Out of the Shadows: The Eclipse League

[luckymann]

Bad news for the Athletics, who wouldn't have given up on their season just yet, as they lose their talisman for the remainder with a torn meniscus.

The uniqueness and brevity of Charlie's IRL career (which I covered in an early OotS feature) made him a challenge for curative purposes, so I am really happy with how his EL career has turned out. And, despite this setback and the fact that he no longer rakes like he did in his prime, I'm hoping he still has a fair few years left in the league and can get up to 2000 hits.

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The perennial poorly-performed (lifetime .478 winning record) House of David Habañeros are having a rare winning season down in the TL this year but will still in all likelihood come up a wee bit short of that elusive maiden playoff appearance.

They won't, as this game tells us, be going down without a fight, with Midre Cummings having a game to remember.

[luckymann]

Eclipse League

They've taken their good, sweet time, but the Monarchs are finally headed for their first post-season tilt. The other three groups are, to varying degrees, still up for grabs.

Monthly Award Winners

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Rod Carew (Red Sox) 430 / 2 HR / 17 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Edsall Walker (Monarchs) 6-0 / 3.04 / 25 K / 50.1 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Terris McDuffie (Dodgers) 4-1 / 3.19 / 33 K / 42.1 IP.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: John Beckwith (Buckeyes) 323 / 6 HR / 21 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Frank Castillo (American Giants) 5-1 / 2.29 / 40 K / 51 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Antonio Senzatela (Athletics) 2-0 / 1.19 / 19 K / 22.2 IP.

Points of Interest

• Ramon Ramirez becomes the first EL player to register 300 career saves.
• While Edsall Walker (23-7), Juan Marichal (21-8) and a cooling Ervin Santana (20-8) continue to threaten CC Sabathia and Dave Brown's season win total, Deacon Meyers' 21 losses (vs 8 wins) put him at risk of setting a new mark at the other end and, while not in similar jeopardy, both 1-11 Moses Yellow Horse and 2-11 Tom Johnson are not doing much for their career records this season.

Top 20s - overall

Transit League

Similar to the big league, Akron is the only TL club home safe just for the moment.

Monthly Award Winners

• CAC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Dwayne Murphy (Blue Birds) 329 / 14 HR / 27 RBI.
• CAC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Phil Ortega (White Sox) 5-0 / 1.38 / 32 K / 39 IP.
• FRC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Clemente Cabrera (Wolves) 402 / 5 HR / 27 RBI.
• FRC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Tyson Ross (Black Sox) 4-1 / 3.20 / 30 K / 39.1 IP.

[luckymann]

Nicknames, especially those of prominent sportspeople, can't help but colour our impression of them. Here in Australia, we pride ourselves on well-thought-out sobriquets over vanilla and obvious ones. Take John Eales, the former captain of our country's Rugby Union team. John was known to be a clean-cut type of guy - well-spoken, well-read, well-behaved, well-liked. What you guys would no doubt call an "All-American Boy" were he one of your own. In Australia, he got the nickname "Nobody". Because, as the old proverb goes, Nobody's perfect.

Terris McDuffie, a pitcher from the NeL in the years leading up to WW2, was known both as "Elmer the Great" and "Terrible Terris". The truth, as is so often the case, lay somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. He was neither a great pitcher nor a terrible person, but rather a decent pitcher and terrible showoff.

On the mound, he is credited by Seamheads with a career 45-35 mark and crisp 121 ERA+ over his 11 NeL seasons (he also spent a couple years in Mexico and played plenty of Winter ball around the traps), and EC's MLEs allot him a little over 28 WAR all told. He was originally an outfielder but converted early on after realising he had a better chance making it as a pitcher.

None of the reports on Terris leave out his off-field reputation, which was - to put it kindly - colourful. Among the anecdotes cited in various of my sources are his affair with Effa Manley, the fact that he liked to showboat when pitching and wore a jacket embroidered with "The Great McDuffie" on back as if he were a boxer rather than a ballplayer, and his perhaps apocryphal run-in with Dolph Luque (his manager at the time) that resulted in "The Pride of Havana" pulling a gun on him to force him to pitch in that day's game, with McDuffie then going out and hurling a two-hitter. All of which led to him becoming one of Black baseball's most popular and well-paid players of his time. Despite a highly-publicised tryout with the Dodgers in 1945, Terris never made it higher than playing for Dallas of the Texas League at the twilight of his career in the mid-50s. he died aged 59 in 1968.

Here in the EL, Terris is already making a bit of a name for himself as he is putting together a fine rookie campaign for the Dodgers, who drafted him last year 21st overall. At the time of writing, with the season nearly done, he is sitting at 11-9 with an ERA+ of 117, good enough for close to 2 pWAR. He does have LF / RF ratings, but to this point is being used solely as a pitcher. We'll see if that changes down the track.

[luckymann]

Well, once again the WC National is providing a thrill-a-minute ride down the stretch, with the lead changing hands almost constantly between the MoStars, AGs and Buckeyes.

Each club is stacked with stars, one of whom shines oh so brightly for Cleveland here against the disappointing ABCs.

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We almost get some late drama after it all looks done and dusted, as the Browns fall in a late hole needing just one win to clinch the CAC American. In the end, they never get that win and are forced to sneak in via the back door that is opened by the Eagles' final-day 3-0 loss to Columbus.

Final standings therefore look like this:

With the final leaders and Top 20s:

Atlanta's Bobby Marshall goes close to Frank Blattner's single-season mark of 51 HR but just comes up short, leaving the only record broken this year being the .857 (18-3) winning percentage posted by Bennie Wilson.


Maiden playoff appearances for the Browns and Bears, but they both find themselves heavy underdogs against the reigning champions and the all-conquering Grays.

[luckymann]

Massive scares for the favoured sides, both of which have to come back by winning the final two games to set up what should be an absolutely cracking TL decider. The Browns can consider themselves especially unlucky, pushing Atlanta to 11 innings in their Game 5, while the other game is a one-run affair as well.

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Purely for pride this year, with both Cuban franchises in the middle of seasons to forget. The East finally gets a win after losing 10 straight and go on to take their first Clásico series since 1974.

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In a mesmerising Transit League World Series that goes the full seven games, the Black Crackers successfully defend their title against a valiant Akron outfit who come oh so close but just can't get it done.

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Only a handful of games left with no real drama presenting itself, so I'll just present the league's award-winners for September and cover the rest in the end-of-season recap.

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Barry Bonds (Black Yankees) 361 / 9 HR / 30 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Willie Gisentaner (Black Yankees) 5-0 / 0.84 / 25 K / 42.2 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Edgar Wesley (Crawfords) 298 / 3 HR / 9 RBI.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Jim Rice (ABCs) 409 / 4 HR / 22 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Ervin Santana (Motown Stars) 4-1 / 2.77 / 34 K / 48.2 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: John Brown (Lincoln Giants) 2-0 / 1.88 / 6 SV / 14 K / 14.1 IP.

[luckymann]

The quintessential glove-heavy middle infielder from the Deadball Era, Cuban-born Bienvenido Jimenez was known, according to Jim Riley, as the "King of Cuban Second Basemen", second only to the great Bingo DeMoss at this position. The stats certainly back this POV, with Seamheads listing him with a 256 / 347 / 338 slash during his long career in both the Negro and Cuban Leagues of that period. All the same, he is regarded across the board as a key contributor, with Seamheads allocating him 18 WAR and Eric Chalek 26.

One of BJ's listed nicknames is "Hooks", referring to his bow legs, but as the raw stats show and Jim Riley confirms, he was nevertheless a fast and canny baserunner who usually hit in the leadoff position. Another - the one I have chosen for him in the EL - is Pata Joroba. I don't speak Spanish and so may be way off the mark here, but from what I can gather the loose translation refers to him being a nuisance on the basepaths.

Bienvenido's EL career is panning out as you'd expect. A fringe-player for most organisations, he has been flipped and flopped a number of times since entering the league in 1973, finally ending up at the sort of small-market club he's perhaps best-suited to, the AC Bacharach Giants, where he has been since 1976.

His EL avatar is true-to-type, very much glove over bat. He has a career slash of 226 / 298 / 300 with just 11 HR in more than 2000 PA and has nearly 7 bWAR to his credit so far. Defensively, he is a whiz, winning his first Slick Award last year and amassing a healthy 57 ZR. Given his total this year exceeds last by some margin, one would expect he'll pick up some more silverware come Awards time later this year.

This will be the final OotS feature for 1978, and as always here are the career stats of all the active players featured so far. One nice bit of news is that Corey Aldridge, featured HERE last year, has at long last been given his chance in the bigs after years toiling away in the TL.

[luckymann]

Despite what looks like a tight finish in the WC National, it all ends up drama-free with the four spots clinched with some time to spare. With this league usually being so even, to have a 100-game winner and two 100-game losers in the one season is very much out of the ordinary.

A first-ever batting title to the mighty Jose Agustin Rodriguez in the FC, while Tony Gonzalez sets a new seasonal BA mark with .3605. Barry Bonds becomes the EL's first 40/40 player and sets a new OBP record with .4451. His 40 HR are the most, just pipping ShoTime, who remarkably is also the King of K in the WC, although his 261 are well behind overall leader Gene Collins' 314. Willson Contreras' 129 RBI lead all comers, as do Bip Roberts' 71 SB. Mike Easler's 55 doubles are also a new all-time high.

Back across in the pitching, the low ERA is Willie Gisentaner's 2.59, while Edsall Walker just can't reach CC's record and finishes with a league-high 26 wins. Maceo Broadnax and Ollie West tie for the EL lead in saves with 35.

Tim Anderson becomes just the second player to reach the 2000-hit mark.


Final Top 20s

Hitters - Overall

Hitters - NeLers

Pitchers - Overall

Pitchers - NeLers

Final Leaders

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MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

PITCHER OF THE YEAR

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR

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Fleet Conference

Kansas City Monarchs (102-60) v New York Black Yankees (88-74)

Best of seven, Monarchs with home-field advantage.

• Anyone who doubts the Black Yankees have heart to match all the glamour at the outset of this series cannot possibly feel the same way at its end as they triumph in a truly epic and see-sawing seven-gamer.
• No doubt the Mons' lack of post-season experience cost them here but they will certainly be improved by the experience.
• A brilliant 3-HR / 10-RBI performance earns New York's Cesar Hernandez MVP honours.

Weldy Conference

Homestead Grays (96-66) v Cleveland Buckeyes (96-66)

Best of seven, Grays with home-field advantage.

• Things seem to pivot on Miguel Montero's walkoff 2-run homer to give the Grays a 2-1 win in Game 2 and tie the series at 1, only for the Buckeyes to eventually find their feet and take it out in six tough and well-played games.
• The defending Champions can be proud of a valiant title defence but - Montero's strike aside - they just lack Cleveland's polish at key moments and that proves the difference.
• Buckeyes star John Beckwith is named MVP.

[luckymann]

Cleveland Buckeyes v New York Black Yankees

Best of seven, Buckeyes with home-field advantage.

• A "Champion of Champions" type bout here, with the winner to become the EL's first three-time-winning club.
• A constellation of stars on each side and almost impossible to know how this series will play out.
• Cleveland by a whisker in seven is my very tentative pick.

• The dictionary definition of anticlimactic as clearly the BYs have nothing left after that big Conference Series and they go down in four straight without a whimper.
• The Buckeyes are never behind at any stage in the series and use just five pitchers.
• Tony Scott is named MVP.

Game 1





Game 2





Game 3





Game 4

[luckymann]

Managerial Culls

Cuban Stars East
OUT: Zach Celli (GM)
IN:Clay Workman

Cuban Stars West
OUT: Jerry Collins (Manager)
INan Morrison

Philadelphia Liberty Stars
OUT: Jose Otega (Manager)
IN:Andy Mykel

Baltimore Elite Giants
OUT: Fernando Reyes (Manager)
IN:Calvin Jones

Memphis Red Sox
OUT: Mark Ballard (Manager)
IN:Lennie Pearson


Roster News


Key Extensions: OF Reggie Smith (Bacharach Giants) 3/1738; OF Leon Durham (American Giants) 4/2046; P Felix Hernandez (Bacharach Giants) 4/2678;
C Chili Davis (American Giants) 3/2840; 2B Ketel Marte (Buckeyes) 6/6360.

The Dodgers void the final year of P Connie Rector's contract.
OF Ken Singleton declines his opt-out from the American Giants.
OF Barry Bonds opts out of his contract with the Black Yankees.
2B Roberto Alomar opts out of his contract with the Royal Giants.
P Octavio Dotel declines his contract option with the Grays.
C Bob Watson declines his contract option with the Black Yankees.


Prospect Pipeline

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Ozzie Smith is the biggest name to hang up the cleats, although his EL avatar never much resembles nor reaches the heights of its IRL counterpart. Tanaka-san began well but faded quickly and wasn't much of a force after the early flourish. No future HoFers among this lot, I'm afraid.

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GRANT MEDAL (MOST VALUABLE PLAYER)

STOVEY MEDAL (PITCHER OF THE YEAR)

WHITE PLATE (RELIEVER OF THE YEAR)




FOWLER MEDAL (ROOKIE OF THE YEAR)




GARRETT BUTTON (MANAGER OF THE YEAR)

FC: Alberto Chavira, Monarchs
WC: Minoru Imamura, Buckeyes


KINDLING AWARD (SILVER SLUGGER)
FC / WC




SLICK AWARD (GOLD GLOVE)
FC / WC

[luckymann]

Not quite the depth or breadth of a year ago, but all the same the EL will be welcoming some fantastic talent again this season via both the Free-Agent market and Rookie Draft.

The Category A NeLers are Ben "Old Reliable" Taylor, Gervasio Gonzalez and the mighty two-way star Bullet Rogan as the FA. A-Rod leads an MLB class that also includes Chris Chambliss, Ruben Sierra and Matt Kemp.

Another #1 pick for the poor old Cuban Stars East, and this time around they use it on gun NeL shortstop Pythias Russ.

The first two rounds eventually went as follows:

See you on Opening Day, 1979!

[luckymann]