Another late night at the Barleymoe with Elijah Craig                                                                

                    Joining Elijah tonight are Johnny Walker, Jim Beam and John Jameson

Elijah: We'll fellas its been awhile since we've gotten together. I thought we should talk about the American  League west race.

Johnny: Yes, pimpbotlove and jc44 are really going at it ---again.

Jim: With 13 games left they both have won exactly the same number of games this season as last.

Elijah: So Seattle has a three game lead.

Johnny: Yes but it doesn't look like it can hold up. Las Vegas finishes at home and has a slightly easier schedule.

John: Do you think these guys hate each other yet or are they saving that for next season. 

Jim: They probably should hate each other with both having made the playoffs for the last 7 years.

Johnny: And in 5 of those seasons they met in the playoffs. jc44 has a 12-6 advantage in those matchups.

Jim: It gets worse, this season, pimpbotlove won only 4 of the 10 games. The teams split the two extra inning games, Seattle winning a 10 inning game and Las Vegas winning the 14 inning marathon.

John: It's even closer than that if you look at some of the stats. In the ten games Seattle outscored Las Vegas 41-36 but 7 of Seattle's runs came in one inning in a come from behind 8-4 win for jc44.

Jim: That was the game they had just a couple of days ago. Paul Young had that bad inning, His blown save in that game was half his blown saves for the season.

Elijah: It's been great being with you guys tonight. 

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Reynaldo Soriano

 

Bio:   Reynaldo Soriano was born in Toledo, OH (Pop. 287,208).  He attended Rogers Senior High School (Nickname: Rams) where he was a 3-sport athlete (Football, Basketball and Baseball). After high school he attended Henry Ford Community College (Nickname: Hawks) in Dearborn, MI. He was a 2-time NJCAA All-American and played in the NJCAA World Series his Sophomore year.

Draft: Was the 3^rd pick in Season 32 by Charleston (bwb53).  

Scout Nick Brown- “He is an average hitter with decent power.  He is a very good corner infielder and could win a gold glove someday.  Has average speed.”

Career: Soriano was drafted in Season 32 by Charleston and broke into the Majors in Season 34.  He played 13 of his 17 seasons with the Charleston/El Paso organization.  During his time, he was a 5-time All-Star and won 5 Silver Slugger Awards at 3B (36, 38, 40, 42, 45).  His best season was Season 45 when he hit .300, .904 OPS, 98 R, 28 2B, 40 HR, 109 RBI and stole 11 bases.   He used that season to accumulate career stats of .278 Ave, .837 OPS, 1488 R, 2742 H, 402 2B, 33 3B, 545 HR, 1523 RBI, and 180 SB.  He still holds the Charleston/El Paso career records for hits (2143), runs (1185), and walks (768).

Speech Highlight- “I have enjoyed my time in this game at every level.  It has been one great experience after another, from making the Little League World Series to spending 17 years in the big leagues.  I owe my parents a great deal for introducing me to this sport at an early age, and all my coaches and teammates from various levels for getting me into the Hall of Fame.”

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Pete Pryor

 

Bio:   Pete Pryor was born in Blaine, MN (Pop. 57,186, North part of Minneapolis metro area.)  He attended St. Louis Park High School (Nickname: Orioles) where he led the Orioles to back-to-back high school finals, in which they won the Championship his Senior year.  He was also an All-Class Super Stater as a Senior.

Draft: Was the 24^th pick in the first round in Season 32 by Louisville (xmasjjm).  

Scout Ken Post- “He was a tremendous defensive CF and at 6-3 we knew he would his bat would continue to get better.  And oh yeah he had 6.7 speed in the 60-yard dash.”

Manger (mike1184)-  "After working through bouts of inconsistency when Pete first arrived in the Major Leagues, his gold glove defense and well-rounded offensive game while patrolling Center Field helped him become an anchor for 2 San Juan World Series victories.”  As far as the San Juan Expos are concerned, his jersey number has been retired since Pryor hung up his cleats, and the club has plans to mummify and display his body after 'ol Pete kicks the bucket.

Career: Pryor was drafted in Season 32 by Louisville, then was traded in Season 33 to San Juan where he spent 11 MLB season after breaking in during Season 35.  He finished his MLB career with 4 seasons in New York.  During his time, he helped win back-to-back World Series rings for San Juan in 36 and 37.  He also accumulated 8 All-Star appearances, 4 CF Gold Gloves (36, 41, 42, 43), and 1 CF Silver Slugger award (40).  His best season was Season 40 when he hit .303, .883 OPS, 104 R, 32 2B, 31 HR, 86 RBI and stole 29 bases.   He used that season to accumulate career stats of .279 Ave, .812 OPS, 1229 R, 2278 H, 482 2B, 83 3B, 311 HR, 1140 RBI, and 293 SB.  He still holds the record for triples in a season (11) and in his career (62) for San Juan. He also holds the career mark of 348 doubles for San Juan.

Speech Highlight- “I grew up going to Twins games and always dreamt of playing in the big leagues.  My parents help completely supported me when I chose to chase my dream out of high school.  I owe a great deal to them.  I also a big thank you to the San Juan organization and city for taking a chance on me.”

                                  An afternoon at the Barleymoe

                  Today Elijah Craig is joined by Henry McKenna

Elijah: Henry thanks for stopping by. I wanted to discuss the leagues' history.

Henry: What do you want to know Elijah.

Elijah: Which league has won the most World Series?

Henry: The National League leads the American League 28 to 25. The Nationals are lead by Las Vegas with 7 championships in eleven appearances.

Elijah: Is the big dog in the American League thebigdogs?

Henry: You just couldn't help yourself on that one Elijah; could you.

Elijah: No, I couldn't.

Henry:You're right thebigdogs have won 5 world series in 10 appearances.

Elijah: Have the two franchises ever met in the World Series.

Henry: Yes in fact it happened in season 30. The Fargo franchise was located in Montreal that year. Las Vegas won the Series 4 game to 2.

Elijah:What do you find interesting about this league?

Henry: Two franchises have the same owners for all 53 seasons. Mr.Stickball has run Colorado and bwb53 has run El Paso all 53 seasons. In fact these two franchises played in the league's first World Series.

Elijah: What franchise has had the most owners?

Henry: It is actually two franchises. Both Hartford and Charleston  have had 13 owners. In Hartford mannytanner has only run the franchise three seasons and he's already 4th in career wins. This season he will pass Charleston's trapapoodle for third in wins.

Elijah: Are you trying to confuse me?

Henry: trapapoodle has run three franchises this league. Not only has he run the Hartford and Charleston but he had 3 season with the Cleveland franchise. In total trapapoodle has won 1107 games in this league.

Elijah: Any other guys run more than one franchise?

Henry; Probably too many to mention. the most notable is mike1184. Mike ran the Vegas franchise for the first 26 seasons. Mike took season 27 off. When he came back in season 28 pimpbotlove  had that franchise so he tool over the San Juan franchise. mike1184 has 2447 franchise wins with the Vegas franchise and 2325 wins the Expos. Actually there are another 7 guys running multiple franchises.

Elijah: Any managers that stick out to you?

Henry: Yea, bigfrank84.

Elijah: bigfrank84? Who the heck was he.

Henry: bigfrank84 ran the Hartford franchise back in season 7. He won 100 games made the playoffs as a wildcard. His team lost its only playoff series and quit the league; actually quit HBD.

Elijah: Henry, you've given me tired head with all these stats. It is time for a drink. You want to drink your stuff or my stuff?

                                New people and places for season 54

We lost only one manager to the captain this season. buddy996 has been replaced by Frozenherd. Frozenherd is veteran owner playing in 21 leagues over 134 seasons. He has made the playoffs 47 times winning two World Series while compiling a .510 winning percentage in regular season games.

We will have a few new ball parks. The old Milwaukee franchise is in New York. I think technically it is New York one, and New York Empire is New York two but I've never understood the one and the two about the New York franchises. When dherz_263 moved from Miller Field to Shea Stadium, that's sure to have made Ralph Collier and his pitching mates happy. Last years Brewers era of 4.90 is sure to be lower for the transit Authority this year at Shea.

fdarby moved the Dakota's from Sioux Falls to Toledo and renamed them the Blades.  The big winner in this move is Wayne Butler. Fifth Third Field is still a pitcher friendly park but not as bad as Razavi Field.Butler certainly will be able to hit .300 this season.

Frozenherd moved his franchise from Montreal to Detroit. This is the most dramatic change. Olympic Stadium was ranked by SCAT as the sixth easiest venue to score runs in. CoAmerica Park is ranked fifth in suppressing runs.

With the new ball parks there should be a decrease in runs scored in the National League.

One team changed their name. The old Santa Fe Raiders have been rebranded as the Santa Fe Fernandez MVP Tour. 25 year old Alex Fernandez is now not only the face of the franchise but also the name. In three full major league seasons Fernandez has made 2 all star games, one silver slugger and hit for the cycle.

                          Season 53 awards

THE Stickball League names our awards after retired owners.

The McBain award is not an annual award. To win this award you must exceed the previous high season win total of 135 wins. McBain was active in our league for 12 years , seasons 22 through 33. He's retired for HBD. In 207 seasons McBain made the playoffs 170 times while winning 20,618 games.

The current holder of the McBain awards is the Fargo franchise and thebigdogs.

The Dean award is given to the comeback player of year. Dean spent 21 years, and thousands of pixels on the chat board, in our league. Dean retired, due to poor health, in season 46. Knowing that our world chat lacked his presence Dean returned to the league in season 50. Like McBain, Dean is retired from HBD.

This years winner of the Dean award is Daichi Brea of the Jacksonville Bandits. Brea was signed as an international free agent in season 37 for $12.3 million by NormanW5. In eleven major league seasons Brea won 110 games with an era of 4.18. At the age of 34 Brea, in his free agent season , went on the disabled list with a strained elbow. Brea , facing Tommy John surgery and decreased value as a free agent considered retiring but his wife's aunt Hilda suggested that Daichi see Damachi Xi a local acupucturist. Xi worked her magic and Brea won 19 games for the Bandits.

The final award is the Branch Rickey award to the franchise that wins the most games from their teams at all levels. brad11's Santa Fe franchise won 552 games narrowly beating out mannytanner's Blue Frogs by 4 games.

 Another night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jim Beam, Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels

Elijah: Fellas we've got three tight division races.I'd like your thoughts on the races.

Jim: Well I'd argue with you about having three races. Seattle and Vegas are close in the National League West but the Super Troopers aren't blowing a three game league with five to play.

Jack: I agree with Jim. That one is over,  Elijah.

Johnny: The two American League races are real. The Stickballers have a two game lead on the Scream.

Jack: The Stickballers only had a one game league until they beat the scream last night 5 to 3.

Jim: Yea, Mr. Stickballer shortened  his rotation from a 5 man to a 4 man rotation. That allows him more leeway to get the pitching matchups he thinks gives him an advantage.

Johnny: Still if renrog wins the next two; it could come down to who plays Honolulu and San Francisco.

Jack: The Stickballers finish the season at San Francisco. The Giants are 12-6 in their last 18 games losing only to Louisville and Santa Cruz.

Jim: Those two games they lost to the Scream last week are looking huge right now. The Giants are only 2 back in  the wild card race trailing the Santa Cruz.

Johnny: The Scream finish in Honolulu. The Islanders probably can't wait for the season to be over. Given the schedule I think Mr. Stickball has to hope to finish off the Scream in the Rocky Mountains rather than hope for a good outcome in last series of the season. If the Stickballers can't finish the off the Scream they have to try to clinch it in San Francisco.

Jim: The American League north is the real nut cracker. One game separating Fargo and Ottawa with five games to go.

Jack: Both their seasons end in Ottawa in a three game series not only to determine the North Winner but also home field advantage for the American League Playoffs.

Johnny: It looks to me that the pitching matchups will be:                                                                                                                                          Pressley (9-8/3.15 era)   vs. Alberro (11-10/4.38 era)                                                                                                                           Cox (6-9/4.43 era)          vs. Urbina (20-7/2.39 era)                                                                                                                                                 Quiroz (11-8/3.11 era)    vs. Finley (9-10/3.49 era)

Jim: I bet thuggis is happy he won't face Carlos Chantres.

Jack: Ottawa has a better run differential but Fargo has the lead it will be a hell of a series