Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s

In the 1920s baseball fans flocked to minor league ballparks, making stars of players who would never wear a major league uniform. This was particularly true on the West Coast, where fans embraced the colorful Pacific Coast league as a third major league. The rowdy reputation of the PCL was well earned. Owners’ meetings were rambunctious affairs where league issues were sometimes settled with fists. In the stands, drinking and gambling went unchecked; especially notorious was the
Booze Cage
at San Francisco’s Recreation Park where 75 cents bought a shot of whiskey and the best seat in the house. On the field, players and umpires were as likely to trade punches as insults. But its bawdy style did not detract from the quality of the PCL where talented players used the 200-game schedule and cozy, bandbox ballparks to produce unparalleled offensive fireworks. The rich history of the West Coast’s
major league
is detailed here, including the first-ever listing of all players in the PCL during the 1920s.