|
... Scotty Munro is back home after undergoing a leg operation ... After
he left the hospital in Regina he took in a few of the big-money
tournaments in Saskatchewan and says the brand of ball is twice
as good as they played in Southern Alberta and better than the
Alberta Big 4 variety. He says teams like Sceptre, Indian
Head, Swift Current, Delisle, Regina and Estevan look like good
pro clubs. "They're playing more baseball in
Saskatchewan now than ever before and the fans are gobbling it
up faster than the games come along." "Imagine ... they
had 10,000 people to see the final game of the Indian Head
tournament." (Lethbridge Herald, August 4,
1950)
  The early 50s brought a flood
of former Negro Leaguers into a new circuit, the Manitoba-Dakota
(Mandak) League.
Willie Wells, "Double Duty"
Radcliffe, and Leon Day were among the black stars to
suit up in Winnipeg (two teams), Brandon, Carman and Minot, the lone
American club. Even Satchel Paige (left) made an
appearance (see Mandak
snapshots). Players
from pre-Castro Cuba barnstormed across the prairies as the Florida
Cubans then settled down to play as the Indian Head Rockets. In
Ontario, Ted Alexander (right) was among the former Negro
League players to travel north of the 49th Parallel. Brandon Greys won the
Mandak pennant, winning 32 of 48 league games, but were ousted in the
final by the Winnipeg Buffaloes. 
In a dramatic finish to the inaugural Mandak season, Buffaloes won the final game 1-0 in
17 innings as Leon Day went the distance for the
win. Jim Newberry was a playoff star for Winnipeg.
In just over a week he won four games and saved another allowing
just three earned runs over 24 2/3s innings. He gave up only 15
hits while fanning 25 and walking four. He finished with a
playoff ERA of 1.09.
 Butch Davis of Winnipeg
Buffaloes led the hitters with a lofty .456 mark, well ahead of
runnerup Rafe Cabrera (.374). Art Hunt of
Brandon topped the pitchers with a 9-0 won-lost record.
The 1950 Mandak All-Stars, as
selected by the Winnipeg Tribune, featured five players each
from Brandon and Winnipeg :
Catcher - Ramon Rodriguez,
Brandon,
First base - Lyman Bostock, Winnipeg,
Second base - Johnny Kennedy, WInnipeg,
Third base - Ian Lowe, Brandon,
Shortstop - Rafe Cabrera, Brandon,
Left field - Lomax (Butch) Davis, Winnipeg,
Centre field - Sol Drake, Elmwood, Right field - Jack Shaeffer, Carman,
Utility - Leon Day, Winnipeg,
Pitchers - Dirk Gibbons, Brandon; Art Hunt,
Brandon; Taylor Smith, Winnipeg; Gentry Jessup,
Carman,
Manager - Wilf (Lefty) Lefevbre, Minot
From the Brandon Sun at the
beginning of the 1950 season:
First
and foremost, playing manager Ian Lowe was signed, and
the return of the popular leader and hard hitting infielder will
be applauded all over the circuit. Few pilots are in such
high favor as the Brandon manager, for the quiet but efficient
manner in which he handles his duties, earns him respect from
rival clubs and fans as well.
 
Barnstorming teams had become a summer staple on the prairies
filling ball yards in centres large and small. (George
Anderson, left, and Doc Tally, right, two of the
mainstays of the House of David). The downward spiral of
the Negro Leagues (with the integration of professional baseball)
provided Canadian teams with an even larger pool of potential
talent..
 "George Ligon and his
Negro Stars, who come from California in a bus with Texas
plates, are back for the fifth straight year ... billed against
the (Regina) Caps tonight. On Monday, Caps have a date
with Muskogee Cardinals, another touring club. Next Friday
and Saturday, Nick Pappas has booked the House of David and
Harlem Globe-Trotters for an all-tourist show and on the
following Wednesday ... Caps will appear against San Francisco
Sea Lions."
(Tom Melville, Regina
Leader-Post, June 17, 1949)
 It took the touring clubs a couple of years after the Second
World War to resume their town-hopping tours. When the
House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs (KC's
Cool Papa Bell, right) hit Regina in 1948,
it was their first visit since before the war.
Interest in baseball skyrocketed.
"Baseball's
popularity in Regina hit a new high Wednesday night when the
biggest throng in several years (over 1,400 paid) turned up at
Taylor Field to see Cliff Ehrle and his Caps nosed out 6-5 by
the colored Muskogee Cardinals, first touring team to appear
this summer." (Regina
Leader-Post, June 10, 1948)
 The
papers of the day made it clear that some of these touring teams
were "different". (Regina Leader-Post, June 23,
1948)
"When
bigger and better ball parks are built in Regina, the
effervescent House of David and Kansas City Monarchs will
probably fill them. They gave Taylor Field some to remember
them by Tuesday night and brought back nostalgic memories of
pre-war days as 3,500 customers (paying variety) stormed the
gates, spewed over from the bleachers down the base lines and
into deep centre field. It was almost a mob scene that
greeted touring baseball's top-drawer clubs."
(Regina Leader-Post, June 23, 1948)
"The
crowd made more news than the ball game as almost 3,500 paid
turned out for the second night in a row, a situation that
astounded even the tourists who have run into fan enthusiasm in
their time. They left for Swift Current and points west
beaming over the success of their Regina ventures." (Regina
Leader-Post, June 24, 1948)
In Swift Current, the local paper highlighted the colour aspect
of the game in noting the likely pitcher - catcher combination
for the team would be Edward Lee Crowder and catcher
Joe Webb.
Over the summer of 1950, about two dozen touring teams would
travel the rough roads of the prairies.
 The
California
Mohawks would win games and fans as they zoomed from town to
town across the West in their twin Chryslers.
Some
of those California kids discovered many of the Canadian teams offered a
little hockey with their baseball. Lou Pisani, a member of the
barnstorming California Mohawks
came away impressed with the baseball talents of a few of the prairies
hockey stars :
"
... Gordie Howe played first base and the Bentley brothers
had their own field. They were good baseball players. You know
how they used to slide into a base? You know in hockey they give you a
shoulder? Well, they used to come in and roll. They didn't come in
with spikes high, they'd come in, slide in, and roll into you with their
shoulder and knock the ball out of your glove. They played hard, they were
great guys. I also remember a mean winger, Bert Olmstead.
If you fooled around with him, he'd take ya out."
Indian Head, which had sponsored
tournaments, decided to field a team of
its own. Florida's Jacksonville Eagles, an all-Negro team,
crossed the border, changed uniforms and voilą, the Indian Head
Rockets were born. Jim Williams, a veteran of the Negro
Leagues, was the club's manager.
"The hard-hitting outfielder batted behind Josh
Gibson and Buck Leonard for the Homestead Grays in 1938, rapping
the ball for a .363 average ... he could run, hit, and hit with
power ... the following season he moved to the Toledo Crawfords
of the Negro American League, where, batting in the third slot
for manager Oscar Charleston, his performance earned him a spot
in the 1939 East-West All-Star game."
(James A. Riley: The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball
Leagues)
The Rockets featured such stars
as Jesse Blackman, Jim Morrow and Louis Green.
They had a highly successful first season winning their own
tournament and taking home $9,000 in prize money.
Sceptre's George Mahaffy
on Blackman. "The rumour we had was that Jesse had killed a
man with an inside pitch. We didn't hit too well against
him."
Dave Shury, Saskatchewan's
baseball historian, noted that the club played 80 games, winning
56, tying 5 and losing just 19. Over the summer the
players had three days away from baseball.
It was the beginning of one of the prairies' great tournaments --
the annual event in Lacombe, Alberta. The California
Mohawks made a big impression in the opening tourney with a
dramatic semi-final victory. They split first prize money
with Sceptre when rain prevented the championship game. Stan
Moher, Sports Editor of the Edmonton Bulletin: "The
lid really came off this town. Thousands poured in from points
north, south, east and west.  One of the heftiest crowds ever to
see an athletic attraction in this part of the province, an
estimated 4,200 packed the bleachers of diamond B for the
Lacombe-Sceptre semi-final. Roy Taylor, who homered
dramatically in the ninth inning to give California Mohawks a
squeak 6-4 win over Alaskan Command, is head baseball coach at
College of Sequoias at Visalia, Calif. Bigger
and better is the slogan for next year's tourney. "Sure
we'll be back," committee-chairman Jack Ferris promised at
a late hour last night. Lacombe's prestige as a live-wire
central Alberta centre received a big shot in the arm as a
result of the successful promotion of their first tourney."
Edmonton's John Ducey (right) was at the forefront of the
baseball resurgence.
The 1950 season marked the end of
his first major foray into baseball promotion in
Edmonton. Ducey, who long had dreams of reviving the
Western Canada League, which had flourished in the 20's, began in
1946 with a three-team loop in Edmonton (Cubs, Eskimos and Army
& Navy Cardinals).
The experiment led to the development of the Big Four League
with two Calgary teams -- the Buffaloes and Purity 99 from the
Foothills League -- joining the Edmonton Cubs and Eskimos in the
new circuit. It would last for four seasons.
The initial season, 1947, would coincide with an important
milestone in the province, the beginning of the oil boom with
the gusher at Leduc. The tough Purity 99s won the initial title
defeating Ducey's Eskimos in six games.
The following season, Ducey brought it a veteran pro catcher
to handle the club and the team responded with its only
title. Eddie Morris, described as a 26-year-old, but
who had started a pro career ten years earlier, would catch and
coach the Eskimos over the 99s in the championship series.
Morris stayed with the Eskimos for three seasons and later, in
1956, would turn up with the Lloydminster Meridians. One of the Purity
recruits was a young Vulcan, Alberta schoolboy -- Glen
Gorbous who would top his baseball career with time in the
majors.
The Edmonton Cubs won in 1949 beating the Eskimos in the
final.
The 1950 season saw the Cubs drop out to be replaced by the
Edmonton Dodgers (Don Stewart, later to be playing coach
of the Meridians, would suit up for the Dodgers) under manager Jim
Ryan. While the 99s would have Glen Gorbous back in
the lineup, the Eskimos signed a California collegian who would
go on to play in the major leagues. Bob Lillis was
the first of many stars from the University of Southern
California to don the Eskimo pinstripes. Lillis won the
batting title with a .409 average and his 10 homers tied Gorbous
for the league lead. The Dodgers would take the league
championship.
The Big Four folded after the 1950 season and Ducey would put
his energy into an exhibition, barnstorming team, the Edmonton
Oilers.
While
baseball was booming on the prairies, there was a danger sign --
television.
"The
television virus which is spreading like wildfire through the
United States is gradually infecting Canadians who are within
range , says The Financial Post. At last count, 13, 500
Canadians had bought receiving sets. At an average price
of around $200, they had dug down for a healthy $ 2 1/4
million. Canadian-built receivers are being produced by
thirteen manufacturers. They had already made 5,300 sets
this year. Estimates of production by the year-end range
from 17,000 to 35,000 receiving sets. But all this is just
"peanuts" compared to what many in the industry are
sure is going to happen just as soon as the CBC or anyone else
who is fortunate enough gets Canadian TV underway. They
foresee an annual production of 200,000 sets; a new $100 million
a year industry. If the CBC takes over this gigantic
project , it's to be hoped that financing will be by some means
other than by yearly license. " (The
Claresholm Local Press, July 6, 1950 -- Subscription $3 per
year, in advance) |
Pete
Beiden (left), baseball coach at Fresno State University and Roy
Taylor (right), who would take over the baseball program at the
College of Sequoias, were the architects of the barnstorming Mohawks who
returned for a second season on the prairies. Beiden and Taylor
would establish a pipeline to channel top college talent from the United
States to
Western Canadian teams. 
Western
Canada baseball would groom three players -- Tom Alston, Pumpsie
Green (left) and John Kennedy -- who would be the first
black players on three of the major league teams -- St.
Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.
