December 15, 1941
 

DECEMBER 15, 1941

PIONEERS "STAYING PUT"

The St. Louis Pioneers aren't going anywhere. That's been made official by an announcement from club owner Dee Rose who flew from his Los Angeles home to the Gateway city to "make it clear that this ballclub is not leaving St. Louis."

This comes in the wake of rampant speculation over the past two months that the new owner, based as he is in Southern California, would move the team. He had made a vow to build a championship-caliber club and to put it in a brand new ballpark (he termed it a "palace") to boot. He failed to say whether his baseball "palace" would be in St. Louis and his later remarks about how the advent of air travel has rendered distance moot as a barrier to placing a FABL club on the west coast fueled the speculation that he was moving the Pioneers out of St. Louis.

A new rumor has surfaced which, if true, might explain Rose's sudden promise to keep the club in Missouri. A confidential source indicated that there was a special meeting of the FABL Board of Governors in Washington, DC on the afternoon of December 8th. The board is composed of the owners of the 16 FABL clubs (or their designated representatives). At this meeting, Rose's representative called for a vote on moving the Pioneers to Los Angeles for the 1942 season.

The unnamed source claims that Rose had made a round of phone calls the previous week, targeting his fellows owners and had enough "yes" votes (12 would be needed) to approve the move. There was also an agreement in place to purchase rights to the Los Angeles area from New York Stars owner Alfred Mielke. The events in Hawaii on December 7th changed everything.

Suddenly the California coast was a potential war zone. The area was busily preparing for its first round of blackout practices as the FABL moguls gathered 3,000 miles away on the East coast. The vote was called, though everyone knew what the outcome would be, simply because it was on the agenda. Unsurprisingly it was unanimous against the move with even Rose's representative having received orders from his boss to vote nay.

Therefore it seems it was the Japanese who determined the fate of the St. Louis Pioneers.

SCHNEIDER TRIPLETS SET TO JOIN NAVY

America's most famous set of triplets have announced they are walking away from professional baseball and joining the Navy. The trio - big league infielders Buddy and Skipper as well as minor league pitcher Bart- are expected to undergo the prerequisite physical testing in their hometown of Detroit, Michigan early next week and off to basic training right after Christmas.

Buddy Schneider, a second baseman with the Boston Minutemen, and Skipper, the Chicago Cougars shortstop, recently squared off in the World Championship Series won by Buddy and his Boston mates in seven games. The duo were also named by the Chicago Sportswriters Guild as part of baseball's premier defensive lineup this past season. The 5'6" Buddy hit .336 this season and led the Federal Association with 193 base hits. Skipper batted .298 in 147 games with Chicago while Bart, a Cleveland Foresters farmhand, went 15-15 for Class A Wilmington of the Middle Atlantic League. The 21 year old trio were drafted with subsequent picks starting with 7th overall out of Detroit's Northwestern High School in 1939.

"We do everything together," said Bart "and this will be no different. Our country needs every hand available right now and we have six of them - identical perhaps - but 6 nonetheless to add."

QUICK HITS

• Fred McCormick officially rejoined the army this week as the Toronto batsman has decided to forget about baseball and return to the military. He had been released from service a few days ago because he was over 28 years of age and he had not been called back, but is returning on his own accord. "We are in trouble and the only thing to do is to return," McCormick said.
• The singing slugger Bill Moore has decided to cancel his Hollywood tryout. Moore, who was traded to the World Champion Boston Minutemen from the Cleveland Foresters at the July deadline, is an accomplished singer and had lined up a screen test with 20th Century Fox but announced this week he will spend the winter in his native Washington DC and not venture west to California. "The timing is just not right," said the 30 year old, who was a key contributor to the Boston WCS win, batting .333 in the 6 games he started in the Fall Classic.
• The New York Stars lost 4 players to the armed forces but if they want to whine about it they will have to buy their own crying towels. The towels in the headquarters hotel for the upcoming rule five draft have already been covered with the salty tears of Clyde Meyer, 62 year old skipper of the Chicago Cougars. Meyer, no doubt, has not stopped crying since receiving word that Pete Papenfus has taken the oath of allegiance and for all practical purposes he now is a Chief Petty Officer in the United States naval reserve after the 23 year old Allan Award winner chose the Navy over the Army Air Corps.
• Papenfus expects to receive preliminary training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, north of Chicago, and hopes he might be able to return home to Willow Springs, Missouri for Christmas. After that he is likely off to Norfolk (Va.) naval base to receive his assignment.
• The Continental Association not only accepted the Federal Association's invitation to play the 1942 all-star game in Pittsburgh next year, but enthusiastically agreed to double the ticket prices. "Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't agree to raise prices," said a FABL spokesman. "But this is an emergency. It is understood that all over the country and in foreign lands our soldiers are without baseball and sports equipment. Proceeds from this game will be used to buy that equipment."

WILDCATS WIN AFA TITLE ON LAST SECOND FIELD GOAL

The outcome of the 1941 American Football Association championship game hinged on the right foot of Chicago Wildcats seldom used back Eddie Andrews. As time was expiring Andrews earned himself a spot in Wildcats history with a 12 yard field goal to give the home side a 10-7 victory over the visiting New York Stars in one of the most dramatic title games in AFA history. The win gives the Wildcats their first Association title since 1934 and avenges a pair of losses since then including the 1937 game when the Stars embarrassed Chicago 34-0 in the championship contest. Chicago also lost the 1937 title game to Boston.

It was a cold day at Whitney Park but the snow, which fell heavily in the area that morning, tapered off to just flurries for most of the game. Most expected a high scoring affair as the Wildcats 395 points was far and away the most in the league this season and New York ranked third in scoring with 259. The Stars also had the league's stingiest defense and it was the defensive play that stood out for both sides in what proved to be a scoreless opening 30 minutes. Chicago's defense was much stronger than expected as they forced New York to punt on each of it's seven first half possessions and allowed just 2 New York first downs and only 58 yards of total offense before the break. The Wildcats had just slightly more success, picking up 105 yards in the first half and had an opportunity to take an early lead but Andrews missed on a 41 yard field goal attempt in the opening quarter.

Chicago finally did open the scoring nearly 10 minutes into the third quarter when Gus Brown scrambled for a 7 yard score as the culmination of a 9 play, 55 yard drive. With the extra point from Andrews the Wildcats were up 7-0 but the lead disappeared early in the fourth quarter when New York capitalized on the Wildcats first turnover of the game. The turnover could not have come at a worse moment as it was just after New York's Don Key dropped a perfect coffin-corner punt that rolled out of bounds on the Wildcats 3 yard line. It looked like Chicago might move out of the danger zone when Warren Pitts had a nice 8 yard run on second and six but it was nullified by a holding call that backed the Wildcats up to their own 2 yard line. Julius MacDonald dove on the loose ball at the Chicago 4 when Leon Stone had it jarred free and the Stars suddenly had their best field position of the entire day. It took 3 attempts but Jerry Reese eventually dove over the pile from the one yard line to tie the contest at 7.

A wild twist of emotions followed on the ensuing kick-off. Marsh Schroeder brought the crowd of nearly 33,000 at Whitney Park to it's feet as he danced his way through would-be Stars tacklers and it looked like he would go all the way with the return but he was caught at the New York 20 yard line by Barry Baker, who punched the ball loose and recovered it to save the day, at least temporarily, for the visitors.

Play suddenly got sloppy as the two sides then combined for 5 turnovers in the ensuing 10 minutes as both squads appeared to be doing their best to give the game away. With 1:44 remaining in regulation and the game still tied at 7 the Wildcats took over on their on 45 yard line. Gus Brown pushed the team forward with a pair of quick passes and six running plays later the Wildcats were perched on the Stars 5 yard line when they called a timeout with 4 seconds remaining. Enter Eddie Andrews as the unlikely hero to deliver the game winning kick which set off a raucous celebration in the park that spilled out along the banks of the Chicago River.


[list][*]Five of the six New Year's Day College Classic games will be played as scheduled after the President gave the go-ahead. However, the National East-West Classic will be moved from it's normal home in Santa Ana, California to the Bigsby Oval in New York out of caution in the event of a Japanese attack on the Pacific mainland. The January 1st contest will pit Eastern State (6-1-2) against West Coast Athletic Association champions Lane State (8-1). The one exception to the Classic schedule is the annual Hawaiian Classic as it has been called off due to the events at Pearl Harbor.

A new weekly feature added to the updates during the winter will be the AIAA college basketball report. Similar to the college football it will be a basic overview of the Figment college hoops universe and serve possibly as the feeding league for a potential future pro basketball online league joining the Figment Universe sometime after WWII is over. It is being simmed out with Fast Break College Basketball and continues the same schools that exist in college football and as the amateur school for many of the baseball players in the Figment draft pool.

A very unlikely school heads up the college basketball rankings as Great Plains State improved to 9-0 on the season and is considered the top team in the nation in the latest AP polls. The Buffaloes, who have finished a season ranked in the top twenty only once in their 32 year history, are number one despite missing the year end tournament each of the past 4 seasons. The independent school out of Wichita, Kansas survived a scare to start the week, edging Lubbock State 42-41 before notching a dominating win on the road against Arkansas A&T on Saturday. The win allowed them to overtake idle West Coast Athletic Association power City College of Los Angeles for top spot in the polls. The Coyotes did not play as their games were postponed this week while the club seeks another venue further inland to resume it's season.

• Germany and her Axis partner Italy officially declared war on the United States Thursday. The U.S. responded quickly as the Senate and House quickly approved resolutions recognizing war with Germany and Italy. Meanwhile, several Central and South American countries joined the Americans in declaring war on the Japanese.
• In it's attack on Pearl Harbor Tokio claims to have destroyed an aircraft carrier and sank an American submarine and a destroyer, as well as 81 planes. The United States revealed that 6 warships altogether, including the battleship Arizona were lost with the known dead total at 2,729 including 91 officers.
• The northeast had it's first air raid alarm after reports of enemy planes approaching Long Island first from New England and then off the Virginia coast. Reports were confusing and defense organizations took no chances after what happened in Hawaii. In the end the reports proved to be erroneous.
• Reports also had the navy hunting Japanese aircraft off the coast of California.
• Two British warships were sank by Japanese forces in fighting off Malaya while the US is repelling attacks on the Philippines. When the American fleet arrived it's commander, Admiral Thomas Hart, revealed that the Japanese battle fleet fled to avoid a fight with the American warships.
• Russia is claiming a great victory late in the week as the Red Army says it smashed a German offensive of 51 divisions, upwards of 750,000 men, on Moscow and the Nazis are fleeing.
• US Secretary of War Stimson is urging Congress to quickly approve a change to the draft bill making the age range for inclusion from 19 to 44.
• stocks plunged early in the week in wild trading on the New York Exchange to start the week.
  
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December 22, 1941
 

DECEMBER 22, 1941

34 MORE PLAYERS JOIN THE FIGHT

Plenty of bad news for big league clubs this week as 34 more players have left the professional baseball ranks to join either the Army or the Navy. All told a total of 64 players under FABL team control plus Jim Hatfield, a former Baltimore Cannon who was with San Antonio of the independent Lone Star Association, have either been drafted or enlisted.

Among the clubs hit hard this week we have the Washington Eagles and Cincinnati Cannons. The Eagles lost three more players including Jim Douglass (15-12, 4.96) their promising 24 year old right hander and second baseman Karl O'Reilly (.274,0,30). Cincinnati said farewell to all-star second baseman Charley McCullough (.268,1,59), who had been granted deferments over the course of the past season, as well as up and coming outfielder Mike T Taylor (.298,13,92). Others to ship out very shortly include Rip Lee (.279,2,81), the veteran Philadelphia Sailors infielder, Brooklyn's 25 year old second baseman Jim Lightbody (.335,3,49) and promising young pitchers in Detroit's Ed Whetzel (6-6, 4.66) and Jim Morrison (5-7, 3.02) of Toronto.

Below is the complete list of players lost so far by each FABL club:
Boston: Les Rich joins Mack Sutton and Mike Lee
Brooklyn: Jimmie Field and Jim Lightbody added this week with Jack Goff, James Slocum and Charlie Britton previously declared
Chiefs: Lou Eaker, Bill Jones, Ralph Kendall, Sam Patterson, Sam West to join George Chadwick
Cougars: Fred Vargas added to the list that starts with Pete Papenfus and also includes Rusty Watts, Alex Ingraham and Harl Haines.
Cincinnati: Charley McCullough, Eddie Seguin, Mike T. Taylor join previously announced Bill Sohl and Sam Goodwin
Cleveland: Si Crocker added to George Dellinger and Wes Parks
Detroit: Paul Grell, Bob Miller, Johnnie Sundberg, Ed Whetzel join Frank Gordon and Joe York
Montreal: Ed Jordan added to list that had Bud Robbins and Pete Wood
Gothams: Rube Dixon, Tom Henderson and Earl West to join John Phillips
Stars: no one new but already had lost Robert Curry, Johnny Hopper, Dixie Lee and Joe Rainbow
Keystones: Ed Greenwood joins Billy Woytek.
Sailors: Willie Hall, Rip Lee, Johnny Zeidman join Cotton Dillon and Lee Marshall
Pittsburgh: Art Brandon and Frank Buchanan added to Joe Owens.
St Louis: Les Hendrix and Jim Vaughn join Luke Micheals
Toronto: Jim Morrison and Packy Peck as well as Fred McCormick, who was released but reupped.
Washington: Jim Douglass, Karl O'Reilly and Juan Tostado are new this week joining Rube Norris.

QUICK HITS

• Interesting news out of Detroit as rumours are swirling that one of the Schneider triplets may have failed his Navy physical. Details are sparse at this point but, if accurate, that means that only two of the boys will be entering the service next week. Buddy is the star second baseman of the Boston Minutemen, Skipper a shortstop with the Chicago Cougars and Bart is a minor league pitcher in the Cleveland Foresters system.
• A swift succession of military mandates promised virtual extinction of all West Coast tradition sports events for the duration of the war. College football's East-West Classic on New Year's Day has been shifted to New York and college hoops teams are scrambling to reschedule games further inland in places such as Arizona or Texas. Several west coast golf tournaments will also find new homes in the southwest and horse racing has been halted in California although the most prominent track in the state has asked the Army to reconsider it's decision and permit racing to continue. What that means to the Great Western League baseball schedule for 1942 is uncertain. League execs are taking a wait and see attitude for the AAA loop which contains five independent squads but also the top farm clubs of the Pioneers, Sailors and Stars. It seems unlikely the league would be able to relocate as a whole and play somewhere else but at least one owner is optimistic they will be given the go ahead to start their season come spring.
• Barring unforeseen developments on the war front which might abruptly change the outlook, the Brooklyn Kings still plan to spend two weeks training in Cuba next spring just prior to the start of the Grapefruit games. Team officials do say they now only plan to bring minor leaguers to Havana and the vast majority of their big league club will remain in the United States and assemble in Florida.

ALL-AMERICA TEAM AND CHRISTIAN TROPHY WINNER ANNOUNCED

It was delayed a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor but the AIAA handed out it's season ending awards and named the All-America team in a ceremony Friday that was much more subdued than in past years. There was a new addition to the awards as the Ipswich Trophy joined the Christian Trophy and Bryan Award for the first time. The Ipswich is in honor of two-time All-American lineman Ed Ipswich who was killed in action during the first World War. Discussions to donate the award had been ongoing with Ipswich's father and the events at Pearl Harbor prompted the quick addition of the Trophy.

The initial winner of the Ipswich Trophy was judged to be Dickson College senior guard Jerry Rand. The Christian Trophy is named after coaching legend John Christian, and not to be confused with college baseball's Christian Trophy which is named for John's brother Frank, who was a famous AIAA baseball coach. The Bryan Award is in honor of Buster Bryan, a coach at Whitney College and Detroit City College and a former player. Often the Bryan Award and Christian Trophy are presented to the same player but that was not the case this year.

The Christian Trophy, to be given to the player judged to be the Most Outstanding during the season, was presented to Minnesota Tech senior halfback Harry Claiborne. Quarterback Sam Metcalf of Redwood University receives the Bryan Award, which is presented annually to the best All-Around Player.

Here is the All-American team for 1941:

• The college football regular season came to an end with City College of Los Angeles (3-7-1) winning on the road over Western Florida (4-6) by a 14-3 score. It was at least a positive ending to a disappointing season for the Coyotes who went 1-6-1 in West Coast Athletic Association play including a 19-9 defeat at the hands of rival Coastal California 2 weeks ago.
• The National Champion decision will possibly hinge on the outcome of New Years Day games involving Darnell State or Travis College but many feel that Annapolis Maritime, with a perfect 9-0 record that included wins over Academia Alliance champion Pierpont, 9-1 Richmond State as well as 7-2 St Blane, is the clear choice for the top ranking despite the Navigators decision not to participate in a classic game.
• Carolina Poly (9-0) and Darnell State (10-0) are the only other teams besides Annapolis Maritime to be perfect this season. The Cardinals will face a weak Commonwealth Catholic team in the Sunshine Classic while the Legislators meet 8-1 Daniel Boone College in the Cajun Classic. Travis College (9-1), with just the one loss that came to Darnell State a few weeks ago, is also getting a lot of support for the top ranking because of impressive non-conference wins over Oklahoma City State (7-2) and Bayou State (6-3-2) and some feel a big win over Alabama Baptist (8-2) in the Lone Star Classic might just give the Bucks the number one ranking if Darnell State does not come up with a convincing win over Daniel Boone College.

WEST COAST BASKETBALL TEAMS RETURN TO ACTION

Nearly all of the basketball programs along the west coast have returned to action, some for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor earlier this month. None of them, at least none of those in California, Oregon or Washington are playing at home as of yet although word is the Oregon and Washington schools will be allowed to play home games after Christmas.

Second ranked CC Los Angeles easily beat Springfield State 57-32 to run their record to a perfect 5-0 but their 'home game' was actually played on the campus of Flagstaff State. It was the Coyotes first game since December 1st. Portland Tech (#10) and Rainier College (#15) join the Coyotes as West Coast Athletic Association schools ranked in the top twenty. Coastal California is the reigning WCAA champ and reached the National Title game last year before falling to Brooklyn State, but the Dolphins are off to a slow 5-3 start this season.

• President Roosevelt revealed "for all history to read in amazement, in sorrow, in horror and in disgust" a documented chronology of Japan's perfidious peace negotiations which culminated in the sudden "stab in the back" at Pearl Harbor. Included was evidence of the fact that the Japanese Ambassador delivered to Secretary of State Hull, a treacherous profession of peace intentions one hour after the air and submarine attack on the Hawaiian Islands actually had begun.
• Japan's long-range strategy involves 'capture' of the White House to enable dictation of peace terms to the United States. The from Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Pacific Fleet, as told to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
• Tokio claims troops have landed in British Borneo and to have taken Hong Kong although the British dispute that statement, saying the fight for the island continues to rage. Meanwhile the United States reports of great success in bombing strikes on Japanese vessels 200 miles southeast of Manilla.
• Portugal may soon be drawn into the war as reports indicate the Japanese have occupied the Portuguese island of Macao off the China coast.
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• The United States, Great Britain and Russia are meeting to map plans for their war strategy.
• A German report acknowledges the Nazis were "astonished" by the Red Army because it "remains unimpressed" by the Axis military achievements and continues to hold off and in some cases, push back the Germans.
• More than 100 A.F.L. leaders meet in Washington to approve a five-point plan to eliminate all walkouts in defense industries so that Japan will be made to "pay in full measure" for it's "treacherous attack" on the United States.
• Orders from President Roosevelt has 3,000 soldiers guarding key areas, such as the waterfront, water and power supply stations as well as railroad terminals, in New York City. The White House says it is purely a precautionary measure.
• To help offset the immense cost of war the Government is urging Americans to purchase defense bonds or stamps which can be purchased at many retail stores. Even the winner of this week's golf tournament in Miami, Florida accepted his $2,500 first place payout in war bonds.
  
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December 23, 1941 One day advancement in preparation for Rule 5 draft
 

DECEMBER 23, 1941

SCHNEIDER BROTHERS DECIDE NOT TO ENLIST

The most famous triplets in sports have decided they would rather be separated on the ballfield than in the Navy. The trio- Boston second baseman Buddy Schneider, Chicago Cougars shortstop Skipper Schneider and Cleveland Foresters minor league pitcher Bart Schneider all enlisted in the Navy shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, during the process of undergoing their physical examinations it was determined that Skipper would not pass due to a previously undiagnosed hernia. Buddy and Bart debated signing up without Skipper but eventually it was agreed that if all three were not allowed to serve than none of the boys would.

There is still the possibility that Skipper can apply for a reclassification in the future, or that Buddy and/or Bart may get drafted, but for now at least, the Schneider triplets are still professional ballplayers.

MINOR LEAGUES HIT HARD AS MORE PLAYERS JOIN FIGHT

It is not just the major league clubs that are feeling the pinch with players leaving, either through the Selective Service draft or enlisting, for the war effort. Minor league teams across baseball have also been hit hard and perhaps none harder than the Fort Wayne Chiefs. The Chicago Chiefs top affiliate has lost 11 players since the attack on Pearl Harbor and they, while certainly an extreme example, are not the only club that is starting to wonder where it will find talent next season.

"Between our boys leaving and the parent club needing to summon replacements for the players they lost," lamented Akron Wheels manager Dick York, "I am not sure where we are going to find enough ballplayers. I mean we can get bodies of course, but the quality is going to suffer greatly."

York's club, the AA Eastern Association affiliate of the Detroit Dynamos, has lost 6 players but he knows better than most minor league skippers that there can be no standing in the way or trying to dissuade the ballplayers from doing their patriotic duty. His eldest son, Joe, is an infielder who spent some time playing for his dad in Akron last season before moving up to AAA Newark. Joe, who's nickname is Sarge, joined the US Coast Guard the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

York' predicament is not unique. In the Eastern Association alone the Erie Cannons have also seen 6 players leave for active duty while Dayton has lost 5 and Reading and Worcester four each, and that is just so far - the start of the season is still 4 months away. Among the six who left the baby Cannons includes Joe Pestilli, younger brother to Detroit Dynamos all-star outfielder Sal Pestilli.

In all, some 178 major and minor league players have joined either the Army, Navy or Coast Guard and another rash of enlistments is expected from players who were waiting until after Christmas to sign up.

QUICK HITS

• It promises to be a very interesting rule five draft tomorrow. Rosters for every team are in a real flux with the news of all of the enlistments/draftees so there is some speculation this might be a record setting day for the number of players selected.
• The Washington Eagles are said to be close to naming a new General Manager and feel there is a possibility the head man will be in place in time for next month's rookie draft. Until the new appointee is announced Assistant General Manager Joe Dittrich, will handle the duties in an interim role along with input from second year Scouting Director Elmer Harman

FOOTBALL WILDCATS GET NEARLY $900 EACH FOR TITLE WIN

Players on the AFA championship winning Chicago Wildcats each received a winners check worth $877.99 for their part in the proceeds from last week's title contest that attracted 32,750 fans to a very cold Whitney Park. As losers this year the New York Stars each received $606.25

EASY HOOPS WIN FOR DETROIT CITY COLLEGE

Great Lakes Alliance giant Detroit City College improved it's season record to 7-1 with an easy 71-49 win over Springfield State (7-9) in college basketball action from last night. The Knights still have 4 tune-up games remaining before they begin their Alliance schedule on January 22nd against St Magnus. The Vikings, who call St. Paul, Minnesota home, fell to 2-5 on the season with a 42-40 loss at home to Topeka State last night.

In the traditional Monday night doubleheader at the Bigsby Gardens in New York City, the Henry Hudson Explorers improved to 4-6 on the year with a 55-47 win over the winless (0-11) Michigan Lutheran Bears. The opening contest had Manhattan Tech outscore Brandywine 59-45 to even the Colonials record at 5-5.

AIAA RESULTS FROM MONDAY DECEMBER 22, 1941
at Central Kentucky 55, North Central (NE) 38
Adirondack State 56, at Allentown State 36
Capital (MS) University 47, at Mississippi A&M 41
Cumberland 59, at Miami State 50
Colorado Poly 37, at Canyon A&M 28
at #9 Minnesota Tech 64, Needham 54
Northern Minnesota 53, at Petersburg 41
at #19 Lambert College 52, North Shore 37
Glover (GA) 52, at Bulein 37
Strub College 54, at Coastal State 51
at #8 Liberty College 60, El Paso Methodist 40
Tallmadge State 42, at Maryland State 35
at Central Carolina 41, Bliss College 29
at #3 Detroit City College 71, Springfield State 49
Topeka State 42, at St. Magnus 40
at Manhattan Tech 59, Brandywine 45
at #10 St. Ignatius 62, Kansas Agricultural 48
at Huntington State 60, Alexandria 44
at Frankford State 43, Middlesex 36
at College of Waco 54, Boulder State 42
Perry State College 60, at East Missouri Seminary 48
at Sadler 42, Johnston Tech 34
at #11 Portland Tech 48, Sunnyvale 31
at Penobscot State 51, Ferguson 49
Troy State (NY) 49, at Maldin 25
at Hamman 64, Grange College 62
at Quaker College (CA) 47, Conwell College 46
Alabama Baptist 59, at Potomac College 32
at Golden Gate 54, Fond du Lac 36
at Provo Tech 38, Western Montana 37
Pittsburgh State 50, at NW New York State 44
at Narragansett 53, Harrisburg State 36
at Henry Hudson 55, Michigan Lutheran 47

• President Roosevelt signed into law the bill changing the draft age range to between 20-44. The Senate also passed and sent to the House a bill to expand the authorized strength of the Nay from 300,000 enlisted men to 500,000 and the Marine Corps from 60,000 to 104,000.
• Troops under the command of General MacArthur continue to hold off a Japanese invasion fleet at Lingayen Gulf, 150 miles north of Manila. MacArthur reports that despite being badly outnumbered the American and Filipino forces are "more than holding their own" in the big battle which includes the first combat between US and Japanese tank forces.
• The Navy announced that the steamship Lahaina was sunk by an enemy sub off the coast of California on December 11th while en route to San Francisco and the tanker 'Emidio' was torpedoed and sunk on Saturday. A second steamer was also attacked but managed to avoid damage.
• A British tank column, reported 'lost' in the swirling Libyan desert sand, has reemerged and is blocking German-Italian forces attempting to retreat down the Cyrenaican coast toward Tripoli.
• Germany reports Nazi subs in the Atlantic have torpedoed and sunk a British aircraft carrier.
  
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December 29, 1941 Rule Five is completed
 

DECEMBER 29, 1941

RULE FIVE BRINGS SOME NORMALCY TO FABL

An off-season unlike any other in FABL was given a small degree of normalcy this week with the completion of the league's annual Rule Five draft. There was an increased number of players selected this year - Twenty-two this time as opposed to 13 last year and 12 back in 1939- but it was suddenly transactions of the type teams had some control over. The parade of players continues to local draft boards, and more departures of that nature are still expected before the season begins and likely even beyond, but after a winter with no trades at all - a first for the league in as long as anyone can remember - the rule five came as a relief even to the teams that lost players as they finally could at least point to the loss as a baseball transaction.

The Montreal Saints started things off with the selection of Joey Binette from Brooklyn. The Saints hope that the 28 year old can be at least part of the answer in an outfield depleted by Selective Service. The 28 year old Binette, originally a second round pick way back in 1931, has displayed plenty of power in the minors, hitting 25 homers in 107 AAA games last season, and will finally get an opportunity to see if that power will translate to the big league level. The New York Stars were the busiest team, snatching up 6 players in the draft including a pair from the previously mentioned Saints.
Here is the complete list of rule 5 picks:
The Washington Eagles are hoping their new head man can be the one to lead the club back to the first division of the Federal Association, a lofty perch they have not landed on since 1929. It won't be an easy task as, aside from one glorious stretch when they went 43-18 late in the 1937 campaign to salvage a .500 year the Eagles have endured a lot of tough seasons over the past decade and a half. The club has not cracked the 70 win mark in the past four years yet, despite their high draft standing each season, they have little to show for it in the way of premier prospects.

Trading away their first round selection two of the past three seasons, including a move questioned by many at the last trade deadline that surrendered the first overall choice next month, certainly did the club no long term favours. Add in the fact that the first rounders the club has selected in recent years- names like Wally Fuller, Billy Bryant, Felix Anderson and Bobo White - have not exactly set the world on fire and it is easy to understand why the Eagles rank dead list among minor league systems. There are not a lot of high end prospects on the way and the three the Eagles do have ranked in the current OSA top 100 all are still in their teenage years and likely at least three years away from contributing.

Still there is some hope for the future. To start with the attendance is up and no longer last in the league as over 750,000 fans entered the soon to be 4 years old Columbia Stadium this past summer. Now 750,000 may not sound like much when compared to the fact that 11 FABL teams topped the 1 million mark this year and the Chicago Cougars made history by drawing more than double that. Still, the Eagles numbers are a huge improvement from recent years when there was some worry the club would be forced to move but things are now trending in the right direction financially and the attendance total was the most since 1927.

On the field there is still much work to be done, especially on the mound where the Army drafting Jim Douglass (15-12, 4.96) is a devastating blow. Bounce back years from Del Burns, who won 17 as a rookie in 1940 but dipped to 9-19, 4.37 a year ago, and former twenty-game winner Jack Elder (6-14, 4.40) are a must. 23 year old Juan Tostado also joined the Army which hurts as he was counted on to be a part of the Washington rotation which, aside from Burns and Elder, looks very suspect. Expect Washington to be very active scanning with waiver wire as Opening Day approaches.

The Eagles have some talent among the position players starting with Paul Wilkerson (.268,3,34) as the 25 year old looks like a solid middle of the road big league catcher and perhaps has a little more upside to deliver. Sig Stofer (.271,24,110), is also 25 and has been a very pleasant surprise with 35 homers since coming over from the Keystones a year and a half ago. Third base sees the return of former .400 hitter Mel Carrol (.320,15,73) after a 3 year exile to Cleveland and The Harborcreek Hustler is once again the Eagles best player. The defense should be solid in the middle of the infield but will not provide much offense, and losing second sacker Karl O'Reilly to the Army does not help the situation.

If centerfielder Don Miller (.280,0,16) can recover from the calf injury that cost him nearly all of last season that would certainly help, but two successive setbacks cause worry and put his status for the opening of training camp in doubt. Sam Brown (.282,14,67) is adequate but an upgrade on Dilly Ward (.250,2,50) is likely necessary. Perhaps Bob Coon, a 24 year old former second round pick out of St Magnus, can be an answer. Coon hit .277 in a 57 game trial with the Eagles last season.

Expect Washington's new GM to take things slow, and he likely has little choice in the matter. There are not a lot of veteran pieces that would command much in return and the prospects they do have are a long ways away. The outlook for this season is likely bleak and any success at all will hinge on making the right decisions in smaller moves, most probably through waivers, in order to plug some of the holes and start the rebuild. The smart money is on a 3-5 year plan under normal circumstances, but with war waging all around us, these are anything but normal and the mass player exudus to the Army and Navy may prove to be a great equalizer for the Eagles. That being said I believe it would take a miracle for Washington to finish in the first division in 1942 and the likely destination is once more battling it out to avoid last place.

There have been a couple of days like this in the pass decade, when new management takes over in the nation's capital. His two predecessors were unsuccessful at turning the Eagles around. Perhaps this time it will be different.

QUICK HITS

• Saints are worried about their outfield options now that Otis Parker has followed Pete Wood into military service. Vic Crawford may find himself patrolling the outfield again, something the 33 year old has not done with any regularity since his days at Commonwealth Catholic. Joey Binette, who has been in the minors with Brooklyn for a decade, will also get a chance at a full-time job as a corner outfielder. Defense is certainly not Binette's specialty and he may struggle to hit .240 in FABL but his power is intriguing.
• The running total is now up to 254 players. That is how many, including 57 that appeared in at least one FABL game last season, who are now serving in the military. The number continues to rise and more are expected to either enlist or be drafted in the coming weeks.
• It is not just the United States that is calling players to join the war effort. Toronto Wolves minor league Dave Lavalee became the first professional ballplayer to join the Canadian army, although another Canadian, AAA first baseman Bart Carson proceeded by Lavallee by a week in signing up to join the Royal Canadian Navy.
• With perhaps the exception of Rick York, all in the Cannons organization are thrilled to add catcher Cliff Smith from the world champion BostonMinutemen in the rule 5 draft. Smith is all but assured to be Adam Mullins backup meaning York, Cincinnati’s catcher of the future, will remain Indianapolis’ catcher of the present. Well the plan is to have York spend some time learning 1B, RF and perhaps some 3B to increase his versatility once he gets to the big leagues as he is unlikely to regularly replace Mullins behind the plate at Tice Memorial Stadium anytime in the near future.

Commonwealth Catholic's football team was rattling southward today heading for the Sunshine Classic; but for one of the Knights coaches, a vista unexpectedly different from the everglades and beaches of Miami was opening up. "These kids," he said last night before the train pulled out, "all they think of is how they're going to fly war planes in the one division, and their insignia, that they'll have painted on the plane's fuselage will be a Knight...I tell you. it's going to be hard to get them to knuckle down to a mere matter like football for that Carolina Poly game."
More than a dozen Commonwealth Catholic athletes already have enlisted and they've been promised that they'll all be in the one division. "It seems like a game to them right now," the coach went on, shaking his head sadly. "They'll talk of how they'll mark the notches in the Knight's lance...they don't realize...why, I said to one of them the other day, 'You don't seem to comprehend that other men are going to be shooting at you up there- it isn't going to be one-sided, with you doing all the damage...and do you know, I don't think he ever heard me...just went on saying, 'Why, coach, it'll be like- well, like owning your own car, having one of those planes to fly."

STRUGGLES CONTINUE FOR ACADEMIA ALLIANCE SCHOOLS

Once upon a time the 8 schools of the Academia Alliance were the class of college basketball. One of the charter conferences when the AIAA formally introduced intercollegiate basketball in 1909, the AIAA members accounted for 7 of the first 9 national champions and in the two seasons they did not win, the Alliance was still represented in the title game. That changed in the 1920s when power schools emerged from the south, midwest and west coast to challenge the Academia Eight for college basketball supremacy. In the twenties and early thirties the Alliance would still see it's schools advance to the Championship Semi-Finals but has not won a year end tournament since Pierpont's title in 1918-19. Things have become even worse over the past half dozen years as no Academia Alliance school even cracked the year end top twenty rankings since Brunswick finished 8th in 1932-33.

Dickson College looked like it might be trying to change that as the Maroons opened the season with 8 straight victories including an impressive 62-48 win over top five ranked Brooklyn State but they crashed a bit this week with a 46-39 loss at Liberty College the day after Christmas. Liberty College is another one of those powerful formerly independent schools in the east that united several years back to form a mighty group called the Northeast Conference. The schools remain independent in most other sports including football but have become a force on the college hardwood. Presently four Northeast schools (Brooklyn State, Garden State, Liberty College and St. Patrick's) dot the the National Top Twenty rankings and between them they have won 5 National Titles in the past six years including Brooklyn State crown last season when they topped Coastal California in the championship game. St. Patrick's also reached the semi-finals last season.

Here are the present standings for the Northeast Conference and Academia Alliance:

SCORES INVOLVING TOP 10 TEAMS THIS WEEK
Monday December 22
#9 Minnesota Tech 44 Needham 34
#8 Liberty College 60 El Paso Methodist 40
#3 Detroit City College 71 Spring State 29
#10 St Ignatius 62 Kansas Agricultural 48

Tuesday December 23
#1 Great Plains State 51 Wichita Baptist 35

Wednesday December 24
#5 Central Ohio 63 St Blane 42
#9 Minnesota Tech 49 Plover College 44
#4 Brooklyn State 41 Jersey City Tech 19
#6 Garden State 53 Central Kentucky 31
#3 Detroit City College 64 Kansas Agricultural 33

Friday December 26
#4 Brooklyn State 46 St Blane 39
#8 Liberty College 46 Dickson 39

Sunday December 28
#1 Great Plains State 41 Canyon A&M 30
#9 Minnesota Tech 58 Dakota College 43

• The greatest land battle of the 15 day old war - with American and Filipino defenders offering fierce resistance to a Japanese invading force of 80,000 to 100,000 men - is in progress at Lingayen Gulf, 150 miles north of Manila.
• As the week progressed and the Japanese continued to push towards the open city of Manila, General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the US forces in the Far East, took to the field and assumed personal command of the American and Philippines forces combating the assault.
• A day after saying they would not attack the free, undefended city of Manila, Japanese planes rained bombs in a thickly populated district that left much of the city on fire.
• The bombs the Japanese are raining on Manila will be repaid ten-fold on Japan's defended cities, is the prediction from Washington. Tokio, Yokohama, Osaka Kobe are fortified areas and expected to bear the full force of a furious assault when the Anglo-American offensive begins.
• A spokesman for the Navy section of Imperial headquarters declared that Japanese submarines now are active off California and Hawaii and "in the whole Pacific."
• After a heroic 16 day stand by a garrison of United States Marines, Wake Island has fallen to the Japanese.
• Prime Minister Churchill says he expects the war will last at least two more years, but predicts that the Allies expect to take the offensive by 1943.
• The Red Army has recaptured nearly 100 villages as it continues to push back German forces on every sector of the battlefield, according to a report from Tass.
  
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January 5, 1942
 

JANUARY 5, 1942

TOP PROSPECTS LEAVING GAME FOR WAR

The expected increase of players leaving baseball to join the war effort after Christmas has certainly occurred with the latest count estimating that 342 professional ballplayers have either been drafted or enlisted. The big names remain Pete Papenfus, Fred McCormick and Joe Owens but while the number of big leaguers leaving has slowed, it is ramping up in the minor leagues. Since Christmas it is believe over 150 players have announced they are leaving the sport and that group includes some names that are very well known, at least to the scouts. It includes 14 players presently ranked in the OSA top 100 prospects including three from the Philadelphia Keystones and two each from Cleveland, St Louis and Montreal.

The Keystones top prospect is 23 year old Ernie Espanoza and the #10 ranked player on OSA's list is off to the Navy. Another good young pitcher is also leaving, 1940 3rd overall pick Joe Quade, to join the marines. Finally the Keystones also say good bye to 22 year old first baseman Ernie Mitchell, who is ranked 83rd by OSA.

The Pioneers lost a pair of young pitchers in 20 year old Hal Hackey (59th on OSA list) and 19 year old righthander Tony Dixon (#89. Cleveland also lost a pair of fine young arms in Richie Hughes (#20) and Bill Martino (#29). The Saints will be without outfielder Otis Parker (9th) and third baseman Norman Houser (#79). Other teams to lose a top 100 prospect include the Chicago Cougars (#16 Duke Bybee P), the Chicago Chiefs (#25 Bob Crowley P), Philadelphia Sailors (#34 Cotton Dillon OF), New York Stars (#46 Jerry Decker P) and Detroit (#99 Paul Grell P).


Lost perhaps in all that has transpired over the past four weeks in this country is the fact that there is a draft of a different sort fast approaching. Unlike the one conducted by Selective Service which is random, this one is far from it as the FABL clubs look to stock their cupboards with the next wave of young baseball talent. The top pick, for the first time in memory belongs to the World Championship Series winners as the Boston Minutemen somehow swindled the Washington Eagles into surrendering their top selection over the summer. It is an almost certainty that the now former Washington general manager did not envision his team sinking to the bottom of the Federal Association but he most assuredly had to know that was a possibility. Apparentlyl he must have thought he saw something in Al Gross well beyond the .265 AAA batting average and subpar glove the 22 year old showed prior to the deal. Now Gross is not a bad prospect - he was taken 12th overall by Cleveland in 1937 - but he does not appear to be much more than an 80th ranked prospect as OSA sees him and certainly not worthy of being dealt straight up even for the 5th overall pick in a draft, let alone the top selection.

Whether this is a move that further sets the long struggling Eagles organization back substantially further remains to be seen as the current crop of draft eligible's lack a clear cut superstar such as New York High Schooler Hiram Steinberg,who went number one to Cleveland a year ago after his arrival was anticipated for four years. There are a pair of college players that appear to be the class of this group, both teammates at Bluegrass State in centerfielder Ernie McCoy (.311,7,46) and righthander Bob Arman (11-1, 1.75), but no word on which way Boston is leaning, or if the champs perhaps have another name at the top of their list, one of those under-scouted guys with big potential they found on a sandlot somewhere and are prepared to make him the first selection before he has played an inning of high school or college ball.

The expectation right now is Boston will likely be leaning to McCoy although Arman will be a tough player to take a pass on. Either way, one can be sure the new General Manager of the Washington Eagles would have loved to have either of those Bluegrass State Mustangs on his depth chart.

The other big unknown, far more pressing to most club's than who the Minutemen might select, is just how many players will heed the call of Uncle Sam over FABL? Selective Service will grab more than it's share of the college crop and there is a good chance a large percentage of the high school boys might choose to join the Army or Navy and defer their pro career. There perhaps is also a higher than normal possibility that a number of high schoolers may refuse to sign and attend college instead, deferring both their baseball career but also the potential call of the war. Like everything else that has gone on this year, the draft promises to be a very interesting time.

-------EAGLES HIT HARDEST BY ARMY -------

While there is no arguing that Pete Papenfus and Fred McCormick are without a doubt the two best players to trade their bats and gloves for guns and grenades I would say that the team with the most difficult job of replacing departed players in 1942 is the Washington Eagles? What! you might exclaim. Well, hear me out. You don't just put another arm on the mound and say Peter the Heater is replaced but the Cougars have more than enough pitching depth to withstand the loss of their young Allan Award winner. Toronto didn't show it last year, but none of the blame for their shortcomings can fall on Walt Pack, who filled in admirably at first when Fred left. Likewise, the Boston Minutemen will be just fine without Mack Sutton. The New York Stars, assuming that Buster Farrar can solve their catching concerns, can handle the departure of Robert Curry. Pittsburgh can get by without Joe Owens. The Cincinnati Cannons can survive the absence of Mike T Taylor and all-star Charley McCullough. No Ed Whetzel or Frank Gordon in Detroit is not a major issue either.

But Washington. Take Jim Douglass (15-12, 4.96) out of the mix, as Selective Service has done, and there is very little pitching left. Then Uncle Sam also grabs Juan Tostado, the one young arm who might have stepped into the void created with Douglass' departure is also gone. What does that leave you besides Jack Elder and Del Burns - who both underachieved last year- to round out the rotation? Not much. Then to add insult to injury the Eagles also lose second baseman Karl O'Reilly. Now they won't miss O'Reilly's glove, as groundballs often did, but the absence of his bat will be a big issue, especially if outfielder Don Miller's leg troubles are career threatening. The Washington double play duo now looks to be some combination of Jack Bush, a good glove but .192 career hitter, Al Gross, a 22 year old middle infielder who lacks the glove to play shortstop and might struggle at second and hit .229 in 51 games last season, Henry Bush, a 24 year old who would be a very good defensive second baseman but there are doubts if he can hit, and Arnie Scurlock, who batted just .215 over 80 games in his FABL debut last summer.

So while Douglass, Tostado and O'Reilly are certainly not the best players to join the war effort, they might just be the ones who's absence is felt the most next season.

-------WHY HAS WOODY TREASE NEVER BEEN GIVEN A BIG LEAGUE JOB? -------

One of the most perplexing questions in baseball is why has no FABL club ever given Woody Trease a shot as their manager. Trease is 61 years old now, so perhaps the big league opportunity that has eluded him for so long will now never come but it is hard to imagine someone having more success at the minor league level. In 12 seasons of work in the Philadelphia Sailors organization Trease has led his team to 8 league championships including 5 in the past seven years with AAA San Francisco of the Great Western League.

Trease seems to have more than enough qualifications, ones that stretch well beyond his 704-486 career AAA record with the Hawks, a winning pace better than any other manager who has more than 150 games experience in the pacific loop. He is also a Hall of Fame pitcher, with 325 career FABL wins and owner of three World Championship rings. He also has the bloodlines as he is the son of Lynwood Trease, long-time big league catcher and accomplished minor league manager in his own right. His uncle Frank Trease played in the early days of baseball but is better known as the long-time manager of three FABL clubs and 8th all-time in career wins. Then there is Woody's son Lyn Trease, a 21 year old former 4th round draft pick who is pitching in the Brooklyn Kings organization. Yet, somehow, despite all of that experience of his own and his family Woody Trease remains a life-long minor league manager.

QUICK HITS

• Still no trades in an off-season unlike any other but at least teams are starting to talk. The New York Stars are said to be shopping veteran reliever Boyd Harper. The 37 year old has 140 career saves, third most all-time. Meanwhile the Chicago Cougars have announced their annual house cleaning by putting about a dozen minor leaguers on the trade block.
• In the first act of it's kind between the Army and baseballers since 1918, President Sam Benton of FABL and Washington Eagles owner William Stockdale conferred with Captain Frederick Weston of the Army morale division in Washington last week and out of the talk came an order for 1,500 baseball kits to be distributed free to the men in the armed forces.
• It's not just baseball feeling the pinch from the war as golf is considering dropping a number of tournaments and now news that the US Chess Federation's biennial championship tournament, scheduled for March, has been called off because of conditions resulting from war.
• Most Rule-5 picks aren't that interesting, but newest Chicago Cougar addition Hooks Camp surely is. He goes by Hooks because of an outstanding curve, but the young righty has a rubber arm as well. He's never been hurt more then a week, and he can throw as many pitches as needed. You can blame part of it on the Eagles lack of pitching in their system, but he's been able to pass 150 pitches five times. He reached 175 on August 14th, but that's not even his high on the season. In what is almost a guaranteed high pitch count in Dixie League history, the the former 19th Rounder threw 267(!) pitches in a 16 inning loss to the Knoxville Knights. He fell apart in the 16th, with 5 of his 10 runs coming in that inning, and finally left the game with one out. It will be hard for him to crack the Opening Day roster for the reigning CA champions, but the Cougars coaching staff is a big fan of the team first hurler.
• The Toronto Wolves saw seven guys from their Class B affiliate enlist over the last couple of weeks. The plan, like it will be for most organizations, is just run those low minors clubs with what they have left, meaning most teams will likely be short-staffed. And there is always the fear that more get drafted during the season.
• Boston found a way to avoid losing top-100 prospects. The Minutemen simply don't have any. But don't cry for them as Boston has a World Championship Series trophy and the first overall pick in this month's draft.

DARNELL STATE AND CAROLINA POLY WIN CLASSIC GAMES

The Darnell State Legislators and Carolina Poly Cardinals each completed a perfect season with victories in New Year's Day Classic games. The two schools, along with Annapolis Maritime (9-0) are the only 3 college football outfits to complete the season without a loss or a draw. Those three, along with Travis College (10-1), will be anxiously awaiting news tomorrow of who the National Champion will be.

There is much support for the Navigators to earn the number one ranking in the year end polls despite the fact the naval college declined to take part in a Classic Game. Darnell State went 11-0 but struggled to beat Daniel Boone College (8-2) by a 6-3 score in the Cajun Classic on New Years. In the Legislators favour as they attempt to lay claim to the national title is a 23-13 win over previously unbeaten Travis College in the game to decide the Southwestern Alliance champion.

Despite the loss to Darnell State, Travis College (10-1) has a very impressive resume this season and many feel they could have beaten Annapolis Maritime had the Navigators accepted an offer to play in the Lone Star Classic. Instead it was Alabama Baptist (8-3) who was tabbed to face the Bucks and Travis College claimed a 28-17 victory. Travis College is another squad that may get support from the voters in the final poll as, despite the loss to Darnell State, the Bucks played a much tougher non-conference schedule than the Legislators.

Carolina Poly went 10-0 culminating their season with a 21-3 victory over Commonwealth Catholic (4-7) in Miami's Sunshine Classic. The knock on the Cardinals was they played a lot of weak opponents and the Classic Game did little to dispel that notion as the Knights were a surprise choice for a New Year's game after such a disappointing season.


Pacific Northwest power Lane State was denied an opportunity to play in California but with the East-Coast Classic shifted to New York, the Emeralds were unaffected by the long train trip and blanked Eastern State (6-2-2) 28-0. The final New Years game saw Minnesota Tech improve to 7-2 on the year with a 51-23 drubbing of Canyon A&M in the Desert Classic.

BUFFALOES WINNING STREAK COMES TO AN END

Great Plains State finally suffered it's first defeat after a very busy start to their college basketball season that saw them go 17-0 before the streak ended at Minnesota Tech. The Lakers are unbeaten themselves at 11-0 on the year after knocking Great Plains State out of the top spot in the weekly polls with a 68-56 victory yesterday. That allowed City College of Los Angele (8-0) to take over the number one spot in the rankings.

While the 17 straight victories for Great Plains State, a school that has missed the tournament for 4 consecutive years and won just 3 tournament games in their 33 year history, it was a very solid start but truth be told none of those 17 opponents were against what one would call quality clubs with Lubbock State (5-5) probably being the best of the lot. The first team ranked in the top twenty the Buffaloes faced this season was yesterday's game with Minnesota Tech and it did not go well for the Wichita school as Tech had a 17 point lead at one point before letting off the gas and settling for a 66-56 victory.

The Lakers are up to 9th in the polls and their 11-0 record is the best start in the history of the program, one which has not seen post-season action since 1911 and not had a winning season since going 16-14 in 1936-37. The expectation is that both schools will fade in the second half of the season, especially Minnesota Tech as they embark on the difficult Great Lakes Alliance schedule. One has to go all the way back to 1924-25 to find the last time the Lakers finished over .500 in Alliance play.

One team that is expected to battle for top spot all season is CCLA. The Coyotes are a consistent challenger for the National Crown, having won 3 of them already (1916,1928,1933) and looking to recover from their worst season in 5 years when they went 22-11 a year ago.
SCORES INVOLVING THIS WEEK'S TOP TEN
Monday December 29
#4 Chesapeake State 55 Dickson 54
#1 CCLA 57 California Catholic 50

Tuesday December 30
#3 Detroit City College 56 Canton State 49
#8 St Ignatius 47 College of Omaha 45
#10 Brooklyn State 71 Bronx Tech 33
#2 Great Plains State 63 Oklahoma City State 40
#7 Liberty 39 Pierpont 31

Thursday January 1
#1 CCLA 55 Quaker College (CA) 38
#6 Central Ohio 55 Granville 27

Friday January 2
#4 Chesapeake State 66 Bardney 34
#10 Brooklyn State 49 Bigsby College 47
#2 Great Plains State 66 Spokane State 39

Saturday January 3
#5 Garden State 48 Mobile Maritime 42
#3 Detroit City College 63 Needham 38

Sunday January 4
#9 Minnesota Tech 66 #2 Great Plains State 56
#4 Chesapeake State 58 Kansas Agricultural 36

• Japan's bombing assault on Manila continues and their invading forces continue to push back and inflict heavy damage to United States and Philippines forces, who are retreating. Reports indicate that General MacArthur has been wounded but Washington says it has heard nothing of the sort.
• A British raid on Norway has wiped out two key Nazi ports. The British also reported sinking five Axis ships in the Mediterranean.
• As 1942 begins Allied commanders say they are ready to face any threat that the new year might bring them, and vow they will prevail.
• Stiff sentences, some close to the maximum were handed out as the guilty verdicts came in on 33 persons who were part of the Nazi espionage system that operated out of the New York City area.
• A record flood of applicants is inundating marriage license bureaus has Selective Service charging that many were prompted by a "desire to evade military service."
  
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January 12, 1941
 

JANUARY 12, 1942

WAR ENLISTMENTS, DRAFTEES TOPS 400

The latest wave of players pausing their baseball careers to join the war effort has pushed the overall total to 432 including 105 that were on the expanded rosters of FABL teams. The organization hit the hardest in terms of total players lost is the Brooklyn Kings, who have seen 35 of their players either drafted or enlist. Most are low level minor leaguers but the Kings will be without pitcher Jack Goff (12-12, 4.69) and infielder Jim Lightbody (.335,3,49) for quite some time. At the other end of the spectrum you have the Montreal Saints, who have seen just 20 of their players put their baseball career on hold. Here is the list of players lost by each organization with also a note of how many of those players participated in at least 1 FABL game last season.

QUICK HITS

• Hugh Fullarton Jr, a national writer for Wide World Sports, wonders if any thought of the possibility that war conditions might help baseball and some other spectator sports rather than wrecking them? With no new cars and no tires to take folks out of town, Fullarton hypothesizes they are likely to turn for amusement to the places they reach easily - like local ballparks. Certainly they won't be leaving minor league towns and driving 100 miles to see big league games. And perhaps you noticed stories from Britain that the English are going to the movies more than ever these days, apparently because there is no where else to go.
• Are fans going to have to start returning baseball's hit into the crowd? Not sure it will go that far for baseball but with concerns about the rubber supply some professional hockey teams have been conserving pucks, so any disc shot out of play must be immediately returned to the ice surface by whoever retrieves it.
• More than 80 FABL players will participate in the eighth annual professional baseball players golf tournament, slated for Miami Feb 11,12 and 13. Among those who will try for the $2,500 in prizes will be St Louis Pioneers coach Roger Landry, who is the defending champ.

DARNELL STATE NAMED NUMBER ONE IN AIAA FOOTBALL

The Darnell State Legislators are the champions of AIAA football for the first time in school history. The Legislators got the nod in the Brunson Poll - the annual ranking system designed by a Chicago Poly mathematics professor in the 1920's after their 11-0 season allowed them to outpoint 9-0 Annapolis Maritime for the top spot. Travis College, Darnell State's rival in the Southwestern Alliance and last year's champion, finished third.

Darnell State capped it's perfect season with a hard fought 6-3 victory over Daniel Boone College in the Cajun Classic. Had Annapolis Maritime played in a classic game and won, the Navigators almost assuredly would have claimed their first title since 1913 when they shared the championship with Centerville. However, they turned down a New Year's invitation and were forced to settle for second in the Brunson Poll.

Lane State, 9-1 and winners in the East-West Classic by a 21-0 score over Eastern State, claimed the fourth spot while 10-0 Carolina Poly settled for fifth as a weak schedule kept the Cardinals out of consideration for the top ranking.

AIAA TOP FIVE FOR 1941
1- Darnell State (11-0)
2- Annapolis Maritime (9-0)
3- Travis College (10-1)
4- Lane State (9-1)
5- Carolina Poly (10-0)

• College football will be ready to fill any order by Uncle Sam in 1942. It doesn't take long to discover this sentiment among recognized leaders of the gridiron sport who are gathered in Phoenix this week. The occasion is the annual meeting of the AIAA Football Rules Committee, composed of the men who lay down the laws for your football heroes to follow. The group all agreed there will be football next fall, and good football. But you can bet the boys that go into service will gladly go and they will be mentally and physically fit. They expect few rules changes but the unlimited substitution rule had been unanimously approved.

With football heading to the back burner and baseball still a couple of months away, basketball once again is the prime focus for fans of college athletics. So let's take a quick look back at the origin of the game. Like other sports there are many variations of the story about how and by whom a sport was created, and the true version likely is a combination of these many accounts but as far as basketball is concerned the most widely accepted belief is that a Canadian professional baseball player was credit with it's birth.

The origins of the game of basketball, it is said, can be traced back to the winter of 1891 when a former baseball player by the name of Jack Easton created the game as a way to help ballplayers keep in shape during the winter. Easton, who played nearly 900 major league baseball games, is said to have created the sport by hanging two peach baskets in the gymnasium of a YMCA near the campus of Sadler College in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Easton, a Canadian who was playing baseball for the Boston Minutemen during the summer of 1891, spent his offseason as an instructor at the gym. The game quickly caught on in popularity, so much so that Easton abandoned his baseball career early in the 1892 campaign to promote the sport full-time.

Easton, dubbed the father of basketball, would later become very instrumental in helping contribute to the rapid growth of the sport in the college ranks, but that was still a few years away. As for Easton, he rose from humble beginnings in the small Canadian town of Springfield, Manitoba and would go on to enjoy a very successful baseball career before his basketball days. After leaving his hometown for Winnipeg and the lure of semi-pro ball at the age of 14 in 1872, the young outfielder would eventually make his way to a small professional league in upstate New York where he would catch the attention of the New York Gothams. He was considered the top prospect in the Century League at the time and batted .275 as a 25 year old rookie for the Gothams in 1883. His stay in New York would last just one season before he left for St Louis where he would win a pair of league titles before moving on to Boston prior to the 1891 season.

With college and youth organizations like the YMCA eager to find winter activities to keep their athletes in shape and boys off the streets, Easton found his calling teaching the new sport he had invented. It took off immediately, especially at the college ranks where the sport of basketball become a perfect winter companion to fall football and schools began challenging each other to games. While the result has long since been lost to the annals of time it is widely believed the first intercollegiate basketball game was played in January of 1895 between Ellery College and Sadler at the Bruins campus in Cranston, Rhode Island. By 1897 nearly 75 schools had fielded teams including St. Martin's College in Hartford, which had enlisted none other than the father of basketball Jack Easton to run their program. There were no conferences or even an organized schedule for those first dozen or so years but that all changed in the fall of 1909.

In May 1909 College chancellors from several powerful football schools along the East Coast met to discuss the possibility of organized basketball similar to what they were seeing with college football. The chancellors discussed the rising popularity of college athletics and the revenue it was starting to create from ticket sales as well as the positive publicity it generated for each of their institutions. If it could work on the gridiron, why could they not do the same in the winter on the court.

From that meeting invitations went out to every college program that was running a football team and the response was overwhelmingly in favour, including one from Jack Easton, who by that time had built St.Martin's College in to a powerful squad. It was at this point that Easton would make his second major career change as he was asked to give up his coaching career and move to the boardroom where he would assume the role of Commissioner of AIAA Basketball.

Sensing a opportunity to continue to grow the game he created, Easton quickly accepted and set about trying to organize rules and a schedule for the nearly 200 schools who had expressed an interest in joining the new organization. Many traditional football rivals, such as the large number of Pennsylvania schools, were natural choices to form divisions within the league while other schools preferred the option of not being tied to a conference which would leave them free to play a wider variety of opponents. When play would begin in late November 1909 a total of 156 schools organized themselves, with guidance from Easton, into 10 conferences including the Academia Alliance which would consist of 8 of the most powerful schools in the sport. For that first season a total of 99 schools aligned themselves with a conference, while an additional 57 decided to compete as independents.

Once the conference alignments were completed talks over the summer of 1909 centered on two mildly controversial topics: length of schedule and whether or not to have a national playoff. Some schools had favoured a short schedule similar to football with games being exclusively played on the weekend so as not to interfere with student athletes school commitments but others argued since basketball was a much less physical game a much longer schedule would be more appropriate. While the physicality of the sport was the main argument presented to the public, behind the scenes many schools were swayed - even at this early juncture in college athletics, by the almighty dollar. Basketball gymnasiums would hold far fewer fans then the vast majority of football venues so 4-6 home games would not generate anywhere near the revenue that the fall sport created. However, if each team played 25-30 games over a 3 month schedule the 12-15 home dates would certainly add to the bottom lines of the participating schools.

Once they agreed on the longer schedule length, deciding to hold a national championship received almost unanimous support. It was decided that a portion of the revenue earned from these playoff contests would be shared by all conferences so that immediately garnered the support of many smaller schools. Meanwhile a number of bigger schools had pushed for a playoff for a different reason. It seemed every year several schools declared themselves the top football school in the country but had no way to prove it. In 1908 for example, both St Andrews and Empire State went unbeaten while Centerville, the best of a large contingent of Pennsylvania schools, put together a very impressive 12-1 campaign with the only blemish a loss to powerful Liberty College. With a much tougher slate of opponents Centerville felt it was the best team in the nation but without the opportunity to play either of the two unbeaten squads there would be no way to prove it. Extra games in such a rugged sport as football seemed to be too much of a strain on the participants, but in basketball a true National Champion could be determined each year with a playoff.

In the end it was decided that a 32 team field would compete in a single elimination championship tournament in late March after the regular season had ended. The top school in each of the 10 conferences would automatically be invited along with 22 teams decided upon by a committee which would be headed by AIAA Basketball President Easton. With the logistics out of the way the games were set to begin in late November 1909 and while the number of conferences, and participating schools has greatly increased, the schedule length and year end tournament have remained consistent.

CITY COLLEGE OF LOS ANGELES DROPS OUT OF TOP SPOT IN POLLS

A surprise 4-point loss to College of Omaha on Monday dropped the CCLA Coyotes out of top spot in the polls. It was the first loss of the season for Coyotes quintet but they did rebound with a pair of victories to end the week on a positive note including a 49-40 victory on Sunday over Golden Gate. Independent Great Plains State is back in the top spot in the polls after dropping from number with a loss to Minnesota Tech two weeks ago. The Buffaloes beat American Atlantic (7-10) 43-34 on Saturday in their only game this week, running their record to 18-1.


LAST WEEK'S RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY JANUARY 5
College of Omaha 52 #3 CCLA 48
TUESDAY JANUARY 6
#2 Detroit City College 66 Cleveland 43
#6 St Ignatius 45 St Blane 29

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7
#3 CCLA 52 Hartford Wesleyan 39
#4 Garden State 47 Western Florida 39
#7 Chesapeake State 57 Needham 52

THURSDAY JANUARY 8
#9 Brooklyn State 56 Pierpont 51

FRIDAY JANUARY 9
#2 Detroit City College 64 College of Cairo 38
#3 CCLA 49 Golden Gate 40
#10 Rainer College 47 Valley State 39

SATURDAY JANUARY 10
#1 Great Plains State 41 American Atlantic 34
#4 Garden State 42 Bronx Tech 35

SUNDAY JANUARY 11
St Blane 55 #7 Chesapeake State 47

• President Roosevelt, in a promise of victory to come, told Congress he would order United States armed forces to world wide war fronts to find the enemy and "hit him and hit him again whenever and wherever we can reach him." But FDR also wared of a "heavy price for freedom" in money, work and blood while announcing the the war budget for the next fiscal year was set at $56 billion.
• Japan has launched an all-out drive to oust General MacArthur's troops from the Philippines.
• British coastal defense smashed new Japanese landing attempts on the west coast of Malaya.
• A new Russian drive, remarkable in both power and speed, is threatening disaster to a great Axis army, including the picks of the Italian and Rumanian armies, in Crimea.
• The R.A.F. raided France with leaflets, more than 2 million of which were dropped in occupied territory declaring the United States had entered the war and emphasizing "the historic friendship" between the French and American people.
• There are rumours of a rift between Hitler and Goering plus talk that the Rumanian military may be planning an armed revolt against Nazi rule.
• February 16th is set as the date the 20-44 year old draft goes into effect. Anyone who registered for the 21-35 law will not be required to enroll again but the new age group of 20 year old's, plus the 36-44 group will provide a reservoir of about 10 million more men eligible for active service under the amended act.
  
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January 19, 1942
 

JANUARY 19, 1942

While the draft being conducted on behalf of the Army by Selective Service draws plenty of attention it is a draft of another sort that will have the full attention of the Bluegrass State Mustangs this week. The Mustangs, defending AIAA national champions, have a pair of players who might just go first and second overall in this week's FABL draft of college and high school baseball talent. If it happens it will be the first time since Bobo White and Gus Goulding were selected out of St. Blane that a pair of college teammates went 1-2 in the draft.

The two Mustangs in question are pitcher Bob Arman and outfielder Ernie McCoy. Arman, a 21 year old righthander originally from Brooklyn, NY went 11-1 last season with an AIAA best 156 strikeouts to lead the Mustangs to the top ranking. He also won the Christian Trophy and the AIAA's best player and became the first Bluegrass State player since Don Hersey in 1936 to be named a first team All-American. McCoy, also 21 and from Albion, NE., is a centerfielder who hit .311 last season with 7 homers, 46 rbi's and 31 stolen bases. He was named a second team All-American for the second consecutive season.

Bluegrass State also has a third player likely to be drafted but 1B Stan Mish (.277,7,48) is not expected to hear his name called until after the AIAA season concludes in the June portion of the draft. The Mustangs have been a power in college baseball ever since the great expansion following the elimination of feeders after the 1933 season. Bluegrass State has been ranked in the top five in all but one season since 1934 but never finished at the top until last year when their 47-15 mark gave ended Maryland State's 2 year run at the top. With Arman and McCoy to lead the way there is a decent chance the Mustangs will be able to mount a successful defense of their title.

As for this week's draft it is far from a certainty that Arman and McCoy will be the first two names selected. They will have some competition from a number of players including catcher Mark Smith, a 21 year old out of tiny Davidson University in Oregon who led the nation in batting last season with a .385 mark - the second highest single season total in the post-feeder era, trailing only Sal Pestilli's .409 in 1934. Other possible candidates for the top pick include a pair of high school pitchers in Howie Harris, who hails from Hamilton, Ohio and Salem (NJ) righthander John Jackson.

Bluegrass State also has a potential January draft pick next year as well in 19 year old sophomore Walt Conner. The St Louis native hit .304 as a freshman and OSA feels the second baseman profiles as an above average player. The school has had a history of producing draft picks with 22 players selected since 1934 including 7 in the first five rounds. Here is a list of the Bluegrass State players drafted in the human GM rounds (1-10).

QUICK HITS

• You could make a ballclub that would contend for the pennant in either association out of men now serving Uncle Sam. Imagine an infield of Fred McCormick, Charley McCullough, Rip Lee and Mack Sutton with Billy Woytek, Jim Lightbody and Karl O'Reilly on the bench. Mike T Taylor, Joe Owens as the corner outfielders with a platoon of Pete Wood and Les Hendrix in centerfield. Catcher might be the soft spot with Joe Rainbow and Packy Peck likely the best options but there would be no shortage of pitching talent in a rotation headed by Pete Papenfus and Jim Douglass with Robert Curry and Frank Gordon coming out of the pen.
• Fred McCormick, former Toronto first baseman now in the Army, will be presented a plaque for "extraordinary service to baseball" by the New York Sportswriters Association at their annual dinner on February 1st. The award was made by unanimous vote of the Association at the annual meeting on Dec. 17 and was prompted by McCormick's announcement that he was returning to service in the Army for the duration of the war. The only previous award, similarly designated, went to Powell Slocum, manager of the Brooklyn Kings, in 1938 when he led his club to it's first World Championship Series victory.
• Expect more night games this coming season after President Roosevelt expressed "hope that night games will be extended," allowing workers an opportunity to see more games. Washington Eagles owner William Stockdale, who has the President's ear, figures night games could be played Monday-thru-Friday in June, July and August. He adds day games make more sense in April, May and September when the temperature is more likely to be cool, and day contests perhaps put less stress on a pitcher's arm than the cold night air might.
• Top 10 AIAA single season batting averages- post feeder era:
  
  Code:

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NAME                SCHOOL                AVG  YR
Sal Pestilli        Narragansett  .409  1934
Mark Smith      Davidson Univ. .385  1941
Sal Pestilli        Narragansett  .378  1936
Lou Millican        Hoboken Tech  .376  1939
Alex Lacomb        Cuyahoga Univ  .374  1937
Danny Goff Jr.        Hempstead      .373  1937
Bob Jennings        Edgemoor      .369  1938
Ed Lang          New Castle St  .367  1937
Pete Wood        Eastern State  .366  1934
Bob Jennings        Edgemoor      .363  1937

  ---

The Northeast Conference is considered one of the most competitive groups in the sport and it's three teams ranked in the top ten nationally all got off to quick start as the in-conference portion of the schedule got underway. Garden State leads the way as the Redbirds beat Commonwealth Catholic and St Matthew's to run their record to 14-1 with the only defeat coming at the hands of Chicago Poly in early December. The Redbirds are trying to make up for last season when they missed the year end tournament for the first time since 1927-28.

Brooklyn State won it all last year for their second title in four years and the Bears also opened the conference slate of games with a pair of victories. Liberty College is also ranked in the top ten and coming off a win over St Patrick's to start the week followed by a very impressive 59-34 win on the road over 14th ranked Central Ohio.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY JANUARY 12
#1 Great Plains State 62 Topeka State 34
#6 St Ignatius 46 College of Cairo 34
#4 CCLA 38 Grafton 23

TUESDAY JANUARY 13
#7 Chesapeake State 38 Tinker 27
#9 Rainier College 58 North Shore 48

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14
#3 Garden State 55 Commonwealth Catholic 33
#5 Liberty College 45 St Patrick's 34
#8 Brooklyn State 49 St Pancras 47

THURSDAY JANUARY 15
#1 Great Plains State 63 Wisconsin Catholic 44
#7 Chesapeake State 35 Springfield State 26
#10 Minnesota Tech 46 Lubbock State 34

FRIDAY JANUARY 16
#9 Rainier College 42 Armstrong 32
Opelika State 51 #4 CCLA 48

SATURDAY JANUARY 17
#3 Garden State 36 St Matthew's College 34
#5 Liberty College 59 #14 Central Ohio 34

SUNDAY JANUARY 18
#1 Great Plains State 47 Kansas Agricultural 25
#4 CCLA 47 Northern California 45

• Allied armed forces, including American-made bombers, along with Dutch troops struck heavy blows against Japanese invaders of the East Indies. The Japanese are also increasing the pressure of their attack in the Philippines but American troops under General MacArthur continue to hold strong. R.A.F. bombers are trying to help the British hold Singapore. Australian forces have joined the fray, bringing an army specially trained to combat the ground tactics the Japanese are using in Far East.
• Secretary of War Stimson has announced that the United States Army strength will be boosted to 3.6 million men this year, more than twice it's present size.
• While the focus is squarely on Japan, Secretary of the Navy Knox warns that Adolf Hitler sill has the greatest military machine in the world. He says the Russians have put a crimp in it but cautions "we mustn't think it's falling apart."
• An enemy sub sank a large steamship less than 160 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. A German sub was also reported to have torpedoed and sunk the British battleship Barham during a battle in waters off the Egyptian coast.
• Late in the week came reports a submarine attempted to sink the Panama tanker Norness, firing torpedoes at it just 60 miles off the coast of Long Island.
• The federal Price Administrator has disclosed plans to release roughly 650,000 new cars for sale by dealers in a rationing plan similar to that in operation for tires and tubes.
• A plane carrying 21 including Hollywood star Carole Lombard has crashed near Las Vegas. Lombard, wife of Clark Gable, was returning from a war bond rally in her home state of Indiana.
  
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January 26, 1942 - Hall of Fame ballot and draft begins
 

JANUARY 26, 1942

JEFFERSON EDGERTON ADDED TO HALL OF FAME

The newest crop of Hall of Fame inductees will be officially announced next week but one choice has already been made public with the news that Philadelphia Keystones founder and baseball pioneer Jefferson Edgerton will be enshrined. The founder of the sporting goods company that bears his family name passed away in 1928 but was a key player in the birth of both professional baseball and FABL. Here is the official biography of Edgerton courtesy of the official FABL archives.

PROFILE: 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.

HALL OF FAME BALLOT RELEASED

Three other players from the list below will be inducted along with Edgerton. A poll of key baseball writers is ongoing with the results of the balloting to be made next week.:

1941 Hall of Fame Ballot

• LF Thomas Watkins (1888-1904) - 3143 hits (9th all-time), .338 average (14th), twice hit over .400, 581 career doubles (all-time leader), career 148 OPS+, 109.7 career WAR (14th)
• RF Jimmy Massey (1893-1907) - .340 average (11th), 2660 hits (18th), hit .431 in 1897 (2nd highest single season), five straight seasons with 200+ hits
• 1B Jim Jones (1879-1904) - .328 average, 2786 hits (14th), 512 doubles (8th), 206 triples (18th), 160 lifetime OPS+, 99.1 career WAR (19th)
• SS George Melvin (1891-1909) - 2716 hits (16th), 1471 R (14th), 686 SB (7th), 167.3 WAR (6th)
• OF Bill Craigen (1899-1917) - 2906 hits (11th), 381 3B (3rd), 1341 R (21st), 1294 RBI (16th), 89.8 WAR (25th); Manager: 4 WCS wins, 1512-1409 record
• P Bill Temple (1899-1911), 284-230 (14th), 2.31 ERA (128 ERA+), 4819.1 IP (12th), 3131 K (2nd), 112.3 WAR (5th)
• P Phil Miller (1909-1924), 288-284 (13th), 3.18 ERA (103 ERA+), 5102 IP, (5th) 1451 K, 102.4 WAR (6th)
• P Jim Golden (1909-1920), 269-158 (17th), 2.27 ERA (129 ERA+), 3887 IP (31st), 2060 K (12th), 82.3 WAR (20th)
• P Charlie Firestone (1912-1919), 210-103 (41st), 2.25 ERA (135 ERA+), 2898 IP (82nd), 1881 K (14th), 78.4 WAR

1942 FABL DRAFT COVERAGE

BLUEGRASS STATE DUO GO 1-2 AS DRAFT BEGINS

Finally a draft that adds players to FABL organizations rather than the one that has been taking them away as the 1942 FABL amateur player draft is underway. Picks will be coming in all weekend but there was little surprise with the first two names to come off the draft board. For the first time since 1934 the draft saw a pair of college teammates drafted 1-2 as the Boston Minutemen selected Bluegrass State pitcher and 1941 Christian Trophy winner Bob Arman first overall and Montreal quickly followed with the choice of Mustangs centerfielder Ernie McCoy, a two-time second team All-American as the second selection making them the first teammates chosen at the top of the draft since St Blane pitchers Bobo White and Gus Goulding 8 years ago.

Arman, nickname 'Cyclone', was a big reason why the Mustangs won the National Championship last season, after his 11-1, 1.75 sophomore campaign that saw him lead the AIAA in strikeouts with 156 while walking just 31 in 118 innings of work. In his two years at Bluegrass State the Brooklyn native is 20-5 with a 2.29 era. OSA feels the 21 year old has shown everything you are looking for in a frontline starter with above average stuff, aggressiveness and durability. He joins the defending World Champions thanks to a summer deal Boston made with Washington and if all goes according to plan the Minutemen rotation of the future looks very dominant with Arman joining rookie of the year Ray Dalpman (19-6, 3.43) and fellow 25 year old Duke Hendricks (11-11, 3.57).

McCoy has been a very steady player each of his two seasons with the Mustangs and OSA says the Saints are getting a player who "projects to be an elite big league center fielder." The 21 year old native of Nebraska hit .311 with 7 homers and 31 stolen bases last season, to earn his second straight appearance on the All-American second team. He is set to join a Saints organization with some very good young outfield talent including Bill Greene (.334,7,47), who just completed an outstanding rookie season, and highly touted 22 year old Otis Parker. Parker was expected to make his big league debut this season after a strong year in AAA but has joined the Army and likely will not return until the war is over.

The St Louis Pioneers used the third pick of the draft on a relative unknown pitcher by the name of Joe Lute. The 18 year old has no high school experience but will pitch for his hometown school team in Algona, Iowa this season. The Pioneers apparently spotted the youth while pitching for an amateur club in a tournament involving local teams and military base clubs. OSA likens him to Joe Quade, the youngster with no high school ball experience heading into his senior year that the Keystones drafted 3rd overall two years ago. That worked out very well for Philadelphia as Quade was developing nicely and a top ten OSA prospect until the Marine Corp came calling for him a couple of weeks ago. The Pioneers will be thrilled if Lute shows the same progression his first two years with the club and OSA believes he could "easily front a team's rotation."

This Week in Figment Baseball will have more analysis as the picks continue.

Here is the first round to date:

QUICK HITS

• Dick Lyons, the Cougars veteran pitcher, claims the Japs were never friendly when he toured their country with a barnstorming club in 1932. "I remember," he says, "they arrested Phil Mullaney for taking a picture near a dirty old canal."
• Not all owners are keen on the idea of more night games. Richard Marshall, president of the Cleveland Foresters, worries night ball may easily be turned into a 'carnival." It "can and may be overdone. It could easily be turned into a carnival if the baseball owners are not careful." Adding that if William Stockdale had his way in Washington, all the games would be played at night.

Great Plains State continues to hold down the top spot in the rankings, but the independent school out of Wichita also continues to face subpar competition with their win this week against Oklahoma Baptist (8-9). Being an independent, the Buffaloes slate of games will slow down substantially as the conference schedules kick in and they are down to just 6 games remaining. Three should be easy wins so the Buffaloes hopes of hanging on to the top ranking and being a number one seed in the field of 32 for the year end tournament hinge on how they perform against Opelika State (9-6) this week, along with Payne State (8-10) and Provo Tech (10-5) next month.

The most eye opening score this week came courtesy of Garden State as the #4 ranked Redbirds humiliated Brooklyn State (14-3, and ranked 6th) 53-33 in Northeast Conference play.

RESULTS OF GAMES INVOLVING TOP TEN TEAMS THIS WEEK
MONDAY JANUARY 19
#3 Liberty College 54 St Pancras 41

TUESDAY JANUARY 20
#1 Great Plains State 59 Oklahoma Bible College 28

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21
#6 Brooklyn State 51 St. Matthew's College 25

THURSDAY JANUARY 22
#8 Central Ohio 37 Indiana A&M 31
#10 Whitney College 54 Lincoln 37

FRIDAY JANUARY 23
#2 CCLA 56 Coastal California 53
#9 Rainier College 48 Northern California 45

SATURDAY JANUARY 24
#3 Liberty College 39 Frankford State 33
#4 Garden State 53 #6 Brooklyn State 33
#5 Detroit City College 64 Indiana A&M 37
#8 Central Ohio 57 Wisconsin State 45
#10 Whitney College 58 Minnesota Tech 48

SUNDAY JANUARY 25
#2 CCLA 38 Custer College 24
#9 Rainier College 48 Spokane State 36

• A Presidential inquiry board placed that blame for the losses at Pearl Harbor upon Admiral Husband Kimmel and Lt. General Walter Short, charging both with "dereliction of duty," as, the inquiry asserted, both had plans at their disposal that which, if followed through would have prevented the disaster.
• 23 perished as the American tanker Allan Jackson was torpedoed and sank within five minutes of the North Carolina coast. It was the third merchant ship sunk within 5 days close to the Atlantic seaboard.
• Prime Minister Churchill told the British House of Commons he has full confidence in the Allies stand against Japan in the Far East.
• Little changes in that region this week as Americans continue to wage aerial attacks on Japanese ships, the British hold Singapore while General MacArthur's combined "forgotten force" of Americans and Philippine soldiers continues to hold it's position near Manila.
• A Soviet advance is threatening to split German forces as they continue to fight for control along the Eastern Front.
• Peru becomes the first South American nation, followed quickly by Brazil as all but Argentina and Chile agree to sever ties with the Axis nations following a conference of Western Hemisphere nations.
• With a goal to achieve greater efficiency in the industrial war effort, President Roosevelt signed a bill putting all of the US on daylight savings time, which it will remain for the duration of the war unless nullified by Congress.
  
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February 2, 1942 Draft rounds 1& 2
 

FEBRUARY 2, 1942

WE HAVE A TRADE!

After the least active off-season in FABL history, at least on the trade front, the January portion of the FABL draft actually delivered a couple of trades. Teams had seemed paralyzed during the winter meetings and through the Christmas holidays as one shock after another came in the form of players leaving the sport to join the war effort. It keep General Managers guessing, and likely fearful of making any moves that could come back to haunt them if a key player they were counting on was to suddenly enlist or drafted for military service.

The moves that were made were hardly earth shattering but perhaps they opened the door for more activity with spring training rapidly approaching. The first deal saw the New York Stars acquire the 16th and final pick of the opening round of the draft from the Continental Association champion Chicago Cougars in exchange for second baseman Clark Car and the Stars 4th and 7th round picks. The 27 year old Car was an all-star in 1938 but spent last season as a backup infielder for New York, batting .255 in 86 games. He will likely serve the same role in Chicago but, as a lefthanded bat, may earn the opportunity to platoon with Freddie Jones at second base. The Stars used the selection on Chick MacKnight, a second team All-American out of Eastern Oklahoma who perhaps might one day be the long term solution the Stars having been searching for behind the plate.

The second move was strictly a swap of picks as the Cincinnati Cannons traded up to grab second baseman Jack Wilson with the opening pick of the second round. The Cannons sent their second rounder as well as picks in the fourth and sixth rounds to the Washington Eagles for the opportunity to draft the 19 year old out of North Carolina Tech. Wislon hit .321 last season for the Techsters and was originally a 9th round pick of the Chicago Chiefs in 1939 but elected to attend college instead.

DRAFT NOTES

• Interesting to see the swing towards college guys this year. 8 of the 16 first rounders including the top two picks were college players. A year ago there were only 2 college players selected in the first round in 5th pick Orie Martinez out of Miami State and Hank Eason of Huntington State, who went 10th.
• Chicago Chiefs first rounder Nelson Flinn was a member of the unbeaten National Championship football team in the fall at Darnell State. He will playing his first season of college ball starting next month for the Legislators but that did not stop the Chiefs from grabbing him 9th overall after he worked out for their scouts in Dallas over the holiday break.
• Cincinnati second round selection Jack Wilson is the grandson of a former FABL pitcher also named Jack Wilson. The elder Jack once won 22 games for Montreal but was just 48-72 over his big league career. Young Jack was previously drafted, out of high school by the Chiefs, but opted for North Carolina Tech instead.
• Cannons went with a homegrown talent in the first round with the selection of pitcher Howie Harris from the city of Hamilton, about 10 miles north of Cincinnati. The Cannons had prioritized developing local talent and were hoping to make up for not being able to draft Cincinnati born infielder George Darnell last year. Darnell was taken by the Pittsburgh Miners 16th overall after the Cannons were left without a first round pick following the trade to acquire Adam Mullins from Montreal.
• Been a little while since we have seen Outfield U give us another high drafted outfielder but Mississippi A&M gave us Henry DeVeaux this year. The New Orleans product was the final selection of the second round, going to the Chicago Cougars. The Generals earned the Outfield U moniker in the 1920's when they were a big supplier of outfield talent headlined by Doug and his brother Frank Lightbody but also included Jim Renfroe, Bud Rogers, Clarence Hall and Chick Prendergast. More recently we had 1938 fourth round selection Sammy Dillon and a fifth round pick last year in Leon Nicola.
• The son of legendary Washington and Cleveland catcher T.R. Goins was taken in the second round by the New York Stars. Unlike his famous father, Art Goins is neither a catcher nor a power hitter but the 18 year old outfielder from Arlington, Texas is a center fielder and perhaps a future lead-off man in the big leagues some day.
• Shortstop Bob Lopez, who was drafted 13th overall by Pittsburgh is the first college senior to be selected in the opening round since Johnny Zeidman, who is also a shortstop, went 11th overall 3 years ago.
• Only one of the 6 sophomores to earn All-American status in 1941 was not selected in the opening two rounds of the draft. That player would be first baseman Billy Cox of Columbia Military Academy, who was named to the second team a year ago. The native of Big Stone Gap, Virginia hit .252 with 9 homers last season. The other five were first teamers Bob Arnum (1st overall-Boston), Mark Smith (6th overall- Sailors) and Jack Wilson (17th overall Cincinnati) along with second team selections Ernie McCoy (2nd overall-Montreal), Chick MacKnight (16th overall-Stars) and Dick Chamberlain (29th overall-Pittsburgh).

PART PAYMENT OF DEFENSE BONDS IN ALL BASEBALL SALARIES URGED

A wartime program for baseball, involving an all-star game with a service team and partial payment of players in Defense bonds, was proposed for FABL this week by Daniel Prescott, owner of the Brooklyn Kings.

The fiery, imaginative boss of the Continental side outlined an all-out emergency effort for the diamond sport Saturday evening at the 19th annual dinner of the New York baseball writers and said he expected the Federal and Continental Associations to at least consider the subject at their annual meeting which begins today in New York. Prescott was allotted a few minutes on an extensive speaking program at the writers' affair and it was after midnight before he got his chance to tell the assemblage of a thousand persons what he thought baseball should contribute to the war program.
WOULD MOVE THE ALL-STAR GAME
His suggestions fell into four groups:
1. Move this year's all-star game from Pittsburgh's Fitzpatrick Park to the spacious new Gothams Stadium, with the largest capacity in the league, and let the winner face an all-star service team in some Midwest City.
2. Let everyone in organized baseball, including the players, accept a percentage of his salary in Defense bonds.
3. Set aside a part of every admission to buy a bomber, which he suggested by name Sam Belton after the FABL President.
4. Make use of every open date before and during the season for major league clubs to play service teams at Army or Navy camps.

Prescott made it clear he was offering these suggestions solely on his own responsibility, and during his talk mentioned consultation with only one other magnate. He said he had already talked to Gothams owner Leland Winthrop about transferring the all-star game and had received approval.
BASEBALL LEADERS AT DINNER
Since President Belton and many of the club owners were present while he made his suggestions, it was considered probable that he had discussed them with various other leaders before making them public.

Prescott said he thought a game between the champions of the FABL all-star game and a team of baseball standouts from the military services (which might include Fred McCormick, Pete Papenfus, Joe Owens and others) would gross a quarter-million dollars and suggested it might be held in Chicago or Detroit, possibly at night, within a few days after the regular all-star game which now is scheduled for July 7th in Pittsburgh.

Earlier in the dinner program, Fiorello H. La Guardia, Mayor of New York and director of the Office of Civilian Defense, assured the baseball men that there would be no interruption of the normal season in New York City unless the military situation changed drastically.

The writers heard other prominent speakers, some in a serious and others in a humorous vein, and themselves lampooned baseball's leading figures and events in addition to presenting plaques to three outstanding players - Fred McCormick, Bill Barrett and Ray Dalpman. McCormick was given a special award for his dedication to the Army while New York Stars outfielder Barrett was named by the group as the top player of 1941 and Boston pitching Dalpman was announced as the top newcomer.

QUICK HITS

• Federal orders barring enemy aliens from defense zones prompted by concerns about Axis U-boats along the East Coast brought consternation from Italian fishermen in Rhode Island including the father of the Pestilli brothers. The fishermen, some 200 of them, were prevented from setting out on their crafts on a rare warm winter day last week. Some of them have sons in the armed forces, including Joseph Pestilli, who's son Little Joe Pestilli recently enlisted in the Army Air Force. The matter was sorted out and Pestilli, who is best known as the father of big leaguers Sal and Alf Pestilli, and the others will not be prevented from heading out on the waters in the future.
• The minor leagues, despite heavy losses of players to the war effort, vow they will all continue to operate next season. That is the word out of the annual winter meeting of minor league owners as each of the 13 loops, including the fully independent Western Baseball League and Lone Star Association, vow it will be business as usual. However, a number of small regional independent leagues not associated with the Minor League group, are expected to cease operations for the duration of the war.

LIBERTY COLLEGE TAKES OVER TOP SPOT

Liberty College improved to 5-0 in Northeast Conference play and 17-2 overall after a big week that saw the Bells knock off rival Garden State in a thrilling 49-48 contest Saturday night. The win, coupled with a pair of losses by a suddenly slumping Great Plains State team, has allowed the Philadelphia school to take over top spot in the weekly poll for the first time this season. The Bells have been one of the best teams in college basketball the past couple of decades, winning a pair of AIAA titles in the mid-1930s and reaching the national quarterfinals each of the past two years.

West Coast power CCLA also has a pair of national championships in the past decade (and 3 overall) with the Coyotes looking like they are peaking at the right time. The Coyotes saw their 3 year old on the West Coast Athletic Association title end last season when local rival Coastal California came out on top, but CCLA is looking strong this season with a 5-0 conference record that included blowout wins over Spokane State and Lane State this past week. No other team in the WCAA has less than 2 losses. At 16-2 overall on the season, CCLA remains second in the poll with Great Plains State dropping to third.

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY JANUARY 26
St Martin's College 43 #5 Garden State 31
Capital (MS) University 29 #3 Great Plains State 27

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28
#1 Liberty College 48 St. Matthew's College 24
Opelika State 65 #3 Great Plains State 45

THURSDAY JANUARY 29
#13 Western Iowa 65 #8 Central Ohio 50
#7 Annapolis Maritime 52 Bardney 50

FRIDAY JANUARY 30
#10 Coastal California 58 Idaho A&M 50
Lane State 43 #9 Rainier College 37
#2 CCLA 51 Spokane State 31

SATURDAY JANUARY 31
#1 Liberty College 49 #5 Garden State 48
#6 Brooklyn State 55 #20 St Patrick's 47
#14 Minnesota Tech 68 #4 Detroit City College 59
#8 Central Ohio 43 #17 St Ignatius 42

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1
#2 CCLA 53 Lane State 29
#9 Rainier College 61 #18 Portland Tech 53
#10 Coastal California 52 Redwood 38

• The combined armed forces of American, British and Dutch troops crippled Japan's Far Eastern offensive with attacks that destroyed or crippled 31 Japanese warships and transports.
• Japan is having mixed results on the ground, as their troops continue to push the British back towards Singapore but in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur's men continue to hurl back 'headlong' Japanese attacks.
• German U-boats are blamed for the sinking of a 7th ship off the east coast as the ore carrier Venore was torpedoed in the waters off of Virginia.
• There is concern that Axis agents in east coast ports may be tipping off German submarines to the movement of American and Allied ships in Atlantic sea lanes. That according to Martin Dies (D-Tx) chairman of the House Committee on Un-American activities.
• An American Expeditionary Force has landed in Northern Ireland, where a powerful military base has been under construction by American technicians for many months. A dispatch from Belfast indicates the force may already have been in action against German airplanes.
• Prime Minister Churchill told the British House of Commons that big American forces will follow that first expeditionary force to the British Isles and that American planes will bomb Germany and defend Britain.
• The government of Eire considers the arrival of American troops as an act of aggression. While Northern Ireland and Ireland are considered two separate countries by Britain, the Eire government doesn't see it at that way and compares the division to what the Nazi's did in Poland.
• Axis agents are believed to be making an all-out effort to sway the results of Chile's Presidential election, set for February 2, throwing a large Axis slush fund at the pro-Nazi candidate while Japan is threatening to bomb the country if the results don't go the way the Axis wants them to.
  
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The Figment College World Explained
 

A FIGMENT SPORTS HELPER: COLLEGES EXPLAINED

With college football and basketball now joining the sports we cover in TWIFB it is probably a good time to provide a bit of background information on the colleges used in the Figment Universe. Like the baseball and professional football teams they are all fictionally named schools but based loosely on the real world. It wasn't always this way as when the Feeder League debuted in 1910 as the FABL draft began the original setup had 40 'real' colleges to help supply the talent. That changed around 1928 when it was decided fictional school names made more sense as a tie-in with the fictional universe so our commissioner went about renaming the 40 colleges. Around the same time he began filling in the backstory on college football's early days (which you can read here)

That prompted the need for many more schools and when we abandoned the feeder league system for the OOTP created rookie classes in 1934 all those extra schools were needed in baseball as well. As a result the commissioner expanded the college world by increasing the total to 505 Figment colleges in our OOTP schools file including 261 at the division one level. Many of those schools also compete in football and basketball. Anyone following along likely recognizes a number of the school names from some of the baseball reports but perhaps does not know anything else about them.

Which is the reason for this post as I will outline some of the major conferences and top schools. There is no actual conference alignment in OOTP since we are not using feeders but I have came up with a basic system to award a National baseball Champion based upon the players in the draft pool and their production. Football gives us a National Champion each season as the commissioner is using an excel based game to quickly simulate the results. Basketball does the same but I am quick simming out the seasons with the old Fast Break College Basketball game.

Before I begin to talk about the major conferences here are the National Champions that we know of from each sport through the years.


Football was the first of the major sports to be contested at the intercollegiate level but in truth there was no actual recognized National Champion in the sport until the creation of the Brunson Poll in 1928. The poll is essentially the first recognized 'ranking system' and was designed by Donald Brunson, who was a Chicago Poly mathematician. It acts as the 'official' national title determinant. Dr. Brunson's system was designed to mathematically determine the best team in college football by ranking each team on its wins and losses and the opposition it played. The system itself was fairly simple: 30 points for a victory over a strong team, and 20 for victory over a weak team. Defeats counted for half as much as victories and ties were counted as half-win/half-loss [22.5 points vs. strong, 15 vs. weak]. By dividing the total points by the number of games played a final rating was achieved. (excerpt from the 1927 history of AIAA football) Champions were declared prior to that in football but that was done after the fact with the help of OSA scouting agency.

Basketball has had a championship tournament since 1909-10, it's first season as an official AIAA sport. Baseball used to have a College World Championship Series but with the demise of the feeder leagues following the 1933 season the title has been presented to the team with the best regular season record.

Based on the above the most successful school in AIAA history has been the North Carolina Tech Techsters. They lead with 7 National titles including 4 in basketball, two in football and one in baseball and are one of just five schools to win at least one National Title in each of the three sports. The others are Liberty College, Opelika State, Bayou State and George Fox University.

CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS

The conference alignment has changed over the years but is very consistent between sports. Here is a quick look at each of the major conferences and their schools to perhaps help you find a team to root for.

ACADEMIA ALLIANCE

The oldest conference in the AIAA it is based on the Ivy League and in the teens and early twenties was a powerhouse, especially in basketball, but that strength has diminished through the years. The schools are:
CONFERENCE NOTES: Henry Hudson had some success late in the feeder era on the ball diamond, winning back to back AIAA baseball titles in 1931 and 1932. Those teams were led by Joe Hancock, George Gilliard and Curly Jones with Hancock and Jones both ending up being first overall draft picks.

GREAT LAKES ALLIANCE

Figment's version of the Big Ten has a slight difference in it's basketball alignment compared to football. Lansing, Michigan based St. Ignatius is a recent member in basketball but still an independent club in football. The football GLA has just 9 teams after Chicago Poly left recently. Chicago Poly used to be in the basketball conference as well but left for independent status close to a decade ago and was replaced quickly by St Ignatius to give the basketball conference 10 teams once again. They are:
CONFERENCE NOTES: No one from the conference has ever won a National Football title and only Indiana A&M, with a pair of them in the feeder era, has won in baseball. Whitney College and now former conference member Chicago Poly won back to back basketball championships but despite consistently providing top ten clubs in that sport the GLA has not won a tournament since 1925-26. In both football and basketball the competitive conference schedule often sees the teams knock each other out of contention.

WEST COAST ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Our version of the old Pacific Coast Conference and later Pac-8 it features the top teams on the west coast. In basketball there has been a long-standing rivalry between City College of Los Angeles (CCLA) and Coastal California. For many years CCLA played as an independent in basketball and had an intense hatred for the Dolphins, and that hatred was mutual.
CONFERENCE NOTES: One of the most improbable runs belonged to the Custer College basketball team in 1934-35 when they won the national title despite being a heavy underdog. CCLA has been the dominant school in that sport since they joined the conference in the mid-1920's and own 3 National titles in basketball while also consistently finishing in the top twenty in baseball. Coastal California has not had any national success on the hardwood but they consistently get an invite to the year end basketball tournament. It has been hard times on the gridiron of late for the two Los Angeles schools but it hasn't always been that way as the Dolphins 5 football titles are the most in the AIAA, but their most recent one was a decade ago. The Lane State Emeralds had a big season in football last year and have been strong in both basketball and baseball in recent years, finishing 2nd in the nation in baseball in 1939. Rainier College won the national basketball tournament two years ago so the northwest is making noise.

DEEP SOUTH CONFERENCE

For many yeas the teams of he Deep South and South Atlantic Conferences were in one group called the Southern Alliance but that shattered in the early 1920's and it began to splinter into the two distinct groups we see now. Think the real-life Southern Conference. The teams in the Deep South Conference can be compared to the SEC while the South Atlantic Conference somewhat mirrors the real life Atlantic Coast Conference. Here are the teams of the Deep South Conference.

CONFERENCE NOTES: Bluegrass State finally broke through and won it's first baseball title a year ago, following several years of top five finishes. The Mustangs also were split football National Champions in 1915 and won it outright 11 years later. Georgia Baptist became the first non-Academia Alliance school to win the basketball tournament in 1913 and also won a pair of college football titles, but surprisingly perhaps is the fact the school that gave us Tom and Fred Barrell has yet to win in baseball. One quick note is that Mississippi A&M garnered the nickname Outfield U because it supplied a number of very good future FABL outfielders in the 1920s.

SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE

As mentioned above North Carolina Tech has been the dominant school if the measuring stick is National Titles. The Techsters won their first baseball crown in 1935 a year after they won their fourth college basketball tournament. The Techsters won 3 straight National hoops titles between 1922-24. The 1914 and 1938 Techsters football teams were also the best in the nation. Here is the rest of the South Atlantic Conference:

CONFERENCE NOTES: It is not just North Carolina Tech as SAC schools have enjoyed success in multiple sports with Maryland State being a dominant baseball team of late winning national titles in 1939 and 1940. Carolina Poly also won a pair of basketball titles and has an intense rivalry with the Techsters on the hardwood.

SOUTHWESTERN ALLIANCE

This one as expected is Figment's version of the old Southwest Conference, with a heavy focus on Texas schools. At this stage of things it is a football power, but has not made a big mark on college basketball.
CONFERENCE NOTES: Darnell State made it back to back national champions in college football with a perfect 11-0 season that recently ended with a 6-3 win over Daniel Boone College on New Years Day. Travis College won the title last season and finished third this time at 10-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of Darnell State. Lubbock State won a pair of baseball titles in the 1920's and shared a football championship with Liberty College in 1916 while Texas Gulf Coast was the 1935 football champions. The Hawks also have the distinction of developing current Boston Minutemen first Bill Moore - who was voted the greatest college baseball player of the first quarter century of the league.

PLAINS ASSOCIATION

Comparisons with the Plains Association can be easily made to the old Big Eight conference.

CONFERENCE NOTES: Not much national success for the Plains Association but Oklahoma City State did share a football title with Georgia Baptist in 1917. At this point in time the Plains Association is clearly a rung down from many of the more prominent conferences with the lower population in the region compared to the East or California likely being a big factor.

SOUTHERN BORDER ASSOCIATION

A setup similar to the old Border Association conference.

CONFERENCE NOTES: Some lesser prestige schools based in the southwest. Not sure it qualifies for inclusion in the list of top conferences but decided to add it in.

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE

The Northeast Conference is a fairly recent addition and also exclusive to basketball as it's members all play as independents in football. The member schools are as follows:
CONFERENCE NOTES: The Northeast teams have been a powerhouse on the hardwood lately with Brooklyn State, Liberty College and Garden State combining for 5 of the last six basketball titles. They are all independents on the gridiron but you need to go back to 1927 and St. Matthew's College for the last time one of them won a football crown. Liberty College and Garden State have each won a pair of baseball championships and Commonwealth Catholic also claimed one, but they were all in the feeder era.

MAJOR INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

The two main military academy schools are in this group in Annapolis Maritime and Rome State. Virginia based Eastern State is typically a baseball power since the feeder era ended and the Monitors won 3 straight National titles in that sport from 1936-38

NOTES: While it has not been specifically mentioned by our league commissioner in this author's mind that despite having a location more in common with Penn State, to me St. Blane is the Notre Dame of the AIAA, although without the success level of the Irish. The Fighting Saints have never won a National Title but have been in contention in both baseball and basketball. Another possibility for the Notre Dame connection might be the Boston school of St. Patrick's but to me the Shamrocks are more of the Boston College of this world.

As a whole, this group of independent teams has not had a lot of national title success with Eastern State's 3 baseball titles being the lone exception in recent years. Golden Gate has also won one in baseball, back in 1913, and Annapolis Maritime shared a college football championship in 1913 with Centerville, a school that is no longer a factor in the college sporting landscape. The Navigators also came tantalizingly close to a football title this year, but their 9-0 record was only good for second in the Brunson Poll behind Darnell State.

Chicago Poly won a pair of basketball crowns but both were while the Panthers were still part of the Great Lakes Conference.




So that is the basics on the AIAA in the Figment Universe. There are other schools of course, but those are the major ones. Hopefully it allows you to identify with a school or two to root for and follow.

February 9, 1942 HOF induction and round 3 of draft
 

FEBRUARY 9, 1942

WATKINS GETS CALL TO HALL

The lone former player inducted into the FABL Hall of Fame this year will be turn of the century hitting star Thomas 'Big Tom' Watkins. The 74 year old, who amassed 3,143 hits over his 17 year FABL career, will not go in alone however as he will be joined by the late Philadelphia Keystones owner Jefferson Edgerton, who's enshrinement was announced last month. The news today was all about Watkins, as the five-time Continental Association batting champ was the only player to receive enough votes this time around. Watkins, in fact, was an unanimous selection this year after falling just short in previous years on the ballot.

Until last week Watkins had been the only player in FABL history with at least 3,000 career hits who was not in the Hall of Fame. That changes now for the native of Cleveland, Ohio who in addition to having the 9th most hits in FABL history, is the games all-time leader with 581 career doubles. Watkins also ranks 8th all-time in career runs scored with 1,641, 10th in RBI's (1378), 11th in triples (218), 13th in games played (2337) and stolen bases (624), and 14th in career batting average (.338).

His big league career began 4 years before there was a FABL, as he debuted as a 20 year old in 1888 with the Washington Eagles of the old Century League. Two years later he moved to the Baltimore Clippers of the Peerless League and hit .312 that season to help the club capture a league title. He remained with the Clippers as they became part of the Continental Association with the formation of FABL in 1892 and he would win back to back batting titles 5 years later. Despite hitting .389 in 1897 the Clippers dealt him to Toronto following the season and he would once again immediately enjoy success in his new surroundings as he was a key piece of the Provincials (as they were known then) 1898 World Championship Series winning club. Watkins would win three more Continental Association batting titles with Toronto, and twice hit over .400 including a career best .407 in 1902. He was 35 entering the 1903 season and suddenly lost his touch at the plate as Watkins saw his average dip to what was at that point a career worst .278 in 1903, prompting Toronto to cut him loose. He struggled through one final big league season with the New York Gothams in 1904 but was a mere shadow of his former self and was once again let go at the end of the season. His illustrious career finished in the shadows of the minor leagues with 125 games over two years with Newark of the Union League before he retired.

The wait to join the Hall of Fame was a long time coming for Watkins, who had been under consideration for induction every season since the Hall was first announced in 1937. He becomes the third Ohio born player, joining Max Morris and Allan Allen, to be inducted.

Three players came very close but once again fell short of election. They include Bill Craigen. who had 2906 hits over a 19 year career with the New York Stars and Philadelphia Keystones before going on to win 4 WCS as a manager with the Stars, as well as Jim Golden, who was the only pitcher to win two Whtiney Awards, and Bill Temple, winner of 284 games with 3 teams in the first decade of this century.

LEAGUES OKAY MORE NIGHT GAMES

A joint meeting of FABL owners voted to permit each club to play up to 14 night games at home but to allow the Washington Eagles to schedule 21. This is an increase over the seven home games previously permitted each club - a war-time increase for which the advice of President Roosevelt was partially responsible. The vote was unanimous and followed considerable debate. It was FABL President Sam Belton - who presided at the meeting - suggestion that Washington be permitted the 21 games. Owner William Stockdale of the Eagles had insisted upon 28.

The league voted that no inning of a night game shall be started after 12:50 am (new war time). This measure was decided upon to make certain that workers - particularly those in Government or war industries- would not be kept up late at night. The league also decided that no restrictions will be placed upon Sunday doubleheaders. Previously no twin bills were permitted until after the third Sunday of the season.

In other news the league decided it was not feasible to follow Brooklyn Kings owner Daniel Prescott's plan of scheduling a second all-star game against a team of military players. The logistics just did not work suggested Belton, but it was agreed that a portion of the proceeds from the July 7th game in Pittsburgh be donated towards the war effort. It was also announced that all FABL officials and executives, including President Belton, had agreed to accept 10 percent of their salaries in war bonds or stamps and the baseball men expressed the hope that players and other employees would follow suit in this voluntary action. Finally, both associations will co-operate with morale officers of the Army and Navy. This means apparently that clubs will have various affiliated minor league outfits play exhibition games with Army teams if so requested.

Haggling this week over catch-penny stuff like night baseball dates and Sunday doubleheaders, FABL's owners fumbled the ball completely when it came to making a genuine patriotic move and failed to even agree on letting service men in for nothing and for the duration. Despite having Brooklyn Kings owner Daniel Prescott show them the gangplank and blue-printed every step in his speech a week ago, they missed the boat. Facing a golden chance to strike a blow for God, for Country and for self, they struck out. It is incredible that big operators in a business as dependent on good will as baseball is should court disaster this way.

The magnates have been very generous donating dough out of the fans' and the players' pockets. That statement was made even more painfully true when they failed to offer even reduced price to allow men in uniform to visit the ballpark. Mr. Magnut had a chance to pick up a small tab for Uncle Sam yesterday but he outfumbled Sam, the service men- and himself.

----WHERE ARE THE BRAINS?----

Baseball, looking to it's 'grand old men' for leadership in tempestuous times like these, has been sorely disappointed. Wash Whitney, who has been through all this before in World War I, is running, not walking toward the nearest exit looking for a way out. Whitney had a chance to make a statement when a number of the newer magnates like Detroit's Powell Thompson and Dee Rose in St Louis voiced heavy objection to any discount for service men. Whitney had an opportunity to live up to his father's legacy and tell the youngsters just how it will be. But he did not raise so much as a peep in objection and the matter of reduced price or free admission for soldiers was quickly abandoned.

Perhaps the sorriest black eye baseball received this meeting was administered by Washington boss William Stockdale, who seemed only intent on one thing - getting his ballclub as many night games as possible in an effort to increase attendance at Columbia Stadium and his bottom line. He pushed for a quick end to discussions on free admission, blocked every attempt to table a plan for a charity all-star game with an Army team, all in order to advance his own agenda of night baseball dates. The magnates squabbled for hours about that matter, acting like hens bickering over a grain of corn while a fat worm wiggled away.

Those who tried to squelch Stockdale's ambitious after-dark plan might have remembered it was strictly Bill's head in the noose, that the 28 games he wanted to play might have turned into the best possible argument against future night baseball. They might have remembered over-ambitious night baseball plans may backfire because Mr. American, moving under forced draft in industry now, will be working on the night shift also this summer. They should have remembered that little things like a power shortage or a token air raid may snatch this night baseball bone of contention right out of all their hungry mouths.

Prescott pushed for the magnates to better themselves, focus on raising some real dough to get into step with the marching boys, but instead they offered a mere pittance of some of the profits from the mid-summer all-star game in Pittsburgh and did nothing for the service man, or their reputation.

REGIONAL ROUND COMPLETED

Round three of the FABL rookie player draft has been completed and scouting directors can now pause briefly before turning their attention to the upcoming college and prep baseball seasons. Rounds four through twenty-five will, as usual, take place in June as it is strictly the first three rounds that are completed in the winter. The first two rounds are open selections while the third round is a regional round, allowing teams to only select players born in their home state/province or one that directly borders it. Here are the players selected in this year's regional round.

QUICK HITS

• Hurt and somewhat bewildered by criticism fired their way after the owners meetings earlier this week, the big league bigwigs are re-forming their lines according to the latest scuttlebutt. Probably the net result will be a substantial addition to the defense program of the game. Chances are the owners won't adopt Daniel Prescott's proposal to divert a certain percentage of their gate receipts through the season into some patriotic channel. They are more like to set up a series of "Defense Days" - at least one in every big league ballpark. Each club would then likely pick out a moderately attractive date on it's home schedule - something like a Tuesday afternoon when a crowd of anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 normally could be expected, depending on the city. The occasion could be designated will in advance and special features could be arranged. Star pitchers could be pointed to duel it out that day and the clubs would be assured of plenty of publicity on a patriotic motif from the press and radio. And afterwards the entire gross receipts could be turned over to the Government.
• Max Morris, who recently turned 47 years young, predicts that increased night baseball in the big leagues would lessen the physical efficiency of the players. "The greatly increased number of night games can't help but hurt the players," Might Mo opined. FABL has approved 161 nocturnal games- more than double the 77 of last year. "Playing such a large number of night games probably will weaken -and may even run- their eyes. The change of diets also is going to have an effect," added Morris noting a ballplayer usually gets his dinner at about 6 pm but when they play night ball they can't eat heavy before the game and it's going to be 1 o'clock in the morning before they have dinner. Morris was not so worried when there were fewer night games but feels the trend towards more night ballgames is just getting started.
• Pete Papenfus was the CA's only 20-game winner last season but now that he is in the Navy will we see a 20-game winner in the Continental Association next season? Only twice before in the modern era (human GM) has the CA not produced a 20-game winner. That was in 1932 when Rabbit Day, William Jones and Dick Luedtke all won 19 and in 1939 when Billy Riley of the Stars was the leader with 19 victories. Only Boston's Ed Wood won 20 in the Fed last season, but that loop has never failed to deliver at least one twenty-game winner since the human GM's came onto the scene in 1926.
• With the threat of a Japanese attack on the mainland less likely, the Army has okayed baseball on the west coast this season. Indoor events like college basketball and boxing were allowed to hold events again a few weeks ago and now the way has been paved for the AAA Great Western League and Class B COW (California-Oregon-Washington) Leagues to go ahead with their full schedule. However, the Governor of California cautioned "the enemy situation cannot be forecast" and the situation might change.

NAVY SCHOOL CLIMBING THE RANKINGS

Annapolis Maritime is quietly working it's way up the college basketball polls as the naval academy looks to follow up an outstanding AIAA football season with success on the hardwood. The Navigators have won 17 of their last 18 games and are up to seventh in the latest ranking list as they attempt to rebound from missing the national tournament last season for the first time in 12 years. Annapolis Maritime has never won the National Tournament but they did reach the semi-final game twice with the most recent appearance being in 1931-32.

CCLA, thanks to running it's West Coast Athletic Association record to 7-0 with wins over Portland Tech and Redwood, slipped ahead of Liberty College for top spot this week. The Coyotes have a big lead in the top conference out west as 5 teams are tied for second but all own a 4-3 record. As for the Bells, their stay at #1 last just one week but they are still a perfect 7-0 in Northeast Conference play after edging #20 St. Martin's College 48-47 on Saturday.

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY FEBRUARY 2
#5 Brooklyn State 56 Frankford State 49

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4
#2 Liberty College 54 Commonwealth Catholic 42
#7 Annapolis Maritime 62 Jersey City Tech 50

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5
#9 Whitney College 47 #13 Western Iowa 38
#6 Detroit City College 42 Lincoln 34
#10 North Carolina Tech 51 Richmond State 43

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6
#1 CCLA 59 Portland Tech 44
#3 Great Plains State 46 Dudley 27

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7
#2 Liberty College 48 #20 St Martin's College 47
#4 Garden State 53 Frankford State 36
#5 Brooklyn State 45 Commonwealth Catholic 44
Wisconsin State 57 #6 Detroit City College 56
#8 Central Ohio 45 Lincoln 41
#16 St Ignatius 49 #9 Whitney College 43
#10 North Carolina Tech 56 Central Carolina 54

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8
#1 CCLA 48 Redwood 46

• General MacArthur's defenders of Batan Peninsula have shattered a Japanese offensive in one of the most savage battles of the Philippines struggle, forcing the Japanese to flee to the sea. The British also report success in Burma while the Americans blasted six bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
  https://i.imgur.com/RJ06heV.jpg
• Japanese planes countered with a ferocious dive bombing attack on Singapore, raking the city indiscriminately.
• Despite destroying several U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean the past few weeks another American tanker has been torpedoed by an enemy submarine.
• A New York City area municipal executive warns of a rash of bankruptcies facing local governments unless emphatic measures are taken to recognize the impact of the national war effort on their fiscal problems.
• Military authorities issued detailed orders for the evacuation of designated areas of Honolulu by all women and children in the event of a Japanese attempt to land forces on the island.
• Rear Admiral Hubbard and Major General Short, accused of dereliction of duty that made the Pearl Harbor attack possible, have both filed papers applying for retirement at $6,000 a year. At ages 60 and 61 respectively and with a minimum of 30 years of service they would each be eligible for a life pension of 80% of their base pay.
  
  https://i.imgur.com/YqTmMDG.jpg

February 16, 1942
 

FEBRUARY 16, 1942

PIONEERS CHANGE SCOUTING DIRECTORS

In what can only be interpreted as dissatisfaction with their recent draft, the St Louis Pioneers have fired long-time Scouting Director Charlie Kinsey and replaced him with another veteran birddog in Rube Carter. Kinsey departure comes as a surprise to the league as he had spent the past 13 years in the role with St Louis. Perhaps it was a mutual decision and the 62 year old was looking to do other things at this stage of his life but the timing seems to indicate that it is something more.

The league has just finished the first three rounds of the 1942 draft and scouting departments are still very much at work in preparation for the start of the 1942 college and high school seasons and finetuning their draft lists in advance of the second stage of the draft in June. If it was a mutual decision one would have expected Kinsey to remain in the role until after the June portion of the draft was completed.

The Pioneers picked third in each of the opening three rounds, selecting high school pitcher Joe Lute in round one followed by outfielder Ralph Parker and finally catcher Artie Smith. By most accounts the Pioneers had themselves a pretty solid draft as Lute is raw but loaded with potential while Parker and Smith seem like solid picks taken at a stage when there were not really a lot of better options, although one scout opined the Pioneers might have erred on their regional round choice of Smith. That scout, associated with a Continental Association club, summed the Pioneers picks up this way:

"They made a great pick in Lute. He is a gamble, like any high school pitcher but has a huge ceiling and could potentially be a number one. Parker is also young and does not have the power component to his game, but I can see him being a .300 hitter if all works out. Only pick I might question is the regional guy. I am a bit surprised they let the Cougars waltz into their backyard and take a young pitcher. Bill Chapman is likely never going to be a top half of the rotation guy, but I can see the lefthander being a very dependable 4-5 starter. And in my opinion a better choice than Smith. Not that Smith is a bad pick, and we all know the Pioneers seem to do very well for themselves in the catcher department, but they may come to regret letting Chapman go."

RUBE CARTER TAKES OVER
The hiring of Rube Carter gives the Pioneers a veteran scout with a long resume that goes back to 1923 with the Brooklyn Kings. Carter spent 8 years in Brooklyn before moving on to the Chicago Chiefs, serving as their scouting director for a decade during which they won a pair of World Championship Series crowns. He was let go following the 1940 season and after a year away from the game takes over the scouting department in St Louis but the question is for how long as Carter is 64 years old. He does have a connection to the Pioneers as former bench coach/new Manager Hugh Luckey was a player and later a coach with the Kings during Carter's tenure with the organization.

LAWSON EYES 3,000TH CAREER HIT

Before the season is out John Lawson expects to get hit No. 3000 - a baseball feat equaled by only ten other players.

"Throwing out injuries, I've got it in the bag," the Chicago Cougars third baseman said when told that a recent checkup showed he needs only 81 base hits to make the grade. "I feel as if I can play in 140-150 games again this year. I didn't have any trouble going through doubleheaders last year, and I'd much rather be in there. I don't like to sit on the bench. But even if I only play 75 games, I still ought to make enough hits. Why, over the course of the year I ought to luck that many."

Four months past his 39th birthday, "Jack the Ripper" feels he has two or three more years of active service left- that he wants to stay in baseball "regardless of the position." Admittedly slower, he said the safe hits come harder now than they did in the years when he was winning the first three of his four Continental Association batting titles with the New York Stars: 1930-32, and he added another in 1937 with the Cougars.

"I used to beat our a lot of infield hits," he added. "I figure being slower means a difference of 20 or 30 points in my batting percentage," although he still manage to hit .315 last year and batted at a .345 clip in 1940. "There is a difference in ambition, too, as you get older. I may not have the energy and pep I did in my New York days, but I think I am smarter at the plate now and that makes all the difference in the world."

"I'm calmer too. Used to drive me crazy when I didn't get two, three hits a game but now I'm satisfied with one hit a day- so long as that one helps win the ball game."

Of all the safeties, Lawson says the hits he cherishes the most are always the ones he gets against the New York Stars. "I know it's been, what seven years, but I still get fired up to play New York. Just feels like they gave up on me and thought I had nothing left. But by the end of this season I will have played nearly as many games for the Cougars as I did for the Stars. I don't know too many guys over there but Trow (43 year old Stars first baseman Dave Trowbridge) and I talk about it every time I am standing on first when he is playing there. We had some good times. Now I just thank him for sticking around and making me seem like a young guy in comparison. Funny how it's come full circle though to be back in Chicago."

Lawson is referring to the fact that he almost made his big league debut with the Cougars instead of the Stars. He was drafted out of Ellery College by St Louis in 1923 but they released him and he eventually caught on with the Cougars Class A club in Lincoln. He hit .328 in 49 games as a 23 year old in 1926 and looked to be on his way to a 1927 FABL debut. It happened but in New York as the Cougars needed pitching help in the summer of '26 and landed Johnny Douglas from New York but at the cost of Lawson, who debuted with the Stars the following September. He may not have celebrated his first hit as a Cougar but sometime this summer there is a pretty good chance all of Chicago will be cheering about his 3,000 FABL hit.

QUICK HITS

• Going far beyond all other ball clubs to support the Nation's war effort, the Brooklyn Kings announced today they would donate their entire receipts from one home game, one road game and many exhibitions to service funds in 1942 and would admit at least 150,000 uniformed men this season free. Kings owner Daniel Prescott said he had tried to get all clubs to collaborate in the broader program that will be in effect at Brooklyn, but he failed. Prescott added that nearly every member of the Kings organization, including the players, has agreed to accept 10% of their pay this year in defense bonds. Prescott had hoped every team would be on board with that initiative but says when he brought up the subject at the owners meeting "there were eight clubs in one league that apposed the plan for accepting part of our salary in Defense bonds." He obviously was referring to the Federal Association.
• Sgt. Fred McCormick, the Toronto Wolves star, knows a little about moving having been dealt from St Louis to the Wolves a number of years ago, but he has become a 'commuter' in Uncle Sam's league. Breaking in at Camp Custer, Sgt. McCormick rejoined the ranks at Camp Dix, later was shifted to the army air corps at Bolling in Washington, and now is doing 'special duties' at MacDill Field near Tampa. Which means he may get a chance to visit his old Wolves teammates during some of their exhibition games.
• Papa and Mama Pestilli, parents of four baseball playing brothers including the Detroit Dynamos star Sal Pestilli, sought American citizenship this week because they feared they might be considered enemies of their adopted country. This after Mr Pestilli ran into trouble while trying to head out on his fishing boat during unseasonably mild weather a couple of weeks ago. He and others were prevented from doing so out of fears they might have been passing information to enemy submarines. The Pestilli's came to the United States from Italy in 1914 and, at the moment anyway, technically are citizens of an enemy nation. Each of the boys, including the eldest Alf who was born in Italy before the family came across, are already American citizens. Little Joe, a Cincinnati farmhand, joined the Army Air Force in December.

• From an authoritative source, we have been told that there is some talk out of Cleveland that the Finches, the city's American Football Association club, might well be on the block and the two business and sportsmen - one from Los Angeles and the other from Baltimore- have each expressed interest in the purchase. The Finches, who finished third in the Western Division last season with a 7-4 record, have a rich history in Cleveland that dates back to the early days of professional football.

With the West Coast Athletic Association conference play more than half complete the CCLA Coyotes are well positioned to claim their fourth title in the past five seasons. The Coyotes, who had their three year run as WCAA champions interrupted last season by their Los Angeles rivals from Coastal California, improved to 9-0 in conference play and 20-2 overall thanks to a pair of road wins in the northwest over the weekend by beating Lane State and Portland Tech. 10th ranked Rainer College trails the Coyotes by 3 games with 7 remaining for each on the conference slate including a March 1st showdown between the two in Puyallup in what will be the only meeting between the two this season. The 10 teams in the WCAA play a 16 game conference schedule.

The top schools in the Northeast Conference and Great Lakes Alliance continue to beat up on each other. Liberty College remains ranked 2nd in the nation thanks to a big 47-35 win over Brooklyn State, dropping the defending National champions to 7th in the polls, but the Bells followed that up with a tight two-point loss in Boston against St Patrick's yesterday. Garden State remains 4th in the nation with a pair of wins of St Pancras and Commonwealth Catholic, perhaps signs the Redbirds mini slump in which they dropped 3 of 4 games is now behind them. Turning to the midwest, the Great Lakes Alliance is always a battle as Detroit City College is finding out once more. The Knights were 12-1 entering GLA play but have gone just 4-4 against conference rivals. They are still in the mix for the conference title as all ten schools are within 4 games of each other, with Western Iowa this week's leader at 6-2 in conference action thanks to wins over the Knights and Indiana A&M last week.

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY FEBRUARY 9
#3 Great Plains State 54 Payne State 38

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 10
#6 Annapolis Maritime 56 Hartford Wesleyan 29

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11
#2 Liberty College 47 #7 Brooklyn State 35
#4 Garden State 42 St Pancras 37

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12
#8 Western Iowa 47 #5 Detroit City College 38
St Magnus 44 #9 Central Ohio 42

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13
#1 CCLA 52 Lane State 43
#6 Annapolis Maritime 61 Springfield State 34
#10 Rainier College 37 Idaho A&M 32

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14
#14 St Patrick's 36 #2 Liberty College 34
#4 Garden State 39 Commonwealth Catholic 35
#5 Detroit City College 59 #17 Whitney College 43
#8 Western Iowa 33 Indiana A&M 28
#9 Central Ohio 69 #15 Minnesota Tech 51

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15
#1 CCLA 49 Portland Tech 41
#10 Rainier College 49 Spokane State 23

STANDINGS FROM SOME OF THE MORE PROMINENT CONFERENCES

• The British are forced to abandon Singapore after being overrun by Japanese forces. News of the Singapore disaster shook Britain more than anything since the fall of France and symptoms appeared of far-reaching Parliamentary repercussions. Word is if Burma and Java follow in the wake of Singapore the personal position of Prime Minister Winston Churchill might be jeopardized.
• To make things worse for Churchill, news comes that Britain somehow allowed two large German battleships and a cruiser to work their way thru the the Straits of Dover under an umbrella of aerial protection and arrive in safe harbor at a German island in the North Sea. They had an escort of well over 300 Messerschmitt's coming from French bases. Churchill has ordered a probe to determine what went wrong as the Brits were caught off guard with the ships moving under the cover of night in dense fog.
• The war department announced that an army transport ship was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine in Hawaiian waters. The same communique reported that General MacArthur's troops remain engaged in savage operations against the Japanese.
• Reinforcement was the word for the day Sunday as Allied forces poured into the Indians to bolster Dutch defense while in Burma the Allies are getting help from Chinese troops. American flying fortresses, 12 of them, have arrived to attack enemy shipping in the Macassar area. Finally in the Philippines, some British troops have joined General MacArthur's defense but they remain greatly outnumbered by Japanese forces.
• Every able-bodied man and woman in Russia's urban centers was brought under a government decree mobilizing them for work in essential war industries. The decree completes legislation enrolling every one in the total war effort.
  
  https://i.imgur.com/t9e8JuT.jpg

February 23, 1942
 

FEBRUARY 22, 1942

GOLDEN AGE FOR ROOKIES

This is a golden age for rookies as never before have there been so many opportunities for youngsters to step up and claim a big league job. Within three weeks, scores of hopeful youngsters will be starting workouts at Spring training camps in Florida- bidding for recognition against veterans who've established themselves as big time performers. The big difference this time around is there are far less than the normal number of veterans one would expect to find- as most of the 16 FABL clubs have lost at least one or two regulars to the war effort.

Take the defending Continental Association pennant winners for example. It looks like golden opportunity for one of the Jones brothers, Donnie and Johnnie, or perhaps another young pitcher as the door to a rotation spot is wide open after Allen Award winner Pete Papenfus enlisted in the Navy. A similar story in Brooklyn with starting pitcher Jack Goff and pair of infielders in Jim Lightbody and Jimmie Field needing to be replaced. And on and on it goes. The Stars have a bullpen opening and the need for a backup catcher. The Cannons need to replace second baseman Charley McCullough and Mike T. Taylor. Montreal needs someone to step up and secure an outfield spot. The Sailors need to replace shortstop Rip Lee.

It is much the same in the Federal Association as Pittsburgh needs to replace outfielder Joe Owens while Boston has an infield opening with Mack Sutton in the Air Force. St Louis needs to replace outfielder Les Hendrix and the Washington Eagles are desperate for anyone who can throw strikes with Jim Douglass gone.

There are a lot of question marks this season and a breakout rookie might just be the difference in who is celebrating a pennant win come October.

QUICK HITS

• The World Champion Boston Minutemen have given a standing invitation welcoming all members of the armed services to attend baseball games at Cunningham Field free of charge any day of the week- including holidays - this season. The blanket invitation came out in a statement this week. The only restriction was at the request of the morale and recreation officers of each branch of the service who asked that tickets be required and these tickets be distributed by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Last season men in uniform were admitted free in Boston on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
• Following Boston's lead the three New York area clubs issued a joint statement that more than 600,000 servicemen will be able to watch ball games at Kings County Park, Gotham Stadium and Dyckman Park this summer. The Kings will provide 1,500 free passes for all home games played by the club with the exception of weekends and holidays. The Gothams, with a much greater seating capacity, will issue 5,000 free tickets for every one of their home games and the Stars plan on providing 3,000 tickets for all home games except Sundays and holidays.

CCLA WINS LOS ANGELES SHOWDOWN

City College of Los Angeles owns the basketball bragging rights in the City of Angels for this season after they beat their cross-town rivals for the second time in less than a month, topping the Coastal California Dolphins 65-63 in a game that required double overtime to determine a winner. The Coyotes, who are 11-0 in West Coast Athletic Association play and 21-2 overall, also beat the Dolphins on the road earlier in the season and while that game did not need extra time, it was not decided until CCLA scored the game winning bucket in a 55-53 victory will 7 seconds remaining in regulation time.

The Coyotes remain at the top of the polls and with next month's tournament fast approaching appear a lock to earn a number one seed in the 32 team field. There was no change in the top five this week with Northeast Conference leading Liberty College (9-1, 21-3) remaining second and Great Plains State, which did not play last week, holds down the third spot. Garden State, tied with #6 Brooklyn Sate for second in the Northeast Conference at a game back of Liberty College, is ranked 4th with Detroit City College remaining in the fifth spot.

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY FEBRUARY 16
Bronx Tech 55 #7 Annapolis Maritime 46

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18
#4 Garden State 54 St Matthew's College 39
#6 Brooklyn State 53 St Martin's College 45
#7 Annapolis Maritime 59 St Blane 46

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 19
#5 Detroit City College 60 St Ignatius 32
#15 Whitney College 40 #10 Western Iowa 39
#8 Minnesota Tech 50 Wisconsin State 33
#9 Carolina Poly 55 Charleston Tech 49

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20
#1 CCLA 65 #17 Coastal California 63

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21
#2 Liberty College 64 St Pancras 39
#4 Garden State 50 #19 St Patrick's 45
#6 Brooklyn State 49 St Matthew's College 43
#8 Minnesota Tech 59 #15 Whitney College 37
Lincoln 56 #10 Western Iowa 50
#5 Detroit City College 37 Indiana A&M 34

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22
#1 CCLA 51 Northern California 45

• A German submarine deep in the American defense zone east of the Panama Canal has torpedoed 4 oil tankers and shelled an American-owned oil refinery on the Dutch Island of Aruba.
• In light of that news US Secretary of War Stimson warns the nation that Americans must expect sporadic attacks on our coasts, but he declared the high command is making every effort to gain the offensive in crushing the Axis.
• Japanese bombers launched two attacks on Australia this week, both on the northern port of Darwin, and inflected considerable damage on military installations in the vital Allied base.
• Britain fears the entire garrison, estimated at 60,000 men, had been captured or killed in the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese. The defeat is blamed on bureaucracy, complacency and native tribesman accepting bribes from the Japanese to aid their troops.
• American and Dutch air squadrons and anti-aircraft hammered invading Japanese forces surging towards Java while in Burma Chinese troops are attacking the Japanese army.
  https://i.imgur.com/tjUw0SL.jpg
• As the week closed American air and naval attacks delivered a punishing blow to the Japanese force trying to encircle Java, sinking or damaging at least 19 Japanese ships, and possibly many more in a battle that waged on through the night.
• A fleet of powerful German warships were racing to Norway in a sudden maneuver that appears designed to keep British naval units tied up in the North Sea, although for what reason is unknown at the moment.
  
  https://i.imgur.com/2EPTpLH.jpg

March 2, 1942 Federal Association preview
 

MARCH 2, 1942

https://i.imgur.com/IbWQh3y.jpg

THROW FOUR NAMES IN A HAT TO PICK WINNER

Normally this time of year as This Week in Figment Baseball begins it's preseason previews we are talking about all of the big additions made over the course of the winter. There are changes this season to be sure, but unless we are discussing the baseball squads at various Army and Navy grounds around the country there are no additions to talk about. Well, that's not entirely true as one - yes just one- FABL veteran was traded this off-season but we will save that for next week when we look at the Continental Association. This week our focus is on the Fed and the challenge of picking a winner this time around is in trying to determine who lost the least, rather than what team gained the most.

BOSTON MINUTEMEN: The World Champions lost third baseman Mack Sutton (.240,15,54) to the Army Air Force but as long as the infielders can stay healthy they will hardly feel the loss. Boston added Balladeer Bill Moore at the deadline last year and between him, Art Spencer and Bob Donoghue the corner infield spots are taken care of. The loss of Sutton just means it's imperative that Spencer, who missed nearly two months last season, stays healthy. Moore gives them added insurance if Bob Donoghue gets hurt once again. A full season of veteran lefthanders Walt Wells and Dean Astle on the mound should also help. The one concern is can Ray Dalpman and to a lesser extent Duke Hendricks pitch like they did as rookies. If so, the Minutemen will be right in the mix once again.

CHICAGO CHIEFS: While some of their minor league affiliates took heavy casualties, the Chiefs are one of the few FABL teams not to suffer a serious loss from their big league team to the war effort. The Chicago offense remains solid - if Ron Rattigan can come close to his totals last season and Tom Bird and Hank Barnett rebound from slight drops last season the Chiefs will be a force. The big question mark is likely the one hovering over Rabbit Day. Day is now 37 and perhaps starting to slow down but if he can find the magic one more time he and Al Miller may just lead the Chiefs to their third pennant since 1936. If Day falls apart then the Chiefs might just miss Ralph Kendall - the 24 year old pitcher who was likely their biggest contribution to the war effort.

DETROIT DYNAMOS: Is this finally the year? With the most dangerous offense in the game and a veteran rotation that appears healthy this time around can Detroit finally win that long expected pennant? Any team with Sal Pestilli and Red Johnson is one to be feared. Add in Frank Crawford and Sergio Gonzales on the mound and the Dynamos are downright scary. But there are questions, most around age. Frank Vance will turn 40 in May and Joe Shaffner is 38. Do those two still have enough left in the tank? And how much will they feel the absence of Frank Gordon? If Shaffner or one of the other key pitchers struggle or get hurt the loss of Gordon could really sting but if they stay healthy there is no reason not to suspect another thrilling September for the Dynamos. Their fans just hope that this is finally the one that ends in a celebration.

NEW YORK GOTHAMS: That Million Dollar Infield is still around, but they are all getting a little older and while each has been solid at times the quartet never seemed to put it altogether. Walt Messer had a big year but played primarily in the outfield. Whether he stays there or returns to first base hinges on if Bud Jameson remains effective now that he is about to turn 38, although a glance across the city at Dave Trowbridge might reassure Gothams fans that their aging star still has something left to give. Leon Drake rebounded nicely from an awful 1940 season but the concern in Gotham land remains where it has been since Rabbit Day and Jim Lonardo were shipped out so many years ago. How will the pitching be? Can Bunny Edwards prove his 1941 campaign was not a fluke? Will Gus Goulding and, to a lesser extent, Rusty Petrick turn it up this season and finally become the stars that has been predicted since each was drafted what no seems so long ago by the Baltimore Cannons? New York is improving but the bar set by the first division clubs in the Fed is very high.

PHILADELPHIA KEYSTONES: After their outstanding run two years ago big things were expected by the Keystones young team last year. Instead the club succumbed to the pressure that comes along with high expectations and took a big step back, dropping 4 games below .500 and losing a dozen more games than they did in 1940. They are for the most part still a young club and there is a lot of potential but the challenge this season will be not only to forget last year and get back on track but also to replace one of the key young pieces in second baseman Billy Woytek, who is now in the Navy along with a fine young pitching prospect in Ernie Espanoza. There is a lot to like in Philadelphia and many believe they will surprise some teams but, like the Gothams, the Keystones fans need to realize the first division of the Federal Association is a very exclusive club.

PITTSBURGH MINERS: For a change we are not rehashing a Miners WCS collapse as they begin the spring but that is not a good thing as Pittsburgh was forced to settle for second place last season ending their two-year run (and 3 in four seasons) as Fed champion. Lefty Allen turns 28 next week and should be in his prime. No one has been better over the past half dozen seasons than the Miners flame throwing lefthander which is likely why we are calling an 18-13, 3.65 season a down year for the young star. But it was. For the first time since 1936 Allen failed to win at least twenty games but he also started just 35 contests - five less than each of the previous two seasons and seven less than the two before that. Some were on the Miners in the past about overusing Allen so they cut his workload slightly. Did that cost them the pennant? Likely not but 5 more Allen starts might just have won them the 3 more games they needed to finish ahead of Boston.

That was last season. Let's look ahead. Like most of the contenders the Miners do have a hole to fill courtesy of Uncle Sam and a concern about age. The hole will be the absence of Joe Owens, the outfielder who hit .344 a year ago but now will swinging a mop instead of a bat as he swabs decks in the Navy. This might create an opening for Luke Berry, a promising 23 year old who hit .344 at AAA and went 11-for-25 in a brief trial in Pittsburgh. If Berry is the real deal the Miners won't miss Owens much. If not then Wally Flowers, Whit Williams and Pinky Pierce will be counted on to handle the corner outfield duties in Owens absence. The age concern surrounds Charlie Stedman as he will turn 40 in early May. Hard Luck Chuck may just be shedding that nickname as he went 16-10 and had his second straight winning season after a lot of years of pitching well but getting little run support. It is hard to bet against the Miners not being in the thick of things as the season winds down...so we won't. Pittsburgh has as good a chance as anyone of playing in the WCS next year. Now winning a WCS? Well, that is an entirely different story.

ST LOUIS PIONEERS: A lot is new in St Louis this season. A new owner in Daniel 'Dee' Rose. A new manager in former bench coach Hugh Luckey and a new scouting director in veteran Rube Carter. Unfortunately for Pioneers fans most of the lineup will not be new. The Pioneers do have so very good young talent, both already in St Louis and climbing the ranks of their farm system. Maybe the likes of Carl Roe, Mal Bianco, Jasper Moore and Preacher Pietsch will take a big step forward like Danny Hearn did last year. Maybe Harry Sharp will look more like he did as a 22 year old two yeas ago than he did last season. Maybe Tommy Wilson will continue his progression towards being recognized as one of the best young players in the game. Maybe catcher Heinie Zimmer will come closer to duplicating his outstanding offensive season of 1940. Maybe Dutch Breunig, Earl Kimmell or prospect Bob Johnston Jr. establishes himself as the kind of first baseman the Pioneers have missed since Fred McCormick was dispatched north of the border. Yes, there are some things to look forward to but unfortunately for Pioneers fans that is just a few too many "maybe's" for this season to be a winning one for Dee Rose's new ballclub. Hey, at least they are not the Los Angeles Pioneers right now, so St Louis baseball fans have that to be thankful for.

WASHINGTON EAGLES: Why do we feel like this section of the Federal Association preview can just be copied from any one of several previous years predictions for the Washington ballclub? 'Eagles suffer through yet another losing campaign' the plot goes. A new General Manager comes to town and perhaps brings with him hope, something that has been promised several times over the past dozen years by a new regime only to see the new man suddenly leave, or run away to Canada, and leave the team no better than it was when he arrived. But maybe this time is really different. Under the previous regime noise was made right away, when a new manager claimed that Jack Bush was a hall of fame shortstop despite being a 25 year old rookie who barely hit .260 in AAA ball the year before. Bush is still around, although most assuredly not on a Hall of Fame pace to his career. The GM and his manager who made the boast at the time, are both long gone but not before the GM saddled his replacement with yet another hurdle to vault by dealing what turned out to be the first overall draft pick for a shortstop- apparently to replace his future Hall of Famer - a 22 year old kid who appears to have everything you want in a middle infielder except apparently the ability to field ground balls.

So the new GM comes into town with one hand tied behind his back because his first overall draft pick has been handed over to the defending World Champions. Then he gets the not entirely unexpected news that the clock has run out on his best pitcher and 24-year old Jim Douglass is now 1-A and off to the Army. No sooner does he process that but the GM then finds out his best young arm, Juan Tostado, a player he and second year manager John Lawrence were counting on to help replace Douglass, has also been taken by the Army along with his starting second baseman Karl O'Reilly. Talk about a rough first few weeks on the job. The Eagles minor league system is the worst in the league. Their pitching staff would likely get hit pretty good by an average AAA outfit and there are a number of holes in the lineup. It won't be easy but the new GM does have a pair of talented 25 year old's to try and build around in pitcher Del Burns and slugging first baseman Sig Stofer. It will take some time, and likely a couple of more seasons at or near the Federal Association cellar, but with some prudent waiver pickups and smart drafting going forward perhaps the long promised turnaround can begin. Baseball needs have a much bigger presence in the nation's capital. The attendance is rising, thanks a new ballpark in Columbia Stadium and an exciting slugger in The Boardwalk Bopper Stofer. Show some promise and win some ballgames and the popularity of the club will increase as Washington only backs a winner - something the Eagles have rarely been in going on well over a decade.

MY FEDERAL ASSOCIATION PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH

I feel I could have thrown the top 4 teams into a hat and been very happy with calling whichever one I pulled out of that hat my pick as the Fed champion for 1942. A big deadline deal or deals- similar to what Boston did last year- a crucial injury, or a midseason call from Selective Service will quite likely be what decides this year's winner but the way I draw them out this season is as follows:

1- Detroit
2- Pittsburgh
3- Boston
4- Chicago
5- Philadelphia
6- New York
7- St Louis
8- Washington

TOURNAMENT CONTENDERS

With the beginning of March the annual college basketball championship tournament is just two weeks away from finalizing it's field of 32 teams. Here is a look at the teams in contention for either one of the 15 guaranteed spots as a conference champion or the 17 at-large bids.

First up the major conferences:
ACADMIA ALLIANCE: Ellery and Brunswick are both 9-3 and tied for top spot. It appears certain that only the champion of the Academia eight will qualify for post-season play but that choice is wide open since they are the only group to hold an end of season conference tournament.

DEEP SOUTH: Western Florida (16-9) has some impressive wins and should be a lock with Georgia rivals Noble Jones (19-6) and Georgia Baptist (17-9) likely in as well and a good chance Alabama Baptist (19-6) could make it 4 schools from the Deep South in the field of 32.

GREAT LAKES ALLIANCE: It seems almost a certainty that 5 GLA schools will make the tournament including Detroit City College (20-5), Minnesota Tech (20-5), Central Ohio (18-7), Western Iowa (18-8) and Whitney College (19-6). The conference title is very much still up for grabs with six teams -those five plus St Magnus - separated by just one game.

MIDWESTERN ALLIANCE: Lambert College (22-4) has already clinched the conference title but even if they did not win it the Stags are a top twenty team and a lock for the field of 32.

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE: The big three of Liberty College (23-3), Garden State (20-6) and defending National Champion Brooklyn State (20-5) are in with a chance that St Patrick's (18-8) joins them.

SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE: North Carolina Tech (20-7) and Carolina Poly (18-7) should be in with Charleston Tech (18-7) on the bubble. There are several other schools still in the hunt for the conference title and an automatic berth including Mobile Maritime and Central Carolina.

SOUTHWESTERN ALLIANCE: Texas Gulf Coast (21-5) is a lock but only a conference title would allow anyone else from the SWA qualify. That is a possibility as at the moment both the Hurricanes and Darnell State are 7-3 in conference play, just a half game up on Lubbock State.

WEST COAST ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: CCLA (24-2) and Rainier College (21-6) are in and Lane State (17-9) might make it three schools from the WCAA.

As for the INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS expect Great Plains State (26-3) and Annapolis Maritime (25-5) to be playing in the tournament with a very good chance Miami State (22-6) joins them.

That makes 25 schools with the remaining seven spots coming from the other conference champions which at this stage appear to be Quaker College (19-6), either Western State (14-11) or NW New York State (13-12), Bigsby College (15-11), either Berwick (13-12) or Rose Point (9-16), Iowa A&M (14-11), Wyoming A&I (9-16) and El Paso Methodist (14-12).

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25
#2 Liberty College 49 Frankford State 40
#5 Brooklyn State 54 #5 Garden State 38

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26
#4 Detroit City College 50 St Magnus 38
#8 Minnesota Tech 50 Lincoln 38
#9 Central Ohio 46 Indiana A&M 40
#10 North Carolina Tech 52 Lexington State 44

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27
#1 CCLA 49 Custer College 37

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28
St Martin's College 39 #5 Garden State 37
#2 Liberty College 41 St Matthew's College 22
#9 Central Ohio 42 #14 Western Iowa 37
#4 Detroit City College 68 Wisconsin State 45
#8 Minnesota Tech 51 St Ignatius 35
#10 North Carolina Tech 60 Mobile Maritime 52

SUNDAY MARCH 1
#1 CCLA 49 #13 Rainier College 32

• In a radio address to the nation, President Roosevelt warned that the Allies must win the war in the southwest Pacific or the United States should expect to fight Japanese invaders on California, Oregon and Washington beaches.
• Amy fliers and Navy ships are on the lookout for a submarine that shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California while President Roosevelt was addressing the nation. A day later there was a scare in Los Angeles when the approach of an unidentified aircraft precipitated a call for a blackout and "considerable anti-aircraft firing" but it turned out no bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down.
• A major victory for Allied forces as they virtually wiped out the Japan invasion fleet of Bali and furiously hammered enemy forces on the island approach to Java.
  
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March 9, 1942 Continental Association preview
 

MARCH 9, 1942

EVEN WITHOUT PAPENFUS, COUGARS TEAM TO BEAT

Most Continental batters likely breathed a sign of relief when it was learned that reigning Allan Award winner Pete Papenfus, alias Peter the Heater and the two-time Continental Association strikeout leader, has officially joined the Navy. Well, all expect for the few like Toronto's Fred McCormick who many still have to face Papenfus in various Army-Navy camp exhibition showings. For the rest of the CA the news is good but even without Papenfus there are plenty of reasons why the defending CA champion Cougars remain the team to beat this time around.

Here is a team by team look at the Continental Association followed by our fearless predictions.

BROOKLYN KINGS: The Kings suffered a few losses of their own as a trio of youngsters from the big league club were among the mass exodus of players to the military following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gone are 25 year old lefthander Jack Goff, who went 12-12 a year ago, along with infielders Jim Lightbody and Jimmie Field. Goff will be missed although perhaps Sergio Vergara or Ike O'Donnell can fill the void but there is plenty of worry that Powell Slocum's boys just won't have the arms to compete. As usual the Brooklyn outfield is sound led by Al Wheeler, who enters the season just 2 homers shy of 400 and needing 8 hits to reach the 2,500 mark. Wheeler is no longer the force he was when he won 5 Whitney Awards but he had a very solid season last year after some tough times the previous two years. The infield also has enough depth it should withstand the losses of Lightbody and Field with perhaps this being the opportunity Tim Hopkins needs to finally get a full season of playing time in which to show off his tremendous power. Harry Barrell is still one of the best shortstops in the game but there are worries that his brother Fred is nearing the end of the line for his time as a big league catcher.

CHICAGO COUGARS: Only one team made a trade this off-season to add a big league player and it turned out to be the defending CA champs. It is just a depth move but Chicago added second sacker Clark Car for the Stars in exchange for a draft pick. Car is likely just insurance in case the often injured Billy Hunter does not recover fully from a knee injury that will prevent him from participating in spring training. The Cougars are loaded although perhaps there are some concerns about age with pitchers Dick Lyons and Jim Lonardo turning 42 and 38 during the season while John Lawson, who needs just 81 hits to reach 3,000 for his career, is 39. All 3 showed little signs of slowing down last year so the Cougars think they will be just fine this season and most observers tend to agree. Pete Papenfus will, of course, be missed -no team wouldn't miss the best young pitcher in the game- but there is also no team in the Continental Association better positioned to withstand the loss of a key arm than the Cougars. If there is a worry it is perhaps behind the plate as Mike Taylor - who was once traded for Fred Barrell- is, like his Brooklyn counterpart, showing signs of wearing down. The Cougars have depth everywhere and behind the plate is no exception with Harry Mead and youngster Solly Skidmore both waiting in the wings.

CINCINNATI CANNONS: You have to think the Cannons, who were the surprise team of baseball two years ago after their dramatic pennant push in their first season since escaping both Baltimore and the basement - two words that really were synonymous for quite some time- can't have the run of bad luck they did last year again this time around. Last season the pitching staff was decimated with Deuce Barrell and prize youngsters Vic Carroll and Bill Sohl all going down for extended periods. The Cannons made their trainer the fall guy for the rash of injuries and replaced him but while Barrell is back they need to replace Sohl - who joined the Navy - for four years and Carroll- who is still hurt- at least until June. The Navy hit Cincinnati with three torpedoes, taking not just Sohl but also all-star second baseman Charley McCullough and talented young outfielder Mike T. Taylor. There is some depth in Cincinnati but the losses likely mean a pennant chase is out of the question this year but their spot in the first division should be secure.

CLEVELAND FORESTERS: Cleveland sold off most it's remaining movable assets at the deadline last year and now it feels like the Foresters are just in a wait and see mode until High School legend Hiram Steinberg is ready for the big leagues. That will still be a couple of years at least as the 19 year old has less than a full season of pro ball under his belt. He is the best of a deep crop of promising young arms on their way up through the system. The list includes Richie Hughes, Bill Martino and Dick Lamb but until then Forester fans will have to suffer through some more lean years. 24 year old second baseman George Dellinger was to be counted on this season as was 23 year old outfielder Si Crocker but both put their careers on hold for military service. 25 year old Leon Blackridge is the closest thing Cleveland has to a star player and the third baseman, who came over from Washington in the deal that sent Mel Carrol back to the Eagles, will be counted on heavily. But really it is just a tread water situation for the organization as they wait for Steinberg and the rest of the arms to be ready.

MONTREAL SAINTS: Montreal is one of those teams I certainly expected more from last year. Even after the decision to move Adam Mullins to Cincinnati. I don't mean pennant contention but 6th place should have been within reach. Certainly not the awful 58 win season - their worst showing since 1906- that they provided us with last year. The Saints have the best minor league system in the game according to OSA. But that was the case last year...and they were second best the year before. Even in 1938 they were ranked 4th. They have had loads of pitching prospects and added more young talent in the Mullins trade so the question on the tip of the tongue in all of Quebec is 'When are these prospects going to pay off and deliver big league wins?' Wally Doyle is 22-26 over parts of 4 seasons with the Saints and is still just 23 years old. He has not lived up to his first round billing out of high school but it is far too early to give up on The Waco Kid. We may see Wally Reif and Pat Weakley this season and that means Bert Cupid and Jackie James can't be far behind. Like Cleveland there are some impressive pitching prospects but unlike the Foresters right now there are also some solid young hitters already in the big leagues. The first division is likely still just a dream and something not seen since the Saints snuck into fourth with a 75-79 season in 1935, but there is no way they can be last in the CA again this year, is there?

NEW YORK STARS: You have to think this is the time that Dave Trowbridge finally starts to slow down. He will be 44 before the season ends yet Father Time hit .319 last season, although his average dipped in the second half as he hit just .277 after August 1st. Assuming he has one more productive year left (or more) the Stars may just give Chicago a run for the pennant. Bill Barrett is making a case for being considered the best hitter in the game despite being just 22 years old. Big things are expected of rookie outfielder Chubby Hall making the trio of Barrett, Hall and centerfielder Chink Stickels one of the most deadly outfield combinations in the game. The Stars were in a class by themselves for the first half of last season and perhaps with a little more consistency this time around we could be treated to another WCS appearance by Barrett and Trowbridge, both of whom looked so good against Pittsburgh 3 years ago. They do need to replace the bullpen arm of Robert Curry, who joined the Navy, and perhaps upgrade behind the plate but the rest of the club is pretty solid.

PHILADELPHIA SAILORS: After five straight seasons of at least 80 wins the Sailors suffered through a 66-88 campaign a year ago- their worst showing since 1919. They dealt away some veteran pieces last year in Dick Walker (to the Cougars) and Walt Wells (to Boston) signaling a bit of a rebuild. That did not extend to the minors where, as usual, Sailors farm teams were dominant in winning 4 pennants and the fifth club -AA Providence - had to deal with the 'embarrassment' of only finishing second in it's league. The loss of shortstop Rip Lee, who was drafted into the Army, will hurt but the Sailors still have a decent mix of veterans and up and coming talent. The first division might be a stretch again this season but they should settle in comfortably in 5th or 6th place.


TORONTO WOLVES: The WCS hangover is gone but the question is can the Wolves get back on track and prove the 1940 title was not just a freak occurrence? Not having Fred McCormick certainly hurt but Walt Pack filled in fairly nicely at first base and with McCormick reupping he likely won't be back in a Toronto uniform until the war is over. The key to a successful season for Toronto depends on it's pitching staff and now that Papenfus is gone one could easily make a case for Toronto's to be the best rotation in the CA. It's hard to top a 1-2-3 of Joe Hancock, George Garrison and Bernie Johnson, who combined to win 91 games over the past two seasons. There is talent in the everyday lineup too, led by Pack, Larry Vestal and one of the best defensive shortstops in the game in Charlie Artuso. If things break right they can surprise but I would feel a lot better in picking them to win it all if they had McCormick's bat in the lineup.

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION PREDICTIONS
There are questions in Chicago such as can someone prove to be an adequate replacement for Papenfus, especially considering the most likely candidate, Harl Haines, is also now in the Navy. Age is a worry too but I think the Cougars have the depth and should hold off New York once more for the pennant. If Toronto finds another bat, either internally with someone stepping up like Walt Pack did last year or through a trade, the Wolves might just pull off an upset. Until, or if, that happens I have to call the Cougars as my expected 1942 CA champs with New York second and Toronto third. I think Cincinnati and Philadelphia fight it out for fourth with Brooklyn trying to hold off Montreal for sixth. I see the Kings dropping as I would not be surprised if their pitching runs into trouble this year and they perhaps even slide to seventh. The only way the Cleveland Foresters will not draft first next year is either through a trade of if the league implements a draft lottery- as rumours are circulating as a possibility.

1- Chicago
2- New York
3- Toronto
4- Cincinnati
5- Philadelphia
6- Brooklyn
7- Montreal
8- Cleveland

SLOW DEATH IS FACED BY BASEBALL IN WAR, VET OWNER FEELS

Portland, Oregon- A slow death for baseball-even the major leagues if the war continues long enough- is feared by a club owner who has devoted over 40 years to the game. Rankin Crosby, long-time owner of the Great Western League's Portland Green Sox, an independent club, recalled that many minor leagues disbanded during the first World War. Crosby, who was involved with the Green Sox even back then, commented about the future of the game which he has followed actively since he was a youth in the 1880s.

"I'm afraid this war is likely to have a different effect. Instead of losing men all at once we will be losing them by dribbles. If and when the man power of the clubs is gone baseball will have to suspend operations, but I have an idea that it will take some time to do that. We have more clubs in operation and more players to be fed to clubs of higher classifications. The smaller minors will be the first to die a slow death and if the war lasts long enough it eventually will reach the majors, I'm afraid."


The CCLA quintet improved to a perfect 15-0 in West Coast Athletic Association play and are one win away from becoming the first team in the history of the WCAA to go undefeated in conference play. The Coyotes finish their season with a road game against Redwood on Friday. There have been six 1-loss teams in the 32 year history of the conference and each of those were Coastal California squads with the most recent one coming in 1926 when the Dolphins went 15-1. CCLA remains the top ranked team in the nation heading into the final week of the season and a lock to earn a number one seed in the 32 team championship tournament.

The Great Lakes Alliance champion may well come down to next Saturday's game in Detroit between Western Iowa and the Detroit City College Knights. With two games remaining they share the lead at 9-5 but there are 4 other schools just one game off the pace.

Liberty College is on the verge of clinching the Northeast Conference title. The Bells are 13-1 in conference play, good for a 2 game lead on Brooklyn State with two remaining games. Liberty visits Brooklyn State for the season finale but each has a game remaining before then. The Bears will need to win at Commonwealth Catholic and hope Liberty College loses to St. Martin's College Wednesday to have the season ending game mean something.

LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
MONDAY MARCH 2
#2 Liberty College 45 #6 Garden State 44
#5 Brooklyn State 48 #17 St Patrick's 29

FRIDAY MARCH 6
#1 CCLA 57 Spokane State 51

SATURDAY MARCH 7
#2 Liberty College 57 Commonwealth Catholic 34
#5 Brooklyn State 60 Frankford State 30
Lincoln 38 #4 Detroit City College 36
St Magnus 51 #10 Minnesota Tech 45
#9 North Carolina Tech 52 Alexandria 21

SUNDAY MARCH 8
#1 CCLA 55 Idaho A&M 41

• General George C Marshall, army chief of staff, says that "the time has no come to carry the war to the enemy" and focus on getting troops out of America and into the Pacific. He also warns that Americans must be prepared for "isolated air raids" by a few enemy planes "for no other purpose than to create a public reaction which will adversely affect the sound military purpose of defending America by engaging and defeating the enemy in theatres distant from our shores."
• German built planes were among those taking part in the most recent bombing attacks on General MacArthur's troops in the Philippines.
• A Navy destroyer was sunk off Cape May, N.J., in the first known naval loss in the enemy U-boat campaign along the eastern seaboard that has claimed many merchant ships.
• Regrettable but necessary, is how London described a major bombing attack conducted by the R.A.F on factories in and around Paris.
• As the week ends Java is near collapse, with greatly superior Japanese forces crashing through the northern defense line according to the Dutch News Agency.

March 16, 1942 eve of Spring Training
 

MARCH 16, 1942

SPRING GAMES BEGIN TODAY

After a winter of losing players to Uncle Sam the 16 FABL clubs must be excited to get back on the diamond today and play some baseball. It is only spring training but certainly a long awaited and much needed diversion from what is going on around the world. The attack on Pearl Harbor took it's toll on the nation and FABL clubs will now begin to find out just how big a toll it took on each of their organizations as by the most recent account well over 400 players have either volunteered or been drafted into military service.

Most are minor leaguers, and there is some question whether all of the minor circuits will be able to find enough players to continue to operate should the war persist for a long period of time, but FABL clubs were also hit hard. That started more than a year ago with Dixie Lee and Fred McCormick leading the way but they have been joined by big names such as Pete Papenfus, Jim Douglass, Jack Goff, Robert Curry, Mike T Taylor, Charley McCullough, Rip Lee, Mack Sutton, Billy Woytek, Joe Owens and many more.

All of those big leaguers departing does open the door for a number of rookies who otherwise would possibly never play a big league game and it will be interesting to see just how much of an effect, this year and beyond, the war will have on the pennant races. Baseball fans get their first hint at an answer to that question today as all 16 clubs open their Grapefruit schedule.

BILL BARRETT SET TO ENLIST IN ARMY, FRIEND SAYS

The Vineland (NJ) Post says it has learned from a friend of Bill Barrett's that the 22 year old New York Stars outfielder will enlist in the Army by the end of the week. The authority for the Post story was A.M. Gagen's family owns and operates Gagen Grocery in Vineland, Barrett's hometown. Gagen has been a long-time friend of Barrett and a frequent fishing companion when they travel to upstate New York during the off-season. Barrett, who led the Continental Association in batting average and homers last season and won the Whitney Award, was recently re-classified from 1-A to 2-A

WOLVES LOSE ANOTHER PLAYER TO WAR EFFORT

The Toronto Wolves will be without pitcher George Waller for the duration of the war after it was learned that the 26 year old received his draft notice and will report to basic training instead of spring training next week. The San Antonio, Tx. native has spent the past three seasons with the Wolves and was 2-3 with a 3.31 era after making 33 appearances, all in relief, last season. He was originally a 7th round draft pick in 1933.

QUICK HITS

• Fred McCormick, former hitting star of the Toronto Wolves and now in Uncle Sam's armed forces, had another uniform yesterday to add to those in his service locker. Turning up at the Dunedin training camp of the Wolves, Fred worked out with his former teammates and then returned to his base in Tampa, taking with him his famous #5 Wolves jersey. McCormick says he will wear it when playing with army teams.
• The Brooklyn Kings are back at their camp in Florida after spending some time training in Cuba but not before a pair of Kings spent some time in the company of local police. The story ended up being a funny one, but could have been quite serious. With time to kill before their ship was to depart the port, a bunch of them pulled out a deck of cards to indulge in a few hands of poker. That they were highly conspicuous never seemed to have occurred to any of them. There never has seemed anything conspicuous about any form of gambling in Cuba. But then an excited little man in civilian clothes burst into their midst. Their first thought was the amigo wanted to get in the game. Hank Mittan seemed convinced of this when the Cuban waved his wallet around, not realizing that the caballero was flashing his credentials, not his money.
  
  "No strangeros" said Joe Herman, who was dealing, and continued to riffle the cards. He stopped when the stranger produced a small revolver and started pointing it at first one King and then another. It turns out that Jake Shadoan was the first to realize that his boys were dealing with the law. Another plainclothesman arrived and Mittan and Herman, who were the closest to the officers, were put in handcuffs and placed in a locked room. Fortunately someone had the presence of mind to telephone the Cuban minister who was the more or less official sponsor of the Kings visit and everything was sorted out so all the boys safely arrived in Miami.

FIELD SET FOR AIAA CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT

CCLA, which won 16 straight games in West Coast Athletic Association play to finish out the season, is ranked number one in the nation and named the top seed in the West for the AIAA championship tournament, which gets underway on Saturday. Joining the 27-2 Coyotes as number one seeds are Great Lakes Alliance champion Detroit City College in the Midwest and a pair of Northeast Conference foes in Liberty College, who starts in the East Region and Brooklyn State which will play out of the group in the South. The Bells won the Northeast Conference title, finishing a game ahead of the Bears despite losing to Brooklyn State in their final game on Saturday.

EAST REGION
A tough group with an expected top ten matchup in the second round pitting Liberty College against Annapolis Maritime. The winner will then likely have to contend with 8th ranked Western Iowa, runners up in the Great Lakes Alliance in their quarterfinal matchup. A team poised to upset might be St Pancras, winners of their last six games including recent victories over Brooklyn State and Liberty College.

#1 Liberty College (26-4) vs #8 NW New York State (16-13)
#4 Annapolis Maritime (25-5) vs #5 Charleston Tech (21-8)
#2 Western Iowa (21-9) vs #7 Berwick (17-12)
#3 Western Florida (20-9) vs #6 St Pancras (21-9)

SOUTH REGION
The most anticipated matchup might just be Whitney College vs Bigsby College. Named after a pair of prominent families and bitter rivals in the early days of baseball it will be a rare hardwood meeting between the two schools. North Carolina Tech is always a team to fear while the Lane State-Alabama Baptist game could position the winner well for an upset of Brooklyn State in the second round.

#1 Brooklyn State (24-5) vs #8 Grafton (14-19)
#4 Lane State (19-10) vs #5 Alabama Baptist (22-7)
#2 Whitney College (21-8) vs #7 Bigbsy College (16-13)
#3 North Carolina Tech (22-8) vs #6 Quaker-CA (23-6)

MIDWEST REGION
It will be interesting if Great Lakes Alliance rivals Detroit City College and Minnesota Tech meet in the regional final but we also could see an all WCAA matchup between Rainier College and Coastal California. Great Plains State gets the higher seed on the basis of a huge start against mid-level competition but the Dolphins have to be the favorite in the 3/6 game.

#1 Detroit City College (23-6) vs #8 El Paso Methodist (15-14)
#4 Rainer College (23-7) vs #5 Noble Jones College (21-8)
#2 Minnesota Tech (21-8) vs #7 Lambert College (24-5)
#3 Great Plains State (26-3) vs #6 Coastal California (19-10)

WEST REGION
CCLA may face it's stiffest test on the second weekend against either Central Ohio or Miami State. The Texas Gulf Coast vs Mobile Maritime game may decide who reaches the regional final as, despite being the number 2 seed in the group, Garden State is struggling of late with 4 losses in their last five games.

#1 CCLA (27-2) vs #8 Boulder State (14-15)
#4 Central Ohio (19-10) vs #5 Miami State (23-6)
#2 Garden State (21-8) vs #7 Eastern Kansas (22-7)
#3 Texas Gulf Coast (24-6) vs #6 Mobile Maritime (20-9)

GRAFTON WINS ACADEMIA ALLIANCE TOURNAMENT

The Grafton Scholars claimed the Academia Alliance championship and a berth in the field of 32 for the AIAA tournament thanks to a 38-32 in over Ellery in the Academia championship game. The Alliance is the only conference to hold a post-season tournament to determine the conference champion and Grafton was a surprise winner, finishing 4th in the regular season but they upended first place Brunswick in the semi-final game before knocking off the Bruins to win the tournament for the second year in a row.


LAST WEEK RESULTS INVOLVING TOP TEN SCHOOLS
WEDNESDAY MARCH 11
#5 Brooklyn State 47 Commonwealth Catholic 38
#6 Garden State 41 Frankford State 36
#2 Liberty College 45 St Martin's College 38

THURSDAY MARCH 12
#3 Detroit City College 65 #13 Minnesota Tech 49
#8 Western Iowa 53 St Magnus 46
Chesapeake State 47 #10 North Carolina Tech 32

FRIDAY MARCH 13
#9 Rainier College 61 Custer College 56
#1 CCLA 43 Redwood 35

SATURDAY MARCH 14
#5 Brooklyn State 46 #2 Liberty College 43
#20 St Pancras 52 #6 Garden State 43
#3 Detroit City College 46 #8 Western Iowa 36
#10 North Carolina Tech 41 Bulein 39

• Java falls as 95,000 Dutchmen and 5,000 Americans surrender unconditionally after being overwhelmed by Japanese forces.
• Many warships are lost by both sides as battles continue in the Java Sea.
• Australian forces are engaged in heavy fighting with Japanese invaders of New Guinea. The Aussies may have to contend with a second invasion, this one in Port Moresby, key to the northeastern approaches to Australia.
• Melbourne greets the first American troops to arrive in Australia.
• Another air raid alarm for Honolulu - the fourth since Pearl Harbor- but the all clear was sounded after 45 minutes with no bombs dropped.
• A London report says military observers nominated a war time list of the 10 Best Generals produced in 30 months of conflict during the war. Topping the list is General Douglas MacArthur for his 3 month stand in the Philippines while all the other bastions of the Allied troops in the southwest Pacific have been falling.
  
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March 23, 1942 Spring Training begins
 

MARCH 23, 1942

BARRETT, DEFERRED BY PRESIDENTIAL ORDER, JOINS STARS

Informed that he will do his battling with a baseball, instead of a bayonet as he had expected, Bill Barrett was on the ballfield last week with the New York Stars. Barrett said that the matter of his draft deferment had been entirely up to the draft board - that he had not applied for any deferment, however, and planned on playing baseball. Barrett also ruled out enlisting, at least for now, saying that while he had discussed the possibility with some fishing buddies over the winter he had yet to make up his mind on the matter.

Some had hinted that the enlistment talk was part of a ploy to secure a raise from his employers but Barrett quickly denied that was a factor. "The Stars organization has been very good to me and I trust all of that stuff will work itself out."

Barrett had signed a three year deal with the cash-strapped New York Stars franchise prior to the 1941 season that called for him to receive $17,000 per annum. That total is now considered to be a bargain for the Stars as currently 78 players including six of his teammates, are earning more than Barrett will receive this season.

The lanky 22 year old sweet swinging outfielder was formerly classified as 1-A, subject to immediate call, shortly after the New Year and had long been expecting to shoulder a gun. An appeal was instituted on his behalf, however, when it was learned that he was the sole support of his mother.

The mother, Mrs. Samuel Barrett, lives at Vineland, NJ, and Bill has been contributing $5,000 a year toward her support, according to reports. The appeal was carried to an appeal board and then to President Roosevelt himself before Barrett's reclassification was allowed. Draft Director Lewis B. Hershey issued the authorization.

"I didn't want to get in wrong with anybody so I just left it up to the draft board," said Barrett, whose presence boosts the New York Stars stock considerably for the forth coming Continental Association season.

SPRING SCHEDULE UNDERWAY

It's only March but the Boston Minutemen seem to have picked up right where they left off last October as the World Champions went 5-1 in the first week of spring training action. Outfielder Chick Donnelly looked especially impressive in wins over Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on the weekend as the 30 year old homered in each game and drove in 7 runs. Meanwhile the Continental Association Chicago Cougars are getting used to life without Pete Papenfus. The Cougars, who learned in December that the defending CA Allen Award winner joined the Navy, went 3-3 during the week. 22 year old Donnie Jones, who seems the most likely candidate to take Papenfus' spot in the rotation, had a nice spring debut in tossing 4 shutout innings against Cleveland.

QUICK HITS

• With the latest draft numbers being released last week you can't help but think it is just a matter of time before Selective Service lets quite a few ballplayers know their number came up and they are 1-A and subject to trading their baseball gear for army green.
• Walt Messer took a huge step forward last season when the 23 year old New York Gothams 1B/OF swatted 29 homers - 20 more than his total the previous year. Messer also hit .320 a year ago and that might be just the beginning for the former two-time National High School Player of the Year. He and Bill Barrett may just stage a long battle as New York fans argue over which is better. Certainly Barrett has the edge right now but if all goes right for Messer he could make the discussion very interesting over the next few seasons.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Jiggs McGee takes a look around FABL with a quick comment or two on each of the 16 clubs after the opening week of spring training.

BOSTON- Big things are expected out of the Minutemen pitching staff this season with a full year of veterans Walt Wells and Dean Astle along with Art Myers and Ed Wood. That's a lot of experience so there are few worries that none of the 4 had an especially impressive debut. What is promising is Duke Hendricks looked very good in his start as he prepares for his second big league season. Then there is rookie of the year Ray Dalpman along with Dick Higgins and John Edwards so yes, the Minutemen pitching should be pretty solid.

BROOKLYN- Tiny Tim Hopkins had a nice debut week as he tries to prove to skipper Powell Slocum he should be the everyday first baseman now that Jim Lightbody is in the Army. Hopkins hit .429 with a pair of homeruns. The other job up for grabs is a spot in the starting rotation to replace pitching coach Danny Goff's son Jack, who joined the Navy. Sergio Vergara is one of the candidates, but he is dealing with some shoulder soreness.

CHIEFS- Bob Worley is back in Chicago and after a week of spring games he looks just like the Bob Worley everyone remembers - smacking 2 homeruns but has a .188 batting average. It has always been all or nothing when Worley swings the bat. Chiefs fans have to love Rabbit Day's opening start of spring: 4 shutout innings without allowing a hit.

COUGARS- Veteran Mike Taylor's task of holding off Harry Mead for the starting catcher job just got a little tougher after the 35 year old suffered an oblique strain in his spring debut. Odds are Taylor, who is about to embark on his 15th big league season, will at least platoon with Mead to start the season but it is likely just a matter of time until prize prospect Solly Skidmore replaces them both. Skidmore is still just 21 and in the minor league camp, but after hitting .417 in 25 game trial at AA last season after tearing up A ball, the Cougars can't hold him back much longer.

CINCINNATI- Injuries, especially to moundsmen, destroyed the Cannons season a year ago and their team medical staff took the fall with wholesale changes. It didn't do any good if the opening week of spring is any indication as three Cannons went down including pitchers Dan Adams and Louis Buczek. Both are minor leaguers and none of the injuries are expected to be longer than a couple of weeks but Cannons brass is immediately thinking 'Not again.' Last year Deuce Barrell, Vic Carroll and Bill Sohl all missed substantial time along with quite a few others.

CLEVELAND- With Wes Parks and George Dellinger both in the Navy, it appears 30 year old Brooks Meeks will once again be back at second base for the Foresters. Meeks has always been a solid defender but he has struggled at the plate the past several seasons and seemed likely to lose his starting spot, until the attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything.

DETROIT- Dynamos manager Patrick Lictenegger has to like what he saw out of George Dawson last week. The 30 year old came over at the deadline from Cleveland, where he was really struggling at the plate. He had modest success once he moved to Detroit but the Dynamos wanted him for his glove and any offense Dawson added would be a bonus. He hit .375 with a .500 on base percentage last week, admittedly just in 10 plate appearances, but what a coup it would be for the Dynamos if Dawson can approach the form he showed as a two-time all-star in the middle of the last decade.

MONTREAL- 4 shutout innings for highly touted pitching prospect Wally Reif in his spring debut as despite having only 3 starts at the AA level the former Piedmont University righthander is fighting for a spot in the Saints rotation. Eyes are also on Vic Crawford as Saints skipper Homer Moore is anxious to see if the 34 year old first baseman can handle a return to the outfield, somewhere he has not played regularly since his days at Commonwealth Catholic. Rule 5 pick Joey Binette will also get a chance to claim the right field job, opened due to wartime enlistments, but the long-time Brooklyn Kings farmhand will be slowed for a couple of days with a bruised knee.

NY STARS-President Roosevelt will certainly be on Stars owner Al Meilke's Christmas Card list next season after FDR stepped in and had Bill Barrett reclassified so he can continue to support his mother. Without their young superstar outfielder the Stars would have little hope of winning a pennant.

NY GOTHAMS-Panic in the Gothams front office when top prospect Ed Bowman left in the first inning of his spring debut because of shoulder pain. Fortunately the news is good and the 22 year old should be fine with a few days rest. The 1938 3rd round pick finished the year at AAA last season and many are hoping he is ready for his big league debut.

KEYSTONES- Tony Pestilli, brother of big leaguers Sal and Alf, is in Keystones camp and looking pretty good. The 23 year old centerfielder went 3-for-7 including a couple of hits against Detroit when his brother Sal was the opposing centerfielder. Tony got his first taste of AA last season and with options left appears likely to at least start the season in AAA Louisville.

SAILORS- Veteran Doc Newell had a nice debut, pitching 4 scoreless innings in a 2-1 win over Toronto and helping the Sailors to a 4-2 opening week of spring. As did Herb Flynn, the other elder statesman on the Sailors mound. The 35 year old Flynn heled Brooklyn to 2 hits over his 4 innings of work in a 7-0 win over Brooklyn.

PITTSBURGH- Rookie Luke Berry hit a pinch-hit double in his spring debut to aid in his chances at sticking with the club due to the wartime departure of Joe Owens. The 23 year old Berry, went 2-for-8 during the week including a homerun off of Boston's John Edwards. He had a brief taste of the big leagues each of the previous two seasons, and did quite well batting .371 in 15 games.

ST LOUIS- Remember when Sam Sheppard was in the conversation for best pitcher in the game? Now 34 and no longer a starter, Sheppard has fallen quite a distance from the guy who 28 games in 1935 and at least twenty each of the two following seasons. He spent nearly all of last season pitching out of the pen and while it's only one spring game, he gave little indication a return to the rotation was likely. Sheppard went 4 innings against Pittsburgh, barely surviving jams in the second and third inning before the roof caved in for him in the 4th when the Miners plated 4 runs to end his day. With Sheppard likely not a factor for the rotation that means all eyes in St Louis will be on the Pioneers young pitchers. There is a lot of potential among the group that includes Cal Roe, Harry Sharp, Jasper Moore, Mal Bianco and Preacher Pietsch but unless at least a couple of them step up this might be a very tough season.

TORONTO- The Wolves went just 2-4 but were happy simply to escape the injury bug last week. The club needs to find someone to back up Clarence Howerton at catcher now that Packy Peck is in the army. Rookies Roscoe Zeiler and Homer Betts are the in-camp candidates but the Wolves may need to look to the waiver wire to find someone they are comfortable with. They also need a pitcher now that Jim Morrison has left for the army and perhaps that means full-time employment in Toronto for two-way player Juan Pomales.

WASHINGTON- The Eagles actually fared pretty well in the opening week of spring play, going 3-3 and even blanking Detroit in one game. Jim Birdwell and Merritt Thomas combined on the deed. Sure there was no Red Johnson but the duo managed to force Sal Pestilli to go 0-for-3.

GRAFTON UPSETS BROOKLYN COLLEGE IN TOURNAMENT OPENER

The Academia Alliance has certainly dropped in stature over the years as long gone are the days when it's schools dominated the annual AIAA basketball championship but for at least one day the Grafton Scholars took everyone back to those beginnings of the college game. Grafton, a school that went just 14-19 on the season, including 0-5 against top twenty teams, pulled off the upset of the tournament in beating heavily favored Brooklyn State 36-26 in the opening round of the South Region. The Scholars, who only reached the tournament because of a pair of upset wins in the Academia Alliance championship, employed their same slow-pace game plan that they used in the Academia tournament and frustrated the Bears at every turn. Brooklyn State shot just 12-of-42 from the field (.286) and while Grafton was not much better they did have the benefit of 6'8" junior center John Morales who gathered in 11 rebounds in the game. Grafton will next face Lane State on Thursday in the second round. It is the first time Grafton has advanced to the second round of the national tournament since 1931-32 Brooklyn State staffers blamed overconfidence on the result sayin their team got caught looking ahead to Lane State instead of focusing on the task at hand.

The remaining top seeds all won and did so quite easily as Liberty College downed NW New York State 57-32 in the East, Detroit City College beat El Paso Methodist 60-38 in the Midwest while on the West Coast CCLA coasted to a 53-25 win over Boulder State.

AIAA TOURNAMENT OPENING ROUND RESULTS
EAST REGION
#1 Liberty College 57 #8 NW New York State 32
#4 Annapolis Maritime 58 #5 Charleston Tech 46
#2 Western Iowa 56 #7 Berwick 42
#6 St Pancras 48 #3 Western Florida 47

SOUTH REGION
#8 Grafton 36 #1 Brooklyn State 26
#4 Lane State 42 #5 Alabama Baptist 35
#2 Whitney College 44 #7 Bigsby College 36
#3 North Carolina Tech 60 #6 Quaker-CA 56

MIDWEST REGION
#1 Detroit City College 60 #8 El Paso Methodist 38
#5 Noble Jones College 64 #4 Rainier College 53
#7 Lambert College 68 #2 Minnesota Tech 56
#6 Coastal California 55 #3 Great Plains State 37

WEST REGION
#1 CCLA 53 #8 Boulder State 25
#4 Central Ohio 48 #5 Miami State 45
#2 Garden State 45 #7 Eastern Kansas 36
#6 Mobile Maritime 42 #3 Texas Gulf Coast 37

• Australian Minister Richard G Casey says the time has come for the United Nations to wage an offensive campaign in the Pacific - as that attack would be the only means of saving Australia from the Japanese push towards them.
• General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia from the beleaguered Philippines and has assumed supreme command of Allied forces there in Australia's hour of peril. MacArthur immediately promised to go on the offensive against Japan, adding 'we will save both the Philippines and Australia.'
• US leadership of the war in the Far East was further extended when the War Department announced that Lt. General Joseph Stillwell of the US Army has taken over command of two Chinese armies on the Burma battlefront. Like MacArthur, Stillwell vows the allies will carry the war to Japan.
• German armies have been smashed back again in the north according to Moscow, which adds they are also having success in the South and that the Red Army believes that Kharkov, a vital Axis base and once a great industrial city, may be recaptured soon.
• The latest collection of draft board numbers have been announced affecting approx. 9 million men who registered this month for selective service. It is the third lottery in the last 17 months.
• Two more US merchant ships have been torpedoed and sunk off the Atlantic coast.
  
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March 30, 1942
 

MARCH 30, 1942

BARRETT TO ENLIST NEXT YEAR

Bill Barrett, the Continental Association's leading hitter, announced today he would play "one more season" before enlisting in the army. Barrett, the 22 year old New York Stars outfielder, notified the club's general manager of his decision over the weekend.

"There's only one thing I can do and that's try to play another season," Barrett told the United Press. "As soon as I can adjust my financial situation I'll join the army."

Barrett was recently reclassified from 1-A to 3-Q in an order by President Roosevelt issued through his local draft board. Barrett had been placed in 1-A in early January. After the draft boards' action the case was appealed to the district appeal board which upheld the local board's decision despite the fact it was shown that Barrett is the sole supporter of his mother. The appeal then was taken to the President. Barrett plans to secure enough money to support his mother during his absence and vows to enlist once the baseball season has concluded in the fall.

EAGLES FLYING HIGH

Two weeks ago if someone was given 15 guesses at who would have the best spring record in baseball at the midway point in camp, odds are most would still have not picked the Washington Eagles but there the Eagles are - soaring to the top of the spring standings with a 9-3 mark. In the grand scheme of things games won in March really mean nothing but for long suffering Eagles fans perhaps it is a ray of sunshine, a hope that the Washington club- and in particular it's pitching staff - will not be as dreadful as many, including TWIFB, are forecasting. The Eagles have won 6 straight games including a 1-0 eleven inning victory over St Louis yesterday that saw 5 different Washington pitchers combine to keep the Pioneers off the scoresheet.

Leading those five pitchers was 31 year old Jack Elder, who started the week with 4 hitless innings of work vs Pittsburgh before his 4 against the Pioneers. If Washington is going to have any success this year one has to expect Elder will need to play a key role. The 31 year old was an all-star three years ago and won 20-games for the Eagles but has struggled each of the past two seasons. Jim Birdwell, who the Eagles gave up a top five pick three years ago to acquire, has also looked solid as has 26 year old Dan Everett. Del Burns, like Elder, needs to step up this season after a poor 1941 campaign, has had mixed results in his three spring starts but did pitch 4 strong innings vs Detroit this week. It is only March, and there are doubts that the Eagles rotation can have success all year, but at least for now there is hope in the Nation's Capital.

QUICK HITS

• The Washington Eagles got a break from major league opponents yesterday with a day off but they sent a team of minor leaguers out on the field to face the Orlando Air Base team. Among those in the lineup for the Orlando camp was Fred McCormick. The former Toronto star, now an army sergeant, regularly plays with MacDill Field in Tampa, but Orlando borrowed him for the game.
• Tough break for the Toronto Wolves as Bernie Johnson injured his finger and may not return until the all-star break. The 31 year old was 13-14, 3.55 last season and has been a key piece of the Toronto rotation for much of the past decade.
• Bob Worley's return to Chicago was short-lived as the Chiefs rule 5 draft pickup blew out his knee running the bases in a game against Washington last week. Worley spent the first half of the 1938 season with the Chiefs before being dealt to Brooklyn, with whom he won a WCS. He played sparingly with the Kings the past two season and was waived with the Chicago Cougars picking him up. The Chiefs drafted him with hopes he might add some outfield depth.
• Percy Sutherland wonders what might have been for veteran Chiefs infielder Bob Martin. "It's too bad Bob Martin's body has betrayed him so much in the past 3 seasons. This is only his age-35 season, but he "feels" a lot older. If his knees and back had held out, he would likely be at 2600 hits and the discussion would be around whether he could get to 3000. Now I think he'll be lucky to get to 2500."
• Sutherland is well known for his appreciation of good glove work and he notes that Ron Rattigan's scouting report has him as an "elite" first baseman defensively for the Chiefs. If you want to see something interesting, look at Rattigan's career fielding history. As an 18 year old in class B he was absolutely dreadful at first. He slowly improved until at class AAA in 1933/34, he was "acceptable" defensively. Then when he got to Chicago, he became the defensive stalwart that we think of today.
• Hank Barnett had a down year in 1941, but he looks like he is feeling pretty good this Spring (.412-4-14). He and Ron Rattigan are on the top of the Total Bases leaderboard, which bodes well for the Chiefs offense.
• Tim Hopkins has never had a chance to play everyday in the bigs, but he is certainly making Brooklyn Kings manager Powell Slocum notice him this spring. The 6'5" first baseman known as 'Tiny Tim' is hitting .400 (10-for-25) this spring with 4 homers, which ties him with the Chiefs Hank Barnett and Sig Stofer of Washington for the spring lead. In 619 career FABL at bats, or just slightly over a full season's worth, Hopkins has 27 homers and 103 rbi's.
• A spot in the Dynamos lineup has emerged for Constantine Peters with the injury to 2B Len Jones who will be out 2-3 months with hamstring injury. Peters will begin daily reps at 2B for the remainder of the spring in hopes that his successful AAA bat will translate finally to the big leagues. The backup plan will be to move Gil London to 2B to potentially for a solid defensive up the middle combo with SS George Dawson. Peters is a player to watch. There were high hopes when the New York Gothams signed him in the old lottery system that was used for top rookies for a couple of years, but the Springfield State product has been traded twice since then despite be consistently considered a top-100 prospect. He has seen a bit of action with Detroit the past couple of seasons, batting .277 in 321 trips to the plate.
• A crowded middle-infield in Toronto is getting even busier as 27 year old Mike Rollinson is having himself a fine spring, batting .450 (9-for-20). Rollinson was originally a second round pick of the Chicago Chiefs in 1936 but has been stuck in the minors except for an 18 game stint with Toronto last season, during which he hit .293. The Wolves infield appears for the most part set with Walt Peck at first, Charlie Artuso at shortstop and likely Ockie Holliday once again manning the hot corner. Second base is open for the versatile (2B,3B,SS or OF) Rollinson especially if Tom Frederick again spends most of his time in centerfield. Rollinson would have to beat out veteran Frank Huddleston at second, although the 33 year old Huddleston, despite being very good with the glove, might be on his way out due to his light hitting.
• The Cannons sent Jack G Thompson to their minor league camp but at the midway point of Grapefruit play they still have 13 pitchers and expect to start the season with 9 or perhaps 10 if decisions have not been made on Art Edwards, Leo Proctor and Donie Scheuermann, three players who are out of minor league options. Scheuermann has looked solid so far this spring but Edwards and Proctor have struggled. Four of the starters are set in Deuce Barrell, Butch Smith, Glenn Payne and Roger Perry along with Larry Brown who will continue to be the first choice out of the pen. That leaves 4, possibly 5 spots to fill. Rule 5 pickup George Rotondi has looked very good in two spring outings so he is almost assured to get one of the openings. 22 year old Charlie Griffith, who was 12-14 last year splitting the season between A and AA, was not expected to be in the mix but the youngster has looked good and is making it tough on management to farm him out. Jesse Bowen is another one who has had a strong spring so far and it would be quite possible the Cannons go on a youth kick and keep both of them this season. If that is the case it means veterans William Jones and Leo Proctor along with Art Edwards will all be waived.

• The West Coast Athletic Association has vowed to continue intercollegiate football and other sports despite an Army ban on gatherings of more that 5,000 persons along the west coast. The expectation for the football games is they will play before smaller crowds if the army has not relaxed it's rules by that time. The January East-West Classic was moved to New York City and a number of basketball games were shifted to locations in Arizona during the first month of the year when there was a ban on all sporting events.
• At the AFA owners meeting in New York last week (at least after the owners were done overruling coaches wishes for reduced rosters) some good came out of the meeting as the decision was made to play several exhibition games against Army All-Star teams and the proceeds from those games as well as all playoff encounters for the duration would be turned over to army and navy relief. The magnates also discussed the league eligibility rule, which forbids the signing of a college player before he graduates came up again but the owners refused to make any changes.
  
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TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS FIELD SET

There were very few surprises as the annual AIAA basketball championship tournament continued. Three of the four first-seeds made it to the finals which will be held at the famous Bigsby Gardens in New York City. The lone exception was Whitney College, which was the #2 seed in the South Region after top seed Brooklyn State fell in the opening round to Grafton. The Scholars run ended there as Lane State from the WCAA took care of them with a 39-34 win in round two. The most exciting second round game would have been the other matchup in the South as Rocky Mathison hit from the left corner with 2 seconds remaining in regulation to lift Whitney College to a 52-51 win over North Carolina Tech. The Engineers would then go on to beat Lane State 52-49 to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1919-1920.

Whitney College will have it's work cut out on Saturday as the Engineers next challenge will be CCLA, the top ranked team in the nation and winners of 19 straight games. CCLA has won 3 National Championships with the most recent coming in 1932-33. The Coyotes were last in the semi-finals three years ago. Whitney College won it's only National Title in 1925-26. The other semi-final features the Engineers' Great Lakes Alliance rival Detroit City College against Liberty College. The Knights have never won a National Title but did reach the championship game in 32-33, falling to CCLA. The Liberty College Bells have two titles on their resume, coming in back to back seasons beginning in 1935-36.
SEMI FINAL SCHEDULE
SATURDAY April 4
CCLA (30-2) vs Whitney College (24-8)
Detroit City College (26-6) vs Liberty College (29-4)

MONDAY APRIL 6
Championship Game

TOURNAMENT RESULTS
EAST REGION
#1 Liberty 51 #4 Annapolis Maritime 45
#2 Western Iowa 47 #6 St Pancras 41

Liberty College 49 Western Iowa 30

SOUTH REGION
#4 Lane State 39 #8 Grafton 34
#2 Whitney College 52 #3 North Carolina Tech 51

Whitney College 52 Lane State 49

MIDWEST REGION
#1 Detroit City College 49 #5 Noble Jones College 44
#7 Lambert College 65 #6 Coastal California 54

Detroit City College 78 Lambert College 53

WEST REGION
#1 CCLA 50 #4 Central Ohio 40
#2 Garden State 39 #6 Mobile Maritime 37

CCLA 58 Garden State 53

• A daring attack by British subs in the Mediterranean resulted in the sinking of 11 Axis ships.
• Japanese fliers reign bombs on Bataan in prelude to an expected offensive.
• The US Pacific fleet carried out a surprise attack on Japanese-owned Marcus Island, just 990 miles southeast of Tokio. The attack destroyed shore installations, sank two patrol boats and demolished three large seaplanes.
• The Japanese have opened a savage attack against Chinese positions in northwest China in apparent preparation for an attack on Russia.
• British paratroops landed on the German-held west coast of France, apparently as support for a spectacular attempt to block a big enemy submarine base by exploding a dynamite-filled former American destroyer against harbor installations.
• Assistant US Attorney General Thurman Arnold says the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey developed plans in 1938 for an aviation gasoline plant which it said would be a 'definite contribution' to the Nazi program of German self-sufficiency. Standard Oil is a subsidiary of the German company DAPG.

April 6, 1942
 

APRIL 6, 1942

GREAT LAKES, Ill.- T.R. Goins was like a manager on the field during his catching days with the Washington Eagles and Cleveland Foresters. Now the 39 year old is suddenly the manager with an organization behind him that can bring in outstanding diamond material. 'Rough Rider' has the entire United States Navy Recruiting Service working for him in the ivory fields. That was the setup as the long-time FABL star was inducted at the naval training station earlier this week as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve.

When T.R. begins to put together a ball club good enough to take on all comers this summer, he'll probably have as fine an outfit as ever was assembled without the benefit of the traditional "smoke-filled rooms," waivers or trading - usual ways of rounding up a team.
In addition to directing the Great Lakes baseball team, T.R. will supervise a vast softball and baseball intramural program for the station's 10,000 sailors as part of the Navy's physical hardening plan. The program also added a former Chicago Poly basketball coach and will soon designate someone - probably a big name coach- as football chief. That should give Great Lakes an athletic staff to rival that of the Nation's best colleges. And its playing material will probably be of the same caliber as it's coaches.

Goins hinted he might even try to catch a few games, noting it would be a lot of fun to see firsthand what reigning Continental Association Allen Award winner Peter Papenfus "has to offer." Goins is now 41 years old and has been out of the game since 1937 but the veteran of over 2,000 FABL games looks like he can still play. While Goins was in Illinois last week much of his team is already training in Florida and took some time to play a tune-up game yesterday, and featured names like Pete Papenfus, Mike T. Taylor, Billy Woytek and Joe Rainbow. The debut went well with a 13-1 trouncing of the Opelika State nine.

Papenfus, fireball king of FABL, was mighty pleased with his famous soupbone, although he was nicked for the opposition's lone run in yesterday's sailor debut. The former Chicago Cougars ace said "I was a little wild in my first start, but my fast ball is better than ever and my curves are breaking sharp." Papenfus pitched the first three innings for the Naval Station, but outfielder Dick Chamberlain - a Pittsburgh second round pick - touched him for a double that scored the Wildcats only tally. That was the only hit off Papenfus, who fanned three and walked three. The sailors outhit Opelika State 12 to 8 and were aided by 4 Wildcat miscues.

KINGS WORRY HERMAN MAY BE CALLED

The Brooklyn Kings are concerned their normally deep collection of outfielders might be in short supply with the news that Joe Herman may be joining the Army. Herman has been classified 1-A by his local draft board but compares his situation to that of New York Stars outfielder Bill Barrett, who was recently deferred by Presidential order. Herman supports elderly parents and has appealed to his board to put him in 3-A.

The 26 year old Herman, who hit .318 a year ago, would certainly be missed if his appeal is denied. The Detroit native was an all-star selection in 1940 and has been a very consistent performer in the Kings outfield. 1938 second round pick, former Coastal California star Lou Clark, is having a solid spring and making a bid to head north whether Herman is a part of the team or not. Brooklyn still has Al Wheeler and Rats McGonigle plus Howard Brown Jr, but beyond that their outfield options are limited as Frank Lightbody appears to be slowing down and Jim Alarie has not developed as hoped since being acquired from the Chicago Chiefs in a multi-player deal in 1938.

QUICK HITS

• It has been a relatively quiet camp for the 9-10 New York Gothams. Prize pitching prospect Ed Bowman did bounce back from his injury shortened debut to throw 4 scoreless innings. Walt Messer, looking to build on his breakout 1941 season is having a good spring, .350-3-11. Middle infielders Roosevelt Brewer is at .364 and Mule Monier .308. Only third baseman Billy Dalton is struggling at .225 and no homers.
• Just turn to wrestling if you want a hint of what to expect if the Army keeps on taking young baseball players. Wladek Zbyszo, now a farmer in Missouri, but was a prominent 'rassler 25 years ago. Now he is well over 50 but making a comeback campaign and others of his era are following. Can it be long before we see the likes of John Dibblee, Gordie Loftus or countless others back on the diamond?
• Fred McCormick feels it woudln't take him two week to regain his batting form despite nearly a year in the Army. "Give me two weeks and I'll be all right again," said McCormick who has played a number of exhibition games against college squads and one against the Washington Eagles the past couple of weeks. "Right now I'm not in baseball-playing condition but I'm tougher and stronger than I was as a player. I wouldn't be surprised if I could outfight, out-wrestle and out-hike every baseball player in the country."

AMERICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PLANS 13 GAME SCHEDULE

The final item on the agenda for the football magnates at their annual meeting was to finalize plans to increase the American Football Association schedule from 11 to 13 games for next season. The season is set to open September 13 and conclude on December 6th but one owner did acknowledge that while 13 is the plan, wartime travel restrictions might force them to return to the traditional 11 game slate. It had been discussed previously but the group also confirmed that no night games would be played next season. Four dates were established as possible opportunities for an AFA club to face a squad of Army All-Stars but nothing is set in stone on that as of yet.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FIELD SET

It will be City College of Los Angeles and Liberty College meeting tonight at the Bigsby Gardens in New York with the AIAA college basketball title on the line. The two schools have been ranked 1-2 in the polls for much of the season and both completed their journey to the finals with wins Saturday.

The CCLA Coyotes opened the semi-final doubleheader with a 56-49 victory over Whitney College. CCLA, which has won it's last 20 games and is 31-2 overall on the year, trailed 18-16 at the half but took over in the final 20 minutes with center Francis Schulman leading the way. The senior had 15 of his game high 22 points in the second half. It will be the first title appearance for CCLA since it won it's third national title in 1932-33.

The Coyotes will meet Northeast Conference champion Liberty College in the championship game. The Philadelphia school is 30-4 on the season and won back to back National Titles in 1936-37. The Bells reached the finals by knocking off Detroit City College 60-54 in Saturday's second semi-final. The Liberty Five led by 19 at one point in the first half and ended up with a 35-20 lead at the break before cruising through the second half.

CCLA and Liberty College do not play each other often but they did last meet in the quarterfinals of the 1937-38 AIAA tournament, with the Coyotes prevailing 52-48 before bowing out themselves in the semi-final game.

• A Japanese attempt to create a secret base for Axis submarines in the South Atlantic was smashed by the arrest of 20 Japanese in Brazil.
• American and Australian bomber squadrons continued heavy attacks on Japanese bases on New Guinea and Timor Islands. Meanwhile a savage fight, often with bayonets, continues along the lines on Bataan Peninsula. And thousands of Japanese troops, protected by at least 12 warships, are at the Burmese west coast port of Akyab, just 75 miles from India's border.
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• The United States is attempting to mediate as Britain and India are at an impasse in trying to reach an agreement for India to aid the allies in the war with Japan.
• Australia called up all men between the ages of 18 and 60 for compulsory civilian defense duty as northern areas of the nation were placed under a state of constant alert.
• A convoy of British-United States war supplies to Russia reached it's destination safely after the escort ships were involved in a 3-day battle in which they sank or damaged 5 Nazi warships in the Arctic Ocean.
• Britain again bombed Paris in another large raid targeting factories in France, Belgium and northwestern Germany.
• The Navy is testing a method of producing artificial fog which might be employed to "block" out vital defense manufacturing areas in the event of an air raid. The initial test was made in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Navy Yard but deemed only a modest success.
• The head of Standard Oil denies his company was disloyal after being accused of contributing to Nazi plans for an aviation gasoline plant. Senator O'Mahoney (D., Wy.) counters that the company deliberately covered up their relations with a German chemical trust in their formal statement to the Senate committee investigating the war program.
• Selective Service Headquarters has announced that the available Class 1-A men from 1940 and 1941 registrations will be used to fill May quotas if sufficient numbers are on the list, meaning the registrants from last month will not likely be called until June at the earliest.
  
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April 13, 1942 Spring Training comes to an end
 

APRIL 13, 1942

MINERS AND STARS CO-CHAMPS OF THE CITRUS CIRCUIT

The Pittsburgh Miners and New York Stars finished off Grapefruit League play in fine fashion and each can lay claim to being called the champion of the Citrus Circuit as the two clubs tied for best spring record at 16-8. The Miners finished the spring with 11 straight victories while the Stars were nearly as hot, claiming wins in 10 of their final 11 contests. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility the two celebrate more meaningful pennant wins in late September but they will have plenty of competition towards that goal as there are a number of teams that consider themselves contenders to dethrone the Boston Minutemen as reigning World Champions.

If they are not already, the spring games will be a distant memory as the games begin to count starting tomorrow afternoon when 16 clubs will be in action including the previously mentioned Miners and Minutemen playing in Boston after the faithful at Cunningham Field salute their champions in a banner raising ceremony. President Roosevelt will be unable to attend, kept at his desk because of war duties, but Vice-President Wallace is rumoured to be planning on pinch-hitting for FDR and will be tossing out the ball in the Eagles opener at Columbia Stadium in Washington against the Philadelphia Keystones.
With the news of Bill Barrett planning on enlisting at the end of the '42 season, the Stars front office is scrambling to find a full time replacement for him in the outfield. Obviously no one can truly replace him, and the team has no shortage of outfielders, but none the less the competition to get that full time spot should be fierce. The clear answer to the problem should be Lou Seals moving back to the grass full time, but with the loss of Clark Car that's not so obvious. Mel Hancock Jr. could finally get the playing time he deserves, but rumors around the clubhouse tell a story of a man out for himself and not the team.

Looking even further out past this year, they also have Cochran who is competent in left field and no spring chicken. Should he move back out there and let talented youngster Carmichael play the hot corner? And what of Father Time Trowbridge? Is this season finally his last? Many questions about the teams future linger. Who will enlist come October? Will the draft pull even more young talent away from the organization? For now we can only speculate.

Here are how I see the 1942 races finishing:
CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
1- New York Stars
2- Philadelphia Sailors
3- Brooklyn Kings
4- Cincinnati Cannons
5- Chicago Cougars
6- Montreal Saints
7- Toronto Wolves
8- Cleveland Foresters

FEDERAL ASSOCIATION
1- Boston Minutemen
2- Chicago Chiefs
3- Detroit Dynamos
4- Pittsburgh Miners
5- Philadelphia Keystones
6- Washington Eagles
7- St Louis Pioneers
8- New York Gothams


For the second time in it's existence in modern form, baseball opens a season while America is at war. The last Big Scrap hit the majors so hard that the 1918 campaign was shortened. This time there seems to be more chance that big league ball, at least, will be uninterrupted. That's a good bet, anyway.

Two more bets are the Chicago Cougars in the Continental Association and the Detroit Dynamos in the Federal loop. The Cougars will have to do it without the sensational soupbone of Pete Papenfus, but even without Peter the Heater, the Chicago nine has too many good ballplayers for the rest of the Continental Sides to dethrone. The Dynamos stand out in our book because they have youth, spirit and pitching and are certainly overdue for everything to go their way.

In truth we would be a lot quicker to put our money on the Cougars than Dynamos but that is strictly because there is just so much competition in the Fed. Chicago is too deep, both on the mound and in the field, to not prevail over a 154 game grind although one can bet the New York Stars will be pulling out all of the stops knowing this will be their final season with superstar Bill Barrett in the fold for at least a little while. Barrett says he will ship out come October but until then he will serve right in the middle of the Stars offense.

As for your hometown Cannons, unfortunately they just don't have the guns to compete with the big boys in the CA. Charlie Rivera should step up nicely and fill the hole in the middle of the infield created when Charley McCullough took his all-star glove and enlisted in the Navy but Mike T. Taylor, who is also now preparing to set out to sea, is a bat the Cannons do not have anyone on their roster capable of replacing. The pitching staff looked very good in Florida and a healthy Adam Mullins behind that plate should help the young arms both with game calling and his bat but there is a lot of worry about first base as well as Taylor's replacement in right field. The Cannons made a deal to acquire Chuck Adams from Brooklyn last year but he struggled in Cincinnati and had a rough spring. The other option was Denny Andrews, but like Adams the 26 year old has underachieved and looked lost in Citrus play with a dismal 4-for-43 showing at the plate and not one extra base hit. The Cannons should finish in the first division but just barely.
As for the chances of the major leagues finishing the season uninterrupted, even the pessimist must admit the odds favor baseball. A letter signed by President Roosevelt apparently has ordered the pastime to carry on. Unlike America's war in 1917-18, there is less hysteria now. Ballplayers so far haven't take refuge from the draft in the shipyards, as some did the last time.

As things are planned now, the two associations are going ahead with a full 154-game schedule. The only 'concession' made to the war up to how has been the wholesale scheduling of night games. All told, the majors have 153 games slated for under the lights, but none of course in Cincinnati as Tice Memorial Stadium has no lights. The Cannons do have 11 road games slated to be played in the evening as well as a pair of twin bills that will likely not see the second contest conclude prior to the sun setting.

Fingers crossed, FABL is hoping to carry on, lighting their parks up to 1,800,000 watts. The Washington Eagles are hopeful of playing 21 night games and intend to do so, unless the Army cracks down and demands a dousing for the lights in case enemy bombers are interpreted as potential threats. All in all, it is not precisely a normal season in prospect. But assuming it survives the distance, the '42 campaign promises to be an interesting one.

QUICK HITS

• The situation is normal in baseball despite the war. As usual 16 FABL managers are predicting that their club will finish in the first division. Hey, at least we know half of them will get the call right.
• Chatter out of Cougar camp notes that #6 prospect Donnie Jones will break camp with the team as the #5 starter. The 22-year-old finished his spring strong with 6 strikeouts and just a single run in 4 innings. He finished the Spring 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 4 walks, and 9 strikeouts. His main competition, Milt Fritz, was not nearly as successful in his final start, charged with 6 hits, 5 runs, and 4 walks in his 4 innings. Fritz will start the season in the pen, occasionally picking up a start with scheduled double headers, but could return to the rotation if Jones has troubles.
• New York Stars owner Al Mielke has donated four ambulances to the American field service. Some baseball fans still seem to think he should have donated Bill Barrett. But the boys in the Southern Army camps don't agree. They have been giving Bill a big hand during his exhibition appearances.
• The Navy is asking for fans attending the Gothams seasons opener against Detroit tomorrow to donate binoculars to the war effort. A booth will be setup outside the main gate at Gothams Stadium. Donors will receive a certificate attesting to their aid in the war effort and a check for $1 for the glasses. Each pair of binoculars will be returned to the donor after the war.
• Bill Perkins, who once upon a time was a third round pick of the New York Stars and is now with the independent Seattle Thunderbirds is putting his Northern California University education to good work. He is credited with suggesting an improvement in a machine gun plant in Los Angeles last winter that now saves a thousand man hours a month. Perkins has put up some decent numbers in the minors but never really got a chance with a FABL club.
• Umpire baiting - When Portland Green Sox manager and former FABL outfielder Cal Davis took his club to Seattle for an exhibition game he offered umpire Frisco Edwards a free ride. Edwards observed Davis' brand-new car and brand-new tires, settled himself deeply into the cushions of the back seat and remarked; "I almost feel like calling he close ones your way today, Mr. Davis."
• One other GWL executive has suggested week-end baseball for the Pacific loop, with the players working defense jobs the other five days. He notes that is the way they are running football in England.

LIBERTY COLLEGE WINS NATIONAL TITLE

The Liberty College Bells claimed the AIAA basketball title with a 49-43 win over CCLA in the championship game at New York's Bigbsy Gardens last Monday. The victory gives the Philadelphia school it's third National Title and first since back to back wins in 1936 and 1937.

The victory comes despite a terrible start for the Bells, who trailed 15-2 just under eight minutes into the game before suddenly catching fire and taking a 29-25 lead into the locker-room at the half. CCLA, which saw it's 20 game winning streak come to an end, never led in the second half but did close to within a point with 3 minutes remaining. However, the Coyotes, who finished the season with a 31-3 record and became the first team ever to go a perfect 16-0 in West Coast Athletic Association play, missed several key shots late in the game and fell short.

ATHLETIC CONFERENCE FOR SERVICE TEAMS?

There is growing support for Annapolis Maritime and Rome State leading up a new service conference to compete in college basketball, along with football and baseball over the next several seasons. It would not only include the major college programs like the Navigators and Centurions but also a number of Camp Bases from across the country. They could compete for a championship and perhaps the winner even be invited to compete in the annual East-West Classic New Year's Day football game. The main objection, of course, is that the program would require a lot of organizing and the Army and Navy are busy organizing something more important.

• Bataan has been overthrown as thirty-six thousand American and Filipino troops, exhausted by short rations, disease and lack of relief, were overwhelmed on Bataan Peninsula by a fresh and numerically superior enemy. 'Deeply Grieved', General MacArthur vows vengeance for the fall of Bataan.
• Japan carried the war to India for the first time this week, attacking shipping off the east coast and bombing two Indian coastal cities. India has assured the United States that India's masses will "fight any Japanese aggression or any aggression to the end" if they are given control over their own defense policies, but have yet to reach an agreement on that with Great Britain.
  
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• Fleets of newly built Nazi tanks and dive bombers are assaulting Russian positions along a 1,200-mile front from Leningrad to the Crimea where reinforced Red armies are awaiting Germany's spring offensive.
• President Roosevelt has called on war labor to sacrifice double-time pay for working beyond the normal weekly amount. He pledged that the employers will not reap a benefit from it but instead the nation would in the war effort.
• Despite rationing new car purchases, many states report that there is more than enough supply with many who are eligible failing to apply for a purchasing license.
  
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