Gene Mauch and “Sparky” Anderson went from Legion Baseball title-winning players to long careers as MLB managers.
Los Angeles is home to two of the earliest American Legion World Series champions for a state that has won a record 17 titles.
And when Los Angeles Post 357 won the 1942 ALWS title and Los Angeles Post 715 won the 1951 ALWS title, each team featured future major league managers.
The 1942 team is one of the most talented in ALWS history as 13 of the 15 players eventually played professionally, including eventual major league player and manager Gene Mauch and major league player Nippy Jones.
The 1951 team beat White Plains, N.Y., twice and perennial power Cincinnati, Ohio, while taking its title at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium that would eventually be home to Los Angeles’ standout player George “Sparky” Anderson as a major league manager.
In 1942, Los Angeles had a population of 1.5 million and was 16 years away from the Brooklyn Dodgers’ cross country move that brought major league baseball to the city.
Post 357 also was pursuing its American Legion Baseball title while World War II raged.
In spite of that obvious distraction, coach Mike Catron guided the team to a 25-2 record that included wins over defending ALWS champion San Diego and a St. Louis team that had Yogi Berra on its roster.
Mauch, who primarily played third base and catcher for Post 357, signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers at 17 years old in 1943 and would play nine years in the major leagues from 1944 to 1957 before gaining greater prominence as a major league manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins and California Angels.
An infielder as a player for the Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, Mauch hit .239 with five home runs and 62 RBI in 304 career games.
In 26 years as a manager, Mauch won 1,902 games, including 646 victories with the Phillies. That mark was a Phillies franchise record until 2011. He also guided the Angels to their first two American League West Division titles in 1982 and 1986.
His teammates told the Los Angeles Times in 1992 that there were clues that Mauch would eventually run a team.
“He was always ahead of everybody upstairs,” said pitcher Dan Brown. “He pulled a lot of things that 15- and 16-year-old kids don’t think about. He was playing center field once and there was a runner on second, when a grounder was hit up the middle. Mauch fielded the ball, but he faked that it got through him. Then the baserunner took off for home and Mauch threw him out.”
Said catcher Dick Kinaman: “We would go to the beach and all we would do is talk about baseball. Gene Mauch was intelligent and we all felt that he would become a big league player.”
Mauch said he wasn’t so sure of his future.
“I was thinking about how good a player Nip Jones was, how good a player Ralph Atkins was, not how good a player I was,” Mauch told the Times. “They were a special bunch of people. I’ll remember them forever.”
Jones signed with the Cardinals in 1943 and eventually played eight major league seasons. His last major league season ended with him winning the 1957 World Series as a member of the Milwaukee Braves.
The fiery temper Mauch would frequently show as a manager was obvious when he discussed one of the biggest motivators for the 1942 team.
“We had it stolen away from us in 1941,” Mauch said of losing the Southern California championship to eventual ALWS champion San Diego. “It was the worst umpiring I ever saw in my life. We were up by one run and Bill Spaeter threw pitch after pitch right down the middle of the plate, but the ump kept calling them balls and the tying run and winning run walked in.”
In 1942, Post 357 lost the opener of a best-of-three series to San Diego before winning the next two games to advance on to American Legion Baseball tournaments in Stockton, Calif.; Miles City, Mont.; Hastings, Neb.; and, finally, Manchester, N.H. All of the team’s travel was done by train.
In Hastings, Los Angeles beat St. Louis two games to one. St. Louis included future major leaguers Berra and Roy Sievers on their roster.
In Manchester, Post 357 swept the host team three games to none.
In 1951, Post 715 made it three straight seasons with a California ALWS champion following Oakland’s back-to-back titles in 1949 and 1950.
Anderson, a shortstop, eventually signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953 and played one season in the major leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959.
Later, Anderson became a coach for the expansion San Diego Padres in 1969 before spending 26 years as manager of the Cincinnati Reds (1970-78) and Detroit Tigers (1979-95) with World Series titles in 1975, 1976 and 1984. A 2000 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Anderson’s 2,194 major league managerial victories rank him sixth in major league history.
Third baseman Billy Consolo signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox and spent 10 seasons in the major leagues while playing for the Red Sox, Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels and Kansas City Athletics. He would later spend 15 seasons as a coach under Anderson with the Tigers.
In the ALWS, Post 715 went 3-1 capped by an 11-7 win over White Plains, N.Y., in the championship game. Future major leaguer Grover “Deacon” Jones of White Plains was named tournament MVP — the first to win from a losing team in ALWS history — after hitting .408 with two home runs and 20 RBI.
At the time of Anderson’s death, National Baseball Hall of Fame senior vice president Bill Haase remembered how Anderson remained devoted to his time as an American Legion Baseball player.
“Sparky always remembered his roots, especially American Legion Baseball which was special to him,” Haase said. “He used to share with me how much Legion Baseball shaped his life and made him both a better person and a better student of the game.”
- Baseball