W L PCT GB
Vancouver ... 16 7 .696 —
Spokane ..... 16 8 .667 ½
Tri-City .... 16 9 .526 4
Salem ....... 11 10 .524 4
Victoria .... 10 12 .435 5½
Yakima ....... 9 12 .429 6
Tacoma ....... 8 14 .364 7½
Wenatchee .... 8 16 .333 8½
SPOKANE, May 14 — Spokane's Indians blanked the Salem Senators 5 to 0 in a Western International league baseball game Monday night. The win puts the Indians one-half game behind league-leading Vancouver.
Each team used but one pitcher. Spokane's Ward Rockey, although touched for 11 hits and in danger practically every inning, came through in the pinches. He ended three innings with strikeouts and five others with fly-outs.
Losing chucker Bill Bevens gave up five hits. Each team committed one error.
Monday night's game was played to make up a rained-out clash originally scheduled for Friday. The Indians won the sderies two to one.
Salem ........ 000 000 000—0-11-1
Spokane ..... 300 010 10x—5- 5.-1
Bevens and Beard; Rockey and Nulty.
WENATCHEE, May 14—A single by shortstop Bill Dunn, good for two runs, broke up an 11-inning baseball game Monday and gave the Victoria Athletics a 5-3 Western International league victory over the Wenatchee Chiefs.
The win gave Victoria the series three games to one.
Catcher Milt Martin, with a single, started the scoring that ended the game. Bill Osborne bunted as a sacrifice but pitcher Charles Gassaway threw the ball away trying to nab him at first. Martin and Osborne moved on to second and third base. Dunn's single followed and brought both in.
Victoria ........ 010 200 000 02—5-14-2
Wenatchee ... 000 002 010 00—3-11-6
Tierney, Osborne (10) and Martin; Gassaway and Roberson, Len Neal (9).
ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED
TACOMA, May 15—A second straight better-than-.500 week with the willow has boosted Vic Buccola, Tri-City first baseman, into the Western International league batting leadership, it was revealed today with the release of unofficial averages from the office of Robert B. Abel, league president.Buccola collected nine hits in 17 times at bat to hike his bat mark 32 points to .423, a cool 10 ponts better than the .383 runner-up figure compiled by Ken Richardson of Spokane. In third place a week ago at .397, Richardson moved into the second spot despite losing 12 points. A fortnight back, Buccola was far down the list at .290.
Ruben Navarro of Tri-City, up 37 points to .381, held down third place. Last week's leader, Tri-City's Artie Wilson, slumped 90 points to .333, which left him far off the pace.
Author of as spectacular a rise as Buccola's was Dick Sinovic of Vancouver, who belted 14 hits in 31 trips — two of the blows were homers — to move up 51 ponts to .356. The Capilano outfielder also drove in 10 runs for a season's total of 25, tops in the league. Richardson, the RBI leader a week ago for second place at 20 with Wenatchee's Walt Pocekay.
One of Buccola's nine blows was his fourth homer, elevating him into a tie with Ed Nulty of Spokane for the top spot in the four-base derby.
Average including Sunday's games (the top 10):
G AB H RBI HR AVE
Buccola, T-C ...... 19 73 31 19 4 .425
Richardson, Spok .. 23 78 30 20 2 .385
Navarro, T-C ...... 14 42 18 7 0 .381
Moran, Tac ........ 22 90 33 18 0 .367
Marcucci, Vic ..... 19 72 26 10 3 .361
Sinovic, Van ...... 22 90 32 25 2 .356
Tuckett, Sal ...... 18 48 17 11 0 .354
Murphy, Spok ...... 23 88 31 14 1 .352
Vanni, Spok ....... 23 100 33 10 1 .350
Palmer, Wen ....... 23 83 29 16 0 .349
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [May 15/51]
Listening to Ken Penner recount some of his baseball memories, and he has plenty, can best be compared to a private session with Bob Hope at his funniest. Penner, the west coast scout for the St. Louts Cardinals, is here conducting a talent search at Sanders yield. Monday morning he had eight pieces of untouched ivory on hand but his hopes were high that enough would show up today so the boys could have a ball game.
Between warmup pitches in front of the Braves dugout Monday morning Penner got off on the story of the time he took a team up to Folsom prison to play the inmates nine. “I had decided to pitch that game, or a part of it,” the scout started out, “and while I was loosening up my arm I dropped three returns in a row. A great big guy stood there eyeing me.”
“Man, you're not going to pitch this game are you?” asks the Folsomite, “Well,” continued Penner, “then I went into my windup.” Then he put on a demonstration of a pitcher going through a great big delivery, only Penner would just sort of flip the ball over his head down to the kid he was warming up with. None of the three or four he threw would have made your nose red if he hit it. But by this time those who were listening to the story, including Charlie Petersen and Tom Bradley, were leaning against the dugout wall laughing.
ALL THAT AND A SORE ARM
“That guy really got worried then,” continued Penner. “He come up to me and said, Look man I got all my money bet on your team, is that all the stuff you got?” “Yep,” went on Penner flipping; the ball from back of his head, again, “that good fast ball you see and a sore arm . .. that's all I got.”
As it turned out though Penner's curve was working good (or so he said) and the boy won his bets. Penner goes along In that same vein all the time. The stories get more and more outrageous until they become so improbably that they might actually have happened, just like some of the many things you saw Sunday if you were at Sanders Field.
RUN FAST AND THROW HARD
After the group had loosened up their arms for a while Penner called them all together. “Now, the first thing we look for in a ball player is a boy who can throw hard and run fast. As soon as everyone's warmed up we'll take some infield work from the shortstop position throwing to first base.”
When he left the park Charlie was still hitting infield practice to the prospects and Billy Howard was taking their throws at first base. From what Penner said the spring sprint tests are still to come.
GLAD TO SEE THEM BACK
Two ex-Braves will be at Sanders Field tonight when the Hugh Luby's Salem Senators roll in. They are of course outfielder Dick Faber and catcher Jim McKeegan. Mentioning McKeegan's name reminds us of a little episode about the redhead which sportswriter Al Lightner had in the Salem Statesman the other day. We'll let Al tell the story.
“The wacky play at home plate in Wednesday night's game, staring catcher McKeegan and baserunner Neal has since created considerable downtown argumentive turbulence it seems. To recreate it, McKeegan blocked the plate as the throw was coming in, forcing Neal to jump over him. Neal missed the plate as well as McKeegan. The drama then began as Neal, standing between the plate and the Wenatchee dugout, and McKeegan,anchored near the plate with ball in hand, stared daringly at one another. Both knew Neal had missed the platter but neither knew exactly what to do until McKeegan began to chase the negro shortstop. Neal feinted McKeegan off balance and zipped around him, returning to the dish to stamp it with a Wenatchee run.
“The question comes up,” continued Lightner, “What if McKeegin had said to the ump, I know he missed the plate but I'm not going to chase him. I'm going to stay right here with the ball? Had Mac done so, the ump would have demanded that Neal come back to touch the base, risking McKeegan's tag, or be called out for delaying the game. Then too, had Neal gone into the Wenatchee dugout all McKeegan would have had to do was touch home plate himself while in possession of the ball and Neal would have been called out.
“As it turned out McKeegan could have chased the negro boy all over the ball park, but the run would still count if Neal escaped the tag and returned to dent the base.”
Between warmup pitches in front of the Braves dugout Monday morning Penner got off on the story of the time he took a team up to Folsom prison to play the inmates nine. “I had decided to pitch that game, or a part of it,” the scout started out, “and while I was loosening up my arm I dropped three returns in a row. A great big guy stood there eyeing me.”
“Man, you're not going to pitch this game are you?” asks the Folsomite, “Well,” continued Penner, “then I went into my windup.” Then he put on a demonstration of a pitcher going through a great big delivery, only Penner would just sort of flip the ball over his head down to the kid he was warming up with. None of the three or four he threw would have made your nose red if he hit it. But by this time those who were listening to the story, including Charlie Petersen and Tom Bradley, were leaning against the dugout wall laughing.
ALL THAT AND A SORE ARM
“That guy really got worried then,” continued Penner. “He come up to me and said, Look man I got all my money bet on your team, is that all the stuff you got?” “Yep,” went on Penner flipping; the ball from back of his head, again, “that good fast ball you see and a sore arm . .. that's all I got.”
As it turned out though Penner's curve was working good (or so he said) and the boy won his bets. Penner goes along In that same vein all the time. The stories get more and more outrageous until they become so improbably that they might actually have happened, just like some of the many things you saw Sunday if you were at Sanders Field.
RUN FAST AND THROW HARD
After the group had loosened up their arms for a while Penner called them all together. “Now, the first thing we look for in a ball player is a boy who can throw hard and run fast. As soon as everyone's warmed up we'll take some infield work from the shortstop position throwing to first base.”
When he left the park Charlie was still hitting infield practice to the prospects and Billy Howard was taking their throws at first base. From what Penner said the spring sprint tests are still to come.
GLAD TO SEE THEM BACK
Two ex-Braves will be at Sanders Field tonight when the Hugh Luby's Salem Senators roll in. They are of course outfielder Dick Faber and catcher Jim McKeegan. Mentioning McKeegan's name reminds us of a little episode about the redhead which sportswriter Al Lightner had in the Salem Statesman the other day. We'll let Al tell the story.
“The wacky play at home plate in Wednesday night's game, staring catcher McKeegan and baserunner Neal has since created considerable downtown argumentive turbulence it seems. To recreate it, McKeegan blocked the plate as the throw was coming in, forcing Neal to jump over him. Neal missed the plate as well as McKeegan. The drama then began as Neal, standing between the plate and the Wenatchee dugout, and McKeegan,anchored near the plate with ball in hand, stared daringly at one another. Both knew Neal had missed the platter but neither knew exactly what to do until McKeegan began to chase the negro shortstop. Neal feinted McKeegan off balance and zipped around him, returning to the dish to stamp it with a Wenatchee run.
“The question comes up,” continued Lightner, “What if McKeegin had said to the ump, I know he missed the plate but I'm not going to chase him. I'm going to stay right here with the ball? Had Mac done so, the ump would have demanded that Neal come back to touch the base, risking McKeegan's tag, or be called out for delaying the game. Then too, had Neal gone into the Wenatchee dugout all McKeegan would have had to do was touch home plate himself while in possession of the ball and Neal would have been called out.
“As it turned out McKeegan could have chased the negro boy all over the ball park, but the run would still count if Neal escaped the tag and returned to dent the base.”
Sports of The Times
By Art Knight
Back from a short vacation to find that San Mateo's Bud Guldborg is shopping for another pitching job in the Pacific Coast league. Bud, who led the California league twirlers last season and looked mighty impressive to date with the Seattle Rainiers, parted company with Manager Rogers Hornsby and the Suds Sunday.
Seems that the Scatlle management decided to farm Guldborg out to Vancouver in the Western International league, but Bud, who felt his record deserved higher consideration, asked and received permission to make a deal for himself. This corner
hears the San Francisco Seals, who once owned Guldborg, and the Sacramento Solons are interested. In fact, Guldborg was in the capilal city yesterday talking with Manager Joe Gordon.
Why Seattle pulled the rug on Guldborg is another of those mysteries that seem to enshroud the baseball business. The Matean's record certainly merits further engagements on the Coast league mounds.
Bud worked parts of eleven games for the Rainiers, pitching a total of 20 innings to post two victories, and was charged with two defeats. He walked only 12 men and struck out eight. His earned-run average of .386 [sic] is pretty fair, especially
considering the rest of the PCL moundsmen's record this season.
Guldborg's figures would have looked something like six earned runs in 25 innings but for a rough relief stint against Oakland recently. The Acorns had their hitting clothes on that night, and Bud was one of several Seattle slingers who were slammed around a bit.
Sacramento, surprising most fans by its runner-up position in the league race to date, quile likely is in the market to strengthen its pitching staff. Plenty of punch at the plate is keeping the Solons right in the thick of the race, and the addition of Guldborg could be just what the doctor ordered.
Surely, Bud has shown that he carries the guns to set down opposing batsmen, and, under more amiable working conditions, the San Mateo pitcher could easily lake a spot among the top PCL chuckers.
- San Mateo Times, Tuesday, May 15, 1951
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