Down To The Sea In Ships

When I was just a kid(18) I had the opportunity to go to sea. My Uncle was a purchasing agent for Standard Oil of California Marine Division. I needed a letter of recommendation from Standard Oil and then needed to be cleared by the U.S. Coast guard to get my seaman's papers. This took about a month. I had to travel from San Diego to San Francisco to apply for the papers. Standard Oil had a fleet of tankers that sailed out of Richmond California and hauled crude oil mainly up and down the Pacific Coast. They had one tanker that sailed only to Hawaii, and another that sailed to Midway. If I remember correctly they had about 6 others that stayed on the Pacific Coast from San Diego to Vancouver Washington. There were many small ports of call along the coast. I will mention some of those later.

Players and managers

Now let's talk abot some of the players who were around then. Joe DiMaggio played a short while for the S.F. seals. Ted Williams for the Padres. other names I can think of now are Roberto Clemente for the Stars. Al Rosen , Luke Easter, and Bob Lemon, for the Padres These players were all to become great players in the majors. Some notables that came down from the majors to finish out their careers were, Ernie Lombardi from the Yankees. Dick Sisler I believe from the Phillies. Cupie Barret who I saw pitch a no hitter against the Padres in a seven innig night cap game on a Sunday. He played for Oakland at the time. Managers like Lefty O'Doul, S.F: Fred Haney for Hollywood who was the play by play announcer and promoted to mgr. and then up to the Pirates where he won a pennant and a World series. Bucky Harris for the Padres and then Jimmy Reese who was a coach for the Padres , became Mgr. and won the first pennant for them in 1953. By 1953 most of the teams had a major league affiliate.

Play Ball

The teams in the old Pacific Coast League were, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels, Hollywood Stars, San Francisco Seals, Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons (Which became the Vancouver Mounties), Portland Beavers, and the Seattle Rainers. They would play seven game series with each opponent starting with single games on Tuesday thru Saturday with a double header on Sunday. The first game was a full nine innings and the second game was seven innings. they would usually play a week at home and then a week on the road.

Old Time Baseball

A little about the history of the Pacific Coast League in the 1950's. This league at that time was the only league in the West. Older players coming down from the major's and young players who needed another season or two in the minors. The transportation was not as fast then as now. It was difficult for a major league team to call up a player in a hurry. Most young players who were about ready were in the International League back East. They could be called up quickly.More about the teams next time.

I guess you can see by now what some of my interests are. I will continue to post stories of the sea,stories about baseball, and stories about music.

This is my sweetie. We met when she was 14 and I was 16. She robbed the cradle. We have been married 60 years have five children, four boys and one girl. One of our sons is deceased.

This is a dwarf Apple tree I planted in my front yard a couple of months ago. Actually I planted two, one golden and the other red. They will grow to about ten feet tall. I had a giant Sycamore tree cut down last fall because it's roots were cutting into my water line. The shade from it was nice but it was such a messy tree,always dropping something besides it's leaves