[Jiggs McGee]

THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL

June 23, 1937 - Draft Recap Issue

1937 DRAFT RECAP

This may well prove to be the weakest draft in Figment history but if so, it will not be a fair representation of the full crop of new players available. What will be remembered most about the 1937 draft, even more than it was the first one to fall smack dab in the middle of the baseball season, will be the fact that it was the first time many of the top players (32 in this case) were exempt from the draft and given some limited say as to where they wanted to start their pro careers. As a result when Central Illinois senior second baseman Charlie Ross heard his name called first overall by Baltimore, it was well after the true prizes of this class - players like Pete Casstevens, Rosie Brewer and 2 more Pestilli boys- had already found a home in professional baseball. The new draft rules will give some small margin of freedom to a select few prospects each year and was a minor concession made by the owners in order to convince the group of players as a whole to stand down on talks of challenging anti-trust laws and perhaps even unionizing. That the players group, spear-headed mainly by college players either still in the minors or not even in professional baseball yet, seemed to cave so easily and for such a seemingly small concession - one that has absolutely no benefit whatsoever for established players - indicates that, except for perhaps a few such as Brooklyn King Curly Jones, the professional players were not really interested in gambling with their careers and incite major change in the game. That is a topic for another day as today we focus on the draft results.

	1937 FABL DRAFT FIRST ROUND
PK  TEAM  NAME			POS  AGE   SCHOOL
 1  BAL   Charlie Ross  	2B   22   Central Illinois
 2  DET	  Bill Willman		P    21   Strub College
 3  NYS   Dud Leary		P    21   North Carolina Tech
 4  PHK   Al Duster		P    18   Council Bluffs (IA) HS
 5  CHC   Preacher Pietsch	P    21   Brooklyn Catholic Univ.
 6  NYG   Willie Gonzalez Jr.	P    18   Capital Academy HS Washington DC
 7  MON	  Jimmy Mayse		P    20   East Missouri Seminary College
 8  WSH   Felix Anderson	CF   18   Bucyrus (OH) HS
 9  TOR   Roscoe Zeiler		C    21   Taney College
10  STL   Joe Henry		C    21   Lane State
11  CLE   Joseph Mills		LF   22   Carolina Poly
12  BOS   Al Gross		SS   18   Ridgefield Park (NJ) HS
13  PHS   Cy Braden		3B   20   Grange College
14  PIT   Rafael Mendoza	SS   18   Franklin HS Philadelphia PA
15  BKN	  Joe York		SS   18   Terre Haute (IN) HS
16  CHI   Wayne Newcomb		CF   20   Sadler College

Looking at the list above it is clear the modified rules did nothing to minimize the chase for pitchers that we have seen season after season this decade. It will be interesting to see how many of them enjoy successful careers as 6 straight pitchers were taken after Baltimore nabbed Charlie Ross first overall, despite the fact that OSA felt only one - Preacher Pietsch, who went 5th to the Chicago Cougars - warranted being considered at any point in the first three rounds. So while the pursuit of- and what some would call 'reaching' for pitchers - made the draft look very familiar the fact that a college senior was taken first overall appears to be history making.

Second baseman Charlie Ross played just one season of organized college ball, joining highly touted Central Illinois for his senior year after spending his time at a small private school that did not offer a baseball program and forced him to suit up for a local amateur team in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The only reason Ross even had an opportunity to turn pro is former big leaguer Joe Brown, a fellow Scranton native who spent some time with several teams in the big leagues just after the turn of the century, noticed Ross and eventually put him in touch with the Condors baseball coach, who was an old teammate of Brown's. Ross made the most of his opportunity, batting .302 and impressing scouts with his defensive skills in the infield. He was tabbed #3 in the OSA final mock and grabbed by the Cannons.

Ross was just one of two seniors selected this year as Carolina Poly outfielder Joseph Mills also spent just one season playing college ball before being drafted 11th by Cleveland. Ross was also one of two Scranton born players to go in the first round this year, joining Roscoe Zeiler - a catcher taken 9th overall by Toronto out of tiny Taney College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where the junior had been a 3-year starter. It marked the second straight season a pair of Scranton born players have been drafted as shortstop Jake Creel was the Cleveland Foresters first round pick a year ago while Lee Scott, also a shortstop, was selected by the Chicago Cougars in the 4th round. Prior to that only 2 players born in Scranton had ever been drafted before. You need to go back to 1915 for Ray Leonard, a 4th round pick by Detroit who had a long minor league pitching career but never made the big leagues. Before him the first was John Baudino, who was taken in the 27th round in 1912 by Baltimore and eventually played 81 career games with the New York Star.

This first round also had two sons of former major leaguers selected. The first was pitcher Willie Gonzalez Jr., a high school pitcher out of Washington DC, who's father is now in politics but pitched for over a decade. The elder Gonzalez spent the bulk of his career in AAA including half a dozen seasons in Milwaukee where young Willie was born, but senior did get brief stints with the Chicago Cougars and Detroit from 1915-17, posting a 5-5 record with a 3.77 era in 15 starts. The other one is Joe York, a high school shortstop from Terre Haute, Indiana where his father presently manages Detroit's Class A affiliate. Dick York is much better known as one of the greatest catchers of all-time, spending 17 seasons with the Dynamos and helping them win a pair of World Championships. Like his son Joe this year, Dick was a first round pick as he went 8th overall to Detroit in 1917 out of Georgia Baptist University. The Dynamos organization was disappointed as they had planned on selecting Joe in the second round but Detroit will have another change next year as Dick's younger son Rick just finished his junior year at the same high school as his brother and is expected to be a top candidate for selection next year, perhaps even one of the select few that will be allowed to choose their own destination.

FIRST TEAM AIAA  ALL-AMERICANS DRAFTED THIS YEAR
RD PK   TM    NAME		POS  SCHOOL
 X  X  STL  Joe Pestilli	OF   New York Maritime
 X  X  PIT  Spud Bent		3B   Maryland State
 X  X  BAL  Alex Turner         SS   Lincoln College
 X  X  BKN  Joe Herman		OF   Grange College
 1 10  STL  Joe Henry		C    Lane State
 2 15  BKN  Alex LaComb		OF   Cuyahoga University
 
SECOND TEAM AIAA  ALL-AMERICANS DRAFTED THIS YEAR
RD PK   TM    NAME		POS  SCHOOL
 X  X   TOR  Ockie Holliday	3B   Powesheik
 X  X   BOS  Duke Hendricks     P    Baton Rogue State
 X  X   WSH  Harry Sheridan	2B   Empire State
 6 15   BKN  Henry Wright       1B   Wisconsin State


  HIGH SCHOOL ALL-AMERICANS DRAFTED THIS YEAR
RD PK   TM    NAME		POS SCHOOL
 X  X   DET  Pete Casstevens	C   Syracuse (NY) HS
 X  X   NYG  Roosevelt Brewer   2B  Washington HS Chicago, IL
 1  4   PHK  Al Duster		P   Council Bluffs (IA)
 2  1   BAL  Roy Harris		OF  Fairfax HS Los Angeles, CA
 2  2   DET  David Molina	P   Florissant (MO)
 2  3   NYS  Cliff Atkinson	P   Beaver (PA)
 4 10   STL  Joe Standish Jr.   P   Brooklyn Tech, Brooklyn, NY

xx - indicates part of 32 players granted exception to sign with the
     team of their choice.

JIGGS REVEALS HIS ALL-STAR BALLOT

The fifth annual FABL all-star game is fast approaching with the contest slated for July 7th. It will be held in Toronto, the first one ever played outside of the United States and the Federal Association is looking to get back on track after losing for the first time last year, when the Continental side emerged with a 6-4 victory at Pioneer Field in St. Louis.

There are many worthy candidates that will unfortunately have to be left off of my ballot but here is the way I am voting for the 8 starters on each side. First up the Continental Association.

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION

CATCHER - Young Adam Mullins is certainly playing like an all-star and will appear in many of these games going forward I think. In fact he should make this year's club as a backup but I have to give the nod as the starter to T.R. Goins, the veteran Cleveland catcher who has already participated in 3 all-star games and is showing no signs of slowing down at age 36. Goins just recently notched the 2,500th hit of his impressive big league career.

FIRST BASE - I am a big Vic Crawford fan ever since his amazing AIAA career at Commonwealth Catholic but my vote goes to Ray Ford of the Chicago Cougars. The 26 year old had a very strong debut season a year ago and is picking up right where he left off this season, batting .313 with 7 homers and 33 rbis as of this writing.

SECOND BASE - It comes as a surprise that John Langille has never been selected to an all-star game, not even as a reserve but that will be rectified this year as the Brooklyn infielder gets the nod over Baltimore's Clark Car and Brooks Meeks of the Foresters.

THIRD BASE - Veterans John Lawson of the Chicago Cougars and Frank Vance of Brooklyn have each been named to all four previous all star teams and both deserve to be there again. Cleveland's Charlie Berry has been selected 3 times and in the early going this season looked like a runaway choice but he has slumped of late and taken himself out of consideration. I am a big Frank Vance fan but what John Lawson is doing this year, batting .339 with 12 homers gives him the spot but I want Vance on the CA bench.

SHORTSTOP - It used to be you would just pencil in Harry Barrell here and move on but the young Brooklyn shortstop has dealt with injuries and has struggled at the plate when he was healthy. Barrell is heating up of late but not enough to warrant inclusion over Cleveland's George Dawson for my vote. Dawson has been an extremely steady performer over his 4 and a half seasons with the Foresters but had been overshadowed by Barrell - a player Cleveland parted ways with because they had Dawson in their system.

LEFTFIELD - The Baltimore Cannons are improving, but their offense is well behind their pitching staff in that regard. One exception is Jim Mason, who is hitting .353 and looking like the player he was as a rookie two years ago and not the sophomore who struggled last season. Chicago's Doc Love also deserves consideration here. If selected I think Mason will become the first Cannon player ever voted in as an all-star game starter.

CENTERFIELD - I have to look to Canada for my centerfielder and while Toronto's Levi Redding has looked very good in his first full season, you cannot deny the impact Pablo Reyes has had in Montreal. Reyes gets my pick with Cleveland's Dan Fowler also deserving some consideration.

RIGHTFIELD - Larry Vestal is having himself a career year in Toronto and belongs on the team but only as a back up to two-time defending CA Whitney Award winner Al Wheeler of Brooklyn. Wheeler won a triple crown in 1935, led the CA in homers and rbi's last season and is number one in either association in both of those two categories so far this year.

PITCHER - We vote for 3 starting pitchers and are allowed to vote for 3 relievers but I normally do not cast a vote for anyone out of the pen. There were a number of very good candidates in the CA this year but I went with Sergio Gonzales (9-1, 3.01) of Cleveland, Brooklyn's Joe Shaffner (8-2, 2.89) and Doc Newell (8-3, 3.06) of the Philadelphia Sailors. Had he not been injured a couple of weeks ago I would have had to find a spot for Tom Barrell (7-3, 2.66) of the Kings. Others I narrowed down to finalists but ultimately came up short were Dean Astle (8-5, 3.29) of Cleveland, Chicago's Milt Fritz (6-5, 2.05) and Baltimore's Pinky Conlan (7-3, 2.76).

FEDERAL ASSOCIATION

CATCHER - The catching position in the Fed is already crowded and only expects to get more so with the decision of High School Player of the Year Pete Casstevens to sign with Detroit. Carl Ames is having a good season in Philadelphia as is Washington's Claude Ramsey. John Wicklund is a two-time all-star but having a down year in Boston after coming over from the Gothams last season. They all take a back seat to Tom Bird, George Cleaves and Jack Flint this year. Bird is the oldest of the 3 at age 29 and is a two-time all-star enjoying the best start to his career for the Chicago Chiefs. Cleaves is a star in Pittsburgh at age 23, a 3-time all-star who, despite being bothered by injuries this season, is hitting .344 which equals his career best. However, all of the above are being overshadowed by St Louis signal caller Jack Flint. Flint made the all-star team last season, his first as an every day player, and is hitting a FABL best .416 this year. Bird should be the backup on the team with Cleaves latest injury sidelining him until likely after the mid-season classic.

FIRST BASE - Fred McCormick missed the all-star game for the first time in his career a season ago despite hitting .351 on the year. McCormick should be the starter this year joining his teammate Flint. Ron Rattigan of the Chiefs is playing very well and Boston's Carl Carr is putting up some good numbers with reduced playing time. I so want to pencil in Max Morris as the starter despite the poor start the new Detroit player-manager is having. He should be added to the team just on reputation and his incredible career but likely won't make the cut.

SECOND BASE - Even though he has been shifted to shortstop recently Pete Layton gets my vote here. Layton is a 2-time All-Star with 5 World Championships on his resume and was a key piece in the Chiefs title run last season. He was off to another great start this year but will miss the game with an injury so I am hoping Freddie Jones gets the call to replace him although Jones, who has never missed an All-Star game, has also had injuries to contend with.

THIRD BASE - As much as Boston's Ken Mayhugh has impressed this year the nod at third base goes to Mel Carroll of the Washington Eagles after a .393, 9 homer start to the season.

SHORTSTOP - It comes down to a choice between Washington and Boston again but the Eagles win once more with Jim Beard getting my vote ahead of the Minutemen's Charlie Reed. The 24 year old Beard is not the best defensive shortstop around but his offense gets him the nod to make the team for the second year in a row.

LEFTFIELD - It is close but I am going to go with Washington's Moxie Pidgeon as the best of a decent group that includes Jim Hampton of Chicago, Philadelphia's Rip Curry and Dave Henry of Boston. Pidgeon is another one of the many players who flew the coop from New York last season and the 3-time all-star is enjoying another solid season.

CENTERFIELD - It has always been a case of just write the name Bobby Barrell in at centerfield and be done with it for the Fed but not this year. In fact Barrell, a 4-time all-star, may not make the team this time around despite a pretty solid .304,10,36 start. You think catcher is deep in the Fed check out centerfield. Howard Brown Jr. looks to be starting a great career in New York and Sal Pestilli (.308,13,41) is already a star in Detroit despite the fact he was just finishing up his college season this time last year. You also have Chick Donnelly in Boston and Wally Flowers in Washington, both very strong players. My vote goes to Gail Gifford, who has been nothing short of amazing for St Louis as he has a breakout year at age 25 in his fourth big league season. I would love to see both Pestilli and Brown Jr. get the call as back-ups and I did come close to voting for Pestilli instead of Gifford.

RIGHTFIELD - He won't provide many homeruns but Boston's Pete Day is a perfect model for a lead-off man. He is hitting .380 with 11 stolen bases, rarely strikes out and walks enough to give him the 4th best on base percentage in either league.

PITCHER - My pitchers from the Federal Association are led by Sam Sheppard of St Louis. The 29 year who won an Allan Award 2 seasons ago hit a little bump in the road recently with 2 straight losses but as of this writing he is 12-3 with 3.40 era. Joining him on my ballot will be a pair of youngsters in 23 year old Lefty Allen, who is 9-2, 3.07 for Pittsburgh and bidding to participate in his second consecutive all-star game just like 21 year old Al Miller (10-2, 3.08) of the Chicago Chiefs. Others I considered voting for included Boston's Art Keeler (8-5, 3.71) and Charlie Stedman (7-6, 3.39) of Pittsburgh.

[b]
PAST ALL STAR GAME RESULTS
YEAR  LOCATION		 RESULT     			  WINNING PITCHER   	MVP
1933  Whitney Park       Federal 8 Continental 5	Ben Curtin STL      Pete Asher Pit
1934  Riverside Stadium  Federal 11 Continental 7	Chick Stout Pit	    Tom Taylor Cougars
1935  Broad Street Park  Federal 5  Continental 2	Art Myers Keystones Freddie Jones StL
1936  Pioneer Field	 Continental 6 Federal 4	Tom Barrell BKN     Dick Walker Sailors

Editors Note - I have been reading old newspapers following along with actual 1937 sports news and will occasional copy an article or column that can fit into our universe. I will not change the tone of the article at all, but rather just some of names to match with characters and teams in our universe. This first one comes from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and is an excerpt from a column by their sports editor and it shows the disdain many owners and, as you will read in future columns, players had for the event at the time.