League of Nations

[Syd Thrift]

The Great War. It hurt a lot of us, but no group of men more than American baseball. Congress, under pressure from the people to do something patriotic following the release of the Zimmerman Letter and the entrance of the United States on the side of the English and French, instituted a draft and, as a further show of what was expected of the people, forced every last major and minor league baseball player to register. They would all be placed together in a special force led by Christy "Big Six" Mathewson and "Harvard Eddie" Grant that was to be known as the Baseball Brigade.

Troops, leaders, and civilians from both sides initially looked upon the Baseball Brigade with derision. What do men - boys, many of them - who, for a living, run around for 2 hours a day catching balls know about fighting a war? Those jeers were soon replaced by cheers: unlike many of the Americans who came over, these boys were fit and athletic and didn't mind sacrificing their own good for their common man. After all, they'd been doing little else but sacrificing their teammates on to second base for the past twenty years.

It was that sense of sacrifice that led to their courageous stand that would turn out to be their last. Earlier bravery in combat caused the Allied forces to place the Baseball Brigade at the vanguard of the bulge around Ypres, even though this was an area that, overall, was manned primarily by Canadians and British. On the fateful evening of April 11, 1918, the Germans decided to take the bulge. They attacked from three sides. Soon, they realized that they had to time their grenade-throwing just right, because if there was any charge left in them at all when they reached the Brigade's side, the items would be batted or in some cases hurled right back at them. Machine gun fire was similarly ineffective; these Americans would simply dive back into their trenches the way they'd dived back into first base so many times earlier.

Finally, the Germans had no choice but to resort to their most cowardly of weapons: mustard gas. The Baseball Brigade was woefully unprepared for a gas attack. Only a small percentage of them even had masks, and their trainer was supposed to be Christy Mathewson himself, who through a clerical error unfortunately never got that training. It is also believed that the term "mustard gas" may have tripped some of the boys up. Numerous accounts from German soldiers report viewing Baseball Brigaders cooking up "hot dogs" for the big to-do.

Whatever the cause, by the morning of April 14 not a single member of the Baseball Brigade was left. Those that survived the first wave of gas carried on loudly as though the gassing had been completely ineffective, and this in turn caused the Germans to lob wave after wave of gas artillery at the Brigade's fortifications. Given the ease with which the Baseball Brigade had turned them back, they didn't dare send any more men in until, as the saying went, all was quiet on the Western front.

Needless to say, these Americans impressed both sides, and when Woodrow Wilson delivered the Fourteen Points to the League of Nation, he added a fifteenth point: let there be a worldwide baseball league, inhabited by the greatest countries of the world, that would honor the Baseball Brigade and, in reflection, the bravery of men in all nations. Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein were so awed by this declaration that they collaborated on a wondrous device that would make travel time and, yes, even the space-time continuum itself moot. Their only stipulation was that it could be used for nothing but baseball.

And so began the League of Nations! 16 teams in 12 countries. Let the games begin!

[Syd Thrift]

So here's how it goes. There are, as stated, 16 teams divided into two separate leagues, the America/Asia League and the European League. Play begins in 1919. Since we're talking about countries who in many cases hate each other, there will not be much in the way of trading. On the other hand, events of the day will have a direct effect on the status of the players themselves. If a nation gets into a war, expect to see some of its players become POWs and some more die on the front lines.

Additionally, Tesla and Einstein's machine works a little screwy. A confabulation in the equinox radiation means that when a player is teleported to a game on January 1, he arrives on April 1. Fortunately, when he is then 'ported back to his land of origin, he gets back there on January 1st, two hours later. This is not a great start but, as the year carries on, the lag time is slowly decreased until by mid-year the players are reaching their destinations almost instantaneously. Then - amazingly - there is a retrograde action in the second half of the year, with a player 'ported on October 1st arriving at approximately August 15th. At the end of the year, there is a strange period of "no-time", and as a result the works must be recalibrated and therefore the Jan 1-Apr 1 lag begins again.

If you wanted to skip the pseudo-science, an easier way of looking at it is this:

Games played in January and February are actually scheduled for the month of April.
March and April = May.
May and June = June
July and August = July
September and October = August
November and December = September
? = October

Got it? Good.

[Syd Thrift]

Amsterdam Admirals


Berlin Teutonic Knights


Chicago Defenders (an all-black team)


Cincinnati Reds
(not pictured)

London Monarchs


Madrid Matadors


Mexico City Aztecs


Moscow Proletariat


New York Giants
(not pictured)

Paris Revolutions


Rome Cardinals


Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists


Shanghai Dragons


Tokyo Rising Sun


US Army Baseball Engineers


Vienna Meisterflauten
(not pictured; not done with the uni yet)

[Syd Thrift]

Based on the number of men each club is auditioning this year, this is how we think the standings will come out:

America/Asia
-----------
Mexico City (62)
Tokyo (60)
Canada (58)
Chicago (55)
Shanghai (35)
New York (24)
Cincinnati (24)
US Army (24)

Europe
------------
Amsterdam (35)
Rome (34)
Madrid (33)
Vienna (33)
Paris (30)
Moscow (29)
Berlin (26)
London (25)

It looks to be a league heavily tilted to the Asia/America side; not good news for the American teams which are recovering from the loss of the Baseball Brigade. Still, we expect to see a good race between Mexico, Canada, and Japan, and on the other side of the globe it's really wide open.

[Syd Thrift]

April 1 - The Spartacist general strike breaks out in Germany. All over the place, people aren't working. Fortunately, Germany has no games scheduled during this period so, well, nothing really happens.

April 8 - The Prohibition Era begins in the United States, banning the consumption of alcohol. This is an idea that ought to end well.

April 9 - A Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France. Germany cedes a bunch of land to a lot of different countries, but they aren't in the League of Nations/baseball so it doesn't matter. However, as part of the ceding of Alsace and Lorraine to France, Germany also gives up 1Bs Oswald Treppel and Garin Newbert.

[Syd Thrift]

One of the reasons I didn't post more graphics in the now-defunct Thriftlon Reports dynasty is that it was a real pain to do screen caps, edit the pictures down in paint.net, and then upload the jpegs to photobucket every time I wanted to show a guy's face. I think I've gotten around that with some server space at blackapplehost.com. The link to the league is located here. You'll see that I've created Vienna's jersey in there as well.

[Syd Thrift]

April 22 - The Russian/Polish War begins. For the time being, no Russians are conscripted, as this is still a relatively small-scale deal (only 50,000 Russians involved, which is small even after I did my adjustments for gender, cohort, and population sizes*). This may change next year.

April 27 - Benito Mussolini founds the Fascist Party in Italy.

*Because wars have historically been fought primarily by men of baseball age, that means that they are far more likely to be involved in conflicts than the general population. Additionally, since I don't have census figures for the entire world in 1920 and beyond, I'm fudging a little with the figures. My calculations have me taking the size of the involvement, multiplying it by 20.52, and then dividing that against the current population of the country in question to determine the chance of an individual player getting swept up in the conflict. In the above example, 50,000 Russians times 20.52 = 1,026,00, divided by Russia's current population of 142 million = a 0.7% chance that each individual Russian player has to be involved in this conflict.

Did I mention that I am a big fan of complex formulae?

[Syd Thrift]

Giants, Austrians Lead Out of the Gate

America/Asia Standings
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
New York Giants		11	7	.611	-	10-8	1	5-1	6-6	2-0	3-3	138	W2	7-3
Shanghai Dragons	10	6	.625	-	9-7	1	2-3	8-3	0-0	4-3	139	L1	5-5
RCMB			9	7	.563	1.0	8-8	1	5-6	4-1	1-0	5-1		W1	7-3
Tokyo Rising Sun	10	8	.556	1.0	10-8	0	5-5	5-3	0-1	1-1		L1	5-5
Mexico City Aztecs	9	9	.500	2.0	9-9	0	7-5	2-4	0-0	4-3		L2	4-6
Chicago Defenders	8	9	.471	2.5	9-8	-1	4-4	4-5	0-1	2-3		W2	4-6
USA Baseball Engineers	6	11	.353	4.5	8-9	-2	3-6	3-5	0-0	1-5		L3	4-6
Cincinnati Reds		6	12	.333	5.0	8-10	-2	2-6	4-6	0-1	2-3		W1	4-6

European League Standings
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Vienna Meisterflauten	12	6	.667	-	12-6	0	5-2	7-4	1-2	5-3	137	L1	6-4
Paris Revolutions	10	6	.625	1.0	9-7	1	8-3	2-3	2-0	4-2		L1	6-4
London Monarchs		10	8	.556	2.0	9-9	1	6-5	4-3	1-1	2-3		W1	5-5
Moscow Proletariat	9	7	.563	2.0	9-7	0	2-3	7-4	1-0	3-0		L1	5-5
Berlin Teutonic Knights	7	9	.438	4.0	9-7	-2	3-4	4-5	0-2	0-4		W1	5-5
Madrid Matadors		8	10	.444	4.0	7-11	1	4-8	4-2	1-1	3-2		W1	7-3
Amsterdam Admirals	6	10	.375	5.0	5-11	1	4-5	2-5	0-1	1-2		W1	4-6
Rome Cardinals		6	12	.333	6.0	9-9	-3	1-5	5-7	1-0	1-3		L1	2-8

John Baird, Sergei Lenyashin Share Player of the Month Honors
John Baird
Sergei Lenyashin

The League of Nations looks like a hitters' league, and early on big boppers from America and communist Russia lead the way. Baird, a 25 year old third baseman out of South Carolina, has tattooed the league to the tune of a .417 average, 16 runs, and 17 RBIs in 17 games. He also leads all third basemen with 6 double plays.

Lenyashin had never played the game before this year but you wouldn't know it to watch him play. The Moscow native has combined a blistering average (.417), incredible power (10 extra base hits so far), and solid play in center field. There was really no choice but to award him this way.

Pitchers of the Month Also Named

Joel Lemoine
Kung Fu Huan

Four great outings by Paris's Joel Lemoine earned him Pitcher of the Month honors for April. The right handed ace of the Revolutions' staff relies on changing speed and so far that strategy has baffled European hitting. He is tied for the Euro League in strikeouts with 12 and owns the 2nd best K/W ratio in the league as well. As a result, opponents are hitting just .221 against him and his stinginess with the runs has earned him 4 victories against no losses.

His American/Asian counterpart goes by the nickname "Kung Fu" because of his ability to throw a variety of pitches with the controlled fury of an ancient Chinese martial arts master. To date he has 10 strikeouts vs. 6 walks and has not allowed a man to enter in relief of him. His record of 3-1 belies the fact that he only got his one loss due to 4 unearned runs charged to him.

[Syd Thrift]

May 1 - March 1st Movement launches in Korea (yes, I realize the date. Please see Tesla/Einstein infos in thread #2) against Japanese colonialism. As a result of this, there is talk of bring Korea into the League soon...

May 2 - Communist International (Comintern) is created in Moscow. Parties from across Europe are invited, including the Spartacus Movement in Germany and the Austrian Communist Party. Germany once again avoids involvement but the love of the Reds causes Joseph "The Red" Vranitzky to defect to the Bolsheviks.

May 8 - The American Legion is founded in Paris, France to promote the interests of World War II veterans. To promote the interests of America, France agrees to loan 3 players to the US Army Baseball Engineers for the remainder of the season. Those players are C Laurent Garnier (.299, 1 HR, 11 RBI), LF Sebastien Guilbert (.277, 0, 11), and SP Patrick Seguin (2-1, 2.83 ERA). "To a large degree, we owe our freedom to these Americans and their baseball," said Revolutions general manager and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. "Loaning them a couple of our players while their nation gets back on their sports footing was the least we could do."

May 15 - A general strike begins in the Ruhr. This time around, the strike draws in a couple Berlin Teutonic Knights who had the temerity to believe they ought to be compensated better for their services. Reacting quickly, Germany suspends both players for a year. Those men are SP Dustin Meise (2-4, 3.25 ERA) and Hubertus Mauser (2-3, 4.80).

[Syd Thrift]

May 18 - the Bavarian Soviet Republic is founded, but none of the Teutonic Knights are involved.

May 20 - The Armitsar Massacre occurs in India, a sort of 1919 version of My Lai which sees the British Army murder 379 civilians. The lone Indian member of the Monarchs, 2B Isayu Konda (ba, hr, rbi) decides to stay with the team. He was unavailable for comment, though it should be noted that Konda is a person who is so focused on success that he may have the tendency to overlook even a brutal action such as this.

May 27 - The Bauhaus Movement is founded in Germany. Reserve 1B Henry Mohr (no statistics) is inspired by the new architecture and art.

[Syd Thrift]

Tokyo Rides Hot Streak To Lead In American/Asian League

 America/Asia Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Tokyo Rising Sun	29	16	.644	-	28-17	1	8-7	21-9	4-2	4-2	109	L2	6-4
Royal Canadians 	27	17	.614	1.5	22-22	5	18-14	9-3	3-0	12-4		W2	6-4
Mexico City Aztecs	26	18	.591	2.5	26-18	0	7-5	19-13	0-1	8-7		W2	6-4
New York Giants		26	19	.578	3.0	23-22	3	11-7	15-12	2-2	6-4		W3	7-3
Chicago Defenders	19	25	.432	9.5	20-24	-1	14-16	5-9	0-1	7-7		W1	3-7
USA Baseball Engineers	18	26	.409	10.5	21-23	-3	10-19	8-7	3-1	5-10		L1	3-7
Shanghai Dragons	17	27	.386	11.5	17-27	0	6-21	11-6	0-4	7-8		L2	4-6
Cincinnati Reds		15	29	.341	13.5	20-24	-5	4-10	11-19	0-1	2-9		L3	5-5

European League Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Vienna Meisterflauten	26	19	.578	-	26-19	0	17-13	9-6	3-4	12-6	110	W1	3-7
Paris Revolutions	25	19	.568	.5	25-19	0	12-5	13-14	4-1	8-9		L1	4-6
Amsterdam Admirals	23	20	.535	2.0	20-23	3	5-10	18-10	1-2	5-4		L1	5-5
London Monarchs		25	22	.532	2.0	26-21	-1	18-14	7-8	1-2	5-6		L1	6-4
Berlin Teutonic Knights	23	21	.523	2.5	25-19	-2	7-7	16-14	3-3	5-10		W1	7-3
Madrid Matadors		21	26	.447	6.0	18-29	3	16-17	5-9	3-4	11-10		L2	4-6
Moscow Proletariat	19	26	.422	7.0	22-23	-3	3-9	16-17	1-2	5-8		W1	6-4
Rome Cardinals		19	28	.404	8.0	19-28	0	10-18	9-10	2-0	6-4		W2	4-6

The Tokyo Rising Sun won 19 of 27 games for the month of June to establish themselves as the team to beat in this, the first season of the League of Nations. The Japanese national team is 2nd in the AA in runs scored with 262 and #1 in runs allowed with 196. They're beginning to put a bit of ground between themselves and the rest of the league. Fortunately, the 2nd place team gets a playoff berth as well.

The EU is quite a bit closer, with no team emerging as a true front-runner just yet. The masterful pitching of Florian Knaus and Ludwig Senner are keeping Vienna on top of the league but nipping at their heels are the Paris Revolutions, with a league-leading .307 average and 4 starters hitting .300 (CF Herve Fischer, 1B Jean-Pascal Dumoulin, RF Didier Bernard, and 3B Moise Gros).

Schroeder, Aurochs Eckhardt Named May Players of the Month

The Giants were not expected to do much this year. They've basically had to train their entire team in baseball from scratch. It is a measure of American stick-to-it-tiveness, then, that their lineup boasts a man who seems so familiar with the game this early. CF Terry Schroeder hit .426 last month with 28 RBIs. The 25 year old son of a druggist from Vancouver, Washington credits his success to his vision. "I like to look at things," he told the League. "I can watch birds all day long. Pigeons in the city are wonderful. And then when I come into the ballpark, I just look at pitches all day long, too." Schroeder is using that pitch-watching acumen to get on base more than half the time he's come to the plate so far this year.

The European League is a more primitive grouping, featuring players who hadn't even heard of the game until a couple years ago. Witness Kristian "Aurochs" Eckhardt, the strapping 6'2" left fielder for the Berlin Teutonic Knights. "After twenty years of hitting on nails with my hammer, the baseball is easy and I am good at it," he said. Aurochs, named after a now-extinct species of extra-large cow, hit 3 of his league-leading 4 homeruns last month, adding a .361 batting average and collecting 5 hits in one game against the Rome Cardinals on May 24.

Commonwealthers Share Pitcher of the Month

British citizens are extra proud this month after seeing Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballist Bernard Thivierge and Freddie Turvill of the London Monarchs shared Pitcher of the Month honors for the month of May. Thivierge started the month in the Mounted Baseballists' bullpen but emerged as their top moundsman, collecting a 6-1 record and a 2.13 ERA. Turvill rebounded from a 2-3 April to become just plain unhittable, allowing 46 base knocks in 57 innings, thanks in part to a 20/10 strikeout to walk ratio. "To be perfectly honest, I'm just happy that we took the award from the Frenchies," said Turville, referring to Joel Lemoine's April POTY title.

Ilia Akbash Says Capitalism "His Thing", Defects To London

As if the month could not begin any better for the London Monarchs, today they announced that disgruntled Moscow Proletariat CF Ilia Akbash had defected from his team to join their squad. Akbash has not been hitting well in limited playing time but his issues run deeper than that. "I am hearing that they are speaking of renaming my beloved Petrograd after that Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin. Some things you can just not stand for." Akbash reports to the team effective today. The move comes at a very opportune time; just 3 days earlier, London heard that Opening Day LF and Euro League stolen bases leader Byron Feveryear would miss the next 7 to 8 weeks with a strained hamstring muscle.

[Syd Thrift]

All right, so it's time for the draft and that means another overly complicated metric! Draft order will be determined by three criteria: population, government type, and culture. Population is what it says; however, I am using ordinals rather than direct numbers so that China doesn't get to draft first every single year. Government type is equally important: the stronger the central government, the more attention the country can focus on baseball. That means that dictatorships, kingdoms, and the like will be rated above republics, which are rated above parliamentary democracies (the separation of the Presidency from the legislature giving the leader in question more leeway), which are in turn rated above states in anarchy or going through revolutions. Finally, there's a culture rating which initially is set up more or less arbitrarily but for every cultural event that happens to a country in a year, they will gain or lose a ranking in this criterion.

Why is this meaningful? I've been using the free agent pool as a general pool of talent for teams that, due to injury or whatever, are just plain out of players at a given permission. That ends with the draft, so draftees of smaller-rostered clubs will very likely be playing right away. Additionally, teams get to choose from their own population the first two rounds of the draft and then from everyone else that's available afterwards. Just to make things look right to myself, I then go in and edit player names, countries of origin, and ethnicities to reflect their team.

The long and short of it is... here's the draft order for 1919:

1. New York
2. Tokyo
3. Cincinnati
4. Paris
5. Rome
6. Berlin
7. Vienna
8. Shanghai
9. Chicago
10. Madrid
11. US Army
12. London
13. Mexico City
14. Moscow
15. Amsterdam
16. Royal Canadians

Sorry, Canada! Somebody had to be last.

[Syd Thrift]

June 1 - Large scale protests in Paris and Ohio lead to arrests. No LoN players are involved, despite the latter being localized to an area right near the Cincinnati Reds' place of practice.

June 2 - The May Fourth Movement launches in Peking. No Shanghai players are involved directly but it is considered a major cultural event.

June 3 - A general strike occurs in Winnipeg, but no Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists are involved.

June 11 - UCLA is founded (cultural event for Cincinnati, the westernmost US franchise).

June 14 - Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested/confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil (cultural event for England and Germany).

[Syd Thrift]

June 16: US Congress approves the 19th Amendment, which would grant universal suffrage (cultural event for all 3 US clubs).

June 22: John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (they land at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the next day). CULTURAL EVENT FOR CANADA TAKE THAT AMERICANS

June 23: Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juarez. When the battle is taken to the US side of the border, the US Cavalry becomes involved. To prevent misuse of the Tesla/Einstein Machine, the following players are suspended:

US Army
----------
SP Steve Parker (7-6, 5.11 ERA)
C Palmer Hartley (.308, 0 HR, 20 RBI)
OF Clyde Daniel (.202, 0 HR, 10 RBI)
CF Rick Chandler (reservist)

Mexico City
-----------
SP Alberto Corona (8-6, 3.48 ERA)
MR Juan Jaramillo (0-1, 4.25 ERA)
2B Juan Ruiz (reservist)
3B Gilberto Lopez (.318, 1 HR, 14 RBI)
SS Nelson Ramirez (.264, 1 HR, 42 RBI)
SS Victor Ramirez (reservist)

June 26 - Germany is repelled at the Battle of Wenden against Estonia. No ballplayers are involved.

June 29 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I. France just can't help but to appropriate one more of Germany's players: SP Urbanus Gruppe (10-6, 3.12 ERA). "This should bolster the greatness of the French while continuing to make the Germans pay for their aggression", said GM/French PM Georges Clemenceau.

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

June 11 - UCLA is founded (cultural event for Cincinnati, the westernmost US franchise).

Ohio is west of Illinois? Whoah. Say it ain't so.

Good read. I'll be watching with interest.

[Syd Thrift]

Ugh. Good catch. I won't pillory myself too much but Chicago, being an all-black team, is in a special position and it's very easy to not think of them as "American".

Thanks for the kind words; I'll leave more 23 skidoo references in your own dynasty.

[Syd Thrift]

The league file's been updated here.

Canadians, Vienna Lead Team of the Month Clubs

America/Asia Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
RC Mounted Baseballists	46	25	.648	-	40-31	6	22-15	24-10	4-3	16-8	81	L1	8-2
Mexico City Aztecs	44	28	.611	2.5	42-30	2	20-13	24-15	3-1	14-9		W4	8-2
Tokyo Rising Sun	40	34	.541	7.5	41-33	-1	19-22	21-12	5-5	7-7		L4	3-7
New York Giants		37	34	.521	9.0	35-36	2	21-17	16-17	2-4	7-5		L2	2-8
USA Baseball Engineers	35	37	.486	11.5	36-36	-1	13-20	22-17	5-4	8-15		W2	5-5
Cincinnati Reds		31	40	.437	15.0	33-38	-2	16-17	15-23	2-1	7-10		W2	6-4
Chicago Defenders	29	43	.403	17.5	33-39	-4	17-21	12-22	2-1	9-12		L2	4-6
Shanghai Dragons	25	46	.352	21.0	27-44	-2	8-26	17-20	1-5	10-12		W1	3-7

European League Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Vienna Meisterflauten	41	31	.569	-	41-31	0	18-14	23-17	3-8	15-13	82	W1	6-4
Amsterdam Admirals	38	32	.543	2.0	33-37	5	18-15	20-17	2-2	11-5		W3	5-5
Paris Revolutions	37	33	.529	3.0	36-34	1	20-16	17-17	5-1	11-13		W1	5-5
Moscow Proletariat	35	36	.493	5.5	37-34	-2	16-17	19-19	4-2	10-10		L1	7-3
Rome Cardinals		36	37	.493	5.5	35-38	1	12-22	24-15	3-2	12-8		W1	5-5
London Monarchs		35	37	.486	6.0	39-33	-4	23-18	12-19	2-3	6-12		L1	6-4
Berlin Teutonic Knights	32	38	.457	8.0	35-35	-3	16-21	16-17	3-6	10-16		L4	3-7
Madrid Matadors		32	42	.432	10.0	29-45	3	17-23	15-19	6-4	14-12		L2	3-7

It's a new month, and a new team has emerged as the cream of the American/Asian crop. This time it's the Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists, led by Pitcher of the Month Maxandre "Grizzly Man" Lavoie. The Mounted Baseballists were 19-7 for the month. Meanwhile, last month's heroes the Tokyo Rising Sun dipped to 3rd after a disastrous 11-17 showing in the last 30 days. They lost their ace pitcher Masahiro Uenohara for the season and maybe forever to a torn rotator cuff. This doesn't project to be the last player the warlike Japanese will lose prematurely but... it is the first.

Races for .400, 30 Wins Heat Up

With the season nearly halfway over, what better things are there to do but see who has a shot at breaking the coveted .400 mark among League of Nationeers? Seeing who might achieve 30 victories, that's what!

Batting		AB	R	H	BA
Sato, JPN	298	51	116	.389
Lenyashin, USSR	291	54	113	.388
Dumoulin, FRA	283	39	102	.360
C. Davis, USA	281	42	101	.359
Perrel, UK	279	53	100	.358
Bunch, NY	305	60	108	.354
Bernard, FRA	276	36	 95	.369
Vargas, MEX	276	42	 95	.344
Pazzi, ITA	279	43	 95	.341

Wins		 W-L	IP	ERA
Calzolai, ITA	14-4	144.2	2.49
C. Diaz, MEX	12-3	141.0	3.13
Lemoine, FRA	12-4	149.0	2.05
Lavoie, CAN	12-5	151.0	2.44
Thivierge, CAN	11-1	105.0	1.97
Daly, NY	11-2	139.0	3.04
Gruppe, FRA	11-6	139.0	2.91
Ishida, JPN	10-3	126.1	3.13
Cyr, CAN	10-4	129.1	3.90
Knaus, AUS	10-6	147.2	2.50
Jones, USA	10-8	140.2	3.14

Babbage Machine Rates Top Players At Each Position

Whoever said that a "computer" could not live in its mom's basement? The wonders of technology never cease to amaze us, and this device, which purports to divine the top players at each of the major positions, doesn't, um, cease either. We are frankly skeptical of the whole "computer" thing; to be honest, we think it's going to come out to be similar to that "Turkish chess player" hoax that we were taken in by so many years ago. But let the computer give its ratings...

Catcher: Laurent Garnier, US Baseball Engineers (.287, 1, 33, 0). On loan from the Revolutions, whose own catcher is nothing to sneeze at, Garnier is a big part of why this team is almost at .500 despite being predicted to finish dead last in the league.

First Base: Tim Kinch, Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists (.330, 2, 19, 0). Although he's missed 8 weeks of the season so far with a torn muscle in his leg, Kinch is the man in the "computer"s favorite for this position. We would like to point out that when we "accidentally" spilled hot coffee onto the "computer", it screamed out like a little girl.

Second Base: Jonathan Simon, Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists (.294, 1, 42, 8). It is said that Canadians enjoy a good constitutional after a hearty meal. Jonathan Simon has taken that to a new extreme. Virtually every other at bat, he enjoys a good constitutional to first base.

Third Base: MacMillan Dwywy, London Monarchs (oh don't bother). Dwywy has had 26 at bats on the season and has played all of 9 games at the hot corner for the Monarchs. What's more, he's Irish. The "computer" is broken. It is a broken little girl.

Shortstop: Orrin Perrel, London Monarchs (.358, 0, 37, 1). Well, at least the "computer" isn't spitting these names out totally at random. We agree with this choice. Perrell is a great hitter, something you don't always see at the "short stop". We think Perrel gets his prowess by towering over the other shortstops in the league. At 6 feet in height he really should be called a longstop.

Left Field: Tian-Yun Quiao, Shanghai Dragons (umm.). 34 at bats and another hurt leg? We think that maybe the "computer" accidentally mistook the words "torn thigh muscle" to mean "high batting average."

Center Field: Terry Schroeder, New York Giants (.372, 1, 45, 7). An American this good makes us highly suspicious. What, exactly, was Schroeder doing before the USA got involved in the Great War, anyway? And if it was baseball, why wasn't he in the Brigade? Schroeder is mum about this. He's mum about a lot of things, actually. Except how pretty pigeons are to look at. On second thought, maybe we've figured out why he wasn't drafted.

Right Field: Hirofumi Sato, Tokyo Rising Sun (.389, 3, 38. 1). His name means "Key Hit Gload" in his native language. That is not true at all and we don't know why we just typed it out. It looks kind of stupid on paper, doesn't it?

Pitcher: Kumimatsu Yoshida, Tokyo Rising Sun (2-6, 3.86). Really? Rome has a guy with 14 wins and this is the "computer"s choice? Yoshida doesn't even have a leg injury that we know of. Let's see how well the "computer" does locked up in the closet without food or drink. You don't like that very much, do you, "computer"?

[Syd Thrift]

Not a lot went on this month according to teh wiki...

July 3 - The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship. I'd count this as a cultural event, but a. a dirigible? Really? b. Canada basically beat you to it (and with an actual plane nonetheless), and c. England needs bigger events than this to get points.

July 15 - Policemen in London and Liverpool strike for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed. No London Monarchs are involved.

[Syd Thrift]

Note: I'm adding a fourth criterion for draft order called Heritage in which teams will be allotted points for reaching certain goals during the season. For example, France and England are historical rivals so whoever wins the season series will get points. This emulates fan interest, which leads to a larger draft pool, which leads to better players. Also, adding this stuff allows me, while in God mode, to role-play the teams into doing more than just playing with whatever they're given. More to come on that soon...

July 20 - The Green Bay Packers are founded. That has to be a culture point for somebody. I'll give it to Cincy.

July 22 - The Bolshevik fleet, at Kronstadt near Petrograd, is destroyed by British aircraft and torpedo boats in a combined operation. London loses a reserve pitcher for 30 days but the real damage is caused to Moscow when it is learned that starting 3B Yegor Ahba (.259, 1, 34, 31) was on one of the sunken ships and is presumed lost. "Mark my words," said Moscow GM Vladimir Lenin, "the English capitalist pig-dogs will pay for this. Oh, they will pay."

July 23 - Afghanistan declares independence from the UK. -1 culture to England for not controlling their colonies!

July 24 - First Silesian Uprising occurs against Germany. No German ballplayers are involved.

July 31 - American Communist Party established. New York Giant SP Scott Ellis (7-2, 3.67) defects to the Soviet Union!

[Syd Thrift]

You can take a gander at the league here.

Extreme Parity in Europe, A/A All But Locked Up

America/Asia Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Mexico City Aztecs	61	38	.616	-	61-38	0	29-16	32-22	6-1	17-14	57	W2	6-4
RC Mounted Baseballists	60	37	.619	-	55-42	5	31-21	29-16	7-4	20-11	58	L2	4-6
Tokyo Rising Sun	55	46	.545	7.0	56-45	-1	24-24	31-22	6-7	10-11		W2	6-4
New York Giants		50	50	.500	11.5	47-53	3	27-20	23-30	3-5	13-10		L1	6-4
USA Baseball Engineers	45	53	.459	15.5	46-52	-1	21-31	24-22	6-6	12-19		L2	4-6
Cincinnati Reds		45	55	.450	16.5	46-54	-1	24-21	21-34	4-4	11-16		L1	6-4
Chicago Defenders	40	58	.408	20.5	44-54	-4	23-30	17-28	2-5	11-14		W1	4-6
Shanghai Dragons	39	58	.402	21.0	41-56	-2	20-33	19-25	3-5	16-15		W1	4-6

European League Standings

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff	Home	Away	XInn	1Run	M#	Streak	Last10
Vienna Meisterflauten	56	44	.560	-	55-45	1	27-27	29-17	6-9	22-15	52	W6	7-3
London Monarchs		53	47	.530	3.0	54-46	-1	35-23	18-24	3-4	16-16		L3	5-5
Paris Revolutions	51	47	.520	4.0	51-47	0	25-17	26-30	7-1	16-21		W4	7-3
Berlin Teutonic Knights	48	49	.495	6.5	52-45	-4	16-27	32-22	6-7	13-20		L6	4-6
Moscow Proletariat	49	50	.495	6.5	51-48	-2	20-24	29-26	4-4	14-15		W1	5-5
Rome Cardinals		49	51	.490	7.0	46-54	3	22-31	27-20	3-2	19-11		L1	3-7
Madrid Matadors		47	55	.461	10.0	42-60	5	27-32	20-23	6-6	16-17		W3	6-4
Amsterdam Admirals	44	54	.449	11.0	42-56	2	19-25	25-29	2-4	11-12		L2	4-6

With around a third of the season left to go, it looks like the American/Asian League playoff picture is just about figured out. Barring a major collapse from the Royal Canadian Mounted Baseballists or the Mexico City Aztecs, the only thing that's left to decide is who's going to have homefield advantage for the A/A championship. The Canadians traded for that Dwywy Irish kid that the "computer" was so high about and he hit over .500 for the month. Maybe we'll need to give the "computer" some ice cream. Meanwhile, the Mexicans relied on their front-line pitching; Jose Gonzalez went 7-0 in 7 starts to take the A/A Pitcher of the Month Award while staff ace Carlos Diaz delivered a 2.09 ERA for the period.

The European League is still very tightly packed, although the Vienna Meisterflauten are looking like they're just beginning to pull away. Their star lately has been LF Alexander Schrattenthaler, who went from hitting under .250 2 consecutive months and being in danger of losing his job to winning the league's Batter of the Month award, batting .452 and pounding 11 doubles. "I vas sad for a vhile because our team name 'meisterflauten' doesn't mean anything in Austrian," he told our reporters. "But then in July I just thought to myself, 'hey, don't get sad, get mad. Maybe if ve prove ve are the best of the league, ve vill get to change our name to something that makes sense."


New Baseball Means Weird Stats
A look at the team stats from around the league:

America/Asia Batting

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	AVG	HR	R	AB	H	2B	3B	BB	K	OBP	SLG	OPS	SB
Mexico City Aztecs	61	38	.616	-	.300	9	566	3545	1064	227	30	286	183	.353	.389	.741	47
RC Mounted Baseballists	60	37	.619	-	.283	18	551	3432	971	247	29	386	129	.359	.388	.747	46
Tokyo Rising Sun	55	46	.545	7.0	.294	21	590	3686	1082	200	23	320	160	.351	.377	.729	49
New York Giants		50	50	.500	11.5	.295	17	583	3599	1062	201	32	303	175	.352	.383	.735	45
USA Baseball Engineers	45	53	.459	15.5	.290	12	551	3581	1037	233	21	292	145	.346	.376	.723	83
Cincinnati Reds		45	55	.450	16.5	.287	12	522	3558	1021	237	26	317	225	.349	.378	.728	31
Chicago Defenders	40	58	.408	20.5	.285	14	503	3475	989	222	36	284	184	.341	.381	.722	43
Shanghai Dragons	39	58	.402	21.0	.274	11	429	3431	941	211	30	223	279	.323	.363	.686	46

America/Asia Totals

Team		W	L	PCT	GB	AVG	HR	R	AB	H	2B	3B	BB	K	OBP	SLG	OPS	SB
TOTALS						.289	114	4295	28307	8167	1778	227	2411	1480	.347	.379	.726	390

European League Batting

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	AVG	HR	R	AB	H	2B	3B	BB	K	OBP	SLG	OPS	SB
Vienna Meisterflauten	56	44	.560	-	.273	25	554	3580	977	219	29	303	239	.331	.371	.703	58
London Monarchs		53	47	.530	3.0	.284	20	545	3464	985	252	19	345	159	.352	.385	.737	67
Paris Revolutions	51	47	.520	4.0	.293	22	520	3515	1030	234	26	238	175	.338	.393	.732	44
Berlin Teutonic Knights	48	49	.495	6.5	.290	18	539	3505	1015	247	49	270	171	.345	.403	.748	104
Moscow Proletariat	49	50	.495	6.5	.296	14	533	3565	1055	208	25	287	191	.352	.380	.732	63
Rome Cardinals		49	51	.490	7.0	.266	7	455	3498	932	209	25	259	208	.318	.346	.665	57
Madrid Matadors		47	55	.461	10.0	.264	10	419	3519	930	232	33	219	290	.316	.357	.673	78
Amsterdam Admirals	44	54	.449	11.0	.273	13	440	3447	942	180	17	243	217	.325	.347	.671	31

European League Totals

Team	W	L	PCT	GB	AVG	HR	R	AB	H	2B	3B	BB	K	OBP	SLG	OPS	SB
TOTALS					.280	129	4005	28093	7866	1781	223	2164	1650	.335	.373	.708	502

]

America/Asia Pitching
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	ERA	S	IP	HA	R	ER	HRA	BB	K	OAVG	CG	SHO
Mexico City Aztecs	61	38	.616	-	3.26	8	881.0	936	439	319	5	263	159	.271	56	5
RC Mounted Baseballists	60	37	.619	-	3.61	4	877.1	1013	479	352	6	239	206	.292	49	6
Tokyo Rising Sun	55	46	.545	7.0	3.69	9	920.1	1015	521	377	10	285	233	.281	47	3
New York Giants		50	50	.500	11.5	4.58	9	885.2	1070	621	451	13	414	154	.298	34	3
USA Baseball Engineers	45	53	.459	15.5	4.50	7	889.1	980	587	445	30	421	165	.281	39	3
Cincinnati Reds		45	55	.450	16.5	4.15	3	883.0	1093	567	407	10	251	197	.301	50	2
Chicago Defenders	40	58	.408	20.5	4.26	5	874.2	1050	568	414	12	274	169	.293	43	1
Shanghai Dragons	39	58	.402	21.0	4.04	5	867.1	1010	513	389	28	264	197	.292	46	2

America/Asia Totals
Team	W	L	PCT	GB	ERA	S	IP	HA	R	ER	HRA	BB	K	OAVG	CG	SHO
TOTALS					4.01	50	7078.2	8167	4295	3154	114	2411	1480	.289	364	25

European League Pitching

Team			W	L	PCT	GB	ERA	S	IP	HA	R	ER	HRA	BB	K	OAVG	CG	SHO
Vienna Meisterflauten	56	44	.560	-	3.57	5	914.2	1017	496	363	10	230	216	.281	49	4
London Monarchs		53	47	.530	3.0	3.28	9	891.0	979	495	325	12	196	260	.274	44	4
Paris Revolutions	51	47	.520	4.0	3.82	3	873.0	943	496	371	18	304	184	.277	52	2
Berlin Teutonic Knights	48	49	.495	6.5	3.68	8	880.1	993	493	360	19	274	177	.284	45	2
Moscow Proletariat	49	50	.495	6.5	3.83	9	887.2	992	510	378	15	302	196	.287	36	3
Rome Cardinals		49	51	.490	7.0	3.64	9	895.2	982	497	362	19	278	204	.278	53	4
Madrid Matadors		47	55	.461	10.0	3.69	1	917.0	956	505	376	24	356	217	.270	50	3
Amsterdam Admirals	44	54	.449	11.0	3.65	7	868.1	1004	513	352	12	224	196	.288	46	2

European League Totals
Team	W	L	PCT	GB	ERA	S	IP	HA	R	ER	HRA	BB	K	OAVG	CG	SHO
TOTALS					3.65	51	7127.2	7866	4005	2887	129	2164	1650	.280	375	24

America/Asia Fielding
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	PO	A	TC	DP	TP	E	PCT
Mexico City Aztecs	61	38	.616	-	2643	1443	4271	84	0	185	.957
RC Mounted Baseballists	60	37	.619	-	2631	1434	4233	63	0	168	.960
Tokyo Rising Sun	55	46	.545	7.0	2760	1499	4454	84	0	195	.956
New York Giants		50	50	.500	11.5	2656	1359	4233	77	1	218	.948
USA Baseball Engineers	45	53	.459	15.5	2667	1314	4147	71	0	166	.960
Cincinnati Reds		45	55	.450	16.5	2649	1454	4309	60	0	206	.952
Chicago Defenders	40	58	.408	20.5	2624	1476	4329	65	0	229	.947
Shanghai Dragons	39	58	.402	21.0	2601	1302	4076	69	0	173	.958

America/Asia Totals
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	PO	A	TC	DP	TP	E	PCT
TOTALS							21231	11281	34052	573	1	1540	.955

European League Fielding
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	PO	A	TC	DP	TP	E	PCT
Vienna Meisterflauten	56	44	.560	-	2743	1525	4458	86	0	190	.957
London Monarchs		53	47	.530	3.0	2672	1366	4292	68	0	254	.941
Paris Revolutions	51	47	.520	4.0	2619	1255	4050	66	0	176	.957
Berlin Teutonic Knights	48	49	.495	6.5	2639	1339	4152	70	1	174	.958
Moscow Proletariat	49	50	.495	6.5	2661	1423	4234	81	0	150	.965
Rome Cardinals		49	51	.490	7.0	2685	1334	4191	58	0	172	.959
Madrid Matadors		47	55	.461	10.0	2751	1313	4250	86	0	186	.956
Amsterdam Admirals	44	54	.449	11.0	2604	1327	4136	56	0	205	.950

European League Totals
Team			W	L	PCT	GB	PO	A	TC	DP	TP	E	PCT
TOTALS							21374	10882	33763	571	1	1507	.955

We sat down and asked league uber-commissioner Markus Heinsohn Sr. why the league totals are so far off from where American baseball was in 1916. "The fielding is easy to explain," he said. "You have all these people who are new to the game, of course there are going to be more errors and unearned runs and passed balls and so on.

"As for the rest, the rumors that we are using a high-bounce superball that is inflating the statistics is false. I don't know why you decided to bring this idea up to me as it is insulting. The American baseball leagues were about to increase offensively as well. I could show you my charts and projections on this but they are private. If they got into the wrong hands, who knows what could happen. In fact... from here on out, I need you to speak to the regular commissioner. And burn all copies of this interview. The public should probably not even know that there is an uber-commissioner." (why is this still in print? You guys need to delete this and go interview the regular commish. - ed)