Tuesday, July 24, 1951

               W  L  PCT GB
Vancouver ... 64 34 .653 —
Spokane ..... 64 34 .653 —
Salem ....... 50 47 .515 13½
Wenatchee ... 47 50 .485 16½
Tri-City .... 43 55 .439 21
Victoria .... 43 56 .434 21½
Yakima ...... 41 57 .418 23
Tacoma ...... 39 58 .402 24½

VANCOUVER [Don Carlson, Province, July 25]—If red-headed ballplayers symbolize fighting spirit, Vancouver Capilanos can be thankful today for theirs.
The two carrot-tops in the Caps’ regular line-up, Charles ‘Ab’ Abernathy and Ray Tran, provided the 12th inning one-two punch Tuesday night that gave Vancouver a 4-3 win over Victoria. The win kept them in their first-place tie with Spokane in the Western International League.
Abernathy’s double, and Tran’s single scoring him, with two out in the 12th, kept the Caps from dropping out of the lead for the first time this season, as Spokane was busy whipping Tri-City 12-10 in the central Washington town.
For each of them, it was their only hit of the long, well-played game. Combined, the provided a happy climax for the hard-pressed Caps, who today lose Reno Cheso, the brilliant little second baseman, for an indefinite period.
Cheso is flying to San Francisco to be with his wife, who is expecting a baby.
Nicholas Wins No. 11
The ball game was a pitching duel between George Nicholas, Capilano righthander now apparently recovered from his back injury, and Victoria’s John Tierney, who started wild, but settled down to pitch ably.
It was Nicholas’ 11th win against 6 defeats. Each struck out four batters. Nicholas walked one, Tierney six. Their effectiveness was illustrated by the men left on bases: by Athletics 8, by Capilanos 13.
The game was peppered with good, solid extra-base hits and some fielding gems.
Bobby McGuire, Caps’ hustling little left fielder, gathered two assists. He threw out Bob Sturgeon in the seventh trying to steal third after Bill Dunn had flied out to him; and in the ninth he and Ray Tran combined to stop Sturgeon trying to stretch a single into a double. Both cut off potential Victoria runs.
Great Outfield Catches
Dick Sinovic made a great diving catch in centre field of Ben Jeffe’s drive in the tenth, with two men on and only one out, and Charlie Mead went miles in the twelfth to haul down Jeffe’s drive against the right field wall.
Victoria got all their runs when Nicholas weakened in the fourth, combining two triples (Gene Thompson and Hal Jackson), a double (Dunn) and Mel [sic] Martin’s single.
Cap manager Bill Schuster had the Brownies hustling for this crucial win. In the seventh, Sinovic and Mead pulled a double steal, Sinovic getting into third ahead of the ball.
The series resumes at the Stadium tonight, 8:30 p.m
Victoria ......... 000 300 000 000—3-10-1
Vancouver ..... 110 001 000 001—1 -9-2
Tierney and Martin; Nicholas and Ritchey.

KENNEWICK, [Tri-City Herald, July 25]—After scoring four runs in three games. . .and failing to win, the Tri-City Braves went on the warpath last night and collected 10 runs in a single game, but they didn't win that one either. The Spokane Indians simply followed suit and slugged it out with the Braves to take the 2 hour 57 minute game, 12-10.
The two teams will resume the battle tonight with John Conant (9-9) slated to take the mound for the visitors. Either Cy Greenlaw or Jack Brewer were to be the choice of Manager Charlie Peterson But following Brewer's four-inning stint last night, it was more than likely that's the Braves southpaw would get the starting call.
The wealth of runs and basehits apparently was too much for the Tri-City club last night, enjoying a 7-0 lead going into the top of the third they were looklng down the wrong of the 9-7 count at the end of the fifth.
Both teams had a "big" inning when they batted completely around, the Braves had theirs in the second whon they scored five runs and the Indians took theirs in the fifth.
There were 12 extra-base blows in the wind-swept game and Tri-City got the lion's share. Buddy Peterson led the attack with a home run in the flrst, and triples in the second and sixth. This massive attack drove in half of the Braves runs. Clint Cameron also homered for Tri-City with one of the hardest hit balls yet seen at Sanders Field. Cameron's four-master was also the first to clear the center-field wall in the two years the paik has been used. A previous home run had gone over the score board. That was hit by Larry Neal of Wenatchee last season.
PITCHERS GET BELTED
Neither Augie Zande or Ken Wyatt who started on the mound were around for the finish. The Braves big second frame derricked Wyatt and that fatal Indian fifth made a fast user of Lifebuoy out of Zande.
Fire-balling Dick Aubertin took over for Spokane and Jack Brewer came in to the stem the Spokane attack. Aubertin's sharp breaking curve kept the Tri-City club fairly well throttled as the Braves picked up four runs, two of which were charged to errors.
The high winds also apparently blew some dust jn the umpires eyes. Art Jacobs missed one at first when he railed Edo Vanni safe at first after Vic Buccola had slid into the bag well ahead of the base runner.
Ed Murphy, the fleet and fast base stealer of the league, moved his personal count up two more last night when he swiped second and third after getting a free pass from Ken Michelson who worked the last inning for Tri-City. Murphy scored the final run of the came on a long fly ball to center field.
Vic Buccola and Nick Pesut put together the fielding gem of the night. Steve Mesner tried to charge through the hefty Brave backstop and came up with the usual result, He was out. Buccola started the fast play on a hopper down the first base line, Mesner trying to score from third.
The grounds keeper accounted for one run at least last night, when a hopper by Ken Richardson hit a rock and bounced high over Buddy Peterson's head for single that would have been an out.
Spokane .... 002 070 201—12-19-4
Tri-City ..... 250 000 210—10-15-2
Wyatt, Aubertin (2) and Sheets; Zande, Brewer (5), Michelson (9) and Pesut.

YAKIMA, July 24—Salem's Bill Bevens twirled his 15th win of the season as he pitched the Senators to a 4-1 triumph over the Bears.
Bevens struck out nine men but bases on balls kept him in constant trouble. He walked eight men in nine innings.
Salem ......... 102 000 001—4-8-0
Yakima ....... 000 000 001—1-9-0
Bevens and McKeegan; Del Sarto, Anderson (9) and Tiesiera.

WENATCHEE, July 24—Southpaw Tommy Breisinger, Wenatchee southpaw, choked off a threat in the ninth inning Tuesday night as Wenatchee scored a 5-2 victory over the Tacoma Tigers in a Western International league baseball game.
Tacoma ......... 100 000 001—2- 7-3
Wenatchee .... 101 000 30x—5-10-4
Kipp and Lundberg; Breisinger and Roberson.

9-0 Is Best WIL Record
TACOMA, July 25 — Idle for the third straight week because of a shoulder injury, Spokane's Jim Holder remains the Western International league's leading pitcher with a 9-0 season's won lost record.
Next in line are a pair of Vancouver stalwarts, Pete Hernandez at 10-2 and Bob Snyder at 19-4. Hernandez won his lone start during the week, while Snyder picked up a victory and was charged with a defeat.
Left-handers maintained their monopoly on strikeout honors with Wenatchee's Tom Breisinger continuing to set the pace with 130, up 14 from a week ago.
Next in line were Jim Propst of Victoria with 106 and Bob Schulte of Tacoma with 97.
John Marshall, Spokane righthander, issued a dozen more walks to increase his total to 130 while Schulte and Breisinger were next in the errant elbowing department with 110 and 108, respectively.
The leaders, as released today from the office of Robert B. Abel, W-I president:
                      IP SO BB  W L PCT
Holder, Spok. ...... 106 48 72  9 0 1.000
Hernandez, Van. .... 116 42 62 10 2 .833
Snyder, Van. ....... 207 82 56 19 4 .826
Barrett, Vic-Yak. ... 50 28 35  5 2 .714
Bevens, Sal. ....... 173 80 69 14 7 .667
Bishop, Spok. ...... 174 48 68 12 6 .667
Rockey, Spok. ...... 109 51 58  8 4 .667
Roberts, Spok. ...... 64 49 43  8 4 .667
Tisnerat, Van. ..... 104 34 51  6 3 .667
Raimondi, Wen. ...... 94 42 51  6 3 .667

On the SUNBEAM
With JACK DE LONG [Vancouver Sun, July 25, 1951]
Vancouver Capilanos took a hairline decision from Victoria last night. That’s all that saved manager Bill Schuster’s hair.
Before the encounter, the Rooster vowed:
“I haven’t pulled out my hair yet but I will if we don’t win tonight.”
Sun artist Ted Dill depicts the horror that nearly was before Bill’s hair was saved by that hair-raising triumph in the 12th inning.
How mean can people get? Cap outfielder Dick Sinovic and some of his mates dropped into a Granville Street emporium for some ice cream yesterday afternoon. Behind a shielding partition the baseballers heard this conversion:
How Some Folks Talk
Question: “Were you at the game last night?”
Answer: “Yes.”
Question: “Who won?”
Answer: “Oh, Victoria won.”
Question: “How bad can those Caps get?”
• • •
Dick Sinovic is still telling people what he told those fellows through the partition. I think the shopkeeper had to call the fire department.
I also think Sinovic was right in telling those people off. After all, Caps are no worse than portioning first place in the WIL standings.
• • •
Marine marvel: Victoria seems to have discovered a Sturgeon who is no fish.
Pathetic follow-up: At least Vancouver baseball fans were speaking about Sturgeon with baited breath.
• • •
Here are several reasons why fans pay more to watch baseball games:
Before the war official baseballs cost $12 per dozen.
1951 price: $24 per dozen (Twelve to 18 balls are lost at every game at Cap Stadium.) The best Louisville bats cost one dollar each before the war. Today’s price: $4.15 per bat.
First grade home uniforms (shirt, trousers and socks) cost $30 per outfit before the war. Price per outfit in 1951: $69. Best calfskin spiked shoes sold to clubs before the war at from $7.50 to $9 a pair. Cost this season: $23 to $27 per pair.
• • •
Business manager Bob Brown gave me the inflationary statistics yesterday and then said the worst feature is that quality in general is down.
For example, the only thing that doesn’t break about the post-war bats is the price. Handles are thinner and there is such a big demand for quality ash that bats are harder to buy.
• • •
It pays to be a sport, especially when you home-town Capilanos are losing ball games.