The 1921 California Winter League was unique among winter leagues. Every other American winter league I've ever seen was distinct from the local pro leagues of summer, with different franchises and different players. The 1921 CWL was made up of Pacific Coast League franchises: Los Angeles, Mission, San Francisco, and Vernon. (Actually, Mission did not have a PCL franchise until 1926, but three out of four is still unprecedented.)
The rosters were primarily made of Coast Leaguers with a sprinkling of local semi-pros. There were Coast League stars such as Jigger Statz, Willie Kamm, Walt Leverenz, Earl Sheely, Lefty O'Doul, Harry Krause, Truck Hannah, Chet Chadbourne, and others.
But the teams' real stars were their managers. Each team signed one superstar major leaguer to serve as player-manager: Rogers Hornsby managed Los Angeles, Harry Heilmann managed Mission, George Sisler managed Vernon, and Ty Cobb managed San Francisco.
The season began October 8 and the teams played every day through December 8. Here are the final standings, as reported by the San Francisco Examiner on 1921-12-09:
The rosters were primarily made of Coast Leaguers with a sprinkling of local semi-pros. There were Coast League stars such as Jigger Statz, Willie Kamm, Walt Leverenz, Earl Sheely, Lefty O'Doul, Harry Krause, Truck Hannah, Chet Chadbourne, and others.
But the teams' real stars were their managers. Each team signed one superstar major leaguer to serve as player-manager: Rogers Hornsby managed Los Angeles, Harry Heilmann managed Mission, George Sisler managed Vernon, and Ty Cobb managed San Francisco.
The season began October 8 and the teams played every day through December 8. Here are the final standings, as reported by the San Francisco Examiner on 1921-12-09:
Mission and Vernon staged a "little world series" after the season's close. Mission beat Vernon 11-5 on December 10, but the Vernon Tigers took both ends of the December 11 doubleheader before a crowd of 8,000 to win the title. Vernon received $3,000 in prize money, which was divided among its 19 players.
It's very strange to some of the greatest players of all time in what were essentially Pacific Coast League lineups.
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| San Francisco Journal and Daily Journal of Commerce, 1921-12-03 |
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| Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 1921-12-03 |
Worthpoint provides scans for a score card from the league at https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1920-21-ty-cobb-roger-hornsby-1815240979 - really cool.
Here's a closer look at the batting averages listed in the program:
I've only done very preliminary research on this league; I just want to get this little note out there. (I hope to research the league more fully in the future - maybe even compile stats.) You'd think that a league with Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Heilmann, and George Sisler would have been written about, but I can't find a single article devoted to it; the only mention of it at all that I can find is two paragraphs in a 2011 National Pastime article by Geri Strecker called "Winter Baseball in California: Separate Opportunities, Equal Talent" - it's essentially just a footnote in an article devoted to the integrated California Winter Leagues.
People deserve to know that Ty Cobb once played for San Francisco.
