I was a big Oaks fan when I was a kid. I'd badger my dad to take me to the park in Emeryville. He would stay in our seats & I'd go down the left field line with the other kids to try & get a foul ball. Well, one lucky night I finally got one! I took it down to the Oaks dugout & gave it to a player to have it signed. When I got it back the entire team had signed it! Was I ever thrilled! I still have that ball. Perhaps I'll bring it to one of our lunches. My memories of Kezar aren't as great. I has at a 9ers game. In those days I wore glasses. We were about half way up in the stands. The benches were on sloped cement. Well, my glasses fell of & slid all the way to the bottom. When I got the back they were so scratched up I couldn't see a thing out of them. Oh well, they were probably unly anyway. Back to Oaks, I didn't know George Christopher was a RUHS grad. Some other names I remember are Spider Jorgensen, Cookie Lavagetto. Those were great days!
Frank
--------------------------------------------------
Hi Frank,
I was also a fan of the Oaks/Acorns during my childhood and early teens. Attended many games at Freeman’s Park at 59th Street and San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville. I collected baseball cards of the players/managers, listened to the games on the radio, and kept track of the Pacific Coast standings, and player stats on a regular basis, especially from 1949 to 1955.
I remember watching the great managers of those years Chuck Dressen, Mel Ott and Lefty O'Doul. I had a first baseman's glove that Lefty signed before a game I attended 1955, not long before the team moved to Vancouver, BC.
Al (Two Gun) Gettel, who pitched for the Oaks on the great 1950 team (23-7 record), was one of my favorites players. I remember him riding on the field opening night before the game started, on a white horse and him wearing a cowboy hat and two guns on his hips. There were three other pitchers on that team that won 17 or 18 games each, Earl Harrest, Hank Behrman and George Bamberger. They had great batters, Earl Rapp (314 BA., 24 HRs, 145 RBI’s), George Metkovich (315 BA, 24 HRs, 141 RBI’s), Don Padgett (348), Bill Herman 307), Loyd Christopher (308 BA), Ray Noble (316 BA), Artie Wilson (312 BA, 24 SB). Artie played in 196 of the Oak’s 200 games that year.Another player on that team was Anthony (Lil) Arnerich, who I got to know when I moved to Alameda in 1969.Arnerich along with Billy Martin, was signed by Casey Stengel to play shortstop for the Oakland Oaks. Arnerichdidn’t make it the major leagues, but played for several years in the minors. He served for 35 years as a referee of high school and college football and baseball games, as well as the Director of the City of Alameda’s City Recreation and Parks Department, and served on the Alameda City Council, after retiring from the Recreation and Parks Department. I believe he now 82 years old and doing well.
Thanks for sharing you memories. Yes, those were great days.
Richard
