Eugene Larks
The Eugene Larks played professional baseball in Eugene, Oregon, in 1950 and 1951, the first pro club in the city since the 1904 Eugene Blues. The name came from a fan contest won by Frank S. Register Jr., a local carpenter and former Eugene High football player, who proposed the western meadowlark, Oregon's state bird, as "a good sharp-sounding name with plenty of zest and spirit." He won a season ticket. Eugene had settled on the name before Medford's club announced on February 21, 1950, that it would also become the Larks; Medford switched to the Rogues two days later. The club's emblem set a meadowlark inside a big rounded E, and Cleveland second baseman Joe Gordon, a future Hall of Famer, was on hand at the booster meeting where the name was made official.
The club built its own home. Bethel Park went up in 1950 in northwest Eugene at Roosevelt and Maple, a wooden park paid for with stock that promoter A. A. "Art" Hadler sold around town, and a contractor dispute nearly turned the site into a dog track. More than 3,300 people came to the home opener on May 12, 1950, and watched Eugene beat Marysville 10-9. The park hosted Eugene baseball into the late 1960s, was torn down for an expressway that was never built, and its old outfield is now Lark Park.
Player-manager Lou Vezilich hit .348 in 1950, a year after he led the league at .406, and Dick Waibel led all pitchers with a 2.69 ERA, but the unaffiliated Larks finished 62-77, sixth of eight. The roster included 39-year-old left-hander Tom Seats, who went 10-7 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 and made Eugene the last stop of his career. The league had two Vince DiMaggios that season: the former big league All-Star outfielder was managing Pittsburg, a year after leading the Diamonds to the 1949 title, while the Larks had a 20-year-old pitcher of the same name. In 1951 the club became a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate and used three managers: Duster Mails, the Cleveland left-hander who threw 15 2/3 scoreless innings in the 1920 World Series; George Matile; and catcher Cliff Dapper, who hit .383 in 38 games. Dapper is best known as the minor leaguer the Dodgers traded to Atlanta in 1948 for broadcaster Ernie Harwell. Ray O'Connor led the league with a 3.75 ERA on an 11-2 record, attendance climbed from 46,487 to 54,482, and the Larks finished 51-70, fourth of six.
The Far West League was a Class D circuit that ran from 1948 through 1951 with clubs in California, Nevada and Oregon, eight teams for its first three seasons and six in its last. It disbanded in January 1952 after Pittsburg, Redding and Medford withdrew, with the Korean War draft thinning the supply of young players.
