Baseball’s nexus with Hollywood had a center point in Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field on February 28, 1932 for a charity game benefitting America’s Olympians; the ’32 Summer Olympics—which took place in Los Angeles—inspired two comedy icons to combine their celebrity and passion for baseball in a civic minded cause. Joe E. Brown and Buster Keaton spearheaded the teams.
Players from the Cubs, the Giants, and the Pirates took the field in front of approximately 8,500 fans, according to the Los Angeles Times. Brown’s team won 10-3 in the six-inning contest. It was nearly over as soon as it began—six Brown players scored in the first inning. The Times reported, “The game was called to permit Rogers Hornsby and his Cubs to catch the Catalina Ferry.” The rosters included Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor, Carl Hubbell, and Grover Cleveland Alexander. Keaton and Brown also participated, as did Jack Oakie, another member of Hollywood’s comedy group.
Brown and Keaton incorporated baseball into their respective bodies of work. Fireman Save My Child, Elmer the Great, and Alibi Ike offer Brown as a skilled rube. Keaton filmed a legendary segment at Yankee Stadium for his silent film The Cameraman—he mimed players at different positions. Brown’s love for the National Pastime stuck in his DNA—his son Joe L. Brown was the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1976, a period of Steel City baseball legends, including Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, Roy Face, Willie Stargell, and Al Oliver.
Keaton’s comedy was universal, timeless, and groundbreaking. The Muskegon, Michigan native formed the comedy cornerstone of the silent film industry, along with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, W. C. Fields, and Fatty Arbuckle, to name a few.
A few months before he died, Keaton explained how he saw his comedy appeal to the current generation; Times writer Henry Sutherland chronicled this insight in the 1966 obituary for the filmmaker, nicknamed “The Great Stone Face”for his ability to maintain composure during chaos in his films.
“Two years ago we sent a picture to Munich, Germany using old-fahsioned subtitles with a written score,” Keaton said. “This was ‘The General.’ It was made in 1926, and hell, that’s 39 years ago.
“But I sneaked into the theater and the laughs were exactly the same as on the day it was first release.”
Wrigley Field graced television and theaters before its demise in the 1960s. It was where Herman Munster tried out for the Los Angeles Dodgers under the watchfulness of Leo Durocher. It was where baseball scenes in The Pride of the Yankees were filmed. It was where baseball’s greatest sluggers matched powers at the plate in Home Run Derby, a syndicated television show in 1960—Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, Duke Snider, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, and Ernie Banks were among the competitors.
Considered a hitter’s park, Wrigley Field hosted its first game in 1925. The California Angels played their home games at Wrigley Field in their début season—1961. Dodger Stadium was the team’s home field for the next four seasons, until Angel Stadium’s début in 1966.
Today, Gilbert Lindsay Park stands on Wrigley’s grounds.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on August 5, 2016.