The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-21
AS Pegler Sees It
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1s47, By King Features Syndicate,
Inc.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 20 All I mean to say
about baseball in the low minors, where the,
travel by bus and live as high as they car
on $3.50 a day on the road, is that they
give the customers just as much for a dollar
as the major leagues do. Just as much base.
ball, but not just the same. The loW-minors
give you a lot Of offense and just enough
defensive skill to get the side out before to
morrow.
Jim Bynon. an outfielder of the Bisbee
Yanks, of the Arizona-Texas league, recently
hit IN "a consecutive games. In 148 times al
bat in that stretch, he got 48 hits, % Of them
for extra bases, and drove in IS runs. A
last, coming to bat in the 18th inning for the
seventh time in the game, he was a thirc
out, while another fellow named MARY
ming up a string himself. The last time
heard a call on Kranda, he had hit in 2s
consecutive games,
To be sure, the pitching is low-minor, but
still they have their 3 to 2 games and an
occasional tight shutout. Practically always
there are at least a few errors. I would call
three a few. From five to seven would be
several. More than that I call numerous.
Bill Lucas, the sport editor of the Tucson
Citizen, recently led off his story as follows:
ten runs in a big sixth inning on six hits,
two walks, a sacrifice, an error and a hit
batsman, gave the Tucson Cowboys a 14-10
verdict over the Phoenix Senators here last
night. Cactus Jack Carmichael won his sixth
straight victory but he was hardly impressive,
for he gave ten hits, walked the same number
and famed nine"
In the sixth 10 men hit for Tucson and from
start to finish every man on the club got
at least one hit except Mike DeJan, an out
fielder, who was hit by the pitcher twice.
Or July 10, the Bisbee Yanks beat Ell Paso,
SO to 10, and ten days later Tucson beat Ell
Paso, % to 5. There were So hits in the first
OF these games and 81 in the other. At the
second game, Mrs. Fred Heide, of 1922 East
Second street, Tucson, won a 500 door prize.
This happy event adorned a pleasant social
custom of the Arizona-Texas league.
At a recent gift-night in Bisbee Whitehead
and Collier donated a pressure cooker; Phil
lips Brothers gave a set Of matched table
lamps and the P~helps-Dodge Mercantile Co.
put up an electrical thing that cooks a whole
meal at once. For this purpose, night is spell
led 'nite,'' P-D Mercantile is that ancient and
detested institution, the company store, In
Bisbee run by the copper company. Nobody
|lldS " DuJ ulC1C, u oiilS lin ~ ~S oNN
of the crowds, you would think trading was
compulsory, as at the old Delano company
stores in the Pennsylvania coal fields, run
by the you-know family. One night in Bisbee
was douglas night or %'nite," when the
beauty and chivalry Of Douglas, far across
the flat where the shelter is, came over IN
a ''motorcade' and some Mexican clientele
from Aqua Prieta, too. Some OF us remember
when Aqua Prieta was the dateline of a noisy
|1:441. It'll. = opo of 4ha Mavican revolutions.
It lies lust across the street from Douglas
and some of the bullets slipped, causing I'M
rest on our side. Outside the little town, Walch
contained some of the most mournful-looklng
.brothels in the history Of sin during our recent
war, there are still a few little wooden cross
es, bending lower and lower with the years
honoring Mexican soldiers, .known-but to GOO.
but probably illiterate desperados, at that.
In that game which Bisbee won from Ell
Paso. 80 to 10, Mr.. Byron was unable to
play, having a bad ankle, SO a pitcher named
Charlie Pickett took his place in the outtleld
and hit a homer and a double and Or We IN
four. The next day Mr.. Pickett was sent to
Fond Du Lac on option. Joe Valenzula, the
winning pitcher, got six hits and scored SIX
runs in six times at bat. In another game, Ell
Paso scored six runs in the first inning on five
hite and three bases on balls before a man
was out, but had to go II innings to WIN It,
IL to 9.
In the first half Of the season in my
League, Juarez easily won but dropped out
because the ball-yard had no lighting plant
and the team could draw a daylight CROWD at
home only on Sunday afternoons. Inc elaer
statesmen therefore organized an orphan club
based in Mesa, which is more a desert local.
tv than a conscious town, and that Mesa
chamber of commerce will sprinkle the hlgh
way with tacks when I come by next winter
mi. L--.11 -. ..aa4 ~o;por loo o11ac ic the
trouble with most people, and not merely
Young people or young athletes either. They
won't try. They won't practice. A manager
and coaches can't do anything for some young
mass of bone surrounded by muscle VINO
thinks he knows all about baseball and won't
look at a lesson or run them out. They get
sullen when they meet their equals or thelr
betters and drop away content to BOAST mat
they once played professional pail. But some
of them know baseball is play, ana pay IL y
paw like a pitcher named Gene Smith Who
went seven innings in one game for Blsbee
and then caught the second game because the
varsity catcher had been slugged from behind
in an argument I haven't heard of a major
league player since Dizzy Dean who liked
baseball well enough to play for fun, as Dizzy
did when he put himself in as a pinch-runner
in a World Series at St. Louis and went
into second as tall as he could stretch to
block a throw, and took it on the back of
Ibis head.
There is a Mexican outfit called the Tamale
lea que ranging from Nogales down into old
Mexico, but they finished up early and our
people hear little about these CLUBS, even in
Arizona, although the best professionals free
ly admit that there are some fine Mexican
players. One reason is that they are casual
about their contracts and records. Another is
Jim Crow. They come and they drift along.
They change names. Some Of them may be
outlaws. For several years, Hal Chase, Shoe
less Joe Jackson and several otner Old fugi-
tives from organized baseball played along
the border and below. This year there were
clubs in Nogales, Cananea, obregon. Hermo-
sillo, Empalme and Santa Ana. Old custom
called for 4 key of beer at third.