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 RBI 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 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 B MJ 16 51 8 15 0 4 1 2 .294
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