WIL Loses Calgary and Spokane

Spokane and Calgary Are Cut From the WI League
Schedule To Be Changed Immediately
TACOMA, Wash., June 21—(AP)—The ailing Class A Western International League was cut Monday from 10 to teams as Spokane and Calgary officially withdrew.
League President Robert B. Abel announced at WIL headquarters here that the Spokane franchise has been ordered surrendered and the Calgary team, which nearly folded at the start of the season, has been disbanded. Most of Spokane's players will be returned to the parent Philadelphia Phillies.
The WIL had been the only 10-team minor league in the country after the addition of Calgary and Edmonton two seasons ago.
Abel said the WIL schedule will be revised immediately to complete the season with eight clubs.
Status in Doubt
Spokane's status had been in doubt for more than a week since owner Roy Hotchkiss surrendered his franchise with the explanation he could no longer afford to operate at a loss. He said poor health also prevented him from continuing further.
Since then, the club has been “carried” by the league while a citizens’ committee in Spokane attempted to raise upwards of $40,000 to assure operation of the team for the balance of the season.
Monday, the “Save Spokane Indians, Inc.,” disbanded after raising less than $3,000, although the an organization had the rest of the week to get the money. The committee decided the effort was fruitless.
Calgary's franchise had been ordered surrendered by Abel shortly after the season opened when the owners failed to provide meal and travel money for the Stampeders in their first road trip. Subsequently, new finances were arranged and the franchise was restored.
The Calgary players were told Monday by the president of the Stampeders, Bus Lacey, that the team had come to the end of its financial tether.
Lacey said he had “poured a lot of money” into the venture and could go on no longer. Games at Calgary have been drawing on average of only 300 fans—far too few to meet the club’s payroll of $6,000 a month.
Edmonton Uncertain
Calgary’s disbanding leaves the status of Edmonton somewhat uncertain. The Canadian prairie city s nearly 800 miles from most other WIL members, who have complained the long trips to Alberta were too costly.
Only eight days ago WIL directors, at a meeting in Spokane, considered demands from Lewiston, Idaho, and Salem, Ore., that both Edmonton and Calgary be dropped. The two Canadian members fought the move, and succeeded at the time in keeping the league intact.
Cold weather, a rash of postponements because of rain and poor attendance brought financial woes to the league from the start this year.
At Spokane, the head of the “Save Baseball” Committee, Mayor Arthur Meehan, said about the fund-raising drive: “We just couldn’t get any interest stirred up.”
He said the group would now direct its efforts toward getting a team in the league next year.
Roy Hotchkiss, former owner, quit last week because of poor health and financial troubles. The team has been fulfilling its schedule for the past week on league financing.
The team members, who worked their club into third place in the league last week, and Manager Don Osborn were on a train en route from Calgary, Alta., to Vancouver, B.C., Monday and didn’t know their orphaned status.
They were scheduled to open a three-game series with Vancouver on Tuesday.
Troubles elsewhere in the shaky league probably had something to disinterest in Spokane, Meehan said.
“Those stories in the paper about Lewiston’s financial troubles, and the problem Salem has had making ends meet haven’t helped.”
Most of the Spokane players are owned by the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League, with whom Spokane had a working agreement this season.

Spokane and Calgary Fold Their Tents in Western International
TACOMA, June 22—(AP)— After weeks of uncertainty and financial woe, the far-flung Class A Western International League was down to eight teams Tuesday following the almost simultaneous loss of Spokane and Calgary.
Both clubs dropped out Monday from what had been the country’s only 10-team circuit.
The announcement by league president Robert B. Abel at WIL headquarters here that, the Spokane franchise and the Calgary team disbanded evoked little surprise.
Both teams were floundering in a sea of red ink caused by apathy the of the fans, cold and rainy weather and in Spokane the counter-attraction of television.
Unless the Spokane players, most of them owned by the parent Philadelphia Phillies, heard the news aboard-train they still were unaware early Tuesday of their plight.
At the time the Spokane civic committee “Save Spokane Indians, Inc.” threw in the towel on a fund-raising drive the team was en route from Edmonton to Vancouver, B.C., and due some time Tuesday.
The committee gave up in its campaign for $40,000 to insure continued operation of the club after less than $3,000 was pledged during the week of solicitation. The league had taken over the Spokane franchise a week earlier when owner Roy Hotchkiss said he could not continue a losing operation.
Calgary’s president Bus Lacey told his players the same story Monday, and split up the club’s bank account of $810 among the 18-man squad. A $3,150 deposit with the minor league president, George Trautman, also will go toward player salaries.
Reaction of other owners was a mixture of relief and determination. Most seemed glad the indecision over the two ailing ex-members was over, and confident the league could finish out the season intact.
The loss of Calgary left the Edmonton Eskimos at the “end of the line” in Alberta nearly 800 miles from the nearest other WIL club, but manager John Ducey said “it won't affect us a bit.”
Ducey described the Eskimos’ as “in a very solid position,” and said other teams would continue to get a $600 guarantee to help meet travel costs on the long road trips to the Canadian prairie. This is the only exception made to the league's rule of the home team keeping all gate receipts.
Spokane's departure from organized baseball came just a half dozen or so years after the Inland Empire city set a minor league attendance record.
Civic interests there say they will do the spade work this year to insure the re-entry of Spokane into the WIL next season.
Several other teams, notably Lewiston and, Salem, have been hard-pressed financially this season but improving weather and promises of community support have helped them over the hump.
So serious was the overall problem of poor attendance and anemia at the box-office that directors met about 10 days ago in Spokane to decide whether the entire league would have to disband. The decision was to continue, with the hope Spokane and Calgary would revive.
They didn’t.

8-Team WIL Revises First Half Sched
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [June 22, 1954]
The Western International Baseball League revised its schedule with the withdrawal of the Spokane Indians and Calgary Stampeders, and Vancouver, slated to be host Tuesday to the Indians, opens instead at Yakima.
Spokane and Calgary pulled out of the league Monday, both blaming financial losses due to poor attendance.
The new schedule, announced by WIL president Robert Abel, covers the period until July 5 when the league ends the first half of its split season. Abel said a new program is being prepared for the balance of the year.
The schedule:
June 22-24 — Vancouver at Yakima, Tri-City at Salem, Victoria at Lewiston, Edmonton at Wenatchee.
June 25-26 — Victoria at Wenatchee, Vancouver at Lewiston, Edmonton at Yakima, Salem at Tri-City (doubleheader Saturday.)
June 27 — Vancouver at Lewiston (2), Edmonton at Yakima (2), Victoria at Wenatchee (2), Salem at Tri-City.
June 28-30 — Tri-City at Edmonton, Salem at Vancouver, Lewiston at Victoria, Yakima at Wenatchee.
July 1-3 — Tri-City at Edmonton, Lewiston at Salem, Yakima at Vancouver (Doubleheaders Thursday and Saturday), Wenatchce at Victoria (doubleheaders Thursday and Saturday).
July 4 - 5 (doubleheaders both days) — Edmonton at Lewiston, Vancouver at Salem. Victoria at Tri-City, Wenatchee at Yakima.

MY NICKEL'S WORTH
By Bob Johnson
[Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 22, 1954]
THE NEWS WAS ALL BAD BUT IT WASN'T UNEXPECTED
THERE WERE TOO MANY OBSTACLES CONFRONTING DRIVE
The decision by the "Save Spokane Indians" committee to dissolve after failing in an effort to raise enough money to carry the Spokane club through the remainder of the 1954 season, came as extremely bad news yesterday although we can't say we were surprised.
It seemed like there were just too many obstacles in the way of success. Maybe dissolved the club and getting out of baseball at least for the rest of the 1954 season is a good thing.
Spokane baseball needed surgery, certainly. It was suffering real pain and maybe nothing but a major operation now will save it for the future. The entire Western International League may undergo the same operation before things get back to normal again.
While it may seem to the outsider that $40,000 was a very insignificant fund for a community of more than 170,000 to raise, the problem, we think, goes much deeper than that.
Future Too Uncertain
We agree that $40,000 is a pretty sizable amount to pay for a business that was withering on the vine, as was baseball here the day that former owner Roy Hotchkiss pulled out. But even that wouldn't have been too bad if there had been some guarantee that the league itself was going to survive after July 5 or in 1955.
There weren't any business men interested in sinking any cash in that kind of proposition. And there weren't enough of the "little fellows" to make any kind of a real contribution to the $40,000 fund. As a result the committee to save the club didn't have any other course but the one it followed.
Some may hold that the hotels and the restaurants, who gain the most from a business point of view out of the sports, should have come through with the needed cash. Others might have helped too, but the facts are that interest in the Indians, from the business man's point of view, had ben insignificant for several years and was growing gradually worse.
Ask the business men why they weren't enthusiastic about baseball any more and they'd give you a variety of reasons from, "I don't like Hotchkiss," to "I won't be interested again until we get a decent ball park."
There were too few who supported it because it was baseball regardless of where it was played or who owned the club.
What Next?
But all that is water under the bridge. The question is what do we do next to get the game going again?
In view of the present situation there isn't much that can be done except wait—and posibly pick out and set aside a site for a future baseball park.
If and when Spokane does return to organized ball a park with a covered grandstand amnd seats with backs appears to be a must from many points of view Ferris field is ideally located for baseball. But the amount that Hotchkiss wants for the land causes us to believe that it's too valuable a piece of property for a ball park. There must be cheaper land just as suitable that can be used.
It wouldn't seem to be good business to pay around $150,000 for 12 acres when you have to figure on spending between $300,000 and $400,000 more just to erect a grandstand with a few thousand covered seats.
Unfavorable Publicity
While Spokane will receive a lot of unfavorable publicity nationally for dropping out of baseball, we think the move will not hurt the city's chances of getting into the Coast league some day. The town's rceord prior to the 1948 fire that destroyed the 7200-seat grandstand was exceptionally good. There's no reason to believe it won't be just as good again.
Today it's pretty hard to believe that the city which carried the Western International league on its shoulders for so many years has dropped by the wayside.
There's comfort in the thought, however, that there's always tomorrow and baseball again.

Spokane, Calgary Ouster Force Caps Back on ‘Road’
Brenner Gang Back Friday
By CLANCY LORANGER
[Vancouver Province, June 22, 1954]
Don Osborn and his Spokane Indians rolled into town by train this morning at almost the same time as their supposed opponents, Vancouver Capilanos, were leaving by automobile for Yakima. This confused state of affairs, all too typical of the unstable Western International League since before the start of the 1954 season, followed on a possibly inevitable announcement by league president Robert Abel that two of the pro loops’ 10 teams had folded.
The Spokane team, ward of the league for a week since owner Roy Hotchkiss forfeited his franchise and the always-shaky Calgary Stampeders gave up the ghost officially Monday. The Spokane franchise was turned over to the parent Philadelphia Phillies and Calgary disbanded.
Calgary’s bubble burst when the club couldn’t raise fund to go to Yakima for a series scheduled to start tonight. That was the death knell for a citizens’ committee, the “Save Spokane Indians, Inc.,” that had been trying to raise enough money to keep the Indians going. They had raised less than $3000 of a required $40,000 in a week.
BACK FRIDAY
Immediate effects on the Capilanos, and the league, were these:
1. The Caps’ series here with Spokane, scheduled to start tonight, of course blew up, and the locals will now play in Yakima tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.
Re the rest of the week, Caps’ Bill Brenner has a wire from league president Bob Abel saying Lewiston will be here. Lewiston will play a double-header here Friday and one game Saturday.
2. The first half schedule, expected now to end June 30, will continue through to the original date, July 5.
CAN’T GO ON
In Calgary, president Bus Lacey called a meeting of the players and told them: “I’ve poured a lot of money into this thing and I just can’t go on. There has to be a halt somewhere.”
It was estimated that the club had lost $60,000 in two years of operation.
Calgary’s folding will undoubtedly raise howls among certain clubs about the long haul to the prairies just to play one club, but in Edmonton, John Ducey made a firm stand.
He pointed out that his team has “lived up to every commitment,” and said that if league directors should attempt to disenfranchise them “baseball would find itself in civil courts.”

Calgary, Spokane Give Up Ghost
Change Affects Schedule of Tyees
BY JIM TANG
[Victoria Colonist, June 22, 1954]
Yesterday, only eight days after it had been decided upon at an emergency meeting in Spokane that all clubs would continue to operate, the Western International baseball found itself an eight-club organization again—less than a season and a half after it had added Calgary and Edmonton to become organized baseball’s only 10-club league.
The missing clubs are Calgary Stampeders and Spokane Indians. Both, it was reported yesterday afternoon, have officially withdrawn.
Stampeders, who caused league officials to gather before the season started and again after the season was only about two weeks old, came to the end of the road yesterday when the team was disbanded following a conference with club-president Norman “Bus” Lacey.
LOT OF MONEY
“I’ve poured a lot of money into this thing,” Lacey told his assembled players Monday. “I just can’t go on and the other directors feel the same way so there’s nothing to do but call it quits.
“I am sorry for the inconvenience it causes you fellows but there has to be a halt to this thing somewhere.”
It had been rumored that the Calgary players had refused to make the club’s scheduled road trip this week because they hadn’t received their semi-monthly pay on June 15.
This couldn’t be confirmed but it was announced that the $810 left in the club’s bank account had been split among the 18 players and that the $3,150 deposit with the National Association of Professional Minor Baseball Leagues would also be used for player salaries.
REGRET EXPRESSED
Playing-manager Gene Lillard expressed his regret to see baseball wind up in Calgary and said that he believed Calgary would be a good baseball centre “if given a better break in the weather.”
All the players except catcher Dennis Luby and outfielder Charlie Lundgren, who belong to Reading, Pa., and Sacramento, respectively, were given their unconditional released.
Somewhat ironically, the WIL was helped out of the impossible situation of striving to carry on with nine clubs by the lack of success of the drive to save baseball in Spokane.
A group headed by Mayor Arthur Meehan, had set out confidently a week ago to raise the necessary $40,000 to take over the Spokane franchise, given up by Roy Hotchkiss. Yesterday morning, the total raised was only about $3,000 and when the Calgary situation developed as it did, Spokane also dropped out.
NO INTEREST SHOWN
“We just couldn’t seem to get any interest stirred up,” Meehan said as he announced his group would now devote its attention to returning to the WIL next season.
Most Spokane players are owned by the Philadelphia Phillies and it is believed that they will be sent to other clubs in the Phils’ farm organization.
Loss of Calgary failed to dampen the determination of Edmonton Eskimos to remain in the league.
“It won’t affect us a bit,” general-manger John Ducey said last night.
“Edmonton is in a very solid position. We were invited into the WIL with no strings attached and we have lived up to every commitment.”
EJECT EDMONTON
Apparently believing that the loss of Calgary might cause renewed efforts to get rid of Edmonton, Ducey also issued a word or two of warning.
“League directors,” he said, “could not disenfranchise a club in good standing. Any such attempt and baseball would find itself in the civil courts.”
Ducey was outspoken about the Stampeders, blaming financial losses to “indifferent operation, lack of proper playing facilities, and poor press and radio relations.”
He said there was a tremendous potential for class “A” baseball in Calgary “with a new ball park.”
But he said class “A” baseball should never be sanctioned in Calgary as long as Mewata Stadium was the only park and that any new Calgary team would have to “undergo and satisfy a very close scrutiny.”
LITTLE REASON
However, there appeared to be little reason to believe that there would be any further attempt to oust Edmonton. The Eskimos have promised all U.S. clubs $600 for every scheduled U.S. trip and without Calgary it’s almost certain that all clubs will visit the Alberta capital once during the second half, playing a full week.
Second-half play will now start on July 1, with the first half being cut short by four days in order to help meet schedule difficulties imposed by the withdrawl of the clubs.
First schedule change was made yesterday when Vancouver Capilanos, who were to have hosted Spokane yesterday, today and tomorrow, were sent to Yakima to play the Bears in the three games previously scheduled for the Stampeders.
NO WORD RECEIVED
Changes will also affect Victoria Tyees, due to open a 12-game home stand Thursday.
Spokane was to have been the first of three clubs during the stand and there was no word last night on who would replace the Indians. There is also [a] chance that the Tyees won’t open at home until Friday.
Other series don’t end until Thursday, and unless Lewiston Broncs are sent here, both the Broncs and Tyees will be idle Thursday. The Broncs were scheduled to play here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and it may be that this series will be moved ahead.
Definite word is expected today.

Folding Puts Some Players On Block
[Tri-City Herald, June 22, 1954]
The folding of Calgary and Spokane in the Western International league means that some pretty good players are up for grabs and Tri-City general manager Eddie Taylor may soon be sounding out the field.
Taylor said today he doesn’t think that any of the Spokane players, really owned by the Philadelphia Phils through paper deal working agreements, will be optioned to Tri-City or ether teams in the league.
“They will probably be spotted at other farm teams such as Syracuse (AAA), Schenectady (A), Terre Haute (B),” Taylor said.
He said, however, if he could get his hands on a pitcher such as John Anderson, “I sure as heck would take him.”
The ex-Calgary playing staff is a more fertile ground to seek players Some of the better ones are Jim Wert, first baseman, Gus Stathos, centerfielder, and Elmer Clow, shortstop.
However, although some of these players may be taken up by other teams, Tri-City will be primarily eyeing the pitching staff to find a replacement for Bud Guldborg.
One likely bet is Bob Schulte, lefthander. His record last season and this has not been overly impressive but playing manager Edo Vanni likes to have a starting left-hander on the staff.
Righthanders on the Calgary mound staff are Bill Stitcs, Ed Kapp, and Bullet Joe Orrell. Stites has the lowest earned run average of the crop with a 4.42. This figure seems high until the short Calgary fence and its hitter’s heaven is considered.
In other deals, Taylor said he has not heard from his offer to Harvey Storey, former playing manager of the Salem Senators.

Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, June 22, 1954]
So Spokane wasn't able to raise $40,000 to buy a ball team? Maybe this could be the cause.
Two weeks ago I was in Spokane hanging around the lobby of the hotel where the Western International league meeting was going on. I had my car outside the hotel, put a nickel in the meter, and had gone inside to see what gives.
Two nickels and two undetected parking meter violations later, it looked as if we would be there a long, long time so I figured the best bet would be to get the vehicle off the street and into a nearby parking garage.
I drove the car in the garage, waited, and waited for the attendant who I could see in the nearby glass office. Finally, I shut off the engine, went inside to get some action.
Inside the office, there was a young man, either a senior in high school, or possibly in the lower college grade age.
“You'll have to wait. No-hitter goin’,” he said breathlessly and went back to a nearby radio.
The no-hitter was going all right and I listened with him.
At that time, Jim Wilson of Milwaukee was but one out away from pitching that magic game.
The last batter was up, and the air in the parking garage was made doubly tense by the contortions of the parking attendant. He was plainly sweating out Wilson for all he was worth.
Wilson threw a ball. The boy raised his eyes in prayer.
Wilson threw a strike. The boy leaped and cheered.
He hit his hand with his fist, cussed, cheered, prayed, and walked in circles.
The count went up to 3-2.
Then the batter hit the ball.
I don’t know how the play went but by the announcer’s description, it was the closest play of the game. A fielding gem. Beautiful play. History was made by the remarkable fielding of the Milwaukee infield and the runner almost beat it out to ruin the game. The crowd went wild.
“Listen to ‘em. Listen to that crowd!” my parking attendant friend shouted to me. “Boy, oh, boy what a ballgame!”
He took five minutes to catch his breath, then gave me one of those stubs so I could get the car when I wanted it.
* * *
The Play Got Little Mention
When I left, he was still babbling about the no-hitter and that final play of the game.
Later on I read the news accounts of the game and I wonder if the announcer and some reliable newsmen saw the same no hitter. For although the newsmen mention a foul ball earlier and a close play in the eighth inning which almost ruined the no-hitter, nothing was said to indicate the final out was anything more than a routine ground ball. One would think that if it was that close, some of' those
reporters would have seen it.
* * *
They All Sound Good
Wilson’s no hitter was a great game all right. But I’ll bet it didn't look as good as it sounded on the air and therein may lie some of Spokane’s troubles.
The fans in Spokane listen to major league broadcasts day after day. And those big league announcers are capable of making a 21-3 fiasco sound good. Pop flies that a one-armed Little Leaguer could take in become beautiful catches, routine ground balls become fielding gems.
No major league outfielder, apparently is clever enough to second guess a hitter and stand around where the ball is going to come down. Almost all fly balls to the outfield are taken off the wall, three steps to the left is a “running catch,” three forward calls for some hysterical cries of “diving catch.”
And the pitches. “Flutterballs, knucklers, sliders," and all manner of weird and wonderful names.
After listening to such beautiful play day after day, I wonder what the Spokane fans must think when they go to Ferris Field and see players field ground balls simply by reaching down and throwing them to first, or see outfielders take in fly balls without running a mile and a half, or strike out trying to hit ordinary curves and fastballs.
* * *
Does He Know About Indians?
And I also wonder if that young parking garage attendant knows Spokane has a minor league team, or if he knew that half the cars in his garage belonged to Western International league bigwigs who were across the street attending that Spokane team’s funeral or if he knew that a Spokane pitcher named Ralph Romero also had pitched a no-hitter a week before.
Maybe that young man just likes any kind of baseball and has bought stock in the corporation there. Maybe he has.
* * *
Pitcher Sought
And general manager Eddie Taylor is looking for a pitcher. Now who is around and available? Well, there’s Don Tisnerat, formerly with Lewiston. His record isn’t so good this year but last season he won 13 and lost 7 for Edmonton with an ERA of 3.38.

Saturday, May 8, 1954

             W  L   Pct  GB
Victoria ... 7  4  .636  -
Yakima ..... 6  4  .600  ½
Edmonton ... 6  4  .600  ½
Vancouver .. 7  5  .583  ½
Salem ...... 7  5  .583  ½
Lewiston ... 5  5  .500  1½
Wenatchee .. 5  5  .500  1½
Spokane .... 5  6  .455  2
Calgary .... 3  7  .300  3½
Tri-City ... 3  9  .250  4½

VANCOUVER [Tri-City Herald, May 9]—The Tri-City Braves, winners of but one of seven games, on the current road trip, move on to Salem today to try their luck, against a team owned by the local citizenry after taking two more shellackings at the hands of the Vancouver Capilanoes.
The only bright spot in the Tri-City picture was Dale Bloom's seven-hit 6-4 win over the Caps Friday.
The high-powered and high-paid Caps blasted the Braves twice Saturday, 8-3 in the first game and 16-4 in the second to give them three wins of four in the series.
Today's game at Salem will be a one-day stand. Monday the Braves return to Sanders Held for the beginning of a three-game series with the Spokane Indians Tuesday night.
In both of the final Vancouver game, the long ball hitters in the Cap lineup blasted Tri-City pitchers off the mound. Bud Guldborg was the first to take the pasting. He pitched the first game of the split doubleheader and had the second batter up, K. Chorlton, hit one out of the park.
A single and an error accounted for the other first inning run but he held them scoreless until the sixth. Even then the Cap bats didn't do as much damage as Guldborg did to himself. He gave up a hit to Nick Pesut, then walked Jim Clark, hit one batter, and walked Dick Greco to bring in one run.
Ken Richardson followed with a triple to clear the sacks and bring in three runs.
Guldborg was left in the game to finish the inning since the damage had already been done. At the end of the inning, he was token out for a pinch-hitter and Earl Lemieux finished the game.
Lemieux ran into trouble after getting two away in the eighth and yielded a double and three singles for two runs. After getting the last batter out, he pitched the final inning and put the Caps down in order.
Tri-City's three runs came in the third when Terry 'Carroll tripled and scored on Bob Moniz' sacrifice fly, In the fourth when two Vancouver errors and a walk allowed Rube Johnson to run around the sacks, and in the eighth when Vic Buccola, Jack Warren and Johnson singled in order. In the second game, the Braves stayed with the Caps until the fifth inning. Prior to that, Tri-City had a 4-2 lead as the result of one run in the first and three in the fourth.
Triples by Moniz and R. Tran figured in both scoring innings.
The Capilanoes had picked up their two in the first on a triple by Jim Clark and a homer by Greco — the two blows seeming to signal what was to come.
When it came, the air was bombarded with baseballs. After another triple by Clark, Chorlton doubled, Williams tripled, and Greco, supposed to be a power-hitter, could get nothing more than a single.
There was some talk of taking Walt Clough off the motrnd about this time but Jess Dobernic, who is substituting for Edo Vanni, and Clough decided the hurler might be able to pull out of the jam.
Clough walked Richardson and then Bob Wellman settled the issue. He hit his fourth homer of the series and cleaned up the sacks. Clough come off the mound for Dale Thomason.
Thomason ended the inning without further damage to Braves prestige but the Cap parade continued in the seventh with nothing for one lone run in the eighth.
Friday's game, though, proved that against good pitching, the Vancouver lineup is just another bunch of boys who can't make triple-A.
Wellman got one of his homers, as well as Greco, but none were aboard at the time, The rest of the team didn't scare young Bloom and he became the second pitcher who has gone the distance this season.
Tri-City beat out its tatoo of hits against the Cap moundsmen and four of them failed to keep the Braves in check. Even Bill Brenner, who pitched the Caps to the
first win today, had his troubles.
- - -
VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, May 10]—Attention general managers in Wenatchee, Salem, Kennewick and Victoria: better get your handymen busy moving back your fences—the Capilanos are coming to town.
Bill Brenner’s Caps begin a two weeks road tour in Wenatchee Tuesday, and on the evidence of their first week-long stand at Cap Stadium they should love the closer fences and lighter air to be found elsewhere around the circuit.
A home run at the big park at 30th and Ontario, ordinarily a pitchers’ paradise, used to be a rare thing. But this 1954 team of musclemen has made baseball’s most spectacular feature a run-of-the-mill occurrence. It’s now news when one of the Caps DOESN’T hit one out of the park.
In nine home games so far this year, Brenner’s boys, with Dick Greco, Bob Wellman and K. Chorlton setting the pace, have hit 11 home runs. Research discloses that the 1953 team hit exactly nine at home LAST SEASON.
In all, just 21 homers were hit in ’53, 12 of ‘em by the opposition. So far, Vancouver’s opponents have two, so you can’t blame all the bombarding on a ball that Brenner says it livelier this tear. It’s just as lively for the opposition.
The Caps hit three over the boundaries Saturday as they took Tri-City Braves apart twice, 8-3 and 13-4, in a split doubleheader to win the series.
Some 3500 people who watched the afternoon-night twin bill saw two close ball games suddenly explode as the Caps broke loose for big innings.
Chorlton got his third homer of the year in the big park in the afternoon game, in which Brenner upped up his six win at the expense of ex-Capilano Bud Guldborg.
George Nicholas gathered his second victory at night with the aid of Wellman’s fourth home run of the year [unreadable] of the season for Greco, who became the first right-handed batter to hit one over the right field wall.
Murderers’ row also tossed in three triples and two doubles as they routed three brave Braves, among them ex-Coast Leaguer Walter Clough and White Sox $40,000 bonus beauty Larry Richardson.
DIAMOND DUST – The Caps’ clouting has helped ease the pain of certain apparent deficiencies in the fielding and pitching departments … The locals made six errors Saturday to go with the four they contributed Friday night … Among the pitchers, only Brenner and Bob Roberts have been able to get anybody out with any regularity … But Tom Lovrich will likely be along from Seattle, eventually, and Brenner has a couple other aces up his sleeve: Bud Beasley, the magnificent clown and very good lefthander, will probably be along when school’s out (he’s a teacher) … And Sandy Robertson, the local boy who once won 10 straight for the Caps while playing only at home, has been working out, and could resume his home games only role … The Caps’ roster was cut to 17 when Ellis Daugherty was returned to Colorado Springs and pitcher Bill Tompkins drew his release … The latter will likely catch on with Calgary … The Caps don’t come home until May 24, when they play Edmonton … Province Stars: Marv Williams, who ended his slump with six hits in eight tries, including a triple that hit the centre field wall on one bounce … K Chorlton, setting his sights on a great year … And veteran Ken Richardson, who picked up five RBI’s to maintain his club lead in that department with 22.
First Game
Tri-City .......... 001 100 010—3 7 1
Vancouver ...... 200 004 20x—7 11 5
Guldborg, Lemieux (7) and Johnson; Brenner and Pesut.
Second Game
Tri-City .......... 100 300 000— 4 9 1
Vancouver ...... 200 064 10x—13 16 1
Clough, Thomason (5), Richardson (6) and Johnson; Nicholas and Duretto.

LEWISTON, Idaho, May 8—The Lewiston Broncs tapped three Calgary pitchers for 14 hits and 11 walks Saturday night for a 14-10 victory over the Stampeders that evened the teams at 1-1 in their four-game series.
Calgary starter Bill Kahler, who gave up six walks and went to the showers before the first inning, was over was charged with the loss.
Bill Whyte followed him at the mound with little better success. The Broncs scored two runs off him in the second, three in the third find two more in the fourth.
Manager Gene Lillard took over the pitching from Whyte in the sixth, with no better luck. He gave up three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Ed Garay led the Lewiston hitting parade with four hits in four times at bat.
Don Hunter started the Calgary scoring with a first inning home run. He tripled in the fourth inning and doubled in the fifth, batting in three runs in all.
Dennis Luby also homered for the Stampeders in the seventh.
Lewiston starter John Marshall was the winner.
Broncs' shortstop Jose Bache, who committed four errors on Friday night, was kept down to one in the Saturday contest.
The two teams wind up their series with a split doubleheader Sunday.
Calgary ....... 100 120 121— 8 10 1
Lewiston ..... 223 200 2x3—14 14 1
Kahler, Whyte (1), Lillard (6) and Luby; Marshall, Derganc (7) and Garay.

YAKIMA, May 8 — The Wenatchee Chiefs raked four Yakima pitchers for 14 hits to score an easy 11-6 win over the Bears at Parker Field Saturday night
Wenatchee ....... 006 003 200—11 14 1
Yakima ............. 000 120 021— 6 9 1
DeCarolis, Oubre (8) and Jenney; Schaening, Carter (5) Elmore (7), Wulf (9) and Ling, Bell (8).

VICTORIA [Jim Tang, Colonist, May 9]—It hardly seems possible that Victoria Tyees could keep up their come-from-behind play any longer but yesterday at Royal Athletic Park they did it in two games as they edged past Salem Senators, 6-5, in both games, needing 11 innings for the second time in four games to get the win in the night game.
The double victory boosted the club to the top of the WIL standings and completed what was undoubtedly the most exciting week of baseball ever played here. The Tyees won six of seven games, five by one run and the other by two, and they had to do it the hard way each time.
THE STORY
On Monday, they opened their first home stand with a 7-5 win over Tri-City Braves, scoring three runs after two were out, the last two on a home run by Joe Joshua, in the eighth inning.
On Tuesday, Milt Martin walked with the bases loaded to force in the winning run in the last of the ninth as the Braves went down again, 9-8.
On Wednesday, they scored four runs in the eighth, three on a two-out homer by Tom Perez, to complete a sweep of the Tri-City series.
On Thursday, they scored three runs after two were out in the eighth to force extra innings and beat Salem Senators in the ninth on Milt Martin’s two-out single.
On Friday, they couldn’t quite make it as the Senators ended their win streak, 11-8, in that near riot.
Yesterday afternoon, they scored four in the eighth, three on Martin’s two-out, bases-loaded double to edge the Senators, 6-5.
And last night, manager Don Pries tied it in the ninth with a two-out single and then singled home the winning run in the 11th.
Just to make it complete, their only other win this season was a 2-1 conquest of the Capilanos at Vancouver, Martin batting in the winning run with two out in the ninth.
Attendance, disappointing all week after opening night, picked up considerably yesterday as about 2,600 fans turned out to see if the Tyees could keep up their sensational play. No one went home disappointed as the Tyees continued to come up with that big hit, defensive play or clutch pitching when it was needed the most.
Much of the credit for yesterday’s double win must go to relief pitchers. When southpaw Bob Moen wasn’t up to the task in the afternoon, Bill Prior came in to stop the Senators while his mates picked up the slack. In the series finale, after starter Hal Flinn had gone out for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, Berlyn Hodges pitched two innings of hitless baseball and Bill Prior blanked the Salem club over the last two innings to get credit for the win.
Defensively, the Tyees keep on making more errors than they should but they always seem to come up with that key play. They made five double plays in the first game yesterday.
PEREZ STARTS IT
No-hitted until one was out in the sixth in the afternoon, the Tyees cut a 4-0 lead in half in the sixth as Tom Perez hit a two-run homer—after two were out, of course. Then Salem starter Johnny Briggs tired and started the eighth with bases on balls to Pries and Perez.
Jack Hemphill came in but walked Lake after Mesner sacrificed. Joseph skies out, Pries scoring, and then Marin banged a health hit off the fence in left-field after Dain Clay had walked to load the bases.
Shortstop Carl Bellotti reached Prior for a two-out home run in the Salem ninth, but it only made it the Tyees’ fifth one-run decision.
It was 5-1 for Salem after five innings last night. Martin hit a home run to start the sixth and Flinn walked and went around on singles by Pries and Perez to make it 5-3.
A walk to Perez and Mesner’s double made it 5-4 in the eighth. In the ninth, after Clay led off with a double and been cut down at the plate on an attempted squeeze play, Pries slammed a solid single to score Armando Sanchez, who had walked while batting for Hodges.
Bottler pitched out of a two-oh, none-out jam in the 10th and the Tyees fumbled a chance in their half before Bottler drew a walk to start the 11th. Both runners were safe as a throw was dropped at first base on Ron Jackson’s ground ball, then Pries lined a single to right-centre and Bottler beat the throw easily.
The Tyees now go on the road until May 20, playing at Yakima, Tri-City and Salem before returning home on May 20 for a four-game series with Vancouver Capilanos.
First Game
Salem ......... 001 030 001—5 8 0
Victoria ....... 000 002 04x—6 6 2
Briggs, Hemphill (3) and Ogden; Moen, Pries (5) and Martin.
Second Game
Salem ......... 003 020 000 00—5 12 1
Victoria ....... 000 012 011 01—6 16 3
Peterson, Borst (10) and Heisner; Flinn, Hodges (8), Bottler (10) and Martin.

SPOKANE, May 8—Ray McNulty gave up eight hits, but scattered them well Saturday night in pitching the Edmonton Eskimos to a 6-3 Western International League baseball victory over Spokane.
Edmonton ....... 200 200 011—6 8 1
Spokane ......... 001 000 110—3 8 1
McNulty and Self; Closs, Lawson (4) and Dean.

Calgary Gets Back In League
Stamps Come Up With Deal
SPOKANE, May 8 — Western International Baseball League directors accepted a new offer from Calgary Saturday and returned the franchise it withdrew from the club a week ago.
The team will operate under the same management as previously, with one addition. Gordon McFarlane, long-time hockey player and coach who also has had experience
with both professional and semi-pro baseball, was hired as general manager. F. C. Lacey is president of the club.
Some directors hinted informally at the recess that Calgary would stay in, and that the schedule for the 10-team league would be played out as originally drawn.
The league has operated the Calgary club after picking up the franchise, but had planned to carry it only through Sunday. There had been talk of dropping the Stampeders and playing out the season as a nine-team league, or moving the franchise somewhere else.
But there were strong indications that Lacey's new proposal was acceptable and that the franchise would be returned to Calgary.
The league picked up the franchise, last week after Manager Gene Lillard reported he had not been given adequate financing to keep the club going during the past week of play.
In the interim, directors talked about giving the franchise to another city to fill out the ten-team league.
Edmonton helped make the return of Calgary's franchise possible by volunteering to reschedule the series it had scheduled at Calgary next Tuesday.
This will give Calgary another five days to prepare its ball park for play. The two teams will meet first at Edmonton on Friday and open another three-hame series at Calgary May 16.
The directors took the occasion Saturday to present Bob Brown, of Vancouver, B. C., the league president last year, a glittering plaque which read:
"In appreciation of the integrity, character, and ability and in recognition of his long and distinguished service to professional baseball, the WIL herewith honors Robert Paul (Bob) Brown."
Directors indicated the meeting would last well into the afternoon.

Braves Shifts Likely After Return Home
[Tri-City Herald, May 9, 1954]
There will be some changes in the roster shortly after the much-beaten Tri-City Braves return to Sanders field Monday for the Tuesday opener against Spokane.
The Braves, already well over the future limit of 17 players, will have three new faces in the lineup.
The latest addition to the roster pitcher Cliff Coggin, formerly with Hollywood in the Pacific Coast league.
Others who will join the club this week are Sam Kanelos, infielder who agreed to terms last week and who is expected to join the club today at Salem, and Charley Davis, shortstop, who played with Vancouver last year but missed spring training this year because of an appendicitis operation.
The addition of the three means the Tri-City roster will be cut radically.
General manager Eddie Taylor currently is trying to option a rookie lefthanded pitcher and an infielder to Idaho Falls in the Class C Pioneer League.
The pitcher is Earl Lemieux. The infielder is Bob Cassidy. Taylor is still trying to find a spot for first baseman Don Estabrook, a Seattle player, who was not formally signed to a contract.
With the rookies sent down, however, it appears some of the other players will be sold or released. Present plans call for Kanelos to play second base, Len Tran continue at third and Terry Carroll to play shortstop untll such time as Davis is ready to play.
This may mean that Ernie Hockaday will shift to his original outfield position and Ray Tran will be used as a utility infielder.
General manager Eddie Taylor has not disclosed any plans but with the addition of new players, some personnel shifts are certain.

Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, Sunday, May 9, 1954]
Tri-City fans, after hearing about the thunderous array of hitters lined up on the Vancouver roster, are beginning to wonder now if release of Dick Greco, and his subsequent move to the Cap roster, was exactly a wise thing.
The reason given was that Greco demanded too high a salary for this club to pay? Just how high a salary did the outfielder ask?
Eddie Taylor, Tri-City general manager, said he did not feel at liberty to disclose the exact amount but he did reveal it was about $200 more than one of the higher paid players on the Tri-City roster. This, in itself, doesn't seem extreme but Taylor also said Greco wanted an agreement whereby he would receive his release at the end of the season.
Such agreements, technically, are taboo but it is a common practice on all clubs.
Anyhow, Greco eventually "bought" his release. The price paid has not been disclosed but there are ways of making pretty good guesses. Had the Tri-City dub agreed to Greco's wage demands, plus the release which had considerable value, his monthly salary figure would have been something like $1,500.
And that is more than this club can possibly afford, and more than any club in the league can afford if they have to pay their way on attendance alone.
But Don't Blame Greco
But leave us not blame Greco for demanding, and apparently getting, as much as he can. A few years from now, when his reactions slow up, his strikeout total climbs, and some of those homers become doubles and singles, no one in Organized Baseball is going to come around, pat him on the back and say "You been a good boy, Dick. Rather than release you we want to put you out to pasture on a soft retirement plan where all you have to do is give speeches at Little League banquets."
He, like all ball players, will be left on his own and quickly forgotten.
The outfit to put the finger on in the Greco deal is the Vancouver club which, aided by Seattle, apparently is so anxious to go Coast League it plans to drag the whole Western International down in the attempt.
Right now we have a situation where Tri-City couldn't afford Greco, Yakima couldn't afford Bob Wellman, Lewiston couldn't afford to keep Ken Richardson and Bill Brenner, yet the Caps can afford all four.
Salary Limits Are Phony
Naturally, this high-paid array brings up a question of how does Vancouver do it and stay within salary limits? The Greco deal is a good example.
On the surface, Greco "bought" his own release. Actually the Vancouver club undoubtedly put up the dough so he could "buy" his release.
Vancouver went the long way around simply because it could not buy Greco and then pay him the wages he wanted and still come under the salary limits.
By having Greco "buy" his release, he could then be signed as a free agent for a bonus. Probably he is playing for a listed "salary", of as little as $100 a month with the bonus making up the difference.
The same is true with Richardson. And this bonus money doesn't count under the salary limit.
Then on Arnie Halgran, on option from Milwaukee, and K. Chorlton and Wellman, on option from Seattle, the parent clubs pay part of the salary. Under the ridiculous rules of the game, the portion of the salary paid by the parent club does not come under the salary limit.
The salary limit itself does not in reality exist. It has long been "sky's the limit," not only Vancouver but a couple of other clubs which would have tough sledding if they had to meet the barrier themselves.
Small Clubs Have Real One
There is a salary limit, a real one, for most of the clubs and it's based on ability to pay. Tri-City, Yakima, Wenatchee, Lewiston and the Stampcders fall in this classification. It wouldn't matter if the league raised the salary limit to $10,000 — these clubs can't afford to lay out any more money than they are doing now.
A club in this league has to draw pretty close to 100,000 paid admissions to break even and few of them will come close to that figure. Moreover, none of the smaller ones have an excess of multi-millionaires, or better yet, breweries to subsidize the losses.
Rainiers Have Ax To Grind
In all this business of Vancouver, one wonders, too, just what the Seattle Rainiers are up to in loading up the Vancouver roster. Besides the hitting array, Seattle is soon expected to shore up Vancouver's only weak spot, pitching, with some more optioned players. True, the Rainiers have a working agreement with Vancouver, and naturally the Caps would have first choice on optioned ballplayers. Maybe it is just straight deals — with Seattle happening to have an excess of top talent to send down.
That may be but some things have a slight smell. For example, about half the players Seattle sends to Vancouver on option aren't going to make the Seattle club this year or ever. They've been up for trial, down for seasoning and if the Rainiers carry them for 40 years, they will still be up for trial and down for seasoning. It doesn't seem logical that those up-and-down boys could still be considered triple-A "prospects."
They are top grade class A players and that's all.
One of the smartest deals Seattle could pull would be to build up and ballyhoo Vancouver into the Coast League. The two cities are close enough together to drum up a rivalry, yet far enough apart they would not compete for each other's fans. It would simplify scheduling and lower transportation costs for the Rainiers should one of the cities such as Sacramento drop out of the PCL or should one of the others go major league.
Vancouver as a Coast League town has been talked about before and it is pretty plain they are going after it. We wish them luck, but let's hope they don't link the WIL in the attempt.

Tuesday, May 4, 1954

             W  L  Pct.  GB
Salem ...... 5  1  .833  —
Spokane .... 3  2  .600  1½
Yakima ..... 4  3  .571  1½
Lewiston ... 3  3  .500  2
Vancouver .. 3  3  .500  2
Wenatchee .. 3  3  .500  2
Edmonton ... 3  3  .500  2
Victoria ... 3  3  .500  2
Tri-City ... 2  5  .288  3½
Calgary .... 1  4  .200  3½

VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, May 5]—People keep telling Bill Brenner that he has a good hitting club this year, and there are times when he believes them. But when Bill’s pitching, his boys act like they’ve been studying the book on “the hitless wonders.”
Brenner said after Tuesday’s game at Capilano Stadium that his crew had promised to get him three runs his next time out. He accepted their offer. That would be a new high for the year.
On Brenner’s first time out they managed one big run and Bill lost, 3-1. Last night they doubled their production, with the help of a Salem error, and got two. Brenner fooled ‘em—he pitched a shutout to earn his first victory of the year, 2-0, and end Salem’s winning streak at five games.
BREAKS, TOO
Brenner, who had trouble with his knuckler in spring training, warned the fans in Lewiston “to have your fun now, because it will be different when the bell rings.” It’s been different. Brenner has looked like the 22-game winner he was last year, especially last night.
He allowed just six hits, never more than one in any inning, walked just two and struck out six. At that, though he needed a break to preserve his shutout, the second straight for the Caps but their first of the WIL season. Bob Roberts blanked Seattle the night before.
Brenner gave up two triples among those six hits. The first, by Gene Tanselli, came in the opening inning. But there were two men out, and Brenner got the next man.
But in the fifth, Salem pitcher Jack Hemphill tripled to deep centre with just one out. He was erased, however, when Jack Bukowatz sent a grounder down to Ken Richardson at third, and that worthy ran Hemphill off the bag, chased him and tagged him out.
THE WINNER
Hemphill did an excellent job for Salem, one that would have won most games. Jim Clark scored what proved to be the winner in the very first frame when he singled, went to second on an infield out, and scored on Richardson’s single.
Richardson scored the insurance run in the fourth when he got a life as Hemphill dropped a fly ball, then singled. He took third on Nick Pesut’s single and scored on a fielder’s choice when catcher Floyd Ogden dropped the ball at home plate.
Salem winds up its stand here tonight after this afternoon’s game at Cap Stadium. Manager Harvey Storey was planning to pitch Jim Briggs today against George Nicholas, with Jim Petersen scheduled to go tonight at 8:15 against Bill Franks.
DIAMOND DUST – Brenner said he had a deal all set to go with Dewey Soriano yesterday morning, but got a call from Seattle later saying to forget it temporarily until he heard from him … Pete Younie, local lefthander, turned up as batting practice pitcher for the Caps … Baz Nagle reported he’ll be going to Calgary to play football for the Stampeders … He’s been traded by the B.C. Lions for Brian Halpern, he said … Province stars: Brenner, whose ball was really jumping … Ken Richardson, for his two hits and stellar play at third … and Hemphill, who deserved a better fate.
- - -
VANCOUVER, May 5—Vancouver Capilanos handed Salem Senators their first loss in six tries Tuesday night when manager Bill Brenner shackled the visitors 2-0 with six hits—never more than one in any inning.
It was Brenner’s first win against one loss. He struck out six and walked two.
Jack Hemphill, Salem’s big right-hander, allowed only six hits also, all in the first four innings. In the last four, he retired the side in order.
Jim Clark scored on Ken Richardson’s single in the first and in the fourth Richardson came in on an error by catcher Floyd Ogden who dropped the ball. Gene Tanselli tripled in the first with two out and died on third. Hemphill tripled in the fifth, but was caught off third.
The loss was the first for Manager Harvey Storey after 14 consecutive wins. Storey had a run of nine consecutive wins as manager of Vancouver to close the 1953 season.
Salem ........... 000 000 000—0 6 2
Vancouver ..... 100 150 00x—2 6 0
Hemphill and Ogden; Brenner and Pesut.

VICTORIA, May 4 — Victoria Tyees made it two in a row over Tri-City Braves here Tuesday night, pitching across a run in the ninth inning to take a 9-8 decision in a Western International Baseball game played before 100 shivering fans.
Never ahead, Braves came close to pulling it out of the fire in the late innings after being held hitless until one was out in the fifth, when they scored their first run on scratch hits, a base on balls and an infield out.
Victoria starter Hal Flinn, however, tired in the late innings and the Braves scored three in the seventh, one in the eighth and three in the ninth to tie it at 8-8.
Tyees rushed in two relief pitchers and managed to leave seven Braves stranded in the last three innings to keep Tri-City from taking the lead.
Dain Clay beat out a bunt to load the bags and Larry Richardson walked Milt Martin on four pitches to force in the winning run.
Eddie Lake rapped out four safeties and drew a walk for a perfect night at the dish for Victoria.
- - -
VICTORIA [Tri-City Herald, May 5]—When the Western International league top brass meets in Spokane Saturday to discuss the fate of the Lillard Stampeders, Tri-City representatives maybe should be strong for keeping them in the league at all casts.
The way things have been running for the Braves lately, the Stamps may be the only team we can beat.
Tri-City dropped its fourth game straight, again to Victoria, 9-8, in a game which featured a walked-in tying run to the benefit of Tri-City and a walked-in winning run to the benefit of Victoria.
Tonight playing manager Edo Vanni will probably start righthander Don Robertson who has won the Braves’ two lonely victories so far this season. The game will be the last against Victoria in the current series.
The linescore from the game Tuesday night reads as if the Tri-City Braves barely failed to overtake the Tyees after a series of rousing rallies in the late innings.
But the Braves received considerable co-operation from outfielder Joe Joshua and second baseman Ron Jackson to stay in the game.
Trailing 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Tri-City scored three times when Joshua let Ted Savarese’ base hit go for extra bases which in turn allowed Des Charouhas to score. Jackson’s boot put Terry Carroll on and both he and Savarese scored on Len Tran's clean single.
A Joshua error put the man on bases which eventually led to Tri-City’s eighth inning run.
But what happened in the ninth shouldn’t go in the record books.
It started with Vic Buccola getting a clean single and Len Tran and Jack Warren walking to first Bob Cassidy became a substitute runner for Warren. Then Rube Johnson rapped out a sharp single to score Tran and Buccola.
Des Charouhas’s sacrifice moved the runners to second and third and Bob Moniz was walked to load the sacks again.
But with one away and the bases loaded. Tri-City managed to score but once again and that was with the run being walked in. Ray Tran filed out to right field — too short for the runner to score from third.
Pinchitter Ernie Hockaday got the game-tying walk but Terry Carroll grounded out to end the inning.
In the bottom half, no team had ever moved no close to victory and found its hopes exploded so soon. Eddie Lake singled and Joshua was safe on relief pitcher Larry Richardson’s error. Dane Klay beat out a bunt to load the bases.
Then catcher Milt Martin walked to force in the winning run.
Tri-City ....... 000 010 313—8 11 3
Victoria ....... 040 110 021—9 13 4
Savarese, Richardson (9) and Johnson; Flinn, Kanshin (8), Hodges (9) and Martin.

LEWISTON, Idaho, May 4 — Strong hitting and alert fielding gave the Edmonton Eskimos a 10-8 Western International League baseball victory over the Lewiston Broncs Tuesday.
Edmonton snuffed out attempted Lewiston rallies, halting three of them with double plays. The Eskimos tapped John Marshall for 10 safe blows including John McKeown's two-run homer in the ninth. Lewiston collected eight hits off John Conant.
Edmonton ........ 100 100 012—5 10 2
Lewiston ......... 000 001 010—2 8 1
Conant and Self; Marshall and Cameron.

WENATCHEE, May 4 — Yakima capitalized on Wenatchee's seven errors and the wildness of a rookie pitcher Tuesday night to win a Western International League baseball game, 9-4.
Ron Berdrow was sent in to relieve Frankie DeCarolis in the eighth after the latter had given up four unearned runs.
Berdrow hit the first man to face him und the next two rapped out safe bunts. Two scored when Berdrow threw the ball away at third. He walked in the next batter and the next was safe on an error. Two more runs came in on Dick Briskey's single.
Yakima ............. 000 020 340—9 12 2
Wenatchee ....... 010 001 101—4 10 7
Edmunds, Wulf (7), Carter (9) and Summers; DeCarolis, Klein (7), Berdrow (8) and Jenney.

Calgary at Spokane, postponed, rain.

WIL Now Considering Butte For Team Site
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [May 4, 1954]
The Western International League, now operating in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and two Canadian provinces, looked tentatively toward Montana Wednesday as the search continued for a place to locate the franchise surrendered last week by Calgary.
The city of Tacoma, a WIL strongpoint until 1951, was rated as the top prospect but league officials showed interest in a report that Butte, Mont., might be entered into a loop. Addition of Butte would mean another long jump for the players but officials indicated they would prefer that to dropping to nine teams.
Lethbridge, Alta., also was listed as a possibility. The Canadian Prairie city would provide a break in the jump to Edmonton, the league’s farthest north entry and its best drawing club last year.
Fate of the dropped franchise will be settled at a meeting of league directors at Spokane Saturday.
They will decide whether to move it another city, suspend it permanently and draw up a nine team schedule, or make the former Calgary team a permanent “road” club.
WIL president Robert B. Abel withdrew the Calgary franchise last week, charging the owners had “abandoned” the team.

So Says Lacey
Stamps Will Stick It Out in Calgary
By TOM HARRIS
[Lethbridge Herald, May 5, 1954]
Any chances, of Lethbridge baseball interests obtaining a franchise in the Western International Baseball League this season were squelched in Calgary last night when Calgary Stampeder president Norman “Bus” Lacey announced that the club will carry on operations at Buffalo Park for the current season.
In a telephone interview with this writer last night, Lacey said that the club had ironed out financial difficulties at home and with the league to such an extent as to insure operation in the league for another season.
When asked under what financial changes had the WIBL reconsidered Calgary interests Lacey said, “Well, we were never really out. It was just one of those unfortunate misunderstandings but everything is settled now and we will definitely
be back in their pitching again this year.”
The league took over the Stampeder franchise when playing manager of the club, Gene Lillard, reported to league president, Robert Abel, that he had received no money whatsoever on which to pay expenses of the club incurred in spring training. Abel immediately demanded Calgary post a bond with the league for $10,000 to ensure their position and when Stamps refused, he ordered them to surrender their franchise.
The league, a regular 10-team setup, tried to locate a suitable place to shift the franchise and Tacoma, Washington, Eugene, Oregon and Lethbridge were all mentioned as possible sites. Lethbridge entered the picture yesterday morning when a group of local businessmen stated their interest in obtaining the franchise.
The Herald contacted Mr. Abel in Tacoma by phone and asked what chance Lethbridge had of gaining entry. “There is every reason to believe that Lethbridge would be an ideal league team,” said the major domo of the wide-spread loop. “It would be just what the doctor ordered in that it would help us eliminate the terrifically long hop from any of the coast or U.S. cities to Edmonton,” he continued, “and from what I hear it would be a hotbed for our Class A calibre of ball.”
However, The Herald contacted Mr. Abel before Lacey announced that Stampeders would continue to operate in Calgary under their original franchise.
A meeting has been called in Spokane Saturday morning to discuss the final details and at that time official recognition of the Calgary re-entry will be made.

>The Sports Herald
KEITH MATTHEWS
[Vancouver News-Herald, May 5, 1954]
The Disaster Was Avoidable
The Western International baseball league, show to be in part as an unstable, teetering company through the Calgary demise, made its own bed last November.
We who had been on the baseball scene long enough to recognize imminent disaster, warned there would be trouble when Bob Brown was denied re-election as president and Bob Abel inserted in his place. Abel ran this league before. The record is there for all to see.
Last January, at an important league meeting in Lewiston, Calgary was not represented. Surely the attendance failure here must have been an indication that all was not well in that prairie station.
Abel’s position at that point was clear. The matter demanded investigation, not by telephone or telegram, but by personal appearance.
He would have leaned then what he found out last week—all too late to correct. The park situation there is an incredibly complex deal wherein a brewery owns the property, rents to a second party and the latter sub-lets to the baseball club.
The Time Has Long Passed
Appreciate, for the moment, the ridiculousness of such an agreement. The ball club recognizes a need for park improvements and appeals to its landlord, who is but a middle man. The latter passes on the request to the brewery. It is filed for future reference. And so is forgotten.
Abel would have learned at the time that ear year Calgary paid $26,000 for purchase of players. Purchases which would have been cut in half had the buying agent possessed the understanding of the material value.
Abel would have learned, just as we have come to believe, that Calgary never had any intention of playing a full baseball season in 1954. By baseball law, the franchise had a $1150 guarantee filed in National Association president George Trautman’s office. That money has footed spring training and opening season expenses for the Stampeders. Now that it has been used, no more is forthcoming. Calgary is out.
Abel has condemned Bus Lacey, the general manager there, unmercifully for his actions, or lack of them, in allowing the franchise to slip into a state of bankruptcy. There is, in fact, a telegram in circulation, signed by Abel, which says that Lacey will never again be allowed within the hallowed precincts of Organized Baseball.
In his attempt to lay the blame in an obvious lap, Abel has been effectively oratorical. The president could have for gone his power with the adjective and the flowing gesture. He could have corrected this unsavory situation last January in a choice of two paths.
New Feuds Will Be Discovered
Tacoma wanted back into professional baseball then, just as they appear to now. A franchise shift at that time would have made good copy, would have allowed the schedule makers to entertain the lone prairie outpost, without last second juggling. And Tacoma would have had the time to herald its baseball resurrection with a team of its own choosing.
That, obviously, was the easiest solution.
The other was not as smooth, but the possibility remained. When Lacey failed to attend the Lewiston meeting, he confessed without words that he neither had the time nor the patience for baseball. Someone else, with the interest of the game and the initiative to promote it, might have overcome the financial ills and put the franchise in a state to ensure its continuation in the league for the entire season. If that proved impossible, the league at least would have addressed at the right time that a new site had become imperative.
Saturday’s meeting, unfortunately, will prove nothing but new feuds. Lacey is sore at Abel and the vice is versa. A fight promoter should have such a natural.

Monday, May 3, 1954

               W  L  Pct. GB
Salem ........ 5  0 1.000  —
Lewiston ..... 3  2  .600  2
Spokane ...... 3  2  .600  2
Wenatchee .... 3  2  .600  2
Yakima ....... 3  3  .500  2½
Vancouver .... 2  3  .400  3
Edmonton ..... 2  3  .400  3
Victoria ..... 2  3  .400  3
Tri-City ..... 2  4  .333  3½
Calgary ...... 1  4  .200  4

Eighth-Inning Smash by Joshua Gives Tyees 7-5 Win in Opener
BY JIM TANG
[Victoria Colonist, May 4, 1954]
Vancouver Capilanos certainly didn’t do it on purpose but when they decided they didn’t need Joe Joshua this season, they gave the Victoria Tyees quite a boost.
The Tyees won their first game of the young WIL season last Friday, 2-1, and it was the colored outfielder’s home run blast off manager Bill Brenner, the man who decided where he was to play this season, which provided the all important first run.
LINE-DRIVE CLOUT
Last night at Royal Athletic Park, playing before 1,800 fans in their home opener, the Tyees won their second victory in five games. And it was Joshua’s second home run, a tremendous line-drive clout over the centre field fence with Steve Mesner on base, which provided the winning runs in a 7-5 triumph over the Tri-City Braves.
With the weatherman co-operating by coming up with milder temperatures, the turnout was on the disappointing side but the Tyees proved to the fans on hand that they have a ball club which can explode for runs at any time and which may make up for a pitching deficiency with solid hitting.
FINE DEFENSIVE PLAY
Last night the Tyees were in trouble every inning and pitcher Bob Drilling just managed to hold out as he gave up 14 hits and put three men on with bases on balls. But Drilling, backed by some fine defensive play when it counted the most, was tough enough in the clutch to leave 12 men stranded and gain his first win.
Meanwhile, the Tyees picked up their runs in sudden blasts, scoring six of them after two were out. In the second inning, they took a 2-1 lead when Dain Clay singled in a run after two were out and Milt Martin followed with a rousing double which just failed to clear the fence in right centre field.
LAKE HOMERS
Tyees made it 4-2 in the third inning when Steve Mesner got the second of three singles after two had gone out and Eddie Lake followed with the first home run of the season at Athletic Park. Lake’s blow was a king one which cleared the fence in left field just at the foul pole and brought protests from Tri-City manager Edo Vanni.
Then after the Braves had gone ahead 5-4 with a single run in the fourth and two in the fifth, the Tyees erupted for three runs and the decision in the eighth [sic]. Manager Don Pries flew out to open the inning but Tom Perez followed with a smashing triple to the left field wall. Mesner poked one through the middle to tie it up and after Lake took a called third strike, Joshua got ahold of a low pitch and whales it right across Pembroke Street.
GOOD CATCHES
A little on the shaky side defensively in the early innings, the Tyees steadied down and backed up their explosive hitting with some fine play in the field. In the eighth inning, both Perez and Dain Clay made good catches in the outfield with two men on and Clay ended the game with a fine running catch of a slicing liner by pinch-hitter Ernie Hockaday with a runner on the bags.
Pre-game ceremonies were brief—and accompanied by the usual trouble with the public address system. Club president Arthur Cox, speaking form the press box when the field microphone refused to work, introduced league president Bob Abel, who gave an optimistic little talk. Master-of-ceremonies Ted Reynolds introduced the players and a battery from last season’s Little League champions, pitcher Jackie Gaston and catcher Tom Birkenhead of North Kiwanis preceeded to strike out Pries. The Victoria manager, incidentallly, never quite recovered and was the only Tyee to go hitless.
Second game of the series will be played tonight. Hal Flinn, the gangling righthander who stopped Vancouver cold with a neat five-hitter Friday, will try for his second win for the Tyees. Vanni wasn’t certain of his starting choice but opined it would likely be Don Robertson, a 14-9 performer with the Braves last season.
- - -
VICTORIA [Tri-City Herald, May 4] The Tri-City Braves, losers of three league games in a row now, play the Victoria Tyees in the second game of the three-game series at Victoria tonight with lefty Ted Savarese as playing manager Edo Vanni's likely choice for a starter.
The Braves dropped the opener with Victoria 7-5 Monday night when the Tyees scored the tying run on Tom Perez's triple followed by Steven Mesner's single.
A homer by Joe Joshua followed and iced the game.
Dale Thomason who started the game, got Dane Klay [sic] out to end the inning but the damage had been done. In the eighth and ninth, Tri-City had runners on base but in both innings, Klay saved the game for pitcher Bob Drilling by snagging Tri-City blows off the right-field wall.
Larry Richardson, batted and struck out for Thomason in the eighth and Jess Dobernic pitched the bottom half. The veteran Jess, who almost blew one in relief in his first appearance this season, set the Tyee batters down one, two, three which raised hopes for Tri-City fans that he would save more games in relief this season.
Left on bases and the lack of extra-base hits cost Tri-City. One double by Len Tran, the Braves only extra-base hit of the game, drove in the two fifth inning runs, Len had a hot night at the plate getting four hits in five times up Terry Carroll hit four for five—all singles—and scored once.
The Braves outhit the Tyees 14-11 but besides Joshua's homer, Victoria racked up another when Eddie Lake hit one with one aboard in the third.
The worrisome double play combination clicked twice in two attempts in the game Monday night — once in the second inning and again in the sixth willi both plays going from Ray Tran to Terry Carroll to Vic Buccola. One other double play went from Boh Moniz to Buccola when a runner was caught off base after a fly ball.
The Braves committed two errors but neither figured in the scoring.
Tri-City ..... 101 120 000—5 14 2
Victoria ..... 022 000 30x—7 11 1
Thomason, Dobernic (8) and Johnson; Drilling and Martin.

WENATCHEE, May 3—The Wenatchee Chiefs bunched three of their seven hits in the sixth inning Monday night to get two runs and a 2-0 decision over the Yakima Bears in Western International League play.
Yakima .......... 000 000 000—0 9 1
Wenatchee .... 000 002 00x—2 7 1
Schaening, Carmichael (7) and Summers; Thompson and Jenney.

VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, May 4]—If ever a Coast League ball club gets into a tight spot where it has to beat Seattle, it could do worse than send out a rush call for Vancouver Capilano Bob Roberts.
The chunky righthander just seems to beat the Suds for a pastime. Last ear he went out against Bill Sweeney’s crew and stopped ‘em, 3-2, on three hits.
Monday he took a second run at the club that’s now managed by Jerry Priddy. All he did was shut out the Coast Leaguers on five singles as his mates went to work on a couple of ex-Caps, Pete Hernandez and Lonnie Myers, for six big runs and a 6-0 victory.
The 2349 paid customers who came out to see some “open classiciation” clouting from those such as Al Zarilla, Leo Thomas, Artie Wilson and Clary Maddern stayed on to cheer Roberts, who didn’t allow more than one hit until the ninth.
That was the closest the visitors came to scoring when, with the aid of an error, they filled the bases with two out. But Roberts got Ray Orteig, another Seattle big gun, on a fielder’s choice to end the ball game.
For four innings, it was a 0-0 ball game, the Caps finally breaking through in the fifth for the first run on Nick Pesut’s single, an intentional walk to Ellis Daugherty, and Roberts’ single.
HE HITS, TOO
Yes, Roberts had it at the plate, too. His single in the sixth climaxed a large inning that produced five runs and sewed up the ball game. A dropped pop fly by Nanny Fernandez at third base helped a lot on that uprising.
Priddy, who came close to being a relief pitcher with Detroit last year, and who’s registered with the Coast League bosses as eligible to pitch, worked the last inning and got the side out in order.
DIAMOND DUST – General Manager Bill Brenner of the Caps was closeted with his Seattle counterpart, Dewey Soriano, for some time fate the game, but they couldn’t come to an agreement on player help … The Caps want Bob Wellman, but Seattle wants the key to the bank for him … The same goes for pitcher Pete Hernandez … Dewey and Co. are having the same trouble at Seattle that Soriano had here last year: no hitting … “Don’t know what it is about me and hitters,” said Dewey. “Guess I must have been throwing that good curve.” … The Rainiers, whose home attendance is up over last year despite their woes, are also beset with injuries.
Harvey Storey, last year’s Cap boss, arrived in time to catch the last few innings and scout the Caps … his Salem team, which meets the Caps tonight at 8:15, comes to town with five wins and no losses … Storey will throw Jack Hemphill tonight, with Bill Brenner opposing him … Brenner is trying something Wednesday—an afternoon game … It goes at 2:30, with a game at 8:15 … Tri-City Braves come to town Thursday to finish out the week … Bob Brown is back from Calgary where, he says, the field is in such horrible condition they probably would not be able to play on it until June, anyway … Seems they flooded the field this winter and used it as a skating rink, no less, and the ice is still on it.
Seattle ......... 000 000 000—0 5 1
Vancouver .... 000 015 00x—6 7 2
Hernandez, Myers (6), Priddy (8) and Erautt; Roberts and Pesut, Duretto (6).

Only games scheduled

CALGARY REPLACEMENT IN WIL?
Tacoma May Get Franchise
By Canadian Press
[May 3, 1954]
The sprawling Western International League, faced with the problem of disposing of an “orphan” franchise, was told today it must find an answer in the next four days or reschedule and operate as a nine-team circuit.
President Robert B. Abel, who ordered surrender of the Calgary franchise last week, said unless a new owner is found by May 6 the “Calgary team will be disbanded on May 7 the league will have nine teams.”
Groups at Tacoma, Wash., which fielded a WIL team until three years ago, and Eugene, Ore., were reported interested in the franchise. The Pierce County Baseball Association scheduled a meeting at Tacoma today to discuss the possibility of rejoining the league.
It is understood that Calgary officials will demand an early league meeting so the whole situation can be discussed. Stampeders have a lot of money invested in players and naturally want to find out where they stand.
A meeting of Calgary baseball men likely will have held in the neat future to discuss the many problems arising out of the league’s action.
The possibility that Calgary might have to drop out of the 10-team league was first indicated more than a month ago when [manager Gene] Lillard reported from the California camp that no finances had been forthcoming to conduct the camp.

WIL Leaders Will Discuss Calgary Drop
VICTORIA, May 3 — The board of directors of the Western International Baseball League will meet in Spokane Saturday to discuss the dropping out of the Calgary Stampeders.
WIL President Robert Abel said here Monday night he called the session, to discuss just how to meet the situation created by Calgary dropping its franchise.
He said Calgary will continue playing until Sunday. The Saturday meeting must come to a decision on what follows.
There were several solutions to be considered. One would be to make Calgary a "road team," which would play no home games and where there is a regularly-scheduled game for Calgary it would be played at the home of the team that would have played there.
A nine - team league might be tried for the first half of the schedule, Abel said.
The 16 or 17 players on the Calgary team would become the responsibility of the league if the franchise is dropped. Abel said he hoped to sell the players to Tacoma.
Abel said he knew some of the Calgary players were option players but could not say who held the options. Calgary has no hookup with a major league team.
Abel left for home after the Victoria-Tri-City game here.

Tacoma May Return To Baseball Loop
TACOMA, Wash., May 3 — Efforts to arrange a meeting here to explore possibilities of Tacoma re-entering Western International League baseball were delayed Moaday pending word from Ben Cheney.
Cheney, Tacoma lumberman and owner of Cheney Field, is considered a key figure in the negotiations. He is on vacation in Mexico. Clay Huntingdon, president of the Pierce County Baseball Association, is trying to locate him.
Robert B. Abel, president of the WIL, said that Tacoma interests would be given a "reasonable" time to make a decision.

Possibility Lethbridge Will Take Over Vacant WIBL Franchise
[Lethbridge Herald, May 4, 1954]
The Herald learned today in an interview with Western International League baseball officials that the loop would welcome a Lethbridge entry with open arms.
At present the league has taken over the Calgary Stampeders' franchise and is trying to find a home for it in Alberta preferably to help eliminate the long jaunt to Edmonton without any stopovers.
Lethbridge would be by no means the smallest city in the wide-spread pro loop. Lewiston, one of the front runners every season, has a population of only 15,000 and relies chiefly on district points for support. They get good support, too, as they are always near the top in attendance marks at the end of the season.
No bond would have to be posted with the league in good faith but if accepted Lethbridge would then take over the defunct Calgary franchise, including the players.
The Exhibition Grounds grandstand, which has housed semi-pro two-day ball tournaments for the past few summers would be the perfect home field for the club. With a permanent seating capacity of 5,000 and room for more temporary stands it ranks with most stadiums in the league, if not the west.
WIBL officials estimate that a club would have to average 2,000 a game to break even, but for Lethbridge, a hotbed for good baseball, that wouldn't be difficult with a terrific district population to draw on.
Calgary lost an estimated $45,000 in their first year of operation last year but mainly because of poor weather and poor organization within the club. The bandbox theyy used for a stadium discouraged fans when high pop fly balls turned into home runs.
Lethbridge definitely has a weather record much superior to that of the Stampede City and with excellent paved highways to the east, west and south could make good use of the district population.
The WIBL is presently trying to interest Tacoma in the Calgary franchise but that wouldn't eliminate the terrifically long hop from Vancouver to Spokane to Edmonton, the only Alberta team in the loop now.
Southern Alberta baseball fans have proven in the past that they would certainly support good baseball. A record crowd of some 6,000 fans took in the first annual International Baseball Tournament sponsored by the local Rotary Club here a few years ago and since then have averaged close to 4,500 or more in subsequent tourneys.
Upon receiving the above information league officials were very much impressed and stressed should a group in Lethbridge be interested there is an excellent chance they would receive first consideration. All teams have pledged to pitch in and help in regards to strengthening the team which is just a little short of player material now.
Anyone interested in following this strong possibility up should wire president of the league Bob Abel at the Spokane Hotel stating their intentions at to the available franchise.

Sports Notes
By GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, May 4, 1954]
Robertson Is The Lucky Man
You can mark it down to luck if you like. But when it comes to luck, the boy who takes top honors in the Tri-Cities is Braves' pitcher Don Robertson.
What a deal. Deacon Clough works himself to a frazzle pitching eight good innings of baseball. Jack Warren blasts out a homer. Des Charouhas is hit by a pitched ball in a somewhat undignified part of his anatomy, and Robertson, who pitched a measly 1 2-3 innings, walks off with the win.
When that game-winning run was "driven" across the plate, it marked the most undramatlc climax to a dramatic game in Sanders field history. There were no cheers, ohs or hoorays.
While Des lay on the ground rubbing his sore sealer, the fans, players and officials jumped up and walked out of the park with a well-it's-over air about the whole thing.
Des Has A Complaint
In the dressing room, Des, who began to see the humor of the situation, was a little at loss to explain how Edmonton pitcher Ray McNulty managed to hit him where he did when there were broader beams on the Tri-City roster.
"Look at Rube Johnson there, and Bob McGuire," Charouhas said naming a couple that could have provided McNulty with a larger target.
And naturally, that old baseball cartoon was recalled which depicts a manager telling a not-so-bright pinchhitter:
"Jones this is what I've been saving you for. The score is tied, the bases are loaded, there are two away, and it's the bottom of the last inning. Now go in there and get hit by a pitch."
Abel Wanted $70,000 Guarantee
Bus Lacey, president of the defunct Calgary Stampeders, threw in the towel in a hurry when league president Bob Abel demanded that Calgary put up $10,000 or forfeit its franchise.
In his telegram to Abel, Lacey thundered Abel's demands were "unreasonable and arbitrary" but there seemed to be a note of eagerness about getting out of the league.
Throughout the telegram, though, Lacey reflected the situation at Calgary which should go down in history as the sorriest excuse for a baseball town in North America.
"Your unreasonable demands on the Calgary club of additional guarantee of $10,000 by May 3 is refused as no other club in the league is asked to make this deposit," the telegram said. Yeah, and no other club in the league failed to send its players salaries and meal money.
"At the Yakima meeting of the league, clubs stated they would help Calgary in player personnel. Two clubs out of nine have offered players." the telegram went on. (Tri-City may be one of the clubs.) It offered some players and probably would have sent more but none wanted to play for a club that doesn't even give a hang whether players get paid.
Lacey's telegram went on to say they were experiencing cold weather plus four inches of ice and snow which would have forced the postponement of the opener anyway and "no adjustment of any kind has been offered by the league in this "catastrophe."
The telegram didn't recommend any "adjustment" but perhaps the league was expected to hire a band of snow-shovelers to remove the ice from Buffalo stadium.
The telegram said the league guarantee will take care of the player's salaries through May 1 and "If the league realizes any money from the sale of players, that money to be turned in to President Trautman's office to meet any Calgary Incidental bills."
* * *
City Long Indifferent
The sad truth is the whole Calgary situation has long angered all the members of the league. All winter long, league members, general managers, and even the top office had tried to find out what was going on at Calgary.
Mail, telegrams, and even telephone calls didn't even receive the courtesy of an answer.
The city itself was so indifferent to the club, that the newspapers there seldom reported anything about the Stamp's activities and the best place to find out what was going on at Calgary was to read the Edmonton Journal.
Worst of all was the city's treatment of Gene Llllard, the Calgary playing manager. He took the job with high hopes only to find that as a ball club, he alone represented everything that went into its makeup. Fact is, as long at the league carries the franchise, maybe we should refer to the team as the Lillards and blot the name of the Canadian prairie city off the record.
That city's misleading assertions and ill failure to even attempt delivering, has cost the league heavily, put its city Edmonton in an embarrassing and precarious situation, and has given its manager the run around.
The WIL is better off by being rid of it.

Sunday, May 2, 1954

               W  L  Pct. GB
Salem ........ 5  0 1.000  —
Lewiston ..... 3  2  .600  2
Yakima ....... 3  2  .600  2
Spokane ...... 3  2  .600  2
Wenatchee .... 2  2  .500  2½
Tri-City ..... 2  3  .400  3
Vancouver .... 2  3  .400  3
Edmonton ..... 2  3  .400  3
Victoria ..... 1  3  .250  4½
Calgary ...... 1  4  .200  4

SALEM, May 2 — Salem had to go into overtime twice to defeat Calgary in a Western International League baseball doubleheader here Sunday.
Salem won 5-4 in the 11th inning of the first game. The nightcap, which Salem won 4-3, ran eight innings.
First Game
Calgary ..... 000 000 004 00—4 11 1
Salem ....... 000 000 112 01—5 11 2
Stites, Lillard (7), Owens (11) and Luby; Domenichelli, McFarlane (9), Hemphill (9), Borst (10) and Ogden.
Second Game
Calgary ..... 000 002 10—3 5 0
Salem ....... 000 002 11—4 6 1
Schulte and Lundberg; Johnson, McFarlane (7) and Heisner.

LEWISTON, May 2—The Lewiston Broncs took advantage of some wild pitching that never quite settled down in defeating the Spokane Indians in the second game of their Western International League doubleheader here Sunday. The Indians took the afternoon game 9-7.
The Broncs scored eight big runs in the first inning on only three hits. Starting pitcher Charlie Closs walked seven Lewiston men.
For the second day in a row, Lewiston manager Larry Barton proved to be injury prone. He dislocated his thumb and had to be replaced at first base by Bob Williams. On Saturday, he was nicked on the ankle by a pitch from Chuck Schildmeyer.
First Game
Spokane ..... 010 000 350—9 13 2
Lewiston .... 100 200 220—7 11 2
Wisneski, Aubertin (7), Schildmeyer (8) Lawson (8) and Sack; Kime, Kinsey (8) and Cameron.
Second Game
Spokane ..... 001 203 020— 8 10 5
Lewiston .... 813 300 00x—15 11 4
Closs, Aubertin (1), Lawson (4) and Dean; Martin and Garay.

WENATCHEE, Wash., May 2 — Wenatchee opened its Western International League home stand on a winning note Sunday, taking both ends of a day-night doubleheader from the Victoria Tyees, 6-5 and 6-1.
The afternoon game had a paid attendance of 1,713, but the night crowd was a slim 900. League president Robert Abel was on hand to throw out the first ball in the opener.
Charley Oubre pitched and batted the Chiefs to victory in the nightcap, holding the Tyees to three hits and driving in three runs with a bases-loaded triple in Wenatchee's big six-run fourth inning explosion.
Victoria's only run was a homer by Milt Martin in the fifth.
First Game
Victoria .......... 000 104 000—5 9 1
Wenatchee ..... 300 020 02x—6 6 0
Prior and Martin; Bowman and Kellumrose.
Second Game
Victoria .......... 000 010 000—1 3 0
Wenatchee ..... 000 600 00x—6 8 1
Hodges, Kanshin (4), Moen (7) and Martin; Oubre and Jenney.

KENNEWICK, Wash., May 2 — Edmonton's Eskimos shut out the Tri-City Braves through 15 straight innings Sunday to take both ends of their Western International League twin bill, 6-0 and 6-1. The sweep gave the Canadians the series, 2-1.
In the first game, Larry Richardson, young southpaw optioned to Tri-City by the Chicaho White Sox, continued his spectacular pinch-hitting record into the regular season after hitting safety four times in a row during exhibitions.
He pinch-singled off Edmonton starter Jack Widmer, after tripling in the pinch on Saturday night off Calgary's Joe Orrell.
Last season, Richardson batted .378 in 18 games with Topeka in the Western Association and .306 in 32 games with Madisonville in the Kitty League.
- - -
KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, May 3]—The beaten Braves and their battered playing manager an traveling by auto to Victoria today for the opening of a three-game series there with the beginning tonight.
Tri-City, which dropped a doubleheader to Edmonton 6-0, 6-1 Sunday, will then play Vancouver before returning home May 10 for a series with Spokane.
Shortitop Charley Davis is expected to join them here for the Spokane series.
In Sunday's action, 1,655 fans turned out in the sunshine for five
hours of baseball which saw Tri-City's hopes keep pace with the rapidly greying sky. Edmonton's Jack Widner shut them out on our hits in the nine-inning opener and Larry Manier held them scoreless for six more innings before Tri-City pushed one scroungy run across in the last of the seventh.
Edmonton playing manager Bob Sturgeon was taking no chances. He quickly ended any rally hopes the Braves might have by sending in John Conant, generally conceded to be the league's best pitcher, who quickly put down the next three batters to end the game.
The Braves got eight hits in that second game but left an appalling 11 men on base. Not one Tri-City blow went for extra bases.
Added to the dismal outlook was an injury to playing manager Edo Vanni who was taken to the hospital by ambulance. He returned before the game ended and was not then believed seriously hurt.
Vanni's injury came in the first inning of the second game when it was caught in a rundown between second and third and tagged out by Manier.
In attempting to block Manier, and thereby permit the runner on first to go down to second, Manier's knee hit Vanni in the small of the back.
The blow paralyzed the playing manager from the waist down and he fell unconscious on the field.
Vanni said afterward he did not come to until he was being lifted to the ambulance by some of the players.
He was in rough shape after the game and almost unable to walk.
"But don't say anything to Eddie Taylor," Vanni said. "He will want me to stay in the hospital."
No one apparently said anything to the general manager because Vanni left with the team Sunday night. He will be out of the line-up for some time.
Tri-City fans, who watched starteer Dale Bloom and Bud Guldborg pounded off the mound, could at least take satisfaction in the relief performance. In the first game Larry Richardson pitched one inning and in the second he pitched 2 2-3 innings without giving up a hit.
Rookie Earl Lemieux pitched a 1-3 innings in the first game and yielded but one hit and no runs.
Even Bloom had a better won than the scoring indicated. Two of the runs came across the plate after an error was made on close play at first.
Two of Guldborg's runs were unearned, too, but they were the result of two successive errors of the pitcher himself.
First Game
Edmonton ..... 030 102 000—6 8 0
Tri-City ........ 000 000 000—0 4 3
Widner and Self; Guldborg, Lemieux (6), Richardson (9) and Johnson.
Second Game
Edmonton ..... 014 010 0— 6 5 0
Tri-City ........ 000 000 1— 1 8 1
Manier, Conant (9) and Self; Bloom, Richardson (5) and Warren.

YAKIMA, May 2—Yakima and Vancouver divided a Western International League baseball doubleheader Sunday, Yakima winning the nightcap 6-5 after dropping the afternoon game 12-5.
Yakima pulled the night game out of the fire with a four-run rally in the ninth, sparked by Danny Rios' pinch-hit double with the bases loaded. Ernie Sites' single plated the clincher.
The Bears were helped by two errors by Arnie Hallgren in left field.
Len Noren singled home the other two Yakima runs.
Dick Greco drove in all five runs for Vancouver with two homers, a single and an infield out.
Greco also homered in the opener, but Ken Richardson had the big bat for the Caps, bringing home five runs with a triple and two singles. Hallgren batted in three, with a single, a double and a triple, while Jim Clark chipped in another pair with three singles. The Caps had 16 hits in all, allowing Tom Del Sarto to coast to an easy win.
Dick Briskey, Len Noren and Preston Gomez homered in a losing cause. All three had solo shots, while Noren accounted for the remaining two Yakima runs with a single.
First Game
Vancouver ....... 012 012 231—12 16 1
Yakima ............ 210 010 100— 5 8 2
Del Sarto and Duretto; Carter, Machado (6) and Summers.
Second Game
Vancouver ....... 101 001 020—5 9 3
Yakima ............ 002 000 004—6 10 0
MacKay, Franks (9) and Pesut; Young and Summers.

Calgary Team Set to Disband
TACOMA, May 2 — The Calgary baseball team will be disbanded next Friday if its Western International League franchise, surrendered to the league last week, is not shifted to a new owner by Thursday, WIL president Robert C. Abel said Sunday night.
Abel said the Calgary players as a team will go to Spokane Monday and play the scheduled series Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
"If there is no new owner by Thursday," he said, "the team will be broken up and on May 7 the league will have nine teams."
Abel said a Tacoma group had expressed interest in acquiring the franchise but there was no indication Sunday night whether it would be moved there.
Earlier there were reports Eugene, Ore., also might take over the team but Abel said he has "nothing from Eugene that could justify the statement that anything worthwhile was developing."
The WIL president said it was "too early to tell" how Calgary's withdrawl would affect Edmonton. The Edmonton clubs is in the far northeast of the loop.

Bottler To Tyees
PORTLAND, May 3—The Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League Sunday optioned pitcher Bill Bottler to Victoria of the Western International League.
The Beavers, shaving their roster to 22 players, also handed unconditional releases to infielder Don Kolloway and first baseman-outfielder Herm Reich, and placed pitcher Larry Ward on the inactive list.