Pepper and His Race Car

     I was digging around looking for photos of the old Gashouse Gang when stumbled across this gem. According to the book Pepper Martin: A Baseball Biography ole Pepper had this race car built, and dubbed it the "Redbird Special." The book also said it was raced by a professional during the baseball season, but Pepper never drove it on the track, although he did drive it around Oklahoma City, and on his farm as well. When it was raced by the professional, Pepper would often gather up a few teammates like Dizzy Dean, Don Gutteridge, and Frankie Frisch to serve as pit members. If the car stalled they would hop the fence, and either help get it going, or get it out of harms way. When Branch Rickey learned of this he was not pleased, and asked Pepper to sell the car. Martin obliged, but even then another great tale from the days of the Gashouse Gang had been written.