AUGUST 28, 1939
BYE BYE BALTIMORE?
Frustrated by his team's extended run of living in the Continental Association's basement, Baltimore Cannons owner Oscar Banner is rumored to be in discussions to sell the team to an unnamed Cincinnati-based businessman. Baltimore is currently last in the CA and a finish in that position would mark the sixth straight last-place finish for the Cannons. For a team that has not won a title since 1914 (when they were the Baltimore Clippers), the extended run of dismal performances has worn thin on the 75-year-old Banner.
"All I will say right now is this," Banner said, taking a dramatic pause before continuing, "I have a very nice offer for the team from a gentleman in Cincinnati. He has not told me whether he would be moving the club if I were to sell it to him." When pressed for his reasons, Banner testily replied, "I am an old man and not getting any younger. The club's performance since I was convinced to allow a rebuilding project to be begun in 1932 has frankly been dismal. We were supposed to get better within a few seasons. Instead we've been the laughingstock of the league for the better part of a decade."
As questions were shouted at him, Banner raised a hand and said, "Regardless of whether I sell this club, I can guarantee one thing: there will be extensive changes made this winter."
He took no further questions. As for the purported move to Cincinnati, there are several hurdles that would need to be cleared for the team to be moved. The sale, and subsequent move would need to be approved by the league office which is never a guarantee. Then there are the negotiations which would need to be held both with the Cleveland Foresters, whose Triple-A affiliate currently resides in Cincinnati, and with the city itself, which owns the ancient ballpark (Monarchs Field) that the team uses. It must be mentioned however that the city of Cincinnati has recently been looking to entice a FABL club to their city, promising a new ballpark for that club in the eventuality that someone actually agrees to move there. The Montreal Saints were rumored to have been considering such a move as recently as last year, but nothing has transpired thus far.
Should the Cannons move, it would be the first club to relocate this century.
10 THINGS I THINK WITH JIGGS MCGEE
It has been a while since Jiggs graced these pages with a "10 Things I Think" column but with big news out of Cannons country it is certainly time for a special Baltimore edition of the column.
1- The big news is of course the report of a possible transfer of the Baltimore Cannons to Cincinnati. Mixed emotions for me on this one as the Baltimore franchise has a rich history including 6 pennants and 3 World Championships in a 12 year period beginning in 1908. There have been a lot of outstanding Baltimore players over the years led by the greatest batsman the sport has ever known in Hall of Famer Powell Slocum. Fellow Hall of Famer Mike Marner, Jimmy Whipple and Ken Carpenter are others who made their mark on Baltimore baseball and don't forget the first half of Rabbit Day's career was as a Cannon.
2- All that is well and good but it really is ancient history. Yes the Cannons were once a proud franchise but in the modern era they have been awful. Their 909 victories between 1926 and 1938 is the second lowest in either Association over that time, topping only Toronto's 891 wins. 10 FABL clubs have won at least one pennant and 9 at least one World Championship Series during that stretch but the Cannons are not one of them. In fact, Baltimore has only finished in the first division three times in that 13 year span and keep in mind that was in a Continental Association that also had very bad teams in Toronto and Montreal.
3- Perhaps it is well beyond the time that Cannons owner Oscar Banner should have divested himself of the team he has ran since 1913. The club he inherited won back to back pennants his first two years in charge but under Banner's ownership there have been no more banners to hang at the field named after him. One has to wonder why Banner has taken so long to act, before just this week finally promising "there will be extensive changes made this winter." That announcement comes about 4 years too late for my liking. This club seems destined for a 6th straight last place finish.
4- Cincinnati really deserves a big league club. The city was a charter member of William Whitney's Century League back in 1876 and were it not for the untimely death of owner James Tice just prior to FABL being formed the Monarchs might well still exist. Instead the city has been used as a pawn by both Cleveland and Montreal in recent years...a threat in both towns to get concessions from local government or risk losing their club to the Queen City. Each time fans in Cincinnati were left at the alter as both the Foresters and Saints stayed put leaving Cincinnati ball fans no alternative but to remain content feeding on the table scraps of minor league baseball as a farm team of the Foresters. The club, now known as the Steamers, has actually been very well supported in the AAA Union League, even exceeding a million paying customers at it's peak in 1930 but interest has waned in recent years likely due to the flirtations of big league clubs with the city, making minor league baseball seem like a sad consolation prize.
5- Speaking of attendance the Cannons have been in the bottom three in FABL each of the past seven seasons and are well on their way to making it 8 in a row this campaign. Nearby Washington also ranks near the bottom in paying customers every year making many wonder if it is simply the area is not one to support baseball but you have to remember both teams have been very bad ballclubs for the past decade. With well over 800,000 residents Baltimore is the 7th largest city in the US and Washington is not far behind. Cincinnati has just over half the population of Baltimore but their AAA club outdrew the Cannons last season so one might conclude that while their are 800,000 people in Baltimore, very few of them care for baseball, or at least not bad baseball which is all the Cannons have treated them to for many years. (Note 1938 Union League attendance numbers place 584,552 fans in the seats for 70 Steamers home games while the Cannons drew 525,512 while also playing 7 more games at home than Cincinnati.)
6- The Cannons are a bad team and not likely to get better quickly. It is hard to see this group contending for the first division in the next couple of seasons, at least not without drastic changes, and the dream of a pennant seems years away. Baltimore has already proven it has little interest in supporting a bad Cannons team. If the club stays put in Baltimore can the promised changes turn the club's fortunes around quick enough to win the support of fans back? On the other hand a shift to Cincinnati would mean the club should draw very well, even in the early going, no matter how bad it is on the field simply because it is big league baseball. For that reason if Banner does successfully sell the team to the as of yet unnamed party in Cincinnati there is no way I see the new owners wanting to keep the club in it's present home.
7- The league might have something to say in that regard. FABL has enjoyed great stability with all 16 franchises remaining in the same city they were in when the league was formed in 1892. I am not sure the league wants to abandon any of it's original markets. That being said if there is a market the league would give up Baltimore seems like a good choice. They won't abandon Washington because of owner William Stockdale's connections and the desire to not create ill will with federal politicians. If there was another city on thin ice I would have said it would be one of the two Canadian clubs but Toronto was saved, at least temporarily by a strong season both on the field and at the box office last season and Montreal, after talk of a move to Cincinnati, also seems secure. Longshots to move one day would be one of the Philadelphia clubs or one or two of the 3 teams in New York.
8- If the move does comes to pass what happens to the Steamers, Cincinnati's AAA club and Forester affiliate? It could be as simple as swapping locations with Baltimore getting a AAA team to replace the departing Cannons and they could have a built in rivalry right away with the Richmond and Charleston clubs. If Cleveland balks at moving their AAA club to Baltimore perhaps the Foresters could take over Toledo of the Century League from the Gothams, who might be more willing to take on Baltimore as their top farm club.
9- The Cannons have no one to blame but themselves for this situation. When the team was winning it drew well, even during the 1920s with a lot of mid-table finishes the Cannons still ranked right around the middle of the league in attendance. 1931 was their second consecutive second place finish and the club topped the 1 million mark in attendance for the first time in franchise history and it seemed like things were looking up. However poor showings in 1932 and 1933 followed by a complete sell-off when they dealt away stars like Rabbit Day and Lou Kelly set the table for the next half decade worth of disastrous baseball with bad drafting decisions only causing the situation to spiral further into despair.
10- The odds of the move to Cincinnati happening are likely a lot higher then the chances that Cleveland or Montreal would have actually moved but I would still peg them at no more than 50/50. The Cincinnati Cannons does have a nice ring to it and would be a fresh start for what has become a very stale franchise. Although perhaps a nod to the old Century League is best and if Cincinnati does finally get major league baseball back I can think of no better name for the club than bringing the Cincinnati Monarchs to FABL. It would be nearly 50 years later than I am sure the Tice had ever hoped but a fitting name to perhaps one day put the shine back on what has become, as even Oscar Banner freely admits, the laughingstock of FABL.
The big news this week, aside from another bad week from your Brooklyn Kings, is the Baltimore Cannons are up for sale and there is a strong chance the club will be bought by a Cincinnati group that is almost certain to move the club if the purchase goes through. That does not sit well with a number of former Cannons including their two Hall of Famers Powell Slocum and Mike Marner. The scuttlebutt on the street is Marner, who pitched briefly for the Kings at the end of his career, is working with another former Cannon/King pitcher in Ken Carpenter to try and find an investor to help them purchase the club.
Some talk even goes as far as saying current Kings manager and former Baltimore batting legend Powell Slocum has been approached about leaving the Kings next season to become the new Baltimore bench boss if the group is successful. Word is Slocum, in addition to a hefty manager's salary, would also receive a piece of ownership in the club. The news gets worse for Brooklyn fans as Kings Scouting Director John Spears, a Baltimore native, is also said to be pondering the opportunity to return to his hometown. Spears was not available to comment on the matter. Slocum was approached by the media but he would only confirm that he was "manager of the Brooklyn Kings and fully focused on salvaging this trying season."
While not addressing talk of his possible role in an effort to salvage the club, Slocum did add that he would be extremely disappointed to see the Cannons leave Baltimore, a city they have been associated with as either the Clippers or Cannons since 1890. There is nothing concrete but where there is smoke there is often fire and it certainly feels like a few people with Brooklyn ties are burning to bail out Baltimore by rescuing the Cannons.
CROWN JEWELS: Another bad week for the Kings. From the if it's not one thing... department. The offense finally seems to be clicking, even Al Wheeler finally hit a pair of homers - his first two all month - but while the bats were cooking it was the pitching which suddenly ended up in the freezer. Art White was ice cold and got shelled twice. Bob Cummings, who was so good up until the all-star break has had some rough outings and word is the front office is starting to wonder if Sergio Vergara will ever learn how to pitch consistently. Bottom line is even though Brooklyn scored 38 runs in 6 games last week, they still only went 2-5 because the normally sound pitching staff surrendered 47 runs over that time.
Kings Owner Daniel Prescott in shock at how quickly Kings have crashed from elite to mediocre and incensed the club drew less than 8000 to a game this week.
One of the few bright spots for the organization of late is the play of Whitey Dorsch. Brooklyn’s other 1st rounder has been greatly overshadowed by Rats McGonigle and ignored by OSA but the 18 year old is making a statement in Class C. After close to 2 months of pro ball the 3B is slashing .423/.531/.600 and may get moved up to Class B before the season concludes.
DYNAMOS LOSE WHEELER FOR THE SEASON
The Detroit Dynamos started the week with a 5 game winning streak but it came to an end on the weekend in Chicago as the Federal Association leaders fell twice to the Chiefs. What turned out to be an even bigger loss last week for Detroit was the news the Dynamos received about righthander Charlie Wheeler (11-7, 3.06). It was bad news on his 25th birthday Tuesday as Wheeler learned his season would be over after hurting his shoulder in the fourth inning of his start Monday against the Gothams. Doctors fear he tore something and Wheeler has been told not to attempt to throw a ball again until December.
The Dynamos will now be reviewing options to take Wheeler's place in the rotation. They have four pretty solid starters in Frank Crawford (20-3, 2.45), Sergio Gonzales (9-7, 3.67) and a pair of veteran pickups from Brooklyn in Mike Murphy (8-10, 4.38) and Joe Shaffner (7-12, 3.80) so they could conceivably go with a 4-man rotation. However, Looking at the schedule there are not a lot of off-days so the short rotation might be too taxing with Crawford, Murphy and Shaffner all in their thirties. After today's game in Chicago, the Dynamo's have a 17-game 17-day (DH vs CHI in Sept and 1 off day) homestand starting on Tuesday. The first 6 games of that home stand are against Boston and Pittsburgh so it will be a stiff test for Detroit.
Manager George Theobald was obviously disappointed after hearing about the severity of Wheeler's injury. "If Wheeler hadn't gone down to injury we would be feeling fairly comfortable with our position," explained baseball's winningest manager. "But we really can't give up any ground during this homestand."
So what are the Dynamos options. Assistant General Manager Rankin Trull says Theobald certainly has some choices available to him. "Definitely Ron Coles (6-0, 3.41) has an opportunity to grab the spot, or George always wants to start Jack Richardson (2-4, 2.98). AAA RHSP Frank Gordon has pitched well after coming over from New York and getting out of the hitter happy GWL. But Coles is probably the leader in the clubhouse for the occasional start."
BOSTON STRUGGLES WITH MINERS
For the second week in a row the second place Boston Minutemen dropped two of three to the Pittsburgh Miners. This time it was on the road at Fitzpatrick Park as the hometown Miners made up for being swept by Boston in a pair of three game series last month. Boston sits 4 games back of Detroit while the Miners are 4.5 after missing an opportunity to gain some ground on Detroit over the weekend when they dropped two of three in Philadelphia while Detroit was falling in Chicago.
[b]CLEVELAND RUNNING INTO ARM TROUBLE[b]
Injuries are also becoming a concern from the Continental Association leading Cleveland Foresters. Nothing long-term but in the last week starters Dave Rankin (10-12, 4.63) and Lou Martino (7-3, 3.11) each went down. Both are expected to be back sometime next week but Martino will not be available for a key 3-game series with second place New York beginning today. The Stars desperately need a strong showing in that series after dropping 3 of 5 games last week and losing some ground in their pursuit of Cleveland.
1940 DRAFT PREVIEW
Before we take a look at some of the top high school position players available in the 1940 draft pool let's look at potential draftees with family ties to professional baseball. By TWIFB count there are 7 players in the upcoming draft who are related to current or former professional ball players. Here is a quick look at each of them in alphabetical order.
ROGER BAKER - Son of Del Baker Roger is a senior pitcher from Milford (PA) High School, He is a 3 year starter with a 12-8 career record and a 3.38 era. OSA considers him to be a marginal prospect that, if he makes it to the big leagues, it will likely only be on an emergency basis. If he does get to the majors it will be farther than his father managed to advance. His dad was a decent first baseman at Swoyersville High School in the old feeder league days and was a 1915 4th round pick of the Pittsburgh Miners. He never made the Miners and his very brief pro career consisted of 7 games with a pair of independent clubs in the Great Western League.
LOU BAYER - son of Harry Bayer Another Pennsylvania high schooler, Lou is a 17 year old catcher at Hatboro High. He has played two seasons and owns a .447 batting average with 9 homers in 49 career games. OSA thinks he will make good contact at the next level and be a very reliable hitter one day. His dad Harry was also a catcher but had only the smallest of cups of coffee in pro ball. Harry is one of the few ballplayers to be born in Alaska and his pro career consisted entirely of 5 games for the 1907 Camden Rockets, a Class A team that he went 2-for-14 for, and then vanished to one of the many semi-pro leagues along the east coast.
WILLIE GRUBER- grandson of Franz Gruber A catcher at Fairfield (OH) High School, Willie will likely be a career minor leaguer as OSA has little confidence in his ability to hit at the pro level. In 41 games at Fairfield High over the past two seasons he is batting .417 with 3 homers. His dad Franz is best known as a minor league manager and he led the Rochester Rooks to three consecutive Union League championships beginning in 1934 before retiring following the 1936 season. In addition to Rochester of the Union League, Gruber also skippered teams in Dixie and Heartland Loops from 1925 until '36. Born in Germany, the elder Gruber's family moved to the United States while he was a boy and he took quickly to baseball. Gruber, a righthanded pitcher, spent 7 seasons in the minors including parts of three years at the AAA level. The bulk of his time was spent at Class A Omaha, for whom he won 20 games in 1906. He finished with a career minor league mark of 42-50 before moving into coaching.
DON LEE - brother of Rip Lee of the Philadelphia Sailors The Jersey City native is a center fielder who goes by the nickname 'Rap' which ties in nicely with his brother, who is 7 years older and has spent the past three seasons as the Sailors starting shortstop. Rip was a third round pick out of high school in 1932. Don likely will be drafted much later than his big brother as while OSA likes his bat speed and eye at the plate, they feel he is a reserve at best.
JOHN MOSS - cousin of Cliff Moss of the Chicago Chiefs If "Johnny Reb" turns out to be anything like his older cousin he should be a solid player. The elder Moss is now 33 years old and a veteran of nearly 1500 FABL games and an all-star selection this past July. Cliff went the college route and played for Pierpont before being selected first overall by Montreal in the 1927 draft. John, who like his cousin grew up in Lexington, Kentucky has started the past two seasons for that city's high school squad. John hit .474 over his 51 career games and while he is unlikely to go first overall like Cliff, OSA expects John Moss will hear his name called in the January phase of the draft. OSA feels he has a high ceiling and projects well on the field and at the plate. He is seen as a natural leader and said to possess outstanding communication skills.
FRED WAGGONER - Son of Joe Waggoner and grandson of Hall of Famer John Waggoner Nothing like the pressure of trying to follow in the footsteps of a Hall of Famer. John Waggoner came out of Wheeling, West Virginia but made his mark on the sport in the Big Apple, spending most of his career with the New York Stars before winding down with the cross-town Gothams. He won 3 World Championship rings and his 3,207 career hits is the 7th most all-time. Waggoner was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1938.
John's son Joe - Fred's father - was a shortstop just like his old man and a pretty good one at the college level, where he played for three seasons for Northern California University and win a National Title. Good enough in fact to be selected in the 4th round of the 1921 draft by the Chicago Cougars. He lasted just one season of pro ball, where he hit .257 at Class A Lincoln before choosing a different path from his father and returned to the west coast where he fashioned a pretty good career as a business owner in San Francisco.
Joe also spent much of his time tutoring young Fred on the finer points of baseball. Seeing some potential in his son Joe and John agreed the best place for Fred to pursue his dreams of pro baseball was on the east coast so Fred moved to New York to live with his grandfather and play at Trinity High School in the city where he is currently a teammate of highly touted senior pitcher Ralph Millsap. Unlike his father and grandfather, Fred is a center fielder and a very competent one at that according to OSA. He has good speed and stole 21 bases as a junior this past summer. He also exhibits strong plate discipline with a .500 on base percentage last season to go with a .408 batting average. OSA feels Fred Waggoner has a shot at the big leagues but likely strictly as a backup. His name alone might convince one of the New York clubs to take a chance on him in the regional round (Round 3) but may be more a player teams consider for the June portion of the draft.
CHARLIE WRIGHT JR. son of Charlie Wright The Wright's have a tie to the Waggoner as Charlie Senior was a college teammate of Joe Waggoner at Northern Cal on the AIAA National Champion 1921 Miners club. The elder Wright was a pitcher who actually spent time with 3 different colleges (Boulder State and Mississippi A&M were the others). His career mark was an unimpressive 1-8 with a 7.38 era but as mentioned he was a member of a National Championship club. Wright Senior was never drafted and although he did get a minor league tryout in the Gothams system he never played a professional game.
Junior was born in New York City but grew up in Massachusetts where his father settled after his playing days. A shortstop with good speed but a lightweight bat, OSA expects Charlie Wright Jr. will have a tough time making the major leagues.
Next issue we will look at the top rated position players among High School seniors.
QUICK HITS
- Big week for Toronto rookie Walt Pack (.349,6,30) as the 24 year old was named CA player of the week after going 14-for-28 with 8 rbi's. He is originally a 4th round pick by Brooklyn out of Henry Hudson University who was dealt to the Wolves 3 years ago in the trade that brought Jim Lightbody and Alf Pestilli to the Kings.
- Speaking of Pestilli's, the Dynamos have more than a pitcher injury to contend with. It's said to be nothing serious and he might not miss any action but reigning Fed Whitney Award winner Sal Pestilli is being bothered by a sore shoulder. This probably isn't a second straight Whitney winning season for the 23 year old centerfielder but Sal is leading both leagues in homers (27) and RBI's (103) while batting .261 so Detroit certainly wants his bat in the lineup when Pittsburgh arrives in town on the weekend followed immediately by Boston to start next week.
- Another player sidelined last week was Chicago Chiefs righthander George Thomas (7-11, 4.30). He suffered a partially torn labrum for the third time in his career. Instead of using one of the veterans--Charlie Bingham or Jack Beach--to replace Thomas in the rotation, the Chiefs are reaching out to Fort Wayne and calling up 22-year-old Sam Vaughn. Vaughn was drafted in the 3rd round in 1935--he has four pitches with his best being a good, sharp curveball. In 143 innings at Fort Wayne he had a BB/9 of 2.4 and a K/9 of 6.3.
- Funny the timing on news the Cannons are for sale and might move. The team is actually playing it's best baseball in years over the past month and a half. They are on a 22-14 run going back to mid-July and are now just 4 games back of Toronto in their bid to snap a 5 year streak of last place finishes. Butch Smith is not one of the names you think of when the conversation turns to pitchers drafted very high by the Cannons over the years but the 28 year old, who was a 3rd round pick out of Sadler University in 1932, is 4-1 with a 2.51 era in 5 August starts for the Cannons. Deuce Barrell is also having a good month and improved his record on the season to 11-7 with 3 straight wins before suffering a tough 3-2 loss to Brooklyn in 10 innings yesterday in which Deuce went the distance.
- It might be the end of the line for 42 year old Hap Goodwin. The name is familiar because Goodwin was drafted second overall in 1918 and spent a decade in Pittsburgh posting a 107-147 record before being released in 1931. Since then he has bounced around the minors including spending the last 2 and a half years with independent Portland of the Great Western League, helping them win a GWL title in 1937. He was 5-10 this season but blew out his shoulder pitching in a game last week. He vows he will return but the injury will sideline him close to a full calendar year so that might be a little too tough to come back from at age 43.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 08/27/1939
- King Leopold of Belgium, often hailed as a potential mediator of Europe's troubles has called the Ministers of six small powers to join Belgium in a peace plea to the larger nations of the Old World. Meanwhile, Britain and France issued a joint statement this week reiterating their pledge to aid Poland in the event of an attack upon her. All this as German army divisions, geared for lightning action, mass near the Polish border.
- Britain is sent scrambling and Hitler scores a coup after word that the Nazis and Russia are close to an impending agreement not to attack each other. However, reports also indicate their may be a loophole to nullify the pact as it reportedly contains a provision to be dissolved if either country commits an act of aggression against a third nation.
- Poland reaffirms it's commitment to fight for Danzig with or without Soviet support.
- Uncertain what result a Soviet-German non-aggression agreement would have on European peace, the United States began rushing plans for evacuating American citizens from Europe in the event of war. President Roosevelt cut short his vacation and returned quickly to Washington while the US issues a warning to American citizens against travelling to Europe.
- As the week progresses British and French diplomats meet with Hitler to try and find a peaceful solution while at the same time there are several casualties from isolated clashes between Nazi and Polish troops around Danzig.
- The Russian-German pact prompts Japan to abandon European foreign policy and return to a policy of isolation.
- By the weekend Berlin reports that a compromise in the German-Polish crisis is under way and the report states "danger of a world war is definitely averted."
- But 24 hours later Britain and France reject Hitler's planned solution and Paris insists the Fuehrer deal directly with Poland to try to find a compromise. Meanwhile Russia blames the refusal to permit Soviet troops in Poland for failure of the Anglo-French Military mission and subsequent decision by Moscow to sign a pact with Germany.
- As this happens Warsaw sits through a day of drizzling rain waiting for a diplomatic decision that might break up the clouds of war.