Sunday 22 July 2007

Friday, July 8, 1949

STANDINGS
               W  L Pct. GB
Yakima ...... 56 27 .675 —
Vancouver ... 49 31 .613 5½
Spokane ..... 45 38 .542 11
Wenatchee ... 40 44 .476 16½
Salem ....... 37 45 .451 18½
Victoria .... 36 46 .439 19½
Bremerton ... 36 48 .429 20½
Tacoma ...... 33 53 .384 24½

VICTORIA, July 9—The Victoria Athletics massacred the Tacoma Tigers for the second straight night, this time by a 21-1 score, as the A's won their 11th in their last 14 games.
Joe Blankenship held Tacoma to four hits, two of them in the first inning which produced the only Tiger run. It was his second straight four-hit game.
The A's responded with 19 hits and two big innings—the second, when seven runners crossed the plate, and the eighth, when they belted manager Bob Johnson for ten runs. He had taken over from Ray Fortier in the fourth and hurled four scoreless innings until then.
Both teams scored a run in the first and then came the Tiger-taming in the second. A single and two walks loaded the bases with one out and Johnson had the infield move in. Vic Buccola then hit the ball past the location shorstop Joe Kaney had been earlier and both runs scored. Frank Matoh walked to load the bases again and Vic Buccola lifted the ball out of the park for a grand-slam homer.
Len Noren homered to bring in three in the third inning and the game remained 11-1 until the eighth when seven hits, an error, a hit batsman and two walks added up the ten runs. One of the hits was a tripled by Gil McDougald, which cleared the bases. McDougald finished only a single shy of hitting for the cycle and batted in seven runs. Buccola went four for five and Bob Day had three hits.
Tacoma ......... 100 000 000—1 4 2
Victoria ......... 173 000 0(10)x—21 19 2
Fortier, Johnson (4) and Warren; Blankenship and Day.

WENATCHEE, July 8—Yakima's leading Bears powered and walked to a 13-8 victory over the Wenatchee Chiefs tonight to protect their five and a half game lead over the Vancouver Capilanos.
Three Wenatchee hurlers gave up 14 hits, including six doubles, and 12 walks. The Chiefs also got 14 hits but did not receive any free tickets. Nick Pesut homered for the Chiefs in the third.
Yakima .............. 232 231 000—13 14 2
Wenatchee ......... 122 111 000—8 14 2
Powell and Orteig; Greenlaw, Frick (2), Meyers (5) and Pesut.

VANCOUVER, July 8—Dick Sinovic's single broke up a 2-2 game in the 10th inning as the Vancouver Capilanos pulled off a 3-2 win over Bremerton.
Sinovic's hit immediately followed singles by Jim Robinson, Len Tran and Charlie Mead
Bob Snyder got credit for his 13th victory in a relief role. He replaced Carl Gunnarson in the tenth with runners on first and third and threw three pitches to force pinch-hitter Keith Simon to line into a double play. It was one of four turned by the Capilanos during the game. They were needed as Vern Kindsfather twice loaded the bases during the nine innings he pitched.
Mead was four for five for the winners.
Bremerton ........... 001 000 010 0—2 11 0
Vancouver ........... 000 100 101 1—3 13 3
Kohout and Neal, Ronning (10); Kindsfather, Gunnarson (10), Snyder (10) and Brenner, Sheely (10).

SPOKANE, July 8—Dick Bishop twirled his ninth victory against one defeat as the Spokane Indians downed the Salem Senators, 3-1. Bishop allowed only five hits.
Salem ......... 100 000 000—1 5 0
Spokane ..... 200 100 00x—3 8 4
B. Drilling and Carlson; Bishop and Rossi.

IT BEATS ME
By JIM TANG [Victoria Colonist, July 9, 1949]
A man who made no enemies, Ted Norbert, is missing from the Victoria baseball scene again after two full seasons and parts of two others as manager of the Victoria Athletics. He watched last night’s game from the press box, rather wonderingly, as the A’s showed power they could not find earlier in the season, and is schedule to leave today for his Portland home.
Just what his future in baseball is no one knows. He has hopes that something may come out of a meeting with Joe Devine, head West Coast scout of the New York Yankees, and there is a possibility he may be able to hook on as a scout with some other organization. At this stage of the season, there is little chance he will be managing again until next year. Before saying good-bye last night, he asked this corner to express his thanks to Victoria baseball fans.
“The people here have been swell to me,” he said. “I want you to tell them how much I appreciate my years in Victoria. It’s something I will never forget.”
The amazing about-face of the Athletics after Norbert was dismissed is just one of those things, and quietened almost all of the resentment occasioned by the managerial change. Ironically enough, Norbert attained his greatest degree of popularity this year when his club made its poorest showing. In 1947 he was roundly second-guessed and, to a lesser extent, the same was true last season. This year, the fans seemed inclined to believe it was the fault of the parent organization for not providing Ted with better material.
Many of them were indignant and several letters on the subject reached this department, one of them suggestion that the “true” story be told. There isn’t much of a story. The Yankees decided that a change was in order and it goes without saying that they have a right to name a manager of their own choice. The players here are possible future Yankees and the parent club has to see that every prospect in its farm system is brought along in the Yankee pattern. Whether or not Ted was doing this is a matter of opinion; but the opinion of the Yankees is what dictated the change.
I have often disagreed with Ted’s managerial strategy, but there was certainly nothing personal in it. Along with thousands of other Victorians, I would like to wish him all future success. No one took his job more seriously. Probably his biggest fault was a losing endeavour to please everybody. It’s impossible.
Random Harvest
Judging by results of the past two weeks, if Ted Norbert could have survived a few days longer, he might still be at the helm of the A’s. The club was slowly finding itself and its sudden surge cannot be more that partially attributed to a change in managers. However, the big test is yet to come. The Athletics have been tamping on the second-division clubs. If they can beat Vancouver Capilanos next week they will prove that this is no flash in the pan . . . Del Owens is pitching for Norfolk in the Piedmont League, which is the club Earl Bolyard was managing before he was switched to Vancouver. Bolyard reports Owens was the best man on the staff and had a 6-2 record last week . . . Vic Mastro, unable to make it with Kansas City, quit baseball when the Yankees shipped him to Binghamton . . . Strangely enough, so far this season it appears that as Ray Jacobs goes, so go the Athletics. The club has looked its best when the big outfielder is at his best . . . John Hack may not be a shortstop, but he is a pretty effective fill-in and packs more of a threat in his bat than a lot of infielders . . . Russ Walseth deserves a world of praise for sticking it out and playing good baseball while handicapped with an injured leg which would bench most players . . . The Tigers certainly looked like a dispirited club last night, and did everything wrong, which is usual when a club is in a slump. Jack Warren forced a runner in the second to end the inning, swinging at a 3-0 pitch with Dick Greco and Bob Johnson up next; in the eighth, no one covered second on Gil McDougald’s ground ball and both runners were safe when Al Spaeter took Glen Stetter’s throw away off the bag, and Ed Barr, who walked to open the inning, was out trying to steal in the ninth when his club was trailing 18-2 . . . Jerry Mathieu missed a bad one when he called a foul tip a ball and refused to change the decision, even though Base-Umpire Tommy Restell signalled that it was a foul. It’s things like this that keep him in trouble.

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