Sports

Carpinteria was a small town of only a thousand or so people at the time of this photo. A small town but with two semipro baseball teams, one for the Mexicans and one for the Whites. Semiprofessional ball was taken seriously. The man squatting in the front row to the extreme right is Pete Sanchez, a southpaw pitcher, in 1930. Referred to in one of the Los Angeles Spanish newspapers as “El Surdo Sanchez” (the lefty Sanchez), the Oakland Oaks, one of California’s premiere baseball teams before Major League Baseball arrived on the west coast, expressed a keen interest in signing him to a contract. A telegram exists instructing a baseball scout to keep an eye on this talented player. Curiously, a couple of years after this picture was taken, Carpinteria’s team of White players decided to integrate their semipro team with three of the players in this photo. The Carpinteria Chronicle followed their exploits. Sadly, the integrated team did not perform well and was disbanded before their league season was scheduled to end.