State of the Union

Unfortunately during this SotU, I will not be announcing a Stimulus Act where you'll all get money back. Now that I've announced that, if you're still interested, read on...

Season 6 already. Can't believe how fast these things move. Kansas City is once again the defending World Champions after a masterful comeback against rival Pawtucket, in what can surely be called the best series in SW history. For all KC has done, they've yet to win back to back Championships, and in this their third attempt to do so, they'll have more pressure than ever in the ever progressing American League.

For a long time the AL has been considered a far lesser league than the NL. Still, the NL has the edge, having won interleague 5 years in a row, but the gap is closing. Teams like Charleston & Fargo, who have long been good, are now approaching greatness. Cheyenne & San Antonio, who have long been "teams to watch" are now becoming "teams to avoid," as both look to take that next step this season. New blood like jlinch & nnurmo have taken once beaten franchises and steered them (finally) in the right direction. And old standards like Atlanta have waited out the bad years, and are back to being powers. And then of course there's the Iowa City's, New York's, Charlotte's & Little Rock's of the world. Just quietly doing their own thing, ready to take over at any moment.

Jackson & newcomer KJMulli and Hartford & newcomer frog06 have their work cut out for them in a busy American League, but should make for great and hopefully longterm additions to this stellar world.

Of course, no matter how much talk there is about all these teams, someone still has to beat Kansas City to be considered anything more than nothing.

Over in the National League, the superpowers that be are starting to seperate themselves from the pack. Middle of the road teams like Chicago, Scranton, Norfolk, San Francisco & Colorado Springs are all good teams, and all enter the season with legitimate playoff aspirations, but at this point in time no one is picking anyone other than Rochester, Pawtucket or Texas to win the NL Pennant. And why should anyone? All three teams won their divisions by at least 23 games last year, Texas has won back to back division titles, Rochester has won three straight division titles, and Pawtucket has won four straight division titles. Smart money says two of these three teams will have byes, two of these three teams will play in the 2 vs 3 NLDS, and two of these three teams will play in the NLCS.

On the other end of the NL, Huntington & Tuscon have been up & comers for a few seasons now, but have been unable to take that next step. Once again, I will not be surprised if these franchises win 90 games this year, but once again, I won't be surprised if they lose 90, also. Tampa Bay went into serious rebuilding mode last year, and it caused panic by their ownership team. So an old ringer, ripnsnort, was brought in to sort out the mess that was left. Immediate results are expected, and given rip's track record, immediate results will be noticable. Salem, New Orleans & Memphis are the dark horses of the league, as they don't get any noticable attention from anyone but their owners, yet they keep making great small moves that help them improve year after year. Once again, improvement is expected. And after much speculation that he wouldn't return, and then that he would return but to run the Smooth Horses franchise, telecasting is back in Cleveland. His young powerful offense continues to explode on NL pitching, but in a tough division and without a true staff ace, there is will much work to be done.

In the awards news, Dennys Shin won his second straight Cy Young. His counterpart in last years world series game 7, Chrstopher Ramirez, won his 3rd Cy Young in 4 years of ML service. Roger Mottola won his first AL MVP award, and is the 4th straight Shuffle to win the award, following Nicholas Bryant's 3 straight awards. In the NL, J.R. Lankford joins teammate Billy Hernandez as NL MVP winners on Texas's potent lineup.

In manager news, we only had one newcomer last year, jlinchec. He took over the former Oakland Aces franchise, and while his team lost 3 more games than the year before, he was widely considered a great addition to the league, and we're all glad he's coming back for another go around.

In a bit of bad news, landmanatee, who has run the Louisville franchise since day 1, left without saying a word to anyone. We wish him the best of luck in whatever he does, but are surely going to miss him. His departure now means 18 of the 32 owners in this league have been around since day 1. A 19th, ripnsnort, was around for 3 seasons and now returns. 4 more joined in season 2 and have yet to leave, and 3 more joined in both seasons 3 & 4 and have yet to leave. Overall our foundation continues to get more & more solid, and hopefully this will be the year that we lose zero owners.

In another bit of news, a Sharkey's World Hall of Fame is being formed. I have been receiving suggestions from many people, and am putting together the best ideas. Once I got a better idea for how everyone feels, I'll post 3 HOF packages, and the league can vote on the one we want to use.

As far as the blog is concerned, the power rankings of last year were a big hit. Unfortunately I moved in the middle of the season, and never got them back going. They will be back. I'm looking for permanent voters for the blog. The more the merrier, but I'd love to have the same x people each week, for continuity purposes. I'm also looking for regular contributors to the blog. I'm starting another weekly column, not yet titled, that will basically be "get to know your fellow GM." If anyone wants to start doing weekly columns, whether they be random game recaps, record trackers, award trackers, prospect watches, or something completely unthought of or unrelated to anything, please contact me to be added to the blog, or if you're already on the blog, just start posting. I would love to eventually have an article posted per day, this way everyone has something different (and familiar) to look forward to each day of the week. To everyone who has been helping periodically, the league thanks you!

And in the last news of the rollover, there has been rumblings of starting a second Sharkey's World (but with a much better name). I would only do this if we could get 20-25+ owners interested in doing it. It would basically be the exact same thing, except it would start halfway through this world, so that there would always be a SW regular season taking place, to help relieve the boredom of being eliminated and the slow rollover. If people are interested in this, please let us know. If it's not something people are interested in, or if people think its a bad idea because it could take away from this world, then we'll drop it and it shall never be spoken of again.

Good luck to everybody this season! Let the games begin...

--Kevin Sharkey, Pawtucket