The Detroit World
Monday September 30th, 1935
Sports News
From the Desk of "Fast" Freddie Farhat
Mercifully This Brutal Season Comes to a End!
The Detroit Dynamo's have completed one of the worst seasons in the history of organized professional baseball. The team that limped home to the finish of the season lost their last 11 games straight. It appeared that they just gave up during the last two weeks. Sure there hasn't been anything to play for since Memorial Day, but somewhere along the way professional pride should take over. It will remain to be seen if the performance and general lack of effort and pride will impact anyone whether it be players, coaches or elsewhere.
No matter what happens, team Owner Eddie "Big Money" Thompson has vowed that a product like this will not happen again. Whether that means that Thompson will demand that certain moves are made just for the 36 season to be competitive are made of if he will allow the continued course where the team looks to be trying to build up a woeful minor league and player development system continues. Needless to say this season of futility set numerous club and league records.
[B]Records of Futility set 1935/B]
Club record Losses 111 (previous low water mark 93 losses in 1898)
Club record Runs scored against 1081 (previous mark 1925 Detroit 978)
FABL League record Runs scored against 1081 (former league record 1040 by 1890 Pittsburgh Miners)
Club record Earned Runs against 859 (League record 1930 St. Louis 896)
Club and FABL records for Team ERA 5.98 (previous league mark 1930 St. Louis 5.87)
(If we discover other records they will be noted in future editions)
So where do the Dynamo's go now that the season is over? We the start of the off-season for Detroit starts today with team owners Eddie Thompson and George Theobald meeting with GM DD Martin. No jobs are expected to be in danger, but it has been noted that Thompson was particularly displeased with how the team finished. We will cover any interesting findings from the meeting tomorrow.
Season End Purge Continues
The Dyanmo's DFA 5 more players from their 40-man roster with Monday mornings moves. RP Joe Munk (33), RP Alex Harold (24), 1B Frank Shafer (33), CF Bill Groom (33), and RF Jerry Pierce (29). That brings to a total of 7 players DFA in the last week and the 40-man roster is down to 31. With the retirements of C Dick York and P Max Wilder also occurring as the World Series ends next week, that number will be at 29. Indications are there are a couple of more players being closely looked at, but for now these are all that have been announced.
Kings Collaspe (Again), Foresters win CA Pennant
Detroit GM DD Martin's former team the Cleveland Foresters won their 2nd straight CA Title and again it was in the last week by the narrowest of margins. The Foresters topped the Kings by just 1 single game. For the Foresters this is their 5th CA title since the team's inception in 1890.
The success of the recent Forester teams have to give Detroit fans hope for the future that maybe Martin knows what he is doing. Time will tell on that one.
With the 2nd straight disappointing finish, it is rumored that Brooklyn Kings Owner Daniel Prescott is furious and that despite denials before, manager Walt Bailey's job is hanging by a thread.
New York Gotham's Once Again Reign in FA
The New York Gotham's continue a run of dominance at least in the FA by winning their 2nd straight FA Pennant and 4 in the last 6 seasons. If you go back to the 1926 title it makes 5 Gotham pennants in just 10 seasons. That is quite a run of success for the club that unfortunately for them has not transferred a World Series win. The Gotham's will be looking for their first World Series win since they won back to back titles in 1895 and 1896 seasons. Will this be the year?
Pioneers 2B Jones Great Season - Wins FA Batting Title
The Pioneers star 2B Freddie "Fredrick the Great" Jones flirted with hitting 400 this season. Jones needed to go 11-19 to reach the plateau but struggled going just 4-19 in the last week of the season as the Pioneers failed in their bid to unseat the New York Gothams atop the FA. Still for Jones who hit 389/511/1.011 with a WRC+ 178 with 8 home runs, 89 RBI's and 145 runs scored, it was a great season. One that might win him the Whitney Award. In his 4 seasons of major league baseball he has amassed 824 hits, 423 walks, 474 runs scored and 305 RBI's for a career line of 369/469/925.
While Jones was winning the batting title Philadelphia Keystones great 1B Rankin Kellogg was again enjoying a fabulous season. Kellogg led the major leagues in home runs with 45 and RBI's with 165 while batting 338. Those numbers are impressive and he and RF Bobby Barrell make a very good combination but the Keystones were not a real factor in the FA race finishing 83-71, 3rd place 10 games out.
Former Dynamo Dominates the CA Wins Triple Crown
Former Detroit OF Al Wheeler spotted everyone in the CA a 1 month head start but once the "Wonder Wheel" arrived he started hitting right away. For his time in Brooklyn in 128 games, Wheeler hit 362/437/1.086 34-100. He ended the year including his Detroit stats at 39 home runs and 149 RBI's while hitting 344. Despite his efforts the Kings did not topple the Foresters in the fight for the CA title.
New Pitching Coach at Class A Terre Haute
Sam Mills (56) agreed to accept the Class A job in Terre Haute after spending 7 years coaching in Denver for the WBL (Class A) Plainsmen. The hope is he will bring some stability to the minor league team after a very inconsistent 1935 season.