Thursday, April 26, 1951

               W L Pct. GB
Vancouver .... 6 1 .857 —
Yakima ....... 5 2 .714 1
Salem ........ 5 2 .714 1
Spokane ...... 3 4 .429 3
Victoria ..... 3 4 .429 3
Tacoma ....... 2 5 .288 4
Tri-City ..... 2 5 .288 4
Wenatchee .... 2 5 .288 4

SPOKANE, April 26—Pitching pays off. It's an old adage but its truth was again demonstrated Thursday night in the Western International baseball League.
The Spokane Indians handed Vancouver its first defeat of the season, 7 to 3, on the strength of seven-hit hurling Dirk Bishop.
Bishop's mates backed up his effort with a ten-hit attack.
The Caps held a one-run lead for the first three innings but a homer with one aboard by Ed Nulty in the fourth inning reversed the lead.
Vancouver tied the game at 3-3 in the seventh, but in their home half, Spokane greeted bespectacled rookie Lonnie Myers with four good blows, good enough gor the ball game.
Pete Hernandez started for Vancouver and was removed for a pinch hitter in the sixth.
Mel Wasley had three hits, good enough to drive in two runs.
Ray Tran and Chuck Abernathy each gathered two hits. Abernathy drove in two runs and Tran was responsible for one.
The Capilanos had racked up six straight wins before they bumped into Bishop's hurling.
Vancouver .... 100 010 100—3 7 3
Spokane ....... 000 210 40x—7 10 3
Hernandez, Meyers (6) King (9) and Ritchey; Bishop and Nulty.

YAKIMA, April 26 — Wenatchee's Al Treichel held the Yakima Bears to five hits for 4 to 1 win in a Western International League game Thursday night.
It was the Chiefs' second straight win over the Bears in the league chase.
Len Neal's homer with one aboard in the eighth bolstered an early Wenatchee lead. Treichel pitched runless ball over the last five innings.
With the score tied at 1-1 in the fifth, Wenatchee mustered the go-ahead run on a combination of a single, a walk and a hit batter. Yakima talliedn its lone run in the fourth on Steinberg's bunt, Serrell's single and Jerry Zuvela's double. Mike Baxes hit into a double play to end the threat.
Wenatchee .... 001 010 020—4 7 0
Yakima .......... 000 100 000—1 5 1
Treichel and Len Neal; Maddox, Anderson (9) and Tiesiera.

SALEM, April 26 — A neat six-hitter by Victoria's hurler Ron Smith sent Salem down to a 3 to 0 defeat Thursday night in Western International League baseball. Victoria scored once in the first inning and added two more in the eighth.
The loss broke Salem's four-game winning streak, and ended the current three-game series with Victoria. Salem won two of them.
Victoria ..... 100 000 020—3 9 2
Salem ........ 000 000 000—0 8 1
Smith and Marcucci; Mishasek and McKeegen.

KENNEWICK, April 26 — The Tri-City Braves found the formula for their first home win of the 1951 Western International league baseball season here Thursday night. It consisted largely of steady hurling by Augusto Zande plus some lusty power hitting by Vic Buccola which enabled the Braves to defeat Tacoma 8 to 4.
Buccola homered once in the fourth and again in the eighth, each time with one man on, to drive in four Tri-City runs. Rube Navarro with a triple and Clint Cameron with a double helped power the Braves 14-hit assault on a trio of Tacoma pitchers. Bill Edelstein chipped in with three singles.
Tacoma scored three times in the fourth. Jose Bache singled and Butch Moran doubled him home. Then, with two out, Orrin Snyder walked and catcher Bill Sheets chased two runs home with a double. Zande went the rest of the way without serious trouble.
- - - -
KENNEWICK, April 27 (Herald) — They held a little going away party at Sanders Field last night and everyone, except of course the guests from Tacoma, went home well pleased with the affair. The 657 fans who showed up saw quite a ball game, including the first home victory this year for the Tri-City Braves.
Thert were more "firsts" in the 8-4 victory than there were opening night. Vic Buccola became the first player to hoist one over the fence. He did it in the fourth, with Bill Edelstein a willing passenger from second base. Then to prove it was no fluke the Braves' first sacker poled another one out in the eighth. And on that one he carried Al Spaeter around the sacks from first base.
The victory chalked up by hurler Angle Zande, the first pitcher incidentally to go the full route, snapped a four-game losing streak. Tonight the Victoria Athletics led by pilot Dick "Kewpie" Barrett, swung into Sanders Field for a four-game series. Last night the A's pounded Salem 3-0 so it should be a good battle all the way. Portsider Cy Greenlaw drew the opening mound assignment.
You could tell it was going to be quite a night on tha first out ot the first inning. Tacoma's Sol Israel slammed a 2-1 pitch deep into right field but Clint Cameron, with his back up against the fence went high into the air to stab the ball. Apparently the Clinker liked the feel of that fence, for he rifled a double off of it in the first frame to score Buccola, who had singled, to count the first run of the game.
Left fielder Ruben Navarro collected a batch of prizes for his triple the first of the season, deep into right center. Bill Edelstein, collecting three singles in his four appearances, drove in Navarro with his first safe blow of the night.
Tacoma ....... 000 300 001—4 13 1
Tri-City ....... 100 310 03x—8 15 2
Bowman, Piero (4), McDaniels and Sheets; Zande and Pesut.

Eric Whitehead’s FAN FARE
[from Vancouver Province, April 27, 1951]

No matter what happens at Yakima this weekend, your Vancouver ball club will open here Monday night with a winning record after their first 1951 road stand.
That jump-away six-game win streak was snapped Thursday night at Spokane, which was probably just as well. Ball clubs, especially new, comparatively untried ball clubs, hate win streaks. They’re too tough on the nerves, gets to be like walking a tight-rope, causes you to press, breaks normal stride and wish to heck you could get off for just a minute and start all over again.
So they start all over again tonight against Bill Brenner’s Yakima Bears. A nice crew to start all over against. If there is any club the local Schusterkids would love to beat, but consistently, it’s Yakima. And, brethren, vice versa.
Oh, The Trouble I’ve Seen
Brenner was fired by the Vancouver club and surprised everyone by latching on as pilot of the always-strong Bears of Yakima. The Bears are of course repeat WIL pennant winners. Which makes it a very tough situation for Brenner.
If Yakima finishes this year anywhere but on top, he’ll be hooted from here to Minsk and back. If they win another pennant, the hometown folks will just wink knowingly at the healthy legacy bequeathered Brenner by boss Dewey Soriano, Joe Orengo and Lefty O’Doul’s parent San Francisco Seals.
Already touted as the club to knock Brenner’s precarious reputation into a cocked contract, Schuster’s Capilanos will pull out all the stops this weekend in an attempt to ride home with a three or four game grip on first place. And if they can get that kind of a jump, they’ll be mighty hard to catch.
Privately, Brenner would probably rather beat Vancouver throughout the season than win the pennant. It’s the old, bitter urge of the castoff who always years to bite the hand that used to feed him.
New Cap manager Schuster is just as eager to show the world, also Bob Brown, that he can do with his club what Brenner, last year at least, couldn’t.
How good are the Caps? Well, it’s impossible to rate them against the rest of the circuit until they’ve been around at least once.
Can’t See The Three For Leaves
Every club in a bush league such as the WIL is a potential dark-horse, simply because the player traffic is so busy and unpredictable that it’s impossible to get a steady bead on any one club from season to season.
But rating the Caps on their record to date, you might compare them with a fully efficient compression engine. Of, say, 100 rated horsepower, the club will produce 100 horsepower. Which is to say that Wild Bill Schuster, the man at the throttle, is capable of getting the maximum results from his (ultimate) 18 hirelings.
The husky, bandy-legged guy with the strut like a rooster is a great field leader, make no mistake about that. Right from the opening bell last week in Wenatchee, he’s had his men running the bases like a herd of frightened mustangs, swinging at all the corner pitches.
In that very first game against Wenatchee, which they won, 9-4, the Caps paraded their new, aggressive, ’51 style.
In that one game, Schuster led them through practically every basic offensive and defensive move in the book: the hit-and-run, the sacrifice, double-steal, the run-down and the pick-off play. The games they have won since then have not all been the result of pulverizing power or perfection pitching, in fact at least three wins have been practically gifts from an opposition that insisted on booting the game away.
Footloose On The Basepaths
But the ’51 Capilanos force the breaks. When they—and particularly Schuster—get loose on the basepaths, any can happen, and, to date, has.
You’ll like big Chuck Abernathy at first. With Macon, Ga., he was the best fielding first-baseman in the Sally league. He’ll be the same here. And he’ll hit that long ball for .300 or more. Reno Cheso is a good double AA ball player at either catch or third.
Schuster at second still has a few vigorous flashes of triple A ball left. Tran is still capable at short. The pitching has been good, will be better. And what can you say of an outfield that uses Charlie Mead as an alternate sub—and still has Reg Clarkson here in Vancouver waiting to cut in?
Looks like a good year.

ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [Apr. 27/51]

The [Kennewick] chamber of commerce hosted the Tri-City Braves and Artie Wilson's guitar playing and singing headlined the event. First he gave out with "Cold Feet" and when they hollered for more, wanted [him to] sing, "I've Got The Money If You've Got The Time" but Charlie Petersen called a different play so Artie sang "Golden Rocket".
Wilson picked up his guitar technique on his own. Take that song "Cold Feet" for instance. Artie heard it and decided he wanted to learn it. So first rounded up a portable record player then he got the platter from a Lindsay shop. Taking both up to his room he played the song until he had the melody and chords all memorized. He may do a couple of radio shows this year while the Braves are home.

WILfan: No, that's not Artie singing when you click on the link. It's not Hank Snow, either, who did the song in 1951. But you can sure hear the roots of rockabilly in it.