1988 MID-SEASON
EMPIRE LEAGUE
Going into the season, London's payroll exceeded $50 million, which was a first for the BA. That ranked almost $10 million more than Islington, the next club on the list, and the standings at the halfway point in the EL South certainly showed it. The Bulldogs rolled over the opposition with an all-star roster that compiled both the League's best team average (.272) and the best staff ERA (2.92). The starting trio of Graham Digges, Neil "The Silver Fox" Storr, and Monro Meads posted a collective 34-9 record, which made the loss of Nick Turgoose for seven weeks to a shoulder ailment almost unnoticeable. The deep bench also helped on offense, as injuries to Keith Parrish and Jack Jones, key members of London's Cup-winning club of last year, barely slowed the Bulldog juggernaut. Shortstop Bill Maloney led all regulars with nineteen homers and sixty-six RBI. Second-place Plymouth could only look with envy at the Northern Division, where their record would put them at the top of the ladder instead of thirteen games back of rampaging London. Quentin Evans, with a 12-4 record and a 2.00 ERA, appears on his way to his best season in his twelve-year career, while sophomore first baseman Michael Tyerman paced the attack with a .304 average and twenty-two return-trippers. On the other hand, center fielder Marvin Eyston saw his average dip thirty-nine points to .268, and the Voyager offense continued to lag behind the competition. Last year's runners-up Cardiff drifted to fourth place despite a strong lineup featuring first baseman Pol Ahmuty and his .324 average. Tim Stainton performed well at the top of the Whitecap rotation, but the rest of the staff dragged down the team ERA to a League-worst 4.78.
Newcastle established an early lead in the EL North, boosted by the torrid hitting of outfielder Martin de Koning, whose .361 average gave him the inside track to win his second batting crown. On the mound, young right-hander Nicholas "Kitty" Hankin, a sixteen-game winner last year, continued to impress with a 10-4 record and a 2.45 ERA, but a weak bullpen slowed down the Greys in May and allowed Edinburgh to pass them. The Chieftans, despite strong pitching from Nicholas Bubb, who won ten of his sixteen decisions in his first season as a regular member of the starting rotation, were passed in turn by Bradford and Nottingham. The Badgers, after a slow start, moved to the top of the ladder by winning seventeen games in May behind the pitching of Tony Rios, a free-agent acquisition in the off-season from Leeds, and Harvey Milburn, who together accounted for twenty-three of Bradford's victories. At the plate, Jack Cotgrove led the circuit with eighty RBI while hitting .300. He joined outfielders Aaron Wakeling and Callum Russel, who batted over .300 as well, to lead the Badger offense. Nottingham, who won the divisional flag last year behind a barrage of home runs, were particularly stung by the power outage that affected the entire Alliance. Morrigan Tustian clouted only twenty-one homers at the halfway point after walloping a record-breaking sixty-three last year, while John Dobson and Fionn Mote, who together accounted for sixty-eight return-trippers a year ago, were limited to twenty this time around. Without the same level of offensive support, the pitching staff suffered, and John Balloch, a twenty-game winner in 1987, managed only an 8-8 record before an arm injury in early July ended his season prematurely.
DOMINION ASSOCIATION
The Northern Division, long regarded as the BA's worst, continued true to form this year, as a handful of clubs battled to claim the title of least mediocre. Belfast and Sunderland topped a crowded field early on. The Unions relied on the hot hitting of first baseman William Littlechild, who led the club in average, home runs, and RBI. Center fielder Samuel Cudlip, meanwhile, set the plate by hitting a dozen homers and stealing twenty-two bases at the top of the order. The pitching duties were handled by youngster George "Jughandle" Povey, the first player chosen in the 1985 amateur draft, and veteran George Wicksted, who combined for twenty-one wins in thirty-five decisions. Sunderland's Liam Dow won the starting shortstop assignment in spring training and responded by hitting .310, but the Swifts slowed down in May as their starting pitching, apart from free-agent pick-up Andrew Westhead, proved weak. Glasgow moved into contention in June with an offense built around the long ball. Pepe Rivera saw his average drop to .230 after hitting .296 last year, but he still led the Gaelics with eighteen homers and seventy RBI, while fellow outfielder "Smiling" John Barrowcliff contributed thirteen circuit clouts and forty-three RBI. Veteran hurlers Dwane Wait and Fraser Reilly topped the rotation, but their records suffered as a result of a weak bullpen that posted a positively inflammatory 4.46 ERA. Last year's pennant winners, Manchester, struggled to reach .500 after losing ace starter Sheen Speake to free agency. Outfielders Jerry Peternek and Bill Callaghan hit over .300 and formed the core of the offense, but the Millers ranked twelfth in the DA with only fifty-three home runs.
It was a two-team race in the DA South, as Stoke and Southampton battled for the lead. Like London in the EL, Stoke topped both the team batting (.284) and pitching (2.90 ERA) categories. First baseman Theo Fellick ranked first with a .360 average and also headed the RBI list with ninety-seven, while shortstop Leon Williams chipped in with a .340 mark. On the hill, free-agent acquisition Jimmy Burden joined veteran Joe Atherol and youngster William Beattie to form the loop's best starting threesome. The trio combined for a 35-12 record, and Burden's 2.25 ERA ranked best in the Association. Southampton stayed close on Stoke's tail through June, buoyed by their own starting troika of Nick Hobhouse, "Dandy" Patrick Byard, and Gareth Bignold, who helped the Spitfire staff record a 3.15 ERA, second only to Stoke. First baseman Jose Moya, who hit .335 and drove in ninety-three runs last season, led the offense until being inexplicably optioned to triple-A Burnley on the eve of the all-star break at the same time that the club picked up outfielder Wayne Jones from Islington to bolster the attack. Stoke finally put some breathing room between them and Southampton in the final weeks before the All-Star Game by winning eleven of fourteen games in July. Defending champs Islington slipped to fourth as they saw their once-dominant pitching staff fall apart. Callum Skene, a fifteen-game winner last year, suffered a season-ending elbow injury in his second start, while Donall Peace and Anthony Rutley, who combined for a 39-18 mark a year ago, could only manage a 14-14 record this year while both registered ERAs north of 4.00. Leicester outfielder Lester Angwin, who hit forty-one long balls in 1987, defied the general decline in homers by knocking thirty-three into the seats this year, which helped the Leopards climb out of the divisional cellar into a tie with the Owls.
1988 ALL-STAR GAME
The midsummer classic returned to Nottingham after a sixty-year absence. The game was tied at one run apiece until the fourth, when the visiting Dominions pushed three runs across the plate against Birmingham southpaw Mike Mullins courtesy of a triple by Stoke third baseman Dean Hasting and a two-run base hit by Bristol backstop Rudolf Sohn. In the fifth, Hastings added to the lead by slamming a three-run homer off Graham Digges. The EL all-stars made it close in the seventh with their own three-run rally, but Sohn put the game out of reach the next inning by knocking a 2-1 fastball from Dublin's Cillian O'Looney into the bleachers in left-center for a three-run blast, as the DA prevailed by a final of 10-5. Sohn, who played the entire game and accounted for six RBI, was the easy choice for the MVP honors.