Imperial Valley press., 1938-03-27
Bench
BY b. Kinne
Post Press
Sports Editor
Warming

We've been hitting the high spots
of the careers of many of the
Seattle baseball players during the
past few weeks SO today we'll give
you a few facts about the man, in
whose hands the destinies of the
RainierS has been deposited.
His name is Jack Lelivelt and he
Is the manager of the Seattle club.
He was born in Chicago Illinois in
1888. He resides in Seattle.
When a kid Jack played hockey
so much in order to haunt the
Chicago ball parks that his mother
almost diSpaired OF his future. But
like many others with the same
youthful tendencies. Jack has done
right Well by himself-perhapS bet
ter than if he had qualified as a
child wonder" in the classroom
Jack learned the game OF baseball
on the SandlotS of Chicago when
ii was rough-and-ready sport,
even as it is unto this day.
His first professional engagement
was with Lake Lindon. Mich. in the
Northern league That was thirty
two years ago, and Mr.. Lelivelt has
seen and played a lot of baseball
in those three decades plus. He
started as an outfielder. The year
that he started he was sold to the
Philadelphia Athletics, and report
ed the following spring, and was
farme'd to Reading, Pa, the two
following years. Jack might have
been a member of Connie Mack's
famous Athletics except for one
item-that item being Home Run"
Baker
Connie Mack placed Lelivelt and
three ether players with Reading
in 1907. That club also graduated
Buck Herzog to the New York
Giants Buck got to talking around
the big leagues about youngster
by the name of Baker who was
busting down all the fences for
Reading. This incite1 Connie Mack
TO take a look. Which he did
with the result that he tossed in a
bankroll plus the four players he
had placed with Reading for the
| youthful slugger who later was to
make major league history as
/ Home Run Baker
/ Reading sold Lelivelt to Washing
ton in 1908. and he played there
/ three years. In 1912 he was with
Rochester and the New York Yam
KEGS. and as the Yankees needed
a shortstop he was traded to Cleve-
land for Roger Peckinpaugh in 1918
He played the last half of that
season and 1914 for Cleveland, when
he broke the arches of his feet.
Because of this he shifted from the
Outfield TO first base, and in 1915
went to Kansas City as such, where
he played for three years, and led
the American Association in hitting
one season with a mark of $40. In
1918 he joined Louisville, where Joe
Mccarthy, now manager of the
Yankees, was playing second base
In 1919 he was sold to Minneapolis
and the following year started his
managerial career.
That was with Omaha in the
Western league, where in a two
year period, he landed the club
fourth and second. The following
three years he managed Tulsa in
the Western league, and piloted St
Joe in 1925. He managed MilWau-
kee in 1926-27-28, and the first half
Of 1929, when he came West tc
manage the Los Angeles club. While
managing the Angels he won two
pennants and participated in ar
equal number of play-offs.
Jack virtually won three cham
pionships in 1923. althouh only
playing for two. He won with Tulsa
in the Western league. and then in
! a post-season series defeated Mo-
bile, champions of the Southern As
sociation, which had beaten, FIT
Worth Texas league champions, in
/ the Dixie series. Lelivelt was a
hitting player throughout. He
/ had an average Of 3l4 to show fol
/ six years in the American league
and one of 375 over a six-yeal
stretch in the Western. Few oi
those who were playing when ht
started are still in uniform in any
capacity.