For a hurler who lost his first four games, Hec McLeod of the Regina Nationals gave a pretty good impression of a staff ace. Especially in the playoffs.
After his slow start to the season, the Right-hander went on to compile an 8-1 record for the rest of the regular season then in the playoffs put on an iron man display of epic proportions.
The club played 24 post-season games. McLeod pitched in 22 of them, 18 as a starter, each one of them a complete game.
During the playoffs, he threw complete games on three consecutive days, then topped that performance by first hurling BOTH games of a playoff double-header BEFORE pitching on three consecutive days.
McLeod (later known as Norman W. McLeod), with degrees from the University of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the University of Michigan, went on to become a world-wide expert in asphalt pavement.
After senior positions with the Saskatchewan Department of Highways, Imperial Oil and the Canada Department of Transport, McLeod was recruited to join the staff at the University of Waterloo as a professor.
Author of dozens and dozens of technical papers and recipient of awards in both Canada and the United States, McLeod was a frequent visitor as a consultant in South America, Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe.
A former colleague noted :
Of the many awards and honours received, only a framed newspaper clipping marking his selection as the most valuable athlete for Saskatchewan in 1933 claimed space on the office wall of this modest gentleman. (E.B. Wilkins)
In the BC Interior, Penticton had a superb season in the Okanagan International League winning the league pennant and taking the playoffs in straight games to win the Johnston-Spalding Trophy. They finished the season with an over-all record of 22 wins, 4 loses and 1 tie. They lost just once in regular league play.
Their ace hurler, Lefty Hammond, produced a sensation season appearing in 21 games, 17 as a starter. He finished with 17 wins, two losses and a tie. In 188 innings worked, Hammond fanned 185. He had 16 complete games in 17 starts, going just 8 innings in one contest, a 25-2 blowout in which he turned over mound duties to the first baseman.
Behind the outstanding pitching of Bud Spiesman, the Edmonton Army & Navy Cubs captured the 1933 senior baseball championship for the capital city.
Despite two broken ribs, Spiesman held Trochu to five scattered singles to lead the Cubs to a 3-0 victory in the deciding game of the best-of-five final series. A week previous, Spiesman had hurled the Cubs to a 4-1 triumph in the opening game of the series allowing just three hits while fanning 11. The only run against him came on two Cub errors.
Superb pitching by Spiesman had helped the Cubs to the Edmonton senior title when he pitched a six-hitter as the Cubs scored a 4-1 win in the seventh and deciding game of the city final.
Pete McCready of the Alberta champion Edmonton Cubs was the batting star of the 1933 Edmonton Senior League as he led the circuit in batting average, runs scored, runs batted in and home runs. The slugging centrefielder hit .345 with five homers and 12 RBI.