Now that the Colorados have gone back to their Coors for the winter, and the Bostonians can scout the playing fields of Japan until March, I for one will miss live baseball. We need more right here.
Sonoma Valley was the professional baseball focus of northern California for six weeks every spring between the years 1924 and 1949. It all started when the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League (then AA, later AAA) decided that Boyes Hot Springs would make an ideal location for their spring training.
The Seals were delayed making the arrangements due to a fire that swept the ball field where the Fiesta Shopping Center is now, and destroyed the Boyes Springs Hotel intended for housing the players. However, by 1926 Boyes Springs became their regular spring home. A grandstand was constructed so people could watch the Seals and visiting clubs from around the league before the official season opened in April.
The Pacific Coast League was founded in 1903. The other near-majors were the International League and the American Association, both in the eastern U.S. The PCL consistently included teams from San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Sacramento. Other teams that came and went included San Diego, Hollywood, a second San Francisco team called the Mission Reds, Salt Lake City and the industrial Los Angeles neighborhood of Vernon. The players included many rookies who were potential major leaguers, many who were on their “way down” from the big time, as well as regulars who preferred to stay west where the weather was better, they were close to home and received about the same pay as in the majors.
Until after World War II, the teams always traveled by train. The largest and most modern ball park was Seals Stadium in San Francisco, opened in 1931, which could hold 25,000 spectators.
Some of the Seals stars who were future major leaguers that locals could watch up close during those spring training games were Baseball Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Paul “Big Poison” Waner, Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner, Vernon “Lefty” Gomez (most World Series wins at six) and other top-flight players like Dominic DiMaggio; Ferris Fain, a slick fielding first baseman and twice American League batting champion; pitcher Larry Jansen, ace of the New York Giants; Tony Lazzeri, ex-Yankee star; and catchers Will Leonard and Roy Partee, who both had lengthy big league careers.
The popular Fain made the news a few years before his recent death when he was caught operating a large marijuana “farm” in the Sierra Nevadas.
And there was sensational shortstop Froilan “Nanny” Fernandez, who tore up the PCL in 1941 (first in runs batted in and second in batting average) and was quickly purchased by the Boston Braves. Nanny spent a decade at short for the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the time, Fernandez was one of the half dozen Hispanics in professional baseball.
The Seals left their Boyes Hot Springs diamond in 1946, when a new part owner decided to hold spring training at his ranch in Hawaii. However, the Oakland Oaks took over the Springs baseball field between 1946 and 1948, with a colorful nine featuring the legendary Casey Stengel as manager and hot dog players like Billy Martin. When the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers brought major league baseball west in 1958, the Seals and Oaks were gone, moving to Tacoma and Vancouver.
Baseball had followed on the heels of the gold seekers with organized teams in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and Stockton (the “Mudville” of the epic poem “Casey at the Bat”) surfacing by the late 1850s. A state baseball tournament was held in the mid-1860s. In 1869 the nation’s first fulltime professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, took the newly finished transcontinental railroad west to promote baseball with games against local teams. Somewhat unstable four-team leagues were organized, like the California League and, in the late 1890s, the Pacific States League. The teams were talented amateurs or passed the hat and divided the take among the players.
In 1903, just as the National and American Leagues were formalizing their relationship, six West Coast team owners organized the Pacific Coast League, which put the Bay Area and Los Angeles together for the first time. Quality professional baseball was here to stay.
Even though by 1950 Sonoma Valley no longer would play host to teams in the pre-season spring, it became an attractive home for sterling retired ball players. Living quietly in Glen Ellen for many years was Mark Koenig, infielder with the 1927 world champion New York Yankees “murderer’s row,” which included immortal hitters Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The late “Babe” Pinelli had a successful career as a major league infielder, but achieved lasting fame in a single game, not as a player, but as the umpire behind the plate when Yankee Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in the sixth game of the 1956 World Series.
Still living in the Valley is Art Schallock, a Yankee relief pitcher and World Series veteran in the early 1950s. Bill Bowen, currently a popular volunteer local girls’ softball coach, was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as a centerfielder after being named a Bay Area high school all star, and was soon a regular with the AAA Montreal team (where Jackie Robinson had spent his first professional year). In his early 20s, Bill was a step away from the majors. Then in an off-season accident his leg was badly injured by an errant chain saw, which cut his career short. Both Schallock and Bowen were students of the game under the tutelage of legendary baseball Coach “Pop” Wendering of Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, my own alma mater.
During the past 30 years, three Valley homegrown ballplayers have spent some time in the major leagues. Hard-hitting first baseman-outfielder Dan Briggs played for the Los Angeles Angels starting in 1976, but despite some hitting streaks he was hampered by injuries and eventually hung up his glove. Big pitcher John Henry Johnson opened the 1978 season with the Oakland A’s with a nine-inning shutout, and was a winner for a couple of years before his arm began giving him trouble and led him to an early retirement. Hard-throwing relief pitcher Doug Nickle was called up for a few weeks in “the bigs” several times after quality seasons at the AAA level. Doug won for the San Diego Padres in the one game his late mother witnessed. Eventually, U.C. grad Nickle decided that there was life after baseball. Similarly, Doug’s one-time Little League teammate, Mickey Lippitt, after one season as a catcher with the independent Sonoma Crushers of Rohnert Park, determined that being a Certified Public Accountant was a better career choice. Another Sonoma Valley phenom, shortstop Bill Mori, having reached the high minors before the Korean War, decided that being a realtor, although not as much fun, was more lucrative.
Jessica Parker, who started playing ball as an eight-year-old Little Leaguer, displayed her outstanding talent at the University of California when she was named all-conference in women’s softball.
Given Sonoma Valley’s moderate weather, green grass, quality hostelries, charming ambience, and supply of appreciative spectators, perhaps it’s time for some minor league team to choose the Valley of the Moon for spring training. It’s been tried and it works.
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