My dad played about 5 years in the Minor leagues.
He received a phone call from Lefty O'Doul telling my dad he wanted him as his catcher for his San Diego team. His team refused to trade or release him, and my dad got frustrated and quit.
He was a very prolific home run hitter, kind of like Gus Triandos (who was a personal friend of my dad's as was Yankee Gil McDougal).
My dad played on the 1947 Ports who had a minor league record 26 game win streak. One of his managers one year was Vince DiMaggio. Dad is in the Stockton Ports Hall Of Fame.
In 1991, I got a new job and had accounts all over Northern California. I went to an account in Stockton and an older guy was the owner. He looked at my card and told me when he was a boy, there was a home run hitting catcher for the Ports he used to watch with the same last name as me. He was amazed that 45 years later, I was his son.
from wiki about the 1947 Stockton Ports, Dad's first team:
In 1947, the Ports won the California League pennant again without a major league affiliation (they had a limited working agreement with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks).
After going 24–18 playing through June 4, they went on a 26-game winning streak and took first place, never to relinquish again in that season. The win streak is one of the longest in professional baseball and is still a California League record.
The Ports finished that season with a record of 95–45 (.679), and sixteen games ahead of the two teams tied for second place.
Years later, baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright rated the 1947 Ports as one of the one hundred best minor league teams of all time, ranked at number 98.[1]
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