San Diego High gave Southern Section commissioner Seth Van Patten the figurative middle-finger salute when the Hillers were denied permission to play Delano High of the Central Section for a mythical state championship.
After being told San Diego would meet Long Beach Wilson in a one-game Southern Section playoff, San Diego players voted not to participate, fold the season, and to accept gold baseballs commemorating their Pomona 2030 Rotary Club and Coast League titles.
The Hillers (13-1) won the Coast and the Pomona tournaments, and were favorites for a Southern Section championship but were going to stiff a watered-down, one-game version of the postseason if allowed to play the Northern California champion.
3 GAMES IN NORTH
A three-game series would be played the week of May 24 or June 1. The host Tigers guaranteed expenses and offered to use a Southern California umpire, according to Charles Byrne of The San Diego Union.
Van Patten, perhaps with a push from Harry Moore, the principal at Long Beach Wilson and the Southern Section’s representative to the state CIF, said no to the Hilltoppers. Moore wanted Mike Morrow’s San Diego club to play Moore’s Bruins for the playoff-shortened championship.
The Hilltoppers had beaten Wilson, 7-5, and 9-4, and weren’t interested in another joust. San Diego’s only loss was a meaningless, final regular-season game, 12-7, to Long Beach Poly, which San Diego had beaten, 12-3, and 23-6.
News articles seemed incomplete, but the CIF record book declared Wilson champion. San Diego had not forfeited, but “withdrew”.
Discretion was the better part of valor. The Hillers had defeated East Technical of Cleveland in a two-game, unsanctioned series for the national championship in 1921 and were barred from the 1922 playoffs by Van Patten.
3/2/40
Hoover’s 12-1 victory at Sweetwater was called because of rain in the fifth inning.
—Grossmont’s 10-1 lead over Point Loma at Collier Park in Ocean Beach, was official when rain halted play in the fifth inning.
3/5/40
Hoover’s three hits were enough to defeat visiting Escondido, 5-4, in a seven-inning nonleague game was notable for the many walks and wild pitches by Cougars pitchers.
3/7/40
Fred Matson, who would later be declared ineligible because he had signed an agreement to report to a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team after the sesson, pitched a no-hitter as Hoover blanked the USS Melville team, 5-0, at Navy Field. Doug Donnan homered and singled for the Cardinals.
3/9/40
San Diego scored a run in the 10th inning on a fielder’s choice to win at Escondido, 1-0. Bill Williams, who coaxed a walk from Bill Kern at the start of the 10th, scored the game’s only run.
San Diego’s Duane Pillette gave up a second-inning single to Joe Reyes and was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 10th, with John Beck finishing the shutout.
Escondido’s Bill Kern did not give up a hit until Alex Le Grand’s single in the seventh.
The teams combined for a total of two hits.
3/11/40
Escondido, which had been a power since the Metropolitan League was formed in 1933, had trouble with San Diego and Hoover of the Coast League.
Doug Donnan and Fred Matson combined to give up six hits and visiting Hoover shut out the Cougars in a nine-inning, non-league contest, 7-0.
3/13/40
Point Loma, making its season debut, fell to a 15-hit attack by host Hoover, which won, 17-5.
3/16/40
George Usher’s double in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Alex Le Grand with the winning run in San Diego’s 5-4 win over Escondido.
3/22/40
San Diego defeated Redondo Beach Redondo, 4-1, and Long Beach Poly, 12-3, on the first day of the Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club tournament, joining Escondido, which defeated Pomona, 4-2, and South Pasadena, 10-5, in the semifinals.
—Pomona had surprised Hoover, 2-1, in nine innings in the third round. Riverside Sherman Institute eliminated Grossmont, 10-1. Sweetwater and Point Loma also were scheduled to participate.
3/23/40
Duane Pillette pitched San Diego to a 7-4 victory over Escondido and the Hilltoppers’ fourth tournament championship since 1933 (they had to return the title from that first-year event because two brothers played in a meaningless semi-pro game) and the third over the Cougars.
The Hillers, trailing, 1-0, scored four runs in the fourth inning and single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh of the nine-inning finale.
San Diego had advanced to the championship with a 2-0 victory over Monrovia and Escondido qualified with a 6-1 win over Azusa Citrus, behind Winston Patterson’s two-hit pitching.
3/28/40
La Jolla, which did not field a team in 1939, made its Metropolitan League return a 10-5 success against visiting Point Loma.
Centerfielder John Bambalere doubled twice and drove in six runs for the Vikings, while pitcher Ned Haskell scattered six Pointers hits over nine innings.
3/29/40
Relief pitcher Tom Schoneman’s successful bunt in the ninth inning scored Tom Finney from third base and delivered a 5-4 victory for Escondido at Sweetwater.
Schoneman’s five innings of scoreless relief overcame the effort of sophomore Tom Anson, who went the distance for the Red Devils.
—Grossmont scored without a hit in the 10th inning in a 7-6 victory over visiting Oceanside: Hit by pitch, walk, and outfield error by the Pirates.
3/30/40
Hoover swept a doubleheader during a Northern trip to Covina, 6-4, and 8-5.
Jim Moore and Babe Belasco each homered for the Cardinals in support of Doug Donnan’s four-hit pitching in the opener. Bob Stevenson homered and tripled and combined with Moore to hold the Colts to six hits in the nightcap.
4/2/40
Hoover traveled by cars to National City, stepped into interleague action and won a 12-1 contest at Sweetwater that was called because of rain in the fifth inning. The Cardinals needed only seven hits and capitalized on three host errors.
4/4/40
Ken Finney and George Petersen each had three hits and Ted Schoneman struck out 13 and allowed six hits as Escondido hammered visiting La Jolla, which committed nine errors in the 20-0 defeat.
4/6/40
Hoover’s Doug Donnan and Bob Stevenson walked 12 batters and San Diego had 12 hits and won the Coast League opener, 13-5, at Balboa Stadium.
Hoover, which had posted an 18-1 record (probably counting unofficial scrimmages) fell out contention when the Hilltoppers scored six runs in the fourth inning for a 10-3 lead.
Sam Rosenthal homered, Bill Williams doubled and tripled, and Tom Ortiz contributed four consecutive singles to back Duane Pillette, who went the distance despite giving up 10 hits.
4/9/40
Bill Kern and Willard Patterson combined on a four-hitter and Joe Reyes was 3 for 3, with a double and two singles, as Escondido blanked Oceanside, their seaside rival from 20 miles away, 6-0.
4/10/40
Pete Galindo had three hits and Ted Schoneman and Willard Patterson weathered several storms as Escondido overcame an early, 3-0 lead by Grossmont to win their third straight Metropolitan League game against no defeats, 19-12, both teams collecting a total of 33 hits.
4/12/40
San Diego raked 23 hits, scoring runs in every inning but the fourth and seventh, and rolled to a 23-6 victory at Long Beach Poly. The offensive outburst was not a Hillers record, not even close.
There had been more explosive outbursts several times in their history, which included victories of 29-10 over Santa Monica in 1917; 31-5 over Orange in 1928, and 31-5 over Fullerton in 1930, according to Don King’s Caver Conquest.
Bob O’Dell, Johnny Ritchey, and Bert Marshall homered and Dick Roxborough and Marshall allowed 11 hits but kept the Jackrabbits at a distance.
—Don Shinn drove in six runs with a home run and double and Sweetwater collected 17 hits in a 17-3 win over La Jolla.
4/16/40
A six-run third inning and Bill Kern’s two hit pitching were enough in Escondido’s 7-1 victory at Oceanside.
4/19/40
Sophomore Bob Stevenson, with help from Doug Donnan in the seventh inning, stopped visiting Long Beach Poly, 4-3, to set up a rematch with San Diego, which beat the Cardinals, 13-5, 13 days before.
—Escondido claimed the Metropolitan League championship, shaking off coach Bill Bailey’s Point Loma Pointers, 10-4, after the teams were tied, 2-2, at the end of five innings.
—Singles by Howard Deckstader and Wendell Wilson backed the three-hit, 12-strikeout pitching by Tom Anson in Sweetwater’s 1-0 victory over rival Grossmont.
4/20/40
Third baseman Jack Maupin and pitcher Duane Pillette watched from the sidelines as San Diego whipped Long Beach Wilson, 9-4.
Hilltoppers coach Mike Morrow suspended the pair after it was revealed they had been involved in a dustup at the Hoover-Long Beach Poly game the day before.
4/25/40
Oceanside gave Metro League champ Escondido a battle, sending the game into the 10th inning, tied, 2-2, but the Pirates collapsed under the weight of three errors and four Cougars hits for a 7-2 loss.
—Point Loma scored on a wild pitch in the ninth inning to defeat Sweetwater on the Collier Park diamond in Ocean Beach. Shortstop Ollie Mathis took to the mound for the Pointers and held the Red Devils to three hits.
4/26/40
Duane Pillette was wild high, outside and low, walking three batters and hitting five others, but Pillette gave up only three hits and San Diego clinched the Coast League championship, 3-0, at Hoover.
—Grossmont closed out Metro League play with a 2-1 win over La Jolla. Cliff Blankenship led off the 10th inning with a double and attempted to steal third base. The La Jolla catcher threw wildly and Blankenship scored.
5/1/40
Escondido, champion of the Metropolitan League, will not participate in the upcoming Southern Section playoffs.
In making the announcement, Coach Charlie McEuen declared that several squad members soon would be turning out for spring football drills and that the players, as a team, voted not to continue.
By coincidence (?) McEuen also was head football coach. His team was 5-3-1 and a 3-2-1 third in league play behind Point Loma and Coronado in 1939.
The spring-football-over-baseball-playoffs decision would have no impact on the Cougars’ 1940 football season. They were 4-3-2 overall and 3-2-1 and fourth in the Metro behind Coronado, Sweetwater, and Point Loma.
5/2/40
HARDBALL HARDWARE
A couple hours before a 12-7 loss to Long Beach Poly ended a 13-game winning streak and undefeated season for San Diego High, Hilltoppers players and coach Mike Morrow received trophies and baubles.
Representatives of the Pomona Rotary 20-30 Club presented the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars’ perpetual trophy, which would stay with the Hilltoppers, acknowledgement of their winning the Pomona tournament three times.
They also retired the (San Diego) Carnation Ice Cream trophy, emblematic of their three Pomona championships.
Coach Mike Morrow was awarded a trophy as the tournament’s winningest coach. Fifteen players received medals and Bobby Williams was given a gold baseball as an all-tournament selection.
—Hoover sophomore Ray Boone received a gold baseball from the Pomona officials after making all-tournament and players from Escondido, runner-up to the Hillers, were to be honored later in the day.
5/4/40
Hoover’s Bob Stevenson and Doug Donnan cuffed visiting San Bernardino on three hits in a 2-0 victory, one day after Grossmont had beaten ‘Berdoo, 10-9.
5/9/40
Hoover coach Wofford (Wos) Caldwell couldn’t enjoy a 9-7 win at Long Beach Poly that clinched second place in the Coast League, even as the Cardinals rallied with three runs in the eighth inning.
Leaning over to pick up a ball during infield practice, Caldwell was struck in the face by a thrown ball. Taken to a local hospital, Caldwell was diagnosed with a broken jaw, which could require surgery.
Caldwell returned and was on hand for part of the game before returning to San Diego.
Doug Donnan hit two home runs for the Cardinals and Art Spahr had four hits, including a home run.
(Caldwell was later diagnosed to have sustained a crack cheekbone, with no surgery planned).
Having won the Coast League and the Pomona 2030 Rotary Club championships, San Diego bailed on the so-called playoffs (see narrative above).
