ANC Baseball League: My Site News

Gavilanes held on to defeat the Tigers 7-6 today at Glassell Park to force a third playoff game.  The winner next Sunday will face the Bandits in the B Division Championship.

The A Division final is set; Chapala will face the reigning A Division champion Warriors.  Chapala advanced today with a 9-5 victory over the Blue Jays.  The Warriors were easily handling Arroyo Seco 14-2 in the fifth inning when Arroyo Seco could not continue when their ninth player was ejected from the game.  The game technically ended in a forfeit and a 9-0 win for the Warriors.

In the C Division, the LA Angels will square off against West LA.  Both teams advanced with narrow victories.  The Angels defeated los Rudos 10-8 while West LA hung on to beat the Orioles 16 -15.

All three championships are scheduled for Sunday, March 4th.

Championship Sunday saw the recoronation of two past champions.  The Warriors are back on top of the league after throttling the Blue Jays 21-6 for the championship.  In the B Division, the Pirates can boast #1 after outlasting the Nationals 19-17 in the championship.

The Warriors lead the A Division for the majority of the season and ended the season by dumping the defending champion Chapala in the first round and finally slaughtering the Blue Jays.

The Pirates snuck into the playoffs and later advanced after winning a protest over the White Sox, who beat them on the field in the first round.  The Pirates later showed their valor after defeating the #2 seeded El Sauz with a dramatic late inning rally.  The victory over the Nationals was a four hour marathon proving themselves once again as the best in the division.

Congratulations to both teams!!! 

Last Sunday, September 26 at El Sereno Recreation Center three teams captured Championships for the Summer 2010 season.

The game of the day went to the C Division a one run game taken by LOS REYES 8-7 over the WHITE SOX.  The WHITE SOX jumped out in front quickly to a 6-0 lead after the 2nd inning.  Eventually by the 8th inning the White Sox held a one run lead.  In the top of the 9th, the White Sox lead off hitter ripped a shot to left center, but Brian Barragan made an amazing diving catch that would if went uncaught would have been at least a double.   The catch was a top ten ESPN play of the day type of play.

The other two championship games were blow-outs.  In a rematch of the A division championship of a season ago, CHAPALA blasted ARROYO SECO 20-4.  Chapala sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning to take a 10-1 lead.  The game was over after that.  Mando Carlin Jr pitched a complete game for Chapala and was named MVP.  Lorenzo Marquez was the star offensively hitting a homerun and two triples with 6 rbi. 

The INDIANS easliy took care of the JAYS (formerly known as Atlixco) 13-3. 

Rules Session 2

In this session we will discuss the awarding of bases on balls thrown out of play and the infield fly rule (IFR). 

The premise of the rule is to protect the offense from being duped into multiple outs by the defense.  You often hear players telling each other to drop a pop-up so that they can quickly turn a double-play on the offense when the batter lazily walks to first base thinking he will be a sure out after the fielder catches a routine pop-up.  The IFR protects the offense from a defense attempting such a play.

The IFR dictates that a batter will be automatically called out on a fair fly ball that is in the infield and that can be caught with ordinary effort with less than two outs and the bases loaded or with first and second base occupied.  Fly balls as a result of a bunt attempt are not subject to the IFR, nor are line-drives.  If a fielder is struggling to get under a ball to make the catch even though there are less than two outs and bases loaded, the IFR can not be called because ORDINARY effort must be employed to make the catch.  If you are twisting and turning and diving to the make the catch on the pop-up, that is NOT ordinary effort.  Being camped under the ball or moving five steps to the left or right IS ordinary effort.  Remember first and second MUST be occupied or the bases must be loaded.    

Next, the awarding of bases on balls thrown out of play is a rule that is often misunderstood.  There are numerous situations to award bases too many to go into right here.  We'll discuss the most common.  Three very important factors to remember when awarding bases are WHEN and by WHO was the ball thrown and WHERE were the runners at the time of the errant throw.

On a defensive play the first thrown ball out of play by an INFIELDER, the batter and all other runners will be awarded 2 bases from where the runners were at the time of the PITCH.  EXAMPLE: With a runner on second, the batter grounds to shortstop, the SS throws the ball into the dugout.  At the time of the pitch there was a runner on second, he would be awarded two bases, enabling him to score.  The batter would be awarded second base, since at the time of the pitch he was at home.

When the first thrown ball out of play is by an OUTFIELDER, the batter and all other runners will be awarded 2 bases from where the runners were at the time of the THROW from the outfielder.  EXAMPLE: With a runner on first, the batter lines one down the left field line.  The left fielder chucks the ball into the 3rd base dugout.  However, when the LF threw the ball, the runner from first had already touched second, and the batter had already touched first.  Thus, the runner first would score because at the time of the throw he was already on second base.  The batter would get awarded third base because at the time of the throw he had already reached first base. The situations are endless for this rule but those situations are the most common in our league.

Post any questions in the GUESTBOOK.

Wanted to remind everyone that the time limit for ANC Baseball games is 2 hours and 20 minutes.  No new inning will be opened after 2 hours and 20 minutes have elapsed from the start time of the game.  The start time of the game either begins after the coaches/umpire meeting, prior to the start of the game, occurs or when a team's grace period begins.

In a new segment for the website news, we will begin posting explanations to interpretations to Major League Baseball rules that are rarely seen during games.  We'll start off with two in this segment, the use of the runner's lane on the first base foul line and the charging of trips to the mound as seen during a recent Dodger game.

On Tuesday night,  sure most of you either saw or heard about Jonathan Broxton being removed from the game because Don Mattingly inadvertently visited the mound twice in the same inning.  Once Mattingly stepped outside of the pitcher's circle and returned back onto the mound he was charged with a second trip to the mound, forcing the Dodgers to replace the pitcher.  In our league the only field that has a mound is Franklin HS, which we only use during the HS baseball season, so it would be trickier for umpires to call that infraction on teams.  The only way umpires can enforce this rule, is if they saw the coach return back to the pitching rubber after walking away from the mound by a noticeable distance, noticeable meaning at least 20 feet away from the rubber.

A runner being called out for running outside (to the left) of the runner's lane between home plate and first base is also a rare instance.  Most often the runner's lane becomes important on plays that necessitate a throw by the catcher or pitcher when they are fielding a ball that is parallel to the first base foul line. It is the duty of the runner to run entirely inside of the lane in foul ground or with only one foot on the foul line. The runner will be called out if he runs in fair ground (to the left of the runner's lane) and causes interference with a fielder making a throw to first or a fielder making a catch of the throw.  Note that the batter-runner is permitted to run outside of the lane ONLY within the immediate vicinity of first base for the sole purpose of touching first base.

Any questions?  Post them on the guestbook....   

ARROYO SECO easily captured the A Division title today over CHAPALA 15-5.   RAMIRO ACEVEDO pitched a complete game for ARROYO.  Offensively ARROYO SECO was lead by RANDY AKASAKA and JOSE MARTINEZ who blasted several shots.  AKASAKA also played stellar defensively at short-stop for the second straight season he played a significant role in defeating CHAPALA in a Championship game.  Last year it was the REDS he defeated CHAPALA.  The REDS will be returning for the Summer season starting in June.

The B Division championship was a back and forth battle until los CERVECEROS were able to quiet the ZACATECAS bats to earn a 9-7 victory.   

In our League a shut out is a rarity, yet WEST LA was able to pull it off the feat dismantling the WHITE SOX 11-0 yesterday at Franklin High School.

BETO ARROYO threw 8 innings of scoreless baseball for WEST LA (5-0-1).  Equally as impressive was WEST LA's defense.  Routine plays and web gems were made behind ARROYO's pitching. 

A Division

Defense wins games and in this case championships!  The REDS edged out CHAPALA 8-7 to capture the A Division title.

The REDS raced out to 6-0 lead due in large part to shakey CHAPALA defense.  With an 8-5 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th, the REDS defense came up with the play of the game. The first two CHAPALA batters reached based bringing DANNY MONTANEZ to the plate, who lined a gapper to left center scoring two runs. MONTANEZ headed to third base, but was gunned out on a text book relay by the REDS.   Shortstop RANDY AKASAKA rifled a throw to his brother BRIAN AKASAKA at third base, who put the tag on MONTANEZ essentially killing CHAPALA's rally.  The next two batters grounded out to close out the ball game.  

REDS starting pitcher DANNY DESANTIAGO was named the game's MVP.  DESANTIAGO, coming off 15 innings pitched in last Sunday's double-header wins over the WARRIORS, threw 9 more innings today to lead his team to victory. 

B Division

The LA DODGERS led the entire game en route to an 8-6 championship win over JEREZ. CALVIN BONILLA pitched 8 2/3 innings for the DODGERS earning the victory.  LUIS MARTINEZ struck out the last batter for the save.  CHRIS GUZMAN was named MVP for the DODGERS.

C Division

In the loudest game of the day, the RED DEVILS defeated LOS REYES 6-4.  The RED DEVIL crowd was large and boisterous.

Congratulations to all the teams who participated!!!!

Maybe to the surprise of some, the umpires of the ANCBASEBALL League do attend training camps and classes, whether it be for high school or for instance the Major League Baseball Camp for Umpires held November 7th at Compton Community College. The best part of the class was listening to soon to be Hall of Fame Umpire, Bruce Froemming's speech on game management. He basically told us not take crap from anyone! Froemming was a great character. He is pictured in the center with a black shirt (shorter white guy). To Froemming's right is Steve Ripley, who worked the plate of game 7 of the 2001 World Series. That was the classic where Luis Gonzalez's walk-off single against the Mariano Rivera and the Yankees.

The DIRTBAGS, RED SOX, and JEREZ were victorious in today's champinsonship games.

For the DIRTBAGS it was their third straight championship. This time they defeated CHAPALA 5-3 for their second consecutive A Division title and third overall as they were the B Division champs two seasons ago. The DIRTBAGS led the entire game scoring all five of their runs by the end of the third inning. CORY CAMPOS delivered a complete game for the victory. CHAPALA started RONNIE RUBIO on the mound, but he lasted only 2 1/3 innings. ARMANDO CARLIN JR pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings in the loss. CHAPALA chipped away at the lead trailing by two runs entering the ninth. With two outs CHAPALA had the tying runs on first and third, CAMPOS induced a soft pop-up behind second base to end the game.

The RED SOX trailed by four runs after the top half of the first inning, but came back to take the B Division title with a 16-9 win. Entering the bottom of the eighth inning the RED SOX clung to a slim 10-9 lead. The RED SOX blew the game wide open with a six run eigth. RAYMOND for the RED SOX came on in relief in the very first inning for their starting pitcher, who had left the bases loaded and surrendered all four runs, and pitched the final 8 and 2/3 innings for the win.

JEREZ led by manager PACO ACEVEDO captured the C Division title for the third time. They defeated los PISTOLEROS 9-5.

Championship Sunday belonged to the DIRTBAGS, RIELEROS, and ARBOR PLUS today at Eagle Rock Park.

The performance of the day without question went to COREY CAMPOS the starting pitcher for the DIRTBAGS, who led the way for the DIRTBAGS 5-1 victory. He was perfect through 6 1/3 innings and the only run scored on him was unearned. The DIRTBAGS, last season's B Division Champions, earned their first A Division Championship. The game was very well played and saw both starting pitchers toss complete games.

The C Division contest was in stark contrast to the A Division game. ARBOR PLUS was the last team standing in a four hour plus contest with a final score of 22-20! The game was marred with numerous errors. There have not been many #4 seeded champions in League history, but this season ARBOR PLUS was able to pull off the rarity. SAN MIGUEL, who lost just twice in 14 games this season, has now come up short in consecutive C Division Championships.

Los RIELEROS defeated the top seeded RED SOX 9-7. The turning point occurred in the top of the six when los RIELEROS plated seven runs to take 9-5 lead. To that point the RED SOX had played stellar defense cutting down several runners trying to take extra bases. After the big sixth inning for los RIELEROS, the RED SOX's only rally came in the bottom of the ninth when they added two runs.