[Tiger Fan]

DECEMBER 27, 1939

KINGS LOOK TO GET BACK ON TRACK WITH NEW GM

After five straight 90+ win seasons and 3 consecutive Continental Association pennants 1939 was a year Brooklyn fans would rather forget as the Kings finished with their worst record since 1925 and ended up free falling to 7th place. It was a bad year all around for Brooklyn as the club stumbled out of the gate, but briefly picked up steam in July and looked like they just might be in the pennant hunt once again, only to endure a second half collapse that can partly be blamed on a season-ending injury to top pitcher Tom Barrell. However, there was much more than just injuries that went wrong for Brooklyn last season starting with a year long slump from five-time Whitney Award winner Al Wheeler and a dismal 29-48 road record that proved far too much for Manager Powell Slocum and his club to overcome.

The Kings finished the year with an awful stretch, posting a 24-41 record after August 1st and the controversy continued once the season came to an end as rumours of Slocum, Scouting Director John Spears and General Manager Tiger Fan all bolting to Baltimore dominated the headlines of the Daily Eagle's sports pages in late October. In the end Slocum and Spears stayed put when the perspective ownership group they were a part of failed to keep the team in Baltimore but Tiger Fan, after 14 seasons and 4 pennants with the Kings, decided to vacate the GM's office and head to Cincinnati which became the new home for the Cannons when soap magnate John Tice and legendary manager George Theobald purchased the franchise.

It was announced this week that the Kings had found their replacement at the top of the organization as newcomer Ray has taken over as Brooklyn's General Manager. The new GM certainly has plenty of talent at his disposal as the Kings, even after the dismal 70 victory campaign last year, have more wins over the past six seasons than any other team in baseball. Brooklyn also continues to have a solid collection of veteran talent like Tom Barrell and Al Wheeler but also including shortstop Harry Barrell, already a six time all-star despite have recently just turned 26 years of age, and emerging pitchers Art White and Bob Cummings. Veteran catcher Fred Barrell and outfielder Frank Lightbody are still solid contributors as well and Frank's older brother Doug Lightbody is arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Add in the young guard led by Doug & Frank's cousin Jim Lightbody, a smooth swinging second baseman, slugger 'Tiny Tim' Hopkins and outfielders Rats McGonigle and Joe Herman and there is plenty of youthful talent already in town with more on the way led by first baseman Chuck Adams along with pitchers Bill Willman and Sergio Vergara. Brooklyn also has two first round selections, including the fourth overall pick in this month's amateur player draft.

The new GM has plenty of pieces to work with but also some tough decisions to make particularly around the future of Wheeler and Tom Barrell. The power hitting outfielder suffered through the worst season of his career at age 31 but he had company as several other Kings hitters, most notably John Langille, also struggled. Was it just a temporary setback and the two will return to closer to their career norms or is it the start of a downward trend? What of Doug Lightbody? His skills are clearly diminishing as his 35 year old body, wrecked by a serious of injuries, is showing signs of breaking down at age 36 but it is no secret Brooklyn owner Daniel Prescott wants to see Lightbody retire a King and reach the 2,000 hit plateau - a figure he is presently 59 shy of achieving. Then there is Tom Barrell, long the ace of the staff and a winner of 3-straight Allan Awards between 1934-36 but he will be 32 before the season begins and had the worst season of his career cut short by a serious arm injury. Scouts around the league are whispering that Tom is no longer an ace but depending upon how he bounces back from the injury he could still be a very effective moundsman.

For the first time in recent memory the Kings will not enter the season as favorites to claim the Continental crown but it would be foolish to count them out entirely. The CA is a very balanced group and while perhaps Chicago is taking steps to become the dominant club in the loop, the race for the 1940 pennant seems wide open. Brooklyn has made a few changes from their pennant-winning teams but the Kings still have to be considered contenders if Wheeler and Tom Barrell can get back on track.

It is rare for baseball to push the hockey's New York Shamrocks off the top of the sports pages but this is a unique time for the Brooklyn Kings. The club will have a new General Manager for the first time since 1926 and will try to rebound from it's first losing campaign since 1933. Will that dismal recently completed 1939 campaign prove to be the start of a rebuild at Kings County or merely a blip in a long run of continued success for the franchise which has enjoyed unparalleled success the past half dozen seasons?

Tiger Fan has left town, bolted for Cincinnati and while some of the Flatbush faithful may see that as a capital offense, he certainly leaves behind a solid legacy including building the team that ended a 46 year drought, and the Curse of Ferdinand Hawkins, with a World Championship in 1937. In the 29 years before Tiger Fan arrived on the scene the Kings had managed to win just 2 Continental Association pennants and were last in the CA each of the two years immediately prior to his arrival. A spirited run marked his debut year with the organization when they won 94 games and finished just 2 back of the then-mighty New York Stars after going just 70-94 the previous season. That was the year that Doug Lightbody, Tiger Fan's first-ever draft pick in Brooklyn, was selected 6th overall out of Mississippi A&M, skipped the minors entirely and went straight to the big leagues - a feat that still remains very rare and most recently accomplished by another Brooklyn drafted outfielder in Rats McGonigle. Lightbody captured the attention of the city back in '26 and was challenging for the batting title as he had the Kings trying to end the Stars run of back to back WCS titles, when a season ending injury - the first of many to befall the talented Lightbody- cost him the second half of the season and probably the Kings a pennant. While Brooklyn would get that pennant the following season but come up short in the WCS against the Philadelphia Keystones one might think in hindsight that ill-fated 1936 run was clear foreshadowing of what was to come for Tiger Fan's Kings - a serious of missed opportunities and tough breaks.

After a few middle of the pack seasons and some great stretches but also terrible slumps - both of which would prove to be hallmarks of Tiger Fan's Kings - they put it all together following a series of big trades by the GM that built the near-dynasty that was to come. The first was adding Tom Barrell and his brother Fred, along with Mike Murphy, in a deal with the Chicago Cougars that sent former first overall selection Tommy Wilcox to the Windy City. The next was acquiring a talented shortstop prospect from Cleveland who just happened to be Tom and Fred's younger brother Harry. The final piece was trading nearly the Kings entire draft class and a number of key prospects to bring Al Wheeler and Frank Vance in from Detroit. The result was a record five straight seasons with 90 victories and three consecutive pennants including the curse breaking 1937 WCS win over Pittsburgh.

As special as those times were for Brooklyn fans they also have to be considered a disappointment in many ways. The streak probably should have been 5 straight pennants but late season slumps in both 1934 and 1935 left Brooklyn 1 game back of Cleveland in each of those years. Even when they did win the Kings under Tiger Fan never made it easy. A terrible collapse in 1937 meant they needed a 1-game playoff to beat a hard charging Philadelphia Sailors club in '37. Then in 1938 they were cruising along with a double-digit lead on Toronto in late August only to see the Wolves catch them in a two week span. Only a late season Toronto collapse allowed Brooklyn to survive and win their third straight pennant. It's hard to say a team with 5 straight 90-win seasons underachieved but one could make the argument Brooklyn should be celebrating a record five consecutive Continental Association titles.

Call it what you will: bad luck, choking under pressure or just plain old fate but the Kings woes were not limited to the regular season. Twice the Chicago Chiefs laid a beating on Brooklyn in the WCS. The first in 1936 had the Kings heavily favoured but they were swept 4 straight as the Brooklyn bats seemingly were put into cold storage by Rabbit Day and the Chiefs. They did finally appear to be the beneficiary of good luck in 1937 when a questionable Pittsburgh pitching change turned the tide of that Series in Brooklyn's favour for a change and the resulting Series victory crushed 'The Curse' for good. Two years later it was the Chiefs again but this time the Kings appeared to have the series well in hand, winning 3 of the first 4 games but then they collapsed with 3 consecutive losses as Chicago once again had the last laugh.

Regardless of your feelings on whether the now former GM should be praised for a great run or blamed for not being able to give the 1934-38 Kings a legacy as one of the greatest clubs in FABL history, that era is over. A new one begins with a new General Manager arriving in town and a solid base of talent to work with.

Is the new General Manager the perfect New Year's gift for Kings fans who, if it is possible have actually grown used to both the taste of victory but also all to familiar with looking over their shoulders when things are going well just waiting for the wheels to fall off? The future at Kings County has plenty of possibilities and one should not rule out a return to contender status as early as this year but as Brooklyn fans know all to well that light at the end of the tunnel as they approach 1940 could just as easily be an oncoming train.