Baseball in San Diego --

The Most Influential Individuals of the 20^th Century[1]

 

 

 

Baseball was enjoyed in San Diego, just as it was throughout the United States, during the last century.  Many people have contributed to baseball’s popularity in San Diego, and this article should remind us of those individuals, some of whom are long gone, and some who are still contributing.

 

Twenty-six men and one woman have been identified as the most influential individuals in baseball in San Diego during the 20^th century.  Headed by home grown Ted Williams, the list includes players, managers and coaches, owners and executives, media, and umpires – from both the professional and college ranks. 

 

The final list is the result of a balloting process, followed by debate and discussion, among members of the San Diego Ted Williams Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).  This article includes a summary of the project, the process employed, and the final results. 

 

 

Background and Summary

 

The San Diego Ted Williams Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has a mission that combines these four elements: baseball – research – history – San Diego. 

 

With the arrival of the year 2000, the SABR Chapter embarked on a project that would combine all of these elements: to decide which individuals most influenced baseball in San Diego in the 20th century.  The purpose wasn’t necessarily to choose the best players, or the most popular, or those of the current rage, but rather to engage in an historically-based research effort leading to the selection of those felt to have most influenced the course of San Diego baseball – its feelings, its passion, its past and present – over the last 100 years.

 

The project began with the development of a list of nominees assembled by the Chapter’s steering committee and provided to all of its members.  Chapter members were then offered the opportunity to select their own 25 most influential from this list of 73 candidates, or to provide write-in candidates of their own.  After the results of this balloting were compiled and distributed, members met in person to discuss and debate the results.  Sometimes by consensus and sometimes by a vote, this process eventually led to the ranking of a top 10 list along with another group of 16 that comprised the final list of the “26 Most Influential Individuals in San Diego Baseball during the period, 1900-1999.”

 

Many of the names on the list will likely be familiar – most are from the latter half of the century, when first minor league baseball arrived and then Major League baseball flourished in San Diego.  Almost all date from 1936 when professional baseball took hold in San Diego as the minor league Padres were welcomed into the Pacific Coast League (PCL).

 

 

Process for Selection

 

The process began with the development of the list of nominees.  The Chapter refrained from an exclusive emphasis on ballplaying accomplishments, which was the typical of baseball lists being developed as part of the “millennium” focus at the end of 1999.  Rather, the Chapter looked for individuals who met one of the following two criteria:.

1.     accomplishments in and influence on baseball specifically in San Diego

2.     significant accomplishments and influence on baseball at the national level, coupled with an association with baseball in San Diego

 

The next step was to agree on nominee categories in order to cover all ranks of baseball and to minimize the chance of leaving someone off the list whom deserved to be on.  This resulted in eight categories:

1.     Owners/management

2.     Management/coaches

3.     Media/broadcasters/entertainers

4.     Players – Major League

5.     Players – San Diego Residents/Other Teams

6.     Players – Minor Leagues

7.     Players – Semi Pro/College/Miscellaneous

8.     Umpires

 

Once the categories were defined, nominees for each category were chosen.  While SABR members have historical interests that cover all of the categories, the problem with such a process (one typical of most “century” lists), is that no one involved with the project was living in the first 15-20 years of the century and able to add recollections of that period. Also, a special effort was made to compensate for the over-emphasis that would naturally occur with the last 15-20 years of the century and familiarity with current popular individuals.

 

The resulting ballot is shown in Table 1.  It includes 73 individuals.

 

The largest categories were for major league players and owners/management (13 nominees each) and the smallest was for umpires (2).

 

Related to era, the list broke down as follows:

·        Pre-Pacific Coast League era (1900-1935) – 4 (Gavvy Cravath, Jack Hartley, Walter Johnson, “Chief” Meyers)

·        Pacific Coast League era (1936-1968) – 32

·        Major League era (1969-1999) – 37

 

Table 1 Most Influential People In San Diego Baseball -- Ballot
Owners/Management		Players – Major League (Continued)
1	Ray and Joan Kroc	38	Tim Flannery
2	Bill Lane	39	Steve Garvey
3	Larry Lucchino	40	Tony Gwynn
4	John Moores	41	Trevor Hoffman
5	C. Arnholt Smith	42	Randy Jones
6	Bill Starr	43	Gaylord Perry
7	Ralph Kiner	44	Ozzie Smith
8	Tom Werner	45	Dave Winfield
9	Jack McKeon	46	Graig Nettles
10	Ballard Smith	Players -- SD Residents, Other Teams
11	Randy Smith	47	David Wells
12	Eddie Leischman	48	Don Larsen
13	Buzzie Bavasi	49	Gavy Gravath
Managers/Coaches		50	Bob Boone
14	Bruce Bochy	51	Deron Johnson
15	Jim Dietz	52	Alan Trammell
16	Pepper Martin	Players -- Minor League
17	Lefty O'Doul	53	Vince DiMaggio
18	Jimmy Reese	54	Bobby Doerr
19	Frank Shellenback	55	Cedric Durst
20	Charlie Smith	56	Luke Easter
21	Whitey Wietelmann	57	Jack Graham
22	Dick Williams	58	Bob Kerrigan
23	John Cunningham	59	George McDonald
24	Carroll Land	60	Minnie Minoso
Media/Broadcasters/Entertainers		61	Earl Rapp
25	Bob Chandler	62	John Ritchey
26	Jerry Coleman	63	Max West
27	Phil Collier	64	Ted Williams
28	Earl Keller	Players -- Semi Pro/College/Misc
29	Ted Leitner	65	Joe Coscarart
30	Jack Murphy	66	Pete Coscarart
31	Ted Giannoulas	67	Jack Hartley
32	Wayne Lockwood	68	Walter Johnson
33	Mario Thomas	69	Mark Grace
Players -- Major League		70	Travis Lee
34	Ken Caminiti	71	"Chief" Meyers
35	Nate Colbert	Umpires
36	Mark Davis	72	Ed Runge
37	Rollie Fingers	73	Doug Harvey

 

 

The San Diego minor league era was almost as well-represented as the Major League era, and given the lack of minor league teams and media attention in the pre-PCL days in San Diego, it was felt that the list was relatively balanced.

 

The list of 73 nominees was distributed to all Chapter members.  They were asked to choose the 25 individuals they considered as the most influential.  In addition, they were asked to select and rank their top 10 from 1st to 10th.  This ranking of the “Elite 10” was patterned after the national ballot employed by SABR to determine the top baseball players of the 20^th century.  In addition, write-in names were allowed.

 

 

Ballot Results

 

There were 23 ballots returned by Chapter members.  These ballots included two or more votes for 57 individuals.  In addition, there were six write-in votes.  The results of the ballot are shown in Table 2.

 

"Top 25" Ballot Results.  Only two nominees were listed on all ballots: Ray/Joan Kroc and Tony Gwynn.  There were five others who were listed on at least 75% of the ballots:

·        Ted Williams

·        Jerry Coleman

·        Jack Murphy

·        John Moores

·        Randy Jones

 

Elite Rankings.  The second series of figures in Table 2 cover the “elite” rankings based upon numerical scores (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1) given the top ranked 10 on each ballot.  Ray and Joan Kroc, Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams easily led the balloting, with John Moores in a distant 4^th place, followed by Jack Murphy and Jerry Coleman.

While the Top 25 and Elite Rankings were generally in close agreement, there were some notable exceptions.  For example, C. Arnholt Smith finished only 20^th on the Top 25 balloting, but ranked 7^th in the Elite Rankings.  Buzzie Bavasi moved up from 16^th on the Top 25 to 10^th in the Elite Rankings.  In contrast, Nate Colbert and Jim Dietz were tied for 8^th place on the Top 25^th list, but stood at 13^th and 14^th respectively on the Elite Rankings.

 

 

Discussion and Debate

 

After the ballot results were distributed, Chapter members convened for the final selection process. 

 

Top 25 Final Selection.  Members agreed to put the leading 10 vote-getters on the final "Top 25" list after minimal discussion and with no formal objections.  They also agreed to accept the next 14 vote-getters (11^th through 24^th) for further consideration.  Each Chapter member was then given the option of nominating and pleading the case of any other person on the ballot (who finished below 24^th) or any write-in candidate who they felt belonged on the Top 25 list.

 

Table 2 Rankings and Elite Points, by Nominee
“Top 25” Votes				“Top 10” Elite Points
Rank	Nominee	Points		Rank	Nominee	Points
T1	Ray and Joan Kroc	23		1	Ray and Joan Kroc	185.0
	Tony Gwynn