MAY 26, 1947
CANNONS PROVING THEY ARE NOT TOO OLD
The knock on the Cincinnati Cannons has always been about their age. Even when the Cannons were winning three straight Continental Association pennants -a streak that came to an end last October- many were calling the club "too old". In April, when many pundits released their predictions for the current campaign, the experts all said basically the same thing in decreeing Cincinnati a middle of the pack ballclub. "The Cannons are old," said Jiggs McGee of TWIFB. "The Cannons are getting long in the tooth," penned the New York Daily Mirror's John Brinker.
But here we are closing in on the end of May and the Cincinnati Cannons are once more where they seem to be most comfortable -sitting atop the Continental Association standings. They are old. That much is true. The Cannons do not have an everyday player under the age of 30 and one of their most effective pitchers this season is 40-year-old Red Hampton and the entire bullpen, aside from the recently promoted Stan Kenny, is also well over the age of 30. Even Cincinnati's youth is not all that young anymore. Bob Arman, their impressive second year pitcher is 26, and the rest of the rotation has a 28 year old in Charlie Griffith and a pair of 29-year-olds in ace Deuce Barrell and Les Bradshaw.
There is always the worry the veterans break down as the season progresses but the Cannons do have some depth, although most of it also old such as 39-year-old Al Wheeler who despite hitting .350 in very limited action this season is reduced to the role of pinch-hitter. The Cannons did what they had to do last week in splitting two game series with each of the two clubs expected to run away with the CA this year and both New York and Chicago are on the docket again over the next week and a half. Cincinnati presently is enjoying a 4-game lead on the second place Stars and the Cannons would like nothing better than to give the new Tice Stadium some October baseball -something that had become commonplace in the old version of the ballpark.
TOP PERFORMERS LAST WEEK
ANOTHER THREE-HOMER GAME FOR BARRELL
For the second time in 8 days Bobby Barrell hit 3 home runs in a game. The first one came against St Louis in an 8-7 win on May 14 and last Thursday Barrell went deep 3 more times in a 9-2 romp for his Philadelphia Keystones over the New York Gothams. Barrell does not set a record for the shortest time period between 3-homer games. That one still belongs to Tom Taylor who hit 3 homers for the Philadelphia Sailors on August 2, 1928 and then did it again 4 days later but Barrell does become the first player in FABL history to have 3 different games in which he hit 3 homeruns.
Barrell is up to 20 homers already this season, only 10 shy of his total for all of last year, and at his current pace he would slug 77 on the season. It is likely he is going to cool off at some point but perhaps there should be talk of Barrell chanllenging Max Morris' single season record of 60 homers set in 1923.
Everyone is hush hush about this, but a source says that upon returning from their road trip, following a 9-2 shellacking by the Keystones, a contingent of players, said to include Red Johnson, Walt Messer, Jim Lonardo and maybe one more player, asked to meet with GM Tom Ward. The general idea, as I understand it, was that the players implored the aggressive GM, not so make any huge moves at this time. Basically they told him that this was on the players, not Manager Bud Jameson. That they could turn this around. I don't have any information on what else was discussed, but my understanding is that they were told, they have time. Let's look at things at the end of June. Team representatives would neither confirm nor deny that such a meeting took place.
As far as I know, this is the first time since I've been covering the Gothams that a group of veterans approached management directly. That the team then swept the weekend series against Chicago puts some credence to the players' plea. June should be an interesting month.
- After Joe Brown and Charlie Kelsey allowed 14 runs against the Stars in front of the Cougar faithful, it looked like another series loss in what could already be a lost season for Chicago. Instead, Duke Bybee and Pete Papenfus buckled down and did something no pitcher has done this season: keep the #1 offense off the board. The Cougar hurlers twirled 3 and 5 hit shutouts respectively to salvage the series and inch the Cougars closer to .500. Its only May, but at 19-20 and 7 games out, the CA preseason favorite have been treading water all season, but the huge home wins could be exactly what the doctor ordered to get the underperforming squad back on track.
- What is happening with SP Wally Doyle (0-6, 7.13) in Montreal. He cannot get a win this season yet and being slammed by hitters very badly.. bench coach and few others recommand to place pitcher Jackie James in rotation and Wally Doyle in the pen... maybe this could be the wakeup call?
- One thing that's been holding the Chiefs Al Miller back from taking the next step as an ace is consistency--or lack thereof. After starting May looking untouchable, he was blown out of two starts last week, giving up 13 ER in 10.1 IP. Miller's season ERA went from 1.83 to 3.25.
- Joe Hancock (4-1, 1.99) has returned to form in Toronto while rookie Jerry York (4-1, 2.60) is living up to his press clippings. However, George Garrison (2-4, 3.93) needs to turn it around to avoid manager Bob Call from going too often to the 'pen which has been officially designated a Disaster Area at Dominion Stadium. All in all it was a pretty good week for the Wolves, going 4-3 against the Stars, Cougars and Sailors. Toronto even had 7 seven doubles in one game, must be a team record.
NAHC TEAM RECAPS: NEW YORK SHAMROCKS
19-23-6 44 pts: 4th place - Lost to Boston in Semi-finals
The New York Shamrocks can take some positives to build on after their performance in the 1946-47 campaign. Starting with the fact that the club ended a 4 year postseason drought by nosing out the Montreal Valiants and Brooklyn Eagles for the fourth and final playoff berth. The Shamrocks also laid the groundwork for some solid offensive depth with the debut of several youngsters led by 22-year-old Gil Corbeil (7-21-28) and 20-year-old Joe Martin (7-9-16). Unfortunately, Martin -the club's first round pick in the draft- missed half the season with injuries but the young winger from Montreal projects to have a bright future.
The Shamrocks had struggled early with a clear turning point being a mid-December deal that brought talented, but reportedly troublesome, center Laurel Albers from the Toronto Dukes. Cast out of Toronto after being in the center of dressing room troubles with the struggling Dukes, Albers would be a model citizen in New York. He would also prove to be a key contributor to the offense, averaging nearly a point a game for the Shamrocks after the trade and gave the club a solid second-line center to lessen the load on veteran Orval Cabbell. Prior to the aquisition of Albers the Shamrocks were 5-9-1 but once he arrived the club was over .500, posting a 15-13-6 record after the December 16th transaction.
MONTHLY RECORD
NOV: 3-5-0 6 points
DEC: 4-7-1 9 points
JAN: 6-4-1 11 points
FEB: 5-5-2 12 points
MAR: 1-2-2 5 points
OVERAL 189-23-6 44 points
PLAYOFFS
A terrible late season swoon by Brooklyn helped pave the way to the playoffs for the Shamrocks, ending a 4 year post-season drought. Unfortunately, the post-seasons stay was short-lived as the eventual Cup champion Boston Bees proved to be far too much for the Shamrocks and swept their semi-final series by winning 3 straight games. The Shamrocks previous two playoff appearances were also semi-final losses to the Bees leaving New York without a playoff series win since 1938-39 when they won a quarterfinal matchup with Brooklyn under the old format where six of the league's seven clubs qualified for the playoffs.
March's matchup with Boston was farily one-sided. The Bees were swarming in the opener and blasted the Shamrocks 6-1 despite the fact the New Yorkers outshot Boston 33-25. It was a rough introduction to the playoffs for the Shamrocks 25 year old goaltender Etienne Tremblay who surrendered 6 goals from the first 19 shots he ever faced in NAHC post-season play. New York's best effort came in game two when the Shamrocks peppered Boston netminder Pierre Melancon with 50 shots. Tremblay was solid as well, coming up with 30 saves as the game, tied 4-4 at the end of regulation thanks to a late goal from the Shamrocks Orval Cabbell, needed overtime to determine a winner. That winner would come from Boston just under 11 minutes into the extra frame.
The backdrop of Bigsby Garden -the most famous arena in sports- hosting its first NAHC playoff game since 1942 was not enough to inspire the Shamrocks to victory. Melancon in the Boston cage was once more the foil, recording a 27 save shutout as Boston, on the strength of two third period goals completed the sweep with a 2-0 victory.
FORMER TITLE CONTENDER FOUNTAIN SHOCKED BY VAUGHN
Mark Fountain's hopes of getting another opportunity to face world heavyweight champion Hector Sawyer are all but extinguished after Fountain was the surprise loser to Syl Vaughn in a bout in Jacksonville on Saturday. Vaughn is a decent heavyweight, a 27-year-old New Yorker who has been around the block a few times with a decent 21-6-3 record but he has never beat anyone of high standing. Until now, when he simply outboxed an unimpressive Fountain, who looked like he could not get out of the ring soon enough. The Fountain loss is a huge surprise as most expected a big effort from the 28 year old trying to prove that he deserved another title shot after Sawyer stopped him in the 12th round of their January title clash. Instead, Fountain is left nursing back to back losses and once more proves he is incapable of delivering in the big moments. Prior to the Sawyer loss, Fountain seemed set to meet the champ two years ago but an aging Leo Carmichael knocked him out and set Fountain's title hopes back by a couple of years. It seems very unlikely he will get a second chance now.
Elsewhere rising welterweight contender Ira Mitchell scored a second round TKO of George Gibbs, further sinking the Colorado fighter down the welter totem pole. Gibbs was 16-0 and talked about as a potential world champion just over a year ago, but has now lost each of his last four fights including back to back losses to title contenders Rudy Perry and Ira Mitchell. Another top welter contender, former world champion Mark Westlake got back on the winning side of the ledger with a unanimous decision over Stuart White in his first outing since losing the title to Harold Stephens in February.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- 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 5/25/1947
- President Truman signed the $400 million dollar Greek-Turkish aid bill setting in force a historic American foreign policy of bolstering weak countries against outside agression as a "support" to the United Nations.
- Reports from London indicate Britan is setting the stage to hand military responsibility in the Mediterranean and Middle East over to the United States and withdraw empire defenses in East Africa.
- The final major barrier to ending the nationwide telephone strike was removed when negotiators for Western Electric and its 20,000 unionized employees had reached agreement on a new contract.
- An estimaed 3,800 foremen at three Detroit plants of the Ford Motor Company have began a strike, affecting 90,000 employees.