CFBL 2014, Year #25

Tahoe Rats Need Extra Week and a Critical Weather Suspension to Nose Out Dogs

No new teams; one new rule:  Draft slots were awarded by selection, starting with the worst team from the year before, ending with the previous year's champion.

     DRAFT (1st round pick)

          Casuals:   Miguel Cabrera

          Oakies:   Trout

          TAHOE RATS:   Kershaw

          Clubbers:   Goldschmidt

          St, John's Saints:    Cano

          Devil Rays:   McCutcheon

          Lodi Crushers:   Fielder

          Water Dogs:   Carlos Gonzalez

Regular Season:  On the strength of five 7-0 weekly marks, the dRays beat out the Tahoe Rats by eight games; the Rats, in turn, beat out the defending champion Crushers by eight games.

Regular Season Standings:  

     dRays:  78-34

     Rats:   70-42

     Crushers:   62-50

     Casuals:   61-51

     Dogs:   50-62

     Oakies:   47-65

     Saints:   44-68

     Clubbers:   36-76

Playoffs:  The #4 seeded Casuals were the only team to join the dRays & Rats after the first week of the playoffs; the #5 Dogs and #6 Oakies joined them the next week, eliminating the #4 Crushers.

The Dogs appeared to be coasting to the title, going 4-0 in each of the first two weeks of the playoffs.  Then the baseball gods spoke.  The Rats, at 4-4, had little chance to catch the Dogs, but catch them they did.  The Rats had to go 4-0, with the Dogs going 0-4 in the last week.  Both happened.  But not without some weathery drama.

The Rats had to go 4-0, and the 8-0 Dogs (Al Liberato, the only other surviving original member of the league - who's still playing, of course) had to go 0-4.  Well, the Dogs stumbled on Sunday and finished last.  The Rats had a 19-pt lead going into Sunday, but the Oakies had a great day, and the Rats went into the Sunday game ahead by less than a point - and their SP (Duffy) was on the mound.  Two Sundays in a row decided by a Sunday night starter.

He gave up an unearned run in the 5th, and he left in the 7th behind 2-1.  The Rats stayed less than a point ahead (but were on the hook for a -2 point loss) when:

     A KC HR in the bottom of the 9th of the Sunday Night ESPN game took the Rats' SP Duffy off of the hook for a loss, and it looked like the Rats would sneak out with a 3/4 point win over the Oakies.  That combined with the Dogs' last place finish would mean an extra week playoff between the 8-4 Rats and the 8-4 Dogs.

But hold on.

     KC sent the Rats' RP Holland in to pitch the top of the 10th.  He gets two outs, then an error by Butler puts a runner on.  A two-strike single follows; then an 0-2 pitch is blasted to the RF wall.  Two runs in for the Tribe. KC (and Holland) down, 4-2.

But wait.

     Both runs are unearned, so there's no damage to Holland's ERA.  But KC would need to tie it in the bottom of the 10th to get Holland off of the hook for the loss.

But wait.

     A storm sends the grounds crew out to cover the field.  If the game resumed tonight (or in the wee hours), and KC did NOT tie it, then the Dogs would back into the Championship with the Rats' loss to the Oakies.  BUT, if the game is suspended, then Holland does not get a loss this week, and the Rats beat the Oakies and finish 4-0 this week, tying the Dogs.

Weird.

      GAME SUSPENDED...THE RATS LIVE ANOTHER WEEK.

This caused an extra week to be played, and the Rats blew out the discouraged Dogs (just as the Rats had lost in the early years of the league), 201-128.5.  It was never even close.

Playoff Standings:

     8-4   Rats (win in extra week)

     8-4   Dogs

     5-7   dRays & Oakies

     4-8   Casuals

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