HISTORY OF BASEBALL

Wes Davis

Dr. Dixon
November 11, 1994

Jim Lokaiser has been involved in loca1 baseball for

years. His first job was equipment
manager for the Yankee organization in 1946-47. A year
later he became office boy for the Detroit Tigers. Mr.
Lokaiser started covering the Pirate organizat ion in 1 960.
He covered major league baseball and especially the Pirates
untiL 1975. After ITorld T{ar II, American Legion Baseball
became big. Mr. Lokaiser played in this league and has now
been a commissioner for the Legion for over thirty years.
He moonlights as a sportscaster on the radio. He was asked
to recount some of interesting elements of the history of
more than forty-five

lYestern Pennsylvania baseball

.

Thatrs probably the primary thing wer11 want to talk
about here was that Pullman Park was on the west side of
Butler is sti11 in use. Itrs a major league proportioned
ba1lpark, dead center field 424,1eft field line 352, and
right field about 350. It rs still being used by legion,
sandlot , and high school basebal I

.

Pullman Park was constructed in 1933. It then opened

officially in 1934. Thatrs when minor league baseball
started in Butler. lThen the CIeveland Indians rvere the
first franchise in the oId Penn State League. Then the
Yankeers took over the following year and had it right up
through ITorld lfar II. During IYorld 'lYar II, organized
baseball was shut down at the minor league 1evel. It was
reinstated back in 1946.

Pullman Park was built by the people who owned Pullman
Standard Rail manufacturing company back then. It was built

on top of an old cinder pile.

They level1ed off the cinder

pile and they just put dirt on top of that. The ironic part
about that is the field is probably the best drained field
in the whole lTestern Pennsylvania area. It can rain in the
morning and you can play ball in the afternoon. It drains
quite wel1.
I do want to back up and bring one other thing up about
the 1oca1 level and I think it is something that we failed
to mention here about sandlot baseball versus professionaL
basebal1. I forgot to mention and I talked to you before
about this. In the Twenties and Thirties, especially in
areas like Petrolia Ya11ey of Butler County, where you had a
lot of industry going up there, baseball was the big thing.
The companies back then used to hire their employees based
They would actually recruit
on their athletic abilities.
workers and ball players out of maybe lYest Yirginia or Ohio
and move them in, move their family in, because they could
play basebal 1 .
The teams were very competitive back then. They would

travel all over the eastern seaboard as far west as Detroit
and Chicago to compete on a national 1eve1. Petrolia
Ya11ey \{as a hot bed for baseball. A 1ot of the o1d timers
who are now retired, owe their jobs to their athletic
That's true in places like Weirton l{est
abilities.

irginia,

in the Weirton Steel lTorks, and up in Petrol ia

Va11ey.
T{ho was

interview?
lTe11

,

a doubt is.

the

most

colorful

person you ever got to

The most fun to talk to?

most colorful good and bad. Steye Vlass without
Steve does color for Pi t tsburgh right now.

He

is absolutely one of the funniest guys. He's rrery co1orful,
the locker room clown.

Conversely, there where guys like

EI1is. Players like this where just the
opposite. Doc Ellis was a trouble maker, a dope user. He
threw a no hit ball game when he was high on dope.
One thing I do want to add that would be a note of
interest. Back whenever the Yankees were here at PulLman
Park and playing in the Middle Atlantic league, one of the
taboos was swimming. Ball players were not allowed to swim.
Back then, they thought that swimming was harmful, it
softened the muscles. It was no good for ball players,
especially pitchers. Back then, if you played night games
at Pullman Park for the Yankees, your days were free. The
players used to sneak away and go to what then was caIled
Stoaton's Beach which was then later known as Rock Falls
Park which is just below Slippery Rock. That was a big
recreation area with that big swimming pool and then of
course people used to lay on the rocks in the creek area.
But thatrs where the ball players used to sneak to and hang
out quite a bit. Up at that time it was cal1ed Stoaton's
Bob Roberts and Doc

each.

If they got caught, they were fined. And of course you
realize a ball player back then was making one hundred fifty
or two hundred dollars a month. Plus a couple dollars a day
meal money. So that wasnrt an awful amount of money. If
they were fined ten or fifteen dollars, that ryas a lot of
money. As for the history in the county is eoncerned, O1d
Stoatonrs Beach as it was called then was a sort of hangout
for the ball players then during the daylight hours, then
they would come home and play ball at night.