Legends of Cooperstown News-February 27, 2002

Two theories are out there as to where Hazen Shirly 'Kiki' Cuyler got his nickname, which is not pronounced KeeKee, but with a long I, like in KyeKye, like his last name. The first theory, and not my favorite, came from the belief that he stuttered and when saying his last name, it came out Cuy-cuy-cuyler. The second and much more poetic theory came from the fact that the powerful, fleet outfielder was so fast and could cover so much ground when playing the field, that while in the minor leagues, his managers would yell 'Cuy! Cuy!' meaning that he should take charge and catch the ball. Which do you believe?

Only one trade was reported in the Winter Legends of Cooperstown during set 5 and it involved 2 teams that have already been active so far this season. The Newark Eagles dealt shortstop Willie Wells, out fielder Zack Wheat and all around utility man Martin Dihigo to the Scranton White Elephants, in exchange for shortstop/outfielder Robin Yount, outfielder Tony Oliva and second baseman Nellie Fox.
Yount had been acquired in just the previous set by Scranton from Brooklyn, but has already been sent packing by the White Elephants GM Larry Denicola. He had hit just .195, with 3 HR and 9 RBI in 82 at bats over 31 games for the team. None of the players involved in the deal had been having particularly good seasons (Fox .255, Oliva .218, Wells .255, Dihigo .224, Wheat .186) and it is hoped by both Denicola and Newark's Mike Rivet, that the trade will turn around not just the player's seasons, but their new team's seasons as well.

The St. Louis Perfectos have continued on their hot streak over the last 85 games, a 55-30 record over that time, which has seen them overcome a slow start to the season and they now lead the Winter Legends of Cooperstown National League. The team now stands at a league best record of 60-44 and they lead Kansas City by 2 games. The Monarchs complete the 'Show Me' state's sweep of the top 3 records in the entire WLOC with a 58-46 mark.
   All 8 teams in the division are in a tough fight for the playoffs, as Mountaintop is in 3rd place at 56-48, 4 games back, while the remaining 5 teams are seperated by a total of 3 games, 8 to 11 games back, as we head into the season's final third.
   Tris Speaker (.356) continues to press Brooklyn's Rogers Hornsby (.361) for the National League batting title. Hornsby's run at a Triple Crown is being to wane though, as even though he is second in the NL in home runs with 31-Virginia's Hank Greenberg and Kentucky's Jimmie Foxx lead with 32-he has now fallen considerably behind St. Louis' Ernie Banks (106) and Greenberg (94) in total RBI. The New York Giant's Joe Jackson has an incredible 21 triples at this point in the season, while KC's Cool Papa Bell has lapped the field in stolen bases with 40 to Brooklyn's Slidin' Billy Hamilton's 19.
   The Giant's Pete Alexander leads the NL in wins with 13, just ahead of Mountaintop's Leon Day and Gary Peters who have 12. Scranton's Addie Joss continues to lead in ERA at 2.66, the second best in the entire WLOC behind Washington's Don Drysdale (2.60). Giant closer Frank Linzy has led his team back into the playoff picture of late and continues to lead the NL in saves with 19, 1 ahead of Kentucky's Webster McDonald and Brooklyn's Ron Perranoski.

As we head into set 6 and the final 50 games of the season, the pennant races and playoff positionings are still up for grabs by all 16 teams. Keep up the great work on getting your games in! I know not everyone has upgraded yet to version 7 and I'm pretty sure that none of us expected to run into the difficulty of importing and exporting game results files between versions 6 and 7. For now, I have both versions on my PC, so if you play with version 6 still, let me know when you send me the files, so I can import them into the proper files. Computer managers are able to be imported with no problems though, so go ahead and send those out either way. If you encounter any more problems with the files I've sent out, please let me know.

Anyone wishing to get on the waiting list for either the WLCO or the SLOC, e-mail me at [email protected] or Josh Raup at [email protected]. If you'd like a copy of the Japanese League All-Stars or the Negro League All-Stars so you can evaluate them yourself, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy.

Set 6 will be the played normally by the Home team versus the Visiting tteam's computer manager. Trades made now will take effect for set 7. Also, be aware that the league trading deadline for players to be eligible for the playoffs is just over the horizon at the beginning of set 7.

Keep up the great work and keep having fun!

Phil

The Missouri Riverbats, behind the WLOC American League's leading hitter Ty Cobb, have moved out to a 5 game lead, as the season reaches the end of set 5 and game 104 mark. At 59-45, the Riverbats have the second best record in the entire Winter LOC. Cobb leads the AL with a .353 batting average, just ahead of a pair of New York Yankees, Ed Roush (.346) and Rod Carew (.339), and Rochester's Ross Youngs (.339). He also leads the AL in triples with 14, just ahead of teammate Sam Thompson's 13.
Their balanced attack, that also includes Honus Wagner, Jackie Robinson, and Dan Brouthers, leads the AL in hitting with a .282 team average, and solid pitching, led by John Clarkson, Bullet Joe Rogan and Jim Merritt, is 3rd in the league in ERA at 4.01.

The Summer Legends of Cooperstown League has reached round 12 of it's inaugural draft, which began via an e-mail format on Wednesday, February 13th. The overall number 1 pick of Mike Rivet's Moscow Red Devils was none other than George Herman Ruth, although rumors are swirling that the Babe does not want to travel overseas to play for the Moscow, Russia based club.
The SLOC features the same HOF 2000 set players, the hand created Negro League players and a past season...this year it is 1941...as it's counterpart league the WLOC, but there is an added new international twist. The league is welcoming in a team of 24 past Japanese League greats, led by all-time home run king Saduharu Oh. The SLOC also plans on inducting it's own Hall of Famers permanently into the set on a yearly basis and held it's first HOF induction voting, but no single player garnered the 75% vote block that is required to be admitted. The league also is welcoming new MLB HOF inductees Ozzie Smith, Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield and Bill Mazeroski-all of whom have been drafted so far, permanently into the HOF set as well this year. Plans are to create cards for any new HOFers that are inducted into Cooperstown each year.
Follow the draft and the season as it progresses by visiting the official league website. You can still get on the waiting list for either league by e-mailing the SLOC Commissioner Josh Raup or the WLOC Commissioner Phil Trygar for consideration.

   The Boston Americans have struggled at home this year, 25-27 at Fenway, but still find themselves in the middle of the pennant race, thanks in part to the consistent play of Oscar Charleston (.304, 15-65) and the resurgence of Babe Ruth (.286, 29-63) who has gotten hot after a cold start.
   Chicago's Eddie Mathews continues to swing a hot bat, and his 40 home runs and 86 RBI leads the entire WLOC. The Colts are at 52-52 and 7 games out of first in the AL. The Rochester Live Oaks are 9 back and their pitching rotation of Tim Keefe, Juan Marichal, Carl Hubbell and Dean Chance have combined for 37 of the teams 50 wins.
   Newark, Cleveland and Washington are 11 back and in a 3 way tie for the last playoff spot. The Yankees John Wyatt has taken over the league lead in saves with 22 to keep them still in contention for a playoff spot, just 3 behind the rest of the pack.
   Check out the excellent Set 5 series' recaps by Tim Daniels for his Boston Americans, and Josh Raup for his Cleveland Spiders .

The newest creation, a Latino all-time great team, including Jose Mendez, Luis Tiant Sr., Alfredo Cabrera, Luis Padron, Armando Marsans, Bernardo Baro, Franciso Coimbre, Pablo Mesa, Alejandro Oms, Lazaro Salazar, Omar Linares and many others, will be finished in the next week or two.
Right after that, I will begin a second Negro League team, which will include more of the all-time greats, such as 'Cannonball' Dick Redding, Ted 'Double-Duty' Radcliffe, Newt Allen, Sam Bankhead, Tom 'Peewee' Butts, Piper Davis, Bingo DeMoss, Frank Duncan, Floyd 'Jelly' Gardner, Sammy T. Hughes, Clarence 'Fats' Jenkins, Lester Lockett, Oliver Marcelle, Dick Lundy, Buck O'Neil, Bruce Petway, Alec Radcliffe, Louis Santop, Ben Taylor, Frank Warfield, and many more.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome and any names, facts, etc. that you'd like to contribute are most welcome with these projects. They're meant to extend the value of the game of Baseball and Strat-O-Matic, through not just Major League History, but also the histories and backgrounds of the all-time players from other countries, who in a lot of cases did not have the opportunity to show their talents in the Major Leagues.