Posted by ASPN Final Score on 5/30
SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS
Orlando and Oklahoma both extended their division leads in week 14 with sweeps over Buffalo and Las Vegas, respectively. Orlando gained three games on the east, as Rhode Island suffered a sweep to the surging Memphis Maniax, who have won their last seven games and are putting on another second-half winning display. They now find themselves above .500 for the first time this season and in a playoff position. Oklahoma also picked up a game on Calgary, thanks to Sacramento being able to win one against the Cowboys last week.

This week represents the final week of play before the 2010 trading deadline, where Orlando will again hit the road, playing in Sacramento this week, while Oklahoma heads north to Omaha. Minnesota is off to Memphis in the attempt to continue holding off Indiana for the central division lead, as Indiana hosts the hapless Las Vegas Craps this week. Rhode Island will also try to work themselves out of the funk they're in, but they'll have to win in New Jersey to make that happen.

Posted by APA Enterprises on 5/30
NASHVILLE WINS I-65 SERIES
The old IBE rivals made their mark for the I-65 Series in Nashville.  The Slammers won the series two games to one, but the Bombers got slap happy and gave the Slammers some serious batting lessons in the third game, winning 6-4.  APA Enterprises didn't have anything planned for this series as would normally be the case, as half the city of Nashville is flooded.

Posted by ACE3 Industries on 5/24
ACE3 is announcing that Wichita is joining Buffalo in their fire sale, every player is available for draft picks.

Posted by SDX International on 5/24
The Las Vegas Craps are hitting nowhere near their potential and the pitching is horrendous, as expected. There's some talk Richard Cheese's job -- and many Craps players' jobs -- is in jeopardy.

The team, along with both Buffalo and Wichita have also pulled another trick of another former IBE team, the Hell Fire, by requesting the league relegate them to a lower league at the end of the season if they're still the three worst teams in the league. This request was denied by the Commissioner's Office as there is no lower league to relegate these God-awful franchises to.

In Orlando, manager Stewie Griffin tried to get the military to shoot down the Rage plane as it headed back toward Florida. When told that was out of the question, he tried to put a 35,000-foot-high net around Florida's borders. When he realized that also wasn't possible, he cursed his short stature and then said, "Well, we need some way to keep this blasted team out of Florida. They certainly don't win very often there. I don't know what happens behind closed airplane doors ... maybe it's a sexy party....ooh, I'd like that. (ahem) But whatever happens, it needs to continue."

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 5/23
STAYING THE COURSE
In week 13, most of the top end of the playoff standings stayed the same, with the exception that the lead in the central division, along with the top seed changed hands again, as the Minnesota Marshals swept the hapless Buffalo Bolts while Indiana dropped two of three at home to eastern division-leading Orlando. In a related story, Buffalo, at 11-28 now, is likley to start cleaning house a bit in these next few weeks before the trading deadline.

The battle for the last two playoff spots will likely change hands more than once between now and the end of the season. Right now, Birmingham (20-18) and Sacramento (20-19) hold those two spots, but New Jersey (20-19, trailing by one run on the tiebreaker), Memphis (19-20), Tucson (18-21), and Atlantic City (18-21) are all within a few games of the playoffs.

This week, only one series that could be called marquee, with Calgary heading to Sacramento, as both teams are trying to hang in with Oklahoma for the division lead.

Posted by Commissioner's Office on 5/17
This is a reminder to all league owners that the trading deadline is three weeks away. Specifically, the deadline is 10:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, June 8. No trades may be completed between then and December 15. Also, the free agent list will be frozen at that time as well, with no free agent claims allowed between 10:00 p.m. June 8 and the end of the 2010 XBL draft in February.

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 5/17
SECOND HALF OPENS
The second half of the 2009 XBL season got underway last week, and the 7th and 8th playoff spots remained in flux, as middle of the road teams Sacramento, Tucson, New Jersey, Birmingham, Atlantic City and Memphis remained consistently inconsistent. Right now, New Jersey and Birmingham hold those two spots, but with New Jersey still cleaning house and Sacramento and Tucson looking as if they could possibly play ball again, these two spots are likely to come down to the end of the season.

Otherwise, Rhode Island continued their winning season, sweeping a road series in Wichita, and now stand only a game and a half back of division-leading Orlando. This week, the Peanuts return home to face the New Jersey Rhinos, while Orlando faces a very difficult test in Indiana. We haven't heard much this season from the Stars' four-year old owner or team musician John Mellencamp, but this should be a plenty good series in any case.

Buffalo finally managed to win a series last week, but now will face Minnesota, who is a game out of first in the central.

Posted by ACE3 Management on 5/15
The Tornadoes tried, but in the end failed to hold the Peanuts for some ever important wins.

Posted by ASPN Insider on 5/13
RHINOS CONTINUE TO CLEAN HOUSE
The New Jersey Rhinos have shedded their second starting pitcher of the season, dealing Josh Beckett as well as Jimmy Rollins to the San Jose Steath for Hanley Ramirez and the Stealth's second round draft choice.

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 5/10
MID-SEASON AWARDS
The 2009 XBL season has hit the midseason mark and three of Jason's teams are tied atop the league's tables at 23-10. Meanwhile the race for the playoffs have taken shape, with five teams tied for the eighth and final playoff spot right now. While there are still 11 weeks to sort that out, right now, here's your 10th annual mid-season awards:

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
By far the closest this has been for a while. There is not one single player who has completely stood out from the rest in the league. Ellsbury (Oklahoma), Felix Hernandez (Indiana) Derrek Lee (Sacramento) and Matt Holliday (Calgary) all make compelling arguments for this mid-season honor, but we're going with the one player most responsible for one of the biggest turnarounds in the league.

Rhode Island's Ryan Howard takes the honor, his .317 batting average, 8 home runs and .602 slugging have lifted the Peanuts to an 18-15 mark and only two games behind division leading Orlando.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER
We can look at the offensive leaderboards, and once again see many names that could be placed here, unlike in other seasons. Sacramento's Derrek Lee takes top offenisve honors for the first half of the season. While he doesn't lead the league in any one category, he does have a .336 batting average (6th), .630 slugging (3rd), .420 on-base (4th), 28 RBIs (tied for 4th), and nine home runs (tied for 3rd) make the total offensive package the best in the league thus far, topping the likes of Birmingham's Joe Mauer, Memphis' Chris Coghlan, Oklahoma's Ellsbury, and Minnesota's Jason Bay.

STARTING PITCHER
This one was a lot easier. Indiana's Felix Hernandez has tossed 14 shutout innings across a two-game span (a no-hitter followed by 5 no-hit innings in his next start). More than that, his league-leading six wins, 2.07 ERA, 58 strikeouts, and 4.0 hits per nine innings in 61 innings pitched far outweighed any other starter in the first half of the season.

RELIEF PITCHER
Yet another category with many good canidates. Andrew Bailey has a league-leading 10 saves, whereas Mike Adams in Vegas, despite all that team's shortcomings holds a 0.00 ERA. But Orlando's Joe Nathan wins the honor, with seven saves, 2.45 ERA, 23 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings to keep the Rage atop the eastern division.

ROOKIE
This essentially came down to Tucson's Chris Coghlan against Oklahoma's Andrew Bailey. While Coghlan is in the top five in batting average, on-base, as well as top ten in slugging and triples. Bailey, however leads the league with 10 saves, finished 13 games (league high), in the top ten in relief baserunners per nine innings and walks per nine innings. A tough call to be sure, but the edge goes to Bailey due to his league-leading categories.

PROMOTION
Exotica Field in Las Vegas, though their team isn't good they blatantly advertise the following: Vegas Baseball -- Come for the lounge act, stay for the meat and chesse, play third base for an inning, strike out looking, and then go home with a complimentary case of Turtle Wax! Hooray, Beer!

Posted by Jason on 5/9
Minnesota sneaks out two walk-off wins in their series against Wichita.

Posted by ASPN Final Score on 5/4
ON THE ROAD
Last week, six of the nine road teams won thier series, including four sweeps. New Jersey was swept again, sending them right back to .500 and their manager Rick Leach right back to the hot seat. Sacramento swept their series in Wichita, which launched the Quakes over .500 for the first time this season and into the playoff picture.

Memphis could also be beginning a charge as well. Last season about this time, the Maniax started a winning tear that didn't end until Buffalo stopped them in a thrilling seven-game playoff semifinal series. Whether they can pull this off again remains to be seen, but their series against eastern division leader Orlando. Sacramento hosts the Nashville Slammers, who just climbed out of the central division cellar, and the New Jersey teams meet for the first time this season at the Trump Coloseum.

Rhode Island also tries to stop their skid in Oklahoma, while Tucson tries to do the same in Indiana. We're one week from being at the halfway point of the regular season. Stay tuned next week for the annual midseason awards.

Posted by Commissioner's Office on 5/4
The Commissioner's Office has started receiving strange voice messages at their offices, usually simply a raspy, sickly voice saying "Somethiing somethinng, somethinng, Darrrk Siiiide."

These are presumed to be coming from Omaha's front office, but the calls are being traced as coming from the 401 area code in Rhode Island.

Posted by SDX International  on 5/4
SDX is considering a hands-off policy for team management during home games, especially for the Craps.

"No idea what Richard Cheese does when the team's on the road, or how immoral and illegal it might be (because it's probably a little of both), but we plan to put the entire team in a hotel in Provo before and after every home game, completely renovate the locker room and special club room and see if we can get the team to play almost as well at home as it does on the road," said an SDX statement.

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

Posted by Jason on 5/2
KING FELIX ROLLS AGAIN AGAINST ROCKHOUNDS
Game three was a rubber match. Indiana starter Felix Hernandez followed up his no hitter last week with five more no-hit innings before he gave up a hit to Oklahoma's Derek Jeter. He continued to throw 10 scoreless innings matching Zach Grienke inning for inning. Indiana finally pulled out game three with a Chone Figgins single.

Posted by Gail on 5/2
A NEW HOPE IN OMAHA?
With the rumors flying about the clubhouse regarding the future of the Rowdies ownership and hometown, GM Al Dark decided it was time to call press conference prior to the series with the Memphis Maniax.  Dark showed up clothed in a long flowing, hooded, darkly colored robe and slowly walked to the podium.

“I have called this meeting to let everyone know that a new era for this ball club. No longer will we subject ourselves to the barbs of political pundits and unknowing press reporters,” announced Dark in a sickly, high raspy voice.  “We are doing things a new way, a way that will ensure us complete victory in our every battle.  Heh, heh, heh,” Dark continued.

The strange mumblings of this obviously deranged leader continued for a short while and this reporter had to turn and ask him to repeat what he said about the new ‘Dark Way’.

Dark raised his head slightly, peering with glowing eyes and screamed, “I didn’t say anything about the Dark Way, I said something, something, something, Dark Side.”

With that Dark’s extended fingers each exuded blue streaks of searing, lethal lightning.  Unfortunately his hands were still in his pockets, he is expected to remain in the hospital for 4 to 6 weeks recovering from 1st degree burns to his lower extremities.  The future of the Rowdies is still in question!