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Jiggs McGee · 09-11-2021, 01:54 AM

September 26, 1938

CHIEFS CLINCH CROWN

Last winter it was reported on these pages that the Chicago Chiefs won the Federal Association Pennant the day they acquired Jim Lonardo from the New York Gothams. The Chiefs simply made it official yesterday when the Detroit Dynamos lost in New York allowing Chicago to clinch the pennant. The outcome was very much in doubt the first half of the season as the Dynamos looked like a team of destiny making an incredible bid to rise from the depths of the Federal Association to it's penthouse. Detroit stumbled, but ever so slightly with a brief rough spell in August and that tiny opening was more than enough for the Chiefs. After a July 1st loss at home to Detroit that left the Chiefs six and a half games back of the first place Dynamos, Chicago went on to post an amazing 58-19 record the rest of the way. With 98 wins so far and still 7 games remaining the Chiefs have a very good shot to equal or surpass the franchise victory mark of 101 established two seasons ago.

Chicago's 1936 club set the franchise standard for second half excellence as they fashioned a 50-18 record after the break thanks to key addtions Pete Layton and another ex-Gotham pitcher in Rabbit Day. Layton (.369,24,94) and Day (26-7, 3.05) played key roles once again this time around as did the aforementioned Lonardo (24-7, 2.73), who more than made up for a down season from third year starter Al Miller (15-12, 3.67). In Miller's case it more accurately should be described as a down half season as he finished the year 8-2 after a very slow start, at least when compared to the previous two big league seasons on his resume. The trio of moundsmen also had plenty of assistance from a supporting cast that included veteran righthander Jack Beach (20-8, 3.46), who gave the Chiefs three twenty game winners after the 36 year old reached that mark for the second time in his career. The first time Beach won twenty was in 1932 with Detroit when he also earned the first and only Allan Award of his career. There will be now Allen Trophy this season for Beach but it could very well go to either Day or Lonardo, each of whom already own three of them.

Layton is leading the Federal Association in batting and is close to winning his second career batting title, and if successful they would come a decade apart as his first crown was the 1928 CA title while he was still a New York Star. Layton's next base hit will be the 2,500 of his wonderful career and a few weeks from now, if Chicago can dispose of whoever comes out of the Continental Association, the 38 year old may be celebrating his 6th career World Championship Series victory. Retirement talk is likely well off after the season Layton has enjoyed but Chicago media is already speculating on his chances of making it to the Hall of Fame.

Lonardo was not the only big move made by Chicago brass this season as, just like in 1936 when they added an infield bat in Layton to go along with the powerful pitcher in Day, this year's incarnation of the Chiefs added Hank Barnett (.315,31,120) to the mix. He spent a few weeks over the winter in Detroit after the Dynamos acquired him from Montreal where he use to toil for the current Chiefs boss back in his Saints days. Barnett always had loads of talent but also an uppercut swing that, while it did not play well at times in Montreal's cavernous Parc Cartier seemed ideally suited for the more hitter friendly Whitney Park. The result was a career high in just about every offensive category for the 29 year old nine year veteran. The other big season from a Chiefs hitter belonged to catcher Tom Bird (.358,21,103) as the 30 year old - another ex Montreal Saint- challenged for and may yet win the batting title if he can catch Layton in the final week.

Bird and Layton are both drawing plenty of Whitney Award discussion, along with Detroit's sensational sophomore outfielder Sal Pestilli (.308,43,124) but there is a possibility they may split the Chicago vote and allow the 22 year to claim the prize.

One has to give the Detroit Dynamos plenty of credit for hanging with Chicago as long as they did but the Chiefs proved to be simply too powerful a ballclub. This will make it the third time in franchise history Chicago will go to the World Championship Series and their second trip in 3 seasons after beating Brooklyn in the 1936 October classic.

As for Brooklyn the Kings are on life support after a dreadful month was made even worse with a 1-6 week. Surprisingly, despite blowing what was a 10-game lead in mid-August and suffering through yet another brutal September swoon that has seen them post a 7-16 record for the month, Brooklyn still has some breath left. Chances are slim as the Kings trail Toronto by 2 and a half games with a week to go but the Wolves looked like they were trying to give the pennant back to the Kings this week after a 2-4 stretch of their own. In Toronto's defense it really seemed just a case of things balancing out as the club, which entered the week 25-14 in one-run games and 6-3 in extra innings contests, lost a pair of them by back to back 2-1 scores to the Chicago Cougars: on in 12 innings and the other in 15. Had the outcome of those contests been reversed we would be on the verge of finalizing plans for a celebration down Yonge Street but that will have to wait for at least a few more days.

It seems entirely unlikely that Brooklyn will overcome the deficit with a week to play but the Kings have made a habit of doing unlikely things - albeit for nearly all of them Brooklyn was on the wrong end of the situation - so perhaps Brooklyn will surprise everyone once again, but for a positive result this time.

Kings manager Powell Slocum certainly hopes that is the case as word out of a meeting with the GM and also owner Daniel Prescott, that got heated at times, suggests Slocum will be fired if the Kings do not overtake Toronto.

ANOTHER NO-HITTER FOR NEWELL

There have only been 7 no-hitters thrown in FABL since the human GM era began in 1926 and amazingly three of them have come from the same man as Doc Newell of the Philadelphia Sailors turned the trick once again against Brooklyn last week. The 30 year old, who has been a 3-time all-star selection but never won an Allan Award threw his first no-hitter against Cleveland in 1934 and a year later tossed a perfect game - just third perfect game ever and first since 1905 - against Brooklyn. He didn't get the perfect game this time around as he walked one and had to contend with a pair of errors from his defense, but Newell did not allow a hit while fanning 4 in a 7-0 Sailors victory Tuesday over the slumping Kings.

No other pitcher in FABL history has thrown three no-hitters. Newell had previously shared the mark of two with Bill Temple and John Blackburn. Temple won 284 games in his career from 1899-1911 while Blackburn, who like Newell also had a perfect game, won just 40 in his 4 seasons with Boston before making very brief stops with the Cougars, Cleveland and Stars.

Newell joined the Sailors organization as a 19 year old in 1927 and made his big league debut 4 years later. He is 105-88 over his career and, at 19-11 this season, is on the cusp of a second straight 20 victory season. He also has a new nickname as teammates have taken to calling him "No-hit" Newell in the Philadelphia clubhouse.

QUICK HITS

The Kings are in danger of failing to win at least 90 games for the first time since 1933. Brooklyn's 4 straight 90 win seasons is a FABL record. Only 5 times has a team had 3 such seasons in a row. Those clubs were the 1899-1901 Pittsburgh Miners, 1904-06 Boston Minutemen, 1914-16 Montreal Saints, 1931-33 Chicago Cougars and 1934-36 Cleveland Foresters. Part of the Kings bad luck was their powerhouse clubs overlapped with Cleveland's as twice in a row the Kings lost the pennant by a single game to Cleveland.
A 7-16 September illustrates all you need to know about what happened in Brooklyn. On August 18 the Kings were 10 games ahead of then second place Toronto but 5 weeks trail the Wolves by 2.5 games. Brooklyn was 51-24 before the all-star game and led the CA by 8 games at that point but the club has gone 34-39 since then, a post all-star record better than only Montreal and Baltimore in the Continental. Perhaps the Kings should push for a Japanese style split season format.
Firing Powell Slocum if the Kings blow another title might feel necessary to club owner Daniel Prescott but, at least in this writer's opinion, would be a mistake. Never mind just the financial implications as the widely popular Hall Of Famer has two more years remaining on his contract and has guided the Kings to franchise record breaking numbers, both at the ticket booth and in the win column, but Slocum also oversees what is one of the most harmonious clubhouses in the league.
But on the other side of the coin there is this hanging over Slocum's head. Brooklyn had a .686 winning percentage at 48-22 on July 1st. 37-41 since then including 5-13 after Labor Day.
Detroit columnist Freddie Farhat adds this on the subject of Brooklyn rumblings: "The situation in Brooklyn is fascinating as the club has just ended the curse with a World Championship Series win last year. Will the owner can both the manager and GM just 1 season later? Prescott is starting to sound like another NY owner in a different world if that is the case."
Farhat adds this on Brooklyn's bid for a fifth straight 90 win season and the club's September failures. "Well it is interesting. The Kings have on paper have the best team in the CA the last 5 years running. But only 2 pennants and 1 WCS. Yes they got over the hump last year but in most seasons they just haven’t finished what they started."
Not to downplay Toronto's success this season but it has to be frustrating to management the club went 2-4 in their most important week since 1927. However, even with the mini-slump the Wolves still increased their lead on Brooklyn. Toronto's August run was amazing and it is a huge upset but THE story unfortunately is the Brooklyn collapse, one even more dramatic than the Kings failings vs Cleveland twice.
Is there a better feel good story in the second half of this season that Bob Walls? Rescued from the minors in Detroit at the deadline the 26 year old has gone 8-0 down the stretch for Toronto and without him the Wolves might not be on the verge of winning their first pennant since 1911. 8-0 since August 10th when he was barely an average starter at AAA Newark prior to the deal and just 3-6 in 18 big league appearances prior to joining Toronto.
After 3 straight months of posting 14-14 records the Cleveland Foresters are finishing strong with 14 wins in 23 September games so far and a chance to perhaps play spoiler in the CA race with 3 games in Toronto next week. The acquisition of reigning Federal Association Whitney Award winner Mel Carrol (.369,15,117) in July has certainly ignited new life into what was an aging Cleveland offense. The Wolves are just 8-10 since the Labor Day holiday.
The Detroit Dynamos had a 6 game lead heading into July and have played well going 45-33 over the final 3 months. But the Chiefs have gone 58-20 (744) playing almost .750 baseball to overcome and pull away. Even if Detroit had continued at the .650 clip they were at early in the season. The Chiefs would still hold a 2.5 game lead heading into the final week.
The Dynamos have already established a new FABL record with over 1.7 million fans entering Thompson Field and with six home dates remain seem a lock to draw well over 1.8 million. When the dust is settled they will come very close to doubling last season attendance total of 952,138. It is quite a turnaround to think Detroit has averaged over 24,000 fans a game this season when just 3 years ago they averaged less than 4,500 fans per game.
More from the Detroit World on Dynamos attendance numbers: In a look at the game attendances for Detroit when they have "big" crowds (over 30,000) this season. It is believed this would be a regular season attendance record for a game. On Saturday afternoon July 30th the Dynamo's played of all teams the Washington Eagles and drew 30,893 fans in the 31,500 seat Thompson Field. In a 3-game August series against the Chiefs they drew over 88,000 for that 3 game set with a crowd over 30,000 on Friday (30,263).
The New York Gothams managed to stumble over the 1,000,000 attendance mark in their final season at the Oval. While looking to finish with over 60 wins, a number many thought out of their reach, and also debuting a number of interesting rookies, fan decided to stay at home as the season wore on. The final attendance total for the season is expected to be the lowest since the club failed to reach the million mark in 1933. Gothams Assistant General Manager George Rinkenberger cautions fans there will likely still be some lean years ahead. "I'm hoping we can hold on to the 6th spot in the FA standings but I think we still have at least two rough seasons ahead of us. We need to get more of the top prospects to the majors and sort out the rotation. The upcoming Rule 5 could be brutal."
The big question in Detroit is will 75 year old Manager George Theobald decide to come back or hang up the uniform for good? Both majority owner Thompson and GM Martin are encouraging him to come back. Theobald is on record saying he will sit down after the season and decide.
Makes you wonder what happened to the Chiefs last year to have such a great 1936 and '38 sandwiched around a so-so (by Chiefs standards) 1937 season
I am not saying this is a reason not to vote for Tom Bird but for anyone thinking the fact that he is a catcher should be the deciding factor over both Pete Layton and Sal Pestilli perhaps you should consider he has far and away the worst caught stealing success in FABL this season. Here are the CS numbers of all catchers to play at least 60 games behind the plate this season.
Pete Layton is also in the mix and while the 38 year old has never won a Whitney he does have 2 second place and 2 third place finishes in the voting. Seeing Layton in the Series again makes the Chiefs seem like a pretty solid bet. Layton has played in 5 previous series and been on the winning side for each of them (4 with the Stars and 1936 with Chicago).
Freddie Farhat has this to say about the Whitney race: "My FA Whitney is clearly going to be Pestilli. With his numbers 43 homers, 124 RBI’s 129 runs, 25 doubles 20 triples and only striking out only 12 times. I am biased as a Detroit guy but I just don’t really get concerned with what position someone plays and all the future stats. Bird’s had a great year, so has Layton but the margin that Pestilli has out homered the rest of the players makes me think he is the really the guy. Guess we will see next week. I’m just old school and that isn’t going to change."
On the subject of the other awards, Farhat added this: "The FA Allen has gotten very close for me with Day’s recent dominate run. Lonardo has been truly outstanding and while I thought he was good I didn’t see him at the beginning of the year as the co-ace. Both get another start so we will see. The CA Whitney is clear, and the Allen is a tossup. I’m leaning to the veteran (Dick Lyons) just because he has emerged out of solid pitcher to star at 38. Hancock has been brilliant though so it may go down to the final matchup."
The Chicago Herald-Examiner is overwhelming some of us old-timers with some new numbers. The bottom line is the Fed Allen race is "damn close" according to the paper. From Fangraphs and these newfangled stats most fans have never heard of: RA9-WAR is a "comprehensive statistic that estimates the number of wins a player has been worth to his team compared to a freely available player such as a minor league free agent based on his runs allowed per 9." And here it is something old Jiggs thought was dominating the news in Europe. Anyway, according to this fancy number all 3 of the co-favourites for the Federal Association Allen Award are dead even. That being Rabbit Day and Jim Lonardo of Chicago and Pittsburgh's Lefty Allen, who won the award last season. In the CA, this war thing leans towards Toronto's Joe Hancock. Here is how the leaders stack up:
Code:
```
   R9-WAR LEADERS
FEDERAL ASSN    	 CONTINENTAL ASSN
Rabbit Day      CHI 7.6	 Joe Hancock   TOR  8.5
Lefty Allen     PIT 7.6	 Dean Astle    CLE  7.9
Jim Lonardo     CHI 7.6	 Dick Lyons    CHC  7.3
Charlie Wheeler DET 7.4  Mike Murphy   BKN  6.5
Frank Crawford  DET 6.4  Karl Wallace  MON  5.6
```
In 1937, Brooklyn's Joe Shaffner had a 8.7 RA9-WAR. Hancock is essentially this season's Shaffner and could prove to be the difference maker in the pennant race. Hancock's 1937 RA9-WAR was 4.6, so an increase of 4 wins. Rabbit Day's 1936 season? 12.3 RA9-WAR (he was 25-3 with a 2.41 ERA). Al Miller's rookie season had him at 9.2 RA9-WAR, which should be enough for an Allen, but not when your team mate is at 12.3.9.2 was also Tom Barrell's 1936 RA9-WAR.
Tom's father, scouting legend Rufus Barrell echoed McGee's comments as he summed up those numbers this way: "I'm probably voting for Day & Lyons. Why? Because it's 1938 and the only WAR anyone is talking about is the one that's coming in Europe."
The elder Barrell added "I'll have to give Day the edge on Lonardo for the Allen. I mean, Lonardo's season has been awesome, but Day's got 26 wins (a new career high) and has just been on fire lately. Hopefully he gets one more win this season. He has a really legit shot at 300 now." The 34 year old Day's career FABL record now stands at 235-132.
The way things are shaking out in Chicago means that Dick Lyons (19-6, 2.65) and Toronto's Joe Hancock(22-7, 2.89) could make their last two starts against each other. Both are 100% rested with no remaining off days for the two co-favourites to win the CA Allen Award.
Will Zip Sullivan(.299,9,82) have competition for the first base slot in St Louis next season? Pod pick Jim Vaughn was very good in AA where he hit .361 in 175 PA before making the jump to AAA. In Oakland the 21 year old has hit .343 in 112 PA. Sullivan is no Fred McCormick (dealt to Montreal over the winter), nor did Pioneer management think he would be that good, but he has put up a solid season replacing McCormick.
Staying with the Pioneers the St Louis Globe had the following to report: Several guys in Oakland are knocking on the Pioneers' door with no room at the table for them. What do you do with 2B Artie D'Alessandro when you have Freddie Jones manning second in the big leagues? D'Alessandro has had an impressive AAA campaign at the plate slashing .347/.487/.514. The organization moved him to third but that experiment has failed. Jones on the other hand has digressed in his slash line each of the last four seasons and with just five games left to play in 1938 he's posted a career worst 101 OPS+ to go with career worst slash numbers across the board.
On the topic of pitching The Globe adds this: "The rotation will be interesting coming out of spring training next season. Dixie Lee finally pitched like he belonged there this season but veteran Sam Sheppard has been a train wreck the entire 1938 campaign. Otis Cook, Ed Cornett, and Mel Leonard will get a look as Buddy Long and David Abalo return from long term injuries.
Somehow the NY Stars are 15-10 in September. Will interim cpu General Manager Tom Davis get the role full-time as his moves to bring some talented kids up such as Bill Barrett (.253,6,24) and Joe Angevine (.333,0,9) are certainly paying off?
Outfielder Barrett has now played in 41 games this season (little over 25% of a season) and is basically on a 23 home run 90 RBI pace as an 18 year old. The comparison would be Red Johnson of Detroit this year who played most of this season in Detroit as a 20-year old (he will have his 21st birthday on Oct 1st so his last 2 games he will be a legal adult). Johnson is slashing .298/.425/.876 with 18 home runs, 84 RBI’s, 97 runs scored and a league leading 118 walks while striking out just 22 times. Both kids have a very bright future ahead of them.
A year after guiding an injury riddled Pittsburgh squad to the pennant only to make a very controversial pitching call in Game Two that might have cost his club the Series, it sounds like the Miners are thinking of letting manager Dan Andrew go. Andrew has had another strong season with club, posting an 82-66 mark so far and is 344-264 in his four years at the helm but The Pittsburgh Press reports Andrew and his General Manager are at odds over some of his coaching staff decisions.
It seemed like each spring the OSA pre-season predictions had Hank Barnett hitting 30+ home runs. And now he's finally done it. Barrett has a career high 31 homers so far this season.
Overall, many of Vic Crawford's numbers were down (an OPS+ of only 95) in Montreal this season, but he managed to hit 50+ doubles for the third consecutive season. The 30 year old is batting a career low .272 with 12 homers and 88 rbi's
While the La Crosse Lions are tied for first place with one game left in the minor league season, all Chicago Cougar affiliates other then the Mobile Commodores (83-56) finished in first place this season, and this includes numerous midseason callups of top prospects as well as another 10 going up the first week of September for roster expansion. Throughout the entire season, no every-day player was older then 26, so it wasn't just washed out FABL players winning games, it was mostly a collection of young prospects. The big league team hasn't looked that great during the year, but with five more wins, all teams in the organization will finish with 80 or more wins. Only the Sailors can have all teams finishing above .500, but it was close for them as the AA Providence Sailors finished just 71-69, and their unstoppable AAA team (103-37) only sports four players aged 26 or younger.

With any sort of luck or consistency the Brooklyn Kings should be celebrating their 5th straight CA pennant right about now. Brooklyn lost to Cleveland by 1 game in both '35 and '36 and appears headed to another 'close call but no cigar' season this time around. The Kings 467 wins (with a week to play this season) over the past 5 seasons is 22 better than then next highest team and this year will likely be the first of those seasons they fail to reach the 90 win mark.

The Kings failures down the stretch have been well documented and take away from what truly has been an otherwise remarkable run for a team long considered a Continental Association also-ran. The Kings will almost assuredly fall just short of 90 wins, and doing something never accomplished in FABL history: no franchise has ever had 5 straight seasons of 90 wins. Even the great Minutemen club of the first decade of this century only had 3 straight 90 win seasons. The 1931-33 Cougars, 34-36 Foresters, 14-16 Saints, 1899-1901 Miners also had 3 straight 90-win seasons but only the 1935-38 Kings look to have had 4 such years in a row - and they only won 2 pennants in those 4 years.

There is plenty of talk going through the borough of Brooklyn on just how bad this collapse has been, and make no mistake it is awful to watch the team throw away a 10 game lead in the final five weeks of the season, but before one starts to clamor for major changes like a blockbuster deal or the ousting of the GM and and his manager, one should pause for a moment and think just what this club has accomplished the past half decade - and how little they accomplished in the multiple decades before this one.

Long-time TWIFB contributor Percy Sutherland, who goes back to the old days before the rebrand when it was known as the Figment Sporting Journal, has been looking at a number of advanced stats in his new role with the Chicago Herald-Examiner. Percy shares some thoughts on RBI's and their bearing on the Whitney Award:

I was looking a little more closely at RBI. I find this interesting; maybe I'm the only one. Pestilli has 124 RBI, and Bird has 103. Is Pestilli a 20% better hitter than Bird? I don't think anyone would say that. So let's dig a little deeper.

Pestilli has been up with 144 runners in scoring position. The 124 RBI includes driving himself in with 43 home runs. So we can remove the home runs and say that Pestilli drove in (124 - 43) / 144 = 0.563 = 56.3% of the runners in scoring position.

Bird has come to the plate with 137 runners in scoring position. Bird's 103 RBI includes 21 home runs. So removing the home runs, Bird drove in (103 - 21) / 137 = 0.599 = 59.9% of his runners in scoring position.

So they are pretty close, but Bird is slightly better this season, which is pretty much what wRC+ is also telling us--Bird is slightly better. And really Bird is performing slightly better than everyone else in the Fed this season.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 09/25/1938

In an effort to avoid a full war in Europe Britain and France agree to support Hitler's demand for annexation of part of Sudeten.
With only the Soviets standing by their side, the Czechs surrender to Hitler's demands. Official communique from Prague states "pressure from both the British and French governments forced (Czechs) to accept with pain the proposal."
While Chamberlain and Hitler meet to iron out the details of the partition of Czechoslovakia, the Czech cabinet resigns en masse in the face of rising public indignation over it's 'capitulation" to the Anglo-French proposal to ceded Sudeten land to Germany laying the groundwork for a new military government in Prague.
With the details not progressing as quickly as he desires, German forces advance into Czech territory and Hitler gives the Czechs an October 1st deadline to withdraw from the Sudeten region or "accept the consequences".
French troops along their border with Germany are doubled up after learning a hitch has occurred in talks between Chamberlain and Hitler. Belgium and Romania also mobilized their armies.
Moscow warns Poland if Polish troops invade Czechoslovakia, Russia would cancel it's non-aggression pact with the Poles.
On Wall Street, News from Europe sends stocks tumbling following a large liquidation.
54 die and 39 missing as a hurricane strikes Long Island.
For the first time during the regular season a baseball team will fly rather than take the train as the St Louis Pioneers are set to head to New York by air following their home game Monday for a series with the Gothams. (Note - in real life 19 Cardinals flew from Boston to Newark and then took a train to Chicago with the remainder heading to New York by boat. The largest previous flight was last season when a half dozen Red Sox flew from St Louis to Chicago during a hot spell.)

09-11-2021, 01:54 AM	#243
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	This Week in Figment Baseball: September 26, 1938 September 26, 1938 CHIEFS CLINCH CROWN Last winter it was reported on these pages that the Chicago Chiefs won the Federal Association Pennant the day they acquired Jim Lonardo from the New York Gothams. The Chiefs simply made it official yesterday when the Detroit Dynamos lost in New York allowing Chicago to clinch the pennant. The outcome was very much in doubt the first half of the season as the Dynamos looked like a team of destiny making an incredible bid to rise from the depths of the Federal Association to it's penthouse. Detroit stumbled, but ever so slightly with a brief rough spell in August and that tiny opening was more than enough for the Chiefs. After a July 1st loss at home to Detroit that left the Chiefs six and a half games back of the first place Dynamos, Chicago went on to post an amazing 58-19 record the rest of the way. With 98 wins so far and still 7 games remaining the Chiefs have a very good shot to equal or surpass the franchise victory mark of 101 established two seasons ago. Chicago's 1936 club set the franchise standard for second half excellence as they fashioned a 50-18 record after the break thanks to key addtions Pete Layton and another ex-Gotham pitcher in Rabbit Day. Layton (.369,24,94) and Day (26-7, 3.05) played key roles once again this time around as did the aforementioned Lonardo (24-7, 2.73), who more than made up for a down season from third year starter Al Miller (15-12, 3.67). In Miller's case it more accurately should be described as a down half season as he finished the year 8-2 after a very slow start, at least when compared to the previous two big league seasons on his resume. The trio of moundsmen also had plenty of assistance from a supporting cast that included veteran righthander Jack Beach (20-8, 3.46), who gave the Chiefs three twenty game winners after the 36 year old reached that mark for the second time in his career. The first time Beach won twenty was in 1932 with Detroit when he also earned the first and only Allan Award of his career. There will be now Allen Trophy this season for Beach but it could very well go to either Day or Lonardo, each of whom already own three of them. Layton is leading the Federal Association in batting and is close to winning his second career batting title, and if successful they would come a decade apart as his first crown was the 1928 CA title while he was still a New York Star. Layton's next base hit will be the 2,500 of his wonderful career and a few weeks from now, if Chicago can dispose of whoever comes out of the Continental Association, the 38 year old may be celebrating his 6th career World Championship Series victory. Retirement talk is likely well off after the season Layton has enjoyed but Chicago media is already speculating on his chances of making it to the Hall of Fame. Lonardo was not the only big move made by Chicago brass this season as, just like in 1936 when they added an infield bat in Layton to go along with the powerful pitcher in Day, this year's incarnation of the Chiefs added Hank Barnett (.315,31,120) to the mix. He spent a few weeks over the winter in Detroit after the Dynamos acquired him from Montreal where he use to toil for the current Chiefs boss back in his Saints days. Barnett always had loads of talent but also an uppercut swing that, while it did not play well at times in Montreal's cavernous Parc Cartier seemed ideally suited for the more hitter friendly Whitney Park. The result was a career high in just about every offensive category for the 29 year old nine year veteran. The other big season from a Chiefs hitter belonged to catcher Tom Bird (.358,21,103) as the 30 year old - another ex Montreal Saint- challenged for and may yet win the batting title if he can catch Layton in the final week. Bird and Layton are both drawing plenty of Whitney Award discussion, along with Detroit's sensational sophomore outfielder Sal Pestilli (.308,43,124) but there is a possibility they may split the Chicago vote and allow the 22 year to claim the prize. One has to give the Detroit Dynamos plenty of credit for hanging with Chicago as long as they did but the Chiefs proved to be simply too powerful a ballclub. This will make it the third time in franchise history Chicago will go to the World Championship Series and their second trip in 3 seasons after beating Brooklyn in the 1936 October classic. As for Brooklyn the Kings are on life support after a dreadful month was made even worse with a 1-6 week. Surprisingly, despite blowing what was a 10-game lead in mid-August and suffering through yet another brutal September swoon that has seen them post a 7-16 record for the month, Brooklyn still has some breath left. Chances are slim as the Kings trail Toronto by 2 and a half games with a week to go but the Wolves looked like they were trying to give the pennant back to the Kings this week after a 2-4 stretch of their own. In Toronto's defense it really seemed just a case of things balancing out as the club, which entered the week 25-14 in one-run games and 6-3 in extra innings contests, lost a pair of them by back to back 2-1 scores to the Chicago Cougars: on in 12 innings and the other in 15. Had the outcome of those contests been reversed we would be on the verge of finalizing plans for a celebration down Yonge Street but that will have to wait for at least a few more days. It seems entirely unlikely that Brooklyn will overcome the deficit with a week to play but the Kings have made a habit of doing unlikely things - albeit for nearly all of them Brooklyn was on the wrong end of the situation - so perhaps Brooklyn will surprise everyone once again, but for a positive result this time. Kings manager Powell Slocum certainly hopes that is the case as word out of a meeting with the GM and also owner Daniel Prescott, that got heated at times, suggests Slocum will be fired if the Kings do not overtake Toronto. ANOTHER NO-HITTER FOR NEWELL There have only been 7 no-hitters thrown in FABL since the human GM era began in 1926 and amazingly three of them have come from the same man as Doc Newell of the Philadelphia Sailors turned the trick once again against Brooklyn last week. The 30 year old, who has been a 3-time all-star selection but never won an Allan Award threw his first no-hitter against Cleveland in 1934 and a year later tossed a perfect game - just third perfect game ever and first since 1905 - against Brooklyn. He didn't get the perfect game this time around as he walked one and had to contend with a pair of errors from his defense, but Newell did not allow a hit while fanning 4 in a 7-0 Sailors victory Tuesday over the slumping Kings. No other pitcher in FABL history has thrown three no-hitters. Newell had previously shared the mark of two with Bill Temple and John Blackburn. Temple won 284 games in his career from 1899-1911 while Blackburn, who like Newell also had a perfect game, won just 40 in his 4 seasons with Boston before making very brief stops with the Cougars, Cleveland and Stars. Newell joined the Sailors organization as a 19 year old in 1927 and made his big league debut 4 years later. He is 105-88 over his career and, at 19-11 this season, is on the cusp of a second straight 20 victory season. He also has a new nickname as teammates have taken to calling him "No-hit" Newell in the Philadelphia clubhouse. QUICK HITS The Kings are in danger of failing to win at least 90 games for the first time since 1933. Brooklyn's 4 straight 90 win seasons is a FABL record. Only 5 times has a team had 3 such seasons in a row. Those clubs were the 1899-1901 Pittsburgh Miners, 1904-06 Boston Minutemen, 1914-16 Montreal Saints, 1931-33 Chicago Cougars and 1934-36 Cleveland Foresters. Part of the Kings bad luck was their powerhouse clubs overlapped with Cleveland's as twice in a row the Kings lost the pennant by a single game to Cleveland. A 7-16 September illustrates all you need to know about what happened in Brooklyn. On August 18 the Kings were 10 games ahead of then second place Toronto but 5 weeks trail the Wolves by 2.5 games. Brooklyn was 51-24 before the all-star game and led the CA by 8 games at that point but the club has gone 34-39 since then, a post all-star record better than only Montreal and Baltimore in the Continental. Perhaps the Kings should push for a Japanese style split season format. Firing Powell Slocum if the Kings blow another title might feel necessary to club owner Daniel Prescott but, at least in this writer's opinion, would be a mistake. Never mind just the financial implications as the widely popular Hall Of Famer has two more years remaining on his contract and has guided the Kings to franchise record breaking numbers, both at the ticket booth and in the win column, but Slocum also oversees what is one of the most harmonious clubhouses in the league. But on the other side of the coin there is this hanging over Slocum's head. Brooklyn had a .686 winning percentage at 48-22 on July 1st. 37-41 since then including 5-13 after Labor Day. Detroit columnist Freddie Farhat adds this on the subject of Brooklyn rumblings: "The situation in Brooklyn is fascinating as the club has just ended the curse with a World Championship Series win last year. Will the owner can both the manager and GM just 1 season later? Prescott is starting to sound like another NY owner in a different world if that is the case." Farhat adds this on Brooklyn's bid for a fifth straight 90 win season and the club's September failures. "Well it is interesting. The Kings have on paper have the best team in the CA the last 5 years running. But only 2 pennants and 1 WCS. Yes they got over the hump last year but in most seasons they just haven’t finished what they started." Not to downplay Toronto's success this season but it has to be frustrating to management the club went 2-4 in their most important week since 1927. However, even with the mini-slump the Wolves still increased their lead on Brooklyn. Toronto's August run was amazing and it is a huge upset but THE story unfortunately is the Brooklyn collapse, one even more dramatic than the Kings failings vs Cleveland twice. Is there a better feel good story in the second half of this season that Bob Walls? Rescued from the minors in Detroit at the deadline the 26 year old has gone 8-0 down the stretch for Toronto and without him the Wolves might not be on the verge of winning their first pennant since 1911. 8-0 since August 10th when he was barely an average starter at AAA Newark prior to the deal and just 3-6 in 18 big league appearances prior to joining Toronto. After 3 straight months of posting 14-14 records the Cleveland Foresters are finishing strong with 14 wins in 23 September games so far and a chance to perhaps play spoiler in the CA race with 3 games in Toronto next week. The acquisition of reigning Federal Association Whitney Award winner Mel Carrol (.369,15,117) in July has certainly ignited new life into what was an aging Cleveland offense. The Wolves are just 8-10 since the Labor Day holiday. The Detroit Dynamos had a 6 game lead heading into July and have played well going 45-33 over the final 3 months. But the Chiefs have gone 58-20 (744) playing almost .750 baseball to overcome and pull away. Even if Detroit had continued at the .650 clip they were at early in the season. The Chiefs would still hold a 2.5 game lead heading into the final week. The Dynamos have already established a new FABL record with over 1.7 million fans entering Thompson Field and with six home dates remain seem a lock to draw well over 1.8 million. When the dust is settled they will come very close to doubling last season attendance total of 952,138. It is quite a turnaround to think Detroit has averaged over 24,000 fans a game this season when just 3 years ago they averaged less than 4,500 fans per game. More from the Detroit World on Dynamos attendance numbers: In a look at the game attendances for Detroit when they have "big" crowds (over 30,000) this season. It is believed this would be a regular season attendance record for a game. On Saturday afternoon July 30th the Dynamo's played of all teams the Washington Eagles and drew 30,893 fans in the 31,500 seat Thompson Field. In a 3-game August series against the Chiefs they drew over 88,000 for that 3 game set with a crowd over 30,000 on Friday (30,263). The New York Gothams managed to stumble over the 1,000,000 attendance mark in their final season at the Oval. While looking to finish with over 60 wins, a number many thought out of their reach, and also debuting a number of interesting rookies, fan decided to stay at home as the season wore on. The final attendance total for the season is expected to be the lowest since the club failed to reach the million mark in 1933. Gothams Assistant General Manager George Rinkenberger cautions fans there will likely still be some lean years ahead. "I'm hoping we can hold on to the 6th spot in the FA standings but I think we still have at least two rough seasons ahead of us. We need to get more of the top prospects to the majors and sort out the rotation. The upcoming Rule 5 could be brutal." The big question in Detroit is will 75 year old Manager George Theobald decide to come back or hang up the uniform for good? Both majority owner Thompson and GM Martin are encouraging him to come back. Theobald is on record saying he will sit down after the season and decide. Makes you wonder what happened to the Chiefs last year to have such a great 1936 and '38 sandwiched around a so-so (by Chiefs standards) 1937 season I am not saying this is a reason not to vote for Tom Bird but for anyone thinking the fact that he is a catcher should be the deciding factor over both Pete Layton and Sal Pestilli perhaps you should consider he has far and away the worst caught stealing success in FABL this season. Here are the CS numbers of all catchers to play at least 60 games behind the plate this season. Pete Layton is also in the mix and while the 38 year old has never won a Whitney he does have 2 second place and 2 third place finishes in the voting. Seeing Layton in the Series again makes the Chiefs seem like a pretty solid bet. Layton has played in 5 previous series and been on the winning side for each of them (4 with the Stars and 1936 with Chicago). Freddie Farhat has this to say about the Whitney race: "My FA Whitney is clearly going to be Pestilli. With his numbers 43 homers, 124 RBI’s 129 runs, 25 doubles 20 triples and only striking out only 12 times. I am biased as a Detroit guy but I just don’t really get concerned with what position someone plays and all the future stats. Bird’s had a great year, so has Layton but the margin that Pestilli has out homered the rest of the players makes me think he is the really the guy. Guess we will see next week. I’m just old school and that isn’t going to change." On the subject of the other awards, Farhat added this: "The FA Allen has gotten very close for me with Day’s recent dominate run. Lonardo has been truly outstanding and while I thought he was good I didn’t see him at the beginning of the year as the co-ace. Both get another start so we will see. The CA Whitney is clear, and the Allen is a tossup. I’m leaning to the veteran (Dick Lyons) just because he has emerged out of solid pitcher to star at 38. Hancock has been brilliant though so it may go down to the final matchup." The Chicago Herald-Examiner is overwhelming some of us old-timers with some new numbers. The bottom line is the Fed Allen race is "damn close" according to the paper. From Fangraphs and these newfangled stats most fans have never heard of: RA9-WAR is a "comprehensive statistic that estimates the number of wins a player has been worth to his team compared to a freely available player such as a minor league free agent based on his runs allowed per 9." And here it is something old Jiggs thought was dominating the news in Europe. Anyway, according to this fancy number all 3 of the co-favourites for the Federal Association Allen Award are dead even. That being Rabbit Day and Jim Lonardo of Chicago and Pittsburgh's Lefty Allen, who won the award last season. In the CA, this war thing leans towards Toronto's Joe Hancock. Here is how the leaders stack up: Code: R9-WAR LEADERS FEDERAL ASSN CONTINENTAL ASSN Rabbit Day CHI 7.6 Joe Hancock TOR 8.5 Lefty Allen PIT 7.6 Dean Astle CLE 7.9 Jim Lonardo CHI 7.6 Dick Lyons CHC 7.3 Charlie Wheeler DET 7.4 Mike Murphy BKN 6.5 Frank Crawford DET 6.4 Karl Wallace MON 5.6 In 1937, Brooklyn's Joe Shaffner had a 8.7 RA9-WAR. Hancock is essentially this season's Shaffner and could prove to be the difference maker in the pennant race. Hancock's 1937 RA9-WAR was 4.6, so an increase of 4 wins. Rabbit Day's 1936 season? 12.3 RA9-WAR (he was 25-3 with a 2.41 ERA). Al Miller's rookie season had him at 9.2 RA9-WAR, which should be enough for an Allen, but not when your team mate is at 12.3.9.2 was also Tom Barrell's 1936 RA9-WAR. Tom's father, scouting legend Rufus Barrell echoed McGee's comments as he summed up those numbers this way: "I'm probably voting for Day & Lyons. Why? Because it's 1938 and the only WAR anyone is talking about is the one that's coming in Europe." The elder Barrell added "I'll have to give Day the edge on Lonardo for the Allen. I mean, Lonardo's season has been awesome, but Day's got 26 wins (a new career high) and has just been on fire lately. Hopefully he gets one more win this season. He has a really legit shot at 300 now." The 34 year old Day's career FABL record now stands at 235-132. The way things are shaking out in Chicago means that Dick Lyons (19-6, 2.65) and Toronto's Joe Hancock(22-7, 2.89) could make their last two starts against each other. Both are 100% rested with no remaining off days for the two co-favourites to win the CA Allen Award. Will Zip Sullivan(.299,9,82) have competition for the first base slot in St Louis next season? Pod pick Jim Vaughn was very good in AA where he hit .361 in 175 PA before making the jump to AAA. In Oakland the 21 year old has hit .343 in 112 PA. Sullivan is no Fred McCormick (dealt to Montreal over the winter), nor did Pioneer management think he would be that good, but he has put up a solid season replacing McCormick. Staying with the Pioneers the St Louis Globe had the following to report: Several guys in Oakland are knocking on the Pioneers' door with no room at the table for them. What do you do with 2B Artie D'Alessandro when you have Freddie Jones manning second in the big leagues? D'Alessandro has had an impressive AAA campaign at the plate slashing .347/.487/.514. The organization moved him to third but that experiment has failed. Jones on the other hand has digressed in his slash line each of the last four seasons and with just five games left to play in 1938 he's posted a career worst 101 OPS+ to go with career worst slash numbers across the board. On the topic of pitching The Globe adds this: "The rotation will be interesting coming out of spring training next season. Dixie Lee finally pitched like he belonged there this season but veteran Sam Sheppard has been a train wreck the entire 1938 campaign. Otis Cook, Ed Cornett, and Mel Leonard will get a look as Buddy Long and David Abalo return from long term injuries. Somehow the NY Stars are 15-10 in September. Will interim cpu General Manager Tom Davis get the role full-time as his moves to bring some talented kids up such as Bill Barrett (.253,6,24) and Joe Angevine (.333,0,9) are certainly paying off? Outfielder Barrett has now played in 41 games this season (little over 25% of a season) and is basically on a 23 home run 90 RBI pace as an 18 year old. The comparison would be Red Johnson of Detroit this year who played most of this season in Detroit as a 20-year old (he will have his 21st birthday on Oct 1st so his last 2 games he will be a legal adult). Johnson is slashing .298/.425/.876 with 18 home runs, 84 RBI’s, 97 runs scored and a league leading 118 walks while striking out just 22 times. Both kids have a very bright future ahead of them. A year after guiding an injury riddled Pittsburgh squad to the pennant only to make a very controversial pitching call in Game Two that might have cost his club the Series, it sounds like the Miners are thinking of letting manager Dan Andrew go. Andrew has had another strong season with club, posting an 82-66 mark so far and is 344-264 in his four years at the helm but The Pittsburgh Press reports Andrew and his General Manager are at odds over some of his coaching staff decisions. It seemed like each spring the OSA pre-season predictions had Hank Barnett hitting 30+ home runs. And now he's finally done it. Barrett has a career high 31 homers so far this season. Overall, many of Vic Crawford's numbers were down (an OPS+ of only 95) in Montreal this season, but he managed to hit 50+ doubles for the third consecutive season. The 30 year old is batting a career low .272 with 12 homers and 88 rbi's While the La Crosse Lions are tied for first place with one game left in the minor league season, all Chicago Cougar affiliates other then the Mobile Commodores (83-56) finished in first place this season, and this includes numerous midseason callups of top prospects as well as another 10 going up the first week of September for roster expansion. Throughout the entire season, no every-day player was older then 26, so it wasn't just washed out FABL players winning games, it was mostly a collection of young prospects. The big league team hasn't looked that great during the year, but with five more wins, all teams in the organization will finish with 80 or more wins. Only the Sailors can have all teams finishing above .500, but it was close for them as the AA Providence Sailors finished just 71-69, and their unstoppable AAA team (103-37) only sports four players aged 26 or younger. With any sort of luck or consistency the Brooklyn Kings should be celebrating their 5th straight CA pennant right about now. Brooklyn lost to Cleveland by 1 game in both '35 and '36 and appears headed to another 'close call but no cigar' season this time around. The Kings 467 wins (with a week to play this season) over the past 5 seasons is 22 better than then next highest team and this year will likely be the first of those seasons they fail to reach the 90 win mark. The Kings failures down the stretch have been well documented and take away from what truly has been an otherwise remarkable run for a team long considered a Continental Association also-ran. The Kings will almost assuredly fall just short of 90 wins, and doing something never accomplished in FABL history: no franchise has ever had 5 straight seasons of 90 wins. Even the great Minutemen club of the first decade of this century only had 3 straight 90 win seasons. The 1931-33 Cougars, 34-36 Foresters, 14-16 Saints, 1899-1901 Miners also had 3 straight 90-win seasons but only the 1935-38 Kings look to have had 4 such years in a row - and they only won 2 pennants in those 4 years. There is plenty of talk going through the borough of Brooklyn on just how bad this collapse has been, and make no mistake it is awful to watch the team throw away a 10 game lead in the final five weeks of the season, but before one starts to clamor for major changes like a blockbuster deal or the ousting of the GM and and his manager, one should pause for a moment and think just what this club has accomplished the past half decade - and how little they accomplished in the multiple decades before this one. Long-time TWIFB contributor Percy Sutherland, who goes back to the old days before the rebrand when it was known as the Figment Sporting Journal, has been looking at a number of advanced stats in his new role with the Chicago Herald-Examiner. Percy shares some thoughts on RBI's and their bearing on the Whitney Award: I was looking a little more closely at RBI. I find this interesting; maybe I'm the only one. Pestilli has 124 RBI, and Bird has 103. Is Pestilli a 20% better hitter than Bird? I don't think anyone would say that. So let's dig a little deeper. Pestilli has been up with 144 runners in scoring position. The 124 RBI includes driving himself in with 43 home runs. So we can remove the home runs and say that Pestilli drove in (124 - 43) / 144 = 0.563 = 56.3% of the runners in scoring position. Bird has come to the plate with 137 runners in scoring position. Bird's 103 RBI includes 21 home runs. So removing the home runs, Bird drove in (103 - 21) / 137 = 0.599 = 59.9% of his runners in scoring position. So they are pretty close, but Bird is slightly better this season, which is pretty much what wRC+ is also telling us--Bird is slightly better. And really Bird is performing slightly better than everyone else in the Fed this season. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 09/25/1938 In an effort to avoid a full war in Europe Britain and France agree to support Hitler's demand for annexation of part of Sudeten. With only the Soviets standing by their side, the Czechs surrender to Hitler's demands. Official communique from Prague states "pressure from both the British and French governments forced (Czechs) to accept with pain the proposal." While Chamberlain and Hitler meet to iron out the details of the partition of Czechoslovakia, the Czech cabinet resigns en masse in the face of rising public indignation over it's 'capitulation" to the Anglo-French proposal to ceded Sudeten land to Germany laying the groundwork for a new military government in Prague. With the details not progressing as quickly as he desires, German forces advance into Czech territory and Hitler gives the Czechs an October 1st deadline to withdraw from the Sudeten region or "accept the consequences". French troops along their border with Germany are doubled up after learning a hitch has occurred in talks between Chamberlain and Hitler. Belgium and Romania also mobilized their armies. Moscow warns Poland if Polish troops invade Czechoslovakia, Russia would cancel it's non-aggression pact with the Poles. On Wall Street, News from Europe sends stocks tumbling following a large liquidation. 54 die and 39 missing as a hurricane strikes Long Island. For the first time during the regular season a baseball team will fly rather than take the train as the St Louis Pioneers are set to head to New York by air following their home game Monday for a series with the Gothams. (Note - in real life 19 Cardinals flew from Boston to Newark and then took a train to Chicago with the remainder heading to New York by boat. The largest previous flight was last season when a half dozen Red Sox flew from St Louis to Chicago during a hot spell.) __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 09-11-2021 at 01:35 PM.