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Tiger Fan · 05-17-2022, 11:04 AM

JUNE 8, 1942

Two years ago, he won his third career Whitney Award at 37. At 38, he hit .315/.368/.515 (146 OPS+) as he carried the Chicago Cougars to the postseason for the first time since 1933. At 39? Well, things haven't gone so good for Jack the Ripper. The Cougar third sacker is hitting just .257/.292/.327 (76 OPS+) with 3 homers and 28 RBIs. At 220 plate appearances, it is no longer just a rough start, it is a prolonged slump for a hitter who is not used to slumps of any kind. Debuting way back in 1927, the future Hall of Famer has played in 2,165 FABL games and made nearly 10,000 trips to the plate, all with the Stars and Cougars, and hit an elite .341/.393/.505 (144 OPS+) with 548 doubles, 264 homers, and 1,574 RBIs. He's just 29 hits shy of 3,000, two runs shy of 1,400, and has been worth 91.6 wins above replacement in a historic career. Since becoming a full time starter in 1927, his "worst" career line is .302/.355/.461 (131 OPS+) back in 1938, which most players would love that as a career best. But for one reason or another, Jack just isn't ripping...

A big reason why is Lawson is starting to strike out more and walk less. His BB% is down to 5% and his K% up to 17.3, both career worsts and by a significant margin. He also has just 8 extra base hits, despite leading the league in doubles twice and recording 29 or more in each full season of his career. This year, he's on pace for just 14. Lawson has never failed to hit double digit homers; this year on pace for just 8. And he's never hit below .300, this year he'd need to go 17 for his next 17 to raise his average up that high. At the age of 39, you have to wonder if his best days are behind him...

Cougar fans, I'm here to tell you, fret not! This is John Lawson! Age is just a number to him; he will be back! All players fall into rough patches, it's just we are so used to success from Lawson, that anything less then dominance feels like the end is nigh. A third of the way through the season, there is more then enough time for Lawson to start hitting again, and while the days of 140 OPS+ with 20 homers and 100 RBIs may be fond memories of the past, he will turn things around. And once he does; watch out! Maybe the Cougars can claw their way back...

SOME SEPARATION IN THE FED

The Boston Minutemen and Philadelphia Keystones have opened a little bit of room on the pack in the Federal Association race but they are hardly comfortably in front. The defending champion Minutemen, at 33-24, were riding a 5-game winning streak until they had a rough series at home with the Chicago Chiefs in dropping 3 of 4 games over the weekend. The Keystones, after knocking off the Chiefs three times to start the week, stumbled a little against Detroit in dropping two of three but that was good enough to keep Philadelphia just a game back of Boston.

The Chiefs desperately needed that strong showing in New England as they entered the series on a 7 game losing streak but as they leave Boston they are one of three teams, along with New York and Pittsburgh, that are 3.5 games back. The up and down St Louis Pioneers are five-and-a-half games back as they snapped an 8 game losing skid with a doubleheader sweep of the Miners yesterday, taking both games by just a single run.

The Continental Association leaders had a rough weekend as well as the New York Stars dropped 3 of 4 games to the Philadelphia Sailors but the second place Chicago Cougars failed to take advantage of the opportunity as they also lost 3 of 4 to the Cincinnati Cannons, a team that has endured a dreadful first couple of months but has won 13 of it's last 19.

SOPHOMORE THOMPSON WINS ADWELL AWARD

Ben Thompson, a 16 year sophomore who won't be eligible for the FABL draft until 1944, was named the winner of the Adwell Award, presented annually to the top High School baseball player in the nation. The outfielder from Yazoo City High in Mississippi, led the nation with a .564 batting average and a .638 on base percentage. Thompson becomes just the second outfielder to be selected for the award and joins Walt Messer and Hiram Steinberg as the only sophomores to win an Adwell. Both Messer and Steinberg would win again with Messer claiming the award once more as a senior and Steinberg winning three in a row beginning with his sophomore campaign.

The Adwell Award, first presented in 1934, is named after Red Adwell, who was a legendary high school pitcher in Alabama in the early teens before going on to win 134 games over a 10 year big league career.

Code:

           1942 ADWELL AWARD BALLOT RESULTS
 NAME (CL)		SCHOOL	       1st 2nd 3rd TOTAL
Ben Thompson -Soph   Yazoo City (MS)   3   3   0   24			
Joe Lute- Sr	     Algona (IA)       2   2   0   16
Billy Bob Nelson- Sr Porterdale (GA)   0   1   1    4
Clyde Fleenor – Sr   Clear Creek (MO)  0   0   2    2
Jim Hawkins – Jr     Oakmont (PA)      0   0   2    2

Mule Monier's .448 week moves him back on top of the Federal Association batting average list
Walt Messer is second in the Fed with 42 RBI
Ed Bowman showed he was mortal, giving up 7 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. However, he followed that up with a 2 hit shutout of Washington.
On the Farm: #94 prospect Del West of Reading (AA) was EA player of the week. The 21-year-old LF was 13-36 for the week raising his season average to .412

TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN

The Toronto Wolves are beginning to show signs of life with the calendar turning to June. The club began the month with a 3 game sweep at home against Brooklyn with manager Charlie Reed pulling out all the stops with some unorthodox moves in late innings. Hopefully these moves were a wakeup call to the regulars. Toronto is one of only three teams that have a positive run differential in CA. At +13 it pales in comparison to the Stars and Cougars but could be a harbinger of things to come for the team. Wolves hitters are at least putting the bat to ball - no team has struck out less than the Wolves this season. An improvement in overall defense would be a welcome sight at Dominion Field where the team finally went over .500 this past week.

On the injury front. Larry Vestal will be out of the starting line-up until later in the week due to back spasms. There was some thought of another DL stint which would make room for Hank Giordano, this was dismissed, training staff's opinion is that Vestal will be back to full fitness with a few days of rest and therapy.

Hard to call a team led by a 10-2 pitcher in Deuce Barrell out of the pennant race in early June but the Cincinnati Cannons, despite winning 13 of their last 19 games, will be hard pressed to get into contention. The start was so bad that at 16 games out and with 7 teams ahead of them, a pennant seems very unlikely. It is early but to even finish with 90 wins this year (and remember the CA pennant winner a year ago won 98) the Cannons would need to go 66-30 (.688) the rest of the way while the Stars would only need to go 52-48 to match them. Cannons brass states that "third place is still a realistic goal but our awful start effectively ended our pennant hopes before the season even hit June." The low point was May 22 when the Cannons were 11-28 (.282).
Cleveland Foresters owner Richard Marshall is the latest FABL magnate to sound the alarm about next season. Marshall says "We will be able to get through this year all right, I think. I don't know what next year will be like, so I wouldn't know what to say about it (the possibility of playing next season). I know we will get the fans all right, but it's whether we have enough players and are allowed to continue in spite of rationing that I am uncertain about."
FABL has altered it's schedule of Army and Navy Relief Fund benefit games after poor showings at three week-day contests played in the past two weeks for the service funds. The plan now is to provide more advance publicity and schedule the charity contests on weekends with much more notice. Sunday August 23rd will be the date for three of them, the league confirmed, as Cincinnati will host Cleveland, the New York Gothams will entertain St Louis while Boston and Pittsburgh will hook up in a double-header. Except for the initial game in Brooklyn, which raised $60,000, the results have been much less than expected although the big league clubs did little advance marketing. It is hoped next Saturday's Toronto-Chicago contest will draw much better with Pete Papenfus slated to return to Cougars Stadium and pitch for Great Lakes Academy prior to the Wolves-Cougars contest.
More isn't necessarily better. Only two pitchers in professional baseball presently lay claiming to having 8 different pitches they could offer up in a game. The two are 29 year old righthander Dick Gentry and 31 year old southpaw Jerry Newman. Neither has been very successful with their variety of offerings. Gentry is in presently in A ball in the Philadelphia Sailors organization and went 7-10 with a 7.03 era in three trials with the New York Gothams. Newman was an 11th round pick of the Chiefs in 1928 and all these years later is still in their system including his present station at AAA Fort Wayne but he has never received the call to the big leagues.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Jiggs McGee takes a look around FABL with a quick comment or two on each of the 16 clubs:
BOSTON- The Minutemen will be without veteran outfielder Joe Watson for the rest of the month. The 32 year old Watson (.287,1,10) was not playing a lot in Boston but is a key piece in the clubhouse. It actually might be a blessing in disguise as perhaps Bob Donoghue will pinch-hit more often. Donoghue is hitting .286 as a pinch-hitter, not exactly lighting things up, but Watson was 1-for-13 in that role this season and only recently snapped an 0-for-11 start.

BROOKLYN- Having Harry Barrell (.275,1,17) nicked up for the next three weeks might hurt the Kings and make them regret the decision to waive Terry Cox a couple of weeks ago. Cox caught on with Cincinnati and has been doing a solid job for the Cannons. Expect Vince D'Alessandro to shift from second to shortstop to fill in for Barrell which means 22 year old (Happy Birthday today) Howard Rivers will get a chance to show what he can do in Brooklyn. Rivers, who was acquired from the Cannons a year ago in the Chuck Adams trade, made his big league debut this season and is hitting .326 in limited playing time for the Kings.

CHIEFS- The Chiefs feel confident in their chances as they have stuck around in the Fed race despite playing the fewest home games of any team in either association. Chicago has one more week on the road with stops in Pittsburgh and Washington before they return home, where they are 12-9 on the year, for a 21 game run that will keep them in Chicago right up until the July 6th all-star game.

COUGARS- The Cougars have to be kicking themselves after a missed opportunity this weekend. Chicago dropped 3 of 4 games in Cincinnati, with each loss by a 4-3 score thereby missing a chance to gain some ground on New York as the Stars struggled in Philadelphia. Donnie Jones (5-5, 2.94) has pitched much better than his record indicates but has been on the wrong end of a couple of tough decisions lately including yesterday's 4-3 loss in Cincinnati when he went toe to toe with Deuce Barrell and fell just short - losing on a 10th inning sacrifice fly.

CINCINNATI- The Cannons are hoping 1940 first overall pick Dick Blaszak finally got himself going with a big week in Class B. The 20 year old broke out of a season long slump with a 12-for-30 start to June that included his first homerun of the season. That raises the Cannons number one prospects batting average over the .200 mark for the first time since the very early days of the Southeastern League season.

CLEVELAND- A tough loss for the Cleveland Foresters as the often injured Earl Robinson is hurt again. The offense has struggled but the Foresters pitching has been quite good this season led by Dick Lamb (6-6, 3.07), a 22 year old who is making a bid to be included in rookie of the year discussion. The Cleveland pitching future looks pretty bright with Hiram Steinberg (4-6, 3.22), barely a year removed from rewriting the high school record books, doing all right in Class B and then there is Bill Martino, another highly touted prospect but in the Navy for the duration.

I did find it interesting to see Mel Ennis, now 29 years old but caught everyone's attention nearly a decade and a half ago with an incredible 8-0, 0.59 season as a high school freshman in the feeder days, still kicking around. He never duplicated his freshman year at San Antonio High and seems to have spent a lifetime in Class B but is 6-2 with a 1.74 era for Savannah so far this season and I can see him, with his high work ethic, acting as a mentor for Steinberg at the moment. I am surprised he has never pitched above Class B though.

DETROIT- Rookie Johnny Witt made his first big league start for Detroit last week. The 24 year old did not pitch badly, but ran into control issues by walking 5 and allowed 3 earned runs in a 4-0 loss to Boston. A 12th round pick out of a West Virginia high school, he was pitching extremely well at AAA Newark (2-0, 0.90) so he got the call to Detroit. After 3 very successful relief outings the Dynamos gave him his first start. OSA sees Witt as a back of the rotation guy so with a few pitchers in Detroit still struggling (Charlie Wheeler, Sergio Gonzales) or injured (Frank Crawford, Jack Richardson) we may see more of Witt. Speaking of Richardson the Dynamos have confirmed his injury suffered last month is career ending. The 34 year old began his career in St Louis before joining Detroit in 1939 and he led the Fed in saves that year. All told he was 28-38 with 50 saves in 261 career FABL appearances. Almost exclusively a reliever as a pro, Richardson threw a no-hitter for Cleveland High School back in the old feeder league days.

MONTREAL- Heady space for the Saints who are 28-28 and looking to finish with a .500 or better record for the first time since 1930. They finished 3rd that season and have only been in the first division one other time in the past dozen years. A 19-13 record in May and going 12-7 in one run game helps explain the position. And all this is happening while 1B Red Bond and CF Bill Greene are still hitting in the .230s range, which is well under expectations. If those two can get going, who knows, perhaps the Saints might even find themselves in contention when the season begins to wind down.

Montreal Star columnist Marc T. McNeil points out that, as in previous year, the offense still posting good numbers, but the pitching squad needs to do better and the defense still needs much improvement as the Saints sit last in Defense efficiency and Zone rating. There is good news on the pitching front from the Century League in Minneapolis where the trio of prospects Wally Reif (5-1, 2.91), Pat Weakley (4-2, 4.19) and Jimmy Mayse (4-1, 2.72) are going to create a log jam in September if they are called up. So far the three of them are doing everything necessary to force the Saints brain trust to promote them before the end of the year.

NY STARS- The Stars did snap their three game losing streak Tuesday in Cleveland with a 14-4 victory but they finished the week with 3 losses in their four game set in Philadelphia and that has management getting a little worried about the possibility of a second half fade ruining an incredible start to the season as it did last year.

No fading out of Dave Trowbridge as the 43 year old continues to defy the odds. His batting average is up to .324 on the year and he is on a pace for 20 homers, a number he has only reached once before and that was nearly a decade and a half ago. He is approaching 2,700 career hits so just imagine the numbers he could have put up if he was an everyday player at age 23 or 24 instead of having to wait until he was 29 for his first full season of action.

NY GOTHAMS- Some New York reporters are calling on the Gothams to send young Ed Bowman out on the mound every 4th day. Bowman did stumble his last start but at 7-2, 3.50 is having quite a rookie year. With Rusty Petrick (6-5, 3.30) and Harry Carter (6-6, 2.78) both pitching well, John Brinker of the New York Mirror says "The Gothams would be extremely scary if Goulding would just perform to his ability. That guy is a stud but is pitching like a bum."

However, Percy Sutherland notes that Goulding (4-8, 5.68) should be getting better results but he doesn't. And with 1,500 career innings of under-performance, notes maybe Goulding "is who he thinks he is."

KEYSTONES- My arm is just fine thank you. Bobby Barrell with a big statement to Selective Service as a week after he was declared 4-f due to that gunshot wound so many years ago, the Georgia Jolter, earned Fed player of the week honours with 3 homers and 9 rbi's while going 13-for-24. Barrell leads the majors with 13 homers on the season while batting .335 and now sits at 299 homers after his three taters this week. Keystones fans are grateful for the likelihood of Barrell playing the full season before going off to join the boys "over there".

The Keystones' pitching staff is the stingiest in the Fed--allowing just 3.6 runs/game. However, the offense--even with The Georgia Jolter--comes in at dead last, scoring just 3.5 runs/game.

SAILORS- Like Jekyll and Hyde as the Sailors stumble to a 1-7 record against Cleveland and Cincinnati, a pair of bottom feeders, in the past couple of weeks only to rebound with a 4-2 showing last week against the top two clubs including a 3-1 weekend against the front-running New York Stars. The big weekend vs New York came at a price as both Marion Boismenu (.320,2,14) an Hal Carter (.317,0,13) were injured. Both are expected to miss no more than 3 weeks.

Karl Wallace is turning things around in Philadelphia. Picked up on waivers after a 3-8 season a year ago saw Montreal cut ties with him, the 28 year old righthander is pitching the best ball of his career with a 6-3 mark and a 2.19 era that has Sailors fans thinking he should participate in the first all-star game of his career next month.

PITTSBURGH- You can't call the Miners a sleeper as they are always in the mix but they are just lurking in the weeds right now, 3.5 games back after a slow start to the season. I think they are the team to beat in the Fed now, as long as they stay healthy. The offense is very deep and vets Karl Johnson (6-3, 3.09) and Charlie Stedman (8-4, 3.12) are going strong. Lefty Allen (6-6, 3.05) has been getting very little run support so expect that to balance out as we go forward.

ST LOUIS- If only the Pioneers could win at home. They are 19-13 on the road but just 9-17 at Pioneers Field. 5 straight losses in Washington and Pittsburgh to start the week dropped them below .500 but they rebounded with a doubleheader sweep in Pittsburgh yesterday. 25 year old Danny Hern (9-2, 2.80) is, at least at the moment, the favourite to start next month's All-Star game in Pittsburgh. He had a rough go of things against Washington early in the week but rebounded nicely with a win in Pittsburgh yesterday. Unfortunately I can't help but feel the bubble will burst on the Pioneers. The pitching behind Hern is suspect and while they are second in the Fed in runs scored, they seem to be getting a lot of breaks on that front as the Pioneers are scoring despite ranking last in the Fed in batting average, OPS, wOBA, homeruns and stolen bases and just 6th in on-base percentage.

TORONTO- Wolves were hoping to sneak Levi Redding through waivers but Cincinnati grabbed the 31 year old Chicago native, who has a return home of sorts as Redding played his college ball in Columbus at Central Ohio before being drafted by the Cleveland Foresters. He is a career .279 hitter in 629 FABL games, all with the Wolves.

WASHINGTON- Sig Stofer (.283,11,44) had a huge week for the Eagles, hitting .370 with 2 homers and 11 rbi's. He now leads the Fed with 44 rbi's while smacking 11 homers and hitting .283.

The football southsayers are whispering that Annapolis Maritime and Rome State will be the best in the Nation next fall, what with none of their players getting drafted. The Navigators were already that last season, unbeaten and some say should have been national champion. Rome State, the Georgia based military academy, was a more pedestrian 3-3-3 a year ago
Word is the head football coach at Opelika State, himself a former marine, has 19 members of his squad signed up for class 3 of the Marine Corps Reserve - but they'll remain eligible for varsity play until they graduate. The Birmingham district recruiting office, announcing the enlistments, noted the players would start training for commissions at the end of their scholastic work.
Count Miami State as another school using officer training to keep their football team intact. 21 of the Gulls players off of their 9-1 team a year ago have enlisted and been accepted for officer training under a plan which permits them to complete their college educations before beginning active duty.
Service Department: Ensign Charley McGruder helped lead Eastern Kansas to a surprising run to the semi-finals of the AIAA basketball championship tournament a few years back. The other day he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking a Jap submarine and performing other feats during the raids on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Recently Charley wrote his parents: "Here is where my basketball with the Warriors comes in handy - you have to think and act in motion in this game out here." A fast-breaking attack helps too.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/07/1942

Cologne -blasted by nearly 7 million pounds of bombs- is still burning and said to be in ruins after United States pilots flying with the R.A.F. participated in a devastating 90 minute assault on Germany's Rhineland city. Two nights later a raid of similar intensity was launched on Essen.
General Rommel escaped but his second in command was captured as the result of a trap sprung in the Libyan desert by British tank columns.
Damage is light with few casualties after Japanese raiders - 4 bombers and about 15 fighters- dumped explosives on the Alaskan town of Dutch Harbor. Secretary of War Stimson again warns that Alaska, and the rest of the west coast, need to be prepared for the possibility of more attacks.
Much like the east coast of the United States with Nazi subs, Australians are facing increased Japanese attacks on merchant shipping traffic along it's north coast.
A great Naval battle off of Midway Island saw the Pacific Fleet score a large victory over Japanese forces, sinking 3 Japanese aircraft carriers with all of their planes and damaging "11 or 12" other warships.
The Japanese are focusing a drive through central China with a goal to cut it off from the southern portion of the country. Following reports the Japanese have used poison gas in China, President Roosevelt warned the United States would retaliate in kind if the Japanese persist in it's use.
Roosevelt has asked Congress to declare war on three Axis satellites: Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania.

05-17-2022, 11:04 AM	#429
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,755	June 8, 1942 JUNE 8, 1942 Two years ago, he won his third career Whitney Award at 37. At 38, he hit .315/.368/.515 (146 OPS+) as he carried the Chicago Cougars to the postseason for the first time since 1933. At 39? Well, things haven't gone so good for Jack the Ripper. The Cougar third sacker is hitting just .257/.292/.327 (76 OPS+) with 3 homers and 28 RBIs. At 220 plate appearances, it is no longer just a rough start, it is a prolonged slump for a hitter who is not used to slumps of any kind. Debuting way back in 1927, the future Hall of Famer has played in 2,165 FABL games and made nearly 10,000 trips to the plate, all with the Stars and Cougars, and hit an elite .341/.393/.505 (144 OPS+) with 548 doubles, 264 homers, and 1,574 RBIs. He's just 29 hits shy of 3,000, two runs shy of 1,400, and has been worth 91.6 wins above replacement in a historic career. Since becoming a full time starter in 1927, his "worst" career line is .302/.355/.461 (131 OPS+) back in 1938, which most players would love that as a career best. But for one reason or another, Jack just isn't ripping... A big reason why is Lawson is starting to strike out more and walk less. His BB% is down to 5% and his K% up to 17.3, both career worsts and by a significant margin. He also has just 8 extra base hits, despite leading the league in doubles twice and recording 29 or more in each full season of his career. This year, he's on pace for just 14. Lawson has never failed to hit double digit homers; this year on pace for just 8. And he's never hit below .300, this year he'd need to go 17 for his next 17 to raise his average up that high. At the age of 39, you have to wonder if his best days are behind him... Cougar fans, I'm here to tell you, fret not! This is John Lawson! Age is just a number to him; he will be back! All players fall into rough patches, it's just we are so used to success from Lawson, that anything less then dominance feels like the end is nigh. A third of the way through the season, there is more then enough time for Lawson to start hitting again, and while the days of 140 OPS+ with 20 homers and 100 RBIs may be fond memories of the past, he will turn things around. And once he does; watch out! Maybe the Cougars can claw their way back... SOME SEPARATION IN THE FED The Boston Minutemen and Philadelphia Keystones have opened a little bit of room on the pack in the Federal Association race but they are hardly comfortably in front. The defending champion Minutemen, at 33-24, were riding a 5-game winning streak until they had a rough series at home with the Chicago Chiefs in dropping 3 of 4 games over the weekend. The Keystones, after knocking off the Chiefs three times to start the week, stumbled a little against Detroit in dropping two of three but that was good enough to keep Philadelphia just a game back of Boston. The Chiefs desperately needed that strong showing in New England as they entered the series on a 7 game losing streak but as they leave Boston they are one of three teams, along with New York and Pittsburgh, that are 3.5 games back. The up and down St Louis Pioneers are five-and-a-half games back as they snapped an 8 game losing skid with a doubleheader sweep of the Miners yesterday, taking both games by just a single run. The Continental Association leaders had a rough weekend as well as the New York Stars dropped 3 of 4 games to the Philadelphia Sailors but the second place Chicago Cougars failed to take advantage of the opportunity as they also lost 3 of 4 to the Cincinnati Cannons, a team that has endured a dreadful first couple of months but has won 13 of it's last 19. SOPHOMORE THOMPSON WINS ADWELL AWARD Ben Thompson, a 16 year sophomore who won't be eligible for the FABL draft until 1944, was named the winner of the Adwell Award, presented annually to the top High School baseball player in the nation. The outfielder from Yazoo City High in Mississippi, led the nation with a .564 batting average and a .638 on base percentage. Thompson becomes just the second outfielder to be selected for the award and joins Walt Messer and Hiram Steinberg as the only sophomores to win an Adwell. Both Messer and Steinberg would win again with Messer claiming the award once more as a senior and Steinberg winning three in a row beginning with his sophomore campaign. The Adwell Award, first presented in 1934, is named after Red Adwell, who was a legendary high school pitcher in Alabama in the early teens before going on to win 134 games over a 10 year big league career. Code: 1942 ADWELL AWARD BALLOT RESULTS NAME (CL) SCHOOL 1st 2nd 3rd TOTAL Ben Thompson -Soph Yazoo City (MS) 3 3 0 24 Joe Lute- Sr Algona (IA) 2 2 0 16 Billy Bob Nelson- Sr Porterdale (GA) 0 1 1 4 Clyde Fleenor – Sr Clear Creek (MO) 0 0 2 2 Jim Hawkins – Jr Oakmont (PA) 0 0 2 2 Mule Monier's .448 week moves him back on top of the Federal Association batting average list Walt Messer is second in the Fed with 42 RBI Ed Bowman showed he was mortal, giving up 7 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. However, he followed that up with a 2 hit shutout of Washington. On the Farm: #94 prospect Del West of Reading (AA) was EA player of the week. The 21-year-old LF was 13-36 for the week raising his season average to .412 TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN The Toronto Wolves are beginning to show signs of life with the calendar turning to June. The club began the month with a 3 game sweep at home against Brooklyn with manager Charlie Reed pulling out all the stops with some unorthodox moves in late innings. Hopefully these moves were a wakeup call to the regulars. Toronto is one of only three teams that have a positive run differential in CA. At +13 it pales in comparison to the Stars and Cougars but could be a harbinger of things to come for the team. Wolves hitters are at least putting the bat to ball - no team has struck out less than the Wolves this season. An improvement in overall defense would be a welcome sight at Dominion Field where the team finally went over .500 this past week. On the injury front. Larry Vestal will be out of the starting line-up until later in the week due to back spasms. There was some thought of another DL stint which would make room for Hank Giordano, this was dismissed, training staff's opinion is that Vestal will be back to full fitness with a few days of rest and therapy. Hard to call a team led by a 10-2 pitcher in Deuce Barrell out of the pennant race in early June but the Cincinnati Cannons, despite winning 13 of their last 19 games, will be hard pressed to get into contention. The start was so bad that at 16 games out and with 7 teams ahead of them, a pennant seems very unlikely. It is early but to even finish with 90 wins this year (and remember the CA pennant winner a year ago won 98) the Cannons would need to go 66-30 (.688) the rest of the way while the Stars would only need to go 52-48 to match them. Cannons brass states that "third place is still a realistic goal but our awful start effectively ended our pennant hopes before the season even hit June." The low point was May 22 when the Cannons were 11-28 (.282). Cleveland Foresters owner Richard Marshall is the latest FABL magnate to sound the alarm about next season. Marshall says "We will be able to get through this year all right, I think. I don't know what next year will be like, so I wouldn't know what to say about it (the possibility of playing next season). I know we will get the fans all right, but it's whether we have enough players and are allowed to continue in spite of rationing that I am uncertain about." FABL has altered it's schedule of Army and Navy Relief Fund benefit games after poor showings at three week-day contests played in the past two weeks for the service funds. The plan now is to provide more advance publicity and schedule the charity contests on weekends with much more notice. Sunday August 23rd will be the date for three of them, the league confirmed, as Cincinnati will host Cleveland, the New York Gothams will entertain St Louis while Boston and Pittsburgh will hook up in a double-header. Except for the initial game in Brooklyn, which raised $60,000, the results have been much less than expected although the big league clubs did little advance marketing. It is hoped next Saturday's Toronto-Chicago contest will draw much better with Pete Papenfus slated to return to Cougars Stadium and pitch for Great Lakes Academy prior to the Wolves-Cougars contest. More isn't necessarily better. Only two pitchers in professional baseball presently lay claiming to having 8 different pitches they could offer up in a game. The two are 29 year old righthander Dick Gentry and 31 year old southpaw Jerry Newman. Neither has been very successful with their variety of offerings. Gentry is in presently in A ball in the Philadelphia Sailors organization and went 7-10 with a 7.03 era in three trials with the New York Gothams. Newman was an 11th round pick of the Chiefs in 1928 and all these years later is still in their system including his present station at AAA Fort Wayne but he has never received the call to the big leagues. AROUND THE LEAGUE Jiggs McGee takes a look around FABL with a quick comment or two on each of the 16 clubs: BOSTON- The Minutemen will be without veteran outfielder Joe Watson for the rest of the month. The 32 year old Watson (.287,1,10) was not playing a lot in Boston but is a key piece in the clubhouse. It actually might be a blessing in disguise as perhaps Bob Donoghue will pinch-hit more often. Donoghue is hitting .286 as a pinch-hitter, not exactly lighting things up, but Watson was 1-for-13 in that role this season and only recently snapped an 0-for-11 start. BROOKLYN- Having Harry Barrell (.275,1,17) nicked up for the next three weeks might hurt the Kings and make them regret the decision to waive Terry Cox a couple of weeks ago. Cox caught on with Cincinnati and has been doing a solid job for the Cannons. Expect Vince D'Alessandro to shift from second to shortstop to fill in for Barrell which means 22 year old (Happy Birthday today) Howard Rivers will get a chance to show what he can do in Brooklyn. Rivers, who was acquired from the Cannons a year ago in the Chuck Adams trade, made his big league debut this season and is hitting .326 in limited playing time for the Kings. CHIEFS- The Chiefs feel confident in their chances as they have stuck around in the Fed race despite playing the fewest home games of any team in either association. Chicago has one more week on the road with stops in Pittsburgh and Washington before they return home, where they are 12-9 on the year, for a 21 game run that will keep them in Chicago right up until the July 6th all-star game. COUGARS- The Cougars have to be kicking themselves after a missed opportunity this weekend. Chicago dropped 3 of 4 games in Cincinnati, with each loss by a 4-3 score thereby missing a chance to gain some ground on New York as the Stars struggled in Philadelphia. Donnie Jones (5-5, 2.94) has pitched much better than his record indicates but has been on the wrong end of a couple of tough decisions lately including yesterday's 4-3 loss in Cincinnati when he went toe to toe with Deuce Barrell and fell just short - losing on a 10th inning sacrifice fly. CINCINNATI- The Cannons are hoping 1940 first overall pick Dick Blaszak finally got himself going with a big week in Class B. The 20 year old broke out of a season long slump with a 12-for-30 start to June that included his first homerun of the season. That raises the Cannons number one prospects batting average over the .200 mark for the first time since the very early days of the Southeastern League season. CLEVELAND- A tough loss for the Cleveland Foresters as the often injured Earl Robinson is hurt again. The offense has struggled but the Foresters pitching has been quite good this season led by Dick Lamb (6-6, 3.07), a 22 year old who is making a bid to be included in rookie of the year discussion. The Cleveland pitching future looks pretty bright with Hiram Steinberg (4-6, 3.22), barely a year removed from rewriting the high school record books, doing all right in Class B and then there is Bill Martino, another highly touted prospect but in the Navy for the duration. I did find it interesting to see Mel Ennis, now 29 years old but caught everyone's attention nearly a decade and a half ago with an incredible 8-0, 0.59 season as a high school freshman in the feeder days, still kicking around. He never duplicated his freshman year at San Antonio High and seems to have spent a lifetime in Class B but is 6-2 with a 1.74 era for Savannah so far this season and I can see him, with his high work ethic, acting as a mentor for Steinberg at the moment. I am surprised he has never pitched above Class B though. DETROIT- Rookie Johnny Witt made his first big league start for Detroit last week. The 24 year old did not pitch badly, but ran into control issues by walking 5 and allowed 3 earned runs in a 4-0 loss to Boston. A 12th round pick out of a West Virginia high school, he was pitching extremely well at AAA Newark (2-0, 0.90) so he got the call to Detroit. After 3 very successful relief outings the Dynamos gave him his first start. OSA sees Witt as a back of the rotation guy so with a few pitchers in Detroit still struggling (Charlie Wheeler, Sergio Gonzales) or injured (Frank Crawford, Jack Richardson) we may see more of Witt. Speaking of Richardson the Dynamos have confirmed his injury suffered last month is career ending. The 34 year old began his career in St Louis before joining Detroit in 1939 and he led the Fed in saves that year. All told he was 28-38 with 50 saves in 261 career FABL appearances. Almost exclusively a reliever as a pro, Richardson threw a no-hitter for Cleveland High School back in the old feeder league days. MONTREAL- Heady space for the Saints who are 28-28 and looking to finish with a .500 or better record for the first time since 1930. They finished 3rd that season and have only been in the first division one other time in the past dozen years. A 19-13 record in May and going 12-7 in one run game helps explain the position. And all this is happening while 1B Red Bond and CF Bill Greene are still hitting in the .230s range, which is well under expectations. If those two can get going, who knows, perhaps the Saints might even find themselves in contention when the season begins to wind down. Montreal Star columnist Marc T. McNeil points out that, as in previous year, the offense still posting good numbers, but the pitching squad needs to do better and the defense still needs much improvement as the Saints sit last in Defense efficiency and Zone rating. There is good news on the pitching front from the Century League in Minneapolis where the trio of prospects Wally Reif (5-1, 2.91), Pat Weakley (4-2, 4.19) and Jimmy Mayse (4-1, 2.72) are going to create a log jam in September if they are called up. So far the three of them are doing everything necessary to force the Saints brain trust to promote them before the end of the year. NY STARS- The Stars did snap their three game losing streak Tuesday in Cleveland with a 14-4 victory but they finished the week with 3 losses in their four game set in Philadelphia and that has management getting a little worried about the possibility of a second half fade ruining an incredible start to the season as it did last year. No fading out of Dave Trowbridge as the 43 year old continues to defy the odds. His batting average is up to .324 on the year and he is on a pace for 20 homers, a number he has only reached once before and that was nearly a decade and a half ago. He is approaching 2,700 career hits so just imagine the numbers he could have put up if he was an everyday player at age 23 or 24 instead of having to wait until he was 29 for his first full season of action. NY GOTHAMS- Some New York reporters are calling on the Gothams to send young Ed Bowman out on the mound every 4th day. Bowman did stumble his last start but at 7-2, 3.50 is having quite a rookie year. With Rusty Petrick (6-5, 3.30) and Harry Carter (6-6, 2.78) both pitching well, John Brinker of the New York Mirror says "The Gothams would be extremely scary if Goulding would just perform to his ability. That guy is a stud but is pitching like a bum." However, Percy Sutherland notes that Goulding (4-8, 5.68) should be getting better results but he doesn't. And with 1,500 career innings of under-performance, notes maybe Goulding "is who he thinks he is." KEYSTONES- My arm is just fine thank you. Bobby Barrell with a big statement to Selective Service as a week after he was declared 4-f due to that gunshot wound so many years ago, the Georgia Jolter, earned Fed player of the week honours with 3 homers and 9 rbi's while going 13-for-24. Barrell leads the majors with 13 homers on the season while batting .335 and now sits at 299 homers after his three taters this week. Keystones fans are grateful for the likelihood of Barrell playing the full season before going off to join the boys "over there". The Keystones' pitching staff is the stingiest in the Fed--allowing just 3.6 runs/game. However, the offense--even with The Georgia Jolter--comes in at dead last, scoring just 3.5 runs/game. SAILORS- Like Jekyll and Hyde as the Sailors stumble to a 1-7 record against Cleveland and Cincinnati, a pair of bottom feeders, in the past couple of weeks only to rebound with a 4-2 showing last week against the top two clubs including a 3-1 weekend against the front-running New York Stars. The big weekend vs New York came at a price as both Marion Boismenu (.320,2,14) an Hal Carter (.317,0,13) were injured. Both are expected to miss no more than 3 weeks. Karl Wallace is turning things around in Philadelphia. Picked up on waivers after a 3-8 season a year ago saw Montreal cut ties with him, the 28 year old righthander is pitching the best ball of his career with a 6-3 mark and a 2.19 era that has Sailors fans thinking he should participate in the first all-star game of his career next month. PITTSBURGH- You can't call the Miners a sleeper as they are always in the mix but they are just lurking in the weeds right now, 3.5 games back after a slow start to the season. I think they are the team to beat in the Fed now, as long as they stay healthy. The offense is very deep and vets Karl Johnson (6-3, 3.09) and Charlie Stedman (8-4, 3.12) are going strong. Lefty Allen (6-6, 3.05) has been getting very little run support so expect that to balance out as we go forward. ST LOUIS- If only the Pioneers could win at home. They are 19-13 on the road but just 9-17 at Pioneers Field. 5 straight losses in Washington and Pittsburgh to start the week dropped them below .500 but they rebounded with a doubleheader sweep in Pittsburgh yesterday. 25 year old Danny Hern (9-2, 2.80) is, at least at the moment, the favourite to start next month's All-Star game in Pittsburgh. He had a rough go of things against Washington early in the week but rebounded nicely with a win in Pittsburgh yesterday. Unfortunately I can't help but feel the bubble will burst on the Pioneers. The pitching behind Hern is suspect and while they are second in the Fed in runs scored, they seem to be getting a lot of breaks on that front as the Pioneers are scoring despite ranking last in the Fed in batting average, OPS, wOBA, homeruns and stolen bases and just 6th in on-base percentage. TORONTO- Wolves were hoping to sneak Levi Redding through waivers but Cincinnati grabbed the 31 year old Chicago native, who has a return home of sorts as Redding played his college ball in Columbus at Central Ohio before being drafted by the Cleveland Foresters. He is a career .279 hitter in 629 FABL games, all with the Wolves. WASHINGTON- Sig Stofer (.283,11,44) had a huge week for the Eagles, hitting .370 with 2 homers and 11 rbi's. He now leads the Fed with 44 rbi's while smacking 11 homers and hitting .283. The football southsayers are whispering that Annapolis Maritime and Rome State will be the best in the Nation next fall, what with none of their players getting drafted. The Navigators were already that last season, unbeaten and some say should have been national champion. Rome State, the Georgia based military academy, was a more pedestrian 3-3-3 a year ago Word is the head football coach at Opelika State, himself a former marine, has 19 members of his squad signed up for class 3 of the Marine Corps Reserve - but they'll remain eligible for varsity play until they graduate. The Birmingham district recruiting office, announcing the enlistments, noted the players would start training for commissions at the end of their scholastic work. Count Miami State as another school using officer training to keep their football team intact. 21 of the Gulls players off of their 9-1 team a year ago have enlisted and been accepted for officer training under a plan which permits them to complete their college educations before beginning active duty. Service Department: Ensign Charley McGruder helped lead Eastern Kansas to a surprising run to the semi-finals of the AIAA basketball championship tournament a few years back. The other day he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking a Jap submarine and performing other feats during the raids on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Recently Charley wrote his parents: "Here is where my basketball with the Warriors comes in handy - you have to think and act in motion in this game out here." A fast-breaking attack helps too. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 6/07/1942 Cologne -blasted by nearly 7 million pounds of bombs- is still burning and said to be in ruins after United States pilots flying with the R.A.F. participated in a devastating 90 minute assault on Germany's Rhineland city. Two nights later a raid of similar intensity was launched on Essen. General Rommel escaped but his second in command was captured as the result of a trap sprung in the Libyan desert by British tank columns. Damage is light with few casualties after Japanese raiders - 4 bombers and about 15 fighters- dumped explosives on the Alaskan town of Dutch Harbor. Secretary of War Stimson again warns that Alaska, and the rest of the west coast, need to be prepared for the possibility of more attacks. Much like the east coast of the United States with Nazi subs, Australians are facing increased Japanese attacks on merchant shipping traffic along it's north coast. A great Naval battle off of Midway Island saw the Pacific Fleet score a large victory over Japanese forces, sinking 3 Japanese aircraft carriers with all of their planes and damaging "11 or 12" other warships. The Japanese are focusing a drive through central China with a goal to cut it off from the southern portion of the country. Following reports the Japanese have used poison gas in China, President Roosevelt warned the United States would retaliate in kind if the Japanese persist in it's use. Roosevelt has asked Congress to declare war on three Axis satellites: Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Last edited by Tiger Fan; 05-17-2022 at 11:22 AM.