Ray Washburn tossed the only no-hitter of the 1959 season.
"Nobody really thought it was a no-hitter" said Washburn, "I walked so many, eight I think, and there were runners on the bases all night. I walked in two."
Many of the prairie baseball stars were also stars on ice. Gordie Vejprava was among them. (Calgary Herald, August 7, 1959)
Left - Key members of the White Sox playoff drive -- Brack Bailey, Darryl Wilson, Larry Koentopp, Dick Creighton, and at the rear, batboy Gregg Park.
Left - Kansas City Monarchs won the 1959 Lethbridge tournament beating Drain 9-5 in the final. Homers by Paul Gilbert (left), Jesse Mitchell (centre) and Willie Washington (right) brought Kansas City back from a 5-1 deficit.
Right - Dave Biggers, Lethbridge White Sox stretching out to make the catch.
Left - Bob Bourbeau (left) and Steve Schott (right) of the Lethbridge White Sox. [Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum & Archives, Photo # 19753802051]
Above right- Drain Black Sox, 1958 US semi-pro champs were one of the entries in the Lethbridge Tournament. Left to right: pitcher Dick Montee, playing-manager Ray Stratton, third baseman Jim Phifer.
Left - Pitcher Aaron Jones of the Medicine Hat Superiors.
Above - Medicine Hat's Thad Tillotson (centre) tossed a three-hitter in the Lethbridge Tournament but lost 1-0 to Tommy Taylor (right) of the Kansas City Monarchs on a homer by Bob Herron (left).
Above left - Three of the 1959 Western Canada players would, in 1965, be teammates on the Los Angeles Dodgers' Spokane Indians. Brack Bailey (right), Thad Tillotson (centre) and John Werhas (left). Right - August 2, 1959 the first game under the lights in Lethbridge. An overflow crowd of 18-hundred at Henderson Park was on hand as the Sox whipped Kansas City Monarchs 14-2.
Left - Calgary Dodgers' hurlers, veteran Hank Szostak (left), a former pro, and youngster, Bentley MacEwen.
Right - Dave Abel (left) and Gordie Vejprava
Left - Lethbridge's John Vaselenak receives the Jack Boyle Memorial Trophy from the league's governor-secretary Bill MacKay for the team's first place finish during the regular season. [Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum & Archives, Photo # 19753802060]
Right - a pair of Lethbridge hurlers at a team practice. Mountie Bedford is at the left. The player at the right is not yet identified. [Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum & Archives, Photo # 19753802063]