Great video of the Old Pacific Coast League.

•August 13, 2012 • Leave a Comment


(EMBEDDING IS DISABLED FOR THE VIDEO, JUST FOLLOW THE LINK TO VIEW)

Anyone who reads 90 Feet of Perfection knows that I’m incredibly fascinated with the old Pacific Coast League. It interests me on so many levels and I feel like I can never learn enough about the the teams, the stadiums, the stories, and the men who played in the league. I can honestly say that the “classic” years of the PCL (1903-1957) are potentially my favorite era in the history of the great game of Baseball. So with that said, I was ecstatic to recently find this video on YouTube.

What we have here is a 26 minute narrated color film from 1946 with short commentary by Clarence “Pants” Rowland, who was the PCL League President at the time. The video is in color and was filmed during Spring Training of that season. The reason for the video according to the description is “promote the post-war resurgence of the league” but I would guess it also had to do with promoting the PCL to help them reach their goal of becoming a “3rd Major League.” Rowland pushed this initiative for many years so this video would fall right in place with this.

According to the video’s description, the film “lay dormant on a shelf in the closet of a television studio for several decades” and was recently rediscovered. The video was uploaded last month (July 9th) but I believe it was discovered sometime late in 2011.

Do yourself a favor and sit down and watch this great footage of the old PCL, you wont regret it.

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Lou Gehrig.

•July 27, 2012 • 3 Comments

I recently did an all Joe DiMaggio photo post and received such a nice response for doing so that I decided to do another. This time I’m sharing some photos of another Yankee legend, enjoy.

I assume this was taken in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s as he looks quite a bit younger than most photos you see of him in the mid to late 1930’s.

He definitely did not look like a man who was only 36 when said goodbye to the game in 1939. I can only assume that the abuse on his body from playing every day for so long, in addition to the possible beginning effects of the disease that would take his life aged him towards the end of his career.

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Gehrig being assisted off the field after being hit in the head while at bat. The fact that MLB teams did not start to implement batting helmets until the early 1940’s and officially made them mandatory in the mid 1950’s still kind of blows my mind. Ray Chapman was killed in 1920, so that’s literally decades of playing Baseball in the big leagues without another death. All I can say to that is players back then were incredibly lucky another tragedy on that level never happened again.

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May 31st, 1938. Gehrig plays in his 2000th consecutive career game. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 12-5 that day.

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Gehrig manning First Base during the 1926 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees lost to the Red Birds 4 games to 3. To watch some nice footage of this series, click HERE. I have mentioned it before, but I love photos of Lou playing First Base so much.

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May 3rd, 1938. Gehrig steals home against St. Louis Browns in a game in which the Yankees won, 5-1. The Iron Horse went 2 for 3 that day with a homerun and a double. It was his last complete season playing Baseball.

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Gehrig argues with an umpire during the 1938 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. This photo takes me off guard as Gehrig was known as being very respectful to most and having a even-keeled personality. I would love to know the story behind this incident. To view some video of Game 1 of the series, click HERE (I warn you to put the sound on mute first).

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June 2nd, 1941, Gehrig passes away.

 

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Joe DiMaggio.

•July 14, 2012 • 2 Comments

In both 1968 and 1969, Joe DiMaggio was a coach and the vice president for the Oakland Athletics under owner Charles O. Finley. As much as I see photos of Joe during his years in the A’s organization, I just can’t get used to him in the Oakland uniform. I still think it’s still pretty cool though as I’m a big A’s fan.

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July 25th, 1948. During the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium against the Chicago White Sox, young boys ran on to the field during the second, fourth, fifth and seventh innings in hopes of meeting The Yankee Clipper and getting his autograph. There is not a chance in hell that this would happen today and I think that’s kind of sad.

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July 11th, 1935. DiMaggio poses with Lefty O’Doul (middle) and teammate Joe Marty (left). The 1935 season was Lefty’s first of 17 as the Player/Manager of the San Francisco Seals while it was DiMaggio’s last season with the Seals and one in which he won the MVP of the Pacific Coast League.

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May 30th, 1941 at Fenway Park. Joltin’ Joe smashes a single against Red Sox Pitcher Earl Johnson while Johnny Peacock watches from behind the plate. This was the first game of a doubleheader and 15 days into Dimaggio’s 56 game hitting streak. This is a large photo worth clicking on to see some of the great detail.

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Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio stand by and watch Yankee batting practice sometime in the late 1930’s. I love this photo as it captures the Yankees superstars of two generations together during their three seasons together. I could say four seasons together if you count 1939 as it Gehrig’s last in which he only played in 8 games.

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The Mets. Maury Wills. Oaks Park. Dizzy Dean. Hank Greenberg.

•July 11, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Jerry Koosman in the Mets’ clubhouse during their time with the Mets in the late 60’s. What an amazing pitching trio.

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1957, Seals Stadium. Maury Wills of the Seattle Rainers beats Frank Kellert of the San Francisco Seals to first base.

Look how poorly attended Seals Stadium is here. I’ve read that things got pretty rough in the late years of the Seals organization but wow, this is bad.

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From 1912 to 1955, the Oakland Oaks and various other Baseball teams played at Oaks Park in Emeryville, California.

This photo of an unkept and deserted Oaks Park was taken in 1956, a year after the Oaks left the Bay Area to become the Vancouver Mounties. Only one word can describe the feelings while looking at this photo: depressing.

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1937. Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinal Dizzy Dean warms up while fans at Braves Field watch the future Hall of Famer. I love everything about this photo.

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1930. A great photo of Hank Greenberg at the age of 19. Hammerin’ Hank only had one at-bat in one game with the Tigers that season and didn’t appear in the big leagues again until 1933. The rest was history.

 

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“The First Padres” new trailer!

•July 6, 2012 • 1 Comment

I have mentioned this documentary several times here as it is something I am very excited for. If you’re not familiar with “The First Padres,” the film will cover the history of the old San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. So in a nutshell, it’s RIGHT up my alley in regards to my interest in Baseball history goes.

According to Chris Boyd who is doing the film, the movie is almost complete so I urge you to watch the newest trailer. I promise you won’t regret it as it looks amazing. In addition, if you are interested, Gaslamp Ball did an interview with Chris recently. It’s very informative and worth checking out. Check out the interview HERE. If you wish to be updated on progress of the film and it’s official release, follow the official First Padres Facebook Page.

Look for more content related to “The Final Padres” in the near future as I will be spreading the word about the film in every way possible.

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