League News

In a hard fought, well played six game series the Ocala Ocelots emerged over the Minnesota Mudcats as BRASSball’s 2001 champs. The Ocelots are the sixth different franchise to capture the league hardware. Congratulations to Corey on a fine season and a deserved championship. Below is a game-by-game recap.

Ocelots jump on the Mudcats early in game 1 with a 4 run first. Ocelots had 3 doubles in the inning, David Segui’s 2 run gapper being the big one. On the mound Clemens was spectacular as he allowed only 3 hits in 8 plus innings of work. Posada’s 3 run 9^th inning homer made it look closer than it was.

Sammy Sosa powered the Ocelots to another comfortable win in game 2. Sammy was 3-4 with a double, homer and 5 ribbies. Vazquez tossed a 6-hit CG. Once again the Mudcats put some late runs on the board to make the score closer than it was.

Game 3 started out quite poorly again for the Mudcats. Back to back first inning homers by Sosa and Segui got the Ocelots quick 4 runs again. But Tap settled down and didn’t allow any more. The Mudcats chipped away and the got the score tied back up at 4 in the fourth. In the 7^th A-Rod delivered a 2 run homer to drive Schilling from the game. The Mudcat bullpen then held on to secure a win.

This one was also a very tight affair as it was tied up at 2 after 7 innings. Both lefty starters did fine jobs keeping their clubs in the contest. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth David Bell drove a double to plate Jenkins from first. Matt Morris came in and shut the Ocelots down in the 9^th to notch the series at two games apiece.

Ocelots broke out big time in game 5 on their way to a 12-2 victory. Kile was horrible in his start and Dave Weathers was no help. Todd Helton smacked a 3-run homer while Charlie Hayes was 4-5 with 3 ribbies from the nine hole. The Mudcats got their runs on another 2 run dinger from A-Rod.

With a title on their minds the Ocelots sent out NL CY runner-up Javier Vazquez to get it done. A Jeter homer in the first got the Ocelots on the board quickly. An Andruw Jones triple in the Mudcats third evened the score at 1. Then Vazquez went in to over drive and put zeros on the scoreboard. In the 7^th and 9^th the Mudcats got a runner to second with less than one out but could not plate a run. In the bottom of the seventh a Charlie Hayes homer and a bases loaded walk to Sosa gave the Ocelots a 3-1 cushion. In the ninth Vazquez gave up a one out double to Jorge Posada. But Quilvio Veras followed with a whiff and Jenkins was then retired for the last out on a pop out. The Ocelots had secured their title!

Javier Vazquez was named series MVP as he pitched 2 CG’s allowing only 11 hits in 18 innings. Clemens (2 wins) and Sosa (10 ribbies) were also instrumental in the Ocelots’ success.

Past Champs

1995 Long Island Tigers
1996 St. Lucie Snook
1997 Bloomington Bees
1998 Cook County Maulers
1999 Box City Parcelmen
2000 Box City Parcelmen

Playoff Tidbits

Maulers hit 25 homers in 10 games…Danny Bautista hit 3 triples in 7 games for Glen Allen…A-Rod and Jeter each had 5 errors…Joe Girardi hit 2 homers in 4 games for Toledo…Bartolo Colon was 2-0, 0.53 in 2 starts for Santa Barbara…Todd Helton and Sammy Sosa each had 18 ribbies for Ocala…Javier Vazquez 4-0, 1.12 in 5 starts for Ocala…Rocket Clemens 4-1, 2.09 in 5 starts for the same Ocelots…Matt Moris 1.38 and 4 saves in 13 innings for the Mudcats…Hidalgo 3 homers in 5 games for Columbus…Derek Jeter hit .394 in 17 games for Ocala.

New Web Address

BRASSball can now be found on the web at www.brassball.org. Yep, are very own domain name. Because of problems with Andy’s former web host and a general desire on the part of Corey and I to see the league in control of it’s own space and domain we decided to go-ahead with these purchases. The web space costs the league $99/year. The domain name cost us $50 initially and is freely maintained by our web host after that. So our initial outlay was for $149. Because of this we have to make a dues call that was unforeseen earlier. The details of which follow below.

Dues Call

Corey and I will now need dues in the amount of $15 from all of you by January first. Here is the accounting on the matter:

We had a beginning balance for the month of 172.08. The cost for the web space, as stated above, was $149. Plus, the trophy I purchased to present to Corey for his championship cost $54. Obviously we are now short of funds. A dues call will add $330 to the league coffers (Al & Harlan have paid already). This should most definitely keep BRASSball liquid until the 2003 off-season I suspect. Hopefully we can maintain an every other year dues structure.

Draft Date Set

With nary a peep from any league member since the last newsletter the BRASSball draft is now set in stone for the first Saturday in March. That makes the official date for 2002 March 2^nd. Mark your calendars and clear your schedule!

Draft Order

1. Metropolis	7. Charlevoix	13. Georgia	19. Toledo
2. Racine	8. Morris	14. La Crosse	20. Plaza
3. Box City	9. Springfield	15. Columbus*	21. Stanley
4. Gem City	10. Hessville	16. Santa Barbara*	22. Cook County
5. Bloomington*	11. Iowa	17. Glen Allen	23. Minnesota
6. North Georgia*	12. Brooklyn	18. Fleetwood	24. Ocala

During the just completed playoffs two differing players came up for question under Article XX, section I of the constitution. Both players in question did not have 300 PA’s allotted to them and were not catchers. However, it was quite clear that both of these players were full time RH compliments of a platoon. In addition, neither was able to make it up to their REAL LIFE PA usage, let alone 300. Corey and I decided that the 300 threshold is simply too high given what is needed in a draft league to be the RH side of a platoon. Therefore, given that the rule in question ends with the following sentence, “The LD’s will settle any disputes about what constitutes “the same role” in the post-season,” we have decided that the threshold will be 200 allotted PA’s from now on for all players who were the RH compliment of a regular season platoon.

A general reminder here to all managers as we try and work into the new BRASSball routines. Once again, Corey is responsible for anything involving the rosters. All trades need to be reported to him. All signings need to be reported to him. Basically any question involving your roster- go to Corey. I handle more of the daily BRASSball stuff- Newsletters, questions about the constitution, emails, voting and all that general stuff. All this will be spelled out in the updated constitution that should be to all before the next newsletter.

As some managers use this group to disseminate information it was asked that I pass along to all managers instructions necessary to double check their info in this group. If your address info is not current you will miss out on whatever is being shared. However, I just want to point out that the email list maintained by myself is always current and official league info will always come via my list. Here are the instructions for the Yahoo group:

“For the Brassball group, they need to go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BRASSball/members Once they login they should see a list of everyone that is signed up for the group. If their email is inaccurate, they need to click on "Account Info" on the very top right of the page. They can have multiple emails for the group, if they so desire.”

Bloomington – Signed Mark Buehrle, C.C. Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Jeff Weaver to 4-year contracts. Signed David Ortiz to a 3-year contract.

Charlevoix – Signed Matt Anderson and Daryle Ward to 4-year contracts. Signed Jimmy Anderson to a 3-year contract.

Fleetwood – Signed Brad Penny to a 5-year contract. Signed AJ Burnett to a 4-year contract. Signed Raul Ibanez to a 2-year contract.

La Crosse – Signed Octavio Dotel to a 3-year contract. Signed Kyle Farnsworth to a 2-year contract. Signed Scott Strickland to a 1-year contact.

Metropolis – Signed Aramis Ramirez to a 10-year contract. Signed Tony Armas, Jr. and Pat Burrell to 8-year contracts.

Santa Barbara – Signed Matt Clement, Doug Davis and Byung-Hyun Kim to 4-year contracts.

Springfield – Signed Mark Mulder to a 6-year contract. Signed Ramon Ortiz and Jarrod Washburn to 5-year contracts.