Bandejos cancel victory parade

Season 11 World Champs finally returned to Mexico City today for their much-anticipated victory parade after some customs holdups delayed their charter flight from leaving the US. Upon arrival, the team expected a raucous parade, but they were instead greeting with inoculations as a swine flu virus shut down much of Mexico City's public activity - See LA Times Story

Team officials denied rumors that star 3B Alex Shibata's new girlfriend was at all involved with the swine in question. The parade was delayed until such time as it was safe to roam the streets or the girlfriend had been replaced

Legends on the move

A flurry of early free agent signings included two Second City Legends.

Dick Caruso Texas Riders Age: 37 B/T: L/L Born: Du Bois, PA Position(s): 1B/DH View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Dick Caruso, Second City's all-time HR leader with 586 dingers singed with the Texas Riders. The Riders will be 37-year old Caruso's 4th franchise. Caruso was excited at the fresh start and short porch in Texas. "I hit only 18 HR's last year and that's not acceptable. I'm hoping that the warm weather and short fences in Arlington bring me back to the numbers I'm used to producing." There's no word yet on where Texas will play Caruso who's diminishing athleticism limits his options defensively. One thing is certain, there's likely to be a brawl over that 600th HR ball if and when it lands somewhere in Texas.

Del Gil Arizona Isotopes of Albuquerque Age: 35 B/T: L/R Born: Boca Chica, DO Position(s): RF/CIF/LF View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Del Gil, 2nd in Second City in career HR's with 558 has left the defending champion Mexico City Bandejos for the Arizona Isotopes of Albuquerque. Gil ended a run 6 six consecutive 50 HR seasons with a measly 48 long ones for the Bandejos last season. Gil did not react well to a playoff benching last season and didn't hesitate to take a parting shot at Mexico City management on his way out the door. "dyuen and his staff don't stand behind their people. I'm not the first guy to carry this team and then be thrown overboard and I won't be the last. Hopefully the Arizona franchise will appreciate what I do for them, and the league."

Sounds like sour grapes if ever there way. Whatever Mexico City's methods, it's hard to criticize the results. They keep winning titles and spending a lot less than the rest of the league.

Beer Pairing - High Life with Animaniacs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUDDaEOvuY

kmueller's wife and the Husafell Stone

The wife of Monterrey owner kmueller was recently revealed to be a former contestant in the World's Strongest Man competition. The heretofore unknown Mrs. kmueller actually won a regional qualifier in the 2002 competition held on Marco Island, FL.

She advanced to the US Final where she, the only woman ever to compete in the the World's Strongest Man, was eliminated in round one by Phil Pfister, seen here winning the keg toss event. Mrs. kmueller was disqualified after attempting to empty the keg, through a funnel into her mouth prior to throwing over bar.


kmueller began courting his future wife shortly after the regional qualifier, which she won on the strength of her amazing performance in the Fireman's Carry event, in which competitor's are asked to carry the dead weight of a drunken commissioner jwendt up as many flights of stairs as possible. After Magnus ver Magnussen set a seemingly unbreakable mark of 23 stories, the future Mrs. kmueller lugged the commish an amazing 94 flights, enough to reach the top of John Hancock Center. Needless to say, the wife's carrying ability has since come in quite handy since she married kmueller, the human equivalent of a Husafel Stone.

Asked the source of her incredible powers, Mrs. kmueller would only smile, but it's widely believed her powers come from the magical pens she keeps with her at all times.

Monterrey Owner at Risk of Losing Valuable Prospects

In a error of gross proportion, Monterrey Conquistador owner "kmueller" upset thousands with his comment that a majority of Second City Championships were won by Mexican teams. With San Juan winning a number of championships, Puerto Ricans were upset to be called "Mexicans" when in fact the island is its own country/territory/colony/protectorate/archipelago/commonwealth (whatever the heck they are).

The anger was most evident during the recent Mexico - Puerto Rico World Cup Qualifier in Aguadilla, where several riots broke out (Mexico won, 8-0). More importantly, a number of 'Quista prospects from Puerto Rico are now withdrawing their interest in signing with the team. Already hampered by lacksadaisical ownership, losing valuable prospects will not help.

The 'Quista camp has responded with mixed messages. PR liaison Tristan Kochheiser spoke out on the subject: "There are, in fact, more San Juans in Mexico, than in Puerto Rico. Owner kmueller thought that the Crownrificos were from Mexico, especially given that they are named after a beverage originating from the Baja pensinsula. It's an honest mistake... it would be like the San Diego team calling themselves the San Diego Sam Adams Light Lagers. Just doesn't make sense." (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan#Mexico)

On his way in to the 'Quista hacienda, owner kmueller was gruff and only offered "you try chasing a case of high life with some Ambien and see if you can tell me the 50 states and their capitals."

Drillers Tanaka mourns loss of the Bird

Jin-Chi Tanaka Austin Drillers Age: 20 B/T: S/R Born: Northborough, MA Position(s): P (SP1) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

The Austin Drillers Jin-Chi Tanaka, the top pick in the Season 9 draft shared a hometown and a wild streak with former Tiger Rookie-of-the-Year, Mark Fidrych. Fidrych died yesterday at the age of 54. "The Bird" as Fidrych was known was killed when a truck he was working on fell on him.

Fidrych accomplished some amazing feats including throwing 24 complete games and 250 innings as a rookie in 1976 when he didn't join the team until May 15. Fidrych was a quirky Bird, working at a lightning pace with arms and legs flying everywhere. After innings, he sprinted to the dugout, eager for the next frame to begin.

Tanaka, who continues to struggle with his command at the minor league level, went 6-13 with a 5.15 ERA at AA this season. He walked 80 and struck out 178 in 160.2 IP. Scouts continue to rave about his potential, and at age 20, he has plenty of time to reach it. In the meantime, expect Tanaka to continue paying tribute to "The Bird" by sprinting to and from the mound, and working as quickly as possible.

World Series Preview - Season 11

The World Series Matchup is set, with Scranton making their first Series appearance against the empire of Mexico City, appearing for the 5th time (3 wins so far) in 8 years. So what does this matchup have in store?

Mexico City Offense: The Bandejos led the NL in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, Home Runs, and Total Runs Scored (by 88). Three powerful sluggers, Jalal Rivera, Del Gil, and Alex Shibata lead the attack with a combined 151 HRs. Five players finished with 100 or more RBI's. The team can run too, with leadoff man Aaron Pratt swiping 67 or 71 bases. The Bandejos will swing and miss with 6 players striking out 86 or more times on the season.

Scranton Defense: The Nittany Lions led the AL in ERA (4.46) and saves (61). Veteran ace Phil Martin has pitched for Rochester, San Juan, and Mexico City so he's used to big games. Magglio Merced was great all year as the closer.

Defensively, SS Emmanuel McMurtry is a severe liability with 40 errors and range considered well below average. The rest of the defense is solid, especially the gold glovers at 1B & 2B.

Scranton Offense: The Lions can run out some boppers of their own with a pair of 60 HR hitters in MVP candidate Bret Davis and Vern Marshall, a leading contender for Rookie of the Year. The team's 311 HRs trailed only Texas and their 1102 runs scored led baseball.

Mexico City Defense: The Bandejos power staff led the NL in strikeouts. A deep and talented rotation features Brian Jung and Willie Velazquez at the top. Closer Rob Shields has struggled the past two seasons but is a perfect 5-5 0.00 in the playoffs this year and 9-10 career. Workhorse Will Nicholson bridges the gap effectively and worked 124 solid innings this year.

The defense leans on the slick-fielding Steve Sosa (SS) but has no glaring weakness as their 7 minus plays for the year indicate.

Summary: Both teams can hit and pitch. This marks just the 3rd time in Second City history that both #1 seeds have reached the World Series. Season 2 yielded a 7-game classic with San Juan edging Wichita and Season 9 saw Richmond pull off a mild upset, beating Mexico City 4 games to 1. Mexico City lost game one of each of their past 2 series before winning out. Scranton comes off a tough 4-2 series win over Richmond in the only AL series NOT to feature a 10-run outburst by either team. Perhaps they have the pitching to hang with the traditionally more balanced NL.

A key to the series may be the performance of Bandejo CF Aaron Pratt. Pratt suffered a terrible slump earlier in the season, but rebounded to finish with decent numbers after losing the leadoff job against RHP. Pratt's table setting makes the middle of the Bandejo order deadly. Without him aboard, big rallies fizzle into a host of solo HR's.

Scranton owner camaro31st is rumored to have invited Scranton's legendary Michael Scott to deliver a pre-game address. Scott's well-documented motivation style is being counted on to help a team in it's first-ever World Series.


Mexico City meanwhile has been there before but owner dyuen is counting on a little motivation trick of his own. Mini-KISS will sing the national anthems prior to Game 1 in Mexico City. This appears to have been plan B after commission jwendt stepped in to ensure that Mexico City's Secretary of State wouldn't bar Scranton star hurler Phil Martin from the country for an indecent exposure charge pending in Canada. Ironically, the charges stemming from an incident that occurred while Martin was in Windsor, Ontario with Bandejo star Alex Shibata who was trying to get over his pending divorce. Martin was jettisoned from the Bandejos shortly after the incident.

All-time Standings

A little research I've been working on to give you all some reading material for the playoffs and off-season. The table below shows the "by-franchise" standings through 11 seasons of the Second City World. I've made my best effort to capture this accurately and I believe it is, but if you have questions, let me know. I'll have some additional stuff over the next couple weeks.

Items of interest:
The Austin Franchise is cursed, never having left the cellar. Only 2 teams, Salem and Sioux Falls have won their division every year. They are also the only two teams never to miss the playoffs (a streak that ended for San Juan this year). We have ten original owners that have never left the league, including the 6 winningest franchises; continuity helps. Only San Juan averages more than 100 wins per season.





Notes: The Teams columns represents the # of different team names. This is usually the result of ownership changes but in a few cases it reflects multiple cities for the same franchise with the same owner.

The Average Pl. column displays a franchise's average finish within their division (1 being the winner, and 4 being last place).

PO App displays the total # of playoff appearances for the franchise including both wild cards and division titles.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

Well, the first round series are coming down to the wire. Ottawa knocked off Baltimore. Fellow AL East juggernaught Richmond is one of two teams facing elimination today.

Helena ousted a pesky Cheyenne team 2 games to 1 and managed to rest ace Rafael Aguilera who's likely to start game one against NL powerhouse Mexico City Bandejos (111-51) in the quarterfinals.



In the other AL series, Salem and Richmond have traded blows alternating wins. The deciding game is in Salem. The two last met in the Season 9 ALCS, with Richmond prevailing 4 games to 2 on it's way to a world championship. Juan Velazquez (17-8, 4.62 ERA) is expected to get the start for Salem. He allowed 6 runs in 5 innings in his first start. Salem is expected to counter with ace Marty Brantley (17-7, 3.65 ERA). The winning team has scored at least 6 runs in every game of this series so expect some hitting as usual in the AL.

In the NL showdown, long-time rivals Las Vegas and Sioux Falls are set to square off in Game 5. The Double Downs took Games 1 and 2 behind strong pitching performances before allowing 10 and 6 runs in Games 3 and 4. The Double Downs have a fully rested Delino Fischer (10-11, 2.90) coming off 6 shutout innings in game one. The Dakota will counter with veteran Curtis Towers (9-4, 3.63) who got blasted in Game 2 allowing 7 runs in just 2 and 2/3 innings. Manager Esteban Valentin has been criticized by the Sioux Falls sportswriters for not giving the start to rookie Morgan Bevil, but Valentin has never failed to win 90 games in 11 seasons managing 3 teams and is not likely to be moved by the reporters criticism.