FABL OPENING DAY AND AN AIAA UPPDATE
Opening Day has arrived and the curtain is about to be lifted on the 1933 season. The great thing about Opening Day is all 16 teams feel perhaps they will discover some magic and this is the year it all comes together. It only takes a month or so for that feeling to wear off for half a dozen teams and by mid-season we are usually down to just 2 or 3 in each league with a shot but on this day all 16 teams have a cause for optimism.
Looking at the spring standings the Chicago Chiefs, Baltimore Cannons and Philadelphia Sailors have plenty to celebrate and perhaps more to look forward to then the rest of the league. The defending World Champion New York Stars had the worst record of any team this spring but according to the in game preseason predictions the Stars are expected to win the Continental Association again, with the Chicago Cougars once more a close second. In the Fed it is the Detroit Dynamos that draw the preseason praise with New York's other team, the Gothams, predicted to finish second. I am sure if you ask them now, each of the 16 FABL General Manager's can give you a list of reasons why their team will be either a) greatly improved this season, b) a pennant contender or c) both. Enjoy this moment while it lasts as for all but a small handful of clubs it will pass all too quickly.
MAX MORRIS WATCH
All eyes will be on Cleveland early as everyone waits for Max Morris to hit his 600th career homerun. The 38 year old slugger split last season between the Gothams and Foresters and showed no signs of slowing down with a major league leading 44 round-trippers. His return to the club it all started with as a 19 year old in 1914 was met with much fanfare and Morris did not disappoint, giving the Foresters 24 homers and hitting at a .324 clip in his 73 games with Cleveland. The result is he ended the season just one homer shy of the 600 mark.
Morris should reach another milestone this season as well as he enters 1933 with 2,935 career hits. Only 9 players have had 3,000 hits in their careers and none of those nine reached even the 100 homer plateau.
Speaking of milestones, the man who is a distant #2 behind Morris on the career homerun list has a good shot to get to 300 this season. Rankin Kellogg of the Philadelphia Keystones has averaged 36 homers a season over the past 6 years and the soon to be 30 year old is 18 short of the 300 mark as the season is set to begin.
ALL-STAR GAME
A new event being met with great anticipation is the introduction of an exhibition encounter featuring the greatest players in each league. The first of what is expected to become an annual All-Star game with the stars of the Federal and Continental Association's squaring off against each other for league bragging rights will be held in Chicago's Whitney Park on July 6th. Proceeds from the game will benefit needy former FABL players and coaches.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Must have been a tough decision to release family but Chicago Chiefs look poised to part ways with a connection to the great William Whitney. Whitney's grand-nephew, and current Chiefs owner Washington Whitney's nephew, Norm Whitney has been placed on waivers. The 26 year old catcher who was originally drafted by the New York Stars but has spent the past 7 years in the Chiefs organization was waived this past week. If not selected by another club he could remain with one of the Chiefs minor league teams. The younger Whitney spent most of his career in A-ball but did appear in 5 games with the Chiefs in 1931, and fared pretty well going 5-for-14.
Speaking of waivers, Pittsburgh has placed Eddie Wilson on the waiver wire. The 29 year old outfielder has played in just 32 career games for the Miners and has a .237 batting average but what makes him worth mentioning is Wilson is part of that incredible group of first round selections in the 1925 draft. Wilson is most famous for being drafted ahead of Doug Lightbody (6th), Chick Dyer (7th) and Jack Cleaves (10th) in that first round that also included the likes of Al Wheeler, Bud Jameson and Bill Ashbaugh.
The top prospect in baseball right now is catcher George Cleaves (the younger brother of the previously mentioned Jack Cleaves). George is a 19 year old who was selected 4th overall out of Elmira High School in 1931. He had a little trouble adjusting to pro ball last season when he hit just .224 for Pittsburgh's Class C affiliate but his defensive skills are outstanding and he is expected to be a terrific hitter as he gains experience. Cleaves is slated to move up to Class A this season. He and his brother Jack (Philadelphia Sailors) also have quite a lineage as they are the grandsons of George Theobold, a veteran catcher of over 1400 big league games who spent several seasons himself in Pittsburgh with the Miners.
AIAA ROUND-UP
Something must be in the water on campus across the nation this season. Either that or the balls are juiced but whatever the reason offense is incredibly inflated this spring. It has slowed down a little this week but we are seeing a lot of scores that would have been mistaken for college football game results instead of baseball and through the first 3 weeks AIAA teams are averaging close to a 7.70 era and .285 batting average. A year ago the average era in the league was just over 5 while batting averages were closer to the .260 mark.
Either way it has made for some pretty impressive offensive production as we are just 13 games into the season but 2 players, Dutch Dillon of Northern Mississippi and Bill Gaither of the College of San Diego, have each already hit 10 homers and there are a host of players with 9 round trippers. Could this be the year someone finally surpasses Calvin Dybas single season mark of 32 set in the AIAA's infancy in 1913. You may recall current Montreal Saint Vic Crawford came within one homer of the record in his final season at Commonwealth Catholic in 1929.
Crawford set the single season RBI mark of 85 that same season but it might get shattered this year if the offensive pace continues. A number of players are well ahead of Crawford's pace led by Ellery Bruin sophomore first baseman Harry Hunter who has 34 rbi's and at that rate would drive in 131 if he played all 50 games.
WEEKLY TOP TEN
The Academia Alliance's Ellery Bruins have won 5 straight games and at 11-2 on the season have jumped to number one in the weekly College Baseball rankings. The Bruins have received some solid pitching but their real strength in the early going has been their offense led by sophomore Harry Hunter (.527,8,34) and 4 undrafted seniors in catcher Charlie Cincotta (.421,6,23), second baseman Doc Leach (.322,2,12), and outfielders Vic Lane (.424,4,14) and Bobby Glass (.320,3,12). (is it just me or does it seem like a lot of undrafted seniors are making a statement this year in the AIAA)
The Lincoln Presidents, who were the preseason number one and also the top ranked school each of the past two weeks, have fallen to 8th in the rankings after dropping 3 of 4 games this week against Whitney College and Central Ohio. Highly touted draft eligible junior Pug Bryan got the Presidents their only win this week when he improved to 4-0 on the year with a complete game 2 hit shutout of the Engineers.
Code:
# SCHOOL REC LW
1 Ellery 11-2 3
2 Golden Gate 10-3 2
3 St Matthew's 10-3 8
4 Northern Mississippi 10-3 10
5 St Blane 10-3 NR
6 Rainier College 9-4 4
7 Dickson 9-4 NR
8 Lincoln 8-5 1
9 Garden State 8-5 6
10 Coastal California 8-5 7