JULY 25, 1938
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
It is the New York Giants turn to get hot in the always thrilling National League pennant race. The Giants won all six of their games last week, sweeping btoh Cincinnati and Brooklyn on the road, and have won 9 of their last 10. New York is tied with Chicago for second place, a game and a half back of the St Louis Cardinals.
The big news in the American League was centered on pitchers going down with injuries. Over the last week and a half the New York Yankees lost Johnny Broaca, The Red Sox lost Lefty Grove and the Browns lost Oral Hildebrand but no team was hit harder than the Chicago White Sox, who in a span of 3 days lost both Lefty Mills and Monty Stratton from a rotation that was already missing Johnny Vander Meer who is expected to miss the entire season after undergoing shoulder surgery from an injury suffered last year.
Stratton (5-12, 5.69) will miss at least a month with a back injury while Mills (12-6, 3.04) will be sidelined even longer with shoulder troubles. The loss of Broaca (13-4, 2.35) should not slow down the Yankees, who have now stretched their lead over second place Boston to 13.5 games. Broaca, who suffered a strained elbow, is expected to be back in the New York rotation by mid-August.
Code:
MLB STANDINGS
AMERICAN LEAGUE W L GB NATIONAL LEAGUE W L GB
New York 66 25 - St Louis 56 32 -
Boston 52 38 13.5 New York 55 34 1.5
Cleveland 47 43 18.5 Chicago 56 35 1.5
St Louis 41 48 24.0 Pittsburgh 45 47 13.0
Detroit 41 49 24.5 Boston 41 51 17.0
Philadelphia 40 49 25.0 Brooklyn 38 53 19.5
Chicago 39 51 26.5 Cincinnati 37 54 20.5
Washington 34 57 32.0 Philadelphia 34 56 23.0
HITTING LEADERS
AVERGAE AVERAGE
Rolfe NYY .371 Phelps BKN .386
Weatherly CLE .363 Mize STL .361
Stone PHA .360 Vaughan PIT .348
Moses PHA .353 Medwick STL .347
Gehrig NYY .351 Wright PHI .334
HOME RUNS HOME RUNS
Trosky CLE 31 Mize STL 28
Gordon SLA 21 Ott NYG 21
Foxx BOS 21 Medwick STL 21
Greenberg DET 20 Johnson CIN 20
DiMaggio NYY 19 Berger BSN 13
DiMaggio PHI 13
RBIs RBIs
Gordon SLA 81 Mize STL 79
DiMaggio NYY 77 Ott NYG 72
Gehrig NYY 75 Medwick STL 69
Trosky CLE 75 P Waner PIT 69
Foxx BOS 74 Suhr PIT 62
Greenberg DET 73 Leslie BKN 57
PITCHING LEADERS
WINS WINS
Ruffing NYY 15-3 P Dean STL 13-3
Gomez NYY 14-4 Carleton STL 13-5
Grove BOS 13-2 Lee CHN 12-5
Broaca NYY 13-4 D Dean STL 12-5
McFayden NYY 12-4 French CHN 12-6
Mills CHA 12-6 Tobin BSN 12-8
Castleman NYG 12-8
STRIKE OUTS STRIKE OUTS
Feller CLE 126 D Dean STL 100
Gomez NYY 112 Carleton CHN 98
Mills CHA 97 P Dean STL 98
Rowe DET 90 Mungo BKN 97
Allen CLE 89 Blanton PIT 88
Grove BOS 81 Pearson PIT 77
Ruffing NYY 81
ERA ERA
Broaca NYY 2.35 P Dean STL 2.29
Gomez NYY 2.45 D Dean STL 2.30
Grove BOS 2.70 Castleman NYG 2.58
Ruffing NYY 2.74 French CHN 2.69
Mills CHA 3.04 Fischer BSN 2.76
McFayden NYY 3.20 Mungo BKN 2.77
Smith PHA 3.35 Tobin BSN 2.79
MAJOR LEAGUE NOTES: Veteran Cleveland Indians outfielder Earl Averill (.305,16,65) was named American League player of the week after hitting .545 (12-for-22) with 3 homers and 8 rbi's in 6 games for the Indians. Giants infielder Buddy Hassett hit .419 with 6 rbi's to help New York win all 6 of it's games last week. On the season the 26 year old is batting .316 with a homer and 33 rbi's.
There were some big offensive performances last week with Al Simmons (.290,13,55) of Detroit and Lloyd Waner (.294,1,28) of Pittsburgh each enjoying a 5-hit game but they were overshadowed by Cleveland third baseman Odell Hale (.299,11,50) who enjoyed a 6-for-6 game in a 15-3 win over Boston. Hale came up just a homer short of being the second player to hit for the cycle this season. He doubled, tripled and had 3 singles.
Boston Red Sox infielder Jimmie Foxx hit 2 homers this week to bring his career total to 398 including 21 so far this season. When he gets 2 more he will join Babe Ruth (714) and Lou Gehrig (474 and counting) as the only players to reach the 400 milestone. New York Giants outfielder Mel Ott, who sits 4th in career homers, hit his 350th last week and at age 29 seems almost certain to be the next member of the 400 homer club after Foxx.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
The playoff race appears to be long over with Toledo and Kansas City enjoying a large lead on the rest of the pack in their bid for the two playoff spots. Now it is starting to look like the race for first place may be close to done as well. Kansas City is still well within shouting distance at three games back of the front-running Mud Hens but it is looking more and more like Toledo is unstoppable. After starting the season 5-5, Toledo has played at a .704 winning percentage, going 57-24 since April 26th. The Mud Hens dropped 3 straight games a couple of weeks ago and that was the first time they have lost consecutive games since May 4th and 5th.
Kansas City has certainly not played badly but the Mud Hens just have the look of a team that will not stumble. One interesting note is Kansas City is 6-4 head to head against Toledo this season and is the only club the Mud Hens have not dominated so perhaps there is still hope for the Blues to successfully defend their regular season crown. All eyes will be focused on early August when the two clubs meet 7 times in a ten day span beginning August 12th.
Code:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION STANDINS
W L GB
Toledo 62 29 -
Kansas City 59 32 3.0
Minneapolis 47 45 15.5
Columbus 45 47 17.5
Milwaukee 42 48 19.5
St Paul 37 53 24.5
Indianapolis 37 55 25.5
Louisville 36 56 26.5
LEADERS AVG
Chuck Klein MIN .379
Roy Hughes MIL .344
Len Schulte LOU .343
Joe Vosmik LOU .342
Martin Dihigo MIL .341
Lonny Frey TOL .341
Josh Gibson IND .329
Benny McCoy TOL .326
HOME RUNS
Ted Williams MIN 18
Chet Laabs TOL 18
Rudy York MIL 17
Buzz Arlett MIN 16
Benny McCoy TOL 16
Bill Norman StP 15
RBI's
Chet Laabs TOL 73
Martin Dihigo MIL 71
Roy Cullenbine TOL 70
Benny McCoy TOL 70
Dick Siebert COL 67
Rudy York MIL 66
Ken Keltner MIL 64
Phil Weintraub TOL 63
Ted Williams MIN 63
PITCHING
WINS
Al Hollingsworth KC 15-2
Denny Galehouse MIN 15-8
Carl Hubbell MIN 15-12
Gene Schott TOL 14-4
Fred Gay KC 14-6
Paul Derringer TOL 13-4
Max Macon COL 11-11
Archie McKain TOL 10-8
Tiny Bonham KC 10-10
Dizzy Trout IND 10-10
STRIKEOUTS
Dizzy Trout IND 116
Johnny Rigney StP 114
Max Macon COL 110
Carl Hubbell MIN 107
Wayne LeMaster LOU 105
Denny Galehouse MIN 88
Lefty Smoll TOL 85
Ken Heintzelman LOU 80
Ted Kleinhans KC 80
ERA
Gene Schott TOL 2.99
Lloyd Johnson IND 3.20
Al Hollingsworth KC 3.29
Ted Kleinhans KC 3.36
Fred Gay KC 3.38
Dizzy Trout IND 3.45
Tiny Bonham KC 3.65
Denny Galehouse MIN 3.72
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION NOTES: The Columbus Red Birds learned they will be without their young star pitcher Max Macon for about a month. The 22 year old is sidelined with a back injury. He has an 11-11 record and a 4.95 era a year after winning 28 games for the Red Birds. At the time of his injury Macon was leading the American Association in strikeouts.
Johnny Rizzo of Columbus was named the player of the week after hitting .444 (12-for-27) with 3 homers and 10 rbi's last week. On the season the 25 year old outfielder is batting .323 with 13 homers and 60 rbi's.
Minneapolis outfielder Chuck Klein (.379,10,57) saw his hitting streak come to an end at 29 games. The mark breaks the AA record of 24 jointly held by Klein and George Detore. They each hit safely in 24 games in the American Association's inaugural major league season of 1936 while both were playing for Milwaukee.
NFL GETS UNDERWAY
PACKERS KNOCK OFF COLTS IN SEASON OPENER
The Green Bay Packers spoiled the Baltimore Colts ring ceremony by defeating the defending NFL champions on their homefield 24-9 in the season opener for both teams. The Colts led 9-0 until Packers linebacker Ernie Smith intercepted an Ace Parker pass late in the second quarter and raced 40 yards into the end zone to cut the Baltimore lead to 2 points at the break.
The second half was all Green Bay as rookie Packers QB Wendell Wear threw for a touchdown and made several other key plays as the Packers charged back to score the final 24 points of the game. Wear, making his NFL debut after being selected in the first round out of Penn State, passed for 100 yards in completing 11 of 15 attempts. Linebacker Smith was the big star of the game as, in addition to the interception return for a score, he also led both teams with 12 tackles in the contest.
The defending East Division champions also lost their home opener as the Philadelphia Eagles fell 10-6 to Pittsburgh despite a 95 yard rushing day from Swede Johnston. Rookie quarterback Any Puplis struggled at times for the Eagles, completing just 10 of 23 pass attempts for 56 yards. The Steelers did not muster much offense of their own but the key play was a 97 yard kickoff return by Carl Brum that accounted for the game's only touchdown.
Sammy Baugh threw for 139 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the Washington Redskins to a 24-13 victory over the Chicago Cardinals. Jay Berwanger ran for a score and gained 70 yards on the ground for the winners while the Cardinals offense was led by back Kink Richards, who rushed for 102 yards.
George Grosvenor ran for 90 yards and rookie QB Parker Hall passed for 145 and a score to help lead the New York Giants past Cleveland 20-10. Rookie running back Whizzer White gained 95 yards on the ground for the Browns while fellow Cleveland newcomer Buster Kinard had a pair of sacks in the loss.
Running back Ernie Caddel rushed for 5 touchdowns all of last season but he started this season off by scoring 3 times to lead his San Francisco 49ers to a 27-10 victory over the Chicago Bears. The Niners offense could be tough to stop this season if the opener is any indication. Caddel and Mike Sebastian each ran for 94 yards while fullback Julie Alfonse picked up 93 on 8 carries. In all, San Francisco rushed for 297 yards in the win.
The other game saw Detroit blank the Los Angeles Rams 8-0 thanks to a safety and a pair of Roy Pulley field goals. Neither team could muster much of anything in the way of a sustained drive in the contest played on a wet, muddy field in Los Angeles.
Code:
NFL STANDINGS
EAST W L T PCT WEST W L T PCT
Washington 1 0 0 1.000 San Francisco 1 0 0 1.000
New York 1 0 0 1.000 Green Bay 1 0 0 1.000
Pittsburgh 1 0 0 1.000 Detroit 1 0 0 1.000
Chi Cardinals 0 1 0 .000 Chi Bears 0 1 0 .000
Cleveland 0 1 0 .000 Baltimore 0 1 0 .000
Philadelphia 0 1 0 .000 Los Angeles 0 1 0 .000
1938 COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK ONE
OREGON UPSETS TOP RANKED NEBRASKA
Preseason number one Nebraska's stay at the top of the polls was extremely short as the Oregon Ducks knocked off the Cornhuskers 18-3 at Lincoln in the season opener. Ducks sophomore quarterback Chet Halinski threw for 138 yards while fellow sophomore, running back Marshall Stenstrom, carried the ball for 90 yards and a touchdown in the victory.
Mario Tonelli ran for 151 yards and a pair of scores to pace Notre Dame to an easy 43-7 win over Auburn. Meanwhile defending National Champion Michigan opened it's Western Conference schedule with a 27-3 dismantling of Northwestern. Running back Tom Harmon scored a touchdown and carried the ball for 114 yards to lead Michigan. The win was costly as Wolverines quarterback Forest Evanshevski left the game early with a hamstring injury but there is hope he will be available next week. Ohio State was upset at home 22-14 by Iowa despite a 126 yard rushing, two touchdown day from Buckeyes freshman back Tom Colella.
RESULTS FROM KEY GAMES THIS WEEK
Michigan 27 Norhtwestern 3
Iowa 22 Ohio State 14
Indiana 24 Minnesota 21
Illinois 17 Michigan State 13
Oregon 18 Nebraska 3
Notre Dame 43 Auburn 7
Texas A&M 26 Florida State 20
Georgia 48 Purdue 0
LSU 38 Colorado 0
California 31 Arkansas 7
North Carolina 44 Rice 17
Alabama 40 Texas 34
UCLA 34 Pitt 0
Washington 35 Wisconsin 21