Comrade Schmidt to Seaboard!

Seaboard Sun-Times

In a bold move, GM Hutch of the third-place Seaboard Sluggers traded away star outfielder Pat Burrell to the Masontown Stonehands on Wednesday, in exchange for ex-Rojos star hurler Comrade Jason Schmidt.

Schmidt has struggled mightily this season, dealing with poor performance and injury, but he will now be counted on for nothing less than to step into a pressure cooker of a pennant race and deliver Cy Young-calibre numbers for the rest of the season. The Sluggers enter Period 13 with an ERA of 4.00 (Rank=9), a WHIP of 1.24 (Rank=5) and only 34 Wins (Rank=9); appalling numbers for a team that some pundits claimed would waltz their way to a championship.

After making the deal, GM Hutch was looking forward to chaining Kyle "Deadbeat" Davies to the bench. "God he sucks," explained the 22-time BBBL Executive of the Year (EOTY). "I really hate him."

For his part, GM Mason of the Stonehands was happy to land a big bat in the person of Pat Burrell. "Burrell is a stud," said the former BBBL champion, "and best of all he's set up with a reasonable contract which should make him a Stonehand for a long time." "Sure GM Peach thinks I'm a rat, but I think that this deal actually improves our team for this year. Metropolis and Sherwood better look out in the RBI category, and Havana might want to pay attention in TXB too!"

Burrell made a pinch-hit appearance in his first game with the Stonehands, and hit a single in his only at bat in the 6-2 victory over Nemos Nine. Jason Schmidt makes his Sluggers debut on Sunday, on the road against the Sherwood Bandits.

Insurance Runs

As most sports enthusiasts do, I routinely watch sports highlights. The Score, Sportsnetnews, SportsCentre; I peruse them all.

When these shows play a clip of a ballclub, already leading, scoring some late runs, the narrator always calls them 'insurance runs.' Fair enough, but why does said narrator lack the imagination to term runs scored by a leading team that eventually loses the game 'insurance runs?'

Both situations involve a team procuring insurance, it's just that one team 'decided' to fully insure while the other opted for coinsurance instead.

If the in-game play-by-play crew deems such runs to be 'insurance runs' during the game, before anyone knows the actual outcome, then I say the highlight people should honour that convention after-the-fact, or we should retire the term altogether.

Yeah, let's start calling them 'needless runs' or 'overkill' or 'thank god we needed those' runs instead, depending on the final result.

Sluggers show lucidity after Week 7 coma

The Sluggers were hideous last week in slipping from a reasonably comfortable early-season lead to a jarring deficit in a matter of days. So it was nice to come home from softball to see the following line:

17-43, 3 SB-CS, 11 R, 18 TXB, 19 T1B, 2 HR, 5 2B, 10 RBI, 8 BB, 4 SB, CS
4 ER, S, 14 HA, 2 W, 2.118 ERA, 17.0 INN, NSV, 7 K, 0.824 WHIP

The Peavy/Webb matchup proved particularily fruitful as Dave Roberts, Ryan Klesko and Jake Peavy all had a fantastic night at Bank One Ballpark.

Does this fine team play have legs or will the Sluggers be back to sub-mediocrity tomorrow? I don't know, but at least I won't need to cry myself to sleep tonight after all. Er, I mean, ah...

hey look over there --> duckies!

We needed that badly

Thanks, Jake.

Meanwhile I'm an amateur's amateur

According to the Atlanta Braves' broadcast booth, Jose Vizcaino of the Houston Astros is a "pro's pro."

Vizcaino has played in 1,655 major league games, and has a career slugging percentage of .347.

Vic Rauter Inadvertently Disses Forest City Star

Vic just called Hideki Matsui of the Forest City Dominators "Hideki Nomo!"

Period 3 Winner: Havana Rojos

Congratulations to GM Spirinez and the Havana Rojos for winning Period 3!

A-Rod, Derrek Lee, Johnny Damon and Troy Glaus were all outstanding at the plate, and every non-Jerome Williams pitcher who took the mound shone too.

The Rojos, as a team, put up the following impressive line for the Period:

81-257, SB-CS, 48 R, 87 TXB, 79 T1B, 10 HR, 19 2B, 53 RBI, 25 BB, 3 3B, 3 SB, 2 CS
9 ER, 3 S, 35 HA, 14 BBI, 3 W, 1.676 ERA, 48.1 INN, 2 NSV, 40 K, L, 1.014 WHIP

Disaster Averted

After getting razed by the New York Mets in his first start this week, then being unceremoniously dropped from the team (a move which wouldn't take effect until Thursday), I can't say I was looking forward to Al Leiter's final start as a Seaboard Slugger tonight...in Coors Field.

Thankfully the pool gods saw fit to grant the squad a huge break and decided to postpone the impending gong show due to a bit of snow.

Thank you pool gods, you are indeed wise and just.

In still more good news, the Sluggers organization managed to weather an ugly batting line of 2-26, 2 2B, RBI, 3 R, 9 BB, 9 T1B, 4 TXB and a double-snub from its hero GM Dunne at Crawl Across the Ocean :) to remain in first place tonight, ahead of the surging Havana Rojos (employers of A-Rod and Derrek Lee) and the steady Masontown Stonehands.