1975 Baseball: Hoover Coach Moves On After Third Section Championship

Jerry Bartow ended a 14-season run at Hoover with his third San Diego Section championship and with an overall record of 226-119 (.656) then headed off to Southwestern College, where the Apaches won more than 900 games in the next 39 years before Bartow retired in 2014.

Until Ted Williams Field was built on the Hoover campus in 1967, the Cardinals, like other city schools, played baseball in a football stadium, with peculiar boundaries and ground rules.

Bartow took advantage of the at least 500 feet to the leftfield fence, which bordered Monroe Avenue, by creating a more reasonable distance for home runs.

The Hoover coach installed hurdles borrowed from the track team as a leftfield “fence”, moving them forward or backward depending on the prowess and power of his opponent’s hitters.

According to Wikipedia, Bartow‘s stepfather was Carl Mays, 207-126 in a 15-year major league pitching career and who was on the mound when Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman was beaned by a pitch in 1920 and succumbed from a fractured skull the next day.

5/13/75

Joe Vido walked, stole second base, and scored on Kyle Montague’s single to give Coronado a 4-3 win over Poway that ended the Coast League-leading Titans’ 13-game winning streak.

—Don Moyer restricted Helix to five hits and drove in seven runs with a single and grand-slam home run in El Cajon Valley’s 11-4 victory.

—Roger DePriest of San Diego pitched a complete-game, 17-inning contest at Madison, but came away with nothing to show.

The Western League squads played to a 2-2, no-decision.  Umpires called the game because of  darkness.

Mike Free pitched the first six innings for the Warhawks and Rich Leahy the last 11.

5/14/75

Poway was on a two-game losing streak, 10-2 victim of San Dieguito, whose John Lazerich cuffed the Titans on six hits

—Hoover moved closer to an Eastern League championship, winning, 12-4, at Crawford.

Daryl McGee’s leadoff home run in the sixth inning broke a 4-4 tie and opened a five-run outburst for the Cardinals, who also were supported by Johnny Davis and Dexter Redd home runs.

5/16/75

Clairemont wrapped the Western League championship, scoring four runs in the last three innings to win at Kearny, 5-4.  Hoover claimed the Eastern League championship, 7-1, at St. Augustine.

—Vic March’s seventh-inning home run was the difference in El Capitan’s 6-5 win over visiting Grossmont and left the Vaqueros with a 12-3 Grossmont League record, a half game better than the Foothillers. Winning pitcher Jay Hostetler hit a two-run home run.

“I wouldn’t go so far as calling it a grudge match,” said El Capitan coach Eddie Olsen in response to an observation from Bill Polk of the Evening Tribune, “but I’ve never seen this bunch so high spirited as they were after reading Gray’s remarks in the press.”

Grossmont coach Bill Gray had said that if Grossmont played El Capitan 10 times a season “we’d win probably win eight out of 10 times.”

Gray refused to talk to writers after the game (“I have nothing to say”) and responded with a terse “no comment”, to questions.

5/20/75

Dave Holston allowed one hit, hit a home run and pitched Poway to the Coast League championship, 6-0, at La Jolla.

—Rain played havoc in the Avocado League, postponing three games.  A four-way tie for the championship could necessitate play-in games to determine the three teams to represent the loop in the playoffs, which were to begin in five days.

—Ken Pryce hurled a no-hitter and Ken Rutar drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning as Mar Vista edged Hilltop, 1-0.

—Castle Park jumped Bonita Vista on the road and its 16-5 win tied the Barons for first in the Metropolitan League, each with a 9-4 record.
A two-run, first inning by the Barons evaporated when the Trojans erupted for 10 runs in the third.
Castle Park’s 15 hits included two doubles, two triples, and home runs, by Mark Snyder, Steve Thomas, and Tony Yaptangeo.

5/21/75

Patrick Henry defeated Morse, 2-0, on Steve Sherman’s five-hitter, forcing a playoff the next day for an Eastern League playoff berth.  The teams ended the regular season with 8-8 loop records.

—Dexter Redd was 5 for 5 and Kirk Tronerud allowed five hits in Hoover’s 13-0 victory over Lincoln, giving the Cardinals with a 13-3 league record.

5/22/75

SAN DIEGO SECTION 1-A CHAMPIONSHIP

Francis Parker sophomore Lee Carson struck out 10 and allowed four hits in pitching the Lancers to a 6-0 victory over Christian.

Dave Cook was 3 for 3 with three runs batted in for the Southern League Coastal Division champions.

—Pete Parsons’ two-run home run gave Santana an 8-7 win over El Cajon Valley.  Parsons’ hit overcame a Braves lead in the bottom of the 18^th inning, following continuation of an earlier contest that was suspended after 16 innings.

Santana then won the regularly scheduled nightcap at El Cajon, 3-1, to finish with an 8-8 Grossmont League record.

—Mike McEwen’s home run in the fourth inning was the significant blow in a 5-3 Granite Hills victory over Grossmont that coupled with El Capitan’s 3-1 win over Valhalla gave the Vaqueros the Grossmont League title.

5/26/75

SAN DIEGO SECTION PLAYOFFS

FIRST ROUND

Patrick Henry (13-12) 0, @Hilltop 1.

Writer Bill Polk described the Hilltop Lancers as being “engulfed by an air of spellbound euphoria” after their victory and as a “gutsy squad of suburban lads who could hardly believe the scoreboard after the final out.”

Willard McPherson’s first-inning triple scored Eric Linderman and was the difference in the game, played in one-hour and nine minutes.

The Lancers’ Jerry Caposs (6-4), backed by an outstanding defense, gave up five hits and kept the defending CIF champion Patriots at a distance, winning a duel with Steve Sherman (7-5), who allowed only two hits.

Point Loma (14-9) 0, @San Dieguito 1.

Webber’s home run in the sixth inning and Lazarich’s one-hit pitching provided another suburban team with victory over a city squad.

5/27/75

REGULAR-SEASON STANDINGS

EASTERN

WESTERN

GROSSMONT

METROPOLITAN

AVOCADO

COAST

 Hilltop (13-10) 0, @Clairemont 8.

Steve Blackman’s no-hitter, plus his three-run homer in the sixth inning, elevated the Chieftains to their first postseason victory since 1971.

The Blackman (8-1) home run was his sixth and he drove in another run with a sacrifice fly.

Grossmont 2, @Vista (15-8) 0, 12 innings.

Losing pitcher Rick Somers went the distance and struck out 13, but was beaten by Charlie Prokop’s run-scoring single.

Castle Park 7, @Poway (19-5) 2.

Poway outhit Castle Park, 4-2, but committed eight errors.

Fallbrook (11-10) 3, @Hoover 4.

Granite Hills (10-11) 0, @Kearny 5.

Mission Bay (14-10) 3, @Bonita Vista 4, 8 innings.

Tony Camara’s home run sent the game into extra innings and Camara won it with a run-scoring single.

Crawford 4, @San Marcos (15-8) 3.

San Dieguito (16-8) 1, @El Capitan 2-1.

Jay Hostetler’s walk-off home run in the last of the seventh inning augmented the five-hit pitching of Mike Finch.

5/28/75

QUARTERFINALS

El Capitan (19-7), 2, Crawford 8, @Grossmont College.

Crawford’s Alvin Edge struck out 12 and was reached for only two hits.

Bonita Vista 7, Kearny (16-7) 3, @Mesa College.

Grossmont (17-7) 6, @Clairemont 8.

 Hoover 3, @Castle Park (15-9) 0.

5/30/75

SEMIFINALS

Crawford (17-9), 3, Bonita Vista 7, @University of San Diego,

Hoover 5, Clairemont (21-5) 1, @Mesa College.

Brad Griffith pitched a four-hitter and the Cardinals broke open the game with four runs in the sixth inning.

Tye Waller doubled in two runs in the big sixth and Hoover outfielders Dexter Redd, John Wells, and John Davis made several defensive plays.

“I think we’ve all got the playoff fever,” Hoover coach Jerry Bartow said of the Cardinals’ advance to the big game for the sixth time in nine seasons.

“The guys have played errorless ball, they’re hitting well, and we’re getting great pitching,” said Bartow.  “Griffith…mixed his pitches well.  He stayed cool even when they were hitting shots to the outfield.”

5/31/75

CHAMPIONSHIP

Hoover (22-5) 11, Bonita Vista (19-8) 4, @San Diego Stadium.

The Cardinals won their 11^th straight and first title since 1969 as Kirk Tronerud (12-2), who was severely spiked on his non-pitching hand the day before during the celebration after the semifinals win, scattered five hits.

The Barons mustered a leadoff triple by Don Slater in the first inning, but Tronerud was backed by five extra base hits, three doubles and two triples, against losing pitcher Wally Hirst (10-3).

“We’ve been telling people that we had a great ball club all season but a lot of folks didn’t believe us because we stumbled a bit against Western League teams,” said Bartow.