THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
October 15, 1936
FABL HANDS OUT HARDWARE
It was nothing new for each of the FABL awards recipients as all four winners have claimed the hardware before. There was also little surprise as the voters recognized each winner in a landslide victory. As expected Rabbit Day capped a dominant season with his 3rd Allen Award as the top pitcher in the Federal Association. The 32 year old won the Fed pitching triple crown this season as he led the loop in wins (25), era (2.41) and strikeouts (156) to claim his third career Allan Award. His previous two came with Baltimore making him the only pitcher who has won an Allan Award in each association. Day was dealt from the New York Gothams to the Chicago Chiefs in June and proceeded to go 17-1 as a Chief including two wins in the World Championship Series that Chicago swept Brooklyn in. Day's 109 points included 15 first place votes to finish far ahead of his teammate and rookie sensation Al Miller (21-8). Ed Wood (22-11) of Boston finished third with Washington's Bill Anderson (22-14), who received the other first place vote likely from the Washington reporter, coming in fourth.
Tom Barrell of the Brooklyn Kings won an unprecedented third straight Allan Award as the top pitcher in the Continental Association. Barrell was tied for the league lead in wins with a 21-6 record while leading both leagues with 158 strikeouts. He claimed 14 of the 16 first place votes with Cleveland's Dean Astle (21-15), who finished second and Brooklyn's Mike Murphy (17-8), who came in fourth, getting one first place vote apiece. The Philadelphia Sailors Merritt Thomas (20-6), a former rule V draft pickup, failed to earn a first place vote but did finish third in the balloting.
The Continental Association Whitney Award winner is Brooklyn's Al Wheeler for the second consecutive season. It is the 4th such honour for Wheeler, who also won a pair of Whitney's with Detroit of the Federal Association. Wheeler joins his manager Powell Slocum and former New York Gotham Ed Ziehl as the only 4 time Whitney Award winners, of course that pales when compared to the record 8 Whitney Awards Max Morris has claimed. Wheeler led the CA in homers (38) and RBI's (145) but was denied his second straight triple crown as he finished second to Cleveland's Charlie Barry with a .359 batting average. Wheeler received 14 of the 16 first place votes with Cleveland teammates Dan Fowler (.312,33,121) and T.R. Goins (.330,20,104), who finished second and third, earned one first place ballot each.
Bobby Barrell of the Philadelphia Keystones was the only unanimous winner as the Georgia Jolter joined Max Morris and Joe Masters as the only players to ever hit 50 or more homeruns in a season. Barrell (.353,53,162) also posted the 7th highest RBI total in FABL history to claim his second Federal Association Whitney Award. Pittsburgh catcher George Cleaves (.344,15,101) finished second in the balloting with Bob Martin (.355,8,100) of the Chiefs, Barrell's Keystone teammate Rankin Kellogg (.311,36,137) and Chicago's Ron Rattigan (.335,20,101) rounding out the top five.
KEYSTONES BID FAREWELL TO ROSS
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Record
Hat tip to Bill Ross, who has announced his retirement. Ross will forever be revered by the Keystone faithful for his performance in Game 7 of the 1933 World's Championship Series as the winning pitcher in the deciding game to deliver a title to Philadelphia and as a two-time champion with the Keystones. His 5-1, 2.09 ERA in the postseason was an exclamation point to a 17-year FABL career, in which Ross won 230 games including 15 games nine times.
Ross was acquired by the Keystones in a trade with the Chicago Cougars before the 1927 season with one ring in his pocket as a member of the 1922 champion Cougar squad. The winning mentality made its way on the train from Chicago to Philadelphia, as Ross helped push the Keystones to a 86-69 record and to winning their first title in 35 years. Ross started and won in Game 1 of a series Philadelphia won in five games. His 119 regular season wins as a Keystone place him sixth on the franchise's all-time list and his 34.4 WAR put him second among all Keystone pitchers.
Others to announce their retirement this week included Roy Calfee, Joe Masters and manager James Gentry. Calfee spent 13 and a half of his 15 big league seasons with Detroit before finishing his career with the Pittsburgh Miners. He posted a career record of 169-135 and won back to back Allen Awards in 1928 and 1929. The '29 season, in which he helped lead the Dynamos to a World Championship was his greatest season as Calfee posted a 26-8 record before winning two more games in the Series. Masters ended his career on a winning note as a member of the World Champion Chicago Chiefs although he did not play in the Series. He will be best remembered for his 1928 season where he broke a 33 year old record by driving in 195 runs while smacking 56 homers and batting .388 to win the Whitney Award as the top hitter in the Federal Association. It was the best of his 13 year run with the Chiefs before being dealt to the cross-town Chicago Cougars in 1934. He finished up his career in Detroit this season before returning to the Chiefs for a final farewell, appearing in the final two games of the season. Masters ends his career with 265 homeruns and 2,425 hits. The 66 year old Gentry only had a cup of coffee as a player but enjoyed a long managerial career that saw him win 6 league championships in the minor leagues before briefly managing the Montreal Saints in 1934. After being led go by the Saints he signed with the Chicago Chiefs and spent the past two and half years with them, culminating in a club record 101 win season and their first World Championship Series victory since 1917.
OTHER NOTES
-The Toronto Wolves officially have a new owner as financier and investment magnate Bernie Millard has finalized a deal to purchase the FABL club from David J. Welcombe. League owners approved the sale last week and Millard becomes the third owner for Toronto in the past five years. Bert Thomas owned the club for 27 years until he was forced to sell it in 1929 after running into financial difficulties due to the Great Stock Market Crash. Welcombe assumed the reigns prior to the 1930
The Wolves are fresh off a 4th-place finish this season. They compiled a 77-77 mark in the Continental Association. Millard boasted to the press corps, "All my life, everything I've touched has turned to gold. I expect the Wolves to be the best baseball organization in the league and will work tirelessly toward that end."
This season was a marked improvement for the Wolves as they reached the .500 mark for the first time since coming within a game of the Continental Association pennant in 1927 when they compiled a 82-72 record. Toronto has not finished first in the CA since 1911. Here is the Wolves recent history during the time Welcombe owned the club. It is surprising that the 55 year old Toronto native would sell the team just as the club appears to be turning the corner.
- Apparently there is some second guessing going on in the Detroit Dynamos scouting office. Dynamos Scouting Director Fred Davis has been canvassing for the club to consider drafting high school first baseman Walt Messer instead of Narragansett College outfielder Sal Pestilli first overall. The move makes little sense as the Dynamos already have a highly touted young first baseman in Red Johnson, who was selected second overall last year and Messer, unlike Pestilli who is thought to be close to being big league ready, would certainly require some seasoning in the minors which would not sit well with Detroit Owner Eddie 'Big Money' Thompson. Thompson has put his GM on the hot seat and was a key factor in the club's decision to fire manager Tom Bray last week and replace him with Max Morris, who will act as a player-manager for the club. The expectation here is if Davis continues to push for Messer he will likely find himself joining Bray on the unemployment line as Thompson and his GM seem to be 100% settled on selecting the two-time Christian Trophy winning outfielder.
-The Chicago Chiefs have reportedly narrowed their search for a new manager down to three candidates. As mentioned above 66 year old James Gentry decided to retire as skipper after leading the Chiefs to a World Championship earlier this month. No word on who the candidates are yet, but the club is believed to have started the interviewing process and among those speculated to be under consideration is bench coach Joe Ward. The 47 year old Ward has ties to the Chiefs GM as he managed Montreal for 6 plus seasons while both were with the Saints. There is a good chance the Chiefs may go outside the organization which opens the possibility of Ossie Julious ending up in Chicago, however a source close to the teams rules out Julious as a candidate for the Chiefs job.
The 63 year old Julious, who recently surpassed George Theobald as the winningest manager in FABL history, is now a free agent after Baltimore elected not to renew his contract. Julious had spent the past 8 seasons as the Cannons bench boss and prior to that was with Toronto from 1906 until joining the Cannons for the 1928 season. My guess is Ossie will not go quietly into retirement and will be pounding the pavement looking for a new gig. If he is successful it may well be in AA or AAA and he will have to bide his time there until a big league club gets restless and fires their manager at some point next season. Julious had spent the past 31 seasons in a big league dugout but with the Chiefs not considering him that leaves only the Philadelphia Keystones as a possible destination.
Still in the middle of a complete rebuild but finally some positive signs are showing, the Baltimore Cannons have hired John Lawrence from Class C in Boston's system to take over to replace Julious next year. The 55 year old Lawrence spent a decade as the Cincinnati High School head coach in the old feeder league system before landing in Hattiesburg 3 years ago. He piloted the Top Hats to a Gulf States League title last year. It seems like quite a reach for the Cannons signing a manager who has no experience beyond class C and also never played in the major leagues but perhaps the former minor league pitcher is just a stopgap option to help the Cannons young arms develop.
The Philadelphia Keystones are also looking for a new manager after Ted Specter's contract was not renewed following a disappointing 64-90 season. Specter had been the Keystones manager for 3 seasons. One team that is definitely not on the search for a new manager is the Brooklyn Kings who this week signed Powell Slocum to a 4-year extension.
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HIGHEST PAID MANAGERS
Dick Pozza Montreal $28,954
Jim Wilson Cleveland $10,000
Ed Ziehl NY Gothams $9,384
Dan Andrew Pittsburgh $9,356*
Bill Craigen NY Stars $8,808
walt Bailey Chi Cougars $8,214
Powell Slocum Brooklyn $7,552*
Hank Leitke Toronto $7,500
*recently signed extension