Tremendous full color documentary on the Pacific Coast League from 1946 discovered

[NAHSTE]

Embedding is disabled, but yeah this is worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPv41VZ68yE&feature=youtu.be

I found this link from a Rob Neyer blog post, but I'll turn to the official description on youtube to set the scene ...

This old film lay dormant on a shelf in the closet of a television studio for several decades until recently rediscovered by Alan O'Connor and Bill Shubb. It was originally produced by the Pacific Coast League at the beginning of the 1946 season to promote the post-war resurgence of the league. It contains an introduction by league president Clarence H. "Pants" Rowland and some of the only known color footage still in existence showing each of the teams in the league working out at their spring training camps. Close-ups of the managers and players of the Oakland Oaks, San Francisco Seals, Sacramento Solons, Los Angeles Angels, Hollywood Stars, San Diego Padres, Portland Beavers, and Seattle Rainiers in action and in color. (c) 2011 Alan O'Connor & Bill Shubb

[Warner2BruceTD]

This is awesome.

Clarence H. "Pants" Rowland blatantly moving his eyes along with the cue cards, along with the grainy color footage, gives this the feel of a really well done parody, but it's oh so real.

Interesting how "Pants" spelled out intentions of becoming recognized as a "major" league. What a lot of fans today don't realize, is that in those days there were tons of really good players who never played in the majors, by choice. Unless you were a superstar, the money wasn't really all that much better in the AL or NL, plus some of these guys had other jobs they couldn't leave behind. And the cache of being a professional baseball player hadn't really taken hold completely. It was only a few decades earlier that baseball was still considered a game for ruffians and ne'er do wells.

I need to watch the rest of this later. Great find.

[NAHSTE]

Stumbled upon this in the recommendations sidebar on YT: