SEPTEMBER 17, 1951
SAILORS AND DYNAMOS HANGING ON TO LEADS
The Philadelphia Sailors and Detroit Dynamos inched closer to staging a rematch of the 1929 World Championship Series but both still have plenty of work ahead if they wish to each claim a pennant. The Sailors, who fell to Detroit in seven games in their 1929 meeting but rebounded to win the WCS over the New York Gothams the following season, split their six games last week and continue to hold a three game lead on the Cleveland Foresters atop the Continental Association. The Dynamos, who went 3-2 last week, are clinging to a two game lead over the suddenly hot again St Louis Pioneers, winners of seven of their last eight games. The Gothams, who split their six outings last week, are also still very much in the hunt for the Federal Association flag despite trailing Detroit by four games with two weeks remaining in the season.
The Sailors and Foresters accomplished nothing besides looping six more games off the slate for each as both clubs went 3-3 in meetings with the Chicago Cougars and New York Stars last week. The Foresters, who won each of the previous two Continental Association pennants, will get an opportunity to gain ground on the Sailors this weekend as Cleveland will host Philadelphia Saturday and for a Sunday doubleheader. Prior to that the Foresters host Montreal for a pair of mid-week games while the Sailors will entertain Brooklyn for two before the big weekend showdown.
The Dynamos, who have not won the Federal Association title since that 1929 world championship season, have a busy week ahead that includes a three game series against the third place Gothams in the Big Apple. Before they can look to New York, Detroit needs to finish its series in Philadelphia, which began with an 8-1 win yesterday, by playing the Keystones tonight before moving on to Boston for a pair of games. With just two of their final nine games at Thompson Field and five games remaining with the Gothams, Detroit might have the toughest road of the three Fed contenders.
The third place Gothams are looking up at two teams but have the luxury of playing their final eight games against either Detroit or St Louis. Before they can get there, however, the Gothams have one more game in Washington -they blasted the Eagles 11-5 yesterday- before moving to Pittsburgh for two games. New York has 11 left to play but eight of them will be on the road.
Six of second place St Louis' final 11 games will be at home but they spend this week travelling with stops in Washington for three games and then a 2-game weekend series against a Chicago Chiefs club that seems intent on upsetting the Fed contenders. The Chiefs won 10 in a row against the Big Three of the Fed to start the month but may have fallen back to earth after a rough week that saw they lose five straight. The Pioneers, who are two games back of Detroit, but only one behind in the loss column, hope they catch the Chiefs of this past week and not the powerhouse version of the Chicago club that began the month.
- 25-year-old second baseman Al Farmer has established himself as one of the offensive leaders of the Philadelphia Sailors, batting .309 with 18 homers and 80 rbi's in his third full season of big league play. Clearly becoming a star on the field and he was rewarded with his first trip to the All-Star Game back in July. Of the field, some teammates are suggesting that Farmer is far from an all-star in the clubhouse. In fact a couple of them reportedly sounded off about Farmer's selfish attitude in off the record comments to the Philadelphia Inquisitor with one going as far to say of Farmer "He's a bad influence on the team and a lot of guys are sick of him." Farmer scoffed at those opinions saying "if anyone has a real problem with me they should come and talk to me directly."
- Detroit first baseman Dick Estes homered against Philadelphia in the Dynamos 8-1 win at Broad Street Park yesterday. It was the 100th homerun of the 27 year old's career, making him the 97th FABL player to reach the century mark in long balls.
- Walt Staton continues to prove why he may end up being the biggest star the Brooklyn Kings received when they dealt Ralph Johnson and two other veterans to Detroit for a boatload of prospects in June. Staton recently blanked Cincinnati 8-0 on a 2-hit complete game shutout and is 6-3 with a 2.56 era since joining the Kings. Not bad for a 25-year-old pitcher who was selected in the second round of the rule five draft last December.
- The Toronto Wolves fell for the 100th time this season with a 2-1 extra inning loss to the New York Stars. The Wolves need to win 4 of their last 11 games to avoid tying or surpassing the 1911 Philadelphia Sailors for the most losses in a season by a Continental Association team. The Sailors went 46-108 that year. Toronto is 43-100 at the moment. The FABL record for futility is held by the 1935 Detroit Dynamos who finished with a 43-111 record. In 1890 the Pittsburgh Miners lost 112 games while winning only 28 but that was before FABL was formed.
TIGERS WIN IN ROUT IN AIAA GRID OPENER
Central Kentucky employed the deadly passing of Pete Capizzi and the down-the-middle bursts of fullback Ike Greathouse to grind out a 58-0 whitewashing of Cookeville State in the season opener at Lexington on Saturday. Warming up for bigger things to come- starting with a trip to Texas to face Travis College next week- the defending National Champions used the season opener mainly to give its sophomore and freshmen experience. Capizzi played only the first 20 minutes but completed 11 of 16 pass attempts for 175 yards and two touchdowns.
A slippery football and blinding rain for much of the game put offense at a premium in Tallahassee where Western Florida pulled out a surprising 3-3 tie against the Wyoming A&I Prospectors. In other action of note Alexandria dumped Queen City 44-7 while Chesapeake State was held to a 24-24 tie by Hamman.
WEEKEND COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS
Central Kentucky 58 Cookeville State 0
Western Florida 3 Wyoming A&I 3
Utah A&M 27 Snake River State 3
Bulein 55 Charleston (IL) 14
Valley State 49 El Paso Methodist 28
Alexandria 44 Queen City 7
Mile High State 73 Mountainview State 0
Lambert College 26 Abilene Methodist 3
Harvey College 21 Flagstaff State 14
Charleston Tech 40 Salisbury Christian 14
Canyon A&M 55 St. Xavier (TX) 27
Provo Tech 27 Western Montana 10
Chesapeake State 24 Hamman 24
COWBOYS PREPARE FOR PRO GRID TITLE DEFENSE
The start of the American Football Association's regular season is less than two weeks away as the Kansas City Cowboys look to continue their winning ways. After four seasons of dominating the Continental Football Conference, compiling a record of 45-16-1 and winning three league tiles in that loop the Cowboys, and two other CFC survivors joined the AFA for the 1950 season. There was much concern as to how well the newcomers would fare, could they compete with the established loop that has been around for three decades.
That is no longer a question mark, at least not in Kansas City's case after the Cowboys won the league championship game last December with a 30-20 triumph over the Pittsburgh Paladins. The Cowboys had some early struggles, losing two of their first three games, before Coach Pete Walsh and his crew found their footing and went on to win 8 of their final 9 regular season games before outscoring the Paladins in the title tilt.
The other two teams that moved leagues had much less success. The San Francisco Wings went just 3-8-1 while the New Orleans Crescents failed to win a game, tying the Wings in their season opener on the way to an 0-11-1 season. The Wings are back but the season was so bad for New Orleans that the Crescents have folded and the league is down to twelve teams.
The divisions have been revamped to a much more travel friendly East and West Division format. Gone is the one year old Continental and American divisions as the Cowboys and St Louis will swap divisions with Pittsburgh and Washington. The Cowboys also are set to open a brand new stadium that brings them on par with the rest of the league and allows the Cowboys to escape tiny Packer Park, the minor league baseball stadium that holds less than 15,000 and they called home since the club was born along with the rest of the CFC in 1946.
BOSTON'S DEFENSE MAKES BEES MOST TALENTED NAHC CLUB
If talent is the only factor than the Boston Bees should be the ones hoisting the Challenge Cup next spring, at least according to the annual preseason player rankings released by OSA each year. The league scouting service, which handles similar duties with professional baseball and basketball, believes Boston has the deepest collection of defense talent in the league and are not far off with their offense and goaltending either.
The annual player rankings suggest there are still just three players worthy of being considered five-star elite talent. They are all centers and are the same three players who held that standard a year ago in Boston's Wilbur Chandler, Tommy Burns of the Chicago Packers and Quinton Pollack of the Toronto Dukes. Interesting to note is the fact that while each of the three have won at least one McDaniels Trophy as league most valuable player, the winner each of the past two season has been New York Shamrocks center Orval Cabbell.
Cabbell is one of nine players classified as 3.5 star talent and, with absence of any judged to be 4 or 4.5 (near superstars) they makeup the second tier of elite talent. Those 3.5 star players are spread over five teams with only Toronto not laying claim to any -although the Dukes do have Pollack and five players rated at 3 stars. Boston, Montreal, New York and Detroit each have two with the Motors in a rather interesting position of having both of their top players being goaltenders, while Chicago has the ninth member of the 3.5 star club in rough and tumble rearguard Bert McColley.
Here is a chart of all players rated at least 2.5 stars by the scouting service and the overall rankings for each team.
NAHC PRESEASON SCHEDULE
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 27
Montreal at Chicago
Detroit at Boston
Toronto at New York
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28
New York at Montreal
Boston at Toronto
Chicago at Detroit
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 30
Toronto at Detroit
New York at Chicago
Montreal at Boston
FORMER SHAMROCKS SIGN WITH COAST LOOP
Laurel Albers, who spent a decade in the NAHC with Toronto and New York, has signed with the Tacoma Lions of the Great Western Hockey League. The 32-year-old center played just 5 games for the Shamrocks last season while spending the bulk of the year with their HAA affiliate, the Philadelphia Rascals, but prior to that was an assistant captain for the Shamrocks. New York released him over the summer.
The Burnaby, BC native broke in with the Toronto Dukes as a 21-year-old in 1940-41, notching 15 goals and 48 points in 48 games, numbers good enough to help Albers win the McLeod Trophy as the NAHC's top rookie. He would spend the next six and a half seasons in Toronto, being an integral piece of two Dukes Cup winners. Midway through the 1946-47 season with the Dukes struggling on the ice and plenty of tension in the dressing room, Albers was dealt to the Shamrocks in exchange for Philippe Dubois, who remains with Toronto to this day.
Albers would be named an assistant captain by the Shamrocks in the fall of 1947 and scored 20 goals and 59 points in 60 games that season. He dipped to 25 points the following year and then has spent most of his time since in the minors with the exception of the 5 game stint in New York a year ago. In all, Albers has played 418 NAHC regular season games, notching 106 goals and 218 assists.
Albers is not the only former Shamrock to sign with the western loop. Defenseman Anthony Lehman, 28, recently agreed to a two year deal with the San Francisco Wings. Another west coast native, the Kamloops born rearguard spent five seasons patrolling the Shamrocks blueline between 1944 and 1949, appearing in 162 games and scoring 15 goals while accumulating 42 points.
SAWYER FINAL FIGHT DREW GATE OF $80,000 JUST IN THEATERS ALONE
There were far more than the more than 55,000 on hand at Gothams Stadium just over a week ago that witnessed Hector Sawyer's final heavyweight fight. The Cajun Crusher, who has held the title since 1940 and won by technical knockout in the 8th round over Max Bradley, was also a big draw in movie theaters.
There was no home television broadcasts of the bout but Fourteen theaters in 11 cities showed the fight on their screens and were charging figures running from $2 to $2.60. The total crowd, including standing room, approached 40,000 spectators.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- September 19- New Britain, CT: former welterweight champion Ira Mitchell (25-6) vs Heinie Verplanck (23-7-1)
- September 26- New Bedford, MA: rising heavyweight contender Joey Tierney (23-1) vs Shawn Nance (14-6)
- September 30 - Thompson Palladium, Detroit: former middleweight champion Millard Shelton (31-6) vs Mark Tucker (13-7)
- September 30- Denny Arena, Boston: veteran heavyweight Matt Price (42-13-4) vs Steve Clark (10-2)
- October 5- Bigsby Garden, New York: World welterweight champion Danny Rutledge (24-1-1) defends his ABF title against Britain's Danny Julian (31-3-2)
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 9/16/1951
- Citing personal reasons, Gen. George C. Marshall resigned as Secretary of Defense. Truman nominated Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Lovett to succeed him.
- President Truman blasted those that criticize Government spending, adding that the Nation is economically stronger than ever before.
- Rockets of the type used by the Russians in WWII have landed behind Allied lines on Korea's east central front. Allied forces have also increased bombing attacks on the Communist defenses.
- Leaders from North Atlantic Council nations are gathering in Ottawa where they are expected to extend the Atlantic alliance to include Greece and Turkey.
- Britain tightened a financial squeeze on money-short Iran by cancelling Iran's rights to convert startling into dollars and by withdrawing other benefits Iran enjoyed under the Anglo-Iranian oil agreement.