Semi-finals :
(Aug 26) Charlie Bogan's parents and sister from Fayetteville, Arkansas were among the fans Friday and the big lefty gave them something to remember. Bogan tossed a six-hit shutout as Saskatoon took a one game lead in their semi-final series with a 3-0 win over Regina at Cairns Field. Bogan fanned 10, walked 2 and also handled nine fielding chances and figured in two double plays. Gems scored all their runs in the first two innings against Braves' ace right-hander Ted Ellis.
Ellis and Schulz
Bogan and Shirley
Edmonton had 13 hits in downing Moose Jaw 7-3 in the opener of their best-of-seven semi-final series at rain-soaked Exhibition Park at Moose Jaw. Dale Bloom tossed a five-hitter, running into trouble only in the eighth when Rich Rubio slammed a three-run triple.
Bloom and Garay
Weekly, Martin (7) and Abel
(Aug 27) Regina just couldn't hold the lead. They scored seven in the top of the first and had a 10-8 lead going into the bottom of the ninth but watched the Gems score three in the bottom of the ninth to pull out an 11-10 victory. With the bases loaded on walks, Cliff Pemberton belted a double which easily scored Jackie McLeod and Earl Huffman. Jose Valladares scored the winner when outfielder Jim McMahon fumbled Pemberton's drive. Jim Pederson led the Braves with four hits.
Mickelsen, Peerless (2), Leopp (70, Walker (9) and Schulz
McLeod, Fabre (1), McLeod (2) and Shirley
Edmonton took a 2-0 lead in their series with an 11-5 win in Moose Jaw. Cal Bauer was the big man at the plate with a triple, double and single in five trips.
Bowman, Seaman (6) and Garay
Watts, Reniker (6) Weekly (7) and Abel
(Aug 29) Noel Mickelsen gave up two early runs then shutdown the Gems as Regina scored a 4-2 win for their first win in the series. Mickelsen and JD Peterson each had two hits to lead the Braves at the plate.
Kirk, Griggs (7) and Motley
Mickelsen and Schulz
Edmonton beat Moose Jaw 5-1 to take a 3-0 game lead in the semi-final series. John Doucette, who relieved started Ed Belter in the 8th, drove in three runs with a bases-loaded, two-out, double. Tom Higa of the Mallards and Norm Forbes of the Esks each had three hits.
Alvarez and Abel
Belter, Doucette (8) and Garay
(Aug 30) Dixie Walker held Saskatoon to five hits as Regina squared their semi-final series at two games apiece with a 2-0 victory. The Braves scored both their runs in the second off Charlie Bogan, loading the bases on an error, a walk and a single. Bogan walked two more to force across the runs.
Bogan, Griggs (4) and Shirley
Walker and Schulz
Moose Jaw exploded for 18 hits and pounded the Eskimos 17-6 for their first win of the series. Darrell Martin gave up seven hits and eleven walks in gaining the decision. At the plate, he had five hits in six trips. Dave Abel and Rich Rubio each had three hits for the Mallards. Relief pitcher John Doucette had a triple and double for Edmonton.
Martin and Abel
Bloom, Doucette (4) and Garay
(Aug 31) Ted Ellis pitched a four-hitter and Regina rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Gems 3-2 win and gain a 3-2 game edge in the best-of-seven semi-final series. It was the Braves third straight win after dropping the first two games of the series. Sergio Fabre had held the Braves off the scoreboard for eight innings. But in the ninth he gave up a double to Noel Mickelsen and a single to Joe Pedrazzini. Bennie Griggs took over and gave up a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Suge Carter. An infield error tied the contest. Following an intentional walk to load the bases, Griggs walked in the winning run.
Fabre, Griggs (9) and Shirley
Ellis and Schulz
Edmonton scored ten runs in the last two innings to whip Moose Jaw 19-12 and win the semi-final series four games to one. Eskimos had 17 hits and were aided by 11 Moose Jaw errors. Cal Bauer led Edmonton with five hits and five runs batted in.
Bowman, Seaman (2), Belter (8) and Garay
Weekly, Watts (6), Reniker (8) and Abel
(Sept 1) Saskatoon came from behind with three runs in the 7th to edge Regina 3-2 and force a seventh and deciding game in their semi-final series. Jackie McLeod pitched and batted the Gems to the victory. On the hill, the veteran held the Braves to seven hits. At the plate, his 7th inning single scored both the tying and winning runs. Saskatoon had only five hits off losing pitcher Dick Leopp, three of them by Cliff Pemberton.
Leopp and Schulz
McLeod and Motley
(Sept 2) Again, a pitcher was the pitching and hitting star for Saskatoon as the Gems scored in the bottom of the 9th to win 3-2 and move on to the league final against the Edmonton Eskimos. Charlie Bogan, who pitched a six-hitter, singled in the ninth to scored Jackie McLeod from third with the winning run. Earlier Bogan doubled to set up the Gems' second run.
Mickelsen and Schulz
Bogan and Motley
Final series :
(Sept 5) Percy Trimont and Mario Herrera each drove in two runs as Saskatoon Gems scored a 5-1 win over Edmonton in the opener of the Western Canada Baseball League final. Jackie McLeod went on the way on the hill limiting the Eskimos to six hits. 25-hundred fans took in the game on a chilly evening at Cairns Field.
Doucette and Garay
McLeod and Motley
(Sept 6) Kirby Pain tossed a two-hitter as Edmonton squared the best-of-seven final at a game apiece with a 6-1 victory in Saskatoon. Pain, who tossed a no-hitter and had a 30 inning scoreless streak during the regular season, lost a shutout in the first inning. Mario Herrera walked, stole second and third and scored on an overthrow at third. Cal Bauer, who had just one hit, was instrumental in the victory. He drove in the tying run in the fourth with a double, went to third on an infield out and stole home to put Edmonton ahead 2-1. In the eighth, Bauer's sacrifice fly scored another.
Pain and Garay
Bogan, Griggs (8) and Motley, Shirley ( )
(Sept 7) Saskatoon came from behind with two runs in the 9th to tie and scored again in the 10th inning to edge Edmonton 4-3 and take a 2-1 game lead in the final series. Cliff Pemberton was a key to the victory. He led off the ninth with a walk and came around to score the Gems' second run. Then, after Jim Shirley's single tied the game, Pemberton scored the winner in the 10th. Don Kirk went all the way for the win. Dale Bloom was the loser.
Kirk and Shirley
Bloom and Garay
(Sept 8) Edmonton scored two runs in each of the fifth and six innings and held on to shade the Gems 6-5 and even their series at two games each. Ed Garay's bases-loaded single knocked in two runs and gave the Eskimos a 3-2 lead in the fifth and they were never headed. Norm Forbes homered for Edmonton in the seventh. Percy Trimont and Len Breckner each had four hits for Saskatoon. The Gems played without starry third baseman Cliff Pemberton who had been called home to Oklahoma by the illness of his wife.
McLeod, Fabre (6) and Shirley
Bowman and Garay
(Sept 9) Saskatoon scored five runs in the first inning and held on to beat Edmonton 9-7 and move within one victory of the Western Canada Baseball League title. The Gems beat Eskimo ace Kirby Pain, who had pitched a two-hitter in the second game of the final. Only one of the first inning runs was earned. Edmonton scored four in the bottom of the ninth and had the tying run at the plate but an infield liner to shortstop Joe Kretschmar ended the threat. Percy Trimont had three hits for the Gems. Cal Bauer and Len Farrell each had two hits for Edmonton.
Hobson, Griggs (7) and Shirley
Pain, Seaman (8) and Garay
(Sept 10) Edmonton fought back with a run in the ninth to tie and then scored twice in the 10th to stay alive in the Western Canada final series. Esks beat Saskatoon 4-2 to force a seventh and deciding game in the playoff. Cal Bauer was the ninth inning hero for the Eskimos. He reached on an error, stole second, continued to third on another error and scored on a wild throw to the plate when Ed Garay was safe at first on a fielders' choice. In the 10th, Len Farrell's double to left-centre field plated the winner. Bauer's sacrifice added an insurance run. Both pitchers went the distance, allowing seven hits. Charlie Bogan struck out 12 and walked two for the Gems while Edmonton starter Dale Bloom fanned three and walked eight. Gems lost another player. Shortstop Joe Kretschmar left for Arkansas to return to school.
Bloom and Garay
Bogan and Shirley
(Sept 12) Edmonton broke loose with four runs in the 13th inning to score a 5-1 victory over Saskatoon and take the Western Canada Baseball League championship. It was the deciding game of the best-of-seven final series. Edmonton won the right to represent Canada at the Global World Series in Milwaukee. Len Karlson, a former Gem, lashed a double to left-centre in the 13th to score Jimmy Johnson with what proved to be the winning run. Johnson had opened the frame by drawing a walk. Len Farrell followed with his second double of the night with an insurance run. Jim Ryan and Norm Forbes drove in two more. A crowd of more than 3-thousand watched a brilliant pitching duel between Edmonton's Kirby Pain and the Gems' Don Kirk. Through 11 innings Pain had given up just four hits, Kirk had allowed only five. Pain was removed from the game after he was bowled over making the third out of the 11th inning. John Doucette, who relieved in the 12th for Edmonton picked up the win. Kirk, who gave way to Lew Hobson in the 13th was tagged with the loss.
Pain, Doucette (12) and Garay
Kirk, Hobson (13) and Shirley
(Sept 14) The Eskimos won't be going to Milwaukee after all. C. N. Henderson, league president, announced that league directors had voted to send a "composite" team to represent Canada at the Global World Series. Ralph Mabee, manager of the Saskatoon Gems was appointed to handle the team. Henderson said the decision was reached because "Edmonton could not field a team that would meet with the approval of league directors."
Earlier in the season, the league agreed to bolster the championship team, if need be, with five players from other clubs for the Milwaukee tournament. Apparently, Edmonton didn't want to go along with the agreement.
"Champs one day, chumps the next" is an expression used loosely and often in sport, but seldom has its full meaning been brought home in the manner that Edmonton's baseball Eskimos have managed.
Yesterday the Esks were Canadian semi-pro champions and Canada's representatives in the eight-nation Global World Series at Milwaukee later this month. Edmonton was proud of them, as it had to be for the fight they mustered to win out over Saskatoon Gems.
Today the Eskimos are the laughing stock of Canadian baseball circles and the runner-up Gems are to represent Canada. This is probably just as well, for the manner in which several of the Eskimos have acted in the past 24 hours exposes them as shallow thinkers. And Edmonton is too proud of the fighting champions it has had over the years to wish to be represented by the "punk" calibre of athlete in any sport.
Four Eskimos fall in this category. The management, Jim Ryan, and the others do not. But four members were enough to give the remainder of the ball team and the city a raw deal. This clique attempted to defy a Western Canada Baseball League agreement that the league winner would be strengthened with a minimum of five stars from the other clubs for the Milwaukee plum. The ruling was made before the season started so it wasn't suddenly flashed on the clique.
One of the four had to be dropped as a player, and Brant Matthews offered to pay his way on the trip. But he replied he wouldn't go if he couldn't suit up and play, and three others backed him up by saying they wouldn't go either in that case. Well the western commissioner, Jimmy Robison, called the group's bluff and named Saskatoon as the Canadian representative.
It is painful to report this, in view of the fine type of man the U.S. has sent us over the years in both baseball and football, but the five all were Americans -- Gary Jackson, Dale Bloom, Len Farrell and Keith Bowman, to be specific.
The WCBL didn't look any too good, reversing an earlier decision that had been given to the Edmonton players. But, two wrongs still don't make a right.
Certainly, it hurts a man to know he can't play with his team. But that wasn't the club's fault and in our book, an athlete's first duty is to his team not his own pride. Jackson is the man who would have been dropped but could still have made the trip to Milwaukee. The four should get along well in organized baseball, if they quit every time a superior makes a decision they don't like. The truth is American baseball won't stand for it, but they thought they could make it stick in Canada.
And in so doing they hurt the Eskimos, they hurt Edmonton -- but fortunately not much because this city is too big in athletics to be hurt by such small men -- and they hurt Canadian baseball. Worse than that, they just may have delivered the death blow to baseball in this city. Our suggestions would be for fans to rally behind the faltering game here just to deprive the four of that satisfaction. But, in the long run, they probably have hurt themselves most of all as they'll have the most trouble escaping the realization they took the childish way out.
(Hal Pawson, Edmonton Journal, September 15, 1955)
Global World Series:
(Sept 23) In the opening game of the eight team Global World Series, Canada scored four in the first inning and held on to beat Japan 5-2. Mario Herrera and Don Stewart drew walks and the Canadians followed with four straight singles by Len Breckner, Ed Garay, Johnny Ford and Jim Ryan. Ryan, who also had a double, added a homer in the eighth. Charlie Bogan pitched a six-hitter, fanning eight and walking five. Canada pulled off a rarity, a triple play, in the fifth inning. With runners on first and second, Cliff Pemberton nabbed a liner, threw to Ford to double the runner at second, and Ford relayed to Jim Ryan at first to make the third out.
All tournament contestants were guests at a dinner soon after their arrival in Milwaukee. It was a $10 per plate affair and attracted 600 people. The contestants, of course, were not charged. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, September 24, 1955)
Yamamoto, Kawai (1) and Taneda
Bogan and Garay
(Sept 24) Hawaii exploded for four runs in the second inning and went on to beat Canada 5-2. Jack Ladra, who played for Kamsack Cyclones in 1953, led Hawaii with three hits. Cliff Pemberton was 3-4 for Canada.
McLeod, Dean (3) and Garay
Kasparovitch and Kaulukukui
(Sept 25) Bennie Griggs held Mexico to four hits as Canada remained in the title hunt with a 5-1 victory. Canada fell behind 1-0 in the first, but came back to tie in their half of the inning. Johnny Ford, who had walked, moved to second on Don Stewart's single. He scored on an error. The Canadians took a 2-1 lead in the third as Stewart walked, moved to second on Cliff Pemberton's single and scored on a single by Ed Garay. In the sixth, Garay scored on a wild pitch to give Canada a 3-1 margin. Len Breckner's eighth inning triple scored the fourth run, and Canada notched another on a squeeze bunt by Joe Kretschmar. Pemberton, Garay and Breckner each had two hits.
Valenzuela, Delfin (8) and Zazueta
Griggs and Garay, Shirley (8)
(Sept 26) The United States pounded out eleven hits and knocked Canada out of contention for the tournament title with an 8-2 victory. The Americans got six-hit pitching from Jim Morris. Among the hits were a homer by Les Layton and a triple by Daryl Spencer both former members of the New York Giants. Len Breckner and Charlie Bogan each had two hits for Canada.
Morris and Kovach
Bogan, Doucette (5), Fabre (7) and Shirley
(Sept 27) Canada overcame a 3-0 deficit with four runs in the seventh to shade Colombia 4-3 and finish third in the tournament. Jim Shirley's pinch-hit single scored Joe Kretschmar with the winning run. Kretschmar had doubled. In the big inning, Canada also got doubles from Don Stewart and Jim Ryan and a single off the bat of Cliff Pemberton. Les Dean, who relieved started Bennie Griggs in the second, picked up the win.
Griggs, Dean (2), McLeod (7) and Garay
Hernandez and Redondo
The United States beat Hawaii 7-4 in the final.
Cliff Pemberton was awarded a trophy after being named the best hitter (.471) in the tournament.