Week 21

Hey All,

There are now just six days left in the the Longball League regular season.  Where did the time go? Wasn't it just spring training yesterday? Here's what's up in the league this week.

Scoring Corrections
Last week I made two errors.
First, On the Inivsible Hands I credited 2 extra saves to Baltimore reliever J. Johnson.
Second, I gave Tax Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish one extra win.

Both errors have been fixed and the scores are correct this week.

Roster Moves

There were no moves made this week in the Longball League.

Let's Talk Playoffs

The regular season ends after the games of August 31, 2013 are completed.  At that point, I will calculate the point totals and playoff matchups will be set.

Divisional Playoff Round: (September 1-14)
Division Winner with highest point total v. Wild Card Team with the lowest point total
Division Winner with the lowest point total v. Wild Card Team with the highest point total

Longball League World Series (September 15-29)
Winner 1 of the DPR v. Winner 2 of the DPR

Roster Moves: each team will get one roster move per round.  Injury moves are allowed just like in the regular season.

Playoff Roster: The roster each playoff team has on the final day of the regular season will be their roster for the playoffs.

A note on the final day of the Longball League World Series.  That day is the final day of the MLB regular season. If MLB regular season extends for a day to break tie, then the LLWS will be extended a day as well.

Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1993 Takara Team Blue Wave #51 Ichiro Suzuki

A couple of days ago, Ichiro Suzuki notched his 4,000th hit in professional baseball.  Ichiro's total covers both his days in Japan and MLB.  Here's a look at his toughest rookie card.

We see Ichiro here sans the facial hair tracking a fly ball.  The card is a part of the Orix Blue Wave Team Set produced by Takara in 1993.  These are pretty darn hard to find. High grade ones go for around 1,000 dollars.  A high dollar card for a great great player.

Until next week folks, remember that you don't mess with a winning streak.

-The Commissioner

Week 20

Hey All,

The exciting final days of the Longball League are here.  There are just 13 days left in the regular season.  Pennant fever is in the air. Here's what's up in the league this week.

Roster Moves

8/12/2013
The Tatooine Womp Rats Dropped P. Fielder DET and added C. Davis BAL

Who's Hot and Who's Not This Week

Hitters
Hot: The Yankees Alfonso Soriano checked in with a 6 HR 19 RBI week.

Not: Houston's Brandon Barnes struck out 11 times and hit a blistering .120 this week.

Pitchers
Hot: The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw went 2-0, struck out 16, with an ERA and WHIP of .056 for the week.

Not: The Angels Joe Blanton gave up 10 earned runs in just 4.1 innings with three home runs allowed to go with a WHIP of 3.23 and and ERA of 20.77 this week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. The run the Dodgers are on is historic. I would love to quote some numbers on their winning ways, but with each new win, they are putting themselves in place for one of the greatest worst to first runs in the history of the game.

2. Anaheim's Joe Blanton sucks in the bullpen too. After giving up back-to-back dingers in the 9th inning of an 8-2 loss to the Astros, yours truly, the commissioner,  actually looked down into the Astros bullpen and asked Houston bullpen coach Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez if he could come out of retirement and pitch for the Angels. He laughed and and politely declined my appeal.

3. Could old Olympic Stadium be coming back to the majors? The  Montreal Baseball Project has started a feasibility study on the return of baseball to Montreal.  They actually believe Olympic Stadium could house another MLB team. Somewhere, Rusty Staub must be smiling.

Cool Baseball Card News of the Week: As apart of a look ahead to 2014 Topps Baseball, the company announced that 50 of the best rookie cards the company has ever produced will be given away through redemption cards in 2014 first series packs. I may finally get that '52 Mantle or the '56 Clemente. Ahh, to open packs, per chance to dream of greatness.

Cool Baseball Sticker Card of the Week: 1980 Fleer World Series/Team Logo Sticker Cards.

Back in 1980, Fleer produced a set of cartoon cards featuring World Series from 1940-1979 along with stickers on the other side.  You got five cards and stickers for a nickel. They were pretty popular with the kids back 33 years ago. Here's what two of the card sides look like.

Now, the stickers...

When I was 11, I they were pretty cool. They still look cool today. Don't you love that old Mariners logo? I personally dig the old Swinging Friar logo for the Padres.

Until next week folks remember that wild card races do make baseball more exciting.

-The Commissioner

Week 19

Hey All,

NFL preseason games filling the airwaves means that the Longball League season is almost over.  It should be a pretty exciting finish.

Roster Moves: There were no roster moves this week in the league.

Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week

Hitters
Hot: Justin Morneau came out of nowhere with a 5 HR 12 RBI week for the Twins.

Not: Angels call-up Chris Nelson batted a blistering .194 with one walk this week.

Pitchers
Hot: Dodger hurler Zack Greinke went 2-0 and fanned 11 this week.

Not: Mariano Rivera racked up two blown saves for the Yankees this week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. Oakland's Josh Reddick bashed five HRs over two consecutive games v. the Blue Jays this week.  This feat has only been accomplished 25 times in MLB history.  Reddick joins a pretty select group of players on this list.  A,,ong them are Stan Musial, Ralph Kiner. Dave Kingman, Gary Carter, and Billy Williams.

2. Can Chris Davis do it?  The Orioles slugger has 42 home runs so far this season and is in pace to hit 58 HRs.  Another big day or two could put him on pace to hit 60.  That would be fun to watch.

3. Some players hit the ground running and never look back.  Bob Feller was one of those players. In his first MLB game, Feller went the distance, striking out 15 St. Louis Browns en route to his first win.

Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1990 Topps #414A- Frank Thomas (No Name on Front)

Most error cards in the hobby don't attract a great deal of attention. Only a handful of legitimate error cards carry a big money reputation and the 1990 Frank Thomas error is one of them. To put it simply, the card was printed with a good deal of the black that should have been around the border of the card along with Thomas' name missing from the front.  It was an error that was corrected very early in the print run thus creating the scarcity.  It goes for well over 1,000 dollars.  It's Funny what people will pay for cardboard.

Until next week folks, remember that anyone can be caught by the old hidden ball trick.
-The Commissioner

Week 18

Hey All,

The last month of the Longball League regular season is here!  Who will shine down the stretch and make the playoffs? Only time will tell.

Roster Moves

The Invisible Hands, San Pedro Sea Monkeys and AngelSox all dropped A. Pujols LAA due to injury.

The Invisible Hands and the AngelSox replaced Pujols with P. Goldschmidt ARI.  The San Pedro Sea Monkeys replaced him with C. Davis BAL.

Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week:

Hot
Hitters: The Braves Brian McCann had a 3 HR 9RBI week.

Pitchers: Pittsburgh's Francisco Liriano won two games, and struck out 14 with an ERA 0.64

Not
Hitters: A-Rod.  He's not gonna be hot for awhile.

Pitchers: The Angels Bullpen, they've picked up 4 blown saves this week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. It would have been cool.  If the Pirates had pulled off a five game series sweep over the Cardinals it would have been the first time the Cardinals had been swept in a five game series since 1916.

2. There was a pair of 15s on Sunday for two teams. The Indians picked up their 15th shutout of the season with a 2-0 win over the Marlins while the Cardinals got their 15 with a 15-2 win over the Reds.

3.

Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1974 Topps #250B Willie McCovey

Back in late 1973, it looked like the San Diego Padres were going to be sold to a Washington D.C. area group that would move the team to nation's capital. That left the folks at Topps with a dilemma.  Do they print the 1974 set with the players in Padres uniforms and just leave it as San Diego on the cards, or do they try to announce a rumored franchise move?  Well, they did both, sort of.  13 of the cards featuring Padres players were also printed with a WASHINGTON "NAT'L LEA" designation where the team name should be on the card.  Here's the version featuring Wille McCovey.

Well, the Padres were sold and stayed in San Diego which makes these variations a fun look at baseball history. The variations aren't that expensive to acquire with the McCovey topping out at around 30 bucks.  However, I can't help to think how expensive a WASHINGTON "NAT'L LEA" variation would have been on card #456.  #456 is Dave Winfield's rookie card.

Until next time folks, remember that August is an exciting month in the Longball League.

-The Commissioner