Strike 1 Was For Pay -- Early Rainiers Used Sitdown Strategy To Collect Wages From Owner

Pennants were nothing but a faraway dream for Seattle fans through most of the 1930s.

Bill Klepper, Seattle Indians owner, kept professional baseball alive in the city during the Depression. But he operated on a tight budget, with creditors knocking on his door, and there never was enough talent.

In the 10 seasons from 1928 through '37, the Indians escaped the second division only once.

Tough times got tougher when Dugdale Park, at Rainier Avenue and McClellan Street, burned down July 4, 1932. The Indians moved to Civic Stadium, a ramshackle facility with a rock-hard, all-dirt playing surface on the site of today's Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center. Paid attendance hit a Seattle low - seven - at a 1933 doubleheader.

Klepper's financial problems were legendary. "He got behind on salaries one time and we pulled a sit-down strike," recalled Paul Gregory, a Seattle pitcher from 1936 to '41. "It was a sunny day, I remember. We had a full crowd. They were giving away an automobile. We took our infield workout, then put on our street clothes and sat down."

"Klepper came running down, wondering what was the matter. We told him we had to be paid or we wouldn't play. So he came down with several sacks of coins and paid us off."

On the last day of the 1937 season, Dick Barrett a 22-game winner in 1935 and '36 - needed two victories to reach 20 and earn a $500 bonus.

He beat Sacramento 4-1 in the first game of a doubleheader. Between games, federal and state tax agents seized the gate receipts for money due on admission taxes. And Klepper told Manager Johnny Bassler to pitch Marion Oppelt in the second game.

Bassler started Barrett, anyway. Barrett went all the way and got his 20th win, 11-2.

The next morning, Sept. 20, 1937, Klepper fired Bassler for insubordination.

In December, the club was sold to Emil Sick, owner of the Rainier Brewing Co. Sick changed the team's nickname, hired Jack Lelivelt, who had managed Los Angeles' 1933 and '34 PCL champions, and built Sick's Stadium.

Sick knew little about baseball. So he made the late Roscoe C. "Torchy" Torrance, a Seattle businessman with a University of Washington baseball background, the Rainier vice president.

Few personnel changes were made that first year. First baseman Len Gabrielson was obtained on option from the Yankees. And Torrance signed two local teenagers - Edo Vanni, then a UW freshman place-kicker, and Fred Hutchinson, a right-handed pitcher less than a year out of Seattle's Franklin High School.

Vanni batted .300 for the Rainiers three straight years. But the key move in the transformation of also-ran Indians to champion Rainiers was the signing of Hutchinson. He played only one season of proffesional ball in his hometown, but it was a dream season.

Hutchinson won 25 games and lost seven in 1938. In 35 starts, he pitched 29 complete games and compiled a 2.48 earned-run average. A left-handed batter, he hit .313 with 13 doubles, two home runs and 23 runs batted in.

The Rainiers moved to Sick's Stadium on June 15, 1938.

The Rainiers wound up 3 1/2 games behind the Angels that season. Hutchinson was named the PCL's most valuable player. In December, he was sold to Detroit for cash, and the players the Rainiers needed to become a championship club. He pitched for the Tigers for 11 seasons and spent 12 years as a major-league manager with Detroit, St. Louis and Cincinnati.

Just five years after drawing seven fans to a doubleheader, the 1938 Rainiers, helped considerably by Hutchinson's tremendous season, led the league in attendance with a club-record 437,161 fans. In 1939, Seattle set a minor-league attendance record of 517,657.

SEATTLE PCL MILESTONES 1903-06 - Seattle, charter member of PCL, played home games at Recreation Park; team dropped out of league after four seasons to play in Northwest League.

1919 - Seattle rejoined PCL, played home games at Dugdale Park.

1924 - Manager Wade Killefer's Indians (109-91, .545) won 11 of last 12 games to bring city its first PCL pennant, by 1 1/2 games over Los Angeles Angels.

July 4, 1932 - Dugdale Park burned. Indians moved to Civic Stadium.

December 1937 - Emil Sick purchased Seattle franchise from Bill Klepper, changed team name to Rainiers.

June 15, 1938 - Sick's Stadium opened.

1939 - Rainiers (101-73, .584), managed by Jack Lelivelt, won pennant by 4 1/2 games over San Francisco Seals.

1940 - Lelivelt's Rainiers (112-66, .629) won pennant by 9 1/2 games over Angels, then won President's Cup playoff championship.

1941 - Rainiers (104-70), managed by Bill Skiff, won pennant by 3 1/2 games over Sacramento Solons; repeated as President's Cup champions.

1942 - Rainiers finished third but again won President's Cup playoffs.

1951 - Rainiers (99-68, .593), managed by Rogers Hornsby, won pennant, by six games over Hollywood Stars, and playoff championship.

1955 - Rainiers (95-77, .552), managed by Fred Hutchinson, won pennant by three games over San Diego.

October 1960 - Sick sold Rainiers to Boston Red Sox.

1965 - American League's L.A. Angels bought Seattle franchise, changed team name to Angels.

1966 - Angels (83-65, .561), managed by Bob Lemon, won Western Division championship and beat Tulsa in playoff for league title.

1968 - Seattle's 54-year PCL history ended with fourth-place finish in West Division.