JUNE 10, 1946
INJURIES HIT FED TEAMS HARD ONCE AGAIN
You can add Dean Astle, Dixie Lee and Mahlon Strong to the list of Federal Association stars who have suffered long-term injuries over the past couple of weeks. The Boston Minutemen were hit especially hard as exactly one week after number one starter Ray Dalpman went down with a season ending injury, veteran Dean Astle -who was 7-2 with the lowest era in either association- was lost for the next five weeks with a shoulder strain. On the same day and field Astle was hurt, the New York Gothams -who were hosting Boston in a Sunday doubleheader- lost veteran outfielder Mahlon Strong for the next month and a half with a back injury. The major injuries were not just restricted to pennant contenders in the Fed as Detroit's number one pitcher is also done for the year. Dixie Lee was 6-5 with a 2.50 era for the Dynamos but a shoulder injury suffered Friday has ended his season.
The injury to Strong is certainly not unexpected as it is harder to find a player who has spent more time on the injured list in his career than the 37 year old but it may have a big impact on the Gothams offense between now and the all-star break. Strong was hitting .325 with 6 homers for the New Yorkers this season but fortunately for them there is no shortage of offense in Queens. The Gothams are 7-1 in June and have won 10 of their last 12 games to pull into a first place tie with the suddenly pitching-starved Minutemen and the Philadelphia Keystones as those three clubs are beginning to separate themselves from the pack in the Federal Association.
The Continental race has a big series coming up as the other hot New York team -the Stars- invade Tice Memorial Stadium for a three game showdown with the first place Cincinnati Cannons beginning today. The Stars just completed a 4-game sweep of the Wolves in Toronto and have won 8 of their last 9 games to pull to within a game and a half of the Cannons. Cincinnati had a rough week, losing 4 straight before rebounding to salvage the finale of their weekend series with the Chicago Cougars yesterday. The Cougars did take two of three from the defending champs but only after dropping two of three in both Philadelphia and Cleveland to start the month. The Cougars have gone 15-24 after their hot 12-3 start to the season.
For Chicago it is easy to point the blame at simply bad luck, but that has been an all too often used refrain in recent years for the Windy City Kitties. Still, the numbers are hard to question - or even believe.
Cougars record in games decided by two or fewer runs: 8-19
Cougars record in all other games: 19-8
Chicago's +52 run differential is 12 runs higher then the first place Cannons, but Chicago continues to underperform its expected record by six games.
LOS ANGELES CONTINUES TO LEAD WAY OUT WEST
A big week ahead for the Great Western League as the top two teams in the loop are set to collide in San Francisco for a three game series beginning tomorrow. The first place Los Angeles Knights managed to secure a split in Oakland and now travel across the bay to face the Hawks, with the Knights nursing a 3-game lead on both of the Bay Area clubs.
The Knights have led pretty much all the way in the debut big league season of West Coast major league ball, relying on a balanced offense and some fine pitching from King Price (6-3, 2.08) and FABL castoffs Bob Cummings (6-1, 1.44) and Karl Wallace (6-2, 3.22).
While the Bigsby band and the two Bay Area clubs have distanced themselves somewhat from the pack, there is terrific battle being waged for the final spot in the first division with only a game and a half separating fourth place Houston from 8th place Seattle.
- The Cougars may be struggling, but Leo Mitchell sure isn't! It was another great week for the veteran outfielder, who went 12-for-27 with a double, homer, and 4 RBIs to raise his season line to .392/.428/.617 (195 OPS+). Mitchell is in the race for a triple crown, leading the CA in average while tied with Bill Barrett in homers with 12. His 36 RBIs are three behind Barrett as well, tied with Hank Giordano of the Wolves for third in the circuit. An early frontrunner for the Whitney, Mitchell leads his association in slugging, OPS (1.045), hits (82), total bases (129), OPS+, WRC+ (216), and wOBA (.477)
- Here come the Keystones. 14-3 in their last 17 (all at home) runs its record to 26-9 at Broad Street Park. Now, if they can only figure out how to play on the road. They'll have their chance as they embark on a 13-game road trip on Friday. First, a three-game series at home against the red-hot Gothams, winners in 10 of 12. New York and Boston are tied for first with Philadelphia percentage points behind.
- Somthing worth noticing in the Fed race which has a virtual 3-way tie at the top but Philadelphia has played 35 of its first 57 games at home and Boston has been in Minutemen Stadium for 33 of its 53 games so far. Meanwhile the third team in the mix at the top -the New York Gothams- count just 18 home games among their first 53 outings. New York is on the road again to start the week -heading to Broad Street Park to meet Philadelphia in a 3-game set.
- It has been quite some time but bright days may just be around the corner in Cleveland thanks to their young pitching. 23 year old Richie Hughes (8-4, 3.04) is starting to show front of the rotation potential. 25 year old Ducky Davis (6-2, 2.26) is having a breakout year in his third big league season and former first overall pick Hiram Steinberg (3-6, 3.53) has thrown a pair of complete game shutouts in his last four outings.
- Speaking of young pitchers, 23 year old rookie Buckeye Smith continues to shine for Washington. He is off to a 4-0 start with a 1.64 era since his promotion from AAA Kansas City. And how about 25 year old rookie Adam Grayson (7-2, 2.40) in Pittsburgh. A 1939 4th round pick of Toronto who spent three years in the army before the Miners nabbed him in the rule five draft, Grayson has been the Miners most dependable starter since being moved into the rotation from the bullpen a month ago.
- Lefty Allen is having a rough start in Pittsburgh this season as the 32 year old is 3-7 with a 4.10 era. If this continues it will be the worst era ever recorded in Allen's career. He is a middling 12-12 since the war after winning 158 games before his 30th birthday.
- The Sailors have a habit of digging up unheralded pitchers who deliver big seasons for them and Slick Wesolowski (9-2, 2.64) is the latest. The 26 year old was a 5th round pick in 1938 who spent the last three years in the navy. Entering this season he had just 3 appearances at the AAA level but has been outstanding in his rookie big league season.
- Voting is now open for the starters in what will be the 14th annual all-star game. Plenty of excitement is expected in Boston as the for the first time since the war began all of the big name players will be back. It marks the first time the game has been played in New England. The Federal Association leads the series 8 wins to 5 including an 8-4 win last season thanks to a 10th inning grand slam off the bat of Boston's Chick Donnelly.
- There will be a lot of tough choices on the all-star ballot but one of the hardest will be the starting pitcher for the Continental Association. Deuce Barrell (8-0, 2.02) of the Cannons may have the inside track but there is also Montreal's Bert Cupid (7-1, 2.86), Pete Papenfus (7-3, 2.48) and Donnie Jones (8-2, 2.52) of the Cougars, Richie Hughes (8-4, 3.04) in Cleveland and the Sailors Slick Wesolowski (9-2, 2.64).
FIGMENT FLASHBACK: DICK POZZA
Long-time Manager Was Key Figure in '34 Controversy
As the all-star voting opens this week we are reminded of one of the most controversial moments of the mid-season classic. That occured in 1934 -the second-ever All-Star Game- and manager Dick Pozza was at the center of it. The now 62 year old Pozza has been out of the game for the past five years but had a long career as a big league skipper. A native of Rowland Heights, California, Pozza was not much of a player, spending three seasons in the low minors as a third baseman before finding his footing as a coach and later a manager.
Pozza's first big league job was as a bench coach, joining the Philadelphia Sailors in 1919 and later spending some time in Washington -where he was part of the Eagles pennant winning 1922 campaign and World Championship Series victory the following year. He also had a stop in St Louis as a coach before finally getting his first managerial position with the 1927 Detroit Dynamos. Pozza would pilot the Dynamos to a WCS win in 1929 -something the team has not done since- before moving on to Chicago and leading the Cougars to a Series win in 1931 and a pennant two years later. So his resume was certainly impressive, but will be forever tarnished by two events which occurred just a few days apart in July of 1934.
The Cougars got off to a rough start to the 1934 season and there was tensions between Pozza and the club's front-office, much of it over his handling of the pitching staff. It all boiled to a head the first week in July. Tommy Wilcox, the talented young pitcher the Cougars acquired two years earlier in a big deal with Brooklyn that sent Tom and Fred Barrell the other way, was being overworked by Pozza who was desperate to keep his job and get the struggling team back on track as Cleveland and Brooklyn were running away with the pennant race.
The real trouble started July 3 when Pozza forced Wilcox, who was the 1933 Allen Award winner with an incredibly bright future, to throw 194 pitches and go the distance in a 14-inning game he would ultimately lose by a 2-1 score. The loss dropped the Cougars 12.5 games back of first place Cleveland and 3 games under .500, so Pozza was now really feeling the heat. The 27 year old Wilcox had already suffered a minor arm issue late in spring training but, despite being cautioned by the Cougars front-office to take it easy with their ace, Pozza had Wilcox start 4 days later in Philadelphia. Wilcox was a gamer and went 4 innings but left the game after the fourth due to an injury. Pozza would say it was Wilcox' ankle and not a dead arm that bothered him and the pitcher never did confirm or deny that diagnosis.
Regardless, two days later -on Monday July 9- Wilcox was back on the mound once more as Pozza demanded he start the game. Wilcox -despite having thrown close to 300 pitches in the past 6 days by that point- made it into the fifth inning when something in his arm popped. It would be a devastating injury and Wilcox would miss over a year recovering. We say recovering but in actuality Wilcox would never again be the pitcher he was before the injury. Pozza was immediately fired by the Cougars and would be replaced a couple days later by Hank Lietzke. It was only the beginning of the troubles Pozza would cause that week.
The problem was Pozza was slated -as the skipper of the previous season Continental pennant winner- to manage the Continental side in the All-Star Game which was to be played the next day at New York's Riverside Park. In the all-star game, which ended up going 10 innings, Pozza used Brooklyn reliever Del Lyons for 3 innings and allowed him to throw 81 pitches. Lyons had been the Kings late inning relief specialist that season and rarely pitched much more than an inning and never approached 100 pitches in an outing.
The Kings were incensed as they were embroiled in a tight race with Cleveland for top spot and were slated to play 3-games with the Foresters immediately after the all-star break. Due to Pozza, Lyons would now no longer be available for Brooklyn manager Walt Bailey to call on during the key series.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Somehow, word trickled to Bailey that Pozza had intentionally misused Lyons at the behest of Foresters owner Richard Marshall - who supposedly had offered the now unemployed Pozza either a job within his organization or money -depending upon which story you heard. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Pozza also forced Brooklyn catcher Fred Barrell -who had played for Pozza and was the MVP in his 1931 Series victory with the Cougars- to play the entire game while Pozza left Mickey Dowell of Montreal sitting on the bench and only used the third catcher, the Cougars Mike Taylor, in a pinch-hitting role in the 6th inning. Fred would miss the opener of the Cleveland series, Lyons would not pitch in any of the three games and Cleveland swept the series, winning two of the games in their final at bat, and ended up beating Brooklyn out by 1 game to win the pennant.
Marshall, of course, denied any wrong doing and Pozza never spoke about the incident. He did get another job but not in Cleveland as Pozza signed with Montreal later that season and spent 7 more seasons as the Saints manager before retiring from baseball in 1941. To this day, uttering his name still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of fans of both the Cougars and Kings.
It was nearly two years ago that Percy Sutherland first made public his goal of creating a second grid league to compete on the professional football scene and now that dream has taken one more step towards reality. Sutherland and his hand-picked President to head up the new grid loop, former St Blane collegiate star and Navy Lt. Commander Bob Montgomery, officially announced the locations of the eight teams that will comprise the opening season of the Continental Football Conference.
Most of the locations had been already been disclosed, including the fact that Sutherland envisioned a true continental league that stretched from coast to coast so it has long been known that New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco would all field teams, as would Sutherland's hometown of Chicago where he is the long-time sports editor of the Chicago Herald-Examiner. To those four the league has also added Buffalo, Brooklyn, Kansas City and New Orleans. This announcement means that the new league will only go head to head with the established American Football Association in two cities: Chicago and New York.
"We feel there is sufficient fan support in both of those cities to support a team in each league," Sutherland explained during the announcement to reveal the 8 member clubs. "It works well in FABL, and it is our hope that someday soon we can duplicate baseball and have a true World Championship football game between the winner of the Continental Conference and the American league."
The American Football Association, and in particular its President Jack Kristich, appear to have little interest in any sort of partnership at all. Kristich has continuously waived off reporters questions on the CFC, calling it 'a pipe-dream' and later a 'minor league outfit.'
As of today that so-called minor league outfit made a major push for recognition as a true major league and judging by the early success of Great Western Baseball league in California, the CFC has taken a major step towards prosperity with the establishment of franchises in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as other markets that Kristich and the AFA have ignored.
CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE 1946 MEMBER TEAMS
Brooklyn Kings
Buffalo Bulls
Chicago Comets
Kansas City Cowboys
Los Angeles Lobos
New Orleans Crescents
New York Gothams
San Francisco Wings
BUSY FALL LIES AHEAD FOR TITLE TILTS
Fans of World Championship boxing matches will have a quiet start to summer but there promises to be plenty of action in August and the fall. The big news is confirmation of Hector Sawyer's next heavyweight defense as the 31 year old champ will face his old foe Jochen Schrotter on August 17 at the Bigsby Oval in New York City. Sawyer, who has held the title since a 15th round knockout of the now 40 year German back in January of 1940, owns a 53-3-1 career mark. Schrotter's only professional fight since that 1940 loss was in England a little over a week ago and it did not go well as he added to what surely will be an villanous reputation in the Oval battle by being disqualified for repeated low blows against his British opponent. Schrotter owns a career mark of 48-4.
Middleweight champion Frank 'The Tank' Melanson survived two tough battles with Todd Gill to retain his belt. After fighting to a majority draw last October, the Pittsburgh native won last month's rematch with a 15th round TKO victory over Gill. Melanson, 30-0-2, has not confirmed when or who is next defense will be but TWIFB boxing report Johnny Bologna has speculated it will likely against unbeaten and untied European champion Edouard Desmarais in either November or December.
Dennis O'Keefe claimed the World Welterweight Title that had been vacant for nearly six years when he knocked out Carl Taylor in the 13th round of their March bout at Bigsby Garden. O'Keefe, a 29 year old Florida native known as the 'Jacksonville Jackhammer' has stated he wants to get back in the ring by the end of October. His camp is said to be trying to finalize a deal with George 'Mr. Sandman' Gibbs - a 28 year old Colorado native with a perfect 16-0 record- but if that falls through O'Keefe may end up facing top ranked contender Mark Westlake. The 28 year old Mississippi native is 19-2-1 but has not fought since losing to Carl Taylor by an unanimous decision last October. O'Keefe's handlers say an announcement confirming their fighters first title defense will come in the next week or two.
ANOTHER WIN FOR ROY
Former Brooklyn shipyard worker Dale Roy continues to climb the welterweight charts. The 28 year old Binghamton, NY native improved to 23-5 with his 7th straight victory - an unanimous decision over Peter Waldron. There is speculation that Roy will find his way into the top contenders list in the next ranking released by TWIFB as Wayne Dunn is certain to drop off the list after suffering an upset loss last week. Roy had little trouble with Waldron - the 37 year old Boston native who falls to 17-4-1.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS
- Aug 17 - Bigsby Oval, New York City: World Heavyweight title as Hector 'The Cajun Crusher' Sawyer (53-3-1) defends against former world champion Jochen Schrotter (48-4).
- TBA (likely November or December): World Middleweight champion Frank 'The Tank' Melanson (30-0-2) is expected to make his next title defense with European champion Edouard Desmarais (36-0) as the likely opponent.
- TBA (likely October: World Welterweight champion Dennis 'The Jacksonville Jackhammer' O'Keefe (20-1) vs either Mark Westlake (19-2-1) or Geroge 'Mr Sandman' Gibbs (16-0).
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/09/1946
- The House and Senate continue to wage a tug of war over the teenage draft, but there were hints of a compromise making 19 year olds eligible and exempting those of 18.
- The Supreme Court has ruled that a State cannot require segregation of passengers in buses crossing state lines.
- Union leaders and ship operators continue efforts to avert next week's threatened maritime strike. Meanwhile, the Navy is finalizing its plans for operating vital merchant shipping if the tie-up materializes.
- At least 58 were killed after an explosion and fire at the 22-story La Salle Hotel in the heart of Chicago's loop district. About 200 others were injured.
- A news report out of Russia calls Joseph Stalin the greatest Russian figure of all time -greater than Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible and perhaps even Lenin.
- General George C. Marshall has been able to persuade Chinese government and Communist forces to agree to a 15-day truce in hopes of being able to negotiate a permanent peace. The two sides have waged civil war for 18 years, primarily in Manchuria.