Lewiston .... 33 23 .589 —
Spokane ..... 35 25 .583 —
Salem ....... 32 24 .571 1
Vancouver ... 32 28 .533 3
Edmonton .... 28 27 .509 4½
Yakima ...... 28 28 .500 5
Calgary ..... 26 28 .481 6
Wenatchee ... 25 32 .439 8½
Tri-City .... 24 34 .414 10
Victoria .... 23 35 .397 11
AP has different standings for Vic
WENATCHEE— Lewiston defeated Wenatchee 5 to 3 here Monday night in a Western International League baseball, game as veteran John Marshall spaced eight Wenatchee hits.
Lewiston got only six hits off Charley Oubre but one was a bases-loaded double by Clint Cameron in the second inning, the big blow as the winners scored four times.
Ed Garay, who replaced Cameron in the eighth when the Lewiston catcher went out of the game with a split finger, doubled home the final run for the Broncos in the ninth.
Ross McCormack, with three singles in four times at bat, led the Wenatchee attack and drove in two of the three tallies for the losers.
Harry Bartolomei doubled home the other Wenatchee run.
- - -
WENATCHEE — Big John Marshall hung up his 118th victory in eight seasons in the Western International League Monday.
The Lewiston hurler's 5-3 win over Wenatchee was his 19th of the current campaign, against 10 losses, and his second highest total in the eight-year span. He won 22 and lost 14 with Bremerton in 1949.
Lewiston has 14 games remaining in which he can try to better his 1949 mark.
During the eight years, the veteran slider pitch artist has won 118 games and lost 92. He has a cumulative earned ran average of 3.32 runs a game.
His first year in the league in 1946, when he was with Yakima, Vancouver and Bremerton and accumulated a 3-12 record, is the only losing effort on his chart.
His 22-14 season in 1949 won him a spring trial with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League out he soon returned to the WIL circuit.
Lewiston ............ 040 000 001—5 6 0
Wenatchee ....... 001 010 001—3 8 2
Marshall and Cameron, Garay (8); Oubre and Bartolomei.
Victoria at Vancouver, postponed, rain.
Exhibition Game
Drain, Oregon (Semi-Pro) 6, Salem (WIL) 5
(only games scheduled)
The Sports Herald
Keith Matthews
[Vancouver News-Herald, Aug. 25, 1953]
Close Calls…
At the races, it is said that the fun doesn’t start until the ponies hit the home stretch. It is here that the real racing begins, such as it is in baseball, and now the real race has started.
There are but 15 days remaining this WIL schedule with eight lengths separating the first eight clubs. It is as tight as Grandma’s corset.
Over the weekend, some of us were wondering how long it has been since a baeball race was so cosy. It was, we recall, the year 1947.
That year recalls success for the Capilanos. It was the last year they dangled a pennant from the worn mast-head at the old Capilano Stadium. It was not, we remembered, actually finished without difficulty. Watchers of the men who play the game of the baseball that you can’t tell your ball players until they run into a tight clutch.
It was a cold September evening when the Caps pulled out of Vancouver on their last road trip. Bill Brenner had his guys streaking. They had come from 11 games off the pace to within just two and a half. But there was just a week left and we wondered if it were enough.
Bremerton was in the lead at that point, Spokane a hot second and the Caps third. The first stop on this last suicide journey was Victoria.
Vancouver won the first two and moved ahead of Spokane and just behind Bremerton. By half a game. The club was rolling now and we wrote that only a disaster could stop them.
The disaster struck the next day … Seattle, going nowhere in the Coast League, lost its second baseman through injury. The obvious fill-in was Leon Mohr, but Leon was helping the Capilanos win a championship.
The Rainiers thought it over and then relented. Mohr would stay in Vancouver, but Lee didn’t like the idea. He wanted that Seattle chance, moreso than a pennant in the WIL. When he heard the Seattle decision, he quietly went to his room, packed and jumped the club.
Begged Off …
A form of panic set in. Bill Brenner knew it and the others felt it. Half an hour before game time, the “body beautiful” reported in with a “bad back.” Such aches are often located in the heat of a do-or-die pennant. Brenner had no choice. He named Jim Hedgecock, who had already won 30 [sic] games and was dog-tired.
Jim pitched the game of his life that evening. He won 11-0 and made the Bremertons look so bad that the local fans hooted manager Alan Strange right out of a job. Now the Caps were in the lead. They had no second baseman and they had the pitching miseries, but they were on top.
Tacoma next … another one-night stand. Memory recalls that Hal Saltzman pitched this one and did it up good. He was ahead 7-0 in the seventh when the Tigers got a man on base with two out. So what, everyone figured. Saltzman called time and when Brenner went out to him, Hal moaned, “I’m hurt, Bill. Get me out of here!”
The last stop was Yakima. Now the Caps only had to watch what Spokane didn’t in Victoria. And the Indians never had a chance. They were rained out on the final day—the Caps were home free, even if they lost their doubleheader on Sunday.
Strangely, the cripples all became healed and anxious to play the final games. At that, it was probably fortunate because the real heroes held their victory party just the night before.
Keith Matthews
[Vancouver News-Herald, Aug. 25, 1953]
Close Calls…
At the races, it is said that the fun doesn’t start until the ponies hit the home stretch. It is here that the real racing begins, such as it is in baseball, and now the real race has started.
There are but 15 days remaining this WIL schedule with eight lengths separating the first eight clubs. It is as tight as Grandma’s corset.
Over the weekend, some of us were wondering how long it has been since a baeball race was so cosy. It was, we recall, the year 1947.
That year recalls success for the Capilanos. It was the last year they dangled a pennant from the worn mast-head at the old Capilano Stadium. It was not, we remembered, actually finished without difficulty. Watchers of the men who play the game of the baseball that you can’t tell your ball players until they run into a tight clutch.
It was a cold September evening when the Caps pulled out of Vancouver on their last road trip. Bill Brenner had his guys streaking. They had come from 11 games off the pace to within just two and a half. But there was just a week left and we wondered if it were enough.
Bremerton was in the lead at that point, Spokane a hot second and the Caps third. The first stop on this last suicide journey was Victoria.
Vancouver won the first two and moved ahead of Spokane and just behind Bremerton. By half a game. The club was rolling now and we wrote that only a disaster could stop them.
The disaster struck the next day … Seattle, going nowhere in the Coast League, lost its second baseman through injury. The obvious fill-in was Leon Mohr, but Leon was helping the Capilanos win a championship.
The Rainiers thought it over and then relented. Mohr would stay in Vancouver, but Lee didn’t like the idea. He wanted that Seattle chance, moreso than a pennant in the WIL. When he heard the Seattle decision, he quietly went to his room, packed and jumped the club.
Begged Off …
A form of panic set in. Bill Brenner knew it and the others felt it. Half an hour before game time, the “body beautiful” reported in with a “bad back.” Such aches are often located in the heat of a do-or-die pennant. Brenner had no choice. He named Jim Hedgecock, who had already won 30 [sic] games and was dog-tired.
Jim pitched the game of his life that evening. He won 11-0 and made the Bremertons look so bad that the local fans hooted manager Alan Strange right out of a job. Now the Caps were in the lead. They had no second baseman and they had the pitching miseries, but they were on top.
Tacoma next … another one-night stand. Memory recalls that Hal Saltzman pitched this one and did it up good. He was ahead 7-0 in the seventh when the Tigers got a man on base with two out. So what, everyone figured. Saltzman called time and when Brenner went out to him, Hal moaned, “I’m hurt, Bill. Get me out of here!”
The last stop was Yakima. Now the Caps only had to watch what Spokane didn’t in Victoria. And the Indians never had a chance. They were rained out on the final day—the Caps were home free, even if they lost their doubleheader on Sunday.
Strangely, the cripples all became healed and anxious to play the final games. At that, it was probably fortunate because the real heroes held their victory party just the night before.
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