by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Following yesterday’s Boyle Heights at 150 event at the Museum, as well as a recent post by Andrew Workman, a descendant of community founder William H. Workman, regarding the history of baseball involving his grandfather, Henry, and great-grandfather, Thomas, and noting that the defending World Series champion Dodgers have raced out to a 5-0 start in the young Major League Baseball season, we go back to the early days of the neighborhood and its brief reign as the baseball mecca of Los Angeles in 1878.
The game was fairly new to the Angel City; in fact, one early athlete in the sport was William W. Temple, who played for an intramural team at Santa Clara College (now the University of Santa Clara) as well as amateur teams. Boyle Heights was established in spring 1875 and, within three years, the eastside community became the location of choice for baseball contests as the sport rapidly grew in popularity.
The Los Angeles Star of 9 January reported on the formation of the Dauntless Base Ball Club and the election of presidents with the addition that “the Club is prepared to receive challenges from any club in Southern California.” Just over two weeks later, the edition of the 25th of the Los Angeles Herald noted that a “base ball match between the Dauntless Club of this city and the Orange boys” of the town that, just over a decade later, became part of Orange County, “was a remarkably even and hotly contested game, and some fine playing was done by both clubs,” with the contest ending in an 11-11 tie. In fact, the game had to end because of the arrival of the train to take folks back to Los Angeles. The Express of the 28th reported on a contest between Los Angeles High School’s second squad (the school was only in its fifth year of operation) and the Mutual Club, with the former romping to a 34-13 win—we’ll see that games were much more high-scoring than ours today.
About a week later, the Los Angeles Express informed readers that
Mr. Fred Linde, an attaché of [L.W.] Thatcher’s jewelry establishment, has manufactured a handsome silver ball, an imitation of the regulation base ball. It is to be neatly engraved and will be inscribed “The Linde Championship Prize.” The ball is valued at $50. It is to be put up for competition among the several base ball clubs of this section and held by the championship nine. It is stated that the first match game will take place on the 22d instant—Washington’s birthday.
Linde, a 22-year native of New York with German parents, was apparently a recent arrival and, it is to be assumed, a baseball fan. He remained in Los Angeles for about a dozen more years, but the end of the Boom of the 1880s, during which Workman was mayor for its peak in 1887-1888, was followed by the inevitable bust, and Linde ended up insolvent. He left town in 1891 and settled in New Orleans, remaining in Louisiana until his death in 1922.
Further adding to the rapid development of the nascent sport, the Dauntless captain, H.L. Blanchard, took out advertisements asking for bids on uniforms for the club with specific instructions as to the breeches, caps and shirts being of white ducking, the initial “D” in blue on the jersey, the cap to have a blue star on top, and stockings to be blue, as well.
The Star of the 12th told its readers that “all entries for the Linde prize and championship of Southern California” should be sent to Blanchard by 15 March, though the first games for the title were to be played on the holiday. Meanwhile, a couple of other new teams tangled in a contest, with the Academy nine besting the Young Oak club of the Vernon area south of town, 25-17 and the Express called this the first of three games for the Linde silver ball title.
On the 14th, the paper added “Boyle Heights are [sic] to be known hereafter as the regular base ball grounds of Los Angeles.” The problem is that, for all the references to the neighborhood’s field, no specific location was found and one wonders if Workman offered the space. The next day, the Express commented that the Alert squad of Pasadena, which was established the same year, 1875, as Boyle Heights, challenged the Dauntless nine to a contest, while the Herald stated that the Nameless Club laid down its challenge for the 22nd, as well.
On the 18th, the paper remarked that “the Amateur Base Ball Club has kindly tendered the use of their grounds on Boyle Heights” for the holiday games “to clubs wishing to compete for the Linde silver ball.” It was added that “the Amateurs have now the finest grounds in the city” and were “thinking of erecting seats for the accommodation of visitors.” Elsewhere, it was noted that yet a new team, the Pastime, formed and elected its officers with the intention of challenging for the Linde prize.
The Washington’s Birthday game was played at the Boyle Heights field by the Pasadena Alerts and the Dauntless squad and the Crown City nine prevailed, 16-14, and, therefore, “carried off the prize of the silver ball.” Three days later, the Express commented that,
Mr. Linde has issued a call for a convention of the several base-ball clubs wishing to compete for the silver ball, to be held at the County Court room in this city on Saturday, March 2d, to which each club will have the right to send several delegates, who will decide upon all matters pertaining to contests for the championship, and will adopt a set of rules.
On the 28th, the paper remarked that seven teams, the last being the one from Orange, were sending delegates (three were allotted for each club) to the confab, with another two, including one from San Bernardino, considering doing so, as well. Meanwhile, another location was identified as a field, this being at Pearl Street (later changed to Figueroa) and 10th Street (today’s Olympic Boulevard), this certainly being notable as being just a block away from the Crypto.com Arena. There, on the 23rd, the Academy, trailing the Young Oak team 9-3 after five innings, rallied with six runs in the top of the ninth and emerged victorious, 15-12.
The 3 March issue of the Herald provided some coverage of the baseball convention in the Court House (this was built in 1859 by Jonathan Temple as a commercial building, but housed the court since 1861). After officers for the gathering were elected, with Linde as president and Blanchard as secretary, the paper recorded
It was resolved to adopt the Professional League Club Rules for 1877, all games to be played in the city of Los Angeles and each club to play two games, with the provision that the clubs can go and visit other clubs if proper arrangements can be made.
Ten clubs were represented and we are glad to note the interest here in the great American game.
It was added, however, that the proprietor of the race track at Agricultural Park—this is now the rose garden at Exposition Park—offered the use of that locale and promised that it would be fixed up with everything needed for contests. Despite this, the Star‘s edition of the 7th declared “we are pleased to learn that the base ball clubs have determined to do their playing at Boyle Heights which is the best natural ground for the sport in or near the city.”
A hint as to the location was the statement that the manager of the Los Angeles and Aliso Street Railway, which counted Workman as one of its founders and which was a horse-drawn streetcar line, “has done the base ball boys every favor in his power,” suggesting that the field was somewhere in the northwest part of the community where Brooklyn Heights was developed and perhaps close to today’s César E. Chávez Avenue (formerly Brooklyn Avenue).
The Express of the 11th provided the box score for a contest and reported that
Quite a number of our citizen interested in the great American game visited the grounds of the Amateur Club, Boyle Heights, to witness the match game for the Linde championship prize between the Alerts of Pasadena and the Nameless of this city.
The Namless dethrone the Linde prize holders by the score of 15-11, leading 12-2 after five innings and, despite allowing nine runs in the final four frames, scored five in the top of the eighth to fend off the visiting club. In its issue of the 14th, the Star observed yet another organization was established, calling itself the Snowball, apparently using another metaphor for a baseball. The team’s captain, Samuel Sampson, was an experienced player and looked to drill his compatriots at Boyle Heights so the squad could compete for the silver ball.
References to the growing interest in the game in upcoming months included a doubleheader played between two sets of squads at Boyle Heights at the end of March and the report in the Herald‘s issue of 21 April that a second match-up between the Academy and Nameless teams “for the championship and the Linde prize” at Boyle Heights. The latter squad, though, could only field seven players, foregoing a shortstop and a centerfielder, and spotted the former nine runs to start the game. Despite this, Academy only scored once in the next six innings, while Nameless clawed back with six runs to keep the contest close, but the Academy prevailed 13-9, while the time of 2 hours 41 minutes was a regional record, if not a state one, according to the paper.
An interesting report by the Star on 23 April was that a new team “consists, at present, of two young ladies and a gentleman, who practice every afternoon on New High street near Franklin, this being in close proximity to the jail with today’s location being a little west of Spring between Temple and 1st. It was added that “the two young ladies are good catchers.”
Also notable is that some players on a few of the Angel City squads were Latinos as box scores included the names Aguirre, Bernal, Bilderrain, Botello, Machado and Moreno. By late April, moreover, games were being played at Agricultural Park and, a couple of months later, the 38s volunteer firefighting department, which counted Elijah H. Workman, a Boyle Heights resident and brother of its co-founder as a member, offered a “silver-mounted orange-wood club” to the winner.
The 4 June contest ended with the Dauntless nine easily defeating the Amateurs, 16-9, and adding a new meaning to the word “club” or “clubbing” a base-hit. In July, when a Bakersfield team came down and defeated the Nameless squad, admission of 25 cents was charged—this apparently the first time when patrons paid to see a game in the Angel City.
Boyle Heights was the scene of another title contest on 4 May between Academy and the Pastime contingent, with the latter up 7-1 after the top of the third inning, but the former scored five runs and then held its opponent to just one run the rest of the way, while pushing across three runs for four straight innings and romping to a 19-8 win. The Star, however, asserted that, while “quite a crowd gathered at Boyle Heights to witness the game,” the contest “was played poorly throughout” and that, “if properly played, would have reduced the score 2 or 3 in favor of the Academy, meaning, perhaps, a 16-11 or 17-10 outcome.
When the city celebrated Independence Day with its customary parade, as well as “fire crackers and Chinese bombs, one of the groups that participated in the procession was the Academy club. The season came to an end in mid-August when that team defeated the Nameless nine in a match at Boyle Heights and took home the Linde prize. At the end of the year, the champs headed to San Diego but were routed by the home team, 34-9, though this was obviously not a league game.
It is worth observing that there were a few references to injury, including an instance where a player was wrestling prior to a game and dislocated a shoulder and had to be replaced. In an early July practice session for the Nameless team, R.W. Ready “to improve his play, was out on the hills [likely west of downtown] . . . for practice in pitching and catching.” In so doing, he tried “a strong pitch, and immediately his arm flew back and struck him on the back,” which led to the fact that he “snapped the bones above the elbow,” so that a doctor had to set the limb. In mid-September came a report from New York that a catcher was hit in the stomach by a ball and was “instantly killed.”
We’ll return tomorrow with another “postview” follow-up regarding the sesquicentennial of Boyle Heights, featuring a notable 1906 report on the community, so be sure to check back with us then.