Tales from the MABL:
Excerpt from the Cincinnati Star
July 31, 1950

SEEING RED
Amidst COMMIE-troversy, Cincinnati’s MABL Squad Back in First

The Cincinnati MABL club has had an extremely interesting month. A few weeks ago, local groups around the city began to cry out in response to new game programs approved by Team President Josh Check. The covers featured a baseball bat functioning as a hammer, slamming down onto the Midwestern United States and fracturing the other cities of the MABL’s Western League. This naturally caused outrage, as fears over Communist influence reached new heights in recent months. The team’s July 4th Western Open game was opened with a rain of boos directed towards the home team, and despite a resounding 13-2 victory over Rockford, Check drew the fans’ ire for his poor judgement.

This mishap proved quite a problem for the club’s reputation, regardless of their current performance. Ticket sales for the city’s top squad have only seen a marginal dip, but their Community Ownership Group has its hands full in keeping the team away from the recent bad press. Check and the club’s top brass have issued a statement pledging undying devotion to the United States, and furthermore, they would be exploring new naming options for the upcoming season. Here at the Star, we’ve made the decision to begin calling them the Buckeyes in an effort to convince the team to change their name.

On the field, however, the team couldn’t be better. On the final day of July, Cincinnati now holds the Western League’s top spot after going 10-2 in Major League play. While including a few squeakers, the team took over this afternoon in Cleveland. The high-flying offense of Barnard and Townsley combined for 7 hits, with the second-year second baseman falling just a double short of the cycle. Randy Midkiff has fallen to fourth in the starting rotation with an ERA approaching 5.00, b

ZO82 wrote:

What does the Diamond on the left side of the jerseys mean on the All-Star sheet?  I get that the stars on the right mean how many times a player has been selected for the All-Star 

I should've noted that a while ago, but a gold diamond is an MVP award, while a silver diamond is a Pitcher of the Year award. I thought about making an icon for ROY as well, but for now it's just those two

The MABL has about a billion different stories to track at the moment, feel free to jump to your team for mid-season analysis.



Despite leading by as much as five games in June, New York City sits tied atop the Eastern Standings with a Jays team that just won’t quit. For the Moles, their success is mostly thanks to an offense without a weak spot in the lineup. Scotty Beamon has provided City Athletic with one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, batting .397 with 13 home runs. This isn’t even the most dominant hitting performance on his own team, however, as both Dlibert McPherson and 1949 EPL MVP Shawn Manning are both batting above .400. Harry Jordin and Tom Padgett have made themselves into bonafide superstars overnight, each collecting an all-star nod in their first MABL season. If New York can simply maintain pace, they’ll be sitting close with the Jays, but if they can kick the back of their rotation into gear, they could enter another stratosphere.

That isn’t to say that Brooklyn feels like they’re in this race; in fact, they’re far from their dominant selves. They’re still competitive thanks to their stellar outfield, now having combined for 12 all-star appearances, but their pitching staff has seen a bit of regression from their incredible end of last season. It has been largely carried by Pacific Jim Hughes, who gets the nod to start the All-Star Game thanks to his 9-4 record and 3.54 ERA. Danny Ibarra and Noah Knight has recaptured a rhythm after early-season struggles, but the back of their rotation is a mess. Jonah Lucas has seen a dramatic drop in production, as has Roy Woodward, and both are expected to move to the bullpen while rookie Bob Sedgwick and Tyler Balasko take over in the starting rotation. Quentin gets another all-star nod thanks to 11 home runs, but DeAngelo and Zach Riley replacement Jon Breton simply aren’t up to the levels of the league’s elite.

Speaking of elite,

It's exactly what it sounds like.

A man died being stabbed on a rugby pitch, and so the Union officials decided that everyone should also have to knives to protect themselves.

Teams TBD...

Tales from the MABL

Excerpt from the Brooklyn Beacon
May 20th, 1950

PIE TO THE FACE
Pizza Incident Epitomizes Jays Season

Just when things looked like they couldn’t get worse, they did. A day before the Jays’ 3-game series against a surprisingly competent Pittsburgh squad, first baseman Bobby Lee was ruled out for the rest of the month with a “non-baseball injury”. While at Ray’s Pizzeria here in Brooklyn, a chair pushed out from under Lee when he reached down to grab his kid’s slinky and caused him to bruise his tailbone. 

Ray’s owner, Tony Lombardi, gave insight into how Lee’s injury occurred. He claimed that the floors were freshly mopped, and profusely apologized for the harm he’d done to the borough. He offered a free slice to anyone with a Jay’s ticket through July 4th, although he stressed to The Beacon that it would be one-per-customer.

The pizza incident is just another bit of salt in the wound for the Jays, who haven’t caught a break since the first game of the season. Zach Riley’s devastating injury in their opening game should have been an omen, yet the birds are caught in a tractor beam that continues its downward spiral. As of right now, Brooklyn’s top nine is five games back of the Moles, thanks in part to a subpar first half by Lee’s positional successor, Noah Knight. In his six starts this year, the once-incredible rookie sensation has performed fine at the plate, but his ERA is now ballooned to over 6.00. The rest of the pitching staff has been abysmal, as well, giving up 44 runs over the last four games.

A rough start to the season is fixable, but the lower Manhattan club looks as fearsome as ever. Despite losing their May series in Prospect Heights, the Moles have gone 9-2 this month. In a season where the East has seen dramatic improvements from the league’s worst teams, Brooklyn’s faltering on the mound will only be exacerbated by the