1956 Vancouver, Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley
1956 BC Interior
1956 Vancouver Island
NORTHEST INTERNATIONAL SEMI-PRO BASEBALL LEAGUE
(May 12) The Northwest International Semi-Pro Baseball League opens Sunday at Central Park with Vancouver White Spots up against South Burnaby Athletics. Games are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons. Other teams in the league are Seattle Greenland Cafe, Tacoma Studs, Bellingham Bells, Deming Loggers and Victoria's Farmer Construction.
(May 13) South Burnaby shaded the Vancouver White Spots 2-1 in the season opener of the Northwest Semi-Pro Baseball League Sunday. Bill Kinder's first inning double drove in Jim Kelly and Gary Sinclair with the South Burnaby runs.
Norm Allen, Alee Roth (5) and Sparrow, Ivan Eriksson (5)
John Ruck (W) and Ivan Spees
(May 22) Before more than 2,400 fans, Victoria's Farmer Construction and Bellingham Bells split an exhibition double-header at Royal Athletic Park with the visitors winning the opener 6-5 and the home crew taking the nightcap 9-8 in an extra inning. The first game featured superior defensive play by the visitors with the Bells turning three rally-killing double plays as they twice came from behind to win putting across the deciding run in the ninth inning. In the night game, it was the Farmers who battled from behind twice tying the score with three-run rallies and pulling even in the ninth with two more markers. They got the winner in the 10th on four walks, the last one to Lowell Hodges on a full count with two out. Three of their runs came home on balks by Bells' starter Pat Hollinsworth.
Bob Wales (W) and Gary Kohives
Lowell Hodges (L) and Jim Harford
Pat Hollingsworth, Dick Minice (7), Bruce Randall (10) and Gary Kohives
Ron Lund, Bill Garner (8) and Jack Shields, Doug Patterson (9)
(May 26) Rain forced postponement of Saturday's game between Deming and the Farmers.
(May 28) Centre fielder Davies belted a homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to give Burnaby a 4-3 victory over Victoria in the opener of a double-header for Farmers who also dropped the second game, 4-2 at Bellingham. Burnaby collected just four hits in the first game but a costly error set up the winners for three runs in the fourth inning. Bill Garner allowed just five hits to the Bells in the second game but two of them were homers by Art Minice. Dick Aaronson and Humphries held Farmers off the scoreboard until the ninth when they plated both their runs.
Beck, Hodges (L) (8) and Harford
Ruck (W) and Spees
Garner (L) and Harford
Aaronson, Humphries (W) (6) and Callas
(June 2) After dropping a 6-3 decision to Seattle in the first game of a double-header, Victoria scraped out a 9-8 victory in the second game when Ron Lund, the third pitcher for the Farmers got a strike out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to end the threat after Seattle had scored three times. Paul Beck, who came in to relieve starter Lowell Hodges in the first frame, after the visitors had scored three, went six innings, allowing just two hits, before running into trouble in the eighth. Seattle got the first game win with three runs in the eighth stanza, handing the pitching win to teenage reliever Joe Lains.
Bob McGruder, Joe Lains (7) and Don Anderson
Bill Garner (L) and Jim Harford
Stan Martysus, Lyle Richardson (3), Joe Lains (4) and Don Anderson
Lowell Hodges, Paul Beck (W) (1), Don Lund (8) and Jim Harford
(June 12) Bob Roberts hurled a three-hit shutout for Bellingham as the Bells dumped South Burnaby A's 6-0 in Northwest International Semi-Pro action at Central Park Tuesday. Roberts fanned nine and walked a pair. Ray Minice led a 14-hit attack with a fourth-inning homer.
Bob Roberts (W) and xxx
Johnny Ruck (L) and Ivan Spees
Bellingham 3 - 0
Burnaby 2 - 2 1.5
Seattle 1 - 1 1.5
Tacoma 0 - 0 1.5
Victoria 2 - 3 2.0
Vancouver 1 - 2 2.0
Deming 0 - 1 2.0
(June 14) A seven-run fifth inning carried Farmer Construction to an 11-8 win over Vancouver White Spots Thursday at Royal Athletic Park. Ron Lund, the Courtenay right-hander, made his farewell appearance for the Farmers and picked up the win going six innings. A three-run double by Jim Harford and a two-run homer by Norm Curran featured the fifth inning uprising. Curran went three-for-four, added two singles to his four-bagger.
Norm Allan, Alec Bass (5) and Ed Sparrow
Ron Lund (W), Paul Beck (7), Bill Garner (9) and Jim Harford
(June 16) With solid hurling and good defense, Farmer Construction took a pair from previously unbeaten Bellingham Bells, 3-1 in the afternoon game and 5-3 in the nightcap. Bill Garner twirled a five-hitter with a walk and nine strikeouts for the Farmers while Bernie Anderson provided the offense with a three-run homer. Darrel Burke yielded just six hits to the Farmers.
Victoria took the second game with three runs in the eighth inning. Bill Prior, who relieved starter Paul Beck in the eighth, picked up the win. John Marshall, the tobacco-chewing former Victoria pitcher, stole the show in the night affair although he came away as the losing hurler. He took to the mound for the Bells in the third inning with a 3-0 count on Ron Karadimus and fanned him on three pitches then whiffed four of the next five men he faced. He was the only Bellingham batter with two hits and called his shot in his first appearance, pointing his bat at the centre field fence then bouncing the first pitch off the fence for a single.
Darrell Burke (L) and Gary Kohives
Bill Garner (W) and Jim Harford
Bob Sutherland, John Marshall (3) and Dick Martin
Paul Beck, Bill Prior and Jim Harford, Jack Shields (9)
(June 17) Tacoma and South Burnaby battled to a 2-2 draw.
Walski, Brady (6) and Grant
K. Spees and I. Spees
(June 17) Tacoma scored early and often Sunday in trouncing White Spots 15-2 behind a 16-hit attack. The visitors scored four in the first inning, added four more in the second and had a five-run outburst in the 6th. They had single runs in the 3rd and 7th. George Kritsonis and Brian Bell split the hurling for the winners.
Kritsonis, Bell (5) and Dodge
McLennan, Morris (4), Allen (5) and Sparrow, Eriksson (2)
(June 18) Tacoma ran its unbeaten streak to four games over the weekend while Seattle moved into third place by winning a pair from Deming. The Cheney Studs played three games on Sunday, defeating Vancouver 13-2, Burnaby 3-2 and Bellingham 7-3. Seattle edged Deming 1-0 and 4-3 in a twin-bill at Seattle.
(June 22) In a game shortened to eight innings because of darkness, Burnaby scored in the bottom of the final frame to salvage a 5-5 tie with Farmer Construction. Earlier Bill Kinder hit a home run for Burnaby to tie the count at 4-4 in the sixth. Roy Wakabayashi allowed seven hits and seven walks in his mound work for Burnabay.
Jacobson, Hodges (2), Garner (8) and Shields
Wakabayashi and Priestley
(June 23) Vancouver White Spots and Victoria split a twin-bill. The White Spots crushed the Islanders 15-5 in the first game. Ian McLennan allowed just one run until the 8th in pitching the distance for the win. Bill Gilmore smacked a three-run homer to spark the onslaught, helped by seven Victoria errors.
McLennan (W) and Eriksson, Sparrow (8)
Garner (L), Beck (8) and Harford
Victoria rebounded to take the second game 4-1 with an 11-hit attack. Bill Prior fired a four-hitter for the winners. Curby was the loser. Centre fielder Bernie Anderson paced the winners with a two-run triple and a pair of singles. Catcher Jim Harford contributed a brace of two-baggers.
Curby (L) and Sparrow
Prior (W) and Harford
(June 24) Walt Clough scattered five hits, all singles, as Seattle topped Burnaby A's 6-1 Sunday.
Clough (W) and Anderson
Ruck (L), Barton (6) and I. Spees
(June 29) Bill Prior provided both the pitching and the hitting as Victoria edged White Spots 2-0 to grab third place in the Northwest International Semi-Pro League. Prior hurled a two-hitter and fanned six in his mound duties. At the plate, he provided all the offense needed with a homer in the second inning. Kim Elliott was impressive with a three-hitter for the White Spots. He struck out eight and walked two.
Bill Prior (W) and Jack Shields
Kim Elliott (L) and Ed Sparrow
(June 30) South Burnaby broke up an outstanding pitching duel scoring three times in the 11th inning to down Victoria's Farmer Construction 4-1 to salvage a split in Saturday's double-header. Don Donahue held the Athletics to four hits over the first ten innings of the second game but tired in the 11th giving up a double to Bill Kinder and a single to Roy Wakabayashi. Bill Garner, who had fired a three-hitter to blank Burnaby 7-0 in the first game, came on in relief and filled the bases with a walk and the winning run scored on an infield out. Two insurance runs came home on a single by Ivan Spees. Farmers had tied the scored at 1-1 in the seventh on a homer by Charlie Boyd and had two golden opportunites to take the lead leaving the bases loaded, without scoring, in the ninth and tenth. Stu Mitchell poled three hits for Victoria in the first game and Bernie Anderson and Pete Ash each had two safeties.
Ken Spees, Roy Wakabayashi and Ivan Spees
Bill Garner (W) and Jim Harford
Brad Barton and Ivan Spees
Don Donahue (L), Bill Garner (11) and Jim Harford
Tacoma 5 - 1 .833
Seattle 6 - 2 .750
Victoria 8 - 5 .615
Bellingham 5 - 4 .556
Burnaby 3 - 7 .300
Vancouver 3 - 8 .273
Deming
1 - 4 .200
(July 7) Farmer Construction missed a chance to take over first place in the standings Saturday dropping an 11-8 decision to Seattle Greenland Cafe in the second game of a double-header at Victoria. Farmers went into the twin-bill trailing Seattle by a game-and-a-half and needed a sweep to assume the top rung. Paul Beck and Bill Garner combined a a one-hitter as Farmers won the opener 3-2. Beck allowed a run in the first inning then retired the next 15 straight batters. A pair of errors let in another Seattle run in the seventh before Garner took over and ended the threat and set down the side in order in the last two innings. Victoria got what proved to be the winning run in the fifth inning on Jim Harford's third straight hit and a double by Charlie Boyd. In the evening contest, Ed Ash's construction crew had a 5-1 lead after three innings but Seattle exploded for seven runs in the fourth inning on a pair of walks, five hits and an error. Farmers rallied for a pair in the bottom of the ninth with none out but high school lefty Joe Lains put an end to the threat fanning a pair and getting a pop fly.
Warren Noyes (L) and Ed Naish
Paul Beck (W), Bill Garner (7) and Jim Harford
Jerry Boehm (W), Joe Lains (9) and Ed Naish
Bill Prior (L) and Jim Harford, Bernie Anderson (4)
(July 14) Luther Carr of Tacoma's Cheney Studs had a game for the scrapbook Saturday when he powered the Americans to a sweep of a double-dip over Victoria's Farmer Construction. Carr blasted a three-run homer in the ninth inning of the opener to break a 4-4 tie as Tacoma won 7-4 and the husky outfielder was even more dramatic in the second game slugging a bases-loaded homer in the ninth inning, again with two out, to hand the visitors a 7-5 victory. In the first game, Bill Prior had held Tacoma to five hits and two runs over eight innings but the roof caved in as the Studs rallied in the final frame. Pete Walski led off with a triple and scored on an error. Ron Dodge who scampered to third on the miscue, came home on a single to tie the game at 4-4. With two on, Carr belted a three-and-two pitch over the centre field wall. In the nightcap, Farmers built up a 5-2 lead in the first five stanzas but were blanked the rest of the way by reliever Mike Macauley who took over for Monty Geiger in the fourth. Geiger, who switched to the outfield, belted a homer in the sixth. Carr, who had a double earlier in the game, hit a two-and-two pitch out of the park in the ninth to erase a 5-3 Victoria lead and hand the game to the Studs, 7-5. Charlie Boyd had a three-run homer for Victoria in the first game and Jim Harford collected three hits in the second.
George Kritsonis (W), Brian Bell (9) and Jack Brady
Bill Prior (L) and Jim Harford
Monty Geiger, Mike Macauley (W) (4) and Jack Brady
Bill Garner (L) and Jim Harford
(July 21) Farmer Construction gained some revenge for last weekend's double loss to Tacoma by sweeping Saturday's twin-bill from the Cheney Studs 9-7 and 8-2 to move into a tie for second place with Deming Loggers, a game-and-a-half game back of Seattle. In the first game, Tacoma took the lead with three runs in the first inning but Charlie Boyd sparked the Farmers' three-run reply with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first and then made a great running catch with the bases loaded in the second inning. Victoria banged out 13 hits and overcame a 7-5 deficit with a three-run outburst in the seventh and added a singleton in the eighth to take a 9-7 lead. Bill Prior, who relieved in the second, got a strikeout with runners on second and third to end the game. In the nightcap, southpaw Don Donahue tossed an eight-hitter and racked up 12 sttrikeouts to post the win. Luther Carr, with two game winning home runs last week against Farmers, clouted a homer over the centre field wall to end Donahue's bid for a shutout. Bernie Anderson led the winners with four singles. Lowell Hodges smacked a lead-off homer in the sixth and Mike Hodge came through with a run-scoring triple to spark a five-run first inning.
Mike McCauley, Roger Ronning (2), Pete Walski (7) and Ron Dodge
Paul Beck, Bill Prior (W) (2) and Jack Shields, Jim Harford (8)
Gary Moore (L) and Ron Dodge
Don Donahue (W) and Jim Harford
Seattle 10 - 4 --
Deming
8 - 5 1.5
Victoria 11 - 8 1.5
Tacoma 8 - 8 3.0
Bellingham 8 - 9 3.5
Vancouver 5 - 10 5.5
Burnaby 4 - 10 6.0
(July 22) Bellingham Bells and Deming Loggers handed Victoria's Farmer Construction a pair of defeats Sunday, 15-14 in 10 innings and 5-2. In a wild first game, which produced 37 hits, Farmers scored five in the top of the ninth to go ahead 14-9 only to have Deming plate a five spot in the bottom of the ninth to tie. Deming then got the win with a run in the tenth. Farmers had four homers by Charlie Boyd, Stu Mitchell, Mike Hodge and Norm Curran. Boyd's was a grand slam. Lefties Lowell Hodges and Bill Garner combined for a four hitter in the second game but four errors helped Bellingham to a 5-2 triumph. Dick Aaronson blanked the Farmers until the ninth when Victoria got both its runs.
Bill Garner, Don Donahue (5) and Jack Shields
Dick Conover, Ken Jackson (1), Zender (7), Earl Silverthorne (10) and Dick Zender
Lowell Hdges, Bill Garner (2) and Jack Shields
Dick Aaronson (W) and Dick Kohlwes
(July 28) Farmer Construction dropped into fifth place in the Northwestern International League standings after dropping a pair to Bellingham at Royal Athletic Park 4-0 and 9-7. Darrel Burke fired a four-hitter for the shutout in the opener as the Bells battered Bill Prior for 14 hits. Bells held off a Victoria rally in the bottom of the ninth for a win in the second game. Bellingham had a 9-3 lead before the Farmers struck for four in the ninth and had two runners on base when Doug Patterson flied out to end the game. Bells out-hit the Farmers 14-9.
Darrell Burke (W) and Gary Kohives
Bill Prior (L) and Jim Harford
Bob Hanson (W), Bruce Randall (9) and Dick Martin
Don Donahue (L), Bill Garner (3) and Jim Harford
(August 6) Farmer Construction handed the visiting nine from Bremerton a 26-0 shellacking Monday in an exhibition game at Royal Athletic Park. Charlie Boyd led a 19-hit assault with four safeties and Bill Prior cracked a double and triple.
(August 9) With Bill Garner and Bill Prior combining on a six-hitter, Farmer Construction upset the travel-weary House of David 8-3 before 600 fans at Royal Athletic Park. Prior, who came on in relief in the fifth inning, was also the hitting star with a home run, double and single.
(August 11) In an exhibition double-header, Farmer Construction of Victoria took both games, 4-0 and 5-4 from the Seattle Stanley Shoemen. Bill Garner hurled a four-hitter for the shutout in the opener as Pete Ash paced the attack with a home run and two singles, three RBI and two runs scored. Seattle jumped on Farmer's starter Garry Ball for three runs in the first inning but the Victoria nine rebounded with four runs in the second and plated the winner in the fifth. Bill Prior, who relieved Ball in the fifth, held the visitors to one run the rest of the way to post the win.
Dick Montgomery, xxx (3) and xxx
Bill Garner (W) and Jim Harford
Doug McArthur, xxx (3) and xxx
Garry Ball, Bill Prior (W) (3) and Jack Shields
(August 18) Farmer Construction crushed Vancouver's White Spots 17-3 and 12-6 in their Northwestern International League twin-bill Saturday at Royal Athletic Park. Victoria connected for 19 hits in the first game and were helped further by ten Vancouver errors. Stu Mitchell led the attack with a triple, double and two singles. Bill Prior tossed a neat six-hitter for the win. A seven run explosion in the second inning allowed Victoria to coast to the win. In the evening encounter, southpaws Bill Garner and Don Donahue combined to strike out 19 batters in the 12-6 triumph. Pete Ash and Bernie Anderson were the offensive stars. Ash delighted the home crowd with a grand slam homer in the third and Anderson, who had three hits, belted an inisde-the-park home run in the fifth.
Bob Lasko (L), Bill Cliffe (6) and Ed Sparrow
Bill Prior (W) and Jim Harford
Ian McClennan, Bob Lasko (5) and Rick Schmid
Bill Garner (W), Don Donahue (6) and Jack Shields
(August 25) Bellingham Bells rebounded after a 19-2 trouncing in the first game to down Farmer Construction 5-4 in the second game of their double-header at Victoria. Lefty Bill Garner was outstanding in the opener tossing a four-hitter with eight strikeouts and just one walk. Victoria rapped 15 hits, including a two-run homer by Pete Ash. Every batter in the Farmer's lineup had at least one hit. Bells made it easy for the home squad by making ten errors. In the nightcap, Bellingham rallied with one out in the ninth on a triple, two doubles, a single and an error to score three times and notch the 5-4 victory.
Bob Hansen, Bruce Randall (3) and Dick Martin
Bill Garner (W) and Jim Harford
Dave Chrisman (W) and Dick Martin
Don Donahue, Bill Prior (L) (7) and Jack Shields, Jim Harford (8)