Victoria ..... 31 14 .689 —
Spokane ...... 29 20 .571 4
Vancouver .... 21 19 .525 7½
Lewiston ..... 23 24 .489 9
Salem ........ 23 25 .479 9½
Wenatchee .... 21 26 .447 11
Tri-City ..... 21 27 .438 11½
Yakima ....... 17 31 .354 15½
Check hits in linescores.
VICTORIA, B.C., June 7 — Two solid pitching stints Saturday enabled the Victoria Tyees to sweep a day-night Western International League doubleheader from the Lewiston Broncs, 8-2 and 4-2. Victoria, leading the pack by four games, took the series 3-1.
The Tyees won the night game behind the five-hit hurling of Jehosie Heard. Working with only two days rest, Heard became the first WIL pitcher to win eight games as he toyed with the hard-hitting Broncs.
The Tyees won it in the first inning when manager Cece Garriott hit a two-run homer and Granny Gladstone followed with a second circuit drive.
Heard allowed only one base on balls, thereby collecting for the second time this year on Garriott's standing offer of a deluxe steak dinner to any player who yields less than two passes a game.
First Game
Lewiston ..... 000 101 000—2 6 2
Victoria ...... 004 004 00x—8 12 0
Thomason, Bowman (3), Powell (7) and Helmuth; McIrvin and Marcucci.
Second Game
Lewiston ..... 000 110 000—2 5 0
Victoria ...... 301 000 00x—4 7 1
Humphries and Lundberg; Heard and Marcucci.
VANCOUVER, [News Herald, June 9]—The cry of “Hey, Rube!” around a circus indicates there is trouble afoot.
Similarly, the complaint of “spitter” in a baseball park shows “something smells in the state of Denmark.”
The Capilanos’ Bill Schuster—and Bob Brown, for that matter—were loud in their accusations of baseball’s most illegal pitch after losing Saturday night to Spokane and Gordie Palm, 2-0. The Caps won in the afternoon behind Bob Snyder, 4-2.
UMP IGNORED
Schuster said he had caught Palm “going to his mouth” several times during the game, and complained on each occasion to umpire Russ Kimpel. It did him no good, Bill claimed, for Kimpel—though it is his duty to watch for “spitters” and such things—refused to investigate.
Brown went even further in his denunciation of what seemed to be a find pitching performance by the young Spokane right-hander.
“I watched from the stands,” Bob said, “and three times I saw Palm ‘spit’ into his glove, then juice up the ball. I know Schuster complained, but why didn’t the umpires stop it?”
BAD EVENING
The umpires, Kimpel and his running mate, Einer Sorenson, came in for a great deal of abuse during the split doubleheader, and from the point of view of over 5000 fans, they deserved every bit of it.
The night game, a pitching duel between Palm and Van Fletcher, provided only two runs and the action was fast. It should have lasted less than two hours, but because of the many, many arguments between umpires and managers and so on, it went into the books as lasting two hours and fifteen minutes.
Neither Kimpel nor Sorenson ‘ran’ their games with any degree of efficiency and they allowed the arguments to go on and on until everyone in the park grew restless.
BOB HAS LOOK
League president Bob Abel was in town for the afternoon game and the rumor was that he had come up to watch a couple of umpires who had been in hot water ever since they because calling WIL baseball.
As for the ball itself, both games were dandies. Snyder picked up his first win of the season in the afternoon with a typical “Snyder” performance. For the first time this season, he looked like the man who won 27 games in 1951, walking only one batter and giving up but one earned run in his 4-2 conquest.
Fletcher would have won nine out of every 10 other games he pitched in his Saturday night offering, but he ran into Mr. Palm on a very warm evening—either that or he ran into a man who was able to utilize a “spit” ball and make it pay off.
The Caps play a single game date at Victoria at the Stadium tonight at 8:15 with Paul Jones (0-4) going for the Vancouverites. Then, Schuster takes his club to Yakima for a week-long road trip.
First Game
Spokane .............. 010 100 000— 2 8 1
Vancouver ........... 000 021 01x— 4 8 2
Marshall, Chase (8) and Sheets; Snyder and Duretto.
Second Game
Spokane ............ 000 010 100—2 6 1
Vancouver ......... 000 000 000—0 7 0
Palm and Sheets; Flecther and Ritchey.
SALEM, June 7 — It was billed as "Youth on Parade" Night, but the Tri-City Braves did most of the walking. Three Salem pitchers gave up 13 bases on balls as Tri-City defeated the Senators 9-2 in a Western International League Baseball game here Saturday night
Des Charouhas doubled in the first Tri-City run in the third inning. Another came in that same frame on a wild pitch. The Braves sewed up the game in the fifth inning when John Kovenz drove in two more with a single. Tri-City scored again in the sixth, three more in the seventh and one more in the ninth.
Bob Greenwood, pitching his first game for the Braves since being sent down from Baltimore of the International League, gave up six hits, struck out nine and walked 10 Salem batsmen.
The two teams meet in a night doubleheader Sunday. Ralph Romero(6-3) and Charlie Gassaway (0-0) will pitch for Tri-City. For Salem it will be Jack Hemphill (3-2) and Ray McNulty (7-4).
Tri-City ........ 002 021 301—9 9 0
Salem .......... 000 001 001—2 6 3
Greenwood and Pesut; Collins, Auberton (4), Francis (6) and Nelson, Thrasher (8).
YAKIMA, June 7 — Charley Oubre, who pitched a one-hitter against Yakima's Bears last week, continued his tight twirling Saturday night with a five-hit performance that gave Wenatchee a 3-1 Western International League baseball win over the Bears.
Wenatchee sewed up the tilt in the third with two runs and added an extra in the fifth inning. The opening tallies were scored when Bill Cleveland singled, moved up on a sacrifice and scored on Walt Pocekay's single. Pocekay then came home on manager Dick Adams' single.
The third run came on successive doubles by Cleveland and Adams.
Yakima's lone run was unearned Jerry Zuvela got on a force out went to second on a balk and scored on Dan Guerrero's error in handling Mike Donahue's grounder.
The two teams meet in a double header Sunday afternoon.
Wenatchee ..... 002 010 000 — 3 6 1
Yakima .......... 000 001 000—1 5 0
Oubre and Pocekay; Wright and Donahue.
More WIL Fans Attend
VICTORIA, B. C., June 6—Attendance at Western International League Baseball games is up 41 per cent over last season.
Robert Abel, president of the league, said here Friday that a total of 193,640 fans clicked through the gates up to June 1, a gain of 56,301 over the same period last year.
He predicted a possible season's attendance total of one million fans. Improving gates with improving summer weather — plus a possible heated pennant race — added to club owners' optimism.
Spokane led the league during the first quarter of the baseball season with an attendance total of 41,109. Victoria was second with 28,859 and Vancouver third with 25,314.
Lewiston, this year's new addition to the league, ran a surprising fourth with 24,704—more than double its predecessor Tacoma's attendance.
The remaining attendance totals were: Salem, 21,401; Wenatchee, 20,916; Tri-City,
17,578; and Yakima, 15,759.
Magic Valley Inks Veteran Fielder
TWIN FALLS, June 7 — Magic Valley of the Pioneer League has signed Oulfielder Sol Israel of the Lewiston, Idaho, Western International League club, it was announced Thursday.
Israel, a 1946-47 performer with Twin Falls, hit .277 for Tacoma of the W1L last year.
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [June 8, 1952]
There seems to be more than the usual amount of player trouble in the Western International. League this year. Managers have levelled fines, taken players out of games and in one case even had a pitcher quit between games. The Tri-City Braves were docked $10 apiece right across the board, except for Vic Buccola and Ralph Romero, by Manager Charlie Gassaway for lack of hustle. Vancouver hurler Bud Jones [sic] quit between games of the June 1 doubleheader here and a Yakima player, Jerry Zuvela was lifted from the Bears lineup after that exhibition he put on Tuesday night.
Why all this trouble? "Too many of these kids breaking into baseball today are dogging it,” answered Dario Lodigiani, playing manager of the Yakima team. “You can bet your bottom buck they will never go anywhere either. They'll never any higher than this class of baseball because when a player gets a 'rep' of that kind he's done.
“When I came into this league I was amazed at the playing I saw. I don't mean just errors in the field either. You can forgive a player those if he's hustling and trying. What I'm talking about are those mental blunders that can cost you a ball game just as easily. But I checked around with some of the other managers in the league and found that's what you have to expect.”
BEST HUSTLER ON THE TEAM
Lodigiani wasn't bitter. He sounded more like a man who has accepted the task offered him and intends to do the best possible job with the tools at hand. And from this corner he doesn't have too mucl in the way of tools. Though he may be the oldest man in the club, the pepperly little third baseman has more fire and hustle than fully two-thirds of the Yakima edition here this past series.
THAT'S WHY THEY'RE HIRED
It isn't just the managers who are having their unhappy moments either. Some of the seasoned players will tell you privately that the WIL is way below the calibre of baseball played last year. Add it all together and you'll see why the majority of the managers are insisting on the league permitting another veteran. You'll understand too why, unless they are especially talented, that most of the rookies are appearing but seldom in the lineups. You can't blame the managers for that, they're hired to win games. Because if a team loses often enough, they'll take that manager right out of his job. And there is no league rule requiring rookies to appear in any certain number of games.
OFF TO A BAD START
To rant and rail at the front office managements to correct these deficiencies is the customary sport. But here we feel they are not completely guilty of the conditions, nor do we believe they are completely clean either. There are too many cases of low-salary “prospect” teams starting the season when all the evidence pointed to some (Vancouver, Spokane and Victoria) who were loading up with veterans. As a result the “prospect” teams had to be overhauled by adding veteran, tested, strength after a good chunk of the season was gone.
PUBLIC HASN'T KEPT FAITH EITHER
However, we do not believe the paying public has kept faith either. Not, that is, if they want professional baseball in their area. More specifically we point to the attendance of 803 at Sanders Field Wednesday night. When Tri-City went into that game, they had won seven of their last nine starts and had climbed from the cellar to the sixth. Furthremore the Braves' most winning pitcher was going for Tri-City. Yet 803 fans is hardly indicative of what you would call rabid interest.
The Braves' front office was lucky if they came up with $50 out of that gate. That's our own guess. It might have been more, but not much, and it could have been less. But the point is you can't go out and hire better players on that kind of revenue. It might be fair, in view of the gate slump, to ask the question: “Can the Tri-Cities support professional baseball?” Maybe you've got another idea. If so let's hear about it.
Why all this trouble? "Too many of these kids breaking into baseball today are dogging it,” answered Dario Lodigiani, playing manager of the Yakima team. “You can bet your bottom buck they will never go anywhere either. They'll never any higher than this class of baseball because when a player gets a 'rep' of that kind he's done.
“When I came into this league I was amazed at the playing I saw. I don't mean just errors in the field either. You can forgive a player those if he's hustling and trying. What I'm talking about are those mental blunders that can cost you a ball game just as easily. But I checked around with some of the other managers in the league and found that's what you have to expect.”
BEST HUSTLER ON THE TEAM
Lodigiani wasn't bitter. He sounded more like a man who has accepted the task offered him and intends to do the best possible job with the tools at hand. And from this corner he doesn't have too mucl in the way of tools. Though he may be the oldest man in the club, the pepperly little third baseman has more fire and hustle than fully two-thirds of the Yakima edition here this past series.
THAT'S WHY THEY'RE HIRED
It isn't just the managers who are having their unhappy moments either. Some of the seasoned players will tell you privately that the WIL is way below the calibre of baseball played last year. Add it all together and you'll see why the majority of the managers are insisting on the league permitting another veteran. You'll understand too why, unless they are especially talented, that most of the rookies are appearing but seldom in the lineups. You can't blame the managers for that, they're hired to win games. Because if a team loses often enough, they'll take that manager right out of his job. And there is no league rule requiring rookies to appear in any certain number of games.
OFF TO A BAD START
To rant and rail at the front office managements to correct these deficiencies is the customary sport. But here we feel they are not completely guilty of the conditions, nor do we believe they are completely clean either. There are too many cases of low-salary “prospect” teams starting the season when all the evidence pointed to some (Vancouver, Spokane and Victoria) who were loading up with veterans. As a result the “prospect” teams had to be overhauled by adding veteran, tested, strength after a good chunk of the season was gone.
PUBLIC HASN'T KEPT FAITH EITHER
However, we do not believe the paying public has kept faith either. Not, that is, if they want professional baseball in their area. More specifically we point to the attendance of 803 at Sanders Field Wednesday night. When Tri-City went into that game, they had won seven of their last nine starts and had climbed from the cellar to the sixth. Furthremore the Braves' most winning pitcher was going for Tri-City. Yet 803 fans is hardly indicative of what you would call rabid interest.
The Braves' front office was lucky if they came up with $50 out of that gate. That's our own guess. It might have been more, but not much, and it could have been less. But the point is you can't go out and hire better players on that kind of revenue. It might be fair, in view of the gate slump, to ask the question: “Can the Tri-Cities support professional baseball?” Maybe you've got another idea. If so let's hear about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment