LOG OF HUNTINGTON BEACH NEWS Many of the baseball stories were on the front page of this small town paper. Dates are those of the games referred to: 1906 7/29 HB 12, SA Stars 0. "Hats Off to the Team Huntington Beach Is the Acknowledged Champion of Orange County on Baseball Diamond" HB is to play Hoegee Flags next. Manager is a Mr. Toms. 8/ 5 HB 7, "National Flags of Los Angeles" 1. The Flags were "illmannered enough to report the game to the Herald in favor of themselves." 8/12 HB 8, Olive 2. "IT WAS EASY "Huntington Beach Defeats Picked Team from Santa Ana, Anaheim and Olive "It comes hard, but Orange county must concede to Huntington Beach the championship on the diamond. Last Sunday Geo. Coleman, formerly of this city, gathered a nine of picked players from Santa Ana, Anaheim and Olive and came down to hang it on the Huntington Beach team. George has pitched many a game for the home lads while making his home here and helped win many a hard fought battle for them. He therefore thought he knew all the little weak spots in the personnel of the team. He infused into the minds of his picked team the idea that it would be just like picking the pockets of a blind man to come down and wrest a victory from the celery growers. But he missed his guess by a mile. After playing with the visitors for a time and letting them bring home a couple of tallies, the boys turned in and shut them off without another run. They did worse than that. They piled up six scores to the good for themselves...." [I understand this to mean HB was ahead by six, for a score of 8-2.] "Following is the line-up for Sunday's game: H. B. Olive Preston c G. Meats Morrison p Johnson Mefford 1b Hardy F. Mallet 2b Coleman P. Mallet 3b G. Maag Peters ss Peters Wardlow lf W. Meats Raines cf F. Maag Walsh rf Mendoza" (Note that the visiting team's lineup is headed "Olive"! 8/19 HB 4, Pirates of LA 1. Morrison P. 8/26 HB lost to the Meeks Baking Co of LA, score not given. Morrison P. Next Sunday's game will be against "a picked nine from various teams in the county." 9/ 2 HB 5, "picked nine" 4, 15 inns. Game was broken up by a home run by Ray Wardlow. No mention of any other players for either team. 9/ 9 HB 5, SA Stars 2. Elmer Morrison P for HB, "Hendricks" for SA. The article was quoted from the SA Blade. In the September issues are mentions of HBHS being organized and meeting in temporary sites. The HB library has no HBHS annuals from any farther back than 1917. It is unlikely that there were any Fullerton vs Huntington Beach high school games. 9/16 HB 14, "pickup nine" 7. "...The hollering could be heard above the roar of the breakers." In another issue, it is mentioned that LA teams like to come to HB for games so they can go to the beach. Next Sunday's game to be against the LA Lumber Co, but no story was found. 9/30 HB lost to Harper-Reynolds of LA; they have now won 18 of 21 games. 10/21 HB 16, "Florence of Graham Station, near Watts (formerly Pacific of Los Angeles) 1. A new grandstand is being built which will hold 500 people. 10/28 HB 5, "Newsies" of LA 2. Steen P for Newsies, Harkness for HB. Jevne of LA is to play HB next Sunday. Shaffer, "who has been doing some good pitching in the east this summer, will be in the box for the locals." 11/ 4 HB 11, Jevne 0. Harkness P 4 innings & Shaffer 5. In the same issue "The Olive team has challenged the locals to play a series of three games for the championship of Orange county. "We publish the letter from Mr. McCoy, manager of the Olive team. The manager of the locals has not as yet decided whether he will play this series or not: "Olive, Nov. 5th, 1906. "Mr. V. F. Philp, Mgr. Baseball Team, "Huntington Beach "Dear Sir:--I write you in behalf of Olive baseball team, to inquire if we can arrange a series of three games with your team to decide the championship of Orange county. We have lost two games out of nineteen. One of them was won by Huntington Beach [the 8/12 game] and the other by Los Angeles Reliance team. Would like to arrange this series of three games, one to be played on our diamond, one on yours and the third game, if necessary to be decided upon later. "Would like to have the first game Sunday, Nov. 25th, and if favorable with you will put up as high as $25 with you to make games interesting. Let me know soon as convenient, and oblige. "Yours respectfully, "JOHN M'COY, "Manager Olive Baseball Team, Olive Cal." 11/11 HB 11, Dyas-Cline Sporting Goods 2. Shafer P. The locals were treated to an oyster dinner at the Ivy restaurant by manager V. E. Philp. To play Long Beach next Saturday. ----- ALL ISSUES FROM 11/23/06 THROUGH 1/25/07 ARE MISSING! ----- =============================================================================== 1907 10/20 HB 3, @ SA Stars 2, in a "practice" game. No details. The schedule for next Sunday in SA: 12:30 Thistles vs SA Stars 3:00 playoff of protested Santa Monica-HB game These are to be the last games of the "coast league summer series". There is apparently a lot of antagonism between SM and HB. The winter league is about to begin and, if SM is a member, HB will not participate! 10/27 "NO PROTESTED GAME WITH SANTA MONICA "Santa Monica Fails to Show Up And Game Will Not Be Played "The long expected fight between the Santa Monica ball team and the Huntington Beach locals at Santa Ana failed to come off Sunday as advertised and the game will not be pulled off. Santa Monica got cold feet and failed to show up. Manager Hawley telephoned over to V. E. Philp Sunday morning that the grounds were too wet to play. However, they dried off so that two good games could be played and several from here drove over to see them. "Walter Johnson, the young pitcher who has just returned from the big league team at Washington, and who holds the world's pitching record with eighty-five innings without a run being made off him, pitched for the Santa Ana Stars in the game against the Hoegee Flags of Los Angeles. The game was a tie, 1 to 1. A large crowd was out to see Johnson perform and he came up to expectations. Clare Head of the Butte team of the Northwestern league also played with Santa Ana. The Santa Ana players defeated the Seal Gardens 9 to 2 in a seven inning game, Johnson playing in center field. In this game he knocked a home run and won $5, which is offered for all home runs made on this diamond." 11/ 9 In this date's News, it was said that Huntington Beach will not enter the proposed winter league, as it is unable to hire professional and semipro players as the other teams are doing. In several issues of the L. A. Record for the fall of 1906, "Seal Gardens" is mentioned as a place where semi-pro games were played, not as the name of any team. The only mention of "Seal Gardens" in any articles in the Huntington Beach News was in the story of the 10/27 game in Santa Ana. =============================================================================== THE NEWS SOURCE: The Huntington Beach News, published every Friday. First issue available was that of 6/9/1905. All issues for Dec 1906 and Jan 1907 were missing.