Sunday, May 15, 2005 |
A PCL Remembrance
The 1956 Angels, with the paunchy Bilko at first, a future big-league manager named Gene Mauch at second base and seemingly a star at every position, won the pennant by 16 games and had a grand old time playing ball at folksy Wrigley Field in front of sports-hungry fans and glamour-seeking movie stars.Salaries outside the majors were better, too:"In all my time in baseball, those years playing for the Coast League Angels were among my favorite," said Mauch, who later would manage Autry's Angels in Anaheim Stadium.
They were Wade's favorite, too.
"The fans supported us so well, it was a great atmosphere and a lot of fun," said Wade, 76, who was in Southern California to speak to the Pacific Coast League Historical Society on Saturday.
"I used to drive around town in my '56 orange and white Mercury," Wade said. "We'd have steak dinner at the Brown Derby and a lot of times [movie stars would] recognize us and pick up the check."That antitrust exemption will kill you, I tell you what.The minimum salary on the Angels was $10,000, not bad when you consider the big-league minimum at the time was $6,000.
"Mauch and Bilko, they were making well over 20 grand," Wade said. "Everybody wanted to play in the Coast League back then. The big-leaguers, they were taking trains from town to town. We flew a DC-6 on the road, and we'd play a whole week in Seattle or San Diego. It was good livin', I tell you."
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