Two of baseball’s all-time greatest players were playing with hundreds of so-called mortals.
Hoover’s Ted Williams and Pasadena Muir Tech’s Jackie Robinson trod on the diamonds and little Escondido High knocked down some giants and went all the way to the Southern California finals.
3/31/36
A total of 31 teams and up to 600 players were signed to play in the fourth annual Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club tournament, including Escondido, San Diego and St. Augustine, and Hoover, which was on a waiting list.
4/1/36
San Diego divided its squad, with coach Mike Morrow taking the first team to Escondido, where it defeated the Cougars, 4-3.
The second team stayed home and dropped a 13-2 decision to the U.S. Dobbin.
4/7/36
Hoover, late to apply for a berth in the Pomona Tournament and finding the field filled, was allowed in when St. Augustine withdrew.
—A five-run third inning propelled San Diego to a 13-4, Coast League victory in Balboa Stadium against Santa Ana.
Bill Skelley allowed the visitors five hits and hit a home run for the Hilltoppers.
Johnny Le Grand had four hits in five times at bat and San Diego moved into a tie with Santa Ana and Long Beach Poly for the Coast League lead, each 2-1.
4/9/36
POMONA 20-30 ROTARY CLUB TOURNAMENT
Hoover coach Wofford (Wos) Caldwell went with a couple reserve pitchers, saving ace Ted Williams, for a later game, but the Calexico Bulldog erupted for 15 hits and won the opener, 11-0, behind Andrade, who limited the Cardinals to three hits and struck a home run.
—San Diego blanked Chino, 12-0, behind Vidal Ortiz’ three-hit pitching.
—Karl Hoffmann hurled a three-hit, 7-1 victory for Escondido over Azusa Citrus.
4/10/36
San Diego won a second-round game, 7-1 over Norwalk Excelsior in the morning and then scratched out a quarterfinals victory against Lawndale Leuzinger, 3-1, in the afternoon quarterfinals.
The Hilltoppers, trailing, 1-0, scored three runs in the top of the seventh on successive hits by Bill Skelley, Chito Rivas, Roy Ortiz, and James Curtis.
—Escondido also gained the semifinal found with wins of 5-3 over Compton and 4-1 over Pasadena Muir Tech, the latter in which Aden Galindo hit a two-run homer.
—Hoover, exiled to the Consolation bracket after its opening loss, bounced back with Ted Williams, in a 21st century version of an “opener”, starting both games of 18-1 and 8-2 triumphs over Monrovia and Anaheim, respectively.
Del Ballinger relieved Williams in the first game and Gordon Bennett stepped up in the nightcap.
4/11/36
San Diego (2-1 over Whittier) and Escondido (4-3 over Long Beach Poly) won morning semifinal games, setting up an afternoon championship encounter, and Hoover gained the Consolation finals.
San Diego won its third Pomona 20-30 Club tournament title since the event debuted in 1933, 13-3, over Escondido
The Hilltoppers’ victory, aided by seven Cougars errors and behind the five-hit pitching of Bill Skelley, was accompanied by Ted Williams’ pitching in Hoover’s 7-0 win over Pasadena for the consolation championship.
Williams also was on the mound when Hoover won its consolation semifinal, 13-1 against South Pasadena.
Williams allowed three runs on nine hits in four tournament games, struck out 21 batters in 19 innings and hit four home runs, two in the same inning against Monrovia.
As a team, Hoover hit .331 and Joe Villarino led with eight hits in 11 at-bats.
4/16/36
Bill Skelley pitched an 11-inning, 8-7, Coast League victory at Alhambra and doubled home Johnny Le Grand with the winning run.
—Ted Williams apparently was purposely walked three times and made an infield out in his other time at bat but gave up only a third inning triple before slamming the door on Bay League rival Compton, 7-1.
4/20/30
Ed Vitalich’s home run was the big blow in St. Augustine’s 6-2 victory at Sweetwater. Catching for the Saints was Solly Hemus, future major league infielder and manager.
4/22/36
Chet Kehn and Al Olsen combined to give up one hit and pitched San Diego’s junior varsity to a 13-2 win over the host Sweetwater varsity.
—The Muhleisen Company team edged San Diego, 9-8, as both teams combined for 30 hits in a warmup for the Hilltoppers before their game with Long Beach Poly.
4/25/36
Ted Williams struck out 19 batters and broke a 1924 Bay League record as Hoover won on the road at Redondo Beach Redondo, 5-2.
—Long Beach Poly clinched the Coast League championship with a six-run ninth inning that stunned coach Mike Morrow’s San Diego Hilltoppers, 8-5.
The Jackrabbits collected four hits and two bases on balls, and capitalized on an error. Bill Skelley, who went the distance on the mound for the Hilltoppers, had two doubles and a single.
4/28/36
Lefty Al Olsen gave up five hits and pitched the San Diego JV to a win over the host La Jolla varsity, 5-0.
5/1/36
San Diego clinched second place in the Coast to Long Beach Poly with a 14-11 win at Santa Ana as Vidal Ortiz hit two home runs. Bill Skelley and Jack Zimmerman also homered.
5/2/36
Ted Williams and Gordon Bennett combined to pitch Hoover to a 17-0 win over Inglewood.
Hoover collectively was almost knocking the cover off the ball, according to statistics most likely provided by the Cardinals to The San Diego Union.
Through 21 games, Hoover batsmen had 215 hits in 614 at-bats for a .351 average with 172 runs scored, an average of eight a game.
Outfielder-pitcher Ted Williams had 28 hits in 61 plate appearances for a .460 average with 19 runs scored.
Catcher Roy Engle, later the Cardinals’ head football coach, was batting .381 and outfielder Del Ballinger, who played many years in the minor leagues, including six with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League, was batting .319.
5/4/36
Del Ballinger pitched and Roy Engle caught and Coach Wos Caldwell, prepping for a big Bay League contest against Long Beach Wilson, sent his varsity against his reserves and the first team won, 4-3.
5/6/36
Ted Williams homered and Hank Ondler had three hits as Hoover’s first team defeated the visiting Marine Corps Recruit Depot Devildogs, 6-2.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ second team invaded the foothills and topped Grossmont, 7-2.
5/8/36
Sweetwater’s Tom Coffman pitched well enough, allowing six hits, but the Red Devils committed 10 errors and Karl Hoffmann pitched an 8-1, Metropolitan League victory for Escondido (3-0), setting up a championship game with Oceanside, also 3-0.
5/12/36
Gordon Bennett homered, tripled, and doubled in four times at bat and cuffed visiting Beverly Hills on two hits, 9-1, as Hoover claimed the Bay League championship.
—Escondido’s Karl Hoffmann outdueled Ortega and the Cougars clinched the Metropolitan League championship with a 1-0 victory over Oceanside.
Willie Reyes singled in the eighth inning and eventually scored on errors by Pirates centerfielder Bobby Betoncini and shortstop Goodin, whose throw to the plate almost caught Reyes.
5/14/36
Hoover was going to play Calexico in a CIF Southern Section first-round playoff until the Civilian Conservation Corps, a product of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, got involved.
Early in the evening CIF commissioner Seth Van Patten informed Hoover coach Wos Caldwell that the Cardinals would meet coach Ed Covington’s Imperial Valley champion Bulldogs at a site to be determined.
Later in the evening Covington placed a long-distance call to Caldwell and said that three of Covington’s players were entering a CCC camp and that Calexico would have to disband for the remainder of the season, leaving Hoover without an opponent.
Boss man Van Patten was to go into clarification mode.
5/15/36
SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS
No news for the Cardinals today, but Metropolitan champion Escondido eliminated Mountain Empire of the Southern League, 16-1.
5/16/36
Hoover, given a first-round bye, was assigned a second-round playoff at Escondido and prepared for a game with a team called the San Diego All-Stars at Golden Hill playground.
5/21/36
Metropolitan loop coaches met at the downtown YMCA to discuss whether to play baseball in 1937. Coronado, Point Loma, and Army Navy did not field teams this season and some coaches favored going to a softball schedule.
5/22/36
QUARTERFINALS
HOOVER 3, @ ESCONDIDO 8
Escondido eliminated Hoover in what The San Diego Union described as “a startling upset.”
Escondido lefthander Karl Hoffmann walked seven but allowed only five hits. Hoover’s Ted Williams was reached for nine hits.
The Cougars’ Aden Galindo collected three hits in three at bats and Willie Reyes doubled and singled in three tries.
–An interclass baseball game at Coronado High ended in “turmoil.” A team of seniors defeated juniors, 13-12.
The underclassmen shouted that the seniors used a fifth-year player.
5/23/36
USC assistant football coach Hobbs Adams and San Diego State head coach Leo Calland were principal speakers at San Diego High’s year-end sports banquet.
Approximately 250 athletes from varsity and junior varsity football, basketball, baseball, and track squads, plus letter winners in minor sports were saluted in the school cafeteria.
5/29/36
SEMIFINALS
PASADENA MUIR TECH 4, @ESCONDIDO 5.
Pitcher Karl Hoffmann tripled to centerfield leading off the ninth inning. Willie Reyes walked, and Aden Galindo singled to centerfield, scoring Hofmann with the winning run.
The Escondido victory was the Cougars’ second over the Mustangs, following a 4-1win in the Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club tournament.
Muir’s lineup included future Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke the major league color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
6/3/36
An obscure but historic item appeared in The San Diego Union, headlined “Padres Seek Ted Williams”.
The short story said H.W. (Bill) Lane, owner of the new Pacific Coast League team in San Diego, had offered Williams a contract for the remainder of the season.
Williams would hit .271 with 2 home runs in limited action for the Padres in a precursor to a career as one of baseball all-time great hitters.
6/5/36
FINALS
ESCONDIDO 4, @LONG BEACH POLY 14
The Cougars couldn’t repeat their 4-3 win over the Jackrabbits in the Pomona tournament after taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Escondido represented the Metropolitan League, one of the Southern Section’s circuits for small schools, while Poly was from the Coast League, arguably the strongest in Southern California.
Poly, which advanced after victories of 8-2 over Paso Robles and 11-1 over Montebello, jumped on Cougars starter Karl Hoffmann for three runs in the first inning, three more in the third, four in the seventh, and finally drove Hofmann from the mound in a three-run eighth.
Chuck Stevens had three hits, including one of the Jackrabbits’ five home runs. Willie Reyes had two hits for the Cougars and Bob Iliff added a home run.
I lived on Highland Avenue in the mid fifties. My mother became friends with a woman who lived directly across the street. This woman saw me in uniform leaving for a a Sunshine Little League game. Her daughter had dated Ted Williams when they both went to Hoover. She gave me a ball signed by Ted – “First Home Run with Padres at Lane Field”. Also, a bat used by Ted. Being 12 years old I sawed off the bat so myself and buddies could hit large gravel ( we didn’t have any baseballs). Later I gave the baseball to a younger boy who just started playing Little League. Bonehead of the year?
You lost out on a nice pay day in the sports memorabilia world, John, but you were thoughtful and generous in other ways. Thanks for writing.
Wonderful feature on 1936 baseball. After his playing career Del Ballinger (Hoover) became a famous bartender for several places around town like the Playhouse (now Til Two bar) or Haynes Streamliner (now The Chicken Pie Shop) on El Cajon Blvd. All the ballplayers hung out wherever Ballinger worked. The stories were unbelievable. On a given night you would find Bob Skinner, Deron Johnson, Jack Harshman, Lefty O’Doul, Bobby Klaus, Roger Craig, and others drinking and telling stories with Del. One night I met my idol, PCL legend Earl Rapp (Padres 1953-1956).
Great stuff, Bob. Playhouse was a great, old watering hole at the corner of Euclid Ave., and El Cajon Blvd. Bygone days, but the memories still are fresh.
You should have mentioned yourself, a baseball lifer, major league bench coach and pitching coach, scout, and former pitcher who, if you hadn’t gone into scouting, would have made the big leagues.
My third grade girlfriend’s Mom worked at the Streamliner and got me a coveted Don Larsen autograph in 1956. Not so much good luck at the Playhouse…long story short was arrested for underage drinking in 65….left off the hook cause I pleaded I didn’t drink anything …was just there to check out the topless dancers….ahh…the good ole days. (Garfield Elementary, Wilson Jr. Hi. and Hoover alumnus.) Captain, Delta Air Lines, Retired
The Streamliner is now the Chicken Pie Shop. I spent a couple evenings in that watering hole(as well as the Playhouse), which was a favorite of San Diego City College baseball coach Ed Sanclemente, who lived a block or so down the street on Louisiana. Good stuff, Jim.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-ted-williams-centennial-growing-up-in-san-diego-0822-story.html
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=skelle001wil
We were at UC Santa Barbara together and I covered his basketball exploits for the student newspaper. We also played a bit of intramural fast pitch softball with another prep legend from the area, Jim Finnerty.
Steve is retired in Coronado and Jim lives in San Diego. Jim graduated from Sweetwater with my wife.
Loved the history. I had Solly Hemus’ baseball card, Cardinals, I think, never knew he went to Saints. Was there a Tim Skelley later at Hoover?
I remember Paula Skelley, Hoover graduate in about ’63 who married baseball player Jerry DaVannon. I asked Jim Nettles, who grew up near the Skelleys on Grim Street in North Park, and he was not familiar with a Tim Skelley. Wish I could be more definitive, Cord.
Jim Skelley was Hoover 63. Was a Varsity swimmer and later on La Jolla High Math teacher. I believe Bill Skelley was his Dad as he mentioned that his Dad had played in the PCL and thanks to your article I now know that Bill Skelley played for San Diego High. Jerry DaVannon and I played for Hoover in 63 and all three of us plus Jim Kelly (Another Swimmer) used to car pool in Jim Skelley’s 54 Chevy to South Mission for summer Body Surfing. I asked Jim (Skelley…too many Jims) at our 60th last September why he didn’t play Baseball…..said he “couldn’t hit the curveball so he took up swimming”. Jim Nettles, Jerry DaVanon, and I played in the Pioneer Pony League for different teams….those “Jims” are were just everywhere in the 60’s! Also Roy Engle was the Varsity Football Coach at Hoover in 63….small world. PS Thanks for the history update! Jim Doyle
I knew you had appeared in this blog. There’s a photo of you avoiding a pickoff against Helix in the playoffs in 1963. Didn’t you have a long career as a military officer? Thanks for the comments. I emailed what you sent to Jim Nettles.
This has to be the same Steve Rippe of Lincoln High and UC Santa Barbara fame, correct?
That’s correct. Steve (Cord) Rippe as he was known. He was the ace of the 1963-64 Lincoln team that lost in the semifinals to unbeaten La Jolla, 78-70. I think Stee was briefly with the Lakers after his collegiate career.
Check the comment above from Alan Goldhammer and my reply.