1928: Powering Up

1928 – Powering Up

Max Morris had, quite literally, hammered home the concept of the home run as a primary weapon long before the 1928 season dawned. But that philosophy also ran against a long-entrenched trend favoring "inside baseball," which sneered at the homer in favor of bunts, hit-and-runs, and stolen bases. The 1928 season marked a turning point in this philosophical battle, as the players themselves began to embrace the power game.

The clearest example of this shift came in Chicago. The Chicago Chiefs boasted a particularly friendly park for power hitters. The problem had always been that the Chiefs’ roster didn’t feature anyone particularly fond of trying to hit the ball over the fence. That, too, changed in 1928.

Joe Masters, the Chiefs’ incumbent third baseman, had been a fairly average player over his first six seasons in the Windy City. He hit close to .300 every year and showed some middling power, reaching double digits in all but one year (he had 9 that season) but topping out at 15 (which he did twice, including in 1927). Masters focused on improving his swing over the winter of 1927–28 and came to camp with a stroke geared toward putting the ball in the air. And it worked—big time.

Masters stroked 56 home runs, drove in 195 runs (a new record), and hit .388—numbers that would likely win a Triple Crown in most years, but not in the Federal Association in 1928. The batting crown went to Masters’ teammate, LF Jim Hampton, who was over .400 most of the season before settling for a .397 mark to claim the batting title.

With Masters and Hampton leading the way, the Chiefs spent most of the season out in front, won 95 games, and took the pennant by a nice, round 10-game margin over the second-place Detroit Dynamos. Chicago was not one-dimensional, either, posting a pair of 20-game winners—and a pair of 19-game winners as well—giving them the league’s second-stingiest staff to go along with their league-leading offense.

Second-place Detroit won 85 games, and the ’28 season saw the Dynamos finally bring up 1926’s #1 overall pick, Al Wheeler. The 20-year-old right fielder hit .306 with 18 homers and 101 RBIs but played second fiddle to breakout star Frank Vance, a third baseman who flirted with .400 most of the season before fading a bit and finishing tied for second with a .388 average.

Third place went to the Boston Minutemen in a bit of a surprise. The Minutemen thrived on their outstanding fielding ability, which helped them overcome the league’s 6th-best (or 3rd-worst) offense to post a solid 80–74 mark. Boston’s star was 29-year-old 3B Charlie Barry, who hit .359 with 15 homers and 95 RBIs.

The Pittsburgh Miners finished fourth with a tidy 77–77 record, putting them right at .500. The Miners were in the thick of the race for much of the summer before fading down the stretch. Their rebuild looks to be in good shape and already paying dividends. The Miners’ strength lies in their pitching, which features three solid starters—envied by several other teams—led by Jim Smith, who went 17–9 with a league-best 2.99 ERA.

Where were the Philadelphia Keystones, you ask? The defending World Champs took a big tumble in 1928, finishing in a fifth-place tie with the Gothams at 73–81. The problem was pitching: the Stones’ staff was flat-out terrible in 1928, allowing a league-worst 871 runs. The offense, led by 1B Rankin Kellogg (.387–42–164), remained potent, so fans who loved seeing runs scored definitely got their money’s worth at Keystone games.

The Gothams, too, had a disappointing season. Their fifth-place tie with Philadelphia was a letdown from what many prognosticators had considered a promising campaign. Several factors contributed, but injuries certainly played a role. Franchise cornerstone 1B Bud Jameson was lost to a knee injury in June, short-circuiting the offense, though LF Carlos Cano was a revelation with a .342–26–85 campaign for player-manager Ed Ziehl’s squad. “Mr. Gotham” himself also had injury issues, twice missing games in what might end up being his final season as an active player. If this is indeed Ziehl’s swan song, the legendary 2B goes out with a résumé that includes 3,465 hits and a .323 lifetime average in a career stretching back to 1906.

St. Louis ended up one game behind both New York and Philadelphia, in seventh place with a 72–82 record. The big story in the Gateway to the West was—as usual—Max Morris. The game’s biggest name missed the first half of the season while recovering from an injury suffered in the middle of 1927, but when he returned, he came back in a big way, hitting 29 homers with 92 RBIs in just 90 games. One of those homers pushed his career total over 400, and every subsequent Morris homer establishes a new career mark. Unfortunately for Morris and Pioneer fans, the club did not perform well without him and wasn’t much better with him.

Last-place Washington had a lost season. The Eagles feature the game’s best catcher—there’s a guy in the other league who may challenge that title soon, but for now, T.R. Goins is the best in the business behind the dish. Goins had his usual stellar season: .321–16–83, but the rest of the team was a big disappointment. Washington scored the fewest runs in the loop (646), and they allowed the seventh-most runs (815). That adds up to a terrible season, as reflected in the Eagles’ 61–93 record. The only positive for the ’28 season in the capital is that they’ll have the top pick in the upcoming amateur draft.

The sea change in the Fed was not missed in the Continental Association in 1928, both in terms of the long ball and in terms of a new club rising to the top of the heap and overpowering the competition to win the pennant for the first time in a long while.

That team was the Philadelphia Sailors, and like the Fed champion Chiefs (who hadn’t won a pennant since 1917), the Sailors seized the flag for the first time since 1897—and did it with style, winning 102 games and finishing nine games ahead of second-place New York.

In keeping with the theme of similarity (though it only goes so far, as we’ll see), the Sailors, like the Chiefs, had a breakout slugger of their own: RF Tom Taylor. The switch-hitting 23-year-old was a rookie and started the season in AAA after playing in both A and AA in 1927, where he showed moderate power. Things were different in ’28, though—he hit 10 home runs in 118 at-bats with San Francisco before getting the call to the big club, where he was even better. Taylor slugged 44 homers, drove in 126 runs, and scored 124—all tops in the CA. He also hit .342, good for sixth.

With 2B Jack Cleaves (.289–8–99) and C Alex Diaz (.324–8–69) joining Taylor in the heart of the Sailors order, Philly topped the CA in runs scored with 815. The pitching was equally outstanding, surpassing even the vaunted New York Stars staff to finish #1 in runs allowed, with just 558 opponents crossing the plate in ’28. The stellar staff was led by Johnny Davis, a 25-year-old Texan who jumped up from AA Providence (where he had primarily been a reliever) and went 24–8 with a 2.73 ERA—making him a near-lock for the CA’s 1928 Allen Award honors.

Second-place New York bounced back from a disappointing fifth-place finish in 1927 to rejoin the fray, winning 93 games (which was more than their pennant-winning clubs of 1924 and ’25 had won). The Stars excelled on both sides of the ball, with the 2nd-best run-scoring output (794) and the 2nd-best pitching effort (628 runs allowed). Losing ace Dick Richards (13–4, 3.28) for two stretches during the season hurt, but overall, the staff was as solid as ever. The offense was outstanding, too: 2B Pete Layton won the batting crown with a .370 average, adding 27 homers and 108 RBIs from the top spot in front of 3B John Lawson (.344–22–106) and 1B Dave Trowbridge (.354–16–87). Trowbridge came over in an early May trade from Pittsburgh and led the league in doubles.

Cleveland finished third, 16 games back of Philly, but still managed a solid 86–68 campaign. The Foresters found a new star in LF Joe Perret, a rookie from Sacramento who impressed in a brief ’27 stint after jumping up from AA Toledo, but truly broke out in 1928, hitting .347 with 30 doubles, 18 triples, 24 homers, and 117 RBIs. Though a bit old for a rookie at 26, Perret looks like the franchise cornerstone the Foresters have lacked since trading Max Morris to St. Louis back in 1919. Cleveland also boasts an ace in righty Wayne Robinson—acquired from the Saints in 1927—who went 20–9 with a 3.04 ERA, Allen-worthy numbers in any league that didn’t feature Johnny Davis.

Defending CA champion Brooklyn had a disappointing season. Though the offense remained potent, the pitching was a sore spot, and the Kings’ management made a midseason decision to cast away hopes of a pennant repeat by retooling for 1929 and beyond. A series of trades sent away franchise landmarks such as LF Bud Rogers (to rival NY) and SS Lloyd Carter (to Cleveland), along with several pitchers. In return came younger players and draft picks, giving Brooklyn some promising pieces for the future. Sticking around was star RF Doug Lightbody, who fell off from his outstanding sophomore campaign yet still finished third in the league with a .356 average, and the Kings also had young catcher Mike Taylor (.325–7–39), who looks like a budding star. Despite a .500 finish in ’28, things are not entirely gloomy in Brooklyn.

Baltimore got off to a historically poor start, posting a 2–16 mark in April that effectively buried their season before it began. The Cannons righted the ship and went 72–66 after that terrible start—not good enough to compete for the pennant, but enough to secure fifth place. Catcher Joe Welch (.355–25–93) looks like he might give T.R. Goins a run for his money as the game’s top backstop (that rookie in Brooklyn will also be in the mix), and 1B Lou Kelly (.330–31–104) enjoyed a great season as well, with the club finishing second in the CA with 90 home runs. The pitching was up and down: Oscar Jefferson (8–15, 5.03) was disappointing, but Rabbit Day (15–14, 3.20) was good. The club also has two promising 19-year-old pitchers in Johnny Jacob and Lou Forbes who could make an impact in the near future, although Forbes suffered a severe shoulder injury, clouding his future.

Montreal topped a trio of rebuilding clubs at the bottom of the table. The Saints are improving, slowly but surely, and 1928 was another stepping stone in the right direction. Rookie CF (and #1 pick) Cliff Moss forced his way onto the big club, producing a .309–10–57 line in 116 major-league games. The Saints offense let them down overall, hitting a collective .255 (7th) and scoring only 572 runs (8th), but the pitching may have turned the corner. Twenty-six-year-old Charlie Stedman (15–14, 3.78) and 24-year-old Al Allen (yes, that guy’s son) give the rotation a possible 1–2 punch to envy. Allen posted a 4–0 mark with a 2.87 ERA in April before going down with a season-ending back injury. AA pitcher Walker Moore, acquired in the Phil Sandman trade with the Keystones before the season, is a 22-year-old lefty who might eventually become the Saints’ third solid rotation arm. The Saints lineup is young, but Moss looks like a cornerstone piece, and even though LF Jim Broome (.262–7–68) had a down year, a little development plus a healthy rotation could make things a lot sunnier in Montreal.

The other Canadian club, Toronto, finished seventh with a 60–94 record; only the poor performance of the Chicago Cougars kept the Wolves out of the cellar. Toronto can run—they led the CA with 104 steals—but they didn’t hit particularly well (8th in batting average, 7th in runs scored) and didn’t pitch very well either (7th in runs allowed). Still, the right-left tandem of Birdie Smith (14–19, 3.75) and Don Cannaday (15–19, 4.54) both had down years but are proven arms, rookie LF Jimmy Faulhaber looked competent despite jumping straight from AA, and the Wolves have some good-looking farmhands on the way. The front office still has its work cut out, but with good drafting and a savvy trade or two, Toronto could get back in the mix.

Last-place Chicago, at 59–95, had the worst record in either league in 1928. The Cougars’ collapse can be attributed to several factors. For one, they lost pitcher Johnny Douglas early—he was 4–4 with a 2.99 ERA in 10 starts before an arm injury ended his season in June. They also had Benny Walker, another capable pitcher, sidelined all year with shoulder trouble. Aside from a stalwart season from lefty Dick Lyons (9–18, 3.88) and a midseason boost from 35-year-old Babe Wilder (6–7, 3.58 in 14 starts), the Cougars’ pitching was the league’s worst. Getting Walker and Douglas back to team with Lyons should help in ’29. The club still has the ever-dependable John Dibblee (who had injury issues of his own) and his .324 average, while 2B Bill Ashbaugh (.287–25–101) is a 24-year-old star in the making. With 3B Mack Deal (.310, with 28 doubles and 21 triples across AA, AAA, and the CA) and C Fred Barrell (.321–3–102 at AA Mobile) coming up, a bumper crop from the farm may be just what the ailing Cougars need.

The 1928 Edition of the FABL World Championship Series

This year’s Series featured an intriguing matchup.

Representing the Federal Association were the Chicago Chiefs, the original professional club with a history stretching back to the game’s very beginnings in 1876. Surprisingly, they had enjoyed little success since those early days, winning two titles in 1877 and ’81 before sliding into a dry spell that was only broken by a 1917 pennant and WCS victory. Now, in 1928, they ended another drought in spectacular fashion, reaching just their second-ever WCS.

On the Continental side, the Philadelphia Sailors got a later start, joining the rival Border Association in 1889 (largely to spite the Keystones) and winning the BA title in 1890. After the FABL consolidation, the Sailors enjoyed a few more years of success with pennants in 1893, ’94, and ’97 and a single WCS win in that last year. Alas, that 1897 title was followed by a 30-year drought, finally ended by their 1928 pennant.

The 1928 WCS opened on a seasonably warm autumn afternoon at Sailors Memorial Stadium in South Philadelphia. Game One featured a pitching matchup of Sailors breakout ace Johnny Davis (24–8, 2.73) versus another 1928 breakout performer, 30-year-old Chiefs lefty Ruben Reyes (19–11, 3.99). A crowd of 39,646 Sailors partisans packed the stands for what turned into a very exciting game.

The visiting Chiefs and their potent offense drew first blood in the third when 1B Johnny Rasberry doubled to lead off and later scored on a single by Reyes. Chicago added two more in the fourth: Jim Hampton led off with a single and was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of star 3B Joe Masters, who went first to third on a single by Hank Odegaard. Masters then scored on a sac fly by Jim Shelton before Rasberry—Chicago’s hitting star of the day—lined another double into the right-field corner to score Odegaard.

Trailing 3–0 and with the crowd growing nervous, the Sailors bounced back in the home fourth to tie the game. Reyes had control issues, issuing three walks around singles by David Merchant and Jack Cleaves (who drove in two with his hit). Tom Taylor (one of the walks) scored the tying run on a fielder’s choice, the first out of the inning. Gene Aldrich hit into a double play to end the inning, but the Sailors had already made it 3–3.

A single run by the Chiefs in the fifth put them up 4–3, but Philadelphia tied it again in the seventh. Things remained knotted until the bottom of the ninth when Reyes again struggled with his control. With two outs, he issued back-to-back walks to Aldrich and Forrest Sylvester, bringing opposing pitcher Johnny Davis to the plate. Davis won the game for himself with a clutch line-drive single to center, scoring Aldrich to give the Sailors a walk-off 5–4 victory.

Davis was the hero, going 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs at the plate (he also drove in the run in the 7th) while going the distance on the mound, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with one walk and one strikeout. Reyes took the loss, surrendering five earned runs on six hits and five costly walks against a single strikeout.

Game Two was a different story entirely. The Chiefs sent 35-year-old veteran righty Lou Felkel (20–8, 4.31) against 26-year-old Sailors righty Rollie Beal, who had been extremely solid since joining the club in 1926 (16, 17, and 16 wins the past three seasons, with ERAs in the low threes). On this day, however, Beal did not have his good stuff, as the Chiefs’ potent lineup tore him apart early and chased him in the fourth inning.

Five Chiefs had multiple hits; only C Hank Odegaard and SS Mike Pierce failed to join Chicago’s 13-hit barrage. Johnny Rasberry rapped his third double of the series and added a pair of RBIs in a 2-for-4 effort; star Joe Masters went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, driving in two and scoring twice; Jim Hampton and Jim Shelton had two hits apiece, with Hampton scoring twice and Shelton driving in two (and scoring once). The biggest contributor was 2B Moe Davis, who went 3-for-4, scored three times, and hit the first home run of the series—a surprise in a matchup featuring home run champs Masters (56) and Tom Taylor (44).

The Chiefs led 8–2 in the fourth when Beal’s day ended and held off a determined Sailors comeback to win 9–6, evening the series. Felkel went the distance despite allowing six runs on 14 hits and four walks—an incredible 18 baserunners—and still got the win. Beal was tagged for eight runs in three-plus innings on seven hits and four walks. Walter Pelfrey (14–8, 3.71 in the regular season) relieved and pitched four scoreless frames, allowing the Sailors to climb back into the game, though ultimately in vain.

With the series tied at a game apiece, the action shifted to Chicago’s Whitney Field, a hitter-friendly bandbox where Hampton, Masters, and their mates had thrived all season. After the offensive fireworks of Game Two, expectations ran high for Game Three, but pitching ruled the day as the two teams combined for just 13 hits.

Sailors skipper Jim Cathey, himself a former pitcher with 267 career victories for the Foresters and Stars, surprised everyone by sending ace Johnny Davis back out there on just two days of rest. Davis again rose to the occasion, silencing a raucous Whitney Park crowd with a six-hit gem in which only one Chief crossed the plate.

On the other side, 35-year-old Al Wood (19–13, 4.44) also pitched a complete game but was undone by a Moe Davis error in the third that extended the inning. The Sailors capitalized with run-scoring singles by Dick Walker, Tom Taylor, and Jack Cleaves to make it 3–0.

The Chiefs finally got on the board in the seventh when Jim Shelton led off with a double and later scored on a single by SS Mike Pierce, but that was it for the home team. The Sailors added a run in the eighth on Tom Taylor’s first WCS home run and another in the ninth on a Gene Aldrich single that scored Earl Lambert, sealing a 5–1 victory and giving the Sailors a 2–1 series lead.

Game Four was back at Whitney on a blustery 49-degree afternoon in the Windy City that saw the Sailors take charge of the series in an 8–7 contest that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested. With 31-year-old Norm Austin (20–7, 4.33) on the mound, the Chiefs desperately needed a win in a game where the dominant Davis wasn’t throwing. Philly sent out 32-year-old Dan Waldman, a journeyman who spent half the season at AAA San Francisco before going 8–5 with a 2.74 ERA down the stretch.

The Sailors jumped on Austin early. Three singles in the first led to a run, then a three-run homer by Dick Walker in the second. Walker’s blast traveled just 330 feet—likely an out at Sailors Memorial—but in the cozy confines of Whitney Park, it was a round-tripper. Cleaves doubled home Merchant in the fifth to make it 5–0, and with Waldman cruising, things looked bleak for Chicago.

That 5–0 lead held until the eighth, when Chicago’s one-two punch finally landed. After two quick strikeouts, Jim Hampton singled on a 3–2 fastball, bringing Masters to the plate. The slugger at last broke through, launching a 100 mph heater to left for his first postseason homer to cut the lead to 5–2.

In the top of the ninth, the Sailors added three key insurance runs, chasing Austin and touching up reliever Si Day. Dick Walker led off with a single, Merchant sacrificed him to second, and after Tom Taylor fanned, Cleaves delivered an RBI single. C Alex Diaz then hit a two-run shot to left, capping the Sailors’ offense and making the score 8–2.

The Chiefs mounted a furious comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Shelton singled, followed by another single from Rasberry. Mike Pierce doubled home one run, pinch-hitter Bernie Rutledge doubled home two more, and suddenly it was 8–5. Cathey summoned Maurice Demby, who promptly gave up an RBI double to Moe Davis, making it 8–6. Hampton’s infield single moved Davis to third, and Masters’ sacrifice fly brought him home for 8–7. Finally, pinch-hitter Dan Brady lofted a ball to left-center that was run down by Merchant, ending the game and giving Philadelphia a 3–1 series lead.

October 8 saw Game Five—must-win time for the Chiefs. Ruben Reyes returned to the mound, while Sailors manager Cathey had everyone guessing whether Johnny Davis would start on short rest. He did not. Instead, 24-year-old Willie Jones (13–5, 2.88) took the ball.

Jones was sharp early, and so was Reyes—until the third. After Aldrich struck out, Sylvester singled, then Jones dropped a sac bunt to move Sylvester to second. At the top of the order, Earl Lambert singled home Sylvester. On the next pitch, David Merchant singled home Lambert. Tom Taylor followed with a double to deep right-center, plating Merchant for a 3–0 lead. Reyes managed to retire Cleaves to end the inning, but the damage was done.

It stayed 3–0 until the seventh, when Philly tacked on an insurance run via three singles, the last an RBI hit by Taylor to score Jones and make it 4–0.

Down to their final nine outs, the Chiefs rallied in the home seventh. Moe Davis singled with one out and moved to second on a walk by Hampton. With Masters at the plate, the Whitney Park crowd anticipated heroics—and got them, albeit in the form of a lined single that scored Davis, cutting it to 4–1. Seeking to force the action, skipper Dan Andrew sent Hampton on a steal of third; the throw sailed wide, allowing Hampton to score and Masters to move to third. Hank Odegaard followed with a groundout to second that plated Masters, making it 4–3. Jim Shelton then flew out to center, ending the rally.

Reyes and Jones each worked a scoreless eighth, and Reyes had a 1–2–3 ninth. Cathey had pinch-hit for Jones in the top of the inning, so Maurice Demby came out in the bottom of the ninth to try for the Sailors’ first world championship in 31 years. Demby got Hartman to pop up to first and Rutledge to pop up to third. That brought up Hampton, who singled on the first pitch to keep hope alive. Now the tying run was at first for Joe Masters—two outs, bottom of the ninth, the World Championship on the line. Demby started him off with a called strike, got a chase on the second pitch for 0–2, and then put him away swinging to end the game and the Series. The Sailors were champions.

Philadelphia catcher Alex Diaz was named the Series MVP after hitting .444 (9-for-18) with three doubles and a home run, scoring seven times and driving in six.

Shortly thereafter, the 1928 FABL season came to a close with the awarding of the Allen and Whitney Awards:

• Federal Association Allen Award: Detroit Dynamos righty Roy Calfee (19–13, 2 saves, 3.34 ERA). He narrowly outpolled Pittsburgh’s Jim Smith (17–9, 2.99) for his first Allen Award.

• Continental Association Allen Award: Philadelphia’s Johnny Davis (24–8, 2.73). After showcasing his talent on the biggest stage, Davis was a unanimous selection. Cleveland’s Wayne Robinson (20–9, 3.04) was runner-up.

• Federal Association Whitney Award (Most Valuable Player): Chicago’s third baseman Joe Masters (.388, 56 HR, 195 RBIs). The 29-year-old’s breakout campaign was voted in unanimously, far outpacing runner-up Rankin Kellogg (.387–42–164) of Philadelphia and third-place Frank Vance (.388–24–114) of Detroit.

• Continental Association Whitney Award (Most Valuable Player): Philadelphia Sailors RF Tom Taylor (.342, 44 HR, 126 RBIs). Taylor received 13 of 16 first-place votes, with the remaining three going to New York Stars 2B Pete Layton (.370–27–108).