On his 100th birthday, Schallock is still a (Hollywood) Star

Art Schallock roomed with Yogi Berra, faced Duke Snider in the World Series, and, perhaps most noteworthy of anything, on Thursday turned 100.

And, oh yeah, I saw him pitch.      

Not for the New York Yankees, for whom he was a contribution to those championships in the 1950s, but for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League.

Which admittedly also makes me old, if not quite as old as Schallock, who even before this momentous birthday was the oldest living former major leaguer.

Schallock was a little lefthander, but at 5-foot-9, he was still a couple of inches taller than the legendary Bobby Shantz. His story has been told in newspapers, The Athletic, and quite impressively a few days ago by Vernon Glenn of San Francisco’s KPIX TV station, who tracked down Schallock to his residence in Sonoma.

Schallock was born in Marin, was a star at Tamalpais High and hoped to join the San Francisco Seals of the PCL. The majors had not yet moved west of St. Louis.

What he joined after the attack on Pearl Harbor was the Navy, where based on an aircraft carrier he saw combat. When the war was over he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who sent him to one of the Seals’ PCL rivals.

The Hollywood Stars played home games in a classic minor league park, all wood single deck, where CBS television city now is located in West L.A.

For a kid in junior high, it was a great place, easy to get autographs, people such as Bernier, Chuck Stevens, Frankie Kelleher, manager Fred Haney — and Schallock. 

He asked my name. “Same as yours,” I told him.  

For a player working his way back after not even throwing a baseball for years, it was a time of joy and a time of doubt.

The other PCL park in LA, Wrigley Field, where the Angels, PCL and briefly, in 1961, the major league played, was more elegant and double-decked. Not that it mattered, but it mattered to me.

The era was different. Salaries were minuscule compared to now — but, of course, a new car was only $1,500. Ballplayers held off-season jobs to support their families.

The Dodgers traded Schallock to the Yankees, who brought him up, making room on the roster by sending down a young outfielder named Mickey Mantle. After three years he was claimed off of waivers by the Baltimore Orioles.

A hell of a career. 

In the TV interview on, Schallock wore a Yankees hat. Understandable, but I’ll always remember him with the Hollywood Stars.