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

Jiggs McGee · 06-01-2022, 11:40 AM

AUGUST 17, 1942

MAJOR WEEK FOR MINERS

Mahlon Who? Despite playing without their injured star first baseman the Pittsburgh Miners reeled off 8 straight victories last week, including 5 over the Philadelphia Keystones, and at 4 1/2 games the Miners have opened up the widest margin the Federal Association has seen between first and second place all season. When Mahlon Strong suffered his back injury last week, one that will sideline him another month, many thought the Miners would be in trouble having to rely on AAA callup Jocko Goodrum to fill the void. Goodrum (.276,0,4) had a decent first week as a big leaguer but it was the Pittsburgh veterans that picked up the slack with Les Tucker, Pablo Reyes and George Cleaves coming up big along with a fine week from young Luke Berry. Pitching was also on point for Pittsburgh as Charlie Stedman (16-8, 3.01) won both his starts without allowing an earned run, George Phillips (13-9, 3.69) won a pair of games and Lefty Allen (13-7, 2.85) had one of his best outings of the season with a complete game 2-0 shutout of the Keystones on Friday. For Stedman, the 9-0 shutout of Philadelphia yesterday was the 250th victory of his career, tying Stedman with Denny wren for 24th all-time in wins.

The New York Gothams are now second after a 4-2 week while the Keystones, despite sweeping Boston, have dropped to third thanks to 5 straight losses to Pittsburgh. The fourth place Minutemen had a rough week, losing a pair of extra innings games among their 3 losses in Philadelphia but recovered somewhat on the weekend by taking two of three from Washington. Like Pittsburgh, Boston is dealing with a key injury as third baseman Art Spencer will be sidelined until early September and minor leaguer Bud Gustafson (.209,1,7) is forced to take over.

The Chicago Cougars did what they needed to do and swept the New York Stars in a two-game set at Cougars Park, cutting into the Stars big lead in the Continental Association slightly, but at 13 and a half games it would take a miracle for Chicago to catch New York.

TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN

Toronto continues its climb back towards respectability, a long slow climb. The hitting continues to improve under new leadership. The injury to Mike Rollinson sent shockwaves through the organization. Pat Reed will exchange his Nickels uniform for Wolves' blue with corresponding moves down to Tuscaloosa. Sixth place still does not seem the proper place for one of only three teams with a positive run differential (+19) in the CA. Fans have to look to further than the Wolves league worst 25 losses in games decided to by one-run.

The presence of Barrell II is overshadowing an extraordinary season by George Garrison who ranks second in every major pitching category in the league. The tandem of Hancock and Garrison give Wolves fans hope for the future.

Although most teams in the system are well below .500 there are some individuals that are making a name for themselves, the overriding question is "How many will trade their gloves for guns before 1943?"

Sad news out of Chicago, where Chiefs owner W. Washington Whitney has passed away. The son of FABL founder William Whitney, Wash, as we was know, took over from his father in 1905. Wash's son Lee Whitney will take over ownership of the franchise that has been run by his family since 1876.
Bud Jameson (.272,6,42) is having a solid season in New York prompting the Gothams to offer the 38 year old a 2-year contract extension. Jameson was the very first selection of the current Gothams management team when the human GM era began with the 1925 draft.
Big week for Brooklyn's Al Wheeler (.257,18,70). He took over the CA homer lead with 4 last week including hitting one in 3 successive games against the Montreal Saints.
Veteran Brooklyn catcher Fred Barrell is just 10 games away from passing Mike Taylor and moving into third place all-time in games played by a catcher. Barrell is at 1,654. T.R. Goins, with 2,025, is number one. Taylor is still active but serving as a backup with the Cougars. Interesting note is that Taylor and Barrell were traded for each other back in 1932.
While on the topic of catchers, Percy Sutherland points out that 3 of the top hitting catchers of all-time are playing at the moment (and two of them are in the batting race in the Fed).
A belated happy birthday to Dave Trowbridge who celebrated his 44th on August 9 with a 3-hit game that included a homerun. Amazing he is still so productive at that age .270,13,58 this season
Moxie Pidgeon demanded the Cannons play him or trade him. Cincinnati gave him a shot last week and the veteran outfielder responded by going 1-for-27 and will now take a seat at the end of the bench for the rest of the season. The 35 year old Pidgeon (.199,3,17) is having by far the worst season of his career.
A tough blow for Toronto as the Wolves impressive rookie second baseman Mike Rollinson (.297,3,43) is done for the year after breaking his leg in a game on the weekend.

1943 DRAFT PREVIEW - PART FOUR: MOCK FIRST ROUND

In the three previous weeks we took a look at some of the top players available for the 1943 FABL player draft. This week we put together a mock first round. It is important to note this is only a current ranking of players based primarily on OSA reports but also factoring in their stats. The list will likely change substantially in January when the first three rounds of the draft take place as this list does not take into account the players who will make their debut as high school seniors or college juniors. As of right now here are the top sixteen in the minds of TWIFB with an assist to the OSA.

Code:

MOCK FIRST ROUND FOR 1943 DRAFT
 #  NAME		POS AGE  SCHOOL			HOMETOWN
 1 Homer Mills		SS  20  Wesson College	  	East Chicago, IL
 2 Jim Adams Jr.   	SS  20  St Ignatius		Philadelphia, PA
 3 Bill Gifford		3B  17  San Diego (CA) HS	San Diego, CA
 4 Jim Carter		RHP 20  Ellery College		Quincy, MA
 5 Bob Newcomer		C   20  Ceasar Rodney		Auburn, ME
 6 Hoppy Johnson 	RHP 20  Charleston Tech		Birmingham, AL
 7 Sid Kling		OF  17  McKinley HS, Buffalo    Buffalo, NY
 8 Ed Haynes Jr.	C   17  Austin (TX) HS		Austin, TX
 9 Roy Baker		RHP 16  Key West (FL) HS	Miami, FL
10 Wally Boyer		CF  17  Hokendauque (PA) HS     New York, NY
11 Walt Harris		SS  21  Georgia Baptist		Los Angeles, CA
12 Al Hill		3B  17  Allderdice HS, Pittsb.  Pittsburgh, PA
13 Frankie Gonnella	3B  20  Canton State		Newark, NJ
14 Jim Waters		OF  20  Maryland State		Brooklyn, NY
15 Frank Wood		C   17  Bell (CA) HS		Los Angeles, CA
16 Jimmy Snyder		SS  20  Central Illinois Univ.  St. Paul, MN

The St Louis Ramblers hope that Bob Holt can turn their fortunes around. The All-American out of Eastern State was selected first overall by the Ramblers in the AFA draft and, unlike many other draft picks around the league, he has not joined the military and is expected to start the season for St Louis. The Ramblers were awful last season, posting a 1-9-1 but did finish on a positive note with a tie against Boston before a season ending win over Washington. Holt has impressed the Ramblers coaching staff in early workouts.
Lt. Comdr. John Brainard of the United States Navy spent a one-day furlough this week watching the Brooklyn Football Kings romp through their first drill of the preseason. The former Kings coach, who recently enlisted, also would have learned that out of the 45 players the Kings have in camp, 21 of them notified the club they may be called for service before the season comes to a conclusion.
With one or two exceptions, college grid rules will apply when the All-Army team clashes with the Washington Wasps later this month in Los Angeles. The main professional rule will be that the goal posts will be on the goal line, instead of the 10 yards back, a la college style.
Upon hearing that news Nixson Denton of the Cincinnati Times-Star wrote in his column: "College rules are to apply in the All-Army and Washington Wasps clash. That means, apparently, that everybody will get paid."
With football season about to get underway, the wag on the corner has suggested that the fan who once took along a quart of alcoholic beverage when he went to a game in his neighbor's car bring him along a quart of gasoline instead this fall.
Henry Hudson quarterback Charley Morrison has another busy year ahead of him. The 20 year old is considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in the nation but he doesn't just toss the pigskin around as he is pretty good throwing the old horsehide too. He went 4-7 for the Explorers baseball team last season and might just be drafted next summer by a FABL club although his future as a professional athlete likely involves the gridiron.
Colleges are not worried much about moving their basketball teams this winter, but a lot of athletic directors are keeping their fingers crossed about moving big football squads around the country. All the big hoops events at New York's Bigsby Gardens will go on as scheduled including the Tournament of Champions in early November, however CC Los Angeles has decided not to attend and will instead compete in an early tournament on the west coast. CCLA and Rainier College were originally invited to join Detroit City College and Garden State but both declined and will be replaced by a pair of Florida schools in Miami State and Western Florida.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 8/16/1942

General Hediki Tojo, the War Lord Premier of Japan, is striving to establish himself as undisputed dictator over the Japanese people and has made Emperor Hitohito a virtual prisoner in the Imperial Palace.
U.S. forces have landed on the Solomon Islands, location of key Japanese bases. By weeks end the Allied troops had captured two bases but Japan claims to have sunk 25 Allied warships and shot down 58 Allied planes.
Rioters in India jeered American Soldiers as the dispute with the Allies continues while the Japanese army is perched on their doorstep. China has offered to mediate talks between India and Britain.
Another large contingent of US troops landed at a British port to bolster forces preparing for the day the second front invasion starts.
The Nazis have launched a new drive on Stalingrad.
At President Roosevelt's order the Navy was forced to intervene to end wildcat strikes at the General Cable Corporation plant in New Jersey, which saw over 1,000 workers walk off the job early in the week. It is producing wire and cable for the armed forces.

06-01-2022, 11:40 AM	#439
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	August 17, 1942 AUGUST 17, 1942 MAJOR WEEK FOR MINERS Mahlon Who? Despite playing without their injured star first baseman the Pittsburgh Miners reeled off 8 straight victories last week, including 5 over the Philadelphia Keystones, and at 4 1/2 games the Miners have opened up the widest margin the Federal Association has seen between first and second place all season. When Mahlon Strong suffered his back injury last week, one that will sideline him another month, many thought the Miners would be in trouble having to rely on AAA callup Jocko Goodrum to fill the void. Goodrum (.276,0,4) had a decent first week as a big leaguer but it was the Pittsburgh veterans that picked up the slack with Les Tucker, Pablo Reyes and George Cleaves coming up big along with a fine week from young Luke Berry. Pitching was also on point for Pittsburgh as Charlie Stedman (16-8, 3.01) won both his starts without allowing an earned run, George Phillips (13-9, 3.69) won a pair of games and Lefty Allen (13-7, 2.85) had one of his best outings of the season with a complete game 2-0 shutout of the Keystones on Friday. For Stedman, the 9-0 shutout of Philadelphia yesterday was the 250th victory of his career, tying Stedman with Denny wren for 24th all-time in wins. The New York Gothams are now second after a 4-2 week while the Keystones, despite sweeping Boston, have dropped to third thanks to 5 straight losses to Pittsburgh. The fourth place Minutemen had a rough week, losing a pair of extra innings games among their 3 losses in Philadelphia but recovered somewhat on the weekend by taking two of three from Washington. Like Pittsburgh, Boston is dealing with a key injury as third baseman Art Spencer will be sidelined until early September and minor leaguer Bud Gustafson (.209,1,7) is forced to take over. The Chicago Cougars did what they needed to do and swept the New York Stars in a two-game set at Cougars Park, cutting into the Stars big lead in the Continental Association slightly, but at 13 and a half games it would take a miracle for Chicago to catch New York. TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN Toronto continues its climb back towards respectability, a long slow climb. The hitting continues to improve under new leadership. The injury to Mike Rollinson sent shockwaves through the organization. Pat Reed will exchange his Nickels uniform for Wolves' blue with corresponding moves down to Tuscaloosa. Sixth place still does not seem the proper place for one of only three teams with a positive run differential (+19) in the CA. Fans have to look to further than the Wolves league worst 25 losses in games decided to by one-run. The presence of Barrell II is overshadowing an extraordinary season by George Garrison who ranks second in every major pitching category in the league. The tandem of Hancock and Garrison give Wolves fans hope for the future. Although most teams in the system are well below .500 there are some individuals that are making a name for themselves, the overriding question is "How many will trade their gloves for guns before 1943?" Sad news out of Chicago, where Chiefs owner W. Washington Whitney has passed away. The son of FABL founder William Whitney, Wash, as we was know, took over from his father in 1905. Wash's son Lee Whitney will take over ownership of the franchise that has been run by his family since 1876. Bud Jameson (.272,6,42) is having a solid season in New York prompting the Gothams to offer the 38 year old a 2-year contract extension. Jameson was the very first selection of the current Gothams management team when the human GM era began with the 1925 draft. Big week for Brooklyn's Al Wheeler (.257,18,70). He took over the CA homer lead with 4 last week including hitting one in 3 successive games against the Montreal Saints. Veteran Brooklyn catcher Fred Barrell is just 10 games away from passing Mike Taylor and moving into third place all-time in games played by a catcher. Barrell is at 1,654. T.R. Goins, with 2,025, is number one. Taylor is still active but serving as a backup with the Cougars. Interesting note is that Taylor and Barrell were traded for each other back in 1932. While on the topic of catchers, Percy Sutherland points out that 3 of the top hitting catchers of all-time are playing at the moment (and two of them are in the batting race in the Fed). A belated happy birthday to Dave Trowbridge who celebrated his 44th on August 9 with a 3-hit game that included a homerun. Amazing he is still so productive at that age .270,13,58 this season Moxie Pidgeon demanded the Cannons play him or trade him. Cincinnati gave him a shot last week and the veteran outfielder responded by going 1-for-27 and will now take a seat at the end of the bench for the rest of the season. The 35 year old Pidgeon (.199,3,17) is having by far the worst season of his career. A tough blow for Toronto as the Wolves impressive rookie second baseman Mike Rollinson (.297,3,43) is done for the year after breaking his leg in a game on the weekend. 1943 DRAFT PREVIEW - PART FOUR: MOCK FIRST ROUND In the three previous weeks we took a look at some of the top players available for the 1943 FABL player draft. This week we put together a mock first round. It is important to note this is only a current ranking of players based primarily on OSA reports but also factoring in their stats. The list will likely change substantially in January when the first three rounds of the draft take place as this list does not take into account the players who will make their debut as high school seniors or college juniors. As of right now here are the top sixteen in the minds of TWIFB with an assist to the OSA. Code: MOCK FIRST ROUND FOR 1943 DRAFT # NAME POS AGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN 1 Homer Mills SS 20 Wesson College East Chicago, IL 2 Jim Adams Jr. SS 20 St Ignatius Philadelphia, PA 3 Bill Gifford 3B 17 San Diego (CA) HS San Diego, CA 4 Jim Carter RHP 20 Ellery College Quincy, MA 5 Bob Newcomer C 20 Ceasar Rodney Auburn, ME 6 Hoppy Johnson RHP 20 Charleston Tech Birmingham, AL 7 Sid Kling OF 17 McKinley HS, Buffalo Buffalo, NY 8 Ed Haynes Jr. C 17 Austin (TX) HS Austin, TX 9 Roy Baker RHP 16 Key West (FL) HS Miami, FL 10 Wally Boyer CF 17 Hokendauque (PA) HS New York, NY 11 Walt Harris SS 21 Georgia Baptist Los Angeles, CA 12 Al Hill 3B 17 Allderdice HS, Pittsb. Pittsburgh, PA 13 Frankie Gonnella 3B 20 Canton State Newark, NJ 14 Jim Waters OF 20 Maryland State Brooklyn, NY 15 Frank Wood C 17 Bell (CA) HS Los Angeles, CA 16 Jimmy Snyder SS 20 Central Illinois Univ. St. Paul, MN The St Louis Ramblers hope that Bob Holt can turn their fortunes around. The All-American out of Eastern State was selected first overall by the Ramblers in the AFA draft and, unlike many other draft picks around the league, he has not joined the military and is expected to start the season for St Louis. The Ramblers were awful last season, posting a 1-9-1 but did finish on a positive note with a tie against Boston before a season ending win over Washington. Holt has impressed the Ramblers coaching staff in early workouts. Lt. Comdr. John Brainard of the United States Navy spent a one-day furlough this week watching the Brooklyn Football Kings romp through their first drill of the preseason. The former Kings coach, who recently enlisted, also would have learned that out of the 45 players the Kings have in camp, 21 of them notified the club they may be called for service before the season comes to a conclusion. With one or two exceptions, college grid rules will apply when the All-Army team clashes with the Washington Wasps later this month in Los Angeles. The main professional rule will be that the goal posts will be on the goal line, instead of the 10 yards back, a la college style. Upon hearing that news Nixson Denton of the Cincinnati Times-Star wrote in his column: "College rules are to apply in the All-Army and Washington Wasps clash. That means, apparently, that everybody will get paid." With football season about to get underway, the wag on the corner has suggested that the fan who once took along a quart of alcoholic beverage when he went to a game in his neighbor's car bring him along a quart of gasoline instead this fall. Henry Hudson quarterback Charley Morrison has another busy year ahead of him. The 20 year old is considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in the nation but he doesn't just toss the pigskin around as he is pretty good throwing the old horsehide too. He went 4-7 for the Explorers baseball team last season and might just be drafted next summer by a FABL club although his future as a professional athlete likely involves the gridiron. Colleges are not worried much about moving their basketball teams this winter, but a lot of athletic directors are keeping their fingers crossed about moving big football squads around the country. All the big hoops events at New York's Bigsby Gardens will go on as scheduled including the Tournament of Champions in early November, however CC Los Angeles has decided not to attend and will instead compete in an early tournament on the west coast. CCLA and Rainier College were originally invited to join Detroit City College and Garden State but both declined and will be replaced by a pair of Florida schools in Miami State and Western Florida. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 8/16/1942 General Hediki Tojo, the War Lord Premier of Japan, is striving to establish himself as undisputed dictator over the Japanese people and has made Emperor Hitohito a virtual prisoner in the Imperial Palace. U.S. forces have landed on the Solomon Islands, location of key Japanese bases. By weeks end the Allied troops had captured two bases but Japan claims to have sunk 25 Allied warships and shot down 58 Allied planes. Rioters in India jeered American Soldiers as the dispute with the Allies continues while the Japanese army is perched on their doorstep. China has offered to mediate talks between India and Britain. Another large contingent of US troops landed at a British port to bolster forces preparing for the day the second front invasion starts. The Nazis have launched a new drive on Stalingrad. At President Roosevelt's order the Navy was forced to intervene to end wildcat strikes at the General Cable Corporation plant in New Jersey, which saw over 1,000 workers walk off the job early in the week. It is producing wire and cable for the armed forces. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 06-01-2022 at 11:43 AM.