Book notes local baseball history
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

The origin of baseball has long since been in question.

Legend has it that Abner Doubleday invented the sport in 1839. Historians say it was the brainchild of Alexander Cartwright six years later, while others contend baseball evolved from a confluence of games that stretched back to the Romans.

Regardless of where it actually began, the thread of the game has longed stitched its way across America's landscape.

Jeffrey Maulhardt's newest book, "Baseball in Ventura County," pays homage to the sport's rich local history and the many professional baseball players who call the county home.

The 128-page book, made up of more than 200 pictures and captions, includes photographs, baseball cards and brief histories of a wide range of Ventura County's major leaguers.

The long list of players include little-known Ventura pitcher Charley "Clolo" Hall- the county's first major leaguer in 1904- to Camarillo's Delmon Young, the highly-touted No. 1 overall draft pick in 2003.

Ventura County native Jim Colborn, who played 11 years in the major leagues and is now the pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, said Southern California has long been a hotspot for professional baseball scouts looking for new talent.

Colborn said year-round warm weather gives local players a chance to play baseball not just in the summer but throughout the year.

"As a result, competition is better, and oftentimes a guy from California will up his standing in the draft if he's compared to, say, a guy from Connecticut or Maine, where they don't play as often," Colborn, who is featured in the new book.

Published earlier this month by Arcadia Publishing, a South Carolina publishing house that specializes in regional books on the history of communities throughout the United States, the book is Maulhardt's ninth and the fourth in a local series for the boutique publisher.

"After writing four books for Arcadia, I was asked to come up with another subject," Maulhardt said. "I suggested doing a book about the many baseball players from Ventura County who went on to the professional level."

Maulhardt, a Camarillo resident, said there have been more than 100 players from Ventura County who went on to play in the big leagues with more than a dozen drafted in the first round.

A history teacher for the past 20 years, Maulhardt is a fifthgeneration Oxnard resident whose family history reaches back to the 1860s. His greatgreat uncle, Dr. A.A. Maulhardt, was credited with organizing Oxnard's first baseball association in 1910.

Maulhardt began collecting photographs for the book 10 years ago when he wrote his first book, "The Day the New York Giants Came to Oxnard."

Since then, he's had friends, family and a number of county residents combing through photo albums, long-forgotten shoe boxes and personal sports collections to piece together the history of baseball in Ventura County.

It's a collection, however, that Maulhardt wrote, and "is in no way a complete history of baseball in Ventura County nor is it a list of every professional local player."

The book includes a number of photographic gems.

The pictures of hometown teams taken in the late 1800s offer a nostalgic look into a simpler time, while the photographs of the 1979 Oxnard College team that won the Western States championship, featuring 1991 National League MVP Terry Pendelton and the 2002 Adolfo Camarillo High School CIF championship team, prove county baseball is rich in talent.

Maulhardt has also compiled a wonderful set of photographs that chronicle the West Coast barnstorming tours of the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox in the early 1900s, which included Hall of Famers Fred Snodgrass, an Oxnard resident, slugger Tris Speaker and pitcher Christy Mathewson.

Even baseball great Babe Ruth made his way through the area and, according to local legend, played in Ventura.

Although the longgone baseball stadium that once occupied the Ventura County Fairgrounds was named after Ruth, Maulhardt said there's little proof to support the legend that the Sultan of Swat played in the county.

"Empirical evidence only brings Ruth as close as Santa Barbara- twice," Maulhardt wrote.

The book features a number of modern-day big leaguers from Ventura County, including Jered and Jeff Weaver, Noah Lowry, Steve Trachsel and Josh Towers.

Photographs of rookie baseball cards of local major leaguers Dmitri Young, Mike Lieberthal, Sparky Anderson and Colborn will send baseball buffs looking through their card collections.

Maulhardt said he focused on professional players and opted not to include photographs of the county's top Little League teams, most notably the Thousand Oaks team that in 2004 represented the United States in the title game played in Williamsport, Pa.

"I really felt that we could have done a book on the many successful Little League teams we've had over the years," Maulhardt said. "There was too much information to consolidate into one or two pictures. I would have been leaving too many teams out."

To help promote his new book, Maulhardt will throw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium on July 1 when the Los Angeles Dodgers will host the San Diego Padres for a 1 p.m. game. Maulhardt said he has asked Liebterthal, a graduate of Westlake High and backup catcher for the Dodgers, to catch the pitch.

Maulhardt said the Dodgers are offering a special deal for Ventura County residents. For more information, call (805) 988-8810 or e-mail jeffmohart@aol.com.

"Baseball in Ventura County" is available at local bookstores and online.