Week 22 - Sept. 9, 2008

A Note To Our Readers

We have good news and bad news. Zane Smith is back, but he has locked himself in his office to feverishly work on his new book, Michael Phelps Should Get A Gold Medal In Douchebaggery. Zane, you may recall, was covering the Olympic Games for Al Jazeera. Apparently he and Phelps got into a tiff in Beijing. "The jerk has eight medals, I just wanted one," Smith said. "He's a gold medal hog!" Phelps could not be reached for comment. After finishing his book, Zane swears he'll be devoting himself full time to DMBL once again, starting with a post-season preview. In the meantime, here's this week's guest host, former Columbia Crusader Lee Smith.

A Great '08!

The Newark Sugar Bears polished off their season by going 5-3, claiming not only their DMBL record eighth straight division title but also a fourth straight Commissioner's Cup as the team with the best regular season record. The Vancouver Iron Fist closed out their season on a high note, going 6-2 to claim the Morris Division title for the second time in three years (and seventh overall). The two division winners enjoy first-round byes in the post-season... The Las Vegas Rat Pack went 6-3, including five straight wins to end the season, to cap the most successful season in their eight-year history. They also claimed the Ian Rintel Front Office Executive of the Year Award for the biggest turn-around since last year -- an inconceivable 54-win improvement from 2007's 52-110 last place finish. The Rats had the second-best record, but the two division winners are automatically the top two seeds, so they'll head into the post-season as the top wild card team... The Philadelphia Endzone Animals started the week locked into a fourth-place finish, but that didn't stop them from compiling a league-best 5-1 record. The Animals, in the post-season for the second straight year and the third time in four years, are the No. 4 seed. The D.C. Bushslappers and Hillsborough Hired Hitmen went to the last day of the season to determine who would finish fifth (and face Philly) and who would finish sixth (and face Las Vegas). If they ended in a tie, the Hitmen would be the higher seed thanks to their 9-4 regular season record against the Slappers. D.C., which started the week with a 1-1/2 game lead over the Hitmen, went 3-5 -- just enough to hang on, as the Hitmen went 4-5. In fact, the two teams mirrored each other -- win-loss-win-loss-win -- over their last five games.

The Tampa Bay Plunkers started the week with a chance to finish above .500 -- or even, conceivably, win a wild card spot. But they went 4-6 to splash down in no man's land -- 8 games out of the post-season but with the fewest balls in the draft lottery. But relative to other recent inaugural seasons, the Plunkers have to be happy with what was a very successful campaign: It was the best debut by a new owner in seven years, following Jeremy Berger's 89-73 record with the Vatican City Cardinals in 2001, his one and only DMBL season... The Arkansas Golden Falcons missed the post-season for a second consecutive year -- just the third time in their 17-year history that they weren't in the big dance. The Falcs finished the year with a bang, winning 7 out of their last 10, but that still left them in 8th place, 12 games behind Hillsborough for the final berth... The Hoboken Cutters battled to a 4-4 record in the final week but it wasn't enough to stave off the worst finish in franchise history at 72-90. The previous low point was 2004, when they went 74-88. But on the bright side, this year's record was good enough for 9th place, which is better than 2004's 11th place finish... The Sardine City Straphangers started their off-season after closing out the year at 4-6, finishing in 10th. But it's a big step forward from last year's 13th place finish, and ownership is expecting an even bigger improvement in 2009.

And now for the best race of the final week... The bottom four teams battled right down to the last day of the season for final placement in the draft lottery. Coming in at 11th place were the Carolina Mudcats, who went 1-6 -- including four straight losses to end the season. Tying for 12th were the Blue Ridge Bombers and the Marietta Mighty Men. The Mites won four straight to open the week, giving them a chance to finish in 11th, but then they dropped their final three; Blue Ridge dropped seven straight games to join them in a 12th-place tie. But Marietta had a 7-5 record against Blue Ridge this year, so they "win" the tiebreaker, giving them 12th place and Blue Ridge 13th. But although the Bombers will have the best chance in the lottery for the No. 2 pick, it's D.C. that's celebrating -- Blue Ridge traded that pick to D.C. in a deal for Francisco Rodriguez... Finally at the back of the pack comes New Jersey Team Buddah. The Buddahs actually ended the year on a high note, going 5-3 (including three straight wins), but it still wasn't enough to finish dead last at 60-102. But perhaps they will find enlightenment in next year's draft as they will have the most balls in the lottery for the first overall pick.

The Week Ahead

It's the playoffs, of course! While the other eight teams get a head start on the 2009 off-season, six teams battle for the World Series crown. The first round is a best-of-5 affair with the higher-seeded team playing at home in games 1, 2 and 5 (if necessary). The games start Saturday with the fifth seeded D.C. Bushslappers taking on the fourth seeded Philadelphia Endzone Animals. The second series starts Sunday, with the third-ranked Las Vegas Rat Pack taking on the sixth-seeded Hillsborough Hired Hitmen. The Hanover Division champion Newark Sugar Bears and Morris Division champion Vancouver Iron Fist have first-round byes. Keep up with the latest playoff news and notes on our Playoffs Page.

Batter, Pitcher of the Week Awards

Due to our contract with sponsor JRCigars.com, only Zane Smith can pick the Batter of the Week and Pitcher of the Week Awards. As a result we've had to turn over the selection of those awards directly to the Commissioner's Office. Check out this week's winners in an upcoming entry in the DMBL News Blog.

And The Eck Goes To...

The Dennis Eckersley Rolaids Reliever of the Year Award is determined, not by a panel of judges or by a vote of the owners, but purely by a mathematical formula said to be devised by The Eck himself: 2 points for a win, 2 points for a save, -1 point for a loss, and -1 point for a blown save. And this year's winner is... Jonathan Papelbon. Midway through the season, the 27-year-old right-hander had 30 relief points, leaving him tied for second place overall. But the Pap really turned it on down the stretch, recording 19 saves (with just two losses and two blown saves) for 34 second half points. It wasn't a banner year for closers as Papelbon's 64 relief points represent the lowest total by an Eck Award winner in the DMB Era, one less than the previous low (set last year by Francisco Rodriguez); his 31 saves, which also led the league, are the lowest for a league leader since Mark Wohlers topped the DMBL with 29 in 1997... The first half leader was Las Vegas's Carlos Marmol, who had 37 relief points at the midway point, but just 9 more the rest of the way as the Rat Pack added more arms to their bullpen, squeezing him out of the closer's role. Hillsborough's Takashi Saito came in a distant second with 57 points, followed by Philly's J.J. Putz and Tampa Bay's Lee Gardner.

Final Relief Points Standings
Reliever	ERA	W	SV	L	BS	Pts
Papelbon,DC	1.34	4	31	3	3	64
Saito,HIL	2.07	3	28	2	3	57
Putz,PHI	3.28	7	26	3	7	56
Gardner,TAM	1.82	3	28	4	4	54
Jenks,NJ	1.49	5	24	4	4	50
Corpas,VAN	2.41	3	24	4	2	48
Marmol,LV	4.95	8	19	3	5	46
Valverde,ARK	4.46	7	16	5	2	39
Capps,SAR	3.86	2	18	5	2	33
Street,BR	3.10	3	17	5	3	32
Delcarmen,NWK	3.10	8	12	3	5	32

Street and Delcarmen tied for 10th... Just missing the cut was Las Vegas's Rafael Betancourt with 30 relief points (11 W, 7 SV, 2 L, 4 BS). Betancourt tied Vancouver's Matt Herges for the league lead in vulture wins, with 11... Marietta's Mariano Rivera came in 12th with 26 points (3 W, 14 SV, 6 L, 2 BS), followed by Hillsborough's Jeremy Accardo with 23 (9 W, 4 SV, 2 L, 1 BS). The two-time defending champion, Francisco Rodriguez, had just 17 relief points (3 W, 6 SV, 0 L, 1 BS) as he split the season between Las Vegas and Blue Ridge (with a stop in between in D.C., but he never appeared in a game for them). The winner before that, Jason Isringhausen, also pitched for two teams this year, picking up a total of 22 points (5 W, 11 SV, 6 L, 4 BS) between Hoboken and Philly.

It's So Hard To Say Good-Bye

Last week we noted that Hoboken owner  Mark Hrywna showed a lot of class by bringing back Craig Biggio for one last stint with the Cutters. Biggio had been desperately hoping to play in at least one DMBL game this season, which would be his 17th year -- leaving him tied with Roger Clemens for most years played. (Clemens had already notched his 17th season by playing for Newark and then Arkansas.) With the Cutters officially eliminated, Hrywna granted the Seton Hall University graduate's wish, and we praised the Hoboken owner for paying homage to one of the game's nicest guys.

Well, it seems like other owners want to get some praise, too. Newark owner Butch Garretson brought back Ryan Klesko for one last week; the 1B/OF/DH had been saying for months that he wanted to retire a Sugar Bear, where in 1996 he had what is without a doubt the greatest rookie season of all time (.378/.464/.757, 260 H, 67 2B, 64 HR, 225 RBI), and in 1997 won a World Series ring. Klesko was traded in 1998 to the Iron Fist (for Denny Neagle) and never played for the Sugar Bears again; in fact, he played the bulk of his career for the Hoboken Cutters. But Klesko wanted to put on the blue and gold one last time to relive those glory days of his youth. He went 5-for-22 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs and announced his retirement during Ryan Klesko Day at Newark's final home game in the 2008 regular season.

Not to be out done, Marietta owner David Landsman brought back a legend of his own when he signed Mike Piazza to a 10-day contract so he too could add one more year to his impressive resume. Piazza is a lock for the DMBL Hall of Fame -- but which cap will he be wearing at the induction ceremony? He played three years with Marietta (then Jerusalem), three with Hoboken and three with Newark (plus two with Hawaii, one with Waikiki, one with Westwood and one with New Jersey). This final act of kindness by Landsman seems to have tipped the scales in Jerusalem's favor when Piazza decides which uniform he'll wear on his plaque. "In my heart I was and will always be a Rabbi," a tearful Piazza said after his #31 was retired by the franchise. "Mike Piazza was a top performer for the Rabbis," Landsman said. "He and Bernie Williams are the inaugural inductees into the Garden of Gentiles honoring the greatest players in franchise history." Showing his gratitude at the plate, Piazza went 2-for-6, with a double and a run, to cap his career.