Legends of Cooperstown News-January, 2002

Joe Dimaggio is the only player to have received a Hall of Fame vote while he was still an active player! Jack Lang, Executive Secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America reported that Dimaggio got 1 vote in 1945 while he was serving in the Army and still considered an active player.

Rick Mallory's New York Yankees have certainly gotten value early on in the season from their 1st round draft pick Bob Gibson, who tossed the LOC's first ever no-hitter, 1-0 over Jeff Lomerson's Mountaintop Wallbangers. The intimidating Gibson, who once told his Cardinal teammate, catcher Tim McCarver, who had come out for a mound visit "Get back behind the plate. The only thing you know about pitching is how hard it is to hit.", also slammed a solo home run for the games only scoring. Gibson's season record now stands at 4-1 and his feats singlehandedly made a tough-luck loser out of Wallbanger starter Phil Ortega (2-3) Check out the game's box score.

The Legends of Cooperstown has been a very entertaining league thus far in it's inaugural season. With several names on the waiting list and interest by current members for a summer season, it's been announced that the original LOC will now be referred to as the LOC Winter League and a new LOC Summer League is being formed to begin play April thru October.
Five members of the LOC Winter League will have franchises and they will pair with 6 new members for the upcoming summer season. Five franchise spots are still open and anyone who is interested should e-mail LOCSL commissioner Josh Raup at [email protected]. The LOC champions will meet yearly in a fall exhibition game, The Happy Chandler Classic.

Dan Spellacy's Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, behind the explosive bat of Rogers Hornsby, have surged to the top of the LOCWL National League and at 25-17, they have the best won/lost mark in the entire league. Brooklyn has edged past 1st set leader Kansas City by 1 game, but only 6 games seperate the 8 teams in the LOC NL. Hornsby currently leads the NL in hitting at a prodigious .425, is tied for 2nd in HR (16) with the New York Giants Josh Gibson, 2 behind NL leader Jimmie Foxx of Kentucky's 18, and he's 2nd in RBI with 41, just behind Josh Gibson's 44.
The Giants have surged of late, behind the big bat of Gibson and the pitching of Pete Alexander, who is tied for the NL lead in wins (7) with Kentucky's Ed Walsh, and Frank Linzy, who is tied for the NL lead in Saves (10) with Brooklyn's Ron Perranoski. Kentucky's Eddie Collins joins his teammate Foxx in having a fine start to the season offensively, as he is 2nd in the NL in hitting at .395, tied for the lead in Runs Scored (38) with St. Louis' Jesse Burkett, and 4th in the league with 10 Stolen Bases.
The Scranton White Elephants' pitching staff leads the entire LOC with a fine 3.35 team era, headed by NL leader Addie Joss at 2.14. Kentucky's Dave Boswell tops the NL with 55 strikeouts, just ahead of Mountaintop's Gary Peters who has 52. Virginia's bull pen has been busy, as teammates Bob Allen and Rickey Clark are 1-2 in appearances.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and I also hope you're looking forward to the remainder of the season as much as I am. Sets 3 thru 5 shape up to be key in the early part of the season, as teams jockey for position in the standings. These sets are also played in reverse format from the rest of the season, with the games being played as the visting team versus the opponents home computer manager. The set 3 roster and stats files have been sent out and I've also posted them on the e-groups file list. Feel free to send me any suggestions, articles, pictures, recaps, facts, histories, box scores, etc. that you would want to see on the webpage or in a newsletter.

Keep up the great work and keep having fun!

Phil

The Missouri Riverbats, John Wolfmeyer's LOC franchise, have ridden a 13-8 month of May to the top of the LOC American League. The team has been led in their surge by Ty Cobb, who currently leads the AL in hitting at .387, in triples with 9, and is 2nd in the league in stolen bases with 13, trailing only Washington's Lou Brock (18).    Gary Kertson's Washington Senators have moved into 2nd place behind the speed of Brock, Maury Wills and John Henry Ward and they lead the AL with a team total of 53 stolen bases. Chicago's Eddie Mathews has been on fire of late and he leads the AL with 15 home runs, a .650 slugging percentage and 38 RBI to go along with his fine .318 batting average.
   The Senators are also being led by pitcher Don Drysdale, whose 7 wins are tied for the AL lead along with Rochester's Carl Hubbell. Hubbell and teammate Juan Marichal have combined for 13 wins for Nick Flory's Live Oaks. Drysdale is also 2nd in the league in ERA at 2.12, trailing the Newark Eagle Gary Nolan, who has a sparkling 1.67 mark. Washington's Rollie Fingers leads the AL in saves with 11, while Sandy Koufax of Mike Rivet's Eagles, leads the entire LOC in strikeouts with 60. Boston and Cleveland are at 21-21 and are 1-2 in the AL in team ERA at 3.55 and 3.72. As in the LOC NL, only 6 games seperate 1st from last among the 8 teams.
   Check out Tim Daniel's excellent recaps of his set 2 series for Boston vs Kentucky,
Scranton, and the NY Giants.