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Black and white photograph of Oakland Oaks Baseball Manager Dolph Camilli (far right) with four of his pitchers. They are all in various uniforms and caps that include a plain white jersey, a jersey with the stylized "O" insignia and jerseys with "OAKLAND" printed across the front. They are standing in front of what appears to be a batting cage and there is a catcher in the background inside the cage. Caption affixed to back reads: "Oaks' Manager Dolph Camilli (extreme right) at Boyes Springs looks over his quartet of key pitchers for the forthcoming Coast League season. They are (left to right) Floyd Stromme, Italo Chelini, Jack Lotz and Sad Sam Gibson. Stromme faces induction into service in April.--Tribune photo." Images have been touched up with white and black ink to show highlights and shadows and there is a horizontal white cropping registration mark in the bottom third of the photograph--all for reproduction purposes.

Oakland Oaks (PCL)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Oaks_%28PCL%29 (7/13/2007)The Oakland Oaks were a minor league baseball team which played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1955. Along with the Los Angeles Angels, Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Indians, the Oaks were charter members of the Pacific Coast League which was founded in 1903. The team finished last that year, and finished either last or next to last place four more times before winning its first PCL pennant in 1912. The Oaks (or �Acorns� as they were also called) played their home games at Freeman�s Park at 59th Street and San Pablo Avenue and at Recreation Park in San Francisco.After the 1912 season, the Oaks opened their new stadium, named Oakland Ball Park (or simply Oaks Park) though it was located in the neighboring city of Emeryville at San Pablo and Park Avenues. In their first season at Oaks Park the Acorns finished last, and were mired in the second division for more than a decade. In 1916, a struggling Oaks team made history by breaking the professional baseball color line, as Jimmy Claxton pitched in both ends of a double-header on May 28th, 1916. He was introduced to the team as an American Indian, but once the team discovered that his ancestry was both Native American and African, he was fired.In 1927, the Oaks won their first pennant at Oaks Park, finishing 120-75 (.615), 14_ games over the runner-up Seals.In 1943, a controlling interest in the Oaks was purchased by C. L. �Brick� Laws, who operated the team for its remaining seasons. In 1946, Laws hired Charles �Casey� Stengel, the former manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves of the National League to manage the Oaks. He responded with second and fourth place finishes, before the club won its most celebrated pennant in 1948. It was in Oakland that Stengel developed his talent for �platooning,� i.e., juggling his lineup to maximize each player�s potential in given situations, that served him so famously as manager of the New York Yankees.On October 18, 1967, twelve years after the Oaks played their last game in Emeryville, the American League owners gave Kansas City Athletics president Charles O. Finley permission to move the Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 season. Dolph CamilliFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolph_Camilli (7/20/2007)Adolph Louis Camilli (April 23, 1907 - October 21, 1997) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1941 after leading the league in home runs and runs batted in as the Dodgers won the pennant for the first time since 1920. He was the ninth NL player to hit 200 career home runs, and held the Dodgers franchise record for career home runs from 1942 to 1953; he also set several strikeout records. His son Doug was a major leaguer catcher in the 1960s; his brother, who boxed under the name Frankie Campbell, died of cerebral hemorrhaging following a 1930 match with Max Baer.Born in San Francisco, California, Camilli had an eight-year minor league career before making his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs at the end of the 1933 season. He was traded to the Phillies in June 1934, and in each year from 1935 to 1937 he hit 25 or more home runs, batting a career-high .339 and leading the NL in on base percentage in the last season. But he also had a free-swinging style that led to numerous strikeouts; in his 1934 rookie season, he tied Hack Wilson's modern NL record of 94 strikeouts, and in 1935 he set a new league mark with 113. In March 1938 he was traded to the Dodgers in a move that new general manager Larry MacPhail hoped would spur a change in the team's image from lovable losers to solid contenders. He drove in 100 or more runs in four of the next five seasons, being named an All-Star in 1939 and 1941 and becoming team captain. He also led the NL in walks in 1938 and 1939, but in the latter year became the first player to have three 100-strikeout seasons. In his MVP season of 1941, he again led the league with 115 strikeouts, and also surpassed Rabbit Maranville's NL career record of 756. In the 1941 World Series he batted .167, striking out six times, as the Dodgers lost to the New York Yankees in five games. Following his playing career, Camilli returned to the Pacific Coast League and managed the Oaks and Sacramento Solons, as well as several other minor league teams, winning a pennant with Spokane in 1948. He later was a scout for the Yankees and California Angels before finishing his baseball career as a spring training instructor for the Angels. Camilli died in San Mateo, California at age 90. Sam GibsonFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Gibson (7/20/2007)Samuel Braxton Gibson (August 5, 1899 _ January 31, 1983) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played five seasons with the Detroit Tigers (1926-28), New York Yankees (1930) and New York Giants (1932). Born in King, North Carolina, Gibson attended Catawba College before making his major league debut on April 19, 1926. He was a starting pitcher on manager Ty Cobb's Tigers, winning 12 games and throwing nearly 200 innings in his rookie season. In a game against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928, he allowed the 4,000 hit of Cobb's career, who was playing in his final season for the A's.After playing smaller roles on the Yankees and Giants, Gibson played fourteen season in the minor league Pacific Coast League, playing for the San Francisco Seals, Portland Beavers and Oakland Oaks in 1931 and from 1933 to 1945. His best season was 1935, in which he went 22-4[1] and holds the Seals' highest single-season winning percentage at .846.[2] He was a teammate of Joe DiMaggio's and the two together were inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 2003. Gibson died in 1983 at age 83 in High Point, North Carolina.

Used: Oakland Tribune