Capilanos Out Front With 17-0 Verdict
By CLANCY LORANGER
[Vancouver Province, Sept. 9, 1954]
Bill Brenner and Harvey Storey are pretty good friends, but you can hardly blame Harvey if he thinks the Capilano general manager is stretching their friendship a little.Storey was manager of the Capilanos in April, 1953, when Brenner brought the Lewiston Broncs to town to open the season. We’ll not dwell on that horrible night, but the Caps were terrible, Lewiston looked great, and Brenner and Co. beat Storey and Co. 10-0.
Wednesday night at Capilano Stadium, it was the Caps [unreadable few words] this time in the opening game of the WIL’s best-of-seven championship series. Caps had won the first half title, Lewiston the second.
Brenner, of course, is now with the Caps, and Storey is playing third base for Lewiston. But once again Harvey picked the wrong horse, or ball club. And the Caps rubbed it in real good as the did nothing wrong and the Broncs did nothing right—they made five errors on the slippery stadium turf—as the locals won by a lopsided 17-0 score.
POOR OL’ JAWN
Dewey Soriano, who was a brand new general manager when the Broncs spoiled last season’s debt, would have loved every minute of it as the Caps teed off on nemesis John Marshall in the first inning. John never did get a man out, giving up eight runs before bowing out in favor of Leland Smith in that first frame. Seven hits, a walk, and three Lewiston errors did the damage.
Smith had better success, but not much, as Vancouver wound up with 19 hits, including four doubles.
Meanwhile, Pete Hernandez was pitching his best game since his first-half pennant clincher last July. Pete gave up just six singles, didn’t walk a man, struck out eight and allowed only one Lewiston players to get as far as second base.
NICHOLAS WORKS
The teams repeat tonight, with George Nicholas down to oppose Joe Orrell. Game time is 8:15.
DIAMOND DUST—K. Chorlton led the Caps` assault as four locals got three hits … Bill Franks has been repurchased from Salem and will help the shorthanded Cap pitching staff in the playoffs … Advance ticket sales in Lewiston are reported as very good, but Vancouver fans, as usual, stayed away in large numbers … There were less than 500 paid.
Lewiston ....... 000 000 000— 0 6 5
Vancouver ..... 002 032 20x—17 19 0
Marshall, Smith (6) and Garay, Cameron (6); Hernandez and Pesut.
Our Caps Break Poor Old Broncs
Hernandez Wins Ball Game As Mates Jump On Lewiston
By SKIP RUSK
[Vancouver Sun, Sept. 9, 1954]
Vancouver Capilanos, seemingly in a state of suspended animation during the second half of the Western International Baseball League season, came bouncing back to life Wednesday night at Cap Stadium, greeting Lewiston Broncs with their best Sunday punch.
And when the bell for the first round of this best-of-seven championship ended, Bill Brenner’s boys had scored a unanimous decision. They had, to the delight of 500 or so fans, destroyed Larry Barton’s and his second-half winners, 17-0.
Tonight at 8:15, George Nicholas (16-11) will be trying for Vancouver’s second straight playoff win while Smokey Joe Orell [sic], who has won seven straight for the Broncs, will be trying to get Lewiston back on even terms.
JOHN DISAPPEARS
Last night Lewiston starter big John Marshall, who, besides being a bartender in the off season, is also an amateur magician. John seemed to prefer the latter job last night because he disappeared after facing the first eight Caps.
His successor as a young fellow named Leland Smith, who Lewiston recalled this season from Pocatello of the Pioneer League. After 30 minutes of interesting baseball the first inning was finally over.
Caps had scored eight runs on seven hits, including Nick Pesut’s double, and three glaring Lewiston errors.
Oh well, there were only eight more innings to go and Caps made extremely good use of them. All told, Vancouver scored nine more runs on 12 hits, including doubles by K Chorlton, Ken Richardson and Jim Clark, and the Broncs only made two more miscues.
PETE WAS SHARP
Pete Hernandez was at his very best in pitching his ninth win this season. He allowed but two hits and only one Lewiston batter reached second base. Don Hunter, who singled in the ninth inning, discovered that rather elusive sack for the Broncs when Hernandez threw one into the dirt at the next man up, manager Larry Barton.
LINE DRIVES – Second baseman Marv Williams and manager Bill Brenner were honored last night. Marv was presented with the Most Popular Player Award while Bill received the Most Valuable Player award … for that, Brenner gets a new suit … Al Yaylin [sic], old father time, pitches for the Caps … nicest catch of the night was made by Vancouver’s Neil Sheridan who went up against the wall to haul down Al Heist’s drive in the third inning … Chorlton, Williams, Richardson and Jim Clark picked up 13 of the Caps’ 19 hits.
Caps Trot Out Big Hitters
Broncs Downed In Playoff Opener, 17-0
Bu JIM GILMOUR
[Vancouver News-Herald, Sept. 9, 1954]
Battering veteran John Marshall out of the game with a murderous eight-run first inning, Vancouver Capilanos went on to flatten Lewiston Broncs 17-0 in the first game of a Western International League championship playoff at Capilano Stadium.
The Caps, first half champions, battered Marshall and reliefer Leland Smith for 15 singles and four doubles while Pete Hernandez mesmerized the second half champs with six scattered hits.
Second game of the best-of-seven series goes tonight at Capilano Stadium with George Nicholas (16-11) seeking a 2-0 lead for the Caps, and Larry Barton countering with veteran Joe Orrell, who has won eight straight for Lewiston since joining them in mid-season from Calgary.
13 In First
The Capilanos send 13 batters up in the wild first inning, collecting seven hits, one walk, and capitalizing on three Bronc errors. Smith was rushed into action after Nick Pesut doubled in the sixth and seventh runs. He gave up one more hit before retiring the side.
The Caps exploded periodically thereafter in rolling to their most one-sided win of the year.
Left fielder K. Chorlton sparked the assault with four hits in six trips, while Marv Williams, Kenny Richardson and Jimmy Clark added three hits apiece. Every man in the lineup except Neil Sheridan and Hernandez collected at least two safeties.
Chorlton and Clark drove in three runs each.
Pete Was Good
Meanwhile, Hernandez was hurling a masterpiece. He struck out eight, walked none, and only one Lewiston runner reached second base. That came in the ninth inning, when Don Hunter singled, and scampered to the halfway mark on a wild pitch which bounced off the plate and out of Pesut’s reach.
Manager Bill Brenner’s Caps also left 12 runners stranded, while the Broncs left six.
DIAMOND DUST—Williams was acclaimed the Caps most popular player and Brenner the club’s most valuable perfomer.
Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE
[Tri-City Herald, Sept. 9, 1954]
On The Sale Of Charouhas
One of the skeletons in the Tri-City Braves Sanders field closet that has been kicking around, and long in need of an airing, concerns the sale of outfielder Desmond Charouhas to Yakima.
Of all the moves made during the recent season, that was probably the least popular one with Tri-City fans—most of whom considered Des as second only to Lewiston's Al Heist as a defensive centerfielder.
And after the sale, some strange things happened.
First off came the announcement from G. M. Eddie Taylor's office that Charouhas was sold, and had not the sale gone through, be would have been released.
Naturally, one assumed Taylor was the one responsible for the sale. But then shortly thereafter, Harold Matheson, president of the association told a meeting of stockholders that he, Matheson, was responsible for the sale, but in any case Charouhas would not have been released had the sale not gone through.
* * *
Harold First Read Of It
At the time one suspicioned that there was some break in the communications between Matheson, Taylor, and manager Edo Vanni or otherwise why the conflicting statements.
Since it confirmed by Matheson, that despite his acceptance of responsibility in the sale of Charouhas, the first Harold heard about it was when he read the story in the
Tri-City Herald that night.
Harold merely stepped into the breach partly on the theory that the guy on top is responsible for the actions of those below and partly because he felt he was better
able to take the criticism than those below.
This, then would throw the Charouhas sale back to Taylor if, no other reason than he was general manager.
But now that the season is over and there is no reason for avoiding dissension in the ranks, Taylor's version shows somewhat of a rift between himself and Vanni, particulary because of the Charouhas sale. Yet at the same time neither was not going to cross over into the other's domain.
"I sold Charouhas only after Vanni was persistent in tainting to get rid of nim," Taylor said. He re-emphasized the word "persistent" and one "gathers Taylor was reluctant to sell him even then.
So we are now down to Vanni.
* * *
They Didn't Get Along
There isn't much point in going into all of Vanni's reasons for "wanting to get rid of Charouhas." Most of them deal with technical points of playing strategy with neither the player or the manager having much respect for the other's judgment. One or the other had to go and since Vanni was manager and had an "iron clad" contract besides, it was Charouhas.
Of all the moves made during the recent season, that was probably the least popular one with Tri-City fans—most of whom considered Des as second only to Lewiston's Al Heist as a defensive centerfielder.
And after the sale, some strange things happened.
First off came the announcement from G. M. Eddie Taylor's office that Charouhas was sold, and had not the sale gone through, be would have been released.
Naturally, one assumed Taylor was the one responsible for the sale. But then shortly thereafter, Harold Matheson, president of the association told a meeting of stockholders that he, Matheson, was responsible for the sale, but in any case Charouhas would not have been released had the sale not gone through.
* * *
Harold First Read Of It
At the time one suspicioned that there was some break in the communications between Matheson, Taylor, and manager Edo Vanni or otherwise why the conflicting statements.
Since it confirmed by Matheson, that despite his acceptance of responsibility in the sale of Charouhas, the first Harold heard about it was when he read the story in the
Tri-City Herald that night.
Harold merely stepped into the breach partly on the theory that the guy on top is responsible for the actions of those below and partly because he felt he was better
able to take the criticism than those below.
This, then would throw the Charouhas sale back to Taylor if, no other reason than he was general manager.
But now that the season is over and there is no reason for avoiding dissension in the ranks, Taylor's version shows somewhat of a rift between himself and Vanni, particulary because of the Charouhas sale. Yet at the same time neither was not going to cross over into the other's domain.
"I sold Charouhas only after Vanni was persistent in tainting to get rid of nim," Taylor said. He re-emphasized the word "persistent" and one "gathers Taylor was reluctant to sell him even then.
So we are now down to Vanni.
* * *
They Didn't Get Along
There isn't much point in going into all of Vanni's reasons for "wanting to get rid of Charouhas." Most of them deal with technical points of playing strategy with neither the player or the manager having much respect for the other's judgment. One or the other had to go and since Vanni was manager and had an "iron clad" contract besides, it was Charouhas.
