SBL Notebook, Week 8

“Bored beyond belief” were the words Steve Martin (as Harris K. Telemacher) scrawled on a steamed-up window in a pivotal scene from “L.A. Story,” and while that doesn’t exactly speak to the current state of the SBL, well, let’s just say we’ve had more compelling weeks in our league’s 26-plus-year history. Hundreds of them, is the guess here. Everywhere you look, a maelstrom of mediocrity, an avalanche of average, a perfect storm of ordinariness. First, check the standings -– we’ve got two very good teams, division leaders the BGoff Bammers and Dan’s Cherry Valley Bombers; one good team, Paulo’s 30-20 Zero’s; and this vast, quivering, Jell-O-like mass of mediocrity beneath them, featuring no fewer than eight teams slogging along with winning percentages between .400 and .500. The first three teams mentioned in the previous sentence? The only ones in ball with winning records. None of the rest can seem to get anything going, stuck in SBL purgatory, unable to sustain success for more than a week or two, neither good nor bad enough to truly stand out. And, as long as you’re checking those standings, glance ever-so-briefly at the races, which are essentially nonexistent as this particular moment -– the Bammers leading by 10 games in the American division, the Bombers by eight in the National. It could take a few weeks, and some semi-major momentum shifts, to tighten these puppies up. . . . Next, have a gander at the Week 8 stat sheet; you will find a festival of fecklessness, a cesspool of the so-so (that’ll be the last of the tortured alliteration, we promise). Nobody had more than 36 runs, 35 RBIs or 36 TB. The average home-run total was a magnificently mediocre (sorry) 7.2. The pitching wasn’t all that bad -– seven teams posted ERAs under 3.35 –- but there apparently were a lot baserunners stranded (seven BR stats of 1.4 or higher), no staff posted more than four Ws and the average save total was 3.7. It was parity writ large, and the kind of week in which a batch of what looked for all the world like 3-3-type numbers could lift the Bombers (31 runs, 35 RBIs, 31 TB, 3 SBs, .362 OBP, 3 saves, .79 K-rat, 1.24 BR) to a 6-0 record, and enable Mikee’s Moaners (34 runs, 34 TB, 5 HR, 22 RBI, .352 OBP, 3.34 ERA, 1.40 BR, 1-3 WL) and Derek’s Derelicts (31 runs, 34 RBIs, 32 TB, .366 OBP, 5.24 ERA, 1.77 BR, 3 saves) to go 5-1. Sorry to throw all those numbers at you, but they do drive the point home. . . . The second week of interleague play went to the American division, by an ever-so-slim 19-17 margin. The AL also had taken the Week 7 faceoff, 21-15.