Jim Hawes

Westgate Park?

Bruce Wilson

I am told, twice now, that the ballfield is Westgate Park. It's a sweep. Let's play two. (BTW Jim, it appears that Kenneth Ned still lives down in IB).

Chicago Cub Ernie Banks, (RIP Jan 23, 2015) right, told NPR's Scott Simon, left, in 2014 that he had a lot of fun winning games, but the main thing in his life was "making friends."

Bruce Wilson

Has anyone ever heard of a "Thing Rich Rd." in Chula Vista? There appears to be one in Pine Valley, but I can find no trace of one in CV.

San Diego County Distress Scores here - includes interactive map (by zipcode). The software is kind of balky.

Anyway, western CV (I don't think they had that in the old days) is high, eastern CV low. National City and IB are in the same boat (ocean or bay) as W-CV.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/mar/01/ca-distress/

Bruce Wilson

Maybe the Master of All CV Trivia is stumping himself, but wasn't there a White Front down in the river bed between CV and NC. I know there was a Fed Mart.

Has anyone ever seen a photo of the Western Front Bar on Third Avenue? Don't ask, why, is one missing?

Carey Joe Hobson, who I played baseball with and drowned off IB August 14, 1969 was an owner.

Bruce Wilson

Did this replace White Front? Check out gas prices.

Don't know which one this is. Pretty sure it's San Diego. Interesting mix of cars.

John Carleton Cowherd

Can anyone else join my club of people who saw the Padres play at Lane Field, Westgate Park, Qualcomm (Jack Murphy) Stadium, and Petco?

Terry Lee Maple

John - My dad and my uncle took me and my older brother Brian to our first baseball game at Lane Field in 1954. Later when Westgate Park was constructed, we attended a few games each year including the AAA Pacific Coast League All-star game when a lot of future major leaguers like Willie McCovey played in the game (1958 I think). One story my mother and father told me was the night that Minnie Minoso knocked the cover off the ball at Lane Field. San Diego was a great PCL town. I remember some of the teams; LA Angels, Hollywood Stars, Sacramento Solons, Salt Lake City Bees, San Francisco Seals, Seattle Raniers, Vancouver Mounties. My neighbor Frank Fernandez was also a big fan. He and I traded baseball cards. Frank's favorite player was Willie Mays; my favorite player was Duke Snider. We used to debate who was the better player. Frank's uncle Buddy Petersen was a shortstop in the PCL for many years. Perhaps you will remember that Frank played shortstop in Little League and Pony League. In high school he was a catcher and an outfielder. Like other little kids I collected the Padre's big team photo, tried to get autographs, and kept them on my closet door for years. I didn't attend a lot of games but I religiously listened to Al Schuss call the games on radio (". . . and there it goes . . ."). So, yes, I vividly remember the minor league Padres and beautiful Westgate Park. I have a distant memory that the CIF playoff game in 1964 was scheduled to be played in Westgate Park. Unfortunately we lost our semi-final playoff game to San Diego High School and didn't get to find out. The weather in San Diego made it the perfect baseball town but I also remember that the Easter tournament for high schools each spring during my playing days was rained out or shortened by rain. Those spring rains were short but fierce as I remember and produced a lot of flash flooding in the area. Thanks for triggering these memories.

George Bracey Gillow

See post 1948 for correct history of stores at C and 4th Ave.

Fedmart was started by Sol Price who went on to form Price Club which merged with COSTCO in 1993. I believe his son, Robert Price, is still involved with the chain.

The Target store closed recently and is being torn down. The area will become a small shopping center and some of the tenants are probably Hobby Lobby, Party City and Aldi grocery store.

I remember an A&W Root Beer was located close to White Front and went there many times. 

Somehow I remember a UniMart in that area??

I remember buying a set of Healthways weights at either Unimart or White Front in the early 1960s. I still have all of them in my garage. Randy Glover and I bought two 1954 Ford flywheels from Street and Sons auto wreckers and converted them to weights.

George Bracey Gillow

SAN DIEGO BASEBALL HISTORY

I remember going to a Padres vs Cubs game at Westgate stadium.

Pictures of the San Diego Padres parks are shown below. They went from Lane Field on the embarcadero area to Westgate park in Mission Valley (now the location of Fashion Valley) to Qualcolm Stadium then finally Petco Park in downtown San Diego.

A small Lane Field park has been built at the location of the original Lane Field. It has a baseball theme.

Interesting that at Petco park they only cancel games went it rains "cats and dogs". Instead of toilets and urinals in the restrooms the park has sandboxes and fire hydrants. Finally they most value "Dirt Dog" players and catchers. (Yes "Dirt Dog" is a baseball term.)

The new Lane Field:

Lane Field:

Westgate:

Qualcom--early days.  SDSU upper left in picture on hill right of the freeway.

Petco Park--next to Convention Center, trolley line in-between.

Bruce Wilson

I only saw the Padres at Lane Field.

Good one Terry " ... and there it goes ..."

When we visited Detroit  we were surprised that the announcers did not use it. Then along came Chick Hearn and announcing was never the same again. I think Al Kaline and Norm Cash had a throwing (distance) contest that summer. Mr. Cash lived to age 52. Al is still with us as far as I can tell and around 9 or 10 years old.

The legendary arm strength and accuracy that would make Kaline one of the most complete ballplayers of his time was evident early on. During a picnic festival, Kaline threw a ball 173.5 feet. The disbelieving judges ordered him to throw again, believing that the measurement was off. Kaline threw again, this time 175 feet. 

Frank also pitched in Little League. When he came off the mound I moved from shortstop to 3rd base. I have a team photo of the prior year (no Frank), but I'm struggling to put together the roster of the second year when we played together. I recall starting the season on the upper field at Eucalyptus Park and then moving down to the lower field. I think we were still the McCallister Yankees, because I don't recall ever having another uniform. 

I'm trying to piece together the succesion at that corner of C and North Fourth:

The first thing I recall was a driving range. Baldy and I were down scavenging a few golf balls when we got the boot.

Unimart entered the picture in the early sixties? Robbie Bartlett and I went over to National City and submitted job applications.

I found a PDF on Sol Price while I was poking around, but I misplaced it.

Bruce Wilson

I didn't have a ton of them, but I do recall a Preacher Roe card. Should have hung on to it. Catchy name for a pitcher, eh?

George Bracey Gillow

MORE ON SAN DIEGO BASEBALL HISTORY

My post #402 (about page 17) was of a PBS video on "Remembering the 1950s" about San Diego.

Part of it was on baseball including film of Lane Field and Westgate Park. They taked about players including Minnie Minoso.

Also my post #77 (about page 4) on "This Day 1964" shows a news story about the Padres.

Here is just the San Diego Baseball scenes:

Terry Lee Maple

I can visualize Frank in a Union 76 jersey, blue cap as I recall. Was that the sponsor? May have been Pony league. I played with him on the CV North All-Star team in Pony league that won a lot of tournaments. I do recall that Frank did some pitching but not at the next level. All of our pitchers with the exception of Dave Olmsted were younger guys; Bill Miller, Dirk van Dyke, Mitchell (son of the coach). I'm trying to think of some of the guys on that team; Bandelin, Parker, Hanano. I'll warm up my brain and see if I can identify more. If we could have put CV South and North together nobody would have beaten us. We eventually lost to La Jolla. Charlie Buchanon, a great basketball player of that era, was one of the stars of that team. Also Steve Jones who played football at Oregon as I recall.

Bruce Wilson

I used to hang around with Dave Olmstead in that time frame too. I can remember going over to CVHS and playing stuff like 500 outside of games and practice. We took a bus field trip to Balboa Park one time and played basketball at the Boy's club.

I'm thinking that my brother Woodie's pitching stint at Lane Field may actually have come out 10 inch baseball. Dwain Short, Ray Schmautz (sp) come to mind as two of his teamates.

I'll just stick this here for now. Going through the archives. I know I have some Pony League stuff too.

1958

P. Vredenburgh,  J. Hedderson, R. Torres,  C. Cogswill

Bobby Brown, Bruce Wilson, Mickey Wright, Steve Baitey , ? Courtney

Tony Clayton, Pete Casey, John Vredenburgh, Jim Eshbach, Frank Ragen, Mike Hollister

Mr. Hollister

Missing: Tim Young

Frank's Union 76 team was Pony League and there's Mr. Hollister again. He was also a big 16-inch pitcher. It looks like Eshbach wasn't on the 76 team with Mr. H, Frank and Mike H.

Bruce Wilson

Speaking of fishing, it seems that the 1963 crowd was more oriented towards angling (is that a word). I know Dean & Don (Butterfield & Montel) were fishermen. What became of Don? Any others out there from the 1964 group?

Probably just a rumour, but I've heard that Braswell would knock 'em out with his fastball. 

Did anybody besides Al Kaline participate in baseball distance throwing.

I

Gypsy Baumgartner (Wayne)

So where was Unimart located?

Bruce Wilson

Gypsy:

Unimart was right at the corner of C and Fourth Avenue and neither Robbie or I passed the Unimart audtion. I did however buy my first vinyl LP there. 

This is how I see the progression now, with the help of Baldy and George.

Driving Range --> Unimart --> Fed Mart --> White Front --> Target

Across the street (to the east) was the DMV, where I flunked my first driver's test (parallel parking error).

We are sorley lacking in aerial photos of that area.

1962/08/02 - COLUMN: Trailer Talk by Bev Vollmer (this issue is the first appearance of column Trailer Talk in the Star-News) - The TraveLodge Mobile Home Park will commemorate its first anniversary with an open house Sunday from noon to 5, It is located just across the highway from Unimart in Chula Vista. (Chula Vista Star-News, Aug. 2, 1962.)

Bruce Wilson

I don't remember seeing this before. It is identified as Third & K, but I'm not sure what the orientation is. What are the big buildings at the top? I do not remember "Pure Gold" at that corner either. My guess is that the building is F Street School and that the street at the bottom is Fourth Avenue.

Bruce Wilson

George Bracey Gillow

Bruce,

Your progression of Unimart to Target on post 1932 has to be correct. I remember the store being Unimart at one point and know that FedMart changed to White Front then Target. Target closed a couple of years ago.

You are also correct that the picture on your post 1933 is not 3rd and K. It is 4th and Fst. 4th being at the bottom of the picture and F Street school upper left. You can see the path of the railroad track behind the packing plant. Pure Gold was not at the 3rd and K location.

This is the last Google Street view of the Target store before it was demolished. The picture is taken from 4th Avenue in April 2015. C Street is to the left:

George Bracey Gillow

Here is FedMart ad from 1973 CVHS annual.

Bruce Wilson

Another installment in an occasional series about local boys having done and/or doing good. I played basketball with Byron and bumped [pun?] into him up at Irvine. I've posted links to some of his writing here before. One of Frank's girlfriends knows him well.You'll have to excuse the formatting and lack of a date. It was hard to get this in here and I'm nearly 70 (whoops, 69) years old.

IBbBB

Byron Shewman Class of 1965 Mar Vista High School

In 1996, Shewman founded Starlings Volleyball Clubs, USA, with a handful of girls at Lincoln High School in San Diego. Today the program is the largest
JuniorVolleyball Club in the nation, serving about 3,000 girls in over 30 cities from New York City to Hawaii.
Targeting girls (ages 10 to 18) from lower-income socioeconomic backgrounds, over 150 girls have received college volleyball scholarships.

A graduate of San Diego State University, it was there that Shewman converted from basketball to volleyball. 
A several time All-American, he was a member of the USA Men’s Team from 1971-75, winning a silver medal in the 1971 Pan-American Games.
After the ’72 Olympics, he resigned his English teaching position at MVHS to begin a professional career in Barcelona, Spain.
Subsequently, he spent several years in Barcelona and then Paris, France, playing and coaching.

He is also a writer, having published several books including the biography of three-time Olympic gold-medalist, Karch Kiraly.
Locally, as a free-lance he has written cover stories for the San Diego Reader.

Through expansion of the Starlings program to Tijuana, Shewman recently formed a new non-profit organization, Youth Without Borders.
The organization seeks to provide support and positive alternatives to needy children in Mexico. 
 

6, S founded Starlings Volleyball Clubs, USA, with a handful of girls at Lincoln High School in San Diego. Today the program is the largest Junior Volleyball Club in the nation, serving about 3,000 girls in over 30 cities from New York City to Hawaii. Targeting girls (ages 10 to 18) from lower-income socioeconomic backgrounds, over 150 girls have received college volleyball scholarships.

A graduate of San Diego State University, it was there that Shewman converted from basketball to volleyball. A several time All-American, he was a member of the USA Men’s Team from 1971-75, winning a silver medal in the 1971 Pan-American Games. After the ’72 Olympics, he resigned his English teaching position at MVHS to begin a professional career in Barcelona, Spain. Subsequently, he spent several years in Barcelona and then Paris, France, playing and coaching.

He is also a writer, having published several books including the biography of three-time Olympic gold-medalist, Karch Kiraly. Locally, as a free-lance he has written cover stories for the San Diego Reader.

Through expansion of the Starlings program to Tijuana, Shewman recently formed a new non-profit organization, Youth Without Borders. The organization seeks to provide support and positive alternatives to needy children in Mexico. 

Bruce Wilson

George:

I'm sure of the driving range and Unimart. I know you'll straighten out the rest. At least we're pretty sure that White Front was not a cover for the KKK.

How can I be so sure of Unimart? Here's the album I bought there. It came out in 1965.

Terry Lee Maple

In the allstar team photo Frank is positioned in between Phil Smith and me. We played for CV Community Hospital where my mother worked for a time. The man at the right hand side of the photo (no. 12) is Mr. Kany, Frank's stepdad.

Phillip Smith (Smith)

I remember that well.  The CV hospital team is the one I remember the most. It was good times. I think I remember Bob LaHay (sic) playing third base on that team. I'm sure someone will correct it if I'm wrong.