May 5, 2003  

Hanover Rising

It was a big week for the Hanover Division, as every team had at least a .500 record this week. Newark remained on top with a 5-3 week. The Mighty Men of Stanhope held onto second with a 5-2 week. Honolulu stood pat in third, matching Stanhope's 5-2 record. Hoboken Cutters had the best week, going 6-2 on the week. The Phoenix Dragons (4-3) tried to keep up. The Bean Counters could only muster a .500 (3-3) record on the week. Even last-place Harrison had a 4-3 record.

It was a bad week to be a Pucci brother, as both Pucci-owned teams struggled this week. Both the Carolina Mudcats and the Philadelphia Endzone Animals won only one their seven games this week. The Golden Falcons were the only team in the Morris Divisin to have a winning record this week (4-3). Vancouver struggled (3-5) but still held onto second place. Hillsborough (3-5) stayed in third place, while the Rattlesnakes moved into fourth with a 3-4 week. The last-place Tijuana Banditos actually had a decent week, winning half of their games (4-4) this week.

Thome Boy!

Newark's Jim Thome earned his third Omaha Steaks.com Batter of the week award of the season. Thome hit 5 homers this week to go along ith a .376 batting average and 1.464 OPS. He also score 7 runs and drove in 8...Arkansas' Barry Bonds had a down week (for him) this week, only hitting .304 with a mere 2 homers. However, teammate Larry Walker picked up the slack, batting .464 with 3 homers, 10 runs, and 7 RBIs... Hillsborough's Carlos Delgado only hit .242 this week, but still managed to drive in 10 runs... Honolulu's Aaron Boone had a great all-around week, slugging 2 homers with a .727 slugging percentage, while swiping 3 bases and hitting .455...Last week's award winner, Brian Giles kept up the pace, hitting .391 with a .563 OBP... Philadelphia's Magglio Ordonez hit .400 this week with 2 homers and 7 RBIs, while teammate Rafael Furcal hit .444...Stanhope's Todd Helton had a monster week, hitting .355 with a .903 slugging, tying Thome with 5 homers and driving in 8 runs...Playing part time in the place of injured Javy Lopez, Phoenix's Shea Hillenbrand contributed a .438 average with a homer and 3 RBIs...Vancouver and Carolina's offenses continue to struggle, but that didn't stop Bobby Kielty(.355, .444 OBP, .710 SLG, 2 HR, 6 R) and Torii Hunter (.464, .643 SG, 5 RBI) from leading their respective teams' offenses...Other hitters of note: Columbia's Robert Fick (.375, 5 R, 8 RBI), Harrison's Mike Sweeney (.444, 7 R), Tijuana's Edgar Renteria (.433) and Omar Vizquel (.379, 8 R, 3 SB) of Hoboken.

Schilling is Thrilling

Once again Arkansas' Curt Schilling picks up the Poncho Land Pitcher of the Week Award. Schilling picked up two wins this week, including a shutout of Vancouver. Schilling went the distance in both games, giving up only one earned run between the two games, while striking out 19...Another Carolina youngster, Ted Lilly has been showing his stuff. Lilly went 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA and 14 Ks on the week...Brooklyn's Rick Reed went 1-1 with an 0.64 ERA... Phoenix's Troy Percival pitched in six games this week, saving three and striking out 7 while surrendering no runs... Jon Lieber (1-0 2.35) picked up the only win for the Endzone Animals this week...Newark's Runelvys Hernandez pitched brilliantly (1.13 in two games) but did not get a decision. Vancouver also featured a pair of hard luck losers: Brian Lawrence (0-0, 2.12) and Roderigo Lopez (0-1, 2.19)...Tijuana's newly-acquired Chuck Finley (2-0, 0.66 ERA) continues to impress... Hoboken's Mike Mussina was impressive this week (2-0, 1.08, CG shutout, 9 K), as was Honolulu's Freddy Garcia (2-0, 1.32, 15 K)...Impressive in relief: Octavio Dotel (1-0, 1.29, 9 K in 4.2 IP), Robb Nen and John Smoltz (2 save each), Shigetoshi Hasegawa (2-0), Mariano Rivera (1-0, SV), and Justin Speier (2-0, 2.08)...Vancouver's Billy Wagner picked up two more wins this week, to lead all relievers with a 6-0 record.

The Ice is Broken

The League's first trade went down shortly after presstime last week. The Bean Counters acquired Carlos Beltran and a draft pick from the Endzone Animals in exchange for a high draft pick in next year's draft. In other comings and goings: Craig Biggio was released by the Animals then picked up later by the Snakes. Tijuana tries yet another starter, signing rookie Joe Roa.

The Curse of Kile?

After a series of freak injuries to Andy Petitte, Eric Milton and Mark Redman, the Sugar Bears have hired a voodoo witch doctor to take the curse off the team's starting rotation. Juju Hoodoo, who has a PhD in shamanism from Haiti University, said a curse was put on left-handed starting pitchers after the corpse of Darryl Kile was disturbed last month. It's even possible the curse also was responsible for last week's bizarre injury to the Banditos' Randy Wolf, as Tijuana was the team that stole Kile's body in the first place. "This stuff is really freaking me out man," said a clearly perturbed Jose Hernandez. "No way I'm playing in that stadium, not until the pitching machine stops screaming and the blood stops coming out of the shower heads."

TWIB may have Ozzie Smith, but we have the better Smith! Zane Smith, former pitcher for the San Antonio Slingers and Sacramento Seahawks, now writes this column exclusively for the Diamond Mind Baseball League. Click Here for past articles.