by Andrew Clarke
SCANDAL IN MOTOWN
Tiger slugger Mickey Mantle is used to playing center field, but now he finds himself at the center of a scandal.
The Legends of Baseball schedule gives Mickey six free days a week. He has long been known as someone who is better off with less free time. So it should come as no surprise that he has gotten himself into trouble with Tiger management.
General Manager Andrew Clarke was surprised to find numerous unexpected charges on his credit card bill. Apparently, Mickey has discovered that he lives in cyberspace, a place with more temptations than New York City ever had. He has been spending lots of time (and lots of Clarke’s money) at places with "naked" and "slutty" in their names.
Clarke and manager Bingo DeMoss have been asked what sort of disciplinary action they plan to take. Their response? DeMoss put it best: "He’s leading the team in RBI. We’ve decided to punish Bill Knickerbocker instead." Knickerbocker’s crime? "He’s not very good at baseball," said DeMoss.
In other news, the Tigers have taken the lead in the latest LBL poll. This is attributed mainly to shameless ballot-box stuffing by the General Manager.
by Tony Sumlak
The Toronto Blue Jays once again find themselves in first place in the Eastern division. They currently are tied for the third best record in the LBL. The team has been led pitching-wise by the two-some of Red Ames and Mike Moore. They are tied with six wins apiece for the team lead and have solid 3.26 & 3.27 eras respectively. Supposed ace Mort Cooper has been a disappointment, posting a 4-6 start to the year, despite his 2.82 era.
In the case of the batting, it is 3B Jim Thome, 1B Lou Gehrig and CF Duke Snider providing the punch. Thome (.305, 9 HR, 30 RBI) is on pace for a 30 HR 97 RBI season. Gehrig (.284, 10 HR, 31 RBI) is approaching 32 HR 100 RBI and Snider (.314, 13 HR, 33 RBI) has the potential for 42 HR and 107 RBI. With the first third of the season over it looks like it will be a very good run to the wire for the Blue Jays.
by Joe Clark
REDS REVIEW
Unable to break away from the pack, the Reds find themselves just out of first place in the division at 27-23. While being led by Manny Ramirez, Jimmie Foxx, and Pete Rose on offense, the Reds have been playing themselves out of contention by not getting on base enough. Rickey Henderson and George Foster have been major disappointments thus far and if the Reds plan on contending, they will need to get hot in a hurry.
The pitching, inconsistent at best, has been led by ironmen Del Crandall/Rube Marquard and Rawley Eastwick/Carl Erskine out of the pen. Unfortunately the rest of the staff has been less than stellar ... rookie Lefty Gomez has been a bust thus far, evident by his 4.27 ERA and inability to close things out when needed. Overall, the Reds are underachieving and can either run away with the division crown in the 2nd half or stay mired in a season long dog fight ... time will tell.
by Colin DeWaay
The New York Yankees clubhouse has a reason to be excited this year. When GM Colin DeWaay took over for the team early in the season he wasted no time to try and fix the Yankees worst problem, the bullpen. The Yankees traded Roger Maris and future considerations for Sam Crawford and Dennis Eckersley. Manager Al Nipper believes "Even though we had a great closer in Narleski, Eck will still be of great help to us. The only problem is I never seem to know when to pitch Narleski now and he is rightfully complaining about playing time ever since the trade."
Babe Ruth is his dominating self again this year. He leads the league in home runs, runs, and slugging percentage and is second in hits and RBI's. Mike Hegan and Carney Lansford have been performing well over expectations this year. Ever since Lansford took over the leadoff spots he has been on a stolen base tear. He is on pace for 60 stolen bases this season. Hegan's batting average is at .305 and ever since he was put at the 3 hole he's been an RBI machine.
Al Nipper has also been very impressed with his starting pitchers this year. In an interview he was heard saying, "Our starters have been great this year, if our bullpen can just start holding leads we will be serious contenders in the East this year."