Wednesday 27 February 2008

Wednesday, September 10, 1952

W L Pct. GB
Victoria ..... 92 53 .634 —
Spokane ...... 89 62 .589 6
Vancouver .... 71 67 .514 17½
Salem ........ 72 75 .490 21
Yakima ....... 69 78 .469 24
Lewiston ..... 69 81 .460 25½
Tri-City ..... 64 77 .454 26
Wenatchee .... 57 90 .388 36


VICTORIA [Colonist, Sept. 11]—Jehosie Heard, who failed in two previous attempts to notch his 20th victory of the season finally gained it last night and made it an occasion never to be forgotten.
Unperturbed by a shoddy defense in the opening inning, Heard set down Lewiston Broncs without a hit at Royal Athletic Park to pace Victoria Tyees to an 11-2 triumph and give then a 2-1 series edge.
The victory kept the league champion Tyees six games in front of the Spokane Indians, who edged Vancouver Capilanos, 4-3, at Vancouver last night.
INDIANS HERE
The Indians open a four-game series with the Tyees at Royal Athletic Park tonight to wind up the W.I.L. season. Bill Bottler will get the starting assignment for the Tyees with John Conant his likely mound opponent. It will be Radio Appreciation night with no radio broadcast of the game.
Heard began inauspiciously last night by walking Milt Smith to open the game. Snag Moore then grounded to Jimmy Clark, who threw into the dirt at first, leaving both runners safe.
Jake Helmuth then tried to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt but Heard could not pick up the ball, enabling Helmuth to take first and fill the bases.
Butch Moran grounded to Clark, who threw to Lu Branham at second to force Helmuth but Smith scored on the play. Branham attempted to complete a double killing at first but his throw was in the dirt, enabling Moore to score also. Moran attempted to go to second and was thrown out by Chuck Abernathy.
BIG MAN AT BAT
Heard also played a part in the Tyees attack. He hit three singles in four trips, was hit on the head with a pitched ball and scored three runs.
It was his first no-hitter and the first of the season in the W.I.L. Heard was unaware of his performance until after the game was over.
Heard struck out six to boost his season’s total to 210 and walked four. The nearest thing to a hit after the first inning was a smash in the seventh to Don Pries, who left the ball go through his legs at shortstop.
Tyees evened the count in the third when they tallied twice on singles by John Treece, Heard, Branham and Bob Moniz.
WINNING ASSAULT
They won it with a six-run outburst in the fourth. Singles by Abernathy, Ron Bottler, Heard and Pries, a hit batsman, and a triple by Treece chased Keith Bowman and brought in Larry Powell. Powell hit Granny Gladstone, walked Abernathy and threw a wild pitch to force in the final two runs before retiring the side.
First baseman Butch Moran took over the hurling duties for the rest of the game and did a creditable job except in the seventh when Tyees scored their final three runs. Heard was hit on the head, Moniz tripled and Gladstone followed with a double.
Lewiston .... 200 000 000— 2 0 1
Victoria ...... 002 260 30x—11 14 4
Bowman, Powell (4), Moran (5) and Lundberg; Heard and R. Bottler.

VANCOUVER [Keith Matthews, News-Herald, Sept. 11]—What is left of local baseball fandom is viewing with alarm what is happening to John Ritchey, who is striking to retain his WIL batting championship and is getting little but the aches for his troubles.
Wednesday, John went ought-for-four in his bid against a guy he usually hits like he owns. That would be John Marshall, a tough hombre for most but a first cousin to Mr. Ritchey these past two seasons.
John sort of evened up on Ritchey last night as he beat the Caps 4-3 through a combination of some heavy stick-work in the early innings and a little peculiar Capilano strategy in the late going.
HE’S SLIPPING
Ritchey struck out once, grounded out weakly and twice lined out. In two night he hasn’t shown a hit in six tries and the race against Walt Pocekay of Wenatchee is not showing the dividends Ritchey intended.
John says he’s tired, and it might be so. He has caught a lot of baseball and swung a lot of
35-ounce sticks. However, so has Bill Sheets, who last night caught his 145th game of the year and who will set a record in this department before he is through for the season.
Bob Snyder didn’t have too much as he tried to beat a club he rarely has any trouble with, and instead of coming up with his 15th win, Robert had to take his 13th loss on the chin. George Huffman and Mel Wasley each drove in a pair of runs to provide Marshall’s winning streak but Snyder might have gotten off the hook had it not been for the Caps’ peculiar eighth-inning rally, which fizzled.
ODD STRATEGY
With two out and Gordie Brunswick on first, Bob Duretto crashed a liner against the right field wall for a double. Brunswick scored the third Vancouver run but Duretto, representing the tying run, got the “come on” sign from third base coach Tom Lovrich and got himself thrown out from here to there trying to make it. After that Vancouver never had another scoring opportunity. It might have been that they didn’t deserve one, for they tossed away a pretty good try.
DIAMOND DUST—Instead of Popular Player Night coming this evening, it will be held Friday night and along with it, the Caps most valuable player will be named and honored … Lewiston and Bill Brenner will be in town this evening and for the rest of the week … It appears fairly certain that on Saturday night, Bob Duretto and Brenner will play every position on the diamond in a special sort of stunt which is almost unheard of in baseball … Both players will start the game by pitching … Brenner hasn’t been asked yet, but he’s never turned down a good gag yet … Bud Guldborg goes for the Caps tonight against the Broncs in a single game at 8:15.
Spokane ..... 101 020 000—4 11 2
Vancouver ... 000 100 110—3 8 1
Marshall and Sheets; Snyder, Whyte (5) and Ritchey.

SALEM, Sept. 10 — Salem, though held to two hits by Pitcher Bill Stites defeated Wenatchee 1-0 in Wednesday night's Western International League baseball game here.
Stites pitched no-hit ball for seven innings.
Wayne Peterson touched him for the first safety in the seventh and in the eight Bob Nelson's single to centre let in the winning tally.
Wenatchee ... 000 000 000—0 9 1
Salem .......... 000 000 01x—1 2 0
Stites and Robinett; McNulty and Nelson.

KENNEWICK, [Tri-City Herald, Sept. 11] — Another record was set at Sanders Field Wednesday night.
The 170 persons who were there—the lowest number in the history of the field—saw Ad Satalich pitch the Braves to a six-hit shut-out out over the Yakima Bears. Meanwhile, Tri-City picked up four runs off Yakima pitcher Jack Thompson.
Tonight the Braves will open end the series with Yakima. Then Salem will come here for the final series of the season. The final game on Sunday will be played at 2 p.m.
The scoring Wednesday night started in the second inning. Des Charouhas got a single—his first of three hits fro the night. Tommy Marier drew a base on balls and Vic Buccola's sacrifice advanced both runners.
Charouhas scored when Nick Pesut grounded out.
Marier scored in the third. He drew a walk and went to second when Buccola grounded out. Joe Scalise doubled to bring him home.
The fifth inning tallies came when Ray Hamrick was safe on a fielder's choice. He moved to second on a sacrifice and Marier walked. A double by Charouhas scored him. Marier walked and then Vic Buccola's single brought Charouhas home.
Satalich found himself in real trouble only once during the game. In the fourth inning, a double and two walks loaded the bases. Then Mike Donahue popped out. Pitcher Thompson was fanned to end the inning.
Satalich struck out eight, three of them in the eighth inning.
Len Noran, Yakima first baseman, got two for four to lead the Yakima hitting.
Charouhas' three for four paced the Braves' hitting. Don Lopes picked up three for five.
Hamrick, the Tri-City shortstop, was spiked in the forearm in the third inning. The injury happened when Thompson attempted to steal second.
Pesut's peg was good and Hamrick took the ball in a semi-horizontal position to tag Thompson out. However, the pitchers spikes raked Hamrick's forearm when pitcher slid into second.
Hamrick's arm was stiff Wednesday night but he is not expected to be out of the lineup.
Yakima ....... 000 000 000—0 6 0
Tri-City ...... 010 120 00x—4 10 1
Thompson, Shandor (5) and Donahue; Satalich and Pesut.

Buy-The-Braves Backers Facing Time
Need Mass Effort To Purchase Club
[Tri-City Herald, September 11, 1952]
Backers of the Buy-The-Braves drive are racing against time today to get enough pledges of financial support for the purchase of the ball club.
Pledge sheets are being distributed to more people. The sheets say the amount pledged will be due six months after Oct. 1.
Thursday officers of the Tri-City Athletic Association clarified their role in the proposed purchase. They said they were sponsoring the drive for money because they were the logical organization to do so.
They said that if the drive is a success and the stock is sold, a success and the stock is sold, a meeting of all stockholders will be called to determine organization policies. The association will still control their one-seventh of the club.
The officials emphasized that none of the money pledged need be paid now. The minimum amount for a share is $50. The backers assert it is obvious that the support must come from all levels. They are depending on a mass response to put the drive over.
It is their hope to get a sufficient number of pledges by Sept. 26. That is a date for a meeting of the Western International League board of directors.
It is the intention of those behind the drive to take the pledges to the meeting to show that the Tri-City area wasn't to keep the club.
If the backers fail to get the needed pledges, the board will probably permit the franchise to move elsewhere.
It is expected that about $60,000 will be needed for the purchase of the club. The present owners are Dick Richards, Arnold Sanborn, Del Kidder and Vern Johnson.

SPORTS NOTES
By Gil Gilmore
[Tri-City Herald, September 11, 1952]
The drive to buy the Tri-City Braves has started and the initial response has been good. Now's the time to get set for the long pull.
Officially, there is no deadline on the drive. But unofficially, you can set Sept. 26 down as the day of decision. Here's why.
On that date the Athletic Association officials will journey to Seattle to attend the Western International League board Of directors' meeting. At that meeting, important decisions will be made concerning the Tri-City franchise.
If the Athletic Association members go there showing pledges and other responses indicating tnat the people of the Tri-Cities are interested in keeping the club, then the possibility of permitting the franchise to move is very small.
However, if the Athletic Association officials have little to show, the directors may be inclined to agree with Dick Richards — that the Tri-City area is not a good baseball area—and Richards will be permitted to sell his shares elsewhere.
A good indicator of a town's importance is the size of the ball club. We have a peculiar situation here in that there are three—or better yet four—towns which
by uniting behind the club make up one. And a class A area like the Tri-Cities and Connell deserves to have a Class A club.
It is going to take cash to keep the club here — cash in $50 lumps. So if you are interested in buying a share of tha Braves, contact Harold Matheson of Pasco, Kit Campbell and Bob Philip of Richland; Clarence Hayes and Steve Johnson of Connell, and Howard Beste and Harry Owens of Kennewick.
All of these men have pledge cards and they are looking for people to fill them out and sign up.
JOB WANTED
Is there anyone in need of some help during the last couple of weeks of this month.
I have one baseball pitcher with a 16-14 record who will need a temporary job. He is Ralph Romero, Tri-City Braves hurler, and if possible he would like to get into some type of recreation work. If not, he will take anything.
Normally Ralph would leave for his home in San Jose, Calif. when the season ends Sept. 14. However, Ralph recently became a father and he intends to hang around 1he Tri-City area for a couple of weeks so his wife and child will be in condition for the trip.
Baseball players' salaries end with the season. Therefore, Ralph would like to have a job for a couple of weeks beginning about Sept. 15. If you have anything you can either contact me or see Ralph.

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