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Jiggs McGee · 11-16-2021, 12:33 PM

SEPTEMBER 25, 1939

ONE FOR THE MINERS

The Pittsburgh Miners shut out the Detroit Dynamos 2-0 yesterday in the opener of a crucial two game set between the two contenders for the Federal Association pennant. It was a terrific pitching duel between the co-favorites for this year's Allen Award and Lefty Allen (22-7, 3.29) beat Frank Crawford (23-6, 2.58) with both pitching complete game 5-hitters. No the award is not named after Lefty - that honor actually goes to Double Al, former pitching legend Al Allen- but Lefty already has one of the awards on his mantle and with a 5-0 record in 6 September starts. 0.98 ERA, 34:9 K:BB ratio so he is charging hard for a second one.

Allen was terrific yesterday, allowing only one Detroit base runner to reach as far as second until getting in to a bit of trouble in the ninth inning with runners on the corners before inducing a game ending double play ground out from Leon Drake to preserve the shutout. Crawford was nearly as good but a slow start proved his, and Detroit's, undoing. After Crawford retired Joe Owens to start the game the Miners spanked out 4 straight singles which combined with a walk to John Turner allowed Pittsburgh to plate both their runs in the bottom of the first. Crawford would be outstanding the rest of the way allowing just one more baserunner the entire game but Allen kept the Detroit offense in check preserving the 2-0 Miners victory, allowing Pittsburgh to creep to within a half game of the first place Dynamos.

Pittsburgh won 6 of 7 games last week while the Dynamos had to settle for a 3-3 record making today's game between the two clubs extremely important. For the Miners a victory would move them back into first place for the first time since the morning of July 11th, the day they were tied for top spot with Boston before dropping both ends of a twin bill to the Minutemen. Up to that point the Miners had been in top spot virtually the entire first half of the season.

Following today's contest with Detroit the Miners have 12 games remaining with 3 in Boston and the other 9 against the bottom three clubs in the Fed. Detroit might have it slightly easier with all 11 of their remaining contests beyond today's Pittsburgh matchup with clubs presently in the second division.

Over in the Continental Association things remained status quo as both Cleveland and the New York Stars went 4-2 last week leaving the Foresters still holding a 3.5 game lead. The two clubs meet on the shores of Lake Erie for a crucial 3-game series beginning Tuesday.

BUFFALO MAKES IT'S PITCH

It must be very nice indeed to be Baltimore Cannons owner Oscar Banner. He sits, like a fat spider in the middle of its web, trying to decide which juicy fly to grab. One strand holds Cincinnati, once the key member of a major baseball league and now looking to return to the big time. Another thread leads to Milwaukee, whose mayor has already gone on record as saying the city would foot the bill to expand their ballpark to accommodate big league baseball. The longest thread leads all the way to New Orleans where a group has pledged their city would be big league all the way should the Cannons come down N'awlins' way.

Big the strand that thrummed the loudest this week is the one labeled "Buffalo" another city that once upon a team did hold big league aspirations (and a club to match) and is looking to get back into the fast lane. While his city's Triple-A Buffalo Nickels (affiliated with the Toronto Wolves whose den is just over 100 road miles away in Ontario) are mired in last place in the Union League, Buffalo Mayor Thomas Holling commented publicly on his belief that the best destination for the Cannons is his city.

"We have, bar none, the best location of any of the prospective cities mentioned by Mr. Banner," Holling told reporters in an informal meeting at City Hall. "We have the Wolves right across Lake Ontario. And then we have the Cleveland Foresters nestled along the shore of Lake Erie... a shore we share. A Battle of Lake Erie, would be one the fans would enjoy."

He then referenced that the distance from his city to the Continental Association's eastern clubs is far more advantageous than, say, Milwaukee or Cincinnati. He openly scoffed at New Orleans' bid. "Not a chance," he said with a dismissive wave. "Look, we sit a lot closer to the majority of CA clubs than the other cities. New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Montreal are all much closer to us here in Buffalo. The only advantage for Milwaukee is Chicago and for Cincinnati, it's Cleveland. Otherwise, we beat 'em all, hands down."

Having displayed his grasp of baseball geography, the mayor then addressed the financial aspect. "Buffalo Memorial Stadium is much closer to FABL standards than the parks in Milwaukee or Cincinnati. New Orleans? Please..." He paused a moment and then said that he had the backing of City Council to put a second deck on Memorial Stadium, noting that this would increase seating from the current 22,000 to "somewhere around 40,000. And we'd fill those seats, never you fear."

Down in Maryland all this talk likely put an even bigger smile on Banner's face. With no less than four cities lining up for his team, not to mention his own city's desire to keep them - and a local group willing to pay to do it, Banner is in a power position. Not too shabby for a fellow whose team hasn't sniffed the first division in nearly a decade.

SLOCUM GIVEN OKAY
Reports out of Brooklyn indicate that Kings owner Daniel Prescott has quietly given manager Powell Slocum the okay to join the Cannons organization if the group Slocum is involved with is successful in purchasing the club and keeping it in Baltimore. Slocum, who has managed the Kings to three straight Continental Association pennants, is a Baltimore legend and baseball's all-time hits leader. He has two years remaining on his contract with Brooklyn after this season but with the Kings struggling and seemingly in the midst of a rebuild Prescott felt Slocum deserved the opportunity to return to Baltimore if he so chose.

TWIFB WAY TOO EARLY 1940 MOCK DRAFT FIRST ROUND

Things will certainly change between now and January and there will be 40 additional players when the draft pool is finalized but if the draft was held today here are the players TWIFB projects to comprise the first round of the draft. This list is based primarily on the OSA scouting reports. For a complete bio on each of the players on this list feel free to scan through earlier editions of TWIFB when we did a detailed breakdown of top college and high school players.

Jimmie J Walker, a Pennsylvania outfielder that hit .512 last season in his high school baseball debut, tops the list. The 17 year old (he turns 18 next month) from Linwood High is a player OSA could see making multiple trips to the All-Star Game.

Here is the complete first round as we see it now:

Code:

 #  NAME		POS  AGE   SCHOOL		HOMETOWN
 1  Jimmie J Walker	OF   17	 Linwood (PA) HS	Linwood, PA
 2  Bill Sohl		RHP  20  Lane State Univ.	Portland, OR
 3  Dick Blaszak	OF   17  Morris HS, Bronx NY	New York, NY
 4  Bill Barnett	1B   17  Brunswick (OH) HS	Brunswick, OH
 5  John Moss		OF   17  Lexington (KY) HS	Lexington, KY
 6  Tom Landowkski      SS   21  St Magnus Univ.	Rice Lake, WI
 7  Joe Rutherford       OF   16  Chillicothe (OH) HS     Middletown, OH
 8  Mel Haynes          RHP  17  Princeton (NJ) HS	Garfield, NJ
 9  John Graves		OF   20  Detroit City College   New Philadelphia, PA
10  Tucker Ness		C    20  Boston State Univ.     Rochester, NY
11  Bill Trawler        RHP  19  Coastal State Univ.    Columbus, GA
12  Andy Howell         RHP  18  Hamilton HS, Brooklyn  New York, NY
13  George P Taylor     C    16  Columbus (TX) HS	Columbus, TX
14  Bob Crowley	  	LHP  18  Ft. Lee (NJ) HS	Fort Lee, NJ
15  Bill Grove		3B   16  Swedesboro (NJ) HS	Swedesboro, NJ
16  Joe Lund		RHP  17  Bennington (VY) HS     Bennington, VT

QUICK HITS

Congratulations to Jim Lonardo. The four-time Allen Award winner picked up career victory #200 on Saturday, pacing the Chicago Cougars past the New York Stars 6-3. "I'm real fortunate that I had the opportunity to play with such good players during my career," said Lonardo who's lifetime record is now 200-143. He joined the Cougars this season in a trade from the Chicago Chiefs but the 34 year old spent the bulk of his career with the New York Gothams.
Joe Owens' 28 game hitting streak, the longest in the majors this season, came to an end on Friday when he went 0-for-4 against the Chiefs. The 27 year old Owens (.340,9,51) is second to teammate George Cleaves (.344,18,117) in the Federal Association batting race.
Toronto's Frank McCormick (.393,37,116) seems almost assured to win the CA triple crown and if so it would only be the second time the CA has had a triple crown winner, following Al Wheeler's 1935 season for Brooklyn. The Fed has a had a seven of them including 3 each for Max Morris and Rankin Kellogg and one for Fred Roby in 1894.
McCormick's last 12 months--1938 Whitney, All-Star Game MVP, and now on the verge of a triple crown season and surely another Whitney. Keep in mind he was an 11th round draft pick...by the Gothams in 1927 and was a key prospect in the deal that brought Max Morris from St Louis to New York.
You are likely thinking McCormick has to be far and away the best 11th round pick ever made but he actually has some competition as the 11th round has had some breakout stars through the year although McCormick is still the pick of the crop. Chiefs long-time star Jim Hampton was taken by the club in the 11th round of the 1920 draft. Pittsburgh nabbed Ed Stewart in 1926 and Boston picked up Chick Donnelly in 1929.
Have to wonder how a team with the least runs against, lowest starting pitcher ERA and lowest bullpen ERA plus a triple crown winner leading the offense sits in 6th place in the CA but that's where the Toronto Wolves find themselves? The supporting cast around McCormick needs an upgrade but 24 year old rookie Walt Pack (.358,10,46 in half a season) is a great start.
Montréal objective to play over .500 for the first time in last decade still motivating the troops with one game over and two weeks left in calendar. Third base Prospect Spud Bent still showing he can play on regular basis batting for 400 last week. Burns which is a better defender all around was move to 2B to see how good he can be at the 2B position.
Hard times in Brooklyn. On August 3rd the Kings beat the Cougars to extend a winning streak at the time to 7 games and their record to 49-43 which would prove to be the high water mark on the year. Since then Brooklyn has posted a 13-34 record including going 4-16 in September and 0-6 last week. Bad Septembers are nothing new for the Kings but what is new is Brooklyn is only 3 games out of last place. The Kings have never finished last in the human GM era, in fact only finished as low as 6th once and out of the first division just 3 times in the 13 previous seasons of the so called modern era. The last time Brooklyn had a top two pick in the draft (not counting by trade) was 1925 when they ended up trading down to 6th and selected Doug Lightbody.
The Kings have a decent 40-35 record at home but are 22-42 on the road, the worst record away from home in either association.
its a real possibility no one in the CA ends up above 90 wins. The Foresters need to go 10-4 to finish out the season to get to 90.
The Chiefs are 3 back of the Pioneers for the 4th position. Chicago and St. Louis will play one another 6 times over the last two weeks. It also looks likely that the Chiefs will be unable to avoid a sub .500 season--their first since 1934.
Something must have clicked for Al Miller. After being pushed to the top of the pitching depth chart by the Chiefs scouts, Miller went out and threw two gems: a 1-hit shutout against Washington and a 1-0 loss in 10 innings against Boston. In 18.2 IP last week, Miller gave up 6 hits and 1 run.
All Boston has left is individual accomplishments to look forward to. They would like to get to 84 wins, (they are 7 shy at the moment) because that would make then 20 games better than the BNN pre-season prediction. Also, Minutemen brass would like to see Bob Donoghue get to 40 bombs (leads the Fed with 34 right now). Mack Sutton is one away from 20 and that would be cool as well for his rookie season although the Minutemen remain concerned about Sutton's .223 batting average and privately some within the organization worry they might have been better served letting him spend another season in AAA.
Tough break for Washington's Eddie Quinn, who suffered a serious arm injury last week. It not only ended the best season of the 33 year old's career prematurely but also cost him any chance at winning the Allen Award for the first time in his career. Quinn was 20-10 with a 3.31 era on the year - his first time ever winning twenty. The two starts prior to the injury Quinn had his two worst appearances of the season, getting lit up for 8 earned runs on 15 hits from Boston and then not surviving the fourth inning of an 11-9 loss to Pittsburgh, which leads to speculation he was hurting in those games but did not disclose it to the club. Quinn did tweak his back in August which was the first injury of any sort of his entire big league career.
So, hey, the Gothams got to 60 wins. Just need one over the last 12 to show "progress" for the third consecutive season. Yes, this has been painfully slow. Slow but not unexpected. Detroit went 43-54-63 during there rebuild before jumping to 94 last year. There are very few quick fixes.
Bennie Conover is the latest San Francisco Hawks player to make noise. The 33 year old pitcher tossed a no-hitter in the AAA Great Western League last week, blanking Los Angeles 3-0. Conover spent parts of 5 seasons in the big leagues with the Sailors, Stars and Toronto, fashioning an 11-20 career mark.
Joe Watson (.354,10,83) is a nice example of a late bloomer that is every GM's nightmare. The 30 year old Watson was a waiver pickup for the Philadelphia Sailors from Baltimore three years ago. However, before we pile on Baltimore, Watson had not done much as a 23 or 24 year old in Baltimore. His age 25 season was a respectable 2.3 WAR but the very next year he had a terribly slow start and must have been relegated to the bench as he only amassed 106 PA's and hit just .170. Maybe this is a case of letting a guy not work through a slump or maybe it was one of those things where the GM was like well he is 26 and hasn't done a ton I'm going to waive him. The Sailors pounced and acquired him as a 27 year old in '37 where he hit .278 and posted a 1.4 WAR in 115 games. Pretty solid for a waiver pick up. The next year he was better. In less games though he posted a 2.4 WAR. So maybe even Philly had some reservations about him as a full time player. This year in his age 29 season he has been good for a whopping 5.1 WAR and made the All-Star team for the first time in his career. A late bloomer for sure.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 09/24/1939

Soviet troops are now occupying cities close to Warsaw as they see an opportunity to claim Polish land as defenses are weakened by Nazi attack. The Reich says Germany and Russia have a pact to split Poland.
In a defiant speech Hitler claims to have no war intention against either England or France but vows to defend itself even if the fight last seven years, adding "we will bomb against bomb, not only one but 800 bombs." Hitler declares once Russia and Germany settle the Polish situation he expects that will result in the "removal of tensions" with Britain and France.
As Warsaw's mayor makes frantic calls for help from Britain and France on the 12th day of the city's devastating siege, the Allied powers vow to continue the struggle "for restoration of (Poland's) liberties."
Germany reports General Werner von Fritsch, one of the country's greatest military strategists was killed in action on the Warsaw front.
Nazi U-boat torpedoes and sinks a British aircraft carrier in the waters off England.
President Roosevelt stated this week that foreign submarines had been sighted off the coasts of both Alaska and New England, confirming their positions were close enough to the United States to affect this country's interests.

11-16-2021, 12:33 PM	#287
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	September 1939 SEPTEMBER 25, 1939 ONE FOR THE MINERS The Pittsburgh Miners shut out the Detroit Dynamos 2-0 yesterday in the opener of a crucial two game set between the two contenders for the Federal Association pennant. It was a terrific pitching duel between the co-favorites for this year's Allen Award and Lefty Allen (22-7, 3.29) beat Frank Crawford (23-6, 2.58) with both pitching complete game 5-hitters. No the award is not named after Lefty - that honor actually goes to Double Al, former pitching legend Al Allen- but Lefty already has one of the awards on his mantle and with a 5-0 record in 6 September starts. 0.98 ERA, 34:9 K:BB ratio so he is charging hard for a second one. Allen was terrific yesterday, allowing only one Detroit base runner to reach as far as second until getting in to a bit of trouble in the ninth inning with runners on the corners before inducing a game ending double play ground out from Leon Drake to preserve the shutout. Crawford was nearly as good but a slow start proved his, and Detroit's, undoing. After Crawford retired Joe Owens to start the game the Miners spanked out 4 straight singles which combined with a walk to John Turner allowed Pittsburgh to plate both their runs in the bottom of the first. Crawford would be outstanding the rest of the way allowing just one more baserunner the entire game but Allen kept the Detroit offense in check preserving the 2-0 Miners victory, allowing Pittsburgh to creep to within a half game of the first place Dynamos. Pittsburgh won 6 of 7 games last week while the Dynamos had to settle for a 3-3 record making today's game between the two clubs extremely important. For the Miners a victory would move them back into first place for the first time since the morning of July 11th, the day they were tied for top spot with Boston before dropping both ends of a twin bill to the Minutemen. Up to that point the Miners had been in top spot virtually the entire first half of the season. Following today's contest with Detroit the Miners have 12 games remaining with 3 in Boston and the other 9 against the bottom three clubs in the Fed. Detroit might have it slightly easier with all 11 of their remaining contests beyond today's Pittsburgh matchup with clubs presently in the second division. Over in the Continental Association things remained status quo as both Cleveland and the New York Stars went 4-2 last week leaving the Foresters still holding a 3.5 game lead. The two clubs meet on the shores of Lake Erie for a crucial 3-game series beginning Tuesday. BUFFALO MAKES IT'S PITCH It must be very nice indeed to be Baltimore Cannons owner Oscar Banner. He sits, like a fat spider in the middle of its web, trying to decide which juicy fly to grab. One strand holds Cincinnati, once the key member of a major baseball league and now looking to return to the big time. Another thread leads to Milwaukee, whose mayor has already gone on record as saying the city would foot the bill to expand their ballpark to accommodate big league baseball. The longest thread leads all the way to New Orleans where a group has pledged their city would be big league all the way should the Cannons come down N'awlins' way. Big the strand that thrummed the loudest this week is the one labeled "Buffalo" another city that once upon a team did hold big league aspirations (and a club to match) and is looking to get back into the fast lane. While his city's Triple-A Buffalo Nickels (affiliated with the Toronto Wolves whose den is just over 100 road miles away in Ontario) are mired in last place in the Union League, Buffalo Mayor Thomas Holling commented publicly on his belief that the best destination for the Cannons is his city. "We have, bar none, the best location of any of the prospective cities mentioned by Mr. Banner," Holling told reporters in an informal meeting at City Hall. "We have the Wolves right across Lake Ontario. And then we have the Cleveland Foresters nestled along the shore of Lake Erie... a shore we share. A Battle of Lake Erie, would be one the fans would enjoy." He then referenced that the distance from his city to the Continental Association's eastern clubs is far more advantageous than, say, Milwaukee or Cincinnati. He openly scoffed at New Orleans' bid. "Not a chance," he said with a dismissive wave. "Look, we sit a lot closer to the majority of CA clubs than the other cities. New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Montreal are all much closer to us here in Buffalo. The only advantage for Milwaukee is Chicago and for Cincinnati, it's Cleveland. Otherwise, we beat 'em all, hands down." Having displayed his grasp of baseball geography, the mayor then addressed the financial aspect. "Buffalo Memorial Stadium is much closer to FABL standards than the parks in Milwaukee or Cincinnati. New Orleans? Please..." He paused a moment and then said that he had the backing of City Council to put a second deck on Memorial Stadium, noting that this would increase seating from the current 22,000 to "somewhere around 40,000. And we'd fill those seats, never you fear." Down in Maryland all this talk likely put an even bigger smile on Banner's face. With no less than four cities lining up for his team, not to mention his own city's desire to keep them - and a local group willing to pay to do it, Banner is in a power position. Not too shabby for a fellow whose team hasn't sniffed the first division in nearly a decade. SLOCUM GIVEN OKAY Reports out of Brooklyn indicate that Kings owner Daniel Prescott has quietly given manager Powell Slocum the okay to join the Cannons organization if the group Slocum is involved with is successful in purchasing the club and keeping it in Baltimore. Slocum, who has managed the Kings to three straight Continental Association pennants, is a Baltimore legend and baseball's all-time hits leader. He has two years remaining on his contract with Brooklyn after this season but with the Kings struggling and seemingly in the midst of a rebuild Prescott felt Slocum deserved the opportunity to return to Baltimore if he so chose. TWIFB WAY TOO EARLY 1940 MOCK DRAFT FIRST ROUND Things will certainly change between now and January and there will be 40 additional players when the draft pool is finalized but if the draft was held today here are the players TWIFB projects to comprise the first round of the draft. This list is based primarily on the OSA scouting reports. For a complete bio on each of the players on this list feel free to scan through earlier editions of TWIFB when we did a detailed breakdown of top college and high school players. Jimmie J Walker, a Pennsylvania outfielder that hit .512 last season in his high school baseball debut, tops the list. The 17 year old (he turns 18 next month) from Linwood High is a player OSA could see making multiple trips to the All-Star Game. Here is the complete first round as we see it now: Code: # NAME POS AGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN 1 Jimmie J Walker OF 17 Linwood (PA) HS Linwood, PA 2 Bill Sohl RHP 20 Lane State Univ. Portland, OR 3 Dick Blaszak OF 17 Morris HS, Bronx NY New York, NY 4 Bill Barnett 1B 17 Brunswick (OH) HS Brunswick, OH 5 John Moss OF 17 Lexington (KY) HS Lexington, KY 6 Tom Landowkski SS 21 St Magnus Univ. Rice Lake, WI 7 Joe Rutherford OF 16 Chillicothe (OH) HS Middletown, OH 8 Mel Haynes RHP 17 Princeton (NJ) HS Garfield, NJ 9 John Graves OF 20 Detroit City College New Philadelphia, PA 10 Tucker Ness C 20 Boston State Univ. Rochester, NY 11 Bill Trawler RHP 19 Coastal State Univ. Columbus, GA 12 Andy Howell RHP 18 Hamilton HS, Brooklyn New York, NY 13 George P Taylor C 16 Columbus (TX) HS Columbus, TX 14 Bob Crowley LHP 18 Ft. Lee (NJ) HS Fort Lee, NJ 15 Bill Grove 3B 16 Swedesboro (NJ) HS Swedesboro, NJ 16 Joe Lund RHP 17 Bennington (VY) HS Bennington, VT QUICK HITS Congratulations to Jim Lonardo. The four-time Allen Award winner picked up career victory #200 on Saturday, pacing the Chicago Cougars past the New York Stars 6-3. "I'm real fortunate that I had the opportunity to play with such good players during my career," said Lonardo who's lifetime record is now 200-143. He joined the Cougars this season in a trade from the Chicago Chiefs but the 34 year old spent the bulk of his career with the New York Gothams. Joe Owens' 28 game hitting streak, the longest in the majors this season, came to an end on Friday when he went 0-for-4 against the Chiefs. The 27 year old Owens (.340,9,51) is second to teammate George Cleaves (.344,18,117) in the Federal Association batting race. Toronto's Frank McCormick (.393,37,116) seems almost assured to win the CA triple crown and if so it would only be the second time the CA has had a triple crown winner, following Al Wheeler's 1935 season for Brooklyn. The Fed has a had a seven of them including 3 each for Max Morris and Rankin Kellogg and one for Fred Roby in 1894. McCormick's last 12 months--1938 Whitney, All-Star Game MVP, and now on the verge of a triple crown season and surely another Whitney. Keep in mind he was an 11th round draft pick...by the Gothams in 1927 and was a key prospect in the deal that brought Max Morris from St Louis to New York. You are likely thinking McCormick has to be far and away the best 11th round pick ever made but he actually has some competition as the 11th round has had some breakout stars through the year although McCormick is still the pick of the crop. Chiefs long-time star Jim Hampton was taken by the club in the 11th round of the 1920 draft. Pittsburgh nabbed Ed Stewart in 1926 and Boston picked up Chick Donnelly in 1929. Have to wonder how a team with the least runs against, lowest starting pitcher ERA and lowest bullpen ERA plus a triple crown winner leading the offense sits in 6th place in the CA but that's where the Toronto Wolves find themselves? The supporting cast around McCormick needs an upgrade but 24 year old rookie Walt Pack (.358,10,46 in half a season) is a great start. Montréal objective to play over .500 for the first time in last decade still motivating the troops with one game over and two weeks left in calendar. Third base Prospect Spud Bent still showing he can play on regular basis batting for 400 last week. Burns which is a better defender all around was move to 2B to see how good he can be at the 2B position. Hard times in Brooklyn. On August 3rd the Kings beat the Cougars to extend a winning streak at the time to 7 games and their record to 49-43 which would prove to be the high water mark on the year. Since then Brooklyn has posted a 13-34 record including going 4-16 in September and 0-6 last week. Bad Septembers are nothing new for the Kings but what is new is Brooklyn is only 3 games out of last place. The Kings have never finished last in the human GM era, in fact only finished as low as 6th once and out of the first division just 3 times in the 13 previous seasons of the so called modern era. The last time Brooklyn had a top two pick in the draft (not counting by trade) was 1925 when they ended up trading down to 6th and selected Doug Lightbody. The Kings have a decent 40-35 record at home but are 22-42 on the road, the worst record away from home in either association. its a real possibility no one in the CA ends up above 90 wins. The Foresters need to go 10-4 to finish out the season to get to 90. The Chiefs are 3 back of the Pioneers for the 4th position. Chicago and St. Louis will play one another 6 times over the last two weeks. It also looks likely that the Chiefs will be unable to avoid a sub .500 season--their first since 1934. Something must have clicked for Al Miller. After being pushed to the top of the pitching depth chart by the Chiefs scouts, Miller went out and threw two gems: a 1-hit shutout against Washington and a 1-0 loss in 10 innings against Boston. In 18.2 IP last week, Miller gave up 6 hits and 1 run. All Boston has left is individual accomplishments to look forward to. They would like to get to 84 wins, (they are 7 shy at the moment) because that would make then 20 games better than the BNN pre-season prediction. Also, Minutemen brass would like to see Bob Donoghue get to 40 bombs (leads the Fed with 34 right now). Mack Sutton is one away from 20 and that would be cool as well for his rookie season although the Minutemen remain concerned about Sutton's .223 batting average and privately some within the organization worry they might have been better served letting him spend another season in AAA. Tough break for Washington's Eddie Quinn, who suffered a serious arm injury last week. It not only ended the best season of the 33 year old's career prematurely but also cost him any chance at winning the Allen Award for the first time in his career. Quinn was 20-10 with a 3.31 era on the year - his first time ever winning twenty. The two starts prior to the injury Quinn had his two worst appearances of the season, getting lit up for 8 earned runs on 15 hits from Boston and then not surviving the fourth inning of an 11-9 loss to Pittsburgh, which leads to speculation he was hurting in those games but did not disclose it to the club. Quinn did tweak his back in August which was the first injury of any sort of his entire big league career. So, hey, the Gothams got to 60 wins. Just need one over the last 12 to show "progress" for the third consecutive season. Yes, this has been painfully slow. Slow but not unexpected. Detroit went 43-54-63 during there rebuild before jumping to 94 last year. There are very few quick fixes. Bennie Conover is the latest San Francisco Hawks player to make noise. The 33 year old pitcher tossed a no-hitter in the AAA Great Western League last week, blanking Los Angeles 3-0. Conover spent parts of 5 seasons in the big leagues with the Sailors, Stars and Toronto, fashioning an 11-20 career mark. Joe Watson (.354,10,83) is a nice example of a late bloomer that is every GM's nightmare. The 30 year old Watson was a waiver pickup for the Philadelphia Sailors from Baltimore three years ago. However, before we pile on Baltimore, Watson had not done much as a 23 or 24 year old in Baltimore. His age 25 season was a respectable 2.3 WAR but the very next year he had a terribly slow start and must have been relegated to the bench as he only amassed 106 PA's and hit just .170. Maybe this is a case of letting a guy not work through a slump or maybe it was one of those things where the GM was like well he is 26 and hasn't done a ton I'm going to waive him. The Sailors pounced and acquired him as a 27 year old in '37 where he hit .278 and posted a 1.4 WAR in 115 games. Pretty solid for a waiver pick up. The next year he was better. In less games though he posted a 2.4 WAR. So maybe even Philly had some reservations about him as a full time player. This year in his age 29 season he has been good for a whopping 5.1 WAR and made the All-Star team for the first time in his career. A late bloomer for sure. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 09/24/1939 Soviet troops are now occupying cities close to Warsaw as they see an opportunity to claim Polish land as defenses are weakened by Nazi attack. The Reich says Germany and Russia have a pact to split Poland. In a defiant speech Hitler claims to have no war intention against either England or France but vows to defend itself even if the fight last seven years, adding "we will bomb against bomb, not only one but 800 bombs." Hitler declares once Russia and Germany settle the Polish situation he expects that will result in the "removal of tensions" with Britain and France. As Warsaw's mayor makes frantic calls for help from Britain and France on the 12th day of the city's devastating siege, the Allied powers vow to continue the struggle "for restoration of (Poland's) liberties." Germany reports General Werner von Fritsch, one of the country's greatest military strategists was killed in action on the Warsaw front. Nazi U-boat torpedoes and sinks a British aircraft carrier in the waters off England. President Roosevelt stated this week that foreign submarines had been sighted off the coasts of both Alaska and New England, confirming their positions were close enough to the United States to affect this country's interests. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports