I just finished reading another good baseball book for those of you that share my love of Cubs history.It's an Arcadia Publishing book called "Chicago Cubs: Baseball on Catalina Island" and it chronicles the era the Cubs had spring training there. The words by author Jim Vitti are informative, but it's the photographs that really caught my eye.
Look closely at the first one below. That's Stan Hack taking a swing, but that's not the most interesting part of the picture. See that guy bending over, checking the levels on his recording device? That's a Cubs radio announcer from Iowa named Ronald Reagan (in 1936). That same spring he took advantage of the Cubs spring training location (near Hollywood) to make a screen test. The rest, as they say, is history.
The second photo is from one of the first seasons at Catalina. That's Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander on the beach with teammates Bill Killefer and Speed Martin.
(These are republished with permission from the publisher.)
Cool stuff. Check it out here if you're interested.
