Vancouver SABR Meeting

Once a year, a pleasant afternoon is spent in Vancouver when the local/regional members of SABR get rounded up by Max Weder for a little get-together. This year was no exception and Max did a fine job in setting up the meeting in the empty-but-noisy concession area at Nat Bailey Stadium (now, if the old Press Room were still around.....).
I had a chance to speak far too briefly with Bill Whyte, who pitched for the Vancouver Capilanos in the Western International League. Bill's retired in Nanaimo now. He doesn't look old enough for someone who was in baseball 55-plus years ago. The chat was coincidental as I'm now posting the July 1950 WIL games (see the 1950 page) and have reached the point where Bill started appearing for the Capilanos.
He's a local guy who was signed by Bob Brown off the sandlots. Bob sent him to Calgary to play semi-pro in 1949 (if I recall, it was four-team league; the Purity 99s and another club in Calgary and two in Edmonton). He led the league. The following year, Bill says Victoria was shy of players so he and another were loaned to the Athletics, then he ended up in El Centro in the Class C Sunset League before being called up in mid-season to the Caps.
Bill stayed around the team for a couple of more years and has the distinction of winning the last game played in Athletic Park. "They rolled up the infield," he says, "and the next day, we were playing on it here [Cap Stadium, now Nat Bailey]."
I wish I had a chance to make some notes and then speak with him longer. The stories about the games and the players are usually more interesting than the games themselves.
Bill's picture you see above is from 1951. It's been purloined off the web and I'm guessing it's from Max's collection.
Incidentally, I mentioned how I saw Bud Beasley's name in a linescore with his. "He was quite a character," Bill said. Indeed he was. Here's a link to Bud's obit. He's probably the only WIL player to have a school named after him (it's in Sparks, Nevada).

The best part about the meeting perhaps was the appearance of the former trainer for the 1954 Capilanos and PCL's Vancouver Mounties during their years as an Orioles farm club. Doc Younker told the story about what happened after Brooks Robinson ripped his arm on the dugout at Cap Stadium in 1959. It was more like he impaled it. Doc explained that ambulance response times were worse in the '50s than they are today, so he ended up taking Brooks to Vancouver General, and then caught hell from Mounties General Manager Cedric Tallis for it. But, in doing so, Brooks was able to get medical attention and then, as we all know, go on to a Hall of Fame career for the Orioles.

Bud Kerr showed me a ball signed by members of the 1953 Caps. Apparently, some widow found it in her late husband's garage workshop on the North Shore, called former C's souvenier man Torchy Pechet, who immediately called Bud.

Canadians co-owner Jake Kerr made an appearance. What a great thing to have local ownership show that kind of interest. Andy Kerr, the GM-who-has-some-other-title, spoke about his jaunts around the minor leagues, starting with the Oklahoma City 89ers. It sounds like he was there when the Rangers would seemingly sign almost any six-year free agent over the age of 32 (pitches, especially) and ship them to OKC. A lot of veteran PCL players used to end up there back then.

He reminded us the park isn't up to AAA standards. We can always hope that day comes.

Congrats to Bud Kerr

He never played in the Western International League, but he's been supporting Vancouver baseball since those days. He's Bud Kerr, who has received more space in one edition of the Vancouver Courier than the dailies will give to local baseball in a month. Click HERE for it.

A loud "Hear! Hear!" comes from this blogger about a baseball museum. One of the selling points about dear old Nat Bailey Stadium is "the past," but precious little about it is visible anywhere there, unless you want to count the coats of paint like rings on oak tree. What a great idea to allow baseball fans of all ages to view Bud's collection and learn about our city's baseball history. Decades ago, Bob Brown was the first to be inducted into the Vancouver Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall's resurrection is long overdue and should have a home in Bud's museum.

Now that the club will put this excellent idea in place, the next thing they should do something about is the atrocious state of the field at Nat Bailey. It used to be the best in the PCL. Now, it's a divot-laden, boggy embarrassment to A-ball. Cement has more give than the infield some nights. It's pretty bad when the umpire demands last-minute work be done on it, like we saw on Thursday night.

While we're mini-ranting, here's a question raising from the Courier story: where on earth did anyone get the idea that professional baseball in Vancouver "is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary"? The first pro game was 1905. That was 103 seasons ago. If you take out the various gaps when Vancouver didn't have pro ball, it still doesn't work out to 100. Whoever came up with "100 year" canard sure didn't get the idea from Bud Kerr. He knows his history. Other people obviously don't. Maybe when we get a baseball museum, stupid misconceptions like this will become history themselves.

Don Ferrarese

Today, not an awful lot of players get called up to the PCL from the Northwest League. How different things were in the 40s and 50s. The Western International League was, in part, a feeder for PCL clubs and you'll read stories of guys going from, say, the Vancouver Capilanos to the Seattle Rainiers (and vice versa). So, when Vancouver joined the PCL in 1956, Mounties fans (and it's remarkable there were any after that dreadful season) would see former WIL players dotting various Coast League rosters.

One of these was Don Ferrarese, who appeared in a Wenatchee Chiefs uniform in 1950. He was 9 and 12 with an ERA of 5.21 that year, giving up 123 runs (107 earned) on 121 hits and 209 walks. He struck out 154 and tossed 18 wild pitches that year (the 16 March 1951 newspaper photo to the left is when he went to spring training with Oakland). Ferrarase also pitched for the Vancouver Mounties, as he was sent down from the Baltimore Orioles on May 16, 1957 (the baseball card you see to the right and above is from that year). He won his first start for the Mounties ten days later against the Rainiers, and reeled off three straight victories, then five straight losses, then eight straight wins to finish the season. Don had a remarkable string of four straight four-hitters and even beat Tommy Lasorda who was with a Los Angeles team that wasn't the Dodgers on August 28th. He struck out 15 in his final start for Vancouver on September 14 and finished with an ERA under 3.00 (why aren't minor league career stats before 1978 available on-line anyways?)

I write this because I occasionally stumble upon what former WIL players are doing now. Don had a charity web site with a broken URL, but THIS will give you an idea of what it's about. It's great to see someone helping others.

And HERE is an interesting article about his career in the Texas League and what happened after he left Vancouver.

Bob Robertson - Part 3

Instead of me rewriting the story, go HERE to go to the 1950 blog and read how Bob started his radio career. It's interesting, but a little less than candid. Sounds like the play-by-play guy got liquored up or didn't show up or both. That wouldn't be a surprise, considering the sports media back then. It's a lot different than today's sterile, corporate radio (or newspaper) world. The industry doesn't have real characters any more. And they wouldn't be allowed to smoke cigars in the press box anyway. I'll have to ask Bob about it when he comes back to Vancouver next season.

Vancouver's main library is still behind CUPE pickets. I can't put August and September up on the 1949 blog until then. However, I'm getting some pre-season work done on 1950 which you can click on and read.

Bob Robertson, Part Two

More on Bob in a moment - but first:

CUPE STRIKE
Yes, it's having an effect on the blog. Some of the stories, linescores, standings and other material I've been putting up has come only due to library research and the libraries are behind pickets indefinitely. So that's why things are on hold. Sorry. I have a skeleton of the rest of the 1949 season in draft form awaiting scores and other material to flesh it out for posting.

1950 will be a bit easier. Tri-Cities entered the league and the local paper for that year is on-line. As well, another Washington State paper available on-line stepped up its coverage in 1950, though the camera which took pictures of the pages was not focused properly (it wasn't in 1949; why that was never corrected, I'll never know) so not all the stories or linescores are intelligible. However, once summer ends, I won't be posting due to other things going on in life so things will stagnate here indefinitely.

BLACK PLAYER
The first reference I can find to one in the WIL is at the end of the 1949 season when Art Pennington was sent to Salem from Portland.

BOB
Looking for something else, I found a reference to Bob doing WIL play-by-play, though he apparently did it to the United Press on something other than the game. Here's the story from 1950:

Umpire Mobbed by 1,000 Irate Fans, Feud With Manager Thompson Cause
WENATCHEE, Wash., May 23, (UP)—Approximately 1,000 irate baseball fans rioted and mobbed a base umpire Sunday night at the conclusion of a Western International League doubleheader.
The fans, irked at what they believed the fulfillment of a public threat by the umpire to "get" Wenatchee manager Tommy Thompson, were finally dispersed by police after they pummeled base ump J. "Doc" Regele as he made his way to the umpires' dressing room.
Before the start of the series between Wenatchee and Tri City here Friday, Regele had said he was out to "get" Thompson. He ejected the manager during the course of tonight's game.
In the final innings, Regele made numerous calls which gave Tri City a decided edge, radio broadcaster Bob Robertson reported.
With the score tied 6-all in the ninth, Dick Faber of Tri City hit a blooper to second baseman Buddy Hjelmaa. Hjelmaa fielded the ball on the first bounce and tagged Artie Wilson as the runner went by, Robertson said.
Regele called Wilson safe, and two Tri City runs were scored.
Hjelmaa vociferously protested the decision, and was thrown out of the game as pop bottles rained around the umpire.
As the contest ended, with Tri City winning 8-7, the fans poured out of the stands, throwing pop bottles, seat cushions and rolled-up newspapers. They swarmed around Regele, and he had to fight his way through the throng to reach the safety of the dressing room, Robertson said.

Pop bottles. It was a kindler, gentler time.

Just as a side note, Buddy had been with the Capilanos in 1948 but he and Bob Stumpf were sent to the Great Falls Selectrics in the Pioneer League the next year. The two teams had a working arrangement with the Seattle Rainiers that really shouldn't be a surprise. Great Falls had been known for years as the Electrics, but became the Selectrics in 1949, named after a beer manufactured by—Emil Sick. Sick sold the brewery later that year. In addition, former Seattle outfielder Dick Gyselman managed (and I think had part ownership in) Great Falls in 1948.

Bob Robertson, WIL Broadcaster

To me, Bob Robertson's the guy I saw do the sports on Channel 11 out of Tacoma when I was, well, a little younger than I am now. Today, he's the play-by-play voice of the Spokane Indians of the Northwest League.

When doing some research on the WIL, I stumbled across the following column that I've transcribed HERE:

Bob had mentioned once upon a time he was in school in the Lower Mainland in his boyhood years, had played outfield and signed a pro contract lo those many years ago and I wondered if he was the young man mentioned in the column. Pat Karl, the long-time official scorer and former P.A. announcer at Nat Bailey Stadium, and I were talking about this, so when Bob arrived in town for the Vancouver-Spokane series, he asked Bob about it. And Bob confirmed it was him.

We chatted about it during the rain delay yesterday. He had been told about, but had never seen, the article. He had been shopping his services around and Bob Brown was one of the people he hit up. It turns out the Portland Beavers signed him to a Salem Senators contract but he decided not to play after all so they put him on something like the voluntarily retired list.

Bob eventually played semi-pro all over the Pacific Northwest, but got into broadcasting in 1949, doing the Wenatchee Chiefs games on KHQ. "They got so short of players, they wanted me to come down from the broadcast booth and go into a game. But my rights were still held by Portland. They called and asked if they would give a waiver to let me play. The club was told they could trade for me, but they didn't have anyone to trade, so that ended my pro comeback."

Bob asked if Keith Matthews was still alive because "he mentioned an apology." I have no idea if Keith's still around. He may be; after all, Clancy Loranger was on the WIL beat back then (for the News Herald that year) is still with us, no doubt puffing on those thin cigarellos of his. For that matter, I understand former Caps broadcaster Hal Rodd is, too. So, Keith, if you're reading, please send Bob an apology. After all, he is a Hall of Famer. And Bob and his wife Jo are some of the most genuine people you can meet.

His skills as a play-by-play announcer are a marvel to many aspiring broadcasters; Rob Fai, the current Canadians radio man, remarked about Bob's broadcasts the other day. Bob's style is really basic. He doesn't yell into the mike. He doesn't use a phoney Ronnie Radio voice (why in God's name do others?). He doesn't engage in Dave Niehaus hyperbole (where a routine ground ball is made to sound like the most amazing play in baseball history). He simply describes what's going on in a conversational way and makes sure he is prepared to go on the air with relevant things to say about the players, the game, the batting/fielding situations, the park, whatever. In that way, he's very much like Jim Robson who, as we all should know, was the play-by-play voice of the PCL's Vancouver Mounties when I was, well, yes, younger than I am now. And Jim's the best play-by-play guy this city will ever have.

The Spokane Indians are quite fortunate to have him. Bob suddenly discovered he wasn't going to be back doing the Tacoma Rainiers games in one of those atypical radio management bonehead decisions that happens to everyone if you're in the business long enough. He called the next closest club, the Everett Aquasox, who had re-signed their current guy but suggested he call Bobby Brett in Spokane, who had been looking for someone. And that's how Bob landed in the Northwest League.

You may wonder why Bob, with all his baseball play-by-play experience, never ended up doing the Seattle Mariners on radio. Because I think he should have. But he'll have to tell you that story.

Emmett Ashford - W.I.L. Trailblazer

I haven't discovered yet who was the first black player in the Western International League as I plow through the game stories of the late 40s. Catcher John Ritchie was the first for the Capilanos in 1950; he was the first in the PCL with the San Diego Padres in 1948. But Vancouver baseball rooters of a certain vintage remember umpire Emmett Ashford doing some of the Mounties' PCL games in the late 50s. He appeared at Cap Stadium in Vancouver before that, as these wire stories attest:

Negro Ump Set In Western Int. Loop
VANCOUVER, B. C. — The only Negro umpire in organized baseball has been hired by the Class A Western International league, President Bob Brown announced today.
He is Emmett Ashford, 37, for the last two years an umpire in the Class C Arizona Texas League and currently an arbiter in the California winter league.
- Saturday, February 7, 1953

SPORTS THINKS
By Ed Orman
Yesterday was a swell day for the opening of the baseball season in the Fresno-State College Park.
The weatherman provided mild, sunshiny weather after a few blustery days the past week. The Tokio Giants from Japan and the Valley All Stars did their part, too, by supplying about 1,500 fans with a snappy exhibition of baseball for such an early date.
But it remained for the plate umpire to steal the show and if you were among the absentees from the sun splashed college ball orchard you missed the most amusing, entertaining as well as efficient job of ball and strike calling ever performed in the FSC park.
And it was by the first and only Negro arbiter in organized baseball—Emmett Ashford of Los Angeles.
Ashford came to Fresno, donned the umpiring gear and made his way to the plate unannounced. But it was not long before all of the fans were asking “Who is that fellow back of the plate; he sure is colorful; he knows his business?”
With his bellowing, booming,voice and emphatic arm gesticulations, and dramatic whisking of the broom as he manicured home plate, Ashford made a tremendous hit with the customers.
Got Standing Ovation
“But he's no fly by nighter as an umpire,” Les Powers, the public relations man for the touring Giants said. “I hired the fellow for the tailend of the 1951 season to umpire in the Southwest International League of which I was president.” He immediately caught the fancy of the fans with his colorful work. Why, one night in El Paso where Ashford's race ordinarily is not in good standing, the fans gave him a standing ovation at the end of the game.
“Every town in my league was clamoring for his services. He was just like money in the bank. He umpired in the Sunset League last season and was sent to the Western International League this year. I know the Pacific Coast League made a mistake by overlooking him.
“My prediction is, given the breaks, Ashford will be in the major leagues in five years. He's a high class fellow and a fine ball and strike man.”
Ashford, 34 years of age, is a native of Los Angeles and attended elementary, high school and college there. He was graduated from Jefferson High School where he competed in football and baseball, and later was graduated from Chapman College. Ashford planned a career in ministry, but didn't go through with it.
Basketball Ump, Too
He worked for about 15 years as a postal clerk in the Los Angeles Post Office and umpired semipro baseball games on weekends, and also umpired basketball games, including some Pacific Coast Conference contests in Los Angeles. Ashford was called back to the national semipro baseball tournament in Wichita, Kan., for a couple of hitches.
“When I ran short of umpires in my league in 1951, I called Ashford's wife to see if I could induce him to help me out,” Powers recalled. “She contacted Emmett and urged him to join me, which he did. He gives his wife credit for whatever successes he attains in life.”
The current umpiring chores constitute Spring conditioning for Ashford. He will work all of the Giants' games, many against PCL and major league clubs in California, and all back of the plate, Powers said.
Fans, can get a peek at him this afternoon in Visalia and again in Fresno tomorrow afternoon and we can assure you you won't be disappointed.
- Fresno Bee, Sunday, February 22, 1953

First Colored Umpire
by AL WARDEN
Emmett Ashford, one-time athletic star af Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, will serve as one of the Pacific Coast League's umpires during the 1954 season. Ashford is the first colored umpire ever to call halls, strikes and plays in organized baseball.
Back in 1946 Ashford was lying on a cot at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, when news spouted over the radio that Jackie Robinson had been signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the first colored player in organized baseball. Right then and there Emmett Ashford promised he would become the first of his race, too, in his line. He would become the first Negro umpire in baseball history with an eye on the Coast league and then the majors.
Les Powers signed Ashford for the Southwest International League back in 1951. Last year he worked in the Western International circuit.
His beefs have been few in his organized baseball career.
Last season he called “one” too fast in a game between Victoria and Vancouver. He turned to the stands and made a public admission that he had “kicked one.”
The fans gave him a terrific ovation and they later held a night for him. This chap must be a colorful umpire. Fans, players and managers of the Western International swear by him.
This winter Ashford is working Pacific Coast Conference basketball games. Writers on the coast say baseball's first Negro umpire is just as handy with the whistle.
-Ogden Standard-Examiner, Thursday, December 17, 1953

Negro Umpire Earns Respect
By STERLING TAYLOR
TORONTO (CP) — Emmett Ashford looked like anything but a world beater when two Canadians decided to make him the first Negro umpire in professional baseball 14 years ago.
But he set all the precedents on his way to the major leagues and now, at 49, Ashford is still “breaking barriers all over the place.”
Dianne R. Cox of Victoria recalls the day she first saw Ashford in December, 1952 at the annual meeting of the Western International Baseball League in Phoenix, Ariz.
“He was looking for a job,” Miss Cox said in an interview Monday night.
“He was certainly a scruffy character — practically threadbare.”
Miss Cox, currently visiting Toronto, was in Phoenix when Ashford arrived, attending the baseball meeting with her father, the late Arthur H. Cox, president of Victoria Tyees of the WIBL.
The Victoria club manager, Cec Garriott, recommended Ashford to Cox, who persuaded Bob Brown of Vancouver, owner of the Vancouver franchise and president of the league, to hire the umpire.
“He had been umpiring for a C-class league in the U.S.,” Miss Cox recalls. “But we've always considered that the Western International League was the first to hire a Negro umpire into professional ranks.”
Ashford was also in Toronto Monday night to appear on a television program.
Thirteen years from the time of his meeting with Cox and Brown, he finally reached the majors as the first Negro umpire last season.
Ashford says he's a good umpire, although not incapable of making mistakes.
However, he contends he has gained the respect of the clubs and their players through hard work.
“I think I was ready for the majors five years earlier. I just got stubborn and decided to wait it out until I got the call.”
Ashford's umpiring style is noisy and flamboyant but no one has tried to change it in the majors. American League president Joe Cronin told him to work his own way.
“I've always made it a rule to call a man out so he knows it and so does everybody else,” Ashford said.
- Wednesday, December 14, 1966