The next post will be a report on the first six weeks of the 1903 PCL-Replay season. I plan to play this out till 1957 at which point my hope is to merge the PCL with the MLB for the 1958 season. I hope you follow and enjoy my adventure.
PREFACE
After a long winter battling the rival Pacific Northwest League, the first Pacific Coast League season began, as scheduled, in March, 1903.
Ed Pabst, who had come West after having started his career in the South, hit the first home run that season (and the first PCL HR ever) off of Ike Butler of Portland in San Francisco's Recreation Park the first day of the season. It also turned out to be Pabst's only Coast League home run.
Rain swept the Pacific slope that first week of the season, but that didn't stop the Los Angeles Looloos from sweeping the Portland Browns. L. A. went on to win its first 15 straight games under Manager Cap Dillon; Portland, after getting beat up in Los Angeles, did not stop until they had lost their first twelve games.
Looking over the league, this is how the teams stacked up at the beginning of the season:
Oakland: This club had won the pennant the year before, and on paper looked much better in the eyes of Manager Pete Lohman. Lohman and owner Cal Ewing thought they could get away with another pennant on the cheap. The team lost most of its infield, and never really had a solid middle infield until late in the season. Its top three pitchers had also been lost.
Los Angeles was solid at every position. As far as fielding was concerned, the Looloos sported gold glovers at almost every position. Owner Jim Morley also greatly improved the pitching by importing Doc Newton from the East, and signing Joe Corbett. Los Angeles also figured to be better off because they didn't have the disruptive influence of Rube Waddell.
San Francisco had a star pitcher in Jimmy "The Whale" Whalen, and also solid players at four positions. Whalen was the star pitcher on the West Coast around the turn of the century, winning thirty games the previous two seasons. Three of the new position players figured to be an improvement over those they replaced. Charlie Irwin became the new captain, which really meant field manager in those days, and the team's third baseman, who would wind up as one of his team's best hitters. Irwin had finished up a 10 year major league career (.267 AVG mainly with Chicago and Cincinnati) the year before with the Brooklyn Superbas.
Sacramento returned all of its position players, the only problem with that was that Sacramento finished 33 games off the pace in 1902, and in dead last place. Included in that group is the player considered to be one of the best fielding second basemen in the history of the Pacific Coast League, Pearl Casey. Casey, whose real last name was actually Barnes, blossomed during the 1903 season. He would go on to lead Coast League second basemen in fielding average five times out of the six years he played a full season. Casey's range was either the best or right near the top every year he played. Pearl Casey never would be much of a hitter, but in 1903 he did have a fine season, hitting .288 by far his best season ever. After his playing career ended, he spent over 20 years as an umpire. The star of the team, however, was Truck Eagan (pictured) the first PCL slugging star. In an era when home runs came all too rarely, Eagan put together back to back 21 and 25 HR years in 1904-5. Because he played shortstop, and was a fine hitter, many consider him the West Coast version of Honus Wagner. Years later one of his contemporaries, long-time Seals part-owner Charley Graham, told a beat reporter that Eagan "was a great hitter of the dead ball ...and I have often wished he could have batted against the extremely lively ball later." Eagan's heroics were offset by Mike Fisher-- universally considered the least competent owner/general manager in the league. Fisher spent no money on pitchers, instead deciding to bring in a raw "kiddy corps" to start the season. Win Cutter appeared to be his only experienced pitcher on the staff when the season opened, but he had only gone 13 and 24 in 1902. All in all, it looked like another long season in the Central Valley.
Portland retained the nucleus of its 1902 Pacific Northwest League club, but like Sacramento, it too had finished in the cellar of that league. Sammy Vigneaux remained at the helm, and management brought in a couple of heavy hitters, southern import Carlos Smith and Quebecer Phil Nadeau, to bolster established players like Deacon Van Buren and left-handed second baseman Andy Anderson. Reportedly, Carlos Smith came from a family of rich plantation owners, and played ball for diversion rather than for financial gain. Nadeau had played for a number of years in New England and New York, hitting over .300 seven times.
Seattle was a completely new team, built from the ground up by field manager Parke Wilson. Wilson also caught and played first. His .201 AVG showed that he was nearing the end of the trail as a player. The manager started playing in the old California League in 1892. The Seattle franchise had been placed in the city to compete with Dugdale's Pacific Northwest League outfit. Parke Wilson put an early team together that had been overly influenced by management. Lou Cohen even signed University of California football sensation John "Locomotive" Smith, but he proved to be a complete bust on the mound, pitching only 4 games and winding up with a 5.75 ERA. The team appeared to be an unknown quantity. It would take Wilson almost the whole year to get the group of players he wanted: Of the 44 players who appeared for Wilson that year, only two starters from the opening day line up would be with the club at the end of the season, Wilson himself and third baseman Henry Jansing.
NOTE: This replay of the PCL is possible due to the hard work of Cooleyvol and Spritze. Thanks guys 