MUDCATS IN THE GASHOUSE

Robert Creamer

April 22, 1957

The original Gashouse Gang was as bizarre off the field as on. Coach Terry Moore, who broke in with the Cardinals in 1935, reminisced recently about Pepper Martin's famous Mississippi Mudcats, a country-music band that started as clubhouse fun and eventually commanded a $1,000 fee for playing on national radio broadcasts. "Pepper played the banjo-guitar," Moore recalls. "And Lonny Warneke played the guitar. Fiddler Bill McGee played the fiddle. He held it down low, in the crook of his arm. I never did see him put it under his chin. He'd sit there straight as a board, real serious holding the fiddle down low and sawing away on it. Bob Weiland played the jug. Boomp, boomp. Boomp, boomp. And Frenchy Bordagaray played the washboard. You know, running a stick up and down on it. Damn, they practiced all the time. They drove Frank Frisch crazy. Their favorite song was Buffalo Gal. I heard Buffalo Gal so often I used to dream it at night: 'Buffalo Gal, ain't you comin' out tonight, comin' out tonight, comin' out tonight.' Frisch couldn't stand it. He used to say he was going to trade McGee and send Weiland down to the minors just to break up the Mudcats. We sure had a lot of fun."