Games of 9/25

Nilva 7, Melendez 6
Zach Nilva picked up his 10th win, and Paul Geoghan's opposite field single in the 5th inning plated the go-ahead run. Sam Melendez (3-for-4, 2 RBI) and Matt Mishkin (3-for-4, 3 runs) led Zach's team. Ray Hernandez hit a 3-run HR for Freddie's squad.

Appell 10, Parfrey 8
In another slugfest, the bats of Appell's team prevailed. Brian Hernandez was 4-for-4 with 3 RBI, Chris Hall drove in 3 including the go-ahead run, and Zach Nilva was 3-for-4. For Parfrey's team, Alex Rivera was 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored, and Dave Sommers homered and drove in 3.

Games of 7/24

Appell 5, Hewes 2
Jeff Appell (7-4) scattered 10 hits, and went 3-for-3 with an RBI. Brian Hernandez-Sandercock was 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI.

Parfrey 3, Nilva 0
Ian Parfrey (5-4) threw a 4-hit shutout, retiring the last 9 batters, and allowing only one runner to reach third base. The only runs Zach Nilva gave up were in the bottom of the 1st-- Mike Sulyman led off with a single, Derek Martinez (3-for-3) doubled, and both scored on a comedy of throwing errors. Dave Sommers (3-for-3) then tripled to deep left, and scored on a Solomon Sarway sac fly.

Games and Notes of 9/12

Courtesy of Brian Hernandez and ABC News, here's a brief video of this morning's action. What you're seeing is Phil Ciccone's 3rd inning double to left-center off of Dave Rosengard in Game 1, advancing Zach Nilva to third. The infielders are Fred Lang (2b), Sam Magnus (3b), and Dave Sommers (ss).

Found at field: One righty Mizuno Premier glove, tan with dark brown trim, and an improvised relacing between the second and third fingers.

In last week's comments section, we learned that IF Bob Holzwasser is on the 60-day DL. Hope to see you on the field again soon, Bob.

Games of 9/12:

O'Connor 15, Rosengard 4
Jim O'Connor picked up his 10th win behind the batting heroics of Phil Ciccone (3-for-4, 3 doubles, 2 RBI), Ian Parfrey (2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI), Zach Nilva (3-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI), and Tony Connor (3-for-3, 3 RBI).

Appell 2, Stoeth 1 (8 innings)
Jeff Appell (5-3) and Laura Stoeth locked up in a real pitcher's duel. In the bottom of the first, Phil Ciccone singled in Don Weiss to give Laura a 1-0 lead. Appell didn't allow another runner to reach third base the rest of the way. His own offense was stymied by Tony Connor's pitching protege until a pair of errors in the sixth inning tied the score. In the top of the eighth, Bill McLaughlin tripled up the left-center gap, and scored on Dave Sommers' sacrifice fly. Appell flew out with the bases loaded to end the inning, but retired Zach Nilva and Phil Ciccone after Don Weiss's one-out single to preserve the win. Appell allowed 8 hits, 1 walk, and struck out one. Stoeth allowed 6 hits, 5 walks, and struck out two.

GAMES OF 9/5

1. Hewes 6, Stoeth 5
Havelock Hewes (9-16) got Gil Schmerler to line out to SS Dave Sommers with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the 7th to preserve the win. Sommers (2-for-3, 2B, 3 RBI) supplied most of the offensive firepower for the winning side. Mike Palma was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI for Stoeth's team.

2. Appell 6, Rosengard 4
Jeff Appell (4-3) scattered 7 hits, and worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the 7th inning, allowing only Jaime Orochena's sac fly. Appell also doubled and drove in 2. Zach Nilva was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Rosengard got a 2-run double by Derek Martinez and little else in the way of offensive support.

3. Melendez 10, Martinez 2
These two pitchers squared off against each other in an equally lopsided game last week, won by Martinez, and this time Freddy Melendez (10-6) got his revenge, scattering 11 hits and pitching shutout ball over the final 6 frames. Don Weiss (3-for-5, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI) and Zach Nilva (3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) led the way, as Martinez struggled with his control all day, walking nine.

GAMES AND NOTES OF 5/9

1. Stoeth 12, O'Connor 6
Laura Stoeth won her SFLOI pitching debut, allowing only 9 hits. Derek Martinez (3 for 4, 2B, 2 RBI) and Freddy Melendez (3 for 4, RBI triple) led the offense as Stoeth's team built a 10-2 lead and coasted to a victory. Ian Parfrey was 2-for-3 with a 2-run homer for O'Connor's team.

2. Parfrey 6, Hewes 4
David Sommers (2 RBI) and Tony Connor each went 3-for-3 as Parfrey's team scored five times in the first and hung on for the win. Chris Hall was 3-for-3 with an RBI for Hewes's team.

Notes:
1. Pitcher Dave Rosengard stopped by the game, on his bicycle. Good to see you back so soon, Dave!

2. LP2 defeated Reif's Tavern 4-2 Thursday evening and is off to a 3-0 start. Jeff Appell allowed one run in 5 innings for the win.

3. PLEASE slide into second or third base on a close play rather than colliding with the infielders.

FROM THE STATS LAB

I've come up with a crudely effective season normalizer for SFLOI stats, and ran 357 batter seasons from 1985-2009 through it. The cutoff was 2.5% of each season's total plate appearances, and each batter's OPS was measured against the league-average OPS over the same number of at bats. Now, this season's MVP debate will probably hinge on an unresolvable statistical question: would you rather have 300 at bats of high quality, or 250 at bats of really high quality? The following list gives no credit for people who play more often--it simply measures who you'd want hitting 3rd or 4th for your team on any given day. So, here they are, SFLOI's top 25 seasons:

25. David Sommers, 2006: .550 BA, 7 HR, 40 RBI, 117 PA.
24. Manny Santiago, 1990: .525 BA, 7 HR, 40 RBI, 122 PA. Batting and home run titles.
23. Ian Lebowitz, 2001: .535 BA, 16 HR, 52 RBI, 141 PA. Batting title.
22. Tony Connor, 1985: .500 BA, 0 HR, 14 RBI, 57 PA. Batting title. One of the finest seasons of the pre-modern era.
21. Kurt Hettler, 1992: .482 BA, 23 HR, 84 RBI, 210 PA. Home run and RBI titles. The 1992 stats contain some errors, for example one player is listed as going 23-for-23. This simply couldn't be, and therefore you could make a case for moving Kurt up a few places.
20. Chris Hall, 2005: .580 BA, 5 HR, 53 RBI, 174 PA. Batting title, also led league in hits and runs scored. Chris had the misfortune of having his best seasons in SFLOI's second dead-ball era.
19. Larry Savell, 1989: .520 BA, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 106 PA. Rookie season.
18. Ian Lebowitz, 2000: .545 BA, 12 HR, 38 RBI, 102 PA. Rookie season.
17. Kurt Hettler, 1993: .548 BA, 9 HR, 55 RBI, 181 PA. Batting and RBI titles, led league in doubles and triples.
16. Derek Martinez, 2009: .493 BA, 26 HR, 87 RBI, 249 PA. Home run and RBI titles, also led league in runs scored. Alltime HR record.
15. Alex Rivera, 2009: .532 BA, 16 HR, 57 RBI, 232 PA. Batting title.
14. Carl Weinberg, 2007: .464 BA, 14 HR, 72 RBI, 197 PA. Home run and RBI titles, also led league in doubles and triples. This was the off year of mighty Carl's 2005-2008 prime.
13. Phil Kotik, 1995: .488 BA, 25 HR, 53 RBI, 240 PA. Batting and home run titles.
12. Phil Kotik, 1998: .564 BA, 21 HR, 78 RBI, 186 PA. Home run and RBI titles.
11. Carl Weinberg, 2006: .565 BA, 11 HR, 78 RBI, 217 PA. Home run and RBI titles, also led league in hits, runs, doubles, and triples.
10. Phil Kotik, 1994: .479 BA, 22 HR, 67 RBI, 236 PA. Batting and home run titles.
9. Phil Kotik, 1999: .600 BA, 21 HR, 73 RBI, 167 PA. Batting title. Also led league in runs scored and doubles. 1999 was the highest level of offense ever in SFLOI, that's how there are 8 seasons better than .600 with power.
8. Phil Kotik, 1996: .476 BA, 16 HR, 65 RBI, 193 PA. Home run title, also led league in runs scored.
7. Larry Savell, 2000: .623 BA, 12 HR, 42 RBI, 114 PA. Batting title. Highest single season average ever, but it came in the 2nd best season for offense ever, so read on.
6. Carl Weinberg, 2002: .507 BA, 15 HR, 65 RBI, 158 PA. Triple Crown. Also led league in hits, doubles, and triples, so it's more like the "Sextuple Crown."
5. Phil Kotik, 1997: .548 BA, 21 HR, 83 RBI, 182 PA. RBI title. Sixth and "last" appearance on this list.
4. Phil Ciccone, 2007: .558 BA, 10 HR, 61 RBI, 180 PA. Batting title. Led league in runs scored.
3. Carl Weinberg, 2008: .541 BA, 18 HR, 82 RBI, 209 PA. Batting and home run titles. Led league in doubles and triples. Had a 10-RBI game. I kept Carl from winning the triple crown in the 3rd best SFLOI season ever. I want that on my next baseball card.
2. Phil Ciccone, 2006: .604 BA, 9 HR, 53 RBI, 120 PA. Batting title. SFLOI's version of Ted Williams's .406 season. As a digression, do you have any idea how hard it is to hit .600? I've heard talk around the batting cages that all you need to do is be a mechanical line drive singles hitter, of the Boggs / Carew / Gwynn type-- which of course is a rather infrequent type to show up in our game-- but consider this. 5-for-9 is a bad day.

1. Dan Schneider, 1997: .598 BA, 22 HR, 68 RBI, 126 PA. Batting and home run titles. Why this season? First of all, Dan jacked a home run every 6 times up. Even more impressive, he came within one hit of .600. And '97 was a good season for offense, but not as good as 1998-2001 would be, and the league average becomes a powerful determinant when sorting through endless seasons of .550 and 20 home runs. Dan's SFLOI career contains some mighty strange seasons. He won batting titles in 1992 and '97, had power outbursts of 16 HR's in 114 PA (1998) and 13 HR's in 64 PA (2000), and from 1997 to 2001 hit 65 in 411 PA's, which is kind of like Babe Ruth playing in Coors Field, or Mexico City. However, he also batted 304 times in 1995, and hit only 2 home runs, but had 15 triples and 10 sac flies. Looks like 1995 was played in a spacious outfield without fences, where the outfielders could play what we now call the "Brian Hernandez" defense. Anyway, if I had to face this guy in 1997-2001, he's getting walked. I know that people come to swing the bats, but pitchers shouldn't be used like one of Mike Tyson's sparring partners either, should they?

SFLOI Classics-- 6/28/09

With Sal in Chicago and Havelock busy writing haikus, it's time for another classic game of 2009. This game went 10 innings, and featured an 11-run explosion-- by the losing team!

Dave Rosengard and Havelock Hewes were the pitching antagonists in this matchup, and Rosengard's team jumped out to a 9-1 lead after 2 innings, sparked by back-to-back HR's from Brian Hernandez and Ian Parfrey in the first inning. Of course, no lead is ever safe in SFLOI, and in the bottom of the 3rd, Hewes's team exploded for 11 runs. The monster inning featured two costly errors by yours truly, a 2-run triple from Dave Sommers, and a bases-clearing tie-breaking triple from Chris Hall.

Both pitchers settled down and hung up zeroes until the top of the 6th, when two infield errors allowed Rosengard's team to tie it. The pitchers went back to work, and no further runs scored until the top of the 10th, when Hernandez and Parfrey went back-to-back for the 2nd time, Hernandez's blast coming with Phil Ciccone on base and clearing the bleachers of the next field. This gave Rosengard a 15-12 lead, which he held onto in the bottom of the 10th.

The winning team got 2 HR's and 6 RBI from Hernandez, 2 HR's and 3 RBI from Parfrey, and Phil Ciccone was 5-for-6 with 3 RBI. On the other side, Chris Hall drove in 5. All told, 27 runs scored on 37 hits.