Mid Season Report
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Hello One and All,
The 2nd Half of the DNL Season is underway and there have been a few surprises so far. Surprise #1 being ho Klingensmith has been struggling to date. Their ace Mike Sikorski is hurting and hurting bad. I asked Mike a few weeks ago what was wrong and his reply was "My &^%#*%# arm is killing me dude ! I don't have any *&$^%@#^ velocity and once I lost that I started getting hit all over the *(&%^(#$(^$ place. I'm pissed. I'm going to try and rehab the *)(&%$^%#% thing. We'll see what happens". To me, its not a true DNL Season for me if I don't get to see Mike pitch. I had Klingensmith pegged to win the Regular Season but that's not going to happen now, especially since their ace is on the shelf. I still think they have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs but they are going to have to get hot and get hot soon. Their pitching depth may get a shot in the arm here in the next week or so and if that does indeed materialize then a winning streak may follow right behind
Bowser has a semi comfortable lead in the standings but they have 3 more games with Harvey's. That's a good thing for Harvey's and its a bad thing for them. For Harvey's to overtake Bowser they are going to have to sweep Bowser, anything less then they are going to have to hope for some sort of a meltdown on Bowser's part. I have it on good authority that Bowser will be pretty much at full strength this week so that may not bode well for their upcoming opponents.
After a red hot start, Quinn has cooled off a bit but they are still within striking distance. My man Tommy Simcho was playing a stellar 1st base vs Steel Valley the other night. The last time he moved like that was when he tried sneaking in the house at 5am after a night of debauchery down the South Side. I won't comment on those 2 long balls he served up to Mike Uhouse and Danny Laird:::ouch::: It kind of reminded me of the one game I had to take the mound on the ol Clairton Mets up at the old West Mifflin High School field. 2 of the longest innings of my life I tell ya. I remember walking off the mound towards 2nd base and CF Pat Connelly was standing at the base of the hillside in CF. I yelled out "Pat, WTF are you doing playing that deep?" and he yelled in "This is where they're hitting them!". Unfortunately he was right. When Bobby Haley stepped in to bat against me I yelled in "Bob, if I get you out you're buying tonight!" and he said "Deal but if you don't then you're buying". Bob promptly ripped a not so fast fastball halfway up the hillside. Not only did my ERA take a beating that day but so did my wallet that night.
Steel Valley has been making a pretty good accounting of themselves so far this year. Usually a 1st year team struggles and SV has taken a few lumps this year but they also got some pretty impressive wins. I got to watch them vs Quinn and I liked that they were a pretty self motivated team. They are young but they play hard and they play scrappy and there was no quit in them whatsoever when Quinn took the lead against them in the Top of the 9th Saturday Night. They look like they got a lot of pieces to the puzzle but could still use a few more. If they get somebody on that bench that knows the league then look out. One of the main reasons Bowser has been on top the last 6 years is they know their opponents and know them well. When the cards are on the table they are exploiting the other teams weaknesses. Knowing baseball in general will only get you so far in this league. Knowing your opponents and their tendencies will get you farther. Naturally you need the ball players to carry out the plan and sometimes getting them to carry out a plan is easier said than done. Steel Valley could very well make the playoffs but they got their work cut out for them. 6 out of their last 8 games are against the Top 3 teams in the league including 3 vs Bowser. I'd like to see them make it.
All I have to say about Graham's and Clancy's is will the real team please stand up? Both can take care of business relatively easy one game and then turn around and get crapped on the next game. I was amused to see Terry Thompson have to play in a couple of games but the man did what he had to do. It's a shame that it comes down to him having to play to begin with. I don't know if Graham's will see the playoffs this year considering the poor turnout they have player wise game after game.
Predictions: Past, Present and Future
To my surprise, Jeff Kuzma has yet to be booted from a game. Is Jeffrey finally mellowing out? Nahhhh, still plenty of season left and when he does finally blow his stack (which he will) it will be a doozy. Harvey's has that caustic mix of Kuzz and Rube on the bench so one or both will have a meltdown. I only hope I am there with JamCam to catch it.
In my preseason writeup I predicted that the 1st HR would be hit at Winklevoss a few hours after the 1st game there. I was indeed correct about that but where my prediction went astray was how things went down after the ummmm Homer was hit. I predicted that the HR Hitter would jump out of his SUV and run the bases naked in celebration of his conquest. Somebody did indeed hop out of the SUV and run the bases naked but it was the conquest who did so. Jam Cam happened to be on hand and all that can be said about that is "Holy Hooters Batman!"
I was also a little bit off on my prediction about Andy Brettschneider passing out on the mound while making a pitching change. Turns out Andy never even made it to the mound. As he rose from the bench at Clairton Park, he immediately face planted into the fence then tumbled backwards, fell over the bench and knocked himself silly. Members of both teams did indeed try to revive him by splashing water and Powerade on his face but to no avail. When those attempts failed, the quasi-gassy Jim Onder and Mike Finocchi gave Andy a Tag Team Beef Stew which had no effect on Andy either. However the effects of the Tag Team Butt Blasts were felt throughout the surrounding area. Jefferson Hospital and Med Express both reported a spike in ER visits that evening with people complaining of breathing difficulties. The Clairton Coke Works was temporarily shutdown due to fear that a coke battery exploded. The Coke Works reopened once they discovered that it was only Onder and Finochh doing what they do best (besides play ball). The offending cloud eventually drifted east and wreaked havoc on a path that took it through Greensburgh, Johnstown, Altoona, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Trenton and Atlantic City before finally drifting off into the Atlantic. You would think it was done once out into the open waters of the Atlantic but lo and behold 16 Cruise Ships had to return to port due to an overwhelming demand for oxygen at the on board Dr's office. Carnival Cruise Lines may have to file for Bankruptcy after refunding 1000s of customers money. In the meantime, Onder placed most of the blame on Finochh saying "You always gotta be hitting Taco Bell on the way to games don't you?"
2nd Half Scenario
This is what I am looking at for the 2nd Half. I'm thinking Bowser will cruise to the Regular Season Title. Harvey's and possibly Quinn may make a run at them but I don't think either one will be able to make up the 3 game lead Bowser has. Harvey's has the inside track on 2nd Place and Quinn being right on their heels will make things interesting for that #2 spot. I think Harvey's will hang on to the #2 spot by a thread with Quinn settling for #3. I think Clancy's and Klingensmith will end up with the final 2 playoff spots. I'm not ruling out Steel Valley but they have the toughest road (schedule wise) of the 3 teams down the stretch. Graham's just seem to be disinterested as a whole but who knows. Steel Valley does have Graham's canceled out in a tie breaker scenario however Klingensmith can take the tie breaker on SV Tuesday with a win and the same can be said about Clancy's if they beat SV Saturday. The race for 4th and 5th seems a lot more interesting than the race for 1st, if there even is a race for 1st.
That wraps it up and I'll have more for you all when Playoff Time arrives. Til then, see ya at the games!
