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JULY 8, 1963

FABL All-Stars Unveiled
Only Williams and Dellinger Unanimous

It's that time of the year again, as FABL fans, players, and scouts decided who would represent the Federal and Continental Associations at Hennepin County Stadium in Minnesota. As you might expect, no Miller will be in attendance without purchasing a ticket, as they're one of the teams who won't be sending players

I'm not sure which is a bigger oversight, no Turk Ramsey (.296, 24, 64) or Frenchy Mack (12-3, 1.29, 117) being left off four ballots, but as with every year there is plenty of controversy with the final selections. Instead of dwelling on that, let's look at some of the brightest stars, including the two unanimous choices. One in each association.

Harry Dellinger (.355, 22, 70, 19) was the Fed's lone unanimous, as the Keystones star center fielder was the obvious choice. Sure, Ed MacNaughton (.337, 11, 51, 10) is more then worthy of representing the Fed, but Dellinger has just been on another level. The speedy star has hit an outstanding .355/.382/.606 (163 OPS+) in the first half, adding 17 doubles, 7 triples, 22 homers, 70 RBIs, 70 runs, and 19 steals. The 6.1 WAR he's accumulated in 89 games would be a career best for at least 60% of the league, as the flashy defender is showing everyone just why he's a Whitney and Kellogg winner making his 4th All-Star appearance.

Hank Williams (.362, 23, 77) gets the nod in the Continental, as there's no one better to start first base for the All-Star squad then the 3-Time Whitney winner. The best hitter in baseball, no one has driven in more then his 77 RBIs, and just spend one afternoon watching him take hacks with no one else on the field and you'll be amazed beyond your wildest beliefs. A pure hitter with slug, a strong eye, and an ability to put the ball in play, Williams has maintained elite production for six seasons, each so far getting him an All-Star selection. As is, 1963 may only be his fourth best season, as he's hit "just" .362/.450/.676 (195 OPS+) and isn't on track to win a batting title or home run title, but his 1.126 OPS and 4.9 WAR are tops in the Conti. Add in 22 doubles, 23 homers, and 72 runs, and it's just another chapter in the ever-thickening book of Hank Williams accomplishments.

Williams and his Kings lead the Conti with 5 selections, but no one has more then the 6 that the defending champion Pioneers brought. The Eagles and Keystones each have 5, while all Continental teams were able to bring at least one player. Along with the Millers, neither the Minutemen or Suns get a representative.

Below is a list of the All-Stars and the breakdown between teams:

Among the players selected, 28 were first-time selections. Interestingly, they come from 16 of the 17 teams that brought players, as while all five of the teams with only one representative had a first time All-Star. The 17th team, the Chicago Cougars, sent four players, with Pug White (8-3, 14, 2.48, 58) going for the third time as Gene Case (.288, 17, 54, 9), Jack Gibson (.280, 20, 46), and Henry Watson (.340, 18, 64, 6) are each making their second trip. There were even three double digit All-Stars, with Buddy Miller (.284, 10, 39, 4) making his 10th trip, Ken Newman (.296, 16, 51, 5) made trip 11, and Adrian Czerwinski (10-3, 2.64, 91) made his 12th, the most among active players. He joins former teammate Rufus Barrell and former Gothams Red Johnson and Ed Bowman for the 3rd most selections. Both Bobby Barrell and George Cleaves have both made 13 trips, while Bill Barrett stands a top the rest at 15. Most impressively, the three multi-multi time All-Stars got their selections all with the team that drafted them.

Last year's contest saw the Fed win just their second All-Star game in the last seven years, winners of 13 of the 30 previous contests. Last year's saw 17 runs and 23 hits, as the Fed came out ahead at Cougars Stadium by the score of 10-7. A late rally did the trick, as after Billy Hasson was hit hard early, the Fed kept chipping away at the lead. Eventually, Rod Shearer scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning and drove in two more in the ninth for insurance, allowing Washington's Otto Caudill to finish the Continental off in the bottom half.

Here's a look at the Midsummer's Classic past results:

New Leader in the Fed: Dynamos Claim Top Spot

After absolutely dismantling the Pioneers in Detroit and St. Louis, the Detroit Dynamos now look down on the rest of the Federal Association, entering the All-Star break with a one game lead. It's often that the team who leads at the break, leads at the end, so even with the minimal separation, it's a big moral victory for the Motor City squad.

In both locations, the Dynamos took three out of four, with them leaving St. Louis with a huge series win. In each of the wins they scored 6, winning 6-2, 6-3, and 6-3. The 6-2 was a rare misstep from Frenchy Mack (12-3, 1.29, 117), as the somehow-not-unanimous-to-be-the-first-Fed-pitcher allowed 10 hits, 5 runs, and a walk with just 7 strikeouts. Fear not Mack fans, he was back to shutting opponents out in LA, 8 scoreless with 3 hits, a walk, and 4 strikeouts, but St. Louis needed their ace to deliver, and when the pressure was on he let a good offense get to him.

Dave Irwin (8-3, 2, 3.76, 34) delivered, Jim Norris (11-2, 3.64, 77), and John Jackson (7-4, 3.10, 69) delivered, as the just Paul Anderson (10-5, 3.46, 59) had trouble with the Pioneer lineup. The 6-Time All-Star was tagged for 9 hits, 7 runs (4 earned), and 4 walks, striking out 6 in 7.2 innings pitched. Last year's All-Star game starter Billy Hasson (10-4, 3.78, 95) was far better, just 3 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), and 5 strikeouts in 8 dominant innings, but even in the 7-2 win it was more singles for the generally potent Pioneer offense. Perhaps in need of some rest, they didn't look sharp until they were in LA, winning three of four on the road to end the first half 56-27. Two wins shy of the Dynamos, they're almost on even foot schedule wise, but they're down in a position they're not all that familiar with.

Leading the Fed for almost all of this season and last, St. Louis has a brutal start to the second half, 14 games in 12 days, with the first 8 all on the road. Luckily, they avoid the Dynamos until late August, as they are just 2-8 against the new association leaders. Only two non-expansion teams have a worse head-to-head record, as the Stars are 8-0 against Montreal, and the Pioneers are 7-0 against the Keystones. Lucky for them, the Keystones are who they kick things off against, giving them an opportunity to pick up some early wins. It'll be huge, as Detroit gets Minnesota and Boston in Detroit, and four of their first six series are against those two bottom feeders. Things could get out of hand real quick, as right now the Dynamos look like an unstoppable force.

Tales From The Den
Toronto Heads to All-Star Break in Sixth at 44-42

Wolves rallied at the end of a week that started badly to head into the break with a 4-4 record for the week with three straight wins over the the Sailors. Finishing a 4 game series in Cleveland on Monday Charlie Davidson limited giving free passes to the Foresters then got hit early, often, 8 hits for 6 earned in 4 1/3 during 7-2 game that the Wolves were never in from the opening pitch. On to Dallas where the home side took 2 of 3 starting with a game in which Jimmy Pepper's move to the rotation is being questioned inside and outside the organization. Pepper, Fred Clark allowed the Wranglers 7 runs in 6 innings giving Dallas their 24th win of the year 8-3. Wolves captured the next game 11-0 in a score that seemed more lopsided than it actually was, 5 runs in the ninth including Joe Parker's first HR of the year made the score seem worse for Dallas fans. Before heading to SF the teams met Thursday in the rain, in a game Hohlt criticized the umpire crew saying that "We should never have played in those conditions," Medley's hot streak ended after giving up 4 runs in 5 to give the Wranglers a 5-0 lead. Medley tried to help his own cause with a 2 run shot in the 7th when the Wolves scored 4 make it a one-run game, that was as close as Toronto would get on this night.

Colantuono turned the game over to the 'pen leaving after 7 with the score 2-2. Zane Kelley, who Wolves knocked around last week, went 8 being relieved by Eddie Chapman who would get credit for the win when Sam Barnes' singled in Allan Griffen in the bottom of 9 off Bob Campbell whose wild pitch had allowed Griffen to take third before the walkoff. Toronto's rally began On Saturday when Davidson was strong for 7, he was helped by 4 HRs in a 6-2 final. The last day before the break was doubleheader at Golden Gate Stadium. The first game was a wild 13 inning affair that ended 13-10 for the Wolves. Chick Reed, who was recently snubbed in All-Star voting, tied a CA record with 3 HR in a game where he went 3 for 7 with 6 RBI in a game that took 4:35. In the second game Chick made his day 5 for 9 4 HR 8 RBI in the sweep with a 7-1 score. He enters the break with a line of .315/.319/.554 23 HR 55 RBI but no invitation to the ASG being held in Minnesota. The other newsworthy item was that Arnie Smith won his second game of the week pitching into the 6th in both starts after his recent struggles with tiring early in games.

Although the rest is good, pitching staff is out of gas, the Wolves get right back into the fray Thursday with a short 5 day, 7 game stay at home against the Kings then the Cougars. Brett is learning that Hohlt may have use six starters to cover 6 games in 4 days next week. Changes to the entire pitching staff are said to be coming during the 3 days off.

• Tom Lorang (.374, 20, 68, 7) is back to doing what he does, taking home his third Player of the Week award. The now 2-Time All-Star went 15-for-28, upping his season line to .374/.466/.635 (191 OPS+) with 11 doubles, 9 triples, 20 homers, 68 RBIs, and 7 runs scored. Lorang enters the second half with the highest batting average in the Fed, 3rd in RBIs, and 1st in WAR (6.6).
• One of the many snubs, Ed Savage (.320, 13, 49) at least got a Player of the Week award, as the graduated 9th ranked prospect was 13-for-29 with 5 runs, 3 doubles, 2 homers, and 6 RBIs. One of the many talented rookies in the Conti this season, the 25-year-old Savage is hitting .320/.409/.528 (144 OPS+) with a 159 WRC+, 32 extra base hits, 39 runs, 49 RBIs, and 42 walks. A big part of the Wolves offense, he's one of the many players that should be at the game in Minneapolis instead of Wrangler reserve outfielder Elmer Piper (.390, 3, 19) or Imperial leadoff man Vern Reynolds (.282, 8, 28).
• No snub was as major as FABL home run leader Turk Ramsey (.296, 24, 64) was not included on the All-Star roster. The 28-year-old is hitting a strong .296/.315/.548 (124 OPS+) with 24 homers, 46 runs, and 64 RBIs. Picking Reynolds over him was a surprise in its own, as all Reynolds really does better then Ramsey is draw more walks.
• Brutal news in Boston, as 25-year-old outfielder Frank Kirouac (.279, 3, 22, 2) suffered a major setback in his recovery. Expected to miss just over four weeks with inflammation, as he was ramping back up, he felt more pain in his shoulder. The prognosis was bad, and Kirouac had to undergo major surgery to fix the new tear. Expected to miss the rest of the season, he got into 52 games, hitting .279/.382/.393 (107 OPS+) with 10 doubles, 3 homers, 22 RBIs, and 28 walks.
• Boston will now continue with former 5th pick Bobby Martinez (.290, 11, 5), who they picked up with Andy Logue (4-9, 4.37, 62) from the Cougars before the season for last year's All-Star game winner, Don Griffin (6-3, 3.31, 49). Martinez is coming off back-to-back three hit games, and has hit .444/.531/.593 (199 OPS+) to start July.
• July 7th was one of the craziest games of the season, as the Wolves outlasted the Sailors 13-10. Things started getting crazy in the 8th, where the Wolves rallied for 8 runs as Sam Franklin (4-1, 3.98, 46) imploded after a strong start. The Sailors battled back for 2 in the 8th and 3 in the 9th to tie it, forcing extras. The first three frames saw nothing, but Chick Reed's (.315, 23, 55) third homer of the game broke the tie. Toronto got two more runs, winning despite being out-hit 25 to 18. Five of those came from Ernie Carter (.283, 3, 51, 10), who was 5-for-8 with a double. Between the two teams, 16 extra base hits were collected, 7 of which were homers.
• The Kings are in the middle of a monster road trip. So far they are 8-3 on the trip, but they have 6 games in the next 4 days after the All-Star game in Toronto and Cincinnati through Sunday. That is not the end of the trip either, as they will have one more game in Cincinnati and then head to the Windy City for 3 more against a Cougars team that will be loaded to strike and claw back some games. All in all 21 games away from home, 3 doubleheaders in 9 days. If that doesn't wear on this group then maybe we have something special going on.
• C Bob Burge (.283, 4, 27) asked for a few days off as he was exhausted after the last week. With so many games (10) in 8 days, we will be using a lot of our bench this week after the All-Star break. Hopefully everyone will get rejuvenated with the 3 days off. Burge will get that Thursday off (DH vs Toronto) as both Rule 5 C's Art Biggs (.209, 3, 1) and Lyman Chandler (.253, 2, 15, 2) will start those games. I believe that the only position player that is not scheduled to start a game will be OF/PH Jim Allen (.161, 4) who has struggled mightily at the plate this season. I like that he is a switch hitter so he will remain, otherwise Vern Boyd would have been up long ago.
• Kings medical staff will be watching injured CF Tom Hicks (.303, 3, 23, 7) closely this week to see if he is ready to come back. He will remain on the DL at least until next Monday. In his place, Ben Crawford (.309, 2, 13, 3) has taken over in center.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 07/07/1963

• ZIP Codes were introduced in the United States, as the U.S. Department of the Post Office kicked off a massive advertising campaign that included the cartoon character "Mr. ZIP", and the mailing that day of more than 72,000,000 postcards to every mailing address in the United States, in order to inform the addressees of their new five digit postal code.
• The crash of a Varig DC-3 airliner in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state killed 15 of the 18 people on board. The flight was approaching the airport at Passo Fundo on the second-leg of a scheduled trip from Porto Alegre when it impacted trees.
• Abdullah bin Khalifa, 53, Sultan of Zanzibar since 1960, died two days after undergoing emergency surgery. He was succeeded by his son, Jamshid bin Abdullah.
• Bad week for the travel industry, as Mohawk Airlines Flight 121, a Martin 4-0-4, crashed on takeoff at Rochester, New York, in the United States, killing 7 of the 43 people on board and injuring all 36 survivors. The plane was flying to White Plains, New York and, according to a witness "just as the craft began roaring down the runway for a take-off torrents of rain and hail pummeled it." The next day all 23 passengers and crew on New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 were killed when the Douglas DC-3, flew into a vertical rock face in New Zealand's Kaimai Ranges near Mount Ngatamahinerua.
• The 13th Berlin International Film Festival concluded. The Golden Bear was jointly awarded to Il diavolo by Gian Luigi Polidoro and Bushidô zankoku monogatari by Tadashi Imai.
• The Constitution of Austria was amended to ease the 1919 act that had declared that "In the interest of the security of the Republic the former holders of the Crown and other members of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen are banished from the country", providing an exception for descendants of the former monarchs if they elected to "expressly renounce their membership of this House"
• A delegation from the People's Republic of China, led by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, departed from Beijing on a train bound for Moscow, to attend talks in an effort to repair the poor relations between the Chinese Communists and Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• The U.S. Senate set a new record for briefest session by meeting at 9:00 a.m., and then adjourning three seconds later. There were only two Senators present for the meeting. The previous record for brevity had been a five-second meeting on September 4, 1951.
• In Iowa, sale of liquor, by the drink, was legal for the first time in more than 40 years. A restaurant in the lakes resort area in northwest Iowa became the site of the first legal drink.
• Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Leone won on a vote of confidence in the Italian Senate, 133–110.
• McDonnell Aircraft Corporation began the first phase of Spacecraft Systems Tests (SST) on the instrumentation pallets to be installed in Gemini spacecraft No. 1. Gemini's inertial guidance system computer was integrated with the rest of the control systems, and all spacecraft wiring was found to be compatible with the computer, and operating with complete accuracy.
• The Roman Catholic Church relaxed itse ban on cremation as a funeral practice, when Pope Paul VI issued the Instruction that "the burning of the body, after all, has no effect on the soul, nor does it inhibit Almighty God from re-establishing the body", although the decision would not be revealed until May 2, 1964.
• The Vanoise National Park, located in the department of Savoie in the French Alps, was designated France's first National Park.
• In the first round of Argentina's presidential election, Dr. Arturo Illia won a 25 percent plurality of the popular votes (2,441,064) and 169 of the 476 Electoral College votes, seventy short of a majority. Another physician, Dr. Oscar Alende, finished with 16.4%, and former General Pedro Aramburu was third.
• Seven people, including four children, were killed, and 17 injured, when a pilotless FJ-4 Fury jet fighter crashed into gatherers at a family reunion at the Green Hills Day Camp in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The pilot had ejected after the plane malfunctioned while he was attempting to land at the nearby Willow Grove Naval Air Station, and the jet crashed into a baseball field, killing one man, then skidded into a bathhouse where 50 people had been swimming or standing around the pool.
• In a fight between South Vietnamese government police and U.S. reporters, secret police loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked American journalists including Peter Arnett and David Halberstam at a demonstration during the Buddhist crisis.