THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
October 2, 1936
CHIEFS HAVE KINGS OVER A BARRELL
The Chicago Chiefs continue to look like a team of destiny as FABL's hottest club the past 3 months turned the Brooklyn Kings into the Keystone Kops in their own stadium to start the World Championship Series. First it was Tom Barrell and the Kings defense imploding in the opening inning of Game One allowing Rabbit Day and his charges to cruise to an 8-1 victory in the Series opener and a day later rookie sensation Al Miller kept the Brooklyn bats at bay as the Cougars claimed a 6-2 victory which allows them to head home to Whitney Park with a commanding 2 games to nothing lead in the series.
GAME ONE - NOT BROOKLYN'S DAY
Game One was for all intents and purposes over before Brooklyn even had a chance to come to the plate. Things started very well for Tom Barrell as the hurler, who has come under recent criticism in Brooklyn media for his inability to perform in pressure games, looked dialed in with back to back strike outs of Bob Martin and Jim Hampton to begin the contest. Then Pete Layton, who like Chiefs ace Rabbit Day was a midseason pick up that sent the team on a roll they have not slowed down from, worked Barrell for a walk. Cliff Moss followed with a double to plate Layton and Ron Rattigan, the former Brooklyn draft pick making his first appearance at Kings County Stadium, singled in Moss and it was 2-0 Chicago. That would have been enough for Rabbit Day, who was 15-1 with a 1.69 era since coming to Chicago from the New York Gothams, to work with but Brooklyn decided to gift wrap a couple of more runs as the wheels completely fell off for the Kings. Wheels as in the Wonder Wheel Al Wheeler, who botched a fly ball that would have ended the inning and instead prolonged the suffering for the 31,860 fans on hand as Chiefs outfielder Bennie Griffith would follow with a 2-run single to make the score 4-0. Harry Barrell, who led the majors in errors this season, committed another gaffe before the inning was over but it did no further damage as mercifully Day, the 9th Chief to bat in the inning, became the third strikeout victim of Tom Barrell's.
That was the ball game as Day scattered just 6 hits and the only blemish on his shutout bid was a meaningless lead off homer by Al Wheeler in the ninth inning of Chicago's 8-1 victory.
GAME TWO - IT'S MILLER TIME
It is clear that nothing phases Chicago Chiefs rookie righthander Al Miller. The 'California Kid' burst on to the FABL scene this year with a 21 win season and a 2.87 era, a number only surpassed by his Chicago teammate and soon to be three-time Allen Award winner Rabbit Day. Miller held the Kings once feared, but for the past month quite docile, offense in check for 8 innings with the key moment being an incredible job to get out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh. The score was 3-0 Chicago at the time and the Kings had managed just 4 hits over the first 6 innings and never seriously threatened to score. That changed in the 7th when Elmer Nolde worked Miller for a free pass and moved to third on a double off the bat of John Langille. Harry Barrell drew a walk to load the bases bringing his brother Fred to the plate with no one out and nowhere to put him. Barrell, Chicago fans might recall, was the MVP of the 1931 series when he hit .609 to lead the cross-town Cougars to a World Title, so he had experience with October baseball in the past. Perhaps sensing the rookie Miller was starting to feel the pressure, Fred Barrell went after the first pitch he saw but got under it, lofting a fly ball to short leftfield, not deep enough to bring Nolde home. Next came pinch-hitter Joe Perret, subbing for Brooklyn pitcher Mike Murphy. Miller quickly went down 3-0 in the count but a called strike, a foul ball and another easy pop fly to center field, again not deep enough for Brooklyn to chance sending Nolde from third base, and suddenly there were two out. Miller got Brooklyn lead off hitter Bill May to ground out, ending the inning, the Brooklyn threat and quite possibly any hopes the Kings had of coming back in the series as the Chiefs made a statement in the top of the 8th inning with 3 more runs to go up 6-0 at the time.
Brooklyn finally got on the scoreboard when Nolde delivered a 2-run double in the bottom of the 8th but it was far too little and far too late to matter. The Series now heads west to the Windy City and I am sure more than one Kings fan feels he has witnessed his last game in Brooklyn for this season.
PIONEERS DISAPPOINTMENT CONTINUES
Detroit World reporter Fast Freddie Farhat had a blunt assessment of the St Louis Pioneers the other day. Farhat was quoted as saying " The Pioneers are probably baseballs biggest disappointment this season." He went on to elaborate: "Part of the issue was (starting pitcher) Sam Sheppard not being able to replicate his fabulous 1935 season. He ended up with 20 wins but just couldn’t quite get back to the 28 win 3.13 ERA of the prior year. Not going to put it all on Sheppard though as others were not quite up to their previous years stuff. Hopefully St Louis can rebound and get over the disappointment of the '36 season. I expected they will get back into the thick of things this next season and be in the running for the FA."
I don't know that it is fair to blame a 20-win pitcher for a team's failings but I have to admit Farhat's comments got me thinking that the Pioneers franchise is one that has certainly underachieved for well over a decade. This was a club that added Max Morris, clearly the greatest player of his generation if not all-time and immediately won a World Championship Series in 1920, Morris' first year wit the club. They would win a second straight Federal Association pennant the following season but have not reached the post-season since - a span of 15 years and counting. Now one player does not make a championship ballclub but Morris in his prime was the best player in the game and you have to wonder how the Pioneers failed to build a pennant winner around him. A combination of bad luck and bad decisions in the middle of the 1920's saw St Louis become one of the worst teams in the league and during a time when a 34 and 35 year old Morris was averaging 49 homers and 139 rbi's a season the Pioneers were a last place ballclub.
Things did back on track the last few seasons in St Louis but perhaps they should have received more when they finally dealt Morris. Trading the game's greatest slugger to the New York Gothams following the 1930 season did land them a very good first baseman in Fred McCormick but the other pieces of the deal have fizzled. Perhaps outfielder Calvin Brown, who hit .342 for the Pioneers last season but lost his starting to job to Art Cascone this year, may still pan out but the bottom line is both the Gothams and Cleveland, Morris' next destination, each won pennants with Max Morris in the lineup, something the Pioneers could not do with Morris in his prime - at least not after 1921.
1936 may just prove to be an anomaly and the Pioneers, with an exciting young club led by Freddie Jones, McCormick and Gail Gifford and young pitcher David Abalo to join Sheppard in the rotation, may just have hit a bit of a bump in the road this season so perhaps for long suffering Pioneer fans 1937 will finally be their year. It will be about time for Pioneers fans as only Boston has gone longer than St Louis without a Federal Association pennant.
MAKING A CASE FOR CLEAVES
Philadelphia Sailors second baseman Jack Cleaves has long been considered one of the best players in the game ever since breaking in as a full-timer at the age of 20 midway through the 1927 season. While Jack is still one of the top infielders in baseball he is likely no longer even the best player in his family. That distinction falls to 22 year old George Cleaves, who made the majors a year ahead of his older brother while still a teenager and is now widely considered to be the best catcher in the game - which is saying a lot considering Cleveland's T.R. Goins (.330,20,104 this past season) has held that distinction for years.
Here is a brief excerpt from a Pittsburgh Press article outlining George's accomplishments this year:
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George Cleaves finished with a .344/.458/.478 line this year leading the league with 118 walks and in OBP. 15 homers, 25 doubles and 101 RBI's. Had nearly double the ZR rating as the second highest guy and threw out 61% of runners this year, 7 percentage points more than the guy in second. He'll turn 23 in a few weeks.
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It appears OSA agrees as the most recent player ranking lists George as not just the best catcher, but also the top position player in all of baseball. Now I am not sure I would go that far as supporters of the likes of Bobby Barrell and Al Wheeler, among others, would have a different opinion. There is however, no disputing George Cleaves talent and the potential he has to perhaps become one of the greatest catchers ever to play the sport.
As for the Cleaves family, they are certainly giving the Barrell's a run for their money and word has it there is a third Cleaves brother on the horizon. Well, half brother, as Roger is just 12 years old and his linage links to both families as George Theobald and Rufus Barrell are his grandfathers. George 'Toothpick' Theobald was a long time catcher just before the turn of the century but is better known as the manager who guided the Boston Minutemen to 3 World Championships and the Detroit Dynamos to one.
DYNAMOS WON'T PASS ON PESTILLI
After a month of attempting to shop the number one pick and spending some time focused on high school pitcher Johnnie Jones and Red River State hurler Bunny Edwards the Detroit Dynamos announced over the weekend that Sal Pestilli is their man. Pestilli, who won two Frank Christian Trophy's as an outfielder at Narragansett, is widely considered to be a future superstar in FABL. Detroit left the door open for a reversal of their decision but only a crack, saying it would take an offer similar to the haul they received a year and a half ago for Al Wheeler to convince the Dynamos to trade down. I am reading that to say that the Dynamos would move the pick to the New York Gothams perhaps, but it would require New York to ship all 3 of it's first rounders and maybe another piece to Detroit in order to consummate the deal.
It is nice to see the Dynamos come to their senses on this one and focus on Pestilli rather than a pitcher. Who knows maybe drafting Pestilli all along was their plan but they wanted to throw up a smoke screen for some reason with the pitcher talk. To this reporter, and several other's familiar with the college game, Pestilli looks like he may be the type who can skip the minors and go straight from the campus to the big leagues just as Freddie Jones and Doug Lightbody did before him. Pestilli draws real-life comparisons to Joe DiMaggio for many reasons. Primarily it is on field potential that sounds a lot like Joltin' Joe but also because of the off-field similarities as both were the middle of three brothers who all excelled in the outfield, each from Italian immigrant families who grew up on the coast. Yes it was different coasts of course and the FABL commissioner has confirmed that no players are direct historical imports of real life players but there is clearly a lot to tie the two of them together. However, we are in the fictional FABL world so if the DiMaggio name means nothing how about this one as a comparison to Sal Pestilli - Bobby Barrell. Pestilli projects to have the same combination of contact and power as the Georgia Jolter along with perhaps more speed that could allow him to prosper as a center fielder instead of moving to a corner as Barrell did.