Wumbo Wednesday at Weaselo: Please Don’t Mind the Progress

Greetings from New Apartment Weaselo! We don’t have WiFi yet (Spectrum box comes tomorrow) so it’s a phone avenue ep today.

Now, you are owed a regular season Nocturnes Magazine. It’ll only be a blurb but… the Brooklyn Nocturnes won the West with the best record in the league at 19-11, clinching home field advantage throughout the playoffs. That’s crucial because Brooklyn was 11-4 at Bridgeview Park in Season G, tops in the league and winning all 5 regular season series at home. The West was actually clinched post-Series 9, a home sweep over Fayetteville. Anchorage took exactly 2/3 from New York in another series which was the exact permutation for the Nocturnes to clinch the division a series early. Thanks to a strong finish and some struggles by East champion Harrisville, Brooklyn taking 2/3 against Anchorage, including splitting a doubleheader on the final day of the regular season, was enough to clinch best record by a full game. (Brooklyn could have still won on tiebreaker by not getting blown out in either games of the doubleheader, as they had the run differential lead).

Awards: The Nocturnes had 4 players selected to the first-ever Dice All-Star Game: SPs Dakota Story and Claude Sellers, closer Rusty Finch, and C/DH Chubby Kingman.

Story and Sellers made a formidable 1-2 punch in the league’s 2nd best rotation by ERA. Story was 5th in ERA and threw the 2nd-most innings in league history, outdone only by this year’s Cy Young winner, New York’s Carl Bugenhagen. Story tied for the league lead in wins, tied the league record for complete games in a season, and was the Nocturnes’ first-ever All-Dice awardee (think All-Pro).

Sellers tied for 3rd in wins with 5, just one fewer than Story; tied for 10th in innings pitched; and was 8th league wide in ERA. The nod may have been a slight shock but was a welcome one for the righty.

In his final season, Finch was the closer he was signed to be. Winning the team’s Reliever award, Finch won the saves title on the last game of the season, picking up his 7th save and taking the tiebreaker over River Heights’s Drew Sutter. Finch didn’t walk a batter in the first 6 series of the season, briefly putting him on the first walkless watch.

Chubby Kingman picked up his 2nd team MVP award, as he led the team in home runs (6) and RBI (33), finishing tied for 4th league wide in the latter category. Though he had a slower road trip, the home crowd was able to energize the righty, who got back behind the plate for the final game of the season.

As mentioned, Chubby won team MVP, Story team Cy Young, and Finch team Reliever. Other team-wide awards:

Rookie: CI Tanner Stewart: Stewart had a solid year primarily hitting out of the 3 hole, leading the team in average, on base, and OPS. His two homers were an extra-inning walkoff and a grand slam, clutch in both instances.

Underdog: Greg Zanfino: Z, the shortstop and 9 hitter, led the team in doubles (9) with an average over .300, thanks to a strong midseason road trip.

We will cover the playoffs… later. What will happen? We’ll find out!

As for tonight, there’s probably hockey and basketball. I’m playing so I’m not in a place to easily check, but I’d guess the usual sports at the usual spots.