Monday, January 7, 2008

Yakima's Gain is Seals' Gain

A nice little note came to me from Bill Soto Castellanos. Bill was originally the visitors' batboy at Seals' Stadium and spent 1954 to the end of the Seals' days as the visiting clubhouse man, taking over when Bill Rode became the trainer for the Yakima Bears of the Western International League.

So Bill would have taken care of the Vancouver Mounties in their very first game in the PCL in 1956. Maybe that isn't such a great memory, as Bill worked for the Oakland Oaks, too, which ended up in Vancouver and leaving him without one of his jobs.

Bill's written a limited edition book about the Seals of those days and you can find out more by giving him a shout at leenbill2k2 at aol.com (address munged to foil spammers).

Other than that, I continue to work on 1952 game stories and continue to deal with incorrect standings. One wire service had them incorrect for about ten days early in the season, and again for another ten-day period in June, meaning I have to do my own math and that takes time.