Champs Again!

Saturday, July 12, 1958

In the season-ending playoff game today, 7-Up defeated Elks Club to win its second straight West Covina American Little League championship title.

7-Up, 1958. Interesting little bit of trivia: three of the players on this baseball team eventually went on to excel in football; one even earned a Super Bowl ring!

Click on photo for full-res file.

Standing (l. to r.): Moe Fox (Co-Manager), Steve Fox, future Dallas Cowboy defensive end Pat Toomay, Gary Beecher, future Cleveland Brown and Atlanta Falcon defensive lineman Lou Sabatino, Randy Harrison, Larry McDermott, Terry Thorsness, Ed Shannon (Co-Manager). Kneeling: Future West Covina High School star quarterback and Cal Hall of Fame free safety Ken Wiedemann, Jim McKenzie, Larry Young, Mike Church, Tom Finch, and Mark Wiedemann (batboy).

The official players' trophy for 1958 may have been small and plain, but it was always one of my favorites in Dad's collection.

Last year, the championship coaches were awarded a nice brass plaque, but not this season. Instead, the boys themselves signed thank-you notes. Personally, I consider this a higher honor.

Tournament play gets underway July 18, when the West Covina American All-Stars go against Glendora American in their Area 4 opening match at Cortez Park.

 

The 1958 Post-Season

It's that time of year again! Baseball season, of course, and in particular, time for another 60-year-later look-back at the post-season adventures of the West Covina American Little League All-Stars.

This year's retrospective will be less detailed than last, though. Main reason being, Mother's 1958 baseball scrapbook is incomplete. She evidently used an inferior brand of adhesive/mucilage, which not only visibly stained much of the scrap, its hold is weak, so just in the normal course of handling the album over the years, several clippings describing the earlier games were lost.

Coverage of the 1958 All-Stars will also be shorter due to the simple fact that the team didn't advance as far into the post-season playoffs as it did in 1957.

But there's still a fair share of action and surprises in store! So once more: let's PLAY BALL!