W L Pct GB
Vancouver .... 37 20 .649 —
Yakima ....... 35 28 .556 5
Edmonton ..... 27 25 .519 7½
Lewiston ..... 29 31 .483 9½
Tri-City ..... 30 33 .476 10
Victoria ..... 27 32 .458 11
Wenatchee .... 29 35 .453 11½
Salem ........ 29 36 .446 12
VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, June 29]—The question before the court today is: Is Hugh Luby a lucky $&?, as Bill Brenner suggested after Hugh’s Salem Senators sneaked away with a ninth inning victory over the Capilanos Monday, or isn’t he?
First, let’s listen to Luby. Here he is, with a last-place ball club, playing against the league leaders, and he comes to town with five straight losses, including two weekend 12-inning setbacks.
And how about his regular right-fielder Mel Krause getting into a first inning hassle with base umpire Jim Loring and getting bounced? Or starting pitcher Gene Johnson fielding a line drive with his leg in the first inning? They both happened. Does that, Luby wanted to know, sound like a team that’s loaded with horseshoes?
THIS IS LUCK
Comes the eighth, the Solons look as lucky as a man who knows the slot machine is going to pay off but can’t borrow a nickel. With the score tied 2-2, Johnson gets two out, then Bob Wellman hits one .375 feet over the left field wall. The next four fellows hit safely, too, and the Caps are ahead 6-4. Some luck, eh?
Almost had to change, didn’t it? And in the ninth it did change for Luby, that $&*!! Lefthander Bud Beasley was pitching for the Caps, clowning it up just a little , but in general doing quite well, it being his first start of the season.
Then there’s a single, and a walk, and pinch-hitter Floyd Ogden lifts a high one behind third base. Three fellows chase it, but it drops safely, and there’s a run in. Lou Scrivens lifts another, just like it, to the first base side, and another run is in.
Can’t best that sort of luck, Brenner claimed. But he might have pressed his luck a little, too, for he left Beasley in, and Gene Tanselli doubled. One more run.
BOSS ON HILL
Things happened fast, then. Beasley left, John Cordell came in walked a man on purpose to fill the bases, Harry Warner singled and that was the ball game. Salem had six runs before it was over. Sheer luck, said Brenner.
Bill believes he’s got the right solution when they resume tonight. He’s throwing his case ace, pitcher Bill Brenner, in against the Senators, who’ll have Ernie Domenichelli on the mound.
- - -
VANCOUVER, June 27—The Salem Senators dumped the league-leading Vancouver Capilanos 8-6 Monday night with a six-run outburst in the top of the ninth that capped a wild and woolly Western International League game.
The score was knotted at 2-2 going into the bottom of the eighth when the Caps cut loose for four runs on five consecutive hits, including a home run by Bob Wellman, a two-bagger by Ken Richardson and a triple by Dick Greco.
Left-hander Bud Beasley, making his first start this season for Vancouver, fell apart in the ninth as he gave up three singles, a walk, two wild pitches and a double by Gene Tanselli. With three runs in, John Cordell replaced Beasley on the mound.
Cordell issued an intentional pass to fill up the bases and then Harry Warner slashed a single into centre iield, scoring two men. Senators scored one more run on an error.
Richardson had three hits for the Caps, Nick Pesut and Marv Williams each had two, while Tanselli, and Dennis Luby had a pair for Salem.
Gene Johnson picked up the win for Salem. He was relieved for a pinch-hitter in the ninth. Beasley was the loser.
Salem ........... 010 000 106—8 12 0
Vancouver ..... 002 000 040—6 12 3
Johnson, Borst (9), Rayle (9) and D. Luby; Beasley, Cordell (9) and Pesut.
VICTORIA [Jim Tang, Colonist, June 29]—It’s not how often you hit but when and how far that counts the most in baseball, and Victoria is not likely to argue that theory today after what happened to them against Lewiston Broncs last night at Royal Athletic Park.
Pitted against curve-balling John Marshall, the Tyees were credited with 17 hits and although four or five were of the scatch variety, there were enough of the legitimate kind to make the 5-3 setback a surprise. But 15 of the safeties were for one base and 11 of them came after two were out.
22 REACH BASE
Marshall, pitching as is he felt able to shut off any threat, went the full nine inning for a rather peculiar win. The balding veteran made a total of 166 pitches and never faced less than four batters in any inning as he allowed 22 Tyees to get on the bags.
That hardly told the story. Marshall got the first two men to face him in the first, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings and 13 of the first 18 Tyees to reach base got there after two were out. Sixteen of the 22 Victorians to reach base were still there when the third out was made, two were wiped out on double plays, and one was trapped off base. Marshall struck eight, walked three and hit one. And he got the worst of it in his reported feud with Victoria catcher Don Lundberg, who picked up three solid singles in five trips.
Tyees missed their best chances in the sixth and ninth innings, in the first instance due to some bad base-running and in the second to a good catch by Lewiston rightfielder Bob Williams.
ATTACK FIZZLES
In the sixth, relief-pitcher Bill Bottler doubled with two out and Ron Jackson, Steve Mesner and Dain Clay followed with singles. The total output of that rally was exactly one run. Jackson was caught off third as he rounded the bag on Clay’s bounder to the shortstop hole and was out in a run-down. So instead of getting clean-up hitter Neil Sheridan up with the bags loaded, the Tyees were out of the inning.
In the ninth, Eddie Lake, Lundberg, Mel Stein and pinch-hitter Don Pries, making his first appearance since breaking a bone in his left hand at Calgary June 3, singled in succession with one out. Then Jackson hit one into short right-field which appeared to be in for his third safety. But Williams moved fast to grab it and Pries was doubled off first to end the game.
MESNER ERRS
While missing their chance to get more runs, the Tyees gave the Broncs three unearned tallies in the first two innings as Steve Mesner made two errors. On the other hand, the Islanders added to their league-leading total with three double plays and Sheridan saved them at least two runs in the fifth with an inning-ending grab of a bid for extra bases by Eddie Bockman. And Clay came up with a fine catch in the seventh to save what might have been a dangerous situation.
Loser last night was southpaw Berlyn Hodges, who went out under fire in the fourth inning charged with four of the Lewiston runs. Both Bill Bottler and John Tierney, making his first appearance, looked good in relief roles.
The clubs continue their series tonight with “Grumpy” Guy Fletcher, former Seattle righthander, due to toss for the Broncs and Bill Prior named to oppose him for the Tyees.
Lewiston ..... 210 101 000—5 11 1
Victoria ...... 000 001 002—3 17 2
Marshall and Cameron; Hodges, Bottler (4), Tierney (8) and Lundberg.
WENATCHEE, June 28—Danny Rios and Tom Lovrich combined for an eight-hitter Monday night to give Yakima an 8-5 Western International League baseball victory ober
Wenatchee and ruin “Keep the Chiefs in Wenatchee Night” for the locals.
A capacity crowd of 2,800 who were nicked for contributions rather than outright admittance tickets saw Rios go into the fifth frame with a no-hitter in the fire. But Ted Shandor broke through with a clean single to right in the fifth to end Rios’ row of goose eggs.
Club management had said 3,000 were needed to show that there is enough interest to keep a WIL team in Wenatchee.
Yakima ......... 150 110 000—8 9 4
Wenatchee ... 000 020 030—5 8 0
Rios, Lovrich (8) and Summers; Richardson, Shandor (5) and Helmuth.
ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED
Stockholders To Meet Tonight
Will Hear Rundown On Financial Status
[Tri-City Herald, June 29, 1954]
Stockholders of the Tri-City Athletic association will be given a rundown tonight on “just how the club stands financially” at a meeting at the Desert Inn hotel Roundup Room.
The meeting will be at 8 p.m.
Harold Matheson, president of the association, said the session will be a question-and-answer affair.
“I want to fill them in on all that goes on,” he said. “After all, it’s their club and they are entitled to know.”
Matheson pointed out that he us not going to cry “wolf” which is becoming a standard Western International league practice “as long as we can pay our bills.”
“Right now, we have been able to pay them,” he said. “The last two home series helped a lot and we are all right until July 15. But I think the stockholders should know how close to the belly we have had to run.”
Tri-City’s gate this season has been running about the average of other teams throughout the league. Figures put out by league president Bob Abel, which included up to the time, of the Calgary and Spokane folding, gave the following totals:
Lewiston 28,189; Wenatchee 23,825; Vancouver 22,400; Yakima 20,235; Tri-City 19,868; Edmonton 13,089; Victoria 15,078 and Salem 14,952. Spokane and Calgary had
estimated totals of 17,940 for Spokane and 9,745 for Calgary.
All these figures are well below last season’s.
While the owners of the ball club will meet in Richland, the club itself will start a five-game series with the Edmpnton Eskimoes at Edmonton. Don Robertson, who pitched a three-hitter against the Salem Senators here, will be after his ninth win against three losses.
The Braves will be battling to get back in the first division after a momentary stay there Monday night. While Tri-City was idle, the Lewiston Broncs beat Victoria, 5-3, to move a half game ahead of the Braves.
Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, June 29, 1954]
What a weekend of baseball.
Out at Sanders Field, they couldn't have had the ball bounce any better if the thing had been cut, dried, practiced and rehearsed.
Ideally, a man once noted, the kind of game fans like the best is a fast one lasting under two hours with the home team winning by two or three runs.
Anyone of those games last weekend outdid the ideal.
When Don Robertson pitched himself a three-hitter, and Tri-City won 3-1, that was natural enough. We knew it was just a matter of time before Don yanked up a good one.
But who would have bet Ol’ Jess Dobernic could go 12 innings and shut ‘em out all the way? It was quite a feat against any team but the Salem lineup isn’t the worst in the league when it comes to hitting the ball. Currently, they stand about fourth in percentages.
And if the fans didn’t get enough seeing Jess’s performance, Walt Clough’s three-hitter immediately following was worth the price of admission alone.
The smart fan, if he plays baseball percentages, wouldn’t have gone to the Sunday game. After three good ones the odds were too much in favor of a fiasco. But what happens? Up comes the strangest one of the crop.
* * *
Those Tying Rallies
That fourth game didn’t have half the pitching seen in the other three. But how can you beat a home-team rally in the last inning and then a home team win. Then when you get the tying rally not once but in three straight innings, it’s enough to make a nervous wreck out of any fan.
If it wasn’t baseball, and if it wasn’t for the fact the Senators are our “natural rivals,” to use the words of the manager Hugh Luby, I could have been a little sympathetic toward their plight. But since they are our “natural rivals,” the heck with ‘em. I hope we win ‘em all.
Yet in fairness to the invaders, we will have to concede that if they weren’t playing good baseball themselves, the games wouldn’t have been half as exciting for the Tri-City fans. After all, Joe Rayle did match Jess pitch-for-pitch through most of the 12-inning hassle, and it’s hard telling how long he could have hung in there if he hadn’t been lifted for a pinchhitter.
And in the other games, Tri-City didn't exactly rack the rest of the Salem pitching staff around. Those hurlers, remember, were facing the second-best hitting club in the league and holding them to five runs is a feat for any pitcher.
Out of this four-game series, one would think the league would learn a lesson. At the gate, winning counts, sure, a good battle between two equally-matched teams counts
even more. And those two clubs were closely matched even if the Braves did win all four. Not only that, those two clubs are a long way from being the most expensive teams in the league.
* * *
There’s A Lesson There
Salem and Tri-City, too, could learn a lesson from that series. It was close enough that one .332 hitter on the Salem team might have made the difference between winning two and losing two and losing all four. Salem once had such a hitter — Frank Buckowatz [Jack Bukowatz]. But he was an optioned player, and teams that option players have a nasty habit of recalling them whenever they are needed.
So a week ago, the Seattle entry in the Pacific Coast league recalled Buckowatz and left Salem holding the sack. True, Salem might have been in the cellar all season if they hadn’t of [sic] had Buckowatz earlier in the year. But the fans will usually stick by their own players when they are in the cellar. And it leaves an awful bitter taste when you are a contender, then fall, because an optioned player is recalled.
When I mentioned this to Hugh Luby, the Salem G.M. said “Yeah, but we haven’t the dough to go out and. Buy players. We got to take them on option or do without.”
Nonsense! Tri-City has released a half-dozen players this season capable of playing the league. They weren’t the best, maybe, and they wouldn’t win anyone a pennant but they could field their positions and hit the ball with fair consistency. Luby could have picked them up for nothing.
And when those players you own do come through a bit, you don't have to worry about some one higher up calling them in to warm a bench.
* * *
Tri-City Could Learn, Too
Recently, Tri-City’s G.M., Eddie Taylor has been talking about falling into the soft bed of roses and using some of those “fine young men on option.”
“I’ve called the teams in the Coast League looking for help,” Eddie said. “None of them had anything. I called all except Seattle. And they haven't offered us any.”
Judging from the situation around the rest of the league, maybe it’s just as well Taylor never heard from Seattle.
Besides the Salem-Buckowatz deal, there was the case of catcher Lloyd Jenny and Wenatchee.
Jenny is the player Edo Vanni said “I would like to have on my team anytime.”
Right now so would Wenatchee. They had him, sure, but Seattle recalled him and right afterward, Wenatchee lost eight straight.
* * *
Nicholas Shelled Twice
Joe Nicholas, former Tri-City pitcher who was expected to be the mainstay of the Victoria pitching staff this season, has made two appearances so far and was shelled each time.
Six of the ex-Calgary players shifted over to a semi-pro team near the prairie city and won first in a $3,180 tournament. Not all of the cash goes to the first-place team, however.
How many fans didn't know the Sunday Salem-Tri-City game started at 5 o'clock instead of the usual 7:30 p.m.? And of that group, how many cared? After all, if they went to Sanders Field at 7:30 they got to see the best part of it and for free, too.
And the argument will go on and on and on. Should the Braves have tried the squeeze play in the bottom of the tenth with Beanie Warren on third? Should they have tried it in the bottom of the 12th when Edo Vanni was at bat? And for that matter, what would have been wrong with one in the bottom of the ninth when Bob Moniz was at bat, the tying run on third and the potential winning run on first. There was none away at the time and maybe Dick Watson, who later was intentionally walked, might have got the hit to bring the winning run.
Or maybe that squeeze play is like one fan contends “a dumb idea that never works.”
And last of all, Joe Rayle has a new member for the “I-intentionally-walked-.250-hitting-Dick-Watson-club.” He is Gene Roenspie, who was on the mound for Salem in the incident mentioned above.
(Smart, you bet it was smart. They got the side out didn’t they?”
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, June 29, 1954]
What a weekend of baseball.
Out at Sanders Field, they couldn't have had the ball bounce any better if the thing had been cut, dried, practiced and rehearsed.
Ideally, a man once noted, the kind of game fans like the best is a fast one lasting under two hours with the home team winning by two or three runs.
Anyone of those games last weekend outdid the ideal.
When Don Robertson pitched himself a three-hitter, and Tri-City won 3-1, that was natural enough. We knew it was just a matter of time before Don yanked up a good one.
But who would have bet Ol’ Jess Dobernic could go 12 innings and shut ‘em out all the way? It was quite a feat against any team but the Salem lineup isn’t the worst in the league when it comes to hitting the ball. Currently, they stand about fourth in percentages.
And if the fans didn’t get enough seeing Jess’s performance, Walt Clough’s three-hitter immediately following was worth the price of admission alone.
The smart fan, if he plays baseball percentages, wouldn’t have gone to the Sunday game. After three good ones the odds were too much in favor of a fiasco. But what happens? Up comes the strangest one of the crop.
* * *
Those Tying Rallies
That fourth game didn’t have half the pitching seen in the other three. But how can you beat a home-team rally in the last inning and then a home team win. Then when you get the tying rally not once but in three straight innings, it’s enough to make a nervous wreck out of any fan.
If it wasn’t baseball, and if it wasn’t for the fact the Senators are our “natural rivals,” to use the words of the manager Hugh Luby, I could have been a little sympathetic toward their plight. But since they are our “natural rivals,” the heck with ‘em. I hope we win ‘em all.
Yet in fairness to the invaders, we will have to concede that if they weren’t playing good baseball themselves, the games wouldn’t have been half as exciting for the Tri-City fans. After all, Joe Rayle did match Jess pitch-for-pitch through most of the 12-inning hassle, and it’s hard telling how long he could have hung in there if he hadn’t been lifted for a pinchhitter.
And in the other games, Tri-City didn't exactly rack the rest of the Salem pitching staff around. Those hurlers, remember, were facing the second-best hitting club in the league and holding them to five runs is a feat for any pitcher.
Out of this four-game series, one would think the league would learn a lesson. At the gate, winning counts, sure, a good battle between two equally-matched teams counts
even more. And those two clubs were closely matched even if the Braves did win all four. Not only that, those two clubs are a long way from being the most expensive teams in the league.
* * *
There’s A Lesson There
Salem and Tri-City, too, could learn a lesson from that series. It was close enough that one .332 hitter on the Salem team might have made the difference between winning two and losing two and losing all four. Salem once had such a hitter — Frank Buckowatz [Jack Bukowatz]. But he was an optioned player, and teams that option players have a nasty habit of recalling them whenever they are needed.
So a week ago, the Seattle entry in the Pacific Coast league recalled Buckowatz and left Salem holding the sack. True, Salem might have been in the cellar all season if they hadn’t of [sic] had Buckowatz earlier in the year. But the fans will usually stick by their own players when they are in the cellar. And it leaves an awful bitter taste when you are a contender, then fall, because an optioned player is recalled.
When I mentioned this to Hugh Luby, the Salem G.M. said “Yeah, but we haven’t the dough to go out and. Buy players. We got to take them on option or do without.”
Nonsense! Tri-City has released a half-dozen players this season capable of playing the league. They weren’t the best, maybe, and they wouldn’t win anyone a pennant but they could field their positions and hit the ball with fair consistency. Luby could have picked them up for nothing.
And when those players you own do come through a bit, you don't have to worry about some one higher up calling them in to warm a bench.
* * *
Tri-City Could Learn, Too
Recently, Tri-City’s G.M., Eddie Taylor has been talking about falling into the soft bed of roses and using some of those “fine young men on option.”
“I’ve called the teams in the Coast League looking for help,” Eddie said. “None of them had anything. I called all except Seattle. And they haven't offered us any.”
Judging from the situation around the rest of the league, maybe it’s just as well Taylor never heard from Seattle.
Besides the Salem-Buckowatz deal, there was the case of catcher Lloyd Jenny and Wenatchee.
Jenny is the player Edo Vanni said “I would like to have on my team anytime.”
Right now so would Wenatchee. They had him, sure, but Seattle recalled him and right afterward, Wenatchee lost eight straight.
* * *
Nicholas Shelled Twice
Joe Nicholas, former Tri-City pitcher who was expected to be the mainstay of the Victoria pitching staff this season, has made two appearances so far and was shelled each time.
Six of the ex-Calgary players shifted over to a semi-pro team near the prairie city and won first in a $3,180 tournament. Not all of the cash goes to the first-place team, however.
How many fans didn't know the Sunday Salem-Tri-City game started at 5 o'clock instead of the usual 7:30 p.m.? And of that group, how many cared? After all, if they went to Sanders Field at 7:30 they got to see the best part of it and for free, too.
And the argument will go on and on and on. Should the Braves have tried the squeeze play in the bottom of the tenth with Beanie Warren on third? Should they have tried it in the bottom of the 12th when Edo Vanni was at bat? And for that matter, what would have been wrong with one in the bottom of the ninth when Bob Moniz was at bat, the tying run on third and the potential winning run on first. There was none away at the time and maybe Dick Watson, who later was intentionally walked, might have got the hit to bring the winning run.
Or maybe that squeeze play is like one fan contends “a dumb idea that never works.”
And last of all, Joe Rayle has a new member for the “I-intentionally-walked-.250-hitting-Dick-Watson-club.” He is Gene Roenspie, who was on the mound for Salem in the incident mentioned above.
(Smart, you bet it was smart. They got the side out didn’t they?”
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