Monday, August 17, 1953

W L Pct. GB
Spokane ..... 34 19 .642 —
Salem ....... 30 20 .600 2½
Vancouver ... 30 24 .556 4½
Lewiston .... 26 22 .542 5½
Yakima ...... 26 23 .531 6
Edmonton .... 24 25 .490 8
Calgary ..... 22 26 .458 9½
Wenatchee ... 20 29 .409 12
Victoria .... 21 31 .404 12½
Tri-City .... 20 32 .385 13½
AP has different standings for Lew, Edm and Vic

CALGARY — Grand-slam homers by Charley Mead and Gus Stathos gave the Calgary Stampeders an 11-7 victory over the Victoria Tyees in a Western International League game here Monday night.
Trailing 5-2 going into their half of the inning, the Cowboys unloaded five hits, including Mead's homer, and took advantage of two Victoria errors, to go ahead for the first time in the game.
Stathos slammed his in the eight put the issue beyond doubt. Don Hunter also homered for the Stamps, his 22nd of the season. Granny Gladstone hit a round-tripper for Victoria.
Earl Dollins, who was relieved by Bill Bottler in the eighth, was the loser.
Victoria ............ 000 013 102— 7 10 2
Calgary ............ 000 011 54x—11 15 4
Dollins, Bottler (8) and Martin; Kapp and Bricker.

(only game scheduled)

Soriano Holds Talks With Bob Roberts
[Vancouver News Herald, August 18, 1953]
While the Capilanos rested easily in Edmonton, enjoying their first off-day from baseball after 42 successive assignments, club general manager Dewey Soriano hurried to Richland, Washington to meet pitcher Bobby Roberts. Roberts left the club suddenly Thursday.
Soriano insisted the little right-hander was not a “jumper” and had asked permission to make the trip.
“His wife is going to have a serious operation,” Soriano said. “Bob wanted to be with her for a few days before she went under the knife. He did not say he might not rejoin the club and that’s why I’m making this trip to clarify the issue.”
Roberts has won eight and lost two since joining Vancouver from Calgary in July, He has pitched great ball and his loss would be felt by the slim-sized staff which is presently trying to carry the Caps to a second-half WIL championship.
However, Soriano feels that Roberts will rejoin the team. He reasons that Bobby will need the money to pay for such an operation and therefore will have to work out the remainder of the season. Besides which, Soriano now smells the blood of a second-half title and does not want to risk a chance of losing just because he is short-staffed.


Edmonton Has 3,659 Allies
EDMONTON — General Manager John Ducey of the Western International League Eskimos says he has 3,659 allies for the cause of legalized Sunday baseball in Edmonton.
A banner adorning the entrance to Renfrew Park Sunday afternoon mellowed the fans as they passed through the gates to see the Eskimo-Vancouver Caps game, first WIL game held here on the sabbath.
It said, in a gently kidding vein: "We think that this game is worth $1. What do you think?"
It developed that many of the bleacher bugs thought likewise, for the take amounted to a substantial $1,777.50. That averaged 48½ cents a head.
This was something like 12½ cents better than the Caps did recently when they staged a similar WIL offering on a Sunday collection basis. Vancouver fans turned out 5,000 strong for that game.
The Edmonton and Vancouver ball moguls would like to have Sunday ball as a regular diet, like they have it in Toronto, Montreal and in the United States.
Ducey said the best Sunday collection for baseball ever was an average 36 cents a head for a semi-professional playoff game in 1950 in the days of the defunct Calgary-Edmonton Big Four League. Before that, 25 cents a head was about tops.