|
 Barney Brown said he was 42,
but the records indicate he was really 47. Still, the long time star
of the Negro Leagues had an incredible season. According to the official
statistics he made 10 starts for the Meridians -- all complete
games -- with an ERA of 2.90, fifth best in the league.
However, the officials stats are incomplete. One game not
registered was a season-ending 11 inning, 12 strikeout
performance in a game that ended in a 2-2 tie. So, 11
starts, 11 complete games, an ERA under 3.00. Not bad for
a slim lefty just shy of 50. And, he'd return for another season.
(Photo courtesy Chuck McGuigan)
There were some pretty good
teenagers too.
18-year-old Charlie Bogan led the league
with twelve wins. Ted Ellis won nine and finished with an ERA of
2.50.
The season also featured Kirby
Pain's no-hitter and Pain's scoreless streak of 30 2/3s
innings. Edmonton pulled off a triple play. Art
Worth hit for the cycle. Saskatoon's Cliff Pemberton
and Regina's owner, Denny Evenson got into a punch up during a
game. North Battleford played games in two different cities the
same day, and lost both. The Gems won 14 in a row. Lloydminster
and Regina hooked up in a contest which produced 24 hits, 24
walks, 9 errors and 28 runs.
Superstitious? Not Saskatoon.
In early July, Gems punched
out 13 hits for 13 runs to beat Lloydminster for their 13th
straight win, 13-7.
A pitcher's best friend. Meridians'
catcher Dick Barry picked off six baserunners during a double-header
at Lloydminster.
Lou Hague of Moose Jaw had eleven
straight hits.
And, the losing team got to
represent Canada at the Global World Series.
The Meridians traded their best pitcher for a
hitter. In fact, the club ended up moving both Max Weekly and Darrell
Martin to Moose Jaw in a deal which brought Collins Jones, Bill
Duft and Kirby Wyllie to Lloydminster.
Ironically, Weekly and Martin finished with a higher, combined batting
average than Jones (.300 to .285) . On the hill, the California
hurlers each won seven games.
At the end of the season it was reported that
Weekly had signed a contract with the New York Yankees and was to report to Quincy of the Class B, Three-Eye League.
Some
of the local kids did
OK too. The paper may have had some trouble with the name, but Dick
Doekper had no trouble with the hitters. A month after this one,
he did it again. The Saskatchewan junior won a spot on the club at Roy
Taylor's College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA and later would suit up with
Pete Beiden's Fresno State Bulldogs. (Saskatoon
Star Phoenix, July 15, 1955 & August 16, 1955)
Dick
Doepker played for me (at COS) and was outstanding, one of our top pitchers.
He went on to Fresno State and three years of pro ball. Then they
didn't move young kids up. They didn't trust them and if they were college
kids they hated them ... he came back to school ... became a principal of
one of the biggest high schools in Visalia ... very, very outstanding …
one of the top educators in whole area". -- Roy Taylor, 2001
August 23rd, 1955. It was nearly over. In spite of the headline, there
was a final game to go and, while the Meridians didn't win the finale,
they didn't lose either!
In a replay of 1954, Jack Altman
and the Vulcan Elks won the pennant in the Foothills-Wheatbelt League
only to be beaten by Granum in the playoffs. The White Sox went on to
capture their second straight Alberta title downing Cold Lake in the
provincial finals. Granum also won the Lacombe tournament and came
second, to the Foothills-Wheatbelt All-Stars, in the Lethbridge Rotary
tourney.
Greg
Seastrom : "Jack called and had convinced them (Vulcan) to add
another player. The worst part was he told them they needed a third
pitcher and he let them know I could pitch. I was not a pitcher. I had
pitched enough to know how to step on the mound and not to balk, but I
certainly didn't have any ability at it. But, that didn't bother me at
the time."
"We got room and we got two-hundred dollars a
month, cash. Twice a month we would report to the bank and we would
get a one-hundred dollar bill ... a full-course dinner was one-dollar."
"We would dress at home. The little ballparks didn't have facilities.
It was not uncommon to see, at a dance after the game, ball players
still in their uniforms out on the dance floor."
In the early years, there was an expectation
that the "imports" would also have some "real" jobs in
the community.
Jack
Altman : "One of the jobs I had was lifting big, heavy
boulders into a pickup truck. I did that a day or two and said I don't
think I can pitch well if I keep doing this. So I didn't have to do it
anymore ... Once, several of us had jobs driving tractors from Vulcan to
Lethbridge."
Greg
Seastrom : "I learned quite a lot about grain elevators as
the manager of the elevator had a few jobs he didn't like to do.
John Pederson (left), Al Malarchuk
(centre) and Willie Walasko (right) worked on the Wesley Ranch
when not playing ball for Wesley's Granum White Sox.
"George had us painting the farm
buildings, maintaining the ball park in town, hauling building materials for
the hired carpenters that were adding new barns, cattle and hay sheds. I did
this for two summers and went to school in the winters. It was a good
experience and it kept us fit and busy. We dressed like the workmen we
were on the ranch and ate in the cookhouse with the cowboys." (Bill
Walasko, February 2001. Photo courtsey of Bill Walasko)
 The Mandak League became an all-American
circuit with the loss of Carman and Brandon. Bismarck and Dickinson
were the new entries. Bismarck, which finished on top during the
regular schedule, was upset in the final as Minot won the title in four
straight games and took the championship for the fourth consecutive season.
Roy Weatherly (right) of Williston
punched out three hits on the final day of the regular season to win his second
straight batting title with a .371 mark. He also led the league in
homers, setting a Mandak record with 21. Preston Elkins of Williston
finished with a 7-0 mark and 2.34 ERA but was five innings short of
qualifying for the ERA title. Minot's Sugar Cain claimed the
honour with a 2.94 mark and had 92 strikeouts to lead the league for the
second straight season.
Were they THAT obvious? The Minot Daily
News of August 5, 1955 reported : " A crowd of 950 fans, plus 99 Canadian
guests ... ".
|
There was considerable turnover at
the top. Only one of the managers from '54 was back at the helm -- Ralph
Mabee of Saskatoon. The Meridians brought in Don Stewart
(left).
The Beavers went with Ken Nelson,
Moose Jaw turned to Roy Taylor, Regina brought in Pete Beiden,
and Edmonton had Jim Ryan (who took over after Roy Carlson
left for a teaching job in Germany).
Southpaw
Charlie
Bogan (left) of Saskatoon was the league's top winner with 12 wins.
Edmonton righthander Dale
Bloom (right) captured the ERA title with a mark of 1.72. Bogan was
third at 2.38.
