1930 Baseball: Socking Sada Led San Diego High Sluggers

San Diego High won its third consecutive CIF championship under fifth-year coach Mike Morrow and posted a 19-3 record, according to Don King’s Caver Conquest.

The Great Depression was raging, unemployment was high, young men had time on their hands, and many played baseball.

Possibly without budget for travel beyond obligatory Coast League games, Morrow’s clubs played contests that did not count and several that apparently were official against local amateur clubs, including a team from University Heights playground and another called “Harding’s North Park.”

Morrow’s team wielded heavy lumber, with a combined batting average of .390 for five league games and four playoffs, led by Athos Sada’s .611, 22 hits in 36 at bats.

Table includes usual starters.

3/31/30

Following identical 8-6 victories over Calexico 3/28 and 3/29, St. Augustine won at Sweetwater, 8-6.

—Rod Luscomb slugged two triples and the University Heights playground squad defeated San Diego, 14-5, leaving coach Mike Morrow’s team with a 4-2 record and evening their series at one victory each.

—Sweetwater defeated San Diego High’s visiting second string squad, 5-4.

4/1/30

Fourteen St. Augustine players and coach Herb Corriere embarked on barnstorming tour of four games in five days, at Fallbrook, at Ventura, at Los Angeles Roosevelt, where former San Diego High star Coney Galindo was coach; and at USC Freshmen.

4/3/30

Johnny Funk hit a three-run home run and pitched a three hitter and George Albin had three hits as St. Augustine beat Ventura, 10-2.

—Tony Galasso set down the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on two hits and San Diego High amassed 15 hits in a 7-0 victory at Navy Field.

4/4/30

—Pacific Beach’s Army-Navy opened the season with a 9-6 win over visiting Sweetwater.

Coach Viggo Hansen announced an upcoming northern trip to Anaheim, Brea, Claremont Webb, L.A. Pacific Military, and Venice.

—Johnny Fink hit a three-run home run and allowed three hits as St. Augustine won at Ventura, 10-3. George Albin supported Fink with three hits and Fred Traynor, Tony Moreno, and Jimmy Aguirre added two each.

4/8/30

Athos Sada, who would become deputy chief of the San Diego Police Department and raised Eddie and Don Sada to be stars at Point Loma, had three hits as San Diego defeated the University Heights playground squad, 17-5.

4/9/30

St. Augustine scored a run in the eighth inning for a 7-6 win over Escondido at Golden Hill Playground.

4/15/30

After San Diego High defeated the University Heights Playground team, 9-7, in the City Stadium, coach Mike Morrow was faced with a scheduling question.  Some of Morrow’s players also were on the track team.

The baseball squad was scheduled for a Coast League opener against visiting Alhambra on April 26, the same day Cotton Warburton, Eddie Reed and others were scheduled to be part of the Hilltoppers’ aggregation in the Southern California track and field trials at Los Angeles High.

Morrow was willing to move the game with Alhambra to April 25, but if the Moors did not want to travel on that date, Morrow said he would take his team to Alhambra on April 25.

—St. Augustine won at Sweetwater, 8-2, as shortstop Frankie

Morehouse collected three hits.

—Army-Navy socked Anaheim for seven runs in the fifth inning and five more in the seventh en route to a 17-3 victory on the Pacific Beach diamond.

—Rod Luscomb hit two triples but San Diego defeated University Heights, 9-7, in the Hilltoppers’ final game before league play, improving their record to 10-2.

4/16/30

Frankie Morehouse singled, doubled, and hit a home run and St. Augustine topped Anaheim, 7-3, at Navy Field.

4/17/30

The Marine Corps Recruit Depot Devildogs shut out Escondido, 6-0, at Navy Field as Carl Parker had four hits in five times at bat, including a single, double, and two home runs.

4/22/30

Point Loma defeated Army-Navy, 5-2, on the cadets’ Pacific Beach diamond despite a home run, triple, and single by the Warriors’ second baseman Ritchie.

4/23/30

Brothers Pete and Steve Coscarart starred in the field as Escondido’s defense played a prevailing role in a 6-4 win over traveling St. Augustine.

4/25/30

San Diego opened defense of its Coast League championship by raining 17 hits on City Stadium and crushing Alhambra, 13-3, a day earlier than originally scheduled.

Home runs by Cotton Warburton and pitcher Tony Galasso highlighted the Hillers’ attack.

—Sweetwater (2-1, Point Loma) and Grossmont (11-6, Mountain Empire) of the Bay Division and Escondido (14-3, Oceanside), and Fallbrook (7-3, Ramona) of the Mountain Division won opening games in Southern Prep League play.

4/30/30

San Diego High coach Mike Morrow reached agreement to play Glendale on May 1 instead of May 2, so shortstop Irvine (Cotton) Warburton could compete in the Southern California track finals 440-yard run at Los Angeles High.

—Roy Holt had five hits and the San Diego varsity defeated the University Heights playground team, 5-4, for their fifth win against one loss versus skipper Rod Luscomb’s team.

—Host Mountain Empire evened its Southern Prep League Mountain Division record at 1-1 with a 4-3 win over La Jolla.

5/1/30

Sweetwater mustered two hits in a 9-0 loss to the San Diego State Freshmen.  Future Hoover football coach Pete Walker tripled twice for the Frosh and starting pitcher George Sunderman was 4 for 4 at the plate.

—Tony Galasso struck out 19 Glendale Dynamiters and gave up four singles as San Diego won the rescheduled Coast League game, 4-1.

The Hillers broke a 1-1 tie with runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. Galasso was the offensive catalyst with four hits, including a home run.

Thirteen players plus coach Mike Morrow and manager Louis DePablo left at 7 a.m. for the 3-hour, 130-mile jaunt.

5/4/30

St. Augustine (19-5) concluded its season in Calexico, where the Saints divided two nine-inning games, losing, 8-7, on 5/3 and winning, 6-5, today.

The Saints, with a team batting average of .318, out hit the Bulldogs, 24-20, and their George Albin hit the game’s only home run.

Fred Traynor led he Saints with a .453 season batting average, 24 hits in 53 times at bat. Jimmie Loftus hit .439 and Frankie Morehouse .385.

–Ran played havoc with Southern Prep League teams, washing out four games.

5/8/30

Bill Howell singled in Roy Holt with the winning run from second base and Tony Galasso set down Long Beach Poly in the bottom of the ninth inning, and San Diego won a tense Coast League battle, 4-3.

Home runs by Irvine (Cotton) Warburton and Walter Bostrom had given the Hilltoppers a 3-0 lead after three innings.

A writer in a special dispatch to The San Diego Union declared the game was “one of the hardest fought contests ever seen on a Long Beach diamond.”

5/13/30

Escondido won the Southern Prep League Mountain Division with an 8-3 victory at Fallbrook.  Sweetwater maintained its lead in the Bay Division with a 4-3 win over Mountain Empire.

—It was determined before the season that the league champion would not participate in the CIF playoffs.

5/14/30

Flat and thinking ahead, San Diego dropped a 5-1 decision in City Stadium to Harding’s North Park team.

Roy Holt homered for the Hilltoppers in the ninth inning.

The game result was published in The San Diego Union as an official game, but perhaps was a scrimmage.

–Memorial Junior High defeated the Southern League Bay Division contender Sweetwater varsity, 13-5, on the National City Diamond.

5/16/30

San Diego earned a tie for the Coast League championship with a 9-2 win over the visiting Pasadena Bullpups.

Tony Galasso’s triple in the second inning usually was a home run in City Stadium but special ground rules were in effect for this game.

Galasso turned his ankle on the play and had leave the field.  Pasadena consented to allow Hilltoppers coach Mike Morrow to insert Cecil McElvain as a pinch runner but let Galasso return at the end of the inning to continue pitching.

5/20/30

Point Loma remained in contention with Sweetwater in the Southern League Bay Division with a 10-0 victory over Grossmont.

The Pointers have one loss and Sweetwater is undefeated.

—Erstwhile St. Augustine stars Reid Jaggers and Fred Traynor aided Harding’s North Park team, but San Diego scored a 5-3 victory in City Stadium.

5/22/30

Harding’s North Park team, coached by Rod Luscomb, won its second of three contests from the host Escondido Cougars, 4-3, as second baseman Lee Ramage, a future heavyweight boxing championship contender, had three hits in five times at bat.

5/23/30

Warren Bridgens hurled a near-perfect game, allowing one base runner and no hits, and Point Loma routed La Jolla, 20-0, in the season-ending game one week after Bridgens had measured Mountain Empire on one hit.

—Sweetwater claimed the Bay Division title with a 3-2, eight-inning win over Grossmont and will meet Mountain Division champ Escondido for the Southern League title.

Sweetwater had defeated Point Loma, 2-1, in the league opener, after which Point Loma outscored league foes, 58-2.

5/24/30

Athos Sada homered, doubled, and singled and Bill Howell had three hits; Cotton Warburton had a home run and single; Tony Galasso gave up three hits and San Diego, starting slowly scored 15 runs in the final three innings and claimed its third straight Coast League title, 22-0, over last-place Santa Ana.

The Hilltoppers, who had 18 hits, also received two safeties each from Allan Storton, Walter Bostrom, Bill Larson, and Roy Holt.

1. Higashi of Santa Ana earned some dubious distinction.

He started the game in left field…

…and then shifted to third base…

…and then shifted to the pitcher’s mound…

…and pitched long enough to walk three consecutive batters…

…and then shifted to second base…

…and then finally relocated to right field, where he finished the game.

5/26/30

A CIF semifinals playoff home game against Calexico for San Diego High 5/30 or 5/31 was nixed.

The board, which governs the property in South Balboa Park, declared that the City Stadium grass field was to be resurfaced today.

Hilltoppers coach Mike Morrow tried to book Navy Field but learned that it was scheduled for games May 29-31.

Various other area locales were not considered worthy of such a game’s import and it looked as if the Hilltoppers, trying to win their third consecutive title, would have to go to the Imperial Valley.

5/27/30

Calexico agreed to a Thursday, May 29, contest at Navy Field. The Bulldogs would have been unavailable May 30-31, Morrow learned. Graduation and assorted weekend events and gigs were on the desert school’s weekend calendar.

6/2/30

After much burning of telephone wires and shouting voices between San Diego and the Imperial Valley, another agreement was reached and Calexico arrived San Diego today for a playoff tomorrow.

6/3/30

Calexico took advantage of Tony Galasso’s wildness to jump into a 4-0, first-inning lead, only to see San Diego score six runs in its first en route to a 13-4 CIF first-round victory at Navy Field.

Home runs by Athos Sada, who also tripled in two runs in the first, and Galasso were part of the Hilltoppers’ 14-hit attack.

6/7/30

Tony Galasso gave up two singles and struck out 13 and won a CIF semifinals playoff at Huntington Beach, 4-0.

Roy Holt’s homerun in the second inning gave San Diego a two-run lead.  Holt’s twin brother, Ray, got on base later with a two-base hit.

6/10/30

San Diego reached the Southern California finals by defeating Colton in a second CIF semifinals playoff, 9-1, at Navy Field.

Colton, behind, 7-0, mounted a mild threat in the fifth inning but Hilltoppers catcher Cecil McElvain threw out a runner at second base and Cotton Warburton’s throw back to McElvain doubled up another Yellowjacket, thwarting an attempted double steal.

6/15/30

Los Angeles Cathedral, rested and ready, was coached by Mike Pecarovich, future University of San Diego football coach.

San Diego, in its fourth playoff, more than any other playoff team, defeated the Phantoms, 9-0, for their third consecutive championship.

Tony Galasso gave up two hits and struck out 13 and helped himself with two hits and two runs scored.

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