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Jiggs McGee · 11-26-2021, 03:00 PM

DECEMBER 4, 1939

A year ago the winter meetings were what perhaps ended up deciding the World Championship Series winner as that was the occasion for the New York Stars, fresh off a disappointing 7th place finish in the Continental Association the previous year, to make a bold statement with a pair of deals. The Stars added Moxie Pidgeon, Robert Curry and Mel Hancock Jr. in a trade with Washington and followed that up with a move to acquire Ray Cochran from the Pittsburgh Miners. All played key roles in New York's improbable rise to the pinnacle of the sport two months ago. The winter meetings are upon us once again and it will be interesting to see if another FABL club lays the groundwork for a 1940 title in the week ahead.

There have been a few big names tossed about - the Cincinnati Cannons are said to be entertaining offers on Gus Goulding or one of the other pitchers in their collection of good young, but so far underachieving arms. The New York Gothams already traded 24 year old righthander Jim Birdwell to Washington and there is some speculation that Oscar Morse will also change his address this week. Detroit is said to be considering a deal to move infielder Ed Stewart out of the Motor City after the 31 year old 4-time all-star suffered through the worst season of his career at the plate. Other than that, however, most of the names making the rounds are either career backups or mid-level prospects that are blocked in their existing organization so, at least for the moment, there is little indication of anything monumental occurring although when you gather 16 FABL General Manager's in a hotel deals can come together rather quickly.

HALL OF FAME VOTE APPROACHING

In just over a month baseball will announce it's next group of inductees into it's Hall of Fame. Just as last season the newcomers to be enshrined will be voted in by members of the baseball media. Before we begin to speculate on just who the 1940 inductees might be let's look at the list of those already admitted to the Hall, which is under construction in Boone County, Illinois: the hometown of FABL founder William Whitney. The building is slated to open in 1941.

1940 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

Unlike last season when it seemed a foregone conclusion that Rankin Kellogg would be elected just months after his retirement from the game, there are no players that retired this past October who will likely ever receive consideration from the voters. However, one has to wonder if the other two star players who retired following the 1938 season, Pete Layton and T.R. Goins, may start to garner support for their inclusion. There are certainly plenty of others but here are several TWIFB feel deserve serious consideration. They are listed in alphabetical order:

JACK ARABIAN (1896-1915: Cleveland, St Louis) -Well before Max Morris there was another famous player who left Cleveland for the St Louis Pioneers as Arabian, after winning 3 Continental Association batting titles, was dealt to the Pioneers in 1910 where he finished out his career. He is 6th all-time in career hits with 3,391 and of the five men ahead of him only Zebulon Banks is not already in the Hall. Arabian is also third all-time in doubles trailing only Thomas Watkins and Hall of Famer John Waggoner. Arabian narrowly missed induction last season, falling one vote shy.

T.R. GOINS (1923-1938: Washington, Cleveland) - Arguably the greatest catcher to ever play the game, Goins was a 4-time all-star (he was already 32 years old when the first all-star game was played) and won a pair of World Championship Series. Until Pittsburgh's George Cleaves joined him this past season, Goins was the only catcher ever to win a Whitney Award and he owns two of them. The first came with Washington in 1926 when he led the Federal Association with a .395 batting average and the second came 8 years later when he helped lead the Cleveland Foresters to the first World Championship Series win in franchise history. He was a lifetime .336 hitter with 2,622 career hits including 270 homeruns. He leads all catchers in virtually every career FABL offensive stat. Goins also hit .361 while appearing in 4 different WCS with 3 homers and a FABL record 25 WCS career rbi's.

JIM GOLDEN (1909-1920: Detroit) - Like Jack Arabian, Jim Golden narrowly missed earning his spot in Boone County last season but has to be considered a front-runner for induction this year. Golden is the only pitcher ever to win a Whitney Award (he won two of them) and he would have had an handful of Allan Awards if they were around when he pitched. Despite having only 11 healthy seasons he won 269 games for the Dynamos while losing just 158. His 35 win campaign in 1916 is tied with Hall of Famer Mike Marner for the most in a single season after the turn of the century and he topped the 30 win mark three times in his career. He won 4 WCS rings with Detroit and is 8-2 all-time in the Series, which gives him more career playoff wins than any other player in history. Golden is also one of just a handful of pitchers to throw a no-hitter, doing so against Washington in 1915. A back injury ended his career at the age of 31.

GEORGE JOHNSON (1907-1926: Washington, Boston) - There have been a number of players named George Johnson through out FABL history but only one earned the moniker "Big George". This George Johnson was a dominant pitcher primarily with Boston but started and finished his big league career with the Washington Eagles. He counted 8 twenty-win season including a 31 win 1916 among his 311 career victories. That number is special because no one else since Johnson won his 300th in 1925 has approached that magic number for his career although some speculate Rabbit Day may one day do it. Johnson tossed a no-hitter in 1914 and won a World Championship Series with the Minutemen in 1912. Johnson also recently returned to the game at the major league level as he has joined the Cincinnati Cannons as their pitching coach.

PETE LAYTON (1923-1938: Stars, Chiefs)- Above all else Pete Layton was a winner. He owns 6 World Championship Series rings, believed to be the most all-time and is the career leader in WCS runs scored and hits. Twice he was named MVP of the World Championship Series and he also made 4 all-star teams in his career. Layton finished with 2,506 career hits and a .333 lifetime batting average. He won two batting titles, one each in the CA and the Fed and amazingly they came 10 years apart as after leading the CA in 1928 he hit .365 and won the Fed batting crown in his final season, a year in which he also collected 213 hits but then decided to walk away from the game after homering, driving in 3 runs and scoring 2 including the series winner as the Chiefs outlasted Brooklyn 11-10 in game seven of the 1938 WCS which, as it turned out, was the last game of Layton's illustrious career.

BILL TEMPLE (1899-1911: Stars, Detroit, Boston)- Temple made his debut with the New York Stars in 1899 and won at least 20 games each of his first ten seasons in the league. He would spend four in New York before moving on to the Detroit Dynamos before ending his career with a stop in Boston. His lifetime record was 284-230 and he won a pair of World Championship rings, going 2-2 in WCS play. The sad thing is as good as Temple was - and many consider him to be the greatest lefthander of all-time, he could have been so much better. Temple was a raging alcoholic and his frequent drunken antics - some of them on the field during games - kept him in hot water and prompted both the Stars and Dynamos to part ways with him. Despite all of his troubles, Temple still managed to to lead his association in strikeouts the first 7 seasons of his career and his lifetime total of 3131 k's is surpassed only by Hall of Famer Charlie Sis. Temple also is one of just 3 pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters, joining John Blackburn and Doc Newell.

EDWARD "BIG EDDIE" THOMPSON (Owner Detroit Dynamos 1904-1939) Thompson, who passed away this past summer, was a larger than life character in the Detroit sporting scene who not only owned the Dynamos and their ballpark Thompson Field, but was also involved in the city's football, baseball and hockey endeavours and the Thompson name is on several buildings in downtown Detroit including the Thompson Hotel. His father William Thompson was a textile merchant who founded the Dynamos in 1890 and Eddie would take over when his father passed away in 1904. Eddie was an accomplished athlete as well, playing tackle on the football team at Detroit City College prior to his involvement in running the Dynamos. Under Eddie's ownership the Detroit baseball club won 7 pennants and 5 World Championship Series.

THOMAS WATKINS (1888-1904: Washington, Baltimore, Toronto, Gothams) - Won 5 batting titles including a pair of season when he hit over .400, the outfielder notched 3,143 career hits - good for 9th most all-time. He is baseball's all-time leader in doubles with 581 despite only leading his league in that category 3 times in his career.

CHARLIE WILSON (1889-1901: Boston, Gothams, Sailors, Chiefs) -Wilson is one of several turn of the century pitchers who could be considered and may one day be enshrined. Others include Aaron Wright, Jack Long, Morris Harris and Alexander Elliott. All are likely longshots on this ballot but we chose to highlight just two of them including Wilson because of what his career could have been as much as what it was. Nicknamed "The Tar Heel Thunderbolt", the Carolina native had a 5 year stretch in the 1890s when he was possibly one of the most dominant pitchers of all-time. He led his Association in strikeouts 6 times, wins 5 times and had the lowest ERA in 5 straight years while pitching for 3 clubs during that time. He threw a lot of innings, over 400 each of his final 8 full seasons, and by 1901 at the age of 29 his arm was out of bullets and Wilson never pitched in the majors after turning 30. Despite that his 332 career wins place him 5th all-time and his 1,927 strikeouts are 12th most in that category.

AARON WRIGHT (1899-1915: Pittsburgh, Toronto, Chiefs) Known as "The Old Goat", Wright pitched until he was 39 and was effective right up until the end. At 341-301, Wright had a lot of wins, third most all-time, but he was also one of just 5 pitchers to lose 300 games in their career as well but that is a product of playing on some weak teams and throwing in 698 career FABL games, 6th highest total all-time. Wright was on a strong Pittsburgh club early in his career and helped the Miners win their only World Championship Series in 1901.

QUICK HITS

The Baltimore Cannons continued to reshape their coaching staff with the appointment of Ad Doria as the club's bench coach. The 43 year old has a background with Cannons manager George Theobald, having played four seasons with the Detroit Dynamos when Theobald was their manager. It is said that Theobald saw a lot of himself in the former Opelika State catcher and loved his work ethic. Doria was far from a star, he appeared in just 96 games in his 4 seasons in Detroit and when Theobald left the manager's seat Doria was sent to the minors and never made it back to the big leagues.
Two others with ties to Theobald's Detroit days have also joined the Cannons organization. Cliff Everett, who spent the first 8 of his 12 big league seasons with the Dynamos will be the club's third base coach while 42 year old Roy Calfee, who was a two-time Allan Award winner for Detroit in the 1920's, will act as the pitching coach at Class B Charleston.
The Toronto Wolves are trying to find a home for John Herrick. The 31 year old has spent each of the past two seasons in Toronto after hitting 38 homers in 117 games for AAA Buffalo. He likely deserves a shot to play everyday but there are a lot of good first baseman in the league including the best one, Fred McCormick, who is Herrick's teammate with the Wolves.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 12/03/1939

Saying it's patience with the Finns is over, Russia invaded Finland by land, air and sea raining death-dealing explosives on half a dozen Finnish cities. The US has offered to try and broker peace between the two nations, but Russia rejected the American offer.
President Roosevelt condemned the Russian attack, calling it a 'profound shock" to the United States and jeopardized "the rights of mankind to self-government." The League of Nations joined FDR in voicing it's protest.
The British believe they are making progress dealing with Germany's sea attacks. According to Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, Nazi submarines are "being sunk faster than Germany can build them." Churchill says 5 were destroyed this week alone.
The United States warns Britain it's blockade of German exports is illegal, and Washington formally reserved it's right to hold London liable on damages the US may suffer as a result of the blockade.
After two years of fairly normal conditions while engaged in hostilities against China, Japan is now feeling the pinch of war with shortages of rice, coal and other necessities plaguing the island nation.
Fingerprints on the scene match that of amateur Canadian boxer Ernie Haas after Dr. Walter Engelberg, Nazi consular secretary in New York was found murdered at his Brooklyn home.

11-26-2021, 03:00 PM	#295
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	Off-season December 1939 DECEMBER 4, 1939 A year ago the winter meetings were what perhaps ended up deciding the World Championship Series winner as that was the occasion for the New York Stars, fresh off a disappointing 7th place finish in the Continental Association the previous year, to make a bold statement with a pair of deals. The Stars added Moxie Pidgeon, Robert Curry and Mel Hancock Jr. in a trade with Washington and followed that up with a move to acquire Ray Cochran from the Pittsburgh Miners. All played key roles in New York's improbable rise to the pinnacle of the sport two months ago. The winter meetings are upon us once again and it will be interesting to see if another FABL club lays the groundwork for a 1940 title in the week ahead. There have been a few big names tossed about - the Cincinnati Cannons are said to be entertaining offers on Gus Goulding or one of the other pitchers in their collection of good young, but so far underachieving arms. The New York Gothams already traded 24 year old righthander Jim Birdwell to Washington and there is some speculation that Oscar Morse will also change his address this week. Detroit is said to be considering a deal to move infielder Ed Stewart out of the Motor City after the 31 year old 4-time all-star suffered through the worst season of his career at the plate. Other than that, however, most of the names making the rounds are either career backups or mid-level prospects that are blocked in their existing organization so, at least for the moment, there is little indication of anything monumental occurring although when you gather 16 FABL General Manager's in a hotel deals can come together rather quickly. HALL OF FAME VOTE APPROACHING In just over a month baseball will announce it's next group of inductees into it's Hall of Fame. Just as last season the newcomers to be enshrined will be voted in by members of the baseball media. Before we begin to speculate on just who the 1940 inductees might be let's look at the list of those already admitted to the Hall, which is under construction in Boone County, Illinois: the hometown of FABL founder William Whitney. The building is slated to open in 1941. 1940 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES Unlike last season when it seemed a foregone conclusion that Rankin Kellogg would be elected just months after his retirement from the game, there are no players that retired this past October who will likely ever receive consideration from the voters. However, one has to wonder if the other two star players who retired following the 1938 season, Pete Layton and T.R. Goins, may start to garner support for their inclusion. There are certainly plenty of others but here are several TWIFB feel deserve serious consideration. They are listed in alphabetical order: JACK ARABIAN (1896-1915: Cleveland, St Louis) -Well before Max Morris there was another famous player who left Cleveland for the St Louis Pioneers as Arabian, after winning 3 Continental Association batting titles, was dealt to the Pioneers in 1910 where he finished out his career. He is 6th all-time in career hits with 3,391 and of the five men ahead of him only Zebulon Banks is not already in the Hall. Arabian is also third all-time in doubles trailing only Thomas Watkins and Hall of Famer John Waggoner. Arabian narrowly missed induction last season, falling one vote shy. T.R. GOINS (1923-1938: Washington, Cleveland) - Arguably the greatest catcher to ever play the game, Goins was a 4-time all-star (he was already 32 years old when the first all-star game was played) and won a pair of World Championship Series. Until Pittsburgh's George Cleaves joined him this past season, Goins was the only catcher ever to win a Whitney Award and he owns two of them. The first came with Washington in 1926 when he led the Federal Association with a .395 batting average and the second came 8 years later when he helped lead the Cleveland Foresters to the first World Championship Series win in franchise history. He was a lifetime .336 hitter with 2,622 career hits including 270 homeruns. He leads all catchers in virtually every career FABL offensive stat. Goins also hit .361 while appearing in 4 different WCS with 3 homers and a FABL record 25 WCS career rbi's. JIM GOLDEN (1909-1920: Detroit) - Like Jack Arabian, Jim Golden narrowly missed earning his spot in Boone County last season but has to be considered a front-runner for induction this year. Golden is the only pitcher ever to win a Whitney Award (he won two of them) and he would have had an handful of Allan Awards if they were around when he pitched. Despite having only 11 healthy seasons he won 269 games for the Dynamos while losing just 158. His 35 win campaign in 1916 is tied with Hall of Famer Mike Marner for the most in a single season after the turn of the century and he topped the 30 win mark three times in his career. He won 4 WCS rings with Detroit and is 8-2 all-time in the Series, which gives him more career playoff wins than any other player in history. Golden is also one of just a handful of pitchers to throw a no-hitter, doing so against Washington in 1915. A back injury ended his career at the age of 31. GEORGE JOHNSON (1907-1926: Washington, Boston) - There have been a number of players named George Johnson through out FABL history but only one earned the moniker "Big George". This George Johnson was a dominant pitcher primarily with Boston but started and finished his big league career with the Washington Eagles. He counted 8 twenty-win season including a 31 win 1916 among his 311 career victories. That number is special because no one else since Johnson won his 300th in 1925 has approached that magic number for his career although some speculate Rabbit Day may one day do it. Johnson tossed a no-hitter in 1914 and won a World Championship Series with the Minutemen in 1912. Johnson also recently returned to the game at the major league level as he has joined the Cincinnati Cannons as their pitching coach. PETE LAYTON (1923-1938: Stars, Chiefs)- Above all else Pete Layton was a winner. He owns 6 World Championship Series rings, believed to be the most all-time and is the career leader in WCS runs scored and hits. Twice he was named MVP of the World Championship Series and he also made 4 all-star teams in his career. Layton finished with 2,506 career hits and a .333 lifetime batting average. He won two batting titles, one each in the CA and the Fed and amazingly they came 10 years apart as after leading the CA in 1928 he hit .365 and won the Fed batting crown in his final season, a year in which he also collected 213 hits but then decided to walk away from the game after homering, driving in 3 runs and scoring 2 including the series winner as the Chiefs outlasted Brooklyn 11-10 in game seven of the 1938 WCS which, as it turned out, was the last game of Layton's illustrious career. BILL TEMPLE (1899-1911: Stars, Detroit, Boston)- Temple made his debut with the New York Stars in 1899 and won at least 20 games each of his first ten seasons in the league. He would spend four in New York before moving on to the Detroit Dynamos before ending his career with a stop in Boston. His lifetime record was 284-230 and he won a pair of World Championship rings, going 2-2 in WCS play. The sad thing is as good as Temple was - and many consider him to be the greatest lefthander of all-time, he could have been so much better. Temple was a raging alcoholic and his frequent drunken antics - some of them on the field during games - kept him in hot water and prompted both the Stars and Dynamos to part ways with him. Despite all of his troubles, Temple still managed to to lead his association in strikeouts the first 7 seasons of his career and his lifetime total of 3131 k's is surpassed only by Hall of Famer Charlie Sis. Temple also is one of just 3 pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters, joining John Blackburn and Doc Newell. EDWARD "BIG EDDIE" THOMPSON (Owner Detroit Dynamos 1904-1939) Thompson, who passed away this past summer, was a larger than life character in the Detroit sporting scene who not only owned the Dynamos and their ballpark Thompson Field, but was also involved in the city's football, baseball and hockey endeavours and the Thompson name is on several buildings in downtown Detroit including the Thompson Hotel. His father William Thompson was a textile merchant who founded the Dynamos in 1890 and Eddie would take over when his father passed away in 1904. Eddie was an accomplished athlete as well, playing tackle on the football team at Detroit City College prior to his involvement in running the Dynamos. Under Eddie's ownership the Detroit baseball club won 7 pennants and 5 World Championship Series. THOMAS WATKINS (1888-1904: Washington, Baltimore, Toronto, Gothams) - Won 5 batting titles including a pair of season when he hit over .400, the outfielder notched 3,143 career hits - good for 9th most all-time. He is baseball's all-time leader in doubles with 581 despite only leading his league in that category 3 times in his career. CHARLIE WILSON (1889-1901: Boston, Gothams, Sailors, Chiefs) -Wilson is one of several turn of the century pitchers who could be considered and may one day be enshrined. Others include Aaron Wright, Jack Long, Morris Harris and Alexander Elliott. All are likely longshots on this ballot but we chose to highlight just two of them including Wilson because of what his career could have been as much as what it was. Nicknamed "The Tar Heel Thunderbolt", the Carolina native had a 5 year stretch in the 1890s when he was possibly one of the most dominant pitchers of all-time. He led his Association in strikeouts 6 times, wins 5 times and had the lowest ERA in 5 straight years while pitching for 3 clubs during that time. He threw a lot of innings, over 400 each of his final 8 full seasons, and by 1901 at the age of 29 his arm was out of bullets and Wilson never pitched in the majors after turning 30. Despite that his 332 career wins place him 5th all-time and his 1,927 strikeouts are 12th most in that category. AARON WRIGHT (1899-1915: Pittsburgh, Toronto, Chiefs) Known as "The Old Goat", Wright pitched until he was 39 and was effective right up until the end. At 341-301, Wright had a lot of wins, third most all-time, but he was also one of just 5 pitchers to lose 300 games in their career as well but that is a product of playing on some weak teams and throwing in 698 career FABL games, 6th highest total all-time. Wright was on a strong Pittsburgh club early in his career and helped the Miners win their only World Championship Series in 1901. QUICK HITS The Baltimore Cannons continued to reshape their coaching staff with the appointment of Ad Doria as the club's bench coach. The 43 year old has a background with Cannons manager George Theobald, having played four seasons with the Detroit Dynamos when Theobald was their manager. It is said that Theobald saw a lot of himself in the former Opelika State catcher and loved his work ethic. Doria was far from a star, he appeared in just 96 games in his 4 seasons in Detroit and when Theobald left the manager's seat Doria was sent to the minors and never made it back to the big leagues. Two others with ties to Theobald's Detroit days have also joined the Cannons organization. Cliff Everett, who spent the first 8 of his 12 big league seasons with the Dynamos will be the club's third base coach while 42 year old Roy Calfee, who was a two-time Allan Award winner for Detroit in the 1920's, will act as the pitching coach at Class B Charleston. The Toronto Wolves are trying to find a home for John Herrick. The 31 year old has spent each of the past two seasons in Toronto after hitting 38 homers in 117 games for AAA Buffalo. He likely deserves a shot to play everyday but there are a lot of good first baseman in the league including the best one, Fred McCormick, who is Herrick's teammate with the Wolves. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 12/03/1939 Saying it's patience with the Finns is over, Russia invaded Finland by land, air and sea raining death-dealing explosives on half a dozen Finnish cities. The US has offered to try and broker peace between the two nations, but Russia rejected the American offer. President Roosevelt condemned the Russian attack, calling it a 'profound shock" to the United States and jeopardized "the rights of mankind to self-government." The League of Nations joined FDR in voicing it's protest. The British believe they are making progress dealing with Germany's sea attacks. According to Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, Nazi submarines are "being sunk faster than Germany can build them." Churchill says 5 were destroyed this week alone. The United States warns Britain it's blockade of German exports is illegal, and Washington formally reserved it's right to hold London liable on damages the US may suffer as a result of the blockade. After two years of fairly normal conditions while engaged in hostilities against China, Japan is now feeling the pinch of war with shortages of rice, coal and other necessities plaguing the island nation. Fingerprints on the scene match that of amateur Canadian boxer Ernie Haas after Dr. Walter Engelberg, Nazi consular secretary in New York was found murdered at his Brooklyn home. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 11-26-2021 at 03:13 PM.