Sacramento's First Sports Celebrity, Walter Mails

Walter Mails

By Joe McNamara

Sacramento greets The Duster

On a beautiful October afternoon in 1920, Walter Mails, a former attendee of Christian Brothers High School, stepped off of his train and into one of the wildest homecomings Sacramento had ever witnessed. The hero of the 1920 World Series was swept up by a delirious crowd of well-wishers who serenaded and toasted their hero in a parade from the train station to a reception at City Hall. Feted by local politicians, and with his every step filmed by motion picture cameras, Walter Mails was indeed Sacramento’s first celebrity athlete. 

Just three months earlier, Mails was pitching for the Sacramento Solons in the Pacific Coast League, but his success captured the attention of the Cleveland

Indians, and he was sold for a staggering $50,000. As Cleveland readied  for a pennant drive, Walter calmly and efficiently won seven straight games for the club before pitching 15 and 2/3 scoreless innings in the World Series. 

Sports writers all over the country lauded Mails’ blazing fastball, his larger than life personality, and his abundance of nicknames. Walter was known as: Duster, The Great Imperial Duster, Old Goose Eggs in the Coffee, and, as Walter preferred, simply, The Great Mails.

 

Although born in the town of San Quentin, Walter grew up in Sacramento, and attended what was then called ‘Christian Brothers College” at 12^th and K Streets. His mentor was a priest named John Ellis who taught him how to pitch and play handball. Father Ellis got Walter a job with the Sacramento Bee and told him he could strengthen his pitching arm by delivering papers. Walter’s father worked for the Southern Pacific Rail Road, and his family lived on the corner of 18^th and G Streets. Like so many attendees of Christian Brothers, Walter went on to play baseball at St. Mary’s College where he was scouted and signed by the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers). Walter made his major league debut on September 28^th, 1915.  

Had he stayed healthy, Walter might have become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. He struck out Babe Ruth 15 times, and in one memorable game against the Chicago White Sox in 1920, he was summoned from the bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out, and proceeded to strike out Eddie Collins, Buck Weaver, and 'Shoeless” Joe Jackson. The media loved Walter as did the ladies, and the handsome pitcher made it known that he loved chocolate cakes. Hopeful suitors followed him all over the country, gifting him chocolate cakes and perfume-soaked letters. One day, 38 cakes were delivered to the clubhouse. 

After several successful years with the Cleveland Indians, Walter’s trusted left arm began to tire, and although he could still get batters out, his fast ball had lost its sizzle.

Walter never let his sore arm affect his career. He simply learned how to trust his “off-speed” pitches. For 25 years, the Great Mails pitched in professional baseball, 7 years in the majors and 18 in the minors, including many memorable years in the Pacific Coast League. In 1935, as a member of the San Francisco Seals, Walter closed out his storied career with team mates Joe DiMaggio and a young fellow attendee of Christian Brothers named Joe Marty. The “Great Mails” retired with a professional baseball record of 258 wins and 235 defeats.

Always popular with the media, Walter devoted his post baseball life to a career in public relations, plying his trade with the San Francisco Seals and later the Giants. He was particularly successful in organizing “Kids Days”, and bragged that he was responsible for bringing in millions of youngsters to the ball park. Although the Great Mails could boast of hundreds of successful promotions, one episode would once again splash his name through the news headlines. During the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco, Walter negotiated a blimp to drop several baseballs from 1000 feet above, and he talked Seals catcher Joe Sprinz into trying to catch one. As the balls were dropped, physics kicked in, and soon the spheres were traveling over 150 miles an hour. Sprinz gamely tried to catch one, but the ball caromed off his mitt and smacked him in his face, breaking 12 bones and knocking out 5 teeth. It took the Great One a while to live this stunt down.

Beginning in 1953, Walter dutifully returned to Christian Brothers every year for the La Salle Club Baseball Hall of Fame Dinner. He was frequently asked to give the main address, and the audience never tired off his stories. He was inducted into the La Salle Club’s Hall of Fame in 1964, giving a memorable speech extolling the virtues of baseball and the love and support he received from the Christian Brothers Community. Walter Mails died on July 5^th 1974 at the age of 79.

If you were fortunate enough to meet Walter Mails, he would shake your hand and say: “Congratulations, you just shook the hand of the Great Walter Mails.” In an era full of colorful characters and nicknames, he may have been one of the most colorful of all, and certainly, Sacramento's first sports celebrity. 

(Written for the Christian Brothers Athletic Hall of Fame Ceremony)