EDMONTON (AP) - On July 28th, the Edmonton Orcas stole 13 bases against Rio de Janerio Capybaras. This reporter was unsure on what the league record was for most stolen bases in a game and to date, has not found a definitive record. However, speed is becoming more noticeable in 2012.

For the record, the career stolen base leader is Ty Cobb (NY/Berlin/Sicily) with 878 stolen bases. The next closest few are just over 600: Rich Becker (Havana) 659, Desi Relaford (Havana) 651, Marcelinio Reams (Bombay) 624, and Johnny Damon (Amity) 622. Although Damon already has 36 this season, behind Inferno League leader with 40, Richard Hidalgo (Amity), Reams seems to be slowing down with only 28 swipes. Not bad for a 36 year old though. The Blizzard League either has faster players, weak armed catchers, or slow pitchers. Becker's 50 swipes look respectable, but he sits third in the league behind Gabby Brumly (Rio) with 54 and league leader Jermaine Dye (Edmonton) with 59. Relaford also shows a slower step, only grabbing 23 stolen bases so far.

This year, it seems that speed makes speed. The Amity White Sharks lead the Inferno League with 179 team stolen bases. Hidalgo, Damon, Pedro Valdez (36), Alex Gonzales (25), and Stan Musial (24) stack the front of the lineup, but even Cliff Floyd (18) and Saduhara Oh (17) are moving well. Contrast that with the Berlin Brewmasters paltry 37 team stolen bases, accounted for mostly by Frank Young (11), Buddy Barnes (9), and Billy Power (8). A pack of teams sits around 40 total behind the White Sharks, and the rest of the league sits near another big drop off of 40 steals behind them. A typical distribution in any given year. However, let's turn to page two: the Blizzard League.

Four teams have nearly 200 steals or more already: Havana (220), Bora Bora (200), Rio de Janerio (200) and Hong Kong (199). You would still have to add the Edmonton Orcas (180) before you saw Amity, the leader of the Inferno League. Every other team except the Jamaica Rastafarians (30) and the Tokyo Tsunamis (49) have between 100 and 140 steals. That's a heap of stolen bases. Havana, besides Becker and Relaford boast Pavel Chumura (39), Alfred Griffen Jr. (31), Ron Hausman (26), and Roger Cedeno (25). Bora Bora has 3 players with 30 plus steals (Tris Speaker - 39, Ryu Nobeoka -36, Joey Monk - 34), along with 3 players with 20 plus steals (Eric Perinet - 27, Rip Raffo - 22, Edward DiBiassi - 20). Rio de Janerio doesn't have much help besides Brumley, but Carney Stillwell (39), Rod Myers (36), and Cary Chien (27) have all contributed to the pile. Hong Kong and Edmonton seems to be a two tiered teams. The Dragons have Ray Durham (45) and Honus Wagner (43) at the top of the team and leading off the batting order with Chadwick Kingman (27), Duane Singleton (25), and Mike Sweeney (20) propping them up while the Orcas show Dye and Todd Walker (44) starting things off with Darrin Erstad (28) and Russ Johnson (24) behind them.

The huge gap between the league stolen bases could be due to pitching. Worse pitching leads to more base runners and more chances to steal. However, the average ERA for the Inferno League is 3.86, which is higher than the 3.67 Blizzard League average. Perhaps speed begets speed. Either that, or, to quote an old advertising campaign... "It's gotta be the shoes."