Saturday, July 29, 1950

S T A N D I N G S
               W  L  Pct GB
Yakima ...... 63 40 .612 —
Tacoma ...... 58 42 .580 3½
Wenatchee ... 61 46 .570 4
Tri-City .... 55 48 .524 8
Victoria .... 46 59 .438 15
Vancouver ... 44 58 .431 18½
Salem ....... 42 57 .424 19
Spokane ..... 42 61 .408 21

YAKIMA, July 29—Yakima's Bears lambasted Tacoma Saturday night, 19-2, to square their Western International series at a game apiece and force the Tigers three and a half games off the pace.
Tacoma ........ 000 000 020— 2- 8-4
Yakima ......... 410 812 30x—19-19-1
Carter, Anderson (2), Loust (4), Brillheart (7) and Sheets; Fisher (7) Larner and Tornay.

VICTORIA, B. C., July 29 — Victoria Athletics won their first series of the season from Wenatchees Chiefs tonight by winning the nightcap of a double bill, 5-1, behind steady seven-hit pitching of Aldon Wilkie. It gave the A's a 3-1 margin in the series but left them on the short end for the season, 6-6.
Victoria won the afternoon game 11-3.
Wilkie was never better and he was backed by flawless fielding support. After Larry Neal singled home Len Neal in tho third inning with the Chiefs' only run, the veteran southpaw set the next 15 batters' down in order. He was tagged for three hits and gave up his only walk of the game in the last two innings but was never in serious difficulty.
FIRST GAME
Wenatchee .... 000 300 000—3-7-3
Victoria ......... 024 001 40x-11-12-1
Ragni, Treichel (8) and Len Neal, Billing (8); Propst and Ronning.
SECOND GAME
Wenatchee .... 001 000 000—1-7-2
Victoria ......... 200 200 01x—5-8-0
Breisinger, Dahle (8) and Len Neal; Wilkie and Danielson.

SALEM, July 29—Tri-City's Braves squelched a ninth-inning Salem rally Saturday night to defeat the Senators, 7-4, in a Western International league contest. The outcome evened the series at one game apiece.
Cy Greenlaw held the Solons runless up to the ninth when a four-run blast, featured by Bob Goldstein's two-run circuit smash over the right field fence, sent the pitcher to the showers. Jim Olson came in to put out the fire McNulty went all the way and was nicked for 15 hits.
- - - -
SALEM, Ore., July 30 (Herald) — Tri-City's Braves looked at the ninth inning jinx again last night, but "Fireman" Jim Olsen, stared it down and the Braves evened their series with the Senators, 7-4.
Cy Greenlaw held the Solons runless up to the ninth when a four-run blast, featured
Bob Goldstein's two run circuit smash over the right field fence, sent Greenlaw to the showers. Olsen then came in to stem the tide.
The Braves got off to a fast start in the second inning when Dick Faber lost one in the Oregon ozone, with Buddy Peterson on third and Nick Pesut on second. The bulky Brave catcher hit two doubles in pacing the hitting spree of the night.
Jim Warner opened the fifth with a double off the left field fence. Clint Cameron liked the example so well that he promptly lined one off the right field barrier to score Warner. Cameron moved to third on a passed ball and cleated the plate when Peterson rifled one past second base for a single.
Cy Greenlaw opened the sixth with a single to left and took second on Al Spaeter's secrifice. Warner's singled counted in Greenlaw.
With one out Pesut slammed his second double of the game over the first .base sack. Then Neil Bryant lashed a ringing single that rocketed off Gene Gaviglo's glove to score Pesut.
Tri-City ........ 030 021 100—7 15 1
Salem .......... 000 000 004—4 8 0
Greenlaw, Olson (9) and Pesut; McNulty and Beard.

VANCOUVER, B. C., July 29 — Sandy Robertson racked up his 11th straight win of the Western International League season tonight against no defeats as the Vancouver Capilanos smothered Spokane Indians 9-1 to sweep a doubleheader from the tribe.
Caps secured their next-to-last spot in the standing by winning 4-3 in 12 innings this afternoon. Spokane is the cellar dweller.
Robertson had lots of help from his mates who scored three runs in the first inning and added more when needed. Starter Ward Rockey of Spokane retired in the first inning with a finger injury on a hard drive.
First Game
Spokane .......... 100 000 002 000—3 10 1
Vancouver ....... 001 000 101 001—4 11 1
Yerkes, Auburton (7), Bishop (9) and Weatherwax, Rossi (9); Snyder and Brenner.
Second game
Spokane ......... 000 100 000—1-7-2
Vancouver ...... 300 040 02x—9-12-0
Rockey, Auburton (1) Curran (5), Graybar (8) and Rossi; Robertson and Heisner.

Pilot's Grandfather Dies
TACOMA, June 30—Casper Brenner, 87, grandfather of William Brenner, Vancouver Western International baseball league manager, died here yesterday. Brenner was conductor for the Milwaukee road for 52 years until his retirement 14 years ago.

CASE HISTORIES APLENTY IN BASEBALL
Target for Today—Brenner—Says It Isn’t So
By DAN EKMAN (Vancouver Sun, July 29, 1950)
In his capacity as a baseball manager, Bill Brenner long ago learned all known verses of that popular theme song of the bench bosses, “Will You Still Love Me in September As You Did In May?”
He’s in a field where the mortality rate is high enough to give an insurance actuary nightmares. Scalp-seeking on the part of disappointed fans and front-office men (sometimes joined by press-box managers) is as tradition in baseball as the seventh-inning stretch.
These carnivorous folk have a memory that’s appallingly short; past performances don’t mean a thing and the guy who was hailed at the greatest baseball brain of the century a year ago is likely to find himself collecting his unemployment insurance today.
Want examples? Okay, take the majors. Couple of years ago they were calling Billy Meyer the greatest thing to happen in Pittsburgh since Honus Wagner. Now, because he lacks the players to get the Pirates out of the cellar, his days are apparently numbered.
Closer to home, the Coast League is a typical case in point. A few years ago, The Saturday Evening Post ran a story on Lefty O’Doul in which was related the result of a man-in-the-street poll in San Francisco. Ten people were asked, “Who would you rather meet, the mayor or Lefty O’Doul?” All ten chose Lefty.
But now, after a couple of shaky seasons, the man everyone wanted for a buddy is a social leper. They’re all again him, including, no doubt, the ten who voted the solid O’Doul ticket in that impromptu poll.
Which brings us back to the local scene, and to hear them tell it in certain isolated quarters, Bill Brenner is now being readied for the sacrificial offering. He has even been quoted to a limited audience as saying, “Win or lose, this is my last season in Vancouver.”
All of which is occasioned, naturally, by the indifferent showing of the 1950 Capilanos. Blissfully ignored is the departure of a pitcher, Vern Kindsfather, who won 17 games for us last season, and the failure of two more, Hunk Anderson and Bob Costello, who between them collected 23 wins. So, for that matter, is the absence of Bud Sheely, one of the WIL’s top catching craftsmen in ’49.
Of course, the wolfpack’s hot breath at his throatlatch is not a new sensation to the big, good-humored guy from Olympia. He took the roller-coaster ride once before, going from the pennant-winners of ’47 to the fifth-placers of ’48. But the front office stuck by him then, and last year he brought home a second-place club which ultimately won the WIL’s post-season playoff.
And despite printed reports to the contrary, there’s no visible evidence of strained relations now, Brenner himself voices a concise rebuttal of the “Win or lose, etc.” statement attributed to him. Says Bill:
“It’s strictly newspaper talk. I just never said it, that’s all.”
The views of general manager Bob Brown, as stated yesterday, are equally clear-cut. “Bill had my confidence when I signed him last winter,” says Bob, “and he has my confidence now.”
“As for the future, it’s been my policy for some time to negotiate with my manager on a year-to-year basis. Naturally I can’t say now that Brenner will definitely be back in 1951 any more than I can say he definitely won’t be back.”
The vagaries of baseball life are such that even the guys on the big wheel like to keep their travelling bags handy. Brenner might go, either as a manager or as a player-coach, to a faster-class club next year, or he might disagree with the Caps on monetary matters and seek employment elsewhere.
With an eye to those mortality tables, it must be conceded too, that he might even be rudely dropped if local fortunes fail to improve. But Bill has achieved a popularity seldom, if ever, matched by a baseballer in Vancouver. For that reason, he just might be the ideal guy to break with tradition and keep his scalp.