[Jiggs McGee]

APRIL 22, 1940

STARS PICK UP RIGHT WHERE THEY LEFT OFF

There appears to be no World Championship Series hangover for the New York Stars as they came flying out of the gate with 5 wins in their first 6 games of the season. The Stars opened by taking two of three from the Saints and finished the week with a 3 game sweep at home over the Brooklyn Kings. The New York bats were off to a decent start with young shortstop Joe Angevine especially hot and WCS heroes Bill Barrett and ageless wonder Dave Trowbridge also contributing nicely. The pitching, with the lone exception of newcomer Dixie Lee, was also exceptional.

It is far too early to get worked up but in the Federal Association there was also some real excitement in New York as the Gothams, behind some solid pitching for a change, found themselves tied for top spot following a 4-2 week. The thrill of seeing newcomer Gus Goulding toss a complete game 4-hit shutout in his Gothams debut was tempered with the news that Nate Spear is once again injured. New Yorkers hope it is nothing serious but the often injured 24 year old had to be lifted in his second start of the season with what is being called 'stiffness' in his forearm. Spear missed the final month and a half of the 1938 season with forearm inflammation and was shelved for much of last year with shoulder woes.

Courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquisitor

Here is how the Federal Association should shape up this season. I see an improvement out of your beloved Philadelphia Keystones but they still have a ways to go to compete with the big boys of the Fed. I forecast the final standings in the Fed finishing up this way:

• 1 -Detroit - outstanding top of the rotation with Crawford and Gonzales, along with Red Johnson and Sal Pestilli in the middle of a potent order.
• 2- Pittsburgh - when your two best players, Lefty Allen and George Cleaves, are 26 years old, you are in good shape, but will they have enough pitching to overtake Detroit? I say no.
• 3- Chicago - the Chiefs had a bad year last year and I think they are a better team than that. I think the team will go as Rabbit Day will go and he is 35, but I think he has another good season left in him.
• 4 -Philadelphia - the Keystones are on the rise and I think they take the next step in 1940. Lloyd Stevens should step forward and improve on an unusual rookie year where he hit well enough to play somewhere, but did not pitch well enough at all. The midnight trade on the eve of the season of Rip Curry opens up a potential spot for Stevens.
• 5- Boston - a good middle of the order consisting of CF Chick Donnelly, 1B Bob Donoghue, 3B Mack Sutton, and C Bill Van Ness has an average age of 25.
• 6- St. Louis - the post-Freddie Jones era started last year and it was highlighted by Buddy Long's 19 wins. With the 24-year-old Long added to the established ace, 25-year-old David Abalo, they have the pitching to stick around.
• 7-New York - the Gothams have four players in their projected 24-man Opening Day roster over the age of 26 and they are all bench bats or bullpen arms. Youth has been served and they will figure it out at the Major League level.
• 8- Washington - we hope this statement does not need to be proven in the near future: "first in war, first in peace, last in the Federal Association".

Here is the predicted order of finish in the Continental Association:

• 1- New York Stars
• 2- Toronto
• 3- Chicago Cougars
• 4- Cleveland
• 5- Philadelphia Sailors
• 6- Montreal
• 7- Cincinnati
• 8- Brooklyn

DYNAMOS MAKE A COUPLE OF MOVES TO SHORE UP ROSTER DEPTH

The Detroit Dynamos made a pair of trades in the opening week of the season designed to add some depth to the organization. First Detroit sent pitcher Ron Coles and a 7th round draft pick to the Toronto Wolves in exchange for third baseman Nick Wallace and then a short time later the club announced the acquisition of outfielder Rip Curry from the Philadelphia Keystones in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers.

The 30 year old Coles had a solid season pitching primarily out of the pen last year for Detroit, going 6-0 with a 3.72 era, but with the addition of veteran Oscar Morse and the decision to at least for the time being keep Frank Gordon on the big league roster the Dynamos risked losing Coles on waivers because he was out of minor league options. The 31 year old Wallace was in a similar situation in Toronto after losing his starting third base job to Walt Pack and, despite hitting .309 last season the Wolves had no room for him on their 24 man roster.

It is not immediately known where Detroit will find playing time for Wallace as he is unlikely to replace Frank Vance at the hot corner and the possibility of Red Johnson being shifted from first base to the outfield is likely gone with the acquisition of Curry.

The 29 year old Curry has been a very steady hitter over his half dozen years in Philadelphia, batting .307 with 7 homers last year. He was forced out as the Keystones are committed to making pitcher/outfielder Lloyd Stevens plenty of plate appearances this season after a solid rookie season at the dish. The righthanded hitting Curry will likely get a chance to win a starting job in Detroit but the more likely scenario is he platoons with either Elmer Nolde of Alf Pestilli at one of the corner outfield sports.

In return for Curry the Keystones acquire 24 year old outfielder Ed Greenwood, a former lottery draft signing of the Cannons who was claimed on waivers by Detroit over the winter after being cut loose by the Montreal Saints. Greenwood struggled in his first taste of big league action last year, batting just .167 in an 18 game trial in Montreal. Also going to Philadelphia is Abe Abingdon, a 20 year old who went 7-15 at Class B last season. Abingdon was a 5th round pick of Detroit's out of high school in 1938.

From time to time during the season TWIFB will feature real columns from time period (with minor editing to make them relevant to FABL. This is one from Ed Hughes in the April 17, 1940 edition of the Brooklyn Daily News)

WHEN IT STARTS - There is a mistaken notion among otherwise smart baseball men that "the season doesn't start until around May 30." This is another way of saying that by that time the wheat is separated from the chaff. "Class" by that time has begun to tell. The latter part of the argument is okay. But many a manager, gazing in sad retrospect over the season's pennant failure has to come to a tardy conclusion. The race really begins on opening day.

The failures and success between that day and May 30 have frequently decided the pennant winner. Hall of Fame manager Edward Wakeham used to argue that luck never did decide a flag race. The breaks for good and bad evened up over the long course of the pennant grind. Nevertheless, the games that are won and lost in the first blushes of Springtime have decided the fate of flag contenders in September. That is as much as other results later on.

Fans, managers and players live in the moment tough. Early misplays and defeats are lost in the subsequent dust of competition. From the erring individual's standpoint that is fortunate. Miscues that cost victories in April and May are forgotten as the race nears the tape. But woe betide a player who blunders in the last few gasps to the finish line, when the pennant is at stake. As if it wasn't on the first ball pitched on opening day!

WRONG TIME- An example of that is the case of Rip Lee and the Philadelphia Sailors just 3 short years ago. The ill-starred rookie shortstop took much of the blame, along with veteran righthander Doc Newell for the Sailors coming up short in a 1-game playoff with the Brooklyn Kings to decide the 1937 Continental Association flag. Lee unfortunately made his mistakes in October rather than in April or May. He was a gifted young shortstop, very sure-handed with the glove except for this one fateful day. Despite committing just 18 errors in the previous 148 games that season, Lee would make two costly miscues in this contest including one in the opening inning that allowed the Brooklyn side to build a quick 3-0 lead as the coasted to their second straight title with a convincing 8-0 victory.

While it might have been easy to blame Lee or Newell, who won 20 games that season but had a rough outing against the Kings - a team he perhaps ironically has no-hit twice in his career - and because it came on the brightest stage and at the biggest moment his season will be considered a disappointment. Yet few remember Newell was 8-3 by early June and Lee was batting .310 as the month of May came to a close. The rest of the Sailors were not so successful at that stage, meandering along at a .500 pace (21-21) as the calendar turned to June. The Kings on the other hand, sprinted out of the gate with a 25-16 start. Had the Sailors managed to be just 1 game over .500 in the opening month and a half of the season then a playoff game, and Lee's miscues, would never have occurred. Fans would have been treated to an all-Pennsylvania World Championship Series for the first time in history and perhaps Sailor fans would still be talking about 1937 as the year they won their third WCS. To say the games of April and May do not really matter is to set yourself up for the games is the talk of fools.

QUICK HITS

• Congratulations to Rabbit Day on his 250th career victory. The 35 year old (Day will turn 36 on May 1st) went the distance Sunday to beat St Louis 6-4 after coming up short in the season opener when he was outdueled by Frank Crawford in a 2-0 Detroit victory. The active career leader in pitching victories seems like a sure fire Hall of Famer in the eyes of Detroit scribe Freddie Farhat and TWIFB's Jiggs McGee concurs 100%.
• Allen Award winning SP Frank Crawford picked up where he left off last season going 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 19 IP for the once again offensively challenged Dynamos in the early season. The Double D’s went 3-3 in the first week scoring just 19 runs (3.3 rpg). They dropped 2 straight 1-run games after shutting out the Chiefs behind Crawford on Opening Day by identical 4-3 scores.
• The Pittsburgh Miners return pretty much the exact same squad that comprised last year's pennant winning club. According to the Pittsburgh Press the Miners brass feels they have the offensive depth to withstand a handful of the usual injuries. The big question is if the pitching will hold up one more year. Lefty Allen has put a lot of innings on his arm the last 4 years, Charlie Stedman will be 38 in a month and Karl Johnson just had by far the best year of his career, so a regression might be expected. The Miners the last few years have gone with a 4 man rotation for the majority of the season, and that is still the plan this year. However, a full slate of games in the opening week, including a double-header, has necessitated a 5th starter and in it has become an audition for the 4th spot. It's between veteran Roger Perry who was 9-0 last year after being acquired from the Gothams (where he was 1-8) and young hard throwing lefty Speed Brown who has been competent in almost 70 FABL innings. It was tough sledding for both Brown and Perry in their opening stars as each was tagged with a loss and roughed up pretty good in their outings.
• Lot of head scratching in Boston. John Edwards who had a fantastic spring gets torched for 5 earned against Washington in his lone start. Then you have Donnelly and Donoghue off to slow starts while Mack Sutton (.381,1,1), Bill Van Ness (.320,1,6) and rookie Bill Burkett (.357,0,8) providing all the offense. Of course this is small sample size theater at its finest.
• Not a great start to the season for the St Louis Pioneers who dropped their first four, including back to back shutouts at the hands of the Gothams to start the season.
• Add another 5 hit game to the resume of Cleveland first baseman Bill Moore, who battered Cannons pitching for 5 hits including 3 doubles in a game last week. For the 28 year old who was named the greatest player in the first 25 years of AIAA ball, it was his first 5-hit game in the big leagues but he had previously turned the trick in the minors and college ball while at Lubbock State, for whom he was a 3-time first team All-American.
• The first week of play showed the Cincinnati Cannons they still have a lot of work to do in order to escape the malaise that engulfed the franchise in Baltimore. There was some positives to a 2-4 opening week highlighted by a terrific outing from Deuce Barrell. The 22 year old former first overall selection went the distance to beat Cleveland 4-2 on Wednesday for the first win for the club while based on Cincinnati. That one came on the road with the first win in Cincinnati being delayed until yesterday when William Jones outpitched Toronto ace Joe Hancock in a 2-1 victory to allow the Cannons to salvage the finale of their 3 game home opening series with the Wolves.
• Chubby Hall is making the statement he belongs in Washington. The 23 year old outfielder who the Eagles acquired from the Chicago Cougars organization over the winter seemed close to sticking with the big club but hit just .222 in spring camp and was farmed out to AAA Kansas City. Hall had a huge opening week with the baby Eagles, batting .421 with 3 homers and 9 rbi's in 5 games to capture the Century League player of the week award.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 4/21/1940

• Allied troops have reached key Nazi holding points in Norway and have began an offensive to chase the Nazi's from the Oslo and other major port cities. Meanwhile Germany claims it is carrying the air war to the British navy off the Norwegian coast saying a British battleship, three cruisers and a troop transport have been bombed by "bombs of the heaviest caliber." As the week progresses heavy fighting continues with the Allies making inroads in their land assault but the Nazis continue to inflict heavy damage on the British Navy.
• Captain Robert Losey, a military attache based out of Stockholm, became the first American killed on land since the European war started. He was killed by a German bombing raid in Dombas, Norway. He had reportedly been in Norway studying the performance of aircraft.
• Yugoslavia thwarts an attempt by the Nazis to overthrow it's government. Sources indicated that success of the plot had hinged on the entry of German troops into Yugoslavia.
• Tokio has warned belligerent Powers against seizure of 16 Norwegian and Swedish vessels which were chartered by Japanese shipping concerns before the outbreak of the European war.
• Convinced that Japan is rapidly expanding it's naval force Admiral Stark, chief of US Naval operations has asked a Senate Committee to authorize the United States to build the world's largest navy. The construction he proposed would cost well over $3.5 billion.
• President Roosevelt asked for $975 million to run WPA next year and simultaneously abandoned hope of getting from Congress the $460 million in new taxes requested in January.
• 33 were killed and hundreds more injured as the New York Central fast express train bound from New York to Chicago derailed on a wide curve near Little Falls, NY. It was the New York Central's first passenger fatality in 13 years.