Harvey Storey and his Life Story

[Hyfler/Rosner]

Harvey Storey played in the old Pacific Coast League, was an
All-Star twice and had a career average of .319

Monday, February 21, 2005

AMY MARTINEZ STARKE The Oregonian

Harvey Storey was a freshman at Pacific University when he
was offered a professional baseball contract in 1936 with
the Portland Beavers. He didn't even finish the school year;
he packed up and never looked back. But who wouldn't choose
baseball over school?

The 1935 Forest Grove High School grad, a dairy farmer's
son, enlisted in the Navy during World War II and was nearly
shipped overseas in 1942 when he got an offer to play
baseball on the Navy's team. To the end, he felt a little
bit bad about fighting a quieter war. But who wouldn't
choose baseball over just about anything else?

A shortstop and third baseman, Harvey went on to be a
baseball player for 20 years, in the old Pacific Coast
League, the American Association and the International
League, much of that time with the Portland Beavers, Tacoma
Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Seals, San Diego
Padres, Milwaukee Brewers and Tulsa Oilers. He had a spring
training with the Chicago Cubs. In 1946 and 1948, he was on
the PCL's All-Star team.

Newspaper writers gave him colorful nicknames: "Hoss" for
his 6-foot-11/2-inch frame. "Slammin' Sam" by one reporter
who got his name wrong. And "Babe Ruth of the Northwest" for
his hitting skills; his lifetime batting average was .319.

But three things hurt his major league prospects: a leg
injury that left him unable to run fast; the war during his
peak playing years when he was starting to make a name for
himself; and his easygoing disposition.

His highest pay was $900 a month, with San Diego in 1952.
But he would have played for $20 a month. "We played for the
love of the game," he said. But who wouldn't choose playing
baseball over making a little more money doing something
else?

While he played for the Beavers, Harvey was a neighborhood
hero who took kids to the ball game and let them sit in the
dugout. After starting his career in Portland, he headed to
Tacoma, and there in 1937 met Marian Hollingsworth, just out
of high school, at a baseball game she attended with a
girlfriend who had a crush on Harvey. They married in 1939.
Their twin boys were born in 1946 and a daughter in 1947.
Each summer Marian packed up the kids and traveled from
their Forest Grove home to wherever Harvey was playing.

After his baseball days were over at age 40 in 1956, Harvey
drove an oil truck for Hilden Oil Co. and McCall. At one
Beavers' old-timers home run derby, he hit three out of five
out of the park -- pretty good for an old retired guy. He
hunted, fished, bet at Portland Meadows and kept stats on
his favorite teams, the Cubs and the Oakland A's.

His wife saved a million newspaper articles in scrapbooks
and boxes. She died in 1991, and Harvey lived with his
daughter and her family -- in the same big old Forest Grove
home in which they raised their children. He talked about
baseball for rest of his life, which ended Feb. 10, 2005, at
age 88.

He was pretty modest about his baseball career.

"Oh, I guess I did all right." he would say.

He would tell stories if you asked him, though.

For example, he once played baseball against Chuck Connors
("Rifleman," "Branded"). Harvey tried to tag him out at
third base, breaking his thumb. He played against the
DiMaggio brothers.

But he most loved it when people asked him: "Did you ever
see Babe Ruth hit a home run?" "No," he could modestly
demur, "but Babe Ruth once saw me hit one."

Amy Martinez Starke: 503-221-8534;
amys...@news.oregonian.com