W L Pct GB
Vancouver .... 19 11 .633 —
Victoria ..... 16 13 .552 2½
Edmonton ..... 13 11 .542 3
Yakima ....... 15 13 .536 3
Spokane ...... 14 15 .483 4½
Lewiston ..... 14 15 .483 4½
Wenatchee .... 13 15 .464 5
Salem ........ 14 17 .452 5½
Tri-City ..... 14 17 .452 5½
Calgary ...... 10 15 .400 6½
VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, May 28]—Joe E. Brown, the old-time movie man, will be on hand at Capilano Stadium tonight before the ball game to do a takeoff on his famous baseball characterization, Elmer the Great, and maybe make the odd horsehide disappear within his cavernous mouth.
Joe perhaps was one day last with his appearance. Thursday’s game, which the Capilanos took by a 7-5 count from Calgary Stampeders, wasn’t exactly the most inspiring offering of the season, and could have been used as an extra fillip.
There were a few things to tickle the local following, besides the Caps winning, of course. Arnie Hallgren, the Vancouver pride, hit one far over the left field wall in the second against the wind and with one on to account for the first two runs.
Then John Cordell, who hadn’t been too successful this season, turned in his best performance of the season in a relief role to pick up his second win against one loss.
Cordell relieved a somewhat shaky Tom Lovrich, making his first local start, and allowed just three hits over the last five innings.
Tonight, after Brown gets through his act, which starts at 8 p.m., Bill Franks will take to the mound and try to live up to his reputation as a front-line pitcher. Bill, who’s had his troubles, went the route for the first time in Victoria last week, and will be out to prove he deserves a starting role.
PROVINCE STARS – Nick Pesut, who added a double to his game-winning blow … John Cordell, who can be a real handy relief pitcher when right … And Calgary’s Jim Wert, who looks like he’s off to a good year. [Wert and Gale Taylor each had three hits for Calgary and Wert brought in a pair of runs. Marv Williams hit three singles for Vancouver while Rocky Tedesco had a two-run single for the Stamps].
Calgary ......... 000 320 000—5 8 3
Vancouver .... 020 300 02x—7 9 1
Kapp and Luby; Lovrich, Cordell (5) and Pesut.
VICTORIA [Jim Tang, Colonist, May 28]—A ringing single from the bat of Eddie Lake at 11.52 last night sent Ron Jackson across the plate from second base and gave the Victoria Tyees a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos after 14 innings of the season’s best baseball.
The win moved the Tyees ahead of the Alberta club into second place in the WIL standings. The four-game series continues tonight with Bill Bottler due to pitch for the Tyees and Charlie LeBrun, one-time Victoria righthander, the probably Edmonton choice.
FOUR FOR FLINN
Lake’s single gave Hal Flinn his fourth win of the season, and a deserving one it was too. The gangly righthander pitched the full 14 innings, giving up only six hits and struck out 12. But for two errors which cost him two unearned runs and the amazing inability of the Tyees to cash in on their scoring chances, he would have won it a lot earlier than he did.
Facing two of Edmonton’s best in Jack Widner and John Conant, the Tyees had at least one runner on the bags in every inning but the fifth. But they had trouble bringing their runners around. They scored their first run on a base on balls, a two-base error on an attempted pick-off at first base, and a sacrifice fly. They tied it up in the eighth when four singles and a hit batsman scored two runs. But from there to the 14th, some tremendous clutch pitching by Conant kept them out until the percentages finally caught up with the veteran righthander.
STOPPED CAPS
Conant, who stopped Vancouver Capilanos, 3-2 Tuesday night, was rushed in with the score 3-2 for Edmonton, the bases loaded and only one out. He hit Victoria-manager Don Pries to force in the tying run but struck out Milt Martin and Flinn to leave the bags loaded.
In the 10th, Conant got a called third strike past Mesner with runners on second and first. In the 11th, Martin left the bases loaded when he skied out to right field.
STRATEGY WORKS
In the 12th, with runners on first and third with one out, Edmonton manager Bob Sturgeon ordered Tom Perez purposely walked to load the bags for the fourth time in five innings. Sheridan forced a runner at the plate and Lake struck out as Conant again pitched himself out.
In the 13th, two walks put runners on first and second with one out but Flinn struck out and Dain Clay filed out. That made it 16 runners left on the bags kin six successive innings. There were 24 for the game.
Meanwhile, Flinn, who appeared to waver a bit in the seventh and eighth, came back strong to handle the hard-hitting Esks with ease. Only 21 batters faced him in the last six innings and only in the 14th, after two were out, did the Esks get two on the sacks at one time. Three of Edmonton’s six hits came in the fourth inning, the other three were scattered over the last 11 innings.
JACKSON STARTS IT
Jackson, who came into the game in the 12th when Armando Sanchez ran for Mesner, made two difficult putouts at first base before he cracked a sharp single to left in his first trip to the plate to launch the winning rally. Perez sacrificed and Sheridan was walked to put the double-play setup on the bags. But Lake ripped a 1-1 pitch on a low line past thrd base and the speedy Jackson easily beat the throw.
Edmonton .... 000 200 010 000 00—3 6 4
Victoria ....... 000 100 020 000 01—4 16 3
Widner, Conant (8) and Prentice; Flinn and Martin.
SPOKANE, May 27 — The Wenatchee Chiefs won a nip and tuck ball game 9-8 Thursday night to win their Western International League baseball series with Spokane 2-1.
Spokane and Wenatchee paraded nine pitchers to the mound before the final putout. Frank DeCarolis, the third of the four used by Wenatchee, was the winner.
Wenatchee won the game with a four-run rally in the eighth. The Indians, who had scored six runs in the fifth, chased in two more in the bottom of the eighth when
Charlie Oubre relieved DeCarolis and put out the fire.
Wenatchee ..... 011 011 140—9 10 2
Spokane ......... 000 060 020—8 8 2
Richardson, Thompson (5), DeCarolis (7), Oubre (8) and Jenney; Trautwein, Wisneski (5), Aubertin (6), Lawson (8), Romero (9) and Dean.
LEWISTON, Idaho, May 27—Yakima Bears allowed Lewiston only five hits as they swept both ends of a Western International Baseball League doubleheader Thursday, winning the first game 1-0 and the second 8-2.
Ted Edmunds allowed only three safe blows as he shut out the Broncs 1-0 in the seven-inning opener. John Carmichael followed with a two-hitter in Bears' nightcap victory.
Pacific Coast League veteran Grumpy Guy Fletcher opposed Edmunds and gave up only five hits. The one run scored off Fletcher was unearned. He walked Dick Briskey, who moved to second on a sacrifice and came home on an error by shortstop Artie Wilson.
Manager Lou Stringer homered in the third inning with two men aboard to put the nightcap out of reach of the Broncs. Two Yakima runners had scored before Stringer came to the plate.
First Game
Yakima ........ 000 010 0—1 5 0
Lewiston ...... 000 000 0—0 3 1
Edmunds and Summers; Fletcher and Cameron.
Second Game
Yakima ........ 003 210 000—8 9 2
Lewiston ...... 000 110 000—2 2 3
Carmichael and Summers; Martin, Kime (4), Derganc (6) and Garay.
KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, May 28]—Game little Ted Savarese's pitching career with the Tri-City Braves, and possibly in the Western International league, ended Thursday night with a strikeout and a loss.
The loss was to the Salem Senators who racked the pint-sized lefty for five runs in the four innings he pitched. Tri-City scored three times in a ninth inning rally that was cut short.
The victory snapped Tri-City's streak at four straight wins, and left Salem and the Braves tied eighth place in the league standings. Tonight the same two teams open a four-game stand at Salem.
Playing manager Edo Vanni selected Savarese to start Thursday night although a decision to release him was made prior to the game. However, had Savarese turned in an exceptional performance, the Tri-City management might have been induced to change its mind.
But after a scoreless first inning, it was apparent little Ted didn't have it. The Senators scored three runs in the second on four singles. A single, a sacrifice and another single brought one in in the third and Harry Warner's homer brought the fifth run in the fourth.
Savarese didn't quit though and struck out the next batter. Then after forcing another to ground out, he fanned the last one to face him.
In the fifth, another lefty, rookie Earl Lemieux took over and shutout the Senators the rest of the way.
The Braves, themselves, had trouble hitting the pilches of Sacramento chattel John Briggs. For seven innings, he set them down with two hits.
In the eighth, Jack Warren shook him with a double that lacked but inches of clearing the wall.
In the ninth, the Tri-City hitting attack began to roll but it was cut off when Bob McGuire hit into a double-play with the bases-loaded.
Des Charouhas and Dick Watson sparked the belated rally with successive singles. Another by Terry Carroll, the only batter to get two hits during the night, brought in one run and a single by Vic Buccola brought in another. Len Tran singled but no one scored and Jack Warren walked to bring one in and leave the bases loaded.
It was then McGuire hit into the double play.
The outright release of Savarese was but one of the moves made so Tri-City could get under the 17-man player limit. In other moves, pitcher Bud Guldborg and infielder Charlie Davis were shifted to the temporarily inactive list.
Playing manager Edo Vanni is expected to go on the list Saturday.
Salem ......... 031 100 000—5 11 0
Tri-City ....... 000 000 003—3 9 0
Briggs and Ogden; Savarese, Lemieux (5) and Warren.
Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, May 28, 1954]
Ask just about any baseball player who makes a living throwing baseballs past enemy batters which he would rather do, start or relieve, and about 95 per cent of them will say start.
Because of all the unprofitable businesses a man can go into, relief pitching is the
worst. It is the one way of making a living where your chances of winning are almost
nil and the chances of losing are great. No businessman with any degree of
brainpower would invest his money against such odds.
And there isn’t another playing position on the field where so much is expected
and so little (in terms of adulation) is given as relief pitching.
The reliefer goes into the game, usually with a one or-two-run lead and frequently
with the bases loaded. If he loses it, he is a jerk. If he wins, he is still a jerk for letting the opposition score enough to tie or go ahead so he can win.
He has to save the game and although there is a column labeled GS in baseball statistics, it stand for games started and not games saved.
A starting pitcher can blow a six-or-eight run lead and still come out ahead. Not the relief pitcher though. And even if the winning runs were put on base by the starting pitcher, and are charged against him, in the eyes of the fans it is still the reliefer who blows the game.
* * *
Jess Would Have Quite An ERA
Take Jess Dobernic, Tri-City's reliefer. If Jess lived up to fans’ expectations, he not only would have the lowest earned run average in the Western International league but the lowest in the history of all of baseball.
The fans expect him to save ‘em and save ‘em all. In order to perform this feat, he can’t afford to allow a runner across the plate — even one that the starting pitcher put there. So if Jess stopped them everytime, he would have an ERA of zero — and you sure as heck can’t go lower than that.
Naturally, Jess, or any other reliever isn’t going to save them all.
* * *
Two Games Run Up Total
So far his record hasn’t been what it was last season but going back through the scorebooks we find a few things overlooked. Jess has a heck of a high earned run average but two games account for most of it.
The first was his initial role this season when he pitched but one-third of an inning and gave up four runs. The second was his second role this season when he went into a Vancouver game with Tri-City trailing, 7-2. That was when Tri-City playing manager Edo Vanni was out of the lineup and Jess was acting manager.
The Caps hit Jess right off the bat. Since the game was then shot, in fact it was shot when Jess went in, Jess elected to leave Jess in because he felt a good workout was what he needed most. Also, he couldn’t see any sense in using another pitcher to work a game that was gone.
Altogether, Jess gave up nine runs, but then came something unusual in baseball. How many times have you heard of a badly beaten pitcher growing stronger as the game went along? In the final 3 2-3 innings of the game, Jess pitched no-hit ball.
So far this season, Jess has pitched in 11 games. The Vancouver game was the longest; a one-out stint against Spokane was the shortest. He has lost three and won one and in some of the others it turned out that Jess could have pitched no-hit ball and Tri-City would still have lost the game.
* * *
There’s Some ‘Saved’ Too
But scattered through the 11 games are four or five that might be classed as saved. And if Old Jessie rears back on that right leg, and whips that ball over the plate the way he did against Salem this week, that “saved” total is going to climb.
The Lineup’s Mixed
Looking back through the boxscores this season, I’ve run across an oddity that escaped me before. In the recent Spokane series, Tri-City won one of the games, 9-2.
Now everyone knows the leadoff man’s job is to get on base, get sacrificed along and then score. Our leadoff man that day was Bob McGuire. He was the only player to
come to bat six times. Of the six times at bat, he got two hits. Of the two hits, he didn’t score at all.
Meanwhile, everyone else except pitcher Walt Clough scored exactly once.
Clough, the hurler who really isn’t expected to do much more than take his turn at bat. officially didn’t go to the plate at all. He didn’t hit. Yet, he was the only man on the team who scored twice.
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, May 28, 1954]
Ask just about any baseball player who makes a living throwing baseballs past enemy batters which he would rather do, start or relieve, and about 95 per cent of them will say start.
Because of all the unprofitable businesses a man can go into, relief pitching is the
worst. It is the one way of making a living where your chances of winning are almost
nil and the chances of losing are great. No businessman with any degree of
brainpower would invest his money against such odds.
And there isn’t another playing position on the field where so much is expected
and so little (in terms of adulation) is given as relief pitching.
The reliefer goes into the game, usually with a one or-two-run lead and frequently
with the bases loaded. If he loses it, he is a jerk. If he wins, he is still a jerk for letting the opposition score enough to tie or go ahead so he can win.
He has to save the game and although there is a column labeled GS in baseball statistics, it stand for games started and not games saved.
A starting pitcher can blow a six-or-eight run lead and still come out ahead. Not the relief pitcher though. And even if the winning runs were put on base by the starting pitcher, and are charged against him, in the eyes of the fans it is still the reliefer who blows the game.
* * *
Jess Would Have Quite An ERA
Take Jess Dobernic, Tri-City's reliefer. If Jess lived up to fans’ expectations, he not only would have the lowest earned run average in the Western International league but the lowest in the history of all of baseball.
The fans expect him to save ‘em and save ‘em all. In order to perform this feat, he can’t afford to allow a runner across the plate — even one that the starting pitcher put there. So if Jess stopped them everytime, he would have an ERA of zero — and you sure as heck can’t go lower than that.
Naturally, Jess, or any other reliever isn’t going to save them all.
* * *
Two Games Run Up Total
So far his record hasn’t been what it was last season but going back through the scorebooks we find a few things overlooked. Jess has a heck of a high earned run average but two games account for most of it.
The first was his initial role this season when he pitched but one-third of an inning and gave up four runs. The second was his second role this season when he went into a Vancouver game with Tri-City trailing, 7-2. That was when Tri-City playing manager Edo Vanni was out of the lineup and Jess was acting manager.
The Caps hit Jess right off the bat. Since the game was then shot, in fact it was shot when Jess went in, Jess elected to leave Jess in because he felt a good workout was what he needed most. Also, he couldn’t see any sense in using another pitcher to work a game that was gone.
Altogether, Jess gave up nine runs, but then came something unusual in baseball. How many times have you heard of a badly beaten pitcher growing stronger as the game went along? In the final 3 2-3 innings of the game, Jess pitched no-hit ball.
So far this season, Jess has pitched in 11 games. The Vancouver game was the longest; a one-out stint against Spokane was the shortest. He has lost three and won one and in some of the others it turned out that Jess could have pitched no-hit ball and Tri-City would still have lost the game.
* * *
There’s Some ‘Saved’ Too
But scattered through the 11 games are four or five that might be classed as saved. And if Old Jessie rears back on that right leg, and whips that ball over the plate the way he did against Salem this week, that “saved” total is going to climb.
The Lineup’s Mixed
Looking back through the boxscores this season, I’ve run across an oddity that escaped me before. In the recent Spokane series, Tri-City won one of the games, 9-2.
Now everyone knows the leadoff man’s job is to get on base, get sacrificed along and then score. Our leadoff man that day was Bob McGuire. He was the only player to
come to bat six times. Of the six times at bat, he got two hits. Of the two hits, he didn’t score at all.
Meanwhile, everyone else except pitcher Walt Clough scored exactly once.
Clough, the hurler who really isn’t expected to do much more than take his turn at bat. officially didn’t go to the plate at all. He didn’t hit. Yet, he was the only man on the team who scored twice.
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