1912 Winter Meetings
The Winter Meetings came to the White Mountains town of Payson in 1912, and the home of the champion Longhorns pulled out all of the stops for their guests.
Commissioner
Doc Victory loved going to the Payson area. The rugged, pine tree-filled mountain town was such a refreshing change from the high desert home he was used to in the Verde Valley. Victory disappeared every so often to show friends a few of his favorite haunts, like a giant natural bridge located between Payson and Pine.
The event was nearly upstaged by a large contingent from the town of
Show Low, also located in the White Mountains about an hour away. For the past few years, Show Low has been pushing hard for an AZL franchise. Their zeal seemed to reach fever pitch at the Winter Meetings with officials handing out fliers and holding rallies to show support for baseball in their town. They seemed to be on every corner.
Victory admired their passion but thought the group overbearing at times. He was proud of the fact that had made so much of their minor league franchise, which played in a huge park and sold out every game even though the squad finished well below .500. But good grief, Victory thought, there were no plans to expand the league at this time and no one was in the market to sell their current franchise. "I wish they would gear down their crusade a bit," he thought...
In other news from the Winter Meetings:
• The
Phoenix contingent proposed dividing the Southern League into two four-team divisions (and the NL as well). The winner of each division would then meet in the SL and NL playoffs, respectively. The proposal never made it out of committee. "The league structure is fine the way it is," Victory affirmed.
•
Sedona officials confirmed that a fire a few days after the end of the regular season torched a large portion of their outfield bleachers and burned down a few team buildings. "We should have things repaired before spring training," team owners said. "It's going to cost us a bunch to replace everything, and we're struggling a bit financially as it is."
Sedona officials said the fire seemed "suspicious" in nature but no one had any idea who might have done this.
• There were no real ill effects on the league from the 1912 ban on the sale of liquor in Arizona. If anything, even more spirits flowed on game days than when the sale of alcohol was legal. Some marshals argued that the prohibition actually caused their number of drunk and disorderly arrests to go up in the past year. "It's not legal but alcohol is out there," one officer said.
• A couple of players coming up through the youth ranks impressed during some pre-draft workouts. Twins
George and Babe Ruth had scouts taking furious notes during a simulated game at Payson's Longhorn Stadium with an all-star youth team from Las Vegas.
George pitched three scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. Babe parked a home run into the upper right field deck on his first at-bat. There were some who thought he pointed to that area of the bleachers before the pitch was delivered. The two Ruth boys are just 16 and likely will throw their names into the draft hat in a few seasons.
The pitcher for Babe's supposed "called shot" was none other than a young
Phinieus Victory III -- commissioner Victory's oldest grandson -- who used some of his influence to win a spot on the all-star team. He was such a spitting image of his grandpa, folks started calling him Li'l Doc.
"He can throw the ball as hard as anyone," grandpa Doc said. "But the boy has no control, just like his old man (Commissioner Victory's oldest son, "Wild Bill" Victory).
"He probably hits as many batters as he strikes out. If he gets on base, he can fly around the base paths. But getting on base isn't so easy for him..."
Victory was amused that his grandson was born on the exact same day as the Ruth boys, Feb. 6, 1895. "Hey, you guys are triplets," Victory mused...