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THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Tuesday, September 18, 2029
2029 Ruthlandian West Final Recap
Stars Sweep By Rovers In RU West
The Sligo Rovers had their way in the Ruthlandian West during the opening half of the season and looked like they would breeze to a third pennant in a row, but it didn't happen... the Rovers slumped badly in August and allowed the Stoner Stars (85-69) to sweep by them and come away with the division crown, edging Sligo by 2 games... the Rovers led the Stars by 8 games at the All-Star hiatus... Stoner hit its way to the title with a .272 BA (7th), ranking third in scoring... manager Benny Stern had just enough pitching to get the job done... the Stars staff only posted a 3.84 team ERA (26th)... Stern had a solid core of hitters, no great ones, but lots of good ones like All-Star 3B Jeff Henderson (.296/20/90) RF Neil Mooney (.310/19/69), 1B Fletch Fowler (.288/16/75) and All-Star 2B Norm Murdoch (.286/9/69)... free agent vet Glenn Tackett (21-13/3.00) was the ace in his first season with help from Raul Hidalgo (19-13/3.10)... closer Darrell Geoffrey (10-5/1.45/12 saves) had an excellent year, too.
The second-place Sligo Rovers (83-71) offense didn't carry its load... Eddie Keys' club hit a lowly .236 (31st) and finished 30th in scoring... things were so bad Darryl Collins led the club with 13 homers, 74 RBIs and a .274 batting average... but it was entirely another case on the hill, where the Rovers rotation was outstanding with a 3.07 team ERA (2nd)... Keys had four good starters in Les Patterson (19-15/3.28), All-Star Lou Page (17-14/3.14), Earl Perkins (16-13/2.86) and Terry Bailey (15-16/2.94).
Under new skipper Joe Judlin the Forest City Lumberjacks (80-74) made a big turnaround in 2029, rising up from deep in the cellar the previous year (66-88) up to third place, just 5 games off the pace... Hitting rose from .237 to .259 and the team ERA lowered from 4.58 to 3.66... leading the offense was All-Star George Arnick (.294/11/70), 2B Jackie Jackson (.277/10/57), CF Ron McGuire (.269/17/70) and 3B Rog Clemens (.275/12/86)... pitching-wise the club was led by vet Andy Velasco (19-11/3.35), rookie Jimmy Willard (20-16/3.38) and Norm Dawson (18-14/3.84).
Manager Bailey Norcross has very little hitting in Middlefield (79-74), but the Roosters managed to come in fourth in the RU West standings, only 6 games behind winning Stoner, mainly because of the mound corps, which put up a good 3.27 team ERA (8th)... Tyrus Cobb (19-8/2.52) had a standout season before missing out on his last 5 starts with strained triceps... Neither were very potent at the plate, but 3B Stu Butterworth (.247/11/50) led the team in batting average and LF Floyd McClellan (.235/22/69) was tops in homers and runs batted in.
Robbie Brooks thought his Fort Benton Defenders (72-82) was a team on the rise after close fourth-place and second-place finishes the previous seasons... It looked like the Defenders were poise to contend for the division title this year... however the Defenders slipped back to fifth place and trailed the leader by 13 games... they never were in a challenging position... Brooks has some good bats in his lineup... they batted .273 (5th) and ranked 9th in runs... 1B Ernie O'Day (.313/26/84) and CF Vince Boylan (.266/18/80) were the best run producers... and on the mound it was Frankie Quinn (20-15/3.29) and Augie Marquis (16-16/3.41).
The sixth-place Volusia Vigilantes (71-83) wound up 14 games behind in the race with average hitting and mediocre pitching... Alfonso Feliz just doesn't have a lot of talent... CF Vasco Aguilar (.281/18/92) had a good season, while 2B Valerio Cortes (.249/16/75) and SS Joao Rosales (.276/11/67) both had fair years... the V's do have one standout player, last year's RU Golden Arm winner, Cisco Almeida (18-16/3.48), but he struggled this season, yet still did pretty well.
There is some talent in Colfax (68-86)... skipper Ilya Szabo hasn't got enough to right the ship yet as the Blasters dropped to seventh this season and ended up 17 games out... Smoky Rogers (18-12/3.16) is a top-notch pitcher and C Mitch Fullerton (.296/28/89), RF Glen Smith (.304/10/75) and 1B Doug Kirkwood (.293/12/74) are some good sticks.
For the past five years the Rocky Rapids Snappers (63-91) have been in the doldrums of the second division in the RU West... Junior Noland replaced his dad Ryan as manager, but didn't make any progress... the Snappers were last in the RU West for the third time in four years... his best performers were Matt Loudermilk (18-12/2.75), who really had strong season, especially with such a poor team... 8-year veteran 1B Angelo Nardone (.297/31/88) and third-year C Allie Blackwell (.301/10/73).
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