## Standings / Recap / Comments
Code:
105[\t]
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
New York Yankees 12 7 .632 - 83 70
Detroit Tigers 11 9 .550 1½ 77 62
Boston Red Sox 9 8 .529 2 64 44
Baltimore Orioles 7 12 .368 5 68 75
Milwaukee Brewers 6 12 .333 5½ 75 120
Cleveland Indians 4 17 .190 9 56 105
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Oakland Athletics 15 5 .750 - 96 63
Texas Rangers 12 4 .750 1 77 52
Kansas City Royals 12 9 .571 3½ 113 109
Chicago White Sox 8 7 .533 4½ 59 62
California Angels 8 9 .471 5½ 51 58
Minnesota Twins 6 11 .353 7½ 75 74
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Philadelphia Phillies 11 7 .611 - 99 88
St. Louis Cardinals 11 7 .611 - 83 73
New York Mets 12 8 .600 - 72 75
Chicago Cubs 11 9 .550 1 79 78
Pittsburgh Pirates 7 8 .467 2½ 49 48
Montreal Expos 5 13 .278 6 89 107
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
San Francisco Giants 15 9 .625 - 104 86
Los Angeles Dodgers 12 10 .545 2 74 80
Houston Astros 11 13 .458 4 109 105
Cincinnati Reds 9 12 .429 4½ 98 105
San Diego Padres 9 13 .409 5 75 84
Atlanta Braves 8 12 .400 5 81 83
We are juuuuuust about out of April and... after the whole "parity league" deal brought on last year with the lack of offense all across the board, it's a little bit nice to see that at least coming out of the gate we've got our haves and our have-nots. Thinking back to last year, I guess the Tigers jumped out strong too and... who was it, I think the Rangers and Yankees were bad. Things can change in a season. JUST GIVE ME THIS OKAY
In the AL the West, which was pretty bad across the board last year, has the top 2 teams in it now in the A's and Rangers. The A's are riding decent starting pitching led by 6-game winner Vince Akright (6-0, 2.42) and have seen a nice bounce-back year by LF/DH Casey Satterfield (.282, 4, 11), who went just .219/2/9 after being traded from St. Louis last August. The Rangers always seem to have great pitching and this year the offense has been doing the job as well. 3B Roberto Hernandez (.288, 1, 10) was rescued from a backup situation in Cleveland; he's now Texas' best pure hitter.
The Yankees were an easy preseason pick with the addition of Ernesto Garcia (.295, 9, 21), and they just swept the Twins over the weekend to hop into first in the East. It's hard to count the Tigers out though when they've got so much good young hitting, from CF Alvin Romero (.309, 1, 12, 9 SB) to 2B Joey Ramone (.315, 2, 8) and even to RF Frankie Faison (.370, 0, 6), who was himself a fashiunable pick to regress badly from his .323/3/24 rookie campaign (in 198 at-bats). A counter-story to the Yankees is how Cleveland has been, if anything, even worse than expected so far. I mean, they didn't dismantle their pitching staff! They're 2nd worst in the AL in runs; what's been crazy is that their starters' ERA is dead last, thanks to anti-performances by Dylan Hamilton (0-3, 5.73), 1972 10-game winner Robbie Coltrane (2-2, 5.46), and, worst of all, 1972 Kansas City Royals wins leader and 5-time All Star Miguel Chavez (0-4, 10.47).
In the senior circuit, it's also been all about the West and especially the Giants, who have had an uncharacteristically good offense in spite of trading away 1972 HR and RBI leader Rodrigo Juarez (.154, 2, 5 with the Angels). 3B George Harrison (.372, 3, 14) has looked more like his outlandish 1970 (.388, 2, 13 in 121 at-bats) than his pedestrian '72 (.263, 8, 53) and he's been the backbone of this lineup so far. They aren't in contention but I'm still amazed that the Astros have managed to a. get to first in the NL in runs scored and b. tie for 2nd worst in runs allowed in the Astrodome. Their hitting seems like it's as good as advertised but their top 3 starters have been reeeeeeeeeeally bad so far this year and I can't fully explain it.
I think the Phillies will probably wind up ahead of Houston in terms of straight up runs scored because they've also got a very deep lineup but also because Veteran's Stadium is not a giant cavern that loses homeruns. Alberto Juantorena (.377, 3, 13) seems to have picked up right where he left off last year, which is just plain huge for Philadelphia. If anything, they've yet to see the best of SS Tony Shannon (.290, 0, 4) and 3B Mike Brookes (.327, 1, 11). The Cardinals just swept the Giants at home to pull into a tie for the East lead... it's really hard to draw a bead on these guys. 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.300, 5, 17) could easily produce at that level for the whole season; at the same time, he's 35 and hit .230 last year so this could just be his best month. The Mets are mainly there, let's be honest, through smoke and mirrors. I'll talk about them more if they can keep it up. Montreal so far has been a case study in just how bad it's possible to be with a roughly average offensive attack. The answer: pretty, pretty bad.
## Major Transactions
April 23: The Orioles signed P Dan Ballard (0-5, 4.63 in 1972). Ballard might not have a lot left but the O's could really, really use a lefty in the bullpen outside of Montay Luiso so in he comes.
April 24: The Dodgers traded minor league RF Alan Moore (.346, 0, 1) to the Brewers for CF Ross Poynor (.340, 1, 5). Poynor fills what was, frankly, a gaping hole in centerfield for Los Angeles, although they do have to give up a top 100 prospect in Moore to get him back. Moore was the 11th overall pick in the draft last year and writes gruesome comics in his spare time.
## News
April 23: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad begin two days of meetings at Sata's presidential resort to put together details on an October assault on Israel that would become the Yom Kippur War.
April 23: The AL Player of the Week is named and it's Red Sox 1B Mike Miller (.300, 3, 9), who went 12-32 (.375) last week with all 3 of his HRs, 8 RBIs, and 5 runs scored. This was the first full week for Miller too - the Bosox had only played 5 games going into the 16th. You'e seen this name before (although not so much last year): he's won the PotW 8 times in his career, the last time for the week ending September 13, 1971.
April 23: In the NL meanwhile the PotW goes to a newcomer... to the league. Reds LF RJ Dominguez (.344, 2, 11) got off the HR schneid last week with both of them, 10 hits in 21 at-bats (.476), and 7 RBIs. He's won the Player of the Week 3 times himself, the last one at right around this time last year, the week ending April 24, 1972, at that time for the Royals.
April 23: Newly acquired Houston SP Roberto Ortiz (1-0, 0.00) was thiiiiiiiiiis close to throwing the most unlikely Maddux I've ever seen. With 2 outs in the 9th, Ortiz, who led the AL in walks in 1970 and 1971 (164 in '71!), and who certainly would have led again had he not bee traded to Atlanta in the middle of last season, had only thrown 80 pitches and somehow had zero walks. Then of course he proceeded to walk the next two men, just to remind us all that he is Roberto Ortiz, before striking out Padres LF Junior Cannon (.235, 1, 9) to end the game.
April 24: The Supreme Court of India, in a narrow 7-6 ruling, renders its judgment in what is called the "Fundamental Rights Case" which holds that it has the right to strike down any amendments of the Constitution of India that are in violation of the fundamental principles of the Constitution. So... sort of like their Marbury v Madison, only on steroids, since our own Supreme Court specifically draws the line at Constitutional amendments (although it will interpret those amendments in all kinds of ways). The case concerned the state of Kerala's attempts to impose restrictions on the management of the property of a Hindu monastery.
April 24: Danny Seligman (.205, 0, 5) has been hampered by a strained ribcage muscle since the 14th and now it's become a nagging injury. UGH. Off to the DL you go, Danny the Phantom, so I am not tempted to use you as a pinch-hitter (and also he could very easily be out for longer than 19 days).
April 24: Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.210, 5, 13) fiiiinally had the kind of game the Yankees have been waiting for. The double-reigning MVP had his first multi-HR game, going 3-4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs in an 8-2 drubbing of the White Sox. "It's been hard to get adjusted to not being in the field," Garcia admitted after the game. "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy not having to wear a first baseman's glove."
April 24: It takes the Red Sox 8.2 innings to figure out Twins phenom Ergot Newman (2-1, 1.40) but they get it done, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win the game 3-2 on a 2-run homerun by CF Jon "The Astronaut" Glynn (.290, 1, 5). "That kid's gonna be something some day," said Sox hurler Marco Sanchez (2-2, 3.48), who picked up the complete game victory in his own right. The loss drops the Twins to under .500, which, frankly, is a situation they should get used to.
April 24: In an uuuuuuuuuuuuugly game - a 17-10 victory for the Royals - 3B JP Carter (.354, 0, 8) sets a new Royals record for hits in a game and becomes the latest ALer to get 5 of them. Amazingly, none of them were homers; in fact, the Royals only had 1 of their 24(!) hits leave the yard today, a grand slam by C Mike Perez (.217, 4, 13). Howard Rollins (4-0, 4.20) went the required 5 innings for the win, while Omar Jiminez (1-2, 6.20) was chased in the 2nd inning after having given up 7 runs for the loss.
April 24: SO MUCH NEWS TODAY and I haven't even hit the NL yet! Tigers DH Danny Villegas (.190, 0, 2) can't even stay healthy as a full-time designated hitter; he strained his hip running the bases and will be out for the next month. UGH CITY.
April 24: Another bit of bad injury news today: Pirates LF Justin Lawson (.261, 1, 6) sprained his hamstring diving for a ball and will be out for the next month. To add insult to injury (LITERALLY) the Bucs lost this one to the Pirates 3-2 to fall to 5-7. They were having issues scoring runs before losing their cleanup hitter; things could get ugly fast. Pittsburgh has called up lumbering football defensive tackle Jerry Sherk (.292, 1, 3) to take his place, kind of.
April 25: The Boulevard Peripherique (lots of accents there I'm not going to bother with WOO HOO AMERICA), the first ring road, is completed to circle Paris. The highway, 22 miles (35km) in circumference, had been undergoing construction since 1968 with initial planning having happened before World War II.
April 25: ITALIANO BASKETBALLO play a championship tiebreaker today (excuse me, I'm studying/restudying since I took a year of it in college Italian on Duolingo right now). Ignis Varese defeated Simmenthal Milano 74-70 with the help of Americano Bob Morse, who supplied 31 points.
April 25: More bad injury news for the league as "20 year old" Brewers phenom James Hong (.358, 2, 5) is diagnosed with a fractured wrist he suffered yesterday. The silver lining to this very bad cloud - Hong was just about the only decent regular left in the lineup (okay that's overstating things) - is that for the time being it moves Wing-fung Yi (.263, 0, 6), who was all kinds of awful at shortstop, back to his native second base. Yutaka Enatsu (.167, 0, 0 in AAA Evanston), in real life a big strikeout pitcher for a certain league in the Far East who actually had a spring training tryout with the Brewers in the 80s, will come up to back up the middle infield. He's a complete non-prospect but the Brewers are pretty short on guys who can play anything resembling defense at short (well, outside of new starter Guido Temudo (.191, 2, 12 in 1972) at least) so here he is.
April 25: White Sox 1B Alice Cooper (.262, 1, 7), who finished 2nd in baseball in HRs last season with 44 of them, finally got number 1 today. "I play my best ball when school's out for the summer," said Cooper as an excuse. The 3rd year man has just 2 extra-base hits out of 11 hits total and is a big part of why the Chisox, predicted by some as a surprise AL West champ, have struggled out of the gate at 6-7.
April 25: Things were looking really bad for the Dodgers, who started the year 10-1 but then lost their next 7. They blew a 3-2 lead in St. Louis in the bottom of the 8th to go down 4-3 facing off against Travis Livingston (1-1, 4.32) in the 9th. Livingston proceeded to pick up his 3rd blown save in 6 opportunities as 2B Danny Fager (.268, 2, 8) hit an RBI double to bring in newly arrived CF Ross Poynor (.333, 0, 3) all the way from first base. Alec Cosby (2-2, 2.31) nailed down the 9th to send the game into extras and then, the Doogers bats came alive for once. Technically the leadoff HR by LF Lou Morgenstern (.262, 3, 9) was the game-winner but all told Los Angeles scored 5 times to win it, 9-4.
Sans 1B Justin Stone, the Bums (can you still call them that in LA?) have had a loooot of trouble scoring runs, so this was good to see. They're currnetly 8th in the NL with 69 of them, dead last in average (.230), and 3rd worst in steals (4). In spite of their record, now at 11-8, they've been outscored 75-69.
April 26: The Chicago Board Options Exchange opens for its first ever day of trading for the purposes of buying and selling options to acquire stocks at a future time. The US Department of Justice files an antitrust suit the same day.
April 26: A rocket attack on and near Cambodia's largest airport, launched by the Khmer Rouge, kills 24 and wounds 55.
April 26: Irene Ryan, the woman who played the grandma on "The Beverly Hillbillies", dies today at 70. Ryan collapsed onstage on March 10 while appearing in the Broadway production of Pippin.
April 26: Hey, so I did the top 10 catchers last week; let's move on to the top 10 first basemen. You'll want to note that Ernesto Garcia isn't on here because he's a DH now.
10. Niki Lauda, DET (.250, 0, 3). Lauda's struggled to find power so far but pitchers are clearly afraid of it: he's walked 10 times in 67 PAs (also one hit batsman). Can't wait to see that power when it does come out!
9. Angelo Martinez, MIN (.268, 5, 14). It seems unfair to put this man so far down on the list - and he's pre-emptively making people pay, it looks like - but there are soooo many guys ahead of him who are arguably even better. And of course Martinez is 37 now.
8. Alonzo Rivera, KC (.265, 0, 9). That said, I'm not sure I'd put this guy ahead. Rivera's a 25 year old high average, not super high power guy, like kind of a John Olerud (who?). KC is lucky to have him, don't get me wrong, but me personally I think I'd still put Martinez in front. For now. 6 doubles though (note: I noticed this while playing out the Royals game today, where he picked up #7).
7. Aitor de la Rosa, NYY (.325, 3, 9). These are positional rankings of course and for the Yankees it matters because this includes Pete Jennings (.208, 1, 2), a 4-time All-Star with the Angels. De la Rosa is really good in his own right though and to be fair to the fairness this tally doesn't include Garcia.
6. Mike Miller, BOS (.328, 4, 10). Early results seem to indicate that Miller is back, baby, and if he's back then Boston's got an MVP candidate in the middle of their lineup.
5. Joshua Waltenbery, HOU (.254, 4, 12). Speaking of guys who are back... really the numbers aren't showing it yet, other than the dingers, but maybe a change of scenery is all we needed here? I'd put Miller in front of "Superman" here, especially given Waltenbery's awful 1972 season (.245, 24, 78), but both are trying to answer questions right now.
4. Lorenzo Martinez, STL (.322, 5, 17). Martinez is only 2 years youngeer than Angelo Martinez but this old man seems to still have something left in the tank. I mean, so does Angelo. What am I saying? Lorenzo's 28 HRs away from 500 on his career and has a great chance of reaching that mark this season.
3. Antonio Lopez, CHC (.274, 1, 4). To be an MVP candidate and still only the 2nd best first baseman in your own city... that must suck. Lopez himself is only 27 this year so he's part of the new generation of sluggers along with the #1 guy.
2. Justin Stone, LAD (no record). Stone was like "pitcher's park? No problem" his first 2 seasons in LA after getting traded there from St. Louis. Right now he's still around a week away from returning from the fractured rib that's kept him out all season so far and boy oh boy do the Dodgers feel his loss.
1. Alice Cooper, CHW (.262, 1, 7). He's had a bit of a power outage himself like his Chicago rival but this is a man who hit 44 bombs last year at the age of 23. Cooper's here to stay. I mean, maybe not literally here in Chicago because the White Sox are cheap but... you get the idea.
April 27: The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Society Union is changed as two members are ousted from their positions as full members and Secretary Leonid Brezhnev oversees the addition of three allies ot full membership in the ruling body.
April 27: L Patrick Gray resigns as acting director of the FBI, having served since the death of J Edgar Hoover last May. Gray quits after admitting that he had destroyed documents relating to the bureau's investigation of the Watergate Scandal. Gray had previously withdrawn his request to be nominated as the full-time director on April 5. Gray will testify in a couple months that on June 21, 1972 he had been handed sevearl top-secret cabled reports implicating the administration of John F Kennedy in the 1963 assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem as well as love letters writen by Kennedy as a US Senator "involving some of his peccadilloes, if you will".
April 27: A new league is founded! World Team Tennis is announced at a press conference in Miami. Oh yeah, this will go far.
April 27: Cleveland's losing streak builds to 6 games with a 3-1 loss to the A's in Oakland. Dylan Hamilton (0-3, 5.73), who's been struggling a bit this year, threw a quality start but it couldn't make up for his teammates' inability to score runs. They're 3-15 now and I was like "man, they can't possibly be this bad by Pythag" but nope, their Pythagorean won-lost is 4-14.
April 27: Richard Starkey (4-2, 3.89) tried to become the first NLer and 2nd player overall (Vince Akright of the A's) to win 5 games and... it did not go well for him or the Phillies in general. He was chased with no outs in the 6th after allowing 6 runs (3 earned) on 8 hits. Then the Phillies bullpen blew up the rest of the way, turning a 5-4 Reds lead into an 11-5 romp by hometown Cincinnati. 2B Pedro Ortiz (.342, 2, 11) led the charge with 5 hits, including a TEAM RECORD TYING 2 triples (obviously that's been done by several players in Cincy history), 4 runs, and 2 RBI. "Watch out," Ortiz said after the game. "We're better than you think."
April 28: Clifford Glover, a 10 year old African American boy, is shot and killed by a New York City PD undercover officer after running rom police along with his stepfather. The shooting takes place in South Jamaica, Queens. Outraged residents will riot over the next several days, with 10 civilians and 14 policement injuried. Shea will also, because this is the 1970s after all, eventually be acquitted of all charges in June of 1974, which will touch off another riot.
April 28: Six Irishmen are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford, on board a coaster carrying five tons of weapons destined for the Irish Republican Army.
April 28: LIverpool and Celtic finish their (European football) seasons today as league champions of England and Scotland, respectively. In the Football League (the Premier League would not be founded until the early 90s), Liverpool winds up with a record of 25-10-7 for 60 points, ahead of Arsenal's 23-11-8 for 57 in spite of Arsenal winning one match 2-0 and getting a scoreless draw in their other tie. In Scotland, Celtic baaaarely takes it home with 26-5-3 for 57 points just edging out Rangers at 26-4-4 for 56. PLAYOFFS, EURO SCUM. PLAY OFFS
April 28: Ian Murdock, software engineer and designer for Linux and Sun Microsystems and, like, the Babe Ruth of software, is born today in West Germany.
April 28: Nikos Zachariadis, a Greek Communist politician, dies while imprisoned in the Soviet Union in what the Soviets say is a suicide. And if I know Russia, it's that they don't kill political dissidents.
April 28: I guess it was only a matter of time. In spite of a slow start, Yankees DH/1B Ernesto Garcia (.257, 7, 17) is back on pace for a 65 HR season after slamming two of them in a 14-5 walloping of the visiting Minnesota Twins. "They call this the House that Ruth built," said Garcia, who also hit 2 doubles and had 4 RBI in the game, said in a postgame interview. "Maybe we should rename it to the House that Ernesto Remodeled."
April 28: Phillies SP Billy Ording (4-0, 2.15) has made headlines with his non-pitchery hitting. Is this the year he becomes a great pitcher? He sure looked like one today, throwing a 5-hit shutout of the Reds for a 5-0 victory. "I've still got a lot of work to do," said the mild-mannered Ording after the game. This game moves Ording, at least for now, into 5th in the NL in ERA and part of the 3-way tie for 1st in wins.
April 29: In Mexico, 6 people are cilled and 15 injured in the 18th annual road roace from Jerez to Zacatecas City as driver Daniel Quesada loses control and flips his car into a crowd of spectators along the roadside. Quesada himself, from what I can gather, was only slightly injured in the accident.
April 29: David Belle, French actor, film choreographer, and stund coordinator credited as the founder of parkour, is born today in... France. I'm not going to try to spell out the name. Just France.
April 29: Padress PH/OF Gabe Martinez (.260, 1, 18 in 1972), injured near the end of spring training and expected to be back in mid-May, suffered a setbakck and now won't be back until at least June.
April 29: And converting oft-injured 2B to DH has failed twice in two attempts, as the Twins' Aloha Dan Gilmet (.271, 2, 12), who finished 3rd in the AL in hitting last year, will miss the next month with a knee injury he suffered sliding into 2nd base. The Twins have not been competitive this year and this injury will make it even harder to get there. Ernie Griffin (.103, 0, 0), who didn't have a great year last year (.217/16/43 in 116 games and 387 at-bats) and who has been slumping this year before suffering a back injury, will take over as the team's new designated hitter with Gilles Villeneuve (.237, 3, 7) going fulltime in right for the forseeable future.
April 29: Kansas City's Howard Rollins (5-0, 4.00) and Detroit's Jimmy Godddard (4-1, 1.93) dueled to see who'd become the 2nd 5-game winner in the AL and... well, you can see from the stats how it turned out. Goddard failed to go at least 5 innings for the first time all season and Rollins overcame wildness (6.0 IP, 6 BB, 6 K) to win the game 7-2 and take the weekend series at Detroit, 2 games to 1. 1B Alonzo "The Big Dog" Rivera (.318, 0, 13), acquired over the offseason for RJ Dominguez (.329, 2, 13), went 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs and his 9th double of this young season.
April 29: Speaking of wins though, Oakland's Vince Akright (6-0, 2.42) becomes the majors' first 6 game winner by taking apart the Orioles 6-2 by scattering 9 hits in the complete game. His opponent Tim Reece (1-3, 3.55), who threw a lot of pitches 5 days ago, was pulled in the 6th, by which time he'd already given up all the runs (3) that Akright would need.
This is the first time in Akright's career that he gets to call himself an ace on a potentially good team. He went 59-55 for the Tigers from 1966-1970, and then, just as they were on the eve of goodness, he was the jewel of the deal that brought Detroit back Alvin Romero and Bruce Rubio. He then was moved to Oakland in exchange for Doug Ellis and Billy Crystal during spring training of '72; however, if you'll recall, the A's slumped last season to 78-77 after winning 90 games and the division title the year before. So far this year those A's are 15-5 with the best record in baseball. Will they keep it up? They might not have to, to get out of the West.
April 29: That last paragraph being said, though, the A's great start only puts them in a virtual tie with the Rangers so far, who are 12-4 on the season following an 8-2 drubbing of the crappy Brewers. Akright's former teammate Kevin Freeman (3-0, 3.90) got the complete game win tonight with the normally poor hitting Texas team featuring a lineup that saw everyone get a hit. SS Michael Luna (.245, 1, 7) led the way with a 3-4 game with 2 runs, 2 RBIs, and a double. Oakland and Texas will face off for the first time this year in a 4 game weekend series at Arlington Stadium from May 10-13.
April 29: Danny Plaunt's (1-3, 4.89) been having problems adjusting to the National League but the former Senators and Brewers pitcher put it all together today, at least, throwing a 1-hit shutout of the Reds in Riverfront for a 5-0 Phillies win. "I didn't have my best stuff today," said Plaunt after the game, "but sometimes that works, too". Plaunt, who won the final AL Silver Slugger award for pitchers last year, made a case for beating out teammate Billy Ording this year, too, as he went 2-4 to raise his average on the season to .400.
## Teams in Review
My rule of thumb here is, 20 losses. Obviously that can't happen until teams play at least 20 games.