'Hawks part of rich Cal League lore

By BRIAN GOLDEN
Valley Press Staff Writer

History will be in the air, too.

If Mark Parent's team can write the final chapter to a signature season, they'll bring home Los Angeles County's first minor league championship since the Los Angeles Angels won the Pacific Coast League title in 1956.

The PCL, often called the third major league before the migration of the Dodgers and Giants from New York ended its reign in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1958, set the stage for Major League Baseball's manifest destiny to the West Coast.

In a curious way, the Valley of 2000 is analogous to the Los Angeles of 1956. The Hangar is surrounded by wide open spaces on the threshold of a population boom, in a place many people are still surprised to find is in L.A. County.

The Los Angeles of 1956 was a land of mystery and legend to many, including Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley.

"It's a very good analogy, actually," said Dick Beverage, the ranking historian of the PCL. "You have a beautiful ballpark and a tremendous fan base up there in Lancaster, and the California League today is very advanced. I would say it's better than any other A league in the country.

"That was how the Coast League was in the 50s. It was closer to the major leagues than it was to the American Association or the International League, the other two top minor leagues."

In that sense, the analogy diverges. Unlike the JetHawks, who hope to fly Lancaster and one day alight in the major leagues in Seattle, Pacific Coast League stars were in no hurry to get to the American or National Leagues.

"You have a lot of guys who played there who didn't want to go back to the major leagues," said Jim Marshall, the PCL's home run leader (54) in 1954 and hits leader (188) in 1957 who's now the director of Pacific Rim operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "The salaries were very good in the Coast League and the road trips were very few, because you stayed a week in town.

"All those factors made the Coast League an exciting place to play."

Beverage reports that the PCL nearly beat the Dodgers to the West Coast, too.

"In 1941, (PCL president Clarence Rowland) had a deal made with the St. Louis Browns," Beverage said. "Train schedules were checked, the American League made up a schedule reflecting a team in California, and the Los Angeles Angels were set to move to Blair Field (in Long Beach).

"But the American League meeting to approve the deal was scheduled for Dec. 8, 1941. Obviously, other events intervened."

In a further irony, 1941 was also the first year of California League play.

But not until the Ellis family announced July 25, 1995 that they were moving the Riverside Pilots to a stadium tp be built in Lancaster did the Cal League come to L.A. County. Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of Lancaster Municipal Stadium's groundbreaking.

"It's really great that they're remembering the Coast League history with the JetHawks in the playoffs," said Stu Nahan, the dean of Los Angeles sportscasters who got his start recreating broadcasts of the Modesto Reds games in 1954 before removing on to the L.A. Angels and Sacramento Solons in the PCL. "To me, there was no difference in the caliber of play in the Coast League and the major leagues.

"That '56 Angels team had some colorful characters, led by (league MVP) Steve Bilko. They had Gene Mauch, who managed the Angels, and Jim Fanning, who managed Montreal the year (Rick) Monday beat them with that ninth-inning home run for the (1981) pennant. They had five players hit 20 home runs on that '56 team. It's wonderful to know people are thinking about them and appreciating what they did for baseball in Los Angeles."

Nahan points out that Gil Stratton, the former sportscaster and actor (Stalag 17) and Ira Reiner, the former district attorney of Los Angeles County, were both umpires in the PCL.

Irv Kaze, the only man who can claim to have won a World Series ring working for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and Super Bowl ring working for Raiders managing partner Al Davis, was the Hollywood Stars publicist when they played the final PCL game in Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 1957.

Kaze, now a three-time Southern California Broadcasters' sports talk show host of the year on KIEV-870 AM, was also there April 16, 1996, when minor league baseball resumed in the county with the opening of The Hangar. Kaze organizes an annual group outing to The Hangar from his home in Sherman Oaks.

"The JetHawks have been such a wonderful addition to the sports landscape," Kaze said. "People only know about the Dodgers and the Angels. A lot of them don't know about the Coast League and the history it had preparing the West Coast for the arrival of the major leagues.

"So much of what makes baseball great it its history and tradition. As the JetHawks try to make history, they're reminding us of the history of the Pacific Coast League. That makes it even more special."

Uploaded September 7, 2000