On April 16, 1960, the U.S. Army sends a team of soldiers from Fort Lewis to Tacoma's new baseball park, Cheney Stadium. Their mission is to help dry out the playing field so the Tacoma Giants can meet the Portland Beavers on Opening Day of the 1960 Pacific Coast League season. Arriving in the morning, the troops use about 20 high-powered Herman Nelson heaters to dry the grass, waterlogged from several days of heavy rain. To eliminate mud on the infield dirt, they ignite napalm – known primarily for its use in incendiary bombs during World War II – to burn and dry the field. The first game in Cheney Stadium history begins as scheduled at 1:30 p.m.
Ben Cheney's Ballyard
Tacomans were hungry for professional baseball by the time Ben Cheney (1905-1971) built his new ballpark on S Tyler Street and the city secured a Pacific Coast League franchise to begin play in 1960. Pro ball had been absent from the city since 1951. The new team would be the top farm club of the San Francisco Giants, and over the next several years, Tacoma would be the final steppingstone to the major leagues for baseball legends such as Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, and Gaylord Perry.
Cheney was a Tacoma lumber dealer who, according to historian David Wilma, "figured out that by standardizing lumber in eight-foot lengths, he could save – and make – lots of money. He built mills in Tacoma and Medford, and in Greenville, Pondosa, and Arcadia, California. In each town he sponsored sports leagues, and he became an 11 percent owner of the San Francisco Giants" ("Tacoma's New Cheney Stadium ..."). In Tacoma, Cheney purchased Tiger Ball Park in 1952, renaming it Cheney Field. The park played host to city leagues and amateur teams for the rest of the 1950s. In 1959, the Giants announced plans to move their PCL affiliate to Tacoma and Cheney made plans to build a suitable ballpark. The City of Tacoma agreed to contribute $900,000 to the project; Cheney, said to be tight with his money, would be on the hook for cost overruns.
Cheney Stadium would come to be known as the "100-Day Wonder" because the entire project, from approval by the city council to completion, took about 100 days. Cheney managed everything from start to finish. Final cost: $870,000. According the the Society for American Baseball Research, "Since Cheney was thrifty and did not like waste, wooden seats and distinctive light towers from the recently demolished Seals Stadium in San Francisco were sent by barge from California to Tacoma and installed at the new ballpark ... The ballpark was constructed using pre-stressed, prefabricated concrete sections. Over 1,500 concrete pieces with steel tensioning cables were utilized. Prefabrication saved time and money; a poured concrete stadium would have added six months to the construction schedule. A crew of 50 to 60 workers were on-site daily to meet the ambitious deadline" ("Cheney Stadium ...").
Field on Fire
While the Tacoma Giants enjoyed spring training in Florida, workers finished the stadium in March and turned it over to Cheney and the city for final preparations. Fans welcomed the team to Tacoma with a downtown parade on April 13 and a reception that evening at the Winthrop Hotel, "but the headline in that afternoon's News Tribune read "Fans Hail Home Team – But Fear Weatherman" ("Rained-out Opener ..."). Forecasts called for rain, cool temperatures, and wind gusts up to 25 mph, and they were correct; Opening Day was rained out on April 14, as was a game scheduled for the following day. So, when the morning of April 16 dawned clear and breezy, stadium officials put in a call to Fort Lewis. As The News Tribune sports editor Earl Luebker would recall, "the friendly natives were starved for baseball. For a bit, however, it looked as if that appetite might never be whetted. The opener was delayed twice by a weatherman who must have hated baseball. And even then, the Giants needed the Army to bail them out, so to speak" ("Sports Log ...").
A team of soldiers arrived with the necessary gear. In the outfield, reported The News Tribune, troops used "about 20 'Herman Nelson heaters' to help dry the turf. The gasoline-powered machines blow hot air and are used by the Army to dry out large tents in the field" ("Baseball Makes Tacoma Debut ..."). To dry and harden the muddy infield dirt, soldiers lit fires accelerated with napalm, a mixture of carboxylic acids used to thicken gasoline for use in flamethrowers, fire bombs, and other incendiary weapons during World War II and Korea (and later, Vietnam). A front-page photo in the afternoon News Tribune shows fire engulfing the area around second base as a wall of black smoke drifts toward right field.
Diamond Doings
With the field in playing shape, Tacoma Mayor Ben Hanson (1926-2007) arrived to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Pierce County Commissioner Harry Sprinker (1896-1991) served as the catcher, and U.S. Representative Thor Tollefson (1901-1982), a former baseball star at Tacoma's Lincoln High School, stepped up to the plate with a bat. Hanson threw four pitches – two for practice, two for real – stopping only when his final pitch, a fastball, struck Tollefson on the hip. "He was crowding the plate," Hanson told reporters. "I thought I'd dust him off" ("Mayor Dares …"). Onlookers wondered if a mayor plunking a congressman might be a serious breach of protocol. Meanwhile, Sprinker, the catcher and county executive, had a difficult time behind the plate, missing or dropping all four pitches. His excuse: "It was the first time I ever received anything from the city" ("Mayor Dares ...").
The players and fans then settled in for the ballgame. In the pressbox, legendary sportscaster Bob Robertson (1929-2020) called the action for KTNT TV. Tacoma center fielder Matty Alou (1938-2011) hit the first home run in Cheney Stadium history, but Portland's George Freese belted two home runs and the Beavers coasted to a 7-2 victory. Giants pitcher Gaylord Perry (1938-2022), a future Hall of Famer, pitched one inning in his Tacoma debut. For the 6,612 fans in attendance, celebrating the return of professional baseball seemed somehow more important than the final score. "The delirious crowds stomped, clamored, whistled, screeched and even went wild with cheers for the common foe, Portland's Beavers," wrote The News Tribune. "Later of course, there was groaning about the outcome" ("Mayor Dares ...").
The napalm-wielding soldiers from Fort Lewis had helped save the day. Players praised the condition of the field, and fans were jubilant when the Giants won the 8 p.m. nightcap 11-0 behind pitching phenom Juan Marichal (b. 1937). The attendance of 5,671 at the second game ran the total for the day to 12,283. The weather finally cooperated. "Boy, I'm glad the sun shined," a hotdog vendor told The News Tribune. "These buns couldn't have lasted another day'" ("Mayor Dares ...").
