Saturday, August 11, 1951

W L PCT GB
Spokane ..... 77 40 .658 —
Vancouver ... 76 43 .639 2
Salem ....... 61 57 .517 16½
Wenatchee ... 57 59 .491 19½
Victoria .... 54 67 .446 24
Tri-City .... 52 68 .433 25½
Tacoma ...... 48 69 .410 28
Yakima ...... 48 70 .407 28½

YAKIMA, Aug. 11 — The Spokane Indians spotted the Yakima Bears two runs in the first inning, then came back to score a 5-3 victory in a Western International League baseball game tonight.
Two Yakima runs crossed in the opening frame as Spokane missed a double play attempt with the bases loaded. Spokane got one back in the fourth as Steve Mesner and Mel Wasley singled, Mesner scored while Yakima completed a double play.
In the sixth, the Indians put the game out of reach. A walk, three singles, an outfield fly and pitcher John Marshall's double drove home four runs.
Spokane ...... 000 104 000—5-10-1
Yakima ........ 200 000 010—3- 6-1
Marshall and Sheets; Boemler and Tiesiera.

VICTORIA, [Colonist, Aug 12, 1951]—It had to happen sooner than later and it was Victoria Athletics’ tough luck that they had to be the opposition when it did.
Impotent offensively for the past two or three weeks as they wasted generally good pitching with a general club batting slump, Vancouver Capilanos ended their hit drought with a vengeance yesterday.
Bill Schuster’s hit-hungry athletes climbed all over three Victoria pitchers and outfielder Gene Thompson for 31 hits and a 24-6 decision yesterday afternoon and picked up 12 more safeties under the lights as they made it a sweep by a 6-2 count.
The double victory gave the Caps a 2-1 series lead and a 10-8 edge in season’s play, and the A’s a severe jolt in their late bit for a first-division berth.
WILD OPENING
The first game became a mere formality in the first inning when the Caps scored eight runs. Bill Osborn had nothing left after giving up four hits, a base on balls and a sacrifice.
Manager Bob Sturgeon made his play to stay in the game by calling on Bill Prior with three runs in, two on the bags and one out. Prior got the first man on a pop fly, gave up a run-scoring single and a walk and was apparently out of it when Bob McGuire hit a liner at Ben Jeffey. Jeffey dropped the ball and it cost the A’s four more runs.
Not wanting to waste Prior, Sturgeon called on Bill Carr and it rapidly became a shambles. The Caps joyously started to fatten their averages, picking on the lean righthander for 12 hits and 10 runs, all earned, in the next two innings. Gene Thompson was called in from left field to finish up and held his own, giving up six runs while the A’s picked up as many off the breezing George Nicholas.
MARTIN HURT
The loss was a costly one. A’s lost the services of Milt Martin, their only catcher, who hurt his shoulder when McGuire unnecessarily threw a block at him as he was scoring and bowled him over hard.
Al Kubacek, who does the receiving for the Eagles, was signed between games and caught the arclight game. The Caps took advantage of the situation to pilfer six bases, setting up three of their runs.
However, the loss was not the fault of the little receiver, who did a fair enough job in a tough spot. Pete Hernandez, always tough for the A’s, scattered six hits and always looked like a winner.
Benefitting most yesterday was John Ritchey, Dick Sinovic and Charlie Mead, the middle of the Vancouver batting order. Sinovic, who had six hits in as many official trips in the first game, wound up with nine for 11, including two doubles, and batted in six runs. Ritchey hit safely six times in 12 tries and batted in four runs while Mead drove across seven teammates with an identical performance.
First Game
Vancouver ..... 837 100 032—24-31-3
Victoria ......... 000 120 030— 6-12-2
Nicholas and Ritchey; Osborn, Prior (1), Carr (2), Thompson (4) and Martin.
Second Game
Vancouver .... 210 010 011—6-12-1
Victoria ........ 100 000 010—2- 6-2
Hernandez and Ritchey; Lorino and Kubasek.

KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, Aug. 12]—TRI-CITY swept both ends of doubleheader baseball game in the Braves home park last night. They whipped Salem 6-5 in an overtime opener and won the second Western International league contest 7-3.
An official 1,085 fans saw the two games.
Augle Zande was the winning pitcher in the second game while Nick Pesut and Bill Eddelstein [sic] furnished the artillery.
Pesut drove in two of the runs while Eddelstein sprayed two triples “where they wasn't.” Neil Bryant and Cy Greenlaw each accounted for doubles.
The team fielded by the Braves was made of “whatever was left.” Al Spaeter was out with a dislocated finger and the manager Charlie Peterson had a broken toe.
THE BRAVES’ win made it three in a row over the Senators. Today's game — last of the series — will begin at 7:30 p.m. Hurling for the visiting Salem team will be Bill Bevans, ex-New York Yankees pitching ace.
The Yaklma Bears come here for a series beginning Tuesday night.
Kenny Michaelson won the opener for the Braves. The pitcher subbing as an outfielder smashed a hot one down the third base line with the bases loaded in the ninth inning. The ball was too hot for the Salem third sacker to handle and Clint Cameron raced home with the winning tally.
Bob Costello started the game but was thumbed to the showers in the second inning by Umpire Nels Pearson. It appeared that Costello was winding up to pitch when Pearson called time. The lanky Brave didn't like this interruption of his windup and he told Pearson so.
There was an argument and finally Costello told Pearson what he could do with the ball. Pearson didn't do that but he did throw Costello out of the game.
Jack Brewer relieved and stayed until the seventh when a pinch hitter replaced him. The pinch man didn't do the trick so Buzz Berriesford, the 19-year-old hurler Tri-Clty recently got from Sacramento, took the mound.
He got credit for the win. It was his first. He has a loss against him too.
First Game
Salem ....... 101 003 000—5- 8-0
Tri-City ..... 200 000 301—6-11-2
De George and McKeegan; Costello, Brewer (4), Berriesford (8) and Pesut.
Second Game
Second Game
Salem ...... 000 001 200—3 9 0
Tri-City .... 010 501 00x—7 10 0
Monroe, Lew (4) and McKeegan, Dana (6); Zande and Pesut.

WENATCHEE, Aug. 11 — The Tacoma Tigers outlasted Wenatchee tonight to register an 11 to 8 win here In a Western International League game.
Tacoma ......... 000 102 611—11-14-4
Wenatchee .... 150 000 020— 8- 8-1
Dodeward, Mishasek (6), Clark (7) and Lundberg; Treichel, Kanshin (7), Arnerich (9) and Roberson.

Barrett Fined, Off Three Days for Fisticuffs
[Victoria Colonist, Aug 12, 1951]
Dick Barrett has been fined $25 and suspended for three days for his physical difference of opinion with Reg Patterson, business manager of the Victoria Athletics, before Wednesday’s W.I.L. game here against Yakima.
Bob Abel, league president, made the announcement here last night after a special trip from Tacoma to investigate the matter.Barrett’s suspension, which also cost him three days’ pay, will date from Wednesday. The former Victoria manager goes back on the reinstated list today and will be eligible to pitch against the Spokane Indians.

Salem Hurlers May Be Sold
SALEM, Aug. 11—The Salem Senators business office announced Saturday that two major league clubs "have expressed an interest" in the possible purchase of pitchers Bill Bevens and Sal De George, the two top winners on the Salem Western International league team.
The management did not divulge the identity of the major league clubs.
Sevens has won 17 games and DeGeorge 14 for the Senators. DeGeorge has one of the best earned run averages in baseball, 1.93, while Bevens' ERA is a shade below the 3.00 mark. Sevens is the former New York Yankee who lost a one-hit World series game to Brooklyn in 1947.
Both pitchers are righthanders.

ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [from Aug. 12, 1951]
JOTS AND DOTS . . . HERE AND THERE

When Bill Edelstein stepped out on the mound the other day it was no surprise to manager Charlie Petersen . . . Edelstein had been a pitcher long before he exchanged the toe plate to chase fly balls in the outer gardens.

BATTLE OF THE RADIOS
There's a great big battle browing under nover between the radio stations over the baseball question. When he was last here Bob Abel, president of the WIL said that he would call a meeting within two weeks after the close of the season to attempt to settle the question.
Here's what has been going on. Certain stations (who are well known to Able) have been pirating baseball games and selling them to their sponsors without paying any of the costs. In other words they lift the games from the air and put them on their own station as much as though they had paid for them. One station has gone so far as to use the World Series (it almost cost them their license when the others finally decided to take a hand).
The offenders are a chain organization with stations throughout the state. The way they operate the deal is to use a teletype circuit and relay the game to the home team station and thus make the fans think that they actually are broadcasting.
The upshot of it may be that no stations will be given broadcast rights unless they can guarantee that there will be no reproduction by a member station in the chain (if they belong to one.)

NON WIL MINOR LEAGUE NEWS
That's Perfect!
Great Falls, Aug. 11—Ken Kimball, 24-year-old Idaho Falls right hander, pitched the first perfect game in the history of the Pioneer Baseball league tonight. He tossed the Russets to a 3-0 triumph over Great Falls in the second game of a doubleheader. The slender San Jose, Calif., hurler had perfect control throughout the nine-inning game, striking out 13 of the 27 men who faced him. Not one Great Falls player reached first base.Barrett Fined, Off Three Days for Fisticuffs
[Victoria Colonist, Aug 12, 1951]
Dick Barrett has been fined $25 and suspended for three days for his physical difference of opinion with Reg Patterson, business manager of the Victoria Athletics, before Wednesday’s W.I.L. game here against Yakima.
Bob Abel, league president, made the announcement here last night after a special trip from Tacoma to investigate the matter.
Barrett’s suspension, which also cost him three days’ pay, will date from Wednesday. The former Victoria manager goes back on the reinstated list today and will be eligible to pitch against the Spokane Indians.

Thursday, July 19, 1951

W L PCT GB
Vancouver ... 62 31 .667
Spokane ..... 60 33 .645 2
Salem ....... 46 46 .500 15½
Wenatchee ... 45 46 .459 16
Tri-City .... 42 51 .452 20
Victoria .... 40 54 .426 22½
Tacoma ...... 38 54 .413 23½
Yakima ...... 37 55 .402 24½

VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Province, July 20]—The oddsmakers wouldn’t have given you much for Vancouver Capilano’s chances against Tacoma Tigers before last night’s baseball game at new Capilano Stadium. [Vancouver 13, Tacoma 4]
Caps’ league-leading hitter, John Ritchey, was riding the bench with an ankle injury, and Dick Sinovic, number two man in the WIL leaders’ one-two punch, was in a batting slump. And with the rest of the attack looking peaked, to say the least, things appeared grim for George Nicholas’ return to action after more than two weeks with a sore arm.
THREE EXTRA-BASERS
But Sinovic is too good a ball player to let a slump tie him in knots for long. The classy centre-fielder busted out all over leading the winners’ 11-hit attack on five Tacoma pitchers with four-for-four, his output including two doubles and a triple.
Gordie Brunswick took up the slask left by Ritchey’s rest—Reno Cheso replaced him behind the plate—the young infielder-outfielder slapping out a double and three singles in five tries.
McGUIRE SLUGS TOO
Bob McGuire provided whatever other punch was needed for Nicholas to coast to his 10th win against six losses, coming through with a bases-loaded double good for three runs.
CUFF NOTES—The win left Vancouver with a 3-1 advantage in the series with Tacoma. . . The Brownies repair to Victoria for a three-game series with the Athletics, the same two teams returning here Monday for four more. . . Pete Hernandez is down to pitch the Victoria opener tonight.
Tacoma .......... 000 004 000— 4 10 1
Vancouver ...... 102 060 40x—13 11 1
Kipp, Mishasek (5), Schulte (6), Clark (7), Brillheart (8) and Lundberg; Nicholas and Cheso.

YAKIMA, July 19—The Spokane Indians salvaged a victory from their series with the celler-dweling Yakima Bears on Thursday night. Ken Richardson's two doubles were the big blows in Spokane's 5-1 truimph but the busiest man on the field was Ed Murphy, the Indians outfielder.
Murphy laced out four hits in five appearances, stole three bases and accounted for seven put-outs and one assist.
Spokane .......... 010 030 001—5 13 1
Yakima ............ 000 000 010—1 7 0
Bishop and Sheets; Boemler, Anderson (5), Savarese (8) and Tiesiera.

SALEM, July 19—Bill Bevens pitched his 14th victory of the season Thursday night as the Salem Senators downed Tri-City, 10-2, to sweep a three-game Western International baseball league series.
Bevens let the Braves down with eight well-scattered hits.
Jack Brewer started on the Tri-City hill but after being found for four hits and three runs, Buzz Berriesford took over before the first inning was finished, But a five-run fourth inning derrlcked the young rookie. The Senators scored those five on four walks as Berriesford lost his control, an error and a line drive by shortstop Richie Meyers.
Dick Stone, who then walked to the mound, became the third Tri-City hurler. . .Stone finished the game giving up two runs over the four and one-third inning distance.
Both of Tri-City's runs were unearned. Clint Cameron, back in the cleanup batting position, led the Braves at the plate with a single and a double.
Bill Spaeter, Salem outfielder, lead their offense by driving in three runs on a double and a single in five trips to the plate.
Friday is "Husband's Night" at Sanders Field. The woman buys the tickets paying full price for her own, but only the tax on her husband's, or boy friends, as the case may be.
Tri-City ........ 001 000 001— 2 8 1
Salem .......... 300 511 00x—10 13 2
Brewer, Beriesford (1), Stone (4) and Pesut; Bevens and McKeegan.

VICTORIA [Colonist, July 20]—Victoria Athletics continued in their hitting slump last night and made it very easy for Tom Breisinger and the Wenatchee Chiefs to register a 7-2 win at Royal Athletic Park.
CAPS HERE TONIGHT
The victory, second in a row for the Chiefs, squared the four game series. Vancouver’s leading Capilanos move in tonight for three games with John Tierney slated to start for the A’s. Pete Hernandez looms as the possible Vancouver choice although there is a chance that Bud Beasley, the eccentric southpaw is almost as good as he is entertaining, will get the starting assignment.
First baseman Hal Jackson did his best in his first starting assignment to give the A’s a series win but with bad support in the early innings and his teammates’ inability to do much with Breisinger prevented him from cashing in on a creditable job.
STAYS IN GAME
Started mainly because the Chiefs are overloaded with left-handed hitters, Jackson was touched for 12 hits, but all of them were singles. He stayed in the game until the ninth inning, when he tired and the visitors iced it with a three-run rally.
A bad throw by Shortstop Jim Clark on a double steal gave Wenatchee one of its two runs in the fourth inning. Catcher Milt Martin’s error on a force play at the plate gave the Chiefs two more unearned runs and a 4-0 lead in the seventh.
SMITH STOPS RALLY
The A’s, helped by an error, got back into contention in the eighth when they scored their only runs, but three hits and two walks to open the ninth sent in two runs and left the bases loaded for Ron Smith. The relief pitcher got out neatly, forcing Len Neal to hit into a double play and whiffing Breisinger, but it was too late.
On the bright side was the showing of Clark on the bases and at the plate. The little infielder singled twide against a tough lefthander and flashed some of the speed the A’s have lacked.
Defensively, the plays of the game were turned in by Don Pries, with a leaping snatch of Neal’s terrific liner, and Martin, with a diving catch of a low pop foul.
Wenatchee ....... 000 200 203—7 12 2
Victoria ............ 000 000 020—2 1 3
Breisinger and Neal; Jackson, Smith (9) and Martin.

NO PRO BALL FOR EDMONTON
—John Ducey Says
EDMONTON, July 20—(CP)—John Ducey, Edmonton's top baseball executive, said Thursday Calgary “can’t have Western International League baseball without Edmonton in the picture.”
Ducey intimated Edmonton is not interested in lining up with the class “B” professional league at the west coast.
He was commenting on reports that Calgary may be on the verge of taking up the Tacoma franchise in the W.I.L.
Ducey said Calgary wouldn’t be able to make a go of it without Edmonton because “the distances are too great for the coast teams to be coming into Alberta just to play in Calgary.”
“If they (W.I.L.) weren’t in trouble they wouldn't be looking up our way,” Ducey said. “We're not interested without normal commitments. We don't have to go out of our way to get into an organized league.
“We won't be buying any (W.I.L.) franchise.”
Rather than the coast, Ducey said he feels the first move by Calgary and Edmonton into organized baseball should be to the south—as a section of the Pioneer League with the principal Montana cities.

Outfielder, Pitcher Bought by A’s for Playoff Drive
[Colonist, July 20, 1951]
Determined to finish in the first division if at all possible and attempting to find more speed and pitching, Victoria Athletics yesterday purchased a pitcher and an outfielder from Klamath Falls of the Far West League.
HERE TOMORROW
The new players will report to the club tomorrow and will probably see action almost immediately. Their arrival and the arrival next week of pitcher Bill Carr will mean three of the players currently on the roster will have to be sold, traded or released. Just who the trio will be will probably be determined tomorrow before the club embarks on another road trip.
The new Athletics are southpaw Ben Lorino and Ben Jaffey, an outsider who swings from the first-base side. They were procured through the co-operation of Don McShane, scout of the Philadelphia Phillies, who own the Klamath Falls club.
GET SCOUT’S APPROVAL
McShane explained he had recently signed some young players for the Klamath Falls club and that they were blocked from playing regularly by the presence of Jaffey and Lorino on the Klamath Falls roster. McShane believes that Lorino will win in the W.I.L. and states that Jaffey, only 22 years of age, has prospects of becoming a good player for the A’s.
No information was available last night on Lorino’s previous baseball record but it was reported that he had a 7-2 rating this season.
RECORD GOOD
Jaffey was hitting .330, had batted in 78 runs and was leading the league in home runs at the time of his purchase. He played with Klamath Falls last season and although he batted only .269, his record showed 93 runs batted in, 25 doubles, five triples and 12 home runs among his base hits, 29 stolen bases, 109 bases on balls and 66 strikeouts.
Reg Patterson, business manager of the Victoria club, was particularly intrigued by Jaffey’s 29 stolen bases and the fact that he swings lefthanded. The A’s had only Hal Jackson batting from the port side among the regulars and little speed on the club until shorstop Jim Clark reported. Clark, incidentally, has made a good impression in the two two games he has played and looks as if he will be around for some time.
LOSE OUT ON BENTON
At the same time, it was learned that the A’s had failed in their bid for Al Benton, former star relief pitcher of the Detroit Tigers. The big veteran, released earlier this week by Sacramento, has caught on with San Diego and pitching in relief for the Padres last night.


ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [from July 20, 1951]
Floyd Bill Bevens who once stood on the threshold of immortal baseball fame by virtue of an almost no-hitter in a World Series, and who is currently pitching with Salem in this league, is the subject of an article in this week's issue of Collier’s. Tom Meany, a former sports writer but now an associate editor of the magazine, authored the story following a personal trip to Salem.
Naturally the highlight of the story is how Cookie Lavagetto slammed a double after two were out in the ninth, inning to beat Bevens. Following that historic game in Oct. 1947, Bevens never again started a game for the Yankees.
One of the highlights of Meany’s story tells of the desperate measures Bevens took to bring his “dead” arm back to life. It included a trip to the doctor who first game Bevens a slug of novocain, followed by saline solution shots. “Now try your arm,” said the medico. “Well,” said Bevens, “my arm really felt good. I dashed into the clubhouse and just as I was peeling off my jacket, the effects of the novocain wore off. Brother, did I have a sore arm then.”
It’s a story well worth reading if you're a sports fan. . . and more particularly if you follow baseball at all.
HELP WHEN HE NEEDED IT
Coming right down to cases you have a good example on the Tri-City Braves. Early in the season the pressure was really on Manager Charlie Petersen to drop Bob Costello from the pitching staff. However, Petersen shook off the opposition and stuck firmly by his decision to keep Costello, To say that Bob achieved his fine record this year as a result of Petersen’s faith in him wouldn't be doing justice to the bespectacled speedball whiz. Yet, it's reasonable to believe that his manager’s faith must have instilled a lot of confidence in Cos’. . . and when he needed it most.
JOTS AND DOTS ... HERE AND THERE
Some insiders are whispering that Frank Gillihan’s trip to Canada to peddle the Tacoma WIL franchise was done more to prod along the Tacomans than anything else.

Monday, July 16, 1951

W L PCT GB
Vancouver ... 60 30 .667 —
Spokane ..... 58 31 .652 1½
Wenatchee ... 43 45 .489 16
Salem ....... 43 46 .483 16½
Tri-City .... 42 48 .467 18
Victoria .... 39 52 .429 21½
Tacoma ...... 37 52 .416 22½
Yakima ...... 35 53 .398 24

VANCOUVER [Erwin Swangard, Sun, July 17]—Before each season and periodically during a season Western International Baseball League president Robert Abel impresses on his officials that hustle on the diamond is half of the entertainment.
Apparently Umpires Dick Valencourt and Charles Ross need an extended refresher course as they permitted Vancouver Capilanos and Tacoma Tigers to struggle two hours and 45 minutes through a listless and lustre-lacking game at Little Mountain Stadium Monday night.
Actually it could have been one of the better contests of the season. It had all the elements of tense excitement as Capilanos’ Jerry Barta, newly acquired from Tacoma, extricated himself from one jam after the other with the result that 13 Tacoma Tigers were left on base.
He finally needed help in the eighth inning. Bill Whyte and Bob Snyder saved his first victory.
Bill didn’t leave because of any particular trouble. He made room for pinch-hitter Charlie Mead.
Caps picked up all their four runs off starter Tom Kipp in the third inning. It was a contribution of five hits, a balk and some infield plays which did the trick.
Tigers finally broke through Barta in the fifth when pitcher Walt Schulte singled, Saul [sic] Israel double and Mike Catron brought him home with a fly to right field.
Tonight, the same teams go again in the second of the four game serious [sic], scheduled to end Thursday.
Tacoma ............. 000 020 000—2 8 0
Vancouver ......... 004 000 00x—4 8 2
Kipp, Schultz (4), Miller (9) and Lundberg; Barta, Whyte (8), Snyder (9) and Ritchey.

VICTORIA, B.C., July 16 — Victoria Athletics took the opener of a four-game series with Wenatchee Chiefs Monday night 5-4 as they made an early-inning lead stand up.
Victoria jumped on Al Treichel for three runs in the first inning. The poker-faced veteran hit Bill Dunn with his second pitch. Singles by Hal Jackson and Gene Thompson and Bill White's two-run double plated three runs.
Wenatchee's defence fell apart in the second inning when errors by Walt Pocekay and Jim Marshall gave the A's two unearned runs. But Treichel closed the door from there-
Jim Propst, who walked six but didn't yield an extra base hit, ran into his first trouble in the fourth when two bases on balls and a pair of singles left the bases loaded with one run in and one out. Walt Raimondi grounded into a double play.
Two hits and a walk put the first three Chiefs on base in the eighth. Two runs scored as runners were reired at first and it became uncomfortably close when Len Neal drove in a third with a single to make it 5-4.
In the ninth, Propst opened by walking Ross McCormack but Wenatchee didn't elect to play for the single run. Bud Hjelmaa, the second batter, swung away and popped out and Pocekay flew out before Marv Diercks made a fine catch of Jim Marshall's hooking liner to end the game.
Wenatchee .... 000 100 030—4 8 3
Victoria ......... 320 000 00x—5 11 0
Treichel and Neal; Propst and Martin.

SPOKANE, July 16—Spokane Indians took a bushman's holiday in the Western International league pennant race Monday night. A crowd of approximately 3000
watched as the Indians lost a night exhibition game to the barnstorming House of David baseballers 6 to 4.
The Indians wore their new short pants and outfielder Edo Vanni umpired. A. Murray O'Flynn, Spokane baseball clown, pitched for the Indians.

ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED

TACOMA, July 17— Although he had only a mildly successful week at the plate, collecting nine hits in 25 appearances, Vancouver's John Ritchey remains comfortably out in front of the pack in the Western International league batting race with a .380 average.
The Capilano catcher's nearest rivals are Buddy Peterson of Tri-City and Len Neal of Wenatchee, deadlocked at .352, while Dick Sinovic, Vancouver outfielder who held the top spot for several weeks, has dropped to fifth place at ,348, behind Tacoma's Butch Moran at .350.
Sinovic retains his runs-batted-in lead with a total of 74, as against Moran's 70, while Hal Jackson of Victoria is third with 62.
Will Hafey of Wenatchee is the home run pace-setter with 11, followed by Vic Buccola of Tri-City and Bill White of Victoria with nine each.
The leaders, as released today from the office of Robert B. Abel, W-I president:
AB H RBI Ave
Ritchey, Van ....... 279 106 50 .380
Peterson, T-C ...... 281 99 60 .352
Neal, Wen .......... 281 99 43 .352
Moran, Tac ......... 349 122 70 .350
Sinovic, Van ....... 345 120 74 .348
Pries, Vic ......... 347 119 42 .343
Vanni, Spok ........ 387 132 48 .341
Baxes, Yak ......... 322 108 41 .335
Kovenz, Tac ........ 317 103 45 .325
Chorlton, Tac ...... 179 58 27 .324

PATROLLING THE
Sports Highway
WITH AL WARDEN
[Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 17, 1951]
Remember Bevens

The score: New York Yanks, 2: Brooklyn Dodgers, 1.
The scenery: Ebbets field, Oct. 3, 1947—site of the fourth world series game.
The situation: There were two outs in the ninth inning: Dodger runners, by virtue of two walks, were on first and second. Bill Bevens was pitching for the Yankees.
But that was only back drop to the drama. The Dodgers had garnered a total of no hits off the strong, silent Bevens: one more out and he would walk out of the world series with the first no-hitter in its history.
Then Brooklyn's Cookie Lavagetto walked up to the plate and slugged a double into right field. Before they caught up with the ball, two Dodgers had scored, with Brooklyn winning, 3-2.
Bevens had lost not only his no-hitter but the ball game as well. He never again started a game for the Yanks.
In this week's Colliers, Associate Editor Tom Meany tells the rugged story of what it's like to approach near greatness—and then shift into reverse.
Bevens spent one more year—a tortured season—with the Yanks, but his arm gave him great pain and the hop had faded from his fastball. He started down the ladder of organized baseball.
One year after Bevens was robbed of a no-hitter by Lavagolto's ninth-inning double, he was back in Salem, Ore. working for a beer company, hoisting cases onto trucks.
In 1950 he started the long road back. Meany relates: today, as a pitcher for his home-town club, the Class B Salem Senators of the Western Inlrrnational league, Bevens—at the age of 33—knows what it's like to exchange thr luxury of big league living for the drudgery of life in the minors.
"He also hopes in his heart that someday he will be back on top." Meany writes in Collier's. "He is grimly and coolly directing every effort toward that target. Bevens is a much improved pitcher, and there's a chance that he'll make it. Meanwhile he stolidly endures the rigors of smalltime baseball."