The Longball League is back for 2013! The league sports 12 teams this season. If the league gets any bigger, I may have to hold winter meetings. Let's have a great year with a pennant race that goes down to the wire.
Division placement of teams was by random draw. Here's the results...
East
Alpha Dogs
Invisible Hands
Hot Shots
San Pedro Sea Monkeys
Tatooine Womp Rats
Thunder Mountain Lightning
West
AngelSox
Eclairs
Oxford House Elves
Sierra Vista Coachwhips
Tax Dodgers
Taylor Run Red Foxes
Playoff Structure
The Champion of each division will make the playoffs.
After the division championships are decided, two wild card teams will be chosen. The two wild card teams will be the two teams with the highest remaining point totals regardless of division.
The first round of the playoffs will run from September 1 through September 14 with the Longball League World Series running from September 15 through September 29.
This Week's Three Trivial Things: Opening Day Edition
Eclairs
Oxford House Elves
Sierra Vista Coachwhips
Tax Dodgers
Taylor Run Red Foxes
Playoff Structure
The Champion of each division will make the playoffs.
After the division championships are decided, two wild card teams will be chosen. The two wild card teams will be the two teams with the highest remaining point totals regardless of division.
The first round of the playoffs will run from September 1 through September 14 with the Longball League World Series running from September 15 through September 29.
This Week's Three Trivial Things: Opening Day Edition
1. A funny thing happened to the New York Giants on opening Day in 1907. The New York Giants ended up forfeiting their game with the Philadelphia Phillies when the fans at the Polo Grounds wouldn't stop throwing snowballs onto the field of play.
2. The fans truly saw red that day. Back in 1946, the Boston Braves gave their outfield seats a fresh coat of red paint just in time for opening day. Unfortunately, the paint didn't dry in a timely manner. A couple thousand angry fans with red paint all over them stormed the front office. The Braves ended up paying the cleaning bills for the angry fans and even took out an ad in the newspaper to apologize for the incident.
3. With the Houston Astros moving over to the American League West, the first inter league opening day game will be played this year. The Angels will take on the Reds in Cincinnati on April 1.
Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1984 Topps #707
Back in 1984, The powers that be at Topps decided that they would create a subset of cards that featured the active career stat leaders in the NL and AL. I think it was a pretty good idea. Old card #707 here features three Hall of Famers. The Express, Lefty, and Tom Terrific came into the 1984 season with 10,658 Ks between 'em. The trio would finish with an amazing 13,490 Ks. Remember folks, leader cards are a great way to pick up a load of Hall of Famers for a cheap price.
Old Sporting News Quote of the Week
This quote comes from an Ad by Monsanto in the April 5, 1969 edition of The Sporting News,
"Today's AstroTurf, means the same natural ball bounce and sure footing in all weather. It gives the fan the good game he paid to see. So you might say that AstroTurf was created to make baseball's second hundred years even better than the first."
Ummm, Yeah right.
Until Next week folks, remember to hit behind the baserunner.
-The Commissioner
