More Pre-Season

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1947
Curfew Ends Game
LEWISTON, Idaho, April 14—A curfew ruling Monday night ended after eight innings a tilt which Spokane won 16 to 9 from Bremerton.
The session was the last of the exhibition variety before the two Western International baseball league clubs start the regular season
Play was stopped at the end of eight frames in order to comply with a ruling which says the flood lights on the field shall be out after ten p. m. any night.
The Spokane club came from behind to post a compelling lead, with eight tallies in the fourth inning.

SUNNYSIDE, Wash., April 14 — Following a two-run homer by Len Tran in the sixth inning, breaking a 4-4 tie, the Vancouver, B. C. Capilanos of the Western International league tallied two more runs in the eighth to defeat the Boise Pilots of the Pioneer league 8 to 5 Monday for the Canadians' third exhibition victory over the Idaho club.

Tacoma and Vancouver Open Two-Game Series Here Tonight
[Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, April 15, 1947]
WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The Tacoma Tigers will wind up the spring training season here Tuesday and Wednesday nights, meeting the Vancouver Capilanos in Western International league exhibition games scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. at Borleske Field.
The Tigers defeated the Capilanos, 10-9, two weeks ago at the Sunnyside camp of the Vancouver team, but on the debit side are a pair of losses to Yakima and one to Bremerton.
Manager Red Harvel named Julie Morgan and Marion Moake to share the pitching duties Tuesday. Morgan, a righthander from Atlanta, Ga., has played in the Appalachian, Inter-state and Southern leagues. Moake is a young southpaw with semi-pro experience in Illinois.
No word has been received from catcher Earl Kuper, who was called to Tacoma over the weekend by his wife's illness, and Neil Clifford will again be behind the plate.
Glen Stetter, W.I.L. batting king in 1946, injured his left thumb late last week, jamming it into the ground in a fielding try, and it was still bothering him Monday. After he hit a foul in Sunday's game with Yakima, the pain was so severe that he had to step out of the box several times before he could grip the bat.
Another worry for the Tacoma head man was the failure of Patton, recently-assigned first baseman who hit over .320 with Nashville of the Southern Association last year, to check in with the club.
Vancouver will have a young club this year. Manager Bill Brenner has announced, with eight veterans and 10 newcomers tentatively slated to fill the squad after the final cut. Brenner, a playing manager who runs the squad from behind the plate listed three veterans in the outfield, Bill Wright, Charley Mead, and Frank Mullins, all left-handed hitters. Jim Estrada at second is the only holdover infielder.
Four pitchers are back from last year's sixth-place club, including Bob Snyder, Hunk Anderson, southpaw Jim Hedgecock and Ronnie Bryant.

ON THE SUNBEAM
By ALF COTTRELL
[Vancouver Sun, April 17, 1947]
Our Ball Club Has Improved
I noticed, being right on the bit this morning, that the Western International League baseball season opens tomorrow at various scattered outputs in Oregon, Washington and B.C.
Since you can’t tell you players without a teacup reading, in the interests of science I was forced to break a lifelong habit by swizzling some tea with my lunch today.
Our Capilanos open in Salem, the capital city of Oregon. I suspect it would be safe to see how the Caps make out in the series down there before making any predictions regarding their fate in the WIL struggle this summer, but it wouldn’t be half the fun.
The locals figure to be better than last year, for sure. I don’t want to dwell a great deal on last year’s club, except to say that the altitude seldom bothered it. Nevertheless comparisons are necessary.
There is a distinct strengthening along the imaginary line that stretches itself from home plate to centre field, from what we saw at the Sunnyside training camp, and historians saw that the line of least importance.
The catching staff, with Bill Brenner in there from the start and Bobby Stumpf understudying him, is considerably enhanced. Big Bill is the best receiver in the league. Stumpf has a remarkable throwing arm and a nice voice that may secure him a place on the dressing room glee club.
Quite an Array of Chuckers
The pitching mound figures to be tastefully decorated most of the time, allowing for such intangible as off days and an occasional pain in the sword arm. The five starters on the training camp trial, should be holdovers Bob Snyder, Jim Hedgecock, Ron Bryant, Hunk Anderson and rookie Jack Meister.
Lanky Bob should be there with his hair in a braid tomorrow at Salem in the opener. Hedgecock was bothered by a flutter in the flipper at Sunnyside, but he assured us that it was nothing serious.
Bryant, who says he will either make good in a huge way this year or quit the profession for a nobler one, might be the ace of the staff. He says his arm has that rich, chunchy freshness back again and is very serious about the whole thing.
Anderson’s arm was a mite “ouchy” a week ago. It might be premature to count on him, but there is plenty more pitching wherever you turn in the camp of the Brenner-men. Meister, for instance. The kid is a couple of pitchers in himself, from the standpoint of bulk, and he seems to have arrived.
Plenty of Zip for the Infield
During spring exhibition sessions, Jack sharpened his control by throwing at baseball caps. It didn’t seem to disturb the poise he has achieved when he discovered that there was always a hitter underneath the cap. That would have upset him at one time, but now, a married man for several months, nothing does.
There are hurlers Sandy Robertson, Ernie Kershaw, Bob Hall, Larry Manier and others to fall back on should the first stringers fail.
Around second base there will be Leon Mohr (down from Seattle Rainiers), Jim Estrada and/or Buddy Hjelmaa.
We take Mohr on hearsay, but there is positive assurance that he can trickle from point to point quite rapidly. On the evidence, Mohr should wrap up second base and take it home unchallenged.
Estrada has never been crazy about being curved on the outside, but he still gets his base hits. He is a steady if unspectacular shortstop. Hjelmaa is a white-haired Scandinavian kid, not long out of college. It is in his favor that he has done everything that they have asked him to do, to date.
In centre field, to run the line all the way out, it is our guess that Frank Mullens will cover that pasture more capably than Clarkson did last year. Defensively there is the setup.
On offense, there wouldn’t appear to be any hitters of the banjo type that strangled last year’s attack. Lavis York hit the Yakima pitching as if he owned it, and should get help in cuffing the opposition around from Charlie Mead, Bill Wright, Brenner, Mullens, Mead and either Lenny Tran or Lou Estes.
All in all, and at the risk of being torn limb from limb by wild readers, I will go so far as to say that, wind and weather permitting, the Caps will be in there somewhere, straight, place or show.