OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - All things Figment - from the pages of The Figment Sporting Journal

Jiggs McGee · 06-06-2023, 11:53 AM

APRIL 21, 1947

PIONEERS OFF TO HOT START

Win 4 Straight to Open Season

Many observers were shocked when esteemed New York Mirror sportswriter John Brinker tabbed the St Louis Pioneers as his pick for the Federal Association pennant winner in 1947. After all, the Pioneers were dead last in the Fed a year ago and have not won a pennant since 1921. It is only one week, but Brinker is looking like he might just have been channeling Nostradamus when filling out his predictions after Pioneers opened the season with 4 straight victories including a 3-game sweep of the might New York Gothams. It is a mere granule of sand in the hourglass that is a long baseball season but St Louis finished the week at 5-2, good enough at the moment to give the Pioneers the best record in baseball.

The Gothams, on the other hand, had a rough opening week, dropping their first 4 games before finally winning a pair over Detroit over the weekend. Saturday's victory over the Dynamos came at a cost as the Gothams 23 year old rookie shortstop, who was off to a fine start with 7 hits in his first 23 at bats, was injured in a collision at second base and will be sidelined for a month and a half. It was actually a terrible week for both New York shortstops as the Stars Joe Angevine was also injured during a week that his club struggled to a 2-5 start.

The Brooklyn Kings managed to escape the rash of shortstop injures as their 23 year old rookie Billy Bryant made his big league debut and survived the week with a .231 batting average. However, the Kings will be without their young pitching prodigy Leo Hayden for a couple of weeks as the 1946 Kellogg Award winner was hurt in an opening day loss to the Chicago Cougars.

The news was not all bad in the Big Apple as Gothams catcher Pete Casstevens had a great start to his season but it was nothing compared to what Tim Hopkins did for the Chicago Chiefs. The first baseman, acquired from the Kings last summer, put on a power display by socking 4 homeruns in the first 6 games of the season. Here are the top performers this week:

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Inauspicious. If there is a fancy word to describe the Gothams opening week, that's it. Losing your first 4 games, three of them of the extra innings variety, does not give immediate thoughts to positive results. The pitching, in a word, was dreadful. One of the few bright spots ended in concern as young shortstop Tom Jeffries continued his spring success by hitting .304 and fielding his position flawlessly before injuring his shoulder in a collision at 2nd on a takeout slide by the Dynamos Jimmy Mayse. Fortunately for Jeffries it is his non-throwing shoulder and he may be back by the end of May. A tough break for a youngster looking to take his place in the majors.

And there some positives. Pete Casstevens got off to a rare hot start at the plate, hitting .458 with a couple of homers, earning himself FA Player of the Week. Sal Pestilli his a grand slam, and Red Johnson seems in mid season form. Still if the pitching continues in this way, even the powerful Gothams bats won't be enough.

When asked of Mayse's slide was dirty, Manager Jameson replied, "It looked to be within the rules. It's tough out there around second. Some of the boys think it may have crossed the line. I don't know. I'm sure they noted Mayse's number."

A rough spring had many questioning whether Chick Donnelly was no longer capable of starting in the Boston Minutemen outfield but the 35-year-old 5-time all-star showed he has a little something left, rebounding from a rough showing in the Citrus tune-up league with 11 hits in the first 6 games of the season and a .423 batting average.
Congratulations to former Marine Roger Cleaves as the 23-year old catcher had a strong debut week with the Philadelphia Keystones. The half brother of Rufus Barrell as well as George and Jack Cleaves, hit his first big league homer yesterday in Pittsburgh to cap a week that saw him hit .300 (6-for-20) as the Keystones starting catcher. By the way, behind the plate at Fitzpatrick Park when Roger took Paul Richardson deep was none other than George Cleaves. George also homered in the same game.
John Brinker of the New York Mirror points out that both of Joe Barrell's baseball-playing sons got to play with one of their uncles - Deuce had Tom as a team mate and now Roger has Bobby as a team mate.
Percy Pringle Sr. of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle with thoughts on the Kings start. "Kings go to Chicago to open the season and get blown out of town in a 3 game sweep, losing SP Leo Hayden for 2+ weeks in the process. Then come home and sweep the Stars in a 3 game set. On Sunday welcome the Cougs in and Buddy Long picks up the victory. 4-0 at home, 0-3 on the road for a 4-3 week against the predicted top 2 clubs in the CA."
Pringle also notes that just one week in and Chiefs 1B Tiny Hopkins is 10% of the way to 40 home runs. The former King sure likes the Chiefs home field and the Fed pitching. Hopkins has 19 homers in 52 career games with the Chiefs. That is a pace that would give him 56 homers over a full season. The 29 year old never hit more than 20 in a season with Brooklyn.
Percy Sutherland of the Chicago Herald-Examiner: "If the first 6 games demonstrated anything, it reinforced the point that the Chiefs will only rise as high as the offense will lift them. In the first week, Tim Hopkins was the offense. He will need some help."
Brett Bing reports from Toronto that the Wolves are satisfied with their opening 3-3 start. Joe Hancock is hoping for a bounce back in his second start after getting shelled in his first. Allowing 31 runs in the first 6 games is not what was expected, neither was scoring 32. Toronto cannot continue surrendering over 5 runs per game. Three outfield assists is nice to see although the double-play combination of Frady and Artuso seems to be a work-in-progress. To soon to tell but expect tighter defensive play, pitching during the second week of the season.
Philadelphia Inquisitor beat writer Joey Mahoney talks about the new faces on the Keystones. "For the three Keystones rookies who made their FABL debuts this week, Roger Cleaves had the best week of the trio (.300/.300/.450, 6-for-20, HR, 2 RBI). Nate Power had a tough first week with the big club, going 2-for-15, but walking five times against a single strikeout. Joe Quade lasted eight innings in a complete game loss, but his pitching line was rough (8 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 4 K) in a 6-1 defeat against the defending Fed champion Eagles."

WERTH WINS SECOND STRAIGHT BARRETTE AWARD

For the second year in a row Miami State center Long Werth has been named the top player in collegiate basketball. Werth, who led Miami State to a berth in the National semi-finals this season, joins George Winter (1924, 1925) of St Patrick's and Leon Reed (1935,1938) as the only players to be named the collegiate basketball MVP twice. Werth was also named a first team All-American for the second straight season. He is expected to be a high draft pick should he decide to play pro basketball next season.

CONLEY SAYS SAWYER TO FIGHT IN AUGUST

There had been some speculation that world heavyweight champion Hector Sawyer was considering retirement after his latest successful title defense -a 12th round TKO of Mark Fountain in January to run his record to 55-3-1. That will not be the case, at least not yet, according to Sawyer's long-time manager Chester Conley.

Conley has confirmed the 32-year-old champ has plenty of fight left in him and plans to make two more title defenses before the year is over including an August 2 date at Cougars Park in Chicago. His opponent will be Pat Harber, a hard-punch Irishman with a 31-7-1 career record. Harber, who like Sawyer is 32, has never fought in North America before but has been quite busy in Europe since the end of the war, fighting 6 times and winning all 6 with only one needing to go the distance.

BISHOP BACK ON TRACK

Ben 'Baby Face' Bishop, once a serious contender for the welterweight title, aided his cause with a unanimous decision win at the Syracuse Arena Saturday night over John Gregory. The victory improves the 29-year-old Georgia born fighters record to 25-4-1 and may one day help him secure a title shot, something that seemed destined to be heading Bishop's way until he lost to current world champion Harold Stephens a year and a half go. That outcome sent Stephens on his title path while Baby Face would slide further down the charts with a subsequent loss to Carl Taylor. With loss Gregory, the California war hero who did not return to the ring until last May due to injuries suffered while serving in the Pacific in April, 1945, has dropped two of his last three outings and falls to 16-3-1.

One other fight of note last week saw veteran middleweight Brooks O'Connor (23-4-2) knockout Greg Roy in the 10th round of their bout in Philadelphia.

UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS

April 21- Atlantic City, NJ: rising welterweight Mac Erickson (12-0) vs Floyd Davis (6-6)
April 26- Bigsby Garden: Rising heavyweight Tommy Cline (10-0) vs veteran contender Pete Sanderson (32-7-2)
April 28 - London, Eng: Former world middleweight champ Jorge Cuellar (42-2-2) first fight in nearly 7 years against British middleweight Glen Root (13-16).
April 29- Bigsby Garden: a month and a half after losing to Frank Melanson in the middleweight title fight, Nick Harris (19-3-1) returns to the ring in New York to face Steve Adams (5-6-1)
April 29 - Paris France: Edouard Desmarais (36-1) vs Jean Raymond (11-8-1)
May 16- Philadelphia: welterweight contender Rudy Perry (23-3-1) vs Keith Bowman (7-6-1)
May 23 - Portland, Or: welterweight contender Mark Westlake (20-3-1) vs Stuart White (26-9-2)
May 23 - San Fransciso: welterweight contender Ira Mitchell (16-1) vs George Gibbs (16-3)
May 24- Jacksonville, FL: heavyweight contender Mark Fountain (21-3-1) vs Sylvester Vaughn (20-6-2)
Aug 2 - Cougars Park, Chicago: Hector Sawyer (55-3-1) defends his world heavyweight title against Irish Pat Harber (31-7-1)

NAHC TEAM RECAPS: BOSTON BEES

We begin our weekly recap of the season for each of the 7 NAHC clubs with the Boston Bees.

It would be hard to ask for a season to go better than the 1946-47 campaign went for the Boston Bees. The defending Challenge Cup champions got off to a strong start, winning six straight in November after dropping the season opener to Montreal. The continued along at a decent pace until a 3-3 tie with Chicago on January 28 started a 12-game unbeaten streak that propelled Boston to another level - one in which the Bees managed to pull ahead of a pesky Chicago Packers club to take control of first place.

MONTHLY RECORD
NOV: 6-2-0 12 points
DEC: 5-4-3 13 points
JAN: 6-3-1 13 points
FEB: 7-0-3 17 points
MAR: 4-3-1 9 points
OVERAL 28-12-8 64 points
3 ahead of second place Chicago

The showing marked the 5th time in the past 7 years the Bees finished with the best regular seaon record in the NAHC but their 64 points was the lowest total of any first place finisher over that stretch.

Bees captain Wilbur Chandler finished second to long-time linemate Tommy Hart in team scoring but Chandler, healthy after missing much of last year with an injury, was named as one of three finalists along with Tommy Burns of Chicago and Toronto's Bobbie Sauer for the McDaniels Trophy, presented to the league's Most Valuable Player. Chandler already owns a pair of them, having won in 1942-43 and 1944-45. The third member of the big Boston line -Waldemar Rupp- finished third in the team scoring parade.

PLAYOFFS

The first place Bees drew the New York Shamrocks in the opening round of the playoffs. The Shamrocks return to post-season play after a 4-year absence to face a battle-tessted Bees club that had won 4 Challenge Cups in the previous six years.

Boston made a statement with a 6-1 pasting of the Shamrocks in the series opener behind a 4-goal, 1 assist effort from Wilbur Chandler and a 32 save performance by Bees netminder Pierre Melancon. The New Yorkers would put up a fight in game two, taking the Bees to overtime before Joe Morey's second goal of the game secured a 5-4 Bees victory. Two nights later the sweep of the best-of-five series would be complete as Melancon stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 2-0 Boston win.

Next up for the Bees was a meeting with the high scoring Chicago Packers, who had disposed of Detroit in 4 games. Like the Bees trio of Chandler, Hart and Rupp the Packers had a dominant first line as well. The problem for Chicago was that top line was beat up as Wes Burns was playing but with a broken jaw while right winger Marty Mahoney was hurt in the Detroit series and would miss the finals. That left just Tommy Burns, Wes's younger brother and the league's top scorer, at full effectiveness.

The series opened in Boston with the Packers in the finals for the first time since 1931. The clubs split a pair of low scoring games to start the season with the Bees taking the opener 2-1 behind a pair of goals from Chandler while Norm Hanson's 20 save shutout evened the series with a 2-0 Chicago victory in game two. The third game was the only blowout of the series as Joe Morey socred 3 times while Tommy Hart had a 5-point night as Boston thumped the Packers 10-2 at Chicago's Lakeside Arena. The Packers rebounded once more, but needed a second overtime period before Moose Vezina beat Melancon with the game winning goal in a 5-4 Packers win.

Tied 2-2 the series returned to Denny Arena for the fifth game and Boston once more received a strong showing from Morey, as the 30 year old scored two more goals in a 4-1 Boston win that saw the Bees outshoot Chicago 42-19. The Packers would put up a fight in game six, not wanting to see Boston parade around the Lakeside Arena with the Cup, but the Bees were just too much for the Packers. Despite Chicago taking a quick 2-0 lead just over 3 minutes into the game, the Bees would win 4-3 behind a pair of Benton Walston goals and claim their second straight Cup. It was also the 7th Cup win in franchise history for the Bees, more than any other team.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 4/20/1947

An estimated 650 are dead and well over 3,000 injured after a chain of explosions virtually razed the Texas City, Tx., situated 10 miles across the bay from Galveston.
The Senate Labor Committee approved provisions of a general labor bill authorizing the issue of court injunctions to block "national paralysis" strikes.
"News censorship is essential in Russia." That is what former Minnesota Governor and apsirant for the Republican Presidential nomination next year Harold E. Stassen says he was told by Soviet Prime Minister Stalin in a recent meeting between the two.
The State Department announced that Russia, after six requests, has agreed to begin negotiations towards settlement of its $11 billion lend-lease account with the United States.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the administration's $400 million Greek-Turkey aid package.
Milton Reynolds, a Chicago manufacturer attempting a record-breaking round-the-world left Alaska and is speeding towards Edmonton averaging a speed of 308 miles an hour for his journey of well over 15,000 miles.

06-06-2023, 11:53 AM	#716
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	April 21, 1947 APRIL 21, 1947 PIONEERS OFF TO HOT START Win 4 Straight to Open Season Many observers were shocked when esteemed New York Mirror sportswriter John Brinker tabbed the St Louis Pioneers as his pick for the Federal Association pennant winner in 1947. After all, the Pioneers were dead last in the Fed a year ago and have not won a pennant since 1921. It is only one week, but Brinker is looking like he might just have been channeling Nostradamus when filling out his predictions after Pioneers opened the season with 4 straight victories including a 3-game sweep of the might New York Gothams. It is a mere granule of sand in the hourglass that is a long baseball season but St Louis finished the week at 5-2, good enough at the moment to give the Pioneers the best record in baseball. The Gothams, on the other hand, had a rough opening week, dropping their first 4 games before finally winning a pair over Detroit over the weekend. Saturday's victory over the Dynamos came at a cost as the Gothams 23 year old rookie shortstop, who was off to a fine start with 7 hits in his first 23 at bats, was injured in a collision at second base and will be sidelined for a month and a half. It was actually a terrible week for both New York shortstops as the Stars Joe Angevine was also injured during a week that his club struggled to a 2-5 start. The Brooklyn Kings managed to escape the rash of shortstop injures as their 23 year old rookie Billy Bryant made his big league debut and survived the week with a .231 batting average. However, the Kings will be without their young pitching prodigy Leo Hayden for a couple of weeks as the 1946 Kellogg Award winner was hurt in an opening day loss to the Chicago Cougars. The news was not all bad in the Big Apple as Gothams catcher Pete Casstevens had a great start to his season but it was nothing compared to what Tim Hopkins did for the Chicago Chiefs. The first baseman, acquired from the Kings last summer, put on a power display by socking 4 homeruns in the first 6 games of the season. Here are the top performers this week: THE WEEK THAT WAS Inauspicious. If there is a fancy word to describe the Gothams opening week, that's it. Losing your first 4 games, three of them of the extra innings variety, does not give immediate thoughts to positive results. The pitching, in a word, was dreadful. One of the few bright spots ended in concern as young shortstop Tom Jeffries continued his spring success by hitting .304 and fielding his position flawlessly before injuring his shoulder in a collision at 2nd on a takeout slide by the Dynamos Jimmy Mayse. Fortunately for Jeffries it is his non-throwing shoulder and he may be back by the end of May. A tough break for a youngster looking to take his place in the majors. And there some positives. Pete Casstevens got off to a rare hot start at the plate, hitting .458 with a couple of homers, earning himself FA Player of the Week. Sal Pestilli his a grand slam, and Red Johnson seems in mid season form. Still if the pitching continues in this way, even the powerful Gothams bats won't be enough. When asked of Mayse's slide was dirty, Manager Jameson replied, "It looked to be within the rules. It's tough out there around second. Some of the boys think it may have crossed the line. I don't know. I'm sure they noted Mayse's number." A rough spring had many questioning whether Chick Donnelly was no longer capable of starting in the Boston Minutemen outfield but the 35-year-old 5-time all-star showed he has a little something left, rebounding from a rough showing in the Citrus tune-up league with 11 hits in the first 6 games of the season and a .423 batting average. Congratulations to former Marine Roger Cleaves as the 23-year old catcher had a strong debut week with the Philadelphia Keystones. The half brother of Rufus Barrell as well as George and Jack Cleaves, hit his first big league homer yesterday in Pittsburgh to cap a week that saw him hit .300 (6-for-20) as the Keystones starting catcher. By the way, behind the plate at Fitzpatrick Park when Roger took Paul Richardson deep was none other than George Cleaves. George also homered in the same game. John Brinker of the New York Mirror points out that both of Joe Barrell's baseball-playing sons got to play with one of their uncles - Deuce had Tom as a team mate and now Roger has Bobby as a team mate. Percy Pringle Sr. of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle with thoughts on the Kings start. "Kings go to Chicago to open the season and get blown out of town in a 3 game sweep, losing SP Leo Hayden for 2+ weeks in the process. Then come home and sweep the Stars in a 3 game set. On Sunday welcome the Cougs in and Buddy Long picks up the victory. 4-0 at home, 0-3 on the road for a 4-3 week against the predicted top 2 clubs in the CA." Pringle also notes that just one week in and Chiefs 1B Tiny Hopkins is 10% of the way to 40 home runs. The former King sure likes the Chiefs home field and the Fed pitching. Hopkins has 19 homers in 52 career games with the Chiefs. That is a pace that would give him 56 homers over a full season. The 29 year old never hit more than 20 in a season with Brooklyn. Percy Sutherland of the Chicago Herald-Examiner: "If the first 6 games demonstrated anything, it reinforced the point that the Chiefs will only rise as high as the offense will lift them. In the first week, Tim Hopkins was the offense. He will need some help." Brett Bing reports from Toronto that the Wolves are satisfied with their opening 3-3 start. Joe Hancock is hoping for a bounce back in his second start after getting shelled in his first. Allowing 31 runs in the first 6 games is not what was expected, neither was scoring 32. Toronto cannot continue surrendering over 5 runs per game. Three outfield assists is nice to see although the double-play combination of Frady and Artuso seems to be a work-in-progress. To soon to tell but expect tighter defensive play, pitching during the second week of the season. Philadelphia Inquisitor beat writer Joey Mahoney talks about the new faces on the Keystones. "For the three Keystones rookies who made their FABL debuts this week, Roger Cleaves had the best week of the trio (.300/.300/.450, 6-for-20, HR, 2 RBI). Nate Power had a tough first week with the big club, going 2-for-15, but walking five times against a single strikeout. Joe Quade lasted eight innings in a complete game loss, but his pitching line was rough (8 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 4 K) in a 6-1 defeat against the defending Fed champion Eagles." WERTH WINS SECOND STRAIGHT BARRETTE AWARD For the second year in a row Miami State center Long Werth has been named the top player in collegiate basketball. Werth, who led Miami State to a berth in the National semi-finals this season, joins George Winter (1924, 1925) of St Patrick's and Leon Reed (1935,1938) as the only players to be named the collegiate basketball MVP twice. Werth was also named a first team All-American for the second straight season. He is expected to be a high draft pick should he decide to play pro basketball next season. CONLEY SAYS SAWYER TO FIGHT IN AUGUST There had been some speculation that world heavyweight champion Hector Sawyer was considering retirement after his latest successful title defense -a 12th round TKO of Mark Fountain in January to run his record to 55-3-1. That will not be the case, at least not yet, according to Sawyer's long-time manager Chester Conley. Conley has confirmed the 32-year-old champ has plenty of fight left in him and plans to make two more title defenses before the year is over including an August 2 date at Cougars Park in Chicago. His opponent will be Pat Harber, a hard-punch Irishman with a 31-7-1 career record. Harber, who like Sawyer is 32, has never fought in North America before but has been quite busy in Europe since the end of the war, fighting 6 times and winning all 6 with only one needing to go the distance. BISHOP BACK ON TRACK Ben 'Baby Face' Bishop, once a serious contender for the welterweight title, aided his cause with a unanimous decision win at the Syracuse Arena Saturday night over John Gregory. The victory improves the 29-year-old Georgia born fighters record to 25-4-1 and may one day help him secure a title shot, something that seemed destined to be heading Bishop's way until he lost to current world champion Harold Stephens a year and a half go. That outcome sent Stephens on his title path while Baby Face would slide further down the charts with a subsequent loss to Carl Taylor. With loss Gregory, the California war hero who did not return to the ring until last May due to injuries suffered while serving in the Pacific in April, 1945, has dropped two of his last three outings and falls to 16-3-1. One other fight of note last week saw veteran middleweight Brooks O'Connor (23-4-2) knockout Greg Roy in the 10th round of their bout in Philadelphia. UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS April 21- Atlantic City, NJ: rising welterweight Mac Erickson (12-0) vs Floyd Davis (6-6) April 26- Bigsby Garden: Rising heavyweight Tommy Cline (10-0) vs veteran contender Pete Sanderson (32-7-2) April 28 - London, Eng: Former world middleweight champ Jorge Cuellar (42-2-2) first fight in nearly 7 years against British middleweight Glen Root (13-16). April 29- Bigsby Garden: a month and a half after losing to Frank Melanson in the middleweight title fight, Nick Harris (19-3-1) returns to the ring in New York to face Steve Adams (5-6-1) April 29 - Paris France: Edouard Desmarais (36-1) vs Jean Raymond (11-8-1) May 16- Philadelphia: welterweight contender Rudy Perry (23-3-1) vs Keith Bowman (7-6-1) May 23 - Portland, Or: welterweight contender Mark Westlake (20-3-1) vs Stuart White (26-9-2) May 23 - San Fransciso: welterweight contender Ira Mitchell (16-1) vs George Gibbs (16-3) May 24- Jacksonville, FL: heavyweight contender Mark Fountain (21-3-1) vs Sylvester Vaughn (20-6-2) Aug 2 - Cougars Park, Chicago: Hector Sawyer (55-3-1) defends his world heavyweight title against Irish Pat Harber (31-7-1) NAHC TEAM RECAPS: BOSTON BEES We begin our weekly recap of the season for each of the 7 NAHC clubs with the Boston Bees. It would be hard to ask for a season to go better than the 1946-47 campaign went for the Boston Bees. The defending Challenge Cup champions got off to a strong start, winning six straight in November after dropping the season opener to Montreal. The continued along at a decent pace until a 3-3 tie with Chicago on January 28 started a 12-game unbeaten streak that propelled Boston to another level - one in which the Bees managed to pull ahead of a pesky Chicago Packers club to take control of first place. MONTHLY RECORD NOV: 6-2-0 12 points DEC: 5-4-3 13 points JAN: 6-3-1 13 points FEB: 7-0-3 17 points MAR: 4-3-1 9 points OVERAL 28-12-8 64 points 3 ahead of second place Chicago The showing marked the 5th time in the past 7 years the Bees finished with the best regular seaon record in the NAHC but their 64 points was the lowest total of any first place finisher over that stretch. Bees captain Wilbur Chandler finished second to long-time linemate Tommy Hart in team scoring but Chandler, healthy after missing much of last year with an injury, was named as one of three finalists along with Tommy Burns of Chicago and Toronto's Bobbie Sauer for the McDaniels Trophy, presented to the league's Most Valuable Player. Chandler already owns a pair of them, having won in 1942-43 and 1944-45. The third member of the big Boston line -Waldemar Rupp- finished third in the team scoring parade. PLAYOFFS The first place Bees drew the New York Shamrocks in the opening round of the playoffs. The Shamrocks return to post-season play after a 4-year absence to face a battle-tessted Bees club that had won 4 Challenge Cups in the previous six years. Boston made a statement with a 6-1 pasting of the Shamrocks in the series opener behind a 4-goal, 1 assist effort from Wilbur Chandler and a 32 save performance by Bees netminder Pierre Melancon. The New Yorkers would put up a fight in game two, taking the Bees to overtime before Joe Morey's second goal of the game secured a 5-4 Bees victory. Two nights later the sweep of the best-of-five series would be complete as Melancon stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 2-0 Boston win. Next up for the Bees was a meeting with the high scoring Chicago Packers, who had disposed of Detroit in 4 games. Like the Bees trio of Chandler, Hart and Rupp the Packers had a dominant first line as well. The problem for Chicago was that top line was beat up as Wes Burns was playing but with a broken jaw while right winger Marty Mahoney was hurt in the Detroit series and would miss the finals. That left just Tommy Burns, Wes's younger brother and the league's top scorer, at full effectiveness. The series opened in Boston with the Packers in the finals for the first time since 1931. The clubs split a pair of low scoring games to start the season with the Bees taking the opener 2-1 behind a pair of goals from Chandler while Norm Hanson's 20 save shutout evened the series with a 2-0 Chicago victory in game two. The third game was the only blowout of the series as Joe Morey socred 3 times while Tommy Hart had a 5-point night as Boston thumped the Packers 10-2 at Chicago's Lakeside Arena. The Packers rebounded once more, but needed a second overtime period before Moose Vezina beat Melancon with the game winning goal in a 5-4 Packers win. Tied 2-2 the series returned to Denny Arena for the fifth game and Boston once more received a strong showing from Morey, as the 30 year old scored two more goals in a 4-1 Boston win that saw the Bees outshoot Chicago 42-19. The Packers would put up a fight in game six, not wanting to see Boston parade around the Lakeside Arena with the Cup, but the Bees were just too much for the Packers. Despite Chicago taking a quick 2-0 lead just over 3 minutes into the game, the Bees would win 4-3 behind a pair of Benton Walston goals and claim their second straight Cup. It was also the 7th Cup win in franchise history for the Bees, more than any other team. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 4/20/1947 An estimated 650 are dead and well over 3,000 injured after a chain of explosions virtually razed the Texas City, Tx., situated 10 miles across the bay from Galveston. The Senate Labor Committee approved provisions of a general labor bill authorizing the issue of court injunctions to block "national paralysis" strikes. "News censorship is essential in Russia." That is what former Minnesota Governor and apsirant for the Republican Presidential nomination next year Harold E. Stassen says he was told by Soviet Prime Minister Stalin in a recent meeting between the two. The State Department announced that Russia, after six requests, has agreed to begin negotiations towards settlement of its $11 billion lend-lease account with the United States. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the administration's $400 million Greek-Turkey aid package. Milton Reynolds, a Chicago manufacturer attempting a record-breaking round-the-world left Alaska and is speeding towards Edmonton averaging a speed of 308 miles an hour for his journey of well over 15,000 miles. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports