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Jiggs McGee · 12-14-2021, 06:09 PM

APRIL 1, 1940

CANNONS LEAD WAY IN CA AS SPRING ACTION CONTINUES

It is only spring training but certainly still an unusual position for the Cincinnati Cannons as the transplanted franchise finds itself atop the Continental Association after two weeks worth of spring games. The Cannons, who moved from Baltimore over the winter, have spent the last six seasons firmly entrenched in the basement of the CA. The Federal Association's Chicago Chiefs and Philadelphia Keystones share top spot overall with the Cannons as all three teams are 8-4 as the Grapefruit League reaches it's midway point.

FIVE ROOKIE PITCHERS TO WATCH

There are a number of highly touted pitchers who one might expect to make their big league debuts, if not in April, at least sometime during the season. Here is a brief look at a few of the names high on the OSA top prospects list you should familiarize yourself with. Note- This list is strictly of pitchers who have yet to pitch in a regular season FABL game.

VIC CARROLL- CINCINNATI #2 on OSA top prospects list: The Cannons have already announced that the 21 year old will begin the season in Indianapolis but expect he will be with the big club by mid-season if all goes well. Carroll was the first overall selection in the 1939 draft out of Richmond State, for whom he was a first team All-American selection as a freshman. The New York City native joined the Cannons organization in June and went 3-4 with a 5.60 era in A ball before a late season promotion to AA. He struggled in 3 starts at that level otherwise he likely would have been on the Cannons spring training roster but the club feels a stint in AAA is best for his confidence and development.

BILL WELLMAN - BROOKLYN #15 on OSA top prospects list: The Kings have a solid collection of young arms in Brooklyn already and the 23 year old Strub College alumni may be poised to join them. A second team AIAA All-American his sophomore season, Wellman was a 4th round pick of Detroit in 1937 - one of the years with the free agent phase for the top 3 rounds of the mock draft) Willman was dealt to Brooklyn last summer in the deal that reunited Alf Pestilli with his brother Sal in the Motor City. He struggled at AAA last season, positing a 9-13 record in 30 starts between Newark and Rochester but earned an invite to the Kings big league camp this season. He had a rough spring debut and might be a bit of a long shot to get a call up this season unless the Kings run into injury problems on the mound.

DUKE HENDRICKS - BOSTON #18 on OSA top prospect list: Another former AIAA All-American as Hendricks was a second team selection as a junior at Baton Rogue State in 1937. The New Jersey native was signed as part of the initial free agent crop of 1937 and made his minor league debut at AA that year. He has spent the last two seasons in AAA including a solid 13-6, 4.25 campaign last year. OSA feels he can easily front a big league rotation and he had a pretty impressive 5 inning spring debut against Philadelphia in the opening week and followed it up with just as impressive a performance a few days ago also against the Keystones. If he continues to pitch well I see no reason the 24 year old will not crack the Minutemen's opening day 24-man roster.

JIM DOUGLASS - WASHINGTON #30 on OSA top prospect list: Just like the three players listed above him Douglass is a former AIAA All-American, earning first team status as a junior in 1938 following a sparkling 9-4, 2.82 season in his final year at Eastern State. Like Hendricks, Douglass is a New Jersey native and he was a third round selection of the New York Stars in 1938 but was dealt to Washington last winter in the move that brought Moxie Pidgeon to the Big Apple. He spent last season at AAA Kansas City but struggled thru a 9-17, 7.10 campaign so the Eagles opted not to bring him to the big league camp this season. His eta in the big leagues might not be until next season but a strong start in Kansas City might just force Washington to call him up this year.

RAY DALPMAN - BOSTON #32 on OSA top prospects list: The lone high school draftee on this list as Dalpman was selected in the 7th round by Detroit in the 1935 draft and was moved to Boston following the 1938 season in exchange for big league catcher John Wicklund. He was added to the Minutemen's 40 man roster just prior to the December rule 5 draft but with all his options left Dalpman might begin the season in AAA. However, if he pitches like he did at that level last season (12-3, 2.71) it won't be long before he is standing on the mound at Cunningham Field. Just 23 years of age he has really picked up his game over the past couple of seasons and is projected to be a solid #2 starter. If Dalpman and the previously mentioned Duke Hendricks are both ready for the big leagues the Minutemen pitching staff will certainly be one to fear as the two could slot in very nicely alongside Dick Higgins, Art Myers and Ed Wood.

Other pitchers in the OSA top 100 to keep an eye out for their big league debuts include Danny Hearn of St Louis, the Keystones Bud Canfield, Toronto's two-way player Juan Pomales and possibly the Gothams Tom Henderson.

QUICK HITS

After reading the latest installment in "The Ballad of the Barrell Brothers" which is a must-read for any FABL fan, several scouts were overheard talking in the stands at a recent game about the big Tom and Fred Barrell trade from the Cougars to Brooklyn in 1932 in exchange for Tommy Wilcox and Mike Taylor. Speculation then led to just what trade might be considered the 'biggest' deal in FABL history. Certainly in the early days it was the Max Morris from Cleveland to St Louis but for the modern era it was agreed that another Morris deal had to top all trades. That one came in 1930 when Morris was moved from the Pioneers to the Gothams for five prospects including future 2-time Whitney Award (and maybe more to come) Fred McCormick. While acknowledging that McCormick was still an unproven prospect at the time of the deal, OSA scouting boss Dan Barrell offered this observation. "Given that Morris IS a Hall of Famer and I would be surprised if McCormick does not eventually join him in the Hall, my vote would go for that deal. The Kings-Cougars trade was a really big one, but Wilcox's unfortunate injury problems have hurt that one in the long-term."
Still hard to believe how badly scouts fared in the 1927 draft. That was the one in which McCormick slid to the 11th round and he wasn't the only quality player to go late that draft. Joe Watson did not get picked until the 11th round and Ron Rattigan, Leon Drake and Clarence Howerton were all 14th rounders that same draft. Then you also had Milt Fritz taken in the 12th round with fellow hurlers Pinky Conlan and Red Hampton going in the 14th.
A 4-2 week and some decent pitching performances have things looking brighter for the New York Gothams. Nate Spears is still trying to knock the rust off but at least the Gothams anticipated ace is healthy right now. Meanwhile newcomer Gus Goulding rebounded from a rough outing last week with 4 innings of shutout ball in a win over Philadelphia and 24 year old Bunny Edwards has had a pair of very solid performances.
The Gothams young infielders are hitting. The pitching has been ok in spots. The OF is a collection of players trying to determine who sticks. But the big question is behind the plate. Pete Casstevens (just 3-for-24) hasn't been hitting and the team will need to decide if he would be best served by starting the season in Toledo. The temptation is to let him start in New York hitting low in the lineup with little pressure. His destination will surely be one of the last decisions this spring as the team wants to give him every opportunity to join their young core with the big club
Cannons fever running high in Cincinnati with word their new team recently won 6 straight games and is 8-4 overall. Management is a little more tepid in its assessment realizing spring games mean little in the big picture but Hall of Fame pitching coach Big George Johnson is pleasantly surprised with what a number of his charges have done through the first two weeks.
The Cincinnati Cannons quickly moved to get the number of pitchers in camp down to a much more manageable 13 as they send 5 down to AAA Indianapolis including 4 pitchers who each spent at least part of the season in the big leagues with Baltimore last season: Bob Hunter, Lou Barker, Paul Richardson and Art Edwards. The makeover continues as the Cannons also sent 25 year old second sacker Charlie Ross, who hit just .237 in 94 games with Baltimore last year down to AAA.
The Cannons had a 6 game winning streak snapped on Saturday when they were pounded 9-1 by the Montreal Saints. Jesse Bowen, a rule five pickup from the Philadelphia Sailors trying to make the Cannons roster, had a rough day as the 23 year old was beaten up pretty badly in the first inning in allowing the Saints to plate five runs.
Montreal is also off to a nice start in spring play but Saints brass has some tough decisions to make and warn some surprises are coming. Montreal has been very impressed with Bill Greene as the 23 year old is keeping the battle for the starting center fielder job wide open as he chases Heinie Billings and Dilly Ward. Ward in particular is struggling after 2 weeks as is young pitcher Wally Doyle. Doyle was dominant at AAA last season, but has struggled in the big leagues both times he was briefly promoted. He is just 21 so there is plenty of time but has not looked overly impressive in two spring starts so he may be bound for Minneapolis once again.
Speaking of struggling, the Stars tabbed Hub Parks to replace the traded Moxie Pidgeon in the New York outfield but the 26 year old Parks, who is ranked the 29th overall prospect, is hitting just .205 with no extra base hits in 44 spring plate appearances. On the positive side for the Stars is Ed Frazier as the 1931 round 25 397th overall pick is killing it this spring and is making a case to be in the Stars bullpen this season. He was crushing it in AAA last year and it looks like its carried over to this season as well. With an already crowded pitching staff in NY, can he force his way in?
A 3-3 week in Detroit but a 3rd injury in the spring this time to potentially platoon starting RF Sid Williams. While it is only a 3 week injury it does mean that Detroit will be opening the season with another player that will not be back in time. Maybe the extra batting practice that manager Pat Lictenegger ordered after last weeks dismal performance helps. The offense showed a little more life this week with 37 runs in 6 games. Still not seeing much from Sal Pestilli so he is going to start playing everyday and spend a lot more time in the batting cage with hitting coach Jim Webb as he is too important to the Dynamos offense to come out of the gates struggling.
New Detroit pitcher Oscar Morse has come out and done what management figured he would do. He looked lights out in his first outing and then in his 2nd outing had a terrible first inning giving up 4 runs. He straightened it out after that now carries a spring ERA of 4.50. Likely will be the story of his season where he provides insurance in some starts and will be hit or miss with a mid-4 ERA.
There was some talk in the off-season about the Dynamos looking to upgrading their backup catcher position. Perhaps Clem Bliss took notice as he is trying to send a message to the Detroit management that there is no one better for the job than him. So far this spring he is hitting .312 and he blasted his 2nd home run in two weeks. Bliss is a switch hitter which aids his chances as Detroit hasn't had very good luck looking for that elusive left handed swinging catcher over the years.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 3/31/1940

Following the discovery of documents in the Polish Foreign Office, the Nazi press blasts the United States following what it calls the "sensational discovery" of alleged Polish documents that proved US officials had helped instigate Allied plans "to finish national Socialist Germany through war."
British warships continue to scour Germany's North Sea shipping lanes in an effort to strangle Nazi trade with Scandinavia while suspicion mounted that the Reich might be engineering a grab of Rumania's oil.
The small islands (diagram below) of Helgoland and Sylt in the North Sea are the spearheads of German aerial menace to British shipping, and at the same time the outposts of German defenses against British bombers.
A complete break in diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and France appears imminent after Paris charged that France and her war ally, Great Britain, were 'insulted' following the interception of a message from the Russian Ambassador to Paris bound for Joseph Stalin congratulating him on the peace treaty with Finland as a stroke against "British-French warmongers."
The Allied Supreme War Council agreed that Britain and France would stand firmly together until "with the assistance of other nations," a new International order insures peace in Europe after the War with Germany is concluded. The Council hopes that the United States will play a key role in the reconstruction of "an international order which will ensure liberty of peoples, respect for law and maintenance of peace."
A state of siege was proclaimed in Bolivia as the government mustered all available military resources to cope with a revolt among dissident factions of the South American country's army.
Electrical engineers worked feverishly to nullify the effects of the wave-like electrical phenomena which disrupted all wire and radio communications early in the week. Scientists had to admit they do not whether there would be a recurrence of the 'sun tornado' which was considered much more disruptive than any previous sun spots ever were.

12-14-2021, 06:09 PM	#306
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	April 1940 - Spring Training APRIL 1, 1940 CANNONS LEAD WAY IN CA AS SPRING ACTION CONTINUES It is only spring training but certainly still an unusual position for the Cincinnati Cannons as the transplanted franchise finds itself atop the Continental Association after two weeks worth of spring games. The Cannons, who moved from Baltimore over the winter, have spent the last six seasons firmly entrenched in the basement of the CA. The Federal Association's Chicago Chiefs and Philadelphia Keystones share top spot overall with the Cannons as all three teams are 8-4 as the Grapefruit League reaches it's midway point. FIVE ROOKIE PITCHERS TO WATCH There are a number of highly touted pitchers who one might expect to make their big league debuts, if not in April, at least sometime during the season. Here is a brief look at a few of the names high on the OSA top prospects list you should familiarize yourself with. Note- This list is strictly of pitchers who have yet to pitch in a regular season FABL game. VIC CARROLL- CINCINNATI #2 on OSA top prospects list: The Cannons have already announced that the 21 year old will begin the season in Indianapolis but expect he will be with the big club by mid-season if all goes well. Carroll was the first overall selection in the 1939 draft out of Richmond State, for whom he was a first team All-American selection as a freshman. The New York City native joined the Cannons organization in June and went 3-4 with a 5.60 era in A ball before a late season promotion to AA. He struggled in 3 starts at that level otherwise he likely would have been on the Cannons spring training roster but the club feels a stint in AAA is best for his confidence and development. BILL WELLMAN - BROOKLYN #15 on OSA top prospects list: The Kings have a solid collection of young arms in Brooklyn already and the 23 year old Strub College alumni may be poised to join them. A second team AIAA All-American his sophomore season, Wellman was a 4th round pick of Detroit in 1937 - one of the years with the free agent phase for the top 3 rounds of the mock draft) Willman was dealt to Brooklyn last summer in the deal that reunited Alf Pestilli with his brother Sal in the Motor City. He struggled at AAA last season, positing a 9-13 record in 30 starts between Newark and Rochester but earned an invite to the Kings big league camp this season. He had a rough spring debut and might be a bit of a long shot to get a call up this season unless the Kings run into injury problems on the mound. DUKE HENDRICKS - BOSTON #18 on OSA top prospect list: Another former AIAA All-American as Hendricks was a second team selection as a junior at Baton Rogue State in 1937. The New Jersey native was signed as part of the initial free agent crop of 1937 and made his minor league debut at AA that year. He has spent the last two seasons in AAA including a solid 13-6, 4.25 campaign last year. OSA feels he can easily front a big league rotation and he had a pretty impressive 5 inning spring debut against Philadelphia in the opening week and followed it up with just as impressive a performance a few days ago also against the Keystones. If he continues to pitch well I see no reason the 24 year old will not crack the Minutemen's opening day 24-man roster. JIM DOUGLASS - WASHINGTON #30 on OSA top prospect list: Just like the three players listed above him Douglass is a former AIAA All-American, earning first team status as a junior in 1938 following a sparkling 9-4, 2.82 season in his final year at Eastern State. Like Hendricks, Douglass is a New Jersey native and he was a third round selection of the New York Stars in 1938 but was dealt to Washington last winter in the move that brought Moxie Pidgeon to the Big Apple. He spent last season at AAA Kansas City but struggled thru a 9-17, 7.10 campaign so the Eagles opted not to bring him to the big league camp this season. His eta in the big leagues might not be until next season but a strong start in Kansas City might just force Washington to call him up this year. RAY DALPMAN - BOSTON #32 on OSA top prospects list: The lone high school draftee on this list as Dalpman was selected in the 7th round by Detroit in the 1935 draft and was moved to Boston following the 1938 season in exchange for big league catcher John Wicklund. He was added to the Minutemen's 40 man roster just prior to the December rule 5 draft but with all his options left Dalpman might begin the season in AAA. However, if he pitches like he did at that level last season (12-3, 2.71) it won't be long before he is standing on the mound at Cunningham Field. Just 23 years of age he has really picked up his game over the past couple of seasons and is projected to be a solid #2 starter. If Dalpman and the previously mentioned Duke Hendricks are both ready for the big leagues the Minutemen pitching staff will certainly be one to fear as the two could slot in very nicely alongside Dick Higgins, Art Myers and Ed Wood. Other pitchers in the OSA top 100 to keep an eye out for their big league debuts include Danny Hearn of St Louis, the Keystones Bud Canfield, Toronto's two-way player Juan Pomales and possibly the Gothams Tom Henderson. QUICK HITS After reading the latest installment in "The Ballad of the Barrell Brothers" which is a must-read for any FABL fan, several scouts were overheard talking in the stands at a recent game about the big Tom and Fred Barrell trade from the Cougars to Brooklyn in 1932 in exchange for Tommy Wilcox and Mike Taylor. Speculation then led to just what trade might be considered the 'biggest' deal in FABL history. Certainly in the early days it was the Max Morris from Cleveland to St Louis but for the modern era it was agreed that another Morris deal had to top all trades. That one came in 1930 when Morris was moved from the Pioneers to the Gothams for five prospects including future 2-time Whitney Award (and maybe more to come) Fred McCormick. While acknowledging that McCormick was still an unproven prospect at the time of the deal, OSA scouting boss Dan Barrell offered this observation. "Given that Morris IS a Hall of Famer and I would be surprised if McCormick does not eventually join him in the Hall, my vote would go for that deal. The Kings-Cougars trade was a really big one, but Wilcox's unfortunate injury problems have hurt that one in the long-term." Still hard to believe how badly scouts fared in the 1927 draft. That was the one in which McCormick slid to the 11th round and he wasn't the only quality player to go late that draft. Joe Watson did not get picked until the 11th round and Ron Rattigan, Leon Drake and Clarence Howerton were all 14th rounders that same draft. Then you also had Milt Fritz taken in the 12th round with fellow hurlers Pinky Conlan and Red Hampton going in the 14th. A 4-2 week and some decent pitching performances have things looking brighter for the New York Gothams. Nate Spears is still trying to knock the rust off but at least the Gothams anticipated ace is healthy right now. Meanwhile newcomer Gus Goulding rebounded from a rough outing last week with 4 innings of shutout ball in a win over Philadelphia and 24 year old Bunny Edwards has had a pair of very solid performances. The Gothams young infielders are hitting. The pitching has been ok in spots. The OF is a collection of players trying to determine who sticks. But the big question is behind the plate. Pete Casstevens (just 3-for-24) hasn't been hitting and the team will need to decide if he would be best served by starting the season in Toledo. The temptation is to let him start in New York hitting low in the lineup with little pressure. His destination will surely be one of the last decisions this spring as the team wants to give him every opportunity to join their young core with the big club Cannons fever running high in Cincinnati with word their new team recently won 6 straight games and is 8-4 overall. Management is a little more tepid in its assessment realizing spring games mean little in the big picture but Hall of Fame pitching coach Big George Johnson is pleasantly surprised with what a number of his charges have done through the first two weeks. The Cincinnati Cannons quickly moved to get the number of pitchers in camp down to a much more manageable 13 as they send 5 down to AAA Indianapolis including 4 pitchers who each spent at least part of the season in the big leagues with Baltimore last season: Bob Hunter, Lou Barker, Paul Richardson and Art Edwards. The makeover continues as the Cannons also sent 25 year old second sacker Charlie Ross, who hit just .237 in 94 games with Baltimore last year down to AAA. The Cannons had a 6 game winning streak snapped on Saturday when they were pounded 9-1 by the Montreal Saints. Jesse Bowen, a rule five pickup from the Philadelphia Sailors trying to make the Cannons roster, had a rough day as the 23 year old was beaten up pretty badly in the first inning in allowing the Saints to plate five runs. Montreal is also off to a nice start in spring play but Saints brass has some tough decisions to make and warn some surprises are coming. Montreal has been very impressed with Bill Greene as the 23 year old is keeping the battle for the starting center fielder job wide open as he chases Heinie Billings and Dilly Ward. Ward in particular is struggling after 2 weeks as is young pitcher Wally Doyle. Doyle was dominant at AAA last season, but has struggled in the big leagues both times he was briefly promoted. He is just 21 so there is plenty of time but has not looked overly impressive in two spring starts so he may be bound for Minneapolis once again. Speaking of struggling, the Stars tabbed Hub Parks to replace the traded Moxie Pidgeon in the New York outfield but the 26 year old Parks, who is ranked the 29th overall prospect, is hitting just .205 with no extra base hits in 44 spring plate appearances. On the positive side for the Stars is Ed Frazier as the 1931 round 25 397th overall pick is killing it this spring and is making a case to be in the Stars bullpen this season. He was crushing it in AAA last year and it looks like its carried over to this season as well. With an already crowded pitching staff in NY, can he force his way in? A 3-3 week in Detroit but a 3rd injury in the spring this time to potentially platoon starting RF Sid Williams. While it is only a 3 week injury it does mean that Detroit will be opening the season with another player that will not be back in time. Maybe the extra batting practice that manager Pat Lictenegger ordered after last weeks dismal performance helps. The offense showed a little more life this week with 37 runs in 6 games. Still not seeing much from Sal Pestilli so he is going to start playing everyday and spend a lot more time in the batting cage with hitting coach Jim Webb as he is too important to the Dynamos offense to come out of the gates struggling. New Detroit pitcher Oscar Morse has come out and done what management figured he would do. He looked lights out in his first outing and then in his 2nd outing had a terrible first inning giving up 4 runs. He straightened it out after that now carries a spring ERA of 4.50. Likely will be the story of his season where he provides insurance in some starts and will be hit or miss with a mid-4 ERA. There was some talk in the off-season about the Dynamos looking to upgrading their backup catcher position. Perhaps Clem Bliss took notice as he is trying to send a message to the Detroit management that there is no one better for the job than him. So far this spring he is hitting .312 and he blasted his 2nd home run in two weeks. Bliss is a switch hitter which aids his chances as Detroit hasn't had very good luck looking for that elusive left handed swinging catcher over the years. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 3/31/1940 Following the discovery of documents in the Polish Foreign Office, the Nazi press blasts the United States following what it calls the "sensational discovery" of alleged Polish documents that proved US officials had helped instigate Allied plans "to finish national Socialist Germany through war." British warships continue to scour Germany's North Sea shipping lanes in an effort to strangle Nazi trade with Scandinavia while suspicion mounted that the Reich might be engineering a grab of Rumania's oil. The small islands (diagram below) of Helgoland and Sylt in the North Sea are the spearheads of German aerial menace to British shipping, and at the same time the outposts of German defenses against British bombers. A complete break in diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and France appears imminent after Paris charged that France and her war ally, Great Britain, were 'insulted' following the interception of a message from the Russian Ambassador to Paris bound for Joseph Stalin congratulating him on the peace treaty with Finland as a stroke against "British-French warmongers." The Allied Supreme War Council agreed that Britain and France would stand firmly together until "with the assistance of other nations," a new International order insures peace in Europe after the War with Germany is concluded. The Council hopes that the United States will play a key role in the reconstruction of "an international order which will ensure liberty of peoples, respect for law and maintenance of peace." A state of siege was proclaimed in Bolivia as the government mustered all available military resources to cope with a revolt among dissident factions of the South American country's army. Electrical engineers worked feverishly to nullify the effects of the wave-like electrical phenomena which disrupted all wire and radio communications early in the week. Scientists had to admit they do not whether there would be a recurrence of the 'sun tornado' which was considered much more disruptive than any previous sun spots ever were. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 12-14-2021 at 08:42 PM.