New Orleans Pelicans Baseball

The New Orleans Pelicans were a minor league professional baseball team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1887, the Pelicans became part of the Southern Association in 1901. From 1915 through 1957, they played home games at Pelican Stadium (also known as Heinemann Park), formerly located at the downtown river corner of Carrollton Avenue and Tulane Avenue in Mid City New Orleans. After that, they played for 2 years at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park. The team disbanded at the end of the 1959 season.
Daniel Victor Cazenave played for the team in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Other notable Pelicans included Shoeless Joe Jackson, Cotton Knaupp, Oyster Joe Martina, and Dixie Walker. The team photo to the right is of the 1910 Pelicans, Southern Association Champions (#12, Shoeless Joe Jackson, was about to go on to fame in the majors).
In the 1950s, the team was associated with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was managed by Danny Murtaugh. Other notable Pelican managers included Larry Gilbert and Abner Powell, the later of whom is credited with introducing the "rain check".
The Pelicans' name briefly resurfaced during the 1977 season when New Orleans acquired a Triple-A minor league team. The Louisiana Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints football team, was home to the team for that season, where they brought in over 200,000 fans (good enough for second in the league). The team moved the next season to Springfield, Illinois, and were re-named the Redbirds. The team subsequently moved to Louisville, Kentucky and then on to Memphis, Tennessee where it continues to operate as the top minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Arabi Hardware Store

When Daniel Victor Cazenave returned to New Orleans after his Army service and his marriage to Mary Eleanora Pyzik, he opened Arabi Hardware Store in St. Bernard Parish, on the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Lebeau Street. He and his family lived in an apartment above the hardware store.

Daniel Victor Cazenave (1914-1956) and Mary Eleanora Pyzik (1922-)

Daniel Victor Cazenave was born on May 1, 1914, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Julian Leon Cazenave and Gertrude Josephine Ceiutat. He grew up in St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans and attended St. Stanislaus School for Boys in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. His father died when he was 11 and his mother remarried Frank Hopper. Daniel played outfield for the minor league New Orleans Pelicans and was even called up to the majors by the Pittsburgh Pirates, but his baseball career was cut short by his service to the United States military.

On December 8, 1941, (just one day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States joined World War II) 27-year-old Daniel enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Jacksonville Army Air Field in Florida. As a battlefield-commissioned Sargeant in the 76th Infantry, he served during the duration of WWII, plus 6 months after. Daniel was awarded a bronze star for meritorious service.

Mary Eleanora Pyzik was born on February 14, 1922, in Chicago, Illinois, to Joseph Pyzik and Marya Wegrzyn, who were both polish immigrants. She grew up in Chicago, attended Catholic school, and served in the Women's Army Corps of the U.S. Army during World War II, where she met Daniel Cazenave.

After Daniel and Eleanor were discharged from the Army, they married and settled in New Orleans to raise a family. Daniel worked as an addressing-embossing machine operator before opening his own hardware store in St. Bernard Parish. They had four children: Daniel Robert (1946), Suzanne Camille (1948), Denise Mary (1950), and Daniel Victor (1953).

Daniel passed away from a massive heart attack on May 8, 1956, at only 42 years old. He was remembered for his extensive work in recreation in St. Bernard Parish, and Arabi's "Daniel Cazenave American Veteran's Post #41" was named in his honor.

Eleanor continued to raise their four children after Daniel's death, working for various divisions of St. Bernard Parish (including the Parish Police Jury, the Parish Clerk of Court, and Joseph Davies' administration as Superintendent of Schools for the Parish). She also worked at Boeing's Michaud facility in Chalmette.
Eleanor was still living in St. Bernard Parish when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2004. She weathered the storm in her nursing home there, but had to be rescued by the National Guard when the facility flooded. She lived in Tennessee near her eldest son until November 2008, when she moved back to Louisiana (Marrero) to be cared for by her youngest daughter.

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is located in Southeastern Louisiana along the Mississippi River. The city is bordered by Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the east and is coextensive with Orleans Parish. It is named after Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. New Orleans is known for its multicultural heritage as well as its music and cuisine and is considered the birthplace of jazz. Its status as a world-famous tourist destination is due in part to its architecture, music, cuisine, its annual Mardi Gras, and other celebrations and festivals. It has been called the "most unique city in America."
La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In 1763, the French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire and remained under Spanish control for 40 years. Most of the surviving architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from this Spanish period. Louisiana reverted to French control in 1801, but Napoleon sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase two years later. The city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, and Creole French.
During the War of 1812, the British sent a force to conquer the city. The British were defeated by American forces led by Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. As a principal port, New Orleans had a leading role in the slave trade, while at the same time having the most prosperous community of free persons of color in the South. The population of the city doubled in the 1830s, and, by 1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest and third most populous city in the nation. The Union captured New Orleans early in the American Civil War. This action spared the city the destruction suffered by many other cities of the American South.
In the early 20th Century, New Orleans was a progressive major city whose most portentous development was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood. Urban development until then was largely limited to higher ground along natural river levees and bayous. Wood's pump system allowed the city to expand into low-lying areas.
Over the 20th century, rapid subsidence, both natural and human-induced, left these newly-populated areas several feet below sea level. New Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the age of negative elevation. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability. Hurrican Betsy in 1965 had killed dozens of residents even though the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-induced 1995 Flood demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system.
By the time Hurricane Katrina approached the city at the end of August 2005, most residents had evacuated. Storm surge pushed ashore by the hurricane caused the city to suffer the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. Floodwalls, called "levees," constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of remaining residents were rescued by helicopter or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome or the Morial Convention Center. Over 1,500 people died. The city was declared off-limits to residents while clean-up efforts began.
The approach of Hurricane Rita in 2005 caused repopulation efforts to be postponed, and the Lower Ninth Ward was reflooded by Rita's storm surge. By October 1, 2005, parts of the city accounting for about one-third of the population of New Orleans had been reopened. Efforts continue to rebuild infrastructure, pick up hurricane-related debris, and restore a level of normality to the residents of New Orleans.
Daniel Victor Cazenave was born and grew up in St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans; he and Mary Eleanora Pyzik returned to raise their family there after they married.