BACK HOME IN THE INLAND EMPIRE; THE ANGLES AT QUAKE STADUIM

"Ontario, home of Angels"CRIED THE DAILY REPORT IN 1938....We are talking Baseball here so don't go getting all excited and all...And besides, this was the thinking 60 years ago....Yeah, 60 years.

Well after all those years the angels have indeed made it to the Inland Empire, albeit not quite where people thought they would go and a long road and history making tour of California instead and indeed dropping a lot of rain along the way.

A Ontario Daily Report writer had no idea how prophetic he was on Feb. 19, 1938, when he wrote that the minor-league Los Angeles Angels "were the ranchers' friend because they always seem to bring rain."

The Angels, the Chicago Cubs' farm club in the Pacific Coast League, trained at Ontario's John Galvin Park each spring from 1937 to 1942.....But during the first half of March 1938, the Angels found themselves in the midst of arguably the worst local onslaught of rain and floods of the 20th century up until the 1969 floods..

Consider:

Feb. 28 and March 1: Rain washed out the first two workouts. On March 1, Angels manager "Truck" Hannah drove the team to the spa at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet "for a soaking."

March 2: Another "soaking," this time from trying to work out amid the more than 10 inches of rain that week.

March 3: During one deluge, Hannah left the team lodgings at the Casa Blanca Hotel to run an errand and disappeared for hours. Just as the team was ready to send out a search party, he turned up and took the team to Chaffey High gym where they worked out indoors.

March 4: The team had to practice in the park across from the stadium at Grove Avenue and 4th Street because the diamond was still soaked.

March 14: After a few dry days, the Angels' first exhibition game with the semi-pro Ontario Merchants was postponed by wet grounds.

Despite the sometimes unpredictable weather, it was a big deal for the Inland Valley to have the Angels spend six weeks each year in workouts and playing practice games here.....And what made it all happen was the 1937 opening of Ontario's stadium - today known as the Jay Littleton Ball Park.

The stadium was built for $30,000 by the State Emergency Relief Administration, a program to build public works projects and provide badly needed employment during the Depression.....To level off the outfield, they imported dirt excavated from the Colorado River Aqueduct project....It seems as well as many long time residents will tell you, that we live on an alluvial plain and there isn;t sand to be found in the entire inland empire including the Santa Ana River Bed.

The stadium was dedicated March 13, 1937, but the excitement came a weekend later when the Angels played two games with the Chicago White Sox and lost both, the second being a 13-error, 18-walk affair....(Sounds like today's Angels)

The Angels, who would finish fifth in the PCL, beat the White Sox and Pirates, before losing to the Cubs, 10-4, at Ontario.......In the crowd for that latter game was Cubs owner and chewing gum manufacturer P.K. Wrigley.

In the rain-soaked 1938 spring, the Angels finally did get to play a few games.....That team, which would win the PCL pennant that year, defeated Pittsburgh in San Bernardino, where the Pirates trained for several years, and then went on to beat the White Sox in Ontario for the Pennant.

The high point of the spring season was an Ontario game with the Cubs on March 28. Stores closed as just about everyone went out to see the Cubs, who would win the National League crown that year. The proceeds of the Angels-Cubs game during spring training 1939 went to Ontario relief agencies. It cost a dollar to get into the grandstand and 50 cents along the foul lines. "School executives announced today that students who wish to attend the game will be excused," wrote the Daily Report, saving kids the need of making up stories for skipping class.

About 2,800 fans saw the Angels beat the Cubs, 9-8, in a game that included another future Hall of Fame member......Pitcher Dizzy Dean, in the declining years of a career after starring for the St. Louis Cardinals, made a pinch-hitting appearance for the Cubs in the sixth inning.

"Ole Diz went down swinging and smiling to the tune of a good-natured razz," wrote the Daily Report.

The Angels would train in Ontario through 1942, but then left town and moved, ironically, to Anaheim for spring training in 1943.

The angels left again, but returned once more to the west coast playing at Dodger Stadium for two seasons while a new stadium could be built in Anaheim at today's stadium site despite all of the name changes.

And they have returned to the Inland Empire once again, playing at the Quake Stadium in Rancho Cucamonga....After two years here already moving in after the San Diego Padres sold out to them, the stadium is still the hub of activity during the seasons.....After each winning game the fireworks go off....I have been woke late at night to what sounds like gunfire but after a few booms and the rata ta ta of single fireworks I know that the Angles have won another one.

Back home in the Inland Empire.

 GARY HALL, THE GHOSTPAINTER