Salem ....... 21 13 .618 ½
Spokane ..... 24 15 .615 —
Vancouver ... 20 18 .526 3
Yakima ...... 18 16 .529 3
Edmonton .... 17 16 .515 3½
Lewiston .... 16 17 .485 4½
Victoria .... 16 21 .432 6½
Tri-City .... 15 20 .429 6½
Wenatchee ... 14 19 .424 6½
Calgary ..... 14 20 .412 7
VANCOUVER — Pitcher Bob Roberts continued his mastery in a Vancouver Capilano uniform Monday night with a 1-0 Western International League victory over the Victoria Tyees.
Since being acquired from Calgary in mid-season, Roberts has won seven and lost but one for the Caps.
He scattered six Tyee hits and was in trouble only twice, extricating himself neatly each time.
Vancouver scored the only run of the game in the fourth when Nick Castas singled, stole second and went to third on a wild throw by the catcher. He scored on a single to center field by Chuck Davis.
- - -
VANCOUVER [by KEITH MATTHEWS, News-Herald, Aug. 4]—The Capilanos won one of the better played ball games of this 1953 season at Capilano Stadium Monday, 1-0, but there will be a short intervening time before the victory becomes official. In short, Cec Garriott, the Victoria manager, played the game under protest.
This brings up and interesting point. Where, everybody is asking, will the Tyees get the necessary $25, the fee necessary to post an official protest?
Here is a club which has been seriously handicapped all season by financial difficulties. Not so long ago they were on the ropes of poverty. Today, they are parking of one of baseball’s luxuries, a protested game—and the involved fee.
WAS NICE SLIDE
The protest developed from an interesting situation. Leading 1-0 in the seventh, the Tyees’ first man up, Jimmy Clark, singled to signal a rally. On a 2-and-1 count to Milt Martin, Clark broke to steal and Bob Duretto’s throw had beaten him to second by several strides. Clark, however, avoided Chuck Davis’ tag with a desperate slide and got there safely.
When umpire Gerry Van Keuren called safe, Davis went wild. He threw his glove to the ground and gesticulated wildly. Here, Garriott made his entrance, claiming that Davis should have been thrown out of the game for tossing his equipment. Cece became violent in his insistence and Van Keuren quickly eliminated Cecil.
FEW UPHELD
Right here, Garriott played the game under protest. Whether he will awake this morning to the realization that such a luxury costs $25 and very, very few protests are upheld is the big question.
Davis, along with pitcher Bobby Roberts, were the heroes in the Vancouver conquest. Chuck singled home the winning run in the fourth. Roberts hung up his No. 6 win with a six-hitter in which he allowed only one runner to get as far as third base.
DIAMOND DUST – Van Fletcher goes for the Capilanos tonight as the two teams play the second act in what may become a highly entertaining season … Boston Red Sox scout Ernie Johnson is in town for the set … The Caps returned from their gruesome road trop with a pair of fresh injuries, Gale Taylor with a jammed hip and Carl Gunnarson with a sore right elbow … New pitcher Clarence (Cuddles) Marshall, formerly of the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns, failed to show up Monday but is expected to fly in today … Jim Wert, who played half the season for the Caps at first base, has been sold outright to Calgary and will report for duty today.
Victoria ......... 000 000 000—0 6 2
Vancouver ..... 000 100 00x—1 6 1
Bottler and Martin; Roberts and Duretto.
Lewiston at Calgary, postponed, rain; double header Tuesday.
The Sports Herald
Keith Matthews
[Vancouver News-Herald, August 4, 1953]
In effigy? …
It is recorded somewhere—and for some inane reason—that a golfer once committed a mortal sin, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to hang “by the neck until found dead.”
As the hangman was tightening the knot, the golfer was asked if maybe there wasn’t something he’d like to say before sentence was obeyed.
“Yes,” the golfer replied. “I’d like to take a couple of practice swings if you don’t mind.”
Oddly, what brought us unto this one was not a golfer but a baseballer named Dewey Soriano, who was saying the other day “you can hang me if I’m not right, but Bob Duretto will be in the Coast League next year as a catcher.”
Dewey should know of what he speaks in this case, having been the fellow who completed the transformation of Ray Orteig from a third baseman to a catcher in 1949. Ray, we’ll remind you, is the No. 1 guy with the “tools of ignorance” in the PCL just now, and the other day the Seattle Rainiers hung out a $75,000 price tag on their prize husky for the major league clubs to nibble at.
In Duretto, Soriano sees much the same thing as he saw in Orteig.
“He is intelligent,” Dewey praised. “He rarely calls for the wrong pitch in an important situation. Just watch and see for yourself. Count the number of times a pitcher shakes off Bob’s signal. Not many, I’ll bet.”
He’s accurate …
Whoever hung the description “tools of ignorance” on the catching trade hit a foul ball. It is the most important job in baseball. Yes, probably even greater than pitching, because it is the catcher who guides the destiny of his battery mate. He must know the batters’ weaknesses, he must be able to set up his pitcher’s best pitch, he is the only man on the diamond who can see every other position on the field without turning his head. In other words, good catchers run your ball club for you.
The reasoning is sound because history bears it out. Who are the powers in baseball today? The Yankees and the Dodgers. The Yankees with Yogi Berra, the Dodgers with Roy Campanella. Nobody, in other words, goes places these days without sound catching.
There was a time in 1952 when Bill Schuster spotted Duretto’s capabilities as an outfielder and confessed that the handy-andy would surely be a 1953 Coast Leaguer. The argument against that, however, was that Duretto doesn’t hit the long ball necessary of Triple-A outfielders.
Later on, Bob was tried in the infield—at all corners of it, in fact. But there was no one position in which he gave you the necessary feeling of defensive security, so on the experiment went.
By good fortune, the Capilanos came up with a serious disease behind the plate this year. Duretto, when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement, was sent into the breach, just as he has been the fall guy for so many other needs.
What has happened since has been a revelation. Without spring training, with—even—as much as a bat in his hand since September, 1952, Bob has stayed around the .300 mark. He has steadied an over-worked pitching staff. And what of this throwing, which is an important ingredient of this new trade? Well, the boys say Bob can knock the pips out of razzberry at 90 feet!
Keith Matthews
[Vancouver News-Herald, August 4, 1953]
In effigy? …
It is recorded somewhere—and for some inane reason—that a golfer once committed a mortal sin, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to hang “by the neck until found dead.”
As the hangman was tightening the knot, the golfer was asked if maybe there wasn’t something he’d like to say before sentence was obeyed.
“Yes,” the golfer replied. “I’d like to take a couple of practice swings if you don’t mind.”
Oddly, what brought us unto this one was not a golfer but a baseballer named Dewey Soriano, who was saying the other day “you can hang me if I’m not right, but Bob Duretto will be in the Coast League next year as a catcher.”
Dewey should know of what he speaks in this case, having been the fellow who completed the transformation of Ray Orteig from a third baseman to a catcher in 1949. Ray, we’ll remind you, is the No. 1 guy with the “tools of ignorance” in the PCL just now, and the other day the Seattle Rainiers hung out a $75,000 price tag on their prize husky for the major league clubs to nibble at.
In Duretto, Soriano sees much the same thing as he saw in Orteig.
“He is intelligent,” Dewey praised. “He rarely calls for the wrong pitch in an important situation. Just watch and see for yourself. Count the number of times a pitcher shakes off Bob’s signal. Not many, I’ll bet.”
He’s accurate …
Whoever hung the description “tools of ignorance” on the catching trade hit a foul ball. It is the most important job in baseball. Yes, probably even greater than pitching, because it is the catcher who guides the destiny of his battery mate. He must know the batters’ weaknesses, he must be able to set up his pitcher’s best pitch, he is the only man on the diamond who can see every other position on the field without turning his head. In other words, good catchers run your ball club for you.
The reasoning is sound because history bears it out. Who are the powers in baseball today? The Yankees and the Dodgers. The Yankees with Yogi Berra, the Dodgers with Roy Campanella. Nobody, in other words, goes places these days without sound catching.
There was a time in 1952 when Bill Schuster spotted Duretto’s capabilities as an outfielder and confessed that the handy-andy would surely be a 1953 Coast Leaguer. The argument against that, however, was that Duretto doesn’t hit the long ball necessary of Triple-A outfielders.
Later on, Bob was tried in the infield—at all corners of it, in fact. But there was no one position in which he gave you the necessary feeling of defensive security, so on the experiment went.
By good fortune, the Capilanos came up with a serious disease behind the plate this year. Duretto, when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement, was sent into the breach, just as he has been the fall guy for so many other needs.
What has happened since has been a revelation. Without spring training, with—even—as much as a bat in his hand since September, 1952, Bob has stayed around the .300 mark. He has steadied an over-worked pitching staff. And what of this throwing, which is an important ingredient of this new trade? Well, the boys say Bob can knock the pips out of razzberry at 90 feet!
