BNN Report
News from the CBO, Minors, CCBL, and CYL
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
4 September 2316
CBO Regular Season Ends, Malden-Vault 81 as #1s
Another Commonwealth Baseball Organization campaign is in the books. The regular season has ended and the playoffs are about to begin. It is a time of skill, talent -- and luck. And when all the games have been played, one team will survive and be crowned the 2316 Sole Survivor Series champion.
Some clubs have coasted to make the playoffs -- others have scrapped tooth and nail to get here. After a long, sometimes seemingly endless regular season, it gets down to who can win a short series -- by hook or crook, talent or luck. That's what it takes to capture the Commonwealth Baseball Organization championship. The top teams will vie in the Sole Survivor Series starting today.
NCA
1. Malden
2. Bunker Hill
3. Easy Town
4. Cambridge
5. Concord
6. The Slog
SCA
1. Vault 81
2. Atom
3. Oberland
4. Glowing Sea
5. Diamond City
6. Quincy
CBO Standings
CBO Players of the Week
August 28 - Eden Babz is respected by most Easy Town Assaultrons fans for his no-frills style of play. The 22-year-old center fielder went about his business with vigor last week to grab the North Charles Association Player of the Week honors.
He compiled a .524 average (11-for-21) with 1 home run, 5 RBIs and 3 runs scored.
At the moment, Babz is batting .346 with 9 home runs and 49 RBIs. He has played in 105 games and scored 71 times.
22-year-old Brad Hop sent shock waves through Commonwealth Baseball Organization last week with an eye-popping performance that brought him the South Charles Association Player of the Week Award.
A newcomer to the league, Hop made the establishment sit up and take notice, punishing opposing pitchers with a .462 average, 12 hits in 26 at-bats, 3 home runs and 4 runs batted in.
Where the Quincy Gunners right fielder goes from here, only the baseball gods know for sure, but Hop certainly made his mark last week.
For the season, Hop is hitting .394, batted in 5 runs with 3 home runs and 6 runs scored.
CBO Noteworthy News
August 24 - Quincy Gunners owner Smiling Larry announced today that he will sell the Gunners team this offseason. According to Larry, "It's time. I'm 80 now. I'm on a soup of stimpacks, Jet, and Mentats. It's time to give this to someone else."
Several groups are expected to make bids. Commissioner Nate Howard has expressed that the Quincy franchise is "staying put," so the team will be in Quincy long-term.
August 30 - His goal at twenty was to win twenty games one year, pitch until he was thirty, win the league pennant and to make some money. Well, Lannie Tykeson did something even better -- the 39-year-old Oberland T-51s star has now won 150 games in his career. That put him in a very select group of pitchers.
He joined that exclusive club today at Oberland Stadium by whipping the Glowing Sea Radscorpions 4-3, holding them to 14 hits in 5.1 innings while chalking up 4 strikeouts and 1 walk.
In the postgame interview, the modest Tykeson said, "It's special to win 150 games. You don't do it by yourself. You do it with good stuff and a good bullpen. You are only as good as the guys behind you. Years from now I might look back on it and give myself a little pat on the back."
Tykeson has a lifetime record of 150-134 with a 4.74 ERA. He also has a lifetime .321 batting average and .416 on-base percentage in his 1863-game career with 1960 hits and 371 home runs.
September 1 - Getting 5 hits is a good day by any measure, but when those include a single, double, triple and a home run -- that's something special. Jay Gabby's day was a special one.
The center fielder hit for the cycle to spark the 12-1 Jamaica Plain Red Rockets victory over the Goodneighbor Hancocks at Red Rockets Stadium. Jamaica Plain manager Scoundrel Easterling said he thought the whole lineup looked good in batting practice, but had not been expecting anything extraordinary from Gabby in particular.
"Jay caught me by surprise today," the skipper said. "He looked good before the game, but man, he looked unbelievable during it."
For the day, Gabby finished with 1 RBI and 3 runs scored to go with his 5 hits.
Jay Gabby singled in the 1st, tripled in the 3rd, singled in the 4th, doubled in the 7th and hit a solo-shot off Hard Cohen in the 8th.
Gabby is hitting .283 this season with 17 home runs, 62 RBIs and 73 runs scored. He has 135 hits in 477 at-bats.
September 4 - You wouldn't have to be a baseball genius to think Scooter Yaghmour will win the coveted Vim! Pitcher Award this year. The Cambridge Coursers ace certainly has the numbers to take it, topping the North Charles Association with 21 wins, 2.42 ERA and 187 strikeouts to win the Pitching Triple Crown.
"It's a great accomplishment," Yaghmour told reporters, "but my main goal is to go out there and win every game. The stats are nice, but they don't tell the whole story. The 21 wins are what I'm most proud of."
September 4 - Eden Babz of the Easy Town Assaultrons was named North Charles Association batting champion today.
The 22-year-old center fielder hit .342 with 9 home runs and 51 RBIs during the 2316 campaign, collecting 139 hits in 407 at-bats, while playing in 111 games.
Deez Phantom of the Egret Ninjas was this year's best hitter in the South Charles Association.
The 27-year-old right fielder collected the batting title with a .362 average.
Playing in 118 games, the SCA champ racked up 160 hits in 442 at-bats with 13 home runs and 71 RBIs.
September 4 - There is some uncomfortable silence coming out of the Lexington area involving GM Kevin Badluck and MGR Brandon Salinas. Team captains, Danny Enfryz, Oldman Llewellyn, and Grayson Topps, have supposedly expressed their displeasure of how the season was managed, dropping from NCA champions in 2315 to 64-66 and out of the playoffs in 2316. Lexington made no roster moves today, so we are curious to see what happens next and how the lineup will be shaken up heading into 2317.
CBO Records
Stolen Bases - 78 - Eden Babz, Easy Town; Previous record - 72, Bubb Islander, 2312
Opp. SLG - .278 - Alex Language, Glowing Sea; Previous record - .292, Derek Green, 2300
Final CBO Statistics