Saturday, July 14, 2007

Sunday, September 5, 1948

STANDINGS
               W  L  Pct. GB
Bremerton ... 88  56 .611 —
Spokane ..... 90  62 .592 2
Victoria .... 85  64 .570 6
Tacoma ...... 77  65 .542 10
Salem ....... 69  81 .460 22
Vancouver ... 61  73 .455 22
Wenatchee ... 65  83 .439 25
Yakima ...... 49 100 .329 41½


First game
Wenatchee ....... 100 000 0—1 7 3
Spokane ........... 202 024 x—10 11 2
Stevens, Wilson (6) and Dalrymple; Nelson and Sheely.
Second game
Wenatchee ...... 100 000 000 01—2 8 5
Spokane .......... 000 000 010 00—1 7 3
McCollum and Gardner; Werbowski and Sheely.

First game
Salem ............. 003 000 5— 8 10 2
Yakima .......... 000 041 0—5 7 2
G. Peterson, Sporer (7) and Samhammer; Strait, C. Peterson (5) and Constantino.
Second game
Salem ............ 010 001 023—9 12 0
Yakima ......... 020 020 010—5 12 3
Saltzman, McNulty (8) and Brown, Samhammer (8); Kittle, B. Drilling (8) and Constantino.

(only games scheduled)

Seattle Purchases Warren
VANCOUVER, Sept. 4—The Vancouver Capilanos will finish the Western International League season without hard-hitting catcher Jack Warren, who has been sold to the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League.
The Caps have received Ernie Choukalous from Great Falls as a replacement.

Camilli Likes Job as Pilot For Spokane
By Bill Johnston
SPOKANE, Sept. 5—If the seven little Camillis are wondering what happened to Daddy Dolph, he's sitting up with a sick friends's ball club.
The friend is recovering, thanks, but not as fast as the ball club.
And Camilli likes his nursing chores so well he thinks he might buy a chunk of the Spokane baseball team and stick around permanently.
The former “most valuable player” of the National league hasn't been in the baseball news much since he stopped managing Oakland's Pacific Coast league team in 1945.
About that time he decided to settle down on his 1,722-acre ranch at Laytonville, Calif., and drive in cattle instead of runs.
“I found I wasn't happy out of baseball, though,” Camilli admitted.
Nobody was surprised that Camilli should prefer horsehide to cowhide.
Big Dolph was clouting baseballs as a kid in San Francisco. He sent them sailing for Logan and Salt Lake City in the old Utah-Idaho league. He broke into the Pacific Coast league under Manager Buddy Ryan at Sacramento in 1925.
Reached Big Leagues
Camilli reached the majors in 1933 and stayed there 11 years. He played for Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn in the National league and spent three months with the Boston Red Sox. When Brooklyn won the pennant in 1941 the Dodger first baseman led the circuit with 122 runs batted in and 34 home runs. He was named the league's most valuable player that year.
That's how he got the baseball habit and ranch life couldn't break it.
Wide-eyed high school boys and players on the Laytonville town team soon were getting big league instruction from a rancher who found 1,722 acres more confining than a baseball diamond.
Ryan Called Him
Then Camilli got a call from Buddy Ryan, the man he credits with starting him up the baseball ladder.
Ryan and J. Lamar Butler had purchased Spokane's franchise in the class B Western International league. Ryan had been ordered by his doctor to quit managing the team for a while. Could Camilli help?
Dolph taxied his private plane onto his ranch runway and took off.
He found a “stop-and-go” ball club in Spokane. He took over “cold” August 1 with the Indians in fourth place and the team got hot. It won 30 of its next 39 games to jump into second place and put the pressure on front-running Bremerton.
The Spokane players like Camilli's knack of teaching major league tricks. The owners like his habit of winning ball games. Camilli likes baseball.
So it wasn't too surprising when Camilli announced:
“I might buy into the club as a third partner. I have had a good offer here and it looks like I might make a permanent tie-up with this ball club.”
Fans Approved
It was the best news of many a hard-luck season for Spokane fans. The Indian team was almost wiped out in a bus crash two years ago and lost the league title last year by one percentage point.
“The set-up here looks good,” Camilli said. “I think it's a fine opportunity to develop young ball players and send them up to the majors.
“I like the league. I like Spokane. I like the chance to help young players.”
But mostly, of course, he likes baseball.

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