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Jiggs McGee · 11-23-2021, 12:47 PM

OCTOBER 30, 1939

CANNONS SHOOT OFF TO CINCINNATI

The saga that has become the main off-field topic of discussion around the Federal Aligned Baseball Leagues has come to a surprising close. The sale of the Baltimore Cannons was announced at a joint press conference at the FABL Headquarters in Washington, DC. In attendance were the soon-to-be former Cannons owner Oscar Banner, FABL President Sam Benton and the new owner, Cincinnati's John E. Tice.

The surprise of the event was, however, the announcement of the new co-owner of the Cannons: George Theobald. Just days after he lost his presumptive majority stake in the Detroit Dynamos, Theobald will be joining Tice in owning the Cannons.

Benton took center stage while a smug-looking Banner stood behind his left shoulder and Tice stood behind his right. Benton stated that he had agreed to the sale only after George Theobald joined the ownership group.

The details of the sale were explained at length by Benton and then expounded upon by Tice, and are as follows:

1) The city of Cincinnati sold the ballpark to John Tice, who immediately began drawing up plans to temporarily expand the seating capacity from 17,500 to 28,000 by bleacher seating across the outfield, and also by extending the currently small second deck down both base lines. Tice promised these additions will be completed by opening day of 1940.

2) A new ballpark will be built across the street from Monarchs Field. Tice Park, as it will be known, will seat "at least 40,000" according to Tice himself.

3) George Theobald will be a full 50% owner of the club and will serve as club President, the role typically held by the majority owner. Tice will own the other 50%. Tice and Theobald also have a legal agreement that Theobald's shares will devolve to Tice upon either Theobald's retirement or death. In either case, Tice will pay Theobald or his estate for the shares.

4) Theobald will come out of retirement (again) to manage the Cannons. Tice also promised that the Cannons' staff would "be the envy of FABL."

5) Powell Thompson purchased Theobald's shares in the Detroit Dynamos. League bylaws prevent any individual from owning, even partially, more than one club. The details of the sale, according to Benton "are private."

5) The Cannons nickname will remain. Tice admitted he wanted the team to be called the "Monarchs" after his grandfather's team. Benton, possibly under pressure from Brooklyn owner Daniel Prescott, deemed "Monarchs" too similar to Prescott's team's "Kings" moniker and denied the name request. Tice noted: "Cincinnati Cannons works for me."

6) The Cincinnati Steamers, the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Foresters, will be relocated, according to Benton. That location "will be announced at a future date."

Not present at the media event was George Theobald. The septuagenarian was "busy working on building a staff" according to Tice. Tice admitted that as the Chief Executive Officer of one of the nation's largest corporations, he had his hands full and Theobald is "the very definition of a 'baseball man'" and Tice is happy to have Theobald handle the club. Tice also confirmed that none of the Baltimore staff is likely to be retained, and admitted that one of Theobald's first duties is to find a new GM for the club, "one who will give us not only a fresh start, but a successful one."

Banner made few comments, but did admit that he regretted that "the fine city of Baltimore will no longer be home to a FABL baseball club" and that he hoped someday another team would call Baltimore home.

MOTOR CITY MAYHEM: JUDGE's RULING SHAKES UP DYNAMOS OWNERSHIP

A discrepancy in the most recently filed last will and testament of Edward Thompson caused a judge in Detroit to rule that the former Detroit Dynamos owner's previous will, filed in 1935, is the one that is legally binding. Under the now-voided will, 12% of the stock in the Dynamos was left to pro football owner Roland Barrell and 25% to George Theobald (who already owned 26% of the club). The previous testament, now held as legally binding, left no shares to Barrell and only 20% to Theobald, giving the remainder to Powell Thompson, the younger brother of Edward Thompson. The result is that Powell Thompson and not George Theobald is now the majority owner of the Dynamos. The unexpected change in ownership caused shockwaves through the organization and also across the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues, where Theobald is held in very high esteem and Powell Thompson is an unknown factor.

As soon as the ruling had been handed down - and before it had been made public, Theobald abruptly "retired" as manager of the Dynamos but would resurface very quickly in Cincinnati as a part-owner and manager of the transplanted Baltimore Cannons franchise. The 76-year-old Theobald holds the FABL record for most managerial victories and it was rumored he planned on managing at least another four years. Reportedly he and Powell Thompson "do not see eye-to-eye" and this is assumed to be the reason Theobald left for the Cannons.

FROM A KING TO THE QUEEN CITY

One of the first decisions made by new Cincinnati Cannons co-owner and Manager George Theobald was the announcement that Tiger Fan has signed on as the club's General Manager. He will join the team immediately as the Cannons strive to establish a new identity in Cincinnati and wash away the stain of 6 straight last place finishes in the Continental Association. Theobald only made a brief comment when contacted after the news leaked out but he did confirm that he has found his General Manager.

"Yes, Tiger Fan was offered and has accepted the position with the Cannons. He will join me in Cincinnati in the near future and we will quickly get down to the business of building a team that fans can be proud of." When asked if there were any more major announcements coming, Theobald simply smiled and said "You can count on it," before ending the conversation.

Tiger Fan had spent 14 seasons in Brooklyn, guiding the Kings to 4 pennants and a World Championship Series win - the first in franchise history - in 1937. The Kings record under his stewardship was 1181-976 for a .547 winning percentage and his club had a record 5 straight seasons of at least 90 victories beginning in 1934. That streak ended this season as the Kings sank to 7th in the Continental Association and won just 70 games, which was the lowest total in the GM's tenure.

A press conference will take place in Cincinnati in the coming weeks but a clearly emotional Tiger Fan was approached by reporters as he left Kings County Park after saying his goodbyes to staff in the building. "It is tough to leave this place," he admitted as gestured at the stadium behind him "but I feel it is time for a new chapter in my life. I appreciate everything (Brooklyn owner) Dan Prescott and before him Mr. Presley (deceased former club owner) have done for me and I am very happy - despite the terrible finish last season - with how I have left this team positioned for the future."

He added his greatest moment as a King was seeing the joy on the faces of Brooklyn fans the day his ballclub won it's first World title and ended the so-called Curse of Ferdinand Hawkins that seemed to shadow the club for decades.

It comes as little surprise that Fred McCormick of the Toronto Wolves and Pittsburgh Miners catcher George Cleaves were this week named winners of the Whitney Award as the top hitter in their respective associations. There was perhaps a little more suspense in the unveiling of the Allan Award winners but in the end they went to Frank Crawford of the Detroit Dynamos in the Federal Association and Joe Hancock of the Toronto Wolves in the Continental.

Despite an outstanding season from 41 year old Dave Trowbridge, McCormick was the clear choice as the best of the Continental Association and rightly so. He led the Association in all three triple crown categories (.399,29,123) joining Al Wheeler, who did it with Brooklyn in 1935, as the only hitters to win a triple crown in the CA. McCormick also finished just 1 hit shy of being the first CA player to hit .400 in a season since Powell Slocum's last of six such accomplishments came in 1922. It is the second straight Whitney Award for McCormick, who is also a 6-time all-star. This is just his second year in the Continental Association after a blockbuster trade moved him from St Louis of the Federal Association. While he never won a Whitney in his 7 seasons with the Pioneers, McCormick did finish in the top three in voting on 3 occasions.

Pittsburgh's George Cleaves became the first catcher to lead the Federal Association in batting average since T.R. Goins did it in 1926. Goins is also the only catcher to win a Whitney Award prior to Cleaves collecting his first this season. Goins won a pair of them - in 1926 with Washington and again in 1934 with Cleveland of the Continental Association. Cleaves, who turns 26 on Halloween, is a 5-time all-star who has spent his entire career with the Miners. This past season he hit .344 with 18 homers and a Federal Association best 126 rbi's.

The Federal Association Allen Award race was a two horse battle between Frank Crawford of the Detroit Dynamos and Lefty Allen of the pennant winning Pittsburgh Miners. The voters decided the 31 year old Crawford (25-6, 2.58) deserved the nod for his first Allen Award over Lefty Allen (24-8, 3.23), who was second to Crawford in wins, third in ERA and led the Fed in strikeouts for the third consecutive season with 220. Allen had previously won the award that shares his last name in 1937.

Leading up to the voting there was some debate over the Allan Award winner in the Continental Association with no clear dominating candidate but in the end it was nearly unanimous in the decision that Toronto's Joe Hancock emerged on top. The lack of a twenty game winner in the CA for the first time since 1932 was also a factor with only Billy Riley of the New York Stars recording 19 victories. Riley would claim 1 first place vote but the remaining 15 all went to the young Toronto ace.

Hancock, who finished second behind Chicago Cougars veteran Dick Lyons last season, won the Allen on the strength of his 15-13 record with a 3.09 era and a league leading 131 strikeouts, making it the third straight year the 26 year old has led the CA in K's. With both Hancock and McCormick winning it is the first time since 1935 that a pair of teammates swept the awards but their club did not win the pennant. That was Brooklyn with Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell claiming the prizes and the Kings finished just 1 game back of the champion Cleveland Foresters that season. In all this is the 9th time a pair of teammates have both won year end awards going back to the introduction of the Allan Award in 1926. Surprisingly Toronto's duo are not the first teammates on a 6th place club to each win as that distinction belongs to the 1932 Baltimore Cannons as they started their descent into mediocrity that season as Lou Kelly and Rabbit Day were the winners

Code:

TEAMMATES TO WIN ALLEN AND WHITNEY AWARDS IN SAME SEASON
YEAR   TEAM	FINISH	WINNERS
1927   Brooklyn    2    Doug Lightbody and Mose Smith
1928   Sailors     1    Tom Taylor and Johnny Davis
1929   Detroit     1    Frank Vance and Roy Calfee	
1932   Baltimore   6    Lou Kelly and Rabbit Day
1932   Detroit     2    Al Wheeler and Jack Beach
1935   Brooklyn	   2	Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell
1935   St Louis    2    Freddie Jones and Sam Sheppard
1936   Brooklyn    1	Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell
1939   Toronto	   6    Fred McCormick and Joe Hancock

QUICK HITS

I am not sure if the Gothams know what direction they want to go with their obvious pitching problems. They do have some good young arms in Nate Spear (if he can stay healthy) and highly touted youngsters Ed Bowman and Johnnie Walker but there are concerns that neither of the latter two will be ready for Gotham Stadium next season and the local natives are getting restless in their demands for a turnaround, especially in light of quick revival the New York Stars pulled off this season. So rightly so the Gothams are shopping for arms but have a list longer than 6'5" Mule Earl's right appendage of players they deem untouchable.
Yet on the other hand word comes the Gothams are shopping Oscar Morse - their 36 year old workhorse from last year. When I mentioned a few days ago an elite pitcher would likely cost the New York side one of it's 'untouchable' top prospects Gothams Assistant General Manager George Rinkenberger corrected me saying "Elite? What I said was "I need good major league pitching."
I pose this question to Rinkenerger and his associates in the Gothams command center. Is not Oscar Morse not the perfect example of good major league pitching? While not quite elite and admittedly coming off a down year with the Gothams this season (but still not awful as he had a 96 ERA+ and 108 FIP-) he has had some pretty solid years the past few seasons including a 120 ERA+ in 1938, half of which was with your club. OSA still calls him "a solid, healthy, valuable second starter, and the ace on some teams."
So if he is not the quality of pitcher New York desires then I would think Rinkenberger is indeed looking for an ace, which to me means likely the only way the Gothams will acquire one is by readjusting their list of untouchables. Perhaps New York's first overall draft pick might lure one but I am not sure that would be considered to be enough for an 'elite' or better and younger arm that Morse.
And if Morse is indeed for sale, have the Gothams not shot themselves in the proverbial negotiating foot by downplaying Morse's potential to help a club when they themselves deem him not good enough to be a "good major league" pitcher?
It sounds like last week's deal between St Louis and the New York Stars that would have sent pitcher Dixie Lee to the World Champions for a pair of prospects is off. The Stars have been hemorrhaging money that past few seasons and even with the windfall of a pair of WCS gates the New York ownership group refuses to okay the extra expenditure needed to bring Lee into the fold. The Stars braintrust may try to free up some cash with a few player releases but nothing has happened yet so this deal might well be dead.
Word out of Detroit is that current Brooklyn bench coach Danny Goff is on the short-list of potential candidates for the vacant Detroit managerial post. The Dynamos are reported to be looking at several candidates, both internal and external but word is the Dynamos number one choice - former Cleveland manager Jim Wilson- is not interested and has no desire to return to the sport. Former Detroit catcher Dick York, currently managing in the Dynamos minor league system seems on the surface to be a pretty solid candidate but word is he is an extreme longshot to get the big league job.
Ex big league pitcher Bert Henggeler is officially retired although he was actually released by Brooklyn a couple months ago. Originally drafted by the Keystones out of Frankford State, Henggeler played 6 seasons in Philadelphia and 2 with Cleveland before being claimed off waivers by the Kings in 1935. He quickly became a key piece in Brooklyn's bullpen helping the club to three straight pennants and made the all-star team twice. Hengeller also won a pair of WCS titles in his career, one with Brooklyn and the other with the Foresters.
The Cannons are gone, headed for Cincinnati, but word is Baltimore will not be without professional baseball next season. The Cincinnati Steamers have been displaced with the Cannons setting up shop at Monarchs Field so Cleveland will need to find a new home for it's top farm team. It may just be Kansas City as the scuttlebutt is the Washington Eagles are going to put a AAA club in Baltimore, which would replace Cincinnati in the Union League so it seems the Foresters would likely end up with a working agreement with the Kansas City club of the Century League.
While it is obvious that for American readers a 100% of their focus outside of North America is centered on the war in Europe there is some baseball news coming from the Far East. The Yokohama Kingfishers won their second straight Japanese Series upsetting the Osaka Sailors 7-6 in Game Seven. Osaka had finished first in both halves of the regular season (Japan uses a split season format). The same two clubs met last season as well with the Kingfishers again coming out on top. There is a FABL connection as one of the companies that New York Stars owner Al Mielke holds a stake in, owns the Yokohama ballclub as well, so it was a double title year for Mielke.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 10/30/1939

Hitler's foreign minister told the world that Germany now was determined to conduct the war against Britain and her Allies to the bitter finish and until the security of the German Reich is assured for all time.
German police and Czechs clashed in Prague while Czech nationals were celebrating the 21st anniversary of the foundation of the Czechoslovak republic.
The United States is demanding the release of the American freighter "City of Flint" which was taken into the Soviet harbor of Murmansk by a German naval vessel. By the end of the week the Americans were unsure of the ships location but reports have it being taken to a German port.
The Germans also claim to have sunk 115 merchant ships, striking telling blows at Britain's food supply.
A proposed ban on the sale to foreign nations of poison gases, flame throwers and other materials used in chemical warfare was rejected by the US Senate and the embargo against the sale of any arms to Europe's warring nations was also repealed paving the way to sell such items to the allies.
With the repeal of the neutrality bill German sources suggest the Nazis may launch an all-out attack seeking a knock out blow of Great Britain before the revised neutrality plan can be enacted in the United States.
Earl Russell Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party in the United States emerged from a night in jail with the opinion that his arrest on passport fraud charges was part of a government plot to drag the United States into the European war. He spent a night in jail at the Federal detention center in Manhattan.

11-23-2021, 12:47 PM	#293
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	1939 Off-Season OCTOBER 30, 1939 CANNONS SHOOT OFF TO CINCINNATI The saga that has become the main off-field topic of discussion around the Federal Aligned Baseball Leagues has come to a surprising close. The sale of the Baltimore Cannons was announced at a joint press conference at the FABL Headquarters in Washington, DC. In attendance were the soon-to-be former Cannons owner Oscar Banner, FABL President Sam Benton and the new owner, Cincinnati's John E. Tice. The surprise of the event was, however, the announcement of the new co-owner of the Cannons: George Theobald. Just days after he lost his presumptive majority stake in the Detroit Dynamos, Theobald will be joining Tice in owning the Cannons. Benton took center stage while a smug-looking Banner stood behind his left shoulder and Tice stood behind his right. Benton stated that he had agreed to the sale only after George Theobald joined the ownership group. The details of the sale were explained at length by Benton and then expounded upon by Tice, and are as follows: 1) The city of Cincinnati sold the ballpark to John Tice, who immediately began drawing up plans to temporarily expand the seating capacity from 17,500 to 28,000 by bleacher seating across the outfield, and also by extending the currently small second deck down both base lines. Tice promised these additions will be completed by opening day of 1940. 2) A new ballpark will be built across the street from Monarchs Field. Tice Park, as it will be known, will seat "at least 40,000" according to Tice himself. 3) George Theobald will be a full 50% owner of the club and will serve as club President, the role typically held by the majority owner. Tice will own the other 50%. Tice and Theobald also have a legal agreement that Theobald's shares will devolve to Tice upon either Theobald's retirement or death. In either case, Tice will pay Theobald or his estate for the shares. 4) Theobald will come out of retirement (again) to manage the Cannons. Tice also promised that the Cannons' staff would "be the envy of FABL." 5) Powell Thompson purchased Theobald's shares in the Detroit Dynamos. League bylaws prevent any individual from owning, even partially, more than one club. The details of the sale, according to Benton "are private." 5) The Cannons nickname will remain. Tice admitted he wanted the team to be called the "Monarchs" after his grandfather's team. Benton, possibly under pressure from Brooklyn owner Daniel Prescott, deemed "Monarchs" too similar to Prescott's team's "Kings" moniker and denied the name request. Tice noted: "Cincinnati Cannons works for me." 6) The Cincinnati Steamers, the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Foresters, will be relocated, according to Benton. That location "will be announced at a future date." Not present at the media event was George Theobald. The septuagenarian was "busy working on building a staff" according to Tice. Tice admitted that as the Chief Executive Officer of one of the nation's largest corporations, he had his hands full and Theobald is "the very definition of a 'baseball man'" and Tice is happy to have Theobald handle the club. Tice also confirmed that none of the Baltimore staff is likely to be retained, and admitted that one of Theobald's first duties is to find a new GM for the club, "one who will give us not only a fresh start, but a successful one." Banner made few comments, but did admit that he regretted that "the fine city of Baltimore will no longer be home to a FABL baseball club" and that he hoped someday another team would call Baltimore home. MOTOR CITY MAYHEM: JUDGE's RULING SHAKES UP DYNAMOS OWNERSHIP A discrepancy in the most recently filed last will and testament of Edward Thompson caused a judge in Detroit to rule that the former Detroit Dynamos owner's previous will, filed in 1935, is the one that is legally binding. Under the now-voided will, 12% of the stock in the Dynamos was left to pro football owner Roland Barrell and 25% to George Theobald (who already owned 26% of the club). The previous testament, now held as legally binding, left no shares to Barrell and only 20% to Theobald, giving the remainder to Powell Thompson, the younger brother of Edward Thompson. The result is that Powell Thompson and not George Theobald is now the majority owner of the Dynamos. The unexpected change in ownership caused shockwaves through the organization and also across the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues, where Theobald is held in very high esteem and Powell Thompson is an unknown factor. As soon as the ruling had been handed down - and before it had been made public, Theobald abruptly "retired" as manager of the Dynamos but would resurface very quickly in Cincinnati as a part-owner and manager of the transplanted Baltimore Cannons franchise. The 76-year-old Theobald holds the FABL record for most managerial victories and it was rumored he planned on managing at least another four years. Reportedly he and Powell Thompson "do not see eye-to-eye" and this is assumed to be the reason Theobald left for the Cannons. FROM A KING TO THE QUEEN CITY One of the first decisions made by new Cincinnati Cannons co-owner and Manager George Theobald was the announcement that Tiger Fan has signed on as the club's General Manager. He will join the team immediately as the Cannons strive to establish a new identity in Cincinnati and wash away the stain of 6 straight last place finishes in the Continental Association. Theobald only made a brief comment when contacted after the news leaked out but he did confirm that he has found his General Manager. "Yes, Tiger Fan was offered and has accepted the position with the Cannons. He will join me in Cincinnati in the near future and we will quickly get down to the business of building a team that fans can be proud of." When asked if there were any more major announcements coming, Theobald simply smiled and said "You can count on it," before ending the conversation. Tiger Fan had spent 14 seasons in Brooklyn, guiding the Kings to 4 pennants and a World Championship Series win - the first in franchise history - in 1937. The Kings record under his stewardship was 1181-976 for a .547 winning percentage and his club had a record 5 straight seasons of at least 90 victories beginning in 1934. That streak ended this season as the Kings sank to 7th in the Continental Association and won just 70 games, which was the lowest total in the GM's tenure. A press conference will take place in Cincinnati in the coming weeks but a clearly emotional Tiger Fan was approached by reporters as he left Kings County Park after saying his goodbyes to staff in the building. "It is tough to leave this place," he admitted as gestured at the stadium behind him "but I feel it is time for a new chapter in my life. I appreciate everything (Brooklyn owner) Dan Prescott and before him Mr. Presley (deceased former club owner) have done for me and I am very happy - despite the terrible finish last season - with how I have left this team positioned for the future." He added his greatest moment as a King was seeing the joy on the faces of Brooklyn fans the day his ballclub won it's first World title and ended the so-called Curse of Ferdinand Hawkins that seemed to shadow the club for decades. It comes as little surprise that Fred McCormick of the Toronto Wolves and Pittsburgh Miners catcher George Cleaves were this week named winners of the Whitney Award as the top hitter in their respective associations. There was perhaps a little more suspense in the unveiling of the Allan Award winners but in the end they went to Frank Crawford of the Detroit Dynamos in the Federal Association and Joe Hancock of the Toronto Wolves in the Continental. Despite an outstanding season from 41 year old Dave Trowbridge, McCormick was the clear choice as the best of the Continental Association and rightly so. He led the Association in all three triple crown categories (.399,29,123) joining Al Wheeler, who did it with Brooklyn in 1935, as the only hitters to win a triple crown in the CA. McCormick also finished just 1 hit shy of being the first CA player to hit .400 in a season since Powell Slocum's last of six such accomplishments came in 1922. It is the second straight Whitney Award for McCormick, who is also a 6-time all-star. This is just his second year in the Continental Association after a blockbuster trade moved him from St Louis of the Federal Association. While he never won a Whitney in his 7 seasons with the Pioneers, McCormick did finish in the top three in voting on 3 occasions. Pittsburgh's George Cleaves became the first catcher to lead the Federal Association in batting average since T.R. Goins did it in 1926. Goins is also the only catcher to win a Whitney Award prior to Cleaves collecting his first this season. Goins won a pair of them - in 1926 with Washington and again in 1934 with Cleveland of the Continental Association. Cleaves, who turns 26 on Halloween, is a 5-time all-star who has spent his entire career with the Miners. This past season he hit .344 with 18 homers and a Federal Association best 126 rbi's. The Federal Association Allen Award race was a two horse battle between Frank Crawford of the Detroit Dynamos and Lefty Allen of the pennant winning Pittsburgh Miners. The voters decided the 31 year old Crawford (25-6, 2.58) deserved the nod for his first Allen Award over Lefty Allen (24-8, 3.23), who was second to Crawford in wins, third in ERA and led the Fed in strikeouts for the third consecutive season with 220. Allen had previously won the award that shares his last name in 1937. Leading up to the voting there was some debate over the Allan Award winner in the Continental Association with no clear dominating candidate but in the end it was nearly unanimous in the decision that Toronto's Joe Hancock emerged on top. The lack of a twenty game winner in the CA for the first time since 1932 was also a factor with only Billy Riley of the New York Stars recording 19 victories. Riley would claim 1 first place vote but the remaining 15 all went to the young Toronto ace. Hancock, who finished second behind Chicago Cougars veteran Dick Lyons last season, won the Allen on the strength of his 15-13 record with a 3.09 era and a league leading 131 strikeouts, making it the third straight year the 26 year old has led the CA in K's. With both Hancock and McCormick winning it is the first time since 1935 that a pair of teammates swept the awards but their club did not win the pennant. That was Brooklyn with Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell claiming the prizes and the Kings finished just 1 game back of the champion Cleveland Foresters that season. In all this is the 9th time a pair of teammates have both won year end awards going back to the introduction of the Allan Award in 1926. Surprisingly Toronto's duo are not the first teammates on a 6th place club to each win as that distinction belongs to the 1932 Baltimore Cannons as they started their descent into mediocrity that season as Lou Kelly and Rabbit Day were the winners Code: TEAMMATES TO WIN ALLEN AND WHITNEY AWARDS IN SAME SEASON YEAR TEAM FINISH WINNERS 1927 Brooklyn 2 Doug Lightbody and Mose Smith 1928 Sailors 1 Tom Taylor and Johnny Davis 1929 Detroit 1 Frank Vance and Roy Calfee 1932 Baltimore 6 Lou Kelly and Rabbit Day 1932 Detroit 2 Al Wheeler and Jack Beach 1935 Brooklyn 2 Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell 1935 St Louis 2 Freddie Jones and Sam Sheppard 1936 Brooklyn 1 Al Wheeler and Tom Barrell 1939 Toronto 6 Fred McCormick and Joe Hancock QUICK HITS I am not sure if the Gothams know what direction they want to go with their obvious pitching problems. They do have some good young arms in Nate Spear (if he can stay healthy) and highly touted youngsters Ed Bowman and Johnnie Walker but there are concerns that neither of the latter two will be ready for Gotham Stadium next season and the local natives are getting restless in their demands for a turnaround, especially in light of quick revival the New York Stars pulled off this season. So rightly so the Gothams are shopping for arms but have a list longer than 6'5" Mule Earl's right appendage of players they deem untouchable. Yet on the other hand word comes the Gothams are shopping Oscar Morse - their 36 year old workhorse from last year. When I mentioned a few days ago an elite pitcher would likely cost the New York side one of it's 'untouchable' top prospects Gothams Assistant General Manager George Rinkenberger corrected me saying "Elite? What I said was "I need good major league pitching." I pose this question to Rinkenerger and his associates in the Gothams command center. Is not Oscar Morse not the perfect example of good major league pitching? While not quite elite and admittedly coming off a down year with the Gothams this season (but still not awful as he had a 96 ERA+ and 108 FIP-) he has had some pretty solid years the past few seasons including a 120 ERA+ in 1938, half of which was with your club. OSA still calls him "a solid, healthy, valuable second starter, and the ace on some teams." So if he is not the quality of pitcher New York desires then I would think Rinkenberger is indeed looking for an ace, which to me means likely the only way the Gothams will acquire one is by readjusting their list of untouchables. Perhaps New York's first overall draft pick might lure one but I am not sure that would be considered to be enough for an 'elite' or better and younger arm that Morse. And if Morse is indeed for sale, have the Gothams not shot themselves in the proverbial negotiating foot by downplaying Morse's potential to help a club when they themselves deem him not good enough to be a "good major league" pitcher? It sounds like last week's deal between St Louis and the New York Stars that would have sent pitcher Dixie Lee to the World Champions for a pair of prospects is off. The Stars have been hemorrhaging money that past few seasons and even with the windfall of a pair of WCS gates the New York ownership group refuses to okay the extra expenditure needed to bring Lee into the fold. The Stars braintrust may try to free up some cash with a few player releases but nothing has happened yet so this deal might well be dead. Word out of Detroit is that current Brooklyn bench coach Danny Goff is on the short-list of potential candidates for the vacant Detroit managerial post. The Dynamos are reported to be looking at several candidates, both internal and external but word is the Dynamos number one choice - former Cleveland manager Jim Wilson- is not interested and has no desire to return to the sport. Former Detroit catcher Dick York, currently managing in the Dynamos minor league system seems on the surface to be a pretty solid candidate but word is he is an extreme longshot to get the big league job. Ex big league pitcher Bert Henggeler is officially retired although he was actually released by Brooklyn a couple months ago. Originally drafted by the Keystones out of Frankford State, Henggeler played 6 seasons in Philadelphia and 2 with Cleveland before being claimed off waivers by the Kings in 1935. He quickly became a key piece in Brooklyn's bullpen helping the club to three straight pennants and made the all-star team twice. Hengeller also won a pair of WCS titles in his career, one with Brooklyn and the other with the Foresters. The Cannons are gone, headed for Cincinnati, but word is Baltimore will not be without professional baseball next season. The Cincinnati Steamers have been displaced with the Cannons setting up shop at Monarchs Field so Cleveland will need to find a new home for it's top farm team. It may just be Kansas City as the scuttlebutt is the Washington Eagles are going to put a AAA club in Baltimore, which would replace Cincinnati in the Union League so it seems the Foresters would likely end up with a working agreement with the Kansas City club of the Century League. While it is obvious that for American readers a 100% of their focus outside of North America is centered on the war in Europe there is some baseball news coming from the Far East. The Yokohama Kingfishers won their second straight Japanese Series upsetting the Osaka Sailors 7-6 in Game Seven. Osaka had finished first in both halves of the regular season (Japan uses a split season format). The same two clubs met last season as well with the Kingfishers again coming out on top. There is a FABL connection as one of the companies that New York Stars owner Al Mielke holds a stake in, owns the Yokohama ballclub as well, so it was a double title year for Mielke. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 10/30/1939 Hitler's foreign minister told the world that Germany now was determined to conduct the war against Britain and her Allies to the bitter finish and until the security of the German Reich is assured for all time. German police and Czechs clashed in Prague while Czech nationals were celebrating the 21st anniversary of the foundation of the Czechoslovak republic. The United States is demanding the release of the American freighter "City of Flint" which was taken into the Soviet harbor of Murmansk by a German naval vessel. By the end of the week the Americans were unsure of the ships location but reports have it being taken to a German port. The Germans also claim to have sunk 115 merchant ships, striking telling blows at Britain's food supply. A proposed ban on the sale to foreign nations of poison gases, flame throwers and other materials used in chemical warfare was rejected by the US Senate and the embargo against the sale of any arms to Europe's warring nations was also repealed paving the way to sell such items to the allies. With the repeal of the neutrality bill German sources suggest the Nazis may launch an all-out attack seeking a knock out blow of Great Britain before the revised neutrality plan can be enacted in the United States. Earl Russell Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party in the United States emerged from a night in jail with the opinion that his arrest on passport fraud charges was part of a government plot to drag the United States into the European war. He spent a night in jail at the Federal detention center in Manhattan. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 11-23-2021 at 01:28 PM.