La Mesa’s Boys of Summer Were Baseball Heroes

Although the local celebration for the 1957 Little, Pony and Colt League World Series teams was grand, La Mesa and its youth baseball programs had suddenly become a national story. 

The Sept. 11, 1957, edition of the Sporting News, the weekly “bible of baseball news,” featured columnist Paul Cour’s take on La Mesa, Kid Ball Capital of America. 

Cour commented that “most communities would settle for just one of their junior teams reaching national stature. But these La Mesa kids don’t know where to quit.” 

How did La Mesa’s programs reach such success so quickly, queried Cour?

First, Cour noted the important role of community leaders such as local painting contractor Charley Markley, who helped develop the Little League program from scratch starting in 1953. Others receiving key mention for building the original 300-boy program into one of more than 1,200 just four years later included City Youth Baseball Council president Preston Hawk, Northern League president Bill Haggard, and Tom Lean, La Mesa’s Park and Recreation director and a coach of the World Champion Colt Leaguers.

Yet, Cour recognized that La Mesa’s baseball success represented the community’s deeper understanding of the value of youth sports. 

He noted that La Mesa’s success was clearly attributable to the “interested, but not overzealous parents who had taken to heart the national Little League motto, ‘Families who play together, stay together.’ ”

La Mesa parents, volunteering by the hundreds, both dads that coached and managed, built and maintained the city’s eight fields, and moms who kept score, ran the concession booths and served as “team moms,” along with service club and business sponsors who helped pay the way, all contributed.

Without such commitment, countered Cour, how else could it be explained when local La Mesa youth playoff games drew crowds of 2,500—similar to attendance numbers found at many Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres games that year.

So as the 1958 youth league seasons got under way, La Mesa’s recognition as the example of American youth baseball perfection resonated across the country.  

Los Angeles Times columnist Al Stump wrote a feature article on Aug. 17, 1958, naming La Mesa as “America’s most baseball-happy town!”  The town that “eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball,” wrote Stump.

Stump regaled on the extraordinary efforts of La Mesa’s officials, citizens and dedicated parents in supporting their baseball programs. Mayor Julian Acevez regularly wearing his youth league cap to work and Fire Chief Ray Lyles taking on the role of ballpark groundskeeper—all reflective of the game’s hold on the city’s leaders.

Stump noted that the little “one-main-street” town, typical of late-1950s suburban, baby-boomer-populated American communities, had found the answer to juvenile delinquency by getting the majority of its boys involved in baseball. 

Local Judge Fenton Garfield told Stump that in the previous five years, he had had no youth ball players appear before his court.  The city, in fact—while doubling its police force during the time—had yet to see the need to create a juvenile crime division, Garfield bragged.

Stump reported that while most communities were worried about what to do with their growing youth population, La Mesa had invested with both time and money in their kids. 

The city’s cooperative Youth Baseball Council had just purchased 1,632 baseballs, 432 bats, 1,500 caps and uniforms, and three tons of lime-marker for the 1958 season. Stump also remarked that the boys played on fenced ballparks with sunken dugouts, automatic scoreboards, press boxes and lights for night games—not sandlots. 

Wondering how such a small suburban city of 25,000 could afford such major league-style youth ball amenities, especially one with little industrial tax base, Stump quoted “Mr. La Mesa Baseball” Charley Markley for the answer:

“When a whole community donates its services, when almost everybody’s talent is available for free, you can’t possibly go broke.”

Such was La Mesa’s baseball reputation, that on the same day as Stump’s article, Major League Baseball commissioner Ford Frick issued a press release printed throughout the country on the unparalleled popularity of baseball in America. 

In his release Frick made this statement on baseball’s hold on American life beyond the Major Leagues—and La Mesa’s representative role in it:

Baseball is not just a matter of big-league glamour. It’s the sum total of thousands of Little League and sandlot teams, of thousands of towns like La Mesa and tens of thousands of public-spirited citizens like Charley Markley.

Back to the Field: 1958 Pony World Series Return

With La Mesa’s stellar youth baseball reputation, it made sense that Little League and Pony League officials chose it as an All-Star tournament site for summer 1958. 

The Little Leaguers would hold the San Diego District and Southern California Section tournaments at La Mesa’s re-furbished National League field. 

Of course, the unprecedented success of 1957 would be a difficult task to repeat.

La Mesa’s American League All-Stars opened with three straight wins in the area tournament before falling to Encanto in the district opener. The defending Colt League World Champions had a similar story with a few opening victories before being eliminated.

It was the Pony League All-Stars that kept La Mesa’s World Series run going in 1958. Led by returning Pony League players and 1957 Northern Little League heroes Joe McKirahan and Neil McClellan, the squad moved into the regional tournament held at Helix High.  McClellan opened with a no-hitter against Glendora. Wins over Richland, Wash., and Santa Cruz (twice) led to a second-straight regional championship and a trip to Washington, Penn., for the Pony League World Series.

Coach Bob McClellan’s Pony Leaguers felt they had a good chance at winning the championship. They opened with a 6-1 victory over San Antonio but lost their second game to Miami 3-1. They came back to eliminate Malden, Mass., before losing a tough second game 4-3 and being eliminated themselves.

Still the performance continued to cement La Mesa’s reputation for success.

Colts Roll to Series Again: 1959

Just as in years previous, Mayor Acevez and the City Council declared 1959’s league opening days as Youth Baseball Weeks; including the Little, Pony, Colt and the recently added Connie Mack Leagues (for 17- and 18-year-olds). 

For 1959, La Mesans also added another new league, Lake Murray Little League, representing the growing northwest section of the city.  A second Pony League, the Grossmont Pony League, was also formed to meet the demand for graduating Little Leaguers.

With the four La Mesa Little Leagues pounding on each other, even “city” champ La Mesa American could not make it out of sectionals. In the meantime, the traditional tournament runs for the Pony and Colt Leaguers repeated.

The 1959 La Mesa Pony All-Stars rolled through the local tournaments before traveling to Provo, Utah, for the regional. They opened with two wins defeating Richland, Wash., and North Marin, Calif., before dropping two 4-3 decisions to eventual champ Long Beach and a scrappy Hawaiian Islands team.  Still, four La Mesans made the all-tournament team including pitchers Roy Robertson and George Sherrod, shortstop Michael Huse, all Helix students, and Foothiller Joe McKirahan.

Coach Jim McMinn’s 1959 Colts made it through the locally held regional with big wins over North San Diego, Anaheim and Culver City. Their second trip to Ontario for the Colt League World Series opened with a big win over North Charleston, S.C. In game two against Pensacola, Fla., shortstop Ken Nasife’s first-inning home run provided the lead for a heroic relief pitching effort by Bill Lefler, who entered the game in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and a 4-3 lead. He got out of the jam and held the lead through the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, La Mesa would lose its next two games and be eliminated, but would take heart in the fact that they were the only team to defeat eventual champion Pensacola.

Once again, upon their return, the city sponsored a parade for the Pony and Colt teams for Sept. 12, 1959.  Mayor Acevez proclaimed the Saturday La Mesa Youth Day in honor of “La Mesa’s ball teams and their victorious achievements.”

Fletcher Hills Boys Fly to 1961 LL Championship

La Mesa again hosted Little League sectional and Pony League regional tournaments in 1960, but none of its teams advanced beyond the local contests.

So in 1961, championship expectations outside of La Mesa eased. Still, the Youth Baseball Council-led programs were as popular as ever and La Mesa boys from ages 8 to 18 participated again in great numbers.

Yet when tournament time came that July and August 1961, it was the boys from Fletcher Hills’ Northern Little League that would capture the communities’ attention. 

And “communities” is the accurate statement due to Fletcher Hills being geographically split between the cities of El Cajon and La Mesa.  Eleven of the 15 players lived on the El Cajon side, and four on the La Mesa side of the boundary lines.

Mayors Earl Logan of La Mesa and Carl Tuttle of El Cajon agreed, after friendly “jabs” in the local papers, that each city had a legitimate claim to “their boys.”

(For the record, the El Cajon-La Mesa Northern moniker was used in some documents, but most Little League records refer to the team as from El Cajon—alphabetical advantage apparently).

And did “our boys” pull off one of the most remarkable runs in Little League history. The challenge of winning 14 straight games in a single-elimination tournament required not only talent, but a bit of luck, and a whole lot of composure.

Northern’s talent resulted in 24 home runs during the 14 tournament games—eight of those home runs being the difference in victories—four of which were walk-off game winners. Mike Salvatore and Beau Barrett each hit five homers, with Todd Lieber hitting four to lead the squad. 

Fielding prowess was also essential. Manager Don Dolan was quick to note in news articles after the tournament that one of the team’s most underrated strengths was its outstanding defense.  The fielding prowess of team players Carl Buffo, Steve Jupin, Jim Dolan, Chico Leonard, Brian Sipe, Roger Cargin, Joel Ventre, Gene Okrusch, Rick Pursley and Lee Townsley being essential to protecting numerous one-run wins and close games.

The team’s fielding composure aided the team’s remarkable pitching performances, including a stretch of 47 straight scoreless innings. The starting combo of right-handed fire-ballers Beau Barrett and Mike Salvatore each recorded five wins with first baseman/pitcher Todd Lieber picking up a winning start and two relief wins.

As second baseman Gary “Chico” Leonard recalls today, it was that perfect combination of clutch hitting, pitching and fielding that all came together for Northern’s Little Leaguers of 1961. 

Leonard noted that co-managers Don Dolan and Jim Pursley and his teammates knew they had good ballplayers but were not hampered by overconfidence or high expectations of certain World Series contention.

Still, they all knew, or knew of, players from the 1957 Northern Little League World Series finalists—including 1961 teammate Gene Okrusch’s brother. So, as Leonard remembered, they knew that a championship was not an impossibility for the local boys.

The 1961 Tournament Run

The Northern All-Stars opened their historic run on July 20 at the area tournament in El Cajon, where the squad pulled out a last-inning run for a 3-2 victory over El Cajon American before a blowout 16-1 win over El Cajon National.

Next came the district tournament at Rolando a week later. A tough 2-0 win over Lakeside and a big win over La Mesa National led the team to the sectional held in Point Loma the first week of August. 

The team opened the sectionals with another big win over San Dieguito. Then came two tough games with San Diego American and Rainbow of San Diego. Both games were nailbiter 1-0 victories that later, players such as Mike Salvatore and Chico Leonard noted, were some of the toughest competition they faced.

The team then traveled up to San Bernardino for the U.S. Western Regional tournament. The Northerners’ pitching and hitting heroics continued.

The first game set the tone for the rest of the tournament as Todd Lieber’s third-inning home run provided enough support for a Beau Barrett shutout 1-0 victory over West Covina. Salvatore followed with another shutout of West Los Angeles 3-0.

Beau Barrett’s two-hit, 13-strikeout shutout performance countered a sparkling one-hitter from Rapid City, S.D., pitcher Ricky Kirschenmann. However Northern took advantage of that one hit—a Mike Salvatore fourth-inning home run to win 1-0 again.

Salvatore kept up the timely and torrid pace with his own one-hit, 10-strikeout pitching performance in the regional final. To add to the heroics, both he and Roger Cargin hit homers in the 5-1 victory over Concord, Calif.

Directly after the regional victory, the team from Fletcher Hills was on its way to Williamsport, just as their 1957 predecessors.  After a quick “box supper,” the local boys boarded a plane for their flight back east that evening. 

Chico Leonard recalled the thrill for most of the team taking their first airplane flights. The team stopped several times, including to pick up fellow World Series team Terre Haute, Ind., during the stop in Chicago.

Now sporting the World Series uniforms of the West, the team was scheduled to open against defending champions Levitown, Penn. 

The defending champs had a large rooting section that had driven in to see the series. Manager Dolan remarked on the coolness of his team in facing the partisan crowd and tough Levitown pitcher Sam Gumbert. 

Gumbert and Salvatore dueled through the regulation six innings in a scoreless tie. Yet, this time it was first baseman Todd Lieber again who provided the final heroics, smacking the first pitch of the bottom of the seventh over the left-field fence for the 1-0 victory—Northern’s only hit of the game.

The only flaw in game one’s storybook ending being that Todd Lieber’s parents had gotten delayed during their travels and arrived in Williamsport shortly after Todd’s big hit. 

Luckily, Todd and the rest of the boys still had several clutch performances left.

Two days later, the semi-final game matched the Californians against Hilo, Hawaii. Lieber got the call to pitch and the game was tied at 2-2 heading into the eighth when Salvatore hit another game-winning homer to send Northern into the finals.

In the finals, Northern faced a team from El Campo, Texas, semi-final victors over the two-time champions from Monterrey, Mexico. The Little Leaguers now faced not only 16,000 fans, but a national television audience—and some special guests.

For the Northern Little Leaguers the most special guest being San Diego native and baseball superstar Ted Williams, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch—and wished the local boys luck.

Salvatore made the start in the nationally telecast championship game, and although he held the Texans hitless, they scratched out two unearned runs to take a 2-1 lead over the Californians after five innings. 

Because Salvatore had pitched seven innings in game one, and Little League rules limited pitchers to 12 innings in a week, Managers Dolan and Pursley had to pull their ace after the fifth. They then turned to little-used Mickey Alesandro to pitch the sixth.

Alesandro was able to hold the Texans hitless in the top of the sixth—aided by an amazing shoe-top catch from the now left fielder Salvatore—to preserve the no-hitter. 

Thus, once again the Northern Little Leaguers were facing the pressure going into the bottom of sixth needing to score at least one run to stay alive. 

Alesandro stepped up again by starting the rally with a single. Three batters later with one out and Alesandro and Lieber on base, it was Mike Salvatore’s turn to bat again.

Just as he had several times previous during the team’s incredible run, the five-foot-four, 114-pounder drilled an arching line-drive, game-winning, walk-off home run over the centerfield fence to clinch the 4-2 victory and the Little League World Championship.

The jubilant Northern Little Leaguers carried their hero off the field after his walk-off heroics. “Mighty Mike” Salvatore, as Sporting News reporter Jim Sheen dubbed him, was named tournament M.V.P. 

Fletcher Hills Boys Fly From LL Championship

The two coaches and 14 players returned to Los Angeles, retracing their path through the air. But for the last flight leg back home from Los Angeles, they got a special treat.

Manager Don Dolan was a pilot for San Diego-based Pacific Southwest Airlines. PSA chartered a turbo-prop jet that Dolan then piloted back for a local arrival at El Cajon’s Gillespie Field. 

When the team arrived that Monday, some 5,000 family, friends and dignitaries were there to great them. Both the La Mesa and El Cajon Chambers of Commerce sponsored the celebratory reception, followed by a parade through both towns on El Cajon’s fire truck.

Padres announcer Al Schuss served as master of ceremonies and turned over the microphone to team spokesman Todd Lieber. Lieber, speaking for his teammates, thanked the coaches, parents, fans, league officials, city chambers of commerce and officials.

Manager Dolan reflected the pride in these remarkable boys, and how they maximized their talents in the face of tremendous pressure to perform when he was quoted in the August 31 La Mesa Scout:

“…with the type of boys we had, we were confident from the start.  They were tremendous champions all the way. With material like this, how can you lose?”

The City of Champions

The Northern Little League’s World Series Championship concluded La Mesa’s unprecedented run of youth baseball success—a period unrivaled by any city of its size up to that time, or since.

So enamored with its baseball prowess, the next year the city’s 50th Golden Anniversary Committee (1912-1962) added a set of crossed baseball bats onto their celebratory logo next to local icons such as Mount Helix, palm trees, lemons and a blazing sun. 

But even more reflective of the community’s internalized identity at the time was its new motto—“La Mesa: City of Champions.” 

An identity recognized throughout the baseball world, in a time when baseball was king—and La Mesa was its youth baseball Camelot.