Spring Training, Saturday, April 24, 1954

Tyees Start Clay, Joshua In Game This Afternoon
[Victoria Colonist, April 24, 1954]
Outfielders Dain Clay and Joe Joshua, who arrived at the Victoria Tyee training camp Thursday, will make their first appearance before city baseball fans this afternoon when the Western International League club meets Farmers Construction in an exhibition game at Royal Athletic Park.
Clay, an ex-major leaguer, will open at right field while Joshua, a 200-pound colored infielder-outfielder who comes to the club on option from Seattle Rainiers, will start at left field. Manager Don Pries, who twisted his back and will be sidelined for three days, will throw a solid lineup against the crack city amateur team in the third meeting between the two clubs.
FLINN TO PITCH
Hal Flinn, who pitched three innings of the first game, and holdover Bob Drilling will share the mound duties. Milt Martin will start behind the plate and Art Seguso will take over from Pries at first base.
Ron Jackson will start at second base, Steve Mesner at the short corner, Eddie Lake will be at shortstop and Tom Perez in centre field.
Farmers’ manager Ed Ash has nominated Art Worth as his starting pitcher and the Tyees can expect an argument there. Worth, an Edmonton holdout, worked the first four innings of the opening game and checked the Tyees effectively, giving up only one run.
Jim Harford will be Worth’s battery mate with Herb Wetherall at first base, Ronnie Martin at second, Lyle Cornett at shortstop and Stu Mitchell at third. Pete Ash and Ron Karadimas, who both missed Thursday’s game because of illness, will be at left and right field respectively with Bernie Anderson starting in centre field.
Game time is 2 p.m.

THE WEEK’S WORK
By CLANCY LORANGER
[Vancouver Province, April 24, 1954]
This week’s work, or, this is work (annual question)?
MONDAY—I’m afraid that California will be out as a spring training site for the Capilanos, at least until we get into the Coast League (in a couple of years, maybe) … the weather here in Clarkston, Wash., has been terrific, except for one day when it rained, and there’s been plenty of competition.
The club will be in top shape … a lot of the players, of course, had a few weeks in Palm Springs with Seattle Rainiers, and general manager Bill Brenner has seen to it that the rest of the squad gets its share of work … even before they start their day’s travel, when there’s an exhibition game, the lads get a workout for their legs … they dress at a beach house down on the Snake Riker, which runs between Lewiston and Clarkston, then they have to march straight up a mountain that leads to the ball park, which is a high school diamond, several blocks away … Just for variety, Brenner puts the boys through a “hot pot” game, in which you run to left for 10 feet, then to the right 10 feet, picking the ball up off the ground some 20 times … Try it with your grandmother some time … a little exercise in which you chase a ground ball near [unreadable] on the right side of second for the next one and repeat, will either get you in shape or kill you, too … only time the boys enjoy those routines is when Brenner’s turn comes around.
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TUESDAY—Favorite expression of one of the veterans on this ball club is “I’m a lover, not a fighter” … but the fact is, that nobody will have to be a fighter on this team, because none of the opposition is likely to be fool enough to choose anybody on the squad … take the tag team duo of Brenner and Nick Pesut, and 215-pounder Ellis Daugherty and a couple of musclemen like Dick Greco and Bob Wellman—all 6 feet 4½ inches of him—and you’ve got more muscles than Doug Hepburn displayed in Capilano Stadium last summer before he won the world weightlifting title … the club will never be accused of being dull, as last year’s team was, either … not with such as Ken Richardson, John Cordell, Pesut and Brenner on the team … staff clown, though, is K Chorlton, who puts on a better act that many so-called professional baseball clowns can muster …
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WEDNESDAY—About people: George Nicholas is a neighbor of Reg Wallis in Los Angeles … George says the ex-Capilano and Canuck hockey club trainer is happy in California and doing very well … Bud Guldborg, the former Caps’ pitcher who went to Tri-City in the deal that brought Pesut to Vancouver, has actually reported to the Braves … Bud has always had great stuff, but his attitude at times has been what is described in baseball as “R.A.” … ask me about that some time when we are alone … Al Heist, the outfielder Brenner was trying to get out of the Baltimore chain, has returned to Lewiston … They also have Jose Bache, whose big error in Vancouver in 1950 cost Tacoma the WIL pennant in the final series of the year.
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THURSDAY—Keith Matthews and I, the social lions of the Vancouver club, broke our string here today … things were so slow we went to a movie. A shoot ‘em up … (aside to our wives: we have been driving around in a hearse, courtesy of Tommy Merchant, a local mortician, but the only body we’ve had in it belongs to Marv Williams, who plays second base) … speaking of the social graces, we were all guests at a banquet tossed by the junior chamber of commerce here … everybody was supposed to get up and announce himself and his position on the club … When it came to Bob Duretto’s turn, Bob, the catcher-infielder deluxe said: “Bob Duretto, and I’d like to know where the hell I’m playing on this team, too.”
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FRIDAY—George Nicholas hasn’t changed a bit … He’s still the greatest money man in baseball … If he can’t take it with him, he won’t go … or report, as they say in baseball … several veterans on this team have volunteered the information that they will go all out for Bill Brenner, who got real good service out of a lot of veterans at Lewiston last year because he worked on the theory that they were old enough to think for themselves, off the field … One pitcher, who had a pretty good year, told us: “If Bill asked me what time I got in, and I honestly reported that I was in bed by 4 a.m., he’d always say that I just beat the curfew … He’s say the same thing if I got in at 6, providing I produced that night” … and we have the annual request from everybody: anybody got a house or an apartment? … Just phone FA 0101.

SATURDAY GAME
Vancouver ..... 003 100 001— 5 9 1
Lewiston ........ 501 000 23x—12 16 2
Brenner, Cordell (1), Del Sarto (6) and Duretto; Smith, Kime (6) and Cameron.