THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
May 31, 1937
MYERS SPINS NO-HITTER
Philadelphia Keystones veteran lefthander Art Myers tossed the first no-hitter in nearly two years as he and his teammates dumped Pittsburgh 6-0 on Friday. It was the first no-hitter by a Keystones pitcher since George P Williams threw one in 1923 and just the 5th in franchise history dating back to 1876 and the Century League. Prior to this week the last two no hitters had both been thrown by Doc Newell of the Philadelphia Sailors, who threw his first in May of 1934 and then had a perfect game in August a year later.
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KEYSTONES NO-HITTERS
YEAR PITCHER OPPONENT
1887 Ira Williams Buffalo*
1898 Henry Burton Detroit
1914 Ken Gray Detroit
1923 George P Williams Chicago
1937 Art Myers Pittsburgh
*Williams no-hitter can before FABL in the
Century League
BROOKLYN BATS BURNING UP CA
After a slow start the Brooklyn Kings offense is on fire of late. The Kings went 5-1 last week scoring 54 runs in the process and going back to May 13th, when they salvaged a split of a two game series with Cleveland the Kings are 12-4 while averaging nearly 7.5 runs per game. Prior to that they were 13-10 with an average of 4.5 runs per game.
Al Wheeler has led the offense as usual, with the four time Whitney Award winner claiming his second Continental Association player of the week award this month. Wheeler hit 8 homers in 28 May games while driving in 27 runs - the most in either league in both of those categories. On the season Wheeler is hitting .336 with a CA leading 10 homers and 37 rbi's, two categories that he has led the Continental Association in each of the past two seasons. Meanwhile second place Cleveland had a losing week as after the Monday loss at home to Brooklyn the Foresters ended up going 3-3 against Montreal and Chicago.
It is a big week ahead in the Federal Association as the top 3 teams have plenty of head to head games coming up. The front-running Chiefs begin the week with 3 games in two days against St Louis and then finish it with a 3 game series starting Saturday with second place Pittsburgh. Tough week for the Miners who play 2 games on Monday in Washington and then have the long train ride west for a 3-game set in St Louis starting Wednesday before moving on to Chicago for the Saturday-Monday series.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
The Pittsburgh Miners have two guys in negative WAR (Les Tucker and Joe Owens), they’ve had Mahlon Strong for less than 10 games this season and George Cleaves, the best defensive catcher in baseball, and one of the better hitters hasn’t played in 3 weeks. Still the Miners are 12 games over .500 and just two games back of the defending champs. If Pittsburgh can get healthy and get guys producing like they have proven they can, their offense is going to be something else. Will the 4 man rotation hold is the question, and is Bill Ketterman’s bad start for real? Ketterman is just 3-6 with a 6.27 era after winning 19 games a year ago with a 4.75 era. He has been a >100 ERA+ guy for the past 5 seasons but since at 71 this year. On the flip side, Charlie Stedman has been amazing for the Miners. The 35 year old was acquired from Boston last summer and is enjoying a 6-2, 2.55 start which, if he keeps it up, will be his best season since 1929 when he won 21 games for Montreal.
Gothams execs are privately worried about 2nd overall pick Walt Messer. The 18 year old was ranked he 5th best prospect on Opening Day but in just over a month he has dropped to #21 on OSA's list. Messer, who was a 2-time Adwell Award winner as the National High School player of the year at D.C.'s McKinley Tech, is showing plenty of power after 36 Class C games so I think the Gothams cause for concern is unfounded. Messer is batting .264 with 11 homers which puts him on pace for over 40 homers this season if he spends the entire year in Class C. This reporter feels some GM's put a little too much stock in how OSA ranks players so New York should just stay the course with Messer. New York would also do well to look closer at the early days of Rankin Kellogg's career. Kellogg, who Messer has been compared to, spent 2 and a half years in Class A before making his big league debut and Kellogg hit just .227 with 15 homers his first pro season. Before you go and say yes, but that was Class A remember that in those days there were no B and C so Class A was the lowest minor league level.
Another team that seems to be on the verge of panic mode, and without reason in my opinion, is the Detroit Dynamos. Yes, Detroit had a solid start and was at .500 just 3 weeks ago before a dreadful 2-18 run since. Reports out of Mo-Town (named after manager Max Morris) have the Dynamos GM worrying about his job but in this writer's opinion his rebuild is ahead of pace. The Dynamos were far and away the worst team in the league when GM Martin left Cleveland to assume the reigns and their farm system had nothing, not even managers at most levels. In the two drafts since then the Dynamos have loaded up on talent and have one of the best systems in either association. Sal Pestilli (.318,6,26) is already showing signs of the stardom predicted for him when he was a freshman at Narragansett and Red Johnson, the 1935 second overall pick is also highly touted. Add in the veteran leadership of Leon Drake, Henry Jones and Hardin Bates along with fan favorite Morris as player-manager and Detroit is building things the right way. It will take a couple of more seasons but Eddie Thompson's ballclub is so much better prepared going forward than it was just 2 short years ago there is no way I can see 'Big Money' cutting ties with him GM, especially with how much revenues are forecast to jump this year as attendance currently more than double last season's average.
Bad news out of Philadelphia. #54 prospect SP Dick Bell of the Keystones has suffered a career ending injury. He was 5-0 this season at Class A with a 2.28 ERA. Drafted in the 2nd round in 1934 out of high school, Bell had a great '36 season going 15-6 with a solid 3.67 ERA at class B Bakersfield. Bell wasn't a bad hitter either hitting .350 at Bakersfield last year and .306 in class A Allentown.
DRAFT NEWS
LACOMB WINS CHRISTIAN TROPHY AS TOP COLLEGE PLAYER
Outfielder Alex LaComb of Cuyahoga University was named the winner of the Frank Christian Trophy as the top college baseball player in the nation. LaComb, who hails from Cleveland, Ohio and played his college ball for his hometown university just as last year's winner Sal Pestilli did in his native Rhode Island. There are other comparison's between LaComb and Pestilli as each led the AIAA in hitting twice in their careers. In fact it was LaComb's .357 average as a freshman that prevented Pestilli from leading the nation all 3 of his seasons at Narragansett. LaComb was also the top hitter this year with a .374 average, narrowly outdistancing Hempstead freshman Danny Goff Jr.
The comparison's between LaComb and Pestilli likely end at their college careers. While Pestilli was the clear number one choice in the draft last December and is now hitting very well in the big leagues with the Detroit Dynamos, there are plenty of questions as to whether LaComb's game can translate to the pro level. OSA feels he has dangerous speed, is a plus contact hitter but just an adequate defensive corner outfielder and may lack the power to contribute at the major league level.
LaComb narrowly outpointed Gates University sophomore Pete Frisbie and Poweshiek third baseman Ockie Holliday for the award. Holliday is also draft eligible and ranked 3rd in the initial OSA mock draft after coming out of nowhere to hit a non-feeder league record 18 homeruns while batting .310 for the tiny Iowa school. OSA clearly likes him but the low level of competition he played, plus having just one season of college ball raises red flags in some circles.
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NATIONAL COLLEGE PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
YEAR NAME POS SCHOOL
1927 Sam Orr 2B Henry Hudson
1928 Tommy Wilcox P Liberty College
1929 Vic Crawford OF Commonwealth Catholic
1930 Freddie Jones 2B Central Ohio
1931 Bill Moore 1B Lubbock State
1932 Bill Moore 1B Lubbock State
1933 Joe Hancock P Henry Hudson
1934 Sal Pestilli OF Narragansett
1935 Al Jones P Central Ohio
1936 Sal Pestilli OF Narragansett
1937 Alex LaComb OF Cuyahoga University
The AIAA All-American teams have also been released. LaComb, who was a second team All-American as a freshman, is the only player in this group to make the first team two years in a row. Maryland State third baseman Spud Bent, who set the AIAA career RBI and stolen base records during his 4 years with the Bengals, makes the first team this time around after being named a second team selection a year ago.
This season did see the name Pestilli on the first team All-American list for the fourth consecutive season. Second baseman Joe, a junior who played just one season at New York Maritime, makes the first team, taking over for outfielder Sal who made three straight appearances and won a pair of Christian Trophy's in the process.
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AIAA ALL- AMERICAN SELECTIONS
1937 FIRST TEAM
C Joe Henry JR Lane State
1B Pete Frisbie SO Gates University
2B Joe Pestilli JR New York Maritime
SS Alex Turner JR Lincoln College
3B Spud Bent JR Maryland State
OF Alex Lacomb JR Cuyahoga Univ(2)
OF Danny Goff Jr FR Hempstead
OF Joe Herman JR Grange College
P Vic Carroll FR Richmond State
1937 SECOND TEAM
C Chet McCormick FR Central Kentucky
1B Henry Wright JR Wisconsin State
2B Henry Sheridan JR Empire State
SS Frank Hill SO Tallmadge State
3B Ockie Holliday JR Poweshiek
OF Sammy Dillon SO Mississippi A&M
OF Bill Greene FR Brooklyn Catholic
OF Lou Clark SO Coastal California
P Duke Hendricks JR Baton Rogue State
Next week's edition will look at the High School All-American selections.