The interesting part?  The Thunderchickens led all ten teams in runs scored. 

When the Thunderchickens did win, we had a proclivity to manage some high scoring games which certainly helped.  The league high ERA of 5.17 probably contributed to this anomaly, as well.

Another slight oddity… our last place team has a good chance of having someone win the league MVP award.  Albert Pujols ended the season leading the IAL in batting average, RBIs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage not to mention coming in second in runs. 

He has some stiff competition (Ryan Howard hit 50 dingers this seaosn in the IAL) but we’re hoping.

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For those who haven’t noticed, Albert Pujols has done amazingly well with the bases loaded this year.  Here are his stats with three runners on.

At this point in the season, Pujols is five for five with 3 homeruns and 16 rbis.

I’ve had Albert on my Twin City Thunderchickens since I drafted him as a rookie (first pick, of course!).  The Thunderchickens had Mark McGwire at first base for his whole career so we had big shoes to fill.  Fortunately, we were able to get some to get the job done right away. 

Our commish, who is a Cardinals fan,  warned me that he thinks it will be a matter of a couple of years before Pujols will be rated (S).

Heresy!

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Albert Pujols’ new 2008 card (based on the disk) 

All I can say is yippie! 

Yes, the double ones, yes, the 55-7, yes, the 44-0 but what I like are the decent numbers on the “automatic” numbers;  the 21-37, the 26-41 and the 46-22.  I will enjoy those immensely in the coming year. 

The 56-14 and 64-14 are nice too.  Only two yucky 24s compared to his four last year.

Part of me wonders why they didn’t just give him 1-1-6-6-6 with a 10.  I guess with double columns it’s a little more accurate and wouldn’t have given him too much doubles power.

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I’ve been on a undefeated streak lately in our league.  You see, I haven’t lost a series since June (we play 6 and 9-game series). 

With all of that, I have JUST NOW moved out of last place and moved into ninth place in the IAL.  Whether I stay there is questionable… I’m clinging there by just a game.  This is what happens your team starts out the season with a 17-52 record. 

Other news from the Upperdecker series… Albert Pujols hit two home runs for the series.  That gives him 300 IAL career home runs.  If he hits three more in the remaining 18 games, he’ll hit 40 for the year which will give him 40+ home runs for all seven years he’s been in our league. 

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Yeah, Albert Pujols.  As a Cub fan, I’ll admit it.  Somewhere out there on the interwebs, there’s even a picture of me in a Pujols jersey.  Here’s why.

Six years ago, I had the fortune of having the first pick of the rookie draft in the Illowa APBA League.  Their were other rookies with potential (Ichiro, Dunn) but to me, the choice was clear.  And he hasn’t disappointed.  Albert has been my cleanup hitter ever since.

This will be his seventh year in on my Thunderchickens and he’ll have driven in 100 runs each of those years.  Most likely, he’ll break 300 homeruns as well.  My team lives or dies with Pujols in the lineup.
 

At this point in the season, the Twin City Thunderchickens are 52-83 and in last place.  Our only consolation is that we have six draft picks for the 2009 rookie draft.  Literally, half of my pitching staff retired or won’t get a card (Rich Hill, Rodrigo Lopez, Ruddy Lugo, Pat Neshek and Akinori Otsuka).

Four months ago, we were some 10 games behind the next team and pretty much guaranteed the the first pick in the draft (Hellloo, Geovany Soto!) but we’ve been fighting back and now we’re only a game back.

Nonetheless, draft picks are the best friends of a manager of a rebuilding team and given the rich crop of rookies in 2008, this should be fun.
 

God, isn’t this the truth?  I remember back in the old days when I would type  up my stats on my Smith Corona typewriter.  When I would make a mistake, out comes the Liquid Paper.  Then after what seemed like hours, when I would finish, I’d slip it in an envelope and send in via postal mail.

We’ve come a long way, baby.  Excel has revolutionized the way I’ve kept stats.  I’m sure I started out with a standard worksheet but now I use a more complicated version adapted from something my buddy Brando who manages the Rising Bamm Beanos came up with.  It essentially keeps a game log for each player and calculates the stats from there.  Very handy for keeping an eye out for stuff like streaks and the like.

And I don’t need to tell anyone about the usefulness of email in keeping a league organized.  Our phone bills were outrageous during trade season in the pre-computer age.

The technology is stopping either.  Last year, I made my first trade via text message.   Other methods of social networking like Twitter (by the way, here’s my Twitter page) and Facebook (and yes, my Facebook page, don’t update that one much) allow for keeping track of each other almost to the point of ad nauseum.
 

I’ve written about my fondness of Mr Glavine in a previous post.  The fact that he’s been on the same APBA team for 17 years is pretty remarkable.  I acquired him in 1991 and since then he’s been 228-184.

Another amazing stat:  for his career in our league, he has 2709 strikeouts (the R isn’t helping this year, Lancaster).

I have no illusions about Glavine.  2008 is probably going to be his last graded card.  But I’ll hold on to him till he retires.
 

Some leagues have good commissioners.  Others just get by with what they got.  The IAL got lucky.  We got the best.

Mike Bunch gives everything he’s got, spending his time in his office doing the newsletter, updating the league spreadsheets, and doing all the things that make the IAL a great league.

This is what we wrote on his plaque when we inducted him into the IAL Hall of Fame:

Founding member of the Illowa APBA League and President for many years, Mike has had a direct impact on the IAL. As President, his selfless devotion of his time, energy, and talents as well as his sense of fairness have made the IAL what it is today. In addition, his baseball knowledge, amiability and good humor have made Mike a distinguished part of this League

Every bit of it true.

Not to mention, he’s a pretty decent guy, too.

As you reflect on your APBA year, what do YOU have to be thankful for?

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