The Old Pacific Coast League: 1946 Promotional Film.
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- This old film lay dormant on a shelf in the closet of a television studio for several decades until recently rediscovered by Alan O'Connor and Bill Shubb. It was originally produced by the Pacific Coast League at the beginning of the 1946 season to promote the post-war resurgence of the league. It contains an introduction by league president Clarence H. "Pants" Rowland and some of the only known color footage still in existence showing each of the teams in the league working out at their spring training camps. Close-ups of the managers and players of the Oakland Oaks, San Francisco Seals, Sacramento Solons, Los Angeles Angels, Hollywood Stars, San Diego Padres, Portland Beavers, and Seattle Rainiers in action and in color.
(c) 2011 Alan O'Connor & Bill Shubb
My great Uncle Al Jarlett played for the Solons in 1946!!
Just a reminder that the PCL season was an incredible 188 games at this time!
yep... the 1904 champion tacoma tigers played 224 games. they'd routinely play around 200 games a season thru the 1920's, then in the 1930's settled in around 187 to 188. they played 200 in 1950, 167 the following year.
1946... The war is over, and won.
Lots of optimism and good times to look forward too.
The San Diego Padres player shown taking BP at the 22 minute mark of this film is Johnny Jensen. As of this writing (8-8-2021), he is still alive--104 years old!
Didn't Jackie Jensen play for the Boston Red Sox.
@@victoraguilera6126 John Jensen and Jackie Jensen were different players and not related. But, yes, you are correct. Jackie was an MVP in 1958 and had his best years with the Red Sox. Watch him in "Home Run Derby Mickey Mantle v. Jackie Jensen S1 E26.
@breadandcircuses8127
By not dying yet.
You new at this?
My first PCL game was in 1956 at Wrigley Field. Double header that day between Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels. Got to see Steve Bilko hit his 55th homer that day. What memories.
Bilko was one of those 4-A players ... guys who killed it in AAA, but couldn't replicate their success in the majors. He was an expansion LA Angel in 1961, I believe.
@@chasbodaniels1744, was never excited about Dodgers coming to LA. Angels were my childhood heroes. The only positive thing with the Angels and Giants IMO, coming to the West Coast was that finally I was going to see the MLB stars I had read about and seen on TV on the GAME OF WEEK. First game my dad took me to at the Coliseum was between Dodgers and Cardinals.......................Stan Musial went 4 for 4 that night!!
@@ELPIOJOBOLUDO So did you become a Dodgers fan or Angels fan?
@@josecarranza7555, Angel fan.
There is very little existing movie footage of the old PCL, mostly short clips from home movies taken by the players and fans. That is why this film was such a remarkable find. Because the Stars played in the city dominated by the motion picture industry in the1940s and 50s, there were a number of movie features showing their team and ballpark, particularly when Hollywood celebrities were in attendance. They are difficult to find, however.
Didn’t Gene Autry own both the Angels and Stars? He also owned radio stations and the original Los Angeles television station, KTLA.
Thanks for video
Such a fantastic film...thank you for uploading this. A real piece of baseball history.
Glad I came across this gem of a video
My mom used to go see the Seals play in Seal Stadium as a little girl. She's also buried within about 100 yards of Joe DiMaggio, and her mom is buried about 150 yards of Lefty O'Doul, who has a baseball embedded in his headstone (he's also surrounded by Asians now, interestingly. Must have to do with when the plots were purchased. Or the Chinese and Flipinos and Thai Catholics just adore baseball).
I know all this stuff about the headstones because I live within walking distance of Colma, the City of the Dead, where all the old-time San Francisco big shots are buried.
Lady you know dead folk too well.
@@jerryboucher5622 Some of my best friends are dead. (terrified look)
The rivalry between the PCL's Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars was as bitter as any in sports history. On August 2, 1953, the teams got into an infamous on-field brawl that started in the 6th inning when Angels pitcher Joe Hatten deliberately beaned Stars batter Frankie Kelleher in the back, and then Stars pinch runner Teddy Beard retaliated one play later by spiking Angels infielder Murray Franklin in the arms and chest on the slide into 3rd base. Both benches emptied, matters quickly got out of hand, and LAPD officers had to be called in to break things up and impose an uneasy truce between the two sides in order to finish the game.
When baseball was a GAME!
Thanks so much for this these forgotten gems are awesome. The color of the San Diego hats were striking. I love old stadiums and I’m glad some clubs are making stadiums unique again.
Thank you for your comment Duane. This video can be shared by the masses. That is why we posted it on CZcams. All they have to do is visit this site and watch it. We hope you will pass the word.
Great film. Thank you for posting. When baseball was truly the national pastime.
Nice film. I'd love to find some footage of the 60's when I was a young child going to Beavers games with my Dad. They had some great players including Lou Pineilla, Eddie Leon, Ray Fosse, Richie Scheinbloom, Lou Klimshock etc. I remember the hamburgers they grilled at Multnomah Stadium were so tasty, they grilled onions and put them in. I remember the old timers watching those games, many of whom smoked cigars and always wore hats.
Clown you spell like a third grader.
Real baseball fans of Portland remember Eddie Basinski, Frankier Austin and Joe Brovia who hit 39 home runs , etc. Baseball at its best..
A bit before my time , but I remember seeing Lou Pinella ,Bill Davis, Frank Peters.
I remember Eddie Basinski when he played for the Rainiers in 58, they called him The Professor because he had thick glasses and played the violin, as of 2 years ago he was still living in Portland.
imagine what the baseball world would look like today had the PCL been successful in becoming a major league.
would the Giants still be in New York? Dodgers in Brooklyn, or would they have moved somewhere else, possibly Florida or Atlanta, opening that area to the major leagues in the fifties or early sixties? where would the A's be? possibly stayed in KC, meaning the Royals wouldnt exist. we wouldnt have the Mariners and possibly the Brewers, since they started in Seattle. if the Dodgers moved to Atlanta, would the Braves have stayed in Milwaukee or still moved? they could possibly have landed in Florida.
we wouldnt have the Mets if the Giants had stayed in NYC, but we'd have another NL team someplace else.
had the PCL become a major league in say, 1947, would great major league players from the west coast, like Ted Williams and the DiMaggio brothers, Dom and Joe, (Vince was a decent player) have gone back home to play in the west coast major league? the reserve clause would have delayed players going west, but the reserve clause would have been challenged earlier than Curt Flood and may have been gone in the late 40's/early 50's.
the PCL from all accounts was only slightly below the major leagues talentwise at the time, i dont think the quality of the major leagues would have suffered from the added teams. plus with the influx of black players, there would have been plenty of talent for 24 teams.
but for current times, how would expansion have looked? would the Rockies and Diamondbacks be in the PCL? how about the Astros? would they have joined the PCL or the NL, if those teams existed at all. the PCL may have started teams in Arizona and Colorado and other western states much earlier. when the AL and NL expanded in the sixties, the PCL may have done the same.
would the PCL have been incorporated into the World Series somehow? perhaps a round robin playoff format, the 3 pennant winners (the only teams that belong in baseball playoffs, baseball wildcard is a joke) playing a round robin tournament.
ok i'm going to stop, i could go on all day lol i hope this has given some of you something to think about when you have some leisure time. this is just my speculation off the top of my head, would love to read some others' ideas if anyone wishes to add.
Let's shorten those posts, k?
I would imagine the main reason they did not succeed in becoming a major league is because MLB had their eyes on the west coast markets the PCL controlled , so the only real option would have been for the 8 teams to merge 4 each in the NL / AL .
That president sounds so excited.
i thought the same, i think they should have hired a press agent or possibly let one of the livelier managers do the talking. Casey Stengel i'm sure could have livened it up lol
He's all adither.
In those days a lot of players were making more money in the PCL than guys in the Majors. I've read that quite often players would stay in the PCL rather than move up the Big Leagues.
I would. Especially in So Cal, where the weather is great year round.
The Solons played at the field that was built at Riverside Rd. and Broadway. There is a Target Store in the spot that Solon’s Field was located.
That's sad. It really sucks that these old ballparks were torn down.
That was Ebbets Field across from the famous Sacramento Cemetery. I saw the Solons play there along with 10,000 fans, about 10% of the city population back then. I predict when the major league owners see how many fans show up to see the A's play, Sacramento will be considered as a place to move to.
Just found this film. Very enjoyable. wow, 188 games a season, didnt know they had that long of a schedule.
Great historic film.
It was cool to see Casey Stengal as a manager.
My grandfather played for the SF seals. Really want to find more old photos of him.
If MLB expands, this league needs to be resurrected as a third major league (added to an 8 team AL, an 8 team NL and a fourth 8 team league). It would be so easy to do, 6 of the 8 cities are already represented, Arizona could be the seventh, and an expansion team in Las Vegas, Portland or Vancouver could be the eighth (or even Denver if you want to put both expansion teams in the east).
I wish they would kept one of those old stadiums.
Speaking of Casey Stengel and his Oakland team: "The idea of this system of training of sprinting and walking is for the purpose of getting the wind in shape."
And if it ain't workin', take 'em to the doctor and have their tonsils removed! Or maybe even the appendix or a bunch of teeth. Many teams fell for and adopted this incredibly medieval... system, in the 1920s and 30s the so-called "Focal Infection Theory" developed by quack doctor Henry Cotton. The Yankees were particularly notorious offenders, had Lefty Gomez remove ALL his upper teeth. Even Gehrig went under the knife, can you believe that?
Focal Infection Theory didn't fully disappear until the late 1950s, not before causing untold levels of needless suffering and an unknown number of deaths. Incredible.
😊😅😂😆
What a long-winded gasbag.
You have to do what's needed. For the good of the team.
Great film. Thank you!! I'm surprised they never attempted to start a new MLB like the AFL and ABA.
In 1960 Branch Rickey was part of the startup Continental League that forced MLB to expand.
unfortunately, the "owners" of the Continental League never really were completely serious about starting a new major league, they were more interested in either buying MLB teams or being part of expansion. in 1914-15 there was also the Federal League, but that folded after two seasons.
@@steveswangler190 Wrigley Field was originally a Federal League ballpark.
I was born December 1946 I became a baseball fan and later a baseball announcer at age 22 thank Our Lord Jesus Christ I am a cancer survavior I am carlos garza a Red Sox fan
Los Angeles Angels, Hollywood Stars. PCL teams in L.A. I saw some of their games.
This was really cool to see!
4:52 All right Bill, stop arguing with that umpire. You know you can't win.
EPIC!
Alot of information can be gained from this film. Baseball reference does not list a manager for the Sacremento team. I had no idea that these teams had separate training camps...even one in Hawaii! I didn't realize the SDP had orange caps. Also rare stadium footage.
Sometimes I wonder what baseball would have looked like if the Dodgers and Giants hadn't moved, and the PCL had become a true third major league.
Would we have the National, American, and Pacific Leagues under the MLB banner? Would the Mets exist? What would baseball in Portland and Sacramento be like?
Suppose the PCL had allowed the AL and NL to assimilate its teams, four in each league (e.g., Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles to the AL, Portland, Oakland, Hollywood and San Diego to the NL). How might MLB have changed? ⚾
Gilmore Field is now CBS studios, and while there is a plaque remembering Gilmore Field, you gotta jump through hoops to take a look at it.
Where Wrigley Field used to be is a park, with nothing commemorating the site used to be Wrigley Field.
Samething for where the Vernon Tigers used to play. I believe they had 3-4 different stadiums in Vernon and LA and one in Venice.
Just found this. Good stuff.
My dad, a Seals fan, always maintained that the 1946 Seals were the greatest minor league team ever.
I don't know about that. The 1934 Angels had such a good team (137-50) that instead of facing the second place team (who finished 35 1/2 games back) in the championship series, they faced a team of all stars made up of players from the rest of the league. The Angels still won.
Has anyone noticed that people in that era pronounced Los Angeles with a "guh" instead of the "juh" of today? It was the same on TV shows in the 50s.
Appreciate your suggestion and enthusiasm!
Casey Stengel went from Oakland to the Yankees and took Billy Martin with him.
Great find! Thanks for posting this.
Great great great video.
A shame the original PCL is no more.
Telivision ruined the pcl'as dominating the west.if baseball games from the east were not broadcasted in the west it would be the oakland oaks not a's and those bums would still be in brooklyn.
A's were in Philadelphia at this time
The PCL should have beaten them to it by signing a league contract with one of the TV networks in 1950-52 or so.
MLB (AL/NL) didn't sign a national tv contract until the early 60s. Each team signed their own local contracts, as a result there were huge disparities in income between teams (ie the Yankees and everybody else).
so progress derailed the PCL is what you are saying.
@@steveswangler6373
Well, they got left behind at the station when progress (widespread auto use and TV) swept over the nation after WWII.
Most exciting video ever.
Many players could make more money out west than in the "majors." I believe in 25 years there will be a call for Japanese League records for players like Ichiro and Matsui.
Angels are Los Angeles original baseball team.
Clarence Rowland was a boss! Don't mess with Ol'Clarence!
At about 14:00 minutes in, is the rookie pitcher wearing a "Ruptured Duck" sleeve patch, indicating a discharged veteran?
Do you have any footage of the PCL from the mid 1950's? My friend played for Hollywood and I'm trying to help him get footage.
I wonder if the Houston Astros got the idea for their logo from Hollywood?
Could well be.
Too bad nobody had the vision in about 1948-50 to break loose and elevate the PCL to full major league status. If they had signed a network TV contract in the early 50s they could have offered bigger contracts than the older AL and NL.
I have done it! Hold 7 baseballs in my one hand!
You've held 2 balls a lot.
It's a shame the pcl teams didn't get absorbed into mlb. Go Solons!
2:39... Lefty O'Doul.
Lifetime .349 MLB average!
UniWatch sent me here!
there is 1 incorrect fact at the time sisler had the hits record with 257
I caught that too, I believe it was meant Lefty O'Doul held the National League record with 254 hits, but you are right, it was stated wrongly.
You're both right. But that's still a boatload of hits. Lefty could rake!
Sacramento will eventually get a major league team when owners see the enthusiasm for the A's playing for sold out crowds. A new park will be built in the old rail yards and Sac will prosper from it..
Will they be called the Sac O'Shits? 😅
Without the PCL there would never have been the SF Giants & LA Dodgers.
Not exactly true. Those West Coast markets were booming, and increasingly attractive to MLB team owners and prospective new franchise owners. The westward migration was on, once the Giants and Dodgers made their moves..
I guess the NL and AL didn't not want competition after all MLB did not expand until 1969. Instead of bringing in The Seals, Stars, Oaks etc. The owners began moving west albeit slowly Milwaukee, Minnesota, before The Dodgers and Giants made the leap Kansas City was the farthest point west.
@@tomb4575 MLB expanded in 1961 (Angels and Senators/Rangers), 1962 (Mets, Colt 45s/Astros), AND 1969 (Expos/Nationals, Padres, Royals, Pilots/Brewers).
Beyond that, the St. Louis Browns were on the verge of moving to Los Angeles in 1942. There was a vote on the matter of MLB to take place on December 8th, 1941 to approve the move. But thanks to the day that will live in infamy, the vote ended up being unanimous...against the move. Had the vote taken place just 3 days sooner, we'd probably have a vastly different look to MLB.
@@thescott7539 I had never heard that, thanks. Interesting, yes that could have changed. Wonder if The PCL could have filed an anti trust suit against MLB and forced a merger? The arrival of The Dodgers and Giants relegated The PCL to true minor league statues.
Would be nice if baseball (like a lot of pro sports ) stopped being political and got exciting again . Would be kinda cool to bring back player/managers also feel the pitchers should bat . The whole DH thing should've never been a thing in either league if ya ask me . And if it was a thing it should just be an extra position and have a 10 man lineup . Pitchers ONLY suckb at hitting because you tell them to stop after high school or in college whenbin most cases those guys were great hitters throughout school .
Dang how many of those teams wore black and orange lol
Wish they hadn’t renamed it Triple-A West
Farting at Sacramento 💨
Shitting at Stockton 💩
22:50 JOHN DICKSHOT.
Pervert.
@@ELPIOJOBOLUDO Aren t you the first cousin of the great Bosox pitcher Dick Pole.
@@jerryboucher5622
Or the renowned NASCAR driver Dick Trickle.
@@ELPIOJOBOLUDO
Who's Dick Hertz?
i loved this film, im going to pass it on! baseball then was a hell of a lot better without the steroids, huge sums of money, greed, arrogance and foreigners from the dominican republic and venezuela it has now...:(
I expected so much and got so little. The editing, the script, and the reading of the script were all pitiful. They could have shown all the stadiums, some clips from games, and highlights of players that were not so boring. The Coast League was marvelous. So much could have been said & done in a film about it, but this was like a C project by a freshman student of film making.
Go take a dump, larry. You need it.
@breadandcircuses8127
Why don't you two go on a date?
Have you considered how difficult film editing was back then? No computers, so hours of splicing film by hand, taking whatever footage you were given and trying to make a coherent whole out of it, on a presumably tiny budget, nothing like a Hollywood flick. This is a product of its time. Enjoy it for what it is.
Well, the film is pretty good, but the script and narration are, shall we say, clunky at best.
No, we shall not say.
Get over yourself.