Everything Begins To Shake Down As the League of Nations Enters Its Final Month
Code:
America/Asia Standings
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Mexico City Aztecs 78 48 .619 - 81-45 -3 34-22 44-26 9-2 21-19 29 W5 8-2
RC Mounted Baseballists 76 48 .613 1.0 67-57 9 43-27 33-21 9-6 28-14 W1 8-2
New York Giants 67 60 .528 11.5 61-66 6 32-24 35-36 4-7 19-14 L1 7-3
Tokyo Rising Sun 65 62 .512 13.5 68-59 -3 28-31 37-31 6-7 11-15 L1 4-6
USA Baseball Engineers 58 66 .468 19.0 57-67 1 28-38 30-28 8-7 19-23 L5 4-6
Cincinnati Reds 54 72 .429 24.0 59-67 -5 30-27 24-45 5-9 12-24 L2 2-8
Chicago Defenders 52 72 .419 25.0 54-70 -2 31-39 21-33 4-5 15-15 W1 2-8
Shanghai Dragons 51 73 .411 26.0 53-71 -2 26-41 25-32 5-7 19-20 W2 5-5
European League Standings
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
London Monarchs 72 55 .567 - 70-57 2 44-26 28-29 4-6 20-18 26 W2 7-3
Paris Revolutions 66 57 .537 4.0 66-57 0 34-21 32-36 11-1 20-22 L1 5-5
Berlin Teutonic Knights 64 59 .520 6.0 68-55 -4 24-32 40-27 7-8 17-21 W4 7-3
Madrid Matadors 63 65 .492 9.5 54-74 9 37-38 26-27 7-6 22-18 W3 6-4
Rome Cardinals 63 65 .492 9.5 58-70 5 26-41 37-24 5-3 23-12 W1 2-8
Vienna Meisterflauten 62 66 .484 10.5 67-61 -5 33-38 29-28 7-13 24-24 L4 5-5
Moscow Proletariat 57 66 .463 13.0 62-61 -5 25-29 32-37 5-6 16-21 L3 3-7
Amsterdam Admirals 55 69 .444 15.5 56-68 -1 23-31 32-38 3-6 12-18 L1 4-6
The only thing truly left in the Asia/America League is whether the
Mexico City Aztecs or the
Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists will achieve homefield advantage. An August fade by the
Tokyo Rising Sun that saw the former contenders win just 10 of 26 games pretty much sealed the deal there. We have to say that this was a bad month for top-rated clubs... but more about that in a second. The Aztecs have 3 of their starters in the top 10 in the A/A in ERA while the Canadians house 3 of the top 10 in RBIs in the league. Given that, it's surprising that the Rising Sun lasted as long as they did.
Meanwhile, in the European League, somebody has finally separated themselves from the pack. It was looking like the Tour de France for a while there with everybody bunched up together. The
London Monarchs suffered a spate of injuries early on but as the hot summer months progressed, their talent - particularly their dynamic pitching duo of
Cameron Boden (17-10, 2.69 ERA) and
Freddie Turville (15-10, 2.49) - moved them apart from everybody else.
Of course, it's not over yet. The Monarchs could still, after all, pull a
Vienna. Remember how they were on top of the world (or at least half of it) just a month ago? As you can see, they're now several games below .500 and are fighting to stay out of the second division. A 6-22 record and a 15-game losing streak will do that to you. Yes, 15 games. We've seen collapses, and we've seen long losing streaks, but we can't remember ever seeing that deep of a fall from a contending ballclub. Perhaps we're making too much of this - at the height of their power, the Meisterflauten were still only 12 games above .500 - but let's face it: it was pretty big.
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
Let's take a look at the best and worst hitters and pitchers in the game today.
Code:
Best Team AB R H BA
H. Sato JPN 463 76 176 .380
T. Schroeder NY 327 84 120 .367
S. Lenyashin USSR 501 95 183 .365
R. Beatty NY 447 70 161 .360
D. Bunch NY 524 103 187 .357
O. Perrell UK 406 67 143 .352
J. Dumoulin FRA 506 71 176 .348
K. Eckhardt GER 524 105 182 .347
L. Vargas MEX 496 89 171 .345
D. Bernard FRA 380 47 131 .345
Worst Team AB R H BA
D. Mallam UK 368 58 81 .220
P. Schreurs HOL 447 55 104 .233
V. Schusetka AUS 434 62 101 .233
R. de Best HOL 355 33 85 .239
X. Xin CHN 342 48 86 .251
Best Team W-L IP ERA
S. Daly NY 20-4 257.0 2.66
V. Schmeling GER 15-3 182.1 2.86
M. Figueroa MEX 12-3 138.1 2.21
Y. Ishida JPN 19-5 238.1 2.98
Y. Calzolai ITA 21-7 243.1 2.81
J. Galvan SPN 19-7 233.0 2.12
M. Uenohara JPN 10-4 132.2 2.98
C. Cyr CAN 10-4 129.1 3.90
J. Gonzalez MEX 19-8 248.1 3.08
M. Lavoie CAN 19-8 237.1 2.94
Worst Team W-L IP ERA
T. Wheeler USA 4-9 133.0 4.26
E. Robin FRA 6-12 129.1 4.45
H. Xia CHN 9-15 214.2 3.65
J. Spencer CIN 6-10 133.0 3.25
J. Lozano NY 10-16 223.1 4.59
What's In A Name
Let's take a look at some of the crazy nicknames from around the league.
Daryl "Cats" Evans, Chicago Defenders. Evans is a true diamond in the rough. His 15-13 record doesn't look all that great until you realize that the rest of his team is 37-59. Evans is 2nd in the A/A with 76 strikeouts and is fond of telling reporters that "all their base are belong to us" following a win.
Maxandre "Grizzly Man" Lavoie, Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists. Lavoie has been stuck on 19 wins for 2 straight starts now, but Canadian baseball fans can be sure that he'll reach the 20 victory plateau eventually. The "Grizzly Man" is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia (not to be confused with Vancouver, Washington, which is the home of "The Slacker" Terry Schroeder! Although to be honest both places are in the middle of nowhere and we confuse them all the time!) where he insists that the only time he's ever seen a grizzly bear was in a zoo. Not that we believe him.
Scott "The Socialist" Ellis, Moscow Proletariat. His official nickname is The Socialist but New York fans have several unrepeatable monikers for him. This Red sympathizer defected to the Soviet Union and the Proletariat over the summer. We're happy to report that he's had limited success since his turncoat move - after starting the year 7-2 for the Giants, he's won just 1 of 4 decisions with his new keepers.