Giants take 2 from the Yankees to vault into first place.

 Mel Ott and Willie Mays shined in the battle of Hall-of-fame lineups. Mays scored in the first inning of both games, posting the Giants to early leads. Ott homered in both games - breaking open a tight game 1. and closing the door to any comeback from the Bronx Bombers in the final game of the series.

The Z card did strike the Giants again, this time punishing their bull-pen. Starting Pitcher Johnny Antonelli, was cruising through 4, when a close play at first on a slow roller from Mickey Mantle cause quite a rhubarb. After Mantle was called safe, Antonelli, along with first-baseman Willie McCovey and catcher Buster Posey were all tossed for arguing with the umpire. Mantle reached base safely each time in the game, but the Yankees were unable to get him home and the Giants cruised to a 6-1 win

This lead to early than expected bullpen use, and with the Yankees knocking Tim Lincecum out of the second game in the 4th, the Giants bullpen is pretty empty for their next outing. Stu Miller closed out a 7 pitcher performance in the second game for the 7-5 win. 

With Johnny Mize still recovering from his injury - the Giants will likely look for some bull-pen help from their alternate site.

Team	W	L	PCT	GB
GIANTS	3	1	0.750	-
WHITE SOX	2	1	0.667	0.5
CUBS	0	0	NA	1
TIGERS	0	1	0.000	1.5
YANKEES	0	2	0.000	2

Statis-Pro Baseball is Back

For this season we have 5 competitors. My brother-in-law, Paul, his son-in-law, Matt, my old friends Leo and Joe and myself.

We again used the free cards available here.

We each chose on franchise and could pick any player on that franchise available on any of those seasons.

Paul went with the Cubs, Matt went with the Yankees, Leo the White Sox, Joe the Tigers and I, keeping my Garry Maddox streak alive, went with the Gants.

So far we have played 3 and a half games - why a half - I'll get to that.

Eddie Cicotte outdueled Hal Newhouser in the first matchup a 2-0 win for Leo's Sox. Their second game was had much more offense - and controversy. 

After falling behind 5-1, the Tigers bats finally came alive in the 7th inning scoring 5 runs on a grand slam from Magglio Ordonez and a solo homer from Miguel Cabrera. The Sox tied it up in the 8th, fell back behind in the top of the ninth before seeming to secure victory with 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 8-7 victory. 

It was then that I noticed the Sox roster was in violation of the rules. 24 White Sox players had played in the 2 games, but Leo still had a back-up catcher and an unused relief pitcher on the bench. We are limited to 25 players, must have at least 2 catchers and our pitching staff rules that made it clear 11 pitchers was an advantage over fewer.

Leo's illegal advantage was not involved in the Cicotte shutout, but one of Jim Thome or Morrie Martin were illegal in game 2. Thome pinch-hit for starting pitcher Billy Pierce in the 6th and Martin had come in to pitch to Cabrera in the 7th and surrendered that home run. Since Thome was also a late inning defensive replacement in game 1, the commissioner ruled, Martin was the player that violated the rules and the game will be restarted immediately after the Ordonez grand slam - tied at 6 with no out in the top of the 7th.

The Sox have fixed their roster going forward - sending Thome down to the alternate site and bringing Martin on going forward. Martin will not be eligible for the remainder of the Tigers-Sox game.

While awaiting for the Tigers schedule to clear up the Sox moved on to a 2 game series with the Giants.

The Palehouse hammered Christy Matthewson and Hoyt Wilhelm for 8 runs through 4 innings in the opener. Mel Ott homered in the 5th to cut the lead to 8-4. The Giants added 2 in the 6th and 1 in the 8th. Johnny Humphries worked a perfect 9th to secure the 8-7 victory moving the Sox to 2-0.

Carl Hubbard and the Giants bullpen shut out the South-siders in game 2 of the series 3-0, spoiling a good outing from Lefty Williams. It wasn't all good news in game 2 for the Giants however. Johnny Mize was hit by a pitch in the 8th inning and left with an injury that will keep him out for 5 games. 

Here are the current standings:

TEAM	W	L	PCT	GB
WHITE SOX	2	1	0.667	-
GIANTS	1	1	0.500	0.5
TIGERS	0	1	0.000	1
CUBS	0	0	-	1.5
YANKEES	0	0	-	1.5