Batter Up!

Our ancestor Louis Garland was a professional baseball player, born in Archie, Missouri in 1905. He began his baseball career pitching for the Ottumwa Cardinals in 1925. In the years following, he moved around quite a bit while working his way up to AA ball, and he was pitching for the Dallas Steers when he received the call to close out the season with the Chicago White Sox. He pitched seven major league games that glorious summer of 1931, the last one against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park (the St. Louis Cardinals would go on to win the World Series, by the way).

In December of that year, Lou returned home to Missouri and married his high school sweetheart, Lelia Feild. They had both grown up in Archie, and she had just graduated from the University of Missouri and started her career as a school teacher.

In 1934, they left Dallas for Los Angeles so Lou could play for the Angels (Pacific Coast League). That year they were the best team in baseball, and Lou’s pitching record was 21-9 with an ERA of 2.67.

By 1941, Lou had played for several other teams (including two years for the storied Toledo Mud Hens), but he ended up in Idaho Falls pitching for the Russets, and eventually became their manager. But during WWII, a brand new 3-million-square-foot Pratt & Whitney plant was built at 95th and Troost in Kansas City to produce aircraft engines. In 1943, Lou temporarily moved his family to the nearby Hickman Mills neighborhood, and spent a couple of years working at the new plant as a machinist. In 1945, the plant was shut down and they moved back to Idaho Falls, which he called home for the rest of his life, and that is where he and Lelia raised their two daughters.

As a fun aside, while pitching for the Angels, Lou came up with an innovative use for their supply of broken baseball bats. In a story that appeared in the December 1935 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine, his new hobby of lamp making was documented.