Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Thursday, July 4, 1946

                W  L  Pct GB
Wenatchee .... 47 28 .627 —
Salem ........ 44 28 .611 1½
Bremerton .... 36 26 .581 4½
Tacoma ....... 38 28 .576 4½
Spokane ...... 32 28 .533 7½
Yakima ....... 28 38 .424 14½
Vancouver .... 24 43 .358 19
Victoria ..... 21 51 .292 24½


SALEM, July 4—Southpaw Ken Wyatt hurled the second no-run, no-hit game of the Western International League season at Salem Thurdsay as the Senators crept a full game closer to the leading Wenatchee Chiefs by taking the first game of a double-header.
More than 4,000 fans turned out for the important games and saw the Sunnyside, Wash., pitcher strike out seven and walk three as he gained his fifth win of the year against three losses. His teammates back him up with a rousing 13-hit attack.
The score of the second game was unavailable at press time.
First Game
Wenatchee .......... 000 000 0— 0 0 3
Salem ................. 006 212 x—11 15 4
Christensen and Fitzgerald; Wyatt and Kerr.
Second Game
Wenatchee .......... 5
Salem ................. 7 (linescore not available)

TACOMA, July 4 - The Vancouver Capilanos pulled a major upset when they drove the Tacoma Tigers into fourth place with a twin triumph. Bremerton moved into third spot.
With over 3,600 fans in the stands, the Caps won the first game, 7-4, and then came back to take the second, 3-2, on the strength of John Marshall's two-hit performance. Marshall was in constant trouble due to wildness, but managed to pull through. The Tigers broke the scoring ice in the fifth by scoring twice on a walk, an error and Roy Peterson's double off the left centre-field wall.
The Caps sewed up the game in the sixth frame, however, with a walk, a single and successive doubles by Lou Estes and Ray Orteig. Jack Jimmink took over mound chores from Hal Jungbluth at that point and held the Caps scoreless the rest of the way.
Five Tacoma errors and failure to hit with men on board sabotaged the Tiger cause in the first game as they left 13 men stranded. The Caps' big inning was the sixth when they tallied three times on a single, a walk, and Jim Estrada's line-drive triple. Estrada later scored on a fielder's choice.
Reg Clarkson, Cap lead-off hitter, kept up his amazing pace, collecting four hits in eight trips to the plate for a day's average of .500.
First game
Vancouver ........ 100 013 002—7 10 1
Tacoma ........... 020 000 011—4 9 5
Palica, Anderson (8) and Spurgeon; Hedington and Kuper.
Second game
Vancouver ......... 000 003 0—3 8 4
Tacoma ............ 000 020 0—2 2 1
Marshall and Spurgeon; Jungbluth, Jimmink (6) and Kemper.

SPOKANE, July 4 - Returning to Western International League baseball for trhe first time since June 23, when nine players were killed in a bus accident, Spokane Indians look a double defeat from Yakima, 4-1 and 13-8, in a holiday double-header at Spokane.
Only two of Spokane's 18 players who were in uniform for their last game against Salem saw action today. They were pitcher Milt Cadinha, who lost his first home game of the season in the opener, and Joe Faria, who worked six innings of the nightcap.
Four of the crash survivors, two of them on crutches, sat in a special box behind Spokane's dugout.
Team trainer John Anderson, who was not on the ill-fated bus, signed a playing contract with the club this week and played both games at third base. In his first professional baseball game, Anderson socked a long double in the second inning for Spokane's only extra-base hit of the day.
First Game
Yakima ........... 000 002 002—4 7 3
Spokane ......... 000 000 001—1 2 0
Yaylian and McConnell, Gibb (4); Cadinha and Varrelman.
Second Game
Yakima ........... 101 401 105—13 15 2
Spokane ......... 260 000 000—8 8 5
Krelovich, Chapetta (2), Bohnen (8) and McConnell; Faria, Savage (6), Stinz (7), Miles (7) and Varrelman.

BREMERTON, July 4—The last-place Victoria Athletics found the home run power of Bremerton too much and dropped both games here, 12-5 and 2-0, to sink lower into the Western International League basement.
Bob Jensen was the hard-luck loser in the second encounter. The fireball right-hander hooked up with Jim Lowman in a pitching duel which was scoreless in the seventh inning, then lost on a pair of home runs.
Bill Barisoff connected for his 20th in the seventh inning and the other was swatted by Lowman in the eighth.
Nine Victoria errors and a trio of circuit blows by the Jackets sank the Victorians in the matinee attraction. Barisoff, Danny Amaral and Joe Gedzius clouted the homers for the winners, while Ed Murphy plunked one over the wall for the A's on the first pitch of the game.
Joe Blankenship was tagged with the loss, but nine unearned runs did him no good. Seven of the miscues were divided between the shortstop and the third baseman.
First Game
Victoria .......... 100 001 012—5 10 9
Bremerton ...... 201 011 70x—12 9 1
Blankenship, Raimondi (2) and Clifford; Holt, Medeghini and Volpi.
Second Game
Victoria .......... 000 000 000—0 3 1
Bremerton ...... 000 000 11x—2 5 0
Jensen and Paulson; Lowman and Paglio, Volpi (5).

It Says Here…
By CLANCY LORANGER

[Vancouver News-Herald, July 5, 1946]
A Vancouver College has done a lot for sport, and vice-versa, in this town.
One of their smartest moves, if you should ask the University of B.C., and Bob Brown, was importing Reggie Clarkson away from Victoria.
After Reg was through leading, and booting, the College’s football squad to fame and the odd win he moved out to the Point Grey pile. There he became a one-man grid squad in last year’s Hardy Cup series, and, in his spare time, dabbled in basketball, soccer, cricket, golf, and chink. There were also rumors he was all-campus poker champion, but that’s probably some talk started by some jealous fellow student.
CHANCES NOT GOOD
This spring Victoria’s gift branched out into a new sport career—professional baseball. Reg had put in a couple of seasons in our Senior League, and had done himself proud. But nobody, including Bob Brown, expected him to burn up the W.I.L. in his first season with the Capilanos, especially under the circumstances.
The circumstances were as follows: Reg got practically no spring training in this year, for two reasons. One was that he was in the midst of exams when things were at their warmest in Sunnyside, Wash. The second was that things were a little too warm for him at Sunnyside.
What I mean is manager Syl Johnson had a large, and promising, selection of outfielders to choose from, and certainly couldn’t be blamed for not spending too much time on a raw, untried rookie who ran around in circles after fly balls.
CAME THE PINCH
Syl had Earl Silverthorn, a standout in training with Seattle at San Fernondo [sic]; Cleve Ramsey and Sid Van Sinderen were hitting like embryo Ted Williams; Frank Mullens threatened to outhit all of ’em, and in reserve there was Jim Youngman, who had a year’s experience in the W.I.L. Reggie’s chances of ending up as an also-ran in this group were very good indeed.
But when the lads started playing for keeps, Reg’s opposition started frittering away. Youngman was the first to go; Van Sinderen followed shortly after. This week, Silverthorn and Ramsey got their pink slips, and Mullens, the last of the originals, took to the bench. None of them had been able to hit above .240. In centre field, nudging the .300 mark, and pushing the spectacular Eddie Carnett as the people’s choice, was Clarkson.
THEN THE PAYOFF
Reg had earned his spot in the centre garden. Injuries to Ramsey and Silverthorn had given him a chance to play, and Clarkson made a fast start. The pace began to tell after awhile, his batting average slipped, and the folks began to drag out their old used “I told you sos.”
But a couple of weeks ago the youngster found himself again and the opposition hurlers have found him hard to hold. One day he hit three doubles, a couple other times a homer and a two-bagger; and he’s always ready to lay one down and beat it out, this beating it our being something he does somewhat better than the next man.
He still looks like a rube peering up at the tall buildings when a fly comes his way, but he always pulls ‘em down, one way or another. The other night he grabbed eight, at least of them being “impossible” chances, and belied his “scatter-arm” tendencies by tossing a man, bearing a potential tying run, out at the dish with a perfect throw.
SHOULD GO PLACES
That was the second time Clarkson had been called on to make a “crooshul” toss here this season, and I’m pleased to be able to report, as the recording secretary says, that his average is 1.000 in that department. This may not seem too important to the casual observer, but an outfielder who can’t throw is like a radio announcer with no teeth.
It also proves, as Bob Brown says, that Reg learns fast. By the end of the season, he’ll probably stop swinging at those high, outside pitches, outside balls, and come next summer, the scouts will follow him around, pens in hand.
And Bob Brown, who has invested a fair chunk of dough in the youngster will, like Little Audrey, laugh and laugh, because he knew all the time Reg was a ball player.

No comments: