WHAT IS A “SALKUM RED?”
First in a five part series about baseball and Little League
Around 1955 two brothers, who became rich in the logging industry, decided to form a little league for the towns in the Mossyrock School District. Norman and Marvin Howard, along with other local merchants from Salkum, Mossyrock, Mayfield, Silver Creek, Ajlune, and Riffe, financed and organized a league with four teams – Salkum Reds, Mossyrock Lions, Mossyrock Cougars and the Riffe Yankees.
We kids in Salkum had played teams from other small towns before, but not with any formal league rules, schedules or standings. Our new, Mossyrock Little League, was still not affiliated with Little League International (that took way more money), but we did have an organization, were connected to other small town leagues in the area and, best of all, real uniforms.
I remember receiving my first uniform when I was about nine. It was made of soft white wool material. The pants had elastic cuffs so I could pull them up high to show off the very cool red stirrup socks all the way to my knees! On the front of the button up style shirt was the word “REDS” sewn on in block letters. Our hats were red as well with a large white “R” on the front. The R was like the Seattle Rainiers R (or Rainier Beer for that matter). The pants and shirt were very loose fitting as I think the sponsors wanted to make sure kids of all sizes could wear them over the years.
I wore my uniform with the sleeves of my red long sleeve turtleneck sweatshirt hanging out of my short sleeves, a black belt and my black, rubber cleated baseball shoes. I also had my Willie Mays autographed baseball glove, which was about ¼ the size of gloves kids use today. However, mine was a signature Willie Mays glove. Enough said! With that white uniform, Willie’s glove and red hat, I looked awesome. Actually, looking back at the only picture I have of me in that uniform, I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy with a cool red hat.
I loved that uniform and wore it to every game for four years. I was probably the only kid who handed his uniform in every year (for 4 years!) in perfectly white condition. As you are probably wondering, why white uniforms for little kids? I have no idea. However I do know the reason(s) why mine stayed so clean and nice.
The first reason was my Mom being so careful in washing the uniform. She washed it with only all white clothes and then let it dry on the clothes line. The last part was no big deal as we had no drier so all our clothes were dried on the clothes line in the backyard or strung up above our kitchen stove. Other mothers were not so careful. They washed the wool uniforms in very hot water, along with the red game sox and probably some logging clothes, which included red hunting sweatshirts. These clothes were given a big dose of Clorox to get out grass and dirt stains. After the first wash, about two thirds of the Salkum Reds uniforms became pink. We had to endure that first season as the Salkum Pinks. The sponsors bought new ones for the next season with explicit instructions on how to wash them. I, of course, just rechecked out my nice uniform from the previous season.
The second reason why my uniform was so clean at the end of each year was that I rarely did anything to get it dirty. I may have dove after a fly ball or two and got a small grass stain in pre- game practice or got my pants dirty from wiping my hands on my butt, but getting my uniform dirty in a real game; probably not. The best way to get your uniform dirty was to slide into a base. That, of course, required getting on base, which I rarely did. That was too bad as I was pretty good at sliding. When the coach would wet down the grass with a water hose and we would do our slides in practice, I did pretty well. However, I don’t remember sliding in a real game in four years. Falling down or tripping maybe, but not sliding.
So, after four years, I returned my uniform in almost new condition. My Mom even got the chocolate ice cream stains off the front of the shirt. It is a dubious honor to have more chocolate stains than grass stains. Even though I was not very good and may have been 0 for 1955 through 1958 (I did get a few hits my last year), I loved playing for the Salkum Reds and have mostly positive and lasting memories. I have even named my blog Salkum Reds.
Next in the series: Yarn ball and Wiffle ball.
These are the Salkum Reds in Marvin Howard’s pickup. Marvin would log all day, then drive straight from the logging site to pick up kids to take them to practice. Notice the number of kids in the back of the pickup. Judging from the other kids in the picture – mostly all younger than me – I was probably 12 in this picture. For a kid whose grade point was higher than his batting average, I took a pretty confident looking pose in the front with my right hand on my hip. Of course, this was my All –Star year. There is a whole chapter about that very interesting event.