Hollywood Stars


Current Season
Team History
All-Time Leaders    Batting    Pitching
League Championship Titles: None
Ballpark: Gilmore Field



Gilmore Field   Opened: 1939   Capacity: 12,987
Beverly Boulevard and Genesee Avenue, Hollywood, California






Factors
AVG overall 1.010
LHB 1.010, RHB 1.010
Doubles 1.032
Triples 1.182
HR overall 1.239
LHB 1.239, RHB 1.239


Distances/wall heights
Left Field line 335 ft./10 ft.
Left Field 350 ft./10 ft.
Left-Center Field 385 ft./10 ft.
Center Field 400 ft./10 ft.
Right-Center Field 385 ft./10 ft.
Right Field 350 ft./10 ft.
Right Field line 335 ft./10 ft.

In the Redux

The Stars have yet to win a Pacific Coast League championship. They made postseason appearances (as the Mission Bells) in 1926 and 1935. The club represented Los Angeles as the Vernon Tigers until 1925, and San Francisco as the Bells from 1926 through 1937.

Real-life history

In 1909 the PCL expanded from four teams to six, and one of the new entries was the Vernon Tigers. Vernon boasted a population of 772 according to the 1910 U.S. Census but was just five miles south of downtown Los Angeles; more importantly, it was one of only two “wet” cities in Los Angeles County in 1909 and Tigers owner Edward Meier took full advantage of the opportunity, building Maier Park adjacent to the self-proclaimed “longest bar in the world”, Doyle’s Bar. The crowds weren’t quite up to Maier’s expectations, so he moved the club across town to Venice for the 1913 and 1914 seasons. Attendance was even worse there, so by 1915 the Tigers were back in Vernon.





The 1952 PCL Champion Hollywood Stars

For two years the team that would one day be known as the Hollywood Stars was, ironically, co-owned by one of the first actual Hollywood stars, silent film giant Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Arbuckle purchased a controlling interest in the Tigers in 1919 and was rewarded with the team’s first pennant, followed by an encore crown in 1920. Despite the success, Arbuckle bowed out after the ’20 campaign and attendance flagged. The team moved to San Francisco in 1926.






There was no love lost between the Stars and the Angels in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Fans who came out to watch a contest between the crosstown rivals at Gilmore Field sometimes got to see a hockey game break out.

Initially they called themselves the Mission Bells, and then, beginning in 1928, the Mission Reds. Often they were referred to by fans and the press as “the Missions” or the “San Francisco Missions”, although these were never official titles. The team was intended to represent the Mission district in San Francisco, and they in fact played their games in that district, first in Recreation Park, and then at Seals Stadium. They shared both parks with the Seals but could not compete with the older, more established club in attendance. The Bells/Reds never won a pennant in San Francisco, although they did manage one first-place finish, in 1929. After the 1937 season they headed south again, reviving the Hollywood Stars name.





Better yet, Gilmore being a haven for the Tinseltown elite, there was always the chance that Marilyn Monroe might show up to work on her Eephus pitch.

By 1939 the Stars had their own Hollywood ballpark, Gilmore Field, and were ready to live up to their name. Co-owned by several prominent show-biz figures, they promoted themselves as “The Hollywood Stars baseball team, owned by the Hollywood Stars”. Tinseltown luminaries were on hand for many of the games. The team wore short pants some seasons. Sportwriters nicknamed them the “Twinks”. They were the first team to regularly broadcast home games on television. As affiliates of the Dodgers and Pirates, they were perennial contenders and took the pennant in 1949, 1952, and 1953. They developed a fierce rivalry with their crosstown rivals, the Angels, and at times eclipsed them in popularity.

But they weren’t going to be able to compete with the MLB Dodgers, who moved to Los Angeles in 1958. The “stars” sold the Stars to a Salt Lake City group, returning that city to the PCL for the first time since 1925. They moved again, to Tacoma, in 1966 and remain there to this day. The current edition of the club retains elements of the “classic” PCL in their choice of name, logo and uniforms: as the Tacoma Rainiers, an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, they have adopted the branding of that city’s former PCL mainstay.

Vernon Tigers/Mission Bells/Hollywood Stars Uniform History







1921-1923 Home

1924-1925 Home

1926-1929 Home

1930-1931 Home

1932 Home








1921-1923 Away

1924-1925 Away

1926-1929 Away

1930-1931 Away

1932 Away









1933-1934 Home

1935 Home

1936-1937 Home

1938 Home

1939 Home








1933-1934 Away

1935 Away

1936-1937 Away

1938 Away

1939 Away










1940-1941 Home

1942-1944 Home

1945-1949 Home

1950-1957 Home











1940-1941 Away

1942-1944 Away

1945-1949 Away

1950-1957 Away