Monday April 30, 1928
KINGS FINALLY SOLVE STARS
After dropping 6 of 7 games to the rival New York Stars earlier this month, the Brooklyn Kings got a measure of revenge this week as they went 3-0 against New York and 5-1 overall in their best week so far in this young season. That improves Brooklyn's record on the year to 11-7, but the Kings remain in 4th place in the Continental Association 4.5 games back of the Cleveland Foresters.
The week started with back to back home wins over the Stars with Brooklyn winning by scores of 8-4 and 5-4. Harvey Rodgers improved to 2-0 on the season with a complete game in the opener as catcher Mickey Dowell (.373,0,16) went 2-for-2 with 3 walks to help pace the offense. On Wednesday, Brooklyn gave up a 4-1 lead as starter Del Plummer (0-2, 4.15) allowed the Stars to plate 1 in the 8th and a pair in the 9th to send the games into extras, but Dowell was the hero with a run scoring triple in the bottom of the 10th to make a winner out of Cal Williams, who pitched a scoreless top half of the inning to earn his first win out of the pen.
The Kings then moved on to Baltimore for 3 games against the struggling Cannons. Baltimore got it's first and so far only win of the season with a 6-1 victory over Mose Smith (2-2, 4.50) in the series opener but Leon Campbell (2-1, 3.46) responded for the Kings the next day with his best outing of the season, a 4-hit shutout in a 6-0 victory keyed by 2 hits and 3 rbi's for 1B Lou Garman (.308,0,12) and a pair of hits and 2 rbi's from second sacker Willie Jackson (.276,2,16). OF Bud Rogers (.421,2,8) continued his hot start to the year in the series finale, getting 3 hits as Brooklyn blasted Baltimore 10-4 with Topsy Moran improving to 3-1 with a complete game victory.
The week ended with a 10-6 win over the Stars at home as Brooklyn pounded out 17 hits including 3 each from Bud Rogers and Doug Lightbody (.357,0,8) as well as a pair of homers from Willie Jackson. Harvey Rodgers was overly effective on the mound but did enough to run his record to 3-0.
The Kings head north of the border for a stretch that begins an 18 game road trip. Stops next week are in Montreal against the surprising Saints for 3 before finishing the week with a 4 game set at Toronto.
ROSTER UPDATE
I have kept the same roster since opening day and while I am very close to calling up Mike Taylor from AAA Houston and giving Lynn Randall some starts at first base I won't make any changes this sim after the strong week we had. Offense is coming around and while our pitching, particularly veterans Mose Smith and Del Plummer, has struggled we did get some solid outings from Campbell and Moran plus Williams had a good inning out of the pen - something we have sorely lacked over the years.
As for Mike Taylor, he had what by his recent standards is an off week at AAA Houston. Taylor went 10-for-25 (.400) with a double and 2 triples but no homers. On the season he is hitting .412 with 8 homers and 25 rbi's after 22 games. Randall, who had a huge half year in Houston last season and made the team as a backup this year, hit his first career big league homerun last week. He has started just 1 game at first base in place of Lou Garman (.308,0,12) and is 3-for-8 (.375) with a pair of rbi's on the season. I do want to see what he can do as an everyday player but will wait one more week, although Garman hit just .227 last week but had some clutch hits as he drove in 5 runs.
A couple of other names to be aware of done in Houston are pitchers Joe Blansit and Art Carlson. Carlson, a 27 year old lefthander has had a cup of coffee or two in Brooklyn before, but is looking very good to start the season at 2-0 with a 2.28 era and a 160 ERA+ in 4 starts for the Bulls. Blansit is just 22 but has been in the system it seems like forever - he was a minor league signing in 1925 after being released by the New York Stars twice. This is his first taste of AAA and he is off to a 3-1 start with a 2.48 era and 147 ERA+ so he has gone from being what I consider a spare part to a key prospect for us after two very weak seasons in A and AA.