Bremerton .. 71 52 .577 —
Spokane .... 71 52 .577 —
Salem ...... 67 52 .563 2
Vancouver .. 65 56 .537 5
Victoria ... 66 58 .532 5½
Tacoma ..... 59 64 .480 12
Yakima ..... 47 73 .392 22½
Wenatchee .. 42 81 .341 29
VANCOUVER [The Sun, Aug. 13]—The Caps are still sizzling hot and Vancouver’s pro baseball fans love it.
The season’s biggest crowd last night overflowed Bob Brown’s wooden stands to watch the Brenner men whip Salem twice, 2-1 and 7-1, for their 18th and 19th wins in 21 starts., which brought them up to within five games of the front-running Spokane Indians, who held their lead by topping Tacoma 5-1.
Proving that a winning ball club is money-in-the-back for its owners, even if the workmen have to play two games a night to draw, general manager Brown last night had to close his ticket booths midway through the first game.
“Crowds were still lined up outside when we ran out of room,” he said. “They begged us to let them in. Some were regular fans. If we’d only had our new ball park now.”
DO NO WRONG
They overflowed along third base and into right field, surpassing the park’s 3226 capacity. For them, the Caps proved that a winning ball club can do no wrong, no matter how you throw the dice.
Tonight, Manager Bill Brenner to tempt this axiom. He’ll start Sandy Robertson against the Senators in an effort to revive the Vancouver boy’s ailing fortunes and pull the beloved Brownies nearer the gonfalon.
“We’re only started,” he said after last night’s twin wins.
15 FOR JIM
Jim Hedgecock threw his 15th win in the first game, against nine losses, although Salem set up nine hits against him, against the Caps’ eight. A bit of good fortune gave the locals their two runs on no hits in the second when Salem’s Sinovic walked four Brownies and Al Spaeter dropped his hat, and the ball, on a close play involving Charlie Mead at second.
But tight Cap fielding featuring Mead’s fine catch against the scoreboard wall in the fifth, snuffed out Salem’s rally, plus lefty Jim’s fine clutch pitching saved the unearned run.
Bob Snyder, who works like a big blacksnake, picked up his 12th win, giving up seven singles and a four-base knock by Bud Peterson in the third.
STARS FOR MEAD
Again Mead’s field work stood out. He made another fine scoreboard catch off Kubiak. Later, he threw out Spaeter at the plate when Salem threatened with three singles.
Carpenter’s home run in the first inning of the nightcap with two on gave him three more rbi’s, and he and Bill Reese showed clearly how they have become key figures in the Caps’ flag drive.
BASE BRIEFS: When the PA system announced that Victoria, trailing the Caps by half a game, had beaten Wenatchee, 8-5, a great groan rumbled up from the crowd. ... The WIL card last night saw Bremerton kick into a tie for top spot, beating Yakima twice. ... Umpires Dehaney and Last showed fans first-rate work. When a balk was called on Salem’s Ken Wyatt, Dehaney didn’t hesitate. And he didn’t fool with Salem’s manager, Wilson, when the latter beefed. He sent him back to the bench firmly and quickly.
- - -
VANCOUVER, August 12 — The Vancouver Caps picked a pair of wins, 2-1, and 7-1, over the Salem Senators here tonight and have now won 17 of their last 19 Western International League games.
Both Vancouver runs scored in the second inning after Al Spaeter kicked away a double-play ball.
Jim Hedgecock got his 15th win, despite giving up a run on four hits in the fifth.
Ken Wyatt, the turkey farmer from The Dalles, Oregon, started the second game for the Senators and became unglued in the first inning when a balk was called on him. That sent Lee Mohr to second. Buddy Hjelmaa then doubled to left to bring in the first run, and after Frank Mullens grounded out, Paul Carpenter swished a fastball onto Sixth Avenue to give Vancouver a 3-0 lead. The Caps added a fourth run when Charlie Mead walked and scored when the outfield misplayed a relay throw when Bill Reese doubled.
Bob Snyder gave up one hit in the first four frames, a homer by Buddy Peterson, and picked up the win.
First game
Salem ............ 000 010 0—1 9 2
Vancouver ..... 020 000 x—2 8 1
Sinovic and Beard; Hedgecock and Brenner; Stumpf (7).
Second game
Salem ........... 001 000 000—1 8 1
Vancouver ..... 401 000 20x— 7 9 0
Wyatt and Beard; Snyder and Stumpf.
VICTORIA, August 12 — Three home runs in the third inning accounted for six Victoria runs as the Athletics defeated the Wenatchee Chiefs 8-4 in a Western International League game here Tuesday.
The Chiefs took a 3-0 lead when they scored once in the second inning and Bob Williams golfed a two-run homer in the third.
Southpaw John Day, ex-collegiate hurler, was badly shaken in the third when John Hooper and Bill White hit home runs on successive pitches. Hooper's blow came on Day's first offering and scored Leo Righetti and Bob Jensen, who had walked and singled. White followed with his homer, Vic Mastro walked, then Jack Harshman again hit Day's first offering out of the park. This brought in reliever Bob Condon, who gave up a double to John Cavalli and a single to Righetti for Victoria's seventh run.
Harshman hit his 33rd homer of the year in the fifth inning to complete the A's scoring.
Athletics' starter Bob Jensen lost control in the fifth, when he walked three men after giving up a single to force in a run. Jim Arnold was rushed in with only one out and the sacks jammed and retired the side without further damage and pitched one-hit ball the rest of the way.
Wenatchee ..... 012 010 000—4 5 0
Victoria .......... 007 010 00x—8 12 2
Day, Condon (3) and Dalrymple; R. Jensen, Arnold (5) and Mastro.
BREMERTON, August 12 — A double-header swept moved the Bremerton Bluejackets into first place tie in the Western International League, after 14-9 and 9-5 wins over the Yakima Stars on Monday.
First game
Yakima .......... 311 040 0— 9 9 3
Bremerton ..... 414 050 x—14 11 2
Simon, Romple (3), Brysch (5), Wallerstein (5) and Constantino; Ahearn, Marshall (5) and Ronning.
Second game
Yakima ............ 200 100 020—5 7 0
Bremerton ....... 005 011 02x—9 11 1
Nowels and Constantino; Sullivan and Volpi.
TACOMA, August 12 — A four-run eighth inning broke a tie game as the Spokane Indians defeated the Tacoma Tigers, 4-1, in a Western League game tonight.
Gordon Walden bested Bob Costello in a battle of aces, scattering six hits.
Spokane ....... 100 000 040—5 10 1
Tacoma ........ 000 000 100—1 6 3
Costello and Bufflap; Walden and Kuper.
ON THE SUNBEAM
By ALF COTTRELL
[Vancouver Sun, August 17, 1947]
What Is This We Hear Boys?
Seems like you can’t take your eyes off those Vancouver Capilanos a minute or they are up to something new and different in the way of kicking around Abner Doubleday’s pastime.
Due to getting a bit tired of hearing the announcer up at the ball yard reveal in deathless accents the lucky number that would win me two free hairdo’s at the Smearall Beauty Parlors, I hadn’t been around there much lately. The last I had heard the Caps were yelling “Track” and scooting downhill like a homebound ski runner.
Yesterday I looked up from my knitting in surprise when I accidentally tuned for a discussion of the upchugging Caps’ pennant chances. It was the work of a mere half hour to learn that Bill Brenner’s hearties had reversed their field and were tearing hell-bent for glory.
It is nothing new, at that, for the Caps to start chasing rainbows through the autumnal haze. Last year they got away from the barrier like a wounded turtle, only to wind up with a belated rush that carried them short of somewhere. It at least gave the boys a lot to talk about on the long winter evenings. In fact they were still talking about it in spring training this year.
The 1946 grand finale made optimists of us all. The only trouble was that when the flag race started this year the boys forgot to do anything about it, thus making liars of some Sunnyside scribes who had listened overlong at the twilight bull sessions.
Quick, Back on That Wagon!
There is something disconcerting about finding Brenner and his merry men on the uptrend again. Only a few weeks back we were all saying that what the Caps needed to make them a success was for big Bill to be several hundred miles elsewhere. Now there is such a rush to climb on Bill’s bandwagon again that many of us are going to get trampled to death if we don't hurry.
I was one of those who so recently was saying that the Caps could not hit or run, neither could they pitch. In fact I’m not even sure I didn’t voice the suspicion that they failed to even brush their teeth regularly.
There is no denying the fact that they now resemble a collection of youths bearing that banner with the strange device, “Excelsior.” They are running, hitting and pitching. The other night they pilfered an armful of sacks from none other than Bill Beard, a gent who has seldom been accused of having to roll the ball back to the pitcher.As for hitting, not one of the resurgent Brennermen thinks a ball well tagged unless it makes Bellingham on the first bounce. Even I, his most faithful booster, never accused young Bud Hjelmaa [photo left], for instance, of being a long ball clouter. Yet several times recently Bud has taken to emulating Babe Ruth, whose name, I trust, you will find vaguely familiar.
Beware the Roof; It May Cave In!
Unfortunately, it seems necessary to utter a word of caution. It is an old saying in baseball that as soon as you start gazing at that flagpole with the pennant on top it has a habit of crashing down on your features.
There are still those among the hired hands who have a fine contempt for running. The fact that the club has been scoring in boxcar figures, too, took the spotlight off the hurlers until last night’s show. What the boys will do when they face some real bowling for a change, possibly the ensuing series with Victoria, remains to be seen.
Whatever the outcome it has been nice to see the Caps give this stretch dash the big hustle. Winning the flag is something else again. From fourth place it is a neat dodge if you can do it. If they did happen to do it for Brenner, well, it couldn’t happen to a nicer gent.
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