After six years, Central and West Division
have three Champions each

"CENTRAL PRIDE":
PACHOS ARE CHAMPIONS!

Topos reach the Finals for the first time
No teams from the West in the Fall Classic for the first time in five years

Brokers' 113-win regular season gets them just the Division title
First winning season ever by the Sniffers
Quitting Bidons are second in East with their first .500 season
Just "one of those days" for the favored Mikes

 The Reno Pachos broke the rules. After three years of absolute domination by the West Division teams (the last three Finals had been a private affair between the Mikes and the Brokers), the Pachos coasted through a very solid season to dispose of the Candies in the Central Division, then upset the favored Mikes in the playoffs and eventually crushed the Topos in the Finals. This gives them their second Campionship title in the six years of the League's existence, and the first since 1995. They join the Mikes as the only two-times winners.

 Several interesting things happened for the first time this year, the most notable being a team from the always-weak East Division reaching the Finals. It was the surprising Hi-Fly Topos who, after a less-than-spectacular 87-75 season (they had lost 107 games the year before!), more than enough to win a Division with no other winning team, was the incredulous winner of a dramatic seven-game playoff over the best team of the regular season, the Guardian Angel Brokers. A terrific series indeed, led by the Topos 3-0 and tied 3-3 before the seventh game.

 The other playoff series went to the seventh game as well, as the Pontevecchio Mikes, who had won "just" 105 games compared to the Pachos' 110, refused to go down easy but lost the seventh game, 4-3. The one-run win was a specialty of the Pachos throughout the season, as they won 30 such games.

 Another "first ever" was performed by the Fortitudo Sniffers, the first expansion team of the League, who left the cellar in the West with their first winning season, finishing three games ahead of the Arno Bucks. In the East, the Tecnost Bidons, who are quitting the League for several personal reasons (they will be replaced by the second coming of the Faccos), were second with a .500 season.

 The three Division resulted heavily unbalanced, as usual, with four winning teams in the West (the Arno Bucks were last with a 87 - 75 record), three in the Central (the underdog Mirtilli Flowers were third with a wonderful 95 - 67 campaign), and just one in the East (the Topos, with the same record that netted the cellar to the Bucks in the West).

WEST DIVISION

Brokers     113 - 49   (.698)
Mikes       105 - 57   (.648)
Sniffers     90 - 72   (.556)
Bucks        87 - 75   (.537)
 

 In the Central Division, the Azzarita Candies, after a horrible start of the season, were frustrated by the consistency of the Pachos in the Central, and couldn't gain any ground as they ended up with 98 wins, which was good enough for a second place (they were the best team not going to the playoffs), but 12 games behind the eventual Champions.

CENTRAL DIVISION

Pachos      105 - 52   (.679)
Candies      98 - 64   (.605)
Flowers      95 - 67   (.586)
Rabbits      44 - 118  (.272)
Last Central 31 - 131  (.191)
 

The East Division dispalyed the usual bunch of lousy teams. The Fool's Corner Burberries were robbed of the second place by the Bidons, and the St. Lazarus Christians were even overachievers with their .488 campaign.

EAST DIVISION

Topos        87 - 75   (.537)
Bidons       81 - 81   (.500)
Burberries   80 - 82   (.494)
Christians   79 - 83   (.488)
Last East    34 - 128  (.210)
 

  Just three teams won more than 100 games, down from last year's six. The Rabbits' first season (and their last) was an absolute flop, as they pushed themselves out of the community from the beginning, showing no real interest in the game. They will likely be replaced by the Fatties, a team who used to amuse the Central Division in the first three years of the League. We hope this news becomes official shortly.
 

PREVIOUS BULLETINS

12/20/96 The Ghiotto meeting: Candies spend! (with trade rules) 12/23/96 Flowers: The Mob Visited My House! (in Italian) 01/05/97 The Loan Auction 01/19/97 The Trades Deadline 02/01/97 Brokers Are 1996 Champions 02/23/97 Freeze Time Coming 03/10/97 Keepers Submitted 05/05/97 Draft Time! 12/20/97 Realignment, expansion and predictions 01/10/98 Mikes latest Championship Team 03/01/98 1998 Keepers and Draft 04/14/98 1998 Season starts 09/16/98 The new freezing rules 11/01/98 Predictions 12/27/98 Expansion 02/07/99 A Mikes Dynasty ? 03/07/99 Newest League Rules 04/04/99 The 1999 Draft

  As for the players' performances, the batting title was won by Nomar Garciaparra of the Pachos, who hit .358. Shawn Green of the Brokers was second with .346, but he was the most fearsome slugger of the League with a .672 SLG. He also went on base at a .429 clip (fourth) and hit 58 homers (second behind Alex Rodriguez' 59). ARod, playing for the Mikes, was second with 158 RBI (Albert Belle of the Pachos had 163). The Total Average standings see Shawn Green first with 1.249, followed by teammate Carlos Delgado (Brokers, 1.184), Rafael Palmeiro (Mikes, 1.172), Jim Thome (Flowers, 1.149), Jose Canseco (Sniffers, 1.102), Ben Grieve (Mikes, 1.098), Matt Stairs (Flowers, 1.083), Kenny Lofton (Bucks, 1.075), Manny Ramirez (Candies, 1.070) and Garciaparra was 10th with 1.052.

 Among the pitchers, Pedro Martinez of the Candies was the clear superstar. He was the leader in the following categories: ERA (1.72), Strikeouts (339), Shutouts (10), Complete Games (15), Quality Starts (26), Runners per 9 innings (8.06), and the opposing hitters had the lowest BA, OBP and SLG against him. He won 20 games (Chuck Finley of the Brokers won 22, and was second in ERA with 2.64). Gil Heredia of the Pachos also won 20 games, benefiting from a 7.00 run support per game. Mariano Rivera of the Bucks was the best closer with 37 saves, followed by Troy Percival of the Pachos, who had 33, and Bob Howry of the Topos, with 32.

  All the stats will soon appear in the Flowers' archive site. More comments on each team cand be found in the Teams page.

Other pages for our friends online:

• A complete list of the keepers for each team (see also the reference page on the same matter).
• A complete list of the players drafted by team (a reference page is available on this matter as well).
• An updated team by team analysis in our usual Teams page, a fan favorite; it displays a roster analysis with the projected lineups for each team.
• The latest edition of this year's statistical recap for each and every player involved in our game. This page is updated weekly throughout the season, and is the best reference tool to evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses of each team.

You can see all the statistics of the 1999 DiamondMind Baseball Championship; they are provided, as usual, by courtesy of the Flowers Home Page.

Check the League's Coming Events . Stay in touch!

 For a complete recap of all the year's trades, see the Trades List Page.
 
 

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Mail me at r.caramelli@bo.nettuno.it.
Thank you.