A Saturday Stroll through the Indy Leagues

I spent entirely too much time playin' on the lake last weekend so while I've been 'recovering' (and working my tail off at my day job) through this past week I've been thinking about the Scorpions' explosive start to the season. Specifically, I was curious about Marshall's season-to-date record and how it compared to other indy teams around the country. Yuma fans, I think we have some reason to brag. Knock wood.

Even though the Yuma nines dropped a game to OC last evening to fall to 12-3 (.800), it appears that they have the best percentage of all independent teams. Folks, that's 66 teams across eight leagues! I didn't realize just how impressive this stat was! I would like to point out that the GBL season starts later so the six teams in this league haven't played as many games (and probably haven't suffered as many injuries), but the statistic I am focusing on is W-L percentage. I'm still impressed.

(And before I go any further, the Yuma-OC series is split at one win each. A double-header today, beginning at 5:05 p.m., will give Yuma two wins to extend their lead, however Chico is now ahead of OC by 1/2 game, so it's starting to get bunched up a bit.)

American Association of Independent Professional Baseball: Ten teams, divided in to North and South divisions. In the North, Lincoln sits atop the standings at an impressive 29-9 (.763). El Paso leads the South, 22-17 (.564). I'd like to point out that the second and third place teams in the North (Sioux Falls, 29-9, .625 and St. Paul, 23-16, .590) are ahead of South leader El Paso. Perhaps the Diablos shouldn't have been so quick to retire Marshall. Not that I'm complaining! Their loss is our gain.

Scorpions fans will recall that the Saltdogs (not to be confused with the Salty Dog libation) were the team that Benny Castillo attempted to peddle Juan Lebron to during the 2005 season. The question has to be asked: Would Lincoln have an even larger lead in the North if LeBron were on the roster? A lot of things could be said of LeBron, but having a weak bat certainly wasn't one of them; he was a homer-hitting machine.

You've all heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Well, in the baseball community I believe it's more like four degrees of separation. Example: Yuma's skipper through the 2005 and 2006 seasons, Benny Castillo, played for the Sioux Falls Canaries. Ironically, I lived in Sioux Falls in 1996 and 1997 and watched him play there many times. Less than ten years later he and I were working together for the Scorpions. The baseball community is, indeed, a small one.

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball: Eight teams, North and South divisions. Long Island and Bridgeport are tied in the North at 28-18 (.609), and Camden leads the South with a 27-19 record (.587). In the North, the Road Warriors are an amazing 15 games back. Barring a miracle I'd say they are playing for pride, because the chances of hardware appear slim. But in all fairness I should point out that the Road Warriors are homeless this 2007 season (like the GBL's traveling Japanese team in 2005, and my hapless Nationals once were - but the Nats have no excuse now, do they? Do they?!).

Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball (aka Can-Am League): Ten teams, one division. New Jersey sits atop the standings with a 19-8 record (.704). However, Quebec is only 1 1/2 games back at 18-10 (.643).

Frontier League of Professional Baseball: Twelve teams split into three divisions: East, Central, West. Washington leads the East at 17-12 (.586), Windy City leads the Central 23-7 (.767) and Gateway leads the West, 21-9 (.700).

Golden Baseball League: Six teams, one division. As we all know, Yuma sits alone at the top with a 12-3 record (.800).

Northern League: Eight teams, North and South divisions. Calgary leads the North with a 19-14 record (.576) and Gary leads the South at 23-10 (.697). In the North, Winnipeg is only 1/2 game back. It isn't even close in the South; Gary is at the top and Kansas City, Joliet and Schaumburg are nine, nine and ten games back, respectively. Former Scorpion Kevin Cheppenko was dealt to Joliet in 2006. Cheppenko was signed in 2007 by the Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association, Castillo's former club. Remember I mentioned the degrees of separation? Oh, and I just noticed that the Canaries are facing the Diablos tonight (I don't know why this is relevant.). Many consider the Northern League the Cadillac of independent baseball leagues.

South Coast League of Professional Baseball: Six teams, one division. The South Georgia Peanuts sit on top with a 21-8 record (.724). Former GBL'er Kash Beauchamp is now with the SCL, as is Desi Wilson, as Field Manager for the Anderson Joes. Wilson's Joes club is last in the standings, with a dismal 6-24 (.194) record. Ouch.

United League Baseball: Six teams, one division. Rio Grande sits on top with a 24-18 record (.571). Alexandria at 24-19 (.558) is only 1/2 game back.

There you have it: Yuma's club tops 65 other clubs across eight independent baseball leagues with a 12-3 (.800) record. This is a good thing for Yuma (everyone loves a winner!), but the flip side is that when you are on top you only have one way to go - down! The pressure must be unbelievable, and I'm sure there are an inordinate number of spectators (particularly opposing fans) waiting and watching to see if the Scorpions will go down in flames. Misery loves company, so they say. Time will tell if Yuma's record-breaking start is a fluke, or if Marshall really is cooking up some magical brew in the clubhouse. I, for one, cannot wait to see how this season plays out. Of course, I'm not known for my patience (I always read the last chapter of every book first!), I hate surprises and any type of suspense kills me. Can we just get to the final game already?!

I'm signing off. The pool is beckoning and there's a game of baseball to be listened to on the AM dial.