SBL Notebook: Week 20

Setting aside, just for a moment, the commissioner's hat and speaking as charter members of the American division, we can only tell the National division congratulations, well done . . . and enough, already! The NL completed an impressive interleague run with a 26-10 thrashing of the AL in Week 20, reaffirming the end of years of AL dominance in IL play. The Nationals finished the interleague portion of the schedule with a 169-119 advantage in games won, with the Americans having prevailed in only two of the eight IL weeks. This stands in stark contrast to trends of recent years -- particularly last season, when the AL went 183-105 in interleague play, the NL winning only one week (and by the slimmest of margins at that, 19-17 in Week 7) and, in Week 18, suffering one of the worst IL routs in SBL history, an almost all-American 34-2 blowout. This year AL teams were left wistfully longing for those halcyon days, after being steamrollered by the depth and strength of a National division with five legitimate pennant contenders. Week 20 was the cherry atop the NL sundae, as three of its representatives -- the Godfathers, the Derelicts and the Cherry Valley Bombers -- went 6-0, only one (DamianUnited) failed to at least break even, and no AL team posted a winning record. Those three unbeaten weeks, coupled with a stuck-in-neutral 3-3 by the Inmates, scrambled and tightened the NL race just a bit. The G-Daddies recaptured first place, a game ahead of the Mental Defectives, with the Double-Ds creeping to within four games of the top, the CVBs six back and DamU still within semi-striking distance, 10 games in arrears. The Bombers' recovery from a 1-12 start is an ongoing feel-good story in Cherry Valley; since those dark days of mid-April along the San Bernardino-Riverside county divide, the Bombers and the Godfathers have posted the best records in the division over the last 18 weeks, 67-44. But the G-Daddies were the most impressive story of this week -- they won all six games with relative ease thanks to league highs of 13 HRs and 7 SBS, plus 41 RBIs and 34 runs (damned efficient work, considering their .310 OBP), and, on the pitching side, the week's best ERA (1.40) and BR stat (.96). The Derelicts (42 runs, 11 HRs, .364, 1.95 ERA, six saves, 1.07 BR) were almost as strong in both disciplines, while the Bombers (12 HRs, 42 BIs, 6 SBs, .359) relied a little more on the offensive elements. . . . The AL race stayed static, with BTIB, the Zero's, going 3-3 for the second consecutive week (again, no AL team did better this week) and tearing another page off the calendar -- the Z's lead the Moaners by 11 games and the Bammers by 13, with only 38 to play.