LOG OF RIVERA GAMES, ETC. 1904 The newspapers for the last few weeks of the year were checked for any possible Olinda - Rivera games or anything else of interest. The Rivera column is often barely legible because it is next to the fold, so some scores, players' names, etc., can't be deciphered. There were mentions of the Rivera team early in the year, with opponents being the usual L. A.-area teams. 11/21 Rivera 11, Owls 14. "... next Sunday Rivera plays the Olindas. The new grand-stand is a great improvement, and the admission price, 10 cents, very reasonable." 11/28 Rivera 8, Tufts-Lyon 8. No mention of Olinda; there was also a game on Thanksgiving day in which Rivera "waxed" T-L. 12/ 4 Rivera lost to the Owls. Snodgrass caught for Rivera. 12/11 No baseball news. The L.A. Examiner celebrated its 1st birthday today. 12/18 No Rivera baseball news, but there are mentions in the La Habra columns of games against Fullerton HS on 12/17/04 and 1/14/05. See HISCHOOL.LOG for copies of these articles. 12/25 Christmas day. No baseball news. A long drought was broken on 12/22 & 12/23 by a heavy rainstorm. =============================================================================== 1905 1/ 1 No baseball news. 1/ 8 Rivera lost to the Valencias. 1/15 Rivera 8, Woodmen 2. 1/22 Rivera 11, Tufts-Lyon 12. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/29 Olinda 4, @ Rivera 5: "GOOD BASEBALL "The baseball lovers of this vicinity had a real treat Sunday afternoon in a hard fought contest of eleven innings between the Rivera nine and the so far invincible Olindas of the Oil Wells. After twenty-nine successful games, Rivera turned them down in the thirteenth [sic], five to four. It was a great game. The Oil Men looked very dangerous in their bright scarlet suits, and went to bat with every expression of confidence... [The description of the 11th inning follows] "Then with two men out for Rivera, Billy Anderson grabbed the bat and you could see he meant business. Two strikes; Billy, look out. He did, and found it for a two-bagger, which he made amid the wild cheers of the crowd. Then Ellis picked up the stick and smashed one over towards the railroad track, bringing Billy in and scoring a home run himself. This gave Rivera the game, 5 to 4... "Johnson, the young twirler for the Olindas, was presented as a High School kid, but he is certainly a graduate in the science of delivering the ball and fanned eight of the Rivera men, but allowed nine hits..." OLINDA 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -- 4 RIVERA 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 1 -- 5 No box or line score, but good details on innings when runs were scored. Waters caught for Olinda and batted leadoff. Meats batted 2nd and Collins 8th, but their positions weren't given. Andy Pallett and Settle pitched for Rivera. Johnson hit at least one batter. If the final hit of the game was indeed a 2-run homer, modern scoring practice would call the final score 6-4. The Ellis who drove in the winning run was George "Rube" Ellis, who was born in Downey in 1885 and died in Rivera in 1938. He played for the Cardinals from 1909 through 1912. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2/ 5 No baseball news. It rained more than 4" from 2/1 thru 2/4. 2/12 No baseball news. 2/19 No baseball news, but on 2/22 Rivera celebrated Washington's Birthday with a trip to Pomona for a game which they lost. "Pomona had 3 National League men." Article doesn't say who! 2/26 No baseball news. 3/ 5 Rivera beat "Leonards". Next Sunday will play the Owls. 3/12 No baseball news; it rained about 4" from 3/11 to 3/16. 3/19 Rain prevented a game against Pomona. 3/26 Rivera 2, Tufts-Lyon 1. 4/ 2 Scheduled to play Hamburger. No story of game. 4/ 9 Rivera 2, All Merchants 1. 4/16 Rivera 4, Downey 3. The Rivera team now belongs to the "Southern California League". No details on who or what this league is. 4/23 (Easter Sunday). No baseball news. Several issues missing. From here on, the baseball news becomes very spotty. 4/30 No news. 5/ 7 Game with Tufts-Lyon called due to rain after 3 inns. 5/14 Rivera 12, Hamburger 6. (The latter is identified as an L. A. department store.) 5/21 Scheduled to play the Hoegee Flags. 5/28 Rivera 1, L. A. Owls 0. 6/ 4 Rivera 7, Tufts-Lyon 8. 6/11 Rivera 24, All Merchants 6. 6/18 Was either going to Ventura to play there or else staying home to play Tufts-Lyon. No word as to which happened. 6/25 No news. 7/ 2 Rivera 8, @ Olinda 8. [From Fullerton Tribune -- this is undoubtedly the 2nd of the 3 games between these teams mentioned in the article on the 7/23 game!] 7/ 9 No news. 7/16 No news. 7/23 Olinda 5, @ Rivera 10: "The Rivera nine confronted the Olindas last Sunday for the third time and did them up to the tune of 10 to 5. It was a very interesting game thoughout. The gentlemen from the oil wells loomed up like giants in their scarlet suits, and led off in their first inning with two runs. But they got no more until the ninth, when some good stick work won them three more..." OLINDA 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 -- 5 RIVERA 0 0 2 0 0 1 5 2 x -- 10 No box or line score. Johnson recorded 7 SO & 2 BB. Total hits not given. Rivera stole 9 bases! Meats caught. Phillips pitched and "Holmes" or "Hennes" caught for Rivera. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7/30 Rivera 4, C. Leonardt 3: The opposing team came from L.A. with a large group of fans. They had "never lost a game". No mention of WJ; Rivera battery was Rieger and Barris. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8/ 6 Rivera 4, Morgan Oyster Co. 2: Another team from L.A. Still no mention of WJ. Few details; the correspondent apologized for not having the score book. Rivera's pitchers were Phillips and "Heines". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8/13 Rivera 12, C. Leonardt 4: "RIVERA PLAYS BALL Cleans up Crack Team to the Tune of 12 to 4" A long article refers to the Leonardt team's desire to avenge their 7/30 loss, when they allegedly didn't bring all their good players. This time, they came in full strength, including "Phil Knell, the celebrated league southpaw" who seems to have mouthed off a lot and is ridiculed throughout the story. There is great detail on most innings, including how runs were scored. Meats was in the Rivera lineup, probably to catch, although that is not spelled out. WJ ended up with 12 SO and 1 BB. No total of hits is given, but by adding up the hits described in inning-by-inning narratives, one comes up with at least 9 off him. He made at least 3 assists in the field and had the following batting record: 3rd: Safe on wild throw by SS; scored. 4th: Scored again, but no info as to how he reached base. 6th: Grounded out, 6-3. 8th: Singled to score Meats. C. LEONARDT 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 -- 4 RIVERA 0 0 3 4 0 3 0 2 x -- 12 Johnson and Knell both went the distance for their teams. The article mentions that there will be "no game at the Los Nietos grounds for two weeks", after which baseball activities will resume. Admission will be 25 cents. NOTE -- John E. Spalding's book, "Always on Sunday", has Philip L. Knell as a California League performer intermittently from 1887 ("22-year-old left-hander Phil Knell") through 1908, when he managed the San Francisco team. "Total Baseball" credits Phil with a 79-90 major league record between 1888 and 1895. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8/20 No mention of a game in the following Thursday's paper. In the Rivera news, it describes a game coming up 8/27 between "the married men and single men of Rivera... Manager Cate [the regular Rivera manager] will arbitrate..." Lineups are given and include a few familiar names. Admission is 10 cents! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8/27, 9/3 No baseball activity of any kind is mentioned in the following weeks' papers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/10 Rivera 4, Hamburger 7: In Saturday's paper, it was mentioned that there was a game scheduled tomorrow at the Los Nietos grounds. Rivera and Hamburger were 2-2 for the year at this point. "Johnson, the Olinda man, will pitch for Rivera, and Ford of San Pedro will do the same stunt for the Hamburgers." No mention in Monday's paper, though, of Johnson. Ford allowed the Riveras only 4 hits. "Next Sunday the Hoegee Flags." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/17 No mention of any game. HT has Rivera 7, LA Christopher 9 today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/24 Rivera 6, Tufts-Lyon 3: Tufts-Lyon defeated Christopher 15-0 at 1 pm, then took on Rivera. Friday's paper states "Johnson will do the twirling for the Riveras". No details of the game appeared in Monday's paper, which says simply, "the Riveras are holding their enviable record for being the 'crack team' in amateur circles." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/ 1 Rivera 4, Hamburger 6: Saturday's paper said Lucero was to pitch. No mention of WJ in Monday's paper. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/ 8 Rivera 4, @ Santa Barbara 13: No details of this game, just that "Rivera was badly waxed". LA Pacific beat LA Christopher 9-3 at the Los Nietos grounds that day for its 9th straight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/15 Rivera 8, LA Electrics 4: HT has Walter back with Olinda by this time; WN says the Rivera battery was Morrison and Meats. Summer editions of the WN didn't have much on Rivera. In the 10/19 paper they say, "Glad to note the return of 'G' to the columns of the News after a temporary absence. Rivera news is always interesting -- Ed." [The Rivera correspondent was listed as W. D. Groton in some of the earlier issues.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/22 Rivera 9, Morgan Oyster 1. Morrison pitched. 10/29 Rivera 5, Leonardts 9. Morrison pitched. Few Rivera columns in Nov and after. What little sports news there was is mostly of football and basketball. It was raining on 11/5 and 11/26. 11/30 Lost to C. Leonardt. Thanksgiving Day. 12/ 3 Rivera was scheduled to play Downey, but ended up losing @ Pomona. One interesting item from a WN in December: "Daily reports of [Pacific Coast] League games in town have been doubly interesting to our local fans on account of the presence with Los Angeles' lineup of Lloyd Broadbent and George Ellis." [According to a chronology of 1905 in the 1992 Grandstand Baseball Annual, the PCL season closed today and was followed by a nine-game post-season series between L. A. and Tacoma which ran through 12/17.] There were also several mentions of Nixons as well of a Miss Lizzie Milhous, 12-year-old daughter of Richard Milhous, who fell off her horse! 12/10 "There was no ball game at Los Nietos last Sunday, so our local players and fans, including several ladies, all went in to witness the Los Angeles game, and incidentally to give George Ellis a 'send-off'." Ellis [LF] of the Riveras signed with Los Angeles "for the balance of this season and the next." 12/17 Rivera 0, Tufts-Lyon 0, 11 inn. Battery was Morrison & Meats ("as usual") vs Champion and Leahy. To play Hamburgers next Sunday. No news of that game. =============================================================================== 1906 1/14 Rivera was to play Tufts-Lyon. Battery to be Morrison & Snodgrass. No mention of a game. It rained 1.24" over the weekend. 1/21 Rivera 1, @ Pomona 2. Andy Broadbent pitched. 2/ 4 Rivera 7, Tufts-Lyon 7, 12 inn. Andy Broadbent pitched. 2/11 No mention of any game. According to AG, Olinda defeated Rivera, 5 to 4. It rained .45" 2/10-11. 2/25 No mention of any game in the lengthy Rivera column in 3/1 WN. AG has Olinda defeating Rivera 6-0. 3/ 4 Rivera 5, @ Olinda 3. "The Rivera nine visited Anaheim last Sunday and won a very interesting game from the Olindas, score 5 to 3. I believe this gives us the odd game of the series. [Not so! Olinda won on 2/11 & 2/25] Morrison pitched a fine game, allowing but four hits. Our boys made eleven off of Johnson. A three-bagger by George Ellis must be mentioned." No other details. Stopped scanning microfilm here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resumed microfilm scan with issue of 8/1 to see if any trace of WJ's playing for or against Rivera after his return from Weiser. 7/29 Rivera 0, LA Examiners 1, @ Chutes Park. Lucero vs. Marshall. 8/ 5 Rivera to play @ Pomona, but no story found. Almost no baseball news at all from here on. Most Rivera news, when any appears, was of a social nature. There was one mention of George Ellis playing for the Looloos [L.A.'s PCL team] and another of a boys' club game between Whittier and Los Nietos teams on a Saturday "on the Los Nietos grounds", but nothing else. From all we can see in the WN, there isn't any evidence that the Rivera team even existed during the late Summer and Fall of 1906. Scanned through the issue of Saturday, 12/1. (A search of LAR did reveal occasional mentions of Rivera as a member of the L. A. City League. The 8/13 issue listed them as last in the league with a 3-9 record. Games were played at Chutes, Arcadia, Seal Gardens and Pasadena. No details of who was on the Rivera team nor was there any other mention of Johnson.) =============================================================================== THE NEWS SOURCE FOR ALL RIVERA GAMES, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED: The Whittier News, "published every Saturday". There was a regular column headed "The Valley", which included news items from Rivera, La Habra, etc. In March, 1905, it became the Daily News. It was then [usually] published every day except Sunday. The Rivera news items usually appeared in Thursday's editions under headings such as "Rivera Ripples". All home games were played at the "Los Nietos grounds". While there still are some gaps in coverage of the Riveras' play during 1905, it is doubtful that any of these involve games against Olinda, in light of the statement in the article on the 7/23 game that this was the third game of the year. All three of the Rivera-Olinda games are accounted for, thanks to finding the 8-8 game on 7/2 in the Fullerton Tribune. AG Anaheim Gazette LAR Los Angeles Record