Election again. In five I’ve got to catch a county commissioner who thinks he’s dodged me!

Sim’s done and we’re heading into the last two sims.

NOTE: My final sim will include 10/1 to take us to the end of the season.

Sorry for the delay, folks. This reporter got a chance to ride with a campaign and took it. You guys out there in newspaper-land might THINK you want this election over but I mean it deep in my heart, in that little place where you have to believe HARD to save Tinkerbell’s life, I want this to end.

Anyway, I’m sure there’s some baseball stuff in here somewhere.

Magic Numbers are closing. Both league leaders could close it off in the next sim. Pittsburgh’s magic number is 2 and Brooklyn’s is 3! Which one will do it in the next week? Only time will tell, sports fans!

In the wild card races Seattle has utterly locked that up in the Platonic league while New York has all but done so in the SL. It looks like everyone else is making hockey reservations these days.

In the race for the #1 pick Cairo has opened up a 2 game suckitude lead. There’s still time for that to go either way, though.

This sim was brutal on the injury front.

Stockholm lost Chad Kinlaw day-to-day for a week.
Winnipeg lost Samual Mazza for 4-5 weeks with a pulled tricep.
Winnipeg lost Mauro Codobes day to day for two weeks.
Winnipeg lost Kirk Johnson day to day for two weeks.
New York lost top flight center fielder Sammie Ward to a broken hand for 5 weeks!

Only that last one impacts the playoffs, but what an injury it is!

Next sim is Mack on Monday! Be there and watch me explode prior to November 5!

Mack here again, pinch-hitting for Nate due to that whole election thing that’s got so many newspaper people busy.

First sim of September is completed. The big news is that the New York Knights have reeled off five straight wins to beat back the Jersey City threat. New York now has a 6.5 game lead on Jersey City with 23/24 games left. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh has clinched a playoff berth in the Platonic League and has extended its lead over Seattle to 12 games.

On the other end of the standings spectrum, Cairo clings to a half-game lead over Helena for the top pick in next year’s draft.

In miscellaneous news …

Lots of day-to-day injuries but the big blow is Stockholm’s young closer Timothy Williams who ruptured a disc in his back and is out for the remainder of the season. Rumors also swirl that Pittsburgh GM Mack Shultz ruptured his patellar ligament last night, leading him to be a little punchier than usual as he contemplates the wonders of vicodin while waiting for surgery on Friday. The rumors further claim that the GM’s wife has declared it a basketball-career-ending injury.

Ben “Sugar” Towell laced five hits for the Stockholm Sluggers on September 5 in a 7-4 victory over Maryland.

Stockholm’s Horace Lawson and Brooklyn’s Benito Figueredo took home Player of the Week honors.

On September 1, Jersey City pounded Cairo 15-3. All 15 runs by the Skeeters were scored in a three-inning span from the third to the fifth.

On September 2, New York scored three in the ninth to top Maryland 3-1 while Seattle thrashed Winnipeg 13-2.

On September 3, Pittsburgh shut out Marietta 10-0, meaning the Mammoths really would have been better off not showing up.

On September 4, Sylva and Cairo went deep into the night before Sylva pulled out a 3-2 victory in 15 innings. Someone’s still playing hard on those squads.

In the last two days of the sim, Seattle and Pittsburgh squared off for the first two games of a three-game playoff preview. Pisces pitching shut down the Ministry at home in 2-0 and 5-2 victories. Seattle will look to salvage some pride in the series finale on the first day of the next sim.

Finally, a shout out to Sylva pitcher Bobby Stoops appears to be in order. On a struggling squad, he has posted a 15-6 record and a 3.07 ERA. He leads the Platonic League in ERA and is tied for the league lead in wins. Nice work by him in a tough year for the Black Bears.

League file is posted. Web pages are en route. Next sim will be by Nate on Friday.

We’re up to September 1 now, and major league rosters have expanded to 40 men.

In the standings, the big news is that Jersey City has closed to within 5.5 games of a reeling New York Knights squad, who has dropped eight of their last nine games.

On the other end of the spectrum, Helena and Cairo are separated by a mere half-game for the top pick in next year’s draft.

In miscellaneous news:

Seattle’s Ronald Veit and Brooklyn’s Miyatarou Takenao won Batter of the Month for August. Pittsburgh’s Joseph Silas and Jersey City’s Freddie Mendes claimed Pitcher of the Month honors.

On August 29, Pittsburgh’s Lamont Alcala hit three solo home runs in his first three trips to the plate to power the Pisces to a 3-0 victory over New York. Astonishingly, Pittsburgh manager Moses Guthrie pinch hit for Alcala when he came up in the seventh inning to bring in a left-handed hitter. Talk about sticking to the book!

On August 30, Maryland’s Fabio Punal shut out Helena on two hits. His performance tied for the third-best this season.

Seattle’s Ronald Veit fell to a bruised heel and is expected to be out about 10 days.

I could probably talk about lots of games, but the August 30 tilt between Brooklyn and Seattle is a doozie. Brooklyn led 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth. But, with two outs, free-agent-to-be Amador Zaragoza bombed a deep home run to right-center to tie the game. The game then remained tied at three until the 13th inning when Miyatarou Takenao hit a solo home run to deep left-center to reclaim the lead. Zaragoza responded though with an RBI single in the bottom of the 13th, sending the contest deeper into the Seattle night. Then, in the 17th inning, Brooklyn scored a run on a bases-loaded groundout. However, Seattle strung together four consecutive singles with one out (the last by the pitcher) to claim a 6-5 victory. Check out the box score. Heck of a game.

Anyway. League file is posted. Web pages en route. Nate’s got the next sim on Wednesday.

I’ve got a speech to write and another to cover. The sim’s done.

We’re to August 22 now. As the gap between New York and Winnipeg has grown to 8.5 games, it appears that the playoffs are basically set. So, I’ll skip the standings blather and go straight to the miscellaneous notes.

Some day-to-day injuries, but the more severe injuries were to Winnipeg’s Glen Trask and Cairo’s James Pilla who are both out about a week or so.

Stockholm’s Steffen Nell and Marietta’s Brady Morris took home Player of the Week honors.

Jersey City’s first baseman Amado Rodon has set a Socratic League for walks in a season, with weeks still to go.

On August 17, New York scored two in the eighth and one in the ninth to come back and beat Stockholm 6-5. Meanwhile, Sylva plated two in the ninth to top Winnipeg 3-2.

On August 18, Stockholm and Marietta entered the ninth tied at five. Stockholm scored two in the top of the final inning, only to see Marietta score three to claim victory.

On August 19, Stockholm claimed revenge and crushed Marietta 13-2. Seattle and Winnipeg meanwhile fought to a scoreless tie through nine innings. The Ministry’s run in the bottom of the tenth led to their 1-0 win. New York also scored in the tenth inning to beat Pittsburgh 3-2.

On August 20, Cairo scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie Jersey City, but then fell when the Skeeters scored two in the tenth. Maryland also came back with three in the ninth inning to beat Helena 8-7.

On August 21, Brooklyn topped Seattle 1-0 in a game featuring only eight hits.

League file is posted. Web pages en route. Next sim is Friday by Nate.

Yes, sports fans, the playoff picture is beginning to come into focus. Adding the wildcard to the regular season is supposed to work to the advantage and interest of contending teams but the way it’s fallen out this year that’s not happening! Pittsburgh and Brooklyn have almost locked up first place and Seattle and New York look secure in their wild card finishes!

In standout games and performances Pittsburgh pitchers Gaertner and Pellerin combined on three hitter against Helena August 16th!

On the downside of the injury front New York suffered a blow, losing 15 game winner Abe Nix for 5 -6 weeks to elbow chips. Ow! They also have another pitcher, Chad Gomez, day-to-day with blisters! Not a good sim for the New York franchise!

Next sim is Wednesday by Mack! Be there!

I spent some time on the league file today and I think I got all of the player histories, team histories, and email messages restored. They somehow went missing during Nate’s crashes. If you see something strange, let me know.

Simmed up to August 12 now. Biggest news of the sim, from a standings perspective, is in the Socratic League. Brooklyn has extended its lead over New York to seven full games. Meanwhile, Winnipeg is only 3.5 games behind New York. Can Hal’s squad catch the Miracle Knights and make it back into the playoffs?

In the Platonic League, Pittsburgh’s lead has extended back to five games by virtue of a four-game winning streak. Third-place Stockholm is now 20.5 games behind the Pisces, so the playoff match-up is pretty firmly set.

Miscellaneous notes:

Maryland lost Donald Mansfield for 4-5 weeks to a fractured wrist. No other major injuries to report.

The leading home run hitter in the Platonic League is impending free agent Carlos Araoz of Seattle. But, he has only 27 home runs, putting him on pace for just 36. Pretty low total for a league leader, if you ask me.

Bobby Stoops of Sylva threw his second shutout of the year and is the only Platonic pitcher with more than one complete game shutout.

Sylva’s Frank Sherrick is the only Platonic League pitcher with an ERA under 3.00 and he sits at 2.99.

No player in either league has an OPS over 1.000.

Brendon Townsend of New Jersey leads the Socratic Lead (or is tied for the lead) in runs, RBI, home runs, triples, slugging percentage, and total bases. Nice campaign for the rightfielder. Nice job by Paul to sign him to an extension back in June.

Brooklyn’s stud pitcher Tyler “Ex” Conn leads the Socratic League (or is tied for the lead) in wins, complete games, shutouts, quality starts, innings pitched, ERA, WHIP, and opponents’ batting average. While he’s benefiting from a league-low BABIP of 2.43, I don’t think that’s the only explanation.

Sylva smoked Stockholm 16-0 on August 9. Ouch.

Next sim should be Monday by Nate, as the two of us appear to have worked through our computer issues. League file is posted and web pages en route.

Having worked on my fan for a bit I have confidence that I can complete a sim without a crash. In fact, I have!

Headline: Distance Acheived!

The name of the game is distance, my friends! Both leaders extended their margins this sim. Pittsburgh to four games and Brooklyn to five! Even Helena spread it out a bit with space in the wildcard stretched to 3.5 games!

On the injury front we had several, sad to say…

Maryland’s James Sexton was injured while pitching. Day to day for seven weeks!
Marietta’s Christian Diaz pulled a tricep. He’s day to day for three weeks!
Cairo lost John Arant for 1-2 weeks with a stiff shoulder.
Winnipeg lost Jerry Brasher for for six weeks with a broken foot!

Hard times.

Next sim is by Mack. I’ll allow him to inform you of the schedule.

It’s late, so no fancy recap. We’re into August. Both division leaders have two-game leads. League file posted and web pages en route. Next sim is Monday by Nate.