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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1940)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MED FORD. . OREGON, SUNDAY. AUGUST 4. 1940. Hershberger's Suicide, Laid to Worry, Saddens Cincinnati Squad PAW? -TWO POPULAR SECOND STRING CATCHER SLASHES THROAT Teammates Upset by Act Worry Over Loss of ' Games He Caught, Mana- ger Says. Br Frank E. Carey ' Boston, Aug. S. (JP) The ."Big Slug" made believe he wai reading the newspaper. But he wasn't kidding anyone. The boyi all knew that he wai thinking aa were they of the "Little Slug." ' The Cincinnati Reds baseball players. were sitting In the ho tel room of Bill McKechnie, their manager. That Is, they were all there but one, Willard Hershberger, their second string catcher. He had committed suicide a few hours before. Slashed his throat with a razor blade, the coroner said. "Hershey" wai the "Little Slug." He got that monicker out in Cincy, the boys said, where the town loved him as a scrappy pinch-hitter. They called him that to distinguish him from Ernie Lombard!, the first-string catcher. Ernie's the "Big Slug". Sad Conference Yeah, the "Big Slug" made believe he was reading a news paper. He must have known the weather report by heart because his eyes were on It about ten minutes. But then, the "Big Slug had something to do with his hands. The other boys didn't ... Big, bronzed "Hank" Gowdy, .the Reds' coach, Just fiddled with his finger nails, and shook his head. A couple of the other boys seemed to be memorizing the numbers on their hotel keys. They tapped the keys on the aides of their chairs during pauses in the talk. And the pauses were long ones . . . , Remember whens? Sure , Someone mumbled something about the time Hershy " was all excited about getting that new antenna. "Gee ha was bug on radio. "Great guy for collecting ' guns, too," said another. The keys tapped. "Big Slug" rustled his paper to make It look good. Bill McKechnie moved to another chair and threw his leg over it. He had tried all the empty chairs in the place. Because Bill knew all of the story and he had had to tell It to everyone, the players, the boys from the newspapers and all the rest. The Story Yes. said Bill, he had an Idea something was wrong yesterday when Hershy was catching the nightcap of the doubleheader. "There was a swinging bunt that Hershy could have folded himself," he said, "but he let It roll and the pitcher had to field it." "Afterwards. I put my hands on his shoulders, and his eyes were Just popping out of his head. "I said to him, Hershy. d'ya see that tuft of grass. That's where Moore had to field that ball. Anything wrong?" And he said to me 'yes, Bill there's plenty. I ll tell you tonight'." And Bill could remember, he said, how he took "Hershy" in to the grand stand after the game when the fans had gone home and tried to get the story. But no dice. "He didn't tell me until last night Just before dinner." said Bill. "He cried like a kid. Seems he cried an hour. And then he told me he was worried about the club losing the games that he had caught. "The poor kid. He was worked up particularly about that game we lost S to 4 to New York Wednesday night in the ninth Inning. He said he thought he had called for the wrong pitches. I told him every thing was okay, and he seemed all right. . "Then he went downstairs and ate a helluva dinner. Roast beef and everything." Bill said all the boys knew that "Hershy" kind of worried about colds and things. Carried lot of medicine around with him. "But shucks," he said, "out- TRY OUR HERBS WHEN OTHERS FAIL RrammrartM for Cooiha, RhrumatUni. Innomia. Hay rm. Una Down Condition. Klnod rrr.su r. Kidney, Stomach, choit, mmmm Liver ana r una la Trouhlea. THE CHINA HERB CO. Office Hours -Daily 10 a m 235 E. Main St. 16TH GAME, HIKES FLAG RACE LEAD Boston, Aug. 3. (JP) Big Paul Derringer registered his 18th victory of the campaign today as the Cincinnati Reds won the first game of a double header with the Boston Bees, 3 to 1, but the National league leaders fell apart In the night cap and lost, 8 to 2. The split gave the last place Bees three-out-of-four thus far in the six-game series. The Reds increased their hold on the league lead by a half game, put ting them six and a half games, ahead of the threatening Dodg ers. Manager Bill McKechnie of Cincinnati left the park in the third inning of the second game on learning of the suicide of Willard Hershberger, second string catcher. The news shock ed the players. Sibby Sisti was Boston's hero in the second game, blasting out a homer in the second inn ing with two men aboard to advance the Bees' four-run rally. First game: R. H. E. Cincinnati 3 0 0 Boston . 1 11 2 Derringer and Lombard!: Posedel and Berres, Masi. Second game: R. H. E. Cincinnati 2 8 2 Boston . 8 8 Hutchlngs, Rldle and Baker; Piechota, Sullivan and Berres. Brooklyn, Aug. 3. (JP) Southpaw Ken Raffensberger set the Dodgers down with five hits today in hurling the Chi cago Cubs to a 2 to 1 victory over Brooklyn. Raffensberger didn't allow a man to get by first base until the ninth. Then Pee-Wee Reese sent a long fly Into left field and a spectator leaned over the grandstand railing and caught the ball. It was ruled a homer, despite the Cubs' protest. Score: R. H. E. Chicago 2 10 1 Brooklyn .... 18 0 Raffensberger and Todd; Davis and Mancuso. Philadelphia. Aug. 3. (JP) A combination of Mace Brown's three-hit pitching and Walter Klrby Hlgbe'a "Jinx" gave the Pittsburgh Pirates an 8 to 0 victory over the Phillies today. Brown was In top form, fac ing only 30 batters. Score: R. H. E. Pittsburgh 8 14 2 Philadelphia 0 3 0 M. Brown and Davis, Fer- nandes; Hlgbe, Beck and War ren. New York, Aug. 3. (JP) The St. Louis Cardinals climbed all over the fading Giants to day for an 8 to 3 victory to give long Lon Warneke his fourth straight win. The Cards clubbed Carl Hub bell, Daffy Dean and Roy Joiner for 17 hits, including homers by Ernie Koy, Pepper Martin and Johnny Mize. Score: R. H. E. St. Louis 8 17 2 New York 3 9 2 Warneke, Joiner a?ul Owen; Hubbell, Dean and Danning, O'Dea. E HERE WEDNESDAY There will be no bhsoba.il games In Medford today. The Craters are In Albany for a two-bame Oregon State league series, makeups of postponed first half contests, and the Rogues will travel to Koseburg for a Southern Oregon league battle. Next ball game here will be the Craters versus the Kansas City Monarchs and Satchel Paige, under the lights at the tairgrounas park Wednesday night. side of that you'd think he wouldn't have a car in the world. He'd hav been first string on many another ball club. He Just bought swell horn for his mother out in Thre Rivers, Calif., wher he lived. He was unmarried and had plenty of money. Just one of those things, I guess. . ." S p.m.. except Sunday Medford TIGERS IN TWIN NM OVER BQSQX Detroit, Aug. 3. (JP) Crack pitching by two youngsters and the old wallop at the bat car ried the pennant-minded Tigers to a sweep of a doubleheader with the Boston Red Sox today, 8 to 4 and 14 to 2, before an exultant crowd of 38,150 fans. Raising to game and a half their margin over the Cleve land Indians, who beat the Yanks In a single game today, the Tigers capitalized on staunch twirling by Freddie Hutchinson in the opener and a gilt-edged five-hit Job by Johnny Corsica in the nightcap. The Tigers, after wasting earlier chances. Jumped on Jim Bagby for four runs in the seventh to give Hutchinson his second triumph of the season against three defeats. The her alded $70,000 beauty from Se attle who was a bust last year allowed seven hits in 8 1-3 inn ings, relief man Al Benton help- Ing him in the ninth. First game: R. H. E. Boston 4 7 1 Detroit 8 11 3 Bagby, Galehouse and Foxx: Hutchinson,. Benton and Sulli van. , Second game: R. H. E. Boston 2 8 1 Detroit 14 14 2 Hash, Terry, Mustaikls and Peacock; Gorsica and Tebbetts. Cleveland, Aug. 3. (JP) Al Smith and his southpaw pitch ing stopped the New York Yan kees with six hits today to give the Indians a S to 1 vic tory over the world champions. The tribe climbed aboard Lefty Gomez for four runs In the first frame and from there on it was Just a breeze for southpaw Smith. Score: R. H. E. New York . . 18 2 Cleveland 8 12 0 Gomez, Hadley, Sundra and Rosar; Smith and Hemslcy. Chicago, Aug. 3. (JP) The red-hot Chicago White Sox reeled off their 13th victory in 10 games today by defeating Washington, 7 to 8, after taking an early lead on Rene Montea gudo, Cuban right-hander. Score: R. H. E. Washington . 8 10 1 Chicago 7 7 0 Monteagudo, Master.ion, Kra- kauskas and Ferrell: Knott. Brown and Tresh. St. Louis, Aug. 3. (JP) Im potent pitching undid some good hitting by the Browns to day and the Philadelphia Ath letics pounced on them hard in three Innings to walk off with an 11 to 7 decision. Bob Johnson and Dick Siebert hit home runs for Philadelphia and Don Heffner got one for the Brownies. Score: R. H. E. Philadelphia 11 16 0 St. Louis 7 12 2 Vaughan. Heusser. C a s t e r. I and Hayes: Niiigeling. Coffman. Lawson, Trotter and Susce Swift, Whitehead. WON BY KAYAK Los Angeles. Aug. 3. (JP) I K.v.V It ,. n nnn o.. set handicap at Hollywood park tooay, nrieaung specify in a stretch duel, with Big Flash third. Kayak II. redeeming himself for a poor showing a week ago. collared Specify as the field turned Into the stretch and won by a head ine lime tor the mile and one-half closing feature at Hoi-1 lywood park was two mlnutrs, 30 1-8 seconds. Etolia II. another Argentine importation, was fifth, and Beautiful II, her countryman, ran seventh In the field of eight. Kayak II, owned by C. S. Howard, was the betting favor !.V:. in! GUN CLUB SHOTS TO GEARHART EVENT Leaving Medford Wednesday a representative delegation of local gun club trapshooters will Journey to Gearhart, Ore., to attend the 33rd annual shoot of the Pacific Indians on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week. The organization was founded in Medford in 1908, then composed largely of pro fessional shooters reprr-se o'.inf? the ammunition companies and a few Medford, Eugene, Port land and other Oregon shooters. The tribe shoots once each year. usually at some summer resort, and is an invitational affair. For the past five years the shoots have been held at Har rison Hot Springs, Brit'sh Co lumbia. Owing to the neces sary requirements to permit firearms to be brought into Canada, on account of the war. the organization decided to hold the shoot in Oregon this year. It is considered the d luxe shooting event of the year on the Pacific coast, with every shooter being assured of a fine trophy. Local shooters desiring to at tend the Indian shoot are ad vised to contact any Medford Gun club officer, who will ar range for the Invitation. Practice shooting at the Med ford Gun club will start at 11 o'clock this morning. Visitors are always invited to enjoy the facilities of the club at the same prices as the regular members. New all-black targets have been purchased to make visi bility against the brown grass background better and scores should be as good as at any time of the year. Portland, Aug. 3. JP) Port land's Pacific Coast league team docilely absorbed it twelfth consecutive defeat this after noon at the hands of Los An geles, 8-1. Bonetti, on the mound for the Angels, held the cellarites to one hit for the first five innings and squeezed through the sixth without allowing a run despite three Portland hits. Meanwhile, led by the big bats of Lou Novikoff and Moore, Los Angeles ran up a four-run lead In the first seven innings and clinched matters by scoring four more in the ninth. Score: R. H. E. Los Angeles 8 10 1 Portland 16 0 Bonetti and Hernandez; Or rell and Deniston, Belbcr. Oakland, Calif., Aug. 3. (Jp) d.ram.ntV. T- r- m. 7i. fXA.. L wo" , " '"U.B oaseoau i aaiiip i rnm lav ann game irom Oakland in two years today. 3 to 2, and dropped Oakland into third place, with Los Angeles in second bracket. Scr: R. H. E. Sacramento 3 8 1 Oakland 2 12 2 Freitas and Ogrodowski; Sal veson and W. Raimondl. T. R.'s Widow Indisoosed. Oyster Bay. N. Y., Aug. 3. ,"V Mr' ThexJre Roosevelt Wl" be Unable to follow her "?uaI cu,,om f observing her birthday here because of poor health, her daughter says. She has suffered from the heat wave. ite with the crowd of 3S.00O. The Argentine paid $4 80, $4 and S3. 40. Snrcifv nai.l 1 an and $3.40. and Big Flash $5. - - - FOR GREEN PINE SLABS Dial 2123 TimberPro d u End Ner::i WOODEN BOX WINSiCAIf BELL KEEPSilF WAGNER LOSES SOFTBALL TITLE BEATS MEDCO, 11-9 Wooden Box attained the 1940 Medford Softball championship Friday night at the stadium by trimming Medco, 11 to 9, in the third and deciding game of their best two-out-of-three series. Med co, last year's champs, won the first tilt. 11 to 1, with the Box men squaring the playoffs with a 3 to 2 conquest Thursday evening. Along with the victory went the right to represent Medford in the district tournament at Klamath Falls, Thursday and Friday nights, the winner of which earns entrance in the state tournament at Salem. The score was tied at 3-all starting the second frame, but from then on the Boxmen took command of the contest and were never headed. They tal lied two in the second, three in the third and three in the fourth, and although Medco staged a five-run uprising in the seventh and final inning, the Wooden Box lead was too great to overcome. Medco' other run was scored in the third. Joe Peccia, Wooden Box fire baller, went the route for his club and yielded nine hits, fan ned two and walked five. Mor rie Steiner of Medco hurled five innings, during which he walked five and fanned none, and McLean worked the last two Innings for the losers. Medco committed eight er rors, all of which aided the Boxmen in hanging up their vic tory. The victors erred three times. D'Arcy hit a triple and Piche and Campbell smashed out dou bles for the winners, while Cal vert and White tripled and White doubled for the losers. Bear Creek Orchards, behind the one-hit flinging of Russ Bean, blanked Copco, 3 to 0, to win the National league pen nant. The score was 0 to 0 until the sixth Inning, when Bohl's triple started a three run rally that brought victory. Bean whiffed 10 Copco bat ters and Issued two bases on balls, while Ray Singler gave up five blows and struck out eight. Singler didn't allow a single free ticket. Two handsome trophies were awarded, the championship cup to Wooden Box and the trophy for the best-uniformed and best conducted team to Fluhrer's Breadeaters. Scores: R. h. E. Medco 9 S 8 Wooden Box 11 9 3 Steiner, McLean and Wilson; Peccia and D'Arcy. R. H. E. Copco 0 14 Bear Creek . 3 3 1 R. Singler and P. Sakraida; Bean and Wooten. VALLEY GOLFERS GO TO MUD A dozen members of the Rogue Valley Golf club left here this morning for McCloud, Cal., where they will engage a UKe number of host-club shot- makers in a team match under the Nassau point system. Those making the triD were Ivan Harrington. Bob Hammond. Jr., and Bob Hammond Sr., F. u. Bunch, Leland Clark. R. J. Donelson, Tod Porter. Lc Wat son, Hubert Bentley, Stan Sher wood, Roy Pruitt and Don Bag ley. Closing tima (or Too Late to Clu tfy Am u 1 30 p. m. 300 CUBIC TOOT LOAD cts Co m pan y Crntral NORTHWEST TOGA; LOSES, 6-5 Tacoma, Aug. .JP) Play ing superlative golf, Albert (Scotty) Campbell of Seattle was Scotch with hit strokes to day as he shot seven-under-par golf for 31 holes to retain his Washington Stat amateur championship by defeating a promising youngster, Dick Han en of Marshfield, Ore., 6 and 9. Campbell, a former Walker cup player, was at his best in mastering the 19-year-old Uni versity of Oregon freshman. The king could do no wrong at h shot a two-under-par 69 on the morning 18 to hold a two up advantage at the half way mark. At the end of the 27th he had a four hole advant age. When the match ended on the 31st as Campbell dropped a three foot putt for a birdie two, he was five under for the 13 afternoon holes. The husky Seattle golfer was hitting every shot. Hanen, the tournament medalist who had a 71 on the morning round, was good; but not good enough to challenge the veteran seriously despite the fact he won the first three holes of the morn ing 18. Howard Anderson, Seattle, shot hlmsef to victory for the first flight championship, win ning 1 up on the 37th after be ing two down at the end of the 31st. Seattle, Aug. 3. JP) N o w the 9,000 fans who saw the second game of Friday night's San Francisco Seattle double header know why Hub Kittle, the San Francisco pitcher, was working so fast on the hill, despite the fact the second game didn't end until midnight. Kittle had a date to marrv Cleo Capisthan, 21-year-old Yak ima girl whom he met while pitching for Yakima of the Western International league last year. Kittle, 23. Whose full name is Hubert Milton Kittle. rrlieveH Rookie Bob Jensen in the sec ond inning and pitched scoreless oau until the sixth when he was nicked for three runs. Spat. tie won the game, 6-1. After the eame Kittle nnH hi. bride-to-be wound un at th home of the girls' aunt, Mrs Paul Donaldson, wife of the Sunday editor of the Post-Intelligencer, and were married. Kittle, whose home is Los Angeles, was sold to the Seals recently by Yakima for $3,000. He won 20 and lost 10 last year. . His first two appearances for San Francisco were anything but gaudy, but he showed lots of stuff last night. I THE SUPER-COLD CORP. ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF K WH SALES & SERVICE EXCLUSIVE DEALERS FOR SOUTHERN OREGON FRANK P. KURTZ W. E. MARTIN MEAT CASES VEGETABLE CASES VVALK-INS & REACH-INS SODA FOUNTAINS ICE CREAM FREEZERS BAKERY, DAIRY, & BEER EQUIP 808 S. RIVERSIDE PHONF MEDFORD, ORE. 3625 COMPLETE REFRIGERATION ENGINEERING MECHANICAL- SERVICE AT ALL TIMES ARMENIAN FACES Mike Nazarian will have con siderable Incentive to win when he clashes with George Wagner in the middle event of Monday night's armory grappling card, for Promoter Mack L 11 lard has practically p r 0 m 1 1 e d him a main event spot on the next week's program if he gets over the Wagner hurdle. The rough Armenian, making his initial appearance here last week, bullied and fou'.ed his way to a conquest of Otis Cling man, and will undoubtedly fol low the same style of matwork against Wagner. Nazarian isn't as dirty as many gladiators, but he isn't a gentleman bv anv meant. Lillard tentatively plans to! match Nazarian, if he beats' Waener. with th win.w fi the McShane-Piluso main event Monday eve. The Armenian, not used to wrestling in pre liminary bouts, has been bother ing Lillard for a main event shot, and Monday's match will decide the issue. Sonnenbergs and other spec tacular legitimate maneuvers versus olentv nf dirt mil iio driver holds will be seen when trnle Piluso squares off against Jitterbug Danny McShane in the one-hour main event. Mc Shane, with two straight wins In as many Medford starts, is figured to run un ...im 1.1. toughest opponent thus far, and many persons are of the opin ion that Piluso will emerge with the laurels, due to his blazing speed and all-around ability. Bob Cummin 0 will .-nr. . - face Otis Clingman in the open- "ik mm. tummlngs, a clean wrestler, hasn't been here for several months. 1 Tomorrow nitrhl will the last ladies' night croeram for several weeks. Gels Bonneville Job. Portland. Ant 9. jd,. Tt , - --a v. n 1 aiic Bonneville administration nam ed Wallace L. Ka.nnpt. vam. natchee. Wash., alumnus of the University of Oregon law school, to its legal staff today. i WRESTLING! MEDFORD ARMORY ERNIE PILUSO vs. DANNY McSHANE GEO. WAGNER vs. MIKE NAZARIAN OTIS CLINGMAN TS. BOB CUMMINGS Ladies' Night! SQUAD Portland, Aug. 3. JP) All but two of the 18 players named on the state semi-pro baseball team today are members of th State league club, attesting to the domination of the circuit over the state semi-pros. The team was selected fol lowing completion of the stat semi-pro tournament. It follows: Pitchers Elliott, Albany; Carstent, Portland Babes; Jack Richards and Clow, Jack-Jill Tavern; Wiltshire, Sil- verton. Catchers: Wittcke, Jack-Jill; Warren Wanner, Gaston-Dairy Creek. First base, Clifford, Albany; second, Koch, Babes; third, Sliinn, Albany: short, Schroer, Jack-Jill; outfield. Brown, Babes; Whitman, Silverton; Leiningcr, Jack-Jill; utility out field, Amato. B. & O. Transfer; utility infield, Kirsch, Silver, ton. Grant Extradition. Salem, Aug. 3. (JP) Gov. Charles A. Sprague today ap proved the extradition nf Elmer Miller of Eugene, wanted in Holt county, Mo., on a charge of issuing a no-account $4 check. Cat Has Quintuplets. McClellandtown, Pa., Aug. 3. (JP) Five Siamese kittens born to a cat at the home of a Negro family in Palmer, a nearby coal mining hamlet, were reported "doing all right" today. s vj 1 r.i IN- DRINKING WATER . . The water in this pool la changing constantly and is chlorinated to meet state requirements. MERRICK'S 1 P. M. to 9:45 P. M. MONDAY NIGHT, 8:30 Seats on sale at Brown's Telephone 2735 P. M 4Si
