Vancouver .. 45 19 .703 —
Spokane .... 41 24 .631 4½
Salem ...... 32 32 .500 13
Tri-City ... 30 33 .476 15
Wenatchee .. 30 35 .462 15½
Tacoma ..... 29 36 .446 16½
Yakima ..... 24 35 .387 18½
Victoria ... 26 38 .406 19
SPOKANE, June 23— Bob Snyder, the Western International baseball league's winningest pitcher, racked up his 14th win of the season here tonight as league-leading Vancouver beat Spokane 8 to 5 in a slugfest.
Snyder gave up 11 hits and ten walks but stayed out of trouble most of the way. He has lost only two games in the first inning. Spokane got two runs in the second on three singles and scored a third marker in the sixth to trail 4 to 3. The Indians left 15 runners stranded.
The Caps pounced on Indians' pitcher Ward Rockey for four runs in the first inning.
Vancouver's three runs in the seventh inning were made on two singles, two walks and a wild pitch.
Dick Sinovic, Charlie Mead and Reno Cheso each had two RBIs for Vancouver, and Gordie Brunswick and Sinovic each had three of Vancouver's hits.
The win evened the Western International League series between the two clubs.
Vancouver ....... 400 000 301—8-14 1
Spokane .......... 020 001 101—5-11-1
Snyder and Ritchey; Rockey, Park (7) Wyatt (8) and Sheets.
SALEM, June 23 — The Wenatchee Chiefs defeated the Salem Senators 10 to 6 in Western International league play here tonight.
Wenatchee came from behind in the fourth inning to tie the score at four-all on successive hits by Wally Pocekay, Don Fracchia, Lyle Palmer, Lil Arnerich and pitcher Charles Gassaway.
Fraccia paced the Wenatchee attack with three hits, including two doubles.
The defeat ended a five game winning streak of the Senators and evened the series at one game apiece. Salem catcher Bill Beard was carried from the field in the ninth inning with undetermined leg injuries. He was hurt in a play at home with Wenatchee's Len Neal.
Wenatchee ..... 000 400 411—10-13-1
Salem ............ 400 100 010— 6-15-2
Gassaway and Neal; Wilkie, Lew (7), Hemphill (9) and Beard.
TACOMA, June 23— The Tacoma Tigers won their fifth consecutive game tonight, defeating the Victoria Athletics 6 to 2 in a Western International league baseball tilt.
Jack Barta, Tacoma hurler, pitched six-hit ball and held the Athletics scoreless except in the sixth inning when two unearned runs crossed the plate. The victory gave Barta a 3-5 slate for the season.
John Tierney was the victim as the Tigers made the most out of their one big inning. Tierney appeared unbeatable until he was knocked from the mound in the fourth inning.
Tierney struck out five of the first six batters to face him and had a total of eight when relieved. Merv Dubbers started his downfall with the first Tacoma hit in the third, completing the circuit for the first run on Barta's sacrfice and John Kovenz' single.
A five-run outburst in the fourth sewed up the game for Tacoma. The big inning came on singles by Jose Bache, Merv Dubbers, John Kovenz and K. Chorlton plus two walks and two errors.
The two White brothers, Bill and Bob, were the only Victoria hitters to puzzle Barta, sharing five of the six hits. Bob picked up a double and two singles in four trips and drove in a run, while Bill singled twice in four at-bats, and drove in the other run.
Don Pries, Victoria infielder, was hit on the head by a ball thrown from the outfield and was forced to leave the game. He is expected to return to action Sunday.
Vince DiMaggio, who joined the Tigers today, failed to hit in four attempts.
Victoria ...... 000 002 000—2-6-3
Tacoma ...... 001 500 00x—6-8-1
Tierney, Brkich (5) and Martin; Barta and Watson.
KENNEWICK, June 24 [Herald]—The Tri-City Braves swept both ends of a double header from Yakima at Sanders field last night.
Augie Zande rang up his third victory of the year when he pitched the Braves to a 6-4 victory in the seven inning opener and Lou McCollum was the winning chucker in the free swinging 14-8 nightcap.
Although Tri-City was outhit by Yakima in the second game wildness on the part of the Bear pitchers contributed heavily to their defeat.
Dave Anderson, who started for Yakima, gave up six free passes and Tommy DelSarto, who took over the mound in the third inning, also issued six free passes.
Nick Pesut and McCollum were the hitting stars for the Braves. Pesut drove in six runs in the two games, four coming in the nightcap and two in the opener.
McCollum and Vic Buccola drove in three apiece.
Tri-City scored in every inning except the seventh when they were set down in order in the second game. McCollum weakened in the eighth and gave up six hits as Yakima enjoyed their big inning during which it scored four runs.
However, Tri-City had such a big lead that the Bears were never able to seriously threaten.
The two teams wind up their series in a 7:30 p.m. game tonight. The game has been designated as “Family Night.”
Augie Zande chalked up his third victory of the season in the first game with a mighty assist from Yakima's center fielder, Gary [sic] Zuvella, who committed three errors in the first inning.
Zuvella dropped Cameron's fly ball after one was out. Nick Pesut then followed with a double scoring Al Spaeter and Vic Buccola, Cameron holding at third. Sam Kanelos then drew a pass to load the bases. Manager Charlie Peterson lofted a high fly to short center and again Zuvella dropped it with Cameron scoring on the play.
In an attempt to get Pesut at third Zuvella threw wildly and Pesut came in to score the fourth run of that inning.
Yakima got one run in the first inning when Bill Edelstein fell down going after Al Jacinto's fly ball. It went for a triple. Jacinto scored on Bill Richmand's single.
The Braves scored what proved the winning run of the game in the third inning on a pair of doubles. Kanelos rifled one to left center and after two were out, Edelstein shook the right centerfield boards to score him.
First Game
Yakima ......... 100 032 0— 4 10 3
Tri-City ........ 401 001 x— 6 7 0
Thompson, DelSarto (3) and Brenner; Zande and Pesut.
Second Game
Yakima ......... 011 101 040— 8-17-1
Tri-City ........ 114 124 01x—14-13-1
Anderson, DelSarto (3) and Gaviglio; McCollum and Pesut.
W. I. L. Meets Today
TACOMA, Wash., June 23—Representatives of the Western International Baseball League will hold a “routine” meeting in Spokane tomorrow, league president Robert Abel said here today.
Although Abel made no mention of discussing the possible sale of two clubs, Tacoma and Victoria, because of financial difficulties, the meeting was expected to include talks concerning the “crisis” of those teams.
Wenatchee Team On Solid Ground
WENATCHEE, June 23 — Although attendance is lagging 25,000 behind last year, the Wenatchee Western International league baseball club has no intention of “folding.”
“We're not even thinking along those lines,” Mayor Arthur Pohlman, president of the local-owned club said today, amidst reports that the Victoria, Tacoma and Salem franchises are in shaky condition because of low attendance.
Pohlman said opening and closing the season 10 days late to avoid cold weather like that of this spring will be suggested at the WIL summer meeting in Spokane tomorrow. He said Wenatchee would oppose a split-season for the rest of this year that comes up at the meeting.
Reg Clarkson Traded to Calgary For Kwong
EDMONTON, June 23—(BUP)—Edmonton Eskimos traded halfback Reg Clarkson to Calgary Stampeders fro fullback Normie “China Clipper” Kwong in a straight player deal today.
A joint announcement by the two Western Conference teams ended weeks of speculation about Kwong’s future plans and settled a major rhubarb between the two clubs.
Some time ago Calgary announced they had signed Clarkson, a former University of British Columbia grid star who joined the Eskimos when they re-entered the Western Conference in 1949.
Eskimos promptly threatened to take action against Calgary under the Canadian Rugby Union rule calling for a $1000 fine for tampering with players of another team. The point was that Clarkson, while he did not see any action for Edmonton in 1950, had not been released by the team.
WILfan note: Clarkson was a Capilanos outfielder.
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [from June 24, 1951]
There are at least four basic reasons why the Western International League is now wallowing on the brink of losing some of their current teams. First and most important is salaries. Although the WIL owners like to refer to it as a class B league there hasn't been a true class B team in this league Since 1948. That was the year Dick Richards tried it at Yakima and wound up by finishing 27 games out of seventh place.
This class of baseball was originally designed to bring along the younger players. Here, they were to get the experience necessary to go on up the ladder. But what do you have? For one thing there are some 50-odd ex-major leaguers now in the WIL and there must be at least that many more who have had a cup of coffee or two in the Coast league.
Obviously these men are not playing for the salary as imposed by the league. But that's only part of it. In addition you have various “deals” whereby players re-sign for large bonuses. All that demands a huge take just to meet the monthly payroll.
OVERHEAD CONTINUES TO RISE
Secondly, costs in baseball, as elsewhere, have taken a tremendous jump. Baseballs, bats, uniforms have in some cases doubled. The league hoped to offset some of this by establishing a minimum of 90 cents for a grandstand seat this year. It hasn't been enough and it wouldn't be surprising to see a new minimum of $1 come out of today's league confab in Spokane.
Third the attendance is down. Only Vancouver and Spokane can look forward with any degree of certainty to finishing this year in the black. The others will either drop a chunk or at best be lucky to finish with a small deficit. The long lead which those two teams have over the others is responsible in part for the lag at the gate.
When the other teams arc merely battling for position it's hard to arouse a great amount of enthusiasm.
HAS BEEN NO PROMOTION
And right along with this goes the subject of promotion. As far as we know there hasn't been one truly sincere effort made by any club in the league to stimulate baseball. Sure they bring in a couple of clowns and maybe an odd contest or two but what became of all those high sounding words that were uttered when the winter meeting at Portland was held to map the program for the 50th anniversary of minor league baseball.
We can recall off hand that there was to be a beauty queen selected. So far only Wenatchee has made a move in that direction. They have launched a contest, and it sounds like a good one, to name a queen. When the going gets rough that's not the time to quit. That's when you dig in and fight to hold to what you have. Perhaps if the league were to do a little less of sitting on their hands and wailing about how tough things are and instead went out and tried to sell their product things wouldn't look so bad.
JOTS AND DOTS . . . HERE AND THERE
Yakima brought in a crop of Indians from the reservation to break their losing jinx they held a big tribal dance around home plate before the Wenatchee game. Final score 20-1. Wenatchee not quite as good as the Cleveland character who dumped the black cat on the Yank's Ed Lopat. That, worked so well Cleveland decided to send the fellow back to New York to pull the same stunt . . . but with a bigger cat just to be sure.
This class of baseball was originally designed to bring along the younger players. Here, they were to get the experience necessary to go on up the ladder. But what do you have? For one thing there are some 50-odd ex-major leaguers now in the WIL and there must be at least that many more who have had a cup of coffee or two in the Coast league.
Obviously these men are not playing for the salary as imposed by the league. But that's only part of it. In addition you have various “deals” whereby players re-sign for large bonuses. All that demands a huge take just to meet the monthly payroll.
OVERHEAD CONTINUES TO RISE
Secondly, costs in baseball, as elsewhere, have taken a tremendous jump. Baseballs, bats, uniforms have in some cases doubled. The league hoped to offset some of this by establishing a minimum of 90 cents for a grandstand seat this year. It hasn't been enough and it wouldn't be surprising to see a new minimum of $1 come out of today's league confab in Spokane.
Third the attendance is down. Only Vancouver and Spokane can look forward with any degree of certainty to finishing this year in the black. The others will either drop a chunk or at best be lucky to finish with a small deficit. The long lead which those two teams have over the others is responsible in part for the lag at the gate.
When the other teams arc merely battling for position it's hard to arouse a great amount of enthusiasm.
HAS BEEN NO PROMOTION
And right along with this goes the subject of promotion. As far as we know there hasn't been one truly sincere effort made by any club in the league to stimulate baseball. Sure they bring in a couple of clowns and maybe an odd contest or two but what became of all those high sounding words that were uttered when the winter meeting at Portland was held to map the program for the 50th anniversary of minor league baseball.
We can recall off hand that there was to be a beauty queen selected. So far only Wenatchee has made a move in that direction. They have launched a contest, and it sounds like a good one, to name a queen. When the going gets rough that's not the time to quit. That's when you dig in and fight to hold to what you have. Perhaps if the league were to do a little less of sitting on their hands and wailing about how tough things are and instead went out and tried to sell their product things wouldn't look so bad.
JOTS AND DOTS . . . HERE AND THERE
Yakima brought in a crop of Indians from the reservation to break their losing jinx they held a big tribal dance around home plate before the Wenatchee game. Final score 20-1. Wenatchee not quite as good as the Cleveland character who dumped the black cat on the Yank's Ed Lopat. That, worked so well Cleveland decided to send the fellow back to New York to pull the same stunt . . . but with a bigger cat just to be sure.
