NAHC ALL-STAR GAME A SUCCESS
The first ever North American Hockey Confederation all-star game drew a near capacity crowd of 16,329 patrons to Chicago's Lakeside Auditorium to witness the best in the game gathered under one roof. The teams were divided randomly into two groups, and it was the Red team, led by first period goals from Chicago's Jeremy MacLean and Orval Cabbell of the New York Shamrocks, that prevailed by a 2-1 count. The Blue team scored its only goal in the first frame was with another local star, Max Ducharme of the Packers, getting the goal with assists from his teammate Tommy Burns and Toronto's Trevor Parker.
It was the goaltenders who stole the show as the Red team duo of Detroit's Millard Touhey and New York's Alex Sorrell combined to save 40 of the 41 shots they faced. The Blue side also split the game with Montreal's Tom Brockers allowing both goals on the 20 shots he faced. Gordie Broadway of the Dukes played the second half for the Blue squad and stopped all 20 shots he faced.
It was a very cordial affair with no penalties being called and the play was fast with few whistles. Jeremey MacLean of the Packers, who scored the first goal and assisted on the second for the Red team, was named the first star of the game with a pair of Toronto Dukes in Trevor Parker, for the Blue team, and JC Martel of the Red squad being named the second and third stars.
ALL STAR GAME ROSTERS
NAHC RESULTS FROM LAST WEEK
TUESDAY JANUARY 10
Chicago 3 at Montreal 8: The Montreal Valiants snapped their five game winless streak in a big way, scoring a season high in goals while crushing the Chicago Packers 8-3. Brett Lanceleve, Adam Sandford and Clarence Skinner each had 3 points for a Montreal team that saw 8 different players light the lamp and chase Chicago netminder Norm Hanson midway through the second period.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 11
Boston 5 at Detroit 0: Oscar James made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season to lead the Bees past Detroit 5-0. Mickey Bedard, Conn Cundiff, Bryant Williams, Robert Walker and Craig Simpson each scored for Boston.
New York 1 at Toronto 0:The Shamrocks outshot Toronto 36-20 and Simon Savard's first period goal held up in a 1-0 win for New York over the first place Dukes. Alex Sorrell had the shutout for the Greenshirts.
SATURDAY JANUARY 14
Detroit 2 at New York 2: Ben Witt's goal with just over 3 minutes remaining in the third period allowed Detroit to salvage a point and gain a 2-2 tie with the Shamrocks at Bigsby Garden. Marsh Spencer had the other Motors goal while Jim Macek and Ryan Kennedy replied for New York.
Montreal 3 at Chicago 1: The Valiants beat Chicago for the second game in a row as they scored once in each period to down the Packers 3-1. Clarence Skinner, Nickolas Roch and Pat Coulter scored for Montreal with Jarrett McGlynn responsible for the only one of 36 Packers shots to elude Vals goaltender Tom Brockers.
Toronto 1 at Boston 3: The Dukes drop their second straight as Jacob Gron scores twice to pace Boston to a 3-1 victory despite the fact that Toronto outshot the Bees 32-24. Oscar James, who shutout Detroit in his last outing, had another strong game in the Boston net.
SUNDAY JANUARY 15
Boston 4 at Chicago 2: The Bees have won 3 in a row while the Packers have dropped 3 straight after Boston's 4-2 victory at Lakeside Auditorium. Jarrett McGlynn had the lone goal of the opening period before John Bentley tied it with his first for the Bees in the middle frame. Max Ducharme made it 2-1 for the Packers early in the third before Boston came to life with 3 unanswered goals, the last into an empty net to secure the victory.
New York 4 at Detroit 3: Rusty Mullins scored his second goal of the game with 1:09 left in the third period to lift the Shamrocks past Detroit 4-3 and claim 3 of a possible 4 points out of their weekend series. The victory moves New York to just a point behind Detroit for second place and only two points behind first place Toronto.
UPCOMING GAMES
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18
Chicago at Detroit
New York at Boston
Toronto at Montreal
THURSDAY JANUARY 19
Montreal at Toronto
SATURDAY JANUARY 21
Detroit at Chicago
Montreal at Boston
Toronto at New York
SUNDAY JANUARY 22
Boston at Montreal
Chicago at New York
Detroit at Toronto
DUKES GOING INTO SCORING DROUGHT: DROP TWO GAMES
Toronto lost its scoring touch last week, dropping both games over the week while only beating the opposing goaltender once in 120 minutes.
The week started with a game at Dominion Gardens on a chilly, crisp Wednesday evening with 13,470 in the stands, The first period was slow paced as both teams seemed to be feeling each other out, content to dump and chase as soon as the puck advanced past the center ice line. Little did the fans know but when Simon Savard tipped home a Ryan Kennedy shot, for his 10th goal of the season, with 10:47 gone in the game that would be only goal they would see that night. The Shamrocks played a simple style of get the puck over center dump it in then forecheck the Dukes defense so they could not get the play moving in transition. In the third Toronto started to be able to move the puck in transition out of their end, only to be frustrated between the blue lines. This led to a number of 2 on 1 chances for the Shamrocks. Toronto goaltender Gordie Broadway was called on to make a number of tough saves to keep the margin at one goal. Alex Sorrell was not overly busy in the cage, he turned away all 20 he faced for his second whitewash of the season.
Into Denny Arena to face the Bees Saturday in a game expected to be a wild affair given past history between the teams. It was a surprisingly calm as the referee set the tone early, calling the Dukes Mike Navarro for a hook less than two minutes into the game. The man in the striped jersey made it clear anything even closely resembling stick work would immediately be called and the players got the message. Boston's game plan was evident early, hit anything that moves in Toronto uniform. Toronto had more chances in the first two periods, but they were only able to beat Oscar James once on a goal by Charlie Brown on a shot from the point through a screen that James never saw until he was digging the puck out of his net. That was good enough to allow the visitors to skate off with a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes. A two and half minute lapse in the third proved fatal for the Dukes. Garrett Kauffeldt opened the scoring a Bryant Williams rebound at 4:17 followed 95 seconds later by Jacob Gron's 6th when the puck came free after Broadway thought he had it frozen. Gron then completed Toronto's nightmare less than minute later when he banked a shot in off Spencer Hoffard. After that the Dukes had no gas left in the tank with Boston prevailing 3-1.
Coach Barrell: "Not going to win often only scoring one goal in two games. Shamrocks checked the life out of us, we could not get anything going for the entire 60 minutes. That is probably the sign of things to come. I think the games will be tighter more low scoring as the season moves on, less wide open. In Boston we got lost for about 3 minutes, we started to run around in our zone and it cost us a win. We still have to make the area in front of our net a tougher place for the opposition. They have to know they will pay a price if they come into the slot area. At minimum we have to tie up sticks, our goalkeepers are getting beat far too often on deflections. Not worried about the scoring, it will sort itself out in short order."
DRILL IS FIRST COLLEGE SELECTION IN FABL DRAFT
The FABL rookie player draft continued and worked its way through the first round. Last week we reported on the top four picks including Earl Howe, a 17-year-old outfielder from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx who was selected first overall by the New York Gothams. The draft recap now continues with the rest of the opening round.
The fifth pick was made by the Pittsburgh Miners, and they drafted both the first pitcher and the first collegiate player with the announcement of their selection as lefthanded pitcher Tom Drill from Empire State University. As a sophomore with the Centurions Drill was a second team All-American selection after posting a 10-1 record with a 1.71 era. It is important to note that was against weak competition, but those numbers compare well with a couple of other small college pitchers who have enjoyed great success in FABL in John Stallings and Eli Panneton.
That is not to say Drill will approach either of the those two but he is the best college pitcher available this year and perhaps could be considered a poor man's John Stallings. Drill was drafted by St Louis in the 14th round out of high school three years ago but failed to sign with the Pioneers. It will be interesting to see if Drill can advance to the big leagues anywhere near as quickly as both Stallings and Panneton did. The Miners have had their struggles drafting pitchers with Denton Fox of the Pittsburgh Press noting their last solid pitcher draft pick was Lefty Allen back in 1932. OSA has high projections for Drill's upside, figuring he could rise to the level of a solid mid-rotation starter or better.
Drill's selection may well have prompted the New York Stars to also grab a pitcher going with Georgia high school righthander Eddie Webb. OSA feels Webb has the potential to be a future number two starter, but high school arms are always risky. Webb was an All-American selection as a sophomore and an honourable mention his freshman season after back-to-back 11-0 campaigns, but his ERA and walks ballooned his junior season. His work ethic has also come into question perhaps setting off red flags for some FABL clubs. The Stars are hoping he has a bounce back year in his final season of high school.
Next up was the Boston Minutemen with the 7th selection and the Minutemen were pleasantly shocked to see that shortstop Ed Wise, ranked second by several scouting departments, was still available for their selection. Boston wasted no time grabbing the 17-year-old Jersey City, NJ high school infielder. Wise displayed some decent power in his lone season of high school ball and OSA says there is plenty more longball development to come. He has a high ceiling and projects well on the field and at the plate according to the scouting service. The Minutemen like the fact that he already has experience at third base and that may well be where Wise ends up with 1948 first rounder Joe Kleeman already set as the heir to Harry Barrell at shortstop for Boston.
With the 8th choice in the draft the Cincinnati Cannons selected the top player from the August mock draft. That would be Ohio high school centerfielder Fred Lainhart who was a high school All-American as a freshman and an honourable mention last year in his junior season. Lainhart hit .593 both his freshman and junior season, to lead all high school players in both of those years. Only Walt Messer has enjoyed two high school seasons with a better batting average. In Lainhart's sophomore season he "slumped" to .573 and if his career HS average (currently .585) holds he will have the third best career high school batting average behind only Walt Messer and Buddy Miller (min 150 plate appearances). OSA is very high on Lainhart, suggesting he has the "highest ceiling imaginable as an elite center fielder."
The Philadelphia Keystones likely went with best available in their decision to select 17-year-old Virginia high school third baseman Parson Allen. Hank Koblenz is just 33 and still very much in his prime so the Keystones can certainly take their time developing Allen, who sounds a lot like Koblenz in his OSA scouting report. "Tremendous power potential" and "projects to be an elite big league third baseman" raves the staff in Dan Barrell's office.
Brooklyn's General Manager is always looking for pitching so the Kings selection of an arm with the 10th selection comes as no surprise. Elmer Sullivan is a Toledo native who for reasons unknown is nicknamed "Bananas." Perhaps it is for how he drives opposing hitters bananas with his filthy slider, the best of his 3 pitches. He was 11-0 last season and named a High School All-American for the second time. However, OSA is not sold on the righthander as a big league prospect, noting "Sullivan will be a relatively ineffective contributor." However, some scouting directors that TWIFS spoke with feel Sullivan has a huge upside and could develop into a very good pitcher.
At eleven, the Washington Eagles hope they found their third baseman of the future in Roy Nash. The Medway (MA) High Schooler is a franchise cornerstone raves OSA, noting his plus power and advanced approach at the plate. He was a High School All-American selection last season as a junior and certainly has some power potential with 34 homers in 69 career high school games. His selection makes three of the top eleven picks high school third basemen.
The Chicago Cougars selected Virigina high school second baseman Andy Robinson with the 12th pick of the draft. OSA feels Robinson has a chance to play in All-Star Games if he fulfills his potential. St Louis followed immediately with another highly touted high school second baseman by the name of Les Sasson. The pride of Conshohocken (PA) High School also has a chance to be an all-star according to OSA.
At pick 14 the Toronto Wolves called a college player for just the second time this draft. That would Skinny Bennett, a catcher from Eastern Oklahoma - the same school that produced the great Adam Mullins. The Chicago Chiefs followed with Hank Walker, making the Texas high schooler the fourth pitcher selected in the opening round. The Cleveland Foresters rounded out the draft by selecting a high school shortstop with big league ties. Gus Melvin, out of Buffalo, NY, is the grandson of Hall of Fame shortstop George Melvin, who starred for the Washington Eagles before finishing his career in Cleveland in the early 1900s.
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ROUND ONE DRAFT SELECTIONS
PK TM POS NAME AGE SCHOOL
1 NYG CF Earl Howe 17 Cardinal Hayes HS Bronx, NY
2 PHS 3B Bob Gray 17 Northeast HS, Philadelphia, PA
3 DET LF Raph Capriotti 17 Muncie(IN)HS
4 MON RF Joe Bullock 17 Hannibal (MO) HS
5 PIT LHP Tom Drill 21 Empire State
6 NYS RHP Eddie Webb 17 Reidsville (GA) HS
7 BOS SS Ed Wise 17 Dickinson HS, Jersey City, NJ
8 CIN CF Fred Lainhart 17 Pandora (OH) HS
9 PHK 3B Parson Allen 17 Chase City (VA) HS
10 BKN RHP Elmer Sullivan 17 Perrysburg (OH) HS
11 WAS 3B Roy Nash 17 Medway (MA) HS
12 CHC 2B Andy Robinson 17 Fredericksburg (VA) HS
13 STL 2B Les Sasson 17 Conshohocken (PA) HS
14 TOR C Skinny Bennett 20 Eastern Oklahoma
15 CHI RHP Hank Walker 17 Victoria (TX) HS
16 CLE SS Gus Melvin 18 McKinley HS, Buffalo, NY
COUGARS WINTER UPDATE
The 1940s can be thought of as the Skipper Schneider decade. A fixture at short is an understatement when it comes to the slick fielding Skipper, who debuted in 1940, and went on to start 1,460 of the 1,541 games (94.7%) at his familiar shortstop position. There's a reason for that, as he's accumulated a 310.4 zone rating, which alone is top 20 ever for a FABL shortstop. He's hoping his next decade will bring more success, as despite eight All-Star selections he's only placed in one World Championship Series. That was when he went 6-for-21 in the painstaking loss to his brother Buddy and the Minutemen in his first full season as a big leaguer. The ten-year professional enters 1950 with a .288/.340/.378 (104 OPS+) career batting line, and in terms of WAR, he's the fourth most valuable (65.8) FABL position player to don a Cougar uniform.
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The Cougars made their first pick as well, selecting 12th instead of 14th, where they will pick in Rounds 3 through 25. Heavily connected to Elmer Sullivan, who went two picks before to the Brooklyn Kings, Chicago shifted to a second high school second basemen in two seasons. This year it was young 17-year-old Andy Robinson, a Richmond native who attends high school in Fredericksburg. Unlike last year's first rounder Biff Tiner, Robinson has played elsewhere as well, getting experience at short and left as well. A talented hitter with a plus-plus contact tool, Robinson hit .517 as a Junior with 16 doubles, 3 homers, 28 RBIs, and 27 steals. And in 72 prep games, he's hit .521/.568/.812 with 67 extra base hits, 65 steals, 136 runs, and 102 RBIs. The Cougars scouting department had nothing but rave reviews for the middle infielder, with scouting director Dixie Marsh quoted that he "projects to be an elite second basemen."
They were up again a few picks later, but once more, the player homed in on was swiped up right before. This time it was the pick before, as high school southpaw Beau McClellan was taken 19th overall by the Dynamos. This made the 20th pick Ernie Tisdale, a righty who went 10-3 with a 2.57 ERA and 149 strikeouts in 18 starts for the Oklahoma Bible College last season as a sophomore. "Big E" is an imposing 6'4'' righty from New Jersey with a deep arsenal that features plenty of high movement pitches. His go-to offering is his sinker, which already looks to be at least an average pitch. He needs to polish up the rest of his arsenal, but he projects to have a filthy change. He's not the hardest thrower, sitting in the mid 80s with both the sinker and fastball, but with size you have to imagine he'll see a growth in velocity. His floor is a capable back-end starter, but with a little more life on his sinker, he could work his way up.
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Even during the draft, trades continue for the busy Cougars front office, as they found a taker for young righty Harry Beardsley. A former 10th Rounder, Beardsley was once a top 100 prospect, but has since been passed up by younger players. Ready for a big league rotation spot, the now 25-year-old was stuck behind the Cougars front five and Zane Kelley, but he'll now have a chance to pitch his way into the Pittsburgh Miners Opening Day rotation. No team allowed more runs than the Miners in the Fed, and all five rotation members had a higher ERA then George Oddo (3.99), the Cougars #5 starter. Coming back to the Cougars is a pair of young prospects in righty Bill Davis and catcher Johnny Hadley, who rank 399th and 483rd in the prospect rankings. Davis is a 19-year-old from Chicago who has a pair of high 80s fastballs that are enough to help him fill a FABL pen. Hadley, 23, spent his 1949 with the Class-A Gary Steelman, and hit .281/.364/.390 (99 OPS+) with 9 homers and 51 RBIs.
BELLS KEEP RINGING UP VICTORIES
The Liberty Bells are continuing to show why they were the preseason number one choice as the Philadelphia college basketball powerhouse improved to 18-0 on the season with two more wins last week. The Bells, who have reached at least the quarterfinals of the AIAA March championship tournament for 10 straight seasons and 13 of the last 14, appear well positioned for another deep tournament run.
It might be too early to talk about a perfect season, something that has never happened in AIAA cage history, but the Bells path to being unbeaten entering the tournament appears clear. Liberty College only has one of its remaining 11 games against a ranked team. That would be on February 18 when they host Frankford State, which is currently ranked 18th, in their season finale.
Last week began with a 65-59 win over a solid Chesapeake State (11-4) team in which Luther Gordon once more led the way. The likely first overall pick in the summer FBL draft and last season's Barrette Award winner as college player of the year, had 20 points and 7 rebounds in the victory over the Clippers on Tuesday. Friday night was a rout as the Bells blasted College of Omaha 87-38 at Keystone Arena. Gordon played just 25 minutes but had 34 points and 12 rebounds while Edgar Stillwell added 18. For Gordon, it increases his AIAA best scoring average to 21.4 points per game. He is also tied for fifth in the nation in rebounds, averaging 9.7. Gordon's 34 points in the win over the Raiders is tied for the sixth highest single game total in AIAA history at 5 points shy of Gerald Carter's 1944 record of 39. Carter is presently playing for the FBL's Boston Centurions after his collegiate career at Western Iowa.
Five other schools remain perfect including second ranked Noble Jones College (14-0), third Carolina Poly (14-0) and fourth Annapolis Maritime (16-0). The other two are Indiana A&M, which is ranked 7th and 13-0 but the Reapers have yet to begin their tough slate of Great Lakes Alliance section play as that commences this week. The final unbeaten is 10th ranked Alabama Baptist at 12-0.
WEEKEND RESULTS FOR RANKED TEAMS
FRIDAY JANUARY 13
at #1 Liberty College 87, College of Omaha 38
at #2 Noble Jones College 65, Lambert College 40
at #4 Annapolis Maritime 71, Bethlehem College 44
at Northern California 52, #9 Coastal California 43
at #12 Detroit City College 62, Ohio Poly 36
#14 Rainier College 57, at Spokane State 48
Chicago Poly 72, at #19 Lexington State 64
at #24 Central Carolina 56, Piedmont University 41
SATURDAY JANUARY 14
at #3 Carolina Poly 55, North Carolina Atlantic 34
at #5 Western Iowa 56, Michigan Lutheran 32
at #16 Bigsby College 58, Tinker 34
#17 St. Blane 49, at NW Pennsylvania 45
Jersey City Tech 59, at #18 Frankford State 53
#20 Maryland State 87, at Grafton 83
at #21 Troy State (NY) 62, Campion 56
Bayou State 58, at #22 Central Ohio 55
at #25 Chesapeake State 65, Caesar Rodney 57
SUNDAY JANUARY 15
#13 CC Los Angeles 63, at #8 Lane State 51
#9 Coastal California 51, at Idaho A&M 30
#24 Central Carolina 68, at American Atlantic 54
- In Trenton, NJ, welterweight contender Dale Roy needed little time to finish off a bout with Roger Byrne. The 32-year-old native of Binghamton, NY sent Byrne to the canvas with a hard cross to the head just 45 seconds into their bout last Monday night. Byrne was out cold, and Roy celebrated his 34th victory as a pro against 7 losses and 1 draw. Byrne, a 28-year-old from Jersey City, had an impressive 21-2-2 record entering the bout.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- tonight- Washington DC- rising heavyweight Joey Tierney (16-0) vs Curt Jones (22-11-6)
- Jan 21 - Bigsby Garden, New York - Middleweight Millard Shelton (26-5) vs Chet Cook (36-10-4)
- Jan 24- Hartford, Ct- former welterweight contender George Gibbs (25-5) vs Bob Thomas (22-7-1)
- Jan 27- Montreal Arena - former World Middleweight champion Adrian Petrie (19-2-2) vs Kevin Rawlings (23-5)
- Feb 18- Keystone Arena, Philadelphia- World Heavyweight champ Hector Sawyer (62-3-1) defends his title against Englishman Ben Budgeford (21-1)
- Mar 24- Bigsby Garden, New York - John Edmonds will face Bill Boggs for the world middleweight title, made vacant by the tragic death of former champ Edouard Desmarais in an October plane crash.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 1/15/1950
- 43,000 miners in six states walked off the job in another 'wildcat' strike and sharp exchanges flew over the possible use of the Taft-Hartley Act in the coal production showdown. Union head John L. Lewis charged Senator Taft with attempting to "herd coal miners into the lethal gas chamber of the infamous Slave Statute" while a Republican representative suggested impeachment of the President for failure to use the statute to settle the dispute.
- The country's supply of soft coal presently is said to be at its smallest amount in 25 years and considerably under the levels when President Truman twice declared national emergencies because of fuel shortages.
- By week's end the US Chamber of Commerce joined the chorus for Government action in the soft coal dispute, reporting it had found a "critical" shortage of fuel in 36 cities while noting that only "the unseasonably warm weather" had averted "widespread suffering and hardship."
- Chinese Communists invaded and seized the American consular offices in Peiping. Denouncing the action as a "flagrant violation" of treaty rights, the Government has ordered all American official personnel out of Communist China.
- Chinese Nationalist gunboats shelled an American freighter of Shanghai, rendering her unseaworthy with between 30 and 40 shell hits. Later a Chinese Nationalist Navy spokesman said the gunboat fired on the freighter to keep her from entering a minefield and being blown to bits.
- Ninety carloads of tanks and armored cars consigned to the Chinese Government on Formosa were loaded aboard a Turkish freighter.
- The United States is said to be close to finalizing plans to support Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito with limited military assistance under certain circumstances in his defiance of Moscow.
- British Prime Minister Attlee has set February 23 as election day for the first national election in 5 years. Bookmakers in Britain favour the Labor Party to win the general election over the Conservatives but at the same time made Winston Churchill a hairline favourite over Labor's Clement Attlee to be the next Prime Minister.