L'Italo-Americano

SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano T h e r e a r e f e w t h i n g s m o r e e n j o y a b l e , o r more American, t h a n w a t c h i n g a b a s e b a l l g a m e o n a summer evening. Seattle's love affair with baseball goes back to the late 1800s. When t h e P a c i f i c C o a s t L e a g u e began in 1903, its members i n c l u d e d t h e S e a t t l e C l a m d i g g e r s , w h o l a t e r became the Seattle Indians. Early baseball teams in Seattle played in a ballpark built on land once owned by t h e V a c c a b r o t h e r s , D o m e n i c o a n d P a s q u a l e , Italian immigrants from the tiny village of Mirabella in the south of Italy. Domenico Vacca arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1887 and start- e d a s m a l l f a r m i n t h e Duwamish Valley. In 1901, his brother Pasquale joined him. The two brothers worked hard and started buying land in the Rainier Valley. Before long, they were sitting on a veritable goldmine – 27 acres on flatland on either side of Rainier Avenue and to the east, up a hillside that sloped to 30th Avenue S. Pasquale and his wife Angelina moved into a farmhouse on top of the hillside, while Domenico and his wife Maryann lived d o w n b e l o w , j u s t w e s t o f Rainier Avenue. The family sold produce from horse- drawn wagons that would make the rounds from house to house. After 1907, they sold their produce at Pike Place Market. The Vacca family sold four acres of their farm to Daniel Dugdale who had played professional baseball himself and who owned the Seattle Indians. Dugdale built a new ballpark on the property in 1913 at the corner of Rainier Avenue S and S McClellan Street. It was the first dou- ble-tiered stadium on the W e s t C o a s t , w i t h e l e c t r i c lights and seating for 10,000. Some lucky fans even had unobstructed views of Mount Rainier. F o r n e a r l y t w o decades, D u g d a l e F i e l d was a popular spot for base- ball. Then an arsonist set fire to the wooden stadium on July 5, 1932, and burned it to t h e g r o u n d . T h e l a n d s a t empty for years until Emil Sick, owner of the Rainier B r e w e r y C o m p a n y , t o o k notice. Sick had just pur- c h a s e d t h e a i l i n g S e a t t l e Indians ball club, renaming them the Seattle Rainiers after his business. He spent some $350,000 on a new steel and concrete stadium to house the team and called it Sick's Seattle Stadium. More than 12,000 enthu- siastic fans showed up on opening day, June 15, 1938, t o s e e t h e R a i n i e r s p l a y . Dozens more watched ille- gally from the hillside still owned by the Vacca broth- ers. In fact, there were so many free-loaders on the hilltop trampling the crops that the Seattle police threat- e n e d t o a r r e s t t h e t r e s - p a s s e r s . B e c a u s e h i l l s i d e fans could enjoy the game without buying a ticket, the a r e a a b o v e t h e b a l l p a r k became known as Tightwad Hill. Pasquale Vacca was not pleased about the influx of fans. "They always like to get on my place to see the games free," he told a reporter. "I h a v e s p i n a c h a n d l e t t u c e planted, and I am going to have a cornfield. Maybe I s h o u l d p u t u p b l e a c h e r s instead and charge admis- sion and forget about the vegetables." Despite Vacca's misgiv- ings, Italians in the neigh- b o r h o o d w e r e t h r i l l e d t o watch a hometown favorite with the Seattle Rainiers — a gifted athlete named Edo Vanni. Vanni was born in 1 9 1 8 i n B l a c k D i a m o n d , Wash., where his immigrant father had found work in the coal mines. He attended the University of Washington on an athletic scholarship, play- ing both football and base- ball, but during his freshman year, he opted out of college and instead signed a con- t r a c t w i t h S i c k ' s S e a t t l e Rainiers. As part of the deal, UW football coach Jim Phe- l a n h a d c o a x e d S i c k i n t o offering the teenager 4,000 shares of Rainier Brewery stock at 25 cents a share. Those shares grew in value many times over and provid- ed Vanni and his wife Mar- g a r e t a f i n a n c i a l c u s h i o n later in life. Vanni helped the Seattle Rainiers win three straight pennants in the Pacific Coast League in 1939, 1940, and 1941. Those were the years that turned Seattle into a baseball-crazy town. I n t h e 1 9 4 0 s , t e n s i o n s c o n t i n u e d t o c r o p u p between the farmers and the fans. As people streamed to Tightwad Hill to watch the games for free, the Vaccas' radishes and corn, cabbages and carrots, became collater- al damage. Vacca claimed he incurred thousands of dollars in damaged produce each year. In the 1950s, the family d e c i d e d t o s e l l t h e f a r m , already reduced in size from its original 27 to just a few acres. The farmhouse where Pasquale and Angelina had lived and raised their family was bulldozed by developers. The Seattle Pilots took up residence in Sick's Stadium, and the ballpark was expand- ed to include more grand- stand seating. But the Pilots only played there one year, 1969-70. When baseball was not scheduled, the park was used for concerts, including Janis Joplin and Jimi Hen- drix. Hendrix played his last concert in the continental US i n S i c k ' s S t a d i u m i n J u l y 1970, just months before his death that fall. By the time it closed in 1976, Sick's Seattle Stadium had hosted thousands of ball games and events over the y e a r s . T h e s t a d i u m w a s d e m o l i s h e d i n 1 9 7 9 a n d today it's the site of a home- improvement store. A few plaques in the park- ing lot still remind visitors of the site's historic connection to Seattle professional base- b a l l . O n e o f t h e m r e a d s : "Batter up! You are standing on the former site of Sick's Seattle Stadium: home of the Seattle Rainiers and Seattle Pilots. If the year were 1942, you'd be in perfect position t o k n o c k o n e o u t o f t h e park." There is no mention of the Vacca brothers' farm. Above, Edo Vanni, playing for the Seattle Rainiers, slides into home plate (Photo: MOHAI); below, Sick's Seattle Stadium, which welcomed 12,000 fans on opening day in 1938 (Photo: MOHAI). Batter up! The farmers, the fans and the battle for Tightwad Hill RITA CIPALLA

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