Update: 7/27/1936
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Pool |
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The Player of the Week is Oakland’s Harlin Pool,
who led the Oaks (47-51) to five wins in seven
games by hitting .531 and driving in eight runs.
The 28-year-old native of Lakeport, California is
hitting .352 with a home run and 54 RBI this
season. Now in his sixth season in the Coast
League, this is the first time he has been given
the opportunity to start regularly, and the
left-handed-hitting outfielder is making the most
of the opportunity.
The Oaks had a good week but Sacramento (59-39)
had an even better one; the Solons, in fact, were
a perfect 6-0, and have now won seven straight en
route to first place and a two-game lead over Los
Angeles (57-41), who lost four of seven. San
Francisco (52-46) was nearly as good as the
Solons, winning six and losing one, so the Seals
are now in third place, seven games behind
Sacramento but two ahead of fourth-place San Diego
(50-48). Oakland is in fifth place, Mission
(44-54) is in sixth, Seattle (42-56) is in seventh
and Portland (41-57) is back in the cellar,
eighteen games off the pace.
Update: 7/20/1936
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Scales |
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George Scales has been an Angel since 1922, and
one of the team’s on-field and clubhouse leaders
for just as long. This season the club asked him
to utilize his leadership skills in a more
official capacity, giving him the title of field
manager. The rookie skipper currently has the team
in first place. Of no small benefit is the
outstanding play of his second baseman, who is
hitting .325 with 9 HR and 52 RBI, and has just
wrapped up a week during which he hit .481. That
second baseman, of course, is Scales himself.
Scales led Los Angeles (54-37) to a 4-2 record
this week, which allowed the Angels to slip past
Sacramento (53-39). The Solons dropped five of
seven and trail the Halos by a game and a half.
San Diego (49-42) is five games out, San Francisco
(46-45) is eight games out, Oakland (42-49) is 12
games out, Mission and Portland (both 41-51) are
13 1/2 games out, and Seattle (40-52) is 14 1/2
games out.
Update: 7/13/1936
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Charleston |
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“If you want something done right, you have to do
it yourself” may be the motto of a certain veteran
Coast League center fielder. That would be Oscar
Charleston, who between outfield stints and turns
at bat also calls the shots as manager of the San
Diego Padres. The 39-year-old Charleston showed
his charges—and the rest of the league—how it’s
done this week, hitting .526 with two home runs
and six RBI. In 50 games this season (the one
thing he doesn’t do well anymore is avoid injury)
Charleston is hitting .339 with 3 HR and 37 RBI.
The Padres (47-38) were unable to gain ground
this week on either first-place Sacramento (51-34)
or second-place Los Angeles (50-35), as all three
teams battled to identical 3-3 records.
Fourth-place San Francisco (42-43) won four of
six, so the Seals are nine games behind the
Solons. Oakland (40-45) remains 11 games out.
Mission and Seattle ( both 37-48) are tied for
sixth, 14 games back; the Rainiers are in the
maelstrom—16 losses in their last 17 games.
Portland (36-49) was a winner four times in six
tries this week but Beavers remain in the cellar,
15 games back.
Update: 7/6/1936
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Gibson |
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Sacramento (48-31) dropped to a last-place finish
last season after a run that included seven
postseason appearances in eight years. Was last
year a fluke? Sure seems like it; the Solons have
won eleven of thirteen and have taken over first
place, one game ahead of Los Angeles (47-32).
Several Sacramento players are hitting well over
.300 and rookie hurler Hilton Smith is 13-1, but
their top player is catcher Josh Gibson, who has
just been named Player of the Week. Gibson hit
.500 with three home runs, eleven runs batted in,
and seven runs scored this week. He’s fourth in
the loop in hitting at .357 and fifth in home runs
with 17.
The now-second-place Angels and third-place San
Diego (44-35) have split the first six of ten
consecutive head-to-head matchups; San Francisco
(38-41) and Mission (34-45) have done the same.
The Solons have beaten Oakland (37-42) four times
in the first six meetings of their mid-season set.
Seattle (36-43) has lost eleven straight including
the last six vs. Portland (32-47).
Update: 6/29/1936
Seattle’s Willie Wells is certainly on a roll;
the shortstop has just captured his second
consecutive Player of the Week Award by punishing
opposing pitchers to the tune of a .433 batting
average, a homer, and six runs batted in. He now
has 13 home runs on the season to go along with 55
RBI and a .322 average. His teammates, however,
did not keep up their end of the bargain this
week, as the Rainiers (36-36) dropped five out of
seven—including the last four in a row—to fall
seven and a half games behind Los Angeles (43-28).
Not that the Angels are coasting. They had a
losing (3-4) week themselves and have watched
their lead over second-place Sacramento (42-29)
dwindle down to just one game. The red-hot Solons
dropped their first contest this week then bounced
back to win their last five. Third-place San Diego
(40-31) won four and lost three and trail the
Halos by three games. San Francisco (34-37),
Oakland (34-38), Mission (30-41), and Portland
(26-45) make up the second division.
Update: 6/22/1936
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Wells |
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The top three teams in the standings last week
are still the top three teams this week, but they
all took their lumps playing supposedly inferior
teams. Los Angeles (40-24) lost three straight to
Oakland (29-35) before taking two of three from
San Francisco (31-33). Sacramento began the week
on fire, taking three straight from Portland
(25-40), but then dropped four in a row to Seattle
(34-31). San Diego (36-28) won two in a row
against the Seals but lost the series finale and
then dropped three straight to the Oaks. When the
dust settled the Angels held a 3 1/2-game lead
over the Solons, a 4-game lead over the Padres,
and a 6 1/2-game lead over the Rainiers, who have
climbed into fourth place. Oakland is in sixth, 11
games back, Mission (26-39) is 14 1/2 games back
and the Beavers trail by 15 1/2 games.
Not too surprising that the Player of the Week
wears a Rainiers uniform, since the defending
league champs won six of seven. Shortstop Willie
Wells hit .394 with four home runs, ten runs
batted in, and nine runs scored. Wells is hitting
,310 this season with 12 homers and 49 RBI.
Update: 6/15/1936
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Carlyle |
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Portland center fielder Cleo Carlyle hit .400 and
scored eight runs this week, good enough to earn
the 34-year-old flycatcher Player of the Week
honors, but not quite good enough to lead the
Beavers to a winning record for the week (they
went 4-4) or to lift them out of the cellar. They
do, however, have company now. A brutal stretch
for both Oakland (they went 1-6) and Mission (they
went 2-6) left all three teams in a tie for sixth
place with a 23-35 record. The trio trails
first-place Los Angeles (38-20) by 15 games.
The Angels are four games better than their
closest pursuers, but there is now a tie for
second place. San Diego won just four of seven
while Sacramento took six of seven, so the Solons
have caught the Padres; they both stand at 34-24.
Fourth-place San Francisco is 29-29, nine games
back, and Seattle (28-30) trails by ten.
Update: 6/8/1936
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Stearnes |
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Turkey Stearnes of Los Angeles has picked up more
Player of the Week Awards than any other player
since the honor was established in 1921. This time
around he earned it for the 27th time by hitting
.476 with a home run, six runs batted in, and five
runs scored. A .336 hitter in his career, Stearnes
is a little below that mark so far this year,
hitting “just” .313, but his 14 home runs place
him fourth in the league, as do his 40 RBI. His
Angels (33-18) fought to a 4-3 record this week,
which was enough to maintain their three-game lead
over second-place San Diego (30-21).
Two games behind the Padres is Sacramento
(28-23), the only other team in the league right
now with a winning record. San Francisco and
Seattle (both 25-26) are tied for fourth place,
Oakland (22-29) is in sixth, Mission (21-29) is in
seventh, and Portland (19-31), in spite of a
current four-game winning streak, remains in last.
Update: 6/1/1936
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Leonard |
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San Diego’s Buck Leonard may not yet be
acclimated to his new home at Lane Field, but the
parks that are more familiar to him—such as
Portland’s Vaughn Street Park and Sacramento’s
Moreing Park have been more than accommodating.
This week, playing all road games, the Padre
slugger hit .412, and while hitting just one home
run, he still drove in 14 runs and scored 10. Big
Buck’s season average is at .366—fifth in the
league—and his 39 RBI are third while his 8 homers
have him tied for sixth.
The Padres (26-18) went 5-2 (winning their last
two games against Sacramento by a combined score
of 41-6), surged into second place and picked up a
half-game on the high-flying Angels (29-15); Los
Angeles won four of six and leads San Diego by
three games. Sacramento (24-20) is in third place,
five games out of first, and San Francisco (23-21)
is in fourth, six games back. Seattle (21-23) is
eight games back, Oakland (20-24) is nine games
back, Mission (18-26) is eleven games back, and
Portland (15-29) trails by 14.
A couple of Angels stalwarts hit milestones this
week. On Saturday George Scales collected his
2500th P.C.L. hit (he’s seventh on the league’s
all-time list), but his feat was somewhat
overshadowed the following day when Turkey
Stearnes doubled in the first inning off Mission’s
Boom-Boom Beck for hit #3000. Stearnes is the
first player to collect 3000 hits in the
major-league P.C.L.
Update: 5/25/1936
Two teams—Sacramento and Mission—won five games
against just one loss this week. It was enough to
lift the Solons (22-15) into second place, 2 1/2
games behind Los Angeles (25-13). For the Bells
(16-21), it only means a tie for sixth place with
Oakland (also 16-21)—for now. Few P.C.L. observers
have forgotten Mission’s 8-24 start last season,
or the 18-1 run that followed it.
The Solons’ successful week was largely due to
shortstop Joe Cronin’s second Player of the Week
performance this season. Cronin hit .435 with a
home run, scoring six runs and knocking in seven.
He’s hitting .370 for the season.
San Diego (21-16) won just one game this week,
but the third-place Padres remain one of just
three .500+ teams in the league. San Francisco is
18-19, Seattle is 18-20, Portland is 13-24.
Update: 5/18/1936
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Shellenback |
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The Player of the Week in the Coast League is
almost always an everyday player; it’s very
difficult for a pitcher to put up statistics that
are eye-catching enough to outshine the top
hitters when a pitcher typically only makes one or
two appearances in a week. One way to make the
voters sit up and take notice is to throw two
shutouts, and that’s exactly what Mission’s Frank
Shellenback did. He stopped Oakland 2-0 last
Monday on a five-hitter, then followed that up
with a 20-0 four-hit whitewashing of Sacramento on
Sunday. The latter victory was Shellenback’s 250th
in the P.C.L.; it’s the all-time record. The
37-year-old spitballer is 3-2 with a 3.92 ERA this
season.
Shellenback’s twin triumphs helped the Bells
(11-20) to a winning record (4-2) for the week,
but the club remains in seventh place, ahead of
only struggling Portland (10-22). Mission is still
looking up at two other second-division teams,
sixth-place Seattle (15-17) and fifth-place
Oakland (15-16). In the higher-rent section, Los
Angeles (21-11) has a one-game edge over San Diego
(20-12) and a 3 1/2-game lead over Sacramento and
San Francisco (both 17-14).
Shellenback wasn’t the only pitcher making
headlines this week. Seattle’s Willie Foster
no-hit San Diego 6-0 on Saturday, allowing just
one man to reach base (via a base on balls). It is
the first no-hitter in the P.C.L. during the
loop’s major-league era—a feat that has taken 15+
years to accomplish.
Update: 5/11/1936
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Berger |
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Los Angeles left fielder Wally Berger has hit his
share of home runs during his 10-year career; he’s
3rd on the all-time list in the P.C.L. with 341.
Just 30 years of age, Berger’s swing is as
devastating as ever. This week he hit five home
runs and batted .438 as the Angels (17-8) took
four out of five to increase their lead over
second-place San Diego (16-10) to one and a half
games. Berger is currently leading the loop in all
three Triple Crown categories, hitting .461 with 9
HR and 28 RBI. He’s won the RBI crown twice in his
career and paced the circuit in homers four times,
but he’s never won a batting title in spite of a
career .332 average.
There is a tight race in the middle of the P.C.L.
pack right now, with two teams (Oakland and San
Francisco) three games out of first at 14-11 and
two teams (Sacramento and Seattle) four games out
of first at 13-12. Mission (7-18) and Portland
(7-19) are off to difficult starts but the Bells
started out even worse last season and still made
the playoffs, so nobody’s being counted out yet.
Update: 5/4/1936
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Cronin |
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Los Angeles (13-7) has taken over the top spot
after a 5-2 week, but their lead is slim: just a
half-game over San Francisco (12-7), one game over
San Diego (12-8), and two games over Seattle
(11-9). The Rainiers, and their pitching staff in
particular, had a particularly rough week, losing
five of seven and giving up 10, 13, 14, and 12
runs in four losses to the Seals and 20 in the
second game of a doubleheader against the Padres.
Even after all that, Seattle is just two games out
of first.
Sacramento shortstop Joe Cronin is the Player of
the Week. Cronin hit .500 with three home runs.
seven runs batted in and ten runs scored; he’s now
at .338 for the season. The Solons (8-11) were
only able cash in that performance for three wins
in six games, but it was their first non-losing
week this season, so the fiery Cronin may have
sparked the beginning of a turnaround. The
Solons are a game worse than Oakland (9-10) and a
game better than Mission (7-12). Portland (6-14)
remains in last place but the Beavers are coming
off their first winning week of the young season.
Update: 4/27/1936
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Norbert |
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Last season San Francisco’s Ted Norbert was a
rookie who failed to show much promise, hitting
just .197 with three home runs and 25 runs batted
in over 232 at-bats. Perhaps something clicked for
the 27-year-old outfielder during the off-season,
because this week he hit .324 with five homers and
fourteen RBI. The five home runs and his 19 RBI
both lead the league, while his season’s batting
average sits at a more-than-respectable .314.
Norbert’s heroics led the Seals (7-6) to a 5-2
record this week, good enough to lift them into a
fourth-place tie with San Diego (also 7-6).
Seattle (9-4) remains in first, but the Rainiers
have cooled down, going 2-4 after a 7-0 start;
they’ve lost their last three in a row. Los
Angeles and Oakland (both 8-5) are a game back.
Mission (6-7), Sacramento (5-8), and Portland
(2-11) are off to disappointing starts.
Opening Week 1935
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Jacobs |
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The defending league champions have not skipped a
beat. Seattle is off and running with a 6-0 record
and a two-game lead over Mission and Oakland (both
4-2) after one week of P.C.L. action. First
baseman Ray Jacobs, a 34-year-old veteran who was
rarely utilized last season, was dominant this
week, hitting .440 with three home runs and eight
runs batted in. Catcher Biz Mackey also homered
three times, and left fielder Max West homered
twice. The Rainiers have already hit 11 home runs.
Rounding out the standings, Los Angeles and San
Diego (both 3-3) split six games and are tied for
fourth place, Sacramento and Seattle are 2-4 and
tied for sixth, and Portland, having had the bad
luck to play only the red-hot Rainiers, are in the
cellar at 0-6.
1935-1936 Off-Season
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Lane
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The Hollywood Stars are no more. Frustrated by
their inability to find a suitable site in the Los
Angeles area to build their own stadium, and
unwilling to tolerate the rent hike imposed on
them by their landlords, the Angels, the club has
packed its bags and headed to greener pastures.
They will call themselves the San Diego Padres,
and will set up shop at the newly-constructed Lane
Field at the corner of North Harbor Drive and West
Broadway, just across from the West Broadway Pier
in the fast-growing port city of San Diego. The
ballpark, for now an all-wooden, uncovered
structure, seats 10,000.
1935
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