The Lord created the heavens and the earth in six days.
Fast forward a few thousand years – to April 1930 – as baseball promoter Joe Engel gave Chattanoogans a little bit of heaven on earth also in a six-day period as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and golfing great Bobby Jones and all graced us with their presence as Engel Stadium, one of the crown jewels of baseball, was open for business.
On April 10, Ruth - the Sultan of Swat, The Colossus of Clout, the Great Bambino – along with Gehrig and the rest of the mighty New York Yankees stopped off in the Scenic City on their way North from spring training in Florida and rallied to edge the Lookouts, 8-5, in one of a series of exhibition games prior to the opener
Five days later, the regular season opener at Joe’s Place was on this date 82 years ago – April 15 – as 16,000 excited baseball fans witnessed the first official game in one of the grand baseball parks in the nation.
The hometown Lookouts rallied with three in the home half of the ninth to beat the Atlanta Crackers, 6-5.
Golfing great Bobby Jones was in attendance as part owner of the Crackers and would go on to win golf’s grand slam later that year.
Boxing Great in Town: Also in town on April 15, but not at Engel Stadium, was former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey who was in town as a referee on the boxing card at Memorial Auditorium .
Lookouts First Win at Engel:
Playing before the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event in Chattanooga, the Lookouts came from behind three times on the afternoon of the 15th for the exciting win.
Trailing 5-3 in the ninth, the home team sandwiched three doubles by Eddie Kenna, Ray Treadway and Wally Dashiell producing two runs around an infield out to even the score at 5-all.
Charlie Gooch’s single to left put runners at the corners bringing Elliot Bigalow to the plate.
Atlanta’s Clarence Blethen walked Bigelow to load the bases and set the stage for Bobby LaMotte’s heroics - a game-winning hit sending Dashiell home with the winning run and the fans home ecstatic with the opening day victory.
Dashiell was 3-for-5 and scored three times, including the winner, while LaMotte also has three hits.
Gooch and Bigelow had two hits apiece in the 14-hit attack.
Three Lookout s pitchers limited the Crackers to eight hits as Merle Settlemire picked up the opening day win.
Chattanooga’s Billy Bayne led the league in wins (21-12) while teammates Cliff Bolton (.380) and Treadway (.369) were in the top 10 in hitting.
Pennant Winners in 1932: While the Lookouts finished third in 1930, a pennant came to the Scenic City two years later.
Talented infielders, LaMotte (SS, .304) and Gooch (3B, .327), outfielder Bigelow (.331) and the strong arm of Bayne were gone by 1932, but Engel had plenty of talent on the way.
A pair of 20-game winners in Clyde Barfoot (21-10) and Alex McColl (21-8), along with Leon Pettit (18-8) and Duster Mails (17-9) guided Chattanooga to 101 wins and the pennant.
Dashiell and Cliff Bolton were still with the club, but the star was an 18-year-old, talented left-handed hitter from Riverdale, Ga.
The youngest of 10 children, Cecil Travis turned down a scholarship to Ga. Tech to play pro ball.
At 18, he helped the Lookouts to the Southern Association pennant, batting .356 with 203 hits and 27 doubles.
At 19, he collected five hits in his first big league game for the pennant-winning Washington Senators.
Although he only played in 18 games in 1933, he went on to a 12-year career with a .314 lifetime batting average.
A regular for the Senators in 11 of his 12 seasons (missing three years, 1942-44, due to World War II), he batted over .300 in seven of his first eight years, including a career- high .359 in 1941.
He led the league in hits (218) that summer and finished second in batting to a Boston outfielder named Ted Williams who batted .406.
Travis collected 1,544 career hits to produce the .314 lifetime average, was a three-time All-Star and a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, but for some reason is not in the baseball hall of fame.
More 1932 Lookouts:
The 1932 squad was talented with six regulars batting over .300 and four who had 200 or more hits.
The Lookouts Nine were as good as they were young, at least in the field.
Billy Andrus (24) hit .321, while Harley Boss (23, .338) had 206 hits, Johnny Gill (27, .344) also collected 206 hits, plus Travis (18) with his 203 hits and Bolton (25, .339) had 163 hits and 22 doubles.
Three guys over 30 also hit .300+ for the season; Joe Bonowitz (32, .350) with 202 hits, Hank Hulvey (34, .325 in 25 games) and Wes Kingdon (31, .329 in 64 games)
The four starters were also on the highside of 30, but pitched with arms of 20- year-olds. Barfoot (40, 21 wins), and Mails (37, 17 wins) and Leon Pettit (30, 18 wins) had good careers and were out of baseball befoe the end of the decade.
McColl (38, 21 wins), would pitch until he was 47 with 332 minor league wins in 26 seasons, while Barfoot had 314 wins in 21 campaigns.
Joe Engel: Engel was the master promoter as he raffled off a house and cars, paraded players on opening day on elephants and also put talent on the field (Travis, the four starters of 1932, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Jim Kaat, Ferguson Jenkins) and fans in the stands – winning in four pennants in three decades (1932, 1939, 1952 and 1961)
Today, Engel Stadium is owned by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Engel Foundation is working with UTC to seek ways to revive the old place, make it alive again with a possible museum/hall of fame and a place for baseball to once again thrive at the corner of 3rd and O’Neal.
Jackie Robinson Movie: Engel Stadium is one of the settings to be used in the filming of “42” a movie portraying he life of hall of famer Jackie Robinson who made his major league debut also on the date – April 15, 1947 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, NY
So happy birthday, Engel Stadium.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net