“Our Tone”: Tony Lazzeri’s Baseball Career in Salt Lake City, 1922-1925

By JOHN SILLITO

It is one of the most famous confrontations in baseball history. As one writer asserted, it “stands in baseball lore like a piece of classic sculpture, awash in the soft amber light of memory, its flawless craftsmanship a thing to be cherished over and over.” 1 It happened in the seventh inning of the seventh game of the 1926 World Series featuring the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees. On the pitching mound stood veteran right-hander Grover Cleveland Alexander, at bat, digging in, was Yankee rookie infielder Tony Lazzeri.

Alexander, who had beaten the Yankees in the second game of the Series and finished the sixth in relief, came in from the bullpen with the bases loaded, two out, and the Cardinals holding a 3-2 lead. In the words of Donald Honig, “The moment lives in a cloud of legend: Alex was drunk the night before, he was dozing in the bullpen, he was hung over when he walked to the mound, Hornsby walked out to him to see if his eyes were clear.” 2

After Lazzeri missed a curve ball, Alexander came at him with an inside fast ball, high and tight, and the young Yankee, in the words of Cardinal third baseman Les Bell, “hit the hell out of it, a hard drive down the left field line.” It was foul. As Bell recalled, ever since then that ball has been foul “anywhere from an inch to twenty feet, depending on who you are listening to or what you are reading. But I was standing on third base, and I tell you it was foul all the way.” 3

Alexander recalled saying to himself: “No more of that for you my lad,” wasted a couple of pitches, and then came back with a “back-breaking curve ball that snapped across the low outside corner.” 4 Lazzeri missed it and struck out. The Cardinals went on to hold the lead, and win the Series.

From that dramatic moment on, the seasoned pitcher and the young rookie have been linked in the public memory. 5 Both are among the greats of the game, and both are Hall of Famers.Alexander was a 373 game winner, with a lifetime 2.56 earned run average (ERA), 2,199 strikeouts, and 3 consecutive 30 plus win seasons. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938. Lazzeri was a lifetime .292 hitter with 1,841 hits, 1,175 runs batted in (RBI), 178 home runs and 148 stolen bases. On May 24, 1936, he became the first major leaguer to hit two grand slams in one game. Driving in over 100 runs in 7 seasons, and 5 times a .300 or better hitter, Lazzeri gained his place in Cooperstown, New York, (location of baseball’s hall of fame) thanks to the veterans committee in 1991. Moreover, in the words of Larry Baldassaro, for Italian-Americans, the “soberminded and quiet” Lazzeri “represented the first Italian-American star in the major leagues ... and a visible symbol of success.” 6

For Salt Lake City’s baseball fans, however, the dramatic confrontation with Alexander was simply another installment in a four-year love affair with the young San Francisco infielder who earned his nickname “Poosh ‘em up” while playing with the Salt Lake Bees. 7 In this article I intend to do two things. First, provide a brief overview of Lazzeri’s career in Salt Lake City. Second, examine in some detail his splendid 1925 season, and the circumstances surrounding his still-standing Pacific Coast League (PCL) record of sixty home runs.

Prior to that, however, it might be worthwhile to give a brief overview of the significance of the Pacific Coast League in the development of baseball, and a summary of Salt Lake City’s stint in the league.

The PCL was organized in 1903, and between then and 1957 was considered one of the most important minor leagues in the country, and viewed by many observers as the equivalent of a third major league in talent and level of play. Such an assessment may be particularly true of the league during the decade of the 1920s when “the era of home runs and big innings was dawning on the West Coast.” 8 As two chroniclers of the league, Paul J. Zingg and Mark D. Medeiros, have observed, during that decade, the PCL “offered something for everyone: tight pennant races, heroic performances, zany characters, great ballparks, stable franchises, intense rivalries, dazzling pitching, and spectacular hitting.” 9

R. Scott Mackey holds a similar view. As he notes, the “self-indulgent decade” of the 1920s, sandwiched between the end of World War I and the Great Depression, produced a period of “good cheer and decadence.” During that same decade the PCL “gave the baseball-mad West Coast more than its money’s worth,” and produced an exceptionally talented crop of players. It is “hard to imagine,” Mackey asserts, another time or place in minor league history “filled with as many great stars, teams or characters.” PCL rosters featured many “major league names, either those on the way up, those on the way down, or those who simply preferred the PCL and its long seasons, decent pay and exciting style of play.” And while the league may have “resided a notch below the National and American leagues in the official hierarchy of organized baseball, it was not for lack of quality or color.” 10

The Salt Lake Bees came into the PCL in time for the 1915 season, leaving after the 1925 season when the franchise relocated to Hollywood, California. 11 In the eleven seasons it was part of the league, Salt Lake City never finished above second (ironically in the first and last seasons), and usually ended up in the middle of the eight-team final standings. In 1925, the league featured teams in five California cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, and Vernon, as well as Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City.

During those years, the Salt Lake Bees were noted as a “hitting team.” Almost every season they led the league in some combination of average, runs and home runs. The team was particularly dominant in 1923 and 1924, when it posted a league leading team batting average in both seasons, and led with an average of 7 runs per game in 1924, and a season total of 204 home runs in 1923. Bees pitchers compiled significant success only in 2 seasons: 1915, when Claude “Lefty” Williams led the league with 33 wins, 418 innings pitched, and 294 strike outs. 12 Salt Lake City lefthander Paul Fittery led with 203 strikeouts and 448 innings pitched in 1916. 13

Lazzeri, (though frequently spelled La Zerre in the newspapers of the time), began his professional baseball career in Salt Lake City in 1922. 14 That spring, he came to the Bees training camp at Modesto, California’s, “Camp Lewis,” (named for the team’s manager Duffy Lewis) in the words of Salt Lake Tribune sportswriter, John C. Derks, “a green kid off the lots.” Derks was a legendary figure in Utah baseball history, and his opinions were valued. He was born in Weston, Missouri, on August 6, 1873, and moved to Wisconsin where he learned to be a telegrapher, working for both the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific railroads. By the turn of the century, Derks was a newspaper reporter for the Anaconda Standard and the Helena Montana Record. In 1907 the Salt Lake Herald hired Derks, and two years later he joined the Salt Lake Tribune as a reporter and city editor. He began covering baseball in 1911, when he also helped organize the Union Association league. It was in part his efforts that brought Salt Lake City a team in the Pacific Coast League in 1915, and he later helped organize the Utah-Idaho League as well as the Pioneer League. Derks died in 1944, and his impact on Utah baseball was celebrated with the naming of the city’s baseball stadium Derks Field at the corner of 13th South and West Temple in 1946. 15

But Derks was not alone in his assessment. Quickly, the veteran players themselves realized that Lazzeri had “the size, the hands, some speed, the aggressiveness,” and the arm to turn him into a fine baseball talent. 16 The Salt Lake Tribune called him a “promising utility man” among the six new faces in camp. 17

Signed by team president H. W. Lane, “with an eye to the future,” Lazzeri played sparingly for the Bees in 1922, appearing in only forty-five games, mostly at first base. 18 Opening day that year in Salt Lake City was postponed because of snow, and a number of other early games were called due to inclement weather. (On April 17 fourteen inches of snow covered the city.) While the young rookie was not in the lineup before “2500 baseball craving daredevils” on the cold and wintry opening day of April 6, he did have the opportunity to see his first snowstorm. A week later Lazzeri played two innings at first base where, in the words of the Tribune, he “made a number of difficult plays” and performed “with credit.” 19 In limited service that year, Lazzeri had a batting average of just .192 with 15 hits, 1 home run and 8 RBI in 78 at bats. 20

Lazzeri split the 1923 and 1924 seasons between Salt Lake City, Peoria, Illinois, of the “3-I” League, (made up of teams in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa,) and Lincoln, Nebraska, of the Western League. 21 In the second half of the 1924 season, Lazzeri appeared in 85 games for the Bees, compiling a .283 batting average with 83 hits, 16 home runs, 61 RBI and 51 runs scored. Still learning his craft in the field, the twenty-year old shortstop made 44 errors with a fielding average of .900. Lazzeri’s numbers in Salt Lake City combined with even stronger performances in the lower minors, where both his offensive and defensive statistics were better, left local fans anticipating the 1925 season. As it turned out they would not be disappointed.

When the 1925 season opened, the Tribune commented that “great things are expected from ‘our Tone’ this year,” since Lazzeri had gotten “the call” as starting shortstop over Johnny Kerr. 22 Lazzeri’s season started quickly, and he played regularly. On April 16, he smacked two home runs, according to the Tribune, after “having partaken of an extra order of ham and eggs.” 23

During his years in Utah’s capitol city, Lazzeri also made his mark off the field as well, especially with the local Italian-American community. Lazzeri attracted the attention of avid baseball fan Cesare Rinetti, who, along with his partner Francesco Capitolo, owned the Rotisserie Inn restaurant at 323 South Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. 24 According to local sports legend, Rinetti became a kind of stepfather to Tony, and later his wife Maye, providing a sense of home, and feeding them good Italian food. On May 23, 1925, Rinetti was at the ballpark urging Lazzeri on. At one point he shouted out, “Poosh ‘em up Tony” and the crowd joined in. Lazzeri responded with a home run over the center field fence, and later added a double to finish with 3 RBI in Salt Lake’s 12 to 2 trouncing of Seattle. He also earned a nickname that would stay with him for the rest of his baseball career. The next day the Tribune proclaimed, in a banner headline written by John C. Derks, who, in the words of journalist Hal Schindler had “a penchant” for getting more into a headline than in the story,“Poosh em up Tone,Yella da fan, an Tone she Poosh.” That same day in a double-header the Bees swept two more games from the Seattle Indians 5 to 4 in the first game, and 11 to 8 in the second. Lazzeri went 1 for 4 in the first game, and 2 for 2 with 2 triples in the second game. Again the Tribune proclaimed, “Tone She poosh um Down an’ Den She Poosh Um Up.” Sportswriter Derks also noted that in the first game, “Our Tone saved the Bees on numerous occasions by his sensational fielding. But for LaZerre’s thrilling plays there is little doubt that the Injuns would have prevailed.” 25 After that, notes Hal Schindler, it was several months before Derks “fell back on the [Italian] dialect." 26

Indeed, Lazzeri’s success on the ball diamond of Salt Lake City came during an interesting time for Italian-Americans in Utah. During 1924-25, the Ku Klux Klan was active in the state creating “tension, anger and fear” among the immigrant population who “lived in a state of uncertainty.” While Lazzeri’s baseball exploits were lauded in the press, and cheered by baseball fans, residents of Salt Lake City also witnessed a KKK state convention held at Ensign Peak, just at the north edge of the city, which featured “burning crosses illuminating the area.” 27

While Salt Lake City’s Italian-American population was small at the time—somewhere around 1000 residents—no doubt they viewed Lazzeri’s exploits as a useful corrective to the nativist sentiments of the Klan and its supporters. At the same time, the obvious talent of an Italian-American like Lazzeri, competing so successfully in the national pastime, must have been a source of pride for the children of immigrant parents seeking to make their way in the larger society.

As the season progressed, Lazzeri attracted notice not only in Salt Lake City, and throughout the Pacific Coast League, but also among scouts and baseball fans nationally. 28 By June, Derks reported that the New York Yankees were planning to spend $250,000 to acquire minor league players to strengthen their team in the coming year, and Lazzeri was one of the players being looked at by the New York scouts. 29 Two months later, Derks pointed out that Lazzeri was still a valuable prospect since he was leading the PCL in home runs with 33, just 10 behind the 43 hit by Paul Strand in 1923. 30 But Lazzeri had plenty of time left to increase his home run totals, and enhance his potential major league value.

By October of that year, Lazzeri had moved to 56 and again Derks opted for his dialect headlines:

October 3 “Our Tone She Poosh Em Oop for da Feefty Seex”

October 12 “Our Tone, She Poosh Um Oop Two Time, Maka da Feefty Eight”

October 18 “The Bambino, He’s got Nothing on Our Tone Now”

Lazzeri had hit number 59, tying Babe Ruth’s home run record set in 1921 playing for the New York Yankees.

October 19 “Gooda da Tone, She Poosh Um Up for Beat Bambino”

Lazzeri had hit number 60 in the last game of the season.

The 1925 season proved to be a remarkable one for Lazzeri, who became, in the words of R. Scott Mackey, the “PCL’s Mr. Everything.” 31 Playing in 197 games, second only to teammate Lefty O’Doul’s 198, Lazzeri not only hit 60 homers, 222 RBI, and 202 runs (all three PCL records that still stand), but finished with 252 hits, 39 stolen bases and a .355 batting average. 32 As previously noted, Lazzeri’s contract was purchased from the Bees by the New York Yankees. 33

But the story does not stop here. In later years the validity of Lazzeri’s feat, and the nature of the final home run he hit while playing for the Salt Lake Bees, was questioned. In July 1969, Tribune sports writer John Mooney in his “Sports Mirror” column asked: “Was Lazzeri’s 60th Homer Entitled to an Asterisk?” Mooney quotes author Pete Raymond who contended that Bees manager Oscar Vitt had Lazzeri lead off and when he came to bat in the seventh inning of the final game of the season, “every player in the field knew the Coast League’s chances for notoriety rode on his bat.” Consequently, when Lazzeri hit the ball to center field the “Sacramento outfielder, brimming with league loyalty, ran away from the ball. At length he jogged back, picked it up, counted the stitches and lobbed it toward the infield while Lazzeri raced around the bases. In the press box a generous scorer marked up Tony’s 60th homer. It really was a single and a three-base error.” 34

Similar charges came from sportswriter Bill Conlin who called number sixty a “tainted” homer. Conlin noted that the last game of the season, especially if the pennant wasn’t involved, was traditionally a “high jinx occasion.” Under these circumstances, Sacramento’s talented center fielder, Bill Cunningham deliberately misplayed Lazzeri’s line drive single over second base. According to Conlin, Cunningham “went to his right, then reversed to his left, and meanwhile the ball went into the deepest segment of center field,” while Lazzeri “rounded the bases for Home Run No. 60. Surprisingly, nobody paid too much attention to it.... 35

Additional evidence to suggest that Lazzeri’s sixtieth homer might be suspect is found in the press coverage, both in Salt Lake City and Sacramento. Though Salt Lake papers mentioned the record in their headlines, there was little discussion of the home run itself in the coverage. In fact, the Deseret News mistakenly said the ball was hit over the fence. The Tribune mentioned only the “wild rejoicing among the Bees,” when their shortstop touched all four bases. 36 The Sacramento Bee, however, provides more evidence to support assertions that the homer was tainted. Calling the contest a “typical closing game” with “no serious play predominating,” the paper noted that the “boys just hit the ball and kept running.... Lazerre was presented with the final four base drive....” 37

Finally, there is the reminiscence of Rudy Hickey, a longtime sports writer for the Bee who had covered the game. Writing in 1948, Hickey recalled that “Tony was pumping for the fence on every pitch and the [Sacramento] pitchers were helping at times by laying the ball up in his favorite spot.” Despite this help, Lazzeri’s failure to homer in Sacramento’s Moering Field, a difficult home run park, in the first game of the double header made it necessary for the Sacramento Senators to “manufacture” a Lazzeri home run in the second game. 38 In a variant of what Bill Conlin reported above, according to Hickey, Lazzeri’s San Francisco neighbor, Sacramento center fielder Bill Cunningham “went over and stood next to the right fielder” while spitball pitcher Frank Shellenback “eased the ball right down the slot.” 39 Lazzeri slammed the pitch over second base for what under ordinary conditions might have been a single or put out. On this occasion, however, Cunningham “made sure Tony would have ten minutes if needed to circle the bases, trotting behind the ball without making any effort to cut it off as it rolled and rolled.” 40

Aside from the question of the homer itself, some have suggested that Lazzeri’s record came as a result of playing in Salt Lake City’s high altitude making for a light atmosphere, which was conducive for hitting the long ball. There is some evidence to support this assertion, particularly when you combine it with the possibility of poor pitching in the PCL. At the same time, it might be well to remember that, in the words of R. Scott Mackey; most PCL ballparks “were cozy bandboxes that made for slugfests.” 41 In that regard, it might be worthwhile to take a close look at home run statistics during the period 1915- 1925, when Salt Lake City first entered the PCL. In that eleven-year period, a Salt Lake Bee led or tied in the home run column eight times. Earl Sheely hit 28 and 33 in 1919 and 1920 respectively. Paddy Siglin led the league in 1921 with 22. Paul Strand garnered the title with 28 in 1922, then established the season record with 43 in 1923. At the same time, it should be remembered that in the decade after Salt Lake left the league, the leading home run mark ranged from Fred Muller’s low of 38 for Seattle in 1932, to Los Angeles slugger Eugene Lillard’s 56 in 1935.The average high mark for that period was 46 homers per year. 42

In 1925 when Lazzeri set his record, three other players had more than 30 homers: Ray Rohwer of Portland, 40; Frank Brower of San Francisco, 36; and, Les Sheehan of Salt Lake at 33. Both Rohwer and Brower, unlike Lazzeri, had previous major league experience. Eleven others had 20 or more homers. Of that group, two—Lefty O’ Doul and Fred Coumbe both of Salt Lake—had 24 and 21 respectively. During the 1925 season 879 homers were hit in the PCL. As a team Salt Lake led the league with 197 homers. The average per team was 110. Moreover, if you look at the number of homers hit by all players who had at least one home run during the season, the statistic is approximately 8 per player. Among all players with 15 or more plate appearances the average is still 7. Salt Lake City also led the league with a team average of .321, just a bit ahead of San Francisco’s second place .315. 43

Finally, of Lazzeri’s 60 home runs 39 were hit in Salt Lake, and 8 came in Los Angeles’s Washington Park. 44 The other 13 were scattered throughout the league’s other parks. As might be expected the right handed Lazzeri hit 47 home runs off right handed pitchers with the other 13 coming off left handers. During the season 13 pitchers accounted for 37 of his home runs with San Francisco’s Bob “Speed” Geary, and Sacramento’s Billy Hughes, both right handers with previous major league experience, accounting for 5 each, all hit at Salt Lake’s Bonneville Park. Moreover, Lazzeri hit 29 home runs, nearly half of his total, in June and September, and compiled 37 one home run games, 10 two home run games and a 3 home run game. 45

Tony Lazzeri’s 1925 season, and especially his home run record, has been of interest to baseball fans for many years. More than two decades ago I decided to explore the question further. I was unable to locate anyone who had actually played in the game between Salt Lake and Sacramento, but I was able to correspond with a handful of old timers who had spent time in the PCL in the 1920s. These men, most of whom in their eighties or nineties, with, as it would turn out, only a few years left to live, remembered the 1925 season and playing in Salt Lake vividly. Their recollections help us better understand that distant era in Salt Lake City’s baseball lore.

Portland catcher Charlie Rowland remembered Salt Lake simply as a “hitter’s park.” 46 Similarly, former Bees pitcher Walter “Huck” Betts recalled that when he pitched his first game in Salt Lake City, he had experienced “rawness in my throat and chest.” After that he became “acclimated to the high altitude and had no more problems.” Still, as a pitcher, he commented that it was “well known that the ball carried better in high altitude.” He also recalled that Salt Lake City’s small Bonneville Park “made it easier for hitters to get home runs. Also pitching in high altitude, the pitcher can not get the movement on the ball that one can get in lower altitudes.” 47

Ray Rohwer, who played for Portland in 1925, did not recall hearing of the charges leveled by Mooney, Conlin, Hickey, and others, and discounted their validity. As he stated: “I do not know any reason why the Sacramento club would feel that it owed Tony a gift home run. He had a big year that did not need help from anyone.” 48

On the subject of Salt Lake City’s Bonneville Park as a hitter’s park, Rohwer, a .300 hitter who hit 37 home runs playing for Seattle in 1923, and, as previously mentioned, was second to Lazzeri in 1925 with 40, recalled that he never had “good luck” hitting in Salt Lake, and “never found out why.” In assessing Salt Lake’s reputation as a “hitters park,” Rohwer said he believed the reputation was due to three things: “The park was small, the air was thin and the pitchers were afraid to throw strikes. They tried to make the batter hit bad balls. That put them behind the count and ended up in having to pitch a ball down the middle.” 49

Portland pitcher Bonnie Hollingsworth, who had played in the big leagues for Pittsburgh, Washington, and Brooklyn, recalled that the “atmosphere in Salt Lake was best described by their catcher who said because of the high altitude,” it was like playing in a room with a “transom.” As he remembered it, there wasn’t “a shut out pitched in their park the whole year,” and remembered that a “curve ball in Salt Lake was not at all effective.” 50

Hollingsworth thought of Lazzeri as his “best friend,” saying that the two ate together frequently. Despite Rohwer’s assertion, Hollingsworth, recognizing that Lazzeri was “trying for the record,” served up Lazzeri’s fifty-fifth home run. He remembered it as “the longest ball ever hit in the Portland ball park. I told him what I was going to throw him.” 51

Added to these assessments is the view of Jimmie Reese, former Yankee teammate of Lazzeri. Noting that he had not heard of any questions surrounding Lazzeri’s sixtieth home run, Reese, who played in the PCL in the 1920s and 1930s, commented that undoubtedly the high altitude in Salt Lake, “played a prominent role in many of the home runs hit in that area. Yet—in all fairness to Tony’s feat—he emulated anyone else who played with him in that period.” Reese also commented that pitchers, “with limited control naturally were the victims of the onslaught, so to speak, and they suffered accordingly. Wherever one plays baseball ... unless you throw strikes you just don’t figure to win.” 52

Finally, another perspective came in an interview I conducted with Lazzeri’s widow, Maye, whom he married in 1923. She remembered the times fondly, calling Salt Lake a “beautiful and clean city” where the fans took an interest in the players and their families. This was particularly true, she recalled, on the part of Rinetti and others in the Italian-American community as far as the Lazzeri’s were concerned, but with other fans as well. She remembered that fans would throw money to Lazzeri when he hit home runs, and he became “so excited because we could use it.” 53 Most of the time Maye would stay in San Francisco to work, visiting her husband when she could. Even though they were “flat broke” she recalled:" After a game Tony liked to unwind. Someone would lend us a car and we would often drive up to a place in the canyons just to enjoy the scenery and have dinner. Tony didn't bring his problems home from the ball park, he left them there." 54

Perhaps understandably, Maye Lazzeri was somewhat defensive about charges that her husband’s sixty home run mark was somehow suspect because of high altitude and bad pitching. “People would say after Tony hit those home runs in 1925 it was because of the thin air. But if that were true how come it hasn’t been done since?” Moreover, as a good right handed, center field hitter, she argued, Lazzeri still hit a fair number of home runs in Yankee Stadium. “In fact, if he had been a left handed hitter in Yankee Stadium he would have hit many more than he did. A right handed hitter had it tough in New York.” 55

Lazzeri continued to hold a fondness for Utah’s capitol, and visited occasionally in later years as he crossed the country between his San Francisco home and New York. Longtime Yankee player and coach Frank Crosetti recalled that in 1932, he and Lazzeri stopped in Salt Lake City while driving back home after the season. At the time, Lazzeri and his younger teammate visited many of Tony’s friends from the time he had played in Salt Lake, and dined at Rinetti’s restaurant. 56

Another visitor to Salt Lake City with more than a passing interest in Lazzeri’s 60 home run record, was none other than Babe Ruth, the “Bambino” himself.Visiting after his own 1927 60 home run season, Ruth complained to local writers and fans that every time he hit a home run, Lazzeri would “rib him a little and say `That`s nothing, I got 60 out in the Coast League.’”The Babe said the teasing made him so “confounded mad” he had to go out and get 60 also. Writing the day after Ruth’s death in 1948, Deseret News sports writer Les Goates recalled that during the visit the Babe had demanded to see the Salt Lake ballpark

It’s nearly eighty years since that “Poosh em up Tony guy” captured the imagination and affection of Salt Lake City’s baseball fans. Many other players have passed through the town—some on their way to the “show,” others coming from there, many more toiling in lifetime minor league careers. Of that number “Our Tone” remains one of the most celebrated.

John Sillito is the Weber State University Archivist.

1 Donald Honig, Baseball America:The Heroes of the Game and the Times of Their Glory (New York: Galahad Books,1993),54.

2 Ibid.,158.For his part Alexander maintained he wanted the winner’s share of the series money as much as anyone,and “had only had a few drinks at the hotel of Saturday night,but I was cold sober when I faced Lazzeri.”

3 John Tullis, I’d Rather Be a Yankee:An Oral History of America’s Most Loved and Most Hated Baseball Team (New York:MacMillan,1986),87.

4 Ibid.

5 Two years later Lazzeri would again face Alexander in the World Series with different results.In Lazzeri’s words,“I cleaned the sacks with a double.The reason I remember it is that Bill McKechnie,who was managing the 1928 Cardinals,walked Bob Meusel to fill the bases to get to me.”Still,many fans seemed only to remember “that damn time I struck out.”See Bob Considine columns,September 8, 1945,clipping in the Tony Lazzeri file,National Baseball Hall of Fame,Research Library,Cooperstown, New York.

6 Larry Baldassaro,“Lazzeri to DiMaggio to Giamatti:Italian-Americans in Baseball.”Paper presented at the “Diamonds in the Desert Conference,”Arizona State University,Tempe,Arizona,March,1998. Baldassaro regards baseball as an important “piece in the process of assimilation for Italian-Americans.” Calling Lazzeri a “transitional figure”preceding Joe DiMaggio,Frank Crosetti,Yogi Berra and others,he notes that by 1941,8 percent of major league ballplayers were Italian-American.

7 The great sportswriter,Shirley Povich,inaccurately wrote that the nickname had been given Tony Lazzeri by New York writer,Damon Runyon,and was a “sobriquet that pleased New York Italians.”The second part of the assertion was no doubt true.See Washington Post,August 9,1946.

8 The literature on the Pacific Coast League is substantial.Two of the best studies are R.Scott Mackey, Barbary Baseball:The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s (Jefferson,North Carolina:McFarland & Co.,1995), and Paul J.Zingg and Mark D.Medeiros, Runs,Hits and an Era:The Pacific Coast League,1903-1958 (Urbana and Chicago:University of Illinois Press,1994).

9 Zingg and Medeiros, Runs,Hits,and an Era,48.

10 Mackey, Barbary Baseball,1.As he notes,more than “90 all-time great minor leaguers as recognized by the Society for American Baseball Research,hundreds of major leaguers,and nine future Hall of Famers— Earl Averill,Harry Hooper,Sam Crawford,Lefty Gomez,Ernie Lombardi,Mickey Cochrane,Tony Lazzeri,and Paul and Lloyd Waner—starred in the PCL during the decade.”

11 Ironically,Salt Lake City returned to the Pacific Coast League in 1958 when the Hollywood Stars moved in the wake of the shift of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively.

12 After leaving Salt Lake City,Williams had a solid career in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox.Appearing in 183 games he had a record of 82 wins and 48 losses Ironically,today he is best known as one of the eight “Chicago Black Sox”players banned from baseball for their role in fixing the 1919 World Series.For a full account see Eliot Asinof, Eight Men Out:The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series (New York:Henry Holt,1987).

13 Fittery’s performance with Salt Lake City earned the thirty-year old pitcher a second trip to the major leagues in 1917.Appearing in seventeen games,he posted a record of one win and one loss and a 4.53 ERA with the Philadelphia Phillies.Prior to that in 1914 Fittery had appeared in eight games with the Cincinnati Reds where he lost two games and failed to win any.

14 Lazzeri was not atypical of many players in the Pacific Coast League.As R.Scott Mackey observes, “Most of the talent came from the West,a preponderance from the baseball-rich San Francisco Bay area. Players were,quite often,the sons of Italian and Irish immigrants.See Mackey, Barbary Baseball,3.

15 Salt Lake Tribune,April 9,1944.

16 Ibid.,December 31,1995.

17 Ibid,April 3,1922.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.,April 15,1922.

20 Lazzeri also pitched briefly in a game on July 21,1922.He gave up 5 runs in a 22 to 5 “shellacking” by Portland.He struck out 1 and walked 4 in his brief appearance.See Salt Lake Tribune,July 22,1922.

21 Apparently the shifting between Salt Lake City and other minor league clubs took its toll on Lazzeri. According to his obituary,Lazzeri almost quit baseball in 1924.He became discouraged when he was “optioned to the Eastern League,decided to quit and advised the Salt Lake club of his decision.He stayed out of the game for about ten days and then found a place with the Lincoln team in the Western League.” New York Times,August 7,1943.

22 Salt Lake Tribune,April 5,1925.For an overview of the season itself,see Mackey, Barbary Baseball,90107.

23 Ibid.,April 17,1925.

24 According to advertisements in the Polk Salt Lake City Directory,the restaurant specialized in French and Italian food,styled itself the “talk of the town,”and said it was “famous”for its trout,steak and chicken dinners.

25 Ibid.,May 25,1925.

26 See also Salt Lake Tribune,April 16,1959.Derks’use of dialect was not atypical of the style of the Tribune.The day before the paper had headlined on the Bees double header win over the Seattle Indians that “Ya Can Hold a Dance on Those Two,Red”noting that the Bees “twice beat the injuns.”See Salt Lake Tribune,May 23,1925.

27 Philip F.Notarianni,“Italianita in Utah:The Immigrant Experience,”in Helen Z.Papanikolas,ed., The Peoples of Utah (Salt Lake City:Utah State Historical Society,1976),323-24.The first weekend in October 1925 the KKK held a large parade in Salt Lake City.The parade terminated at Walker’s baseball field located on 800 South between Main and State Street just a block north of Bonneville Ball Park.Tony Lazzeri and the Bees were on the road playing teams in the Pacific Northwest.See Larry R.Gerlach, Blazing Crosses in Zion:The Ku Klux Klan in Utah (Logan:Utah State University,1982).

28 In April 1925,Howard Doyle mentioned Lazzeri to August Herrman,President of the Cincinnati Reds,calling him a “very likely prospect”who if not “capable of making the grade this year”was young enough to “farm him out for a year or so in a strong minor league.”Doyle assured Herrman that Lazzeri was “one of the best looking ball players in the minor leagues,”and encouraged him to “make every effort to secure him.”See Howard Doyle to August Herrman,April 9 and 14,1925,Tony Lazzeri File,National Baseball Hall of Fame,Research Library,Cooperstown,New York.

29 The Yankees purchased Lazzeri’s contract on August 1,1925,with plans to bring him to Spring training in 1926.The New York Times called Lazzeri the “king pin shortstop of the minors,”indicating that since “three or four other major league clubs were bidding for him,it is believed that he cost enough money to fill a bushel basket.”See New York Times,August 2,1925.

30 Strand was one of the most accomplished hitters who ever put on a Bees uniform.In 1923,he had 325 hits which is still a professional record for hits in a season.See Dennis Snelling, The Pacific Coast League:A Statistical History,1903-1957 (Jefferson,North Carolina:McFarland & Co.,1995),232.

31 Mackey, Barbary Baseball,95.

32 Lazzeri would return to the PCL after his major league career ended.In 1941 he played in 102 games with the San Francisco Seals finishing the season with 78 hits,39 RBI,3 home runs,and a .248 batting average.See Snelling, The Pacific Coast League,203.

33 New York Times,August 7,1943.According to Mark Gallagher, The Yankee Encyclopedia (Champaign, Illinois:Sagamore,1996),137-38,Lazzeri was signed for $60,000 on the advice of head scout,Paul Krichell.R.Scott Mackey,on the other hand,states the Yankees struck the deal for $35,000 and five players.See Mackey, Barbary Baseball,96.

34 Salt Lake Tribune,July 11,1969.

35 The Sporting News,June 29,1974.

36 See Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News,October 19,1925.The latter paper also defensively,and erroneously,asserted that Lazzeri,“hit approximately half of his homers on foreign fields this season so he can scarcely be termed a ‘rarified atmosphere hitter’as some of his predecessors ...from the Bees were labeled.”

37 Sacramento Bee,October 19,1925.Banner headlines in the Sacramento Union of the same date also proclaimed Lazzeri’s success in beating Ruth’s record.

38 Sacramento’s Buffalo Park was enlarged and renovated in 1922 at a cost of $100,000 to become Moering Field.The new stadium held 10,000 fans,an increase of 4,000 over the older park.With a left field distance of 320 feet,and a right field distance of 330 feet,coupled with a 20-foot wooden fence,the stadium was not considered a home run park.

39 An experienced pitcher,Shellenback spent parts of the 1918 and 1919 seasons with the Chicago White Sox.Appearing in 36 major league games,he compiled an 11 and 14 record with a .306 ERA. Shellenback pitched in the PCL from 1920-38.During the 1925 season with Sacramento,he appeared in 38 games with a record of 14 wins and 17 losses,and a .327 ERA.In 264 innings pitched that year, Shellenback struck out 91,walked 61 and gave up 297 hits.See Lloyd Johnson,ed., The Minor League Register (Durham,North Carolina:Baseball America,1994),422.

40 As quoted in John E.Spalding, Sacramento Senators and Solons:Baseball in California’s Capital,18761976 (Manhattan,KS:AG Press,1995),7.

41 Mackey, Barbary Baseball,2.

42 See Snelling, The Pacific Coast League:A Statistical History,1903-57

43 For statistics see The Reach Official American League Guide.(Philadelphia:A.J.Reach,1926),321-32.

44 Bonneville Park was located on the grounds of the old Salt Palace,south of Ninth South between Main and State Streets.The distance down the right field line measured 319 feet,it was 408 feet to dead center,and left field was 308 feet.No doubt the short left field presented right-handed Lazzeri with a tempting target.See Larry Zuckerman,Mss A-6221,Utah State Historical Society.

45 Lazzeri only hit 2 home runs in Sacramento his 59th and 60th.The 59th was the only one he hit off the right-hander Speed Martin,and his 60th was one of two he hit off Frank Shellenback.The other home run off Shellenback came in Salt Lake on July 30,one of ten he would hit against the Sacramento team.I am indebted for this information to a list of home runs compiled by Carlos Bauer and Larry Gerlach.

46 Charlie Rowland to author,February 6,1986.

47 Walter “Huck”Betts to author,February 10,1986.

48 Ray Rohwer to author,January 17,1986.

49 Ibid.,February 4,1986.

50 J.B.“Bonnie”Hollingsworth to author,February 19,1986.See also Hollingsworth’s memoir Were You Ever a Rookie? (Knoxville,Tennessee:Padd Letter Service,1985).

51 Ibid.

52 Jimmie Reese to author,March 8,1986.

53 Maye Lazzeri’s recollections are supported by contemporary accounts.According to the Sporting News the slugging by the Bees hitters was so successful during one particular game that fans “rushed out on the field that day and threw dollars and halves at the fence busters.They went simply daffy over Tony.”As quoted in Mackey, Barbary Baseball,96.

54 Maye Lazzeri,telephone interview with author,March 1986.

55 Ibid.Maye Lazzeri would live long enough to attend the ceremonies inducting her husband into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

56 Maye Lazzeri interview. Frank Crosetti, telephone interview with author. March 1986.

57 Deseret News, August 17, 1948.