Update: 5/15/1939
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Collins |
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It’s been a poor start to the season for Portland
(10-16) and Hollywood (6-20), but no one else can
complain—every other team in the league is at .500
or better and within 3 games of first place. Los
Angeles (16-10) squeezed into sole possession of
the top spot this week with four wins in six
tries, while Sacramento, San Diego, and Seattle
(all 15-11) are now in a three-way tie for second,
a game behind the Angels. Oakland (14-12) is two
games out of first and San Francisco (13-13) is
three games back. It’s usually unwise to make
predictions about a pennant race before Memorial
Day, but it’s shaping up to be another tight race
with nearly the entire league in the mix.
Ripper Collins, the Halos’ 35-year-old first
baseman, took Player of the Week honors on the
strength of a .533 (8-for-15) average, adding
three homers and seven runs batted in to his
credentials. Collins, acquired in a trade-deadline
deal from St. Louis last season, is hitting .333.
Update: 5/8/1939
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Mackey |
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It was a great beginning of the week for Seattle
(12-8), as they beat Oakland (10-9) three times
and Los Angeles (12-8) once, but things ended on a
sour note as they dropped the next three to the
Angels. This dropped them into a second-place tie
with the Halos; they both trail San Diego (13-6)
by a game and a half. The Rainiers’ uneven
performance was certainly not the fault of veteran
catcher Biz Mackey, who earned a Player of the
Week nod after hitting .500 (12-for-24) with a
pair of homers and 5 RBI. The ageless backstop (He
turns 42 in July) is hitting .349 this season, his
19th in the Coast League.
The fourth-place Oaks trail the Padres by three
games; San Francisco (10-10) is 3½ out; Sacramento
(9-10) is four out; Portland (8-12) is 5½ out;
Hollywood (4-15), losers of five straight, is
already nine games back.
Update: 5/1/1939
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Leonard |
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San Diego (9-4) rode first baseman Buck Leonard’s
hot bat into first place, winning five of seven to
skip past Seattle (8-5), who dropped four of
seven. The Padres lead the Rainiers by a game, Los
Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco (all 7-6) by
two games, Sacramento (6-7) by three games,
Portland (5-8) by four games, and Hollywood (3-10)
by six.
Leonard, the 31-year-old smooth-swinging slugger
from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, hit .560 this
week, driving in 12. He leads the league in
hitting (.467) and RBI (17). Leonard has not hit a
home run yet this season and hit only 12 last
year—a far cry from the 47 round-trippers he hit
as a P.C.L. rookie in 1934—but the Padres
understand that home runs are hard to come by in
spacious Lane Field, and feel they will be in good
shape indeed if Leonard can duplicate his .346
average from last season. That mark, .346, happens
to be his career average as of Sunday.
Update: 4/24/1939
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Hutchinson |
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Seattle native Fred Hutchinson turned in a solid
rookie campaign for the Rainiers last season, but
if his Opening Week performance is any indication,
last year was only a hint at what’s to come. In
two starts against Portland last week, Hutchinson
threw eighteen innings, yielding 17 hits and only
two runs, striking out six, walking no one, and of
course, picking up two complete-game victories,
including a shutout. Hutchinson’s dominance—worthy
of the league’s first Player of the Week award for
1939—was an integral component of Seattle’s 5-1
start.
The Rainiers were the only team to log five wins,
so they’re all alone on first place with a week in
the books. Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego are
all 4-2 and tied for second place; Hollywood,
Sacramento, and San Francisco are 2-4 and tied for
fifth, and Portland is in the cellar at 1-5.
1938-1939 Off-Season
The Hollywood Stars will unveil 12,987-seat
Gilmore Field on Opening Day. It’s a smaller, more
intimate venue than the Angels’ Wrigley Field,
where the Stars set up temporary camp last year,
but it’s all theirs. For the first time in
decades, every team in the league will be playing
its home games in a ballpark that no other team
calls home.
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Gilmore
Field |
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The Stars expect to come close to jamming their
new home to near-capacity most days. There is room
for the stadium to expand if the demand is there,
but for now, the club will be content to build its
following at a leisurely pace after playing too
many dates in a half-filled stadium last season.
For the moment it appears all eight Coast League
franchises have settled into their respective
locations, but there will always be talk of
relocation whenever a team’s attendance begins to
flag. The Sacramento Solons, for all their
on-field success in recent years, still occupy a
metropolitan area that is tiny by big league
standards. The Solons’ ability to thrive in such a
market has been impressive, but their ability to
continue to do so is far from a certainty.
1938
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