Floyd ‘Goat’ Wooldridge Only Greenfield Athlete To Play Major League Baseball

In May of 1955, Greenfield and Dade County residents listened on the radio to St. Louis radio station KMOX-AM and heard Harry Caray, the St. Louis Cardinal radio broadcaster, say the starting pitcher for the Red Birds is Floyd “Goat” Wooldridge of Greenfield, Missouri. How Goat got to the major league is a long story and old timers have lots of ties on Goat but new Vedette readers will enjoy a history lesson.

Floyd Lewis Wooldridge was born August 28, 1928, in northwest Dade County. His parents were Floyd and Beulah Wooldridge. There were nine children in the family. Besides Goat, there were Bernie, Rozwell, John “Chig”,  Jimmy, Bertina, Judy, Sally and Ellen. Ellen is the lone remaining living member of the family and now resides in Stockton, Missouri.

Goat’s dad and mom moved to Greenfield and Floyd hauled coal in a big truck from the coal field in Sylvania to supply coal for coal boilers at the Greenfield Elementary School, the Dade County Courthouse and houses in Greenfield that had coal fired boilers for heat.

Goat graduated from GHS in 1946 and there were 25 students in his class with only six being alive in 2020. He was a great basketball player. GHS did not have a football team in 1946. Gene Rimmer was the GHS coach. One story on how he got the nickname Goat was at the age of 13 he was a sharp pool and snooker player and took money from older men. One sore loser remarked. “Kid, you are eating lots of candy bars and drinking lots of sodas. You are grazing like a goat.” He went to Southwest Missouri State for a year and worked around Greenfield.

THE ROAD TO THE MAJOR LEAGUES

In 1949, Goat went to St. Louis for a Cardinal tryout camp. He was late but with his fastball and curve ball he impressed the scouts. When he got home the next day, a Cardinal scout was at his house and Goat signed a contract with a $250 bonus and a $165 per month contract to pitch in Albany, Georgia. In 1950, he moved up to Columbus, Georgia, but was then drafted into the U.S. Army and was in the service for 110 days but then received a hardship discharge when his parents became ill. Moving up in 1952 and 1953, Goat played for the Houston Texas League, Rochester New York International League and back to Houston. In Houston, his ERA was 2.46 with eight wins by shutouts. In the fall of 1953, he broke his leg in a car accident but rehabbed with the Cardinals in 1954 and played winter ball in Cuba.

Goat’s first major league game was in May of 1955. He thought of himself as a thrower not a pitcher and threw a high inside fastball to keep batters nervous. Goat stated that Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst always helped the rookies on the team with inside baseball tips.

Goat pitched against Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese of the Dodgers and Wille Mays of the Giants who Goat thought was the best player in baseball. He admired Sandy Koufax as a pitcher.

His story about Mickey Mantle, a New York Yankee great, goes like this. The Cardinals were playing the Yankees and both teams were at the same hotel. The Yankee bus had left for the field and the Cardinal bus was loading when up walked Mickey Mantle who was just coming in from a night on the town and looked bad. Goat told The Mick, “Ride with us.” Mick declined. Goat told his teammates Mick won’t play well that night. Goat was wrong. Mick went three for four and a home run.

Goat’s record in 1955 was 2-4 starting some games and pitching in the bull pen. In 1956 Goat played in Rochester (New York), Columbus (Ohio), in 1957 Buffalo (New York) and finished his career at Mexico City (Mexico) with the Red Devils. He enjoyed baseball but the most he ever earned was $1400 a month or $7500 a year. Rookie players in MLB in 2020 earn at least $450,000.

LIFE AFTER BASEBALL

After baseball, Goat worked at Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, along with other former Greenfield residents. During the spring and summer, he would return home to play Town Team baseball. Towns like Greenfield, Lockwood, Stockton and others had a group of players who formed a team to play baseball.

Three Town team stories about Goat

Playing a team from Lamar, Goat and his catcher, Cutty Hailey, had a plan for the first inning. Goat was the pitcher and Hailey told the umpire and the first batter that Goat was wild in his pitches and mad that night. First pitch was high and inside almost hitting the batter. Second pitch went over the batter and umpire head into the back stop. Next two pitches were in the dirt and the batter walked. The Lamar team thought this will be an easy game. Goat then struck out the next ten batters with his fast ball and curve ball and Greenfield won the game.

SECOND STORY:  Mike Surburg of Golden City recalls a story about Goat and the Greenfield team playing Golden City. Bottom of the first inning, Goat took the mound in a pair of overalls and the Golden City nine thought they had an easy win. He fanned all three batters in first inning, then Goat went to the car and put on baseball pants and a Cardinal Jersey and Greenfield won the game.

THIRD STORY: The Wooldridge boys of Goat, Rozwell, Bernie and Chig combined with the Boyer brothers from Alba, of Clete, Ken and Cloyd and added a few more local players. They were unbeatable as a town team. Both Clete and Ken Boyer played major league baseball.

From major league stadiums to Mexico to Cuba to an old field in pasture with little or no backstop, Goat played in all and loved baseball, his fans and his teammates.

Goat, after working at Boeing, moved to Cass County, Missouri and worked at an ammunition plant in Kansas then married his wife Sally in 1964. Later they moved back to Greenfield and he took up carpentry and helped Jim Preston build homes in the Greenfield area. The Wooldridges had two children, Barbara and Bobby, both good students and athletes at GHS. In 1975, Goat coached the Greenfield Pee Wee boys baseball team that played in the Sac River League and the team won the league title and beat teams at the Mickey Owen Baseball Camp at Miller, Missouri.

Barbara is now a teacher in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. While at GHS, she played volleyball, basketball and track. She went on to Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar and played softball for the Bearcats. She coached softball at Weaubleau and her team finished fourth in state play one season. Bobby, a 1984 GHS graduate, competed in football, basketball and track for the Wildcats. He also went to SBU, played college baseball and earned a teaching degree. His 1992 Halfway Cardinal boys basketball team finished third in Class 1 in 1992.

Bobby tells the story that while on a cruise in the Caribbean, he was on an elevator with an older man who had on a St. Louis Cardinal shirt. Bobby asked him if he was a fan of the Red Birds. The older man said yes. Bobby said, “My dad, Goat Wooldridge, pitched for St. Louis.” The man said, “Sure. I saw your dad pitch for St. Louis.”

Where some major league ballplayers were stuck on themselves, Goat was always friendly. A nephew in Raymore, Missouri, wanted to join the high school golf team but had no golf clubs. The next day Goat gave the young man his clubs and said best of luck and the boy made the high school golf team.

Greenfield folks enjoyed story after story by Goat on baseball in the good old days. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 80.