JUNE 2, 1941
COUGARS CLOSING FAST ON CONTINENTAL LEAD
The Chicago Cougars have replaced the New York Stars as the hottest team in the Continental Association and are within a half game of catching them for top spot in the loop. The Cougars and Stars played a rare 5 game series last week and the boys from Chicago won four of them to at least temporarily slow down the high flying Stars. Once they got away from the Cougars though, the Stars did go right back to their winning ways, finishing a busy week with 3 wins over Brooklyn before splitting a Sunday doubleheader with Cincinnati.
A hot run from the New York Gothams, combined with the Stars success, has Big Apple fans dreaming of a rematch of 1926, when we had our first and only all-New York World Championship Series. Title talk and the Gothams have not gone hand in hand for quite some time but a 4-game sweep of Detroit, including 3 consecutive shutouts, has the Gothams faithful dreaming big. The Fed actually is in the midst of a first place showdown series between the New Yorkers and the Boston Minutemen - now that is a phrase few would have expected at the start of the season. Boston has contended in recent years on a number of occasions but the New Englanders always seemed to drop quicker than the temperature once September arrives. The truth is the race in the Federal Association is wide open with only the disappointing Philadelphia Keystones perhaps showing some indication of conceding early. Philadelphia is sinking like a stone with just 1 win in their last nine outings and are in grave danger of letting a season, thought to be filled with pennant dreams, quickly turn into a nightmare.
The calendar has turned to June, but what do my near-sighted eyes see? Is that our very own New York Gothams tied for the most wins in the Fed? We've passed the quarter mark and are closing in on one third of the 1941 campaign being completed and still the boys from Queens are battling for the lead. And why is that happening? I do believe it's this new fangled invention manager Ed Ziehl has discovered. Something we haven't seen in these parts for a half decade. It's called....Pitching. Suddenly the Gothams rotation is churning out quality performances day after day. Yes, the Gothams lead the FA in pitching, having allowed the fewest runs in the league. A 3.39 ERA that is second in FABL to only the cross town Stars.
Just this past week the club rolled into Detroit and shellacked the Dynamos by matching 9-0 score. Gus Goulding and Rusty Petrick finally showing why they are slotted in at the top of the rotation. Then the next day after an all night train from Detroit the Gothams hosted the very same Dynamos with Harry Carter getting in on the act. The May pitcher of the month also tossed a complete game shutout, his 3rd in 9 starts this season. With solid contributions from Bunny Edwards and Charlie Sutton the team fashioned a 6-2 week to move into second place.
It wasn't just pitching. Leon Drake continues to show that his early career success isn't a thing of the past. Picking up the FA player of the week award, Drake is sitting at .303 for the season, with 12 doubles, 3 triples and 5 homers. Roosevelt Brewer is enjoying a breakout season, hitting .337 with a league leading 11 SBs.
These are heady times in New York with all three teams enjoying success as the hot days of summer approach.
Like fine wine, Dave Trowbridge just seems to get better with age. The 42 year old New York Stars first baseman became just the 24th player in FABL history to reach the 2,500 hit plateau. The milestone marker came in fine style as it was Father Time's third hit of the game in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cougars on Wednesday. Fellow greybeard Dick Lyons was on the hill for Chicago making the duo quite likely the oldest batter-pitcher combo ever when a 2,500 hit was delivered. Between the two of them they are 83 years, 293 days old.
Trowbridge did not rest on his laurels, far from it in fact as he added 3 more hits the next day and at the end of the week had passed former teammate Pete Layton for 22nd all-time. Trowbridge was also named the CA player of the week after going 14-for-31 (.452) with a pair of homers the past seven days. He won his first career batting title last season and is trailing only teammate Bill Barrett in the CA batting race this time around.
DOUGLASS GETS DECLARED 1-A
Jim Douglass, Washington Eagles pitcher whose full name is James Charles Douglass, was notified yesterday that he has been classified as 1-A by his local selective service draft board in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Douglass is 23 years old and in his second season with the Eagles. He is off to a great start to the season at 8-2 with a 4.56 era. His 8 victories are tops in either Association.
Douglass is a player the Eagles have been counting on heavily for service during the summer as they try to remain in contention in the tightly contested Federal Association. Good news for the Eagles is that he will not be called for service until at least September.
It was also good news for the Cincinnati Cannons and St Louis Pioneers as each club learned one of their key regulars will also not be called before September. Cannons 25 year old second sacker Charley McCullough (.316,1,29), who is having a breakout season, and 26 year old Pioneers outfielder Les Hendrix (.272,3,24) each were successful in requests for delaying their reporting dates.
AMATEUR AWARDS HANDED OUT
The two most prestigious awards an amateur baseball player can win were handed out this week with the announcement of the winners of the Christian Trophy and Adwell Award. The Christian Trophy, named after legendary college coach Frank Christian is presented annually to the top player in AIAA college baseball while the Adwell Award goes to the National High School player of the year.
It comes as no surprise that winner of the Adwell Award is pitcher Hiram Steinberg out of New York City's Washington High School. The 18 year old senior, who was selected first overall by the Cleveland Foresters in January, won the award for a record third time and single-handedly rewrote the high school pitching record book at the same time. In 4 years at Washington High Steinberg never lost game, posting a 47-0 record with a 0.55 era and 855 strikeouts. Each of those figures are career marks for a high school pitcher (including the feeder era). He also set the single season record for strikeouts with 223 this year, breaking his own record of 222 set last year, and finishes with 4 of the 5 highest single season strikeout totals of all-time. His 1940 junior season era of 0.23 is also a single season record. Steinberg has committed to Carolina Poly but is expected to receive a signing bonus in the neighborhood of $20,000 to join the Foresters organization.
ARMAN WINS CHRISTIAN TROPHY
In a tightly contested ballot the AIAA Player of the Year award went to Bluegrass State sophomore pitcher Bob Arman. The 20 year old narrowly outpointed Huntington State's Hank Eason to claim the Frank Christian Trophy. Arman went 11-1 with an AIAA best 1.75 era and national college leading 156 strikeouts. He will be eligible for the FABL draft in January. Eason, who was selected 10th overall in the January portion of the draft by the Montreal Saints, tied for the AIAA lead with 14 homers this season while batting .316 with 57 rbi's. Eason's father Hal had a long big league career with the Saints and Philadelphia Keystones. Mark Smith, a sophomore catcher out of tiny Davidson University in Mommouth, Oregon, finished a distant third in the polling. Smith led the nation with a .385 batting average, second highest single season average in the post feeder era.
The Cincinnati Cannons were a busy team during round four of the FABL draft but after selecting three players in the first 8 picks of the June portion of the draft the Cincinnati staff took the rest of the day off. The Cannons made two trades with the biggest being the acquisition of highly touted 1B/OF Chuck Adams from the Brooklyn Kings and the second being a move that saw them send all of their picks in rounds 6 thru 10 to Chicago in exchange for the Cougars 4th round selection.
The draft picks coming to the Cincinnati organization where Maurice Carter, an 18 year old first baseman who was honourable mention for the High School All-American team, Joe Beckstrom, a 17 year old righthander who went 27-3 over three seasons with his high school club in San Francisco, and Dutch Peters, a 21 year old slugging outfielder out of Columbian College in Georgia. It was Peters that cost the Cannons 6 draft picks in rounds 6-thru-10 as Cincinnati felt he was too good a player to pass up on.
Beckstrom was selected with a pick acquired from the Kings on draft day with the centerpiece for Cincinnati being Adams, a 24 year old ranked 8th overall in OSA's prospect pipeline. Adams hit .250 with his first career big league homerun in a 20 game tryout with the Kings last summer but for some inexplicable reason found himself languishing in A ball this season. The Cannons are expected to bring Adams to the big league immediately and give him a chance to compete with Denny Andrews for the starting first base job. The Cannons also picked up 23 year old pitching prospect George Scruggs in the deal. Scruggs, who originally came to Brooklyn in the same deal that brought Adams from the Chicago Chiefs, split this season between AA and AAA, going 1-1 with a 3.99 era. He spent a good chunk of last season with the Kings but will be assigned to AAA Indianapolis.
The cost was heavy for the Cannons as they parted with a pair of top young players in 20 year old second baseman Howard Rivers and 24 year old first baseman Don Cress. Rivers was hitting .284 at AAA but with his path to the big leagues blocked by a number of good young middle infielders in the Cincinnati system the club felt he was expendable despite being ranked 17th on the OSA prospect list. Cress was also a top 50 prospect until the 24 year dropped off the list because he has played 48 big league games, batting .309 in the process. Cincinnati did like the youngster but the club was looking for more of a power bat at first base.
"Don is going to be a very good hitter in this league," explained Cannons scouting director Rufus Barrell. "Very good eye and a solid hitter, but we have tablesetters like (Fred) Galloway, (Mike T) Taylor and Charley (McCullough). So the goal was to get a young power bat for first base and we think Adams can more than fit the bill."
Code:
CANNONS 1941 DRAFT PICKS
RD POS NAME AGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN OSA MOCK
2 CF Claude Hesser 21 College of Cairo Columbus, WI 42nd
2 SS Win Hamby 18 Morrisonville (IL) HS Little Rock, AR 18th
3 SS Ted Stacy 18 Hillcrest HS Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH 38th
4 1B Maurice Carter 18 Meridian (MS) HS Meridian, MS 25th
4 P Joe Beckstrom 17 Lowell HS San Francisco San Francisco, CA 65th
4 OF Dutch Peters 20 Columbian College Kinston, NC 19th
The Cannons will not draft again until the automated portion kicks in with round 11. The club feels pretty good about it's June draft picks as Carter was a player they had considered taking in the second round before eventually deciding on Hamby instead. Cincinnati, picking 4th in the round, had Carter number three on their board behind pitchers Lazaro DeLeon and Wally Reif but they were selected with the two picks prior to the Cannons choice. The deal with Brooklyn gave the Cannons back to back picks and with the 5th selection of the round they went with Beckstrom after some long debate over selecting outfielder Eddie Heaton.
"We actually thought we had deals in place to land both the 7th and 8th picks of round four," explained Cincinnati Assistant General Manager Red Franklin, "as we were looking to land both Heaton and Dutch Peters. Unfortunately, we could not persuade the Sailors to part with their pick despite several offers and after they grabbed Heaton we made the deal with the Cougars to ensure we could pick up Peters. The really disappointing thing is we tried to get a deal done with Washington, who picked 6th, just ahead of the Sailors, and likely would have but they did not answer their phone in the final minutes before their pick was due. Disappointing to not land Heaton, but overall we are really happy with the 3 players we did get and ecstatic to add Chuck Adams."
Adams has had loads of potential and it feels like he just never got a fair shake in Brooklyn. If he can prove to be the type of hitter OSA projected he would become the Memphis native should be a huge addition to the Cincinnati offense.
QUICK HITS
- A milestone for the Sailors General Manager as he recently claimed his 1,300th victory as a FABL GM. The Sailors boss, who has been with the team since human GM era began following the 1925 season, is the all-time wins leader and owns a pair of WCS titles to go with 3 Continental Association pennants. His overall record is 1303-1053, giving him a 15 win margin on the former Brooklyn and current Cincinnati GM. The only other GM with at least 1,200 wins is the Keystones boss - also an original who was remained in the same organization throughout. His teams are 1227-1131 overall.
- Stars slumped at the wrong time, as a number of hitters were struggling entering the big Chicago showdown. Having Bill Barrett (.382,12,43) still nursing a tender arm for much of the week didn't help matters either.
- Pete Papenfus flashed his stuff against the Stars as the Cougars offense put up 9 runs behind him. He was just a hit and walk away from protection, and added seven more strikeouts in a complete game shutout. The 23-year-old continues to lead the league in strikeouts and K/9 and is tied with Wally Doyle in the CA for wins with 7.
- Speaking of Doyle, looks like the bubble burst for the 22 year old Montreal lefthander. After a 7-0 start that saw The Waco Kid post a 1.98 era, he has been beaten up badly in his last 3 outings, falling to pitch even 5 innings in two of them.
- Excitement in Cincinnati, and maybe some hope as Adam Mullins returned from an injury sustained in the opening week of the season. The All-Star catcher had hits in each of his first three games and the Cannons won 5 of 8 in a busy week that included a pair of doubleheaders. After a terrible start Deuce Barrell has now won 5 straight starts and, while it wasn't a work of art, rookie Bill Sohl got his first career big league victory last week, topping the Sailors 8-6.
- Can't ask for much better from the Gothams this week. Three straight complete game shutouts to start the week. 9-0, 9-0, 4-0. Goulding, Patrick and Carter. And to top it all off outfielder Leon Drake is selected the Fed Player of the Week.
- Now for a (lack of) clobbering (the baseball), the Keystones scored 17 runs all week and predictably went 1-6. 3 one-run losses, but the 1-6 showing pushed the Keystones into the cellar all by themselves. Johnny Bologna of the Philadelphia Inquisitor notes "It's mighty dark down here."
- Percy Sutherland asks "What do Rufus Barrell (5-2, 3.66), Ray McCarthy (4-0, 1.93), and Dave Rankin (4-1, 3.60) have in common? They each would have made a better selection for the CA Pitcher of the Month than Del Lyons." Lyons had 8 saves and was 3-0 with a 1.61 era but logged just 22 innings. Gothams starting pitcher Harry Carter, who went 3-0 with a 1.60 era was the Fed's top pitcher in May.
- Tom Bird and Hank Barnett are both under performing their career norms for the Chicago Chiefs. Ron Rattigan, though, is on pace for one of the better seasons of his career. And he's joined by newcomers Jim Watson and Hank Jones. Watson--the 34 year old Rule 5 pickup--is also on pace for one of the best seasons of his career.
- The Chiefs Al Miller (3-6, 3.35) is getting just 2.8 runs/game of support this season. At the bottom of that list are Boston's Duke Hendricks (2-3, 2.84) with 2.2 runs/game of support and Washington's Del Burns (2-5, 3.47) with 2.3 runs/game. On the other end of the spectrum, Pittsburgh has welcomed Tom Barrell (3-2, 5.46) to the Fed with a robust 6.4 runs/game of support. Note that the Gothams' Charlie Sutton (1-2, 3.66) hasn't pitched enough innings to qualify, but his teammates are scoring just 1.3 runs/game for him so far.
- Boston fans are very pleased to find themselves atop the FA scrap heap going into June. Long road ahead though for a team that has historically faded in the last two months of the season. On the other hand, what a difference a week or two make in the Fed as Clarence Keenan of the St Louis Star Times had to be careful not to twist an ankle jumping off the Pioneers bandwagon so fast, stating "Being competitive was nice while it lasted in STL." Easy to understand the skepticism on the banks of the Mississippi after how last season went.
DRAFT UPDATE
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/01/1941
- After a 72 hour hunt involving half the British battleships in the North Atlantic, aerial torpedoes and naval shells sank the 35,000 ton pride of the Nazi navy, Bismarck. The British were seeking revenge after the Bismarck had sank one of their most powerful ships, the Hood.
- Iraq has requested an armistice with Britain after British forces had broken thru the gates of Bagdad.
- Germany claims it has conquered Crete and forced the British fleet back to the fringes of the narrow eastern Mediterranean Sea.
- German threats will not discourage United States determination to give Great Britain short-of-war aid against the Axis. This from White House sources after the Nazis again warned assignments of US Naval convoys to British shipping would be "an open warlike act" and responded to as such.
- President Roosevelt asked Congress this week for another $3 billion which would be earmarked for more warplanes.
- Several baseball games were delayed last Tuesday as the audio from President Roosevelt's address to the nation was piped into ballparks for fans to listen to prior to the opening pitch. In his speech, FDR led the nation near the limits of an undeclared war and prepared to implement his proclamation of an unlimited national emergency by invoking new executive powers.
- Following Roosevelt's speech Great Britain revealed her war aims before the world for the first time, aims calling for the establishment everywhere of President Roosevelt's :Four Freedoms" and stern military and political terms to prevent Germany from ever again aspiring to the mastery of Europe.
- A British aviation expert says the Nazis could bomb New York or any other east coast city whenever it wanted to do so, explaining the Atlantic no longer was a barrier between the Old World and the New as the Germans have aircraft capable of performing the task and getting back home.