Baseball in Los Angeles - The LA Angels

Baseball and college football were the "it" outdoor sports during the time of Movie Palaces. Chronicling baseball history in Los Angeles is fun. We get to revisit Washington Park, the baseball ground that was part of the End of the Trolley line amusement park (like Coney Island), and across from the school that would become Loyola Marymount. We get to revisit the Gilmore grounds, where Gilmore Field was built next to Gilmore Stadium. We get to see Catalina Island, and the original Wrigley Field. On a World Series off-day, let's take a look at how baseball was played before the Dodgers moved west.

I feel its a common misconception, that the leagues that are now considered national brands were always considered the top flight without rival. The NFL, NL, and AL faced constant competition from leagues in their own region, and in the South, in Texas, out West, those territories had their own regional leagues. Before the NL Dodgers moved west, and the AL placed an expansion team in the same territory, LA baseball fans were entertained by the Pacific Coast League.

And this wasn't some rinky dink minor league circuit. There was money out here in LA, and like the LA Bulldogs were one of the strongest football brands before they got raided, the PCL LA Angels were one of basball's great franchises.

Wrigley Field was built on 10 acres of land in South Los Angeles between San Pedro St., Avalon Blvd., 41st and 42nd. It was the home of the LA Angels for thirty years. William Wrigley Jr. (owner of the Chicago Cubs) bought them in 1921 for $150,000 (an astronomical sum). The stadium was completed in 1925. 

Before that, we have to explain William Wrigley Jr's association with Los Angeles, and why the LA Angels would have been such a pricey buy. 

Wrigley purchasing the LA Angels happened at the same time he was buying a controlling intrest in the Chicago Cubs. His chewing gum and confectionary business, which you've probably heard of, was based in Chicago. Wrigley had been convinced to invest in Santa Catalina Island, which at the time was controlled by the son of Phineas Banning (you remember him, right?). The idea, continued by Wrigley, was to turn it into a tourist destination, increasing ferry business from the port in San Pedro. 

Wrigley loved it, and bought the island in 1919. He built himself a home there, build a Spring Training facility for the Cubs, and bought the Angels. 

Wrigley's Catalina home

The PCL was organized in 1903, and from then to 1934 the Angels won 9 championships. Not that they were playing against peanuts, like the LA Bulldogs often were. The San Francisco Seals, Oakland Oaks, San Diego Padres, Portland Beavers, and Hollywood Stars, just to name from the top of my head, provided major league level competition every year. Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams both got their start in the PCL. When Wrigley was looking at the team, they had just won a pennant in 1916, contended for four years, then another in 1921. In 1926, the Angels' first full year at Wrigley, they won the pennant again. 

Wrigley was by no means huge, but comparable to the size ballparks were being built back then. It sat 18,000 (Shibe Park in Philadelphia held 23,000) and the dimensions favored the hitters (340 to left field, 412 to center, 338 to right). The Angels won the pennant again in 1933 and 34, with the 1934 team considered the best minor league team of all time.

The Angels were pennant winners in the first PCL year, 1903, and then again in 1905, 07, and 08. The minor leagues of this time were different than they are now. Teams weren't under control of a major league club. When Wrigley bought the Angels, they were his team, not the Cubs. Player contracts were bought, but it was a negotiation not a demand from the parent club. So those early Los Angeles clubs were simply a collection of the best area talent, not leftovers. 

That's Washington Park, formerly Chutes Park when the Chutes Trolley Park was the main attraction. Chutes Park was on a different part of the lot, but with the Angels successful and the Trolley Park failing, a bigger park was built. Since the Angels went into a pennant drought from 1908-1916, Washington Park saw just two pennant winners while the old Chutes Park saw four. Still, the Angels kept winning, and kept outgrowing their grounds. 

As you can tell in the first photo, Wrigley Field Los Angeles was also the first one to plant Ivy in the outfield. That ivy, and the houses just beyond the outfield wall, would later make national TV as baseball's Home Run Derby program was filmed at Wrigley Field. You can see that Washington Park has just the one grandstand, while Wrigley had two, and the entire stand was roofed. 

Of course, Wrigley would meet a sad end. Walter O'Malley traded his farm team (the Fort Worth Cats) and cash in exchange for the Los Angeles Angels and Wrigley Field. Philip K. Wrigley had taken over the Angels after his dad died in 1932. Many fans in LA assumed O'Malley would move the Dodgers into Wrigley Field, at least temporarily. There were plans drawn up to expand capacity. However, O'Malley chose to use the Coliseum for four years from 1958 - 1961 (winning the World Series in 1959 - LA's first major championship) while his Dodger Stadium was built. 

Wrigley Field would be demolished, and that was that. Owning the rights to the Angels, O'Malley borrowed their interlocking LA cap logo for the Dodgers. The Angel name was sold to the American League for their new expansion team in Los Angeles. So the LA Angels live on, just not the way some Angelinos would have hoped. 

There's still more baseball to go. The Hollywood Stars, Dodgers and Angels are all still to come, so stay tuned!