Jim Kershner’s This Day in History
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From our archives, 50 years ago
The Spokane Indians baseball team had exceptionally high hopes for its 1960 season.
Buzzie Bavasi, the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, told Spokane reporters that he planned on stocking his Indians AAA farm club “with a major league prospect at every position.”
Among those prospects: a speedy outfielder named Willie Davis (who would go on to bat .346 that year) and a power-hitting young giant named Frank Howard.
Bavasi didn’t even mention a third player, still on the Dodgers squad but who was about to be sent down to Spokane: Ron Fairly.
All three contributed to a pennant-winning 92-61 season for the Indians. All three went on to become major league All-Stars.
From the marriage file, 100 years ago: Great Northern train conductor Homer Purcell, a survivor of the Wellington avalanche disaster just a month before, certainly recovered quickly.
He went to the theater in mid-March, fell in love with actress Bertha Cordray and followed the theater troupe to Walla Walla. There, he married her.
Also on this date
(From the Associated Press)
1860 : The legendary Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.