Tuesday, September 30, 2971
THREE REPEATERS IN TU POSTSEASON PLAYOFFS... TUCKS ARE NEWCOMERS, THEY TOPPLED FAVORED RED SOX IN TU EAST RACE
Not a lot of new things in the Tycobbian Union pennant races... Rolling Hills, Turon and White River won again and qualified for the IPA playoffs again... the only new face is the Tuckanarra Tiger Cats, who rebuffed Red Bluff's repeat chances in the TU East Division... but this was no major surprise - the Tucks were the second choice in the preseason poll.
The Tycobbian North was a good battle for the half the season between preseason favorite Oxford, North Hills and last year's champ White River... Oxford (76-78) looked good until midseason, but came in a very distant third place with a losing record... the Red Caps were on top the first three months, then they went into a second-half funk (34-43) and ended up a whopping 21 games behind the Rascals and 5 games behind the Hawks... White River (97-57) caught fire with a blistering 50-26 record over the final three months easily putting away North Hills and Oxford... North Hills (81-73) was the number-two team, but wound up 16 games back in the pennant race... the Hawks fizzled in the second half of the season with a poor 37-39 mark... White River did not have a bad month this season and won the TU North going away.
Not much of a pennant race in the Tycobbian South, either... last year's winner and second choice to win this year, the Turon Typhoons (104-50) blew everybody out of the water, winning by 9 games over runner-up Ginza (95-59), 18 better than Summerland (86-68) and 25 games in front of preseason favored Southport (79-75)... however, the surprising Ninjas led in April and May, followed closely by the Sunsets and Typhoons... then Turon took over, took command and tore the division apart the rest of the year... the Typhoons were 21-6 in June, 18-7 in July, 15-12 in August and 19-4 in September... Turon set a new all-time mark for victories with 104... the old record was 102 in 2018... the Typhoons have topped 100 wins only twice in the team's history.
The only tight race this year in the Tycobbian Union was in the Tycobbian East... the other three divisions were not very close... all season long Tuckanarra and South Fork went at it, rarely separated by more than a few games... only the Hillsboro Blazers (85-69) made a race of it, but they dropped out by July and wound up in third place, trailing by 12 games... the first place Tucks (97-57) got hot in September with a 16-8 mark and pulled away from the second place Stallions (94-60), beating them by 3 games... South Fork could only manage a 12-10 record in the final month... defending champion and preseason choice Red Bluff (82-72) never really got it going well and wound up way back fourth in the standings and 15 GB... the Red Sox never really challenged in the pennant race this season, but they still wound up 10 games over the .500 mark.
The Rolling Hills Racers may be getting long in the teeth, but they are still rolling along, winning pennants and breaking all-time IPA records... Rolling Hills won its record-setting 12th division flag in a row... this compares to North Hills winning 11 in 12 years (2034-2045) in the TU North... and two clubs Ozarka (2010-2021) in the TU East and Middlefield (2045-2056) in the RU West both taking 10 flags in 12 seasons.
The Racers were rated the best team in the Tycobbian West in the preseason poll, favored over Bayview, Denton City and La Claire... the Racers led by 3 games at the end of April with La Claire, Chicopee and Denton City lurking nearby... the Lynx caught the Racers by June, tying them for the top spot... no one else was close... Rolling Hills went up by 3 games over La Claire by July... Bayview was 8 GB in third place... the Racers upped its lead to 4 and a half games by August... no other team now in sight at all... just a two-team race... by September Rolling Hills stretches it lead to 6 games over the Lynx... and the Racers (96-58) finish up 7 games better than runner-up La Claire (89-65), 9 games over third place Bayview (87-67) and 14 ahead of the Chicopee Braves (82-72)... this is the first time in 12 seasons the poor Braves have had a winning season.
2071 Tycobbian Union Final Standings
2071 Tycobbian Union Final Leaderboards
