SBL Notebook, Week 14

Pardon the overwrought patriotic allusion, but what more appropriate way to mark Independence Day than with revolutionary upheaval . . . and bombs bursting in air . . . in the American division? Loosely translated, the SBL experienced an overthrow at the top of the AL standings, fueled by home run fireworks. It was a very happy ID4, indeed, for the Zero's -- ironically the only SBL team whose owner resides on distant shores outside the borders of this great nation of ours. The Z's rode the homer-happiest offense in a relatively homer-happy week to a 6-0 performance and supplanted longtime residents the Bammers from the AL penthouse. The Bams had been in first place from Day 1 through Week 13, the entire first half of the season, but their lead, 11 games as recently as Week 10, dwindled steadily in June, and they were felled from their pedestal as July dawned, a 2-4 stumble landing them in second place, two games behind the new front-runners. The mighty Zero's' prodigious offense smashed and dashed its way to 16 HRs, 40 RBIs, 33 runs, 31 TB, 8 SBs and a .371 OBP -- across-the-board strength sufficient to overcome some of the week's most incendiary pitching (league-worst 5.32 ERA, 1-4 WL, 1.29 BR) without breaking a sweat. Also acquired as a result of their big week was the exalted Best Team In Ball status -- at 55-32, the Zero's are one game better than the NL-leading Inmates . . . which makes them the third BTIB we've had in the last three weeks. . . . The Inmates stumbled a bit in a 2-4 week but, because one of their wins was over the second-place Godfathers, the Mental Defectives actually doubled their division lead, to two games. The G-Daddies, who went 1-5, can't get too comfortable in the runner-up spot, either, with resurgent DamianUnited staging a rear-guard action that resulted in their leapfrogging the Derelicts into third place, five games behind the Inmates and three back of the G's. DamU, rebounding nicely from last week's 0-6 pratfall, went 5-1 on the strength of 15 HRs, 33 BIs and some outstanding pitching (2.20 ERA, 6 saves, .94 BR). The only team to beat them was the cellar-dwelling Whiteskins, whose pitching was even better (microscopic 1.27 ERA, 5-1, .95 BR), and who would've gone 6-0 themselves if not for the misfortune of having to play the Zero's, the only AL team that could've beaten them, in their interleague matchup. . . . Both pennant races remained quite competitive, with the top three teams in each division separated by only four games (AL) and five (NL). However, two season-long contenders, the Badgers and the Derelicts, suffered simultaneous 0-6 mini-meltdowns that dropped them into fourth place, eight and seven games, respectively, out of first. . . . As mentioned above, there was a detectable dinger uptick, the 12 teams combining to hit 102 homers, an average of 8.6 per team, and 20 more than the league managed last week. Doing the most to skew the stat northward were the Zero's, DamU and the Cherry Valley Bombers, who combined for 41 circuit clouts, 40% of the total.