ManDak Baseball League 1950 - 1957

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1957

Preparations for the 1957 season were somewhat delayed while Dickinson and Brandon decided whether to field teams. Brandon was a charter member of the league but dropped out for the 1955 and 1956 seasons, replaced by Dickinson. Dickinson announced in early spring that they would field a team but reversed their decision when they failed to raise sufficient financing. They had reportedly lost $19,000 in the two years that they operated. The league gave Brandon a deadline of April 18 to decide to rejoin the league and to post a $1000 bond. Brandon met this deadline and the other three teams followed and began preparing for the upcoming season.

Finances were an issue that teams faced as they prepared for each season. For the 1957 season the ManDak League lowered the salary cap from $8500 per month to $6500 per month. In conjunction with this, rosters were cut from sixteen to fourteen players and the number of games was reduced from 78 to 72. Also the playoff format was revised to only a championship round between the first and second place regular season finishers.

Zoonie McLean agreed to manage the club and play shortstop. He was the only player in the league to play all seven previous seasons. McLean set the first spring training drill for May 24 and only five players were available. Included were Andy Anderson, Carl Bush and McLean from the 1956 club and newcomers Jesse Rogers and Bill Upton. Two exhibition games were scheduled with the Williston Oilers at Williston for May 27 and 28. Six Minot State College players were added to complete a makeshift squad for these games. Included were Lewis Saum, Whitey Aus, Mark and Bob Bodine, Gary Leslie and Don Smith (who played for the 1956 Mallards). Longtime Mallard Duke Bowman volunteered to play until he was due to report to play in the Basin League along with brothers Ed and Walt. Jerry Hendricks, a local area high school coach rounded out the pre-season squad. Two additional Mallards reported to Williston during these games: Rudy Mayling reported in time to appear in both games and Chuck Orner in time for the second game. The Mallards were beaten badly in both games.

Four new position players were added for the 1957 campaign.  Center fielder Jessie Rogers led the club with 14 home runs and 66 RBI’s and batted .363. Left fielder Jarvis Gideon hit .338 despite being released in mid season, only to be resigned a few weeks later.   New second baseman Buddy Messina hit .269 with 12 homers.  McLean claimed Messina was the best double play partner he had ever had in Minot. Carl Bush was among the league leaders in batting most of the season, falling off to a still respectable .338 average.  He had two five hit games and stroked 11 home runs.  Anderson hit a solid .249 with ten homers.  He played some outfield, second, third in the absence of Bowman and even pitched from time to time.  Duke Bowman hit a strong .299. Mid-season addition Willard Brown showed he still had something left as after joining the Mallards, he hit a solid .307 and rapped seven home runs in a ten game stretch.

Sugar Cain was bothered by a sore arm for most of the season and managed just a 7-5 record.  The team’s leading pitcher in 1957 was Bill Oster with a 9-5 mark.  Right-hander Bill Upton was 7-6.  Lefty Jack Hale was 6-6 and veteran Dirk Gibbons fell off to 3-9

The Mallards opened against the Brandon Greys in a scheduled doubleheader on May 30th at Minot. Jerry Hendricks played second base for Buddy Messina who had not arrived. Don Smith played left field so that Andy Anderson could play third base for Nelville Cooper (who never did report). John Andre pitched a seven inning 4 – 0 shutout. Jesse Rogers opened the fourth inning with a home run over the right field fence. The game went into the eighth inning but was rained out with the score reverting back to the end of the seventh inning. The second game of the double header was rained out. In addition to Messina and Cooper, the Mallards were still waiting the arrival of pitchers Sugar Cain and Bill Oster. In their second series the Mallards lost twice to the Bismarck Barons by scores of 6 – 4 and 7 – 6.

On June 9 the Mallards were in 3rd place with a 3 – 5 record. They were still awaiting the arrival of Sugar Cain and outfielder Willard Brown. Carl Bush was leading the Mallards with a .441 batting average followed by Jesse Rogers hitting .323. John Andre had two of the Mallards three wins. Catcher Chuck Orner was suffering with a sore arm and when the Mallards traveled to Williston for a game on June 9, Dewey Williams was pressed into service as the Mallards’ catcher. Williams had already filled in with two other teams that season. The next night in Minot, John Andre pitched a 10 – 0, five hit shutout against the Oilers for his third win without a loss. Andre developed a sore arm and never won another game for the team.

Three players came to Minot, on their own, during June and requested tryouts. Norman Butz, a 20 year old left handed pitcher from Chicago failed to make the team.  Howard Morganstern came on June 20 to try out for an outfield position. He was released on July 4. Gideon Jarvis arrived on June 21 and went 0 for 3 in his first game with the Mallards but later proved to be a valuable addition to the team.

Sugar Cain made his first appearance on June 13 as the Mallards hoped to even their season record at 6 – 6 and move up to second place in the standings. The Mallards scored only two runs on thirteen hits in the 3 – 2 loss and Cain was tagged with his first loss despite pitching a six-hitter.

The Mallards slumped the second half of June and lost their fifth straight game on June 19 against the Brandon Greys at Brandon. On June 23 the Mallards completed five double plays against the Brandon Greys in an eleven inning loss by a score of 4 – 3.

 New right fielder Gideon Jarvis led the Mallards with two home runs and three doubles on June 28 against the Williston Oilers at Williston as the Mallards blasted their way to a 20 – 4 win. The Mallards had a total of seven home runs in the game. On July 1 the team stood at 11 wins and 12 losses.

The Williston Oilers were in Minot for the 4th of July and bested Sugar Cain and the Mallards by a score of 8 – 4. Cain’s record stood at 1 – 3. Buddy Messina hit a grand slam home run on July 7 against the Bismarck Barons in a Mallard 15 – 8 win.

Willard Brown finally arrived in Minot on July 9. The Mallards expected him several times earlier that season as he agreed to terms before the season started. On July 11 the Mallards hit six home runs against the Williston Oilers in Williston to move to one game behind Bismarck. Duke Bowman re-joined the team from Huron on July 21 when the Basin League season ended. In his first game against the Brandon Greys he hit a triple and a double to lead the Mallards to 2 – 1 win at Minot. On July 24, Bill Upton pitched a four-hit shutout in a win over the Williston Oilers at Minot. Jesse Rogers belted his 10th and 11th home runs of the season and Willard Brown his first. The Mallards won their sixth game in a row on July 26 with a 7 – 5 win over the Oilers but remained three games behind the Barons. Duke Bowman and Willard brown homered for Minot and Bill Oster pitched a six-hit to improve his record to 6 – 3.

On July 28, the Mallards largest home crowd of 1,955 which included 1,033 Ladies Night guests was treated to a 13 inning win over the Williston Oilers to move the Mallards to within two games of first place. Duke Bowman singled in the winning run. Jesse Rogers had a triple and three singles. Sugar Cain pitched the complete game for his fourth win of the season.

On August 1 the Mallards were 27 wins and 25 losses and four games behind the Bismarck Barons. The Brandon Greys subdued the Mallards 5 – 2 on August 4 in Minot for the Mallards fifth straight defeat.

Pitcher John Andre was released on August 10 with a 5.96 ERA. Andre was expected to be the ace of the 1957 Mallard staff and won his first three starts, two of them by shutouts, but developed arm trouble and never won another game.

On August 11, McLean hit a three run homer and Cain won his sixth game in a 9-1 win over Williston to pull the Mallards into second place.  Then Minot lost a two game set at Brandon to fall into a third place tie with the Greys.  Next, the Mallards split a pair at Williston and remained one game behind Brandon. In the first game Bill Oster pitched a seven hit 11 – 4 win. Carl Bush had two home runs and two singles. Jesse Rogers and Andy Anderson also homered. Duke Bowman had a double and a single. In the second game of the Oiler series, Minot blew an 8-0 lead and lost 10-9.  The Mallards then faced Brandon in a two game set in Minot. Brandon won the first game 2-1, but Minot came back the next day behind a Bill Oster’s sparkling two hitter and defeated the Greys 10-2.  Zoonie Mclean, Gideon Jarvis, Chuck Orner and Jesse Rogers were the offensive leaders in Minot’s fifteen hit attack. So, on Sunday August 18, Minot still stood a game behind Brandon in the battle for second place.

League officials met and decided that makeup of rainouts would only be played if the game had a direct impact on the playoffs.  Minot had two games left on the schedule against Bismarck to finish out the season, but there had been two prior rainouts.  So it was decided to play all four games. 

In a double header at home on August 19, Zoonie McLean homered in the first game and ripped two doubles in the second as Minot swept Bismarck in two seven inning games.  Minot won the first game 7 – 3 and the second game 2 – 1. That moved the Mallards into second place ahead of the Brandon Greys. The two teams shifted to Bismarck the next day for another pair of seven inning games.  In game one Zoonie McLean went four for four and drove in five runs in a 10-8 Minot win.  McLean added another homerun in the nightcap in a 9-8 Mallard victory.  In his last seven games, McLean went an amazing 18 for 31 to raise his average from .337 to a team leading .365. These two wins clinched second place for the Mallards and League President Glenn Vantine of Bismarck announced that the two final season games scheduled for August 21 were cancelled and that the single round championship series between Bismarck and Minot would begin Thursday night August 22.

Williston and Brandon apparently misunderstood the league ruling and became upset that Minot swept Bismarck and moved past them into second place.  Minot finished 36-35, two games ahead of both the Oilers and Greys who came in at 34-37.  They contended that if the Mallards not been allowed to play the makeup games, there would have been a three-way tie for second place.  The league did not allow their protest, citing the Bismarck-Minot games were, in fact, necessary.

The August 22 game was rained out and the playoff series got underway on Friday August 23 at Bismarck.  Despite three home runs, the Mallards dropped the opener to the Barons 10-3.  Bismarck racked Oster for seven runs in three innings and turned four double plays.  Minot squared the series the next day 10-8 behind homers by Anderson and McLean, three hits and two RBI’s from Orner and some nifty relief pitching by Hale.  The series shifted to Minot for game three and the Barons took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-4 win on a wild pitch by Dirk Gibbons in the ninth.

After heavy rains hit Minot on Monday August 26 and Tuesday August 27, the Minot Mallards conceded the championship to the series leading Bismarck Barons. The Mallard directors, doubtful that Municipal Ball Park would be in suitable shape, suggested that the two teams play in Bismarck on Tuesday night and, if necessary, back in Minot on Wednesday night. They further proposed that they would pay the transportation costs to Bismarck but that the Minot players would give up the extra salary to cover the two day extension from the rainouts. The players vetoed this because some of them wanted to be home for the Labor Day weekend. The final decision was approved by League President Glenn Vantine.

Williston’s and Brandon’s dissatisfaction over the late season make up games and Minot’s forfeit of the Championship series to Bismarck signaled the beginning of the end for the Manitoba-Dakota League.  Attendance was down and there was financial instability in each of the franchises other than Minot.  Not long afterward, Bismarck announced they would not be back in the league in 1958.  The ManDak folded and the league’s most successful and dominant entry, the Minot Mallards, began to make preparations to enter the Northern League the following year.

 

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