Wapella, Saskatchewan was a whistle-stop on the Canadian Pacific Railway line near the Manitoba border about 100 miles east of Regina. According to the national census of a few years earlier it had a population of 401.
The Morning Leader, the Regina newspaper, acclaimed Wapella as the most successful baseball club in Saskatchewan during the summer of 1924.
Playing in 56 games during their season, the Wapella club had picked up 51 victories against only 5 losses; scored 131 runs against 20; took part in 20 tournaments, winning first money in 16, second in one and sharing in third in the others. Their total tournament prize money totaled approximately $2,600. (The Morning Leader, Regina, August 16, 1924)
Veteran player Pat McNeally (left) was the team's playing manager. Other members included : H. Rowbotham LF, R. Morrison RF, J. McNeally 2B and captain, L. Clements LF, F. Embury 1B, E. Schramm RF, Whit Meredith P, G. Hitchings 3B, Alan "Lefty" Armstrong P.
Late in the season, Wapella decided to take on the famous Brandon (population 15,307) Greys.
In the opening series Wapella won both. Lefty Armstrong tossed a one-hit shutout to win the second game.
A few days later, the teams hooked up in another twin bill. Brandon managed to win the opener 3-2, but Armstrong fired another one-hit shutout as Wapella took the series three games to one.
To say Alf Bennett of the Knights of Columbus of Saskatoon had an uneven season would be a monumental understatement.
He opened the regular season with back-to-back defeats (one in relief) before regaining form in firing three consecutive, complete game triumphs.
(The newspaper headline didn't capture the full picture.)
Then a loss, a win, then SEVEN defeats in succession before steadying the ship with a late season victory to end the regular season 5-10.
Then it was the playoffs. He pitched in eight games, Six complete game victories, one 11-inning tie, and one game in relief. On September 8th he pitched and won both games of a double-header to dispatch Regina Winners from the playoffs and on September 24th and 25th he tossed complete game victories to bring the Caseys, as they were known, the provincial championship downing Moose Jaw.
21-year-old Mel Kerr, the speedy centre fielder for the Saskatoon CNR was the runway batting champion in the Saskatoon City League hitting .429 to easily outdistance the field. He also led in doubles and total bases and was among the leaders in home runs and steals. Kerr would reach the major leagues with the Cubs for one game the following season. It would be his lone game in the big leagues.
In Edmonton, the local Intermediate loop lost its biggest drawing card. Under the headline "Colored Giants Are Out of Intermediate League", the report in the Edmonton Bulletin of June 27th, noted that Shiloh "the famous colored aggregation of ball tossers" had apparently dropped out of the league.
Four of the Shiloh players that were to have played on the team this year were sent to Winnipeg to take over jobs there and its one of the reasons that the team has had to quit.
Alberta ball made a clear connection with the country's national sport, hockey. Among those suited up for play on Edmonton's diamonds was young Clarence Campbell (right), catcher for the South Side Centrals.
A young man about to win a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford who one day would become president of the National Hockey League.
Among the on-ice stars were forward Leroy Goldsworthy and goalie Cecil "Tiny" Thompson. Goldsworthy played ball in the Edmonton Intermediate League while "Tiny" (all of 5-10) was a versatile player for the Athletics of the Calgary City League who hit .462 to win the batting championship.
Thompson's NHL career stretched over 12 years. He was a four-time Vezina Trophy winner as best goalie and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959. Plus, he was the first player born in BC (Sandon) to make the NHL.
Campbell and Goldsworhty's team, the Centrals won the Edmonton senior championship and Thompson's Athletics were champs in Calgary and went on to top Lethbridge for the Alberta Senior title.
Tournaments were in vogue in Alberta with the King of the Bushers Tourney and the Little Word Series among the attractions. Amateur Cliff "Tiny" Turner was an emerging star pitching for the Mirror, Alberta, Canadian Nationals.
While he could have recorded even more impressive stats, there are no reports available on several of the Mirror games.
In 25 games we've tracked down, 22 starts, Turner won 17, lost 3 and tied 2. He racked up 11 shutouts, in one stretch, six complete game shutouts (and a relief appearance for a total of 60 1/3 innings in the string) in a row.
On the season (from the reports available) the right-hander rang up 245 strikeouts in 177 innings. In his 22 starting assignments he compiled 19 complete games, including a pair of no-hitters. At least twice he rang up 18 strikeouts and rarely walked more than one a game.
Over in Manitoba, pitcher Bill Crowe was something of an Alf Bennett, just not so extreme. He led the Wesley Park League with six wins (our research shows he had seven), but with a pedestrian 6-4 record. But, come playoff time, Crowe went 6-0 to lead the Winnipeg Tammany Tigers to the league title and on to the Manitoba Senior championship. Over the year he made 16 starts, all complete games, and even made five relief appearances. Over a five day period of playoff action in late August and early September Crowe was in four games, two complete game efforts over three days, then a pair of relief jobs.
In the Winnipeg Stadium League, Herb May was the playing manager of the Norwood nine. In a game in mid-July, a hand injury forced him out from his usual spot behind the plate and he took up his position at the hot corner. It was a day for the scrapbook, but not in any positive sense. May was charged with seven errors !
And, there was the story of Harold Nelson from the small community of Carberry.
"Harold Nelson was an outstanding pitcher from the 1920s. He was Carberry`s only pitcher in 1924 when the team won 25 straight games, then lost one, then won 11 more. Nelson struck out 18 in a 9 inning exhibition game against the Brandon Greys in 1925. In one tournament he pitched three 7 inning games and faced only 23 batters in each game. Harold was featured in Ripley’s “Believe it or Not” for striking out 80 batters in two consecutive days of tournament play. Due to farming pressures he declined an invitation to training camp of New York Giants." (Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame)
In 1929, Ripley's syndicated newspaper feature "Believe It Or Not" carried an item on Harold Nelson noting he fanned 80 men in two days, pitching 8 games in 33 hours.
In a 1943 item in the Winnipeg Tribune, Nelson revealed the actual story noted in Ripley's tribute was even more mind-blowing.
Pitching for Carberry "somewhere around 1924" he completed three games in a single day at a tournament in Plumas, Man. moved on to Oak Lake the following day to pitch another four. His record for those seven was five shutouts and 84 -- not 80 -- strikeouts.
Nelson pitched another three games the next day in Cardale. Of the ten tricks on the mound, he lost only the last one.
He grinned, recollecting the ordeal. "I was getting a little tired toward the finish."
Steady Eddie Olson pitched the Hammond Cedars to the BC Senior Amateur Championship and then to a victory over the Calgary Athletics to take the Inter-Provincial crown. Olson allowed just two runs in 53 innings of playoff ball and whiffed 17 in the final game with Calgary.
Hammond Cedar Mill was known for more than its cedar in the height of the baseball days. Doan M. Hartnell, owner of Hammond Mill, was determined to bring a championship to Hammond, and so he recruited players from all over the U.S. and Canada and offered them good paying jobs at the mill. He was frequently travelling and scouting for his company team. This caused some problems among the regular staff as these ‘ringers’ were not always seen as pulling their weight in the jobs they were being paid for, as they were just there to play ball. (Maple Ridge Museum)
Vancouver had two solid leagues, the Vancouver Senior League and the Terminal League. Outfielder Charlie Miron of the Young Liberals dominated the batting statistics in the Senior loop winning the title with a .400 average and leading in hits, runs and total bases. Over in the Terminal circuit, Cameron "Peggy" Duff, outfielder-catcher for Shelley Brothers rapped the ball at a .458 clip to win the batting title in the Terminal League.
Al Farquhar of the Vancouver Lumber Company established a single game strikeout record fanning 18 (with no walks) in a seven inning contest.
On the Island, Haley Jackson of Canadian Pacific emerged as the leading hitter in the Victoria Senior League finishing the season with a mark of .476.