Posted by ASPN Final Score on 4/26
ROAD TRIP!!
The last two playoff spots have sailed from the eastern to the western division, and have traveled back to the east with a series sweep by New Jersey and a series win by Atlantic City.

The road teams won six of the nine series in week 9, including the aforementioned series sweep by New Jersey, whose manager, Rick Leach, has come under recent fire by the team's front office. He's reportedly been given until the end of next season to win. We'll stay tuned to this story as the season moves on.

Oklahoma has put five games between themselves and the rest of the western division, and play in their biggest series of the season yet, when they head to Indiana to take on the second-best team in the league. It looks as if the bottom of each of these teams' rotations will toss the first two games (which are admittedly, stronger than the top of the rotation of many teams in this fine league).

In other action, Calgary heads to the Vacant Lot in a battle of second-place clubs, while San Jose tries to climb past Tucson in the west. The Stealth plays in Minnesota this week, while Buffalo is still watching this season, they head to the Trump Coloseum to play the Trumps, who are trying to break out of their .500 inconsistent play this season.

Posted by Jason on 4/25
Indiana vs. Buffalo Series

Game One:
Scoreless until the bottom of the ninth when Indiana pulled out a run. And oh by the way King Felix (Hernandez) pitched a no-hitter.

Game Two:
Once again Buffalo failed to score while Indiana slammed a 3-run shot and a grand-slam in their 7-0 win.

Game Three:
In the 22nd inning of the series Buffalo cracked into the run column with a 6 spot. They held off a late Indiana comeback to salvage a game in the series

Posted by ACE3 Industries on 4/25
Though the Wichita Tornadoes won the first game against Minnesota 5-4, the Marshals proceeded to win the last two games, 7-0 and 8-4. The third game was especially painful, as Wichita allowed seven Minnesota baserunners to score in the top of the ninth.

"After we won the first game, I was hopeful that we were finally turning the corner, but obviously we have more work to do", Stone Cold said. "I'm putting that loss in game three on my shoulders, I called on the wrong reliever to close the game out, then I compounded it by not getting him out before [Albert] Pujols' 3-run triple".

Posted by Jason on 4/21
Now that Jersey is stuck at .500 it looks like it's time to mail in the season and work for a comeback next year. We finally dealt C.C. Sabathia, could be a mistake, we'll see.

Posted by ASPN Insider on 4/21
JERSEY DEALS SABATHIA
New Jersey finally dealt ace starter and second overall pick in the draft CC Sabathia to the Birmingham Bombers for their first and third round draft choices in the 2010 season. We're not sure, but with the Rhinos entreched at .500 could there be some other housecleaning measures going on at the Hizzouse?

Posted by SDX International on 4/20
Stewie Griffin said he has a surprise or two up his sleeve for the "happy-go-lucky legumes from the east." Not even John Smoltz had a clue what he meant.

"Who knows? That kid sure is smart, but man, he also has some serious problems. Shouldn't be telling you this, but I heard he might bring Dennis Scott back for a game or two...something about teaching their round-headed leader a lesson? Then again, I also heard he might overwater the grass in center field and then freeze it, just because he can. Like I said, who knows?"

In other news, Vegas is playing yet ANOTHER home series. Insert Peter Griffin "Nooooawhhhh!" voice here.

SDX has decided to update our "Feel the Mediocrity" motto especially for the Strip. Here's a sneak peek at our new advertising campaign. Might need to tweak it.

Vegas baseball: Come for the lounge act, stay for meat and cheese, play third base for an inning and strike out looking, then go home with a complimentary case of Turtle Wax! Hooray, beer!
 

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 4/18
WESTERN SWING
Last week four of the top eight teams in this league were in the eastern division. After New Jersey was swept by Birmingham of all teams, and Rhode Island and Atlantic City both took series losses to western division foes, the western division now has four playoff spots tied up, but Oklahoma still leads a tight pack of four teams by five games as we get closer to the halfway point of the season.

Indiana was even stunned by Calgary, and took their first series loss of the season, but still lead Minnesota by two games in the central, and no one else within six games of them.

The east is now much tighter, with its top five teams separated by only four games, and Buffalo.....is just watching at a paltry 5-19 mark.

This week, Birmingham tries to keep their winning momentum going into Memphis, while Rhode Island heads for Orlando in a key eastern division series, while San Jose tries to climb the western division ladder in the Great White North when they visit Calgary, and Bill Mauldin and company take their root beer to the midwest for a special root beer party in Omaha.

Posted by Gail on 4/18
PPPBBBBBBBBTTTTTTT!!!!!

Posted by SDX International on 4/18
Hope to have a short report soon, but Vegas SUCKS.

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 4/13
Late post this week, but Rhode Island went into Nashville and dropped two, also losing first place in the east to the Orlando Rage. Atlantic City also vaulted back into the Land of the Living, sweeping the woeful Las Vegas Craps on the road (See Vegas manager Richard Cheese's comments below), and the Rhinos had to get serious after a 15-3 beatdown by the Calgary Cowboys, surviving to win twice north of the border.

This week, Rhode Island tries to solve their road woes (2-4 this season on away from Vacant Lot) in Tucson to face a Cacti team that has so far been consistently inconsistent this season. Indiana heads to Calgary in a battle of teams looking to stay in the upper half of the league table, while Oklahoma heads to the Trump Coloseum to try and remain the top team in the league. Also a pair of something-has-to give series this week, as Buffalo is in Wichita (11 wins between these teams), and Nashville is in Memphis in a Tennessee Battledome (? Never mind, these teams have 14 wins between them, they just thought they needed a snappy name to detract fans from how bad those teams have been this season).

Posted by APA Enterprises on 4/11
The Slammers took two games out of the series against Rhode Island.

The first game was decided by one run, won  8-7 by the Rhode Island Peanuts.  Game two was started off by the Slammers when Jorge Posada went yard in the second inning to get the crowd started in the "Hip-Hip! Jor-ge!" chant. The final of game two was Slammers 4 to Peanuts 1.   Game three was lopsided after the third inning, with the Slammers taking advantage of the substandard pitching of  Matt Garza winning by the final count of 9-3.

Posted by SDX International on 4/10
Las Vegas Craps' Pit Boss Richard Cheese had some thoughts after this abomination of a series against Atlantic City...

"Why do we have such a passion for making outs?"

"Why does Hunter Pence hate us so much? Have we not treated him well?"

"Why are we playing like that team from Rhode Island normally does?"

Posted by Commissioner's Office on 4/5
Should a rainout occur in either the first or second games of a series, please simply immediately reschedule as a double-header the next day. If the rainout occurs in the third game of the series and both teams have an off day the next day, you may reschedule this game on this open day and immediately play the game. In all other cases, I will take care of the rescheduling.

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 4/5
OKLAHOMA, INDIANA RETAIN TOP SPOTS
At the quarter-season mark of the 2009 XBL season, Indiana and Oklahoma are once again imposing their wills on the rest of the league, taking the top two spots on the league table. Oklahoma swept the now-last place Las Vegas Craps, while Indiana lost thier first series of the season, dropping two to division rivals Minnesota, and a Calgary sweep of Tucson vaulted the Canadian Cowboys into second place. Rhode Island continued their uncharachteristic play, winning two from Buffalo and keeping the lead out east.

Looking to this week, Tucson travels to Oklahoma in a key western division battle, while New Jersey plays in Calgary as both teams start jockeying to improve their playoff positions.

Atlantic City heads off to Vegas for a three-day bender and lounge versions of pop classics, while Sacramento tries to climb the western division ladder when they play Minnesota.

Lots of time left, but each series can be quite important when determining playoff positions.

Posted by ASPN Insider on 4/5
SABATHIA TRADE TO QUAKES FALLS THROUGH
A rumored trade of Minnesota starting pitcher CC Sabathia to the Sacramento Quakes fell through, when the Marshals refused an offer consisting of a draft pick and outfielder Ichiro.

No other teams have yet to step up, as sources within the Marshals say that they're looking for first and third round picks for the ace starter.

Posted by ASPN Insider on 4/4
ROWDIES LEAVING TOWN?
It is being rumored that the Omaha Rowdies are discussing plans to pull up stakes and leave Omaha.  No one was available for comment regarding this issue, but sources close to the Rowdies have mentioned that an offer for the team has been made by Blake Media and that they would like to move the team to either Mandrake Falls, Vermont or Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa.

More later as details become available and confirmation or denial of these rumors are made public.  Stay tuned, or keep reading or whatever you’re doing now, just keep doing it.  Good boy!

Posted by ACE3, Inc. on 4/4
BOMBERS, RAGE SPLIT RAIN-SHORTENED SERIES
The first game of the series saw the Birmingham bats come to life coupled with Chad Billingsley's 4-hit complete game.

Jackson rubbed his head saying, "This is how I've been trying to get this team perform all season, hopefully it will continue."

The second game saw the Rage jump into the lead 4-3 before the rains came putting an end to the day's events in the top opf the 5th.

The third game saw the Rage getting the win 6-5 in a marathon 15 innings.

Posted by ACE3, Inc. on 4/4
TORNADOES HOME OPENER RAINS OUT
The Wichita Tornadoes played 15 games on the road before finally heading back home for their home-opening series against the Omaha Rowdies.

It turns out they had to wait an extra day. The first game never got under way and was washed out by rain.

The Rowdies looked as if they had home field advantage in their wins of games 2 and 3 of the series.

Posted by Gail on 4/3
PEANUTS CONTINUE HITTING CLINIC, SMACK BUFFALO PITCHERS
Rhode Island collectively had 47 hits in the 3 games versus Buffalo pitching, however the Peanuts pitching didn’t fare much better in the first 2 games as the Bolts collected 24 hits the those contests. Peanuts starter Josh Johnson shut down the Bolts offense in game 3 with a 4-hit shutout.

In game 1, Bolts' third baseman Alex Rodriguez hit 3 home runs and drove in 5, while Rhode Island sluggers Ryan Howard and Adam Lind each hit homers for the home team in a wild and wooly affair that saw Buffalo finally outlasting the Peanuts in a 12-inning marathon.

Peanuts manager Charlie Brown commented that his team would have performed better in extra innings, but most of them had to go home and eat supper before the end of the ninth inning.

The second game was almost as wild as the first and was enjoyable for all 7 people that stopped to watch as they were walking by to get a haircut at Charlie Brown’s dad’s barber shop.  One enthralled viewer was overheard to exclaim, “Wow!”.  Another chided in with a ‘Gosh’ and even an ‘Oh my’.

“This was more fun than a rousing game of squeeze squash applesauce,” manager Brown commented after the series.  There was no comment from media vice-president Snoopy as he was in Petaluma for the World Wristwrestling Championships with his brothers Spike and Olaf.