How Billings got professional baseball

Did you know that the man who owned the famed Brown Derby restaurants in Hollywood and the surrounding Los Angeles area was the major force behind Billings getting a pro baseball team 78 years ago?

That was Bob Cobb, a Billings man who moved to the LA area with his parents at the age of 18 and ended up not only owning the Brown Derby restaurants but also the Hollywood Stars team of the old Pacific Coast League.

Long story short: Cobb never lost his ties to or affection for the Magic City. So in the late 1940s, he helped Billings officials get a team in the old Class C Pioneer League. And here’s how he did it: Cobb made all kinds of friends in the movie business, actors and directors, including people like Bing Crosby, Cecille B. DeMille, and Barbara Stanwyck. So, he convinced them to buy shares of stock in the brand-new Billings Mustangs before they began play in 1948.

The Mustangs played at what was then called Athletic Park, but city fathers expressed their thanks for what Cobb had done by renaming the facility as Cobb Field. And that’s where thousands of professional players and American Legion baseball players honed their skills in the summer game until 2008. That’s when Cobb Field was razed and replaced by Dehler Park.

I’m mulling the idea of writing my next book about Cobb’s life – he died in 1970 at age 70 in Glendale, California – and the importance of his efforts in making Billings one of the premiere minor league towns in the country.

So, if anybody has stories about Cobb and those days in the early 1950s, please drop me a line, at dennis@treasurestatepress.com

Many thanks!

P.S. The Cobb salad got its name from Bob Cobb, too. The story goes that he cobbled together a salad one night at the Brown Derby and later shared a few bites with one of his screen buddies. This person raved about it, and Cobb gained a lasting legacy in addition to baseball.