Saturday, November 9, 2075
IPA GOLDEN ARMS GIVEN TO SLIGO'S LONDON AND ARROYO GRANDE'S ORTEGA
According to baseball lore "good pitching is supposed to beat good hitting"... if that is the case the IPA Golden Arms may be the most important awards given out each season... I'm sure the IPA Golden Bat winners just might have another opinion and rightly so... pitching and hitting go together like love and marriage... you can't have one without the other... one thing for sure, Jeffrey London, a southpaw slinger for the Sligo Rovers and Tomaso Ortega, a left-handed flinger for the Arroyo Grande Suns are really good at their jobs... these two talented twirlers have been named as the Golden Arms of the 2075 season... London was the recipient of the Ruthlandian Union Golden Arm trophy and Ortega was honored as the Tycobbian Union Golden Arm winner... this was the first time the pitchers have received the award.
28-year-old Jeffrey London of the Sligo Rovers surely played a unique and important role in his team great success this season... he pitched in 77 games, starting and relieving, compiling a 17-7 overall record with 18 saves, winding up with a 3.01 ERA... London was special... he was involved in 35 of the Rovers' 101 wins this season, tops in the IPA... London just barely beat out his teammate Major Rowling for the award in a super close vote.
Rowling stood out this season with a flashy 19-4 mark in 31 starts... he topped the Ruthlandian Union with a superb 1.93 ERA, second best in the IPA... with two aces like this, no wonder Sligo won the Ruthlandian West pennant by 15 games over the runner-up Stoner Silver Sox.
Third in the RU Golden Arm poll was Crystal Lake's Lloyd Mason... the 26-year old righty posted an excellent 19-5 record with a 2.75 ERA... the Skippers were edged out for the RU South pennant by Valka by just 3 games... Crystal Lake was the defending Pro Cup champion.
There was also a close vote in the Tycobbian Union for the 2075 Golden Arm... it was really hard to choose between 27-year-old southpaw Tomaso Ortega (17-11/1.82 ERA), 28-year-old right-hander Cal Beeson (20-6/2.85 ERA) and 29-year-old right-handed Chipper Simpson (16-5/2.19 ERA)... Ortega led the entire IPA with a stellar 1.82 ERA... Beeson was the only 20-game winner in the Tycobbian Union... and Simpson (16-5/2.19 ERA) had a terrific season, too... many voters were worried by Ortega's 11 losses... Beeson won 20 games, but he had a 2.85 ERA, while Simpson stood out with a glittering 2.19 ERA.
Ortega got it because he did it in a hitter's ballpark in Arroyo Grande and for a 6th-place team (69-85)... Beeson helped Cape Coral come in third place in the TU South (84-70)... Simpson's Midway Wolves came in third in the TU East (81-73)... playing for better teams might have hurt Beeson and Simpson with the voters.
