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Mustang Division
Work in the Bullpen
(Summary by Tim Swiontek)
The 2006 Mustang League had a banner year topped off by one of the most exciting World Series games in recent memory.
The league came of age in the Internet and computer world as the new OYA website was the source for all league and game information. For the first time ever, the practice and game schedules were available on line for all 28 teams. Any changes to the schedule were instantly emailed to managers and team members enhancing the league’s ability to manage and distribute timely information. Managers for the first time reported their game scores on line with the standings automatically updated. With managers reporting within 24 hours of each game, the standings were almost always up-to-the-minute, up-to-date. Managers also reported pitching assignments for each game on line. This helped the league monitor the pitching and will provide valuable information for next year’s Bronco and Mustang drafts.
National League Standings: Cardinals, Dodgers, Padres, Astros, Rockies, Diamond Backs, Pirates, Phillies, Giants, Cubs, Brewers, Reds, Nationals, Braves.
American League Standings: Orioles, Devil Rays, Twins, Athletics, Mariners, Indians, Rangers, Red Sox, White Sox, Royals, Yankees, Blue Jays, Tigers, Angels.
The Orioles-Slattery had a perfect regular season of 13-0 to finish 1st in the American League. Their winning streak of 15 in a row was broken in the 3rd round of the playoffs by the Devil Rays-Waner. In the National League the Cardinals-Ruzevich and Dodgers-Kueltzo finished the season on top of the standings with identical records of 9-3-1. The Cardinals came in first based on their head-to-head record.
The playoffs were exciting and saw upsets in each round. One of the biggest surprises was the 12th seeded Blue Jays-Swiontek (2-11) who managed to upset the 5th seeded Mariners-Wheeler and 4th seeded A’s-Mstowski to advance to the elite eight. In the National League, the 6th seeded Astros-Doria, upset the 3rd place Padres-Dietz and 2nd place Dodgers to advance to the league championship game.
In a World Series game that was up for grabs to the very end, the American League Devil Rays defeated the National League Cardinals 16-15. With the score Devil Rays 10 – Cardinals 5 after 3 innings of play it looked like the D-Rays would easily walk away with the Championship trophy, but the Cardinals put up 10 unanswered runs to take a 15-10 lead going into the last inning. With 2 outs in the top of the 6th and 2 strikes on the hitter, the Cardinals were one pitch away from wrapping it up, but the D-Rays miraculously came roaring back and put up 6 runs to take the lead and ultimately the World Series trophy.
After finishing up the season strong and almost defeating the Cardinals in the National League Championship game, the Astros came up short against the Orioles in the Mustang consolation game. The O's pitching stifled the Astros hitters and played great defense. The Astros were led behind the pitching and hitting of Danny Sheely and Johnny Doria.
I want to thank all of the managers and coaches that volunteered their time and effort to teach the kids a game the whole community enjoys being part of. Winning is, of course, fun, but the end of the season party conversations were more about the individual accomplishments the kids made this year. Great Job Coaches!
(World Series Summary by Jim Waner)
In what was one of the most improbable comebacks ever, the Mustang Devil Rays scored six times in the top of the sixth, all after two were out, to erase a 15-10 deficit, and turned it into a thrilling 16-15 victory and a World Series Championship over the National League Champion Cardinals.
The game was a very exciting and high scoring affair, with the Cardinals taking an early 4-1 lead after the first inning. The D-Rays responded with five runs in the second, and four more in the third, jumping out to a comfortable 10-5 lead after three.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Cardinals came roaring back, putting up six runs of their own, lead by Joey Ruzevich and Cards" MVP" Peter Paxinos making the score 11-10 Cards after four.
The Cardinals tacked on four more in the bottom of the fifth, and took what looked to be a insurmountable 15-10 lead to the sixth and final inning. In the top of the sixth, the Devil Rays loaded the bases, but had two out, when the unlikely comeback began. The Cardinals believed they had the game one, when with two strikes on leadoff batter Humza Boxwalla, the umpire ruled a check swing had occurred. The Cardinal players, thinking it was strike three, began celebrating. However, after an appeal to the base ump, the pitch was ruled ball three and the game continued with the batter eventually walking and forcing in a run. Next up, was the D-Rays "MVP" Jason Waner. He also was down to his last strike, before knocking a ball through and into left field, scoring two, and cutting the lead to 15-13. Next to bat for the D-Rays was Ralph Pinto. After fouling off a couple of two strike pitches, he grounded a slowly hit ball to shortstop. Hustling all the way, he slid into first base barely beating the throw on the bang-bang play. The Cardinals, thinking that the play was an out at first, again began to celebrate. With all of the excitement and the confusion of the close play, the ball remained a live ball, and the heads-up Devil Ray runners realizing this, continued to advance, with the tying run crossing the plate, and the batter advancing all the way to third. The next D-Ray to hit was Julian Gutierrez, who promptly singled, scoring the runner from third giving the Devil Rays a dramatic come from behind 16-15 lead.
The D-Rays however, still needed to get three outs. First, batter for the Cardinals was Dennis Spanos who singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Next up, was A.J. Giron who hit a comebacker to the mound. D-Rays pitcher Jason Waner turned and through a strike to the shortstop Kyle Kroll covering at second base to get the force for the first out of the inning. That turned out to be the final threat, as the final two Cardinal batters stuck out, giving the Devil Rays and their fans the 2006 OYA Mustang Championship!!!!
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