Back in the Day Winter League

 

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1973 - Game & Player Spotlight / News & Notes!

1971 - Game & Player Spotlight / News & Notes!

1972 - Game & Player Spotlight / News & Notes!

1971 - Game & Player Spotlight / News & Notes!

1970 - Game & Player Spotlight / News & Notes!

 

September 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

·        TOLUCA LAKE – Some items of note for September:

·        There have been 8 players to hit for the cycle in the history of the BDWL and there has been at least one in every season … except 1974.

·        Cincinnati’s Tom Griffin had a complete game 1-hitter in September. It is the 1st of his career and the 3rd one this season which is the fewest in a season. Nolan Ryan and Don Wilson still lead the way with 4.

·        St. Louis’ Jorge Orta became the 10th player to get 6 hits in a game when he accomplished it in a 22 inning game.

·        St. Louis’ Catfish Hunter went a record 12 innings in a 22 inning game.

·         Wisconsin’s Tommy Helms tied Rod Carew’s record of 11 consecutive hits and Frank Robinson’s & Rick Monday’s record of consecutive times reaching base of 12 in same streak during September.

 

  • WISCONSIN (Dave H.) - Just who were those players masquerading themselves as Wisconsin Snow Goblins in September? Wisconsin went an uncharacteristic 15-9 in the month, including two sweeps on the road (for those scoring at home, that means 23.8% of the Snow Goblins' wins occurred in the final month).  The hitting wasn't great, but again, uncharacteristic, as the team batted 272/331/349 (compared to 228/284/316 combined in the other months). Barry Foote led the way, hitting 349/379/494 (222/270/325 before September) with 10 runs and 16 RBI (and three steals) in 22 games. Tommy Helms also came through with a 345/382/464 line and 11 runs and 13 RBI (he had 21 runs and 28 RBI before September). Vada Pinson even stepped up, batting 338/370/426 with 10 runs and eight steals. Should I even mention that RBI machine known as Enzo Hernandez (.284, 11 RBI)?  As usual, though, it was the pitching that carried the day for Wisconsin. The Snow Goblins posted an incredible 2.15 ERA for the month. Carrying the torch was a possible pitcher of the month candidate in Jackie Brown, who was 4-1 with a 1.12 ERA and 32 Ks in six starts (three complete with one shutout).  All in all, way to late to salvage the season, but nice to go out on a positive note.

 

August 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

·        TOLUCA LAKE – Some items of note for August:

·        There have been 8 players to hit for the cycle in the history of the BDWL and there has been at least one in every season … except 1974 so far. We have one month left!

·        Atlanta’s Don Sutton had a complete game 1-hitter in August. It is the 2nd of his career as he threw his 1st back in August 1972. Nolan Ryan and Don Wilson still lead the way with 4.

·        The Savannah Shoeless Joes tied a record by coming from 9 runs down to win a game. The record was originally set in 1972 by Great Lake.

 

  • WISCONSIN (Dave H.) – Things have not gone well for the Wisconsin Snow Goblins this season, especially in the hitting category, where the Goblins rank last in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage (a reverse Triple Crown, of sorts). While the overall numbers in August remained par for the course, there were a couple of notable exceptions. Leroy Stanton hot .294/.377/.559 with five home runs – which vaulted him to a team-leading 10 HRs. At one point, it looked as though Wisconsin wouldn’t even have a player hit double-digits in that category. Backup catcher George Mitterwald also displayed some muscle in August, hitting four homeruns in 38 at-bats (he hit .316/.350/.632 overall for the month). Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s pitching remains stellar, posting a 3.13 ERA in August (and the team went 9-16, which pretty much again sums up the offense). Dick Tidrow had a 1.93 ERA in 6 starts – and managed to go just 1-2. Steve Mingori managed to give up his first earned run since June 2, allowing one in a home game vs. Sleepytown. Mingori’s other earned run allowed this season came April 16th. Meanwhile, closer Orlando Pena didn’t allow an earned run in August and has allowed only one earned run in his last 16 appearances (June 30th).
  • TEXAS (Alan L.)- Always entertaining … here is a recap of Texas’s series with Toronto ending with a historic event click here to read

 

 

July 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

·        TOLUCA LAKE – Some items of note for July:

·         In the same 11 inning game, Pittsburgh’s Darrell Porter and Don Money both got 6 hits tying the record. They are now the 7th & 8th player to accomplish this. While Oregon’s Bob Watson became the 9th player to do it in a 14 inning game later in that same month.

·        Fremont’s Lerrin LaGrow got touched up for 19 hits in a game against Bubank which ties record held by Burbank’s Gaylord Perry.

·        Burbank set a new record with 9 consecutive hits in a game against Fremont.

·        TOLUCA LAKE – several of major milestones have been achieved this season:

·        Gaylord Perry of Burbank became the 1st pitcher to win 100 games in his career when he beat Asbury Park on 7/12.

·        Mike Marshall of Dallas became the 1st pitcher to reach 100 saves in his career when he saved the 7/14 game against Wisconsin.

 

  • NO HITTERS! – we hadn’t had a no hitter since June ’73 but we got 3 in July:
        • Wellington’s 24 year old Lynn McGlothen tosses the 6th No Hitter in BDWL history on 07/08/1974 (click date for boxscore). Of interest, with 1 out in the bottom of the 7th, there was a 79 minute Rain delay...Boot' s Manager Callan sent his starter back out, after consulting with Team physician, Dr. Otto Injureesoff.  Wellington then reeled off 4 more straight Wins against the suddenly mortal Chili's; at month's end, the surging Boots sit just 2 games back of Cincinnati...should be a fun finish in the BRL.
        • Dallas’ Roger Moret becomes the 7th to throw a No Hitter in BDWL History on 07/21/1974 (click date for boxscore) and 2nd in Dallas franchise history as Wilbur Wood tossed one in June 1973.
        • Sleepytown’s Vida Blue gets the 8th No Hitter in BDWL History on 07/31/1974 (click date for boxscore). Expected to be the ace of a young Sleepytown staff going into the 1974 season, through late June Vida Blue found himself on the opposite end of the spectrum. In 19 starts as of June 19th, Blue was just 5-8 with a disappointing 4.71 era. Vida then reeled off 5 straight wins (36 inn, 23 H, 8 BB, 1.50 era), improving his record to 10-8 with a 3.98 era. But then it was deja vu all over again...three consecutive losses (4.26 era) going into the Dukes final July series, a 3 game match against Oregon at County Stadium. Last night rookie southpaw sensation Frank Tanana had taken a one hitter into the 8th though trailed 3-0 at the time, thanks to a well timed 2 run johnny by George Foster. Home runs by Ken Holtzman and Jim Fregosi would eventually send Frank to the showers as Oregon prevailed 6-3. Tonight a lead off double by Ted Simmons and an rbi triple by Ken Henderson keyed a 2 run Duke 1st against veteran Jerry Koosman. The home club added another pair in the 2nd on another double by Simmons, then it was all Blue. Pioneer catcher Charlie Moore led off the 3rd with a line shot to right but it was atom ball for Vida and right fielder Ken Berry. That would be the closest Oregon would come to a base hit. Blue was perfect through 7, but after a first pitch called strike to lead off hitter Bob Watson in the 8th he threw 4 straight balls in allowing the only baserunner of the night for the Pioneers. Only 6 of the 27 outs left the infield as Blue struck out 9. The lefty, now even again at 11-11, 3.82 era, needed 108 pitches to complete his masterpiece. Sleepytown wins 4-0, taking 2 of 3 in the series to finish 17-12 for July.

 

 

June 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

·        TOLUCA LAKE – Some items of note for June:

·        This actually happened in May, but somehow we missed it. Sleepytown’s Ken Henderson tied a record with 6 hits a game. Henderson is the 6th player to accomplish this feat and the last time it happened was way back in June 1971 when San Diego’s Glenn Beckert did it in a 27 inning game. The last time it was done in a 9 inning game (like Henderson) was August 1970 by Al Oliver. Interestingly, 6 hits in a game occurred 4 times in 1970, but only twice since.

·        The St. Louis Shrikes set a new record with 9 stolen bases in a game.

·        The St. Louis Shrikes tied a record by not allowing a homerun in 11 consecutive games.

·        The Florida Elks broke their own record by committing an error in 17 straight games.

·        TOLUCA LAKE – several major milestones have been achieved this season:

·        Tony Perez of Sleepytown became the 2nd batter to reach 500 RBI as he did it with a 3 RBI game on 6/22 (exactly one month after Stargell) against CNC.

 

May 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

  • BURBANK – Sam McDowell after being rescued from the free agent junk pile by Burbank finally got his shot at extending his 16 game win streak in a game against Texas. After missing spring training and not pitching in April, no one knew what to expect from McDowell, but everyone found out very quickly that he was wildly effective. Through 8 innings, McDowell had walked 9 Fire Ants but hadn’t allowed a hit as he clung to a 1-0 lead going into the 9th. The locals were on their feet to start the 9th to acknowledge the gutty performance of McDowell and root him on to what they hoped would be a historic event. True to form, McDowell walked the 1st batter, Stargell, on 4 pitches but then k’d Brown on 3 pitches. With his pitch count up to 138 pitches, Sudden Sam, was working on fumes when Hendricks came up to bat but with Hendricks barely above the Mendoza line McDowell must have still felt confident. Unfortunately, maybe over confident as Hendricks line a single to right to end the no-hitter. That was it for McDowell as he gave way to Lyle under a thunderous applause from the fans! The best we can say about Lyle is that he only allowed a game tying run and not the winning run so McDowell’s streak has not ended. His performance certainly earned him another start and possibly a permanent roster spot. Oh … the game? Sizemore’s RBI single in the 12th was the difference as Texas won the game 2-1. Overshadowed by McDowell, was a dominating performance by Jenkins who went 11 innings with 15 k’s to get the win.
  • BURBANK – after 35 games … BA .387, OPS 1.101, RBI 37, HR 7 – going into this season, the Barnstormers would have expected that stat line to be owned by their young third-basemen, Mike Schmidt. But so far, Schmidt has been hitting a pedestrian .273 with only 5 Hrs and 24 RBI. Fortunately for Burbank, Grich has finally started to achieve his promise and has put up those un-second-basemen like stats. Grich was the 3rd pick overall in 1972 by San Diego and then was traded for a huge price tag to Burbank but in his 1st two seasons has hit only around .260.
  • WISCONSIN – from the not sure what this really means department, we stumbled upon this interesting stat. The Snow Goblins who might actually be one of the best teams we ever had ranked at #20 in PI has assembled a playoff worthy pitching staff with a 2.98 ERA (3rd in the BDWL) after 28 games, but the worst offense in the BDWL as they are hitting only .219 and scoring only 2.9 runs per game. Now that is not what’s interesting … this is … the Snow Goblins are 8-8 when scoring over 2 runs per game, very respectable right? Well, they actually are better when they score less runs as they are 4-3 when scoring less than 2 runs. Where do things go wrong? When they score exactly 2 runs per game they are 0-5.  So my recommendation to the Snow Goblins is do not score only 2 runs!
  • TOLUCA LAKE – Motivated by what we found with Wisconsin, we decided to take a look league wide. The league winning % when scoring exactly 2 runs is .284%. When scoring less than 2 runs the league winning % is only .085%. The league is 10-107 with the Snow Goblins getting 4 of those wins. The Snow Goblins are winning games when scoring less than 2 wins at a .571% pace while the rest of the league is at a .055%.
  • TOLUCA LAKE – Sorry we can’t seem to get enough of this … here is the league winning %’s when scoring: 1 run (.147%), 2 runs (.284%) and 3 runs (.339%). The magic number for success appears to be 4 runs as the winning % jumps to .623%. As a matter of fact the league winning % when scoring over 3 runs is .726%. Every team in the league has a .500 or better winning % when scoring greater than 3 runs. Now if you scored more than 10 runs every game you would never lose as the league record is 25-0!
  • ASBURY PARK (Robert W.) - With the Rockers improving a bit in May by playing close to .500 ball, they do continue an amazing SB futility rate. For the year so far they have barely stolen about 50% at 31sbs and 30cs. Leading the way is base stealer extrordinaire, Billy North who has yet to top 50% (13sbs/16cs), but that doesnt keep him from trying. While looking into this some more, we saw that while the Rockers took the SB futility to a new level, they are not alone in getting caught.  WIsconsin and Cooperstown are slightly above 50% (56%) also. The Shoeless Joes are at the bottom with 43%, but not much of a sample as of yet. 

 

 

 

 

DMB

 

 

 

 

Real Life

 

 

 

 

Team

 

 

SB

CS

 

%

 

SB

CS

RL %

 

difference

Asbury Park Rockers

31

30

 

50.8%

 

159

89

64.1%

 

-13.3%

Atlanta Crackers

 

33

12

 

73.3%

 

149

74

66.8%

 

6.5%

Burbank Barnstormers

34

9

 

79.1%

 

138

90

60.5%

 

18.5%

Chicago White Stockings

4

1

 

80.0%

 

44

35

55.7%

 

24.3%

Cincinnati Chilis

 

10

6

 

62.5%

 

68

56

54.8%

 

7.7%

Cooperstown Double Days

14

11

 

56.0%

 

215

87

71.2%

 

-15.2%

Dallas Hilltoppers

 

33

11

 

75.0%

 

158

53

74.9%

 

0.1%

Florida Elks

 

34

20

 

63.0%

 

163

80

67.1%

 

-4.1%

Fremont Indians

 

22

9

 

71.0%

 

151

77

66.2%

 

4.7%

Northern Great Whites

10

3

 

76.9%

 

86

61

58.5%

 

18.4%

Oregon Pioneers

 

11

3

 

78.6%

 

76

55

58.0%

 

20.6%

Pittsburgh Crawfords

 

4

2

 

66.7%

 

66

38

63.5%

 

3.2%

San Diego Conquistadors

12

5

 

70.6%

 

69

51

57.5%

 

13.1%

Savannah Shoeless Joes

3

4

 

42.9%

 

56

57

49.6%

 

-6.7%

Sleepytown Dukes

 

6

2

 

75.0%

 

67

45

59.8%

 

15.2%

St. Louis Shrikes

 

30

17

 

63.8%

 

268

106

71.7%

 

-7.8%

Texas Fire Ants

 

27

8

 

77.1%

 

88

49

64.2%

 

12.9%

Toronto Crown Royals

15

2

 

88.2%

 

80

68

54.1%

 

34.2%

Wellington Boots

 

20

11

 

64.5%

 

128

56

69.6%

 

-5.0%

Wisconsin Snow Goblins

18

14

 

56.3%

 

127

56

69.4%

 

-13.1%

Totals

 

 

371

180

 

67.3%

 

2356

1283

64.7%

 

2.6%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·        TOLUCA LAKE – Some items of note for May:

·        Texas’s Fergie Jenkins tied a record when he went 11 innings in a game against Burbank.

·        Burbank broke a record twice in the same month and unfortunately it was for the most batters striking out in a game. The old record was 16 held by several teams, but the Barnstormers went down swinging 17 times on May 1st vs. Texas and again on May 17th verse Wellington.

·        Dallas set a new record when they had an incredible 10 straight hits against Pittsburgh.

 

  • WISCONSIN (Dave H.) - There isn't much to rally around in Wisconsin this season, especially at the plate. Only one Snow Goblins player appears on the hitting leader boards after two months: Rookie Mike Hargrove, who leads the league in intentional walks. Maybe the Snow Goblins should consider making hurler J.R. Richard into a position player. The pitcher is tied for second on the club in home runs, with three (one behind leader Barry Foote, but Richard has a better batting average and is slugging a Ruthian .750). Richard accounts for nearly 1/10th of Wisconsin's homers, the team having hit a whopping 31 in 51 games. On the flip side, the Snow Goblins have allowed only 32 HRs and turned a league-high 57 double plays. Relievers Steve Mingori, Ed Sprague and Ken Forsch have been spectacular, with Mingori allowing just 2.9 hits per 9 innings. In Wisconsin this season, that's something worth hanging your hat on.
  • BURBANK – Sam McDowell got another opportunity to tie the consecutive winning decision streak of 17 held by Burbank’s Steve Carlton and Gaylord Perry as he got his 2nd start of the season this time against his old team Sleepytown. McDowell pitched another beauty as he went 6 2/3 innings allowing only 3 hits but 5 walks that raised his pitch count which contributed to him giving way to the bullpen in the 7th inning with a 4-0 lead. Unfortunately, like in his previous start the Burbank bully did what they do best. That is to blow games as they allowed 6 runs over the final 2 innings thanks to 3 RBI each by Simmons and Robertson. The only good news is that McDowell took a no decision so he still has a shot to tie the record. Stay tuned …
  • TOLUCA LAKE – several major milestones have been achieved this season:

·        Joe Morgan of Dallas became the 2nd player to reach 500 Runs as he reached the milestone on 4/21 against SSJ.

·        Tom Seaver of Florida became the 1st pitcher to reach 1,000 K’s when he reached the mark on 4/24 against SLS.

·        Nolan Ryan of Wellington became the 2nd pitcher to reach 1,000 K’s as the got there on 5/16 against BKB.

·        Willie Stargell of Texas became the 1st batter to reach 500 RBI as he did it with a 5 RBI game on 5/22 against DLH.

 

April 1974

 

Click here for all the BDWL Records & Streaks!

 

The Blog (highlighted are new since last posting)

  • SAVANNAH – The Shoeless Joes start hot … winning 8 of 11 (6-3 at home & 2-0 on the road) which would be great for anytime, but more special since they were one of the 1972 Expansion teams. We expected improvement from the Joes this year as indicated by a #15 Preseason ranking, but they are exceeding expectations early. How are they doing it? The team is hitting over .300 lead by rookie Bill Madlock who is hitting over .500. Also, Bruce Dal Canton is 2-0 with a minuscule ERA of 1.06.
  • FREMONT – How do you build a franchise that wins 2 championships in 3 years? Well, start with the double-play … and not on defense. Since the franchise was taken over by Andrew in 1971, the club has averaged 180 GBDPS over the last 3 seasons. They own the record of 218 set in 1973. After 19 games this season, they have hit into 27 GBDPS which would extrapolate out to 219 GBDPS over 154 games and set a new record. This means which should be seeing the Indians in the post season again!
  • BURBANK – we don’t track this as a record, but it would be hard to beat Thurman Munson’s night against Asbury Park and their speedster Billy North. On 4-11-1974, Munson threw out 7 base stealers including North 4 times. Roger Nelson’s SB was the only blemish to what could have been a perfect night!
  • BURBANK – Sparky Lyle might want to skip Bubank’s next road trip to Fremont. Lyle started the season red hot accumulating 9 saves but then the bottom fell out. On 4-9-1974 and 4-10-1974, Lyle allowed 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th in both games which resulted in comeback 1-run wins for the Indians. The 4-9-1974 loss was particularly painful as the Barnstormers came from 8 runs down including scoring 7 runs in the 8th to take a 2-run lead into the bottom of the 9th only to lose.
  • CINCINNATI – Our preseason PI had Cincinnati ranked #11 with a prediction of only 78 wins. This prediction got the Chilis’ owner a little spicey and resulted in his proclamation that “If the Chilis finish with less than 80 wins, I’ll watch The Crow 3 in a loop for 100 hours.” Now I am sure everyone’s immediate response to this was … who wouldn’t want to do that anyway … there is no better way to spend 100 hours! Be that as it may, the Chilis appear to be a team on a mission to prevent their owner from such an enjoyable 100 hours! The Chilis have won 13 of 19 games and currently sit atop the Weaver Division thanks to a more efficient offense than we expected. The Chilis are scoring 5.8 runs per game thanks in large part to an .899 OPS with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. Burroughs, Yaz, Geronimo, Speier and Bailey are a combined 20 for 44 with 25 RBI in such situations. If they can continue anywhere close to that pace the Chilis might reach 80 wins in August!
  • COOPERSTOWN – Could this team really be only 5-14? The Double Days offense has a very respectable .289 batting average and their 4.3 runs per game would put them close to the league average … so what’s going wrong? What jumps out at us is their bully … only 2 saves in 10 opportunities and 6 blown saves. That is a bigger factor in them being outscored in the 8th inning and beyond 21-42! Is this a problem with talent or just bad luck? We think it is mostly bad luck as the Mad Hungarian currently has only 1 save and a 5.40 ERA and we expect better from him. The good news is if you glance through their boxscores, the Double Days are playing some very entertaining games and no one is going to leave early no matter what the score is!
  • TOLUCA LAKE – This one is from our league office in beautiful Toluca Lake … through the 1973 season there have been 59,921 runs scored. At this rate, someone will score the 75,000th run sometime in 1975. Also, there have been 9.733 homeruns hit through the end of the 1973 season and another 189 homeruns so far this season. Therefore we are only 78 homeruns away from someone hitting the 10,000th homerun! This should occur during April so once the month is completed we will put the boxscores in chronological order to determine who actually hits this historical homerun!
  • WELLINGTON (Tim C) - Through the first 18 games, the Wellington Boots are 8-10 and struggling at the plate as predicted. Regulars Cardenal, Cey, McRae and Millan are all hitting under .200, but management is being patient, chanting the "small sample size" mantra...fortunately, pitching has been good, though the lack of offense is taking its toll - losing all 3 extra inning games, 2-5 record in 1 run games...pre-season trade acquisitions Monday and House have been solid contributors, and 3 starters have ERA's under 2.00; workhorse Nolan Ryan has been great in 5 starts, including a cg 1 hitter...the Boots will actively entertain offers from teams looking to deal offensive help in return for draft picks.
  • TOLUCA LAKE – Since I received several comments about our previous entry … I decided to take it a bit further … through 1973 pitchers have struck out 57,151 batters, so we will be hitting the 75,000th strikeout sometime in 1975. However, when I looked at hits I realized we missed a historic event in 1973. On September 27th in a game between arch rivals Texas and Northern … Sal Bando lined a single to center in the top of the 2nd inning which was the 100,000th hit in BDWL history!
  • WELLINGTON – Nolan Ryan tossed his 4th career 1-hitter on April 1 vs. the Cooperstown Double Days. He is now tied with Dallas’s Don Wilson for the most 1-hitters in BDWL history.
  • FREMONT – The Fremont Indians became the 10th team to go down swinging a record 16 times in a game. It was courtesy of the Asbury Park Rocker pitching staff on 4/1.
  • SLEEPYTOWN – What does 16 consecutive wins get you? Well … for Sam McDowell it got him an unemployment check in 1974. After winning 16 straight games in 1973 for the Dukes (one short of the record of 17 held by Steve Carlton and Gaylord Perry), McDowell was released by the Dukes and remained undrafted. Rumor has it that Burbank who is in need of some starts has been trying McDowell out for a possible shot with the club.
  • TOLUCA LAKE – A couple of items of interest … Brooks Robinson of Sleepytown had a 20 game hit streak in April. Richie Zisk of San Diego has a 15 game active hit streak going into May and Jorge Orta of St. Louis has a 17 game active hit streak going into May.
  • TOLUCA LAKE – Toronto’s Dave Kingman had the honor of hitting the 10,000th homerun in BDWL history. He did it on April 21st in the 9th inning against San Diego.
  • CINCINNATI – The Chilis finished off the 1973 season by going 8 games without allowing a homerun and then opened 1974 by not allowing a homerun in 3 consecutive games. They finally allowed a homerun in their 4h game but the streak of 11 straight games breaks a long standing record of 10. The record originally dated back to April 1970 and was held by the Washington Suds.
  • BURBANK – In what many may view as a publicity stunt, the Barnstormers have signed free agent Sam McDowell. McDowell has 540 career K’s but more importantly an active win streak of 16 from 1973 while pitching for Sleepytown. McDowell is tentatively scheduled to get a start verse Texas on May 2nd … stay tuned.
  • DALLAS (Charles P) -- Though manager Charles Polansky has dubbed his squad the "Hitless Wonders" for their meek offensive totals in April home games, the Hilltoppers have somehow managed to wind up fifth in the BDWL in runs scored. Dallas, however, is hitting .247 as a team, which is 15th out of 20 teams. ... Joe Morgan (6), Dick Allen (6), Reggie Jackson (5) and John Grubb (4) have combined to hit 21 of the Hilltoppers' 23 homers, which is good for fifth in the league. ... Dallas is second in stolen bases with 31, including six in as many tries in a game against Savannah. ... First-round draft pick Mickey Rivers has disappointed to this point, hitting .216 with a .515 OPS. ... Thus far, Mike Marshall, the real-life NL Cy Young winner in '74, leads the league with 11 saves in 13 appearances and has compiled a nifty 1.42 ERA. ... Wilbur Wood (4-2, 2.48) and Don Wilson (3-1, 2.31) again front the Dallas pitching rotation. ... Shockingly, lefty setup man Paul Lindblad has an ERA (3.94) less than infinity. ... Wood, who threw a no-hitter in '73, twirled a 2-hit shutout against the Wisconsin Snow Goblins on April 15th. Eight days later, he shut out the Sleepytown Dukes on three hits. ... All of the above adds up to a 2 1/2-game lead heading into the season's second month for the three-time defending division champions.