ManDak Baseball League 1950 - 1957

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1953

Zoonie McLean turned down the Mallards offer to manage the team for the 1953 season. Pitcher Ed Albosta who joined the team in late July the previous season was signed as the new manager.

 Oscar Berg was again in charge of recruitment. By early May the Mallards had dropped negotiations with Joe Massaro and Yogi Giammarco but had thirteen players signed for the season. Gone, in addition to Massaro and Giammarco, were Quincy Barbee, Wally Jako and Jonas Gains but Berg found suitable replacements including outfielders Jack Cooper and Connie Juelke (from the 1951 team), first baseman Mickey Rocco, outfielder Chuck Carroll, catcher Phil Tomkinson and jack-of-all-trades Othello Renfroe, also from the 1951 team. Sugar Cain, John Kelly, and new lefthander Bill Washburn joined Albosta on the pitching staff. Second baseman John Kennedy re-signed with the Mallards but was also considering playing for St. Cloud of the Class C Northern League.

 Two inches of snow forced the postponement of the Mallards’ May 15 opening game scheduled at Winnipeg. The Mallards were still without a second baseman and Zoonie McLean was injured and unable to play. Mickey Rocco had not arrived in Minot as he was negotiating a position with another club in Minnesota.

 Ed Bowman, younger brother of Duke Bownan by four years was rushed in to play second base. He arrived during the Mallards home opener against the Brandon Greys on May 16 and started at second base the next day. Mickey Rocco also arrived in time for the opener. Albosta’s opening day line up was:

The Mallards lost the opener 6 – 4 but came back the next day to win 13-0 behind the six-hit pitching of Bill Washburn. The next day the Mallards left for a four game road trip to Canada without Zoonie McLean and Connie Juelke who stayed behind to finish their teaching duties.

The Mallards started out the season slowly and on May 25 were 3 – 4. Catcher Phil Tomkinson who was under contract with Minneapolis of the AAA American Association left the club when that contract was sold to Oklahoma City of the AA Texas League. Berg was able to re-sign 1952 star catcher Joe Massaro. Othello Renfroe took over the catching duties until Massaro arrived on May 30.

In 1953 the ManDak League established a unique “interlocking” schedule with the Saskatchewan Semi-Pro League. The Four ManDak teams played a home and away game with each of the four teams of that league including North Battleford, Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. This was to evaluate the competitiveness of the Saskatchewan teams for the feasibility of a possible future merging of the two leagues or potential replacement should a team drop out of the ManDak League. One of the rules within this arrangement was that if a game was not played due to bad weather then the other game would count as two games. The Mallards had the good fortune of four wins counting as eight.

Sugar Cain threw a 10 inning, one-hitter against the Winnipeg Royals (renamed from the Giants) on May 23 and Ed Albosta stretched his relief pitching shutout string to 15 2/3 innings on May 25. John Kelly developed a sore pitching arm. Zoonie McLean was suffering with a badly sprained ankle. On June 1 the Mallards were 6 – 6 and continuing to play .500 ball through the first half of June with a 8 – 8 record on June 15 when pitcher Mal Murray left for the military.

A major team shake up occurred on June 22 when three players were released and four new players were added to the team. Mickey Rocco, Bill Washburn and Jack Cooper were released. Rocco was injured but a major factor was salary. Washburn had pitched well throwing a six-hit win on the day of his release, but the team was not pleased with his overall performance. Cooper was let go to make room for an additional pitcher. Right handed pitchers Tom Lowe and Larry Dempsey were signed along with left handed pitcher Lou Lombardo and shortstop Dean Scarborough. The Mallards planned to move the injured Zoonie McLean to first base.

On June 24 the Mallards arranged for new players Dean Scarborough and Lou Lombardo along with Chuck Carroll to drive to Mohall and then fly to Saskatoon to join the team for an evening game. Lombardo was left in Mohall to reduce the weight load for the flight. The flight ran into bad weather and had to turn back to land in Minot. After three missed approaches due to high cross-winds the pilot was finally able to land and discharge two white-faced players. They declined to fly and drove up to Canada the next day.

In early July the Mallards went on a tear. Connie Juelke had three home runs in a double header at Carman on July 1. On July 4 the Mallards had 35 hits to win a double header in Minot. Then on July 16 with a 22 – 19 record the Mallards re-signed right handed pitcher Warren Martin from the 1952 club and new pitcher Roy Chapman and they released pitchers Tom Lowe and Lou Lombardo. On that same day the team was hit with a cold and flu sickness and were granted postponement of two scheduled make-up games.

From July 16 to August 1 the Mallards won 11 of 14 games and moved to within 1 game of the first place Brandon Greys.

Bob Danielson, right handed pitcher from the 1950 Mallards joined the team on August 1 along with left handed pitcher Neil Lettau. Mike Williams, earlier released from Regina, was given a tryout. Lettau pitched a two-hit shutout against the Winnipeg Royals in his debut.

The Mallards struggled the first half of August and were 3 ½ games out of first place with eight games to go when Ed Albosta called for a vote of confidence from the players. He lost the balloting and resigned as the manager reportedly stunned and depressed. Zoonie McLean took over and after one day called for another vote of confidence for Albosta. Albosta won this time and re-took the manager position. As manager, Albosta had shown an intense interest in his job and a fiery will to win. He was fined twice by the league for verbally abusing umpires. The Mallards went on to win six games in a row and on the last scheduled game of the season they tied Brandon for first place.

A special three-game series was scheduled with Brandon to determine the pennant winner. The Mallards traveled to Brandon for the first game of the series and beat the Greys 8 – 2. Neil Lettau pitched a three-hitter and Joe Massaro rapped four hits with three RBI’s. The Mallards returned to Minot and the next day and finished off the Greys 9 – 4. Warren Martin got the win and Connie Juelke hit a three run homer.

The Mallards faced the Winnipeg Royals in the first round of the playoffs. Sugar Cain pitched and struck out 11. Chuck Carroll and Duke Bowman had two run homes as Minot won 11-1. Larry Dempsey pitched game two won by the Mallards 12 – 3. The series shifted to Winnipeg. Ed Albosta was out with a badly cut hand from a garage door accident. Zoonie McLean and Connie Juelke were unavailable except on weekends as they returned to their teaching duties. Winnipeg won the first two games in Winnipeg to even the series. In game 5 Larry Dempsey gave up only seven hits in a 3 – 2 win. The series returned to Minot and Sugar Cain struck out 10 batters. Duke Bowman had a triple, three doubles and two RBI’s and Connie Juelke’s sacrifice fly in the 11th inning scored Dean Scarborough for a dramatic 6 – 5 series clinching win.

In the championship series, the Mallards faced the Brandon Greys who had finished off the Carman Cardinals. Brandon was seeking revenge for the pennant series and won the first game 9 – 4 at Minot when Neil Lettau gave up five runs in the 10th inning. Then the Greys beat Minot 10 – 4 at Brandon. On September 12 the Mallards won their first game 9 – 8 behind Larry Dempsey; his fourth straight win. The next day, Sunday at Minot, Sugar Cain pitched a 6 – 4 win for Minot to even the series. Othello Renfroe and Ed Bowman had home runs. In game five at Minot the score was tied 3 – 3 in the top of the 12th inning with one out. The next batter hit into an inning ending double play. When base umpire Ookie Hammond signaled for the third out, Brandon players, arguing that the runner was safe and the winning run had scored, attacked Hammond. Greys first baseman John Washington was arrested and suspended for the rest of the series. When Brandon refused to take the field in the bottom of the inning, the Mallards were awarded a 9 – 0 forfeit. Brandon came back to win game six 6 – 3. Larry Dempsey was called on to pitch the final game of the series which the Mallards won 7 – 2. Dempsey was the batting star with a triple, double and a single for two RBI’s.

The Mallards’ ten game winning streak including two games in the special series against the Brandon Greys for the pennant and two games against the Winnipeg Royals in the first round of the playoff series made a huge difference in the success of the 1953 team. Ed Albosta deserves credit for managing the team through some obstacles including an early season shortage of players, especially pitchers, injuries to Zoonie McLean, John Kelly and Don Corcoran and the loss of Mal Murray to the military. Oscar Berg again gets credit for signing Dean Scarborough and Joe Massaro to replace Phil Tomkinson. Tomkinson a AAA or AA caliber catcher only hit .125 before leaving the club.

Dean Scarborough led the league in batting with a .357 average. Duke Bowman was second with .336. Bowman was also second in RBI’s with 57. Connie Juelke had 55 RBI’s and was second in home runs with 12. Chuck Carroll was second in doubles with 19. In pitching Ed Albosta led the league with an 8 – 2 record. Neil Lettau was 4-1, Sugar Cain was 12-5 and Warren Martin was 6-3. Larry Dempsey was 3-5 during the regular season but 4 – 0 in the playoffs.

The growing nucleus of players which started out with only Zoonie McLean in 1950 and McLean and Sugar Cain in 1951 now had grown to twelve players.

 

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