Dapper included, acknowledged in latest Ted Williams biography

Fallbrook’s Cliff Dapper was not only mentioned in the most recent biography of Ted Williams, but he was also listed among the acknowledgments.

Bill Nowlin, who edited “The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego,” included Dapper among the people to be thanked for their work on the book. Nowlin said that he spoke with Dapper about a 1941 all-star game in which Williams and Dapper appeared.

The actual reference to Dapper appears in a section by Tom Larwin which focuses on that all-star trip to San Diego. Dapper was the catcher for Joe Pirrone’s All-Stars, who faced the Kent Parker’s All-Stars team which included Williams. Larwin’s section notes that Dapper played with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League in 1941, where he batted .277 in 125 games, and that his professional career ended in 1957 and included seven seasons as a player-manager.

The October 4, 1941, game included a Williams home run in the bottom of the third, and Kent Parker’s All-Stars finished with a 5-1 victory over Joe Pirrone’s All-Stars. Bill Thomas and Jimmie Foxx, who took turns playing pitcher and third base, limited Joe Pirrone’s All-Stars to four hits. Dapper was hitless in his two at-bats while securing three putouts. Jesse Flores and Lou Tost pitched to Dapper.

Joe Pirrone’s All-Stars, which consisted of major leaguers and Pacific Coast League players from the Los Angeles area, only played one game against Williams. Kent Parker’s All-Stars played their other game October 7 against Philadelphia’s Eastern Colored Giants to conclude Williams’ two games in San Diego. Dapper would begin 1942 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he would bat .471 in eight games before joining

the Navy.

The October 4 game earned additional notice 58 years later, when the grandson of San Diego Padres manager Cedric Durst found a sequence of five color slides from a pre-game hitting contest in his parents’ basement. The slides are the first action color pictures of Williams.