Deadlines for Period 3 in 1951 and Period 4 in 2000 are June 25^th. Remember that period 3 in 1951 consists of 3 series.

Nothing that happened in period 3 did anything to put some air between the number one and number 2 in each division. Indeed the races are closer than ever. Miami and Gotham City are tied for first in the Mays with Zaca’s lurking 1 game back. Fallsburg and Buffalo are all knotted up in the Aaron while Troy’s lead in the Clemente is 2.5 and Berne in the Mantle has a 3 game lead. Keys to the series are the missing White Plains series. Tim has been experiencing computer problems and his 2 matchups (Troy & New York) are not reported.

New York had the best period 3 going 11-4 to move a game closer to Troy. Rainier/Gotham City and Miami all were 12-8 with Zaca’s and New Britain going 11-9 to further complicate the Mays. Berne was 14-6 to push Mudville 2 games further back. Finally Buffalo was 13-7 to pick the 2 games up on Fallsburg and even up the division.

Player of the Period honors this time to Carlos Delgado of Buffalo. Delgado hit .405 with 8 homers and 19 runs batted in and a .811 slugging % and 1.327 OPS. Nomar Garciaparra hit ONLY .419 to lower his batting average to .447. What’s wrong with that guy!

In the pitching department – Gabe White of Mudville copped the honors this period by going 3-0 to a 0.31 ERA. (3 walks and 33 strikeouts in 29.3 innings). Runner up this month was Mariano Rivera of Disney with 8 saves and a win in his 9 appearances.

My favorite stat of the month was David Wells (of the razor sharp control) hitting 6 batters. Must have been intentional.

Big matchups for this period include both Disney and Commack visiting Gotham City while Troy hosts Rainier and Gotham City.

The Haymakers made Hay. The boys from Troy went 18-2 (how did they lose) to forge a 5 games lead over New York, North Country and Disney in the Eastern Division. How did Troy do it? Not hitting as only Richie Ashburn managed to break the .300 barrier (.394). No, it was superb pitching from Herm Wehmeier, Mike Garcia, Bob Feller, and Ralph Branca that held everyone in check.

McGraw went 13-7 to take over the lead in the Northern Division from Rainier. The Rowdies and the Buffalo Meat are two behind the Misfits.

Player of the Period was Jackie Robinson of New York. Jackie hit .403 with 5 homers and 18 ribbies while creating 25 runs and 1.202 OPS. Rookie Gil McDougald of McGraw hit .444 to snag runner up honors along with Roy Campanella of Buffalo. Campy hit 10 homers with 25 RBI’s.

Even with the quartet of Troy hurlers doing their thing, the honors for pitching go to repeat winner, Early Wynn of McGraw. Wynn went 6-1 (2.21) to move him up to 12 wins already. Ralph Branca of Troy went 5-0 to get the runner up honors.

Other than Tim’s problems with his computer, that’s how things have been around the league this year. Everything seems to be moving at a very nice pace and 1967 waits on the horizon.

Have a good couple weeks.

Jim Pertierra