Saturday, June 21, 1952

W L Pct GB
Victoria ..... 40 18 .690 —
Spokane ...... 36 27 .571 6½
Vancouver .... 30 23 .566 7½
Wenatchee .... 29 32 .475 12½
Lewiston ..... 28 31 .475 12½
Tri-City ..... 27 35 .435 15
Salem ........ 26 34 .433 15
Yakima ....... 23 39 .371 19

VICTORIA [Colonist, June 22]—Salem Senators, plagued by bad breaks and a team batting slump as they nose-dived from a first-division contender on its way up to a trailing also ran since June 7, came off the floor swinging yesterday.
Losers of 10 of their last 11 games, four of them to Victoria, there seemed little hope for the Solons yesterday as they prepared to face the red-hot Tyees with second-string pitching pitted against two of the W.I.L.’s ace southpaws.
But, finally, things broke right. The Tyees, probably at their worst at home this season, could do nothing right, and the Senators could do nothing wrong.
Lack-lustre Victoria play plus a bad hop on a routine out paved the way for a five-run inning which gave Salem a 7-2 decision in the afternoon and good pitching by Dick Aubertin and Ted Edmunds plus Tyee failures added up to a 4-2 triumph under the lights.
CAPILANOS GAIN
It was the second time this season, the first at home, that the Tyees had lost twice in one day. The double setback sliced their league lead by only half a game as Spokane’s second-place Indians went down but the Vancouver Capilanos moved two games closer with a sweep over Tri-City. The Caps, who play the first of a four-game series here Monday, are a game behind the Indians but only five behind the Tyees on the losing side.
With Jehosie Heard pitching against Bud Francis, 18-year-old Oakland youth making his first start in professional baseball after a season at Medicine Hat, things looked bright indeed for the Tyees in the first game. But not for long.
Francis, although he needed help from Edmunds at the finish, held the off-color Tyees to five hits and Heard, for the second straight start, looked nothing like the pitcher he has been.
Granny Gladstone’s sixth home run, a tremendous clout, in the second and singles by Ben Lorino and Jim Clark around a base on balls in the fourth staked Heard to a 2-0 lead.
Heard got by until the fifth with the help of two double plays but he couldn’t take charge when he had to. A bad bounce on a ground ball to Clark, which would have been the third out, paved the way for five runs. Two runs in the seventh brought in Ray Jarleski, signed only an hour or two before, to finish up.
Jarleski retired the six men he faced but the Tyees couldn’t rally although wildness forced Francis out for Edmunds.
It was Cal McIrvin against Aubertin, who entered the game with a record of having issued 20 bases on balls in 11 innings for Salem this season and it appeared as if the Tyees could expect a split.
But the Tyees could do nothing with Aubertin when it counted although they managed to get McIrvin to a 2-0 lead. They left the bases loaded in the first inning and missed great chances to put it [a]way in the third.
McIrvin, for the second straight time pitching with only two days of rest, gave up a run in the seventh and was tagged for three more after two were out in the eighth.
Still in the game, the Tyees lost one run in their half of the eighth when Lilio Marcucci failed to tag up on John Treece’ liner to centre-field and was unable to score. In the ninth, singles by McIrvin and Luther Branham again put the first two Tyees on but Bob Moniz failed in an attempt to sacrifice and then hit into a double play. Trying to put one out of the park, manager Cec Garriott popped up for the third out.
DIAMOND DUST: The Tyees will likely face Bob Snyder in the first game of the Vancouver series tomorrow. Eric Gard or Bill Wisneski, who may move in as a fifth starter with Jarleski available for relief, will do the Victoria pitching … Bernie Anderson made a fine debut before home-town fans when he hit a solid double in a pinch-hitting role in the first game … the report that umpires Red Eeiler and, particularly, Herman Ziruolo, will stay over for the next series made no one happy. They haven’t been impressive.
Afternoon game:
Salem ....... 000 050 200—7 11 1
Victoria ..... 010 100 000—2 5 1
Francis, Edmunds (8) and Thrasher; Heard, Jarleski (8) and Marcucci.
2nd Game:
Salem ....... 000 000 130—4 10 0
Victoria ..... 110 000 000—2 7 2
Aubertin, Edmunds (9) and Nelson; McIrvin and Marcucci.

WENATCHEE, June 21 — Dave Dahle chalked up his ninth win of the Western International League season Saturday night as the Wenatchee Chiefs made it two in a row over the Spokane Indians, 6-1. Rookie Jack Spring was the loser.
The Chiefs ran true to their recent habit by gaining an early lead, scoring three runs in the first inning on a double by Bud Hjelmaa, two singles and a walk.
After adding a solo run in the fourth, Wenatchee got two more in the eighth off Reliefer John Marshall on Lyle Palmer's double, two singles and a pair of walks. Dahle had shutot in making until the seventh when Sam Kanelos walked, went to second on Bill Sheets' double and scored on an outfield fly by pinch-hitter Bob Hinz.
Wenatchee centrefielder Bill Cleveland was tossed out of the game in the seventh for arguing over a call third strike, then Spokane Manager Don Osborne took the long walk in an eighth inning rhubarb.
Spokane ....... 000 000 100—1 7 3
Wenatchee ... 300 100 02x—6 7 0
Spring, Marshall (7) and Sheets; Dahle and Pocekay.
WP—Dahle. LP—Spring.

VANCOUVER [Keith Matthews, News Herald, June 23]—The Capilanos timed their first doubleheader sweep of the 1952 season perfectly Saturday.
The 9-4 and 8-0 conquests of Tri-City came on the same day league-leading Victoria was losing twice to Salem, also on the eve of an important four-game set on the Island against the first placers.
With nine victories out of their last 12 tries, the Caps—still limping along with minor injuries to key men—had their pitching well lined up for the Victoria series which opens Monday night. Bob Snyder opens for Schuster tonight and he’ll be followed by Ed Locke, Van Fletcher and Bud Guldborg.
It’s an imposing list of elbows to throw at the league leaders for one series, probably the best right-handed staff in the league. But the Caps will get a tussle, you can be sure.
The Tyees are sure to come back with their left-handers, and in the end it might be decided who is the most formidable, the righties or the lefties. Cecil Garriott will use Eric Gard tonight, and will follow with Ben Lorino, Jehosie Heard and Cal McIrvin. All the symptoms of a ‘little’ World Series in this one.
Saturday, Vancouver broke out in a serious rash of runs, the first time they have been able to consolidate their attack since the season’s opening series against Wenatchee.
The Saturday total of 17 runs was the biggest one-two punch since the Caps scored 44 in a four-game stay at Wenatchee April 22. And it was accomplished with a background of good pitching.
Guldborg Spins Three-Hitter
In the afternoon Van Fletcher allowed 4 runs and 10 hits, but he didn’t ease up until Vancouver had a seven-run second inning tucked away. This was accomplished largely by Ralph Romero’s wildness—he walked in three runs—and Bob Duretto’s bases-clearing triple. After that Fletcher was only as good as he had to be for his seventh win.
Quite in contrast, Guldborg never once let down in the night game. He pitched a brilliant three-hitter for his second shutout of the year and eighth win. He struck out eight, walked four, allowed only one man to get as far as second base and nobody as far as third. It was easily the best individual pitching effort any Capilano has turned in this year, though it might have been overshadowed a bit in the face of the loud 12-hit, eight-run attack.
Bill Schuster admitted that all of this was awfully easy to take, and it almost made him forget, for the moment, the series of injuries which have plagued the cause lately. Len Tran, for instance, is still in a drastic hitting slump from a bone bruise on his right hand; Edo Vanni’s leg muscles are strained and he should be on the bench; Jim Wert still wears tape around a sore left wrist and Jesse Williams has an aching Achilles tendon which could use a day off. However, they are going to have to forget these injuries when they run into Victoria Monday, because the entire cast has an idea that there is no time like the present to stop the high-riding Tyees.
(Afternoon game)
Tri-City ......... 000 002 020—4 10 2
Vancouver ..... 070 001 01x—9 8 1
Romero, Satalich (3) and Pesut; Fletcher and Ritchey.
(Night game)
Tri-City ......... 000 000 000—0 3 3
Vancouver ..... 100 000 25x—8 12 1
Gassaway, Michelson (8) and Pesut; Guldborg and Ritchey.

YAKIMA, June 21 — Yakima's Bears, sparked by their new shortstop, defeated the Lewiston Broncs, 11-4, Saturday night to even their Western International League series at a game apiece. The Bears' new infielder, Ernie Schuerman, handled seven chances flawlessly and got four hits in five trips to the pfate. It was his first game in a Yakima uniform since he was acquired from Pocatello of the Pioneer League.
The Bears drove starting pitcher Cal Humphries to cover in the first inning with a five run outburst, added three more in the second, another in the sixth and two in the eighth.
Three scratch infield singles, two walks, a sacrifice and two costly errors by Lewiston shortstop Milt Smith accounted for all five Yakima runs in the opening frame. A walk, single, John Albini's double and Phil Steinberg's triple added up to three runs in the second.
Lewiston got a pair in the second on Butch Moran's walk, Artie Wilson's single, Glen Tuckett's single and Jake Helmuth's outfield fly. Moran doubled home Jim Robinson for another tally in the third. Robinson came home with the final Bronc run in the eighth on a single by Bob Williams and two fielders' choice.
Ted Shandor went all the way for the Bears.
Lewiston ...... 021 000 010— 4 9 2
Yakima ........ 530 001 02x—11 12 0
Humphries, Thomson (1) and Helmuth; Shandor and Donahue.

Colored Players Make Mark in W.I.L.;
Victoria Quartet Attains Popularity
[Victoria Colonist, June 22, 1952]
It was in 1946 that Branch Rickey broke baseball’s color line by signing Jackie Robinson and sending him to Montreal, where he became an immediate star with Brooklyn’s International League farm club.
Robinson moved into the National League with the Dodgers in 1947 and has been the ranking second-baseman ever since. Now, most major-league clubs have one of more colored players and more are coming in every season.
The same is also true of the minor leagues. The W.I.L. had its first colored players last season but it was not until this year that they were used in any numbers. Practically every club had two or more in spring training and at least a dozen have survived every roster cut.
The league’s two Canadian cities, Vancouver and Victoria, have the most. The colored Capilanos are catcher John Ritchey, infielder Jesse Williams and pitchers Paul Jones and Ed Locke. The Tyees, of course, are pitcher Jehosie Heard, infielder Luther Branham, outfielder Granny Gladstone and utility player Walter Towns.
It is the credit of the fans and the players that there has been no report of racial ill-feeling in the W.I.L. and the colored players have been accepted throughout the league without noticeable fan resistance. This is certainly true of Victoria, where, frankly, pre-season fears existed that this might not be the case. Victoria’s foursome are among the most popular players with the fans and the players happy with the baseball fortune which brought them here.
There is no more popular player on the Victoria club than the jaunty, self-assured Heard, who—no pun intended—has plenty of color and knows it. Gladstone, serious and ever-worried, is not far behind Heard in fan affection and the poker-faced Branham is winning a following with more regular play. The clean-cut Towns is being groomed as a next-year hope and has seen little action.
These four are what is left of seven colored players who were with the Tyees this season. Outfielder Harvey Allen, who at least has the distinction of being the first colored player signed by to a Victoria contract, was released a month after the season opened, as was pitcher George Randolph. Catcher Maisoe Bryant was released before the club left its Salinas training base.
Heard is the property of the St. Louis Browns and was signed for the American League club by Bill Veeck, who plucked him from Houston Eagles of the Negro American League, where he had a 17-6 record last season following a 15-7 performance in 1950. The Browns sent him to Portland on option and the Beavers moved him along to the W.I.L.
One of a family of five—he has three sisters—the pint-sized southpaw was born in Atlanta on January 17, 1925, and went to school in Birmingham. He didn’t play baseball until after joining the U.S. army in 1942. After his discharge, he hooked up with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1946, stayed out of baseball for two seasons and then joined the Houston Eagles.
Gladstone, born in Colon, the Republic of Panama, January 26, 1927, went to school in the Canal Zone but played softball. His first baseball connection was with a radio-station club in Panama. He spent two seasons with the Armco club in Colombia and went from there to the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. He was recommended to Portland by Frank Austin, the Beavers classy colored shortstop, and signed in 1951. He spent last season with the Beavers, was optioned to Victoria at the start of the current season.
Branham and Towns are Victoria property, signed by manager Cec Garriott after being looked over while playing winter baseball in Los Angeles.
Born in Fulton, Kentucky, on January 5, 1924, Branham is the oldest and most experienced of the four colored Tyees. Like Gladstone, he played softball at school and like Heard, didn’t play baseball until after he joined the U.S. army in 1944. He was discharged in 1946.
WELL TRAVELLED
His first baseball was played as a soldier in Honolulu and he has seen a lot of country since then. He played two years with the Satchell Paige All-Stars on barnstorming trips against major-league all-star clubs. He has played in most parts of the U.S. and went as far afield as Manila with other touring clubs. He spent one season with Caracas in the Venezuelan Winter League, and has played for both the Birmingham and Chicago clubs of the American Negro League and was with Drummondville of the Provincial League part of last season.
Originally a third-baseman, he switched to second on the advice of Joe Gordon, former big-league star who now manages Sacramento in the Coast League.
Branham had decided to give up professional baseball until he was approached by Garriott last winter. He was recommended to Garriott by Napoleon Gully, colored outfielder with Garriott at Visalia last winter. Branham I married and the father of two youngsters—Luther, Jr., aged four, and one-year-old Betina Clarire.
GROOMED AS CATCHER
Towns, born in Los Angeles on January 10, 1932, played baseball at Jefferson High School as a second-baseman. He was signed by Billings of the Pioneer League last season as a pitcher and released after about a month. He played semi-pro baseball in Los Angeles after his release and was one of many players Garriott signed for the Tyees’ “tryout” camp.
First an infielder then a pitcher, Towns is now being groomed by Garriott, who believes the youngster has a chance to make good, as a catcher with a next-season tag.

NON WIL BASEBALL NEWS
Class ‘B’ Baseball Club Signs Woman to Contract
HARRISBURG, Pa., June 21—The Harrisburg Senators of the Class B Interstate League—today signed a curvaceous 24-year-old stenographer to a player’s contract.
The management said the contract given to Eleanor Engle, a pretty Harrisburg brunette whose diamond experience has been strictly confined to softball, is the first ever signed by a woman in organized baseball.
Asked about the contract at Columbus, O., Robert L. Finch, assistant to minor league czar George M. Trautman, wired the Sunday Patriot-News:
“No rule specifically prohibits signing of women but such contract would not be approved by this office.”
Dr. Jay Smith, president of the Senators’ board of directors, said the brunette will report for duty for the Senators’ game here tomorrow against the Lancaster Red Roses.
What will happen from there, Smith isn’t prepared to say, and Smith also isn’t prepared to say what position she will play.