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 When Bill Levesque inherited the Plunkers, he was taking on a team that had a good recent history of making the playoffs. The Plunkers were in contention until the last week of the season despite some unforeseen circumstances that led to Levesque's abdication of the franchise towards the end of the 2008 season. What went right: Torii Hunter had perhaps his best DMBL season and James Loney and Brian Roberts were solid as well. Lee Gardner was a find as one of the league's best closers (tied for 2nd in the league with 28 saves). Andy Pettitte started out winning his first 7 decisions, and ended with a solid 15-6 record. Despite a lot of mediocrity on the roster this team was in contention for most of the season. What went wrong: The smoke died down and the mirrors broke before the season was over. The rest of the pitching staff ranged from disappointing - Roy Oswalt (11-13, 4.38) - to ugly - Jered Weaver (7-11, 6.56). The offense was very mediocre and could not overcome the deficits in the rotation. 2009 Outlook: Returning as the Amityville Ant Slayers and under new ownership, the team has some work to do. Already there has been some roster maneuvering ( Adrian Gonzalez is out, Jon Lester and Dioner Navarro are in). There are enough parts on this team to actually be competitive in 2009, so a complete overhaul is probably not necessary. Look for the Ant Slayers to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack in '09.
Tampa Bay shut out Las Vegas for the second straight day. This time it was Andy Pettitte going the distance, holding the Rats to 5 hits and improving to 15-6 on the season. For Pettitte, it was his 39th career complete game, tying him for with Kevin Appier for 15th overall and his 13th career shutout - good for 9th place overall, one behind Roger Clemens. Arkansas completed the sweep of Hillsborough, taking a 5-1 win over the Hitmen. Former Hillsborough teammate Jeremy Bonderman evened his record at 12-12 with a 7.1 inning, 5-hit performance in which he struck out 8 Hitmen. Somehow the Falcons won, despite being limited to only five hits and one walk. Hillsborough falls to an even 2 games behind D.C. for the 5th playoff seed and their playoff magic number remains at 2.
The third Pucci brother has officially taken over the Tampa Bay Plunkers. Nick Pucci has been approved by the Commissioner's office to wrest control of the Plunkers from Bill Levesque, who has stepped aside due to health and personal reasons. The Pucci family first came to the States from Italy back in the 1920s with nothing but a dream - to somehow be a part of a computer sim baseball league. But Grandpa Pucci couldn't speak English too well, so he toiled away as a groundskeeper for the Southern League Carolina Mudcats. Grandpa Pucci used to read to Papa Pucci from the Baseball Prospectus every night before going to bed. On his 18th birthday, Papa Pucci set out to New York with the dream of working for a DMBL franchise. But it proved harder than he thought. He spent many months sending out resumes and trying to intercept GMs and owners as they left the stadiums at night. Despite his failures, he imparted his dream onto his sons. Papa Pucci made sure they were familiar with Earl Weaver Baseball, Hardball, Microleague, and RBI Baseball. Chris Pucci was the first of the Brothers Pucci to gain a DMBL franchise back in the Expansion of 1997. Pucci's Carolina Mudcats have been up and down, but he has made the playoffs 5 times in his 12 seasons. In 1998, Anthony "Bocci" Pucci took over the reins of the failed Lisbon Diabos franchise, but it took him 8 years to make the playoffs. Bocci did beat his brother to a division title, when last year he won the Morris Division title. Nick makes the Pucci family the leader in most brothers as owners, ahead of the Landsmans, Zajacs, Days, and possibly Calvosas. Grandpa Pucci would indeed be proud!
Hillsborough's streak finally came to an end yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Endzone Animals. The Animals broke their own 4-game losing streak as well. Brandon Webb improved to 14-10 with 8 solid innings (8 H, ER, 8 K, 1 BB). Jorge Posada was 2-5 with 3 RBIs and Mike Lamb was 3-3. Philadelphia had some bad luck in the game, however, losing Adam Dunn for a week. His replacement, rookie Adam Lind also was injured pinch hitting for Dunn. Philadelphia considered picking up Adam Kennedy to fill their Adam void, but reconsidered the decision when they realized that Kennedy sucks. A wild game broke out in Tampa Bay, with the Plunkers winning 17-11 over the Cutters. Right from the kickoff...er, first inning, both teams broke out scoring. Hoboken started with 4 runs in the first and Tampa countered with 3 of their own. The Cutters scored 3 more in the second and stretched the lead to 10-5 after their half of the 5th. Then all hell broke loose. The Plunkers scored 11 runs in the bottom of the 5th, going through 5 Cutters pitchers and taking a 16-10 lead. Though the Plunkers amassed 22 hits in the game, the Cutters scored their 11 runs on only 10 hits and three walks. D.C.'s Derek Lowe pitched a complete-game, 6-hit shutout of Team Buddah yesterday as the Slappers reclaimed sole possession of 5th place overall. Derrek Lee was 2-4 with 3 RBIs and 2 homers in the contest for the Bushslappers.
Citing health problems, Tampa Bay Plunkers owner Bill Levesque gave notice to the league that he would not be able to maintain his duties as owner of the Plunkers. He said he would put the Plunkers up for sale immediately and the league will begin searching for a new owner immediately. Levesque's tenure as manager of the Plunkers was characterized by his on-again off-again feud with manager The Severed Head of Ted Williams and wacky shenanigans in the clubhouse. Though this made the day interesting for several Plunkers players, none of them complained about the hijinks. "It kept us on our toes" said shortstop Jack Wilson. "Bill used to come in the clubhouse and play practical jokes on us while we were out on the field playing games" said catcher Jason Varitek. "I remember when he put an idol of Jobu in Tejada's locker and it led to Miggy's drinking problem. Ha ha ha, what a lark." The Plunkers are currently sitting 3 games out of a playoff spot. Will Levesque's departure spark the team to "win one for the Levesquer" or will they fold like a house of cards?
Bitter rivals Arkansas and Hillsborough squared off in a tough battle. The Falcons took the early 4-1 lead, but Hillsborough rallied to tie the game. With one out and a runner on first, Ryan Howard lined a base hit into right field. Dmitri Young, who was on first, tried to advance to third base on the single and would have been dead meat. However, Lance Berkman tossed the ball over third baseman David Wright's head and into the dugout, scoring the winning run. "I could have had him, but I really wanted to get home already to watch the Olympics" said Berkman. Hot on the Hitmen's heels is Tampa Bay, who won their fifth straight - a 3-2 nailbiter against Las Vegas (yes they actually lost a one-run game!). The Rats held a 2-1 lead until the ninth inning when Joe Nathan gave up back to back home runs - Pat Burrell tied it up and then Adrian Gonzalez won it. Tampa sits 3 games out of a playoff spot - the only real threat left to Hillsborough. Meanwhile the Hitmen are now within 1 1/2 games of D.C. for 5th place overall.
The Plunkers beat up on the Buddahs to keep their playoff hopes alive. Tampa picked up 1/2 a game on the idle Hitmen, closing the gap to 2 games with a 15-4 drubbing of New Jersey. Adrian Gonzalez had 5 RBIs and Akinori Iwamura was 3-5 with 3 RBIs to lead the Plunker offense. The Falcons stunned the Las Vegas Rat Pack with a 3 game sweep, capped by yesterday's 6-4 victory. The Rats have now fallen 7 games behind division leader Newark, but hold steady on the top wild card seed - a 9 game lead on Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Falcons moved ahead of Sardine City into the 8th spot, though still a large distance (8 1/2 games) behind Hillsborough for the final playoff spot. Hoboken and Sardine City played a tight one last night. With the score tied at 5 in the ninth, Hoboken sent Chad Tracy to pinch hit for catcher David Ross. Ross, making his season debut with the Cutters had already homered in the game. But the move proved to be a good one for Hoboken as Tracy hit a walk off home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth. The loss was Sardine City's 8th consecutive loss and dropping them to 10 games out of a playoff spot.
John Lackey pitched a 4-hit shutout of the Mudcats yesterday, striking out six, and improving to 12-6 on the year. The Hitmen only managed 3 runs and 7 hits, but it was enough. Meanwhile Tampa pounded the Sugar Bears 11-5. Andy Pettitte, a former Sugar Bear, won his 12th as he limited Newark to 4 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings. James Loney and Pat Burrell combined to go 4-7 with 9 RBIs to lead the Plunker offense. The team that lost ground was the Sardine City Straphangers. The Sardines fell victim to Vancouver's ace, Jake Peavy, who became the first in the DMBL to win 20 games. Peavy improved to 20-3 with 7 solid innings. With possibly 6 more starts to go, Peavy has an outside shot at tying Greg Maddux's 10-year old DMBL record of 26 wins. Las Vegas finally was able to gain some ground on Newark with a 2-1 win over Hoboken. Jason Hirsh, who has been stellar since replacing Erik Bedard and Tim Lincecum in the rotation, outduelled Matt Garza to earn the W. Since returning to the rotation, Hirsh is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 2 starts.
Hillsborough survived a 10-inning affair with the Mudcats to eke out a 3-2 victory. The Hitmen had to tie it late on a bases-loaded walk in the 8th, then won in the 10th on a Carlos Lee double. With the win, Hillsborough moved back to .500 (64-64). The Hitmen gained one game on the Plunkers because Newark also won in 10 innings. Tampa tied it up on a Johnny Damon solo homer in the 9th to send it to extra innings, but the Plunkers quickly got into trouble in the 10th, finally walking home the go ahead run. The Hitmen now have a 3 1/2 game lead on Tampa. Meanwhile, the Straphangers moved up to one game behind 7th place with an 8-7 win over Vancouver. Sardine City took a 7-4 lead late in the game, but the Fist climbed back and tied the game on Curtis Granderson's 2-RBI triple, his second of the game. Stephen Drew (4-5, 5 RBI) answered with a solo homer in the top of the 9th to give the Sardines the lead back. The Sardines are one of two teams to hold a winning record over the Iron Fist ( Philly is the other at 6-2), winning 6 of their 9 meetings so far.
Hillsborough gained a game on Tampa yesterday with a 9-3 win over Vancouver in the first game of their doubleheader. With most of the field slumping lately it looks like only Tampa Bay and Sardine City are in any position to threaten the Hitmen. The two teams have been battling it out over the weekend, with the Sardines taking 2 of 3 from the Plunkers. The Plunkers are now 2 1/2 games behind Hillsborough, with the Straphangers 4 1/2 out. The rest of the teams are looking like longshots with under 30 games remaining in the season. Blue Ridge dealt the Falcons a death blow over the weekend by sweeping the Birds. The Bombers took the Falcons to extra innings in the first game, winning on two bases-loaded walks in the top of the 10th. Jeremy Hermida (4-5, 5 RBIs) led the Bombers to a 10-8 win in the second game, giving the Bombers four straight victories. Philadelphia took two of three from D.C. to keep a solid lock on fourth place overall. Matt Cain (9-4) pitched the Animals to a 7-1 win in the first game of yesterday's doubleheader and Jorge Posada (4-5) and Kelly Johnson (2-4, 3 RBIs) led Philly to a 9-7 win in game two.
Hoboken's Travis Buck came up a homer shy of hitting for the cycle in the Cutters' 7-5 win over Carolina. Buck hit the triple in the first inning, but grounded out and flied out in the next two at bats, before deciding to make things interesting. The Cutters staged a nice comeback, scoring 6 runs in the final three innings to rebound from a 5-1 deficit. The Cats lost their 5th straight as the Cutters leapfrogged them to move into 10th place overall. Meanwhile, Vancouver pounded the snot out of Team Buddah, 19-2. Moises Alou was 2-3 with 5 RBIs, and Maicer Izturis(!) was 4-6 with 4 RBIs. The game was a reasonable 6-1 until the Fist exploded for 13 runs in the 7th and 8th innings. Zack Greinke (14-1) was extremely thankful for the run support. Philadelphia won a tight 6-5 victory over Las Vegas. A 6-run 4th inning put the Animals in charge for the rest of the game. In fact, all 6 runs in that inning scored off home runs, two solo shots and two 2-run homers. It was a rare one-run loss for the Rat Pack, who is 24-7 on the season in one-run games. Tampa Bay pulled to within a 1/2 game of idle Hillsborough with their 6th straight win. Pat Burrell and Jack Wilson were both 2-4 with 2 RBIs each to lead the Plunkers to a 9-7 win over the Bombers. Lee Gardner picked up his league-leading 24th save.
The Plunkers have been making a playoff push lately, winning four in a row and 7 of their last 9. Yesterday they defeated Blue Ridge 7-2, gaining a game on Hillsborough to close the gap to 2 games. Torii Hunter was 4-4 with 3 RBIs and Brian Roberts was 4-5 with a triple. Roy Oswalt held the Bombers to one run on 6 hits in 8 innings and struck out 7. The Plunkers totalled 18 hits in the match. Meanwhile Philadelphia has officially sounded the alarms after dropping their fourth straight and 9th of 10. The Animals now sit 12 1/2 games behind first-place Vancouver - their dreams of defending their division title seemingly destroyed. Yesterday they dropped a 13-2 decision to the Las Vegas Rat Pack. The Rats are going the other direction, but despite a stretch in which they have gone 13-4 have actually lost ground to first-place Newark. That's because the Sugar Bears have run off 10 straight wins. Marietta seems to have forgotten that they're a last place team. After winning an 8-6 contest against D.C. yesterday, the Mighty Men have now won 3 straight and are in mild danger of losing the cellar to New Jersey. "I am going to start fining my players for good play if this keeps up" says team owner David Landsman, who is hoping for a top draft position in 2009.
The Mighty Men made it two straight against Vancouver, as Gil Meche, the former prized prospect of the Fist, pitched a gem (6.1 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 4 K) against his former team. Vancouver has now dropped 4 out of their last 5 against the bottom two teams. "We're just saving up our good stats for the teams that matter" said utility man Maicer Izturis. The comment sparked a firestorm in the Marietta locker room, where manager Graig Nettles predicted a sweep after tomorrow's game. "We're gonna take the brooms out and shove it up where the sun don't shine" said Nettles after placing Izturis' photo on the dartboard in the team's locker room. Meanwhile D.C. made their case for the playoffs with a 12-0 shellacking of Tampa Bay. Ryan Freel, Jeff Kent, and Jose Reyes each had 3 hits and Shawn Hill pitched 6 innings of 3-hit ball. After splitting the first two games, today's game three takes on some importance for the Plunkers. "We were drained after yesterday's emotional game" said catcher Jason Varitek, "but we'll be ready for tomorrow's game." Because Hillsborough lost, the Plunkers still remain 2 games behind the final playoff spot. However, Sardine City managed to pick up a game on the Hitmen with a 7-6 nailbiter over slumping Philadelphia. The Sardines exploded for four runs in the seventh inning to take the lead and just barely held on in the bottom of the ninth to take the narrow victory. The Straphangers now sit 2 1/2 games behind Hillsborough.
Erik Bedard pitched a gem for the Rat Pack (7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 11 K, 1 BB), but felt some discomfort in his arm after the game. Pitching coach Sam "Mayday" Malone said that Bedard had probably injured it the previous night when he was playing Guitar Hero til 3:00 AM. Bedard will be lost for about a month, or until he beats the game at "expert" level. Meanwhile, the Rats' rivals lost pitcher James Shields again, shortly after returning from the disabled list. Shields only managed to get through four painful innings before giving way to the bullpen and will probably miss 2-3 starts. In a postgame interview, Shields admits that he may retire. "If Garretson goes, I don't wanna play either" said Shields. "He's my inspiration. I named my son after him." The team psychiatrist is trying to work Shields through the problem, though a restraining order has been filed with Newark's courts. Marietta shocked Vancouver with a 6-3 victory, despite the Fist's ace Jake Peavy starting the game. Peavy was roughed up for 5 runs in 7 innings as Josh Hamilton smacked 2 homers in the game. The loss snapped Vancouver's 5-game winning streak. Tampa Bay celebrated the return of their owner with a 5-1 victory over D.C. Andy Pettitte won his 10th of the season and James Loney was 2-3 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Plunker owner Bill Levesque, who had been M.I.A. for the better part of the month and assumed dead, made a triumphant return after being held captive. Levesque, half of his face mysteriously burned off, had a mad look in his eye as he stepped into the team's dugout prior to the game to give a motivational speech.
Vancouver and Newark both completed the sweep of the other's prime contenders. Javier Vazquez improved to 17-1 as the Sugar Bears took a 9-6 decision in Philadelphia. Matt Stairs drove in 5 runs in the contest as the Sugar Bears opened up a 4-game lead on the Rats. Meanwhile, the Iron Fist bested the Rat Pack 7-4 as Curtis Granderson and Maicer Izturis each had 3 RBIs. Granderson hit his 22nd triple of the season, coming within 2 of Jose Reyes' DMBL-era record. Vancouver now leads Philly by 9 games. Hoboken won their 9th game out of their past 11, defeating the Golden Falcons 6-1. Matt Garza gave the Cutters 8 innings of 1-run ball, scattering 6 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 7. The Cutters, despite sitting in 12th place overall, are now only 7 games behind Hillsborough for the final playoff spot. Jered Weaver held the Mudcats to 4 hits in 7 innings to give the Plunkers a 3-1 win yesterday. The win was only Weaver's 4th of the season. The game was tied at one until the eight inning when the Plunkers led off the inning with a single and a double. Johnny Estrada was momentarily distracted by a busty fan in the front row and let a pitch get by him, scoring Akinori Iwamura from third. A sacrifice fly by Brian Roberts brought home the final run. The damage could have been worse as the Mudcats proceeded to load the bases, but Adrian Gonzalez popped out to end the inning. The story has a happy ending for Cats fans, as Estrada was able to get the fan's phone number after the game. D.C. has asserted their position in 5th place after weathering a rough period. The club has now won 4 in a row and has a 5-game lead on 6th place Hillsborough. Yesterday the Slappers took care of Sardine City 7-2. Carlos Beltran was 2-2 with a home run and 4 RBIs to lead the D.C. offense, while Kelvim Escobar took care of the Sardine offense (7.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 K) to earn his 13th win of the season.
Vancouver's 11-game winning streak came to an end after a 4-2 extra inning defeat at the hands of Team Buddah. Oliver Perez and Ben Sheets dueled it out before giving way to the bullpen. Troy Percival, perhaps left in an inning too long, gave up two solo home runs to Adam LaRoche and Jhonny Peralta. Vancouver threatened in the bottom half of the inning, but struck out twice with the bases loaded. Vancouver opened up a 7-game lead on second-place Philadelphia and has moved into second place overall - percentage points ahead of Las Vegas. Tampa Bay seems to have righted their ship and won five in a row before being blanked by Blue Ridge in the second half of yesterday's doubleheader. Tampa Bay had lost 7 straight before the recent streak and have a lot of ground to make up before they threaten Hillsborough again. Another team that has seemingly found their way back on track is D.C. After a recent slump that saw them lose 7 of 8, D.C. rebounded with a four game winning streak, including two beatdowns of fraternal rival Marietta yesterday. D.C., who had found themselves tied with Hillsborough for 5th place, have now gained back some ground, holding a 2-game lead on the Hitmen. Don't forget that the trading deadline is this Sunday, July 20th! There are many rumors floating around and many teams have players up on the block. Will there be a blockbuster? Stay tuned...
Tampa Bay broke their 7-game slide with a 5-4 extra-inning defeat of the Bushslappers. D.C. jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Plunkers crept back and tied it with a 3-run 6th inning. Finally, Kenji Johjima broke the tie in the 10th with an RBI single, his second RBI of the night. The loss put D.C. into a 5th place tie with Hillsborough. The Hitmen won their 5th straight - an 8-1 rout of the Hoboken Cutters. Dan Haren evened his record at 8-8 with a 7 inning performance, giving up only one run on 3 hits. Vancouver's Jake Peavy led the Fist to their 9th straight victory and shut out the Mighty Men on only one hit. Josh Bard's single in the 5th was the only hit that the Mites could muster. Peavy struck out 13 en route to his league-leading 16th win. Peavy also leads the league with 4 shutouts on the season. Fausto Carmona has quietly put together an excellent season for the Sardine City Straphangers. Yesterday he improved to 11-5 on the season as the Straphangers beat the Endzone Animals 6-3. Carmona now ranks 7th in the league in ERA (3.66). The Straphangers still sit on the cusp of playoff contention - 7 games behind D.C. and Hillsborough.
Vancouver had a great Independence Day weekend, sweeping the Rat Pack in their 3-game series. The Fist only surrendered 5 total runs in the series, while scoring 20. Vancouver is in the midst of a 7-game winning streak. The Rats, who were tied for first place before the series, only lost one game in the standings because the Sugar Bears dropped two of three to the visiting Endzone Animals. The Animals would have swept the series if they didn't give up 5 runs in the final frame to hand the Sugar Bears the win in game one. Fortunately, the bullpen held their own in the next two games and the Animals were able to win 7-5 and 10-5 respectively. The losses gave the Sugar Bears their 9th and 10th losses at home. Carolina swept the Tampa Bay Plunkers over the weekend, hurting the fledgling franchise's playoff aspirations. The Plunkers fell to 10 games under .500 and lost their 7th in a row. Although they are only 4 1/2 games and in 7th place overall (tied with Blue Ridge), the Plunkers look like a team on the way down. To add injury to insult, shortstop Jack Wilson will be lost for the better part of the next month. Only a few weeks until the trade deadline! Sunday July 20th is the last chance to make deals or to pick up players who will be eligible for protection in 2009.
Newark took the first game of their series against Las Vegas with a 6-3 win in the House yesterday. The Sugar Bears scored 6 runs in the final three innings to grab the lead. Recently activated Pat Neshek took the brunt of the damage, surrendering 4 runs in 2.1 innings. Newark stretched their division lead to 2 games. Game two is later tonight. Tampa Bay has gone as cold as their manager recently, dropping 12 out of their last 15, falling four games under .500 and out of a playoff spot. Tampa is now two games behind Hillsborough for that 6th spot and they're looking over their shoulder as fellow first-year franchise Blue Ridge is only 2 games behind them. Jake Peavy won his league-leading 14th game of the season against Arkansas, clinging to a 3-2 victory. Peavy surrendered only 3 hits in his 7 innings of work, while striking out 9. Peavy is now in striking distance of the "Pitching Triple Crown" - third in ERA with 2.97 (.21 behind leader Ted Lilly) and 9 strikeouts behind Las Vegas' Erik Bedard.
Crazy game down in Vegas yesterday as the Plunkers pulled out to an 8-1 lead after two innings. But Vegas pounded out 8 runs in the 6th to take a one-run lead. In the top of the ninth, the Plunkers tied it up, but Placido Polanco hit a single with the bases loaded to give the Rats the 10-9 win. The win was the Rat Pack's 7th straight, keeping them in a first-place tie with Newark. Felix Hernandez is now 2-0 since returning from the DL last week. King Felix pitched 7 strong innings against Arkansas en route to a 7-2 win. Hillsborough picked up yet another game over 7th place Tampa Bay and moved to one game back of 5th place D.C. Meanwhile Arkansas lost their 5th straight and is only 1/2 game out of 12th place. D.C. is losing ground rapidly with another loss to Vancouver. Michael Young went 4-4 and Andre Ethier hit a key 2-run home run to propel the Fist to a 6-3 win. Vancouver widened their division lead to 4 1/2 games. Hoboken meanwhile kept playing yo-yo with pitcher Joel Pineiro, releasing him after his latest start. At one point Pineiro got so fed up with owner Mark Hrywna that he began to choke him after a heated conversation. "He got all up in my face and pushed my buttons" said Pineiro. With Aaron Cook still expected to miss at least one more start, the Cutters may yet ask Pineiro to come back one more time. "Yeah, he choked me" said Hrywna, "but we'll still probably take him back."
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When Bill Levesque inherited the Plunkers, he was taking on a team that had a good recent history of making the playoffs. The Plunkers were in contention until the last week of the season despite some unforeseen circumstances that led to Levesque's abdication of the franchise towards the end of the 2008 season.
