1946 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1946 FABL Lineups Here!
According to the most cursory of Google searches, 1946 is the first year of the Baby Boomer generation. Back then, the postwar optimism was high, the baseball was segregated, and the division winners in the Fantasy Astrology Baseball league were all pretty cut and dry – the same Final Four as in 1947, in fact. But I feel mostly frustration when analyzing this part of history: so many iconic athletes graced the Negro Leagues, but we only have a fraction of their statistical information, compared to the sample sizes of AL and NL schedules.
It was all but an eventuality that Scorpio would once again end up on top, considering their lineup was led by Stan Musial (2,782 / 17.8), real life NL MVP, and their rotation was fronted by Bob Feller (4,239 / 88.3), four-thousand point dynamo. Counting backwards from the present, Feller’s 1946 is just the tenth 4,000-point season in history – counting Shohei Ohtani’s pitching and hitting totals from 2021 and ’22. To pitch 371 innings with a 2.18 ERA is impressive enough, but to do it two years removed from missing three full seasons to military service? That postwar optimism was no joke.
The thing about Feller’s 4,000-point season is that it took him 48 games to get there. On the Negro League side of things, Scorpio had Newark Eagles ace Leon Day (1,572 / 104.8), who had an even better points-per-game average than Feller. Unfortunately, Baseball Reference only credits Day with 15 games in 1946. When I first saw these small samples, I assumed that the Negro Leagues simply had much shorter schedules than their white baseball counterparts. But I’m recently discovering that the real discrepancy isn’t the amount of games played – it’s how many games we have records of. It’s mind-boggling to think what Leon Day’s actual 1946 full season fantasy numbers looked like.
While Musial won the real-life NL MVP award, he missed out on the FABL’s Negative Polarity MVP thanks to a truly epic season by Virgo Ted Williams (3,126 / 20.8). But even though Williams led all batters in fantasy points, winning the real-life AL MVP on the strength of an MLB-high 1.164 OPS, he couldn’t lead his Boston Red Sox to the World Series title, as Musial did for the St. Louis Cardinals. But back to Virgo, they had their own pitching ace in Spud Chandler (2,764 / 81.3) of the Yankees, with another New York AL player – outfielder Charlie Keller (2,268 / 15.1) – providing protection for Williams in the lineup.
Looking to the Virgo Negro Leaguers, Homestead Grays first baseman Buck Leonard (899 / 18.0) and Baltimore Elite Giants shortstop Tommy Butts (857 / 13.4) would absolutely start at those positions. Even though Leonard and Butts had their full-season point totals suppressed by an incomplete historical record, their per-game performances far overshadowed rookie Eddie Waitkus (1,183 / 10.5) and Billy Cox (931 / 7.7), respectively. On the pitching side, rookie Peanuts Davis (343 / 68.6) would join center fielder Peanuts Lowrey (1,395 / 9.7) as the only sign with two players named after legumes. And Luis Tiant Sr. (521 / 37.2) technically had more games in relief than starts, allowing him to shore up the bullpen.
Moving to the Positive Polarity, we see a steep drop off in offensive firepower. In fact, the top five Negative batters – Williams, Musial, Keller, Capricorn Hank Greenberg (2,484 / 17.5), and Taurus Enos Slaughter (2,370 / 15.2) – all outscored the top Positive batter. And to add to the level of frustration surrounding the segregated league, that batter was known racist Dixie Walker (2,156 / 14.4) of the Libra Scales. But it was pitching that took Libra to the Air Division title in 1946: Johnny Sain (2,602 / 70.3) of the Braves, Bill Bevens (2,315 / 74.7) of the Yankees, and Harry Brecheen (2,101 / 58.4) of the World Champion Cardinals all occupied the top-five among Positive pitchers. And Libra also had the top Positive Negro Leagues pitcher in Barney Brown (1,282 / 67.5), ace of the Philadelphia Stars. Of course, none of these pitchers could match Aquarius ace Tex Hughson (2,846 / 73.0) of the Red Sox, who was completely underappreciated in his time – he didn’t even make the 1946 All-Star team, despite his stellar numbers!
In a stroke of irony, considering the top fantasy scoring Positive batter openly campaigned against playing on the same Brooklyn Dodgers team as Jackie Robinson, four of the top five batters in the Negro Leagues came from Positive Polarity signs. We saw a lot of Larry Doby (1,244 / 21.1) in the Sagittarius outfield, but in ’46, he played second base for the Eagles. Doby’s sign-mate, Grays catcher Josh Gibson (914 / 19.0) – was known as the Black Babe Ruth, and the numbers from his last season justify that comparison. In the Air Division, first baseman Lennie Pearson (1,235 / 20.6) was a rare bright spot on a hapless Gemini lineup, while center fielder Henry Kimbro (1,184 / 18.8) led all Aquarius batters in points-per-game. The only outlier in the top five was Pisces super utility player Monte Irvin (1,092 / 19.2), who qualified at both shortstop and right field.
These posts sure are getting longer when the Negro Leagues are taken into account. I haven’t even mentioned Fire Division leading Aries, led by Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr (2,101 / 13.9) and White Sox closer Earl Caldwell (1,401 / 35.9), the top dedicated reliever in the league. And I still have to talk about rookies and relievers! The top Positive first-year was Phillies outfielder Del Ennis (1,726 / 12.2), meaning that the Gemini outfield picture is likely to look very bleak moving backwards in time. Scorpio had the top two Negative rookies: although Dodgers starter Joe Hatten (1,615 / 38.5) had the better ’46 season, Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner (1,550 / 10.8) had by far the better career. Leo hurler Murry Dickson (1,731 / 36.8) exemplifies how different mid-century pitching roles looked compared to today: Dickson started 19 out of his 47 games, but also led the team in save opportunities. And while Cancer Crabs rookie Hank Behrman (1,344 / 28.6) was technically the best Negative reliever, Scorpio had three of the top five: Emil Kush (1,140 / 28.5) of the Cubs, Cincinnati’s Harry Gumbert (897 / 24.9), and Ted Wilks (825 / 20.6) of the World Champion Cardinals.