience was, he doesn't talk about it much, but every once in a while, talk will turn to baseball and he'll reminisce about his days as a player. Granted, Chris is my brother, but I think he deserves some recognition for his accomplishments. Unfortunately, his high school performance is now largely forgotten. Even the Alumni news from his high school, Biloxi Notre Dame, doesn't mention him these days. I know he didn't make it to the major leagues, but he certainly was a star to many baseball fans in Mississippi and throughout the nation. Sadly, not even the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame has seen fit to include Chris despite all the attention he brought to Mississippi baseball, and the national high school pitching record that he's held for 44 years..
My goal is to get my brother at least some recognition that he deserves for the amazing feats he accomplished at 18 years old. I'm not doing this at Chris' request, he's left his baseball career behind, but I feel that my brother was a special ballplayer and I hope others will agree that his story is more than just the tale of a forgotten legend.