We start in the A.L. East with Bill Gillam's South Shore Fighting Imps. 17 games, everyone in the division was close, South Shore led with a 10-7 record, but started to gradually move apart from the herd -- by April 13th, the team was 24-12, 6 games up on it's closest division foe at the time. By April 18th, they finished with a 6-game winning streak, and was 29-12, the rest of the three teams were tied in last at 19-22 (10 games back) -- Imps went 19-5 since their 10-7 start to the season. There was only one other team that would make plenty of noise in the division and that would be Larry Waddell's Boston Bravos.
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| The Imps have fought back, each time challenged. |
The Bravos would go on a seven-game winning streak between May 21st-29th, all good, that's if the Imps were losing, which they had a winning-streak of their own at 5 straight. Boston's seven-game streak was snapped on the 30th, as the Imps won again. Then starting May 31st, the Bravos would start an impressive streak just prior to the break. At the break, their new streak was 5 consecutive wins, while South Shore stumbled and lost 3 straight.
At the break, South Shore led the A.L. East at 53-28, 10 games up on Boston's 43-38 record. The Imps would win their first 4 after the break, but would then follow that with a 3-game skid. Boston, meanwhile, continued their streak started prior to the All-Star Game, and made it 12 wins straight on June 17th. The Bravos were now within 7 games of the Imps. South Shore was good at keeping a division lead, regardless how much more Boston won, Boston would end up setting a league-record 15 straight wins -- but their last 3 wins were zilch as South Shore won their last 3 as well.
Between May 20th - June 21st
- The Bravos won a remarkable 22 of 23 games, climbing out of the cellar and hopping two teams in the process. The only problem is, during that span, they were only capable of shaving 6 games off of South Shore's division lead; The Imps went 16-7 during the span.
The South Shore Fights Back
- Boston would be within 6.5 games on July 2nd (and as late as July 7th) at 60-40 (29-3 during their climb from the bottom) -- but South Shore would slowly pull away again. South Shore would have it's way in inter-league play with Traverse City & Holland, while Boston had the misfortune of having to face Urbana and Hannibal. South Shore's 10-game winning streak ended July 24th, with a 12-game cushion on Boston at 83-37 (.692 win pct) -- winning 23 of their last 29 games.
South Shore clinched the division last series (The Urbana Locomotives clinched the week before), while the Imps became the first team this season to reach the century mark in wins. They are currently 100-44, with Boston Bravos at 84-63 (16.5 GB), holding a 3.5 game lead over the A.L. wildcard spot.
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| The Bravos went on a scorching run of 29-3, to make the N.L. East race interesting. |
The A.L. West for the most part has been a two-team race, Stray Corrado's Chicago Nine was in the midst at one point with a 38-34 record, 3 games out of first, and has faded after the break. Robert Mosher's Fairgrove Tigers have been holding off the Carolina Eagles for awhile now, but by only a few games. The margin has not been more than 5 games for some time, and should be interesting (just like the N.L. West when it comes down the stretch). Fairgrove is currently 84-62, with a 4 game lead on the Eagles.
Both, South Shore & Fairgrove are built on starting pitching, the Tigers' rotation has descended from where they were earlier in the season, while the Imps have actually out-performed the Tigers' rotation, and has 3 guys in the top 6 in ERA with Scott Diamond (2.86, 4th), and with Tommy Milone & Jake Peavy tied for 6th, with a 3.01 ERA. The Imps also lead the league with a 3.19 ERA, while Fairgrove fell to 3.81 (4th). Madison Bumgarner (14-6 record, 3.61 ERA & 227 K's) and Ryan Vogelsong (17-7, 2.98 ERA & 167 K's) have lead the way for the Tigers.
At one point South Shore closer Fernando Rodney was on pace for 60 saves, he has slowed down a bit, but still leads the league with 41 Saves.
South Shore is tops in batting average (.273), HR (179) Runs Per Game (5.3), and have a .343 OBP (2nd place - Fairgrove, has a .317 mark). The team though has the least steals (68) and leads the league with 1,021 players Left on Base. If it comes down to the two teams in the American League Championship, one thing to keep in mind, South Shore won the season series 8-4.
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| The Buffalo Yankees' Miggy has his eyes on the crown. |
Peter Wennin's Buffalo Yankees may not have had much to cheer about for his team, but certainly can be happy with their franchise's top pick in Miguel Cabrera (the 2nd Overall Pick in the Inaugural BoS Draft). Cabrera is currently leading all of the Triple Crown categories, but only by slivers in two of the three categories, this may go down to the final day.
BATTING AVG
- Miguel Cabrera (BUF) - .318
- Adrian Gonzalez (BUF) - .316
- Joe Mauer (S.S.) - .305
HOME RUNS
- Miguel Cabrera (BUF) - 42
- Matt Holliday (S.S.) - 32
- Carlos Beltran (WAS) - 31
RUNS BATTED IN
- Miguel Cabrera (BUF) - 106
- Paul Goldschmidt (FAIR) - 100
- Matt Holliday (S.S.) - 97
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| One of my favorite team names & team logo ( I made the logo). |
Jeff Tritthart's Bronx Bombers are very likely to have a top 5 pick in this upcoming 2014 (2013 MLB Players) Draft. I met, Jeff in the U.S. Navy, and with every baseball project, he always goes by the Bronx Bombers team name. Frank Thomas joined us a few days after Frank "The Big Hurt" Thomas was elected to the Hall of Fame -- which made us scratch our heads at first, could it be?! The real Frank Thomas, already bored & missing baseball. Frank Thomas' Washington Filibusters had the chance to host the league's 1st All-Star Game, during the game, his player Carlos Beltran hit a Grand Slam and earned All-Star Game MVP. Thomas also came up with maybe (because it's really hard to choose from all these clever team names) my favorite name of the bunch -- The Filibusters!
It's going to be interesting to see who goes to the playoffs from each league, and who will be the first two teams competing for the league's first World Championship of the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League.
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