The Pride of Manzanar
This article was written by Russ Speiller
This article was published in How We Played the Game: Baseball at Manzanar, 1942–1945
Pictured is a view from center field at the baseball field erected in 1943 for the playing of hardball and dubbed “The Pride of Manzanar” by the Manzanar Free Press. (Courtesy of Toyo Miyatake Studios)
The sports page editors of the Manzanar camp newspaper, entitled the Manzanar Free Press, routinely used the words “softball” and “baseball” in game summaries reported in 1942, though it clearly wasn’t until the winter of 1943 that baseball was played. Prior to this point, the leagues for both the men and women were of the fastpitch softball variety. The September 4, 1943, edition of the Manzanar Free Press reported, “Hardball is Coming,” indicating that the Athletic Department had been considering a hardball league for a long time.
In the September 16, 1943, edition it was stated, “At Tuesday’s hardball manager-player meeting called by the Athletic Department, Board of Directors for the coming season were elected. Those elected to constitute the first Board of Directors for the Manzanar Baseball Association are: President F. K. Kurahashi; Vice President Henry Murakami; Secretary Min Watanabe; Treasurers Eddy Ushijima, and Henry Kinoshita.” A large diamond for playing baseball was being constructed, as the paper went on to state that “the ground will be leveled out, and the fence will be put up soon with the help of all teams that are to participate. Voluntary helps are welcome.”
The location for the baseball diamond was debated heavily. Initially, the area of the firebreaks between blocks 19 and 25 was suggested. Residents voiced concern that foul balls could do serious damage. After much discussion between Manzanar officials and residents, firebreak 19-25 was agreed upon. Nestled between those two blocks and bounded by A and B Streets on the other two sides, near camp’s northern corner, the 520-foot east-west by 600-foot north-south plot provided ample room for the field to be laid out to major league baseball specifications.
The tall tower that had been over the AA League diamond was moved to the new field to be used as an announcer’s booth with a public address system. It hovered behind the backstop that reportedly rose 24 feet and measured 60 feet from home plate. The fence was intended to extend approximately 168 feet to the right- and left-field lines and be nine feet tall. The playing field was purported to measure approximately 400 feet to left field and just about 350 feet to right field. Layers upon layers of red dirt were hauled to the diamond to create the infield, while the ground was watered each evening. Eventually a scoreboard was constructed in center field, as well as two players’ benches, two foul poles, four bleachers, and two spectators’ benches. Though there was talk of growing grass to enhance the field and make it “the envy of all the internment camp ballparks,” there is no evidence this came to fruition.
Special thanks were offered by the Athletic Department to S. Hasegawa, Mr. Murakami, and the Yogores ballclub for their efforts in the making of the diamond. The Manzanar Free Press declared the new field the “Pride of Manzanar” by and for the residents.
Teams that signed up for the winter men’s baseball league season first embarked on a practice season of several weeks so they could get a good feel for the new nine-inch baseballs. There were monetary expenses needed to build the stadium and purchase equipment. Thankfully donations came from ardent fans, which were more than welcomed as, according to reporting by the Manzanar Free Press, balls costing $1.75 were consumed during the baseball league season at a rate of one dozen a week. At one point the brand of balls the league was using ran out of stock and the baseball association turned to balls made by the Goldsmith company for $1.50 a ball. The baseball bats employed were made by the Louisville Slugger company and sold at a cost of $2.00 per bat. There were numerous bats broken during games, so replacements were needed. When team expenses became overwhelming to the point that each club was incurring monetary debt, the Manzanar residents were charged a small fee for coming to see the movies shown at the camp with the fees collected going to pay the debts.
Umpires for the games were typically volunteers. Time and time again, the Manzanar Free Press sports section would include a plea to treat them kindly.
At times in the camp newspaper, the ballpark was referenced as their “Wrigley Field.” This designation likely does not refer to the most well-known Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Illinois, but instead to the Wrigley Field that was built in 1925 in South Los Angeles. The stadium was named after chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. The initial tenant was the Los Angeles Angels who played in the Pacific Coast League.1 Many of the incarcerees at Manzanar had been dispossessed of their homes in and around the Los Angeles area.
Baseball was king of all sports at Manzanar and beloved by the residents of the camp. With the opening of the new baseball diamond, the men’s winter league baseball season began in earnest on the September 25, 1943, with scores of Manzanar residents arriving, ready to cheer on their favorite teams.
RUSS SPEILLER has been a SABR member since 2023 and could not be more grateful to the writers, editors, and consultants who contributed to this book. Having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Russ lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his incredible family. He has contributed to numerous SABR books, the BioProject, and Turnstyle magazine. This is his first time leading the construction of a SABR book and he is appreciative of the SABR publications board for choosing to greenlight this effort. He really hopes you all enjoy and learn from How We Played the Game. To read more of Russ’ work, please visit russspeiller.substack.com.
SOURCES
Unless otherwise noted, all information used to construct this piece was compiled using articles from the Manzanar Free Press newspaper, accessed via digitized copies of the paper found online at the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025948/?st=calendar&year=1943.
NOTES
1 Jim Gordon, “Wrigley Field (Los Angeles),” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/wrigley-field-los-angeles/, accessed December 21, 2025.