tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660145071315388262024-03-12T18:50:04.114-07:00WIL BaseballNEWS OF THE LATE WESTERN INTERNATIONAL LEAGUEWIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.comBlogger231125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-16037475312520489602011-08-18T05:59:00.001-07:002011-08-18T06:08:37.389-07:00WIL Official Statskeeper Bill WeissHi, all. I realise the baseball blogs have been left fallow for some time. I've been working on other projects and haven't been near here since last year. However, I got word that Bill Weiss, the man who kept the league stats for the Western International League, has passed away this week.
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<br />Bill was an efficient and knowledgable historical statistician. Until stats became corporatised, Bill was handling the Pacific Coast League stats and when I was covering the PCL team in Vancouver, we'd anxiously await Bill's league record book to see what new and obscure things we'd find. Rarely would he miss a new record.
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<br />Apparently, he still had bulging filing cabinets of official box scores and so on from the many leagues that used his services. I hope those records aren't chucked away and find a home with some baseball historical group.
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<br />This was on the SABR mailing list about Bill, so I'll pass it on.
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<br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>*SABR Salutes Bill Weiss *</strong>
<br />
<br />William J. Weiss was born June 2, *1925, *in Chicago. He inherited his
<br />love of baseball from his father, who took the five-year-old to his first
<br />game at Wrigley Field in 1930. The precocious youngster began reading *The
<br />Sporting News *when he was six and collecting baseball books when he was
<br />eight. He was fascinated by baseball stats and wanted to become a
<br />statistician. He graduated from Hyde Park High in 1942, along, with future
<br />SABR member George Hilton. Bill attended Central YMCA College in Chicago
<br />for a year and one- half and was a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy for
<br />three years. From 1941-47 he helped run an amateur team, the South Shore
<br />Cobras. He was not a player, but served as official scorer, statistician,
<br />business manager, booking agent, and occasional field manager. They won a
<br />division championship in the Chicago Metro Senior League in 1946. Bob
<br />Hemple, another future SABR member, was their top hitter.
<br />
<br />Bill landed his first job in pro ball in 1948 and the man who hired him was
<br />Howard Green, now chairman of the Dallas-Fort Worth SABR Chapter. Howard
<br />was then half-owner and GM of the Abilene Blue Sox in the Class C West
<br />Texas-New Mexico League and president of the Class *D *Longhorn League. Bill
<br />was hired as Longhorn League statistician and box office manager at Blue Sox
<br />Stadium. After the 1948 season, he headed West where lie was hired to do
<br />the averages for the California and Far West Leagues and to work for Jerry
<br />Donovan, President of both Leagues, in San Francisco. At the end of the
<br />1949 season, the statistician for the Pacific Coast League retired and Bill
<br />was retained by PCL President Clarence Rowland to do their stats. He set up
<br />shop in San Mateo in 1950 and has been there ever since.
<br />
<br />As the years passed he added other leagues as clients: Sunset in 1950,
<br />Pioneer and Arizona-Texas in 1952; Longhorn in 1953, Western International
<br />and West Texas-New Mexico in 1954, Northwest in 1955 and Western in 1956. He
<br />was statistician for other circuits as well, including the American
<br />Association 1969-70.
<br />
<br />>From 1949 to 1987 Bill prepared, first for leagues, then for Major League
<br />organizations, sketch books which contained biographical information and
<br />career records for all players in the league or organization. They
<br />eventually reached a total of 200 books. Following the 1988 season, the old
<br />Rowe News Bureau was purchased by Peter Shipman and his associates and they
<br />bought Bill’s business. He has been associated with Howe
<br />SportsdataInternational ever since.
<br />
<br />
<br />Since 1971 Bill has written during the season a weekly newsletter for the
<br />California League. He also has been the League’s corporate secretary for
<br />the last 20 years. He prepares the annual record books for the California,
<br />Northwest, and Pioneer Leagues. As the PCL’s official historian, he assists
<br />in the preparation of their record book. Since 1989, he has written the
<br />“Baseball Anecdotes” column which appears regularly in *Baseball America. *For
<br />the past seven years he has sold the “Program Notes” service to ball clubs.
<br />
<br />
<br />One of his greatest pleasures was being president of the Peninsula Winter
<br />League in the San Francisco area 1959-84. The league was organized by a
<br />group of major league scouts and financed by several major league clubs. The
<br />players were young organization members and free agents still in school. They
<br />sent numerous players to the majors, including Joe Morgan and Willie
<br />Stargell. Three PWL players are still in the majors: Ken Caminiti, Tom
<br />Candiotti, and Mark Parent.
<br />
<br />Bill has always felt close to the scouts, “the unsung heroes of the game,”
<br />and has been secretary-treasurer of the Professional Baseball Scouts of
<br />Northern California since the organization was founded in l 969. He also
<br />served many years as the National Association’s representative on the
<br />Scoring Rules Committee, along with such luminaries as Seymour Siwoff,
<br />Jerome Holtzman, Jack Lang, and Red Foley.
<br />
<br />He was one of the very early members of SABR, joining September 3, 1971 as
<br />Member No. 34. After 25 years of attrition, he is now 15th in seniority. Bill
<br />and his wife Faye have been married for 42 years. She has been his good
<br />right hand (Bill is a southpaw) in the business, all these years. They have
<br />no children but have enjoyed generations of black cocker spaniels. </span>
<br />WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-24442635380437687672009-10-25T17:25:00.000-07:002009-10-25T17:44:54.503-07:00Ernie Kershaw Turns 100<a href="http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/400*337/12881northshoreErnieKershawCM.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 179px;" src="http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/400*337/12881northshoreErnieKershawCM.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>It's great to see one of the Vancouver-area community newspapers do a feature piece on pitcher Ernie Kershaw who, as the article puts it, is one of the oldest former pro ball players around. He turned 100 this month.<br /><br />You can read the story of the school-teaching pitcher <a href="http://www.bclocalnews.com/greater_vancouver/northshoreoutlook/sports/62913567.html">HERE</a>. He's a remarkable man. The photo is from the article on the <em>North Shore Outlook</em>.<br /><br />70 years ago, Ernie joined the new Vancouver Capilanos and played in their first three years of existence, then came out of retirement at the end of the 1946 season.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-60384888725846865052009-08-30T13:16:00.000-07:002009-08-30T13:23:56.476-07:00Rod MacKay, Vancouver CapilanosI've received a note from Kit Krieger of SABR (more importantly, former clubhouse boy for the PCL's Vancouver Mounties):<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Rod McKay, a former pitcher with the WIL Vancouver Capilanos, passed away on August 26th at the age of 78. McKay signed with the NY Giants organization in 1948 and ended his career with the Capilanos in 1954. His father-in-law, Johnny Nestman, was one of the great amateur players in Vancouver baseball history and played third-base against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other stars en route to Japan in 1934.</span><br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=mackay001rod">here</a> for Rod's stats.<br /><br />1952 is missing because SABR has him listed as Rod McKay for that year. Click <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=mckay-001rod">here</a> for that year.<br /><br />Rod went to my dad's high school (King Edward in Vancouver) and was signed by the Giants at a try-out camp in 1949 at Olympia, Washington.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-68088092706713779682009-08-15T05:58:00.000-07:002009-08-15T06:55:12.259-07:00A Couple of Baseball BlogsKen McIntosh of SABR has been involved in a labour of love for some time .. working on a book about the home of the Vancouver Capilanos of the WIL.<br /><br />Check it his well-designed blog <a href="http://vancouvermilb.blogspot.com" target="false">HERE</a>. Most of it involves the present-day Vancouver Canadians but he does talk about his book.<br /><br />Oh, yes, there's another labour of love he's working on, like many others who delve into old Class 'C' leagues or teams which folded long ago but live on in the memories of those with greying hair who saw them play as a kid. Ken is tracking the story of the New Westminster Frasers of the Northwest League. They were an independent team for one season. <br /><br />Readers of the WIL blogs will remember how an attempt was made at putting a WIL team in New Westminster, with the logic that a Vancouver-New Westminster-Victoria rivalry, similar to lacrosse and hockey, would result in huge attendance games. In hindsight, it would have been a bad idea. That kind of local rivalry was already becoming obsolete, as Vancouver was now considering itself a big league city, especially with the creation of the WIFU's B.C. Lions and the 1954 British Empire Games. The PCL arrived in 1956 to leave a small-town league in the dust (until 2000 anyway) and then the NHL arrived in 1970 to banish any thought the city was on a sporting par with New Westminster.<br /><br />Anyway, <a href="http://newwestsbest.blogspot.com" target="false">here's</a> Ken's blog about the Frasers. It's a shame they couldn't make a go of it, especially considering Vancouver was not in organised baseball at the time, but the '70s were kind of a lost decade for minor league ball and the Frasers were rife with financial problems.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-55830458533774829862009-07-30T05:27:00.001-07:002009-07-30T05:28:18.194-07:00Hurry Back BobSorry, folks. It looks like I’m not going to be getting to work on the 1937-42 seasons this summer after all due to a few other things suddenly cropping up. I haven’t been to a ball game, either.<br /><br />I got a phone call a week or so ago with the news that veteran WIL baseball broadcaster Bob Robertson wouldn’t be calling games in the Northwest League this season because Jo isn’t in the best of health. She hasn’t travelled with Bob the last couple of years, at least north of the border, and I do hope she gets better very soon.<br /><br />Bob is a genuine guy. He’s what you hear on the radio. Some may dismiss his “Be a sport always” tag line as old-fashioned and corny, but he's sincere every time he says it.<br /><br />Fortunately, the Seattle Times did a little story on him, which I transcribe below. You can link to it <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2009547934_voicesrobertson28.html">HERE.</a> The only thing Bob didn’t talk about is how he came to call the Wenatchee Chiefs games and why it was, through circumstances beyond his control, he didn’t get a major league play-by-play job in Seattle which, frankly, was rightly his.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Voices of the Game<br /></em><strong>Bob Robertson is a link to bygone era of broadcasters</strong></span><br /><strong>Robertson, 80, has much more on his resume than 42 years with the Washington State Cougars.</strong><br />By Percy Allen<br />Seattle Times staff reporter<br /><br />Almost everyone is gone now — except Bob Robertson.<br /><br />He is the enduring voice of a bygone generation of Northwest radio and television sports broadcasting giants. Most of his peers — Ted Bell, Pat Hayes, Rod Belcher, Clay Huntington, Bill O'Mara, Bill Schonely, Ray McMackin, Pete Gross, Wayne Cody, Keith Jackson and Leo Lassen — have died or retired.<br /><br />Mariners voice Dave Niehaus also remains. And in many ways, Niehaus and Robertson are kindred spirits.<br /><br />Robertson, whose carrot-colored hair has turned gray and thin now, took a much different path to his Hall of Fame, however. He's an icon to generations of sports fans, even though he spent most of his career outside the major markets.<br /><br />You see his name and think: "That's the Cougars guy with the funny sign off who has been at Wazzu forever."<br /><br />But there's so much more to the Washington State play-by-play man than his 42-year career with the Cougars.<br /><br />To know him, you need to know he temporarily stopped broadcasting this summer — the first time in 61 years — to take care of his ill wife, Joanne.<br /><br />You need to hear the story about the blind boy who would sit by his side during Clover Park High School boys basketball games and made him aware that his radio audience was also sightless.<br /><br />You need to know he was the last man in radio to do re-creations — where written reports were phoned in to a studio and he would call Tacoma Tigers minor-league baseball games with sound effects and his imagination.<br /><br />You need to know he worked part-time jobs as a referee for the first Sonics exhibition game in Seattle; an official for Fife High School football games when Jim Lambright was the coach; and a general manager of the Seattle Rangers, a minor-league football team in the 1960s.<br /><br />You need to know he nearly became the voice of the Mariners, and in many ways he is a real-life Crash Davis, the character from "Bull Durham" who pines for one last shot at the big leagues.<br /><br />And you need to know that he turned 80 in March. And he's in better shape than you are because he swims frequently, drinks a glass of Cabernet at dinner and eats a reasonably healthy diet. And he has three years left on his WSU contract.<br /><br />And he has no intentions of retiring any time soon.<br /><br />There are six decades of broadcast history to recap, so get comfortable.<br /><br />Bellingham, circa 1948, is as good a place to start as any. Robertson spent much of his childhood in Canada, where his father, a professional baseball player with the Seattle Indians, was in the Canadian Air Force during World War II. Robertson graduated from Blaine High School and spent two years at Western Washington University before signing a contract to play center field for the Portland Beavers.<br /><br />Before playing a game, he quit baseball and accepted the play-by-play job with the Wenatchee Chiefs, a minor-league baseball team.<br /><br />"I don't think too much about it anymore, but for years I wondered if I made the right decision," Robertson said. "After I turned 30, I knew baseball was over for me."<br /><br />Next stop is South Bend, Ind., 1955, where Notre Dame hired Robertson to anchor its fledgling school-run television station. Although he spent less than a year covering the Fighting Irish, it's one of the highlights of his career.<br /><br />Next stop is Pullman, 1964, where Robertson began broadcasting football games for Washington State. It was a match made in Cougars heaven.<br /><br />Next stop is Seattle, 1969, where Robertson began calling Huskies games for three years because his radio station, KVI, bought the broadcast rights to the crossstate rival.<br /><br />The final stop is Pullman again, 1972, where Robertson returned to WSU. In addition to calling football games, he did play-by-play for men's basketball until 1994, when he was replaced by Bud Nameck.<br /><br />Former WSU coach Kelvin Sampson supposedly wanted an announcer who lived near Pullman. Robertson has resided in the Tacoma area since 1950. Years later, Sampson phoned Robertson and told him he had nothing to do with his firing.<br /><br />"It's not important now," said Robertson, who received the Chris Schenkel Award from the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004. "I'm just happy to still be working."<br /><br />Between Bellingham and Pullman, Robertson has covered just about every sport — professional and amateur — in Washington and Oregon.<br /><br />He's done it all, from table tennis to hydroplanes — roller derby, the Seattle and Tacoma Rainiers, boxing, rodeo, high schools, Seattle Totems hockey, Sounders and Portland Timbers soccer, professional wrestling, Seattle University men's basketball and Pacific Lutheran University men's and women's basketball.<br /><br />He never broadcast a Seahawks game and never had any interest in calling NBA games, declining two NFL and two NBA jobs in the 1960s and early '70s.<br /><br />But if there's any regret, it's a missed chance to call major-league baseball.<br /><br />Robertson recites lines from "Bull Durham" when he talks about his three-game stint in 1992 as Mariners broadcaster.<br /><br />"Yeah, I was in the show," Crash Davis said. "I was in the show for 21 days once — the 21 greatest days of my life."<br /><br />Robertson was a finalist in 1977 when the expansion Mariners chose Niehaus as their play-by-play voice. For years, Robertson believed he might be considered for an analyst position with the team, but he never got the chance.<br /><br />"I had my cup of coffee in the bigs," he said, laughing. "I had a great time. I'd still go [to the major leagues] right now if they asked, but at my age, they're not going to ask."<br /><br />But Robertson doesn't want anybody to feel sorry for him.<br /><br />While Joanne is recovering, he's preparing for his 43rd season with the Cougars in the fall and a return next year as the voice of the minor-league Spokane Indians, his summer job since 1999.<br /><br />Robertson's recent sabbatical from the radio booth has made him eager to get behind the microphone again, calling games like he has for 61 years and ending each broadcast with his signature goodbye: "Always be a good sport, be a good sport all ways."<br /><br />Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com<br /></span>WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-28421680861861091032009-05-31T16:13:00.000-07:002009-05-31T17:05:37.427-07:00K ChorltonOne of the great mysteries of the Western International League has been solved.<br /><br />For many years, I’ve been hearing about K Chorlton. “K was his first name, just the letter K,” stated the Dean of Official Scorers, Pat Karl, who saw him play for several seasons at Capilano Stadium.<br /><br />Due to other activities that keep me occupied through the end of June, the blog has been sitting idle. But I should pass on word of the passing, albeit two months ago, of Mr. Chorlton.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dhlW0eJao8dnnT1VaNo-JezV_W4a2_tzGal7AScz0hnqlv1njdZzyXL1qrg5uSAK63zGMxRuf9p0hdUHFNY9xtwQu-qAhEcVxNMGUeZc5zpmUiUhFOBlxbTBbcBqhT-QRpOTktKJkPw/s1600-h/K+CHORLTON.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 202px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dhlW0eJao8dnnT1VaNo-JezV_W4a2_tzGal7AScz0hnqlv1njdZzyXL1qrg5uSAK63zGMxRuf9p0hdUHFNY9xtwQu-qAhEcVxNMGUeZc5zpmUiUhFOBlxbTBbcBqhT-QRpOTktKJkPw/s320/K+CHORLTON.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342142249121955282" /></a>You’ve seen reported on this blog K was a star in high school ball in Seattle, and ended up spending much of his professional career trodding the 99 from the outfield at Cap Stadium to the one in the identical Sick Stadium in the Emerald City. In fact, he refused to report to the Rainiers in 1954 because he was getting paid more money to play Class A ball.<br /><br />That fine writer and researcher, and B.C. ball fan, Tom Hawthorn, managed to convince Toronto’s National Newspaper, the <em>Globe and Mail</em>, to publish his obit of a long-forgotten Vancouver outfielder. As the <em>Globe </em>story is no longer on the newspaper’s web site, allow me to pass it on. It features Tom’s usual thorough research and answers the question of how K became K.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Run-in nixed chance at the big leagues</em><br /><strong>Fast-running player for the Seattle Rainiers argued with manager Rogers Hornsby<br /></strong></span><strong>TOM HAWTHORN</strong><br />Special to The Globe and Mail<br /><br />April 1, 2009<br /><br />VICTORIA -- The ballplayer showed a steady bat and good, if occasionally suspect, fielding, as well as terrific speed in the field and on the basepaths. But what many fans first noticed was his first name, K, which K Chorlton insisted be spelled without a period.<br /><br />The 11th letter is not a big kahuna in the alphabet, though it does serve as shorthand for kilometres, or kindergarten, or the element potassium, or a unit of 1,024 bytes. In baseball, K signifies a strikeout, which makes it an excellent nickname for a pitcher.<br /><br />K Chorlton was an outfielder.<br /><br />Outfielders do not care to strike out. As it turns out, the moniker carried with it no baseball meaning.<br /><br />In 1949, Mr. Chorlton turned professional with the Vancouver Capilanos. The team was managed by Bob Brown, a penny-pincher by nature and circumstance. An American who played football for Notre Dame, Mr. Brown had volunteered as a cavalryman for the Spanish-American War, listing cowpuncher as his occupation on the enlistment form.<br /><br />At the time, the Capilanos played out of Athletic Park at Sixth and Hemlock, a wooden bandbox Mr. Brown built by his own hand in 1913. As he cleared a lot the size of a city block, he carried in his back pocket sticks of dynamite, which he used to remove stumps.<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton’s career in Vancouver spanned the move to spanking-new Capilano Stadium midway through the 1951 season. (The old park was torn down to make way for a ramp at the south end of the Granville Street Bridge.)<br /><br />With his speed, Mr. Chorlton often batted leadoff for Vancouver. He became a fan favourite.<br /><br />“One of the prettiest local sights on a summer’s evening is that of Chorlton scudding around the basepaths out at the ballpark,” Eric Whitehead wrote in The Province. “Graceful as a young gazelle and about as speedy, Chorlton would rate a quick boost up the ladder if he could only develop the elusive knack of getting on the basepaths more often.”<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton patrolled centre field for parts of four seasons with Vancouver. In 1950, he played for the Victoria Athletics, recording a sterling .333 average in 249 at-bats. He found Royal Athletic Park a comfortable home, knocking 10 doubles, six triples and four home runs.<br /><br />K Chorlton first gained notice as a brilliant athlete at Roosevelt High in his Seattle birthplace. He led the basketball Roughriders to a state championship in his junior year of 1946 and the baseball team to a city title the same year.<br /><br />He also played for the football team, but his father, a chiropractor, refused to allow him to take part in contact, so he handled punting duties. The kicking assignment didn't prevent him from scoring touchdowns on consecutive weeks, one following a bad snap, the other on a fake punt. When the Teddies track team challenged the baseball nine, he won both the 100- and 200-yard dashes.<br /><br />In 2004, the <em>Seattle Times</em> named him the top Rider athlete of all time. He was inducted into the school's sports hall of fame the following year.<br /><br />As a senior, Mr. Chorlton was selected to play in the second annual sandlot all-star game sponsored by Hearst newspapers at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, where he met the legendary Joe DiMaggio. The New York Yankees outfielder was recovering from a knee injury.<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton recounted the meeting in a <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/preps/176942_where09.html" target="false">newspaper interview</a> five years ago.<br /><br />“I admire you so much,” the teenager told the star.<br /><br />“I wish I had your legs,” Mr. DiMaggio replied.<br /><br />One of the all-star coaches was Honus Wagner, while Babe Ruth was on hand as honorary chairman of the event. Mr. Chorlton's all-star team defeated a New York team 13-2. He hit a double, while teammate Bill (Moose) Skowron hit an inside-the-park homer. Mr. Skowron went on to enjoy a long career in the majors, mostly with the Yankees.<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton was scouted by baseball’s Boston Braves, Detroit Tigers, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and Washington Senators. Instead, the 6-foot-3, 185-pounder accepted a scholarship from the University of Washington, where he played baseball and basketball for the Huskies. He was later named to the university’s All-Century Team in baseball.<br /><br />He signed with the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League for $10,000 in 1949. The Rainiers assigned him to Vancouver.<br /><br />The Coast League was a Triple-A circuit, one notch below the majors. The clubs paid competitive salaries and more than one athlete preferred to remain on the coast before the majors expanded westward.<br /><br />The Rainiers called him up several times. His speed made him valuable, but he never managed to get enough hits. His fate was sealed one game when he dropped a routine fly ball. This so incensed the manager, Rogers Hornsby, a Baseball Hall of Famer not known for kindness, that he added to Mr. Chorlton’s embarrassment by yanking him from the field immediately after the play.<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton did not take the insult well. He swore and argued with the manager in the dugout. Mr. Hornsby did not brook insubordination and he knew how to carry a grudge. Whatever long shot Mr. Chorlton had at winning a roster spot on a big-league club was lost.<br /><br />(The deliberate humiliation of a young player angered Seattle newspaper columnist Emmett Watson, who lambasted the manager in the next day's paper. Afterward, he was asked if his story angered the misanthropic Mr. Hornsby. “I don’t really know,” Mr. Watson said. “He treats me so bad when he’s in a good mood, I couldn’t tell the difference.”)<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton spent his final two seasons in Vancouver, where he endured a sore arm and suffered a broken ankle. He retired after the 1954 campaign, which was his best ever in pro ball. He hit .349 for the Capilanos, while smacking 16 homers. Both were career highs.<br /><br />Mr. Chorlton became a salesman and later a sales executive for a company selling fuel additives. He remained active in the Washington Athletic Club, where his Rainiers jersey is on display to this day.<br /><br />After the death of his wife, Diane, he discovered romance again with Gloria Ehrig, a former college classmate.<br /><br />K’s was not the only odd name in the Chorlton family. His father, James, who had played baseball briefly with the Tacoma Tigers, married a woman named Ffolliott. They gave her name to their daughter, who, as Fluff LeCoque, worked as a dancer for Liberace’s show on the Las Vegas Strip in 1947.<br /><br />As it turns out, K’s parents named him after a cousin, who was christened Kermit, a name he despised. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Kermit began using a solo initial, a tag passed on to his young relative.<br /><br />Over the years, newspapers referred to K as Jim Chorlton (mistaking him for his older brother) or Frank Chorlton. They always seemed to print the K with a period.<br /><br />His given name was Byron, apt perhaps for a poet, less so for a ballplayer.<br /><br /><em>K Chorlton<br />Byron Chorlton was born on Oct. 26, 1928, in Seattle. He died of pneumonia on March 17, 2009, in Bellevue, Wash. He was 80. He leaves four children, 10 grandchildren and a sister. He was predeceased by his wife, Diane, and by a brother, James.</em> </span><br /><br />Oh, how did he get the name ‘Byron’, you ask?<br /><br />Hmm. We’re still working on that one.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-86570062394255389012009-05-29T02:06:00.000-07:002009-05-29T02:51:30.100-07:00Lucky LohrkeThe man who survived the most tragic event in the history of the Western International League has passed away this month. He survived through a freak situation that forever tagged him with the nickname “Lucky.”<br /><br />Here are a couple of links to stories about the late Jack Lohrke. First, from <a href="http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-05-07/sports/hacksaw-hamilton-lucky-lohrke-learned-lifes-hard-lessons" target="false">The San Diego News Network</a> and <a href="http://www.betus.com/sports-betting/mlb-baseball/articles/the-legend-of-jack-lucky-lohrke/" target="false">BetUs.com</a><br /><br />There are a number of links on this web site to contemporary news reports of the horrible bus crash of 1946 which fate decreed Lohrke would avoid. One is <a href="http://wilbaseball.blogspot.com/2007/06/spokane-indians-bus-crash.html" target="false">here.</a><br /><br />Since links are known to go dead, here is the first story by sports columnist Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Hacksaw Hamilton: ‘Lucky’ learned life’s hard lessons<br /></span>By Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, SDNN</strong><br />[May 7, 2009]<br /><br />The best year of his life became the worst year of his life, and his life was never the same again.<br /><br />Baseball history of years gone by has given us players with nicknames. “Pepper” Martin (Cardinals). Walter “Big Train” Johnson (Senators). “Vinegar Bend” Mizell (Pirates). And of course the Babe (Ruth), the Georgia Peach (Cobb), Sey Hey (Mays), Hammerin Hank (Aaron).<br /><br />Jack Lohrke, a former San Diego Padre, had a nickname he never wanted, one that haunted him forever - “Lucky.”<br /><br />They held a funeral service for him this week in San Jose after the longtime third baseman/outfielder passed away at the age of 85. But the memory of what he experienced, the year he starred in San Diego, had never gone away. Baseball is made up of so much history. In this case, it was sad history.<br /><br />Jack Lohrke, on a fast track to the major leagues, was a slugging third baseman with the 1946 Padres in the high-powered Pacific Coast League. He spent half a season here and went on to a seven-year career as the starting third baseman with the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies.<br /><br />His career stretched from 1942 to 1959, starting as an 18-year-old with the Padres prior to the war before getting to the Polo Grounds and Connie Mack Stadium. He went from riding buses to playing with the Giants in a World Series. His life experiences involved World War II combat and a baseball tragedy never forgotten.<br /><br />The best statistical year of his life was the 1946 season that started in the lower minor leagues with Spokane in the Class B Western International League and ended with the PCL-Padres before his promotion to join the Giants. Lohrke hit .345 that mystical minor league season in Spokane. He hit .303 with eight homers with the Padres, called up by then-owner and baseball historian Bill Starr. Those were impressive stats. In that era, the Coast League was almost as good as the big leagues.<br /><br />But his life was forever changed in a 15-minute span on the night of June 25, 1946. Lohrke was taken off the team bus by a Washington state highway officer. The Padres had called the owner of the Spokane Indians, telling him San Diego was purchasing Lohrke’s contract, and he was to report immediately. The call came hours after Lohrke had hit a 380-foot home run off a scoreboard clock.<br /><br />The Indians were in the middle of a road trip. They had played a 16-inning game that day. They were headed from Salem, Oregon through the Cascades en route to their next stop on their trip. They stopped in Central Washington, near Ellensburg to have dinner that night. It was there the State Patrol got the message to Lohrke. He was to catch a ride to Spokane and then on to San Diego.<br /><br />He got to his next destination. His teammates never did. He never forgot that night. The sports world wouldn’t let him either.<br /><br />The Spokane Indians, a team made up of kids and grizzled World War II combat veterans, who all had hopes of playing in the big leagues, boarded that bus. Fifteen minutes later nine were dead, seven others injured. Lives snuffed out, careers shattered, families left without fathers, Indians players left without teammates. A clubhouse of empty lockers.<br /><br />On a drizzly night, as the bus drove up winding roads in the mountains, a car came left of center. The bus swerved to avoid the car, hit the guardrail on the two-lane highway, and plunged 350 feet down an embankment, rolling over, catching fire. Bodies were ejected. Players were crushed. Flames engulfed one and all. It was the worst crash involving a sports team of that era.<br /><br />Jack Lohrke’s roommate, San Diego native outfielder Freddy Martinez, was on the bus and perished. He had a team high .353 batting average and might have been the next player headed to the Padres to play in his hometown. Spokane’s bright young manager, 25-year old Mel Cole died. Their top pitcher, 22-game winner Bob Kinnaman, on loan from Casey Stengel’s Oakland Oaks, was killed too.<br /><br />As word of the horrific tragedy spread, baseball reached out to put its arms around the franchise. Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey assigned players from his vast network of farm teams to help Spokane finish out the season. The Indians later became a vital farm team in the Dodgers Blue system. The entire league donated one day’s gate receipts to the families of Lohrke’s dead teammates, $118,000.<br /><br />Eleven days later, with only two pitchers left from that staff, Spokane went back on the field and went 22-52 in a saddened season of meaningless games.<br /><br />Days later Jack Lohrke made it to San Diego, but had the emotionally draining chore of driving two of his teammates widows with him here, before he joined the Padres. His best minor league season ever would be shrouded in the sadness of what happened to his friends and what could have happened to him.<br /><br />Lohrke played well with the Padres, but did not do well off the field. Hounded by the nightmare of faces he remembered, he struggled. The media tagged him with the “Lucky” nickname.<br /><br />He had seen a lot in life. In 1944, with the Army, he was part of the second tier that landed at Normandy. Soldiers on either side of him were hit by sniper fire, killed instantly. He survived. Lucky.<br /><br />Months later, trapped in the forest in the Battle of the Bulge, under enormous fire by German artillery, his fox hole took a hit. Soldiers on both sides died. He did not. Lucky.<br /><br />In 1945, awaiting exit orders from the Army, he was to fly from Fort Dix in New Jersey to California to be discharged. He was bumped from the flight by a higher officer. The plane crashed in Kansas en route, killing all twenty soldiers on board. Lucky.<br /><br />And now this in 1946, on a mountain road in Central Washington. To honor his fallen friends, Lohrke wore a red warmup shirt beneath his Padres uniform for the rest of that 300-hitting season. It had been in the equipment bag he had taken from the bus as it pulled away that night. A month after the conclusion of that campaign, he was drafted by the New York Giants, becoming their starting third sacker.<br /><br />I interviewed Jack Lohrke years ago while doing sports talk radio in Phoenix. I wish I had not. It was a hard interview. I felt uncomfortable asking him about that night, his Spokane teammates, and how he soldiered on. We talked about the 1951 Giants, and how he was in the on-deck circle when Bobby Thompson hit the “Shot Heard Round the World” versus the Dodgers.<br /><br />Jack Lohrke stopped doing interviews in 1995, after a book was written about the tragedy surrounding his life, wishing to be left alone with his memories and thoughts. The nickname had many connotations. Lucky to be alive. Not so lucky to have to remember what he lived through and what he experienced from 1944 to 1946. The Baseball Encyclopedia lists him with that name.<br /><br />Nicknames were part of baseball lore then. Harry “The Cat” Breecheen, Harvey “The Kitten” Haddix, Joe “Ducky” Medwick. I thought of what his nickname meant, and how sad the real meaning of “Lucky” Jack Lohrke was. </span><br /><br />And here is the other story by another fine writer.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Legend of Jack "Lucky" Lohrke<br /></span>by Ian James</strong><br />[May 13, 2009]<br /><br />Jack Lohrke passed away earlier this month, and that name probably means nothing to the average baseball fan. He was a mediocre major league infielder in the 1940s and 1950s with a lifetime batting average was .242, and he hit 22 home runs and drew 111 walks in 914 official at-bats. The legacy that Lohrke left and the tragic circumstances which he got his nickname “lucky”, is what made Lohrke a ledgend.<br /><br />Lohrke died Wednesday at a San Jose, Calif., hospital two days after having a stroke at his home. Discovered as a teenager in the early 1940s on the semipro fields of Los Angeles , Lohrke spent seven seasons with the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies after serving in World War II.<br /><br />But as the story goes, he’s lucky to have made it out of WWII. By the time he was 22, it is said that he escaped death at least six times. Fighting as a member of the 35th Infantry Division, he stormed the beach on D-Day in the invasion at Normandy and was involved in the Battle of the Bulge. On four occasions, solders on both sides of him were killed in combat, and Lucky emerged unscathed.<br /><br />Lohrke was always quick to insist throughout his life that his brushes with death were no big deal, but history told another tale.<br /><br />Upon his discharge from the Army in 1945, he was bumped from a military transport plane at the last minute to make room for someone more important. That plane crashed 45 minutes later, killing all on board.<br /><br />It was truly a matter of fate that Lucky Lohrke was still alive, but this was just the beginning. In 1946 he was playing for the Spokane Indians of the Western International League. They had just played 16 innings against a team from Salem, Oregon, capping off a seven-game series and were on the road to Bremerton for the next series.<br /><br />Jack Lohrke became "Lucky" Lohrke as a result of a phone message that was waiting for Indians manager Mel Cole when the team arrived at pit stop for dinner. It had been left by San Diego Padres owner Bill Starr instructing Lohrke to report to the AAA affiliate in San Diego as soon as possible.<br /><br />The other players finished up their meal, said some goodbyes and boarded the bus bound for Bremerton. Lohrke, then 22, bummed a ride back to Spokane not knowing the catastrophe that he had avoided.<br /><br />Jack Lohrke made it to San Diego; the bus bound for Bremerton did not make it to its destination. On a winding part of the highway, the bus lost control and catapulted the loaded vehicle over the edge of a 300-foot cliff, killing 9 men aboard including his two roommates.<br /><br />Lohrke had stated that none of his close calls at war had the emotional impact of the bus crash that took eight of his teammates and the driver. The trip from Spokane to San Diego was made all the more difficult as he was accompanied by the young widows of two of his fallen friends.<br /><br />Lohrke went on to a respectable seven-year major league career and lived a long and prosperous life. His baseball career was highlighted by a career high of 11 home runs as a Giant rookie in 1947. Two of those were history making as he hit the Giants' 182nd home run of the season, which tied the 1936 New York Yankees’ team record, and then hit the 183rd.<br /><br />Lucky retired from baseball in 1958, and worked in security for the Lockheed Missile and Space Co. in Sunnyvale, Calif. In addition to Marie, whom he married in 1948, Lohrke is survived by six children; 10 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.<br /><br />He mentioned in an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1994 that he never thought much of his nickname, “I’ll tell you this: Nobody outside of baseball calls me Lucky Lohrke these days, the name is Jack. Jack Lohrke.” </span><br /><br />We at the WIL Blog extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Lohrke’s family. He was a fine player for Spokane and, by all accounts, a fine human being.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-59422670704946689862009-05-15T07:23:00.001-07:002009-05-15T07:27:24.177-07:00Looking for WIL stats?I get e-mails periodically about people who played in the Western International League and direct them to the SABR Minor League database.<br /><br />Since the URL has changed, I'll post it here.<br /><br />Check out <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/">THIS</a> site .. a work still in progress, we might add .. if you're interested in available numbers from old minor leagues and their players.<br /><br />SABR's always looking for extra information, especially about birth dates and locations, so if you see a blank spot that you can fill in, don't hestitate to contact the people at SABR handling the database.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-17702504664878391952009-02-16T01:12:00.000-08:002009-02-16T01:54:44.880-08:00Volpi Makes the Trains Run on TimeYes, I'm still here, but tied up with other commitments until June. So you won't see a lot of action on the WIL blogs. Sorry. But I've been meaning to post this.<br /><br />In between the demise of the first Western International League in 1922 and its revival in 1937, there were extremely active semi-pro circuits in the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver had its own; an "A" and a "B" league (and another one below that). Occasionally, the Vancouver teams would play exhibition matches against clubs from Bellingham.<br /><br />Some of these players later ended up with the Vancouver clubs in the WIL. Ernie Kershaw is one (he is still with us). Another was catcher Frank Volpi.<br /><br />Frank was property of the Oakland Oaks, and spent parts of three seasons with the PCL club in Emoryville. Jim Price, noted Spokane baseball historian, pointed out to me the Oaks had a deal with Bob Brown, the de-facto head of the Senior League in Vancouver, to send young players here for a bit of seasoning, there being no minor league in the northwest at the time. Dario Lodigiani was one; he won a batting championship. Volpi and Henry Martinez were sent to Vancouver in 1936 to play for Brown's Athletics.<br /><br />In doing some research for Jim, I came across this piece in the <em>Vancouver Sun </em>of September 4, 1936. Evidently, the horrors of Fascism weren't known at the time. A few years later, I can't see Volpi—or too many other Italian-Americans—comparing themselves with pride to Benito Mussolini. But Volpi does it in this story.<br /><br />Frank bounced around the WIL, including a stint back at Brown's Athletic Park in 1939, which was also the last year he would appear in the Coast League or any classification above 'B'. He died on February 9, 1997 in San Jose, the place of his birth in 1913.<br /><br />As a side-note, the “Wilkie” referred to in the story is Aldon Wilkie, who spent a couple of years in the Senior League after arriving from Saskatchewan before going on to a major league career, and concluding his baseball life in the WIL.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Volpi Has His Say<br /></strong>* * *<br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Athletic Boss Tells Why<br /></strong></span>* * *<br /><strong>Team to Clean Up</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Francis Volpi, Athletic manager, toyed with a large piece of hickory, took a last took at it and decided it was ready for the campaign against the very winnish Arrows.<br />“They think Arrows will beat us in the finals eh,” he chortled with a faint trace of an Italian accent. “That’s a laugh. This is a season for Italian generals ... look at Mussolini, they said he couldn’t beat the Ethiopians.”<br />Mr. Volpi wouldn’t be related to old Muss or wouldn’t think he had the same winning characteristics, would he?<br />“Well, we both give signals with a right hand, didn’t we? Of course Mussolini holds his hand out in the open and I gotta hide ‘em with my glove, but it’s just the same thing. And we are both Italian aren’t we and we both eat spaghetti.”<br />He knew of course that Arrows uncorked a barrage of exploding hits every game now and might blast a lot of holes in Athletics.<br />“Sure they have, but anybody can hit if you put the old apple where they like it. I been studying the blue prints. I’ll make those chuckers of ours throw the ball where Arrows can’t touch it. They all got a weakness and I figure I know ‘em all just like Mussolini knew how to climb into Ethiopia ... me and Muss.”<br /><strong>FRANKIE KNOWS</strong><br />Now Hall and Miron, Clarke, too, are hitting the cover off the ball. They don’t seem to be short on anything.<br />“Yah! Well Hall can’t hit a change of pace if you tease him with a fast ball. Miron is all right if you don’t get ‘em too close to his chin and as for Clarke he can’t hit fast pitching. Just wait for those twisters.”<br />All right then, they won’t hit, but Athletics can’t win without any runs and Wilkie and Olsen have developed a strange habit of throwing ‘em by all batters lately.<br /><strong>ROSS SHOULD HELP</strong><br />“Nuts on those guys. The only way for us to keep from hitting is to put our hands in our pickets. Our power is all on the right side of the dish now we got Ross Edy. We’re liable to kill somebody out there. They’ll have to get bicycles for their outfielders.”<br />Arnold & Quigley got some good hitters but they didn’t need to put their digits in their jeens to go hitless.<br />“No wonder, they wouldn’t hustle. Boy, we’re full of spinach. We’ll eat those guys.”<br />Perhaps he could say right quick how many games it would take to beat Arrows in this final playoff. He could.<br />“Four straight. Pate has gotta get back to school and Martinez and I want to go back to Oakland Club. We’re in a hurry.”<br />And that’s that. Francis “Mussolini” Volpi has it all figured out. It’s a cinch.<br />It starts tonight at 8 o’clock, the first game of the final playoff ... Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come ovah! Come ovah! The show starts right away.</span>WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-59596025305177831522008-09-16T02:28:00.000-07:002008-09-18T01:02:11.962-07:00WIL 1939 Season OpensIt’s going to be some time before I get to the pre-war Western International League game-by-game page, so below you’ll find the opening day highlights. I’ll add a Hal Straight sidebar soon; Hal was a lefthanded pitcher in Bob Brown’s senior league in the, I think, late ’20s before his stellar newspaper career.<br /><br /><a href="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01678.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01678.jpg" border="0" /></a>Some 1939 WIL background: Brown took over the Maple Leafs franchise from the Jones family (at the request of the league, said Bob), moved it to Athletic Park, and named it the Capilanos. The Vancouver Archives has some fine public domain photos from the 1939 season, including this one on the right. You can really see the unbelievable slope of the field. I think that’s the old Granville Bridge in the background (someone reading, I’m sure, can confirm that). If I had a 1939 programme, I might be able to tell you (please avoid going into a circa 1939 radio routine now) who’s on first, but Wayne McCue played 103 games for the Caps there that season.<br /><br /><a href="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01676.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 0px 0px; WIDTH: 310px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01676.jpg" border="0" /></a>This one gives you an idea of the short right field distance. Note the large, tacky owl on the Owl Drugs sign.<br /><br />Since the ’39 season ended more than a few days ago, it’s not spoiling anything to tell you Wenatchee won the championship, seven games ahead of Tacoma. Bill Skelley of the Chiefs won the batting title, hitting .366, Morrie Abbott of the Tigers smashed 37 homers, while Yakima’s Hub Kittle was the only 20-game winner.<br /><br />Knowledgable major league fans will notice a couple of familiar names in the story below. Yes, that is Floyd "Almost Tossed a No-Hitter" Bevens, in his second year with Wenatchee (he finally made the Yankees in 1944). And Vancouver’s Rigney is none other than Bill Rigney, who ended up in a Bellingham uniform before the season was out, long before his fine playing career with the New York Giants and his managing tenure around the majors.<br /><br />The last 1939 photo below is of Bob Brown (the Archives caption simply calls him "man". And they’re supposed to be keepers of history! Tsk). He’s in the office that was destroyed by the 1945 Athletic Park fire. The Archives has a number of other well-preserved baseball shots; my favourite is the Vancouver Beavers carrying the Northwestern League pennant with one of the old beehive burners along False Creek benignly and continously spewing their blackish product of progress into a dismay spring sky.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;">W.I. League Ready for Big Ball Opening.</span></strong><br /></span>- - -<br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong>Brown Cuts Team Down; Plays Wenatchee Tomorrow<br /></strong></span><span style="font-size:85%;">[Vancouver Sun, Saturday, April 22, 1939]</span><br /><a href="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01680.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/photos/cva99/sub1/A01680.jpg" border="0" /></a>SEATTLE, April 22—The hustling, popular Western International Baseball League opens its third season tomorrow and president F.H. Knickerbocker expects the year to be the league’s best so far.<br />Two of the six clubs have new owners and different names. The increased player limit—16—is new. The opening week has been changed around to give fans in all cities a quick look at every team in the league, and to top it off, there’s even a new umpire to differ with—Cecil Morgan, formerly of the Arizona-Texas League.<br />One of the “new clubs” is Spokane, named Indians instead of Hawks, tied up with the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League and owners of Twin Falls of the new Pioneer League.<br />Spokane finished in next to last place last year, but new owner William P. Ulrich looks for a different story this season. He is counting on two ex-Seattle players, McCormack and Serventi.<br /><strong>VANCOUVER ON OWN</strong><br />Vancouver is the other new club, with its name changed from Maple Leafs to Capilanos and veteran baseball man Bob Brown now the owner. Despite its independence of big league teams, Vancouver’s outlook is promising.<br />Tacoma Tigers, who won the first pennant but finished in last place last year, have vowed to make a strong showing this season.<br />Yakima’s Pippins, who won in the regular playing season last year only to lose the flag to Bellingham’s Chinooks in the play-offs, have virtually the same pennant-contending team on hand.<br />The Wenatchee Chiefs, connected with the New York Yankees, have a hustling team of youngsters who are expected to go far.<br />Bellingham is tied up with Hollywood of the Coast League.<br />The opening schedule finds Bellingham at Spokane, Tacoma at Yakima and Vancouver at Wenatchee. On Monday, Bellingham jumps to Yakima, Tacoma goes to Wenatchee and Vancouver to Spokane.<br /><strong>HERE NEXT THURSDAY</strong><br />April 25 and 26, Bellingham will be at Wenatchee, Tacoma at Spokane and Vancouver at Yakima. On April 27, the line-up will be Wenatchee at Bellingham, Spokane at Tacoma and Yakima at Vancouver. April 29, Wenatchee will be at Tacoma, Yakima at Bellingham and Spokane at Vancouver. The 30th will find Yakima at Wenatchee and Vancouver at Tacoma.<br />May 2-5 will find the teams settling down for their first full-week stands: Bellingham and Spokane, Wenatchee at Yakima and Tacoma at Vancouver.<br />Merle Pedegani was released from the Capilano roster yesterday when Frank Volpi reported for catching duty. Pedegani was playing the outfield in practise games while Ralph Samhammer was behind the plate. But Volpi arrived from Oakland and was given the catching duties, moving Samhammer to the outfield and displacing Pedegani.<br />Pedegani has been released outright to the Class D Boise Club of the Pioneer league.<br />Don Osborne, leading Vancouver pitcher last year, has been given the starting assignment for the opening game in Wenatchee Sunday.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong>Chiefs Find Capilano Chuckers Osborne and Malman Easy Picking</strong></span><br />- - -<br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Vancouver Only Get Four Blows; High Wind Spoils Opening; Ross Edy Looks Good, Hal O’Banion Works Smart Game for Wenatchee.</strong></span><br />- - -<br /><strong>By HAL STRAIGHT<br /></strong><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Vancouver Sun Sports Editor<br /></strong>[April 24, 1939]</span><br />WENATCHEE.—They are calling Vancouver Capilanos the “Mystery Team” around the Western International belt and as far as last night was concerned in their opening game you can make that a murder mystery.<br />There was a howling wind, the eerie atmosphere, and the villainous laughs of the Wenatchee Chiefs as they murdered two Vancouver pitchers with 12 smashing blows—righthander Don Osborne and lefthander [Joe] Malman. The wind spoiled the opening here, only 1500 turning out.<br />Vancouver started out on top, scoring two runs in the second inning. At that time ace Don Osborne was going well, his curve ball breaking as sharp as the Cariboo road (we’re in the mood for roads at present) and his fast ball hopping on a following wind. Then suddenly Osborne was fresh out of curve balls and the Chiefs had a basehit pow-wow.<br /><strong>DOUBTFUL ALIBI</strong><br />Osborne alibi’d after the game that the wind spoiled his curve, to which Johnny Kerr didn’t pay much notice, as Bevens of Wenatchee only allowed four hits and he had the same wind. That’s one thing the eager townfolk here can’t fix for their beloved ball team ... I’m sure they can’t.<br />Bill Bevens, however, wasn’t the most accurate pitcher and got off his course seven times on the stormy baseball sea, that many men getting free dockage at first base.<br />Incidentally, Hal O’Banion, former of Vancouver Athletics, caught for the Chiefs and looked very good. His throwing arm has improved, he has a quick shift and works his pitcher very smartly.<br />Wenatchee tied the ball game in the third, scoring a deuce, then Vancouver went out in front in the fourth inning, Ross Edy scoring a run, driven in by Frank Volpi, another Vancouver Athletic catcher.<br />Then the Chiefs came right back with three runs, added a single in the next inning—the sixth—and got two more in the seventh. Rigney, who got two of Vancouver’s hits, didn’t have any dust on those gold-rimmed spectacles he wears, and hit a homer to complete Vancouver’s scoring. He got another hit earlier.<br />Skelley and Bonnetti hit home runs for the Chiefs.<br />Ross Edy looked like he’s been playing pro ball all his life. He went away back into the north winds and caused the apple blossoms to blow into the wide open Wenatchee mouths as he pulled down a tough fly.<br />Paul McGinnes was in uniform, but the Seattle-owned slicker didn’t play. Johnny Kerr was on second instead ... in fact, now they have McGinnes they do not know what to do with him, which is a lot of ball players to have hanging around doing nothing.<br /><strong>VOLPI LOOKS GOOD</strong><br />Frank Volpi is just twice the catcher he used to be in Vancouver. And he’s a hitter, too ... Wenatchee has a team of giants and look very, very formidable ... McCue and Stewart, his siege guns, failed to fire, but Bob claims that won’t happen very often ... Cailtaux, third baseman, looked like the neatest defensive player on the club ... accurate flipper ... covers plenty of ground, charges the ball...<br />Today, Vancouver moves to Spokane, but not with this writer. I give up ... Thursday they will be in Vancouver to open up so I suppose it is raining up there.<br />Vancouver ..... 020 020 100—5 4 1<br />Wenatchee .... 002 031 20x—8 12 0<br />Osborne, Malman (7) and Volpi; Bevens and O’Banion.<br /><br />YAKIMA, April 23 [TSN]—Two big innings, in which they scored six of their runs, gave Tacoma a 7-2 victory over Yakima, 1938 league champions, in the season’s curtain-raiser, played before 3,500 fans. Pitcher Bob Cole, who went the route for the Tigers, handcuffed the Pippins with five hits. Tacoma unloosed a four-run barrage against Hurler Johnny Lewis in the third stanza, featured by a homer by Morrie Abbott with Harriman and Colbern aboard. Yakima tallied once in the last of the third, and there was no more scoring until the eighth, when the Bengals drove Lewis to cover with a two-run blast. The Pippins threatened in the seventh, when Jacobs and Fernandez singled in succession, but Cole forced Peterson to hit into a double play to snuff out the uprising.<br />Tacoma ...... 004 000 021—7 11 2<br />Yakima ....... 001 000 010—2 5 2<br />Cole and Clifford; Lewis and Lorenz.<br /><br />SPOKANE, April 23 [TSN]—A pass to Ken Manning, followed by singles by Manager Bernie deViveiros and Al Marchi, after two were out in the ninth inning, gave Spokane a 10 to 9 decision over Bellingham, in the season’s inaugural, before 6,591 fans at Ferris Field. The game was a see-saw battle from start to finish, with each club collecting 14 safe hits. Trailing 6 to 5, going into the last half of the seventh inning, the Tribe went into the lead, when Outfielder Levi McCormack poled a 342-foot home run over the left field barrier, scoring Dwight Aden ahead of him. Bellingham tied the count with a run in the eighth, the result of two safeties and an error, but the Indians came back in the home half with a pair of runs on singles by Marchi, Windsor and Hornig and Byram’s walk. The Chinooks again evened the score in the first of the ninth on two bingles, a base on balls and a walk, producing two markers, with Spokane putting over the winning in the final half.<br />Bellingham ..... 100 001 412—9 16 2<br />Spokane ........ 001 400 221—10 16 1<br />McGahan, Olson (4), Shutte (9) and Rush, Lassell; Jonas, Windsor (7) and Clawitter.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-23331783822047319042008-09-14T03:06:00.001-07:002008-09-14T03:30:13.187-07:00Victoria's Royal Athletic Park<a href="http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_97/i_01437.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_97/i_01437.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>Here's a photo from the BC Provincial Archives collection of a game at Royal Athletic Park in 1946. And to look at those empty seats and realise this was one of the better drawing seasons, around 103,000 fans.<br /><br />The Athletics drew about 148,000 in 1948, the best in their brief history. When the Tyees suddenly folded near the end of the 1954 season, the attendance number was a mere 28,000. The CJVI announcer is an inset. I have no idea who it might be; I don't believe Bill Stephenson had arrived there at that point.<br /><br />Pat Karl, the official scorer at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, used to go to see the Athletics play when he was a kid and explains there was a dogleg in right field. I don't know if you can see it in the photo.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-55415369280102074382008-09-12T02:07:00.000-07:002008-09-29T02:50:08.505-07:00What's New For 1946 and 1947Before getting to anything else, George Nicholas’ grandson sent a nice e-mail. When George wasn’t making suits, he was pitching, and for four seasons did it for the Vancouver Capilanos (62 wins). He also spent time with the Tacoma Tigers and in the PCL with San Diego. I mentioned to Jeffrey that this year, the fence along the barbeque area on the 1st base side at Nat Bailey (né Capilano) Stadium has highlights of the team’s history since 1951 when the stadium opened. Next to a large “1951” is a large blown up picture (it takes up the whole high fence) of a swarthy pitcher. It’s George Nicholas. I thought it was to commemorate George’s no-hitter for Vancouver—except he tossed that in 1950 in Athletic Park. So, I don’t know why they picked George. To be honest, I never did get a close look at the wall so I don’t know what the caption under his name says. There’s also a large photo of four of the players on the ’54 pennant winner in the last WIL season.<br /><br />If Jeffrey sends any pictures I’ll put them up.<br /><br />As for the site...<br /><br />It’s September which means I’m tied up with fraternal groups. So work will be minimal here. Sorry.<br /><br />I’ve added a few things. You’ll see columns from the three Vancouver papers on this page for 1946. On the 1947 site, I’ve added the WIL-related columns from the Vancouver Sun. Keith Matthews had been handed a Saturday baseball column when he came over from the News-Herald to cover the Caps. Alf Cottrell still wrote about the team on occasion. And Don Carlson, a former ball player (likely semi-pro), took over as sports editor and he contributed a piece. You’ll find stuff on umpires and the flap when Lee Mohr quite the club when Seattle stiffed him on a call-up. And, since I haven’t mentioned it before, 1954 is finished except for the year-end stats.<br /><br />So, here’s what I’ll be working on over the next few months.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> Finishing daily standings for 1946. <strong>[done]</strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> Removing 1946 game material from here and placing it on the 1946 site.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> Adding Ken McConnell’s 1947 columns on baseball from the Vancouver Province (there were maybe eight of them, including one answering the question “Where did infield prospect Lavis York get to?”). <strong>[done]</strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> Formatting the 1953 and 1954 year-end batting and pitching stats and putting them up.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> Stories and linescores on the start of the 1939 <strong>[done]</strong> and 1938 seasons.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> A short note on (and cartoon of) the first WIL broadcaster in Vancouver.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuC80Hs5bruV_kyL6INYpjn0edwoeVzwN_BN79Wi_ib_lYH5H9_WM0VipHd00tLaH0tJ5n9R0YKBYuSa1znEybchkMzrICCdaJ4wwXdjlqQw0IWEQWx8duaDyE8Fflqc7YPxolb9qIXOA/s1600-h/hugh+luby.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 0px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuC80Hs5bruV_kyL6INYpjn0edwoeVzwN_BN79Wi_ib_lYH5H9_WM0VipHd00tLaH0tJ5n9R0YKBYuSa1znEybchkMzrICCdaJ4wwXdjlqQw0IWEQWx8duaDyE8Fflqc7YPxolb9qIXOA/s320/hugh+luby.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245061911709380386" /></a>And since I’ve been linking to WIL pictures from several public libraries, here’s one from spring training 1954. It’s of Salem manager Hugh Luby with Al Lightner, sports editor of the Oregon Statesman. They’re in Napa, California. Luby had a fine career with both the Oakland Oaks and San Francisco Seals, and followed the well-worn trail blazed by many old PCL players to the Western International League. Despite calls by the sports editor of the Tri-City Herald to make him the first president of the Northwest League in 1955, he remained as manager (and sometime G.M.) of the Salem Senators for six seasons in both the WIL and NWL. He died in Eugene on 4th May 1986 at 72.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-57195796767957063532008-09-07T01:02:00.000-07:002008-09-17T11:00:42.151-07:00Some WIL Fan Net PicksOver 20 years ago, when I was researching every game played by the Pacific Coast League’s Vancouver Mounties and major events in baseball history in Vancouver, the only option I had was to sit in the main branch of the Vancouver Library and go through reels of newspaper microfilm and hand-write some notes. I still have those notes in a shoebox. Some day I may actually find time to do something with them.<br /><br />Today, those microfilm reels are still there, though some are now scraped up and unreadable. One newspaper that I viewed in hard copy is now on reels and difficult to read thanks to the way the microfilm was shot.<br /><br />However, today we also have the web and it’s amazing the places you can go to find things of interest to fans of the Western International League fans, and those of other minor baseball leagues of former times.<br /><br />In an earlier post, I referred to digitised archival photos. But I want to tell you about a couple of other places:<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size:135%;">•</span> SABR has a huge project, still underway, to create a minor league player database. Records of some of the bye-gone days are incomplete. But it’s an admirable thing to try to accomplish as the records simply haven’t been accessible to most of us. However, if you go <a href="http://minors.sabrwebs.com/cgi-bin/search.php">HERE</a> you can peer into the database. As I say, it’s still under construction. Eventually, ball fans will wonder how anyone got along without that information. I’m so appreciative to the people who are working on this.<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size:135%;">•</span> Some of the information on this site and even some of the pictures come from a free on-line newspaper archive. THIS SITE IS DOWN AGAIN. I'LL POST THE URL AGAIN WHEN IT'S UP.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><br /><a href="http://retrosheet.org/TSNUmpireCards/Moran-Ambrose.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://retrosheet.org/TSNUmpireCards/Moran-Ambrose.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span><span style="font-size:135%;">•</span> Finally, something I stumbled on today by accident is a great Project Retrosheet database. It has scans of The Sporting News’ minor league umpire index cards. You see Amby Moran’s to the right (I learned from this card that Amby lived about seven or so blocks from me; probably in a rooming house in those days). Click <a href="http://retrosheet.org/TSNUmpireCards/MLU.htm">HERE</a> for the alphabetical listings. This arcanity may not be as popular as the minor league player historical database but it certainly is useful to researchers and I’m glad someone took the time to do this.<br /><br />I’m sure there are more nooks and crannies of the web with some more useful research gems for fans of old minor leagues, but those are just a few I thought you might like to know about.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-15182740655496880642008-09-04T03:31:00.000-07:002008-09-04T04:08:54.388-07:00Tacoma 1937 Opener in PicturesIt’s always a treat running into Western International League photos on-line, especially now that some public libraries have had the common sense to digitise their image collections and put them out there for the world to see.<br /><br />The Tacoma Public Library is no exception, and amongst its baseball pictures are a number of the Tacoma Tigers of the WIL. There are several of Opening Day, 1937. I’m going to link to two of them here and you can go <a href="http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org">HERE</a> to search under <em>baseball </em>for more. <br /><br /><a href="http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images2/4/t4/3073.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images2/4/t4/3073.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> The caption reads the "Stadium in background is filled with capacity crowd of around 4,000 spectators." It also informs us Tacoma split the double header with Vancouuver, but lost the four game series 3-1. The park is at 1302 South Sprague. Oh, you can click on both of these to enlarge them.<br /><br /><a href="http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images2/2/t4/3071.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images2/2/t4/3071.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> The caption says "On May 2, 1937, Abner Bergersen, Tacoma commissioner of public works, presented a gold watch to Tacoma Tigers player-manager Eddie Taylor for hitting the first home run by a Tiger for the 1937 season. Besides managing the team, Taylor was also the teams regular 2nd baseman. After the presentation, the Tigers went on to split a double header against Vancouver in front of 4,000 cheering fans. They won the first game 3 to 1, but lost the second 10 to 5."<br /><br />For those who aren’t aware, the Vancouver team was not the Capilanos until 1939. That’s when Bob Brown took over the franchise and managed it for Sick’s Capilano Brewery. From 1937 to 1939, the team was called the Maple Leafs and played in Con Jones Park (for many years known as Callister Park, across from the PNE on Renfrew). The Leafs had financial troubles; Brown’s Senior League amateur baseball apparently drew better than pro ball. I’m not sure how crazy I am about the Leafs’ uniform design. There’s no indication which Vancouver players are in the picture.<br /><br />There’s another photo of Taylor leading off the game with a double.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-61644873652602519132008-08-30T23:48:00.000-07:002008-09-02T04:37:10.286-07:00Clancy and Jim in the Hall of Fame54 years have passed since Bill Brenner wanted lead-footed Dick Greco out of the Capilanos’ outfield, and since John Ducey last ran a pro ball club. 54 years since jealous and self-indulgent club owners killed the Western International League to get rid of some unwanted kids in their baseball tree fort. Yet after all this time, the dear old WIL was still remembered as nine of us became the initial inductees of the Vancouver Canadians Hall of Fame media section.<br /><br />There’s some irony in that the Canadians are in the Northwest League—formed, partly, because Vancouver was one of those unwanted kids (by the Americans) in that WIL tree fort 54 years ago.<br /><br />Jim Robson, the Voice of the Vancouver Mounties, was one of the inductees, and talked about his first game at the old Athletic Park. He came over from North Vancouver by ferry and streetcar. The Capilanos were taking on the Bremerton Bluejackets and Jim recalled the game went 12 innings. He talked about the short distance to the right field screen and how the field had huge bumps in it because it had been constructed on reclaimed land using sawdust from the Giroday Sawmill at the bottom of the hill along False Creek. Jim was something like 11 at the time.<br /><br />But the real WIL connection was in the form of 87-year-old Clancy Loranger, who covered the Capilanos from their revival at the end of the war through their demise, and then became the Dean of Pacific Coast League Writers (years ago, he was given a lifetime pass to all P.C.L. games), covering the Mounties’ move from Oakland in 1956 to their departure in 1969, and then advising Harry Ornest (a) not to try to bring P.C.L. ball back to Vancouver because (b) he’d lose everything; (a) Harry did, and (b) Harry didn’t. Clancy hung around the ball yard for a couple of seasons of the P.C.L. Canadians after before finally retiring.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPw4dO7ijTtz9AujTLFcAjR7RZ3gciV_rojGod3A6KwUhG7E9cDUo2SqMKPMUL2t3BZ8xh1O4FkVapl6eDoLBvGPlks6eeGuP2IOUwJCUVhPPkQCoyou-8BzLr4Inx3peShziFmhzjXpY/s1600-h/HofGroup.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241381834709325138" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPw4dO7ijTtz9AujTLFcAjR7RZ3gciV_rojGod3A6KwUhG7E9cDUo2SqMKPMUL2t3BZ8xh1O4FkVapl6eDoLBvGPlks6eeGuP2IOUwJCUVhPPkQCoyou-8BzLr4Inx3peShziFmhzjXpY/s320/HofGroup.jpg" border="0" /></a>What a treat it was to have him at the ceremony and to talk to him again. (Clancy is right of centre in the tan jacket)<br /><br />Clancy asked if any of the stuff I’ve compiled on the WIL will be put into a book; Jim Robson has apparently been sending some of it to him. Alas, I doubt it will happen. Clancy then brought up the 1947 Capilanos championship and how they were stuck in a Yakima hotel waiting for word whether Vancouver had won. Clancy remembered two things about the hotel—that they had old-fashioned bathtubs “on stilts” (apparently, they were the old kind with legs on them) and that they served the best breakfast in the WIL.<br /><br />He seemed pleased I had found some stories he had written for the long-dead Vancouver News-Herald (at the time of the championship in question, he had been promoted to sports editor), and those written for the same paper by the late Keith Matthews, with whom Clancy said he spent many a spring training.<br /><br />And, no, he hasn’t slowed down too much with age, though his voice shakes a bit. He stayed for a couple of innings of Vancouver’s win and upon viewing a Greco-like crush of a fastball for extra bases, Clancy remarked “The fences used to be farther out.” He was right. They were brought in a bit more last year (and were farther still in the days of the Caps and Mounties).<br /><br />I thought I had posted Clancy’s contemporary stories about championship day on the 1947 site. I hadn’t so I’ve done so now. But to save you some time hunting them down, you will find them below. The first two were written on either side of a picture of Bob Brown. A third, by an anonymous staff writer—Dan Ekman perhaps—is included as well. This is about the best tribute I can pay to a fine writer and columnist, and a fine gentleman. I’m humbled to even be considered to be in the same Hall as people of the calibre and character of Clancy Loranger and Jim Robson because I’m not in their league.<br /><br />Oh, by an odd coincidence, the Barney Potts mentioned below was later (and very briefly) the morning man at CKWX. He replaced an individual who went full-time into sports. A fellow named Jim Robson.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Rainmaker Is Hero As Capilanos Clinch 1947 Willy Loop Pennant<br /></span>Hectic Last Days Were Apt Climax To confusing But Amusing Season<br /></strong>By CLANCY LORANGER<br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">News-Herald Sports Editor<br />[September 8, 1947]</span><br />YAKIMA.—And so, kiddies, our heroes drove off the big, bad Indians and lifted the mortgage on the W.I.L. pennant. The fingernail-biting finish of the race was a fitting climax to a season which had the so-called experts running around in circles, and the casual fan somewhat confused by it all. The latter, picking up his paper one day, would find the Caps in the midst of a robust rally that threatened to pitch them into first place any day. A week of so later the Brownies would be floundering in the second division, and having trouble with teams like Wenatchee.<br />The Vancouverites made two false starts in pursuit of the bunting before they finally did get settled down to the serious business of winning more than the next club.<br />After dropping the first four games of the season, Brenner and Co., getting fine pitching and some surprising hitting from rookies like Buddy Hjelmaa and Len Tran, set out on a nine-game victory streak that put ‘em right up there with the leaders.<br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>ENTER BREMERTON<br /></strong>Then their pitching collapsed and after breaking even for the early part of May, they ran into their Bremerton nemesis. The Bluejackets took three in a row at Vancouver, then contributed five straight losses at the Navy Yard city to an eight-game Vancouver losing streak.<br />A couple of deals got them straightened out early in June. Lefty Carl Gunnarson was picked up from Salem in a trade for Hunk Anderson and Pete Jonas was signed (for half the ball park, ‘twas said). That got the hurling corps in shape again, and our boys were away once more; they won 18 of the next 27 games.<br />Then the Caps went to Bremerton again—and lost seven straight. Victoria added two more losses, and the club hit the skids—but before the squad dropped completely out of the league bottom, a couple more deals were made—and these moves got the Brennermen on the victory road for keeps. Probably the smarted piece of business was the trade of Jimmy Estrada, who wasn’t doing us much good, for Bill Reese.<br /><strong>ADDITIONS HELPED</strong><br />Bill Wright, who never did round into shape, was let go, and Reese took over at first base. Reese had long been known as a capable man at the gateway, but you have to watch him day by day to really appreciate him. Reese “made” the infield, and shortly thereafter another man arrived to do the same for the outfield, and to add a needed note of authority in the batting order.<br />He was Paul Carpenter, a ball player’s ball player,” without whose light-footed antics in left field and timely swatting in the cleanup spot, the Caps couldn’t have reached the top.<br />Wish new vigor at the dish, a superior defense, and brilliant pitching from Jim Hedgecock, Bob Snyder and Bob Hall, aided and abetted by Carl Gunnarson and, occasionally, Sandy Robertson and Ron Bryant, Vancouver started their final drive on July 25 with a double triumph in Salem.<br /><strong>ONSLAUGHT STARTED</strong><br />From there in, not even Bremerton was safe, as the winning streak piled up. A five-game string was topped by a nine-tilt victory whirl, and the boys bettered even that one with 12 triumphs in a row. The record at one stage was 23 wins against four losses, and you don’t stay in the second division with that kind play.<br />It was a pleasant and profitable season for a lot of Capilano individuals, especially, of course, Bill Brenner, whose scalp was being called for both privately and publicly before the last big uprising.<br />Bill had a good year as a player, too, despite a bad knee injury, and his presence in the lineup almost nightly the last few weeks contributed no little to his team’s success.<br /><strong>BOYS GOT ROLLING</strong><br />And a number of fellows who had trouble getting started last year after stints in the armed forces, gents like Jim Hedgecock, Frank Mullens, Bob Snyder and Charley Mead hit their true strides this summer.<br />The happiest surprises of the season, of course, were the infield kids, Buddy Hjelmaa and Len Tran. Ticketed as spare infielders, the duo established themselves early as regulars and earned their spots all the way.<br />Of the others, Lee Mohr was inclined to be an individualist, but you can\t overlook his value as a lead-off man or his healthy batting average; and Bob Stumpf, though he hardly lived up to his billing as a big league prospect, made a competent understudy for Brenner.<br />All in all, it was an interesting, albeint nerve-wracking, season, and any time, you’re passing a rest home, why, drop in.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Spokes Lose Last Chance As Rain Kayoes Double Bill With Victoria<br /></strong>By CLANCY LORANGER<br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">News-Herald Sports Editor<br />[September 8, 1947]</span><br />YAKIMA.—Vancouver Capilanos fought the battle in the Commercial Hotel lobby here Saturday night and emerged with the 1947 Western International League pennant.<br />Yakima, which has eight inches of rain yearly, came close to its quota Saturday, and washed out the Brownies’ scheduled game with this city’s Stars. And when the rainmaker, definitely on our side, did the same for the Spokane-Victoria doubleheader at the Bremerton-Salem game, the Caps backed into the Willy championship.<br />With the tension gone today, the Brownies went through the motions in their last two games in a carnival atmosphere that saw everybody, including Larry Manier, get into the act. Relief hurler Manier functioned at first base as the Caps won the first game, 9-5, and then bowed, 6-2 in the second. But nobody cared.<br /><strong>FIRST SINCE 1942</strong><br />The championship, first for Vancouver since 1942, was actually their second in t[unreadable] years of play, for the WIL ceased operations during the period, 1943-45. It was the first, too, for Manager Bill Brenner, serving first full year as manager.<br />The 25-year-old backstop took over the club in the last month of the ’46 campaign, and had that time hitting the fastest pace in the league at the finish.<br />Saturday’s struggle, while it lasted, was the tougher on the winners than a game would have been. When they learned the contest here had been cancelled, they settled down (if you can pacing up and down settling down) to sweat it out.<br />Finally came word that the games in Victoria were off, and the boys breathed a little easier for even if the Caps had lost both Sunday games, they’d still have finished [unreadable] percentage points up on Spokane.<br />But Bremerton still had a mathematical chance of catching the Brownies, so the ads had to worry again. Finally, however, about 7 p.m., the message was flashed from Salem that their game had bowed to the weatherman, too. The Caps were in!<br /><strong>SPOKANE FOILED</strong><br />At least, they were in for a few hours. Then Bob Abel, president of the W.I.., wired General Manager Bob Brown of the Caps that Spokane had proposed coming to the Inland Empire Sunday with Victoria and playing the games there.<br />Brown, who, a few hours before, had predicted that Spokane might try something like that, was furious. It was against baseball law, he said—a game starts on a certain day, and finishes on a certain day, regardless—and Abel had no right to even suggest going along with Spokane’s idea. Ruby Robert dispatched a hot telegram to Abel to that effect.<br />But once again fate—dear fate—stepped in and made things easier for us. Reg Patterson, business manager of the Victoria Athletics, announced that he was unable to get plane reservations to Spokane—and that was that. The Caps were in—definitely.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Victory Rally To Greet Brenner’s Boys Tonight</span></strong><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">[Vancouver News-Herald, Sept. 8, 1947]</span><br />Hold onto those long-distance cheers for the Capilanos, baseball fans, because you’re going to be able to deliver them in person. Yep, Bill Brenner and almost all of his pennant-winners will be back in town tonight, and you’re invited to get in on the royal welcome which awaits them.<br />At 7:45 tonight, the doors of the Veterans’ Memorial Centre, 636 Burrard, will be tossed open, and from that hour forward, the welkin will get a tremendous beating at the hands of the gathered horde.<br />A big program has been whipped up to greet our conquering heroes, most important item of which is the presentation of bonuses from the Capilano baseball club.<br />And the baseball writers are even now working up a few presentations of their own, the nature of which we can’t divulge until they happen. To make sure there won’t be a dull moment, Barney Potts, his orchestra and entertainers, will be on hand to further the fun.<br />General manager Bob Brown reported last night from Yakima that all but one or two of the pennant winners will return for the salute. And Bob forwarded an invitation to all you baseball fans to be on hand at 7:45 when Peard Sutherland opens the celebration.<br /></span><br />P.S.: One of the reasons this site (and its accompanying pages in the tree to the right) exists because of another inductee. Pat Karl, these days, is the official scorer for the Canadians and we used to cover baseball and hockey together in the early ‘80s before he retired from radio. Pat used to spend his boyhood summers visiting his aunt in Victoria and going to WIL games at Royal Athletic Park. Pat’s aunt was a member of the Athletics Booster Club and Pat tells how she used to invite much-travelled WIL pitcher John Marshall over for dinner (after he had been traded from Victoria). I hoped that by posting stories about Victoria games and the rest of the W.I.L., it would bring back some pleasant memories for him.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-41045731055039612682008-08-26T03:20:00.000-07:002008-08-26T15:45:35.760-07:00The Hall of FameEvery baseball player, if he’s any kind of a baseball player at all, dreams of going into the Hall of Fame. When you’re an aging, unjockish baseball reporter, the best you can dream of is a free hot dog (that’s hot) and beer (if it’s free, temperature is irrelevant) as you’re covering a game. Let’s face it. You’re not going into the Hall of Fame.<br /><br />Much to my amazement, I am going into the Hall of Fame.<br /><br />No, not <i>that</i> one. But I received the stunning news that I am being inducted into the Vancouver Canadians Baseball Hall of Fame media section. I wouldn’t have dreamt of it because this Hall of Fame doesn’t have a media section. Or, at least it doesn’t until Friday when the first group of us goes in.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bcsportshalloffame.com/docs/inductees/images/ind/Clancy_Loranger_03.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://www.bcsportshalloffame.com/docs/inductees/images/ind/Clancy_Loranger_03.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>There is a Western International League connection here, as among the inductees is the gentleman whose picture (from the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame site) you see—Clancy Loranger. Clancy covered the Vancouver Capilanos from July 1945, when the W.I.L. re-formed, through to the bitter end, then covered the Vancouver Mounties of the P.C.L. until, well, the bitter end of them. We can only presume Clancy’s presense at these two demises is purely coincidental.<br /><br />Clancy actually had a bearing on the record book. He was the official scorer at Cap Stadium for a time, including a tense game on August 13, 1962. Gerry Arrigo was throwing a great one for the Mounties against Tacoma; he eventually struck out 11 and Kd six in a row at one point. More importantly, he was tossing a no-hitter. In the sixth, Frank Reveira lined one into left field. Joe Christian got under the ball, caught it, took two steps and dropped it. Clancy ruled it a hit. Mounties manager Jack McKeon (yes, <i>that</i> one) immediately signaled to the press box that it should be an error. Afterwards, Tacoma manager Red Davis said it was an error. Even Christian thought it was an error—he sprinted for the ball, he said, but should have made the play. <br /><br />But a hit it remained. The only hit of the game.<br /><br />Clancy ignored the besiegement and stuck to his ground, that ground between two covers also known as the Rule Book. A footnote to Rule 10.05, to be specific, which told scorers to give hitters the benefit of the doubt and score a hit when exceptionally good fielding of the ball fails to result in a put out.<br /><br />So, Arrigo never got a no-hitter. And neither did a single Mounties pitcher during the entire life of the franchise.<br /><br />Clancy covered the return of the P.C.L. in 1978 and took in a couple of spring trainings and regular seasons before retiring.<br /><br />Two of the other all-time greats have been named to the Hall as well. If you’re of my vintage, you grew up listening to Jim Robson call the Mounties on CKWX (which he did from 1957 to 1969). Then there’s Greg Douglas, an innocent cub sports reporter for the Vancouver Sun in 1966, who witnessed Merritt Ranew being bashed on the skull with a not-so-innocent swing by on-deck hitter Santiago Rosario—one of the most infamous incidents in P.C.L. history.<br /><br />Greg and I work together at the same spot and I see him once in awhile. The retired Robson still pops by his old press box at the former Cap Stadium maybe once a year to say hello. But I haven’t seen Clancy for a couple of decades and I hope they’re able to induce the Dean of the P.C.L. Writers (and likely one of the last few W.I.L. writers still around) to make an appearance at this week’s ceremony. At least he won’t have to worry about hits and errors. The guy who does now, Pat Karl, is being inducted, too.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-69739407209101995772008-08-23T02:16:00.000-07:002008-09-14T03:51:17.981-07:001946 Material Added; 1954 DelayedThe work on the 1954 Western International League pages has come to a temporary stop again. There’s a web-site where I get the Tri-City material and it’s down for another weekend (it was up for 3 1/2 days last week). So, I’m working a bit on 1946 material on this page which will eventually be transfered to its own page. You can now go back and find:<br /><br /><strong>•</strong> All but a couple of Clancy Loranger’s stories on the Capilanos games for the Vancouver News-Herald, and all of his columns dealing with the Caps,<br /><strong>•</strong> All of Alf Cottrell’s <i>On the Sunbeam</i> columns which dealt mainly with baseball,<br /><strong>•</strong> Daily standings through July 3.<br /><br />Alf’s columns—there are eight or so—range from the light to the serious. He has one on Bob Snyder, another Clarkson has written for him, yet another deals with the horrific Spokane bus crash. And there’s one on the NIMBYs of 62 years ago upset at having a baseball park anywhere near their homes. Some things never change.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwA8XgJqOjg3BaEfoiOD-tQvctk2p9UNgSC98SfwGF7i1wIilp09gvHs2KprOXjX1HU7Tnx8zMT07QdA2DdhoCK_JGqAjosL6zSVyzPR5-OXM0Gm5gqkffrnmSE9rQW-OMhRaoe5eL7nI/s1600-h/1946+small+cap.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 0px 0px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwA8XgJqOjg3BaEfoiOD-tQvctk2p9UNgSC98SfwGF7i1wIilp09gvHs2KprOXjX1HU7Tnx8zMT07QdA2DdhoCK_JGqAjosL6zSVyzPR5-OXM0Gm5gqkffrnmSE9rQW-OMhRaoe5eL7nI/s320/1946+small+cap.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236192380200003218" /></a>The columns are always interesting, and eventually, I’ll get around to posting Ken McConnell’s columns from the Province. What’s really cool is the sports cartoons I stumble upon. The Sun and Province always had great cartoonists going back before World War One. This one on your right (click on it to enlarge) accompanies McConnell’s piece I’ve posted from May 20, 1946. The cartoonist by this time is someone named Ray Tracy. This one uses some clever drawing tricks; to avoid trying to do a good caricature of Vancouver’s manager, he has him hidden. Brown is done from a profile shot of an old photo. Tommy Turner ran the Capilano Brewery at the time. The tattered W.I.L. pennant (from 1942) is a nice touch. My guess this cartoon’s supposed to deal with the Caps’ puny offence under Johnson, who finally had enough and walked away from the job in mid-season.<br /><br />The standings, of course, have been a pain to do as it turned out there were a couple of late games not picked up by the newspapers so I didn’t know they existed. I think there’s still one W.I.L. game for which I cannot find a score. That’s in addition to the papers getting them wrong.<br /><br />While adding the standings, I corrected some misspelled names in the linescores. But there are two names I’ve just left from the AP linescore; I can find no record of the players though I think I know who they’re supposed to be and made a note for that appropriate date.<br /><br />I’m also going to flesh out a few of the Victoria game stories where there’s just a sentence. Sid Thomas had columns in the Colonist involving the Athletics, but I don’t think I’ll post any. All I’ve seen so far is constant spin (after a litany of the bad play of the previous evening) that management was doing all it could to make the team win. Unfortunately, he has no player profiles or funny stories or anything like that.<br /><br />In the meantime, the 1954 page remains on hold as of August 23rd due to the availability problem mentioned above.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-87818144139381240382008-08-16T01:33:00.000-07:002008-08-16T03:07:22.517-07:001954 WIL Season On-lineThe first half of the soap opera that was the 1954 Western International League season can now be re-lived on the 1954 site (conveniently in the link tree to your right). <br /><br />The second half is in draft form but I won’t be adding to the site until I can access some additional material and, right now, my source is down for repairs. I don’t know for how long. <br /><br />Len Tran’s son Mark sent me this yellowed clipping from the Vancouver Sun. For at least one season, and maybe two, Jack DeLong composed a bunch of these rhymes about Capilanos players; if the microfilms at the local library weren’t so chewed up and were readable, I would have posted a bunch of them for ‘52.. The game in question was July 11, 1952 (click on the doggerel to enlarge). Lansdowne, by the way, was a race track of the day; my grandmother used to go there and said it was the best of the three local tracks. The site is now a large mall which bears its name.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoQgUfAhkbI6X2ZiSkeJm9EwHRE1YldldcaAkwtqSBtaNMSYa8wa_Bf4L9SLMo_AoHOamu2d_k4wTC8V_mVYbMGDAOpqBYtjUZ4y4YlkvTndqcuDZHgE3SlFXv0Oo6fwYVKT9vS88Ex0/s1600-h/Singalong%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoQgUfAhkbI6X2ZiSkeJm9EwHRE1YldldcaAkwtqSBtaNMSYa8wa_Bf4L9SLMo_AoHOamu2d_k4wTC8V_mVYbMGDAOpqBYtjUZ4y4YlkvTndqcuDZHgE3SlFXv0Oo6fwYVKT9vS88Ex0/s400/Singalong%5B1%5D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235039855002862370" /></a> 1954 was the last year of professional baseball for both the popular Trans.<br /><br />There are people stopping by this site after doing a web search on a specific player. Within the last week, some searches were done on Bob Moniz, Danny Holden and Virgil Giovannoni, among others. If you’re doing a search, please drop me a note and say hello, especially if you’re a former player or the offspring of one.<br /><br />The Vancouver contingent of the Northwest SABR Chapter will be meeting on Saturday the 23rd at Capilano Stadium (now Nat Bailey Stadium) from 1-3pm. I’m hoping a few of the former Western International League players will be able to come again.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-61898425955070206202008-08-14T12:36:00.000-07:002008-08-14T14:08:49.601-07:00Emmett Ashford’s Quote of the DayThis little item finished out Dick Beddoes’ <i>From Our Tower</i> column in the Vancouver Sun of September 11, 1954.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Emmett Ashford, the only Negro umpire in organized baseball, and a graduate of the Western International League (Class of ’53), is now considered the toast of the Coast League. Now the rumor is out that he may pass to the majors next year. Asked by Emmett (Seattle P.I.) Watson how white ball players had responded to a colored arbiter, Ashford said:<br />“A good job done can change people’s minds about a lot of things. The better job I do, therein lies the good I can do my people. A good man’s example is better than all the soap-boxes ever made.”</span>WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-63556189442734294282008-07-27T02:15:00.000-07:002008-08-03T00:38:52.501-07:001954 Site UnderwayWell, if you head over to the 1954 page, you’ll notice it’s finally starting to get some content. There'll be four categories of material you’ll eventually see:<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span></strong> Pre-season, beginning in September 1953.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span></strong> Spring Training (April 1954).<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span></strong> Regular season.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span></strong> Post season and League folding.<br /><br />So far, I’ve finished the pre-season and spring training game stories and roster moves, and have started on the regular season. The most interesting pre-season stuff (and there isn’t much) is the WIL meetings (where Bob Brown was summarily dumped) and Colonist sport editor Jim Tang’s All-Victoria WIL team. As the Tyees folded in the ’54 season, I don’t think he would have made any changes. And there’s lots on the Calgary soap opera.<br /><br />Research for this blog involves, mainly, going through reels of a minimum of two newspapers at the library, as well as a couple of on-line sources, followed by transcribing of stories and columns. It takes time.<br /><br />And what happened in that final year for the WIL?<br /><br />Some of the season highlights you’ll read:<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>•</strong></span> Vain attempts to save the Spokane and Calgary franchises, which folded in June.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> </strong>Victoria finally succumbing to years of financial problems and little interest in baseball and packing it in at the start of August.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> </strong>Vancouver winning the crown over Lewiston.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">•</span> </strong>The league imploding almost immediately after the championship series.<br /><br />Oh, and I may find some unexpected odd stuff.<br /><br />There’ll be the day-by-day game highlights of the regular season, or at least (I hope) a linescore for each game, depending on what I can find.<br /><br />After <b>that’s</b> done, I may take a breather, but I’d like to restructure some of the yearly sites and then start on 1937-1942, though it looks like most games will be limited to a score only due to an unfortunate lack of available source material.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-58569754048868205092008-07-12T01:28:00.000-07:002008-07-23T02:44:16.887-07:00Some Pictures From the Vancouver CapilanosFirst, my apologies for not doing much with the blog lately (specifically, the 1953 season). I explained the situation in the post below and am overwhelmed doing other things. In fact, it was only last Thursday I had a chance to take in a game for the first time this season at Nat Bailey Stadium. And, unfortunately, my time to work on this will be limited for the forseeable future, notwithstanding the fact my old laptop I need to transcribe information is finally frapping out. <br /><br />I've got the rest of the 1953 season in draft mode to put on that page. The problem is the standings have to be done for each game and the AP wire of the day royally screwed them up so I have to manually calculate them. And I want to flesh out some game stories and dig up a few missing linescores. That all takes time.<br /><br />However, during the away-time I've received a couple of e-mails from Mark Tran. Mark's dad is <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/preps/315799_where16.html?source=rss" target="blank">Len Tran</a> and his uncle is Ray. As WIL fans know, the Tran brothers were fixtures in the Vancouver Capilanos infield for several years and were probably the finest keystone combination in the city's history (though Lenn Sakata and Ed Romero had a good year in 1979). Mark has graciously sent me some photos which I'd like to share with you.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA_a8O7bIf2T8u8MF8oCK40MqMansY3LEqzcnCCVMGlNIOBeyjhKfXPp6LPYferIXSjNh5p7W3g1jJDvWiabMv6YjXQA2Fn1XVrdQimsqvmOtMC38UxGE927GGAuFCZ3eHrKeew4D5BBg/s1600-h/caps1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222042588571432370" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA_a8O7bIf2T8u8MF8oCK40MqMansY3LEqzcnCCVMGlNIOBeyjhKfXPp6LPYferIXSjNh5p7W3g1jJDvWiabMv6YjXQA2Fn1XVrdQimsqvmOtMC38UxGE927GGAuFCZ3eHrKeew4D5BBg/s400/caps1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This picture is of the 1947 Capilanos at Vancouver's Athletic Park, autographed by none-other than Mr. Baseball, Bob Brown. If you can't see the names, Len is at the bottom right and Ray is next to him. The team had some great players and won the pennant by percentage points and raindrops.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwqwo8rV_mFik1Vx8zz_au9zhEDXCxfpaxQoteyhob5juN6yoHAuVBfU7oIOc1CVLK9GAiHlKi2LXdju9iLHq5ErirrDWYLSZ-Rk_ujqc3J_jxtNv0iOXCjbCuctT7yVtl34NxYwAfkg/s1600-h/caps2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222044023763265682" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwqwo8rV_mFik1Vx8zz_au9zhEDXCxfpaxQoteyhob5juN6yoHAuVBfU7oIOc1CVLK9GAiHlKi2LXdju9iLHq5ErirrDWYLSZ-Rk_ujqc3J_jxtNv0iOXCjbCuctT7yVtl34NxYwAfkg/s400/caps2.jpg" border="0" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />A spring training picture from 1947 in Sunnyside, Washington. Len is on the left, and fellow Washington State boy Buddy Hjelmaa is on the right. Buddy played on several clubs in the league. Whether he's still with us, I don't know. Mark points out his dad had a spike wound under his nose.<br />The Vancouver Library has this and other 1948 spring training shots in its photo collection, but none specify who is in the picture. They were taken by Art Jones. They're in the public domain, so perhaps I should post some.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSChHagiN7OHz-zvhFd_E-8vASJb5oAbMfipuvzS-ud90tCExemr1UT1z8PWQ5Py_dwJTWnPMYLomfACNty__Of-x4SC2Ujc2Ii8WV3D_i7aAtONJtmiXtVZyB43XaY6zWi3pxmWxXCI/s1600-h/caps3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSChHagiN7OHz-zvhFd_E-8vASJb5oAbMfipuvzS-ud90tCExemr1UT1z8PWQ5Py_dwJTWnPMYLomfACNty__Of-x4SC2Ujc2Ii8WV3D_i7aAtONJtmiXtVZyB43XaY6zWi3pxmWxXCI/s400/caps3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222048324098815826" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here are the 1948 Caps at Athletic Park. At least, I'll take the photo's word for it. But the background and topography don't look like Vancouver, even of the 1940s. There would be houses on three sides of the park and the north view would overlook downtown with the mountains in the background.<br />Len mentioned to Mark that the field went down hill (it was built on the hill coming up from False Creek). One of the columns in a Tri-City paper I've posted refers to this as well.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVEw16vYnrrkdS-jZTvAoJZ6r_lp9NJuAEQTjNiDRomAJQrqejnq31pqo3btCTrwrZus5gTkv7ElRwGt2fg8A2dskC9-Rx5v9Z7veqko70n7auMPmqHEv1lScPgB6SsDROU4qo1evzgQ/s1600-h/CAPS_1950.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVEw16vYnrrkdS-jZTvAoJZ6r_lp9NJuAEQTjNiDRomAJQrqejnq31pqo3btCTrwrZus5gTkv7ElRwGt2fg8A2dskC9-Rx5v9Z7veqko70n7auMPmqHEv1lScPgB6SsDROU4qo1evzgQ/s400/CAPS_1950.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222048761609651650" /></a>The one on the right's pretty self-explanatory. And 14¢! The current Vancouver Canadians programme goes for $5. Albeit, you get an article written by me. Hmm. Come to think of it, I got paid less than 14¢ for it. And you also get a nice piece from Kit Krieger on opening night at Cap Stadium in 1951 (with a box score that came from a certain blog), which also mentioned the Tran brothers.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1xSMm-ErEmKZ5B9-jDCFeFn7ZsX_lp3wueLvq9aYI8GUZt_q5LEZfzHaaLn7-tHaQetveWWkkY5nxOoFUyjvg-qZbuIjWaGoB5TfEoBxGtlnO5UeE72xDm6SYWSlSoRO-HnBzmOANSs/s1600-h/minor-51capilanos.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1xSMm-ErEmKZ5B9-jDCFeFn7ZsX_lp3wueLvq9aYI8GUZt_q5LEZfzHaaLn7-tHaQetveWWkkY5nxOoFUyjvg-qZbuIjWaGoB5TfEoBxGtlnO5UeE72xDm6SYWSlSoRO-HnBzmOANSs/s400/minor-51capilanos.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222049927797610626" /></a>Mark didn't supply this picture of the programme from the following year—I think I got it off eBay or something—but I don't think I've put it up, so here it is. The programmes certainly aren't as elaborate as what you find today, but there are shots of all the players and the previous year's stats; the basic stuff every baseball fan would want. Oh, and quaint ads for small local stores. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I'd like to thank Mark for taking the time to send these to me. If he decides to send anything else to share with you, I'll certainly put them up. Perhaps he can get his dad to send a note about how he was signed by the Seattle Rainiers and his musings of life in the Western International League (including his departure from Vancouver to Tri-City).<br /><br />During the dead posting time, a nice e-mail came in from Jim Wert's son. Jim played first base with both Vancouver and Victoria in the WIL. Judging by various newspaper pieces I've put on the year-to-year blogs, he was much in demand.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-86354277015998656902008-05-13T03:22:00.001-07:002008-05-13T03:42:05.595-07:00Peace and Quiet in WIL-LandYou can see the blog has been quiet for almost two months and work has come to an abrupt halt on the 1953 game stories. It's certainly not for lack of interest.<br /><br />About the time of the entry below, the Secretary of an organisation to which I belong was taken to hospital. He is having heart and breathing problems. He is now at home, but recovery is very slow due to his age. So I have assumed his duties as Secretary at his request until he's better. Which, I'm hoping, is by the summer.<br /><br />I am also Secretary of three other groups and this, combined with a full-time job, has eaten up my spare time. <br /><br />As well, one of my sources to obtain additional information was out of commission for about a month. So that didn't help.<br /><br />Anyway, the gist of it is there probably won't be a lot of activity here until the groups I'm involved with take their summer hiatus and I can get back working on this again.<br /><br />However, I've still been getting some nice notes via e-mail. One was from a newspaper in the Bremerton area which wants to use material here about the Bluejackets. It seems there isn't a lot of information about the old pro ball team there and now they can check out every game ever played here. And I was surprised to receive a kind word from legendary (and he really is) sportscaster and writer J. Michael Kenyon, now living in Oregon. I remember him being at KVI in Seattle (I think that was after he was at the P.I.) and if you want to know anything about old-time wrestlers, he's probably the guy to ask.<br /><br />People have asked me about pictures. I'm afraid I don't have a picture or card collections (something tells me WIL bubble-gum cards wouldn't have been a huge seller) or anything; I'm sorry I don't as it would add a lot. It's a shame photos from newspaper archives in former WIL cities aren't digitised and available for viewing.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-43224174260733484962008-03-15T17:53:00.000-07:002008-03-23T17:59:42.359-07:00The WIL That Was ForgottenWhen everyone thinks of the Western International League (and I know you all do constantly), they think of the league that was around from 1937 to 1954, interrupted for a few years because of the war.<br /><br />There was a Western International League before that. It operated only in 1922. I've always thought of it as a new name for the Pacific Coast International League of 1921 which, more or less, was the old Northwestern League. But it appears the first WIL was something different. It appears to have been an attempt to merge the PCI League with the Western Canada League, which had attained B status by 1921. The WCL had clubs in various cities in the prairie provinces, including Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon.<br /><br />I came across this wire story from 1922:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">TACOMA, March 14—The Western International Baseball League will have only four clubs this year, Russell J. Nelson, business manager of the Tacoma Tigers, said today on his return from a league meeting in Calgary. Saskatoon and Regina were unable to enter the league under satisfactory conditions, and it was decided to perfect an organization with teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Tacoma, Mr. Nelson said.<br />A tentative four-club schedule is now in the making, and the season will open about May 1, with Edmonton playing in Tacoma and Calgary in Vancouver.<br />Directors of the league, Mr. Nelson said, agreed on a list of 18 players to June 1 and 14 thereafter.<br />Managers of the teams are announced as follows: Tealey Raymond, Tacoma; Gus Gleichman, Edmonton; Bob Brown, Vancouver and Bill Rogers, Calgary.</span><br /><br />The first WIL folded in mid-season due to an odd set of circumstances. Baseball Commissioner Landis got POd at Bill Klepper, the owner of the PCL's Portland Beavers, who was also supporting the WIL's Tacoma Tigers. The Commissioner suspended him in a player tampering case, Klepper withdrew his support of Tacoma, and the league collapsed.<br /><br />It seems odd that there was no pro baseball in the Pacific Northwest (other than the PCL teams in Seattle and Portland) for the next 15 years, but that's what happened until the WIL we all know was put together for the 1937 season.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-51644658739793379742008-03-14T00:57:00.000-07:002008-03-23T17:36:57.405-07:001953 Page Coming TogetherWell, despite a bike accident that put me out of commission for a few days and having to go back on a slowwwww dial-up connection (it takes five minutes for a .pdf file to download), I've completed the first part of getting the 1953 page together. All the pre-season stuff (which starts at the end of the 1952 season) is now in chronological order and I'm starting to transfer the 1953 game stories over from this blog. Once the season's done .. and it won't be for a few months, I suspect .. then I'll delete the 1953 game stories on this page.<br /><br />I plan to make a few additions on the 1953 page. One was the pleasant task of transcribing Eric Whitehead's columns dealing with the Capilanos' season. There weren't a lot of them so that's been done; in fact, I added them to this page for now. <br /><br />However, the real problem is standings. I've decided to add daily standings, knowing how the papers can screw them up badly and not fix them. Other than a period of about five days at the end of April, I was sailing along. And then at the end of July 1953, the AP assigned the wrong win and loss in a Victoria-Wenatchee game. And ten days later, it still wasn't fixed. The Sporting News picked up the incorrect standings. Meanwhile, the Victoria paper I can access was fine for a few days, then missed a Victoria-Spokane game on a day it didn't publish and <strong>its</strong> standings were wrong. A few days later, someone with the Victoria club must have told the paper because it fixed the Victoria standings, but not the Spokane ones. And as Spokane was leading the league, it meant the 'games behind' column was completely wrong. So, I am looking at two sets of standings, both wrong in different ways. That means I manually have to calculate them and that takes time. (UP also did WIL standings, but they must have been compiled on Mars as they never seem correct).<br /><br />And as some game stories are either missing or consist of one line, it means going through the Vancouver and Victoria papers to see what I can add. The Victoria Colonist stories are lovely, but the home game stories are very long and take about 20 minutes each to transcribe (the Vancouver papers gave a lot less space to Capilanos). So that'll slow the process, too. Even more so as I'll likely add the Jim Tang columns from the Colonist as he whines for another season that no one was supporting the ball club.<br /><br />Some time over the summer, I hope to slog my way through 1954, the final WIL season, and may take a break when all the post-war game stories are done.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2066014507131538826.post-92124438958787125222008-02-19T05:29:00.000-08:002008-03-23T18:02:04.521-07:00A Missing Player and Another BookWell, let’s dip into the old mail once again.<br /><br />Here’s a nice little missive:<br /><br /><blockquote><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Hello there,<br />I am Jim Allicotti's daughter (one of 4) and happened upon your site during a search of our family's last name. My dad is 77 and living in Yorba Linda, CA with my mom. I recently shared a printout of the baseball game that mentions his name. He definitely got a kick out of it. Thanks for posting it!<br />Lola Allicotti</p></span></blockquote> I mention this because Jim played for the Spokane Indians, but in checking the nascent SABR Minor League Database, there’s no record of him in the W.I.L. at all. He’s mentioned in a wire service story, so he got into at least one game.<br /><br />This is where this SABR project of assembling minor league data is so important. It seems some records simply don’t exist. I’ve seen plenty of stats that read “ten or more at-bats”, with anyone under that simply a non-entity, thinking that maybe they’re recorded in the official, year-end league stats. That’s evidently not the case as baseball wasn’t as stats nuts at one time that it is today.<br /><br />So, Lola’s inadvertently helped add to missing data, or at least data hidden away somewhere. Which is kinda what this blog is doing about the W.I.L.<br /><br />Now, about books. It seems everyone’s writing a book about minor league baseball. Except me. Despite what the newspapers say. A former player has sent me a note about his book. Okay, he didn’t play in the W.I.L., but he writes of his experiences in minor league ball in the ‘50s, and I wish more players of that era would do the same thing.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><blockquote><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">My name is Ed Mickelson. I played 11 years in professional baseball, ten of which were in the minor leagues. I played in every classification from class C up AAA and also three years in the PCL batting .308 in 55, .309 in 56 and .338 in 1957. I still hold the fielding record for 1st basemen in the PCL by fielding .9964 in 162 games. The record is for 1st basemen in 150 games or more. My book is called Out of the Park- Memoir of a Minor League Baseball All Star. It is about baseball in the minor leagues in the golden age of the minors 1945 to 1957. The book is published by McFarland Publishers. If you are interested you can buy the book from me for 29.95. Ed Mickelson, 1532 Charlemont Drive, Chesterfield. Mo. 63017. I will take care of handling and postage.<br />The book is recommended by<br />Library Journal in N.Y.<br />Sabr – Neil Chamberlin<br />New York Yankee Magazine Sept Issue 1907<br />Richard Beveridge former President of SABR<br />Tom Kayser current President of the Texas League</span></p></blockquote></span> You can <a href="mailto:meadry@charter.net">e-mail Ed</a> if you’re interested.WIL fanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582603695869742467noreply@blogger.com1