Victoria ... 60 31 .659 —
Spokane .... 51 42 .548 10
Vancouver .. 45 39 .535 11½
Lewiston ... 43 47 .478 16½
Salem ...... 42 47 .471 17
Yakima ..... 43 50 .460 18
Tri-City ... 39 52 .428 21
Wenatchee .. 38 53 .417 22
VICTORIA, July 21 — The Lewiston Broncs made it five in a row Monday night as they handed the Victoria Tyees a 9-5 trimming in the first game of a three game series.
Manager Bill Brenner went the route to record his 12th win in 19 decislons in a game in which errors figured prominently in the scoring.
The Broncs broke through for four runs in the third inning when Brenner led off with the first of his two doubles, Milt Smith walked and Jim Robinson. Snag Moore and Artie Wilson followed with singles.
The Tyees scored three unearned runs in their half of the same in mng when Bob Moniz hit a three-run homer after an error by Smith prolonged the inning. An error by Robinson enabled the Tyees to tie it up in the fourth.
There was no further scoring until the eighth when an error by John Treece started a four-run Lewiston uprising. Pitcher Carl Gunnarson threw Bob Williams' sacrifice bunt into right field to put runners on third and second and both scored when Granny Gladstone booted Charlie Mead's single around singles by Wilson and Don Lundborg around a sacrifice and Brenner's second double completed the four-run inning Moore homered in the ninth for Lewiston's last run.
The loss went to Gunnarson. It was his second of the season and his first in a Victoria uniform after three straight victories.
Lewiston …. 004 000 041—9 12 2
Victoria ….. 003 100 010—5 6 3
Brenner and Lundberg; Gunnarson, Gard (8) and Martin.
VANCOUVER [Keith Matthews, News-Herald, July 22]—Under the “Vanni Regime” strange things are happening for the Capilanos. Monday, for instance, they won “at home” against Spokane, 4-3, and with a late inning come-back.
But that wasn’t all. It seems even in victory there is unhappiness and strife and last night Vanni had his hands full with Ed Locke, one of his pitchers.
Locke was a Vancouver reliever in this one, coming on in the seventh when it got a little hot and heavy for Bud Guldborg.
Until the ninth, Ed got along fine and was working on a 4-2 lead. Then he got wild, walked George Huffman, gave up a single to Mel Wasley and walked Ed Bouchee to score the bases. Vanni conferred with Ed twice, but let him stay in. Ed got Jimmy Brown on a pop-up but the third Spokane run scored after the catch.
Then came double trouble. Locke went to two balls and a strike on Bill Sheets and Edo hauled him out of there for Paul Jones. Paul got Sheets on a foul fly, purposely walked Wilbur Johnson, then retired pinch-hitter John Conant on a line drive right at Gordon Brunswick.
It was a victory, and a big one. But Locke was unhappy.
He sought Vanni out after the game and said he didn’t think the new boss had given him a “fair shake.”
HAD SHARP WORDS
There were sharp words and once, Vanni even hollered “we won, didn’t we. Who do you care about, the team or yourself?”
For a while it went back and forth, but out of it came a mutual understanding which will likely do Locke a lot of good. It was Vanni who expressed that his every decision was for the good of the club—or so he hoped. It was Vanni who pointed out that Locke had a great future in baseball—all the way to the top if Eddie wanted it that way—and when the two parts it was Locke who stuck out his hand and said, “I’m sorry, boss. I walked out of turn. I got hot and I’m sorry.”
So, strange things are happening under the “Vanni Regime.” A week ago—well, who knows?
This was a fantastic victory for Vancouver, and their fourth straight, incidentally. It was accomplished on one of the most unbelievable “big innings” you’d ever hope to see, the sixth.
VANNI SAFE
With one out, Vanni was safe on Johnson’s error. Williams flied out for the second out, but Ritchey singled sharply to right and took second when outfielder George Huffman juggled the ball. Meanwhile, Edo kept right on running for the plate, and he was safe, too, when third baseman Sam Kanelos took Huffman’s relay and tossed wild to the plate.
Brunswick doubled against the left field wall and Ritchey scored. Wert was safe when pitcher Dick Bishop dropped the first baseball’s throw at the gateway, and Brunswick scored as Len Tran lifted an easy pop-up back of second base and Jimmy Brown fell down trying to get it. It added up to three runs on three hits and FOUR errors. It was so funny that Spokane manager Don Osborn actually got a kick out of out. “If I’d had a shotgun, I would have gone out and shot that baseball. The thing was alive!”
Tonight the same clubs go at it again. Van Flecther (9-6) will be going for the Caps against cagey John Conant with second place still very much at stake.
- - -
VANCOUVER, B.C., July 21—Vancouver Capilanos jumped to within 1 1/2 games of the second place Spokane club Monday night when they dumped the Indians 4-3 in a Western
International League baseball game here.
Indians' Dick Bishop was credited with the loss and Bud Guldborg with the win.
It wasn't through lack of effort on Bishop's part that Spokane lost Vancouver got three runs in the sixth due primarily to four errors in the Spokane outfield. Spokane out hit Vancouver 2 to 1 but left 15 men on base.
It is the 10th win of the season for Guldborg.
About 2,700 people watched the first of the three game series.
Spokane ....... 100 000 101—3 10 5
Vancouver .... 000 003 10x—4 5 0
Bishop, Roberts (7), Spring (8) and Sheets; Guldborg, Locke (7), Jones (9) and Ritchey.
ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED.
Eric Whitehead’s
FAN FARE
[Vancouver Province, July 22, 1952]
Had the honor last night of sharing a box-seat at Capilano Stadium with a Governor from California.
As a Governor, this gent is strictly unique. He is probably the only governor from California or from anywhere else at this hysteric moment whose ulcer hasn’t a private wire to the Democratic convention hall in Chicago.
In fact, about the only bit of convention news that might excite him professionally would be an authentic report that Estes Kefauver could go to his left, hit curve-ball pitching, and is exempt from the U.S. draft.
Name and credentials of this gentleman: Mr. Tony Governor, West Coast scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tony is up here for a look-see at some future major league talent, be there such a blessed commodity in our humble midst.
Last night, after bowing twice at sunset in the general direction of Boss Fred Saigh in St. Looie, Tony viewed a few Class A delegates for nomination in the Big Show. One player who came in for a careful double-take: Cap outfielder Bob Duretto.
The Rise and Fall of Duretto
Tony was very interested in Duretto’s recent road-trip record, a record that would interest most anyone with an ear to the soothing lilt of statistics.
Look at it: After a two-week layoff caused by a torn leg muscle, Duretto gets in for a series against Victoria, then hits the road for a week, hitting around .290. A week later he returns hitting .330 after (against Spokane) getting four-for-five, three-for-four and two-for-four; then (against Wenatchee) two for five, six for seven and of-for-three!
That adds up to seventeen hits in 28 times at bat—a colossal surge in any man’s league. Twice along the way his picked up six consecutive hits, the last time at Wenatchee, when he popped up first time at bat then laced out six-for-six.
So last night, with opportunity alias Tony Governor peering calculatingly over his shoulder, Duretto hit for the well-known collar, had little to do afield and looked as inept as any one of ten thousand ballplayers rapidly going nowhere.
Which only goes to show how Dame Fortune can grin cunningly at a struggling ballplayer for days and then boot him slyly in the pants when his friends are looking.
They Don’t Like ‘em Dainty
However, Governor will be around for two full series. He’s too shrewd a lad to deal off a player after one fast shuffle. And there are a few more players he wants to watch over the next few summer evenings.
Governor, true to the normal big-league party-line, is a pushover for that most elegant of all baseball commodities: power at the plate.
“In the majors,” he murmured, pointing approvingly at Gordie Brunswick’s modest .295 with eight home-runs, “they like a guy who can get that ball out of there once in a while.”
But Duretto, bad night or not, still caught his eye—if only for sentimental reasons.
“Look out there,son,” he called to Tony, jr., (one of two spry young offspring present with Momma Governor), “there is your daddy—25 years ago.”
Turning Back the Clock
And he pointed to a young Duretto, taking his cut in the batter’s box.
“I was just that size and heft,” reminisced Tony, “hit left, too, and swung just about like that. Man, that was a million years ago.”
No quite a million.
Governor played outfield on the PCL Oakland club of 1925-26. Along with some pretty ball players such as Lynn Lary and Jimmy Reese, later a brilliant Yankee keystone combo; catcher Ernie Lombardi, later the gamed St. Louis Cardinal “schnozz”; and infielder Johnny Burgess, who went to the Giants.
That was the club that finished in the second division in ‘25, was booked for the same spot or lower in ’26—but won the pennant was 14 games.
“That,” signed Tony—who hit .324 at leadoff that year, “was the hustlingest club I ever did see. But say . . . that reminds me, he went on, “I saw Cece Garriot’s Victoria club in Yakima . . . man, there’s a real hustling club . . .”
And look where they are. Shades of Oakland, ’25-’26!
NON WIL MINOR LEAGUE NEWS
Batboy Bats; Umpire Fired
FITZGERALD, Ga., July 20—The president of the Georgia State League today fired rookie umpire Ed Kubick and fined Fitzgerald manager Charlie Ridgeway for allowing its Negro batboy to play in a game in Statesboro on Sunday.
The Negro, 12-year-old Joe Relford, also known as Joe Louis, was inserted into the game by Ridgeway, with the score 13 to 0 in favour of Statesboro, when and Elks’ Night crowd in that city kept yelling, “Put in the batboy.”
The Fitzgerald manager finally submitted after receiving the approval of Kubick, with the understanding the Pioneers would have to forfeit should they win because of using an intelligible player.
Ridgeway sent Relford into the game in the top of the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter for his club’s leading hitter, Ray Nichting. After taking a ball, the batboy grounded out sharply to third, then went to centre field, where he fielded one grounder cleanly and made a sensational catch of a line drive against the fence. He was loudly cheered.
League directors met today, and president Bill Estroff called the incident “a travesty of the game.”
He denied the fact that the batboy was a Negro, the first to play in the Class D circuit, had anything to do with his decision, and that it was because Relford was an ineligible player.
Estroff ordered Ridgeway suspended for five games and fined $50.
Ace Adams, former major league pitching star and owner of the Fitzgerald club, will act as manager, a role which he gave up only two weeks ago to give more attention to front office affairs.
The Negro, 12-year-old Joe Relford, also known as Joe Louis, was inserted into the game by Ridgeway, with the score 13 to 0 in favour of Statesboro, when and Elks’ Night crowd in that city kept yelling, “Put in the batboy.”
The Fitzgerald manager finally submitted after receiving the approval of Kubick, with the understanding the Pioneers would have to forfeit should they win because of using an intelligible player.
Ridgeway sent Relford into the game in the top of the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter for his club’s leading hitter, Ray Nichting. After taking a ball, the batboy grounded out sharply to third, then went to centre field, where he fielded one grounder cleanly and made a sensational catch of a line drive against the fence. He was loudly cheered.
League directors met today, and president Bill Estroff called the incident “a travesty of the game.”
He denied the fact that the batboy was a Negro, the first to play in the Class D circuit, had anything to do with his decision, and that it was because Relford was an ineligible player.
Estroff ordered Ridgeway suspended for five games and fined $50.
Ace Adams, former major league pitching star and owner of the Fitzgerald club, will act as manager, a role which he gave up only two weeks ago to give more attention to front office affairs.
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