{"id":44,"date":"2010-07-11T22:53:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-11T22:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2020-12-09T04:51:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T04:51:23","slug":"chapter-v-the-1927-season","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/?page_id=44","title":{"rendered":"Chapter V – THE 1927 SEASON"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the disastrous financial problems of 1926, combined with the visit of Commissioner Landis, it seemed highly unlikely that the Copper League would survive to continue into the 1927 season.\u00a0 However it became obvious that not all teams had thrown in the towel.\u00a0 Just before the visit by Landis it was rumored that the Chino team, in addition to keeping Chick Gandil as manager, was going to bring in Hap Felsch and Buck Weaver, free from his Douglas commitment.\u00a0 Fort Bayard would once again have Jimmie O’Connell and Lefty Williams as the nucleus to lead their team.156<\/strong>
\nFort Bayard was the first team to organize during the initial week of March.\u00a0 Only a few days later the Chino team was organized with Chick Gandil as manager, as expected.\u00a0 Hap Felsch and Buck Weaver did not ever appear in Twins uniforms or for that matter in any other Copper League uniform.\u00a0 It is unknown if the baseball hearings during the winter influenced their decision not to join the Twins or if the rumors of their coming were never based in fact.\u00a0 By the second week of March a new league was formed made up of the Fort Bayard, Chino, El Paso and Bisbee clubs.157<\/strong>
\nEl Paso had difficulty in deciding how to organize a city team.\u00a0 They explored several possibilities including just supporting the team of the Southern Pacific Railroad.\u00a0 They finally chose their old form and organized a club, supported once again by admission receipts and individual subscriptions.158<\/strong> This formula had been inadequate for raising money during the previous two seasons and it seemed unlikely that it would succeed this year.\u00a0 Their main attempt to overcome their mediocre records of the previous two years was to hire Tom Seaton as both a pitcher and as the on-field manager.159<\/strong> No one seemed excited about the up-coming year in El Paso.
\nThe decision by the Bisbee team is the hardest to understand.\u00a0 During the entire 1926 season Bisbee had a losing record.\u00a0 They also had been outspoken in their opposition to the use of outlaw players.\u00a0\u00a0 As the 1927 season was preparing to begin they did not appear to have changed their view on the use of the ineligible players.\u00a0 However, when the season opened they were once again in the league and the ineligible players were on the rosters of at least two of the teams.
\nAt the official meeting on March 12 it was decided to again allow players ineligible in the Major Leagues to play in the Copper League.\u00a0 In spite of the cut back to only four teams, it was decided to stay with the three game format on each week-end with a game on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.\u00a0 As with previous years, the season was divided into two parts with champion for each half to play for the final championship.160<\/strong>
\nGone from the previous year was Buck Weaver.\u00a0 He had been highly popular in the league, on a par with Jimmie O’Connell.\u00a0 Whether the decision not to return was Weaver’s or the league’s is not known at this time.\u00a0 Also gone was the controversial Chase.\u00a0 After suffering the serious injuries during the wreck of August, 1926, Chase had been unable to return for the rest of the season.\u00a0 He remained in Douglas but seemed to have little to do with baseball.\u00a0 He was reported to be suffering from the effects of the wreck and to be selling automobiles for a local dealer.161<\/strong> Chase was to make one more try at in comeback in the league but would be unsuccessful and his career with the Copper League was completed.
\nThe season opened on the weekend of April 29 with Fort Bayard at Chino and El Paso at Bisbee.\u00a0 Fort Bayard swept the three game series and established itself as the dominate power of the league.\u00a0 Jimmie O’Connell was once again the commanding hitter and highly popular gate draw in the league.\u00a0 Lefty Williams, along with Roy Johnson and Harry Althouse, gave the Veterans a pitching rotation that was unexcelled by the rest of the league.\u00a0 The team quickly came to be called the “Bayard espress.”162<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday, May 19, between the first and second games of a double header, Fort Bayard was given the Marice Swartz trophy, emblematic of the Copper League championship for the 1926 season.163<\/strong> There seemed to be no existing combination in the league that could hope to stop the Bayard express or even slow them down.
\nEl Paso was once again playing sub par baseball.\u00a0 After realizing that Tom Seaton could not carry the team by himself, the Giant’s management decided that they needed to import instant winners.\u00a0 They announced a plan to try to raise $2500 in the hope of recruiting two unidentified players and the highly popular Buck Weaver, who was playing semi-pro baseball in the Chicago area.164<\/strong> Like so many grandiose plans during this three year period, nothing further was reported of the rumor and El Paso continued to stumble along in mediocrity.
\nThe first half of the season ended with Fort Bayard in the controlling position as expected.\u00a0 They had compiled a record of nineteen wins and eight losses.\u00a0 Bisbee finished a surprising second with a good record of fifteen wins and twelve losses.\u00a0 El Paso finished with a disappointing eleven wins and fifteen losses.\u00a0 The real surprise of the season was the dismal finish by the Chino team under Gandil’s leadership.\u00a0 After high expectations at the beginning of the year, they fell to a disappointing record of eight wins and eighteen losses.165<\/strong> As expected Jimmie O’Connell led the league in most of the hitting categories.\u00a0 He batted .481, had thirteen doubles and had nine home runs.\u00a0 Gandil finished the first half with a respectable batting average of .421.\u00a0 Lefty Williams was one of the top players with a record of five wins and two losses, with twenty three strikeouts and only seven bases-on-balls.166<\/strong>
\nThe many problems the league faced were summed up in the El Paso Times,<\/p>\n

Whats (sic) Wrong with Copper League.\u00a0 Growing rivalries and increased ambitions have swelled the salary limit and the
\nexpense budget with every passing year.\u00a0 The clubs adopt a $2000 salary limit and then privately wink at it.<\/p>\n

n a separate article on the same page, columnist Slam Marshall stated “At no time has a Copper League team maintained itself on gate receipts.”167<\/strong>
\nIn spite of its faltering play and inability to secure Buck Weaver, the Giants were not yet prepared to throw in the towel.\u00a0 On July 13, El Paso announced that they wanted to sign Hal Chase, but, mysteriously, also announced that they needed to have Bisbee’s permission.\u00a0 The next day Bisbee had still not responded.\u00a0 On the third day, July 15, El Paso reported that they had secured permission from the other three teams to sign the aging and worn Chase.\u00a0 The paper further stated that this permission was necessary to waive the rule using any other outlaw players.168<\/strong> No mention has been identified from any other source to clarify what this rule might have been.\u00a0 Perhaps it was just another money saving gesture.\u00a0 It also might have been a compromise adopted to bring Bisbee back into the league for the 1927 season.\u00a0 Whatever the background of the this rule, this series of events makes it clear that even after almost three years of baseball the subject of the outlaw players was still a controversy that had not been settled or fully clarified.
\nAfter announcing that Chase would join the Giants, the local newspaper announced the next day that Chase would arrive the following week.\u00a0 On July 20, Chase still had not been heard from.\u00a0 On July 21 a telegram arrived from Chase saying that he had been ill but would join the team in Bisbee for the upcoming series.\u00a0 However on July 27, Chase decided not to play and returned to Douglas.\u00a0 The following day it was announced that Chase had finally signed a contract and would arrive the following weekend for the upcoming series.\u00a0 The reported reason he had been reluctant to play was due to a dislocated knee left over from the serious car wreck he had been involved in the previous August outside of Silver City.169<\/strong>
\nChase finally arrived in time for the series with Fort Bayard the first weekend of August.\u00a0 Chase was fairly effective at the bat, going two hits for four at-bats in the first game.\u00a0 However, his play on the field was severely limited by the painful injury to the knee.\u00a0 Loyal fans, watching the game, realized that they were watching a shadow of the baseball giant they had all enjoyed over the last two years.\u00a0 After the three game series, Chase was quietly dropped from the El Paso team and also dropped out the annals of the Copper League.170<\/strong> Chase never achieved the popularity in Douglas that he found in other Arizona cities.\u00a0 He was the mainstay of the Douglas team, was instrumental in introducing the outlaw players and yet seemed under a cloud.\u00a0 At the age of 45 Hal Chase’s baseball career seemed to be over.
\nThe remainder of the season progressed with little or no controversy.\u00a0 The only surprise was the emergence of the Chino Twins as a powerful team.\u00a0 After a year of managing, Chick Gandil finally produced a strong, viable, competitive team.\u00a0 He did it without using any of the name players, including any of the outlaw players.\u00a0 He finally found a combination of local and regional players who formed a workable team.
\nWhen the season ended after the first weekend of September, the Twins had managed to best the Veteran’s outstanding team.\u00a0 Chino completed the second half of the season with a strong twenty one wins and only ten losses.\u00a0 The Veterans express ended the season two games back with a record of nineteen wins and twelve losses.\u00a0 The surprising Bisbee Miners completed the season with an acceptable record of seventeen wins and fourteen losses.\u00a0 Every team had beaten up on the lackluster El Paso Giants who finished with a dismal record of five wins and twenty six losses.171<\/strong> In accordance with league rules, the following weekend was scheduled for the playoff between the first half winners, the Fort Bayard Veterans, and the second half winners, the Chino Twins.
\nWhen Chino arrived to begin the series in Fort Bayard they released the news that their manager and star player, Chick Gandil, had resigned just before the playoff was to begin and had left the area.172<\/strong> No reason was given for Gandil’s departure.\u00a0 After being with the Chino team for almost a year and a half, Gandil had taken the Twins from the cellar of the six team league to the championship of the four team league.\u00a0 The upcoming series appeared to be the culmination of Gandil’s work with the baseball mad Santa Rita and Hurley players.\u00a0 To this point no explanation has surfaced to indicate if the departure was Gandil’s choice or the choice of the Twins.\u00a0 Whatever the reason, Gandil left the region, never to return.\u00a0 With Gandil gone, the Twins elevated Johnny Meanor, a local player, to the manager position and prepared to play their close neighbor.
\nThe playoff was a boon to the Silver City region with the possibility of a seven game series in the area.\u00a0 However the league wanted to offer some type of consolation to the El Paso area and scheduled the final three games, if they were needed to be played, in El Paso.
\nEven without Gandil, the Chino Twins were a strong match for the Veterans.\u00a0 Fort Bayard opened the series with a seven to five win on Friday, September 9.\u00a0 The following day Chino replied with an equally close score of four to two.\u00a0 On Sunday, the Veterans returned with Lefty Williams in rare form and took the third game with a convincing fourteen to three victory.\u00a0 The series continued on Friday, September 17 when Chino returned the favor to Fort Bayard by evening the series at two and two by winning the fourth game convincingly fifteen to one.\u00a0 The series then moved to El Paso for the final games.
\nThe final games had been needed.\u00a0 On Saturday, the Veterans, again behind the strong arm of Lefty Williams, took a strong lead in the series.\u00a0 In a rain shortened game, Fort Bayard squeaked by with a six to five win.\u00a0 On Sunday, Chino was faced with the unpleasant prospect of beating the Veterans twice in order to claim the championship.\u00a0 However, in a true show of ability and composure, the Twins did just that by capturing the first game three to one and then returning to take the second game by an equally close score of four to two.173<\/strong> In spite of the seeming invincibility of the Fort Bayard Veterans, the Chino Twins pulled off what can only be called a major upset, first by winning the second half championship and then by defeating the Veterans in a hard fought series.\u00a0 Unfortunately outside of the Silver City area, no one really seemed to care.
\nWith the season over, Tom Seaton, Lefty\u00a0 Williams and Jimmie O’Connell joined a Juarez team called the Brewers.\u00a0 The all star team was organized from Copper League players to play a touring team of Cuban stars.174<\/strong>
\nIn the Silver City area the prospects for baseball never looked better.\u00a0 Both Chino and Fort Bayard had completed highly successful seasons.\u00a0 Both teams drew large crowds and both were strongly supported by their corporate sponsors.\u00a0 However their success might well have contributed to the demise of the league.\u00a0 With Douglas and Juarez both out of the league, the departure of only one more team would spell the end of a viable league.\u00a0 El Paso had suffered through a devastating and humiliating season.\u00a0 After the 1926 season El Paso appeared to be on the edge of dropping league play.\u00a0 The frustration of the 1927 season appeared to have finished their involvement in the league.\u00a0 They not only suffered serious financial problems, but had also failed to draw fans to their games.\u00a0 In spite of the large population base of the El Paso\/Juarez area, the baseball club was never able to find the combination that could produce a winner on the field and at the gate.
\nBisbee had completed a successful season with a winning record during the first and second half of the season.\u00a0 Corporate sponsorship had been strong and reliable and, win or lose, they always played to large crowds.\u00a0 However, even before the season ended, it appeared unlikely that Bisbee would again field a team in the Copper League.\u00a0 Bisbee had been a foe to the outlaw players from the beginning of 1925 and had continued to voice objection during the following two years.\u00a0 During their two years of participation in the league they did not use and known outlaw players and seemingly restricted the use of outlaw players as the price of their participation during the 1927 season.175<\/strong>
\nWith two teams, for differing reasons, showing strong feeling against forming a new league, the Copper League was doomed.\u00a0 El Paso did drop its participation and did not field another city wide team until three years later.\u00a0 Bisbee also dropped participation in the league but was able to join a new league formed in central and southern Arizona.\u00a0 Only Fort Bayard and Chino remained and they had in fact run out of anyone to play on a league basis.<\/p>\n

156\u00a0El Paso Times<\/em>, April 9, 1927.<\/p>\n

157 ibid., March 13, 1927.<\/p>\n

158 ibid., March 26, 1927.<\/p>\n

159 ibid., April 14, 1927.<\/p>\n

160 ibid., March 13, 1927.<\/p>\n

161 Bob Hoie, “The Hal Chase Case,”\u00a0Baseball Research Journal<\/em>, 3 (1973), 33.<\/p>\n

162\u00a0El Paso Times<\/em>, May 7, 1927.<\/p>\n

163 ibid., May 26, 1927.<\/p>\n

164 ibid., June 7, 1927.<\/p>\n

165 ibid., June 29, 1927.<\/p>\n

166 ibid., June 29, 1927.<\/p>\n

167 ibid., July 8, 1927.<\/p>\n

168 ibid., July 13-15, 1927.<\/p>\n

169 ibid., July 16-27, 1927.<\/p>\n

170 ibid., August 3, 1927.<\/p>\n

171 ibid., September 6, 1927.<\/p>\n

172 ibid., September 14, 1927.<\/p>\n

173 ibid., September 10-21, 1927.\u00a0 The\u00a0El Paso Times<\/em> offered the most extensive coverage of the series of all local and regional newspapers.<\/p>\n

174 ibid., September 24, 1927.\u00a0 Unfortunately the results were never printed nor any further information as to whether this team played any other games or series.<\/p>\n

175 See Chapter 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the disastrous financial problems of 1926, combined with the visit of Commissioner Landis, it seemed highly unlikely that the Copper League would survive to continue into the 1927 season.\u00a0 However it became obvious that not all teams had thrown … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions\/148"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}