Created for the home market in the year 1940, this newsreel film shows the Chicago Cubs Baseball Team in Spring Training mode on Catalina Island. Most likely this is the 1939 team as it features catchers Gus Mancuso and Gabby Hartnett, Dick Bartell, Phil Cavaretta and pitcher Dizzy Dean. The 1939 Chicago Cubs played 154 games during the regular season, won 84 games, lost 70 games, and finished in fourth position. They played their home games at Wrigley Field (Park Factors: 102/101) where 726,663 fans witnessed their 1939 Cubs finish the season with a .545 winning percentage.

Nicknamed “The Boys in Blue” by their ever-loyal fans, the team’s owner, chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., executed a masterstroke when he first brought the Chicago Cubs to Catalina Island for spring training in 1921. The move brought national attention to a vacation island paradise Wrigley had owned since 1919. Nineteen Hall of Fame players trained with the Cubs on Catalina Island, including such legends of the diamond as Grover Cleveland Alexander and Dizzy Dean, who is featured in this film. Perhaps the best known of the personalities to be a part of the Cubs on Catalina was a young radio announcer named Ronald “Dutch” Reagan who eventually went on to become President of the United States.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com