Monday 13 August 2007

Friday, May 19, 1950

S T A N D I N G S
              W  L  PCT GB
Tacoma ..... 20  7 .741 —
Salem ...... 17 10 .630 3
Wenatchee .. 16 12 .571 4½
Yakima ..... 15 13 .536 5½
Tri-City ... 14 16 .467 7
Spokane .... 11 17 .393 9½
Vancouver .. 10 16 .385 9½
Victoria .... 8 20 .286 12½

WENATCHEE, May 19—Lefthander Don Ferrarese pitched and batted the Wenatchee Chiefs to a 7-0 win over the Tri-City Braves here Friday night before 1,770 fans.
It was the second two-hit game by a Wenatchee southpaw in two nights. Tom Breisinger threw a 4-0 game at Salem Thursday.
The Chiefs jumped on Mike Budnick, who signed with Tri-City after being sent down by the Seattle Rainiers, for three runs in the first inning. But it was Ferrarese who mopped up.
The little lefthander socked a double in the sixth inning driving in a run and then plastered a 390-foot home run over the left field fence in the eighth win one man on.
The home run was the first by a Wenatchee player over the new fence which has been moved back 30 feet for this season.
- - - -
From the Herald, Sun. May 21: A tall, stoop-shouldered righthander shuffled off the mound at Wenatchee Friday night a tragic figure of defeat. Once he had worn the proud uniform of the New York Giants. In four other years he toiled for three Pacific Coast league clubs.
Now in his first appearance with the Tri-City Braves of the Western International league he had been whipped, 7-0, by Wenatchee.
For big Mike Budnick, it may have marked the end of his comeback dream. In his second season with the Giants in '47 he developed a sore arm. Nothing helped. He was shipped to the San Francisco Seals where he finished out the summer with a 2-2 record. The next year he went to San Diego where he won four and lost eight.
In '49 he got into two games with the Padres and had a 10.8 earned run average. Then he was sent down to Yakima in the WIL where he completed the season with three wins, two losses.
During the winter a Chelan, Wash., doctor operated on the ailing flipper and cut out a bone spur. Mike began to get the arm in shape. No pain. Elated he got a tryout with the Seattle Ralnlers, his team in '42 before three years of military service.
He took his turn on the hill when the season started but the old "stuff" wasn't there for the nine-inning route. He lost three games, won none. The soreness came back in his arm.
When the Rainiers headed south this week Budnick was left behind. Without fanfare he was signed by the Tri-City club. At 30 the former Seattle high school star neared the end of the line.
Tri-City ......... 000 000 000— 0 2 0
Wenatchee .... 102 001 03x— 7 11 2
Budnick and Pesut; Ferrarese and Fiscalini.

TACOMA, May 19—Dick Wenner, Tacoma outfielder, hit a grand slam home run in the first inning as the Tigers defeated Vancouver here, 11-9, Friday night.
Last week, playing in the home ball park, the Caps gleefully applauded while rookie Paul Spurlock struck out Wenner three consecutive times. But Friday, the tables were turned. Spurlock started the game. He walked three batters and threw a wild pitch and failed to get out of the inning. Wenner, the fifth batter up, hit it out of the park. It was the only hit of the inning.
Dick Greco and Ron Gifford each batted in a pair of runs for the winners.
Len Tran had a triple and a single to bring in three runs for Vancouver, while Jim Robinson had three of Vancouver's ten hits and scored two Caps.
Vancouver came to within a run in the seventh when they scored twice without the benefit of a hit.
Vancouver .... 100 042 200— 9 10 1
Tacoma ........ 501 113 00x— 11 9 3
Spurlong, Anderson (1), Heisner (7), King (7) and Brenner; Knezovich, Loust (8) and Fischer.

SPOKANE, May 19—The Spokane Indians broke a five-game losing streak Friday nigth with a ninth inning 6 to 5 victory over Victoria.
Chuck Davis, the Spokane shortstop, hit an infield single with the bases loaded in the ninth to bring home Joe Rossi from third with the winning run.
Big Bob Jensen dropped his second decision in as many nights. He was firing his fast ball at its hardest in his bid to remain with the club. Taking over from Ron Smith in the fourth, Jensen shut out the Indians until the ninth and whiffed six batters.
Rossi, who did most of the damage to the A's with a two-run homer and two singles in four trips, opened the bottom of the ninth with a single and was sacrificed to second. A passed ball by Al Ronning permitted Rossi to take thrd and put Jensen in the hole. Ed Murphy and Sol Israel were intentionally passed to fill the sacks. Davis hit a hard single to the box, bowling over Jensen, and Rossi scored.
K. Chorlton singled and completed the circuit on an error and Gene Thompson's long fly to put the A's in front in the top of the fourth. The Indians chased Smith in the bottom half of the inning, scoring five runs on a walk, singles by Stassi, Frank Matoh and Davis, Charlie Bushong¨s double, a triple by Israel and Rossi's homer.
Victoria tied the count with a four-run outburst in the sixth. Chorlton drove in two runs with a single after a single by Edo Vanni and a double by Jimmy Moore. Thompson and Joe Marjoseph drew walks to fill the bases and Jim Wert laced a couple to drive in two more runs. Carroll Yerkes replaced Roberts on the mound and pitched shutout ball the rest of the way.
Victoria ...... 000 104 000—5 9 0
Spokane ..... 000 500 001—6 12 5
Smith, Jensen (4) and Ronning; Roberts, Yerkes (6) and Rossi.

YAKIMA, May 19—The Yakima Bears tossed away a six run lead and then came from behind to beat the Salem Senators 8-7 Friday night in a Western International League series opener.
The Bears scored a single run in the eighth to tie the score and won in the ninth on successive hits by Babe Gammino, Nini Tornay and rookie Jerry Zuvela.
Salem ....... 000 003 400—7 8 1
Yakima ..... 411 000 101—8 11 1
Tierney, Lew (1), Waibel (7) and Beard; Dickey, Domenichelli (7) and Tiesiera, Tornay (7).

IT BEATS ME
By Jim Tang
[Victoria Colonist, May 20, 1950]
“It becomes increasingly evident that he (Manager Marty Krug) feels Victoria's pennant hopes rest mainly with the IMPOSING staff Patterson has assembled.” (Jim Tang, Kamloops, April 2.)
And again—“One thing that seems certain, however, is that the A’s are going to have good pitching.” (April 4.)
And yet again—“. . . there is little likelihood of any prolonged losing streak against the caliber of pitching Krug can throw in every day.” (April 7).
That's what a fellow gets from playing it safe. Feeling that the A’s were to need defensive and offensive bolstering, it seemed natural to give training-camp attention to the “name” pitching staff. At least I was right on one score. There has been no “prolonged” losing streak.
But who was to think that there wouldn't be a good Class “B” pitching staff team among such names as Mooty, Wilkie, Mishasek, Smith, Hedgecock, Blankenship and Olsen? Now, even with John Marshall and Jim Propst, two of the W.I.L.’s top pitchers last season, the A’s were little better off than their rivals in the department which was meant to be their strength.
Just look at the record these veterans have compiled. They lost 19 out of the first 28 games, although the club has averaged almost six runs a game; they gave up 268 base hits and 137 bases on balls in 237 innings and have only managed to complete 12 games with Marshall and Wilkie sharing half of these. Worse than that is the almost complete failure of relief pitchers.
It is little wonder that changes are going to be made. Olsen and Blankenship are gone (although it could be Jo Jo should have been kept), and more will go soon. The purchase of Propst and Bill Whyte indicates some big changes. The management hasn't given out any names, but it isn’t hard to figure out who are the most likely candidates for release or sale.
Marshall, Propst, Wilkie, Mishasek, Smith and Whyte, a necessary rookie, are almost certain to stick. That leaves, at the most, one spot open for Jensen, Hedgecock and Mooty. The latter, a costly acquisition and the biggest disappointment of all, may get another chance before the club decides it just made a bad deal.
Hedgecock has shown no great desire to bear down and is reportedly unhappy with his lot as a relief pitcher although he has done nothing to indicate he could win as a starter. Jensen persists in trying to get by without throwing his hard one. All he has done is to create doubt that he may still have his old speed.
Random Harvest
Ed Taylor, Seattle Rainier scout, has been watching the A's the past few days, particularly taking a good look at K. Chorlton, who is trying to become an infielder. It wouldn't be surprising if Charlton should wind up in his natural outfield post, where his speed would be of value. . . . Unless Joe Morjoseph shows more agility and a better throwing arm in right field, he will have to drive in 200 runs to make up for the number of extra bases he is giving up . . . Seattle is reported interested in the possibility of making a third baseman out of Leon Mohr, second baseman of the 1947 Capilanos, and the A's are interested in having this experiment conducted in Victoria. However, Mohr already fouled up a deal which would have sent him to Portland and may not wish to return to the W.I.L. He made 216 hits and batted .332 for the Caps . . . An almost-completed deal with another W.I.L. club for a left-handed hitting outfielder appears to have fallen through . . . Look for another proven infielder to join the A's before the club gets set . . . It would have been interesting to see just how well Bernie Clarkson would have done in regular service. Although it probably is better for the youngster to have a year in Class “C” ball, he might have won a spot on his hitting. There are several A's he could outhit without making too much of a splash . . . Only Jim Olsen and Aldon Wilkie managed to give up less than a hit an inning for the A's . . . Another of the questions plaguing Manager Marty Krug is when Al Ronning is going to start to hit for a better average. A .311 hitter with Bremerton last year, Ronning is so far having trouble staying over .200. At least two A's will have to improve their hitting if the club is ever going to get a batting order that can sustain a rally more often and Ronning is one of these.


Alf Cottrell
[Vancouver Daily Province, May 30, 1950]
SPOKANE, Wash.—The 185-mile drive from Wenatchee, the way Pocahontas led us Friday, is a breeze. I say the way she led us because we didn’t come to Spokane by any pre-arranged route.
Bill Brenner said take the left turn out of Wenatchee and come by Waterville and Grand Coulee. Others said take the right turn and go by Quincy and Moses Lake.
We voted for the left turn but Pocahontas caught us napping so she turned right. Then just out of Quincy she fooled us again and we were on a pale blue highway instead of on those red highways that the map says are the super-jobs.
The result was she was running over good highways, yet highways where you didn’t see another car in 50 miles. It was shorter, and with the road to herself she saved a lot of grounds on the turns.
We went through some smart and handsome little cities that I wouldn’t like to have missed. A stop to quench her thirst and ours, here and there. Through level lands of wheat which provided cool green vistas. And occasionally rolling, sagebrush country where cattle grazed in the shaded coulees.
Then the long straightaway and a sudden turn, and from above the huge pile of masonry that is Spokane bursts on you a city of 147,000 souls, give or take a soul.
Hardly Hurts At All
We check into the Davenport, of course. The most famed hostelry in the northwest, with it’s [sic] huge fantastic lobby that reminds you of the Commodore in New York. I like places like this and if you turn away and put your hands over your eyes when you pay the bill, and do it quickly, it hardly hurts at all.
Today the lobby is a mad-house. They line up for reservations. Every hotel is packed with tenpin bowlers from all the coastal states and from B.C. here for two big tournaments.
While we were picking up our room at the front desk we saw plenty of familiar Vancouver faces [list of names not posted].
After getting stabled we strolled up to the Hotel Spokane to see if the Victoria Ball Club was there. It was. Jimmy Moore, the kid from the Capilanos, traded to Victoria, came downstairs to chin with us.
Jim likes Victoria. He is their regular second-baseman. K. Chorlton, Al Ronning, Jay Wertz [Jim Wert] and little Jim rent a house in Victoria. They do their own cooking every bit of it, steaks and all.
Moore, Whyte Together Again
While we were talking Bill Whyte, the Vancouver boy, came in. Last time I saw him he was with the Capilanos, so his appearance startled me. So of course right away he told me the happy story.
The Caps had sold him to Victoria the previous say, just before leaving here. That was the day all clubs had to [get to] the 18-player limit.
Maybe you know that Moore and Whyte roomed together at Great Falls last year. Then again at Penticton this spring, in training camp. Then at Vancouver, whistling Jim stayed at Bill’s home in South Vancouver.
Bob Brown broke that up when he shot Moore over to Victoria but it was Brown who put the kids together again by sending Whyte to Victoria this week. So they were happy as pigs in good green clover.
“Bill will get a chance to pitch with our club,” said Jimmy. And Whyte said, “The beauty of it is, the clubs have finished their cutting to strength now, so maybe I can relax and put my mind on the job.”
He said we should have seen the “no-no” game George Nicholas pitched here the other night. “They never got anything that looked like a hit off him,” Bill said. “Mind, if anybody is fixing to pitch a no-hitter, Spokane is the clubs to do it to. They don’t have it.”
Knew It All the Time
So we were fanning like that and familiar bowlers from Vancouver were strolling around the lobby. Roy Ferguson and his wife. Gladys Heardon, Rita Waterman, Lena Woods, Edie Milton and so on. Also two tenpin pals named Betty Leishman and Amy Martin, of New Westminster and Vancouver respectively.
Amy was smiling more than usual and Whyte said to her, “I hear you were knocking them over in the big sweep today.” The sweep is the side issue from the big tournaments here, but a lot of money goes with it in prizes.
So Amy said she went pretty well for a ways. “Had wound up fifth at this reading But she had faded a trifle at the late stages when she had the big end of it in her lap.” I was surprised she knew Whyte but he said, “Amy is my auntie.” My spouse said, “Well she would be darned.” She never knew that. Bill said: “I knew it all the time.”

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