W L Pct GB
Yakima ...... 73 47 .664 —
Tacoma ...... 69 46 .600 1½
Wenatchee ... 66 53 .554 6½
Tri-City .... 65 54 .546 8
Vancouver ... 52 65 .444 19½
Victoria .... 52 70 .425 22
Salem ....... 50 68 .424 22
Spokane ..... 46 70 .397 20
YAKIMA, Aug. 12—The Yakima Bears retained their slim margin over Tacoma on Saturday night by edging Wenatchee, 7-6, in 13 innings on a squeeze play.
Wenatchee ... 000 500 000 000 1—6 10 3
Yakima ......... 200 030 000 000 2—7 11 1
Ferrarese, Blankenship (13) and Neal, Domenichelli, Soriano (13) and Tornay.
TACOMA, Aug. 12—The onrushing Tacoma Tigers won their seventh straight Western International baseball league game here tonight by defeating the Spokane Indians 7-3.
The tribe outhit the second-place Tacoma club 11-7, but the Tigers bunched three of their hits with as many walks and a Spokane error to score four times in the second inning, thereby providing Mel Knezovich with ample wherewithal for his twelfth victory against eight defeats.
But for some sparkling defensive play behind him, Dick Aubertin, who relieved the starting and losing Spokane pitcher, Ward Rockey, in the second inning, would have been the victim of additional scoring beyond the two runs he permitted in his 6-2/3 innings on the mound. Aubertin walked nine men and yielded four hits.
Spokane's Glen Stetter, the League's leading hitter, had a perfect night at the plate with three singles in as many official trips, while Jim Wert collected a triple and two singles in four trips and batted in two of Spokane's runs.
Spokane ....... 101 000 100—3-11-l
Tacoma ........ 140 001 01x—7- 7-0
Hockey, Aubertin (2) and Weatherwax; Knezovich and Sheets.
VANCOUVER, B. C., Aug. 12—Tri City Braves scored eight runs in the first inning tonight, then went on to win the nightcap of a Western International league baseball tilt with Vancouver Capilanos 17-11. They dropped the afternoon piece 8-4.
The win-loss left the series split evenly at two apiece.
The nightcap was a slugging affair throughout that saw Sandy Robertson trying for his 13th win against no defeats for league record. He was shelled for seven runs and left the game without retiring the side in the first inning. Four more Cap hurlers followed him but weren't too effective.
His 12 straight wins had tied the mark set in 1948 by Spokane's Frank Nelson, now with Oakland.
Both Braves' Dick Faber and Caps' Reg Clarkson betted four-run homers tonight, Faber's coming in the big first inning and Clarkson's in the top of the fourth when Caps got eight runs.
The afternoon game saw Caps collect 11 hits and, despite five errors, keep Tri-City's blows nullified. Bill Whyte picked up his first victory of the season.
- - - -
VANCOUVER, [Erwin M. Swangard, Province, Aug. 14]—The official baseball rule on determining a losing pitcher reads:
”Regardless of how many innings the first pitcher has pitched, he shall be charged with the loss of the game if he is replaced when his team is behind in the score, and thereafter his team fails to either tie the score or gain the lead.”
Because of that hard-and-fast rule, Sandy Robertson was charged with the Capilano defeat Saturday night and thus deprived of his chance of setting a new Western International League pitching record.
HOST OF FANS
A packed house of more than 3200 sat in to watch Sandy shoot for his thirteenth win in 13 games he started this season but instead were treated to a baseball nightmare.
But for the strict scoring rule mentioned above, the official scorer could have allotted the loss to any one of the five pitchers used by the Caps, with the possible exception of Bob Snyder who toiled the last inning and a third with indifferent success.
It was obvious from the start that the tension of the task was too much for Sandy who lacked his customary composure. Al Spaeter opened with a double. Six batters and only one putout later Dick Faber cooked Sandy’s goose with a grand-slam homer over the right field fence.
When the usually light-hitting Jim McKeegan singled after that, boss Bill Brenner sent Sandy to the showers.
NIGHTMARE STARTS
What followed was almost unbelievable. The Caps did just about everything wrong.
In the fourth inning, they staged an eight-run uprising of their own and came within three runs of the eventual winners. Reg Clarkson climaxed that one with a bases-filled homer which chased Merle Frick, the Braves’ starting pitcher.
It was to no avail. Len (sic) McCollum came in and gave up three more runs while the Cap pitching and defence kept on falling apart for another six runs.
In all the excitement of the important evening game the fans overlooked a superb performance by another local Cap pitcher in the afternoon.
WHYTE UNRUFFLED
Modest Bill Whyte, graduate of the local high school baseball circuit with John Oliver, turned back the Braves with eight hits and only one earned run. Whyte, a left hander, exhibited almost uncanny control as he struck out only one. He had the attackers ground the ball weakly into the infield or loft it out to the outfielders all afternoon. The fact the Caps committed five errors behind him didn’t affect the 23-year-old bespectacled Whyte.
Whyte’s modesty could not be better exemplified than by the remark he made as he left the ball park after the night game: “I wouldn’t have minded losing if Sandy had won tonight.”
Tonight, Victoria Athletics will open a three-game series at Cap Stadium with Bob Bruenner scheduled to pitch for the Brennermen.
FIRST GAME
Tri-City ........ 010 010 110—4- 8-1
Vancouver .... 101 120 21x—8-11-5
Roenspie and McKeegan, Pesut (7); Whyte & Heisner.
SECOND GAME
Tri-City ............ 800 310 230—17-18-1
Vancouver ........ 000 800 300—11-10-4
Frick, McCollum (4) and Pesut; Robertson, Gunnarson (1), Alvari (5), Nicholas (5), Snyder, (8) and Heisner.
VICTORIA, B. C., Aug. 12 — A double by Bill Beard in the eighth inning scoring Bob Cherry gave the Salem Senators a 4 to 3 win over the Victoria Athletics in the first game of a Western International league double-header.
Ray McNulty of the Senators took a 2-0 pitch from Jim Hedgecock and parked it over the fence in the third with one runner on.
Marty Krug homered for Victoria with two men aboard in the fifth and after an error kept him alive at the plate. Cherry doubled to lead off the sixth and scored the tying run on a single by Bill Spaeter.
VICTORIA, B. C., Aug. 12—The Victoria Athletics scored five early inning runs to coast to an easy 6 to 1 win over the Salem Senators in the nightcap of a Western International league doubleheader.
Two of the Victoria runs came as the result of a double steal in the second inning when Marty Krug scored and Gene Thompson went to second and was driven home by John Hack's single.
All five runs were unearned. The only earned run Victoria had in the game was on Gene Thompson's 22nd homer in the seventh.
Jim Propst held Salem to five hits, walked only two and struck out seven. Ralph Lineberger surrendered five hits, three walks and hit a batter in 1 2-3 innings to take the loss.
Victoria has won 11 of the 21 games it has played against Salem this year.
FIRST GAME
Salem ....... 002 001 010—4 7 1
Victoria ..... 000 030 000—3 8 0
Valentine and Beard; Hedgecock and Ronning.
SECOND GAME
Salem ....... 000 001 000—1-5-3
Victoria ..... 230 000 10x—6-8-0
Lineberger, Lew (2) and Baird; Propst and Danielson.
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [from Aug. 13/50]
GATE SHOWS DROP
Latest attendance figures for the Western International League, which cover the season to August 1 show an alarming drop at the gale compared to what the loop pulled last year. All this without TV to buck either.
Only two of the cities show an increase over last year's attendance figures at this point. And Tacoma's gain of nine thousand odd is not particularly startling in view of the fact their team has been a pennant leader all the way.
Even so Tacoma still ranks seventh, with Salem on the bottom and Tri-City in sixth. Here's the breakdown by city and year.
1950 1949
Yakima ....... 83,711 91,085
Spokane ...... 81,973 128,179
Victoria ..... 81,190 89,061
Wenatchee .... 78,598 43,460
Vancouver .... 70,457 110,123
Tri-City ..... 61,104 35,440*
Tacoma ....... 50,588 41,132
Salem ........ 47,006 49,099
TOTALS: ..... 554,627 587,579
*Total attendance of Bremerton team, which was replaced by Tri-City in league this year.
GATE SHOWS DROP
Latest attendance figures for the Western International League, which cover the season to August 1 show an alarming drop at the gale compared to what the loop pulled last year. All this without TV to buck either.
Only two of the cities show an increase over last year's attendance figures at this point. And Tacoma's gain of nine thousand odd is not particularly startling in view of the fact their team has been a pennant leader all the way.
Even so Tacoma still ranks seventh, with Salem on the bottom and Tri-City in sixth. Here's the breakdown by city and year.
1950 1949
Yakima ....... 83,711 91,085
Spokane ...... 81,973 128,179
Victoria ..... 81,190 89,061
Wenatchee .... 78,598 43,460
Vancouver .... 70,457 110,123
Tri-City ..... 61,104 35,440*
Tacoma ....... 50,588 41,132
Salem ........ 47,006 49,099
TOTALS: ..... 554,627 587,579
*Total attendance of Bremerton team, which was replaced by Tri-City in league this year.
IT BEATS ME
By Jim Tang [from Colonist, Aug. 13, 1950]
“They’ll like him before the season is over.”
That comment was made last April in Kamloops. The speaker was Senior Krug and he was talking about Junior Krug, one of two first-base candidates with the Victoria Athletics. There are few today who will argue that the Victoria manager didn’t know what he was talking about when he made that observation. The rise of the younger Krug to popular favor of the fans who once booed his every move is the story of a fellow who had to overcome a lot of prejudice to earn due recognition.
It was evident in training camp that Krug was the better first-baseman but he was in the unfortunate position of having his Dad as his manager and subject to a certain amount of suspicion by his teammates and considerable from Victoria fans, all too ready to believe there would be favoritism. Under any other manager, he would have won the job as soon as the A’s had their full quota of outfielders.
Under the toughest kind of pressure, his position was made even more unbearable when he got off to a bad start. Victoria fans were far from fair. Every failure was greeted with a chorus of boos and they built up Jim Wert in their minds as one of the best in the league. They claimed favoritism when there was none.
When the A’s needed an outfielder, it was Junior who played out of position. When they had enough outfielders he was the one who sat on the bench even though his manager knew he could improve his club my making a switch at first and was under pressure at times to do so from the front office. Almost every time Junior was sent into the game, it was in a clutch spot.
Junior is not a great player but he makes the most of his ability. He won’t hit in the higher brackets but he gets on base oftener than anyone on the club. He isn’t fast but he is one of the best base-runners in the league. But he does think, he hustles all the time, and he is the closest thing the A’s have to a leader on the field. It took quite a while, but he finally won over most of his detractors by the simple method of quietly doing his job the best way he knew how and today there are few players on the club more popular with the fans than the fellow they accused of having a job only because his Dad was the manager. The A’s could have used a few more like him this year.
RANDOM HARVEST
Although well out of the W.I.L. race, the A’s will play to a capacity crowd twice when they visit Tacoma this month. Dick Greco, slugging star of the Tigers, will be married at home plate on August 24 to Miss Evelyn Moore of Victoria. Among the many presents for the newly-weds will be one from the Victoria club. The following night, Johnny Price will be the attraction. . . . When the Tigers play here Labor Day, they will be accompanied by an estimated 300 Tacoma fans. . . . Victoria’s Knothole Gang have, temporarily at least, lost their privileges because of their actions at Royal Athletic Park. Sometimes it is hard to understand why youngsters so often spoil things for themselves by what practically amounts to vandalism. The A’s had little choice. Not only was their property being damaged but paying customers were protesting. . . . Jack Harshman, once counted as the first-base hope of the New York Giants, has been sent to Jacksonville. . . . Bob Brown, Vancouver general manager, demanded, and received, a change of umpires from W.I.L. president Bob Abel this week. The Caps were dissatisfied with the work of Doc Regele and Dutch Bergmann and received Mickey Hanich and Joe [sic] Iacovetti in exchange.
By Jim Tang [from Colonist, Aug. 13, 1950]
“They’ll like him before the season is over.”
That comment was made last April in Kamloops. The speaker was Senior Krug and he was talking about Junior Krug, one of two first-base candidates with the Victoria Athletics. There are few today who will argue that the Victoria manager didn’t know what he was talking about when he made that observation. The rise of the younger Krug to popular favor of the fans who once booed his every move is the story of a fellow who had to overcome a lot of prejudice to earn due recognition.
It was evident in training camp that Krug was the better first-baseman but he was in the unfortunate position of having his Dad as his manager and subject to a certain amount of suspicion by his teammates and considerable from Victoria fans, all too ready to believe there would be favoritism. Under any other manager, he would have won the job as soon as the A’s had their full quota of outfielders.
Under the toughest kind of pressure, his position was made even more unbearable when he got off to a bad start. Victoria fans were far from fair. Every failure was greeted with a chorus of boos and they built up Jim Wert in their minds as one of the best in the league. They claimed favoritism when there was none.
When the A’s needed an outfielder, it was Junior who played out of position. When they had enough outfielders he was the one who sat on the bench even though his manager knew he could improve his club my making a switch at first and was under pressure at times to do so from the front office. Almost every time Junior was sent into the game, it was in a clutch spot.
Junior is not a great player but he makes the most of his ability. He won’t hit in the higher brackets but he gets on base oftener than anyone on the club. He isn’t fast but he is one of the best base-runners in the league. But he does think, he hustles all the time, and he is the closest thing the A’s have to a leader on the field. It took quite a while, but he finally won over most of his detractors by the simple method of quietly doing his job the best way he knew how and today there are few players on the club more popular with the fans than the fellow they accused of having a job only because his Dad was the manager. The A’s could have used a few more like him this year.
RANDOM HARVEST
Although well out of the W.I.L. race, the A’s will play to a capacity crowd twice when they visit Tacoma this month. Dick Greco, slugging star of the Tigers, will be married at home plate on August 24 to Miss Evelyn Moore of Victoria. Among the many presents for the newly-weds will be one from the Victoria club. The following night, Johnny Price will be the attraction. . . . When the Tigers play here Labor Day, they will be accompanied by an estimated 300 Tacoma fans. . . . Victoria’s Knothole Gang have, temporarily at least, lost their privileges because of their actions at Royal Athletic Park. Sometimes it is hard to understand why youngsters so often spoil things for themselves by what practically amounts to vandalism. The A’s had little choice. Not only was their property being damaged but paying customers were protesting. . . . Jack Harshman, once counted as the first-base hope of the New York Giants, has been sent to Jacksonville. . . . Bob Brown, Vancouver general manager, demanded, and received, a change of umpires from W.I.L. president Bob Abel this week. The Caps were dissatisfied with the work of Doc Regele and Dutch Bergmann and received Mickey Hanich and Joe [sic] Iacovetti in exchange.
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