When the Pirates Came to Paso Robles

By Bob Brigham

Paso Robles, California, is a quiet little town of about 20,000 on what Californians refer to as the Central Coast. That population figure might be a little low since the place natives refer to simply as "Paso" has been discovered as a retirement mecca by senior citizens from the Los Angeles area.

The AMTRAK depot is a reminder of the town's more sedate past. Its Victorian motif is a replication of the original station built more than a century ago, a station that was perhaps 50 years old when a train arrived in March, 1924 carrying a baseball team. It wasn't just any team. Their uniforms bore the word "PIRATES" across the chest. They were the Pittsburgh Pirates, and they had come to prepare for the upcoming season.

It would be their first venture to the west coast for preseason drills. Spring training as we know it began in 1901, and the Pirates spent their first 16 years in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1917 they moved to Columbus, Georgia, then to Jacksonville the next year and on to Birmingham before returning to Hot Springs in 1923.

The Cubs beat them to the coast by eight years, camping in Pasadena as early a 1917. By 1920 P.K. Wrigley moved his ballclub to his own private island, Catalina, 30 miles off the coast from L.A. Harbor.

You've got to wonder what the Pirates and Cubs did for competition in those springs of the '20s. They were the only big league teams that came to California. The answer is the played a lot of intra-squad games that usually pitted the veterans against the rookies. But local players also got into the act according to Brian Milne, sports editor of the North County Tribune, Paso Robles' newspaper. The Chamber of Commerce put together teams that were only to happy to try their skills against the big leaguers. Semipro teams from around San Luis Obispo County and even high school teams got to try their luck. Pacific Coast minor league teams also provided competition for the Buccaneers.

Some of the better local players were even looked at seriously as prospects. But the talent bar was sometimes set pretty low. Milne writes of Bud Sheely, a student at Paso Robles High School, getting to play against his father, Pirate first baseman Earl Sheely. The older Sheely's only year with Pittsburgh was 1929, when Bud, who eventually made it to the majors himself, was 11 years old.

I have a special interest in Paso Robles. One of my daughters and her family live there. It's only a little more than 200 miles away, so visits are not infrequent. Most often we go by car, but I have taken the train and gotten off at that same station. Whichever mode of transportation I take next time, you can bet I'll visit that AMTRAK depot and stand on the platform, trying to feel the presence of "Deacon" Bill McKechnie, who was probably the first to step off that train in 1924. Then, as the high school band struck up a tune, other Pirates got off and looked around. There was "Jolly Cholly" Grimm, Rabbit Maranville, Pie Traynor, Kiki Cuyler - storied names of baseball. The whole town turned out to greet their new heroes. Most of these people had never even seen a big league game, and here they had players of renown close enough to touch!

Another thing I will do on my next visit mill be to look up Hillis Schinbine. He and his twin brother were the Pirates' bat boys back there in the '20s. My son-in-law tells me that Hillis was the custodian at Georgia Brown School when he got his first teaching job in Paso. Schinbine, now in his 80s, should have some good stories. Milne says Hillis remembers McKechnie running his players the several blocks from Paso Robles Hot Springs Hotel down to the town's only diamond. At the end of their workouts they would run back to the hotel. The hot mineral waters must have felt good on these aching bodies coming out of winter hibernation.

Whatever the formula, Paso seemed to agree with the Bucs, for in 1925, their second year there, they won the National League championship and went on to defeat the Washington Senators in the World Series, coming back from a three game to one deficeit. No team had done that before.

They were a spring fixture in Paso through the 1934 season, after which they bounced around in such diverse venues as San Bemadino, San Antonio and Havana. Since 1969 they have called Bradenton, Florida home in the springtime.

Hey there, young fella, hear that whistle? That's the 9:17 comin' in from L.A. Right on time, too. You wanna see some real ballplayers? Stick around. Pittsburgh Pirates. Train here every year. Yeah, Pie Traynor. Ought to see him catch those fly balls. Makes it look real easy. Yeah, Pittsburgh Pirates, right here in Paso Robles.