PLAYER of the MONTH

The Player for the Month of May 1945 is the First Baseman for the Freemont Furtraders Joe Kuhel.  Joe became a Furtrader via trade with the Montgomery Burns in 1934 after Montgomery selected him in the second round in 1930.  Joe had a very strong month at the plate batting .400 (46-115) with a slugging percentage of .609 with 13 doubles, one triple and three home runs.  Joe played in 28 games in May and had at least one hit in 20 of those games and had two or more hits in 13 games including 7 three hit games and 2 four hit games.  Joe had three game winning RBI in his 24 RBI's and also scored seventeen runs with fourteen walks.  It is hard to believe but he raised his batting average form .393 to .398. 

Other Player of the Month Candidates:

1B	Augie Galan of North Dallas who was the 8th overall pick in 1934 batted .370 (37-100) with a slugging percentage of .470 with six doubles and two triples.  Augie did not help his team in the RBI department with only seven, but did score 30 runs and was walked 25 times.

2B	Snuffy Stirnweiss on Montgomery also an 8th overall pick but in 1943 batted .366 (45-123) with a slugging percentage of .561 with twelve doubles, three triples and two home runs.  Snuffy scored 21 times with 10 RBI with two stolen bases.

LF	Charlie (King Kong) Keller of Harlem also an 8th overall pick in 1939.  Charlie not only has one of the best nicknames but also batted .357 (25-70) but had a league leading slugging percentage of .786 with four doubles, four triples and six home runs.  

The Pitcher of the Month of May 1945 is the Starting Pitcher of the North Dallas Forty Ken Burkhart, the sixth overall pick in the 1945 draft, who is making a strong push for the CY Young and Rookie of the Year awards.  Ken was stellar in May finishing with a record of 4-0 in six starts with three complete games and two shutouts.  Ken started out the month slowly with two no decisions and followed those up with four straight wins allowing only two earned runs in those four games.  Overall Ken's ERA in May was 0.97 with five earned runs in 46.33 innings of work, with 16 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.14.  Ken was able to lower his season ERA from 3.86 to 2.11 and continue his perfect record to 8-0.

Other Pitcher of the Month Candidates:

SP	Bob Muncrief of North Dallas who in his second year as a starter is paying dividends for the Forty.  Bob was 5-0 in May with three saves in nine appearances with four starts all ending in complete games.  Bob's ERA was 1.83 with eight earned runs in 39.33 innings with sixteen strikeouts.

SP	Van Mungo of Harlem who after a one year absence is coming back strong.  Van started seven games with two complete games, with one shutout for a record of 4-0.  His ERA was 1.91 with ten earned runs in 47 innings with thirty strikeouts.

SP	Claude Passeau of North Dallas the first overall pick in 1935 was 4-1 in six starts with three complete games.  Claude gave up thirteen earned runs in 48 innings of work with 21 strikeouts.  North Dallas sent shockwaves through the DBS back in 1935 when they traded away Hall of Famer Carl (The Meat Ticket) Hubbell to get the #1 pick in 1935.