JUNE 3, 1940
WHAT IS IN THE WATER IN CINCINNATI
From the desk of OSA head Dan Barrell
What indeed is in the water? The Cannons traded the Inner Harbor for the Ohio River, but that's not why they're suddenly playing like they're the best team in FABL. So what's the difference? Well, let's start with the brain trust: new GM, a legendary new manager, new Scouting Director (I've got a bias so I'll zip it on that one), new coaches, etc. The roster has had some churn as well - bringing in solid veterans like Moxie Pidgeon, Jack Flint, William Jones and even waning talents like Doug Lightbody and Joe Perret - guys whose impact on the field comes as much (or more) from their veteran leadership than their play. And top it off with great pitching led by the aforementioned Jones and the emergence at last of Deuce Barrell and Rusty Petrick and there you have it. The question is: can they keep it up?
STEINBURG UNANIMOUS CHOICE TO WIN SECOND STRAIGHT ADWELL AWARD
It came as no surprise that New York City pitcher Hiram Steinberg was named the winner of the Adwell Award for the second straight season. The trophy, presented annual to the athlete deemed to be the top high school baseball player in the nation, has been in existence since 1934 and Steinberg became the first back-to-back winner although it should be noted that current New York Gothams infielder Walt Messer did win the Adwell twice, as a sophomore and a senior. Rufus Barrell II interrupted Messer's streak and it is Barrell that Steinberg draws comparisons too. Not so much for their pitching style but rather for the sheer dominance they each displayed competing at the high school level.
What is scary is that some scouts feel Steinberg might not look completely out of place on a big league mound today, and he still has one more full season of high school ball ahead of him before he will become draft eligible. It is widely expected that he will be the first overall selection next January and perhaps could be the first pitcher to go straight from the high school ranks to the major leagues.
His numbers this season are the stuff of legend: 11-0 with a 0.23 era and a FIP of 0.00 (no, that is not a misprint). Led nation with 222 strikeouts which is a new all-time single season High School record (including feeders), smashing Donnie Jones 1936 mark of 215. Only 6 times has a pitcher topped 200 K's in a high school season and three of them belong to Steinberg. His 0.23 ERA this season is also a new record, topping Rufus Barrell's 1935 mark of 0.38. He 'only' won 11 games this season after going 12-0 each of his first two years and he has a chance to graduate as the only high school pitcher to win at least 30 games without a loss. At this time next year we will likely be celebrating Steinberg as the career leader among High School pitchers in wins, strikeouts and era.
Other than Rufus 'Deuce' Barrell there has been no other high school pitcher in the modern (human GM) era to show this type of dominance and draw this much attention. Even when you include the college ranks you can count the pitchers who have had this kind of impact on a draft class on one hand - Tommy Wilcox, Tom Barrell and perhaps Curly Jones are the only ones to approach the hype that has already started for Steinberg and is only likely to multiply as the draft date approaches. He is also the odds on favourite to win a third straight Adwell Award next June.
Code:
ADWELL AWARD WINNERS
YEAR NAME POS CLASS SCHOOL
1934 Walt Messer 1B SO McKinley Tech (Washington DC)
1935 Rufus Barrell II P SR Macon (GA) HS
1936 Walt Messer 1B SR McKinley Tech (Washington DC)
1937 Pete Casstevens C SR Syracuse (NY) HS
1938 Bill Barrett OF SR Vineland (NJ) HS
1939 Hiram Steinberg P SO Washington HS (New York City)
1940 Hiram Steinberg P JR Washington HS (New York City)
HAMMAN COLLEGE PITCHER NAMED CHRISTIAN TROPHY WINNER
New York Stars draft pick Don Bitters was named the winner of the Frank Christian Trophy as college baseball's top performer. The 22 year old junior played just one season at Hamman College but it was quite a performance as the lefthander posted a 12-3 record with a 2.44 era. In doing so he became just the fourth pitcher in AIAA history to win 12 games in a season. Bitters, who will turn 23 in two weeks, was selected in the second round of the January phase of FABL's draft and is looking forward to joining the World Championship winning Stars organization.
Bitters was a runaway winner, outpointing Lane State pitcher Bill Sohl and freshman Bluegrass State outfielder Ernie McCoy who finished second and third in the voting. Vern Wilson, a junior outfielder from CCLA and George Wynn, a pitcher from tiny Willamette Valley College, were the other finalists.
Code:
FRANK CHRISTIAN AWARD WINNERS
YEAR NAME POS CLASS SCHOOL
1927 Sam Orr 2B FR Henry Hudson
1928 Tommy Wilcox P JR Liberty College
1929 Vic Crawford OF JR Commonwealth Catholic
1930 Freddie Jones 2B SO Central Ohio
1931 Bill Moore 1B SO Lubbock State
1932 Bill Moore 1B JR Lubbock State
1933 Joe Hancock P JR Henry Hudson
1934 Sal Pestilli OF FR Narragansett
1935 Al Jones P JR Central Ohio
1936 Sal Pestilli OF JR Narragansett
1937 Alex LaComb OF JR Cuyahoga University
1938 Bob Coon OF SO St Magnus
1939 Rats McGonigle OF JR Bronx Tech
1940 Don Bitters P JR Hamman
FOURTH ROUND OF FABL DRAFT COMPLETE
The second phase of the 1940 FABL draft is underway. Rounds 1-3 are selected every January with the remaining 22 rounds being drafted at the conclusion of the college and high school seasons in June. The Chicago Cougars made Brooklyn high school pitcher Duke Bybee the first selection of the June portion and it started a real run on high school players as only 4 of the 16 selections were from the AIAA including a pair of teammates at California's Redwood University in pitcher Jim Laurita and outfielder Skeeter Gray. The fourth round also featured a foreign born player as the Philadelphia Sailors selected catcher Friedrich Werner with the 10th pick. Werner was born in Germany but settled in Nebraska with his family while he was still a young child. Here is the complete fourth round:
Code:
FOURTH ROUND DRAFT SELECTIONS
Pick Team Pos Player AGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN
1 Cougars SP Duke Bybee 17 Brooklyn Friends HS Brooklyn, NY
2 Cincinnati SP Frank Sears 18 Burlington (WI) HS Burlington, WI
3 Keystones CF John Foster 18 Ambler (PA) HS Ambler, PA
4 Brooklyn SP Clarence Barton 18 Gillette (WY) HS Green River, WY
5 Cougars SS Jimmie James 21 Lane State University Eureka, CA
6 Toronto SP Jim Laurita 21 Redwood University San Francisco, CA
7 Chiefs CF Skeeter Gray 22 Redwood University Belle, WV
8 Montreal CF Frank Ellis 17 Pearson (GA) HS Jacksonville, FL
9 St. Louis CF Bill Bryan 21 Rancho San Bernardino Coll. Los Angeles, CA
10 Sailors C Friedrich Werner 18 Wahoo (NE) HS Leipzig, Germany
11 Boston C Max Strickland 17 Webster (MA) HS Manchester, NH
12 Detroit CF Eddie Kincaid 21 Marquis College Cleveland, OH
13 Brooklyn CF Peanuts Louden 18 Winchester (NH) HS Boston, MA
14 Cleveland SP Hi Davis 18 Halletsville (TX) HS Houston, TX
15 Pittsburgh SS Bob Childers 18 South Coventry (CT) HS Cambridge, MA
16 Detroit 2B Reb McKiernan 18 Roanoke (AL) HS Spotsylvania Courthouse, VA
QUICK HITS
- Don't tell John Lawson of the Chicago Cougars he's 37! On pace for a 7th All Star selection, Lawson is hitting .408/.463/.538 (178 OPS+) with 16 doubles, 2 homers, and 28 RBIs. No one in either league comes close to him in the batting race, with the next closest Red Bond nearly 40 points lower. Lawson also leads both circuits in WAR while ranking 2nd in OPS
- Something old, something new from the Gothams - On May 29, Bud Jameson lined a 3rd inning double off former teammate Oscar Morse for hit number 2000. Jameson, who has spent his whole career with the Gothams is 5th on the team's hits leaders. On June 1 Gothams 20 year old 2B Roosevelt Brewer smacked 5 hits in a 23-7 spanking of Washington. Joining Brewer i the onslaught were rookie catcher Pete Casstevens, also with 5 hits. Casstevens, in his breakout performance included a double and a triple in the game. Amazingly a 3rd Gotham, RF Harry Clark also contributed 5 hits. In total the Gothams had 30 hits in the game with all starters having at least 1 hit, including starting pitcher Fred Ratcliffe who was 4-4.
- Dilly Ward, Lew Seals, Bill Burkett, Don Miller, Ron Rattigan, Sam Brown. What do they have in common? They are among the 15 players with a higher wOBA than Sal Pestilli, the Fed leader in home runs. Four players in the Fed with a wOBA of over .400: Red Johnson (.427), Pablo Reyes (.422), Mack Sutton (.408), Hank Barnett (.408). Three batters in the CA: 27-year-old Red Bond (.471), 37-year-old John Lawson (.450), and Fred McCormick (.400). Note that as well as leading the CA in home runs, Montreal's Red Bond is also leading in wOBA. Truly a breakout season for Bond.
- Why are are there 15 batters in the Fed with a higher wOBA than Sal Pestilli? Three words: on base percentage. It would appear that Pestilli is less interested in taking a walk than he has ever been--he is on pace for 42 home runs and 29 base on balls. With 13 home runs among his 49 hits, over 25% of Pestilli's hits have left the yard
- Back to Bond (.366,11,31), the Saints 27 year old outfielder was named CA player of the week after going 13-for-25 in 6 games. The winner in the Federal Association was Detroit's Red Johnson (.312,9,32) who had 3 homers and 11 rbi's to help Detroit win 6 of 7 games last week.
- Dynamos are charging hard in Fed with a 13-2 run before losing Sunday in Pittsburgh. Just a game back in a very tight Fed race.
- May was a pretty good month for the Chicago Chiefs, at least until they lost the last 6 games. Finally won again on Sunday, breaking a 7 game winless streak. Prior to that losing streak to end the month the Chiefs began May with an 18-6 run.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/03/1940
- Allied armies in the north of France are chased back by advancing German forces and are now making their stand on a new line defending the English Channel. British naval gunships are slowing the Nazi advance at Calais, just 22 miles from the chalk cliffs of Dover.
- King Leopold III surrendered the Belgian army in the face of the German drive while Hitler's troops continue to strike at now trapped British and French troops in Flanders. Critics feel it was a major blunder by the King, jeopardizing not only his own country but also the Anglo-French forces to whom he had appealed for help.
- By week's end the Germans claimed they had wiped out Allied forces that were surrounded in Flanders, blasting them with a ferocious ground attack and with bombing runs aimed at transport ships attempting to evacuate the Allies.
- Expectations that Adolf Hitler might try to split the British and French allies with separate offers of peace were voiced today as British, French and Belgian troops who escaped the Nazi trap in Flanders started arriving in England from the inferno across the Channel.
- Renowned American journalist Dorothy Thompson writes that if the Nazi are victorious, all the English will be evacuated from Great Britain and Germans will settle there.
- President Roosevelt asked for another billion dollars in defense funding that he said was needed because of "almost incredible events" in the past two weeks of Europe's war - "particularly as a result of the use of aviation and mechanized equipment."