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It was quite a season. Western Canada League clubs shared a
playoff pool of $11,496.60, representing fifty percent of
gross receipts from all playoff games. The champion North
Battleford Beavers took the lion's share, $3,140 while the
runners-up, the Saskatoon Gems, received $2,637. Regina Caps
were awarded $1,845, Moose Jaw Maples $1,582 and Estevan Maple
Leafs $1,318.
  Charlie
Beene as "White Lightning" of the Jacksonville
Eagles?
The Eagles, of Jacksonville, Florida, were a part of the
Negro
American Association. In Canada, they played under the
banner of the Indian Head Rockets. Jim Williams (right), a
veteran of the Negro leagues, was the playing-manager of the
club.
Charlie Beene was a teenager from Oklahoma, via Visalia,
California. He had pitched in 1951 with Roy Taylor's Saskatoon
55's in the Northern Saskatchewan league.
 The Eagles were a "coloured" team. Beene's
pale
complexion didn't seem a particularly good fit. But, beginning in
August of 1951, Williams began to try and sign Beene to play
with the Eagles/Rockets. First it was for the 1951
playoffs (Williams also noted he wanted Sherman Watrous, Pete
Polus and Andy Swota).
At the time, Beene didn't see
anything unusual about the offer. "I never thought about
the colour thing at all just that I had pitched against them two
or three times and had my real good stuff."
As Beene passed on the '51 offer,
Williams
resumed his courting of Beene in January of 1952. Beene was even penciled in to be
the starter in the Eagle's season-opener in March.
Negotiations progressed well and Beene was informed than a
transportation ticket will be arranged for him to go to Florida
for spring practice. They even agreed on salary.
"I probably had that one-hundredth
of a doubt so I said well how about I bring Bob Garcia, my buddy
for life", said Beene. The team agreed. "Me and
Bob were all ready to go."
The club was expected to make a trip to Japan in April, then
play in Canada for the summer. A
major league tryout camp in California changed plans. Beene
was offered and accepted a contract
from the Pittsburgh Pirates and began the 1952 season as a pro
in Visalia.
 Regina's Gus Kyle
(also a hockey star) won the Saskatchewan League batting title with a .368 average, nearly 20 points higher than
the runner-up, Curtis Tate of North Battleford. The
Beavers Bob Herron was the home run champ with 12 and also led the loop in RBI with 46.
Ken Nelson of the Beavers,
who finished third in the batting race at .348, led the league
in runs with 50 and tied Estevan's Ray Patterson for the
lead in doubles with 12. Jim Shields of Saskatoon
and Bill Shea of Estevan swiped the most bases, 14
apiece. Jim Harford of Moose Jaw had the most
triples, six.
The leading pitchers were Les
Dean, NB with a 6-1 record, Bob Singleton of
Saskatoon at 5-1, Chuck Holdaway, Saskatoon 6-2, and Johnny
Coleman, NB, 7-3. Cless Hinckley of Regina
finished at 3-0.
The Regina Caps had a mid-season
makeover. On June 10th the Caps unveiled a revamped lineup
which featured eleven new players headed by playing-coach Pete
Beiden. Among the newcomers were pitchers Jack
Hannah, Larry Bolger, Ted Wills, Frank
Warren and Truman Clevenger. (Wills and Clevenger
would go on to become major leaguers.) Also joining Regina were
first baseman Fred Bartels, infielders Fred Sommers
and Bob Newton, outfielders Frank Ball and Art
Shahzade. Two catchers were on the way, Bob Bennett
and Bill Clevenger. Most of Beiden's recruits were from
his baseball program at Fresno State. An additional four Fresno
players were slated for jobs with Dauphin and Great Plains of
the Manitoba-Saskatchewan League.
Beiden and Roy Taylor were
instrumental in placing dozens of college players (more than
seventy from Fresno State alone) on teams in Western
Canada. At the time, college programs had a tough time
convincing the pros they had something to offer. "The
pros had an attitude against college players", said Taylor,
"They just thought that college kids were a bunch of green
nothings." It was a time, said Taylor, "when
they didn't move the kids up and, if they were college kids they
hated them. The pros and the college kids were always at
battle."
Stan
Obodiac (later to be a long-serving PR officer with the
Toronto Maple Leafs) writing in the Yorkton paper in July, 1952.
Wednesday
afternoon I was in New York City -- the Brooklyn Dodgers were
playing Cincinnati at Ebbetts (sic) Field, over
television. Thursday afternoon I was in Kamsack with the
Cardinals playing ball in the Man.-Sask. League. You get a quick
comparison of the play. Negro Len Tuck (sic) of
the Cyclones hits the ball as powerfully as Jackie Robinson, but
who knows whether he could hit major league pitching. Eddie
Panser of the Cardinals can run the bases as fast as any
Dodger. Surely he must be the fastest thing on two feet in
Yorkton.
The same issue carried a story of
Kamsack's 7-3 win over Yorkton and noted, "Big Negro Len
Tuck, one of the best ball players to ever show in this
district, led Kamsack at bat." Len Tuck
(somehow the "er" went missing), of course, was Len
Tucker one of Roy Taylor's imports from the College
of the Sequoias.
The National Baseball Congress noted
other prairie leagues. The Big Six League
included the Lethbridge Miners, Lethbridge Cubs, Taber Volunteer
Firemen, Magrath Eagles and JCCA Nisei. Five teams
comprised the Brooks, Medicine Hat and District League --
Brooks Buffaloes, Redcliffe Canadian Legion Red Sox, Bow Island
Combines, Medicine Hat Mercurys and Vauxhall. The Wheatbelt
League operated in northern Alberta with clubs from Grande
Prairie (Mercury's and Legion), Beaverlodge, Sexsmith, Dawson
Creek, Fairview and Roycroft.
 On May 13,
1952, 19-year-old Ron Necciai fanned 27 in pitching a
9-inning no-hitter for the Bristol Twins (then a Class D farm
club of the Pittsburgh Pirates). There was one groundout
in the contest, but in the 9th as Necciai recorded strikeout
number 26, his catcher let the pitch get away for a passed ball
and the youngster promptly fanned the next hitter to end the
game.
At Bristol, Necciai had an 0.42
ERA in 43 innings (with 109 strikeouts). Promoted to Class
B Burlington, he pitched another 126 innings with 172 Ks and an
ERA of 1.57. He finished the season in the major leagues
with a 1-6 record in 55 innings (7.04 ERA, 32 BB, 31 K).
224 innings on a 19-year-old arm. He never pitched in the
majors again.
In
what may have been the first "deal" between American and
Japanese baseball clubs, the St. Louis Browns loaded two black
minor leaguer players to the Hankyu Braves of the Japanese
Pacific League. Abe Saperstein, owner of the Harlem
Globetrotters negotiated the transfer and termed the deal,
sending third-baseman John Britton and pitcher
Jim Newberry to Japan, as a "lend-lease" arrangement
of benefit to both countries.
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Down three games to one, Beavers first
got a four-hit shutout from Johnny Coleman (left) in a 2-0 win, then exploded
for a 12-3 triumph to tie the series. In the deciding game,
the Beavers handed the Gems an early 5-1 lead before storming
back to whip Saskatoon 22-9. Bob Herron (right) had four hits,
including a pair of homers, good for five RBI. Art
Stone belted a grand slam. 
Minot Mallards were
crowned Mandak League champions beating Carman in the final
series. Zoonie McLean (right) won the batting title with a
.369 mark. Hal Price of Winnipeg led the league in
wins, with 10, and strikeouts, 130.
Roy Taylor's
(left) Kamsack
Cyclones won the title in the Manitoba - Saskatchewan
League. Taylor was selected as the top manager in the
seven-team circuit and three of his players made the all-star
team -- pitcher John Zeeben, 1b Len Tucker (right), of Stan
Green. Tucker led the league in average (.480) home
runs, triples and stolen bases.
