The experiences of 17-year-old Jeane Hoffman as she worked out of the press box at Wrigley Field, home of the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.

The battle women have faced to gain access to Organized Baseball’s locker rooms is, by now, well documented. Throughout the 1970s, many ballplayers were shocked, shocked, when increasing numbers of female sportswriters breached the privacy of that sanctum, with some declaring it merely an excuse to ogle athletes in a state of undress. Less known—and less understandable—are the obstacles such women faced to gain access to the press box, where presumably their male colleagues were fully and decently clothed.

Indicative of the era was the experience of the Cleveland News’ award-winning investigative reporter Doris O’Donnell, whom an editor sent to cover the Cleveland Indians’ eastern road trip in May 1957. O’Donnell’s presence as a female sportswriter became the story, with much analysis of her figure, and she was excluded from the Yankee Stadium press box. (O’Donnell, incidentally, was a role model for a local teenager named Dorothy Jane Zander, known later to SABRen as Dorothy Seymour.)

Twenty years before O’Donnell, however, 17-year-old Jeane Hoffman worked out of the press box at Wrigley Field, home of the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.[fn]The spelling of Hoffman’s name appears in some by-lines and publications as “Hofmann.” [/fn] Despite her youth, Hoffman already had sportswriting experience. At Los Angeles High School she had studied journalism and cartooning, served as girls sports editor for the school’s semi-annual publication, and at age 15 was publishing sports cartoons in the Hollywood Citizen-News. Covering baseball, football, and hockey for that publication, she became the youngest regular writer in the history of the Pacific Coast League.

But Hoffman had her eye on major-league markets. In 1940, having learned of an opportunity at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Hoffman and her mother, Ada, drove across the country at the rate of 600 miles a day. She got the job. As a writer-cartoonist, she was a  regular in the Shibe Park press box, reporting games and drawing three-column sports cartoons. In 1942, Hoffman became the “first girl scribe” to cover spring training in Florida. She took advantage of her roving assignment to interview Bob Feller and Sam Chapman, then stationed at the Roanoke (Virginia) Naval Training Station, before continuing to Florida to cover the Cardinals, Tigers, Yankees, Reds, Phillies, Giants, and Red Sox.[fn]“Draws As She Writes,” 3 December 1942. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.) [/fn] By then, she had a job in the heart of the major-league baseball universe, New York City, with a by-line under her column “From the Feminine Viewpoint,” in the New York Journal-American.

“I don’t know how she managed to get that job,” said her friend Rosalind Massow, who worked at the newspaper as a copygirl. “The Journal-American was not notable for its women reporters. She must have been very convincing. I do know that the guys at the sports desk liked her—they were not competitive with her.”[fn]Rosalind Massow, telephone interview, 25 February 2011. [/fn] In an article that year entitled “No ‘End’ to Jokes, Girl Finds, in Yankee Stadium Press Box,” Hoffman took on the issue of access, writing with humor but nevertheless making her point:[fn]Jeane Hofmann, “No ‘End’ to Jokes, Girl Finds, in Yankee Stadium Press Box,” New York Journal-American, no date. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.) [/fn]

We note that The Sporting News has been running a handy guide service on “How to Crash the Press Box,” alias “No Women or Dogs Allowed.”… We would like to add our two-bits’ worth (Confederate coin). But prepare yourself; this one’s gonna be different! To begin with, we haven’t a complaint in the world  against the Gentlemen of the Press.…The boys have been darn nice to us. When we toured Florida last spring, we didn’t have more than 250 jokes played on us, and no more than 50 jesters tried to steer us into the players’ un-dressing room.

In an article syndicated in the Associated Press, she had accurately predicted a Cardinals-Yankees World Series; she closed out the season writing features on the World Series.

“Famous Woman Sports Writer Begins Series in Times Today” – Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1951

In January 1944, Hoffman became engaged to Thomas Allen McIntosh, a first officer in the British Merchant Marine, and they married in Portsmouth, Virginia, on February 15 of that year. Hoffman and her husband remained on the East Coast for several years  before returning to Los Angeles in 1951, whereupon the Los Angeles Times hired her to write a weekly feature on sports. That November she gave birth to Joan Margaret, the first of three daughters. In September 1957, as Brooklyn Dodger fans faced the unthinkable, Hoffman published an 11-point analysis of the benefits attached to L.A. becoming a major-league city. The Times found it necessary to insert the following explanation at the beginning of the essay:[fn]Jeane Hoffman, “Big Boon”. [/fn]

(Jeane Hofmann, authoress of the following story, is qualified to discuss the importance of major league baseball to Los Angeles. She spent 12 years in Philadelphia and New York at major newspapers there, covering all sports, before she came to The Times. She knows the baseball picture there and here thoroughly.)

Hoffman laughed or shrugged off the patronizing comments and attitudes that attended her presence as a sportswriter. “Mom had a way about her…. She always seemed to have a very good knack for getting her story,” recalls her middle daughter, Valerie McIntosh,  who thinks Jeane found support and encouragement from her own mother.[fn]Valerie McIntosh, telephone interview, 13 February 2011. [/fn] Valerie’s younger sister, Diane McIntosh, agrees. “Grandma had gotten a divorce and owned a number of rental properties. Our grandmother was very independent, so I can only imagine… that she fully supported her daughter. They were both women ahead of their time.”[fn]Diane McIntosh, e-mail to the author, 13 February 2011. [/fn]

Hoffman continued to cover the Dodgers’ move west, and their plans for a new stadium in Chavez Ravine. She profiled Vin Scully and the Dodgers’ front office executives, including Buzzie Bavasi. In May 1965 Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley circulated a memo to the front office: “Jeane Hoffman (McIntosh) has been retained by me ‘on special assignment.’ She will be furnished an office and will have Department Head courtesies. Calling cards will read ‘Assistant to the President.’”[fn]3 May 1965, Memo, Walter F. O’Malley to All Department Heads. (Courtesy Peter O’Malley.) [/fn] Her job entailed filling Dodger Stadium when the team was out of town and during the offseason, and she took on the assignment with enthusiasm, booking events from R.V. shows and bull fights to the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Awards banquet in the Stadium Club and the filming of an Elvis Presley movie, Spinout. 

In an undated letter sent to O’Malley during spring training 1966, Hoffman began, “Dear Walter, Well, how are all the heroes down in Vero?” and went on to  alert him about the prospect of the Beatles performing at Dodger Stadium that August.[fn]Jeane Hoffman, letter to Walter O’Malley, undated, 1966. [/fn]

Her daughters often accompanied their mother to the ballpark. Valerie McIntosh, whose godmother was Eleanor Gehrig, recalls, “being bounced on the knees of Drysdale and Koufax…. We saw lots of games—we always sat up on the club level by the offices. Mom covered everything in L.A., from the Rams, to John Wooden’s UCLA basketball team, to Santa Anita Race Track, and lots of tennis. At the Christmas party she always held, all the sports people in town came.”[fn]McIntosh, telephone interview. [/fn]

By the mid-1960s the women’s liberation movement was gaining momentum; American women were beginning to act upon their professional dreams. Within a few years, increasing numbers of women began covering baseball, and the press box signs forbidding women access came down. But in 1966 Jeane Hoffman had already had it all—marriage, family, and a successful career in a man’s field—for two decades. Her success can be attributed to talent, a healthy sense of humor, the support of a strong mother, and, perhaps,  starting out in sportswriting so young that she simply did not accept the status quo. In late spring of 1966 an award was established in her name: The Theta Sigma Phi-Jeane Hoffman Unique Coverage Award. Several months later, however, on September 29, 1966, she was at home recovering from a virus when she was stricken with a pulmonary embolism. She died at age 47, leaving her husband and three daughters aged 15, 13, and 11. As that year’s World Series got under way, her former colleague at the Times, Sid Ziff, recalled her career:[fn]Sid Ziff, “Series Fever,” Los Angeles Times, 4 October 1966. [/fn]

Jeane could have made the newspaper in any department but she had her mind made up to write sports and nothing would discourage her. We used to remind her it was too tough for a girl to make it in sports. There was a rule against allowing them in the press boxes. They couldn’t get into the dressing rooms. She was invading a man’s world. With her talent why not go to the city side? Nope, Jeane loved sports and the people in it. It was her world. She conquered it. She put on the gloves with prize fighters and caught the pitches of Bob Feller.

As this article neared completion, Hoffman’s two surviving daughters revisited her legacy. Diane McIntosh’s nine-year-old son was preparing a school report on his grandmother’s career, and Valerie McIntosh, who studied journalism at San Diego State University and later worked in radio, reported finding among her mother’s files a manuscript entitled “No Place for a Lady”—an ironic title given Hoffman’s ability to maintain her feminine identity while thriving in the press boxes, newsrooms, and business offices of the sports media. 

JEAN HASTINGS ARDELL lives in Corona Del Mar, California, where she works as a writer, editor, and teacher, with baseball a continuing subject of interest. She is author of “Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), and received the Baseball Weekly/SABR award in 1999.

Mislabeling all winter baseball played in California as “California Winter League” ignores the uneven color lines that existed in that time and place.For most black players during the early 1900s, baseball was a year-round occupation. Much has been written about African American involvement in the Cuban Winter League and with barnstorming teams that played against white major leaguers. However, less is known about other offseason baseball opportunities for black players, including the fact that many Negro League stars spent winters playing ball on the West Coast. Long before Satchel Paige’s All Stars faced Dizzy Dean’s barnstorming major leaguers during the 1930s, Oscar Charleston’s “Bear Cats” mauled Irish Meusel’s All Stars in Southern California during the winter of 1921–1922. Such pre- and post-season competitions between black and white teams occurred throughout the era of segregated baseball.

Among the Negro Leaguers who played winter ball on the West Coast, Raleigh “Biz” Mackey reigns supreme, playing 18 winters in the Golden State and maintaining an impressive .366 batting average with 28 home runs. Other multi-season stars include Mule Suttles (8), Norman “Turkey” Stearnes (9), and James “Cool Papa” Bell (12). Among the pitchers were Satchel Paige (56–7), Chet Brewer (43–13), and James “Cannon Ball” Willis (41–10). Wilber “Bullet” Rogan spent six winters in California and dominated both as a pitcher (42–14) and batter (.362 with 15 home runs).[fn]Center for Negro Leagues Baseball Research www.cnlbr.org/DefiningNegroLeagueBaseball/WinterLeagueTeams/tabid/59/Default.aspx.[/fn]

In his book The California Winter League: America’s First Integrated Professional Baseball League (McFarland, 2002), William F. McNeil discusses opportunities that African American ballplayers had to compete against their minor and major league counterparts. However, the story is not quite so clear, and mislabeling all winter baseball played in California as “California Winter League” ignores the uneven color lines that existed in that time and place.

The season most illustrative of this point occurred during the winter of 1921–1922, when future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, Oscar Charleston, Raleigh “Biz” Mackey, and Jose Mendez traveled west after the regular Major League or Negro League season to play winter ball—but not against each other. That season, the official California Winter League was reserved only for major and minor league players, which meant that all participants were white. To promote attendance, the four CWL teams signed major league players as managers: San Francisco Seals, Ty Cobb (Detroit Tigers); San Francisco Missions, Harry Heilmann (Detroit Tigers); Los Angeles Angels, Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis Cardinals); Vernon Tigers, George Sisler (St. Louis Browns).

Cobb’s temper during this period was particularly volatile. In the bottom of the fourth inning of a November 19 game against Vernon, he threw a fit over a missed call (Lu Blue threw out George Sisler at second, but the umpire missed it) and refused to leave the field when ejected from the game. The chief umpire ultimately declared a forfeit, and league president Frank Chance fined Cobb $150. On November 20, the Los Angeles Times headline read, “Tyrus Cobb is Somewhat Sad,” and the article predicted the Tiger “may leave California flat on its back by never returning after the close of the present winter season. Life’s road sure is becoming rocky for the greatest ball player of all time.” He had batted only 1 for 3 the previous day and slumped out of the batting lead; meanwhile, his San Francisco Seals were mired in last place. Discontented with his CWL experience, and clearly not interested in staying to play against the Colored All Stars, Cobb left California on December 7, vowing never to play or manage winter ball there again.[fn]Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1921, B2; Los Angeles Examiner, 8 December 1921, sec. 2, 4; Los Angeles Times, 12 December 1921, 17. [/fn] Cobb’s attitude toward the black players was not unique among the major and minor leaguers.

Although Southern California provided winter opportunities for black ballplayers, during the regular season African American teams had to scramble for games, playing whatever semipro and military clubs would accept their challenge. They could not be part of a regular league because the all-white Southern California Managers’ Baseball Association held tight control over the semipro circuits. A few of the best black teams still managed to thrive, however, and the strongest during the summer of 1921 was the Alexander Giants.[fn]California Eagle, 12 August 1921, 6. [/fn]

The club had opened a new ballpark at 32nd and Long Beach Avenue in the Nevin area of Los Angeles on May 2, 1920 (interestingly, the same day the Indianapolis ABCs and Chicago Giants played the first Negro National League game in Indianapolis). During their brief 16-month history, the Alexander Giants played 142 games. In 1920, their record was 55–15–2 (.786), and in 1921 they had dominated their opponents 60–10 (.857). But in late September 1921, the Alexander Giants’ grandstand burned to the ground.[fn]California Eagle, 1 October 1921, 6. [/fn] The loss of this ballpark shifted much of the black community’s interest to another African American team, the Los Angeles White Sox.

In early October 1921, the White Sox incorporated as The White Base Ball and Amusement Association with the following officers: Frank Howard, president; J.E. Walton, secretary; J.H. Graham, treasurer; James P. White, general manager; and Alonza (Lon) Alfred Goodwin, field manager. This new business structure generated financing for establishing a new headquarters, improving the team’s ballpark, and recruiting an impressive roster for the winter season.[fn]California Eagle, 15 October 1921, 6. [/fn]

The team’s “new and well furnished” headquarters was at 1419 E. 12th Street (two miles southwest of their ballpark). This gave the management and players a convenient place to “congregate and discuss the game without infringing upon some one’s pool room and barber shop rights.” They saw this move toward professionalization of the business as “a step in the right direction.” This business structure allowed them to sustain the team in an otherwise increasingly segregationist climate. (During the winter of 1921–1922, the Ku Klux Klan moved into California and held their first recruitment rally in Los Angeles on Wednesday, January 11, with hundreds in attendance).[fn]California Eagle, 26 November 1921, 6; Los Angeles Examiner, 13 January 1922, 1. [/fn]

The White Sox played at Anderson Park, which by 1921 was better known as White Sox Park, in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.[fn]Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Los Angeles, California, 1906-January 1951, volume 14, 1921, plates 1417, 1418, and 1419. [/fn] The field was deemed suitable to white professional and semi-professional clubs, and its proximity to teams from the California Winter League offered the White Sox a unique opportunity to compete against assorted teams of major and minor league players. Because of the expense of fielding an all-star team and attracting strong opponents, the White Sox increased ticket prices over summer rates, to 50 cents general admission, 75 cents grandstand, and 1 dollar box seats.[fn]California Eagle, 29 October 1921, 6. [/fn]

In mid-October 1921, the California Eagle, a weekly African American newspaper in Los Angeles, announced, “During the next five months the new [White Sox] concern will devote its energy toward promoting a top notch brand of big league baseball ably managed by Alonza Alfred Goodwin [who] will have absolute charge of the maneuvers of the ball club which winters here this season.” Goodwin had been manager of the Los Angeles White Sox for ten years, and he was already “busy drafting one of the greatest aggregations of baseball performers…either black or white, gathering stars from the various clubs of the [Negro] National League.” His initial recruitment goal for the team he would call the Colored All Stars is mind-blowing: Oscar Charleston, Wilber Rogan, John Donaldson, George Carr, Hurley McNair, Walter Dobie Moore, Bob Fagan, Frank Warfield, Bill Riggins, and Bill Drake.[fn]California Eagle, 15 October 1921, 6; California Eagle, 1 October 1921, 6. [/fn] While this is not the team Goodwin ended up with, his ultimate line-up was almost as impressive:

• Oscar Charleston, cf
• George Carr, rf
• Bob Fagan, 2b
• Lemuel Hawkins, 1b
• Walter Doby Moore, ss, p
• Jose Mendez, ss
• Tom Ward, lf, rf
• Henry Blackman, 3b
• Neil Pullen, c
• Raleigh “Biz” Mackey, c
• John Taylor, p
• Jim Jeffries, p, rf
• Hurley McNair, p, lf

Many of these players were legends in professional black baseball. During the 1921 Negro National League season, Oscar Charleston had played for Charlie Mills’s St. Louis Giants. It had been this great player’s best season, with an astonishing .426 batting average. In the fifty games for which we have box scores, he stole 28 bases and made 79 hits, including 14 doubles, 10 triples, and 14 home runs. What makes this record even more impressive is that these box scores are mostly from games against top opponents, like Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants, C. I. Taylor’s Indianapolis ABCs, and the Kansas City Monarchs. While Charleston usually spent winters in Cuba (and won batting titles there in 1920, 1922, and 1924), he opted to stay in the United States during the winter of 1921–1922 and went to Los Angeles to play for Lon Goodwin’s Colored All Stars.

Because Negro National League teams back east each had different postseason barnstorming obligations, the White Sox team was not complete until late November, but they began playing games in early October. This created an opportunity for local talent to play alongside the stars. During the regular season, catcher Neal Pullen had been captain of the El Segundo team. He was skilled behind the plate but became the back-up catcher when Biz Mackey arrived from Indianapolis, where he had spent the season with C.I. Taylor’s ABCs. Another player—Henry “Heinie” Blackman—had played first base for the Alexander Giants. A threat at the plate, he had hit an inside-the-park home run during an August game.[fn]California Eagle, 19 August 1921, 6. [/fn]

The official California Winter League season—with four all-white teams—spanned from October 8 to December 11. As it was winding down, baseball promoter and Los Angeles White Sox owner Joe Pirrone signed a group of major and minor leaguers to form a white all-star team that would face his White Sox (also known as the Colored All Stars, the Colored Giants, and the Bear Cats) during the remainder of the winter. Pirrone secured Irish Meusel to manage the team and recruited several notable players:

• Bill McKechnie (Pittsburgh Pirates/Minneapolis Millers AA)
• George Cutshaw (Pittsburgh Pirates)
• Tony Brottem (Pittsburgh Pirates)
• Lew Fonseca (Cincinnati Reds)
• Tony Boeckel (Boston Braves)
• Earl Sheely (Chicago White Sox)
• Lee Thompson (Chicago White Sox)
• John “Red” Oldham (Detroit Tigers)
• Lu Blue (Detroit Tigers)
• Don Rader (Philadelphia Phillies)
• Bob Fisher (Minneapolis Millers AA)
• Rowdy Elliott (Sacramento PCL)
• Slim Love (Vernon PCL) 

Some of these men had also been playing on CWL teams and gradually joined Pirrone’s or other all-star teams as the CWL schedule wound down. This blurs the boundaries between league competition and other non-sanctioned games, but the mix of major and minor league talent still offers a rare opportunity to see how African American players performed against their white contemporaries.

While the CWL was still in full swing, the Los Angeles White Sox defeated “Pirrone’s minor leaguers” (mostly players from the Pacific Coast League), 6–4, on October 9, in their first fully competitive game of the 1921–1922 winter season. The regular season opener came three weeks later on October 29, with another victory (4–0) against Joe Pirrone’s All Stars, which by then had more major leaguers in the line-up. To gather public interest and show off their new uniforms, the White Sox held a big parade beginning at noon and leading to the ballpark for the afternoon game.[fn]California Eagle, 29 October 1921, 6. [/fn]

During the first half of their winter season, the Colored All Stars played well but struggled with Sunday games, losing five weeks in a row. In an October 30 game against Pirrone’s All Stars, the White Sox faced Red Oldham, who had an 11–14 record for the Detroit Tigers in 1921. The black team batted well and scored 8 runs, but Baugh, a less known local black pitcher, gave up 6 runs in 11?3 innings, so Goodwin sent Biz Mackey to the mound. Amazingly, the White Sox came back to an 8–8 tie in the eighth, but then the white All Stars pulled ahead again, winning the game, 10–8.[fn]California Eagle, 5 November 1921, 6. [/fn]

The following Sunday, November 6, the White Sox faced Pirrone’s All Stars again. In a questionable decision, Goodwin chose to pitch John “Steel Arm” Taylor (brother of C.I., Ben, and Candy Jim). On any other day, this would have been a sure bet, but the Chicago American Giants ace had gotten off the train from Illinois a mere four hours before the game and had not trained for several weeks. The California Eagle reported, “The results are sad, sad to relate without the free use of a bandana…. The first five men to face Mr. Taylor piled enough lumber on him to build a hotel.” After 4 runs in only 7 minutes, with no outs, Goodwin pulled him and put in McNair. The reliever fared better but was still no match for major leaguer Bill Pertica, who had a 14–10 record with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1921. The White Sox lost, 12–9.[fn]California Eagle, 12 November 1921, 6. [/fn] 

On November 12, Taylor took the mound again against Fisher’s All Stars (another team of major and minor leaguers). This time he was rested and ready and shut out his opponents, 4–0. The California Eagle reported, “John did about everything to Bob Fisher’s big bush leaguers that the rules on baseball etiquette call for: he walked none, allowed 2 little singles, poled a triple and single himself and left four standing at the platter wondering where the elusive pill went through their stick.”[fn]California Eagle, 19 November 1921, 6. [/fn] The Eagle’s “Sports and Amusements” columnist William Mells Watson scored most of the games and contributed colorful commentary in his weekly summaries.

On November 15, 16, and 17, the White Sox easily swept a mid-week series from the Dyas All Stars, yet another white team. Then the following week, the already strong White Sox began transforming into a powerhouse when Cuban Jose Mendez of the Kansas City Monarchs arrived and replaced Doby Moore at shortstop.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 17 November 1921, sports 3; California Eagle, 19 November 1921, 6; Los Angeles Examiner, 17 November 1921, sec. 2, 4. [/fn] The unpredictability of game outcomes shows just how evenly matched teams were. On November 19 in a game against the Pacific Nationals, McNair gave up five runs in two innings, so the manager sent in “the dependable utility wonder, Raleigh Mackey, [who] stepped on the slab and won his struggle 11 to 7.” Pitching is always fickle, and the following day, seasoned veteran John Taylor lost the first game of a doubleheader, 6–3. Jim Jeffries, from the Indianapolis ABCs, won his game, 8–5.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 20 November 1921, A9; California Eagle, 26 November 1921, 6; Los Angeles Times, 21 November 1921, B1. [/fn]

In late November, more top minor and major leaguers were showing up on opponents’ rosters. On November 24, John Taylor gave up only four hits against Edington’s major league stars, winning 2–1. His opponents on the mound were Slim Love of the CWL-leading Vernon Tigers and George “Sarge” Connally, who had debuted with the Chicago White Sox during the regular season.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1921, C3. [/fn] 

In announcing the Colored All Stars’ next series against Calpaco, the Los Angeles Timesnoted, “Oscar Charleston, the colored Babe Ruth, arrived from St. Louis yesterday and immediately joined White’s aggregation.” The following day, the Timeselaborated, “With the signing of Charleston, home-run swatter, the L. A. White Sox club is now complete. Charleston hails from the St. Louis Giants and is said to have established a record last summer for home runs in the Negro National League.” Everyone expected the slugger to “attract a crowd.”

The Calpaco team was a mix of major and minor leaguers, featuring Blue and Oldham (Detroit), Pinch Thomas (Cleveland), James Washburn (Wichita WL), and Ray Bates (Seattle PCL).[fn]Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1921, C3; Los Angeles Times, 26 November 1921, B11; Los Angeles Times, 26 November 1921, B11. [/fn] The Colored All Stars won the Saturday game 4-2 but continued their string of Sunday losses in the first game of a doubleheader, followed by a tie in the second, when the umpire called it due to darkness in the sixth. The California Eaglecommented, “Notwithstanding that Oscar Charleston (the famous Colored Babe Ruth of the St. Louis Giants) was camping in the outfield, still Jim White’s ‘Bear Cats’ failed to grab off either of the Sabbath twin performances with the big league Calpaco nine.” Charleston was 1 for 4 in the first Sunday game and 1 for 3 in the second (a triple and a single).[fn]Los Angeles Times, 27 November 1921, A10; Los Angels Times, 30 November 1921, C3; California Eagle, 3 December 1921, 6. [/fn]

While Southern California’s mild climate is ideal for year-round baseball, the weather still caused problems. Rain and sometimes high winds could wreak havoc with the schedule. On December 3, a game versus Calpaco was cancelled when a “rip-roaring Santa Ana storm” blew down “the entire north and south side fence [and left it] lying mangled on the ground.” On December 17 and 18, it rained so hard that the California Eagledeclared that “fish were swimming around the bases, bringing sorrow to the management and disappointment to the several thousand fans.” Rainouts were so common that the California Winter League had actually spent $3,000 on a rainout insurance policy; teams collected $34,000. The Colored All Stars did not have that luxury and suffered at the will of the weather, sometimes losing an entire series, such as around Christmas, when rain claimed three games against the Vernon Tigers. Record crowds had been expected at White Sox Park.[fn]California Eagle, 10 December 1921, 6; California Eagle, 24 December 1921, 6: Los Angeles Times, 13 December 1921, C3. [/fn]

Fortunately, in good weather the games without rain drew many fans. In early December, with Charleston, Mendez, and the rest of his starters now in full form, Goodwin enjoyed increasing coverage in both black and white newspapers. The latter even began praising black players. On the morning of a December 4 game against Calpaco, the Los Angeles Timespraised Charleston as the “home run swatter of the St. Louis Giants.” Then, after the Colored All Stars had lost five straight Sunday games, John Taylor defeated Red Oldham, 7–2. The Timeswrote, Calpaco was “unable to stem the tide of hits.” Mendez and Fagan had both hit home runs, while Charleston went 1 for 3, was hit by a pitch, and scored twice. During the first inning, Calpaco’s shortstop became angry after a called third strike and pushed the umpire. Surprisingly, such tensions were actually rare in contests between the Colored All Stars and white professional teams.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 4 December 1921, A10; Los Angeles Times, 5 December 1921, B9. [/fn]

Goodwin had assembled a crack team and on any given day any player could offer a tremendous performance. Often that was Mackey, the team’s catcher, who at the time was still young and fast enough to be a threat on the basepaths. A December 11 pitchers’ duel against Art Krueger’s All-Stars was tied “in the eighth and…drifted into the eleventh still knotted when old man Mackey hammered out a sweet two sacker and skeeted across the gravy dish when pinch hitter Henry Blackman broke up the argument with a timely single.”[fn]California Eagle, 17 December 1921, 6. [/fn]

Kruger’s team included Fred Haney (former Angel, PCL), Carter Elliott (Chicago Cubs), and Slim Love (Vernon, PCL, and soon-to-be CWL champions). But these men were no match for the White Sox offense. On December 13, the Los Angeles Timesgave the following statistics: “Lem Hawkins and ‘Slim’ Blackman of the L.A. White Sox club are both hitting an even .400 for the fifteen games of winter ball… Other leading batters are Mackey .351; Charleston .300; Foote .286; Fagan .285.” A few days later, the mainstream paper conceded, “White’s team is composed of high class professional players.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 13 December 1921, C2; Los Angeles Times, 17 December 1921, B14. [/fn]

In mid-December, White Sox manager Lon Goodwin retired and left Jim White to manage the team with Oscar Charleston as captain. The California Eagle called Goodwin “the greatest baseball manager in the West.” But, they added, “Charleston is thoroughly capable, having acted in this capacity in the Negro National League many years.” This was also the week when the California Winter League was wrapping up, and the Eaglecommented that the league’s official closing would be “a relief to the gate receipts at the White Sox Park.” After the Vernon Tigers won the California Winter League pennant, comedian Carl Sawyer took over the team and began playing games against the Colored All Stars. Vernon had their entire championship team intact, except for George Sisler and Jimmy Austin. Their manager was Irish Meusel, outfielder of the 1921 World Series champion New York Giants. On December 17 the Tigers won, 5–3, with John Taylor defeating Sam Lewis.[fn]California Eagle, 17 December 1921, 6; California Eagle, 17 December 1921, 6; California Eagle, 24 December 1921, 6. [/fn]

On January 7 and 8, 1922, the Colored All Stars made easy work of Calpaco in a three-game series (9–3, 4–3, 14–0). The California Eaglewrote, “Jim White’s chief of staff, Oscar Charleston, the Colored king of swat and his pack of twin-six assistants, with malice aforethought, last weekend and Sabbath coaxed the high-toned and prettily uniformed squad of Calpaco diamond stars into their bull-pen and then turned on ’em and smacked them for three rows of Chinese pot houses in as many games.” The first game on Sunday took eleven innings. Then, “Manager Charleston smacked a triple; Mackey…whaled a sacrifice to center and Oscar railroaded home at least three inches to the good.” Charleston went 3-for-5 in that game. Mackey pitched, and “ten [white opponents] left with the wood on their shoulders and sorrow in their hearts.”[fn]California Eagle, 14 January 1922, 6; California Eagle, 14 January 1922, 6. [/fn]

The Calpaco team included “Red” Oldham (Detroit), Chet Thomas (Hartford EL), Ray Bates (Seattle PCL; Indians 1913, Philadelphia Athletics 1917), Pete Schneider (Cincinnati 1914–1918; Yankees 1919; Vernon 1921 PCL), Harold “Rowdy” Elliott (Sacramento PCL; Boston Braves 1910, Cubs 1916–1918, Dodgers 1920), and Johnny “Trolley Line” Butler (Wichita WL).

After sweeping Calpaco, the Colored All Stars again turned their attention to the Vernon team. Tigers coach Irish Meusel and his brother Bob, of the AL champion New York Yankees, both wanted to play for the team, as did Johnny Rawlings (Giants) and Bill Piercy (Yankees). However, fearing that top major leaguers from the World Series might fall in contests against top Negro Leaguers, Commissioner Landis had barred them from barnstorming. The players petitioned Landis to reverse his ruling, which he finally did on January 9. Bob and Irish Meusel, and John Rawlings all joined the Vernon Tigers for a five-game series with White’s Colored All Stars, beginning January 14. Coach Meusel also signed pitcher Bill Pertica of the St. Louis Cardinals to pitch the Sunday game on the 15th. The Vernon team’s expected lineup included seven current and former major leaguers: Johnny Bassler and Lu Blue (Detroit), Irish Meusel and Johnny Rawlings (NY Giants), Bob Meusel (Yankees), Bill Pertica (St. Louis Cardinals), Tony Boeckel (Boston Braves), and Carl Sawyer (of Vernon, but formerly with Washington Nationals).[fn]Los Angeles Examiner, 31 December 1921, sec. 1, 13; Los Angeles Examiner, 10 January 1921, sec. 1, 12; Los Angeles Examiner, 12 January 1922, sec. 1, 15. [/fn]

The Colored All Stars won the opening game against Vernon, 3–2. Charleston’s men had been behind 2–0 until the ninth but then rallied with three hits and three runs. The crowd was the biggest of the season thus far, and fans lined the outfield, topped only by the following day’s “Sabbath mob [which] was the greatest ever crammed in the enclosure.” Perhaps fans were there to see the White Sox captain even more than the major leaguers. The Eaglewrote, “If brainy Oscar Charleston wasn’t pulling one of his famous drag-shot bunts safely, he was lambasting a double or hot and sizzling grass cutter to the outfield.” The Vernon team won the Sunday game, but only by a single run, 7–6. John Taylor had given up two home runs, but Charleston went 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. By Tuesday, Commissioner Landis was reconsidering the wisdom of allowing MLB players to participate on an “all-professional team” in such match-ups.[fn]Los Angeles Examiner, 20 January 1922, sec. 1, 14; California Eagle, 21 January 1922, 6; Los Angeles Examiner, 16 January 1922, sec. 1, 14; Los Angeles Examiner, 17 January 1922, sec. 1, 10. [/fn] The Colored All Stars also won their next two games against Vernon. The Los Angeles Examiner called the contests “important tilts” and emphasized how much the major leaguers had been training for the games. After their 4–3 victory on January 21, the Examiner headline read, “Sox Trounce All-Stars.” And the following day, Charleston, Mackey, and Carr all hit triples off Bill Pertica in the 5–4 win. Examiner sportswriter Frank A. Kerwin also noted that Yankees slugger Bob Meusel was “riled up” over these “defeats of the Majors.”[fn]Los Angeles Examiner, 21 January 1922, sec. 1, 12; Los Angeles Examiner, 22 January 1922, sec. 1, 16; Los Angeles Examiner, 23 January 1922, sec. 1, 12; Los Angeles Examiner, 28 January 1922, sec. 1, 12. [/fn]

On January 28 and 29, the Vernon-White Sox rivalry continued, with a set of “winner take all” contests, meaning that the victor of each game would claim 100 percent of the gate. Bill Pertica won the Saturday contest for Vernon, 15–10, but it was a total slugfest, with 2 home runs, 7 triples (2 by Charleston), and 9 doubles. The Sunday game was another rainout. The following weekend, the “winner take all” series continued, with the Colored Stars taking the Saturday game 5–4, and Vernon claiming the Sabbath contest, 5–2. This left the season at 4–3, in favor of the Colored Stars—with five of these games won by only a single run. Before the Saturday game, the Examiner had announced that these would likely be the last games, but with the White Sox ahead, they planned one more weekend.[fn]Los Angeles Examiner, 29 January 1922, sec. 1, 18; Los Angeles Examiner, 5 February 1922, sec. 1, 13; Los Angeles Examiner, 6 February 1922, sec. 1, 14. [/fn]

The game on February 11 was called off due to wet grounds, and the Colored Stars took the Sunday contest, 13–8, bringing the winter series to 5–3. The Los Angeles Examineradmitted, “White’s colored All Stars walked away with the game” and even praised the team leader: “Oscar Charleston, slugging outfielder, hit three doubles.” The teams met only twice more.[fn]Los Angeles Examiner, 12 February 1922, sec. 1, 14;13 February 1922, sec. 2, 4. [/fn]Vernon took the penultimate game, but after the February 25 capstone, The California Eagle declared: “[John] Taylor White Washes Meusel’s Majors 6 to 0 in Last Clash.” The story mocked the losers:

Evidently Irish and Bobby Meusel didn’t care about facing Oscar and his gang in the last fracas of their schedule which ended so disastrously last Saturday as neither of them showed up for hostilities so the results were aerographed to them in order to cheer them up as they start on their way to training camp—Meuselites “Zero,” Colored Hope Destroyers 6.[fn]California Eagle, 4 March 1922, 6. [/fn]

Besides proving himself an able leader, Charleston generated impressive offensive performance, batting .405 overall during the winter season. In 21 known games, he had 79 at-bats, with 32 hits, 6 triples, and 7 doubles, plus 7 stolen bases and 22 runs scored. On March 4, California Eaglesports writer William Mells Watson celebrated Charleston: 

OSCAR CHARLESTON KING OF SWATTERS THROUGHOUT SEASON HITS .405, FIELDS .960 When general manager Jim White drafted “bambino” Oscar Charleston to the Angel City last fall, he imported without a doubt the second greatest living baseball performer in the entire universe, the great Babe Ruth being his only peer.[fn]California Eagle, 4 March 1922, 6.[/fn]

After claiming a definitive victory over the major leaguers, 7 –4, the Colored All Stars fell to financial pressures. Leaving Los Angeles, they barnstormed against local and semipro teams throughout southern and central California, where they continued dominating all opponents.

Studying the 1921–1922 California Winter League and the state’s less organized barnstorming season demonstrates several important points. Most importantly, it proves that these Negro League players could stand up against major leaguers. This justified Commissioner Landis’s concerns about major league championship players facing Negro Leagues All Stars during the offseason. While Ty Cobb chose to leave California before he might have faced Oscar Charleston and the White Sox, we still learn something about these players. In the CWL, the San Francisco Seals’ weak season showed that Cobb was not an effective manager and that his playing skills were becoming less reliable. Meanwhile, when Charleston took over managing the Colored All Stars, he demonstrated great potential, which would later show in his successful career as a manager with several Negro League teams, most notably the 1932–1938 Pittsburgh Crawfords. 

GERI STRECKER teaches English and Sport Studies at Ball State University. She is writing a biography of Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston and a history of baseball and diplomacy in the Philippines prior to World War I. She is also editing a collection of columns by Dave Wyatt, the first great black sportswriter. Her article “The Rise and Fall of Greenlee Field: Biography of a Ballpark” (Black Ball, Fall 2009) received the McFarland-SABR Research Award in 2009. She also won the award in 2010 for “And the Public Has Been Left to Guess the Secret: Questioning the Authorship of ‘The Great Match, and Other Matches’ (1877)”.

As longtime resident Bill Harrison told the San Bernardino Sun in 1999, his parents, William and Laura Harrison, owned Harrison Sporting Goods and put the request to the Spalding Company, which relayed it to the Pirates. The invitation had merit for several reasons. San Bernardino, a citrus-growing center of a region known as the Inland Empire, enjoyed a benign climate. Located 50 miles east of L.A. and the Pacific Ocean, the city had grown in prominence as the gateway to Southern California, given its intersecting highways—including the marvelous Route 66—and railroads. The city’s transportation hub made it convenient to play the other big-league clubs who trained at that time in Southern California: the Chicago White Sox in Pasadena, and the Chicago Cubs on Catalina Island. The St. Louis Browns trained in San Bernardino in 1948, then several years in Burbank (1949–52), and returned to San Bernardino in 1953. The Philadelphia Athletics trained in Anaheim in 1940–42 and the Cleveland Indians in Tucson, Arizona, 1947–1992, adding to the competition, as did the New York Giants, who trained in Phoenix 1947–50 and 1952. The Triple-A teams of the Pacific Coast League provided further opportunities for games.

The Pirates agreed to make San Bernardino’s Perris Hill Park their spring training home in 1935, playing there off and on until the end of the 1952 exhibition season. San Berdoo, as it is popularly known, was an attractive spring training site for other reasons. The city had a population of about 40,000 in 1935 and sits at the base of the towering San Bernardino Mountains, where for a few years the Pirates stayed at the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, five miles from the city below. With its 36 springs, the hotel was a well-known spa frequented by Hollywood celebrities. The hotel was devastated by a forest fire in 1938 but was soon rebuilt. When it re-opened in December 1939 entertainers Judy Garland, Al Jolson, and Rudy Vallee were there to celebrate the occasion. Each spring the Pirates rubbed shoulders with radio and film celebrities.

A few years later the club moved its headquarters downtown to the California Hotel, another favorite stop for Hollywood stars and other notables, as it was located across the street from the West Coast Theater, which hosted several movie premieres. Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, and John Wayne were among those who signed the hotel’s guestbook. Some Pirates dabbled in the Hollywood scene, such as Pirates manager Frankie Frisch, who used an off-day in 1941 to make the short drive to Palm Springs to appear on Jack Benny’s radio show.

In those years, clubs tended to shift spring training sites often, and Pittsburgh was no exception. After initially training in San Bernardino in 1935, the Pirates spent the next spring in San Antonio, Texas, before returning to San Bernardino through 1942. Pittsburgh then trained in Muncie, Indiana, during the rest of World War II (1943-45), spent 1946 back in San Bernardino, then trained in Miami, Florida in 1947, and in Hollywood in 1948. The Pirates’ springtime returns to town were always cause for civic celebration. The arrival time of the team’s train at the Santa Fe railroad depot downtown was announced in the San Bernardino Sun, players were greeted with music by the San Bernardino High School band, and the city’s mayor and the queen of San Bernardino County’s National Orange Show joined the reception committee.

For most Inland Empire residents, Perris Hill Park provided their only means of seeing a major-league ballplayer up close. The expansion of big-league teams west of the Mississippi River was still decades away, as were televised games, and local baseball fans’ visual impressions of their favorite players were limited to snippets on movie newsreels, magazine photos, newspaper reproductions, and images on Wheaties boxes. The Pirates may have often experienced lean seasons after training in San Bernardino—Pittsburgh’s best finish in those years was second in 1938 and 1944—but local fans were treated to an array of stellar ballplayers and managers when the Pirates were in town. At Perris Hill, fans not only could watch big-league players in person, they could see several who were among the best in the game’s history. The 1935 Bucs, for instance, were led by Honus Wagner (by then a coach and mentor), manager Pie Traynor, Arky Vaughan, and the Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd, known as “Big and Little Poison.” The Pirates also had Truett “Rip” Sewell, the right-hander known for his looping “eephus” pitch. Harry “Cookie” Lavagetto played for Pittsburgh 1934–36 before moving to the Brooklyn Dodgers. And Albert “Al” Gionfriddo—forever remembered for robbing the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio of a double in the 1947 World Series when Gionfriddo was playing his last major-league game as a member of the Dodgers—spent most of his four seasons with the Pirates. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, fans always thrilled to see the Bucs’ left fielder Ralph Kiner, who won or shared the National League home-run title in all seven of his seasons with the club. Kiner frequently commuted to Perris Hill from Alhambra, where he had grown up.

Through the years, local fans also got to see other stars come to Perris Hill to play against Pittsburgh, such as Gabby Hartnett and Billy Herman of the Chicago Cubs, Luke Appling and Jimmy Dykes of the Chicago White Sox, and Philadelphia Athletics owner-manager Connie Mack. Even the lowly Browns offered future star power with Los Angeles-born infielder Johnny Berardino, who later would become a TV soap-opera star on General Hospital.

Through it all the Pittsburgh players remained “fun-loving guys and [were] having a good time” during the spring, attorney Ron Skipper told the Sun, adding that “they signed balls and they didn’t swat you away.” Skipper, whose family lived a few blocks from the California Hotel, had an especially keen interest in the team because his uncle was Bob Elliott, the seven-time All-Star outfielder and third baseman. His career included playing for the Pirates from 1939 to 1946 and winning an NL Most Valuable Player award after he moved to the Boston Braves. 

San Bernardino was still growing but retained its small-town flavor, and ballplayers could easily be spotted when they weren’t on the diamond. Jack Brown, who later became chairman of the Stater Brothers supermarket chain, recalled how he and his friends watched games at Perris Hill and then scouted other locations to see their heroes. “When we got done with the game, we’d come back to downtown San Bernardino on our bikes and park them at the California Hotel and wait for the team to come down and go to dinner,” Brown told the Riverside (CA) Press- Enterprise in 2005.

Built in 1927, Perris Hill was a diamond in the truest sense, with no rounding off of the center-field fence. It was 354 feet down the lines and 451 feet to dead center field. The ballpark later had a $10,000 overhaul that turned it into a facility that could host pro baseball. Perris Hill was one of the few parks that had lights for night play, courtesy of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). Only a belt-high wooden fence down the third base line separated the players’ bench from the fans. A kid could easily walk up to Honus Wagner, tap him on the shoulder, and walk away with an autograph by the man many consider the best shortstop ever. Tickets ranged from 50 cents to $1.50, and one could even see big-league ball for as little as 25 cents when the Pirates played an intra-squad game at Perris Hill. 

For some local residents, Perris Hill offered employment. George Beck, who read meters for the local gas company, supplemented his income by serving as the public address announcer at Perris Hill and other venues. For $15 a day, Beck would announce the line-ups from each manager and read advertisements to the crowd “so that the Pirates could pay for the lights.”

There was one other star-crossed Pirate of note who briefly played at Perris Hill in 1950: 19-year-old Paul Pettit. After a remarkable high school career in Harbor City, California, where Pettit threw six no-hitters and struck out 27 batters in one 12-inning game—the most since Walter Johnson in 1905—movie producer Frederich Stephani signed the young pitcher to a 10-year personal services contract for $85,000. Stephani wanted to film the life story of an athlete but couldn’t afford an established star, so he bet on Pettit’s future. Three months later, Stephani—in effect acting as Pettit’s agent while retaining the movie rights to his life—sold Pettit’s contract to the Pirates for $100,000. The St. Louis Cardinals and other teams cried foul, but Commissioner Happy Chandler’s subsequent investigation found no wrongdoing.

Pettit had become the first $100,000 “bonus baby,” and he spent two weeks at Pirates rookie camp at Perris Hill in 1950. Then he was assigned to the Double-A New Orleans Pelicans where he worked hard to merit his bonus. But, “for all the money the Pirates spent, there was no pitching coach in New Orleans to monitor him,” John Klima wrote in his book Deal of the Century. “Pettit was not trained. He was simply handed the ball. It was baseball in the dark ages.” In the third week of the season, Pettit hurt his elbow and, while favoring the injury, his shoulder. He finished the season 2–7 and had only two short stays with the Pirates, in 1951 and 1953. He reinvented himself as a power-hitting position player in the Pacific Coast League and in Mexico, but was never given another shot in the major leagues. 

The end of World War II brought new ownership for the Pirates, who were purchased in 1946 by a syndicate that included actor-singer Bing Crosby. Also coming on board that year was Ralph Kiner, who recalled how Crosby, his kids in tow, often showed up at Perris Hill for Pirates’ practice and to take part in pepper games. He said Crosby treated the players well. When the Pirates went to Los Angeles for a game, he would take the team to Chasen’s for dinner. But Crosby’s charity and Kiner’s slugging success on the field didn’t mean much at contract time. In late 1950, the Pirates hired Branch Rickey, famous for his years running the Brooklyn Dodgers, as their general manager. Kiner, coming off one of his best seasons, expected a raise, but Rickey responded, “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.” Largely due to continued salary disputes, Kiner eventually was sent to the Cubs in June 1953 as part of a 10-player trade.

In an odd twist, given Southern California’s vaunted climate, it was weather that caused the Pirates to abandon San Bernardino for good after the spring of 1952. Branch Rickey praised the field, the hotel accommodations, and the city’s cooperation, but he had soured on the weather after the rains that year were among the worst in Southern California history, with numerous practices and games cancelled. Instead Rickey accepted an offer to move spring training to Havana, Cuba. The following year San Bernardino enjoyed one more big league spring with the Browns, whose 1953 roster included legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, but that marked the end.

Perris Hill Park has remained connected to sports. In 1983 the field was renamed John A. Fiscalini Field, after the San Bernardino high school standout and UC Berkeley All-American outfielder, who later played in the Pirates minor league system from 1948 to 1950. In 1987, the ballpark became home to a single-A team, the San Bernardino Spirit of the California League. The city spent more than $1 million on improvements to the park during that period, increasing the seating capacity to 3,500 by 1996. The Spirit’s roster in 1988 included Ken Griffey Jr., then an 18-year-old Seattle Mariners prospect. In 58 games with the club, he batted .338. Baseball America named him its single-A player of the year.

Actor Mark Harmon, the team’s largest shareholder at the time, also visited Fiscalini Field in 1988, bringing Hollywood with him. The final scenes of Harmon’s movie Stealing Home were filmed at the field, with Harmon wearing a Spirit uniform. After the 1992 season, the Spirit’s ownership changed, and the team moved to a new stadium, the Epicenter, in nearby Rancho Cucamonga.

The city of San Bernardino, in order to meet changing minor league standards and thus keep professional baseball, built a $16.5-million facility, now called Arrowhead Credit Union Park, which opened in 1996. It is currently the home of the Inland Empire 66ers, the Angels’ single-A affiliate in the California League. City Parks superintendent Ed Yelton maintained in 1997 that the old ballpark was “far from dead.” The manicured diamond that once hosted the likes of Honus Wagner, Paul Waner, and Ralph Kiner now is used for youth, high school, and college baseball games, soccer tournaments, and even church revivals. Said Yelton: “I envision Fiscalini Field being here another 50 years.”

FRED R. PELTZ enjoyed his first taste of major league baseball in the late 1930s, watching Pie Traynor’s Pittsburgh Pirates spring training in San Bernardino, California. In 1947 while playing Junior Leagueball, he earned a trip to the World Series in New York and witnessed Jackie Robinson in his debut year.  Peltz had a limited career pitching in the Sunset and Pioneer Minor Leagues from 1948–51. In 1954 he played with Dave Bristol on Army’s XVI1 Corps Championship team in Japan. Before retiring from newspaper advertising in Riverside, California, Peltz learned of SABR from co-worker Andy McCue. He credits McCue with introducing him to the wealth of available resources and camaraderie of SABR. Peltz has been married to Sue for 57 years and currently lives in San Clemente, California. They have five children and six grandsons.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge Sue Payne, docent, Arda Haenszel California Room, Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, San Bernardino, California; Sue Peltz; James F. Peltz; Joan Gonzalez; William Swank; and Al Parnis for their assistance.

Sources

Books

• John Thorn, Pete Palmer, Michael Gershman, and David Pietrusza, Total Baseball, Fifth Edition, Viking Penguin, 1997.

Periodicals

• “Spring Memories,” Mark Muckenfuss, Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise, March 29, 2005.
• “SB’s no stranger to Baseball,” Gregg Patton, San Bernardino County Sun, 21 March 1999.
• “Picture Stars Participate in Full Program,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, 17 December 1939.
• “S.B.’s team, announcer recalls,” Nick Leyva, San Bernardino Sun, 28 July 1984.
• “Fiscalini’s upkeep grounds for concern,” Danny Summers, San Bernardino Sun, 18 March 1997.

Internet

• Klimaink.com, John Klima Baseball Writing, Deal of the Century.
• Ed Burns
• Baseball Reference.com Encyclopedia of Players
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• http://hwof.com/star/television/johnberardino/2354
• Steve Treder, The Hardball Times, “The Branch Rickey Pirates,” 10 March 2009.
• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2012145723, 5 July 2010.
• Geoff Young, The Hardball Times, “Produce great men, the rest follow,” 9 June 2010.

On Monday night, September 29, 1947, 22,996 fans, with hundreds in the aisles and thousands more turned away, saw a game with all the elements of a great classic: fine pitching, sparkling defensive plays, dramatic offense, and an exciting finish.

The cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles have always been rivals. In 1947 the rivalry coalesced around their Pacific Coast League entries—the San Francisco Seals and the Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels and the Seals were the class of the league. The Seals had fine starting pitching. Cliff Melton, Al Lien, Bob Chesnes (an All-Star selection), and Jack Brewer completed 60 percent of their games and the starting staff of six won 90 of the team’s 105 wins. The double play combination of Roy Nicely, an All-Star selection, and Hugh Luby was the best in the league. Outfielder Don White led the team with 213 hits and hit .292. Neil Sheridan, an All-Star selection, hit 16 home runs in spacious Seals’ Stadium, had 9 triples, 95 runs batted in, and hit .286. He was a real asset defensively as well, as he threw out 24 runners.[fn]Pacific Coast Baseball News, October, 1947, Los Angeles, 3. [/fn] Dino Restelli at .292 and Joe Brovia at .309 proved to be valuable as well. What they didn’t have was a lot of good reserves. They lost Battle Sanders, Charles Henson, Bernie Uhalt, and Neil Sheridan for significant time and had no similar talent to replace them[fn]Willie Runquist, Pacific Coast League Almanac, 1947, Self-published, Union Bay, B.C., 96. [/fn]

Los Angeles, on the other hand, was a power team. They led the league in home runs with 151 (33 more than second place Oakland) in hitter-friendly Wrigley Field. John Ostrowski and Cecil Garriott, both All-Star selections, had over 20 home runs. Larry Barton and Eddie Sauer showed a lot of power as well. The double play combination of Bill Schuster and Lou Stringer rivaled the duo of Nicely and Luby. Pitching was led by Cliff Chambers, an All-Star selection, with 24 wins, Red Adams, and Red Lynn.[fn]Ibid, 87. [/fn]Along with these three, the Angels had the Fireman of the Year Jess Dobernic. He appeared in 55 games with 13 saves and 8 wins. The last two weeks of the season he relieved 6 times, pitched 15 innings, and gave up 6 hits.[fn]Ibid, 87. [/fn]

At the end of July, it had seemed Los Angeles was going to win the pennant in a walk. But the power stopped. From August 12 to September 16 they won 18 and lost 19 while San Francisco won 25 and lost 12.[fn]Ibid, 65 , 66, 67, 71, 73, 74, 76, 78. [/fn] Both teams rallied over the final two weeks, but wound up in a tie. 

Since the teams had split their season series, there would have to be a playoff, and the Angels won the coin toss for home-field advantage. The game was to be played the next night, September 29, at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.[fn]Runquist, 2[/fn] 

What a vivid memory for an eleven-year-old boy, enjoying his first full baseball season! And what great seats! On the day of the game, somehow my lovable dad had been able to get five choice seats ten rows behind home plate for the first playoff game in Pacific Coast League history.[fn]PCL Baseball News, 1. [/fn]

From there I watched as Jack Brewer of San Francisco and Cliff Chambers of Los Angeles pitched inning after inning of scoreless baseball. Ground out, strike out, ground out, fly out—rarely a meaningless single. Seals threats were quickly erased by two double plays. The Angels did have one serious threat in the bottom of the fourth inning. Leadoff man Cecil Garriott worked Jack Brewer for a walk. Bill Schuster was safe on an error. Big Ed Sauer made an out. Clarence Maddern, the cleanup man, also walked. Now Jack Brewer was in a real mess. Seals second baseman Hugh Luby came to the rescue, however. He stabbed John Ostrowski’s hard grounder, stepped on second quickly, and threw a strike to Bill Matheson at first for the double play.[fn]PCL Baseball News, 1. [/fn]

Then came the unforgettable Angels eighth inning. After the first batter, pitcher Cliff Chambers, made an out, feisty leadoff man Cecil Garriott began the destruction of the mighty Seals, the 1946 champions, when he worked a nervous Jack Brewer for a walk. The next batter, Broadway Bill Schuster, always trouble, called for a hit and run. The ball just eluded second baseman Luby as he was running to cover second base. The speedy Garriott raced to third. First and third, only one out. Brewer was now more visibly shaken as slugging outfielder Eddie Sauer stepped to the plate. One mistake and the Seals would be behind 3–0. Trying to keep the ball inside to avoid a home run, a too-careful Brewer hit Sauer. The bases were loaded; Hollywood could not have written it any better. The tension and excitement were high for me and thousands of other fans as victory was in sight for our beloved Angels. Clarence Maddern, the dangerous cleanup man, was up, and there was no place to put him. Brewer had to throw strikes. He wound up and threw his best pitch, a good hard fastball, for a strike. But the man in blue did not get a chance to call it as Maddern slammed a long, high blast over the left field wall onto 41st Place. The stands erupted, and I felt that there just may be something to this game of baseball.

That night, it was not an instant that brought everyone to their feet. It was a masterfully pitched game that heightened the suspense with each hitter. Which pitcher would be the first to falter?

That night, Clarence Maddern triumphed; Jack Brewer was left powerless. Now the Angels were in the driver’s seat. Only three more outs were needed for L.A. to become the Pacific Coast League Champions. Everybody knew that the Angels would never surrender this lead. The bases-loaded home run was too devastating. That one blow was too much for any team to overcome. Brewer did recover some as he struck out third baseman John Ostrowski, but first baseman Larry Barton added another nail to the Seals’ coffin with a solo shot into the right field bleachers. Finally, second baseman Lou Stringer closed out the inning.

As expected, the Seals did next to nothing in the top of the ninth inning. Left fielder and cleanup man Dino Restelli walked, but was quickly erased as third baseman Ray Orteig hit into the third Seals double play of the night. There was no way Cliff Chambers was going to give up anything at this point, and first baseman Bill Matheson obliged by making the final out of the game.

Why did the Angels win?

Chambers’s pitching was outstanding. He gave up only five hits and two walks. San Francisco’s leadoff men never got on. The middle of the Seals’order—Neil Sheridan, Dino Restelli, and Ray Orteig—got one hit amongst them. The Seals’ hits came from the bottom of the order. The Angels made three double plays, the pitcher’s best friends. The Angels’ eighth inning? A first batter walk, a timely single just eluding the second baseman, a power hitter up who was a real threat, and the fourth hitter, Clarence Maddern, who had been the hottest Angels hitter in the latter part of the season. All these elements in the Angels’ favor led to a dramatic and unforgettable finish.

Today, many, many years later the same excitement that I experienced in 1947 is just as strong and vivid as it was on that September night. Baseball has a certain drama and tension that no other game can claim. While the action is not as frenetic as in other team sports, this tension builds inning after inning in a well pitched game. 

AL PARNIS is a retired high school English teacher and adjunct college professor. He has taught courses in baseball history and baseball literature. As a lifelong Angeleno his baseball loyalty is to the City of Angels, now the Dodgers, in years past the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, whose memory is kept alive by his long membership in the Pacific Coast League Historical Society.

Fred Girard Haney touched all the bases in a 65-year baseball career that led him from athletic stardom in high school to the general manager’s office of the Los Angeles Angels. Along the way, he was a player, coach, scout, World Series winning manager, broadcaster, and general manager. On the field, Fred was a fierce competitor, disputing calls and plays with opponents, umpires, and fans. Off the field, he was a devoted family man, with many lifelong friends, and a heart for charitable works, particularly those involving youth, veterans, and baseball.

Haney was born April 25, 1898[fn]There is conflicting information on Fred’s year of birth as 1896, 1897 or 1898. I have chosen 1898 because that is what is on his tombstone.[/fn] in Bernalillo, New Mexico Territory, the fourth and youngest son of William J. and Frances (Fannie) Haney. After the family relocated to Los Angeles, Fred attended Polytechnic High School, where he was a four-year letterman in three sports. Named twice to the All-California Interscholastic football team,[fn]Los Angeles Times, 26 August 1934, F2.[/fn] holder of several swimming titles, a member of the water polo team, and the city’s junior handball champion,[fn]The Charleston Gazette, 10 November 1938.[/fn] Haney was one of the first great high school athletes of Los Angeles.

MINOR LEAGUE BALL PLAYER

After a partial year with the Class B Portland Buckaroos, Haney tried out with the Pacific Coast League (PCL) Los Angeles Angels for the 1919 season and made the team. Haney is listed as being 5-foot-6 and 170 pounds; unsurprisingly, he acquired the nickname “Pudge.” Despite his weight, he was fast and used hi speed to advantage throughout his baseball career. 

He made the Angels squad again in 1920 as a backup. That June he married his high school sweetheart, Florence, and the two began a life and baseball partnership that would last 57 years. Shortly after their wedding, Fred was sent to Omaha of the Class A Western League where he blossomed.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1920, 18.[/fn] Haney was an aggressive negotiator and for the 1921 season achieved a clause that granted him one-fourth of the purchase price if he were sold to the majors. Haney’s play at Omaha attracted the Detroit Tigers who purchased his contract for $5,000 and four players: Babe Herman, future Hall of Famer Heinie Manush, George Grantham, and Bill Baumgartner. Haney got his $1,250 but when he asked for more because of the players, he was asked which quarter of the players he wanted. For years, Haney liked to tell his fellow Angeleno Babe Herman that he owned twenty-five percent of him, and the Babe usually responded with, “Get out your knife and start cutting.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 6 November 1947, 14. [/fn]

MAJOR LEAGUER

In 1922, Ty Cobb, beginning his second year of managing the Tigers, developed an affinity for the brash, hustling youngster and gave Haney an opportunity to play a key reserve role. Fred took full advantage of the opportunity, batting a remarkable .352 and playing several positions. He got national attention in mid-season in The Sporting News. “Manager Ty Cobb has gotten some wonderful work out of recruits. … A notable instance is Fred Haney who was called up from Omaha. … One of the strong points in Haney’s favor is that he has the old never quit spirit highly developed, and that is just what Cobb demands.”[fn]The Sporting News, 6 July 1922, 1. [/fn]

Shortly after this article appeared, the fiery rookie got his first suspension and fine.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 24 July 1922, III2. [/fn], [fn]Los Angeles Times, 4 May 1930, F3. [/fn] Cobb influenced much of Haney’s approach to the game of baseball. The two shared a sense of competitiveness, aggressiveness, and desire to win, and would remain lifelong friends. Fred stayed with Detroit through the 1925 season. In a September 23 game at Fenway Park, Howard Ehmke beaned Haney; he was knocked unconscious and carried from the field. After the season, Haney was traded to the Boston Red Sox. The Haneys’ only child, their daughter Patricia (Patsy), was born in Michigan during the season.

Haney won the starting third base job for the Red Sox but hit only .221, although he did lead the team in stolen bases. Some have attributed his hitting drop-off to being bat shy after the beaning. In July 1927 Fred was sold to the Chicago Cubs and subsequently sold to Indianapolis (Class AA-American Association), where he started at third base and hit well.[fn]Baseball-Reference.com, Minor League Database. [/fn]

Fred returned to Indianapolis for the 1928 season and had the best year of his career. He hit well with power and led the league in stolen bases. This was Haney’s breakout year as a base stealer, and it would become his hallmark on the field. When the St. Louis Cardinals purchased his contract,[fn]Los Angeles Times, 18 December 1928, B2.[/fn] he made an unusual demand. If he did not make the team, he wanted the right to purchase his release or to be released to a PCL team. By now he had an insurance business with 29 branches in California, and if he were to be in the minors, he wanted to be near his work.[fn]Moberly, MO Monitor Index and Democrat, 15 February 1929, 2. [/fn]

PCL STAR

On May 7, 1929, he was sold to the Los Angeles Angels of the PCL. He was an immediate sensation, hitting well, stealing bases, and energizing the Angels. On September 16 Fred used some of his old football skills by throwing what was termed an illegal block into Hollywood shortstop Dud Lee to break up a double play. The umpire failed to call interference and the Angels rallied for three runs to help their victory. Fred led the league with 56 stolen bases even though he played only two-thirds of the season.

The 1930 season was another excellent one for Fred Haney. Early in the year he had a streak of 36 errorless games at third base.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 6 June 1930, A13.[/fn] He was the first man to lead the PCL in steals for two consecutive seasons.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 14 December 1930, F5. [/fn]

Haney’s expectation of another banner year in 1931 ended in March when he had one kidney removed.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 25 March 1931, A13.[/fn], [fn]Los Angeles Times, 8 December 1938, A13.[/fn] It was thought that Fred would miss the season, however he was “officially”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 16 June 1931, A11.[/fn] welcomed back to the team on June 24, when the game was stopped as he came to bat and he was presented a huge basket of flowers by his admirers at Paramount Studios, where he worked as an electrician during the offseason.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 25 June 1931, A11.[/fn] At the end of August, Fred was in the middle of a riot in Seattle, which ended in a forfeit; police and firemen had to use fire hoses to disperse the crowd of 8,000.

In 1932 Haney was given his first unconditional release in 14 seasons of baseball.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 1 September 1932, A9.[/fn] The following year Haney signed to play third base for the Hollywood Stars, the Angels’ arch rivals. Fred played well in 1933 and again the next year. In June 1934, Fred severely spiked Angel catcher Walt Goebel who was hospitalized for several days because the wound was too badly bruised to stitch.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1934, A9. [/fn] Given the bad blood between the teams, the Angels thought that it was intentional. Florence once related a story about sitting in the stands during Fred’s playing days when the fan next to her remarked, “Wouldn’t you hate to be married to a hot-tempered pepper pot like that?” She added, “Nobody would ever believe that as excitable as Fred was as a player and as colorful as he is as a manager, he has always been a mild easy-going person at home.”

MINOR LEAGUE MANAGER

In November Fred moved to another level in his career as player-manager of the Toledo Mud Hens. He was recommended by Frank Navin, owner of the Detroit Tigers.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 22 November 1934, A11. [/fn] Fred’s fiery nature did not remain in Los Angeles. In June he protested a doubleheader loss at Columbus because the umpire delayed the first game while a telegram was sent to league president Thomas Hickey changing the Columbus roster during the game because of an injury.[fn]Massilon, OH Evening Independent, 17 June 1935, 3. [/fn] The next day Fred was still seething and vigorously protested a call. He was ejected and, when he refused to leave the field, was escorted out by the police and suspended. He also made the league all-star team and led the league in stolen bases.[fn]Waterloo, IA Daily Courier, 23 December 1935, 9. [/fn]

In January 1936 Fred had a serious operation at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles,[fn]Oakland Tribune, 23 January 1936, 23. [/fn] that ended his every-day playing career but did nothing to stem his fighting spirit. During a June 20 game, Fred took exception to manager Burleigh Grimes riding the Toledo pitcher. They came to blows near third base and had to be separated by the police.[fn]Lima, OH News, 21 June 1936, 2. [/fn]  The 5-foot-10 Grimes made short work of Fred, knocking him down and then trying to carve up Fred’s face with his spikes. Fred managed for two more years in Toledo, garnering praise from The Sporting News for his fiery leadership that kept the team in the 1937 race by winning games the experts said that they had no right to win.[fn]The Sporting News, 30 September 1937, 3. [/fn]

MAJOR LEAGUE MANAGER

Fred’s success in Toledo caught the attention of the St. Louis Browns who were looking for a new manager—someone who would not command a large salary. Fred accepted their offer. Although some people offered their condolences, Fred viewed the Browns job as an excellent opportunity and expected to deliver a .500 team with improved pitching. It did not happen; the Browns finished last in 1939 and sixth in 1940. After the Browns started the 1941 season poorly, Haney was fired.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1941, 21. [/fn] The Browns were not done with Fred; to save money they assigned him to manage Toledo, now a Browns farm team, where he stayed through the 1942 season.

THE BROADCAST BOOTH

At the end of the 1942 season, Fred called it quits in Toledo, citing the lack of authority to make player deals.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 24 September 1942, A10. [/fn] But he really wished to return to Los Angeles, where his daughter Patricia was in high school. Haney became the radio announcer for both the Angels and Stars home games. He had kept his Hollywood connections from his days at Paramount and was instrumental in having Bing Crosby wear a St. Louis Browns uniform in the movie Going My Waythat was released when the Browns were winning their only pennant.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 6 October 1944, 10. [/fn]

Controversy arose late in the 1947 season. Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Angels, wanted to broadcast road games and sought a broadcaster more partial to the Angels. He also wanted Haney fired from the Stars job, because he feared the new broadcaster would not be able to compete with Haney’s style, knowledge, and on-air persona. Haney was defended vigorously in the local papers through a letter writing campaign to the Angels. Fred was praised as the best broadcaster the Coast has ever had and for almost single-handedly keeping baseball on the radio alive during the war.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 5 September 1947, A8, A9. [/fn], [fn]Los Angeles Times, 11 September 1947, 11. [/fn], [fn]Los Angeles Times, 14 September 1947, A6. [/fn] The campaign worked; the following season Fred broadcast the Stars home and away games on KLAC.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 15 September 1947, 11. [/fn] That year also brought the Haneys their first grandchild.

MANAGERIAL SUCCESS WITH HOLLYWOOD

On November 4, 1948 the Stars asked Fred Haney to become their manager.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 5 November 1948, C1. [/fn] Haney requested and eventually got a three-year contract with full authority over player deals.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 11 November 1948, C1. [/fn] Before he signed, Fred contacted Branch Rickey and got a promise that the Dodgers would add Hollywood to their farm system.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 7 September 1952, B7. [/fn] He was also allowed to continue as program director at KLAC and keep his radio show.

Haney was an excellent broadcaster. His work on the air and his support of youth, charities, public service, and baseball brought him a host of friends and admirers in and out of the game. He ended each broadcast with, “This is Fred Haney, rounding third and heading for home.”[fn]Richard Beverage, The Hollywood Stars, Arcadia Publishing, 2005. [/fn] Little did Fred know that in his career, already spanning 30 years, he was only approaching second base.

Haney assessed the Stars as lacking talent and, by the start of 1949 spring training, 16 of the 25 players on the 1948 roster were gone. His motto was, “Win today, for tomorrow it may rain.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 16 January 1949, 28. [/fn]Haney warned the players to hustle on every play or be ready to be released.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 29 March 1949, C2. [/fn] The team was dubbed the Comets, Hurricanes, and Shooting Stars because of their running and aggressive play. They won the pennant by 51?2 games. The press started calling him Frederick the Great. He was named The Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 25 January 1950, C2. [/fn]

On the first Saturday afternoon of the 1950 season, the Stars dropped a bombshell on the baseball world by appearing on the field in shorts. Fred asserted that the rayon T-shirts and shorts that resembled track suits, worn for day games and warm night games, would give his players more speed and change the decision on some close plays. The papers called the uniform “scanties,” and opposing players teased the Stars mercilessly throughout the season. 

During the 1951 season Haney initiated a successful plan with Ty Cobb to promote the election of critically ill Harry Heilmann to the Hall of Fame.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 10 July 1951, C3. [/fn] Shortly before the end of the year, Fred was hospitalized with viral pneumonia.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1952, B4. [/fn] Florence had the unenviable chore of keeping Fred quiet as she supervised his convalescence in Palm Springs. As he recovered, she drove him to spring training games and cooked while trying to make sure he got sufficient rest.

BACK TO THE MAJORS, WITH PITTSBURGH

After the Stars won the 1952 pennant, Branch Rickey, now with the Pittsburgh Pirates, offered the managerial job to Haney. Fred said that he took the job out of obligation to Rickey for the help he had provided to the Stars.[fn]New York Times, 12 December 1952, 45. [/fn] Haney now had the dubious honor of managing Pittsburgh, the worst team in baseball.

Fred spent three tough years managing the Pirates “Kiddie Corps.” Rickey had signed a large number of players and instructed Fred to play the kids even if they were not the best so as to build for the future. They finished a dismal last each year. On September 25, 1955, Fred received a registered letter from Branch Rickey dismissing him as manager. Fred’s contract would have automatically renewed if he had not been notified by midnight on that day.[fn]New York Times, 26 September 1955, 27. [/fn] Fred was bitter over being coldly dismissed by letter when Rickey had promised him a face-to-face meeting.

THE PINNACLE IN MILWAUKEE

Wanting to remain in the majors, Haney accepted a one-year coaching offer from the Milwaukee Braves for the 1956 season.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 26 October 1955, C1. [/fn] The reaction in Milwaukee was that this was one of the best moves the Braves had made since moving from Boston, as Haney would bring hustle, competitiveness, and baseball strategy.[fn]The Sporting News, 2 November 1955, 9. [/fn] In June, with Milwaukee languishing in fifth place, Haney was appointed interim manager.[fn]New York Times, 17 June 1956, B1. [/fn] The Braves then went on a tear, winning 11 consecutive games, and stayed in contention throughout the year. On September 11 with the Braves one game ahead, Fred was rehired for the 1957 season for the magnificent job that he had done.[fn]New York Times, 12 September 1957, 44. [/fn] However, on the final Saturday of the season, the Braves lost a 12-inning heartbreaker to St. Louis 2–1 to fall one game behind, and the next day the Dodgers won to clinch the pennant.

During the offseason, the now retired Jackie Robinson said, “The Milwaukee Braves lost the pennant because two or three key players were night-clubbing until 6:15 a.m. while the Braves were in Pittsburgh.”[fn]New York Times, 13 January 1957, S1. [/fn] In his farewell speech to the club after the last game, Haney said, “You had a good time boys. Have a good time this winter. Because when we meet again next spring, you’re going to have the toughest so and so you’ve ever run into.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1957, C6. [/fn] True to his promise, Fred worked the Braves exceptionally hard during spring training and prophetically told the team, “You may hate me in the spring but you’ll love me in the fall when you pick up your World Series checks.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 29 October 1957, C4. [/fn]

On June 15, Fred got the team leader he wanted, Red Schoendienst, from the Giants.[fn]New York Times, 17 June 1957, 40. [/fn] When the Braves clinched the 1957 pennant, Fred said, “This is the thrill of a lifetime. I knew the boys would come through, and what a great way to do it.”[fn]Los Angeles Times, 24 September 1957, C1. [/fn] In his fortieth year in baseball, Fred Haney made it to the World Series. For the seventh game, Fred had a tough decision to make. He chose Lew Burdette to start over Warren Spahn. Lew led the Braves to a 5–0 win to give Haney and the Braves the World Championship. Fred was now a hero in Milwaukee. He was named National League Manager of the Year.[fn]New York Times, 24 October 1957, 45. [/fn] He was rehired for 1958 with a $40,000 salary, his highest salary in professional baseball.[fn]New York Times, 20 October 1957, S5. [/fn]

One event in his busy offseason typified Fred Haney. Fred’s brother Ralph saw a polio-crippled teenaged boy, Bill Culver, simulating playing the different positions on the diamond and catching pitches on an empty school playground. It was a major struggle for him with a withered arm and a weak leg. Ralph wrote to Fred asking him to send a ball and Braves hat that he could give to the boy, because he admired his courage. Fred did more. He arranged an assembly on the playground of the school in front of the students and, with his arm around Bill, presented him with an autographed Braves baseball, a Milwaukee T-shirt and cap, and a World Series program while he spoke about baseball and life.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 21 November 1957, C4. [/fn]

Haney led the Braves to another pennant in 1958, losing the World Series to the Yankees, and lost the 1959 pennant in a playoff to the Dodgers. During the 1959 World Series, Fred resigned as manager of the Braves. In midseason, he had said that this might be his last year. There was speculation in the press whether he quit or was pushed out; however, what is most likely is that he made demands on Braves owner Lou Perini for more authority that were not granted, and he quit.

NATIONAL TV BROADCASTER

Haney was ready to return home and be with his family. He quickly signed with Los Angeles television station KCOP to host Major League Baseball Presentson Saturday evenings. Fred then landed a plum three-year contract to televise NBC’s Game of the Week. A review of Fred’s work that season said that he described the action as though it were radio but that he had a flair for bringing in colorful anecdotes that added a definite flavor to the telecasts.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 4 June 1960, B5. [/fn]

ANGELS’ GENERAL MANAGER

When Gene Autry won the Los Angeles franchise of the American League at the Winter Meetings in December 1960, he quickly hired Haney as the general manager.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1960, C1. [/fn] Fred would set the standard for future expansion teams. He hired Bill Rigney as field manager and moved to the player draft. Fred had friends all over baseball and called on them for advice on players, particularly those in the minors. Buzzie Bavasi shared the Dodgers evaluations and Casey Stengel provided information from the Yankee scouting reports. Rigney wanted to draft young players for the future but Haney overruled him with a mix of young players and veterans with reputations to compete with the Dodgers for local attention. Haney also wanted to get power hitters for Wrigley Field. The Angels drafted 30 players, 28 from the majors and two from the minors. Eight were over 30, 18 were in their twenties, and four were teenagers. The gems were two teenagers, Jim Fregosi and Dean Chance.

Haney’s next task was to hire a staff and he brought together an outstanding front office including Marvin Milkes, Cedric Tallis, and Roland Hemond. At the end of January, Haney and Hemond negotiated a working agreement with their first minor league club, the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers of the Class AAA American Association.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 31 January 1961, C3. [/fn] Haney organized the refurbishment of Wrigley Field, developed a spring training facility in Palm Springs, and carried out over 20 trades to improve the nascent Angels. Although pundits predicted that they would be lucky to win 50 games in their inaugural season, they won 70. Since that time, 13 more expansion teams have entered the major leagues and none has equaled that win total yet in their opening season. Moreover, his structuring of the team for Wrigley led to a 46–36 home record. No expansion team since has achieved a winning season at home in their inaugural year, either.

For the 1962 season the Angels moved to the Dodgers’ new park in Chavez Ravine, which was pitcher-friendly as opposed to the bandbox at Wrigley. Fred restructured the team for this park, making multiple trades and bringing up young players. By July 4 the Angels were in first place, ultimately finishing third with an 86–76 record. For his work, both The Sporting News and UPI named Haney as Major League Executive of the Year.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 24 October 1962, B5. [/fn]

Fred Haney continued as general manager of the Angels for six more years, orchestrating the club’s move to Anaheim and the development of its image in Orange County. After the 1968 season, Gene Autry suggested that it was time for the 70-year-old Haney to retire and offered him a consulting position at the same salary. Fred knew that this position had no authority or even formal input but acquiesced out of friendship for Autry.

Fred continued to follow the Angels, attending many games and advising Gene Autry. As his vision began to fail, Florence drove him to the games. On November 9, 1977, Fred suffered a fatal heart attack at his Beverly Hills home.[fn]Los Angeles Times, 9 November 1977, A1. [/fn] Two years later, in 1979, the Angels won the American League West and entered the playoffs. Gene Autry honored Fred by asking Florence to assist him in throwing out the first ball for Game 3 and having her throw out the first ball for Game 4.[fn]John Hall, Los Angeles Times, 8 October 1977, D3. [/fn] In 1980, the team established the Fred Haney Memorial Award to recognize the outstanding rookie in spring training.[fn]1999 Anaheim Angels Media Guide. [/fn]

Florence Haney lived to be nearly a hundred before passing away in 1998. She and Fred are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Their gravestones represent what was important to them in their lives: “BELOVED HUSBAND FATHER • GRANDFATHER”; “BELOVED WIFE MOTHER • GRANDMOTHER.”

JAMES GORDON retired from TRW/Northrop Grumman after forty years as an aerospace and nuclear engineer to concentrate on baseball and being a grandfather. His joy is attending baseball games around the country and documenting aspects of Los Angeles baseball history. Having been born in Brooklyn, he is genetically and emotionally a Dodger fanatic, although he reached Los Angeles fifteen years before the team arrived.

But in a pattern that would repeat itself over the decades, the Angels/Loo Loos were not able to keep the city to themselves. In 1909 a new franchise began play in Vernon, a small industrial enclave located about nine miles from downtown Los Angeles. The Tigers played just a few games within the city limits of Vernon, mostly on Wednesday and the first game of the Sunday doubleheaders. The rest of their home games were played at Washington Park, the home of the Angels. After July 1, 1920 Vernon played all of its home games in Los Angeles.

Vernon remained in the Pacific Coast League through the 1925 season. The club did not draw well in either Vernon or Los Angeles. In 1913 the club moved to Venice, on the Western side of the city, but after two fruitless years there returned to its original site in Vernon. The Tigers were unable to build much of a fan base until 1918, when they finished in first place during a season truncated by World War I. Vernon repeated as champions in 1919 and 1920, but Tigers fortunes declined rapidly after a second place finish in 1922. Meanwhile, the Angels had been purchased by William Wrigley Jr. in August 1921. Wrigley also was the majority stockholder of the Chicago Cubs, and although the two clubs were separate entities, common ownership gave the Angels a definite competitive advantage in Los Angeles. Relations with the Vernon owner, Edward Maier, began to worsen. 

When Wrigley purchased land for a new ballpark in south central Los Angeles, he made it clear that the Vernon club could not play its games there. The Tigers would have to find a new home in 1926.

In November 1925 Maier sold the Vernon club to San Francisco interests who immediately announced that the franchise would be moved there. That presented an opportunity to Bill Lane, owner of the Salt Lake City Bees. The Bees had been a member of the PCL since 1915. It had not been a success either on the field or at the box office. Salt Lake had never finished higher than second place and usually hovered around the .500 mark. Attendance had never exceeded 160,000 annually and was generally near the bottom of the league. Even the second place team of 1925, which featured the play of Tony Lazzeri and his 60 home runs, could draw no more than 1,300 per game. 

The other PCL owners had complained about the high cost of travel to Salt Lake and the small crowds. Lane moved to take advantage of the open territory in Los Angeles. He and Wrigley had become friends, and the Angels owner offered to share his new ballpark with Lane’s club beginning in 1926. The club played in Los Angeles but took the label of the Hollywood Stars. Informally, it was generally called the Sheiks, after the Hollywood High School athletic teams.

The Sheiks/Stars were expected to be a pennant contender during their first year in Wrigley Field, but they finished in sixth place. The Angels won their first pennant under the Wrigley regime, finishing 101?2games ahead of Oakland. Surprisingly, Angels attendance declined to 273,202 in 1926 while the Hollywood club drew 212,830.

A few years previously the Chicago Cubs had introduced Ladies Day at Cubs Park. Female fans could enter the park at no charge on certain days of the week, and the policy seemed to stimulate attendance. The Angels adopted a similar policy in 1925. But then Mr.Wrigley went one better in 1928—every day was Ladies Day, not only for the Angels games but for Hollywood games as well! The other club owners protested the loss of all that revenue from games played in Los Angeles, and no voice was louder than Bill Lane’s. He revolted against the policy and canceled Ladies Day on June 3. But the Angels continued to open the gates to the women at any time. Finally, Wrigley agreed to pay the other clubs their share of the lost revenue for some games and confine Ladies Day to weekdays only in 1929. But the damage to the friendship with Bill Lane had been done. No longer were the two men on friendly terms, and relations would deteriorate further over the next seven years.

Hollywood fortunes improved in 1928, and for the next four years the club enjoyed its greatest years in Los Angeles. The Sheiks won their first pennant in 1929 when they defeated the Mission club in a season-ending playoff and won again in 1930 when they routed the Angels in the playoffs. There were great players on those two Hollywood champions, most of whom are forgotten today. The best known was pitcher Frank Shellenback, who won 295 games during a Pacific Coast League career that spanned over 19 years. Other important Sheiks were Mickey Heath, Dave Barbee, Otis Brannan, Dudley Lee, John Bassler, and Cleo Carlyle. Except for Bassler, none of these men had significant major league careers, but they contributed greatly to the two pennant winners.

But Hollywood’s fortunes declined after that, and Bill Lane’s team won no more pennants in Wrigley Field. Both the Angels and the Stars were hit hard by the Depression, but Los Angeles fared better, partly because of their relationship with the Cubs, who supplied the Angels with good talent. They won the pennant in 1933 and then overwhelmed the PCL in 1934 with what may have been the greatest minor league team in history. It won both halves of a split season and a total of 137 games. No other Coast League club came close to that mark. Featured players that year were Frank Demaree, the league MVP, pitcher Fay Thomas, who posted a 28–4 record, Jim Oglesby, Jimmy Reese, and Jigger Statz. The success of the Angels that year had a negative impact on attendance throughout the league, and no one was hurt as much as Hollywood. The core of fans that the Stars had developed over the years vanished. By 1935 Hollywood was in last place, and attendance was less than half of what it had been four years earlier. Bill Lane was getting desperate, and when the Angels informed him that his rent would increase to $10,000 in 1936, he decided to move his ballclub. The city of San Diego agreed to build him a new ballpark, and in February 1936 the Hollywood Stars became the San Diego Padres.

But after a two-year hiatus, the Stars would be back. At the end of the 1937 season the Mission club of San Francisco received permission from the league to move to Southern California and would play once again in Wrigley Field in 1938, with the stipulation that it would be for only one year. The second version of the Hollywood Stars would have to find their own ballpark for the 1939 season.

The Stars were sold to a group of Los Angeles investors, fronted by Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby Restaurant chain. Shortly after the sale, Cobb announced the club would have its own ballpark. Gilmore Field, which actually wasin the Hollywood area, was opened in May 1939, and the Stars finally had their own identity. Their move into new quarters created the heated rivalry between the Stars and Angels, who would play each other four series a year in what was frequently called the Heavenly Series.

During the early years of the rivalry, the Angels were especially dominant. They won pennants in 1938, 1943, and 1944 and finished one game out of first place in 1942. During those years the Angels took the season series by wide margins over the Stars in all but one year. Their close relationship with the Chicago Cubs provided them with an abundance of good players, a luxury that Hollywood did not have. The Stars were consistently a second division team in that period. They had no working agreement with a major league club until 1946, when they entered into a limited agreement with Pittsburgh. They finished above .500 for the first time under the Cobb regime and finished ahead of the Angels for the first time. 

Los Angeles won the PCL pennant in 1947, but that was the last success the Angels would have for nine years. They slipped to third place in 1948 and then crashed to the cellar in 1949. Conversely, the Stars were beginning the greatest period in their history. They entered into a working agreement with the Dodgers and with the fine players supplied by Brooklyn won their first pennant in 1949 under the leadership of Fred Haney. Chuck Stevens, Jim Baxes, Irv Noren, and Frank Kelleher formed the core of that team, which many Stars fans thought was the best team in their history. Hollywood would win pennants in 1952 and 1953 and have the best record in the PCL during the 1950s. They took control of the Heavenly Series, winning 7 of the last 9 years.

Like Hollywood cowboys who thought the town wasn’t big enough for both of them, the rivalry between these two clubs wasn’t confined to the fans. The players didn’t like each other. There were frequent incidents on the playing field which culminated on August 2, 1953. Fireworks broke out during the first game of a Sunday doubleheader before an overflow crowd. Frank Kelleher was hit by a pitch from Angels hurler Joe Hatten in the sixth inning and charged the mound, wrestling Hatten to the ground. Both benches cleared, punches were thrown, and Kelleher was ejected. Ted Beard was sent in to run for him, and when the next hitter singled to right field, Beard raced all the way to third where he slid into Angels third baseman Murray Franklin with spikes flying. Franklin came up swinging and both benches emptied once again. This was a real fight that inspired Police Chief William Parker, who was watching the game at home on television, to send a brigade of his officers to the park to break up the melee. Several players suffered cuts, bruises, and black eyes. When the fighting subsided, Beard, Franklin, Gene Handley, and Fred Richards were gone, and the reserve players were sent to the clubhouse for the remainder of the day. The donnybrook was featured in the national press, including the popular magazine Life.

Once it became known in late 1957 that the Dodgers were coming to Los Angeles, the Angels and Stars were doomed. The franchises were moved to Spokane and Salt Lake City, respectively, and the great rivalry was over, to be replaced by the Dodgers-Giants rivalry that the Eastern clubs brought with them. But fans of the old Pacific Coast League retain their fond memories of what was really a Heavenly Series.

DICK BEVERAGE is a former President of SABR and a longtime fan of the Pacific Coast League. He is the founder of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, an organization devoted to preservation of the memories and history of the Pacific Coast League during the years before major league baseball came to the West Coast.

Sources

• Los Angeles Times, 1926–57.
• Los Angeles Examiner, 1926–57.
• Pacific Coast League Record Book, 1956–57.
• Reach Official Baseball Guide, 1903–40.
• Spaulding Official Baseball Guide, 1925–40.
• Spaulding-Reach Official Baseball Guide, 1941.
• Sporting Life, 1903–15.
• The Sporting News, 1903–57.
• The Sporting News Baseball Guide and Record Book, 1942–43.
• The Sporting News Official Baseball Guide, 1944 –58.

1. The trigger for the biggest brawl in PCL history. Hollywood Stars outfielder Ted Beard slides spikes-high into Los Angeles Angels third baseman Murray Franklin, August 2, 1953.

2. Seconds later, Beard comes up swinging.

3. The brawl spreads as Angels catcher Al Evans winds up for a swing at umpire Joe Iacovetti.

4. Fortunately for Evans, his punch misses.

5. Evans moves to crowd Iacovetti.

(All photos provided by David Eskenazi.)

At Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, a 150-foot office tower housed 13-foot clocks on its four sides that could be seen from all parts of the city, making the ballpark the iconic symbol of baseball in Los Angeles for more than 35 years. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Chicago’s Wrigley Field, known worldwide, is considered a national treasure. Much less known is its Southern California counterpart. Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field was built in the exuberant Roaring Twenties and demolished at the end of the turbulent sixties. Both its birth and demise echo the spirit of the times. The ballpark lived through the Depression, World War II, the postwar baseball boom, the decline of minor league baseball and a brief renaissance as a major-league ballpark. The history of Wrigley is intermingled with that of the City of Los Angeles. It hosted the fiercest rivalry in minor league baseball between the Pacific Coast League (PCL) Angels and Hollywood Stars as well as other baseball, boxing, football, high school and a myriad of community events. And this being Los Angeles, the ballpark appears in many motion pictures.

The story begins in 1921, a few years after William K. Wrigley Jr. became principal owner Chicago Cubs, when he acquired the Los Angeles Angels of the PCL. After a dispute over parking at Washington Park, Wrigley decided to erect his own ballpark. Promising local fans a venue of major-league luxury, Wrigley commissioned architect Zachary Taylor Davis, who had designed Cubs Park (as Chicago’s Wrigley Field was then called) and Comiskey Park. Following Wrigley’s instructions to pattern the design after Cubs Park, Davis used iron and steel construction and designed a covered, double-decked grandstand from foul pole to foul pole, rarities in the minor leagues at that time. Built at a cost of $1,500,000,six times the cost of Cubs Park, it was dubbed “Wrigley’s Million Dollar Palace.” Seating about 18,500 in the grandstand and 2,000 in the bleachers, the ballpark was slightly larger than its Chicago counterpart. In later years the left-field wall was planted with ivy to further emulate that ballpark.

THE EARLY YEARS

On September 29, 1925, a crowd of 18,000 attended Wrigley Field’s dedication. A month later, The Sporting News published an effusive review of the new ballpark. Noting that there was not a sign to mar its beauty, and with an elevator to an observation platform with views from the mountains to the ocean, the newspaper found Wrigley Field to be in a class by itself architecturally, a “real monument to the national game.” Major league baseball owners, it argued, would not be able to boast of their parks when they saw this one and would have “to acknowledge that Wrigley has erected the finest baseball edifice in the United States.” Observing that the plasticity of today’s baseball had caused a cry for larger playing fields, the newspaper reported that Wrigley Field’s was among the largest. Home runs have been hit, it acknowledged, but those batters earned them. (It missed, however, the shortness of the power alleys.) Cubs Park may be excellent, The Sporting News concluded, “but the Angels have a better one.”1

The ballpark’s first full season was eventful. It began on January 15, 1926, with dedication of the clock tower by Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. On March 5, the Cubs became the first major-league team to play in Wrigley Field, losing the opener of a three-game series to the Angels. During the regular season, the Hollywood Stars, newly relocated from Salt Lake City, shared the ballpark with the Angels, an arrangement lasting through 1935. The silent comedy movie Babe Comes Home, starring Babe Ruth as Los Angeles Angels’ outfielder Babe Dugan and Anna Q. Nilsson as his love interest, became the first of many films shot at Wrigley Field. The Angels capped the ballpark’s inaugural season by winning the PCL pennant.

In early May 1930, Des Moines of the Western League had introduced lights and night baseball. The Sacramento Senators became the first PCL team to use lights on June 10. The first night game at Wrigley was played on July 22, with the Angels defeating Sacramento, 5–4, in 11 innings before 17,000 excited fans.2 Southern California had a vibrant winter league featuring major leaguers, PCL players, and usually a team from the Negro Leagues. For the 1930–31 season, the league split into an “official” Southern California Winter League and the Winter League. Playing at Wrigley Field, the Philadelphia Royal Giants participated in the Winter League, the first time since Commissioner Allen T. Burns’s ban of 1916 went into effect that a Negro League team was able to play ball in a PCL park.3

In 1932 the New York Giants became the first major-league team to use Wrigley as their spring training headquarters.4 On September 6, 1933, with the Angels on their way to the pennant, the all-time PCL attendance record of 24,695 was set for a night doubleheader.5 But by 1934, despite the Angels posting the best record in PCL history, the Depression was hitting Los Angeles hard and attendance was declining. The Angels and Stars drew less than 260,000 in 1934 compared to almost 400,000 the previous year. Hollywood had been losing money for several years, and in 1935 owner Bill Lane prepared to move the franchise to San Diego. The Stars went out in style, ending the season at Wrigley with a doubleheader against the San Francisco Missions. Actor Joe E. Brown amused the fans by umpiring in the second game and then pitching for the Missions with two out in the seventh inning to fan composer Harry Ruby while the rest of the team sat by the mound.6 The 1938 season saw a reincarnation of the Hollywood Stars when the Missions moved to Los Angeles and played in Wrigley for a year while awaiting the completion of their new ballpark, Gilmore Field, across town. Thus began a local rivalry enhanced by the competition between the west side and the central city/east side of Los Angeles.

From its beginnings, Wrigley Field had served as a community resource for high school athletics, semipro football, charitable events, and boxing. On January 15, 1939, the NFL champion New York Giants beat the All-American Stars in the first Pro Bowl before 20,000.7 Wrigley was used because the Coliseum Commission would not allow professional sports. The first of two Heavyweight Championship fights was held at Wrigley on April 17, 1939. Joe Louis knocked out Jack Roper before a crowd estimated between 23,000 and 30,000.8

After the 1941 season, major league baseball almost came to Wrigley when Don Barnes, St. Louis Browns president, orchestrated a covert deal to move the team to Los Angeles, with the Angels relocating to Long Beach as a Browns farm team. Barnes presented his proposal on December 9 at the Winter Meetings. Although other reasons were cited, the American League unanimously voted against it because of the Pearl Harbor attack two days earlier.9 The Los Angeles Times reported, “That the old gag about bringing major league baseball to Los Angeles was reborn at the American League meeting, but it lived a brief life.”10 The fans continued their support of minor league baseball, and attendance Wrigley Field would prove to be strong as World War II raged on. Because of the fear of a Japaese attack, the Army declared a restriction on night lighting along the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico and as far inland as 150 miles in August 1942.11 The Angels played their last night game on August 7, as fan stood and held lighted matches during the sounding of Taps and the singing of the national anthem.12

GLORY DAYS FOR THE PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

With the war over, in 1946 crowds flocked to the ballpark. The Angels and San Francisco Seals battled for the pennant throughout 1947, finishing in a tie. Home attendance that season had reached 622,485, the all-time record, and nearly 23,000 fans jammed Wrigley for the one-game playoff, with thousands more turned away. With no score in the bottom of the eighth and the bases loaded, Angels outfielder Clarence Maddern hit the first pitch over the left-field wall.13 Fans have called this the greatest game in Wrigley history.

Near the end of that season, the Angels had televised their first game. However, as the major leagues began televising, interest in the minors declined and many leagues folded. To spur interest and increase broadcasting revenue, the Angels televised more games but attendance further declined. Despite such issues, local fans enjoyed memorable baseball moments, primarily between the Angels and Stars. On August 7, 1952, 23,497 fans attended a Stars-Angels game at Wrigley, the largest paid crowd for a PCL game in Los Angeles.14 Three days later, Hollywood swept a double header before 17,517 fans, who rioted after umpire Ed Runge called Stars catcher Jim Mangan safe at the plate in the 10th inning of the first game. Cushions were thrown and a fan charged onto the field. After the game, another fan attacked Runge and wrestled him to the ground. The second game was played with 35 extra policemen under the personal direction of Chief William Parker.15

The issue of how to bring major league baseball to Los Angeles persisted. No team would come without a major-league stadium, and nobody would create one without a team. Proposals were considered to upgrade Wrigley Field’s capacity to 40,000 or 50,000, but, these entailed condemnation of private housing and businesses and could not be accomplished quickly. Although he promoted upgrades, Philip K. Wrigley was not interested in covering the cost. He quietly hired Bill Veeck to sell the ballpark, but Veeck failed to find a buyer at a satisfactory price.16

But the local market for major league baseball was demonstrated during a 1955 spring training series between the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians meeting again after the 1954 World Series. In the first game, Willie Mays hit three home runs before 17,893. The next day 24,434 fans packed Wrigley to see Dusty Rhodes slug a pinch-hit homer and Willie Mays make an exceptional catch in deep center field.17

THE END OF AN ERA

In August 1955, after Walter O’Malley announced that the Dodgers would not play at Ebbets Field after 1957, Los Angeles city officials began working to attract the Dodgers. On February 21, 1957, the Los Angeles baseball world exploded when the Dodgers announced that they had bought Wrigley Field and the Angels for $3,000,000 plus their Fort Worth franchise.18 The Angels’ final season at Wrigley Field seemed anti-climatic as the anticipation of major-league baseball permeated the city. The Angels fared poorly; the fans’ primary interest was Steve Bilko’s pursuit of Tony Lazzeri’s home run record. The last PCL games were played in Wrigley, with San Diego sweeping a double header before 6,712. During the first game, the club received anonymous calls that there was a bomb in the dugout. The players were moved to the bullpens until the police checked the dugouts. However, the game was not delayed nor was the crowd informed.19

The Dodgers’ announcement that they would move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season came on October 8, 1957, one day after the Los Angeles City Council approved the transfer of Chavez Ravine to the Dodgers in exchange for Wrigley, with the idea of expanding the old park while the new one was built.20 Seating could be increased to 28,000 or 29,000 by enclosing the outfield with double-decked stands, the bleachers would be moved back towards Avalon Boulevard, and a 12-foot screen added in left. Then, the “soap opera” of where the Dodgers would play began, oscillating among Wrigley, the Coliseum, and the Rose Bowl. Expansion of Wrigley was reduced to 27,000, 26,000, and then to 24,000. Wrigley Field was found lacking; it had too few seats, too small a playing area, terrible parking, poor public transportation and it was situated in a declining neighborhood. Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick called it a “Cow Pasture.” He didn’t want to see Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs broken there.21 On January 17 the Dodgers and the Coliseum Commission agreed on a two-year contract.22 There would be no major league baseball at Wrigley Field—at least not yet.

Now owned by the city, and with the PCL Angels relocated to Spokane, Wrigley Field was used for various events. On August 18, 1958, Wrigley held its second heavyweight championship fight with Floyd Patterson retaining the title over Roy Harris before a crowd of 17,000.23 In 1959, the television show Home Run Derby began filming and aired for 26 weeks.24 The show was a nine-inning contest between two of the top sluggers of the era, providing the inspiration for the Home Run Derby now part of the All-Star Game festivities.

Then, in December 1960, the American League awarded an expansion franchise to Gene Autry christened the Los Angeles Angels. They were to play one year at Wrigley and four years at Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles press criticized O’Malley for not sharing the Coliseum and for forcing an unfair lease upon the popular Autry. Some of their comments related to Wrigley. Sid Ziff predicted rough sledding with parking conditions that were prehistoric, rundown neighborhood, with $75,000 has-beens. Mel Durslag called Wrigley “an obsolete concrete shack.”25 Al Wolf said “Mob scenes at Wrigley Field, with the Coliseum empty, will arouse resentment among fans who believe O’Malley maneuvered the Angels into that small, parkingless park.”26 He added, “It is unfortunate that the club must open for business on short notice in an abandoned minor league park.” Nevertheless, the city undertook renovations at a cost of $275,000 to Wrigley: fresh paint inside and out, replacement of the sod and the seats, improved restrooms, refurbishment of the tower offices, and installation of radio and TV booths in an enlarged press box.

Wrigley Field hosted its first regular season major league game on April 27, 1961, after opening ceremonies featuring Commissioner Ford Frick and Ty Cobb.27 Sportswriters predicted the expansion team would be lucky to win 50 games, but the Angels won 70. General manager Fred Haney had played at Wrigley from 1929 through 1934 and managed the Hollywood Stars from 1949 to 1952. He was familiar with the park and structured the Angels accordingly. Thus the Angels were an excellent home team in their first season, winning 46 games for a .561 percentage.

The characteristics that made Wrigley a home-run paradise are important. The power alleys were a short 345 feet; the foul poles were a respectable 338.5 feet and 340 feet, and center field was a robust 412 feet. However, the fences were angled toward the infield more than 9 degrees. Thus the distance to the wall decreased as one moved away from the foul lines. The minimum distance to the wall was about 335 feet in left and right, making the power alleys, left and right, and left-center and right-center easy distances. Wrigley Field obliterated the minor league record for home runs with 248, a record that lasted until 1996 when 271 homers were hit at mile-high Coors Field. How good a hitters’ park was Wrigley? The home run park factor was 180. Almost twice as many homers were hit at Wrigley than at the average American League ballpark.

On October 1 the Angels’ Steve Bilko hit the last home run at Wrigley Field, a pinch-hit smash over the left-field wall with two out in the ninth inning.28 After the Angels departed for their four-year stint in the Coliseum, Wrigley Field staggered on for 7 1/2 years as a venue for local events. Its final highlight came on May 26, 1963, when a crowd of more than 35,000 attended the largest civil rights rally ever held in Los Angeles, where Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We want to be free whether we’re in Birmingham or Los Angeles.”29 August 1965 was a traumatic time in Los Angeles as civil unrest broke out and spread over the South Central area, culminating in what would be known as the “Watts Riots.” Many federal, state, city, and private commissions analyzed the causes of the unrest. One contributing factor was a lack of long-promised community services including parks, health and senior citizen facilities, and pressure built to have Wrigley Field better serve the community. In 1966, Wrigley was converted for soccer as arguments continued over final plans and funding. Finally, in March 1969, Wrigley Field was demolished to make way for the Gilbert W. Lindsay Community Center, which includes health facilities and a park with baseball fields still in use today. Wrigley Field had admirably served as a baseball and community sports center but its time had passed. Fond memories will always linger.

JAMES GORDON retired from TRW/Northrop Grumman after forty years as an aerospace and nuclear engineer to concentrate on baseball and  being a grandfather. His joy is attending baseball games around the country and documenting aspects of Los Angeles baseball history. Having been born in Brooklyn, he is genetically and emotionally a Dodger fanatic, although he reached Los Angeles fifteen years before the team arrived.

Movies filmed at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles

Compiled by the SABR Ballparks Research Committee

Notes

1 The Sporting News, October 29, 1925, 3.

2  Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1930, 1.

3 William F. McNeil, The California Winter League – America’s First Integrated Professional League, McFarland & Company, 2008.

4 Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1932, A11.

5 Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1933, A9.

6 Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1935, A10.

7 Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1939, 21.

8 Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1939, 1.

9 Chicago Daily Tribune, December 10, 1941, 33.

10 Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1941, 10.

11 Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1942, 1.

12 Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1942, 11.

13 Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1947, 8.

14 Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1952, C1.

15 Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1952, C1.

16 Ned Cronin, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1955, C3.

17 Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1955, C1.

18 Frank Finch, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 1957, 1

19 Frank Finch, Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1957, C1.

20 Frank Finch, Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1957, 1.

21 Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1958, C1.

22 Frank Finch, Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1958, 1.

23 Paul Zimmerman, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1958, C1.

24 Joe King, The Sporting News, March 2, 1960, 8.

25 The Sporting News, December 14, 1960, 7.

26 Al Wolf, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1960, C1.

27 Braven Dyer, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1961, C1.

28 Braven Dyer, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1961, C7.

29 Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database, #00032099, 1963.

After the Pacific Coast League (PCL) began operations in 1903, it would operate as a virtually independent entity for most of its first 55 years of existence. During that era, the league had at least one and, in most seasons, two franchises in the Los Angeles area that occupied eight different ballparks.

CHUTES PARK (WASHINGTON GARDENS)

Chutes Park was located in a mixed residential area about three miles south of downtown Los Angeles on Washington Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Main Street. Several electric trolley lines served the ballpark, as the site had hosted various amusements, including a beer garden, theater, zoo, and traveling circuses since 1876. The ballpark derived its name from the previous tenant’s Chute-the-Chutes thrill ride, though it was also known as Washington Gardens, and the two names were used interchangeably. In December 1900, a simple wooden sports facility was built for baseball and football games. That month a California Winter League game was played, the park’s first use for baseball. The Los Angeles franchise of the California League (a predecessor of the PCL) played here during the 1901 and 1902 seasons. Starting in 1903, Chutes Park served as the home field of the PCL’s Los Angeles Angels for eight seasons.

The ballpark had several unique characteristics. In the wooden grandstand, only the diagonal section behind home plate and the third base section were roofed, while the first base section was uncovered. A standing-room-only catwalk stood behind the left-field fence and, unlike previous Los Angeles ballparks, Chutes Field had an infield of grass. In 1905 bleachers were added down both foul lines, raising the seating capacity to about 6,000. When the PCL expanded from four to six teams in 1909, one of the new clubs was the Vernon Tigers, which shared Chutes Park during the 1909 and 1910 seasons. Late in 1910, Chutes Park was dismantled and construction was begun for a larger ballpark to be known as Washington Park.

WASHINGTON PARK

Washington Park opened on March 28, 1911 and would become the best-known ballpark in Los Angeles over the next 15 years. Located at Hill Street and Washington Boulevard, Washington Park occupied most of the former site of Chutes Park. The Los Angeles Angels and the Vernon Tigers jointly owned the ballpark, using it as their primary home field.

Washington Park initially seated about 8,000, and consisted of a single-deck roofed grandstand that extended beyond both first and third bases, and wooden bleachers adjacent to the grandstand, down the first and third base lines. The grandstand and home plate were located in the northwest corner of the park, making left field the sun field for afternoon games. After the 1911 season, both foul line bleachers were extended and a section of wooden bleachers added beyond fair right field that connected to the first base bleachers, which increased capacity to about 12,000.

Washington Park’s dimensions were, for its time, generous: Left field was 350 feet from home plate and center field was 460, although the right-field distance was 335. To make the pitchers even happier, the left-field and center-field fences were 20 feet high. Sometime between 1911 and 1920, however, the leftfield distance from home plate was increased to 375 feet. The first home run over the left-field fence was not hit until October 12, 1920 (by Pete Schneider). No one ever hit a ball over the distant center-field fence. As one would suspect, Washington Park’s dimensions made it a poor hitters park. The available data (for the 1918 and 1921–25 seasons) show that Washington Park was last in the PCL in home runs and batting average. The home run park factor was 45, which means that home runs at Washington Park were less than half of the average PCL ballpark.

In late September 1925, Wrigley Field in Los Angeles opened. The Los Angeles Angels’ new ballpark was, for its time, a modern marvel, far larger and more fan friendly than Washington Park. The Vernon Tigers did not move to Wrigley Field as their 1925 home season had ended, and by the 1926 season, the Tigers had moved to San Francisco, reborn as the Mission Reds.

Shortly after Washington Park’s last ballgame was played on September 27, 1925, it was demolished. (The full history of Wrigley Field is covered in this journal by a separate article by Jim Gordon.)

VERNON PARK I

As mentioned above, when the Vernon Tigers joined the PCL in 1909, they built a new ballpark in an industrial suburb four miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Located at East 38th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in the city of Vernon, the wooden ballpark had a capacity of only about 4,000, and was not the regular home park of either the Tigers or the Angels. Instead, during the 1909 and 1910 seasons, the two clubs used Vernon Park I for one weekday home game and for the morning game of Sunday/holiday doubleheaders. For the 1911 and 1912 seasons, the weekday games were eliminated. The rationale for this complicated arrangement is not clear, but it may have been due to Vernon’s more lenient laws on the consumption of alcohol.

The exact dimensions of Vernon Park I are not known; however, home run data provides insight into the park’s approximate dimensions. With home runs averaging 1.03 per game in the 192 games played at the park over five plus seasons, Vernon Park I was the Coors Field of its time. By contrast, home runs at the other seven PCL ballparks averaged much less: 0.34 per game. Based on the home run data, ballpark researcher Larry Zuckerman has estimated the left-field dimension to be 290 feet, perhaps less, center field 440 feet, and right field 330 feet.

A squabble with the City of Vernon moved the Tigers (and the Angels) to a nearby community for the 1913 season, and Vernon Park I sat idle for the next two seasons. On July 9, 1915, the Tigers returned, sharing the ballpark with the Angels for the remainder of the season, after which Vernon Park I was dismantled.

VENICE PARK

After the close of the 1912 season, the Vernon Tigers moved 20 miles west to the seaside community of Venice (California, not Italy). Renamed the Venice Tigers, the club shared its new ballpark with the Angels, playing the morning games of split-site Sunday/holiday doubleheaders just as they had at Vernon Park I during the two previous seasons. Venice Park, located at Washington Boulevard (now Abbot Kinney) and Virginia Avenue (now Venice Boulevard), consisted of a grandstand that seated 3,000 and bleachers that seated 4,000.

The ballpark’s configuration would be familiar to those who have attended Little League games. All of the curved outfield fences were the same distance from home plate, 325 feet, according to the Los Angeles Times. The outfield fences were three feet high, topped by a six-foot wire screen. This screen permitted fans who drove to the ballpark to view the game from the comfort of their automobiles, which could be parked just outside the left-field and right-field fences. As access was controlled, they must have been charged for the privilege.

Venice Park proved to be far below average as a hitters park. The batting park factors for the 78 PCL games played there between 1913 and 1915 were as follows: 

• Batting Average, 87
• Slugging, 89
• Doubles/AB, 107
• Triples/AB, 81
• Home Runs/AB, 64

If all of the outfield fences at Venice Park were actually 325 feet from home plate, however, these batting park factors are unbelievable. How could the smallest park in the PCL be far below average in both batting average and home runs? If there was no point in the ballpark farther than 325 feet, how could the triples park factor be as high as 81? Could the actual dimensions have been greater than the 325 feet reported in the Times? A study was made of the ballpark and its site. The accompanying diagram, by Larry Zuckerman, using 325 feet as the outfield distance, shows 25 to 30 feet available between the center-field fence and the southern limit of the property, the tracks of the Pacific Electric Railway. Note that center field was the limiting condition for the size of the ballpark. Based on the batting data for the park and by moving home plate five feet closer to the backstop, the estimated outfield dimensions become 355 feet to all fields. Such dimensions are far more compatible with the batting park factors than the reported 325 feet to all fields.

Poor attendance at Venice Park prompted the Tigers and Angels to return to Vernon in July 1915.

VERNON PARK II

Vernon Park II was ready for the Tigers and the Angels in time for the 1916 season. The new wooden ballpark included a grandstand salvaged from Venice Park and seated about 10,000. Also known as Maier Park, for Tigers owner Eddie Maier, Vernon Park II was used by the Tigers and Angels for five seasons. As at Venice Park, only the morning games of Sunday and holiday doubleheaders were played here. The estimated dimensions were left field 372 feet, center field 395 feet, and right field 315 feet. The right field dimension seems reachable until one considers that the 10-foot wooden fence was topped with a 20-foot wire screen. Whereas Vernon Park I was the Coors Field of its time, Vernon Park II was a pitchers’ paradise. In the 110 games played there, only six home runs were ever hit. Over the 1916–19 seasons, Vernon Park II shows an average of 0.05 home runs per game compared to the average of the rest of the PCL ballparks’ 0.39 home runs per game. 

Midway through the 1920 season, with attendance poor, the Angels and Tigers decided to discontinue using Vernon Park II as a secondary ballpark and thereafter played all of their home games at Washington Park. Through 1925, the Tigers continued to use the Vernon ballpark for spring training. Vernon Park II was torn down sometime in the 1930s, and the site is now occupied by Hannibal Industries, Inc.

GILMORE STADIUM

In 1938, the PCL’s San Francisco Mission Reds franchise was purchased by Hollywood interests headed by restaurateur Bob Cobb, and the team, to be called the Hollywood Stars, moved to Los Angeles. The Stars arranged to share the Angels’ iconic ballpark, Wrigley Field, for the 1938 season, anticipating that their new ballpark in Hollywood, Gilmore Field, (named for Earl B. Gilmore, the owner of Gilmore Oil, Gilmore Stadium, and the site of Gilmore Field) would be ready in time for the following season.

By April 1939, however, construction was not quite finished. Fortunately, close by was Gilmore Stadium, a football and midget auto racing venue. Gilmore Stadium, an oval steel-and-concrete structure with a capacity of 18,500, was quickly modified for baseball in time for the Stars’ first home games. A wire screen was erected behind home plate to serve as the backstop. There were no dugouts. The playing field was laid out with the left-field foul line roughly parallel with the western sideline of the gridiron, producing a left-field dimension of 350 feet. The right-field dimension was a rather short 270 feet, and the right-field power alley (22.5 degrees) 300 feet. To prevent cheap home runs, a pole was placed behind the fence in right center (325 feet from home plate). Any ball hit into the stands to the right of that pole was a ground-rule double. Because of the stadium’s oval shape, the left-field distances increased rapidly away from the foul line. All in all, it was an oddly shaped playing field for baseball; left field, with an average distance of 393 feet, was deeper than center field (380 feet) and the right-field average distance was quite short (291 feet).

The Stars hosted the Portland Beavers for a seven-game series, winning four of the seven games, the only baseball played at Gilmore Stadium. The games provided interesting results, the stadium proving quite popular with the hitters. The Stars posted a team batting average of .333, while Portland hit .317. Fifteen home runs were hit over the seven games, a high number for the PCL of 1939. Overall the batting park factors at Gilmore Stadium were impressive:

• Batting Average, 112
• On-Base, 112
• Slugging, 131
• Doubles, 174
• Triples, 119
• Home Runs, 211

GILMORE FIELD

The majority owner of the Stars was Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and namesake of the Cobb salad. Several movie stars were shareholders, among them Gene Autry, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope. When Gilmore Field opened on May 2, 1939, some four weeks into the season, many movie stars attended the game to much fanfare. Cobb’s wife, actress Gail Patrick, threw out the first pitch.

The ballpark was located on Fairfax Avenue on the west (500 feet west of Gilmore’s Farmers Market), between Beverly Boulevard and Third Street. Gilmore Field, seating about 12,000, was an intimate ballpark. Its backstop was only 34 feet behind home plate and the distance from first/third base to the grandstand was 24 feet. No surprise, the foul area was very small. Gilmore Field, one of the first ballparks to be built with lights, consisted of a roofed steel frame and wood single-deck grandstand and open bleachers down both foul lines that reached nearly to the left-field and right-field corners. The playing field was almost exactly symmetrical with left-field/right-field dimensions of 335 feet, left-center/right-center 387, and a center-field dimension of 407. The leftfield and right-field fences were wood, 10 feet high, and aligned at 90 degrees to the foul lines. There was a 10-foot high center-field diagonal fence with an 18-foot scoreboard. The average size of left field/right field was 352 and center field was 403. The overall park size of Gilmore Field was 369; by comparison Wrigley Field, the top PCL ballpark for home runs, was 358, and the league average was 362. 

Gilmore Field in 1939 was not a good ballpark for hitters. The Stars and their opponents combined for 8.8 runs per game at home vs. 10.8 runs/game on the road. The batting park factors for 1939 were: 

• Runs/G, 84
• Batting Average,92
• On-Base, 89
• Slugging, 101
• Doubles*,101
• Triples*,180
• Home Runs*,124
• BB/Game, 71

* Per AB; batting data compiled from box scores in the Los Angeles Times 

This is a curious result: The park factors for all categories of extra base hits and slugging were above 100, yet runs, batting average, and on-base were markedly below average. All this for a ballpark that had very little foul area, and had the same park size as today’s major league ballparks. Two factors contributed to this outcome. First, in 1939 Gilmore Field was the second largest ballpark in the PCL—only Seals Stadium in San Francisco was larger. Second, the billboards mounted on the left-field and right-field fences were very light in color. (They appear to be nearly white in black and white photos.) The billboards extended from the left-field line to nearly dead center, providing a very poor background against right-handed pitchers. This is likely the reason that walks per game were 40 percent higher in road games than in games at Gilmore Field. Gilmore Field was home to the Stars through the 1957 season, when Major League Baseball came to Los Angeles. It was demolished in 1958 and is now the site for part of CBS Television City.

The PCL’s tradition of one, and typically two, franchises in the Los Angeles area ended when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to town after the 1957 season, but not before the league’s ballparks had initiated generations of fans to competitive baseball.

RON SELTER is a retired economist, formerly with the Air Force Space Program. A SABR member since 1989 and a member of the Ballparks, Minor League, Statistical, and Deadball Committees, his area of expertise is twentieth-century major-league ballparks. A frequent presenter at SABR regional meetings and national conventions, Selter has a particular interest with ballparks and their effect upon batting, he served as text editor for “Green Cathedrals” (2006 edition, SABR) and as a contributor to “Forbes Field” (McFarland, 2007). He is the author of “Ballparks of the Deadball Era” (McFarland, 2008).

Sources

• “Ballparks of Los Angeles, And Some of The History Surrounding Them”, by Lauren Ted Zuckerman, 1996, in SABR Minor League History Research Journal, Volume I, August 1996.
• Los Angeles Times box scores for games played at Venice Park for 1913–15.
• Lawrence S. Ritter, Lost Ballparks, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 1992.

Ng was born in Indianapolis, but grew up in Queens, Long Island, and New Jersey. Her parents—dad, Jin, a financial analyst, and mom, Virginia, a banker—might have preferred the eldest of their five daughters to choose a more traditional profession such as law or business, but young Kim had other ideas. She loved sports—stickball, tennis, skating, and skiing were her activities of choice. Although she lived just a stone’s throw from Shea Stadium while growing up, it was the Yankees who captured her heart. “They were pretty good in the ’70s and ’80s,” notes Ng. She went on to play infield for the University of Chicago’s softball team. 

It is somewhat serendipitous that Ng has emerged as one of the top-ranking women in professional baseball. With her newly minted bachelor’s degree in public policy, Ng applied for a variety of jobs at different sports organizations and landed an internship as a research assistant at the Chicago White Sox in 1991. Computers and data analysis were just beginning to gain traction, and Ng was good at it.  After three or four months, Ng had impressed the organization so much that management offered her a full-time entry-level job, where she did everything from entering scouting reports to operating the radar gun. She showed a propensity for numbers and soon took over the team’s salary arbitration duties. She was later promoted to assistant director of baseball operations.

“I never thought about working in operations for a sports organization. I thought that marketing or sports information would be more likely areas,” says Ng in a soft but confident voice. “I just didn’t think there were opportunities in operations for someone like me until I went to the White Sox.”

Then-White Sox GM Dan Evans was impressed by Ng’s analytical ability and attention to detail. Her strong work ethic and dedication to delve into whatever she was working on were traits that convinced Evans that Ng had the makings of a future top baseball executive. “Kim is one of the most inquisitive minds I’ve ever been around,” says Evans, president and chief executive officer of Paragon Sports International, a Pasadena, California-based sports management firm. “She asked really solid questions as to why we were doing certain things. As a result, it made me rethink some of my beliefs and procedures. You could tell that she was going to go far because she had that combination of street smarts, book smarts, and stick-to-it-ive-ness that you can’t teach.” 

Her persistence and drive have kept Ng in a game where the work of scouting, drafting, and developing ballplayers has traditionally been left to men, typically those who played the game at the highest levels. But a sea change in baseball has given rise to GMs without playing experience. Neither Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein  nor Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels laced up cleats at the professional level. They are more academic than athletic. Ng believes that the advent of the Internet and the massive amount of readily available statistics and information has leveled the playing field for anyone—man or woman—to get involved with the game. No longer do you have to be an insider to get the inside scoop. 

“She’s here because of how good she is and how hard she works,” says Dodgers GM Ned Colletti.

Her rise to the top could be attributed to the job she took in 1997 as director of waivers and records at the American League office in New York. What might have seemed an odd career move away from baseball operations proved to be just the stepping-stone Ng needed. At the league office, she approved all player transactions and contracts and helped American League general managers interpret and apply major league rules. The job afforded her tremendous opportunity to meet and network with baseball’s upper echelon. That’s how she met Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who hired her a year later, making her, at the time, the youngest assistant general manager in Major League Baseball. Under Cashman, she assumed a number of responsibilities, including handling the team’s arbitration cases.

Arbitration is an arcane process in which players whose contracts are up and who have at least three, but less than six, years of major league service time can take their team to a hearing to determine their salary. In that hearing, a panel must choose either the player’s figure or the team’s figure, with no wiggle room in between. Consequently, it behooves both parties to reach a compromise agreement before the case goes to a hearing.

Placing a dollar figure on a human being is not an exact science. While a player’s stats can be compared to others playing the same position with the same number of years of service, other factors play into the equation; leadership skills, personality, and attitude should also be considered according to Ng. “I think the intangibles play a big role in whether we want a guy. You never want a bad guy in your clubhouse,” she says.  The Yankees, she notes, wanted very team-oriented players who took care of themselves and handled issues in the clubhouse, thereby making the manager’s job easier. “Statistics can tell a story, but they can also lead you down the wrong path,” says Ng. “I think that the differences between what you see visually and what you see on paper is very interesting. It makes you look at the game differently.”

Ng’s uncanny talent for evaluating a player’s worth and affixing an appropriate price tag led her to successfully negotiate the contracts of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Paul O’Neill, among others, which helped build a team that won three championships. During her four seasons with the Yankees, the team advanced to the World Series four times, winning the World Championship three times.

Ng cites being a part of the 1998 Yankees, who won 114 regular-season games en route to a World Championship, as one of her all-time greatest career moments. “That team embodied a lot of ideals that I believe in—strength in unity, team chemistry, and unselfishness. They were the sum of the parts,” says Ng. “That is one of the greatest things you get from sports, is understanding what you can achieve with people who have the same goal in mind. That team did not revolve around any one guy; it was a true team.”

In 2002 her former White Sox mentor Dan Evans, then Dodgers GM, lured Ng away from the Yankees to become his deputy as the Dodgers’ vice president and assistant general manager. Again, handling arbitration cases has been her forte. In nine winters of handling all arbitration cases for the Dodgers, she has gone to a hearing with just two players: National League Cy Young Award winner Eric Gagne in 2004, and reliever Joe Beimel in 2007. Ng won both cases.

Facing a daunting list of nine potential arbitration cases in 2010—including four former All-Stars, two Gold Glove winners, and two players who finished in the top 10 in the NL Most Valuable Player voting in 2009—Ng reached amicable agreements with all nine players, all before the deadline for teams and players to exchange salary figures. Although three of those players were given two-year deals, Ng signed all nine players for a total of $31.95 million in 2010 salary.

“She’s one of the best around,” says Colletti. “[Handling the 2010 arbitration cases] was a monstrous task and she came out of it and put the organization in a very good position. It was the best job I’ve ever seen anyone do.”

Prior to the 2011 season, Ng successfully avoided arbitration and signed all three eligible players—Chad Billingsley, Hong-Chih Kuo, and James Loney.

In addition to handling arbitration cases, Ng’s duties include negotiating free agent contracts, conducting trade talks, overseeing pro scouting—the department that compiles the information Colletti uses to make decisions on trades or free agent signings—and running Campo Las Palmas, the Dodgers’ academy in the Dominican Republic. During the season, a typical day for Ng includes getting an update on the organization’s minor league teams, dealing with transactions ( placing a player on the disabled list, calling up a replacement, etc.), and making calls to player agents. The rest of the time is spent evaluating players. As she watches from the stands, any number of questions might go through Ng’s mind: What does the club need? How can this player improve? How do these players fit into the future?

In 2011, Ng entered her 20th year—12 as an assistant GM—in professional baseball. Her peers say she has paid her dues and has done everything to prove that she is capable of leading a major league team. Still, she keeps getting passed over for the top job— the Dodgers in 2005, the Mariners in 2008 and, most recently, the Padres in 2009.

Still, Ng, 42, does not like to dwell on the fact that she is a rare breed among the rarified baseball elite. She is only one of two women—Jean Afterman who succeeded Ng at the New York Yankees is the other— who currently hold the title of assistant GM, the highest baseball operations position ever held by a woman. What’s more, there is no other female within striking distance.

“You have to be persistent to break into this game, and you have to be really good to stay in this game,” says Ng. “That takes a daily level of commitment.” 

Ng’s colleagues say that it’s just a matter of time before she gets tapped for the top job.

“As I told her [after the Padres interview]: ‘This is no longer up to you. You’re prepared. You just need the opportunity and someone to believe in you and give you a chance,’” says Colletti. “It’s beyond her control at this point. She’s done everything she can to put herself in that position. She deserves the opportunity and it will take someone willing to give her the opportunity to make it happen.”

SHERRI ENG is a lifelong San Franciscan and diehard Giants fan. She has written for “Giants” magazine since 1996—her first article being a profile on Barry Bonds. She was the Giants’ editorial coordinator 1999–2000 and had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of helping the team move from Candlestick Park to AT&T Park (formerly Pacific Bell Park)—a momentous event that she never thought would happen considering the team’s impending move to Florida in 1992. She considers the Giants’ winning of the 2010 World Series a dream come true. Over the years, she has grown to like that other baseball team across the Bay and now follows and writes about the Oakland A’s.

Sources

The information for this article came primarily from the author’s interviews with Ned Colletti, Dan Evans, and Kim Ng.

A look at the Dodger way of scouting, tracing its roots back to Branch Rickey. In the highly competitive, insular world of major league baseball, the phrase “The Dodger Way” still retains its hallowed place. The term can be traced to 1942, when Branch Rickey took over as general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and created a farm system that surpassed the one he built during his quarter-century with the St. Louis Cardinals. Though Rickey was bought out of Dodgers ownership by Walter O’Malley after the 1950 season, O’Malley understood the importance of scouting and player development. He retained experienced executives Buzzie Bavasi, Al Campanis, and Fresco Thompson, and The Dodger Way remained in force until Walter’s son Peter sold the team to Rupert Murdoch before the start of the 1998 season.

What was the secret that produced six pennants and one World Series winner in Brooklyn between 1947 and 1956 and nine more pennants and five World Championship flags in Los Angeles between 1959 and 1988? Al Campanis and Fresco Thompson both wrote about the club’s winning philosophy. In The Dodgers’ Way of Playing Baseball, an oft-republished nearly 300-page instructional book, Campanis explicated the organization’s belief in speed and agility and its meticulous attention to detail, everything from the way a player should wear his cap to how he should grip the baseball. Significantly, his discussion of pitching and fielding occupied more than the first half of the book. 

(Left to right) Bobby Miske, Dick Teed, Buzz Bowers, Steve Lembo, Gil Bassetti and Bill Fesh.

In his entertaining, too-long out-of-print 1964 book Every Diamond Doesn’t Sparkle (David McKay, 1964), Thompson wrote, “Scouting can be distilled into a single sentence: the business of looking for new talent and looking at other people’s new and old talent.” Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But the process of scouting and delivering sustainable major league talent can be devilishly hard. 

Fred Claire, who served in the organization for 30 years and was the last O’Malley general manager, feels that continuity, consistency, and loyalty were the hallmarks of The Dodger Way. Claire says that during his tenure with the Dodgers never did the team go outside the organization to hire a pitching, batting, or third-base coach. Dodgers officials understood that the difficult game of baseball must be taught constantly, mistakes understood and corrected, and an optimistic attitude must always be displayed. In his insightful memoir My 30 Years in Dodger Blue (Sports Publishing, 2004), Claire gives credit to a college journalism professor who would not give a student an “A” grade in a feature writing class unless he handed in either three rejection slips or a published article. It was wonderful preparation for being an executive in a sport where missed opportunities are a daily way of life and those who succeed are the ones who know best how to bounce back from adversity. 

Another feature of The Dodger Way was personal communication on all levels of the organization, “face to face and bellybutton to bellybutton,” in the vivid phrase of super scout Mel Didier (pronounced Did-ee-ay). Author of the absorbing memoir Podnuh, Let Me Tell You A Story (written with Texas sportswriter T. R. Sullivan, Gulf South Books, 2007), Didier is a man of many accomplishments. Named after fellow Louisianan, Hall of Famer Mel Ott, he is one of five brothers to have played professional baseball and is the father of former catcher and veteran minor league manager Bob Didier. Mel was also a great two-way football player for LSU, snapping the ball to future Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle, and as a linebacker, throttling Charley Trippi in a classic trouncing of the University of Georgia. During his days as a football coach, Mel Didier picked the brain of the legendary coach Bear Bryant and brought Bryant’s uber-punctuality and use of tackling dummies into his baseball scouting and development work.

Yet for all his achievements and innovations, Didier’s dream was to work side by side with Al Campanis. After the 1975 season his wish came true when he came to the Dodgers from the Montreal Expos, where he had been director of scouting for the expansion National League franchise and took great pride in the development of future Hall of Famers Gary Carter and Andre Dawson, who led the Expos into pennant contention.

Didier considers Al Campanis “the smartest baseball man I’ve ever been around. Arrogant, at times. A know-it-all at times. But, deep down, he had a great heart.” Didier never forgot Campanis’s advice: “Mel, if you ever find a guy who is strong in scouting and player development, you do anything you can to keep him and you pay him whatever you can because those guys are hard to find.”

Didier did not expect that his first tour of duty with the Dodgers would barely last a season, but another expansion team, the Seattle Mariners and their eager co-owner, entertainer Danny Kaye, beckoned him northward prior to the 1977 season to help the club get started. The scout was reluctant to leave his dream job, but given Walter O’Malley’s blessing and a promise that a Dodgers job would always await him, Didier headed to Seattle for what proved to be a disappointing tenure. He discovered that the ownership of the new organization lacked deep pockets and passionate Danny Kaye soon grew disenchanted and withdrew from an active role.

Didier returned to the Dodgers after the 1982 season. Though he missed their 1981 World Series championship year, he played an important role advance scouting the Oakland A’s prior to the 1988 World Series. His report stressing that the A’s closer Dennis Eckersley always threw a backdoor slider on a 3–2 pitch went into Kirk Gibson’s memory bank, and the injured outfielder tapped the knowledge when he hit the dramatic home run in Game One of the Series that set the tone for Los Angeles’s five-game upset.

Didier also got to observe close-up the respectful if tumultuous relationship between Campanis and manager Tommy Lasorda, a Dodgers lifer who never succeeded in the major leagues as a pitcher and toiled many seasons as a scout and minor-league manager before he succeeded Walter Alston as Dodgers skipper. “[Campanis] used to really get on Tommy about his moves in the game,” Didier writes. “’Why did you do this? Why did you do that?’…He made Tommy Lasorda a better manager.”

It is one of the tragic ironies of Dodgers and baseball history that Al Campanis was not around to enjoy the 1988 championship. In April 1987, Campanis, who as an infield teammate in Montreal in 1946 taught the basics of second base play to rookie Jackie Robinson, told national TV interviewer Ted Koppel that African Americans lacked the “necessities” to work in the front office. Campanis was unaccustomed to being interviewed on television. His unwillingness to recant  his remarks caused such an uproar that owner Peter O’Malley felt obliged to dismiss Campanis from his post as general manager and from the organization as a whole.

Campanis was thus not a part of the all-expenses-paid ten-day trip to Rome and the Italian Alps that Peter O’Malley awarded to all full-time Dodgers employees after the Series triumph. The festive excursion provided a storehouse of vivid memories for all who were in the traveling party. Bobby Miske, who spent 30 years as Dodgers area scout, remembers one overenthusiastic member of the Dodgers entourage who told everyone encountered that they were meeting the World Champions! When he spoke so loudly in the hallway before an audience with the Pope, a church official interrupted, saying sternly, “Ssssh! This is the Vatican.”

Left to right: the late Gil Bassetti, Dick Teed, Bobby Miske. Miske was inducted into the Scouts Hall of Fame, in Newburgh, New York, in July 2010.

The Dodger Way of attentiveness to detail and convivial camaraderie extended to the grassroots of the organization. From 1977 through 1992 Dick Teed served as the Dodgers’ East Coast scouting supervisor. In conversation during the 2010 season Teed recalled warmly how the late Steve Lembo, one of his New York metropolitan-area scouts, used to open up his summer home in the Hudson Valley after the end of the minor league season for a joyous weekend with all the scouts and their wives and families. On Friday night everyone gathered to enjoy 20 Maine lobsters sent down by the legendary former Dodgers scout Clyde Sukeforth, the man who introduced Jackie Robinson to Branch Rickey.

On Saturday while the women went sightseeing and shopping, the men talked inside baseball, comparing notes on the long season, and enjoying their annual golf outing. A few scouts like Bobby Miske and the New England-based Buzz Bowers were once-a-year golfers. They left links excellence to the athletic Teed, who though retired as a pro scout stays active as a Little League first-base coach in western Connecticut, teaching the young ones how to hustle and be aggressive on the bases. After their afternoon of frolicking on the golf course, the men would join Steve’s wife Josephine Lembo, the daughter of a Brooklyn restaurateur, who always had an Italian spaghetti dinner awaiting them, and all enjoyed another fine evening of food, libations, and friendship.

Love of the game and a willingness to put behind them the disappointments of their playing careers was a common bond for these ivory hunters. Dick Teed and his late brother Bill had both been minor-league catchers in the talent-rich Brooklyn Dodgers organization. Bill never made the majors and Dick struck out in his only at-bat with the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers before he was farmed out to a Dodgers minor league affiliate that needed an emergency receiver. “I never could stick in the majors because in those days even a backup had to hit over .250,” Teed recalls of an era when there were only 16 major league teams, and the minors were flooded with talented players who never received a chance to establish themselves in the big leagues.

Over two seasons in Brooklyn in 1950 and 1952 Steve Lembo collected only two hits in 11 at-bats. In 1951 he experienced his most notorious part in baseball history when he warmed up Ralph Branca in the bullpen before Branca’s fateful meeting with the Giants’ Bobby Thomson in the ninth inning of their third and final playoff game. Once he became a scout, Lembo took great solace in signing outfielder Tommy Davis, who won the 1962 National League batting title. (Had Davis not broken his leg sliding he may well have become another Dodgers Hall of Famer.) Lembo also inked another Brooklyn-bred product, southpaw John Franco, who went on to become an All-Star closer for the Mets.

The late Gil Bassetti, another member of the Teed-Lembo scouting brotherhood who was enshrined in 2005 in the Staten Island Yankees (Short Season Class A New York-Penn League) Scouts Wall of Fame, pitched seven seasons in the Giants chain, winning 21 games one year but never rising above Double A. When Bassetti turned to scouting, one of his prize signings was the Dodgers’ base-stealing second baseman Eric Young.

Buzz Bowers never got out of Triple A with the Phillies, but he shared a lifelong friendship with his fellow Michigan State Spartan, future Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts. After his years working part-time with the Dodgers, in 1992 Bowers was named by retiring Red Sox scouting legend Bill Enos as his replacement as a New England area scout. Among the major leaguers he has since signed are utility player Lou Merloni and pitcher Carl Pavano, who bounced back from several injury-riddled seasons to become a Minnesota Twins mound mainstay in 2010. Bobby Miske never played pro baseball although he received an offer from the Kansas City Athletics after graduating from the University of Buffalo. He set out early in life to become both a baseball scout and a basketball referee, succeeding in both to the point where he has been enshrined in nine halls of fame in the combined sports. His latest honor came in the summer of 2010 when a Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame (PBSHOF) plaque was unveiled at Dutchess County Stadium, home of the Class A Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York-Penn League.It is one of the four franchises owned by the Goldklang Group, a sports and entertainment organization that has been a leader in espousing the cause of scout recognition at its other ballparks in St. Paul, Minnesota, Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Myers, Florida. (In 2008 Buzz Bowers was enshrined in the inaugural year of the Goldklang PBSHOF and in 2008 Dodgers southeastern area scout Lon Joyce was similarly honored.)

Miske was modest in his acceptance speech, saying that he was just another scout who passed on signing Mike Piazza (though the slugging catcher was hardly a prospect, not drafted until the 62nd round mainly as a favor to Tommy Lasorda who knew the Piazza family). Miske said that he hadn’t signed any major leaguers but did bring into baseball three players who became scouts. He added that three of his players became extras in the Robert Redford film adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural. 

The scout was too self-effacing in his remarks. After leaving the Dodgers in the wake of a 1993 shakeup in the Northeast division that saw his and Gil Bassetti’s departure and the retirement of Dick Teed, he worked as a professional scout for the Yankees where his advance scouting of the Mets in 2000 played an important role in the team’s victory in the subway World Series. He moved on to the Mariners for the next eight years and has since returned to the Yankees’ pro scouting team.

Although there was an exodus of valued scouts like Mel Didier after the O’Malleys sold the team, Dodgers fans can take solace in knowledge that the organization retains an appreciation for the importance of good scouting and player development. Gary Nickels, the Dodgers’ Midwest scouting supervisor since 2003, has been appraising talent for almost 40 years and in 2009 was inducted into the Midwest Scouts Association Hall of Fame. He is also in the Mid Atlantic Scouts Association Hall of Fame. For most of the 1980s the youthful-looking Nickels served as the Cubs Midwest scouting supervisor, where he was instrumental in signing Joe Girardi. “I knew Girardi wanted to finish his engineering degree at Northwestern to keep a promise to his deceased mother,” Nickels remembered during an interview before the 2010 Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation dinner in Los Angeles. So the Cubs waited until Girardi’s senior year before drafting him in the 5th round and signing the current Yankees manager.

From 1991 through 1998 Nickels was the scouting director for the Baltimore Orioles, where he hired Logan White as an area scout. Today White is Dodgers assistant general manager in charge of scouting and, technically, Nickels’s boss, a change in circumstance that both men laugh about. In the search for talent and its fulfillment, the best scouts have always put aside petty matters of rank and prestige in the interests of developing players to their fullest. Though Nickels takes pride in his signing of southpaw Clayton Kershaw as does White for his role in the emergence of first baseman James Loney, they both embrace the larger picture of sustaining team development and constant contention. 

Years ago when working for the Cubs, Nickels paused during a lull in a game and mused to Kevin Kerrane, author of still-the-best book on scouting, Dollar Sign on the Muscle, “Have you ever thought how much of America the old scouts have seen?”

At a time when the Cold War against the Soviet Union exerted a formidable influence on contemporary American politics, Nickels said, “I wish we had some Russians here tonight so they could see how deep the game goes in our society.” And, I might add, how precious and passionate are the scouts who sustain and grow what should always remain our national pastime.

LEE LOWENFISH, a member of SABR since 1976, won the 2008 Seymour Medal for his biography “Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” (University of Nebraska Press, hardback 2007; paperback 2009). He was deeply honored in January 2010 when the New York Professional Baseball Scouts Hot Stove League gave him the James Quigley Memorial Award for “baseball service.”

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to baseball scouts Billy Blitzer of the Cubs and John Tumminia of the White Sox for their help in arranging interviews for this article. And to the Goldklang Group and its indefatigable leaders Marv and Jeff Goldklang and Tyler Tumminia for their dedication to recognizing the vital profession of baseball scouting.

Sources

• Campanis, Al. The Dodgers’ Way of Playing Baseball with illustrations by Tex Blaisdell. New York: E.P.  Dutton, 1954.
• Claire, Fred with Steve Springer. My 30 Years in Dodger Blue www.SportsPublishing LLC.com. 2004.
• Didier, Mel and T. R. Sullivan. Podnuh, Let Me Tell You a Story. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Gulf South Books, 2007.
• Kerrane, Kevin. Sports Illustrated. March 19, 1984.
• Thompson, Fresco with Cy Rice. Every Diamond Doesn’t Sparkle. New York: David McKay, 1964.