Friends of Warren, Friends of the Blog

I know I'm supposed to be playing catch-up with the Cubs' roster and, thus, Cubs All-Time Roster Collection additions that I missed while I was away from Wrigley Roster Jenga.  But, that being stated, I feel inspired to blog about a different CATRC acquisition that I was lucky enough to make during my sabbatical.  Muses are fleeting, so I am not about to question when the inspiration strikes. I highly doubt anyone's jonesing for me to talk about the random Cubs reliever who was added to the team in July anyway.

Back when both professional baseball and the blog were dark, I was randomly perusing the internet when I stumbled upon the website for Warren Ball Park in Bisbee Arizona - The Friends of Warren Ball Park.  At this point, I cannot recall how I ended up at this web address; perhaps I happened to stumble in while planning our vacation to the Grand Canyon State that COVID-19 86'ed.  Whatever the reason, I'm glad that I found them because, as a history nerd that happens to love baseball, Warren Ball Park is about as historic as a baseball diamond can get.

My beloved Wrigley Field may be one of the oldest ball parks in the Major Leagues, but Warren predates the Friendly Confines by nearly a decade.  In fact, Warren's build date of 1908 makes it the oldest ball park standing in the United States and is still in it's original condition.  Built to serve as recreation for the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company, it eventually came to host minor league baseball, starting in 1928 with the Bisebee Bees and then the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings calling the diamond home, starting in 1947.  During this time, the team and and it's host were affiliated with the Yankees, Dodgers and Pirates.  However, after 1958, the club folded and professional baseball would stay out of Warren except for two brief cameos with independent circuits in 2003 and 2016-17.

Beyond pro ball, Warren Ball Park has a rich history hosting amateur baseball.  In the 1920's & 30's two outlaw leagues played through Warren's confines and, for almost 5 decades between professional stints, Warren was used for high school sporting events.  Furthermore, a semi-pro version of the Bisbee Coppers Kings has called the field home since 2006 and Warren has played host to a vintage baseball tournament since 2013.  To the latter point, I can't think of a better place to host vintage baseball, with it's period dress and 1860's rules, than the most vintage ball park in the country!

Warren Ball Park in it's earliest days, via a vintage postcard courtesy of Tour Cochise County

Warren Ball Park as it stands today - image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Copper Classic vintage baseball action

The history of Warren Ball Park is much longer and richer than I have time to go into here.  Seriously, if you love baseball history, go spend some time at the Friends of Warren Ball Park website - you won't be disappointed.

Anyway, as you might be able to tell, I got lost and spent a few hours delving into this artifact of America's pastime.  Then, I stopped into the online shop for the Friends of Warrenville and saw that they were selling baseball cards to raise some funds for the ballpark's upkeep.  You're telling me that I can add some cool oddball pasteboards to my collection and help the Friends rebuild the outfield fence at Warren at the same time?

The organization printed up their own set of baseball cards which shine the spotlight on players who have sat in the home dugout of Warren Ball Park throughout it's 110+ year long existence or who originally hail from the Bisbee area.  Sold in four sets of five cards, I figured that - with such a long and rich history of baseball to pull from the 20-card checklist must feature an eventual Cub or two.  Luckily for me, after checking each listing, I was thrilled to discover that I was not only correct in my hypothesis, but that there was even one player featured that I still needed for my CATRC binder.

Seeing as most of the guys I still need for my marquee collection are super obscure and old players who don't have much of a cardboard footprint, you better believe that I was making a purchase.

As it turns out, the guy who I was after holds an important distinction, despite his obscurity:

This sepia-toned, 4"x 3" oddity is one of my favorite finds in a long time, even though they're printed on thin, almost photo paper-esque stock.  

Signed by the Chicago Cubs prior to the 1938 season, Jesus "Jesse" Flores would eventually become the first Mexican-born pitcher to play in the Major Leagues four years later.  However, before this pioneer blazed his trail, he started his journey with the Bisbee Bees.  Though they didn't seem to have an official working agreement with the Cubs, they must have had some sort of deal, as there were a few Cubs prospects farmed out to the Bees down in Class D ball.  At any rate, the knuckleballer made short work of his competition and quickly rose through the ranks.

Flores was quite good during his short time in the Majors too.  Throughout his seven-year career, the hurler posted a 3.18 ERA across 176 appearances, 113 of them being starts.  In fact, he even earned some down-ballot AL MVP votes in 1943, after the Cubs allowed his contract to be purchased by the A's.  All in all, Flores had himself a pretty nice Major League career.  Not to mention, when he wasn't in the Bigs, he was a star in the open classification Pacific Coast League through 1954, which was nearly as popular as the Majors in that time.

Here's what the back of these Warren cards looks like

After baseball, he continued to have a large impact on the game, eventually becoming a revered scout for the Minnesota Twins.  He'd go on to sign quite a few significant names, including Lyman Bostock and Bert Blyleven, among dozens of others.

Despite his cultural significance and quality performance both on the mound and behind the clipboard, Flores remains nearly completely forgotten today.  At least partially, this most likely has to do with the fact that he played for some truly terrible teams.  Despite his low career ERA, he was saddled with a 44-59 record in a time when the pitching win meant everything - the Cubs and Athletics of the 1940's were not exactly powerhouses and were nearly always near the cellar.  It should also be noted that, especially considering the era, a hefty dose of racism more than likely played a role as well.

Flores with the Cubs-affiliated Los Angeles Angels, second from left.  Image courtesy of KCET.

As an added bonus, seeing as most of his career took place during the War Years and the seasons immediately following, Jesse's baseball card ledger is quite desolate.  Best I can tell is that there were a few rare regional issues made during his active days and one Historic Autographs cut signature card made a couple years ago.  So, until Friends of Warren swooped in and became friends of Wrigley Roster Jenga, my only choices for Flores' slot in my CATRC were super rare/expensive and ugly. That's the way it typically goes for players who came up in an era were paper was much more valuable in the war effort than bubblegum cards.

While the focus of this post is definitely on Flores, remember the set in which this card was sold in packs of five.   So, perhaps we should take a look at the other four cards which the Friends of Warren Ball Park mailed my way?  Especially since Jesse wasn't the only Cub in the bunch!

 

Roy Johnson was a longtime coach for the Cubs and even (ever-so-briefly) served as interim manager in 1944.  Prior to that, Johnson began his dugout career as the very first manager for the Bisbee Bees.  Furthermore, "Hardrock" spent some time playing in the outlaw Copper League and thus played through Warren as a visiting player.  Thus, Johnson is yet another Cub who has strong ties to the Warren Ball Park.  That being stated, Johnson is already represented in both the managers and coaches sections of my CATRC.

Next up, we have yet another Cubs card - this Cubs fan is getting a lot of bang for his buck with this set!

Hadley Hicks was born in Bisbee, AZ in 1933 and is best remembered for his time as the head football coach at Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas for two seasons, from 1988 to 1989, compiling a record of 3-16.  However, prior to that, Hicks was a baseball star at Arizona State and was able to parlay that into a brief minor league baseball career.  For one season, he played for the Pulaski Cubs in the rookie level Appalachian League.  He was also a published author and served on the board of the Arizona Athletic Hall of Fame

On that note, here's a relevant sidebar.  The Pulaski Cubs eventually became the Pulaski Yankees and were unceremoniously axed from organized baseball in the great minor league reorganization project that Rob Manfred has overseen.  But, that's an angry rant for another time.

Finally, we have another local star and an area umpire, but this blog post is already running too long.  These guys have no connections to the Cubs, so if you want to learn more about them, you should toss a few bucks to the Friends of Warren Ball Park and add some of their oddball cards to your collection.  Beyond the five cards you've seen here, there are four other sets of five available in their store and the subjects of those collations are every bit as interesting as those seen here.  There's even some AAGBL stars in there for some added flavor, a league which has been criminally ignored by trading card manufacturers!

So there you have it, the story behind Warren Ball Park, the Mexican-born trailblazer who called the park home and eventually made history with the Chicago Cubs, and some wonderfully obscure oddball trading cards for your viewing pleasure.  My eternal gratitude to the Friends of Warren for printing up these pasteboards, allowing me to add Jesse Flores to my favorite collection, and for being so quick to ship and a pleasure to deal with.  For those reading, now you understand why I was still excited to talk about these even though they were acquired several months ago.

Hopefully, when the world starts returning to some semblance of normalcy and I can reschedule our family trip to Arizona, I'll have the time and opportunity to visit the oldest ball park in the United States.  Everyone always talks about Fenway and Wrigley, but I'd say that Warren Ball Park definitely deserves a little more attention from the baseball-loving populace.

As far as baseball cathedrals go, you can't get any older than Warren.