Wednesday, August 29, 1951

W L Pct GB
Spokane ..... 90 45 .667 —
Vancouver ... 88 49 .642 3
Salem ....... 70 64 .522 19½
Wenatchee ... 63 71 .470 26½
Victoria .... 61 77 .442 30½
Tacoma ...... 59 78 .431 32
Yakima ...... 57 78 .422 33
Tri-City .... 55 81 .404 35½

TACOMA [Victoria Colonist, Aug. 30]—Tacoma Tigers erupted for five hits in the eighth inning to take a 6-3 decision from Victoria Athletics at Tacoma last night and virtually kill the A’s last hope of catching a W.I.L. playoff berth.
The defeat dropped the A’s a full four games behind the fourth-place Wenatchee Chiefs—rained out at Salem last night—with six games to pick up on the losing side. The A’s have seven games left—six of them against first.division clubs—while the Chiefs have nine games remaining against the lowly Yakima Bears and Tri-City Braves.
SLIM CHANCE
To gain a play-off berth the A’s would have to win six of their remaining contests if the Chiefs were to lose seven. If the Chiefs only lose six, the A’s must sweep all seven remaining games.
It was bases on balls that led to the A’s defeat last night, walks starting all three Tacoma scoring innings. The Tigers pushed over their first run in the bottom of the second, after Victoria had taken a 2-0 lead, when Vince DiMaggio walked, advanced on a balt and scored on Merv Dubbers’ single. John Kovenz walked to open the sixth, went to third on Butch Moran’s single and scored on DiMaggio’s fly to even the score.
WINNING RALLY
Until the eighth, the hits by Dubbers and Moran were the only ones given up by southpaw Ben Lorino. But in the eighth, Mike Catron walked to again open the inning and Kovenz followed with a 435-foot inside-the-park homer. Singles by Moran and Joe Bache, sandwiching DiMaggio’s double, added two insurance runs.
Bill White started both of Victoria’s run-scoring innings with singles. Rocco Cardinale drew a walk after White’s single in the second and Ben Jeffey advanced the runners with a sacrifice. Bob Sturgeon then singled to drive in both runners.
The A’s scored their final run when White singled, Sturgeon walked and Marv Diercks singled to drive in the former, but Milt Marin fanned in a pinch-hitting role with the tying run at the plate.
Victoria ........ 020 000 001—3 7 0
Tacoma ........ 010 001 04x—6 7 0
Lorino and Cardinale; Kipp and Lunberg, Armstrong (4).

SPOKANE, Aug. 29—The Spokane Indians defeated two opponents tonight—a wet field and the Yakima Bears—to widen their league lead over the Vancouver Capilanos to three games.
Early in the evening, the club used flame throwers of the type used by highway crews for brush burning to dry out an infield soaked by rain the past few days.
Then the Indians took over and edged the Bears 3-2 to give them a three-game lead. Jim Wert's two run single in the first inning got the Indians off to a good start. Spokane tallied the eventual-winning ran in the fifth inning as Ken Richardson singled home Steve Mesner.
Only 864 fans saw the Indians play it cool on the hot infield. Gordie Palm pitched his sixth win with help from reliefer Bob Roberts.
Yakima ........ 010 100 000—2 6 1
Spokane ...... 200 010 00x—3 7 0
Boemler and Tiesiera; Palm, Roberts (8) and Sheets.

Wenatchee at Salem, rained out.
Vancouver at Tri-City, rained out.

Fans to Manage Tacoma Thursday
TACOMA, Aug. 29—It may not be in the cards, but if the Tacoma Tigers lose their Western International league baseball game against Victoria Thursday, the fans will have no one to blame but themselves. They are going to run the club.
The club announced Tuesday the Tigers will operate from the third base dugout and Manager Jim Brillheart will hold up cards asking what plays to use. A show of cards from the fans will decide.
Tacoma officials hope it means a full house.

1951 Crowds Set Record at Salem
SALEM, Aug. 29—Salem's 1951 baseball attendance set a new record of 112,285, assuring the 832 local stockholders some profit.
This was the first year that the team was locally-owned. The attendance was double that of last year, when the Portland Beavers owned the local Western International league club.
The attendance was 10,000 more than the previous record, set in 1946. This year's figures include the 7,700 attendance for two exhibition games against the Beavers and the House of David.
Salem's home season ended Monday night, Tuesday night's final game having been washed out by rain.

Holder Likely To Be Named Best Pitcher
TACOMA, Aug. 29 — All hands have conceded the Western Internationai league pitching championship to Spokane's Jim Holder, and Bob Snyder of Vancouver is certain to be the circuit's big winner.
Interest in the elbowing race is still warm, however, by reason of the bids which the two righthanders will make this week for new W-I records.
Holder, the possessor of an 11-0 season's won-lost record, needs only one more triumph to tie the existing mark for consecutive victories set in 1948 by Frank Nelson of Spokane, tied in 1949 by Sandy Robertson of Vancouver and again equally by Bob Kerrigan of Tacoma last year.
Snyder, with a 24-7 record, needs two more wins to equal Kerrigan's mark for total victories, established last season.
Tom Breisinger of Wenatchee is front in strikeouts with 193, ;while John Marshall of Spokane has a commanding lead in total walks with 171.
The leaders, as released Wednesday from the office of Robert B. Abel, W-I president:
IP SO BB W L Pct.
Holder, Spok ...... 118 55 85 11 0 1.000
Beasley, Van ....... 56 19 11 5 0 1.000
Hernandez, Van .... 179 72 92 16 3 .842
Palm, Spok ......... 61 37 34 5 1 .833
Snyder, Van ....... 278 106 87 24 7 .774
Barrett, Vic-Yak .. 160 44 52 9 4 .692
Nicholas, Van ..... 204 63 70 15 7 .682
Rockey, Spok ...... 109 51 58 8 4 .667
Tisnerat, Van ..... 105 34 53 6 3 .667
Breisinger, Wen ... 247 193 142 16 9 .640
DeGeorge, Sal ..... 211 83 95 16 9 .640
Bevens, Sal ....... 249 118 95 19 11 .633