Lou McCollum eyed the sign flashed by the fingers of his catcher, Nick Pesut.

McCollum nodded.

He went into his windup, rolling his body around, his eyes unwavering on Pesut. The baseball fired off McCollum’s hand toward Pesut’s waiting catcher’s mitt, and the eager bat of Jimmy Robinson.

Robinson’s bat towered over his shoulder like a waiting lightning bolt, hoping to unleash a spectacular response to the pitch being thrown.

It was the first pitch ever in the Tri-Cities’ long and storied history of professional baseball.

It was 75 baseball seasons ago that Tri-City professional baseball originated, although not the 75th season of play here. A handful of seasons passed in which the Tri-Cities did not field a team.

Newly minted field

McCollum’s pitch came on April 18, 1950, in the newly minted Sanders Field in Kennewick, which would serve for the next quarter of a century of baseball seasons as the home park of the Tri-City franchise. In its later years, the park was known as Sanders-Jacobs Field.

Today’s home games of the Tri-Cities Dust Devils are hosted at Gesa Stadium in Pasco.

Strolling to the mound that spring night in 1950, McCollum took centerstage in a new ballpark of Major League dimensions. It was 340 feet from home plate to the fence down the right and left field lines, and 400 feet to centerfield. 

The wooden bleachers at the open-air ballpark didn’t have an overhanging roof.

Sixteen light poles made from fresh-cut trees treated and refined into poles stood 110 feet high, offering flood lights to illuminate night games.

Waiting for McCollum’s first pitch were 3,684 enthusiastic fans who marked history as the first attendees ever of a Tri-City baseball game.

Among them were Orin “Babe” Hollingberry, president of the Tri-City Braves, and Bob Able, Western International League president.

Behind McCollum, and spread out from Pesut’s view behind the plate, were seven more teammates who would help their first night starting pitcher win 21 of the team’s 86 triumphs that year, en route to placing third in the league.

A number of firsts

McCollum’s 21 wins are still a single season record by a Tri-City pitcher.

On the infield behind McCullom at this inauguration of Sanders Field, crouched Vic Bucolla, Al Spaeter, Artie Wilson and Neil Bryant. Outfielders Jim Warner, Clint Cameron and Dick Faber peered intently at home plate as the Braves played host to the Vancouver Capilanos.

They were on the field and McCollum was on the mound on the decision of Charlie Petersen, managing Tri-City in its historic first season. In his playing days, Petersen took to the field for the San Francisco Seals, the Los Angeles Angels and the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in days when only 16 Major League teams existed. Today, there are 30 Major League teams.

Eleven innings after McCollum’s historic first pitch, the Braves lost 8-3 to the Capilanos, owned by Sick’s Capilanos Brewery, when Vancouver scored five runs in the top of the 11th. 

A number of firsts came in that opening series with the Capilanos. Though losing the opener, the Tri-City team struck back the next night to record the first ever win of the franchise, with “Bullet” Joe Orrell becoming the first Tri-City winning pitcher in history. 

Later, Tacoma’s Wimpy Quinn hit the first home run in Sanders Field history. The Braves’ Clint Cameron blasted the park’s first grand slam.

Joining the Vancouver Capilanos as baseball adversaries to the Braves that first season in the league were the Yakima Bears, Spokane Indians, Wenatchee Chiefs, Tacoma Tigers, Salem Senators and Victoria Athletics.

Petersen would manage Tri-City to an 86-66 record in its inaugural season, placing behind only the Yakima Bears, the league champions, and the Tacoma Tigers finishing second.

League disbands

The Western International League disbanded after the 1954 season, and the Northwest League was inaugurated in 1955 with the Tri-City Braves as a member. The Eugene Emeralds would become the first ever Northwest League champions in their inaugural season.

The Tri-Cities’ first ballpark, aligning the then rural surroundings of today’s Clearwater Avenue at Morain Street, was named for Henry Sanders, a Connell wheat farmer, businessman and sportsman. He gave $10,000, a stunning sum in 1950, when efforts were made to raise money to build the ballpark.

He also threw out the first pitch on opening night of Tri-Cities’ baseball history.

The ballpark in 1969 became Sanders-Jacobs Field, honoring Tom Jacobs, who died a year earlier. He had been general manager of the Tri-City team, a huge booster, and given credit by many saving baseball in the Tri-Cities for years prior.

Gale Metcalf of Kennewick is a lifelong Tri-Citian, retired Tri-City Herald employee and volunteer for the East Benton County Historical Museum. He writes the monthly history column.