Chalmer “Bill” Cissell: The $123,000 Lemon

(Editor’s Note: The following first appeared on this site on October 27, 2009 and an abridged version appears in Baseball’s Untold History: The People) Twenty-four-year-old shortstop Chalmer “Bill” Cissell was so highly regarded by scout Danny Long in 1927 that he convinced White Sox owner Charles Comiskey to send what was estimated to be a […]

“Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers” by Dan Raley

WELL-DONE HISTORY OF BYGONE SEATTLE BASEBALL ERA As someone who used to literally sit at my grandfather’s knee listening to his stories of the old Seattle Rainiers and the Pacific Coast League, I became quite familiar with names of people who built baseball in Seattle in the years from 1938 onward.  Grandpa was the head […]

Son Makes Good on Father’s Pledge

I recently read a story about my grandpa, Babe Dahlgren and his father Peter that I’d never heard before. After all the years spent talking with my grandpa, all the countless months researching his life and career, somehow this one slipped past me like the easiest of ground balls. The story appeared in the Minneapolis […]

Helping World Series Phenom Buster Posey

    Ken Joyce was talking mile a minute.  He had input for any of my questions, many times offering more than I knew to ask.  How he got started in baseball, his time in the Florida Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays organizations, the big names he has worked with, his years managing and coaching in  […]

Touring The Bases With…Courtney White

Courtney White is the Group Sales Account Executive for the Oklahoma City RedHawks located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  They have been an affiliate of the Texas Rangers since 1983 and are in the Pacific Coast League. Their website is: www.oklahomaredhawks.com SEAMHEADS: What does your job consist of?  What are your responsibilities? COURTNEY WHITE: Currently, I […]

Ayala’s Return Gives Sparky Lyle’s Team Big Boost

If anyone heard what sounded like a collective sigh of relief recently, it probably came from the Somerset Patriots clubhouse because pesky Elliott Ayala had shaken off the effects of being hit squarely on the mouth with a pitch sufficiently to get back in the lineup. “That’s a guy that we need,” Manager Sparky Lyle […]

Babe, Joe and Marilyn Monroe

There was something about his swing that caught Babe’s eye long before the country had a chance to admire it – long before songs would be written about him. It was 1933 and Babe Dahlgren was in his second full season as the first baseman for the San Francisco Mission Reds of the Pacific Coast […]

Oakland Takes Three More Atlantic Leaguers, Building Recent Total to Five and Passing Phils

It seems a little like a runaway freight train the way Oakland has swooped into the Atlantic League for player talent, and all of a sudden the Athletics have moved past Philadelphia as the major league organization with the most players out of the 13-year-old league active in their farm system. Oakland has purchased the […]

Who Will Be Next to Majors? Lindsey Stays Hot, Weber Warming Up

Michael Ryan had not been in the majors since 2005 until joining the Angels last weekend, and Cuban-born Raul Valdez had never been there until the New York Mets added the onetime Can-Am Leaguer (New Jersey Jackals and Nashua, NH) a few weeks ago.  And, it is anyone’s guess on where lightning will strike next, […]

Half of ’09 All-Stars Return, Some in New Uniforms; As Incentive, Former Players Setting a Hot Pace

Fans anxiously awaiting Thursday night’s season openers in the Atlantic League can look forward to the return of half of last season’s 14-man All-Star team although seven of the eight managers may not be quite so happy that three of them will be wearing the uniform of the back-to-back championship Somerset Patriots. In addition to […]

PCL Opening Day: 1953

It was the opening of the baseball season in America. As major league teams wrapped up their respective spring trainings and prepared to throw their opening pitch of the 1953 season in a few weeks time, the Pacific Coast League was ready to start now. Warm west coast weather allowed the PCL season to start […]