Review of Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres (Images of Baseball: California) (Paperback)

No pun intended, this is a diamond in the rough of sport's books.It is original research, not a second-hand, garden variety, cut-and-paste cookie-cutter.Bill Swank has been consumed by the history of the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League ever since his retirement as a Probation Officer with the County of San Diego.His beautifully written first book, "Echoes from Lane Field", captured the history of the Padres from 1936 to 1958 through first-person interviews with many of the players of that era.For "Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres," Bill had to dig into San Diego's historical archives and talk with the few remaining players from the 1920s and 1930s.The rest of the early ballists went to the dugout in the sky a long time ago. "Plaza" precedes "Echoes", covering the period from 1871 to 1936.In this before-radio era, baseball was more than a metaphor for life. It was the center of life in sunny San Diego for the better part of the year. Swank mined San Diego's rough diamonds and created a gem of a history book.Go San Diegos. Go Bears. Go Pickwicks.

Product Description
Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres, takes the reader on a seven-decade journey from Horton Plaza, the site of San Diego's first base ball game in 1871, to lower Broadway and the future home of Lane Field. Before the Pacific Coast League, San Diego had three Class D teams. One was the Bears, whose frustrated owner Dick Cooley complained, I don't believe they'll make baseball pay here in a thousand years. With America's finest year-round climate, barnstorming and black baseball were popular attractions. Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants practically lived in San Diego in the winter of 1913. All the while, there were constant struggles between the forces of amateur and professional baseball for players, diamonds, and sports coverage.

About the Author
Bill Swank has been called San Diego's preeminent baseball historian for his extensive work on the San Diego Padres. Aided by over 150 rare photographs primarily from the San Diego Historical Society, this book is the perfect complement to his previous Arcadia title, Baseball in San Diego: From the Padres to Petco.

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