SEPTEMBER 1, 1947
CONTINENTAL FLAG DRAWING A CROWD
A six-game losing streak for the Philadelphia Sailors has created a logjam at the top of the Continental Association standings. The Sailors, who lost 3 straight to the Chicago Cougars to start the week and kept on losing in New York and Cincinnati, now lead both the Stars and Cannons by just a game and a half with 4 weeks remaining in the season. The hottest team in the CA race right now is the Cincinnati Cannons, winners of 7 of their last 8 games but don't count out the suddenly hot Chicago Cougars -riding a 10-3 stretch until they cooled off with losses at home to Montreal Saturday and Sunday. The Cougars, who did all of the CA contenders a favour with their Philadelphia sweep, are suddenly just 6 games back but they have to contend with 4 teams ahead of them.
The one team ahead of the Cougars that we have not mentioned yet is the Brooklyn Kings, who are suddenly and unexpectedly in the middle of a pennant race for the first time in a decade. At 4.5 games back the Kings just finished taking 3 of 4 games from their cross-town rivals at Dyckman Stadium and will face the New Yorkers four more times this week with Kings County Park being the venue. There is plenty of baseball left to be played and fans could be in for a wild finish in the Continental Association.
The Federal Association, in contrast, is clearly decided. The St Louis Pioneers extended their lead to 12.5 games on second place Detroit after the Dynamos dropped 8 of their last 12 games. That eliminates really any potential suspense from the Pioneers visit to the Motor City for a 3-game trip beginning today. The league stats service gives the St Louis nine a 99.9% chance of winning their first pennant since 1921.
KEY GAMES THIS WEEK IN THE CA RACE
- Sailors host Cincinnati for a brief 1-game series next Sunday in a slow week that sees the Philadelphia squad play just 5 games including a doubleheader today vs Toronto.
- Brooklyn and New York have a big 4 game showdown in Brooklyn on the heels of the Kings taking 3 of 4 last week at Dyckman.
- The Cougars and Stars have a 1 day series at Cougars Park that will see them play a doubleheader.
- The Toronto Wolves have a chance to play spoilers with a doubleheader today against Philadelphia followed by a two-game series in Cincinnati.
The Chicago Cougars had a prime opportunity to cut their deficit in the Continental Association, sweeping the first place Sailors and splitting with the second place Cannons. But then came the Montreal Saints. After the Cougars won the opener, the Saints took the final two, keeping the Cougars six games out of first. The Cougars have struggled with the last place Saints, and are the only team that Montreal is not below .500 against on the season
After allowing a one-out single to Gordie Perkins in the first, Duke Bybee decided that no other Saint would be allowed to reach base via a base hit, as the red hot rookie retired 26 of the next 28 batters, striking out 7 and walking just 2. It was Bybee's FABL leading 6th shutout of the season, and he has twice as many shutouts as any non-Cougar pitcher (Donnie Jones has 4) this season. Bybee has thrown 4 shutouts since June 30th and has allowed 1 or fewer runs in 9 of his 24 starts this season. His 2.79 ERA (138 ERA+) is third in the CA and his 1.07 WHIP is 11 points better then the next best hurler (Donnie Jones, 1.18). Ralph Johnson may be having an outstanding season in Brooklyn, but Bybee is going to make things difficult for Kellogg and Allen award voters alike
TOP FABL PERFORMERS LAST WEEK
It was another memorable week for Bobby Barrell. Barrell hit 3 homeruns last week to move him to within 4 of Max Morris' record 60 homers set in 1923. Barrell is also batting .365 with 123 rbi's -numbers that put him in the lead in all three triple crown categories and not just the Federal Association lead, Barrell leads all of FABL and may soon join Morris and his long-time former teammate Rankin Kellogg as the only hitters with multiple triple crown wins. Barrell's first came three years ago.
The other big news was Barrell's first inning solo shot of Washington's Jim Douglass yesterday was the 514th homerun of his career. That moves Barrell one ahead of Al Wheeler, who has not homered since August 17 and into sole possession of second place all time. Only Max Morris with 714, hit more in his career.
The "elder statesmen" are really tearing it up this season. Bobby Barrell at 37 is the obvious leader in this, challenging one of the two most prestigious single-season batting records (batting average being the other) and having passed Al Wheeler for 2nd place all-time in home runs, 514 to 513 for the two active leaders. But aside from Bobby, I also wonder if anyone appreciates just how good Mel Carrol & Fred McCormick really are. Carroll, at age 35, is hitting .357 and has the 5th highest career batting average in FABL history (.3447) tucked neatly .0008 behind John Dibblee and .0007 ahead of Art Charles. Charles is .0013 ahead of McCormick whose .3427 is currently 7th all-time. The Reaper is even older than Carroll at 37 and is hitting .330 with 25 HRs this season. We can't know for sure how much longer they'll play, so hopefully we enjoy them while they're around.
All of the above kind of gives the lie to this seeming perception among FABL GMs that players are washed up once they get into their 30s. My point is that as a neutral observer I frequently shake my head at some of trades that send proven big leaguers away for relative peanuts (middling prospects whose chances of equaling the guy for whom they're being traded is virtually nil). That happens a lot. There's a reason why certain teams are always near the top of the standings. Guys like Barrell, Carroll & McCormick are easy to identify because they're standout stars, but there are a lot of good players between ages 30-40 who can not only play every day but do so at an above-average level of performance. Instead they're shipped off for guys who'll never get past AA.
1949 WAY TOO EARLY MOCK DRAFT
If OSA's current scouting assessments hold up the 1949 draft class appears to be an extremely deep group, one that is absolutely loaded at the high school level. By the count of TWIFB staff there are 40 players that presently are worthy of being considered first round choices based upon their current OSA assessment. Now, that will certainly change as some players-especially young high schoolers- always drop off but this has the makings of being a draft class to remember. Instead of a mock list of just 16, we are going to list 30 players well worth keeping an eye on. They are roughly being ranked from best to worst but so many of them are so close it was tough coming up with an exact ranking for each of them.
Code:
# NAME POS AGE HOMETOWN SCHOOL
1 John Wells SS 16 Philaelphia, PA Northeast Catholic HS, Philadelphia
2 Dallas Berry CF 16 Wellsville, MO Wellsville HS
3 Roy Patterson RHP 16 South Bend, IN South Bend HS
4 Danny Noonan C 19 Ashtabula, OH Huntington State
5 Billy Jones 3B 15 Brooklyn, NY Alpha (NJ) HS
6 Johnny Taylor LF 16 Minneapolis, MN Mora (MN) HS
7 Ray Hughes CF 15 Milwaukee, WI Denmark (WI) HS
8 Dick Houston RHP 16 Colorado Springs Florence (CO) HS
9 Harry Murray 2B 19 Minneapolis, MN Indiana A&M
10 Dick Champ RHP 16 New York, NY Middlesex (NJ) HS
11 Mike Rasmussen 3B 15 Springfield, MA Kingston (NY) HS
12 Hank Short RHP 16 Buffalo, NY Mineral Point (WI) HS
13 Bill Martin RF 16 Hamilton, MA Milton (MA) HS
14 Eddie Dickey CF 16 Carlisle, PA Luteran HS, Baltimore, MD
15 Stan Brueck RHP 15 Sauk Rapids, MN St. Peter (MN) HS
16 Lew Potter RHP 16 Nebraska City,NB Manning (IA) HS
17 Tom Perkins SS 20 Troy, TN Lane State
18 Bill Morrison CF 19 Oak Park, IL Grange College
19 John Cochran SS 19 Racine, WI Rainier College
20 Jerry Hale 2B 16 Chicago, IL Crane HS, Chicago, IL
21 Johnny Elliott 1B 15 Detroit, MI Owosso (MI) HS
22 Harl Smith LF 15 Stillwater, MN Alma (WI) HS
23 Bobby Crooks RHP 15 Detroit, MI Ypsilanti (MI) HS
24 Tiny Fowler RHP 16 San Francisco,CA Drew HS, San Francisco
25 Vern Osborne LHP 16 East St Louis,IL Montgomery City (MO) HS
26 Cy Holden 1B 16 Pakersburg, WV Parkersburg (WV) HS
27 Lou Jackson CF 19 Martinez, CA College of San Diego
28 Huck Mason RF 19 Cleveland, OH Constitution State
29 Andy Green 1B 19 Odessa, MO Maryland State
30 Bert Preble CF 19 Putnam, CT Constitution State
HOW DID THE PIONEERS GET SO GOOD SO FAST?
Well Dynamos fans, any faint hope you might have had for the three-game set at Thompson Field beginning today having any bearing at all on the Fed pennant race are certainly gone. Vanished after a terrible week from the local nine at the ballyard when nothing came easy. Some tough losses like the two games they gave away to lowly Pittsburgh early in the week or the heartbreaking 3-2 loss yesterday to the Chiefs when Steve Donovan got thrown out at the plate to end the game.
But the truth of the matter is the Dynamos were never really in the race. Yes, taking 4 of 6 from the Pioneers last month may have given the diehards a faint glimmer of hope but the reality is we started the month of August 7 games back and never got any closer. St Louis is just too strong a ballclub, and somehow the class of the Federal Association. Now that is sentence I never thought I would be writing this year.
So how did the Pioneers get so good, so quickly? They were a last place club a year ago and only finished within single digits of the leader once in the past nine years. They haven't won a pennant since 1921 -longest current drought in the Federal Association- and are best known as the team that traded away Hall of Famer Max Morris and future Hall of Famer Fred McCormick. Yet here they are about to end that drought and when they do it will make our beloved Dynamos the team that has gone the longest without a Fed flag. Since 1929 to be exact. That glorious year when Frank Vance was in his prime, Al Wheeler was on the rise and Ray Calfee was the best pitcher in baseball.
But back to the Pioneers. Their roster did not overwhelm anyone at the beginning of the season. Let's start on the mound where Danny Hern (22-4, 2.77) suddenly thinks he is Double Al after 8 years as an average to slightly below average big league pitcher. Somehow, he is 22-4 with the lowest era in the Fed. Mix a career year from Hern with the maturing youth of Hal Hackney and Dick Long and add in a smart deal to bring Hiram Steinberg west from Cleveland you have the makings of a pretty solid pitching staff even if Hern does return to earth next year from whatever planet he has been on this season.
The offense is the most productive in the sport -scoring more runs that even the Broad Street Boppers are putting up for the Philadelphia Keystones. Yet, nothing has really changed - at least nothing noticeable since last year. There is no superstar slugger suddenly added to the group. Instead, the new starters in St Louis this season are a pair of New York castoffs in Bill Freeman and Gary Carmichael, a 28-year-old career back-up in Buck Pusey and a 19-year-old fifth round pick who began last season playing high school ball.
Breaking down the Pioneers you have the same catcher they did last season in Heinie Zimmer. Now 32, Zimmer is steady, but he is actually underperforming slightly when compared to his peak seasons. At first base you have Bates, who would count as the biggest surprise of the year were it not for the little matter of Danny Hern. OSA is not overly enamored with Bates, he doesn't walk much and has little power for a first baseman, but he is hitting .322 and a huge part of the Pioneers offense.
Second sacker Artie D'Alessandro was sent to the Chiefs for a couple of prospects and ended up being an all-star in his first season at Whitney Park. It mattered not to the Pioneers, who snatched Bill Freeman from the Gothams in the rule five -with their second round pick so every other team in FABL had its chance at the 31-year-old. Freeman entered the year as a .268 career hitter who played subpar defense at second base. The defense is not much better this time around, but Freeman is another of the big surprises in St Louis, hitting a career best .334.
Homer Mills is the shortstop, just as he was for a majority of the games last season. The 1943 first round pick has plenty of potential -scouts all knew that- but he is hardly dominating at the plate and his defense is barely average at this point in his career. Glove wizard Tommy Wilson was sent to the Chiefs in part because he lacks the bat one would like to see from a third baseman. In comes Gary Carmichael, a 33-year-old journeyman with stops in Montreal, with the Stars and Brooklyn. He has a pretty good glove -although not quite to Wilson's standards- but is hardly much of an upgrade on Wilson with the stick.
Two-thirds of the St Louis outfield is unchanged with veteran Al Tucker doing what he usually does -challenging for the batting title- although likely fighting an uphill battle due to Bobby Barrell. Tucker had one of the worst years of his career last season but has bounced back with a solid season this time around, but it is really just back in line with the 34-year-olds career norm. Larry Gregory is just 24 but in his third full season as the Pioneers leftfielder. He leads the club in homers (14) and rbi's (90) and has a great future ahead of him but one would be hard-pressed to call his current season a dominant performance. In fact Gregory missed out on the All-Star Game this year after being selected each of the two previous seasons. That leaves the centerfielder - a position patrolled by an underachieving 25-year-old named Hack Mills a year ago. Mills is now in AAA and his replacement spent half of last season in the minors. That would be 28-year-old Buck Pusey. Until this season the most interesting thing about him was his nickname: The Woonsocket Rocket. Pusey led the Fed in thefts in 1942 but that was his only year as an everyday player until this season. He is once again challenging for the stolen base lead and is hitting like he has never hit before, at any level of the sport. Still his average is .319 -so hardly earth-shattering- and in many ways he is just an average centerfielder this season.
The bullpen has been sound but not overwhelming. Yet despite adding really no big names on offense and just Hiram Steinberg as a mid-July pickup the Pioneers are about to lead the Federal Association from wire-to-wire a season after finishing dead last in the loop. It seems an awful lot of things just broke right for the Pioneers with a few players having career years and Hern having a Hall of Fame year and while it may be tough for Dynamos fans to watch the St Louis revival -Detroit is on the verge of a 5th second place finish in the past ten years and no pennant to show for it during that span, something no team in FABL has ever endured. Yet in many ways what Pioneer fans have endured -at least what few of them are left- is so much worse. Watching Morris, McCormick, Freddie Jones all just sent away in their prime. Enduring two and a half decades filled mostly with mediocrity. Pioneers supporters have paid their dues and it appears this season the baseball gods have decided to reward them for their suffering.
Gothams Notes:- Jim Lonardo became just the 9th pitcher in FABL history to reach 5000 innings pitched. He's currently sitting at #8 with 5010.
- Lonardo's win this week puts him in a tie with George Johnson for 11th with 311 wins. Lonardo has also made the 5th highest number of starts with 621. And is now tied for 13th with 639 totals games pitched.
- You could wake him up at 3am in the middle of the winter and if he didn't hurt himself getting out of bed, Mahlon Strong would hit line drives. After another two months on the injured list Strong returned to the line-up, providing the boost to propel the Gothams to their best week in a long time. The team went 5-2 to move back into 5th place. Strong, fresh off the IL was 11-29 with a homer and 5 RBI.
- Walt Messer recorded his 1000th hit this week.
- Ed Bowman earned his 100th career win.
- 2-5 last week and just 4 wins in their last 12 has rendered Detroit's 3-game series with the Pioneers at Thompson Field beginning today meaningless. Pioneers lead is now 12.5 and they are Series bound for the first time since 1921. If that happens it will leave the Montreal Saints - who have also not won a pennant since 1921- as the club with the longest WCS drought.
- Brooklyn Daily Eagle scribe Percy Pringle Sr. says not so fast to awarding the Kellogg Award to Duke Bybee of the Cougars pointing out that Ralph Johnson won himself another rookie of the month award. Last month he was player of the month but not rookie of the month. He was won 3 monthly rookie awards so far this year and is hitting 316 with 96 RBI's and 92 runs scored.
- "And out of the smoke of 500, here come the Kings!" cried Pringle. "Just 4.5 back in the suddenly close CA race. Dare King fans dream?"
CONLEY CONFIRMS PLAN FOR RECORD BREAKING FIGHT FOR SAWYER
Boxing promoter Chester Conley does everything big, and that now includes setting up what should be the greatest crowd ever assembled for a heavyweight fight. Conley has confirmed that his meal ticket, world heavyweight champion Hector Sawyer will fight at the famed Santa Ana Stadium just over a week after the annual East-West Classic collegiate football New Year's Day game.
An afternoon affair in the west coast, Conley expects a crowd well in excess of 70,000 and perhaps as many as 80,000 in the stands on January 10 when Sawyer will face California native Dan Miller. The Cajun Crusher has held the most coveted title in sports since 1940 and will be making his 9th title defense. Sawyer, who scored a unanimous decision over Pat Harber in Chicago last month, owns a career record of 56-3-1.
Miller is a 30-year-old Oakland, Ca., native who has not lost since the war ended and sports a 35-7-1 record. He will fight a tune-up match against Fraser Witt in Los Angeles two weeks from now and then will begin the difficult task of preparing to face Sawyer.
CRAWFORD AND COOPER WIN IN BUSY FIGHT WEEK
Heavyweight contenders Roy Crawford and Cannon Cooper each claimed victory last week. Crawford, the Boston Bomber, was in action against Don Alston in Camden, NJ, on Tuesday night and ran his record to 25-3 with a 4th round knockout of his clearly overmatched opponent. Cooper, who hit a bit of a road bump a couple of years ago with back-to-back losses, seems to have recovered and is working his way into title contention after winning his 6th in a row, a unanimous decision over Mac Jackson in a 10-rounder in Miami Thursday evening. Cooper, a Rockford, Il., native is now 23-2-1 as a professional.
On the same Miami fight card that Cooper battled on, middleweight contender Tommy Campbell improved to 18-0-1 with a 5th round knockout of Matt Austin. Campbell is a 24-year-old from Atlanta who is one to watch in the middleweight division going forward. Another hard-punching middleweight is Nick Harris and the veteran was in action last night, knocking out Will Bowen in the final round of their 10 round battle in Lewiston, Me. The 33-year-old Harris, who went the distance but came up short in a title shot against former champ Frank Melanson in March, is 22-3-1 with 16 of his victories coming by knockout.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- Sep 12- Baltimore, Md: middleweights Jack Rainey (23-3) vs Willie Binion (18-4-1)
- Sep 13- San Francisco, Ca: former top ranked HW contender Mark Fountain (20-3-1) vs Thurman Davis (13-16-1)
- Sep 16- Scranton, Pa: former welterweight champ Dennis O'Keefe (20-3) vs Derek Clark (6-7)
- Sep 17- Los Angeles,Ca: Heavyweight contender Dan Miller (34-7-1 vs Fraser Witt (13-2-6)
- Sep 21- Holyok, Ma: rising heavyweight Tommy Cline (10-0) vs Fred Vaughn (11-11-3)
- Sep 29 -Paris, Fr: middleweight Yohan Revel (12-0) vs Kai Wacher (9-7-1)
- Dec 12 - Lakeside Auditorium, Chicago: World Middleweight Champ John Edmonds (23-2) rematch with Frank Melanson (32-1-2)
- Jan 10 - Santa Ana Stadium, Los Angeles: World Heavyweight Champ Hector Sawyer vs Dan Miller
PACKERS LOOK TO BE CLASS OF NAHC
Looking at scouting report ratings alone, it certainly appears the Chicago Packers are poised to lift the Challenge Cup for the first time in their history next April. Preseason action is still a month away so Packers fans should not make plans to attend a Challenge Cup parade in front of the Lakeside Auditorium in the spring just yet, but the club looks loaded with talent and may finally have enough depth to go all the way.
TWIFB asked the league scouting service to rank NAHC players on a 1-5 star basis with five being the very best. Below are the results as we listed each player from the six surviving NAHC teams with at least a 2.5 star rating. The result is no other club can compare to the 16 names the Packers placed on the list.
The Packers have a superstar in two-time McDaniels Trophy winner Tommy Burns, an outstanding goaltender in Norm Hanson and a deep crop to surround them with including 4 newcomers to the organization in defenseman Jesse Santoro and forwards Leon Seguin, Jeremy MacLean and Derek Grubb.
Boston might have a little more high end talent led by veteran forwards Wilbur Chandler and Tommy Hart as well as the return of goaltender Tom Brockers after en exile to the now defunct Brooklyn Eagles, but the Bees may be hard pressed to match the Packers depth. The Montreal Valiants, with ex-Eagle Ian Doyle joining the mix, may also challenge while Toronto looks to have the inside track on the fourth and final playoff spot thanks to a talented pair of pivots in vet Bobbie Sauer and Quinton Pollack, who was named rookie of the year after a 30-goal season in Brooklyn a year ago.
Here is a look at how each club stacks up, according to the scouting service.
PRO GRID TITLE CLASH IS BLOCKED AS AFA REJECTS CFC BID
The first formal attempt to match the champions of the American Football Association and the Continental Football Conference in a post-season tussle for the undisputed professional title found the young CFC loop getting a very cold shoulder from its older rival.
CFC clubs made the first move towards an interleague playoff such as proposed frequently in newspaper columns by issuing a formal challenge last week to the circuit which has yet to recognize their rival on the professional scene. Lt. Commander Ben Montgomery, the Continental Conference commissioner, wired the challenge to Jack Kristich, President of the American Association, and then sat back to await developments -which weren't long in coming.
"Not interested," snapped Kristich, turning thumbs down on the invitation while at league meetings in New York. He refused further comment, except to point out emphatically that American Association teams "don't play post-season games."
Barring a change of heart by the long established AFA, whose president once advised the Continental loop officials to "get a football" before seeking to talk business, that appeared to keep the two circuits on opposite sides of the fence, at least for 1947.
Montgomery's challenge called for the proceeds of the game to go either to charity or the winning team. He told newsmen he thought such a game would net $250,000 and he pledged his circuit's representative to turn it all over to charity if the contest could be arranged on a winner-take-all basis.
"We feel we have four teams better than anything they've got," Montgomery said, naming the defending champion Kansas City Cowboys, Los Angeles Lobos, New York Gothams and San Francisco Wings.
CAROLINA POLY TO HEADLINE TOURNEY OPENER
The field has been unveiled for the four-team Tournament of Champions that marks the start of the collegiate cage season. The annual event, held at Bigsby Garden in New York at the end of October, will feature the Carolina Poly Cardinals, Texas Gulf Coast Hurricanes and Sadler Bluecoats with local entry Brooklyn State to act as the host. The Cardinals, who shared the South Atlantic Conference title with Mobile Maritime a year ago before advancing to the second round of the AIAA tournament, will be the favourites. Both Carolina Poly and Texas Gulf Coast -which finished with the best record in the Southwestern Alliance a year ago- were eliminated by Detroit City College in the year end tournament with the Hurricanes falling in the opening round. Sadler is defending AIAA champion while Brooklyn State finished third in Liberty Conference play.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 8/31/1947
- The Atomic Energy Commission says it has 'tamed' the A-bomb and is now preparing to put atomic power to industrial use.
- The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was reported set to recommend that the British mandate over the Holy Land be ended as soon as possible, with the majority in favour of splitting the country into independent Jewish and Arab nations.
- A big hurdle was cleared at the Inter-American Defense Conference with Argentina's agreement that all American nations might act to stop an attack of any one on another. At week's end, 19 North and South American republics agreed unanimously to a mutual defense pact.
- American efforts to mediate the deadlock in the Greek governmental crisis failed when the leader of the main branch of Greece's Liberal Party, insisted that he become premier.
- Governor Dewey, leading GOP candidate for presidental nomination in 1948 has echoed President Truman's recent comments that America must strengthen its defenses. Dewey has called for universal training in suggesting the need for "a program involving participation by all able-bodied young American men."
- The Chairman of the House Labor Committee says the Taft-Hartley Act "does not have enough teeth in it to give the public real protection against nation-wide strikes." Chairman Hartley, co-author of the new labor measure, says he will try to have Congress remedy the situation next year.