Tuesday 11 March 2008

Tri-City Secret

SPORTS NOTES
By Gil Gilmore

[Tri-City Herald, Nov. 18, 1952]
Dick Richards, general manager of the Tri-City Braves, says his plans are made but he isn't telling what they are.
Richards, you remember, is the gent who would like to move to Eugene, Ore., with a Western International League franchise in his pocket. The WIL directors gave him ten days to submit a plan for 1953 which will be considered at the major-minor meeting at Phoenix, Ariz., next month.
Since I know Richards enjoys this guessing game and also know he reads this column, I’ll bring him up to date on the latest opinions kicking around town. They aren't necessarily my own, however.
(1)—Richards hasn't got enough money to pull out of here if he wanted to and if the league would let him.
(2)—Richards is making so much money he doesn't want to pull out of here and wouldn't if he could.
(3)—Eugene has offered him so much dough for the franchise that the Booster Club couldn't possibly match its offer.
CONTRADICTIONS
Richards says he will take the full ten days before he submits his plan and he is keeping it a secret until it is due Thursday.
You can take this down as coming straight from Richards himself. Although Robert Abel, WIL president said no action was taken at the recent Yakima meeting toward hiring a full-time president, the board voted to do just that.
Richards said Abel, along with anyone else, can apply for the job but Abel would haye to give up his Tacoma law practice. This, Abel has said, he will not do.
One thing you can be sure of. Abel won't get Richards' vote. Richards has been opposed to Abel at least since he was fined by the league president for bopping Laurie Monroe. His opposition is probably older than that.
Richards, along with many others, did not like the quality of umpiring in the league this year and he thought Abel was too free and easy with the fines whenever Charlie Gassaway got into a minor rhubarb with said umps.
GIRDLE
Anyhow, Richards is feeling better. The corners of his mouth used to go up or down according to the number of people in the Sanders field stands. At the season's end, they were drooping pretty low; Now he wears a slight smile.
The business manager, by the way, is working in a Kennewick clothing store until the franchise wrangle is settled. Although he is secret about his plans, he did pass along this information:
The guy who left his upper plate in the beer mug outside the ball park last August must be getting awful tired of a diet of soup, soft-boiled eggs and gelatin. At least, he hasn't claimed his false choppers yet.
But the woman who left her girdle in the ladies room the same night will not have to go on a diet. The girdle was claimed.

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