VOLUME:LI ... Nov 2 2025
LATEST NEWS
COMMISSIONER NOTES:
Early last month for the tenth time the Syracuse boys won the RCMBA title. When this reporter watched their owner John Briggs do a bit of dancing and got him to say a few words. "We fell a little short during the season and didn't win the pennant but we won the big prize. 
We swept Kentucky in 3. Then Chesapeake 4-1 and beat Rochester 4-1. Heck of job by all the guys. Judgie was the big gun during the year. Ya know he won the MVP, unanimously with 68 bombs & 140 ribbies. Then he hits 5 more deep in playoffs, got 10 rbi and got walked 9 times. Shohei hit 56 homers during the year and he was huge in the playoffs. The kid had 18 hits, 11 rbi, 5 doubles and 8 homers in those 13 games! We can't forget how important Bobby Witt, Kerry Carpenter to make the other guys pitch to the big fellas. Oh and what a job Happy (Ian Happ) did in the leadoff slot. An then our pitching. Boy it was good. Wheels (Zack Wheeler) was 4-0 in his 5 starts. Greenie (Hunter Greene) was big too with only 4 runs in 17 innings. Clase saved 6 and only gave up 1 run in 8 plus innings. 
So many others to mention. Riley was big against Kentucky. We had pinch homers. Oh man. This is very cool."
Joe Reagan's Rochester crew was the surprise playoff story. They took down a pennant winner Burnsville 3-2, in the first round. Then they beat Manhattan 4-3 and those guys had the best record in the league. That put them into the title match for the fourth time but it didn't end well. As in the previous three tries, the Rochester Robins were the losers. Interviewed by our reporters after the finale, Joe said. "Ya know so far, every time the team that didn't get the most runs loses and I guess you could say we didn't change that. Look, they don't give these shirts I'm wearing to just anybody. We earned them. Lindor got 10 hits and the rest was like 25 for 1000. The pen stunk and gave up 8 runs in 16 innings. Rolz sucks and call Syracuse our daddy."
MVP - CY VOTING:
Three managers didn't vote so we only had 12 voting
Why did Aaron Judge (Syr) win the MVP? His slash line was 292/393/706. He hit league leading 68 homers & drove in 140. A distant second was Shohei Ohtani (Syr) despite a stat line of 288/348/623 with 56 dingers and 134 rbi plus 69 steals. In third was Jose Ramirez (Che) and his line was 279/315/557 with 43 HR, 51 doubles and 46 steals.
The CY voting was a little closer but Chris Sale (Man) easily was the winner getting 10 first place votes. His stats earning the award were a 2.64 ERA, 21-2 Win- Lost record over 29 starts. In his 177 innings he whiffed 206 batters. Tarik Skubal (Atl) picked up 2 first place votes on a 17-8 WL mark and 2.54 ERA. He had 218 k's over 191+ innings. The league ERA winner Bryce Miller (Bur) marks were 2.40 ERA and a 15-6 record.
The guy on the right, Mark "Let's make a deal" Gaudiano, has a rabid fan base.
He brings almost every player in the league onto the Mustangs at some point of every off season. They know he gives them a chance to see those players. They stand by him even though they've only had two winning seasons this century. He even asked the fans to suggest numbers for the #1 pick in the draft slot lottery so one of them can say, "I gave him the winning number" and help turn the corner toward a winning season. Mark claimed that pick was rightfully his and knew this time it would be different. As we know the Mustangs didn't get that prize and in fact didn't get any of the top three slots. The after effect? You can see he's spending time moping around the Hopwood Official Racing Stables Enterprise (HORSE). He's been spoted talking to this particular horse named Ed. I wonder if the horse is talking back to him? Hmmm.
... IMPORTANT DATES ...
- January 30-Feb1: Lancaster gathering
- January 31 2026: Draft
THE SHOW
The Tigers, Guardians, Mariners and Yankees are watching on TV because it's the entire country of Canada sweetheart Toronto holding up the American League pennant. In the National league the Reds, Phillies, Cubs and Brewers sent packing by the most expensive team in sports history, the Dodgers and they are quite certain that they will remain champions. The have a guy who tossed two straight playoff complete game wins. A pitcher with several CY awards despite hardly pitching. Another guy who loves to hit walk off homers in playoff games. As last year, the richest rookie in MLB history. A guy who plays SS, RF, 2B better than most. Oh and there is this guy who throws 100mph, gets double digit strikeouts. hits three homers in the same game along with a stolen base here or there. On the other side who can match this? They are gonna start a pitcher in front of 50,000 people who began the year pitching in front of 237 people in single A ball. Another pitcher may well be a future HOFer with his CY awards but is 50 years old with bad assed eyes. A shortstop who can't play shortstop. A guy so old as a leadoff hitter that he used to be on the field with Scott Kazmir. I mean they have Ernie Clement as their 3B. Their secondbaseman is playing shortstop, what's his name. Okay yes the do have Guerrero and he is more than pretty good. But really do they even dare to think they can win four games?
So what happened if we can somehow make it through the barrage of words from John Smoltz who flat out cannot stand one second of silence. John will explain EVERY single pitch thrown. Why it was thrown. How well it was thrown. How it was located and even explain how to hit. If you're wondering how expertise Smoltz is on hitting, he had a career 159 average with a 433 ops in 1100+ at bats. He makes Tim McCarver seem like a brilliant silent type.....G1- Ohtani homers but Snell and his multiple CY's got chased in the 6th after giving up 5 runs. Then the mediocre at best Dodger pen coughs up a pinch hit grannie, Toronto wins 11-4... G2- Endless stuff spews all game long from Smoltz about every single pitch thrown by Yamamoto in his 2nd straight complete in the 5-1 Dodger win... G3- Can you imagine listening to Smoltz for a double header? Buckle up. This one goes 18 freaking innings. The Jays strand 19, LA 18. The Dodgers use 10 pitchers. Six runners thrown out base running. Ohtani doubles, homers, doubles, homers and then with Smoltz explaining why, each time, intentionally walked four straight times. Freeman walks it off for a 6-5 Dodger win. Someone named Will Klien gets the win... G4- Ohtani throws 6 good innings only giving up a 2 run to Guerrero but Roberts, trying to avoid the lousy pen, sends him out in 7th and he was gassed. Two hits. Here comes, OH NO, it's Banda and his 9+ playoff ERA! Those two runners score, then two more runs. Toronto wins 6-2... G5- Double CY winner Snell throws the 1st pitch to John freaking Schneider (no relation to manager) and boom!. Smoltz spends so much time explaining what Snell did/didn't do. Should have done that we almost miss Guerrero stepping into the box and clobbering a homer. Two batters, down 0-2. So much for CY's huh. Meanwhile Yesavage no longer pitching in front of 237 people goes 7, whiffs 12 and gives up just 3 hits. Toronto wins 6-1... G6- Yamamoto again and Toronto gets nowhere against him. Mookie gets his first hit in a week, drives in two. The Dodger pen puts two on in 8th, nothing happened. Then they put two on in 9th with no outs. Baserunning 101 anyone? See ya tomorrow... G7- SHOW ME THE MONEY. Ohtani starts ($700M) get beat by Bichette. Then Glasnow ($115M) followed by Snell ($137M) and then Yamamoto ($325) with an impressive performance. But you know what Toronto doesn't have and it only costs $1.49? Miguel Rojas. We get extra Smoltz mindnumbing detail and in the 11th, Smith homers. Dodgers win 5-4. Guggenheim rocks! Anybody for hockey or curling?