Passe an original behind the mike

MANY years ago, when the world was young, Loel Passe was describing a Texas League game in which the Houston Buffs were trailing Oklahoma City by eight runs on the road with one inning to play. Loel felt the need to inject a little suspense into the action, as he often did, and so he made a pact with the devil.

If the Buffs rallied to tie or go ahead, he vowed to finish the broadcast while dangling from the press-box roof. In the top of the ninth, the Buffaloes, as ol' Loel was fond of calling them, rallied for 10 runs, and Loel did the rest of his play-by-play with one hand on his microphone and the other clinging to the ledge of the roof.

Do you believe in miracles? Loel Passe did. For the rest of his career, no deficit was too great, no mountain too steep, to discourage Loel from reminding his co-workers in the radio booth: "Don't forget that night in Oklahoma City."

An incurable optimist, Loel went through life the same way, until he ran out of rallies Tuesday in a long battle with cancer. He was 82 when death came, and had not been part of the Astros' radio crew since 1976. But the team never had a cheerier, more relentless or more positive voice than Loel's. He was as Southern as cornbread, exactly the same person off the air as on.

Signature phrases endearing

For all the years he was out of the public eye, his fans remained loyal. They would walk up to him in a supermarket or on the street and repeat one of his catch phrases. He was a constant source of reassurance to the team's pitchers with his cries of, "Now you chunkin' in there," and "He breezed him one more time!" Although no one was certain what the phrase meant, Houston fans knew something fine had happened when Loel would chortle, "Hot ziggity dog and sassafras tea!"

Those were his calling cards, but we preferred his more spontaneous utterances, such as the time the Astros played a doubleheader on Memorial Day, and Loel, reflecting the joy of baseball, sang out, "Every day is Memorial Day at the Astrodome."

Gene Elston was the smooth, effortless professional, almost impartial in his commentary, certainly more so than management liked. Milo Hamilton calls the game with color and enthusiasm and an energy that the Astros can't always match. In such company, Loel's style often came off as hokey. But it didn't offend him to be called country or even a homer. He rooted for the Astros, and the Buffs before them, with unabashed vigor.

Loel was the third man in the booth when big-league baseball came to Houston in 1962. For the bulk of the play-by-play, Elston was joined by Al Helfer, a veteran who had worked with the likes of Red Barber and Mel Allen on the games of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees. Al was nearing the end of the line, and it is fair to say he was not amused by Loel's folksy humor.

Passe (with a silent "e") was also known for his ability to make up statistics, which not only created an air of authority but had the added virtue of being impossible to disprove.

Even fouls fair game

Once, after a series of foul balls had landed in the stands at Colt Stadium, the open, roofless, temporary park that was the team's first home, Loel laughed -- his laugh was almost a cackle -- and said, "You know, fans, more foul balls are hit into the stands at beautiful Colt Stadium than any other park in the National League."

Helfer could take no more. He leaned over Loel's shoulder and said into the microphone: "No, no Loel, that's not right. More foul balls are hit into the stands at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh than any other park in the National League."

The Colt .45s, as the team was then known, ended the season in San Francisco. After the last game, Loel was relaxing in the hotel bar when word reached him that Al Helfer would not return the next year. The news meant more air time for Passe, but his reaction was unselfish.

"I'm going to miss Big Al," he said. "Ol' Loel learned a lot from Big Al." He took a slow sip of his drink and then added, "Of course, Big Al learned a lot from ol' Loel, too."

Within the year, Helfer retired from broadcasting altogether.

Passe was a fixture with the Astros until 1976, after Judge Roy Hofheinz had lost the ownership of the team. It was Hofheinz, and Allen Russell, the general manager of the Buffs, who had brought him to Houston from Tennessee in 1950. The Judge, a natural-born salesman, loved the fact that Loel would still be urging fans to come out to the ballpark in the eighth inning.

Big Al wasn't the only one to learn from ol' Loel. One way or another, we all did. Baseball has lost an ardent and original voice.