| IBC News |
| 10/26/2002 The End of the Season Anaheim won Game 7 of the first IBC World Series to clinch their first title ever, anywhere. 10/23/2002 World Series and Beyond The Cubs and Angels continue to square off with the latest round going to Mark Buehrle and the Cubs. Buehrle pitched a CG No-No, walking only 2 batters and facing only one batter over the minimum due to a double play. The Series moves back to Anaheim for the final two games. 10-02-2002 Move over and Move out Montreal becomes Arizona Cubs Become the Giants The A's will move to Colorado The Dodgers are moving to Wrigley. New GM's Roy (iwc1620, [email protected]) - Oakland Warren (phillesfan12, [email protected]) - Montreal David ([email protected]) - L.A. Brad ([email protected], ibcindians)- Cleveland 9/23/2002 Playoff Shape-Ups The Cubs have pulled back within 1 of Pittsburgh and the ALWest/WC races remain too close to call, with Oakland and Toronto currently the teams with tickets to October, though that could change... 9-22-2002 Getting Da Boot! Arizona - after pledging to be more active and saying that 'At least i always replied to the Roll Calls' Achieved a new low in inactivity by having both a GM AND an assistant completely inactive and not replying to the latest Roll Call San Francisco - Also missed latest Roll Call, made one trade, otherwise I haven't heard from him at all. Colorado - Yet another missed Roll Call, the only thing I've heard from him since the Coors field debacle was one post chewing out Cinci (one of our better GM's) for talking up his team next year on the 'board. (The Coors effect will return once the season is over) 9/17/2002 Playoff Shape-Ups The NL playoff teams are officially down to 4, though Chicago continues to dog Pittsburgh trying to get the central title. In the AL, Oakland has opened up a 5 game lead over Anaheim and Toronto has bult a 3 game lead in the wildcard over Anaheim and Detroit as the Jays have won seven in a row. 8/26/02 More Texas No-Nos!?! Gary Glover, Randy Choate, Graeme Lloyd and Alan Embree combined for another Texas No-No on August 28th against Baltimore. Playoff News Anaheim has started to slip and has dropped 2.5 games behind Oakland and 2 behing Toronto in the Wild Card. The Cubs are holding 2 games behind the Pirates, but have not been threatened in the Wild Card spot. Toronto Holds the AL WC spot but trails Boston by 8.5. Cleveland, Montreal, San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, Milwaukee and San Francisco have all been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. 8/25/2002 Zona and Frisco Damian and Kev will now run Arizona, while newcomer Bobby Lee will instead take over San Francisco Playoff News Oakland and Anaheim are once again deadlocked in the west, with Toronto Tagled in with them for the Wild Card. Detroit has fallen 3.5 games off that pace, but could still get back in it. Minnesota becme the first team to be mathematically eliminated from the playoff race, Cleveland, SD and Montreal won't be far behind. 8/24/2002 Cycles and Dynamic Duos Tampa Bay's Adrian Brown hit for the cycle, going 5-7 with one double, one triple and his first home run of the season in a 15 inning losing effort against the White Sox, final score 4-3. Pittsburgh had an offensive explosion as Bobby Abreu and Jorge Posada both went 5 for 6 in a 12-9 win over Milwaukee, Abreu managed 4 singles and a double while Posada collected 3 singles and 2 doubles along with a stolen base. 8/23/2002 Singles, Homers and 6-6 Brad Fullmer of Florida went 6 for 6 with 2 singles, 3 doubles and a homerun in a 17-3 rout of San Diego. Adam Dunn homered in his third consecutive game. Ichiro also went 5 for 6 with 5 singles in a 10-5 Oakland win over Detroit. 8/18/2002 General News It's time to look at Who's In and Who's Out... In the NL, the playoff picture is pretty clear. AZ and the Mets have all but clinched their divisons. In the Central, Pittsburgh and the Cubbies duke it out over the lead and the Wild card, though neither team is worried as the closest WC conteder is Philly, who's 10 games back and not a serious threat to anyone. The AL is a little muddier. Boston ahs opened up a 7 game lead over Toronto and is riding an 11 game winning streak. But Chicago leads Detroit by only 3.5 and the Angels lead the A's again by a slim 1.5 games. Right now Toronto owns the wild card with a 3 game lead over the Tigers, but it's not assured. So the AL playoff picture still includes 6 teams in some exciting races. Who else is out? Colorado is... out of Coors field and into a high tech pressurized dome stadium. Amidst the franchises struggles, city officials decided to build a new, airtight stadium which replicates the air pressure of a sea level park. "the new stadium is totally neutral" a team official said. "It's a God send to say the least" Anyone else out? Yup, Kev, the AZ GM is out of time. He never disabled any of his players (including Clemens who was disabled by the commish and remains there because no e-mail was ever sent to remove him) and when told he was on the cusp of losing his franchise, swore to do better and fix the problem. Two weeks and Zero e-mails later, he's getting the silent boot. 8/11/2002 General News Toronto and Detroit continue to battle over the Wild Card lead while Anaheim remains just .5 games behind Oakland in the west. The Cubs have staggered of late, dropping 4 games behind Pittsburgh, but hold a 10 game edge in the Wild Card race. 8/7/2002 Texas No-No? Barry Zito and Randy Choate (yes, Randy Choate) combined on a 5 walk no-hitter in a 3-0 Texas victory over Detroit. Zito was pulled when he walked Craig Biggio with 1 out in the ninth after throwing 127 pitches. Choate managed to walk two more battters before recording the final out and leaving the bases loaded. This was the second no-hitter in IBC history, the first was thrown by Tanyon Sturtze of the Chicago Cubs on 6/23/2002 against St Louis. 8/04/2002 General News The last two weeks have brought great shakeups in the playoff races through out the IBC. While the Mets, Red Sox and Diamond backs have held strong grips on their seats at the top, thing get much murkier when you look else where. In the AL Central, the White Sox have taken a 4.5 game lead over the Tigers. GM Brett Degen credits their recent surge to his newly awakened offense with A-rod, Floyd and Glaus all finally hitting their strides. Does he have the pitching to keep up the pace in the post-season? Probably not, A-rod once again finds himself on an explosive team which doesn't know how to defuse their opponents. The AL West has recently undergone a change in rule as Oakland has taken a 1.5 Game lead over Anaheim. Oakland was not expected to contend until next year so this is indeed a shock. One result of this shifting in the AL is the change in the Wild Card. After dominating their divisions all season, Anaheim and Detroit are not only out of first, but if the season ended today, Anaheim would not even be in the playoffs and Detroit only has a half game lead in the Wildcard over Toronto. In fact, Tampa has a leg up over Anaheim in the Wild Card race. Better catch those A's... The NL playoff picture is much clearer. The Mets and D'Backs are virtual locks, while in the Central, Pittsburgh and Chicago are as evenly matched as two teams can be. The real surprise is a .500 team in the NL East... Philly has not only reached the .500 mark after months below, but has continued to surge. He credits an improved starting pitching staff for his recent success, and after winning 9 of his last 10 is intent on catching the Wild Card (12.5 games back). Meanwhile other teams with better records (St Louis) have announced that they've thrown in the towel for the season. We say if Philly can catch the Wild Card, why not take a shot at the NL East? After all it's not much farther to the NL east (13.5 games) than it is to the Wild Card (12.5 games). New GM Pat Gillespie took the reins of the Houston Astros; recommended by Brett of CWS and JB of TOR 7/28/2002 General News Philly climbed to the .500 mark for the first time in a long time, thorugh a stong concerted effort by it's GM, though slipped a game below the next day. The White Sox have staked aclaim on the top spot in the AL Central by winning 10 in a row. Boston slipped in the East by dropping 6 in a row, though managing to hold onto the division lead in spite of Toronto going on a tear. Oaland is close on Anaheim's tail after winning 8 of his last 10 games. Chicago and Pittsburgh continue to duke it out in the NL Central Detroit is laying claim to the AL wild card with Toronto, Tampa and Oakland near behind. GM Switch Rich Bishop our Houston GM switched to NYY and brought his players with him, seeking a 'Bigger Challenge' 7/21/2002 General News Yankees GM Dave Martinez removed. New GM's Kegan ([email protected]) for Florida; recommended by Aaron, St Louis GM J Mac ([email protected]) for Atlanta 6/23/2002 First IBC No-No!!! Tanyon Sturtze threw a complete game no-hitter against the St Louis Cardinals for the Chicago Cubs |
 |
 |