As promised, I will now look backwards and catch you up a bit on what happened between late September 1983 and where we picked up here in late September 1984.
Let's look at the final standings and award winners in the Shoeless Joe League for 1983:
The San Antonio Keys remained the powerhouse of the WPK, led by their fearless Captain and probable Greatest of All Time shortstop Bud Lindsay, and that uber-potent lineup. Lindsay's WAR of 5.9 was third best on the team with fellow middle infielder John Mussaw leading the way at 8.7 and slugging first baseman Mike Shervey putting up 7.4 WAR while belting 39 homers, along with a league-leading 50 doubles and also league-leading RBI of 161. All of this added up to Shervey winning his first league MVP award. (Spoiler alert- he led the league in RBI this year again too with 143.) Add in left fielder John Freeman (5.5 WAR), emerging star third baseman Ryan Cambell (4.9 WAR), and underrated right fielder Danny Belmontes (4.3 WAR) and you get an idea of just how scary this lineup was for opponents.
But in the end the resurgent Washington Night Train, a team that was one of the powerhouses in '60's, with their superior pitching (22-year old Paris, Kentucky native Dusty Swarthout led the league in wins with 22 and K's with 196 (another spoiler alert- he would also lead the league in K's in 1984 with 190) and won the SJL Harris/Lee award) and situational hitting, swept the Keys in the SJL Championship series.
The Chicago Fire, one of the 1975 expansion clubs, showed some signs of hope and improvement, putting together their first winning season ever with their previous high win total being 75 the previous season of 1982. As it turns out they took a slight step backwards in 1984, winning two fewer games than '83, but they are young and talented and should be competitive for awhile going forward.
The El Paso Dawgs, on the other hand, remained competitive in '83 but were aging and there were signs they were headed in the wrong direction. And, indeed, they finished in 5th place in 1984 and had their worst record (68-94) in over a decade.
Similarly, the Philadelphia Mud Hens were in the race for the SJL East until late in the 1983 season and then cratered in 1984, getting off to a horrific start before bouncing back a bit to finish with a 70-92 record, but in last place. They are a club in serious need of a rebuild.
Now let's take a look at 1983 standings and award winners in the Moonlight Graham League:
The Denver Brewers failed to win 100 games for the first time since 1973 but still easily took the MGL West title over San Francisco. On the other hand, the Phoenix Speed Devils avoided losing 100 games, to break a three-year streak of triple digit futility. Still, there were no strong signs yet of the incredible improvement they would achieve in 1984 when they got off to a hot start and though they faded a bit down the stretch still finished with their best record since they won 105 games back in 1971. Phoenix was led by surprising break-out superstar right fielder Luis Olivez, who at age 23 led the league in hits with 219, batting average (.348) and WAR with 6.8 and was named MGL MVP at the end of the season. Olivez was a 5th round draft pick out of IMG Academy back in 1978 and was never a heralded prospect, but while his offensive numbers are certainly inflated a bit by the Phoenix' home park being the most hitter friendly park in the WPK, he also possesses strong defensive skills with a cannon for an arm (19 outfield assists in 1983, 13 in '84) and great speed, though he needs to improve his base stealing technique (in approximately 2.5 seasons in the WPK he has 36 stolen bases and has been caught trying 30 times).
The Los Angeles Spinners, by far the biggest market and biggest budget team in the MGL, continued to underperform and likely need a management shakeup. After their weak 5th place finish in 1983 they had an even weaker 5th place finish in 1984, winning 3 fewer games than the season before.
Over in the MGL East, it was finally time for the often underachieving Brooklyn Aces to win it all. They were led by a strong and veteran pitching staff (though the bullpen was anchored by 23-year old fan favorite closer Michael Tucker), and by a couple of very good players coming into their prime in third baseman Andy Raley (4.5 WAR) and center fielder Chris Caldwell (4.1 WAR). They also got good production from veterans Adam Pester (4.0 WAR in left field at age 35) and slugging first baseman Danny Salvador (3.4 WAR and 21 homers at age 35). (As it turns out this was probably the last hurrah for Salvador as he was only given 136 plate appearances in 1984 and hit 4 homers with a .235/.321/.378 slash line and 0.5 WAR.) The Aces won a tough six game contest with Denver in the MGL Championship series and then took the KCS over Washington in an epic 7 game battle. The Detroit Falcons, for so long seen as a team on the rise only to disappoint, fell six games short in 1983 and then won 20 fewer games in 1984, finishing a distant 4th place as future Hall of Fame pitcher Aaron McNally (who surely regrets that free agency contract he signed with the Falcons back in 1979) had a decent 1983, going 15-12 with a 3.23 ERA before having a disastrous 1984, finishing with by far a career worst record of 9-19 and a 4.30 ERA which is nearly a run and a half higher than his career ERA.
The Montreal Royals, who improbably won the MGL East in their first season of existence as an expansion club in 1980 (with an 82-80 record) lost 100 games in 1983 and followed that up with a 112-loss season in 1984. (The 1967 El Paso Dawgs still hold the record for futility in a season with 117 losses, but they do set a new MGL record for losses in a season, breaking Phoenix' record of 110 losses suffered in 1977.)
San Francisco Velocity staff Ace Jon Harrington won his first Harris/Lee Award in 1983 and will likely repeat again when the 1984 awards are announced. His rotation mate Brad Stephens took MGL Rookie of the Year honors and followed that up with a 16-7 1984 season in which he led the league in ERA at 2.35. (They are both pretty bad makeup guys- with Harrington profiling as selfish and Stephens as not loyal to the team, but that is pretty much the norm for San Francisco as they also have a disruptive right fielder in Greg Dohman, an unmotivated center fielder in Matt Christensen, and a disruptive left fielder in Cameron Olsen. So basically the core of the best players on the team are jerks, with the exception being veteran first baseman Leo Willis, who is highly respected and well-liked.)