PHOENIX — The temperatures are in the 80s, the flowers are in bloom, people are putting on sunglasses and suntan lotion to protect their eyes and skin, and the unmistakable sound of a 9 ¼-inch sphere covered by cowhide colliding with a solidly gripped 34-ounce piece of ash permeates the air.
"It's early March, and that means baseball in these parts."
— Deseret News Executive Sports Editor John Robinson, March 3, 1984.
Since 1856, baseball has been known as America's national pastime. One Deseret New sports writer quipped that in Utah, it should be called the pioneer pastime.
The game has been a part of the Utah landscape since the 1860s, with some level of professional ball attracting fans since 1915. And for a time in the 1950 and '60s, Salt Lake was a regular stop on the major league exhibition games before the regular season started.
Deseret News sports photographers have spent countless hours waiting to take the perfect baseball photograph, and photo researcher Ron Fox has culled the newspaper archives looking for these photos.
Deseret News reporter Les Goates wrote in April 1960: "It is quite generally accepted that the first team in the state was the Eurekas from Eureka (Juab County). It cavorted on various dirt diamonds between 1868 and 1875."
Other teams followed, including the Ennee Club from Corrine, and the Deserets and Red Sox of Salt Lake City.
"(LDS Church) President Heber J. Grant was captain and second baseman of the Red Sox and was rated as one of the best players and long-ball hitters of his time," Goates wrote.
In 1915, "Pacific Coast League (then Double-A in designation) baseball flitted into Salt Lake City as the Bees, a transplant from Sacramento, Calif.," wrote Linda Hamilton, Deseret News sports writer.
Salt Lake has had some level of professional baseball ever since, and other Utah cities have been the home to minor league teams throughout the years, but while the state has never been home to a major league team, major league players have entertained local fans.
The first major league exhibition games in Utah were on April 4 and 5, 1957, when the Cleveland Indians and the New York Giants played. The teams were supposed to meet in Denver on April 4 and then come to Salt Lake City, but a late snowstorm resulted in a local doubleheader, much to the fans' delight.
Deseret News sport writer Dee Chipman reported that for the April 5 game, "Cleveland Manager Kerby Farrell announced Sunday that Mike (Big Bear) Garcia, one of the Indians' first-line moundsmen, would open the Derks game. He'll be opposed by Curtis Barclay, a native of Missoula, Mont., who is one of the most promising rookies on Bill Rigney's Giant club."
When the April 4 game was added, neither manager would commit on starting pitchers, "but there were indications that one of the fabulous few of the major league — Herb Score — might get the Cleveland call."
One photo taken during the April 4 game shows future Hall of Famer Willie Mays signing autographs for Utah fans who had paid up to $3.35 for box seats. Reserved grandstand seats were $2.25, adult bleacher seats were $1.50 and children's bleacher seats were 90 cents.
Some 1,500 extra bleacher seats were brought in for the game.
The Indians and San Francisco Giants would return again in 1959, but in 1960, the exhibition game featured the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. Other teams would follow.
One photograph from an April 9, 1964, exhibition game captures a 10th inning steal attempt by Boston Red Sox "rookie Tony Configliaro, who was thrown out by Cub catcher Dick Bertrell."
e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com