OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - All things Figment - from the pages of The Figment Sporting Journal

Jiggs McGee · 02-22-2022, 09:01 AM

MAY 5, 1941

ONE ALL-STAR DENIED DEFERMENT

Of the four all-star players that were given draft notices last week, This Week in Figment Baseball has learned that only three of them were successful in their request for a deferral. The confidential source, with inside knowledge on the military induction process, would not specify which player was unsuccessful but confirmed that one of the four: Bobby Barrell, Mel Carrol, George Cleaves and Fred McCormick, was denied his request to defer and will report to army training sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The official announcement on which player will leave his club and report to the Army will likely come some time in the next week. Until then the teams these four play for, and really the league as a whole, will be on pins and needles waiting to see what happens. Regardless of which player goes it will have a huge impact on the pennant races. Barrell and Cleaves are key parts of a pair of Federal Association contenders while McCormick is the best hitter on the defending World Champion Toronto Wolves. Even if the unlucky club is Cleveland with Mel Carrol being the one to go it will still impact the pennant races as one has to think Carrol might have been a very popular player as the trade deadline approached.

Which team would be in the biggest trouble should they be the club that draws the short straw? Let's look at the impact on each of the teams involved starting with the Philadelphia Keystones.

The Keystones are off to a rough start this season but after a breakthrough 1940 campaign some experts, including Dan Barrell of the OSA, tabbed Philadelphia as the likely pennant winner in the Federal Association this season. Bobby Barrell, Dan's brother, is a 6-time all-star with a pair of Whitney Awards on his resume. Now nearing age 31 he may not be quite the player he was half a dozen years ago but he is still one of the best outfielders in the Fed and the veteran leader on a young Keystones team. Chuck Hood had a terrific season last year but has been relegated to the bench with the emergence of Davey Robicheaux this season. Robicheaux has struggled, like many of the Philadelphia batsmen, but assuming he gets straightened out and Hood can be similar to the player he was last season the Keystones can withstand the loss of Barrell in their outfield. They certainly won't be as good without him but they would still be a solid ballclub although one has to think they would be scrambling for a veteran outfielder to add depth and leadership.

The Cleveland Foresters are a bad team with or without four-time all-star Mel Carrol so in that regard he won't be missed. However, Carrol is, along with Dean Astle, the most marketable trade pieces the organization has should they wish to take a major step in tearing the club apart and starting over. Should Carrol be made available, assuming he is not leaving now, his trade value will be high but it remains to be seen how much it would be impacted by the deferment news. Just because a player may receive a successful deferral for the rest of the season there is no guarantee that deferal will be permanent and they could easily miss future seasons. If Toronto was to lose Fred McCormick you would think Carrol might be high on their list of players to acquire as Walt Pack could shift to first base and Carrol would be a nice replacement for McCormick. One could also see the Stars, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and perhaps even Boston looking to Carrol at the deadline if they are in a pennant race.

As for Pittsburgh, one has to think they would be the team affected the most should it be their star player who is leaving. George Cleaves is a five time all-star and the 1939 Whitney Award winner. He is quite possibly the best catcher in the game right now and the Miners do not have anyone in their organization that could even come remotely close to replacing him. Their backup right now is Lou Chandler, a 29 year old with 63 career FABL games and a .215 career average. The only option in AAA is another 29 year old by the name of Clem Bliss. Bliss does have 262 career FABL games under his belt but would not be someone a pennant contender would want playing regularly. If Cleaves does indeed leave the Miners, one would expect, have to be desperate to acquire a catcher if they want any chance of winning a third straight Federal Association pennant. The problem is there are very few catchers available that could step in. Perhaps Tom Aiello of the Chicago Chiefs might be a possibility but the Chiefs could be reluctant to help out Pittsburgh if Chicago feels they are contenders. Boston would be in the same situation with Bill Van Ness so it is much more likely the Miners have to settle for a player like Ken Vance of Cleveland, Brooklyn's Fred Barrell or Washington's Paul Brophy and I am not sure how much any of those would be of an upgrade on Bliss or Chandler.

That leaves the Toronto Wolves and losing McCormick, a 7-time all-star who won Whitney Awards in 1938 and 1939, would be a serious blow. Like Philadelphia I believe it is one the Wolves could possibly withstand especially if they were able to swing a deal for a player like the previously mentioned Mel Carrol. Toronto might even be content to shift Walt Pack to first base and promote Ockie Holliday from AAA Buffalo to play third. There are other options, none quite like McCormick, but still serviceable choices for the Wolves as both they and the Keystones benefit from the fact that first baseman and outfielders are much more plentiful that high end catchers. Could Toronto still win the Continental crown without McCormick. It would be a much more difficult task than doing it with him but Toronto's pitching is strong enough that they still might just be able to contend and with a few breaks perhaps even repeat as pennant winners, especially if they could land a player like Carrol to fill the void.

It is obvious any team that loses an all-star player will feel that loss and all four of these teams would suffer, and suffer to the point where a pennant opportunity might be out of the question, but none more than the Miners should they find out in the next 7-10 days that George Cleaves has traded his bat and glove for a rifle and bayonet. One thing is for sure. There will be a lot of sleepless nights this week for the managers of each of those four teams.

STARS AND COUGARS THREATENING TO RUN AWAY WITH CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION

The Continental Association is very quickly becoming a two horse race as the New York Stars and Chicago Cougars are a combined 29-11 to begin the season while none of the other 6 teams are over .500 and the group as a whole own a 48-64 record. Third place is tie between the Philadelphia Sailors and Brooklyn Kings and after just three weeks those two clubs are already 5.5 games back of the front running Stars.

New York at least showed signs of mortality this weekend as the Stars dropped a pair of games at home - first to Toronto on Saturday followed by a 3-2 defeat at the hands of last place Cleveland yesterday. That put an end to a 14 game winning streak for the New York side. The Cougars have been much more methodical in their 14-7 start, never winning more than 4 in a row but also, aside from back to back losses to the Stars a week and a half ago, the Cougars have not tasted defeat in successive contests.

The Stars offense slowed a bit over the weekend with those two 1-run losses but it has been dominating and still averaging well over 6 runs per game. Bill Barrett (.390,8,23) is on a tear and Dave Trowbridge (.418,1,17), the oldest player in FABL is following up his batting crown winning season of a year ago with another terrific start: Trowbridge leads the bigs in hitting at a .418 clip.

QUICK HITS

With the bugle already ringing in Dixie Lee's ears there now appears to be some some danger that another New York Stars player may be in army service before the end of the season. That would be Joe Angevine (.315,0,12) who is single and without dependents. The 25 year old registered at Austin, Tex., his home city, and has a high draft number, but with the possibility that more men will be called than at first planned the young shortstop may be one of those inducted.
Ron Rattigan's(.333,2,10) hitting streak, dating back to last season, came to an end this week at 34 games but the 32 year old 5-time all-star followed up his 0-for-5 showing on Friday against the Keystones with a 3 hit effort Saturday and added another base knock Sunday in a loss to Pittsburgh. Rattigan's mark is a new record for Chiefs hitters, snapping by one the 33 game streak established by Mike Pierce in 1927.
Lots of positive news out of Boston, just not in the win column. CF Bill Burkett picked up the batter of the month award. Ray Dalpman won the FA Rookie of the month. Duke Hendricks picked up the first win of his career in a shutout win against the Gothams. Yet, the Minutemen are still sitting at 9-10 on the season in sixth position 3 games back in the standings. Hopefully the return of slugger Bob Donoghue can inject some life in the offense which aside from Burkett has been largely disappointing. Currently, Boston sits 7th in runs scored and 6th in batting average.
Moxie Pidgeon (.211,2,11) is finally showing signs of getting his bat going. After a terrible start to the season the 34 year old has 6 hits in his last 4 games including his first two homers of the season, which both came yesterday in a 9-0 whitewashing of Montreal. Deuce Barrell (1-2, 6.84) is another Cannon of to a slow start but the club has seen that before as Barrell, who won 19 games and finished with a 3.55 era, had a rough April last year as well - going 1-1 with a 5.23 era.
Quite a start to the season for veteran Frank Mack in the Western League. The 35 year old second sacker is hitting .538 (21-for-39) to start the season, the highest batting average in organized ball at the moment. A high school National Championship Series MVP in 1922 he was a 9th round pick of the Sailors in 1924 and made it as high as AAA but never got the call to the big leagues. This is Mack's 4th season with Wichita of the Western League.
A one minute interview with Cougars pitcher Dick Lyons- the oldest thrower in the bigs this season. "There's been some talk about what I'm a throwin' this year. Well, I got a slow ball that's so slow the infielders can come in and autograph it before it's to the plate. Then the batter's a-swingin' at a souvenir."
Dan Daniel, New York Baseball scribe, comes up with an attractive idea. He would like to see President Roosevelt at the all-star baseball game in Brooklyn.
"In July," Dainel wrote, "the annual all-star game will be played at Kings County. Brooklyn is a fine city and in a key area for Navy defenses. A nice ballpark with a rich history. The game will win America in a fervor of tremendous patriotism. Let us pray it finds America yet out of this war. But this game should have a flavor of American patriotism.
"Why not ask President Roosevelt to come to Kings County Ballpark and before the game make a 10-minute talk to America, right out of the ball park.
"If the President cannot go to Brooklyn, let him make his talk over the telephone and broadcast out of the Detroit ball park. Let this all-star game be not merely a demonstration for baseball. Let it be, also, a great festival of Americanism."

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 5/04/1941

Germany increases it's focus on the Mediterranean vowing to "destroy completely Britain's position and power there."
Embattled Britain took fresh heart from Prime Minister Churchill's stirring speech which frankly conceded defeats in Greece and Libya but predicted British victory with United States aid at sea.
26 US merchant ships loaded with arms and munitions for the aid of Britain in the Middle East, have arrived at the Suez Canal.
Those US supplies will be of great aide to British troops in Africa, who this week clashed with pro-Axis Iraq forces after Iraqi artillery shelled a British air base.
The United States Atlantic patrol has been ordered to "avoid shooting at all costs short of getting sunk," as the mission is not to destroy Axis ships or airplanes but "to spot them" and protect their conveys until British forces can arrive on seen to take over.
The Secretary of War told a Senate committee that the coal strikes have crated a crucial situation and if the mines are not reopened promptly "the entire national defense effort will be in grave jeopardy."
The coal dispute was settled late in the week and President Roosevelt called for a 24-hour day, 7-day week work schedule in defense industries to help the United State win the world battle of production for the democracies in this "crucial situation."
Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' debuted in theatres this week.

02-22-2022, 09:01 AM	#363
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	May 5, 1941 MAY 5, 1941 ONE ALL-STAR DENIED DEFERMENT Of the four all-star players that were given draft notices last week, This Week in Figment Baseball has learned that only three of them were successful in their request for a deferral. The confidential source, with inside knowledge on the military induction process, would not specify which player was unsuccessful but confirmed that one of the four: Bobby Barrell, Mel Carrol, George Cleaves and Fred McCormick, was denied his request to defer and will report to army training sometime in the next couple of weeks. The official announcement on which player will leave his club and report to the Army will likely come some time in the next week. Until then the teams these four play for, and really the league as a whole, will be on pins and needles waiting to see what happens. Regardless of which player goes it will have a huge impact on the pennant races. Barrell and Cleaves are key parts of a pair of Federal Association contenders while McCormick is the best hitter on the defending World Champion Toronto Wolves. Even if the unlucky club is Cleveland with Mel Carrol being the one to go it will still impact the pennant races as one has to think Carrol might have been a very popular player as the trade deadline approached. Which team would be in the biggest trouble should they be the club that draws the short straw? Let's look at the impact on each of the teams involved starting with the Philadelphia Keystones. The Keystones are off to a rough start this season but after a breakthrough 1940 campaign some experts, including Dan Barrell of the OSA, tabbed Philadelphia as the likely pennant winner in the Federal Association this season. Bobby Barrell, Dan's brother, is a 6-time all-star with a pair of Whitney Awards on his resume. Now nearing age 31 he may not be quite the player he was half a dozen years ago but he is still one of the best outfielders in the Fed and the veteran leader on a young Keystones team. Chuck Hood had a terrific season last year but has been relegated to the bench with the emergence of Davey Robicheaux this season. Robicheaux has struggled, like many of the Philadelphia batsmen, but assuming he gets straightened out and Hood can be similar to the player he was last season the Keystones can withstand the loss of Barrell in their outfield. They certainly won't be as good without him but they would still be a solid ballclub although one has to think they would be scrambling for a veteran outfielder to add depth and leadership. The Cleveland Foresters are a bad team with or without four-time all-star Mel Carrol so in that regard he won't be missed. However, Carrol is, along with Dean Astle, the most marketable trade pieces the organization has should they wish to take a major step in tearing the club apart and starting over. Should Carrol be made available, assuming he is not leaving now, his trade value will be high but it remains to be seen how much it would be impacted by the deferment news. Just because a player may receive a successful deferral for the rest of the season there is no guarantee that deferal will be permanent and they could easily miss future seasons. If Toronto was to lose Fred McCormick you would think Carrol might be high on their list of players to acquire as Walt Pack could shift to first base and Carrol would be a nice replacement for McCormick. One could also see the Stars, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and perhaps even Boston looking to Carrol at the deadline if they are in a pennant race. As for Pittsburgh, one has to think they would be the team affected the most should it be their star player who is leaving. George Cleaves is a five time all-star and the 1939 Whitney Award winner. He is quite possibly the best catcher in the game right now and the Miners do not have anyone in their organization that could even come remotely close to replacing him. Their backup right now is Lou Chandler, a 29 year old with 63 career FABL games and a .215 career average. The only option in AAA is another 29 year old by the name of Clem Bliss. Bliss does have 262 career FABL games under his belt but would not be someone a pennant contender would want playing regularly. If Cleaves does indeed leave the Miners, one would expect, have to be desperate to acquire a catcher if they want any chance of winning a third straight Federal Association pennant. The problem is there are very few catchers available that could step in. Perhaps Tom Aiello of the Chicago Chiefs might be a possibility but the Chiefs could be reluctant to help out Pittsburgh if Chicago feels they are contenders. Boston would be in the same situation with Bill Van Ness so it is much more likely the Miners have to settle for a player like Ken Vance of Cleveland, Brooklyn's Fred Barrell or Washington's Paul Brophy and I am not sure how much any of those would be of an upgrade on Bliss or Chandler. That leaves the Toronto Wolves and losing McCormick, a 7-time all-star who won Whitney Awards in 1938 and 1939, would be a serious blow. Like Philadelphia I believe it is one the Wolves could possibly withstand especially if they were able to swing a deal for a player like the previously mentioned Mel Carrol. Toronto might even be content to shift Walt Pack to first base and promote Ockie Holliday from AAA Buffalo to play third. There are other options, none quite like McCormick, but still serviceable choices for the Wolves as both they and the Keystones benefit from the fact that first baseman and outfielders are much more plentiful that high end catchers. Could Toronto still win the Continental crown without McCormick. It would be a much more difficult task than doing it with him but Toronto's pitching is strong enough that they still might just be able to contend and with a few breaks perhaps even repeat as pennant winners, especially if they could land a player like Carrol to fill the void. It is obvious any team that loses an all-star player will feel that loss and all four of these teams would suffer, and suffer to the point where a pennant opportunity might be out of the question, but none more than the Miners should they find out in the next 7-10 days that George Cleaves has traded his bat and glove for a rifle and bayonet. One thing is for sure. There will be a lot of sleepless nights this week for the managers of each of those four teams. STARS AND COUGARS THREATENING TO RUN AWAY WITH CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION The Continental Association is very quickly becoming a two horse race as the New York Stars and Chicago Cougars are a combined 29-11 to begin the season while none of the other 6 teams are over .500 and the group as a whole own a 48-64 record. Third place is tie between the Philadelphia Sailors and Brooklyn Kings and after just three weeks those two clubs are already 5.5 games back of the front running Stars. New York at least showed signs of mortality this weekend as the Stars dropped a pair of games at home - first to Toronto on Saturday followed by a 3-2 defeat at the hands of last place Cleveland yesterday. That put an end to a 14 game winning streak for the New York side. The Cougars have been much more methodical in their 14-7 start, never winning more than 4 in a row but also, aside from back to back losses to the Stars a week and a half ago, the Cougars have not tasted defeat in successive contests. The Stars offense slowed a bit over the weekend with those two 1-run losses but it has been dominating and still averaging well over 6 runs per game. Bill Barrett (.390,8,23) is on a tear and Dave Trowbridge (.418,1,17), the oldest player in FABL is following up his batting crown winning season of a year ago with another terrific start: Trowbridge leads the bigs in hitting at a .418 clip. QUICK HITS With the bugle already ringing in Dixie Lee's ears there now appears to be some some danger that another New York Stars player may be in army service before the end of the season. That would be Joe Angevine (.315,0,12) who is single and without dependents. The 25 year old registered at Austin, Tex., his home city, and has a high draft number, but with the possibility that more men will be called than at first planned the young shortstop may be one of those inducted. Ron Rattigan's(.333,2,10) hitting streak, dating back to last season, came to an end this week at 34 games but the 32 year old 5-time all-star followed up his 0-for-5 showing on Friday against the Keystones with a 3 hit effort Saturday and added another base knock Sunday in a loss to Pittsburgh. Rattigan's mark is a new record for Chiefs hitters, snapping by one the 33 game streak established by Mike Pierce in 1927. Lots of positive news out of Boston, just not in the win column. CF Bill Burkett picked up the batter of the month award. Ray Dalpman won the FA Rookie of the month. Duke Hendricks picked up the first win of his career in a shutout win against the Gothams. Yet, the Minutemen are still sitting at 9-10 on the season in sixth position 3 games back in the standings. Hopefully the return of slugger Bob Donoghue can inject some life in the offense which aside from Burkett has been largely disappointing. Currently, Boston sits 7th in runs scored and 6th in batting average. Moxie Pidgeon (.211,2,11) is finally showing signs of getting his bat going. After a terrible start to the season the 34 year old has 6 hits in his last 4 games including his first two homers of the season, which both came yesterday in a 9-0 whitewashing of Montreal. Deuce Barrell (1-2, 6.84) is another Cannon of to a slow start but the club has seen that before as Barrell, who won 19 games and finished with a 3.55 era, had a rough April last year as well - going 1-1 with a 5.23 era. Quite a start to the season for veteran Frank Mack in the Western League. The 35 year old second sacker is hitting .538 (21-for-39) to start the season, the highest batting average in organized ball at the moment. A high school National Championship Series MVP in 1922 he was a 9th round pick of the Sailors in 1924 and made it as high as AAA but never got the call to the big leagues. This is Mack's 4th season with Wichita of the Western League. A one minute interview with Cougars pitcher Dick Lyons- the oldest thrower in the bigs this season. "There's been some talk about what I'm a throwin' this year. Well, I got a slow ball that's so slow the infielders can come in and autograph it before it's to the plate. Then the batter's a-swingin' at a souvenir." Dan Daniel, New York Baseball scribe, comes up with an attractive idea. He would like to see President Roosevelt at the all-star baseball game in Brooklyn. "In July," Dainel wrote, "the annual all-star game will be played at Kings County. Brooklyn is a fine city and in a key area for Navy defenses. A nice ballpark with a rich history. The game will win America in a fervor of tremendous patriotism. Let us pray it finds America yet out of this war. But this game should have a flavor of American patriotism. "Why not ask President Roosevelt to come to Kings County Ballpark and before the game make a 10-minute talk to America, right out of the ball park. "If the President cannot go to Brooklyn, let him make his talk over the telephone and broadcast out of the Detroit ball park. Let this all-star game be not merely a demonstration for baseball. Let it be, also, a great festival of Americanism." The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 5/04/1941 Germany increases it's focus on the Mediterranean vowing to "destroy completely Britain's position and power there." Embattled Britain took fresh heart from Prime Minister Churchill's stirring speech which frankly conceded defeats in Greece and Libya but predicted British victory with United States aid at sea. 26 US merchant ships loaded with arms and munitions for the aid of Britain in the Middle East, have arrived at the Suez Canal. Those US supplies will be of great aide to British troops in Africa, who this week clashed with pro-Axis Iraq forces after Iraqi artillery shelled a British air base. The United States Atlantic patrol has been ordered to "avoid shooting at all costs short of getting sunk," as the mission is not to destroy Axis ships or airplanes but "to spot them" and protect their conveys until British forces can arrive on seen to take over. The Secretary of War told a Senate committee that the coal strikes have crated a crucial situation and if the mines are not reopened promptly "the entire national defense effort will be in grave jeopardy." The coal dispute was settled late in the week and President Roosevelt called for a 24-hour day, 7-day week work schedule in defense industries to help the United State win the world battle of production for the democracies in this "crucial situation." Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' debuted in theatres this week. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 02-22-2022 at 09:09 AM.