## Standings / Recap / Comments
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Detroit Tigers 12 4 .750 - 65 29
Baltimore Orioles 11 6 .647 1½ 70 57
Boston Red Sox 9 5 .643 2 51 35
Cleveland Indians 9 8 .529 3½ 76 61
Milwaukee Brewers 6 8 .429 5 42 50
New York Yankees 5 11 .312 7 37 59
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Oakland Athletics 10 4 .714 - 61 44
Minnesota Twins 8 7 .533 2½ 56 53
California Angels 9 8 .529 2½ 44 48
Chicago White Sox 7 10 .412 4½ 49 64
Texas Rangers 6 12 .333 6 28 43
Kansas City Royals 5 14 .263 7½ 52 88
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Chicago Cubs 14 5 .737 - 71 59
St. Louis Cardinals 12 7 .632 2 97 67
Pittsburgh Pirates 11 7 .611 2½ 62 35
Philadelphia Phillies 11 9 .550 3½ 76 80
New York Mets 7 11 .389 6½ 60 76
Montreal Expos 3 14 .176 10 39 85
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
San Francisco Giants 13 9 .591 - 81 57
Atlanta Braves 12 9 .571 ½ 94 87
Los Angeles Dodgers 10 10 .500 2 69 77
Houston Astros 8 10 .444 3 48 63
San Diego Padres 9 12 .429 3½ 69 87
Cincinnati Reds 6 13 .316 5½ 75 68
The AL ERA is still only 2.89 but in the NL it's creeping up towards 3.4 so things are... fine, I guess? It's definitely a full on Year of the Pitcher in the junior circuit; teams are collectively slashing .231/.290/.335 with the Rangers an astounding .187/.236/.257. I think it goes without saying that that would be the worst batting record of all time. There's also no way it's sustainable but already they've been baaad for 2 1/2 weeks...
The Indians, in spite of all the offseason turmoil, are kind of bouncing back this year. How is this happening? They really haven't played all that many cupcakes - I guess they *have* played them, which at this point is big. They're a combined 2-2 against KC and Milwaukee, which isn't even all that huge, and they've yet to play that Yankees team who looks like they finally went too far with loading up on veterans. Boston's Tom Brown (.404, 3, 11) is still hitting over .400, which has been kind of huge for the Red Sox given how 1B Mike Miller (.200, 2, 8) has been slumping all season long. Cleveland's 1B Ernesto Garcia (.333, 6, 16) is once more in charge of the AL HR and RBI race, and Detroit's Jimmy Goddard (5-0, 1.38) is the first 5 game winner in the American League.
On the NL side, San Francisco is clearly doing grrrrrreeat, which is a happy story to balance out Cincinnati's terrible start (which, at 6-13, is even coming with 4 straight wins). Somehow they're 3rd in the NL in runs scored, which I'm sure is partially due to the fact that they've played more games than anyone else but they're also just, you know, not terrible at hitting this year the way they were last year. "The Ritz" Barry Cooper (.312, 0, 6) missed the first couple weeks of the season but has looked like the Barry Cooper of old for them. Atlanta's Kevin Dwyer (.388, 2, 14) is not far off of .400 himself and Chicago's Jeremy Taylor (.235, 6, 15) has so far been equal to Ernesto Garcia in terms of HR hitting (I guess to be fair, Garcia was suspended for the first 5 games of the season). Cincinnati's Jaden Weaver (.284, 5, 18) has picked up right where he left off last year in Houston - man, that trade is going to hurt. And last year's Cy Young, Santos Arango (4-2, 0.71) is leading the NL in both wins and ERA and would surely be another 5 game winner if he got more consistent support in Pittsburgh.
## Major Transactions
May 5: The Angels traded P Andy Lagunas (0-0, 0.00) to the Royals for PH/3B Mike Ramos (.333, 0, 0). Lagunas was a starter for most of the year last year in Cleveland although he was not effective (8-16, 4.82). Nevertheless, KC is very thin at SP so he'll likely drop right into their rotation. They really had no need for a 34 year old corner infielder and pinch-hitting specialist whereas the Angels could use both of those things and seem pretty topped up with regards to their own pitching staff.
## News
May 1: Hutu rebels set up their own short-lived Peoples' Republic of Martyazo in the Bururi Province. The Tutsi-dominated Burundian Army will end this movement in two weeks before beginning the slaughter of thousands of Hutu (see last week's news).
May 1: The North Vietnamese Army captured the South Vietnamese province and city of Quang Tri.
May 1: A's CF David Mesa (.255, 0, 0), who performed so well last year that Oakland felt they could trade away the potential star but oft-injured Alex Vallejo, will himself miss the next month with a high ankle sprain. Oakland is really thin at this position; to fill the spot they called up reggae artist "Jah Lion" Lloyd, who had just 18 extra-base hits in 388 AAA at-bats last year (slashes of .245/4/31) but also won the IL/AA Silver Slugger in RF, which mostly tells me that the IL/AA had nobody who was any good in right last year. Anyway, he's not a great fielder in center but hopefully he hits well enough to hold down the fort until Aperture Science returns.
May 1: Hey, look at that! A pitcher won the AL Player of the Week. It was Detroit's own Edgar Molina (3-0, 1.59), who went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA, including 14 Ks and 4 walks in 18 IP, to earn the honors. This was Molina's first-ever PotW, owing mainly to the fact that pitchers don't win this award very often. He also won the Pitcher of the Month in 1969 and was an All-Star selection in 1968... which, if you ask me the really amazing thing there is that he hasn't been back since.
May 1: Meanwhile in the NL, the PotW was Mets' superstar Joshua Waltenbery (.370, 2, 10), who did everything he could to keep his team from going under offensively. It, um, didn't work so well inasmuch as they still went 2-4 but he personally was great: 12 hits in 26 at-bats (.462), 5 doubles, a HR, 7 runs, and 7 RBIs. Waltenbery has earned this award 13 times in his career now and no doubt this will not be his last.
May 1: Hey, even a short month gets X of the Month awards to hand out. I'll start out with the Rookies of the Month. In the NL it was the Cubs' Jose Torres (2-0, 0.50), a Rule V pick out of Pittsburgh who somehow fell out of the Pirates' plans in spite of going 16-3 in AAA Charlotte last year with a 1.70 ERA and 150 walks in 180 IP. I guess to be fair the Pirates have an excellent rotation and already had to turn guys away. Still, he's helping to put together a surprisingly decent Chicago pitching staff that for right now is leading it to first place in the NL West.
On the AL side of the ledger, the top newcomer was a guy who didn't even make the Opening Day roster: the massive short king Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell (2-0, 2.76), aka the Mountain from Stone Mountain. Blackwell is listed at 5'9" and... 475 pounds. He's a wrestler in the offseason and some of that weight has to be his league exaggerating things, but he is a large, large man, at least horizontally speaking. He had 2 starts, completing one of them and winning both with a sub-3.00 ERA. I won't mention that the latter is only average in a low-offense AL right now because I do not want to make this man angry.
May 1: On to the pitchers! The AL Pitcher of the Month is Tigers ace Jimmy Goddard (3-0, 1.09), who made 4 starts, pitched 33 innings, struck out 14, and walked 5. Yeah, he was a bit more pitch-to-contact than some guys who could have won this but it's still a very fine performance by the man who started 1971 out in the bullpen and worked his way back to a 19-8 record with a 2.59 ERA last year. Like his teammate Edgar Molina, he hasn't made the All-Star Game since 1967 (well, Molina made it in '68, but still). Maybe that all changes this year, we'll see.
The senior circuit award goes to last year's Cy Young Award winner and Pirates P Santos Arango (3-1, 0.77). HO HUM. Well... not really; it was a very non-ho-hum month for him. He completed all 4 of his starts, picked up 2 shutouts, and allowed 2 and 1 runs in the other 2. It was also a pitch-to-contact performance by Arango, although he still managed to hold opponents to a .150 batting average. He's won the award 4 times now, the last time for July of last year.
May 1: As I'd guessed in last week's recap, St. Louis RF Casey Satterfield (.333, 4, 13) did indeed win the NL Batter of the Month. Hitting .333 (19-57) with a .579 slugging average and a league-leading 13 RBIs will do that for you. I'm a little surprised that he's only made it to one All-Star Game himself, although I guess he's still only 26 and was looking at possibly being replaced as recently as the 1970 offseason. This is Satterfield's very first Batter of the Month, although he did win the Rookie of the Month for July of 1969 (he also finished in 2nd place in ROY award voting that year).
Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.407, 3, 10) was just Ernesto being Ernesto. He missed the first 5 games after yet another incident where he blamed a player for starting a fight with him but still got things going for himself in a big, big way. He hit .407 - 11-27 - and although that "month" basically constitutes one week, it was good enough for April. You have to wonder how long Cleveland will put up with this; I guess the answer is, as long as he hits like this when he's in the lineup. This was Garcia's 4th Batter of the Month and his 2nd straight - he won the award for last September, too.
May 2: A silver mine fire near Kellogg, Idaho killed 91 miners. Most of them were killed when the mine ventilation system and fans spread carbon monoxide after the fire started. Another 82 miners were able to escape.
May 2: A US pantent was issued to Corning Glass for fiber optic cable, the first such patent in US history.
May 2: J. Edgar Hoover, the, um, let's just say controversial head of the FBI from the 1930s until now, was found dead in his home today by his maid Annie Fields.
May 2: Expos P Javier Olvera (1-2, 3.71), who bucked, like, every trend imaginable in going 16-9 for Montreal last season, was diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow and will miss... the next 14 months. 14! That puts him back some time after the All-Star Break, taking rehab into account. He's still only 23 so it's possible he can bounce back from this.
May 2: Speaking of pitchers and their injuries, Giants RP Matt "Rattlesnake" Bailey (0-0, 0.00), who had a 2.80 ERA in 64.1 innings and was expected to be a much-used setup guy for stopper John "The Assassin" Booth, hasn't pitched since hearing a tear in his shoulder on Sunday. We'd all been expecting the worst and... it is the worst, a torn rotator cuff that's so bad that he's just not going to be able to come back from it. Bailey, only 26 and the 6th overall pick in 1967, had taken a beating in the minors but after a successful conversion to relief, he had one full year in the major leagues and that was last year. He finishes with 54 career games, 2 starts, and a 2.52 ERA. What could have been...
May 2: The Year of the Pitcher Jr. hits brand new pitchery lows as the Indians are in Texas to face the Rangers. Texas SP Chris Regan (1-2, 2.33) has a perfect game going through 9 - no, make that 10 - innings but his teammates can do absolutely nothing against Robbie Coltrane (2-1, 2.84), who wound up throwing 12 shutout innings of his own. That's right, no runs whatsoever were scored until the top of the 13th, when fatigue finally got the most of Regan, who was pulled after giving up a leadoff single to RF Nelson Vargas (.306, 2, 3) and a double to pinch-hitter TJ Pritchett (.308, 2, 5) to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. Gabe Slaughter (0-0, 0.00) then allowed both runners to score on a sacrifice fly, a fielder's choice, and a 2-out error by Slaughter himself. Jake Duckett (1-0, 0.00, 2 Sv) then pitched a scoreless bottom of the 13th to send the punchless Rangers down.
Texas (4-10) is dead last in the AL in runs scored (17), hitting (.182) and on-base percentage (.232) and in spite of a lineup that features 3 guys who could conceivably hit 30 HRs apiece, they have just 3 HRs so far this season.
May 3: Cardinals 1B/premiere slugger Lorenzo Martinez had a quiet 1972 debut - 0-2, 3 walks - but the important thing was that he was back in the lineup. St. Louis did manage to go 9-5 without him, granted, but it's best for all of baseball when Martinez is out there walloping long shots. Career minor leaguer TJ Tortorella (.255, 2, 11) did a solid job in his absence and might deserve a longer look outside of St. Louis.
May 3: Someone really needs to get the memo to the Phillies that this is the Year of the Pitcher Jr. because man, their starters just are not getting it. Philadelphia's Tim Natalie (1-2, 4.40) got knocked out of the box in the 5th inning today as the Dodgers clubbed him and his pitching-mates, 10-3 in Dodger Stadium. It's bad enough when guys like 1B Justin Stone (.260, 3, 11) go off against you (as he did; 2-5 with 2 R and 3 RBI including a HR), but weak-hitting catcher Jason Davis (.227, 1, 10) also broke out of a season-long slump with a 4-4 night with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs of his own.
Amazingly, the Phillies are only 9th in the league in starters' ERA with 4.42 - nestled in amongst the past couple days and the first 5 games of the season they did pretty OK, I guess. Marius Gaddi (1-2, 6.39) seems dead-set on becoming this save's version of Denny McClain and the only guy in the rotation with a sub-3 ERA is Vince Bachler (2-2, 2.61).
May 4: The authors daaaaad turned 24 today. Do I want to put him in the game? Kind of no, honestly, but I'm constantly tempted and knowing my ADHD-ness, I will give into the temptation eventually (well, I don't name guys once they turn 25 so I just have to hold out for another year!).
May 4: Cubs SP Jason Sanders (3-1, 1.45), who was expected to be the #1 starter in what was a very weak rotation last year, will miss the entire season with... wait for it... shoulder inflammation. I guess "hey, we don't know what's happening right now but the kid can't play" is appropriately 70s, although probably there would be more "rub some dirt on it, meat, and get back in there" thrown in. I'll go with a 4-man rotation with Sanders gone, at least for now, although a 4 man rotation is going to be asking a _lot_ of the guys in there right now...
May 4: So... the A's haven't played all week. I guess there were rainouts? Sucks to be the schedule-makers this season.
May 5: Two separate planes were hijacked in US airspace, Eastern Airlines Flight 175 shortly after takeoff from Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Western Airlines Flight 407 after takeoff from Salt Lake City. Both hijackers initially got away, the Eastern Airlines guy parachuting from the plane over Honduras after he touched down in Washington, DC long enough to collect a $303,000 ransom and let the 48 passengers and 1 member of the cabin crew go, and the Western Airlines guy forcing the plane to land in Cuba. Both hijackers were eventually caught, although the Western Airlines-to-Cuba guy didn't get extradited back to the US until 1975.
May 5: Hey, a full slate of games, just in time for the weekend! I expect we're going to see a loooot of doubleheader Sundays...
May 5: A's CF Jah Lloyd made his debut a memorable one, belting 2 HRs off of Yankees starter Manny Carbajal (1-2, 4.15) and leading his A's to a 4-0 win. Vince Akright (3-1, 2.54) went all the way for a 5-hit shutout of the Bronx "Bombers" - more like the Bronx BLOOPERS amirite??? - who fall to 4-10 with this one. Whatever else happens, any season that includes an awful Yankees team is a good season.
May 6: Five American soldiers are rescued 13 days after their helicopter crashed in Vietnam. The five had been presumed dead until two of them had reached a radio to signal a distress call.
May 7: Edmund Kemper picked up two hitchhiking Fresno State University studients, drove them to a remote location, murdered them, and dismembered their bodies, beginning a nearly year-long crime spree as a serial killer. Prior to murdering the six eventual victims, Kemper had killed his grandparents when he was 15 and spent several years in juvenile detention after being released from a psychiatric hospital. And in case you're wondering, no, detective work did not catch him; instead, he killed his mother and her friend and called the Santa Cruz police.
May 7: The LA Lakers won their first NBA title since moving from Minneapolis more than a decade earlier, knocking off the New York Knicks in 5 games. Yes, back in the 70s, the Knicks even made the finals!
## Teams in Review
Still too early!