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 There was baseball
fever on the prairies.
Thirteen Saskatchewan communities
hosted teams in three semi-pro leagues -- the Western Canada
League, Northern Saskatchewan Baseball League and the Manitoba -
Saskatchewan circuit. The leagues also included one Alberta club and
four from Manitoba. Four more Manitoba teams returned for a
second season of the Mandak League. Ian Lowe's Brandon
Greys would dominate.
Dozens of tournaments would dot the baseball agenda with a series of official tournaments
to determine provincial champions.
The touring California Mohawks of
1950 set down roots in Medicine Hat and joined the Western
League along with Indian Head, Regina, Moose Jaw, Estevan and
Swift Current.
The Bentley brothers had their Delisle team
in the Northern Saskatchewan League.
The Saskatoon Cubs and
Legion teams combined to form the 55s, under new playing-manager
Roy Taylor. The Gems and 55s hooked up with the North Battleford Beavers,
Eston Ramblers, Prince Albert Bohemians and Colonsay
Monarchs.
Two of the stars of the 55s of Saskatoon -- Gordie Howe and Roy Taylor. Howe,
just beginning an illustrious NHL hockey career would later have
to give up baseball on orders from the Detroit Red Wings. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 1951)
The three powers from the 1950 season
would continue their winning, and entertaining, ways.
Edmonton would try its luck as a
barnstorming team, called the Oilers.
Sceptre won six tournaments, including the Western Canada
championship sponsored by the National Baseball Congress. Medicine Hat Mohawks
won four tournaments including the prestigious Lacombe
event.
However, the best
team on the prairies may have been Indian Head.
The Rockets walked away with the title in the Western Canada
League, at one point winning 22 straight games.
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1951 Stats
1951
Rosters
1951 Tournaments
1951 Sceptre Nixons
1951 Trail
Smoke Eaters
1951 Eston Ramblers
1951 Brooks Monarchs
WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE
Indian Head Rockets 33 12
Regina Caps
27 19 6.5
Medicine Hat Mohawks 24 22 9.5
Moose Jaw Canucks 23 24
11.0
Estevan Maple Leafs
20 24 12.5
Swift Current Nixons 8 34 23.5
1951 Game Reports
1951 Playoffs
1951 Photo Gallery
1951
Snapshots
1951 Medicine Hat Mohawks
1951 Indian Head Rockets
1951 Swift Current Indians
NORTHERN SASKATCHEWAN
LEAGUE
N-Battleford Beavers
Saskatoon 55s
Eston Ramblers
Delisle Gems
P-Albert Bohemians
Colonsay Monarchs
1951 Game
Reports
1951 Photo Gallery
1951 Saskatoon 55s
1951 Colonsay Monarchs
SOUTHERN LEAGUE
Weyburn Beavers 16 6
Notre Dame Hounds 15 7 1.0
Regina Royal Caps 11 9 4.0
Regina Red Sox 9 13 7.0
Avonlea Arrows 9 13 7.0
Wilcox Cardinals 5 15 10.0
(Moose Jaw Millers
disbanded)
1951 Game
Reports
NORTHEASTERN SK LEAGUE
NESBL
History
MANDAK LEAGUE
Brandon Greys 37 26
Winnipeg Buffaloes 34 29 3.0
Minot Mallards 32 32 5.5
Carman Cardinals 29 33 7.5
Elmwood Giants 25 37 11.5
1951 Game
Reports
1951 Playoffs
1951 Photo Gallery
1951 Snapshots
MANITOBA-SASKATCHEWAN
LEAGUE
Dauphin
10 6
Gilbert Plains 9 7 1.0
Yorkton
8 8 2.0
Kamsack
6 9 3.5
Roblin
6 9 3.5
1951 Game
Reports
1951 Dauphin Red Birds
FOOTHILLS LEAGUE
1951 Game Reports
1951 Alberta Photo Galley
1951 Claresholm Meteors
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  They won three tourneys, shared top prize in another,
and, while beaten by Sceptre for the Western Canada title, the Rockets had triumphed in the Saskatchewan final and, in three
tournaments, had whipped Sceptre in semi-final games. The
Rockets didn't sit still for long. When not in league
games or tournaments there was the exhibition circuit. In
June, for example, the Rockets make a clean sweep of four games
with clubs in the Northern loop -- Delisle, North Battleford and
Saskatoon. (Headline
- Regina Leader-Post, July 9, 1951)
 Two
members of the 1951 Indian Head Rockets -- Tom Alston and
Bobby Prescott (left, in a 1958 photo while with
Phoenix in the Pacific Coast League) advanced to the major
leagues as did '51 Rocket Pumpsie Green (more
below).
George Mahaffy, Sceptre
first baseman-pitcher, recalled in a 2001 interview how the 'ol
sore arm trick helped Sceptre capture the Western semi-pro
title:
"
... By the time we got there, we had gone broke and we had a
local guy who was in the oil business in Edmonton come along and
say I'll put thousands of dollars into your club if you'll let
me put my name on the back of your uniform. We became known as
the Sceptre Nixons after Red Nixon ... so Red is traveling with
the team, but he hardly knew first base from third base. Hal
Price pitched against the Indian Head Rockets and beat them.
Next night, we're in the finals against Indian Head … and Red
Nixon comes out and says to me "Big George you're pitching
this". Fergie Shields, backbone of our
team … says "George, you go out and warm up and get a
sore arm". So I go out and it's wet in Saskatoon, the
old field on Avenue A, Cairns Field. So I just throw the
hell out of the ball for five minutes and my arm's
sore. So, Price is told to go as far as he can and
then we'll do something else."
Price ended up going the distance
against Chet Brewer to lead Sceptre to the championship.
Pete Beiden, a mainstay with the touring California
Mohawks of 1949 and 1950, took over the helm in Medicine Hat after
returning from an exhibition tour of Hawaii. Beiden's Fresno
State team won eleven of the fourteen games. Along with
Beiden came player reinforcements, Larry Bolger and Fred
Bartels.
The lure of tournament cash created havoc at times. The
Western League was forced to take action after clubs abandoned
scheduled league dates, or tried to fill in their rosters with
local players, while the "real" team was trying to win
prize money in a tourney.
An 18-year-old from Colonsay was selected at a baseball camp
in Regina for a tryout with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Len Breckner, a first baseman, was chosen
from one hundred boys at a three-day baseball school. Breckner, a
left-hander, had always batted right before he came to the school. Pirates' scout Don Lindeberg turned him into a
lefty hitter.
Edmonton's Oilers would do okay in exhibition play.
Early in the season the Oilers swept a three-game series from
the Delisle Gems, then took three straight from the Great Falls,
Montana, Airlifters. They started the season with nine
straight exhibition wins. But, when it came to tournament play,
the Oilers were often embarrassed.
 Swift Current found the going a little too tough and decided
to amalgamate with the barnstorming Sceptre team. It
caused a little confusion as players showed up at Taylor Field
in Regina wearing both Sceptre and Swift Current uniforms.
In February, Swift Current had run an ad in The Sporting News in
a bid to attract some top import talent for the team.
North Battleford won the Northern Saskatchewan Baseball
League title.
At the beginning of the season, the Regina Caps estimated
season
expenses of $27,000 (which, in 2000, would be about enough to
pay an average major leaguer for about a game or two).
The
Mandak circuit was proving highly popular. Although the
Buffaloes had some early success, it would be
 Brandon Greys
taking the Mandak
League championship defeating Winnipeg in four
straight in the final series. Butch Davis
(right) of
Winnipeg won his second straight batting crown, topping the
league with a .406 average. He also won the RBI title with
53, one more than Ian Lowe of Brandon. Davis, along with
other stars as Leon Day, Charlie White and Jim
Newberry, were snatched away by pro clubs during the
season. Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe was
among the dozens of former Negro League stars to join the Mandak
circuit.
Marion Sugar Cain (left), who had barnstormed in Canada and
the Dakotas with the San Francisco Cubs, joined Clifton
Zoonie McLean (right) in Minot and the pair were among the
biggest stars in the Mandak League through to the end of the
circuit in 1957.
 
Jack
Hannah was one of the many Fresno State collegians to suit
up with clubs in Western Canada. He did so before his
college days! As a 17-year-old Visalia high schooler, Hannah pitched for Saskatoon in
1951, and for Moose Jaw the following season. After baseball
there was music. Hannah is well known across the border as one
of the partners in the California vocal group, Sons of the San Joaquin.
 Sprinkled among the rosters were
hockey stars, former Negro Leaguers (Andy Porter at left) , college kids, homegrown
stars, and a couple of former major leaguers. Many would
move into pro ball, a few would go on to the majors, and one
would be hired off the diamond to begin a football career. Among the National Hockey League stars who turned in their
skates for baseball cleats during this golden era of semi-pro
baseball were Gordie Howe, Jackie
McLeod, Emile Francis, Bert Olmstead, Max
and Doug Bentley, Bill Gadsby, Terry Sawchuk, Vic
Stasiuk, Earl Ingarfield, Hank Bassen
and Gus Kyle.
Howe, Francis, Olmstead, the Bentleys and Gadsby would be
enshrined in hockey's Hall of Fame. (See the Hockey
Connection)
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Lou Pisani, a
member of the barnstorming California Mohawks in
1950 and the Colonsay Monarchs in 1951, 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." |
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  Over in the Manitoba-Dakota
(Mandak) League, Terry Sawchuk
(left) suited up with the Elmwood Giants.
Roland Miles
(right) was the second baseman for the Regina
Caps who won a tryout with the football Edmonton Eskimos and
became an all-star on the gridiron.
Dick Stone, of the Moose Jaw Canucks, had a cup o' coffee with the Washington Senators in
1945 and was a veteran of play in the semi-pro Global World
Series. He was the ace
of the Canucks staff and at one point in the 1951 season had
thrown 31 consecutive shutout innings. Fans in Moose Jaw
even held a Dick Stone Day.
 Among the most renown of the former Negro League stars was Chet
Brewer who, in his heyday, was a match for the legendary
Satchel Paige. Brewer began his Negro League career in
1925. Although in his mid 40s, Brewer would be the ace
of the Sceptre tournament team and later in the season, the
Indian Head Rockets. He had managed Carman of the
Mandak League in 1950 and, after a season of pro ball in 1952,
would return to Carman to finish out his playing days.
"Brewer was
one of a stable of Kansas City Monarch pitchers that included
the legendary Satchel Paige and Bullet Joe Rogan. He defeated
some of the best hurlers of his day, both black and white -
Willie Foster, Slim Jones, Smokey Joe Williams, Bob Feller, and
Paige. He had a lively fastball and a devastating overhand
"drop ball," which was especially tough on lefthanded
hitters. He also threw a legal emery ball. In 1926, his first
full season with the Monarchs, Brewer went 12-1 with eight
complete games. His .842 winning percentage (16-3) led the
league in 1929; that season, he pitched 31 consecutive scoreless
innings against league competition. One of his greatest
performances came under the lights in 1930 against the Homestead
Grays' Smokey Joe Williams. Brewer struck out 19, including 10
in a row, only to lose 1-0 in 12 innings on a fluke hit by
Chaney White. Brewer won 30 games that year. He won 16 straight
games in 1934 and finished the season with 33 victories against
league and non-league opponents. Pitching in Mexico in 1939, he
threw two no-hitters. Brewer was a Pittsburgh Pirates scout from
1957 to 1974 and later worked for the Major League Scouting
Bureau." (CBS
Sportsline)
Another classic was
the 1935 match up in Winnipeg when the Negro League legends
hooked up in a much anticipated contest.
"Two of the
greatest colored pitchers in the game staged a baseball battle
for the book last night as Satchel Paige and Bismarck went nine
innings to a scoreless tie with Chet Brewer and the Kansas City
Monarchs in the first game of an exhibition series at renovated
Osborne Stadium. Between them the starry right-handers
hung up the amazing total of 30 strikeouts before Umpire Snake Siddle called a halt as twilight descended at the end of the
ninth inning. Paige, displaying more smoke than Winnipeg
fans have seen since Lefty Grove pitched here in the fall of
1933, took 17 victims, while the other 13 fell before Brewer's
combination of speed and curves." (Winnipeg
Evening Tribune, June 7, 1935)
  Indian Head first baseman Tom Alston
(left) would, in 1954,
be the first black player to suit up for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Len Tucker, who played in Kamsack in 1952, was the first black to
be signed by the Cards. Pumpsie Green (right, in
1959) of Medicine
Hat and Indian Head, would finally break
the colour barrier for the Boston Red Sox in 1959. John
Kennedy, who suited up in the Mandak League 1950-1952 became
the first to break the Phillies' colour barrier, in 1957.
Saskatoon's Jack Hannah and Charlie Beene would
be among the American imports. Both were high school
players from Visalia, California.
Families were well represented. Of course, there were
the Bentleys of Delisle and since the late 40s, the Dean
brothers -- Les, Roy and Elton who would be key figures for the
North Battleford Beavers. Jim
Olsen had one of the shortest ever tours of duty in the
Western Canada League -- less than two innings. In
Medicine Hat's opening game of the season, the Mohawks left
fielder, a University of San Francisco product, made a nice
catch on Art Worth's fly ball in the top of the 2nd inning then
smashed a single in his at bat in the bottom of the 2nd
frame. "He then successfully stole second, sliding
away from an attempted tag in big league style. Play
started to resume, but Olsen never got up. Players rushed
out to him and the PA announcer asked for a doctor. They
carried Olsen off the field with both a dislocated and fractured
right ankle." (Medicine
Hat News, June 2, 1951)
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