Portland Beavers vs. Chicago Cubs: March 10th, 1922

Pasadena Evening Post 3/9/22

It's not something that fans will likely ever see again, but up until the last couple of decades, exhibition games between major league and minor league teams were a yearly occurrence for many, many, years. Each spring, fans at ballparks across the country were treated to friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) matchups as their local teams, and the visiting pros, started getting back into shape for their respective upcoming seasons.

Being in the Coast League, the Portland Beavers saw plenty of action against pro teams over the years, with the Chicago Cubs being one of their most frequent opponents. As one who finds old accounts of these exhibitions to be endlessly fascinating, I thought it might be fun to take a look at a few from time to time.

In this first installment, we'll be covering the 1922 game between the Beavers and Cubs. Taking place on Friday, March the 10th, this would be both teams first game of spring training that year. The game took place at Paddock Field, which was located within the confines of Tournament Park in Pasadena, CA. 

Paddock Field was the Beavers "home field" during spring training for many years. And though they were now coming over from their first year on Catalina Island (1922-42), the visiting Cubs were quite familiar with Tournament Park, as it had just been their home for the previous three years.

Game time was slated for 3pm (PST), and even though I can't find any mention of the exact temperature, it was said to be unseasonably cold that day, which resulted in a lot of empty seats. It started drizzling during the later innings, sending much of the already sparse crowd, home early. The few who did show up that day, and the even fewer who were able to stick it out for the full nine innings, were treated to, by all accounts, quite a game.

The Oregon Daily Journal 3/11/22 

The Cubs took a 5-4 lead in the the top of the 7th inning, but didn't keep it for long. Dick Sargent started off the bottom of the inning by striking out. Charlie High was walked, and then went to third on a double by Ike Wolfer. Longtime Beaver, Dick Cox, followed with a 3-run shot to give Portland a 7-5 lead in what end up being the final run scored for either team.

Additional notes:

- The Beavers would finish the season with a record of 87-112 in 1922, finishing 7th in the PCL.

- The Cubs finished 80-74 that year, good for 5th in the NL.

- Jim Thorpe had just recently signed with Portland, and was with the team in Pasadena, but for reasons unknown, did not suit up for this game.

- 1922 would be Jigger Statz' first full season in the bigs, and this was his first game as a Cub. Jigger was one of all-time great minor leaguers, and certainly one of the best to ever come out of the PCL.

- Of the pitchers used in this game for Portland, Harry Biemiller went 6-10 in his only season with the Beavers, Roy Crumpler went 13-17 in his only decision earning season with the team (he went decisionless in 1919), and Harvey Freeman, also in his only season with the team, accrued a record of 1-3 in relief work. For the Cubs, Percy Jones went 8-9 in 1922, and Tony Kaufmann wound up with a tally of 7-13 in relief.

I've compiled quite a few stats and clippings in the last couple of months from Portland's many exhibition games over the years, and am now thinking that I'm going to start covering one of those games each month on here. This, along with one player profile/biography, will probably be the extent of this blog's monthly content going forward.

Welcome to the Club: Cuno Barragan

On July 3, 1958, Beavers starting catcher, Nini Tornay, was put on the disabled list after being injured by an errant pitch while warming up pitcher, John Buzhardt. With only one other catcher on the roster, Lenny Neal, and no timetable for Nini's return, Portland management decided to seek out someone who could fill in for their star catcher during his absence.

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee 7/9/58

Being four months into the season, Portland wasn't left with a lot of options, but thanks to a minor incident some months earlier, the team was able to make a quick deal with Sacramento for the then suspended, Cuno Barragan.

The details of his suspension have already been covered elsewhere, but the short version is that after one season with the team, the Solons decided to send Cuno to New Orleans -- a decision that didn't sit well with Cuno. He felt that it was a demotion, and as such, refused to report. This was met by an immediate suspension by Sacramento. By the time the deal between Portland and Sacramento was struck, he had been sitting out for over four months. Whether or not he had played at all during that time is up for debate though. 

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee 6/7/58

This snippet is in regards to Cuno signing with the Roseville Merchants of the Placer-Nevada Baseball League sometime during the middle of June. From what I can gather, the P-N Leagues games took place mostly on Sundays, which in theory would've given him a few outings before his July 9th signing with Portland, but as of this writing, I can't find any evidence either way as to whether or not he ever suited up for the Merchants. Either way though, he was released by the team on the same day he agreed to go to Portland.

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee 7/28/58

Nini Tornay ended up missing almost three weeks, and during that time, Cuno saw action in six games, going 5 for 20, with 3 RBIs and 0 HRs (these two stats are currently missing from Baseball Reference)  His .250 average didn't exactly set the world on fire, but he wasn't brought in for his bat. He filled the void during Nini's absence, and what's more, was given a chance to get back into the PCL's good graces.

Cuno was sold to Amarillo - a place that he had had tremendous success two years earlier (they finished 1st in the Western League, but lost in the finals) - after his brief stint in Portland, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that he ended up playing for the Gold Sox that year. 

After two more stops in Sacramento, and one in Spokane, he found himself being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1960, and would then be intermittently used in 69 games across the next three seasons -- all of which can be read about from the usual sources (see link to SABR page above).

Why this card for the collection? Well, Cuno only has a couple of cards to his name, none of which even come close to the greatness that is his 1962 Topps offering. I might be going out on a limb, but I dare say that it's one of the more interesting cards from the set (top 10?), if only because of the many visible ball imprints that can be seen on the backstop behind him. And yes, Topps misspelled his last name, but they weren't the first to do so, nor were they be the last, so I'm not holding that against them.

I wanted to note too that this card came from, Matt, over at Diamond Jesters, and for all intensive purposes, is responsible for me finally deciding to undertake this project (which also led to the creating of this blog) that had been rattling around in my head for the past decade and change. I can't tell you exactly why the card caused the reaction that it did. I saw it on one of Matt's Time Traveling posts, recognized the fact that it was a former Beaver, and just knew that I had to have it, and that it would be the start of something HUGE! So while I did have some former Beavers (mostly of the vintage variety) set aside, none of them ever triggered me to start this collection, so Cuno here will be forever known as Patient Zero (Player Zero?). I haven't decided yet whether I should thank Matt for his role in being partially responsible for all of this, or if I should curse him for damning me to what will no doubt be a never ending project :)

Looking ahead: I'll be unveiling a new site feature sometime during the early part of next week.