The 2009 Season, Week Twenty-Five: Three of Four Playoff Spots Determined
As the week ended, only Kanab and Mudville still have meaningful games to play. Mudville has the upper hand going into the final six games. The Hotties need to make up four games to win a playoff spot. If they can gain three games, they�ll force a tiebreaker with the Slugs. Making a tough challenge even tougher is that the Hotties are on the road for the final week while the Slugs will enjoy home cooking. Kanab can only hope that Gene Mauch is at the Mudville helm.
The Race in the North: Baltimore opened the week with a playoff spot secured. With a magic number of six and three games upcoming against their only remaining pursuer, the Moline Greens, a sweep would secure the divisional title. After winning the first two contests 3-1 and 6-4, a sweep was in reach. But Moline rallied for an extra-inning victory to forestall Baltimore. The Hons finally nailed down the division on Saturday with an 8-1 win in Aldwych. They learned that British champagne wasn�t much for drinking, but drinking wasn�t the prime objective anyway.
Baltimore's work at Aldwych wasn't done. The day after the clinching, with much of the team playing fuzzyheaded, the Hons managed a 6-5 victory over the Thanes. The win eliminated Aldwych from playoff competition, assuring Moline a place in the postseason. Across the Atlantic, the Greens learned the news as they arrived at the Harrisburg ballpark for an afternoon contest. The Greens still tended to business, beating the Heroes 4-3 in ten innings. They then retired to the clubhouse for their own celebration. Champagne was a bit rich for second place, but the Yeungling tasted good and sprayed well.
The Race in the South: River City, maintaining the momentum from their 7-0 record of the week before, compiled a 4-2 record. With nearest pursuer Kanab flailing to a 1-5 record, the Hardballers clinch the division on Saturday. The title-winning victory was a 15-6 drubbing of the Carpetbaggers at the Savannah ballpark, allowing the Hardballers to celebrate their triumph with good Southern champagne. Kanab�s unsuccessful week also cost them second place, with Mudville going 5-1 to turn a one-game deficit into the three-game advantage. The Hotties picked a bad week to turn ice cold.
The Race at the Rear: Only weeks ago, Newark looked to have the first draft pick safely secured. On August 23, the Five Spot had a ten-game edge over the Carpetbaggers. Since then, Newark stumbled to a 19-13 record, while Savannah surged with a 9-23 tally. Savannah pulled into a tie with a loss to River City on Saturday, while Newark was beating Hagerstown. After both teams lost on Sunday, they remained tied as the final week of play begins. The tiebreaker belongs to Savannah, with its 4-5 seasonal record against Newark. Newark/Savannah is the most intriguing race in the final week of the 2009 Shoeless Joe League.
Game of the Week: The Thursday afternoon battle, when Moline turned back Baltimore�s attempt to clinch, featured comebacks by both teams. The visiting Greens scored a brace of runs in each of the third and fourth innings. A key hit was a two-run double off the bat of Green starter Matt Cain in the fourth. Cain also had a role in the bottom of the inning, serving up a grand slam to Hons first-baseman Derrek Lee. The blow gave the Hons a 5-4 lead. The Greens rebounded to tie the game in the top of the fifth, but the Hons retook the lead in the bottom of the frame. The Hons then added another pair in sixth for an 8-5 lead that they carried into the ninth.
Chris Volstad was on the mound trying for a four-inning save. He secured two outs, with two men on-base, before a Russell Martin single and Delmon Young triple plated three runs to tie the game. The Hons were unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, then surprisingly sent Volstad back to the hill for the tenth. Volstad, in his fifth inning of relief work, got two outs, but then yielded a walk and two singles to give the Greens the lead. The Hons finally lifted Volstad, but it was too late. They got a leadoff single in the bottom of the tenth, but nothing further. With their 9-8 win, the Greens forestalled Baltimore�s divisional crown for another day.
Stats of the Week: Triple Crown watch. Neither Felix Hernandez nor Matt Garza garnered a win during the week. Zach Greinke took advantage to pull back into a tie for wins with 18. (Barring a two-win week for one of the three, there will be no 20-game winners in the 2009 SJL.) Greinke continues to stretch his lead over Hernandez in the ERA race, now carrying a 0.30 edge. And Greinke passed Tim Lincecum in strikeouts, now trailing Justin Verlander by the slim margin of two strikeouts. Greinke is only a high-strikeout victory from taking the SJL triple crown. < br>
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2009 Season, Week Twenty-Five Standings Northern_Standings,_Pitching___W___L___pct.__GB___ERA__CG_ShO__RS__Sv___IP_____R___ER___H___BA___BB___K__WP 1 Baltimore Hons 99 57 .635 - 3.55 10 16 5.0 56 1414.1 605 558 1307 .242 592 1001 43 9 Moline Greens 90 66 .577 9 3.74 15 16 5.0 41 1409.2 644 586 1290 .240 534 1318 78 15 Aldwych Thanes 82 74 .526 17 4.10 4 12 4.6 48 1408.2 717 641 1393 .255 679 1122 66 13 Hagerstown Hobgoblins 77 79 .494 22 4.05 11 14 4.7 37 1385.1 692 623 1371 .256 611 1098 42 7 Harrisburg Heroes 74 82 .474 25 4.13 5 9 4.9 32 1404.1 696 645 1386 .256 579 1192 44 5 Chicago Cockroaches 65 91 .417 34 5.06 8 9 3.9 39 1400.2 845 788 1494 .271 692 1146 52 3 Dutchess County Robber Ba 62 94 .397 37 4.86 6 7 4.6 21 1396 812 754 1533 .278 636 1097 61 11 Newark Five Spot 55 101 .353 44 5.17 3 5 4.2 34 1393.2 859 800 1545 .279 661 1170 73 Southern_Standings,_Pitching___W___L___pct.__GB___ERA__CG_ShO__RS__Sv___IP_____R___ER___H___BA___BB___K__WP 8 River City Hardballers 100 56 .641 - 3.78 11 13 5.4 52 1411.2 626 593 1327 .245 563 1301 21 16 Mudville Slugs 93 63 .596 7 4.01 2 8 5.4 44 1423.2 695 635 1366 .249 650 1322 59 2 Kanab Hotties 90 66 .577 10 3.69 5 9 4.7 46 1425.1 633 585 1334 .244 543 1270 59 4 Florida Panthers 81 75 .519 19 4.12 12 13 4.3 47 1407 707 644 1456 .265 567 1200 41 12 sprockets 81 75 .519 19 4.87 2 5 5.1 43 1388.1 808 752 1507 .275 643 1131 46 6 Kansas City Whirlwind 72 84 .462 28 5.32 9 8 5.2 36 1391.2 859 823 1518 .277 610 1158 50 14 Ft. Lauderdale Clementes 72 84 .462 28 4.31 3 10 4.5 36 1393.2 737 667 1422 .262 575 1061 54 10 Savannah Carpetbaggers 55 101 .353 45 4.79 1 8 3.9 32 1400.1 817 746 1503 .272 702 1106 73 ____AB____R____H___D___T__HR__RBI__BB___K___BA__OBA__SlgA__SH__F_SF_GDP__SB__CS__LOB__OP__DP__E__OSB_OCS_PB 1 5428 781 1433 269 42 174 766 729 1038 .264 .348 .425 65 26 49 114 65 26 1309 194 113 90 88 16 8 9 5532 774 1485 281 34 193 768 674 1252 .268 .346 .436 75 26 35 97 31 6 1350 143 82 102 63 22 5 15 5506 723 1398 288 23 198 714 611 1327 .254 .327 .422 41 16 35 84 41 15 1245 143 110 116 74 21 6 13 5365 727 1411 276 25 193 717 601 1021 .263 .335 .432 97 32 33 123 43 20 1219 160 108 99 72 24 11 7 5467 765 1445 272 38 172 754 608 1267 .264 .335 .422 86 30 47 91 155 45 1214 142 110 112 76 22 10 5 5354 616 1306 233 33 163 608 486 1203 .244 .305 .391 106 35 35 94 84 19 1125 161 101 103 112 22 9 3 5512 716 1444 266 19 199 705 554 1123 .262 .328 .425 76 30 32 111 71 24 1218 133 109 83 57 27 14 11 5418 649 1314 269 36 146 636 589 1167 .243 .315 .386 48 19 41 110 50 18 1206 136 90 109 83 49 11 8 5511 837 1579 300 31 215 824 635 1003 .287 .357 .469 104 32 58 117 95 33 1301 185 89 75 45 16 9 16 5578 840 1497 318 26 241 822 629 1262 .268 .341 .464 94 35 32 91 48 16 1251 171 91 96 68 22 8 2 5509 729 1416 303 22 185 717 690 1319 .257 .338 .421 73 26 33 88 93 25 1338 132 100 91 72 21 19 4 5390 673 1350 273 33 154 660 604 1184 .250 .324 .399 91 32 36 94 85 32 1234 157 100 95 68 24 8 12 5416 796 1494 279 28 179 784 704 1010 .276 .356 .437 111 44 52 114 92 27 1334 126 123 99 65 37 5 6 5483 812 1485 267 25 180 796 633 1014 .271 .344 .427 83 30 49 109 114 32 1246 168 102 76 72 21 9 14 5433 698 1408 272 24 199 687 516 1116 .259 .322 .428 63 23 34 110 68 34 1148 164 120 91 77 16 8 10 5434 616 1287 270 28 119 599 574 1387 .237 .308 .363 45 15 38 98 55 19 1217 152 97 107 98 31 10 ____________________After_7_-_Ahead__Tied_Behind__1-Run_Ex.In.__v.RHP_v.LHP 1 Baltimore Hons 75-10 15- 6 9-41 28-20 8- 8 69-42 30-15 9 Moline Greens 73-11 8- 7 9-48 24-21 13-10 59-43 31-23 15 Aldwych Thanes 63- 2 12- 8 7-64 24-18 12- 5 54-51 28-23 13 Hagerstown Hobgoblins 64- 4 4-10 9-65 23-24 5-11 62-64 15-15 7 Harrisburg Heroes 59- 7 11-12 4-63 18-31 8-10 53-66 21-16 5 Chicago Cockroaches 49- 6 9-11 7-74 29-27 8-12 42-58 23-33 3 Dutchess County Robber Ba 49- 6 9-13 4-75 19-26 8-10 43-68 19-26 11 Newark Five Spot 47-10 4-13 4-78 16-23 5-14 37-66 18-35 8 River City Hardballers 78- 3 15- 9 7-44 31-23 9- 6 66-37 34-19 16 Mudville Slugs 71- 8 11- 7 11-48 25-22 13- 6 58-46 35-17 2 Kanab Hotties 69- 9 10- 7 11-50 31-26 14-10 62-43 28-23 4 Florida Panthers 65- 6 11-10 5-59 27-16 9- 4 56-49 25-26 12 sprockets 64- 9 9- 7 8-59 23-26 9- 7 48-51 33-24 6 Kansas City Whirlwind 60- 3 3-10 9-71 20-19 6- 7 51-60 21-24 14 Ft. Lauderdale Clementes 56-13 5- 7 11-64 17-24 4-10 55-62 17-22 10 Savannah Carpetbaggers 42-11 10- 9 3-81 19-28 8- 9 40-73 15-28 ______________________________vs.1__vs.9__vs.15_vs.13_vs.7__vs.5__vs.3__vs.11___vs.8__vs.16_vs.2__vs.4__vs.12_vs.6__vs.14_vs.10 1 Baltimore Hons - 9-3 10-2 6-3 10-2 7-5 8-4 7-2 5-5 4-5 4-5 7-3 4-6 8-2 3-7 7-3 9 Moline Greens 3-9 - 6-6 10-2 7-5 8-1 8-1 7-5 0-9 5-5 6-4 5-5 6-4 6-4 7-3 6-3 15 Aldwych Thanes 2-10 6-6 - 7-5 6-6 3-6 8-1 5-7 7-3 5-4 3-7 7-3 5-5 5-5 6-3 7-3 13 Hagerstown Hobgoblins 3-6 2-10 5-7 - 5-4 4-8 11-1 7-5 6-4 3-7 6-4 4-6 4-5 5-5 5-4 7-3 7 Harrisburg Heroes 2-10 5-7 6-6 4-5 - 6-6 4-8 7-2 3-6 4-6 5-5 5-5 4-6 4-5 6-4 9-1 5 Chicago Cockroaches 5-7 1-8 6-3 8-4 6-6 - 5-7 3-9 0-10 1-9 5-5 3-6 6-4 5-4 7-3 4-6 3 Dutchess County Robber Ba 4-8 1-8 1-8 1-11 8-4 7-5 - 9-3 3-7 6-4 2-7 1-8 3-7 6-4 5-5 5-5 11 Newark Five Spot 2-7 5-7 7-5 5-7 2-7 9-3 3-9 - 1-9 2-8 4-6 1-9 4-5 4-6 1-9 5-4 8 River City Hardballers 5-5 9-0 3-7 4-6 6-3 10-0 7-3 9-1 - 5-7 5-7 8-4 5-4 10-2 5-4 9-3 16 Mudville Slugs 5-4 5-5 4-5 7-3 6-4 9-1 4-6 8-2 7-5 - 6-6 7-2 7-5 6-3 7-5 5-7 2 Kanab Hotties 5-4 4-6 7-3 4-6 5-5 5-5 7-2 6-4 7-5 6-6 - 9-3 5-4 7-5 5-4 8-4 4 Florida Panthers 3-7 5-5 3-7 6-4 5-5 6-3 8-1 9-1 4-8 2-7 3-9 - 8-4 5-7 7-5 7-2 12 sprockets 6-4 4-6 5-5 5-4 6-4 4-6 7-3 5-4 4-5 5-7 4-5 4-8 - 6-6 7-5 9-3 6 Kansas City Whirlwind 2-8 4-6 5-5 5-5 5-4 4-5 4-6 6-4 2-10 3-6 5-7 7-5 6-6 - 7-5 7-2 14 Ft. Lauderdale Clementes 7-3 3-7 3-6 4-5 4-6 3-7 5-5 9-1 4-5 5-7 4-5 5-7 5-7 5-7 - 6-6 10 Savannah Carpetbaggers 3-7 3-6 3-7 3-7 1-9 6-4 5-5 4-5 3-9 7-5 4-8 2-7 3-9 2-7 6-6 -
League History
Formed in the fall of 1991, under the command of Ron Cox, the Shoeless Joe League began play in the spring of the following year, after an initial player draft of players and prospects from eight major-league organizations. In its original incarnation, the league consisted of eight teams in two divisions (listed here by their 1992 order of finish):
NORTH SOUTH Wisconsin Cheeseheads Kansas City Cacti Chicago P-Niners Florida Panthers Harrisburg Containment St. Louis Sprockets Seattle Timbers Miami FlamingosThe following year the league increased to ten teams with the addition of the New York Mastiffs and the Memphis Stags in the North and South, respectively. By 1995, the Timbers had moved to Moline and the league had expanded to fourteen teams, adding the Bird-In-Hand Hexers, the Yoknapatawpha Croppers, the Milwaukee Atoms, and the Ft. Lauderdale Crocodiles.
Such expansion could not long endure, and the league had been trimmed to a 12-team configuration by the start of the 1996 season. Two years later, the number of teams remained the same, but their distribution had shifted. Through the 2000 season, the league retained four and returned one of its original eight GMs, though relocations and realignments had shifted and rechristened some franchises since the league began play in 2002:
NORTH SOUTH
Baltimore Hons ^ Florida Panthers
Bird-In-Hand Hexers Ft. Lauderdale Crocodiles
Chicago Cockroaches * Kansas City Whirlwind @
Harrisburg Heroes ~ Leones de Miami +
Moline Greens $ St. Louis Sprockets
Pennsylvania Plutonium % Savannah Carpetbaggers#
* formerly the Miami Flamingos
+ formerly the Milwaukee Atoms
# formerly the Wisconsin Cheeseheads
^ formerly the New York Mastiffs
$ formerly the Seattle Timbers
% formerly the Memphis Stags and Virginia Planters
@ formerly the Cacti
~ formerly the Containment
At the close of the 1998 season, the Ft. Lauderdale franchise was sold to political interests in Statesboro, Georgia. In February, 1999, the team was relocated to Caracas and rechristened the Polar Bears. The Polar Bears are the first league franchise outside the U.S. borders, which marks the continuing effort of the Shoeless Joe League to move past the provincial connotations of its name and reach an international profile.Longtime Northern Division powerhouse New York changed ownership at the close of the 1999 season, relocating to Baltimore and adopting the nickname Hons. New G.M. Al Melchior explains, "Baltimore (properly pronounced Bawl-mer) is known mainly for four things: Ripkens, crabcakes, big hair, and Bawlmerese. OK, make that six: John Waters and Barry Levinson, too. Anyway, one of the most commonly used words in Bawlmerese is 'Hon', as in 'How ya doin', hon?' It's a part of the Bawlmer caricature, kind of like the attribution of 'eh' to Canadians. It's a real institution." Despite the distinctive Southern flavor of Hons, no divisional reassignment was likely for the new Bawlmer franchise.
The most recent divisional alignments are a product of further expansion, ushering in four additional franchises cobbled from the pickings of existing SJL clubs in the 2000 expansion draft. The commissioner's office has welcomed further internationalization of the league, with Bill Young's London Rippers joining brother Ron's Caracas Polar Bears to give the league an international flavor of colonizer and colonized, a kind of imperial introspection that mirrors old-time global political alignments. Other upstart clubs include the Ft. Lauderdale Clementes, the first co-GM club run by the dynamic duo of Manny Rosario and George Pearson, the small-town Hagerstown Hobgoblins led by formidable GM Doug Krippendorf, and the New Orleans Hurlers captained by experienced GM Rod Rebuck. As the league has expanded by four clubs, the top two teams in each division now make the playoffs. In the winter of 2002 the Pennsylvania club was sold to organized crime interests in Newark, New Jersey and is now know as the Five Spot. Long-time franchise the Leones de Miami changed hands over the winter of 2003-04 and is now based in Raleigh as the Renegades. The league's current divisional alignments are as follows:
NORTH SOUTH Baltimore Hons Kanab Hotties D.C. Robber Barons Florida Panthers Chicago Cockroaches Kansas City Whirlwind Harrisburg Heroes River City Hardballers Moline Greens St. Louis Sprockets Newark Five Spot Savannah Carpetbaggers Hagerstown Hobgoblins Ft. Lauderdale Clementes Aldwych Thanes Mudville SlugsThe shift to a 162 game schedule, inaugurated in 2000 with the move to Scoresheet, has added suspense and excitement to the divisional battles. The dynasties of Kansas City and Moline remain models for establishing winning traditions in the early history of the league: long-term development starting with young, high-ceiling minor league talent spliced with veterans when the time is right. The fact that the league's newest expansion teams, Hagerstown and Durham, have been steadily building outstanding farm systems that have been recently coupled with the acquisition of prime star talent, has meant a changing of the guard in the latest 2006 standings.
The recent history of the league is a testament to the strong rebuilding efforts of the Durham Knights, who won the 2006 SJL Championship, and the Hagerstown Hobgoblins, who posted the best record in the league in 2006 after years of painstaking rebuilding. Both these teams look to have very promising futures. Meanwhile, more veteran clubs such as the Baltimore Hons, the Newark Five Spot and the Florida Panthers, have made the past season a competitive one. The Mudville Slugs are another of the most recent expansion franchises that have posted solid seasons in back-to-back campaigns. At the same time, no team has been more consistently successful in recent years than the Harrisburg Heroes, who captured their second Shoeless Joe title in 2005, after having won in 2003, separated from consecutive titles by the Savannah Carpetbaggers 2004 championship season. After Caracas won the title in 2002, the team went bankrupt due to a massive money-laundering scheme, and were eventually sold to business magnate Richard Simons, who then moved the club to Las Vegas. The Gamblers and the Aldwych Thanes represent the newest of the SJL franchises, with Aldwych owner Dave Alden taking over the franchise from the mysteriously AWOL London ownership of Bill Young. Previously, Peter Hess had left the ownership of the Bird-In-Hand Hexers in 2004 and was replaced by Michael Gusmano, who moved the club to Dutchess County and renamed them the Robber Barons. At roughly the same time, the KC franchise was left rudderless after Nils Samuels departed at the beginning of the 2005 March supplemental draft. His KC team was quickly taken over by Aaron Goldman. The league has continued to thrive with all of the recent changes, as the new GMs have adopted quickly. Ft. Lauderdale is the first club to have a two-person GM approach, with Paul Tisevich joining Manny Rosario in leading the club for the 2006 season.
The history of the SJL is chronicled in shortened form here and elsewhere on this site. The obsessions of the league's GMs have been well documented. See, for example, Bennett Wing's Boys and Their Toys, Fort Da Da Da by Dr. John Ray, Jr., and Irving Krankeit's "Don't They Have More Important Stuff to Do?" in The Journal of Sports and Abnormal Psychology 14(3): 183-190. Virginia Bereft's The Busy Signal includes a chapter on the Net addiction of a cadre of insular males. Bereft discusses the SJL at some length and includes an appendix of interviews with wives and partners of several GM's. Although decried by Bereft and others, the Internet has enabled the local psychoses of these men to reach a global audience of psychiatry professionals, an advance in scholarship for which we can all be grateful.
More recently, the Discovery Channel featured a hour-long program on obsessive compulsive disorder and American fandom. Through interviews with several league general managers and their friends, colleagues, and lovers, "The Vicarious Lives of the Justly Obscure" presented a mixed portrait of the baseball passions of this masculine sect. The recent addition of Mary Beth Melchior as GM of the Kanab Hotties has qualified these patriarchal claims only slightly.
League Links
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Site originated February 3, 1999. Last updated March 15, 2009.
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1999-2009, the Commissioner(s) of the SJL
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