WIL November Meeting, Day 1

W.I.L. Re-Elects Abel---Tri-City Gets Ultimatum
YAKIMA, Wash., Nov. 10—Western International Baseball League directors re-elected officers at their annual organizational meeting here today, told the business manager of the Tri-City Braves to draw up a plan of operation and plunged into the chore of preparing a 1953 schedule.
The Class A circuit will operate for the first time in 1953 with 10 teams—six in the United States and four in Canada. Calgary and Edmonton were added after the end of the 1952 season.
Re-elected were Robert Abel, Tacoma attorney, president; Roy E. Hotchkiss, Spokane, first vide-president; Frederick Mercy, Jr., Yakima, second vice president, and George F. Abel, Tacoma, secretary.
The directors instructed Richard Richards, Tri-City business manager, to submit a 1953 operating plan for his team by November 21. The proposal will be considered by the W.I.L. board at the National Minor League meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., in mid-December.
Tri-City fans, acting through the Tri-City Athletic Association, have launched a fund-raising campaign in an effort to buy Richards’ majority stock in the team and keep organized baseball in the Richland-Kennewick-Pasco area.
The knotty problem of working out a schedule for next year, with the long hops to Calgary and Edmonton, was tackled by the directors at the night session. They expect to conclude their annual meeting tomorrow.