JUNE 25, 1951
With back to back wins Monday and Tuesday the Carolina Poly Cardinals won their first ever AIAA college baseball championships. The Cardinals had dropped Sunday's opening game in their best-of-three final 6-3 to Noble Jones College before rallying with back to back victories. It marked the second straight season that Charlie Barrell and the Colonels reached the finals in the 16 team championship tournament only to come up just short.
Monday saw the Cardinals battle back from the brink with 2 runs in the top of the eighth inning to pull out a 4-3 victory over the Colonels and prolong the series. Junior shortstop Owen Collins was the hero, driving in 3-runs including an 8th inning sacrifice fly that plated Hal Smith with the tying run. Collins had also hit a two-run homer off Noble Jones College starting pitcher Lou West in the third inning. It was Collins third homerun of the tournament and part of the reason the 21-year-old New York City native was named the Most Valuable Player of the event.
Collins, who had 10 rbi's during the week, drove in two more in a 6-1 victory in the deciding game but the story was the Cardinals pitcher as starter Jack Knudson, an 8th round pick of the Detroit Dynamos and freshman Jackie Montrose combined on to allow just 3 hits from Noble Jones College in the game.
MINERS PICK LUCAS NAMED TOP HIGH SCHOOL BALLPLAYER
The 1951 Adwell Award, presented annually to the athlete voted as the top high school ballplayer in the country, went to a Pittsburgh Miners draft pick but not without some minor controversy. Doug Lucas, a senior second baseman from Tallulah, LA., was named the winner of the award despite the fact that junior pitcher Mike Fresh -who won the Adwell last year as a sophomore- received the most first place from the six member panel. Lucas, who led the nation in OPS and was among the leaders in batting average, doubles and slugging percentage, was the first name on just one ballot but did appear second on four others and was the only player to be noted on all six ballots. That gave him a slight advantage over Fresh, a pitcher from Whitman, MA., who went 9-0 with a 0.49 era.
Lucas because the first Louisiana High School player to win the award and the first second baseman. He and 1945 winner Ralph Hanson, now with the New York Stars are the only middle infielders ever to be named Adwell winners.
The Adwell Award is named after Red Adwell, a legendary high school pitcher out of Alabama in the early days of the sport who would also be a Pittsburgh Miners draft pick. Adwell, taken 8th overall in the 1913 FABL draft, won just one game for the Miners but enjoyed success with the Chicago Chiefs and Philadelphia Keystones, fashioning a 134-128 career big league mark.
TALES FROM THE LAIR
Wolves Endure Yet Another Tough Week -Toronto's baseball club won only 1 of 7 at home in another dismal week. Toronto lost 3 of 4 to Montreal before being swept in a weekend series by Brooklyn who have now won their last 8. The Wolves are now 3-10 on the current homestand and mirred in a five game losing streak. The only win of the week was 7-3 on Tuesday in a game where the Saints scored 3 in the top half of the first - a surprising and rare comeback usually this year's Wolves do not rebound from a deficit but instead are far more likely to cough up a lead than come from behind in a game.
Jerry York, 4-5 3.28, picked up the only W of the week. York has been the club's best starter this season as George Garrison ( 2-10 4.38) and Joe Hancock (3-6 4.34) have both struggled, especially since the calendar turned to June. York's losing record is more a sign of lack of run support than it is of his pitching - the team is only scoring an average of 2.9 runs in his starts. The only Toronto starter getting less run support than York is Garrison who is getting the backing of only 2.3 runs per start.
There are far more questions than answers for the club. On the positive side Wally Boyer has bounced back in June after a horrid start at the plate to bring his season line to .240/.330/.394 along with playing above average defense in CF on the worst overall fielding team in the FABL. Tony Ballinger put two more into the Dominion Stadium seats last week. The team is hitting .238 combined, getting on base less than 3 in times in 10. There are many calling for the replacement of Hitting Coach Huck Monahan, team batting average has dropped from .263 last season to this year's number. His message to the hitters is not reaching home in the last year of his contract, replacing a coach mid-year except from within is generally a difficult task so Huck may last the season. Fans can expect to see former OF Larry Vestal as part of the staff in '52 barring a huge jump in hitting during the next three months.
Fred Barrell wants the team to become competitive each and every day, He firmly believes that a record of 18-46 is not indicative pf the team's talent level but acknowledges the need of help in the bullpen. Fred says "We are not built to outscore many teams day in, day out. We have to quit throwing away games in the late innings."
There is growing concern that former bullpen ace Lou Jayson has reached the end of the line. He is almost a forgotten arm in an area that Wolves desperately need help. Buzz around the front office is that Les Ledbetter is finally showing the long awaited promise of a future staff leader in AAA, Discussions are being held as to whether or not it make sense to have Ledbetter join the team when they head out next week with a possible start in Cincinnati during a 4th of July doubleheader.
The team is now making offers to this year's draft class as Class C is about to begin.
- Good news for both the Eagles and Keystones. Both had terrible starts but the Eagles have won eight of their last twelve including series wins over Detroit, St Louis and the Gothams. Meanwhile Joey Mahoney of the Philadelphia Inquisitor updates us on the Keystones. "They are finally out of the cellar with a perfect 6-0 week. Sid Moulton had two complete game victories, which came out of nowhere. Hank Koblenz ditched a horrible slump with three homers this week to give him 15 for the year. Roger Cleaves is on a four-game homer streak as he starts to heat up. The Keystones will try to continue their hot play, they face Washington and Boston this week, which are 2-1/2 and 1 game ahead of Philadelphia, respectively. There is a long way to go to get to .500, but the 29-38 Keystones are making a push."
- Across town the Philadelphia Sailors are 18-8 (.692) in June, which in fact is a drop-off from their May performance: 23-7 (.766).
- The Chicago Cougars did the Sailors a favor this week, taking two of three from the Foresters in Cleveland before dropping three of four in Philly. The Sailors are now 7.5 games ahead of the second place Foresters, who are almost as far out of first as the 33-35 Chicago Chiefs (8 GB) in the Fed.
- Tip Harrison of the Chicago Daily News updates us on the Cougars stellar AA outfit. "The AA Little Rock Governors have won 17 in a row, and have reached 50 wins before 10 losses. At 50-8, they are already 16 games ahead of the next best team, and could probably clinch the division by the end of July. A Governor leads the Dixie League in homers, RBI, slugging, OPS, batting WAR, runs, doubles, triples, total bases, steals, extra base hits, ISO, OPS+, WPA, wOBA, ERA, wins, shutouts, ERA+, opponent BABIP, opponents average, and win percentage. Part of me thinks this team could win a three game series against the Cougars"
- Bob Murphy of the Detroit Times on the Dynamos pitching: "It is amazing to me that the Dynamos pitching is ranked so high in so many Federal Association categories considered they are the one staff that does not have the luxury of facing the Detroit offense."
DUKES CUT TIES WITH FEATHERSTONE
In a move clearly aimed at creating open contract slots to bring in new talent, the Toronto Dukes have cut two players including 26-year-old defenseman Frank Featherstone. The veteran of 222 NAHC games appeared in the 1949-50 All-Star game but spent most of last season in Cleveland, suiting up for just 4 games with the Dukes.
The British Columbia native was Toronto's first pick, 7th overall in the 1944 NAHC draft and made his debut two years later as a 20-year-old. He would play for a pair of Dukes Cup winners but missed most of the post-season both wins due to injury. In all, the defense-first rearguard at 28 goals and 86 points in a Toronto uniform. Last season he did not score but had 3 assists in 4 games with the Dukes, while playing 57 contests and notching 32 points with the HAA's Cleveland Eries.
Also released was long-time minor league defenseman Greg Goodfellow. The 26-year-old was a fourth round pick of the Dukes in 1944 but did not sign with Toronto until last summer after spending five years with the Syracuse Lancers of the HAA. Toronto inked him to a two-year deal and Goodfellow spent the year in Cleveland, scoring 3 times and adding 19 assists for the Eries.
RECENT KEY RESULTS- Ira Mitchell has had some ups and downs in his long boxing career but the welterweight, who briefly held the world title until losing to Danny Rutledge in February, got back on track in his return to the ring. The 31-year-old Chicago native knocked out New Yorker Artie Neal before nearly 14,000 wildly cheering fans at Lakeside Auditorium Friday evening.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- June 27- Newark, NJ - heavyweight contender Max Bradley (21-1-1) faces Roy Madison (21-13-3)
- June 29- Thompson Palladium, Detroit- highly touted HW contender and Detroit naive Joey Tierney (23-0) faces Evan Rivers (18-2-3)
- July 2- Detroit, MI - middleweight contender Davis Owens (25-2) faces Michigan native Jimmy Noble (13-3-1)
- July 10- National Auditorium, Washington DC: veteran welterweights Heinie Verplanck (23-6-1) and Danny Julian (30-3-2) meet
- July 13- Cincinnati: World Middleweight champion Millard Shelton (31-5) makes his first title defense against Mark McCoy (24-2)
- July 17 - Portland, ME: former middleweight champ John Edmonds (33-4) squares off against Calvin Collins (9-1)
- July 19- Bigsby Garden, New York - Heavyweight contender John Jones (19-2-1) meets ring veteran Matt Price (42-12-4)
- July 25- Memphis, TN: welterweight Ben Bishop (36-10-1) faces Mike Jennings (42-15-1)
- July 27- Denny Arena, Boston: Middleweight Bill Boggs (23-4-1) meets Rip Rogers (25-5-1)
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/24/1951
- Military planners say the United States Air Force now has available to it explosive power greater than all the explosions from the invention of gun powder to the atomic attack on Hiroshima and that if the Soviets chose war the US could rain quick destruction on many Russia cities.
- Vice Admiral Oscar Badger told the committee handling the MacArthur hearings that he agreed with the administration and would limit bombing of Chinese Communist supply bases to Korea "for the time being." He also testified he felt any blockade of the Chinese mainland should be imposed by the United Nations and not the United States alone.
- Later in the week Gen. MacArthur charged the full facts concerning his dismissal as Far Eastern commander have not been brought out because President Truman is silencing the pertinent witnesses.
- Britain has announced that she is taking steps to block all shipments of strategic good to Red China through the crown colony of Hong Kong.
- President Truman signed a new draft law laying the groundwork for a permanent universal military training program.
- A Federal grand jury indicted 21 members of the Communist Party's "second layer" of officials on charges of conspiracy to advocate violent overthrow of the Government.
- The Premier of Iran ordered his government to take full authority over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's operation and demanded Britain call home its peace mission. The oil company than warned Iran that it may have to shut down operations because of "mass resignations" of British technicians.
- Late breaking news from Russia had that country's UN delegate call for a cease-fire in Korea and the withdrawal of United Nations troops from north of the 38th Parallel. The State Department in Washington said it was willing to do its share if the Russia statement "is more than propaganda."