Games of Tuesday, June 24, 1947

W L Pct GB
Spokane ....... 39 27 .582
Bremerton ..... 39 29 .574 1
Salem ......... 37 30 .552 2½
Victoria ...... 36 34 .514 5
Vancouver ..... 33 33 .500 6
Tacoma ........ 32 34 .485 7
Yakima ........ 28 38 .428 11
Bremerton ..... 24 42 .364 15

VICTORIA, June 24 – A smashing homer by Vic Mastro, his second of the game and third in two nights, with two men on and no one out in the last of the night gave the Victoria Ahtletics their second staright win over the Yakima Stars, 6-3.
Victoria broke through for the first run in the fourth inning when Mastri led off with his first homer. Johnny Cavalli’s error was followed by Robinson's circuit clout in the Yakima fifth to put the Stars ahead.
An error by Rowe Wallenstein enable the A's to tie the count in their half. Spencer Harris, ex-Coast League hitting star, put the visitors ahead again in the sixth by cracking a 3-1 pitch over the wall, but Leo Righetti made it even again in the sme frame when he connected with his first over-the-fence home-run of his pro career.
In the ninth, Johnny Hooper led off with a double that almost cleared the fence, and then Bill White was purposely walked to put the double play on, but Mastro spoiled the plane with a homer.
Wallerstein took the loss. He relieved in the first inning after Fritz Romple was removed from the game when Jack Harshman’s batted ball hit him on the leg.
Len Kasparovitch held the Stars to six hits, two home runs accounting for three runs charged against him, for his sixth victory.
Yakima ........... 000 021 000—3 6 1
Victoria .......... 000 111 003—6 11 2
Romple, Wallerstein (2) and Peterson; Kasparovitch and Mastro.

VANCOUVER – Bob Hall whiffed Buddy Peterson, representing the winning run, for his eight strike out to end the game and give the Vancouver Capilanos a 7-4 Western International League win over the Salem Senators tonight.
Daryl Eliason got a second inning shower after Caps scored one in the first and twice in the second.
Charlie Mead homered in the third for Vancouver to put the game out of reach the visitors.
Hall allowed Lou Kubiak a single and Joe Skeber a double to make it 7-4 in the ninth. Ted Kerr and pinch hitter Jack Wilson walked, then Peterson struck out.
Hall also swattered a solo home for Vancouver.
Salem ............. 001 002 001—4 11 2
Vancouver ......121 101 10x—7 13 2
Eliason, Sporer (4), Lazor (9) and Kerr; Hall and Brenner.

Spokane ...021 000 100—4 8 2
Tacoma .... 003 050 00x—8 15 2
Samson, Latino (5) and Bufflap; Walden and Clifford.

Wenatchee ....... 003 000 011—5 10 0
Bremerton ....... 000 101 000—2 3 2
Vivalda and Pesut; Lowman and Ronning.

WI Prexy Allows Protest By Yakima of League Tilt
TACOMA, June 24 —Yakima's protest of a Western International League game May 29 at Salem was allowed Tuesday by Robert B. Abel, president of the loop, but only to the extent that a portion of the game—and a small portion—be replayed.
At some point during their July 18-21 series, the Yakima and Salem clubs will recreate a situation which led to improper decision by a W-I umpire. Yakima, with two runners aboard and two out in the ninth inning, will be given the opportunity to erase an 8-5 deficit.
The game originally went into the books as an 8-4 Salem victory when, with the bases loaded and one out, a Yakima batter grounded into what was ruled a double play by way of the plate. Subsequently, however, it was established that the Salem first baseman, who fielded the ball, had first retired the batter and then thrown to the start in the keystone spot in the plate where the force play no longer existed. The Salem catcher then threw back to first for the second half of the double play which wasn't a double play.

ON THE SUNBEAM
By ALF COTTRELL
[Vancouver Sun, June 25, 1947]
Where Is the Swashbuckle?
Going out to watch the Caps play a baseball date with Salem Senators at Capilano Stadium the other night it struck me that they aren’t the lighthearted bunch of galloons they were in training camp down at Sunnyside last April.
Barring the escaped lifeguard, Bob Hall, who lights up dark places in the park occasionally by flashing his snow-white teeth, the Caps are a grim bunch in a ball game. Even before the game, in fact, except for substitute first baseman Jim Estrada, who gets the odd laugh by keeping an extra ball during infield practice so he doesn’t have to lose time transferring the one he has caught into his throwing hand.
But down in Sunnyside this was a gay, swashbuckling crew. One day a strange fellow turned up in a camp and said he was a pitcher. He said Seattle had sent him. Put in to pitch batting practise, he got the ball over everything but the plate.
“There is a lucky guy,” opined that man of consistently serious mein, Charley Mead.
How did he mean, lucky?
”He’ll be going home tonight,” said Charley.
Down there in training camp the constant injunction of rookie catcher Bob Stumpf, smooth-faced kid from the Bronx, was: “Be serious.”
If he was ever serious no one ever caught him at it. There was the day he was telling the boys he though he had every attribute of the good catcher, except that he was a little smarter than the average backstop.
“Don’t let that worry you, Bob,” said fellow catcher and manager Bill Brenner. “That can be overcome by good coaching.”
Rookie Batting Average—.333
Looking back on that period, when the team was in its formative stages, by the way, we predicted that the infield would have at third Len Tran, with Bud Hjelmaa at shortstop and at second Lee Mohr (if he reported), or Jimmy Estrada. Lately the infield has been all four of them.
My three rookie specials sent free of charge from Sunnyside, I recall, were outsized pitcher Jack Meister; the lanky, rawboned first baseman Lavis York; and the aforementioned Mr. Stumpf. With the kid shortstop, Buddy Hjelmaa, tossed in as a longshot possibility.
On the first-named trio I am hitting .333, and I should get a rebate on York. The latter appeared to be the best long ball hitter on the club until, succumbing to homesickness and the demands of a wife who was out of sympathy with pro ball, he went back to Georgia. Meister went away, too, but by request. Only Stumpf of my big three remains, but he looks like money in the bank. Both he and Frank Mullens should move up this fall.
Young Buddy Is the Dark Horse
As for my longshot, I’ll take him, too. I asked one of the [missing words] of the club recently of his opinion as to the Capilano youngster most likely to succeed.
“Don’t quote me,” he said, “but right now I would say Frank Mullens. Frank can do everything—run, throw and hit the ball. He doesn’t make many mental boots out there, either. But for his age and limited experience, young Hjelmaa might be the best prospect of all.”
That was a couple of weeks back, before Stumpf, who is now over the .300 mark, had definitely proved he could hit. But Hjelmaa, who was clouting steadily, had shown my veteran advisor that he also had the essential ingredients, i.e., the ability to run, throw and meet the ball.
As to the Caps as a whole, considering the hole they got into at the start, they aren’t doing badly. I still maintain, as I did at Sunnyside, that the club will eventually win more games than it loses. Always providing, as I said then, at it doesn’t lose too many.

Before and After
By Ken McConnell
[Vancouver Province, June 25, 1947]
BACK IN CAP COOP
Funny, the queer twists that fate takes on occasion. Robert P. Brown watched Sandy Robertson work in senior ball here and evinced some interest. He took a couple of quick peaks at Carl Gunnarson and liked him, too.
But before R.P.B. could unlace the bankroll, dust it off and uncover the green stuff, Robertson had been signed by the Boston Red Sox and Carl Gunnarson had come to terms with Portland’s Lucky Beavers.
A year goes back—one month right after the other—and suddenly it develops that Sandy, who has graduated from engineering from the University of British Columbia, is not too keen about baseball.
Despite efforts of the Red Sox to get him to play, he remained firm. Brown stepped in, when it was obvious that Bosox were not making any progress and eventually it was decided that Sandy could play some ball for Vancouver.
* * *
Hunk Anderson couldn’t do any good with the Brownies. Carl Gunnarson may have been pining away for a closer association with the Lions. In any event’s straight deal was completed and now R.P.B. has both Roberson and Gunnarson.
For how much?
“Well,” cautiously admitted Mr. Brown, “Gunnarson is worth more than the Pacific Coast League draft price and that’s $3500. Sandy, of course, remains property of the Red Sox.”
“Gunnarson has been a really delightful surprise to me,” continued Bob. “He has everything a good pitcher needs. He is vastly improved since he was with the Norvans. He works nice and smooth and has a good change of pace. He has good control for a lefthander, too.”
“Now Robertson is corking prospect, but he has not yet decided to devote himself to baseball. He is keen enough about the game but more interest, right now anyway, in his engineering work. He has a good arm, a nice curve; he fields his position well and he can hit good—for a pitcher. But he can’t be at his best only working out here along and not going on road trips. Pitching once a week is not good enough to keep him in condition. If he pitched regularly he would be 30 per cent better than he is right now and that wold make him a whale of a pitcher.”
No green pea is Robert P. Brown in this David Harum stuff. He has Gunnarson now. Who knows, he may come up any day now as the sole possessor of Alastair “Sandy” Robertson.