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.

Los Angeles Angels executive Roland Hemond (right) talks with two 1961 USC bonus babies fresh from the 1961 College World Series championship, first baseman Dan Ardell (far left) and third baseman Tom Satriano (near left), whom he signed that July. (COURTESY OF DAN ARDELL)

In December 1960, I was at home in Milwaukee, prior to celebrating the holidays with my family, when the phone rang. Fred Haney, the newly appointed general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, was calling to offer me the job of scouting and farm director with the new franchise. I arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on January 3, 1961, with my wife Margo and our one-year-old daughter Susan (it was Susan’s birthday) on a beautiful day. Florence Haney, Fred’s wife, picked us up, and we were in awe of the warm climate, the palm trees, and the beauty of Southern California. We set up housekeeping temporarily in a motel in Hollywood before moving to an apartment. I reported to work at the Angels’ office, which was on the second floor above a bar near Hollywood and Vine. Downstairs was an electrically operated massage chair that actually shook our office when it was in use. Next door, adjacent to my office, singing cowboys would come to practice their songs and play their guitars. A few weeks later we moved the front office to Wrigley Field. It was exciting to be part of a small staff to launch upon such a challenge of putting together the foundation of a brand new major-league franchise. Spring Training was beginning in about six weeks, and the Angels’ inaugural baseball season on April 11th.

I had known Fred since 1955, when he joined the Milwaukee Braves coaching staff under manager Charlie Grimm while I was working there as assistant farm and scouting director under John Mullen. When Fred resigned as manager of the Braves after the 1959 season, he returned to his hometown of Los Angeles and was working as a sportscaster when Gene Autry asked him to accompany him to the 1960 Winter Meetings in St. Louis. Autry owned the Golden West Broadcasting Company, and he wanted Fred’s help in landing the radio broadcasting rights to the new American League franchise.

Bill Veeck and Hank Greenberg were applying for the Los Angeles franchise, and I was told that American League president Joe Cronin had approached Autry, encouraging him to throw his hat into the fray. Autry, a big baseball fan, was impressed with the idea of owning a major-league team, and on December 6th he was named the owner of the Los Angeles Angels. With Opening Day set for April 11th, Autry only had a little over four months to pull an organization together. Even more immediate, he and the owners of the AL’s other expansion team, the Washington Senators, only had eight days to select their players from the draft from the other clubs.

The American League had created the Angel franchise hastily to show some muscle, after the threat of the Continental League had led the National League to announce its expansion to ten teams in October 1960. (These two new NL franchises, the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s, would not begin play until 1962.) Naturally, the American League felt compelled to stay competitive, and the mass population of Southern California made it attractive despite the popularity of the Dodgers, who had moved from Brooklyn in 1958. And Washington was an important replacement due to the move of the original Senators from that city to Minnesota and MLB’s desire to have a presence in the nation’s capital.

Autry immediately named Bob Reynolds as president and Fred Haney as general manager, and Bill Rigney was quickly hired as field manager. This proved to be vital in having two highly respected and knowledgeable baseball men in these important positions. Haney and Rigney were able to gather information about prospects from some of their friends in the industry. I heard that Casey Stengel recommended Eli Grba, a pitcher in the New York Yankees farm system. Rigney’s friend with the San Francisco Giants, Chub Feeney, let Bill go over his team’s scouting reports. Jim Fregosi was a noted all-around high school athlete in Northern California, and Rigney, who lived in Walnut Creek, had heard of him. Jim had signed with the Boston Red Sox and in 1960 had played for their Alpine, Texas, club in the Rookie Sophomore League. He was an outstanding pick for the Angels, as he quickly jumped to Triple A Dallas-Ft. Worth of the American Association in 1961 and on to the major-league club the latter part of the season.

Building a Farm System

It was exciting to come to work for the Angels, a fresh franchise in a new (to me) city. All of my career had been spent in the East and Midwest, so I really did not have many contacts in California when I arrived on the scene. Haney, however, had grown up in Los Angeles, and knew many local baseball men, so we were able to sign some very good California-based scouts, such as Ross “Rosey” Gilhousen, Tufie Hashem, Tom Downey, Bert Niehoff, Pep Lee, Joe Gordon, and Dolph Camilli. In addition to the West Coast scouts we signed, in the early stages I set out to hire scouts in other parts of the country who had worked for the Braves, such as Gil English in the Carolinas, Leo Labossiere in New England, Nick Kamzic in the Midwest. The Braves were losing scouts due to their new regime, which was hiring scouts they knew better.

Since I did not get to Los Angeles until the first week of January, 1961, there was very little time to prepare for spring training let alone line up a couple of farm clubs to send our expansion selections and new signings. Virtually all the minor league clubs were affiliated with a major league club on a working agreement basis. The only lower classification city I could find that was looking for a major league parent club was Statesville, North Carolina, in the Class D Western Carolina League. We hooked up with Statesville and by the end of spring training, we had enough players to start the season.

The Angels also signed a joint Class AAA working agreement with Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, of the American Association. Ray Johnston, owner of the team, was a friend of mine, as he had worked in the Concessions Department for the Milwaukee Braves; Fred Haney also knew him well. We split the working agreement with the Minnesota Twins, as we would not have enough players to staff an entire Triple A club. Three of the best players on the Dallas-Ft. Worth club were shortstop Jim Fregosi, catcher Bob (Buck) Rodgers, and right-handed pitcher Dean Chance. Fregosi had only a half season of pro experience the previous year as a Boston Red Sox farmhand in Rookie ball. Bob Rodgers had played at Class AA Birmingham, Alabama, for the Detroit Tigers organization in 1960. Dean Chance was in the Class B Three-I League at Appleton, Wisconsin in 1960. After concluding their minor-league seasons, all three advanced to the Angels in 1961, and all went on to become major-league stars.

The 1961 Statesville Owls were comprised of players signed at tryouts camps in Southern California headed by scouts Ross “Rosey” Gilhousen, Tufie Hashen, Bert Niehoff, Pep Lee, and Tom Downey. Former major-league outfielder George Wilson managed of the club. The club’s future major-leaguers were catcher Jack Hiatt, outfielder Dick Simpson, and right-handed pitcher Dick Wantz. After concluding his college career at the University of Southern California, first baseman Dan Ardell, was sent to the Class D Artesia (New Mexico) Dodgers of the Sophomore League; he also made it to the majors with the Angels in 1961. Third baseman Tom Satriano, also a USC product, reported to the Angels upon signing in 1961. We assigned some of our players on loan to other clubs at different classifications that year. The Angels’ Triple-A Dallas-Ft.Worth club trained at Amerage Park in Fullerton, California, in 1961, and lower classification players at La Palma Field in Anaheim.

You hear a lot about the organization’s desire to “win one for the cowboy,” but that really came up in the 1970s, after I had left in September 1970 to join the Chicago White Sox. When Harry Dalton became the general manager after the 1971 season and a bit later, when Buzzie Bavasi came along as Executive Vice-President and G.M. after the 1977 season, the Angels did tend to go for major-league free agents, such as Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich, and others. But in the early 1960s we were working towards the building of the farm system. Tom Satriano and Dan Ardell were early signings out of the University of Southern California – they were given signing bonuses, but in general our budget was rather restricted. The Dodgers and other clubs had larger budgets for the scouting and signing of high school and college prospects. In 1964 the ownership and Fred Haney expanded the signing opportunities, resulting in the signing of highly sought outfielder Rick Reichardt of the University of Wisconsin as well as high school catcher Tom Egan. The two players showed fine promise but suffered physical setbacks. Reichardt was off to a great start in 1966 with 16 home runs by mid-season, but a serious ailment (one of his kidneys had to be removed) put him out of action virtually the rest of the season. Pitchers Andy Messersmith, Clyde Wright, and Tom Murphy made it to the majors rather quickly after signing. (It’s ironic that the signing of Reichardt for $205,000 led to the Draft Rule the next year and that Messersmith’s challenge to the Reserve Clause led to the Major League Free Agent Rule upon the decision of arbitrator Peter Seitz after the challenge by the Players’ Association head Marvin Miller.)

It was amazing how well the 1962 club performed, as a second-year expansion team — the Angels stayed in the pennant race until early September. The Sporting News named G.M. Fred Haney the Executive of the Year and Bill Rigney the Manager of the Year. Rigney did a phenomenal job of instilling great spirit and made exceptional on-field decisions. Shortstop Jim Fregosi came up from Triple A to take over the position from veteran Joe Koppe, and Buck Rodgers became the everyday catcher, playing in 160 games. Rigney recognized the baseball smarts of these two rookies, mentoring them so well that they became young leaders and later fine major-league managers.

Outfielders Leon “Daddy Wags” Wagner and Lee Thomas led the hitting attack. with 37 home runs and 107 RBIs for Wagner and 26 HRs and 104 RBIs for Thomas. Fregosi hit .291 after taking over a shortstop, second baseman Bill Moran made the All-Star team; third baseman Felix Torres, a Rule 5 draft, played well in the field and had 74 RBIs. Center fielder Albie Pearson led the league with 115 runs scored. Right-hander Dean Chance was the ace of the staff with a 14-10 record, 2.96 ERA, and lefthander Bo Belinsky pitched an early season no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. Left-hander Ted Bowsfield went 9-8. Rigney was an expert in his use of bullpen veterans Art Fowler, Tom Morgan, Ryne Duren, Jack Spring, and Dan Osinski. It was incredible that a two-year expansion club could put together an 86-76 record. The other new franchises of the early 1960s didn’t fare so well: The Washington Senators won 60 games and lost 101, finishing in tenth place (last) in the AL. The New York Mets, the lovable losers of their inaugural season of 1962, went 40-120, finishing last in the NL. And the Houston Colt .45s went 64-96, finishing eighth in the NL.

The Angels shared Dodger Stadium for the 1962-1965 seasons. But with the Dodgers drawing more than twice the fans, it was evident that the only way for the Angels to gain their own identity was to move to a city and a park of their own. Orange County was enticing due to it being a growing area in population and a chance to build our own fans. Long Beach had expressed some interest but Anaheim won out, as they were willing to build a fine ballpark, where the Angels have played since 1966.

ROLAND HEMOND has served as Special Assistant to the President and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks since August 2007. During his sixty-year career in the front offices of Organized Baseball, he is a three-time recipient of the Major League Executive of the Year Award (recognized by UPI and “The Sporting News” in 1972, “The Sporting News” again in 1989, and by the Associated Press in 1983). Four awards have been named in his honor: by the Chicago White Sox, for those dedicated to bettering the lives of others through personal sacrifice; by Baseball America, for major contributions to baseball scouting and player development personnel; by SABR, for executives who display great respect for baseball scouts; and by the Arizona Fall League, for meritorious service to the League. In 2011 the National Baseball Hall of Fame awarded him the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.

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.

Related links: Longtime SABR member Roland Hemond received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in July 2011 during Induction Weekend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. A three-time winner of MLB’s Executive of the Year award, Hemond has been a tireless advocate for the Society over the years. He is a familiar face at our national convention and other meetings around the country, including the 2011 MLB All-Star FanFest in Phoenix, and has lent his name to an award given annually by SABR’s Scouts Research Committee, which recognizes the baseball executive who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to professional baseball scouts and scouting, and player development history.

Notes

1 E-mails, Roland Hemond to Jean Hastings Ardell, March-July, 2010.

Baseball first came to Hollywood, California, in 1926, when William H. Lane moved his Salt Lake City franchise to Los Angeles. Although his club played its home games in Wrigley Field, the recently-built home of the rival Los Angeles Angels, Lane called his team the Hollywood Stars. In Salt Lake City, this club had been the most free-hitting and high-scoring in PCL history. Tony Lazzeri played for the Bees in 1925 when he set the league record with 60 home runs in one season. In Los Angeles, Lane hired Charles “Spider” Baum, a former PCL pitcher, as General Manager, and Baum bought and traded for the good pitching necessary to complement the hitting and make the club a pennant contender. Led by Frank Shellenback, probably the finest pitcher in the history of the league, the Stars finished among the top three teams for seven consecutive years. Hitting remained the forte: Manager Oscar Vitt had so many .300 hitters that he was unable to play them all at once; his pennant-winning 1930 club had ten of them, including

Jesse Hill, later Athletic Director of the University of Southern California. Smead Jolley led the club in hitting in 1934-35.

The Stars were never great favorites of Los Angeles fans, however; the rival Angels had consistently better attendance. When the Stars plummeted to last place in 1935, even fewer fans than usual came to see them play. Owner Lane, called “Uncle Bill” by some and “Hardpan” by others but reckoned an honest, fair man by all, felt the pinch of the Depression. Unable to pay the $8000 annual rental asked by Angels President David Fleming for use of Wrigley Field, Lane decided to move his franchise for a second time. He received offers from Sawtelle (West Los Angeles) and Salt Lake City, but the tough old man decided to gamble on San Diego, which had not fielded a professional baseball team for 35 years. On January 21, 1936 the original Stars became the San Diego Padres, who played in the PCL until major league ball came to the Border City in 1969.

In 1936 a group of Los Angeles sportsmen tried to purchase the Mission club of San Francisco and move it to Los Angeles, but Mission owner Herbert Fleishhacker refused to sell. For two years, Los Angeles had only one baseball team, the Angels.

After the 1937 season, however, Fleishhacker felt compelled to move his team by the same factors that had plagued Bill Lane two years earlier. The Missions were a poor draw in a city in which the Seals had the affection of most fans, and because his brewery, as well as his ball club, was losing money, Fleishhacker could not afford to maintain the club in its present location. In November 1937 the Missions moved to Los Angeles and became the second club and franchise to adopt the name Hollywood Stars.

This second Hollywood club had as colorful a history as the first one. From 1909 to 1925, with a two-year hiatus in 1913-14, it was located in Vernon, an industrial suburb of Los Angeles, and provided the first cross-town rivalry with the Angels. During the 1913-14 seasons, it played its home games in Venice, a seaside resort near L.A. The Vernon and Venice Tigers were usually pennant-contenders and were known as the most exciting and aggressive team in the PCL. This tradition remained dormant while the club played in San Francisco as the Missions (1926-4937), but it was reinvigorated by the Stars.

When Fleishhacker moved the team, he retained ownership but wished to give an appearance of control by Los Angeles people. For obscure reasons, he chose Don Francisco, Pacific Coast head of the Lord and Thomas advertising agency, to be the new Stars’ first president. Francisco admitted his ignorance of baseball but added that he would try to surround himself with assistants who did know the baseball situation.

Francisco and Fleishhacker worked together to establish their team in its new home. They made arrangements to play the 1938 season in Wrigley Field, home of the Angels and the old Stars, but they also acquiesced to Angel owner David Fleming’s insistence that Hollywood build its own park for 1939, in order to encourage a rivalry between the two teams. They hired Wade Killefer, a former manager of the Angels, as skipper and tried to revitalize the Missions by purchasing new players. The club was so poor, though, that they could not pursue their policy as vigorously as they desired. After the Stars bought outfielder Danny Bell from the Yankees, for example, they found themselves unable to raise the purchase price, so they had to return him. The Stars finished fifth in 1938, a great improvement over the Missions’ last-place finish of the previous season, and they produced a PCL batting champion for the only time in their history (centerfielder Frenchy Uhalt), but the club was still a flimsy operation, in terms of both finances

and personnel.

After the 1938 season, the Stars’ management dissolved. Don Francisco resigned as president of the ball club and moved to New York. Fleishhacker was unable to complete arrangements for construction of a baseball park. Then his brewery failed, and he went into bankruptcy. The club was for sale.

The men who purchased the Stars from Fleishhacker’s estate retained control for the next 19 years – until the arrival of major league baseball in Los Angeles forced the club to disband. They made the Stars the civic venture and outstanding team that is remembered today.

The leaders of the new ownership group were Victor Ford Collins, who was Fleishhacker’s attorney, and Robert H. Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby restaurants. This was the dream of a lifetime for Bob Cobb.

Horatio Alger might have used Cobb as a model for his stories. Born in Missouri and brought up in Montana, the restauranteur had come to Los Angeles as a poor boy. He got a job as a food checker in a hash house, then joined the Brown Derby as a kitchen hand. By the age of 40, Cobb had bought the Derby, one of Los Angeles’ most famous restaurants. Along the way, he retained his interest in baseball – as both a semipro player and a Vernon Tigers fan -and married an actress, Gail Patrick. As soon as he realized the import of Victor Collins’ offer, Bob Cobb borrowed $5000 from his friend Cecil B. DeMille and bought a large share of the club.

Collins, who took over as president of the club, and Cobb, the vice president, moved quickly to remedy the two problems which had forced Herbert Fleishhacker to sell the team, a shortage of funds and lack of a ballpark. In so doing, they gave the team its distinctive air as a community-oriented club.

In order to raise funds, the two men formed the Hollywood Baseball Association and sold small amounts of stock to numerous Hollywood civic leaders and movie stars. The movie personalities included Cecil B. DeMille (first chairman of the board of directors), William Frawley, Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Gail Patrick (Mrs. Cobb), Harry Warner, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, George Burns and Grace Allen, and Gene Autry. By selling stock to the movie stars, Collins and Cobb gained not only capital, but also the opportunity to promote their club as “the Hollywood Stars baseball team, owned by the Hollywood stars.” Advertisement of movie stars along with baseball Stars increased attendance for the Twinks (as sportswriters were fond of calling the team).

The people who purchased stock in the ball club did so not as an investment, but as a hobby. They wanted to bring top baseball entertainment to themselves and their fellow citizens. The members of the board of directors, which met weekly at first and less frequently as the club became established, were unpaid. They met at the Brown Derby, on auto magnate Frank Muller’s yacht, at the ballpark, or wherever seemed a pleasant place to enjoy themselves and talk about their new venture. Dick Hyland, a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, captured the attitude of the founders of the Hollywood Baseball Association when he wrote in 1940,

They made of that ball dub a civic thing. No one was per-

mitted to invest any big money, but everyone was encouraged to

take a small bite. It was to become a part of Hollywood, another

asset, another evidence of growth; it was, plainly and simply, a

Chamber of Commerce activity on the part of a group of people

who want their little corner of the world to be better than all

other corners.

It would be a mistake, however, to think of the Stars as a ball club run for the elite alone. When Collins and Cobb remedied the second problem which had forced Fleishhacker to sell the team -lack of a park in which to play – they made certain that the Stars would be a team to which large numbers of fans would become attached. The new owners entered into a deal with Earl Gilmore, owner of the Farmers’ Market, for construction of a baseball park on land owned by Gilmore at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The club paid half of the $400,000 needed to build the park. “Friendly” Gilmore Field, as it was always advertised, was designed with the spectator in mind. The areas of foul territory behind home plate and along the first- and third-base lines were so small that the grandstand was almost on top of the playing field. People liked to watch games at Gilmore Field because they felt themselves a part of the action there. It was exciting to sit behind third base and have Butch Moran (or some other Star) slide into third so hard that he kicked dirt into your face. The design of Gilmore Field integrated the entire community behind the Stars.

The civic venture, combining local leadership and popular support, began on an inauspicious note. Gilmore Field was not yet ready for baseball when the 1939 season began, so the Stars had to play a week of home games at neighboring Gilmore Stadium, which was ordinarily used for midget auto races and football games. The right4ield fence was only 230 feet from home plate, so the many fly balls which cleared it had to be ruled ground-rule doubles in order to keep the games from becoming mockeries of baseball. On May 2, this makeshift arrangement came to an end – Gilmore Field was opened for baseball for the first time. Before 10,000 fans, the Stars presented gala pre-game festivities in which Robert Taylor, Jack Benny, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, and Al Jolson participated. Gail Patrick threw out the first ball, and comedian Joe E. Brown (father of Joe L. Brown) caught it. Then the Stars took the field and were beaten by the Seattle Rainiers, 8-5.

The events of the opening week of 1939 and opening day of Gilmore Field typified the Stars’ organization for its first ten years under Collins and Cobb; everyone was amateurishly enthusiastic and wanted dearly to put on a good show, but the team was poor and struggled for several years.

The club was unable to negotiate a good working agreement with a major league team. An agreement with Detroit in the early 1940s appeared useful, but Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis “freed” more than 90 of the Detroit organization players, wrecking any chance of aid the Stars may have had. Agreements with Pittsburgh in 1946 and the Chicago White Sox in 1947-48 also proved fruitless. The Stars had some good individual players – among them outfielders Babe Herman, Frenchy Uhalt, Gus Zernial, Jim Delsing, and Frank Kelleher, and infielders John Dickshot, Buck Fausett, and Tony Lupien – but they never had a good team. They were especially weak on the mound, where Charlie Root (age 44 in 1943), Eddie Erautt, and later George “Pinky” Woods were their only hurlers of note. The lack of pitching was especially apparent in 1947 and 1948, when the White Sox sent the Twinks so many heavy hitters that they led the league in most offensive categories but still finished sixth.

The fans remained loyal, however. Attendance increased dramatically toward the end of World War II. During the post-war boom, the Stars reached the 500,000 mark in attendance three times in four years. So many people were crowding the ballpark that in 1947, when Jimmy Dykes was the manager, the Stars tried to expand the capacity of Gilmore Field from 12,500 to 18,000 by adding right-field bleachers. (They were prevented from doing so by the great scarcity of construction materials.) Finally in 1949 the Stars rewarded those fans with their first pennant since 1930.

In 1949 Fred Haney became the team’s manager and the Golden Age of the Hollywood Stars, which lasted until the club disbanded in 1957, began. The interrelationship of these two events is accepted today as fact. Fred Haney, a Los Angeles boy who had been an infielder and base-stealing champion for both the Angels and the old Stars, was the man who led Hollywood to its greatest achievements. Haney was the Stars’ broadcaster 1946-48; all the while, Collins and Cobb were pestering him to manage their team. After the 1948 season, in which the Stars finished sixth for the fourth consecutive year, Haney finally agreed, on the condition that he would have complete control of purchases and sales of players.

Haney believed that the Stars’ biggest problem was the lack of a successful working agreement with a major league club. He was convinced that the team’s most valuable asset was its reserve list, the use of which protected players from the major league draft. Haney arranged an audience for himself, Collins, and Cobb with Branch Rickey, the president of the Dodgers, and using the reserve list as their strongest bargaining asset, the three officials gained a working agreement with Rickey. Brooklyn would provide Hollywood with the players the PCL club needed, would have first choice at buying Hollywood players, guaranteed that the Stars’ purchases and sales would balance at the end of each season, and paid the Stars $25,000 for the use of their reserve list.

Armed with the working agreement, Haney constructed a pennant-winning ball club in 1949. Outfielder Irv Noren was chosen most valuable player in the PCL; he batted .330 with 29 home runs and 130 runs batted in. George Woods, who had lost 20 games the previous year, became an outstanding performer, winning 23. Under Haney’s direction, infielders Jim Baxes and George Genovese, outfielder Herb Gorman, and pitchers Willie Ramsdell and Art Schallock became valuable players. Frank Kelleher continued as the club’s chief power hitter.

The Haney years were marked not only by excellent play, but also by creative management. The best-remembered innovation was one of apparel: T-shirts and shorts as a uniform, beginning in 1950. The “shorties” weighed only a third as much as regulation uniforms and retained perspiration much less. Haney announced, “We think these suits will give us more speed. They will also permit much greater freedom of motion in fielding and throwing. If the trial proves satisfactory, we’ll wear them whenever the weather permits.” The Stars wore their new uniforms throughout 1950, but only sparingly thereafter; they abandoned them after the 1953 season. The players liked them, but the public never really did.

A much more successful innovation in apparel was the adoption of batting helmets in 1949. The Stars wore them at the direction of Branch Rickey of the Dodgers, who wanted to popularize the product of one of his business ventures, the American Baseball Cap Company. The helmets proved a great safety precaution, and today all baseball teams wear them.

The Stars pioneered in broadcasting games on television – they had televised one game in 1939 as part of an experiment conducted by a local channel – and they became the first club to televise home games in the late 1940s. The Stars also originated the practice of dragging the infield after the fifth inning of each game. As veteran club official Paul Jeschke remembers this innovation, it came about when concessionaire Danny Goodman asked Manager Haney how the club could help improve his business. Haney suggested having the infield dragged, figuring correctly that the fans would take the ten-minute break to move around and that many of them would pass the concession stands and make purchases.

Despite good teams and creative management, however, the 1950s were not years of complete bliss for the Stars. They were years of turmoil for baseball in general – television became an important factor in sports, football gained popularity, and the minor leagues began to wither – and the Hollywood club shared in the troubles. The ownership of the franchise, which had maintained a solid front for more than a decade, showed internal disagreement publicly for the first time.

In 1951, Earl Gilmore, the owner of Friendly Gilmore Field, The Home of the Stars, clashed with club management on the usefulness of television. Being unalterably opposed to TV, he threatened to cut the power lines connecting radio and TV broadcasting facilities in the park. The two sides eventually reached a compromise very favorable to Mr. Gilmore: he received 30% of the club’s television revenues.

Later the same year, ownership began to change hands. George Young, one of the original main owners of the club, brought a personal disagreement with Collins and Cobb over operational details into the open by selling them an option to buy his 311¼ shares. Before the shares themselves could be sold, however, the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with Cobb, purchased the stock of both Young and Collins.

The Pirates had become affiliated with the Stars after the 1950 season, when Branch Rickey moved from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh, and the working agreement followed him. The PCL was about to be promoted to open classification, meaning that its teams would be higher-ranking than all others in the minor leagues and would be prohibited from having working agreements with the majors. Pittsburgh wanted to preserve its right to have priority in dealings with Hollywood; it believed that it was doing so by buying a one-sixth share in the Stars. Coast League President Clarence “Pants” Rowland objected violently to the purchase, insisting that its intent was contrary to the purpose of open classification. Rickey protested that his purchase was only an affirmation of faith in the PCL in general and the Stars in particular. Commissioner Ford Frick decided not to disturb the transaction.

The club’s management continued to change. Manager Haney was promoted to the parent Pittsburgh club after winning a second pennant in 1952. President Collins, who held no stock in the team after February of 1952, became chairman of the board in 1953. Vice-President Cobb took over the presidency and Robert Clemens, a protege of Branch Rickey and a solid baseball man, was named vice-president. Three years later, Collins died, and Rickey became chairman of the board. Although Bob Cobb continued to determine club policy, it appeared that the community-based leadership was slowly being eased out.

Almost paradoxically, though, the l950s were also the period of greatest interest in the Stars by the movie community. The movie people had always liked the team and the park, but now times were good and the Twinks were winners, so they made a special effort to see the games. An added inducement was a large room under the grandstand reserved for their private use where liquor and impromptu entertainment flowed freely. George Raft, for one, came to almost every home game – each time, former Publicity Director Irv Kaze recalls, with a prettier girl than he had had the previous night. Jayne Mansfield was chosen Miss Hollywood Stars in 1955 and garnered much publicity for the team.

But then, in the middle of the exhilaration, everything came to an end. In December of 1956, the Brooklyn Dodgers announced that they would move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Almost at once the Hollywood Stars were dead. They played one more season to a reasonably successful third-place finish, but then they were gone. The Twinks were Hollywood to the end: at their final home game, Jayne Mansfield returned and presented Bob Cobb with a new car, then they watched hurler Hugh Pepper pitch no-hit ball against the pennant-winning San Francisco Seals until a fly ball blooped in front of centerfielder Carlos Bernier in the ninth inning.

Salt Lake City, Mexico City, and Long Beach all made offers for the franchise. On December 5, 1957, President Cobb sold it to Salt Lake interests for an estimated $175,000. Mter 19 years, the original stockholders made a handsome profit on their investment. The money was relatively unimportant to them, though; they deeply regretted seeing a source of great civic pride, an integral part of the community, depart.

People connected with the Stars went their separate ways. Bob Cobb went back to the Brown Derby, taking Business Manager Paul Jeschke with him. Bob Clemens rejoined the Pirates, Irv Kaze, the publicity director, performed in the same capacity for Pittsburgh and later the American League Los Angeles Angels. Danny Goodman, the concessionaire, joined the Dodgers. Scouts Rosey Gilhousen and Tufie Hashem and many lesser officials followed stockholder Gene Autry to the new American League Angels in 1961. Wherever they went, though, they remembered the Stars similarly: “It was major league all the way; I was very proud to be a member of the organization. Without a doubt, those were the most enjoyable years of my life.”

The Cincinnati Reds had monopolized the voting in 1957 thanks to blatant ballot-box stuffing by their fans. At that point, Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in. To keep the selections balanced, Frick dropped two Cincinnati players, replacing them with Willie Mays and Henry Aaron. Stan Musial was also added (though the eventual tally would show he received sufficient votes to be named to the roster regardless).

A new format was developed for 1958 to avoid geographic bias. The players, coaches, and managers would select eight starting position players from their respective leagues. In order to circumvent any favoritism, no one could choose a player from his own team. Baltimore fans were elated when Gus Triandos of the Orioles edged out Yankees backstop Yogi Berra as the American League’s starting catcher.

Gus Triandos was the starting catcher in the 1958 All-Star game, one of only two hometown Orioles to make the AL squad. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)

The managers from the previous year’s World Series would pilot the All-Star squads in addition to selecting the remaining 17 players, including their starting pitchers. Each starting player except the pitchers was required to play three innings unless he was injured.

The Emerson Hotel served as the headquarters for the American League contingent as well as the radio and press corps. Commissioner Frick and his staff were quartered at the Sheraton-Belvedere, while the National League entourage stayed at the Lord Baltimore. The pre-game festivities included a parade that featured players from both leagues riding in open convertibles from downtown Baltimore to Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street.

It was a humid day with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees as the first of the 48,829 fans passed through the turnstiles at the ballpark. The attendance for the game was the second largest in Baltimore baseball history. The highest total had been on October 9, 1944, when the International League Orioles drew 52,833 in Game Four of the Junior World Series against Louisville. The huge crowd in 1944 served notice to the baseball world that Baltimore was ready to support a major-league team.

Coming into the 1958 All-Star Game, the American League held a 14-10 edge over the senior circuit. Milwaukee Braves manager Fred Haney was at the helm of the Nationals while Yankees skipper Casey Stengel led the Americans. Haney choose the mainstay of his staff, Warren Spahn, as his starter. Stengel, showing a similar sentiment, gave the starting nod to Yankee Bob Turley.

Both starting pitchers had uncommon deliveries. Spahn, a master of changing speeds, employed an elongated leg kick, his knee rising almost up to his shoulder. During his follow-through, his glove deceptively passed by his face as he delivered the baseball.

Turley had no discernible windup. It was strictly rear back and fire. With a variety of pitches in his arsenal, it was his blazing fastball that earned him the nickname “Bullet Bob.” Turley lived in the Baltimore suburb of Lutherville. Pitching for the Orioles in 1954, he’d won the inaugural home opener at Memorial Stadium.

Baltimore’s ballpark had its own unique dimensions. The distance down each foul line was 309 feet. Short by most standards, the degree of difficulty was heightened by a 14-foot wall that started at each outfield corner. The imposing barrier angled out to 360 feet, where it met a seven-foot-high chain-link fence that ringed the perimeter of the outfield. The deepest part of the park was 410 feet in center. Additional seating was added for the game alongside of each dugout, which necessitated moving the bullpens from foul territory to behind the outfield fence.

After Vice President Richard Nixon tossed the ceremonial first ball, Mays stepped to the plate. Haney mixed things up by putting Mays, who had been hitting third for San Francisco, in the leadoff spot. The move paid off when the Giants star smacked Turley’s first pitch off the third-base bag. The ball caromed high in the air, and by the time it landed in Frank Malzone’s glove, Mays was past the bag at first. Bob Skinner followed with a fly out to right.

The next batter was Stan Musial, playing in his 15th All-Star Game. With the count 3–1, Musial stroked a single to right field. Mays, running on the pitch, made it all the way to third. The hit was the 17th of Musial’s All-Star career. Aaron then lofted a sacrifice fly to deep left center that plated Mays. Turley plunked Ernie Banks in the back with a curveball. After Frank Thomas walked to load the bases, Stengel came out to the mound for a conference. With Bill Mazeroski at the plate, Turley’s first toss to the Pittsburgh second baseman eluded the glove of Triandos, sending Musial home with the second run of the game. Mazeroski drove the next pitch into left field. Bob Cerv, playing with a broken toe, lost his balance as he ran in for the ball, but he somehow managed to make the shoestring grab for the final out.

Leading off the Americans’ half of the first, Nellie Fox reached on a throwing error by shortstop Banks and went to third on a single by Mickey Mantle. The next man, Jackie Jensen, leading both leagues with 24 home runs, grounded into a double play, with Fox scoring. Cerv singled but Bill Skowron flied out to end the frame.

Del Crandall was retired starting off the top of the second. Spahn was able to work Turley for a walk before being erased on a Mays fielder’s choice. With Skinner at-bat, Mays took off for second. Triandos’s peg got past Luis Aparicio, allowing Mays to advance to third. Skinner proceeded to knock Turley out of the box with a RBI single. Stengel replaced Turley with Cleveland Indians pitcher Ray Narleski, who checked the threat by retiring Musial on an infield popup.

With one down in the bottom of the second, Triandos drove a base hit up the middle. Aparicio hit into a fielder’s choice, forcing Triandos. Narleski came through with a safety, putting two men on base. After a Fox RBI single, Mantle flied out, halting the rally.

For the next few frames, both pitchers held their opponents scoreless. Bob Friend replaced Spahn in the bottom of the fourth.

Mickey Vernon, pinch-hitting for Narleski, opened the fifth with a single. Fox followed suit with Mantle drawing a walk to load the bases. Vernon scored on a Jensen groundout. After Cerv was walked intentionally, Skowron bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Early Wynn came in for Narleski in the sixth, retiring the side in order.

Malzone started off the bottom of the stanza with a single. A crescendo of boos rose from the stands as Stengel sent in Berra to pinch-hit for Triandos. Berra’s infield popout elicited a chorus of sarcastic hurrahs from the Baltimore crowd. Stengel told a reporter after the game, “I have been hissed all my life. You can’t be in this business a long time and have all the cheers.”1

The next man up was Ted Williams, pinch-hitting for Aparicio. He proceeded to bounce a chopper to the left side that Thomas mishandled. With runners now on first and second, Gil McDougald, batting for Wynn, lofted a single into short left center that scored Malzone. With the score 4–3 in favor of the Americans, Haney pulled Friend, replacing him with Larry Jackson. Fox grounded into a double play to end the inning.

In the seventh, Stengel brought in 25-year-old Orioles southpaw Billy O’Dell from the bullpen. O’Dell, the first “Bonus Baby” signed by Baltimore in 1954, retired the next nine batters in order on 27 pitches, sealing the win for the American League.2 Turk Farrell of the Phillies pitched the last two innings for the Nationals, striking out four batters, including Williams. Baltimore native Al Kaline replaced Williams in left field in the top of the ninth.

In what was the first All-Star Game without an extra-base hit, there were three outstanding defensive plays, two by Cerv, the other by Williams. In addition to the Mazeroski grab, Cerv slammed into the left-field wall hauling in a Del Crandall drive in the sixth. An inning later, Williams made a leaping catch, robbing pinch-hitter Johnny Logan.

When asked about his game-winning bloop hit after the game, McDougald, who was in the midst of a 0-for-18 slump, replied, “I’m not ashamed of it. The way I have been hitting lately, I’ll take anything.”3

Stengel congratulated his players in the clubhouse: “I want to thank all you men for a splendid job. But most of all I want to shake the hand of this young fella right out here from the Orioles. He made all those National Leaguers look the same size didn’t he?”4

O’Dell, who received the Hearst Newspaper Award for his outstanding performance, told reporters, “The only pitches I used were my slider and fastball. When my control is good I know I’ll do all right. I had only one worry all the time I was out there and his name was Stan Musial. It seemed all downhill once I got past him in the eighth inning. I know doggone well that all of those National League hitters are tough or else they wouldn’t be there. As far as I was concerned, though, Musial was the fellow that could hurt me the most.”5

JIMMY KEENAN has been a SABR member since 2001. His grandfather, Jimmy Lyston, and four other family members were all professional baseball players. A frequent contributor to SABR publications, Keenan is the author of the following books: “The Lystons: A Story of One Baltimore Family & Our National Pastime,” “The Life, Times and Tragic Death of Pitcher Win Mercer,” “The Lyston Brothers: A Journey Through 19th Century Baseball.” Keenan is a 2010 inductee into the Oldtimers Baseball Association of Maryland’s Hall of Fame and a 2012 inductee into the Baltimore’s Boys of Summer Hall of Fame.

Author’s Notes

• In 1933, Baltimore native Babe Ruth hit the first home run in the inaugural All-Star Game, leading the American League to a 4–2 victory.
• Baltimorean Eddie Rommel, a former major-league pitcher, started out the 1958 All-Star Game as the home plate umpire. Rommel had served in the same capacity for Baltimore’s home opener in 1954. In the spirit of fairness to All-Star competition, Rommel, an American League ump, switched places with third-base umpire Jocko Conlon of the National League in the middle of the fourth inning. While a member of the Philadelphia Athletics, Rommel pitched batting practice at the first All-Star Game in 1933.

Sources

Baseball-Almanac.com

Baseball-Reference.com

Baltimore Sun

Boston Journal

Genealogy Bank

Knoxville News Sentinel

Richmond Times Dispatch

The Sporting News

Notes

1 “Stengel Lauds His Relievers, O’Dell Mostly,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, July 9, 1958.

2 “Billy O’Dell,” BR Bullpen, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Billy_O’Dell, accessed March 28, 2020. O’Dell signed with the Orioles for a reported $12,500 on June 8, 1954.

3 “All-Star Twinklers,” The Sporting News, July 16, 1958.

4 “‘Give It All You Got,’ Stengel Told O’Dell So Baltimore Lefty Retired Nine in Row,” Milwaukee Journal, July 9, 1958.

5 Billy O’Dell, “Stan Musial Was My Only Worry in All-Star Game,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, July 9, 1958.

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

As the twenty-first century began, the commissioner’s office and many team owners were concerned about competitive imbalance. After free agency began in the 1970s, some teams were able to use their financial heft to gain a competitive edge, especially those with lucrative local radio and television contracts; the New York Yankees, for instance, won four of five World Series between 1996 and 2000, and appeared in six of eight World Series between 1996 and 2003.

Steps were taken to address this imbalance. In 1994, a wild-card team was added to the playoff system in each league, thus giving more teams an opportunity for postseason success. After the 2002 collective-bargaining agreement was signed, Major League Baseball imposed a luxury tax. In brief, this meant that teams that exceeded a certain payroll level had to contribute to a fund that was redistributed to financially weaker teams.1 Along with the amateur draft and several new ballparks, more competition resulted. Between 2000 and 2005, 18 of the 30 major-league teams reached the playoffs.

The 2005 postseason produced some surprises. In the American League Division Series, the Chicago White Sox swept the defending World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox, while in the other division series, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim beat the perennially contending Yankees, three games to two. In the National League Division Series, the St. Louis Cardinals swept the San Diego Padres and the Houston Astros defeated the Atlanta Braves, three games to one. In the League Championship Series, the White Sox beat the Angels in five games, while Houston ousted the Cardinals in a hard-fought series, four games to two. In the World Series the White Sox, making their first appearance since 1959, swept the Astros, making their first appearance ever. It was the White Sox’ first World Series championship since 1917.

As the offseason began, there was every reason for most teams to think that with the addition of the right player, they too could win in the postseason. Even before the Winter Meetings began, there were several major trades and free-agent signings, which presaged a very busy offseason.

In late November, there were three major trades. In the biggest, the Boston Red Sox sent top prospect Hanley Ramirez and right-handers Anibal Sanchez, Jesus Delgado, and Harvey Garcia to the Florida Marlins for right-handers Josh Beckett and Guillermo Mota and third baseman Mike Lowell. Ramirez was a budding star, and he proved to be one for the Marlins, as he led the National League in runs scored in 2008 and in batting in 2009 (.342). With the Marlins, Ramirez became an All-Star shortstop. Sanchez became a dependable starting pitcher for the Marlins and later for the Detroit Tigers. Beckett and Lowell were central to Boston’s World Series victory in 2007. Beckett won 20 games that year, and Lowell had a career year at the plate with a .324 batting average, 21 home runs, and 120 runs batted in. This was the proverbial trade that helped both teams.

There were two other consequential trades before the Winter Meetings. The White Sox traded their starting center fielder, Aaron Rowand, and minor-league left-handers Daniel Haigwood and Gio Gonzalez to the Philadelphia Phillies for first baseman Jim Thome. Rowand, an excellent defender, would have his best years with the Phillies, including a .309/27/89 All-Star year in 2007. Gonzalez became a very good starting pitcher, with Oakland and the Washington Nationals (21 wins in 2012). Thome continued as a top-level slugger for several years with the White Sox, with 42 home runs and 109 RBIs as an immediate return in 2006. The other deal saw the Florida Marlins send second baseman Luis Castillo to the Minnesota Twins for two minor leaguers. Castillo, a three-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner who had twice led the National League in stolen bases, continued to be a highly productive player for several seasons with the Twins and the New York Mets. The two right-handed pitchers the Marlins received (Scott Tyler and Travis Bowyer) never made the 25-man roster.

PLAYER MOVEMENT AT THE 2005 WINTER MEETING

The meeting was held December 5-8 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. In those four days, 21 free agents signed contracts and 15 trades were completed, with 42 players changing teams. Another 15 players were selected in the Rule 5 draft.

FREE AGENT SIGNINGS

Many of the 21 free agents re-signed with their original teams. For example, All-Star outfielder Brian Giles and star closer Trevor Hoffman returned to the San Diego Padres, and veteran left-handed starter Jamie Moyer went back to the Seattle Mariners.

Five free-agent signings could be characterized as more important than others. Most notably, right-handed starting pitcher A.J. Burnett went from the Florida Marlins to the Toronto Blue Jays. Burnett pitched in Toronto for three years, with 18 wins in 2008. He went on to pitch for the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates, ending his career with 164 victories in the majors. Paul Byrd, a right-handed starting pitcher, signed with the Cleveland Indians after having spent the 2005 season with the Angels. Byrd spent several seasons in the Cleveland rotation, winning 15 games in 2007. Kyle Farnsworth, a veteran right-handed relief pitcher, left the Atlanta Braves for the Yankees. With Mariano Rivera established as the closer in the Bronx, Farnsworth assumed a setup role. He continued as a major-league reliever with five more teams until 2014, with a career-high 25 saves for Tampa Bay in 2011. The Los Angeles Dodgers added star shortstop Rafael Furcal, the 2000 National League Rookie of the Year, who left the always-contending Atlanta Braves. Furcal had several solid seasons with the Dodgers, and also had an All-Star season (2012) with the St. Louis Cardinals. Relief specialist Tom Gordon signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, a move that paid immediate dividends for the Phils, as the right-handed Gordon recorded 34 saves in 2006, the second-best total of his 21-year career.

TRADES

The first trade of the Winter Meetings saw the Florida Marlins send catcher Paul Lo Duca to the New York Mets for outfielder Dante Brinkley and right-hander Gaby Hernandez. Lo Duca was the Mets’ starting catcher for two seasons, making the All-Star team in 2006 when he batted .318 and helped the Mets reach the National League Championship Series. Neither Brinkley nor Hernandez ever played in the major leagues.

In a trade of relief pitchers, the Baltimore Orioles sent the lefty Steve Kline to the San Francisco Giants for right-hander Latroy Hawkins. Kline pitched two more respectable seasons for the Giants, while Hawkins was in the middle of a 21-year career (1995-2015) that saw him pitch with 11 different clubs, highlighted (perhaps) by appearances in the 2007 World Series with the Colorado Rockies. As late in his career as 2014 (with the Rockies), Hawkins recorded 23 saves.

The Colorado Rockies made two major trades at the meetings. They sent outfielder Larry Bigbie and infielder Aaron Miles to the St. Louis Cardinals for left-handed relief pitcher Ray King. Miles started for three seasons with the Cardinals, hitting .317 in 2008. Bigbie played only 17 more games in the majors, while King pitched only a couple more inconsequential years in the majors. The Rockies also sent right-hander Miguel Carvajal to the Seattle Mariners for Yorvit Torrealba. Torrealba was the starting catcher for two postseason teams, the 2007 Rockies and the 2011Texas Rangers.

In a trade that was thought to be major at the time, the Arizona Diamondbacks sent right-handed pitchers Lance Cormier and Oscar Villareal to the Atlanta Braves for catcher Johnny Estrada. Cormier pitched, mainly in relief, for six more years in the major leagues, and Villareal had a 9-1 record as a Braves reliever in 2006. Estrada, considered a future star at one time (he was an All-Star in 2004 when he batted .314), hit .302 with 11 home runs and 71 RBIs for the Diamondbacks in 2006. He followed that with a respectable season at Milwaukee in 2007, but was out of the majors before the end of the 2008 season.

The Boston Red Sox traded catcher Doug Mirabelli to the San Diego Padres for third baseman Mark Loretta. Mirabelli, a veteran backup catcher, was known as a specialist in catching the knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield. Loretta was an excellent veteran hitter, who finished with a lifetime batting average of .295. It seemed for a time that Mirabelli would be a starter, after several years as a backup receiver, but later in the offseason, San Diego signed future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza to be the regular catcher. Mirabelli requested a return to Boston, and was traded back to the Red Sox early in the 2006 season for catcher Josh Bard, right-handed reliever Cla Meredith, and $100,000. Mirabelli was a member of the 2007 Red Sox champions, in his last year in the majors. Loretta hit .285 and made the All-Star team in his only season with the Red Sox, then spent two years with the Astros and one with Dodgers before retiring.

The very active Florida Marlins sent outfielder Juan Pierre to the Chicago Cubs for right-handers Sergio Mitre and Ricky Nolasco, plus southpaw Renyel Pinto. Pierre was consistently good throughout his career and 2006 proved to be no exception, as he led the NL with 204 hits (including 13 triples), batted .292, and stole 58 bases. In 2010, while playing for the Chicago White Sox, Pierre led the American League with 68 steals. Mitre was part of Florida’s starting rotation for a couple of seasons, making 27 starts in 2007, before moving to the Yankees and then to the Brewers. Ricky Nolasco became a good starting pitcher for the Marlins, winning 81 games for the team. By the end of the 2016 season (which he spent with the Twins and Angels), Nolasco had more than 100 wins as a major-league pitcher. Pinto wound up pitching in almost 250 games in his five-year Marlins career.

The Toronto Blue Jays got first baseman Lyle Overbay and right-hander Ty Taubenheim from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for right-handed starter David Bush, southpaw Zach Jackson, and outfielder Gabe Gross. Overbay was the Blue Jays’ regular first baseman for the next five seasons, posting solid, if not spectacular, numbers during that time. Bush was a regular in Milwaukee’s pitching rotation for five seasons, winning 46 games for the Brewers. Gross, who had been Auburn’s starting quarterback, never became more than a platoon outfielder in the majors, while Taubenheim and Jackson combined for just five major-league victories.

The Atlanta Braves sent heralded third-base prospect Andy Marte to the Boston Red Sox for shortstop Edgar Renteria. Despite the high expectations, Marte never made it as a regular at the major-league level. Renteria batted.293 and .332 in his two seasons in Atlanta. Indeed, postseason appearances and successes followed Renteria throughout his career — he had been with Florida when it won the World Series in 1997, with St. Louis when it lost the World Series (to Boston) in 2004, and would be the World Series MVP with San Francisco in 2010.

Perhaps the most puzzling trade of the meetings was the Texas Rangers-Washington Nationals deal. The Rangers sent second baseman Alfonso Soriano to Washington for right-handed pitcher Armando Galarraga and outfielders Terrmel Sledge and Brad Wilkerson. For Jon Daniels, the Rangers general manager, who built the team into a consistent contender in the 2010s, this was one of his first trades, and it may be one he would rather forget. Soriano had originally come to the Rangers in the trade of Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees after the 2003 season. Soriano was headed for expensive free agency, but he hit 46 home runs and was selected for the All-Star team for the Nats in 2006. Soriano hit 412 home runs and had almost 2,100 hits, in a career that concluded in 2014. Showing long-term value, Soriano had more than 30 home runs and 100 RBIs as late as 2013 (divided between the Cubs and Yankees). On the other side of the deal, Galarraga won just 26 games in the majors and is best known as the pitcher who lost a perfect game to an umpire’s missed call while pitching for Detroit. Sledge was shipped to the Padres a month later in a deal that also included first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and 6-foot-10 righty Chris Young, and made only token appearances in the majors after the trade. Wilkerson, the key from the Rangers perspective, had hit 32 home runs for Montreal in 2004, but he barely topped that in his two seasons as a Ranger, and he closed out his career with Seattle and Toronto in 2008. Finances certainly played a role in the trade. Soriano was pending free agency, and would have a high veteran’s salary. In addition, the Rangers had an excellent second baseman, Ian Kinsler, ready to play at the major-league level in 2006. Kinsler would earn the major-league minimum salary as a rookie. Nevertheless, the return for Soriano was disappointing.

RULE 5 DRAFT

Fifteen players were selected in the Rule 5 draft. Two turned out to be significant acquisitions. The Texas Rangers picked right-handed pitcher Alexi Ogando from the Oakland A’s. Ogando was a successful pitcher for several seasons before he suffered arm injuries. As a starting pitcher, he won 13 games in 2011 for a Rangers team that went to the World Series, but he was primarily an effective setup reliever. In one of the all-time Rule 5 bargains, the Florida Marlins took Dan Uggla from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Uggla, a three-time All-Star second baseman, hit at least 30 home runs in every season from 2007 to 2011.

BUSINESS SIDE OF THE MEETING

Owners at the meeting took a harsher stance toward the use of steroids. By unanimous vote, they instituted a 50-game suspension for the first positive test for steroids, a 100-game suspension for a second positive test, and a lifetime suspension for a third positive (the previous penalties were lighter). The players union, meeting at the same time in Henderson, Nevada, ratified the owners’ decision. This was thought to be a good sign for the coming negotiations on a new contract. (The current contract was to expire after the 2006 season.) The players opened up a previously negotiated issue (the penalties for steroid use) under pressure from the owners, Congress, and the public.2

Major League Baseball also made a major announcement at the meeting about the World Baseball Classic. Some 177 players, including such stars as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Eric Gagne, Vladimir Guerrero, and Derek Jeter, agreed to play in the WBC. This 16-team international tournament was to be played during spring training in March 2006. A player could play for a country’s team if one of his parents was born in the country. Thus, future Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza and longtime major-league reliever Jason Grilli were on the Italian roster.3

Discussions continued about the definitive ownership of the Washington Nationals. In February of 2002, Major League Baseball had taken ownership of the Montreal Expos, and eventually moved them to Washington for the 2005 season. This, however, was considered to be a temporary solution, and the other 29 club owners were eager to find someone to take permanent possession of the Nationals. Four ownership groups under consideration. A group headed by Tennessee developer Franklin Haney may never have received serious consideration. Two of the groups had major Washington connections: One was headed by real-estate developer Ted Lerner, the other by Fred Malek, an investor and former White House aide. A fourth group, headed by Jeff Smulyan, a communications executive and former owner of the Seattle Mariners, was well-funded but lacked local ties.4 Ultimately, in 2006, the Lerner group received the franchise.

MINOR-LEAGUE MEETINGS

The minor-league meetings, held in conjunction with the major-league meetings, presented a mixed picture of the state of minor-league baseball. The Trenton Thunder of the Double-A Eastern League won the outstanding franchise award. The Brevard County Manatees of the Class-A Florida State League won the Larry MacPhail award for best promotions. In some respects, there was a darker tone. Mike Moore, president of the National Association, the minor leagues’ umbrella group, told a sportswriter that half of the 176 affiliated teams in minor-league baseball in 2005 would lose money. Only a few years previously, two-thirds of the franchises had been profitable. Sixteen successful teams made 60 percent of the profits. The fiscal crisis in the minor leagues was said to be caused by owners having to bear more of the costs of ballparks, and to soaring franchise prices.5

SUMMARY

The 2005 Winter Meetings left owners, players, the media, and fans with optimistic feelings. While labor negotiations loomed in 2006, the players’ acceptance of the stiffer drug penalties imposed by ownership was viewed as a good sign. Moreover, all of the player movement reflected competitive balance. With almost every team involved in free agency, trades, and the Rule 5 draft, a bright offseason outlook was possible for most teams, and their fans.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com and:

Baseball Information Solutions, The Bill James Handbook 2016 (Chicago: ACTA Sports, 2015).

Zimbalist, Andrew. Baseball and Billions (New York: Basic Books, 1992).

Notes

1 Andrew Zimbalist, In the Best Interests of Baseball (Hoboken, New .Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006), 168-169.

2 Barry Bloom, “Players Approve New Steroid Agreement,” mlb.com. December 8, 2005.

3 Tim Brown, “Major League Stars Sign Up for World Baseball Classic,” Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2005.

4 Tim Kurkjian, “Nationals Need an Owner Now,” espn.go.com , November 16, 2005.

5 Eric Fisher, “The State of Minor League Baseball 2005,” sportsbusinessdaily.com, December 5, 2005.

Though they lacked such modern tools as an amateur draft that drew from high-school, college, and amateur team rosters (which began in 1965), and free agency for veteran players (which started in 1975), Hamey and Quinn put together a winning team using the means at their disposal. When confronted with the age-old choice between bringing in new players as amateurs or acquiring more established players from other teams, the two GMs did both. As a result, the 19 regular players who made up the core of the 1964 Phillies were a fairly even mix of players developed in-house and those with experience with other clubs.

In 1964 most new players entering a team’s development system were usually amateur free agents – players who had not yet signed with another club. On the 1964 Phillies, nine regulars came to the team in this manner, including Dick Allen, Chris Short, and Rick Wise. Once signed, players typically spent several years with various minor-league teams associated with the major-league club. The Phillies who came up through the system averaged about 4⅓ seasons in the minors, ranging from Wise’s 12 games at Bakersfield, in the California State League (Class A), to Dallas Green and Bobby Wine’s six seasons on the farm.

Teams sometimes offered signing bonuses to amateur players when there was competition for their services, but the exact terms of the bonuses were not always made public. Two Phillies regulars signed for publicly-reported bonuses well in excess of the $14,863 that the average major leaguer made in 1964: Ray Culp was given $100,000 to sign, and Dick Allen was given $70,000. In addition, Art Mahaffey signed for a “standard” $4,000 bounty, while Chris Short received a signing bonus for an amount that was never made public.

By the late 1950s, concern by team owners over the size of signing bonuses had led to a series of steps that attempted to constrain them. At the 1958 winter meetings, baseball’s owners instituted the First-Year Player Draft.

Under the rules of this draft, teams could protect a limited number of major-league and minor-league players (39 in the first year of the draft.) Major-league teams then had an opportunity to select from a minor-league team any unprotected player who had completed one year in Organized Baseball, provided that the selecting team paid a fee to the player’s original team and kept him on the major-league roster. The Phillies took advantage of this draft to acquire two 1964 regulars: Jack Baldschun, who was chosen from the Cincinnati system in the 1960 draft, and Clay Dalrymple, who was taken from Milwaukee in 1959. Rick Wise’s short minor-league tenure was due to the fact that the Phillies had to keep him on their major-league roster in 1964 to protect him from being drafted by another team.

Because players of this era were tied to their clubs by the reserve clause, teams looking to acquire a player from another team’s protected roster had to work out a trade with the other team or an outright purchase of the player’s contract.

Seven 1964 Phillies regulars came to the team via trade: Ruben Amaro, Jim Bunning, Johnny Callison, Wes Covington, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, and Tony Taylor,. These players were a mix of major-league veterans, like Bunning, who had spent seven seasons in the Detroit Tigers’ rotation, and Roy Sievers, a 15-year veteran; and rookies like Callison and Gonzalez. One Phillies regular came to the team via a straight sale of his contract: Ed Roebuck, who was purchased from the Washington Senators.

Major leaguers could become free agents if they were released by the team that controlled their contract, but none of the 1964 Phillies came to the team in this manner.

The table below summarizes how the Phillies acquired their nineteen 1964 regulars.1

Table 1: Origins of 1964 Phillies Regular Players

How does the makeup of the 1964 Phillies compare to their rivals? Looking at the two teams they fought for the pennant – St. Louis and Cincinnati – they look quite similar.

The Cardinals’ origins largely mirror those of the Phillies, as shown in Table 2. The differences were that St. Louis did not utilize any players chosen through the First-Year Player Draft, while Philadelphia did not use any major-league free agents.

The Cardinals’ former free agent was, ironically, Curt Simmons, who was released by the Phillies. After the Phils cut him loose in 1960, Simmons was signed by St. Louis, where he earned nearly 70 wins over parts of seven seasons, including 18 in 1964. His record against his former mates was 19-6. He defeated the Phillies four times in 1964.

The Reds had a few more players acquired by sale and fewer brought in by trade. Overall, though, their roster shows a balance of players developed in-house and those who began their development elsewhere, not unlike the Phillies and Cardinals.

Table 2: Makeup of Rosters of 1964 NL Pennant Contenders

The one significant difference among the teams was the major-league experience of the players they traded for or acquired through purchase. Although all three clubs acquired a mix of veterans and rookies, the Phillies and Cardinals acquired more veterans. While Philadelphia brought in players with an average of 4.1 years as a major-league regular and the Cardinals brought in players with 3.9 years of major-league experience, the players acquired by the Reds had just 2.0 years as a regular. The Reds apparently put a slightly lower premium on players with major-league experience.

With fewer options in 1964 for putting together a major-league roster, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the three teams with such similar records were constructed in the same manner. Apparently, baseball’s unwritten rule book – the one that tells managers which players to use in certain situations – also contains a chapter or two for general managers.

JIM SWEETMAN’s paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland to work in the shipyards in Bristol, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s, establishing the family’s affinity for Philadelphia baseball. He remains a lifelong Phillies fan, despite growing up on the edge of the New York media market in central New Jersey and living for the past 25 years just outside Washington, D.C. Since 1994, he’s operated www.broadandpattison.com, a website providing daily slices of Phillies history, for which he has conducted extensive reviews of contemporary press accounts. He holds Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees from Rutgers University and an MBA from James Madison University. He is a senior official with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he manages efforts to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs, primarily those dealing with information technology.

Notes

The 20-year-old Clemente had a splendid 1954–55 season with Santurce, winners of the 1955 Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela. Clemente played left field, with Willie Mays in center and Bob Thurman in right field. George Crowe, Ronnie Samford, Buster Clarkson, and Don Zimmer were a formidable infield. Harry Chiti or Valmy Thomas did the catching. Sam Jones, Rubén Gómez, and Bill Greason were the key starting pitchers. Clemente became property of the Pittsburgh Pirates via the Rule 5 draft on November 22, 1954. Branch Rickey—who saw Clemente play in Puerto Rico—wrote Clemente a letter dated November 30, 1954, saying that he “had a habit of taking an extra step or so before throwing the ball, and this should be corrected.”2 Clemente, Mays, and batboy Orlando Cepeda joined Santurce manager Herman Franks for 11 a.m. practices to work on Clemente’s throwing approach. These practices created a bond between Clemente and Mays.

Bernier and Clemente’s connection to Negro Leaguers

Was Bernier a black Puerto Rican? The literature review says yes. Pedrín Zorrilla, owner of the Santurce Crabbers from 1939 to 1956, alleged—in August 1949—that the Negro Leagues transferred several contracts to organized-baseball clubs without the consent of these players’ organizations in Puerto Rico. Zorrilla specifically referred to the cases of pitcher José Guillermo Santiago with Dayton and Carlos Bernier—“the flashy Mayagüez outfielder”—under contract with Bristol of the Colonial League. Santiago pitched for the 1947 and ’48 New York Cubans. Bernier joined Bristol in 1949, then played in two games for Indianapolis, a Pittsburgh farm team, before returning to Bristol.3

Bernier dropped out of school in the sixth grade in Juana Díaz, a municipality nine miles east of Ponce and 26 miles west of Guayama. Cefo Conde, a star pitcher for the Guayama Witches with Satchel Paige in the late ’30s and early ’40s, was from Juana Díaz and was a mentor to Bernier. Conde brought the 19-year-old Bernier to Mayagüez in 1946 after the outfielder had been a plumber’s aide, cut sugar cane, and served in the Army. Bernier looked up to Mayagüez teammates in the late 1940s, including Negro Leaguers Artie Wilson, Alonzo Perry, Wilmer Fields, Johnny Davis, and Luke Easter. A highlight of Bernier’s 1948–49 postseason was the February trip to Havana, Cuba, for the first-ever Caribbean Series, where the host team won it all with Monte Irvin.

Clemente idolized Irvin and Larry Doby when they starred for the San Juan Senators in 1945–46 and 1946–47, when Clemente was 11 and 12.4 He would take the bus from Carolina to Sixto Escobar Stadium, home of the Senators and the Crabbers. Six years later, Clemente, a Santurce rookie, was summoned by player-manager Clarkson to pinch-hit for Thurman in the eighth inning of a tie game in Caguas. Clemente’s two-run double won it. When Thurman congratulated him it was his biggest thrill in pro baseball to that point. Clemente was an 18-year-old high schooler while Thurman was a hitting star for Santurce.5

Bernier makes it to Pittsburgh

The Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars, not Pittsburgh, drafted Bernier on December 3, 1951, in the minor-league draft.6 The 5-foot-8 Bernier, nicknamed “Bandit” and “Comet,” batted .301 with nine home runs and 79 RBIs with the 1952 Stars, with a league-leading 105 runs and 65 stolen bases for manager Fred Haney. Groucho Marx spoke for the universe of Stars fans when he said, “Sending Bernier from the first-place Stars to the last-place Pirates would be a demotion.”7  Bernier and pitcher Johnny Lindell were sold to Pittsburgh under a working agreement between the two clubs.

Bernier was fortunate the 1953 Pirates held their spring training in Havana. Rickey wanted the club to relocate away from Florida due to its 40­–112 season in 1952. Havana was a better venue than Florida for Bernier because it had less racial tension and offered him a level of comfort as a Spanish-speaking, Caribbean island. Cuban fans loved to bet on baseball games but were frustrated when Pirates manager Haney removed starting players early in games against the Philadelphia Athletics and a Cuban All-Star team.8 Haney was impressed with Bernier, saying, “He can run, throw and go get a ball. . . . first time I saw him last spring, I didn’t think he could hit, but he fooled me. Once he gets on base, he’s hard to stop. He’s a streak.”9

Bernier’s 1953 highlight was three triples in a game against Cincinnati on May 2, 10 days after his debut. A hitting slump from mid-May to June 30 affected Bernier’s playing time. Rickey weighed in on Bernier in late July: “He’s a first-year player, strange to the language, nervous in the big leagues. He simply needs orientation.”10 For the season, Bernier batted .213 and stole 15 bases.

He had a fine 1953–54 winter season for Mayagüez. He was chosen over Santurce’s Clemente to reinforce the Caguas Criollos in left field for the Caribbean Series, won by Caguas under player-manager Mickey Owen. Caguas bested Cuba, Panama, and Venezuela at Sixto Escobar Stadium. Bernier was cut by the 1954 Pirates in spring training and Swarthmore College graduate Dick Hall made the parent club instead. Bernier never played another regular-season game in the major leagues. He spent the next four years with the Hollywood Stars.

Clemente, Pittsburgh’s next outfielder from Puerto Rico

Fort Myers was intimidating and difficult for black players in 1955. Luis Arroyo, a St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, traveled with Clemente from Puerto Rico to ensure Roberto got situated before Arroyo went on to St. Petersburg. Clemente and other black players lived in the black Dunbar Heights neighborhood of Fort Myers, across the railroad tracks on the town’s east side.11

Pittsburgh had six black players in camp: outfielders Bernier, Clemente, and Cuban Román Mejías, plus second baseman Roberts and pitchers Donoso and Domingo Rossello. The Bernier-Clemente-Mejías trio made up the first all-Caribbean outfield in the majors when Pittsburgh visited the Phillies at Clearwater on March 13, 1955.12

Clemente impressed Rickey, manager Haney, and sportswriter Al Abrams, who wrote in the March 14, 1955, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Clemente is an outfielder with the verve and showmanship of a Willie Mays, a player he imitates to quite a degree. . . . Clemente will be the right Forbes Field ticket. The dusky Puerto Rican was the delight of more than 2,500 Floridians, transplanted Pittsburghers and just plain tourists. . . . every time we looked up there was Roberto showing his flashing heels and gleaming white teeth to the loud screams of bleacher fans.”13 Clemente was guaranteed a roster spot on the 1955 Pirates, and followed Bernier’s advice to focus on baseball.

Talent, controversies, and fines

Clemente duplicated Bernier’s three-triple game against Cincinnati on September 8, 1958, in his fourth big-league season.14 He had a marvelous Caribbean Series for the 1957–58 Caguas Criollos, batting .391 in the 1958 classic hosted by Puerto Rico.15 Clemente’s career Caribbean Series batting average was .327, but his slugging average was more impressive.

Table 1: Top 10 Caribbean Series Slugging Average, 50+ Plate Appearances

# Wilmer Fields played two series for Puerto Rico and one for Venezuela. Tony Pérez is from Cuba but represented Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series.

Bernier played for the Hollywood Stars in 1954–57; the Salt Lake City Bees in 1958–59; the Columbus Jets and Indianapolis Indians in 1960–61; and the Hawaii Islanders in 1961–64. He spent 1965 with the Reynosa Broncs in the Class AA Mexican League before a farewell winter with the 1965–66 Arecibo Lobos.16 He was a superb player, though one with many suspensions and fines. Fans in Puerto Rico compared his hard-nosed, spikes-high style to that of Ty Cobb. His June 1954 fight with Los Angeles Angels infielder Bud Hardin resulted in a $50 fine and a suspension. Two months later, on August 11, Bernier was suspended for the rest of the season after slapping umpire Chris Valenti. He admitted he was “not well; was beaned in 1948 and have been nervous and aching in the head ever since.”17 After the game, a tearful Bernier apologized to Valenti and they shook hands.18 Bernier frequently scuffled with Angels second baseman Gene Mauch, who claimed Bernier would steal bases with Hollywood way ahead. Mauch repeatedly picked up dirt and threw it into Bernier’s face after Bernier slid into second.19 One prominent fight happened in Puerto Rico on November 5, 1955, when Mayagüez played Caguas. Gary Blaylock, pitching for Mayagüez, hit Vic Power with a pitch. Mayagüez’s Jim Gentile was beaned by Tom Lasorda and a fight broke out. Bernier joined the fracas and got a black eye. Lasorda’s uniform was ripped.20

Clemente, with San Juan, was involved in a dispute at first base in the tiebreaker game for fourth place at the end of the 1961–62 regular season. Umpire Mel Steiner called Clemente out at first on a close call on a grounder to Arecibo shortstop Germán Rivera. Clemente was cleared when he testified at a league hearing that he argued with Steiner, whose angle “was not a good one,” adding, “My teammate Chico Ruiz grabbed me to keep Steiner from giving me the heave. . . . If I had said something vulgar or even hit Steiner, he would have thumbed me out of the game.” Doug Harvey, the umpire who handed Clemente the ball after hit number 3,000 with Pittsburgh on September 30, 1972, was at this hearing. He was an arbiter in the Arecibo-San Juan contest.21

Clemente showed less restraint in a May 1963 Pirates home game against Philadelphia. After first base umpire Bill Jackowski called him out on a double-play grounder, Clemente’s five-minute rant included twice bumping Jackowski. National League President Warren Giles sent Clemente a telegram announcing his five-game suspension along with a $250 fine, calling his actions “the most serious reported to our office in several years.”22

Bernier and Clemente as San Juan Senators teammates

Bernier and Clemente were San Juan teammates in 1959–60 and 1960–61. The first of those teams went 41–23 in the regular season prior to a semifinal series win and a best-of-nine-finals loss to Caguas. Clemente batted .330, third in the batting race. Power, Caguas player-manager and batting champ, was not sure Clemente was going to be the superstar he became with Pittsburgh from 1960 on because of a bad back, but he never questioned Clemente’s effort. Bernier’s 21 stolen bases in 1959–60 were second to Caguas’s Félix Mantilla, who stole 23.  Clemente and Bernier finished second and third in triples with six and five, behind teammate Nino Escalera’s seven.23

The 1960–61 San Juan club won the league finals over Caguas. Bob Leith, San Juan’s owner, did not send player contracts out by the June 1, 1960, deadline, but Clemente agreed to $1,500 per month, the same salary from a year earlier. Bernier signed with San Juan but sat out 1961–62 due to a salary dispute. San Juan’s imports, or stateside players, wanted more money to play in the February 1961 Interamerican Series, a four-team round-robin tournament hosted by Venezuela. Clemente displayed his leadership skills in a 10-minute closed-door meeting when he affirmed all players would receive the same salary stipulated in their contract, and he would call Commissioner Ford Frick if they refused to honor their contracts.24 San Juan fell short, with two losses to Bob Gibson of the Valencia Industrialists. Valencia won this event over Puerto Rico, Panama, and a second team from Venezuela.

Bernier’s baseball legacy

In 11 seasons in the Pacific Coast League, Bernier played in 1,571 games, batted .302 with 147 home runs and 777 RBIs, scored 1,005 runs, and stole 308 stolen bases.25 He was inducted into the PCL Hall of Fame in 2004. His single-season record of 41 stolen bases in Puerto Rico, set in 1949–50, was eclipsed by Rickey Henderson’s 44 in 1980–81 for the Ponce Lions.26 Bernier’s 69 stolen bases in back-to-back Puerto Rico seasons (1949–50 and 1950–51) are a record, ahead of Henderson’s 63 in 1979–80 and 1980–81. Rogers Hornsby, Ponce’s manager in 1950–51, tried to acquire Bernier in a trade with Mayagüez, according to Wayne Blackburn, Mayagüez’s manager. Bernier was inducted into the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992.

Testimonials from fans and players

Jim Lyons was born in Hollywood, California, and became a Stars fan in 1954. In a November 2014 blog post, he wrote: “Before games, the team let kids go near the dugouts to get autographs. Many players like Bobby Del Greco would come out and sign for five or 10 minutes. Bernier would sign for a half hour or longer. He would personalize the autograph: ‘To my friend Jimmy from Carlos Bernier.’ He would talk to you and look at you. He is my all-time favorite player. My oldest son has the middle name Carlos.”27

Clemente, as a young player, “found relief with the fans, and after games, loved nothing more than to stand surrounded by admiring strangers, and sign his autograph on their scorecards and baseballs for as long as they wished.” 28 Mario Mendoza was befriended by Clemente in Bradenton, Florida, during spring training in 1971. Mendoza and other minor leaguers came in for dinner at 5:30 p.m. and left an hour later when the big leaguers entered. Clemente stayed outside the dining hall, chatting with Mendoza and the others until the last call was made for big leaguers to eat. Clemente told the youngsters: “The heck with the meal. I’ll eat somewhere else later in the evening. Let’s keep talking.” After the Pirates won the 1971 World Series, Clemente was asked if he had ever played with such a powerful team. He said, “Yes, when the Santurce Crabbers won the [1955] Caribbean Series.”29

THOMAS E. VAN HYNING, U.S. correspondent for the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame, 1991–96, presented at SABR 25 in Pittsburgh (1995). He authored “Puerto Rico’s Winter League,” “The Santurce Crabbers,” Rubén Gómez and Dick Hughes SABR bios, and others. Tom saw Roberto Clemente and Carlos Bernier play in Puerto Rico’s Winter League. He is a Tourism Economist and Data Analyst in Mississippi, and member of Arkansas’s Robinson-Kell SABR Chapter. His BBA degree is from The University of Georgia. Master’s degrees are from Southern Illinois-Carbondale and a Puerto Rico university.

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment to Jorge Colón Delgado for insights on Carlos Bernier and Roberto Clemente. Thanks to these former players who played with or against Bernier and Clemente: Mario Mendoza, Ozzie Virgil Sr., Rubén Gómez (deceased) and Vic Power (deceased). Thanks to Wayne Blackburn (deceased), who managed Bernier at Mayagüez, and to Rickey Henderson, all-time major-league stolen base leader and single-season Puerto Rico stolen base record-holder.

Sources

Books

Stew Thornley, “Roberto Clemente,” in Puerto Rico and Baseball: 60 Biographies, Bill Nowlin and Edwin Fernández, eds (Phoenix: SABR Digital Library, 2017), 87–103. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8b153bc4.

Thomas E. Van Hyning, “Rubén Gómez” in Puerto Rico and Baseball, 146–56. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/7d94a891.

Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Third Edition (Durham: Baseball America, 2007).

Rafael Costas, Enciclopedia Beisbol Ponce Leones 1938–1987 (Santo Domingo: Editora Coripio, 1987).

Rick Swain, The Integration of Major League Baseball: A Team by Team History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 116.

Thomas E. Van Hyning, The Santurce Crabbers (Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 1999).

Online

“Carlos Bernier,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bernica01.shtml.

Burly, “The Pacific Coast League’s First Black Baseball Stars, Part III,” Burly’s Baseball Musings, July 19, 2013. https://notanotherbaseballblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/the-pacific-coast-leagues-first-black-stars-part-iii. Accessed December 31, 2017.

Articles

“Bucs Sell Four Players, Option Two to Hollywood,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 7, 1954.

“Claims Negro Leagues Raid Puerto Rico and Sell Stars to Majors,” New York Age, August 6, 1949.

David Wharton and Lance Pugmire, “Park Place,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2002. http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/27/sports/sp-wrigley27/2. Accessed July 7, 2017.

Frank Deford, “Liege Lord of Latin Hopes,” Sports Illustrated, December 24, 1973. https://www.si.com/vault/1973/12/24/618486/liege-lord-of-latin-hopes. Accessed April 30, 2018.

Jack Hernon, “Haney’s Size-up on Bob Clemente ‘Much to Learn,’” The Sporting News, March 16, 1955.

John Schulian, “Of Stars and Angels” Sports Illustrated, June 21, 1993. https://www.si.com/vault/1993/06/21/128782/of-stars-and-angels-once-upon-a-time-tinseltown-was-a-heavely-place-to-watch-minor-league-baseball. Accessed January 5, 2018.

Thomas E. Van Hyning, “Hall of Famers Shine in Puerto Rico,” The National Pastime 12 (1992), 14–16.

Xavier F. Totti, “The Case for Carlos Bernier: Baseball’s Historic Omission,” Centro Voices, February 5, 2016. https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/chronicles/case-carlos-bernier-baseballs-historic-omission. Accessed December 27, 2017.

Personal Interviews

Mario Mendoza, in-person interview, Smith-Wills Stadium, Jackson, Mississippi, July 1994.

Ozzie Virgil Sr., telephone interview, January 1993.

Rickey Henderson, in-person interview, Camden Yards, Baltimore, May 19, 1992.

Rubén Gómez, in-person interview, Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan, Puerto Rico, January 1992.

Vic Power (Víctor Pellot), in-person interview, Ponce, Puerto Rico, October 20, 1991.

Wayne Blackburn, telephone interview, April 1992.

Notes

1 Cliff Corcoran, “Sons of Jackie Robinson,” SI.com, April 15, 2014. https://www.si.com/mlb/strike-zone/2014/04/15/jackie-robinson-day-mlb-integration-ernie-banks-elston-howard-larry-doby. Accessed April 30, 2018. Respected historians and sportswriters from the 1950s through today, plus Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican ballplayers who played with and against Bernier, believe or believed Bernier should be considered the first black player in Pirates history. This includes writers from African American publications; Larry Lester, Negro Leagues historian and co-founder of the Negro Leagues Museum; Jorge Colón Delgado, historian, Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League; Rubén Gómez, Vic Power (Víctor Pellot), Ozzie Virgil Sr; Joe Guzzardi, Xavier F. Totti, and Bernier’s son, Néstor Collazo Bernier. 

2 Jorge Colón Delgado, La Maquinaria Perfecta: Santurce Cangrejeros 1954–55 (San Juan: Historical Sports Research, 2007), 73–76. The Puerto Rico Winter League was renamed after Roberto Clemente in May 2012.

3 Bernier was considered a black player in organized baseball in 1948, when he played for Port Chester. Two other black Puerto Ricans—Rubén Gómez and Nino Escalera—were Bernier’s teammates with the 1949 Bristol Owls, Colonial League champions. Bernier and Gómez were teammates with St. Jean (Canada), Provincial League, after the Colonial League folded. Bernier played in the Manitoba-Dakota League, a Canadian Negro League, circa 1947. Gómez told the author Bernier was considered a black player when they were teammates. Ozzie Virgil Sr., Detroit’s first black player in 1958, had a complection similar to Bernier’s. He told the author: “Bernier (as a Mayagüez teammate and in the minors) had a compact swing and a good ‘inside-outside’ stroke to right field.” 

4 Clemente and Irvin were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the 1973 ceremony. Clemente is in the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame (1991), Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame (2003), and others.

5 Bob Thurman was the first African American player with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1951 and played for the 1952 Seals. Thurman is the all-time Puerto Rico League career home run leader with 120.

6 “Carlos Bernier: Hollywood Bought and Sold,” Unknown Transaction, July 10, 2015. Located at http://unknowntransaction.blogspot.com/2015/07/carlos-bernier-hollywood-bought-and-sold.html. Accessed April 30, 2018. Bernier was the first black player to play for the Hollywood Stars in 1952. He had a stellar season with the 1951 Tampa Bay Smokers, managed by Ben Chapman, in the Class B Florida International League. Bernier was the first Afro-Caribbean player for the Smokers, preceding Cuban outfielder Claro Duany and others.

7 Joe Guzzardi, “Carlos Bernier, more than a footnote,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 14, 2013. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2013/04/14/Carlos-Bernier-more-than-a-footnote/stories/201304140150. Accessed April 30, 2018.

8 Guzzardi, “Playing ball in Cuba,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 29, 2014. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2014/03/30/Pirates-playing-ball-in-Cuba-JOE-GUZZARDI/stories/201403300161. Accessed April 30, 2018.

9 J.G. Preston, “One and Done: The Sparky Anderson All-Stars,” J.G. Preston Experience, April 9, 2013. https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013/o4/09/one-and-done-the-sparky-anderson-all-stars. Accessed July 31, 2017.

10 C.C. Johnson Spink, “The Low Down on Majors’ Big Shots,” The Sporting News, January 6, 1954. The story calls Bernier the “most temperamental Pirate.” Some other “temperamental” players: Larry Doby (Cleveland), Ted Williams (Boston), Satchel Paige (St. Louis Browns), Eddie Mathews (Milwaukee), and Eddie Stanky (St. Louis Cardinals).

11 David Maraniss, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 67. Pittsburgh’s white players stayed at the downtown Bradford Hotel. Clemente lived in a room of a widow’s house on Lime Street. This was the second spring training in Florida for Clemente and Bernier.

12 Charles F. Faber, “Carlos Bernier,” in Puerto Rico and Baseball: 60 Biographies, Bill Nowlin and Edwin Fernández, eds (Phoenix: SABR Digital Library, 2017), 49. Faber’s excellent bio stated this perhaps was the first all-Puerto Rico outfield in a major-league game, but Román Mejías is Cuban. The 1973 St. Louis Cardinals had three Cruz brothers from Puerto Rico—José, Héctor and Cirilo “Tommy”—but they were not in the outfield at the same time in a major-league game. Héctor Cruz, Jerry Morales and Carlos Lezcano did play the outfield together in a regular-season game for the 1981 Chicago Cubs.

13 Al Abrams, “Sidelights on Sports,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 14, 1955.

14 Through the 2017 season, three triples in one game had been done 26 times by 25 players in the National League since 1899, including five times by Pirates players: In addition to Bernier and Clemente, the other three were Ginger Beaumont on August 9, 1899; Dave Brain on August 8, 1905; and Chief Wilson on July 24, 1911. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_trip1.shtml.

15 Tony Piña Cámpora, “Serie del Caribe: Historia de la Confederación,” 2014. http://www.beisboldelcaribe.com/home/documentos/SCARIBEHISTORIA.pdf. Accessed April 30, 2018. Clemente had 16 hits in 49 at-bats for the combined 1955 and 1958 Caribbean Series. His 29 total bases included two home runs, a double, and three triples. Clemente was the All-Star center fielder of the 1958 Caribbean Series; Mays was the All-Star center fielder in 1955. Clemente was inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, a decade after Mays. Phase I, Caribbean Series, 1949–60, was with Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Phase II is 1970 to the present. Current teams are Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The Interamerican Series took place 1961–64. 

16  “Carlos Bernier,” Baseball-Reference.com,  https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bernie001car. Full name: Carlos Eugene Bernier Rodríguez. Born in Juana Díaz on January 28, 1927; died in Juana Díaz on April 6, 1989.

17 Preston, “One and Done.”

18 Faber, “Carlos Bernier,” 49.

19 Steve Treder, “Carlos Bernier,” Hardball Times, August 25, 2004. https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/carlos-bernier/. Accessed December 27, 2017. 

20 Héctor Barea, Historia de los Criollos (San Juan: Ana G. Méndez University System, 1997). 

21 Thomas E. Van Hyning, Puerto Rico’s Winter League (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1995), 64.

22 Maraniss, Clemente, 202. Clemente was particularly sensitive to close plays at first base and on plays called errors by official scorers that might have been infield hits.  

23 José A. Crescioni Benítez, El Béisbol Profesional Boricua, (San Juan: First Book Publishing of Puerto Rico, 1997), 101–2, 236, 241, 351, 354. Bernier stole 286 bases in 19 seasons, the most all-time. He led the league five times and was runner-up nine times. Bernier’s 85 career triples in Puerto Rico are the standard. His lifetime batting average was .268, 4,126 at-bats, 739 runs, 1,107 hits, 151 doubles, 48 home runs, 415 RBI. Clemente has the fourth-highest league batting average: .324, behind Willard Brown at .350; “Pancho” Coimbre’s .337; and Perucho Cepeda’s .325. Clemente had 1,917 at-bats, 302 runs, 621 hits, 100 doubles, 25 triples, 35 home runs, 268 RBI, and 32 stolen bases.

24 Van Hyning, Puerto Rico’s Winter League, 62.

25  “Carlos Bernier,” MILB.com, http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?sid=l112&ymd=20110503&content_id=18574638&vkey=league3.

26 Van Hyning, “Henderson Runs Past Cobb and Bernier,” Baseball Research Journal, 21 (1992), 20–21. Rickey Henderson agreed to an interview by the author in the Camden Yards visitor clubhouse upon hearing he still held Puerto Rico’s single-season stolen base mark. Henderson stole 44 bases in 48 games for Ponce in 1980–81 during a 60-game season. Bernier stole 41 bases during an 80-game season in 1949–50.

27 Treder, “Carlos Bernier.”

28 Maraniss, Clemente, 87.  

29 Colón Delgado, La Maquinaria Perfecta, back cover. The 1954–55 Santurce Crabbers were considered the best Caribbean, Central, or South American Winter League team ever assembled, per sportswriters, fans, and players.

In early 1961, nearly 44 years after the event, Al Laney recalled Ernie Shore’s unique pitching achievement against the Washington Senators with a memorable opening line in the New York Herald Tribune: “On a Saturday in the summer of 1917 at Fenway Park in Boston, a tall, slim handsome young man settled down on the end of the Red Sox bench prepared for a long afternoon of idleness. A double header with Washington was on but it was not Shore’s turn to pitch.”

The events to follow have taken on the force of baseball legend. Boston starting pitcher Babe Ruth became agitated after walking Ray Morgan, Washington’s leadoff hitter; Ruth then confronted umpire Brick Owens about balls and strikes, suffering a swift ejection; Shore entered the game; and, after Morgan was caught stealing on the first pitch, Shore retired the next 26 batters consecutively, resulting in what would, for many years, be considered a perfect game.

The Shore game is likely the most remembered baseball event of 1917. Its only plausible challenger for the most remarkable moment of the season is the Red-Cubs double no-hit game which took place nearly two months earlier. Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Chicago Cubs were untouchable in the only game in which neither team got a hit over nine innings. Yet, because of the never-to-be duplicated set of circumstances surrounding Shore’s achievement, Shore’s feat justifiably follows the Merkle Game in 1908 and Game Seven of the 1912 World Series as the most remembered of the Deadball Era.

Then 26 years old, Shore was anything but a pitching novice. Having pitched superbly in both the 1915 and 1916 World Series, Shore was already a formidable, if underrated, pitcher. But the understated Shore had the misfortune of being perpetually in the shadow of Babe Ruth, his onetime roommate. The renown that Shore would normally have received for winning both the opening and deciding games of the 1916 World Series was trumped by Ruth having pitched 13 shutout innings in Game Two, in what Hugh S. Fullerton wrote in the New York Times the next day was “the greatest world’s series game ever played, before perhaps the greatest crowd that ever saw one.” That Ruth was buoyed by great defense during Game Two or that Shore did not give up an earned run while pitching a complete game in the deciding Game Two are details which have been forgotten over time.

Today, as then, Shore’s performance on June 23, 1917 is seen first and foremost through the lens of Ruth. Even in Shore’s 1980 obituary in the New York Times, the two remained linked, with the headline “Ernie Shore; Pitched A Rare Perfect Game After Relieving Ruth” at least partially taking the spotlight away from the former Red Sox right-hander. In Babe: The Legend Comes To Life, Robert Creamer offered this summary of the dynamic:

“Shore pitched in the minor leagues with him at Baltimore and was a better pitcher then than the Babe; yet Ruth was adulated far more than Shore. When the two of them were sold together to the Boston Red Sox, newspaper comment of the day said that the transaction could not help but be a good one for the Red Sox because of Ruth. But with Boston it was Shore who moved right in as a starting pitcher, while Ruth faltered and was sent back to the minor leagues again for a time…

“In 1917 Shore pitched a perfect game, one of the rarest feats in baseball. The Babe started that game and was thrown out of it by the plate umpire before getting anyone out. Shore, sent hurriedly to the mound in Ruth’s place, did not allow anyone to reach base to reach base in the nine full innings that followed and was credited with a perfect game. Baseball fans are more aware of that game because of Ruth than because of Shore. Even then, on his biggest day in baseball, Shore’s solid accomplishment was overshadowed by the Babe’s personality.”

Accounts of Ruth’s clash with umpire Brick Owens outline the same general sequence of events but differ in the descriptions. In the Boston Globe game story published the next day, Ruth reportedly became agitated over two of the pitches called as balls during Morgan’s at-bat. “‘Get in there and pitch,’ ordered Owens. ‘Open your eyes and keep them open,’ chirped Babe. ‘Get in and pitch or I will run you out of there’ was the comeback of the arbiter. ‘You run me out and I will come in and bust you on the nose,’ Ruth threatened. ‘Get out of there now,’ said Brick.” The story then says that catcher Pinch Thomas (referred to in the article as ‘Chester Thomas’) tried to get in between Ruth and Owens, who was still wearing his mask, but that Ruth began “swinging both hands,” striking Owens with his right hand “behind the left ear.” Finally, “Manager [Jack] Barry and several policemen had to drag Ruth off the field.”

Creamer’s account uses entirely different dialogue: “‘Open your eyes!’ Ruth yelled. ‘Open your eyes!’ ‘It’s too early for you to kick,’ the umpire yelled back. ‘Get in there and pitch!’ Ruth stomped around the mound angrily, wound up and threw again. ‘Ball four!’ Owens snapped. Ruth ran in toward the plate. ‘Why don’t you open your god-damned eyes?’ he screamed. ‘Get back out there and pitch,’ Owens shouted, ‘or I’ll run you out of the game.’ ‘You run me out of the game, and I’ll bust you one on the nose.’ Owens stepped across the plate and waved his arm. ‘Get the hell out of here!’ he cried. ‘You’re through.’

“Ruth rushed him,” continues Creamer. “Chester Thomas, the catcher, got between the angry pitcher and the umpire, but Ruth swung anyway, over the catcher’s shoulder. He missed with a right, but a left caught Owens on the back of the neck. Ruth was in a frenzy, and Thomas and Jack Barry, who came running to the plate, had to pull him away from the umpire. A policeman came down from the stands and led the still fuming Ruth off the field.”

But Ruth’s account in his own autobiography, The Babe Ruth Story as told to Bob Considine, complicates matters further, as Ruth incorrectly refers to Eddie Foster as the first batter (Foster batted second), says that he threatened to punch Owens “on the jaw” (rather than the nose, as Creamer cited), and says that Thomas and other players dragged him off the field, without mentioning police intervention at all. Writing in Sports Illustrated in 1962, Mal Mallette said Ruth threw “a looping right-hand punch,” while noting that some said Ruth punched Owens on the jaw while others said that Ruth hit the umpire behind the left ear. Perhaps the only universally agreed-upon details are contained in one contemporary headline, which encapsulated the events succinctly: “Shore Is Not Hit; Umpire Is, by Ruth.”

But what is most unusual about the Shore game is that, for all the attention provided to the squabble with Ruth, the on-field action that followed is usually discussed in much less detail. Once again, Shore seems to have been dwarfed by baseball’s most renowned player and character. It is almost as if Shore’s performance, though efficient, did not have sufficient color to merit much more than platitudes or generalities. One representative example, the aforementioned story by Laney: “Allowed only five warm-up pitches, Shore went to work, and when he was done two hours later he had achieved that rarest of baseball feats, a perfect game.”

The vintage Globe account offers the most comprehensive account of the game’s action, saying:

“Ernie just breezed along calmly. He fielded his position well and was ready for any of those cantankerous bunts that the opponents might try to lay down but strange to say the Griffmen were off that stuff, relying mostly on the slam-bang system. The Carolinian is indebted to Scotty (shortstop Everett Scott) and Duffy Lewis for making his record. The Bluffton Kid robbed (Charlie) Jamieson of a hit in the fifth when a hard hit ball was deflected by Shore, Scotty being obliged to travel fast. However, he made a one hand pick-up and tossed out the runner.

“In the seventh, ‘Duff’ went back to his own little cliff for a bang from Morgan and in the final frame came in like lightning and speared one that (John) Henry had planted in short left. Shore fanned only two and it did not seem as if he was working hard. He made a number of nifty plays himself. Barry closed the game with a grand play on a swinging bunt by pinch hitter (Mike) Menosky. … When later asked about the propriety of a bunt—swinging or not—late in a no-hitter, Shore was unfazed, saying: “That’s the way (manager) Clark Griffith was. He never gave the opponents a thing.”

In a May 21, 1952 interview published in The Sporting News, Shore said: “I’ve never seen a more helpless team in baseball than Washington was that day. They hardly got the ball out of the infield all day.” Shore, though, said years later that his best game was a 13-inning, 1-0 victory against the Detroit Tigers in 1915. “If my fastball was breaking, I could beat anybody,” he said.

Originally considered a perfect game since Shore retired 27 consecutive batters after entering the game, including the one baserunner that he inherited, the game was later changed to a combined no-hitter following a re-evaluation by Major League Baseball in 1991 under Commissioner Fay Vincent’s direction. Given the question that persisted from the start of how Shore could have pitched a perfect game when he did not pitch a complete game, he said: “I don’t know what they meant when they said I didn’t pitch a complete game. But how complete is complete? You have to get 27 men out and I got 26 and the other was retired when I was pitching. No other pitcher retired a single batter.”

Just as Harvey Haddix would no longer be credited with a no-hitter in a game in which he allowed a hit, Shore would not be listed as a pitcher who threw a perfect game since one runner did reach base. Though no longer the third pitcher of the modern era, following Cy Young and Addie Joss, to pitch a perfect game, Shore noted that the novelty of the game itself would make his effort more well-remembered than the perfect game of, say, Charlie Robertson.

Following his retirement, Shore served as sheriff of Forsyth County in North Carolina, a position in which he served for 36 years. He was the first sheriff in North Carolina to equip police cars with two-way radios, according to the New York Times, and also became president of the State Sheriff’s Association. The baseball park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was also named in Shore’s honor.

Laney reported in 1961 that the 69-year old Shore and “the slim young man of Fenway in front of whom life stretched so pleasantly in 1917 is the same.” Shore’s fame from baseball also extended into his post-playing life: “Practically everyone has heard of me,” said Shore. “If I have to pick up a prisoner in some remote spot, I generally get special treatment I wouldn’t get otherwise. People are always asking me about that game. I can’t say I really mind.” In the second game of that doubleheader, incidentally, Dutch Leonard pitched a complete game against Walter Johnson while the Senators got only four hits.

“Ernie Shore had pitched many a fine game for Boston, including World Series victories, but he never had and never would pitch another game such as this one,” said Laney. “Say his name anywhere that baseball is known about, and this one day at Fenway will spring to mind.” Perfect game or not, Shore’s remarkable performance from one-hundred years ago remains one of the most distinctive moments of the Deadball Era and, much like the Merkle game, offers a confluence of events that baseball fans surely will never witness again.

JOHN McMURRAY is chair of SABR’s Deadball Era Research Committee. Contact him at deadball@sabr.org.