Nothing Amazing in April

Babe Ruth & Josh Gibson discussing baseball.

Wait, nothing amazing happens in April?!

Well, no... that's not necessarily true. We have the wonderful game of Major League Baseball back in full scale, while most APBA Baseball leagues are kicking off their individual seasons. The MWBL will be in full-swing & the BoS should be in the playoffs at that point.

There will unfortunately be no "Amazing April Tournament" being conducted by me, this season -- It will return next season (I may do a special October tournament, depending on what's going on at that time).

The reasons are a plenty, I have too much going on these next couple months...

• The 2015 MWBL Draft (which was just done this past Saturday), not to mention all the preparation & studying that takes up the months leading up to it -- my wife is truly an amazing person for being so understanding, and patient with me. I've mentioned it before with studying the game or preparing for drafts, I will be as determined & motivated that of a Tony Gwynn or Greg Maddux --in the way they always studied video, I truly take it to another level.

• The Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament on March 7th in Jackson, Michigan. The Tournament will be hosted by my friend, Pastor Rich Zawadzki -- who is no stranger to us on the APBA Facebook Group. It will be a blast, can't wait to see some of the faces & friends that I've already met at Chicagoland -- looking forward to meeting some other Facebook friends in person there in Jackson, along with new faces & new friends to be, at this event. I will also be attending this event with my brother Christopher Baier, which will be a cool experience in its own right.

• The Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League (BoS) will be conducting the playoffs for our 2nd season, the 2014 BoS Season -- this April. Currently the South Shore Fighting Imps, the defending World Champs, are leading their division. The Fairgrove Tigers have been on a roll & are looking to return to the playoffs, while the Portland Microbrewers (last year's National League Champions) appear by first glance, the team to beat. It should be a fun ride! Then there is the off-season, in which hopefully we are running the 3rd season no later than June!

• I need to get my 2014 Transactions League wrapped up, in time for the 2015 Transactions League to get started.

• Than there is the normal blogging on the upcoming 2015 MLB Season, predictions & etc.

BoS Power Rankings (June 2014)

Bumgarner & the Fairgrove Tigers are clicking, while they get into the 2014 title mix.

BoS Power Rankings for Month #3 (May 28th - July 3rd)

 Biggest Jump (Placement): Four teams jumped upward two places, the South Shore Fighting Imps made big improvements last month, they started the month by clobbering Traverse City at home, winning their series 5-1 -- which set the tone for them as they went 24-10, since their 31-22 start. The Hannibal Cavemen caught fire, sweeping their last opponent Seattle, to take first place away from the Traverse. The King Road Kings and Urbana Locomotives, also move up two spots, while playing .500 or better ball of late.

Here is the top 7 teams record-wise for the last month

1. Fairgrove (25-9)

2. South Shore (24-10)

3. Hannibal (23-11)

4. San Diego (18-16)

4. Swatara (18-16)

4. Urbana (18-16)

5. King Road (17-17)

Biggest Jump (Points): The King Road Kings' pitching has really come around, which has helped matters in where they stand compared to the league -- the unfortunate thing is that they could not gain any ground on San Diego during this stretch, even though the Power Rankings indicate that San Diego is treading water, while King Road has almost a 20 pt advantage on the Heroes.

Staying Steady: The rankings from #9-#12 in the Holland Hitchhikers, Buffalo Yankees, San Diego Heroes & Chicago Nine show their statistical performances to be staying steady, while Holland's and Chicago's records reflect they are sliding; Holland is 14-20 the last month, while Chicago was 13-21.

Biggest Drop (Placement): The Seattle Rainiers dropped three spots to 15th (out of 16) on the Power Rankings, while the Traverse City Panthers dropped 2 spots -- T.C.'s batting has been a big reason for it's decline.

Biggest Drop (Points): Once again the Rainers & Panthers, both dropping 15.5 points -- The Panthers fell below the 100 point level for first time this season, with two consecutive months of them slipping on this chart (a total of 3 places, while losing 19.5 points). The good news for the Rainiers, there is always Boston below them.

Teams to Watch: The Fairgrove Tigers (a league-best 25-9 since May 27th) in the American League, that is led by Cy Young candidate Madison Bumgarner (14-3, 2.09 ERA) is on pace for 26 victories -- to put it in perspective, he only had 13 victories the same season for the Giants. On the National League side of things, the Hannibal Cavemen just snuck past the Panthers, and taken control of the division at the All-Star break.

1989 MWWL Regular Season Comes to End

The regular season of the Mid-West Winter League has come to an end. It could have not come any sooner for my poor Traverse City Tigers who crashed from first to last over the 1989 season; Going from 96-66 to 56-106 -- a forty game difference!

Enough about my team for now (that's for another post), The Fort Worth Panthers won the American League East from last year's World Champions, the Chicago Demolition. Last season, the Demolition won the division by 40 games, this year they will still go to the playoffs as one of the A.L. Wild Card teams, with a 105-57 record. The Panthers won the east by 7 games, going 112-50. The Demolition will be shooting for their 3rd World Title in four years, they won it all in 1986 & 1988 -- and their 4th overall (The won their first in 1972).

The Panthers are no strangers to playoff success, they won three straight World Championships in the MWWL from 1982-1984 -- The only team to three-peat in the history of the league.

With all of the off-season moves by both the Detroit Stars and Mexico City Chihuahuas, it's not a surprise that they were the top two teams in the American League West. Detroit (106-56) edged Mexico City (104-58) by 2 games for the division title. The Stars won their 5th Division title, first in 4 years -- their 106 wins was the most since their peak-era late 70's teams, in which they won three straight divisions (1977-1979). They went to the World Series in 1978 & 1979 -- winning it all in 1978 over the Long Beach Titans. The Chihuahuas return to the playoffs after a one-year hiatus, and their best season in franchise history.

In the National League, the battles for the division titles were not anywhere as close as the American League teams. The Manhattan Gas Hornets won their third straight division title, by winning the N.L. East with a 111-51 record. The N.L. West was won by the Steel City Sluggers with a MWWL best record of 117-45. For the Sluggers, it was their second consecutive division title; Manhattan will be trying for their 2nd MWWL title in 3 years.

The race for the two National League Wild Cards is where the excitement was, as it came between three to four teams. In the end, the N.L. East's Valdosta Bombers (94-68) and N.L. West's Clovis Cougars (93-69) moved on to the playoffs, as the Michigan Marauders (N.L. East) just missed out at 92-70 -- with the Germantown Grays further back at 83-79. The Cougars had their most successful season in their three-year history, improving each year.

There was six 100-game winners & six 100-game losers during the season.

The A.L. Division Series Matchups
Chicago Demolition @ Detroit Stars
Mexico City Chihuahuas @ Fort Worth Panthers

The N.L. Division Series Matchups
Clovis Cougars @ Steel City Sluggers
Valdosta Bombers @ Manhattan Gas Hornets

2014 BoS All-Star Break League Leaders

Here is the League Leaders for the entire organization of the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League, I forgot to unbold some names before clipping & pasting (so forgive me). 

The second half should be interesting to see who will be taking the hardware for the yearly award winners for the league. Some of these guys have been constants all year, such as Madison Bumgarner, who should be right near the top with his team doing so well.

Zimmermann No-Hits Bravos

Jordan Zimmermann of the Buffalo Yankees, became the 4th player in the history of the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League to pitch a no-hitter. It's the 4th in it's short league history, that has been around for only a season-and-a-half.

Zimmermann pitched the no-hitter on Saturday evening (real-time on February 7th) against the Boston Bravos; Its the 2nd time this season that the Bravos have been no-hit, the first came early in the season for Matt Cain of the Brooklyn Mets.

Of all the no-hitters, a "Perfect Game" has only happened once & that was Scott Diamond of the South Shore Fighting Imps (against Washington). Justin Verlander became the first pitcher to do it, on May 10th, 2013 against the Bronx Bombers.

Another interesting fact, is that all four of the No-Hitters were conducted by American League teams, also the victims (the ones to be no-hit) were also American League teams. Another note, three of the four pitchers (Verlander, Cain & Zimmermann) all pitched no-hitters in Major League Baseball as well.