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Jiggs McGee · 11-20-2021, 02:15 PM

OCTOBER 16, 1939

STARSTRUCK!

NEW YORK BATS BURY MINERS IN SERIES SWEEP

The New York Stars completed an almost unbelievable season in equally astounding fashion by sweeping the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Miners in four games to win the World Championship Series. It completes a dramatic turnaround for a club that looked to have completely lost it's way when it cleaned house and fired much of it's front-office last August. Only a late charge under an interim GM and the fact that the laughable Baltimore Cannons are also in the Continental Association prevented the Stars from being the worst team in the CA just 12 short months ago. Now, they are the best team in baseball as they made it look easy against the supposedly mighty Pittsburgh Miners. New York bats, led by both the oldest player in the league in 41 year old Dave Trowbridge and the youngest in 19 year old Bill Barrett, made the powerful Pittsburgh pitching staff look like a bunch of high school kids in hitting .373 as a team against the Miners and outscoring the vaunted Pittsburgh offense 31-16.

Entering the series few gave the Stars a chance at all. The key phrase in reference to the Stars series chances was "How could they?" As in how could the Stars pitching staff, slanting heavily to righthanders, handle the Miners incredible offense and it's collection of lefthanded hitters? Or how could the Stars possibly find success against the dominant Pittsburgh rotation of Lefty Allen, Charlie Stedman and Karl Johnson? Finally, just how could the Stars hope to fare well at Fitzpatrick Park, where the hometown Miners were a FABL best 54-23? New York gave a resounding answer of "That's how!" to each of those questions

The Stars went 2-0 at Fitzpatrick Park to open the series and easily handled the Pittsburgh lineup with the lone exception of Mahlon Strong, who had a terrific series for the Miners. And as for Lefty Allen, things could not have go better for the Stars or worse for the 25 year old southpaw. Allen got rocked twice and finished the series with a 8.53 era which, as it turned out would end up being a full run better than Charlie Stedman's line from his only start. Karl Johnson pitched a solid game three but it was not good enough as the New York bats wore him down and pulled out a comeback win.

Everything all the so-called experts in the media said about the limitations of the Stars, both during the season and in the WCS, were disproved by a New York team that just seemed destined to win it all.

At 41 years of age veteran New York first baseman Dave Trowbridge, who began his career in Pittsburgh but has been Star through some great seasons (WCS wins in 1932 and again this year) and some very lean years (pretty well everything in between those Series wins) but he had clearly the greatest regular season ever posted by a player over the age of 40 (.351,18,113) followed by an outstanding World Championship Series (9-for-15 with a double, a homerun, 2 rbi's, 4 walks and 5 runs scored). Perhaps it should have been expected as Trowbridge entered this Series 10-for-18 all-time in post-season play. His .576 career series batting average falls two shy of the minimum 40 plate appearances otherwise it would be considered the highest career World Series total of all-time.

In 1932 Dave Trowbridge had 9 rbi's as the Stars swept the Philadelphia Keystones to win the Series that year. Only two players in FABL history have driven in at least 9 runs in a Series that only went 4 games. The second one was Bill Barrett, who equaled Trowbridge's total with 9 this series and perhaps that is a perfect link between the two stars, separated in age by nearly 22 years, but linked in their contribution to the most surprising World Championship victory in Stars history. And they have a lot of them....8 in all counting this victory which is the most in FABL history. The Miners also lead FABL in a WCS category, but it is defeats as Pittsburgh has been to 8 of them but this year marks the 7th time in those 8 Series appearances that the Miners have come up short, and they are now riding an 8 game losing streak in WCS play with this sweep combined with dropping the last 4 games of the 1937 series to Brooklyn after winning the opener that year.

Barrett with his 9 rbi's was named the Series Most Valuable Player. The 19 year old phenom who was playing high school ball just over a year ago, hit .500 (9-for-18) with 4 extra base hits including a homerun to go with those 9 rbi's.

HOW IMPRESSIVE WAS STARS TURNAROUND?

The New York Stars become just the third team in FABL history to win a World Championship Series title after finishing as low as 6th place the previous season. The Stars were just 71-83 and finished 6th in the Continental Association a full 19 games back of front-running Brooklyn a year ago. The 1922 Chicago Cougars also won the Series after a 6th place finish the previous season but in truth the 1921 Cougars were not a bad team as they actually finished a game over .500 in an incredibly balanced CA that season.

That leaves the 1907 Baltimore Clippers (now Cannons) as the only club to stage a more impressive single season turnaround to claim a WCS title. The 1906 Clippers won just 70 games and ended up 25 back of the pennant winning New York Stars. However, a year later the Clippers jumped to 102 wins and completely dominated the CA before beating Pittsburgh in 6 to win the first of two straight World Titles. That Clippers turnaround was keyed by the arrival of a pair of 19 year old's in future Hall of Famer Mike Marner, who would post an astounding 34-12 record with a 0.74 era as a rookie, and Jimmy Redpath, a one year wonder who would win 25 games that season as a teenager but never pitch again. That club also had a breakout season from another future Hall of Famer as Powell Slocum, at age 20 and in his third FABL season, won the first of what would be 15 Continental Association batting titles.

Code:

TEAMS TO FINISH 6TH OR WORSE THE YEAR PRIOR TO WINNING WCS

YEAR   TEAM      PREVIOUS SEASON RECORD
1907  Baltimore    6th place 25 games back
1939  Stars        6th place 19 games back
1922  Cougars      6th place  4 games but .503 winning percentage

 PENNANT WINNERS BUT LOST IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
YEAR   TEAM      PREVIOUS SEASON RECORD
1930  Gothams      8th place 29  games
1898  Pittbsurgh   6th place 30  games
1907  Pittsburgh   6th place 19.5 games
1919  Montreal     6th place 12.5 games

The Week That Was
Current events from the weekend of 10/13 - 10/16/1939

German torpedoes sink one of Britain's largest battleships killing 800 sailors. According to Berlin it is the fifth British warship to be destroyed by German subs. France claims that 17 German U-boats have been sunk since the start of the war.
German fliers attempted to bomb an Edinburgh naval base but 5 were shot down and the rest repulsed by the Royal Air Force.
Russia eases off on demands of Finland, prompting Helsinki to announce that a "peaceful solution" of problems between Finland and Soviet Russia would be achieved shortly.

11-20-2021, 02:15 PM	#291
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	1939 World Championship Series OCTOBER 16, 1939 STARSTRUCK! NEW YORK BATS BURY MINERS IN SERIES SWEEP The New York Stars completed an almost unbelievable season in equally astounding fashion by sweeping the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Miners in four games to win the World Championship Series. It completes a dramatic turnaround for a club that looked to have completely lost it's way when it cleaned house and fired much of it's front-office last August. Only a late charge under an interim GM and the fact that the laughable Baltimore Cannons are also in the Continental Association prevented the Stars from being the worst team in the CA just 12 short months ago. Now, they are the best team in baseball as they made it look easy against the supposedly mighty Pittsburgh Miners. New York bats, led by both the oldest player in the league in 41 year old Dave Trowbridge and the youngest in 19 year old Bill Barrett, made the powerful Pittsburgh pitching staff look like a bunch of high school kids in hitting .373 as a team against the Miners and outscoring the vaunted Pittsburgh offense 31-16. Entering the series few gave the Stars a chance at all. The key phrase in reference to the Stars series chances was "How could they?" As in how could the Stars pitching staff, slanting heavily to righthanders, handle the Miners incredible offense and it's collection of lefthanded hitters? Or how could the Stars possibly find success against the dominant Pittsburgh rotation of Lefty Allen, Charlie Stedman and Karl Johnson? Finally, just how could the Stars hope to fare well at Fitzpatrick Park, where the hometown Miners were a FABL best 54-23? New York gave a resounding answer of "That's how!" to each of those questions The Stars went 2-0 at Fitzpatrick Park to open the series and easily handled the Pittsburgh lineup with the lone exception of Mahlon Strong, who had a terrific series for the Miners. And as for Lefty Allen, things could not have go better for the Stars or worse for the 25 year old southpaw. Allen got rocked twice and finished the series with a 8.53 era which, as it turned out would end up being a full run better than Charlie Stedman's line from his only start. Karl Johnson pitched a solid game three but it was not good enough as the New York bats wore him down and pulled out a comeback win. Everything all the so-called experts in the media said about the limitations of the Stars, both during the season and in the WCS, were disproved by a New York team that just seemed destined to win it all. At 41 years of age veteran New York first baseman Dave Trowbridge, who began his career in Pittsburgh but has been Star through some great seasons (WCS wins in 1932 and again this year) and some very lean years (pretty well everything in between those Series wins) but he had clearly the greatest regular season ever posted by a player over the age of 40 (.351,18,113) followed by an outstanding World Championship Series (9-for-15 with a double, a homerun, 2 rbi's, 4 walks and 5 runs scored). Perhaps it should have been expected as Trowbridge entered this Series 10-for-18 all-time in post-season play. His .576 career series batting average falls two shy of the minimum 40 plate appearances otherwise it would be considered the highest career World Series total of all-time. In 1932 Dave Trowbridge had 9 rbi's as the Stars swept the Philadelphia Keystones to win the Series that year. Only two players in FABL history have driven in at least 9 runs in a Series that only went 4 games. The second one was Bill Barrett, who equaled Trowbridge's total with 9 this series and perhaps that is a perfect link between the two stars, separated in age by nearly 22 years, but linked in their contribution to the most surprising World Championship victory in Stars history. And they have a lot of them....8 in all counting this victory which is the most in FABL history. The Miners also lead FABL in a WCS category, but it is defeats as Pittsburgh has been to 8 of them but this year marks the 7th time in those 8 Series appearances that the Miners have come up short, and they are now riding an 8 game losing streak in WCS play with this sweep combined with dropping the last 4 games of the 1937 series to Brooklyn after winning the opener that year. Barrett with his 9 rbi's was named the Series Most Valuable Player. The 19 year old phenom who was playing high school ball just over a year ago, hit .500 (9-for-18) with 4 extra base hits including a homerun to go with those 9 rbi's. HOW IMPRESSIVE WAS STARS TURNAROUND? The New York Stars become just the third team in FABL history to win a World Championship Series title after finishing as low as 6th place the previous season. The Stars were just 71-83 and finished 6th in the Continental Association a full 19 games back of front-running Brooklyn a year ago. The 1922 Chicago Cougars also won the Series after a 6th place finish the previous season but in truth the 1921 Cougars were not a bad team as they actually finished a game over .500 in an incredibly balanced CA that season. That leaves the 1907 Baltimore Clippers (now Cannons) as the only club to stage a more impressive single season turnaround to claim a WCS title. The 1906 Clippers won just 70 games and ended up 25 back of the pennant winning New York Stars. However, a year later the Clippers jumped to 102 wins and completely dominated the CA before beating Pittsburgh in 6 to win the first of two straight World Titles. That Clippers turnaround was keyed by the arrival of a pair of 19 year old's in future Hall of Famer Mike Marner, who would post an astounding 34-12 record with a 0.74 era as a rookie, and Jimmy Redpath, a one year wonder who would win 25 games that season as a teenager but never pitch again. That club also had a breakout season from another future Hall of Famer as Powell Slocum, at age 20 and in his third FABL season, won the first of what would be 15 Continental Association batting titles. Code: TEAMS TO FINISH 6TH OR WORSE THE YEAR PRIOR TO WINNING WCS YEAR TEAM PREVIOUS SEASON RECORD 1907 Baltimore 6th place 25 games back 1939 Stars 6th place 19 games back 1922 Cougars 6th place 4 games but .503 winning percentage PENNANT WINNERS BUT LOST IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES YEAR TEAM PREVIOUS SEASON RECORD 1930 Gothams 8th place 29 games 1898 Pittbsurgh 6th place 30 games 1907 Pittsburgh 6th place 19.5 games 1919 Montreal 6th place 12.5 games The Week That Was Current events from the weekend of 10/13 - 10/16/1939 German torpedoes sink one of Britain's largest battleships killing 800 sailors. According to Berlin it is the fifth British warship to be destroyed by German subs. France claims that 17 German U-boats have been sunk since the start of the war. German fliers attempted to bomb an Edinburgh naval base but 5 were shot down and the rest repulsed by the Royal Air Force. Russia eases off on demands of Finland, prompting Helsinki to announce that a "peaceful solution" of problems between Finland and Soviet Russia would be achieved shortly. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 11-20-2021 at 02:30 PM.