The Steamer
An conduit of news and opinion for Nostalgia Sim Baseball's Great Lakes league
Got some interesting news about your players' heroics, a hot trade, or an opinion about what's going on this league? Publish it here!
AUGUST 13, 2007 - COMMISSIONER'S DESK. Planets Aligned for Maximal Offense.
Deep into the second season, some extraordinary things are abrew in this regional league. With 24 games left to play, Shoeless Joe Jackson is still hitting an astronomical .419. If Jackson can hold out, he will break the current Nostalgia Sim Baseball record of .416 held by the Georgia Peach, Ty Cobb, who also holds the second and third place record at .411. Jackson has batted between .420 and .425 for much of the season, and he's not just dropping Texas Leaguers into centerfield either. Of his 196 hits, Jackson has 38 doubles, 9 triples, and 10 home runs for a .596 slugging average and an isolated power (ISOP) rating of 177.
Shoeless Joe is also Peerless Joe. His nearest competitor for the batting crown is Frank Thomas, whose. 351 average puts him 68 points behind Jackson. To put that in perspective, Jackson would have to go hitless in his next 90 at-bats (about 1 month) before his average would fall to .351. No, stranger things have NOT happened in NB. The only question is whether anyone will even be seen in Jackson's rear-view mirror.
But for the offensive-minded Northern Planets, Jackson is only the beginning of a star-studded lineup. Every position player is batting over .300, including notable greats such as Eddie Collins and Al Simmons. The Northern Planets are hitting .305 as a team and could eclipse the team mark of .300 set by the Anti-Federalists of the Arizona league. In fact, the Planets are on a pace to score 1014 runs, which will rank them among the greatest offensive teams in our game. So how does such a prolific team figure to fare in the postseason? It's anybody's guess.
Despite their run-production and offensive swagger, the Planets tote around only the third best record in the league. The pitching staff's 4.08 era ranks 15th in the league, and their defense ranks 10th. The old adage that pitching wins in the playoffs will be tested once again by the Planets. If any team can simply pound its way to a championship, this may be the one. We'll be watching.