Bats, Balls, Boys, and Dreams: The Hearst Sandlot Classic at Yankee Stadium, 1959-1965

Jim Spencer had 36 major-league home runs at Yankee Stadium during his 15-year career, the first coming on August 6, 1969. However, his first Yankee Stadium homer came on August 12, 1963, in a tune-up game for the annual Hearst Sandlot Classic. Spencer was on the United States All-Stars, who defeated the Eastern Pennsylvania All-Stars, 10-6. On August 17, 1963, he took the field in the 18th annual Hearst Sandlot Classic.

The Hearst Classic was a national showcase for young ballplayers.1 The annual game, played between the New York Journal-American All-Stars and the U.S. All-Stars, was first contested in 1946 at the Polo Grounds. The New York team was the cream of the New York sandlot leagues, and the US team represented cities in which the Hearst newspaper chain had publications.2 In 1959 the game, known to locals as the Journal-American Game, was moved to Yankee Stadium.3

From the games held at Yankee Stadium between 1959 and 1965, 30 players advanced to the major leagues.4 At least one Hearst player was in each All-Star Game from 1954 through 1978.5

The games were played during a time of change. In 1960, the US presidential election to choose a successor to Dwight Eisenhower was three months away, and the spy trial of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was making headlines. In 1961 Cold War tensions were high. In the New York Journal-American, a headline read, “If War Comes to New York: Shelters Can Save Millions of Lives.”6 In 1962 newspapers spoke about the stars in the sky being joined by something called Telstar, the first of a series of communications satellites that would dot the skies in coming decades. In 1964 Lyndon Johnson was in his first summer in the White House and the Warren Commission was investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

AUGUST 18, 1959: US ALL-STARS 13; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 4

The US All-Stars erased an early three-run deficit to win 13-4 as 14,098 looked on. The starting pitchers were Larry Bearnarth for the New Yorkers and Richard Donaldson of Pittsburgh for the US All-Stars. The US All-Stars had 10 hits and took advantage of eight Journal-American All-Star errors.

Bearnarth pitched two shutout innings but came out of the game after walking the bases full in the third inning. The US All-Stars scored four runs in the frame and took a lead they did not relinquish. After completing his studies at St. John’s in 1962, Bearnarth signed with the Mets and made his debut on April 16, 1963. In four seasons with the Mets, he went 13-21.

Donaldson pitched a scoreless first inning, but a throwing error by shortstop Ernie Fazio on a potential double-play ball in the second inning led to three runs. Donaldson was replaced by Boston’s Wilbur Wood, who stopped the bleeding and his mates provided ample run support. He got the win and had the biggest career success of anyone who played in the 1959 game.

The US team was led by manager Ossie Vitt and coach Buddy Hassett. New York manager Tommy Holmes and his assistant, Steve Ray, put the Journal-American players through their drills.

Players partook in the activities that were essential to the program. They toured the Empire State Building; took a trip to West Point for the Cadet dress parade and lunch; and went to Bear Mountain for a steak dinner. They took the Circle Line boat trip around Manhattan, and they saw ballgames at Yankee Stadium.

On Monday, August 17, the US team drilled at the soon-to-be demolished Ebbets Field and received their uniforms. That evening, there was a banquet in the Terrace Room at the Hotel New Yorker (where the US players stayed during their week in New York), followed by a visit to the Radio City Music Hall, where everybody saw the movie North by Northwest.7

AUGUST 18, 1960: US ALL-STARS 6; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 5

In a thriller, the US All-Stars prevailed, 6-5. The New Yorkers took the early lead on a two-run inside-the-park homer by Rickie Stancavage, which US All-Star pitcher John Vergare remembered was misplayed by one of his outfielders.

Howie Kitt, who had completed his freshman year at Columbia University, was the starting pitcher for the New Yorkers. In three innings, the left-hander allowed no hits. His seven strikeouts (six were consecutive) set a Hearst Classic record. He received the Lou Gehrig Award as the game’s MVP and signed with the Yankees for an $80,000 bonus. He later graduated cum laude with a degree in economics from Hofstra University. In 1965, with his fastball gone and his once great prospects but a memory, he accepted a fellowship from Columbia and went on to earn a PhD in economics His career took him to the top echelons of antitrust and trade regulation matters.8

After Kitt left the game, the US All-Stars mounted a charge and took a 4-2 lead on a two-run homer by San Antonio’s Joel Tigett. Texas’s Seguin Gazette proclaimed that “Tigett’s booming bat was heard throughout the entire U.S. during the All-Star game in New York last August 18. The fourth inning was the occasion when the entire baseball world stood up and took a startled look at Seguin and Joel. That’s when Joel simply strode up to the plate and blasted a 415-foot home run into the 20th row behind left field at Yankee Stadium.”9

The starting catcher for the US All-Stars was Bill Freehan, representing the Detroit Times, and his double drove in the first run for the visitors. He came around to score the tying run on a single by Baltimore’s Charlie Bree, who scored on Tigett’s two-run homer. In 14 full seasons with the Tigers, Freehan was named to 11 All-Star teams, including 10 in succession from 1964 through 1973.10

Mike Marshall, a natural shortstop from Adrian, Michigan, also represented the Detroit Times. He entered the game in the sixth inning to play right field. He went to the mound in the bottom of the eighth with two outs. The New Yorkers had already scored a run to make the score 6-5 and were threatening to do more damage. Marshall secured the final out of the inning and retired the side in order in the ninth inning to save the win. It was in Los Angeles that Marshall gained a share of immortality. Dodgers manager Walter Alston bought in to Marshall’s desire to work often to maintain his strength. In 1974 Marshall appeared in 106 games, posted a 2.42 ERA, was credited with 21 saves, made the NL All-Star team, and won the National League Cy Young Award.

Center fielder Brian McCall of the US All-Stars had completed his junior year of high school. The Long Beach, California, lad signed with the White Sox for $50,000 in 1961. The program handed out at the game in New York noted that McCall was a gifted cartoonist and illustrator. McCall got his first taste of the big leagues in 1962. On September 28, 1962, in his third game, he singled for his first major-league hit. At breakfast prior to the final game of the season, McCall introduced his mother to a couple of the White Sox coaches. The 19-year-old wound up starting the game against the Yankees and became one of the youngest players to have a multiple home-run game. In the third inning, he hit his first big-league homer off Bill Stafford. His seventh-inning homer off Ralph Terry was the icing on the cake as Chicago won 8-4. After baseball, McCall became a successful artist.

AUGUST 24, 1961: US ALL-STARS 6; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 3

A five-run fifth inning propelled the New Yorkers to the 6-3 win.

Davey Johnson had completed his first year at Texas A&M. He was very highly thought of by Buddy Hassett, who commented, “I like his wrist action and the way he whips the bat around so fast.”11 Two long homers, one of which sailed to the upper deck at the Bronx ballpark, were particularly impressive. Johnson remembers rooming with fellow San Antonian Jerry Grote during their stay in New York. Johnson remembered Grote having him sit on Grote’s shoulders when the future Mets catcher was doing pushups, so as to strengthen his arms.

Johnson signed with Baltimore for a $25,000 bonus after his sophomore year of college. He secured a guarantee that he could finish college. He was named to four American League All-Star teams and won three Gold Glove Awards. He went on to a successful career as a manager.

Shaun Fitzmaurice of Wellesley, Massachusetts, the substitute center fielder for the US All-Stars, finished in a second-place tie in the MVP voting. He banged out an inside-the-park homer to deepest center field with Grote on base in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium on that August evening to cut the New York lead to 6-3, but the US team could not close the gap any further.

Larry Yellen started for the New Yorkers and struck out five batters in three scoreless innings. In the summer of 1962, he signed with Houston for $55,000. He was called up late in the 1963. Houston planned to use him in a game on September 27. The idea was to field a team of their youngest players. However, that year, Yom Kippur Eve was on September 27, and Yellen is Jewish. General manager Paul Richards acquiesced to Yellen’s request not to play on September 27, and the youngster was handed the ball on the prior day.

AUGUST 16, 1962: US ALL-STARS 4; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 4

Eddie Joost took over the reins as US manager in 1962.

The game was tied 4-4 and stopped by curfew after 11 innings and more than four hours of play. It was the only tie in the history of the series. The game’s MVP, New York shortstop Joe Russo, made some sparkling plays in the field, including robbing Boston’s Tony Conigliaro of a hit, and went 2-for-4 with an RBI. In the last inning, writer Morrey Rokeach of the Journal-American went to the New York team’s dugout and informed Russo that he had been chosen MVP. Russo graduated from St. John’s University and was a baseball coach at the school for 27 years, 23 as head coach.

A blurb in the game program over Conigliaro’s picture said that he “could be best prospect on US All-Star squad.”12 In the third inning, he singled in a run and eventually scored during a three-run rally. On his first visit to Yankee Stadium, he was in awe of the place. “I’m going to be here (playing for some big-league club),” said Conigliaro to his Boston teammate and longtime friend Bill “Skip” Falasca.13 Conigliaro was signed by the Red Sox for $20,000. In 1964 he made his major-league debut. After going 1-for-5 in his first game, played at Yankee Stadium, he hit a home run on the first pitch he saw at the Boston home opener at Fenway Park. His career was affected by a beaning incident in 1967.

In practices held at Yankee Stadium, Baltimore’s Ron Swoboda homered, but in the game itself, a very nervous Swoboda went 0-for-4. The kids saw a Mets game during their time in New York. Swoboda signed with the Mets before the 1964 season. He is best remembered for his game-saving catch in fourth game of the 1969 World Series.

AUGUST 14, 1963: US ALL-STARS 4; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 0

The US All-Stars won 4-0 in front of 15,432 spectators. The team’s pitchers were dominant, registering 14 strikeouts in the shutout.14

The MVP trophy went to Joe Gualco of San Francisco. He excelled in relief, striking out six of the eight players he faced. Entering the game with his team leading 3-0, he allowed only one hit and a walk. After college, he went into education and was named the head baseball coach at George Washington High School in San Francisco in 1981. He served in that post for 13 years.15

San Antonio’s Freddie Patek stood only 5-feet-5 but packed a wallop. During a practice at St. John’s, he slammed a couple of balls out of the park at the 390-foot mark. He is best remembered for his years with the Kansas City Royals. He was named to three All-Star teams and was part of three consecutive divisional champions that lost in the American League Championship Series to the Yankees.

Jim Spencer of Baltimore had just completed his sophomore year in high school and did not turn 16 until four days after his selection was announced. In 1978 he returned to Yankee Stadium as a member of the Yankees and once again was on the same field with 1963 teammate Fred Patek in the Bronx during the American League Championship Series.16

Fran Healy was just thrilled to be a part of the scene at the Hearst Classic: “Even if I play here in a World Series some day – and don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fathead or anything – I don’t think the thrill could ever be bigger than it is right now.”17 In 1964 Cleveland offered Healy a bonus and allowed him to complete his second year at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and report to his minor-league team after the semester was complete. After his playing career (his best years were with the Kansas City Royals), he went into the announcing booth working with the Yankees and Mets and produced the Emmy Award-winning Halls of Fame television series.

Skip Lockwood and his parents, made their way to New York in a “beat-up old Buick.”18 He was led around to the sights in New York by his mother, who in her younger days, had been a Radio City Music Hall Rockette. Lockwood contributed to his team’s win with a fourth-inning RBI single. He was signed as an infielder by Kansas City for $135,000 in 1964. In five seasons with the Mets, whom he joined in 1975, he saved 65 games and had a 2.80 ERA.19

AUGUST 19, 1964: JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 2; US ALL-STARS 1

The New York World’s Fair was housed in Flushing, across from the new home of the Mets, and was added to the stops made by the youngsters participating in the Hearst game. The Polo Grounds, home to so many Hearst games, had been demolished.

A crowd of 14,189 came to Yankee Stadium on August 19. The New Yorkers won the game, 2-1. The low-scoring affair saw strikeout records galore. New York pitchers fanned 16 and limited the opposition to three hits. The 11 strikeouts registered by the US All-Stars pitchers produced a game total of 27, a record for the event.

Don Balsamo started and struck out a record eight during his three innings on the mound for the New Yorkers. He attended Long Island University and played ball in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League in 1967, pitching the first no-hitter in the history of the four-team summer league on July 29. He did not play in Organized Baseball.

For two innings, the New Yorkers were shut out by Joe Coleman. Coleman struck out two batters in his two innings of work. He was the first-round draft pick of the Washington Senators in 1965 and made his debut at the end of the season. His best years were with Detroit. He went 88-73 in six years in the Motor City, had two 20-win seasons, and was named to the American League All-Star team in 1972.

Ron Thomas of Los Angeles pitched the third and fourth innings for the US team, striking out seven batters. (One of the batters reached base when the catcher mishandled the pitch in the third inning.) Thomas thus set single-inning and two-inning strikeout records. In the fourth inning, he yielded the second of MVP Steve Frohman’s doubles, and allowed the New York first baseman to score the run that knotted the score at 1-1. Frohman signed with the Cardinals, but never got beyond Class A.

AUGUST 21, 1965: US ALL-STARS 9; JOURNAL-AMERICAN ALL-STARS 3

The US All-Stars exploded for six runs in the 10th inning to win in front of 16,191 fans at Yankee Stadium.

The MVP was first baseman Pete Koegel of Seaford, New York, who had two hits, including a towering 450-foot fourth-inning triple off the auxiliary scoreboard in left field. He was signed by Kansas City in 1965. It took six years and many stops, but on September 1, 1970, Koegel arrived in the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers. He appeared seven games in 1970, mostly as a pinch-hitter. On September 25 he had his only major-league homer. In all, he played in 62 major-league games.

Although more than 90 percent of the players in the Hearst Sandlot Classic never got to the majors and most never played professionally, they had memories and stories to share.

John Salmon of Malden, Massachusetts, played the entire 1965 game, went 3-for-6 with an RBI on a suicide squeeze and was runner-up in the balloting for the Gehrig Award. Salmon remembered Koegel’s triple. At first, he thought that left fielder Mike Houck had a chance at the ball, and did not hustle on the play. Houck, though, was a pitcher-first baseman whose first and only game in left field was in the tune-up at Shea Stadium on August 19. He did not have a realistic chance to catch the ball. Salmon got a master’s degree in business from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He pursued a career in sales and then went on to work in probations for the Boston court system. Houck played briefly in the Baltimore Organization.

What else do they remember? After a tune-up game on August 19, the players visited the World’s Fair, and that evening they had dinner at Mama Leone’s. John Salmon of Boston and Mike Houck of Albany, New York, would never forget that dinner.

ALAN COHEN chairs the BioProject fact-checking committee, serves as vice president-treasurer of the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood SABR Chapter, and is a datacaster (milb first-pitch stringer) for the Hartford Yard Goats of the Double-A Eastern League. His biographies, game stories, and essays have appeared in more than 65 SABR publications. The subject of his earliest Baseball Research Journal article was the Hearst Sandlot Classic, the last seven games of which were played at Yankee Stadium. His most recent contribution to the BRJ catalogued Josh Gibson’s feat of hitting home runs in 17 big-league ballparks, including seven at Yankee Stadium. He included the first game back at Yankee Stadium after the 9/11 attacks in SABR’s web-based project, First Games Back. He has four children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild and resides in Connecticut with wife Frances, their cats, Ava, and Zoe, and their dog, Buddy.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author used B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com and interviewed the following people about the Hearst Games from 1959 through 1965:

Tim Cullen, August 29, 2014; Ernie Fazio, March 14, 2015; Shaun Fitzmaurice, March 15, 2015; Joe Gualco, July 23, 2016; Fran Healy, July 1, 2021; Jim Henneman, July 7, 2014; Mike Houck, April 20, 2016; Davey Johnson, March 10, 2015; Howie Kitt, May 19, 2016; Skip Lockwood, April 24, 2015; Mike Marshall, March 4, 2015; Brian McCall, June 5, 2015; Jim McElroy, June 6, 2014; Joe Russo, January 22, 2015, and May 27, 2017; John Salmon, January 19, 2016; Ron Swoboda, January 7, 2014; Steve Thomson, July 2, 2016; John Vergare, November 26, 2014.

Correspondence

Bob Nash (1963 US All-Stars)

Other articles about the Hearst Sandlot Classic:

Cohen, Alan. “The Hearst Sandlot Classic: More than a Doorway to the Big Leagues,” Baseball Research Journal (Society for American Baseball Research, 2013), 21-29.

Cohen, Alan. “When They Were Just Boys: Chicago and Youth Baseball Take Center Stage,” The National Pastime (Society for American Baseball Research, 2015), 74-77.

Cohen, Alan. “Bats, Balls, Boys, Dreams and Unforgettable Experiences, Youth All-Star Games in New York, 1944-1965,” The National Pastime (Society for American Baseball Research, 2017), 85-88.

Cohen, Alan. “From Sandlot to Center Stage: Pittsburgh Youth All-Star Games, 1944-59,” The National Pastime (Society for American Baseball Research, 2018), 60-63.

 

NOTES

1 The format was devised by New York Journal-American sports editor Max Kase who in 1945 had launched the Journal-American Sandlot Alliance. The Alliance became the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance after the Hearst program ceased in 1966 and as of 2022 remained active under the leadership of Victor Feld.

2 The selection process for the US All-Stars varied. It included a series of baseball schools and tryouts culminating in big games in Boston and San Francisco; All-Star Games in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, and Seattle; and a poll of area writers and coaches in Albany, New York.

3 The Polo Grounds was not well-maintained after the New York Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season. By 1958 the facility was being used for stock-car races and the track around the field made play difficult when the Hearst game was held there in 1958. The logical choice was to move the game to Yankee Stadium in 1959.

4 The 1965 game was the last Hearst Sandlot Classic. The demise of the game was hastened by several factors including two New York City newspaper strikes. The first lasted 114 days from December 8, 1962, through March 31, 1963. The second lasted for 23 days between September 13 and October 8, 1965, and the losses from this strike were such that it effectively shut down the New York Journal-American, which was the force behind the game. The Journal-American ceased publication on April 28, 1966.

5 The 30 players who advanced to the major leagues are Wilbur Wood, Larry Bearnarth, Fritz Fisher, Darrell Sutherland, Bill Ott, Bob Guindon, Glenn Beckert, Ernie Fazio, Tim Cullen, Mike Marshall, Brian McCall, Bill Freehan, Mike Ryan, Shaun Fitzmaurice, Jerry Grote, Davey Johnson, Joe Foy, Larry Yellen, Tony Conigliaro, Ron Swoboda, Don Mason, Fran Healy, Skip Lockwood, Fred Patek, Jim Spencer, Sonny Ruberto, Terry Crowley, Joe Coleman, Pete Koegel, and Mike Jorgensen.

6 Dan Brigham, “If War Comes to New York: Shelters Can Save Millions of Lives,” New York Journal-American, August 16, 1961: 25.

7 “S.F.’s Fazio to Start at Short in Hearst Game,” San Francisco Examiner, August 18, 1959: III, 4. The annual visit to Radio City allowed the boys to see the floor show including the Rockettes and the following films: North by Northwest (1959), Song Without End (1960), Fanny (1961), That Touch of Mink (1962), The Thrill of It All (1963), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).

8 “Antitrust and Trade Regulation Specialist Howard Kitt Joins CRA International’s New York Office; Founder of NERA’s Antitrust Consultancy Offers Wealth of Experience,” Business Wire, June 2, 2005.

9 “Tigett Wallop Gives Seguin Greatest Sports Moment,” Seguin (Texas) Gazette, October 12, 1960: 3, 1.

10 Morrey Rokeach, “Vitt Impressed by Star Nine’s Power, Speed,” New York Journal-American, August 19, 1961: 15.

11 Rokeach.

12 “17th Annual Hearst Classic: United States All Stars vs. N.Y. All-Stars: Yankee Stadium, Aug. 16, 1962.” Official Program.

13 Bill Nowlin, “Tony Conigliaro,” SABR BioProject, h​ttps:​//sab​r.org​/biop​roj/p​erson​/tony​-coni​gli​aro/.

14 Jeff Cohen, “All 5 N.E. Boys Make Hit in N.Y. Sandlot Classic,” Boston Record American, August 16, 1963: 72.

15 “Gualco MVP in Hearst Classic,” San Francisco Examiner, August 15, 1963: 51, 55.

16 Bill McSweeney, “Hearst Sandlot Classic Wednesday,” Boston Record American, August 12, 1963: 40.

17 Garry Brown, “From MLB to TV Interviews, Holyoke’s Fran Healy Remains Pride of the Paper City,” Springfield Republican, October 28, 2019. h​ttps:​//www​.mass​live.​com/l​iving​/2019​/10/f​rom-m​lb-to​-tv-i​nterv​iews-​holyo​kes-f​ran-h​ealy-​remai​ns-pr​ide-o​f-the​-pape​r-cit​y.​html.

18 Author interview with Skip Lockwood, April 24, 2015.

19 Bill Nowlin, “Skip Lockwood,” SABR BioProject, h​ttps:​//sab​r.org​/biop​roj/p​erson​/Skip​-Lock​wood/.