Saturday 25 August 2007

Monday, July 17. 1950

NO GAMES SCHEDULED TODAY

TACOMA, July 18—Spokane's Glen Stetter has edged back into the front position in the Western International League batting chase, figures released through the league office here Tuesday disclosed.
Stetter, trailing Tacoma's Dick Greco by a scant fraction of a point last week, took over the leadership with his mark of .364, while the hard-hitting Greco was one spot back at .363. Yakima's Nini Tornay was in third place at .360 and Victoria's Gene Thompson fourth with .355.
Greco, however, maintained his lead in two other divisions of the hit parade. His mark of 20 home runs was by the far the best in that division, runner-up Joe Rossi, Spokane, trailing in second place with 15. Thompson is third with 14.
Greco was also the top man in the runs batted in department with 88, 13 better than Wimpy Quinn, Tacoma first baseman who checked in with 75. Yakima's Jim Westlake was in third with 74 and Thompson is fourth with 69.

G AB H RBI HR Ave
Noyes, Vic. 13 15 7 1 0 .467
Mascaro, Yak. 30 96 38 24 3 .396
Stetter, Spo. 79 120 103 61 5 .364
Loust, Tac. 26 33 12 2 0 .364
Greco, Tac. 88 331 120 88 20 .363
Tornay, Yak. 56 172 62 30 1 .360
Thompson, Vic. 88327 116 69 14 .355
Andering, Yak. 23 96 34 14 2 .354
Frick, Tri. 22 754 26 9 2 .351
McNulty, Tri. 13 23 8 2 0 .348
Vanni, Spo. 63 259 87 33 2 .339
Rossi, Spo. 85 307 103 67 15 .336
Knezovich, Tac. 24 33 11 1 0 .333
Thompson, Wen. 14 18 6 6 0 .333
Hack, Vic. 23 89 29 15 1 .326
Sinovic, Van. 64 238 77 44 3 .324
Ragni, Wen. 55 143 46 24 2 .324
McCawley, Yak. 48 174 56 34 3 .322
Pocekay, Wen. 91 350 112 65 4 .320
Zuvella, Yak. 61 193 61 27 2 .316
Anderson, Tac. 23 19 6 1 0 .316
Propst, Vic. 12 19 6 3 0 .316
Treichel, Wen. 22 54 17 8 1 .315
Cheso, Yak. 91 328 103 64 3 .314
Moore, Vic. 89 347 109 43 0 .314
Hjelmaa, Wen. 83 306 96 46 0 .314
L. Tran, Van. 73 261 82 47 1 .314
Gifford, Tac. 86 312 97 39 0 .311
Unfried, Wen. 85 311 96 58 4 .309
Brenner, Van. 62 178 55 33 5 .309
Len Neal, Wen. 55 181 55 13 0 .304
Spurgeon, Wen. 20 66 20 6 0 .303
Clarkson, Van. 86 346 204 44 5 .301
Matoh, Spo. 86 342 103 53 5 .301
Lew, Salem 17 30 9 10 0 .300

Chandler Says WI is Near PCL Pace
VICTORIA, July 17—The Pacific Northwest's Class B Western International league Monday received a pat on the back from none other than Baseball Commissioner Albert Benjamin (Happy) Chandler.
Said Chandler, who walked Saturday's doubleheader in Victoria between the Victoria Athletics and the Tri-City Braves:
“Yes, I believe the playing of the teams in the Western International league comes pretty close to the calibre of the Past Coast League.”
The P.C.L. is Triple-A ball.
Chandler celebrated his 52nd birthday Friday in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [July 18/50]
Happy Chandler's sudden visit to Victoria, B. C. was no mere whim. There are a lot of rumblings going on in the W. I. L. right now and some changes are in the works.
The real purpose behind the visit of baseball's high commissioner to Canada was to get a front line view and talk to some of the club owners.
One of the hot topics within league circles is the advancement from class B to class A status. This would jump the legal limit of salaries from $4,000 to $5,400 per month for a team and the clubs could carry at least one and possibly two more players than they now do. The current player limit is 17 and has been under severe fire from managers throughout the league.
Many of them by-pass it by putting their extra men on the so-called 'sick' list. Trouble is when a player goes on this list it is usually ten days before he can come off it. And unless a pitcher has a sore arm in reality, and not just on paper, manager's can get themselves in a jackpot easily. For instance they might put a player on the list, suddenly have the staff take a nosedive, and then the man they need is on the list. Of course, they can always take him off, but then comes the problem of who to put on. Moving the league up a notch would take care of this problem because it would increase the player limit.
SWITCH TO CANADA
However, one of the requirements for a class A loop is 1,000,000 fans drawing power. As it stands now that figure looks very doubtful. But a way to get around that has also been devised, The league will move the Salem and Tacona franchises to Edmonton and Calgary, Canada.
Tacoma's field, so they say, has already been surveyed and will be sub-divided for a housing project. And it's no secret that the owners of the Salem baseball club have long been dissatisfied with their setup there. George Nordan, owner of the Solons and also Portland of the coast league, has intimated previously his desire to transfer the franchise.
WEATHER AND DISTANCE
The biggest obstacle to moving these two franchises to Canada would be the distance involved and the weather. But reports in the two cities in question are drawing huge gates with semi-pro baseball games would offset the distance. The American clubs could no doubt find it prohuble to fly up and come back either by air or bus inasmuch as there are no Sunday games. It's hard to say how the weather at the opening of the season would be. But in view of what the entire league suffered this season, even that wouldn't be too much of a hindrance.
YAKIMA DROPS DECISION
Well, Yakima can get out their crying towel again. George Trautman, high commissioner of the minor leagues, did not uphold their protest ot the game Yakima and Tri-City finished out here July 6. Yakima played those four innings under protest claiming the previous five innings, which had been called by curfew, constituted a full game.
However, Trautman said the matter was strictly an inter-league affair. That was enough. So Yakima now loses the game officially. In the usual course of events five innings does constitute a full game. But there was a curfew rule in effect then which has since been repealed which covered this situation. Regardless of whether it was a poor rule or not, it was still a league rule. And as such meiiled the full cooperation of all concerned.
Yakima's big beef was that it wasn't a legal rule, and shouldn't have been written into the books in the first place. The Yakima club owners knew of this rule, or should have. It's their job to keep their manager informed of these things. Yet when it was first mentioned. Joe Orengo, the playing manager, said it was the first he had heard of it. Still there is no reason we can think of why the rest of the league should be required to bring another member up to date. Well, the record's closed now, but it'll be interesting to see what piece of propaganda they'll devise up there to wiggle their way out of that 'classic'.

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