Sunday 16 March 2008

Friday, June 5, 1953

W L Pct GB
Lewiston .... 25 11 .694 —
Salem ....... 21 14 .600 3½
Vancouver ... 21 15 .583 4
Edmonton .... 21 20 .512 6½
Spokane ..... 17 20 .459 8½
Calgary ..... 18 22 .450 9
Yakima ...... 19 24 .442 9½
Victoria .... 17 21 .436 9
Wenatchee ... 17 21 .436 9
Tri-City .... 16 24 .400 11


LEWISTON, Idaho — The Lewiston Broncs, pace setters of the Western International Baseball League, broke loose for six runs in the fourth inning Friday night to defeat Tri-City, 6-2, in the first game of a four-game series.
Home runs by Clint Cameron and Larry Barton accounted for four runs in the big Lewiston innng.
Artie Wilson doubled and came home on Glen Tuckett's single and Tuckett scored on a sacrifice and an error to wind up the scoring.
Tri-City ..... 200 000 000—2 6 1
Lewiston .... 000 600 00x— 6 9 1
Snyder, Dobernic (4) and Warren; Perez and Cameron.

WENATCHEE — Don Stanford's outfield fly with the bases loaded and none out scored the winning run for Wenatchee in the ninth inning as the Chiefs defeated the Victoria Tyees 6-5 Friday night.
Wenatchee Righthander Charlie Beamon had faced a similar none out, bases loaded situation in the first half of the inning but weathered the storm by getting two Tyee hitters on strikeouts and a third on a force-out grounder back to the box.
- - -
WENATCHEE [Victoria Colonist, June 6]—One of the big reasons Victoria Tyees won the Western International Baseball League championship last season was their ability to win on the road. This year, lack of that ability is ruining their hopes for a repeat.
The Tyees lost their 13th game in 17 starts away from home at Wenatchee last night, blowing a 5-1 lead and messing up on a bases-loaded chance in the ninth inning before the Chiefs squeezed it out, 6-5, with a ninth-inning run.
GOOD AT HOME
By contrast, the Tyees have done well enough at home, winning 13 and losing eight, a pace which would have them in second place had they been able to match it on the road.
Victoria took a 4-1 lead in the fourth when doubles by Don Pries and Milt Martin and singles by Gale Taylor, Herman Charles and Chuck Abernathy did the damage. They left the bases loaded as Jim Clark singled and Bob Moniz walked but Pries, up for the second time, struck out.
Cec Garriott completed the circuit to make it 5-1 in the fifth on a single, a sacrifice by Taylor, an infield out and a wild pitch. But the Chiefs came back to tie it up as starter Bob Drilling ran into back luck on infield hits and the game went down to the last inning all tied up.
FAIL IN CLUTCH
Clark singled to start things for the Tyees and there were runners on third and second with no one out after relief pitcher Charlie Beamon tossed wildly on Moniz’ bunt. Pries struck out, Garriott was walked to load the sacks, then Taylor, who had three times in three trips, forced Clark at the plate and Charles looked at a 3-2 pitch which was called a strike.
The situation was repeated in the Wenatchee half of the ninth. Jake Helmuth walked and all runners were safe as Chuck Abernathy threw a wide one to second base after fielding a bunt. An intentional walk loaded the bags but a fly ball to right-field enabled Helmuth to trundle in with the tie-breaker.
Victoria .................. 000 410 000—5 13 1
Wenatchee ............ 100 031 001—6 14 1
Drilling and Martin; Bothelo, Beamon (4) and Bartolomei.

SPOKANE — Yakima Shortstop Gordie Hernandez slammed a home run over the center field wall with one man on base to give the Bears a 10-8 eleven inning Western International League victory over Spokane Friday night.
Spokane had tied up the see-saw game for the third time in the bottom of the eighth inning when Bill Sheets, Eddie Murphy and Wilbur Johnson all singled and Murphy and Johnson each stole a base.
Reliefer Jack Thompson was credited with the win.
Despite the loss, the Indians moved into the first division of the WIL, swapping spots with fifth-placed Calgary.
Yakima ..... 210 100 130 02—10 17 0
Spokane .... 220 020 020 00— 8 14 2
Flinn, Thompson (8) and Novick; Romero (4), Nemes (11) and Weatherwax.

CALGARY, Alta., June 5—The Edmonton Eskimos swept a Western International League baseball doubleheader here Friday, edging the Calgary Stampeders 5-4 in the first game and racking up a thumping 8-3 win. in the second contest.
Catcher Dick Morgan hit two home runs to lead the way in the first game. Charlie Mead and Dan Hunter hit four-baggers for Calgary as hitters kept on fattening up in the Calgary band-box that passes for a park.
Ray McNulty twirled six-hit ball to pave the way for the clean sweep.
19-year-old Edmonton hurler Pat Utley fanned 14 batters to keep Calgary in check in the nine-inning nightcap of their doubleheader. The Yankee farm hand gave up home runs to Hunter and Ken Whitehead.
(First Game)
Edmonton .... 021 110 0—5 11 1
Calgary ......... 210 001 0—4 6 0
McNulty and Morgan; Stites, Roberts (6) and Lillard.
(Second Game)
Edmonton .... 302 000 300—8 10 1
Calgary ........ 000 100 011—3 7 5
Utley and Morgan; Hittner, Roberts (8) and Bricker, Lillard (4).

Vancouver at Salem, postponed, rain.

Side-Lines
by Sherm Mitchell, Jr.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Sports Editor
[June 5, 1953]
Willy Teams In Trouble Again
Every so often there are rumblings heard in Walla Walla concerning professional baseball for this city. The rumblings get loudest about the time a franchise folds in the Western International League, and a downtrodden and financially broken club is on the market.
The present outlook is for more rumblings by the end of this year's Willy League campaign, because it appears there will be one or more franchises for sale to the highest bidder. More than one team makes no attempt to hide the fact that the wolves are howling at the door.
Victoria's club departed on its most recent road trip with the personnel jingling only half a month's pay in their jeans. A drive to sell 1000 season ticket books to get the finances temporarily in the black achieved only 50 per ceat success. An "angel," who said he'd dig up approximately $20,000 for rapport of the Tyees, may solve the problem for the time being.
At Salem, where the fans subscribed to a stock purchase a couple of years ago to gain control of the club when the Portland Beavers gave it up, the pinch is on again. A debt of $50,000, which includes $20,000 owed to Portland and $30,000 due elsewhere, must be paid off by the first of July. Poor attendance because of the weather is blamed for much of he deficit, but it would take a lot of paying customers to raise that kind of money.
Both Victoria and Salem are considerably more populous than Walla Walla. The Canadian city, in fact, was one of the attendance leaders in the Willy League last year when they won the pennant.
But the fans like a winner, and particularly in a year just following a pennant, they show their disdain for an ordinary entry by staying at home on ball game nights.
The Walla Walla Bears in the Tri-State loop give the customers here a pretty classy brand of semi-pro baseball, and do it without nearly the expense of a class A professional nine. After two seasons of play, the cost of maintaining the dub can be pretty well estimated in advance, and the outlook for the season to start June 12 is good. Any kind of break at all in the weather should find the Bears solvent at the end of the current campaign and ready to go again next year.
Those who agitate for professional baseball here might get it for one season, then find that, financially strapped, the entry would fold and there would be no baseball at all the following year. The Bears gate attendance average, approximately 600 per contest, wouldn't keep a pro club with class A salaries around very long. But it does provide interesting action nearly all summer long on semi-pro scale.
What's more, we have, baseball two, three or four nights every of the summer, while the pros play at home every night of the week for a while, then go on the road, leaving a vacuum in
entertainment. Fans can see all the Bears games by going out le park a couple of nights a week. We doubt if many could attend Tuesday through Sunday to view a professional nine.

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