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Old 06-20-2019, 03:59 PM   #61
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1923 - Flying High Again

For baseball fans in the nation's capital, the 1922 season had been a thrilling ride with their hometown Eagles claiming the first pennant in nearly a decade, but it ended on a sour note when Washington was crushed under the heels of the Chicago Cougars. So 1923 represented a brand-new chance at the ultimate prize - a world championship. And the Eagles did repeat as Federal champs and found themselves with a World Series foe that few had expected to reach the championship series (much as few had given the Eagles a chance the year before).

That foe? The Brooklyn Kings. The Kings had been one of the Border Association's original franchises and won a couple of titles in the Continental Association's forerunner. With the formation of FABL, the Kings' fortunes had taken a downturn - they were second in 1892 and then dropped steadily and remained one of the Continental's also-rans for the better part of two decades before winning a surprise pennant in 1912 (where they were buzz-sawed by the Boston Minutemen in the Series). The advent of the farm system and amateur draft had since supplied the Kings with a steady supply of young players and a series of second-division finishes allowed them to build again. But the process was slow and after finishing third in both 1921 and 1922, the Kings arrived in 1923. They held off the defending champion Cougars by a scant one-game margin, winning 10 of their last 12 ballgames to do so.

Brooklyn did have a bona-fide star in catcher Paul Tattersall. The veteran backstop was the premier power hitter in the Continental, especially after Montreal's Hal Eason was dealt to the Keystones in 1922. Tattersall won the home run crown for the fourth straight season, belting 29 dingers to go with a .283 average and 103 RBIs. They also had 3B Glenn Mowles, a 30-year-old third baseman who hit .323 with 12 homers and 84 RBIs. What put them over the top in 1923 was the pitching, led by Bob Schmid, who won 20 games against 8 losses and had a 3.00 ERA - both the wins and ERA were third-best in the league.


Glenn Mowles

The Cougars may have finished second - and by just a game - but they also saw Bill Ross become an ace. The 26-year-old native of Lexington, TN had been a 1916 2nd round pick and had been with the Cougars since 1920, steadily improving each year and breaking out in 1923 with a 24-8, 3.13 ERA and 145 strikeout season, leading the league in both wins and strikeouts and being the top pitcher on the league's stingiest staff. John Dibblee hit .348 - and led the league, Jack Gray .334 and Art Panko led the league with 122 RBIs (Gray was 2nd with 113), but some off years by the supporting cast played a significant role in the club's diminished win total. They played well down the stretch, but Washington played just that little bit better.

Cleveland finished four back and in third place. The Foresters featured the league's top run-scoring lineup. Carl Martin hit 24 homers, but only drove in 66 runs and hit only .259, which was significantly below the league average. Leadoff man and RF Danny Clark hit .296 and drove in 85 while swiping a league-leading 44 bases. SS Buddy Lane hit a team-best .321 and the pitching was good too: Mose Smith went 23-15 with a 3.13 ERA, Bob Lawrence was 16-12, 3.21 and overall they were second in the Continental with 676 runs allowed. Had their pitching been even slightly better they might have been able to swipe the pennant. As it was, it was "wait until next year" in Cleveland again.

Fourth-place Montreal was 7.5 back. 3B Joe Ward hit .347 to finish just behind Dibblee for the batting title and CF Bert Harman hit .334 out of the leadoff spot. Pitcher Stan Waters' 2.37 ERA was tops in the league and Wayne Robinson went 20-13 with a 3.51 ERA. The Stars finished fifth with an even 77-77 record; 1B Job Readus led the team with a .306 average and the Stars had a pair of 20-game winners in Luke Smith (20-13, 3.36) and Pete Scanlon (20-16, 3.93). Philadelphia was sixth - CF David Merchant hit .337 in his second season and, like New York, the Sailors had two 20-game winners (John White: 20-14, 2.98 and Rube Smith: 20-13, 3.41). Baltimore dropped down in the standings for the third-straight year, this time to seventh with a 67-87 record. Part of the reason was the first "down" season for Powell Slocum whose run of 11 straight batting titles came to an end. He still hit a team-best .320 and finished the season with 3951 hits and a .378 average. His competitive nature might have played a role in his off-year - he was not shy about bemoaning the poor state of the team (he also missed former manager Walter Love who had managed Baltimore from 1896-1920 and was the only skipper Slocum had known); some wondered if he'd gripe his way into a trade. There were no real bright spots for Toronto, who finished last with a 65-88 record - the offense was the league's worst and the pitching was second-worst.

There were a trio of clubs vying to topple the Eagles from their perch atop the Federal standings. All three finished 6.5 games back when the dust settled. Washington's 1923 season epitomized the approach preached by longtime manager Henry Potts: "concentrate on doing everything well and you can be exceptional." The Eagles did not lead the league in runs scored (they were 3rd) and didn't allow the fewest either (2nd) but they were well-rounded in all aspects and that carried them through. LF Paul Bailey was the closest thing to a hitting star on the team - he led Washington with a .313 average, 12 homers and 106 RBIs. 3B Glenn Morrison hit .339 in a season abbreviated by a broken hand that sidelined him for three months and CF John Cobb hit .333 while missing time with a fractured wrist and a sprained ankle. The ace of the team was Henry Horn, whose 22 victories tied him for first in the league (he was 22-10, 3.64).


Harry Horn

St. Louis was one of the three clubs tied for second. Max Morris had a near-Triple Crown season, thwarted by Detroit's Dick York whose .390 average led all of FABL. Morris hit .368, topped his own home run record by hitting a nice, round 60, and drove in 147 runs. Unfortunately, SS Roger Landry missed about six weeks of the season with a variety of ailments - while healthy he hit .361 with 15 homers and 95 RBIs in 421 at-bats. The Pioneers also unveiled a possible third star in LF Art Charles. The 24-year-old came up from Dayton and looked very good, going 33-for-65 with six doubles and four triples. While no one was going to hit over .500, that looked like a promising start to Charles' big league career.

Pittsburgh's 82-70 record was identical to that of St. Louis. With Bob Simmon (20-15, 3.57) and Willie Couillard (19-13, 3.44) leading the way, the Miners had the league's best pitching. The offense wasn't bad either with RF Bob Grant (.354-7-92) and CF Clint Casstevens (.311-9-102) both very good and the team hit .302 as a group, 2nd-best in the league (they were fourth in runs scored). Chicago was the third of the second-place clubs (they were 83-71). Denny Wren posted a 20-14, 3.50 line to lead the pitchers and the Chiefs had a pair of 15-homer guys in 3B Joe Masters (.298-15-118) and LF Eddie Gaiser (.298-15-86).

Detroit finished fifth, 11 games off the pace with a 78-75 record. They had the batting champ in Dick York who had a great season with a .390 average as the Dynamos backstop. They also had 1B Danny James, who hit 28 homers and drove in 122 runs, both good for third in the Federal Association. What Detroit did not have was good pitching - they were dead last in runs allowed with only John Reay having a respectable year (18-8, 3.37). The Gothams were sixth; star second baseman Ed Ziehl had a second-straight season ravaged by injury - a knee injury this season limited the Lion to just 305 at-bats and lingering effects had his average drop to .305; worst for the Gothams was that without Ziehl, they were not a good club. New York did make a trade that paid off nicely, acquiring pitcher Delos Dunn from Baltimore in April - he went 20-9 with a 3.90 ERA. Boston was seventh - the Minutemen were faced with a full rebuild after the false hope engendered by their identical 79-75 records the previous two seasons. The Keystones finished last for a fourth-straight season. There was a bright spot in Philly's otherwise dark season: they had spent their first-overall draft pick on a first-baseman/outfielder from Memphis, TN by the name of Rankin Kellogg. He was, according to one scout, "a combination of Slocum's bat control and Morris' powerful swing." He was definitely going to be one to watch.

The World Series wasn't much of a nailbiter. The Kings simply couldn't handle Washington's fundamentally sound, all-around prowess. The Kings won game one by a narrow 5-4 margin, and it took 11 innings to do so. The Eagles won the next four games and the Series itself was a coming out party for rookie catcher T.R. Goins. Named after former US President Theodore Roosevelt, Goins was dubbed "Rough Rider" by his team mates while playing in Atlanta. Goins started the '23 season with the Peaches, hit .368 in 95 at-bats (after hitting .330 the year before) and got himself promoted to Washington. His rookie numbers of .298-8-78 weren't eye-popping, but he had great power potential and was a good catcher with a strong arm. Like Kellogg, he was primed to be one of the next generation of FABL stars. He previewed that by hitting .500 for the World Series with a home run and 9 RBIs in 18 at-bats.

The 1923 Continental Whitney Award went to David Merchant, the talented young star CF of the Sailors, who led the league in hits (210) and runs scored (111) while hitting .337 with 35 doubles, 20 triples and 12 homers. Max Morris was again the recipient of the Federal's Whitney Award, making it five straight for the Pioneers' big slugger.


David Merchant

Bill Williams, the fiery Chicago Chiefs (and ex-Brooklyn) manager was the first to be fired after the season. His confrontational style seemed ill-suited for the Chiefs and he was let go after five seasons at the helm despite tying for second-place in the Fed race in 1923.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Washington Eagles		89	64	.582	-	799	685
Pittsburgh Miners		82	70	.539	6½	771	670
St. Louis Pioneers		82	70	.539	6½	814	778
Chicago Chiefs			83	71	.539	6½	764	761
Detroit Dynamos			78	75	.510	11	819	822
New York Gothams		72	82	.468	17½	725	789
Boston Minutemen		65	87	.428	23½	699	776
Philadelphia Keystones		60	92	.395	28½	657	767
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Brooklyn Kings			86	68	.558	-	743	681
Chicago Cougars			85	69	.552	1	739	661
Cleveland Foresters		82	72	.532	4	744	676
Montreal Saints			78	75	.510	7½	725	697
New York Stars			77	77	.500	9	698	732
Philadelphia Sailors		75	79	.487	11	652	696
Baltimore Clippers		67	87	.435	19	677	744
Toronto Wolves			65	88	.425	20½	642	733
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Old 06-21-2019, 02:33 PM   #62
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1924 - Be Careful What You Wish For

By the end of the 1923 season Powell Slocum was generally acknowledged as the greatest hitter in the nearly 50-year history of professional baseball. He was 37 years old, a 15-time batting champion, three-time World champion and was also known as a good leader on and off the field (although he was known to have a bit of a temper at times). When longtime manager Walter Love retired at the end of the 1920 season, Slocum found himself playing for another manager for the first time since joining the Clippers in 1905. He didn't mesh well with Davey Kincaid who was much more of a tactical manager than Love had been. By the end of the '23 season, which saw him post his worst average ever (a still respectable .320) and with the team falling into seventh place, Slocum decided he wanted out - going directly to owner Oscar Jones with his demand for a trade. Jones refused but Slocum threatened to retire, so the owner acquiesced. Kincaid found a good deal with Brooklyn - who had just won the pennant and fit Slocum's desire to both remain in the Continental (where he knew all the pitchers) and go to a contending club. Baltimore received SS Jesse Moore and RF Dick Hand while Brooklyn received Slocum, P Phil Miller and SS Jack Van Landingham. Slocum was happy and things looked promising for the Ragland Ripper. But that wouldn't last.


Powell Slocum

Slocum played well and the Kings were contending - the pitching was a bit weak and they entered July in third place, six games off the pace set by surprise front-running Philadelphia. Brooklyn had catcher Paul Tattersall, an aging catcher whose replacement, Mickey Dowell, appeared more than ready to step in. The New York Gothams had a disgruntled pitcher, Danny Goff, they needed to deal. So a trade was made - Goff and fellow pitcher Leon Campbell for Tattersall. Goff's first five starts with Brooklyn were tremendous - he went 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA and then he hurt his elbow on July 21st, ending his season. The injury also ended Brooklyn's season. The Kings were 47-40, 6.5 games back of the Sailors in third place on the 21st. When the season ended two months later, they were 67-87, 22.5 back of the pennant-winning New York Stars and in last place. Slocum hit .331, nursed a hamstring injury, and was just as unhappy in October of '24 as he had been a year earlier. Brooklyn, unlike Baltimore, fired their manager, replacing him with.... yep, Powell Slocum.

Baltmore, for their part, finished fourth with an 80-73 record. Jesse Moore stepped in as the new shortstop and hit .327 as the leadoff man. Dick Hand hit .302, splitting time in right with Sandy Lovelle (who hit .342) as replacements for Slocum. The Clippers pitching staff turned it around, finishing third in the league with 647 runs allowed. Max Wilder went 18-12 with a 2.97 ERA, Oscar Jefferson won 19 games and Ken Carpenter went 16-15 with a 3.27 ERA.

As mentioned above, the Continental pennant was won by the Stars. New York returned to the top with a second-half surge. They were eight games back of the Sailors on July 1st, 4.5 on August 1st and had tied Philly by September 1st before winning the flag by eight over the Sailors and Montreal Saints. Luke Smith pitched well when healthy, going 11-5 with a 2.39 ERA in 177 innings over 23 games (22 starts) and Pete Scanlon went 21-13 with a 3.37 ERA to lead the league's top pitching staff. The offense was tops as well with 1B Job Readus leading the league with 204 hits and finishing with a .324 average and 92 RBIs (3rd best in the CA) and former first-rounder Gordie Loftus hitting .315 with 10 homers and 89 RBIs.


Pete Scanlon

Though the ending was a disappointment, the 1924 season was a step forward for the Philadelphia Sailors. They were in first-place for the bulk of the season before faltering down the stretch which was a vast improvement for a team that hadn't finished higher than fourth since 1898. Pitcher Rube Smith had his best season ever (and did it at age 31) with a 22-9 record and 2.21 ERA - both tops in the Continental. Rod Kratz added a 13-9, 2.82 stat line in 27 games after joining the team from AAA San Francisco and overall the Sailors were second in both runs allowed and ERA to the pennant-winning Stars. A season-ending shoulder injury to David Merchant in late July stripped the offense of its best player and with Merchant (.332-7-53) the team struggled to score runs, falling all the way to seventh in runs scored. Philly fans could only wonder "what if?" when it came to Merchant's injury and the club's pennant chances.

Montreal finished tied with the Sailors at 81-72 in second place. Catcher Sam Sanderson placed third in the league in homers with 12, but had just a .214 batting average while second baseman Edwin Segovia was second in RBIs with 94 (he hit .301). The Saints pitching was average which held back the league's second-ranked run-scoring outfit. Behind the fourth-place Clippers were the Cougars and Foresters, tied with identical 72-81 records. The Cougars had the batting & RBI champ (Art Panko with a .348 average and 102 RBIs) and the Foresters the league's home run king (Carl Martin with 35) and stolen base leader (Danny Clark, 45). The Cougars also had one good pitcher in Bill Ross who led the league in strikeouts (129) and was second in wins with a 21-15 record despite a 3.70 ERA (overall the team was seventh in pitching). Cleveland's best pitcher was Mose Smith and he went 16-20 despite a relatively good 3.25 ERA as the Foresters placed sixth in runs scored.

Seventh-place Toronto was just a game back of the Cougars & Foresters at 71-83. Toronto added a good hitter via trade in RF Jack Mack, acquired from the Eagles during the offseason. Seeing his first full-time action, Mack hit .312 with 33 doubles and 17 triples and was the Wolves' best hitter leading them in average, homers (9), RBIs (80) and steals (33). The pitching remained an issue. Brooklyn, as mentioned above, ended up last - the blame for their collapse remains a subject for debate, although the injury to Goff was certainly a factor.


Jack Mack

The Federal had a great race. Pittsburgh, New York and Washington each finished with 85 victories. Only the fact that the Miners played two fewer games, and therefore had fewer losses, than the Gothams and Eagles, made Pittsburgh the pennant winners. This situation was somewhat controversial and was discussed at the winter meetings where it was determined that makeup games would have to be played in the future to prevent this from happening again. Regardless, for 1924, the Miners were Fed Champs. They had the league's top pitcher in Carl Mellen who led in both ERA (2.95) and wins (he went 26- 7) and a second 20-game winner in Bob Simmon (21-12, 3.30) as part of the league's stingiest staff. The offense was pretty good too: CF Clint Casstevens hit .334 and led the league in hits (217), doubles (54) and triples (26), adding 8 homers and 115 RBIs (2nd in the league).


Carl Mellen

The Gothams had a strong season, at least partially due to having most of a season out of the oft-injured Ed Ziehl. The longtime face of the franchise was now 37 years old and hadn't played 150 games or more since 1921. The Gothams got 122 games out of him in '24 and he hit .333, collecting 155 hits and pushing his career total over the 3000-hit mark. Moxie Nelson, acquired a few years back from Baltimore, had his best season since his Clipper days in a mixed starter-reliever role that saw him go 17-9 with a 3.15 ERA with 26 starts and 14 relief appearances covering 240 innings. They did have issues with pitching depth and a second solid arm would likely have meant their first pennant since 1896.

Washington's run at the top halted (at least for one season) thanks largely to uneven pitching. The lineup was dynamic: young T.R. Goins was becoming a true star. The second-year catcher hit .354 with 16 homers and 114 RBIs, teaming with 3B Glenn Morrison (.340-6-101) to give the Eagles one of the league's best one-two punches. Add in LF Paul Bailey (.321-7-87) and 1B George Clark (.338-3-84) and Washington's top-ranking in runs scored (and most other offensive categories) was no surprise.

Chicago was fourth and could have used some of that Washington offense (the Chiefs were dead last in runs scored) because the pitching was pretty solid. The Chiefs had a pair of 20-game winners in Denny Wren (20-15, 3.89) and Red Adwell (21-16, 3.75) and allowed the second-fewest runs in the Fed. St. Louis, the fifth-place finisher, had Max Morris miss 40 games (he still put up a solid .346-26-96 stat line) which short-circuited their chances at a pennant, especially when you factor in the .347-16-121 line of LF Art Charles and the ever-talented Roger Landry's .343-11-78 output. The Pioneers gave 1B Mike Cann a little more playing time in '24 and he seemed to hold up pretty well with a .380 average and 33 doubles in just 368 at-bats after posting .356 and .321 averages in just over 100 at-bats each of the past two seasons. St. Louis' problem was - again - a lack of pitching.


Roger 'Rip" Landry

Boston was a game worse than St. Louis. They handed the starting 2B job to Frank Todd and went out and won the batting title with a .356 average (he also added 24 doubles, 18 triples and 8 homers), scored 92 runs and drove in 79. He looked like a keeper and as a native of Vermont, was likely to become a fan favorite in New England. Detroit's season was very similar to St. Louis' - they had good hitting with Dick York (.348-5-80), Danny James (.305-29-114) and Red Lange (.335-11-54) but the pitching (aside from John Reay's 17-15, 3.58) was poor and in fact allowed the most runs in the Fed Association. James ended up tied with Morris for 2nd in homers and York was third in average. The home run crown went to former Montreal Saint and now Philly Keystone CF Hal Eason. Eason followed up his 43 bombs in 1923 with 31 in 1924, good enough to lead the circuit with Morris' abbreviated campaign. Eason, a big swinger, also whiffed 148 times and was representative of the Keystones themselves - sometimes thrilling but often coming up empty when it came to winning ballgames.

The World Series was again not a particularly good one with New York largely manhandling Pittsburgh in a five-game victory. Game one saw the Stars take a 7-0 lead through five and cruise to an 8-3 victory with Job Readus (3-for-3, 4 runs scored) and Gordie Loftus (3-for-4, 2 RBI) leading the way. Game two was the Miners' lone victory - pitcher Carl Mellen was fantastic in the 6-1 win. With the scene shifting to New York for the next games, the Stars got rolling in game three (a 7-2 win) and kept it up in game four (5-1 win) and game five (3-1). Their pitching was impressive, with the Miners' only good game at the plate coming in game two. Luke Smith won a pair of games, including the 3-1 clincher and 3B Ed Riddle hit .389 for the series. Readus (.389) and Loftus (.333) were solid in defeat for the Miners.

The Stars arguably got even better after the Series; dealing from a positon of strength, they sent fourth-outfielder Bobby Salyer and minor leaguer Jack Sneed to Cleveland for 2B Danny Bottorf, a promising 25-year-old who shored up New York's weakest position.

The Whitney Awards featured some new winners - the Continental Whitney winner was Sailors pitcher Rube Smith, who 22-9, 2.21 season helped Philly ride the top of the standings for much of the season. And over in the Federal, where Max Morris had had a chokehold on the award, Morris' injury opened the door for Pittsburgh CF Clint Casstevens to win his first Whitney (Washington's T.R. Goins was second and Morris - even with missing a third of the season - finished third in the voting).

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Pittsburgh Miners		85	67	.559	-	812	671
New York Gothams		85	69	.552	1	800	756
Washington Eagles		85	69	.552	1	851	796
Chicago Chiefs			78	75	.510	7½	682	739
St. Louis Pioneers		74	78	.487	11	836	818
Boston Minutemen		74	80	.481	12	683	755
Detroit Dynamos			71	82	.464	14½	806	859
Philadelphia Keystones		60	92	.395	25	745	821
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			88	63	.583	-	731	591
Montreal Saints			81	72	.529	8	727	677
Philadelphia Sailors		81	72	.529	8	638	619
Baltimore Clippers		80	73	.523	9	693	647
Chicago Cougars			72	81	.471	17	727	724
Cleveland Foresters		72	81	.471	17	653	740
Toronto Wolves			71	83	.461	18½	629	718
Brooklyn Kings			67	87	.435	22½	674	756
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Old 06-24-2019, 10:14 AM   #63
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1925 - The New Generation

If there's one competitor no athlete can defeat, it's Father Time. The old guy with the hourglass catches everyone eventually. He got Zebulon Banks, Allan Allen and now he was coming for Powell Slocum. Slocum's fielding skills had eroded to the point that even he (as the Brooklyn Kings' manager) had to admit that he couldn't really hack it as an everyday right fielder any longer. So he worked out at first base in spring training - and he also worked a deal to ship RF Huck Monahan to the Gothams (to be fair they did get 3B Hal Lucas back and the hot corner was a weakness for the Kings). But he discovered that not only was his foot speed largely gone, but so was his bat speed. Sure, he could get by on his incredible bat control skills, acumen and encyclopedic knowledge of the opposing pitchers. But his time as the best hitter in the world was done. Max Morris probably wore that crown now, but even he was now facing challenges from a new generation of highly-talented players.


Max Morris

Unlike Morris' own generation, these new guys had come up in an era where Morris himself was showing what a strong, upper-cutting swing could do to a baseball. They weren't slash-and-dashers like Slocum (well, some of them were, but many were not). These guys hit the ball hard - the era of bunt singles, stealing 80 bases and using "inside baseball" was largely done.

The Federal Association poster child for this next generation was probably Philadelphia Keystones 1B Rankin Kellogg. The Keystones were loaded at Kellogg's position which was somewhat ironic for a team with so many holes that their best prospect was third on the organizational depth chart in the spring of '25. What the team needed was pitching - so they dealt incumbent starting 1B Doc Woods to the Clippers for pitcher Rube Frazier. And then they traded Woods' backup Dan Brady to the Chiefs for another pitcher, Red Adwell. Kellogg was promoted to the big league team and finally got his shot to show just how good he was. The answer was, really good. Sure, he didn't knock off Morris in any of the Triple Crown categories (Morris won another Triple Crown, more on that in a bit), but he did finish second in home runs with 35 and second in RBIs with 133. Not too shabby for a rookie. The Keystones rode Kellogg, veteran Hall Eason (who had 23 HRs and 92 RBIs) into the first division, finishing third with an 81-73 record. Pitching continued to be a problem: Frazier (10-18, 4.81) and Adwell (12-13, 5.16) were disappointing to say the least.


Rankin Kellogg

The Eagles won their third pennant in four seasons with a 93-61 campaign. They had one of the next generation as well in catcher T.R. Goins. The "Rough Rider" was the best catcher in the game: he hit .360, clubbed 18 homers (with 39 doubles)a and drove in 107 runs. In a sign of the times (and maybe his position) Goins had yet to steal a base in his three year career and had only attempted to steal a base once (presumably he then received a tongue-lashing by manager Henry Potts, who retied before the 1925 season after 13 years as the Eagles' skipper). Washington also had two other young stars: 3B Glenn Morrison (.352, 116 runs, 93 RBIs, 36 SB) and 1B George Clark, who hit .366 and led the league with 49 doubles. He also was third in RBI with 131. Point was, not only were the Eagles really good, they were also young and looked primed to be the Fed's next dynasty (or perhaps already were).


T.R. Goins

Second-place Chicago finished seven back of the Eagles. The Chiefs' main strength, as usual, was their pitching. Denny Wren led the league with 23 wins, his fourth-straight 20-plus season, throwing a league-high 341 innings and also winning the ERA title at 3.04. He was 35, so definitely not part of the next generation of stars. His sidekick, 28-year-old Norm Austin, won 22 games (2nd in the league) and though he had some control problems, seemed to be the ace-in-waiting for the Chiefs. The guy they got for Red Adwell, Dan Brady, was pretty solid with a .299 average as the cleanup hitter but split time with Johnny Rasberry at first base. The offense was good for just sixth-best in the eight-team circuit and like the Keystones' pitching, was the Achilles heel of the Chicago Chiefs.


Danny Wren

St. Louis finished fourth with a 79-75 mark. They had the big guy, Max Morris, and he was outstanding once again. He hit a ridiculous .418 with 57 home runs, 149 runs scored and 166 RBIs. All those were league-bests by a mile. His on-base percentage was .496 and his OPS (not a stat back then) was an eye-popping 1.306. The guy was on another planet compared to his contemporaries - at least for now. The Pioneers had no problem scoring runs - they put 993 runs, hit a crazy .325 as a team and were the first team in FABL history to have four players hit 10 or more homers. LF Art Charles (.343-20-105), SS Roger Landry (.305-18-115) and 2B Bob Marceneaux (.331-10-106) were all really, really good. Charles and Marceneaux were both in their second season and just 26 years old. Even Landry was just 28. Morris was the old man - he was all of 30 years old. The Pioneers problem was... you guessed it, pitching. The pitching wasn't awful, but it wasn't good enough to win a pennant either. Ace Jimmy Clinch didn't even post a .500 record (16-17, 4.12) and though Bill Hathaway was 21-11, he had a 4.42 ERA and was the prime beneficiary of all that run support. It was clear that the Pioneers needed at least one premier arm if they were going to soar with the Eagles.

Boston was fifth - 74-80. Ever since the falling-out with, and subsequent departure of, George Theobald, the Minutemen were stuck in the doldrums. They had some good young hitters in 2B Frank Todd (.329-16-96), SS Buddy Lane (.323) and RF Glenn Tweed (.325-9-70) and Verdo Burt (15-17, 3.76) looked like he might be ace material if he could be more consistent. But they were middle of the pack statistically and seemingly stuck in neutral. The Gothams were sixth, but they made some deals and had a full-fledged youth movement going on that looked promising. Huck Monahan came across the bridge from Brooklyn and hit .309, and they picked up an ace in Steve Castellini mid-season from the Cougars who posted a composite record of 19-11 with a 3.18 ERA between Chicago and NY. The youth movement was led by Bill Parker, the young lefty who was considered the best pitching prospect in either league. He went 16-14 with a 3.44 ERA at age 22. On the hitting side a trio of rookies were in place by season's end: CF Ken Bittner hit .305 from the leadoff spot; 1B Sam Harris hit third and hit .330; and RF Rusty Shearer came up and hit .333 in limited action as the presumptive future cleanup hitter. 2B Ed Ziehl, now 38 years old, had taken on a mentor's role to the younger guys. He also hit .325, proving he could still play too.


Rusty Shearer

Pittsburgh didn't do anything all that well and had the seventh-place finish to prove it. CF Clint Casstevens was still their best player (.325-11-102) but he fell off a bit from the previous year's heights when he led the circuit in hits, doubles and triples. RF Tom Prosser, while technically not a rookie qualifier, had a good season in part-time duty with a .310 average, 11 homers and 57 RBIs in a bit over 300 at-bats. At 26, he was expected to join Casstevens as the team's cornerstones. Carl Mellen lost 21 games and led the league's second-worst pitching staff. The last-place Dynamos had the league's worst pitching. They did have a promising arm on the farm in Leo Hall, but he was not yet ready. Catcher Dick York regressed badly, his average dropping to .280 after hitting .390 in 1923 and .348 in 1924. 1B Danny James did hit 28 homers and came closest to 100 RBIs (he had 98). Detroit hoped their pair of young outfielders could build on promising part-time rookie seasons: RF Eddie David hit .315-5-34 in 200-plus at-bats and CF Frank Platt hit .311-5-51 in 300-plus at-bats. Even with those two, and solid players like SS Dirk Mannheim (.317) and 3B Paul Gould (.303-10-91), the Dynamos needed both a return to form by York and better pitching if they were to escape the second division.


Dirk Mannheim

Over in the Continental Association, the New York Stars won a second-straight pennant. The Continental's theme for 1925 could have been parity - the Stars won the league with only 87 wins and the last-place Kings won 70. As in the Fed, there were good performances by young players up and down the league. The Stars had 25-year-old 2B Pete Layton who was 2nd in hitting (.344) and third in RBIs (99), plus a new ace in Dick Richards who led the league in ERA (3.25) and was second in wins (19). As a staff, the Stars were top-notch with veterans Luke Smith (16-13, 3.70) and Sammy Butler (16-13, 3.29) also having good years. The Stars had rookies in LF (Tim Johnson), at 2B (Danny Bottorf) and in CF (Al Swain) and all had decent seasons and contributed to the pennant-victory.


Dick Richards

Cleveland and Montreal finished with identical 81-73 records, six games behind New York. The Foresters started rookies on the left side of the infield with SS Joe Standish (.292-10-99) and 3B Ben Hathaway (.313-13-70) both looking solid. They helped veteran slugging 2B Carl Martin (.272-35-98) and LF Bobby Salyer (.300-4-81) give the Foresters the Continental's most prolific lineup (809 runs scored). Cleveland's pitching was good too: Mose Smith was 19-15, 3.28, Bob Lawrence was 16-15, 3.94 and George Davis was 15-12, 3.92. Montreal traded for a young first baseman in Sal Ingalls who hit 17 homers with 87 RBIs in just under 500 at-bats and a trio of 26-year-olds formed the top third of the Saints' lineup: CF Bert Hartman (.298), SS Tommy Chandler (.311) and LF Phil Sandman (.336-8-87). The pitching was below average and the team's batting average was dead-last. Still the Saints did enough right that they were in the race all season long.


Carl Martin

The Philadelphia Sailors were fourth at an even 77-77. Star CF David Merchant hit .343 with 15 homers and 91 RBIs before a knee injury ended his season early. Pitcher John White started the season in San Francisco but joined the Sailors in time to post a 10-3, 3.45 ERA. Rube Smith was 11-10 with a 3.86 ERA. Overall the Sailors were third in pitching but aside from Merchant, the offense was pedestrian and only good for 7th in runs scored. Baltimore had changed its nickname (to Cannons) but it didn't change the team's fortunes as they finished in fifth at 75-79. The offense was strong - finished second in runs scored thanks to 3B Fred Johnson (.340), 1B Doc Woods (acquired from the Keystones to make room for Rankin Kellogg) who hit .333 with 10 homers and 103 RBIs and star RF Sandy Lovelle who had a couple of injuries but still hit .333 for the year. The pitching was a letdown as Ken Carpenter topped the staff with a 16-10, 4.29 mark.


Doc Woods

The Wolves were sixth, 74-80, despite a strong sophomore effort from 25-year-old pitcher Birdie Smith (21-10, 3.51) and a good season from RF Jack Mack (.290-10-107). One of those next generation guys was 22-year-old SS Tom Roberts who was the cleanup hitter in Toronto and posted a .329 average and 88 RBIs. The Wolves also had rookies at catcher and 3B and a second-year layer at 1B. The Cougars fell to seventh, although their 71 wins was just one fewer than their fifth-place finish of 1924. The Cougars were hurt when CF John Dibblee had two separate injuries that limited him to just 68 at-bats (he hit .353 with 6 doubles, a triple and homer in those 68 ABs). The core of the lineup was a quartet of players 26 or younger and though 3B Gary Sanders (.330), LF Art Panko (.312), 2B Rocky Edwards (.302) and SS Charlie Gamble (.300) were all good players, they missed Dibblee's bat and veteran leadership.

The Kings finished last with a 70-84 record in its first year under player-manager Powell Slocum. Slocum the manager needed more out of Slocum the player and unfortunately it wasn't there. Slocum did hit .314 but he only played in 51 games (39 as a starter) and had nagging back problems. It wasn't all bad news in Brooklyn however as LF Bud Rogers became a starter for the first time in his short career, hit .348 to lead the league and also had a league-best 47 doubles. Rogers joined a very strong outfield: RF Clarence Hall hit .352 in Slocum's old spot and CF Lou Cox hit .330 out of the leadoff spot and stole 48 bases. Pitching was a problem - outside of Jackie Marshall (15-16, 3.90) the staff was relatively poor.


Bud Rogers

The World Series started in New York's Riverside Stadium. The Stars took advantage of having the games at home, winning game one 6-4 and game two 12-4. They then pushed the Eagles to the brink in a tight 2-1 win in game three that went to the ninth 1-0, saw New York add an insurance run in the top half that they turned out to need as the Stars scored in the home half before Pete Scanlon got Cap McDonald to fly out to center with Harry Jones as the tying run left stranded on third. To their credit, the Eagles came back to win games four and five at home by 8-5 and 3-2 margins. Game six in New York saw the Eagles take a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh when the wheels came off. After an error to lead off the inning, the Stars had loaded the bases with two out and shortstop Pete Layton at the plate. Layton shot a single to left to score both Job Readus and Tim Johnson, making it 4-3. Ernie Sprenkle followed with a double that scored two runs and gave the Stars the lead. They'd add one more run and go to the eighth up 6-4. Ultimately they won the game 6-5 to win their second straight championship, and sixth in team history.

Unsurprisingly the Whitney Award for the Federal Association went to Max Morris. Morris won unanimously and claimed the trophy for the seventh time. Philadelphia's David Merchant took the Continental Whitney Award for his strong all-around season in which he only led the league in triples (27) and slugging (.569) and OPS (.968). It was his second win (the other was in 1923).

Legendary manager George Theobald retired mid-season from the Detroit Dynamos at age 62. He later purchased more stock in the club and became the majority owner. Also retiring was Powell Slocum. The 38-year-old hung up his spikes as the all-time leader in batting average (.375), games played (2887), at-bats (11051), hits (4144), total bases (5553), and singles (3194) and was second in runs scored (1787 to Zebulon Banks' 1877), third in doubles (546, 21 fewer than John Waggoner, who had two more than Jack Arabian) and fourth in triples (349) and stolen bases (737).


George Theobald

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Washington Eagles		93	61	.604	-	922	785
Chicago Chiefs			86	68	.558	7	751	714
Philadelphia Keystones		81	73	.526	12	836	860
St. Louis Pioneers		79	75	.513	14	993	827
Boston Minutemen		74	80	.481	19	825	803
New York Gothams		69	85	.448	24	741	785
Pittsburgh Miners		69	85	.448	24	751	867
Detroit Dynamos			65	89	.422	28	800	978
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			87	67	.565	-	761	701
Cleveland Foresters		81	73	.526	6	809	761
Montreal Saints			81	73	.526	6	773	774
Philadelphia Sailors		77	77	.500	10	749	779
Baltimore Cannons		75	79	.487	12	805	784
Toronto Wolves			74	80	.481	13	791	774
Chicago Cougars			71	83	.461	16	746	792
Brooklyn Kings			70	84	.455	17	801	870
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Old 06-27-2019, 07:33 AM   #64
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1925-26 - A Break in the Action

I'm going to step out from behind the narrator's curtain here for this post as this dynasty report will be changing a bit going forward.

As some of you know, the Figment League (also known as the FABL) transitioned from a solo project to an online league at the end of the 1925 season.

Four of the league's human GMs are currently writing their own dynasties covering their FABL clubs and I heartily recommend that anyone who has enjoyed this thread check out these others:

Brooklyn Kings: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=303780
Montreal Saints: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=303817
Philadelphia Keystones: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=303940
New York Gothams: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=303944

As well as my other FABL-related thread:
Barrell Family Story: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar....php?p=4502438

As for this thread, the fact that we're now an online league means things are moving much slower than they were when I was working on this during the "pre-play" phase. What that means is that I will start posting monthly updates, with a year-end review when we reach the end of a season as well as probably having some off-season notes on stuff like the draft and any storylines I weave into the online league. Of note is that I am not personally running a club - this is a stats-only league and as commissioner I am the only one who can see behind the veil and look at ratings. Plus it allows me to be impartial and drive narratives beyond the day-to-day operation of the league.

And finally, we have an opening. I've reached out to the people who expressed interest in participating but have not had anyone take the team, so I am inviting any of the dynasty readers who might want to get in on the action to sign on. The available club is the St. Louis Pioneers and they have arguably the league's best player in Max Morris, whose name you've seen plenty of times in this thread if you've been reading along.Max has gotten off to a slow start in '26, but I expect he'll round into shape pretty soon. They also have one of the best shortstops in the game in Roger 'Rip' Landry. Full HTML report is here: http://legendsport.com/fbl/reports/teams/team_16.html

If you'd like to get in on this, feel free to drop me a PM and let me know.

Thanks for reading!
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Last edited by legendsport; 06-27-2019 at 07:40 AM.
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Old 06-27-2019, 10:23 AM   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by legendsport View Post
The available club is the St. Louis Pioneers and they have arguably the league's best player in Max Morris, whose name you've seen plenty of times in this thread if you've been reading along.Max has gotten off to a slow start in '26, but I expect he'll round into shape pretty soon. They also have one of the best shortstops in the game in Roger 'Rip' Landry. Full HTML report is here: http://legendsport.com/fbl/reports/teams/team_16.html

If you'd like to get in on this, feel free to drop me a PM and let me know.

Thanks for reading!
And just like that, Morris goes on a tear to raise his home run total to 10 (leading all of FABL). St Louis has won 8 in a row and are now just 1 game behind the Gothams in the Fed.
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Old 06-27-2019, 11:20 AM   #66
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Yes, St Louis is a strong team and Morris is among the best in the league but if you enjoy the dynasty report section (and you obviously do because you are here reading about this one) then I strongly suggest considering joining us.

I had never really played in online leagues until this Figment Universe thread captured my attention. Once I joined the league I was welcomed by a great group of owners and league commissioner. We have only being going a short time but there are already some great story lines (like the Barrell Brothers story) and a lot more exciting things planned for the future.
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Old 06-28-2019, 01:16 PM   #67
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April 1926 Update

The first month of the 1926 season held a few surprises. Possibly the biggest was the debut of rookie outfielder Doug Lightbody. Lightbody, the first round pick (6th overall) of the Brooklyn Kings, was a revelation in his first month of play. The Ole Miss product and native of Jena, Louisiana impressed enough in spring training, going 14 for 34 at the plate with one double, one triple and a homer, scoring four runs and driving in six. That hot start carried over into April's regular season slate as he hit .368 on 25-for-68, adding a pair of doubles and homers and a triple. He showed good speed with four steals (against two times caught stealing) and played solid defense in right field, the former domain of his manager Powell Slocum.


Doug Lightbody

Lightbody's hot start, and some key offseason trades that brought in some much-needed pitching help, saw the Kings, who had finished last in 1925, end April in a three-way tie atop the Continental standings with an 11-7 record (Toronto and Philadelphia also were 11-7). One of the Kings' pitchers acquired via trade, Cal Williams, took pitcher of the month honors with a 3-0, 2.22 ledger for April. The Batter of the Month award went to Joe Standish of Cleveland. The Foresters got off to a slow start as a team, and finished April in the basement, but Standish most certainly could not be blamed as he was red-hot: .395 average, four homers, 21 RBIs and a .750 slugging percentage.


Joe Standish

Over in the Federal, the Keystones and Gothams sat atop the standings. Like Brooklyn, New York was bouncing back from a disappointing 1925 (they finished sixth). And also like Brooklyn, the Gothams had their league's top rookie performer - another right fielder, too. His name was Rusty Shearer, and unlike Lightbody, he was not a gold-plated prospect, but rather came aboard as a minor league signee. The Coffeyville, Texas product hit .438 in April and an unbelievable eight of his 28 hits were triples.


Rusty Shearer

While it was no surprise that a St. Louis Pioneer won the April Batter of the Month for the Federal Association, the name of that Pioneer was a surprise. It was not Max Morris, but rather his team mate Art Charles, who copped the honor with a hot start that saw him hit .408, score 17 runs and drive in 16. The top pitcher was Detroit Dynamos righty Toby Runlon. Coming off a 10-18, 4.79 mark in 1925, it was surprising to see Runlon dominate as he did in April. The Detroit native wowed the hometown fans with a 4-0 mark and 2.00 ERA with all four starts being complete games. Unfortunately, the Dynamos were 5-11 in games not started by Runlon and ended April mired in sixth place.


Toby Runlon
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Old 07-06-2019, 08:10 PM   #68
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May 1926 Update

As had been the case in April, Doug Lightbody continued to look like a veteran star, copping the Rookie of the Month honors for the Continental Association again. Granted, he cooled off a bit, but still posted a .336 average with 12 RBIs leaving him with a two-month mark of .348 over 47 games with 43 runs scored (and 24 RBIs). The Gothams had the Federal's top rookie again - but it wasn't Rusty Shearer this time - it was Jake Wulf. The 23-year-old Purdue product hit .359 in May, driving in 20 runs and scoring 17. If you're sensing a trend here, you are on the right track: both the Gothams and the Kings were at (Gothams) or near (Kings) the top of their respective leagues at month's end and both were being led by some very good youngsters. In addition to Lightbody, the Kings had a pair of rookie pitchers putting up good numbers in Topsy Moran and Cal Williams. The Gothams had Shearer and Wulf, and had another potential impact rookie sitting in the minors just waiting for the call in 1B Bud Jameson who had torn up AA with Jersey City, hitting .405 with 12 homers in 116 at-bats and earning a promotion to AAA Columbus where he had thus far posted a .303 average with another five homers. The third-overall pick in the 1926 draft, Jameson looked like a future star and was ranked as the game's top prospect ahead of Lightbody (3rd) and the top pick in the draft, Detroit farm hand Al Wheeler (5th).

The Gothams ended May on top of the Federal standings with a 30-19 mark, having grabbed sole possession of the top spot they had shared with the Keystones at the start of May. Philadelphia had dropped to third - but the pennant race in the Federal was of course still tight with 3 games separating the Gothams from the St. Louis Pioneers with the Washington Eagles and Philly sandwiched in between. Some of the credit for St. Louis' rise up the charts was due to the return of Max Morris' power stroke. Though he had hit .354 in April, Morris (who was coming off a 1925 season that saw him win the Triple Crown with a .418-57-166 line), had just three homers. In May, he hit seven, though his average dipped to .272 for the month. Still, a Morris hitting home runs was what both the Pioneers and their fans wanted.

In other Fed news, the Pittsburgh Miners finished the month in last place with a dismal 18-30 mark, but they did have a bright spot in pitcher Hap Goodwin, who bounced back from an 0-4, 5.06 April to post a very strong 5-2, 2.19 ERA in June. The Miners could only hope that the Jekyll & Hyde routine stopped on the good side going forward. The Chicago Chiefs had the Fed's top hitter for the month in outfielder Bert Harman. Though his team was fifth, and under .500 at 23-25, Hartman was leading the league (and all of FABL) with a .387 average. In May he had posted a .414 average and also drew 31 walks, giving him an astounding .534 on-base percentage. Hartman had arguably stepped into the shoes of Powell Slocum as the player with the best batting eye in FABL (he had led the league in walks for three straight years entering 1926).

The Continental's top hitter for May was the same guy who won the Rookie honors.... Doug Lightbody. Lightbody was picked sixth overall and by June 1st of his rookie season, the five teams who passed on him might have been second-guessing that choice. The Jena, Louisiana native looked like a star - not a future star - but a "right now" star. The Continental's top pitcher for May was Pete Scanlon of the New York Stars. The veteran Scanlon showed the veteran savvy that had made him a three-time 20-game winner and four-time World champion with a 6-1 month in which he posted a 1.71 ERA over seven starts and 56.1 innings. Like his Fed counterpart Hap Goodwin, Scanlon had a subpar (for him) April (0-2, 2.70) but had definitely rounded into shape for May.

As the league entered June, top performers not already mentioned included Washington catcher T.R. Goins, whose .378 average was second in the league, the Keystones' Rankin Kellogg, a second-year player whose star was rapidly ascending - he entered June with 9 homers (2nd to Morris) with a .324 average and 33 RBIs. Boston's Dode Jefferis led the Fed in ERA at 2.67 with Detroit's Toby Runlon (2.79) and New York's Steve Castellini (3.07) behind him. The Continental's top average belonged to Philadelphia's Red Brown (.362). The Sailors were tied with the Kings for first place (though Philly was ahead on percentage points). Chicago Cougar hit-machine John Dibblee was still chugging along with a .357 average and his team mate Art Panko placed third thus far with a .351 mark. Montreal's slugging catcher Paul Tattersall had nine homers to top the circuit, two more than Cleveland's Carl Martin. The Sailors' John White led the league in ERA (1.76), with Scanlon second and Toronto's Willie Couillard third at 2.24. One trend that could be noted is that the offense seemed a bit stronger in the Federal loop while the Continental had FABL's top pitching performances. Whether that would hold up, or was just a result of small sample size, would remain to be seen.
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Old 07-10-2019, 04:15 PM   #69
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June 1926 Update

Much of the buzz around the league in June was about trades. And most of those trades involved the Brooklyn Kings. Locked in a tight pennant race with the Philadelphia Sailors, the Kings made a number of trades as they sought to bolster their team's weakest area: pitching.

On June 7, the Kings dealt 40-year-old local legend Danny Goff to Federal Association, sending him to the St. Louis Pioneers (in a pennant race of their own) and receiving 20-year-old Brooklyn-born outfielder Marty Williams in return. That move was more about freeing up a spot on the big league staff while allowing the veteran Goff a chance to continue to ply his trade at the sport's top level than it was about immediate dividends for Brooklyn. The same could not be said about the club's two subsequent deals. Both made on the same day, the pair of trades made on June 28 brought a pair of veteran hurlers into the fold along with a veteran infielder. The first deal sent Victor Rodding, a fan favorite at second base, to the Montreal Saints with shortstop Charlie Rector. Coming to Brooklyn was 30-year-old pitcher Del Plummer and 30-year-old infielder Fred Welsch. The other deal, made with the last-place Cleveland Foresters, brought in accomplished hurler Mose Smith for minor league pitcher Rube McCormick and the team's first round pick in the next draft. The Foreesters and Kings also agreed to swap second rounders.


Victor Rodding

The fallout of the deals remains to be seen, but the Kings did end the month on an 8-2 run that saw them tied with the Sailors. Philly, for its part, has stood pat, relying on the group they brought north from camp; and it has worked thus far.

One other deal was made in June - the Saints sent young outfielder Jack Cornelison to the Philadelphia Keystones, bringing back former Saint slugger Hal Eason and minor league outfielder Lee Rhoden. Eason, the Saints' all-time home run leader, was brought back for his veteran presence and for the fannies he'll put in the seats at Parc Cartier.


Jack Cornelison

In monthly award news, Doug Lightbody of the Kings won his third straight Rookie of the Month in the Continental Association, hitting .356 in June to continue his excellent freshman campaign. The Fed's top rookie was Pioneers centerfielder Joe Richardson. The 26-year-old from Philadelphia hit a ridiculous .472 in June, going 34-for-72 with four doubles and four triples. He also scored 16 runs and drove in 12. Baltimore's Ken Carpenter was the CA Pitcher of the Month, going 5-0 with a 2.17 ERA in June. The first-place New York Gothams had hurler Bill Parker take Fed honors with a 6-0, 2.78 mark for June after entering the month with a 3-3 mark and an ERA north of five. Brooklyn also copped the CA's Batter of the Month - and it wasn't Lightbody this time, but 1B Lou Garman who took the prize with a .417 average, four homers and 21 RBIs. And last, but certainly not least, was June's Batter of the Month for the Federal Association: Max Morris. Mighty Mo hit .398 with eight homers, 23 RBIs and 27 runs scored. After a slow start he entered July with a league-leading 18 homers and had raised his batting average to .335 for the season.


'Bulldog Bill' Parker
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Old 07-18-2019, 11:45 AM   #70
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July 1926 Update

Just to get it out of the way - yes, there was more Doug Lightbody news in July. Unfortunately, it was not good news. Lightbody, Brooklyn's young, rising star had won every Rookie of the Month award in the Continental Association thus far when he went down with a season-ending elbow injury on July 4th. While opposing teams may have looked forward to Independence from Lightbody's demolition of their pitching staffs, the fans would be deprived of an exciting young player for the balance of the '26 season. The impact beyond 1926 was unknown.


Doug Lightbody

Before diving further into the Continental's pennant race between the Lightbody-less Kings and the Philadelphia Sailors (with an interloper on the way), we'll take a look at the other league - which had a pretty good race of its own going on. The Federal Association had been led virtually since day one by the New York Gothams, with the St. Louis Pioneers dogging their heels. New York featured the league's best pitching; the Pioneers had the league's best hitting. In the classic "pitching & defense vs. offense" argument, pitching & defense was winning by a razor-thin margin. This doesn't mean that the Gothams' hitters weren't doing well - they were, and they were being led (like Brooklyn) by several rookie players. Foremost among these was right fielder Rusty Shearer, who ended July with a .365 average, six homers and 77 RBIs (he also claimed his second ROTM award in July). Joining him was 1926 first-round draft pick Bud Jameson, a slugging first baseman who had been tearing up the minors since his pro debut in April. After hitting .405 with 12 homers in 112 at-bats at AA Jersey City, Jameson had continued to hit at AAA Columbus, hitting .371 with 13 more homers in just 89 at-bats. With production like that, it was no surprise that the call went out to bring Jameson to the big time and he hadn't disappointed, ending July with a .363 average and 28 RBIs in 168 at-bats. The only thing missing was his prodigious power - he had only two home runs as he adjusted to the better pitching at the sport's top level.


Bud Jameson

As for the competition, the St. Louis Pioneers had Max Morris, the game's premier slugger, and he had rounded into shape after a slow start. Through July, Might Mo had a .341 average with 23 homers and 86 RBIs. Both the home run and RBI totals topped all of FABL. As if having Morris wasn't enough, the Pioneers had Art Charles hitting behind Morris, and he had a .364 average with 45 extra-base hits (11 of them homers) and 79 RBIs. St. Louis had also added some pitching in the form of 40-year-old ex-King/ex-Gotham Danny Goff. Goff had thus far been solid for the Pioneers, with a 6-3 mark since coming over from Brooklyn in June. At the end of the month, the Gothams trailed the Kings by 2.5 games in a race that looked like it'd go down to the wire.


Art Charles

The same could be said for the Continental, where the aforementioned Kings ruled the roost with a 2.5-game edge of their own on Phildelphia. The Sailors had made a trade of their own in July, adding veteran pitcher Denny Wren from the Chicago Chiefs. Wren was excellent in his July starts for Philly, going 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in his three starts. With Wren and incumbent ace John White (12-7, 2.37) the Sailors had a nice one-two punch in their rotation. The offense was good as well - 2nd in runs scored with RF Red Brown (.318-5-80) the primary run producer. And they also had July's Rookie of the Month in LF George Muraro who copped the honor with a .324, 88 RBI July. Brooklyn had the Continental's top offense (by a wide margin) and even without Lightbody, the Kings scored runs by the bushel. With catcher Mickey Dowell (.346-10-83) and LF Bud Rogers (.342-7-69) leading the way, Brooklyn had so far weathered the loss of Lightbody quite well. Pitching remained a bit of a question mark as injuries and inconsistency by their young arms continued to plague the club.


Mickey Dowell

And moving up and trying to horn in on the race were the defending champion New York Stars. NY posted a stellar 20-7 mark in July to climb to within five games of Brooklyn. The battle-tested Stars had the league's best pitching (led by Dick Richards who was 14-7, 2.66 and Pete Scanlon, 13-8, 3.11) and if the offense rounded into shape, they would prove a dangerous opponent down the stretch.

Player honors went to the aforementioned Shearer and Muraro as Rookies of the Month. The CA's pitching award went to Toronto's Don Cannaday who had a perfect 7-0 record and miniscule 0.98 ERA in July. A front-runner for the first-ever Allan Allen Award as the Continental's top pitcher, Cannaday entered August 15-5 with a 2.39 ERA. The Fed's top hurler for July was Rolla Puckett of St. Louis. Puckett had a 6-0, 3.27 ERA in July and was the Fed's Allen front-runner as he had racked up a 19-3 mark with 3.25 ERA for the Pioneers. Top hitter in the Fed was rising star Rankin Kellogg of the Philadelphia Keystones. The 23-year-old Kellogg was rounding into arguably the best hitter in the game not named Max Morris as he posted July totals of .394, 5 homers, 20 RBIs and 18 runs scored. For the season he was second to Morris in homers (20) and RBIs (80). Over in the Continental, another Brooklyn King claimed the Batter of the Month as CF Lou Cox posted a .414 average, driving in 21 and scoring 20 while also putting up 13 doubles, 5 triples and 12 stolen bases.


Don Cannaday
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Old 07-22-2019, 07:18 AM   #71
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August 1926 Recap

As the penultimate month of the 1926 season came to a close, the pennant races in both the Federal and Continental Associations could not have been closer. The St. Louis Pioneers held the top spot in the Fed, by a scant margin of a half-game over the New York Gothams, who had been the front-runners for most of the season before ceding the spot to St. Louis in August. The Pioneers were getting a more subdued-than-usual season out of star outfielder Max Morris, but a subdued season for Morris was still a very good one by any standard. He entered September with a league-best 29 homers and 108 RBIs (second to team mate Art Charles) with a .328 batting average. Charles, for his part, had a .388 average and 14 homers. Charles had a torrid August, hitting .475 for the month to cop Batter of the Month honors. That .388 season average would have been tops in the league... except Eagles catcher T.R. Goins was busy flirting with the .400 mark and entered the season's final stanza with a .398 average. New York was still riding on the strength of its top-notch youngsters with August Rookie of the Month RF Rusty Shearer leading the way. Shearer put up a .372 average with 4 homers and 28 RBIs in August and had a .367 average, 29 triples (along with 19 doubles and 10 homers) and 105 RBIs thru the end of August. His eye-popping numbers somewhat overshadowed the fact that the Gothams had the Federal Association's top pitching, though they had been missing top starter Steve Castellini since early June. Charlie Johnson (11-5, 3.06) and John Reay (14-9, 3.96) headed up the Gotham staff with mid-season pickup George Davis and Delos Dunn having decent, but not great seasons.

The Continental featured a half-game margined race of its own with the New York Stars, red-hot for the entire month, having copped the top spot that had been held by the Brooklyn Kings. Brooklyn, decimated by injury, entered the final month a half-game behind New York while Philadelphia, which had been the top dog itself for a stretch earlier in the season, had fallen all the way to fourth place thanks to a 14-16 record in August. Contrast that to the Stars' 23-5 record for the month and the turnaround in both teams' fortunes is apparent. Brooklyn was hanging in thanks to a ton of depth in their fine-tuned offense. The contrast between the interborough rivals was an interesting one: the Kings had a terrific lineup and the Stars had a great pitching staff. Dick Richards, the Stars ace, put up a 6-0, 2.20 ERA in August, winning him CA Pitcher of the Month and pushing his season totals to 20-7 with a 2.55 ERA.

Other top performances on the individual level were put up by Baltimore Cannons RF Sandy Lovelle who hit .420 with 3 HRs and 22 RBIs in August to claim the Batter of the Month in the Continental. Montreal SS Ernie Woodrow was the CA Rookie of the Month with a .416 average. Woodrow had started the season at AAA Minneapolis and his hot play there led to a promotion where he continued to impress. The Chicago Chiefs were officially eliminated from the pennant race in August, but did have the Fed's top pitcher for the month in Joe Foley. Foley made nine starts and went 6-1 with a 2.66 ERA, pushing his record to 17-15, 3.89 for the year on a club that ended August 20 games under .500 (56-76) and 24.5 games out of first.

Code:
FEDERAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
				W	L	PCT	GB
St. Louis Pioneers		80	51	.611	-
New York Gothams		80	52	.606	.5
Washington Eagles		76	54	.585	3.5
Philadelphia Keystones		65	66	.496	15.0
Boston Minutemen		62	69	.473	18.0
Chicago Chiefs			56	76	.424	24.5
Detroit Dynamos			54	78	.409	26.5
Pittsburgh Miners		52	79	.397	28.0

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
				W	L	PCT	GB
New York Stars			81	46	.638	-
Brooklyn Kings			83	49	.629	.5
Toronto Wolves			75	56	.573	8.0
Philadelphia Sailors		72	56	.563	9.5
Baltimore Cannons		58	70	.453	23.5
Chicago Cougars			55	77	.417	28.5
Montreal Saints			52	78	.400	30.5
Cleveland Foresters		44	88	.333	39.5
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Old 07-30-2019, 11:42 AM   #72
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September 1926 Update

The pennant race in the Federal Association was decided in early September when the St. Louis Pioneers lost eight of their first ten games in the season's final month, turning a one-game lead on September 1st into a 4.5-game deficit and fall into third place on September 11th. The New York Gothams ended up cruising to the pennant from there, though St. Louis would manage to finish in second, six games off the pace. The Gothams' pennant was the team's first in 30 years, going back to the team's brief time as the Fed's top power when they won three of four pennants from 1893 thru '96. The 1926 edition of the Gothams looked like it would provide a good base for future success as well with most of the key contributors being young players such as outfielders Rusty Shearer (.359-11-116) and Bud Jameson (.333-6-49 in 93 games after tearing it up in the minors). In all six of the team's eight everyday players were 26 or younger and the two who weren't (SS George Sanders and 3b Jim Flemming) were 30. And the team showed resilience in dealing with injuries that ranged from the club's legendary keystone star Ed Ziehl to two of the best pitchers on the staff in Steve Castellini and Charlie Johnson. Castellini was 9-1 with a 2.84 ERA before going down with an elbow injury in June and Johnson was 11-5, 3.02 when he went down on the eve of the World Championship Series.


Steve Castillini

The Continental's race looked to be closer, though the New York Stars seemed almost destined to capture their third straight flag with scorchingly hot play over the last three months of the season. New York was in third-place, just 39-34 on July 1st with the season nearly half gone. Then their full talent kicked in as they posted a July record of 24-7, went 23-6 in August and wrapped up the flag despite a relatively cooled-off 15-11 in September. For most of the season it appeared that the Brooklyn Kings would duplicate the Cinderella success of the Gothams, but it wasn't to be. Brooklyn had a stellar season, but just fell short to the Stars' incendiary summer, ending up two games off the pace. The Stars won with their established recipe of good, but not great, hitting (they were fourth in scoring and had no one with over 100 RBIs or an average north of .320), instead relying on stellar pitching. Dick Richards (23-7, 2.42) looked like a shoo-in for the inaugural Allen Award as the CA's top pitcher and he was joined on a New York staff that allowed a FABL-low 620 runs by Sammy Butler (20-10, 3.36) and Pete Scanlon (17-15, 3.74).


Sammy Butler

A full discussion of the rest of the teams, the league leaders, top performers and award winners will be coming in the year-end recap. Up next.... the World Championship report featuring the first-ever All-New York series between the Stars and Gothams.
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Old 08-01-2019, 11:04 AM   #73
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1926 World Series Update

The first-ever All-New York World Championship Series had the nation's largest metropolis buzzing with anticipation. Not only were the Stars and Gothams rivals for the hearts and minds of New York baseball fans, but they played literally across the street from each other on Riverside Drive in northern Manhattan.

Game one was at the Bigsby Oval, on the eastern side of Riverside Drive; FABL's largest ballpark, the Oval had been described by Stars' owner Al Mielke as a "monstrosity and a blight on an otherwise gorgeous neighborhood." To say there was no love lost between Mielke and Gothams owners Miles and Charles Bigsby Jr. would be a gross understatement. Though now 84 years old and in failing health, Miles Bigsby's ruthless nature and crooked political connections in City Hall led to frequent health and building inspections of the Stars' ballpark, simply to spite Mielke and his club. Exacerbating the issue for the Bigsbys was the fact that the Gothams had last won a pennant in 1896 while the Stars' 1926 pennant was their third straight and seventh overall.

On October 2nd, the series got underway and the opening contest went very well for the home team. The 44,643 fans on hand (some of the Stars' fans) watched the Gothams bash Samuel Butler for five runs and put up four more on reliever Stan Waters en route to a 9-5 victory. A smug-looking Miles Bigsby, sitting behind the Gothams dugout, threw his hat into the air in celebration after the final out was recorded.

Game two the next day was back at the Oval, and the Gothams grabbed the upper hand early against Stars' ace Dick Richards with a three-run second with the Gothams' young stars Rusty Shearer and Bud Jameson playing key roles. Unfortunately for the home team, that turned out to be the only runs they'd plate against Richards, who cruised the rest of the way, allowing only two hits over the last seven frames. Meanwhile, the Stars fought back into the game and series against Delos Dunn, scoring single runs in the third and fourth, and taking the lead in the sixth for a 4-3, series-tying victory.

The offday on October 4th saw Bigsby and Mielke firing shots at each in the papers, but the players remained quiet and focused on business. For game three on the 5th, the Gothams elected to dress in their home clubhouse and walk across the street to Riverside Park, with Bigsby leading the way. And again the Gothams drew first blood, scoring twice in the first inning against Pete Scanlon. But the Stars battled back with a run of their own in the bottom half and another in the sixth to tie it up. The Gothams edged ahead with a single run in the eighth against Charlie Hammond, but George Davis was unable to hold the lead as the Stars exploded for four runs in the home eighth to claim a 6-3 win and a 2-1 Series lead.

Game four followed the now-familiar script: the Gothams scored first (with a pair of runs in the second), and the Stars battled back, claiming a 5-2 victory as Sammy Butler bounced back from his rocky first start to toss a complete-game victory. Stars catcher Ernie Sprenkle hit the Series first home run and had four RBIs while second sacker Pete Layton went four-for-four on the day. On the Gothams side, though Bud Shearer was hitting .467, his team was now down three games to one with one more to play on the Stars home field at Riverside Park.

For game five, the Gothams went with Delos Dunn while the Stars sent ace Dick Richards to the mound. This time it was the Stars who scored first, plating a pair in the home first against Dunn, the only runs they'd score in the contest. Gordie Loftus' triple drove in the first run and he scored the second on a Mack Zimmerman single. But those two runs were just enough for Dick Richards, who only allowed a single run to the Gothams. That tally came in the fourth when a pair of walks and an error on a stolen base by Rusty Shearer set the stage for Ed Williams' RBI single. Richards' brilliant effort gave the Stars a 2-1 victory and their third straight World Championship.


Dick Richards

A visibly upset Miles Bigsby was ushered from the park after the game and into a waiting car that took him to his home in the Bronx. It would turn out to be the mogul's final appearance at a Gothams game as he would pass away a week later.
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Old 08-09-2019, 12:10 PM   #74
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1926 - New York, New York

The two New York clubs - one in each league - had a lot in common. For one thing, they shared nearly identical addresses, with their ballparks being located across the street from each other in northern Manhattan on Riverside Drive. The older park was Bigsby Oval, which had been the home to the original New York baseball club, Charles Bigsby's New York Knights, who had a five-year run that ended when their owner was sent to Sing Sing Prison for his assorted crimes. His younger brother, Miles, who was the original owner of the Brooklyn Unions - like the Knights a charter Century League club formed in 1876 - took over as the leader of the family. Miles took his Unions out of the Century League in 1885 only to launch the rival Peerless League in 1890. In the meantime, the Border Association's New York Stars were founded (in 1882) and initially, they rented the Bigsby Oval from Miles Bigsby. The Century League created its own New York entry - the Gothams - just a year later in 1883 - and they too, called the Oval home.

Two teams sharing the Bigsby Oval didn't last very long - the Stars, somewhat to spite Miles Bigsby and his high rent, built a ballpark just across the street from the Oval. Thus from the birth of the Gothams in 1883, a rivalry was born - one in which the teams fought not on the field, but in the newspapers and at the turnstiles, fighting for the hearts and minds of New York's baseball fans. Exacerbating the issue was the denouement of the Peerless League - a merger of three leagues into two under a brand-new umbrella as the FABL was born in 1892. The settlement put a Bigsby in charge of the Gothams - Charles Bigsby Jr., who shared control with his uncle Miles - a man who still harbored a great deal of animosity for the Stars ownership under first Roger Davidson and then later his son Fred.

Fast forward to the 1920s. The Stars had built a powerhouse at Riverside Park, winning pennants and World Championships in both 1924 and 1925. The Gothams meanwhile were scuffling - the glory days of their own run at the top of the baseball world was far in the past during the first years of the Bigsbys' ownership in the 1890s. Since then the Gothams had been firmly in second-place to the Stars and it rankled the Bigsby family - especially Miles, who despite reaching his 80s, was still very much in charge of things at the Bigsby Oval.

So as 1926 started, it appeared that the two-time defending champion Stars would maintain their stranglehold on baseball in the nation's largest metropolis. Instead, the Stars came out of the gate slowly and it was the Gothams who were seizing the headlines with their strong play in the Federal Association. Led by a group of solid youngsters, the Gothams vaulted to the top of the Fed's standings, and fought a spirited pennant race with the St. Louis Pioneers, Philadelphia Keystones and Washington Eagles. Eventually, only the Pioneers were still in the hunt with the Gothams, but the New York club held them off, claiming the Federal's flag with a 96-58 record, six games ahead of the Pioneers. This was the club's first pennant since 1896.

The Gothams had the Fed's top rookie in RF Rusty Shearer. The 24-year-old from, Colleyville, Texas had been signed to a minor league deal in 1925 and played in 33 games for the Gothams in '25 - hitting .333 in 78 at-bats. In '26, Shearer won the starting job in right field and had an impressive campaign that included a .359 average, a league-leading 31 triples, 117 runs scored, and 116 driven in. Shearer was not the only youngster playing at a high level in the Oval however, as the team's first round pick in the draft, LF Bud Shearer, came up midseason after tearing up the minors, and continued to impress with a .333 average, six homers and 49 RBIs in 93 games. 26-year-old centerfielder George Moore hit .351 with 96 RBIs to provide New York with arguably the best outfield in the Fed, and definitely the best young outfield in the circuit. The team overcame a series of injuries to key pitchers and still managed to lead their league in fewest runs allowed.


Bud Jameson

The Stars, on the other hand, were tepid in the early going, watching the Gothams steal their thunder in Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Kings steal their thunder in the Continental Association. Brooklyn, the third, and sometimes forgotten, club in the city of New York, owned the early going with their own stellar youth movement, led by first-round pick Doug Lightbody, and outfielder who went straight to the big leagues from college and dominated the first half of the season, hitting .359 in 79 games before his season was ended by an elbow injury. Led by Lightbody and an offense that was the Continental's most potent outfit, the Kings were in the race all summer long. Injuries took a toll and despite having five players hitting .322 or better in their regular lineup (even after Lightbody was hurt), the Kings ended up second with an impressive 94-60 record, coming after a 1925 campaign that saw them finish 70-84 and in last place.

The Kings' second-place finish came because the Stars found themselves in July and tore up the Continental for two months and even a middling final stanza in September could not keep the New York squad from a third-straight pennant. Like the Gothams, the Stars were 96-58, two games better than Brooklyn. As had been the case in both their previous titles, the Stars pitching was outstanding. Southpaw Dick Richards, the club's ace, went 23-7 with a 2,42 ERA and became the Continental's first recipient of the Allan Allen Award as the league's most outstanding pitcher. Sammy Butler, the #2 man, went 20-10 with a 3.36 ERA and the third starter, Pete Scanlon, posted a 17-15, 3.74 ledger. Overall, the club allowed just 620 runs, the fewest in either league. The Stars' pitching was so good that even having just the fourth-best offense in the league could not hold them back. The Stars didn't have a single hitter record 100 RBIs, and their best hitters by average, LF Tim Johnson and C Ernie Sprenkle, hit .320 which would have placed sixth on the Brooklyn Kings.


Ernie Sprenkle

Toronto finished third in the Continental, 88-66, eight games back. The Wolves featured strong pitching - lefty Don Cannaday was 25-9, 2.53 and would have been the Allen winner if Dick Richards hadn't been so impressive himself. Willie Couillard (17-16, 3.47), Birdie Smith (12-11, 3.62) and Henry Fischer (15-14, 3.62) gave Toronto a strong foursome. The Wolves didn't really have any offensive standouts, but were second in the league in scoring (though far behind Brooklyn) and 3B Floyd Spear (.335-5-93) picked up in a midseason trade with the Chicago Chiefs the year before, looked like a solid cornerstone. The fourth-place Philadelphia Sailors were in the pennant race for much of the season before a late swoon dropped them to fourth; they finished 87-67 just behind the Wolves. Veteran pitcher Rube Smith led the league in ERA (2.23) but missed five weeks with an ill-timed back injury that dampened the Sailors' pennant chances.


Rube Smith

The bottom half of the Continental standings was led by the Baltimore Cannons and their 74-80 mark. The Cannons did feature the CA's MVP in RF Sandy Lovelle, who hit .354 at the top of the order for the Cannons. Sixth-place Montreal started slowly and made some progress later in the season, though their 61-93 record was still a disappointment to their fans. They did bring back a fan favorite in Hal Eason, acquired from the Keystones in June. The slugging veteran right fielder finished with 19 homers for the Saints (24 overall) to lead the league, four ahead of team mate Paul Tattersall, a veteran backstop acquired just before the season from the Gothams. The Chicago Cougars were seventh, one game behind Montreal (60-94) and made a handful of moves to position the club for future success. Among the bright spots for the Cougars was the play of catcher Slick Hostetter, a 27-year-old who improved his average from .282 to .340 and showed a discerning eye as well with 63 walks and a .414 on-base percentage. Last-place Cleveland, coming off a 2nd-place finish in 1925, dropped 25 games off their win total and by season's end had gone all-in on a rebuilding process.


Hal Eason

The Federal Association runners-up from St. Louis fell victim to a late-season swoon, but gave the Gothams all they could handle for most of the season. Led by the power-duo of RF Max Morris who hit a league-best 33 homers and LF Art Charles, who hit .379 on a league-leading 242 hits with 29 doubles, 18 triples and 17 homers to power his league-leading 124 runs batted in, the Pioneers had a potent offense, but their pitching was thin behind their top two of Jimmy Clinch (20-14, 3.94) and Rolla Puckett (.24-7, 3.59). Third place Washington had the league's top hitter in catcher T.R. Goins, whose .395 average, 24 homers and 121 RBIs, saw him win the Fed's Whitney Award as league MVP and be the engine of the Fed's top-scoring lineup. Cap McDonald (21-9, 3.85) led the Washington pitching staff which was the club's weak link. The Keystones finished fourth at 78-76. Philly had a lot of room for optimism though - 1B Rankin Kellogg (.326-29-113) was just 23 and looked like a future Whitney winner in the making and 2B Eddie Hogan (.359), catcher Carl Ames (.304-9-94), RF Al Thornton (.329-4-40) and CF Lee Smith (.324) looked like a solid young core - if some pitching could be found as the 'Stones allowed the 7th most runs in the Fed.


T.R. Goins

The Boston Minutemen with a 73-81 record, finished fifth. They did have the (controversial) Allen winner in reliever Dode Jefferis, who edged out St. Louis' Rolla Puckett with a season that saw him pitch in 93 games, record 18 saves and post a league-best 2.41 ERA. The Chicago Chiefs were sixth with a 68-86 record and were done in by the league's worst pitching. This was something of a surprise in Chicago where the Chiefs usually had good pitching and poor hitting. This time, the hitting was respectable, but the pitching was terrible aside from Joe Foley (20-16, 4.19). Detroit made a one-spot improvement over 1925, climbing out of the basement into seventh-place, three games ahead of Pittsburgh. There wasn't a lot to crow about in either Detroit or Pittsburgh in 1926. It was hoped that the high draft picks would turn things around as both clubs were mired in mediocrity.


Dode Jefferis

The highly-anticipated World Series between the Stars and Gothams turned out to be something of a dud. The Gothams took game one by a 9-5 margin, getting to the usually reliable Sammy Butler but after that the series was all Stars. The Continental powerhouse got two great starts for ace Dick Richards, saw Butler bounce back with a strong effort in game four, and some come-from-behind magic from their lineup to claim their third straight World Championship.

The Gothams had further bad news just a week later when longtime owner Miles Bigsby passed away at his home. The 84-year-old Bigsby, though always a controversial figure, was one of the founders of professional baseball, going back to the foundation of the Century League in 1876. His death left Keystones' owner Jefferson Edgerton as the last surviving member of the original octet of men who created professional baseball in America fifty years earlier.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Gothams		96	58	.623	-	847	725
St. Louis Pioneers		90	64	.584	6	918	793
Washington Eagles		88	66	.571	8	926	806
Philadelphia Keystones		78	76	.506	18	853	856
Boston Minutemen		73	81	.474	23	761	792
Chicago Chiefs			68	86	.442	28	763	907
Detroit Dynamos			63	91	.409	33	749	850
Pittsburgh Miners		60	94	.390	36	684	772
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			96	58	.623	-	749	620
Brooklyn Kings			94	60	.610	2	863	731
Toronto Wolves			88	66	.571	8	787	646
Philadelphia Sailors		87	67	.565	9	742	627
Baltimore Cannons		74	80	.481	22	752	747
Montreal Saints			61	93	.396	35	632	808
Chicago Cougars			60	94	.390	36	738	888
Cleveland Foresters		56	98	.364	40	641	837
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Old 08-27-2019, 07:50 AM   #75
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April 1927 Update

The 1927 season, the 52nd professional baseball campaign, got started with the traditional first pitch thrown in Philadelphia on April 12th. The Keystones had started the tradition of each season's first pitch going back to the first pro game in 1876. This time they were hosting Pittsburgh and the home team garnered a 6-2 win with Rube Frazier throwing a complete game against the visiting Miners. That win was something of a harbinger for the month as the 'Stones came out of the gate red-hot and finished the first month of the season with a FABL-best 14-6 record.

Leading the charge for Philly were pitcher Red Adwell (4-0, 2.62 ERA), 2B Eddie Hogan (.418 average) and budding superstar 1B Rankin Kellogg (.384, 2 HR, 19 RBIs).


Rankin Kellogg

There was quite a traffic jam behind the Keystones as four teams finished April tied for 2nd with identical 10-10 marks. The defending Fed champion Gothams, the Chicago Chiefs, St. Louis Pioneers and Detroit Dynamos were all lumped together. Boston (8-10), Pittsburgh (8-11) and Washington (8-11) rounded out the standings, The Fed looked like it might become a dog fight in '27.

Individually, Hogan's .418 topped FABL while the Gothams' young slugger Bud Jameson was tied with perennial home run king Max Morris of St. Louis with six round trippers. Washington's Paul Bailey led both circuits with 22 RBIs. Pitching-wise Adwell's four wins was tops in the Fed while Boston's Dode Jefferis led the Fed with a 1.23 ERA and Detroit's Toby Runlon led both loops with 22 strikeouts.


Paul Bailey

The Continental's April start looked a lot like 1926's finish. The Brooklyn Kings came out red-hot and then the New York Stars got even hotter. At the end of the month the Stars were 13-5 and Brooklyn 13-6. Cleveland, a doormat the year before, was third at 11-8 with the Cougars sitting fourth at a flat .500 (10-10). Toronto (9-10), Philadelphia (8-10), Baltimore (7-13) and the Montreal Saints (5-14) rounded out the standings.

Not much had changed at Riverside Park - the Stars' pitching was as good as ever. Dick Richards put up a 0.49 ERA in April, best in FABL (and still managed to lose a game, finishing 3-1 on the month). Luke Smith (3-0, 1.16) and Pete Scanlon (2-0, 2.67) also looked solid in the early going. The offense remained middling - the Stars were fifth in the CA in average and runs.


Dick Richards

Across the East River in Brooklyn, the Kings offense remained potent, and was again fully loaded with the return of 1926's breakout star Doug Lightbody (.382-2-12 in April) completing FABL's top outfield corps alongside Bud Rogers (.349-1-12) and Ab Thomas (.354-1-16). The pitching corps had Mose Smith (5-0, 2.60) and Cal Williams (3-0,3.32) off to fast starts, even if both Art Carlson and Topsy Moran had ERAs north of 5.00 for the month. The Kings remained dangerous and preseason predictions of a tight battle between the cross-borough rivals looked to be spot on.


Mose Smith

Cougars centerfielder Art Panko was the CA's top hitter, with a .415 mark for Chicago. Three players (Cleveland's Jim Cator and Don Ward and Philadelphia's David Merchant) shared the Continental's homer lead with three apiece (the power disparity between the circuits continued). Baltimore's Ace Adler tied Brooklyn's Ab Thomas with 16 RBIs. The aforementioned Dick Richards' dominating 0.49 ERA was the CA's best and Mose Smith's five wins likewise led that category. Baltimore's 6'5 fireballing righty Rabbit Day led the league with 19 strikeouts.


Art Panko

Cleveland SS Don Ward was named CA Rookie of the Month with a .338 average, 4 doubles, 1 triple and 3 HRs. Lightbody picked up where he left off with Batter of the Month honors and Birdie Smith of Toronto (4-0, 2.43 ERA) edged out Mose Smith for Pitcher of the Month.


Don Ward

Federal honors went to rookie hurler Bill Ketterman of the NY Gothams (3-0, 1.41), a former first round pick in 1922 by Washington who had been released before landing with the Gothams on a minor league contract in 1923. Top Batter was copped by Ketterman's team mate Bud Jameson (.403-6-17) who appeared tailor-made for the short porch in right at the Bigbsy Oval. And pitching honors went to Jimmy Clinch of the St. Louis Pioneers who posted a 4-1 mark with a 1.88 in April.


Jimmy Clinch

Code:
FEDERAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
				W	L	PCT	GB
Philadelphia Keystones		14	6	.700	-
New York Gothams		10	10	.500	4.0
Chicago Chiefs			10	10	.500	4.0
St. Louis Pioneers		10	10	.500	4.0
Detroit Dynamos			10	10	.500	4.0
Boston Minutemen		8	10	.444	5.0
Pittsburgh Miners		8	11	.421	5.5
Washington Eagles		8	11	.421	5.5
Code:
CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
				W	L	PCT	GB
New York Stars			13	5	.722	-
Brooklyn Kings			13	6	.684	.5
Cleveland Foresters		11	8	.579	2.5
Chicago Cougars			10	10	.500	4.0
Toronto Wolves			9	10	.474	4.5
Philadelphia Sailors		8	10	.444	5.0
Baltimore Cannons		7	13	.350	7.0
Montreal Saints			5	14	.263	8.5
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Old 10-04-2019, 01:39 PM   #76
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1927 - Keys to the Kingdom

Both the first and last pitches of the 1927 Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues' season was thrown at Philadelphia's Broad Street Park. The long-time home of the Keystones, the park was the site for the season's traditional opener as the first game of the season... and for the first time since the start of the World's Championship series, the Keystones won the pennant and represented the Federal Association.

It was a long, and not easy, road to their first pennant since the 1892 season for the Keystones. There was a key (pardon the pun) similarity between the '92 Stones and their 1927 squad, aside from the pennant win: both were led by big stars at first base. The '92 team had the legendary Zebulon Banks manning first and the '27 club featured Rankin Kellogg, easily the best player to don the Keystones' pinstriped duds since Banks left town.

Rankin Kellogg, Phi. Keystones

The Keystones consistency was their strongest suit in 1927. While they didn't lead wire-to-wire, they nearly did, and the did occupy the top spot on the 1st of every month from May through October. They did need an extra game to get past the Detroit Dynamos with whom they finished in a flat-footed tie at 85-69, but won that contest easily, by a score of 7-0 to claim the FA flag.

Kellogg won the Triple Crown, leading the Fed in average (.364), homers (32) and RBIs (133). It helped a bit that St. Louis PIoneers' slugger Max Morris was hurt in August (he had 30 homers in 117 games), but Kellogg's achievement was a rare one - he joined Morris (who had done it three times) and a pair of 19th century stars (Fred Roby in 1894 and Bob DeVilbiss in 1878) in pulling it off.

Kellogg wasn't alone in having a great season at the plate: in all, six of the eight Keystone regulars topped the .300 mark with catcher Carl Ames (.338-12-97) and centerfielder Lee Smith (.326-11-97) having particularly strong campaigns. The pitching was... well, it was ugly, finishing last in the league in runs allowed. But that just proved how outstanding the offense was for the Keystones in 1927.

Detroit's second-place finish, while a disappointing end for the club and its fans, did represent a significant uptick in the Dynamos' fortunes after three straight finishes at or near the bottom of the standings. With CF Frank Platt (.344-11-95) and LF Cy Lynch (.311-11-88) likely to be joined by 1925 #1 overall pick RF Al Wheeler (a combined 30 HRs in the minors in '27) in the not-too-distant future, the Dynamos' outlook seems bright.

Al Wheeler, Newark Aces

Similarly, third-place Chicago's fortunes seem to be rising as well. The Chiefs finished 83-71, just 2.5 games off the pace. The club allowed the least runs in the league and was second in runs scored. With a new GM coming on board at the end of the season, Chicago just could see a long-awaited return to the top in the near future.

Washington, likewise replacing its GM at season's end, was fourth, followed by St. Louis, whose pennant hopes were dashed on the rocks of Morris' season-ending Achilles injury on August 19th. The defending-Fed champs in New York took a step back and finished a disappointing sixth - but their pitching was good and they have a budding superstar in 1B Bud Jameson (.324-28-121) and a great second banana in RF Rusty Shearer (.313-16-104) so few are shedding tears for the Gothams. Pittsburgh (70-84), deep in a rebuild and Boston (67-87) rounded out the standings.

Bud Jameson, NY Gothams

While the Fed race was close, and required a one-game playoff, the Continental Association's race was one for the ages. The defending champ New York Stars were in first on May 1st. A month later it was Cleveland sitting in the catbird's seat (they were still there on July 1st too). But August saw the Philadelphia Sailors atop the standings, giving Philly fans dream of an all-Brotherly Love series (it wasn't to be...). September 1st? Toronto was on top. If you're sensing a trend, it was that there wasn't one - no fewer than five teams were in the mix in the season's final month and it was a team I haven't mentioned who ended up winning the flag: the Brooklyn Kings.

Brooklyn, back at full power with the return of young star Doug Lightbody saw their phenom hit at a .400-plus rate for the bulk of the season before tailing off in September to finish with a FABL-best .384 mark. With the league's top offense and top pitching, it was mostly bad luck that had kept the Kings out of the top spot for long. The Kings made a bold move by firing popular former-player and manager Powell Slocum, replacing him with former Boston Minuteman skipper Wally Grant. The move did appear to pay off as the Kings improved from a .517 win percentage under Slocum to a .622 percentage under Grant.

Wally Grant, Brooklyn manager

Brooklyn had a 21-game winner (Cal WIlliams, 21-10, 3.83) and a 19-game winner (Mose Smith, 19-14, 3.40). In addition to Lightbody (.384-15-98) they also had LF Bud Rogers (.335-8-84), C Mickey Dowell (.306-8-87) and three additional .300-plus hitters in their everyday lineup. The offense - as it had been in 1926 - was loaded.

There was tie for second, one game behind the Kings, between the Sailors and Toronto Wolves. Cleveland, who had led the race the longest, finished two back in fourth place. New York swooned in the early going and never really recovered, finishing fifth. Sixth-place Baltimore, at 76-78, was the best of only three clubs to finish below .500: Chicago (71-83) and Montreal (63-91) rounded out the CA's table.

Top batting performers, aside from those already mentioned, included 3B Glenn Morrison of Washington (.353) and his team mate, the best catcher in the FABL, T.R. Goins (.351-13-99) joining Kellogg atop the Fed charts. The CA had Cleveland SS Joe Standish (.343-22-86) making a big splash and the ageless wonder John Dibblee of the Cougars who not only finished third in the CA batting race (.336) but also became the second man in history to top 3500 career hits, joining Powell Slocum (and passing Zeb Banks who had been second) in the 1927 season.

T.R. Goins, Washington

On the mound, the Pioneers Jimmy Clinch (20-16, 3.50) and Detroit's Toby Runlon (20-12, 4.08) were the only Federal Assoc. hurlers to notch 20 wins. Clinch also paced the loop in innings (324.1) and Ks (116). The Continental, by contrast, had six 20-game winners, headed up by Chicago Cougars ace Vince Dacosta (22-12, 3.99) and Cleveland Foresters ace Bob Lawrence (22-12, 3.20), whose injury on September 24th might have played a role in the Foresters' failure to keep pace with Brooklyn in the final week of the season (the team lost both games he would have been likely to have pitched).

The World Series was surprising - with the top two offenses in baseball, fans expected a shootout. Instead - for at least the first three games - they got tight, pitching-focused contests which were all won by Philadelphia. Brooklyn fell 5-4 in the first game (in Kings County Park) when a ninth-inning rally fell short. The next day they failed to capitalize on the few mistakes made by Keystone starter Rube Frazier and fell 2-1.

When the series shifted to Philly, the Kings led game three 2-1 in the seventh before things fell apart and they dropped a third straight contest, this time by a 4-2 margin. The Kings finally put together a solid all-around game in game four - a 7-0 win - but it was too late. Brooklyn fell 6-0 in game five, giving the Keystones their first title since their 1892 pennant. Rube Frazier was named MVP as the winner of both the 2-1 game two and the 6-0 game five. The biggest news may have been that Kings star Doug Lightbody went just 1-for-17 in the Series. And while Rankin Kellogg hit just .222 for the series himself, he did have a pair of big home runs and drove in a team-high five runs for the Series.

Rube Frazier, World Series MVP

Award winners for the 1927 season were unsurprisingly:
Whitney Award (Federal Association):

Rankin Kellogg, Philadelphia

Whitney Award (Continental Association):

Doug Lightbody (Brooklyn)

Allen Award (Federal Assoc.)

Jimmy Clinch (St. Louis)

Allen Award (Continental Assoc.)

Mose Smith (Brooklyn)

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Keystones		86	69	.555	-	901	855
Detroit Dynamos			85	70	.548	1	820	773
Chicago Chiefs			83	71	.539	2½	827	739
Washington Eagles		78	76	.506	7½	796	791
St. Louis Pioneers		76	78	.494	9½	810	804
New York Gothams		72	82	.468	13½	759	773
Pittsburgh Miners		70	84	.455	15½	714	765
Boston Minutemen		67	87	.435	18½	676	803
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Brooklyn Kings			83	71	.539	-	782	660
Philadelphia Sailors		82	72	.532	1	745	700
Toronto Wolves			82	72	.532	1	708	697
Cleveland Foresters		81	73	.526	2	760	700
New York Stars			78	76	.506	5	757	727
Baltimore Cannons		76	78	.494	7	766	797
Chicago Cougars			71	83	.461	12	773	901
Montreal Saints			63	91	.409	20	626	735

NOTE: I will update this post with images and award winners once the awards have been decided.
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Last edited by legendsport; 10-08-2019 at 01:10 PM. Reason: Updated with Award Winners
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Old 10-23-2019, 05:56 PM   #77
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1928 Season Preview: Continental Association

1928 FABL Season Preview

A Team-by-Team look at the upcoming season...

Continental Association
Baltimore Cannons

1927 Finish: 76-78, 7th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 6th

The Cannons have a star on their hands in 29-year-old leftfielder Ace Adlon. A part-timer given a boost into a starring role a year ago, Adlon led the CA with 203 hits. He has good speed, a nice ability to find the gaps and is an ideal top-of-the-order hitter. The Cannons have an intriguing prospect as well in catcher Joe Welch, a 22-year-old from Lynn, Mass. whose resume looks thin but whose talents look legit. He could be a sleeper for top rookie - if there was any such award. Another player to watch is RF Lou Kelly, a 26-year-old who tore up AAA last season and hit .319 for the Cannons in about half-a-season. The pitching is a bit of a concern - both Oscar Jefferson and Rabbit Day are top of the rotation types, but the quality drops off from there. Baltimore could contend - but it'll take a good year from the role players and the emergence of at least a third decent starting pitcher.

Brooklyn Kings
1927 Finish: 83-71, 1st (Lost World Championship Series)
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 3rd

It was an interesting and exciting 1927 campaign in Brooklyn. The team recovered from a mid-season managerial switch and won the pennant on the league's final weekend, but it then ended badly in a WCS loss to the Philadelphia Keystones. The Kings return both the 1927 CA MVP in Doug Lightbody and the Allen Award winner in Mose Smith for 1928. So the expectations remain high. Injuries have been the bugaboo of this club the last few seasons and inconsistency among the pitchers could be a concern in 1928. The offense will be strong, that much is certain. If the pitching holds up, the Kings will be right there at the end once again.

Chicago Cougars
1927 Finish: 71-83, 7th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 4th

What Doug Lightbody is to the Kings, Bill Ashbaugh is all that and more to the Chicago Cougars. The uber-talented keystone is possibly the best player in the entire Continental Association. At just 23 years of age, and in just a half-season, Ashbaugh hit 15 homers and slashed .330/.402/.560, a very strong showing. All signs say he'll be even better this year as he gets more seasoned. With ageless wonder John Dibblee hitting behind Ashbaugh, the heart of the Cougs' order will be scary. The rest of the lineup has a lot of question marks but the pitching seems to be a strong point with 22-game-winner Vince DaCosta backed up by a now-healthy Johnny Douglas and promising third starter Dick Lyons.

Cleveland Foresters
1927 Finish: 81-73, 5th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 5th

It was a tale of two seasons for the 1927 Foresters. A club no one expected much from going into the season got a shot of adrenaline from a new GM and were pace-setters in the first half of the season before swooning down the stretch and finishing fourth. The 1928 edition is a bit of an enigma: was the '27 run legitimate, or is the last-place 1926 edition closer to the truth? There is some talent on board, and that should engender some optimism for the followers of Big Green.

Montreal Saints
1927 Finish: 63-91, 8th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 7th

The Saints hit rock bottom in 1927, finishing last for the first time since 1906. But they've got an active GM, some solid pieces around which to build, and some promising talent on the farm. The rise begins now, and in a league less tough than this one, they'd finish higher, but hey, this is the Continental Association and we all know half the league will be battling for the pennant. With SS Woody Armstrong out to start the season, the opportunity to shine has been presented to Charlie Rector and the prediction here is that shine he will - possibly enough to force his way into a permanent role somewhere (the aforementioned Armstrong - a very, very good player, can also play second base). Jim Broome is a 25-year-old institution about to be unleashed and, biggest surprise of all - the pitching isn't bad - Charlie Stedman could be the team's ace of not only the future, but also the right now. And they have a kid with a famous name (hint: his last name is Allen) who could start living up to his father's famed pedigree sooner rather than later. So notice is served to Continental clubs: don't sleep on the Saints.

New York Stars
1927 Finish: 78-76, 5th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 1st

The Stars had by their standards a bad year in '27. In the mix off-and-on during the season, they finished fifth and barely over .500 - nowhere near their usual heights. But the pieces of their three-straight pennant winners remain and they should have one more good run in them. The pitching is downright frightening - the starting quartet of Dick Richards, Sammy Butler, Luke Smith and Matt Pharr should have the Stars leading the league in runs allowed again. 2B Pete Layton had a terrific spring and looks good hitting in that #2 spot ahead of CF Gordie Loftus and rookie 3B John Lawson who looked great in LA last season and should look even better in NY this season. Opposing pitchers have to look all the way down to the bottom third of the Stars order to find a weak spot. Couple that with the stellar pitching and the Stars should shine again in '28.

Philadelphia Sailors
1927 Finish: 82-72, 2nd
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 2nd

The Sailors snuck up on everyone in 1927, nearly spoiling what most prognosticators saw as an inevitable Big Apple-based showdown between the Stars & Kings for the CA pennant. The Sailors - like their crosstown rivals in the Fed - had a great season and 1928 looks even better. The lineup starts off with Red Brown, who color-based jokes aside, should return to his form of a few years back, setting the table for the big bats following him. The biggest of those belong to the two-headed left-handed hitting monster that is the pairing of #3 hitter David Merchant (whose 6.3 WAR topped the league a year ago) and #4 hitter Jack Cleaves, yet another budding star at the keystone position (where do the CA teams grow their second basemen?) and yet another phenom from the loaded 1925 draft class, who is poised for a breakout campaign. The pitching is anchored by 38-year-old former Chief Danny Wren who looks like he still has enough gas left in the tank and promising youngster Johnny Davis who is slotted #2 and had a very strong spring campaign. The Sailors' lineup will propel them - in that way they're very much in the mold of the Brooklyn Kings. Whichever of those two has the better pitching will be the one fighting the Stars for the pennant.

Toronto Wolves
1927 Finish: 82-73, 3rd
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 8th

The Wolves had a great 1927 campaign. But the team didn't make any moves of note this offseason and in an arms race that saw the other top squads make moves, that's either a sign of extreme confidence, or a point of major concern (depending on your viewpoint). This team rides on its pitching - the trio of Birdie Smith, Don Cannaday and Willie Couillard are as good as any other trio in the league. RF Jack Mack looks like he might be the kind of guy you could build a lineup around - if he wasn't already 30 years old. 3B Don Summers, just 21 years old, could be a star in the making, but it probably won't be enough in this very tough Continental season to keep the Wolves out of the cellar.
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Old 10-23-2019, 10:05 PM   #78
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1928 Season Preview: Federal Association

Federal Association
Boston Minutemen

1927 Finish: 67-87, 8th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 8th

The once-mighty Heroes of the Hub have fallen on hard times. The Minutemen have a proud history; however those glory days are a distant memory for Boston fans. But with a new GM in place, things might looking up in Beantown. While none of the names in the starting lineup will jump out as household names, there is a promising young rookie (1B Tom Tucker), a proven vet (LF Homer Krajewski) and a vet with something to prove (3B Charlie Barry) to give a measure of hope. On the bump, the pickings have been slim of late but 1927 ERA champ Bill Jenkins is just 25 years old and might be the ace this club needs. Behind him in the rotation are a series of question marks: can Ernie Henderson throw strikes? Will Jack Holland ever again post a sub-five ERA? And most of all - can callups Wilbur Laramee or Phil Sunshine make a difference? The answers to those questions will have a lot to say about the Minutemen's chances to rise from the ashes.

Chicago Chiefs
1927 Finish: 83-71, 3rd
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 2nd

Owner Wash Whitney isn't one to mince words. The son of league founder William Whitney learned his craft at the knee of the Baron of Blunt and says: "The time has come for the Chiefs to prove their mettle." Answering the call of the Commander-of-Chiefs will be tough - the Fed has several good clubs and while Chicago is one of them, they'll need to prove it on the field. Luckily for the Chiefs, you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to be a star because Joe Masters won't win any IQ contests, but he just might win the batting (and home run) title. Yep, the 28-year-old third sacker came to camp looking strong and featuring an improved swing modeled on the Mighty Max himself. With that in his arsenal, Masters hit six homers in 67 Grapefruit League at-bats. Expect more of the same in Chicago. With star LF Jim Hampton also a dangerous weapon, the Chiefs will actually have a good offense (something they've long missed at Whitney Park). Runs will be scored at a prolific rate and if the pitching improves over its lackluster performance of 1927, the Chiefs will be riding herd on the Federal this year.

Detroit Dynamos
1927 Finish: 85-70, 2nd
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 4th

The Detroit Dynamos came within one game of going to the championship series but fell in the one-game playoff with Philadelphia. The scary part for the rest of the Federal League is that the 1928 edition of the Motown club is likely to be even better. For one thing, 1925 #1 overall pick Al Wheeler has arrived in town, and he has no plans of heading back to Newark or Akron. Detroit's Big Wheel will be looking to add additional juice to a lineup that was already pretty good. In addition to Wheeler, there's a new first baseman in Henry Jones, a "where did he come from?" spring training surprise who forced incumbent Dirk Mannheim back to shortstop after a spring that saw him hit .500 with four homeruns in 24 at-bats. Small sample size? You betcha. And he's making the jump from A-ball. But the feeling here is that he's for real and if that's the case, having Jones, Wheeler and fellow rookie Frank Vance hitting 2-3-4 adds up to bad news for Federal hurlers. The pitching though is a huge question mark that will decide whether the Dynamos power themselves to a pennant or short-out and finish in the second division.

New York Gothams
1927 Finish: 72-82, 6th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 3rd

The Gothams went from the second-division to a pennant... and then back to the second-division. Following their appearance in the 1926 WCS, the team lost longtime owner and FABL firebrand Miles Bigsby. With his nephew Charles now calling the shots (and twirling his handlebar mustache in a menacing manner just to keep up the family's reputation), the team had a bit of a hangover in 1927. Expect a turnaround in '28 though because the Gothams still have plenty of talent. You can start with 1B Bud Jameson who hit .324 with - get this: 31 doubles, 29 triples and 28 homers in 1927. Then there's his running mate, RF Rusty Shearer who fell off from his own ridiculous 1926 season, all the way to a .313/.398/.509 slash line (yep, that's a bad year for Mr. Shearer). Throw in a rookie shortstop who might, just might be the best at his position in the Fed (that'd be Jim Lutz - remember that name, folks), a starting staff anchored by the steady tandem of Delos Dunn and Bill Parker and you might have a recipe for an elixir that'll have everyone hating the Bigsbys again.

Philadelphia Keystones
1927 Finish: 86-69, 1st - World Champions
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 1st

The Keystone Kops this is not - these Keystones are the class of the Federal League (until someone comes along to knock them down a peg or two). Like Detroit with its overpowered offense, the Keystones already had plenty of power of their own - and got better this offseason too. To hit in front of RBI machine (and Fed MVP) Rankin Kellogg the 'Stones went out and traded for LF Phil Sandman. Now Phil had his struggles with the glove in Montreal, but he can swing the lumber. Don't expect him to save any runs in left - but he'll drive home more than he gives up. Having a 3-4-5 of Sandman-Kellogg and Carl Ames is a southpaw deathmarch few pitchers will want to make. And that will keep the Keystones humming along. Oh, yeah - they also have a legitimate ace in Bill Ross and capable arms behind him in the rotation (Rube Frazier and Red Adwell to name two). They'll be pushed, but Philly is still the bully in this schoolyard fight.

Pittsburgh Miners
1927 Finish: 70-84, 7th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 6th

Steady as she goes is the phrase to remember in Pittsburgh. Their surprise 1924 pennant preceded a dramatic drop that saw them finish 7th, 8th and 7th. Now in their second season under their new GM, and with their rebuild going steadily, the Miners aren't - quite - ready to make a fuss yet, but the time is coming. The Miners' infield of 1B George Simspon, 2B Jim Welch, 3B John Barber and SS Doc Nowack is young and talented and along with CF Jim Renfroe, have a lot of upside coming down the pike. Hap Goodwin leads the pitching staff - for now. He's likely going to be the third-best arm on the team in the not-too-distant future as both Jim Smith and Bill Morrill are young, hungry and talented. In a vein somewhat akin to the Saints in the other loop - don't sleep on the Miners. They're digging themselves out of the hole.

St. Louis Pioneers
1927 Finish: 76-78, 5th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 7th

Ah, the Pioneers. The dynasty that never was. This is a club that personifies the term "snakebit." They have the best hitter in the world in Max Morris. Problem is, Mighty Max has been hurt a lot. When he's playing, he's a force (30 HRs in 117 games in '27). When he's not, the Pioneers aren't a very good team. They also have a shortstop, name of Roger "Rip" Landry. He's also very good - and very prone to getting hurt. Then there's Mr. Dependable: LF Art Charles. All this guy does is come to the park and rip. Since joining the club in 1924, his averages have been .347, .343, .379 and .350. Sure, he's always in Morris' shadow. But the guy is classy, plays hard and never complains. He's the ideal ballplayer. Too bad he's been stuck on an unlucky club. The pitching - which had been a strength - is starting to fade. Jimmy Clinch, Bill Hathaway and Rolla Puckett are still good, serviceable pitchers. But they're probably no longer enough to keep this club out of the second division.

Washington Eagles
1927 Finish: 78-76, 4th
Rufus Barrell's 1928 Prediction: 5th

The Eagles are under new management and depending on how said new management handles the roster, could be a contender or a top of the second-division type of club. Any discussion of the national capital's club has to start with T.R. Goins. The best-catcher-in-the-world is a star coming off his third straight season with a .350 or better average. He's got power too and his workmanlike attitude is endearing to fans and team mates alike. He's got a good second fiddle in 3B Glenn Morrison - a legit .300 hitter with good speed. But the supporting cast is rather average. Pitching-wise, Cap McDonald is being asked to return to the form he had in 1926 when he won 21 games. After an injury-plagued 1927, it's a big question whether that's still possible. Ralphie Smith (or Ralph E. as he prefers it) is the second banana. He was a solid fireman once upon a time, but has been so-so (at best) in the rotation thus far (he has two great pitches, but no third pitch).
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Last edited by legendsport; 10-24-2019 at 06:48 AM.
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Old 10-29-2019, 01:04 PM   #79
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Bio: Keystones owner Jefferson Edgerton

He was known as "Big Jeff" to his players and called the "Edison of Baseball" by no less an authority than William W. Whitney himself, but to Philadelphia baseball fans he was always "Boss Edgerton."

Jefferson Yates Edgerton was born in Lehigton, Pennsylvania on January 5, 1840. Edgerton came from humble beginnings - his father was a blacksmith. The senior Edgerton named his son for Thomas Jefferson because the Edgerton clan had originally come from Virginia and Jeff's grandfather had been a clerk for Mr. Jefferson during the famous man's term as vice-president.

Luckily for Jeff, his father was also a proponent of his only son (Jeff did have a sister) becoming something "better than a blacksmith" and he was determined to see that the youngster get a quality education.

Edgerton worked as a conductor on a Philadelphia horse car to support his parents when his father fell ill with tuberculosis while Jeff was just a teen. He still managed to enroll in Liberty College and planned to become a lawyer. Those plans were derailed when the Civil War broke out. Edgerton, just 21 years old, received a referral from his former boss on the horse car line and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania volunteers. It was while serving in the Union Army that he met the man who would change the course of his life: William Whitney.

Whitney, a West Point-educated Army engineer, worked with Edgerton while the latter was serving as an adjutant between Union General George McClellan and the Army Corps of Engineers working on the fortifications of Washington, D.C. Whitney was impressed with Edgerton and soon had finagled a transfer that made the young man his aide-de-camp. By war's end the two men had created a lifelong bond - and they had also both become enamored of the game of base ball, which had become a popular pastime with Union soldiers in and around the national capital during the war.

When the war ended in 1865, Whitney returned to Illinois to found his produce empire and Edgerton returned to Philadelphia where he started a business of his own - making baseballs. With several different models, the Edgerton Sporting Goods company quickly became the top maker of balls in the northeast. It was Edgerton's continued work on "perfecting" the baseball and other innovations that included a protective mask for the catcher that caused Whitney to eventually refer to his former aide as the "Edison of Baseball."

In the late 1860s Edgerton put together a traveling team, often playing himself, despite a bad leg he had earned falling into a trench while in the Army. With a career as a player unlikely in the extreme, Edgerton settled comfortably into the role he would fill for the rest of his long life: that of team owner.

When Whitney came calling in 1875 with his idea of a professional base ball league, Edgerton was enthusiastic and quickly agreed to field a team in Philadelphia. Thus was the Centennial club was born. The Centennials would eventually be renamed the Keystone Club, Edgerton's team joined Whitney's Chicago Chiefs as the only original club to make it through the turbulent and often chaotic years of the early Century League and emerge unscathed as a charter member of the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues.

Unsurprisingly, when the FABL launched, the official provider of baseballs to the organization was the Edgerton Sporting Goods company - a distinction that continues to this day.

Edgerton's Philadelphia clubs were particularly strong in the early days of the Century League, winning the first league title in 1876 and two others in 1880 and 1882. A decade-long drought ended with the club winning the Federal Association pennant in 1892 - the last year before the start of the World Championship Series. Those early clubs were built around one of the game's biggest early stars in 1B Zebulon Banks. Big Zeb and Big Jeff didn't always see eye-to-eye as both tended to be stubborn. This ultimately resulted in Banks leaving the Keystones, but the two men later reconciled and Banks returned to the organization as a front-office employee in 1917, before his final retirement after the 1920 season.

The 20th century was not kind to Edgerton. After finishing second in 1899, the Keystones fell on hard times, finishing in the second division for nine straight seasons and eighteen of nineteen, finishing 2nd in 1909 and 3rd in 1919. That 1919 season was followed by five straight last-place finishes. The only real success for the Keystones in this era was the construction of the "new" Broad Street Park, a lovely concrete and steel ballpark that replaced the dilapidated wooden structure on the same site in 1910.

Edgerton's last full season as owner was 1927 - and what a season it was. The Keystones rose from a fourth-place finish the season before to win the pennant and then the World Championship over the Brooklyn Kings. Edgerton, frail and thin at 87 years old, sat in his box right beside the home dugout as the Keystones won game five, and the series, 6-0 to win their first FABL title.

Edgerton never married. When asked about it he said that he was "far too busy to provide the kind of attention and care a spouse deserves." As a lifelong bachelor with no children, for many years there was some question as to who would take over the Keystones and the Edgerton Sporting Goods business. Edgerton answered this in 1915 when he made his sister's son Edward Meachum the sole heir to both the ball club and the sporting goods business.

Jefferson Edgerton fell ill with respiratory issues in the spring of 1928 and passed away on May 1st at the age of 88. The club would wear a black stripe on their right sleeves in his memory for the rest of the 1928 season. Meachum also announced that the club would rename the Broad Street Ballpark as Edgerton Field in his uncle's honor.
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Old 10-30-2019, 10:58 AM   #80
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Mid-May 1928 Update

The key word for the 1928 season in the Federal Association thus far has been parity. The Fed standings is topped by a team that's three games over .500 (Pittsburgh) and has a last place team that's just five games under .500 (St. Louis) with only four games separating them in the standings.


Bill Morrill, Pittsburgh P

To say that the Miners have been a surprise would be an accurate statement. Most pegged Pittsburgh as still rebuilding and likely a year or two away from contending for the team's eighth pennant (and first since 1924) but the Miners have been good through the season's first month of play. That's largely due to stellar pitching - the team is first in runs allowed with ace Bill Morrill leading the way as he's off to a 5-2, 1.87 start. The lineup has been middle of the pack, so if the pitching falters, that could be an issue for the Miners, but so far, things are looking good at Fitzpatrick Park.

The defending champion Keystones sit just a half-game behind the Miners (as does the Chicago Chiefs). The 'Stones stumbled out of the gate losing six of their first eight games this season, but have been much better since, and are riding a 15-9 stretch.With Rankin Kellogg in mid-season form (the April POTM in the Fed has a .409 average with 7 homers and 39 RBIs in 32 games so far) the offense is solid, though the pitching has been a bit spotty.


Rankin Kellogg, Philadelphia (F) 1B

Chicago's Joe Masters is giving Kellogg a run for his money, sitting with a nice round .400 average and league-best 9 homers to set the pace for the Fed's best offense. Boston, at 17-16, sits in fourth place after a strong start. Carlos Cano has been red-hot for the Gothams hitting eight homers so far out of the leadoff spot and though Rusty Shearer (.225-2-20) has been cold, Bud Jameson (.369-4-22) has not. The pitching has been the issue for New York, placing 7th in runs allowed thus far.

Detroit (15-16), Washington (15-17) and St. Louis (13-18) round out the Fed standings. The Dynamos boast the top hitter in the Fed, 3B Frank Vance (.411-6-23) and have had surprisingly good pitching, with the offense - also surprisingly - being their weakness thus far. The Eagles have largely struggled at the plate (7th in runs scored) and the pitching has also been mediocre. The last-place Pioneers have a dismal .244 team batting average with the usually productive Art Charles (.243-2-16) and Roger Landry (.241-4-14) off to very slow starts. Max Morris is unlikely to return until the end of June so help is still quite a distance away.


Roger Landry, St. Louis SS

Over in the Continental, the Cleveland Foresters have been the story. Their 23-10 mark has them 3.5 games up on preseason favorites New York and Brooklyn. Toronto has been a surprise as well, with the Wolves currently sitting fourth at 17-15. The Sailors, Saints and Cougars are lumped together a handful of games under .500 and the Baltimore Cannons have been terrible thus far, losing their first 13 games, posting a 2-16 mark in April and currently buried in last with a 6-24 record.

LF Joe Perret (.427-5-33) has been the pace-setter for Cleveland, leading the Continental's top offense. He's gotten good support from RF Joe Standish (.368-2-16) and 1B Ron McDougle (.356-0-20) and the pitching has also been outstanding, and is tied for first in runs allowed. Ace Bob Lawrence (5-2, 2.70) and Wayne Robinson (3-1, 2.19) head up the stingiest starting staff in either league. If the Foresters can maintain this level of play, they should be able to claim the club's first pennant since 1920.


Joe Perret, Cleveland LF

The big rivals from the nation's biggest city are tied for second. The Stars are getting the expected top-notch production from 2B Pete Layton (.410-7-19) to pace their 3rd-ranked offense, and the pitching has been pretty good (as expected) as well with Dick Richards (1-0, 2.74 in four starts), Sammy Butler (3-1, 3.00) and Mutt Pharr (3-1, 3.22) all looking good. Brooklyn has gotten even better pitching, sitting in a tie with Cleveland for the stingiest staff. Last year's Allen winner Mose Smith (5-2, 3.34) leads the way with Del Plummer (2-3, 3.16) playing second banana. Doug Lightbody (.359-0-17) has been good, but not quite as otherworldly as he was a season ago and Mickey Dowell (.397-0-27) has been the most consistently productive bat in the Kings order so far this season. This might present a problem for top prospect Mike Taylor, as the catcher has been terrific in the minors (.394-8-28) in AAA but he has Dowell blocking his most likely path to the Show.

Surprising Toronto appears to be doing it with mirrors. The Wolves rank 6th in runs scored and 8th in runs against, yet site with a 17-15 record thanks to an extra-large helping of home cooking (13-8 at home vs 4-7 on the road) and a 6-2 record in 1-run games. The bad news is that this run of luck is unlikely to continue when the club has a -36 run differential.


Rookie 3B Don Summers has joined Toronto and has a .373 average thus far.

The Philly Sailors head up a trio of nearly-500 ballclubs and, as expected with a team with a 14-16 record, they've been inconsistent and middle of the pack in terms of both scoring and run prevention. SS Forrest Sylvester has been terrific (.382-0-10) as has C Alex Diaz (.371-2-17) but the rest of the lineup has been pedestrian. And the pitching has been mediocre as well.

Montreal took full advantage of the Baltimore Cannons' awful start, running up a 10-0 record, but going just 4-17 against everyone else. Both the offense and pitching have shown flashes, but it's tough to determine if the Saints are going to be a factor this season. 2B Charlie Rector (.309-0-9) has been a pleasant surprise at the plate, but is learning a new position on the fly in the bigs while the guy he briefly replaced, SS Woody Armstrong, has been in a slump (.197-1-7) as has LF Jim Broome (.232-1-9). Both Charlie Steadman (4-2, 4.37) and Max Wilder (3-2, 2.67) have had flashes of brilliance, so if the offense comes around, the Saints might be able to be a presence in the CA race.


Max Wilder, Montreal P

The Chicago Cougars have had their best young player (2B Bill Ashbaugh, .218-1-17) get off to a slow start, have seen P Johnny Douglas (3-1, 2,65) go down with injury and have only had the ever-reliable John Dibblee (.389-1-22) producing as expected, so their 14-18 mark might be something they can take as a positive sign. Because it is unlikely that Ashbaugh will continue to stink it up and Douglas is close to returning.

Baltimore's terrible start was one of the worst in FABL history, yet the Cannons have shown some signs of recovering of late. 25-year-old pitcher Dutch Leverett was called up from AAA Indianapolis and has been outstanding with a 3-1 record and miniscule 0.79 ERA in four starts. Both catcher Joe Welch (.295-5-17) and RF Lou Kelly (.320-7-21) have shown good pop, helping Baltimore to the 2nd most homers in the circuit (20 as a team, just one fewer than the Stars. Being 18 games under .500 is a tough hill to climb, but there is a lot of baseball to be played, so maybe the Cannons can be respectable this season after all.


Lou Kelly, Baltimore RF
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