Gabby Street knew well the highs and lows of managing professional baseball clubs in St. Louis.
In 1931, Street piloted the St. Louis Cardinals to their second consecutive National League pennant and a World Series title. Seven years later, as manager of the 1938 St. Louis Browns, his American League team had a 53-90 record before he was fired with 10 games left in the season.
That wasn’t the low point, though.
Eighty-five years ago, in November 1939, Street managed the St. Louis Pandas of the fledgling National Professional Indoor Baseball League.
The eight-team circuit, which had Baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker as its president, sought to provide fans an indoor version of professional baseball from November to March. Instead, the league folded after a month.
Winter wonder
In August 1939, the St. Louis Star-Times reported that “promoters, elated over the success of softball as an outdoor attraction during the summer, plan an indoor organization that has all the trimmings of major league baseballers.”
The National Professional Indoor Baseball League, slated to begin play in November 1939, proposed to operate franchises in eight markets: Boston, Brooklyn, New York and Philadelphia in the Eastern Division, and Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis in the Western Division.
Tris Speaker “is exuberantly enthusiastic about the venture which he confidently predicts will be a major sport during the comparatively dull, dead winter months,” International News Service reported.
Each club was scheduled to play 102 games in the season. The division champions would compete in a World Series in March for the league title.
Though the league marketed itself as a brand of professional baseball, the indoor game in 1939 was more a hybrid of softball and baseball to fit the dimensions of the arenas, fieldhouses and armories that served as game sites.
The baseball used for the indoor game was 14 inches in circumference (it’s nine inches for regulation baseball) and “quickly gets squishy,” The Sporting News noted. Also for indoor baseball:
_ The distance between the bases was 60 feet rather than 90.
_ The pitcher stood 41 feet from the plate rather than 60 feet, six inches.
_ Pitchers were required to use an underhand delivery.
_ Most of the players came from outdoor softball leagues.
St. Louis showman
The owner of the St. Louis franchise was Earl Reflow, a sports promoter who had been a professional boxer and vaudeville actor. As a youth, he stowed away on a freighter to fulfill a desire to see Australia and New Zealand. In St. Louis, he promoted ice shows, midget auto racing, boxing and rodeo, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
From 1929-32, Reflow also was secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Flyers of the American Hockey Association. The Flyers played their home games at St. Louis Arena. Reflow’s connections to the operators of that facility enabled him to get his indoor baseball team booked there for its home games.
Like other indoor baseball franchise owners, Reflow sought someone with experience in the big leagues to manage the team. Gabby Street, 57, was a good hire for him.
A former catcher in the majors, Street was quite familiar to St. Louis sports fans. He was a Cardinals coach in 1929 and then their manager from 1930-33 before being replaced by Frankie Frisch. Street coached the Browns in 1937 and was their manager in 1938, beating out Babe Ruth for the job.
(Street went on to broadcast Browns and Cardinals games. He was Harry Caray’s first partner on Cardinals broadcasts, starting in 1945.)
Other indoor league managers included former Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss (who turned an unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series) at Cleveland, former Reds catcher Bubbles Hargrave at Cincinnati, former Dodgers catcher Otto Miller at Brooklyn, former Giants outfielder Moose McCormick at New York and former Athletics first baseman Harry Davis at Philadelphia.
As a favor to Davis, A’s owner Connie Mack allowed one of his big-league players, rookie infielder Al Brancato, to play for the Philadelphia indoor team, The Sporting News reported. Brancato apparently was the only big-league player to appear in a National Professional Indoor Baseball League game.
Name of the game
In a contest to name the St. Louis franchise, the winning entry, Pandas, was submitted by W.R. “Pick” Messmer, a sign painter, who was inspired by two giant pandas brought to the Saint Louis Zoo from China. After being informed he’d won two Pandas season tickets, Messmer told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, “I am going out to the zoo today to see a panda for the first time.”
The Pandas settled on a roster recruited primarily from neighborhood fast-pitch softball teams:
_ Pitchers: Dave McDowell, Santo Catanzaro (the oldest player at 28), Les Lees and Freddie Geldmacher.
_ Catcher: Ray Stroot.
_ Infielders: First baseman John Moynihan, second baseman Bill Hoffman, shortstop Joe Spica, third baseman Rich Egan.
_ Outfielders: Joe Herman, Joe Dennis, Barney Wallerstein.
_ Utility players: Eddie Moran, Bill Clifford.
“We hope the league will develop into a proving ground for big-time ballplayers,” Tris Speaker said to the Associated Press.
Shaky start
The Pandas were supposed to open their season with home games against Chicago on Nov. 21 and Nov. 23, but the league granted Earl Reflow’s request for a postponement because St. Louis Arena was not ready for play.
As the Globe-Democrat explained, “The rules insist that games be played on a tightly spread canvas infield. Large nets have not as yet been placed in front of the boxes and seats for the protection of fans.”
Playing their inaugural game on the road Nov. 24 against Cincinnati at Xavier University’s fieldhouse, the Pandas lost, 17-4, before 947 paid spectators. “Before the seventh inning, more than half of those who saw the start of the game had gone,” the Globe-Democrat reported. The Pandas made seven errors and struck out 17 times in the nine-inning game.
After two more losses at Cincinnati (and postponement of a game at unprepared Chicago), the Pandas returned to St. Louis for their Nov. 28 home opener. Tickets were priced at 40 cents, 75 cents and a $1.10.
The Pandas also signed Milford Wildenhauer, a second baseman in the Yankees’ farm system.
Facing Cincinnati again, the Pandas drew 2,200 for their home debut, but lost, dropping their record to 0-4.
Two nights later, in the opener of a doubleheader before 750 spectators at St. Louis Arena, the Pandas got their first win, beating Cincinnati, 7-1.
Going bust
The Pandas were scheduled to play Dec. 2 at Cleveland, but didn’t show. Skeptical of the game drawing enough people to make the trip worthwhile, the Pandas asked the league to guarantee expenses would be covered. When the league refused to do so, the Pandas stayed home.
“Cleveland is too far away to make one-night stands profitable,” Earl Reflow told the Globe-Democrat.
(The Cincinnati club filled in for the missing Pandas and played before 137 Cleveland spectators.)
With the Chicago club still unprepared to play and the St. Louis club reluctant to travel, Tris Speaker suspended the league schedule on Dec. 3.
“More and more it becomes evident that the league was not solidly organized before the schedule was started,” The Sporting News observed.
Unable to work out the problems, especially in finding suitable buildings for the dates games were scheduled, the National Professional Indoor Baseball League was dissolved on Dec. 22.
The St. Louis Pandas finished with a record of 1-5.