April 13-15, 1892: Rickety barn in right field steals the show in Oakland

In 1892 Colonel Thomas P. Robinson was the 30-year-old owner and manager of Oakland’s entry in the four-team California League. Was he a colonel? Probably not,1 but the press called him “Colonel,” and his team was called the Colonels.

The year before, the Oakland Colonels had played home games in Emeryville, about three miles north of Oakland. Robinson decided that his team should have a new ballpark in Oakland for the 1892 season, and with the backing of the Piedmont Cable Company, one was built on filled-in marshland near the company’s power plant.2 The company expected to profit from transporting fans by cable car.

The ballpark was dubbed the Piedmont Grounds. The grandstand behind home plate could seat 640. Above the grandstand were 10 private boxes with one reserved for Robinson and his friends. Bleachers on the third-base side could accommodate at least 450 fans. On the first-base side was parking for horse-drawn carriages from which visitors could watch the game. The field dimensions were 276 feet to left field, 409 to center, and 218 to right.3

A showman and promoter, Robinson was proud of the new arena and talked it up to the press. The venue, however, included an eyesore: a ramshackle, moss-covered barn that jutted into fair territory in right field. The barn was rented and in use, and scheduled for demolition when the lease expired on April 24. Robinson offered $300 (about $10,000 in 2023 dollars) to have it razed or relocated sooner, but his offer was declined.

With great fanfare, the Piedmont Grounds opened to the public on April 12. “The new grounds are in fine condition,” reported the Oakland Times, “the ground having been rolled until it is firm and the finishing touches having been added to the grandstand and boxes.”4 There was no mention of the decrepit barn. Before the game, Robinson led a parade through the streets of Oakland. A large crowd came to the ballpark and saw the Colonels lose, 8-6, to San Francisco.5

The next day, Wednesday, April 13, the Colonels hosted the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels were managed by Bob Glenalvin, a 25-year-old second baseman. The pitchers were right-handers: James Stafford for the Angels and Ed “Easy” O’Neil for the Colonels. The sole umpire was James McDonald. The attendance was 600,6 not counting the “mass” of “small boys” who scaled the outfield fence to get in; these lads had “over-the-fence tickets,” quipped the San Francisco Examiner.7

The Angels tallied once in the bottom of the fourth inning via two singles, a base on balls, and a fly out. The Colonels responded with two runs in the top of the fifth. Ed Hutchinson singled and Pete Lohman reached when Jack Newman muffed his fly ball to right field. O’Neil’s single to right sent Hutchinson home and Lohman to third, and Lohman came home on the front end of a double steal.

The Angels went ahead 5-2 with two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Singles by Bill Hassamaer and Emmett Rogers, a triple by George Treadway, and three errors by the Oakland defense were responsible.

The Colonels rallied with four runs in the top of the eighth to take a 6-5 lead. Lou Hardie led off with a triple and Fred Carroll, the Oakland captain, doubled to left. After Parke Wilson’s infield single and Clem Buschman’s sacrifice bunt, Hutchinson lined a single to left field that brought in two runs. Lohman’s single knocked in Hutchinson with the go-ahead run.

The Angels came to bat in the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. Glenalvin led off with a double to right and Al McCauley drew a walk. Hassamaer grounded to the pitcher O’Neil, who threw to third base for a force out, and Newman flied out to Hardie in center field.

Now it was up to William “Kid” Hulen, age 22, the youngest man in the Angels lineup. With two strikes on him, he lined the ball off the barn in right field. It was a fair ball and Lohman, the right fielder, gave chase to it. The ball rolled inside a cylindrical iron roller, which had been used to “firm” the ground. By the time Lohman fished out the ball, McCauley and Hassamaer had crossed home plate with the tying and winning runs. The final score was Angels 7, Colonels 6.

Robinson was seething after the bizarre finish. Sportswriter William M. Edwards, who had come from Los Angeles to report on the game, called the Piedmont Grounds “a miserable excuse for a ballpark.”8

The next day, the second game of the Angels-Colonels series was halted in the second inning by rain.9 It was played, as planned, at San Francisco’s Haight Street Grounds. The teams met again at the Piedmont Grounds on Friday, April 15, for the third game of the series. The pitchers were southpaw John Roach for the Angels and right-hander Lester German for the Colonels. The attendance was not reported. Robinson surely chafed at the many freeloaders. “About 200 persons” sat on the center-field fence without paying, and between 50 and 200 men and boys “perched on the roof” of the barn for “a bird’s eye view of the game.”10

Yet it was the barn that became the center of attention. It had helped the Angels on Wednesday, and in this contest, it benefited the Colonels, proving that it was “a strictly impartial structure,” quipped the San Francisco Call.11 The spectators on the roof were in for a big surprise.

The Angels scored twice in the bottom of the first inning on a hit batsman, George Treadway’s double, a passed ball, and a fly out. Carroll led off the top of the second with a home run over the left-field fence. After Buschman singled, Hutchinson lifted a fly ball that landed on the barn’s roof. A fan there “clung to the ball until both Buschman and Hutchinson had crossed the plate, but they were sent back by Umpire McDonald to third and second respectively,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.12 Moments later, Buschman came home on a passed ball and the score was tied, 2-2.

In the top of the sixth inning, Carroll started a rally with a double to left field. Wilson tripled off the side of the barn, and Buschman followed with a single up the middle. Hutchinson’s bunt down the third-base line was fielded by Hulen, a left-handed third baseman. Hulen’s throw skipped past McCauley, the first baseman, who “scrambled around among the carriages and horses” to retrieve the ball.13 Buschman scored and Hutchinson went to second base. Lohman’s sacrifice and Ollie Smith’s single brought Hutchinson home with the fourth run of the inning. The Colonels now led 6-2.

McCauley led off the bottom of the sixth “with a drive to right, the ball bounding over Lohman’s head. It would have been a home run but for the barn. The ball hit the side of the stable, rebounded into Lohman’s hands and ‘Pop’ [McCauley] was thrown out at second.”14

Near the end of the seventh inning, there was a loud crash as the roof of the barn caved in under the weight of the spectators, dropping some of them into the barn. “A wild-eyed cow and a horse dashed out through the splintered walls and plunged terror-stricken across the diamond,” the Call reported.15 Also emerging were “squealing pigs” and “a terrified goat.”16 Hardie, the center fielder, came over to help, only to be chased away by an angry hen.

There were no serious injuries, according to reports. Those who fell into the barn were assisted, and those remaining on the roof were helped down. Fans sitting on the center-field fence took advantage of the diversion; they came down from the fence and took seats in the bleachers.

The cave-in was more interesting than the game. It was quite a sight, “the like of which was never seen on any ball-field,” said the Call.17 Robinson should “introduce a trick barn with a drop roof, and hire some small boys with padded trousers to sit thereon,” suggested the Call. “Then he can advertise that the barn will positively cave in at each and every game.”18

With the barn in ruins and bereft of squatters, the game resumed. German doubled to left field in the top of the ninth, and errors by Glenalvin and Hassamaer let him score. The Angels came to bat trailing 7-2 in the bottom of the ninth. One run came in on a fly out and two more on Treadway’s double to right field.

With two outs and men on second and third, Glenalvin stepped to the plate. His grounder was fielded by Carroll, the first baseman, who raced Glenalvin to the bag. Carroll slid feet first while Glenalvin dove head first, “an exciting double slide … from opposite directions.”19 Glenalvin was called out and the game was over. The final score was Colonels 7, Angels 5.

The next game at the Piedmont Grounds took place five days later, on April 20. The barn was gone and the outfield fence was topped with barbed wire.20

Sources

Game coverage in the April 14 and April 16, 1892, issues of the Oakland (Times, Tribune), Los Angeles (Herald, Times), and San Francisco (Call, Chronicle, Examiner) newspapers.

Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com, accessed November 2023.

Spalding, John E. Always on Sunday: The California Baseball League, 1886 to 1915 (Manhattan, Kansas: Ag Press, 1992).

Photo courtesy of Doug McWilliams.

Notes

1 Robinson served in the California National Guard, but no evidence has been found that he rose to the rank of colonel.

2 “The Ball Grounds,” Oakland Tribune, March 2, 1892: 6.

3 “A Great Parade,” Oakland Tribune, April 6, 1892: 8.

4 “Jubilant Baseball Cranks,” Oakland Times, April 12, 1892: 1.

5 “A Parade and Defeat,” San Francisco Examiner, April 13, 1892: 8.

6 William M. Edwards, “‘Kid’ Hulen,” Los Angeles Herald, April 14, 1892: 5.

7 “Won Out in the Ninth,” San Francisco Examiner, April 14, 1892: 8.

8 Edwards, “‘Kid’ Hulen.”

9 “Stopped by the Rain,” San Francisco Examiner, April 15, 1892: 8.

10 “Baseball and Barn,” San Francisco Call, April 16, 1892: 8; “A Great Game,” Oakland Tribune, April 16, 1892: 4.

11 “Baseball and Barn.”

12 “On the Diamond,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 16, 1892: 5.

13 “How an Old Stable Brought Victory for the Colonels,” San Francisco Examiner, April 16, 1892: 8.

14 “How an Old Stable Brought Victory for the Colonels.”

15 “Baseball and Barn.”

16 “Baseball and Barn.”

17 “Baseball and Barn.”

18 “Baseball and Barn.”

19 “Baseball and Barn.”

20 “Uncle Takes One Game,” San Francisco Examiner, April 21, 1892: 8.