League Updates

Just the Next Person

I am not the most competent marathon runner connected to the EFL. No, that honor belongs to Ron’s wife, Melanie. She has run over 50 marathons and still does not seem satisfied. Isn’t that awesome?

The owner of the Pears, Phil Smith, has also run a few marathons in his day. I am not sure how many, but I believe it is more than one.

Later on this year Brookland’s owner will run a marathon (perhaps his first?) with his wife – how fun is that?

I, myself, have also run a few marathons – and maybe others in the group have, though I know for sure that at least three other owners have never run one nor do they intend to run one (though running one is quite an accomplishment, I can’t blame them for not wanting to run one. They take quite a toll on your body!

A lot of people run marathons just to cross an item off their bucket list. After I ran my first marathon, which was a bucket list item, I decided that I wanted to do another. Except this time, I wanted to improve my time. And each subsequent marathon was an exercise in improving on my PR. But running 26.2 miles in one shot makes it important to strategize if you do indeed want to improve upon your time. You can’t just decide, “I’m going to run faster!” and then go out and do it. If you begin too quickly, you will fade at the end. If you start too slowly, it will too difficult to make up the time the longer the race goes on.

But one piece of advice I heard while training for one of my marathons was to focus on two things: a comfortable pace that while comfortable is also one that can be sped up if needed, and 2) once you get to about mile 20 you should begin to look at just the person in front of you and try to pass them. Once you pass them, pick the new person in front of you and work on passing them.

This helped me tremendously in my most recent half-marathon that I ran, in which I was trying to set a PR. I knew there were at least 20 people ahead of me, and the thought having to pass all of them made me feel overwhelmed. And then I remembered this great piece of advice, and slowly began to pass just one person at a time. My mind was off the larger task, and therefore free to focus on a smaller, much more manageable task.

What might be the smaller, more manageable tasks right in front of you team this final month of the season? Well, let’s find out!

PS: The BP site is being interminably slow so I am not posting your daily stats from yesterday, just your scores. Sorry!

EFL Standings for 2019
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Portland Rosebuds 89 48 .650 861.7 631.9
Flint Hill Tornadoes 84 52 .616 4.8 836.3 657.0
Old Detroit Wolverines 81 55 .596 7.4 793.6 648.4
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 74 60 .553 13.4 721.6 638.5
Peshastin Pears 72 65 .528 16.6 716.1 677.9
Haviland Dragons 70 66 .513 18.7 757.0 730.2
Canberra Kangaroos 68 68 .502 20.2 757.1 757.2
Kaline Drive 66 70 .487 22.3 650.1 669.6
Bellingham Cascades 60 74 .449 27.4 628.8 700.2
Brookland Outs 58 74 .442 28.2 662.8 748.0
Cottage Cheese 58 74 .438 28.7 744.1 828.1
D.C. Balk 54 82 .398 34.4 600.8 742.7
Portland: W, 9-1 To catch the person in front of them, Portland needs to let someone pass them. Might as well allow that to happen in September! Then you’ll be able to see how motivating it is to actually pass someone.
Flint Hill: “W,” 3-4 This is simple – to catch the person in front of us we need to pitch better. Plain and simple! We have help on the way in a trade I will be announcing soon. Also, if you have a pitcher you want to trade me who is likely to have a September ERA below 4, send me an email and make me an offer!
Old Detroit: W, 12-0 I think the easiest thing for the Wolverines will be to somehow encourage their players to not be so undulating in their outcomes each day. Having a great day (like yesterday) after a few miserable days will not get you closer. And even though the Tornadoes thought about giving this entire month away, they found out how to put some pieces back together so that they didn’t get passed before the month was over.
Pittsburgh: W, 11-5 Catching the person in front of him might be insurmountable at this point, but if the Alleghanys were to catch the Wolverines, it will be through having another great offensive month (August was perhaps their best this season) and their pitchers pitching noticeably better than their 4.79 ERA this month.
Peshastin: “L,” 3-1 Peshastin’s pitching has been the absolute best in the EFL this month. Catching Pittsburgh is certainly within reach through upping your offensive output by just another .5 RC/G. Do it!
Haviland: L, 2-9 The Dragons can catch the Pears with pitching. Their hitting has been good (could be better) but their pitching has been second worst in the league this month. Can the Pears maintain such a high level of pitching next month? If not, and if the Dragons can pitch a tiny bit better, they could pass them in the standings!
Canberra: “L,” 9-5 The Kangaroos could catch the Dragons conceivably pretty easily. Both their pitching and their hitting will need to improve, but maybe Kluber will return to lead them to a jump in the standings?
Kaline: W, 9-3 I’ve got one simple piece of advice that I hope the Drive will do for the month of September – if they can allocate so that they don’t have surplus ABs, I think they could make a good move. It is a little more work than the Wizard might want to do, but what might happen if he did?
Bellingham: L, 0-2  At this point in the standings, we will reverse the idea of passing to pass the person behind you so that you get a better draft pick. The Cascades have been playing well lately, which isn’t helping them. But if they were to encourage their old guys to play like the age they are, it might help them sink below the Outs.
Brookland: DNP, 2-5 The Outs tied their season high for wins this month, and they did so on the strength of their pitching. If their pitchers pitched more like the Tornadoes, they might find themselves closer to the bottom with a better pick.
Cottage: DNP, 2-1 There is not advice to give the Cheese – they are already doing the work of floating (sinking?) to the bottom more quickly than anything I might suggest., Keep it up!
DC: W (-1), L (2), (-5)-6 DC, you have one thing to do to hold on to the first EFL pick next season – keep doing what you have been doing! In fact, if you want to trade some of your better SP to the Tornadoes, that would REALLY help both of us. Just a thought!
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
New York Yankees 88 48 .647
Flint Hill Tornadoes 84 52 .616 4.3
Old Detroit Wolverines 81 55 .596 6.9
Tampa Bay Rays 78 58 .574 10
Boston Red Sox 73 62 .541 14.5
Toronto Blue Jays 54 82 .397 34
Baltimore Orioles 45 89 .336 42
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 82 54 .603
Washington Nationals 75 58 .564 5.5
Philadelphia Phillies 69 64 .519 11.5
New York Mets 68 66 .507 13
Canberra Kangaroos 68 68 .502 13.7
D.C. Balk 54 82 .398 27.9
Miami Marlins 48 86 .358 33
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Minnesota Twins 83 51 .619
Cleveland Indians 79 56 .585 4.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 74 60 .553 8.9
Bellingham Cascades 60 74 .449 22.9
Chicago White Sox 60 74 .448 23
Kansas City Royals 47 89 .346 37
Detroit Tigers 39 93 .295 43
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
St. Louis Cardinals 73 59 .553
Chicago Cubs 73 61 .545 1
Milwaukee Brewers 68 66 .507 6
Cincinnati Reds 63 70 .474 10.5
Brookland Outs 58 74 .442 14.7
Cottage Cheese 58 74 .438 15.2
Pittsburgh Pirates 58 77 .430 16.5
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 88 48 .647
Oakland A’s 78 56 .582 9
Haviland Dragons 70 66 .513 18.2
Kaline Drive 66 70 .487 21.8
Texas Rangers 66 70 .485 22
Los Angeles Angels 64 72 .471 24
Seattle Mariners 57 79 .419 31
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 89 48 .650
Los Angeles Dodgers 88 49 .642 1
Peshastin Pears 72 65 .528 16.6
Arizona Diamondbacks 69 66 .511 19
San Francisco Giants 66 68 .493 21.5
San Diego Padres 62 72 .463 25.5
Colorado Rockies 59 77 .434 29.5

4 Comments

  • I don’t even want to talk about the fact that most teams in the league there is a small margin they have to overcome to pass the person in front of them than I have facing me to catch the Rosebuds. Let’s just ignore that for the time being. Thanks.

  • This is pretty good advice, I guess, but I am still trying to pass two teams. If today’s games go well I might be back under 7 games out. The Rosebuds gained almost that many against the Wolverines last September. It’s time for the universe to bend back toward distributive justice!

    • Ron, you would be well served to stop trying and just enjoy the final few weeks. Otherwise you might get too stressed and then that won’t be good for any aspect of your life…

  • Jamie, I’m please to tell you that for the first time your words played a prominent part in the beginning of my sermon on Sunday. In short, I shared your advice to keep your eyes on the person ahead of you. I then noted that this might be excellent advice for running a marathon, but is terrible advice for running our spiritual race, where we are instructed to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.