Jean Cocteau has fooled everyone. He’s the new bullpen ace for the Universe.
Ben Franklin’s Boston Secrets have a commanding 9 game lead to go with their league-leading 61 wins in the Society Division.
The Kolkata Cobras owned the second best record in the league at the all-star break, but the Peoples Division is now led by the Santa Barbara Laws.
In the Modern Division, Steven Spielberg’s Universe have caught Rockefeller’s Buyers—both have 51 wins.
The Florence Banners are stunned to find themselves trailing the Dublin Laureates in the Glorious Division.
And over in the Emperor Division, the surging Paris Goths have overtaken the once-mighty Rome Ceilings.
Emperor Division
Paris Goths 54 42 —
Rome Ceilings 52 44 (2)
Corsica Codes 51 45 (3)
Madrid Crusaders 47 49 (7)
Rimini Broadcasters 40 56 (14)
Glorious Division
Dublin Laureates 54 42 —
Florence Banners 53 43 (1)
London Carriages 50 46 (4)
Devon Sun 44 52 (10)
Berlin Pistols 40 56 (14)
Society Division
Boston Secrets 61 35 —
New York War 52 44 (9)
Connecticut Animals 49 47 (12)
Westport Actors 42 54 (19)
Virginia Strangers 38 58 (23)
Peoples Division
Santa Barbara Laws 52 44 —
Kolkata Cobras 51 45 (1)
Beijing Waves 48 48 (4)
LA Gamers 46 50 (6)
Tokyo Mist 41 55 (11)
Modern Division
Phoenix Universe 51 45 —
New York Buyers 51 45 —
Manhattan Printers 47 49 (4)
Philadelphia Crash 45 51 (6)
Arden Dreamers 43 53 (8)
Most of the owners of these 25 teams know that pitching wins pennants.
The Secrets were carried by starters Plato and Pushkin. Now Poe is 4-0 in his last 5 starts and Moliere has won 6 of his last 8 starts. The starting pitching of Poe, Plato, Pushkin, and Moliere is why the Secrets are playing better than anyone, not only in the Society Division, but in the whole league.
The Emperor Division-leading Goths replaced Baudelaire (who couldn’t win) with Goya, but the real story are starters Goethe, Chateaubriand, and Wilde—neither one has lost since the middle of July!
Why are the Dublin Laureates in first place? They added Pascal to the starting rotation, and he’s 5-2 in his last 8 outings. Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Johnson, and Jonathan Swift are pitching above .500 and Livy continues to dominate in relief. Hans Christian Anderson, a lefty relief specialist, and the side-armed J.D. Salinger have been added to the Laureates bullpen. But don’t count out the Florence Banners in the Glorious Division: Dante, Shelley, Virgil, and da Vinci are still their starters, though Dante and Virgil have suffered from some arm weariness.
The Santa Barbara Laws, owned by TV producer Dick Wolf, now lead the Kolkata Cobras in the Peoples Division by one game—Starters Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Horace, and Oliver Wendell Holmes have all been solid, and when they give it to the new bullpen ace Ferdinand Saussure or Quintilian, the Laws win. The Waves are in striking division in the Peoples Division, and they’ve patiently stuck with Voltaire, Lucretius, Rousseau, and Lao Tzu are their starters, with Confucius, Ho Chi Minh and Khomeini in the bullpen. The second-place Cobras still have Tagore, Rumi, Gandhi and Hesse as their big four starters with Kabir Das as their bullpen ace. Merv Griffin’s LA Gamers, who added Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen to their starting rotation, are quietly staying close (6 games out).
Finally, in the Modern Division, the Universe now share first place with Rockefeller’s Buyers. Why? Jean Cocteau (5-0), their new bullpen ace, has been lights out in relief. Recent additions Lucien Freud, Raymond Carver, and Martin Luther King jr have been effective as starters. Steven Spielberg has been making moves! And the Buyers have slumped. Starters Mark Twain and Paul Engle are no longer winning consistently. Whitman and Freud continue to struggle in the middle innings. Andy Warhol’s third-place Printers, the fourth-place Crash of A.C. Barnes, and Pamela Harriman’s fifth-place Dreamers, who just added Jane Austen to the starting rotation, are still in striking distance. Every club in the Modern Division is still in this thing!
Scarriet Poetry Baseball reporting.