Sunday 30 December 2007

Tuesday, May 13, 1952

W L Pct. GB
Spokane .... 15 6 .714 —
Victoria ... 13 6 .684 1
Vancouver ... 9 7 .563 3½
Lewiston .... 9 10 .474 5
Salem ....... 9 12 .429 6
Tri-City .... 9 13 .409 6½
Wenatchee ... 8 12 .400 6½
Yakima ...... 7 13 .350 7½


SPOKANE, May 13 — The Spokane Indians trampled over the Wenatchee Chiefs 23-3 Tuesday in the first Western International League baseball encounter of the two this season.
Spokane scored in every inning but the first — when Wenatchee took a short-lived 1-0 lead — and tied two league records. Sam Kanelos crossed the plate six times to equal one league mark and Mel Wasley tied another by driving in nine runs. Wasley had two singles, a double and a triple in six times.
The Indians got 17 hits and 18 walks off Wenatchee pitchers Bud Bauhofer and Bob Garrett, and found some more help for their cause in four Wenatchee errors.
Wenatchee ...... 100 200 000— 3 5 4
Spokane ........... 013 426 52x—23 17 1
Bauhofer, Garrett (4) and Pocekay, Robinette (6); Marshall and Sheets.

KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, May 14]—They proved a couple of other things at Sanders Field last night besides the fact that Victoria won the 12-inning Western International League baseball game from the Tri-City Braves 6-5 in a marathon that lasted three hours and 20 minutes. They also proved once again that:
1. There is no defense for a base on balls and,
2. That errors can and often, do decide the difference between winning and losing a game.
And they came just about in that order. Of the 11 runs scored only four were charged to the pitching, the rest were the result of miscues. And as for walks, both the
Braves' starter, George New and Victoria's Cal McIrwin [sic] were guilty of issuing eight passes. New got off light with only run scoring as a direct result of a walk, but McIrwin had to watch three of the walks he gave up turn into runs. The most disastrous from his viewpoint came in the second when the Braves' Olney Patterson hammered one over the left field wall to score Bob Rittenberg and New, both of whom got on base via the free route. Patterson personally accounted for four of
Tri-City's runs. He also tripled and scored in the first inning, while the fifth run came in the second inning when Bill Rogers raced in from third on a passed ball.
Both starters left the game in the eighth inning. It was the Victoria eighth that tied the game as a result of Patterson's bobble in center.
[John] Treece opened the Tyees eighth with a single and then [Harvey] Allen fanned for the fourth consecutive time. Milt Martin pounded the ball deep near the 400 foot mark in center and Patterson bobbled what should have been a routine out. [Lu] Branhan's [sic] single scored Treece and it looked as though Tri-City might get out of the inning when [Bob] Moniz flied out to center. Then Manager Cece Garriott, who was the fans target for abuse last night, lashed out a double and the game was knotted, and that was all for New. Reliefer Dick Waibel got Pries on a soft fly to right to end the frame.
And there it stood until the top of the 12th with Waibel, and Victoria's Jim Propst, who took over from McIrwin, hurling flawless ball. Propst was particularly effective getting eight Braves via strikeouts over the five inning distance while Waibel gave up but three hits.
Victoria chased home the winning run after two were out and some not very bright base running. Gladstone singled and moved to second when Rittenberg misued Marcucci's attempted sacrifice. Treece moved both runners to scoring position when he laid down a perfect bunt. Then for some reason, a missed signal perhaps, Gladstone tried to come home and was caught easily by Pesut. Pinch-hitter Jimmy Clark lined a single to left that trapped Frank Mataya and Marcucci came in the way from second.
The teams will resume the series tonight at 8 p.m. Either Ken Michelson or Ralph Romero will go for Tri-City, Manager Charlie Gassaway said, while Ben Lorino will tour the hill for Victoria. The management said the attendance last night was 763.
Victoria ..... 200 000 030 001—6-10-2
Tri-City ..... 140 000 000 000—5- 5-2
McIrwin, Propst(8) and Marcucci; New, Waibel (8) and Pesut.

Yakima at Lewiston, postponed, rain.
Vancouver at Salem, postponed, rain.

ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [May 14, 1952]
Today is anecdote day. Seems like a batch of them has piled up lately and it’s high time to be moving the cargo to make way for those that will surely follow. For one thing is certain about baseball. You can’t start kicking the subject around for very long without the laughs rumbling in from some quarter or another.
Take that game last year for instance when “our gang” was playing the outfield. You remember, the then manager Charlie Petersen had one outfielder, one fly chaser and on occasions heavens only knows who. Anyhow in this particular game some unlucky character had been staggering around out there giving the fans quite some thrills...they didn’t know whether the ball was going to hit his head or glove first. . .it was strictly a toss-up most of the time. After one really brutal display our hero came wandering into the bench after dropping a simple fly ball. However, Charlie didn’t flare into any rage at all. “Forget it,” he said smoldering, “it hit you in a bad spot. . .right in the middle of your glove.”
Pitcher Lou McCollum is supposed to be responsible for this particular incident. It happened at Tacoma, home of the league’s strongboy at that time, Dick Greco. Greco found Lou for two tremendous blasts over the right field wall, it was gust one of Greco’s nights. Anyhow Lou left the game along about the sixth inning and headed for the showers. “Wait a minute,” said the manager. “Sit down here and see how this reliefer pitches to Greco.” When the time came the reliefer wheeled on in and the big boy hammered it over the left field fence. “I got it,” sighed McCollum, “he made him change direction.”
IT WAS A TIGHT RACE
The stories about Nick Pesut are endless. Perhaps you’ve heard this one before but even if you have it still is worth a chuckle. If you’ve ever watched Big Nick behind the plate you'll notice him gagging and kidding with those hitters whom he knows. Last year [Dick] Sinovic and [John] Ritchey of Vancouver were locked in a tight race for the league batting championship and one of the final games was played here. Now it so happened that Ritchey was about four points out in front then and it looked as though he would stay there because Sinovic was having a bad night.
He and Nick are good friends but Pesut had been on Dick most of the night. Suddenly he changed tactics though and grew very sympathetic as Sinovic brought that big bat to the plate with runners aboard at a critical moment in the game.
GOT HIM ON A FAST ONE
“Too bad, Dick,” he said sadly, “that you can’t seem to catch Ritchey I really think you are a better hitter.” The hard swinging Sinovic was almost in tears as he agreed with Pesut at the injustice of it all. Listening eagerly he fouled off four successive slow balls. Then when the cagey Pesut called for a fast ball. Sinovic just fanned the breeze. “I dunno though,” Pesut snapped merrily as the furious Capilano headed for the dug-out, “maybe he’s a better hitter after all.”

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