The Hearst Sandlot Classic - Part 2: The Beginnings of Brooklyn Against the World and the Hearst Diamond Pennant Series - 1946

Chapter 5

Brooklyn Against the World – 1946

A Pitcher Plays in Right Field

In New York City, not only did the Journal-American host a classic, but the Brooklyn Eagle also got into the act with its “Brooklyn Against the World” competition at Ebbets Field. The main forces behind the game were Branch Rickey of the Dodgers and Lou Niss, the Sports Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.

Players from around the country, Canada and Hawaii were brought to Brooklyn as part of the World team for a three game series that was played August 7, 8, and 9 at Ebbets Field. One player for the 1946 “World” team hailed from Los Angeles, and he was sent east by the Los Angeles Times. Vic Marasco had the time of his life.

Those people from the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Dodgers didn’t spare the horses when it came to taking us around.” He summed it all up by saying “I think I learned more on this trip than all the time I was in Fremont High and I just want to congratulate the kid who makes it next year. He’s in for the biggest treat of his life.” The “fence-denting” Marasco had family in Brooklyn and thus had a built in cheering section for the series. He was signed with the Dodgers, spent 10 seasons in the minor leagues and put up some pretty good numbers. In 1953, he batted .306 with 14 homers and 89 RBI at Fort Worth and in 1955, with Richmond in the International League, he batted .301 with 10 homers and 50 RBI. But Triple-A was as far as he would get. He retired after the 1958 season.

Marasco came a long way, but 130 pound pitcher Henry Tominaga came an even longer distance – from Honolulu, complete with a shirt with “Hawaii – 49th State,” across his chest. Tominga, who also played the outfield, came with credentials, having pitched a no-hitter earlier that year against Mid-Pacific Institute in his first outing of the season.

As was the case with the Hearst game, the Brooklyn Against the World contests had top flight managers. In 1946, the Brooklyn team was managed by Leo Durocher, who brought along Chuck Dressen, Dixie Walker, and Johnny “Red” Corriden as coaches. The World team was managed by Hall-of-Famer George Sisler, who had as his coaches Andy High, Fresco Thompson, and Clyde Sukeforth. The “World” players were housed at the St. George Hotel.

The newspapers and organizations sending ballplayers included The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New Orleans States, Toronto Star, Buffalo Courier-Express, The Mobile Register, Montreal Newspapers, Charleston Gazette, Boston Post, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Indianapolis Star, Charlotte Observer, Wichita Eagle, Cleveland News, Philadelphia Record, St. Paul Amateur Baseball Association, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Chicago Daily News, Honolulu Star Telegram, and Bridgeport Post.

Jimmy Murphy and Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle chronicled the games. Murphy was a champion of sandlot ball and the youth of Brooklyn could look towards seeing their names in his articles. The “World” players started arriving in town in late July and had their first practices on Thursday August 1. The players worked out at Ebbets Field and Erasmus High School, witnessed the finale of a three game series between the Dodger and Cardinals, and went to a show at the Radio City Music Hall. On August 2, they traveled up the Hudson River to West Point and then went on to Bear Mountain where they practiced and had dinner at the Bear Mountain Inn. The climax of their day was seeing boxers Willie Joyce and Kapilow lace up their gloves in a bout at Madison Square Garden. The following day, after practice and dinner, they saw the Dodgers play the Reds at Ebbets Field and took in “Ice-Time” at the Rockefeller Center Theater in Manhattan. And yes, there was more. The next day, they were back at Ebbets Field to see the Dodger and Reds and that was followed by a trip to Jones Beach to witness the water show.

There were still a couple of days left until the series was to begin, and the kids continued to practice hard, eat well, and be entertained as they had never been in their lives. Next up were “Oklahoma” at the St. James Theater, and a trip to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

After the performance of “Oklahoma at the St. James Theater, the boys went backstage to visit members of the cast. Beatrice Lynn, who hailed from Flatbush, posed with Chris Kitsos and Joe Torpey of the Brooklyn squad.

Chosen to umpire the game was the Dean of all Umpires, Bill Klem. He sat down to chat with Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle and mentioned his three top rules for umpires:

“Remember you are umpiring for BASEBALL ONLY and it must be done in a business-like manner in order to establish yourself. Be in stride on EVERY pitch. This enables you to have confidence and to be set to time and judge a play as well as be ahead of anything that may happen. It has been proven in a POSITIVE WAY that the BEST way to judge a ball or strike is from a crouched position BETWEEN the catcher and the batsmen, with a weave or up and down movement as the ball comes to the catcher.”

On the eve of the event, positive comments could be heard from entertainers and elected officials. Entertainer Jack Benny’s comments echoed the thoughts of many on the eve of the contest. “An ‘Atomic Gun Salute’ to the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Baseball Club for this baseball idea ‘Brooklyn Against the World’. It is a most worthy project and certainly deserves the full support and enthusiasm of every American citizen. With the customary ‘Brooklyn’ Spirit behind it, this very commendable undertaking will be a great success. Good wishes and every success.”

The boys woke up to cloudy skies and rain on August 7, and the rain was such that the Dodgers afternoon game against the Giants at the Polo Grounds was rained out. As afternoon turned into evening the rains stopped. Before heading to Ebbets Field on August 7, the players dined in Sheepshead Bay and were joined by baseball’s Clown Prince, Al Schacht. At the ball yard, Brooklyn Borough President John Cashmore threw out the first ball, and Brooklyn legend Gladys Gooding sung the National Anthem. Also in attendance was Hilda Chester, perhaps the most vociferous fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hilda was hard to miss. She came to each game equipped with her cowbells and heckled the opposition with an unmatched fervor. The young “World” players were not spared.

Durocher chose Al McEvoy as his starting pitcher and marveled as the youngster was warming up. “They won’t do him any harm tonight.” In an aside to Dixie Walker he said, “Maybe we won’t need you for a pinch hitter after all.” Walker’s eyes were trained on the opposing pitcher, Lenny Yochim from New Orleans. He’d been “looking at that other fellow over there and he just busted loose with a sidearm pitch that I can easily live without.

McEvoy, who starred at Brooklyn Prep, pitching three no-hitters during his time there, had a complete game victory for the Brooklyn team, striking out 13 and allowing only five hits and no earned runs. The score was 4-2, and the game was completed in 97 minutes. McEvoy went to Holy Cross, going 7-0 in his freshman year, before signing with the Yankees. He went 11-4 in two minor league seasons.

At the end of the 1949 season he pitched very briefly at the Class AAA level, and went no further. Yochim was almost as good as McEvoy. In four and one third innings of work, he allowed four hits, only two of which left the infield, and struck out eight. The only runs scored off him were unearned. He was signed by the Pirates and made it to the majors for brief visits in 1951 and 1954, appearing in 12 games. In 10 minor league seasons, many of them spent with the Bucs Double A club in New Orleans, Yochim compiled a 109-68 record.

One of the unsung coaches working with the Brooklyn youngsters was Art Dede. Thirty years earlier, Dede had played with the Dodgers – for one game. On October 4, 1916, in the team’s second to last game of the season, he came in to catch, had one plate appearance, and was unable to reach base safely. He was 21-years-old at the time. He was a sandlotter, and that appearance was his only game in professional baseball. He returned to the sandlots and became a fixture in Brooklyn.

In 1947, became a scout for the Dodgers. When the Dodgers moved away, Dede signed on with the Yankees and was with them through 1971. In 1946, he was working with the young Brooklyn first baseman, Arnold Wallis. He taught him a play whereby the first baseman, with runners on first and second and none out, a definite bunt situation, would charge toward the third base line and toss the ball to third base for the force play. He worked the play in the first game of Brooklyn Against the World. Oddly enough, in his playing days “World” manager Sisler, the top first baseman of his day, had often used this play. That particular play would not really been seen in New York for another 40 years, and the player who performed it was not born until 1953.

It was hoped that 20,000 people would file into Ebbets Field for the game, but the day’s rains cut the crowd to about half that figure. Brooklyn Against the World was not the only game in the borough that night. The semi-pro Bushwicks hosted the Kansas City Monarchs and none other than Satchel Paige before 7,100 onlookers at Dexter Park.

Leo Durocher’s second game pitcher was Artie Raynor of Rockville Center, Long Island. Raynor had played right field in the first game. Playing right field in the second game was Ed Ford of Astoria Queens and Aviation High School in Manhattan. Ford had played his sandlot ball with the 34th Avenue Boys Club in Astoria, Queens. Raynor pitched brilliantly, allowing no hits in four innings, but the pitchers that followed him to the mound did not enjoy as much success. Vernon Frantz of Wichita and Rickey Rowe of Fort Worth handled Brooklyn, as the World won 4-3 in front of 10,222 spectators. Frantz was also an accomplished wrestler, won the Kansas State Championship in the 138 pound classification. The series was tied at one game apiece.

In the finale, Brooklyn’s Bill Mackel, from the University of Pennsylvania, and Bob Kunze, who had overcome a childhood battle with infantile paralysis, shut down the World by 5-1to win the series for Brooklyn, defeating Dick Baptista. Mackel pitched the first six innings, striking out nine and yielding but two hits. Chuck Dressen took over as manager for this game, as Durocher was in Philadelphia with the Dodgers.

In all, Durocher and Dressen used six Brooklyn pitchers in the three games. Several signed on to contracts with big league teams, but none made it to the majors. However, pitcher Ed Ford, who played in only the second game and played in right field, was signed by Paul Kritchell of the Yankees. Along the line, he became known as “Whitey” Ford and had a Hall of Fame career with the Bronx Bombers.

A third player from that first Brooklyn Against the World Series made it to the majors for the briefest of stays. Chris Kitsos of Brooklyn’s James Madison High School had the distinction of playing in both the Hearst Sandlot Classic and the Brooklyn Against the World competition in 1946. In the first game of the series in Brooklyn, the switch hitter singled from each side of the plate and drove in the game’s final run for the winners. He signed with the Dodgers and spent five seasons in their minor league system before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs after the 1951 season. The Cubs called the shortstop up in 1954, and on April 21, he was inserted as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning after a struggling Ernie Banks had been pulled for a pinch hitter. He handled two ground balls flawlessly, returned to the dugout, and never re-emerged. His major league career was over. He went on to play in the minor leagues through 1959, appearing in 1,618 games, and settled in Mobile, Alabama, where he worked for the Gas Company. He also served as a youth baseball coach and worked with the Mobile Parks and Recreation Department.

The out-of-towners got more than their share of ink. Chicago’s Art Sepke, who was chosen to go to the game by Rogers Hornsby, was a man of many positions and talents. He batted .405 in his senior year of high school and hurled his team to five wins as well. At the end of the season, when his squad was depleted by injury, he stepped behind the plate for a couple of games. Sepke played professionally for parts of two seasons in the Class-D Sooner State League but his dream ended in 1949.

 

Chapter 6

The Hearst Sandlot Classic – Founders, Managers, Personalities

In 1946, sportswriter Max Kase of the New York Journal American was instrumental in creating what came to be known as the Hearst Sandlot Classic.  In that first year, it was known as the Hearst Diamond Pennant Series. The game featured a team of New York All-Stars against a team of U. S. All-Stars.  Early on, he enlisted the aid of Babe Ruth, who served as honorary chairman in 1947. 

Harry Schlacht of the Journal-American noted that Babe Ruth “set the spark which kindled a flaming torch in the hearts of the kids of the nation.”  The Babe, himself stated that “The Hearst papers are doing a grand job in the sandlot program for the youngsters.  It keeps the kids off the streets; It keeps them out of mischief; It builds them up physically; It helps them to become better citizens.”[1] 

The annual event was held at the Polo Grounds in New York through 1958.  The game was moved to Yankee Stadium in 1959, as following the move of the Giants to San Francisco, the Polo Grounds was effectively abandoned. 

Kase was also a driving force behind the Basketball Association of America, forerunner of the National Basketball Association. He went on to great fame and a Pulitzer when he broke the story of the basketball fixing scandal involving City College of New York, Long Island University, and New York University in 1951. He also was a founder of the B’nai B’rith Sports Lodge and ran without great publicity, a charity that aided needy families of sports figures.[2] In 1986, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame 

The Sandlot Classic had the backing of William Randolph Hearst who, early on, stressed the goals of the program. “This program will be conducted in all Hearst cities from coast to coast.  The purpose of the program will not be to develop players for organized baseball, but will be designed to further the spirit of athletic competition among the youth of America.”[3]

Just getting into the game was no easy task. Hearst Newspapers throughout the country sponsored tournaments, All-Star contests, elections, and in one case a home run hitting contest to determine candidates for the game in New York.

In San Antonio, the elimination event was an All-Star game. After sponsoring the games in conjunction with the American Legion for the first three years of the Hearst games, the Light, in 1949 began an affiliation with the Wrambling Wrecks, a group of disabled veterans. Not only did the games determine the players to go to New York, but they also raised funds for charities supported by the Wrambling Wrecks. With each passing year, the event grew bigger and better, and over the years, greats of the game such as Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Frankie Frisch were on hand, along with scouts from every major league team. Stars from the entertainment world, including actors Joe E. Brown (star of the baseball film Elmer the Great) and Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright on television’s Bonanza) also appeared. There was entertainment for the whole family and kids got in free. And, oh yes, one lucky spectator would drive away in a new automobile. Writer Harold Schweritz chronicled the event and even the most obscure of players were included in his coverage, because on that night really nobody was obscure and each of the players had stars in his eyes. He wrote these words in 1962.

“Fourteen years of contributing some fun to the local athletic scene has brought these men (the Wrambling Wrecks) banged up in World War II, before the public as good citizens as well as good soldiers. Most of them were athletes before the loss of legs, arms or eyes, paralysis or other war injuries put them on the sidelines as competitors. The Wrambling Wrecks have dived into the task of setting up the game, selling the tickets, and handling most of the details.  The tasks assigned to various members have snapped them out of natural unhappiness over their war injuries in many cases. The sense of accomplishment and the realization that they are paying their way and doing something for their organization has turned out to be a beneficial therapy that can’t be bought. Their organization has gained a standing in the community with the best.  Baseball has benefited and Texas has been supplying top flight ballplayers as its representatives in the New York game.”[4]

Although only five of the 39 players from the Texas games who represented San Antonio in New York over the years went on to the major leagues (including one man who was still in uniform 54 years after his first San Antonio appearance), many of the stories involve players who didn’t make it to the show. They, like the Wrambling Wrecks, made a contribution, often off the playing field.

In 1953, following the annual San Antonio- South Texas All-Star game, the San Antonio Light sent Ernie Oosterveen and Eusebio “Chevo” Contreras to the big city.  In New York, they saw two Yankee games, attended a performance at the Radio City Music Hall, stayed at the prestigious Hotel New Yorker, and got to play at the Polo Grounds.  Oosterveen, a pitcher, retired the side in order, with two strikeouts, to save the win for the U. S. All-Stars.

When it was all over, they had a wonderful memory.  Contreras, who went on to play at the University of Texas and was chosen one of the top 100 Laredo area athletes of the 20th Century, received some attention from St. Louis Browns scout George Peters, but never signed with a major league team.  As a young man, Contreras, a Mexican-American from Laredo, had to contend with language issues.  When his high school team went to Austin to play in the Texas State Championships in 1952, they were the only team that consisted of Spanish-speaking players.[5]  He played semi-pro ball in the Laredo area for many years, and finally at age 27, played professionally appearing in 30 games in the Mexican League in 1962.  Later on, he served as coach at Martin High School and Nixon High School in Laredo.

Ernie Oosterveen

Ernie Oosterveen, a graduate of Jefferson High School in San Antonio, had just completed his freshman year at the University of Arizona and he had “sparkled in local (San Antonio) baseball since he was large enough to hold a bat.”[6]  In the San Antonio-South Texas All-Star game, he secured his trip to New York by pitching three perfect innings. He struck out six, and the only ball to leave the infield was a fly ball to left field by Contreras.  He was one of five members of the San Antonio squad to sign contracts with major-league teams.  None of the five made it to the major leagues.   

Oosterveen starred at the University of Arizona, going 6-2 in 1956 and pitching a 1-0 shutout with 11 strikeouts as Arizona eliminated New Hampshire in the 1956 College World Series.  On short rest, he started the final game, and was knocked out early, as Arizona lost to Minnesota 12-1.[7] He also pitched semi-pro ball with Gary Bell for the Texas Consolidated Transporters of the Spanish American League in San Antonio, and in June, 1956, signed with the Cincinnati Reds[8].  He played in the minor leagues through 1960, getting as far as Class B.  His record over the course of his years in the minors was 17-21. He entered the Army after the 1960 season and while pitching in the Army, went 25-1.

Oosterveen, who was raised by his grandparents, was very active in the YMCA.  On the Y’s website, Ernie is quoted as saying, “We lived in a tough part of town.  Gang members would throw rocks at us and carry chains for fighting.”  His uncle took him to the Y so that he could have a safe place with positive role models. After serving in the Army, he and his wife Sandy settled in Edmonds, Washington.  He worked 10 years for the Government and spent 30 years as a salesman for Mead Corporation, retiring in 1998.

He has worked with the Mariners, helping out in their ticket office. He also works as an interpreter for the team.  When he was pitching, he didn’t throw hard enough to hurt his arm, and was enjoying life and his family at age 79 in 2013.

Boston, with the support of the Boston Record-American and Sunday Advertiser, hosted a regional Classic for many years, starting in 1946 and continuing through 1971.  Most of the games were held at Fenway Park. In 1946 and 1948, the game was staged at Braves Field.  In 1949, the game was held at Fallon Field. Boston sent more players from its regional All-Star games to the majors than any other city. The 34 players were Harry Agganis (1947), Mark Bomback (1969), George Bullard (1946), Joe Coleman (1964), Billy Conigliaro (1963-64), Tony Conigliaro (1960-1962), Ed Connolly, Jr. (1958), John Cumberland (1965), Art Ditmar (1946), John Doherty (1968), Jim Driscoll (1961), Shaun Fitzmaurice (1960-61), Russ Gibson (1956), Bob Guindon (1959-60), Bob Hansen (1966), Fran Healy (1963), Richie Hebner (1965), Walter Hriniak (1960), John LaRose (1968), Frank Leja (1953), Skip Lockwood (1962-63), Don Mason (1962), Bill Macleod (1959), Richie Moloney (1967), Bill Monboquette (1954), Danny Murphy (1958), Norman Roy (1946), Jerry Remy (1969), Mike Ryan (1960), Dave Schuler (1971), Steve Shea (1961), Pete Varney (1966-67), and Wilbur Wood (1958-59). 

The Boston program was strongly supported by Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. In 1961, he noted that several players in the Red Sox organization, including Gibson, Guindon, Macleod, Monbouquette, Ryan, Wood, and Chuck Schilling who the Sox signed off the New York Sandlots had participated in the Hearst program.  Over the years, the Red Sox signed 12 Hearst Alums that made it to the majors, and their 1964 roster included six players who could trace their roots to the Hearst Sandlot Classic.

Yawkey noted, “This is a great program.  I mean it.  I went down to the locker-room and met some of the kids, the winners and the losers. They’re fine boys, outstanding, clean cut. They learn so much from tournaments like these. I could go into all the levels of it – juvenile delinquency, teamwork, the importance of sports in the fight for a free world. Most of all, though, it’s the fact that a kid can learn to be a man, how to take it, how to win, and how to lose.  And a kid learns confidence in himself. You just can’t buy that.”[9]

Day after day through those years, the scribes of the Boston Record, the Boston American, and Sunday Advertiser hyped the game and the cause.  In 1956, it was writer Austin Lake’s turn.  “This I know. Give a boy a baseball. Show him how to use it, and you have control of the boy.  There are no delinquents on our playing fields. The program will sift and sort the best lads from the compass corners of the U. S. for the annual title game at New York on August 22, but first 30 boys are being selected for the New England championship game at Fenway Park on August 7.  Best two of that collection will go to New York. It is opportunity’s Golden Door.”[10]

Other Newspapers that sponsored Hearst events included the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Herald-Express, Baltimore News-Post, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Detroit Times, the Albany Times-Union[11], the Chicago Herald-American, and the Oakland Post-Enquirer.

But in those days, the epicenter of Baseball in America was New York City.  During the first twelve years of the Hearst Classic, there were three major league teams in New York.  From 1947 through 1958, at least one New York team was in the World Series, and in seven of those years, the entire Series was played in New York.  Children in New York grew up with baseball.  There was little else. Young boys would find their way to a vacant sandlot, choose up sides and play as long as darkness, or an unforgiving mom summoning a child home for dinner, would allow. Stickball in the streets took on various forms, depending on the neighborhood.  Home runs in the street were measured by distances between sewers or, in the suburbs, distances between telephone poles. When it rained, young boys would spend their time indoors playing board games and talking baseball.  Long before “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke” became a musical refrain, it was very much the core of discussions, especially during those years from 1954 through 1957. And in New York, the best of the players honed their skills on the better groomed fields in any number of leagues.

In New York, the involvement of the Journal-American in boys’ baseball began in 1945. It was a local affair with support from the Police Athletic League (PAL), Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), Kiwanis, New York City Baseball Federation, and the Queens-Nassau Alliance. Heading up the program was Ethan Allen, a former major leaguer who had compiled a .300 batting average during a 13 year career with six major league clubs.  While with the Phillies in 1934, he led the National League in doubles with 42 while batting .330. After his playing days, he served as coach at Yale for 26 years from 1943 through 1969.

Allen’s impact on the youth of America was major – at least to one young fan growing up on Long Island. In the 1950’s, he created a board game called All-Star Baseball. A generation of young fans would spend hours spinning the dial hoping for a home run from players of a bygone era. While at Yale, he coached a young George Herbert Walker Bush.

He also coached Dick Tettelbach, who had a brief major league career with the Yankees and Senators. Reflecting on Allen, Tettelbach said, “He was so thorough on fundamentals.  When I got to pro ball after being exposed to Ethan for three or four years, I really knew more baseball than most of the guys in the major leagues.  He knew it inside and out. Ethan Allen was A-plus, totally the best coach I ever played for.”[12]

At the end of the summer of 1945, there was a citywide tournament, and the Gallahads of the Queens-Nassau Alliance won the first New York City Sandlot Championship.

In 1946, the scope of the sandlot program was expanded. Hall-of-Famer Walter James Vincent “Rabbit” Maranville succeeded Allen as Director, and the first Hearst Sandlot Classic, bringing in boys from around the country was held. The New York team was selected from tryouts held in the leagues that comprised the Journal-American City Sandlot Alliance. Maranville, in addition to heading up the program, managed the New York contingent.

Maranville was truly one of the game’s legends.  He began his major league career in 1912 with the Boston Braves and played in the majors for 23 years. An exceptional middle infielder, he still holds the career record for assists with 8,967. As his career wound down his defensive skills were as good as ever. In 1930, at the age of 38, he led the league’s shortstops in fielding percentage and two years later he moved to second base and duplicated the feat. Not noted for his batting, he nevertheless ranks 19th all-time with 177 triples. After his major league playing days ended, he went back to the minor leagues. In 1936, at the ripe-young-age of 44, he batted .323 as a player-manager for the Elmira Pioneers in the Class-A New York-Penn League, and was named to the League’s All-Star team as a second baseman. As noted in his obituary in the New York Times, “he established himself as one of the greatest little men (he only stood 5’ 4”) baseball has ever known and also endeared himself to followers of the national pastime as an outstanding personality.” Long before Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, Maranville had mastered the basket catch to the delight of his fans. Of his defense, it was stated that “his ground covering ability was amazing, he had sure hands and a strong accurate throwing arm, and he supplemented his mechanical talents with unrivaled dash and verve.”[13]

In his capacity as director, Maranville arranged clinics for youngsters in the New York area under the tutelage of players, coaches, and managers from the three New York major league squads. In the weeks leading up to the 1946 event, he contributed a daily column in the New York Journal-American extolling the talents of his 20 man roster. He also had a hand in publishing The Sandlotter, a newsletter that was mailed out periodically during the season. Although sentiment did play a role in his election to the Hall of Fame in 1954, (he had died just prior to the voting), his work with the youth program and his stellar defense during 23 major league seasons were also significant factors.

Arthur Daley of The New York Times was an ardent supporter of Maranville, voting for him several occasions before he gained entrance to the Hall of Fame in 1954. Maranville had been named on 62.1% of the ballots in 1953. Noting Maranville’s off-the-field escapades (he definitely enjoyed a good time), Daley stated that “there was a certain amount of irony in the fact that the Rabbit’s later years were spent in doing an extraordinarily fine job in promoting sandlot baseball for The Journal-American.  He was helping and inspiring the kids, although he would have shuddered in horror if any of them had ever followed his (off-the-field) example. But maybe there was not so much irony in his job at that. The Rabbit was always a kid himself, a Peter Pan who didn’t want to grow up.”[14]

George Vecsey of The New York Times set off a firestorm of sorts when he stated, in 1989, that Maranville’s two greatest attributes were longevity and good deeds as the sandlot ambassador for a newspaper chain with many Hall of Fame Electors.[15]  Within a couple of weeks, a deluge of letters appeared on his desk.  The Rabbit, indeed, was worthy of the Hall of Fame.

Ray Pecoraro

Maranville didn’t miss much on the field. In the 1948 game, young Ray Pecoraro of the New York All-Stars singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, and was caught in a run down as he tried to stretch his hit into a double. He didn’t notice that U. S. All-Star shortstop Al Facchini  had chased down the ball and gunned it in. The contest was close.  At the time of Pecoraro’s hit, his team was down by two runs. The next batter, Pecoraro’s Brooklyn teammate, Bobby Pasquale, grounded out to end the game, depriving another of Ray’s friends, John Mirabile an at-bat. Years later, Pecoraro, who became an attorney in Brooklyn, remembered that Maranville “bawled the hell out of me. ‘Two runs behind and you gamble like that.’ he said.  “Embarrassed me, but I never made that mistake again.” [16]  Pecoraro grew up playing on the Brooklyn sandlots, and graduated from Lafayette High School and St. John’s University.  He did not play professional baseball.

Pecoraro’s Lafayette High School team in Brooklyn won the New York Public School Athletic League (PSAL) Championship in 1947, his junior year, defeating Grover Cleveland High School. The championship game was very much a roller coaster ride for Ray and his teammates.  Pecoraro had given Lafayette a 1-0 lead in the first inning by stealing home. The “Frenchies” expanded the lead to 4-0, but Cleveland came storming back, helped by two Pecoraro errors, to take a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.  Lafayette scored five runs in the ninth inning, including two on a suicide squeeze play, to knot the score at 9-9, and the winning run scored in the tenth when, with two outs, Pecoraro singled in Ken Aspromonte from third with the winning run, going from goat to hero. [17] Pecoraro hit .407 in his junior year and was highly regarded.  Jimmy Murphy noted in the Brooklyn Eagle that “Pecoraro plays center field like Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, whose style he has aped to perfection.  He can come in and go back equally for drives, owns a power arm, and is a human greyhound getting over the ground.  Capitalizing on his fleetness has made him a marvelous base stealer.”[18]

Although some scouts looked his way, Ray elected to stay close to home. He finished St. John’s in three years and went on to the University’s law school.  He came out of law school with a commission in the Marines, served with the Marines, and came home to practice law in Brooklyn.  He was still practicing in 2013, 65 years after his appearance in the Hearst Classic.

Mike Napoli

Maranville also extolled the values of his players to the many writers and scouts in attendance at the Hearst games. In 1950, he applauded a youngster from Brooklyn’s Kiwanis League who was a member of the New York All-Stars. The kid, who had also stared at Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School, and played in “Brooklyn Against the World” was “the best looking backstop prospect I have seen anywhere” and predicted that the kid from Bensonhurst was “only two years from the big leagues.” The kid’s name was Mike Napoli. Also impressed with Napoli during the practices leading up to the game was Buck Lai, who was both a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the baseball coach at Long Island University. After graduating from Lafayette High School, where he was a teammate of Pecoraro’s, Napoli went to LIU on a scholarship.  He completed his freshman year and signed with the Dodgers in 1951 for $10,000.[19] The first monies spent from that bonus were for a washer and dryer for his parents’ home in Brooklyn.

Except for a two year stint in the military, he was in the Dodger farm system through 1961.  His travels took him to ten different teams in nine leagues at five classifications.  He got as high as Triple-A, and spent some spring training time in 1956 and 1957 with the big club, but never got to the show.  After his playing days were over, he settled in Fort Worth, Texas, working in security with General Motors for 27 years. He had spent the entire 1956 season and part of the 1957 season at Fort Worth, home to one of his mentors, Bobby Bragan.  During his time in baseball, he developed a lasting friendship with Bragan, a former Dodger catcher who spent many years coaching and managing in the Dodgers minor league system. Bragan got his first managing job at Fort Worth in 1948, was with the Cats through 1952, and maintained strong ties to the community. Napoli and Bragan first met at the Dodgers minor league spring training facility in 1952, and Bragan took a liking to the youngster. Although Bragan wanted Napoli for his Fort Worth Squad, the Dodgers had other plans for Mike, placing him lower in the organization. Bragan and Napoli remained close over the years and Mike attended many functions that raised funds for the Bobby Bragan Foundation, an organization that awarded academic scholarships to students who would not otherwise be able to afford a college education.[20]  

Maranville managed the New York team for the first eight years of the event.  After Maranville died suddenly from a heart attack in January, 1954 at age 62, Al Simmons took over. Simmons, a Hall-of-Famer, got his start playing sandlot ball in Milwaukee as a youngster, and managed in the Classic for two years until his untimely death in 1956.[21]

George Stirnweiss took over in 1956. “Snuffy” had played with the New York Yankees from 1943 through 1950, and won the American League batting title in 1945.  His batting title came when, on the final day of the season, the official scorer reversed his ruling changing an error to a hit, giving Stirnweiss an average of .308544, which allowed him to edge out Tony Cuccinello (.308457) by the barest of margins.[22] After the tragic death of Stirnweiss in a railroad accident, when his train went off the CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge between Elizabethport and Bayonne, New Jersey, killing 48 people, Tommy Holmes took over in 1959.

Early on, Kase enlisted Ray Schalk and Oscar Vitt to lead the U. S. All-Stars.  Schalk managed the team through 1948.  He stepped aside after three years, as his contract as baseball coach at Purdue did not allow him to engage in any outside activities.  At the time he left, he said that he “liked being around the kids and the biggest kid of all, Rabbit Marranville.”[23] During the first game in New York in 1946 Schalk and Maranville would share stories of bygone days with anyone who would listen and the audience included Ralph Cannon of the Chicago Herald-American. Cannon relayed stories about the pranks of Eddie Collins and Kid Gleason, and the escapades of Jim Thorpe. As the Rabbit said of Thorpe, “What a guy! What and era!”[24]

Vitt, who had assisted Schalk in 1947, took over the head job, ably assisted by such greats as Max Carey, Charlie Gehringer and Lefty Gomez, and stayed with the program until illness forced him to step aside in 1962, at which time Eddie Joost took over.

Schalk, during his playing days, had starred for the Chicago White Sox.  His election to the hall-of-Fame in 1955 was largely based on his being a pre-eminent catcher in the American League during the years from 1913 through 1925.  During that span, he on three occasions led the league in caught stealing percentage, and is 8th all-time in that category, with a caught stealing figure of 51.3%.  On five occasions, he led the league in fielding percentage, and on four occasions, he was in the type 25 in the MVP balloting.

Vitt was a veteran of the game.  He played with the Detroit Tigers from 1912 through 1918, and the Red Sox from 1919 through 1921. He teamed with Ty Cobb and roomed with Babe Ruth.  The highlights from his playing days were not plentiful, but he did break up Walter Johnson’s bid for a no-hitter on June 9, 1918. Vitt went on to a successful managerial career.  He spent eleven years in the Pacific Coast League, and led the Hollywood Stars to three consecutive league championship finals from 1929 through 1931. He went on to manage the Newark Bears of the International League in 1936-37, compiling a 197-110 record and winning the League Championship in 1937. That got him a ticket to the major leagues. He managed the Cleveland Indians from 1938 through 1940. Those Indians featured a young Robert Feller. Although he combined a winning record with the Tribe with two thirds and a second place finish, there was major dissension on the team, and he was let go after the 1940 season.  He retired in 1942 after a two year stint in the Pacific Coast League, and turned to youth baseball, running a baseball school in conjunction with the San Francisco Examiner.

Frank Graham of the Journal-American said this of Vitt: “As a young fellow playing ball with the Tigers and the Red Sox, Oscar Vitt was full of zing. Now in his fifties, graying and wearing spectacles, he is – you guessed it – full of zing. The kind of guy who, if he lives to be a hundred or more, will not change. You know why the kids like him so much.  He has the gift of remembering his own youth. He doesn’t have to tell that to the kids with whom he works.  They know it just by looking at him and listening to him. The mistakes they make on the field are the mistakes he made long ago, and he doesn’t attempt to conceal it from them.” 

His coaching philosophy was summed up in these words quoted by Graham in 1949. Graham noted that Vitt wanted his players to learn from their mistakes. Vitt said, “Sure, you don’t have to tell me. I did it (booting a ball or throwing to the wrong base). But look.  Next time don’t try to throw the ball before you pick it up. You can’t do it. I tried to do it before you were born, and it didn’t work then either.  And when you have to make a throw, look around and see where the ball can do the most good before you let go of it. You threw to the wrong base?  Sure you did.  But so have all the great ballplayers I’ve ever seen. Once anyhow. The reason they became great ballplayers is that they didn’t make a habit of it. Don’t you either.”[25]

More than 80 of the young men on the rosters of the U. S. All-Stars and the New York All-Stars made their way to the major leagues including Hall-of-Famers Al Kaline (1951), and Ron Santo and Joe Torre (1958). From 1948 through 1985, there was at least one Hearst alumnus playing in the major leagues.  In 1959, each American League team had at least one Hearst alum on its roster, and in 1960, the National League could make the same boast.

At least one Hearst player appeared in the World Series in each year from 1951 through 1975, and in the 1957 World Series, five participants could trace their starts to the Hearst Classic.  Two Hearst participants managed World Series champions.

Chapter 6 Notes:

[1] Harry Schlacht, “The Spirit of Babe Ruth Lives On”, New York Journal-American, August 16, 1949, 16

[2] Max Case is Dead: Sports Editor, 75: Broke Basketball Fix Story for the Journal American”, The New York Times, March 20, 1974, 44.

[3] Jack Conway, Jr., Boston Daily Record, July 14, 1953. 33.

[4] Harold Scherwitz. “Worthy of Support”. San Antonio Light, July 24, 1962, 12

[5] Alexander Mendoza “Distance Runners in Texas”, in Jorge Iber and Samuel Regalado (editors), Mexican-Americans and Sports: A reader on Athletics and Barrio Life, Texas A&M University Press, 2007, 192.

[6] San Antonio Light, August 4, 1953, 12

[7] W. C. Madden and Patrick J. Stewart. The College World Series: A Baseball History 1947-2003, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2004, 41

[8] The Yuma Daily Sun. June 24, 1956.

[9] McSweeney, August 16, 1961.

[10] Austen Lake. “Hearst Plan Calls Boys to Play Ball,” Boston Evening American, July 24, 1956, 36

[11] San Antonio Light, March 31, 1957, 2-C

[12] Pete Zanardi. “Dick Tettelbach,” SABR Bio-Project.

[13] The New York Times, (obituary written by Arthur Daley) January 6, 1954, 46

[14] Daley,   The New York Times, January 7, 1954, 34

[15] George Vecsey, The New York Times, January 11, 1989, D25

[16] Andrew Paul Mele. The Boys of Brooklyn: Brooklyn’s Parade Grounds: Brooklyn’s Field of Dreams, (Bloomington, Indiana, Author House, 2008): 26-27.

[17] Jimmy Murphy “Lafayette Nips Cleveland for P. S. A. L. Diamond Title”, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 27, 1947, 15

[18] Jimmy Murphy, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 17, 1948, 15.

[19] Leavy, 35

[20] Mele, 303-307.

[21] “Al Simmons Funeral Held at Church of his Boyhood”, Milwaukee Sentinel, May 29, 1956, part 2, page 1

[22] Rob Edelman. “George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss”, SABR Bio-Project

[23] Boston Traveler, August 6, 1949, 7

[24] Ralph Cannon, “Kid Star Like Eddie Collins,” Chicago Herald-American, August 17, 1946: 9.

[25] Frank Graham, New York Journal-American, August 17, 1949: 19