Editor’s Note: This is the last of a six-feature series as Mr. Bucketlist researches the history of spring training and baseball at Amerige Park in Fullerton.
1963: The last spring dance is a hula
West Coast baseball changed forever after the 1957 season.
The Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. The Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels moved to Spokane, Washington, and the San Francisco Seals moved to Phoenix, Arizona.
Spring training in Fullerton changed too.
In 1958, without a Pacific Coast League team calling Fullerton home, the Salinas Packers of the Class-C California League held their spring training at Amerige Park. Then, from 1959 to 1961, Fullerton’s spring training site was vacant for the first time since the World War II years.
In 1962, a co-op of minor leaguers from the Angels and Phillies organizations played at Amerige Park, and then in 1963, the Hawaiian Islanders said “Aloha!” to Fullerton.
The Islanders were the major league Los Angeles Angels’ AAA affiliate, led by former New York Yankees All-Star Irv Noren. Noren, the pride of Pasadena, was assisted by an all-star list of coaches including Jimmie Reese, Joe Gordon and Bob Lemon.
During their three-week spring training stay, the Islanders were housed at Fullerton’s Travel Lodge (815 S. Harbor Blvd). The team opened up on March 15, and with an event seemingly right out of today’s headlines, more than 20 of the players took flu shots upon their arrival in Fullerton to ward off the anticipated Asian flu epidemic that was moving toward the mainland.
Traveling back-and-forth between the Angels’ big league training site in Palm Springs and the Islanders’ AAA site in Fullerton, was farm director Roland Hemond. Hemond would go on to have a seven-decade career in baseball.
Hemond would later serve as the general manager for two major league teams and he would be named Major League Baseball’s “Executive of the Year” three times. In 2001, Hemond earned the ceremonial title of “The King of Baseball” given out by Minor League Baseball.
The Islanders’ 24-year-old second baseman was Bobby Knoop. Knoop would make his major league debut with the Angels in 1964, and he would be an All-Star in 1966. Knoop played nine years in the major leagues with the Angels, White Sox and Royals. He won three Gold Glove Awards and was eventually inducted into the Angels’ Hall of Fame.
Pitcher Jim McGlothlin was just a 19-year-old that spring, but he would go on to a nine-year major league career, mostly with the Angels and Reds. In 1967, McGlothlin was an All-Star with the Angels, and he pitched for Cincinnati in the 1970 and 1972 World Series.
On March 16, the Islanders took on San Diego State at Amerige Park. The game was knotted at 2-2 in the eighth inning when Islanders rookie infielder Charlie Strange hit a towering shot over the 330-foot sign on the left field wall for a grand slam. The Islanders beat the Aztecs 6-3.
Two days later, on March 18, USC’s legendary coach Rod Dedeaux brought his Trojans to Amerige Park to take on the Islanders. It was practically a home game for USC’s Gary Holman who had played on Fullerton’s 1961 American Legion team and grown up in Brea. That day, Holman played first base for the Trojans. He later went on to a short major league career with the Washington Senators.
The Islanders humiliated the collegians 13-0 that day, but just a few months later USC captured the College World Series championship for the fourth time in school history.
On March 21, Harry Kalas, the voice of the Islanders, arrived in camp. Kalas would go on to be the play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies (1971-2009), becoming a sports legend in the City of Brotherly Love.
In 2002, the Baseball Hall of Fame bestowed the Ford Frick Award on Kalas.
One of the notable visitors to Amerige Park in the spring of 1963 was song composer Harry Ruby. Ruby made a visit to Fullerton on March 26 to see the Islanders play and to talk to his longtime friend Jimmie Reese.
Ruby, a member of the songwriters Hall of Fame, was known for writing many classic songs including “Three Little Words,” but he was even more passionate about baseball.
Though no one knew it at the time, on April 9 the Islanders played the last professional spring training game in Amerige Park’s illustrious history. The Islanders took on the Tri-City Angels in a game that Honolulu Star-Bulletin writer Tom Hopkins referred to as “the Fullerton Follies,” describing it as “a contest which at times resembled a baseball game.”
The game saw five errors and was self-umpired by an all-Islanders crew of Gordon Windhorn, Irv Noren and Joe Gordon.
The hitting star of the day was Tri-City’s Brown Taylor who went four-for-five with a home run and five runs batted in. The Tri-City Angels beat the Islanders, 12-7.
When the final out was recorded, not only did it put a close to the Islanders 1963 spring training, but it marked the end of an era for baseball in the city of Fullerton.
The six articles in this series are just a sample of the spring training history that took place at Amerige Park. Amerige Park’s entire spring training history (1935-1963) will be a chapter in an upcoming book about the history of baseball in Fullerton.
David Jerome, better known as Mr. Bucketlist, is an author and resident of Fullerton. Follow more of his adventures at mrbucketlist.com. Email him at dave@mrbucketlist.com.
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