2021 Michigan Prediction

 8-4, Loss in a bowl game.

Anagram for Michigan Wolverines:  Mr A Eschewing Violin

World Series is set Yankees win Game 163 (17)

 Joe Dimaggio 2-run homer in the top of the ninth broke up a 2-2 ball game. And the White Sox couldn't get anything in the bottom of the inning to send the Yankees to the World Series against their across the Harlem River rivals - the Giants.

League Leaders (Averages require 50+ plate appearances)

Batting Average

Batter	Avg	Team
Cobb	0.397	Det
Jackson	0.366	CWS
Mays	0.354	Giants
Cabrera	0.339	Det
Mantle	0.338	NYY
DiMaggio	0.338	NYY
Collins	0.338	CWS
Weaver	0.321	CWS
Sandoval	0.306	Giants
Kaline	0.304	Det

On Base Percentage

Batter	OBP	Team
Cobb	0.444	Det
Mantle	0.434	NYY
Jackson	0.423	CWS
Appling	0.406	CWS
Ruth	0.397	NYY
Collins	0.395	CWS
Cabrera	0.383	Det
Mays	0.382	Giants
DiMaggio	0.375	NYY
Kaline	0.361	Det

Slugging Percentage

Batter	Slg	Team
Jackson	0.648	CWS
Ott	0.610	Giants
DiMaggio	0.581	NYY
Hornsby	0.581	Cubs
Cabrera	0.571	Det
Mays	0.569	Giants
Ruth	0.556	NYY
Cobb	0.552	Det
Kaline	0.536	Det
Banks	0.500	Cubs
Sandoval	0.500	Giants

OPS

Batter	OPS	Team
Jackson	1.071	CWS
Cobb	0.996	Det
Ott	0.959	Giants
DiMaggio	0.956	NYY
Cabrera	0.955	Det
Ruth	0.953	NYY
Mays	0.952	Giants
Kaline	0.896	Det
Hornsby	0.894	Cubs
Mantle	0.884	NYY

Hits

Batter	H	Team
Jackson	26	CWS
Collins	25	CWS
DiMaggio	25	NYY
Mantle	24	NYY
Cobb	23	Det
Mays	23	Giants
Cabrera	19	Det
Frisch	19	Giants
Gehrig	19	NYY
Sandoval	19	Giants

Miguel Cabrera led with 7 doubles

Shoeless Joe Jackson led with 3 triples

Home Runs

Batter	HR	Team
Hornsby	6	Cubs
Ott	6	Giants
Rodriguez	4	NYY
Ruth	4	NYY
Banks	3	Cubs
DiMaggio	3	NYY
Gehrig	3	NYY
Jackson	3	CWS
Kaline	3	Det
Mays	3	Giants
McCovey	3	Giants
Posada	3	NYY

RBI

Batter	rbi	Team
Jackson	20	CWS
DiMaggio	14	NYY
Kaline	14	Det
Collins	12	CWS
Ott	12	Giants
Hornsby	11	Cubs
Cano	10	NYY
Kuenn	10	Det
Mantle	10	NYY
Ruth	10	NYY

Strikeouts

Batter	K	Team
DiMaggio	14	NYY
Ruth	14	NYY
Felsch	12	CWS
Konerko	12	CWS
Gehrig	11	NYY
Maddox	11	Giants
Quentin	11	CWS
Kell	10	Det
Ott	9	Giants
Posey	9	Giants

Walks

Batter	BB	Team
Appling	15	CWS
Ruth	15	NYY
Mantle	11	NYY
Banks	7	Cubs
Collins	7	CWS
Gehrig	7	NYY
Jackson	7	CWS
Ott	7	Giants
Jeter	6	NYY
Konerko	6	CWS
Rodriguez	6	NYY

Stolen Bases

Batter	SB	CS	Team
Dahlen	11	3	Cubs
Mays	9	1	Giants
Frisch	8	3	Giants
Aparicio	5	3	CWS
Podsenik	5	5	CWS
Jeter	4	5	NYY
Terry	3	1	Cubs
Stirnweiss	2		NYY
Banks	1		Cubs
Hornsby	1		Cubs
Maddox	1	1	Giants
Stratton	1		Cubs
VanHaltren	1	1	Giants

Pitching

ERA (16 innings required)

Pitcher	ERA	Team
Fister	0.93	Det
Newhouser	1.47	Det
Lyle	1.62	NYY
Alexander	1.80	CUBS
Cicotte	1.85	CWS
Hubbell	2.03	Giants
Marmol	2.12	CUBS
Harden	3.15	CUBS
Fidrych	3.24	Det
Bowory	3.45	CUBS

Gerry Staley led the league with 15 appearances

Eddie Cicotte and Whitey Ford with 5 starts

Hank Bowory pitched 3 complete games

Innings Pitched

Pitcher	IP	Team
Cicotte	39	CWS
Ford	32 1/3	NYY
Bowory	31 1/3	CUBS
Newhouser	30 2/3	Det
Alexander	30	CUBS
Fister	29	Det
Hubbell	26 2/3	Giants
Chandler	25 1/3	NYY
Fidrych	25	Det
Bevens	22 1/3	NYY

Wins

Pitcher	W	L	S	Team
Lyle	4			NYY
Hubbell	3			Giants
Alexander	2	1		CUBS
Chandler	2	1		NYY
Cicotte	2	1		CWS
Newhouser	2	1		Det
Staley	2	1		CWS
Thornton	2	1		CWS
Willhelm	2	1		Giants
Gumpert	2			NYY

Saves

Pitcher	S	Team
Rivera	4	NYY
Marmol	3	CUBS
McMahon	3	Giants
Humphries	2	CWS
Romo	2	Giants
Crain	1	CWS
Miller	1	Giants
Hiller	1	Det
Valverde	1	Det
Keegan	1	CWS
Sale	1	CWS
Sallee	1	Giants

Strikeouts

Pitcher	K	Team
Newhouser	25	Det
Marmol	20	CUBS
Verlander	20	Det
Lincecum	19	Giants
Alburquerque	17	Det
Romo	15	Giants
Harden	14	CUBS
Lyle	13	NYY
Chandler	13	NYY
Gomez	13	NYY
Fister	13	Det

Walks

Pitcher	BB	Team
Chandler	9	NYY
Antonelli	9	Giants
Harden	8	CUBS
Fidrych	8	Det
Lyle	7	NYY
Newhouser	7	Det
Alburquerque	7	Det
Gomez	7	NYY
Williams	7	CWS
Matthewson	7	Giants
Lincecum	7	Giants
Bevens	7	NYY
Verlander	7	Det

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

Game Week Countdown - Maryland

So I'm not going to do a daily countdown this week for Maryland. I have seen M play Maryland 6 times - M is 5-1 in those games. 

None of those games are particularly memorable.

The 1985 game was my second as a college student.

The 1989 and 1990 games are the only 2 that I saw Maryland have the same head coach, Joe Krivak.

2014 was the last game I saw Brady Hoke coach for Michigan, the loss to Maryland helped seal that deal.

The 2016 and 2018 games, were blowouts for Michigan.

Go Blue, beat COVID

Alabama takes Trophy in Iron Bowl

It came as no surprise that Alabama was able to dominate Auburn on Saturday. In doing so, they secured the jiMpossible-sarcasMike Trophy for the 11th time.

It should be said that the Tigers had broken the streak of teams not retaining the Trophy with their win last week over Tennessee. That broke a string of 8 straight losses for the trophy holder. Technically they broke it the week before when their game was postponed due to COVID.

The Tide has a 54-21 record all-time when playing for the Trophy.

The way Alabama is playing it seems unlikely the Trophy will be changing hands very soon. COVID permitting, Alabama faces LSU this week then Florida in the SEC Championship game before heading to the playoffs.

M vs. Penn State vs. COVID prediction

Penn State has lost two of the statistically most unlikely losses of the season. They dominated both Indiana and Nebraska everywhere but the scoreboard. 

Turnovers have hurt he Nittany Lions quite a bit this season.

Michigan hasn't really shown much ability to cause turnovers.

We've got a real movable object vs. resistible force thing going here.

I have a feeling Penn State, like MSU is going to get their first win thanks to the Wolverines...

Penn State 31 - M 27