Sunday 6 January 2008

Monday, June 2, 1952

W L Pct. GB
Victoria ..... 27 12 .682
Spokane ...... 26 17 .605 3
Vancouver .... 19 17 .528 6½
Lewiston ..... 22 21 .512 7
Salem ........ 20 23 .465 8
Wenatchee .... 18 24 .428 10½
Tri-City ..... 18 25 .418 11
Yakima ....... 16 27 .372 13


VANCOUVER [Keith Matthews, News Herald]—Bill Brenner has molded a mixture of time-honored veterans, castoffs nobody would touch and raw youth into a baseball club which might turn out to be the best since his Vancouver pennant winner of ’47.
Anyway you look at it, the Broncs looked pretty sharp Monday night, even though losing to the Capilanos 2-1 in 11 innings.
Before the game, Brenner had his Broncs in third place and this figures to be a pretty neat job of managing. The fact that the loss lowered them into fourth once more behind the Caps doesn’t take away from the neatness of the chore at all.
THEY HAVE CHARLIE
Look at Bill’s list of ancients. There is Butch Moran, a first baseman who must have come along shortly after Charlie Comiskey introduced the first “claw” glove. Then there is Charlie, Snag Moore and Bob Williams. And, naturally, there is Brenner, who is just a kid of 31.
Then, Bill has a dash of youth. One is a third baseman named Connie Perez. He’s a Cuban lad who “no spikkada Englis”. Fortunately, Mead spent a few winters in Mexico and is able to translate from Perez to Brenner and so forth. But Bill says it makes one, big happy family and it’s showing in the win column.
The Lewistons got a run for Keith Bowman in the very first inning on successive singles by Moore, Perez and Mora. Then the Caps got it back on Jesse Williams’ triple and Ray Tran’s fly-out.
PITCHING DUEL
After that, the clubs settled down to some raw-bone pitching in which Van Fletcher and Bowman matched each other stride for stride. The fielding behind them was terrific and it made a highly entertaining evening for the 3000 fans.
For a while, it seemed the entertainment might get out of hand. This was in the 11th when Moran dumped a blooper into left field. Butch tried to stretch it into a double and Bob Duretto made a spectacular play and his throw to Len Tran apparently had Butch beat by plenty.
TRAN BLEW
But, no, umpire Thorson called him safe and Tran blew his top. At one instance, he got so mad he had his right first cocked ready to pull the trigger. But they got him away before real trouble started and all it will likely cost the red-head is the automatic $10 fine for being bounced.
The winning run came in the 11th on a walk to John Ritchey and Gordie Brunswick’s 400-foot blast to the left-centre field fence. It went for a double, because that was all Ritchey needed to score on.
DIAMOND DUST—Brenner resurrected another veteran from the baseball boneyard recently when he signed Jimmy Robinson, the former Capilano third baseman … John Guldborg (5-1) will pitch for the Caps tonight against Joe Nicholas in the regular 8:15 starter … Brenner will go Wednesday and there is a good chance he’ll draw Bob Snyder for his opposition … Brenner, incidentally, is scheduled to pitch against Don Osborn down in Spokane Sunday.
Lewiston ......... 100 000 000 00—1 9 1
Vancouver ...... 100 000 000 01—2 8 1
Bowman and Lundberg; Fletcher and Ritchey.

Spokane at Victoria, game postponed because of soccer exhibition.

ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED

The Sports Herald
KEITH MATTHEWS [Vancouver News Herald, June 3, 1952]
Bill Schuster, we imagine, is having nightmares.
His ball club came home Monday from an eight-game tour of the Rockies against opposition which was strictly second division. We all sat back when they left and waited for the Caps’ big victory streak to start, for this should have been it.
Instead, what happened?
Lewiston, not better than fifth place when Vancouver rolled into their potato patch, is now in third place. Tri-City, low man on the totem pole upon the Caps’ arrival in Kennewick, jumped to seventh with four-for-five against Vancouver.
Of course, it might be that this is just the game of baseball acting up oddly again. However, we fear there is more to it than that.
During the first week of this season, we did a piece in which it was shown that Schuster had no path of roses to walk. It was pointed out that he had the best ball club in the league on his hip. That still goes. It was also hinted the players might become aware of this fact and allow their press clippings to go out and collect base hits. This one goes more than ever now.
In 1947 the Capilanos won a pennant by sweeping through the months of August and September with 32 wins and only eight losses.
It was Bill Brenner’s first managerial and he was named a hero for his magic.
In 1948, the Caps returned to do it again with a stand-pat team. They finished six and were never out of the second division.
This didn’t make sense and we naturally explored the facts for the clop. Brenner explained it briefly: “If you will make a road trip with our club, you will see the reasons for yourself.”
Ritchey May Be Key To Problem
On the road, the club that year dogged it. They were away from their home town, where they could ill afford to incur the wrath of the fans who pay their salary and it was just a big holiday for them.
Is this the case with the 1952 entry?
What about John Ritchey? Is he a satisfied ball player, or still carrying the torch for entrance into the Coast League? Ritchey could well be the key to all this. Besides being the defending WIL batting champion, he is the club’s catcher. His job is 25% physical, 75% mental.
It is a catcher’s job to call pitches for his pitcher. He must operate with a sixth sense, be able to “feel” a developing [missing] run or a steal. Outside of the pitcher, he is the most important individual on the field.
The Needed Entry—Schuster, 3b!
If this happened just once in a season, nobody would bother but three times in a little over a month of baseball is enough for the statisticians to run for their record books.
It comes right down to an old baseball theory which says that errors are part of the game, but there is no excuse for mental errors.
A player gets himself picked off base only because he isn’t thinking baseball at the time. He bogs down the attack and he makes his team-mates wonder if there is any use in ‘college [unreadable] at all.
Stunningly, this is only a little thing. But if you find enough mistakes and pile one on top of the other, the “little thing” becomes an impossible obstacle.
Schuster, somehow, must light a fire under his Capilanos, but how?
I can think of no better way than to make one addition in the batting order. It would say ‘Schuster, 3b.’
If Bill went on the field and made a couple of bobbles and an 0-for, we realize you’d scoff at the suggestion. Remember, though, those are physical errors and they belong in ball. The boss’ presence in the lineup, however, would end the mental picture which right now, we would guess, is the form of a fellow shrugging his shoulders and saying “[unreadable] who cares?

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