From the Desk of the Commish

More Fun with BASE

I was planning to write an article chronicling all the bad luck the Cowtippers and Sea Cats have suffered through this season, but Marazita keeps telling me that no one cares about me anymore, so it occurred to me that no one would read it. The problem is that I have no other ideas for this month's article, and since none were offered by the denizens of the board, I have no choice but to turn to that old standby...

Fun facts from BASE (through the first three chapters only):

There have been 18 walk-off homers hit in the BDBL this season. Jayson Durocher of the Ridgebacks and Luis Vizcaino, formerly of the Fire Ants, have served up two apiece.

Pinch hitter Julio Franco of the Madison Fighting Mimes owns the only game-ending squeeze bunt in the BDBL this season (a 6-5 Mimes win over the Bear Country Jamboree.)

There has been one "walk-off hit-by-pitch" in the BDBL this year: a 10th inning HBP by Bear Country's Tim Wakefield against Los Altos batter Jack Wilson, which gave the Undertakers an 8-7 win. (Boy, I guess the Jamboree have had their fair share of bad luck this year, too!)

The Mimes lead the BDBL in successful squeeze bunts, with four (which should come as no surprise to anyone that has ever managed against Brian.) The Undertakers and Sea Cats have three each, and the Zoots, Fire Ants and Irish Rebels have two apiece.

This should come as no surprise to anyone that has played the Undertakers this year: Dave Roberts leads the BDBL with NINETEEN bunt singles. Juan Pierre of the Fire Ants comes in a very distant second with seven. Roberts is hitting .350 for Los Altos this year. Take away those bunt singles and he's hitting .276.

The Hammerheads, Heatwave and Zoots have each hit three grand slam home runs this season.

Bear Country is hitting .390/.449/.559 with the bases loaded (maybe they're not so unlucky after all!) The Black Sox are hitting .143/.154/.286 in that same situation.

The Law Dogs are hitting .338/.412/.547 with runners in scoring position. The Blazers are hitting .240/.321/.361 (which might explain their record.)

Bear Country also leads the league in pinch hitting (.310/.376/.465 with 6 pinch hit home runs.) Wapakoneta's pinch hitters trail the league at .170/.268/.358.

Marlboro leads the league in pinch hit at-bats (244), followed by Salem (242) and Stamford (223).

As I pointed out earlier this year, Stamford's pinch hitters are hitting .328/.393/.512 at home, and .235/.348/.337 on the road.

Alex Gonzalez of the Fire Ants is 8-for-10 against Cleveland's Rick Reed this year. Barry Bonds OWNS Greg Maddux (4-for-5 with 2 HR's and 5 BB's). Pat Burrell is 9-for-12 with two homers against Atlanta's Paul Byrd.

On the flip side of the coin, Gillette's Brad Fullmer is 0-for-13 against Bartolo Colon. Frank Catalonotto is 0-for-13 against Corey Lidle. Jay Bell is 0-for-11 against Rick Reed. And Zoots Brian Schneider and Jim Edmonds are a combined 0-for-17 against A.J. Burnett.

Cleveland's David Segui has 54 pinch-hit at-bats this year. No one else is even close.

Brian Buchanon (BCJ) and Matt Williams (OAK) each have three pinch hit home runs.

The league's worst pinch hitter? How about Chicago's Ricky Ledee (1-for-19) or Cleveland's Shane Spencer (1-for-18).

Two Ridgebacks, Curt Schilling (2,018) and Roy Oswalt (2,008), lead the league in pitches thrown.

Bobby Abreu leads the BDBL in injuries, with four. Rafael Furcal leads in ejections, with two.

Michael Tucker of the Fire Ants is the only player to hit for the cycle this year.

The Houston Heatwave have left more than ten runners on base fifteen times this season.

The Swamp Rats own the best bullpen ERA in the league at 2.35. The Undertakers, of course, are #2 at 2.69, followed by the surprising New Milford Blazers (2.82).

The Litchfield Lightning (5.52) own the worst bullpen in the BDBL, followed by Atlanta (5.15) and Southern Cal (4.57).

Shockingly enough, the Undertakers do NOT lead the league in number of relievers used per game. That distinction belongs to the Nashville Funkadelic (3.1). Marlboro is second (2.9), and Los Altos ranks all the way down at #4 (just percentage points behind Marlboro and Cleveland at 2.9).

No surprise that more runs per game have been scored in the Fields of Tombstone (12.8) than any other park in the BDBL. What is surprising is that Wapakoneta's Breyers Stadium (11.2) and Houston's Heatwave Field (11.1) aren't all that far behind.

Los Altos' The Graveyard (7.1) is, of course, the toughest park in the league in which to score runs, followed by Rebels Park in Manchester (8.0) and Rocks Park (8.3) in Cleveland.

The Ryche are 10-1 in shutouts. The Blazers are 1-8. Akron also owns the best record in the league (18-6) in blowouts that are decided by five or more runs.

Three times this season, the Cleveland Rocks have rallied from behind to win after trailing by five or more runs at some point during the game. Stamford, New Milford and Kansas have each done so twice.

The Undertakers have allowed just 39 runs after the seventh inning all year. (Gillette is next with 45.)

Barry Bonds is 2-for-5 (and a walk) with the bases loaded, with both hits being home runs. He's batting .417/.679/.972 with runners in scoring position.

Finally, I'll close with a breakdown of Bonds' 41 intentional walks:

	0 outs	1 out	2 outs
Bases empty	5	1	6
Runner on first	0	1	2
Runner on second	3	7	9
Runner on third	0	1	1
Runners on 1st and 2nd	0	0	3
Runners at 2nd and 3rd	0	0	2
Runners at 1st and 3rd	0	0	0