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

Tiger Fan · 06-09-2023, 12:27 PM

MAY 12, 1947

A MONTH OF SURPRISES IN FABL

As big league baseball celebrates the end of its fourth week of the season there are plenty of unexpected happenings going on. New York Daily Mirror writer John Brinker sums things up very nicely in stating "this has been a strange season so far."

The Pioneers and Cannons outperforming expectations, the Cougars & Gothams underperforming their expectations, and a lot of balls landing in the seats. Or at least it seems that way. Bobby Barrell has 12 HR and both Tim Hopkins and Mack Sutton have 10. Even Pinky Pierce has 9 and he's not really a household name, even if he did hit 22 HRs in 1942. On the pitching side Lefty Allen looks like he's turned back the clock to 1940, Danny Hern looks like an Allen candidate while Pete Papenfus is somehow 2-4 with a 4.84 ERA, Ed Bowman has been up & down and Hal Hackney was 0-1 with a 5.90 ERA in his first four starts before putting together a pair of decent outings.

The question is 'will it last?' Are the Pioneers for real and do the aging Cannons still have enough pep in their step to remain in the race for the duration? Surely the Chicago Cougars will not have another disastrous season, when the best collection of individual talent in the Continental Association disappoints once again? Same for the Gothams in the Fed. They are 0-10 on the road. That has to change, doesn't it? New York is just 9-9 at Gothams Stadium, a shockingly bad 1-5 already in extra innings and 4-8 in one run games. Yes the pitching is not doing them many favours, but the Gothams offense is just too good, too deep. It has to get going right? Rosie Brewer is not going to hit under .200 for long and the struggles of Sal Pestilli and Walt Messer have to end soon. If not, how long will it be until major fireworks are emitted from the Gothams front office and the trigger is pulled on some big deals?

TOP FABL PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK

Who would have thought that veteran SP Johnny Slaney would not only win the CA pitcher of the month award in April but would start the season 5-1 with a 2.81 ERA?

Or that Leo Hayden, last years rookie of the year would be searching for his first win of the season on May 12th? Granted he’s only had 2 starts thanks to a nagging injury and is ready to return for 2 games this week.
Or that SS Billy Bryant who hits 8th in the Kings order would be 2nd on the team with 17 RBI’s? Bryant is hitting 286 with 13 RBI’s with runners in scoring position.

Finally the King’s starting outfield of LF Juan Polmales, CF John Moss and RF Ralph Johnson would all have OBP’s of over 400 with 11 home runs, 43 RBI’s and 58 runs scored. To start the year they might be the best starting OF in the FABL.

The Kings are 15-15 in 4th place in the CA 4 1/2 games out of first (alo 4 out of last). Considering the last 2 seasons of 93 and 91 losses, management likes what they have seen so far. If you would have said SP Leo Hayden would be 0-1 with a 10+ ERA so far and out 3 weeks, there’s no way the club should be where it is at.

But with OF Ralph Johnson hoping to bring the Kings their 2nd straight rookie of the year award and the rise of CF John Moss as a legitimate everyday starting CF, the Kings are doing well. The question is can they keep it up? Getting a healthy Hayden certainly helps but can DP Johnny Slaney continue to pitch as well as he has? If Slaney can be a quality #3 behind Hayden and Buddy Long, then maybe, just maybe the Kings can stick around the fringes of the upper division. The key will be the pitching staff and the youngsters continuing to play well.
*** What To Do With Rutherford? ***

The Kings management is trying to figure out a way to get outfielder Joe Rutherford some playing time. Starting next week Rutherford will get 3-4 starts a week in the OF and trying out 1B. Brooklyn GM Martin feels that Rutherford needs some playing time instead of sitting on the bench to continue to develop. There was talk of sending him down to AAA but the club wants to try this and it will keep everyone hopefully fresh.

One solution to the problem later this summer is to trade OF Juan Polmales. The hope was that Polmales would be a mid to back end rotation piece but that hasn’t panned out. He’s hitting and playing well in the OF and leading off, so he could have some value later in the summer to a contending team.

TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN

After stretching their winning streak to 6 Wolves drop 5 of last 6 to finish the two week road trip at 7-7. Not bad, but fans are thinking of what could have been with a few good breaks in the 5 losses. Time to make hay at home with a 19 game homestand to end May.

Two older players are leading the club offensively. Fred McCormick at 37 is slashing .338/.427/.562 5 HR 15 RBI, Wood, 32, has a line of .302/.343/.448 3 HR 20 RBI. Pitching and defense, the two things stressed in spring training, seem to be hold the Wolves down in the standings. The combination of 68 Ks (FABL low) with 91 BB is a major area of concern for manager Bob Call. The bullpen is again a study in futility walking twice as many, 30, as sat down on strikes, 15. Lou Jayson has been removed from his high leverage role after posting a 6.39 ERA for the first month of the season. Although not terrible defensively, 22 errors are far too many in 26 games.

The slumping Gothams went 1-7 last week and are now the owners of the worst record in baseball. One of the few bright spots for the Gothams was Harry Carter had two solid starts on the mound in his return from the injured list. He absorbed the loss in each of them but allowed just 4 earned runs in 15 innings, losing 3-2 to Philadelphia and 2-1 in Chicago.
The Stars are doing quite fine with an 18-12 record thanks in no small part to Mack Sutton. The veteran third baseman had 4 homers last week to give him a CA leading 10 on the year. Sutton also tops FABL with 33 rbi's while batting .328 on the year.
The visiting Cougars were subjected to a very un-Papenfus like start in New York as the reigning Allen Winner allowed 10 runs on 6 hits (3 homers!!) and 8 walks while striking out one, which rose his ERA from 3.15 to 4.84. Papenfus had a single digit game score (5) for just the second time in his career. The first was a game score of 1 on May 14, 1939 -his second season- when he allowed 9 earned runs in 3 innings in a loss to Montreal. That was the only single digit game-score he ever had before last week. Next lowest was a 12 against Boston in the 10-9 loss in Game 6 of the 1941 WCS.
Archie Irwin of the Chicago Daily News notes teammates have taken to calling Cougars outfielder Leo Mitchell "Mitch the Metronome." He is steady and reliable and just keeps ticking along.
Irwin also notes that the Cougars usually hit plenty of homers, but currently have just one more homer (13) then Bobby Barrell (12). Barrell has the same amount of homers as the Minutemen, and more then the Wolves (11), Foresters (10), Sailors (9), and first place Pioneers (9)
The Detroit Dynamos are 14-10 and second in the Fed despite the fact they have scored the fewest runs in the circuit. However, pitching in Detroit has been solid as the Dynamos have surrendered the least amout of runs and are the beneficiaries of some luck -or a surprisingly solid bullpen- with a 3-0 extra inning record and a 6-3 mark in one run games.
The Chiefs just completed a 4-game sweep of the Gothams. The old man's bat was looking a little slow this season, but Bob Martin perked up for Chicago and won a Player of the Week award last week. And Artie D'Alexandro is looking like a pretty good pickup for Chicago Feds.
It had been a slow start to the season for the defending Federal Association champs but the Washington Eagles seem to be back on track, winning 7 of their last 8 to push their record to .500 at 13-13.
It was a tough week for second basemen. The Keystones Billy Woytek to miss 6 weeks while Cleveland loses Jim Adams Jr for the rest of the season after fracturing his knee cap moving furniture. Being a Forester I am sure it was moving something to the basement since that is where he and his teammates spend all their time.

DUKES MAKE IT OFFICIAL. JACK BARRELL IS NEW COACH

Jack Barrell is officially back with the Toronto Dukes. The long-awaited news and worst kept secret in the NAHC was finally confirmed when the Dukes formally introduced the 49-year-old as their head coach, replacing Norb Hickey after the latter guided the Dukes to their lowest point total since 1925026 and first losing season in 15 years.

Barrell is stranger to Toronto or the NAHC. The hockey star of the famous sporting family from Georgia, Jack grew up with his grandmother in Montreal and quickly took to the sport of hockey. He debuted with the Dukes in 1917-18 and would spend 8 years with the Toronto club before moving on to Chicago, Quebec and the New York Eagles before finishing his career as a player-coach in Toronto.

New York sportswriter John Brinker tells the story of Barrell's often tumultous relationships this way. " Jack Barrell was brought "home" by David Welcombe when the Toronto-based distiller bought the Dukes from Bert Thomas in 1930. He installed him as a coach, told him he could play too if he wished (Jack, with knees beat up by having played both QB in the AFA and winger in the NAHC, mostly declined to play only suiting up when necessary due to injury). Welcombe hired another former player named Charles Tattler as the club's GM in 1931. Tattler & Jack didn't get along all that well, but Tattler made some good moves and this, coupled with Jack's coaching, led to back-to-back Cup wins in 1934 & 35.

But the friction with Tattler, who wanted to get behind the bench himself was getting to Jack. When his good friend John Connally Jr. purchased the Detroit club (then called the Olympians) and offered Jack a job as GM and coach, Jack couldn't pass it up. He had a good relationship with Welcombe, but told the owner that he couldn't co-exist with Tattler any longer and they parted on decent terms.

Barrell's time in Detroit went pretty well by most standards, though Junior Connally began channeling his father - a man who was largely despised by the owners and executives of the NAHC - and interfering in Jack's duties as General Manager, while blaming any shortcomings by the renamed Motors on Jack's coaching skills. This ultimately led to his firing as detailed in the Barrell Brothers story. After stops in Tacoma and Cleveland, Jack is going back to where it really started: Toronto.

After leaving Detroit, Barrell was signed by the Tacoma Lions of the Great Western Hockey League and immediately led the club to a league championship. Among his players on the Lions club a year ago was a young center by the name of Quinton Pollack who had scored an impressive 49 points the season before Jack arrived. Under Barrell's guidance, Pollack exploded for a league-leading 71 points last season and was signed by the NAHC's Brooklyn Eagles. Now 24 years old and coming off a rookie NAHC season that saw him tie for the league lead with 30 goals, Pollack credits the year with Barrell as instrumental in his development as a player. Barrell had the Lions on a record-setting pace this past season with 33 wins and 4 ties in their first 40 games before he left in late February when the Dukes asked him to finish out the year in Cleveland before returning to the big club. The Lions club Barrell left behind once again won the GWHL title.

Barrell lifted the Challenge Cup just once as a player -with the Dukes in 1920-21- but he has won it three more times as a coach. Twice in Toronto and most recently in 1939 when he guided the Detroit Motors to their only Challenge Cup title in club history. Dukes fans are hoping for a quick turnaround under Barrell next season.

NAHC TEAM RECAPS: DETROIT MOTORS

22-16-20, 54 pts: 3rd place - Lost in Semi-Finals to Chicago

The Motors certainly had high hopes for a long run as a cup contender after winning the title in 1939 and reaching the finals two of the next three years. Unfortunately, they have not been to the finals since and suffered the heartache of missing the playoffs by a single point in back-to-back seasons heading into the start of the 46-47 campaign.

Second year coach Mark Moore preaches defense first and the Motors brass appeased him with the addition of blueliners Bryant Williams and Joe Todd from Toronto last off-season. Those two combined with dependable veteran Shel Herron and a rising young goaltender by the name of Henri Chasse to end the two year post-season drought with a solid third place finish.

There is still much work to be done for Detroit to contend for a title, and their disappointing showing against Chicago in a 3 games to one semi-final loss certainly illustrates the Motors shortcomings. Injuries depleted the blueline in the playoffs but it is clear the club needs more scoring with veteran Garrett Ferrar and second year man Graham Comeau -each with 20 goals- the only Detroit marksmen to score more than 13 goals on the year.

There is hope that last season's first round draft pick Bobo Davis (4-14-18) can develop into the high scoring forward the club desperately needs but Davis looked overwhelmed at times and also had an issue fitting in with the team. The answer might be 22 year old Moe Treadwell, a 1944 first rounder who scored 42 points for Rochester of the HAA this season, or Adam Vanderbilt -the Motors third round selection in '44 who led the HAA in scoring this season with 63 points for Syracuse- but the club will need to convince the pair to report to Detroit when their minor league contracts expire on June 30.

MONTHLY RECORD
NOV: 4-3-2 10 points
DEC: 7-2-2 16 points
JAN: 4-7-1 9 points
FEB: 3-3-3 9 points
MAR: 4-1-2 10 points
OVERAL 22-16-10 54 points

DETROIT MOTORS PLAYOFFS

It had to be disappointing to finally reach the playoffs after two near misses only to see four of Detroit's top six defensemen missing between two and 4 games each in the semi-final loss to Chicago. It is hard to use the injuries as an excuse however, as the Packers will also missing some key players. Detroit's lack of offensive finish was exposed right away as the Packers Norm Hanson shut out the Motors in each of the first two games - both resulting in 3-0 Chicago victories. The Motors do deserve credit for at least winning one game on home ice -a thrilling rally from a 3-0 deficit midway through the third period to eventually get the winner in overtime from Morris Wright to claim a 4-3 victory. The excitement was short-lived as the Packers completed the series victory with a convincing 4-1 win in game four. If there is a positive to take from the series it is the fact that rookie Bobo Davis led the club in playoff scoring, although he did only manage 3 points.

WELTER CHAMP STEPHENS SET TO FIGHT TAYLOR

Harold Stephens will make his first defense of the world welterweight title he won in February when he faces Carl Taylor at Boston's Denny Arena on August 16. The 29-year-old Providence, RI, native scored a unanimous decision over Mark Westlake to claim the title, after Westlake had snatched it from Dennis O'Keefe just 5 months prior. Stephens is 19-3-2 all-time and will face Baltimore battler Carl Taylor (22-3-2) for the first time.

UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS

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 Franscisco: 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)
Jun 4 - Brooklyn, NY: heavyweight Roy Crawford (23-3) vs Nick Brooks (13-4-1)
Jun 15- Atlantic City, NJ: middleweight contender Brooks O'Connor (23-4-2) vs Darwin Thomas (9-1-3)
Jun 28 - Los Angeles: rising welterweight Mac Erickson (13-0) vs Nate MacGilvray (17-7-3)
Jun 29- Brooklyn, NY: rising middleweight Jim Ward (14-1) vs Marvin Harris (20-7-2)
Jun 30 - Baltimore, MD: middleweight contender Todd Gill (21-3-6) vs Owen Sheppard (14-4)
JUL 4 -Fitzpatrick Park, Pittsburgh: Frank Melanson (32-0-2) defends his world middleweight title against John Edmonds (22-2).
Aug 2 - Cougars Park, Chicago: Hector Sawyer (55-3-1) defends his world heavyweight title against Irish Pat Harber (31-7-1)
Aug 16- Denny Arena, Boston: Harold Stephens (19-3-2) defends his world welterweight title against Carl Taylor (22-3-2).

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 5/11/1947

Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper, accused US Secretary of State George Marshall of deliberately distorting the facts in an attempt to blame Russia for the failure of the Moscow Big Four foreign ministers conference.
The State Department reports that Russia is demanding 400 freight carloads of white flour from Romania, where the United States had been sending emergency food shipments to help cope with famine conditions.
The $400 million Greek-Turkish aid bill is expected to go to President Truman for signature early this week, after the House passed Friday evening.
Thousands of British troops are combing the hills of northern Palestine on a manhunt for 250 Jewish and Arab prisoners freed from ancient Acre Prison by the Jewish underground.
President Truman observed his 63rd birthday last week by forecasting the world would get lasting peace.

06-09-2023, 12:27 PM	#719
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,759	May 12, 1947 MAY 12, 1947 A MONTH OF SURPRISES IN FABL As big league baseball celebrates the end of its fourth week of the season there are plenty of unexpected happenings going on. New York Daily Mirror writer John Brinker sums things up very nicely in stating "this has been a strange season so far." The Pioneers and Cannons outperforming expectations, the Cougars & Gothams underperforming their expectations, and a lot of balls landing in the seats. Or at least it seems that way. Bobby Barrell has 12 HR and both Tim Hopkins and Mack Sutton have 10. Even Pinky Pierce has 9 and he's not really a household name, even if he did hit 22 HRs in 1942. On the pitching side Lefty Allen looks like he's turned back the clock to 1940, Danny Hern looks like an Allen candidate while Pete Papenfus is somehow 2-4 with a 4.84 ERA, Ed Bowman has been up & down and Hal Hackney was 0-1 with a 5.90 ERA in his first four starts before putting together a pair of decent outings. The question is 'will it last?' Are the Pioneers for real and do the aging Cannons still have enough pep in their step to remain in the race for the duration? Surely the Chicago Cougars will not have another disastrous season, when the best collection of individual talent in the Continental Association disappoints once again? Same for the Gothams in the Fed. They are 0-10 on the road. That has to change, doesn't it? New York is just 9-9 at Gothams Stadium, a shockingly bad 1-5 already in extra innings and 4-8 in one run games. Yes the pitching is not doing them many favours, but the Gothams offense is just too good, too deep. It has to get going right? Rosie Brewer is not going to hit under .200 for long and the struggles of Sal Pestilli and Walt Messer have to end soon. If not, how long will it be until major fireworks are emitted from the Gothams front office and the trigger is pulled on some big deals? TOP FABL PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK Who would have thought that veteran SP Johnny Slaney would not only win the CA pitcher of the month award in April but would start the season 5-1 with a 2.81 ERA? Or that Leo Hayden, last years rookie of the year would be searching for his first win of the season on May 12th? Granted he’s only had 2 starts thanks to a nagging injury and is ready to return for 2 games this week. Or that SS Billy Bryant who hits 8th in the Kings order would be 2nd on the team with 17 RBI’s? Bryant is hitting 286 with 13 RBI’s with runners in scoring position. Finally the King’s starting outfield of LF Juan Polmales, CF John Moss and RF Ralph Johnson would all have OBP’s of over 400 with 11 home runs, 43 RBI’s and 58 runs scored. To start the year they might be the best starting OF in the FABL. The Kings are 15-15 in 4th place in the CA 4 1/2 games out of first (alo 4 out of last). Considering the last 2 seasons of 93 and 91 losses, management likes what they have seen so far. If you would have said SP Leo Hayden would be 0-1 with a 10+ ERA so far and out 3 weeks, there’s no way the club should be where it is at. But with OF Ralph Johnson hoping to bring the Kings their 2nd straight rookie of the year award and the rise of CF John Moss as a legitimate everyday starting CF, the Kings are doing well. The question is can they keep it up? Getting a healthy Hayden certainly helps but can DP Johnny Slaney continue to pitch as well as he has? If Slaney can be a quality #3 behind Hayden and Buddy Long, then maybe, just maybe the Kings can stick around the fringes of the upper division. The key will be the pitching staff and the youngsters continuing to play well. * What To Do With Rutherford? * The Kings management is trying to figure out a way to get outfielder Joe Rutherford some playing time. Starting next week Rutherford will get 3-4 starts a week in the OF and trying out 1B. Brooklyn GM Martin feels that Rutherford needs some playing time instead of sitting on the bench to continue to develop. There was talk of sending him down to AAA but the club wants to try this and it will keep everyone hopefully fresh. One solution to the problem later this summer is to trade OF Juan Polmales. The hope was that Polmales would be a mid to back end rotation piece but that hasn’t panned out. He’s hitting and playing well in the OF and leading off, so he could have some value later in the summer to a contending team. TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN After stretching their winning streak to 6 Wolves drop 5 of last 6 to finish the two week road trip at 7-7. Not bad, but fans are thinking of what could have been with a few good breaks in the 5 losses. Time to make hay at home with a 19 game homestand to end May. Two older players are leading the club offensively. Fred McCormick at 37 is slashing .338/.427/.562 5 HR 15 RBI, Wood, 32, has a line of .302/.343/.448 3 HR 20 RBI. Pitching and defense, the two things stressed in spring training, seem to be hold the Wolves down in the standings. The combination of 68 Ks (FABL low) with 91 BB is a major area of concern for manager Bob Call. The bullpen is again a study in futility walking twice as many, 30, as sat down on strikes, 15. Lou Jayson has been removed from his high leverage role after posting a 6.39 ERA for the first month of the season. Although not terrible defensively, 22 errors are far too many in 26 games. The slumping Gothams went 1-7 last week and are now the owners of the worst record in baseball. One of the few bright spots for the Gothams was Harry Carter had two solid starts on the mound in his return from the injured list. He absorbed the loss in each of them but allowed just 4 earned runs in 15 innings, losing 3-2 to Philadelphia and 2-1 in Chicago. The Stars are doing quite fine with an 18-12 record thanks in no small part to Mack Sutton. The veteran third baseman had 4 homers last week to give him a CA leading 10 on the year. Sutton also tops FABL with 33 rbi's while batting .328 on the year. The visiting Cougars were subjected to a very un-Papenfus like start in New York as the reigning Allen Winner allowed 10 runs on 6 hits (3 homers!!) and 8 walks while striking out one, which rose his ERA from 3.15 to 4.84. Papenfus had a single digit game score (5) for just the second time in his career. The first was a game score of 1 on May 14, 1939 -his second season- when he allowed 9 earned runs in 3 innings in a loss to Montreal. That was the only single digit game-score he ever had before last week. Next lowest was a 12 against Boston in the 10-9 loss in Game 6 of the 1941 WCS. Archie Irwin of the Chicago Daily News notes teammates have taken to calling Cougars outfielder Leo Mitchell "Mitch the Metronome." He is steady and reliable and just keeps ticking along. Irwin also notes that the Cougars usually hit plenty of homers, but currently have just one more homer (13) then Bobby Barrell (12). Barrell has the same amount of homers as the Minutemen, and more then the Wolves (11), Foresters (10), Sailors (9), and first place Pioneers (9) The Detroit Dynamos are 14-10 and second in the Fed despite the fact they have scored the fewest runs in the circuit. However, pitching in Detroit has been solid as the Dynamos have surrendered the least amout of runs and are the beneficiaries of some luck -or a surprisingly solid bullpen- with a 3-0 extra inning record and a 6-3 mark in one run games. The Chiefs just completed a 4-game sweep of the Gothams. The old man's bat was looking a little slow this season, but Bob Martin perked up for Chicago and won a Player of the Week award last week. And Artie D'Alexandro is looking like a pretty good pickup for Chicago Feds. It had been a slow start to the season for the defending Federal Association champs but the Washington Eagles seem to be back on track, winning 7 of their last 8 to push their record to .500 at 13-13. It was a tough week for second basemen. The Keystones Billy Woytek to miss 6 weeks while Cleveland loses Jim Adams Jr for the rest of the season after fracturing his knee cap moving furniture. Being a Forester I am sure it was moving something to the basement since that is where he and his teammates spend all their time. DUKES MAKE IT OFFICIAL. JACK BARRELL IS NEW COACH Jack Barrell is officially back with the Toronto Dukes. The long-awaited news and worst kept secret in the NAHC was finally confirmed when the Dukes formally introduced the 49-year-old as their head coach, replacing Norb Hickey after the latter guided the Dukes to their lowest point total since 1925026 and first losing season in 15 years. Barrell is stranger to Toronto or the NAHC. The hockey star of the famous sporting family from Georgia, Jack grew up with his grandmother in Montreal and quickly took to the sport of hockey. He debuted with the Dukes in 1917-18 and would spend 8 years with the Toronto club before moving on to Chicago, Quebec and the New York Eagles before finishing his career as a player-coach in Toronto. New York sportswriter John Brinker tells the story of Barrell's often tumultous relationships this way. " Jack Barrell was brought "home" by David Welcombe when the Toronto-based distiller bought the Dukes from Bert Thomas in 1930. He installed him as a coach, told him he could play too if he wished (Jack, with knees beat up by having played both QB in the AFA and winger in the NAHC, mostly declined to play only suiting up when necessary due to injury). Welcombe hired another former player named Charles Tattler as the club's GM in 1931. Tattler & Jack didn't get along all that well, but Tattler made some good moves and this, coupled with Jack's coaching, led to back-to-back Cup wins in 1934 & 35. But the friction with Tattler, who wanted to get behind the bench himself was getting to Jack. When his good friend John Connally Jr. purchased the Detroit club (then called the Olympians) and offered Jack a job as GM and coach, Jack couldn't pass it up. He had a good relationship with Welcombe, but told the owner that he couldn't co-exist with Tattler any longer and they parted on decent terms. Barrell's time in Detroit went pretty well by most standards, though Junior Connally began channeling his father - a man who was largely despised by the owners and executives of the NAHC - and interfering in Jack's duties as General Manager, while blaming any shortcomings by the renamed Motors on Jack's coaching skills. This ultimately led to his firing as detailed in the Barrell Brothers story. After stops in Tacoma and Cleveland, Jack is going back to where it really started: Toronto. After leaving Detroit, Barrell was signed by the Tacoma Lions of the Great Western Hockey League and immediately led the club to a league championship. Among his players on the Lions club a year ago was a young center by the name of Quinton Pollack who had scored an impressive 49 points the season before Jack arrived. Under Barrell's guidance, Pollack exploded for a league-leading 71 points last season and was signed by the NAHC's Brooklyn Eagles. Now 24 years old and coming off a rookie NAHC season that saw him tie for the league lead with 30 goals, Pollack credits the year with Barrell as instrumental in his development as a player. Barrell had the Lions on a record-setting pace this past season with 33 wins and 4 ties in their first 40 games before he left in late February when the Dukes asked him to finish out the year in Cleveland before returning to the big club. The Lions club Barrell left behind once again won the GWHL title. Barrell lifted the Challenge Cup just once as a player -with the Dukes in 1920-21- but he has won it three more times as a coach. Twice in Toronto and most recently in 1939 when he guided the Detroit Motors to their only Challenge Cup title in club history. Dukes fans are hoping for a quick turnaround under Barrell next season. NAHC TEAM RECAPS: DETROIT MOTORS 22-16-20, 54 pts: 3rd place - Lost in Semi-Finals to Chicago The Motors certainly had high hopes for a long run as a cup contender after winning the title in 1939 and reaching the finals two of the next three years. Unfortunately, they have not been to the finals since and suffered the heartache of missing the playoffs by a single point in back-to-back seasons heading into the start of the 46-47 campaign. Second year coach Mark Moore preaches defense first and the Motors brass appeased him with the addition of blueliners Bryant Williams and Joe Todd from Toronto last off-season. Those two combined with dependable veteran Shel Herron and a rising young goaltender by the name of Henri Chasse to end the two year post-season drought with a solid third place finish. There is still much work to be done for Detroit to contend for a title, and their disappointing showing against Chicago in a 3 games to one semi-final loss certainly illustrates the Motors shortcomings. Injuries depleted the blueline in the playoffs but it is clear the club needs more scoring with veteran Garrett Ferrar and second year man Graham Comeau -each with 20 goals- the only Detroit marksmen to score more than 13 goals on the year. There is hope that last season's first round draft pick Bobo Davis (4-14-18) can develop into the high scoring forward the club desperately needs but Davis looked overwhelmed at times and also had an issue fitting in with the team. The answer might be 22 year old Moe Treadwell, a 1944 first rounder who scored 42 points for Rochester of the HAA this season, or Adam Vanderbilt -the Motors third round selection in '44 who led the HAA in scoring this season with 63 points for Syracuse- but the club will need to convince the pair to report to Detroit when their minor league contracts expire on June 30. MONTHLY RECORD NOV: 4-3-2 10 points DEC: 7-2-2 16 points JAN: 4-7-1 9 points FEB: 3-3-3 9 points MAR: 4-1-2 10 points OVERAL 22-16-10 54 points DETROIT MOTORS PLAYOFFS It had to be disappointing to finally reach the playoffs after two near misses only to see four of Detroit's top six defensemen missing between two and 4 games each in the semi-final loss to Chicago. It is hard to use the injuries as an excuse however, as the Packers will also missing some key players. Detroit's lack of offensive finish was exposed right away as the Packers Norm Hanson shut out the Motors in each of the first two games - both resulting in 3-0 Chicago victories. The Motors do deserve credit for at least winning one game on home ice -a thrilling rally from a 3-0 deficit midway through the third period to eventually get the winner in overtime from Morris Wright to claim a 4-3 victory. The excitement was short-lived as the Packers completed the series victory with a convincing 4-1 win in game four. If there is a positive to take from the series it is the fact that rookie Bobo Davis led the club in playoff scoring, although he did only manage 3 points. WELTER CHAMP STEPHENS SET TO FIGHT TAYLOR Harold Stephens will make his first defense of the world welterweight title he won in February when he faces Carl Taylor at Boston's Denny Arena on August 16. The 29-year-old Providence, RI, native scored a unanimous decision over Mark Westlake to claim the title, after Westlake had snatched it from Dennis O'Keefe just 5 months prior. Stephens is 19-3-2 all-time and will face Baltimore battler Carl Taylor (22-3-2) for the first time. UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS 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 Franscisco: 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) Jun 4 - Brooklyn, NY: heavyweight Roy Crawford (23-3) vs Nick Brooks (13-4-1) Jun 15- Atlantic City, NJ: middleweight contender Brooks O'Connor (23-4-2) vs Darwin Thomas (9-1-3) Jun 28 - Los Angeles: rising welterweight Mac Erickson (13-0) vs Nate MacGilvray (17-7-3) Jun 29- Brooklyn, NY: rising middleweight Jim Ward (14-1) vs Marvin Harris (20-7-2) Jun 30 - Baltimore, MD: middleweight contender Todd Gill (21-3-6) vs Owen Sheppard (14-4) JUL 4 -Fitzpatrick Park, Pittsburgh: Frank Melanson (32-0-2) defends his world middleweight title against John Edmonds (22-2). Aug 2 - Cougars Park, Chicago: Hector Sawyer (55-3-1) defends his world heavyweight title against Irish Pat Harber (31-7-1) Aug 16- Denny Arena, Boston: Harold Stephens (19-3-2) defends his world welterweight title against Carl Taylor (22-3-2). The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 5/11/1947 Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper, accused US Secretary of State George Marshall of deliberately distorting the facts in an attempt to blame Russia for the failure of the Moscow Big Four foreign ministers conference. The State Department reports that Russia is demanding 400 freight carloads of white flour from Romania, where the United States had been sending emergency food shipments to help cope with famine conditions. The $400 million Greek-Turkish aid bill is expected to go to President Truman for signature early this week, after the House passed Friday evening. Thousands of British troops are combing the hills of northern Palestine on a manhunt for 250 Jewish and Arab prisoners freed from ancient Acre Prison by the Jewish underground. President Truman observed his 63rd birthday last week by forecasting the world would get lasting peace. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles