MARCH 29, 1943
BASEBALL IS BACK! SPRING GAMES UNDERWAY
It is not Florida and the long underwear needed to be broken out for a couple of ballgames but no one involved with baseball was complaining as spring training is officially underway, and that is something that for most of the winter was feared might not happen. The spring camps are now in the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia, as teams train at outdated minor league parks or college sites in an effort to cut back on some of the travel that trips to Florida would have necessitated.
Many of the familiar stars are not here either, unless they happen to pop in for a day because they are stationed at a nearby Army or Navy base, and in their place are many unknown faces, raw rookies who might now get a big league opportunity they likely would never have seen had all been right in the world, or grizzled vets, those who have toiled in some obscure minor league outpost the past few years but now, with the manpower shortage, are suddenly deemed valuable again by the big league magnates. Yes, much has changed this spring but if you squint your eyes just a little bit when you look it is still spring baseball. And that can only mean the real thing is less than a month away. And after all of the turmoil that marred the winter, that is something we can all be thankful for, and we will willingly endure a little chilly weather instead of working on our Florida tans.
Fayetteville, NC- It is not quite their usual stop in Sanford, Florida and to be honest the weather in North Carolina has almost felt like they were training at Parc Cartier on a couple of the days but the Montreal Saints are finally playing baseball again in 1943. One quick glance at the facilities here at Fayetteville Tech, the junior college facility that the 42 hopefuls will call home for the next three weeks, and you would certainly never mistake it for Parc Cartier, or their traditional spring haunts in Sanford, Fl., but with the transportation crack down this was as far south as the Saints were allowed to venture this year in hopes of assembling a team that can figuratively travel 'north' in the Continental Standings once they head literally head north to open the season.
The first week of camp, despite the occasional bit of frost, was still warm with excitement that the sport was back, after so much worry over this most unusual of off-seasons. All eyes were immediately focused on the right arms of Pat Weakley and Wally Reif, two of the much heralded large group of Saints prospects. Each had a good outing in their spring debuts even if both games turn into losses after each youngster was pulled out after few innings.
On the batting side, a big battle is going on in the infield between SS Hank Grant, 2B Bob Jennings, 1B/2B John Cooper, 2B Ted Brown and 1B Pete Frisbie as they all compete to be among the 24 chosen to open the season with the big club. After week #1, Jennings has been a disaster on the batting side, but he has been doing extra work with batting coach Bernie Gurrola to find his swing back for week #2. Rule 5 draft 1B Frisbie had a bad week at the plate as well, meaning if he does not find back his stuff, veteran Vic Crawford will get the starting job at first and Frisbie will be returned to the Philadelphia Sailors, his former team.
The third base battle between Spud Bent and Mack Burns, who split the role a year ago, needs to have someone step up. Both struggled in the opening week and need to find their groove at the bat. With Crawford likely moving back to first base to replace Red Bond, who left for the war, there is also a battle for the job in right field between Art McMahon -another rule 5 pickup- and a pair of players who spent most of last season in AAA Minneapolis in Milt Bennett and Tony Hendricks. So far McMahon is for now in the lead for the starting spot. The reserve OF position should be decided between Bennett, Hendricks and Bob Kaye. Before training camp, it sounds like Kaye was out of the picture because of last season stats line, but he made some extra training during winter to get a marvelous week #1 and having now the training staff scratching their heads.
Just one player was given his walking papers after the opening week of camp. That would 28 year old reliever Bill Stewart, who with an option remaining and a logjam on the mound has been reassigned to AAA Minneapolis. He made 5 relief appearances for the Saints last year and has spent each of the last 3 seasons shuffling between the the Saints and the Lumberjacks. That will leave 41 men in camp to fight it out for the 24 available jobs.
The St Louis Pioneers tend to sit their regulars the first two weeks of spring to give other guys a chance to play. It has the benefit of allowing manager Hugh Luckey a chance to weed out some of the obvious guys that just are not ready to make the trip north. This year all three of the Pioneers rule 5 picks will make it to the second week of camp and the is unusual.
Second baseman Les Draper, taken from the Keystones organization, has had the best camp of the three so far, hitting .455 with five walks. Catcher Joe Robins, from the Brooklyn Kings system, is hitting .364 and has the inside track to earn the job as Heinie Zimmer's back-up behind the plate. Floyd Frost, a 25 year old lefthander taken from the Pittsburgh Miners in the rule five, gave up just two runs in his four innings on the mound.
The club made some roster moves today as pitchers Johnny Kretzshmar and Herb Armstrong, along with catcher Connie Seekford, infielder Bob Wheeler, and outfielder Walter McClure have all been sent to minor league camp after embarrassing themselves in big league camp. That leaves the Pioneers with 38 players remaining in the big league camp, which is being held at the home of their class B Southeastern League affiliate Charlotte Bluebirds.
- One of the more interesting situations to watch this spring is in New York where the defending champion Gothams try to determine if Bill Freeman and Lee Miller can replace the departed double-play duo of Roosevelt Brewer and Mule Monier. It's a short sample with just one week of spring but results are mixed in the early going. Freeman, a 26 year old who has seen action as a backup for the Gothams the past 4 seasons, had a nice start going 3-for-8 but shortstop Miller really struggled. The 27 year old, who had a brief trial with the Gothams last season, went 0-for-12 at the plate while making 3 errors in the field.
- Moxie Pidgeon homered last week, something the 35 year old only did once after June 20th last season, as he hopes to show the Cincinnati Cannons he still has something left in the tank. Pidgeon has minor league options left but is likely to be unwilling to accept a demotion, having not played in the minors since 1928 and has hinted he might just enlist if things don't work out in Cincinnati. Pidgeon has 290 career homeruns, fifth most all-time, but hit just 4 last season while batting only .196.
- Cleveland lost veteran reliever Frank Phillips for much of the season after he hurt his shoulder pitching against Brooklyn yesterday. The 35 year old was pretty effective out of the pen for the Foresters last season, saving 11 games while posting a 5-8 mark with a 3.20 era. Word is Phillips will be sidelined until sometime in August.
- Jimmy Long, who is being counted on heavily as a part of the Dynamos rotation this season, had a nice spring debut. The 24 year old rookie went 4 innings against the Keystones, allowing just 2 hits and 1 run. Detroit actually got a really strong week out of their pitching, which was their big weakness a year ago. Only once in their 6 games last week did the Dynamos surrender more than a single run. That was actually the game Long started as they fell 6-0 to the Keystones that afternoon.
- Two-way threat Juan Pomales had a big week at the plate for Toronto, batting .562 (9-for-16) while also having an acceptable outing as a pitcher. Pomales went 14-13 on the mound last season for the Wolves while batting .266 and started 11 games in center field. The Wolves are still debating whether Pomales should remain in the rotation or become their everyday centerfielder now that Tom Frederick is the Army air corps.
AFA MAY SHRINK IN SIZE
The American Football Association club magnates are set to meet in Chicago a little over a week from now with the main order of business being to conducted their college player draft. However, there is some talk that the league will shrink to eight teams next fall, and even possibly six. Always the optimist, AFA President Jack Kristich says he expects all 10 teams to return next season but does concede it is a time of great unpredictability. Krisitch is sure the league can survive player shortages and transportation issues but if some of the magnates decline to put a team on the field, mapping out the path of the 1943 season will be complicated further.
What, for instance, will happen to those teams which might asked to be excused until normal times come again? It is a league rule that any team remaining out of the race automatically forfeits it's franchise. But it is hardly possible that the league will adhere to this rule in this emergency. Rather, it is believed that the clubs will vote to freeze the franchises of any teams which can't see their way clear to operate until the war is over.
Even if they make this gesture, what happens to the player draft? The withdrawing teams might insist that they be allowed to select their annual quota of 20 graduating college seniors. The active organizations might be just as insistent that the inactive ones be excluded.
*** CINCINNATI SEEKING FRANCHISE ***
If the league shrinks to six teams it, for once, will be able to compose a representative schedule. This would make it possible for each eleven to meet the others, both at home and abroad, for 10 games in all.
Cleveland leads the list of doubtful teams. But there is a rumour that Cincinnati is out for the Cleveland franchise and wants to operate next season with the Tice family, owners of baseball's Cincinnati Cannons, believed behind the bid. The St Louis Ramblers are also said to be pessimistic about the whole thing, too. Right now they are believed to have no more than a dozen players on their roster. It is also believed that Philadelphia is not too keen about continuing either and Pittsburgh may be wavering in it's decision to carry on.
The stalwarts of the league- The Chicago Wildcats, the Detroit Maroons, the New York Stars, the Brooklyn Kings and Washington Wasps - exhibit no signs of nervousness and the defending champion Boston Americans feel they are in good shape to continue as well. Those clubs will be aligned solidly behind Kristich in his efforts to maintain a solid front.
*** HELPED RAISE $680,000 FOR SERVICES ***
Kristich will be able to give the assembled club owners and coaches an impressive report on the league's contributions last season to war charities. The total amount raised was $680,384.07. What the league will do in this particular next season is dependent upon the Army's football program. Last year the Army's all-star western and all-star eastern teams each played four war charity games with league teams. This competition brought in about half of the total funds raised last season but it is not known whether the Army will follow the same plan again for football.
SEMI-FINALS SET FOR NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HOOPS TOURNEY
The 32 schools invited to participate in this years edition of the annual AIAA college basketball tournament have been whittled down to just four as the field is set for Saturday's National Semi-Finals. Surprisingly none of the top seeds survived but defending champion Liberty College is back for the championship weekend.
The Bells emerged from the Eastern Section after narrowly winning a 44-42 decision over Carolina Poly yesterday. Junior Charles Ashley was the hero of the day for the Philadelphia school, leading both teams with 14 points including a pair of buckets in the final minute that secured the win. Earlier Liberty College had knocked off Minnesota Tech 54-37 while the Cardinals stopped Annapolis Maritime 50-45.
In the Midwest Section Rainier College won a laugher over Central Ohio, grounding the Aviators by a 57-37 count in a game that saw junior Gary Harrison score 18 for the winners. The Majestics had a similar easy time two days earlier when they downed another Great Lakes Alliance school in St Ignatius by a 55-39 margin. Central Ohio reached the quarterfinals with a 41-38 win over CC Los Angeles, a school that was one of the preseason favourites to win the championship but after a fast start to the year, the Coyotes cooled considerably down the stretch.
Out west the second round gave us the biggest upset of the tournament as 4th seeded Whitney College hung on to knock off the number one team in the nation, Coastal California 48-47. Morgan Melcher, the Dolphins talented sophomore guard, had 21 points in the game but he missed a last second shot attempt that would have allowed Coastal California to advance. St Magnus beat Alabama Baptist 53-45 in the other round two matchup in the West Section, setting up an all GLA section final. Whitney College battled hard but came up just short as the Vikings, who had never won a tournament game in school history prior to this year, reached the National semi-finals with a 53-47 win over the Engineers.
The most dramatic game of the tournament came from the South Region as Lane State outlasted Detroit City College 62-61 in double overtime on Thursday. The Emeralds rode the two pronged attack of forwards Jimmy Messinger (18 points) and Aubrey Gibbs (15 points) to victory over a game but overmatched Detroit City College squad. Center Jack Kurtz led the way with 18 points and had really stepped up his game since leading score Roman Sollars left for the Navy but one can't help but think the result would have been much different had Sollars been in the lineup.
The other second round match-up in the South was a very competitive game as well with Western Iowa, behind 15 points from Gerald Carter and 8 from freshman Joe Hampton, trimmed Chesapeake State 35-33. The section final saw Carter, a junior guard who averaged nearly 15 points a game during the season, score 17 points to almost singlehandedly beat Lane State 46-39 and send the Canaries back to the National semi-finals for the second time in four years. Western Iowa came up on the short-end of the score in the championship against Garden State in 1939 but will get another chance to win their first ever AIAA title next week.
NATIONAL SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW
The National semi-finals will be held at the Bigsby Gardens in New York on Saturday with the two winners meeting in Monday's championship contest. It marks the first ever appearance in the semi-finals for the two Great Lakes Alliance schools that will meet in the opening game. The schools played just once during the regular season with St Magnus winning on the road, beating Western Iowa 56-42. St Magnus comes into the game with a 21-8 record, while Western Iowa is 20-9. While the Vikings led by junior guard Pat Chappell, who also quarterbacks the schools football team, are healthy the same can not be said for Western Iowa who will be missing two senior starters as both Fletcher Barnes and Walter Heaton are injured. Junior Gerry Carter, who averaged 14.6 ppg is the leader of the Western Iowa five.
The second semi-final features Rainier College from Washington State, a school that is making it's third trip to the National Semi-finals and won the National Title just 3 years ago. Their opponent will be Philadelphia-based Liberty College, which won it's third National Championship in the past seven years last season. The Bells feature a solid, balanced attack with seniors Ron Berner and Bobby Grant leading the way while the Majestics rely on junior guard Gary Harrison to lead the team. This will be the first meeting between the two schools in nearly two decades.
Here are their all-time tournament records including games from this years event as well as a look at the key players on each squad.
Code:
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD OF FINAL FOUR SCHOOLS
SCHOOL APP W L TITLES
Rainier College 25 26-23 1- in 1940
Liberty College 23 40-19 3- 1936,1937,1942
Western Iowa 14 13-13 0- reached finals in 1939
St Magnus 4 3-3 0- never won a game prior to this year
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 3/28/1943
- Allied forces are having a tough time taking out a key Japanese base at Amboina. Natural conditions make it a tough nut to crack but it's location makes it an important piece of real estate in the South Pacific.
- Nazi forces continue to hold in Tunisia as the Allies once more attempt to spring a trap.
- Butchers across the northeast are trying to get their hooks into meat as shortages prompt the temporary closure of many grocers. Additional rationing goes into effect this week with each person allowed 16 points per week.