Managing Dirtbags :: A Community Baseball Dynasty (OOTP14)

[Young Drachma]

Ok, so I did a search and apparently the last time I did a sustainable solo dynasty here was three years ago. For a guy who only used to write dynasties as a solo player and NEVER played online, I transitioned to an online player to online commish and never looked back.

Well for the first time in years, I don't have any online leagues and while I kick around starting anew, I figured I'd see how my OOTP chops were and play around with OOTP14 since I haven't really done much with it since we got out of beta despite porting my normal longstanding solo leagues to it.

So here's my idea. I'm thinking of doing a "senior" league of sorts. Because OOTP almost always retires people at 45, you know they don't have much more time than that. I'm thinking of a senior-aged league like a local-ish beer league type hardball league.

No financials, trades-only for a few weeks and smaller rosters. I'm not really sure what my aim is other than to sim relatively quickly, see if I can keep myself engaged and naturally get through a lot of seasons fast. Also want to see how much I enjoy no-financials OOTP because I've simply never played a league that way before.

So I think this league will be eight teams and there will be an "A" league and a "B" league as if they play on different nights and ideally you'll see people from B move up to A, but the ages will be static I'm figuring.

It'll probably be confined to one state, because OOTP14 makes that super easy to do now without tinkering and plus I just think for "immersion" purposes it could be fun to picture a summer league all played in the same state or even in the same area at the same park.

So those are the basics. It's a weekend dynasty so if I get bored and don't finish, it's because I just intended to do this over a few days because I had the time to kill and it sounded like a relatively decent idea.

So let's see what we can get into, okay?

[Young Drachma]

So the Twi-Night League is a league that plays on Tuesday nights and Thursday nights. Teams play double headers against their opponents and it's a 36-game season. We have ten teams in the league.

"A" Division
Pirates
Dragons
Ice Caps
Lumberjacks
Lemons

"B" Division
Thunder
Patriots
Giants
Colts
Cobras

We're starting in 1978.

Rosters are still 17 man and you have to be 35 to play in this league.

Still deciding on whether we'll do divisional playoffs or not, I'm thinking we will though, because you know how in real life people probably would want to have that.

The playoffs then would be a Best-of-Five Division Series and then a Best-of-Five TwiNight Series to determine the best team in the league.

I'm setting up a 2nd league that'll run semi-parallel to the TwiNight league and the two champs will face off at the end of the year in an overall championship for bragging right.

[Young Drachma]

I created a Saturday league with a 12 game schedule that I created manually. The games are all played on Saturdays. It boasts 7 teams.

The top 3 teams make the playoffs out of that league.

[Young Drachma]

Lastly, going to do a 5-team Monday Evening League.

The league champs all meet in a playoff series after their post-seasons are over, 2 and 3 play each other and then take on the top seed.

Because I made the players terrible, there's really no merit to having ratings on and so, it's going to be a stats only league

[Young Drachma]

I cancelled the joint playoffs because the schedules sort of got screwed up between the leagues.

MONDAY EVENING LEAGUE STANDINGS
		W	L	PCT	GB
Freedom		11	5	.688	-
Mounties	9	7	.563	2.0
Flyers		9	7	.563	2.0
Jets		6	10	.375	5.0
Lakers		5	11	.313	6.0

SATURDAY EVENING LEAGUE STANDINGS
		W	L	PCT	GB
Green Sox	8	4	.667	-
Cooks		7	6	.538	1.5
Stars		7	6	.538	1.5
Foresters	6	7	.462	2.5
Red Wings	6	7	.462	2.5
Pats		5	7	.417	3.0
Octopi		5	7	.417	3.0

Elimination Game: Cooks def. Stars 10-2
Championship Series: Cooks def. Green Sox 2 games to 0 (10-4, 3-2)

TWI-NIGHT LEAGUE STANDINGS
"A" Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Ice Caps	22	14	.611	-
Lemons		19	17	.528	3.0
Pirates		16	20	.444	6.0
Lumberjacks	15	21	.417	7.0
Dragons		15	21	.417	7.0

"B" Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Moose		25	11	.694	-
Wasps		22	14	.611	3.0
Turkeys		17	19	.472	8.0
Colts		16	20	.444	9.0
Cobras		13	23	.361	12.0

DIVISION SERIES
Lemons def. Moose 2-1 (3-4, 9-8, 11-9)
Ice Caps def. Wasps 2-0 (4-2, 8-7)

TWI-NIGHT SERIES
Ice Caps def. Lemons 3-1 (11-10, 5-10, 12-5, 16-3)

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to manage the Dirtbags of the 5-team Wednesday Night Baseball League.

It's a 16-game season, but all five team makes the post-season. The top seed advances to the finals, whereas 2-5 have to duke it out in a playoff series.

Anyway, our initial roster from signups from the league office left us a lot of pitchers and a glut of position player holes needing to be filled.

What we're able to do is go to the other teams in other leagues and acquire players who are on the waiting list to get onto a team and fill out our squad. In a stats only league, this will not really be useful since there won't be much to judge talent on other than age and the remote possibility that a few played in the past but...we'll make do.

DIRTBAGS INITIAL SIGNUPS
P Tom
P Bruce
P Juan
P Dave B.
P John
P Rich
P George
C Dan
1B James
1B Felix
2B Justin
OF Dave R.

[Young Drachma]

With only 17 guys on our roster, I have to cut some pitchers to get ourselves with enough guys to play the other positions.

I let go of P George and picked up 1B Charlie Vessey, a 40-year old who actually played last year for the Lumberjacks of the Vermont City League. The VCL is the top league because it has so many teams. We're the new kids on the block, because this Wednesday night league is a new offering.

I'm not quite sure why I acquired another first baseman though, we have too many of them.

I let Felix and John go. We pick up three new guys from the Wasps of the VCL -- 3B Pat and two outfielders Larry and Ruben.

I got 2B Cooper and OF Raul from the Colts of the VCL.

That leaves us with just two spots left to fill out. I go get us a backup catcher C Cliff from the Dragons of the VCL.

My last acquistion is a 2B from the VCL Lumberjacks named Ryo. I figure infield depth might be useful even if everyone is terrible.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT BASEBALL
Destroyers
Marshals
Newsies
Ducks
Dirtbags

WNB is scheduled doubleheaders for the entire season.

Our first games of the year are a doubleheader (alternating home/away) against the Destroyers on April 23rd.

[Young Drachma]

It's hard to really know what guys will do what when you have nothing to really go on early. So I'm just sort of going to run on auto-pilot for a bit and see what it does for us, in the end.

4/23: We split the series with the Destroyers 7-3 and lost the 2nd game 6-3 in 11 innings.

I feel like the key to a league like this is playing out the games, because you need to be able to monitor what guys are doing and adapt on the fly since there's really no other way to know who is doing well or whatever.

[Izulde]

This is an ingenious idea and has potential to have an actual narrative crafted around it.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, I just need to find a way to get into these stories and that might be true. Glad someone sees the potential though. I think I know there's a story in here somewhere.

[Young Drachma]

With the deadline for picking up players off the rec list ending tomorrow, I went back to the drawing board a bit to see if we couldn't get a bit of help. Our backup catcher Cliff decided he didn't really have time for baseball and told me he was quitting. Also, one of our outfielders -- Dave R. -- also quit because his wife just had a baby and didn't think he needed to be playing baseball on Wednesday nights.

So in return I went and got us another pitcher because I think it might be the trick to a team like this is rolling with a shorter bench. So we got P Jose, a 38-year old newcomer to the league.

To round out the 17-man roster, we got really lucky. 35-year old Allen Price who played for the Ice Caps of the VCL last year and was the MVP of that league has switched days. He can no longer play twice a week and so, he sought a chance to play in a once-a-week league and we were able to give him that.

It's worth noting we're probably the most aggressive team in the league in terms of going out and trying to find help, but it doesn't really mean that we'll yield more wins because of it. But we are considered the favorites in this first season of the Wednesday League, so we're hoping that the work we've done to fill the squad out pays dividends.

APRIL 30TH
Tonight's doubleheader is against the Ducks. In the first game, I'm going to opt to start one our newcomer Jose V. instead of our usual ace Tom W., who I might start in Game 2, but haven't decided yet.

Our lineup for tonight's first game is:

SS Justin 
2B Cooper
CF Raul
1B James
LF Allen
RF Ruben
C Dan
P Jose
3B Pat

Raul went 4 for 9 last week, so he's probably the hottest hitter we have, but James had more RBI and I'm just really tinkering right now to see what ends up working. The deal with stats only means you don't have much to go on, but I feel like in a real league like this, you'd be flying blind for a long time and guys would be erratic and so forth.

Our MVP Allen that we just acquired is already starting out with us -- the VCL doesn't start until June -- so we're an early league and I put him in the 5 hole to see how comfortable he is. I'm debating whether he'll really be as good in this league as he was in the VCL, but if he is, it'll be a real shot in the arm.

Not sure how Jose will pitch, but..better now to find out than later.

So here goes with Game 3 of our season.
--------------------

We're the visiting team for Game 1.

About 11 people in attendance right now and it's FREEZING in Vermont this evening. But that's what we get for trying to play baseball in late April here.

In the top of the 2nd, James Carson led off with a solo homer, which is huge in a league where homers are scarce.

Through five innings, that home run is our only hit. Jose has thrown 63 pitchers through 4 innings and I'm starting to wonder when it'll be time to pull him out. Says he's doing okay for right now though and our bullpen situation is a bit dodgy, so we'll hold tight for right now. But in the bottom of the 5th, I make some other substitutions in the hopes of getting us some offense.

I replaced Cooper at 2nd base with Ryo, who has never had an at-bat this season.

In the top of the 6th, that works. Ryo gets on base with a single and after a wild pitch, Raul hits a double to score Ryo and we're now up 2-0.

In the bottom of the 6th, they get closer, scoring a run and I decide to replace Jose. He had a solid outing though. I replace him with Dave Brown, who pitched 1 1/3 last week with 2 strikeouts.

He manages to get out of the 6th inning and we're still leading 2-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, things get dicey and Brown gives up a run to tie the game at 2-2. I replace him with Rich King who pitched 2 2/3rds last week and strike out 4 and walked 2.

It didn't matter, the inning was ugly to us and we give up a total of 4 runs and we're now down 5-2.

Ugh.

Ugly way to go, as we give up two more in the bottom of the 8th and now we're down 7-2 heading into the top of the 9th. This one got away from us too quickly, which is sad.

We didn't score in the 9th and at the end, we lose the first game of the doubleheader 7-2.

Too bad.

The Ducks remain undefeated at 3-0 and we fall to 1-2.

I'm changing the lineup for Game 2
-------------
For Game 2, our line is:

SS Justin
2B Cooper
C Dan
1B James
LF Allen
RF Ruben
3B Pat
CF Raul
Pitcher

I'm going to let Tom Williams, our ace pitch in this game because we really just need a win. He struck out 7 last week and walked just one batter in our first and only win so far this year.

Through seven innings, it's a tie game 1-1 and we still have Tom in the game who seems to be holding up okay through seven innings. I'm nervous to go our bullpen after the earlier performance today to be honest. So we'll ride Tom as long as we can.

Despite being tired, he gets through the 8th inning and I'll put someone else in for the 9th.

I make three substitutions inserting 1B Charlie, OF Larry in Center and putting Ryo at SS and moving SS Justin to 3B. It could be risky, but I just need to see if we can't get something accomplished around here.

At this point, almost feel like we have too many pitchers and not enough bats on this team, too. So I might be hitting up the league office after this game since the deadline is May 1st and that's tomorrow.

Anyway, bottom of the 8th. Going to insert our 2nd starter Bruce Young as the reliever in this one. I figure an inning won't kill him, this the 2nd game of the double header and I just need a reliable arm.

We don't score in the 8th and Bruce manages a scoreless top of the 9th.

We manage a rally in the bottom of the 9th, but I made the mistake of killing it early on a hit and run gone bad. Despite two other other runners getting on, we manage not to score and we head to extra innings in the 2nd game.

Bruce gives up two runs in the top of the 10th and we trail 3-1 and we don't score in the 10th and lose again 3-1.

Sigh.

This team frustrates me. But so it goes.

[Young Drachma]

Let's just keep it real. The reason this team is called the Dirtbags is because it's all of the leftover guys no one wanted. All of the other teams on Thursday night are largely comprised of teammates, friends and folks who know each other outside of the league.

But the Dirtbags? We don't really know anyone. It's just an overflow team of guys.

So we're a scrappy group, people show up. People leave and the loyalty is different.

Anyway, after two weeks of the season, here are the Wednesday Night Baseball standings.

STANDINGS THROUGH MAY 1 1980

Ducks 4-0
Destroyers 1-1
Marshals 1-1
Newsies 1-3
Dirtbags 1-3

One of the incentives of the Wednesday night league is everyone makes the playoffs. This is what attracted a number of these cohesive teams, plus it's a weekday league, it's not twice a week like Twi-Night and it doesn't require you to sacrifice a weekend night.

Anyway, it's May 1st and I go to the league office because a BUNCH of guys are discouraged after last night's finish. They think I'm not doing a good job managing personnel. That there are too many changes and they want to do other things.

We had a bit of a mutiny and we lose eight guys after last night's game. The league wonders if we'll even be able to field a team and give me through the rest of the week to scouring the list they have to call guys and see if we can't get someone to sign up and play on Wednesday nights.

It'll be a hard sell, but if we're going to keep this team going and not forfeit the rest of the year, it's really our only shot.

We lose:

P Dave
P Rich
P Juan
3B Pat
OF Ruben
SS Justin
OF Allen (he decided he didn't really like playing in the Wednesday night league after all. A bummer, but I guess MVPs prefer something else.)
1B Charlie

That leaves us with 11 guys on our team. Our bye week isn't until the 21st, so we still have 4 more games ahead of us. The league won't adjust our schedule to give us more time, either, believing that a four-team league would work better anyway.

So I have to scramble and see if I can even keep this thing going.

[Young Drachma]

We lucked out when a West Indian guy from Jamaica named Cricket -- or so he told me to call him -- and I started talking at the coffee shop the other night. I must've had on a t-shirt or something and he said "Aye man, you say you play baseball? I do a bit of that y'know?"

I look at him and say "I'm on a team on Wednesday nights. We actually need some guys now or they're gonna shut us down."

"What? Shut down. Ah, that's no good. I know some people who been wanting to play for years here in the City League, but they can't get us on the team or the waiting list. They say it's full."

"Yeah, Wednesday night is a different league. We're newer, but not as many people want to play on Wednesdays," I say.

"Well, we'll be out there. Here's my number. That sounds like a real trip."

So now I've got this guy who tells me he has some people. At this point, I could care less how good they are. I just need bodies because I'm enjoying being out there and think it'd be cool to keep playing. But not sure what to expect.

Sure enough he calls me the next day and tells me he has about 5 people who want to come out. Couple that with the 4 people who returned my calls from the league list and all of a sudden we have more guys than we even need.

Which is good, because I get a call from 1B James, who is my home-run guy from the other night. He has some bad news. He's been asked to join us buddy's Saturday Night League. It's nothing person, he tells me, just that he doesn't know if we'll have a team anyway and so, he figures he should take him up on it, plus he is usually tired after work on Wednesdays, but he'd like to do something on Saturday nights with the boys.

Soo...that's another guy we've lost.

I'm cautiously optimistic this thing is going to work out, but if we get to next week and have to forfeit, I won't be surprised at all.

I hope these people show up.

[Young Drachma]

Just when I thought the bleeding wouldn't stop, we lost another guy -- our catcher Dan -- told me that his mother was sick and that he couldn't really devote the Wednesday nights anymore.

Well, a few days later, I heard he had a church buddy playing for the Newsies and got a spot on the team as their catcher when their original catcher got hurt.

I asked the league how they allowed it and they told me that because our roster situation is how it is, they can't bar guys from going to other teams.

It's really messed up that they allowed it. But what can you do.

Two steps forward and one step back it seems. May 1st has come and gone, it's almost the weekend and Cricket assures me his guys are showing up. I managed to get at least 8 guys from the league list say they're interested, I imagine we'll get 2 or 3 of them to show up.

If Cricket delivers, we'll be able to play next week. We might suck, but we'll have a team. If not, well, it was fun while it lasted.

[Young Drachma]

I talked to my buddy Ted over at the Vermont City League and told him our dilemma. He said it was a pretty common problem and that I should've told him sooner.

Still, he offered me a list of guys who he knew were just chomping at the bit to play baseball and that he'd give them a call himself, since he knew them and I didn't, tell them he had a team for them and that they needed to show up on Wednesday night to play.

I trust Ted, so I knew that he wouldn't screw me over. Now I finally feel confident -- it's Sunday -- that we're going to be able to play Wednesday. I have no idea who will play where. Who we'll have or another.

Our 2nd starter Bruce went to go play for the Wasps of the VCL. The real problem is just that. The VCL season is about to start and most guys would prefer to play in it. So we're losing guys who'd prefer to play Twi-Night in the best league in the area than on a bad team in a league no one really cares about.

Another pitcher, Jose, left and went to the Lemons of the VCL.

We're a forfeit roster as it stands right now.

But I'm just going to sleep on it. I've done all I can do. These guys tell me they've already paid to be on the waiting list -- that way, when you get a spot, they just add you to a team -- and so, I'm expecting they'll be enough guys who wanna be Dirtbags on Wednesday night.

Otherwise, it was a good run while it lasted.

Our games Wednesday are against the 1-1 Marshals.

[Young Drachma]

So when it's all said and done, I only have four guys from my original lineup who will be with us on Wednesday. Everyone else -- provided they show up -- will be a newcomer.

This could be an interesting situation for us, no doubt.

Well, that's wrong. Make that three. Cooper Bennett, who played 2B for us, actually got rescued by the Red Wings over in the Saturday league too. Jim Carson, our old 1B who is now their #3 hitter told them he had a friend who played decent 2B and so, while they didn't really need him, they took him on anyway for depth.

So that's just three guys who get to keep around.

Sigh.

It's Wednesday afternoon and I get a text from Skip who runs the Wednesday night league for the city.

"I don't know how you managed to do it, but you did it. See you guys tonight."

Somehow, we got a full team again. This team resembles nothing like our old team and haven't the foggiest idea of who will play where.

But nonetheless, we have a team and we will play tonight and presumably for the rest of the year.

GAME 5/6: VS. MARSHALS
Should I even introduce you to these guys? What if they all leave again.

All I know about Cricket is that he's Jamaican, grew up playing Cricket -- hence the nickname -- and came to the states for college where somehow he fell in love with a woman who loved baseball and turned him onto it. And the rest as they say is history. He tells me he's a pitcher. I tell him out of respect for his help putting this rag-tag team together by some miracle, that I'm giving him the ball in the first game.

He says "okay, if you're sure about that. I'm happy waving a towel if that's what you need. There are some good guys here."

I was skeptical.

Just to add insult to injury, over on Field #6, the Ducks swept the Destroyers to go 6-0 and remain undefeated. Will anyone beat these guys this year?!

Anyway, we had more pressing work to do. Road team against the Marshals riding a three-game losing streak.

Our lineup:

SS Jonah
2B Kenny
LF Noah
RF Lloyd
1B Micah
CF Mike
3B Junior
C Tom
P Lester (Cricket)

Our new catcher is a 43-year old dude. That just lets you know where stuff is right now.

[Young Drachma]

It's 55 degrees outside today and ten brave souls have shown up in the drizzle to watch our rag-tag teams scrap at it.

We score two in the top of the 3rd on a 2-out RBI from Mike and Noah put us on the board with sac fly that scored a run.

In the top of the 8th, we put up three more. Our leadoff guy Jonah has 2 RBI on the day and best of all, it seems Cricket is as good as advertised. Even better. He's struck out TEN guys today. I don't really know what planet we found this guy from, but I'm already happier with our new setup than what our old team looked like and we're only a game in.

Still, this could be a fluke and when you consider the Marshals haven't played as many games -- they do have six hits on today and three errors -- it could be rust they shake off in the 2nd game.

So let's not get too carried away.



I debated letting Cricket get the complete game, figuring we still had a 2nd game to get to. But I wanted to give him a rest and I also wanted to really get a chance in a game like this to see what some of our other guys looked like with so many new guys.

One of them is a guy named Daan who was one of the last guys I talked to about joining the team. He said he can pitch. So I'm putting him out there to start the 9th.

Daan has no problems closing out the game, striking out two and giving us our first win since the first week of the season.

SECOND GAME
I'm going with Tom, our original ace for the 2nd game. We have a lot of new guys on the staff and I'm curious about them, but I sort of feel obligated to go with who got us here to start.

In the 2nd game, I make some modest adjustments to the lineup.

LINEUP

SS Jonah
2B Kenny
1B Dougie
RF Lloyd
LF Noah
CF Mike
3B Phil
C Tom
P Pitcher

I figure if I keep the new guys happy we won't lose them.

Let's see if we can get the sweep and get back to .500.

We start the bottom of the 1st with aplomb scoring 3 runs on 3 hits. Lloyd hit his first home-run of the year and we're cruising.

In the Bottom of the 4th, Noah goes yard for a solo homer, Mike gets on base with a single, Phil sac bunts him to 2nd, Tom hits a single which moves him to third. Jonah hits a 2-out double to score two more runs and now we have a 6-0 lead.

Whose team is this? And why didn't my old team quit sooner?

Tom is holding up well on the mound. 3 strikeouts through five innings and he's given up just one hit. So it seems even our old guys can hold up.

In the 6th, I replaced some of the new guys with some of the old guys because I wanted to give them a bit of PT for sticking with us. So Ryo in at 2nd, Raul in the outfield, though I wanted Raul lower in the lineup so I had to wait to put him in after Tom went a bit longer.

Despite just 58 pitches, I replace Tom in the 7th with a new guy who apparently can pitch and play the infield too named Tim. I complete a double switch so Raul can bat 9th.

In the bottom of the 8th, Tim helps his own cause with a double to lead off the inning. Noah goes yard, Mike scores after a single and an error helps him get to third and Jonah notched an RBI to give the Dirtbags a 10-0 lead.

So a 2-hit performance by the new-look Dirtbags give us a 10-0 victory and return us back to .500.

All of a sudden, it's not looking so bad to be a Dirtbag!

We'll see how next week goes, but we will savor these victories. Be sure of that.

[Young Drachma]

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LEAGUE STANDINGS

May 7, 1980
-----
Ducks 6-0
Dirtbags 3-3
Destroyers 1-3
Marshals 1-3
Newsies 1-3

[Young Drachma]

MAY 14TH
This is our last set of games, we have next week off for our bye. We get the 1-3 Newsies this week. We've been where they are, so I'm not getting cocky at all.

Besides in the Wednesday league, with everyone making the playoffs it's a bit less important where you are in the standings if you're not 1st because there's always a chance you can get to the playoffs and start to suck.

In Game 1, we're going to go with Tim as our starter this time. Mostly because I'm probably going with Cricket as our 2nd starter in the next game. Also because Tim's bat is better than most of these pitchers and so, he can do both well. We'll bat him 6th.

It pays off as he strikes out eight, walks two. Newsies leave six guys on base in this one, but we take our third straight win beating them 3-0 and recording our third straight shutout to boot.

As it turns out, we can't use Cricket in Game 2. His daughter needs him to come him, as his wife -- who is a nurse -- got called into work. Which means we need to get Tom into the game. I'm glad he didn't quit.

Anyway, our lineup for Game 2:

SS Jonah (.385)
2B Ryo (.500)
C Tom (.500)
RF Noah (.154)
LF Lloyd (.167)
1B Dougie (.500)
CF Mike (.273)
3B Phil (.143)
P Tom W. (.500)

We were down 1-0 after the first, but scored on a two-run homer by Lloyd in the bottom of the 2nd. In the 4th, Tom started a rally leading off with a single, Noah hit a double and Lloyd hit a sac fly RBI. Two more in the 4th gives the 'Bags a 4-1 lead after 4.

That score held until the sixth, when Mike belted a two-run blast to give us a bit more cushion at 6-1.

Our old ace Tom did his best impression of the ace he is, with the complete game win, striking out 8, walking 2 on 8 hits and 1 earned, proving maybe that all we needed were a more cohesive group of guys.

Anyway, with those wins we're in an interesting spot standingswise heading into the bye week.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT BASEBALL
(Through May 14th)

Ducks 6-0
Dirtbags 5-3
Marshals 3-3
Destroyers 1-5
Newsies 1-5

[Young Drachma]

MAY 21

On our bye week, Newsies split the series with the Destroyers losing the opener 6-2 and winning the nightcap 11-5.

Meanwhile, the Ducks continue to show no rust as they knocked off the Marshals 4-1 and 8-1, to increase their record to 8-0.

[Young Drachma]

MAY 28TH

The Ducks finally lose a game. The Newsies split the series with them tonight, winning 2-1 in the nightcap after falling 3-1 in the opener. Everyone cheered that one, except perhaps Ducks and their fans.

Meanwhile after losing three straight, the Dirtbags are riding a 4 game win streak and with the Ducks loss have a chance to actually gain a game in the standings if they win both tonight.

With only six games left in the regular season these games all matter. Plus, the new-look Dirtbags and the Ducks will face off for a huge tilt next Wednesday that everyone is looking forward to. Most people are whispering that the new-look Dirtbags are better than the Ducks, which most on the Ducks don't think is true. We'll see how that pans out next week.

But first, the Destroyers are on tap for our 'Bags.

We win Game 1, 7-1 to claim our 5th straight win, but fail to gain another game in the standings, because we lost the nightcap in extra innings 3-2 (11) meaning that even if we sweep the Ducks next week, we'll still need help -- and some wins of our own -- to catch them in the standings.

It was a missed opportunity, but given how well this new team has played together, it's really hard to be overly disappointed.

[Young Drachma]

It's June, so both the Saturday leagues and Twi-Night leagues have begun their seasons.

JUNE 4TH
WEDNESDAY NIGHT LEAGUE STANDINGS

Ducks 9-1
Dirtbags 6-4
Marshals 3-5
Destroyers 3-7
Newsies 3-7

The Ducks continue to inch closer to the top seed in the post-season, which guarantees the winner a berth in the Wednesday Night Series.

The only real hope is for the Ducks for them to sweep tonight and get a lot of help -- and wins -- down the road. This might be a tall order. Still, this is a great test for the team to see how far they'd come after starting the year out of the gate so poorly, having the retool and finding talent under rocks and wherever else we could find it.

June 4th
Newsies swept the Marshals 2-0 and 6-1 and now we're taking on our big matchup against the Dirtbags.

In our first game, we're taking on the Ducks with Cricket on the mound.

Cricket struck out 12 in this one and really it was no contest, as the Ducks were simply no match and we triumph 8-0.

Mike went 3 for 4 in the win, Junior started at third and went 3 for 3.

In the nightcap, we're the road team. I'm starting Tim because he can hit. I'm batting him 2nd. The rest of the lineup.

SS Jonah
P Tim
2B Dougie
C Tom
LF Noah
1B Phil
CF Mike
3B Junior
RF Raul

Jonah went yard, as did Noah Feldman in the 1st to give us a 3-0 lead to start the game.

Ducks scored one in the bottom of the 2nd to cut that lead to 3-1. But a double by Tom and a Phil Keats double scored us another run to give us the 3-run lead back.

Then things just got out of hand.

9 runs between the 6th and 7th blew it open and the Dirtbags claim victory 14-1, giving more credence to the theory that we indeed have closed whatever gap there was before.

Still, despite the win, we remain a game behind the Ducks with 4 games to go in our regular season. We're clearly a team to be reckoned with, but we're far from out of the woods yet.

[Young Drachma]

Wednesday Night Baseball
June 11th

Dirtbags 5, Marshals 3
Dirtbags 3, Marshals 1
Destroyers 11, Ducks 7
Ducks 4, Destroyers 2

STANDINGS
----

Ducks 10-4
Dirtbags 10-4
Newsies 5-7
Destroyers 4-8
Marshals 3-9

There's two weeks left in the regular season, but our regular season ends next week. If there's a tie between the Ducks and Dirtbags for the overall league lead, which is possible -- and the season series is tied (and it is) then the teams will play a tiebreaker game to determine who gets the #1 seed and the automatic berth to the Wednesday series.

I like our chances.

[Young Drachma]

JUNE 18TH
Marshals 5, Destroyers 0
Destroyers 5, Marshals 3
Dirtbags 5, Newsies 2

In Game 2, I made some modest adjustments to the lineup in the hopes of using our versatility as an asset.

Obviously our pitching has been a strength all year. Tom, Cricket and Tim have basically been lights out and that's our difference between what our year initially looked like, well and our offense figured out what it wanted to do.

Tom apparently has some ability at pitcher -- I can't see how much -- just says he has the ability to do it, so I'm using him there. I let him in this game mostly to see if there's a point this post-season where we can use him in that role. If it doesn't go well, I can switch him out early.

He did okay and lasts seven innings. I pull him and put Tom in the game for the last two innings with us down 3-1. Junior came in as a defensive replacement in the 8th and paid dividends offensively getting on base after Micah. Mike scores him home and Lloyd belts a 2-run dinger and now we lead 5-3 heading into the 9th.

After letting Tom get two more outs, I put Daan in the game to get the final out.

He does after giving up a single and we get the sweep 5-3 and end our regular season at 12-4.

[Young Drachma]

6/25
Destroyers 6, Newsies 5
Newsies 11, Destroyers 1
Ducks 3, Marshals 2 (10 innings)
Marshals 4, Ducks 3

Regular season is complete and we manage, after losing 3 straight to come back and claim the Wednesday Night league regular season title.

FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS

Dirtbags 12-4
Ducks 11-5
Destroyers 6-10
Newsies 6-10
Marshals 5-11

Wild Card Game
----------
Marshals v. Newsies
Destroyers v. Ducks

Winners of the Wild Card Game take on each other in the Best-of-Three Division Series.

The winner of the Division Series takes on the Dirtbags in the Wednesday Series.

Marshals 7, Newsies 6 (Marshals scored 4 in the top of the 9th to take the game.)

Ducks 5, Destroyers 0

DIVISION SERIES
-----------
GAME 1: Ducks 3, Marshals 2
GAME 2: Ducks 2, Marshals 0
DUCKS WIN SERIES 2-0

So with that, we get the series everyone really wanted in the first place.

Ducks v. Dirtbags for all of the Wednesday League marbles.

[Young Drachma]

[Young Drachma]

Cricket's real name is Lester Tarpley, unless you were confused at me never mentioning a "Lester" before.

[Young Drachma]

WEDNESDAY SERIES GAME 1:

Ducks 3, Dirtbags 2

We left eight guys on base and that just won't get it done. We were up 2-0 through the 8th, when they put up 3 runs in the bottom half of the inning and that was all she wrote. Now we've got to get back into this thing before it gets away from us.

In Game 2, I decided to adjust the lineup a bit. Moved Jonah from leadoff where he's been most of the year to the cleanup spot.

Tonight's lineup that we'll stick with if it works:

3B Micah
C Tom (Who btw is not a pitcher, in that one game I let him throw he gave up 5 walks, struck out 1 and it's a miracle we survived it...oops.)
SS Jonah
LF Noah
1B Dougie
RF Lloyd
P Tim
CF Mike
2B Junior

It worked and we dominated 9-3 is the final score. Noah went 3 for 4 and we got 2 RBI from both him and Lloyd in the 6-hole. Mike went deep in the 8th to boot and now we're tied and still in this thing.

GAME 3
The problem with a five-game series is that now we're in a situation where guys who haven't thrown much this year, but have pitching ability have to get used. I do have high stamina on, so people are usually able to throw the next day, but...I'm keeping it a bit more realistic and not using guys back to back like that unless they are relievers.

So we're going to try Phil, who I know can pitch -- in theory -- so I can save Cricket for a later game and don't have to use Tom unless I have to. Our advantage since the rebuilding of the team has really been the fact that we have better pitching than most. I want to use that depth -- ok sure we can hit pretty well too, but that's feast or famine -- and make it our advantage.

So anyway, Phil will pitch. He has a solid bat too, so that might be useful.

Going with the same lineup as last game, except pitcher will bat 7th today.

Heading into the 5th, we trail 2-1 and Phil is about exhausted. I decide to go with Tim, because I didn't plan to use him in the next game anyway and if we do use him it'd be for a Game 5 start. I don't quite trust Daan this early in the game.

We tie the game up in the bottom of the 6th on a Lloyd Simons single.

We take the lead in the 7th on a bases loaded walk.

Daan comes in in the 9th to close it out and he does after walking a batter and giving up a single and with that, the Dirtbags now lead the Series 2 games to 1.

GAME 4
Cricket will start this game in the hopes that we can close the Ducks out now.

Today's lineup:

2B Micah
C Tom
SS Jonah
LF Noah
RF Lloyd
1B Dougie
CF Mike
P Cricket
3B Phil

Ducks take a 2-1 lead after two innings, but we recapture the lead after the bottom of the third putting up two runs off a two-run Lloyd homerun.

In the bottom of the 6th, we try to blow the whole thing open. Micah and Tom both hit doubles, Jonah gets walked and then Noah hits a single that scores a run and advances runners. Dougie scores a run after being hit by a pitch and in the end, we put up four runs and take a 7-2 lead into the 7th.

In the top of the 9th, it's the Ducks last chance. Cricket is still on the mound having only thrown 88 pitches today, yielding 5 hits and striking out 6. After notching his seven strikeout, he gets two more groundouts and with that, the Dirtbags are Wednesday Series champions!

[Suicane75]

Love this idea. I've had similar thoughts in the past of doing either a soft ball or community fast pitch league centered around a few teams run or sponsored by local businesses that would be part baseball sim, part small town soap opera. But I'm not nearly good enough a writer to pull it off and it would likely devolve into something more fitting for Literotica.

[Young Drachma]

Nah, that's really the hardest of doing this is precisely that. I think there's ways to keep it interesting somehow, but I'm still sorting it out. I think with more leagues, at least there's the idea of "okay, are these dudes big and good enough to be toppled? Can they keep dominating this league or do I move them to a bigger league? Will guys splinter and go elsewhere?"

Lots of storylines in theory, but like you said...it's tough to maintain the interest in something so obscure and niche.

[Suicane75]

Yes. But it seems like OOTP is a much better mechanism for setting up that sort of world. I've never found flexibility one of Moguls strong suits, even though it is my game of choice.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Yes. But it seems like OOTP is a much better mechanism for setting up that sort of world. I've never found flexibility one of Moguls strong suits, even though it is my game of choice.

Yeah, true. Tailor made for OOTP, not Mogul, it's why I stopped using it because I needed more depth than it was able to give me after a while. I did like Mogul's speed and ease of use though. That's unparalleled.