## Standings / Recap / Comments
All right, I'm gonna try something new here with
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
New York 14 10 .583 - L3 104 105 .263 27 8 4.07 2.5 4.4 .986 33.3
Detroit 14 11 .560 ½ W3 104 92 .283 18 21 3.33 3.0 5.4 .979 30.4
Boston 12 10 .545 1 L2 97 64 .265 17 5 2.70 3.3 5.6 .975 43.8
Milwaukee 9 14 .391 4½ W1 105 146 .272 19 16 5.89 4.1 5.0 .980 36.8
Cleveland 9 17 .346 6 W5 89 120 .251 21 9 4.38 3.3 5.3 .984 26.3
Baltimore 8 16 .333 6 W1 97 110 .246 17 10 3.91 3.8 5.1 .971 42.9
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
Chicago 13 7 .650 - W8 102 75 .280 13 10 3.29 4.3 4.8 .979 53.3
Oakland 15 11 .577 1 L6 112 103 .277 21 10 3.61 2.8 4.9 .974 33.3
Texas 12 9 .571 1½ L5 89 78 .256 15 12 3.17 3.8 5.2 .977 43.8
California 12 10 .545 2 L1 90 92 .240 18 21 3.96 3.4 4.6 .983 30.8
Kansas City 14 12 .538 2 L1 144 143 .265 18 10 5.29 3.5 4.6 .991 25.0
Minnesota 8 13 .381 5½ W2 95 100 .259 25 12 4.39 3.7 5.9 .980 40.0
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
New York 17 8 .680 - W5 97 90 .273 7 15 3.39 3.2 5.2 .983 46.7
Philadelphia 15 8 .652 1 W4 134 101 .283 20 18 3.54 3.2 4.8 .978 60.0
St. Louis 14 10 .583 2½ W1 100 89 .243 20 8 3.48 2.8 5.3 .983 68.8
Chicago 15 12 .556 3 W2 114 99 .260 26 11 3.21 3.4 4.6 .985 57.7
Pittsburgh 10 11 .476 5 L2 73 68 .248 9 1 3.10 2.6 5.4 .985 36.4
Montreal 8 15 .348 8 L2 109 130 .266 25 9 4.86 3.7 5.1 .977 43.8
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
San Francisco 17 14 .548 - L2 123 134 .251 28 22 3.83 3.3 5.3 .980 28.0
Los Angeles 15 13 .536 ½ L1 91 95 .234 24 5 2.81 3.0 5.9 .975 41.2
San Diego 13 15 .464 2½ W2 96 97 .234 14 7 3.07 3.7 5.1 .974 56.2
Cincinnati 11 15 .423 3½ W2 120 123 .259 23 15 4.45 2.4 6.5 .977 29.2
Houston 12 17 .414 4 L4 124 135 .248 35 11 3.94 3.5 4.9 .965 29.6
Atlanta 8 17 .320 6 L5 95 115 .254 15 7 4.40 2.9 5.7 .983 42.9
That wasn't toooo bad to parse out once a week, I guess, and it does have the upside of allowing you to really see how everyone's doing at a glance. Mostly the FOUL GODS OF PARITY have befallen us this week, with the A's in particular losing 6 in a row to - wait for it - the Brewers and the Indians. Mostly it looks to me like they stopped scoring runs. I guess in mild fairness (whispering toooooo beeeeeeee faaaaaaaaaaair) the White Sox have at least jumped into the fray there to assume the mantle the punditocracy had been placing upon their heads in the preseason. They haven't lost a game since April 24. KC as you can see from the stats there is fun to watch if nothing else.
The AL East has also seen the Yankees running a lesser form of that. Well... what happened to them was that they ran into the White Sox and got swept in Chicago over the weekend. Their starting rotation, especially Tracy Mosher (2-3, 8.04) is having some issues this season. While they were faltering against the White Sox, the Tigers got to play the other AL West contender/pretender, the Rangers, and swept them at home. I think Detroit still hasn't really hit their stride with the bats but man, when they do, hold on to your "bippy".
I don't know how the Mets are doing it but they're doing it even harder now and at least now they've outscored their opponents, so that's nice. They were 5-0 this week against the Reds, who are sub-.500 and were bad last year, and the Astros, who are sub-.500 but were good last year. They're still just barely out in front of the Phillies who are there legitimately and boast the best offense in the National League. They also swept their weekend series against the now-apparently-terrible Braves.
Finally, the NL West is just turning into the new AL West. The Giants have been playing a loooooooot of games early and that seems to have caught up to them. They went 2-5 this week against the Pirates and Cubs, two teams you'd expect a contender to beat. I guess the Giants aren't expected contenders. The Dodgers seem like they should fit into that role better and they did get Justin Stone (.364, 2, 5) back, but they still scuffled to a 3-3 record. The Pads are still there but come on, expansion team.
And a look at the ol' league leaders...
White Sox SS John Johnson (.415, 1, 9) is chasing .400 in the early going. Remember JJ? He finished 2nd in average in '69 and '70 and then stunk the last 2 years. Maybe a change of scenery was all he needed! Tommy Weiss (.388, 3, 13) of the Yankees and rookie JP Carter (.359, 1, 16) of the Royals are next, which, man, the Royals just produce these guys like crazy (also though Carter had 109 at-bats last year so I don't think is a rookie). Ernesto Garcia (.286, 11, 24) hasn't homered in 4 whole days but is still on base to break his own record he set last year. Minnesotan Angelo Martinez (.274, 8, 20) is showing he isn't done yet with a 2nd place showing in HRs and RBIs, and the Joker Jose Ayala (.347, 7, 19) and California's Rodrigo Juarez (.233, 7, 16) round out the top 3 in ding-dongs. Alice Cooper (.333, 5, 20) is the man Martinez is tied with in ribbies. Alvin Romero (.320, 1, 15), as you'd expect, is leading the league and is the only man in double digits with steals (11).
Jimmy Goddard (5-1, 1.65) leads the AL in ERA and is tied for 2nd in victories. He did it last year and somehow he's even better so far this year. Rich Reese (3-1, 1.78) of the White Sox, a converted reliever, is 2nd and the Ironworker Justin Kindberg (3-3, 1.81) is 3rd with a hard-luck record to go with it. Vince Akright (6-1, 2.60) has gotten "lit up" for 3 runs a couple times this year so he's not among the ERA guys but he does have the most wins. Howard Rollins (5-0, 3.98) is getting all of the run support in Kansas City to ride a mediocre ERA to 5 Ws. In spite of Baltimore being awful, Montay Luiso (0-1, 2.21, 5 Sv) is doing everything he can to keep them from being worse - he also has played in 14 of the O's 24 games so far. He's got one more save than 3 guys. And oh yeah, strikeouts... Cleveland never dealt their pitching and so Jose Martinez (1-4, 3.47) is still there to top the league in Ks if not Ws with 41, followed by Detroit's Edgar Molina (4-3, 3.38) and Boston's Michael Pesco (3-4, 2.56).
The National League is kind of getting dominated by BA leader Alberto Juantorena (.368, 4, 18), maybe not to the extent Ernesto Garcia rules the AL but close. He's followed in the batting race by a very surprising Kjell Isaakson (.358, 0, 12) of the Mets, who barely got out of spring training with his club, and George Harrison (.357, 3, 16), who hit .388 in 121 at-bats in 1970, slumped to .263 last year, and now seems to be in 1971 form again. The Reds' Jaden Weaver (.297, 9, 32) paces the league in HRs and also has a million freaking RBI. He's on pace to hit 199 of them. George Foreman (.289, 8, 23) is right behind him in both categories. Well, "right behind" only applies to the dingers. 3 guys have 7 HRs to follow. Victor Serna (.322, 5, 23) is proving the doubters wrong with a hot start to his year and the 3rd most RBIs in the NL. Your steal man is the Giants' Jon Berry (.301, 4, 13) with 9, followed by St. Louis' Sonny Burwell (.240, 1, 4) and the Phillies' Tony Shannon (.308, 1, 9) with 7 apiece.
Fernando Apolonio (5-1, 0.98) is still ahead of the best-ever-ERA pace. Will he make it this year? Roger Quintana (3-2, 1.52) is pretty great himself but a mile behind in 2nd, and the Apolonio's teammate Mario Juarez (2-1, 1.84) is 3rd in spite of only pitching in 4 games so far this year. Billy Ording (6-0, 2.58) is hitting and pitching his way to being the first 6-game winner in the NL, followed by Apolonio nad his teammate Richard Starkey (4-2, 3.57). Geoff Saus (2-0, 1.29) has been utilized similarly to Montay Luiso in the AL - that is, all the time - and he's got 8 saves to show for it... and he's probably reason #1 why the Mets are overachieving the way they are. 3 guys are tied with 5. George House (3-3, 4.59) evened Bullet Bill Vanover (3-1, 2.81) in Ks with 39 of them. This surprised me because House hasn't been very good. Raul Mendoza (3-1, 2.02) is right there behind them with 37 strikeouts (and is also 4th in ERA).
## Major Transactions
May 2: The A's trade minor league P Alex Rivera (2-2, 2.33 at AAA Salt Lake City) to the Phillies for OF Antonio Valencia (.250, 0, 1). The A's do need a solution in left. Meanwhile this might not seem like the greatest manuever for Philadelphia but Valencia's never really been able to stick in the majors and heck, last year he was even just a pinch-hitter in the minors. They get back Rivera, who's old for a prospect (he's 25) but hey, he's had a good start to the year.
May 4: The Red Sox traded P Ji-man Im (1-0, 3.52) to the Rangers as part of a conditional deal. I have no idea what the conditions are but the 31 year old Im was barely playing in Boston this year so it was kind of either this or a DFAment.
May 4: The Pirates purchased 3B/1B David Salinas (.346, 1, 4) from the A's for $25,000. Salinas really can't play 3rd anymore but he looks like he can still hit and the Pirates are in desperate, desperate need of someone who can rake at first base.
## News
April 30: The Watergate scandal continues to unfold; today is (I think, right?) known as "Black Monday" as the day President Nixon fires White House counsel John Dean and requests and receives the resignations of Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, domestic affairs advisor John Erlichman, and US Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.
April 30: In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Admiral Hermese Quijada of the Argentine Navy is shot and killed by terrorists while driving his car.
April 30: Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.295, 9, 21) went from having a pretty meh April to being right on pace to blowing up the league for the third straight year over the course of one week. For that he won the AL PotW award. Garcia went 14-25 (.560) with *6* homeruns and *12* RBIs. Just absolutely massive. I should point out here that Yankee Stadium, where Garcia has belted 7 of his dingers so far this year, is still very much a HR-friendly park for lefties, although not *quite* as friendly as Cleveland Municipal was last year - I think old Yankee Stadium increases HRs by 32% whereas the Mistake on the Lake did so by 48%.
ANYWAY, this was Garcia's 7th PotW award and his first since the week ending August 28th of last year.
April 30: With a week like that, anything that happens in the NL is bound to be a letdown. The NL Player of the Week is Roberto Ortiz (2-0, 0.43). The Astros hurler was traded from the Braves on the 22nd, promptly went into the rotation, and gave up 1 run in 17 innings in a week that included a 4-hitter against the Padres and than an 8-inning, 1 run, 3 hit effort against the Expos. Ortiz won both of those games. This is Ortiz's first-ever PotW; pitchers don't win it that much and frankly Ortiz has never been quite this good.
April 30: There are no games scheduled today. Weird! How weird, you ask? The next time this will happen - an unscheduled league day that's not because of the All-Star Break or labor issues (which is not me being all passive about strikes; the 1990 lockout also doesn't count), will be June 29, 1998.
April 30: While I'm at it, though, Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (NR) is back! LA fans rejoice! 1B Jonathan Freeman (.205, 1, 4), who was filling in while Stone was out and I guess could have hung on as a pinch-hitter had he hit at all in the majors, has been sent down to think about what he's done.
May 1: An estimated 1.6M workers in the United Kingdom stop work in support of a Trade Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the government's anti-inflation policy.
May 1: The government of Japan completes its repayment of debt to the US for foreign aid received during the American occupation after World War 2, paying $175M in one lump sum at the request of the US, which needs the money to relieve its balance of payments deficit. I feel like I'm as much of a deficit hawk as the next guy but this seems like a bit much.
May 1: Three gunment invade a cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, tie up employees of Air India, and make off with $500,000 worth of diamonds and jewelry. Because of the robbers' familiarity with Air India's operations, investigators suspect that the crime is an inside job.
May 1: A group of three robbers take 50 children hostage at a Peoria, Illinois private elementary school following a botched bank robbery nearby. Police... shoot and kill one of the robbers and the other two surrender.
May 1: In speeches made in celebration of May Day in Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palm and Foreign Minister Krister Wickman accuse President Nixon of violating the Paris Peace Accords and of bombing refugees in Cambodia. Which, the Khmer Rouge were bad people and all but this did happen.
May 1: It's ___ of the Month time, starting with the NL Rookie of the Month. It's Sting! Not the wrestler, the singer. Gordon Summer (2-0, 3.21) wasn't exactly a world-beater but given the state of pitching all of the sudden I guess you don't need to be to be the best rookie in the NL. He struck out 18 batters in 28 innings over 4 starts, including 2 wins and 2 no-decisions. Only 23 men got hits off of him for a .232 average.
May 1: For the AL Rookie of the Month... this is much more what I figured to find. Ergot Newman (2-1, 1.40) was pretty lights-out for an otherwise struggling Minnesota Twins team with 16 Ks in 25.2 innings pitched in 3 games, 2 of them complete, with a shutout. It'll be interesting to see how well he can keep this up as the year progresses. The Twins are in need of a new #1 with the trading away of Chris Benavides.
May 1: The NL Pitcher of the Month is Fernando Apolonio (4-1, 1.17). Remember him? Yeah, he's still awesome. I don't think he'll be chasing Jeff Borden's ERA record into June/July like last year but hey, he is through April so that's nice. Already in 5 starts, Apolonio has pitched 46 innings (he went 12 in a 1-0 win against the Braves on the 15th) with 30 Ks, 8 walks, and an opponents' average of .233. This is the second PotM award for Apolonio; he also won it for last May.
May 1: The A's Vince Akright (6-0, 2.42) is the pretty obvious choice for AL Pitcher of the Month, what with being the first man to 6 wins and all. He's averaging just over 8 innings per start - 48.2 IP in 6 starts - with 30 Ks vs 16 walks. Maybe he's not as unstoppable by the peripherals as some guys, I guess, but he's getting the job done. Akright won this award one other time in his career: June 1969, in admidst his career year with the Tigers (22-11, 3.00, and 8 shutouts).
May 1: Big George Foreman (.293, 7, 21) of the Astros is the winner for the NL Batter of the Month award, I guess just narrowly beating out Jaden Weaver (.264, 7, 25) of the Reds among others. A .293 average isn't like amazing for one month but when you hit 7 dingers it's kind of good. He's on pace for 47 of them. I wouldn't expect that, given that his career high is 19, but man, he should at least get over 20, right? Foreman won Batter of the Month last August and also won Rookie of the Month for September 1971, capping off a .380/9/39 mark in about a third of a season (56 games, 208 ABs).
May 1: And of course I think you can figure out who the AL Batter of the Month is: Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.295, 9, 21). He's pretty good at it. Garcia has now won the BotM award an amazing 8 times, the last one all the way back in August of last year, so that means he's won 2 of the last 3 in the junior cicuit.
May 1: Orioles ace closer Montay Luiso (0-1, 2.33) had been near-perfect this year and Baltimore had been leaning on him heavily, too. Today he finally met his match in the White Sox' Alice Cooper (.294, 2, 13), who belted a 3-run homerun off of him in the 9th to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. "It's always nice to get BOMBS against the man," said Cooper, who's been suffering from a power outage this year, after the game.
May 2: Former Texas Governor John Connally, a longtime Democrat (and part of the JFK motorcade, right?) announces he is switching to the Republican Party as part of what many political observers believe is the first step towards running for the Presidency in 1976. Connally had been considered as a replacement for Spiro Agnew after he resigned last October (WHOOPS MISSED THAT) but the job had gone to Gerald Ford instead.
May 2: I guess the Phillies figured out how John Belushi (.343, 1, 10) will fit on this roster... well. He's out for the year with a broken kneecap. Hope he doesn't get fat while nursing that injury!
May 2: The Angels finally got onto the 1973 boat. Losing 6-3 in the 9th and facing Detroit's closer (I might need to rethink that) Alex Madrigal (0-2, 9.31), the Halos... went bonkers, exploding for a 10-run inning to go on to beat the Tigers 13-6. The grand slam HR by Rodrigo Juarez (-250, 6, 14), who finished the game with 2 HRs and 7 RBI, was the death blow for both the game and for Alvarez but they continued to score another 3 runs off of his replacement, last year's #4 starter Juan Merino (0-0, 11.25). The loss drops the Tigers to .500 (11-11).
May 3: President Nixon issues his fourth annual "State of the World" address to Congress in which he warns the governmnt of North Vietnam that "we will not tolerate violations of the Vietnam agreement". In retrospect, a. the "State of the World" seems arrogant although even more appropriate for a US President to provide in the 2020s than in the 1970s, and b. what, exactly, were you going to do about North Vietnam again?
May 3: Braves CF Jose Gomez (.143, 2, 8), who's been a part-timer ever since he came here and who isn't even hitting in the part-time role, is mad that he's not starting every day. I guess I'll monitor the situation but frankly the way the Braves are playing, the next step for the 32 year old Gomez is probably a release, not an increase in time.
May 3: And speaking of disgruntled centerfielders, the Astros' John Lopez (.154, 1, 3) at least used to be a starter in Houston. His poor bat (.201/4/23 and a .271 OBP) turned him into a part-timer last year and now... reall, he's being used about as often as last season but isn't even performing at his 1972 levels. George Foreman (.289, 7, 22) has a hammerlock on the position so it's not like he has any room. I guess I'll keep him on the roster for now and see if he can build up any trade value (and see if Houston goes a'trading any time soon) but he could easily be a late summer release himself.
May 3: All right, so let's take a look at the top 10 2B situations in baseball...
(11) Aloha Dan Gilmet, MIN (.271, 2, 12). I know it's only a top 10 but I felt remiss not including the guy who led the AL in hitting for most of last year off this list. He gets hurt a lot - is hurt right now in fact - and at this stage in his journey he's more of a DH than a second baseman. Also just missing this cut: Nate Rowe, PHI (.214, 0, 9 but .337 in 1971) and Bill Murray, BAL (.267, 2, 3).
10. Rodrigo Juarez, CAL (.250, 6, 14). The Angels desperately needed power and their California friends the Giants really came through for them. They got him for kind of cheap too - a well-regarded prospect but still a prospect in minor league SS John Deacon (.361, 2, 2 at AA El Paso). This trade won't probably be remembered the way the Ernesto Garcia deal will be but this one will still not be looked on too fondly by Giants fans, I don't think.
9. Tyler Webster, PIT (.250, 0, 2). Fans - well, OK, me - constantly look to this guy for what he isn't. The game had him playing short until I flip-flopped him and Henry Villar (.254, 0, 4) there, he doesn't see lefties well, which makes him not as productive as he might be otherwise, and he keeps getting hurt. The flip side here is that Webster's got good pop for a middle infielder (well, not yet this year but he did crack 18 HRs in 1972), is solid as a second baseman, and fits well with this team. This is why he's a pennant-winning keystoner.
8. Hudson Watts, MON (.367, 1, 2). Watts has been held out by injury a lot this year and otherwise it's interesting that the game already thinks so highly of him - he hit .257/11/48 his rookie year, which is fine but nothing spectacular. On the other hand, this is the 1st overall pick from 1970 and that means something.
7. Pedro Ortiz, CIN (.321, 2, 11). I've learned not to say "he should be higher" but... he should be higher. Ortiz is hitting above his class right now but even when he's at the .250s-.260s range he's been at the last 2 years, he's got leading-the-NL speed. And I guess he did hit over .300 his first 4 years in the league. Maybe this is his proper level.
6. James Hong, MIL (.358, 2, 5). Hong has emerged at the ripe old age of "20" to be this good and be one of the very, very few bright spots in that Brewers lineup. Of course he's hurt because Milwaukee can't have nice things.
5. Danny Fager, LAD (.267, 2, 8). I'm conversely surprised that Fager is this high up. Not that he doesn't deserve it - well, I'd probably rank him at 7th or so. He really struggled last year but when he's on he does basically everything you can do on a baseball field relatively well - hit for average, for power (at least for a MI - he had 12 HRs with Baltumore in 1971), run, and field second at a Gold Glove quality level.
4. Kevin Dwyer, ATL (.289, 3, 11). Maybe this is the game telling me Dwyer's starting to fall off at age 34? The Braves are still counting on him to be their guy, although the Braves might not be all that good this year.
3. Paul McCartney, SD (.253, 0, 6). McCartney's suffering from an absolute power outage a year removed from belting 32 HRs but the game insists he's still worth it. Let's see some dingers, Paul!
2. Juan Perez, CHC (.216, 3, 6). Like McCartney, Perez is struggling kind of badly in the beginning of the year. He's got power though at least! He's also a decade older than Paul. I'd definitely rather have McCartney to build a team around; on the other hand, Juan Perez did not write "Admiral Halsey".
1. Joey Ramone, DET (.329, 2, 9). The reigning World Series MVP is also, what do you know about that, the best 2B in the game as well!
May 3: Leave it to the Pirates to remind everyone that we are only a year removed from 1972. Jeremy Battaglia (2-3, 2.98) only got a single run of support and that not until the 10th inning but it was still all that he needed in a 1-0, 6 hit shutout. Josh Matthews (2-2, 3.07) was really good himself but not quite good enough in the end as the Giants, who've done decently at scoring runs (t-2nd in the NL although a lot of that's due to the fact that they've played 27 games so far) couldn't come up with any today. Battaglia, incidentally, also drove in the only run of the game.
May 3: And speaking of pitching like it's 1972... Dodgers ace Fernando Apolonio (5-1, 0.98) shut down a normally potent Cubs attack with a 3-hit shutout and a 3-0 win. Apolonio, true to form, only struck out 5 - which, okay, that's average for this era - but never really looked threatened the entire game. "I like to keep my defense involved," he said after the game. Pinch-hitter Ronney Yitzakhi (.250, 0, 3) delivered the game-winning 2-RBI single in the 7th that broke up a scoreless tie. Oh yeah, also, Apolonio became the first 5-game winner in the NL with the victory.
May 3: Good gravy, there were 4 games played today, and 3 of them ended in shutouts (the 4th was a 3-2 win by the Mets). Don Henley (3-1, 2.55) stymied the Cardinals with 4 hits allowed and led his Padres to a 2-0 shutout of the NL East contenders. The NL ERA is still 3.62, so a whole lot higher than last year, but we're no longer seeing the weirdness (which I think by the way held IRL) where the NL is still outscoring the DH league.
May 4: Construction of the Sears Tower is completed, making it the world's tallest building, which I think includes the big old antenna poles but hey, tallest is tallest I guess.
May 4: President Nixon confers with his family at Camp David to discuss whether he should resign due to the Watergate scandal. Of course this is not reported at the time... also, I misread the years here because Spiro Agnew is still the VP. Duh. I say this because of course should Nixon resign here, he'd be replaced by Agnew, who, however you may feel about Watergate (which, 50 years on, it was pretty bad), Spiro was just straight up taking bribes while in office.
May 4: Dylan Hamilton's (1-3, 4.06) been having a rough go of it with the last-place Indians but today he shut down the A's on 6 hits in a 5-0 Cleveland victory. Hamilton struck out 4, didn't allow a walk, and threw only 96 pitches... it's a Maddux (who?)! "Yeah, I don't know who you're talking about either, nerd, " said Hamilton after the game. "Get away from me with those fake baseball names."
May 4: Man, it's a good thing the Phillies didn't give up on Danny Plaunt (2-3, 3.97) after his tough start. He's now thrown 2 consecutive shutouts, today's coming at the hands of the Braves in a 10-0 laugher. Plaunt gave up only 2 hits all day, the first happening with 2 outs in the 7th. "I'm just glad to be wanted," said Plaunt. His team is now 13-8 and a game behind the Mets.
May 4: I don't want to cover literally every single shutout but this one is still special... the Card's Raul Mendoza (3-1, 2.02) is off to a great start - even his one loss came in a 7 inning quality start - and today he threw a 5-hitter and struck out 11 Dodgers for a 2-0 win over Ken Hansen (1-3, 3.83). 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.298, 6, 19) scored every single run in this game with a 2-run homerun in the 4th inning. The victory raises the quietly overachieving Cardinals to 13-9 on the year.
May 5: Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. Reports differ as to his actual age; some say he was 16 but according to 2024 Wikipedia it's generally believed that he was 17 years of age. Whatever, he's still the youngest!
May 5: Sunderland wins 1-0 over Leeds in the FA Cup final at Wembley, marking the first time that an FA Cup winning team has no players who had played for a national team and the first time since World War II that a FA Cup winner was not in the First Division.
May 5: Secretariat wins the Kentucky Derby.
May 5: Led Zeppelin plays before a crowd of 56,800 people at Tampa Stadium for the band's 1973 tour, breaking the August 15, 1965 record for highest attendance at a concert set by the Beatles at Shea Stadium in New York.
May 5: The Twins, off to a 6-13 start, "fired" their manager. This gave me the opportunity to replace that with a "human" manager (I'd set all to be run by the commissioner). Enter... Frank Quilici. Based on his real-life stats, Quilici is very conservative with the baserunning and especially bunting, which should be fine for a team of this age. The Twins were just contending last year but it was a weak division and they have since traded off large chunks of their rotation and their star 3B Mike Brookes.
Otherwise, I've been wanting to move to "human" managers for a while so that I could see their records, etc. but it's hard to transition from "commish runs all teams" to this setup. Except one by one! That's how I'll do it!
May 5: Helio Salgado (.143, 0, 0), the Cubs backup 3B and a 35 year old who... I'll be honest, I'm not sure how he's still in the league, wants a chance at starting. Where, Helio? I'm not even going to bother putting him on the trade block; nobody wants to start a 35 year old career backup.
May 5: The new look Twins (see below for changes) didn't exactly explode but they did enough to give Frank Quilici the win in his first shot at managing. Bill Lucas (2-2, 3.69) went 7 strong innings and LF Jeff Franks (.315, 2, 7) went 2-3 with 2 runs scored in a 4-1 win over the Red Sox. Matt Brock (0-1, 1.93) did make things... interesting in the 9th, loading the bases with 1 out, but he wiggled his own way out of the jam for his first save all year (and only his second save opportunity).
May 6: Pope Paul VI returns the relics of St. Mark to Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic CHristian Church, who then places them in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo, a Christian church built by the Muslim nation of Egypt.
May 6: The World Hockey Associate plays its first championship game. The New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets in Game 5 by the football score (baseball score?) of 9-6. The trophy is not yet ready to be used so the Whalers instead skate their victory lap with the Eastern Division trophy. Both of these teams will move to the NHL when the WHA folds but neither are currently in their original locations - the Whalers moved from Boston to Hartford and eventually to Carolina, whereas the original Winnipeg Jets are now the Arizona Coyotes.
May 6: Terrible day for the Cubs and injuries, as Jeremy Taylor (.299, 7, 18) sprained his ankle yesterday and it was diagnosed that he'll be out until late June now, and Alex Vallejo (.378, 2, 4), who's been in and out of the lineup with a couple of injuries, just learned that his knee soreness got downgraded to nagging status. I'm going to keep him on the roster, as the main thing thing keeping him out of the lineup is shoulder tendinitis, which is expected to clear up in a week or two. In the meantime I've been using him a bit as a pinch-hitter.
May 6: The Orioles, who were riding a 9 game losing streak coming into today, broke out of it and took out all the frustration of those 9 losses on the Angels in one game. Yeah. 14-1. This is even a team that was having a lot of problems scoring coming in, too. Jason Workman (.221, 5, 13) led off scoring with a 3 run HR in the 1st - he's only recently gotten his average up over .200. After Angels starter Al Gore (1-4, 8.69) gave up another 2-run shot to SS Eikichi Yazawa (.200, 1, 4) in the 2nd, he settled down for a while... until he lost it in the 7th. Also the guy who came in for him, lefty Derek Massey (0-0, 4.50). And the guy who came in for him, Luis Flores (0-0, 12.00). All in all, the O's scored 9 times in 2 innings. George Dapson (3-3, 3.94) had a no-hitter into the 7th and wound up with 1 run allowed on 3 hits through 8.
May 6: The Reds were a media pick in the preseason and I still like them... if they can get their pitching together. Today was a sign of why. Bullet Bill Vanover (3-1, 2.81), a guy who throws in the mid 90s but who was never able to convert that into strikeouts, threw a 3-hitter against the Expos for an 8-0 win. Vanover struck out 8 today and is tied for the NL league lead in Ks with 39. Also, you know, the Reds scored 8 and all that: RF Jaden Weaver (.297, 9, 32) went 3-3 with 2 runs and LF RJ Dominguez (.309, 4, 18) added a 2-run HR in the 8th.
May 6: Padres starter Tim Anderlik (2-4, 3.05), truth be told, did not have his best stuff and on top of that he was wild. Normally, that's a recipe for disaster. When you play the Pirates, especially the Pirates without Justin Lawson, you can still succeed. Anderlike threw a 5-hit shutout in spite of 6 walks and 2 strikeouts to lift his team to a 5-0 win. The new guy David Salinas (.359, 1, 4) had 2 hits but that was practically the only offense in the game. "We've got to do better," said the manager of the Pirates, "or else I'll get replaced by someone you've heard of."
## Teams in Review
May 5: I'm going to use the Twinkies firing their "manager" as an excuse to do a review, although mostly I'm going off of the current bench coach Ben McFatter's recommendations...
Pitching: OK I SWEAR TO GOD this changed while I was looking at it... I'm not going in with a 4 man rotation; that's just the AI trying to conform to the league settings. One thing I will do though is the game wants to move Pete Eason (0-0, 4.05), who's been swing-manning for a while, into the rotation. Sure, why not? Jesus Cosme (0-1, 7.71) has pitched his way off this team and at 32 I'm not even going to bother sending him to the minor leagues. Paul Boerger (0-2, 3.38) narrowly missed the final cut so I'll call him back up to go in middle relief with Svetislav Petic (1-2, 5.29) out of the rotation and working as my long man.
Infield: McFatter wants me to replace Brad Reed with Ric Flair at catcher. Sure, why not?
Meanwhile, Matt Highfield (.264, 0, 7) has come way down from a hot start and McFatter wants me to put Darrel Bump (.250, 0, 0), my original choice to run 3rd before Highfield won the job in spring training, in the position. There are hopes that he'll hit better and he's definitely a better fielder.
Outfield: McFatter wants me to run an outfield of Franks-Hellstrom-Griffin which I'll mostly do. I just can't see a good spot for Jose Villasenor (.300, 1, 2) but Hellstrom's (.324, 1, 3) hitting too well and while neither of them is a super great CF, Hellstrom's the better of the two. Franks (.300, 2, 7) is the 3-hole hitter so he stays in the lineup fulltime. I'm not suuuper hot on Ernie Griffin (.171, 1, 1), who is 35 and also not hitting well but I guess what McFatter says, goes. Gilles Villeneuve (.244, 4, 9) will fill in all over the place.
Oh right, and at DH I'm installing Dan Field (.500, 0, 1), acquired over the offseason for C Zaire Murray, who decided not to play baseball over the offseason. Hey, neat storyline! He'll be a quarterback I bet. Anyway it is totally NOT due to sunk cost fallacy then that Field, who's barely played this year, will get his chance to show what he can do at DH.
Like, all in all I don't know that the team is actually playing younger but hey, we'll see...