VANCOUVER (AP) - Despite the fact that the hometown Mounties aren't challenging for a playoff spot or fighting for a division title, the Vancouver Mounties fan club held a rally today at the Vancouver Art Gallery to celebrate the team's successes this season. Successes? This is a team that is 47 (that's right, fourty-seven) games out of first place in the BL Roehm division, with a winning percentage of .387. This is a team that's lost 97 times. What is there to celebrate, you might ask?

"First of all, thank you all for coming today", said GM Cory Muzyka - today's guest of honour. "A lot of outsiders would wonder at our sanity to celebrate a season like ours, when we're not even really competing for the division title. They have to understand that when we took over this franchise it was a complete writeoff, a team that needed to be completely rebuilt. It was a task I realy relished and have had a lot of fun with.

"Us winning 60 games this season was our pre-season target, to get us on the right track. Manager Ryne Sandberg and I sat down before the season and decided that we needed to do something this season to show the fans that we were serious, and we think we've accomplished that by having our best season in five years.

"We've had some great contributions from guys like Tony Clark, Rich Aude, and Alex Ochoa. We've seen Jim Tipper, Dick Simpson and possible rookie of the year candidate Robb Reuschel step up and show that they can play in this league. We've had Denny McLain show everyone in the league that he is quite possibly the best young pitcher in the game. We've seen the revitalisation of Esahi Kikonai and Jaime Navarro. It's been a fun year despite our record."

The Mounties, with 7 games remaining, reached their pre-season target of 60 wins with a 4-2 win in Rio against the defending champion Capys.

"Next season we'll be looking to build on this - not necessarily to reach .500 or win the division you understand, but simply put our goal is to be better than we are this season. We have lots of young talent on this team, and we plan on bringing these kids slowly through the system.

"Thanks for coming everyone - and enjoy the party!"