SOUTHERN LEAGUE
After a void of several years, the 1940 Southern League appointed a head scorekeeper, sports journalist Dave Dryburgh of the Regina Leader-Post. The result was the tabulation of final batting data for 1940 which appeared in the August 7 edition of the Leader-Post.
(August 7) According to today's Regina Leader-Post, the title of "king of swat" in the 1940 Southern League belongs to outfielder Elmer Ekdahl of the Weyburn Beavers who ran up a fine average of .460 on the season's play. Slightly behind Ekdahl with a mark of .446 came Dave "Lefty" Logue, a pitcher and jack-of-all-trades with the Regina Red Sox. The two finished ahead of colored import "Red" Haley of the Liberty Eagles who batted .402 and was tied with teammate Bill Roney with the most base hits, 33. Roney went to bat the most times, 99 in posting a .333 average. Brown of Liberty scored 26 runs to lead in that department. Haley led in doubles with nine to his credit while Bill "Red" Tilson of Regina and "Butch" McDonald of Moose Jaw had four triples. Six different players, including Haley, ended up with two home runs. Two members of the Regina Red Sox, Frank Merk and Ken Charlton, were the leading base stealers with seven apiece.
Ave : Ekdahl WY - .460
Hits : Haley, Rooney LIB - 33
2B : Haley LIB - 9
3B : Tilson RGR, McDonald MJ - 4
HR : Six tied with 2
SB - Merk, Charlton RGR - 7
SOUTHERN LEAGUE FINAL GP AB R H 2B 3B HR SB PCT
Ekdahl Elmer WY 16 50 15 23 4 2 1 1 .460
Logue Dave(Lefty) RGR 22 65 16 29 7 1 1 4 .446
Haley Red LIB 22 82 22 33 9 3 2 0 .402
Boyce Harold(Curly) MJ 10 25 5 10 1 0 0 4 .400
Thomson Alex(Sandy) MJ 12 52 8 19 7 0 0 3 .365
Larson Norm MJ 17 58 6 21 4 0 1 2 .362
Levere Eldon LIB 14 59 15 21 3 0 0 0 .356
Roney Bill LIB 21 99 23 33 5 1 0 1 .333
Tilson Bill(Red) RGR 22 76 15 25 1 4 1 4 .329
Johnson Lefty LIB 18 74 6 24 7 0 0 0 .324
McDonald Byron(Butch) MJ 16 51 8 15 0 4 1 2 .294
Lach Elmer MJ 8 28 5 8 2 0 0 2 .286
Brown Edward LIB 22 94 26 26 5 0 2 1 .277
Wilder Les WY 15 55 2 15 0 0 0 1 .273
Chapman J. WY 12 44 9 12 1 0 0 1 .273
Ward Brit LIB 15 56 14 15 3 0 0 0 .268
Hogg Ralph WY 14 49 7 13 0 0 0 0 .265
Watt Cliff WY 12 34 7 9 1 2 2 1 .265
Schmidt John(Muttsy) RGR 22 84 15 22 1 1 2 4 .262
Woeppel Maurice LIB 17 62 8 16 1 0 0 0 .258
Wilder Archie WY 19 55 12 14 2 2 0 4 .255
McDonald Donnie MJ 17 61 6 15 1 0 0 0 .246
Shupe WY 15 53 7 13 1 0 0 3 .245
Tannahill LIB 15 53 9 13 3 0 0 0 .245
Evenson Denny LIB 19 74 8 18 1 3 2 0 .243
Sherran Don MJ 15 60 8 14 4 1 0 1 .233
Katz RGR 15 51 10 11 2 0 0 3 .216 *1
Zimmerman Frankie RGR 20 75 12 16 1 0 0 5 .213
Charlton Ken RGR 20 71 13 15 0 0 0 7 .211 *2
Stevenson Archie WY 14 52 5 10 4 0 0 12 .192
O'Brien Harry RGR 22 74 8 14 2 2 2 4 .189
Emerson MJ 13 55 7 10 2 0 0 2 .182
Merk Frank RGR 20 72 6 13 5 0 0 7 .181
Walters Earl WY 8 31 2 5 0 0 0 0 .161
Campbell Don WY 10 38 5 6 0 1 0 0 .158
Emerson W. MJ 10 38 3 6 0 0 0 1 .158
Thompson Charlie WY 9 33 3 5 1 0 0 0 .152
Walters Art WY 13 46 6 6 1 0 0 0 .130
Grossman Johnny RGR 11 28 3 3 0 0 0 2 .107
Carr MJ 15 35 7 3 0 0 0 3 .086
McLean WY 9 26 1 2 0 0 0 0 .077
Armstrong Jerry WY 8 24 2 1 0 0 0 0 .042
Players (Notre Dame & Wilcox) who did not finish the schedule Downton Ernie WX 6 24 1 11 3 0 0 0 .458 Metz Nick WX 7 32 9 12 2 2 0 1 .375 Pratt Harold WX 6 24 6 9 1 0 0 2 .375 Germann Frank ND 10 35 10 13 1 1 0 1 .371 Metz Don WX 6 26 2 9 1 0 0 0 .346 Singleton Herb ND 8 21 2 7 1 0 0 0 .333 Butcher Bob WX 6 27 6 8 1 1 1 1 .296 Schultz Earl ND 10 35 4 10 2 0 0 0 .286 *3 Demers Tub ND 11 40 8 11 2 1 0 1 .275 Brown ND 10 39 9 10 0 0 1 1 .256 Boesch Garth ND 10 36 5 8 2 0 2 0 .222 Miller ND 9 32 5 6 0 0 0 2 .188 Jones John ND 9 31 3 4 0 0 0 0 .129 Downton Aubrey WX 6 25 1 3 1 0 0 0 .120 Clements Gerald(Brownie) WX 6 20 1 2 1 0 0 0 .100 Metz Bob WX 6 25 2 2 0 0 0 0 .080
1) Shown with 31 Abs, but 51 shows the average published. 2) Shown
with 17 Abs but 71 results in average published. 3) Shown with 8 Abs,
needed 10 for ave. shown.
BURRARD BASEBALL LEAGUE
For the fourth straight summer, Kaz Suga is the batting leader of the Asahis. Suga topped Frank Shiraishi by more than 100 points in 1940, finishing with a .490 batting mark in 44 games. Shiraishi hit .381. Suga also led the Asahis in hits, 74, runs, 50, doubles, 17, home runs, 4, runs batted in, 45, and stolen bases, 51. On the mound, Suga had an outstanding won-lost record of 13-3 in 113 innings pitched. Nag Nishihara finished with a 12-4 record.
BURRARD BASEBALL LEAGUE GP AB R H 2B 3B HR SB RBI PCT
(Only Asahis available)
Suga Kaz VAS 44 151 50 74 17 2 4 51 45 .490
Shiraishi Frank VAS 43 139 38 53 8 4 0 46 26 .381
Maruno Mike VAS 40 117 32 42 15 2 3 20 34 .359
Nakamura Ed VAS 33 89 29 30 10 0 0 13 21 .337
Kutsukake Ken VAS 40 117 22 37 1 0 0 17 20 .316
Uno Yuki VAS 42 132 42 38 12 1 1 11 23 .288
Nishihara Nag VAS 43 140 24 40 11 2 0 20 29 .286
Yamamura Roy VAS 39 96 45 25 3 1 2 35 19 .260
Shishido George VAS 44 112 30 27 3 1 1 13 24 .241
Mitsui Koei VAS 25 65 14 15 2 2 0 6 12 .231
Terada Chuck VAS 10 16 2 3 0 0 0 2 1 .188
Kaminishi Kaye VAS 16 19 9 3 0 0 0 5 1 .158
Sawayama Tom VAS 4 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Yoshinaka George VAS 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Source : Asahi : A Legend in Baseball, Pat Adachi
BURRARD BASEBALL LEAGUE G W L PCT IP H R BB SO ERA (Only Asahis available) Suga Kaz VAS 20 13 3 .813 113 116 50 44 85 Nishihara Nag VAS 21 12 4 .750 106 141 76 414 88 Maruno Mike VAS 5 3 1 .750 30 36 16 5 27 Shiraishi Frank VAS 5 3 0 1.000 27 21 12 12 11 Sawayama Tommy VAS 3 1 1 .500 16 16 11 6 10 Yoshinaka George VAS 1 0 0 .000 0 0 0 1 0
Source : Asahi : A Legend in Baseball, Pat Adachi