Final SOMBILLA Standings 2006-2007

                    W   L  Pct  GB
Knuckle Sandwiches 37  19 .661  --
New Orleans        33  23 .589   4
Constantinople     30  26 .536   7
Future Wax         29  27 .518   8
North Dakota       28  28 .500   9
Bay City           27  29 .482  10 
The Human Stains   20  36 .357  17
Area 51            20  36 .357  17

Leaders
All Stats
Ballparks

MVP - Alex Rodriguez, Constantinople
Cy Young - Dontrelle Willis, New Orleans
Manager of the Year - Jed

World Series - March 11
Constantinople 7  Future Wax 4
Future Wax 4  Constantinople 2
Constantinople 7  Future Wax 5
Future Wax 6  Constantinople 5
Future Wax 4  Constantinople 2
Constantinople 7  Future Wax 0
Constantinople 4  Future Wax 3

Constantinople wins series 4 games to 3

Playoffs - March 5
Constantinople 9  New Orleans 3
New Orleans 8  Constantinople 7
Constantinople 8  New Orleans 7 (12 innings)
Constantinople 4  New Orleans 2
Constantinople 8  New Orleans 7

Constantinople wins series 4 games to 1

Knuckle Sandwiches 6  Future Wax 5
Future Wax 6  Knuckle Sandwiches 0
Future Wax 3  Knuckle Sandwiches 0
Future Wax 3  Knuckle Sandwiches 2
Future Wax 8  Knuckle Sandwiches 2

Future Wax wins series 4 games to 1

Twits Notes*
As the league gets older, it becomes harder to break records, even obscure ones.

Most Rolaids points:  Mariano Rivera, NO 46 (only because we now credit 3 pts for a save a la MLB).  Old record, Beck, ND '94-95 42.  BUT WAIT! Turns out that North Dakota's former fat, drunk closer Rod Beck retains his all-time Rolaids points record.  Tom has been using the official Major League Baseball formula (3 pts for win, 2 for a save, -2 for a loss).  I had been using an outdated formula.  Beck's phenomenal Strat-O season actually stood up to the more generous MLB formula, until this year.

For the record, Beck was 2-0, with 19 saves and a 1.26 ERA for '93-94 North Dakota (research shows it has been incorrectly reported as '94-95).  That gives Beck 61 Rolaids points.

Most consecutive seasons, playoffs: Future Wax 1993-2007 14

Records tied: Most consecutive championships Tom (ties Tsuan who won it in the league's first three years)

Final Home/Away records:

AWAY                      HOME
Harold   17-11  .607      Jed     21-7     .750
Robin    16-12  .571      Harold  16-12    .571
Jed      16-12  .571      Randy   16-12    .571
Tom      14-14  .500      Tom     16-12    .571
Randy    13-15  .464      Arnie   15-13    .536
Arnie    13-15  .464      Robin   11-17    .393
Jeff     10-18  .357      Eric    11-17    .393
Eric      9-19  .321      Jed     10-18    .357
Total   108-116 .482      Total   116-108  .518

(3/23)  A month after the SOMBILLA regular season 'ended', The Human Stains and Bay City shockingly played their make up series.  It is now the second year in a row Eric has played a meaningless regular season makeup series after the playoffs.

In a series that crushed Bay City's hopes both for finishing at .500 and having a chance at a roll-off for the 2nd pick, or the 3rd pick outright - Robin took 3 of 4 from Eric.  The series highlights included 4 BC pitchers having their arms fall off (but not literally a la Dave Dravecky) and 2 BC players getting injured - including Jeter, causing Frank Catalanotto (called up for the previously injured Shawn Green) to play 7 flawless innings at short.

(2/25)  It was a wild final night of the regular season.   Run out of town by an angry mob, Reykjavik found their season hanging by a thread (magic number for Randy = 2).   After winning game 1, 6-3, the enigmatic team blew a prime opportunity to win game 2, losing 4-3 in 12 innings, leaving the bases loaded in the 3rd, 6th, and most distressingly, 10th inning.   Pujols had 2 chances to win the game in extra frames and choked. (C. Jones had the big 12th inning hit for A51).  The pair of incompetent teams proceeded to torture Arnie and Jeff yet again in game 3 as the game dragged into the 12th ining yet again.  This time it was A51 leaving tons of runners. Finally, Pujols, the game 2 goat, homered in the bottom of the 12th. 

Just to see if the last game meant anything, I called Jed.  He had just won the first three against Randy!!  So, with one game left, Reykjavik (ND) and  Future Wax were tied!  A one-game playoff 2 years in a row between the same teams??!!  Contreras proceeded to pitch a 3-hit shutout to win for RK/ND.  On the Internet, Jed was up 2-0 against FW, but Randy scored 2 in the 9th to send it to extra innings.  Randy then scored 2 in the 12th to go up 4-2, but Jed tied it!  Finally, Randy won it on a HR to clinch first place.

In somber and much more important news, the league sends its condolences to Eric and his family.  Eric's Dad passed away earlier today.  Funeral arrangements will be forthcoming.  Strat-O is just a silly game we play with dice; this puts it all in proper perspective.  Eric's series with Robin (which does not affect the playoffs) is not important in the grand scheme of things.

(2/22)  Earlier this week, New Orleans took 3 of 4 from FW to clinch 2nd place.  Included was a 26 - 1 win which Randy claims is the worst pounding in Wax history.  Noted slugger Adam Everett goes 4 for 5 with 2 HR's and 8 RBI in the slugfest.   Randy has figured out that his magic number is 2.  Any combo of his wins or Arnie losses decides it. A three-way tie for 4th is possible if Robin sweeps Eric, Arnie takes 3 of 4 from Jeff, and Jed sweeps Randy... On Sunday, the Sandwiches swept the Stains and have clinched first place.  Game scores were 5-4, 11-8, 4-3 and 10-6.  Game 3 went into extra innings and Coco Crisp pushed across the winning run with a suicide squeeze.  The Stains simply did not have any karma. ..Draft Day April 1

(2/16)  Two-time defending champ Tom clinched the playoffs last night. CC Sabathia  pitched 8 strong innings as CN wins 4-2. In game 2, Derek Lowe came back to crush CN's Loe for a 7-2 victory. In game 3, CN sent Benoit (his "best" pitcher) out and he gave up 4 runs over 3 to fall behind 4-3, but Todd Jones and Eyre came out to shut down Eric's offense.  Ensberg hit a tying ball park shot in the sixth and Andruw Jones hit the winning solo shot in the 8th...The pivotal game had CN's Tim Hudson ("Man, What happened to him?  He used to be good." -- Eric) versus Kevin Millwood.  The ballpark supported CN as 5 early runs were scored on 2 ballpark homers and they held on to win 6-2.Andruw Jones was the player of the series for the second time in one week, hitting 2 homers, 4 RBIs and threw out two Stains at the plate.The Ballpark gets an honorable mention, if it had been a pitchers park then the Stains would have won the last two games by 1 run each in heartbreakers....

Future Wax took 3 of 4 from the hapless aliens in a hard fought series that required plenty of late inning heroics from the home team.  The first game was a 1-1 pitcher's duel between Pedro and Pettite, until Barajas broke it open with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 7th, on the way to a 7-1 victory.  In the next game, Jeff's 5-2 lead evaporated in the bottom of the 7th, when pinch-hitter Cameron greeted reliever B.J. Ryan with a 2-run blast, closely followed by a game-tying Griffey solo shot.  K-Rod and Nathan smothered the opposition offense, but after 3 innings a spent K-Rod gave way to Fultz, who promptly surrendered the walk-off winner to Tony Clark.  In game 3, Fultz was the goat again, giving up a 2-run game-tying homer in the bottom of the 8th to Griffey.  Giles then ended it with a walk-off triple in the bottom of the 9th, following Chavez's lead off double.  Despite coveting the first draft pick, Jeff had had enough: he put up 13 runs (on 15 hits) over the first 4 innings, on the way to a 16-8 sweep-avoiding win.

Draft Day April 1

(2/12)  North Dakota's season went down in flames tonight.  Literally.  Angry fans stormed the field after the team was humiliated against Constantinople by scoring just 4 runs in its final 3 games.  The fans burned down the field and chased the spoiled losers out of town.  The only thing preventing the enraged owner from shredding the pathetic bastards and setting them on fire is that they still have one series remaining.  They will henceforth be known as Reykjavik.  Hats off to CN.  A. Jones had more rbis than the entire ND team and Schmidt and T. Jones pitched a 3-hit shutout.  All Rekjavik players are available for trade...Draft Day April 1.

(2/11) In a historic first, a computer series did not end in a split.  Instead, the Knuckle Sandwiches swept Swarzluna, giving Eric a much needed boost in his quest for the #1 draft choice.  The scores of the games were 9-3, 3-1, 9-3 and 6-3.  Derek Lee went 7 for 16 with a home run for the Sandwiches.  But it was really the pitching that was outstanding, with Josh Beckett notably pitching his second complete game in a row, allowing 2 earned runs and striking out 10.  Manny Ramirez hit two homers for Swarzluna.  Miguel Tejada went 6 for 16.  However the Swarzluna starters - with the exception of Derek Lowe - could not hold back the nickel-and-diming Knuckle attack.  A lighter moment occurred when it took several minutes to figure out why we could not avoid having Brian Giles issued an intentional walk.  We kept undoing the play and trying to continue.  Eventually, we determined it was because the computer manager was turned on.  So we finally turned it off.  We undid the play one last time.  Then...Brian Giles walked.

(2/9) Like Tom before him, Arnie came to play Eric and ruined Eric's karma by dropping 3 of 4. When will his luck turn? All he wants is to come in last without a roll-off. The good news is that he still has to play Jed 8 times. Arnie, meanwhile, drops back to .500, and dangles Hafner to everyone but to them in Olney. Everything everywhere sucks....North Dakota falls into a 4th place tie with Constantinople, setting up a big series for Monday...Draft Day April 1.

(2/6)  New Orleans gave Bay City;s playoff hopes a serious blow earlier tonight, winning 3 of 4 to open up a 2 game lead over 3rd place Future Wax.  With only one series left, Harold appears to be sitting pretty for teh post-season...Draft Day April 1

(2/3) New Orleans pulled to within a game of first place Saturday, taking 3 of 4 from HS.  3 complete games were pitched by NO pitchers, and David DeJesus (“What would DeJesus do?”) was the hitting star going an impressive 11 for 16, with 2 HR (1 GS) and 9 RBI. Sheff hits 14th, Dunn 11th...In the Couch of Woe battle for last place, Jeff came out the winner, as Bay City took three of four from A51 in a closely matched, low-scoring series. In Game 1, Pettitte out-pitched Oswalt. In Game 2, Casey Kotchman fell a triple shy of the cycle in leading Bay City to a 5-1 victory. In Game 3, BC eked out a 2-1 win despite a clutch out from Victor Martinez (who redeemed himself in his next at bat by homering to tie the game). Pudge knocked in A51 fan favorite Kevin Mench, who had a pinch-hit triple to lead off the 8th, with the winning run. Game 4 was a nail-biter, with Buehrle (3 singles allowed through 8+ innings) and Jeff Weaver (3 hits through 6) throwing gems, but BC 26th man, the cute Curtis Granderson, hit a 2-run homer off B.J. Ryan in the eighth, and Hensley, Cotts, and Gordon held on for the 2-0 win...Reminder that you can call up a 26th man for game 45...Draft Day April 1 .

(2/2)  The glass slippers of Eric's Cinderella season were shattered last night, as Future Wax swept the hapless Stains.  Marcus Giles led the Wax attack with 3 RBIs in each of the first three games. This including a bases-loaded triple that transformed a 4-4 tie into an 11-4 rout. Next, Santana's masterful complete game 6 hitter led to an 8-4 victory.  In game 3, Chavez snuffed a potential 9th inning rally with a gold glove worthy play to preserve a 7-6 win. In the final game, Manny Ramirez's bid at a game-tying home run (BP 1-10, 2 on, 2 out in the 9th) came up short, putting the final bristle in the sweep broom...CN crawled back to .500 by taking their series against Area 51 3-1.  After winning 2 of the first 3 games, the last game started with Jeff grumbling "Looks like another unsatisfying split", which Abreu answered with a leadoff double as CN scored 2 runs in the first.  CN went on to win 14-1.  In the game, Russ Branyan was injured striking out.  Later in the training room he was found unconscious and it now looks like he will be out for the rest of the season.  Shawn Chacon who had left game 2 to allegedly fly ahead to prepare for his next start, is now being sought for questioning...Draft Day April 1. 

(1/28)  Ice conditions were excellent for the (last?) annual SOMBILLA hockey game. Expectations were at an all-time high as pre-game rumors of Land's appearance brought groupies to Holliston and gasps from around the league.  Alas, Land could not make it as he had to fly out of town. Then, Matt ("225 lbs of bulked-up non-muscle") pulled out and the game lost its luster.  On the ice, it was Jeff & Harold winning convincingly over Arnie & Tom, 3-0.  Arnie's frustration was evident when, after skating around Jeff & Harold and missing an open net, he subsequently deflected a Jeff pass into the net for J&H's 2nd goal.  

On the table, Jeff knew it would be a long day when Delgado missed a grand slam home run chance in Harold's park (1-19) as Harold swept into 2nd place...Big Papi's gutsy 14th inning pinch-hit home run helped North Dakota split with the high flying Sandwiches as trade rumors swirled.

Draft Day April 1.

(1/25) It was yet another "unsatisfying split" for Future Wax.  A walk-off homer by Aramis Ramirez off of Bruce "Pinata" Chen settled game 1 by a score of 5-4.  The Sandwiches bounced back in game 2, winning 4-2 based on strong pitching from John Smoltz and Brian Fuentes, the latter of whom managed to lower his ERA below 20.  The Wax stormed back to win game 3 by a 7-3 margin.  7 runs represented a rather disappointing amount of production considering the Wax hit 6 home runs!  However, a W is a W.  Finally, in game 4, the Sandwiches handily dispatched the mutant Zach Duke and won 10-6.  The Wax hit a bunch more home runs but the Sandwiches countered with a massive amount of singles.  As usual, it took a while to work out the network connectivity kinks but after that it was smooth sailing. ..Draft Day April 1.

(1/21) North Dakota surged into 2nd place by taking 3 of 4 from Bay City, which dropped into last place.  This time, no illegal pinch-hitters were used.   ND jumped out to a 6-2 lead in game 1, but a 5-run 9th inning, capped by Thomas's 2-run homer gave BC the come from behind 8-6 lead.  Duffy's pinch-hit 2-run single in the bottom of the 9th won it for ND, 9-8. Peavy and Shields scattered 8 hits to win game 2, 3-2.  Bay City came back to win game 3, 9-4 with a big 5-run 8th.  But North Dakota jumped to a 6-4 lead after 2 innings in the finale, and entire ND bullpen of Heilman, Izzy, M Gonzalez, Shields, Baker and Hoffman held on for the 6-5 win. Travis Hafner (5 for 15, 1 HR, 5 rbi) was MVP for North Dakota as trade rumors swirled...Draft Day April 1.

(1/16)  Despite TWITS Notes to the contrary, Future Wax did not sweep Bay City, keeping Robin from plummeting into last place. When going over his scoresheets, Randy noticed that his game 3 hero, Mike Jacobs, who pinch-hit the alleged game-winning homer in the 10th, actually had had his name announced as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of that game, only to be called back for Craig Wilson when Robin changed pitchers. Randy graciously informed his opponent, and the decision was made to replay the game from the top of the tenth. In the new and improved extra innings of game 3, Huston Street shut out FW for 4 1/3, and was replaced by lefty Jason Vargas in the 14th. Vargas stopped the Wax and became both the winning pitcher and the hitting star when he (batting for himself because Robin ran out of position players in the ninth and the DH was playing the field) singled home the speedy (and cute) Ryan Langerhans, who had doubled with one out in the 14th. Rich Harden (Randy’s last pitcher) was the hard-luck loser. The key for BC was replacing the “1” batting Huston for the “5” batting Vargas )...Once again, only one team is above .500...Draft Day April 1.

(1/14)  With a series sweep on Saturday, Future Wax leapt from 7th place to 2nd place, while hapless Bay City rolled from 3rd to 8th. The first game was all Pedro: a complete game 4-hit shutout for an 8-0 win. Santana followed up with a complete game of his own, allowing 7 hits and 1 (unearned) run, for a 6-1 victory. In game 3, Robin batted around in the 3rd to take a 4-0 lead, only to give up 5 runs the next inning. Down 8-5 in the 8th, Robin batted around again, tying the game on a sac bunt, sac fly, and Giles error. But Jacobs led off the 10th with a pinch-hit homer, for a 9-8 win.  The final game was also close, but despite two Frank Thomas homers, Bay City came up short again, losing 5-4.

(1/11)  Yes, those standings are correct.  Only one team is now over .500!  The gory details:

The story of the Harold/Tom series was the starting pitchers. In CN's 3 wins their starters went 15 innings for 5 runs versus New Orleans' 22.1 innings for 22 runs.  Sheets (no decision) gave up 4 runs as CN won 8-4 in Game 1.  Game 2 had Chacon go 5 innings giving up one run to win 9-4. In the last game Benoit went 5 innings giving up no runs as CN shutout NO 8-0. Game 3 was a strange game in that Sabathia went into the 7th and gave up 7 runs but only 3 of them earned as NO Ace Carpenter won the game 8-6.

Future Wax was really hurt by Gackle Park, which punishes lefty hitters.  Randy must have missed 6-8 lefty ballpark homers (1-4) in the series.  He still almost split - in game 1 FW had the bases loaded in the 9th with 2 outs down 4-3, but Giles hit into a clutch out to end the game.  Game 2 was 0-0 through 7 innings.  Final score, FW 10 ND 0 (don't ask).   D. Davis, Izzy, Hoffman and M. Gonzalez combined fior a 7-hitter to win game 3, 4-2 in the pitcher's park. Four homers (Uribe, Glaus, Hafner, and Big Papi [a gutsy pinch-hit hr]) paced the attack in the 7-3 game 4 win for ND.

(1/4) It was an evening of unsatisfying splits.  Although North Dakota was quite content to split after losing Games 1 and 2 by scores of 12-10 and 21-4, winning game 3 on a 10-inning pinch-hit homer by Pujols and game 4, 16-1...It took Eric awhile to get going in his series against Jeff after way too much luggage. The two were stunned to learn they had a rematch scheduled for next week, but easily dismissed any notion of hanging around till 2 AM or so to play tonight instead...Randy had 4 injuries in his series and would have had a 5th, but shook it off.  As it is, he has lost Cameron for 8 games...Draft Day - April 1.

(12/25)  Eric lurched into a tie for 3rd place today, winning 5 of 8 games against the league's only married couple in the annual Strat-O Christmas day bash. Juan Encarcio had a huges day for Eric, swatting 4 homers with 8 rbi's.  3 of his homers came in his first game of the day against Robin, an 11-1 win.  Blanton (2-0, 1.80 ERA on the day) and Lowe (2-0, 2.81) also came up big for Eric.  We enter the new year with only 2 of the league's 8 teams over .500...Eric is finally at the roster freeze.

(12/23) Apparently, all of Eric's talk about what a crappy team he had lulled Tom into a false sense of security, for after blanking the Human Stains 4-0 in game one, he proceeded to allow the Stain offense to put up big numbers in wins of 13-7, 8-3 and 11-9. Deflated by victory, Eric left Tom's house feeling his season was almost in ruins.

(12/20)  An "unsatisfying" split last night beween Tom and Jeff...Only 3 games separates 2nd place from last...Yeah, yeah, I know the 2nd half schedule isn't out yet.  I hope to send it out tomorrow.

(12/18)  Bay City soared into 2nd place tonight, taking 3 out of 4 in the WaxDome. In a relatively low-scoring series, Oswalt went the distance in Game 1 to eke out a 6-4 win, with Floyd lacking only a triple for the cycle. Bay City was up 3-2 in Game 2 going into the bottom of the ninth but lost on a Griffey solo shot and a bases-loaded walk to Cameron by Clay Hensley.  Two big innings (a 4-run fifth and a 5-run eighth) in Game 3 sealed the victory for BC. Floyd again starred with a grand slam and 2 singles. In Game 4, Buerhle got another complete game victory, 3-1, thanks in part to a 2-base error by Aramis Ramirez and timely hitting by Cabrera....New Orleans took over 3rd place on the back of terrific pitching.  Chris Carpenter was the star of the series, pitching a 3-hit, CG 3-1 win in game 3.  Harold also had Colon with a 3-hit, 8-inning performance in game 1, and a Garland, Carrasco, Cordero, Padilla combined 6-hit, 3-1 win in game 4...Poor Eric tried valiantly to actually get a series in, but Arnie's computer was not able to connect properly.  Eric did, however, succeed in making Arnie feel guilty, so all was not lost.

(12/14)  Harold beat Randy 3 of 4 in a fairly low scoring series, considering the teams and Harold's ballpark.  In game 4 which Randy won, final score was 6-3 and FW hit 5 solo HR’s....After Tom won the first 2 games in their series, Randy was really pissed off and broke Ryan Howard's Cheek putting him out for that game plus 5 additional ones.  Randy came back to gain the split...All teams except 'no play' Eric are now at the roster freeze.

(12/10) After getting swept by Jed earlier in the day, Tom took out all his frustrations on North Dakota in game 1, winning 23-1.    He scored 14 runs in the 5th inning, an inning in which he batted around twice and Jason Varitek had 3 at bats...

Jed has a lot of writing to do after traveling over 300 miles to play 20 games in 24 hours, going 14-6 to take over first place.

Please schedule your makeup games.  Thank you.

(12/3)  Robin knocked off Tom in a series that lasted a Matt-esque < 2 1/2 hours! She pounded Tom in game 1, 11-3, with 5 homers including a 1-5 BP by lefty Floyd. Other highlights for Robin were a complete game shutout from Buerhle (scattered 8 hits).  Wakefield gave up only 1 hr in his season debut.  Cotts got the save in relief of a tired Street, who almost lost a 4-1 lead.  M. Cabrera led the way with 3 homersand 6 rbi's.

North Dakota took over 2nd place Sunday night against Jeff.  Uribe's grand slam following M. Young's costly error was the key blow in game 1, Baker picking up the save for ND, which won 7-5.  Matsui's walk off single gave A51 the 3-2 win in game 2 to even the series...The amazing Doug Davis pitched a CG 3-hitter for the 6-1 game 3 win.  And in game 4, ND jumped out to a 12-0 lead, holding on for a 13-8 win with a balanced attack that featured 21 hits.

(11/30)  The Human Stains actually played a series last night!  FW opened the series by pounding Burnett for a 12-1 massacre (without any HR). Martinez in contrast yielded 3 hits (with 12 Ks) over 8 innings. Santana was equally masterful in the next game, throwing a complete game 5 hitter (with 11 Ks), for a 6-1 victory. Not to be outdone, Zambrano (7-2/3) and Linebrink combined for a 2-hit, 6-2 win.  However, Eric narrowly avoided the sweep with a 2-1 victory in the final game, with Westbrook and four relievers turning the tables and holding FW to just 3 hits.

(11/20)   The historic first series at Knuckle Yard will go down in SOMBILLA lore as one of the most unmemorable of all time. What happened again? Oh yeah, another split. Robin and I bravely fought through many freezes, which required restarting the game. The good news is, the games are automatically saved after each play so it is always possible to start right back where you were. In Game 1 Clemens pitched a relatively outstanding game, allowing only 5 ER in 6 IP on 7 H and 6 BB. The Sandwiches prevailed for a 10-6 victory after it was a close as 6-5 as of the top of the 7th. In games 2 and 3 Bay City's lefties Buerhle and Maholm stifled the Sandwiches, allowing only 1 run. Bay City won 3-1 and 5-0. Knuckle came back to take game 4 by a 4-2 margin. Hitting stars for Knuckle included "Torrid" Torii Hunter with 2 home runs and role players Randy Winn, Matt Holliday and Chad Tracy, who went a combined 9 for 19 with 5 RBI. Hitting stars for Bay City included Cliff Floyd who went 5 for 12 with 4 walks and Vernon Wells who went 5 for 13. Oh yeah, and Frank Thomas, who went 1 for 1 with a home run.

(11/19) CN went out to Marblehead for his first face to face series of the year.
A power park but the pitchers came to play for the first 3 games.
 
CN come out ahead in game one as Sheets and four other pitchers held on to win 3-2 powered by ball park homers from Varitek (2 run shot) and Howard. Heart attack close Todd Jones got his first save in his first appearance giving up a run in the 9th...CN behind a complete game for Matt Cain overcame an early 4-0 deficit to win 7-4 over Willis and friends...CN then faced Carpenter (3-0 with 3 complete games) and was able to claw out 4 runs to pace Benoit to a 4-3 victory with Loe, Wise and Eyre coming in with relief help...Harold had had enough and after verbally abusing his team they came out and trounced CN 22-6.

(11/19) SOMBILLA games were actually played tonight!

Eric Chavez (2 HR, 5 rbi), Tony Clark (5 rbi) and Carol Zambrano (7 innings, 1 ER) led FW to the 3 game to 1 home field series win to take over first place.  The series featured sloppy fielding by both teams and ND was hurt when 2 key lefty hitters - Crawford and Hafner - went down for the series.

(11/12)  Back in 1969, ancient rivals Jed and Arnie never would have imagined that they'd still be playing Strat-O matic baseball against one another 37 years later while living 300 miles apart.  Yet, here they were, still laughing and cursing at lady luck, only with less hair.

The series split featured numerous blown saves and lead changes.  North Dakota's bullpen  couldn't hold a 4-3 lead in the 9th inning of game 1 as Mike Gonzalez walked in the tying and go-ahead runs in the 9th inning for a 6-4 KS win.  No furniture was broken, however.

Jeff Kent's rbi single in the bottom of the 9th of game 2 off "Duchbag" was the difference in that see-saw battle, 5-4.  The story of Game 3 was not Troy Glaus's 2 home runs, but Doug Davis' shocking 2-hit shutout to lead ND to a 9-0 romp.

In game 4, it looked like Glaus's grand slam in the 7th (4 HR of the series and 7th on the year) would key a huge ND series win 9-6, but Jed scored 5 runs in the 8th and 9th off the ND bullpen (Giles and Holliday the big rbis) for the wild 11-10 win.

(11/5)  There was a somber mood at today's bash as Tom's young daughter came down with a scary case of croup yesterday, causing her to be admitted to the hospital.  It puts our silly little game in perspective. Luckily for Tom and family, his daughter will be fine.  Understandably, Tom was not able to make the bash.  

Because Robin was in Marrblehead for the day anyway, she and Harold decided to play their series previously scheduled for 12/4.  On the table, all three managers ended up a democratic 4-4 on the day.

(11/4) Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2006
From: Eric

land, it's great to hear from you. i honestly didn't think you existed anymore, other than as a phantom on our email lists, a name we were too attached to to delete, part of the honored...well, not the honored dead, exactly, but something like it: them that no longer met to partake in libations and leafy stuff and dice-rolling and, if you're arnie, paying your yearly dues, because it all comes down to that--principled bookkeeping--which probably explains his $elective memory...
but i'm glad to know you receive our missives, and observe us in silence, until some urge overcomes you and, like some rare, nordic bird, you suddenly light upon an e-branch and ruffle some words before rising up and vanishing once again into the ethernet....
but what i want to know is: who the fuck is this matt phelps dude? some high and mighty chess-playing bobby-fisher-mofo-wannabe most likely....  

Land wrote:
Me? I'm the founder and co-GM of the two-time reigning world champs. Who's asking?
Arnie wrote:
And you are?
-----Original Message-----
From: Land
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: SOMBILLA Standings November 1, 2006

I bet the computer didn't recognize that clump of tar on his hand either. So you've got a stoned smudged 40-year old Smoltz pitching lights out into the late innings. Who says strat-o isn't fantasy baseball?
Jed wrote:
I prefer "The Smoltz-pot Dome Scandal." Although I am denying any allegations that pot was involved.

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006 Arnie writes:
I believe the game summary and details was in Tom's write-up of the series, sent on Monday. It was basically my fault as I gave Tom incorrect computer setting information ("SADV fatigue rules") so that when Smoltz became tired, the computer didn't recognize it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric 
Subject: Re: SOMBILLA Standings November 1, 2006

did i miss something? what the fuck is "smoltz-gate?" what happened? is somebody feeling guilty?
(11/1) Arnie wrote:
The delay in providing updated standings was due to the protracted negotiation over "Smoltz-gate". In the end, Tom and Jed finally invoked the memory of the Matt Phelps and the SOMBILLA philosophy that we play Strat-O for fun and are not all cutthroat "win at all costs" managers. In other words, they said "fuck it".
(11/1) The Sombilla entered the 21st century with an unsatisfying split.  The computer decided that it did not care who was pitching that scoring was more fun.  Knuckle's Clemens gave up 8 runs and won the first game 9-8. 
 
The second game was marred by controversy with Jed pulling out a 15-13 win.
 
CN came back to score 3 TDs in game 3 vs. two field goals (CN 21- KS 6) and then final game was 10-3 with King Felix being knocked out in the 2nd inning.
 
The level of rules that we have turned on does not tire a starter if he gives up 5 runs in 1 inning or 6 in 2 or .... before the point of weakness.  The 5th inning of the 2nd game, I scored 5 runs against Smoltz.  (At the time going up 7-2.)  As it turned out I had scored two runs earlier and was not sure whether I had scored 4 or 5 in the inning.  (I tried to get the box score but only found the print box score function.  Later I figured out that clicking on the last button on the bottom that says something like check allows one to view the box score.)  I also forget the exact wording of this rule until it happens the first time.  But I know (OK I am pretty sure but have not owned the computer version for several years) that if the rules are at maximum that this rule does tire a pitcher.  At the time I said to Jed "Shouldn't he be tired", and then "Well I guess the computer would get it right."  Well in game 4, I scored 6 runs versus King Felix in the 2nd inning and he was not tired at which point it became clear that computer strato was not going to tire a pitcher for runs scored early.  (I eventually scored 8 in that inning without tiring him and when I said to Jed that we had to treat him as if he was tired he agreed and decided to pull him.)  Well, now looking back at game 2 Smoltz should have been tired in the 5th.  After settling down and getting the last out, he pitched two scoreless innings with 1 single the only damage.   If we tried to play the game over, Jed could and should complain because if we back up to the end of the 5th would mean that my starter is not tired and that he will have a 10 run inning erased. 
 
(10/29) Manny Ramirez smacked 3 homers in the first game for The Human Stains in a losing cause as the team went down 11-10 to begin the SOMBILLA's season.  Harold went on to win 3 of 4 in a high scoring series, with Sheffield hitting 2 homers...Not to be outdone, Troy Glaus hit 3 homers to lead North Dakota to a 3 of 4 game opening series win over Bay CIty.  Shields and Hoffman each had a save and Chris Young tossed a 4-hit shutout.