Gus Suhr

JIMMIE REESE

   The Ivanhoe Hotel which still operates today in Ferndale's historic Victorian downtown area began fielding a town team as early as 1904 which included Chicago native Joe Oeschger. Oeschger, pronounced "Eshker", attended Ferndale High School before pitching at St. Mary's College. At one time, the workhorse set a major league record while with the Boston Braves by pitching 21 consecutive scoreless innings at the end of a 24-inning game. In 1920, he pitched a 26-inning game and didn't allow a hit over the final 9 in a 1-1 tie. He's the only pitcher to have twice pitched 20 or more innings in a game. He completed 99 of the 199 games he started in the majors that lasted 12 years (1914-'25) for 4 different teams. He won 82 games while losing 116 with a career 3.81 ERA including 18 shutouts. 1921 was Oeschger's best season when he won 20 games (20-14, 3rd best in the NL) for the Braves and led the NL with 3 shutouts. He also led the league in base-on-balls (97) and hit batters (15) while giving up 303 hits in 299 innings pitched. After retiring from professional baseball in 1927, Oeschger continued to pitch in the semi-pro Sacramento Valley League where he pitched nearly every game for the Chico Colts during their 1929 season and 1930 (15-5) championship year when he was 38 years old. After a teaching career in San Francisco, Joe eventually returned to the 100-acre family farm just outside of Ferndale.

RON HANSEN

DANE IORG

SHANAHAN

    Joe Oeschger

1904 Ivanhoe Hotel

   Dane Iorg was an outfielder for the 1967 Sequoia League champion Blue Lake Chicks and the '67 Humboldt Crabs. He would go on to set several hitting records at Brigham Young Univ. where he was an All-American and spend several years in the major leagues.  See Humboldt Crabs.

   In 1968, Georgia Pacific's 6'3" pitcher Greg Shanahan ended Sequoia League champion Scotia-Rio Dell's 11-game winning streak with a 3-hit, 3-1 victory. Shanahan, a Eureka native who attended St. Bernard High School, UC Santa Barbara as a freshman, and Humboldt State, also pitched for the semi-pro Humboldt Crabs before turning pro. He spent 7 seasons in the minors (62-70, 3.81 career ERA) and briefly for the Los Angeles Dodgers (22.2 innings/3.37 ERA) in 1973, '74. His best year as a pro was 1972 when he combined to go 13-8 with a 2.95 ERA for the Bakersfield Dodgers of the "A" California League and the El Paso Sun Dodgers of the "AA" Texas League. He set a Sun Dodger record when he recorded back-to-back shutouts at Dudley Field (7-0 over the Shreveport Captains and 3-0 vs the Amarillo Giants). Later in the month, he again shutout Amarillo, this time with a 1-0 one-hitter. In 1973, he was named to the Pacific Coast League  All-Star team by East manager Sherman Lollar and in 1975, Shanahan led the PCL in strikeouts with 147 while with the AAA Albuquerque Dukes. He ended his pro career at Triple-A Omaha where compiled an 11-11 record with a stellar 2.54 ERA for the Royals of the American Association.

REDWOOD BASEBALL LEAGUE

YEAR           CHAMPION

1934       Scotia Lumberjacks

               Samoa-Arcata  (Tie)

1935       Samoa-Arcada Blues

1936       Scotia Lumberjacks

1937       Eureka Merchants

1938       Samoa-Arcada Blues

1939       Samoa-Arcada Blues

1940       Samoa-Arcada Blues

1952       Scotia Lumberjacks

1953       Weott Loggers

1954       Blue Lake Chicks

               Arcada Chiefs  (Tie)

1955       Crescent City Merchants

1956       Crescent City Merchants

1957       Scotia Lumberjacks (8-4)

1958       Fortuna town team (14-1)

1959       Scotia Lumberjacks

1960       Hoopa Indians (9-3)

1961       Fortuna Veneer

PIONEER BASEBALL LEAGUE

YEAR       CHAMPION

1953     Hoopa Indians

1958     Hoopa Indians (10-2)

SEQUOIA BASEBALL LEAGUE

1959    Hoopa Indians

1963    Blue Lake Chicks (10-3)

1964    Keg of Arcata (17-3)

1966    Scotia Lumberjack (13-3)

1967    Blue Lake Chicks (12-3)

1968    Scotia-Rio Dell  (12-3)

GREG SHANAHAN

   On Aug. 28, 1955, seventeen-year-old shortstop Ron Hansen went 3-5 at the plate with a triple and scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning giving the Blue Lake Chicks a 5-4 win over the Arcada Chiefs and a Redwood Baseball League championship. Hansen, from Oxford, Nebraska, attended Albany High School in Southern California before suiting up with the Chicks. A year later, he would sign a free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles and spend 15 years in the major leagues.

                      HUMBOLDT COUNTY BASEBALL

CALIFORNIA BASEBALL HISTORY           NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BASEBALL

HANSEN

   James Hymie Soloman, aka Jimmy Reese, was born in New York City and spent three years in the major leagues, two with the Yankees (1931 and '32) and one with the National League St. Louis Cardinals in 1933. He combined to hit .278 during those three years including a .346 average in 76 games for the Yanks as Toni Lazzari's backup at age 28 in 1930. Reese, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, was orphaned at an early age before he and his mother moved cross country to the San Francisco Bay Area. The 2nd baseman attended San Pedro High School before starting his pro career in 1920 with the AA Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League at age 18. In 1924, he began the first of several seasons with the Oakland Oaks of the PCL before becoming a major leaguer in 1930.

​​   The Eureka town team of the early 1920s featured two future major league players in Gus Suhr (Pittsburgh, 1930-'39, Philadelphia, '39-'40) and Jimmie Reese (New York, 1930-'31, St. Louis, 1932). First baseman Gus Suhr was born in San Francisco, California. He logged a total of 21 years as a professional (1925-1948) including 12 as a major leaguer, where he combined to post a career .279 batting average. He led the National League in games played in 1932, '33, and 1936, his best season, when he hit .312 and drove in 118 runs. During his 11 years in the minors, Suhr combined to average .279. In 1929, he bashed 51 home runs (team-best) with a whooping .670 SLG (team-best) while batting .381 (2nd to Smead Jolly's .387 avg.) for the San Francisco Seals of the AA Pacific Coast League.

IVANHOE HOTEL--DOWNTOWN FERNDALE