The first set of games have been played, and the St. Louis LeftOuts and Brooklyn FiftySixties have jumped into the lead. They are followed closely by the Chicago Legends and the New York PreThirties, who started off 6-1 before dropping their last 2 games to Philly.
The LeftOuts lost their first 2 games - including suffering a 4-hit shutout by Chicago's Don Sutton - but came back to win 7 straight. The LeftOuts have been led by Edgar Martinez's .515 batting average, Barry Bonds' 6 homers, and Mike Piazza's 19 RBI. All of those lead the league. Piazza's RBI total might be even better, but he also leads the league in times grounded into a DP.
The LeftOuts beat Pittsburgh on the 14th by a score of 15-7 while hammering out 22 hits. Pete Rose and Edgar Martinez both went 5-6 (as did Pittsburgh's Nap Lajoie). Bonds hit 2 homers in that game and went 4-6.
Despite all the offense, there were a number of shutouts. In addition to the Sutton masterpiece, Roger Clemens of St. Louis and Warren Spahn of Brooklyn both tossed 3-hit shutouts, and Juan Marichal of Pittsburgh topped them all with a 2-hit shutout over Cincinnati.
Steve Carlton of Cincinnati has already struck out 24 batters in only 2 starts. He's followed closely by Brooklyn's Sandy Koufax (23 Ks) and Boston's Randy Johnson (22) in what should be an interesting race for HOF Strike Out King.
Something of note is the atrocious e-ratings of the early guys. Consider the starting infield for NY: Sisler 1b-1e18, Hornsby 2b-2e38, Traynor 3b-1e31, and Wagner ss-1e50. Even Cobb in cf is a 1e19. As time went by, and the equipment improved, the error ratings steadily dropped.
In the next batch of games, St. Louis travels to New York for three important early-season games against the PreThirties. Check back tomorrow.
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