Baseball in Tacoma-Pierce County

By Marc H. Blau

The Tacoma-Pierce County area has enjoyed a rich tradition of baseball from the sandlot beginnings in 1874, to the first professional game at the Eleventh Street Ball Grounds in 1890, to the 100 Day Wonder known as Cheney Stadium, which was opened in the spring of 1960. While Tacoma has laid claim to six Pacific Coast League championships since the 1904 1905 season, it was the players who competed in the City, Valley, Sunset, Community, Timber, Commercial, Industrial, and Shipbuilders leagues that formed the backbone of the sport. Among notables that have dotted local rosters or competed in the major leagues are Ron Cey, Indian Bob Johnson, Mike Blowers, Jon Lester, Steve Whitaker, and Doug Sisk, as well as Baseball Hall of Famers Walter Johnson, Joe McGinnity, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, and Willie McCovey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781439625460

Marc H. Blau

Author Marc H. Blau, a native of Tacoma, is a longtime collector of Tacoma-Pierce County sports artifacts and is a devoted baseball historian. Cofounder of the Shanaman Sports Museum, Blau proudly shares his personal photograph collection, as well as as images from fellow baseball and fastpitch softball enthusiasts.

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AMATEUR AND SEMI—PRO BASEBALL 1874–1997

The reign of the Tacoma Invincibles, who were organized on August 8, 1874, was short lived as they played their first and last game 12 days apart. Yet the development of a baseball field at Eleventh and L Streets by John S. Baker in 1885 provided the impetus for the formation of countless amateur and semi-professional baseball teams throughout Pierce County.

Teams sprang up all over the city and one of the most memorable was the Amocats (Tacoma spelled backwards), who existed from 1901 to 1906. Leagues were organized based on the community a person lived in, ethnicity, and business, and so teams played in the Timber, Sunset, Valley, Commercial, Industrial, Twilight, Shipbuilders and City leagues among others.

The loose league affiliation did not prevent the South Tacoma Tigers from representing the West Coast in the Amateur Baseball Championship of the World in 1915 with their runner-up finish. It was not until 1937 that another Tacoma team ventured into postseason play, as the Johnson Paint team traveled to Wichita, Kansas, to compete in the National Baseball Congress tournament where they tied for fifth.

The Tacoma City League, resurrected in 1949, was the catalyst for a rebirth of baseball in the area, as community teams emerged in South Tacoma, Kay Street, Twenty-sixth and Proctor Streets, McKinley Hill, Sixth Avenue, and Thirty-eighth Street. The competition was fierce, and the crowds turned out in record numbers for games on neighborhood fields and at Tiger Park, located at Thirty-eighth and Lawrence Streets.

The formation of Stanley’s Shoemen in 1955 resulted in epic battles against Tacoma’s Woodworth Contractors for local supremacy, and in 1956 Stanley’s claimed top honors with their American Amateur Baseball Congress National Championship. Woodworth would go on to be the runner-up in 1958. Thirty-eight years later, in 1996, the Tacoma Timbers took second place in the National Baseball Congress (semi-pro) World Series in Wichita, Kansas—the last national appearance by an area team.

Memories and legends were made on the field during these years of Tacoma baseball. Among the greats were Lou Balsano, George Wise, Al Pentecost, Ocky Haugland, Allan Browne, Sammy Cappa, Floyd Lefty Isekite, Frank Ruffo, Sonny Bailey, Cy Greenlaw, Morry Abbott, Earl Kuper, Dick Greco, Pete Sabutis, Cliff Schiesz, Jack Johnson, Dale Bloom, Mike Dillon, Earl Hyder, Bob Maguinez, George Grant, umpire Clarence Stave, and coaches John Heinrick, Marv Scott, and Doug McArthur, who head a cast of thousands. Here is a