Mid-West Winter League Heats Up!

The latest on the Traverse City Tigers of the 1988 Mid-West Winter League. A few weeks back we pulled off a surprising 7-game sweep of the Janesville Juggernauts in Janesville. That helped us reclaim the division lead from the Cedar Park Bears. Then my Tigers played head-to-head with Stray Corrado's Chicago Demolition, in which we edged them 3-2, every game was close on the exception of one game where he defeated me 10-5, and even in that game my team was trying to scratch & claw it's way back -- I would really love to see how seven-game series would go down between those two teams. The Demolition have already clinched their division, and lead the second-place California Quakes (60-69) by an impressive 33 games! Chicago is currently 94-37 (.718 winning pct), on pace for 116 wins.

Chicago got stronger by adding George Brett, Dave Stieb & Darryl Strawberry to their roster in a big trade with California, that works well for both teams.

Wade Boggs for the Demolition is flirting with .400, batting .394, with 11 HR's (doubling his real-life total of 5) & 91 RBI's, as he approaches 200 hits! Boggs is making a serious case for a possible third consecutive American League MVP Award, Boggs is currently the all-time batting average leader in MWWL history with a .351 average (Don Mattingly is in second at .329).

The Traverse City Tigers lost their last series to the Stockton Wings, 3-2. The series was a bit of reunion of sorts, or a season coming full circle now -- it was the first series I played or I should say watched in spectator. I was at the time, filling in as a manager for Stockton while the current owner was on a leave of absence -- then I got word, of the untimely passing of Mike Roberts, the owner of the Old Mill Legends, who I took over & renamed the Tigers.

During the season, I was forge my own imprint on the team, and bring in vets to help make this team a championship contender. I brought in Pete O'Brien, Dave LaPoint, Charlie Hough, Ernest Riles & Marty Barrett to help this team try to reach it's goals.

First goal, is that we really want that A.L. West Division title. It's not all been hunky dory, we came back down to earth as expected, after I went on a 30-5 tear when I first took over -- that stretch was unreal, of course we took on a couple weak teams & my bats were incredibly hot at the time. We cooled off right before the mid-season break, in which I believe we went 14-22 after that. At one point during the hot stretch, I want to say we were up as far as 12 games (at least 9 games ahead of Cedar Park), but we would start to struggle, and actually momentarily lose the division lead to the Bears for a series (about 4 weeks back now).

MWWL STANDINGS
A.L. East	W	L	PCT	GB
CHICAGO DEMOLITION	94	37	0.718	0
CALIFORNIA QUAKES	60	69	0.465	33
STOCKTON WINGS	55	72	0.433	37
FORT WORTH PANTHERS	53	74	0.417	39
MONTANA CUTTHROATS	41	90	0.313	53
A.L. West	W	L	PCT	GB
TRAVERSE CITY TIGERS	79	50	0.612	0
CEDAR PARK BEARS	78	53	0.595	2
DETROIT TIGERS	67	60	0.528	11
MEXICO CITY CHIHUAHUAS	64	62	0.508	13.5
JANESVILLE JUGGERNAUTS	52	76	0.406	26.5
N.L. East	W	L	PCT	GB
MANHATTAN GAS HORNETS	85	42	0.669	0
MICHIGAN MAURADERS	79	52	0.603	8
MISSOURI BLACK BEARS	76	53	0.589	10
VALDOSTA BOMBERS	63	64	0.496	22
SUGAR LAND SKEETERS	46	85	0.351	41
N.L. West	W	L	PCT	GB
STEEL CITY SLUGGERS	87	44	0.664	0
LONG BEACH TITANS	65	62	0.512	20
CLOVIS COUGARS	66	63	0.512	20
WINNIPEG GOLDEYES	46	83	0.357	40
GERMANTOWN GRAYS	32	97	0.248	54

Both Leagues have two Wild Card teams that go on to the playoffs. In the American League, we have the Cedar Park Bears sitting comfortably in the first spot, while the 4th playoff spot is currently being held by the Detroit Stars. The Stars trail Cedar Park by 9 games, but are only ahead of the Mexico City Chihuahuas by 2.5 games.

In the National League's N.L. East, the 3 M's (Manhattan, Michigan & Missouri) have been duking it out all season, as the Manhattan Gas Hornets started pulling away now with a 8 game division-lead. The Michigan Marauders (the 2nd place team) leads the first Wild Card spot by two games over the Missouri Black Bears. Missouri sits pretty comfortably in it's wild card slot over the Long Beach Titans by 10 games, for that final playoff spot.

The Steel City Sluggers' magic number is down to 14, as they hold a huge division lead of 20 games over Long Beach.