Not quite a Frankie Valli song but could it be just a memorable time? Thirteen games left in the 2039 UMEBA season and the Chariot Archers have been guaranteed their post season slot for some time now. At 84-65 now they need just a combination of four wins or Manama (74-75) losses to secure the BURT league pennant for the second year running. Last year they went all the way to the World Series before losing, this year they’d hoped to go one better but somehow it’s starting to look a tad fanciful. Bucharest & Mumbai are locked in a deadly struggled at the top of the BANC league, with both teams having a 90-59 record and a #magic number of 14. Last year’s World Series winner, Jerusalem, is trailing a distant 10 games behind the top two and it will take a collapse of monumental proportions to let the Hebrew Hammers into the postseason. Pundits are certainly saying that whoever comes out of the BANC will be red-hot favourites for the World Series.
It doesn’t always work that way though and perhaps the vicious dogfight there could work in Cairo’s favour as there’s going to be little chance for either Mumbai or Bucharest to rest any starters while the Chariot Archers could spell their starters for the last week or so? As we enter the last two weeks of play Cairo has a full-strength roster to call on after third baseman Felix Arrojo was activated from the IL, leaving Cairo with a selection dilemma. George Bluth had been brought in as an injury replacement for Piero Richelmi who also had a stint on the IL. Now all three are fit and they are chasing just the two starting berths at third & short. Eventually it was decided that Arrojo would slot back at third while Bluth would slide round to short after his stint at the hot corner covering Arrojo’s absence. Bluth had certainly impressed during his short time at Cairo, posting a range of 5.33 at short and a ZR of +2.2, both far better than Richelmi. With a settled batting line-up for most of the season, and two 30hr/100RBI batters at the heart of it Cairo should be sitting pretty but the pitching staff hasn’t quite lived up to that standard. Only three of the rotation have winning records and just two of the bullpen have ERA’s below 3.75. They really need to go on a streak and tighten it up, especially if they face Mumbai in the World Series who have Toshio Taguchi cranking it out for the Metro Stars with 43 homers & 129 RBI on the board already.
30-yr-old Leon Garcia won the ABA League Championship MVP after hitting .440 OBP with four homers and six runs driven in
Over in the African Baseball Alliance, the Cairo Triple-A affiliate, the Nairobi Drifters, have advanced to the World Series. After posting a 112-32 record in the regular season, they met Manama’s affiliate, Khartoum, in the League Championship round. After taking a three-game lead the drifters almost gave it away allowing Khartoum to claw their way back to 3-2 in the series. In game six though back in Nairobi the Drifters pulled out a 5-3 win to win the series. In the World Series Nairobi are facing Bucharest’s affiliate, the Luanda Anglers. The Anglers have made a great start, winning game one 8-5 in Nairobi thanks to a crazy top of the ninth innings where Luanda sent 12 men to the plate scoring seven and turning a 3-1 deficit into an 8-3 lead. The Drifters will have to work hard and not allow anything like that again if they are going to claim their second straight ABA championship.