Posted By:
Max WederBarry
It's absolutely true. Obit from Seattle PI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/archives/1996/9611270008.asp
SEATTLE RAINIERS' `OLD BAGGY PANTS' DIES
OUTFIELDER WAS TREND-SETTER; 11,000 AT BALLPARK WEDDING
BY ANGELO BRUSCAS P-I Reporter
Wednesday, November 27, 1996
Section: Sports, Page: D1
Seattle baseball historians still remember the 1937 wedding when Arthur L. ``Mike" Hunt was married at home plate at old Civic Field in a ceremony witnessed by 11,000 fans of the then-Seattle Indians.
Gov. Clarence D. Martin gave the bride away to the left fielder, who went on to lead the league in home runs and runs batted in.
Next Monday, Hunt, 89, will be buried near the Ephrata home where he also was known as an easy-going, 28-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol. He died Monday in Federal Way.
The popular cleanup hitter for the Indians and Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League also was nicknamed``Old Baggy Pants" and set a fashion trend ahead of its time in the 1930s when he wore his uniform down to his ankles.
``He was the first ballplayer I ever knew who wore his pants down below his ankles," remembers former teammate Edo Vanni, who broke into baseball with the Seattle Rainiers when Hunt was in his 30s. ``That was his nature. He was a low-ball hitter, so he tried to get everyone to throw the ball down to him."
Friends, fans and former teammates forever remember him as one of Seattle's most colorful athletes.
On July 9, 1937, he married Charlotte ``Pat" Axelson in a wedding that was reported by former P-I Sports Editor Royal Brougham on the front page of the newspaper.
``Arthur `Mike' Hunt, home run king of the league, took unto himself a wife last night, and 11,000 guests made it one of the most unusual and spectacular weddings in Seattle's history," Brougham wrote of the ceremony. `` . . . Women in sables rubbed elbows with their sisters in cotton prints, and all of them smiled, clapped hands and maybe cried a little as the pretty brunette took the square-shouldered six-foot-two slugger until death do us part."
As a ballplayer, Hunt led the PCL in home runs in 1937 with 39 and tied for first with 30 in 1936. He also twice led the league in RBIs and batted .331 over 10 years in the PCL. During the 1937 season, the Indians were purchased by Emil Sick, who changed the name of the team to the Rainiers.
Former Tacoma sports writer Jack Sareault, now a spokesman for the State Patrol, documented Hunt's career in 1992 for a special monthly newsletter. He noted that Hunt was known as one of the longest hitters of his time and most popular because of his appearance.
``High school players started emulating him with those droopy pants," Sareault said. ``Of course, him being so tall made it look even droopier."
Born in Santa Clara, Calif., Hunt started playing pro ball in 1927, and was with the San Francisco Seals in 1932 when the team's centerfielder was Joe DiMaggio. He was traded to Seattle in 1934 and quickly became one of the key hitters for the Indians, often batting fourth.
In Hunt's last season with the Rainiers, the team won the first of three straight Coast League championships, but his average slipped to .259 and he hit only 15 home runs. When told he was being sold to Portland for the next season, Hunt refused to report and retired from baseball.
``Some looked at Mike as one from the school of the highly individualist players," Sareault wrote.
He that when Hunt went to work for the State Patrol in 1940, the former ballplayer had trouble adjusting to work without chewing tobacco.
``The Patrol made me quit chewing tobacco," Hunt told Sareault. ``They didn't like it when I spit out the window and the wind splattered it on the side of the white truck."
Before becoming a trooper, Hunt worked for the Patrol as a license examiner, and was stationed in Ephrata in 1952 after 12 years in the north Seattle bureau. He retired in 1968, and the couple lived in Ephrata until Charlotte died in 1989.
He is survived by his son, Arthur Thomas Hunt, a daughter-in-law, Sandy Hunt, and three grandchildren.
``He was really a personable guy," said Vanni, who was a rookie rightfielder in 1938 when Hunt already was a fixture in left. ``He never bothered anybody and he was a great hitter. He not only hit them out of Seattle's ballpark, he hit quite a few of them out of just about every ballpark he played in."
``He was way ahead of his time," added Dave Eskenazi, a family friend.
The Indians beat the Sacramento Senators 3-1 on the night Hunt was married. The best man, pitcher Clarence Pickerel, got the win and hit a home run to cap the celebration.
``It was one of Seattle's most dramatic diamond spectacles," wrote reporter-broadcaster Leo Lassen.
Graveside services will be 1:30 p.m. Monday at Ephrata City Cemetery.
07-15-2008, 05:17 PM
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