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Jiggs McGee · 10-19-2021, 06:59 PM

May 8, 1939

Minutemen Post 6-1 Week; Will Spend The Next Week On A Train

(Courtesy of the Boston Globe)

The Boston Minutemen posted a fantastic 6-1 week thanks to a revived offense and solid pitching performances. The Minutemen opened the week at home on May 1st against Washington on a dreary rain delayed afternoon that saw just over 6,000 patrons in attendance. Ed Wood went 6 innings giving up zero earned but couldn’t come away with the win as Mike Lee blew the save but picked up the win thanks to a pair of Boston runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. In game two of the series the struggling Mack Sutton provided 2 RBI’s to go along with Bob Donoghue’s three hits to give Boston the 8-3 win. Going for the sweep Boston’s Dick Higgins was outdueled by 25 year old righty Bobo White as the Eagles were able to salvage one game in the series with a 2-0 victory.

Next for Boston was a quick two game series against the struggling Keystones. On the mound for Boston in game one was young John Edwards who has had a rough start to the season. It didn’t get any better for Edwards against the Keystones but he was able to pitch around a few self-inflicted jams and the offense did enough to give him a 4-3 victory. Game two of the series was all about Bob Donoghue who went deep in the third, fourth and eighth innings knocking in six runs, leading the Minutemen to a 9-3 win. Donoghue's heroics made him the first player in Minutemen history ever to hit 3 homers in a single contest.

The final series of the week saw Boston traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the first place Miners. Boston had maneuvered it’s rotation in such a manner to allow Dick Higgins to face Lefty Allen in the second game of the series. First however, Mike Lee needed to rely on a Boston offense that supplied 13 hits and six runs to overcome his own pedestrian start to give the Minutemen a 6-4 win setting up an opportunity for a possible road sweep. Higgins vs. Allen was pretty much everything you could have asked for out of two top pitchers who went about their business in different ways. Allen was more of the erratic power pitcher striking out six but walking three while Higgins was more of a surgeon in dealing with his baserunners. The hero of the day was John Wood as he entered the game with two runners on in the top of the ninth as a pinch hitter for Higgins. Wood would hit a line drive to left field off of Allen scoring both Donoghue and Sutton giving Boston its first lead of the game. Hazeltine would pitch a flawless bottom half and the Minutemen would take both the game and the series.

The win would push the Minutemen win streak to four games. Currently, Boston sits in second position with a 9-4 record. Monday will be a travel day for The Minutemen as they will travel to Detroit for a two game series against the 7-6 Dynamos who sport a four game winning streak of their own. Then it will be off to New York to check out the Gothams new shiny stadium before they head back across the midwest for a series against the Pioneers in St. Louis. These road trips that criss-cross the country can really test a club mentally. However, every club in the FABL has to deal with these types of road trips over the course of a season. It will be interesting to see if the Minutemen can rise to the challenge now that it is their turn to embark on such a trip.

STRONG OUT AGAIN

We all knew it was just a matter of time as Pittsburgh Miners slugger Mahlon Strong is back on the injured list. Strong has been amazing when he is healthy, socking 21 homers, driving in 105 and batting .323 in his 131 games with Pittsburgh but the issue is this is his third year with the club and he has still not been healthy enough to play the equivalent of a full seasons worth of games. The Miners did know what they were getting when they acquired the injury prone outfielder from the New York Gothams prior to the 1937 season but it is a shame he has been hurt so often. This is his 9th big league season but he has played just 737 games including 10 this year in which he was batting .342 with a pair of homers and 12 rbi's for the Miners.

This time it is a strained stomach muscle that is expected to sideline Strong for the next month and a half. The Miners acquired Andy Carter from Washington over the winter to help cover for the inevitable Strong injury so now it is time to see what Carter can bring to the table. Early indications are good as the the 33 year old is batting .346 in 26 at bats with Pittsburgh. He won't provide the power Strong brings but if Carter can hit in Pittsburgh like he did a couple of years ago before his own injury problems derailed him in Washington the Miners offense should be fine. Carter will play his natural second base and the Miners will shift Jack Cleaves from second to first in Strong's absence. At least that is the plan but they also have AAA prospect Frank Buchanan as a possibility if the Carter/Cleaves moves don't pan out.

PIDGEON SCORES HIS 1000TH RUN

One of the reasons the New York Stars are off to a solid start this season has been the play of outfielder Moxie Pidgeon. The 32 year was acquired from Washington over the winter and is hitting .365 while leading the CA in homers (6) and rbi's (17). Pidgeon also reached another career milestone yesterday when he scored his 1000th career run in the Stars 5-3 win over Brooklyn. Last week Pidgeon drove in his 1000 career run and now has 1,013 rbi's to his credit making him one of just 47 players in FABL history to both drive in and score 1000. That list gets much shorter when you consider he also has 235 career homeruns making him just one of 9 players to hit 235 homers while driving in and scoring at least 1000.

The only other active players on that list are Al Wheeler of Brooklyn and the Cougars Lou Kelly. The others are Max Morris, Rankin Kellogg, T.R. Goins, Hal Eason, Joe Masters and Paul Tattersall. The next two milestones on Pidgeon's agenda look like they could both potentially be reached this season. He needs 15 homers to become just the 8th player to hit that many and is 153 hits shy of 2000 for his career. If he reaches those two marks he will be in very exclusive company joined only by Wheeler, Morris, Kellogg, Goins, Eason and Masters although Lou Kelly of the Cougars is just 4 hits away from 2000 as well and Kelly already has 269 career homers.
Here are some upcoming Milestones to watch for

QUICK HITS

Last year the expectations coming out of spring weren't very high for the Detroit Dynamos. Finish around .500 or slightly above. This season it's completely different with expectations sky high and the team goes 3-6 out of the gate losing all 3 series. A recent 4 game win streak against NY and St Louis rights the ship to some degree at 7-6 but it is not the start the Dynamos expected.
A WCS hangover for Brooklyn and the Chicago Chiefs? Neither has been very impressive to start the season as both sit with 6-7 records. The Kings are having trouble putting it together but fortunately for Brooklyn no one is off to a dominant start in CA. Brooklyn leads the CA in OBP, OPS and WOBA but are only 4th in runs scored. They have surrendered the 3rd lowest runs against and are a CA best +11 in run differential but somehow are a game below .500. It should balance out. It is a similar story in Chicago where the Chiefs are +12 in run differential but that happens to be 23 runs behind Pittsburgh, which boasts an amazing +35 differential after two weeks. The first two-game series between Pittsburgh and Chicago will take place this week (Day and Lonardo are scheduled to pitch for the Chiefs).
How about the Keystones with the -52 run differential after two weeks. Is anything going right in Philly? A Philadelphia Inquisitor columnist summed it up this way: "Nope, nothing at all (has gone right). The Keystones have handed the keys to the next generation of pitchers and the front bumper is gone and the fender is busted. They have committed to the turning over of this roster and new manager Bill Libby says he still has faith in the kids.
Chicago might want to consider giving George Thomas a start against the Miners. The 29 year old picked off the scrap heap in Montreal has been very good for Chicago as their fifth starter. He sports a 1-0 record with a Chiefs rotation best 2.35 era.
Former first-round pick Bennie Griffith has been overall a disappointment for the Chiefs. It's early, but he has started this season very hot. hitting .500/.520/.667 and is 5 for 5 in stolen bases. He is now the 4th outfielder and starting in right field against left-handers. It remains to be seen whether--at 26-years-old--things are starting to come together for him.
Did Sal and Alf Pestilli switch teams without telling anyone? Fed Whitney Award winner Sal is homerless for Detroit with a .173 average while big brother Alf wins his first CA player of the week award and has 5 homers and 13 rbi's thru 2 weeks to go with a .341 batting average to be one of the few early season bright spots in Brooklyn.
Staying in the Kings outfield what is wrong with Al Wheeler? The five time Whitney Award winner hit just .233 in spring training and is batting only .216 after 13 regular season games. The power is still there was Al has 5 regular season homers among his 11 hits and hit 7 in spring play but it is all or nothing when Wheeler steps to the plate so far this season.
Congratulations to future Hall of Famer Jack Bush as after an 0-for-22 start the 25 year old Washington Eagles shortstop finally got his first career big league hit. Bush singled off Boston's Mike Lee for his milestone marker and added 3 more hits in 18 at bats to raise his average to .103. Perhaps the Eagles should delay unveiling the Bush HOF plaque on the Columbia Stadium concourse for at least the time being.
Boston's Bob Donoghue ties the FABL singe game HR record at 3 with his first 3 round trippers of the season in a 9-3 thumping of Philadelphia. Donoghue becomes the 20th different player to have a 3 homerun game and his effort helped him claim the Federal Association top player award for last week. On the season the 25 year old is batting .356 with 3 homers and 10 rbi's. Fun Fact. Who is the only player to do it twice? Tom Taylor hit 3 HR in 2 games just 4 days apart back in August 1928 with the Sailors.
I think we can officially say the Pete Papenfus era has arrived in Chicago. The Cougars young star tossed his first career shutout just a week after celebrating his 21st birthday. Papenfus fanned 7 and allowed just 4 hits in a 1-0 win over Herb Flynn and the Philadelphia Sailors. Papenfus still needs to work on his control - he walked 7 in the shutout and 12 already in 19 innings of work this season but at 2-0 with a 1.89 era and 15 strikeouts he is quickly establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in the game. He went 8-6 with a 4.52 era in 17 appearances last season as a rookie.
Speaking of 21 year old pitchers, Rufus Barrell is now 3-1 with a 3.64 era to start the season in Baltimore. Quite a turnaround from a very rough debut midway through last season when the former first overall pick went 1-9 down the stretch for the Cannons.
Bob Walls was unbeatable down the stretch last season and a big reason why Toronto came tantalizingly close to dethrone Brooklyn in the CA. It is a different story this year for both Walls and the Wolves. The pitcher is 0-3 to start this season after going 8-1 following his July acquisition by Toronto from Detroit a year ago. The Wolves are also struggling and, at 4-8, have the worst record in the Continental Association.
With the waiver claim pickup of veteran catcher Claude Ramsey from Washington the Brooklyn Kings have released John Kincaid. Best known for his days with the Cougars, the 34 year old Kincaid is a veteran of 1618 FABL games with a .329 career batting average and 2065 hits. He has hit just .207 in a reserve role for the Kings since the start of last season.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 05/07/1939

Hitler ranks Germany with the "most heavily armed nations of the world" as Nazi diplomats press efforts to isolate Poland to make her ripe for yielding to German demands. To this end Hitler is attempting to form a neutral bloc of at least six nations offering identical non-aggression pacts to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia.
President Roosevelt sent a telegram of friendship to the President of Poland in a show of support for the country on it's National holiday.
On the heels of what is called it's greatest May Day parade, Russia is said to be ready for a big war as it finalizes a military alliance with Britain and France that includes plans for supporting Poland and Rumania against any possible aggression.

10-19-2021, 06:59 PM	#267
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	1939 Regular season May 8, 1939 Minutemen Post 6-1 Week; Will Spend The Next Week On A Train (Courtesy of the Boston Globe) The Boston Minutemen posted a fantastic 6-1 week thanks to a revived offense and solid pitching performances. The Minutemen opened the week at home on May 1st against Washington on a dreary rain delayed afternoon that saw just over 6,000 patrons in attendance. Ed Wood went 6 innings giving up zero earned but couldn’t come away with the win as Mike Lee blew the save but picked up the win thanks to a pair of Boston runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. In game two of the series the struggling Mack Sutton provided 2 RBI’s to go along with Bob Donoghue’s three hits to give Boston the 8-3 win. Going for the sweep Boston’s Dick Higgins was outdueled by 25 year old righty Bobo White as the Eagles were able to salvage one game in the series with a 2-0 victory. Next for Boston was a quick two game series against the struggling Keystones. On the mound for Boston in game one was young John Edwards who has had a rough start to the season. It didn’t get any better for Edwards against the Keystones but he was able to pitch around a few self-inflicted jams and the offense did enough to give him a 4-3 victory. Game two of the series was all about Bob Donoghue who went deep in the third, fourth and eighth innings knocking in six runs, leading the Minutemen to a 9-3 win. Donoghue's heroics made him the first player in Minutemen history ever to hit 3 homers in a single contest. The final series of the week saw Boston traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the first place Miners. Boston had maneuvered it’s rotation in such a manner to allow Dick Higgins to face Lefty Allen in the second game of the series. First however, Mike Lee needed to rely on a Boston offense that supplied 13 hits and six runs to overcome his own pedestrian start to give the Minutemen a 6-4 win setting up an opportunity for a possible road sweep. Higgins vs. Allen was pretty much everything you could have asked for out of two top pitchers who went about their business in different ways. Allen was more of the erratic power pitcher striking out six but walking three while Higgins was more of a surgeon in dealing with his baserunners. The hero of the day was John Wood as he entered the game with two runners on in the top of the ninth as a pinch hitter for Higgins. Wood would hit a line drive to left field off of Allen scoring both Donoghue and Sutton giving Boston its first lead of the game. Hazeltine would pitch a flawless bottom half and the Minutemen would take both the game and the series. The win would push the Minutemen win streak to four games. Currently, Boston sits in second position with a 9-4 record. Monday will be a travel day for The Minutemen as they will travel to Detroit for a two game series against the 7-6 Dynamos who sport a four game winning streak of their own. Then it will be off to New York to check out the Gothams new shiny stadium before they head back across the midwest for a series against the Pioneers in St. Louis. These road trips that criss-cross the country can really test a club mentally. However, every club in the FABL has to deal with these types of road trips over the course of a season. It will be interesting to see if the Minutemen can rise to the challenge now that it is their turn to embark on such a trip. STRONG OUT AGAIN We all knew it was just a matter of time as Pittsburgh Miners slugger Mahlon Strong is back on the injured list. Strong has been amazing when he is healthy, socking 21 homers, driving in 105 and batting .323 in his 131 games with Pittsburgh but the issue is this is his third year with the club and he has still not been healthy enough to play the equivalent of a full seasons worth of games. The Miners did know what they were getting when they acquired the injury prone outfielder from the New York Gothams prior to the 1937 season but it is a shame he has been hurt so often. This is his 9th big league season but he has played just 737 games including 10 this year in which he was batting .342 with a pair of homers and 12 rbi's for the Miners. This time it is a strained stomach muscle that is expected to sideline Strong for the next month and a half. The Miners acquired Andy Carter from Washington over the winter to help cover for the inevitable Strong injury so now it is time to see what Carter can bring to the table. Early indications are good as the the 33 year old is batting .346 in 26 at bats with Pittsburgh. He won't provide the power Strong brings but if Carter can hit in Pittsburgh like he did a couple of years ago before his own injury problems derailed him in Washington the Miners offense should be fine. Carter will play his natural second base and the Miners will shift Jack Cleaves from second to first in Strong's absence. At least that is the plan but they also have AAA prospect Frank Buchanan as a possibility if the Carter/Cleaves moves don't pan out. PIDGEON SCORES HIS 1000TH RUN One of the reasons the New York Stars are off to a solid start this season has been the play of outfielder Moxie Pidgeon. The 32 year was acquired from Washington over the winter and is hitting .365 while leading the CA in homers (6) and rbi's (17). Pidgeon also reached another career milestone yesterday when he scored his 1000th career run in the Stars 5-3 win over Brooklyn. Last week Pidgeon drove in his 1000 career run and now has 1,013 rbi's to his credit making him one of just 47 players in FABL history to both drive in and score 1000. That list gets much shorter when you consider he also has 235 career homeruns making him just one of 9 players to hit 235 homers while driving in and scoring at least 1000. The only other active players on that list are Al Wheeler of Brooklyn and the Cougars Lou Kelly. The others are Max Morris, Rankin Kellogg, T.R. Goins, Hal Eason, Joe Masters and Paul Tattersall. The next two milestones on Pidgeon's agenda look like they could both potentially be reached this season. He needs 15 homers to become just the 8th player to hit that many and is 153 hits shy of 2000 for his career. If he reaches those two marks he will be in very exclusive company joined only by Wheeler, Morris, Kellogg, Goins, Eason and Masters although Lou Kelly of the Cougars is just 4 hits away from 2000 as well and Kelly already has 269 career homers. Here are some upcoming Milestones to watch for QUICK HITS Last year the expectations coming out of spring weren't very high for the Detroit Dynamos. Finish around .500 or slightly above. This season it's completely different with expectations sky high and the team goes 3-6 out of the gate losing all 3 series. A recent 4 game win streak against NY and St Louis rights the ship to some degree at 7-6 but it is not the start the Dynamos expected. A WCS hangover for Brooklyn and the Chicago Chiefs? Neither has been very impressive to start the season as both sit with 6-7 records. The Kings are having trouble putting it together but fortunately for Brooklyn no one is off to a dominant start in CA. Brooklyn leads the CA in OBP, OPS and WOBA but are only 4th in runs scored. They have surrendered the 3rd lowest runs against and are a CA best +11 in run differential but somehow are a game below .500. It should balance out. It is a similar story in Chicago where the Chiefs are +12 in run differential but that happens to be 23 runs behind Pittsburgh, which boasts an amazing +35 differential after two weeks. The first two-game series between Pittsburgh and Chicago will take place this week (Day and Lonardo are scheduled to pitch for the Chiefs). How about the Keystones with the -52 run differential after two weeks. Is anything going right in Philly? A Philadelphia Inquisitor columnist summed it up this way: "Nope, nothing at all (has gone right). The Keystones have handed the keys to the next generation of pitchers and the front bumper is gone and the fender is busted. They have committed to the turning over of this roster and new manager Bill Libby says he still has faith in the kids. Chicago might want to consider giving George Thomas a start against the Miners. The 29 year old picked off the scrap heap in Montreal has been very good for Chicago as their fifth starter. He sports a 1-0 record with a Chiefs rotation best 2.35 era. Former first-round pick Bennie Griffith has been overall a disappointment for the Chiefs. It's early, but he has started this season very hot. hitting .500/.520/.667 and is 5 for 5 in stolen bases. He is now the 4th outfielder and starting in right field against left-handers. It remains to be seen whether--at 26-years-old--things are starting to come together for him. Did Sal and Alf Pestilli switch teams without telling anyone? Fed Whitney Award winner Sal is homerless for Detroit with a .173 average while big brother Alf wins his first CA player of the week award and has 5 homers and 13 rbi's thru 2 weeks to go with a .341 batting average to be one of the few early season bright spots in Brooklyn. Staying in the Kings outfield what is wrong with Al Wheeler? The five time Whitney Award winner hit just .233 in spring training and is batting only .216 after 13 regular season games. The power is still there was Al has 5 regular season homers among his 11 hits and hit 7 in spring play but it is all or nothing when Wheeler steps to the plate so far this season. Congratulations to future Hall of Famer Jack Bush as after an 0-for-22 start the 25 year old Washington Eagles shortstop finally got his first career big league hit. Bush singled off Boston's Mike Lee for his milestone marker and added 3 more hits in 18 at bats to raise his average to .103. Perhaps the Eagles should delay unveiling the Bush HOF plaque on the Columbia Stadium concourse for at least the time being. Boston's Bob Donoghue ties the FABL singe game HR record at 3 with his first 3 round trippers of the season in a 9-3 thumping of Philadelphia. Donoghue becomes the 20th different player to have a 3 homerun game and his effort helped him claim the Federal Association top player award for last week. On the season the 25 year old is batting .356 with 3 homers and 10 rbi's. Fun Fact. Who is the only player to do it twice? Tom Taylor hit 3 HR in 2 games just 4 days apart back in August 1928 with the Sailors. I think we can officially say the Pete Papenfus era has arrived in Chicago. The Cougars young star tossed his first career shutout just a week after celebrating his 21st birthday. Papenfus fanned 7 and allowed just 4 hits in a 1-0 win over Herb Flynn and the Philadelphia Sailors. Papenfus still needs to work on his control - he walked 7 in the shutout and 12 already in 19 innings of work this season but at 2-0 with a 1.89 era and 15 strikeouts he is quickly establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in the game. He went 8-6 with a 4.52 era in 17 appearances last season as a rookie. Speaking of 21 year old pitchers, Rufus Barrell is now 3-1 with a 3.64 era to start the season in Baltimore. Quite a turnaround from a very rough debut midway through last season when the former first overall pick went 1-9 down the stretch for the Cannons. Bob Walls was unbeatable down the stretch last season and a big reason why Toronto came tantalizingly close to dethrone Brooklyn in the CA. It is a different story this year for both Walls and the Wolves. The pitcher is 0-3 to start this season after going 8-1 following his July acquisition by Toronto from Detroit a year ago. The Wolves are also struggling and, at 4-8, have the worst record in the Continental Association. With the waiver claim pickup of veteran catcher Claude Ramsey from Washington the Brooklyn Kings have released John Kincaid. Best known for his days with the Cougars, the 34 year old Kincaid is a veteran of 1618 FABL games with a .329 career batting average and 2065 hits. He has hit just .207 in a reserve role for the Kings since the start of last season. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 05/07/1939 Hitler ranks Germany with the "most heavily armed nations of the world" as Nazi diplomats press efforts to isolate Poland to make her ripe for yielding to German demands. To this end Hitler is attempting to form a neutral bloc of at least six nations offering identical non-aggression pacts to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia. President Roosevelt sent a telegram of friendship to the President of Poland in a show of support for the country on it's National holiday. On the heels of what is called it's greatest May Day parade, Russia is said to be ready for a big war as it finalizes a military alliance with Britain and France that includes plans for supporting Poland and Rumania against any possible aggression. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports