Thursday, July 15, 1954

               W L  Pct GB
Victoria ..... 5 1 .833 —
Lewiston ..... 7 3 .700 —
Tri-City ..... 5 4 .556 1½
Edmonton ..... 5 4 .556 1½
Yakima ....... 4 4 .500 2
Salem ........ 4 4 .500 2
Vancouver .... 2 4 .333 3
Wenatchee .... 1 9 .100 6

VICTORIA [Jim Tang, Colonist, July 16]—One of the season’s better crowds, estimated at about 1,800, turned up at Royal Athletic Park last night for British Empire Games Night and it was rewarded with some fine entertainment, not the least of which was an excitingly tense game between Tyees and Wenatchee’s hustling young Chiefs.
Tyees came out with their fifth win in six second-half starts to maintain their slender lead atop of the WIL standings but it was mainly because of Charlie Beamon, a young colored righthander who has everything he needs to go to the top, had nothing but the worst of luck.
FIVE ERRORS HURT
Beamon, who pitched a one-hitter for Oakland Acorns in early-season Coast League play, not only couldn’t get much in the way of batting support from his teammates but had to contend with five errors, one of them his own. But he came uncomfortably close in getting his sixth win instead of his sixth setback.
Two of the runs off Beamon were uneared, including the tying run in the eighth inning, and he lost it in the ninth when he walked Eddie Lake with the bases loaded.
The youngster, however, gave it a great battle. He pitching himself out of several jams and whacked two solid singles, one-third of the club’s base-hit output, in his own cause. And when it was all over, he waked purposely towards the Victoria dugout anxious to do battled with catcher Milt Martin, who had been giving him quite a time from the Victoria dugout.
TROUBLE AVERTED
Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the two would-be combatants were kept apart by teammates.
Another tough-luck loser last night was Berlyn Hodges, young Victoria southpaw. Hodges had a two-hitter going after six innings with only an unearned run charged against his delivery but he weakened in the seventh as the Chiefs went ahead, 4-3, with three runs. He was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the Victoria eighth, Martin striking out on three pitches, and Mike Kanshin picked up the win after setting down the Chiefs in order in the ninth.
Despite five Wenatchee errors and one Victoria miscue, the game abounded in spectacular defensive plays, the best of which was a great throw by Wenatchee rightfielder Dick Stacy in the seventh for an inning-ending double play.
ONE BOUNCE STRIKE
With runners on third and second and one out, Neil Sheridan hit a fly ball to Stacy’s territory. The rightfielder positioned himself perfectly for the catch and threw a one-bounce strike across the plate which nipped Ron Jackson on a close play, hotly protested by Victoria manager Don Pries when umpire Doc Regele’s hand went up to signify an out.
In the eighth, Wenatchee-shortstop Jerry Green pulled the Chiefs out of a spot with some alert play. With runners on second and first, third-baseman Don Stanford let Jackson’s roller through but Green grabbed the ball in the shortstop hole and rushed over to third base to get Don Lundberg in a rundown as the Victoria catcher, who had been on second, made his turn.
And the Tyees gave their pitching help with Sheridan contributing a good catch, Lake and Jackson came up with out plays on ‘certain’ hits, and Lundberg tossing out two would-be base-stealers, the second time after a second successive pitchout, with accurate throws.
BOTTLER CALLED
The second game of the series is billed tonight with Ted Shandor due to pitch for the Chiefs and Bill Bottler, who has looked good in his last relief appearance, the Tyee choice.
It’s ‘Ed Farey Night’ tonight with the Tyees giving baseball fans a chance to say farewell to the well-known radio announcer who was prominent in Booster Club work last season.
Last night’s pre-game entertainment featured a two-inning game between the Tyees and Victoria Shamrock with both clubs using lacrosse sticks in the field and an appearance by swimmer Flo Chadwick. The game, it was reported, was won by the Tyees, 1-0.
Wenatchee ...... 001 000 300—4  6 5
Victoria ........... 000 130 011—5 10 1
Beamon and Helmuth; Hodges, Kanshin (9) and Lundberg.

VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, July 15]—When longer baseball games are pitched in the Western International League, Lewiston’s Al Yaylian will undoubtedly pitch them. The veteran lefthander has shown twice in Vancouver this season—and it’s taken him exactly five hours and 30 minutes to complete his chores.
First time out here, Yaylian had to go 10 innings, and he was clocked in two hours, 40 minutes. Thursday old Slow Motion really outdid himself. He went just nine innings this time, but it took him two hours, 50 minutes, 74 hitches in his belt, 62 trips to the resin bag, 12 conferences with the catcher and numberless bumps and grinds (baseball style).
FREE ONES
Admittedly, Yaylian had a little help in making the game drag on for nearly three hours. Arnie Hallgren was making his local pitching debut for the Caps, and he got behind on every batter. He ended up walking ten men in the less than five innings that he lasted.
The Broncs, a distinct threat for the second half title—they plated without injured Russ Rosburg and Mel Wasley—contributed, too, by keeping men galloping around the bases most of the night.
Big blows in the Broncs’ victory came off the bats of Don Hunter and Clint Cameron. Hunter greeted relief pitcher Bob Roberts with a bases-loaded home run in the fifth, and Cameron added a three-run homer in the ninth.
AGAIN TONIGHT
The Caps, who can hardly be described as at the peak of their from Thursday, will try and square things with the fans tonight. They will play a 7 p.m. doubleheader against the Broncs, with Bill Brenner and George Nicholas opposing Dick Derganc and Jack Martin. Then there’s another doubleheader Saturday night.
[WILfan notes: Hallgren allowed four hits and four earned runs. He struck out one. But he didn’t hit a batter; that honour went to the other two pitchers of the evening … Larry Barton doubled twice for the Broncs, while Marv Williams and Nick Pesut had two-baggers for Vancouver … Cameron and Barton each had three hits in six at-bats, the former brought in four runs and the latter, two].
Lewiston ........ 001 050 034—13 13 0
Vancouver ..... 000 041 000— 5 12 3
Yaylan and Garay; Hallgren, Roberts (5) and Pesut.

SALEM [Tri-City Herald, July 16]—The Tri-Clty Braves baseball team, which jumped off in the second-half of the Western International league baseball season like a house afire, return to Sanders Field tonight—losers of all three games at Salem.
The Braves lost the third and final game of the series when Ernie Domenichelli, a Salem pitcher with a 5-5 record now, yanked up a three-hitter to set Tri-City down, 6-1.
Domenichelli hid a no-hitter going on until the eighth but then Terry Carroll. Tri-City third baseman and one of the few whose bat hasn't cooled, connected with a double.
Then on another belated attempt to rally, Tri-City got two more singles in the top of the ninth.
The lone run for the Braves came in the first inning as the result of successive errors. Jack Hemphill, ex-Salem hurler, took the loss.
Tonight the same two teams play a single game at Sanders Field beginning at 7:30 p.m. A doubleheader is on tap Saturday night beginning at 7 p.m. and a single game will follow Sunday beginning at 7.
Tri-City will need almost a clean sweep of the four-game set to stay in second half contention. The trio of losses at Salem has dropped them to a third-place tie with Lewiston in the standings.
Although Tri-City's pitching has not been extremely good, a sudden drop in the hitting largely accounts for the series loss at Salem. Besides the Thursday game, the Braves were able to get but four hits in the first game and six in the second — both extremely low totals for the league-leading batters.
Tri-City ........ 100 000 000—1  3 1
Salem .......... 010 030 02x—6 14 2
Hemphill, Tompkins (7) and Warren; Domenichelli and D. Luby.

EDMONTON, July 14—Edmonton and Yakima battled 10 innings on Thursday night before Edmonton pulled out with a 9-8 Western International League baseball decision.
Edmonton sent the game into overtime with a three-run outburst in the ninth.
Vern Campbell scooted home with the winning run in the tenth when shortstop Dick Briskey threw wild to first while trying to complete a double play.
Briskey starred at the plate, hitting for the cycle: a single, double triple and homer. John Albini also homered for Yakima, and Bobby Brown and Andy Skurski hit four-masters for Edmonton.
Yakima .......... 100 010 402 0—8 12 2
Edmonton ...... 300 001 013 1—9 10 0
Edmunds, Lovrick (9) and Summers; McNulty, Worth (7), Widner (10) and Partee.

Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMOUR
[from Tri-City Herald, July 16, 1954]
A Lesson on Options

Quote from Dick Pieper in his On the Spot column in the Wenatchee Daily World:
"This giveaway program we're running here is getting more ridiculous. The deal that gave Joe Unfried to Oakland has never been explained and probably never will be.

Officially, it will probably go down as a sale, but we'd certainly like to see the money. What happens when Oakland returns to a physically-fit status? Will Unfried replace Ross McCormack as the Oaks' friendship contribution to Beaumont.
"And whatever happened to that 'gentlemen's agreement' between the Chiefs and the Oaks, which said in effect that the Oaks couldn't call up any of their players or those on Chief contracts until the end of the season, unless they did it during the first month of the WIL season?"
The moral of the story is: He who has a team made up of optioned players has built a monument with feet of clay.
And the man who seeks a member of the Coast League brass that will live up to a "working agreement" is on a futile quest, like Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, who once carried a lantern in daylight on the streets of Athens, looking for an honest man.