McClintock graduate chases the last of the Spokane Nine

His name was Bob James. He came from Tempe. And in 1946, he was a terror on the base paths. With quick feet and a gambler’s spirit, the gregarious James won many a heart stealing bases for the Spokane Indians.

By the spring of ’46, minor league ballplayers had returned from the war to the small towns that loved them. Bob James played right field with a joy that showed the feeling was mutual. Then one night, he and eight of his teammates had their futures stolen in an accident that rocked the tiny community.

James is long gone from the base paths, but one Spokane, Wash., author is still determined to chase him down.

‘UNTIL THE END OF THE NINTH’

“They would call him ‘Wild Man,’ ” says writer Beth Bollinger. “Or ‘Jesse James,’ because he stole bases so well. During spring training he hit this single, stretched it into a double, and looked up at second to see his teammate on second base with him.” The teammate was tagged out.

Afterward, Indians manager Glen Wright had to explain James’ gaffe. He said that Bob “was just too excited about being back — he couldn’t help himself,” Bollinger says. “That captures the vitality of the man.”

A graduate of McClintock High School, Bollinger, 46, shares James’ Tempe roots. But she never knew his story until she moved to Washington state and discovered the Spokane Nine.

“This was a special team,” she says of the ’46 Indians. “People I’ve spoken to recall them as talented men, and gentle men. There was a unique spirit about these guys.”

Expected to contend for the division title, the Indians had started off slowly that year. By midseason, they’d hit their stride.

On June 23, after losing the opening game of a doubleheader, they posed for a team picture, then came back to win the nightcap in the bottom of the ninth — a team trademark.

The next day, bound for Bremerton and halfway up a mountain pass, their bus veered off the road and fell 300 feet. Seven players died instantly, and two others in the following days.

“It was the worst professional sports accident of all time,” says Bollinger, whose book “Until the End of the Ninth” ($14.95, Rooftop Publishing) tells the story of the Spokane Nine, their tragedy, and its effect on families, Spokane and the wider world.

“There are so many stories from that team,” she says. “Ben Geraghty, the second baseman, who survived to become an award-winning coach, the best one Hank Aaron said he ever had.

Or Jack Lohrke — ‘Lucky Lohrke,’ they called him. The highway patrol pulled him off the bus that night, when they stopped for dinner in Ellensburg, because the San Diego Padres had called him up.”

Bollinger, now a Spokane resident, discovered the Spokane Nine while researching the history of the team.

“You know how you fall in love with a team? Well, the more I read about these guys, in my research, the more I fell in love with this team and wanted to tell their story.”

In so doing, she has tracked down the surviving families of every major player — to share what she’s learned about their loved one, exchange insights, and offer closure where she can.

But quick-footed Bob still eludes her.

THE LOST BROTHER

“I picked apart everything I could find about him on microfilm,” Bollinger says. “An article, days after the accident, said Bob’s brother, Bill, came to reclaim the body.”

A 1956 story recounted the Indians’ owner making grim phone calls that night.

“It said, ‘the first call was to William T. James of Tempe, Arizona.’ That was William Sr. Bill must have been Bob’s older brother.

“I called the funeral home down there — it’s still in existence,” she says. But the addresses she got from there could offer no help. Most were gone to development.

“So I just started calling Bill Jameses in Tempe,” she chuckles. “It’s an awkward phone call, believe me.”

Bollinger will spend the week touring Cactus League sites, signing copies of her book. But, aside from healthy sales, she hopes to catch a number, a memory, or a trace of Bob James, who was so hard to catch in life.

“I think his brother might be alive,” she says. “I feel like they were close ... and I’d love a chance to connect with him.”

Anyone with knowledge of the James family is asked to contact Beth Bollinger at (509) 624-1525.

Meet the scribe

Beth Bollinger, a McClintock High graduate, will be selling and signing copies of her book “Until the End of the Ninth” at Hohokam Park, 1235 N. Center St., Mesa, during the following Chicago Cubs games:

12:05 p.m. Thursday:  Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers

7 p.m. Friday:  Fergie and Friends celebrity baseball game fundraiser

Net proceeds from both games will be donated to the Ferguson Jenkins Foundation and the Mesa Hohokam Foundation.