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| Some Highlights from the 2001 Season Hell of a season kids. Of the three years I've been playing I think this was far and away the most competitive. For most of the season there was a four-way battle for first place. But a big congratulations needs to go to PH Balanced for winning out in the end. It is his first Stick League title. Obviously after September 11 it was pretty hard to concentrate on baseball so it is understandable that some fairly large baseball stories were virtually ignored. The Mariners recorded as many wins as any team in history, Albert Pujols had a remarkable rookie year and Barry Bonds managed to rack up the quietest 73 home runs ever hit. Bonds set records for walks, slugging percentage and home runs at the age of 37 in what surely has to be one of the ten best offensive seasons in the history of the game. I heard somewhere--I'm not sure of the exact numbers but it was something to the effect that roughly 70% of major league ballplayers don't hit 73 home runs in their entire career. Below I've put together a little high school yearbook for the past season. I'm sure there were things I missed but here are some of the highlights: First Round Draft Picks WaterBoys III- Johnson, Randy (SP-Ari) The Firemen- Martinez, Pedro (SP-Bos) Steve took a lot of abuse for choosing Johnson over Pedro. I would have abused him too had I not been so happy about getting Pedro. Seems like Steve got the last laugh. As he so eloquently put it in his last post: Oh yeah and you all can kiss my ass about the crap about taking Randy over Pedro. Who had the better season. I hate to be the one to point out that Steve is right but look at the numbers: Johnson- 21 wins, 2 shutouts, 372 Ks, 2.49 ERA, 1.01 WHIP Martinez- 7 wins, no shutouts, 163 Ks, 2.39 ERA, .93 WHIP True, Pedro had a better ERA and WHIP but Johnson made up the difference with more than twice as many strikeouts and three times as many wins. The shutouts were icing on the cake. I should have known my season was doomed when I got my first round draft pick. Some Notable Trades May 23, 2:19 AM PT PH Balanced trade Mientkiewicz, Doug (1B-Min) to Kickin Bill W's Ass for Bonds, Barry (LF-SF) ****************************************** Jul 9, 2:24 AM PT WaterBoys III trade Johnson, Randy (SP-Ari) to Cantankerous Cobbs for Nomo, Hideo (SP-Bos) and Suzuki, Ichiro (RF-Sea) ****************************************** Jul 10, 2:18 AM PT Ex-Philly Chop Sox trade Giles, Brian (CF, LF, RF-Pit) and Rolen, Scott (3B-Phi) to Cardiac Cards for Lieber, Jon (SP-ChC) and Nevin, Phil (3B-SD) ****************************************** How did your team stack up this season? An unconfirmed look at some averages: American League Pitching- 4.08 ERA Batting- .280 Batting Average National League Pitching- 4.16 ERA Batting- .288 Batting Average Major League Pitching- 4.12 ERA Batting- .284 Batting Average Some Notable Moves Cardiac Cards managed to go through all 40 of his allowed moves almost before Rick Ankiel could throw his first wild pitch. Of those 40 moves, it seems roughly 75% were spent on acquiring and then promptly firing J.D. Drew. See the story unfold below: Mar 27, 12:59 PM PT Drew, J.D. (RF, CF, LF-StL) add Free Agents Cardiac Cards Apr 11, 9:16 AM PT Drew, J.D. (RF, CF, LF-StL) drop Cardiac Cards Waivers May 4, 10:17 AM PT Drew, J.D. (RF, CF, LF-StL) add Free Agents Cardiac Cards But there was more to come: Drew out 4-6 weeks with broken hand By R.B. FALLSTROMAP Sports Writer June 17, 2001 ST. LOUIS (AP) -- J.D. Drew of the St. Louis Cardinals will be sidelined 4-to-6 weeks with a broken right hand, caused when he was hit by a pitch Sunday. Drew was off to the best start of his career with 21 homers, 49 RBIs and a .330 average. He was struck in the third inning by David Wells of the Chicago White Sox and played another inning before being removed for a pinch-hitter in the fifth of the Cardinals' series-sweeping 8-3 victory. Shortly after this incident, Cobbs would try to unload Wells, perhaps to hide the the guilty party. Another Notable (Non)Trade Jun 21 Cantankerous Cobbs trade Wells, David (SP-CWS) to Kickin Bill W's Ass for McGwire, Mark (1B-StL) Veto But Wells could not escape karma: White Sox LHP Wells opts for surgery, likely out for season July 14, 2001 CHICAGO (TICKER) -- David Wells' long and difficult initial season with the Chicago White Sox may be over.The controversial lefthander, who was supposed to bolster the staff of the defending American League Central Division champions, Saturday opted to undergo surgery on his troublesome back and likely will miss the remainder of the season.Wells, who has been the biggest disappointment in a season of disappointments for the White Sox, will have surgery Wednesday to repair two herniated disks. ... Wells has gone just 5-7 with a 4.47 ERA in 16 starts for Chicago this season. He has compounded his problems by being a distraction in the clubhouse... ___________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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| I call the above simply, The Day of Infamy. This is what the Cantakerous Cobbs' page looked like after his bench hurled 2 shutouts on the same day. Here is a portion of an e-mail I sent to him after the second shutout: "Look, you don't need me to point this out to you, but as bad as having 2 shutouts on the bench sounds, it doesn't fully convey how ugly this was. It was 2 one-hitters, 2 wins, a WHIP of .22 and 28k's. But that still isn't the worst part. The guy you do have playing gives up 4 runs in 2/3 of an inning. THAT my friend, is legendary. This is a story you can tell the fantasy grandkids. (I'm assuming you won't have any real grandkids.) Take comfort in the quote below: "It seems this life is chiefly timing, the preponderance of it bad."-T.R. Pearson |
| And now some snapshots from the season gone by: |
| And just to show that the Cobbs were also capable of missing out on big offensive days as well as defensive days, take a look at what Cedeno, one of his mid-season pickups, did. From the bench of course: |
| Of course I can�t compete with the pain endured by the Cobbs but I had some unpleasant moments myself: Tue Aug 14 ST. LOUIS (TICKER) -- Matt Morris tossed his second complete game of the season and Mike Matheny and Craig Paquette homered as the St. Louis Cardinals coasted to their sixth straight win, 7-1 over the Cincinnati Reds.Morris (15-7) allowed four hits to reach the 15-win mark for the first time in his career. He took a shutout into the ninth inning before loading the bases and hitting Aaron Boone with two out."I wanted the shutout pretty bad," Morris said. "It's tough, especially to lose it on the beanball. But you get excited and the crowd gets you excited. It's tough for me to tame myself anyway in that situation." The ninth inning with two outs!? Why do they delay heartbreak until the last possible moment? |
| To contrast this, the Cardiac Cards had the largest offensive day that I saw all season: |
| Here are the totals: 15 Runs 6 Home runs 17 RBIs |
| And finally, here's a look back at the standings as of the All-Star break. I like to call this picture Better Days. |
| Just in case you don't believe Yogi's "It ain't over 'til it's over" maxim, compare the above mid-season standings to the final results. Every single team (with the exception of one) changed places. I'll let you figure out which team that was. The Stick League winners are as follows: 1999 ChopSox 2000 Chopsox 2001 PH Balanced For myself, I managed a second place finish in 1999 (losing to Chopsox by one point), a tie with my father for third place in 2000 and a fourth place finish this year. This is not the direction I wanted to move. It seems the more I learn about the game, the worse I do. From what I understand there is now a game played with an oblong ball made out of pigskin. Apparently it is very popular. Some of you will be watching it; me I've got 2 1/2 years of New Yorkers to catch up on. I'll see you in March 2002. |
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