Somewhere in a Santa Ana neighborhood, a "field of dreams" lies buried. It's just west of Bristol on the north side of Ninth Street. It used to be called Hawley Park and was the glory of Orange county baseball Hall of Famer Walter Johnson pitched here for fledgling Santa Ana team - the Yellow Sox.
In 1910, the Pacific Coast fielded The Southern California Trolley League, so named because the teams -- such as the Redondo Beach Wharf Rats, the Pasadena Silk Sox, and the Los Angeles McCormicks -- traveled from city to city and game to game via the trolley tracks. Sadly, the Yellow Sox would only last one year.
The Yellow Sox were not the first sponsored baseball team in Orange county, however. That honor goes to the Santa Ana Stars formed in 1906 by Alfed E. Hawley (Hawley Park), a sporting goods dealer in that city.
It's interesting as a sidelight to read that one of the Yellow Sox -- Arnold "Chick" Gandil -- won $50 in 1912 by "hitting the bull" Durham sign on the baseball field fence. That year the Bull Durham signs were hit 211 times. Along with Gandil, other players who collected $50 that season were: Walter Johnson (future Hall of Famer) Ping Bodie, Red Murray, and Ben Houser. Chick Gandil would later go down in history for The Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Bull Durham also gave “72 sacks of ‘Bull’ Durham,” for every home run hit in a ballpark with one of their signs.
Circa 1912, baseball players won 257,400 sacks ($12,870 worth) of ‘Bull’ Durham by batting out 3575 home runs.