This article is about the first professional base ball game played in San Diego:
Baseball articles by Bill Swank
Gavy Cravath, Philadelphia Phillies (1912-20)
Gavy Cravath was baseball's first true home run king. He set the modern season and career home run records that Babe Ruth broke. Cravath was also San Diego's first major league ballplayer. Since 1988, I have campaigned to get him elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The following biography appears in Deadball Stars of the National League (2004):
Santa and the Vampires
These pictures have nothing to do with baseball. I was surprised this young couple even wanted to have their picture taken with me. They are vampires. Their canine teeth are capped with fangs. After a traditional smiling picture, they said they really wanted a picture biting me. I agreed to let them open their mouths at my neck, but warned them not to sink their teeth into my jugular. It turned out the guy was a star in a TV series called "Mad, Mad House." They turned out to be very nice vampires.
Me and Mrs. Claus on the teevee!
The TV plans got all screwed up this morning. They were unable to get any military kids in at 6:30 AM to see Santa. A TV director and the head of marketing at MCAS Miramar brought their little daughters to the store. Fox TV did two "segments" for their morning news program. One was Santa with the little girls and the other was about the Halloween Collectibles at the store. I told Jeri that we'd pose as The American Gothic in front of the Haunted House for Halloween.
Video below (we come in about the halfway point).
I guess they liked the Halloween schtick better than the kids on Santa's lap…
Your pal, Santa
Bullitt, the steepest street in San Diego
Jack Brandais writes a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune called “The Weekend Driver.” Years ago, I told him about the Thorn Street hill that was the steepest street in San Diego. Almost 100 years ago, people would take their automobiles to Thorn Street to see if they could climb it. It was so steep the City eventually closed it. I had found articles about this street while doing research for my early history of baseball in San Diego and thought Jack might be able to use it some day…
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Baseball in Shelby
Santa and Zaidan at American Legion World Series in Shelby, North Carolina
Triumph and Dion Rich
Was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the book store after we returned Neale to his truck on Tuesday night? Dion had his picture taken with Triumph yesterday when he crashed Comic Con…
Photos of me at work
Patricia Neal at D. G. Wills Books in La Jolla
Dear Tim and Jennifer,
Your mom greatly admires the actress Patricia Neal who has endured much tragedy in her life. We went to see her last night at D. G. Wills Books in La Jolla.
Before the event, I asked your mom to describe Patricia Neal. She used the following adjectives: “earthy, strong, courageous, sexy, real.”
We are glad we went. Patricia Neal really is a wonderful woman. She’s actually working on a new film in San Diego now. (81 years old!)
She’d been on the set since 6:00 AM and stayed at the store until 9:00 PM, gracious to all. She suffered a series of strokes 40 years ago. One of her children died at a young age and another was seriously injured. She won the Oscar in 1963 for her performance opposite Paul Newman in “Hud” and an Emmy for her role as the mother in “The Homecoming” which became the basis for the television series, “The Waltons.”
I think you’ll like these pictures from last night.
–Bill
The All-American
For the past two years, former Kansas City Monarch Neale “Bobo” Henderson and I have had the privilege to speak at the Aflac All-American baseball seminar. In addition to sponsoring the All-American game, Aflac is also committed to preserving the history of the Negro Leagues which is the subject of our talk. True to that legacy, Aflac annually presents the Jackie Robinson Award to the outstanding high school baseball player in America.
Did Neologic Baseball Pitcher invent ‘Jazz’?
On the eve of Opening Day for the 1912 Pacific Coast League season, Portland Beavers pitcher Ben Henderson had an important announcement to make. “I got a new curve this year and I’m goin’ to pitch one or two of them tomorrow. I call it the Jazz ball because it wobbles and you simply can’t do anything with it.” Unfortunately, Ben had more wobble than his pitch.
The Los Angeles Angels only laughed when the once promising Portland right-hander boasted about his new pitch. Had anyone predicted Henderson capable of introducing a new word into the English language, it probably would have been a synonym for hangover.
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Baseball Returns to Downtown San Diego
“Baseball returns downtown” was the popular slogan of the San Diego Padres when Petco Park opened in 2004. The Padres marketing campaign was a tribute to old Lane Field, the original bay view home of the Pacific Coast League Padres who ruled the corner of Broadway and Pacific Highway for 22 seasons.
When team owner Bill Lane signed a contract to relocate his Hollywood Stars to San Diego on January 28, 1936, there was no suitable venue for professional baseball. In a remarkable example of cooperation between government agencies and private enterprise, Lane Field was built within two months for approximately $25,000 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The first game was played on March 31, 1936. The Padres beat the Seattle Indians, 6-2, before 8,178 cheering fans.
Native son Ted Williams’s first memory of the Padres was watching them play at Lane Field through a knothole in the centerfield fence. By the end of that inaugural 1936 season, young Ted would become the team’s starting leftfielder. During the Great Depression, ballplayers were forced to find jobs during the off-season, but not Williams. He returned to Hoover to complete his senior year of high school. In 1937, the Padres won the Shaughnessey Playoffs and were crowned PCL Champions. The love affair between San Diego and the Padres was the real thing. That winter, The Kid was sold to the Boston Red Sox where he became one of baseball‘s immortals.
Over the years, other prominent left-handed sluggers, Max West, Jack Graham and Luke Easter, launched home runs onto Pacific Highway. Graham noted, “I was a dead pull hitter and the wind blew off the bay to right. They’d fly out.”
There is a legend about the world’s longest home run. A Pacific Coast League baseball apparently bounced on Pacific Highway and landed in an empty boxcar near the Santa Fe Depot. The ball was later found in Los Angeles – 120 miles away – making it the longest home run ever. Who hit it?
Over the years, this home run has been attributed to Williams, West, Graham or Easter, but banjo hitting first baseman George McDonald claims he is the man. I like to tell people that George became a used car salesman and later a highly successful auto dealer.
In 2003, this feat, along with a description of the ballpark, was commemorated on a bronze plaque dedicated by the local Ted Williams Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and the Port of San Diego. The plaque can be viewed on a small, pie-shaped parcel of grass and palm trees at the intersection of Pacific Highway and Broadway.
This hallowed ground, carved out by a railroad track leading to the docks, is the only remaining trace of Lane Field. In 1958, the termites chased the Padres to Westgate Park in Mission Valley. The decaying green grandstand, condemned bleachers and fading outfield fences were razed at that time. The site has remained a parking lot for almost fifty years.
When former Lane Field Padres Pete Coscarart and Tony Criscola were interviewed in 1995, both described playing in San Diego as “paradise.” At the time, their description reminded me of the chorus from Joni Mitchell’s song, “Big Yellow Taxi.”
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Such valuable property could not remain dormant forever, so, all together, let’s sing the next verse.
“…With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot.”
A new high-rise hotel is currently on the drawing boards. I believe in progress, but hope a small pie-shaped piece of paradise will be preserved to honor the memory of Lane Field… a swinging hot spot.
——–
I wrote this article for Save Our Heritage Oganisation Magazine. It appeared in Spring of 2007.
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