Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page E9

StatesmanJournal.com SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 2014 I 9E Heritage Oregon ONLINE Go to StatesmanJournal.comHeritage for more on area history. Waters Field offered Salem its first taste of minor league baseball I i A- p--1 I-, ONLINE Go to StatesmanJournal.comtimecapsule to find previous stories and photos, and articles published in the Capital Journal and Oregon Statesman. Chime in: Tell us what you remember about the SJ Time Capsule stories and photos and use our form to upload your own photos from the Mid-Valley. SUGGESTIONS? Do you have an idea for a future SJ Time Capsule? Email SJTimeCapsulegmail.com. Waters Field was built in 1940 and burned down in 1966.

The Salem Senators, later renamed the Dodgers, played at the ballpark until the team folded in 1965. 2012.049.0098 WILLAMETTE HERITAGE CENTER ATTHE MILL 1 1 Salem Realtors Grabenhorst Bros, for $90,000. 9 r. By Andy Zimmerman Special to the Statesman Journal As the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes open a new season, they continue a professional baseball tradition in the Salem area, which began more than 70 years ago. Salem's first foray into professional baseball came in 1940, when George Waters built a stadium and relocated a team to southeast Salem.

Waters Field was built in 1940 on an 11-acre site on 25th Street SE near Mission Street. The $65,000 wooden structure was bankrolled by Waters, a Salem businessman, who owned the Salem Senators. Waters moved the franchise from Bellingham, Wash. It wouldn't be the last time the Mid-Valley took a team from northern Washington: The Volcanoes originally were the Bellingham Giants before moving to Salem-Keizer in 1997. The Capital Journal splashed the Waters Field news across its front page on April 29, 1940, saying: "The new ballpark, considered one of the best in the west, and the affiliation with the Western International League, means that the Senators will play 76 games on the home lot.

Competition against Spokane, Wenatchee, Tacoma and Vancouver, B.C., means that the games will be of a high type. Of added interest to the fans will be the comfortable grandstand and bleacher seats, kept clean by a corps of capable attendants." Waters Field was set to open April 30. However, rain postponed the game and all the pomp and circumstance that was to go with it: a parade from Marion Square Park through downtown Salem and a ceremony to dedicate the stadium and welcome the ball club to town. Both happened the next day. One event that did happen April 30 was the selection of the team's mascot.

The Capital Journal reported the Salem Breakfast Club presented the team with a Rhode Island red hen. On May 1, 4,865 people attended Salem's first professional baseball game. It was the largest crowd at the time for a sporting event in Salem history. Salem had a population of nearly 30,000 in 1940. The first pitch was thrown by Oregon Gov.

Charles Sprague, who also owned the Oregon Statesman. Dr. R.E. Lee Steiner was the batter, using a bat Waters purchased 50 years earlier, and Secretary of State Earl Snell, who later became governor, was the catcher, according to a May 2, 1940, Oregon Statesman story. The Senators gave the home crowd its money's worth, scoring five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Yakima Pippins, 11-10.

No professional baseball was played at Waters Field from 1943-45 because of World War II. The Senators played in the Western International League and later in the Northwest League as a charter member. After Waters' death, his widow later sold the team and the stadium to the Pacific Coast League's Portland Beavers in 1946. The Beavers ran the Senators as its farm team. Until the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Waters Field didn't just serve as the home for Salem's baseball team.

A Nov. 12, 1966, Oregon Statesman story said the ballpark also hosted circuses, conventions, Boy Scout jamborees and high school football games before Bennett Field at South Salem High School was constructed. Oregon Statesman Sports Editor Al Lightner got married there in 1940. He also served as a player, general manager and in other capacities for many years when the SenatorsDodgers were in town from the 1940s through the mid-1960s. On Nov.

11, 1966, a fire destroyed the grandstand of Waters Field. Salem officials the following day said the fire was caused by arson. Officials ruled out other possibilities as the building was without electricity; it was shut off earlier, and people had easy access to the building. The main Salem Post Office later was built on the site. It would be another three decades before the Salem area got to experience minor-league baseball in its own stadium again.

SJTimeCapsulegmail.com, Twitter.comZimmermanSJ Salem businessman George Waiers buili Waters Field and moved the Senators to Salem from Bellingham, Wash. 2012.049.0087 WILLAMETTE HERITAGE CENTER ATTHE MILL Giants to San Francisco, the PCL was the highest level of baseball on the West Coast. In 1950, Waters Field and the Senators were sold and became community owned. After the 1965 season, the team, then known as the Dodgers, folded and the condemned stadium was sold to Salem Senators' triple threat: the Girod Brothers Mid-Valley baseball featured in new exhibit By Kaylyn F. Mabey Willamette Heritage Center ON EXHIBIT What: The story of the Girod Brothers is just one in the rich history of Mid-Valley Baseball, which will be showcased in a new exhibit, "Boys of Summer: Baseball in the Mid-Willamette Valley." It will feature artifacts, photos and audio-visual material, including a newly discovered recording from the opening ceremony of Salem's George E.Waters Field in 1940.

When: Friday through Aug. 16 Where: Willamette Heritage Center, 1313 Mill St. Cost: $6, $5 seniors, $4 students and $3 youth 11 mvi At one point in every child's life, a stick becomes a bat, and anything they can pick up and throw becomes a ball. For Ted, Louis Willamette heritage CENTER fit-Wv-MUl publicity for their outstanding ability as fielders and hitters, earning them the nickname the "Poison brothers" in the local papers. The 1930s and Great Depression brought many changes to the family.

Ted moved back to the family farm in Quinaby, Marion, Oregon, to help their widowed mother and brother Harvey run the farm; Zeke and Louis stayed in Portland during the week but came home on the weekends when needed and to play ball. Ted was the first to marry on Jan. 4, 1934. He wed a neighbor's daughter by the name of Ruby Jane Orey. Zeke followed suit in 1935 with Ellen Ruth Moe, and Louis brought up the tail end when he married Pauline Limmeroth of Portland on Sept.

5, 1936. At that point, their lives started to take off in new directions, though they would continue to play ball together whenever offered the chance. By the 1940 census, Zeke was living with his in-laws Elling and Pauline Moe in Portland, working as a truck driver for a fruit and produce company. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy.

Louis also settled in the Portland area, eventually owning and operating grocery stores in both Vernonia and Tigard. Ted remained in Marion County and eventually took over his father-in-law's successful hop ranch, later converting it to cannery crops. In later years, all three brothers continued their love of the game, switching from playing to managing local teams and coaching. At his death, Dec. 30, 1975, Louis was remembered for his years of service to the Tigard American Legion junior baseball team.

Ten years later on May 30, 1987, brother Zeke passed away and was buried in Junction City. Ted lived until the age of 98, passing away on May 14, 2000. The Salem Senators, courtesy of Willamette HERITAGE CENTER until 1915 when informed that grandfather Gustave's health was failing. They brought their youngest children with them back to Oregon, Edna B. (1898-1971), Ralph Adolph (1900-1986), Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" (1902-2000), Louis Leo (1905-1975) and Paul Elm "Zeke" (1907-1985) and built a home on a 33-acre farm next to Buena Crest School, 6 miles north of Salem.

Here the three youngest boys, Ted, Louis and Zeke learned to play the Willamette Valley version of baseball at Buena Crest School. Naturally gifted athletes, the year Ted graduated from 8th grade, they led their school team to victory over Woodburn for the North County championship. Woodburn came to Buena Crest without their star pitcher because they believed the little school would be a pushover; they were mistaken, and Buena Crest won. The principal of Woodburn, also head of the baseball tournament for Marion County, insisted that the game be played over again, this time on Woodburn's home turf. So it was, and Buena Crest won again.

In 1917, following 8th grade graduation, Ted went to work and in his spare time continued to play ball, first for the and Zeke (Paul), the Girod brothers of Salem Senator fame during the 1920s and 1930s (the city league team that existed before the professional team of the same name that arrived in 1940), the bat was a straight tree branch smoothed free of knots and whittled down at one end for a good grip. The ball was made from tightly rolled hop twine courtesy of their mother. The boys were the youngest of Paul and Ida (Ehrsam) Girod's 11 children, 10 sons and one daughter. Originally from Indiana, the family came to Oregon the first time in 1891 to help their grandparents Gustave and Sophie Girod homestead a large acreage about 6 miles north of Salem, at the present address of 7501 35th Ave. NE in what was called the Lake Labish area.

At the time, Paul and Ida only had two sons, Milton Louis (1888-1960) and Homer August (1890-1988). During the few short years the family remained in Oregon, two additional sons were born: Albert Paul (1891-1989) and Jesse C. (1892-1968). In the spring of 1896, his familial duty discharged, Paul returned with his small family to Adams County, Indiana, and a job with the Meshberger stone quarry. Here the family remained city of Woodburn.

One fine Sunday afternoon, his father came to watch him play. Ted led his team to victory with a home run and a triple: three hits out of four times at bat. His father was so proud of him he bragged to all the neighbors and relatives and brought a huge crowd of them to Ted's next game, including 11 Girod family members. This time, nerves kicked in, and Ted played terribly. The team lost, 3-0 because of an error Ted made.

Baseball continued to gain popularity across the country, hitting a fevered pitch in the 1920s and 30s. Towns and schools formed teams, factories and mills sponsored teams, good players were recruited on all fronts. The Girod brothers were in high demand. By 1926, Ted, Louis and Zeke, according to Portland city directories, had moved to Portland. All three worked and played for the Grand Rapids Showcase Company, a Michigan-based manufacturer of furniture and equipment with a branch factory in Portland.

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