CFBL 2001, Year #12

Young Guns Grab 3rd Crown In a Thriller Over Hapless Rats

The YOUNG GUNS got off to a fast start (5-1), fell a game behind the Dogs for one week, then led all of the way until the last week of the regular season, when the Dogs caught them again.  But the tiebreaker gave the Guns the #1 seed going into the post-season, where they emerged victorious over the River Rats in a tightly played final.

Rules:  No new rules were adopted for 2001.  Toward the end of the season, TQS started live scoring.

FBL Final Standings, 2001

Young Guns (10-4)

Dogs (10-4)

River Rats (7-7)

Casuals (6-8)

Cactus Scouts (6-8)

Devil Rays (6-8)

Clubbers (6-8)

Coasters (5-9)

Playoffs:  Again, the all-team format of the playoffs gave everyone a chance to get a hot hand at the end of the season.  The #1 GUNS, #2 Dogs & #3 Rats all moved on easily in the first week.  The #4 Casuals, however, got screwed by one of the greatest relief efforts in MLB history: Randy Johnson's brilliant 7-inning, 15-K relief of a game suspended by Qualcomm lighting.  The stats did not count (as a starting pitcher, Johnson could not accrue relief points), and the Scouts won by a whisker.  The Casuals came back in the second week in a squeaker.

In the second round, the #1 Guns held on to edge the #4 Casuals when the Gun relief corps blew up on the last day.  The Rats blew the Dogs away in both weeks of the second round to advance to the finals against the Guns, paying back the Dogs back for eliminating them the year before.

The finals were as close as could be.  The Guns used a strong Sunday to pull away in game 1, then both owners went to bed the following night not knowing that the Rats had come back to edge the Guns forcing a game 3.  In game 3, the Guns won 230.2-210.8, once again denying the Rats a chance at the trophy.

Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco