Friday 25 January 2008

Saturday, July 12, 1952

W L Pct. GB
Victoria .... 52 29 .642 —
Spokane ..... 46 38 .548 7½
Vancouver ... 40 36 .526 9½
Lewiston .... 37 42 .468 14
Tri-City .... 38 44 .463 14½
Salem ....... 37 44 .457 15
Yakima ...... 38 46 .452 15½
Wenatchee ... 37 46 .446 16


VANCOUVER, [Keith Matthews, News-Herald, July 14]—Vancouver showed itself off as one of the best cities in minor league baseball Saturday night at the Stadium, but the Capilanos can still lay boast to being no better than second best in the WIL.
A monstrous turnout of 6200 greeted the Caps and Victoria for this doubleheader and safly enough watched the league leading Tyees sweep both ends, 2-1 and 5-3. The 2-1 game was scheduled for seven inning and went nine, and it was that close.
It was the second largest crowd since the inception of the new Cap Stadium, missing by only about 100 the crowd which attended on opening night itself on June 14, 1951.
In fact, Cec Garriott, when he went in to collect Victoria’s 40 percent share of the gate remarked that the sum was within $100 of what Victoria took away in an entire five-game series in Spokane over the July 4 holiday.
Garriott took away more than a bundle full of cash. The two ball games his club won put Victoria nine and a half lengths in front of the third place Caps and set the stage for tonight’s fifth and final game of the series and a “must” for the Capilanos. Incidentally, this is the ninth in a series of home games between the two teams and the “rubber”. Each club has now won four in the set.
What the Caps lacked again was punch in the clutch, especially in that first game. Not that Victoria was overloaded with basehits when they needed them, but they did pick up more.
Vancouver could have won the first game in regulation innings—the seventh to be exact.
They were down 1-0 going into their last at bat when Gordie Brunswick, Jim Wert and Len Tran each singled to fill the bases with one out. Jesse Williams drove in the tying runs with an outfield fly, then with Bill Prior in to do some relief pitching for Carl Gunnarson, Bud Isham grounded weakly into a double play and that was that.
In the ninth, with Ed Locke now pitching for the Caps, Victoria loaded the bases on two walks and a single, then Locke graciously walked in the winning run.
There was no such alibi for the second game. John Gulborg was just outpitched by clever Jehosi Heard, who is a Vancouver nemesis and the Caps went until 5-3. They had several rallies on the boil, but each time Heard leaned way back and fired a little harder and got out of it.
Tonight Bill Schuster will send Van Fletcher along to try and do some necessary cleaning up in this last game. It will start at 8:15 and van’s opposition will be Ben Lorino which will come in the nature of fine news to Gordie Brunswick, at least. Lately, Gordie has been hitting Lorino like he owned him.
DIAMOND DUST—Earl Sheely was at the park for the doubleheader once more, but left Sunday for his Seattle Rainier general manager’s desk … Jim Moore has not arrived yet but a wire from his mother did … It said, merely: “Jim is on his way to Vancouver.” … Locke was the loser in the first game, putting him at 6-7 and Guldborg the second and he’s now 9-6.
First Game
Victoria …….. 000 001 001—2 7 0
Vancouver … 000 000 100—1 8 0
Gunnarson, Prior (7) and Martin; Lovrich, Locke (7) and Duretto, Ritchey (6)
Second Game
Victoria …….. 102 100 010—5 10 2
Vancouver … 000 020 010—3 10 3
Heard and Martin; Guldborg, Locke (7) and Ritchey.

LEWISTON, Idaho, July 12 — Three home runs, two of them by Catcher Bill Sheets, gave the Spokane Indians a 9-8 Western International League victory over Lewiston Saturday.
Mel Wasley banged out the Indians' first round-tripper, with the bases empty in the sixth inning.
Then Ed Bouchee tripled and Sheets drove him home with another ball over the fence. Sheets repeated in the eighth for two more runs. In all, he drove in five runs.
Bob Williams homered in the first for the Broncs with no one on base, and Lewiston was leading 3-1 going into the sixth when the Indians got their big bats working.
Spokane ....... 010 003 032— 9 12 4
Lewiston ...... 110 013 000— 6 7 2
Bishop and Sheets; Thomason, Schulte (8), Powell (8) and Helmuth.

SALEM, July 12—Bob Rittenberg's squeeze bunt in the 11th inning brought in the winning run as Tri-City defeated Salem 5-4 in a Western International League baseball
game here Saturday night.
The loss was charged to Vince DeBiasi, former Portland Beaver pitcher, who just joined the Salem team. He struck out eight and walked three.
Bob Greenwood, who went the route for Tri-City, struck out seven Salem batsmen and walked seven others. He did not allow a single hit in the last seven innings.
Tri-City's first inning pair of runs came on consecutive doubles by Nick Pesut and Tom Marier and a single by John Kovenz. They added another, in the seventh on a two-base error and a single by Don Lopes. A walk, a bunt by Kovenz, a sacrifice and an outfield fly brought one more in the ninth.
The two teams meet again Sunday in a night doubleheader. Tri-City pitchers will be George New, 3-3, and Ad Satalich, 4-5. For Salem it will be Jack Hemphill, 7-5, and Bob Collins, 4-7.
Tri-City ...... 200 000 101 01—5 8 0
Salem ........ 030 100 000 00—4 7 1
Greenwood and Pesut; DeBiasi and Nelson

YAKIMA, July 12—The Yakima Bears returned to the win column Saturday night in a 6-3 victory over Wenatchee in a Western International League baseball game here.
The tilt was featured by a third inning burst of power that gave Yakima four runs, three of them scored on Chuck Malmberg's triple. Malmberg scored the fourth on an outfield fly.
Wenatchee scored its first run in tht fifth on three successive singles that scored Norm Ridgeway. They threatened again in the eighth when Ben Buerrero walked, Walt Pocekay doubled. Bud Hjelmaa walked and Laurie Monroe singled in two runs.
Wenatchee .... 000 010 020—3 8 0
Yakima .......... 004 001 01x—6 10 1
Dahle, Bauhofer (7) and Pocekay; Wright and Donahue.

Schuster Can’t See Caps Winning Flag
Says Team Lacks Drive; Won’t Be Back, He Says

By DICK BEDDOES [Vancouver Sun, July 14, 1952]
Vancouver Caps are about where they should be in the Western International Baseball League race, but they’ll be fortunate enough to finish in that position.
That was the blunt thought of their manager, Bill Schuster, following Saturday’s double loss to Victoria Tyees, 2-1 and 5-3.
Schuster and a whopping crowd of 6500 saw Caps lose twice to the league leaders at Cap Stadium, thus dropping further into third place.
“The way we’re going now, we’ll be lucky to finish third,” Schuster exploded. “We refuse to hustle and that’s what’s beating us.”
The Cap chief had several other choice things to say, including:
1. A threat that he would not be back as Vancouver manager next season;
2. An opinion that the current Caps are a feeble facsimile of the 1951 squad, which finished second in a thrilling race with Spokane Indians;
3. A re-affirmation of the rumor that things are not happy between himself and general manager R.P. (Bob) Brown. Among other things, Schuster is burned up about Brown not taking fines out of players’ wages after Schuster levies them.

Statistics released by the Howe News Bureau Sunday show that John Ritchey of Vancouver has broken the tie that existed for the batting lead in the Western International League. He has an average of .344. Walt Pocekay is second, with .341.
Bob Moniz, Victoria, leads in runs with 68 and hits with 101.
Milt Smith of Lewiston and Grannie Gladstone are tied for homers with eight.
Cal McIrvin, Victoria is leading pitcher with a record of 11-4.
TEAM BATTING
 g  ab   r   or  h   tb  2b 3b hr sh sb  bb  so pct.
Victoria
74 2551 454 349 729 978 146 14 25 40 63 410 326 286
Lewiston
74 2545 399 420 697 965 120 26 32 41 45 369 315 274
Spokane
79 2603 371 359 700 874  88 28 10 61 68 362 366 269
Vancouver
70 2387 351 298 642 848  90 34 10 42 43 345 251 269
Yakima
79 2665 394 441 687 920 114 31 19 53 64 416 411 258
Wenatchee
79 2598 347 430 693 821 106 20 12 53 41 327 381 246
Tri-City
77 2476 375 391 597 791  89 24 19 59 65 444 424 241


Sports Notes
By Gil Gilmore
[Tri-City Herald, July 13, 1952]
If you are wondering why Nick Pesut hasn't been playing in recent ball games, it because the Braves' catcher is suffering again with his "sacroiliac."
Sacroiliac comes from sacrum which the dictionary says is that part of the vertabral column connected with, or forms part of, the pelvis by articulation with the ilia."
And a pain in the sacroiliac joint is called sacrocoxalgia pr as a Pogo character would put it, a pain in the tailbone. Legitimate back trouble is common among ball players, especially those who have been in the game a long time. But there is also another variety of "sacroiliac." When a manager tells you his boy is laid up with his "sacroiliac", it may mean:
1. The bum hasn't hit a ball in the last 25 games.
2. He was out carousing last night. Now he's got butterflies in his belly and little men playing the Anvil Chorus.
3. His wife bopped him with a rolling-pin. He now has a knot on his head.
4. He ripped a hole in his pants and the club is so close to being on the financial rocks, they can't afford to buy him a new pair.
5. He's washed up.
However, Pesut's "sacroiliac" is not the result of any of these things. Nick's was caused by a cleated baseball shoe. It seems someone stepped on his back during the fracas at Wenatchee a week ago. The free-for-all started when Joe Scalise was hit by a pitched ball. Joe took out after the pitcher, Charles Oubray [sic], and both teams entered the fray. The Tri-City boys indicated recently that Oubray had told Joe he intended to pitch one at him.
What do players talk about for before a game? Batting averages? Which pitcher are they going to face? Their league status? Well, sometimes they discuss these things but the other night the boys were talking politics.
But as prognosticators, the Tri-City players are about as reliable as a 1948 newspaper poll. The Braves had Senator Taft nominated before the Republicans even started casting their ballots.

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