1981, Things to watch for!

[Alan T]

41 year old Christian Larsen has been perhaps the greatest contact hitter in the history of FOOL. He is the only hitter in FOOL history with more than 2000 singles for his career. He does not feel that he is done yet, but word around the league is that the various teams disagree with him. Currently he remains a free agent and unsigned. If he does manage to find his way onto a team, he is only 55 hits shy of 3000, to become only the second player in league history to reach that mark. (Tanaka was the first). He also is only 4 HR shy of 300 for his career, but as he played in the minors for all of 1980, it seems unlikely that he will reach either of these marks.

Speaking of the 300 HR mark, only 10 players in FOOL history have ever reached that total. Perhaps the best chance this year to join those ranks is 34 year old John Hunt of Long Island. Hunt only needs 9 Home runs in order to break the 300 barrier. Right on Hunt's heels however is 35 year old Norm Hunter of Compton who needs 19 HR to reach 300, as well as 7 RBI to reach 1000 and 17 hits for 2000 in his career.

37 Year old Edgardo Reyes was reunited with some of his former teammates this offseason, just in the new location of Wyoming. He likely does not have as much in the tank as he used to, however with only 21 runs he will become the third player in FOOL history to reach 1500 runs scored.

Rich Lang (33 years old) of Brooklyn has stolen at least 49 bases every season since he joined the Brownstones in 1969. As long as he manages to continue to steal at least 49 a season, he will likely pass 900 for his career this season and get close to 1000 for his career next season. He of course is the all time stolen base leader in FOOL History.

As far as pitchers go, two Long Island pitchers headline a list of hurlers looking to reach milestones this year. Pablo Gonzalez won 15 games last season for the Violaters and if he can win 17 more this year, he will reach 250 for his career. Only Joe Morris has more than that. 38 Year old Raul Ramos, also of Long Island, may be getting long in the tooth, but he did win 14 games last season. He is only 11 shy of 200 for his career. In addition to Ramos, a second pitcher is even closer to the 200 mark. John MacDonald (Chicago) only needs 2 wins to reach the 200 plateau, a mark only 6 pitchers in FOOL history have ever reached before this season.

Only four pitchers have ever struck out 3000 or more batters in their career. It seems very unlikely that 40 year old Benny Myers will become the 5th. As of the present, he has not drawn much attention from teams looking to add to their staff. Even if Myers was able to land a job, he would still need 169 K's to reach that mark. On the other hand, Bob Halpin from Chicago seems almost guaranteed to get 3000 this season. Halpin is only 18 K's shy of that total.

Another free agent, closer Pedro Castillo is only 26 saves shy of becoming the fourth pitcher in FOOL history to reach 400. At the age of 36 however, it is not a lock that any team will pick him up, much less make him their closer. One closer that however does seem to be a lock is Denny Hennessey of Hartford. He only needs 22 saves to bypass Orlando Diaz for the all time FOOL career saves record.

Finally, when the Valdosta franchise closed up shop, they ended their history with 1704 wins for their career. Three teams are looking to be quite likely to pass that mark and become the all time winningest franchise in FOOL history. Atlanta needs 79 wins to surpass the old Peanut franchise, while Colorado needs only 71 wins. The most likely candidate to become the winningest franchise in FOOL history after this season however seems to be Hartford. The Harpooners only need 60 wins to surpass Valdosta, and they have a 19 win lead over Atlanta, 11 win lead over Colorado.

[muns]

Good read Alan. Pretty neat, wish some of these guys had some gas in the tank to hit these milestones

[Pike]

Great read Alan, thank you. I had noticed the upcoming milestones for McDonald and Harpin, I appreciate you bringing it into the mainstream!

As for Larsen, I would love to sign the guy but as I recall he wanted 25 year old money, lol.

[Anthony]

great article! Ramos is a good lock for his 200th win, he's got the Violator offense behind him to provide him with ample run support. i wasn't going to resign Pablo Gonzalez, but after seeing how many wins he has i figured let him go out in style with the team he's been with for a long time.

[Young Drachma]

I saw that Larsen hadn't been signed and almost wanted to come back to take him into the glory years. I can't believe he's still out there. Made me sad. He played with me back in '65 in St. Louis and then came back and we hung out in Chicago, which was awesome since the original plan in '65 was to win with him.