Quote:
Originally Posted by ukhotstove
Question for you Eugene, at the moment as you know I'm doing the dynasty around the Brooklyn Dodgers and as I've said Gil Hodges is a favourite of mine but having fictional teams and players in your league do you have a favourite team and player within your dynasty ?
|
Never really thought about it. I love the whole league.
I guess my favorite player would Danny Church, a light-hitting shortstop for the Belair Beach Sunbirds. My real name is Daniel Eugene Church, but have always gone by Danny except here on the forum. I gave him ratings based on my baseball talent and experience. After three years, Church is hitting a career .273 (.245, .296, .277). He is a sure-handed infielder and ranks high in assists with a .977 FA and good range. Batting-wise Church averages 27 doubles, 7 triples and 8 homers with 70 walks and 55 Ks over the three seasons with 71 runs scored and 57 RBIs. He's a good baserunner, but not fast. Church steals about 7 bases a season. He's just a good, solid shortstop and will never make the All-Star team. We just see how Danny Church develops. He is in his early 20s. I hope he has many years left in the IPA.
My favorite town in the Islands would be Belair Beach as it is very similar to Mobile, Alabama where I grew up. I love living in the US South for its great food, climate and easy life style. It is city life, but with a small town feeling.
But really and truly, after thinking about it, my favorite player in the IPA is Charles Darby, a pitcher for the Glasco Athletics. In real life he was my very talented cousin. He is the one who gave me a love for sports and baseball that has made my life so special. He was 18 years old and I was 10 and he used to take me to his semi-pro baseball games every Sunday in Florence, Alabama. He played for the Monumental Park Red Sox. Charles was a talented and gifted pitcher. I would keep track of his strikeouts in the game and would let him know at the end of the game. He threw hard and one game had 18 Ks in a pretty fast league. I think he could have made it in pro baseball. He was a workhorse and quite good. He could swing a good bat, too. But the Korean War intervened in his life as he served four years in the Navy aboard the carrier, the Bon Homme Richard. At the end of the war, he left his sports career behind to make a living. We had some great summers together during his baseball days. We seldom saw each other in later years, usually at family gatherings. He died at 72 a few years ago.
Charles was a big brother that I never had. He really could do anything. He could sing great harmony and could have been a fine singer, pop, country and gospel. Sadly he never really used his talents to the fullest. He had so much potential he could have succeeded in any endeavor.
In gratitude for what he meant to my life, I put him in my Islandian Pro Alliance. I always wished he has been a pro baseball player. I think he would have done well. He had the potential to play Double A or Triple A baseball in the 1950s. OOTPB made it possible for him to live again. I can once again count his strikeouts.
Charles Darby is 53-48 in three years with the Glasco A's with a 3.45 ERA, 7 shutouts and 45 complete games. He was 18-16, 18-14 and 17-18. Glasco finished 5th, 1st and 4th in those seasons.
One of the best players I ever played ball with was Rick Fargnoli, who I played with in the USAF in 1960 in Turkey. He was a great shortstop. I had to played third base because of him.
Rick could hit like Derek Jeter, but was much better in the field than the Yankee. Once time a guy hit a line drive in the hole and to my left at third base. I leaped and almost caught it. Well, Rick also leaped out --- and fully-extended horizontally, he caught it, right behind me. There is no way he should have caught the ball. The only person on the field to have a chance to catch that ball was the third baseman.
I made the base all-star team at third base and Rick was the shortstop. Five of our players on the Charlie Trick intramural team made the base team. We went to the tournament and finished fourth out of 20 teams. Three of our team made the All-Turkey team and went to Germany and won the Air Force European championship. Rick was the best shortstop in the Air Force. No, I didn't make the All-Turkey team and go to Germany. I just couldn't swing the bat well enough.
So Rick Fargnoli is in my IPA. He plays for the Ranford Bulls. Rick is fielding .977, just like me, but he has far greater range with 500 assists a year to my 453 per season. Fargnoli is averaging .292 with 35 doubles, 14 triples and 19 home runs in his two seasons. He has scored 84 runs a season and driven in 88.
The Good Lord willing, I intend to put other people in my life into the IPA, along with the great mythical players like Roy Hobbs, Crash Davis, Jack Elliott and others from movies and books. You will eventually see them all in my baseball world. I plan on putting all of Duane Decker's Mound City Blue Sox in the league. I used to read Decker's books in study hall at Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama. The Blue Sox will live again, too.