THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
Monday September 21, 1936
Two big stories highlight this week in Figment Baseball and both revolve around the most storied franchise, although certainly not the most successful, in the Chicago Chiefs. The big news is the Chiefs clinched their first Federal Association pennant since 1928 and just the second in team history since the formation of FABL.
Everything seems to be peaking at the right time for the Chiefs who have been unstoppable since adding Pete Layton (.377,16,84 with Chicago) and Rabbit Day (15-1, 1.70) in summer trades. In addition to the pennant clinching victory in St Louis on Saturday the Chiefs also had reason to celebrate yesterday as veteran Jim Hampton, who played such a key role on the 1928 pennant winning club by winning his first of two Federal Association batting titles, reached the 2,000 hit mark for his career with a second inning single off of St Louis righthander George Kyle. It came just an inning after Hampton launched a 2-run homer in the Chiefs 12-5 win over the Pioneers for his 1,999th hit. Hampton becomes the 57th player in FABL history to reach 2000 hits. Philadelphia Sailors third baseman John Kincaid should be next to reach that number and likely this week after Kincaid had 10 hits over the 4 game series against Cleveland to increase his career total to 1,997.
Word is another member of the 2,000 hit club will get his swan song the final weekend of the season. The Chiefs have announced that Joe Masters, who is winding down an outstanding career, will get the start at third base Saturday and Sunday when Chicago entertains the St Louis Pioneers. One day Joe Masters might even get the call to join a brand new club that is being created this winter as the grandson of FABL founder William Whitney announced this week.
WHITNEY'S CALL FOR A SHRINE TO RECOGNIZE THE GREATS OF THE GAME
WAKE BROOKLYN WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS
Meanwhile in the Continental Association there is nothing but angst in Brooklyn despite the fact the Kings lead the Continental Association by 4 and a half games. The issue is that lead was 7 games two weeks ago and the Kings, with a history of September collapses, are heading the wrong way yet again with a 9-9 September record after going 69-28 from the day Powell Slocum took over as manager in May until the end of August. Tom Barrell triggered reminders of his awful season finale a year ago with the pennant on the line as he had another rough outing in a crucial game, getting beat up for 8 runs and failing to survive the fifth inning Tuesday in a game with Cleveland that could have been the final nail in the Foresters coffin. Instead the two time defending champion Foresters are still clinging to life, but barely.
However one can't help but get the feeling that the Ghost of Ferdinand Hawkins won’t go quietly. A month ago I would have called the Kings the favorite to win their first World Championship Series but after the Chiefs have won 17 of their last 24 and as dominant as Day and Miller have looked I would be surprised if the CA champ wins more than 1 game. Brooklyn is reeling, what has now become a rite of fall, and we are not yet even sure they will make the postseason. Odds are still very good but only because Sailors and Foresters still have 2 games against each other but somehow, some way all the magic has gone out of Slocum’s messages to the club and the seeds of self doubt, well watered by September’s past, are in full bloom in the Brooklyn clubhouse once again.
PESTILLI REMAINS ATOP MOCK DRAFT
Little has changed at the top of the mock draft since it was released in June in preparation for the December Figment Draft. Narragansett outfielder Sal Pestilli, a two-time winner of the Christian Trophy as College baseball's top player remains at the top followed by High School player of the year Walt Messer, a first baseman from Washington DC.
Here is the latest top ten list.
Code:
# NAME POS AGE SCHOOL CITY OF BIRTH
1 Sal Pestilli CF 20 Narragansett College Westerly, Rhode Island
2 Walt Messer 1B 18 McKinley Tech (Washington DC) Eldersburg, MD
3 Billy Woytek 2B 18 Loyola HS (Los Angeles) San Diego, CA
4 Art Jennings CF 22 Gates University Burlingame, CA
5 Terry Richardson CF 17 Fall Creek HS (WI) St Paul, MN
6 Ed Stoddard RF 19 Pullman HS (Chicago) Chicago, IL
7 Denny Andrews 3B 20 Maryland State Philadelphia, PA
8 Mike T Taylor RF 18 University Military HS Poplarville, MS
9 Fred Vargas RF 18 Cass Tech (Detroit) Warren, MI
10 Bob Edgin LF 21 Opelika State Columbus, GA
There is no way all of those corner outfielders will go in the top ten and I would be surprised to see more than 1 of them go in the first round. The league is swimming in quality corner outfielders and will Stoddard, Taylor, Vargas and Edgin all look like solid ballplayers there is just far too big a supply of 1B-corner outfielders in the league right now. There are no pitchers in the top ten and the mock draft lists the top pitcher, high school star Johnnie Jones at 15th overall with Red River State's Bunny Edwards tabbed the top second round choice. In reality both will be gone in the top ten and quite possibly two or three more pitchers as well. In fact rumours persist the Detroit Dynamos are going to use the first overall pick, if they don't trade down, on either Jones or Edwards. A big mistake in my opinion as Sal Pestilli has the makings of a generational talent.
AWARDS WATCH
With just 1 week remaining in the regular season it seems like two top hitter award winners are pretty well decided. There is zero doubt that Philadelphia Keystones slugger Bobby Barrell (.352,53,159) win his second career Whitney Award as the Federal Association's top hitter. The Georgia Jolter also won the award in 1934. Meanwhile, in the Continental Association the smart money is on Brooklyn's Al Wheeler(.358,37,139) to repeat as that loop's Whitney Award winner. Cleveland third baseman Charlie Barry (.376,9,90) has had an outstanding season and will likely win his first batting title with a career year at age 37 but Wheeler is having another monster year at the plate.
The pitching awards might be a little closer, especially in the Federal Association where the choice is between a pair of Chicago Chiefs in veteran Rabbit Day(25-3, 2.43) and rookie Al Miller (21-8, 2.87). Miller has been amazing all season while Day, who already owns a pair of Allen Awards, was excellent as usual before the trade from New York in July, but has been positively otherworldly since coming to the Chiefs and teaming with Miller.
In the Continental Association I would have said Tom Barrell (20-6, 3.48) was a lock for his third consecutive Allan Award but he was upstaged by Cleveland's Dean Astle (20-14, 3.61) in their meeting last week and now it looks like a toss up. Expect both team's second bananas Lyman Weigel (15-7, 2.95) and Mike Murphy (16-8, 3.12) to also receive some consideration but really it is between Barrell and Astle.
QUICK HITS
- Bad news out of Montreal as Earle Whitten suffered his second serious arm injury this season. The 28 year old missed the first 4 months of the year with shoulder woes and now he is back on the sidelines after what is only being described as a serious arm issue. Whitten was 14-12 a year ago for the Saints but struggled after his first injury this season, posting a 2-5 record. The future did look very bright after his best outing of the season last Sunday in which he threw a complete game 5-hitter in a 14-1 lambasting of Toronto. However, on Saturday he didn't get past the second inning before the injury occurred. There are certainly questions following two serious arm injuries in one season as to whether Whitten will make a full recovery. Whitten may well be best remembered for being the pitcher that served up Max Morris' 700th career homerun.
- Rookie lefthander Jack Wood is off to a nice start in Detroit. One of the key pieces the Dynamos received in their big deal with Brooklyn last season that sent Al Wheeler and Frank Vance away, the 23 year old former 3rd round pick out of Henry Hudson University is 3-3 with a 3.83 era in 6 starts for Detroit since being called up in late August.
- Brooklyn's Dan Barrell became the fifth player to hit for the cycle this season when he turned the trick against Montreal last week. Rich Langton of the Chicago Cougars, St Louis' Alex Ingraham, Mahlon Strong of the New York Gothams and Detroit outfielder Irv Brady are the others.
- In their 60 year history the Chicago Chiefs have never won 100 games in a season. They have 99 wins so far this year and 4 attempts remaining to get to the century mark. Regardless of the final total it will be a huge improvement on the 78-76 season they turned in last year.
- Still with numbers, Detroit World scribe Fast Freddie Farhat shares what he sees is a first in FABL history. "Never before (I believe) have 3 teams in one Association ever had 90 wins or more each in a season. This year in the CA, Brooklyn has 94 while Cleveland and Philadelphia both have 90 with a week left in the season. Combine that with the FA's Chicago Chiefs 99 wins and that is a 4th 90+ win team. The Pittsburgh Miners with 1 win next week will make it 5 90+ win teams in 1 season."