The Great American Baseball Thrift Book (1946-1970?) - Page 15 (2024)

Syd Thrift

Join Date: May 2004

Posts: 10,311

## Standings / Recap / Comments3

AMERICAN LEAGUE

LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST

Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%Detroit 41 27 .603 - W3 339 245 .288 57 63 3.30 3.3 5.8 .983 34.3 43.4New York 38 32 .543 4 L3 322 332 .249 78 16 4.36 2.6 4.9 .982 4.1 36.9Boston 34 32 .515 6 W2 290 238 .274 55 32 3.42 3.0 5.8 .980 34.1 42.3Baltimore 27 35 .435 11 L2 249 277 .249 54 27 3.92 3.8 5.1 .976 6.3 43.1Milwaukee 28 40 .412 13 W3 290 350 .265 48 48 4.58 3.6 5.0 .979 -14.4 31.6Cleveland 27 42 .391 14½ L3 255 326 .247 62 25 4.43 3.5 5.5 .981 6.2 31.6

LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST

Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%Chicago 41 24 .631 - W3 292 239 .263 57 36 3.27 3.6 4.9 .981 31.1 38.6Texas 39 25 .609 1½ W1 269 209 .264 46 26 2.94 3.5 5.0 .984 36.6 41.4California 34 34 .500 8½ L1 301 306 .261 52 54 3.99 3.4 4.9 .980 24.0 42.9Oakland 35 36 .493 9 L3 278 293 .265 47 32 3.78 3.1 5.0 .980 12.9 36.8Kansas City 35 38 .479 10 L1 350 371 .258 50 31 4.56 3.8 4.7 .982 11.2 29.7Minnesota 26 40 .394 15½ W1 253 302 .247 63 34 4.08 3.4 5.2 .976 7.0 28.3

NATIONAL LEAGUE

LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST

Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%St. Louis 41 26 .612 - L1 283 251 .254 69 19 3.45 2.8 5.8 .983 19.2 47.8Philadelphia 40 27 .597 1 L1 324 263 .250 51 46 3.51 3.0 5.2 .978 21.7 43.5Chicago 39 33 .542 4½ W1 280 267 .258 57 34 3.51 3.3 4.7 .986 38.1 40.7New York 32 32 .500 7½ L1 213 246 .252 28 41 3.45 3.4 5.0 .982 16.8 47.6Pittsburgh 32 34 .485 8½ W1 206 219 .239 26 13 3.05 2.7 6.0 .982 17.7 41.7Montreal 22 41 .349 17 W1 257 323 .250 45 29 4.22 3.4 5.2 .977 5.3 35.6

LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST

Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%Houston 41 32 .562 - W4 312 297 .258 71 28 3.63 3.7 5.7 .977 10.8 29.6Cincinnati 35 35 .500 4½ L2 283 273 .248 57 30 3.58 2.9 5.8 .979 2.9 30.2San Diego 36 36 .500 4½ W2 282 242 .255 39 31 2.97 3.3 5.2 .978 42.7 43.6Atlanta 35 37 .486 5½ L2 273 255 .255 54 20 3.22 3.0 6.0 .982 4.3 31.1Los Angeles 31 41 .431 9½ W2 240 274 .247 71 21 3.29 3.1 5.3 .977 38.0 34.8San Francisco 32 42 .432 9½ L7 265 308 .249 53 46 3.65 3.0 5.4 .981 11.8 32.7

We're now deep enough into the season that teams with hot streaks can fall back and teams who went cold for a while can still be good. Case in point for item 1: the Giants, who are now 4-18 for the month of June after looking like a surprise early contender with a 15-6 start to their season. They have TOO BEEE FAAAAAIR traded off their top power hitter and their stopper, both of which though look like heavily prescient moves to me. On the other hand you have the Tigers, who just went from a 1-9 glut - that included a 1-5 record against the last-place Twins and Indians by the way - to winning 3 straight against the 2nd place Yankees to break the AL East back open.

The White Sox by the way are the #1 ranked team in baseball, which, I guess you'd expect given the fact that they also have the best record. The yuppies of the week, though, are the Red Sox, who moved from 15th to 7th in the power rankings with, quite frankly, a kind of easy week against the Brewers and Orioles, which they only finished 5-3... but I guess the 5 wins were good wins?... and the White Sox' North Side rivals the Cubs, who blasted up the rankings from 16th to 8th. The Cubs' won-lost record is also not snappy last week - just 4-3 - but they at least beat the 1st place Cards in 2 of 3 games and split with the defending NL champ Pirates.

Nobody came close to falling as hard as the Orioles did this past week, going from 10th (how?) all the way to 20th thanks to a 1-5 week against two teams - the Yankees and those Red Sox - a contending team really could have used to gain ground against. The O's are obviously not contenders but man, that would have been nice!

A brief aside here: yeah, this is sort of my youth (the author wasn't born yet but the 70s and 80s are pretty similar in a low of ways) but this feels like it's getting right into my wheelhouse as a baseball fan. There's a really nice mix of speed and power, of great defense, boneheaded errors, great relief pitching but also lots and lots of great starters who can complete games... look, I'm not saying today's game is, like, worse, and ever since they enforced the pitch clock I find it very watchable, but this is the game I grew up with and the variety, it's fun.

## Major Transactions

## News
June 18: The Washington Summit between President Nixon and Societ Communist Party First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev begins at the White House, and a state dinner takes place in the evening. The meal: Soviet borscht with mayonnaise (not really).

June 18: Operation End Sweep, the clearing of sea mines by the US that had been placed in the harbors of North Vietnam, resumes after a joint communique had been signed by the two sides in Paris. Minesweeping had been suspended on April 15 after the US had accused North Vietnam of failing to abide by the January 18 peace accords.

June 18: Gordie Howe, who'd played in the NHL for more than 30 years before stepping down in 1971 to accept a front office position with the Detroit Red Wings, signs on to play for the Western Hockey Association's Houston Aeros. The Aeros also sign his 2 sons, Mark and Marty Howe, who, both under 20 years of age, are ineligible for the NHL draft.

June 18: Actress June Depardieu, also the daughter of Gerard Depardieu, is born in Paris.

June 18: Fredrak Fraske, a German-born US Army veteran, dies today. He's the last surviving participant in the American Indian Wars. Fraske enlisted in 1894 at the age of 21 and served for 3 years preparing for a confrontation at Fort D.A. Russell, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, that never occurred. Fraske was interviewed later on the subject and said that he was glad to have never fired a shot against Native Americans and did not feel any ill will towards them. He went on to work as a building painter in Chicago for 40 years, retiring only because union rules said that nobody over 65 could be employed at that job, and then worked for another 23 years as a security guard for the Salerno-McGowan biscuit company, only retiring at 88.

June 18: 18 year old PHENOM CF Penn Gillette, the first overall pick, agreed to terms with Milwaukee and joins their rookie complex. Hooray Penn Gillette, even though you have to play for the Brewers!

June 18: As expected from that ol' review of last week's hitting leaders, Angels 1B Chris Seek (.365, 10, 43) is indeed the AL Player of the Week. Seek has completely turned around his game: for his career he still has just 22 HRs in 532 games and 1,560 at-bats but 10 of them are this season. It was crazy enough that he opened with 5 in 130 at-bats in Texas but after getting traded to the Big A he's gotten 5 more so, no signs of stopping. He just won PotW on the 4th so this is 2 in 3 weeks; I'd say he's got a great shot at Batter of the Month.

June 18: In the NL it's a rare (well, 2nd time in 2 weeks since Robert Rivera got it in the AL last week) pitcher PotW. The Mets' Julio Sandoval (4-4, 3.28) did all his good pitching for the year last week, going 2-0 with 2 shutouts, allowing just 6 hits in 18 innings, walking 5 and striking out 12. This was Sandoval's first-ever Player of the Week award although he's also in the past won the Pitcher of the Month for April 1969 and even finished 2nd in Cy Young Award voting that year (the first year I took over the league; he went 18-7, 2.69 and has been chasing that glory ever since).

June 18: SYD THRIFT'S NEATO STAT OF THE WEEK covers the top rookie starting pitchers by innings pitched. These guys don't get highlighted much so heeeeeeey!

5. CIN Vincent "Sad Face" "that dude from Ghost" Schiavelli (5-4, 2.98), 66.1 IP
4. CIN Tracey Larazabal (1-6, 4.54) 69.1 IP but currently in AAA Indianapolis
3. MIN Svetislav Pesic (5-5, 3.09), 70.0 IP
2. STL Tom Waits (5-4, 4.56), 75.0 IP and currently in AAA Tulsa
1. MIN Ergot Newman (3-7, 3.61), 87.1 IP

Interesting that 4 of the 5 guys are from two of the teams, right? Right?

June 18: Is this the new low for the Tigers? Detroit loses 4-3 to the Indians for their 7th loss in a row. It was a 1-1 tie through 7 before 3B Joe Theismann (.207, 0, 2) broke the game open with a bases-clearing, 2-RBI double in the top of the 8th. The Tigers then pulled starter Chris Benavides (6-3, 3.54), who'd done well to get out of jams but clearly didn't have his best stuff tonight, in favor of closer Jim Marceau (3-2, 1.85, 5 Sv), who gave up a 2-out double to LF Josh Birley (.235, 0, 4) that tied the game and then a single to 3B Tony Aguillon (.263, 0, 5) that brought Birley home for the game-winner.

This is now Detroit's 7th straight loss. Also, the Indians have won 3 in a row to at least climb into a tie for last in the AL East depending on what Milwaukee does today (they host the Red Sox).

June 18: Oakland and KC played an insane back and forth game today, filled with clutch hits. The Royals led 2-0 through 7 but then the A's got to starter Henry Rollins (8-2, 2.98), who allowed two of his 5 walks tonight to the first 3 batters he faced and, after a bases-clearing double by DH Casey Satterfield (.283, 9, 39) tied the game, they had to send in their bullpen ace, recently acquired Jake Duckett (2-2, 3.63). Duckett did shut the A's down but it was close.

Then the Royals erupted for 3 in the bottom of the inning off of setup man Ben Lamar (2-1, 4.38), who was very wild tonight with 3 walks in his lone inning of play. C Mike Perez (.201, 8, 23) and 2B James Ellroy (.293, 2, 40) both doubled in that inning; in fact, Ellroy's hit came with the bases loaded and brought all 3 runners in. So... up 5-2, the Royals went back to Duckett... who allowed 4 runs to give Oakland their first lead of the night at 6-5. Credit RF Tommy Pron (.322, 3, 26) with the big hit there, another double that brought in 2 of the runs.

This set the stage for Willis Chavez (3-5, 2.25) to enter the game and steal a win in Royals Stadium, right? Yeah, not so much. 1B Alonzo Rivera (.315, 0, 28), staying in for some lefty-on-lefty action, singled past 2B Izzy Gaytan (.235, 1, 11) to lead off. Next, Mike Perez also laid down a beautiful bunt, so beautiful in fact that A's C Texas Josh Lewis (.278, 4, 22) had to rush his throw to first - that throw went wide and the Royals immediately had runners on 2nd and 3rd. CF Allen Scurry (.212, 1, 7) was then intentionally walked to set up the force-out at home, which they even got with the next hitter: 3B Ryan Newton (.204, 0, 5), who'd previously entered the game as a pinch-hitter, grounded out 4-2. Then Dave Corona came up and engineered a long, 9 pitch at-bat that finally ended... in a bases loaded walk! The next man, James Ellroy, had already been a Athletic killer tonight and he came through one last time with a single in the left-side hole to win it.

"The fans don't always like it when we do this," admitted Dave Corona, who walked twice in this game, afterwards. "But they do appreciate it." Duckett, by the way, "earned" the vultured victory, his 2nd in Royal blue in 6 games.

June 18: The knock on Phillies' SP Billy Ording (9-3, 3.80) is that he lacks good stamina. Well, that and he's not the fastest pitcher in the world. Today he hoped to prove some of his doubters wrong by working 128 pitches in a complete game shutout of the Mets. He didn't technically neeeeed to do it, since his team scored 10 runs in the game, but you know how it goes: a starter's doing well and has a chance to get that shuttie, you leave them in.

"That ties my record," said Ording following the game. Ording did indeed throw his 2nd shutout of the year, which matches what the man with a career 57-51 record did in 1970 and 1972. "Mark my words, I'm gonna break it." The W also puts Ording all alone in 2nd place in the NL in victories, behind teammate Richard Starkey (11-4, 2.80).

June 18: Even with 1B Antonio Lopez (.259, 3, 13) back, the Cubs prove unable to put together runs and it costs them their 8th straight loss in a 12 inning debacle against the Pirates. Lopez did get 2 hits - both singles - in his first game back in more than a month (he was sidelined with a broken hand) but even against Pirates spot starter Danny Perez (1-5, 5.03) it wasn't enough, as they could only score twice in regulation and then it stayed that way until a tired Jesse Kelly (5-3, 1.88) allowed 2 men to reach on singles and then allowed a base hit to 2B Henry Villar (.261, 0, 11) to lose it.

Somehow the Cubs are 4th in the NL in scoring but man, I really really do not see it right now.

June 19: The Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres at the Royal Court Theatre in London for the first of what will become 2,690 stage performances and a 1975 film.

June 19: The Brewers' King Decker (3-1, 2.76) is not exactly the picture of SP talent but I guess when you play the Red Sox, sometimes you don't have to be. In the opening game of a midweek doubleheader, Decker shut down Boston on 6 hits for a 2-0 win and his 2nd shutout of the season in 4 starts with his new club. Okay, maybe he is the picture of SP talent. On the other hand, he is a known Canadian.

June 19: This is why Jimmy Goddard (12-1, 2.12) is an ace. Staring down a 7 game losing streak, took the game into his own hands, shutting the Indians down for 1 run on 5 hits and perservering until his teammates blew open a 2-1 lead into an 8-1 win. Goddard, who's now 4th in the AL in strikeouts (78) through sheer force of will, tied a season high with 7 of them in this game. I will grant you, Cleveland is not exactly a powerhouse but at this point a win's a win.

June 19: Speaking of players I would not call "good", Yankees CF Micah MacMillan (.254, 1, 9) is... one of them. He hit just .193 last year and is only on the Yanks' roster right now because my attempts to fill the position with Marc Ash (.130, 1, 6 before being sent down to AAA Syracuse) failed miserably. Well... today MacMillan tied a Yankees record with 5 hits, raising his average this year from .194 to .254 all at once. Like, I'll give this to the 28 year old: when he hits below the Timonen Line, it's not because he isn't trying hard enough.

June 19: Hey, when you're on an 8 game losing streak, what better way to stop it than to face a team that can't hit? That's what the Cubs did today when they won both sides of a midweek double-header, 3-2 and 6-1, against the struggling Pirates. In the first game, Gordon "Sting" Summer (5-2, 2.48) managed to give up just 1 run over 7.2 innings in spite of constantly having to pitch out of james (he left in the 8th with 13 hits and 4 walks allowed); the go-ahead runs came in from LF Mike Schurke (.290, 2, 12) off of Pittsburgh's DJ "Old Money" Cheeves (4-9, 3.91). In Game 2, Chicago's bats finally erupted in the 8th with 4 runs off of reliever Brian "We don't talk about" Bruno (0-1, 7.94), pitching in relief of freshly called up Viktor Yanukyovych (0-1, 2.57), who made his MLB debut tonight. The last time the Cubs scored as many as 6 runs was on the 9th of this month.

Pittsburgh meanwhile falls to 1-6 in their last 7, which also came over the last 5 days so they were gassed already. That explains the pitching staff; the hitting is just not there. The 1972 NL pennant winners currently sit at 29-32 at 5th in the division, 8 games out of 1st and 2 1/2 away from 4th. They're dead last in baseball in runs scored (201), average (.242), and steals (just 10). This team looks like it got old in a big, big hurry.

June 19: In Philadelphia, Vince "Eligible" Bachler (2-1, 2.35) did Eligible Bachler things today, by which I mean he somehow shut out the Mets with his array of smoke and mirrors, 2-0. He never quite looked overpowering tonight but he kept getting out of runners-on-base situations, thanks in part to 2 double plays by his infield. C Nikolai Volkoff (.233, 3, 20) hit what turned out to be the game-winning solo HR off of ohn Mash (6-3, 3.29) in the 2nd and Bachler himself drove in the other run with a 4th inning single (2B Nate Rowe (.204, 1, 19) scored on the play).

Bachler started the year in AAA so this was only his 4th start and 1st complete game and shutout. He did have 3 shutolas last year.

June 19: Strikeouts are down throughout the league but nobody tell San Diego's Tim Anderlik (5-7, 3.18). The veteran right-hander set a personal best with 11 Ks in a 4-0 shutout victory over the Astros. Anderlik, who's not exactly a whiff specialist, is averaging 5.7 of them per 9 innings this year (59 in 93.1 IP), which is above the league average of 5.3 as well as his personal 5.3.

"I'm better than people think," protested Anderlik after the game. He does have 6 complete games this year, 1 off from his career high he set in 1970 when he went 15-9, 3.09. This was also his 2nd shutout, which already matches his career best.

June 20: Former Argentine President Juan Peron, who'd been pushed out in a miltary coup and forced into exile in 1955, returns to his old country, accompanied by his wife Isabel (Evita, if you've ever seen the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, died of cancer while he was originally in office) and current Argentinian President Hector Campona. Peron's plane is forced to land at an Argentinian Air Force base instead of the public airport which was reportedly swamped by as many as 3.5 million people awaiting his return.

June 20: This deserves a separate story... camoflaged snipers from the right wing of Peronism (Campora is a member of the left-wing Peronist faction and he'd just come into power on May 25) open fire on a crowd gathering to hear Peron speak. Targetting left-wingers, they murder at least 13 and there are reportedly 365 people injured during what is now known as the Ezeiza Massacre.

June 20: Chino Moreno, best known as the primary vocalist and primarily lyricsts of the Deftones, is born in Sacramento today.

June 20: Bad, bad, bad news for the Tigers' Danny Villegas (.230, 3, 13)... that whole move to DH thing, which was supposed to help him play more, has not worked out that way and today the worst possible news came back from the leg injury he suffered on the 17 while running the bases. Turns out, he tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. His 3 runs and 13 RBI are the lowest totals since his two second-half call-ups in '62 and '63, when he played a total of 64 at-bats mostly as a pinch-hitter.

It's not outlandish that this could be the end of Villegas', who just turned 36 on the 10th, career; if so, he'll have finished with 187 HRs and 541 RBIs, all for Detroit. For now, the injury does open up the logjam a bit; Jose "Joker" Ayala (.329, 12, 38) now gets to DH full time while potential Gold Glove candidate Joe Theismann (.250, 0, 3) gets a shot at starting full time.

June 20: Man oh man it is definitely not 1972 anymore. The Brewers, who spent a big chunk of last season looking like they were going to set a new record in futility for runs scored (they did wind up with the lowest BA in American League history with a .221 but their 478 runs scored didn't quite crack the top 3 worst ever), blew up Red Sox ace Michael Pesco (7-10, 3.33), knocking him out in the 4th and cruising to a 12-4 win. LF Steve Winwood (.273, 10, 30), who, when he isn't playing, fronts the band Traffic, set a new Brewers' record with 7 RBIs with a 3-4, 2 HR night.

"I'm just here when they call on me," said Winwood after the game. "Come and see me. I'm the same boy I used to be." We would beg to differ: while Winwood cracked 24 HRs in 285 at-bats in short season A ball in 1970, he's never quite showed this kind of power in the higher minors, let alone the major leagues.

June 21: The US Supreme Court issues a landmark decision in Miller v California that sets a three-prong standard for whether or not material is obscene and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. It announces a standard that has "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" in a 5-4 decision, what will now be known as the "Miller test".

June 21: The US Hockey Hall of Fame is opened in Eveleth, Minnesota to honor American ice hockey not enshrined in the regular Hockey Hall of Fame. At this time, only two Americans born outside of Canada are members of the latter. You will not have heard of any of them. The USHHOF inducts 24 people, including the two guys who are already in the normal one, one of whom is named "Hobey".

June 21: Frank Leahy, a college football coach for Boston College and Notre Dame, dies at 64. He went 107-13-9 (9 ties!) during his time as a coach, to this day the second best record in NCAA history behind fellow Fighting Irishman Knute Rockne. Leahy was only 64 when he passed but hadn't coached a game in 20 years. He spent his final years working as an executive for a vendince machine company before dying of congestive heart failure.

June 21: The hits just keep on coming at the Cubs... now 2B Juan "The Cat" Perez (.295, 13, 37), who had to come out of the first game of the double-header on Sunday after a throw from 2nd, learned that he tore his rotator cuff on the play and will miss the rest of the season. Perez had been holding down the fort while 1B Antonio Lopez (.259, 3, 14) and RF Jeremy Taylor (.299, 7, 18) were out. Now that Lopez is back and Taylor is due to come back around the beginning of next week, the Cubbies find yet another hole that needs filling.

June 21: All good things come to an end and for the Chicago White Sox I mean their 8 game winning streak, which was snapped in Comiskey Park by the A's, 6-2. Rich Reese (8-3, 2.27) pitched his worst game of the season by far, allowing all 6 of Oakland's runs before leaving in the 6th after having given up two walks and a 3-run homerun to SS Brian Wilcox (.266, 4, 18). On Oakland's side of the ledger, Carlos Torres (5-9, 4.64) pitched 8 really solid innings before getting lit up a bit in the 9th; however, Willis Chavez (3-5, 2.20) was able to go in there and indice C Robert Keith (.111, 0, 0) to hit into a bases-loaded, game-ending 3-2-3 double play.

The good news for Chicago is, this 8 game spurt leaves them 1/2 a game up on the Rangers in first place in the AL West with a record of 38-23. Texas, who didn't play today, is one game back in the win column at 37-23. For what it's worth, these two teams have only played twice so far, a midweek series back in April that Chicago swept, 6-3 and 2-1. They play... oh wow. They play a *6* game, 4 day series in Texas starting on July 2 that includes 2 straight double-headers on the 3rd and the 4th. That won't be for *all* the marbles but man, it'll sure be fore a lot of them...

June 21: Cardinals 3B Mike Galeana (.214, 7, 32) has had a rough time of it this year but he's been showing some signs of turning it around. Case in point: a 2 HR night tonight, with the biggest bang coming in the bottom of the 15th inning with a man on and his team 3-2. Montreal's Hector Giron (0-1, 2.35) delivered him a meatball right out over the heart of the plate and Galeana crushed it to send the approximately 17 fans remaining home happy (okay, wait, this was in Busch so maybe most of them were there) with the 4-3 win. Phil Bowman (1-2, 3.04) never really looked comfortable out there, walking 3 and allowing 4 hits, but still managed to sock away 4 innings of 1-run ball to earn the victory.

"I've been spending some extra time in the cage before games trying to find my power stroke," Galeana said after the game. "I think I found it." The stats agree: 4 of his 7 HRs have come in 18 June games, and if he's still only hitting .211 for the month, well, Mike Galeana has never been a high average hitter.

June 21: And as one streak ends another... well, it didn't begin today but the Reds now are on a 7 gamer themselves. They took down the Giants 6-4 and in the process reached .500 for the first time this year since April 7, when they also beat these Giants to even their record at 1-1. Times got a little tough in the interim, with them dropping as low as 11-20 at one point, but so far in June they're 12-6 and once again look like they might just be the darlings of the West.

Today they scored 5 times off of Giants starter Sam Williams (4-9, 4.64) in the 5th, KOing him in the process, and that's generally enough vs San Francisco. RF Jaden Weaver's (.251, 17, 57) grand salami is what finally chased Williams. Bullet Bill Vanover (9-3. 2.53) was... fiiiine with 4 runs allowed over 8 innings before turning it over to stopper Brian Yates (5-2, 1.27), who threw a scoreless 9th for his 7th save in as many chances.

San Francisco, meanwhile, who waved the white flag with a couple of key trades in spite of a 15-9 April, are now just 4-14 for the month and are in danger of falling behind last-place Los Angeles if this continues.

June 21: I might have overdone the Stuff ratings for Atlanta's Colin "Knucksie" Rose (5-2, 1.81). He had himself quite a game tonight: not only did he shut out the Dodgers 4-0 on 5 hits with 6 Ks, the 29 year old right-hander slugged his first-ever major league homerun, the 2nd of back-to-back jacks off of newly called-up starter Mahfuzur Rahman Khan (1-1, 0.00) (all 4 runs charged to Rahman Khan are unearned thanks to 3 LA errors in the game).

"Yep, I throw the knuckleball," said Rose after the game. "Not the spitter at all. The knuckler."

June 22: Nixon and visiting Soviet premier Brezhnev signs the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War. Later in the day, they fly together on the Air Force One jet plane from Andrews Air Force Base to the El Toro Marine Station in California, and then are driven together to the "Western White House", Nixon's private vacation home at San Clemente.

June 22: The UN Security Council votes unanimously in favor of UNSC Resolution 335 to recommend that the General Assembly admits both West and East Germany, simultaneously, as voting members.

June 22: The Skylab 2 mission astronauts return to Earth after having spent four weeks as the first Americans on an orbiting space station. Sorry, brief mention in "House of Leaves": no revolts happened.

June 22: Mark Felt resigns as Deputy Director of the FBI, having taken over the job the day after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. You'll recall that Felt has been secretly informing Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about the details of the Watergate scandal investigation, known only to the public by the code name "Deep Throat". This secret will only be revealed in 2005.

June 22: Every time I think these Pirates have sunk as low as they can sink on offense, they figure out new ways to sink even lower. Tonight, Josh Mullett (5-4, 3.08), the Astros' castoff best known for allowing just enough runs to still win games, at least for a while, shut the Bucs out on 3 hits but, get this, 8 walks and 5 strikeouts. Mullett does work low in the zone but even at that he only got 1 double play today. No, he just avoided the top 4 bats in the order, who got 6 of the bases on balls, and got outs from everyone else.

Santos Arango (7-6, 2.94), who already had kind of a tough-loss campaign in 1972 (20-15 in spite of a 2.63) ERA, got the loss because he allowed a solo HR to 1B Jim Davis (.241, 7, 12) in the 2nd inning. "I'm not gonna lie," said Arango following this one, "I'm frustrated. The fans are frustrated. We're all frustrated." The loss dips Pittsburgh to 31-33. The last time they scored more than 3 runs in a game was a week ago: last Friday's 8-6 loss to the Reds. In fact, they've scored more than 3 runs a total of 3 times this month.

June 22: Just as struggling teams seem to find new ways to lose, red-hot teams find new ways to win. The Reds, for instance, saw 28 year old swingman Graham Panarello (5-2, 2.46), who was 8-9, 4.58 for the Reds last year, win a 1-0 shutout against the best pitcher in the National League in Fernando Apolonio (8-6, 2.21). It didn't hurt that Apolonio's team is the Dodgers but hey, he more than got the job done. The Reds got their only run in the 5th when 2B Pedro Ortiz (.253, 4, 30) doubled in CF Manny Trillo (.204, 1, 11).

That's 8 straight for Cincy, their first taste at being over .500 all year, and it puts them 2 games behind 1st place Houston with the Astros' game pending.

June 23: The winner of East Germany's gliding championship, Ude Elke, escapes across the fortified border to West Germany by, you guessed it, piloting his glider off a hill at Neustadt-Glewe (okay, you didn't guess that part). Feel like they probably should have seen that coming...

June 23: The first votes are cast in the 1973 Ethiopian general election, which will continue until July 7. These will be the final elections under imperial rule.

June 23: Borussia Monchengladbach (lots of umlauts in there too) beat 1. FC Koln to win West Germany's soccer playoffs. The first place finisher in the regular season, Bayern Munich, had been eliminated in the quarterfinals, setting the stage for the overly-longed named team to win.

June 23: 36 year old Chris Wilson (0-0, 3.09, 1 Sv), apparently not happy with merely being the 2nd guy out of the bullpen with the Cubs, wants to be in the rotation. He did start 16 games last year with Oakland. Against my better judgment, I think I will replace 5th starter Max Weinberg (3-3, 2.64 but underwater in the Ks and BBs) with him, at least for now. I'm probably switching to a 4 man rotation sooner or later...

June 23: The Tigers have gotten to a point, it seems, where the only way they can win is by putting Jimmy Goddard (13-1, 1.99) on the mound. The Tigers righty threw his 3rd shutout today to stop the Yankees short, 2-0. John Carpenter (10-7. 3.86) dueled him for the full 9 and came up just short. RF Frankie Faison (.339, 4, 32) drove in backup C Joel Moise (.238, 2, 16) to bring home the winning run in the 3rd but truth be told, Detroit wasn't exactly churning out offense tonight themselves.

Goddard looks well on pace to besting his career highs of 18 wins, 11 complete games, and 5 shutouts, all of which he set last year.

June 23: Okay, so granted, it was against the Dodgers, but Reds SP Vincent Schiavelli (6-4, 2.63) threw a real gem today with a 3-hitter with 10 Ks to knock off LA in Dodger Stadium, 3-0. "All my pitches were working today," Schiavelli said, sadly, after the game. LF RJ Dominguez (.317, 10, 42) went 3-4 with an RBI single in the 1st to bring home 2B Pedro Ortiz (.252, 4, 30) in the top of the 1st for what turned out to be the only run Schiavelli needed.

This was Schiavelli's first-ever major league 10 K game and shutout, which is to be expected given that it's just his 10th career ML start. He also struck out 10 batters last year against Reading while playing for AA Trois Rivieres.

June 23: His team might be falling apart around him but Dodgers starter Andres Castillo (8-4, 2.93) is having a good year against the grain and today the 36 year old notched his 200th career win, doing just enough to bring his team a W at home, 4-3. Castillo went 7.1 innings, allowing 3 runs, 2 of them earned, on 7 hits. His fastball, once a mid to high 90s beast, sat in the high 80s tonight but had some nice rotation and that with his always-devastating change got him 8 Ks this evening.

"It's a nice milestone," said Castillo after the game, "but I'm not done yet." Alec Cosby (2-6, 4.11, 6 Sv) relived him in the 8th and and, what seems like a rarity nowadays, was scoreless the rest of the way for the save. 2B Danny fa*ger (.281, 6, 16) got the clutch hit of the night with a 2-run single that tied the game at 2 in the 5th. He's been sitting a lot recently because of a sprained wrist (in fact, even now Ben Toscano (.176, 1, 4) too tired to play and also bad, the game refuses to start him and makes me manually add him into games) but when he plays, he's the same Danny fa*ger he's always been.

June 24: A fire kills 32 and injures 14 at the UpStairs Lound, a gay bar in New Orleans. Most of the persons killed are trapped inside the building by bars across the three front windows. The blaze will be determined to be caused by arson, no evidence is ever uncovered that it's a hate crime, with the person considered the most likely suspect a gay man who'd been recently made to leave the bar earlier. It will stay the worst attack on a gay bar until the Pulse Night Club shooting in 2016.

June 24: Leonid Brezhnev issues a 47 minute speech to the American public on television, the first Soviet leader to address the US. His speech had been pre-recorded earlier in the afternoon and then broadcast that evening at 6pm in each US time zone on a rolling basis. Among other things, he says that "Mankind has outgrown the rigid 'cold war' armor which it was once forced to wear." That 'rigid cold war armor' will nevertheless continue being worn for another 17 years.

June 24: G Raymond Rettew, an American biologist who pioneered the mass production of penicillin during World War II and prevented tens of thousands of wounded US troops from becoming fatally infected, died today.

June 24: All Star Game voting update!

Below are the current standings for the American League All-Star Fan voting (as of Sun. Jun. 24th , 1973) for the All-Star Game, which will be played on Tue. Jul. 24th , 1973. The top vote getter at this point is Alice Cooper with 665,241 votes.

CATCHER
1. Josh Lewis, Oakland Athletics: 417,484
2. Frank Abagnale, Baltimore Orioles: 378,289
3. John Lennon, Cleveland Indians: 265,294

FIRST BASE
1. Alice Cooper, Chicago White Sox: 665,241
2. Angelo Martinez, Minnesota Twins: 456,733
3. Mike Miller, Boston Red Sox: 439,240

SECOND BASE
1. Geoffrey Rush, Texas Rangers: 390,225
2. Bill Murray, Baltimore Orioles: 383,738
3. Rodrigo Juarez, California Angels: 371,646

THIRD BASE
1. Tom Weiss, New York Yankees: 484,202
2. Jose Ayala, Detroit Tigers: 467,977
3. Bobby Ramirez, Texas Rangers: 436,754

SHORTSTOP
1. John Johnson, Chicago White Sox: 432,892
2. Oniji Handa, Boston Red Sox: 346,245
3. Rob Curran, Detroit Tigers: 342,815

LEFT FIELD
1. Tony Danza, Kansas City Royals: 565,693
2. Bruce Springsteen, Boston Red Sox: 491,520
3. Jared Ferrell, California Angels: 306,892

CENTER FIELD
1. Alvin Romero, Detroit Tigers: 482,795
2. Ronnie Hellström, Minnesota Twins: 340,165
3. Frank Beard, Baltimore Orioles: 308,388

RIGHT FIELD
1. Tommy Pron, Oakland Athletics: 425,733
2. Dave Corona, Kansas City Royals: 414,223
3. Frankie Faison, Detroit Tigers: 376,345

DESIGNATED HITTER
1. Ernesto Garcia, New York Yankees: 609,011
2. Joey Ramone, Detroit Tigers: 521,587
3. Jeff Nation, Chicago White Sox: 317,069

STARTING PITCHER
1. Justin Kindberg, Boston Red Sox: 238,888
2. Jimmy Goddard, Detroit Tigers: 237,285
3. Michael Pesco, Boston Red Sox: 211,707
4. Rich Reese, Chicago White Sox: 210,961
5. Chad Daugharty, Texas Rangers: 209,651

RELIEVER
1. Montay Luiso, California Angels: 287,007
2. Malcolm Post, Chicago White Sox: 236,228
3. Jim Marceau, Detroit Tigers: 219,930
4. Willis Chavez, Oakland Athletics: 213,757
5. Jake Duckett, Kansas City Royals: 185,786

In 267 career games, Cooper has put up a .279 average, collected 35 doubles, 5 triples, and 84 home runs, driven in 198 runs, and scored 174 times.

Below are the current standings for the National League All-Star Fan voting (as of Sun. Jun. 24th , 1973) for the All-Star Game, which will be played on Tue. Jul. 24th , 1973. The top vote getter at this point is Jason Bushon with 550,854 votes.

CATCHER
1. Jason Bushon, New York Mets: 550,854
2. John Stuart, St. Louis Cardinals: 470,941
3. Doug Connally, Pittsburgh Pirates: 375,134

FIRST BASE
1. Justin Stone, Los Angeles Dodgers: 549,247
2. Joshua Waltenbery, Houston Astros: 515,203
3. Lorenzo Martinez, St. Louis Cardinals: 430,853

SECOND BASE
1. Juan Perez, Chicago Cubs: 522,866
2. Paul McCartney, San Diego Padres: 499,064
3. Kevin Dwyer, Atlanta Braves: 461,871

THIRD BASE
1. Dale Earnhardt, San Diego Padres: 456,210
2. George Harrison, San Francisco Giants: 407,591
3. Pete Little, Houston Astros: 395,220

SHORTSTOP
1. Tony Shannon, Philadelphia Phillies: 447,239
2. Ronney Yitzhaki, Los Angeles Dodgers: 299,063
3. Joe Wicker, San Diego Padres: 290,767

LEFT FIELD
1. Alberto Juantorena, Philadelphia Phillies: 488,604
2. R.J. Domínguez, Cincinnati Reds: 465,988
3. Henry Riggs, Atlanta Braves: 447,928

CENTER FIELD
1. George Foreman, Houston Astros: 525,325
2. Greg Lake, Philadelphia Phillies: 337,669
3. Mike Schurke, Chicago Cubs: 289,438

RIGHT FIELD
1. Matt Williams, St. Louis Cardinals: 449,183
2. Jaden Weaver, Cincinnati Reds: 394,088
3. Paul Kahl, Montreal Expos: 380,200

STARTING PITCHER
1. Tony Rivera, Houston Astros: 147,631
2. Fernando Apolonio, Los Angeles Dodgers: 147,414
3. Jeremy Battaglia, Pittsburgh Pirates: 135,393
4. Danny Plaunt, Philadelphia Phillies: 134,120
5. George House, Atlanta Braves: 124,953

RELIEVER
1. Geoff Saus, New York Mets: 176,915
2. Brian Bruno, Pittsburgh Pirates: 162,747
3. Pete Lynn, Cincinnati Reds: 153,308
4. Paz Lemus, Pittsburgh Pirates: 148,426
5. Alec Cosby, Los Angeles Dodgers: 140,033

Bushon has played in 768 games with a .251 career batting average and 670 hits. He has also scored 336 runs and driven in 344 runs with 75 home runs.

Jason Bushon is not my first choice for AS votes leader but Justin Stone did miss the first month of the year, I guess... still, what about Alberto Juantorena? George Foreman? Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Paul McCartney? NL voters, what do you have against the youth???

June 23: One advantage of not scoring any runs is, when you do win, it's exciting, I guess... the Pirates were locked in a scoreless tie through 6 but got a single run off of Mets starter John Sandoval (4-5, 3.12) on a sacrifice fly by backup 2B Arturo Martinez (.263, 0, 1). Even though the Bucs were putting out long man Danny Perez (2-5, 4.41) because Andy Lagunas (2-3, 3.82) is out indefinitely with a mild abdominal strain, they still managed to blank New York through 8. Then the 9th came and a clearly tiring Perez gave up a walk to 1B Jim "Garfield" Davis (.233, 7, 13), and, one out later, a single to 3B Vicente Luna (.277, 2, 21), who moved up to 2nd on the throw to 3rd.

Perez intentionally walked the next man and left it to stopper Paz Lemus (7-1, 1.51) to get the final two outs. Bubba Wilson (.263, 1, 4) came in to pinch-hit just needing to hit the ball out of the infield to tie this one. He struck out on 4 pitches. Then John W Henry (.304, 0, 6) stepped in for the pitcher and on an 0-1 pitch hit a line drive into right... which was right at RF Brian Jackson (.234, 3, 23), who squeezed it to win the game.

## Teams in Review
June 22: Hey, it's time for 40-loss reviews! We'll start with the Cleveland Indians (27-40, 12 GB), who were projected to be bad and have been bad. That said, they've actually been very good this month (13-7) after a 4-17 April made it look like they'd be the second coming of those late 60s A's teams or something. Like any rebuilding team should be, they're pretty much equally bad offensively (10th in runs) as defensively (9th in runs allowed). The one thing they do well - ironically since they traded away Ernesto Garcia - is hit dingers; they're 2nd in the AL with 61 of them.

Rotation: Everything is pretty bad but nobody is like "ERA of a jet plane" level of bad. I'm considering removing Lee Evans (0-3, 4.95) because his K/W ratio is south of where it should be (25 BBs, 18 Ks) but he was explosive in 8 starts in AAA OKC before he got the call-up (5-1, 1.13, 59 Ks in 63.2 IP) and was... fine last year with Texas (3-5, 3.88 although also a backwards K/BB) so I think I'm going to leave the 25 year old Olympic hurdler in.

Bullpen: Miguel Chavez (2-5, 6.85) though... this guy led the Royals in wins last year with a 13-9, 4.17 mark. What happened? I mean, part of that, you can answer for yourself with the ERA: he kept the high-octane Royals in games but he's kind of not that great of a pitcher. This year he's actually had some decent stuff with 32 Ks in 46 IP (6.3/9, well above the league average of 5.3) but his control has been pretty bad both in terms of missing the plate altogether (23 BBs) and missing over the plate (9 HRs allowed). I don't want to cut him just yet but he is a prime, prime candidate for a 2nd half release.

Otherwise, no literal moves right now but that's mainly because I've already taken care of Alex Madrigal (2-2, 6.48), whose Cleveland career lasted all of 3 IP before he accepted being sent down to Oklahoma City to try and... find that fastball of his.

Infield: I have really, really tried to make 1B George Bush (.182, 4, 15) work. Hell, in a universal "me" sense, I tried to make him work in Washington/Texas too. However, after a very promising 1971 (.281, 13, 40 with 24 doubles in 253 ABs) he stunk last year (.172, 4, 15) and has been just as bad this year. He's going back down to AAA, where hopefully he'll hit better in OKC than he did in Spokane (.175, 6, 13) and he'll be able to resurrect that career. He's 27 so I'm not optimistic. Oh well. His dad is the head of the CIA so maybe he still has a career in politics or something.

In his place I'll call up career minor leaguer Lorenzo Escobedo (.237, 11, 33). He seems pretty well made for the DH position and likes to hit dingers. That also means Nick Hodzic (.275, 8, 26), who's kind of a success story, I guess, is playing first full-time now.

At short, Mitt Romney (.211, 3, 19) isn't hitting and is not as good of a fielder as the sure-handed German Ybarra (.213, 0, 5), who also made the All-Star Game in 1971. Ybarra hit .180 last year, which is why he's on Cleveland now. Man... I came in thinking I was going to just let the Romneybot keep his job but no, I think Ybarra deserves another chance. Normally I wouldn't flip-flop like this but they're the same age and yeah, if Ybarra can hit at all, which, granted, he's barely doing, he's the better situation.

Outfield: I don't have a lot to do here. How did RF Brandon Anderson (.304, 10, 32) ever find his way out of Philly, though? Okay, he was injury prone BUT... he's looking an awful lot like he's going to be Cleveland's All-Star representative, he's a legit middle of the order hitter, and he provides Gold Glove quality defense in right (he could even play center should the need arise). That Nelson Vargas (.263, 0, 6) trade is already looking bad, although I guess to be fair to Vargas, he got hurt at the end of spring training and has only gotten into 10 games so far.

June 22: The Milwaukee Brewers (26-40, 12 1/2 GB) technically got to 40 losses before Cleveland but hey I didn't notice. SUE ME. In their 5th year of existence, where two of the 4 expansion teams are nearing .500 city, Milwaukee is not there yet. Weirdly, where last year their offense was all kinds of bad, this year they're 4th in the AL in runs but only Kansas City is worse at allowing runs. A big, big part of that is a league-worst -28.3 ZR (one of I think 3 teams in the negative), a dead-last defensive efficiency, and the 4th most errors in the junior circuit. So, yeah... the fielding sucks.

Rotation: Given how bad the defense has been, in fact, I feel reticent to let guys go. Marius Gaddi's (4-7, 4.54) peripherals look pretty okay - 64 Ks vs 27 BBs in 85.1 IP. He doesn't have that 1st starter type stamina in spite of being the 27 win guy from 1970 (27-5, 2.31 that year) but when you give him like 6-7 innings, he's OK, or at least he would be if the team played D behind him. Tom Bertan (5-6, 5.10) is in a similar state, although he does allow too many HRs. Also also those guys were my 1 and 2 starters going into the season and I don't want to replace either.

Bullpen: I'm like "do we neeeeed 5 relievers?" but then I see this team ERA. Caused by bad D or no, the team lets a lot of guys get on base and that just expends the bullpen. One move I will make here is that Willie Garcia (1-0, 5.79), who's somehow out of options in spite of being 25 and not all that good, is going to get sent down even if that means going the DFA route. Instead, the new guy is the Brewers' 1st round pick in 1970, one Luther Vandross (5-2, 2.55 in AAA Evanston). The R&B man and backup singer struck out 78 men in 84.1 IP; he looks ready to me. For now I'll start him in long relief but I'm sure if he keeps that up he'll find his way into the rotation if not "here and now" then soon.

Infield: Awesomely, 1B/DH Kozue Nakamura (.301, 1, 13) seems to have remembered how to hit after forgetting how last year (.174, 2, 13, although he did rake to the tune of .320, 1, 10 at AAA Evanston). That means that both him and Sergio Sicre (.279, 2, 27) get to play daily now. I'm slightly amazed, too, that Sicre isn't a complete disaster with the glove at first given the overall badness of this team on D and his reputation.

I feel like a big part of why the defense was so very bad was that SS Guido Temudo (.108, 0, 2) was out for most of the first part of the season. And now he's not hitting, even by Temudo terms. Welp... he stays in the lineup. I've been spelling him a lot with Anatoly Karpov (.323, 4, 17), who's definitely got the bat and the range but his arm screams "second base" as much as his mind screams "chess grandmaster". Looking a little closer I think I'll also use him heavily at 2nd, currently the domain of former Yankees prospect Wing-fung Yi (.256, 6, 21), who's got that kind of secondary average that the author adores but has an iffy arm even for 2nd.

Outfield: Honestly, this team doesn't really add up to horrible defense... Steve Winwood (.274, 10, 33) is decidedly below average in left and I guess the worst fielder I'm continuing to use out there but the man hits. He looks like a future middle of the order guy if not a current middle of the order guy. You live with a guy who thinks he's playing cricket in the field if he can do that.

CF Fernando Ceballos (.259, 1, 14) still has a higher average than OBP, 189 at-bats into the season. I don't dare pull him out of there with the team defense as bad as it is but also I've been hitting him leadoff and that needs to stop.

Speaking of guys I'm not about to bench, RF Jun Kim (.267, 2, 22) seems to have lost his power stroke this year. It was never like super fantastic but where you can kind of squint and see how a 13-15 HR guy could hit leadoff for you if he provides leadership and clutchosity, the same can't be said for a 7-10 HR guy, who he might not even be now. He'll drop in the order; this also allows Winwood to push up and see if he can make a run at 100 rib-eyes.

June 23: When these start to come, they come in HOT. Or cold... now I've got the Montreal Expos (21-40, 17 GB), who are, of course, very bad. How else would the Expos be? They've got some interesting parts but let's face it, they're still long ways away on both side. I guess you could say that the 4th-worst offense is ahead of the league-worst defense. They also have a negative ZR and I think unlike the Brewers not a lot of ways to easily improve that without killing the O... but hey, we'll see.

Rotation: This team is also 3rd worst in Ks and, in stats I shouldn't look at but hey, 70s guys must have had a sense of this if not the actual numbers, dead last in FIP. 33 year old Jeff Graton (2-10, 4.11) is first on my list of organizational soldiers who have seen better days. All those losses... I mean, he hasn't been *that* bad but do I want a 25 game loser? Nah. He's in the bullpen now. I've replaced him with the FAR YOUNGER (read: 32 year old) Hector Giron (1-1, 1.74, 1 Sv), who's pitched a lot between here and Baltimore. Prior to 1972 he was a member of the O's rotation, too, so why not?

Otherwise, Erik Schnipke (0-5, 5.32) has been bad so far but the next step for the 30 year old is a DFA so I'm going to keep him in there for a little bit longer. Richard Dean Anderson (1-5, 5.40), on the other hand, has just not been able to mash together somewhat iffy stuff with bailing wire and duct tape... oh right, he's a Rule V pick. He's just not cutting it. I'm going to "offer him back to the Dodgers" by which I mean I'm releasing him. In his place: 28 year old career minor leaguer Matt Shaver (7-3, 2.27 in AAA Peninsula) because why not? Why, though? He's got 94 Ks in 103 AAA IPs, that's why.

Bullpen: I'm noticing this pitching staff is not only bad but also kind of old. It's not good! The top man in the bullpen, the DANGER ZONE Kenny Loggins (2-3, 2.56, 8 Sv) is gonna get used and used and used though. Daniel Roche (2-2, 2.92) has an underwater K/BB ratio but somehow he's getting results so the 35 year old stays... for now. I'm just waiting for him to get blown up so I can justify the cut in favor of someone younger, for example MY DAD (2-1, 3.68 at AAA Peninsula), who has 40 Ks in 44 AAA IPs himself after a rough start to the year in the majors (0-3, 6.75) that earned him a trip downwards.

Infield: We actually have a pretty solid catcher position and something of a logjam, as both Norman Engelman (.254, 4, 12) and Omar Villegas (.243, 2, 11) look like at-least-average catchers. Villegas is 5 years younger but Engelman has been here longer so for now the former will remain the starter. Maybe we'll re-evaluate in the second half.

There's not hitting well and then there's whatever Harry Turtledove (.169, 2, 7) has done this past month. I'm sending him down immediately to see if he can get his swing back. The man hit .362 in 35 AAA games and .331 last year in the minors, so like double what he's done in the bigs so far. That also means handing Willie Morales (.257, 5, 19) his old job back. He really looks like nothing special but... Turtledove was supposed to be the replacement.

Top prospect Phil Collins (.324, 1, 11) being out for another month suuuuuucks. He was the 3rd baseman and now we're down to starting Adam Owens (.186, 0, 5) again. Owens looked baaad last year (.201, 3, 40 in 388 ABs) and has done nothing to show he's anything but a below-replacement-level guy so far. One thing I'll start doing, I guess out of desperation more than anything else, is mix in Danny Waters (.333, 1, 2) and Brian Hunter (.256, 1, 5) in. Waters is a failed Mets prospect and Hunger is 33 so I expect little but hey, it's only another month, right?

Outfield: All three of the guys are good enough, I'd say. There's nothing great - I mean, Willie Ortega (.247, 11, 44) is somehow 4th in the NL in RBIs, so that's nice - but for once nothing's terrible enough to warrant replacement.

June 23: Yep, hot and heavy! The Los Angeles Dodgers (29-40, 9 GB) have played more games than the Expos so they aren't really quiiiite as bad but... they're not good either. The division is technically still within their reach! It would take a lot of things turning around though. This team has an atrocious offense (10th in scoring) and a bullpen (dead last in NL ERA, 5.57) that is weighing down a league-best rotation (2.90). Alec Cosby (2-6, 4.32, 5 Sv) has been unbelievably bad lately. That should change ust on its own but... what to do here?

Rotation: The Doogers go 5 wide in their rotation. That is the Dodger way. Currently they've got 4 established guys and Mahfuzur Rahman Khan (1-1, 0.00), who's been excellent in 2 starts. The only real guy I'd even begin to look at replacing here is Ken Hansen (3-6, 4.12), who's been merely below average-ish instead of excellent. As a back of the rotation guy though that's fine and also he was not back-of-the-rotation quality his last 2 seasons in Cal (12-11, 3.10 and 14-16, 2.46).

Bullpen: Here I do feel the need to change things up... for one, we're trying to go with 4 guys and that is not really working so I'm going to send down SS Tommy Martin (.114, 0, 1 in 88 ABs) to also see if he can find his hitting stroke, and calling up 22 year old Ken Kutaragi (2-3, 2.52 at AAA Albuquerque), who's been doing... okay in the high minors. We do not rebuild! But we look at guys. I'm going to demote Rich Wilson (0-2, 7.12) to Just A Guy in the bullpen instead of being Cosby's right hand man; I'm reticent to just cut the 35 year old loose after he was so, so effective for us the past two seasons. Also, his K/W ratio is fine (16-10) and maybe he's just been unlucky to allow 4 HRs in 24 IP so far.

Infield: I've already put 25 year old Gary McCord (.277, 1, 11) in front of 28 year old Jason Davis (.247, 2, 16). Davis was the incumbent but McCord is a way better fielder and Davis hit .195 last year so it's not like I'm pulling a major bat out of the lineup.

The game keeps deciding to use Ben Toscano (.180, 1, 4) over Danny fa*ger (.282, 6, 14) at 2nd because fa*ger has a sprained wrist. Hopefully he'll be past it in a couple days. I think it's clear that even with the bum wrist, fa*ger is miles better than Toscano but the game disagrees and I will 100% forget to manually replace fa*ger much of the time.

3B Robin Gibb (.261, 9, 24) has cooled waaaaaaaay off from a hot May (he's hitting .215 in June with just 6 RBIs after a .323 May) and I think it's obvious that he can't handle batting 3rd in the order. Like, nobody else on this team hits though, outside of Justin Stone (.359, 17, 35) and Stone is the cleanup guy. This seems like a terrible idea in the waiting but utility man Ronney Yitzakhi (.286, 7, 19) is 3rd on the team in hitting behind Stone and CF/leadoff man Ross Poynor (.289, 5, 17, although "only" .273, 4, 12 with LA) so I'll try him out there.

Outfield: RF Ray Costa (.253, 5, 15) isn't hitting .208 at least (that's what he hit last year) but the 20 HR power he showed in 1971 seems to be gone. We're left with a really meh guy out there. I'm going to get Omar Vergara (.283, 2, 9) a lot more involved vs RHPs to try and jump-start this offense and sorry, Ray, but a lot of that action will come at your expense. I also recently recalled 31 year old Sam Headen (.289, 1, 9 at AAA Albuquerque) from the minors and I think I'll work him in, too.

June 23: The Minnesota Twins (25-40, 16 GB) hit the 40 loss mark with a massive thud, getting absolutely pounded by the Angels 17-1 at home in the first game of a double-header. You may ask yourself: how do you handle call-ups and such in between double-headers? Well, I just do. In spite of the score, the thing that's been killing the Twins this year is a complete lack of offense: they're dead last in the AL in average (.247), on-base percentage (.309), and 2nd worst in overall runs scored (250). Not saying the pitching is great but it's still mostly average (although after today's debacle I will surely be making some replacements just to restock the bullpen).

Rotation: I wouldn't exactly say that Pete Eason (1-2, 4.12) has "earned" a shot at the rotation; it's been more than Ricky Rosas (4-7, 4.59) has earned a spot in the bullpen. So... that being said, yeah, I'm gonna make a move here immediately. Remember Santiago Serrano (10-5, 2.49 in AAA Tacoma)? No? Well, he was pretty OK in the second half with Minnesota last year and just barely missed the cut out of spring training. The 27 year old will be slotted in to start the 2nd game immediately. Otherwise... Bill Lucas (4-6, 4.93) was kind of supposed to be the guy to become the new rock of this rotation and he's been anything but, especially in Game One today. What are you going to do? The back half looks better.

Bullpen: Paul Boerger (1-0, 6.86) is the man being sent down. It's a liiiiiitle unfair as 7 of his 16 earned runs came in the first game today when he had to mop up for Bill Lucas after Lucas got knocked out in the 3rd. His peripherals even look OK (17 Ks, 5 BB in 21 IP) but hey, needs must. Walt Gurganus (0-0, 2.93) wasn't super great in relief himself tonight but hey, he's been getting results I guess, so he'll stick.

Infield: Man, Ric Flair (.193, 1, 9) has just not been hitting at all. I'm sorry, new manager Frank Quilici, but... can we keep at this? In spite of an iffy arm he's clearly the better defender between him and incumbent Brad Reed (.222, 3, 14) and Reed isn't exactly hitting anymore either. I think what I'm going to do is send Flair back down to Tacoma to try and find his swing and call up in his place our new top catching prospect Avery Brooks (.298, 1, 3 in AAA Tacoma). Brooks started the year in AA Orlando, hence the small numbers, but he's been looking good at the plate and if nothing else might intimidate players into not stealing on him.

Second base is a problem. Man, it's too bad Aloha Dan Gilmet (.273, 4, 19) is too injury prone to use out there but he's also now looking like he's no longer an adequate fielder anyway. So it's down to former starting SS Marty Mendel (.258, 0, 6), who I'm currently giving the nod over former Pirates guy Pietro Palmarocchi (.210, 2, 12), who's a better defender and gets on base more... but is also hitting .210 with an OPS barely above 600. I'm sure he's not happy about this but he can join Brad Reed in the Unhappy Club. I also have a guy in AAA who's looking good who I might call up in the 2nd half.

At third base, options or otherwise, this was Darrel Bump's (.234, 5, 19) job to win and he did not win it. I think he has to be DFA'ed. Matt Highfield (.289, 1, 11) has been doing OK in replacement of him but given how bad this team is I'm going to call up Jeff Milligan (.292, 11, 32 in AAA Tacoma) and let him skip the line. I like that power! He's already 25 and spent the last 2 years in AA but hey, maybe he's a late bloomer. We'll find out over the next 90 games or so.

SS Justin Ramey (.195, 6, 18) could be done - he is 34 - but we'll keep using him for a bit longer, especially with all the other turmoil in the infield.

Outfield: LF Jeff Franks (.267, 3, 23) is Always a candidate to move back down to 3rd base if needed. As a left fielder he's not rally the greatest hitter in the world but hey, he's not awful so for now we'll just keep slotting him in. At some point I'd like to get Gilles Villeneuve (.286, 4, 11) more playing time and with RF Jose Villasenor (.267, 3, 9) seemingly back to normal after a rough 1972 (.208, 3, 24 in 384 at-bats) that PT may come from Franks in the second half.

June 23: Sooo many reviews this week... the San Francisco Giants (32-40, 7 1/2 GB) are up next / last this week. Hey, they're still a game and a half up on the Dodgers! They play 2 vs the Astros today so they might fall into a tie for last. Yeah... they are 4-16 for the month. It's bad! So bad that now even their peripherals look like those of a bad team: 2nd most runs allowed (although that's maybe due to playing 72 games already - they're 10th in starter ERA (3.83) and 3rd in bullpen (2.70)) and 8th in runs scored (which, if the other is bumped up, so is this so they're legit bad). They're leading the league in steals though (46)! This feels like a team that wants to break down and rebuild but hasn't quite done so yet.

Rotation: I think just for the sake of making moves I'm going to flip-flop the current #5 man Sam Williams (4-9, 4.64) and long man Oscar Amador (0-0, 0.00). Amador is younger and while Williams was a regular part of the rotation last year he was only 10-13, 3.64, which, for 1972 and Candlestick is pretty mediocre. Otherwise, Obe Olthof (4-8, 4.19) hasn't been great but is still 28 and the K/W ratio is decent (61 Ks, 24 BB in 101 IP) so I'll let him in there. Mike Stuckey (7-6, 4.62) is the other danger point but I'm not going to pull the Opening Day starter out of the lineup, at least not yet.

Bullpen: Trading the Assassin John Booth (0-0, 6.75, 1 Sv with his new team) wasn't fun but he was probably past his sell date anyway and hey, now The Test Charlie Bechtel (3-2, 3.38, 3 Sv) gets to try his luck as the team's stopper. Honestly, as the summary indicated, the bullpen has been the strength of the team. No further changes!

Infield: C Stellan Starsgaard (.333, 0, 3) is the bigger prospect and has played better than Mugur Isarescu (.207, 3, 10) so I think I'll move him into full-time play. There's a natural platoon situation there with Isarescu a lefty batter and I'm sure I'll use the Romanian economist-in-training a lot defensively.

I've been starting Phil Lynott (.230, 0, 3) at 1st even with Justin Richens (.209, 2, 21) now back. Like, Richens just doesn't look like he has much left... I think I'm going to drop him back into the lineup though so he can prove it and I'll re-evaluate in the 2nd half of the season. The theoretical power he could still bring to the middle of the lineup is too big to pass up.

Outfield: CF Mads Vindig (.293, 0, 2) is playing well enough that I might have to find a place for him in this lineup once Danny "The Phantom" Seligman (.268, 1, 11) is back from his latest injury. Probably one of them will play right because oh boy are Frank Meneses (.207, 8, 28) and Scott Lammers (.193, 5, 11) looking cooked.

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