Ninety years ago, on June 16, 1919, Manteca lost a baseball game to Patterson by a score of 4 to 3. For the reason, just look at the error column and especially in the first inning. There was considerable fault found with the umpire who Manteca fans who say gave Patterson the best of the close ones. However, they did not prevent the baby play of their pitcher who “fainted.” The game was attended by the biggest crowd of the season. Ramos, Manteca third baseman, got two hits.
In other sports stories from the Bulletin files:
80 years ago: June 20, 1929 - Emil Theiler, last year’s Manteca Maulers shortstop who has been playing five days a week with the San Bernardino team in the Southern California Class D league, has joined the San Francisco Missions in the Coast League. Theiler has been highly successful so far and “Red” Killifer, manager of the Missions, may give him a chance at second base.
The Manteca Maulers won last Sunday, despite the fact that they lost. The Turlock Owls came to town with ineligible players and in the game they used them, so the Maulers were given the game by forfeit. The game itself was played and held the interest of the fans throughout. Turlock scored a 4 to 0 win over the Maulers. Milt Converse and Dan Alley collected two hits apiece for Manteca.
70 years ago: June 22, 1939 - It was just too much Verner Runsten at Escalon Sunday as the slim, steady righthander set the local baseball aggregation down with but three hits and one run as his own mates pounded Bill Enders for a total of 15 blows and 11 runs. Joe Espinal, Enders and Pete Evenson poked out the lone Manteca safeties.
Softball fans at Recreation Park watched a close game Friday night when the Manteca Honeydews beat the Bell Club of Stockton 6-1. Bell Club batting averages took a beating as Ed Winters held them to two hits. Correa hit a three-run homer for the Honeydews.
60 years ago: June 24, 1949 - Tuolumne dedicated their new baseball field in a colorful and dramatic way, taking advantage of many Manteca errors to pull a stunning 9-5 victory to make the dedication a complete success.
Gene Clarke, son of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Clarke, will play at Stockton’s Oak Park tomorrow at 8 p.m. in an All-star game with the San Jose All-stars. Twelve San Joaquin Valley prep league players will play in the game. Clarke will play in the outfield.
40 years ago: June 20, 1969 - Manteca Ford softball team kept up their winning ways by taking another victory earlier this week. On Tuesday, the local squad defeated Castle Air Force Base in a tough contest 1-0. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Ron Blakemore walked, was sacrificed to second and scored when Benny Guerrero singled. Pitcher Gary Heaton allowed the Air Force only three hits and struck out 15.
Tracy’s entry in the San Joaquin Amateur Baseball League ended the two-game Manteca win streak Monday and handed the locals a 6-2 setback, their first in league play.
Buster Scharmann pitched East Union to a victory over St. Mary’s on Saturday as the country boys won a 3-1 decision in 10 innings.
30 years ago: June 21, 1979 - The State Farm Insurance Babe Ruth 16-18 baseball team had a good chance to sweep their Sunday doubleheader with their Tri-County League rivals, the Tracy Golds, but wound up with a split, winning the opener 6-1, but dropping the followup contest 10-9. Rick Hogan led State Farm to an easy victory with a two-run homer in the first game and Keith Jackson survived a rocky start to go the distance for the win. Jackson walked six Tracy batters in the first two innings, but managed to stay free from trouble. In the second matchup, the host team jumped on State Farm pitcher Frank Boesch and scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take the game. State Farm coach Jack Thomson praised Steve Vasquez as having a good day at the plate with three base hits.
20 years ago: June 19, 1989 - Unfortunately for the local teams, both Modesto baseball squads put together big rallies for comfortable victories during Tri-County Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball competition on Sunday afternoon. Westurf had two big innings and breezed past Manteca Chiropractic 9-1 despite only out-hitting the locals 11-8 on the East Union High field. Diamond Lighting, also of Modesto, used stingy pitching and a six-run salvo in the first inning to pound out a 6-0 victory over Guinta’s Food Mart on the Downey High diamond. Chiropractic, which falls to 1-6, got their lone run in the second inning when John Burns doubled and later scored on a double steal. Mark Kackley and Brett Zugnoni got two hits apiece for the locals. Guinta’s, on the other hand, got just three hits in their loss, singles by John Rhodes, Gary Shockey and Jon Fannin.
10 years ago: June 20, 1999 - East Union’s Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball team easily defeated O’Keefe Black 7-4 in a game Saturday afternoon at Agostini Field, thanks to a complete game four-hitter by Matt O’Brien. He struck out six and issued only three walks. Cameron Dodd and Daniel Taylor each had two hits for the winners.
Sierra’s Babe Ruth 16-18 team swiftly crushed the O’Keefe Cardinals Saturday night with a 9-0 victory. With five runs in the first inning and three more in the second frame, Sierra quickly built a wide lead. Winning pitcher Josh Duran fanned 13 batters and gave up only four hits. Duran and Robert Breedlove each collected two hits in the victory.
Tanner Bragg, Katie Riley, Dawson McGehee, Katie Lipsett, Stephen Lyon, Brett Gumm and Lynae Brown each earned three first place spots in their age divisions as the Manteca Dolphins took a rousing 897-715 win over the Oakdale Gators at Saturday’s swim meet.
