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THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Tuesday, September 20, 2039
ARLON SLIPS BY KENWOOD IN TU WEST
The Tycobbian West pennant race was in doubt going into the last day of the season... there was a chance of a first-place tie between the Arlon Champions and the Kenwood Wildcats... at day's end the Champs won and the Wildcats lost, giving the title to Arlon by two games... far back in the standings in a third-place tie were third place Rollings Hills and Denton City, 16 games out.
Pennant-winning Arlon came in second for the most wins in the IPA with 95, beaten out only by defending Pro Cup champion North Hills with 97 victories... Arlon has been to the playoffs only three times in the club's history in 2006, 2012 and 2020 and never got past the second round... this season the Champions have several talented pitchers and hitters, but that may not be enough to make them real contenders.
1. ARLON CHAMPIONS: after a decade of being in the second division, the tide turned in 2037 with a third-place finish, got better in 2038 with second place and culminated this year with the division title... the Champs strong point is its pitching... offensively they are so-so.
Top Starters: three 20-game winners and the IPA strikeout king lead the staff... Ronny Farnsworth (21-8/2.64), Emil Nowak (21-8/4.03), Pat Stuyvesant (20-9/3.66) and Lanny Gray ((16-15/3.38)... Gray fanned 291 batters in 314 innings to lead the league.
Top Relievers: Dale Greene (4-4/2.91/8 saves) and Peter Shannon (2-5/2.14/10 saves)
Top Batters: star RF Mark Cameron had a career year with 52 homers, 129 RBIs and 111 runs... Cameron batted .324 and was second in home runs in the IPA, third in RBIs and seventh in scoring runs... C Nick Shafer also pitched in with a .304 BA, 26 HRs, 93 RBIs and 73 runs... LF Charley Hastings missed half of the season, but is now back for the playoffs... he hit .307 in 75 games with 3 HRs, 21 RBIs, 62 runs and 29 SBs... not much else left in the line-up... this will hurt them in the playoffs.
2. Kenwood Wildcats: they rebounded from a bad seventh-place finish in 2038 with much better pitching and hitting... the Wildcats went from a 4.14 ERA to 3.61 (10th)... and from .261 to .274 (3rd) at the plate.
Top Starters: Glen Murray (19-13/3.12) and Robby Barnhill (14-6/3.61) were the most effective, but Freddy Gooch (20-12/4.15/5 saves) was the biggest winner.
Top Relievers: Artemus Hale (10-1/2.37/8 saves)
Top Batters: star C Corky DiNozzo (.318/36/101/81) was the biggest bat... with help from rookie 2B Country Crowder (.340/4/53/81) and LF Harry Tashina (.327/12/74/88).
3. Rolling Hills Reds: for the past seven seasons the once-powerful Reds have been stuck in a rut around the .500 mark... they got improved hitting this year and rose up from sixth place to third and wound up four games over .500 with good hitting (.270 BA-5th) and good power (174 HRs-12th), but not much pitching (4.08 ERA-22nd).
Top Starters: Matthew Christianson (20-11/2.99) and Whammer White (17-12/3.66)
Top Relievers: (none) the bullpen was bad with a 4.40 ERA (31st)
Top Batters: club leaders were RF Jimbo Foxx (.292/33/102/86), 1B Darvin Tard (.285/23/85/97), LF Trent Hutchins (.287/24/72/59), CF Scotty Yiska (.309/21/66/55) and 3B Billy Christenson (.325/10/48/55), who was lost in July to injury and missed half a season.
3. Denton City Redbirds: they tied for third this year after two years in fourth place... haven't made the postseason since 2013... the Redbirds hit very well with a .268 BA (6th), score well with 774 runs (3rd) and have firepower with 203 HRs (4th-tied)... on the hill they are average with a 3.76 ERA (15th)... but are bad in the bullpen with a 4.37 ERA (29th).
Top Starters: solid starters with Francisco Salcido (19-15/3.73), Troy McIntosh (17-15/3.13), Kevin Blevins (15-12/3.71) and Stephen Edwards (10-12/3.33).
Top Relievers: (none)
Top Batters: 1B Wayman Stetson led the club with 44 HRs and .317 BA, 3B Rod Hunt (.245) had 30 homers, C Felton Welch (.281) 28, LF Sam Carson (.264) 28, and RF Pete Doyle (.279) had 24... Stetson is tops with 120 RBIs, Welch had 96... Doyle scored 109 runs and Thornton 101.
5. Bayview Vikings: were third last year... dipped to fifth this year... Viks haven't made the playoffs since 2016... led IPA with 251 homers... league record is 260 by Arroyo Grande in 2005... were second in scoring with 803 runs... batted .261 (13th)... little park is conducive to lots of runs... 4.47 team ERA (29th).
Top Starters: Vance Codsworth (20-14/4.20) was the biggest winner... Christy Kane (14-17/3.46) had the best ERA.
Top Relievers: (none) bullpen was the worst in the Tycobbian Union with a 4.84 ERA (32nd).
Top Batters: star super slugger 2B Jerry Culpepper almost set a new record for homers with 63 (Jack Elliott holds it with 65 in 2021 for High Mesa)... Culpepper had a great year with a .312 BA, 128 RBIs (5th in IPA) and 118 runs (7th in IPA)... RF Roy Ricks added a .302 BA, 28 HRs, 74 RBIs and 90 runs... SS Andreas Stokke (.270/23/73/78) also chipped in with some offense.
6. La Claire Lynx: it was a disappointing year for the Lynx after two pennants in a row... suffered a decline at the plate and on the hill... dropping from a .266 BA to .250 (24th) and the ERA rose up from 3.68 to 3.91 (18th).
Top Starters: Tony Rossi (17-14/3.94) led the staff in wins... Nelson Stubbs (10-11/3.25) in ERA... while ace Pat Kovacs (12-17/3.27), a 25-game winner last year, slumped badly this year with only 12 victories.
Top Relievers: Terry Baird (8-9/1.91/21 saves)
Top Batters: only decent hitters were 2B Sam Norman (.283/21/55/69), 1B Eddy Veevers (.289/10/57/66) and CF Billy Holland (.251/19/69/72).
7. Chicopee Braves: since winning three consecutive pennants 2034-2036 with an explosive offense, the Braves have gone into a tailspin and fallen deep into the second division for the last three years... team average batting has decreased from .278 to .263 over the last six seasons... run-scoring way down, too... pitching ERA 2034-2036 was 3.70... the last three years it's been 4.19.
Top Starters: Heyoka Chaska (14-14/3.42), Lou Gianakos (14-13/3.52)
Top Relievers: Judd Hampton (4-4/3.35/5 saves)
Top Batters: star 3B Kurt Gustavsen (.326/25/80/78), CF Big Jim Moran (.270/31/97/91), RF Rich Nellis (.283/20/57/76), 2B Todd Goodwin (.296/18/68/56)... 32-year-old star LF Charley Kota (.266/21/56/70) had a sub-par year... he is a career .305 hitter.
8. Bay St. Clair Buccaneers: the Bucs came in last for the third year in a row... last won a pennant in 2030... have poor offense with only 616 runs (31st)... pitching isn't so good either with a 4.11 ERA (23rd).
Top Starters: John Karlsen (13-23/4.03) and Mac Shaw (10-17/3.91) were the best of a poor lot.
Top Relievers: Pete Cross (10-3/2.09/19 saves) was superb in the bullpen.
Top Batters: RF Cotton Cornwall (.302/29/90/72) had a solid season at age 34 and was the only real threat in the line-up... other minor contributors were CF Gilbert Bauer (.262/18/75/67) and SS Zip Lowery (.303/6/42/63).
TYCOBBIAN WEST DIVISION
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