Fifty years ago, on June 14, 1968, Phil Brown, a 1968 graduate of Manteca High and presently a pitcher on the McFall-Grisham American Legion Post baseball team, was drafted this week by the National League Chicago Cubs in the annual major league player draft. He signed a one-year contract with the Cubs, calling for a reported $10,000 and college scholarship stipulations. Brown, 17, left yesterday for Caldwell, Idaho, where the Pioneer Rookie League play begins Saturday.
In other sports stories from the Bulletin files:
90 years ago: June 14, 1928 – With just nine loyal ball players, the Manteca Maulers subdued the Modesto Merchants last Sunday. The score was 4 to 1. A cold, sharp wind swept over Davis Park throughout the afternoon. Tom Washington went the route for the Maulers and allowed but five hits. Hank Theiler, who has caught the last two games for the Maulers, was in center field. Hank connected for a double and a triple, both hits narrowly missed going over the fence for home runs.
80 years ago: June 16, 1938 – With three regular players missing, the Honeydews found the Danville Club boys too much for them Thursday night at Recreation Park, losing the softball contest by a 3-0 score. Due to some misunderstanding, possibly a 3-0 lead, the visitors declined to play more than seven innings in what had been scheduled as a nine-inning game.
70 years ago: June 18, 1948 – Manteca’s Junior Legion dropped a close game to Amador Sunday by a score of 12-11. Dick King hit a double and a single to lead the heavy stickers. Jess Payan hit two for two and scored two runs and Pete Bianchi also had two hits.
60 years ago: June 19, 1958 – The McFall-Grisham-sponsored Junior Legion team of Manteca got off on the right foot in the District 11 baseball race over the weekend when they defeated Karl Ross Post of Stockton 14 to7 Saturday on the locals’ home field. Jerry Guibor, Manteca’s third pitcher, hurled flawless ball for the final six innings. Pat Lyons led the locals at the plate with two for five, including a double.
50 years ago: June 14, 1968 – Two big run-producing innings by Karl Ross Post of Stockton were enough to knock off Manteca’s McFall-Grisham Legion nine, 7-2, in a game played Wednesday at Hebert Field in Stockton. Ross came up with four runs in the second and three more in the third off Manteca hurler Phil Brown to coast to the win. Manteca’s third sacker Tom Murphy had three hits.
Trans-Valley Conference summer swim competition got off to the bang of the starter’s gun Saturday at Lincoln pool with host Manteca walking off with most of the honors. Coach Gene Christensen’s crew set eight league records en-route to a lopsided victory over visiting teams from Ripon and Riverbank. The Manteca water set tallied 433 points to 290 for runner up Ripon. David Sweet and Kathy Buck paced the victors with four first-place finishes, including five records between them.
40 years ago: June 14, 1978 – State Farm Insurance, coached by Bob Leatherwood, swept a doubleheader against Tracy’s Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball team with scores of 7-1 and 3-2 on Sunday, while Butch Marliani’s Tradeway Chevrolet squad split their twin bill with Ripon, dropping the first 13-4 and winning the second game 5-4. Ron Yee rapped a big double in the seventh inning as State Farm scored four times in that frame to sew up the win. Bob Allsup’s single scored Rick Hogan with what proved to be the winning run in the inning.In Tradeway’s first game at Ripon on Sunday, a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning suddenly disappeared as Ripon sent 16 men to the plate, nine getting hits. Jim Agostini led the locals with two hits, three stolen bases and two runs scored. In the second game, Tradeway broke a three-game losing streak as Joel Emperador bunted Neil Prater home for the winning run.
30 years ago: June 13, 1988 – Frank’s Exxon Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball team remained unbeaten in Tri-County League action, notching its third straight doubleheader sweep against Gustine Sunday. Frank’s dumped Gustine 4-1 behind a solid relief pitching performance by Eric Jones, then bounced back to easily take the nightcap 12-5. Kenny Huckaby batted in two runs with a double and a single.
Facing another tough foe, the Manteca Chiropractic Lancers were happy to come away with a doubleheader split with Reeve Associates in Tracy in Sunday’s Senior Babe Ruth action. The Lancers hung on to clip Reeves in the opener but were blanked 7-0 in the second game. The Lancers jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead as a double by Matt Stokes and a single by Alan Sandoval did the damage. The Lancers got just two hits, by Stokes and Allan Martinez, in the nightcap loss.
20 years ago: June 18, 1998 – In Sunday’s Tri-County Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball action at Tracy, East Union’s Keith Danel and Andy Morrison combined on a five-hitter for a 6-3 victory over the Tracy Braves in the opener of a doubleheader. Offensively, Carl Herrera led EU’s attack with two hits, including a double. In the second game, East Union fell to the Braves 4-2. Daniel Taylor had two of EU’s five hits.
10 years ago: June 19, 2008 – The 2008 Manteca Bulletin All-Area Tennis MVP is Manteca High’s Mostafa Aniss. He is the Valley Oak League singles champion and his younger brother, Yassen, is the runner-up. The Buffaloes are back-to-back VOL champions and a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Tournament semi-finalist.
The Manteca Bulletin’s All-area swimming MVP’s are Sierra High’s Josh Revives and East Union High’s Natalie Heihn. EU’s Heihn was undefeated in the 100 back, 200 free, 500 free and the 100 free in VOL races this season. Revives set a new school record in his favorite race, the 200 free (1:46.5).
Cassandra Woodall is the first East Union High athlete to qualify for the CIF State Track and Field Championships in a throwing event since Amy Haapanen did so in 2002. Derek Sinclair is the first to achieve that same feat in Sierra High history. The two are the Manteca Bulletin’s All-area Track and Field MVP’s.
John Ott and Kyle Harmon are the 2008 Manteca Bulletin’s All-area co-MVP’s in golf. Both are East Union High sophomores.
