1926 Governor’s Cup Series
Game One: Mission 7, Oakland 3 at Oakland, Tue., Sept. 29, 1926
20-game winner Frank Shellenback of Mission took on Oakland’s pitcher-manager Ray Kremer in the opener. After center fielder Cool Papa Bell flied out to open the game, the Bells delivered eight consecutive singles to take a 4-0 lead, with the last two outs coming on a stolen base attempt and tag-and-score gambit. The Oaks looked like they might get back into it when they loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame, but they only managed a single run before catcher Art Koehler banged into an inning-ending double play. The Bells added three more runs in the third, the key blow being backstop Danny Murphy’s two-run double. Kremer twisted an ankle backing up third on a routine grounder in the seventh; he would not pitch again in the series, calling the shots thereafter from the bench. Shellenback ran into little trouble the rest of the way and went the distance to give his club a 1-0 series lead.
Game Two: Oakland 5, Mission 3 at Oakland, Wed., Sept. 30, 1926
The Acorns turned to southpaw Dick Niehaus, a veteran of two Governor’s Cup series with San Francisco, to battle the Bells’ other 20-game winner, Herman Pillette. The Bells got on the board right away on right fielder Ike Boone’s two-run first-inning homer, but the Oaks cut the lead in half in the bottom half of the frame on right fielder Buzz Arlett’s bloop RBI single. Niehaus then aided his own cause by leading off the bottom of the third with a two-bagger down the right field line, and came around to tie the game on first baseman Mule Suttles’ gapper. The Oaks plated the go-ahead run in the fourth on second baseman Jimmie Reese’s line drive RBI single, and added insurance runs in the fifth and seventh. Niehaus scattered nine hits and avoided the big inning and the Oaks had a series-tying 5-3 win.
Game Three: Oakland 4, Mission 3 at Mission, Fri., Oct. 2, 1926
As the series shifted to hitter-friendly Recreation Park, fireworks were expected, especially considering the recent inconsistency of Oaks hurler Syl Johnson and Mission’s William Bell. Suttles homered to open the scoring in the first and the Bells cashed in three in the third, with shortstop Gordon Slade delivering a key two-out, two-run single, but after that the game became a single here, single there affair, with both pitchers avoiding the knockout blow. The Acorns tallied single runs in the fourth, sixth, and eighth; Koehler’s two-out eight-inning sacrifice fly gave them the lead. Johnson looked a lot more like the steady hand that won five consecutive decisions for Sacramento in July and August than the snake-bit enigma that dropped six straight for the Oaks a month later; his complete-game triumph put Oakland in the driver’s seat with a 2-1 series advantage.
Game Four: Oakland 8, Mission 6 at Mission, Sat., Oct. 3, 1926
The big inning finally arrived, but unfortunately for the home crowd, it arrived with the wrong team at bat. Already leading 2-0, the Oaks delivered six third-inning singles off Shellenback to break the game open 7-0. The beneficiary of this offensive onslaught was right-hander Rats Henderson, who did his part by weathering a prolific Bells attack that produced two runs in the third and single tallies over the next four. The Bells got as close as 7-6 by the seventh inning but ran out of offense after that, with Henderson himself delivering the coup de grace insurance run on a ninth-inning RBI single.
Game Five: Mission 12, Oakland 1 at Mission, Sun., Oct. 4, 1926
The Bells would not go quietly, giving their fans a satisfying laugher on their final home date. As Pillette turned miserly, the Bells victimized Art Delaney with a 16-hit onslaught that produced a five-run fifth and a four-run seventh. First baseman Heavy Johnson had four hits, including a home run, while scoring three and driving in three; Murphy added three hits and three RBI; Boone, Slade, second baseman Martin Dihigo, and left fielder Harry Heilmann all delivered two hits apiece to crush the Oaks 12-1 and pull the Bells within a game.
Game Six: Oakland 14, Mission 7 at Oakland, Tue., Oct. 6, 1926
An exciting see-saw battle got away from the visitors late in the game and the Oaks turned it into a series-clinching rout. The Acorns initiated the scoring in the third when Suttles doubled off Bell to score left fielder Roy Johnson; Mission countered immediately, scoring three in the fourth on Slade’s two-run double and second baseman Wes Griffin’s RBI two-bagger. The Oaks came back in the fifth, with Arlett delivering a run-scoring single and Slade’s miscue on center fielder Clint Thomas’ grounder allowing the tying run to score. Undaunted, the Bells regained the lead in the subsequent frame on Griffin’s second RBI double of the afternoon, this one cashing in a pair to make it 5-3. The Bells’ good fortune ran out in the seventh. Shortstop Dobie Moore led off with a single, and three additional singles and two triples by Thomas and third baseman Lyn Lary made it 8-5. The Acorns were just getting warmed up, as two more singles, two doubles, and two 2-run homers by Reese and Arlett followed to complete the 11-run outburst. The game well in hand, Niehaus concentrated on hitting the strike zone and while the Bells managed to score two more runs, the day, and the title, belonged to Oakland.
Update: 9/27/26
Oakland (87-67) won the regular-season title, finishing two games ahead of Mission (85-69). The Oaks had been struggling of late but they put together their first winning week (4-2) in over a month while the Bells were stumbling to a 2-4 finish. Not a worrisome outcome for the Bells, however, as they entered the week facing a steeper hill to climb: due to tie-breaking procedures, they would have had to finish with a better record than the Oaks to gain home field advantage in the upcoming Governor’s Cup series (due to the Oaks holding a 13-9 advantage in head-to-head competition). Just qualifying for the series was the Bells’ top priority, and they wrapped that up by mid-week. The big Bay Area showdown begins Tuesday at Oaks Park.
The league’s two Northwest entries, Seattle and Portland, were still mathematically alive when the week began. The Rainiers were eliminated when they dropped a 7-2 decision at Los Angeles on September 20, so they would only be playing for pride when they headed home to face the Beavers in the five-game finale. They took four of the five to take their rivals out of the pennant race and catch them for a share of third place at 81-73.
The Angels were the league’s hottest team over the last two months, going 36-17 after July 30, but it wasn’t good enough to get them into the first division. They did break the .500 barrier, though, finishing fifth at 79-75.
Sacramento’s pennant hopes faded after right fielder Charlie Smith went down in mid-August; the Solons slogged through a difficult 9-14 September, dipped below .500 and wound up in sixth place at 76-78.
San Francisco and Hollywood brought up the rear, at 67-87 and 60-94 respectively.
Chick Hafey of Seattle took the batting title with a .369 mark, edging Oakland’s Mule Suttles (.365) and Mission’s Cool Papa Bell (.360). Ike Boone of Mission led the loop in home runs with 37, followed by Los Angeles’ Turkey Stearnes, who hit 35, and two players who hit 30, the Bells’ Martin Dihigo and the Angels’ Ray Jacobs. The RBI champ was Dihigo with 135, followed by Stearnes with 132 and Boone with 129.
John Donaldson of Los Angeles paced the loop with a 2.50 ERA, with Bullet Rogan of Portland posting the second best mark at 2.98 and Claude Thomas of Sacramento posting the third best at 3.09. The Solons’ Willie Foster won 25 games to lead the circuit; Rogan was second with 22 triumphs while Donaldson and two Mission hurlers, Herm Pillette and Frank Shellenback, won 20. Foster also led the league in strikeouts with 198, followed by Rogan with 164 and the Seals’ Bill Holland with 149.
Update: 9/20/26
Oakland has been in first place for most of the season, but until last week the club hadn’t had a single Player of the Week honoree. Now they have two. Or one, depending on how you look at it. First baseman Mule Suttles is a repeat winner, earning the award this time by hitting .500 with three home runs, eight runs batted in, and five runs scored. Suttles is now in a virtual tie with Seattle’s Chick Hafey for the league’s batting title; both are hitting .367.
Suttles’ heroics aside, the Oaks (83-65) continue to do just enough to stay in first place. They defeated Mission in their series finale to take a two-game lead but squandered that by dropping three of five to lowly Hollywood while the Bells (83-65) were taking four out of five from Sacramento, earning them a tie for the top spot. One game remains in each series.
Portland (79-69) was a winner in four of six contests this week, but time is running out on the Beavers; they trail Oakland and Mission by four games with six to play. Fourth-place Seattle (77-71) clings to the slimmest of hopes, six back with six to play, while Los Angeles (76-72) and Sacramento (73-75) were eliminated this week.
Update: 9/13/26
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Suttles | |
Oakland (80-62) is still in first, but the Oaks continue to meander through a decidedly lukewarm stretch. Before beating Mission on Saturday and again in the first game of Sunday’s twin-bill, the Acorns hadn’t won back-to-back games since August 20-21. Fortunately for them the Bells (79-63) have been winning at about the same pace for the past two weeks, and have picked up just one game in the standings. The two front-runners’ final regular season meeting is today, and could result in a first-place tie.
Just twelve games remain, so the real pressure is on the teams scrambling to make up ground on the second place Bells. Mathematically, Portland (75-67), Seattle (74-68), Los Angeles (73-69), and Sacramento (72-20) all have a shot, but its a long shot in each case. The Solons could make up a lot of ground up in a hurry as they’re the only one of the challengers that actually has games left against the Bells. With a sweep they would gain five games. They need to gain seven.
Mule Suttles of Oakland was the Player of the Week this time around. He hit .500 with three round-trippers and eight runs driven in. Suttles has been the Acorns’ most consistent performer this season, and he leads the team in batting (.357), home runs (21), runs batted in (98).
Update: 9/6/26
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Beckwith | |
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Portland (73-62) snapped out of its slump, taking five out of six this week, including their three final regular season meetings with Mission (75-60). While the Beavers narrowed the gap between themselves and the second-place Bells, the Bells in turn were at least able to keep pace with Oakland (77-58), so with just 19 games left on the schedule, it's the Oaks leading the Bells by two, and the Bells leading the Beavers by two.
Not that Seattle (70-65), Sacramento (69-66), and Los Angeles (68-67) are quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. All three of them went 4-2 this week to gain two games on Mission. It would take a near-perfect finish from any one of them to get to the post-season, but nobody’s counting them out.
The Rainiers’ big man at the hot corner, 220-pound slugger John Beckwith, earned Player of the Week honors this week. “Beck” lit up opposition hurlers to the tune of a .538 average, three home runs, and eight runs batted in. Still just 26, he’s hitting .331 and is closing in his first 20-homer, 100-RBI season (with 19 and 97, respectively).
Update: 8/30/26
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Cannady | |
This year’s pennant chase gets tougher to predict every week. The red-hot Mission Bells, who were six games behind Oakland at this time a week ago, have just completed a 5-1 week which included three victories over the Oaks in four tries. Second-place Mission (73-56) now trails Oakland (75-54) by just two games.
Third-place Portland (68-61), just a half-game behind the Bells a week ago, is really struggling, managing just one win this week while losing four to Los Angeles and two to the team they really need to beat, Mission. The Beavers have fallen five games behind the Bells, but have a chance to cut into that deficit right away, as the two teams face off for their final three meetings of the regular season Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
It’s probably too late, but the Angels (64-65) have been making up ground in a hurry the last few weeks; they’re 20-7 in June. They’re within striking distance (four games) of third place but would have to make up an intimidating nine-game gap to qualify for the post-season.
Seattle (66-63), is a little closer, seven games behind Mission. The Rainiers have a long climb too, but with players like second baseman Walter Cannady they can’t be counted out. Cannady is the Player of the Week, having just stung opposing pitchers with a .433 average, four home runs, and twelve runs batted in. Cannady is hitting .295 this season.
Update: 8/23/26
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Statz | |
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Oakland (74-49) still maintains a six-game lead over its closest competitor, but this week it’s a different competitor. Mission (68-55) has played one more game than Portland (67-55) and has one more win, so the Bells have a half-game edge over the Beavers.
Sacramento (63-59) had been inching up the standings of late but after a 2-4 week they trail the second-place Bells by four and a half games and have just received devastating news: Charlie Smith, their sensational rookie right fielder, will miss the rest of the season. Smith was hitting .354 with 23 home runs and 82 runs batted in when he injured his shoulder on August 13th. The Solons are hopeful that he will be ready to answer the bell next spring.
One of the league’s hottest teams is Los Angeles, whose hot streak has probably come too late to allow them to make a meaningful impact on the pennant race except in a spoiler role; nevertheless they certainly embraced the role this week, taking four out of five at Seattle and dropping the Rainiers (61-60) six games behind Mission. Leading the charge was Player of the Week Jigger Statz. The slap-hitting center fielder hit .519 to raise his season’s average to .324. Statz has scored 96 runs but perhaps even more impressive are his 72 RBI, all of which have come from the leadoff spot.
Update: 8/16/26
The race for second place is tight. The race for first is starting to look like no race at all.
Oakland took four out of six from Seattle while Portland was dropping four of six to Sacramento, so the Oaks (70-46) have opened up a six-game lead over the second place Beavers (64-52), and the Solons (61-55) have vaulted over the Rainiers (60-56) into fourth place, just three behind Portland. Mission also won four out of six this week so the third place Bells (63-53) are strong contenders, just a game away from a post-season berth. With 38 games remaining, five teams have a legitimate shot at playing for the Governor’s Cup.
The Solons seemed dead just a few weeks ago but with 12 wins in their last 16 games they’re pounding at the door, and one of the reasons why is first-year right fielder Charles Smith, known alternatively as “Charlie” and “Chino”. Opposing pitchers likely have less complimentary names for him, as he torched them for a .550 average and three home runs this week to capture Player of the Week honors. The North Carolina native is hitting .354 with 23 home runs and 82 RBI, and he gets on base more often than anyone in the league, reaching the base paths a phenomenal 43.9% of the time.
Update: 8/9/26
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Brazill | |
Oakland took the last two games of their series at Los Angeles while Portland barely got out of their series at Mission with their lives (they won the first game and lost the next five), so the Beavers were looking to make up some ground when they opened a five-game set at Oaks Park. It didn't materialize as they had hoped, as the Acorns edged them three games to two. Oakland (66-44) now leads Portland (62-48) by four.
Mission (59-51) stumbled in their series at Los Angeles, losing four of five, but they have still inched closer to second then they were at this time last week, trailing the Beavers by three. Seattle (58-52) and Sacramento (57-53) are still kicking, four and five games behind Portland respectively.
Frank Brazill of the Angels took Player of the Week honors by bashing four home runs and driving in twelve while hitting .542. Brazill, who has split time between the two corners in his first season with the Halos, is hitting .335 with 19 homers and 58 RBI.
Update: 8/2/26
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Riggins | |
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Oakland and Portland each won four and lost three this week, so the Oaks (61-42) maintain their one-game lead over the Beavers (60-43). Mission dropped their series opener to the Beavers but bounced back to win on Saturday and sweep a doubleheader on Sunday, so the Bells (56-47) have pulled within four games of a post-season berth. The two clubs will fight it out today and tomorrow as well. Seattle (55-48) is a game behind Mission.
The Beavers’ Bill Riggins is the Player of the Week. Riggins hit .469 this week, adding two home runs, eight runs batted in, and seven runs scored to his ledger. One of the league’s top defensive shortstops, Riggins has never hit under .317 in his five-plus seasons in the Coast League. He’s hitting .344 this year.
Update: 7/26/26
Oakland got the better of Portland in the final four games of their series, winning three. But the Oaks were unable to continue their winning ways against San Francisco, dropping a pair while the Beavers were sweeping a doubleheader from Hollywood, so the two front-runners were back to where they were at the beginning of the week, with Oakland (57-39) one game up on Portland (56-40).
Seattle (52-44) and Mission (51-45) both had so-so weeks themselves, and therefore were unable to take advantage. The Rainiers trail the Oaks by five and the Beavers by four, while the Bells are a game behind Seattle. Sacramento has evened their record at 48-48 and are eight games behind Portland.
Ike Boone of Mission was the week's standout performer, hitting .485 with three home runs and twelve runs batted in. Like many of his teammates, Boone is putting up phenomenal numbers this season, hitting .346 and leading the league in round-trippers with 26. He trails teammate Heavy Johnson for the RBI lead by just two, 87 to 85.
Update: 7/19/26
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Holloway | |
Regardless of one’s allegiances, it has to be said that this was an interesting week in the Coast League.
Second-place Portland stumbled badly against Sacramento, losing four out of five; at the same time first-place Oakland was dropping three of five to Seattle, so the Oaks carried a three-game lead into their big six-game showdown with the Beavers, which began with a Sunday doubleheader in Portland. The Beavers took both games of the twin-bill, edging the Acorns by a run both times, 3-2 and 1-0. Today the Oaks’ (54-36) lead over the Beavers (53-37) is down to one game.
Mission (48-41) had a rough time against last-place Hollywood, so the Bells have fallen into a third-place tie with the Rainiers. They’re both four and a half games behind Portland.
The Stars’ Crush Holloway is the Player of the Week. He hit .481
with three home runs and ten runs batted in as Hollywood completed
their second winning week in a row.
Update: 7/12/26
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Grantham | |
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A big week for Portland, and suddenly the race looks a lot different than it did just a week ago.
This time last week no team was fewer than four and a half games behind first-place Oakland; the Beavers were tied with Seattle for second place; and fourth-place Mission loomed just two games behind the Northwest rivals.
But Portland (50-33) has won six straight, all against Seattle (44-39), and now the Beavers are just two games out of first; the Rainiers are in fourth place, six games behind Portland. Mission (46-37) trails the Beavers by four.
There’s still a lot of time for the complexion of the race to change, but today it looks like the Oaks (52-31) have a fight on their hands for the top spot, and Seattle suddenly has a lot of ground to make up.
Hollywood and Los Angeles seem to be two teams that are going nowhere, but their series did feature the week’s top performer, Stars’ first baseman George Grantham. Grantham lit up Angels’ pitchers with a blistering .650 average while hitting two home runs and driving in eight.
Update: 7/5/26
With with each team having completed at least 77 games, the unofficial halfway point of the season has arrived. There appears to a be a clear line separating first division teams from second division teams.
Oakland (49-29) gave up some ground this week but the Oaks retain a four and a half game lead over their two closest challengers, Seattle and Portland, who are both 44-33. Mission (43-35) is just a half-game out of a share of second place.
Sacramento (38-40) could still get back into the race with a hot streak. They're eleven games out of first, six and a half games out of second. Los Angeles (34-44), San Francisco (33-45), and Hollywood (26-52) are looking towards 1927, barring a dramatic turnaround.
The Angels are having a disappointing campaign, but right fielder Turkey Stearnes has just captured his second Player of the Week award of the season. Stearnes earned it by hitting a sizzling .455 while clubbing four homers, driving in twelve runs, and scoring nine.
The Acorns’ Mule Suttles leads the league in hitting at .404. The Bells’ Ike Boone has 20 homers to pace the circuit, and his teammate Heavy Johnson has driven in the most runs, with 69. The Halos’ John Donaldson’s 2.21 ERA is tops, and two Mission hurlers, Herm Pillette and Frank Shellenback, are tied for the most victories with 12 apiece. Willie Foster of Sacramento has fanned 98 batters to claim the top spot.
Update: 6/28/26
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Smith | |
Oakland (47-25) is hot again, having won six games this past week while losing only one. They beat San Francisco on Tuesday to salvage a split in that series, then took five out of six against Los Angeles. Now leading second-place Seattle by five and a half games and third-place Portland by six and a half, the Oaks roll in to the final series of the first half of the season looking very much like a team of destiny.
The Rainiers (41-30) passed the Beavers (40-31) on Thursday, and the two clubs have kept pace since then. They both play one more game and then take two days off before playing the next eleven games against each another. It’s certainly the most eagerly-anticipated matchup between the two rivals in recent memory.
Charlie Smith of Sacramento looks like a star in the making. The right fielder hit .469 with three home runs and eight runs driven in to capture Player of the Week honors. The 24 year-old rookie is hitting .366 with 15 homers and 56 RBI.
Update: 6/21/26
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Cooper | |
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In recent years baseball has experienced increasing levels of offense, with more home runs being hit, higher batting averages, and more runs scored. This trend has been particularly strong in Pacific Coast League, in no small part because of ballparks like Bonneville Park in Salt Lake City and Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, which are very friendly to home run hitters, less so to pitchers.
Andy Cooper of Hollywood, who spent the last five years toiling in the pitchers’ worst nightmare, Bonneville Park, got little relief when his team moved to the only slightly less horrific Wrigley Field this season. That makes his performance this week all the more impressive. Facing the defending League Champion Portland Beavers at Wrigley, Cooper crafted a 5-3 complete-game victory last Wednesday. He was just getting warmed up. On Friday the Stars and Beavers locked horns in a lengthy extra-inning duel; Cooper came in to pitch a scoreless 14th and the Stars made him a winner in the bottom of the inning. Then, after just a day's rest, he came back on Sunday to spin a three-hit shutout. The three wins put him over .500 at 8-7 while he lowered his ERA to 3.89 and claimed the first Player of the Week award for a pitcher since last August.
Meanwhile, Oakland held onto their four and a half game lead, but the Beavers were joined by Seattle in second place. Mission is six and a half games back.
Update: 6/14/26
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Hafey | |
They’re in third place, six and a half games out of first and two games out of second, but fans in the King City are getting excited about the play of the Rainiers this year. Hitting over .300 and boasting the lowest team ERA in the league, Seattle looks like a force to be reckoned with. The Suds took four straight from Los Angeles to begin the week and won the opener against San Francisco before losing a doubleheader to the Seals on Sunday.
Right fielder Chick Hafey was a big reason the Rainiers won five games this week, hitting a sizzling .542 with five homers and 12 RBI en route to Player of the Week recognition. Hafey hit three home runs in Seattle’s 14-3 romp over the Angels, driving in six runs in the process. He's hitting .357 for the season, with 11 homers and 48 RBI.
Oakland (39-20) remains in the driver’s seat, leading Portland (34-24) by four and a half games and Seattle (32-26) by six and a half. Mission, at 31-28, is the only other team over .500, and the Bells trail the Oaks by eight.
Update: 6/7/26
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Charleston | |
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The three teams at the top of the standings all won four games and lost three this week, so Oakland remains in first place, five games ahead of Mission and Portland. But the race has far from stagnated, as the other five teams jockeyed for position, and a few of them gained ground on the leaders.
Seattle is at the top of that heap, just a game out of second place; the Rainiers took four out of five games at Sacramento before splitting a pair with Los Angeles. The Angels moved past the Solons into fifth place by winning four of seven. Sacramento and San Francisco started the season hot but have turned cold, and both teams are now under .500. Hollywood had its first winning week of the season.
Portland’s Oscar Charleston was the Player of the Week. The burly centerfielder hit four home runs, drove in six and scored eleven while hitting .423. It was his tenth Player of the Week award, and his first since the final week of the 1924 season.
Update: 5/31/26
Mule Suttles of Oakland has hit in 25 straight games, but the Oaks, for the first time this season, did not have a good week, losing four of six games to Seattle. The Rainiers’ pitching generally kept the Acorns in check, especially in the series opener, when Ed Brandt and Johnny Miljus combined on a 4-hit shutout.
Oakland’s misfortunes allowed Portland to pick up three games on them and allowed Mission to pick up two. The Beavers and Bells are now tied for second, five games behind the Oaks. The Rainiers are seven games behind Oakland; San Francisco and Sacramento are eight back.
Mission has been filling the league’s scoreboards all season, scoring at least 35 more runs than any other team. Every one of their starters is hitting over .300 except catcher Danny Murphy, and most of them are hitting well over .300, such as Ike Boone (.380), Heavy Johnson (.379), Bill Rodda (.369), and Cool Papa Bell (.366). Johnson was the biggest basher this week, hitting .483 with three home runs and nine runs batted in to capture Player of the Week honors.
Update: 5/24/26
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O’Doul | |
Oakland increased their league over everyone in the field this week with five wins in seven games. That included a win over Mission to complete a five-game sweep; the Oaks followed that up by losing the opening and closing games of a six-game set at Hollywood, but winning the four games in-between. Oakland is 28-11 and leads Sacramento and Mission by seven games.
The middle of the pack, all primarily competing at this point for second place, is tight. The Solons and Bells are a game ahead of Portland and San Francisco, and the Beavers and Seals lead Seattle by a game. Further back are Los Angeles and Hollywood, five and ten games out of second place, respectively.
The Player of the Week is the Seals’ Lefty O’Doul. O’Doul hit .500 (11-22) with five home runs and fourteen runs batted in as the Seals played a series of slugfests against Seattle and Portland. O’Doul is hitting .360 with nine home runs and is second in the league in RBI with 40.
Update: 5/17/26
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Stearnes | |
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Oakland has won five straight, and the Oaks stand taller than every other team in the league by a widening margin. They are on the verge of sweeping Mission (the finale is today) and at 23-9, they lead Sacramento by five games and Portland, San Francisco, and the Bells by six. Pitching and defense has been the key to the Acorns’ success so far; they’re close to the league average in runs scored and are dead last in home runs with just eight, but they’re winning the close ones (12-3 in games decided by a single run) and are dominant at home (16-5).
It hasn’t been a strong start for the Los Angeles Angels, who are one game closer to the cellar than they are to second place, but the club’s star right fielder, Turkey Stearnes, is beginning to heat up. Stearnes hit .519 with two home runs and six runs batted in this week to capture Player of the Week honors. Stearnes’ nine round-trippers place him in a three-way tie for second, trailing league leader Martin Dihigo of Mission by two.
Update: 5/10/26
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Bell | |
Oakland dropped the last three games of their series with Portland, but rebounded by taking the first three against Seattle, and the Oaks’ 18-8 record is still tops in the Coast League. The race is getting tighter, though, as their three closest regional rivals all played winning ball this week and thus all gained on the front-runners. Sacramento trails the Acorns by just two games while San Francisco and Mission trail them by three.
It’s three Player of the Week awards in a row for the Mission Bells’ outfield. Center fielder Cool Papa Bell is the latest recipient, hitting .500 for the week while blasting four home runs and driving in eight. Bell is hitting a robust .404 for the season, good for fourth in the league.
The Hollywood Stars have had a tough time getting acclimated to their new surroundings and are mired in the league’s cellar with a dismal 6-20 record. But you can’t blame their struggles on catcher Biz Mackey, who’s leading the league in hitting at .456. Mackey is no newcomer to batting crown competition, having taken the title in 1923 with a .379 average and finishing second in the 1924 race at .367.
Update: 5/3/26
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Boone | |
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For the second consecutive week, a Mission Bells outfielder is the Player of the Week. This time it’s ex-Boston Red Sox slugger Ike Boone, who is making himself at home in the City by the Bay. Boone hit .536 with three home runs and six runs batted in this week. He’s hitting .433 in his first season on the Coast.
The Bells as a team have yet to gel, however, and at 9-10 are already five and a half games out of first place. The front runners are their across-the-Bay rivals, the Oakland Oaks, who have rolled to a 15-5 record. The Acorns have won the first three games of a six-game set with the League Champion Portland Beavers, who are off to a disappointingly lackluster 9-10 start.
The Sacramento Solons are all alone in second place at 11-8, three and a half games behind Oakland and a game ahead of San Francisco and Seattle. The two Southern California teams are occupying the bottom two rungs with Los Angeles at 8-11 and Hollywood, losers of eight straight, at 5-14.
Update: 4/26/26
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Johnson | |
Oakland is off the best start this season, coming into their home opener with a 4-2 record and then nearly sweeping San Francisco. The Oaks took the first five games of their six-game set before bowing to the Seals on Sunday. At 9-3, the Acorns lead second-place Sacramento by two games and all other challengers by at least three.
The Mission Bells also had a good week and have evened their
record at 6-6. Veteran Heavy Johnson led the charge as the Bells
took four out of six against Seattle. Alternating between first
base and left field, Johnson hit a sizzling .440 with four home
runs and 12 runs batted in. Johnson’s 15 RBI are tops in the
league this season.
Update: 4/19/26
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Callaghan | |
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Superstitious fans take note: the most conspicuous number in the opening week of the 1926 Coast League campaign was 13. That’s how many runs the winning team scored four times this week, beginning with Los Angeles' 13-2 Opening Day victory over Hollywood. San Francisco duplicated that score the following day in their defeat of Mission, and Seattle hit the mark two days in a row against the League Champion Beavers at Portland, pummeling them 13-5 on Friday and 13-0 on Saturday.
With all those Rainiers crossing the plate, it’s no surprise that the Player of the Week was a Seattle hitter. The honor went to center fielder Marty Callaghan, a new face in town that the King City faithful should have no trouble getting used to. Callaghan hit a scorching .519 against a stunned Portland staff.
Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco sit atop the standings at 4-2. Seattle and Portland are tied at 3-3, and Hollywood, Mission, and Sacramento are 2-4.
1925-1926 Off-season
A compromise was reached among the league owners; two teams have new homes and new names, and for the first time since 1914, the Pacific Coast League will play all its games on the coast of Pacific.
Salt Lake City bids farewell to its Bees, and with them, the league. The club, now known as the Hollywood Stars, has relocated to Los Angeles, and will be the Angels’ tenants at their year-old stadium, Wrigley Field.
The Vernon Tigers have moved up the coast to San Francisco and have been rechristened the Mission Bells, having accepted the Seals’ offer to share Recreation Park. The Bells will ostensibly represent the city’s Mission District (Recreation Park is situated in the northeast portion of the district).
With two teams in the Pacific Northwest, two in Los Angeles, and the other four in close proximity to one another in the heart of the Golden State, travel for all eight clubs becomes a much less taxing affair both financially and physically. What remains to be seen is if the Stars, playing in a larger, newer facility, can eclipse the attendance figures of the old Tigers, and if the Bells can find their own fan base as the second team in a city whose Seals already draw competition at the ticket office from the Oaks and Solons.