Tuesday 18 March 2008

Monday, July 13, 1953

W L Pct. GB
Salem .......  9 3 .750 —
Spokane ..... 10 4 .714 —
Calgary .....  7 5 .583 2
Lewiston ....  7 5 .583 2
Vancouver ...  6 6 .500 3
Tri-City ....  6 7 .462 3½
Yakima ......  6 8 .429 4
Victoria ....  4 8 .333 5
Wenatchee ...  4 8 .333 5
Edmonton ....  4 9 .308 5½


KENNEWICK, Wash., July 13 — Jake Bloom chalked up his third straight Western International League baseball win Monday night as he hurled Tri-City Braves to a 5-3 win over Edmonton Eskimos.
Bloom, a former Tacoma high school pitching star, issued only five hits as he went the distance for the Braves.
Tri-City cinched the win in the bottom of the eighth when Jack Warren lifted one over the barrier with one man aboard. Terry Campbell singled Edo Vanni home to give the Braves an insurance tally in the same frame.
The Eskimos got one run in the first on Bob Thompson's double and Vern Campbell's single, another in the second on two walks and Thompson's double and the third in the seventh on Andy Skurski's triple and Bob Sturgeon's long fly to centre.
Edmonton ... 110 000 100—3 5 0
Tri-City ...... 200 000 03x—5 12 0
Widner, Day (8) and Morgan; Bloom and Warren.

(only game scheduled)

Stamp School July 23-24
CALGARY, July 13 — Walter Brock, business manager of the Calgary Stampeders of the Class "A" Western International League, announced here recently that the Stamps would open a try-out camp at Buffalo Stadium July 23 and 24.
Activities at the camp will be varied, with games between teams made up of players in attendance holding the feature spot. In addition to these games, there will be drills in running, fielding, hitting and throwing. Workouts will get under way at 10 o'clock each morning and will continue into the afternoon and will be under the supervision of the Calgary Stampeders' playing manager, Gene Lillard, former major league player.
Any player 17 to 23 years of age who are interested in the opportunity to have their playing abilities appraised bv the very capable Gene Lillard and at the same time get a chance to pick up some valuable playing tips are urged to attend.
They are reminded to bring their own baseball shoes and gloves, and uniforms if they have them. The Stampeders will supply all additional eqipment needed. Any players signing profesional contracts will be fully reimbursed for all expenses incidental to attending the camp.
The Stampeders' management is anxious to develop a crop of players for the future and eventually field a team composed largely of Canadian players if possible. The camp will be the only one to be held in Calgary this season by a professional baseball organization.

The Sports Herald
Keith Matthews

[Vancouver News-Herald, July 14, 1953]
A new rage…
Bob Duretto, the Capilanos’ most recent escapee from California, tells me that the latest rage in his state is not Marilyn Monroe, but an ingenious game called “overhand softball.”
Among others, Bill Schuster is one of the participants of this “overhand softball,” providing—among other things—that the Rooster will still do anything for a laugh.
Recall that it was Schuster who sent audiences into fits of laughter by circling the bases in reverse order, that in protest of a game being played in a slight drizzle Willyum once donned hip boots and a slicker and “rowed” his way out of the much with a couple of “oars” (bats) in the third base coaching box, that one day when umpires refused to call the game on account of darkness in the 16th inning, Bill strode to the plate equipped with a lantern.
However, probably the most typical Schuster story occurred some years ago when the then wily and agile Los Angeles shortstop pulled the ancient hidden-ball play on Seattle’s Jo-Jo White.
It is told that Jo-Jo took his lead off second base, the Rooster eased over to the bag with a smile on his face and hollered “Hey, Jo-Jo, look what I’ve got!”
It was of course a baseball and the moment left its mark on Mr. White. Those who have been “suckered” by the game’s oldest prank are few—but illustrious. Remember Rogers Hornsby? Stan Musial? Lou Gehrig? They are all in the club.
It’s natural
But this is getting away from the original topic, which was overhand softball. The game is catching on fast in California, both in popularity and participants.
It is played with a softball, but under baseball rules. The ball is thrown overhand, as the name of the game signifies, and from a distance of 57 feet, a yard and six inches shorter than the regulation mound. The bases are 15 feet closer, or a total of 75 feet. And, according to Duretto, it’s just an ideal pastime for frustrated old professionals and their direct opposites, high schoolers.
Which sort of includes Schuster.
The way we got the story, Bill is managing one of the weekend clubs in Glendale and because habit is so difficult to break, the Rooster is still wowing ‘em.
Recently, Duretto tells me Schuster was suspended because of one of his verbal outbursts. We might have remarked “naturally”, but some reason, didn’t.
“This time,” Duretto spoke out in defence of his old boss and present business partner, “it wasn’t Bill’s fault.”
“He went up to the plate to argue a decision and the umpire told him to beat it or he’d wrap Bill across the nose with his mask.”
“Bill beat the umpire to it,” Duretto chuckled. “He tried to pull the mask down over the ump’s ears. So they suspended him, and really it wasn’t his fault at all.”
Naturally.

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