Bears Vs. Bulls League

[pauwoo]

I’ve been playing around with some of the database XML files (world_default, nickname, and schools) recently… adding a new country (Fakelandia), turning Texas and California into independent nations (plus tweaking the school file so that it will work with the changes), and updating the nicknames file to only include options that I have saved logos for. I’ve also added a ton of cities to St. Lucia… really just futzing around in the files to see what I can do with them. All of which brings me to this…



Bears Vs. Bulls League

Housekeeping…

• This is a 2 sub-league, 6-teams per league that plays 84-games per season.
• I made the schedule such that each team plays the clubs in their league 12 times and each club in the other league 4x. The interleague games all take place in the middle of the season with the 1st SL hosting each of the 6, 2-game series over a two-week period before flipping that during the next two.
• I have the league set to no foreigners allowed, based on team nationality, and the amateur draft pool origin is set such that 50% of the players come from Cali and the other 50% from Texas.
• I’m generating Intl Scouting Discoveries from Mexico, using the Second Nationality function to get around my no foreigners allowed setting – it’s the only way I could figure out to make it such that no Californians would play on the Texas teams, and vice versa. I had to tweak the nation editor for Mexico to make this work… I did a 50/50 split and left the “use names” box unchecked. As I move along, I’ll likely add additional countries – just want to make sure it works properly first.
• Other rules… No DH in either league, 26-man roster, no minors and no limit on the RR, draft is set for November 5th each year, draft pick trading is allowed, financials and stats output set to 1986 (with league total stats locked and automatic adjustment of league total modifiers checked), we’re doing a 4-man rotation with the rotation mode set to ‘start highest rested’, and I have enabled the automatic evolution functionality though ‘expansion’, ‘more/less offense’, ‘more/less pitching’ is unchecked – everything else is fair game.
• The logos come from all over the place… I made the kits & caps using justafan’s dope software. When I set up the league, I randomized the cities and nicknames a few times (it is weird that the third time you select random it goes back to whatever it was the first time) and just went with what I got, hence the Fort Worth Yetis… whose kit has a Sketchers logo – I’d go back and update it with the Yeti Coolers logo, but I’m too lazy.
• For our purposes here, I’ll not be GMing any club, just going to follow along and post updates.

[pauwoo]

The 1986 Season calls for a three-horse race in each league with San Diego, Sacramento, and Fresno battling it out for the right to represent the California League in the BVB Championship Series (patent pending) while Arlington, Corpus Christi, and Fort Worth do the same in the Texas League.

[pauwoo]

And, yes… you did see a 42-year-old second baseman rated 3rd overall for position players.

[pauwoo]

The very first game ever contested in the Bears Vs. Bulls league would be played in the Texas League as the Fort Worth Yetis opened their 1986 campaign with a hard-earned road win over the resilient Woodpeckers of Austin… box is attached...


And, for you Jeopardy fans out there, a bit of Inaugural Opening Day trivia… LF Berny Branzuela (pictured), of the Fresno Axemen, put two balls over the fence against the Sacramento Norsemen to lead his team to a 12-4 victory at home, becoming the first BvB player in history to hit multiple homers in a game.

[pauwoo]

SP Ayden LaRosiere, of the Corpus Christi Bombers, became the 1st pitcher to throw a complete-game, shutout in BvB history… Ayden allowed 7 hits, doled out a free pass, and fanned 7 over 9 innings pitched as his club bested the Dallas Ramblers by a score of 2-0 to improve to 2-0 so far this season.

[pauwoo]

CF Matt Andrews, of the Riverside Griffins, went yard three times, a new league record, as his club smashed the San Diego Spirits, in San Diego, by a score of 9-6. For the game, Andrews finished 5-for-5 with 2 TANKS, 6 RBI, and 3 runs… kids got something snappy, that’s for sure.

[pauwoo]

So much for the preseason predictions in the California League… preseason darlings, the San Diego Spirits, have sputtered off the line while Sacramento and Fremont battle it out at the top of the pops even as the Splashers find themselves in something of a freefall, finishing 3-7 over their last 10 tilts to close out the month.

Sacramento is getting it done so far on the strength of their pitching with SP Karl Marker leading the way at 5-0 with a 1.49 ERA, and SP Johnny Carr recording 39 K’s for the month. They also boast the top HR hitter in the CL as LF Lonnie Santagata has shot out of a cannon to start the ’86 campaign with 9 JACKS so far.




Meanwhile, in the Texas League, no less than 4 clubs are within striking distance of the throne as the Arlington Barbarians, at 15-10 so far, are trying to keep Garland, Corpus Christi, and Fort Worth away from the gate in the early going. It’s early, but if Arlington can keep it up, they’ll be hard to beat… they’re looking mighty balanced so far with the 2nd ranked offense and top ranked staff in the TL through May.

[pauwoo]

Just poking around in the sortable stats before motoring through the second month of the season… so far we’ve had 6 Grand Slams during the first month of our inaugural season. Here’s who did the honors…

RF Haden Jenkins (Fremont Splashers, 5/8)
SS Caleb Di Marco (Garland Shiners, 5/9)
LF Timmy Conrad (Dallas Ramblers, 5/14)
RF Dawson Costello (Arlington Barbarians, 5/21)
SP Reggie Oberlander (Arlington Barbarians, 5/25)
1B Jeremiah Burns (Corpus Christi Bombers, 5/27)

We’ll peep Haden by virtue of being our league’s first to do it and Reggie because he’s a pitcher who had little business doing it in the first place…

[pauwoo]

What a difference a month makes… after going 3-7 to close out May, the Splashers would have none of that in June as they finished the month at 21-7 while Sacramento, who they had been battling for the top spot in the CL last month, finished the month at 9-19, sinking like a stone down to 4th on the table. As we head into the last full month of the season, it’s difficult not to peg the Splashers as the sure-fire pennant winner in the CL, where they’ve opened a 10-game lead over the next closest team, Modesto, who find themselves in 2nd despite sporting asub-.500, 26-27 record thus far…




Things are bit tighter in the TL where Arlington is working hard to stave off challenges from Corpus Christi (2 GB) and Fort Worth (4 GM) as we enter the final full month of the season… Garland, who had been in the mix after a solid start in May, has dropped off of late and now find themselves in 5th place at 24-29, in the midst of a 3-game skid, and wondering where it all went wrong after posting a 10-18 record in June.

[pauwoo]

In the CL, the math says that Fremont’s magic number is 3… you’d have to be on magic mushrooms to not know that getting that trio of wins is all but a foregone conclusion. In the TL, though, things aren’t that simple.

[pauwoo]

Garland with 0.2% of a chance to right the ship and sail into our inaugural playoffs… I’ve bought lottery tickets on less of a shot…

[pauwoo]

In the end, they were who we though they were… the Fremont Splashers ran roughshod over the CL, tuning up their competition and finishing off the regular season by winning their league with 13 games in hand.




And, while their road was a little rougher than the one the Splashers traveled on their way to the playoffs, the Arlington Barbarians managed to fend off a worthy challenge from Garland in the end, blazing a path to the playoffs on a 48-35 record to win their league by 5 hard-fought games. Arlington is the favorite; they’ll be a tough out for the Splashers… you heard it here first folks…

[pauwoo]

A quick look at the clubs representing their respective leagues in the inaugral Bears Vs. Bulls Championship Series...

Smart money is on Arlington...

[pauwoo]

[pauwoo]

The Arlington Barbarians ran roughshod over the Fremont Splashers in game one, on the road... smallball style with no extra base hits.

[pauwoo]

Arlington does it again, this time on the back of Channing Romano's 3 dingers and Keith Ward's 3 two-baggers... Up 2-0 now and headed to Texas - this thing may already be over.

[pauwoo]

Fremont finds a way to stave off complete embarassment as SP Michael Mikulecky went the distance for the Splashers during a narrow, 1-0 win for the representative from California.

[pauwoo]

Arlington gets back on the horse, pushes Fremont to the brink in another pitchers duel.

[pauwoo]

Arlington takes the crown with a come from behind victory at home to take our inaugural series, 4 games to 1. There was also a nifty little OF Assist DP in this one... always a treat.

https://streamable.com/w2mqlx

[pauwoo]

California League


Texas League