League Updates

A Lincolnian Update

I just spent a pleasant two hours in the first of what will be many policy review meetings this year for the Newberg School District.  Today we looked at the first 25 of maybe 439 policies we have to review over the next 18 months. I say “maybe” because I lost count at one point.  It might be 440.

 

Maybe the word you didn’t expect in that paragraph was “pleasant.”  But it’s the key to the entire passage.  I enjoyed the Policy Committee meeting.  I am looking forward to it. It’s the happy intersection of art, politics, and genuine opportunity to improve the lives of students, staff, and community.

 

The art is in the wordsmithing. We have a LOT to do, and five people in these committee meetings, and later four more people in the full board meetings (and who knows how many others in the community with opinions on the thousand topics we’ll cover). So I can’t indulge in every bit of beautification possible with all these words, sometimes tossed together with no apparent editorial attention. For example, I decided not ask the committee to devote time to the opening phrase of policy BBFB:

 

“In order to avoid both potential and actual conflicts of interest…”

 

to polish thusly:

 

“To avoid both potential and actual conflicts of interest…”

 

Obviously “In order” adds nothing to the sentence, and pretty much never does to any sentence.  But the 20 seconds it might have taken to sink that truth into the minds of my colleagues looked to be 20 seconds too many.

 

Lucky you!  I just spent much longer sharing it with you!

 

I’m not just being cruel.  I also wanted to contrast the 439 policies covering probably 500 pages governing the Newberg Schools with the mere 13 pages of EFL rules.  I wanted to help you be proud of our fundamental document.  If the NSD Policies are Edward Everett’s keynote at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery – no three adjacent words of which anyone can recite — the EFL rules are President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Kinda. Assuming you can recite a few passages.

EFL Standings for 2019
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Portland Rosebuds 83 44 .650 787.0 577.2
Flint Hill Tornadoes 78 49 .614 4.6 785.8 620.1
Old Detroit Wolverines 75 52 .591 7.4 755.6 619.0
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 71 55 .563 11 670.6 576.9
Peshastin Pears 67 60 .531 15.1 676.5 632.1
Haviland Dragons 66 61 .523 16.1 719.8 678.2
Kaline Drive 63 64 .498 19.2 609.2 613.2
Canberra Kangaroos 63 64 .495 19.7 698.7 710.3
Bellingham Cascades 58 68 .458 24.3 607.7 664.4
Cottage Cheese 55 69 .445 25.8 702.5 768.6
Brookland Outs 53 71 .430 27.7 623.5 719.4
D.C. Balk 51 77 .398 32 577.8 713.0

 

Portland: W, 5 – 5. (45 PA, .237, .356, .395;  1.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).
Four score and three wins ago, the Rosebuds were brought forth into the new season favored to win.  They’ve been  in first place for months, now, but haven’t put any extra distance between themselves and their two closest pursuers.
Flint Hill: L, 5 – 7.  (55 PA, .212, .255, .500; 3 ip, 0 er, 0. ERA.
Those clever Tornados. They diversified their methods Tuesday.  As pitchers, they focused on pitching well. Their meticulous approach netted them 3 scoreless innings.  But for the hitters they went the opposite direction, trying to make up in volume for what they lacked in quality. Neither one worked all that well, and the world will little note nor long remember what we said here in this update, but it can never forget what the Tornados tried to do here in pursuit of scientific knowledge.
Old Detroit: “W:, 1 – 1.  (42 PA, .183, .310, .394; 9 ip, 1 er, 1.00 ERA)
Last night after the school board’s regular meeting I got home and checked my team.  Starting with the games already over, my players recorded a lot of 0 for the day (Devers, Hedges, Jimenez, Reynolds, Urias…) Very discouraging. But then I saw Andrew Heaney’s line: 8 ip, 1 er.  I sat up straighter. Then I saw Kyle Schwarber — Kyle Schwarber of all people! — go 1 for 2 with a double and two walks (1.750 OPS).  Then I saw Nick Ahmed: 1 for 2 with  homer and a walk (2.500). Even better.  Finally I saw Max Muncy’s line:  1 for 1 with a homer and three walks! Yay for successive approximation!  Standing on the shoulders of Giants — well, Angels, Cubs, and D-backs, Muncy reached the 5.000 OPS promised land!  So maybe today the team won’t wait until it’s gone 3 singles for 28 AB to implement this new methodology, so that those who gave their last full measure  (Devers, Hedges, Jimenez, Reynolds, Urias…) will not have died at the plate in vain.
.
Pittsburgh: W 2, L (-1); 9 – (-10). (34 PA, .344, .382, .750; 25 ip, 7 er, 2.52 ERA)
Dante Bichette’s two homers led a potent offense, and all those innings drained the Allegheny swamp of 10 runs allowed.  I don’t suspect the Alleghenys of being dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  A team with 7/15ths of the championships in a 12-team league has other ideas.  And who can blame him?  His team, in a pitching-starved season, had 4 starters pitch effectively, each for at least 6 innings. Still elitist after all these years.
.
Peshastin: 6 – 1. (48 PA, .286, .375, .500;  4 ip, 0 er,  0 ERA). 
The Pears roughly tied for the second best day in the EFL Tuesday, led by Marcus Semien’s two doubles in three AB plus a walk. I read the other day someone’s argument that Semien deserves consideration for MVP this year. He’s OPSing .972 in August, .841 overall — so I don’t think an MVP would be altogether fitting and proper for Semien.  But it is nice to have those numbers in your middle infield.
.
Haviland: L, 4 – 10.  (38 PA, .265, .342, .441; 5.3 ip, 5 er, 8.44 ERA)
 With his two sons, conceived in… Kansas?, now engaged in a great civil war, testing whether either of them so conceived can long endure, Haviland could be forgiven for hanging back and staying a little bit out of the way. I don’t suspect the Dragons wanted to hang this far back, behind even the mild Pears, and Harrison Bader in particular almost pulled off a Muncy: one for 2 with a triple and three walks, making a stellar 4.000 OPS. But Domingo German stumbled and left the Dragons with a load of runs allowed.
.
Kaline:  L, 7 – 10. (56 PA, .260, .321, .420;  8.7 ip, 9 er, 9.35 ERA)
A .741 OPS used to be average in MLB, back in the old days. You know, 2018 or earlier.  But times have changed, as the Drive must have noticed when Tommy Milone and Spencer Turnbull combined to allow 9 er in 8 ip. The rest of the team found the task of recovering from that deficit far beyond their poor power to add or detract.
.
Canberra: W, 6 – 1. (34 PA, .258, .324, .613; 14.3 ip, 5 er).
Tim Anderson has manned short for the Kangaroos this year. It’s always nice to have a middle infielder who can handle the bat, like Anderson did yesterday (2 for 4 with a daouble and a homer), and has done all month (1.021 OPS in August).  He got backup from three other Kangaroos OPSing 0ver 1.00, and a pitching staff which (on the whole) was markedly stingy about giving up runs.  Is it too late for the Kangaroos to have a new birth of EFL success?
.
Bellingham: W, 1 – (-3).  (15 PA, .200, .200, .333; 12 ip, 2 er, 1.50 ERA)
The Cascades played like Lincoln wrote: quick, to the point, spare.  Maybe too spare.  I suppose 15 plate appearances would last longer than a 272-word speech. And I don’t suppose a 1 – (-3) loss will ring in the annals of human history quite the same, either — not likely to be etched into the south wall of a memorial on the Washington Mall.  But it might be etched in Homer Bailey’s memory, his fine 5.7 ip, 1 er outing, with 8 strikeouts, after so many years of frustration and pain — but the rest of his team was insufficiently dedicated the unfinished work which he thus far so nobly advanced.  I mean, only 15 plate appearances?
Cottage:  “L”, 8 – 7. (35 PA, .355, .429, .548;  no pitching)
Corey Seager noticed his brother tearing it up in Seattle (2 for 3, double, homer, 2 walks, 2.800 OPS) and decided to match it (3 for 4 with two doubles, 2.000 OPS). He came pretty close! Three other Cheeses pitched in with OPSes of 1.000 or better, and Cottage came away with a win. Yay for sibling rivalry!
.
Brookland:  L, 9 – 9. (18 PA, .533, .611, .667; 8.7 ip, 8 er, 8.31 ERA)
Another sad case of outstanding but painfully thin hitting meeting a painfully bloated ERA. Sean Reid-Foley managed a triple chulk with his 1.7 ip, 5 er day.  But Vlad Guerrero went 2 for 2 with 2 walks to lead the way (2.000 OPS), with Cody Bellinger, CJ Cron, and Manny Machado all going 1.000 or better.
.
DC: “W”, (-1) – 0. (34 PA, .129, .206, .161; 11.3 ip, 3 er, 2.38 ERA)
Finally we come to the Balk. They dominated from the mound, especially Dylan Bundy whose start lasted 7 innings with one earned run allowed. But their hitters were as meek as the ones their pitchers faced.  Or meeker, actually — so meek they gave back a run scored earlier in the season.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
New York Yankees 83 44 .654
Flint Hill Tornadoes 78 49 .614 5.1
Old Detroit Wolverines 75 52 .591 7.9
Tampa Bay Rays 74 54 .578 9.5
Boston Red Sox 67 60 .528 16
Toronto Blue Jays 52 76 .406 31.5
Baltimore Orioles 40 86 .317 42.5
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 75 52 .591
Washington Nationals 68 57 .544 6
Philadelphia Phillies 65 60 .520 9
New York Mets 65 60 .520 9
Canberra Kangaroos 63 64 .495 12.2
D.C. Balk 51 77 .398 24.5
Miami Marlins 45 79 .363 28.5
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Minnesota Twins 77 49 .611
Cleveland Indians 74 52 .587 3
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 71 55 .563 6
Bellingham Cascades 58 68 .458 19.3
Chicago White Sox 56 69 .448 20.5
Kansas City Royals 45 81 .357 32
Detroit Tigers 37 86 .301 38.5
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
St. Louis Cardinals 67 57 .540
Chicago Cubs 67 58 .536 0.5
Milwaukee Brewers 64 62 .508 4
Cincinnati Reds 60 66 .476 8
Cottage Cheese 55 69 .445 11.8
Brookland Outs 53 71 .430 13.7
Pittsburgh Pirates 52 73 .416 15.5
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 81 46 .638
Oakland A’s 72 53 .576 8
Haviland Dragons 66 61 .523 14.6
Kaline Drive 63 64 .498 17.7
Texas Rangers 62 65 .488 19
Los Angeles Angels 63 66 .488 19
Seattle Mariners 54 74 .422 27.5
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Los Angeles Dodgers 83 44 .654
Portland Rosebuds 83 44 .650 0.5
Peshastin Pears 67 60 .531 15.6
Arizona Diamondbacks 64 63 .504 19
San Francisco Giants 63 63 .500 19.5
San Diego Padres 59 67 .468 23.5
Colorado Rockies 57 69 .452 25.5