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 Williston wasn't built on hitting alone. Brilliant playoff pitching
led the Oilers to ten victories and two ties in 14 post-season games. Bob
Smith, 8-1 during the regular season, pitched four complete game playoff
victories. And,
Bill Thom (left) had three complete game wins and another where he went 10
2/3s before giving way to the bullpen. Thom tossed a five-hit shutout in the
final game to give the Oilers the league title. He had led the University of
Southern California to the College World Series in the Spring
capturing the MVP award. He would be a first team All-American in
1959. (Headline - Saskatoon Star
Phoenix, August 21, 1958)
The 1958 season had its memorable moments.
Late in the season, with Saskatoon trying to fight off both
Lloydminster-North Battleford and Williston in the battle for first place, Gene
Graves rose to the occasion, not only pitching the Commodores to a win,
but throwing a no-hitter! Teammate Lew Hobson had quite a
week in late July and early August. Over the space of seven days, the
Canadian lefty picked up four wins.
In a mid-June game, Jim Stevens of Moose Jaw fanned 18 to tie a
league record. In the same game he walked 11. Later, Stevens
tossed a one-hitter.
There was also a 21-hitter. In late July, Frank Johnson gave
up 21 hits but hung in all the way for Moose Jaw in a 13-2 loss to the
Combines.
On opening day, Jerry Adair set the stage for his outstanding
summer with a grand slam homer.
There wasn't much good fortune in Regina except on Friday the 13th
when the Braves got three runs in the bottom of the ninth to steal a
win.
Déjà vu
all over again. In back-to-back games in June,
Saskatoon scored four runs in the ninth inning to come from behind to post
wins over Williston. On consecutive nights in late July, Saskatoon
overcame Williston leads to win with five in the 9th and seven in the
7th. Two days later, Commodores again scored in the 9th to beat the
Oilers.
Regina spotted the Combines a 5-0 lead then roared back to whip
Lloydminster-North Battleford 18-6. The Braves also found out
how the other half lives. On consecutive days they lost to the Oilers 20-8
and 20-6. After those two embarrassments, Regina owner Denny Evenson
threatened to fine each player $10. It led to a revolt.
Seven players packed up their gear and headed home.
Bob Bodine
of Williston had the lead in homers early in the year
with five. He also had struck out 20 times in 40 at bats.
Cliff Pemberton
had quite a homecoming in Saskatoon. He
returned to the city as playing-manager of the Mallards and promptly belted
two homers, a double and a single, scored four runs and knocked in three as
Moose Jaw upset the Commodores.
Jerry Adair
was the offensive story in the Western Canada Baseball
League. Adair took the batting title with a .409* mark, well
ahead of the runner-up, Leon Wilson of Lloydminster-North
Battleford who finished at .371. Bill Heath of Williston has
third at .370, Cliff Pemberton fourth with a .364 average, ahead of Higgie Alvarez of Regina
at .351, and John Ford of the Combines at .350. With Curly
Williams at .330, the Combines had three of the top ten
hitters. Adair, Alvarez and Wilson tied for the
home run lead with ten. Wilson edged Adair 53-52 for the
RBI title. Tom Bergeron of Lloydminster-North Battleford
led in stolen bases, with 18.
Saskatoon's Gene Graves, who pitched the only no-hitter,
Bennie Griggs of the Combines and Roland Jones of Regina
each had nine wins to lead
the circuit. Graves finished second to Williston's Bob Smith
in earned run average. Smith was the league's best with a 2.72
mark while Graves finished at 3.06, ahead of the Oilers Jim Barudoni,
at 3.12, Ralph Vold of Edmonton, at 3.14, and Lew Hobson
of Saskatoon at 3.45. Griggs led the league in games, 19, games
started, 13, innings pitched, 120 and strikeouts, 93. Roland
Jones had the most complete games, 12, one more than Griggs..
There were some familiar faces heading up the 1958 clubs. Ken
Nelson (left), a veteran of prairie ball, took over the reins of the
Combines (and kept intact a dubious Lloydminster record of having a new
manager each season). Roy Taylor was back in the league, this
time at the helm of the Saskatoon Commodores. Cliff Pemberton
shifted from Saskatoon to Moose Jaw while Wayne Tucker
returned to Edmonton and Zoonie McLean, a veteran of the
Mandak League directed the Williston Oilers. Regina brought in veteran pro Bob
Mistele to take charge of the Braves. Mistele was a victim of the
unrest in Regina, and Roland Jones became the manager for the
latter part of the season.
Granum's four-year run atop Alberta baseball
came to a halt as the Medicine Hat Superiors took the Southern Alberta
crown downing Lethbridge Warriors in the final series. Medicine Hat
dropped the first two games of the final, then roared back to win four in a
row to take the championship. Don Risinger drove in all eight
Superiors' runs in the final game. In the major tournaments, Warriors
won at Lacombe while the Superiors took top prize in the Lethbridge Rotary
tournament.
  Former pro, Lynn Duncan
(left) of Medicine Hat won the triple crown, leading the loop
in average with a .409 mark, in home runs with 17, and runs batted in,
63. Granum's Brack Bailey finished second in the batting race
with a .378 mark. Sam Canner of Lethbridge had the most wins,
9. Tilbert Neal of Calgary pitched the most innings, 97 2/3s. Ron
Hubbard
(right)
of Medicine Hat led in strikeouts with 119 and Doug Marquardt of
Vauxhall topped the circuit in walks with 70.
Southern Alberta Baseball League All-Stars: c Larry Koentopp,
Lethbridge; p Bob Bolingbroke, Medicine Hat, Sam Canner,
Lethbridge; 1b Ron Mertus, Medicine Hat; 2b Doug Seiler,
Medicine Hat; 3b John Robertson, Granum; ss Phil Risinger,
Medicine Hat (left), Frank Amaya, Lethbridge; lf Lynn Duncan,
Medicine Hat; cf Gord Beecroft, Lethbridge; rf Ed Fallon,
Vauxhall; mgr Harry Watson, Lethbridge.
 If you played for George Wesley, you
signed HIS contract. A four-page, 1958 contract contained the above
clause. The part about a player being prohibited from "drinking
or partying" 24 hours before a game was replaced with a prohibition
for the whole baseball season.
Recruiting, 1958 style. May 1, 1958 Granum owner George Wesley wires
catcher Jerry
Bryson at Pfeiffer College in North Carolina :
"We want Bryson, Coggins, Bailey, Robertson and Eaton. Letter
Follows. G H Wesley."
There was a bit of a
scare for college players. The National Collegiate Athletic
Association began a clamp down on collegians in semi-pro leagues. A
new code resulted in a few players (Jim Garrett of Fresno State,
for one) sitting out the season. The NCAA announced in June that 35 teams
had met the requirements of its code. Those teams included the
Edmonton Eskimos and Medicine Hat Superiors.
The code was designed to prevent collegians
from losing their amateur status. It meant the players must have
legitimate jobs, requiring a minimum of 32 hours a week and not be relying
on baseball for their living. The rule did not apply to seniors or
students from non-affiliated schools such as junior colleges.
Cliff Pemberton, the Moose Jaw
manager, said "I don't know how it can be done." "We've
lost some good boys because I couldn't find a way we could have them up
here without stretching the truth about what we were doing. In
Edmonton, they must know more about the code, or have more power somewhere
than the rest of us." (Saskatoon
Star-Phoenix, June 11, 1958)
Not all the college players went on to
become rocket scientists.
Each of the players was asked to fill in a
questionnaire. One of the questions attempted to delve into the
player's activities in the off-season.
The question read, "Position during the winter
months?". A 1b-of for Lloydminster replied, "Any field or
first base."
In response to the question, "What do
you consider your outstanding performance in baseball?", another
replied, "short stop".
* The
official league statistics did not include six games.
Newspaper box scores have now been located for five of the games
and the linescore for the last of the missing games. The
additions resulted in some changes from the official figures -- Adair increased his league-leading average
from .403 to
.409. Leon Wilson took the RBI title, Higgie Alvarez moved into
a tie for the home run lead, Bennie Griggs and Roland Jones tied Gene Graves for
the most wins, Bill Thom dropped a few notches in the ERA race
and, for some, it meant significant jumps -- John Ford of the
Combines (who went 7-10 in two missing games) had his average
jump to .350, and Bob Bodine of Williston moved up into nearly
respectable territory, up to .198! As well, the league
standings as shown in the official statistics, did not match
actual game-by-game reports. The standings listed above are how
the teams actually finished.
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Western Canada Baseball
League
It was a summer dominated by future major leaguer
Jerry Adair. The
Williston shortstop (and sometimes pitcher) led the Oilers to the league
title, beating the Combines in a best-of-nine final. Adair, who
batted .438 for Oklahoma State in the spring, led the
loop in hitting at .409*, tied for the lead in
homers with 10, was tops in doubles, 16, runs, 65, and finished with 52 RBI
-- one behind the leader. Also, he was the top fielding
shortstop.
