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In the opening game, May
19th, at Legion Sportsman's Park before about 800 fans, the Meridians
were thumped
13-3 by the North Battleford Beavers. Lefty Max Weekly was
pounded for 12 runs in just three innings of work. The
Meridians made 10 errors. Only five of the regular starters were
on hand for opening day. Five
days later, Weekly would toss a two-hit shutout as the Meridians
beat Rosetown Phillies (a "colored team" according to
the Lloydminster Times) 2-0. Weekly struck out
10.
 There
was some sunshine, including a miracle ending as the Meridians won their own tournament
and the $1,450 first prize. They beat Saskatoon 4-3 in 13
innings in the final. Weekly was the hero. He came
on in relief in the 5th inning with one out and the bases loaded.
He limited the Gems to just two hits the rest of the
way. Meridians also won the Rosetown Tournament and were
runners-up in the Saskatoon Exhibition event. In the regular,
rain-soaked, season Meridians finished dead last with just 22 wins in 60
games. Weekly was among the bright spots.
He led the league in strikeouts with 103.
The financial
situation wasn't any brighter than the final standings.. The club finished with a deficit
of $12,427. Total revenues came to $14,343.50 with gate
receipts accounting for $9,475 and tournament prize money adding
$4,050. The summer's operations cost $26, 770.76. The
Times described the season as "an adventure in ball
which was packed with high hopes, fraught with disappointments,
plagued with poor weather, and hounded with financial
reverses." In December, a Times headline announced
there would be no team in 1955.
Saskatoon ran away with the
regular season title finishing 11 1/2 games ahead of 2nd place North
Battleford. But, in the playoffs, the Beavers won a controversial
final.
North Battleford had won the first game of
the final series 5-4 in 13 innings. Saskatoon bounced back to win
the 2nd game 3-2. However, the Beavers protested that the Gems had
used an ineligible player. The protest was upheld and the game
ordered replayed.
The Beavers won the next two to go up 3-0,
but the Gems came back with three in a row before North Battleford took
the deciding game 3-2. It was the Beavers' fourth consecutive
Saskatchewan championship.
It was a season in which the
Beavers fired Jackie McLeod as playing manager in July then
convinced McLeod to rejoin the team for the playoffs. McLeod
was the hero in the deciding game as he tossed a 7-hitter for
the victory. In between, McLeod suited up with Moose Jaw
at the Rosetown Tournament and beat the Beavers 5-4 in a first
round game.
  The '54 campaign also saw Curtis
Tate (left) notch 10 runs batted in in a single game, Percy Trimont
(bottom left)
have a five-for-five day which included a homer and three
triples, Max Weekly lead
the league in strikeouts with 103, Ted Ellis, right
(star of the Indian Head Tournament) claim three pitching wins on the
same day, Ted Wills come within one batter of a
no-hitter, a player banished for a whole year for
taking a swing at an umpire, Saskatoon play nine
 games in two days, Lloydminster pull off a
hidden-ball trick so
well even the umps missed it, the league president who quit
with the parting worlds "They'll never get me in
another mess like this.", a shortstop who made seven errors
in one game, and rain, lots of rain. In a playoff
game, Saskatoon pulled off a bases-loaded triple steal.
Leopoldo Reyes scored from third, Jose Valladares
moved to third and Ted Wills took second.
Mario Herrera added three steals as the Gems had
seven in total.
1954 marked the debut of one of
the league's most colourful characters. But, in the
beginning, nobody wanted him very much! Cliff Pemberton
had brought his family to Moose Jaw in July of '54 following a
request from a friend that he join the team. However, when
he
arrived the manager made it clear he had no where to
play the 'ol Redhead.
He got into just two games for
the Mallards before being loaned to Saskatoon. Pemberton had a
triple in his first at bat with the Gems and never looked back.
He won three batting titles in his eight years in the league.
 Ted Wills (left), a pitcher-outfielder with
Saskatoon, hit .336 to edge Moose Jaw's Collins Jones (right) for the batting title. On the mound, Sergio
Fabre of the Indian Head Rockets went 10-0. Don Kirk of
Saskatoon won 11 of 12 decisions in the regular season and
tacked on two more wins in the playoffs. Wills, who
won five games during the regular season, was superb in the
playoffs with three complete game victories, including a one-hit
shutout and a two-hit shutout.
Reg Chopp of Moose Jaw was
the lone Canadian to be selected to the All-Star team.
Chopp, from Winnipeg, finished as the league's fifth best
hitter.
c Bob Bennett, Sask; 1b Jesse Blackman
NB; 2b Jose
Valladares, Sask; 3b Curtis Tate, NB; ss Chico
O'Farrill, NB; lf Collins Jones, MJ; cf Mario Herrera,
Sask; rf Reg Chopp, MJ; p Ted Wills, Sask;
p Bennie Griggs, Sask.
All-Stars selected to play
against the Saskatoon Gems:
c Lou Green NB, Dick
Loe MJ, 1b Reg Jackson RT, Jesse Blackman
NB, 2b Art Stone NB, Chuck McGuigan Lloyd, 3b Johnny
Ford Lloyd, Curtis Tate NB, ss Chico O'Farrill
NB, Harold Johnson RT, lf Collin Jones MJ, Felton
Morrison RT, cf Ken Nelson NB, Howard Warfield
RT, rf Reg Chopp MJ, Roy Dean NB, p Ed Kapp
NB, Max Weekly Lloyd, Boyd Brown RT, Jose
Hernandez IH, Pancho Gray MJ.
 In Southern Alberta, the Vulcan Elks
behind import lefty Jack Altman breezed to a 12-2 finish to win the pennant in the
Foothills-Wheatbelt League. However, Granum walked off with the
league title upsetting the Elks in the final round of the
playoffs. Granum went on to win the Alberta title with a win
over Edmonton. It was the first of a long string of
successes by George Wesley's teams.
The regular season featured three
no-hitters, by Altman, Willie Walasko
and Bill Kucheran. There was offense too.
On the final day of the regular schedule, Granum "shaded" Nanton
31-1.
In the two major Alberta tournaments,
Spokane Builders won the Lethbridge Rotary event and Brooks Buffaloes won top
prize at Lacombe.
Jack
Altman : "Pete Beiden (Fresno State coach) arranged for
us to come up to Vucan. We used to wait around with bated
breath in the spring to find out if he was going to have
openings for us. He called all the shots."
If it seemed as if Altman was always
at the ballpark. And, it was pretty well the case.
From February through to the end of November, the
19-year-old lefty played for seven teams compiling a 32-11
record in 365 1/3 innings. (See :
Portrait
of a Young Arm, 1954)
 Minot Mallards were champions of the
Mandak League for the third straight season. Mallards won the pennant during the
regular schedule then beat Brandon in the playoff final.
Former major leaguer Roy Weatherly of Williston hit .412
to win the batting crown. Sugar Cain of Minot had the
best pitching record, 11-1, and led in strikeouts with 98. Neil Lettau, also of Minot, had the most wins, 13.
A three-homer day is rare.
A three-homer day on your birthday? Don Stewart,
who would be joining the Meridians in 1955, belted three homers
and a single on July 11th, his 24th birthday, as Brandon
defeated Carman 16-10 in a Mandak League contest. His
wife-to-be was in the stands.
 Moose
Jaw's manager (at least for the first part of the season before
football got underway) was Larry Isbell, an All-American
quarterback in football (1951) and All-American catcher in
baseball (1952) at Baylor University in Texas.
Isbell, who
finished seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1951,
was the first draft pick of the Washington Redskins in
1952. Instead, he went into baseball, right to Triple-A
with Louisville of the American Association where, in parts of
two seasons, he hit .286 and .317.
In 1954, Isbell
returned to football with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and
carved out an all-star career as a pass receiver, defensive back
and punter (left-footed). Isbell, a member of Regina's
Plaza of Honour, was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of
Fame in February, 2001.
 Jack
Hannah, was among the first wave of California kids from to trek to
the Canadian prairies for a summer season. Hannah, still in high school,
suited up with Roy Taylor's Saskatoon 55s in 1951 and in '54 had a
summer of ball with Marshall in the Western Minny League.
"
... When Jack Hannah arrived in Marshall for the 1954 Western Minny
League season, he attained almost instant celebrity. Marshall always
treated their college baseball visitors special, but the Fresno State
right-hander offered a little extra to the southwestern Minnesota town.
“He took the town by storm,” Minnesota baseball legend Jerry Kindall
said. “He was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed guy from California . . . a
heart throb, but he certainly wasn’t a hot dog. While he never reached
the big leagues, he did make it to AAA professional ball, and he became
an outstanding high school coach.” Hannah went 6-1 for Marshall in
1954, with a 3.86 ERA. He combined with Ohio State All American Paul
Ebert, who went 8-4, to form a potent starting duo ... The Marshall
Baseball Association paid Hannah $250 per month to take care of Legion
Field." (From Glory
Days, a history of amateur baseball in Minnesota)
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The
Saskatchewan Baseball League
They
came from college, high school, the minor leagues, Cuba,
California, Montana, Idaho, Illinois, and Canada (catcher Eddie Tanner
from BC would become a fixture with the team). (A couple
of players, Johnny
Ford and Max Weekly, would be recruited to pour
cement to finish the dugouts in time for opening day.)
In
a pre-season luncheon Ford
(centre) and Weekly (right) were greeted by Ted Mitchell a
director of the Lloydminster club. 
"Two sets of uniforms have
been secured by the club; one pearl grey with red trimmings for
the away-from-home games, with Lloydminster across the front,
and for the games in the Legion Sportsman's Park they will wear
white uniforms with a green strip on the front, of which will be
Meridians." (Lloydminster Times)
