Detroit Narrows Brooklyn's Lead
ERA Leader Jay Leads Sharp Pitching Staff
DETROIT (June 16) --  The Detroit Griffins rode a 14-2 surge to close the gap with East-leading Brooklyn to four games.  Joey Jay continued his red-hot pitching, winning his last three starts with a 0.74 ERA and 25 strikeouts.  Closer Tex Clevenger saved five games, with a 1.08 ERA in 8 appearances, and the offense was led by Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner, who homered six times and drove in 20 runs in 14 games.  Wags had a pair of two-homer games, on June 7 and June 12, and Jim King hit a pair of pokes in 9-0 blowout of Cleveland on the 14th.  Bob Gibson is 3-0 in his last five starts, after starting the season 2-7, and is coming off his finest start of the year, a 5-hit shutout, the first of his young career.
   Detroit ranked 3rd in runs scored and 2nd in runs against, and the league leaderboard is peppered with Griffins.  Wagner and King are both in the top five in HR and RBI, and Joe Cunningham (.338-6-39) ranks 4th in batting average.  Jay (10-3, 1.70) paces the circuit in ERA, Pedro Ramos (11-4, 2.36) is tied for the lead in wins, and Clevenger (15 saves, 2.12 ERA) is 2nd in saves.
   Detroit finished second last year (76-78), but despite their steady improvement, the club has still only had one winning season since 1952.  After a promising beginning (a second place finish just three games off the pace in 1951, and a third place finish in 1952), the then Detroit Sound floundered, hitting rock bottom with 99-loss campaign in 1955, the year current GM Sean Holloway took the reigns and began to rebuild the club from the bottom up.  The club saw steady improvement from 1956-59, finishing second with a 80-74 mark in 1959, before plummeting back to 99 losses in 1960.  The club sat in the cellar through most of last season, before a 19-7 finish landed them in second place, three games ahead of New York and Cleveland.

You Can Build It, But the Commish Won't Come
Holloway Announced Griffins Stadium Deal
by Sean Holloway
DETROIT (June 16) -- What’s a team to do when nobody wants to play for it?  Year after year, GM Sean Holloway attempted to inject new life into the Griffins through a variety of Bill Veeck-type activities.  Name changes, bat, cap, and ball giveaways, having Hooters girls work the concession stands – nothing seemed to get people out to the ballpark.  Even Commissioner Smith, upon hearing rumors that the Griffins' new ballpark would be built in a "premium location," quipped “is the team still playing in Detroit?” 
   Holloway obviously has ignored the naysayers and doomsday commentators who believe that nothing will get the masses energized about baseball in Detroit.  In a gutsy move, the Griffins held a press conference on June 2, 1962, (in the hopes – this reporter thinks – of taking some of the shine off the Commish’s inaugural Founder’s Cup) to announce their plans for a new park.
   Not much is known about the details of the stadium deal, but these are thought to be made publicly shortly.  And since the Griffins possess what financial experts in their technical MBA-speak call “a buttload of money”, it is likely the team will be able to reap the benefits of a new stadium without feeling the pinch of loan paybacks.
   The question, then, is just what kind of stadium Detroit will build.  Will it be a joy for the fans, lacking obstructed view seats and actually possessing enough bathrooms like the current one?  Will it be a park built for power hitters or for Detroit’s pitching staff?  Will it be built in the suburbs or downtown?  Will it be built for a team with speed – no, I think we can say for sure it won’t be built for a team with speed since a turtle on meth is faster than 90% of the Griffins’ roster.
   Whatever Holloway has in the works, it will be interesting to see how his gamble pays off.  Will he get a jump on the rest of the League as baseball grows in popularity in the US, or will the sounds of suckiness whoosh through the Detroit Metro area?

A Tree Grows Near Brooklyn
by Sean Holloway
MANHATTAN (June 16) -- Jeff “The Terp” Gurganus is known by his unyielding approach to life and desire to win.  Most would have been happy to just manage a professional baseball team, but not Gurganus.  Many UL teams wanted the former MicroLeague’s most successful manager, but not one would accede to his demand that he be manager, GM, and owner.  How did he convince investors to sell him the team dirt cheap and give him full control?  Well, if you have to ask, then you don’t know Gurganus.
   Known for his photographic memory and for having 22 Excel spreadsheets for every player in the League, Gurganus brings a winning tradition to the UL, and he appears to be picking up right where he left off in MicroLeague.  In a year that saw expansion, most ill-informed sports watchers picked the two expansion clubs to wallow at the bottom of the standings.  The Gray Sox, well-suited to playing “Jeffie Ball” in the Polo Grounds, are proving these moronic “experts” wrong in the UL’s toughest division.
   Merely a week-and-a-half ago, the Grays appeared to be mired in mediocrity.  Not one to stand for underachievers, Gurganus ripped the team publicly and threatened to “knock some heads off” with his lacrosse stick and then use them instead of lacrosse balls, along with a choice few other threats that are too ribald for this family publication.  Immediately the Grays responded with a 10-4 run to anchor themselves solidly in third place in the East.
   Starter and ace Johnny Podres has been a huge part of the mini-resurgence and seemingly is becoming the pitcher all believed he could be, with three straight wins, including two complete games versus Los Angeles and Dallas.  Said Gurganus “Can you believe Holloway left this guy unprotected?  What are the chances that anyone with half a brain would do that?  It’s almost as small as the chance that Fred McGriff would drop an infield pop-up that lets your team win a playoff game on an error en route to winning the World Series…….uh, bad analogy.”
   Despite not having a true power hitter, the Grays are not to be taken lightly, with 3B Don Hoak, CF Tom Umphlett, and RF Gus Bell giving the Sox punch at the plate.  Combine them with Tony Kubek at SS and Bobby Richardson at 2B, and it’s also hard to not run into a Gold Glover at the stadium.  And if you get into the late innings and are behind, watch out.  MAN’s bullpen is stingy from top to bottom, with super closer Ted Abernathy posting a 1.75 ERA with 17 saves.
   Will the Grays continue winning?  Hard to tell in this year of the injury and inconsistent player, but the stock of pitchers and raw talent in the minors bodes well for the team.  Will the proximity to Glennie’s mighty Superbas result in the same unbeatable team in MAN?  Highly improbable, but the battle between Gurganus and Reed in “My spreadsheet is bigger than yours” will be quite entertaining.  Will Gurganus once again step on Holloway and crush all his hopes and dreams on the way to another Pennant?  Most likely.  And this reporter will be there to rub it in to Holloway and the Griffin fans in Detroit. 

Colts Pulling Ahead
Nine-Game Lead Over Slumping Texans, Maroons
Chicago was 10-4 in early June, while is nearest rivals, Dallas and St. Louis, both stumbled to 6-8 records.