|
South
Africa Calling
Eli
Ringler
Monday, August 17th 2015
The
Polanski division is regarded as the lightweight of the Weaver
League, and rightfully so. The six clubs have combined for
a grand total of two league championships and have an inferiority
problem to their Inferno brethren in the Lockwood. Additionally,
given Johannesburg's
domination this year, it looks as if the Lockwood will better
their League Championship Series record to 13-6.
All
this will be important come five days into October, but as
of now it pales in comparison to the importance of the division
pennant. The Polanski flag is the finish line and Honolulu
and Argentina are matching
each other stride for stride.
They
may be the 98-pound-weakling in the Weaver-wide boxing tournament,
but the Polanski division has the pennant race the rest of
the league lacks.
Both
clubs started things off evenly, Argentina going 13-6 with
Honolulu a step behind at 12-7. By the All-Star break the
Volcanos had gone up four-and-a-half games on the Archers.
Then
Honolulu managed to go on a nine game road-losing streak and
was down a game-and-a-half when they visited beautiful Campanella
stadium in downtown Cordoba. They promptly swept the Archers
right out of first place and looked ahead to October.
Of
course, Argentina returned the favor by sweeping three from
the Hawaiians a week-and-a-half ago and succeeded in making
things just as unpredictable as before. Now both clubs are
8-2 in their last ten and have won three straight, albeit
both teams having the good fortune of playing Amity.
Each
team has won six apiece in the season series and each team
has it's arsenal of sluggers and hurlers to depend on when
the game is indecisive.
Honolulu's
Mitch McCoy has been gold at the top of the order, his 34
home runs tied for second in the Inferno League. Jake Neel
and Al Rosen have both been productive as well. And when Ben
Grieve comes back from injury in about a week the Volcanos
will be harder to get out.
Staff
ace Gail Simons leads the league in strikeouts and is unhittable
at times. Fellow rightys Jon Johnson and Red Callahan have
been very good whereas Brad Radke has been less-than-stellar
(4.48) his 10-8 record shows he can pitch within his run support.
Add in Kim Gordon and Julian Tavarez from the bullpen and
King Kamachamcha has some arms to work with.
Don
Mattingly may not have the power that Kamachamcha has to work
with (Vito Bradley's downyear), but the Archers speed on the
basepaths mask that shortcoming. Carlos Guillen and Miguel
Mejia are both in the top 10 in stolen base leaders and Guillen's
bat in the second slot has been outstanding. Bradley may not
have the power of when he was setting catcher home run records,
but he is still a big threat in the third slot.
Rufe
Rollins and Jose Pett have been very good at the top of the
rotation (Rollins especially), while lefty Harry Krause has
been reliable behind them. Closer Sibby Ohl is one of the
best in the game at keeping leads and throwing strikes when
the Archers need it the most.
Both
clubs have had their peaks and valleys this year and both
clubs have been resilient enough to sustain until now. Each
one has a three-game series at home against the other one
and each one gets to play Amity again. Basically, it's anyone's
guess as to which one of these clubs will lost to Johannesburg
in the ILCS.
Eli
Ringler is a special correspondent for the Weaver
Times. He can be contacted at chelseblues21@yahoo.com
for questions or comments.
|
