Friday, June 29, 1951

W L PCT GB
Vancouver ... 49 22 .690 —
Spokane ..... 45 26 .634 4
Salem ....... 35 35 .500 12½
Wenatchee ... 34 37 .473 15
Tri-City .... 32 37 .464 16
Tacoma ...... 30 41 .423 19
Victoria .... 30 41 .432 19
Yakima ...... 26 42 .382 21½

VANCOUVER [Don Carlson, Daily Province, June 30]—Bud Beasley, the bow-legged little left-hander with the Popeye jaw, must certainly be the toast of baseball row today.
He pitched Capilanos to a 5-4 win in the opener of their big holiday series with the Tri-City Chiefs [sic] Friday night,
He drew the biggest crowd (4000-odd) to the new stadium since its opening night. About 750 were members of the Knothole Gang.
He won the fans’ hearts with his brilliant change-up pitching and masterful control for 8 innings.
He personally batted in the Cap’s [sic] first two runs.
He kept the crowd in their seats until the last out in the ninth by letting the Chiefs come within a squeak of beating him with a four-run outburst in that last inning.
And he came out of it all with a sore groin, result of pounding off the mound in 97 minutes of baseball when, except for the last scare, he worked so effectively.
Beasley, one of minor league baseball’s cleverest showmen, proved that he is one clown who can play a tragic role—for the other side. If Capilano manager Bill Schuster was worried over his sore-arm pitching staff before, Beasley Friday night provided him with a new starting pitcher.
Beasley was not the only good news. Cap general manager R.P. Brown disclosed that Schuster, out for weeks now with a bad knee, had it treated Friday with deep therapy. “There was some improvement,” said Brown, “and he’ll probably have more treatments.”
Abernathy Gets Two for Three
Schuster shuffled his batting order for the series opener, moving catcher Johnny Ritchey up into third slot in the batting order, replacing Chuck Abernathy.
Schuster said he wanted Ritchey’s speed up there at the top. Recent averages show Ritchey in a hitting spurt and Abernathy falling off. However, after being dropped to seventh in the order, Abernathy Friday night got himself two hits in three trips to the plate.
Caps ran into early trouble Friday night with Tri-City right-hander Augie Zande, a big 31-year-old St. Louis Cardinal farm hand (won 3, lost 5), a slow-ball pitcher, who had the heavy-hitting Brownies swinging off-balance for four innings.
Vancouver erupted in the fifth, however, on Abernathy’s first single, a hit batter (Jimmy Moore took a pitch in the small of the back), Beasley’s triple, and Tran’s single.
Tri-City Closes Fast in Ninth
They added another two to those three runs in the seventh, on singles by Abernathy, Moore and Ritchey. The margin was just enough to eke out the win after the Chiefs combined 6 hits in that nervous ninth for their four runs.
Beasley, who almost was replaced by Johnny Burak but convinced Schuster to leave him in, said: “I just wanted to give the fans a thrill.”
The same two clubs meet tonight in the first night double-header, the first game at 7 p.m. They play another twin bill Monday night, starting at 7 p.m.
Friday’s game featured the Knothole Gang’s first session. Around 750 kids, in groups of 10 and up, each group accompanied by an adult, got bleacher seats free.
Brown said many adults reported scouring their neighborhoods to rake up enough small fry to make up the required groups when families weren’t big enough. He pronounced the session a success.
Tri-City ......... 000 000 004—4 11 0
Vancouver ..... 000 030 20x—5 8 1
Zande and Pesut; Beasley and Ritchey.

VICTORIA, B.C., June 29—Victoria Athletics made it five out of six here Friday night as they pounded out a 14-2 triumph over Yakima Bears in the first game of a five-game series.
The Bean booted four times in the first inning as the A's bad the first of three four-ran innings. The fifth of six Yakima errors helped Victoria to four more runs io the second and the A's hit hard from then, including eijht doubles among their 14 hits.
Bill Osborn pitched steadily behind the big lead to chalk up his third win in six days. Bob White had a double and two singles for the winners. Marv Diercks hit two doubles in two trips.
Gene Thompson connected for his first home run of the season, Hal Jackson drove in four runs with a double Don Pries had two doubles and Milt Martin and Bill White each had a double and a single.
Yakima ........ 000 001 001— 2 7 6
Victoria ....... 440 101 40x— 14 14 1
Thompson, Delsarto (2) and Gavigilo; Osburn and Martin.

SALEM, Ore., June 29 — A two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning broke a 3-3 tie and gave Salem a 5 to 3 win over Tacoma here Friday night.
Tacoma scored two runs in the first inning on two Salem errors, a walk and Butch Moran's double. Moran's double in the sixth and a single by Marion Watson gave Tacoma its final run of the game.
Salem's winning run came on a walk, singles by George McDonald and Curt Schmidt and an outfield fly.
In the seventh inning Salem manager Hugh Luby stole home with the run that tied the score at 3-all.
Tacoma .... 200 001 000—3 5 1
Salem ....... 000 001 22x—5 7 2
Doderward, Barta (8) and Watson; McNulty and McKeegan.

SPOKANE, June 29—Five runs in the fifth inning gave the Wenatchee Chiefs their winning tally for a 12 to 8 victory over the Spokane Indians Friday night.
Lil Arnerich led the Wenatchee hitting attack with five hits in six times at bat, good for three runs.
Wenatchee ..... 130 050 021—12 15 3
Spokane ......... 200 330 000— 8 11 0
Gassaway and Neal; Park, Conant (2), Wyatt (8) and Sheets.

NON WIL MINOR LEAGUE NEWS
Catcher Killed By Thrown Ball
OGDEN, Utah, June 29—Richard W. (Dick) Conway, a rising young player in his first year of organized baseball, was killed by a thrown ball Friday night.
The Twin Falls, Ida., catcher, hit on the chest by a practice throw, dropped fatally injured on the infield of flood-lighted John Affleck park as fans awaited the start of a Pioneer league game.
An emergency attendant said the 19-year-old rookie apparently died instantly in what was the class C League's first fatality since it was organized in 1939.
Conway, a regular catcher and the league's leading home run batter, was hit by the ball while playing in an unfamiliar first base position during pre-game warmup drills.
The Lynn, Mass., teen ager looked up at a pop fly at the same time Manager Don (Jeep) Trower rifled the ball from second base to complete a practice double play. The ball struck him on the chest just above the heart.
An autopsy was planned.
Picked by the New York Yankees after he graduated from high school at Lynn, Mass., last year, Conway was sent to Twin Falls from the Kansas City Blues. He lived up to expectations. His 12 home runs so far this season topped the Utah-Idaho-Montana circuit.
The game was called off after his death and the saddened Twin Falls team returned to its hotel. Club President Jack Radtke, who rejoined the team in Ogden Saturday, said the players were “all broken up.”
In Pocatello, League President Jack P. Halliwell said he learned of the tragedy with “sincere regret.”
- - - - -
Baseball Listed Cause of Death
[Ogden Standard Examiner, July 1, 1951]
A hard thrown baseball apparantly was the sole cause of the playing field death last night of young Dick Conway, up and coming Yankee farm team catcher from Twin Falls.
Dr. Ralph Ellis, Ogden physician who performed an autopsy on the 19-year-old athlete, said tonight that he would list the cause of death as an “occlusion on the chest wall over the heart, which caused a cardiac arrest.”
Dr. Ellis said he could find no evidence of any heart disease. It was reported last night that the Lynn, Mass., rookie recently had suffered fainting spells.
Conway was fatally injured during a pre-game warmup session.
Relieving an injured Pioneer league teammate at first base, Conway glanced at a pop fly as Manager Don (Jeep) Trower hurled a double play ball at him. The ball struck him above the heart and he pitched to the ground.