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2033 Tycobbian North Final Recap
Frogs Frolic In TU North, Fly Flag Again
For the second year in a row the Fairfax Frogs have hauled in the Tycobbian North divisional title. This year the Frogs won by leaps and bounds over the rest of the clubs. Though it was a tight five-team race at the All-Star break, they ran away from everybody and won by a colossal 20 games over runner-up Hartsdale, 21 games better than third-place Luxora and 23 games ahead of Oxford in the fourth spot in the standings. Fairfax won more games than any other team in the IPA with a splendid 102-52 mark. The Frogs are now set to win their first-ever Pro Cup. They were voted the favorites in THE ISLANDIAN TIMES Pro Cup poll. Elnora, LaGrange and La Claire are forecast to be Fairfax's biggest obstacles to the Pro Cup quest.
Manager Dane Wesner's Fairfax Frogs (102-52) hit very well with a .286 BA (1st), have solid pitching with a 3.33 team ERA (8th) and good fielding with a .975 FA... Wesner has a fine attack, highlighted by SS John Velasco (.297/21/115/98), CF Eric Kusek (.332/13/83/108), LF Max Lebowitz (.325/18/74/98) and C Brian Davis (.291/7/63/75)... the Frogs' top twirlers are Dudley Dickens (23-8/3.05), Manny Hunsinger (20-13/3.65), Mac Flowers (12-4/2.66) and Arno Vainmaa (14-5/3.44)... despite losing ace Kenny Nikas (25-9/2.58) to White River in free agency, the Frogs still had a fabulous season... free agents Flowers from Colchester and Vainmaa from Mahaska were great signees and really helped ease the loss of Nikas.
The second-place Hartsdale Hellcats (82-72) climbed up from the basement in 2032 to second place this year... they featured pretty fair starters with a 3.42 team ERA (8th), but only average offense with a .255 BA (23rd) and average scoring with 692 runs (14th-tied)... heading up Kendry Moulton's mound corps were vets Hank Cooke (21-9/3.25), Lou Chylak (15-13/2.71) and Ken Crawford (15-12/3.58)... pacing the offense were LF Joe McGarrett (.299/28/90/83), 3B Duffy Day (.267/15/84/82) and 2B Glen Duffy (.320/4/44/71).
For the last four seasons the Luxora Zorros (81-73) have been at the top of the division, winning the flag in 2031... the Z's were a distant third this year, losing out to Fairfax by 21 games... skipper Lacey Tompkins' top performers on the hill were Fernando Sanches (13-10/2.96), Kent Halloran (13-11/3.02) and Benny DeVito (16-16/3.41)... at the plate it was 1B Gerry Hathaway (.312/31/93/66), 2B Julio Canseco (.298/19/66/76) and SS Lenny Ballenger (.287/13/58/61)... Luxora's batters will have to perk up a lot to contend with Fairfax... that's Tompkins' biggest need.
For the previous two years the Oxford Red Caps (79-75) under manager Cameron Kamara have managed winning seasons... this season the Red Caps came in fourth, trailing Fairfax by 23 games... Kamara has good batting with a .268 team average (8th), good scoring (11th) and fine firepower with 172 homers (6th), but only modest pitching with a 3.81 team ERA (20th)... offensively 1B Kerry Sterling (.311/39/101/86) and CF Dalton Ward (.264/43/92/102) carried the club with some help from LF Dennis Hartwig (.316/18/49/61), RF Crusher Derringer (.257/26/72/62), C John Fitzgerald (.298/4/44/75) and 2B Francisco De la Hoya (.285/10/60/35)... Johnny Petrie (18-15/3.39), Mario Lopez (17-15/3.68) and Kent McKinley (13-12/3.72) were the most dependable starters.
White River (76-78) was two games under .500 with manager Mick Cronyn at the helm... the Rascals finished fifth, 26 games off the pace and were tied with North Hills... putting runs on the scoreboard was the problem... the Rascals only hit .251 (28th), but did have some power with 154 roundtrippers (11th)... White River's strong point was its mound staff that posted a 3.30 team ERA (6th)... the Rascals signed 25-game winner Kenny Nikas away from Fairfax in the off-season and he topped the club with a 21-14 mark and a 2.48 ERA... Paul Sardini (16-13/2.950 was the number-two man on the staff... Gregg Moore was number three in the rotation... he slumped from 19-9 with a sparkling 2.46 ERA last season to 15-16 with a 3.37 ERA this year... 1B Davey Sloan (.299/42/94/76) had a sensational sophomore season... 2B Taro Mori (.312/5/32/64) was the only other dependable bat in the order.
The North Hills Hawks (76-78) dropped from third place in 2032 to a fifth-place tie this year... Todd Simons' Hawks are just an average all-around team with a .262 BA and a 3.69 team ERA (17th)... Dave Michael (17-15/2.85) was the mound leader and the batting leaders were rookie RF Adam Thurgood (.276/33/104/80), CF Ronnie Guillaume (.291/13/47/72) and 3B Tommy Vavas (.296/3/38/75).
Manager Rusty Tanussa got great pitching last year from his Mahaska Haymakers (70-84), but not this year as the club's ERA jumped from a superb 2.83 to a so-so 3.58... as a consequence the Haymakers won 12 fewer games and slipped to seventh place in the TU North... coupled with a .258 team BA (21st), it was a long year for them... the only bright spot was rookie Greg Douglas, who chalked up a very impressive 19-10 mark with a 3.02 ERA... Mark Pennington, a 19-game winner in 2032, was just 12-16 record-wise this year, but had a strong 2.90 ERA... James Allington, 17-15 with a 2.59 ERA a year ago, fell to 13-23 with a lofty 4.40 ERA this season... offense was pathetic... C Ronald Reid paced the team with a .287 average... RF Johnny Yestushenko batted .284 and led the team in RBIs with just 54... 1B Wallace Buchanan topped the team in homers with 17 and hit .251.
The Blue Lake Blue Sox (64-90) continued their downward spiral... after winning the 2030 Pro Cup Rick Hilliard's club has wound up third, seventh and eighth, hitting rock bottom this year, 38 games out of first... no offense and mediocre mound work are the culprits... the Blue Sox are last in scoring runs, hit only .258 (19th) and ranked 24th in ERA (3.90)... Doug Kirkpatrick (12-20/3.07) is still a top-notch hurler that get very little run support... but Blue Lake has no quality hurlers after him... LF Boom-Boom Baker still make a little noise in the batter's box and led the club with 18 homers... Baker hit .261 and drove in 66 runs... 3B Matt Thompson boasts the best average with a .289 mark and also tops the team in RBIs with 71... Thompson had 10 roundtrippers... SS Sal Higgins added 13 home runs, 54 RBIs and a .286 BA.
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