MARCH 26, 1940
A NEW DECADE AWAITS AS SPRING GAMES BEGIN
The 1940's are officially underway with the first games of spring training having finally been played following what felt like an eternity for many in FABL circles. While in film Hollywood of the 1930's might have garnered the nickname "The Golden Age" in FABL that moniker clearly belonged to the Big Apple, as the decade was ushered in by 4 New York Gothams pennants in the first five years and closed out by 3 Continental crowns for the Brooklyn Kings before being upstaged by the New York Stars last season.
Led by five consecutive seasons of at least 90 victories, it was the Kings that were the winningest team in the 1930's although only the Gothams, despite their awful finish to the decade ended up being the only club to win 4 pennants in 1930s. World Championship Series titles were well spaced out with only the Chicago Chiefs and New York Stars winning a pair of them while single crowns went to Brooklyn, Cleveland, Philadelphia and the Chicago Cougars in the Continental Association with the Gothams and the Philadelphia Keystones also claiming one each for the Fed contingent.
At the other end of the spectrum we have the Toronto Wolves and Baltimore (now Cincinnati) Cannons who ended up being the two worst teams in the big leagues the past decade with the Washington Eagles not far ahead of the pair. There is great excitement for many teams, including the Wolves, as the new decade gets underway for real next month but while we wait here is a final look back at how each club performed in the 1930s.
16 THINGS TO HOPE FOR 1940
BY JIGGS MCGEE
I have previously announced my predictions for the 1940 season to end with the Detroit Dynamos and Chicago Cougars flying the pennants in their respective associations but as camps kick into full gear I thought I would take a quick trip around FABL and outline something the fans of each of the 16 clubs would love to see from their hardball heroes.
BOSTON MINUTEMEN- Obviously at the forefront of the minds of any Minutemen fan worth his salt is an end to the pennant drought that stretches back to 1915, but it would be too easy to say that a pennant is the 'hope' of Minutemen fans, as that would apply to fans of every FABL club. Boston has a habit of tantalizing it's fan base with a great start to the season only to fade down the stretch but even staying in contention until August this season may prove difficult as both Detroit and Pittsburgh are loaded. Still for the long-suffering Minutemen fan another power bat would be a huge addition. Perhaps it comes internally as either Mack Sutton or Bill Van Ness have a breakout year, much as Bob Donoghue enjoyed a season ago. More likely the breakout player in Boston this time around will be Dick Higgins and if the Minutemen make a long run this season it would likely be because they added a big-time slugger through the trade market.
BROOKLYN KINGS- A healthy Tom Barrell and a return to form by Al Wheeler are the keys to the Kings regaining control of the Continental. Since winning 3 straight Allen Awards ending in 1936, Barrell has had three subpar seasons with two of them being interrupted by injury. It is very important for Barrell to have a big year in order for the Kings to rebound from their implosion of last season. However, even if Barrell is at the top of his game any Brooklyn pennant hopes will also require Al Wheeler to shake off whatever demons took over his bat last season. If he doesn't rebound it could be a long season for the formerly powerful purple squad.
CHICAGO CHIEFS - Perhaps just being an even year is enough to bring the Chiefs back to the top. They won it all in 1936 and 1938 as they alternated pennant wins with Pittsburgh over the past four years. I don't believe 1940 will have the same effect on the Chiefs buy nothing would make fans (or management) at Whitney Park happier than to see Rabbit Day bounce back. Over the past decade the now 35 year old Day has been without question the best pitcher in the game but he plummeted off the pedestal last season and has some wondering if this is the beginning of the end. Outside of perhaps his rookie year way back in 1927, last season was the worst of Day's career and he will turn 36 in May. Day is 51 victories shy of becoming the first pitcher to reach the 300 win plateau since recent Hall of Fame inductee Big George Johnson accomplished that feat in 1925 and it sure would be nice to see Day get back on track and get there as well.
CHICAGO COUGARS- The Cougars do not need much to win their first pennant since 1933 and the current 6 year drought is getting to be very long by Chicago standards as the club has never gone more than 9 seasons without a Continental Association pennant. They have a solid offense and a great mix of veterans and youth on the mound so you could certainly wish for good health, but I am saving that particular request for the Miners fans. Perhaps a breakout year from a youngster like Pete Papenfus, Carlos Montes or Billy Hunter might be the perfect hope but instead for the Cougars to reach their full potential let's hope for big seasons out of newcomers Leon Drake and Eddie Quinn. Drake had a down year in Detroit last season but seems poised for a big rebound in the Windy City. Quinn is the one I worry about. Yes, the Caveman finally broke out last season for Washington after a pair of terrible seasons with the Eagles, winning 20 games for the first time in his career in the process. I can't help but worry he is just a one year wonder although the nice thing in Chicago is he did not cost the Cougars a lot and if someone like Papenfus finally puts it altogether they could easily win without Quinn contributing much at all.
CINCINNATI CANNONS - Cincinnati stole Baltimore's team, or perhaps simply rid the city of an ongoing nightmare. Either way this is the honeymoon phase for the Cannons and the Queen City so little is expected from the club. And with good reason as this team is still very bad. New Cannons ownership made plenty of noise over the winter and had some splashy big name pickups - unfortunately most were staff members rather than players although veterans Moxie Pidgeon and William Jones will certainly help. Best the Cannons fans can hope for is for their team not to finish last for the seventh straight year.
CLEVELAND FORESTERS - The Foresters surprised me last season as they were perhaps just a George Dawson injury away from winning the pennant. A year ago maybe my preseason prediction column gave the Foresters motivation by citing a concern with their pitching staff and team age as a reason they would fall into the second division. If that is what motivated the Foresters to make their run last season then you are welcome Cleveland fans as once more I am calling for the Foresters to finish fifth. If that isn't enough for fans of the Trees, how about the hope your club adds another arm. I worry about Lou Martino being able to duplicate what he did last season and while Dean Astle, Dave Rankin and Ben Turner are not a bad trio, another quality starting pitcher would go a long ways towards keeping Cleveland in the first division, something they have been a part of every year since 1931.
DETROIT DYNAMOS - What do you get the team that seemingly has everything? Detroit already has more pitching than they could possibly need and loads of offense so the only thing the Dynamos lacked in the past was the ability to put it together for a full season. Look for Sal Pestilli to be on a mission and Red Johnson to be a big time factor as well and if that happens, with the pitching depth they have, there is no way the Dynamos should finish second for the third year in a row.
MONTREAL SAINTS - Saints fans are among the best in baseball but are just dying to support a winner. 1921 was the last time Montreal won a pennant and their most recent season with at least a .500 record was a decade ago. They drew a club record of nearly 1.3 million fans when they finished just 2 games out in 1930 and averaged well over 750k throughout the 1930's, which were a pretty bleak decade for the team. Last year they showed a little promise and topped the one million attendance mark for just the fourth time in franchise history - and that was for a team that finished 12 games out. Parc Cartier would be hopping if they ever could contend. Unfortunately that won't be this season as there are too many holes, particularly on the mound. But there is also a lot of good young talent, both in Montreal already and on the way up the minor league chain. A full season of big league baseball filled with some pretty good success for 21 year old Wally Doyle would be the best thing Saints fans could hope for this year. Despite his youth, Doyle has already spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues and completely dominated AAA hitters a year ago.
NEW YORK STARS - Best thing that could happen to the Stars this season is for no one to let Dave Trowbridge know he is almost 42 years old. He had arguably the greatest season of his career last year and capped it off with an amazing World Championship Series. The Stars return much of the same squad that shocked FABL last season with an incredible run that did not end until after the victory parade down Riverside Drive had concluded. The one exception is Moxie Pidgeon and his 21 homers flew the coop to Cincinnati, leaving the Stars to hope that 26 year old rookie Hub Parks and his 14 career games of big league experience are ready to take over for Pidgeon in leftfield.
NEW YORK GOTHAMS - Even a state of the art new ballpark could not get the struggling Gothams back on track as they suffered through a third straight season with 90+ losses. The offense looks like it is coming along nicely but pitching has been a nightmare in New York ever since they dealt away Rabbit Day. A healthy Nate Spear - who has been outstanding when he is not hurt - is a must for the Gothams to show some signs of life and a big season out of Gus Goulding, who perhaps can finally live up to his promise now that he is out of another wasteland for pitchers in the Cannons organization. Even if the two of them can have big years the Gothams still need to somehow find two or three more pitchers they can count on.
PHILADELPHIA KEYSTONES - All Keystones fans can do is be patient. Wait for the next crop to develop. Keystones fans once were a very patient lot - they waited until 1927 for the club's very first WCS appearance (although they did win the Fed in 1892 which was the first season of the league and the only one that did not include a World Championship Series between the pennant winners). Three pennants and a pair of WCS wins over a seven year stretch led by Hall of Famer Rankin Kellogg and a young Bobby Barrell may have spoiled the Keystones faithful and it came crashing down suddenly a few years ago. The cause of much of the recent failure really could not be forecast as the health crisis Kellogg faced led to his rapid decline as a player and ultimately ended his career. Most of the stars of the Keystones glory days are long gone but fans should still support Carl Ames, Bobby Barrell - perhaps a future Hall of Famer - and Grover Lee, a 34 year old who is back in Philadelphia after a couple of seasons away. Those three will be tasked with helping the next generation of Keystones like Hank Koblenz, Billy Woytek and Jim Whitely continue on their big league journey. 1940 will be another long season but old-timers among Keystone fans are well acquainted with long seasons. Philadelphia used to hold the record for futility (no longer thanks to Baltimore) with 5 straight last place finishes beginning in 1920. Those bad years laid the groundwork for future titles. Hopefully this stretch does the same.
PHILADELPHIA SAILORS - Like the cross-town Keystones, the Sailors had a long stretch of futility in the early days of FABL before breaking out with three straight pennants beginning in 1928. Even before then the club has been very successful, with only two finishes in the second division in the past 16 years. They dipped to fourth last season but were just 6 games back in a tight Continental Association race. The Sailors are a good team, a good organization, but what they really lack especially since trading Jack Cleaves to Pittsburgh, is a marquee player. I am not sure if just one big name player, either a dominant pitcher or a top hitter, would be enough to lift the Sailors to the pennant in 1940 but it would go a long ways to help them step up from being a good team to perhaps being a great one. Right now they are good in that I could easily see another first division finish, but I really do not see any hope for a title without additional talent being added.
PITTSBURGH MINERS - Miners fans long for just one thing - success in October. No team is more snake bitten in the Fall than the Pittsburgh ballclub, which after losses to Brooklyn in 1937 and being swept by the New York Stars last season have now lost 7 of the 8 World Championship Series they have participated in. Of course for that wish to come true the club needs to get back to the WCS and while the Miners have the talent to do so, odds are that the injuries they avoided for the most part last season, will return this time around. So the regular season wish for Pittsburgh fans has to be good health, especially from Mahlon Strong, who in 233 games with the Miners is batting .330 with 38 homers and 199 rbi's. Unfortunately, Strong has missed 229 games over the past three years.
ST LOUIS PIONEERS - Only Boston has gone longer without a Federal Association pennant than the Pioneers, who last won one in 1921. The St Louis ballclub always seems to be good, but never great. They have finished fourth in the Fed each of the past 4 seasons and five of the last 7. The other two years they finished second with teams led by Fred McCormick and Freddie Jones. Those two could not get the club over the hump, heck even the great Max Morris couldn't do that after leading them two titles in his first two seasons with the club, so the Pioneers moved on from them and while McCormick has found new life in Toronto the Pioneers continue to be a decent, middle of the road ballclub. They tried to make pitching be their focus and had some success with that but injuries to ace David Abalo and the complete collapse of Sam Sheppard derailed that plan. The best thing the Pioneers could hope for is a return to Allan Award winning form by Sheppard but that is likely far too much to ask so I expect they would settle for a full healthy season out of Abalo and the continued development of 25 year old ace in the making Buddy Long.
TORONTO WOLVES - Toronto is desperate for some offensive support to aide Fred McCormick, who put up one of the best seasons in FABL history a year ago despite having very little help and as a result it was wasted on a 6th place finish. I would also say that McCormick's immense talent is wasted at Dominion Stadium, where the empty seats generally far out number paying customers. The club set a record two years ago during that near miracle run of 1938 but even then it was still just 860,000 and that number dropped substantially in the second half of last season as it became clear the Wolves were back in their traditional stomping grounds of the second division. Toronto's pitching staff was outstanding a year ago and should be sound again this year, but until the Wolves find some bats to complement McCormick it will be tough for them to make much progress. Perhaps the answers can be found internally such as promising infielder Walt Pack but I think it is a better bet that until Toronto lands another top hitter or two from outside the organization the pennant, something they last won in 1911, will remain nothing but a distant dream.
WASHINGTON EAGLES - The Eagles in recent years had picked up a reputation as career-killers for pitchers. That changed perhaps last season when Eddie Quinn and Jack Elder had career years. Now we have read that story before as Bill Anderson and Karl Johnson, to give you two examples, had big years in the nation's capital only to collapse the following season. If Quinn collapses it won't be the Eagles concern as they shipped the 33 year old to the Cougars over the winter. But all eyes in Washington will be squarely on Elder to prove that the first 20 win season of his career was not a fluke. Washington was a very good ballclub for a long stretch from around 1910 until 1925 but the thirties were not kind to Eagles fans as the club had the worst record out of any Federal Association team the past decade. It has endured several front office changes with the latest crew taking over just prior to last season. Stability in the front office might be the best thing for Eagles fans to wish for as perhaps the current crew can did the team out of a more than decade long hole it has been buried in.
BNN MAKES IT'S EARLY PREDICTIONS
Last week TWIFB called the Detroit Dynamos and Chicago Cougars as the pennant winners for 1940. BNN has weighed in with it's annual March predictions and the league news service sees a rematch of the 1939 WCS with the Pittsburgh Miners and New York Stars prevailing. Note this is a very early forecast from BNN and they will update their predictions just prior to Opening Day once they have had a chance to observe the spring action.
Some interesting notes from the BNN call is they expect Mahlon Strong to play 153 games for the Pittsburgh Miners despite the fact the talented but often injured outfielder has never played more than 112 contests in any of his three seasons in Pittsburgh. They are calling for Strong to win the Federal Association batting title while hitting 29 homers and driving in 126 runs, although they do feel the dynamic Detroit duo of Sal Pestilli (.313,38,146) and Red Johnson (.310,32,111) will both out-homer Strong. Even more astounding is the service's call for a 47 homer season from Boston slugger Bob Donoghue.
Turning to the Continental Association BNN says age means nothing to Dave Trowbridge, expecting the 42 year old to lead the CA in batting average. The biggest surprise might the omission of Toronto's Fred McCormick entirely from the list of top hitters. Even though BNN feels the Wolves can finish second they also failed to mention Toronto ace Joe Hancock among the top pitchers.
QUICK HITS
- The Chicago Chiefs have to be very happy with their 6-0 opening week of Grapefruit League play as they hope to rebound from a terrible start to last season. While the wins are nice, even in spring action, the Chiefs were likely hoping for a little more out of Rabbit Day in his debut. It is obviously very early but Day has more to prove this season than perhaps any other player in the Federal Association after his down year - at least by his standards - last season. Day went 4 innings against St Louis in his spring debut but surrendered 8 hits and allowed 3 earned runs. Far to early to push the panic button but you have to think Chicago skipper Joe Ward would have traded the unbeaten week for a 4-2 showing if it came with a dominant performance from Day.
- The New York Gothams had the worst opening week in either association, winning just once in six outings and watching both Nate Spear and newly acquired Gus Goulding get lit up pretty badly. The only thing to save the week for Gothams brass is their three hottest players last week were 3/4 of the Million Dollar infield in Walt Messer, Mule Monier and Roosevelt Brewer.
- 2-4 in Detroit with a lot of experimenting going on which was part of the Dynamos plan. The one thing that the club says it will look to see improvement in is their .182 spring batting average among the position players. That is not acceptable and is reminiscent of the sluggish bats we had last spring and early season. Detroit is also concerned with a pair of week 1 spring training injuries to P Frank Gordon (2 weeks back tightness) and more importantly P Charlie Wheeler who missed the last half of last season with a labrum injury, now has a strained rotator cuff in his first outing. That is definitely not good for a young (25) pitcher who has been a highly ranked and performed very well since arriving to Detroit. He looked good in his outing out of the bullpen going 3 scoreless innings against the Miners. He will miss the rest of spring training and will likely get a rehab start or two in Newark before coming back to Detroit.
- Looks like Doug Lightbody and his brother Frank are both on the trade block in Brooklyn. Makes sense as there really is no where to play the two of them but it will be a sad day if (when) Doug Lightbody leaves Brooklyn, especially if it is before he records his 2,000th career hit. Lightbody has missed a lot of time with injuries, which certainly is reflected in his career numbers but an argument can easily be made that he is the greatest King player of all time.
- Washington goes 4-2, partially because Jack Elder didn't allow an earned run, and partially because Harry Shumate had an OPS of 1.122. Regardless, this next week probably won't go as well, it'll be young gun week, so the outfield will be some combination of Robison, Hall, and either Hanshaw or Miller if he hit decent/actually steals efficiently.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 3/24/1940
- Hitler and Mussolini meet with extension of the Rome-Berlin axis to Moscow and possible eventual participation of Italy in the European war on Germany's side were the main topics of discussion.
- Paris is reporting the French successfully turned back a German attack with the largest number of men the Nazis have put into action since the war started.
- Prime Minister Chamberlain defiantly declared before the British House of Commons that the Allied powers are ready to meet any challenge by Hitler and will refuse to be diverted from their primary war aim of crushing Nazi aggression.
- For the first time a British submarine sank a German merchant ship. It occurred in the Baltic Sea and aroused speculation on a drive against shipment of Scandinavian iron ore to the Reich. The act prompted Germany to further step up it's attacks on ships bound for Britain.
- An aide to President Roosevelt says any hope for peace in Europe "appears to be very empty."
- The Queen Mary left the New York Harbor this week for an unrevealed destination but almost certainly to be used as troop transport for the allies.