February 4, 1935
WILL THIS FINALLY BE THE YEAR FOR KINGS FANS?
As long suffering fans of the Brooklyn Kings know all too well, their beloved ball club is now in a class by itself. Unfortunately, it is not a class you want to be a part of and after the
Cleveland Foresters finally ended 42 years of waiting for a World Championship Series victory, the Kings stand alone as the only one of the 16 Federally Aligned Baseball League franchises to never win a World Championship Series title. Brooklyn has given it's fans three Continental Association pennants with the most recent one in 1927, and then came so agonizingly close last season to getting a chance to end their WCS drought, only to fall a game short of the Foresters and have to settle for second place.
The Kings club that takes the field in two months time is expected to be virtually identical to the one that charged back from 8 games behind the Foresters in July to take the lead in early September only to see Cleveland get red-hot and close out the pennant win on the final day of the season. Brooklyn's team may well be the most talented club the franchise has ever assembled so anything short of a trip to the Series in October will have to be considered a failure.
The problem for Brooklyn fans is Cleveland certainly feels the same way. The Foresters gutted their farm system to load up on veteran stars like Max Morris (.320,26,123), T.R. Goins (.349,12,87) and Charlie Berry (.325,15,96). The move paid off and they got their title but, while the window might be closing soon, it remains wide open this season for the aging Cleveland stars to look for a return trip to the Series. The offense, while aging, should be just as strong as it was last season and the pitching rotation led by 25 year old Dean Astle (17-7) and 27 year old Roger Perry (19-9), is in it's prime. Add in the fact that the distractions created by soon to be former club owner Elmer Marshall and his threats to move the team are gone, and this Cleveland team can now focus entirely on a repeat victory.
The
Chicago Cougars may also be a threat with a lineup full of mashers of their own, including Tom Taylor (.294,31,116), Joe Masters (.315,18,109), Doc Love (.325,21,98) and Lou Kelly (.301,16,109). However the absence of ace Tommy Wilcox, who likely won't be able to return until at least July after blowing it his arm last summer, may mean the Cougars will have difficulty keeping pace with the Foresters and Kings this season. Fear not spoiled Chicago fans, who won pennants in 1931 and 1933 and a WCS in the first of those title years, as the Cougars system is loaded with blue chip prospects and they will be a team to fear if not this summer then likely in 1936.
The Philadelphia Sailors were a mini-dynasty to end the last decade, winning 3 straight pennants and a pair of WCS between 1928-30 but since then they have been stuck in the purgatory that is mediocrity, finishing fourth or fifth each of the past four seasons. Neither the Sailors or the New York Stars should ever be counted out. The Stars won three straight World Championships from 1924-26 and another one in 1932 before falling to third each of the past two seasons.
The
Montreal Saints have shown glimpses of success every so often but they ultimately sink to the second division every year but things might be different now that they have a new General Manager after the previous boss mjj55409 split for the
Chicago Chiefs of the Federal Association. Fellow Canadian club Toronto also has a new GM as JaBurns left the Chiefs for the chance to run a team in his native country but he may have bitten off more than he can chew as the Wolves have been bad, historically bad for close to a decade. Over the last 7 years Toronto's record is 417-661 for a .387 winning percentage. The Wolves lost 105 games in 1932 and 104 in 1930, a mark of futility only surpassed one other time (108 by the 1911 Philadelphia Sailors) in either the CA or the Fed since FABL began in 1893. The Wolves will battle the Baltimore Cannons, a team that will be entering year two of a full blown rebuild this April and started that rebuild by finishing with 100 losses, the most in either league a year ago.
Which leaves us with your beloved Brooklyn Kings. The Kings biggest obstacle to a pennant will once again be the Foresters but Brooklyn enters the season with an almost identical roster to the one that they finished last year with. There are very few holes in the lineup. The offense was the most prolific in the Continental Association and the pitching rotation had three great starters by year end. The only question marks are can the key players duplicate their achievements of a year ago?
Questions like:
Is third baseman John Langille (.359,10,100), who challenged all year for the batting title before settling for second place, the real thing or just another 1 year wonder in the Kings quest to find a reliable third sacker? The bet here is Langille will man the hot corner in Brooklyn for years to come and even make some trips to the all-star game.
Can Doug Lightbody (.371,7,85) stay healthy? After a pair of injury plagued seasons the 30 year old came back with a vengeance this past season, winning the second batting title of his career and enjoying his most productive season since 1930. The key was Lightbody did not spend a single day on the DL. Can that happen again? I would be less certain of that and apparently the Kings are as well as they hedged their bets by acquiring veteran corner outfielder Joe Perret (.322,14,88) from the New York Gothams over the winter as insurance.
Are Harry Barrell(.344,3,81) and Jake Shadoan (.340,14,81) going to be the best middle infield tandem in either league over the next decade? Barrell certainly will be a star and a Whitney Award or two might be in his future but there are concerns in Brooklyn about Shadoan's work with the glove and the 26 year old may eventually need to be shifted to first base but that would mean benching Harry's brother Dan Barrell (.329,11,97), a player who seemed to will himself to becoming a dominant ballplayer in his late twenties after being out of baseball for 3 years earlier in his career.
Will the starting pitching hold up? That has always been the question in Brooklyn but the trio of Tom Barrell (29-3), Mike Murphy (21-7) and Ken Carpenter (19-8) were dominant a year ago. It seems unlikely Barrell will approach 29 wins again as the question surrounding him is whether last year was the stepping stone that takes the 26 year old to stardom in this league or was it the pinnacle of what will turn out to just be a decent career? Age is the big worry with Carpenter. He will turn 37 during the season but made the all-star team for the second straight year and insists he is in the best shape of his life and loving baseball in Brooklyn. Mike Murphy is 27 and while he may not win twenty every year, he looks like he should be a very strong #2 starter for the foreseeable future.
Who are the number four and five starters? It was a problem last year finding depth in the rotation. 30 year old Joe Shaffner, a New York City native, returned home after a midseason deal with St Louis but he was inconsistent for the Kings down the stretch. Brooklyn gave up a prize pitching prospect in Dixie Lee to acquire Shaffner and they need him to perform this season for the club to be successful. The other option was also a trade deadline pickup last summer but 37 year old Max Wilder, who was acquired from Boston, hurt his shoulder early in his time with the Kings and never got untracked. If one or both of those two struggle the Kings will likely need to start working the phones to add another arm, or hope that either Art White or Bob Cummings - a pair of highly touted prospects- are ready to step it up and contribute to the rotation.
Brooklyn certainly looks well poised to contend once again and fans in Brooklyn are hoping for the parallels between 1926-27 and the current edition of the club to continue. The 1926 team rebounded from a last place finish the year before to finish second, just two games out of first. They were led offensively by a hotshot rookie named Doug Lightbody and added a pair of veteran arms at the trade deadline in Mose Smith and Del Plummer, only to see one them injured shortly after being acquired and the Kings had to settle for second. The 1934 club still had Lightbody but the hotshot rookie was John Langille. They also added two veteran arms in Shaffner and Wilder only to lose one of them with an injury which helped prevent them from winning the pennant. The 1927 season was a dogfight, with 4 teams finishing within 2 games and the Kings ultimately winning their third pennant by just one game over Philadelphia and Toronto and two up on Cleveland. That might be a little too much suspense for Kings fans to suffer through after last season but they would love to see a result that finally gives their team a chance to erase the ignominy of being the club to never win a World Championship Series.
A lot will change and certainly did a year ago with all of the teams making deadline moves but the early line of thinking from this reporter is it will be another down to the wire race between Brooklyn and Cleveland.