## Standings / Recap / Comments3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Detroit 37 23 .617 - L5 307 218 .294 52 55 3.32 3.2 5.8 .983 31.1 43.1
New York 34 29 .540 4½ L2 287 307 .248 69 15 4.48 2.7 4.7 .981 4.8 37.3
Boston 29 29 .500 7 L1 254 206 .274 51 29 3.36 3.0 5.9 .980 29.6 43.8
Baltimore 26 30 .464 9 W3 228 235 .251 49 26 3.59 3.7 5.2 .975 9.9 42.6
Cleveland 24 38 .387 14 W2 231 293 .245 56 21 4.40 3.4 5.6 .980 7.0 34.7
Milwaukee 23 37 .383 14 L4 253 324 .264 42 43 4.81 3.8 5.0 .978 -12.8 33.3
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Texas 35 22 .614 - L4 243 186 .267 41 24 2.89 3.6 5.0 .983 29.4 41.2
Chicago 35 22 .614 - W5 249 203 .261 46 32 3.18 3.6 4.8 .983 33.6 44.0
California 32 28 .533 4½ W2 261 272 .259 47 48 3.97 3.5 5.0 .979 21.8 41.5
Oakland 31 32 .492 7 W1 237 257 .267 39 27 3.71 3.0 4.8 .979 10.7 38.0
Kansas City 32 34 .485 7½ L2 328 346 .260 46 28 4.73 3.8 4.5 .982 9.7 29.0
Minnesota 22 36 .379 13½ W4 225 256 .247 57 28 3.93 3.5 5.3 .976 6.0 26.7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
St. Louis 36 24 .600 - L2 251 224 .253 60 17 3.50 3.0 5.7 .983 21.7 47.5
Philadelphia 35 26 .574 1½ L1 294 253 .249 43 43 3.70 3.1 5.2 .978 20.4 45.2
Chicago 35 30 .538 3½ L7 255 249 .257 56 30 3.61 3.3 4.6 .986 41.1 44.0
New York 30 27 .526 4½ W1 208 225 .261 25 40 3.58 3.2 5.1 .982 14.6 44.4
Pittsburgh 28 30 .483 7 L4 195 205 .237 24 10 3.25 2.8 5.9 .980 11.7 36.7
Montreal 21 35 .375 13 W1 236 289 .253 41 26 4.30 3.5 5.3 .976 2.6 32.6
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Houston 36 30 .545 - W2 280 277 .257 67 27 3.70 3.9 5.8 .975 11.3 31.2
San Diego 32 33 .492 3½ L1 256 222 .254 34 24 3.07 3.3 5.0 .978 44.1 42.6
Atlanta 31 33 .484 4 W4 252 232 .256 47 20 3.28 3.0 5.9 .982 7.6 33.3
Cincinnati 30 33 .476 4½ W4 261 259 .253 51 27 3.76 2.9 6.0 .978 -1.2 27.1
San Francisco 32 35 .478 4½ W1 251 270 .250 52 43 3.53 3.1 5.2 .980 13.1 33.3
Los Angeles 27 37 .422 8 L1 223 257 .254 67 18 3.54 3.2 5.3 .977 37.7 33.3
Some weird shake-ups at the top have led to a WHOLE NEW WORLD of pennant races! Well, kind of. In the AL, the Tigers are really slipping as of late but fortunately for them so are the 2nd place Yankees; they remain a full series ahead of the game. In the West, though, Texas' recent bad run has opened the way for the White Sox to jump into a tie with them. These are two pretty evenly-matched teams: #1 and #2 in the AL in ERA (#1 and #3 in all of baseball in spite of the DH) and both just good enough with the hitting to win a lot of games.
In the NL, the Cubs are getting 1B Antonio Lopez (.254, 3, 13) and RF Jeremy Taylor (.299, 7, 18) soon, as in probably next week for both... and that can't come quickly enough because they are really starting to fall apart without those two big bats in the lineup (plus, as of this writing 2B Juan Perez (.295, 13, 37) is out with an as-yet-undiagnosed injury). Thanks to that, the East is now a 2-team race wit the power-hitting Cardinals just edging out the speedy Phillies. And in the West, it's nice to see that a team is establishing themselves above .500, even if it is the Astros. San Diego, speaking of, juuuust missed joining the Over .500 Club today as they lost to the Mets.
Your Yuppies of the Week are those Chicago White Sox, moving all the way up from 8th in the power rankings to 1st with a perfect 5-0 week against the Tigers and Brewers. Oakland is also worthy of some yuppie love, as they went from 4th worst to 14th with a 5-1 week vs AL East contenders New York and Boston, a week that hopefully gets their ship righted. They still have a loooot of ground to cover though. The Cubbies are the dirty hippies; that 7 game losing streak all happened this week, getting swept by both the Astros and the Braves. They managed to score more than 3 runs just one time in all that (a 5-4 loss to the Astros on Sunday).
And a look at the ol' league leaders...
The Angels' 1B Chris Seek (.365, 10, 43) has really put things together this year. Remember when he was a slap hitter who couldn't stay in the lineup with the Giants due to a severe lack of power? I don't know how real that 10 HR power is but it's more than twice his previous career high. Anyway, he's leading the AL in batting too, thanks to a 12-28 week that just might get him PotW. Texas' 3B Bobby Ramirez (.347, 5, 22), the guy the Angels traded away to get Seek, is 2nd. Maaan, that's a rare deal there. Right behind him at 3rd is Detroit RF Frankie Faison (.346, 4, 29). A little surprising to see a top 3 without Tony Danza (.325, 7, 32) or Bruce Springsteen (.338, 6, 29) but I'm sure we'll see them soon.
Of course Ernesto Garcia (.275, 25, 54) is way out ahead in both HRs and RBIs, although he's slipped to "only" being on pace to hit 64 dingers this year. Alice Cooper (.2323, 17, 46) is a mile behind, at least in HRs, although I guess he and Angelo Martinez (.258, 16, 47) of the Twins are catching up in ribbies. Alvin Romero (.307, 2, 29) has twice as many steals as the next guy, Boston's Jon "The Astronaut" Glynn (.268, 5, 20), who honestly isn't so bad himself: Romero's got 30, Glynn 15. Rounding out the top 3 are Milwaukee's Fernando Ceballos (.265, 1, 14), who combines blazing speed with a lack of ability to get on base (his OBP is actually lower than his BA right now), and Bobby Ramirez, who, as noted, has a lot of chances.
Rich Reese (8-2, 1.82) continues to lead the league in ERA and at this point it's probably just repetitive in that "hey, did you know that Jimmy Graham used to play basketball???" way to remind everyone that he was a reliever last year. He's 42 points ahead of Tigers ace Jimmy Goddard (11-1, 2.20), who also has the best winning percentage in baseball, and Oakland's Vince Akright (11-3, 2.41), who's really come around this year to be that top staff guy the A's were hoping for when they acquired him from (then) Washington. Akright and Goddard lead in wins with Edgar Molina (10-7, 3.78) right behind them in spite of some gopher issues (see one of the game recaps below!).
Molina also became the first guy to hit the century mark in strikeouts this year with 100 even now in 135.2 IP. Strikeouts are down across the league. Michael Pesco (7-9, 2.91) has been having a hard-luck year but is still 2nd with 88 Ks in 136 IP, and his teammate Marco Sanchez (7-9, 3.51) is 3rd with 83 in 125.1. White Sox stopper Malcolm Post (1-0, 1.97) has seen a liiitle less use the last couple weeks but he's pretty close to his historical averages and also he leads the AL with 11 saves and 10 shutdowns. There's a 3-way tie for 2nd between KC's Jorge Cervantez (0-4, 2.34), Oakland's Willis Chavez (3-4, 2.28), and Texas' Kojiro Nakamura (1-2, 4.03) with 8 apiece - Cervantez also is tied with post in shutdowns thus far.
In the NATIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE the batting race has now been taken over by an old familiar face, Cardinals LF Rafael Disla (.336, 6, 36), who hit .452 a week ago and .333 this week to ride right into this thing. George Harrison (.329, 9, 43), just about the only guy on the Giants who can hit, is right behind him, and somehow in 3rd is 3B Mike Morrison (.322, 2, 20) of Atlanta, who missed most of last season with an injury and who was relegated to a backup role behind Marco Perez in Baltimore before that. Even if he can't keep this up, nice comeback season!
The NL HR guy isn't quiiiite as exciting as Garcia but hey, still an old standby: Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.351, 17, 35), who would be the batting guy if he qualified, too: those 17 dingers come in just 42 games so far. He's out ahead of Reds RF Jaden Weaver (.246, 15, 49) and the GRILLER George Foreman (.306, 13, 43), who's leading a powerful Astros attack this year. Weaver, Foreman, and Harrison are 1-2-3 in RBIs. Jon Berry (.311, 7, 22) of the Giants is the only other guy besides Alvin Romero with more than 20 steals so far; he has 22. He's followed by master-of-everything, Phillies LF Alberto Juantorena (.296, 10, 37) with 15, and Cardinals' CF Sonny Burwell (.252, 2, 7), who has 12 of them, good for 3rd in spite of being out of action with an injury since May 22.
Jeremy Battaglia (5-7, 1.73) is one of two guys in the NL with a sub-2.00 ERA; the other is knuckleballer Colin Rose (4-2, 1.99), who transitioned into the rotation earlier this year for the Braves. Atlanta, somehow, also has the #3 starter in Frank Evans (7-3, 2.18). Richard Starkey (11-4, 2.80), aka Ringo Starr, leads the NL in wins thanks to being able to pitch in front of that powerful Phillies' lineup; 4 guys are about a mile behind him with 8 wins. Jeff Graton (2-9, 4.33) of the Expos leads the league in losses so far and I mean Montreal is bad but how long will they go with him?
The striker outers of the league are Battaglia with 92 in 135.1 IP and the Astros' Tony Rivera (7-5, 3.21) with 92 in 115.0. That's a kind of high ERA for a #1 starter who plays half his games in the Astrodome but who am I to judge? George House (8-5, 3.20) has been the steadiest pitcher in a surprising Braves rotation this year; he's also 3rd in the NL in Ks with 88 in 115.1. Geoff Saus (5-5, 4.21) has had a rough time of it recently but still leads the NL in both saves (14) and shutdowns (18). Behind him is Padres closer Darius Parchman (2-2, 0.88) with 14 and the Cubs' Jesse Kelly (5-2, 1.82) with 10. Kelly also has 15 shutdowns of his own and I must mention Paz Lemus (7-1, 1.67), whose save totals are down (only 8) because of the Pirates' failure to score runs but he's still 3rd in shutdowns with 14 of them.
## Major Transactions
June 11: The White Sox signed C Robert Keith (.238, 2, 15 with AAA Rochester in 1972) to a contract. Yeah, it's kind of a minor league-ish sort of a deal but the 34 year old Keith has started in the past, brings in a scintillating .203 lifetime average in the major leagues, and with Rene Arnoux (.140, 1, 3) just flat-out not hitting in the majors, the time had come to make a change. Keith, who came up through the Sox system and played for them until he was traded to LA in 1967, does have himself a gun for an arm even at his old, ancient, old age of oldness.
June 12: The Reds traded C Oliver Williams (.214, 4, 14) and a SP to be named later (7-5, 2.93 in AAA Indianapolis) to the Padres for SP Rodrigo Aguilar (5-6, 4.61). Aguilar is a finesse guy so maybe isn't the greatest fit for the poor-fielding Cincinnati; however, he's a starter, he won 18 games last year, and he fills a position of need for relatively cheap. Oliver Williams helps bolster a kind of weak catching corps in San Diego this year and the pitcher is 23 and looks like a future back-of-the-rotation guy.
June 12: The Indians traded RP Elias Sanchez (1-2, 3.86, 2 Sv) to the Yankees for RP Alfredo Contreras (2-0, 4.96). Let's face it, Contreras has been bad this year but Sanchez is 35 and very unlikely to still be active when Cleveland is good again. Come to think of it, it seems unlikely for the 30-year old Contreras to be there either but hey, not everyone you acquire can be 21 years old.
June 15: The Cardinals purchased RP Phil Bowman (0-1, 3.24, 3 Sv) from the Orioles for $15,000. Hey, the O's are clearly in a rebuild and while Bowman's not exactly old, why not get some cash for him, right? Meanwhile he should help boster a shaky Cardinals staff.
June 15: The Indians traded P Rocky Richard (2-2, 3.59) to the Tigers for minor league OF Joshua Birley (.179, 0, 0) and P Alex Madrigal (2-2, 5.73, 4 Sv). Richard was in Cleveland's rotation but he'll be a middle-innings guy in Detroit. Coming back to them... Birley hasn't hit at all in AAA this year but he was a 4th/5th OFer for the World Series champs last year and given the Tribe's poor OF situation, he'll very likely come right back up. The 33 year old Madrigal lost like 6 miles off of his fastball over the offseason and is probably done but hey, a team like Cleveland is a good place to find out for sure.
June 15: The Reds traded 3B Bobby Kralcevic (.272, 3, 22) to the Angels for a P to be named later (9-3, 2.06 in AA El Paso) and another P to be named later (6-2, 3.65 in AA El Paso). The Reds were hoping to bounce back into contention this year but it hasn't really happened and Bobby K has been a pretty, pretty bad clubhouse guy. In exchange, these two guys are the Angels' #13 and #17 prospects overall so they're not getting a maaassive haul back for him. You never know with pitching though!
## News
June 11: Libya's leader Moammar Khadafy announces the nationalization of Nelson Bunker Hunt's oil company, giving Libya full control of the Sareer oilfield that had once been owned by British Petroleum. The taking HORRIFICALLY transforms Bunker Hunt from the wealthiest man in the world to a MERE multimillionaire overnight.
June 11: Diplocardia meansi, a big ass earthworm so big it gets its own whole species, is discovered in Polk County, Arkansas.
June 11: Sean Kenny, an Irish theater designer, dies of a brain hemorrhage. He designed, among other things, the sets for Oliver! and something called Lock Up Your Daughters.
June 11: Wooow, believe it or not a CLEVELAND INDIAN has won Player of the Week this week. I guess they aren't 2023 A's level of trash, to be fair (what is this science fiction???). Anyway, P Robert Rivera (6-5, 3.93) pitched in two games, completing them both and allowing just 1 unearned run all week to win the award, also a rare one for pitchers. In doing so, he pulled his record above .500 and his ERA under 4. Good work! This was the 33 year old Rivera's 2nd ever PotW, the first coming when he was still in San Francisco in 1968 (for the week ending April 28).
June 11: The NL PotW is an old familiar face: C John Stuart (.303, 10, 28) of the Cardinals. Stuart is quietly putting together a superstar season and this week was... less quiet. He went 9-19 (.474) with 4 HRs, 6 runs, and 6 RBIs. Imagine if this guy wasn't a catcher and so didn't have to sit as much! Man. Somehow, this 5-time All-Star and 6-time NL Silver Slugger has only won PotW one other time in his career, the other time being his first-ever ML awar for the week ending May 8, 1966.
June 11: SYD THRIFT'S NEATO STAT OF THE WEEK is the single-season K/W record. Exciting! Well, maybe...
5. Zachary Schenker, LAD, 1960, 236 Ks (in 241.2 IP) to 23 BB.
4. Angelo Ramos (hey! current player!), MIN, 1968, 179 K (in 230.1 IP), 28 BB
3. Francisco Galtan, CHC, 1957, 235 K (in 245.1), 34 BB
2. Schenker, LAD, 1961, 215 (in 223.2), 30 BB
1. Schenker, LAD, 1959, 252 (in 272.1), 35 BB
Schenker was... pretty good although he got hurt in 1963 at the age of 34 and his career more or less ended on the spot. He still finished with a 192-140 record and a 3.05 ERA that only looks sort of ordinary now. Trust me, for the 50s it was still good. He was a 10-time All-Star, a 2-time Cy Young winner and, yes, he was inducted into the Hall back in 1970, his first year of eligibility. Call him the Sandy Koufax (who?) of this save...
June 11: Good thing this is a bad year for Minnesota... I noticed they had that rain-delayed double-header last week so barely played until the weekend so I checked to see how they were making up those games... well. They're playing the Brewers today for a 3-gamer and get Thursday off. That is the last day off they will have until the All-Star Break. 3 1/2 weeks straight worth of games. Good luck! I mean, you're bad this year so... mediocre luck!
June 12: Six people are killed and 33 injured when a terrorist car bomb explodes in the Northern Irish town of Colerain. All of the dead are retired Protestants and, as you might have guessed, the bomb was planted by the PIRA. A second time bomb explodes five minutes after the first onhe but causes no injuries.
June 12: Italy's Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and his cabinet announce their resignations following the dissolution of their coalition.
June 12: Marlon Brando punches celebrity photographer Ron Galella after the pararazzo stalked Brando and talk show host Dick Cavett to a restaurant. Galella's jaw was broken and he had five teeth knocked out; there is no news as to how Brando's hand fared, and I think that's what we really care about.
June 12: Alyson Annan, a women's field hockey player for the Australian Olympic Team, is born today. She'll led her team to 2 gold medals in 1996 and 2000 and will win six world championships between 1993 and 1999.
June 12: The Orioles actually managed to score some runs today and you can thank CF Frank Beard (.301, 7, 26). Not only did Beard go 4-4 in the O's 8-7 win over the Royals, he tied the Baltimore/St. Louis Browns record with 3 doubles in the game and even added a solo HR in the 6th inning. Granted, now, KC is not exactly known for high quality pitching and defense, but this was still a feat!
There are a whole slew of Orioles to have hit 3 two-baggers in a game but Beard is the first in almost a decade: the last guy to do it was 3B Mike McBride in 1964 (.247, 24, 57), who weirdly (to me I guess) only had 17 doubles that whole season, which was also his last year as a major league starter (he retired in 1966 with just over 1,000 hits and a fond memory for a few older Orioles fans).
June 12: Pirates SP Santos Arangos (7-4, 2.86) pitched one heck of a game but, as has plagued his team this year, a complete lack of offense still gave him the L. Arango carried a 2-2 tie into extra innings and even pitched into the bottom of the 12th before a throwing error by RF Brian Jackson (.230, 3. 22) on a play at third base on Braves 3B Mike Morrison (.328, 2, 19) with 2 outs led to the game-winning run. Atlanta escaped with a 3-2 win and the Pirates at 27-26 are now very close to dropping to .500. They are dead last in the NL (and baseball) in runs scored with 181 and best in runs allowed with 185.
June 12: Meanwhile, in Shea Stadium, the Giants hit a new season low and the Mets' Julio Snadoval (3-4, 3.64) narrowly missed making history. Sandoval took a no-hitter into the 9th inning, allowing his first hit with 2 outs (LF Jon Berry (.333, 7, 22)) was the spoiler). He then gave up a double to new call-up CF Mats Vindig (.333, 0, 0), intentionally walked George Harrison (.329, 9, 41), and then induced RF Frank Meneses (.188, 8, 26) to ground out weakly to end the game. The Mets, needless to say, won 5-0.
This would have been the firstt no-no in Mets' history. They've never been no-hit so there's that! I didn't figure this would be a no-hitter year but we've had a couple of close calls already...
June 13: The Soviet submarine K-56 collides with a research vessel, the Academician Berg, and 27 people die (I think on the sub) when a container of chlorine gas fills a compartment. Which, hey, tragic and all but maybe don't traffic in chemical warfare, 1970s era Soviets...
June 13: Richard Nixon, the grandfather of conservatism as he is, orders a 60 day price freeze for all groceries and gasoline to be increased to no more than the price they were as of June 8. Prices will not be allowed to rise again until August 13.
June 13: The USC Trojans win the College World Series over the ASU Sun Devils in Omaha, Nebraska, by a score of 4-3. No casualties are reported.
June 13: Viriato da Cruz, a poet and the author of the manifesto of the Poeples' Movement for the Liberation of Angola, dies in exile in China at 55. The MPLA weirdly never recognized da Cruz' writing of their unifying document even after they wrested control of the country from Portugal in 1975.
June 13: Red Sox C Jeremy Dolak (.192, 0, 9) will miss the next month with a strained oblique muscle. It's been a rough year for Dolak but evne rougher for his backup Sid Bartoszek (.160, 4, 7). Both of these guys are well over 30 so proooobably Boston needs to start looking around for a new backstop. Alan Thicke (.164, 4, 17 in AAA Louisville) was suposed to be that guy but you can see how he's doing, so instead 30 year old organizational soldier Andy Hanson (.288, 3, 7 in AAA Louisville) will get the call up instead.
June 13: The only thing more obnoxious than Indians SP Kevin Freeman's (7-3, 2.99) classic lack of support is his complaining about his lack of support. Today he juuuust about had another Freeman day but happily we were spared the postgame tirade because after he threw *12* innings of 1-run ball his team fiiiiinally crossed the finish line in the bottom of the 12th for a 2-1 win over Texas and Robbie Coltrane (8-3, 3.26).
"I'm still not happy I had to wear out my arm so much," said a never entirely gruntled Freeman following the game. "I might have to miss my next start." He scattered 11 hits in his 12 innings, threw 181(!) pitches, and still had enough stuff to strike guys out in the final frame.
June 13: So, like, remember 2 weeks ago when the Dodgers were looking pretty OK and maybe even contending for the NL West division title? Welp... following today's 2-1 loss in Philadelphia, they've now lost 10 games in a row and are now firmly mired in last place, 6 games behind the division-leading Astros. Today they got a good outing from starter Andres Castillo (6-4, 2.99) but failed to put up much of a fight offensively, going down 2-1. Philadelphia starter Vince Bachler (1-1, 3.32) looked like he was going to take a shutout in this one. He faltered in the 8th but the Hippie himself, Tom Grohs (2-4, 2.89) slammed the door shut with 2 outs in the 8th to pick up his 8th save on the season.
The peripheral numbers do not tell an exciting tale for this team going forward: LA is 3rd worst in runs scored thanks to a league-worst .312 OBP, and in spite of playing in Dodger Stadium they're only 7th in the league in runs allowed, leading the NL in starter ERA (3.10) but, thanks to some horrific meltdowns this month by closer Alec Cosby (2-6, 4.20, 4 Sv) and setup man Rich Wilson (0-1, 6,53), they are dead last in reliever ERA (5.31).
June 14: Connecticut becomes the first state to recognize Martin Luther King's birthday as a state holiday as Governor Thomas Meskill signs a bill that passed the state House by a vote of 124-17 and the Senate unanimously. How do you vote against this, even in 1973? The law sets aside the second Sunday in January, which isn't normally a workday for state employees anyway, as the date.
June 14: Amin al-Hafez announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Lebanon after just seven weeks in office. He goes in under fire for not putting enough Sunni Muslims in office and several members of his cabinet have already resigned in protest. He'll remain in the role until a Sunni politician, Takieddin el-Solih, is able to form a new government.
June 14: Man, the Red Sox get hit with bad injury news for the 2nd time in 2 days. Now it's 4th OF Goodwill Zwelithini (.270, 2, 2), who'd done a solid job filling in at CF for Jon Glynn (.255, 5, 20) earlier in the year, who's going to be out until the All-Star Break with a fractured wrist. Boston (27-27) has been scuffling all year long in spite of outscoring their opponents 241-194 so far this year.
June 14: You run on Royals RF Dave Corona (.290, 4, 25) at your own risk. Corona isn't the world's greatest outfielder in terms of range - it's hard to believe KC was trying him in center as recently as last year - but what he lacks in a smooth first step, he more than makes up for with an arm. Tonight it was on display in the bottom of the 11th, as Orioles RF Sergio Viera de Mello (.250, 2, 16) belted one into the right-center gap at Memorial Stadium with his team down 4-3 and looking for an easy tie. He motored through 2nd and Corona nailed him at third to put out any chance of a Baltimore rally.
Corona already has 7 baserunner kills in right this year. The record, because previous versions of OOTP got weird with outfield assists, is somewhere in the 20s so he won't reach it. Still, this man has got a cannon.
June 14: Somehow there were two famous Rowan Atkinsons born within about a decade of each other in England... the one who just shut out the Cubs 5-0 is the future Archbishop of Canterbury (4=2, 3.83), not Mr. Bean. This Atkinson has been treated with kid gloves by the Astros; tonight was not only hit first ever shuttie, it was his first complete game aas well. He struck out 8 - he's been averaging 7.4/9 so far in the majors, walked 4, and allowed only 4 hits.
The win also wraps up a sweep for the suddenly pretty good Astros (34-29), who are sitting a full 3 1/2 games up on the Giants and Padres now in the NL West. They're also the only team in the division with a winning record.
June 15: Leaders from the Comoro Islands sign the "Common Declaration on the Access of the Comoros to Independence" in Paris. With the exception of one Island, Mayotte, the former French colony located off the coast of Africa will officially become independent in 1975.
June 15: The Soviets successful launch an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft into orbit today; they will bring it back to Earth 2 days later, designating it as Kosmos 573 to disguise its purpose. The craft will not be docked to the orbiting Salyut space station but the results give the USSR reason to clear the launch of Soyuz 12 on September 27.
June 15: With the return of Justin Lawson (.261, 1, 6) from the DL, there was only one move the Pirates could make and that was to release 39 year old pinch hitter and former Twins pennant race hero Mike Grigg (.176, 0, 3). Grigg hadn't really hit since 1971 so it was probably past time; in fact, I'm pretty sure he announced he was retiring this year anyway. Welp... now the retirement gets to start early.
June 15: A pitching duel? At the Launching Pad? Against the Cubs? With Chicago's two big power threats out of the lineup, it's more likely than you think. The Braves' George House (8-5, 3.20) pitched a 5-hitter and 2B Kevin Dwyer (.277, 6, 29) broke a 1-0 game open in the 8th with a 2 run HR to send Atlanta's fans home happy with a 3-0 win. Gordon "Sting" Summer (4-2, 2.65) took the tough loss but gave his team 7.1 strong innings with really just the one big mistake.
House has been the epitome of hot and cold this year: in spite of that high-ish ERA (well, given the next stat anyway), this is already shutout number 6 for him this year. The record, as we'll remember since it was set last year, was Tony Rivera's 9. Will this be a double-digit ShO year for House?
June 15: The Dodgers' losing streak reaches 11 as they drop one 5-2 to the lowly Montreal Expos. Old man Mike Johnston (4-1, 4.20) found some magic tonight, striking out 7 in 7.1 IP before giving the game over to the relief staff in the 8th. Offensively, SS George Yarbor's (.245, 1, 15) first triple on the season, off LA starter Ken Hansen (2-6, 4.52), brought in what wound up being the game-winning run in the bottom of the 6th.
The last Dodgers' win was against these same Expos way back on the 2nd. Since then, they've been swept by the Cubs, Mets, and Phillies. They are now 10 games under .500 at 26-36. This year wasn't supposed to go like this! Or wait, maybe it was: a quick glance at the preseason predictions put LA at 74 wins.
June 16: Benjamin Britten's opera "Death In Venice" is performed for the first time at Snape Maltings in England near Aldeburgh. This will wind up being Britten's final opera, as he will die of a heart attack in 3 years.
June 16: Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev arrives in the US at Andrews Air Force Base, where he is greeted by US Secretary of State William Roggers. He is then flown by helicopter to Camp David, the US Presidential retreat in Maryland.
June 16: Tigers' pitcher Edgar Molina (10-7, 3.78) gets the Ks but maaaan this guy is an all-or-nothing hurler. Today he seemed like he completely shut down the Twins through 8, riding through a 2-run game with less than 100 pitches thrown... and then he fell apart in the 9th, allowing a grand slam HR to C Brad Reed (.232, 3, 14) and then a 2-run shot to CF Ronnie Hellstrom (.286, 6, 20). All this wasted a pretty solid Tigers' hitting night themselves as they lost 8-7. I'll blame Tigers Stadium a little bit, although Molina has led the AL in HRs allowed each of the last 2 seasons and is now on pace to give up 49 ding-dongs. He also allowed solo shots to PH Ernie Griffin (.208, 5, 10) and SS Justin Ramey (.187, 6, 17).
The Tigers are now all of the sudden on a 4-game losing streak and Molina himself is 1-3 in his last 3 starts, having allowed 21 runs in those 3 losses. He has an ERA of 6.52 for the month despite 23 Ks in 29 IP.
June 16: OF Tony Danza (.332, 7, 32) had only 2 hits in 5 at-bats today in the Royals' 10-4 win over the Indians but boy oh boy did he make them count. "The Boss" hit both of those balls out of the park, a 3-run shot and a grand salami, and in doing so set the Royals' new record for single-game RBI with 7. "Heeey I just hit the ball, you know," said a distracted Danza following the game. "Oh no, what now? Angela!"
The old record of 6 was set by 2B James Ellroy (.282, 2, 33) on May 22 of this year. Previously the high had been 5, a mark set by seven Royals.
June 16: The Dodgers finally got off the schneid after 10 straight losses and all it took was a near-complete performance by the entire team. Offensively, LA took advantage of Montreal Expos starter Erik Schnipke (0-5, 5.97), knocking him out of the box in the 5th inning, and on their side of things they relied on debutant Mahfuzur Rahman Khan (1-0, 0.00), a budding cinematographer out of Bangladesh who also gave up just 1 unearned run over 7.2 IP for the 6-3 win. I say "near complete" because Alec Cosby (2-6, 4.60) took over for Rahman Khan in the 8th and then allowed a 2 run HR to slap-hitting IF Danny Waters (.250, 1, 2), also making his 1973 debut tonight, in the 9th.
June 17: The submersible Johnson Sea Link research vessel becomes entangled in the wreckage of the destroyer USS Fred T. Berry, which itself had been scuttled to create an artificial reef off the coast of Key West, Florida. The submarine is finally brought to the surface but not before two of the four men aboard had succumbed to carbon dioxide poisoning.
June 17: Bahamasair begins operations as the official airline of the Bahamanian government. It's still around!
June 17: Several European soccer leagues stage their finals today: APOEL FC wins the Cypriot Cup (that's for Cypus) 1-0 over Pzoporikos Larnaca FC, Olympic Lionnais beats FC Nantes 2-1 in the Coup de France (I'll let you guess that one), Olympiacos FC beats PAOK FC 1-0 in the Greek Cup, Legia Warszawa takes down Polonia Bytorm 4-2 on penalty kicks after regulation ended in a -0- tie in the Polish Cup, and Sporting CP beats Vitoria FC 3-2 in the Taca de Portugal.
June 17: Also, speaking of a racecar driver too old to debut in baseball, Denny Hulme wins the Swedish Grand Prix.
June 17: Hey, it's too early to panic but what's going on with the Tigers? They dropped today's game to the Twins 3-1, completing a sweep at home at the hands of last-place Minnesota, and now they've lost 5 in a row. Power rankings are gonna look baaaad... Bruce Rubio (4-5, 3.22) basically just had one bad inning, the 2nd, but it was enough as his team just plain could not score runs. Twinkies CF Ronnie Hellstrom (.285, 6, 22) had both of his RBIs in that inning with a 2-run single, and their starter, rookie Svetislav Pesic (5-5, 3.09) was never truly great but seemed to wriggle out of one jam after another all game long.
Detroit's still 3 1/2 games up on the Yankees (pending their game today) so like I said, it's no time to panic, but man, that's crazy.
June 17: In case you're worried about the Evil Empire catching up, though, don't, because the Yankees dropped a double-header to the Angels in Anaheim, 5-3, and 6-1. Gary "We Don't Talk About" Bruno (9-4, 2.53) and Al "The Inconvenient Truth" Gore (4-5, 4.56) both had strong outings and California also benefitted from a 5-7, 6 RBI day (over 2 games) by 1B Chris Seek (.374, 5, 25).
June 17: Speaking of getting doubled up... the NL's defending champion Pirates fall to 2 games under .500 as they get tossed by the Reds, 2-1 and 6-3. Pittsburgh, as the scores would suggest, had all kinds of trouble scoring runs, as they've had all season long. They blew a great outing by Jeremy Battaglia (5-7, 1.73) by only being able to score one time; when he finally faltered in the 9th it felt like it was inevitable. In Game 2, the Reds put up 4 runs in the 1st on the back of a double by LF RJ Dominguez (.311, 10, 40) and then never looked back (incidentally, Dominguez was injured a couple innings later on a base hit and has the fateful diagnosis: pending).
June 17: Things were looking dire for the Giants as of the top of the 8th inning: after having lost their previous 5 games, they were on the verge of being swept by the Phillies at Veteran's Stadium, down 4-0 to former Brewers ace Danny Plaunt (4-6, 4.19). Give the 'Jints some credit though: they rallied for 4, knocking Plaunt out of the box in the process, and wound up winning it in the 10th on a 2B Bob McAdoo (.272, 4, 19) homerun off of Tom "The Hippie" Grohs (2-5, 3.72). Scott Lammers (.214, 5, 11) added a pinch-hit, bases-clearing double later in the inning to seal the deal at 7-4.
"It's just good to put one in the win column again," said Charlie Bechtel (3-1, 2.30), the winning pitcher tonight and a man who by his own moral code only appears when a woman speaks to another woman in a movie about a topic other than another man. "And by the way, The Exorcist. Yeah, it surprised me too. Honestly, it's a low bar."
June 17: It is fruuuustrating for Dodgers fans this season. They always think they've got a shot at the division and I guess to be fair TOOO BEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAIR the NL West looks pretty weak this year. Anyway though they were leading 6-1 through 7 and decided to pull their ace Fernando Apolonio (8-5, 2.29) because he was looking like he was faltering. Hey, no problem: middle reliever Mario Juarez (2-2, 3.25) threw a 1-2-3 8th... and then he gave up a walk and 2 singles to open the 9th, causing LA to call in Alec Cosby (2-6, 4.55), who, as the ERA might suggest, has been volatile this year to say the least. Well... today Cosby pitched to one guy, landed hard on his ankle on a sac fly by 2B Hudson Watts (.266, 3, 14) to center, and left the game in favor of Rich Wilson (0-2, 7.43). Wilson, you guessed it, blew it. He gave up a single to RF Paul Kahl (.281, 4, 24) that loaded the bases back up and then allowed the big old GRAND SALAMI to LF Willie Ortega (.247, 11, 40). And yes, he stayed in in the 10th and allowed the game-winner. Dodgers lose, 7-6.
"I'm just trying to take it all in stride," said Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.351, 17, 35), who went 3-4 with 4 RBI in his own right, after the game. "It's not my job to tell the pitchers what to do. But boy, if it was..."
## Teams in Review
June 15: The
Detroit Tigers (37-20, - GB) are actually *not* the last 20-loss team - the Rangers still haven't gotten their review - but they're the clear early AL World Series contender. In spite of an injury to DH Danny Villegas (.209, 3, 12) that led to a slow start from him, the offense is cooking and the pitching, led by their own Big 3, has been doing the job as well. I don't anticipate doing much here...
Rotation: The weakest link in the 4 man rotation is Chris Benavides (6-3, 3.74), the AL leader in losses last season. He's not exactly weak and with the replacements doing even worse in relief (those would be Juan Merino (1-0, 6.11) and Chris McGranahan (0-3, 4.71)), there's no reason at all to rotate Benavides out.
Bullpen: This is overall probably the biggest spot of weakness for this team. They've got two guys in closer Jim Marceau (3-1, 1.16, 5 Sv) and Todd Thiesen (0-0, 2.25, 2 Sv) who are doing well and 3 guys who are... not, with setup man / former closer Alex Madrigal (2-2, 5.73, 4 Sv) being the other one. Madrigal's velo has gone waaaaaaaaaay down this year, from the mid to high 90s to the high 80s. I guess that shoulder inflammation really did him in. Will he accept a minors assignment? He will! I'll call up Alex Ruiz (6-4, 3.92, 7 Sv in AAA Toledo) in his place. Ruiz has been used a looot in high leverage situations in the minors this year but he was very solid as a middle inning, not super high leverage guy last year.
Infield: 1B Nikki Lauda (.288, 10, 32) has surely earned the right to start full-time; he was formerly platooning with AAAA vet Tim Suman (.231, 1, 6). Yeah, that'll go into effect immediately. Lauda's even gone 10-39 vs LHPs this year so he shouldn't die against them...
SS Rob Curran (.263, 1, 13) is doing fine but man, I feel bad for Matt Mullen (.277, 1, 9), whose bat seems to have returned after having gone missing for 2 years. Maybe he's worth more as trade fodder. He's a really good defender, not that Curran is any slouch. Anyway, Curran's going to keep the starting job but I'll mix Mullen in as I see if I can't get something for him... bullpen help, maybe?
Outfield: LF looks messy but I realize that it's because Alejandro Cortez (.319, 4, 11) is still out with a sprained ankle. For now it's Danny Hohman (.276, 2, 25) and Tom Berenger (.245, 2, 6), neither of which look like world-beaters. It's fine. Not everyone in this lineup needs to be super-fantastic.
DH Danny Villegas (.209, 3, 12) still only has 91 at-bats and he's finally started to hit for power over the last couple weeks so there's no need to move him down from cleanup, much less try someone else out here at the moment. He is 36 and he's never been a really high motor guy so it's always possible the end is coming but, like, not yet.
June 16: And hey, with the
Texas Rangers (35-20, = GB), we are done with the first round of reviews! Texas has been surprisingly good this year... well, I think I had them pegged as a contender last year but it didn't work out, but they've knocked the dust off and the offense has improved from possibly record-breakingly bad to roughly league average (7th in run scored!), which has been more than enough to bolster a league-best pitching staff (1st in runs allowed, starters' ERA, and bullpen ERA). I don't... expect I'll do much here but we'll see.
Rotation: The rotation's riding high. I could swap out 26 year old Robert "Rat" McHugh (6-5, 3.93), who's only kind of average in his rookie season but he's their 4th starter and that feels like change for the sake of change.
Bullpen: The bullpen as a whole has been good although the current closer, maybe not so much. Kojiro Nakazawa (1-2, 4.43, 8 Sv) was the guy there up until today at least. I think he's better than the ERA would suggest but he has melted down 4 times in 17 appearances. Instead, I'll switch him out with his fellow Japan native and former California Angel Tanzan Kihara (0-1, 1.59, 7 Sv), who somehow only has only played in one game with this team since arriving via trade on the 20th. The live of a middle reliever on Texas I guess...
Infield: The "hey I want this story" part of me really wants to give Raul Bueno (..353, 0, 5) a bigger role but... where? Roberto Hernandez (.286, 6, 36) has been pretty darn good at third base and Jimmy "Olsen" Washington (.301, 10, 37) has quietly been one of the top DHes in the league. I guess I'm still going to push Bueno in a little more aggressively at those positions, as well as LF (currently manned by Josh Damon (.264, 5, 24)) and see what happens.
Outfield: I really need to make a decision on Norm Hodge (.239, 1, 9) and by "make a decision" I need to figure out how to replace him. He bounced back from an awful 1972 (.206, 2, 20) to be... roughly replacement level. He still has a sub .300 OBP which is not exactly optimal for a leadoff guy. On the other hand, even at 31 he saves a loooot of runs in the outfield. So far his ZR is +3.0, which is on pace to be pretty close to the +13.1 he put up his final season in Cal (granted, it's waaay off of the 5 +20 seasons).
I've been spelling him with Bill Iverson (.212, 0, 7) but Iverson hasn't really done any better at the plate and he's not even close to the fielding wizard. Neither is Devin Bucciarelli (.269, 4, 18 in AAA Spokane) but at least "Booch" can hit a bit, so I'll send Iverson down and call him up to exist in a platoon.