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Oregon & Portland's
Baseball History
Early
Portland Baseball History
Acknowledgements
Doing research for this paper I used a
variety of sources: from the Internet, references, and two primary newspapers.
A variety of materials came from the Oregon Historical Society, including some
images. News media was pooled from the Oregon City Enterprise, Oregon Journal,
and Oregonian newspapers. Statistical data was pooled from
Baseball-Reference.com, "The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History,
1903-1957" by Dennis Snelling, and once again The Oregon Journal and Oregonian
newspapers.
--Maury Brown
Pre-Beaver Baseball
Before Joe
Tinker, before Dave Bancroft, before Mike Mitchell, or Billy Southworth, before
Satchel Paige, or even the great Jim Thorpe, baseball thrived in the later part
of the 19th century in Portland. They were teams with great names such as the
Pioneers, Portland Spartans, the Monograms, the Highland Baseball Club,
Slabtown, the Portland Gladiators or the Vancouver Occidentials, and they
played a variety of base-ball in fields, towns, and cities in and around
Portland. The name Portland itself was drawn out of pure luck. Portland's
roots-and its name-date back to a coin flip in 1845, the same year the New York
Kickerbockers baseball club was created a coast away. Asa Lovejoy and Francis
Pettygrove shared ownership of a choice 640-acre (259-hectare) clearing along
the Willamette River, near its confluence with the Columbia. Lovejoy wanted to
name the site "Boston," but Pettygrove won the coin toss and named it
"Portland," after his hometown in Maine.
The Portland
Pioneers
Sixteen years after the formation of Portland as a city, the
first record of an organized baseball team in the Northwest is recorded on May
28, 1866. On this day the Pioneer Baseball Club of East Portland was created.
Comprised of merchants, doctors, lawyers, and farmers from rural Portland, the
club was considered a "gentlemen's" group. As was the norm for the day,
professionals were not allowed, and the "Club" was strictly for members to
partake in for social purposes. The club had elected officials and a dues
system: $.50 to help pay for the expense of $1.00 baseballs, and $2.50 for
bats.
The first games played by this club appear to have taken place
on a vacant lot owned by Stimpson and Estes on Washington Street. Other games
were played near Broadway and Stark downtown, but as time moved on the team
played in fields on the east side of Portland, just over the Willamette, hence
the name "East" in the clubs name. The team played the best games on Clinton
and McCoy field, the only field in town with a half-enclosed grandstand and
bleachers.
The first nine of the first game, were elected by ballot -
not picked by the manager - to the positions that they were to play. T.F. Miner
was the catcher for pitcher Ed Quackenbush. The infield consisted of Ward K.
Witherell at first, Wadshams at second, Frank M. Ward at third, and James B.
Upton playing shortstop. The outfielders were Joe Butchtel in left, James Steel
in center, and Peter De Huff in right.
The Pioneers are on record as
playing the Clackamas Club and winning handily 77-46. As was the case in early
baseball rules were different. Under hand pitching was used, and batters called
where they wanted a pitch over the plate. Scores of this nature were not
uncommon at the time given the differences in the rules from today's game. When
the game was completed the teams retired themselves to a feast at Barlow House
while the Oregon City Brass Band played. After the Pioneers first game, the
idea of "electing" players to positions was changed to assignment by the
Captain of the team. Since this was a gentlemen's club, a system of fining
players was introduced as well for unseemly conduct. Profanity, arguing with
the umpire, or disobedience to the captain by a player resulted in a $.10 fine.
It seems that then, as today, players were known to not exactly adhere to these
rules. It seems several pages of fines fill the pages of the Club's record
book.
On October 1, 1867, the Pioneer Base Ball Club invited
representatives from other clubs to a meeting in February of 1868 to form a
players association. Joe Buchtel was elected president of the five-team group
that included the Pioneers, the Spartans of Portland, the Highland Base Ball
Club, the Clackamas Club from Oregon City, and the Vancouver Occidentals, which
included soldiers from the Ft. Vancouver garrison, with local civilians
rounding out the Occidentals squad. The group operated under the long-winded
name of "The Oregon and Washington and Idaho Territories Association of Base
Ball Players". The rules used by the "Association" were adopted from the 1863
rules set down by the National Association of Ball Players that resided in New
York, and modified for the Northwest group.
The a fore mentioned Joe
Buchtel was the person most acknowledged as popularizing baseball in Oregon in
the later part of the 19th century. In a short period of time Buchtel went from
elected director, to captain, to manager/player. He was a pitcher and an
outfielder when the Pioneer Club won at least two "State" championship at the
Oregon State Fair. Fleet of foot, Buchtel was said to have run 150 yards in
fifteen seconds. In 1874 Buchtel reorganized the team and 2 years later won the
Centennial baseball championship and medal playing against the Clackamas Club,
Vancouver Occidentals, and Willamette University.
The Willamettes, Gladiators, and the Pacific
Northwest League (PNL)
 While Joe Buchtel would play
and manage for the Pioneers for 15 years, in 1884 he organized the next great
team to come out of Portland, the Willamettes of East Portland. Out of the team
that consisted of Joe Buchtel, and his son Fred, that played shortstop, came
the Parrott family that dominated the team. Thomas Parrott was born April 10
1868 and played, and influenced baseball in Oregon well into the next century.
His son Tom, Jr. who was known as "Tacky Tom", or "Tax" played from 1893 - 1896
professionally in the Majors for the Chicago Colts, Cincinnati Reds, and St.
Louis Browns where he hit .301 for his career, and was one shy of 1000 AB. He
left an indelible mark on Oregon baseball, through his children that continued
to play.
One of his sons, Walter "Jiggs" Parrott played four seasons
with the Chicago Colts from 1892 - 1895, and had 1309 AB with a .235 BA. His
third son Armondo Guido Parrott pitched for the Willamettes but never went to
the Bigs.
Between the Buchtels, Parrotts and the rest of the team
under manager Joe Beveridge, the Willamettes moved beyond playing games just
within the Portland area. On opening day 1884, the Club beat the Seattle Browns
1-0, at Riverside ballfield, and another team the Portlanders defeated San
Francisco, 5-3, at the Clinton and McCoy grounds in East Portland. Pitching for
the Portlanders was the first acknowledged professional player in Portland,
Bill "Turk" Burke. Burke would later in 1887 pitch for the Detroit Wolverines
team that won the NL pennant that season. Burke only pitched 15 innings his
entire career in the Majors, had 21 hits, 10 ER, and an ERA of 6.00.
So successful was this team, that in 1890 they became the Portland Gladiators.
This team helped organize the first fully professional organization, the
Pacific Northwest League (PNL). This league consisted of Portland, Seattle,
Tacoma, and Spokane. Making the transition from the amateur Willamettes to the
professional Gladiators were Fred Buchtel, "Jiggs" Parrott, and Tom Parrott.
The league soon was filled with players from leagues in Texas, the Midwest and
New York.
In 1891, the Gladiators played 94 games to win the league
championship. During that season they also played teams from the California
League, which included Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose. After that 1891
season the Parrott brothers left for the Majors, and the PNL was unknowingly
getting ready for a coup after the next season, lasting but two short years in
it's original form which we will get to later.
The Portland Monograms
Another "18 and over" professional
team that brought fame to Oregon, was the Portland Monograms. They consisted of
Cal Geil (C), Claude Schmeer (SS), Charles Ray (P), Al Webber (P), Archie
Parrot (1B), of the a fore mentioned Parrott Family, M. Donovan (OF- C), Al
Webber (2B), F. Townsend (P), Joe DeBurgh (OF-R), H. Nash (P), Danny Shea (C),
Frank Busby (OF-L), and Manager Nick Whitehead. The Monograms began in 1896
when Cal Geil assembled some "neighborhood kids", mostly from Central and North
Central High Schools in a barn on East 12th and Pine St. with the idea of
forming the best baseball team possible, saying that "the best substitutes
would be just that." Geil, 18 years of age, gathered kids from around, what was
then called Central and North central on the East side of the Willamette. They
practiced on a field known only as "The Graders" in the area of NE Flanders to
NE Hoyt and NE 9th to NE 11th. Games were played at a place called the Buckman
field site.
The Monograms played in Portland against team with names
like South Portland, Goose Hollow, Slabtown, the Phoenix team, the Vancouver
Maroons, Oregon City, and St. Helens. The team beat all comers setting up a
playoff with the Washington State Champion Tacoma Four Spots for the right to
go to San Francisco and play the California champion in a Pacific tournament
sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner. The Monograms beat the Four Spots 10-1
to advance.
The team booked the steamer Columbia through their newly
acquired business manager Morris Whitehead, and boarded with their equally new
coach, Ed "Trilby" Rankin, and set forth for San Francisco. The trip started
auspiciously when the Monograms star pitcher Howard Nash failed to make the
trip due to illness, and proceeded to get worse as the entire team got seasick
on the trip, and the catcher Danny Shea somehow got injured en-route as well.
The team was greeted with a parade, and 17,000 witnessed the first
game the Monograms played in San Francisco ending in a 12-12 tie. The game was
called due to darkness, although accounts say that the sun was still shining.
Geil concluded that the game was called due to weariness of the players, and
the fact that game officials smelled more profits if a second game was played
the next day. It should be noted that Seals games at the time were pulling in
barely 1,000 per game, so promoters looked to reap the rewards of two games
instead of one.
The next day saw another 17,000 fans turn out to see
the San Francisco beat the Monograms in a heart breaking 16-14 loss. The
Monograms had a 14-13 lead going into the 9th, but a substitute pitcher tossed
a pitch over the plate that resulted in homer that drove in 3 runs. It is
believed that the large crowds that turned out to see a California League team
play a team from Portland planted the seed in the owners minds that would
create the coup that resulted in two leagues merging under the noses of the
Pacific Northwest League, and therefore creating the Pacific Coast
League.
The Portland Beavers, and
Vaughn St. Park
The beginnings of "Vaughn St. Park"
It
was a place where the Red Sox discovered Ted Williams. It was where the great
Joe Tinker first played; it lived through a massive 3-alarm fire, and numerous
flooding, and it was the heart and soul of the city until it simply died of old
age.
 On a Wednesday morning that started cold
and drizzly, and end in a downpour; May 22, 1901 to be exact, the face of
baseball in Portland would take on it's greatest change, and be a day that
would mark the beginning of 55 seasons of great baseball in Portland. It was on
that Wednesday that the first game was played at Vaughn Street Park (or as it
was called for a short time "Recreation Park", or simply the "Baseball Park")
in NW Portland. The park, the product of two streetcar company owners E.I.
Fuller, and C.F. Swigert, was built on the corner of NW 24th and Vaughn St. It
was built for the same reasons as current day owners build parks… to make
money. Fuller's Portland Railway Co. owned the land that the park was on, and
the company's had a car that ran on 23rd street, just adjacent to the park.
Swigert's "City & Suburban" streetcar company had their "S" line terminated
a block before the park at NW 24th and Savier. The idea was simple…
increase fares on both streetcar lines, and make money at the turnstiles.
Up until that time Portland had been without baseball from the time the
Monograms played in 1896 when the Pacific Northwest League collapsed in June of
that year. The league was revived in 1901 and when the National Association was
organized, the league became a Class B member. While Fuller and Swigert owned
the park, a group of prominent business owners, spearheaded by well-known
baseball promoter named William H. Lucas, decided that the best way to bring
favorable publicity to an ambitious young city was to bring in a baseball club.
So began the Portland Baseball Club, as the ownership group charged with a team
for 1901 called the Webfooters.
 On April 7th of 1901 it was announced that Jack Grimm
had been signed as manager. The team included a 3 pitcher roster that worked 5
days a week (Wednesday through Sunday). They included William A. Salisbury,
George Engel, and Lew Mahaffey who was also used at 1B. The other positions
were Sammy Vigneau at catcher; Jack Grimm at first and backup at catcher; Andy
Anderson at 2B; Jake Diesel at short, and the great Joe Tinker at third. The
outfield was Max Mueller, and Bob Brown, who would go on to be an owner of
Vancouver, B.C., and president of the W-1 league. Fred Weed was the third
outfielder to round out the team. The players came from around the nation's
different baseball leagues. From the New York State and New England Leagues to
the Connecticut State League, but it was a player originally from Montana
league, that would one day be in the Hall of Fame, and be known the league over
for his out- standing play at shortstop. Joe Tinker played 3rd base for the
Webfooters in 1901, and would go on to the Hall of fame as part of the great
Cubs infield of
 Tinker-Evers-Chance. And the relationship of Tinker and Evers goes
down as one of the great stories in baseball history, as Tinker and Evers had a
33 year rift between each other that started with a cab fare, and escalated
into a brawl on the field. It wasn't until, unbeknownst to one another, both
were invited to help broadcast the 1938 Cubs World Series that they made up
their differences and made amends.
All in all the Webfooters were an
outstanding team, and went on to win the championship that 1901 season, but the
remaining years of the team would not be anything near as good as the first. As
the 1902 season approached two more teams were added to the PNL with Butte and
Helena, Montana making a total of 6. Portland would finish 4th, and be a
disappointment from the year before. To exacerbate the problem the new manager,
catcher Sam Vigneau got into an argument with an umpire named McDermott and the
league president ruled Vigneau out of line and was suspended by league
president Lucas. The war rumbling was on, as shareholders of the team took
issue with the suspension, and the director of the, Jack Marshall issued hints
that the team might do better in another league.
Portland goes "outlaw"
Into this volatile atmosphere came
an innocent article that ran on December 10th of 1902. It seems the owner of
the San Francisco club, a Mr. Henry Harris, was hinting that the outlaw
California League was thinking of expanding. Harris assured the Oregonian that
the trip to Portland had "nothing what so ever to do with
baseball."
Yet, the next day in Seattle, Harris dropped the bombshell
that everything had been arranged "for Portland and Seattle to join the
California league in its northwest expansion to six teams, under the name
Pacific Coast League." What followed was pure chaos among the shareholders of
the Portland team. President of the club, T.A. Whitemore declared that he would
stick with Lucas and the PNL. Jack Marshall, on the other hand, who was
Director of the team, and who had instigated the merger with the California
league had obviously jumped ship. Much rumbling in sued with the city leaders
caught smack dab in the center. Mayor George H. Williams was quoted as saying:
"I know nothing about the baseball war and do not care to know much about it.
What I want to see are good baseball games and plenty of them."
Finally,
President Lucas issued a threat to match the new Coast league, if it actually
went through with the "steal" and that the PNL would snatch teams from the
California league as well. Lucas added that he had the full support, and
backing of organized baseball, and unlimited funds to defeat and raid the
California teams. This war raged for through the 1903 and 1904 seasons, but the
foundation had been laid, and the coup had occurred. Portland baseball would
belong to the PCL on and off for another 99 years.
The '03-'04 "Browns" and the beginnings of the
PCL
The first season for Portland in the PCL, was pretty much as it's
last season in the PNL was… bad. That 1903 season would see only one
bright spot: Ed "Deacon" Van Buren, a holdover from the season before, Van
Buren would post a .361 BA, and establish a team record of 281 hits. The '04
team would fare worse placing dead last with a 79-136 record. Maybe the stress
and strain of the "baseball war" was the reason for the performance. It seems
that brighter days, and a winning record would be in order for the '05 season,
as the final shareholders that had been holding out in favor of the PNL shifted
allegiance, and President Lucas gave in, thus ending one of the worst "baseball
wars" the minors have ever seen.
They finished second to last and had a
95-108 record for the year. Below is the breakdown of the team for that
inaugural season:
Manager - S. Vigneaux/B. Ely
Record - W-95
L-108
Finished - 5th
|
Player |
Position |
AB |
HR |
RBI |
BA |
SB |
|
J.
Freeman |
1B |
184 |
-- |
-- |
.304 |
5 |
|
A.
Anderson |
2B |
663 |
-- |
-- |
.279 |
32 |
|
I.
Francis |
3B |
401 |
-- |
-- |
.278 |
7 |
|
J
Raidy |
SS |
382 |
-- |
-- |
.257 |
22 |
|
P.
Nadeau |
OF |
791 |
-- |
-- |
.348 |
52 |
|
D. Van
Buren |
OF |
779 |
-- |
-- |
.361 |
65 |
|
H.
Blake |
OF |
414 |
-- |
-- |
.254 |
20 |
|
D.
Shea |
C |
311 |
-- |
-- |
.219 |
7 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Andrews
(1) |
3B |
395 |
-- |
-- |
.281 |
24 |
|
Hollingsworth |
SS |
379 |
-- |
-- |
.261 |
14 |
|
S.
Vigneaux |
1C |
247 |
-- |
-- |
.194 |
14 |
|
T.
Hess |
C |
207 |
-- |
-- |
.266 |
2 |
PITCHERS
|
Player |
IP |
W-L |
BB |
SO |
ERA |
|
I
Butler |
-- |
21-31 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
C.
Shields |
-- |
19-23 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
J.
Thielman |
-- |
18-7 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
D. McFarlan
(2) |
-- |
14-22 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
- Also with
Seattle
- Also with
Sacramento
The Browns
become The Giants
 1905 brought a new owner in one Judge
William Wallace McCredie, his nephew Walter, and a name change to the team. The
Browns were renamed the Giants, but the change has little effect on the teams
dismal performance. Finishing second to last, the team played a majority of
it's games away from Vaughn St. Park, as the Lewis and Clark Exposition was
that year, as the National track and field championship was being played in
Portland, and these events far outclassed the baseball team. OF this team Larry
Schlaffy was the only show. Schlaffy would record 77 stolen bases and would go
down as the first of only 4 players in team history to pull off an unassisted
triple play. The Oregonian in it's summary of the season said simply, "The less
said the better." The outfielder with the uncle owner would rule the roost as
manager from that year until 1922.
Walter McCredie and the Portland Beavers
Walter McCredie
was not brilliant his first season in Portland, but he was consistent in that
year of 1904: He batted .300 in 516 AB. It is after his uncle the Judge
purchased the team that McCredie became the manager and charted the course for
the team through it's first 5 championships. It is also at this time that
another longstanding change would occur. The team decided that yet another name
change was in order, but this time it was decided that the good people in the
Portland area should make the decision. So just after the start of the 1906
season, a name was selected by a Portland telegram contest. From here on out
the team would be named the Beavers.
1906 was an outstanding season for
the newly named team. The team sported a .657 winning percentage for the year
with a 115-60 record. Below is the stats for that season:
Manager - W.
McCreedie
Record - W- 115 L-60
Finished - 1st
NOTE: No Playoffs this season.
|
Player |
Position |
AB |
HR |
RBI |
BA |
SB |
|
P.
Lister |
1B |
500 |
0 |
-- |
.218 |
10 |
|
B.
Sweeney |
2B |
526 |
0 |
-- |
.283 |
39 |
|
L.
McLean |
3B |
248 |
2 |
-- |
.355 |
10 |
|
J.
Smith |
SS |
507 |
0 |
-- |
.274 |
25 |
|
J.
McHale |
OF |
592 |
1 |
-- |
.311 |
47 |
|
M.
Mitchell |
OF |
578 |
6 |
-- |
.351 |
33 |
|
W.
McCreedie |
OF |
486 |
2 |
-- |
.309 |
20 |
|
O. Moore
(1) |
C |
455 |
0 |
-- |
.198 |
8 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
P.
Donahue |
C |
313 |
0 |
-- |
.233 |
8 |
|
B.
Henderson |
P |
179 |
2 |
-- |
.268 |
3 |
|
A.
Schimpff |
P |
134 |
0 |
-- |
.305 |
6 |
PITCHERS
|
Player |
IP |
W-L |
BB |
SO |
ERA |
|
E.
Califf |
-- |
34-14 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
B.
Henderson |
-- |
29-10 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
B.
Essick |
-- |
19-6 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
F.
Gum |
-- |
16-7 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
A.
Schimpff |
-- |
6-3 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
W.
French |
-- |
3-2 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
C.
Moore |
-- |
3-2 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Highlights
of that winning season were Michael Mitchell who led the league in batting with
a .351 BA in 578 AB. Pitcher Benny Henderson had a 29-10 record, the best
winning percentage in Beavers history. The year would not see a playoff though,
as the Beavers were in Oakland on April 18th when the great quake hit San
Francisco, nearly destroying it by quake and fire.
The loss of games and
teams that '06 season to the PCL had a ripple effect, and the 1907 season was
played by only 4 teams. While the earthquake had leveled San Francisco, the
team survived. LA, Oakland, San Francisco and Portland limped through the
season with Portland going first to worst in one year. Only pitcher Bob Groom's
no-hitter, the first no-hitter in Beavers history gave any light to another
wise dark, and 1908 season.
More on
the McCredie Years
McCredie's Beavers teams would continue doing well
the next few seasons. 1909 and '10 would see the Beavers finish second in the
league (now 6 teams in strength: Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland,
along with newly added Sacramento, and Vernon, CA.).
 The following 1910-1911, and the 1913-1914 seasons
would see the manager win his last two pennants. The secret to the Beavers
success those two seasons was pitching… and nothing but pitching. In 1910
the team BA was a transparent .218 for the season. Four pitchers went a world
record 88 consecutive shutout innings. They were Sylvanus "Vean" Gregg, Gene
Krapp, Bill Steen, and Jesse Garrett.
Krapp would go on to the Majors
and pitch for the Cleveland Naps, and the Buffalo Buffeds of the Federal
League. The same would go for "Vean" Gregg. He would play for the Cleveland
Naps, the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the Washington
Senators. His ERA was a staggering 1.80 in 1911 with the Naps. That season
would also see him have a 23-7 record. The years 1912 and '13 would each see
him throw 34 complete games. Excluding the 1925 season with the Senators where
he only started 5 games with a 2-2 record, his ERA never got above 4. His
career high for innings pitched in a season was a healthy 285.7.Beyond his
accomplishments in the Majors, Gregg's 1910 season in the minors would pave his
way in spectacular fashion.
He had 32 wins, a no hitter, three one
hitters, he completed 43 of 51 games. His 14 shutouts were a league record, and
he set a club record of 368 strikeouts in 387 innings including 14 in one game
and 16 in an extra inning game. He once struck out 8 consecutive batters, which
was just a hair under his 8.56 per game average. And in one game that season he
struck out every batter (10 in all) at least once.
 Batting was poor those years, but fielding was not. One of them was
shortstop that played on the 1911 team. His BA was sub-par (.258), but he was
fleet of foot (35 SB), but had great hands and a healthy arm. That shortstop
was one Roger Peckinpaugh. He must have impressed his affiliated Cleveland Naps
GM, as he quickly was moved up to the majors in 1910 at the rip age of 19. Here
Peckinpaugh would find a home playing 17 seasons in the majors. 1910-13 he
played for the a fore mentioned Cleveland Naps. In the middle of the 1913
season he was traded to the NY Yankees where he would play for another 8 full
seasons. In 1922 he went to the Washington Senators where he played till 1926.
And he finished his career in 1927 with the White Sox.
This is what
the "Diamond Angle" has to say about Peckinpaugh:
Although his career
lasted 17 seasons, he was a semi-regular in 1913, and played full time only
from 1914-1925, so he didn't put up huge numbers. He was a shortstop in the
days when shortstops were expected to be outstanding on defense and any offense
was a bonus. His career average was .259, and he got on base 33.6 % of the
times he came to the plate. He stole 205 bases in an era when steals were
de-emphasized, included a career best 38 in 1914.
He was a Yankee
through the teens and when they became great with the addition of Babe Ruth in
1920, and on their first pennant winning team in 1921. He then took his wares
to DC, where he helped an aging Walter Johnson, plus Sam Rice, Goose Goslin and
his double play partner, Bucky Harris, to World Series' in 1924 and '25. And
1925, his last regular season, he was the AL MVP, hitting .294.
Like
Bill Buckner, he attained his greatest fame as a World Series goat. In the 1925
World Series against Pittsburgh, the steady veteran who was once considered the
best shortstops in the league, made 8 errors in the seven game contest. The
wise acres said he should have gotten a second MVP award: in the World Series,
for the Pirates. Built along the lines of Honus Wagner, he was not at all
flashy, with his broad shoulders and bow legs, but he covered more ground than
many a more lithe man.
Other career highlights include a 29-game
hitting streak in 1919, and a record 168 double plays turned with Harris in
1922. Before his unfortunate display in the 1925 Series, he was a hero in '24,
doubling home the winning run in Game Two and saving the sixth game with a
spectacular play. He managed the Yanks briefly during the 1914 season--when he
was but 23 years old--and went on to manage the Indians after he retired. He
later was promoted to general manger of the Tribe.
Vaughn St. additions. Bad times for the Beavers, and
the country
In 1912 Judge McCredie had pretty much remodeled the Vaughn
St. Park, and he may have been the precursor to the modern ballpark owner…
he added the first known Luxury Boxes. The additions to the park were a
marketed raising of the bar… a grandstand offering seating for 5,580 and
280 box seats. It would seem that big money would be right around the corner,
right? Wrong. The next few seasons were poor for the Beavers, Portland
Baseball, and the country. The following year after the pennant saw Portland
go, once again from first to worst with a 78-116 record. The team limped along
in bottom of the standings, until something happened in 1918 that altered the
landscape of the nation, and therefore baseball.
World War I had been
raging across the fields and trenches of Europe since Aug. of 1914, but it had
been a part of the news, and with the sinking of the Lusitania was sunk in May
of 1915, the US had slowly started to prepare to defend itself, but also arm
itself in preparation for entry into the war. In April of 1917 the US
officially declared war on Germany. Baseball was effected by the restrictions
on travel in the season of 1918. Portland didn't even field a team that year,
and Walter McCredie went to Salt Lake to manage there until his return the
following season.
For 10 seasons there was a drop off in what had made
the Beavers winners: pitching. And while the pitching drowned in rising ERA,
the batting did have some sluggers that would be highlights. In 1920 the last
place Beavers had George Maisel. An Outfielder, Maisel hit .323 for the season.
He had been picked up from the Majors after playing for the 1913 St. Louis
Browns, and in 1916 for the Detroit Tigers. He would leave the Beavers in '21
for the Chicago Cubs where he hit for .310 for the season, but would play in
just 30 games the following season to finish his career in the Majors with a
.190 BA for the season.
So, the stage would be set for the '20s. Vaughn
Street would continue to be the place where Portland would see some of the
finest players of it's day play. The 30's would see a player, not from the
Beavers, but from the Padres be discovered at Vaughn St. taking batting
practice, who would symbolize hitting, and take that part of the game into the
realm of science. It would see Joltin' Joe, and Jim Thorpe, Billy Southworth,
and may others.
Vaughn St., and Portland were no longer infants
introducing the game to the city. From now on it would be out of it's
adolescence, for better or worse. |
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