Spokane .... 69 49 .585
Salem ...... 64 49 .566 2½
Bremerton .. 66 51 .564 2½
Victoria ... 63 56 .529 6½
Vancouver .. 60 55 .523 7½
Tacoma ..... 58 60 .492 11
Yakima ..... 45 69 .395 22
Wenatchee .. 41 77 .347 28
WENATCHEE, Wash., Aug. 8 — The Vancouver Capilanos turned their home run bats on the Wenatchee Chiefs twice tonight to sweep the cellar-dwellers, 9-1 and 7-5, in the beginning of a Western International League series.
The Caps have now won nine games in a row, and 14 of their last 15.
Home runs came off the bats of Frank Mullens, Bill Reese, Jim Hedgecock, Buddy Hjelmaa and Charlie Mead. Two of them were in the first inning, one in the fourth and two more in the last.
Reese brought in three runs and Mead had a pair, as he went three for three.
Hedgecock breezed to his 13th win, giving up a first inning single to Steve Andrade to score Clyde Haskell with two out. He held Wenatchee to seven scattered hits while fanning three, though walking six.
The nightcap was a much closer contest but again Cap power produced the margin. Mead came through with a three-run homer in the fourth frame to overcome a 2-0 lead the Chiefs had built up with singletons in the second and third.
Wenatchee came back in their half of the fourth to push a trio of runs across the plate and again lead 5-3.
Paul Carpenter got one back in the sixh when he lofted one of Frost's slants out of the park.
Caps completed their scoring with a three-run splurge in the seventh and from there on Bob Snyder held the Chiefs well in hand.
First game:
Vancouver ......... 410 100 3—9 11 0
Wenatchee ........ 100 000 0—1 7 0
Hedgecock and Stumpf; Waltho, Cronin (3), Condon (7) and Dalrymle.
Second game:
Vancouver .......... 000 301 300—7 11 2
Wenatchee ......... 011 300 000—5 11 2
Snyder and Stumpf; Frost, Day (7), Condon (7) and Winter.
YAKIMA, Aug. 8 — With Joe Blankenship hurling four-hit baseball and his teammates blasting two Yakima pitchers for 12 hits, the Victoria Athletics scored a decisive 13-2 victory in the opening contest of a four-game Western International League series here tonight.
Blankenship failed to give up a hit until Spencer Harris singled to right field in the fifth inning.
After scoring five times in the first inning, the A's scored three more runs in the fifth, added two in the eighth and put the finishing touches to the rout in the ninth when Jack Harshman knocked a homer over the right field fence.
Bill Anske and John Hooper each connected for triples in the final stanza. Harshman hit a single, a triple and a four-bagger in five trips.
Victoria ............ 500 030 023—13 12 1
Yakima ............. 000 010 010— 2 4 3
Blanenship and Mastro, Anske (8); Nowels, Brysch (1) and Phillips.
SALEM, Ore., Aug. 8 — Maury Donovan's double with the bases loaded in the 10th inning gave the Tacoma Tigers a 5-3 victory over the Salem Senators in the opener of the teams' four-game Western International League series at Salem.
The Tigers sent the fray into extra innings with a two-run rally in the seventh inning off southpaw Kenny Wyatt.
Tacoma ....... 100 000 200 2—5 10 1
Salem .......... 103 100 000 0—3 22 2
Walden and Clifford; Wyatt and Mohler, Beard (10).
SPOKANE, Aug. 8 — Jake Phillips scored from third on a wild pitch in the tenth inning as the league-leading Spokane Indians defeated Bremerton Bluejackets, 7-0, before a record Western International League crowd of 9,438.
After trailing most of the game, Bremerton tied the score on Bill Barisoff's two-run homer and added another run to take a 6-5 lead.
Bremerton ..... 000 210 003 0—6 16 1
Spokane .......... 020 003 001 1—7 11 2
Johnston; Marshall (9) and Volpi; Costello, Forsyth (10), and O'Neill.
THE HOME PLATE
By KEITH MATTHEWS
[Vancouver Sun, August 9, 1947]
The Roscoe Rifle is still on a binge and if you think this is overplaying a good thing, just stick with us for one more column and we’ll look for new lights to cast.
First, let us bring you up to date. The Roscoe Rifle is Frank Mullens, now making a highly successful living out of swatting baseballs for the Capilanos.
Perhaps, in this interview, we didn’t catch Mullens at the right time. He was having an “at home” in his two and a half room trailer with wife Del, daughter Sandy and newly-born [one month] Sharon Sue.
He was quite busy, as a matter of fact, with Sharon Sue as we barged into the intimacy of the Mullens’ tidily-kept trailer home.
“Hold on a minute,” said Frank. “Got to put a new diaper on Sharon Sue before she catches her morning nap.”
He did too. He looked like quite the expert at the job, sticking safety pins around corner just like he catches fly balls.
* * *
Mullens’ story this year has been one curtained with mystery. A .242 sticker last season with a world of promise, the guy has budded into a sweet-looking player.
We asked him about the change. We hinted that perhaps it might be the rabbit ball which was helping his line drive pokes over fences. But Mullens couldn’t go for this.
“Maybe I’m eating my Wheaties,” he grinned. “But I’d much rather think it was a combination of two other items, Sharon Sue over there and that right field screen at the park.”
“You know the night Sharon Sue was born I had four-for-five and started a 14-game hitting streak. Just two nights before that my boss, Bob Brown, stuck that screen on top of the right field fence and I was the most surprised guy in the park when I singled twice into left field,” Mullens went on.
“This may sound like superstition to you. Well, I’ve been accused of talking myself out of being a hitter many times. Maybe I was thinking so much of Sharon Sue that I forgot to pull outside pitches in and started hitting the ball where it was thrown,” said Frank..
We looked at the batting averages and decided Frank was not talking hooey. The day Sharon Sue was born he was at .262 in the averages. He is now hitting .335 and still going up. And he still is the most notorious base swiper in the league.
* * *
Mullens went on, “You know I promised by wife that if I didn’t show enough this year to rate a shot with Seattle in ’48 I would quit baseball and learn a trade.”
“I hope I can keep this streak going. Baseball is my life and if I can show them something in Seattle next year I may even get to the big show some day. I’m only 23, and still have a few years left,” the centre fielder said.
Mullins was born in Roscoe, California, and still lives there. He is all wrapped up in baseball himself and wife Del makes a happy companion. She was, and likely still is, one of the best women softball players to play in Roscoe town.
Frank, unlike some members in his trade, is a home lover. He was changing a diaper when we entered his trailer and during our conversation he cleaned up a pack of dinner dishes which were stacked mountain high.
“Say,” Mullens suddenly said, almost dropping a dish in the act, “Maybe that change from left field to centre has helped my hitting some.”
“I have always been weak on ground balls and that left field, with its hills and dales, didn’t help my mental attitude last year. Still, Charley (Mead) is hitting .345, isn’t he?” he quizzed.
“But why worry about it? Next season I may have one of those .242 seasons again. I’ll see you in the big leagues some day, even if I have to get a job holding up Bobo Newsom’s tummy.”
First, let us bring you up to date. The Roscoe Rifle is Frank Mullens, now making a highly successful living out of swatting baseballs for the Capilanos.
Perhaps, in this interview, we didn’t catch Mullens at the right time. He was having an “at home” in his two and a half room trailer with wife Del, daughter Sandy and newly-born [one month] Sharon Sue.
He was quite busy, as a matter of fact, with Sharon Sue as we barged into the intimacy of the Mullens’ tidily-kept trailer home.
“Hold on a minute,” said Frank. “Got to put a new diaper on Sharon Sue before she catches her morning nap.”
He did too. He looked like quite the expert at the job, sticking safety pins around corner just like he catches fly balls.
* * *
Mullens’ story this year has been one curtained with mystery. A .242 sticker last season with a world of promise, the guy has budded into a sweet-looking player.
We asked him about the change. We hinted that perhaps it might be the rabbit ball which was helping his line drive pokes over fences. But Mullens couldn’t go for this.
“Maybe I’m eating my Wheaties,” he grinned. “But I’d much rather think it was a combination of two other items, Sharon Sue over there and that right field screen at the park.”
“You know the night Sharon Sue was born I had four-for-five and started a 14-game hitting streak. Just two nights before that my boss, Bob Brown, stuck that screen on top of the right field fence and I was the most surprised guy in the park when I singled twice into left field,” Mullens went on.
“This may sound like superstition to you. Well, I’ve been accused of talking myself out of being a hitter many times. Maybe I was thinking so much of Sharon Sue that I forgot to pull outside pitches in and started hitting the ball where it was thrown,” said Frank..
We looked at the batting averages and decided Frank was not talking hooey. The day Sharon Sue was born he was at .262 in the averages. He is now hitting .335 and still going up. And he still is the most notorious base swiper in the league.
* * *
Mullens went on, “You know I promised by wife that if I didn’t show enough this year to rate a shot with Seattle in ’48 I would quit baseball and learn a trade.”
“I hope I can keep this streak going. Baseball is my life and if I can show them something in Seattle next year I may even get to the big show some day. I’m only 23, and still have a few years left,” the centre fielder said.
Mullins was born in Roscoe, California, and still lives there. He is all wrapped up in baseball himself and wife Del makes a happy companion. She was, and likely still is, one of the best women softball players to play in Roscoe town.
Frank, unlike some members in his trade, is a home lover. He was changing a diaper when we entered his trailer and during our conversation he cleaned up a pack of dinner dishes which were stacked mountain high.
“Say,” Mullens suddenly said, almost dropping a dish in the act, “Maybe that change from left field to centre has helped my hitting some.”
“I have always been weak on ground balls and that left field, with its hills and dales, didn’t help my mental attitude last year. Still, Charley (Mead) is hitting .345, isn’t he?” he quizzed.
“But why worry about it? Next season I may have one of those .242 seasons again. I’ll see you in the big leagues some day, even if I have to get a job holding up Bobo Newsom’s tummy.”
NON-W.I.L. NEWS FROM THE MINOR LEAGUES
Umpire Calls Turn on Balls, Not on Skunks
REHOBOTH, Del., Aug. 8 — Umpire Bob Hanks of Canal Fulton, O., ran afoul of a customer he admittedly didn't care to argue with in an Eastern Shore baseball league game here.
When a skunk parked himself on the diamond during the fifth inning of a game between Rehoboth and Seaford, all the players including two base runners hit for the dugouts.
When coach Doug Penden of Rehoboth demanded him to take action, umpire Hanks retorted:
"I've argued with a lot of things, but darned if I'm going to get spat on."
The skunk stayed around for ten minutes before wandering off and permitting resumption of play.
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