Saturday, May 18, 1946

                 W  L  Pct GB
Salem ......... 15  8 .652 —
Yakima ........ 14  9 .609 1
Spokane ....... 15 10 .600 1
Wenatchee ..... 14 11 .560 2
Tacoma ........ 11 11 .500 3½
Bremerton ..... 10 12 .455 4½
Vancouver ...... 9 16 .360 7
Victoria ....... 7 18 .280 9

VANCOUVER — Wenatchee Chiefs beat Vancouver Capilanos 4-2 Saturday in the first game of a double-header, in the Western International baseball league series here.
Two extra base blows gave the Chiefs two runs in the first and they added two more on errors and such in the fifth. Caps got one back on hits by Jim Hedgecock and Reg Clarkson in the sixth and another in the eighth when Ray Spurgeon bounced a homer over the right edge of the batter's eye.
At night, with the season's top crowd on hand, ace Alex Palica never got started and the Chiefs whacked out 17 hits for a 9-4 win.
He gave up five runs and seven hits in the first two frames and left for a pinch-hitter. Four pitchers and four pinch hitters moved in and out of the game, but the Chiefs kept their advantage.
- - -
VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, News-Herald, May 20]—Once upon a time Vancouver Capilanos tied a series in the Western International League. We almost said “won a series, but that really would have been a fairy tale.
Leading Wenatchee Chiefs 3-2 in games as they took the field Saturday afternoon, Syl Johnson’s crew booted that one, 4-2, then took a 9-4 trouncing before a capacity night crowd to keep their record clean.
Prospects of the Caps winning their next series, a seven-game effort starting tonight at Cap Stadium against the hard-hitting Spokane Indians are, on the records, not bright to say the least, unless the small-sized miracle that general manager Bob Brown is working on materializes.
Said miracle concerns a first baseman, a mysterious gent Brown says will “do us more good than Bill Wright.” That sounds a little like the Cardinals’ Dick Sisler, but it’s more likely Bill Gray, currently kicking around in the Coast League. In any case, Brown was in touch with Seattle Sunday, and the powerhouse initial sacker should be on his way soon.
The sooner the better, because Mel Cole’s Spokane crew, who feature a powerful attack of Bob Paterson, Bob James, Levi McCormack, Vic Picetti and Fred Martinez, plus some smart hurling by Milt Cadinha, Bob Kinnaman and Dick Powers, have found the Brownies much to their liking to date, winning all six games in the Spokane park.
GOOD TILT
Saturday, the afternoon tilt was by far te best contest, but the manner in which the Brownies lost it failed to cheer the hearts of the best afternoon crowd in years.
The Chiefs picked up two runs in the first inning legitimately but the pair they sent across in the fifth—the winning pair—shouldn’t have happened. Art Bonnell started it off by muffing a ground ball, then a single, an infield out, a passed ball and another boot by Al Kretchmar, who looked very shaky on the weekend, did the damage. Jim Hedgecock was the victim of his mates’ miscues, dropping his second decision of the season against as many wins.
There was never any doubt about the outcome in the game under the lights. Alex Palica was pounded for seven hits and five runs in the first two stanzas and things got worse after that as the Caps went through four pitchers and a total of 16 players.
CUFF NOTES—Syl Johnson says he will use either Hunk Anderson, who tossed three innings Saturday night, or Doug Ford in the opener against Spokane tonight … Ford is back afte a short sulk in Seattle … Earl Silverthorne hot back into action Saturday night and slapped out two blows just to discourage Reg Clarkson, who did pretty well filling up the centre field spot while the regular gardener was nursing his sore ribs … Glen Stetter, Wenatchee’s “goat” in the first two games, got back into action with a vengeance Saturday … He took part in five double plays and a rapped out six hits in seven tries, swatting five-for-five in the night game … Jim Hedgecock had to do most of his own hitting in the afternoon, poling out a double and a single … Ray Spurgeon gave him a hand with a long home run.
First Game:
Wenatchee ...... 200 020 000—4 7 1
Vancouver ....... 000 001 010—2 6 2
Vivalda and Fitzgerald; Hedgecock and Spurgeon.
Second game:
Wenatchee .......... 230 003 010—9 17 4
Vancouver ........... 000 210 100—4 10 2
Logg, Babbitt (4) and Pesut; Palica, Bryant (3), Snyder (5), Anderson (8) and Brenner.

VICTORIA [Colonist, May 19]—Nudging the hard-hitting Spokane Indians, 11-10, in the free-swinging nightcap attraction after dropping the matinee encounter, 8-3, Victoria Athletics finally napped their losing streak in the Western International Baseball League last night at ten straight games.
A’s demonstrated added power at the plate and outhit the Indians in both contests, with the clutch hitting of Les Mulcahy and the home run clouting of Pete Hughes highlighting their triumph in the thrill-packed nightcap.
Finding the range for the first time this season, Hughes kept the A’s in the ball game in the early stages with two circuit blows over the Pembroke Street fence for five runs, while timely hitting by Mulcahy gave the A’s runs when they needed them most.
There was no premium on base hits in the nightcap, with the teams collecting a total of 36 safeties, including three homers, two triples and six doubles. Of this number, 19 were punched out by the revitalized Athletics, with the Indians retaliating with 17 base knocks.
The evening contest was a battle all the way, and the large Saturday night crowd enjoyed every minute of the excitement as first one team and then the other took the lead.
Spokane Indians, fighting to make a clean sweep of the series after winning the first six games, staged a three-run uprising in the ninth inning to tie up the ball game at 10-10, but the A’s finally won the thriller when Bob Kinnaman, relief hurler, walked Steele with the bags loaded and the ball game was over.
Bob “Cannonball” Jensen, husky righthander, went the route for the A’s and chalked up his first victory at the Caledonia Avenue ball lot. He was greeted with 17 base hits, including a homer by Marty Martinez, but managed to pull through.
Indians used three hurlers, with Milt Cadinha, Pete Barisoff and Bob Kinnaman sharing the mound duties, with the latter being charged with the defeat.
The extra-base clouting of Jack Lohrke, Indians’ third sacker, who poked out two homers, one with the sacks populated, featured the matinee attraction, which the Spokane won by an 8-3 score.
Indians pushed over a singleton in the first, two in the fifth, another singleton in the sixth, and four runs in the ninth on Lohrke’s grand slam homer.
Johnny Carpenter worked for eight innings for the A’s, but was taken out of the game for a pinch-hitter in the last of the eighth. Blankenship finished the game for the locals and was on the mount when Lohrke hit his second homer.
“Pee Wee” Bass, southpaw hurler, went the route for the visitors. He gave up ten base hits, six of which were bunched in the early innings when the A\s scored their three markers, and then closed the gate for the remainder of the contest.
The fielding highlight of the game came in the seventh when Murphy took a long fly off Risk’s bat with a spectacular one-handed catch.
First Game
Spokane ........... 100 021 004—8 8 2
Victoria ............ 102 000 000—3 9 0
Bass and Paulson; Carpenter, Blankenship (9) and Mulcahy.
Second Game
Spokane ......... 112 100 113—10 17 2
Victoria .......... 300 020 321—11 19 1
Cadinha, Barisoff (8), Kinnaman (9) and Clifford; Jensen and Mulcahy.

SALEM — Yakima won its fourth game in five nights over the once-brilliant Salem Western International League squad Saturday night, with an 8-5 margin.
Salem, on the bushy side with six errors, sent in four pitchers in a futile attempt to halt Yakima's winning streak.
Bill Garbe, Yakima first baseman, starred with two home runs that drove in five runs. His first home came in the opening inning, with one man on base, and his second, in the seventh, with two on.
Yakima .......... 200 001 311—8 10 0
Salem ........... 000 041 000—5 8 6
Byrd and Gibb; Adams, Fallin (6), Malgradi (8), Gerkin (9) and Salmon.

TACOMA, May 18—Sad Sam Gibson, made his first appearance in a Bremerton uniform tonight and pitched his team to a 13-1 Western International League victory over Tacoma. Gibson pitched four innings and got credit for the win.
The victory game Bremerton a 3-2 series lead.
Bremerton ...... 000 200 900—13 12 3
Tacoma ......... 204 010 202—11 14 1
Lowman, Gibson (3), Medeghini (7), C. Federmeyer (9) and Volpi; Jungbluth, Kasepchcuk (7), Jimmink (7), Hedington (7) and Kemper.

Two New Players To Join Victoria Squad This Week
[[Victoria Colonist, May 19, 1946]
“Beans” Marionetti and Vic Buccola, former members of the Oakland Acorns of the Pacific Coast Baseball League, will arrive in the city Tuesday or Wednesday to join the Victoria Athletics, Manager Laurel Harney announced yesterday. Marionetti, reporred to be a good sticker, is a shortstop, while Buccola is a first baseman. Both are signed players with the Victoria team and will be subject to a 24-hour recall. Addition of the two players is in line with steps being taken by the Victoria Baseball & Athletic Co., Ltd., sponsors of the local W.I.B.L. entry, to bolster the squad. It was also announced yesterday that additional pitching strength for the A’s can be expected shortly. Athletics will continue their home stand at Royal Athletic Park next Tuesday evening when they open a seven-game series with the Wenatchee Chiefs. Single night games are billed for the first three days, with two fixtures scheduled on Friday and Saturday of this week.


Before and After
By Ken McConnell
[Vancouver Province, May 20, 1954]

Despite a pre-game pep talk by Manager Syl Johnson, the inclusion of eight extra players at various times, including four pitchers, Vancouver Capilanos dropped another Western International Baseball League series as they were beaten in both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday by the superior Wenatchee Chiefs.
It was hello and goodbye, as far as Wenatchee is concerned, as this series is the only one the Chiefs will play during the entire season in Vancouver. What a schedule!
Tonight Spokane will be here for a week-long stay and it is imperative that Vancouver do better—much better—in this seven game string.
Faltering in the pinches, lacking punch at the plate, despite their 10 hits Saturday night, the Caps just can’t jell their attack to the point where they can make runs stand up.
The fans were with the Caps, though. Even when the club was down 5-0, the spectators remained staunch in their support.
Toward the end though, the fans tired of attacking two unhappy umpires and started riding the Caps, in the hope, no doubt, the club would show some real fight and probably come up with a miracle.
But we were right out of miracles Saturday.
In fact, we have been devoid of luck; well-tagged balls just being setups for opposing fielders and great efforts turning sour as every attack fails.
+ + +
It’s Up To the Caps
It is obvious that Vancouver wants professional baseball. The fans were itching to be pitching with applause Saturday. But, unhappily, the Caps as a club lack color, merely go through the motions and hardly ever “talk it up” in their local displays.
Most of the gang aspire to greater things in baseball and this is the stepping off place for them. They are being watched by scouts from every big league club and they are all the property of teams in higher classifications in organized ball.
Yet even the fans lose patience as defeats pile up. Earl Silverthorne’s return was heartening; the expected comeback of the injured Cleve Ramsey is eagerly awaited.
But ..
“It looked extremely rocky for the Vancouver nine that day,
The score stood two to four, with but an inning to play…”
That’s the trouble, in a nutshell, with the Caps. They have been looking extremely rough all through the season. And so much was expected of them.
It would now appear to be up to Emil Sick and his Seattle colleagues to do some serious thinking about our baseball problem.
After all it is their baby. The fans want pro ball, but they have always had a fairly good brand of semi-pro or senior ball and there s a troublesome part of the setup this year---there should be a difference between senior and pro—and there has not been too much in evidence yet.