Hal Spindel

Harold “Hal” Spindel won this glowing assessment in the 1930s: “Considered best young catcher in [Pacific] Coast League since Mickey Cochrane left Portland. Great arm.”1 In 1936, Spindel’s manager with the Seattle Indians, Walter “Dutch” Ruether, said simply that the young backstop “has everything.”2 Solidly built at 6 feet and 185 pounds, Spindel had played fullback as well as catcher at UCLA. More than two decades later and long since retired, his throws were still blistering. His son Hal recounted how his hand would sting as they played catch when the boy was in Little League. He described Spindel as “a wild man with arms like tree trunks.”3

Spindel enjoyed a career year at the plate for Seattle in 1938; he also won praise for his handling of the Minor League Player of the Year, Fred Hutchinson. Spindel’s performance, combined with the St. Louis Browns’ need for affordable talent on a limited budget, propelled him into the majors. As it turned out, though, his action at the top level was limited.

Spindel was a backup catcher for St. Louis in 1939 behind Joe Glenn and Sam Harshaney. His second big league stint came during World War II under similar circumstances. After another strong season with Seattle in 1944 and with many major leaguers away in military service, he earned a reserve role with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945 behind Gus Mancuso and Andy Seminick.

Even as players returned from the war for the following season, Spindel appeared to be on track to remain in the big leagues for another year. However, a New York Yankees catching logjam spilled over to the Phillies, causing Spindel’s exodus from The Show. He appeared in just a single game for Philadelphia in 1946.

Altogether, the feisty fullback-turned-backstop spent 11 seasons in the minors from 1934 through 1947, most of them in the PCL. In 928 games, he hit .285 in 2,986 at-bats. In the majors, he batted .254 in 85 games.

***

Harold Stewart Spindel (pronounced Spin-DELL) was born on May 27, 1913, in Chandler, Oklahoma. His parents were Loyal Roscoe and Blanche Lillie (née Stewart) Spindel. Spindel was “a conglomeration of Scotch, German, French and Irish blood.”4

Spindel’s maternal grandparents, Ivey and Cinderella Stewart, moved from Indiana to participate in the second land rush in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. They staked the first lot on Chandler’s Main Street, where his mother was born.5 Spindel’s father, who was born in Taylorville, Illinois, and grew up in Oklahoma, was a railroad worker. Neither Loyal nor Blanche had yet reached age 20 when Hal was born.6

The family moved to California, where Spindel’s two younger brothers were born – Loyal Jr. (“Ross”) in 1919 and George in 1921.

Spindel attended Fremont High School in Los Angeles, the alma mater of 25 major-leaguers as of 2026. He excelled in 1930 and 1931 in football (he was the starting fullback and backup quarterback; in 1930 FHS finished in a three-way tie for first place) and baseball (he was a catcher, primarily, and was appointed team captain in 1931). His baseball coach was Les Haserot, a three-sport star at Occidental College in Los Angeles and shortstop for the Mission Bells and Portland Beavers in the PCL. Haserot, who coached at Fremont High from 1929 to 1956, is in the Los Angeles City Sports Hall of Fame.7

During his high school years, Spindel also played Legion Junior ball. In 1931, after his high school schedule ended, Spindel hooked on with Houghton Park, a distinguished semipro team in Long Beach managed by Deadball Era star George Stovall. The 18-year-old caught and played third base and made quite an early splash, going 5-for-5 with two singles, a double, triple and home run in Houghton’s victory on June 21.8

Spindel yearned to play for the University of California, Los Angeles, but first required a brief enrollment at Urban Military Academy to get his grades up.9 There, he played for the football team in 1931, followed by another summer with Houghton Park, before entering UCLA in 1932.10

The versatile athlete played football in his freshman and sophomore years at UCLA, then turned to baseball in the spring of 1934. When Spindel was forced to quit college “due to financial reverses,” Bill Burke, the trainer at the school, told Spindel he should go see Bill Klepper, president of the Seattle Indians11 in the PCL (Class AA, the highest classification in the minors at the time) and Dutch Ruether, who had become the team’s manager that April, for a tryout.12 In late September, the hot prospect hit in four straight games with the Indians.13 Spindel signed a contract to play for Seattle the following season.

Why did Spindel choose baseball over football? “He liked to dish it out, but he didn’t like getting hit,” his son replied. “Maybe it had something to do with a more reliable income, too. He was smart that way,” he added.14 Spindel often battled for that income.

By the time the 1936 season rolled around, Spindel had established himself as the Indians’ primary catcher for Ruether, a former major-league pitcher. Among other teams, Ruether was with the 1919 Cincinnati Reds (he was the winning pitcher in Game One of the World Series against the “Black Sox”) and the 1927 “Murderer’s Row” Yankees (his record that year was 13-6). Spindel, who batted and threw right-handed, hit .300 with five home runs in 122 games and the scouts began to notice him. Spindel held out for a brief time demanding a raise.15 When seven major-league clubs expressed an interest in the talented catcher, Klepper set his purchase price at $50,000. However, no team opened its checkbook at that value.16

Off the field, Spindel eloped and married a Seattle woman named Mary Nancy Gill. She was 21 years old and he was 23. “[That $50,000 tag on Hal] isn’t half enough,” the infatuated bride volunteered.17 In the end, the financial wrangling may have delayed Spindel’s advancement.18

A fractured left hand set Spindel back a little further in 1937. He lost half the season and batted .214 in 66 games.

On June 14, 1938, the darkest of clouds settled over Spindel. His father, an employee of the Pacific Electric Railway Company in Los Angeles, died in a work-related accident, crushed between two railroad cars.

Yet the 25-year-old son rallied and had his best overall season with Seattle at and behind the dish. Spindel put up career-best numbers in at-bats (400), hits (124), and homers (8). He handled 576 chances with only eight errors for a .986 fielding average. He was 4-for-19 with three RBIs in the first round of the playoffs, in which, unfortunately, the San Francisco Seals eliminated Seattle, four games to one.

Spindel and Seattle’s 19-year-old staff ace Fred “Wonder Boy” Hutchinson each had an outstanding 1938. Hutchinson led the league with 25 wins that season and The Sporting News named him the top minor-league player.19

Never an overpowering hurler, Hutchinson was a bit wild that season. In 290 innings, he had 145 strikeouts but 99 walks. As he developed his screwball, Hutchinson wanted Spindel as his backstop; he knew Spindel could handle his wild pitches.20 “I worked with [Hutch] in all but two of his games,” said Spindel.21

In December 1938, Seattle traded Hutchinson to the Detroit Tigers for four players plus $50,000. In contrast, Spindel had previously been picked up in the Rule V draft by the American League’s cash-strapped doormats, the St. Louis Browns, for a mere $7,500. As new manager Fred Haney explained, if Hutchinson compiled a 25-7 record in the hitter-friendly Coast League without an elite fastball in his arsenal, “[he] must have been helped by some rather smart catching.”22

The Browns’ top brass hoped Spindel would help right their ship. For four seasons, their pitchers had posted the worst ERAs in the American League – 5.26 in 1935, 6.24 in 1936, 6.00 in 1937, and 5.80 in 1938. For 1939, St. Louis tried to bolster its pitching with various newcomers. Management also aimed to attack the problem through the other half of the battery, hoping that seasoned catchers would improve the pitching. They had acquired veteran Billy Sullivan Jr., age 27, from the Cleveland Indians in February 1938. Then in October, St. Louis drafted Spindel and acquired Bill Dickey’s backup catcher, Joe Glenn, 29, from the Yankees. They held onto reserve catcher Sam Harshaney (who played for the Browns from 1937-40) for security. The Browns, it seemed, were set for improvement in 1939.

Despite these efforts, the plan did not go as hoped. Even with the new pitchers, St. Louis allowed an average of 6.63 runs per game in ’3923 while scoring only 4.70. In Haney’s first year as manager, the Browns finished in last place at 43-111-2; their .279 winning percentage was the worst in the history of the franchise.

As for Spindel, when he debuted on April 23, 1939, he became the third UCLA alum to appear in the majors.24 He failed to get a hit as a pinch-hitter in his first major-league at-bat, but one week later in his second at-bat, Spindel singled home Johnny Berardino and scored the Browns’ final run on George McQuinn’s sacrifice fly in a game that the Chicago White Sox won, 6-5.

Spindel maintained a .306 batting average through July 3, and was effective as a pinch-hitter all season, going 5-for-14 (.357) with three RBIs. On defense, Spindel was a tough, hustling receiver – he committed only one error in 141 chances for a .993 fielding percentage, and he cut down 11 out of 28 potential base-stealers (39.3%). The new Brownie was one of the best rookies in the league; however, he did not keep up the pace as the season wore on.25 Spindel finished the season with a .269/.313/.311 slash line in 119 at-bats.

Spindel’s son recalled that his father, a handsome man with flair, was a clothes model in those early years.26 In October 1939, Spindel was spotted selling men’s clothing in Rhodes Department Store in Seattle.27 That same month, the hunky catcher was released by the Browns. The following spring, he reported to the Toledo Mud Hens, a Browns affiliate in the American Association (Class AA).

Spindel was the Mud Hens’ number-one catcher for three years (1940-1942), averaging 105 games per season. As expected, he excelled on defense, posting solid fielding percentages of .978, .988, and .986. Spindel’s manager was Zack Taylor, a fine catcher himself for 16 years in the majors, with a .977 lifetime fielding average.

In 1940, Spindel was batting .289 when his season ended abruptly.28 In the first game of an August 20 doubleheader against the Minneapolis Millers, a Harry Kelley pitch broke Spindel’s jaw. (Manager Taylor was forced to catch the second game; it was the first time he’d donned catcher’s gear since 1937.29) Spindel missed the remainder of the season.

The steady backstop was selected to the American Association’s All-Star second team in 1940, first team in 1941, and second team again in 1942.30 In 1941, Toledo missed making the playoffs by one and a half games. In 1942, they almost took the championship. On the last day of the ’42 season, the Mud Hens won both ends of a doubleheader against the Columbus (Ohio) Red Birds and landed a playoff berth by finishing in fourth place.

The Hens made it past the Milwaukee Brewers in the first round of the playoffs before they were swept in the finals by Columbus. It was the closest Spindel got to a championship banner in his professional career.

With World War II raging, Spindel worked in an essential war job in the Bremerton, Washington, shipbuilding yard in 1943 and 1944. He applied for voluntary retirement from the Mud Hens, which was granted by the National Association, so that he could play in the Puget Sound Shipyards summer Sunday baseball league. (Players who were the property of a professional team were not permitted to play in this semipro league.31) Spindel also honed his leadership skills, succeeding none other than Dutch Ruether as playing manager of the Lake Washington team in the Shipyards League.32

In the middle of the Shipyards League season, the Seattle Rainiers (as the PCL club had come to be known) needed players after losing several to the military. On June 18, 1944, they purchased Spindel’s rights from Toledo.33 (Seattle’s prior attempt in 1941 to lure Spindel from Toledo was thwarted by Mud Hens management.34) With the Rainiers in 1944, Spindel batted a career- and team-best .355 over the remainder of the season. On September 1, he was honored by his teammates with “Hal Spindel Night.” Topping off his memorable evening, he knocked in the winning run in the 10th inning.35

Author Frederick Turner called the majors’ wartime fill-ins “an odd collection of men who had no past to speak of in the game and no future in it either, but who in 1943, ’44, and, ’45 passed for big league players.”36 In the autumn of 1944, big-league teams jockeyed more than ever for fit players to fill their rosters.37 On September 18, the last-place Philadelphia Phillies – or “Blue Jays” as they were nicknamed in 1944 and 194538 – acquired the 31-year-old Spindel. They sent cash and a player to be named later (Bob Finley) to Seattle.39

However, Spindel did not suit up for his new club until June 1945. It took months to obtain the War Manpower Commission approval necessary to be transferred from the Bremerton plant to a spot in the Philadelphia shipyard, so that he could retain his deferment and play for the Phillies.40 A June 11 report showed that the transfer had come through and Spindel was awaiting transportation east.41 Thus, the team was able to trade catcher Johnny Peacock to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who needed a receiver because Mickey Owen had entered the Navy.42 In return, the Phillies got Ben Chapman, who would soon be named manager.

Spindel joined young Andy Seminick in backing up Gus Mancuso (who had signed with Philadelphia that March). It was not a satisfying experience for the West Coaster, though. Spindel saw sporadic action, even when Mancuso missed three weeks starting in late July and left the club in September. Spindel made 25 starts and appeared in only 36 games, four of them as a pinch-hitter. He batted .230.

Before the next season began, Spindel trained with Philadelphia in Miami Beach, the club’s first return to warm-weather workouts following the three years that Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis prohibited preseason training in Florida and southern California. Mancuso had retired, and Spindel appeared to have won the job as Seminick’s backup. However, on March 25, 1946, the Phillies purchased 38-year-old Rollie Hemsley from the Yankees.

Hemsley – a former All-Star with the St. Louis Browns (1935-1936), Cleveland Indians (1939-1940), and Yankees (1944) – was expendable because ahead of him on the catching depth chart in New York were veteran Bill Dickey, returnee Aaron Robinson, rookie Gus Niarhos, and a slugging prospect who could play both catcher and outfield by the name of Lawrence Peter Berra. Hemsley was given the job as Seminick’s backup in Philadelphia and Spindel became the number-three man. The downward spiral that resulted in Spindel’s ultimate exit from baseball had been set in motion.

For reasons unknown except maybe to Spindel himself, Ben Chapman did not use Spindel in the first 42 games of the season. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” said his son, “if my father was as abominable to Chapman as Chapman was to others.”43 While Hemsley nursed a broken wrist suffered on May 4, Seminick caught 33 consecutive games, including seven doubleheaders, from May 5 through June 16. Finally, in the bottom of the third inning in the first game of a June 9 twin bill and with Philadelphia already down, 8-0, Spindel replaced Seminick behind the plate. It was the only time Chapman called on Spindel that season. The backup backstop singled in the Phillies’ only run. It was Spindel’s last game in the majors.

Spindel was suspended from June 13 to June 17.44 Although no reason was published for the suspension, his family recalled that it had to do with Spindel’s failure to report to his new team in a timely fashion owing to transportation difficulties.45 On June 15, the Phillies purchased outfielder Charlie Gilbert from the PCL’s Los Angeles Angels. Three days later, the Angels – an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs for whom Dutch Ruether (there’s that man again) was then a scout46 – purchased Spindel from Philadelphia. Chapman told the press that “the Phils were unable to find a place for Spindel this season.”47 Spindel’s delay in getting to Los Angeles was recast as apparent mutiny when the Angels claimed that Spindel was “sulking”48 and “balking at reporting.”49 He finally made it across country in time for the Angels’ game against the San Francisco Seals on July 2.50

In the finale of the eight-game series against San Francisco later that week, Spindel got the Angels’ only hit off Frank Rosso in a losing cause, 6-0. Battling injuries on and off throughout the remainder of the season, the first-year Angel batted .210 in 57 games and 0-for-7 in the semifinal playoffs. Casey Stengel’s Oakland Oaks defeated Los Angeles in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game Seven and advanced to the finals.

On January 3, 1947, Spindel married the former Marie Jeannette Ginty of Philadelphia, the second marriage for both of them.51 Marie had a three-year-old daughter, Barbara, from her previous marriage. A fitful baseball journey greeted the new Spindel family in their first year together.

Spindel was released by Los Angeles on February 21 to take a job as playing manager for the new Ontario (California) Orioles in the Sunset League (Class C).52 The number of minor leagues and unaffiliated minor league teams exploded in 1947-1949, opening up the managing opportunity for Spindel. The owner of the Ontario club was Babe Dahlgren, who had famously played first base for the Yankees in 1939 when Lou Gehrig removed himself from the lineup after 2,130 consecutive games. Within a month after his family relocated, however, Spindel was released by Ontario. Danny Reagan, 28 and still able to catch, replaced Spindel, 33 and reportedly bothered by a nagging groin injury.53

Spindel hooked up briefly with a semipro team in Pasadena sponsored by 20th Century-Fox before the Ogden (Utah) Reds in the Pioneer League, a Cincinnati Reds Class C affiliate, signed him in May. The family moved again.

Spindel missed a few days in June and a week in August with injuries. He played a total of 45 games at catcher plus 50 at first, a new position for him. No cause was given for his ankle injury in June, but regarding the latter, he was spiked by the batter-runner while playing first base.54 Spindel, often aggressive toward opponents in his own play, was not convinced that all the injuries he incurred over his career were accidental.55

Spindel’s season in Class C – his final year of pro ball – was a good one. He batted .332 and led the club in doubles (30), home runs (three, tied with two others), slugging percentage (.488), and OPS (.894). He was selected to the Pioneer League All-Star team.56

On September 15, Spindel requested and obtained his release so that he could find another team to manage in 1948; however, no one came calling.57 With Spindel’s playing career done, the family moved to New Jersey, not far from his wife Marie’s family in Philadelphia. Spindel went to work in the maintenance department at the Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway, New Jersey. Their daughter, Susanne Marie, was born in 1948.58 Their son, Harold Leo (“Hal L.”) followed in 1951.

In 1953, Spindel and family moved to a rental in Norwalk, California, which was closer to his parents. An electrician by training, he took a job as a tester with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (now known as UL Solutions).

They moved about four miles east to La Mirada in 1956. In 1957, Spindel founded the La Mirada Little League and served as the league’s first president; name recognition helped raise the necessary funding. Games began in 1958 on the field that was built on the property adjacent to the newly constructed St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church, even though “my father was not Catholic,” his son said.59

Spindel was particularly close to his brother, Ross. A Navy veteran, Ross was stationed in Pearl Harbor and survived the December 7, 1941, bombing. Ross taught electrical theory at Occidental College. He convinced his brother that, to have retirement money, he should take a civil service job with the city of Los Angeles. Spindel agreed and got a position working at the airport, which he held until he retired.

Spindel and his wife divorced in 1975; he did not remarry. “My father became somewhat of a recluse after his wife and kids left him,” said his son. “But he must have lived off his gambling winnings because when I settled his estate, I found that he saved every retirement check he ever received.”

Hal L. continued, “My father was a hawk all his life. He was mean and ornery. But in the end, when he was sick and reflective, he was a dove. The harsh moments faded away.”60

Hal Spindel died July 28, 2002, in San Clemente, California. He was 89 years old.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Cassidy Lent, manager of reference services at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, for supplying copies of news clippings from the Hal Spindel file; and to Hal L. Spindel, son of Harold S. Spindel, for the information he provided during telephone conversations with the author on January 4 and January 12, 2026 (quotes edited for clarity).

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.sabr.org, www.baseball-reference.com, www.retrosheet.org, www.baseballcube.com, www.statscrew.com, www.newspapers.com, www.newspaperarchive.com, ancestry.com, and two books: Donald R. Wells, The Race for the Governor’s Cup: The Pacific Coast League Playoffs, 1936-1954 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000), and Dennis Snelling, The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995).

Notes

1 Harold Stewart Spindel Press Bureau profile card, prepared by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues in unknown year. Now on file in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.

2 “Ruether Praises Spindel,” San Francisco News, August 21, 1936: 31.

3 Hal L. Spindel (Spindel’s son), telephone interview with author, January 4, 2026 (hereafter Spindel-Pasculli interview).

4 Dick Farrington, “Hal Spindel, Brown Rookie, Strong for Selective Draft; It Blew $50,000 Price Tags Away and Got Him a Job,” The Sporting News, May 4, 1939: 3.

5 That purchase generated mineral rights income still being paid as of this writing, according to Spindel-Pasculli interview.

6 Loyal was born on September 28, 1893, and Blanche was born on December 15, 1893.

7 Rick Obrand, “The Sandlot Mentors of Los Angeles,” The National Pastime: Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California, Jean Hastings Ardell and Andy McCue, eds. (Phoenix: SABR, 2011), 23, 24.

8 “Houghton Park Upsets Trucks; Spindel Stars,” Long Beach (California) Press-Telegram, June 22, 1931: B-5.

9 Spindel’s son, Hal, said that his father may have received guidance to follow this course from a relative of comic actor, Joe E. Brown. Spindel-Pasculli interview.

10 See Urban game summaries in the Los Angeles Times: September 26, 1931 at I-6; October 3, 1931 at I-8; October 10, 1931 at I-8; November 14, 1931 at I-9; and November 25 at II-12.

11 The team changed its name to Rainiers in 1938.

12 The circumstances are described in Spindel’s handwritten note located in the Hal Spindel file in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. See also, “Won’t Be Long,” Woodland (California) Daily Democrat, July 25, 1936: 4.

13 See Los Angeles Daily News: September 26, 1934: 14; September 29, 1934: 12; and October 1, 1934: 13.

14 Spindel-Pasculli interview.

15 United Press, “Hal Spindel Is Still Out,” Pasadena (California) Star-News, July 25, 1936: 12; and, “Won’t Be Long,” above.

16 United Press, “Rookie Crop on Coast Is Large,” Bend (Oregon) Bulletin, September 1, 1936: 3.

17 “Spindel Weds Seattle Girl,” Seattle Star, August 4, 1936: 8.

18 Cliff Harrison, “On the Inside,” Seattle Star, May 26, 1938: 12.

19 Edgar G. Brands, “Giles, M’Carthy, Vander Meer Win ’38 Major League Citations,” The Sporting News, December 29, 1938: 1.

20 Spindel-Pasculli interview.

21 Farrington, “Hal Spindel, Brown Rookie . . .” May 4, 1939: 3.

22 Associated Press, “Browns Draft Hutchinson’s Coast Catcher,” Buffalo Courier Express, January 5, 1939: 14.

23 With a 9-16 record and a 5.83 ERA, Jack Kramer was the best of the lot. Newly acquired Bill Cox from the Chicago White Sox sported a 9.64 ERA in four appearances; Ed Cole from Cleveland, 7.11 in six games; Johnny Marcum from the Boston Red Sox, 7.74 in 12 games; and Ewald Pyle, 12.96 in his debut season.

24 On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the eighth. See “MLB Players Who Played Collegiately at UCLA,” Baseball Almanac. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/college/university_of_california_la_baseball _players.shtml. Accessed January 22, 2026.

25 Dick Farrington, “A.L. Lands Six Kids and National Five,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1939: 5.

26 Spindel-Pasculli interview.

27 Louis Karnofsky, “Two Keystone Kids to Get Test in Seattle Infield Foundation,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1939: 3.

28 American League average fielding percentages for catchers in 1940, 1941, and 1942 were .982, .983, and .979.

29 “Kels Down Toledo, 10-4, 3-2,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, August 21, 1940: 15-16.

30 F.M. Colley, “Kansas City Gets All-Star Tilt, July 17, Second Straight Year,” The Sporting News, July 11, 1940: 6; F.M. Colley, “Columbus Places Five on A.A. All-Star Team,” The Sporting News, July 10, 1941: 5; Ernest Mehl, “A.A. Twinkle Game Goes to Kansas City,” The Sporting News, July 16, 1942: 2.

31 See “Caught on the Fly: Settle Strange, Spindel Status,” The Sporting News, May 20, 1943: 14, and “Caught on the Fly: “On Voluntary Retired List,” The Sporting News, July 1, 1943: 20.

32Jim Egan, “A Letter from Home,” Seattle Star, May 1, 1943: 1,2; Associated Press, “Shipyards Players’ Status Cleared Up,” Spokane (Washington) Chronicle, May 10, 1943: 11.

33 “Rainiers Cop Thriller in Opener, 3-2, But Angels Score 4-2 Series Victory,” Seattle Star, June 19, 1944: 11.

34 Louis Karnofsky, “Seattle Pays Penalty for Being in the Bucks,” The Sporting News, January 2, 1941: 5.

35 Associated Press, “Spindel’s Blow Tips Sacs in 10th,” Los Angeles Times, September 2, 1944: 7.

36 Frederick Turner, When the Boys Came Back: Baseball and 1946 (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1996), 11.

37 The Phillies handed out uniforms to 40 players in 1944. Only the Brooklyn Dodgers, with platoon-happy Leo Durocher at the helm, rostered more players. The Phillies led the NL in players used in 1945.

38 In 1944 and 1945, the club was known as the “Blue Jays” (although they maintained the official “Phillies” name as well), which was the winner in a contest conducted by the Carpenter family, the club’s new owners, to generate fan interest. The Blue Jays name was used by the press less often in 1946 and 1947 and not at all after that.

39 On November 22, Finley went to Seattle to complete the deal. Finley was a young catcher whom the Phillies had acquired in 1943, but who was reclassified to 4F because of a knee injury he suffered in college football.

40 Stan Baumgartner, Well-Rounded Athletic Squad Takes on Edge,” The Sporting News, March 29, 1945: 19; “Catcher Hal Spindel . . .,” [publication unknown], June 14, 1945 (Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum).

41 Associated Press, “Hal Spindel May Play Part Time,” Minneapolis Star-Journal, June 11, 1945: 15.

42 Bill Nowlin, “Johnny Peacock,” SABR BioProject (accessed March 22, 2026). Jeffrey Marlett, “Mickey Owen,” SABR BioProject (accessed March 22, 2026).

43 Spindel-Pasculli interview.

44 Harold Stewart Spindel, The Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Card, available at sabr.org.

45 Hal L. Spindel (Spindel’s son), telephone interview with author, January 12, 2026.

46 United Press, “Ruether to Coach Cub Southpaws,” Santa Maria (California) Times, January 26, 1946: 6.

47 “Jim Wasdell and Novikoff Let Out,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Evening News, June 20, 1946: 24.

48 Al Wolf, “Angels in Twin Bill with Ducks.” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1946: 14.

49 “Pacific Coast League: Los Angeles,” The Sporting News, July 3, 1946: 20.

50 Associated Press, “Seals Splash Angels, 10-3.” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1946: 6.

51 The date of Hal and his first wife Mary Gill Spindel’s divorce is not known; in the obituary that was published for her brother George Gill in the Seattle Star on October 12, 1946, Mary Gill’s name is given as “Mary Spindel.”

52 Joe Wimer, “Spindel Signs with Orioles as Manager,” Ontario (California) Daily Report, February 24, 1947: 8.

53 “Spindel Out as Manager of Orioles,” Ontario Daily Report, March 24, 1947: 1.

54 Al Warden, “Patrolling the Sport Highway,” Ogden (Utah) Standard Examiner, June 28, 1947: 3; Phil McLees, “Ogden Tames Bees, 4-1; Boise Downs T.F., 12-4,” Salt Lake Tribune, August 1, 1947: 18.

55 Hal L. Spindel (Spindel’s son), telephone interview with author, January 4, 2026.

56 “Ogden Lands Three Men on All-Stars,” Ogden Standard Examiner, September 14, 1947: 10.

57 Al Warden, “Patrolling the Sport Highway,” Ogden Standard Examiner, September 22, 1947: 10.

58 Al Warden, “Patrolling the Sport Highway,” Ogden Standard Examiner, August 29, 1948: 14.

59 Spindel-Pasculli interview. See also, “Sports Group Plans Four League Teams,” Whittier (California) News, January 20, 1958: 4.

60 Information about Spindel’s post-baseball career came in large part from Spindel-Pasculli interview and a follow-up on January 12, 2026.