Capilano stadium will have to be packed for every game to keep Mounties happy.

Sunday ball needed to
keep Mounties in black —

Vancouver Mounties, this city’s entry in the Pacific Coast League, began spring
training at Fullerton, California on Monday but team president Brick Laws and manager
Lefty O’ Doul have more worries than just picking a team that can win some ball games.
With Sunday baseball apparently washed out for the balance of 1956, and Capilano Stadium
looking like a duck pond the Mounties will have a hard time operating at a profit.

Only a jammed. stadium. for |
each game can keep Mounties ins
the black. And if repairs to the;
turf, estimated at $30,000, aren’t
completed by the time of the
scheduled league opening, Laws
will take a severe blow to the
pocketbook.

When, the Mounties (a horrible
name for a Canadian team, by
the way, and obviously one
dreamed up by U.S. shareholders
to attract big road gates) shifted
from Oakland to Vancouver, it
appeared certain that Sunday
ball games wefe in the bag. Van-
couver citizens had approved by
plebiscite vote and all that ’re-
maind was for Victoria to okay teat igs aie
the .people’s decision. :

Buck-passing by Vancouver Shortstops are scarce, with
v £ : . 3 2 i
City Council and the B.C. legis- | These moves, designed to off- | Witty Quintana, a .226 hitter, best

i _ set the loss of Sunday games, will | of the présent crop in training.
ons oa naan One pe a prove useless unless the field is Mounties will likely have to
House. Eric Whitehead wrote In!in fit condition to play on, wet spend some cash for a good man.
Memoriam for the Province ex- jor dry weather. In the outfield department
pressing the feelings of the fans. | The team itself faces prob- | there are fair ball players avail-
tt read: a, | lems. Manager Lefty O’Doul able, sch as Ketkovich, Powis,
_ “Here lies the body of Sun- and coach Eddie Taylor have a | Pisoni, Brovia and Chuck Oertel.
day Sport, laid to rest March big crop of hopefuls at Fuller- Moundsmen include ex-major
“9 1956 ee TR Provincial Legis- ton, but many of the spring leaguer Bob Hooper, George
tate ‘Shifty Valley Cemetery. | ‘taining flashes will fade in | Bamberger, Charlie Beamon and
The deceased, the victim of a the next few weeks. | Bill Diemer.

deadly malady known as poli-

* : : e ae
tw beara s metal Copngdian football is

buck fever, is mourned by

: e
many. Pallbearers were mem- :
‘arg wevaowecs Changed to suit U.S. |
Council, weeping crocodile res : 3 : ; }
tears.” Instead of resisting any further Americanization of. Canadian
President Brick Laws, gener-/football at its recent annual meeting, the Canadian Rugby Union
al manager Ced Tallis and man-|agreed to most of the U.S. coaches’ demands. And Dow’s Brewery
ager’ Lefty O’Doul gulped man-/}bought the TV rights to all Big Four games for three years for a
fully when they heard the sad|whopping $950,000.
news, reckoned they’d have to! Since 1954, when the National

: ?
get along without Sunday ball|p.ooacasting Company televised Just wonderful? » t
for one season. roadcasting The crowning insult, of course,

Then the drainage problems |S°M® Canadian games, team was the decision that all players
cropped up. Park superintendent owners have been trying to again|in the Grey Cup game’ will have
Phil Stroyan advised city coun-jattract the U.S. networks. But|to wear stockings. Yes, the Na-
cil that Cap Stadium resembled they wanted more changes in tional .Football League enforces

= : this regulation so the players’
a swimming pool rather than a ; j : a
ball park, and needed major the Canadian rules, to make ithe] will be fit to appear on USS.

pairs to make it playable for the | S#™€S 2 replica of those played | living-room screens. :
club’s scheduled home debut | south of the border, Actually, with 12 imports per
April 27. | So the CRU jumped to atten- | team (another new development)
The city has spent $60,000 for{tion and imported a few more | this year’s Grey Cup, to be play-
a roof, which has given the sta-| changes. ed in Montreal, will not be too
dium a “big league” look, and a| With a six-point touchdown, |far removed from a pfo game in
new paint job. no double penalties, increased | the U.S. ;
The ball club has spent $5,000 blocking by backfielders and; Now, for next year, boys, ‘don’t
to move the press box ‘to a bet-jother minor ‘“improvements’,| you think our field is toc big for
ter location, and has gained ap-|Dow’s will now be able to offer|the U.S. game? And how- about
proval for a scheme that will|an attractive package to a U.S.|an extra down? And let’s get rid
provide a 2,400-seat right field|sponsor. And next September, | of that extra man while we're at
pavilion for $38,000. our game won’t make the U.S. it.

Unless Mounties get off, to a
good start in the PCL, crowds
may: dwindle and the club will
dive into the red.

Len Neal from last year’s Oak-
land team will probably be the
first string catcher. Others fight-
ing for the key job behind the
plate are Art Cuittiand and Don
Masterson.

Tito Francona, a fine hitter, is
favored at first, but second base
is wide open, unless O’ Doul gets
someone like Don Leppert from
the parent. organization, Balti-
more Orioles.

Karl Segrist, Spider Jorgenson
or rookie Brooks Robinson will

O’DOUL

fan laugh ariymore. Isn’t that

Gert Whgte's

SPORTLIGHT

Paid 63 more days until rac-
ing. opens at Randall’s out-
‘door roulette wheel. Wake me
early on May 18, Rita, for I in-

: tend to give those nags a whirl.

What’s that you say, dear?
Will I bring home a bundle?
Don’t be silly. Have I ever fail-
ed you yet?

Oh.

Yeh, I guess you're right. I
won’t take along my carfare and
lunch money. I promise. Cross
my heart, Rita.

* * *

In the old days, if you wanted
a horse to stand still, you tied
him to a post. Today, you just
place a bet on him.

You can't beat the races, but
sometimes you can beat a race.
If vouwre lucky. it is nossible

NASHUA

to stay ahead of the game for a
couple of seasons, but in the
end the government rakeoff gets
you. That’s for sure.

Hope springs eternal in the
horseplayer’s breast. Maybe
THIS is going to be THE, year.

Stop laughing, Rita, I’m seri-
ous.

* * *

Fellow dropped into the of-
fice today (one of those fel-
lows who always drop in when
you're in need of a column) and
he says, glancing over each
shoulder to make sure he wasn’t
being followed: “Bert, I’ve got
a system for beating the horses.”

Go away, says I firmly, go
away, £0, go, go. :

“It works like this,” he con-
fides in a whisper. “You take
the pole horse and the nag
fourth from the rail...”

I picked up my typewriter
and bashed in his skull, then
threw the body. downstairs,

The cops cleared me when I
told them the whole story.
“Anyone would have done the
same,” they said soothingly.

* * *

Of course, I’ve got a system of
my own. It consists of throw-
ing away all form sheets for the
first week of a meet, and play-
ing the longsHots, especially
horses from. small barns whose
owners may oWe winter feed
bills.

My theory is that in the first

weird and wonderful things
happen. Hayburners that have-

ae ee

few days of the season some —

n’t finished better than last in
two years suddenly make like
Nashua in the stretch and romp
home at fat figures.

I have never been able to de-
cide whether these rejuvenated
plugs really are going fast down
Heartbreak Lane or whether the
other horses, with a little assis-
tance from their jockeys, slow
down to a walk.

What does it matter? Catch
one of these ancient animals on
the nose and you have enongh
money to play the races fer a
month. Catch two of them in
a double (I’m a dreamer, aren’t
we all?) and you have as much
dough as a police chief er 2
cabinet minister.

Look what happened just the
other day at Agua Caliente in
Mexico. Two nondescript nags
which raced here not very suc-
cessfully last season, Blueonia
and Goldwater, turned up as the
winning. combination in the
daily double of $7,725.60. Only
two punters had tickets on them.

* * *

Of course, there’s a flaw in
my system. (That reminds me
of the flea and ‘the fly in the
flue. Said the flea; let us fly.
Said the fly, let us flee. So they
flew through a flaw in the flue.)

The flaw in my otherwise
foolproof system is simply this
—how in blazes do you pick the
right longshots? ~

I haven’t found the answer
yet, but when I do, Ill be a
tres tres magnifique sport, and
hand out dollar cigars all over
the place.

* * *

Getting away from the gee-
gees and turning to the gee-
whizzes for.a moment, take a
gan‘er at that athletic young
thing at the foot of this column.

She’s Ernestine Russell of
Windsor, best female gymnast in
Canada and the United States,
and our main hope to pick up
some points in gymnasties at
the Olympic Games in. Mel-
bourne next November.

Main competition wills come
from the agile Swedish and Rus-
sian lasses. But Ernestine will
give them a run for it all the
way, and at the rate she is de-
veloping could surprise the
world and cop a medal for
Canada.

ERNESTINE RUSSELL