Bobby Bragan lives

Blogger Steve Smith posts his astonishment that longtime baseball figure Bobby Bragan just became, at age 87, the oldest pro baseball manager—and the oldest to be tossed from a game. Smith recounts Bragan's history as the manager in the 1950s of the Hollywood Stars, the storied team owned partly by Bob Cobb of Brown Derby (and Cobb Salad) fame and Gene Autry, later the owner of the Angels. The Stars played in the Pacific Coast League before major league baseball came to town and had more celebrity groupies around them than any L.A. team today. Their home park after 1938 was Gilmore Field, which stood on Beverly east of Fairfax, between today's CBS Television City and Erehwon Natural Foods (Gilmore Stadium, a separate football facility, was closer to Fairfax.) Notice the Park La Brea towers in the background of this Los Angeles Public Library-Herald Examiner photo from 1951. Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker were the managers for the game. Fans should enjoy browsing through the LAPL collection of old photos. Enter 'Gilmore Field' here.