Dave Adlesh was a backup catcher for the Houston Colts and
Astros off and on from 1963 through 1968.
Dave was born July 15, 1943, in Long Beach, California, to
Francis, known as Frank, and Hessie Mae Adlesh. According to Dave his father
had played minor league baseball for North Platte; if so it would have been
between 1928 and 1932, the years North Platte had a team in the Nebraska State
League. In 1936 Frank moved to Long Beach and went to work as an engineer for
Proctor & Gamble, in 1938 he married Hessie Mae, and in 1940 Dave’s older
brother Frank Jr. was born. Dave was active in baseball from an young age, and
he got an early newspaper write-up at age 12 in the July 21, 1955, Long Beach Independent:
One of the big reasons Nutrilite of the National League of the Rotary League is still unbeaten this year is because of their sparkplug catcher, David Adlesh.
Adlesh, who is playing his fourth year with Nutrilite, is hitting slightly over .350 and is a top notch defensive catcher. He still has another year of eligibility left in Rotary League.
The 4-ft. 11-in. 87-pound Adlesh started playing ball at the age of 7 with an Elks 888 Midget League team.
Nutrilite, coached by Frank, went 20-1 that season and won
the Rotary League championship of the Kid Baseball Association. The next year
Dave moved up to the Long Beach Pony League, and played for Frank (who had
helped found the league) on the Bickel Braves, who won the Pony League
championship. At St. Anthony High School he starred in both baseball and
football; his junior year he hit .340, second on the team to future NFL star
Jack Snow.
Dave was recruited heavily by colleges and by pro scouts,
and in early June 1962, immediately after graduating from St. Anthony’s, he
received a $95,000 bonus to sign with the Houston Colt .45s, then in their
first year in the National League. Houston scout Bobby Mattick, who signed
Dave, had reported on him in his junior year: “Can play as third-string catcher
in the majors right now and not hurt you.” Dave was instructed to report to AAA
Oklahoma City for spring training 1963.
When spring training came Dave was invited to the major
league camp, and on February 27 he filled out a questionnaire. He said he had
no nicknames, gave his nationality as “Slav,” and his address as 2257 Daisy
Avenue, where he had lived all his life. He was 6 feet, 180 pounds, single; for
off-season occupation he put “none as of yet,” for hobbies “golf and working on
car,” and for ambition in baseball “.300 hitting major league catcher.”
Much was made that spring of the bounty of rookie catchers
that Houston had: Dave, John Bateman (who was described as “another Dickey”),
Jerry Grote, and John Hoffman. Red Smith’s syndicated column for April 3
included this quote from manager Harry Craft:
“…See that big kid swinging in the cage now? He’s a catcher, John Bateman, just 20, with one year in Modesto, Cal. He has a tremendous arm and fine power. If he could just hit enough up here so he wouldn’t be worried all the time, he could play now.
“In fact, I wouldn’t be afraid to keep him and a kid named Dave Adlesh, who’s just out of high school with no professional experience. With those two and one of the other catchers, I’d bet you a house and lot we wouldn’t have 98 passed balls, the way we did last year.
“I’m not dead sure it was 98, but that’s the figure I’ve been using to make my point…” [Actually it was 25, and they did cut it to 21 in ’63, with Bateman doing most of the catching.]
Dave did make Houston’s opening day roster, but on April 12,
three days after the opener, he was optioned to Oklahoma City of the Pacific
Coast League (yeah, I know…). The April 27 issue of the Sporting News included this item:
Bill Giles, the Colt publicity man, tried to break the news gently to Rookie Catcher Dave Adlesh that he was being farmed out. “Dave,” said Giles, “you’re catching the opener at Oklahoma City on Saturday night.” Later Adlesh asked someone, “Does that mean they want me to come back Sunday?”
But for some reason Dave did not catch the opener, and on
April 18, not yet having appeared in a regular season game at any level, he was
assigned to the Durham Bulls of the Class A Carolina League. Colts GM Paul
Richards said that Dave was sent to Durham so he could play regularly. He got
off to a poor start; on April 26 he singled to raise his batting average to
.067 (2 for 26), but he hit home runs on the 27th and 29th,
batting sixth in the order. An article on Durham manager Billy Goodman in the
May 1 Norfolk Virginian-Pilot mentioned Dave, saying that he “almost made it
with the parent Houston club this season” and “Rather than have him sit on the
bench he was sent to Goodman to keep busy.”
On May 11 he was called back up to Houston; while with
Durham he hit .219/.284/.384 in 73 at-bats, with three homers. On May 12 he got
into his first major league game, at home against the Cubs. He came in with two
out in the top of the tenth inning after second-string catcher Jim Campbell,
who had replaced Bateman after John had been pinch-run for, was ejected. Dave
was behind the plate for the third out, and then the game ended when Bob
Aspromonte led off the bottom of the inning with a home run.
In late May, not having gotten into another game for
Houston, Dave was sent to the San Antonio Bullets of the Class AA Texas League,
then in June he was called back up. He went back down and up again before, on
July 20, he got into his second game, in St. Louis, striking out as a
pinch-hitter for relief pitcher Jim Umbricht in the seventh, staying in the game
to catch, and lining into a game-ending double play in the ninth. That same day
sports columnist Bill Kirkland wrote in the Durham Sun:
The Designated Ones
One of baseball’s strange new rules is that of the “designated player.” It refers to the first-year “bonus babies” who are in the minor leagues but count against the parent club’s 25-man roster. If a player is designated, he cannot be claimed by other clubs. In view of the fact that each club is allowed only one such player, the result has been confusing to say the least.
Take Dave Adlesh, for example. He’s the young catcher under contract to Houston who stopped off in Durham early in the season. He was sent here just before the major league season began [not exactly true], and was among the designated ones. Although the stocky backstop had a definite void when it came to hitting, it wasn’t too long before the Colts called him back to Texas, and placed another on the designated list [OF Brock Davis]. Since that time, he’s been designated and undesignated twice. He went back down to Oklahoma City, up to Houston, down to San Antonio, and a few days ago it was back to Houston [timeline not quite accurate]. With a heavy traveling schedule, Adlesh has had little time to brush up on his game.
Dave spent the rest of the season with Houston (with San
Antonio he had appeared in 13 games, hitting .152/.176/.242 with 19 strikeouts
in 34 at-bats), but didn’t get into another game until September 2nd.
In all he played in six games for the Colts, going 0-for-8 with four strikeouts.
After the season he was sent to the joint Colts/Red Sox team in the Florida
Instructional League; he shared catching duties with Boston prospect Richard
Wohlmacher and played in 35 of the team’s 51 games, hitting .272/.393/.391 and
showing a knack for getting on base via walk and hit-by-pitch.
Dave was still on the major league roster for spring
training 1964, but was sent to the minor league camp in late March and spent
the season with San Antonio. On May 13 the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram said:
The Houston Colt .45s claim they have the four top young catchers in baseball in Jerry Grote, John Bateman, John Hoffman and Dave Adlesh. Lou Fitzgerald, Adlesh’s manager at San Antonio, says Dave may be the best of the lot eventually.
From the same paper, June 17:
Fitzgerald says Dave Adlesh, the strong catching prospect, has not developed as rapidly as anticipated this season but that he is a cinch to make it to the top. “He’s gonna catch every day as long as he is not hurt,” says Lou.
Lou meant it. Dave played in every one of San Antonio’s 140
games, catching 138, including 130 consecutively. The streak ended when he
played right field in the final game of the season, and broke the Texas League
record of 108, set in 1903. I didn’t find any mentions of the streak in the
daily newspapers, but it got a lot of attention in the Sporting News. Dave hit .203/.295/.331 with 14 homers, leading the
league in strikeouts and hit-by-pitch, and leading the league’s catchers in
fielding percentage.
The Bullets finished in first place, and started their
playoff series with fourth-place El Paso on September 9; the game was delayed
15 minutes to allow Dave and teammate Joe Morgan time to suit up after a late
arrival from Houston, where they had just undergone their Army physicals after
being drafted. San Antonio defeated El Paso and then beat second-place Tulsa
for the championship, but Dave missed the last three games after being hit in
the finger by a foul tip. He then got called up to Houston and appeared in
their final three games of the season, in Los Angeles. On October 2 he got his
first start and his first hit, and in all he went 2-for-10 with five
strikeouts.
1965 saw the return of the four young catching prospects to
the Houston (now the Astros, matching their new domed stadium) training camp.
It was reported in the February 11 Beaumont
Journal that GM Richards said “that although neither of the four Houston
catchers—Dave Adlesh, John Hoffman, John Bateman or Jerry Grote—was a good
major league receiver at present, 10 major league teams had indicated interest
in the quartet.” Newcomer Ron Brand had been added to the mix, and while Grote
and Bateman had done most of the Houston catching in 1964, in 1965 it would be
Brand and Bateman with Grote going down to AAA Oklahoma City and Dave back to
the AA Texas League, to Amarillo, replacing San Antonio as the Astros’
affiliate.
Dave was the regular catcher for Amarillo, batting eighth in
the order. He got off to a hot start; as of June 14, he was hitting .290 with
seven home runs in 145 at-bats. In mid-August he got called up to Houston, as
reported on by the Sporting News in
their issue dated August 28:
Richards Changed Mind—Calls Up Backstop Adlesh
HOUSTON, Tex.—Three days after saying he would not bring up any young players, Houston General Manager Paul Richards reversed himself and called up Dave Adlesh from Amarillo (Texas).
The right handed hitting catcher had hit 20 home runs and was batting .269 at Amarillo.
Richards took the action after watching the struggling, injury-plagued Astros lose two out of three games to New York.
To make room for Adlesh, the Astros released 35-year-old catcher Gus Triandos.Houston’s other catcher, Ron Brand, was being pressed into service at such places as third base and left field when the Astros could not put nine men on the field otherwise.
Officially Dave was hitting .254 for Amarillo, with 19
homers, which was tied for second in the league at the time. It was easily his
best offensive season so far, with an on-base percentage of .326 and slugging
percentage of .458, in 319 at-bats. He made his first appearance for the Astros
on August 17, starting at catcher and going two-for-five. He finished the
season in Houston, hitting .147/.216/.176 in 34 at-bats in 15 games.
In February 1966 Dave re-signed with Houston. The promising
young catching staff was no longer so promising; Grote had been sent to the
Mets, and Sandy Padwe of the Newspaper Enterprise Association gave the group a
C in his pre-season ratings:
CATCHING—Ron Brand did a fair job defensively last season, but he hit only .235. John Bateman, one of the former phenoms, spent most of last year in the minors trying to learn how to hit. So prospects are rather dim because Dave Adlesh, another member of the catching staff hit .147 last season.
Another year, another assignment to the minors late in
spring training—this time to Oklahoma City. Dave got off to another good start,
hitting .323 in 99 at-bats through May 29. On June 26 he hit a two-run
pinch-hit homer with two out in the 9th to tie a game the 89ers won
in ten innings over Tacoma, as described by the Tacoma News-Tribune:
Mel McGaha, the Oklahoma City pilot, then went to his bench for Adlesh, who has been idled for the past week by a badly sprained ankle. It was an entirely unpredictable move, since it involved deep humiliation for the temperamental Gentile, but it proved the right one.
Earley’s first pitch was a fastball at the knees, “exactly the right one you throw a guy coming off the bench,” catcher Krug said after the game. Adlesh blasted the ball not only over the leftfield fence, but also over the scoreboard beyond it—it was a tape-measure blow.
Dave batted anywhere from 5th to 8th
in the order, higher against lefties than against right-handers, and played
several games in left field. He was called up to Houston at the end of the
Pacific Coast League season, but got into just three games as a pinch-hitter,
staying in the game to catch in one of them, and went 0-for-6 with four
strikeouts.
Meanwhile, in May, Dave and big brother Frank had opened a
rock music nightclub in Long Beach, called The Limit. From Tedd Thomey’s “In
Person” column in the Long Beach
Press-Telegram, June 2, 1966:
Fat Bonus Helps Pair Open Club
What’s the first thing that happened when two handsome, baseball-playing young brothers decide to break into the night club business?
They get a lightning-fast education in a new subject not taught at any local colleges. The course might be called ADVANCED ECONOMICS II and subtitled How to Spend Money (Your Own) Very Very Fast.
The two brothers are Frank Adlesh, 26, who played baseball at St. Anthony’s High, Long Beach City College and Long Beach State, and Dave Adlesh, 22, who was such a standout batsman at St. Anthony’s that he was signed by the Houston Astros. His bonus was reportedly $95,000—not half-bad pay when you analyze what he does to earn it. He spends his time catching a little ball and occasionally hitting it with a stick.
Last month the brothers Adlesh sunk a sizable chunk of Dave’s bonus—plus some of Frank’s savings—into a night club they named The Limit. They aren’t exactly sure why they named it that. But they fervently hope there will be a limit to the amount of dough they will have to spend to keep the place swinging. Their goal, as explained by Frank: “To give Long Beach a really top class night spot. Something beautiful and big. Attractive to local people and convention delegates. A plush place. But also a casual place where you can relax in sport clothes.”
Surprisingly enough, the brothers Adlesh have done exactly that.
The Limit (which serves no food except hors d’oeuvres) is the biggest and fanciest night club in Long Beach. Located at 4363 Atlantic Ave. adjacent to the Tenderloin restaurant, it is upstairs in one of Bixby Knolls’ most attractive, modern structures. To enter you pass through glass doors, then ascend a graceful carpeted stairway accented with tropical plants. At the top of the stairs is a spacious, plush, high-ceilinged entryway. To the left it a paneled meeting room where parties of 100 can enjoy cocktails and appetizers. In the center is a separate game room equipped with coin-operated pool tables.
Off to the right is the lounge. It is unquestionably the swankiest in town. A year or so ago, part of it was used for a controversial gambling game called panguingue, which was shut down after various legal actions. The brothers Adlesh knocked out a wall between the former panguingue room and the bar, redecorated and created a large area for dancing, music and cocktails. They installed a stage for their band, a polished dance floor of white oak, 45 tables and smart red chairs with seating for 260 guests. Service is by attractive waitresses who are not semi-nude as in other niteries. The Limit’s girls wear black capri pants and long-sleeved, high-necked gold-colored sweaters.
Since Dave is away playing baseball with Oklahoma of the Pacific Coast League (and batting over .300), The Limit is being managed by Frank, drawing on training acquired at the El Toro Marine Base officers club. He bossed it for 14 months while serving as a first lieutenant. During his month at The Limit, Frank has been shocked by the high salaries demanded by so-called “name” entertainers in the rock-n-roll field.
“Some of them,” he says, shaking his head sadly, “want from $3,000 to $6,000 for four nights work. They are so temperamental they have to be handled with kid gloves. When you hire them, they act like they are doing you a favor to work for one of those great big salaries.”
So far Frank has kept his extra entertainment spending to $1,600—the sum he paid recording artist Roy Head for a triumphant four-night stint. He expects to pay large sums for the singers he’s planning for his Wednesday Celebrity Nights. Currently featured are the excellent band of Kent and the Candidates, who have a big, smooth sound. Frank plans to bring new bands in every two weeks or so, featuring them without a cover charge.
Will The Limit succeed in Long Beach, a town not noted for successful night clubs? I sincerely hope so. I think Frank and Dave, who were born here, have created exactly the kind of niteries which Long Beach has needed. Will the citizenry help it succeed?
Check back with me in six months when I’ll have another detailed report on the doings of the brothers Adlesh.
Thomey’s next report was actually on September 29, and
things seemed to be going very well, with talk of increasing the seating
capacity.
Wednesday’s are excellent because those are celebrity nights, emphasizing the talents of stars like Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard and Ray Peterson. Booked for future celeb nights are the bands of Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Smith and Otis Redding.
Between the baseball and the night club, Dave was a bit of a
celebrity in Long Beach, as suggested by the following, from the Press-Telegram of November 4:
“IN” SESSION
Panels, flip to serious, set Saturday
By Pat McDonnell
Staff Writer
“The Man’s Point of View” on everything from girls who wear mini skirts to those who marry early and assist their husbands through college will be explored Saturday at the fourth—and final—“In” Session for teen-age girls.
Panelists at the 11 a.m. discussion in Long Beach Arena will be three very “in,” very handsome, young men:
Dave Adlesh of the Houston Astros; Dr. Donald Bauermeister, a resident at Long Beach Memorial Hospital; and Robert Smith, student body president at California State College, Long Beach.
Adlesh, particularly, is qualified to answer questions in the dating department, considering he is co-owner with his brother, Frank, of one of Long Beach’s newest and fanciest night spots, The Limit, 4363 Atlantic Ave.
The 22-year-old bachelor, who made sports history during his four years as varsity baseball player at St. Anthony High School, states he is not in favor of brief bikinis or hip-slung pants.
In fact, waitresses at his nightclub are noted for their cover-up costumes—long-sleeved, high-necked sweaters and capri pants…
In 1967 Dave started serving in the Army Reserves, and there
would be frequent references in the newspapers to his having to leave the
Astros for two-week periods or weekends. And it would be the Astros, who, since
he was out of options, needed to keep him on the major league roster to avoid
losing him for the waiver price.
Early in the season Dave’s only appearances were as a
pinch-hitter; he got his first start at catcher on May 17 (Bateman and Brand
were doing most of the catching). On June 4 he and three teammates left for two
weeks of Army training. In his second game after returning, June 18, he caught
a no-hitter thrown by rookie Don Wilson, the first no-hitter in the Astrodome
and the only one in the National League that season.
On July 19 Dave struck out
four times against Tom Seaver. Three days later Harry Walker, who had just been
fired from his job as Pirate manager, was hired by the Astros as a hitting
instructor, and the stories on the hiring mentioned that he “would go to work
right away to seek an improvement in the hitting of catchers Dave Adlesh and
John Bateman.” A story in the August 5 Sporting
News shows just how far the outlook for the Houston catchers had plummeted:
Catchers Hamper Astros--.182 mark in 352 Abs
HOUSTON, Tex.—Failure behind the plate has been one of the major factors in the poor showing this year of the Astros.
Four catchers (including Bill Heath the first month of the season) had batted in only 22 runs and had only 64 hits after 352 trips to the plate (.182 average).
Dave Adlesh had one RBI for 60 at-bats. John Bateman had 12 RBIs and Ron Brand nine.
But trouble with the bat was not the only difficulty. Manager Grady Hatton considered the receiving sub-par.
“I don’t know what we will do,” Hatton said. “Maybe draft some catchers at the winter meeting. I don’t think anybody is going to give us a catcher. They’re at a premium.”
Dave got into 39 games for the Astros, hitting
.181/.264/.223 in 94 at-bats—he had been hitting .127 when Harry Walker was
hired, and he raised his RBI total from one to four, so maybe it helped.
As 1968 began Dave was still just 24 years old and he was
still thought of as having potential. On January 25 the Beaumont Journal,
naming five candidates for the Astros’ catching job, called him “a young player
with the tools to become a fine player,” and on February 13 they quoted new
Houston pitching coach Buddy Hancken as saying “Adlesh is on the verge of
becoming a real fine catcher. This might be his year to take over the job.” The
March 9 Sporting News said:
Hatton feels Adlesh, 24, could find himself at any moment and take his place as the top receiver. Adlesh’s progress with the bat has been rather slow for five years of work and he lacks fire.
However, he may be the smoothest receiver of the four candidates.
In the end, rookie Hal King started the season as the first
stringer, with Dave and Bateman as backups, and Brand was sent down. Dave again
had to be kept in the majors if the Astros didn’t want to risk losing him, and
he again had frequent military commitments. His only appearance in April was as
a pinch-hitter; but then King lost his job as the regular and from mid-May to
mid-June Dave split the catching with the recalled Brand before Bateman moved
back into the top spot.
An AP story from June 1 featured a rare quote from
Dave:
Teammates say pitcher Larry Dierker of the Houston Astros likes to sing in the dugout. And if he grows weary of music, he starts talking about anything but baseball.
What does he sing?
“Usually the same song, over and over,” said Dave Adlesh, one of the captive audience. “Lately it’s been ‘What’s New Pussycat’ and he doesn’t know all the words. He also hums the same tune.
“Really it’s pretty bad.”
After a slow July and August, Dave got to play a lot in
September. He caught the Astros’ next-to-last game of the season, on September
28, and went 3-for-3 with a walk, the only three-hit game of his career. It
would be his last game in the majors. He finished the year hitting
.183/.227/.212 in 104 at-bats in 40 games.
Immediately after the season Dave was traded along with Dave
Giusti to the Cardinals for catchers Johnny Edwards and Tommy Smith. Dave was
expected to be the backup to Tim McCarver, while the Astros were looking to
Edwards to become the regular and end their catching problems.
Over the off-season
it was back to The Limit, plus Dave had some spare time. From the Long Beach Press-Telegram, January 29,
1969:
Baseball School Scheduled Saturday
Barring weather problems Dave Adlesh will head a team of instructors in the Charlie Brown Baseball School for Boys Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Boys from eight to 12 will have an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the game at El Dorado, Park Ave, Silverado and Heartwell fields.
The January 18 issue of the Sporting News had a feature on Dave, under the headline “Adlesh
Eyes More Action as Redbird.” The story mentioned The Limit, then went on to
discuss Dave’s prospects:
…though he never had a spectacular year in the minors, the big-bonus catcher feels that he could hit well enough in the majors—if given any kind of a decent chance.
“When I was with Houston, Grady Hatton and Paul Richards and a lot of others kept saying that I was the best catcher in the organization, but I’d never get to play much,” Adlesh related.
“Even the year they released Gus Triandos, I sat on the bench most of the time. I’d play a few games and no matter how I did, I’d end up back on the bench and not get back in for a couple of weeks.”
A Solid Receiver
Adlesh is rated a good receiver.
“I know I can catch and I know I can throw,” he said. “And I feel that even though I didn’t hit any better (for average) last season than the year before, I was hitting the ball harder and was hitting more pitches than I hadn’t been hitting [sic]. I cut down my stroke and was going to the opposite field (right) a lot more.”
Dave, who was obtained in the Johnny Edwards-Dave Giusti deal, credited his last manager, Harry Walker, for some of his plate improvement.
“Harry helped me mostly in making contact more often,” Adlesh said. “He watches you closely and notices a lot of things. He was a big help to Denis Menke and some others. He lets you know about what you’re doing wrong.”
Sure of Bat Surge
Even though Busch Memorial Stadium is no park for midgets, Adlesh is confident he’ll hit better than in Houston because the ball is dead in the air of the Astrodome.
Adlesh hopes he has as good luck at bat against the Astros as he had against the Cardinals. Last season, he had a 3-for-3 game against the Redbirds. In another game, he got two hits off Bob Gibson.
“I think Gibson was just laying the ball in there,” Dave cracked. “He must have been looking past me to the pitcher.”
Former Houston teammate Bob Aspromonte liked to kid Adlesh about the fact that many times he’d end a long stay on the bench by facing such big, tough righthanders as Don Drysdale, Bill Singer, Jim Maloney, Juan Marichal and Gibson…
Adlesh’s biggest disappointment in pro ball came in 1965. At Amarillo (Texas), he had socked 19 homers and driven in 53 runs in just 319 at-bats when he was promoted to the Astros. His batting average was a modest .254, but he had displayed good power and had delivered many big hits. However, he spent most of his time with Houston on the bench, going to bat just 34 times, and many of those appearances were in the last week of the season.
“I wished I could have stayed in Amarillo instead of riding the bench,” said Dave, one of St. Louisan Bobby Mattick’s many finds as a scout…
He Keeps in Shape
Dave, who gets plenty of exercise working at his night club, likes to keep in condition also by tossing a football around. He did a lot of that at St. Anthony’s High in Long Beach, where a great receiver, the Rams’ Jack Snow, was a teammate.
Adlesh’s father was a minor league infielder, but was so cold with a bat that he turned to refrigeration engineering.
Dave signed his Cardinal contract in late February. In
mid-March the Cardinals traded Orlando Cepeda for Joe Torre; though Torre would
play mostly first base in St. Louis his presence as an alternative catcher made
Dave expendable, and he was traded to the Braves for infielder Bob Johnson. The
Braves sent him to AAA Richmond in early April. The Richmond Times Dispatch of Thursday, April 10, reported:
Dave Adlesh, the catcher sent to Richmond by Atlanta Sunday, was expected Tuesday. He had not turned up late yesterday afternoon. Adlesh received permission to drive his family to Oklahoma City.
This is the first reference to Dave, who had been described
as a bachelor as recently as late 1966, having a family. Later there will be
mentions of his wife Betty Ann and children Darren, Cindy Ann, and Steve, but I
did not find a wedding date.
Dave did turn up in time to play in an exhibition game on
April 11th, as the “designated pinch hitter,” an experimental rule
tried out that spring, batting ninth. Columnist Jerry Lindquist of the Times Dispatch wrote about Dave in the
April 15 issue:
…Adlesh has been around, and he gives the [Richmond] Braves something they haven’t had in recent years--a catcher who can throw…
It hasn’t always been that way for Adlesh, a stocky 6-0, 190-pounder who came to the Braves from the St. Louis Cardinals three weeks ago. “I used to throw like this,” he said, bringing his arm around in windmill fashion. “Nothing but line drives that sometimes went for doubles. I didn’t know where the ball was going.
“I remember the first game—against Pittsburgh. I wound up and threw a liner over second. The outfielder really had to move to cut the ball off.”
Since then, Adlesh, who first signed with the Houston organization in 1963 and spent most of last year on the Astros’ bench, has learned to snap his throws—with speed and accuracy…
Less well-known is Adlesh’s off-season occupation. He and an older brother are in the night-club business. Until recently, they owned and operated a Long Beach, Calif., bistro, The Limit.
“We sold it…kept expanding until we couldn’t get any bigger…want to get a place near Disneyland now,” he said.
The Adlesh brothers feature(d) live music, all the latest dances. If he sounds like a swinger, Adlesh wants it understood he’s anything but. “I just like to sit and watch,” the 28-year-old [actually 25] explained. “That stuff is for the younger kids.”
Dave started the Richmond season platooning at catcher, and
was 2-for-10 with three walks when he was traded to the Angels and sent to
their AAA team, Hawaii of the Pacific Coast League. Before he left Jerry Lindquist
got another column out of him, on May 4:
Dave Adlesh says, “Pitchers are funny.”
He’s a catcher and a pretty good one now en route to the West Coast and a place with either the California Angels or their Hawaii farm. At the time he left the Braves, there was some question which team he would join.
Anyhow, it was an hour or so after he learned of the trade that will bring Bob Chance to Richmond. Adlesh was sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Niagara and talking about pitchers and pitching.
From what he could determine during a brief stand with the Braves, “the pitchers here have good stuff. They just can’t seem to control it…but you know pitchers are funny, don’t you? Sometimes it’s hard to figure them out.
“Bob Gibson has the best idea. He was telling me while I was with the (St. Louis) Cardinals this spring that his philosophy is very simple.
“He likes to pitch away from the batter. ‘They’ll hurt you down the middle,’ he says.
“Keep it away, and they won’t hit many home runs off you. They’ll have to get three singles to the opposite field to get a run.
“If they start moving closer to the plate, then come in tight to move them away…and they will.”
Adlesh was a much-traveled young man this spring. He went to St. Louis in a deal with Houston, then came to the Braves for utility infielder Bob Johnson. Less than two weeks into the regular season and he was about to join his fourth team.
“Just call me trade bait,” said Adlesh, whose night club, The Limit, is located 10 minutes from the Angels’ stadium in Anaheim.
This last part brings up some confusion. Lindquist’s
previous column quoted Dave as saying they had sold the club, this one suggests
they hadn’t, and the “In Person” column in the Long Beach Press-Telegram of July 10 talks about them still owning
it. So possibly a sale fell through?
With Hawaii Dave shared the catching with Orlando McFarlane
and Buck Rodgers, and appeared in just 44 games, hitting .242/.322/.375 in 128
at-bats.
By the December 25 issue of the Press-Telegram, The Limit had indeed been sold, and:
Frank and Dave Adlesh, former owners of The Limit, will open their smart new club, The Market, in Newport Beach, on Friday. They’ve booked top talent for Friday and Saturday nights—the Righteous Brothers and the Raven Brothers. Located at 2600 W. Coast Hwy., The Market is twice as large as The Limit. Originally a supermarket, it was known for a time as McGoo’s and then Mr. Oo’s. Frank and Dave redecorated with new carpeting, new drapes and lowered the ceiling and bandstand. Admission to their New Year’s Eve bash will be $3.
I have no idea how things went with The Market—I couldn’t
find any further mentions of it.
Dave went to spring training with the Angels in 1970, and
was talked about as having a good chance of making the team. But he didn’t, and
other than taking Tom Egan’s place on the California roster while Tom was on
military duty the weekend of May 2-3 (but not playing in a game), he spent the
entire season with Hawaii. He was the backup catcher to Merritt Ranew, hitting
.149/.237/.179 in 134 at-bats in 50 games.
On March 16, 1971, Dave was traded with Steve Kealey to the
White Sox for Art Kusnyer and assigned to the AAA Tucson roster, but soon after
this he retired. A UPI story appearing in newspapers on May 23 about former
athletes working in the horse racing business mentioned that he was working as
a mutuel clerk at Hollywood Park. Columnist Hank Hollingworth of the Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote about
Dave on July 7, 1974:
Dave Adlesh just “horsing” around
That smiling face handicappers see daily in the Hollywood Park and Santa Anita press boxes belongs to none other than ex-major leaguer Dave Adlesh, who was signed for a $95,000 bonus the day after he graduated from St. Anthony High School in 1962.
Dave, 30, who journeyed so much in his 10-year baseball career that “my laundry was always in some other town,” quit baseball in 1971 because “I had it” after traveling to more places than Gulliver.
A press box steward now, Adlesh got his race track job through another former baseball player, Wally Wolf, who was a USC all-America and teammate of Dave’s at Houston.
“I didn’t know much about horses although I roomed with Bob Aspromonte and he loved them,” recalled Adlesh. “Once in a while I’d go to the horse races or dog races during spring training in Florida, but that was it.
“When I retired from baseball, Wally was working for the race tracks and he got me interested in working for them, too. He put in a word for me, and in 1971 and ’72 I worked for the Western Harness meeting at Hollywood Park. My first job was with the public office, which is a fancy name for the complaint department. Then I got the press box job.
“The next year I worked during the Hollywood Park thoroughbred meeting, then went to Santa Anita. This year I’ll be working at all three tracks, Del Mar being the third.
“I don’t miss baseball, but I wouldn’t mind being a big league coach. I wouldn’t want to go back to the minors and manage or coach there, though. I’ve had enough of riding those buses. But I guess that’s the only way to do it. My manager at Hawaii, Chuck Tanner, did it that hard way, but it’s pretty tough.”
…All-CIF in both baseball and football at St. Anthony, Adlesh recalled gleefully the rush for his services just before he graduated.
“Scouts from 16 or 18 baseball clubs came to our house and they were fighting all the time,” chuckled Dave. “I had a lot of football scholarship offers, too, the best being a football-baseball scholarship at Arizona State. But I didn’t think I was tall enough to be a college quarterback. I chose the Houston offer because of the money. The Dodgers were a close second in the bidding.”
ADLESH’S BIGGEST THRILL—“When I caught Don Wilson’s no-hitter in 1967. It was the first one ever pitched in the Houston Astrodome. It was against Atlanta, which had some good hitters in Hank Aaron, Felipe Alou and Mack Jones. I remember one play particularly. Alou hit a ball straight up over my head, but I couldn’t see it. Aspromonte saved the day, though, when he came over from third and caught it in front of the plate. Aaron said it was the hardest he ever saw anybody throw. It’s easier to catch a no-hitter because the pitches are always right around the plate.”
TOUGHEST PITCHER TO HIT—“I hated to go up against Jim Maloney and Bob Veale. They were fast and wild. I did real well against Bob Gibson and got some hits off Don Drysdale near the end of his career when he was throwing a spitter.” [Dave was 1-for-6 with 4 strikeouts vs. Maloney, 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts vs. Veale, and 3-for-7 vs. Gibson, but he must have been remembering some spring training games against Drysdale, whom he was 0-for-4 against in the regular season.]
HIS IDOLS—“Like all kids, Mantle, Musial, Williams. Hank Aaron, too, even when I was playing. Aaron would almost take the ball out of your catcher’s glove when he was hitting. He can really pop the wrists, and he’s got great eyes and timing.”
MANAGER—“Chuck Tanner was easy to play for. I knew he’d get along with Richie Allen at Chicago. If a player doesn’t care to take batting or infield practice, it was okay with Tanner.”
PERSON WHO HELPED HIM MOST—“My dad, Frank, taught me everything. He played ‘D’ ball in the Nebraska State League, but he was a coach in the Pony and Rotary Leagues in Long Beach. In fact, he and Lauren Proctor founded that Pony League.”
Adlesh, who now lives in Cypress with his wife, Betty, and children, Steve, Cindy and Darren, owned The Limit nightclub on Atlantic Ave. for four years and would like to get back in that business.
“It’s a challenge and a lot of work. But you meet a lot of people, too, and I like that. I was looking around for a place, especially in Orange County, but everything’s so darned high now, I dunno.”
The race track is Adlesh’s life today, however. Which can’t be too bad, since now his laundry isn’t always in some other town.
Dave’s name popped up in the Sporting News on October 30, 1976, in the “Insiders Say” column:
Much-traveled former major leaguer Dave Adlesh recalled the time he signed an autograph for a fan, who then remarked: “I know you. You’re the one whose name is in the Sporting News all the time, under Deals of the Week.”
Dave worked for the racetracks for 17 years, and then
started a construction company with his son Darren, doing home remodeling. He
passed away at home after a long battle with cancer at age 72 on February 15,
2016.
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