Baseball Way Back: Seals, Beavers and Stars

Long before Major League Baseball landed on the West Coast in 1950s, the Pacific Coast League gave baseball fans hundreds and thousands of miles away from big-league stadiums their own major league.

Teams like the San Francisco Seals, the Hollywood Stars and the Portland Beavers had loyal followers.and were incubators of major league talent — Joe DiMaggio emerged from the cradle of the PCL to play for the Yankees. And when DiMaggio’s Yankees played the Cubs in the 1938 World Series, one of the Cubs outfielders was his former Seals teammate Joe Marty.

The rich history comes to life in Kirk Findlay’s new documentary “Pioneers of the Pacific,” which will have its first screening next month in Oregon before the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

I met Findlay last year as we were hovering by Doak Ewing’s Rare Sportsfilms table in the dealer’s room at the SABR convention in Chicago. Findlay was digging for rare PCL footage among Ewing’s treasures.

Findlay, who grew up in Portland, directed the documentary “Farewell, Portland Beavers” in 1993 at the time when the Beavers were leaving town. For that documentary, Findlay unearthed newsreel footage from 1926.

For Findlay’s new documentary, he will draw on the interviews and B roll from the Beavers film. The gems will include footage of opening day 1926, when the Beavers faced Oakland before a capacity crowd of 14,000.

Among the other treasures is film of the Los Angeles Angels from the late 1950s, which shows future managerial greats Tommy LaSorda and Sparky Anderson standing together.

The PCL, which started in 1903, filled the void when there were no major-league teams west of the Mississippi. The teams themselves were just one step away from the majors.

The Portland Beavers spawned players like Eddie Basinski, who played in the 1940s with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Lou Piniella.

“It was really fantastic competition. And Eddie Basinski in a soundbite said baseball was smarter in the coast league than what he experienced in the major leagues,” Findlay said. “People knew how to hit and run. They could all bunt better, do the little things.”

During his stint with the San Francisco Seals, DiMaggio had a longer hitting streak at 61 games than he did in the majors.

Findlay also pointed out that there are several Chicago connections not only to the PCL but other leagues that preceded it, such as the Pacific Northwest League, where future Cub Joe Tinker, prior to his association with Evers and Chance, led the Portland Webfoots to the title.

Even earlier, Jiggs Parrott became the first Oregon player to reach the major leagues, with the Chicago Colts, managed by Cap Anson, in 1892.

And Bill Lange, who played for the Seattle Hustlers and became Parrott’s teammate with Chicago in 1893, was called the greatest baserunner he ever saw by none other than Connie Mack. Lange’s career was cut short, when the father of his new bride insisted he give up baseball.

Another Chicago connection is Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, who played for the Portland Beavers in 1963.

Findlay said his documentary will put a long overdue spotlight on players like Bob Johnson, a member of the 1932 championship team who later played for the Philadelphia Athletics and was hailed by pioneer sabermetrician Bill James.

Among the league’s notable accomplishments, Findlay said, was the introduction of games with lights five years before the Cincinnati Reds turned the power on in 1935.

Portland had two stadiums, Vaughn Street Park and Multnomah Stadium, with lights for night games, he said.

The documentary will also feature rare footage and an interview with Artie Wilson, the second man to break the color barrier in the PCL with the Oakland Oaks. Wilson, who was Billy Martin’s roommate with the Oaks, led the league in batting and stolen bases his first season. Wilson had been the last player in the Negro Leagues to bat .400.

Of course, no history of the PCL would be complete without mention of the Hollywood Stars and the Hollywood celebrities that owned PCL teams.

“In fact, a group of five celebrities did own the Hollywood Stars,” Findlay said. “The Brown Derby was (the team’s) unofficial meeting place and watering hole after the games.” He added that the documentary will include a shot of the Hollywood Stars playing in shorts.

One of the earliest stars was Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle, who owned the Vernon TIgers, which won championships in 1919 and 1920.

Findlay said one of the players he interviewed was Tommy John, who pitched for Beavers in 1964, when it was a Cleveland farm team that included Tommie Agee, Luis Tiant and Sam McDowell.

He said he also interviewed Tom Trebelhorn, who managed the Beavers in 1982 and later became the skipper of the Chicago Cubs.

The good news is that the film is receiving the Feb. 10 screening in Oregon. But he is still raising funds for a more general distribution.

For more information, as well as to view a trailer of the film, visit www.pionneersofthepacific.com.