Friday, July 30, 1954

               W  L  Pct GB
Lewiston .... 18  9 .667 —
Yakima ...... 16  8 .667 ½
Salem ....... 14 10 .583 2½
Edmonton .... 12 13 .480 5
Tri-City .... 11 14 .440 6
Victoria ..... 8 11 .440 6
Vancouver .... 9 13 .409 6½
Wenatchee .... 8 18 .308 10

YAKIMA [Victoria Colonist, July 30]—Lack of consistent pitching has generally been advanced as the big reason why Victoria Tyees haven’t been doing too well in the WIL this season, but the club’s record on the road hasn’t helped.
Last night, the Tyees were at Yakima for the first game of a four-game series and their win streak was abruptly ended at three games as they took an 8-1 trouncing from the ambitious Bears.
It was the fourth straight loss to Yakima, which swept a three-game series here earlier in second-half play, and the fourth straight loss away from home in the second half.
RIOS TOO GOOD
After pounding Edmonton Eskimos 18-4 Thursday night, the Tyees could do nothing with Danny “The Lion” Rios, large-sized Mexican righthander, who held them to five hits. Three of them, successive singles by Eddie Lake, Mel Stein and Bill Prior in the seventh, deprived Rios of a shutout.
Meanwhile, Berlyn Hodges wasn’t having too much luck with the Yakima batting order. He got by well enough until the fifth, when two singles, two bases on balls and an error produced five runs. Rios counted the last Yakima runs in the sixth with a two-run homer.
Prior pitched the last two innings for the Tyees and held the Bears scoreless.
Victory boosted the Bears into a first-place tie with Lewiston Broncs. The Broncs, who edged Tri-City Braves, 7-6, are actually a half-game ahead, but the clubs are tied in percentage points.
Victoria .......... 000 000 100—1 5 2
Yakima .......... 010 052 00x—8 7 1
Hodges, Prior (7) and Martin; Rios and Albini.

SALEM—no story available
Edmonton ........ 000 001 200—3 10 1
Salem ............. 000 000 000—0  7 2
Widner and Partee; Briggs and D. Luby.

WENATCHEE, July 30—Vancouver Capilanos failed again Friday night to regain the form that brought them the first half championship as they dropped a 6-3 decision to the cellar-dwelling Wenatchee Chiefs.
However, the Chiefs had to withstand a late barrage of Capilano base hits to preserve the win.
Wenatchee pitcher Ted Shandor had pitched one-hit shutout ball until the fifth inning, while his mates were providing him with a comfortable 5-0 lead off Cap manager Bill Brenner, their winningest pitcher.
Shandor tired slightly, however, and inning-opening doubles in the sixth and seventh led to three Vancouver runs.
Brenner opened the sixth with a double and scored on K Chorlton’s sacrifice fly after being singled to third by Eddie Murphy.
Dick Greco, who returned to right field after a pitching stint in Thursday night’s game, inaugurated the seventh with a two-bagger, advanced to third on Jim Clark’s single and scored on Nick Pesut’s sacrifice fly. Clark, who had three hits, tallied on a second straight single by Murphy.
Tony Rivas led the Chiefs’ 11-hit attack with a single, a double and a triple. His double in the fourth brought in the two runs that proved to be the clincher.
Russ McCormack added a solo homer for the winners, which broke a 1-1 tie in the third.
Vancouver ........ 000 001 200—3 10 1
Wenatchee ....... 011 300 10x—6 11 0
Brenner and Pesut; Shandor and Self.

KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, Aug. 1]—High-jacking Al Heist, the Lewiston centerfielder, once made an error this season and as a result, Tri-City won the ballgame.
But since then, the fleet-footed outfielder has been robbing the Braves with increasing regularity, so much, in fact, that Tri-City playing manager Edo Vanni commented:
“It isn't the Lewiston pitching that beats us. It's that blankety-blank Heist.”
In the opening game of the four-game series Friday night, Heist did considerable damage with his bat when he caught one of Walt Clough's pitches and sent it out of the park for the winning and tying run and 7-6 Lewiston victory.
That hurt, but it was those balls off the boards taken by Heist that really scalped the Braves.
The first piece of robbery came when Dick Watson, Tri-City shortstop, hit the longest ball he has rapped this season, and with two runners on, only to have Heist take it backhand right up against the centerfield boards.
Ironically, it was an easy fly ball hit by Watson which was dropped by Heist in that June 2 game.
The error enabled Tri-City to score six runs alter two were away in the ninth Inning and tie the score. Tri-City then won in the tenth.
But Friday night, Heist wasn't dropping any fly balls—easy or otherwise.
He made similar running catches of fly balls hit by Gordy Brunswick in the third, Len Tran in the eighth and Bob Moniz in the ninth. Just to show he could go the other
direction, he robbed Edo Vanni of a hit when he charged in from centerfield and almost caught Vanni's short fly ball. Even in missing, it didn't matter because he had plenty of time to pick the ball up and force Jack Warren at third.
Brightest figure in the Tri-City lineup was Warren, who broke loose with a three-run homer, a single, and a double in four times up.
Pokey Al Yaylian pitched for Lewiston and after the bad first inning, and the two-run third inning, he got himself out of jams for the rest of the way in.
The lefty hurler almost won his own game at the plate. He matched Warren's homer with a three-run blast of his own in the second and drove in one run in the ninth.
He was on base when Heist homered.
Lewiston ...... 040 000 003—7  9 3
Tri-City ........ 402 000 000—6 13 1
Yaylian and Garay; Clough and Warren.

WIL STATISTICS
(Compiled by William J. Weiss, Official Statistician, San Mateo, Calif. Averages include games of Monday, July 26, except Wenatchee at Lewiston, July 21; Yakima at Victoria, July 23-24 (2); Edmonton at Victoria, July 26; Wenatchee at Tri-City, July 26 and Vancouver at Yakima, July 26.)
TEAM BATTING
Average, Vancouver, .296; Tri-City, .293; Victoria, .289, Lewiston, .283, Edmonton, .283; Yakima, .280; Wenatchee, .279; Salem, .277.
Doubles, Tri-City, 164; Triples, Lewiston, 67; Home runs, Vancouver, 76; Stolen Bases, Salem, 110; Bases on Balls, Lewiston, 491, Strike outs, Wenatchee, 461; Runs Batted In, Vancouver, 482.
TEAM FIELDING
Edmonton, .969; Yakima, .968; Vancouver, .966; Salem, .965; Lewiston, .963, Victoria, .963, Tri-City, .962; Wenatchee, .960.
Errors, Tri-City, 153; Double Plays, Victoria, 100.
BATTING LEADERS
Percentage, Don Pries, Vic., .366; Runs, Al Heist, Lew., 92; Hits, K Chorlton, Van., 123; Total Bases, Chorlton, Van., 182; Two Base Hits, Bob Moniz, T.C., 33; Three Base Hits, Herman Lewis, Yak., 10; Home Runs, Bob Wellman, Van., 17; Sacrifice Hits, Nick Cannuli, Lew., Dain Clay, Vic., 20; Stolen Bases, K Chorlton, Van., 23; Bases on Balls, Heist, Lew., 75; Runs Batted In, Wellman, Van., 80; Strikeouts, Tom Munoz, Wen., 85.
PITCHING LEADERS
ERA., Bill Brenner, Van., 2.27; Wins, Brenner, Van., Ted Edmunds, Yak., Jon Briggs, Sal., 14; Losses, Ted Shandor, Wen., 11; Strikeouts, Briggs, Sal., 157, Bases on Balls, Briggs, Wen., 118; Innings Pitcher, Brenner, Van., 186; Complete Games, Brenner, Van., 16; Home Runs Allowed, John Marshall, Lew., 18.

Week’s Work
By CLANCY LORANGER
[Vancouver Province, July 30, 1954]
THURSDAY—The Capilano baseball team (remember them?) are going to be home all next week … Thought I better tell you now … You may have trouble finding them among the B.E.G. [British Empire Games] results next week … If you’re wondering what they’re doing way down there in the standings, would blame a collapse in the pitcher (after Brenner and Hernandez, what?), a penchant for blowing in the last inning, and added strength among the opposition for their current woeful showing … Further on baseball, ex-Cap Rod MacKay won his first start in the strong Mandak League the other day, pitching for Brandon, and an old teammate, Frank Mascaro, drove in three runs for him as he won 4-3 … Also playing in that semi-pro setup, which pays very well, are ex-major leaguer Roy Weatherly and Ron Bowen, a first-baseman who had a trial with the Caps last year.

Monday, July 12, 1954

               W  L  Pct GB
Tri-City ..... 5 1  .833 ½
Victoria ..... 3 0 1.000 —
Yakima ....... 4 1  .800 —
Lewiston ..... 5 2  .712 —
Vancouver .... 1 2  .333 2
Edmonton ..... 2 4  .333 2½
Salem ........ 1 4  .200 3
Wenatchee .... 0 7  .000 5

VICTORIA [Colonist, July 13]— Victoria Tyees, playing snappy hustling baseball, made it three in a row in second-half WIL play at Royal Athletic Park last night as they trimmed the Lewiston Broncs, 9-4, behind the steady pitching of Bob Drilling.
Victory kept the Victoria club atop the second-half standings percentage-wise and with most of July being spent at home, the Tyees have a good chance to stay ahead if they keep up their improved play.
TYPICAL GAME
Drilling pitched a typical game last night. He gave up 11 hits, including back-to-back doubles by Don Hunter and Bob Williams in the fifth inning and an eighth-inning home run by Eddie Bockman, but he made no trouble for himself as he handed out but one base on balls.
Broncs threatened seriously but twice. They scored three of their runs in the fifth and loaded the bags with one out in the seventh, when Drilling got out of trouble by getting Williams to ground into a fast double play.
It was the sixth win for the smooth-working Victoria righthander and it boosted his season’s record to 11-5.
ERRORLESS FIELDING
Drilling got excelling batting support from his teammates as well as errorless fielding. The Tyees rapped 15 hits off the offerings of southpaw Jack Martin in handing him his eighth loss in 16 decisions.
Sheridan hit his in the first inning, after bases on balls to Ron Jackson and Don Pries, to highlight a five-run rally which gave Drilling all the margin he was to need. It was a tremendous poke which cleared the fence in left field, about 360 feet from the plate. Stein connected with no one aboard in the fifth.
The game produced some excellent defensive play. The ever-improving Jackson made two fine plays, ranging almost behind first base to take a hit away from Hunter and handling Clint Cameron’s smash neatly in the fourth in addition to starting that big double play in the seventh.
Victoria manager Don Pries also excelled in the field, snagging a foul fly off the screen alongside third base in the fifth inning and coming up with pinch-hitter Glen Tuckett’s sizzler in the ninth. The Broncs reeled off three double plays, the best being started by shortstop Nick Cannuli in the second inning.
The teams meet again tonight with Hal Flinn trying for his eighth win for the Tyees, with Guy Fletcher, ex-Coast League veteran, as his opposition.
Lewiston ...... 000 030 010—4 11 2
Victoria ....... 500 210 01x—9 15 0
Martin and Garay; Drilling and Lundberg.

VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, July 13]—There was bad news for seven of the clubs in the Western International League Monday night: the Capilanos ain’t dead.
Somewhat embarrassed and a little annoyed at losing their first two starts in the WIL’s second half race, the first half champions came back in old-fashioned style against Wenatchee Chiefs for a 12-4 victory before some 2000 fans.
NO EXPLOSION
They didn’t explode, in fact they didn’t even sputter much, for the first five innings, by which time they had managed just one hit off the Chiefs’ Ted Shandor.
But it was like old times come the sixth when five straight hits, including a bases-loaded triple by Bob Wellman, overcame an early 2-0 deficit. Another hit, a double by Jim Clark, sent Shandor showerwards, and the Caps had compile seven runs before the frame was over.
MADE IT EASY
Ken Richardson and K Chorlton added home runs in later innings to make it easy for manager Bill Brenner, who gathered his 12th victory against four losses.
DIAMOND DUST—George Nicholas will pick for the locals tonight when the series continues against Wenatchee … Dick Greco, who refused to report to Salem when sold, has been placed back on the Vancouver roster … Pitcher Rod MacKay, who has seen little action in two years with the club, drew his outright release to make room for Greco … Rod might catch on with Tri-City, and could certainly help some clubs in the league … First major league scout of the season, Tony Governor of St. Louis Cardinals, turned up Monday … Province Stars: Ken Richardson, who boosted his impressive RBI total with four runs batted in …. Bill Brenner, still making it look easy … And the Chiefs Jerry Green, a busy man at the short patch.
[WILfan notes: Richardson's homer was with two on in the seventh, Chorlton's with one on in the eighth ... Richardson finished with four RBIs ... Tommy Munoz hit a homer for Wenatchee with one on in the ninth ... the loss was the ninth straight for Wenatchee, including all seven second half games.
Wenatchee ...... 101 000 002— 4  7 2
Vancouver ....... 000 007 32x—12 12 3
Shandor, Romero (6) and Helmuth; Brenner and Pesut.

ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED

NORTH BEND, Ore., July 11—The Salem Senators of the Western International League were embarrassed by a 13-3 drubbing from the bats of Oregon's top semi-pro team, the Coos Bay-North Bend Lumberjacks, tonight.
It was the Lumberjacks' 17th straight victory.
Cal McIrvin, the one-time Coast Leaguer, was never in trouble as he chopped Salem off with six hits and enjoyed the backing of four hits in five tries by Jack Dunn, a homer and two other safeties from Johnny Kovenz and three hits by Roy Nicely, another ex-PCL regular.

Sports Notes
BY GIL GILMORE [Tri-City Herald, July 13, 1954]
Don't expect anything to come of the protest made over the game with Edmonton Sunday night. First of all, nothing comes of a protest anyway—except when some team uses an ineligible player.
Fact is, Edo Vanni, the Tri-City playing manager, may not even fill out a report.
"What good will it do? We don't see those guys (Edmonton) again this year so you can't play the game over. Besides, I remember once when we protested a game and we didn't even hear about the thing until two months later."
The chances are a decision won't even be handed down.
Anyhow, who cares? Football teams frequently win 'em all, and occasionally basketball teams finish with a perfect season. But baseball teams, they will win a few and lose a few. The idea is to come out with more wins than the next team in the league and the Braves have lots more victories in them yet.
* * *
Vanni Hurt His Big Toe
Vanni, by the way, will be out of the lineup for a while as the result of tripling those tying runs home.
Some of the fans might have missed it so here is what happened.
When he pulled up safely at third, the ball went through third-baseman Don Gigli. Vanni thought it rolled out of play and started to walk home.
Then he heard Jess Dobernic, the third base coach, yell "go on, go on" and he took off. But making the triple took all the horses out of Edo.
"I tried to run, but the legs wouldn't," Edo said afterward.
When it wound up, he was barely staggering into home plate.
"As a last resort, I tried to kick the ball out of the catcher's hand," Edo said, "but I missed and kicked his shinguard.
Boy, you ought to see my big toe. Is it ever black and blue."
* * *
Sturgeon Ashamed of U.S. Teams
Bob Sturgeon, Edmonton manager, had a few harsh words about the teams that accepted the $600 for each road trip to the prairie city — and especially for Lewiston.
"It made me ashamed of the U. S. side," Bob said before the final game of the series.
What happened is this. Three U.S. teams — Salem, Tri-City, and Lewiston — refused to go to Edmonton but then Eskimo general manager John Ducey offered to pay each U.S. team $600 for each trip up there.
"I think it wan a good fair offer," Bob said. "After all, they would by playing on the road somewhere and have travel expenses and that $600 a trip would make up the difference. But now none of them want to come up there and plus us, even with that offer."
But what particularly galled him was the Lewiston deal. The Bronc management refused to send their team to Edmonton until they got the $600 in advance. They got it but before they left, Lewiston signed third-baseman Eddie Bockman, a hard-hitting ex-Coast Leaguer.
Eventually, Bockman joined the Broncs and traveled with them to Edmonton, where I recall he hit three home runs which figured in a couple of Lewiston victories.
"I could have signed Bockman, too," Sturgeon said, "but we couldn't go for it. He's a friend of mine but we couldn't see paying a couple thousand dollars to him for just half of a season."
* * *
Believes Esks To Go All-Canada
Sturgeon also said he is pretty sure Edmonton will be the spark behind forming an all-Canadian league next season.
"They are going to go for it," he said. "There (at Edmonton) I think they just want to hang onto the franchise through this season so they will have something to work on next year."
He said he was pretty certain such a league would work providing the cities have any kind of luck with the weather.
"It can kill you there." Bob said. "We lost 17,000 paid admissions in the first half because of the weather and now we are off to a lousy second half."
"Last year we were lucky, and came out okay," he said.
"You ought to do okay here though," Bob said, as he looked over the crowd of 2,000 or so trooping into the stands. "You're off to a good start this half and you ought to draw pretty well."
* * *
Beanie May Be Up Soon
Most of that 2,000 or so, admittedly, came out in hopes of seeing Rube Johnson clout some more homers. However Vanni used Jack Warren instead.
Vanni probably would have used Jack any way, but when Sturgeon started Art Worth, a left-handed pitcher, it was certain Rube would be on the bench. Pro ballplayers naturally cling to the theory that lefties can't hit lefties.
Anyhow, Beanie came through at the plate all night. He hit four for five, a lot of them coming when any kind of a hit was drastically needed.
Warren, by the way, was hitting .300 right on the button at game time. The four singles upped his average some and may herald a return to his last season form when he finished with .354.
Jack, himself, is confident enough that he will come back up near the top that he was willing to bet Dobernic he would be hitting .340 at the season end.
When Jess pointed out Jack would have to hit two for four and two for five for the rest of the season, Jack still said he would make it.
"Boy, oh boy," Jess quipped, "if he does we got the second half cinched. We're in."
I won't bet that Jack will be hitting .340 at the season end but I'll bet he won't be hitting any .300 either. Everyone on the team expects him to start busting out any time now and you can look for the old average to climb.
* * *
An Example of a "Save"
A radio announcers' recent suggestion that some sort of scoring system whereby fielders would be credited with exceptional defensive play probably won't get very far simply because the game demands nothing short of "perfection," so presumably, whenever a fielder makes any kind of a putout or assist, he was merely doing what is expected of him.
However, there is a certain justification for such a system and it emphasized in the game Sunday night. Len Tran makes a bad throw so lights flash and storekeepers mark the nasty old error in their books.
Two innings later Len Tran makes an impossible catch which saved the game momentarily. What's marked in the scorebook? Nothing, except t batter filed out to Len Tran.