Michigan Town Ball

[stevem810]

Inspired by learning of the existence of the multitude of teams in 'Town Ball' that are based in the state of Minnesota, I decided to create a scaled down version featuring similar smaller towns in Michigan.

The year is 1980.
The Upper Peninsula will have two divisions of 4 teams.
The Lower Peninsula structure will be identical.
54 Game Season with division winners meeting in a 7 game series.
The winner advances to the 'State of Michigan Town Ball Championship', another 7 game series.
Yearly All Star Contest pitting the UP vs LP

Three games will be played per week, Friday to Sunday. These players have 'day jobs' and play for free on the weekends. Local fans support their teams with a fervor that allows the clubs to pay for their uniforms and to maintain their fields. Some of the fields are in very unlikely locations, pastures, vacant lots, etc. But, most have lights and a small amount of seating. Local Sponsors frequently chip in to help the cause.

Players will not change teams. After all, this is their community that they play for and, unless they changed neighborhoods/cities, they will begin and end with the same ball club.

The player age will range from 15 to mid forties. Player Develpment rate is kicked up and Player Ageing is slowed down a tick, or two.

There will be no draft. Each year, in order to replace ageing/retiring players, some young Michigan H.S. players from the feeder league will be added.

Rosters are set to 20 with a reserve roster of 3. Injuries will be Very Low.

[progen]

If you would've made it 15 to the mid sixties, I would've applied. Interesting concept and I'll be following.

[stevem810]

The featured game for Opening Day, 1980 pitted the Ypsilanti Jack Rabbits against the Chelsea Vigilantes. This was a Lower Peninsula match up that featured two cities that are separated by 25 miles, yet an easy journey via I-94.

For the Jack Rabbits, the youngest starting players were 17 years old, Mike Buck and Justin Mills. The most senior player was the catcher, highly ranked Mike Carlson from Berkely, Mi., originally.

The Vigilantes have a 15 year old on their roster, young Jesse Sieracki a native of the Motor City. Jesse attends Chelsea High School and works at the Common Grill on the weekends, but only in the off-season.

22 year old SP Eric Correll stole the show as the visiting pitcher from Motown turned in a solid 8 innings without allowing a run. He had plenty of support from the two 17 year old Jack Rabbit fielders as they both went yard for Ypsi. The final score was the Jack Rabbits 5 and the hometown Vigilantes 0.

[stevem810]

These players define the age gap of the Michigan Town Ball baseball league.

Chris is on the reserve squad, is chomping at the bit to get his shot. He notices other teams with 15 year old players, and with his stuff, you can't blame him for asking the question, 'When?'

Chuck Kibbe, loves playing the game of baseball, so he's fighting the clock to stay with his passion. But, one year, 5 years, Kibbe says he's happy to finally see Town Ball launched and to be a part of the action.

editor note: Please ignore the salaries. Still working out the wrinkles. All players are unpaid.

[JaBurns]

Chris needs a little work on his defensive abilities before he can play with the men.

[Dark Horse]

Nice. i've sen some of the town ball movies. Good luck with this.

[stevem810]

The Grand Haven Waveriders are the only team to finish out the weekend with a perfect 3-0 record. Credit the lion's share of that record to the starting pitching, featuring a pair of mid thirties players and an 18 year old that was slotted in between the vets.

First the vets.
PHIL STOKE has only two pitches but he his fastball and slider to keep the Macinac Island Eclipse at bay. Stoke, less than stellar, allowed 5 hits and issued 4 walks in 7.1 IP, but allowed just 2 to score in the 4-2 Waverider win.
His infield turned 4 DP's.

PETER YORK, 36 yrs old, had just a slightly better outing than Stoke in the final game Sunday afternoon. Like Stoke, he logged 7.1 IP, allowed 6 hits, but just 2 base on balls.

ADRIAN BRUHAN, 18 year old born in Grand Rapids, some 40 miles east of Grand Haven, pitched the Saturday game and the kid was on. Eleven innings! 134 pitch count, as Grand Haven wins it 3-0.

The Waveriders travel to Whitefish Bay next week to take on the 1-2 Kingfishers. Mackanac Island will try and bounce back as they travel to the home of the Saugatuk Joes, located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The Joes went 2-1 this weekend.

[stevem810]

Jamal Williams hails from Dearborn, Michigan (I do, too) and is an outfielder for the Traverse City Bears. He is slotted in the #3 hole while patrolling CF. Williams hit .364 the first weekend.

The Bears will be counting on Jamal to provide leadership even though he is still 23. Many view him as the 'sparkplug' of the Bears. His motto, of 'seize the day' speaks volumes about the mindset Williams brings to TC.

A rough start (1-2) for TC, but they will hope to get well off the Paradise White Pines next weekend.

[JaBurns]

Traverse City going 1-2 on the opening weekend is unacceptable, who do I have to call about a young upstart pitching prospect will to relocate from Canada for a job?

[stevem810]

Here are the Standings for the first week of play.

No injuries

Bob Anderson of the Saugatak Joes leads the lead in OPS

John Lawson of (Chelsea Vigilantes) and Manny Mancivais (Zing's Z's) lead the league in hits

Nick Cairns (Paradise White Pines) and Jimmy Lee (Zing's Z's) racked up the most K's.

[stevem810]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Traverse City going 1-2 on the opening weekend is unacceptable, who do I have to call about a young upstart pitching prospect will to relocate from Canada for a job?

The league will be keeping a close eye on unscrupulous moves by any teams looking for an edge. At the same time, the Town Ball organization realizes that there may be some natural re-locations that take place in the scope of a players work life.

And, it could be interesting once the league has some history, if a few players did cross lines into the enemy camps.

[stevem810]

I took over the reins for Traverse City in the first game of the 3 day weekend in part to face off against one of the K leaders from the first week, 31 year old Nick Cairns, winner of the opening game last Friday, and secondly to familiarize myself with more teams observing their play.

Nick walked one and whiffed eight last week in going 8 innings on 103 PC.
This week, Cairns demonstrated both his control and K capacity as he didn't walk anyone and fanned 7. He gave up just 2 runs.

Those 2 runs were enough for the Bears who received a stellar performance from their #1 guy, Jesus Cortez who flattened his W/L record to 1-1. 16 year old Jesus threw an even 100 pitches holding the White Pines to just a single run. He gave up 3 walks and whiffed the same number.

Second sacker Chris King, struggling mightily this young season hitting a scant .063, delivered a solo 5th inning home run that put the Bears in the lead for good.

The Traverse City bullpen might be a strength for the ball club. Josh Rogers worked a scoreless 8th inning fanning 2, and the hightly touted 21 year old closer from Livonia, MI. pitched the 9th earning his first save. Danny 'Beefsteak' Williams has yielded one hit in 1.2 IP.

So, the Bears are now 2-2, while the home team White Pines slip to 1-3.

[JaBurns]

Nice league when Town Ball teams can have a dome for their home games.

[stevem810]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Nice league when Town Ball teams can have a dome for their home games.

The team was fined! No domes in the Town Ball league.

Ah, the pain of launching a new league. Tweaks abound, and the Town Ball League thanks the observant eagle eye of this reader!

[stevem810]

The Bears are in last, but, still show a .500 record.

[stevem810]

The Iron River Sea Gulls (Upper Peninsula) defeated the Grand Haven Waveriders (Lower Peninsula) to win the first Town Ball Championship. Both clubs led their respective leagues in total wins during the regular season and moved on to the finals after taking the LCS.

18 year old Mike 'Spoon' Buck led the LP in batting as the Ypsilanti Jack Rabbit hit .373.

30 year old Matt Jordan led all batters in the TB League with a .384 average playing for the Ironwood Mad Katz.

37 year old Phil Stoke dazzled both young and old alike as he used his veteran savy ways to cruise to a 14-1 record. The veteran from Waterford Township won the 1980 Pitcher of the Year Award.

[stevem810]

The Ironwood Mad Katz looked like they were going down to defeat for the first time in Season 2 as the 'run wild' Kingfishers were looking at a steady diet of 'green lights'.

But, backstop Jeremiah Haynes cut down 2/4 to keep the game in check until the big bats could fire up. Haynes, homered, and 30 year old Ashton Louks reached the left field seats twice, accounting for 3 ribbies. All told there were 4 dingers from the Mad Katz bats.

16 year old Ted Ball was not as sharp as his first outing, but, he pitched good enough to give the batters a chance.

557 fans turned up in Whitefish Bay to see the game.

37 year old veteran Jesse Young 0-2/ 1.69 ERA will try and stop the Katz on Saturday.

[stevem810]

Ironwood looked anything like an undefeated team in the first inning. Maybe they were nervous. When the CF (Cedar Della, 0 for 5) dropped an easy fly ball it opened the way for 3 unearned runs.

Ironwood wasn't finished booting the baseball, by a long shot. They committed 3 more errors giving them a total of 5 for the day. Somehow, thanks to a 2 run 8th, they tied the game and it went to extra innings.

The Mad Katz put up a 3 spot in the top of the 10th, and then had to hang on to a one run lead as the Kingfishers tallied two and had runners on 2nd and 3rd. But, Mike "Hellraiser" Tate got the final out for his 5th save of the season.

The Mad Katz are 9-0. Whitefish Bay slips to 3-5. The Kingfishers will get one more crack at the Mad Katz on Sunday.

[stevem810]

Could this be the ace of the Michigan Town League? He's only 19, but, he's getting results and projects to have so many weapons that it's hard to imagine that there will be another pitcher with this much upside.

Young Adrian is a major reason why the Waveriders have the second best record in the league. The team .228 B.A. is the lowest in the lower peninsula, and second lowest of the 16 ball clubs.

[stevem810]

How long will the perfect streak last? Hard to say. But, as long as Ashten Loucks keeps bashing extra base hits (he lead Town Ball in them last year) the odds stay high that it goes on for another game.

The Mad Katz won on Sunday and will return to their daytime jobs until next Friday when they will host Zing's Z's, named after a famous delicatessen/bakery/anything food company in Ann Arbor. The Z's knocked off the Whitecaps in extra innings so they are feeling good about themselves.

Ashten (his team mates call him 'Big Time') is hitting a cool .444 on the young season. He's a forest ranger during the week in the Ottawa National Forest where some years they receive upwards of 200" of yearly snowfall. The forest itself covers close to a million acres of land.