[JayW UK]

2031 Season Notes

Spring Training – Denver broke off contract negotiations with star 1B Jamie Boden after the two sides couldn’t agree on a suitable deal, leaving Boden extremely disappointed and with the disgruntled star likely to look at his free agency options come the end of the season.
April 2nd – Minneapolis’ off-season acquisition Mark Fort immediately endeared himself to his new fans by hurling an opening day NO-HITTER, to make the accomplishment all-the-more-sweeter, it was against his old team Kansas City.
April 3rd – in his first start of the season Cristobal Chapa lasted just one inning before leaving the game with a shoulder injury, the ailment turned out to be a partially torn Labrum ruling Chapa out until August.
April 6th – Los Angeles 3B Jose Munoz slammed a trio of homeruns, helping the Lynx to a comfortable 11-3 victory over San Jose. Over in Cleveland 3B Will Nicholas collected his 2000th career hit.
April 9th – Minneapolis starter Max Castle (in his second start for the club) collected 6 strikeouts against Houston, the last of which was the 2500th of his career.
April 20th - on this day, Seattle’s Michael Jennings scored his 1000th run while Cleveland SS Richie Rambeaux slugged his 300th career homerun.
April 30th – Tampa Bay fireballer Larry de Meza became the fourth player to reach 3000 career strikeouts.
May 4th – OKC 2B Dustin Polk scored his 1000th career run in a loss against Kansas City.
May 12th – SS Richie Rambeaux smashed three homeruns, but despite his heroics his Cleveland team slumped to defeat against rivals Detroit.
May 16th – Las Vegas closer Rolando Cerny suffered a torn UCL ruling him out for the next 14 months forcing the Gamblers to move former closer Davis Robinson back into the role.
May 20th – Dallas LF Alfonso Sosa clubbed three homeruns driving in six runs and helping the Mustangs down Sanfrancisco 9-6. While in Denver Dixon Bodean collected career hit number 3000, becoming the first player in league history to reach the milestone.
May 22nd – San Jose CF Anthony Hopkins belted three homers and was responsible for all four Spartans runs in a losing effort against Seattle.
May 31st – LF Bob Hall hit for the CYCLE helping Washington down Denver 3-1 for the Generals first ever interleague victory (they had lost their first five)
June 1st – Denver starter Will Spencer dominated against Houston striking out 15 in just 7 innings of work.
June 2nd – Dallas star Alfonso Sosa hit a walk-off homerun against OKC for the second consecutive day (he hit 9th inning 2-run homer the previous day)
June 3rd – the matchup between Las Vegas and Phoenix saw two pitchers reach the 2500K milestone, Earl Stone for Phoenix and Marc Birstall for LV.
June 8th – LF Stephen Thomas collected three homeruns on the way to leading Tampa Bay to an 8-4 victory over Atlanta.
June 13th – Frank Wilcox hurled a NO-HITTER for expansion franchise Baltimore, taking just 95 pitches to see off New Orleans.
June 16th – Cleveland star Richie Rambeaux continued his assault on the Franchise record books collecting his 1000th run scored in a win over Philadelphia.
June 20th – OKC’s Dustin Polk goes 0-for-4 against Kansas City ending his 31-game hitting streak.
June 22nd – New York sent SS Eduardo Ruiz and $3M to Philadelphia for a pair of prospects, SS Darby Dominguez and SP Carlos Sanchez. The deal helped both teams, as New York got out from under Ruiz’s contract while Philadelphia gained a valuable locker room presence in Ruiz.
July 3rd – Detroit closer Greg Gray throws nine pitches on the way to collecting his 300th career save.
July 5th – Indianapolis 3B Matt Romero has a great day (5-for-5, 2 HR, 8 RBI) leading the Racers to a convincing 15-4 victory over Philadelphia.
July 6th – disgruntled Denver 1B Jamie Boden (who was struggling at the plate on the season, hitting a disappointing .244, 10 HR, 33 RBI), suffered a fractured foot sending him to the DL for the next 6 weeks and left the Wildcats in a quandary, whether to wait on the clearly de-motivated and struggling Boden returning, or make a move. In the end they chose to wait it out putting a call into AAA Aurora Hornets for Eric Randall.
July 7th – Omaha LF Daniel Garcia collected his 2000th career hit in a losing effort against Seattle.
July 8th – New York traded starting pitcher Yasutoki Sugiyama (13-3, 2.48 ERA in 16 starts) to western league powerhouse Dallas for BNN #84 prospect 1B Phil Newton.
July 16th – Miami made a move to shore up their starting pitching, sending CF Jorge Rivera and prospect 1B Christos Warner to New York for SP Ieyoshi Matsumoto.
July 25th – In a move that shocked everyone Chicago dealt all-star 1B Matt Henderson to Denver for five prospects (1B Ramiro Sanchez, CF Ricardo Machado, CL Phil Hopkins, SP Carlos Robledo and BNN #17 prospect CF Dave Cantrell). The Wildcats move paired Henderson with Dixon Bodean giving them a potent one-two punch in the heart of their line-up and added more fuel to the fire with regards Jamie Boden’s future with the club.
July 26th – With Alwin Roozen and Cristobal Chapa due to return from injury in the coming weeks, Dallas traded from a position of strength for some much-needed depth elsewhere, sending SP Edward Williams, who was having a career year (11-1, 2.28 ERA) to Houston for 3B Colt Norman and C Danny Lunnard.
July 28th – Detroit 3B Ryan Scott suffered a torn MCL ruling him out for the rest of the campaign, for the second time in three years Scott would end the season on the DL.
July 29th – with a pair of trades OKC effectively give up on their season, first they sent catcher Bob Stone and $3M to Atlanta for SP Matt Kelly and 3B Michael Murphy then they sent newly acquired pitcher Matt Kelly along with Dustin Polk to New York for SP Hunter Thomas.
July 30th – Las Vegas sent star 1B Arlan Bresnahan and depth outfielder Norm Morrison to Kansas City for 24-year-old 1B Ed Matthews.
July 31st – in a deadline day deal Cleveland sent veteran pitcher Eric Parker to San Diego for four prospects, CF Greg Berry, CF Joey Johnson, MR Pete Snyder and 1B Bruce Miller.
August 2nd – Dallas pitcher Alwin Roozen returned to the mound, hurling two shutout innings from the bullpen for his first NABL game action after severing fingers in a domestic accident back in December.
August 3rd – Washington speedster Marc Smith hit three triples against Boston, the Pilgrims had the last laugh though taking the victory.
August 5th – Houston’s Eric Finley became the sixth player on the season to hit three homers, he exploded for a Grand-Slam and eight RBI’s in an 13-6 Houston victory over Austin.
August 8th – Miami suffered a blow losing starting pitcher Juan Lopez (12-3, 3.20 ERA) to a torn UCL, ending his season.
August 13th – Dallas 3B and offensive sparkplug Wayne Radke, suffered a broken Kneecap ruling him out for the rest of the season.
August 17th – Dallas OF Alfonso Sosa tore into San Jose, hitting for the CYCLE and scored the winning run on his eighth inning homer.
August 22nd – legend in the making, Dixon Bodean became only the second player in league history to hit 500 homeruns, joining Juan Santos in the exclusive club.
August 28th – Dallas suffered another injury to one of their starting infield, this time 1B Cristobal Martinez who tore his hamstring trying to avoid a double play.
September 4th – Austin star Jose Montoya drove in two, the second of which was his 1000th career RBI, to cap his day off he scored the winning run in the Kings 5-4 victory over Houston.
September 5th – Indianapolis’ Angel Castro shuts down division rivals Detroit, NO-HITTING the Giants on 107 pitches.
September 16th – Richie Rambeaux reached 1000 RBI with the winning hit in Cleveland’s 6-5 win over Indianapolis.
September 22nd – Miami suffered another pitching injury, this time SP Tyler Thomas was the victim, straining his elbow ruling him out for the season.
September 23rd – Dallas were down to their third string 1B after Dave Edwards broke his wrist. Leaving the Mustangs scrambling to fill the spot for their upcoming playoff run.
September 25th – Minneapolis pitcher Max Castle joined the 200-win club with victory over Denver.
September 26th - during St Louis' win over division rivals Chicago, Reds 2B Adam Bailey stole two bases, No’s 59 and 60 setting the NABL single season record and becoming the first player to reach sixty steals in a single campaign (he would go on to finish the season with 62)
September 30th – Indianapolis 3B Matt Romero went 4-for-4 against Chicago, ensuring he finished the campaign as the first player to hit over .400 in a single season.