These Inland Empire baseball players made it to the big leagues, but their trips ended too soon – San Bernardino Sun

My teacher Mrs. Peterson asked her fifth-grade class what they hoped to do as adults, and not surprisingly most of the boys wished to be baseball players.

Yes, I was one of them, but that dream was dashed in later years by problems hitting a curveball. Today, I have the joy of watching vicariously as my grandson C.J. Culpepper, a graduate of Rancho Cucamonga High, works his way through the minor leagues as a pitching prospect of the Minnesota Twins.

I want him to get a shot, and hopefully a long career, in the majors, though it’s a rare few who ever get even a taste of the big leagues. And once there, it often doesn’t last very long – like the case of “Moonlight” Graham of “Field of Dreams” film fame who played only one inning or former Dodgers Manager Walter Alston who had but one at-bat in the majors.

With the start of the baseball season this week, I thought I’d look up the major league statistics for Inland Empire ballplayers of the past who made it to the big leagues, but only for a brief stop. Baseball writers’ cliche for such a short appearance is “a cup of coffee.”

One of them, Travis Tartamella, did make the best of the three games he played wearing a St. Louis Cardinals’ uniform in 2015. Tartamella, a graduate of Los Osos High in Rancho Cucamonga, had been a good defensive catcher in seven years on Cards’ minor league teams, but never got any higher because of a .197 batting average.

But when Cards’ all-star catcher Yadier Molina was injured late in the season, Tartamella, of Fontana, was sent to the big club from the Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League. “He is a defensive specialist,” noted columnist Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sept. 22, 2015. “Travis will live the dream these next two weeks. Good for him.”

That dream was realized the next day when he got a single in his first at-bat late in a St. Louis win over Cincinnati. He would catch in two other games, have one unsuccessful at-bat, and finish the season, and his career, with a major league batting average of .500. Those days in the spotlight would be the only ones.

Roy “Red” Ostergard, who lived in Hemet before his death in 1977, had an unusual experience for the Chicago White Sox in 1921. He had been a multi-sport star at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, when he was signed by the Pale Hose – sorry, yet another baseball cliche.

Less than one year after graduation, Ostergard was called up and got into 12 games – only as a pinch-hitter. He got four hits, all singles, but never wore a glove in the field. He got to watch Babe Ruth hit his 46th home run that year in Chicago but a few days later was sent down to the Western League “for more seasoning.” But he never made it into another major league game, spending the rest of his career in the minors.

A tragedy ended the brief career of Colton High graduate Jay Dahl who at age 17 was called up to the Houston Colt 45s (before they became the Astros) in 1963. Houston was dreadful that year but avoided last place because the National League had an even worse team, the New York Mets.

Dahl made his debut as a starting pitcher on Sept. 27 against those Mets. Also in the lineup were Joe Morgan, later named to the Hall of Fame, and future Dodgers Jimmy Wynn and Jerry Grote. The whole team was very young – it was said to be the only starting lineup in National League history in which all nine starters were first-year players. After a good first inning, Dahl allowed three runs in the second and four more in the third before being removed. It was his first, and only, major league appearance.

He was injured for all of 1964, but by mid-June 1965 he was sporting a 5-0 record for the Salisbury Astros of the Western Carolina League. On the night of June 20, he was a passenger in a teammate’s car that skidded off a road and slammed into a tree. Dahl died of his injuries three weeks later.

Paul Jaeckel earned a rare distinction for the three weeks he spent in the major leagues in 1964. Jaeckel pitched eight innings in four games for the Chicago Cubs. On Sept. 25, he was the winning pitcher in a 4-3 Cubs win over the Dodgers, his only major league win. His achievement was viewed by a throng of 629 spectators.

He never made it back to the majors. Jaeckel, who spent most of his life after baseball as a Claremont resident, is one of 18 major league pitchers with an undefeated career won-loss record without allowing an earned run. He died in Pomona in 2019.

Jess Buckles was another of those short-timers in major league baseball when he pitched in two games for the New York Yankees of 1916.  A native of Lordsburg (today’s La Verne), he led Pomona High to the Southern California championship in 1909 before pitching a year for what today is Loyola Marymount University.

After bouncing around on a half-dozen minor league teams, he was signed by the Yankees late in the 1916 season and made his debut on Sept. 17, against Cleveland, pitching a scoreless two innings and allowing only one hit. After one other appearance, he was sent back down to the minors but never made it back to the majors.

Buckles would later return to Southern California and become a lawman, serving as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy for nearly 20 years before retiring to his dairy farm in 1946. He died in Westminster in 1975.

Perris native Elmer Rieger got his brief shot with the 1910 St. Louis Cardinals. He played in 13 games, had an 0-2 record and was sent back down to the minors in July.

He did get a nice review, however, following his first game on April 20 against the Pirates. Two days later, an article in the Pittsburgh Post marveled at how well he handled the Pirates’ Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke, both future Hall of Fame members.

“Young Elmer Rieger, who pitched the last inning for St. Louis, seemed to have something, for the best Clarke and Wagner could do with his delivery was foul out,” wrote the article, Aug. 22. Rieger spent the next 14 years pitching in the minors, mostly in the Pacific Coast League. He died in 1959.

Ontario’s Roy Hitt made the Hall of Fame for his pitching, though not the one in Cooperstown, New York. After several years in the minors, Hitt pitched in 21 games for the Cincinnati Reds of 1910, winning 6 and losing 10 in 153 innings, his only season in the majors. He did have two shutouts and completed 14 games.

Hitt would return to the Pacific Coast League where he would win 201 games in 424 appearances for the Angels and teams in Oakland, San Francisco, Vernon and Venice.  Hitt, who died in 1956, was named to the PCL Hall of Fame in 2004.

And staying in the “show” – yet another baseball cliche – sometimes is about keeping your manager happy. Upland High graduate Sean Tracey was called up to the White Sox in 2006 and pitched in seven games.  His last appearance was an unhappy one.

Feisty White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was angry because his catcher A.J. Pierzynski had been hit twice by Texas pitchers earlier in the game. Baseball protocol then called for retaliation, so Guillen sent in Tracey with instructions to hit the next Texas batter Hank Blalock. Tracey got Blalock out but failed to plunk him as instructed.

“Guillen quickly replaced Tracey,” wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on June 16, 2006. “Television cameras later showed Guillen yelling in the dugout and then Tracey covering his face with his jersey.”

The next day, Tracey was sent down to the minors, though Guillen claimed it wasn’t because of the incident. Tracey never returned to the majors.