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Week Ten (May 13, 2002) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Season Snapshot
Zane Smith is away for this week. This week's guest columnist is former Newark Crimewave farmhand, Dickie Thon. Jockeying For Position
Dragon Slayer
Wanaque's Richard Hidalgo had a good week for the Wolverines, batting .379...Vancouver catchers Ben Petrick (.313, 2 HR) and Todd Hundley(4-7, HR) showed signs of reversing their miserable start...Brooklyn's Jason LaRue hit .429 in limited time and Mark Grace hit .407, with a .543 OBP and .556 SLG... Carolina's Homer Bush collected a couple of steals while hitting .345 this week...Columbia's Vinny Castilla scorched his competition for a .550 AVG, 3 HR and 10 RBI. Castilla also slugged 1.150...Harrison's Fred McGriff, who has been filling in for the various injuries throughout the lineup hit .304 with 6 RBI this week, though the rest of the team struggled. The entire Rats team hit .215 this week... Hoboken third baseman Randy Velarde won a starting job this week over Jeff Liefer and produced a .357, 4 R effort this week, while teammates Mark Kotsay (.348, HR), Garrett Anderson(.333, 2 HR 6 R) and Mike Piazza(.320, .560 SLG 2 HR, 5 RBI) helped Hoboken's cause... Albert Pujols of Philly hit for .360 this week, but only drove in 3 runs. DH Troy Glaus slugged .875 on the week with 3 2Bs, 2 3Bs, and 2 HRs... Tijuana's Bret Boone(.364 2 HR 8 RBI) and D'Angelo Jimenez (.360, 6 R) led the Bandito offense that produced 13 HRs and 36 runs on the week. Saving the Day
Wanaque's Jeff Weaver continued his great season, going 2-0 on the week with a 1.50 ERA and two complete games....Brooklyn's pen was solid with Vlad Nunez (1.17 ERA, 1-0 in 5 games), Todd Van Poppel (1.42 ERA in 4 games), Felix Rodriguez (2 SV, 1.69 ERA, 4 G), and Robb Nen (0 runs in 7 innings). Starter Jeff Suppan was 2-0 this week, but with a 4.85 ERA....Columbia rookie Mark Buehrle continued his impressive season with a shutout this week and a 1.23 ERA in two starts this week. His teammates Victor Santos (0 runs in three appearances), Jeff Shaw (1-1, 0 earned runs) and Josias Manzanillo (1.69 ERA in 3 games) provided some help...The Rats were a wreck this week with a 5.81 team ERA, with the exception of Ramiro Mendoza, who had a 1.84 ERA in five appearances...Honolulu reliever John Franco picked up two wins this week... Newark's Randy Johnson (1-1, 1.38 ERA, 26 K in 13 IP) and Eric Milton (1-0, 1.69 ERA, CG in two starts) kept the Sugar Bears atop the Hanover division, and John Burkett collected two wins this week... Phoenix's pen was tough again this week, combining for three wins, while five Dragon relievers had an ERA of 2.08 or less on the week. Phoenix starter Brian Tollberg continues to rebound since being recalled from the minors. Tolberg was 1-0, 2.70 in two games on the week. Bonds un-Retires After a week-long absence, Arkansas outfielder Barry Bonds announced that reports of his retirement were premature. "All I did was open up a new IRA and all of a sudden everyone assumes something" said Bonds in a tearful press conference. Bonds apparently was stuck with his financial advisor trying to decide whether to go with a tradional or a Roth IRA. Bonds continued to lash out at the irresponsible media. "People make errors, but to not even follow up on the story. I didn't even get one phone call." Boys in the Hood
Carolina outfielder Pat Burrell also had an exciting week when he accidentally walked in on a shady arms deal on the dark side of town. Burrell tried to hide in a crate and accidentally was loaded onto one of the arms dealers' trucks and ended up in parts unknown.... Shannon Stewart of Tijuana found some new friends when he joined a bird-watching society. The group, however, turned out to be the sinister Cult of the Parrot and attempted to brainwash him. Stewart was found on the side of the road by the team janitor distributing pamphlets. He should be in the proper mental state to play games in a few days. Dickie Thon is now a motivational speaker and despite being thrice divorced, lives in a van down by the river. 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Arkansas Golden Falcons remained atop the DMBL world with a strong 5-2 week.
The Falcons opened up an 18 game lead on the second-place Tijuana Banditos. The Banditos
and the Vancouver Iron Fist both struggled this week, each going 2-5 on the week. Meanwhile,
the Philadelphia Endzone Animals moved into fourth with a 4-2 week. Wanaque Wolverines
slipped into fifth after a 3-4 week. The Columbia Rattlesnakes cooled off and only managed to win
two games this week and dropped five. The hot team of the week is the last-place Carolina Mudcats, who won
six straight to end the week and only half a game out of sixth and a mere five games behind second.
Speaking of six game winning streaks, the Hanover Division leaders, the Newark Sugar Bears
rolled off six straight and ended the week 7-1. The Hoboken Cutters remained in second, going 4-3, but lost ground to
the Sugar Bears. The Honolulu Sharks also ended the week at 4-3, but moved in the wild card standings to fourth place overall.
After a 5-2 week, the Phoenix Dragons moved up to fourth in the Hanover Division, but remain 5 1/2 games out of a playoff spot.
Matthew's Mighty Men of Stanhope had a poor showing this week at 2-6 and dropped back under .400 on the season. The Brooklyn Bean
Counters continued to slide witha 3-5 week. The Harrison Rats' playoff hopes appear to be dead after a 1-6 week as they became the
first team to lose 50 games this season.
The Phoenix offense appears to be coming alive and the leader of the charge is outfielder Luis Gonzalez. This
week Gonzo had five taters, with a .407 AVG, 9 Runs and 12 RBIs. His 1.037 SLG and .485 OBP were enough to earn him the
The Mudcats rolled off six straight wins, and the beneficiary of the streak was closer Bob Wickman. Wickman ended
the week with four saves and a 1.50 ERA in five appearances. Wickman moved up to within four saves of the saves leader and now has 14
saves on the year. Wickman is the recipient of the 
Honolulu's Craig Biggio is in trouble with the law after he was seen walking the streets of downtown Honolulu wearing
the colors of the local gang, the Furious Natives. The rival Spitting Volcanoes gang spotted the second baseman and tried to shoot him,
but Brooklyn reliever Todd Van Poppel, who was on vacation, noticed Biggio was in trouble and drove his rental sedan in the middle
of the shootout. Word on the streets is that Van Poppel has been marked for death by the Volcanoes because of the incident, allegedly
spread by Phoenix reliever Jay Witasick. Witasick recently commented about a quote from Van Poppel in the Arizona Tribune that
Witasick isn't a "team player". His notorious 10-minute profanity-laden tirade led police to Witasick's home. All three players are being
detained while the matter is being cleared up.