Showing posts with label Frank Mullens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Mullens. Show all posts

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Friday, August 22, 1947

              W  L Pct GB
Bremerton .. 77 58 .571 —
Spokane .... 77 59 .566 ½
Victoria ... 75 61 .551 3
Salem ...... 72 59 .550 3½
Vancouver .. 71 62 .534 5½
Tacoma ..... 64 70 .478 13
Yakima ..... 53 81 .396 24
Wenatchee .. 47 86 .353 29


VANCOUVER, Aug. 22 — Bob Hall, hard-throwing righthander, stopped the victory march of the Victoria Athletics here tonight when he threw a five-hitter at the Islanders and struck out 13 batters to give the Vancouver Capilanos a 9-3 Western International League triumph, their second with the A's this week.
Hall struck out 13 and walked two, and slapped out a screaming triple that got a standing ovation of the crowd of 3,000.
The losers scored only in the second and eighth innings. Two singles, a walk and an outfield fly accounted for the second inning tally, while John Hooper's two-run homer accounted for the final Victoria counters. The rally ended when Paul Carpenter pulled off a spectacular catch while rapped around the left-field light standard.
The Caps scored in every inning but the fifth as they pecked away at Bill Woop to hand him his 13th setback. Leon Mohr, the disappearing second baseman, was forgiven by the Vancouver management sufficiently to get into action and picked up three hits.
Victoria ......... 010 000 020—3 5 0
Vancouver ..... 121 201 11x—9 17 1
Woop and Mastro; Hall and Brenner.

WENATCHEE, Aug. 22 — Tom Rose tossed a one-hit shutout in the opening game of a twin-bill, giving the last-place Wenatchee Chiefs a 7-0 win over the Spokane Indians, who dropped to second place in the Western International League with a 12-4 loss in the second game.
Rose fanned five and walked three. The lone hit was a scatch safety over second base.
Lou McCollum scattered six hits in the nightcap after Spokane suffered a scourge of fumble-itis, committing seven errors.
First game:
Spokane ............... 000 000 0—0 1 0
Wenatchee ........... 000 070 x—7 13 1
Samson, Forsyth (5) and O'Neill; Rose and Dalrymple.
Second game:
Spokane ................. 010 100 020— 4 5 7
Wenatchee ............. 103 004 40x—12 10 1
Spitzer, Latino (7) and Bufflap; McCollum and Dalrymple.

First game:
Salem ....... 024 355 0—13 24 1
Yakima ...... 200 010 1— 4 8 0
Mossor and Beard; Brysch, Wallerstein (3) and Constantino.
Second game:
Salem ......... 000 100 310—5 11 2
Yakima ........ 133 100 000—8 12 1
G. Peterson, Sporer (3) Sinovic (8) and Mohler, Beard (8); Strait and Phillips.

First game:
Bremerton ............ 000 000 1— 1 5 2
Tacoma ............... 100 522 x—10 14 0
Johnston, Smith (6) and Ronning; Greenlaw and Clifford.
Second game:
Bremerton .......... 202 130 800—16 19 0
Tacoma ............. 000 000 001—1 7 2
Lowman and Volpi; Gilson, Tinsley (3), Clough (5), Hedington (7) and Kuper.

THE HOME PLATE
By KEITH MATTHEWS

[Vancouver Sun, August 23, 1947]
Of course it had to pop up around this time of the year again. We mean that time-honored all-star squabble, when the fans are all sure they have just the best little baseball team in the world right in the backs of their heads.
A couple of fans have written in for our opinion, which we have never deemed important anyway. Another few at the ball park have asked the same question—“who’s the best at this and that position?”
Well, we won’t waste much time with it. Our all-star infield is Jack Harshman (Victoria) first base, Art Lilly (Yakima) second, Guy Miller (Tacoma) shortstop, and Babe Jensen (Victoria) third. Alternates have Herb Gorman (Spokane), Leo Righetti (Victoria), Buddy Hjelmaa (Vancouver) and Bob Hedington (Tacoma), filling respective positions.
The first string outfield reads, naturally, like a pitcher’s lament, Johnny Hooper (Victoria), Frank Mullens (Vancouver) and Bill White (Victoria). Ouch, get that power!
The reserve outfield isn’t bad either. Try Doug Donnan (Spokane), Ed Murphy (Bremerton), and Mel Wasley (Wenatchee), for size.
Catchers, who don’t necessarily have to hit the size of their toenails, although it helps if they do, are supposed to be long on brains. How can you get away from Bill Brenner then,
who, after all, is a manager and should have a working think-tank. Ami if its hitting you want Tacoma’s Earl Kuper should fit in nicely as No. 2 catcher.
* * *
And now the pitching. We have selected two right handers and two left handers. The rights left doubt in our minds, Jim Lowman of Bremerton and Bob Costello, Spokane. The lefties did offer a problem with the Caps’ Jim Hedgecock and Bremerton’s Joe Sullivan sneaking in. But don’t say I didn’t mention Salem’s Wendell Mossor.
The all-star manager is, without the slightest doubt, Jack Wilson, who has worked miracles with the Salem gang with almost nothing. Put Frank DeHaney behind the plate and Johnny Nenezich on the bases and we’ll have a ball game.
You’ll notice that the team is not as much Bremerton and Spokane as it is Victoria. You possibly think, then that we like Victoria for the bunting this year. Well, we do.
Maybe you don’t agree with these selections. You know our address anyway.
* * *
Ma and Pa Mullens are in town to watch Frankie boy perform. And though the Roscoe Rifle isn’t having one of his big streaks, you’ll also notice he’s batting in runs and hitting for extra bases.
Pa Mullens is a baseball fan, Brooklyn style. Not rabid, mind you, but he knows his way around the bases.
He told us in Victoria what we have known and maintained eons ago. Son Frank is not a power hitter. He’s the line drive type, sez Pa Mullens. And If you don't believe it wait until son Frank gets in that big Seattle ball park next year. Yessir, son Frank will hit a million, all line drives, sez Pa Mullens.
Son Frank, incidentaly, has a cousin in the Texas League who is a second baseman and who is a better ball player than our ace, sez Pa Mullens. That we would like to see. Yeah, that would be even worth seeing.
* * *
Bob Stumpf, the big, good natured Cap catcher from the Bronx, was 21 years old last Wednesday. Bronx Bob will never forget his 21st. He went into a protracted hitting slump which is driving him to speaking English.
Stumpf is still worried about Seattle, too. The boys have been kidding him about his ’48 possibilities.
'The other night, Paul Carpenter said to Stumpf, “Hey there, Bob, Earl Sheeley told me before I left Seattle that you were taking Bob Stagg’s place next season. (Stagg is Seattle’s bullpen catcher.)
Stumpf went near crazy. “I won’t report. Migawd, I’d rather play semi-pro. Why, I’ll jump ‘da club, yeah, ‘dat’s what I’ll do.” >

Sports Reel…
[Vancouver News-Herald, Aug. 22, 1947]
This week’s edition of the Sporting News gives Eddie Carnett, one-time manager of the Capilanos, a fair spread. Eddie was recently one of four players on the Paris (Big State League) nine to receive victory medals fro their navy services in World War II. Eddie looks quite happy in the picture, and incidentally, right below the pix, is an item which relates how Carnett hit into a triple play recently.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Friday, August 8, 1947

              W  L Pct. GB
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.”

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.