As we enter the month of September, Fort Worth remains 2 games up on Mobile, while Texarkana has built a 4 game cushion between themselves and Lake Charles. Ugh, is Lake Charles going to fall short once again?
Ken Forsch is still the league leader in wins, with 19, but his ERA has climbed to the 1.90 range. Latos meanwhile is still sub 1.50.
Hank Aaron had a player of the month August, crushing 11 home runs. He now has 32 making him the league leader.
Tom Brunansky in his first season as a regular (3rd overall) is currently the league RBI leader.
This might be a very interesting post season as all the contending teams seem evenly matched. Mobile has clearly been the hottest team down the stretch, which is probably due to them getting Ernie Banks back. Banks got hurt early and spent 2+ months on the disabled list. Plus, Lou Gehrig flat out stunk to start the season. Lou has been pretty darn good since the start of July.
I know I've been whining about the lack of offense in 1968, Thing is, league ERA is somewhere around 3.23, which is 20+ higher than 2.98 the real MLB posted. Maybe I should shut up.
We are fast approaching my favorite decade and a half of baseball. I'm going to love watching the evolution of the bullpen from this point forward. Of course, I will stop history mid 80's so that evolution will never reach the silliness of today's game.
I'm also looking forward the watching stolen bases increase. The 60's have been better than the 50's, but bring on some 70 and 80 steal season.
One final note. Last night as league commissioner I held a league meeting telling all teams to not even think of building a Three Rivers, a Riverfront or a Veterans Stadium......and instituted the death penalty for any owner that even mentions artificial turf.