## Standings / Recap / Comments
AMERICAN LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Detroit 73 44 .624 - L2 543 396 .279 86 103 3.13 2.9 5.8 .983 47.9 46.3
Boston 62 54 .534 10½ L5 502 419 .270 82 58 3.42 3.0 5.5 .982 41.9 40.4
New York 61 59 .508 13½ W1 519 581 .250 122 36 4.51 2.7 4.9 .980 -12.6 36.3
Milwaukee 50 65 .435 22 W1 464 534 .260 78 76 4.16 3.5 4.8 .980 -21.2 32.7
Baltimore 47 67 .412 24½ L2 479 550 .254 95 55 4.36 3.9 5.1 .978 -18.7 39.6
Cleveland 49 69 .415 24½ L2 427 493 .247 93 43 4.01 3.5 5.3 .982 4.2 30.9
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Chicago 71 47 .602 - W2 503 444 .258 96 72 3.45 3.6 5.0 .983 40.8 36.4
Texas 67 48 .583 2½ W2 434 363 .258 68 65 2.86 3.2 5.2 .982 40.8 32.9
Oakland 62 55 .530 8½ L1 468 472 .260 81 46 3.67 3.1 4.9 .979 6.8 35.1
California 58 56 .509 11 W4 499 474 .266 84 71 3.78 3.3 4.8 .981 32.6 41.9
Kansas City 54 65 .454 17½ W2 555 583 .257 89 61 4.47 3.5 4.8 .982 5.4 29.4
Minnesota 45 70 .391 24½ L1 452 536 .247 89 60 4.18 3.5 5.4 .976 -12.9 32.3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Philadelphia 72 45 .615 - W4 547 418 .249 100 82 3.15 3.0 5.5 .981 33.4 54.1
St. Louis 68 50 .576 4½ L1 494 482 .257 107 34 3.47 3.3 5.9 .979 2.2 43.2
Chicago 58 59 .496 14 L1 437 442 .252 90 59 3.49 3.4 5.1 .984 40.5 44.3
Pittsburgh 54 60 .474 16½ W3 366 378 .235 54 27 3.08 2.8 5.8 .982 8.0 38.8
New York 54 61 .470 17 L2 388 438 .248 50 69 3.31 3.2 5.2 .980 17.2 48.6
Montreal 46 70 .397 25½ W1 471 557 .245 88 44 4.09 3.6 5.2 .976 -16.1 32.3
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Houston 65 55 .542 - W1 493 475 .253 103 52 3.47 3.6 5.9 .977 3.4 31.6
Cincinnati 64 55 .538 ½ W1 500 461 .252 96 44 3.61 3.0 5.8 .981 6.7 29.8
San Diego 63 54 .538 ½ L1 463 376 .257 69 49 2.87 3.3 5.4 .982 51.4 37.6
Atlanta 61 60 .504 4½ L4 459 425 .250 85 34 3.17 3.1 6.0 .983 1.1 36.5
San Francisco 52 64 .448 11 W2 413 489 .250 81 65 3.65 3.2 5.5 .979 -2.8 28.9
Los Angeles 47 71 .398 17 L3 354 444 .243 91 52 3.29 3.1 5.5 .980 29.2 32.4
Is it already mid-August? Do we have 2 good races and the chances of a 3rd? Maybe!
Yuppies and Hippies of the Week seem to favor middle-of-the-road teams for the most part, like the Phillies swapped spots with the Tigers for 1st and 3rd in the power rankings but nobody cares, right? Anyway though somehow the Yuppies of the Week are the Pirates(!), who moved up 8 spots by... getting swept by the Astros? Okay, they did sweep the Braves after that but it's a 3-2 week, not exactly the most special of weeks. I guess everyone else around them fell apart; also, they were rated too low last week at 21 and needed an adjustment. They beat out Texas, who moved up from 8th to 4th with... a 3-3 week. Okay, so they were probably ranked too low too but they literally lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees and only righted the ship with a series win over the Indians.
Maybe the dirty hippies will make more sense! The dirtiest of all dirty hippies is... a 3 way tie between Boston, Atlanta, and Cleveland. Boston fell all the way from 6th to 12th with a 2-5 week with their 2 wins against the Orioles (completing 5 game weekend series with them) and the Royals (they did drop that series 2 games to 1). Not a good showing from a team that has the tiniest window to make the playoffs this year. Atlanta entered the week looking like they could get into the NL West race and then blew a 3 game series vs the Pirates to drop them to 4 1/2 back. And then Cleveland... was ranked way too high in the first place at 15th last week and so even if they didn't go 1-5 (to be fair, that was at Chicago and Texas - actual good teams might have gone 1-5 against those guys), they'd probably have been due for an adjustment.
Okay so how's about them league leaders? I feel like I'm telling the same story every week so why don't I just drop these into stats?
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Code:
Player AB R H BA HOMERUNS HR
Chris Seek, CAL 436 71 147 .337 Ernesto Garcia, NYY 41
J. Ramone, DET 418 67 140 .335 Alice Cooper, CHW 29
B. Springsteen, BOS 431 59 140 .325 A. Martinez, MIN 22
Jose Ayala, DET 438 56 142 .324 Jeff Nation, CHW 20
A. Rivera, KC 429 49 139 .324 Jose Ayala, DET 19
RBIs RBI STOLEN BASES SB DOUBLES 2B RUNS R
Ernesto Garcia, NYY 92 A.Romero, DET 50 Tony Danza, KC 39 Dave Corona, KC 86
Alice Cooper, CHW 79 Jon Glynn, BOS 32 J.Ramone, DET 33 A. Romero, DET 85
Jeff Nation, CHW 78 Bobby Ramirez, TEX 24 Chris Seek, CAL 32 T. Danza, KC 77
J. Ramone, DET 78 Dave Corona, KC 23 F. Faison, DET 31 Alice Cooper, CHW 73
A. Martinez, MIN 77 Danny Hohman, DET 20 B. Johnson, BOS 31 E.Garcia, NYY 71
Code:
Player IP ER ERA WINS W WINNING PCT Rec %
J. Goddard, DET 227.2 53 2.10 J. Goddard, DET 20 J.Godddard, DET 20-2 .870
V. Akright, OAK 203.2 53 2.34 E. Molina, DET 18 V. Akright, OAK 16-4 .800
B. Crystal, TEX 202.1 57 2.54 R. Roltrane, TEX 17 R. Coltrane, TEX 15-4 .739
R. Coltrane, TEX 211.2 62 2.64 M. Sanchez, BOS 17 C. Benavides, DET 14-5 .737
H. Rollins, KC 179.1 56 2.81 V. Akright, OAK 16 R. Reese, CHW 14-5 .737
STRIKEOUTS K SAVES S OPPONENTS BA BA
E. Molina, DET 179 Malcolm Post, CHW 27 H. Rollins, KC .197
M. Pesco, BOS 156 Willis Chavez, OAK 18 R. Reese, CHW .200
J. Goddard, DET 152 T. Kihara, TEX 17 R. Coltrane, TEX .212
M. Sanchez, BOS 149 J. Marceau, DET 15 C. Benavides, DET .221
J. Carpenter, NYY 141 G. Covarrubias, NYY 11 B. Crystal, TEX .237
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Code:
Player AB R H BA HOMERUNS HR
G. Harrison, SF 443 54 143 .323 Jaden Weaver, CIN 30
R. Disla, STL 428 58 137 .320 Justin Stone, LAD 27
M. Morrison, ATL 383 41 122 .319 A. Juantorena, PHI 24
J. Stone, LAD 352 60 112 .318 M. Galeana, STL 21
C. Palacios, SD 452 49 140 .310 L. Martinez, STL 21
RBIs RBI STOLEN BASES SB DOUBLES 2B RUNS R
Jaden Weaver, CIN 91 John Berry, SF 32 C. Palacios, SD 36 A. Juantorena, PHI 95
A. Juantorena, PHI 81 A. Juantorena, PHI 28 B. McAdoo, SF 28 P. Ortiz, CIN 77
RJ Dominguez, CIN 77 D. Fager, LAD 17 RJ Dominguez, CIN 28 RJ Dominguez, CIN 74
G. Foreman, HOU 69 S. Burwell, STL 16 Sean Gabel, CHC 27 T. Shannon, PHI 72
M. Galeana, STL 68 V. Luna, NYM 16 G. Harrison, SD 26 J. Waltenbery, HOU 72
Code:
Player IP ER ERA WINS W WINNING PCT Rec %
J.Battaglia, PIT 232.2 47 1.82 Tony Rivera, HOU 18 C. Olivares, PHI 11-3 .786
Tony Rivera, HOU 229.2 54 2.12 Don Henley, SD 16 G. Panarello, CIN 10-3 .769
Colin Rose, ATL 188.2 45 2.15 R. Starkey, PHI 16 Don Henley, SD 16-5 .762
Don Henley, SD 192.1 50 2.34 R. Quintana, STL 15 Tony Rivera, HOU 18-6 .750
F. Apolonio, LAD 198.1 43 2.45 S. Waiters, CIN 14 Colin Rose, ATL 11-4 .733
STRIKEOUTS K SAVES S OPPONENTS BA BA
R. Quintana, STL 159 D. Parchaman, SD 19 Tony Rivera, HOU .207
Tony Rivera, HOU 156 G. Saus. NYM 19 R. Salinas, LAD .212
R. Mendoza, STL 152 B. Yates, CIN 17 M. Weinberg, CHC .214
G. House, ATL 151 T. Livingston, STL 16 C. Olivares, PHI .214
J. Battaglia, PIT 146 T. Grohs, PHI 15 R. Quintana, STL .222
That took a bit of a long time to parse out so I'm not sure how much I'll keep doing that... it does bring to mind looking at the newspaper back in the day, I'll give it that...
## Major Transactions
August 6: The Orioles claimed RP Geoff Stephens (0-1, 3.91) off of waivers from the Reds. Hey, this is a "major" transaction. Stephens got into 15 games in the first half for Cincy and figures to play a lot more in the 2nd given the sorry state of this Orioles bullpen.
August 6: The Royals claimed RP Hector Fernandez (1-2, 4.03) off of waivers from the Reds. Man, everyone's going after Cincinnati's castoffs. Fernandez played a bit more than Stephens - 25 games, 38 IP - and has solid periphals that don't add up to a 4+ ERA (24 Ks vs only 9 BBs). For lack of better options, he'll go straight into the Royals' rotation until I figure out something better.
August 7: The Yankees acquire P Steve Tidwell (7-7, 4.15) from the Cardinals for a pitcher to be named later (12-7, 2.78 at AAA Syracuse) and $25,000. The Yankees continue to try to bolster a bad pitching staff and ship off a former 11th round pick who's kind of looking like he's going to turn into something... but hey, if you're the Yankees you WIN NOW.
## News
August 6: A USAF B-52 bomber mistakenly bombs a Caambodian naval base, killing 137 Cambdian servicemen and their families and wounding 208.
August 6: Skylab 3 astronaut Jack LOusma takes a 6 hour, 31 minute spacewalk, almost doubling the old record. He had only expected to spend 3 1/2 hours in deploying a sun shield but encountered difficulties in setting it up. The old record had just been set by Charles Conrad Jr. on Skylab 1 with a 3 hour, 23 minute walk.
August 6: The Senate of Pakistan meets for the first time after a new constitution changed from a unicameral parliament to a bicameral one.
August 6: Stevie Wonder and his friend John Harris are injured as their vehicle collides with a truck loaded with logs near Salisbury, North Carolina. Wonder will remain in a coma for 4 days; he was not driving the car.
August 6: Fulgencio Batista, the guy Castro overthrew in Cuba in 1958, dies of a heart attack in Maribella, Spain.
August 6: AL Player of the Week time! It's Tigers 2B Joey Ramone (.336, 9, 76). You've heard this guy's name called a bunch. He went 13-28 this week with 2 HRs and 6 RBIs. This is actually only his 2nd PotW which I guess isn't toooo strange considering he's also only in his 2nd season in the major leagues. On the other hand, he's 2nd in the league in average and 3rd in RBIs so he's kind of good...
August 6: The NL Player of the Week is a total newcomer but you'll know him if you've got two ears and a heart. That's right, it's Montreal Expos 3B Phil Collins (.374, 6, 21). Collins came back from a broken finger this week to go 13-28 (.464) with 4 HRs and 13 RBIs. Take that, Joey Ramone! Collins, the 1st overall pick in the 1971 draft, has flown through the minors and is now Montreal's bona fide #3 hitter. This is also his very first, surely of many, Players of the Week awards.
August 6: SYD THRIFT'S NEATO STAT OF THE WEEK is a dumb one but it's appropriately 1970s dumb so I'll allow it. The top 5... saves at night?
t3. Jim Marceau, DET (4-4, 2.14, 14 Sv), 10
t3. Travis Livingston, STL (7-3, 1.39, 15 Sv), 10
t3. Willis Chavez, OAK (8-9, 3.02, 17 Sv), 10
2. Tanzan Kihara, CAL/TEX (1-2, 3.09, 16 Sv), 13
1. Malcolm Post, CHW (5-2, 1.60, 27 Sv), 20
WHO WILL WIN THIS COVETED RACE??? I mean, no surprise, probably the overall leader in saves, Malcolm Post. This is basically the "what player who does not play for the Cubs has the most saves" rankings.
August 6: The White Sox are in a position where they want to pile up victories but they also have to give tired players a rest... so 1B Alice Cooper (.290, 29, 77) took the game off. Luckily for the White Sox, 2nd year scientist/starting pitcher Steven Chu (14-6, 3.70) was up to the challenge. Chu through an intellectual 3-hitter, striking out only 3 men and leaving his defense to do the dirty work, to pick up his 6th complete game and 14th win on the year; Chicago won 4-1. LF Peabo Bryson (.241, 3, 7), promoted into the 2-hole for this game, was a one-man wrecking crew with a 3-3, 2 run, 3 RBI game including a HR and a triple off of Indians starter Dylan Hamilton (8-12, 3.72). Remember when Cleveland did that challenge trade with the Red Sox for Justin "Ironworker" Kindberg (13-10, 2.89)? I digress.
August 6: I think I might have said that the Reds and Astros concluded their series... well, they had one game left. Graham Panarello (10-2, 3.03) threw a 5-hit shutout and got the Nobletiger - bases loaded, no outs, no runs allowed - in the 9th to preserve the shutout and a Reds 4-0 win. Roberto Ortiz (5-8, 3.92) was wild and then tired and then even more wild, finally getting taken out in the 7th with 4 earned runs in 6.2 IP and 7 walks. RF Robert Hopkins (.283, 3, 14), filling in for the tired Jaden Weaver (.259, 29, 90), drove in 3 men, proving that there's something about right field in Cincy that creates RBIs.
This was Panarello's 2nd shutout this season and the win puts the Reds back up by 1/2 a game.
August 7: A boy by the name of Larry transmits a distress call from inside an overturned truck onto CB radio. The call sparks a search and rescue operation in New Mexico, only for this to be turn out to be a hoax.
August 7: Zhores Medvedev has his Soviet citizenship revokes and is ordered to surrender his passport to the Soviet Embassy in London, where the Russian biologist exiled from the USSR is staying. Tomorrow TASS, the Communist news agency, will allege that he had been... spying, basically?
August 7: Hermine Braunsteiner becomes the first convicted Nazi war criminal in the US to be extradited to West Germany. She is found after Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal had learned that she was living in New York City as Hermine Ryan.
August 7: In an ugly game between the Twins and Orioles, Minnesota 1B Angelo Martinez (.265, 22, 76) achieved a rare milestone: Leading off the bottom of the 7th against spot starter Heiner Flessbeck (1-3, 3.88) and losing 8-6, Martinez belted a double. The crowd clapped and the umpires stopped the game because it was Martinez' 2,500th hit. He did come around to score and the Twins tied the game up that inning; sadly, Twins fans only left mildly happy as their bullpen blew it in the 11th to lose 12-9.
Martinez, now a prototypical cleanup hitter and slugger but once a high-average hitter, still carries a career .291 average. The 11 time All Star is 8th all-time in hits, having moved past White Sox catcher Mario Moreno (2,452 career hits; retired in 1969) earlier in the season. He's also in the top 5 in homeruns (435, 5th) and RBIs (1,476, 4th). The Twins' dynasty may be pretty well done but Martinez is still kicking.
August 7: I don't want to cover every day in the NL West race and I suuuure don't want to cover the Pirates when they're doing this, but... the Astros kick off their series in Pittsburgh in pretty much the most 1973 Piratesy way possible. Ace Tony Rivera (18-6, 2.13) gives up just 1 run to the beleaguered Bucs offense through 9 but their own ace Santos Arango (9-13, 2.67) is equal to the task. And so it holds, all the way to the top of the 11th when Arango finally allows a solo HR to 2B Jordan Green (.299, 9, 41) and hang on to win 2-1.
This also, with the Reds' 7-3 loss to the Cubs, puts the Astros back in 1st place, but mostly this is about how awwwwful the Pirates are. They won't set records for badness - in fact, the Dodges have 4 fewer runs scored in 4 more games - but maaaan this is tough to watch.
(make that 3 runs and 5 more games, as the Dodgers lost 12-1 today STILL THOUGH)
August 8: Houston police learn of serial murderer Dean Corll for the first time as his accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, leads them to Corll's shallow grave and tells them he shot and killed the man. Police discover eight bodies at a boat storage yard, including those of three teenagers who had been reported missing. Henley, 17, and another acomplice, 18 years of age, will be indicted by a grand jury for murder 6 days later.
August 8: South Korean politician Kim Dae-Jung, who had run against President Park Chung Hee in 1971, is kidnapped at gunpoint from the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo, Japan by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Yeah, man... I know we think of South Korea as one of the Tigers but that didn't really get under way until the 80s. At this point in time they were a fascist puppet state. Incidentally, although Kim is beaten up, he is released alive five days later.
August 8: In absolutely terrible news for the 90s, Scott Sapp, lead singer of the band Creed, is born in Orlando, Florida.
August 8: For the Reds, 35 year old Ramon Puig (.244, 1, 5), who was expected to contribute a lot this year as a pinch-hitter and backup 1st baseman, suffered a setback in his fractured leg injury and will be out until mid to late September now., The Reds, even with the loss of 1B/OF Alonzo Huanosta (.273, 5, 23) for the season in June, are doing pretty well with 25 year old rookie MC Gainey (.280, 8, 30) at the position so this is more bad news for Puig than it is for Cincinnati but hey, we report on the reports.
August 8: The AL record for HRs in a game is "only" 3 and it's been set a looooot of times. 3 times this year in fact, including today by Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.256, 41, 92). In an 11-6 win over the Rangers, Garcia dialed 8 for long distance off of starter Robbie Coltrane (15-4, 2.10), long reliever Amir Sudler (1-3, 5.40) and middle reliever / mop up guy Billy Munoz (4-1, 3.08). "I am the straw that breaks the camel's back," crowed Garcia after the game. All of his HRs were solo shots but it seemed unfair to bring up the lack of clutch in a game where his team scored so much.
Garcia is now on page to hit 57 HRs, which is a lot but would still be his lowest total since 1970, when he missed the 2nd half of the season and "only" had 33 taters. The other 2 3 HR games this year were both cracked by White Sox 1B Alice Cooper (.294, 29, 79), who is a. pretty good in his own right and b. 2nd in the AL in HRs.
August 8: Speaking of 3-HR games, Tigers SP Edgar Molina (18-12, 3.66) gave up 3 longballs in 6 innings in a 5-1 loss to the A's at Tiger Stadium. That gives Molina 44 for the year; it's going to be a real race to see who between him and Garcia wind up with more on the stat sheet. Molina allowed ding-dongs to DH Casey Satterfield (.292, 18, 73), LF Tommy Pron (.305, 8, 53), and newly arrived RF Brian Jackson (.267, 5, 35 but .333, 2, 8 in 9 games with Oakland). This may be the only "good" race the Yankees have left, as even with 2 straight losses by the Tigers to these A's and a 3-game series win vs the Rangers, they are 13 games back in the standings.
August 8: Is this what the "dog days" of August are supposed to look like? Two more bad offenses squared up against each other today and the results were... obvious. Moises "Duck" Melendez (10-8, 2.58) carried a no-hitter vs the Brewers into the 8th inning but his Angels were unable to put any runs across against rookie Luther Vandross (2-1, 3.62) so when he finally did get touched in the bottom of the 9th by an RBI single by LF Steve Winwood (.281, 15, 59) it was all the Brew Crew needed to win, 1-0. Vandross himself finished with a 6-hit shutout, including 2 walks and just 2 strikeouts.
"Here and now," said Vandross following the game. "I promise to win faithfully."
August 9: 23 people are killed and 12 injured when the bus they are on falls into a canal near the Egyptian town of Fayun. The driver was reportedly swerving to avoid hitting a donkey.
August 9: The USSR launches its Marx 7 interplanetary probe with the goal of, you guessed it, landing on Mars. In March of 1974 the probe will reach the planet and release the lander but because of a retrorocket failure the lander will somehow manage to miss the planet and get no closer than 1300km.
August 9: The "Nantua Pillar", a 135 fot high, 12,000 ton granite boulder that had hung for more than a century over the French town of Nantua, topples from the mountainside from where it rested, just over an hour after 3,500 residents had been evacuated.
August 9: Europe's first Tandy electronics store - you may know them as an American as Radio Shack - opens in Belgium.
August 9: Nikos Zachariadis, the leader of the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War from 1946-49, commits suicide in exile in Siberia. Zachariadis had led the country for a while but wound up losing control because Stalin had agreed that Greece would remain in the hands of the West and although Tito from Yugoslavia aided him for a while, he, too, was forced to withdraw after he broke with Stalin and needed to fend for himself. In the early 60s he managed to make his way from Siberia to Moscow, where he asked to be deported back to Greece to stand trial; it's unknown whether this request was actually heard or not but he was shortly thereafter waylaid by the Soviets and placed back in Siberia for the remainder of his life. Some of his followers claim he was executed; however, after the breakup of the USSR, internal documents confirmed it was a suicide.
August 9: Angels closer Montay Luiso (1-2. 2.30, 10 Sv) has been used a liiittle more sparingly with his new team compared to the Orioles but in closing out the final 2 innings in today's 2-1 win over the Brewers he notched the 300th save of his career. 225 of those came with Baltimore, of course, but hey, he's 35 so he still at least theoretically has time to carve out some new records in sunny California.
Luiso is 2nd all-time in saves, 50 behind a guy named Bill Cory, who played his whole career with the Dodgers from 1946-64, following them from Brooklyn to LA. He was inducted into the Hall in 1970. Cory's last big season came at 36 himself so hey, Luiso still has some ground to cover...
August 10: The Skylab astronauts take a picture of a solar flare, the most detailed picture of one of these phenomena yet.
August 10: The Israeli Air Force intercept Iraqi Airways Flight 006A shortly after it took off from Beirut, Lebanon and force it to land at a secret airfield, where it is held for eight hours. The act is criticized worldwide with even the US joining in the UN Security Council resolution on AUgust 15 condemning Israel. This is the first time in five years the US will side against its ally in the UN.
August 10: Jean Hanson, a British biophysicist who discovered the "sliding filament theory" of muscle contraction, died of meningococcal septicemeia at 53.
August 10: Lillian Roxon, a journalist best known for the first encyclopedia of rock music, Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia, dies of an asthma attack at only 41 years of age.
August 11: Clive Campbell originates the hip hop music genre at a party he and his younger sister Cindy organized, the "back to School Jam" held in the Bronx in New York City. Campbell, a Jamaican born turntable artist who came to be known as DJ Kool Herc, uses the two-turntable approach used by other disco DJs too elongate the drum break. Cambpell also referred to the people dancing to his music as "break boys" and "break girls" and, later, "b-boys" and "b-girls".
August 11: In Minsk, the Soviet Red Army anounces that seven former soldiers had been convicted in court martial proceedings of collaboration with Nazis in the Byelorussian SSR (now Belarus) during World War II. Four of these men were sentenced to death with the other 3 getting prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years.
August 11: THE COD WARS ERUPT as an Iceland Coast Guard vessel with a name I could copy and paste but I won't rammed the UK Royal Navy frigate HMS Andromeda more than 12 nautical miles from the Icelandic coast. 37593129751 people were killed on this day just kidding nothing happened.
August 12: Jack Nicklaus wins his 3rd PGA Championship, his 12th major title of the four maor championships of golf. Nicklaus finishes 4 strokes ahead of Australia's Bruce Crampton. He's like the Tiger Woods of his day, you know?
August 12: Larry G. Smith, an American Race car driver and 1972 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, is killed in a crash at the Talladegha 500 race in Alabama.
August 12: Hey, a not-insane Sunday! Only one double-header. Last year I'm pretty sure like every team just about played 30 games in August so it's nice to see some bullpens getting potentially rested...
August 12: Maaan Edgar Molina (18-13, 3.63) is annoying sometimes. The Tigers pitcher threw a 5-hitter today and made basically one mistake the entire game long, but it was a big one: a 3-run homerun to the White Sox' DH Jeff Nation (.271, 20, 78) that plated Chicago's only 3 runs in the contest and led to a 3-1 loss. The dinger was Molina's 45th allowed on the year, which already has him firmly in 2nd place and, with a full month and a half left to play, just 1 off the all-time record set by Eric Cartee in 1961 (7-19, 5.89 that season). Cartee, as the statline indicates, was awful that year whereas Molina is still managing to carry a 3.63 ERA against a league average of 3.84.
August 12: The Rangers are very much still in contention - 2 1/2 games behind the AL West leading White Sox as of today - but man, they are also the Pittsburgh Pirates of the junior circuit. Right now they lead the league in fewest runs allowed allowing with starters' ERA (2.88), defensive efficiency (.732), and zone rating (+35.3), but they're also 2nd worst in runs scored. Last year they looked like they might break records for offensive futility and even though they've revamped the lineup since then, it's still not great.
Today at least they got 4 runs and only needed 1 because the very promising looking rookie Robert "Rat" McHugh (13-9, 3.40) threw his 4th shutout of the year, 3-hitting the Cleveland Indians for a 4-0 win. They did get a 2-RBI triple by 3B Bobby Ramirez (.320, 7, 41), who I moved up to leadoff today from his normal position of 3rd in the lineup to shake things up, but once again there were no HRs hit by this team, who is dead last in the AL in that category. If they do wind up getting past the White Sox, they're going to have to do more offensively.
August 12: And hey, speaking of shutouts, the Astros and Ernie Alvarez (13-12, 3.36) delivered a big old "Chicago" to the Cubs today, 7-0. Alvarez has not exactly been consistent this year, as the 12 losses and kind of high ERA playing half his games at the Astrodome will attest to, but when he's on he's really hard to score on. Today he allowed 6 hits and 4 walks, inducing 12 ground-outs and somehow getting this done in spite of no double plays.
His teammates 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.287, 18, 55) went 2-5 with a couple runs, a couple RBIs, and his 18th HR on the night and leadoff man 3B Pete Little (.287, 8, 50) made up for his 19th error at the hot corner with a 3-5, 2 RBI night of his own. That win once more puts the Astros 1/2 a game up on the Reds although the Pads are playing two today against the crappy Expos.
August 12: Unfortunately for the Pads, all they could was split their double-header and so as we end the week they're also 1/2 a game back. They started out well enough with Don Henley (16-5, 2.34) striking out 8 in 8 IP before giving way to closer Darius Parchman (2-4, 1.10) for his 19th save and a 2-1 win. However, in Game 2 Tim Anderlike (9-11. 3.21) had a rare poor outing and was removed for a pinch-hitter in the top of the 4th with the team down 5-0; San Diego rallied late but it wasn't enough, as Montreal's own budding ace Kenny "The DANGER ZONE" Loggins (4-5, 2.42) slammed the door shut in the 9th for his 12th save.
That second game was actually San Diego's first loss all season vs the Expos. They're 8-1 against them which means they have one more series to go against team Montreal.
## Teams in Review
August 10: Things have really taken a turn for the worst for the
Pittsburgh Pirates (51-60, 16 1/2 GB). They were already dealing with .500-ness for 2 straight months after a pretty strong (16-11) May but now they're 1-8 to open August and I think it's probably time to admit that a playoff repeat ain't happening. Time to bring in the kids? Not gonna lie, this offense looks rough, like it's going to be a few years before we have the pieces again...
Rotation: This team is still 2nd in the NL in runs allowed (probably makes that 2nd overall) and the starting rotation is pretty, pretty good. I did expand it to 5 men for the 2nd half and the back end has been less than stellar. I think Viktor Yanukyovich (1-5, 4.83) is playing like a guy who maybe needs more seasoning in the minors. Maybe he'll be a September call-up? This also allows me to recall Clyde Jones (10-10, 2.58 at AAA Charleston), who's had 3 late-season cups of coffee of his own the last 2 years. He also has 145 Ks in 177.2 AAA innings so if anything he probably should have gotten the call sooner. Oh well! Viktor "the Traitor" is a bigger prospect.
Bullpen: This bullpen is still Sparky Lemus (9-4, 2.03, 13 Sv) plus whoever else happens to be around, so take that for what it is... I think it's time to cut ties with Andy Lagunas (3-4, 4.68). He had a good year with KC last season but at the end of the day the man's 32 and there's better use for middle to long relief than a 32 year old guy who's seen better days. In his place: 30 year old Carlos Ramirez (4-4, 2.94, 9 Sv at AAA Charleston), who, okay, isn't a spring chicken himself. He missed all of 1972 with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow after being a fairly regular member of the bullpen in '71 so... nice to have him back I guess? Brian Bruno's (2-1, 4.34) job is also tenuous but I feel like I need someone to handle long relief when one of the back-end rotation guys inevitably crap out.
Infield: I feel like C Doug Connally (.236, 6, 32) was having a bounce-back season at one point but... yep, he hit .200 in July and so far is 0-for-August (18 at-bats total). At this point Timothy Higgins (.161, 0, 1) is already the #2 choice for a backup with Miklos Nemeth (.188, 1, 8) not cutting it in the bigs, there's a 3rd (4th?) PTBNL who looks nice down there but I don't trust that he's ready, and... okay, I'm going to give Connally the rest of the season to figure himself out.
First base should be the easiest position to fill, right? The Bucs traded for David Salinas (.248, 1, 21), knowing we were going to be without Albilio Valdivia (.270, 0, 2) for the first half of the year but the 38 year old looks like he's finally showing his age (.231, 0, 17 with a .278 OBP with the Pirates) and... I can't believe I'm doing this but for the good of the team I'm going to drop the old man / team captain / farewell tour-ish Valdivia back into the starting slot.
Every position, man... 2B Tyler Websster (.212, 4, 18) isn't cutting it but I don't have anything to replace him so I guess he'll have to continue to not cut it for the rest of the year. Believe me, if there was someone I'd use them. The best excuse for a replacement is John "Denethor" Noble (.208, 5, 27 in AAA) but he's not looking like a guy who's going to hit this year either (lots of walks though!).
I sent Hank Williams Jr. (.198, 1, 6) down to work on his swing and... he hasn't really shown any signs of having corrected it in the minors (.222, 2, 17 in AAA). Still, I want to use him because he's young and has promise so down goes organization man Arturo Martinez (.254, 1, 9) and up he goes. He'll try and pass at 2nd as well, which might be a really bad idea. Frankly though incumbent 3B Alex Flores (.256, 5, 32) has been nothing special, even if he's better than last year.
Outfield: LF Jerry Sherk (.231, 12, 49) is also in a slump because OF COURSE HE IS ON THIS TEAM. I can't really take him out though and at this point he's still got the most power on this ballclub. Find that swing, Jerry!
CF Justin Hearl (.223, 1, 19) has ben baaad this year, so much so that I'm going to drop him into a half-time role with George Macchia (.245, 2, 9), who just is not fast enough to play center but he at least can hit, kind of... again, I'd love to call up guys but the big prospect Michio Kaku (.192, 1, 17) is now I think officially a bust and is hitting .193/4/23 in AAA.
August 12: The fortunes of the
New York Mets (54-60, 16 GB) seem pretty intertwined with the Pirates above; however, the Mets are 4 years off from their division title and shipped off the famed "Superman and Jimmy Olsen" middle of their lineup that got them that far in the miracle '69 season. Now they're just... blah, a bad offense paired with a pretty decent defense (although the pitching staff is dead last in Ks and according to the advanced stats the decent runs/ERA is propped up by play in the field). I think I've already called up most if not all of the enticing looking non-September guys but I guess we'll see...
Rotation: Top to bottom the rotation is filled with pretty-good guys; like all 5 of them have ERAs between 3.04 and 3.48, and the 3.48 guy - newer add Noah Bando (1-3, 3.48) has 31 Ks in 33.2 IP since being recalled from AAA Tidewater. I don't think I'm going to make any changes in here. Maybe if someone begins to falter...
Bullpen: This bullpen is still Geoff Saus (9-8, 3.36, 19 Sv) and whoever else we decide to put out there. If I really wanted to I could cut one of the vets but they're producing and the guys I'd replace them with - a PTBNL in AAA (7-13, 3.36) and John Ratzenberger (4-4, 4.19 in AAA), who was up to begin the season but got sent down for being not ready yet (2-3, 4.97) - aren't anything special.
Infield: 1B John Fleischaker (.235, 4, 17) has been putting up meh production all year and "Garfield" Jim Davis (.228, 15, 32) has emerged as the team's new cleanup man so... I just don't need him anymore. Fleischaker has kind of always been the banner man for replacement-level production at 1st so I'm going to just send him on down in favor of spoken word man / self-styled "bluesologist" Gilbert Scott-Heron (.300, 7, 13), who only has 38 games of experience in AAA but hey, it was good experience.
At age 38 it just looks to me like Danny Pellot (.175, 1, 10) has turned the wrong corner and while 3B Mark Hamill (.252, 7, 36 at AAA Tidewater) hasn't been anything great in terms of finding his stroke in the minors, the 24 year old is still a better choice to back up Vicente Luna (.264, 6, 36) and possibly/probably take over for him next season. Luna is now reeeeeally bad as a fielder but it's "range of a postage stamp" bad, not "fielding average below .900" bad so he'll keep the gig until probably September at least...
One man who will NOT keep his gig is 32 year old Chris Adams (.154, 1, 3). Adams missed the first half of the season with torn ankle ligaments and never put it together. We've given him an entire month to try and he's just not. Also, Mark Spitz is 8 years younger and more of the "man of the future". I'm very much unsure what we do with Adams going forward but it's not like he's made this decision hard.
Outfield: The outfield is the biggest strength of this team right now, with the 3 hole hitter Barry "The Ritz" Cooper (.302, 2. 39) possibly the weakest link. No changes!