RCMBA Championship and updated Lifetime Records.

John Briggs sends us a great 2012 season wrap-up of the Roberto Clemente Memorial Baseball Association.  -Tom

We have just completed our 38th season and crowned a new champion.

Ed Farmer has guided his Uniontown Red Raiders to their second RCMBA title! As you can see by the photo on the right, Ed was unable to contain himself and joined the crowd while they danced in the streets of Uniontown. Not quite the same joy can be found on Brian Reagan (left) as his Seabirds lost their second World Series in three years. This was the first year of our new expanded playoffs and the Red Raiders were the fifth seed (2nd wildcard) and NY was the sixth (3rd wildcard) seed.

Ed began by beating 104 win Union County 3 games to 2 in Round one. In the 2nd round the Red Raiders continued their hot play and knocked off 110 win and two time defending champion Albuquerque in six games by completely shutting down the Horsemen offense. NY took out Miami in Round one 3 games to one. In Round two NY shot down the league’s other 110 win team, Syracuse. The Blues couldn’t hit the ball out of their hand. So that’s how the finalist got in and let’s now look at how the title was won. Commissioner Briggs (left) was in his usual seat near the rest room however he was not allowed to chase the first pitch this year due to new leash laws. He was last seen sniffing around behind the stands looking for the Bryce Harper.

Game One… The World Series opened in Uniontown and they won 7-4 after being down 3-1 early. Mike Young led the way with two homers. Game Two… NY won 3-2 with a 9th inning solo homer by Ramon Hernandez. Game Three… The match moved to NY and Uniontown took it 6-5. The Red Raiders had an early 6-0 lead and barely hung on for the win. Game four… Uniontown was down 3-0 going into the 7th when Aramis Ramirez opened the inning with a solo homer that was followed by Brandon Phillips’s three run bomb. The pen shutdown NY for a 4-3 win and a 3-1 game lead in the Series. Game Five… NY bounced back with an 8-6 win to force game 6. Gardner & Konerko knocked in one each in the 7th to break a 6-6 tie. Game Six… Back in Uniontown the Red Raiders took a 2-0 lead in 1st on hits from Zobrist and Pence. NY gets one back in 5th on Gardy’s triple and in 6th A-Rod ties the game with a solo homer. In 7th Alcides Escobar, of all people, ropes a two run homer to put U’town up 4-2. In 9th Jim Johnson gives up a solo shot to Torii Hunter but nothing more and the Red Raiders win 4-3 and claim the crown.

We have updated our lifetime stats of all 3,507 players who have ever appeared in an RCMBA game. On our all-time leader board Derek Jeter is in 3rd place on the hits list with 2,786. All of those hits have come solely for the Syracuse PD Blues. Only two players Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds have reached 3,000 hits. Alex Rodriguez is now just 10 homers short of moving into 2nd place on the home run list. He has 646. There is no chance he will reach all time leader Barry Bonds. Alex also has taken over 2nd place on the RBI list with 1798. Mariano Rivera lowered his all-time best ERA down to 2.01 and extended his saves record to 680. Jeremy Guthrie reached 100 decisions and promptly took over as the worst WL% in league history with a 34-69 record. Makes you wonder how he gets on a roster.

You can see the complete listing of our all-time leaders here.

You can read all about our league at http://www.rcmba.com

Thanks, John and congrats to Ed and the rest of the RCMBA for another great season!

Interesting that Derek Jeter seems to be making the news among APBA leagues lately.  Not only is he 3rd in career hits for RCMBA but he’s 3rd for the Illowa APBA League and he’s only 80 hits away from 3000 in the Mid West Baseball Association.  -Tom