League Chat Box

LaForest in the zone for victorious Why Nots

Pete LaForest's hot bat helped the Why Nots to a 5-1 win over the Cloverleafs. LaForest collected 4 hits in the game. | Box

Kazoos fail to follow Bergamo's lead in loss

A big game from Augie Bergamo couldn't lift the Kazoos to victory. Akron prevailed by a score of 10-9, despite 3 hits and 3 RBIs by Bergamo. Terrance Gore of the Kazoos had 4 hits in the game. Michael Restovich recorded 4 hits. | Box

Layne sparks 5-0 win for Beauties

Hillis Layne's hot bat helped the Beauties to a 5-0 win over the Tonkas. Layne collected 4 hits in the game. | Box

Pirkl outburst not enough to carry Martians

Greg Pirkl blasted 2 homers, but it wasn't enough to lift the Martians over the Desert Ratz. Yucca Valley won by a score of 5-4. Gerry Davis of the Desert Ratz had 4 hits in the game. | Box

Schell delivers in clutch, Sluggers win

Danny Schell drove in 4 runs, carrying Louisville to a 15-5 victory over the Otters. | Box

Lead Story - 10/31/2025

Season 5 Pre-Season Schedule

1. Run Progressions - no actual progressions in this league - but there are regressions. Player stats stay the same until Age 39, then they begin to regress. - done

All teams need to cut their roster down to 25 before the 3-round draft. Cuts deadline is Thursday, October 23 at 9pm central time. After the cuts have been made, the 3-round draft will get your roster up to 28, which is one higher than last season. Hopefully this will allow some more flexibility for your roster this year. All 28 roster players will stay on your major league roster - no minors in this league.

Draft Order for the 3-Round Season 5 Draft
Draft won't officially begin until October 25th (Saturday) at 8am Central, but the draft room may open earlier than that, and owners can pick whenever they're on the clock. No pressure though.
1st Round - 6 hours per pick
2nd & 3rd Round - 3 hours per pick
** REMINDER (when ranking and drafting) - Age matters in this league. Players start to regress at Age 39. Happy Drafting!

1. Yucca Valley Desert Ratz
2. Omaha Omahogs
3. Arizona Roadrunners
4. Louisville Sluggers
5. Utica Unicorns
6. Lodi Dodgers
7. Yonkers Hoot Owls
8. Butte Beauties
9. Brandon Cloverleafs
10. Macon Whoopees
11. Minnetonka Tonkas
12. Kalamazoo Kazoos
13. Roswell Martians
14. Evansville Otters
15. Minot Why Nots
16. Akron Rubber Ducks

Free Agency will open up on Saturday, November 1st at 7pm central time. Feel free to drop players and pick others up if you think there’s something better in FA.

Opening Day will be Monday, November 3rd at 9am central time. Make sure you have your lineups and rotations set up. Ballpark dimensions too. Reminder – no big boost or big disadvantage allowed in this league – just mild or no effect.

Good luck in Season 5, everyone!

9/22/2025

Season 4 Major Awards

Here are the final vote counts for the two major awards:

MVP: Greg Pirkl (Martians) - 6 votes
(other vote getters - Greg Goossen-2)

Cy Young: Matt Palmer (Rubber Ducks) - 3 votes
(other vote getters - Dennis Tankersley-2, Charlie Haeger-1, Victor Alcantara-1, Sam Militello-1)

Congrats to the winners!

8/29/2025

Highlights from Butte and the 4th Bush League All Star Game

*** SPOILER ALERT *** - The following story contains details of the game and final results. If you’d rather watch the replay first, you can find a link to it in the Message Center (blue box on the right side of the home page). The box score is also there. Enjoy!

ASG2 – Butte, Montana

The entire population of Butte, Montana (37,564) was invited to the most exciting thing that has ever happened in the city’s history – the 4th Annual Bush League All Star Game. Unfortunately it was held on the same day that most of the local cults and illegal militia groups were having events of their own, so attendance was sparse. Fortunately the five specially invited guests showed up and a good time was had by most.

The day before the game, the All Stars, coaches, and owners were treated to a tour of the area by Beauties owner MaaPearson. The tour included sagebrush, wild turkeys, some coyotes, and a nice view of the famous Big Butte. On the bus ride home, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “I Love Big Butts” was played on a loop with the players shouting out “Big Butte” instead of “Big Butts” at all the appropriate times.

Due to Butte’s history of copper mining, the town’s motto is “The Richest Hill on Earth” although that claim is currently being challenged in court by real-life MLB pitcher Rich Hill, who is also pretty wealthy.

The five ASG guests included two real life MLB players who were born in Butte (Rob Johnson, who hit 8 HRs over 7 seasons in the majors which is more than one per season if you can imagine – all while terrorizing the league with a .200 AVG; and pitcher Scott Brow, who struck fear into opposing hitters to the tune of a lifetime 6.06 ERA in four seasons with Toronto and Arizona). They were joined by three of Evel Knievel’s grandchildren. Evel and his son Robbie were both born in Butte, where they both developed a strong desire to try to kill themselves by driving motorcycles erratically.

Pre-game entertainment included some daring motorcycle tricks by the Knievels, as well as a shooting contest. Random fans were brought down onto the field, handed high-powered military-style assault rifles and challenged to shoot the **** out of a series of tin cans that were set up on sawhorses near home plate. The winner was a local boy named Clem who hit 7 of 10 cans while obliterating a sawhorse completely. All in all, it was an exciting contest, with only 7 fans losing their lives and 19 sustaining life-threatening injuries. The Commish is considering drafting some new guidelines for future ASG pre-game festivities.

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Brow, who threw it a foot outside and two feet high. Johnson caught the ceremonial first pitch, or almost did, the ball glancing off the side of his mitt and bouncing feebly towards the ball boy, not the fat one, the other one, with the bowl cut.

If it sounds like the author of this recap doesn’t have a high regard for Butte, Montana, I apologize. It’s only because I drove through the area as part of a family vacation, and it seemed like the kind of place that I’d like to forget about, but can’t. The nature in the area is quite beautiful, but the people are a bit scary and don’t cotton to strangers much.

The game itself was a good one, a competitive one, with substantially fewer deaths compared to the pre-game festivities. The Beauties were represented by starting outfielder Olaf Henriksen and starting catcher Gene Lamont. Sadly, Henriksen was hit with one of the stray bullets during the pre-game shooting contest, and died. Luckily, he was technically already dead, having passed away in 1962. Due to the magic of Pennant Chase, where deceased players are regularly brought back to life to play Sim Baseball, Henriksen was used to playing while dead so it was no big deal for him. He arose and was even able to drive in a run in the 3rd inning, which happened moments after one of the WildWest-Borderlands coaches yelled “Look alive out there, Olie!”

There wasn’t a lot of offense in the game. The first inning was scoreless thanks to starting pitchers Scott Lewis of Louisville and Bob Woodward of Minot, although there were runners in scoring position in both halves of the first, with the home half ending on a play at the plate.

In the top of the second, the visitors pushed across three runs on only two hits as the pitching and defense weren’t at their best. Second baseman Chris Clapinski made an error on a routine grounder off the bat of Jeremy Hazelbaker to start the frame. After a fly ball out and a walk, Jhonatan Solano drove in a run with a single. Another walk by pitcher Mad Bobby Madritsch loaded the bases for Michael Restovich who singled home a pair of runs to give MiddleEarth-EastNortheast a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the 2nd, Clapinski doubled, Tommy Watkins singled, and mostly dead home-town hero Henriksen cut into the lead with an RBI Fielder’s Choice groundout which scored Clapinski from 3rd. Ben Howard managed to get out of the inning with a short fly out and a strikeout.

Pitching dominated the middle innings, including a three-up/three-down inning for each side, thrown by Jack Cullen of the Martians and Tom Carroll of the Rubber Ducks.

With the substitutes playing in the 7th inning, the home team crept closer when Ed Hemingway hit a two-out double and Jim Baxes singled him in to make the score 4-2 for the MEENE-ies.

The last two innings were pretty uneventful, which was a perfect match for everyday life in Butte. The final score was 4-2 for the visitors, the first time that the MiddleEarth-EastNortheast stars had won an All Star Game in four tries.

The ASG MVP was Michael Restovich of the Rubber Ducks who only went 1 for 4 with a single, but he did drive in two runs, including the eventual game-winner. Maurice Archdeacon of the Why Nots received serious consideration as he hit three singles in four trips for the losing side.

Next year’s All-Star Game will be hosted by the Whoopees in Macon, Georgia.

Good luck in the 2nd half, everyone!
The Commish (Gus)

8/22/2025

Season 4 All Star Teams Named

WildWest-Borderlands All Star Team
C Gene Lamont - Beauties
C Al DeVormer - Dodgers
1B Greg Goossen - Why Nots
1B Randy Ruiz - Dodgers
2B Chris Clapinski - Roadrunners
2B Jim Baxes - Why Nots
3B Glenn Williams - Cloverleafs
3B Ed Hemingway - Desert Ratz
SS Tommy Watkins - Cloverleafs
SS Anderson Machado - Tonkas
OF Michael Ryan - Martians
OF Maurice Archdeacon - Why Nots
OF Olaf Henriksen - Beauties
OF Tony Longmire - Tonkas
OF Brooks Kieschnick - Dodgers
DH Greg Pirkl - Martians
SP Bob Woodward - Why Nots
SP Bobby Madritsch - Tonkas
SP Al Grabowski - Desert Ratz
SP Jack Cullen - Martians
SP Scott Chiamparino - Desert Ratz
RP Evan Meek - Why Nots
RP Everett Teaford - Dodgers
RP Pat Pacillo - Why Nots
RP Joe Valentine - Why Nots
RP Julio Solano - Underdogs
RP Cody Stashak - Martians

MiddleEarth-EastNortheast All Star Team
C Jhonatan Solano - Omahogs
C Dane Sardinha - Hoot Owls
1B D.T. Cromer - Sluggers
1B Robert Petagine - Rubber Ducks
2B Jorge Velandia - Omahogs
2B Irving Falu - Otters
3B Mitch Meluskey - Kazoos
3B George Zeber - Omahogs
SS Ed Jurak - Kazoos
SS Joe Buzas - Hoot Owls
OF Jeremy Hazelbaker - Sluggers
OF Buzz Arlett - Kazoos
OF Michael Restovich - Rubber Ducks
OF Butch Davis - Whoopees
OF Brian O'Grady - Rubber Ducks
OF Ed Armbrister - Otters
DH Bob Hazle - Rubber Ducks
SP Scott Lewis - Sluggers
SP Ben Howard - Hoot Owls
SP Zaza Harvey - Omahogs
SP Tom Carroll - Rubber Ducks
SP Jeff Heathcock - Unicorns
RP Dennis Tankersley - Rubber Ducks
RP Matt Palmer - Rubber Ducks
RP Charlie Haeger - Omahogs
RP Joel Carreno - Hoot Owls
RP Wally Holborow - Unicorns

9/3/2024

First Season Draft Info

Rules:
For our initial 24-round draft, we will split the draft into two parts:
Part 1 - 10 rounds - snake draft style
Part 2 - 14 rounds - one-way draft style

Once the clock starts (Sunday morning at 9am Central time):
Rounds 1-5 - 6 hours/pick
Rounds 6-10 - 3 hours/pick
Rounds 11-24 - 1 hour/pick

Clock won’t run during the overnight period (10pm to 8am central time)

Due to the limited Free Agent Pool, there will be a couple of position maximums.
Catchers - only 2 per team may be drafted.
Starting Pitchers - only 6 per team may be drafted.

REMEMBER! Age matters in this league. No progressions, but after a player's age 39 season, he will begin to regress every year. So Chuck Hostetler (who is already 41) will start regressing after Season 1 and keep getting worse every year until you just can't stand the smell of him anymore.

Each team will be allowed to switch positions for one position player before Opening Day (see Rules page for more details).

Each team will have one player assigned with a Utility (UT) designation for his secondary position.

8/29/2024

Bush League Essentials (see Rules Page for more details)

Bush League FYI:

No Contracts
No Progressions
Regressions begin at Age 39 (so age matters!)
No changing seasons - players are stuck with whatever stats they enter the league with
Fatigue: Off
Slump Buster: Off
Fire: Off
Ballpark Dimensions - No Big Advantage/Big Disadvantage
Trades - unlimited

16 teams
8 teams make the playoffs
162 Game Schedule
5-man Starting Rotation
Roster Size - 24 to start, will increase one each season until Commish decides on final roster total
Off-Season - cuts to 22 before 3-round draft

8/29/2024

First Season Draft Order

The first Bush League Player Draft will go a long way in determining your team's future, and maybe also your personal future depending on how seriously you take this league (hopefully not too seriously!)

The initial Player Draft will be 24 Rounds.
Draft order is based on "The Last Shall Be First" and will use the Commish's home-made formula which looks at each owners' real PC winning percentage, number of rings, and number of PC games played. This will give those of you who are terrible or mediocre at Baseball Sim Games a fighting chance against those of you who are awesome veterans. The Commish will choose last in the first round because that's just what good Commishes do (or so I've been told by good Commishes).

Draft Order (Final) (Ability to Rank Players has been turned on - Rank away)
1. Utica Unicorns (Offday)
2. Kalamazoo Kazoos (Arlo)
3. Roswell Martians (Dommod)
4. Omaha Omahogs (DaveMagadan)
5. Evansville Otters (BHicks)
6. Butte Beauties (MaaPearson)
7. Louisville Sluggers (GMan)
8. Arizona Roadrunners (SinCityMarauder)
9. Yucca Valley Underdogs (Dempsey)
10. Yonkers Hoot Owls (JSMathiot)
11. Macon Whoopees (Lasershow)
12. Minot Why Nots (GBacci)
13. Akron Rubber Ducks (Bush)
14. Minnetonka Trucks (RevEJB)
15. Lodi Dodgers (Sheikyerboudi)
16. Brandon Cloverleafs (Gus)