July 2024 Volume 2, Issue 7
(My wife showed me the newsletter on her cellphone and it looks great. That’s what my stepson was trying to achieve. I’m an old fart who doesn’t have a cellphone, so I didn’t understand the problem.
At least initially, it appears the new “wordpress” format does not elicit lengthy responses… and lengthy responses make the newsletter more interesting.
I now have the ability to see how many people have viewed the newsletter. 75 people have viewed the June Beachgeezer which is encouraging.
ROLL CALL
Hi, Bill…
Lookin’ at that Ford Woodie, I couldn’t help thinking: How very far we’ve come.
It’s humbling, ain’t it?
Warren Whittier (June 1, 2024)
Bill, as they say on Maui, Mahalo.
Sorry I missed todays breakfast but we are at our other home on Maui at the Whaler. See you next month.
Frank Bion Gordon (June 1, 2024)
I read the newsletter and don’t remember having a problem. And, I never claimed to be computer literate.
Margaret Ryan Smith (June 1, 2024)
ONCE AGAIN, GREAT JOB, BILL!!!
ONCE AGAIN, GREAT JOB, BILL!!!
Carole Smith Hanen (June 1, 2024)
worked out great
Chrissy Wagner, Class of 1959 (June 1, 2024)
Very cool!
Roni Parry Star (June 1, 2024)
Thank you.
Carol Green (June 2, 2024)
It came in just fine. I hope you are getting revenue from the advertising LOL
YOU mentioned something about temporary ? I’ve not read it yet so I can’t be critical or praise your work.
I (we) woke up to a gloomy day, but it is June and expected. Just thankful we don’t live in the Midwest or Southern states, seems they had more than their share of really shity weather this spring. I literally thank every day that my father packed up his Model T Ford in 1922 and drove it to San Diego with a good friend. Only took them about 10 days, roads were mostly dirt and rocks, but they made it. In time his whole family moved here, 8 brothers and sisters and his folks too! Thanks Dad!
Nice visiting with you at breakfast yesterday, wow smallest group that that I can recall. OK, on to reading the Beachgeezer. Talk to you later Walt
I think you better slow down and shorten the “GEEZER” you will run out of something to say Or is that even possible, Swank short on words? Cool that the ‘stranger’ wanted to be shot with the Shortt Stationwagon. Did you get an address to send a copy? Ya never know what will happen
Walt
\Walter Andersen (June 2, 2024)
Hi Bill,
Choose the format that you like best. It is up to you. I ate in the cafeteria everyday for years. Never heard the words FOOD FIGHT! No I was not absent or asleep. Take care,
Lorraine Cairns Barksdale, Huntungton Beach (June 2, 2024)
Billy
Thanks for sharing. My initial comment is that the alumni of MBHS seem to like the format. I see lots of feed back.
Couldn’t help but notice “the story” about the guy that wanted to hit on Sharon. FUNNY!
And then the picture. I looked at the pictures before I read any of the article surrounding them. For some reason I did think it was me. Not a chance I thought. I knew of only one, perhaps two, reunions. Couldn’t be me. But there it was “Andy Cribbs”. Totally suprised. How do you come up with these things Billy?
Hope you are feeling better so we can chat this Friday at the CPS.
GBU. Andy
Andy Cribbs (June 2, 2024)
Dear editor,
These old rummy eyes tried their best with the new format.
And found it all too verbose. I liked it better when it was just us clairmont kids riding our bikes and building forts in the chapparel.
Roni Parry Star (June 3, 2024)
Dear editor,
I notice your office door is open so I want to share another scoop with you.
Skinny and bootless though I was, I seem to have been attractive to musos. Further to by infatuation with Frank Zappa, I fell deeply in love with Brian Cole of the Association. Marriage was on the horizon. However, that scholarship to Australia was too good to miss. I sailed out of his life. He wrote the song Cherish about out love. I did think about returning and am thankful that I didn’t because Brian soon died of a heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel.
His music is still on u tube and I keep his love letter in my bible.
A loving memory.
Ronistar49@yahoo.com
Roni Parry Star (June 3, 2024)
Good morning, Bill. Great work on the Beachgeezer! Six hours! You are one determined man. I read it last night until I finished watching the Zappa music on you tube. The Johhny Carson show came on and I couldn’t stop watching it. So, I finished it all first thing this morning. Enjoyed every minute. I have absolutely no opinion on which format is better. All I ask is that you just don’t stop doing what you are doing. You can see that you are bringing a lot of happiness to a lot of people.
I have brought two people “back to life.” One, a friend of mine passed away and Social Security just assumed it was the mother. I guess since she was the elder of the two that lived at the same address. Then a couple years later, the wife of one of my clients passed away and Social Security said it was him not her. So for a month or so, I was talking with a ghost. He was not a happy one. But it all worked out. Looking forward to next month at Elijah’s. Take care.
Sheila Mura (June 3, 2024)
This was great and obviously I got it. Thanks mucho. (Sandy and Tim shown with their Ford woodie wagon below)
Sandy Jaworski Shortt, Class of 1959 (June 4, 2024)
Happy 98th Birthday, Harry Crosby!
While entering the Costco Food Court, a man said, “He’s 98 years old today.” I didn’t recognize him or the man he was talking about, but figured anyone who was celebrating their 98th birthday deserved congratulations. Then the man said, “He’s one of your students.” The birthday boy was Harry Crosby.
I’d run into them in the past and the caretaker remembered me. I told Mr. Crosby that we should go searching for more cave paintings in Baja. He laughed and patted me on the back. Sadly, he is severly hunched over his walker and, mentally, has lost a little something off his fastball. I greatly respected.Mr.Crosby. After teaching, he became an expert on Baja California and authored several acclaimed books, paticularly those focused on primative cave painings. (June 10, 2024)
Just a fun note to say that my Deb and Julie are coming to decorate for the 4th of July at Lantern Crest. They would usually come by Memorial Day but we were all out and about. Carol Smith Hanen is going to join us for Happy Hour and dinner. Have tried to contact Bill Dague but so far he must be out having fun hopefully. Will send pictures of Carol and I and, of course, my sister, Jean and daughters, Deb snd Julie. Can’t wait to see what costumes they will entertain us with. I can be a bit over the top with my daughters but will send them anyway. Was hoping for a mini class reunion…will call Bill again in the morning and hopefully he will join us. (contact was made with Bill)
Your old classmate, Janet Janet McDonald Walz (June 11, 2024)
Our Happy Hour was a success . Deb and Julie handed out mini windmills and candy. Into the Happy Hour Deb brought Bill Dague over to Carol and I. We had a nice time visiting. Carol even knew one of Bill’s good friends that graduated a year before us. So thank you. I cannot come to the July breakfast because my Granddaughter is getting married that day but will hopefully come to the August breakfast with Carol and Bill!
Your friend, Janet Janet McDonald Walz (June 12, 2024)
My sister Janet gave me your email address. I’d love to receive your Beach Geezers journal she told me about.
I graduated in 1957 just one year ahead of you and Janet. I went to San Diego State but went to full time work as a secretary at B of A and then at Stromberg Carlson where I met my husband, who was a young electric engineer. That’s where Janet met her husband too. We’ll celebrate our 65th anniversary in November. We had three kids during the next 2 1/2 years and then had one more 7 years later. We lived in Allied Gardens; then had a home built in La Mesa which we lived at until his job took us to Colorado for 30 years. We just returned July of 2019 and are still trying to adjust to being here. Our life was active with being in an Elks lodge, dancing, playing pickle ball, bike riding, a wonderful church, traveling wits friends in an RV group and dance clubs. The epidemic really slowed us down. We live in Lakeside and were lucky to find a decent house that I call my HGTV house. It was quite a shock to have such beautiful houses in Lilleton which is in the south and west part of Denver Metro. We miss all our friends there a great deal still. Thank God for cell phones etc, to be able to keep in touch.
I’m sorry I’ve gone on so long but want to hear all you say about all of us crazy 57 & 58 grads. Janet said Bill Reich keeps in touch and I would love to get in touch with him. JerrySandlin in our class and he’s in Encinitas. My friends I hear from a lot are Joan (Gordon) Thornburg, Margaret (Powell) Schroeder and Woody Moorhead who
Found out his name was Kirtley. I attended a few of the saturday deli get togethers and last summer Orpha Higley planned a picnic style day.
My cell is 720-935-8199, landline is 619-486-6157. Here’s our address.
Richard (Dick) Knox & Susan Knox, 9297 Sombria Road, Lakeside, CA 92040. Susan McDonald Knox (June 13, 2024)
Fun to read what happened back then and what’s going on now in peoples life’, Thanks Bill, wonderful job. Looking forward to next month’s breakfast. Ken Kruck (June 16, 2024)
Thoughts on turning 84 today: This is the fourth time I can legally drink beer! My wife baked my favorite coconut cake, my daughter always makes a big pot of her famous French Onion Soup for my birthday and my granddaughter’s boyfriend brought me a six pack of Dos Equis Ambar Especial. Earlier (following my doctor’s appointment), I met my niece at lunch for a Costco hot dog. Seventy years ago, though money was tight, my mother gave me a baseball glove for my birthday. After she died, I found her W-2 forms. In 1954, we lived on $1,481.14. How did she do it? We never were hungry. I’m lucky to have had a wonderful mother… and, as an old man, I have a wonderful wife, daughter, grandkids.and niece.
As a kid. I was taught to memorize verses from the King James Bible: “And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.” Like everything else today, even the Bible gets updated. Now it’s faith, hope and love. I think I like the contemporary version best. Love is the greatest gift… (June 17, 2024)
Bill Swank: San Diego’s Walter McCoy was a living link to Negro Leagues, baseball history
Walter McCoy, who died in 2015 at age 95, pitched for the Chicago American Giants and against Jackie Robinson
By Bill Swank
June 7, 2024 10:42 AM PT
Editor’s note: Last week, Major League Baseball announced that Negro Leagues statistics from 1920-48 are now part of MLB’s historical record. Local baseball historian Bill Swank tells the story of Walter McCoy, who played three seasons (1945-47) pitching for the Chicago American Giants and lived in San Diego from childhood until his death in 2015.
Obscure and unforgettable would both describe stoic San Diegan Walter McCoy.
Channel 4 held broadcast rights to the Padres when Petco Park opened 20 years ago. I was asked to assemble a group of lesser-known San Diego players with deep roots in the community to talk about playing baseball downtown in their youth. For added hometown flavor, the low-key event was filmed at the venerable Chicken Pie Shop on El Cajon Boulevard.
After the taping, my friend Lenny Arevalo — who had been the Padres’ bullpen catcher from 1969 through 1983 — raved about one panelist.
“At first I wondered, ‘Where did Swank find this guy? He’s so old and frail… he barely talks,’” he said. “But when he got going, he was great. I learned a lot about San Diego baseball before I was born.”
Arevalo was talking about Walter McCoy, then an 84-year-old former Negro Leagues pitcher and semi-retired building contractor.
Earlier, while preparing to do research in the newspaper archives of the San Diego Library, I asked McCoy if he remembered when he pitched against the House of David at Lane Field. Without hesitation, he told me a specific week to review in August 1947. At the library, I quickly found the microfilm of McCoy pitching for Satchel Paige’s All-Stars against House of David, the team Paige called “the Jesus Boys.”
Later, while attending a tribute to the Negro Leagues, we visited the African American Museum and Library at Oakland. McCoy wanted to find the box score from the game he pitched against Bob Feller’s All-Stars in Oakland. We went to the microfilm and promptly located the article and box score. In all of my research, I have never had another player direct me straight to requested box scores.
Walter Lorenzo McCoy was born Feb. 20, 1920 in Leavenworth, Kansas. His Seventh-day Adventist family immediately moved to San Diego, where he would fall in love with baseball. As a boy, McCoy recalled, his father allowed him to watch part of a ballgame at Sports Field (the predecessor of Lane Field) for 20 minutes.
McCoy laughed. “I just remember thinking to myself that I’d like to stay right there for about 20 years,” he said.
Adventists observe the Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset on Saturday. McCoy deeply respected his father, but the Sabbath became a problem between the two. The elder McCoy expected his children to learn a trade, work hard and follow the good book. The Sabbath was a time for worship and rest — not baseball.
‘Mac,’ Buck and Jackie
I once took McCoy to an event at the San Diego Hall of Champions attended by beloved Negro League baseball ambassador Buck O’Neil. I asked O’Neil what it was like to face McCoy.
The Hall of Famer smiled.
“Look at him,” O’Neil said. “He’s a cigar-store Indian. His expression never changes. You never knew was was coming. ‘Mac’ had a good fastball and he liked to pitch inside.”
The Chicago American Giants and Kansas City Monarchs opened t 1945 Negro American League season in Milwaukee. McCoy tossed a six-hitter as the Giants beat the Monarchs and their rookie shortstop Jackie Robinson, 4-2. A story McCoy never tired of telling was another game when he picked Robinson off third base … twice.
McCoy also remembered a 1945 lunch with Robinson. All the Negro League teams used the same gas station on their way to and from Birmingham, Ala. Sitting alone inside the Chicago bus one afternoon, McCoy heard a high-pitched voice ask why he wasn’t eating outside the restaurant with his team.
Players were served from the back door of the restaurant beside the gas station. McCoy answered back: “I don’t believe in that.”
Robinson mentioned to McCoy he saw a store down the road.
“We can get some crackers and cheese and soda pop,” he said.
McCoy agreed, and together they ate in the shade of a tall tree beside their buses.
McCoy became a legend in San Diego adult baseball circles. Even into his 70s, McCoy was the leading hitter for Jeff Marston’s Mets. I asked what kind of a player his teammate and San Diego City Club founder George Mitrovich was.
Walt slowly drawled, “Oh, you mean ’Thud?’”
Why was he called ‘Thud’?
“That was the sound of all the names he dropped … and the sound of all the fly balls that dropped around him in the outfield,” McCoy said.
In 2008, to honor Buck O’Neil, all 30 Major League teams held a special draft of former Negro League players in Orlando, Fla. The Padres selected Walter McCoy. McCoy and the other drafted players symbolically received MLB contracts.
His voice is heard in “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” a beautifully illustrated book by nationally renowned local artist Kadir Nelson.
Peter Bavasi, former president of the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians, attended a book signing and spoke with McCoy.
“I learned more about the art of pitching from Walter that evening than in most all of my earlier baseball tutelage,” he recalled. “Walter was very clear about what he thought made for successful pitching: Work fast, change speeds, throw strikes, and pitch inside which today you can’t do unless you want to be suspended for the season.”
A good teammate — and a better man
I will never forget a particularly troubling phone call from McCoy in 2010.
He was very upset, he told me, because Tony Gwynn was angry at him. That didn’t make any sense.
I sent email to Gwynn, who responded that he had “nothing but respect for Mr. McCoy.” I visited Walt at his Lemon Grove home, but nothing could change his mind. I suggested we go to San Diego State, where I assumed Gwynn would be conducting practice. It turned out that the Aztecs were preparing for a game against Long Beach State.
As soon as Gwynn saw us, he flashed his famous smile and said, “Mr. McCoy, it is so good to see you.” He called his players off the field and into the dugout to meet Walter.
The umpire finally interrupted.
“Tony,” he told him, “we’ve got a game to play here.”
McCoy’s son, also named Tony, later explained that his father, now 90, had developed dementia and was talking to the television during Padres games. When Gwynn didn’t respond, he assumed he was mad at him.
In 2015, Tony McCoy called to let me know his father had stopped eating and talking. It was a hot day when I arrived. Walter was curled in a fetal position under a single sheet on his bed. He had almost shrunken away to nothing.
I mentioned my name. No response. I mentioned the name of his good friend and teammate, Johnny Ritchey. Still no response.
When I said, “Chicago American Giants,” he softly whispered, “That’s my team.”
He died shortly after that. Walter McCoy was 95.
My friend’s memory may have failed, but, characteristically, he remained loyal to his team until the end.
Walter McCoy was a good baseball player and an even better man.
Baseball historian Bill Swank is the leading expert on early San Diego baseball, including the Lane Field Era (1936-57). He has authored and co-authored six books on San Diego baseball.
More Roni Parry Star Memories
A drive In known as Henry’s down by the pier. A new idea later taken up by Kentucky fried.
The delivery of my new bed. It’s got a remote but no vibrater. That made the young trades laugh !* Roni Parry Star (June 17, 2024)
The drive in movie was another tough thing to do, especially hiding someone in the trunk to get in for free.
The tough bit was getting them out of the trunk without getting caught.. Roni Parry Star (June 17, 2024)..
Dear editor,
In general I thought your recent edition of Beechgeezers would win the approval of Dr. Mary Maul, our school principal.
My copy seems to have found its way to the ISS. Will you please send me another.
The return to the first editions lay out is easier to read and the photos were all the friends I knew and grew up with.
I reckon we shine up pretty good.
Blessings Be,
Ronistar49@yahoo.com Roni Parry Star (June 17, 2024)
Here us the front page and index of my science notes taken while a student of Bud Wimple ! Note, i got an A+, first and only time. This teacher is the reason that I am now a scientist. Thank you, Mr. WIMPLE!
And, dear editor, I have the whole spiral pad. Utterly brilliant science for its day, clearly hand written in pencil. Far out.
Go bucs !* Roni Parry Star (June 17, 2024)
Dear Editor, may I suggest some inside stories, like the one of me finding Mr. Wemples science notes ?*
Eg, what is inside Walter Anderson’s Nursery ?*
Eg, what about that Woody….many of us are still car heads ?* Roni Parry Star (June 17, 2024)
(Editor’s note)
Email sent to The Beachgeezer is not edited or censured… but that could be subject to change in the future.
Roni Parry Star (June 18, 2024)
Dear editor of Beechgeezer,
On radio this morning I heard an interview of the oldest woman world champion. Her name is Phillis O Dell, aged 88. She started surfing when she was 24 in 1955 and she had to push the men off their boards when they tried to stop her surfing. We have an old movie called Puberty Blues about that very thing. I’ll see if it’s still available on Netflix. Vonnie and I used to sit in the sand, bake in coco nut oil and watch you fellah surf.
Cheers, ronistar49@yahoo.com * Roni Parry Star (June 20, 2024)
Surfing city…. Makes me want to rock n roll. Cheers, ronistar49@yahoo.com Roni Parry Star (June 21, 2024)
