The Boom and Bust of Hope: The Pacific Coast League and What Might Have Been

Joe DiMaggio. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

Perhaps the Pacific Coast League never had a chance.

For decades, the PCL was baseball to fans along the Pacific Coast, the closest thing to the major leagues recognized in the East and Midwest. The league thrived before the age of air travel, but as modernization shrank the country, the PCL came into closer contact with the Eastern major leagues. To be sure, there were plenty of examples of players like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, who made their way from California to the big cities of the East, but plenty more simply stayed and made careers out West. With the American League and National League jealously guarding their major-league status and the PCL increasingly defending what it had built, the Eastern establishment and the Western pretenders seemed destined to collide. Would the established major leagues claim the West Coast for themselves or would the PCL force the AL and NL to recognize the West Coast circuit as an equal?

The resolution to this question is key to understanding the structure of major-league baseball that emerged in the postwar era. Despite the efforts of the Western upstarts, they never really had a chance. Several factors conspired against the PCL’s pretensions to major-league status. First, the boom of postwar attendance may have heightened expectations about the size of the PCL fan base, but the subsequent inability to sustain the surge of fan interest held the league back. Second, most PCL cities lacked ballparks that would have provided a potential maj or-league foundation. Outside of a few league cities, the facilities were generally substandard and kept fans away. Third, the television age was beginning. Baseball had a new competitor for people’s leisure time, and the national and regional broadcasting of ballgames lessened the incentive to attend in person. Fourth, government officials, crucially in Los Angeles and San Francisco, made no mistake about their preference to lure major-league baseball rather than strengthen local PCL teams. Civic leaders were seduced by big-league ball from afar and made offers to strangers that were never extended to locals. Finally, the preceding factors left the PCL unable to take advantage of the Open classification it was granted in late 1951. Open classification suggested a path to major-league status, but the PCL proved unable to take advantage. Instead of growing into a major league, the PCL’s largest cities became colonized and co-opted into the existing major-league order.

The major leagues had seriously eyed the West Coast since 1941. The American League planned to vote on December 8, 1941, to approve the transfer of the St. Louis Browns to Los Angeles. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7 drew the United States into World War II and scuppered any talk of relocation for the foreseeable future. After the war fans flocked to major-and minor-league games, and the PCL shared in the attendance increase. In 1945 the league broke its attendance record with almost 3 million fans. One year later, admissions exceeded 3.7 million, and the San Francisco Seals set a minor-league record with 670,563 patrons.1 The good times continued into 1947 as the PCL crossed the 4 million mark in attendance for the first time; five teams exceeded a half-million, with both San Francisco and Los Angeles drawing in excess of 600,000.2 In fact, every team in the league outdrew the American League’s “poor sister,” the St. Louis Browns.

 

 

Amid this business boom, PCL President Clarence “Pants” Rowland requested recognition from the American League and National League as a major league.3 The majors denied the initial request in 1946 and, although there was some thought to “going outlaw,” the PCL stayed within the system of Organized Baseball.4 Flagship clubs like the San Francisco Seals and Los Angeles Angels conducted business on a footing similar to major-league teams; moreover, the Angels had a direct connection to the majors as they were part of the Chicago Cubs system through owner Philip Wrigley. Their ballparks, Seals Stadium and Wrigley Field respectively, were among the best facilities on the West Coast but they were atypical of the league. In general, however, playing facilities played a significant role in holding back the league. Most ballparks were small and decrepit in comparison to major-league ballparks. When he made his push for major status, Rowland believed the ballparks could be brought to big-league standards within three years.5 That assessment was hopelessly optimistic.

Sales of television sets exploded after the war, and baseball provided programming potential. Just as the majors began taking advantage of the new medium, so did the PCL. While there was money to be made, there was a knock-on effect for in-person attendance. Los Angeles and the Hollywood Stars were early adapters to television, consistently airing games as early as 1947 (the Stars actually experimented with televising games in the prewar years),6 but as telecasts increased in 1948 and 1949, attendance figures declined. Plus, major-league teams started broadcasting games nationwide, cannibalizing their own gates but devastating minor-league teams with a better product available to fans without leaving their homes. By 1950, PCL attendance fell to around 3 million, a decline of more than 25 percent from just three years earlier.7 More exposure to major-league baseball undermined the PCL’s position; after all, “[i]f you could listen to the big boys on the box at home, why go out to the park to see the local Minor Leaguers play?”8 Even when clubs reduced the number of broadcasts, attendance failed to rebound.

In 1951 the PCL pressed again for major-league recognition, and this time the league appeared ready for a fight. The major-league draft was increasingly a point of contention. The draft, which allowed major-league teams to purchase the rights to a minor-league player, meant that major-league clubs could claim PCL players for a mere $10,000; clubs complained that they invested more to develop a player than they received in return. Seals owner Paul Fagan said, “I’m just convinced that San Francisco deserves baseball of the highest caliber, and that is impossible to acquire with the draft annually taking our best players and forcing us to sell others or suffer great financial loss.”9 The Seals proposed to go outlaw, but the league deadlocked on their motion.10 Fagan had reason to be concerned. In San Francisco alone, attendance fell with the Seals’ fortunes, with the gate slipping below 200,000 in 1951, just four years removed from their record-setting season.

The major leagues relented, but only to a point. With Congress taking an interest in the majors’ antitrust exemption amid television’s negative effect on the minors, the majors created the “Open” classification to appease the restless PCL. The new classification was intended to provide the league with room to grow toward major-league status but offered no guarantee.

With Open classification, the majors extended the period before which a player could be drafted from four years to five, and allowed PCL players to opt out of the draft. The price for players drafted out of the PCL jumped to $15,000. As Oakland Oaks owner Clarence “Brick” Laws noted, “Draft relief will be our first step toward becoming a major league. [With relief] we can reach major league standards in a few years.”11 At first, draft relief seemed to work. Ahead of the 1952 season, 19 of 20 draft-eligible PCL players opted for contracts that exempted them from being claimed.12 Fagan observed, “Now we no longer have to serve as a fish hatchery for the majors, by developing players for them.”13 Intending to establish its independence of operations, the PCL voted not to take optioned players starting with the 1953 season, and operating agreements with major-league clubs were restricted.

Attendance declined once again in 1952 despite a general decrease in the number of games broadcast both by PCL teams and from Eastern major-league cities.14 Fagan and Sacramento Solons owner Charles Graham believed fans remained more focused on major-league teams than local PCL clubs.15 Claims to major-league status were also undermined by the actions of the PCL’s own clubs. In January 1952 the Pittsburgh Pirates purchased a minority interest in the Hollywood Stars. Fagan protested, “The ‘Coast League must divorce itself 100 percent from the majors!”16 The deal was approved ultimately, and it proved a harbinger rather than an exception. In a few years, the Stars were effectively converted into a Pirates farm team, and more followed.

League attendance continued to plunge, with the 1953 gate almost 20 percent lower than the prior year, down to about 1.7 million, the lowest level since 1943. Rowland sought to tamp down rumors of a failing league, stating, “The financial structure of the league is sound as a bell of brass.”17 The decision to refrain from taking optioned players caused short-term pain as clubs scrambled to fill the talent gap while maintaining their purported major-league standard of play. Going their own way would require expansion of scouting operations, which squeezed already strained finances. With every club outside of Los Angeles and Hollywood supposedly losing large sums, several clubs planned to sell players to major-league clubs to stem the red ink. It was a turn from the potential of Open classification; instead of developing players free from major-league draft interference, clubs hawked those players to counter the losses caused by declining fan interest. The forbearance on optioned players was dropped after one season.

The big leagues began to remake their own map beginning in 1953. In the majors’ first franchise shift in a half-century, the Braves left Boston, their home since 1871, for Milwaukee. In 1954 the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore; the next year the Athletics departed Philadelphia for Kansas City. Expansion was now an additional outlet for the majors; each league had amended its constitution—the NL in 1947, the AL in 1953—to permit expansion to 10 clubs. Yankees co-owner Del Webb stated, “[Baseball] must study the fact that the Pacific Coast cannot be held off very much longer in its demand for major league baseball.” He specifically mentioned Los Angeles and San Francisco. The PCL promised to fight attempts to crowd them out of their own cities. Rowland asserted, “We merely demand the right to try life as a major league with the eight cities which now are in the Pacific Coast League.”18

The relocation era heightened a sense of the possible in the league’s largest cities, and their aspirations had nothing to do with the PCL. Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson formed a task force in 1953 dedicated to enticing an existing major-league team to move west, and local oilman Edwin Pauley agreed to fund a study into whether the Los Angeles Coliseum could be retrofitted for baseball.19 Pauley wrote to Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley to gauge his interest but the response was, “Nothing doing.”20 Francis McCarty, head of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, claimed, “San Francisco is a major league town. … If we have to spend money to bring it here, it will be money well spent. We have to get off the dime.”21 There was no interest in spending money to elevate the status of their local PCL teams.

Abandonment was now on the table for the owners of the two Bay Area PCL teams. Claiming losses of $500,000 over the previous eight years, Fagan sold the team and its players to the league for $100,000 on September 24, 1953. With the league’s blessing, Seals GM Damon Miller cobbled together the so-called Little Corporation of investors to maintain the team. The group was seriously undercapitalized and interest continued to swoon. Brick Laws considered the same strategy in Oakland; while he did not pull the trigger, his days at the decaying Emeryville Park were numbered. In November 1954 San Francisco voters approved a $5 million bond measure by more than 2 to 1 for a new ballpark as soon as the city acquired a major-league team. There was nothing for the Seals in that measure. Commissioner Ford Frick gloated to Curley Grieve, sports editor of San Francisco Examiner, “This vote of your people leaves no doubt as to how the citizens of San Francisco feel about big league baseball. They want it!”22

The PCL appeared to be resigning itself to a potential takeover at the league meetings in October 1953. Rowland appeared to be among the converted as he stated, “The Pacific Coast League has adapted itself to the inevitable.”23 Seattle Rainiers owner Emil Sick said, “Henceforth, the Coast League will welcome anyone with the courage and money to bring major league ball to any Coast League city—Seattle included.”24 Rowland somehow saw signs of an attendance rebound in 1954. He opined, “I feel the Coast League will have one whale of a year both attendance-wise and on the field,” and projected replicating the record-setting 1947 season.25 In the end, attendance fell short of 2 million once again, with a modest increase over 1953. In November 1954, Rowland resigned the league presidency in order to take the same title with the Chicago Cubs; he had left the Cubs in 1944 to take the helm of the PCL. He continued to believe the PCL could have been a major league in the 1940s. Although he questioned whether all eight cities could have supported major-league baseball, he explained, “My hope was that [major-league recognition] would be granted and then we could let nature take its course. Some would drop by the wayside and several cities from outside the territory could be substituted.”26 Perhaps a version of the PCL that involved other Western cities starved for big-league ball, such as Dallas, Denver, or Houston, could have made it.

The PCL named Claire Goodwin as its president on January 12, 1955. Recognized as a sportsman and business executive around Oakland, Goodwin arrived full of enthusiasm and ideas to reverse the league’s fortunes. He observed, “The horizon is unlimited. I don’t regard this job as an interim one until the majors come to the Coast. The PCL is here to stay.”27 He identified the issues of pressing concern, and targeted ballpark rehabilitation, admission prices, “hustle” to quicken game pace, and cooperation with the major leagues as primary initiatives. Goodwin also came out swinging about the conduct of the major leagues and its detrimental effect on the PCL: “When the majors leave us alone we’ll have the stability, confidence and security to get the right kind of ball parks and launch a broad, long range program for development of young talent.”28 He telegrammed complaints to NL President Warren Giles over information that the senior circuit had prepared a 10-team schedule for 1955 that included Los Angeles and San Francisco. Goodwin protested, “Your statements are extremely detrimental to baseball in the Pacific Coast, whose territory you are theoretically taking over.”29

Commissioner Frick stepped in to quell chatter about major-league teams muscling minor-league teams out of their home cities. In a memo sent to all 16 clubs in February 1955, Frick said, “[Minor league cities] are being definitely harmed by this loose talk on the part of their major league brothers.”30 Hollywood’s Bob Cobb complained, “The Coast league has been crucified by such talk. It creates dissension, destroys the loyalty of our fans.”31 Still, Goodwin and Cobb were among those voices that acknowledged the PCL needed to take care of its own issues. The condition of its ballparks was a paramount issue. Cobb referred to league stadiums as “old” and “dirty”;32 and indeed, many were. Cobb had his own eye on Chavez Ravine, where he believed the Hollywood Stars could draw one million fans in a modern, 30,000-seat ballpark.33 The San Diego Padres hoped to build a 20,000-seat ballpark—Lane Field could hold only 7,500 with a termite infestation condemning the bleachers section—and the league voted a $100,000 grant as seed money. The Portland Beavers planned a move of their own, with plans to trade the near-condemnation Vaughn Street Park for the larger but 30-year-old Multnomah Stadium. The latter’s 22,000 capacity had room for expansion to around 33,000.

PCL President Goodwin targeted 3 million fans for 1955, and there were auspicious signs in the early days of the season. Attendance figures were up and game times were down, but rain and cold weather arrived to conspire against Goodwin’s plans. After eight weeks, league attendance was down, with notable decreases in Hollywood, Oakland, and Sacramento. In San Francisco, the Little Corporation was on the verge of forfeiting the Seals to the league. The PCL amended its constitution to allow it to run the Seals, which happened after the collapse of a rescue bid from Hank Greenberg and the Cleveland Indians. Cobb labeled the Seals’ situation a “debacle,” noting that “[t] he people here (Los Angeles) and in San Francisco have shown they want baseball with a major league label.”34 The saga reached a conclusion in December 1955 with the announcement that the Boston Red Sox were acquiring the Seals for $150,000. Red Sox GM Joe Cronin promised that the Seals would not serve just as an appendage to the Boston farm system. Rather, Cronin noted, “This area is too big and too important to be represented by a farm club.”35 It was an embarrassing turnaround since 1947 for one of the PCL’s signature franchises. Goodwin, in office for less than a year, saw the handwriting on the wall for his tenure. He remarked, “There’s a gentlemanly way to do everything and all the Coast League has to do is tell me I’m through. I won’t even ask why.”36 The league accepted his resignation at its December meeting. Leslie O’Connor, counsel to the PCL for several years and a former aide to former Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, succeeded Goodwin.

PCL baseball was truly at a crossroads in the Bay Area. The Seals could not be run as an independent entity and now required a bailout by a major-league team in order to survive. As their status diminished, the Seals found they had the Bay Area to themselves. With the lease expiring on their ancient Emeryville Park home, the Oakland Oaks fled the country to Vancouver, British Columbia, to play the 1956 season as the Mounties. Any pretense toward independence was damaged by further dependence on the major leagues for players. In addition to the Seals’ integration into the Red Sox structure, and accounting for the existing Stars-Pirates and Angels-Cubs arrangements, four more PCL teams opted for working agreements with major-league teams. The Rainiers teamed up with the Reds, the Beavers with the Dodgers, the Padres with the Indians, and the Mounties with the Orioles. Only the Solons entered the 1956 season as a completely independent entity.

O’Connor seemed realistic about the challenges facing the league. Like his predecessors, he praised the caliber of baseball, asserting that the PCL “is only a very minute step behind the majors insofar as quality of play is concerned.”37 But O’Connor also observed, “Merely putting a major league label on it won’t make it big league. It must have the revenue.”38 As O’Connor was trying to ensure the viability of PCL baseball, the league’s Open classification was under attack from International League President Frank Shaughnessy, who asserted that the PCL was in violation of criteria associated with the Open classification. With all but one club possessing a working agreement with a major-league team and PCL attendance slipping below expected standards, Shaughnessy argued that the PCL “is occupying open classification status under false pretenses”39 and said he expected National Association President George Trautman to do something about it. O’Connor defended his league and, despite perhaps most evidence to the contrary, maintained that the PCL had not surrendered its major-league dream. That dream, according to O’Connor, was “not dead at all. Several of our club owners are still actively thinking of it, but we all realize we have a harder row to hoe now.”40 That row looked even harder when attendance figures showed the PCL falling behind both the IL and American Association when the final numbers were counted. The PCL held onto the Open classification for the 1957 season, but it would be the last.

On February 21, 1957, O’Malley made his play for the Coast. Using proceeds from the sale of Ebbets Field just months before, he purchased the Angels and Wrigley Field from the Cubs, surrendering the Dodgers’ Texas League farm team in Fort Worth as part of the exchange. When the PCL considered approval of the purchase, O’Malley made no secret of his interest in securing territorial rights to Los Angeles should he move west, but he also claimed that the Angels would remain PCL members, albeit as a Dodgers farm club.41 (Hollywood had no territorial claim to the region, a condition of their 1938 relocation from the Mission District of San Francisco.) While he made no commitments about moving the Dodgers, O’Malley was not behaving like a man content with a new minor-league toy 3,000 miles from his home base. In March Poulson and other civic leaders called upon O’Malley at the Dodgers’ spring-training base in Vero Beach, Florida, and the Dodgers supremo knew the strength of his position. Poulson remarked, “One of our officials promised O’Malley the moon, and O’Malley asked for more.”42 In early May O’Malley spent several days in Los Angeles scouting potential stadium locations and meeting with local officials. Poulson proclaimed, “If the Dodgers come, it’ll be next year.”43 City and county leaders placed before O’Malley a substantial proposal to sell Chavez Ravine, buy Wrigley Field, and handle infrastructure projects like freeway access.

Poulson and San Francisco Mayor George Christopher teamed up their efforts to secure major-league baseball. Poulson declared, “We intend to petition the major leagues for franchises for our cities at their next meeting. … Yes, both leagues—the National and the American.”44 There had been a rumor, widely circulated in the San Francisco Chronicle, suggesting that the Red Sox would finance a new team in San Francisco and Yankees owner Del Webb would divest his interest in the Yankees in order to claim Los Angeles for the American League.45 Cronin also quashed discussion about the Red Sox pulling up their stakes for the Bay Area.46 After a three-game exhibition series at Seals Stadium in March 1957 between the Seals and Red Sox attracted 57,000 fans, Christopher’s argument was strengthened. He stated, “We are happy to join hands with Los Angeles. In my opinion, major league baseball is coming to both our cities.”47 There was no mention of the existing PCL teams. With the New York Giants assumed to be leaving Manhattan—originally for Minneapolis before San Francisco entered the picture—and the Dodgers clearly considering their options, the NL authorized the two teams to move together in a May 28 vote. The opportunity to transport their ancient interborough New York rivalry to rival California cities was very seductive. Giles explained, “They are free to carry on discussions and negotiations with the knowledge that they have the sanction of the league for such a shift.”48

On August 19 Giants owner Horace Stoneham confirmed plans to move to San Francisco, and the following day’s Chronicle hailed the news in large type: “Say Hey! They’re S.F. Giants Now.” Days later, Stoneham purchased the Seals, in effect swapping his Minneapolis farm team with the Red Sox to smooth his path to San Francisco. O’Malley’s move was held up briefly by politics within the Los Angeles City Council. Proponents of the city’s package struggled to muster the necessary two-thirds vote, but the additional votes were found and the Dodgers confirmed their relocation plans on October 8.

O’Connor continued to complain, saying, “Nobody has had the decency or courtesy to contact me or any of our independent owners.”52 Defending his league, he added, “[We] have five franchises owned by independent people, who are practically told to step down a few grades in their baseball business.”53 With the Dodgers and Giants coming and nothing to stop them, it was left to the league to pick up the pieces and strike its best deal for indemnification. Initially, it was unclear if there would be a PCL in 1958. There was ample talk of lawsuits. O’Connor asserted, “Some of the clubs in our league are mad enough to sue anybody.”54 The Pacific Northwest teams and San Diego faced the possibility of being geographically marooned. At the 1957 Winter Meetings, the remaining six teams ultimately settled for $900,000 to be paid by the invaders over three years, a comparatively paltry sum in light of the riches that awaited. With no option to stay in Los Angeles, Cobb sold the Stars to Utah oilman Nicholas Morgan, who moved the team to Salt Lake City. Stoneham would place a team in Phoenix, and Spokane planned to build a stadium for a Dodgers farm team to replace the Angels. The PCL surrendered its Open status to the inevitable, and reverted to Triple-A status for the 1958 season. The major-league dream was truly over.

JOHN BAUER resides with his wife and two children (although one is now at college) in Bedford, New Hampshire. By day, he is general counsel of an insurance group headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, with specialties in corporate and regulatory law. By night, he spends many spring and summer evenings staying up too late to watch the San Francisco Giants, and he is a year-round avid reader of baseball, history, and baseball history. He is a past and ongoing contributor to various SABR projects.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Dobbins, Dick. The Grand Minor League (Emeryville, California: Woodford Press, 1999).

Raley, Dan. Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011).

 

NOTES

1 Dennis Snelling, The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012), 212.

2 Bill O’Neal, The Pacific Coast League: 1903-1988 (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1990), 92.

3 O’Neal, 89.

4 O’Neal, 96.

5 Dan Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), 237.

6 Taylor, 250.

7 Snelling, 238.

8 Kevin Nelson, The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 315.

9 Snelling, 243.

10 Snelling, 243.

11 Taylor, 245.

12 Taylor, 256.

13 Jack McDonald, “Coasters Sizzling Over Lane’s Roasting,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1953: 13.

14 Richard Beverage, The Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League: A History, 1903-1957 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011), 160.

15 Jack McDonald, “Coast Slices Player Limit to 21, Views TV Picture,” The Sporting News, January 28, 1953: 12.

16 Taylor, 265.

17 Jack McDonald, “Find Buyer for Seals, Fagan Tells Rowland at Coasters’ Meeting,” The Sporting News, May 20, 1953: 15.

18 J.G. Taylor Spink, „Webb Sees K.C. as Major League Entry,” The Sporting News, July 22, 1953: I, 2.

19 Taylor, 281.

20 Dan Daniel, “Over the Fence,” The Sporting News, November 10, 1954: 10.

21 Walter Addiego, “Frisco Planning to Send ‘Envoy’ in Bid to Majors,” The Sporting News, July 29, 1953: 6.

22 “Frick Enthused Over ‘Frisco Approval of Major Stadium,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1954: 8.

23 John B. Old, “Coast League Reverses Its Policy, Agrees to Aid Move for Major Ball,” The Sporting News, November 4, 1953: 15.

24 “Coast League Reverses Its Policy, Agrees to Aid Move for Major Ball.”

25 Old, “Coast Officials See Four-Million Gate Total in ‘54,” The Sporting News, February 10, 1954: 26.

26 Edgar Munzel, “‘Slash’” Major Rosters To 21’—Rowland,” The Sporting News, December 29, 1954: I.

27 Jack McDonald, “PCL Picks Goodwin as President, Votes Budget of $100,025,” The Sporting News, January 19, 1955: 22.

28 “PCL Picks Goodwin as President.”

29 “PCL Prexy Protests Talk of Coast Move by Majors,” The Sporting News, February 9, 1955: 31.

30 Spink , “Coasters Given Shot in Arm by Invasion Curb,” The Sporting News, February 16, 1955: I, 4.

31 “Coasters Given Shot in Arm by Invasion Curb.”

32 “Coasters Given Shot in Arm by Invasion Curb.”

33 “Coasters Given Shot in Arm by Invasion Curb.”

34 Sid Ziff, “Bob Cobb Invites Majors to Coast—‘Doors Wide Open,’” The Sporting News, August 31, 1955: 4.

35 “‘Seals Won’t Be Riddled to Help Bosox’—Cronin,’” The Sporting News, December 21, 1955: 20.

36 Jack McDonald, “Goodwin Picks Up Hat as PCL Keeps Hunting Seal Buyer,” The Sporting News, November 23, 1955: 17.

37 Munzel, “O’Connor Sees Bright Era for Coast,” The Sporting News, December 28, 1955: I.

38 “O’Connor Sees Bright Era for Coast.”

39 Cy Kritzer, “Shaughnessy Hits Majors’ ‘Shipment’ of Players to Coast,” The Sporting News, June 6, 1956: 16.

40 Jack McDonald, “O’Connor Answers Shag, Insists PCL Not Guilty of Violating Agreement,” The Sporting News, September 19, 1956: 33.

41 P.J. Dragseth, The 1957 San Francisco Seals: End of an Era in the Pacific Coast League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 53.

42 Nelson, “The Golden Game,” 313.

43 Taylor, “Lights, Camera, Fastball,” 329.

44 “L.A., ‘Frisco Mayors Plan Joint Action in Major Bids,” The Sporting News, April 3, 1957: 2.

45 Dragseth, 48.

46 Dragseth, 137.

47 “L.A., ‘Frisco Mayors Plan Joint Action in Major Bids.”

48 Edgar Munzel, “Hurdles Looming for ‘58 Coast Shifts,” The Sporting News, June 5, 1957: 5.

49 “PCL to Ask for ‘Just Compensation,’” The Sporting News, June 5, 1957: 6.

50 “PCL to Ask for ‘Just Compensation.’”

51 Jack McDonald, “‘Throw Us a Life Preserver,’ PCL Plea to Majors,” The Sporting News, June 12, 1957: 6.

52 Harry Grayson, “Coast League Doing a Slow Burn on Shifts,” The Sporting News, 11, 1957: 10.

53 Grayson.

54 Jack McDonald, “Angry Coast Leaguers Talk of ‘Big Lawsuits,’” The Sporting News, September 18, 1957: 8.