Update : 31 July, 2018
The 1966 senior baseball season in Manitoba is pretty well in hand with game reports that summer from the three major circuits in the province, one of which was either the Winnipeg Senior League or the Manitoba Senior League, Eastern Division. Nonetheless, the Brandon Cloverleafs were the class of the lot with such stars as Bob Thompson, Tommy Town and Bob Wilson.
The updates include the equivalent of about 40-50 letter size pages of game reports, tournament stories and rosters (from Al Adolph to Bob Zarn).
The statistics for the Western Division (the Brandon, Riverside, Hamiota ... group) and photo gallery were posted previously.
Big thanks to our Rich Necker for persevering to collect all this data.
In our internet travels we've come upon some photos of interest (at least to me) with no particular story or event with which to associate them.
From Gary Ashwill, writing at Seamheads.com, we discovered an image of William "Hippo" Galloway, a Canadian athlete who was one of the last, if not the last, Black baseball players in organized ball until the arrival of Jackie Robinson in the minors in 1946 and then with Brooklyn in 1947. Galloway played ball for a team in Woodstock, Ontario in the late 1890s until banned by the league. Interestingly, while he was one of the last Black players in organized baseball, he was believed to be the first in organized hockey, again with Woodstock, in 1899.
Gary has an amazing site of his own, Agate Type, Reconstructing Negro League and Latin American Baseball History. Just a warning - ensure you have lots of time as there is a ton of material to peruse.
When digging through the digital archives of Oregon State University for pictures of Asahi pitcher Ralph Takami, I came across a photo of another former prairie star, Dave Gambee who came up to pitch for the Granum, Alberta, White Sox in 1957 to join ol' old pals Jim Lester and Willie Walasko.
Of course, Gambee might be more familiar to you from his exploits on the basketball court as an NBA player for a dozen years including time with teammate Wilt Chamberlain.
In zipping through issues of the Montreal Gazette of 1948 (such splendid coverage of the Montreal Royals and the local Atwater League) there was a photo of Joe Hatten, the Brooklyn Dodger hurler.
You might recall the story here awhile back of Hatten causing quite the stir back in 1958 when brought in to pitch in the Prince George, BC, tournament. It wasn't just the loud voices in Prince George, but down in Vancouver where he apparently failed to disclose to his current employer, the Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League, that he was moonlighting.
Flipping through the Gazette's sports pages we discovered that famous Vancouver Asahi Kaz Suga had moved to Montreal after the internment camps and played in the Montreal Atwater League from 1945 through 1948.
There are a few photographic additions here and there ... Jack Kelly (I'm now sure this is Kelly) of the 1939 Salmo Miners (a photo from Larry Jacobsen's book, Salmo Stories ... from the Brian Morrison, Diamonds in the Dusk, treasure trove, a photo of Roy Grover for our 1921 Snapshot page and an image of Orval/Orville Harrah of the 1914 Moose Jaw Robin Hoods. Brian also put us on the trail of a photo of George Sage, pitcher for the 1910 Regina Bonepilers ... from the Barry Wells collection, a photo of Bill Slack of the 1951 London, Ontario, Majors. Slack went on to a lengthy minor league career as a player and, of special note, pitching coach in the Atlanta system ... as with the photo of Harrah, above, one of Cliff Pachal from 1958 ball in the Okanagan Mainline League, will at least serve as a placeholder for a better image if and when we discover same (surprised the internet had no images of Pachal from his days in hockey) ... and an addition to the Manitoba photos with the posting of Roy McLachlan of Brandon Cloverleafs, 1979 ... progress by Gary Fink in getting Man-Dak rosters into the big Baseball Reference site, no stats or bios yet, but maybe in time.
24 July, 2018
A near disaster (losing a portion of our enormous spreadsheet listing of players) turned into a positive, albeit time-consuming, exercise. After first filling in the deleted information (from one of several backups) we began searching for duplicate entries and occasions where a player was listed more than once, usually under a slightly different spelling.
In the process, we've combined many dozen entries and deleted others en route to an update of our Western Canada player lists. With several hundred names added from recent roster additions and several hundred deleted or combined our lists now hold about 60,000 names covering ball from 1900 to 1980.
Dick Mohoruk (Dick Mahoruk) was among those listed under different spellings. Mohoruk appears to be the correct spelling.
In the case of George and Gord Ledochowski or Leduchowski of 1960s Manitoba ball, we've decided to leave both spellings as it appears the family simply changed the spelling later in life.
From Tokyo, Yobun Shima continues to help update our information on the legendary Vancouver Asahi. Yobun's uncle, Shoichi Shima, was one of the early recruits for the Asahis, playing in 1914 and 1915.
Among other things, he's come up with a photo of Ralph Takami an import from the States on the 1936-1937 editions of the Asahi. Yobun discovered the young hurler had been brought up from Washington or Oregon and tracked Takami to Oregon State University where he was a member of the baseball team.
Yobun also was in contact with Jean Kamimura, daughter of John Nihei of the Asahi, who confirmed the spelling of Nihei and provided the information that he went by Johnny in his younger days and that the initial K. stood for Kumaji.
He's also put us in touch with Satoshi Matsumiya in Japan, grandson of Sotojiro Matsumiya, president of the Vancouver Asahi team in the early years. Satoshi has put together a spreadsheet with details of Asahi players and years played. We're still studying the data.
Lou DeRosa of Trail has been his usual helpful self helping to track down more information on ball in the Kootenays. Lou brought another former player, Mel Dorey, of Salmo into the conversation and as a result we have two team photos of Salmo from the 1930s. One is the 1933 league champion team and the other, identified as the team of 1930-1942, is (by comparing the team rosters year by year) most likely the 1939 Salmo squad.
The photos, from a book on Salmo by Larry Jacobsen, do not have complete IDs of the players unfortunately. The 1933 photo, for example, has five names for players in the back row, however there are six players. The 1939 photo has names, but we are not certain who's who. I think the player in the catching gear is Jack Kelly (right) long-time player and official with Silverton baseball , but will await a visit with his son to confirm.
Ah man, the wonders of the internet age. On-line phone books. Search engines !
In connection with Salmo baseball, the newspapers of the day did not distinguish very well between/among the Gibbon brothers (often spelled Gibbons) of the Salmo team. It was not certain whether there were two, three or four brothers. We had an Elmer Gibbon, Ralph Gibbon, Rusty Gibbon and an R. Gibbon. Well, one phone call to Jack Gibbon of Salmo sorted that out very nicely. Ralph (Rusty) Gibbon was his dad and his uncle was was Elmer. Just two of them.
Brian Morrison, Diamonds in the Dusk, has another treat for us - a photo of 1913 Saskatoon Quaker Norman Cruickshank. It's his baseball card from when he played with the Seattle Giants in the Northwestern League.
There are a few other bits and pieces, such as some game reports for Alberta baseball in 1979. Wayne Commodore of the Edmonton Tigers was one of the stars. Good digging by our Rich Necker also discovered some rosters and more details on the famous Lacombe Tournament and news on the Edmonton Invitational Tourney.
The College section gets a dozen or so additions as we find out about more and more college affiliations of players (i.e. Takami).
16 July, 2018
Trust Rich to have the answer to my question below about John Picone. I wondered if the John Picone in the Manitoba Senior League of 1979 might be Gary Picone the prairie star with Lethbridge and Barrhead up to 1978. It just seemed odd that John Picone suddenly appeared and Gary Picone suddenly disappeared the same season.
Mr. Necker, it turns out, was coach of a Trail, BC minor ball club back in 1968-1969 on which Gary Picone was a standout catcher.
A left-handed catcher no less. And, a lefty hitter (not like in the photo of John Picone).
In 1969, Picone, just 15 years of age, helped the Trail Babe Ruth club to the British Columbia championship. The photo is from the 1968 Castlegar Labour Day Tournament. That's Rich Necker at the left with Picone at the right receiving a trophy from an unnamed official.
There's still a little suspense at the end as Rich is still trying to dig up the results of the final playoff series, but we're pleased to post the game reports of the 1958 Okanagan Mainline Baseball League (the equivalent of about 24 letter-sized pages), along with rosters and statistics and updates on the games of the Kamloops Centennial and Labour Day tournaments.
Among the OMBL stars in 1958 were Tony DeRosa, Len Gatin, Al Martino, Stan Kato. Al Hooker and Jack Fowles.
We wrap up the current Manitoba photo barrage with new/updated images from 1960 to 1979.
Brandon"s Rudy Stritz is the addition in 1960.
In the 1961 Manitoba Photo Gallery we've added Jim Slevin.
The 1963 gallery now includes Bob Attwood, Larry Hart, Del Stainer and Ross Jamieson.
We tracked down a half-dozen new photos for the 1978 gallery - Bruce Gullett, Don Williamson, Garth Jackman, Greg Cameron, Mark Fisher and Ron Seafoot. Jackman hit .593 that summer, but didn't get enough at bats to qualify for the batting title.
And, in the 1979 gallery we've added Chuck Evans and Stan Furman. In addition, a new 1978 Snapshot page has three images and, like many of the recent additions, are from the Brandon Sun which did a bang-up job of game reporting and photos in the 1960s and 1970s.
Manitoba ball also gets roster additions for 1978 (all eleven teams !) and complete batting and pitching statistics for the 1978 season.
13 July, 2018
It's back to 1939 as Rich Necker puts together game reports for the West Kootenay Baseball League, the East Kootenays and the Crow's Nest Pass League. Lots of familiar names - Andy Bilesky, Rube DeMore, Lefty Bogstie, "Red Tulloch",Tommy Krall, "Moose" Giacamuzzi, Marshall Anselmo.
Norman Schnepf ? Maybe not so common. It took a bit of scouring baseball and hockey stories but we're finally confident Schnepf is the correct spelling. The papers of the day had a variety of spellings, almost all of them without mention of a first name. Thank goodness Coleman was quite the hockey power back in the day as the hockey stories also provided the first name AND a photo.
The mention of Andy Bilesky, above, prompted us to begin a profile page on the BC baseball legend. What a career. No wonder the ball park carries his name.
Rich has been working at double-time pumping out material including material on the 1958 Okanagan Mainline League. The game reports are still a work in progress, but the rosters are posted as are photos and reports on the Kamloops Centennial and Labour Day tournaments.
The 1958 BC Photo Gallery and Snapshots get new material with the addition of more than a dozen images, including those of Charlie Drummond (far left, the Negro League & Triple-A hurler who showed up at the Kamloops Tournament), future major leaguer Ray Washburn, Gordie Beecroft (left), Bill Martino (right), Len Gatin, Bob Saklofsky, Kim Elliott and Bobo Sikorski.
With thanks to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame we've posted the Halifax & District League teams 1946 to 1959, noting the yearly league champions. The info is posted on the yearly home pages. Reminds me to re-read Colin Howell's book on Maritime baseball and check out the photos at the Nova Scotia Hall of Fame.
While we work on game reports in Manitoba baseball, there's been an explosion of new/updated photos of senior ball in the province, going back to 1962. These are the main additions to the Photo Galleries.
1962 - Gerry MacKay, Gladwyn Scott, Glennis Scott
1963 - Lynn Caldwell
1964 - Fred Chabiel, Terry Oliver, Tom Town
1965 - Irv Powers & Mort Wright
1966 - Ted Bridgett, Gene Cory, Maurice Oakes, Ross Poole, Murray Richardson
1967 - Bob Buchy
1970 - Dave Bender, Mike Repin, Ellis Woods
1972 - Ted Bridgett, Larry Muratore, Bruce Stephens
1973 - Bruce Bremer, Les Lisowski, Dennis Wiebe, Mort Wright
1974 - Dick Armour, Ray Bruels, Bill Chapple, Roy Cuthill, Brian Hodgson, Don Hunter, Gary Keating, Mike Labossiere, Jon Langston, Ron Low, Dale Lowes, Rick McFadyen, John Morrison, Mike Ongarato, Ron Ramsey, Bert Ready, Mel Smith, Ross Stone, Bob Wasslen, Ellis Woods
1975 - Dennis Anderson, Bruce Bremer, Ray Bruels, Grant Everard, Stan Furman, Mark Fisher, Rick McFadyen
1976 - Randy Dittmer, Chuck Lang, Cliff McKague, Garth Neville, Andy Newton, Lyle Robinson, Russ Shaw, Ron Shewchuk, Bob Wasslen. Bob Williamson
1977 - Grant Everard, Doug McPhail
1978 - Grant Everard, Morley Hartel, Chuck Lang, Gord Leduchowski, Deryl Ortynsky, Wayne Ramsey
1979 - Mark Haley, Rick McFadyen, Pat McGehee, Ron Ramsey
We have a couple of new team photos, the 1950 - Truro Bearcats, Halifax & District League and a slightly better version of the 1972 Binscarth Orioles of the Manitoba Senior League.
In the Snapshots sections, more than a dozen new photos (mainly for Manitoba), including some pretty fair action shots of Dave Rottman, Steve Stahlheber, Brian Hodgson, John Picone * , Don Williamson and Garry Keating.
1925 - Leo Burke, Herb Rotchford
1926 - Donnie MacKenzie
1955 - Buddy Afremow
1955 - Joe Kretschmar
1958 - Kim Elliott
1973 - Dave Rottman, Don Hunter & Bruce Bremer, Brian Moffatt, Jamieson in a hot-box, Don Williamson & Ron Wiebe
1974 - Rick McFadyen, Steve Stahlheber
1975 - Ron Low batting & throwing, Don Williamson
1976 - Brian Hodgson
1979 - Garry Keating, John Picone, Don Williamson
* Wondering if John Picone might be Gary Picone who came up from college ball at Lewis & Clark to play in Lethbridge and Barrhead up to 1978.
Kootenay historian Greg Nesteroff has been marvelous in keeping an eye out for baseball material as he pours through old newspapers and artifacts in the Nelson area. We thank Greg for recent material on the formation of a Kootenay League in 1921, more on the Kootenay International League of 1924 and information on the 1932 West Kootenay circuit (this one including Grand Forks).
Our congrats to Dr. Layton Revel who has done such marvelous work to preserve the history of Negro League baseball and been such a help to our little operation over the years.
His collection of Negro baseball artifacts is unsurpassed. Much is on display at the Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Level was instrumental in the establishment of the museum in 2015. His Center for Negro League Baseball Research continues in the forefront of documenting Black baseball. One of the recent gems from the Centre is a list of players on Black barnstorming and independent teams 1946 to 1988. It's a huge help in assisting us to sort out player rosters.
Thanks to Gerry Lister, John McKeachie and Murray Gage-Cole for help in identifying players from Victoria, especially George and Les Brice.
We're still trying to determine if Buddy Brice was a player or just a nickname for George or Les. And, we now think it was Mike Hodge not Hodges and pitcher Schima - Al or Chuck? Still not sure.
Thanks to Mel Dorey for information and photos on the Salmo baseball clubs of the 1930s-1940s. We're trying to pin down a specific year and check some names before posting.
Lou DeRosa again brings treats. This time a newspaper photo of Trail mainstay Julie Bilesky from 1954. Earlier Lou had provided a photo of the 1946 Trail Smokies from which we extracted a photo of Andy Bilesky for his profile page.
I don't know how he digs up this stuff, but Brian Morrison, Diamonds in the Dusk, has another little gem, a first name, Frank, and a photo of 1914 Moose Jaw Robin Hood Andrada. The lefty hurler had a very successful stint in Moose Jaw, with a 7-2 record appearing in just ten games.
Rich has found a newspaper photo of another old-timer, Jack Beatty of the 1910 Winnipeg Maroons.
Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, Baseball America was a treasure many of us in the fantasy baseball world tried to keep a secret so as to alone benefit from the information. BA was in the forefront of the boom in minor league and 
college baseball coverage. Baseball American just seemed to know who would turn out to be the stars of MLB.
The publication was the dream of Canadian Allan Simpson who left his studies in accounting to establish what became the go-to source for baseball prospecting. It was a major source for me when I used to do a daily baseball prospect column back in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Recently Simpson received the news that he's to be inducted into the Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame this November. He's a native of the Kelowna area. In 2011, Simpson was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. A big round of applause for a Canadian pioneer ! Hope to meet with Allan in Kelowna this fall to chat about history projects.
The discovery of photos of the Gonzaga University baseball team in the mid 1920s has helped to correct several names in that 1926 photo of the Rossland Miners, the BC senior champions. Four of the players came from Gonzaga - Paul Teters, John "Puggy" Hunton, Herb Rotchford and Leo Burke. Another, Donnie MacKenzie, was a hockey and baseball star at the University of Washington and the UOW yearbooks confirm the spelling of his name.
29 June, 2018
What an emphatic start to the baseball season. A no-hitter !
Just six innings, but nonetheless, quite the accomplishment. It was 1958, the opening of the Victoria Senior Amateur League and Dave Emery, 18 at the time, hurled a shutout (17-0) and got a no-no in spite of giving up a double.
In the fifth inning the opposing shortstop whacked one to left for two bags, but Hal Jacobson failed to touch first base and was called out.
A coincidence this popped up as I am trying to confirm a report from 1964 when George Price (prominent in our 1958 reports by the way) appears to have lost a no-hitter in an Okanagan Mainline Baseball League game when the ball got lost ... in his uniform pants.
Brice had set down 26 men when Gord Nuyens (also a shortstop, as above) came up with two out in the ninth. He hit the first pitch right back to the mound and Brice appeared to come up with it, but the ball disappeared as Nuyens safely reached first. The ball got lodged in his trousers. Brice's Kelowna nine beat Vernon 9-0. (This photo of Brice is from 1971 when he pitched for Canada at the Pan Am Games.)
Happy to be working away on a batch of material from our indefatigible Rich Necker on old-time ball in the West. 1958 has been a recent focus and the Victoria Senior League is featured as we continue to fill in our coverage of the late 1950s with game reports and rosters from southern Vancouver Island baseball (earlier, we had filled in the 1958 scene in the northern part of the island with reports on the Upper Island League).
Veteran Art Worth, Brice and Emery were among the stars. Gerry Lister (not Jerry, that was his dad), a BC native prominent in baseball in North Battleford in the 1960s and early 1970s is helping to sort out a few "name" questions. Who was Buddy Brice? We do have George and Les. Wondering if Buddy was a nickname for Les. Mike Hodge or Mike Hodges ? Al or Chuck Schima ?
BC ball has a few new individual photos - Richie Schnider in 1947 & 1958, Bill Martino 1957. The 1958 Snapshots now included a couple of pics showing (Bob Campbell, Frank Fritz, Bob Radies, Bill Martino and Ray Scott) of the Kelowna Orioles of the Okanagan Mainline League.
1958 Manitoba coverage gets a major upgrade, especially for the Greater Winnipeg Senior League with extensive game reports and rosters. St. Boniface Native Sons were the dynasty here with their fourth consecutive championship.
It took a few side-trips to phone and street directories and internet searches to nail down correct spellings of a few of the 1958 regulars, including Al Tresoor, Marc Rajotte, Doug Craib and Aggie Kukulowicz. One of the top hurlers in the circuit was Curt Grapentine, often noted as Kurt Grapentine.
Outside of Winnipeg, we've presented game reports for the South Central League (with clubs from Boissevain, Brandon, Oakland, Souris and Riverside). Again, (for the fifth straight year) Brandon Cloverleafs turned out to be the league powerhouse claiming another championship (with Morley MacFarlane, a pitching star).
There's also the Mid-Western League in Manitoba, with Hamiota a key franchise.
The Tournament Page gets a bunch of Manitoba entries for 1958, including events at Keewatin, Brandon, Neepawa, Kenton, Baldur, Dunrea, Hamiota and Oak River along with expanded coverage of the Kamloops. BC and Kelowna. BC tournaments.
Among the new 1958 Manitoba individual pictures are those of Don Hunter, Morley MacFarlane, Gerry MacKay, Gib McGlothlin, Gerry Muirhead, Gerry Smith and Don Sumner. Bruce (no-hit) Smith, is on the Snapshot page along with a pic of Mort Wright and Rudy Stritz of the Brandon Cloverleafs and Don Sumner and Bill Munro of the Brandon Athletics.
And we haven't forgotten Northern Alberta where Lefty Belter was still flinging them in 1958. (The photo at the right is from 1946, when Belter was 24.)
With some clues in the game reports we managed to track down the beginning of the left-hander's career and discovered a no-hitter by Belter as a 17-year-old junior in 1939 !
Rich also managed to track down pitching statistics for the 1923 season of the Vancouver Terminal League. Arnie Bennett, Cecil Kimberley, Harold Pruder, Nick Craig and Tommy Raftery all had claims to pitching prominence.
And not to be outdone, we have the beginning of coverage of Kootenay Junior Baseball for 1960.
We've added a couple of newspaper quality photos from the early days of the Western Canada League. Rich discovered a better quality version of our Pat Meehan image of 1909 used in a 1910 story of the dismissal of murder charges against him. On the 1909 Snapshots we've added a shot of William "Heine" Krueger of the Winnipeg Maroons.
Brian Morrison, Diamonds in the Dusk, has another photo find - pitcher Bill Barenkamp of the 1912 Calgary Bronchos ! The photo (on the 1912 Snapshot page) is actually from 1914, but fits the slot pretty nicely. A smaller version is posted with the individual pictures of 1912. Thank you Brian !
The Humboldt, California, Crabs are holding their Alumni Fest the weekend of July 13-14-15. Former Lloydminster Meridian and University of California head coach (22 seasons) Bob Milano (left) is to be among the inductees into the Crabs' Hall of Fame.
Our ol' friend Jack Altman has previous commitments and will miss his first Humboldt Alumni gathering in many, many years.
Along with the Canada Day celebrations this weekend, the London Majors hold their annual Alumni gathering. If you are in the area, please drop in and help mark some glorious seasons of baseball in the Ontario city.
This neat photo comes from the collection of the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum and Arts Society and is listed as the 1906 Armstrong, BC baseball club. Names not available. An interesting feature of the uniforms is the moving crescent on the front of the jerseys. The left tip of the crescent seems to begin under the "A" in a couple, between the "R" and the "M" in another two, and the "T" in the players, bottom left & top left. The significance of the crescents? Service club? Religious? To be determined!
23 June, 2018
Two things prompted a renewal of a conversation with Dan Holden Jr. about his athletic family. You'll recall Dan helped us out very recently in identifying his uncle Larry Holden in the 1930 team photo of the Vancouver Firemen.
That led to a question to Dan about whether a Barney Holden, playing in the Winnipeg Amateur League in the early 1900s, might be related to the five Holden brothers of Vancouver ball in the 1920s through the 1950s.
The short answers was, yes ! And, in response I've begun working on a Holden Profile page to put together the pieces of the Holden's careers.
A word about the patriarch, Barney, who was much better known as a hockey player, the subject of a book,"Cross Check!" by grandson Danny. Barney was one of the first ever professional hockey players, in fact, scored the first goal in the first game of the first pro hockey league game in 1904. He played in the National Hockey Association, the forerunner of the National Hockey League. He was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Holden boys, Larry, Leo, Edward, Roy and Danny Sr. all played senior ball in Vancouver with Danny Sr. putting together a 17 career in pro ball.
Thank you Lou DeRosa ! Lou's keen eye caught the following item on the Melville Millionaires site on the 'net. The club is one of the key clubs of the Western Major Baseball League and Albert Phillips used to be one of the team's top players, back in the day. The item was posted May 27th.
Melville native and Millionaires alumnus Albert Phillips will celebrate his 100th birthday this year. Albert was born in Melville, Saskatchewan on May 30, 1918 to Frederick and Amelia Phillips. He grew up in Melville, with his father working as a switchman for the CN Railway. Albert has always been proud of his roots.
Al lived in Melville until 1942 when he left to serve in the army during World War II. While stationed overseas near London he became ill and was sent to Vancouver to convalesce in 1944. Here he met the love of his life, Lillian Robb, a nurse at Shaughnessy Hospital. They were married for 47 years, until her death in 1994.
Some of his happiest times were spent on the baseball field and he has fond memories of his time playing for the Millionaires, alongside his best friend, hockey hall-of-famer Sid Abel. Al still has his old uniform, although he has a little more difficulty getting into his shortstop crouch!
In 1938 the team travelled to Regina to participate in the Saskatchewan Junior Baseball Championships. Al recalls that they didn’t have a team name at the time and assumed the name “Millionaires”.
He recalls the names of most of his teammates:
Fred Jackie C, Randy Anweiler 1B, Alfie Andres 2B, Judd Litke 3B, Al Phillips SS, Sid Abel OF, Rusty Earhart OF, Merv Carlton P, Louis Oppenheimer Coach.
Albert still lives in Vancouver and has one daughter, one son, two grandchildren and five great grandchildren who adore him and look forward to celebrating his milestone 100th birthday with him.
Just to clarify - "Dud" King, 1923 Vancouver baseball, noted below, carried the moniker not because he was seen as unproductive, but because his given name was Dudley !
Jack Gragion, from the early days (1909) of the professional Western Canada League, was among those for whom I never thought we'd come up with a photo. Well, to no surprise, it's Brian Morrison (, who has unearthed one. It's from his semi-pro days in 1914, but close enough. Thank you Brian !
Good to see Brian's Diamonds in the Dusk post the story of John Levi, one of the outstanding Native American athletes of the 1920s, baseball, football, basketball, track and field. No less than Jim Thorpe named Levi as the greatest athlete he had ever seen. But, in fitting with the pattern, Levi seemed to get short changed along the way with his Native status a major reason. It's a good read.
Might have to get Rich Necker to see if there's anything further of Edward Sturley in his playing days in the Regina area. Chris Pichelmann, Sturley's great-granddaughter, is trying to piece together the Sturley career. We have tracked him down to the Winnipeg Commercial League of 1904-1905-1906 and have a listing for him with Regina Leaders of the Regina City League 1915.
Thanks again to Anne Chamberlain of Brantford, Ontario for more info on the Intercounty League, especially the Brantford Red Sox. She's sent along some mid-season statistics for 1925 and 1949. And, while not final stats for the league, they are ever-so valuable in putting together the team rosters.
Is there something Greg Nesteroff DOESN'T know about the Kootenays ?? Just discovered from Greg that the first Trail Smoke Eaters were a baseball team, not the hockey variety. The diamond squad was formed of smelter workers in 1901 while the hockey team didn't appear to have adopted the name until 1921 !.
Greg has kindly agreed to dig out a little more info on that Kootenay International Baseball League of 1924 which included teams from Nelson, Trail and Rossland.
Kudos to documentary producer Lauren Meyer (right) who is about to wrap up production on "The Other Boys of Summer", a story on Civil Rights in America told through the lives of Negro League baseball players, including our old friend, Curly Williams. We're happy to have provided a couple of photos for the film.
It's been a long time project for Lauren, an Emmy nominated director, who began interviewing former players to get their personal stores on trying to play ball in a segregated America.
The film is expected to be released later this year.
Another big reunion weekend coming up in London, Ontario.
Paul Allen (left) the former Chatham and London star has promised to send along some pics and information from the event which begins next weekend, June 30th, with a banquet and runs through Sunday when the guests will be guests at the London Majors game with Barrie.
The 2018 celebration will focus on the top players of the London Majors, especially those recognized in the Intercounty Top 100 along with members of the 1969 London Pontiacs who captured the Intercounty championship that season.
Twenty London players made the Intercounty Top 100, released earlier this year. Alphabetical list :
| 1 | Stan (Gabby) Anderson: OF, MGR, 1948 (Jr. Call-Up for 7 games), '55 '58-'66 | |
| 2 | Barry Boughner: INF, '66-'76, '84 | |
| 3 | Joe Bechard: OF, '48-'54 | |
| 4 | Cleveland Brownlee: OF, 1B, '10-'17 | |
| 5 | Dave Byers: SS, '69-'87 (London-Galt-Waterloo-London) | |
| 6 | Arden Eddie: OF, INF, MGR, '67-'03 | |
| 7 | Russ Evon: OF, INF, MGR, '44-'66 (London-St. Thomas) | |
| 8 | John Faragher: P, OF, '82-'98 (Stratford-London) | |
| 9 | Wayne (Dog) Fenlon: C, MGR, '66-'91 | |
| 10 | Matt Gooding: OF, INF, '76-'01 (St. Thomas-London) | |
| 11 | Larry Haggitt: 1B, 3B, '74-'84 (London-Stratford) | |
| 12 | Tom McKenzie: INF, '60-'80 (London-Kitchener) | |
| 13 | Brian Murphy: RHP, '67-'72 | |
| 14 | Jon Owen: P, '77-'99 | |
| 15 | Rolf Scheel: P, '64-'69 (London-Stratford) | |
| 16 | Phil Schmidt: P, '74-'82 | |
| 17 | Ron Stead: P, '55-'72 (London-Brantford-Guelph) | |
| 18 | Fred Thomas: OF, '50-'55 (Waterloo-Kitchener-Guelph-London) | |
| 19 | Richard Thompson: OF, '88-'98 | |
| 20 | Tommy White: P, MGR, '43-'59 (London-St. Thomas). |
This one could be quite the challenge.
Rein Stamm has come across this photo of twelve players apparently representing five teams with only one certainty - the player from the Oroville. Washington, Boosters. It's likely something from the Okanagan Valley International League of either 1947-1948 or 1949 (when Oroville is in the circuit). The "S" is head-scratcher. There is no team in the league beginning with the letter "S".
Front row, left, could be Oliver (note the hat). Far right, front row, a different uniform, but unclear which one. The majority of the players have uniforms with a particular crest (I originally thought a couple of the crests looked slightly different but Rein has found the Canadian Legion crest (right) which seems to match. The 1949 league had the Kamloops Legion.
The idea of an All-Star team is plausible, but with eight members of one team ? (although Kamloops did win the league championship).
The lone starting point might be to compare the probable Oliver player (front row, left) with the team photo of Oliver (1948) and see if there's a match.
It's a Vancouver team but, which one? Year?
Richard Seymour of the Nine O'Clock Gun Company (which has nothing to do with guns, but baseball hats) is stumped by this one.
It appears to be a Vancouver club from the early 1900s with such a unique crest. In typing this, the thought arises that it could be Vancouver, Washington.
If you can help, please drop a line ! 
Little by little we begin to fill in the names in that 1947 photo of the Vancouver Athletic Club of the Vancouver Senior League.
Again, a big thank you to Ron Whyte for the photo (that's his dad, Bill Whyte, in the back row).
We now believe Richie Schnider is in the back row, second from the right and Barry Robertshaw is the player in the middle of the back row.
Len Corben (the noted BC baseball historian) had a pleasant surprise for us with IDs of Les Brown, Bill Sinser and Harvey Craig. The batboy is Jackie Whyte, Bill's younger brother.
In chatting with Ron Whyte about his father's career, I asked whether his dad had played for Port Alberni as we have a Bill Whyte pitching for the Port Alberni Legion in the same era. Ron said it wasn't his dad, but seemed to recall seeing something about that.
Well, here it is. Ron found a baseball he dad had inscribed with "Pitched against Bill Whyte of Port Alberni".
Saturday, August 18th. Make a note. It's the annual Induction Day at the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame at Battleford, Saskatchewan. This year's chosen :
Individual Category - Bye Braun, Cutknife, SK.-Player/Builder, Murray Eddy (right), Saskatoon, SK.-Player, Gary Frank, Regina, SK.-Player/Builder, James D. Golightly, Eatonia, SK.-Player/Builder, The Late Joseph E. Haberman (far left), Regina, SK.-Player, Harvey Johnson (left), Regina, SK.-Player/Builder, Arnold Lund, Loon Lake, SK.-Builder [formerly of Lampman, SK], Lorne Nielsen, Wilkie, SK.-Player/Builder, Jack Sell, Bowden, AB.-Builder, Shane Simpson, Regina, SK.-Player/Builder, Randy Trautwein,Leader, SK.-Player, Neil Tulloch,Regina, SK.-Player/Builder
The Carlyle Cardinals have been chosen in the Team Category and the Keller Family of Wilkie will be recognized in the Family Category. In the Community Category it's Leader, Sask.
15 June, 2018
Now that's offense !
Happened upon a report on an August, 1895, game at Nelson, BC with New Denver as the visitors. The surprising turn of the contest was the fact both starting pitchers, Chesley for Nelson and Halley for New Denver, nearly went all the way, both leaving after seven innings with the score tied at 23 to 23 ! Nelson went wild in the ninth plating 11 runs while holding New Denver to three to win 34-26.
Chesley, Brown (W) (7) and Smith
Halley, Maurin (L) (7) and Cadden
Rich Necker's research into the 1923 season in Vancouver has produced some more photos.
They include individual pics of a catcher called Dud King, along with local stars Carl Crawford (left) and Robinson (still haven't been able to find a first name even though he nearly won the batting title in 1922), Eddie Brown & Rex Cameron.
A new set of pics prompted us to re-do the Snapshot page with larger photos.
14 June, 2018
The Fernie Museum came through, big time.
Cory Dvorak not only found the original photo of the 1939 Fernie club, but uncovered the missing names (a newspaper item had shown the photo but had left off a couple of names leaving all the IDs a question mark).
Among the gems in the photo, the 1939 version of Marshall Anselmo (above) later to be widely known in South Central BC as Mushy Anselmo, star of Trail teams in the 1940s and 1950s.
Our Rich Necker (struggling on in spite of some medical issues) helps us wrap up some 1958 BC baseball news with game reports for the Upper Island League, featuring the strong Alberni Athletics.
Catcher and playing manager Don Cameron was the oldest of the Campbell River Braves. Cameron was 23 ! Their opening day starters were 17 and 18 years of age. Former pro, Jack Mosdell of Alberni was among the star players.
Also from 1958, we've posted game reports for the Fraser Valley League with Agassiz a powerhouse nine. Right-hander Arnie Bennewith of the Loggers was the loop's top hurler. The inclusion of the Yarrow Ocean Sprays in the circuit jogged my memory about some old photos, now posted on a new BC Snapshot page.
The 1958 Tournament page has new entries for the Chilliwack Dominion Day Tournament and the Courtenay Dominion Day and Labour Day tournaments.
Of course, the 1958 roster page has updates to reflect the reports for the Fraser Valley and Upper Island leagues. It's prompted us to begin the work to update the master roster sheets and try and update all the Player Lists. Soon !
Photos too !
The 1958 BC Gallery has additions such as Wes Johnson, Ernie Ratzlaff (far left), Pete Ratzlaff (near left) and Yarrow manager Ed Froese. Thanks to Rich's dogged sleuthing, the '58 photo page has gone from zero to nearly 50 in a hurry.
A request for assistance by an American film producer sent me on a hunt for a short film of Negro League star (and former Lloydminster Meridian) Barney Brown.
The stylish left-hander played for two seasons at the old Sportsman's Park in the border city. I had discovered the film years ago, but it had gone missing around the time much of our bibliography was destroyed when a hard disk became corrupted.
Well, it took a considerable amount of search time, but it's back ! All 14 seconds ! It's on the Barney Brown Profile page. Now if I could only discover the source of the film.
Lawrence "Larry" Raymond Leach wasn't known for baseball, but was such a force in the community in my hometown of Lloydminster.
He was a classmate of my oldest brother at Lloydminster High School and became a local star as the first born & bred Lloydminster kid to make the National Hockey League.
Larry passed away last month at the Glengarry Nursing Home in Victoria, BC. He was 81. His last few years were taken by Alzheimer's.
He played parts of three seasons with the Boston Bruins, but most of his pro career was spent on the West Coast with Portland Buckeroos of the Western Hockey League, ten seasons in all.
He returned to his hometown after the hockey season to work on a farm he established. After hanging up the blades, he coached both junior and senior hockey in the city.
His wife Christine died in 2016.
07 June, 2018
1958 is the focus as we add even more to our coverage of baseball in British Columbia.
Photos are among the updates, including just discovered images of infielder Leo Petty (left) of Gonzaga University in Spokane who suited up for Nelson and Kelowna in the 1950s and Gary Driessen (right) of Central Washington University, an ace hurler for Oliver in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Even more of Rich Necker's finds are posted in the 1958 BC Photo Gallery (Al Harris (left), Lloyd Burgart, Jack Durston, Dick Getz, Jim Staff, Allan Richards, Doug Moore, et al) and the BC Snapshot page (Tony DeRosa is among them). There are individual photos of 1958 players for Oliver, Quesnel, Penticton, Vernon and Kelowna. The 1956 Snapshots includes a photo of Driessen when he was an All-Star moundsman in the Alaska League with Fairbanks. And, we stumbled onto a photo of Norb Trauba of Vauxhall, Alberta, for that Photo Gallery, 1958.
We don't find many stats, so we generally post what we find even if it's just one team. That's the case for the 1958 Okanagan Mainline League of the BC Interior. Rich has discovered the final statistics for the Vernon Clippers. Alex Kashuba was the main man here.
The major work is the addition of game reports for the Okanagan Mainline League, West Kootenay senior and junior ball, Arrow Lakes/Slocan baseball, East Kootenays, Central Interior League (Quesnel area) and the Prince George district. Of course, along with the game reports come the rosters. There's also more information on two big tournaments - in Kelowna and Kamloops.
Again, Greg Nesteroff has an interesting find - the Kootenay International League of 1924, a four team circuit with Metaline Falls WA, Nelson, Rossland and Trail. So far, we have rosters for two of the teams and even a game report !
Another league and a few rosters added to our lists - the Mid-Island League of 1923
Ah, the highs and lows and highs and lows of research. In digging down information on 1939 ball in Eastern BC, Rich finds a newspaper photo of the Fernie club. YES ! But - it is of pretty poor quality. Even with a substantial effort in editing, it's still not good. But, we're up again when I manage to stumble onto a pretty fair quality photo on line. Yea. Write to the Fernie Museum. Boo. They don't write back. But, with a little editing here and there the Online photo looks okay. Yea. Then, I begin to type in the names (from the caption in the newspaper story). Boo. There are 12 people in the back row, but the paper lists just ten names. So we are pleased to have the photo, now to track down the missing names ! Fernie, 1939.
30 May, 2018
Thank you Len ! Len Corben, noted Vancouver baseball historian (and author of The Pitching Professor: The Life and Times of Ernie Kershaw) has come to our aid in helping to ID the players in that 1947 photo of the Vancouver Athletics from Ron Whyte son of A's lefty Bill Whyte.
Len has confirmation from the grandson of Les Brown that Les (left) is the player in the front row far left and after some research is pretty sure of Bill Sinser (right) and Harvey Craig in the photo. He also made contact with the son of Bob Burtwell who confirmed his dad was on the team, but not in the photo. It is through Len's sleuthing we have the first names for Burtwell and Sinser.
Burtwell was a star basketball player who was captain of Canada's Olympic team in 1956. He played on five Canadian championship teams. Burtwell has been inducted into the BC Sports and Basketball Halls of Fame. And yet, we are unable to locate a photo of him !
Those individual photos now posted on the BC Photo Gallery, 1947.
Although Super Sleuth of the Slocan has a certain ring to it, historian Greg Nesteroff is much more than that. He's become a touchstone of the documentation of history in the BC Interior (in addition to regular duties as a reporter and editor), both in print and on air and director of a half dozen historical societies. It was a pleasure to see Greg again at the annual conference of the BC Historical Federation this past weekend in Nakusp.
Along the way, I've learned of a couple of Greg's print items of interest here - a story on an 1897 professional league with teams from Kaslo, Rossland and Spokane, and another published item on Trail's first major leaguer, Tom Harrison. He's been kind enough to permit us to post the items here.
The piece on the outlaw (it was not sanctioned under the umbrella of Organized Baseball) pro league was carried in Route 3 magazine, September 30, 2014.
The Harrison piece was written for the Trail Journal of Local History. We've managed to dig up a bit more information since the item was published. Although born in Trail, Harrison's parents moved to California when Tom was just over a year old. We tracked him down to Bell High School in the Los Angeles area where Harrison was a star hurler on the Bell Eagles baseball team and at age 19 signed a bonus contract with the Kansas City Athletics.
He didn't have much of a pro career (just two seasons) including only two games in the majors, but he's the first Trail born athlete to play in the major leagues. Number two ? Oh yes, Jason Bay.
Thank you Greg !
Of course Rich Necker has another pleasant surprise ! Remember that photo of a 1930s Trail team for which we were trying to track down IDs ? I think we now have the names, although we still need to match the names with the faces. Rich discovered a report on a 1939 exhibition game between a Trail Old Timers squad and a local sandlot team (Bantams). The kids won 11-10. From the story we have the following names for the team. They include the five we have identified so far. There are fifteen in the photo and we have 14 players and a manager listed for the team.
Ralph Garland, Mystery DiPasquale, Leo Letcher, Hank Lauriente, Pete McIntyre, Bill Molisky, Joe Ranetta, Steve Matovich, Dr. Michael Krause, Ray Maze, Frank Hudoklin, Scotty Ross, Patsy Morgan, Fred Lauriente, James Buchanan MGR.
There are several of these names we don't have listed at all in our data base, so we'll be chasing those in the months ahead.
28 May, 2018
Our little project got some air time last week as Western Canada Baseball was a topic of a presentation at the annual conference of the British Columbia Historical Federation held in Nakusp. The Arrow Lakes Historical Society, hosts of the event, had approached me a few months ago to address the conference under the sub-heading of "An Example of The Importance of Small Archival Collections".
As I began to outline the enormity of the site - now 2,500 pages and nearly 15,000 photographs, a list of more than 55,000 players with nearly 1,300 teams - it became pretty clear the "Small" was a bit of a misnomer.
The response has been very positive and helps to carry word of the site to more and more people. I took the opportunity to specifically recognize the amazing work of Rich Necker who has become an indispensable force with his research and writing.
The baseball topic was such an unusual choice for the conference, but appears to have been a hit. Thank you to all who have contributed over these many years to make our little operation so successful.
14 May, 2018
Our apology to Mike Henley who was a 1977 hero for the Red Deer Generals in their thrilling come-from-behind 11-10 victory over Fairbanks, Alaska at the celebrated Lacombe Tournament.
Up to now, our records showed Terry Hendley as that pitching hero (with that information coming from a story in the Calgary Herald).
A very helpful Red Deer Public Library has helped to sort out the confusion. You see Red Deer had two teams -- the Border Players and the Generals. The Players were one of five teams in the Alberta Major League. The Generals went on a barnstorming campaign, including games in Alaska.
The Border Players had right-hander Terry Hendley (Cal State Fullerton, right) and the Generals had right-hander Mike Henley (Washington State, above).
To mix up things just a tad more,the Generals picked up a lefty hurler from the Edmonton Dusters of the Alberta Major League for the tournament.
That would be Chuck Hensley from Tulare Union high school in California who was the winning pitcher in relief in a semi-final victory over the Eston, Saskatchewan Ramblers and future major leaguer Gorman Heimueller.
Hensley graduated to professional ball and an 11-year career in the minors (seven at Triple-A) with a 1986 appearance with the San Francisco Giants.
Hendley, Henley, Hensley.
Now we know it was Mike Henley who sparked the Red Deer Generals to that big pay day in Lacombe 41 years ago as the bold headline in the Red Deer Advocate attests.
He was named the top pitcher of the tournament.
Mike also went into pro ball with three years in the Chicago White Sox farm system.
The Hendley, Henley, Hensley investigation led us to further details on two big tournaments of 1977, Lacombe and Kamloops and to photos of a few members of the Alaska Prospectors, the finalists in the Lacombe event and Ted Springenatic, a key member of the Vancouver team in the Kamloops tournament and Team BC in the Canadian Senior Championship.
We're happy to add another photo of Marty Maxwell, a Canadian shortstop, who starred at Washington State and back home with the Lethbridge Lakers, Edmonton Tigers and Calgary Jimmies.
11 May, 2018
An update of some early Basin League material has produced an unexpected and marvelous result - a photo of and information on star Canadian 
athlete (football, lacrosse, baseball) Clarence M. "Soddy" Groat a Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve at Brantford, Ontario.
Soddy, whose family moved to Buffalo when he was seven, excelled in sports in high school in Buffalo and went on to star in pro baseball, including a stint in the the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system where his roommate was Gil Hodges (Soddy named his son Gil, after Hodges).
His pro career was interrupted by distinguished military service in Europe during the Second World War. Groat was a decorated soldier being awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a Silver Star.
We had earlier noticed a Canadian connection in 1950 when he played for St. Thomas in Ontario's Intercounty League. After returning to pro ball for two more seasons, he turned up in our Basin League update in 1953 with Chamberlain Chiefs and returned in 1954 and 1955 with the Winner Pheasants.
Newly discovered data helped to fill in game reports of 1953, including a note about the formation of the circuit. From there we were able to track down some elusive photos - Ray Fletcher (left), the batting champion in that initial season of the Basin League, Groat, and college kids John Sabalaskey (Illinois). Ron Ultes (Illinois) and Bob Williams (Michigan State) (familiar to later baseball scouts as the founder of the Area Games).
On the 1953 Snapshot Page are three members of the Illinois baseball squad who suited up that summer in South Dakota -- Carl Ahrens, Sabalaskey and Ultes.
Among the new photos for the 1954 Basin League is Bill Lajoie, an All-American from Western Michigan University who went on to a nine-year minor league career in the Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Minnesota farm systems before becoming a scout and manager in the Reds system and the General Manager of the Detroit Tigers (1984 to 1990).
Other additions (mainly college kids) include Ed Hobaugh, Fran Hofmaier, Al Leap, Don Lee, Mickey Livingston, twins Frank and Fred Minton, Ralph Pausig, Dick Ricketts (better known for his basketball career), Andy Swota, Bob Walz and Marv Wisniewski.
Wisniewski, Pausig and Hank Ertman, the Huron playing manager, are feature on the 1954 Snapshot page.
For the 1955 Snaps, we've re-done a photo of Huron catcher Elmer Kohorst, Notre Dame, who became a two-time All-American.
The Basin League rosters for 1953, 1954 and 1955 reflect the latest additions. The main Basin League page now includes standings and managers for all seasons.
07a May, 2018
Our Rich Necker has some informed guesses on IDs in that 1947 Vancouver Athletics photo.
Back row - fifth from the left (dead centre) - Barry Robertshaw. Compare with these two photos of Robertshaw (from 1949 and 1950).
And, back row - second from the right - Richie Schnider. We're still on the hunt for a good photo of Schnider, but there is some resemblance to the Schnider photo of 1954.
07 May, 2018
What a neat find ! Ron Whyte has sent along a team photo of 
the Vancouver Athletics of either 1947 or 1948. His dad, left-hander Bill Whyte (right) was a key member of the squad. We have records of Bill hurling for Vancouver 1946 to 1949 then Calgary Purity before turning pro with Vancouver of the Western International League in 1951.
Now we're on the hunt for names for the team photo which we have logged as 1947. Only Bill and his younger brother have been identified so far. Of course, we've added Bill to the 1947 BC Photo Gallery.
This is the roster we have for that 1947 Athletics' team :
Vancouver Athletic Club : Addison G. 3B, Brown Les 2B, Burtwell OF, Byman P, Craig Harvey 1B, Keeley W. OF, Low Don MGR, Patterson OF, Robertshaw Barry OF, Sinser C, Smith Les OF, Schnider Richie P/OF, Stein Cece SS, Weisberg Eddie P, Weston Johnny C, Whyte Bill P, Wyman 3B, Younie Pete P
Yesterday's post of the Revelstoke Carlings photo led us on a search for a photo of one of Revelstoke's super stars from the past - Al Pradolini.
Our records show Pradolini suiting up, mainly for Revelstoke, over a period of nearly forty years - 1926 to 1962. We had been blanked in obtaining a good photo of the Spikes' mainstay (with the exception of his appearance in the 1962 team photo).
Then. with a little luck in surfing the internet we discovered his real first name - Elio. From there we tracked our baseball and football star to Gonzaga University in Spokane (1926-1929). Elio Pradolini was a star tackle on the football team and a pitcher for the baseball squad. And, thanks to Gonzaga's superb digital library we have Mr. Elio "Al" Pradolini, 1927 edition.
06 May, 2018
Thank you Lou ! Lou DeRosa, former West Kootenays hurler, had a chance to visit another former Kootenays star, Art Bregolisse in Kelowna and kept us in mind by coming away with copies of some of Art's photos.
One of them is a team photo of the 1966 North Okanagan champion, Revelstoke Carlings. Names too!
Art (left) also had a team photo of the Vernon Carlings the Okanagan champions. We had the same pic, but thought it was 1961. Art has it as 1960. So we're going with 1960. Happily, Art was able to produce names. With that we have extracted individual photos for the 1960 BC Photo Gallery.
We're still working on a couple of the photos, looking to ID the players.
05 May, 2018
This photo of a 1948 Japanese team in Hamilton, Ontario is interesting for a number of reasons including the appearance of Asahi star Roy Yamamura, the note of the movement of the players from the West Coast to Ontario and the specific notations of the internment camps in which the players were held.
Such a dark time in Canadian history.
We had originally posted this as the 1949 squad, but now believe it is from 1948.
We are happy to post a couple of new team photos - the 1930 Summerland, BC nine and the 1963 Fairview, Alberta, Outlaws. - with names included ! Rosters also posted.
And before these get lost in the shuffle, some notes on some bits & pieces ... Ontario Intercounty star Jimmy Wilkes' profile page has a new lead photo ... a 1955 ManDak snapshot page has an additional pic of right-hander Tom Mulcahy ... an action photo of New Denver's Shig Kiyono, 1949 ... on the ManDak snapshot page of 1950, a new photo of Butch Davis and re-done photos of Willie Wells, Ron Teasley, Lillord Cobb and Lyman Bostock ... and on a subsequent 1950 ManDak page, an improved image of a newspaper illustration of Butch Davis ... added a 1954 photo of baseball & football star Bobo Sikorski ... 1950 ManDak Photo Gallery for Bob Cunningham .. then more ManDak for Terry Sawchuk, Don Reid and Cy Snead ... 1914 BC Interior League rosters ... 1951 rosters for the West Toronto Senior League, the Viaduct League and the Toronto Nisei League.
Also an updated version of the prologue for West Kootenay baseball in 1958, the game reports first posted yesterday.
04 May, 2018
We're sprinting to try and catch up with all the material coming in! Thank you all.
BC in 1958 gets well covered in the latest batch of game reports and photos from Rich Necker. Among other things, we have game reports for the Okanagan Mainline League, West Kootenay ball, West Kootenay Junior Baseball, East Kootenay ball and Prince 
George and District activity. Reports on the Central Interior League are still to come.
In the BC Photo Gallery are additional pics of players from Trail (such as Leo Mailey, left) and Busher McIntyre (right). (Lou DeRosa sends a note that McIntyre's real first name was Jacob, as opposed to the Jack we've listed so far.) We also discovered a few photos from teams in Quesnel and they are posted as well.
There are several new photos in the 1958 Snapshot page featuring Hank Tostenson, Tony DeRosa, Bill Smith, Willie McDermid, Jim Brown, Dave Wall and Larry Allan.
Rich also dug out some clippings on major tournaments of the day, including the Kamloops and Kelowna Centennial Tournaments, the Quesnel and Kamloops Labour Day Tourneys and we've added a bit on a junior event at Fruitvale.
Of course, the 1958 roster page has updates to reflect the material above (with some still to come).
We're still digging out details on another tournament, the Prince George event of July, 1958. It resulted in a front page headline in the local paper.
No, that's not a Royal Canadian Mounted Police mountie, but a Vancouver Mountie (as in a Triple-A farm team of the Baltimore Orioles).
The Mountie was 41-year-old Jo, a former major leaguer (seven seasons in the bigs), who was brought in by the Willow River Red Sox for the tournament to the chagrin of the rest of the entrants. He hurled a shutout to get Willow River into the tourney final. Seems Hatten neglected to tell the Vancouver club that he was moonlighting More to come on the Prince George event.
Another of the finds from the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History is a photo of the superb infield of the 1926 Rossland Miners, the provincial senior champions. It's posted in the 1926 Snapshot section. W. Teeters, originally named in the infield photo, seems to be Paul Teters, the third baseman, another of the players imported from Gonzaga University in Spokane. Teters and the others get spots in the Photo Gallery.
Not sure I've mentioned this - the addition of a photo of Reno Zanier of the Trail Smoke Eaters, in the 1952 and other BC Photo Galleries.
In a long neglected area, there's finally the basis of a comprehensive page for the ManDak League of 1950-1957. That will get some more attention in the months ahead.
30 April, 2018
A search to try and determine correct spellings for players from a 1957 junior league has resulted in quite the find - a team photo of the 1957 Rossland Junior Capilanos the Kootenay champions.
Rich Necker, with his game reports on the circuit (still to come) kicked off our search and former player Lou DeRosa and friends have helped to fill in and correct some names. In the process we came across the 
Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History and its photo collection.
Among the gems, the 1957 photograph which includes such stalwarts as Ron Fabbro (left) and Dave Flanagan (right). Flanagan was the ace of the staff, back from a freshman year at Gonzaga University in Spokane.
We've extracted individual shots for our BC Photo Gallery.
We're not certain if the photo of the Kimberley Hobos of East Kootenay ball is from 1957 or 1958.
The local newspaper used the picture in 1958 to highlight a story about a tournament victory by the club.
But, the same photo was used in a flashback piece in the Kimberley paper in 2014 to describe the 1957 team which won the East Kootenay championship. Dave McLay (left) was the playing coach of the squad. For now, we've logged the item as from 1957.
25 April, 2018
The staff at the Greenwood Healthcare Centre (just outside Indianapolis, Indiana) had a marvelous surprise last week for former Negro Leaguer Ira McKnight.
[Photo from Fox 59, WXIN-TV]
After discovering McKnight had been a baseball player of some note, the staff and other residents threw a surprise gathering for the one time Kansas City Monarch.
He was the centre of attention signing baseballs and had the opportunity to chat with staff, visitors and fellow residents about his time in the Negro Leagues and catching baseball legend Satchel Paige. 
McKnight had quite the following in Canada, suiting up for at least seven communities-- North Battleford, Saskatoon, Delisle, Asquith, Unity, Melville and Drummondville -- in the 1960s after tasting action in the Negro League with the Monarchs.
The image at right is one McKnight uses on a baseball card he distributes. It's from the 1960 season when he played with the Kansas City Monarchs, perhaps the most famous of the Negro League teams.
He was an exceptional athlete. In 1965, for example, when he played for the Saskatoon Commodores of the Northern Saskatchewan League, McKnight hit .316, leading the circuit in runs, runs batted in AND stolen bases (with 24 in 31 games).
The previous season he had hit .385 and again led in runs and stolen bases.
McKnight is 82.
12 April, 2018
He's done it again ! More superb research on the integration of baseball.
That's Gary Fink of Reno, Nevada, who's been such a good friend of our little operation. His latest project is on Black players in the ManDak League of Manitoba and North Dakota from 1950 to 1957. The file shows two distinct groups - ManDak players who performed in the Negro Leagues and/or "Organized Baseball" (the majors or minors) - and those who came to the loop with experience in only amateur, semi-pro or perhaps barnstorming teams. The project also shows whatever hitting or pitching statistics were available.
This effort joins two others Gary has put together for Western Canada Baseball. He's presented a full list of ManDak Players and stats for the full eight year run of the circuit.
And, he's compiled a very helpful list of Black players in organized ball from 1946, the year Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in organized ball, to 1956 to show those early pioneers of integration. The report shows players, teams, years played.
Gary has been a member of SABR - the Society for American Baseball Research -- for more than 40 years. Much of his time is spent in libraries and museums squinting at microfilm readers or flipping through newspaper pages to dig out even more information from the sports pages. We are so pleased to be a beneficiary of his countless hours of sleuthing. Thank you Gary !!
A request for a clipping of a 1935 game in Victoria on Vancouver Island has resulted in the uncloaking of an extensive career of catcher Dewey "Shorty" Hill.
An email arrived from his grandson, Peter Hill, who was aware of his grandfather's stint with the famous House of David in the early 1930s but not much previous.
In the process of checking my records and doing a bit of on-line research a career of nearly twenty years was discovered beginning with amateur or semi-pro ball in Buffalo in 1918.
His first professional experience appears to have been with Toronto in the International League in 1921 and he held a roster spot in the top minor league circuit for seven seasons (with Toronto, Buffalo and Reading).
He continued in professional baseball through the 1932 season (note the clean shaven picture above left) before joining the House of David in 1933 (right) and touring with the barnstormers for three seasons. He suited up again in pro ball in 1936 but it was short lived and the trail ended.
The catalyst for the effort was a single mention of Dewey in a 1935 game report here of an exhibition between the House of David and Victoria's Sons of Canada.
06 April, 2018
Our thanks to Yobun Shima, who has been researching from Tokyo, for helping sort out the names of the legendary Vancouver Asahis. Yobun's uncle, Shoichi Shima, was one of the early recruits for the Asahis, playing in 1914 and 1915.
It was Yobun, for example, who figured out a listing for Yosh Oka was really Sutejiro "Tom" Yoshioka who played from 1917 to 1925.
His latest finds include the identification of Suekichi Kodama (left) and Gaichi Tabata who were teammates of his uncle on the 1914 and 1915 Asahi teams. Also in the 1915 team photo, Yobun has identified three more players - Shuichi Fukunaga, Kinzaburo Fukunaga and Yozaemon Kondo. He also managed to identify Motoji Kodama (above right) a team executive who helped organize the Nippons of 1910, forerunner of the Asahis.
In addition, Yobun has helped with the following names, many of which we had just a surname.
* Aoki is probably Tameo Aoki
* Kitagawa Y. or Horii (Kitagawa) Yo became single Yutaro Yo Horii (adopted
name)* Yasui (Higuchi) Bob should be single Bob Higuchi (adopted name)
* Abe is probably Abie (or Abe) Korenaga
* Kinoshita Z is Zenichi Kinoshita
* Tsuji E is Eitatsu Tsuji
* Tabata is probably Kaichi/Gaichi Tabata
* Kikukawa is Takashi Kikukawa
* Fukunaga is Kinzaburo Fukunaga
To top it off, Yobun sent along that team photo of the 1910 Vancouver Nippons, which morphed into the Asahis four years later.
You can probably identify former Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams, but who's the good looking guy on the right (also in Blue Jays gear) from an exhibition game at Regina in 1989.
Well - none other than our Rich Necker ! (Rich had known Williams in the early 60s when both attended Fresno State University).
There's a trivia question which goes with the photo.
Where did Jimy Williams win his final game as the Toronto Blue Jays’ manager?
On May 11, 1989, Williams managed the Blue Jays to an 8-7, seven-inning exhibition victory over the National Baseball Institute Blues before 25,676 spectators at Taylor Field.
The game was played during a one-day hiatus in the Blue Jays’ American League schedule. Three consecutive losses ensued, after which Williams was fired as the Blue Jays’ skipper.
Part of a day spent in Regina wasn’t exactly a treat, either. The game against the NBI was delayed 39 minutes by rain.
Williams decided to use that time advantageously, conducting an impromptu coaching clinic during the downpour. He also encouraged his players to interact with the rain-soaked crowd.
“This is as close as most of these people will ever get to a major-league game,” Williams commented within earshot of the Regina Leader-Post’s Darrell Davis.
The crowd lapped it up, despite the inclement conditions. (Regina Leader Post)
Happy to hear from Randy Melin who came looking for information on his dad, Phil Melin and uncle Sid Nelson who played for Beaverlodge Royals back in the 1950s. He found our photo of the 1957 team and thinks he might have a copy of the team photo of 1958. That would be a neat addition to out archive.
20 March, 2018
Augie Garrido was a legend in college baseball. He died last Thursday at the age 79.
Garrido was a member of the late 1950s, early 1960s Fresno State Bulldogs before moving on to become the coach with the most career wins in college baseball in the United States. He turned Cal State Fullerton into a baseball powerhouse before moving on to head up the program at the University of Texas where he coached for 20 seasons, retiring in 2016 with a combined total of 1,975 wins, the most of any coach in NCAA baseball history.
An outfielder, Garrido signed with the Cleveland Indians after his college career and played for five seasons in the Indians farm system, reaching Triple-A. He began his college coaching career in 1969 and continued for 48 seasons before stepping down in 2016. His teams made 15 trips to the College World Series winning five times. He was National Coach of the Year five times, inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the Fresno Hall of Fame.
He was a member of the 1959 Fresno State club which, until the Bulldogs pulled an upset to win the CWS in 2008, had been the most successful Fresno baseball nine, finishing third in '59. While Garrido didn't play in Canada, dozens of FSU stars came North to hone their skills on Canadian diamonds. From the 1959 club alone more than a dozen suited up for clubs in Western Canada -- Pete Beiden, Dick Doepker, Jerry White, Leroy Gregory, Lee Murphy, Ted Hiltel, Dave Biggers, Jim Lester, Stan Busch, Joe Fischer, Jim Garrett, Dorman Martin and Mountie Bedford.
Thanks to our ol' friend Jim Lester for passing along the news.
17 March, 2018
Our Trail, BC correspondent, Lou DeRosa, again comes through with some fascinating material from the BC Interior.
Lou, who pitched for Trail, Castlegar, Nakusp and in the Vancouver Industrial League in the 1950s and 1960s (and can be seen in this video from the 1950s in Nakusp, he's the first hurler to appear), has sent along details of a 1958 match up between the local Smokies and the Triple-A Spokane Indians -- yes,TRIPLE-A level Spokane -- a top farm club of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1958 was the first season for the Dodgers in Los Angeles).
The Spokane Indians, with such future stars as Maury Wills (left) in the lineup, made a three-hour bus trip up to Trail in June of 1958 for an exhibition game.
Unfortunately, the game was rained out in the first inning, but not before the fans had a chance to watch brief flurry of action. Wills led off with a walk and Jim Gentile reached on an error. Glen Gorbous (right) the Alberta product cracked one over the fence as Spokane took a 3-0 lead. The game was called in the bottom of the first as sheets of rain began to pound the diamond. (You might recall Gorbous as the cannon arm of baseball having set a record with a throw of 445 feet, 10 inches, a record which still stands.)
In the coverage of the game, the local paper, the Trail Times, went all out with news on the Smoke Eaters, along with photos of most of the players. With details on the team lineup, we've been able to piece together the team's roster with names and positions.
The pages have provided us with many new photos for the 1958 BC Photo Gallery - that's Jack "Busher" McIntyre (left) and pitcher Dick Mohoruk (right).
Trail hurler Bob Seaman also has a spot in the Snapshot page.
Lou's sleuthing has also helped to provide a first name for "Slim" Kraft who played in three decades (1920s-30s-40s) for Nelson, BC. It's Iner (or the Canadianized, Einar).
New material also helped to confirm the identity of one of the players in the 1936 team photo of the Trail club. Up to now we were not certain if the Horswill in the photo was Hugh or brother Syd. Turns out it is Hugh Horswill (right). Syd was killed in the war in 1942. There are still a couple of unidentified individuals in the photo, in fact three of them all in street clothes rather than uniforms. Hard to tell if they were players or officials with the team.
11 March, 2018
An inquiry about Manny McIntyre served as a reminder to finish up a profile page on the two-sport star who was the first black Canadian to play in organized baseball in the modern era.
He was just a few weeks behind Jackie Robinson when the Dodger infielder broke the long-standing colour barrier and began his career in Montreal.
The new Manny McIntyre page is here. Thanks to Bill Young, Cam Perron & Gary Fink for assistance.
There it is. 1953. The uniforms of the Oliver OBCs (Oliver Baseball Club) are getting a little ragged. Enter seamstress Netta Thompson. Cost - $12.00.
Frank Endreny, whose dad was Treasurer of the old Oliver OBCs of Okanagan Mainline baseball, has discovered some artifacts of his dad's tenure on the team's executive in 1953.
There's more on the Snapshot page, including a cancelled cheque confirming the spelling of the team's playing manager, Richie Schnider.
Frank also managed to find info on the 1955 season, an Okanagan Mainline League schedule for 1959 and this ticket to the opening game of the 1958 season featuring Kelowna and Oliver OBCs. Note the price - 50 cents, including rides for the kids.
Thank you Frank !
Congratulations to Tommy Cason (who you might recall has been of major assistance in gathering material on the Basin League).
Yesterday, the former Boston Red Sox farmhand was honoured with induction into the Glynn Country (Georgia, south of Savannah) Sports Hall of Fame.
Cason, who played three season in the Basin loop with Sturgis before four years of pro ball, launched a new career as a golf pro after a knee injury knocked him out of baseball. While in the Red Sox system in 1973, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice were his outfield colleagues at Bristol in the Eastern League.
It's not the only celebration for the Casons. Tom and Ann also marked their 44th wedding anniversary!
On the 1961 home page we've added a copy of the cover of the Vernon Carlings program for the 1961 season. Again, check out the price - 10 cents ! Also with that season, we've re-done the photo of Vernon star John Kashuba (right).
Finally, we've made progress in updating the final standings and awards for the 2017 season of the Western Major Baseball League. Swift Current took the crown for the second straight season while Kody Funderburk of the Okotoks Dawgs was named the Most Valuable Player. Funderburk is expected back with the Dawgs for the 2018 season (along with Justin King, grandson of Donnabelle King, my ol' school chum).
And, this bears repeating (just re-discovered). 1959, August 1st, a no-hitter in the Vancouver Industrial League. Well, an unusual one. The score was 7-3 as the Westerns beat the Niseis. It was combined no-no as John Mahon and Ken Nobel teamed up for the performance. No hits, but the pair allowed 18 base runners as they issued 16 walks and the defense committed two errors in the seven inning affair. Mahon, a 16-year-old southpaw, issued 11 free passes and fanned five in three and one-third innings. Noble walked five and whiffed six in finishing the game.
26 February, 2018
1962 is the focus of Rich Necker's latest research into baseball in British Columbia, specifically the Okanagan Mainline League. It means more game reports, rosters, snapshots and photos (left - Oliver's ace hurler Gary Driessen & right - Stan Kato shortstop of the Kamloops Okonots).
This was the year of the Luckies, the Merritt version (the Vernon team was also called the Luckies). There's also a full report on the famous Kamloops Labour Day Tournament.
We're pleased to add game reports and rosters from East Kootenay baseball of 1957. (I wonder if Ron Northcott, the Kimberley player is the famous curler?)
The 1957 Tournament page is expanded with brief bits on tournaments in Fernie and Invermere.
We've brightened up the 1932 home page with an image of the schedule of the Southern Saskatchewan Baseball League. The Regina Nationals were the team to beat in this era.
This one goes back a bit -- to 1895 -- a team photo of Moose Jaw, the baseball champions of the Canadian Territories (before the formation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan). The image is from the Moose Jaw Public Library.
Following a request from Nancy Carlson for a photo of her late father Harold Carlson, I've managed to provide a little better version of the 1958 team photo of Harold's Bow Island team.
Ontario ball gets a little more data with some names for two amateur leagues in Toronto, 1957, the Western Toronto Senior League and the similarly sounding West Toronto City League.
From all we've heard, Martin Charles "Marty" Norman was quite the character forging his own path in sports and life. Marty passed away Friday in San Francisco, where he had lived for many years. He was 85.
Among the many Fresno State baseball products to don uniforms in Western Canada, he suited up for three summers with the Vulcan Elks of the Foothills-Wheatbelt Leagues. His Fresno colleagues Jack Altman, Jerry Burcher, Pat Gillick and Greg Seastrom would be among his teammates in Alberta. He played a little pro ball after his stints in Canada. The baseball shortstop also was a star in football quarterbacking Hartnell College in the Junior Rose Bowl in 1952.
19 February, 2018
A request for information on one of the few blacks to play in BC in the 1920s helped us confirm it was Jesse Scott, the lone black on the IOCO (Imperial Oil Company) nine of the '20s.
In photos of IOCO in 1921, 1923 and 1925 the one black player stands out in a group where we had few names. Now things begin to take shape. Scott was involved in baseball in the Vancouver area until the late 1940s. A larger photo of Scott is post on the 1923 Snapshot page.
On the 1918 Snapshot page, there's a big better pic of Harry Richardson, a catcher in the Vancouver Commercial League.
In helping the folks working on a book on the 100th anniversary of the Intercounty League in Ontario I've re-discovered some rosters I had begun to pull together early last year. There are names 
missing, but at least there's the framework of rosters for the Intercounty League and the Great Lakes-Niagara League of 1957.
A couple of new Intercounty photos are posted in the 1957 Ontario Photo Gallery including Kitchener-Waterloo right-hander Howie Hupp (left).
For British Columbia, we've added rosters for the Delta League in 1932 and for 1923, rosters of the Mid-Island League and the Nanaimo and District League of Vancouver Island.
15 February, 2018
Among the new finds is quite a mouthful of a league - the Shuswap-Okanagan-Monashee Baseball League - which existed pretty close to my part of the country (with teams in Enderby, Lumby, Rutland, Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Vernon and Winfield). Rich Necker and his able assistant grandson Kyle came upon the loop in researching baseball in the Okanagan in the early 1960s.
The new game reports feature the Okanagan Mainline League of 1962 (with Kelowna, Merritt, Vernon, Oliver, Trail, Kamloops and Penticton).
Outfielder Alex Kashuba (left) of the Vernon Luckies was the loop's outstanding hitter winning the batting title with a .441 average while leading in home runs and runs batted in.
Vernon, which finished in third place, also had the top hurler in Gary Barnes (13-2, 2.27).
If you like offense the July 7th game at Kelowna would be party time. The visiting Vernon Luckies ran up a 7-0 lead into the third inning before Kelowna Labatts pushed back with an eight run inning to knot the count 11-11 after six frames. Labatts added a singleton in the seventh and two in the eighth to take a 14-11 advantage into the ninth. In the top of the final stanza the Luckies ran wild to add six runs and move ahead 17-14 as many of the local fans (probably disgusted with the home team's nine error performance) began to head for home. But, with one out and one on, Lee Day cracked a homer. 17-16. Frank Fritz, the next batter, swung at the first pitch from Vernon ace Gary Barnes sending it over the left fiend fence. 17-17. Still just one out. Jack Burton worked Barnes for a walk and pinch-hitter Johnny Culos sent Burton to third as his hot liner skipped through the legs of the shortstop. Gerry Goyer lifted a fly ball to deep right field into the glove of Alex Kashuba, but Burton tagged up and beat the throw home as the fans rejoiced. Kelowna 18, Vernon 17.
Then there was Trail showing no mercy in a 31-4 slaughter of Penticton.
The new 1962 material also includes rosters, stats, some additional photos in the BC Gallery (including a couple of Trail Smoke Eaters, that's George McIntyre, right) and more details on the Kelowna Dominion Day Tournament.
And, yes, there are a few reports on action in the Shuswap-Okanagan-Monashee League (the newspapers often made reference to the circuit as SOK'M, presumably pronounced as SOCK-em).
Over a few weeks in the summer of '62, four local lads won professional contracts. The Mets signed pitcher Harold Haddock of Merritt, the Twins took catcher Allan Richards of Penticton and the Yankees scooped pitchers Reg Main of Vernon and Derek McGillivray of Kamloops. None managed to advance past A-Ball.
Also new for '62 are rosters for the Toronto Nisei Sunday League. Two of the names stood out for me as former colleagues in broadcasting in Toronto - reporter Mel Tsuji and tape editor Mike Sakura. Tsuji's great uncle was Roy Yamamura, the long-time star of the Vancouver Asahis.
Our thanks to Yobun Shima from Japan for helping with names of the Vancouver Asahis (we had about a dozen surnames with no hint of their given names). Hope to update our list soon.
Happy to assist Susan Côté in preparing a birthday surprise for her dad Bob Landine of the old Saskatoon Ambassadors of the Saskatoon & District League and the Northern Saskatchewan League of the 1960s. The composite we've produced is from the 1962 season. We're hoping that Bob can ID the one photo we have been unable to put a name to the face.
Another sad note. Art Worth star hurler and outfielder in semi-pro ball in Victoria, Calgary, Moose Jaw, North Battleford and Kamloops, with a couple of seasons in pro ball, passed away in December at age 88.
We have tracked Worth back to 1944 playing with Victoria Machinery Depot in the war years in the highly competitive Victoria Senior League. He was recruited to join Calgary Buffaloes in the Big Four loop and then Moose Jaw of the Saskatchewan League. After his pro stint the left-hander moved to the Western Canada League and represented Canada at the 1956 Global World Series with North Battleford Beavers. In 1970 he was with the Victoria Centennials when they captured the Canadian Senior championship. In 1973, 30 years after his debut, Worth was still in uniform, this time with the Kamloops Okonots.
12 February, 2018
A scattergun approach over the last few weeks has resulted in bits and pieces to dozens of pages from game reports, to rosters, stats and photos. Corrections too - spelling changes have been made throughout the site to correct the spellings of Richie Schnider and Clarence "Bruno" Ceccon Okanagan players in the 1940s and 1950s.
In checking out the Vancouver newspaper The New Canadian, the voice of Japanese-Canadians of the era, I was surprised by the extent of baseball into the Japanese communities.
For example, in 1940 along with the famous Asahis of the Vancouver Burrard League, there was the Vancouver Japanese League (four teams), Vancouver Bussei League (three teams), Vancouver Inter-City League (three teams), Fraser Valley League (three Japanese teams), Woodfibre League (four teams), Mid-Island Japanese League (four teams), and the Royston Lumberman in the Comox Valley Twilight League. Our new coverage includes game reports for the Vancouver Leagues and, of course, rosters. There is one addition to the 1940 BC Snapshots, a photo of three key members of the Asahis of Vancouver, Chuck Terada, Frank Shiraishi and Kaye Kaminishi.
For 1941, the individual photos of the last Asahi team have been added to the BC Photo Gallery. Roy Yamamura (left) was one of the best liked and most famous of the players.
Also from that season are additional game reports of Burrard League play along with rosters of various Japanese Leagues and teams, including the Woodfibre All-Stars (Woodfibre, north of Vancouver near Squamish).
This was noted earlier, but sending thanks again to Jim Coulter, son of former player Red Coulter for the photo of the Oliver team of (I believe) 1948. The individual pictures are posted on the BC Photo Gallery of that year. On the 1948 BC Snapshot page note the inclusion of Don Coy one of the stars of the Oliver nine.
And now, thanks to the Oliver & District Heritage Society we have a photo of what we think is the 1955 Oliver team and an individual picture from 1949 of one of the team's mainstays, Harry "Stiffy" Bray. You'll note the little problem with the '55 team photo - not enough names for the number of players shown. But, we're working on that.
The 1949 BC Interior page offers some additional game reports of the Rutland Cubs.
In 1950 there are additional game reports of Vancouver's Industrial League. The 1954 BC Snapshots now include pictures of Larry Jordan, Richie Schnider and Sam Drossos
New BC stuff for 1962 includes photos of Jack Burton, Lee Day, Cec Favell, Frank Fritz, Bud Englesby and Gerry Robertson all of the Kelowna Labatts, Reg Main of the Vernon Luckies and Doug Weeks (left), John Brkich and Bruno Ceccon of the Merritt Luckies (yes, two teams in the same league called "Luckies").
We've added a photo of Fred Sabatine and Alex Kasuba of the Vernon squad to the BC Snapshot page.
The Southern Alberta Sugar Beet League, gets some attention in 1948 and 1949 with a few game reports and rosters. We also note the 1951 Southern Alberta Japanese All-Stars.
Ontario gets a fair amount of attention this time around, especially the old West Toronto League. For 1948 there are game reports for the West Toronto League, Toronto Viaduct League, the Toronto Nisei League. Of course, we have some rosters for these teams plus the start of rosters for the Montreal City League. The Ontario Photo Gallery for 1948 now includes two-sport star Harry Psutka who initially turned down a pro baseball contract to concentrate on hockey, but later relented and suited up for a couple of seasons of pro ball.
The discovery of a bit of information on the Montreal City League has led to the establishment of a game report page for Quebec baseball for 1949.
The 1948 Saskatchewan Photo Gallery has a pic of Dick Berezowsky a highly touted local pitchers who was attracting the attention of the pro scouts. The 1949 Ontario gallery now includes Don Speir.
Game reports cover most of the 1949 West Toronto League and there's a brief note of the batting leaders of the Hamilton Nisei League. The West Toronto rosters look complete and it's nice to have a few others from the Intercounty League and even the Montreal Niseis.
Moving ahead to 1950 we offer the roster of the Westerns of the West Toronto League and the start of a game report page for Ontario along with one lonely addition to the Ontario Photo Gallery. The game reports become substantial for the 1951 leagues - West Toronto, Viaduct, Toronto Nisei and Hamilton Nisei - and we have a smattering of names for the rosters. The 1952 Ontario Photo Gallery has the addition of Joe Brown.
The Ontario game pages for 1953, 1954 and 1955 carry a few games of the West Toronto and other local leagues along with substantial coverage of the Intercounty circuit.
The 1956 West Toronto League reports cover much of the schedule and a few games of the Nisei League, but the pages of 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1962 are mainly placeholders for the day when we uncover more of those seasons of Ontario baseball.
There was the potential for a bit of confusion in Toronto in 1960 with a Western City League and a West Toronto City Senior League. We have game reports on both along with rosters for the former.
For 1961, there are updates for the Intercounty League game reports and a couple of games for the West Toronto loop.
And, the Ontario Snapshot pages of 1969 and 1970 have been redone to offer larger photos.
10 February, 2018
We turn back the pages to 1939 as Rich Necker and grandson Kyle Necker go through the microfilm reels of Vancouver Island newspapers of nearly 80 years ago.
We've added game reports and rosters of four 1939 Vancouver Island leagues - Victoria Senior League, Comox Valley Twilight League, and the Upper Island and Chemainus leagues. There's even a few reports of the Second Division of the Victoria Senior loop.
Interestingly, there were three no-hitters that summer - Lloyd Cann of the Victoria All-Stars, Bill Jackson of the Chemainus Longshoremen and poor Ray Maitland of the Victoria Athletics who had a no-no, but lost, 1-0.
A big surprise was finding statistics for the Comox Valley League.
Of course, there's a few photos with Bert Nex and Tommy Restell on both the Photo Gallery and the Snapshot pages.
Also on the 1939 pages, we've added to the Tournament Page (the Dewdney Tourney), more game reports from the Vancouver City League and Burrard League and some additions to rosters in the Lower Mainland (including a first name for pitcher Fujioka - Pansy),
Note Bill Jackson above? Well, we're on a campaign to try and sort out the Jacksons who played ball on Vancouver Island and on the mainland in the 1920s through to the 1950s. We've sorted out a couple. Haley Jackson turns out to be William Herbert "Haley" Jackson and we've now confirmed he played senior ball as early as 1922 with the Victoria Elks and we've discovered a photo of him from his 1925 stint with the Vancouver Young Liberals.
Now on the to-do list to try and sort out some of the Jacksons of Island ball :
Jackson OF with Sidney in 1929, Jackson (no position listed) with Greenwood in 1934, E. "Lefty" Jackson a lefty hurler with Chemainus 1938 to 1952, Edgar "Zip" Jackson shown as an OF-C, Chemainus 1930 to 1954, Ernie Jackson a pitcher listed with Sidney in 1934 and Chemainus in 1938, Jackson OF of Midway 1932, and W. "Bill" Jackson listed as a catcher and pitcher with Chemainus 1938-1941.
Richie/Ritchie Snyder/Snider/Scheider of Vancouver ball in the late 1940s and then Oliver in the 1950s turns out to be Richie Alvin Schnider. In looking for information on another player I happened to bring up a story from Osoyoos bowling in the 1970s which mentioned Schnider (although they had it spelled as Schneider). The link with Osoyoos led to the confirmation of the spelling of his name. It's not very good quality, but we also found a photo of Schnider.
Also from the Oliver team, we've confirmed it's Ceccon, that's Bruno Ceccon. Even better, his niece confirms that Clarence and Bruno are the same person, so we've consolidated the listings (to show up soon on the Players Lists). Bruno played for Princeton, Oliver and Merritt in the 1950s and 1960s.
We're really pleased to have made contact with Frank Endreny whose dad was the Treasurer of the old Oliver ball clubs. He's digging around to see what information might be left around.
And, Dan Crucetti, of Crucetti's Restaurant in Oliver, is making steps to send along photos of two or three of the Oliver teams which have been hanging in the restaurant. His grandfather played for the club in the 1950s.
20 January, 2018
The completion of an update of the Player Lists is always a relief ! So ... whew.
This time around both the regular list and the Ontario list have been updated with thousands of new entries for both existing and new players (about 1,200 new names). Much thanks to Rich Necker for digging out so many rosters, especially for teams in British Columbia in the early 1900s.
The Ontario list predominantly features those who performed in the Intercounty League but also has players from senior amateur leagues in Toronto.
Again, thanks to Jim Coulter, son of Wilfred Carl "Red" Coulter a former diamond star at Oliver, BC, for a high quality photo of the Oliver team of 1948 (we believe that's the year). From it we've now extracted the individual pictures and posted them on the 1948 BC Photo Gallery. Don Coy (right) is among the Oliver faces.
We've not been able so far to identify six of the players, so if you can help out please drop us a line.
Jim has also put us on the track of a restaurant in the area which used to feature baseball photos on its walls. Let's hope they saved everything !
Thanks to the folks behind the effort to put the Merritt, BC papers on line we've managed to begin game reports for the 1962 season of the Okanagan Mainline Baseball League (with two Luckies among the seven teams with both Merritt and Vernon adopting the team name).
Unfortunately, as the Merritt paper provided little information on other teams (often not even mentioning the names of any opposing players) our coverage is overwhelmingly reflective of the Merritt team.
Nonetheless, we have game reports, tournament reports, rosters AND some statistics (with the pitching stats even showing ERA !) along with a few individual photos and snapshots.
That's Vernon star and batting champion Alex Kashuba, left, and Merritt pitching star Larry Webster, above right.
The 1961 BC Photo Gallery has the addition of Merritt's Eddie Mountain.
Barry Wells of London, Ontario, has been incredibly helpful in providing material from Ontario's Intercounty League. We've added bits and pieces to three of our profiles from material sent along by Barry. On the Fergie Jenkins page there's a new photo of Fergie during his time with the London Majors. He's shown with team co-owner Eddie Arden.
And, thanks to Barry we've added a couple of photos to the Frank Colman page showing the London product with another famous London-born major leaguer, George Mooney Gibson and then with the legendary Honus Wagner.
And, Barry added one of the cutest pictures we have, a photo of a very young Ron Stead, one of the best of all the amateur/semi-pro Canadian hurlers. (On his profile page, we've added a marvelous photo of the nine-year-old soaking up wisdom from a Triple A player from the Toronto Maple Leafs.)
The left-hander, who had a brief taste of pro ball (going 17-10 with a 2.43 ERA in the Florida State League in 1957) before coming home to fashion some spectacular results pitching in the Intercounty League.
In 1960 he set an Intercounty League record of 149 innings pitched in winning a dozen games. In 1963, the little lefty racked up a 14-1 mark with an earned run average of 0.63. Yes, ZERO-point-six-three. He even went on to better that with an 0.35 ERA in 1967.
Stead was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, the first player to win the honour based on an amateur career. In an 18-year career he was an All-Star ten times and Most Valuable Player four times. He died in 2011.
Fellow researcher Darrel (damn, missed your last name) gets kudos for sending along the names for the 1912 photo of the Winnipeg Maroons !
This really is catch-up. Back in May last year Jeremy Klaszus, the Calgary writer and historian, sent along news and pictures from a "walk" he had organized in Calgary for folks interested in baseball history. Somehow the note got tucked away and overlooked, until now. The "Jane's Walk" brought out around 50 enthusiasts to the old Buffalo Stadium including Russ Parker, Calgary's "Mr. Baseball", who talked about bringing the Pioneer League to town in 1977 (Calgary Cardinals), and the Pacific Coast League Cannons in 1985.
Bill Clapham, former director for the Cannons and batboy for the 1951 Purity 99s attended as did George Brookman, whose father ran Calgary's "Brookman Dodgers" in the 1950s. Among the other guests was former Cannons play-by-play broadcaster and PR man Mark Stephen.
Left - Bill Clapham, Russ Parker and George Brookman (left to right)
A day before the walk, the Calgary Herald had published an article by Jeremy about the old Calgary ballparks. (Hope that link still works.) Below left, that's Bill Clapham with a photo of a Purity 99 squad. Below right - George Brookman addressing a few of the walkers.
28 December, 2017
A wonderful Christmas season surprise from Jim Coulter, son of Wilfred Carl "Red" Coulter a former diamond star at Oliver, BC.
Jim has sent along a team photo of the Oliver club, believed to be the 1948 edition which captured the pennant in the Okanagan Valley International League which included teams from Brewster, Bridgeport, Omak, Oroville and Tonasket in Washington and Oliver, Kelowna and Penticton in BC.
Oliver was a key entrant in BC Okanagan ball and it's the first Oliver team photo we've managed to obtain. Thank you Jim.
We're still chasing some IDs of players in the photo, so if you can help, please drop us a line.
I think we've made a proper ID of the "Wilkins" in the Oliver lineup in the 1930s and 1940s. It appears to be Chester Edward "Chic" Wilkins who played the outfield. His son Daryl Wilkins pitched for Oliver in 1951.
There are more updates to our coverage of Ontario baseball, including rosters of the London Intercounty League teams of 1936, 1938, 1952 and 1971.
A couple of new pictures (including three of Canadian Hall of Famer and former major leaguer Frank Colman) bring us new Ontario Photo Galleries for 1936, 1937 and 1938. Colman, as an 18-year-old, had quite the rookie campaign in the Intercounty loop in 1936 as a top lefty hurler who won the batting title and the Most Valuable Player award and helped London to the league championship. He played for Pittsburgh and the Yankees in the majors.
Checking the amazing Butch McLarty collection, we've added a photo of the London Avcos of 1970 and the London Majors (with Fergie Jenkins) of 1985.
On the Jenkins page, we've added a great shot of Fergie on the hill for London in 1984. And, in information from Tom Haskett, we've made corrections to the IDs in the photo of Jenkins' senior baseball team of 1961.
Thanks to Barry Wells, we have another addition to our PROFILE section, former London Majors infielder Bobby Deakin. Wells, on the Majors' Alumni Committee, believes Deakin might well be the best-ever infielder produced on the London diamonds.
Deakin had a six-season pro career in the New York Yankee system, reaching AAA, ending in 1959 after a series of injuries.
We're just beginning to work on a Frank Colman page. Frank came out of London in the late 1930s to advance to the majors with Pittsburgh and the Yankees. He returned to London in the early 1950s to play for the Majors and become owner of the team.
Among the odds and ends added are some player photos to Grace Christie's history of Medicine Hat baseball a few newspaper stories added to the story of Ligon's All-Stars, and Brandon team photos of either 1929 or 1930 updated. Among the photos added to the Medicine Hat history is one of Alf Fidler from the early 1900s. He became known as the "father of baseball in Alberta".
The photo of Bill Gadsby (below) has been added to the 1950 Snapshot page along with an action shot of 1950 ball at Buffalo Park in Calgary.
24 December, 2017
Best wishes ! Especially for good health, good friends.
Much thanks to Barry Wells out of London, Ontario for keeping us in mind with material from the Intercounty League of Southern Ontario.
He's just sent along a team photo of the London Majors of 1947.
The team not only won the Intercounty pennant, the league championship, the provincial Senior A title, but the Canadian Baseball Congress championship.
Barry also mentioned that the Intercounty League is publishing a 100th anniversary book in February. I look forward to that !
The London club has been a mainstay of the circuit having won the pennant and/or league championship 24 times. .
Still hobbled as he recovers from knee surgery, our Rich Necker has enlisted some younger legs to ascend the marble steps of the Provincial Legislature in Regina to whip into the adjacent library to go through some newspaper reels from 1938 to expand our coverage of baseball on Vancouver Island.
Rich's grandson Kyle Necker (left), better known as Bronco (pretty well known on his own from his junior baseball days with Southey) stepped forward (maybe with a little push or two) to assist gram-pa !
Rich and Kyle offer game reports and rosters from three Island loops, the Upper Island League, Chemainus & District League and Nanaimo Senior League. The Telosky brothers - Pete, Sam and Andy - were among the prominent players.
Much thanks to Tom Hawthorn for pointing out a lovely little film on YouTube, Canadian Cameo, Hockey Stars' Summer (1951). The film runs just short of eleven minutes and is focused on what the hockey stars did in the summer months.
It's from Library and Archives Canada and slips in some little gems on baseball, such as the photo of Calgary Buffaloes baseball star Bill Gadsby (left, also shown in a batting stance below). Also, I managed to clip out the Buffs uniform crest and added what I thought would be the colors.
Also featured in the short program were the Bentley brothers shown checking out the grain crop on their farm at Delisle, Saskatchewan. That's Max on the left, Doug on the right.
And reminiscent of our home page logo (showing the elevators at Vulcan, Alberta) the film included a photo of the grain elevators at Delisle.
15 December, 2017
August "Augie" Herchenratter, former London baseball star and military hero passed away December 7th at Waterloo, Ontario, at the age of 98.
Left - that's Augie with the London Army team of 1943 which captured the Intercounty title, the Ontario Senior A championship and the Canadian Baseball Congress Championship.
Right - Sgt. Augie Herchenratter with his bride-to-be Joanne on March 5, 1945 after he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) by King George VI at Buckingham Palace for his outstanding valour on the battlefield in 1944.
In 1948, Augie won the IBL batting title with a batting average of .369 as a right-fielder with the Waterloo Tigers. Also with Waterloo, Augie was a star with the 1950 IBL Champion Waterloo Tigers and the 1953 Pennant-Winning Waterloo Tigers.
Augie, a nephew of NHL hockey legend Milt Schmidt, also played pro hockey from 1938-1949, winning the 1946-1947 Calder Cup with the AHL Hershey Bears.
In 2014, Augie was awarded the National Order, French Legion of Honour Medal by France, for his role in the liberation of France during World War Two.
Thank goodness our Rich Necker is a bit better, the pain from the knee surgery subsiding a tad. He's dug around in the 1930s archives to find some game reports and rosters for 1938 Vancouver Island teams, both in the Victoria area and the Comox Valley League (which featured some pretty interesting names - Timmy Tobacco, Chut Bobba, Double Bono et al). Rosters updated as well.
We've made a little headway in sorting out the prairie baseball careers of the Hogg brothers (that's Ralph, left, who played from 1927 to 1957, mainly with Weyburn. Through a lucky connection at Ancestry.ca, we've made contact with Dale Hogg, Cliff's son, and a MVP right-hander with Moose Jaw in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
We're so pleased to have a photo of Ralph, apparently a very shy guy who mainly stayed away from the camera !
Another photo unearthed is one of a Weyburn Beavers team, but with no year or no IDs. Sure would be nice to get some info on this pic.
There were six baseball-playing brothers - Jack, Andy, Clifford, George, Dave (AKA Walker) and Ralph, the youngest. While they excelled on the diamond, hockey might have been their better game. More to come.
We stared at a page of the Calgary Herald for hours, enlarging, brightening, sharpening the text but still couldn't make out the 1914 statistics for the Calgary Amateur League. We figured out all of the names, but even when we thought we had the numbers correct, they didn't, for the most part, match the averages published in the next column. So the best we could do :
(August 15) The Calgary Daily Herald reported this date that J. Riley, who began the season with the Vics before switching allegiance to the Athletics, broke the .400 barrier in capturing the 1914 Calgary Amateur Baseball League batting title. Runner-up for the crown was E. Mahony of the Knights of Columbus with Frank Lewis of the Hustlers third.
04 December, 2017
Wishing you the very best for the holidays and the New Year. These years seem to be flying by so fast, it's hard to keep up. 2018 ?
Wasn't it just yesterday everybody was so worried about the turn of the century.
For so many of us now, better health would be a huge bonus. Let's hope there's some of that in the New Year and well beyond.
Things here slowed to a crawl as the group of us - Rich, Redeye and I - deal with a variety of ailments. Rich is working his way back to the dance floor from knee surgery. Still a ways to go. Redeye, isn't saying much, but recall the former major leaguer they used to call "Aches & Pains"?
I'm on the road back after a bit of a scare at the beginning of November - heart block, third degree, which led to ambulance trips and the Kelowna CCU and cardiac unit for a pacemaker. Now in the early stages of getting used to the implant and figuring out what tinkering is needed for optimal performance. So far, so good.
Nonetheless, we've made progress !
We've begun work on a summary of the Southern (Saskatchewan League) which ran from 1931 to 1974 (with one year of inactivity). The page is still a work in progress, but the major sections are posted, including a map of the league towns.
In searching for a photo of one of the early stars of the league I was a little concerned when I couldn't locate a photo I knew we had of Wilf Pennington, a major star of the league's first season. Turns out I had incorrectly labeled the photo as Cliff Pennington (the current major leaguer). That's Wilf at the left along with Oak Toombs (right) another star of the inaugural season.
Big thanks to Barry Wells of London, Ontario for two more team photos of the London squads of the Intercounty League of Southern Ontario. There's the 1937 league champion Silverwoods team and the 1949 Majors. The London entries produced some of the league's most memorable players, including notables on the 1949 squad such as Jack Fairs, Joe Bechard, Russ Evan, Tom Burgess and Tommy White.
Given the great difficulty in traveling in the BC Interior a hundred years ago, I continue to be surprised at the inter-city competition. We've added game reports for the 1914 summer for Kelowna, Kamloops, Revelstoke and Vernon. They went by auto, rail and boat to make their games. And, even in that era, in those smaller communities, the teams managed to bring in imports from the USA to bolster their teams. The quality appears to have been at a fairly high level as several of the Interior players moved on to play that season in the professional Western Canada League. Of course, we've added in the rosters for the league teams.
There are now some game reports for the Delta International League of the Lower Mainland in 1933. The loop had teams from Cloverdale, Langley, Ladner and Blaine, Washington. Rosters, too.
Jumping ahead to 1951, we've added game reports and rosters (at least for Del Bonita) for the Boundary League (Del Bonita Cubs were probably the most recognizable team). Rosters have also been added for the Brooks-Medicine Hat & District League in 1951 and updated for 1950.
The 1949 roster page now has some names for teams in the Fraser Valley League.
With an addition or two to the 1951 Tournament page, the information has been reorganized to make it easier to scan.
An inquiry about the 1963 Northern Saskatchewan All-Stars prompted me to enlarge and re-do the photos of the teams.
Looking for any memorabilia from the Western Canada League of 1960-1961, especially the Calgary Buffaloes. Erik Jackaman is looking for material from the era for his grandfather who played for Calgary and Edmonton.
Anyone with access to papers from Estevan, Saskatchewan, 1953, 1954, 1955 ? Ryan Armbrust is trying to find information on his grandfather, Dennis Thomte, who played with junior or "under-21" clubs in Torquay and Estevan. We don't have him listed with Estevan's Southern League team, so assume it's a junior circuit.
12 November, 2017
A bearer of sad news this day.
We've learned of the death of Gerald Curtis "Jerry" Burcher, the former Fresno State hurler who played in Western Canada for six summers over the period from 1955 to 1964. Burcher died July 18th at Fresno, California. He was 80.
The right-hander suited up for Vulcan, Medicine Hat, Picture Butte and Lethbridge in Alberta and Unity, Saskatchewan in his Western Canadian tour.
He was a star pitcher in service ball in 1959-1960 while stationed in Hawaii. His U.S. Navy SubPac Raiders won the Hawaiian Armed Service championship and the Hawaiian Major League title and went on to defeat the U.S. All-Stars for the World Amateur Baseball Federation championship. The team played more than 100 games.
Thank you Denis Brown for an unexpected delight - a photo of former Vancouver baseballer Roy H. Brown who suited up for nine or ten Lower Mainland teams in the 1930s and 1940s.
Roy's grandson, Denis, is on the lookout for information on his grampa's career. We were able to help out with a list of his teams and Denis just happened to have a quality photo from his Roy's 1947 season with the Vancouver Luckies. The full photo is on the Snapshot page.
Rich Necker reports slow progress on his recovery from knee surgery. Of course, he's anxious to hit the dance floor, but will likely need a few more months of therapy to get mobile again.
We've added in Rich's game reports of the 1937 and 1938 BC Interior campaigns. The latter is far more complete and includes regular season and playoff results for leagues throughout the region. Rosters too.
And there are a few additions to the 1914 BC Interior game reports.
A few corrections made here and there to the stats pages. Mainly, name spellings. In one instance, however, (1956) noticed I had the Southern League's leader in runs pointing to a guy who hit .179 and played in just 12 games. He was shown with 47 runs scored. Hmmm. A double-check brought that down to 4.
Photos from Ontario baseball are so hard to come by I'll make a point of noting the few we've managed to find - 1951 there's Gerry Acheson and George Phillips of Toronto senior ball (as opposed to the Intercounty League of Southern Ontario).
Thanks to Barry Wells for more on the London, Ontario, Majors alumni. In this photo by Kathy Kewley, eight decades of London All-Stars are represented. The fourteen players below were selected to a total of 45 Intercounty Baseball League All-Star teams. (The photo was taken on the first of November.)
Back row (left to right) - Pitcher Barry Moore, 1942, 1945; INF Barry Boughner, 1966-1975, 1980; Pitcher Jon Owen, 1977-1999; LF-1B-DH Cleveland Brownlee, 2010-2018; SS Dave Byers, 1969-1986; 2B Brian Pearen, 1961-1972; CF Richard Thompson, 1988-1998.
Front row - SS Bob Deakin, 1951-1954; 1B-3B Dave (Whitey) Lapthorne, 1960-1976; Catcher Wayne Fenlon, 1966-1988; Catcher Stan (Tubby) Jones, 1943, 1946; Catcher Jack Fairs, 1948-1951; CF-OWN-MGR Arden Eddie, 1968-2004; Pitcher Mike (Killer) Kilkenny, 1975, 1983.
Photograph by Kathy Kewley
29 October, 2017
Amazing what you can find in the old papers. From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin of June 13, 1952
Two members of the '52 Punahou School varsity baseball team, pitcher Jack Altman Jr. and outfielder Gregg Seastrom, left for the Mainland Tuesday by BCPA plane.
They have saved their money for a motor tour of the continental United States during most of this summer and will take in a baseball game almost every day and night for the next two and a half months.
They will attend Fresno State College where they are already accepted and enrolled, this fall.
Both Altman and Seastrom came north in the 1950s to play ball in Southern Alberta and all these decades later, remain close friends.
A little more progress is posted on amateur ball in Ontario. We have game reports and rosters for the 1934 season of the Intercounty League. Among the stars of that summer were catcher George Miskimmons and southpaw hurler Ken Biddle of the provincial champion Stratford Nationals. We managed to dig out a few stats to show the batting and pitching leaders.
A few more game reports have been added to the 1914 Calgary Amateur League and the rosters are also now posted.
A few statistics for the 1923 Winnipeg Senior League are now included. They're taken from the text of a story printed in the Winnipeg Tribune of September 8, 1923. But, someone had cut out of the paper that very portion of the page showing the full list of players and their statistics ! As for Winnipeg ball, rosters for 1918, 1922 and 1923 have been expanded and updated.
Game reports for Saskatchewan ball in 1933 have been consolidated and expanded. The Regina Nationals and pitcher Hec McLeod were in the headlines.
Thanks to Lou DeRosa for spotting an omission in the old Lethbridge Reunion (2000) file. We failed to ID Harold Jones in a group photo. Now done.
A few additional pictures have been added to the fabulous baseball trilogy by our Redeye Ropertz. They're on the 1935 tour page and include this one of Dai Nippon catcher Nobuo Kura (left).
The series includes a summary of the 1934 tour of Western Canada by the Major League All-Stars, including Base Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, and the subsequent jaunt to Japan.
As well, more team photo grace the site. There's a second photo of the 1921 Winnipeg Maroons and of the 1921 Calgary Bronchos.
An inquiry from Allison Booker sparked a search for details on the careers of brothers Percy Booker and Robert Leroy Booker (Allison's grandfather). Percy, we know, pitched for Kenaston, Saskatchewan, and the Saskatoon Maroons in the late 1930s and even hurled a few games as a pro with the Winnipeg Maroons. In the early 1940s he pitched for the Regina Red Sox and appears to have signed up for military service. There the trail goes cold. We had no listing for Robert Booker, but did have a B. Booker playing on the same team as Percy in 1937. I think we can draw a conclusion that B. (likely for Bob) is Robert Leroy. With a photo of the 1933 team of Davidson, Saskatchewan, we have confirmation of Robert with that team.
We're also on the lookout for information on Doug Muscutt, who pitched for teams in New Westminster and Vancouver from the mid 1920s to the late 1930s. A photo of Doug would be much appreciated. His granddaughter is trying to put together a scrap book for her mother.
17 October, 2017
Time for a little side trip.
How could I not follow the trail of a pitcher of no-hitters who once played for a team called the Commies -- during the war years no less.
In searching for information on the Ligon All-Stars, a favourite barnstorming team in Western Canada, there was Carl "Roman" Roh hurling against the Ligon's in June, 1946. Roh fired a seven-inning no-hitter, racking up 16 strikeouts in blanking the tourists 5-0.
The no-no by itself was eye catching, but his two previous starts for the Council Bluffs (Iowa) Browns were even more-so. He blanked the Audubon Cardinals 4-0 on a three-hitter with 17 strikeouts and no walks. Then he went the first six innings in a combined no-hitter against the touring San Antonio Giants. In three games, 22 innings, he allowed a total of three hits, fanned 40 with no walks.
A week after his Ligon's no-hitter, Roh fashioned another no-hitter as Omaha Storz beat the Colonials in Community League action. And, four days after that, he carried a no-no into the ninth, losing the bid with two outs. Hard to imagine a pitcher having a better month than that !
Turns out Roh, a dentistry student at Creighton University, is in the Creighton Basketball Hall of Fame and in the Nebraska Baseball Hall of Fame.
Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, Roh spend 1939-1941 in the low minors for the Cards with unremarkable results, 20-26 in his short pro career. In 1941, he suited up for the Decatur Commodores, known in the local papers as the Commies. After military service during the war, Roh turned to semi-pro ball. Newspaper reports suggested he was paid $100 per game in the Nebraska Independent League. Pretty good change for the time. He carved out a superb semi-pro career, mainly with the Omaha Storz and Council Bluffs right into the early 1950s. He celebrated the new decade with a no-hitter in mid-July, 1950.
Before ace correspondent Rich Necker headed off to the operating theatre for knee replacement surgery he (with welcomed assistance from Redeye Ropertz) filled our in-basket with all kinds of goodies. Of particular interest are the game reports.
The summaries go back to 1908 and 1914 when we have a few game reports for the Calgary Amateur League. The 1915 Alberta game reports provide insight into the Calgary Semi-Pro League, Calgary City League, Edmonton City League, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Northern Alberta.
Rich's 1915 Manitoba reports include the Winnipeg Senior League, Western Manitoba, South Brandon, Grandview and The Pas.
For Saskatchewan he's managed to dig out reports for Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Melfort, Swift Current, Yorkton, Humboldt, and the Soo Line.
And moving on to BC in 1915 there are summaries for the BC Interior, Vancouver Island, and Vancouver itself.
And, we've added a 1915 Tournament page.
Alberta gets more coverage in the 1921 game reports.
And, on to the thirties, the 1937 Vancouver game reports are extensive as are the BC Interior summaries. There wasn't a lot of baseball activity on Vancouver Island but Sonny Walker seemed to do OK.
BC Interior ball of 1938 gets full coverage with game reports from the semi-pro Okanogan Valley League (five American teams and Penticton), along with other Okanagan (yes, with another "a" and not the "o" as in the American spelling) baseball, including the South and Central regions. There are game reports for the BC Interior League as well as ball in the West and East Kootenays.
Of course, the roster pages expand with the additional material from above.
We're happy to add more team photos, especially from the early years. There's one of the 1913 edition of the team from Nakusp, BC.
We've added the 1914 Calgary Amateur champions, the Athletics (with names too !). Three 1915 team pics are now posted - Barons (with names), the Nanton nine, and the team from Beaumont.
And, from 1921 there's the club from Burton, BC.
Thanks to Leah Seaman for a photo of the team from the Highland Bell mine in Beaverdell, BC. Her dad, Harry Seaman was a member of the club. We are still trying to track down more information on him. We know he worked in New Westminster at one time and also played up in Terrace. Also, Leah is going to see if it's possible to get a better version of the photo. It's thought to be the 1936 team.
A few individual pictures are new additions - 1914 Photo Gallery -- Don Grant, Babe Reames; 1922 Alberta Photo Gallery -- Andy Baxter (left) and Jimmy Enright (right).
A couple of new Snapshots adorn the 1938 BC page, with Sonny Walker and Ray George of Victoria now posted.
George joins Fats Richardson, Elmer McGahan in the Photo Gallery
There's a little addition to our Minnesota coverage with a sketch and some information on Gabby Hormann, who played in several of the main loops we cover -- the Western Canada League, Basin League, Southern Minny League and Intercounty League.
Thank you Phil ! Phil Risinger, the dandy little shortstop of the Medicine Hat Superiors (1957-1958), surprised with a DVD of some of baseball's legends.
We're so pleased to hear again from Steve Cottrell who's put pen to paper (or more likely these days, fingers to keyboard) to begin his SCATTERED FRAGMENTS: The Uneven Life of an Average Guy The Memoirs of Steve Cottrell. Steve spent a couple of summers in Southern Alberta in the lineup of the Vulcan, Alberta, Elks. He picks up the story after pitching batting practice for the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in 1961, tossing to the likes of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda, but not winning a contract with the Giants.
I didn’t sign a D-League deal that day in 1961, but I soon received an offer that intrigued me. Former minor league pitcher Jack Altman, a teammate in 1960, called and said he could put me back on a baseball diamond in a matter of days –– and I’d get paid. That was the kind of news I was hoping for, and the offer was from a team in Alberta, Canada.
Visions of the snowcapped Canadian Rockies and Nelson Eddy cooing, “Oh, Rose Marie, I love you,” to Jeanette MacDonald as he paddled a canoe across Lake Louise, flashed on me. Alberta? You bet, Jack.
Little did I know, however, that the part of Alberta I was headed to was on the Great Plains, between Calgary and Lethbridge –– prairie land, flat as a pool table. But they had a baseball team in search of a pitcher and I was a pitcher in search of a team.
The next day, thanks to Jack’s intervention and interest, I headed for Vulcan, Alberta, Canada to play for a club willing to pay me fifty dollars a week along with providing a furnished apartment. (It was actually a small sleeping room upstairs at the Royal Canadian Legion building with a shared bathroom down the hall. But it was free).
Fifty bucks a week in Vulcan in 1961 was a decent sum, especially without rent or utility payments to deal with. A glass of beer at the Vulcan Hotel was a dime and a rib-eye steak with fries at the Royal Cafe on Centre Street was only a buck fifteen. For thirty-five cents I could go to the local movie theater and watch a double bill. And for a dime more, buy a big box of popcorn.
Fifty Canadian dollars had a lot of buying power in those days and I was being handed fifty dollars every week. Life was good.
I was a teenager being paid to play the game I loved. And although Vulcan, a farming and ranching community of about 1,200 salt-of-the-earth men and women, was a long way –– distance-wise and otherwise –– from San Francisco, where I had just thrown batting practice to three future hall-of-famers, I eventually fell in love with the town and its people.
I was confident I would have a great season in Canada and do well at spring training the following year. And if everything fell into place, I would be on a path leading back to Candlestick Park; the next time for real and not as a nameless batting practice pitcher.
Meanwhile, I was in Canada enjoying a summer of what used to be called Town Team baseball –– a vanishing breed of the game played for the pure joy of competing. In my case, of course, it was pure joy plus fifty bucks a week.
01 October, 2017
Elmer McGahan Jr. of Long Beach, California turns out to be a centrepiece of the 1938 baseball season in the BC Interior now documented thanks to the continuing excellence of our Rich Necker in tracking down baseball information.
Just 17 years old, McGahan began the season in the Spring Training camp of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, where team officials made note of the youngsters superb curve ball. He had attracted the attention of the Stars from his outstanding season, including a no-hitter, pitching for Torrance High School. However, he was farmed out to Bellingham for seasoning and then ended up in Vancouver. He appeared in just one game, not getting out of the first inning, before landing with Penticton of the Okanogan Valley League (Penticton and five clubs from Washington) a month or so into his 18th year.
His final won-lost record, 8-7, was deceiving, as the left-hander lost a pair of 1-0 games and didn't have overwhelming offensive support. McGahan appeared in 15 games, 14 of them starts and he completed all of them. In 121 innings he racked up 168 strikeouts (stats for two games were not available).
He was back with Bellingham of the Western International League in 1939 but didn't appear in a regular season game. After military service, 1941-1945, during the Second World War, he tried a comeback with Santa Barbara of the California League but called it quits after just eight games.
He pitched in semi-pro ball in California into the 1950s.
Among the other neat stuff Rich turned up is a better photo, with names no less, of the Nelson baseball nine of 1938. Until now we had this labeled as just 1930s as we couldn't pin down the year, but it turns out to be 1938. From that photo we've extracted one pic for the 1938 BC Snapshot page - catcher Gordon "Fats" Richardson. The BC Photo Gallery for that season now has McGahan, Richardson, Joe Benoit, Duke Scodellaro and Merle Stoddard. And, of course, the roster page includes all the teams from the Okanogan Valley League. Information on tournaments in Summerland and Penticton is also now posted.
A big round of applause for Tom Pettoello and Lou DeRosa for the photo and IDs of the 1940 Michel-Natal Buffaloes of the Crow's Nest League. Again, originally we couldn't pin down the year and had it listed as simply 1940s, but we now have confirmation as 1940. And, what a treat to have names to go with the faces. The list of names confirmed that Turlik and Turyk were different players and not simply a spelling mistake about the same player.
From the team photo we've extracted some individual pics for the photo gallery - Tom Androlick, Steve Chala, Ken Galla, the Kralls - John, Tom & Wally - John Letasy, Sid Little, Andy Turlik, Max Turyk and Martin Sadlish.
As a follow-up, we've added names to the 1940 and 1941 roster pages. And, the 1941 Kimberley Tournament is included.
We've added two more team photos - 1920 Fort William, Ontario and a second photo of the 1921 Winnipeg Arenas.
Rosters for teams in the Winnipeg Senior League of 1921 and 1923 have been updated and show a surprising number of first names, a shocking development for the era. Among those listed, third baseman Al Armstrong and shortstop Allen Armstrong both of the Tammany Tigers. To further complicate things, both had initials of A.A. Going to a third initial, the league was able to distinguish one from the other as Allen Armstrong became A.A.A. Armstrong and Al was shown as A.A.F. Armstrong. Their photos are in the 1924 Manitoba Photo Gallery (along with Sam Perlman and Bunny Warren.
Among the other new photos have added, is one of Andy Anderson (not Al or Allen) and Bat Nelson on the 1921 WCBL page; Jim McCullough, 1921 Manitoba; Sid May and Steve Penu, 1923 Manitoba.
We're on the looking for information of the Beaverdell Highland-Bell Miners of the late 1930s. In particular, any news on a George Henry Seaman, known mainly as Harry Seaman. We have an H. Seaman in the lineup in 1936, but nothing more. Drop us a line if you might have further information.
19 September, 2017
Well, of course. After hunting high and low for information, especially a proper spelling and first name AND maybe a photo, I just happened 
to stumble upon another photo of Ron Singbush (right) , a long time Winnipeg catcher of the 1910s and 1920s.
That search also discovered a better image that we've had of Fred "Bunny" Warren (left), another veteran Winnipeg star.
Rich Necker got us going with that team photo of the Trail, BC team (probably of the late 1930s or early 1940s). Lou DeRosa. former Trail, Nakusp and Castlegar hurler, followed up with a few names and in the process has come up with a team photo of a 1940s edition of the Michel-Natal Buffaloes. And, in combing for names for that photo, has latched on to an individual image of veteran Michel-Natal star Paul Chala. Thanks to Tom Pettoello, Paul's nephew.
Help still needed to identify the players in the two above noted team photos.
Two more team pics have come our way. Rich has dug out the shot of the Grande Prairie, Alberta team of 1915 and we've also added a photo of the 1922 East Kootenay champion Fernie nine. We have names for each team, but are unable as yet to put names to the faces.
A few photo galleries have been updated with individual images - 1918 Manitoba (Gus Guarnera), 1923 Manitoba (Singbush), 1928 Manitoba (Warren), 1937, BC (Joe Benoit, Duke Scodellaro), 1939, BC (Benoit, Scodellaro), 1940 BC (Paul Chala).
We've added a couple of new pages, for the 1915 Alberta game reports, and the 1918 Manitoba game reports along with roster updates for 1915 and 1918.
With a huge sigh of relief, we note the latest update of all the roster lists, from 1900 to 1980, especially the earlier years. In this edition we dealt with about 4,900 players, about half new names, the others additions to existing entries. With a surprising number of first names gathered particularly in Winnipeg baseball (in contrast to the Singbush saga) we have managed to delete several hundred lines by consolidating entries.
16 September, 2017
A search for clarity in the names of some 1910s Winnipeg baseball players has led to a hockey star and coach in the National Hockey League, a Manitoba and Canadian champion curler and an example of racism on the diamonds of Winnipeg.
It all begins with chunks of information and links from our Rich Necker on baseball on the prairies in 1916.
In punching in a couple of names -- Loughlin or Laughlin (right)-- then Singbush or Singebush or Singenbush (later to find Singerbush and Singerbusch in the street directory) -- I was off on a search to determine the correct spellings.
The Loughlin search had a surprisingly quick resolution. A baseball infielder, Loughlin was a standout defenceman in hockey and made it all the way to the National Hockey League, playing with the Detroit Cougars (they became the Red Wings a few years later) and Chicago Black Hawks. He also coached the Black Hawks. While with the Victoria Cougars in 1925 he was on a Stanley Cup winning team.
For whatever reason, the Winnipeg Tribune just wouldn't print the correct spelling of his name.
It got so weird that on one occasion (on the announcement in 1916 that he would turn pro in hockey) the paper ran a photo (obviously copied from a composite of a hockey team photograph, on which his name was printed) which clearly showed his name as LOUGHLIN, while the paper's caption underneath spelled it as LAUGHLIN. See the photos left and above.
Loughlin played ball in the Winnipeg Senior League for at least four seasons (1913-1916) then, in the mid and late 1920s, played for Tofield and Viking in Alberta.
The Singbush -- Singebush, Singenbush, Singenbusch, Singerbush -- (with further alternative spellings Simghus, Sinigus, Linknish) saga was unexpectedly difficult to comprehend. Here's a player who suited up from 1913 to 1929, drawing dozens and dozens of newspaper mentions, sometimes in the headlines, and for the first 12 years the papers (Winnipeg Tribune and Winnipeg Free Press) did not mention a first name (while shifting mainly between Singebush and Singenbush as his surname, and once in awhile tossing in a nickname, "Singy"). Even in printing a photo of him (below) it carried the caption "Singy Singbush".
A helpful clue was printed in a June, 1925 article in the Tribune which reported the catcher had been injured working in the C.P.R. machine shop. The Henderson Winnipeg directories of that era seemed to narrow my choices to one of four or five men, Ronald a machinist at the CPR, Alex a CPR blacksmith, and Jacob a moulder at the CPR, or perhaps Ralph, not listed as a CPR worker, but about the right age or Frederick, not at the CPR, but a machinist with the Free Press. Alex (age 57 in 1925) and Jacob (61) were ruled out. Ralph (29), Frederick (26) and Ron (32) seemed to be prospects. That the choice might come down to either Ron or Ralph was reinforced by a few items during the 1920s noting an "R. Singbush" as an umpire at intermediate level games and an "R. Singbush" becoming involved in local curling.
Then on August 20th, 1925, Singbush, playing for the Tammany Tigers cracked a three-run homer in the bottom of the final frame to give the Tigers a 4-3 win over the Arenas. His last name was in the headline, and there in the first line of the story was "Roger Singbush".
The elation was short-lived as I realized I had found no mention at all of a Roger Singbush. He didn't exist, at least according to the Henderson directories of the time. Then after a new years of last name only, the Free Press, on May 10, 1928, made mention of "Ralph Singbush". This brought not elation but depression as my research had discovered earlier that Ralph had emigrated to the United States in 1926 (his obituary in 1968, made mention of 1916) and he was long gone before the 1928 reference.
It was becoming clear that this "R. Singbush" the curler (Manitoba and Canadian champions in 1928 and 1929), had to be "Ronald" and he had to be the baseball player. Expanding my research to try and include his later career, I found a short obituary notice in 1950 noting his death in December. It made note of his baseball career, saying he had played in the Northern League (Winnipeg had a team in the pro circuit) and had umpired for many years. That was enough for me to make a conclusion.
Finally Singbush had a first name -- Ronald.
[That's the 1929 Canadian championship rink at the left - Gordon Hudson, skip; Don Rollo, third; Singbush, second; Bill Grant, lead.]
While Canada has developed a reputation as a multicultural country showing compassion and acceptance of people of all colours and backgrounds, you wouldn't know it by the early years of baseball in some locales in the West. Black players were not welcome.
In 1910, the Western Canada League barred Dick Brookins from playing and in 1918 the Winnipeg Senior League banned Ransom (believed to be Pte. Arthur Ransom of the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba, an immigrant from Atlanta) from participating in the local loop. The decision, apparently based on the ban in organized baseball (of which the Winnipeg league was not affiliated), was even more curious as Ransom was playing ball in the military league with and against some of the same players who performed in the Winnipeg Senior League. To their credit, the military and the papers backed Ransom and criticized the league. Following the cowardice of the league in banning him, there is no further mention of Ransom in baseball in the local papers in the following years. It's believed Ransom, a porter for the CPR, settled down in St. Boniface and retired there.
Rich Necker's material has provided a comprehensive look at baseball on the Prairies and West Coast in 1916, starting with a full set of game reports for the Winnipeg Senior Amateur League along with snippets from elsewhere in the province. In the Saskatchewan game reports there is coverage of the Regina league, Black Loam League, Saskatoon, and Soo Line competitions (map included). There is coverage of widespread leagues on the Alberta page, including the Calgary Sportsmen's Patriotic Amateur League. And, we've added to our 1916 material for Vancouver and Victoria.
To complement the game reports, the roster page reflects the new additions, and we have additions to the photo galleries - Manitoba, Saskatchewan,and Alberta -- and to the Manitoba snapshot page (showing the outstanding coverage of the local papers).
We managed to locate the final statistics for the Winnipeg Senior League to show an outstanding season by Transcona hurler Murray Smith, noted as the top all-around player in the league who nearly won the batting crown as well.
While digging around for information on Loughlin and Singbush we managed to find the statistics for three other seasons of the Winnipeg Senior League - 1915, 1917 and 1919 - all now posted. Those stats and other findings have led to additions to roster pages as well - 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1919, 1924.
Of course, the photo galleries sport some additions -- 1914 Manitoba (Alex and Dick Irvin, Lawrie, Loughlin, Samson), 1915 Manitoba (Bingham, Carl, Maxwell), 1917 Sask (Barker), 1918 Manitoba (Fidler, Maxwell, Lawrie), 1919 (Altermatt), 1919 Manitoba (Lloyd, Muckle Warren), 1924 Manitoba (Luff, McVey, Browne), 1925 Manitoba (Singbush), 1929 Manitoba (Singbush), 1957 Manitoba (Mazur), 1960 (Kangas).
The 1914 team photo of the Winnipeg Creamery team has new information on the possible ID of one of the players - John Armstrong Howard, the first black Canadian to make our Olympic team.
Rich has dug out a photo of a Trail baseball team believed to be from the 1930s. We've enlisted Lou DeRosa to try and help identify the members of the club. Please drop a line if you can help !
We've added two new "profiles" to our outstanding player section, both major stars from and in Manitoba baseball - Ian "Ace" Lowe and Bill "Snake" Siddle.
A big round of applause for Bernie Wyatt, on hand at Battleford, Sask. last month to represent the old Broadview Buffaloes at their induction into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame. It was Bernie's research and presentation that got them into the Hall. Great work. (Check out Bernie's story on the Buffs through the link provided.)
Inducted in the individual category were Al Herback (left), former Regina and Calgary star, Don Anderson of Moose Jaw, Garry Anderson of Medicine Hat, Alta., the late Norman Arngrimson of Mozart, the late Jack Batey of Macklin, Cliff Campbell of Castor, Alta., Robert Faith of Lafleche, Jim Fink (right) of Regina, Jamie Flanagan of Kindersley, Garnet Hansen of Weyburn, Ross Mahoney of Regina and Don Pankewich of Regina. Also inducted in the team group were the Wawota Pats and Hohenlohe (with a turnout of more than 100 people for the tiny community). The Woodard family of Colgate was enshrined into the family category while the village of Mervin was selected into the community category.
30 August, 2017
Talk about post-war inflation. At Huron, South Dakota, June 10, 1946, in a seven inning baseball game, yes baseball, Huron's Junior Legion nine rang up 59 runs in demolishing Flandreau 59-3. They did it in just 56 official at bats, scoring 16 times in the first inning to put the game out of reach just minutes after it began.
Huron took advantage of 18 walks and 27 Flandreau errors. And, they ran wild on the bags too, with a total of 32 stolen bases.
West Coast ball gets more coverage with the addition of the 1956 and 1957 game reports and rosters (1956, 1957) of the Northwest Semi-Pro League (and its predecessor, the Northwestern International League). The 1956-1957 Vancouver game reports reflect a few additions with material gleaned from the Victoria paper.
Rosters are also posted for 1958 when the league went back to a Victoria only senior circuit.
An unexpected bonanza out of the 1956-1957 league membership was the inclusion of such well known teams out of Washington, the Bellingham Bells, Cheney Studs and Deming Loggers (with the Zender brothers). It spurred us on to locate more photographic evidence of these mid-1950s teams. And, I think we've done OK.
We now have team photos of the 1951 (redone), 1952, 1957 and 1958 Bellingham Bells, one of the most successful semi-pro teams of the era.
There's an added photo on the Deming Loggers' page, one from Sports Illustrated in a 1956 issue showing the nine brothers as the core of the team which finished second at the National Baseball Congress Semi-Pro Tournament.
One of the most enduring amateur/semi-pro teams has been the Cheney Studs (named after the 8-foot long 2x4s produced by Cheney Lumber Company which standardized the size of wall studs in the lumber industry, although the team logo suggests a different origin).
Since the 1990s, the club has been hugely successful in Canada winning the Kamloops Invitational Tournament 11 times, the Kelowna Canada Day Tournament 4 times and the Grand Forks Invitational on three occasions. We go back to 1955 and 1956 for team photos of the early editions of the Studs. Right-handed hurler George Kritsonis (far left) was a mainstay of the team for eight seasons. Outfielder Luther Carr (left) was a star on the first of the Cheney teams in 1954, 1955 and 1956.
Those team photos (along with the 1950s editions of the Victoria paper, the Daily Colonist) have been of great assistance in filling out the photo galleries, especially the 1955, 1956 and 1957 BC pages, with images of players such as Bernie Anderson, Charlie Boyd (left), Art Worth (right), Andy Padovan, Luther Carr and all the Zenders (yep, Bernie, Dan, Dick, Jake, Jim, John, Lawrence, Nick and Pete).
Of course, the snapshot pages of 1956 and 1957 have also been enhanced.
Surprisingly, one of the photo galleries filling in the fastest is the 1946 BC gallery. It helped to find photos of the 1946 Bellingham squad along with images from the Victoria paper (including a lucky find of a Tommy Musgrave picture).
While not of high enough quality to extract individual pictures, we are happy to have a team photo of the 1946 Victoria Senior League champions, the Victoria Legion (which included Bill Prior, Rookie Wright and Hap Gandy).
The 1946 snapshots now include some newspaper images of Victoria players along with one of Sherwood Brewer of the Seattle Steelheads, one of the teams in the short-lived West Coast Negro League. The Seattle squad and Portland Rosebuds played a few games in Victoria. Olympic hero Jesse Owens was a feature of one of the games. As part of the promotion, Owens would take on a race horse in a 100-yard dash and it was the race, not the game, which got the headlines.
The 1945 snapshot page now includes a picture of Sibby Sisti who joined a Vancouver team after coming up with the US Coast Guard for an exhibition game. His military service had interrupted a major league career which began in 1939 as an 18-year-old. After his three years in the Coast Guard, Sisti played another nine years in the majors.
There are a few other photographic bits and pieces, including a recent find of a Thomas Snoddy (Ligon's All-Stars) picture, now posted in a 1949 gallery, and one of Harry Butts, a Negro leaguer who came to play in the ManDak League with Brandon. He's in the 1951 ManDak gallery and snapshot page. And, there's a photo of Don Smith of the Bellingham Bells in the 1960 BC gallery.
For the early years, we've added the 1912 Vancouver Beavers of the Class B, Northwestern League. As a bonus, this one provided a better quality individual photo of Lefty Gervais.
Also on-line is the 1916 team photo of the champions of the Calgary SPA League (Sportsmen’s Patriotic Amateur League), the Calgary Hustlers. There's a minor mystery here as the team clearly features three of the famous Lewis baseball brothers. Frank Lewis and Earl Lewis are surely two of them. The other is listed as C. Lewis. That could be Clifford "Stiffy" Lewis, although he would have been just 15 years old. And, we know that Lincoln "Dodger" Lewis did play for the club as well. That might get sorted out as we dig into more 1916 material sent along by Rich Necker.
I think it's a tad better, another version of the photo of the 1951 Trail Smoke Eaters, the British Columbia Champions. And one more new addition, the 1959 Yarrow Ocean Sprays of the Fraser Valley League, with names too !
28 August, 2017
July 2, 1935 Victoria's Daily Colonist provided an example of the old newspaper term, "burying the lede".
It wasn't until halfway down the story about a double-header between Vancouver's Home Gas and Victoria that the paper noted that the starter in the second game for Vancouver was a woman ! Dot Richardson, given a rousing welcome by the fans at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, had a good first inning allowing just a walk but two triples, three walks and a couple of errors in the second frame sent her to the showers after just an inning and a third. She was charged with six runs but avoided the loss when Home Gas rallied to win.
Less than two weeks later, in the Vancouver Senior League, Floyd "Lefty" Isekite (left) of the Vancouver Athletics had a muted celebration of a no-hitter.
It was was no hits, but TWO runs as the Bellingham Boosters turned three errors in the seventh inning into runs and managed to sneak away with a 2-0 victory. Isekite walked three and fanned nine.
Our newly posted coverage of Victoria ball in 1935 (including rosters) complements the material on the Vancouver Senior League and the Terminal League so expertly prepared by our Rich Necker. These pieces, along with the amazing trilogy by Redeye Ropertz on the major league and Dai Nippon tours, of 1934-1935, greatly enhances our coverage of mid 1930s baseball.
Cricket was king in Victoria, BC in 1913 but baseball did get a little play on Vancouver Island and we make note of it and even have a few rosters.
We stumbled upon a couple of pictures of early 1900s players in the Crow's Nest League. Hank Levasseur is on the 1923 page and Tony Vejprava is in the 1924 gallery.
Jimmy Holness, a Victoria star, is shown on the 1918 BC page. The 1913 photo of Ed Steele on the snapshot page isn't of the greatest quality, to say the least, but, if nothing else, it serves as a placeholder for the real deal.
The 1925 BC Snapshot page has additions of Hap Gandy and Fred "Spike" McGinnis.
In 1935, we've added pictures of Steve Dunc and Kim Campbell to the BC photos and there's a new photo of the Victoria Old Timers from games in 1935. Famous all-around athlete Doug Peden has been added to the 1944 BC Photo Gallery. Of more recent vintage, there's catcher Dave Pook of St. Thomas Elgins on the 1961 Ontario photo page.
Another small step forward with Ontario coverage -- rosters for the 1934 Intercounty League, to go along with the final standings and a few stats.
Solved ! One Giacomuzzi puzzle resolved. The identification of a "J. Giacomuzzi" was in error, the initial belonging to another player. However, maybe there's another brother to chase down. A report on Amelio's (aka Moose) wedding, notes a brother Guido as the best man. Could Pedro and Guido be the same guy? Or is there a third brother?
25 August, 2017
Major leaguers needing part-time jobs?
Yes, there was a time, before the sport went money-mad and players became multi-millionaires, when post-season tours provided major league players with a little extra cash to supplement their less than stellar salaries. The average pay in the mid 1930s was around $5,000. In 1934 Babe Ruth made all of $34,000, cut to $8,000 in 1935.
These were the worst of times for many with the stock market crash of October, 1929, marking the start of the Great Depression. This would be the Dirty Thirties, drought, the Dust Bowl, relief camps for unemployed workers (in Saskatchewan two-thirds of the rural population relied on government relief), protests and riots, the Regina Riot being the most violent.
With this as the backdrop, a group of major leaguers, with Babe Ruth as the centrepiece, headed out after the 1934 season to bring big league ball to diamonds in Canada (with a few games in the United States along the way) as a warm-up for a tour to Japan.
A few months later, in the Spring of 1935, a group of Japanese high school and university players set out on a tour of the United States and Canada and within a year had become part of the first professional league in Japan.
Our Redeye Ropertz loved this story and spent many months researching details of all three events -- the 1934 tour of Western Canada, the 1934 tour of Japan and the 1935 Dai Nippon tour of North America.
Enjoy. The Ropertz trilogy.
BASEBALL ON TOUR ... WESTERN CANADA HOSTS MAJOR LEAGUERS
AND SAWAMURA ... THE BABE A CELEBRITY IN JAPAN
By Redeye Ropertz
As an incidental outgrowth of an attempt by American missionaries to bring Christianity to the Far East, baseball was introduced in Japan in the 1860s.
A 1908 tour by a team, mainly of Pacific Coast League players and organized by the A. J. Reach Company, is believed to be the first by an American squad.
In 1913, as part of a world tour, the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants set foot in the Land of the Rising Sun and delighted their first ever all-Nipponese audience with their level of skill during a single exhibition encounter (see photo above). Yes, that's John McGraw, second row up, sixth from the left. Among the Giants, a famous American athlete, Jim Thorpe (left).
It was not until eleven years later, however, that touring American major leaguers returned. This time the lineup included well-known impact players such as Casey Stengel, Luke Sewell and Bob Meusel.
In 1927, the Philadelphia Royal Giants, a squad of Negro players, including star catcher Biz Mackey (right), took the hop to Japan and won 23 of 24 games. In the process they cranked out a barrage of long distance home runs, some clearing the fences. The nickname "Giants" became synonymous with "respect" and "superiority".
"The Georgia Peach", Ty Cobb, was part of an American All-Star trek in 1928 while Lou Gehrig and Robert Moses "Lefty' Grove (right, on the cover of a game program) led a 1931 tour of Japan as the barnstorming junkets continued to increase in popularity. The 1934 series featured the incomparable George Herman "Babe' Ruth (seen above with fellow All-Stars, Jimmie Foxx (left) and Lou Gehrig). Even with declining skills, the Babe remained baseball's most entertaining and sought-after star.
Interestingly, the purpose of these trips was not cultural but economic. Ball players were poorly paid and required off season exhibition games to supplement their income.
Prior to sailing to Japan in 1934, the 36 American League All-Stars split into two camps. One squad, led by the 1933 home run champion Jimmie Foxx, toured Western Canada playing in cities such as Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. They played 12 games on Canadian soil winning 10 of 11 decisions, with one tie. The contingent led by Babe Ruth took the Soo Line Railway out of Chicago and travelled through Minnesota, North Dakota and Western Canada. Ruth was treated as a celebrity wherever the train stopped, be it Fargo, North Dakota or Estevan, Saskatchewan. His charisma was unmatched by any other athlete of his time.
The 1934 tour was organized by former New York Giant batting champion, Francis "Lefty" O'Doul and Sotaro Suzuki, a Japanese baseball writer, in partnership with the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.). On a journey from Tokyo to New York, Suzuki landed in Vancouver and embarked upon a train ride to Montreal. He was so impressed with the majestic and pristine scenery, which included Lake Louise, that he concluded this had to be a major part of the reason why Americans and Canadians seemed so composed and serene while Japanese appeared to be more high-strung. How this theory impacted Japanese baseball is uncertain.
The arrangement with the Canadian railway meant the American League All-Stars would travel on C.P.R. trains, sleep in its majestic hotels and cross the Pacific Ocean aboard its massive 26,000 tonne flagship "The Empress of Japan".
Suzuki is 2nd from the left, O'Doul on the right, with Connie Mack (left) and probably umpire John Quinn as the team set sail for Japan.
Connie Mack and his son Earle had assembled a cast of American League All-Stars featuring not only Babe Ruth but five more future Hall of Famers, including Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer and Lou Gehrig. It was the appearance of the 39-year-old Ruth which made this tour the most successful, not only in gate receipts, but also in 
celebration and genuine friendliness. Everywhere the Babe went he drew massive crowds. Despite heated tensions between the United States and Japan, the Babe was treated as a celebrity.
Following the 19-game warm-up tour in 15 cities in Canada and the United States, the All American squad played 23 games in four countries on their Asian tour and won all of them, many by lop-sided scores. There was such a demand for tickets that organizers incredulously charged prices double and even triple the average cost of a baseball ticket at Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium. All games were virtually sold out and attendance at some matches approached 100,000. No stadium in either the American or National League could accommodate such crowds. Total attendance for the entire trip exceeded 500,000.
There was no professional baseball in Japan and finding suitable opposition to face such accomplished stars as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig was a major problem. The better players in Japan played at the University level and would lose their amateur status if they played against professionals. For years, Japanese universities had been sending players to North America to gain experience, playing against semi-pro and amateur teams. In 1911, Waseda University traveled all the way to Vancouver and beat the 1910 Vancouver Senior A League champions by the score of 4 - 0. The challenge for media moguls, such as Sotaro, who were hoping the series would boost newspaper sales, was to convince the better university players to participate in this "historic" tour. A number of the more accomplished students did play and many of them stayed with the team the following year. Although not the first professional team in Japan, the newly formed Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Club (Greater Tokyo Baseball Team) would lay the foundation for professional baseball in the country. It is not surprising that they would adopt the nickname "Giants". Lefty O'Doul, long time friend and passionate supporter of baseball in Japan, played for the New York Giants.
Babe Ruth played in every game, hitting 13 home runs, scoring 27, driving in 33 more, while batting .408 -- a triple crown achievement. The 1934 tour turned out to be more than just a series of friendly exhibitions. It was an event that changed lives, was a diplomatic coup, and significantly influenced Japanese baseball. It was also Babe Ruth's farewell tour and he went out with a bang! In effect, Babe Ruth almost single-handedly globalized the game of baseball when baseball was still just a game.
By the end of the 1934 tour the Major Leagues had compiled an overall record of 87 - 1! The only loss coming in 1922 when Keio University Alumni defeated the American visitors 9 - 3.
In 1935, the Tokio Giants undertook an extensive four month barnstorming tour of both the United States and Canada. In all, they played 109 games, winning 74.
Baseball fans from Winnipeg to Vancouver would soon marvel at the talent of some of these young phenoms such as Eiji Sawamura (left, who appeared in nearly half of the games and finished with a 24-9 record) and Russian born Victor Starffin (right). Nine members of the team would ultimately make the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
The years 1934 and 1935 were exciting, historic and memorable times to be a baseball fan in Western Canada. Not only did fans have the opportunity to watch some of the best ball players in history, they were witness to the emergence of Japanese professional baseball.
AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STARS TOUR OF WESTERN CANADA
06 August, 2017
The Giacomuzzi brothers, Amelio, known as Moose, and brother Pedro were among the combatants who popularized baseball in the Crow's Nest area in the 1930s, 30s and 50s. At least we thought there were just the pair of Giacomuzzis. However, in the 1938 game reports, just updated as a result of research by our Rich Necker, there's note of a J. Giacomuzzi. One more mystery to solve.
We've tried to track down photos of the brothers, without much luck. The best we could find was a picture in the Lethbridge Herald in 1944 when the pair joined the Navy (just a guess, but Moose is at the right). .
With Rich's work, there are now game reports, sketchy as they may be at times, for nearly all the games of the 1938 season. The loop had entries from both Alberta and BC -- Blairmore (the Canucks and the Cardinals), Natal, Hillcrest, Elk Valley and Lundbreck.
05 August, 2017
A consequence of coverage of the recent London Reunion has been renewed interest in the history of amateur and semi-pro ball in Southern Ontario. We've been a beneficiary with the addition of all the recent postings, mainly on the London teams of the Intercounty League. And, we've been reminded of an area of history not given much attention of the years -- the success of black baseball in the province, at the team and individual level.
In 1934, the Chatham Colored All-Stars pulled a major surprise in winning a provincial championship. Two members of that team -- Wilfred "Boomer" Harding (left) and Earl "Flat" Chase (right) -- have subsequently gained some well-deserved recognition. (In 2002, the Toronto Blue Jays wore replicas of the Chatham uniforms to salute the All-Stars).
Paul Allen, who grew up on the diamonds of Chatham and then played in the Intercounty League with London Majors, had that in common with Chase, just two decades later. Paul is well aware of Chase's contributions :
By all accounts Earl "Flat" Chase was the most versatile of players who could pitch, catch, and play all infield positions with equal adroitness. His name also became legend around the province as a long home-run hitter and he came to hold records for the longest balls hit in Sarnia, Strathroy, Welland, Milton and Chatham.
In 1934, he led the City League in hitting with a .525 average and that same year in the finals against Penetang, out pitched Phil Marchildon, who later starred with the Philadelphia Athletics in the American League.
In a 1985 interview, the late Kingsley Terrell of Chatham, a star athlete in his own right, talked about his friend and team mate. “He got the name Flat because he walked as though he had flat feet, but boy could he run,” said Terrell. “There was not a better second baseman around, he was a good pitcher and God knows there was nobody around the country that could hit a ball any better or farther than he could . . . he could have been in the major leagues but he was the wrong colour at the wrong time.”
Dresden resident Bruce Carter also recalled Flat Chase and noted that he often watched him play in Dresden. He was a major league quality player,” said Carter, who recalled seeing Chase hit a ball at the west side of Jackson Park in Dresden that cleared the roof of the town’s library, a significant distance to the east. “He hit balls they still haven’t found.”
“If you were in Welland today and told anybody you were from Chatham, the first thing they’d tell you would be about the home run Flat hit there one day. It was one of the greatest moments because I was on first base when he hit it. The ball not only cleared the right field fence, it cleared a building way behind the fence. People in Welland later said the ball ended up downtown. Flat was the most gifted hitters I’ve ever seen. There’s no question in anybody’s mind who ever say him that he would have been a major leaguer had it not been for the colour barrier” -- Boomer Harding (Miller, "Boomer Harding--One Great Guy," London Free Press, September 7, 1978).
Earl "Flat" Chase was born in 1910 in Buxton, Ontario but moved to Windsor when quite young. He lived across the street from a ball park and all his spare hours were spent there, participating and learning the skills of the game at which he became very proficient. From the 1920's to the 1950's, inspired by Babe Ruth, baseball was king in North America as every city and town had a men's baseball league and every city and town played other communities. Chatham was no exception. "Flat" was a very versatile player as he could catch, pitch, and play all infield positions. Although he led many leagues in batting in his career, he became renowned as a long home run hitter as he held records for the longest balls hit in Sarnia, Strathroy, Aylmer, Welland, Milton, and Chatham” (Chatham Sports Hall of Fame).
“The Stars this year are favored by a strong four-man pitching staff. Flat Chase, smoke-ball king of the City League, has been the mainstay of the pitching staff most of the season and has come to be recognized as one of the hardest hitters in amateur ball” ("Stars Begin O.B.A.A. Playdowns Thursday," Chatham Daily News, September 5,1934).
“’Flat’ Chase, hard-hitting shortstop for the Stars, supplied the biggest thrill of the afternoon when he drove a mammoth drive far over the right field fence in the sixth for a home run. It was the longest drive in the history of the local park” ("Stars Even Round with Clever Win," Chatham Daily News, September 24, 1934).
“Flat Chase, who was the first to face Shupe, nailed the Welland moundsman’s first delivery on the button and the crowd sat fascinated as the sphere threatened to vanish into the heavens. When last seen, the ball was disappearing over the large sheet metal shed outside the right field fence. Chase was given a standing ovation by fans for his performance. It was easily the longest hit ever made in the park” ("Bits About the Stars," Chatham Daily News, September 25, 1934).More on Earl "Flat" Chase
Wilfred Harding was an all-around athlete, who seemed bound for stardom in baseball or hockey. He had one major roadblock, especially in the time period of the 1930s and 1940s. Read Mary Caton's piece in the Windsor Star from 2016.
The Harding and Chase photos are the first to grace our new 1934 Ontario Photo Gallery. And, we've added the team photo of the Chatham Colored All-Stars. Also from 1934, we've added the standings for the Intercounty League. A side note - the London team, known as London Winery in 1934, became London Silverwoods (Dairy) in 1937. From booze to milk !
There's also a 1943 Ontario Photo Gallery with pics extracted from the London team photo. Thanks to Barry Wells and Barry Boughner for digging out the names for the 1943 London squad.
A re-check of material from our Henry Ropertz found rosters for 1934 for the Vancouver Commercial League missed earlier, now posted.
03 August, 2017
If you've previously scanned our 1951 home page, you know that was quite the baseball season on the prairies. We've now made a substantial addition to the 1951 pages, filling in some blanks in Alberta coverage with game reports for six provincial leagues - Chinook, Big Six (with five teams), Foothills, Sunshine, Boundary and Crow's Nest Pass (which, of course, also had BC teams).
Along the way, the news pages had results for elsewhere so there are also other game report updates, regarding the Edmonton Oilers, Manitoba-Saskatchewan ball , the ManDak League, the BC Interior, and Vancouver Island.
There's details on a dozen tournaments, rosters and stats. Two big success stories in the Chinook League were veteran Reg Clarkson the power-hitting second baseman of the Calgary Buffaoes, who put up such strong 
numbers that while he left the team in July to go to football camp, he still had enough of a margin to win the batting title.
Young lefty Bentley MacEwen, just 18, was unbeatable, finishing with a 10-0 record, a league-leading 136 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.35.
Former Negro Leaguer, Hubert Glenn suited up for Claresholm, Alberta and obviously was a bit too talented for the opposition as he rapped the ball at a .535 clip with 30 of his 53 hits going for extra bases. But, it was his pitching which got the most attention. 17 wins, 4 losses, 207 strikeouts in 166 innings.
There are new faces in the 1951 photo galleries with Bert Olmstead and Roy Schappert in the Saskatchewan file, and Ralph Vold, Joe Connors, Frank Deak, Bob Fink, Walt Pashuk, Bill Thederahn in the Alberta gallery. We're happy to add a picture of Charlie White to the 1951 ManDak gallery and Leon Day to the 1950 ManDak pictures. There's also a 1951 Alberta snapshot page now showing Doad Tufteland and Dick Noon.
In searching for a better photo of Walt Pashuk, we ended up re-doing the Magrath individual photos in the 1956 Alberta gallery.
There is no evidence this actually happened, but it appeared some of the touring black players began to really like small town Alberta. August 3, 1950, THE HANNA (Alberta) HERALD and EAST CENTRAL ALBERTA NEWS, carried the following item.
Colored Ballplayers Want Jobs in Hanna
Three members of the Muskogee Cardinals baseball club which played here Tuesday evening are very much interested in securing jobs in Hanna, and of course plying the baseball talents as well. It would be quite an acquisition to the Hanna Club's roster with two first class pitchers and a catcher. The boys being "jacks of all trades" in the baseball game can play any position.
Leroy Haskins, who played first base in the game here is a left-hander and in addition to duties on the mound can perform very capably in the field. Leroy hails from 2405 - West 10th St., Texarkana, Texas, but gives his forwarding address as C/O Bishop College Trade School.
Ernest Locke of 709 Flood Street, Wichita Falls, Texas, in his role as short stop in Tuesday's game took the eye of most of the baseball critics, with his uncanny ability to cover second base and his own position. Ernie also states that he can play any position and there are few in these parts who will doubt his word. He can be contacted at the above address until this spring.
Tall, Ulysee Patrick, catcher, would be a most welcome player on any man's ball club, and when not on the receiving end can take a turn on the mound, likes the outfield and in general states he is an "all around man." Ulysee had few chances to show his throwing ability to second bases, but on the throws he did make was in a class by himself. He can be found at 3943 N. 33 St., Kansas City, Kansas.
What a ball club the Hanna Cubs could have with the three above gentlemen in the lineup. A battery, a spare pitcher, first baseman, outfielder. Guess just about a whole ball team !
Wow. You don't find many of these. Home movies of local baseball in the 50s. Barry Wells, whose been terrific in helping to add to our Intercounty file, especially material from London (see the London Reunion page), points out a little gem (just 1:37) now on YouTube. It shows a couple of teenagers (maybe 16-17 at the time) playing catch. They would go on to be legends in London ball - Roy McKay and Bob Deakin. Victor Aziz Sr., the photographer for most of the London team photos we've posted, filmed the pair and the convertible, and the dog, in 1950.
Catching up on past heroes - check out the line on George Bradshaw, catcher in the Intercounty League in the 1930s with the Galt Terriers.
A batting average of ... .698 ! He's in the Cambridge, Ontario, Sports Hall of Fame.
One more Ontario team photo - the 1944 Toronto District Champions, Mahers. The London Majors went on to win the Canadian title, and in the process place six players on the first team All-Stars of the Canadian playoffs (Dunc Galbraith C, Tommy White P, Hank Biasatti 1B, Russ Evon SS, Clare Van Horne LF and Wally Dippel CF).
A treat for ol' friend Jack Altman, likely still flingin' a few this summer, we've posted a photo of the 1961 Humboldt, California, Crabs, one of the consistently good semi-pro teams in the west which, over the years, featured many players who had experience in Western Canada. On this edition, Jack, Bert Dollar and Bobby Doig had roots in Canada.
02 August, 2017
I was certain the 1956 Granum photos had been posted years and years ago. Maybe they're already hidden on some other page, but they've been re-done nonetheless. Good quality photos of most of the members of the powerful 1956 club, including such stalwarts as Jim Lester, Bentley MacEwen, Joe Weremy, and Earl Ingarfield.
In re-checking my re-checking of the spelling of MacEwen (so often spelled McEwen or MacEwan or McEwan) I was helped by extended family of the famous Delisle Bentleys. Bentley MacEwen's story appears to have been a sad one in later years. I know I had great difficulty in trying to track him down.
Wonder if anyone has information of what became of Bentley after baseball. It's believed he died young, just 48. He is so prominent in 1951 in Calgary ball as I try and wrap up coverage of that season.
Rich Necker has some bits and pieces from 1938 BC & Alberta ball (which has helped to finally figure out that "Tosin" Krall and John Krall were the same guy, with all the other Kralls performing in Crow's Nest baseball (Wally and Tommy Krall might be the most recognizable). The main new coverage occurs in the Crow's Nest Pass circuit. There's also new information on the BC Interior page and the 1938 tournament and roster pages.
From the London Major reunion, Barry Wells keeps the hits coming ! One is a link to a marvelous little film from about 1950 showing a pair of future London legends. And, he's sent along a photo of the 1966 London Pontiacs to go along with our recent collection of team pics. Lots of familiar names (at least to Southern Ontario fans of a certain age) - Stan Anderson, John Ambrose, Roy McKay, Dave Lapthorne, Barry Boughner, Russ Evon, Paul Allen.
01 August, 2017
You know the routine. It's the day of the game and you have work blocking your day of enjoyment at the ballpark. Well, there's always that sick day. "Sorry boss, not feeling well, must be the 'flu." And, yet, there you are in the TV shot of the outfield, reaching to nab a home run ball, beer in one hand, old glove on the other.
Well, Walter Frink of the Calgary Bronchos, the leading hurler in the professional Western Canada League, took a sick day and turned up in the lineup of Langdon in the Gleichen Tournament. He tossed two complete game victories in two days to lead his new mates to top money. It was all part of the shifting allegiances in baseball in the 'teens in Alberta and elsewhere.
Rich Necker has dug up more on early ball on the prairies with 1913 Alberta game reports, Saskatchewan game notes, tournament summaries and, of course, rosters (a very impressive list for that early in our baseball history). He's even found some stats for one of the Manitoba clubs in the Mountain League and a photo of the Edmonton City Dairy team from their 1913 season. And, we've discovered a photo of the 1913 Moose Jaw champions, Allan-Cummings.
And, skipping ahead a year, Rich has a few notes on the Vancouver City championship of 1914.
A couple of individual photos added, 1922, Ira Colwell of the Calgary Bronchos of the old Western Canada circuit and, 1933, "Shorts" Henderson, a mainstay of the Revelstoke club of the BC Interior.
And, on the 1950 home page we've made note of Doug "Goose" Gostlin, a top hurler in Toronto in 1949, who made it out to Saskatchewan to star for the famous Delisle Gems of the Bentley brothers the following season.
The Globe and Mail newspaper out of Toronto stated Gostlin, then just 20, had compiled a pitching record of 20-4, outstanding for the short season on the prairies. He turned pro the following season, going 17-9 and 18-11 in the first two of his six seasons in the Brooklyn and Phillies organizations.
The London Reunion page has a couple of new additions and we've added a team photo of the 1958 London Majors.. Thank you Barry Wells !
31 July, 2017
In adding more information and photos to the London Reunion page (thanks to Paul Allen and Barry Wells) one thing led to another to another ... and we now have a few more pictures of the London championship teams beginning with the 1925 club, in their first season in the Intercounty League of Southern Ontario. (The league itself was born in 1919). No names yet, but we are hopeful !
Then, seeing a photo of the 1943 London Army team, it reminded me 
of an old photo sent to us many moons back but filed away for future use. Yep, it's another picture of the 1943 team, but WITH names. (Turns out though that they may have had them backwards.) The July 22nd reunion in London featured, among others, Stanley "Tubby" Jones, (above, left and right) now in his mid 90s, who was the catcher on that 1943 squad.
The 1944 London Majors photos have been posted for years, but we've now added some names for the bottom picture (and, our ace correspondent Rich Necker will likely be able to fill in some more).
The 1945 and 1948 team pages are unchanged, but we've now added three new ones -- the championship teams of 1956, 1969 (in colour too !) and 1975 (also in colour).
One of the big highlights of the London club over all these years, was the 1948 season when the Majors won not just the Intercounty championship, the Ontario AND Canadian titles, but, in a tough, seven-game series, captured the North American sandlot championship downing a talented Fort Wayne, Indiana team, loaded with ex-pros, including former major league hurler Bill Brandt and major leaguer to be, Chuck Harmon. In the seventh and deciding game, London legend Tommy White fired a five-hit shutout as the Majors won 5-0. It was his third win of the series and his 15th consecutive mound triumph.
There's not much talk about another aspect of that 1948 title - the manager, Clare Van Horne. It was a sordid tale of spurned romance and murder.
30 July, 2017
Quite a weekend in London, Ontario, a week ago, as the city's London Majors of the Intercounty League held their inaugural Alumni Reunion.
Paul Allen, who suited up with the Majors from the early 1960s to the early 1970s, was among the attendees at the gathering and sends along a report of the event - London Reunion.
That's Paul, at the right, with legendary college coach and teacher, Jack Fairs, the last surviving member of London's 1948 team which won the Intercounty League title, the provincial and Canadian championships and to top it all, the North American National Baseball Congress title defeating a tough team from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Fairs, now in his 90s, taught and coached at the University of Western Ontario for more than fifty years. Right - that's Fairs in 1942 as a member of the football team at Western.
Good to hear from ol' friend Bill Guenthner, whose dedication and talent has helped to preserve the history of the Minot Mallards of North Dakota. His wonderful web site now has a home here. Bill sends word of a special report in the Minot Daily News on the Mallards and Bill's efforts to keep the memories alive. Congrats Bill !!
10 July, 2017
Chances are you are familiar with the character at the left. Yep, the famous San Diego Chicken, the long time mascot of the major league Padres. And, a featured guest at the London Majors (Ontario Intercounty League) reunion at London the weekend of July 22-23. Ted Giannoulas, the man in the outfit, was born and raised in London and used to change the old manual scoreboard at Labatt Park in the mid 1960s.
Former London second sacker Paul Allen, who will be at the reunion, has kindly offered to bring back some news and photos of the event. You might recall that Paul has provided our site with some very interesting material on the Intercounty League and his time as a teammate of Fergie Jenkins in Chatham. We look forward to Paul's report.
Thanks to our old friend Jack Altman for sending along the newsletter of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. A very newsy, eye-catching publication (with Bill Swank and Dave Eskenazi among the advisory committee). Lots of familiar names in the articles.
A nice surprise to hear from Steve Brossard, grandson of Revere Augustus "Babe" Brossard, a star of Saskatchewan ball in the 1920s and 1930s. Babe had a home in Vancouver and also had a large cattle ranch in the Ashcroft area that Steve and his siblings (a brother, two sisters) would visit in the summer. And it seems the family had the baseball gene. Steve and older brother Brian both took the game to heart. That's Babe and "grandma" arriving home from a trip to Hawaii. And, on the right, the big guy is Brian (who went to the Pony League World Series with his Victoria team) and Steve who continued to play baseball and fastball until he "got too broken to play".
Happy to help out Ken McWilliams of Regina with a historical project on the Royal Canadian Legion. They're working on a video and one of our photos caught their attention. It's one of a set of pictures of the 1948 wedding of Saskatoon Legion catcher Bobby Sasseville and his lovely bride Doreen Duffus. The photos came to us nearly ten years ago thanks to Jules Swick, a baseball and fastball star in Saskatoon in the 1940s and 1950s. We've taken this opportunity to enlarge and improve the quality of the photos. We have recently been informed that they are photos by noted prairie photographer Leonard Hillyard and available through the Saskatoon Public Library, Local History department.
In our search for a good photo of Irvin Castille (Brandon Greys, 1952) we managed to hook up again with Bill Plott, who is wrapping up a book on the Birmingham Black Barons of Negro League baseball. You might already be familiar with Bill from his publications for SABR and book on the Negro Southern League. Looking forward to the latest publication!
We overlooked this one earlier, but it's now added to the 1906 roster page, the names of the players on the club from Anacortes, Washington which toured in Alberta that summer. Important not just for the games but for William F. "Deacon" White who was the playing manager of the American team and was so enamoured by Edmonton that he decided to remain and quickly established himself as the area’s first promoter of big-league sport by helping to build baseball, football and hockey organizations in the thriving Capital city.
From our effort to dig up some news of baseball in Ontario we now have the 1949 rosters to go along with the game reports posted earlier. Included are the Intercounty League, West Toronto League, Viaduct League, plus the Japanese teams in Hamilton and Montreal.
While he awaits knee surgery, our Rich Necker keeps pumping out the material, this time concentrating on the 1913 season on the prairies. Among other things, he's come up with game reports for Alberta (note all the suspensions and weird injuries), BC Interior (including the Okanagan, Arrow Lakes & East Kootenays), Vancouver, and Vancouver Island, and even a bit from Saskatchewan. A 1913 Tournament page has also been established. His sleuthing through the early newspapers has resulted in a huge expansion of the 1913 roster page with names of players for teams from Estevan to Yorkton to Calgary, Bow Island, Lloydminster, Vancouver, Nelson, Cranbrook and dozens of places in between.
30 June, 2017
Hobbled, on the DL, but still punching out the reports - our Rich Necker adds to our understanding of early baseball on the prairies and the West Coast.
In this edition, Rich has game reports and rosters for the 1913 Winnipeg Senior Amateur League and another, called simply the Semi-Pro League in Manitoba.
One 1913 game report popped up for Saskatchewan ball (noting the fighting, but not much else) so we add a new page anticipating we'll add more over time.
On the 1914 Vancouver page, we add a report on a touring Japanese university team, no-hit, but managed a tie.
Rich has more for our photo display as well. First there's the 1912 Kelly-Douglas Nabobs the champs of the Vancouver Wholesale Baseball League.
And there's the 1914 National Biscuit Company squad, including Harley "Hap" Solloway (left) (one of three Solloways on the team) the Commercial League and Vancouver City champions. From the photo we were able to update the team roster.
On the 1955 Ontario Photo Gallery there are a few addition pics, including Bill Andrescik, John Krycia and Sam Lima of the West Toronto Senior League.
As we begin to dig into some clippings from the 1951 summer in Alberta, we've undated some rosters (Lethbridge Miners and Cubs) and stories for the Tournament page. There are a few additions to the game reports.