{"id":47,"date":"2010-07-12T00:16:22","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T00:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/?page_id=47"},"modified":"2020-12-09T04:46:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T04:46:55","slug":"chapter-vi-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/?page_id=47","title":{"rendered":"Chapter VI – CONCLUSION"},"content":{"rendered":"

The golden years of outlaw baseball in the southwest borderlands were over.\u00a0 Many factors contributed to its end.\u00a0 At the bottom line the use of the outlaw players generated a level of competition that required the use of talented and expensive players to support the former major leaguers.\u00a0 No team was ever able to generate sustained economic autonomy from gate receipts alone.\u00a0 Every team that was successful and remained successful for the duration of the three years received financial support from a corporate donor.\u00a0 Fort Bayard was able to hire its baseball players into existing jobs at the hospital.\u00a0 Chino and Bisbee received monthly payments from the local mining companies and at least Chino also provided off season employment for the players.\u00a0 El Paso, Juarez and Douglas tried to survive with a more populist program of gate receipts and various fund raisers.\u00a0 All three of these cities suffered from chronic money problems and were never able to escape the problems associated with their financially strapped programs.\u00a0 Ultimately there were not enough locations in the borderlands with the interest and fiscal ability to support the programs necessary to develop and maintain consistent, viable winning teams.
\nOf all of the cities, Douglas appears to have been the biggest loser.\u00a0 The Blues were the leader in introducing the outlaw players to the league.\u00a0 The consistently supported their use and supported most moves to develop a more professional like league.\u00a0 However the continuing money problems\u00a0 seemed to drain the interest of the fans and especially the sponsors, the Douglas and Agua Prieta Chambers of Commerce.\u00a0 After the 1926 season, Douglas returned to having only a local Douglas area league.\u00a0 Although Douglas continued to be a trade and commerce center of Southeastern Arizona, they never did develop another team on its own that competed outside of the local area.\u00a0 Organized baseball reached Southern Arizona in 1928.\u00a0 However Arizona never had an organized team in the resulting Arizona League except briefly when they joined with Bisbee in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s in the Arizona-Texas League.176<\/strong>
\nJuarez was the other big loser.\u00a0 After suffering through a humiliating equivalent of bankruptcy in 1926, the Juarez club and its sponsors dropped out of the league.\u00a0 It was thirty years before Juarez was able to offer a team that would compete regularly with teams from the United States.177<\/strong> Juarez was forced to look south to its sister cities in the Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua and beyond.\u00a0 In 1973 Juarez joined the class AAA Mexican League and has produced many strong teams over the years.
\nIn 1928 and 1929 El Paso also lost the ability to produce a team for regional competition.\u00a0 The Giants, much like the Douglas Blues, were never able to develop a stable financial plan.\u00a0 This always seemed to overshadow their ability to field an entertaining and winning team.\u00a0 One can only speculate what would have happened if the El Paso club had found the means of paying Joe Jackson the $500 a month he required.\u00a0 Perhaps Jackson would have breathed life into the irregular Giants or perhaps he to would have been drawn down by the lethargy that appeared to take over.\u00a0 Although the El Paso fans and club executives seemed to be exhausted by their efforts in the Copper League, unlike Douglas they were in an area that had a larger population and the city was growing.\u00a0 In 1930 El Paso joined the Class D Arizona State League and in the 1931 the league name was changed to the Arizona-Texas League to reflect the presence of the Giants.178<\/strong> Through the years El Paso has continued to be the site of a professional baseball team in various leagues.\u00a0 In 1962 they finally joined the Texas League.\u00a0 As of 1975 El Paso still had a representative in the Class AAA Texas League.179<\/strong>
\nChino Twins eventually suffered a drastic drop not due to the declining fortunes of baseball, but rather to the declining fortunes of the towns of Santa Rita and Hurley.\u00a0 When the great depression struck, the large mine at Santa Rita was forced to curtail production and remained totally or partially closed during parts of the 1930’s.\u00a0 Baseball dropped in importance and the great teams of the teen’s and twenties were never seen again.\u00a0 However interest among a core of players always stayed with the team and even though they left during the times of mine closures, they returned when the mines reopened.180<\/strong>
\nAt the best of times, Hurley and Santa Rita were small company towns and they were never able to seriously consider going into organized baseball.\u00a0 Today the city of Santa Rita no longer exists as it was dug out to expose the copper below and now the town lives only in memory.
\nFort Bayard still exist today as a small New Mexico state hospital for the chronically ill.\u00a0 Of the six teams that participated in the league, Fort Bayard appeared to be the least influenced by the failure of the Copper League.\u00a0 The fort continued to field teams through the the 1930’s and the 1940’s.\u00a0 They reverted to a barnstorming format and continued to play various teams from the region including Cananea, Fort Huachucha, the White Mountain Apache Reservation and on occasion the miners of the town of Madrid in Northern New Mexico.\u00a0 The fort also served as a center of activity for developing young players in the area and ran youth teams and leagues.181<\/strong> Under the leadership of Jimmie O’Connell and Harry Althouse, the fort reorganized as the Fort Bayard Vets.\u00a0 Many young men in the Silver City area began their baseball careers under the tutor ledge of these two men.182<\/strong>
\nOf the teams that survived the Copper League, the Bisbee team appeared to emerge with the best future.\u00a0 After protesting its adamant opposition to the outlaw players during the 1926 and 1927 years, the Miners emerged as the Bisbee Bees in the newly formed Class D Arizona State League in 1928.\u00a0 The other three teams in the league were Miami, Phoenix and Tucson.183<\/strong> While Arizona may well have been deserving of a Class D league, it would appear to be a striking coincidence that during the winter of 1927 Commissioner Landis offered his help to secure a Class D team for any town that would not use outlaw players.\u00a0 Bisbee strongly objected to the use of the outlaw players and when the Copper League failed they gained a Class D team the following year.\u00a0 On the other hand El Paso, a much larger metropolitan area, did not object to using the outlaw players and even tried to recruit Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver and Hal Chase.\u00a0 When the Copper League failed it was two years before the Giants were able to secure a professional affiliation.\u00a0 The possibility remains that the Bisbee franchise and indeed the entire Arizona State League was a pay off by Landis for the support of the Bisbee club.\u00a0 Up until World War II Bisbee had a team in the various configurations that made up the Arizona and Arizona-Texas League.\u00a0 After World War II Bisbee joined with Douglas and competed until 1954.184<\/strong>
\nOf the five outlaw players that actually participated in the Copper League, each went on to other pursuits.\u00a0 Buck Weaver had left after the 1926 season and likely never returned to the Southwestern region.\u00a0 He played the 1927 season for a semi-pro team in the Chicago area and spent the remainder of his life in the same Chicago area.\u00a0 Of the eight Black Sox players, Weaver appeared to have the strongest case for reinstatement.\u00a0 However each attempt fell upon deaf ears.\u00a0 He made his living as a para-mutual clerk on Chicago’s south side and died on January 31, 1956.
\nChick Gandil was a part of the league for two and one half years and played for three different teams, the Douglas Blues, the Fort Bayard Veterans and the Chino Twins.\u00a0 He also managed the Chino Twins.\u00a0 Of the five outlaw players, Gandil appeared to have the least following by the fans of the area.\u00a0 When he suddenly left before the playoffs of the 1927 season the local papers did not even mention any details as to his departure.\u00a0 Fifty years later Silver City area residents remember Gandil as a players of great ability but also one capable of any activity.185<\/strong>
\nLefty Williams remains one of the least understood members of the Black Sox and also of the outlaw players in the Copper League.\u00a0 He was quite content to play at Fort Bayard and fort certainly offered a stable paying job as well as extra money for playing baseball.\u00a0 However after being mentioned as a player on the Juarez Brewer’s barnstorming team after the completion of the 1927 year, no further mention of Williams has been found.\u00a0 With the competition of the Copper League gone, Williams left the area.186<\/strong> Williams returned to Chicago at some point but later moved to California where he ran a nursery.\u00a0 He died on November 4, 1959 in Laguna Beach, California.
\nOf the five players only Jimmie O’Connell remained in the immediate area and continued to play baseball.\u00a0 He was the youngest of the five outlawed players and still at his prime baseball playing age.\u00a0 He continued to work at Fort Bayard and his wife became the fort’s postmistress.\u00a0 O’Connell, along with Harry Althouse, was instrumental in organizing the youth teams.\u00a0 To the many youths of the Silver City area, O’Connell came to be a figure of gigantic proportions and is still revered among the generation that came to know him so well.187<\/strong> He remained at Fort Bayard at least until 1934 and possibly as late as 1935 or 1936 when he finally returned to his native California.188<\/strong> He went to work for Richfield Oil Company where Thomas Foy later went to visit him.\u00a0 O’Connell died in Bakersfield, California on November 11, 1975.
\nOf the five players, the saddest case was undoubtedly that of Hal Chase.\u00a0 Unable to play due to the knee injury suffered during the 1926 season, Chase still remained in the Douglas area during that year and probably remained for 1927 where he had a job selling cars.\u00a0 He returned to California some time after that period and stayed until 1930.\u00a0 In the summer of 1930 he returned to Williams, Arizona where he played baseball and lived for two years.189<\/strong> Sometime in 1932 he moved to Tucson, Arizona where he played more baseball and stayed until 1934 or 1935.\u00a0 He then moved back to California to live with his niece.
\nAlways a heavy drinker, it appears that he started using alcohol at an alarming rate around 1930 and was likely an alcoholic by that time.\u00a0 He was hospitalized in 1941 in California for the treatment of beri-beri, a disease often associated with chronic alcohol ingestion.190<\/strong> He was totally destitute and had no idea how he would pay his hospital bills.\u00a0 He died on May 18, 1947 in Colusa, California of alcohol abuse related effects.
\nChase worked briefly as a plumber’s assistant, a car salesman, in pool halls and in bars, but he remained until his death a baseball player.\u00a0 In 1935 when Chase was fifty two years old he was listed in the Tucson City Directory.\u00a0 It gave his name, address and his occupation.\u00a0 His occupation was listed simply as “ballplayer.”191<\/strong> Hal Chase is undoubtedly one of the most controversial players to eve play professional baseball.\u00a0 He has been vilified, called amoral and immoral and is generally included in any list of banned baseball players.\u00a0 But to his many fans of Arizona he always remained the star.\u00a0 It is most ironic that of the outlawed players who played in the Southwest he was the one who was technically probably never banned and yet he was also the one who was never able to resist the call of the boys of summer.<\/p>\n

176 Robert Obojski,\u00a0Bush League: a History of Minor League Basebal<\/em>l, (New York: Macmillan, 1975), p. 326.<\/p>\n

177 ibid., p. 325.\u00a0 In 1958 Juarez competed with other Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico teams in the class C Arizona-Mexico League.<\/p>\n

178 ibid., p.192-3.<\/p>\n

179 ibid., p. 178.<\/p>\n

180 Thomas P. Foy Sr., Personal interview, December 28, 1988.<\/p>\n

181 Frank Duran, Personal interview, Central, New Mexico, July 28, 1985.\u00a0 Mr. Duran played baseball with the various Fort Bayard youth teams and participated in the games against the teams mentioned.<\/p>\n

182 Thomas P. Foy Sr.<\/p>\n

183 Obojski, p. 236.<\/p>\n

184 ibid., p. 326.<\/p>\n

185 Frank Duran.\u00a0 Sonny Marshall, Personal interview, Hurley, Arizona, July 29, 1985.\u00a0 Mr. Marshall had less contact with Gandil but he also reiterated Gandil’s unsavory reputation.\u00a0 Thomas Foy Sr. Mr. Foy, who served as a kind of mascot for the Veterans, remembers Gandil will and refers to him as a “scoundrel.”<\/p>\n

186 Thomas Foy Sr.\u00a0 Mr. Foy states that after the money dried up Williams left the area.\u00a0 No written sources have been found to back up this contention but this is probably due to his lack of popularity.\u00a0 Williams was never disliked by the fans, but he certainly never attracted any strong following and his leaving probably just went unnoticed by the news sources.<\/p>\n

187 Frank Duran. Thomas Foy Sr.\u00a0 Mr. Foy still calls him one of the kindest, gentlest men he has ever known.<\/p>\n

188 Silver City Enterprise, May 4, 1934.\u00a0 O’Connell was mentioned in a newspaper article.\u00a0 Frank Duran felt that he was at Fort Bayard until at least 1935 and probably until 1936.<\/p>\n

189 It is very unclear exactly how much of 1930-32 Chase actually lived in Williams.\u00a0 According to accounts in the Williams News, Chase arrived in mid July of 1930.\u00a0 With him playing in his old spot the Williams Merchants became a power in Northern Arizona.\u00a0 Given the title Captain for the Labor Day weekend playoffs, Chase led the team to a championship over seven other teams.\u00a0 However during 1931 he was not a part of the team.\u00a0 In 1932 Chase did not appear in any games until the weekend of August 8-9.\u00a0 Chase was now 50 years old but still collected two hits in three at bats.\u00a0 He did not appear in any other games.<\/p>\n

190 Lester Grant, “Hal Chase, Broke and Ill at 58, Recalls Life’s Errors, Including His Terrible Boner on Black Sox Scandal.”\u00a0The Sporting News<\/em>, September 18, 1941, p. 3.<\/p>\n

191\u00a0Tucson City Directory<\/em>, 1935, p. 192.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The golden years of outlaw baseball in the southwest borderlands were over.\u00a0 Many factors contributed to its end.\u00a0 At the bottom line the use of the outlaw players generated a level of competition that required the use of talented and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47"}],"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=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/www.BevillsAdvocate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions\/146"}],"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=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}