Thursday, August 15, 1946

                W  L  Pct GB
Wenatchee .... 72 45 .615 —
Bremerton .... 63 45 .583 4½
Salem ........ 65 49 .570 5½
Tacoma ....... 59 53 .527 10½
Spokane ...... 48 54 .471 16½
Yakima ....... 52 59 .468 17
Vancouver .... 45 66 .405 24
Victoria ..... 41 74 .357 30

BREMERTON, Aug. 15—Bremerton's home runs provided the victory punch tonight as the Bremerton Bluejackets nosed out Victoria 6-5 in a Western International League baseball game.
Bill Barisoff, the league's leading clouter, got his 32nd homer to move closer to the league record of 37. Bill Reese, runner-up to Barisoff in the home run department, got his 24th.
Each team got eight hits, bu the homers and three Victoria errors gave the home team its edge.
Victoria ....... 030 020 000—5 8 3
Bremerton ... 040 010 01x—6 8 0
Chapetta and Stumpf; Pintar, Medeghini (2) and Volpi.

VANCOUVER, Aug. 15—Vancouver Capilanos went on a hitting spree tonight to make a three-straight win of their best-of-three series series with the Spokane Indians here. The Caps captured the Western International League tilt, 16-8.
Ray Orteig, hitting one of two circuit clouts of the night, made it a total of 20 homers for the season to date, five in this series. Catcher Ray Spurgeon hammered out the other in the second.
Reg Clarkson hit the first ball from Wayne Collins for a single, stole second and scored on the first of Jim Estrada's three hits. Orteig then smacked a two-run homer.
Mel Steiner, the Indians' starry left fielder, collected five for five, two of them counting for runs, and walked once.
- - -
VANCOUVER [Clancy Loranger, Aug. 16]—Vancouver Capilanos are going to try for something new today—four straight victories.
Four times this year they’ve managed to string three wins together, but the big No. 4 has always stopped them. They put together their current trio last night at Cap Stadium against the hapless Spokane Indians, registering an easy 16-8 win over Glenn Wright’s crew, who contributed 10 errors.
They’ll have somewhat tougher opposition tonight, though, because the strong Salem Senators will be on hand for a three-game stint, including a double-header, Saturday night.
JONAS TO HURL
Chances of the locals breaking the four-game jinx are fairly good tonight, too, because little Pete Jonas, currently our most effective hurler, will be tossing ‘em up at the Solons. Pete has won all three of his starts without too much trouble.
Speaking of trouble, you might ask Spokane’s Wayne Collins what he thinks about the subject. The ex-Montreal and Seattle hurler took quite a beating as the Brownies teed off for 21 hits last night. Collins gave up 18 of them, including Ray Orteig’s 20th homer, and another to Ray Spurgeon, before Al Raimondi took over in the seventh.
Lou Estes led the Vancouver hitting parade with four blows, and everybody except Jim Hedgecock only had one chance to the dish, though, because he didn’t show up until the seventh, when Ronnie Bryant, our starting moundsman, showed signs of coming apart at the seams.
RICE WINS TITLE
As a matter of fact, after about the fifth frame, the major sport at the Fifth Avenue ball yard consisted of heckling Umpire Jack Rice, who is so far out in front for the fans’ “most unpopular” award that we hereby concede.
[WILfan note: For the record, the errors were by left fielder Mel Steiner (two), right fielder Frankie Hawkins, centre fielder Al Kubiak (2), shortstop John Anderson (2), catcher Neil Clifford and Collins (2) … Despite all the errors, only four Vancouver runs were unearned … Orteig finished with four RBIs, Spurgeon three, and Jimmy Estrada has a pair, while Steiner and Gale Bishop (with three hits) had a pair each for the Indians]
Spokane ....... 010 040 300— 8 16 10
Vancouver .... 321 360 01x—16 21 2
Collins, Raimondi (7) and Clifford; Bryant, Hedgecock (7) and Spurgeon.

TACOMA, Aug. 15—Steve Gerkin administered the white wash to his former teammates here tonight, pitching a six-hitter as the Tacoma Tigers trimmed the Salem Senators, 4-0, to sweep this Western International baseball league series.
Salem ........ 000 000 000—0 6 3
Tacoma ..... 010 000 03x—4 8 2
Gunnerson, Fallin (3) and Salmon; Gerkin and Kemper.

SPOKANE, Aug. 15—Getting to three Yakima pitchers for a barrage of 18 hits, the pacesetting Wenatchee Chiefs took the Stars into camp to the tune of 19-5 in the third game of their Western International Leage series.
Wenatchee ...... 005 572 000—19 19 2
Yakima ............ 000 130 010— 5 10 7
McCollum and Fitzgerald; McHugh, Simon (3), Bohnen (4) and McConnell.

Gray Released
VICTORIA, Aug. 16—Stan Gray, utility infielder of the Victoria Athletics, has been given his release, Reg Patterson, business manager of the club announced yesetrday.
Gray, formerly with the Seattle and Los Angeles clubs of the Coast League, was signed by the Athletics shortly after Al Steele, regular second baseman, left to return to his home in Oakland.
Sharing second base duties with Frank Cirimele and Walt Raimondi, Gray had been out of the last few games due to a sore back.

Clarkson Going Up
VANCOUVER, Aug. 16—Baseball's big time is beckoning Reg Clarkson, the all-around athlete from UBC currently playing a lot of outfield for the Vancouver Capilanos in his first professional baseball season.
The Brooklyn Dodgers have asked for a price on him, General Manager Bob Brown said last night, and are anxious to make a cash-plus-player deal. However, Brown admitted that he was unlikely to make the deal, having his own plans for the popular outfielder.
"They have too many farm clubs," said Brown, "and I wouldn't like to see Reg kicking around in the minors. He's got everything needed for a big leaguer but experience."
Clarkson spent spring training worried about breaking into the lineup, but took over the regular centre fielder job from Silverthorn and has been starring there and hitting the ball hard ever since.

It Says Here…
By CLANCY LORANGER
[Vancouver News-Herald, August 16, 1946]
“Well,” I asked Bob Brown the other night, “how about that Ray Orteig? “Do you think he’ll do?”
“Nice ball player,” Bob admitted, “You know, if you had two or three ball players who could hit pretty good, you could carry a man like Orteig on his fielding alone.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “I guess you’re right. He does fairly well around that third sack at that.”
And the husky youngster does, too. There isn’t too much that gets past him, and once he knocks a ball down he could read a couple of chapters of a good book and still toss the runner out. Got the best arm of any infielder in the league, that’s all.
HITS FAIR LICK
But I got to thinking about Bob’s statement, and I kind figured maybe he was kidding a bit. You see, that was the night Orteig had blasted three home runs, one over each fence. Yeah, that’s right. He hits a little, too.
As a matter of fact, this same Mr. Orteig has become the most valuable piece of baseball bric a brac in Brown’s stable. Unfortunately, for Ruby Robert, he isn’t really one of Bob’s personal chattels. He belongs to the Boston Red Sox, who obviously don’t need him right now.
Here was some talk, earlier on, that the local Mr. Baseball was about to purchase Ray’s contract from the Bosox. Ernie Johnson, the Red Sox scout, was around here in May or June, and he is said to have gone on record as follows: “Orteig is a fair country hitter, but he won’t do as a third baseman.”
Maybe Johnson has a spy in our midst. In any case, he must have further reports on our hero, because I asked Bob pointedly the other night if Ray was still a Boston man.
“Yes,” he replied sadly.
SAD SCRANTON STAY
Orteig himself is probably a little sad when he thinks of his connections with the Yawkey empire. Not that the Sox would be a bad club to play for, but Ray’s dealings with the management haven’t always been cosy.
Ray, who was plucked from around Vancouver, Washington by Earl Sheely, must have learned to love Vancouver as an address.
After a year here, he was shipped East to play for Scranton of the Eastern League. Somewhere along the way, Ray had learned to love regular play, too. He just didn’t look good sitting on a bench, he figured, and after watching a few games from the Scranton dugout, he packed up and headed west.
He was sitting in our stands one night—he just couldn’t escape from Vancouver—when the Caps’ regular this-sacker got hurt. Luckily, Earl Sheely was on hand, too, and after a few phone calls back and forth between Sheely and Boston, Ray was with us to stay again.
PITCHER TO PITCHER
Well, not quite to stay. There was a slight four-year hitch in the Coast Guard, but we got to see quite a bit of him even then.
Last year, you will recall, he stood out like measles in a nudist colony, as he pitched and hit the Norvans to the Senior League title.
It was his performance here, too, that gave folks the idea that Ray was a pitcher. He was striking out 14 or 15 fellows a game, and generally looked like a pretty good moundsman.
He came to the Caps this spring, you will remember, as a chucker, and if he got the odd hit now and then, nobody would complain.
But he never did settle down to the tossing form he’d shown before, and finally, when his arm swelled up to a couple times normal size after a losing effort, he stopped pitching officially.
There was nobody happier than Ray Orteig when he started playing regular again. Although I guess Bob Brown, and the fans, aren’t shedding any tears because his name’s in the lineup every day. They’ve always been prejudiced towards fellows who hit .360.

Monday, July 15, 1946

                W  L  Pct GB
Salem ........ 51 31 .622 —
Wenatchee .... 53 34 .609 ½
Bremerton .... 44 29 .603 2½
Tacoma ....... 44 34 .564 5
Spokane ...... 35 37 .486 11
Yakima ....... 33 44 .429 15½
Vancouver .... 28 49 .364 20½
Victoria ..... 27 57 .321 25

SPOKANE, July 15—The Spokane Indians left 18 runners stranded Monday night, but it wouldn't have mattered if 16 of them failed to score. That's because they needed only two runs after the Wenatchee Chiefs tallied once in the eighth for the margin over victory in a 3-2 win at Ferris Field.
The Indians left the bases full four times.
Wenatchee ...... 000 002 010—3 10 3
Spokane .......... 100 000 010—2 6 3
Orphan, Babbitt (9) and Fitzgerald; Raimondi, Bakamus (7) and Varrelman.

EXHIBITION
SALEM, July 15—Portland's Beavers behind the one-hit of Wandel Mossor defeated the Salem Senators Monday night 5-0 before some 7,500 persons, the largest crowd in Salem athletic history. The game was a benefit for little Tommy Edwards, the four-year-old son of Frisco Edwards, late Senators manager.
The only hit was Duane Crawford's single through the box into centre field leading off the sixth inning.
Approximately $10,000 was raised
Mossor whiffed 13 Senators. Lee Fallin went the route for the WIL club, being nicked for eight hits.
Portland scored a single run in the third, two in the fifth and single tallies in the seventh and ninth. The Beavers were aided by three Senator errors at crucial moments.
Portland ...... 001 020 101—5 8 2
Salem ......... 000 000 000—0 1 3
Mossor and Souza; Fallin and Kerr.
[WILfan note: TSN says 14 Ks, AP says 13]

Powers Plans To Hurl Again
[Oakland Tribune, July 16, 1946]
Dick Powers, Spokane ballplayer who was injured in the bus crash that took nine lives in the State of Washington over a month ago, is on the road to recovery, it was stated by physicians at Merritt Hospital yesterday.
Powers, interviewed by a Tribune reporter yesterday, stated that he had high hopes of playing baseball again and that he felt that his right arm, with which he did his pitching, was not hurt in the crash. He received a fractured collar bone, broken neck and a fractured skull in the wreck.
According to physicians, this will be a matter of a year at least. Powers, whose home is in Oakland, was optioned to the Western International League club this year from Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League.

New Infielder Joins Athletics
VICTORIA, July 15—Stan Gray, ex-Coast League player with Los Angeles and Seattle, has been signed by Victoria Athletics, Business Manager Reg Patterson announced yesterday. The hard-hitting third baseman will cover the hot corner to fill the gap in the A's infield caused when Al Steele left the team two weeks ago.
Gray leaves Pasadena, California, this morning, and will join the local club in Tacoma, probably in time for tomorrow night's game.

Wenatchee Loses Shortstop
WENATCHEE [TSN, July 24]—Shortstop Stan Shargey of Wenatchee, on option from Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League, was lost to the Western International League club indefinitely because of a broken bone in his ankle.

South Stars Score 7-5 Win Over Northerners
By ED ORMAN
The Bee Sports Editor
[Fresno Bee, July 16, 1946]
STOCKTON, July 16.—The South All Stars made good use of their 11 hits here last night to beat the North All Stars in the revival of California Class C Baseball All Star game by the score of 7-5.
The South squad, comprised of players of the Santa Barbera, Bakersfield and Visalia teams, collected 11 hits off Don Belton of Stockton and Bill Salveson of Fresno while the North aggregation, made up of players of the Fresno, Modesto and Stockton teams, managed to gather nine hits of Clarence Podbeiland of Santa Barbera, Gene Clough of Visalia and Joe DeSanti of Bakersfield, working in that order.
The game was played before a capacity crowd which Bob Freitas, Stockton club business manager, estimated to be 3,800.
Twenty five per cent of the receipts went to a relief fund for families of players on the Spokane Western International League team, who were killed in a bus tragedy last month.
[WILfan note: Clough pitched for Victoria in 1954. Also playing in the game, in a portion of the story not transcribed, was the Santa Barbera keystone combination of Mark Koenig (Spokane, 1947) and Danny Holden (Vancouver, 1954). Vince Lazor pitched for Modesto; he, too, was later in the WIL (Salem 1947-48; Tacoma 1949-50).]

Woody Blanks Legion, 3-0 In Benefit
[Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, July 16, 1946]
Lefty Woodson shut out the Legion with six scattered hits, and smashed a dying flurry in the ninth with three straight strike-outs to mark up a 3-0 victory for the Cascades in Monday night's benefit game for survivors of the dead in the Spokane team's bus crash.
Total receipts were estimated at $1750, leaving about $1500 for the benefit fund after deduction of 20 per cent for taxes. [remainder of the story not transcribed]

Western Int Draws 399,398
[TSN, August 7, 1946]
A total of 399,398 paying customers was attracted by the Western International League through July 15, it was reported by President Robert B. Abel. Despite a decreased since the fatal bus accident that took the lives of nine players, the Spokane Indians were leading, with 74,607 in 36 games, followed by Tacoma, with 62,148 in 31 contests; Salem, 59,885 in 33; Yakima, 39,324 in 23; Victoria, 51,885 in 36; Wenatchee, 45,865 in 32; Vancouver, 40,200 in 32, and Bremerton, 35,734 in 36.