SBL Notebook, Week 7

We can't say there's a new sheriff in town -- in fact, two of our most usual suspects continue to lead the division races by comfortable margins -- but there is a new judge. That would be Hizzoner David T. (no, Treksters, it does not stand for Tiberius, as far as we know) Bristow, owner of the Bat-Faced Girls (that's from a Paul Simon song, for our younger viewers on whom the reference is lost), who at this moment just happen to be the hottest team in ball. Powered by Mauer (Joe, the Twins catcher who has been a one-man wrecking crew since he came off the DL at the start of this month), the BFGs have put together back-to-back 6-0 weeks to surge into third place and, at 25-19, are just two games out the No. 2 playoff spot in the American division, which qualifies as one of the infrequent high-water marks for this long-downtrodden franchise. Their latest unbeaten week wasn't exactly a masterpiece -- three 6-5 squeakers, one tiebreaker win and a 6.5-4.5 victory -- but winning the close ones is an attribute that has long eluded the Batfaces, so that's an encouraging sign, too. Another frequent second-division dweller, Dennis' Puny Pontiffs, continued their impressive recovery from a 1-18 start, riding their overpowering pitching (Justin Verlander? When did that guy relocate the strike zone?) to a 5-1 week. The Vatican City Madmen are 19-6 the last four weeks, the best record in ball over that stretch for any team not named the BGoff Bammers. Speaking of which, the Bams churned out another routine 5-1 week that, combined with a 1-5 toe-stub by AL runners-up Paulo's Zero's, caused their lead to balloon to a corpulent 10 games. Uh-oh. . . . The National division race tightened, just a little, as Dan's Cherry Valley Bombers, finally feeling the effects of their DL/suspended list issues on offense and suffering an unusually bad pitching week, went 0-6. Fortunately for the CVBs, they reside in the SBL equivalent of the NL West, with their division's other five entries all scuffling along below the .500 mark. Thus, the Bombers lost only two games off their lead, still a reasonably comfy six games.