2212 Wrap Up

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ballmark
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2212 Wrap Up

Post by ballmark »

As was mentioned in an earlier league post, a couple of long-standing playoff teams were in dogfights - in both leagues - right down to the wire this year. Washington in the AL, who had made the postseason the past five years were edged out by two games this season and the Smog in LA - who had played October baseball the last **seven** autumns - didn't make the playoff cut this year by a thin one game margin. Exciting stuff! It was enough to drive LA to consider a rebuild.

Your regular season victory champion this year were the Philadelphia Knuckleheads, with 109 wins. That's the most for Eli since the PK's put up 126 Ws in 2199. And this was their first year back in the playoff limelight since 2200, a dozen year stretch of rebuilding that finally paid off. Philadelphia could claim six All Stars and the National League MVP.

The Atlanta Braves won 108 games, four less than last year but enough to squeak in for the second straight year to the playoffs. And they took advantage, downing the Knuckleheads in an entertaining six game NLCS and moving on to their second straight World Series, defending their SYL Championship. Atlanta put nine players on the All Star team and could boast about owning the Cy Young Winner for the second year in a row.

Over in the American League, where there appeared to be a wee bit more parity among the eight teams (at least that's what I'll call it), the LA Twins were back for the sixth time in the last seven years after being squeezed out in 2211 with 98 wins. Todd does more with less than any other owner I know and this year was no exception. LA had half a dozen All Stars and the Fireman of the Year closing out ball games.

Baltimore was back for their second straight year, rounding out our playoff picture, their 97 wins was a duplicate of last season but this year they doubled their number of All Star players (four), had the AL MVP and the AL Cy Young Winner for the second year in a row. But though improved in that regard, they still fell to the Twins in a short five game ALCS.

The World Series was a tough back-and-forth no-holds-barred battle-in-the-dirt match between LA and Atlanta where no quarter was asked and no quarter was given, and in the end Los Angeles came out on top, winning on the road in tiny Fulton County Stadium in Georgia, a long way from the ocean and the West Coast. But it was sweet and savory nonetheless. And it was the first title for Los Angeles since 2195, a span of 17 seasons. Congrats, Todd! It is the franchise's 22nd Golden Trophy. They are second in the SYL in World Series wins, trailing only Arizona.

+++

WON-LOSS VARIANCE FOR THE REST OF US
Cincinnati = +35 ... What th--? Last year I wrote "Hopefully a small setback." Well, yeah!
Cleveland = +8 ... second straight growth year; the rebuild showing signs of life.
Boston = +6 ... once again headed in the right direction.
San Francisco = +6 ... second straight year of positive growth.
Milwaukee = +4 ... back on the positive side of the equation.
New York AL = +3 ... third straight year of positive growth.
Seattle = <1> ... okay, maybe not this year's Atlanta (what I said last year).
Washington = <3> ... oh, they'll be back.
Los Angeles NL = <7> ... front office making noises about a rebuild.
Pittsburgh = <7> ... back into the negative category. Vacillating a bit.
Texas = <16> ... got off the fence and finally decided to rebuild.
Arizona = <41> ... I think I know where Heatwave players moved to. Was it Ohio...?

+++

On a personal note --- here is more information than you'll ever need to know about what I've been dealing with this summer and, it appears, heading into the fall. Back in May, we discovered that my Type 2 Diabetes had gotten creative and was building new veins in my retinas that were bleeding into the vitreous fluid around my eyes. One of these veins was bleeding badly enough that it obscured my vision in one eye, which is how we discovered all of this. So, off to the specialist for shots directly into my eyeballs (which is exactly as much fun as it sounds) and laser surgery to cauterize the bleeding.

Shortly after that I came down with hives, which over the course of the next several months, eventually covered my entire body, head to toe. The bloody things itched 24/7 and nothing we tried would cure them, nor could we find what was causing them, despite going to several specialists. I was prescribed several new medications and began to fear I was being over-medicated. Finally, in desperation, we tried steroids. Steroids are a last resort for diabetics because they put your blood sugar into ballistic orbit. (And having just dealt with a severe consequence of bad blood sugar with my eyes, I was now desperate to maintain a low blood sugar. But I was more desperate to get rid of the hives. Mercy, by this time it felt like I was under judgment from God.)

Well, the good news is the steroids cleared up the hives. The bad news is they were the drug that tipped the scale in a bad way of a summer of over-medication and I darn near had a heart attack. Wound up in the hospital for five days about two weeks ago. My heart went into Atrial Fibrillation. I was in AFib for two days, it took them two more days to get the thing stabilized, and one more day of observation before they felt good enough about things to let me go home. Then a week later - because my body hates the new heart meds they put me on - I spent a day in ER with a heavy tachycardia episode. You don't make wholesale changes to 30 years of taking one set of drugs overnight, and that's what they did ... so I've been getting used to this "new normal" since mid-October.

The **really bad news** is that three days ago I noticed the hives coming back. Damn. And I have no idea why. So if I go "radio silent" or you notice I haven't logged into the league, which I normally do daily, well :arrow: there ya go.

I appreciate you fellas and the fact that you just quietly go about making this one of the best leagues on the site with no drama. Just professional running of our simulation baseball teams. You do it well. I tip my cap, gentlemen!!
mrtwolff
Posts: 185
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:31 pm

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by mrtwolff »

Mark, thanks again for the great post season write up. We really appreciate all you do to make this one of the finest leagues in the sim.

Personally, what you described sounds pretty awful. I feel for you man. Our family will pray for your complete healing.

Fall is here and holidays around the corner. If I get too wrapped up in the "busy ness" of the season to post much here's an early Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!
MidnightHurricane
Posts: 151
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:41 am

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by MidnightHurricane »

sorry to hear about your health struggles .. hoping you will feel better soon
tigersrback
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:48 pm

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by tigersrback »

Mark - That sounds awful brother. I wish you the best. 1 day at a time my friend.
findley80
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:21 am

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by findley80 »

Mark thank you for continuing to write these making this one of the best leagues! Keep plugging away and feel better!
Leonard
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:31 pm

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by Leonard »

Mark, hope things get better for you soon.
ptech
Posts: 963
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:14 pm

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by ptech »

That's a rough set of circumstances my friend. Be well, take care of yourself first, worry about us 119th (or lower).
connorf
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:30 pm

Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by connorf »

That's tough man, I'm so sorry to hear about this. Diabetes runs in my family, it's a huge b*tch. I wish you nothing but the best.
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ballmark
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Re: 2212 Wrap Up

Post by ballmark »

Your kind words are a blessing and a boon to my spirit.

Thank you, one and all.

I head back to my specialist about these bloody hives in the morning.

One piece of good news: I passed my cardiac stress test and I get to go back to my old heart meds (which kept my ticker running at a much lower BPM than the current meds, which make me feel like a walk to the mailbox has put me in training for a marathon) so there is some rejoicing in our household tonight!

For now, let's set this aside until something prevents me from logging in and let's ... play ball! And if anything new pops up that I feel y'all need to know about, I won't hesitate to share. Your support has been wonderful and it's important to me. Thanks again, folks!
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