The 2004 Benchwarmer Bash

Now that the game has grown beyond a single league, Benchwarmer Baseball will hold a final playoff tournament each fall, taking all the league champions (and perhaps some wildcard teams) and crowning a single champ for all of Benchwarmer Baseball.

In 2004, with only 2 leagues, we match the winner of the Hall of Fame League: the D-Town Demolishers against the Beatleball champs: the Gorilla Biscuits.

Game results will be revealed each day beginning Saturday, March 26.

BENCHWARMER BASH CHAMPIONSHIP : Gorilla vs. D-Town

Gorilla won the inaugural championship in Beatleball by winning a 7-game series against Carlisle.  The Biscuits, managed jointly by David Regan and Dana Moreau, led wire-to-wire in the Lennon Division.  The division was kind of weak, so despite a low-ranked pitching staff, the Biscuits came out on top.  Their Power Index rating was 6th in Beatleball, so it could be called a mild upset that they knocked off London in the Conference Championships (ranked #2) and then Carlisle (ranked #1).   Hitting stars for the Biscuits included Gary Sheffield, Lance Berkman, Mark Loretta, and Mark Teixeira.  Brad Penny posted their only sub 4.00 ERA on the pitching staff, but they picked up Roger Clemens late in the season.  Danys Baez was the top reliever.  Note: Regan and Moreau have already left this team, which for 2005 has been renamed the Monrovia Knights.

D-Town capped off a remarkable worst-to-first season by knocking out Boar's Nest 4-1 in the Conference Championships (managed by Regan), and then San Francisco 4 games to 2 in the League Finals.  Owner Geoff Schoenfeld was an expansion owner (in 2001) and the team consistently finished last until 2004, when they streaked out to win 94 games and take the Cobb Division by 21 games.  The Demolishers had a middle-of-the-pack offense, but a great starting staff and the best bullpen in the league, led by Armando Benitez, Jose Mesa, and Ray King.  Randy Johnson was the dominant starter, but Rodrigo Lopez and a breakout season from Oliver Perez helped.  Albert Pujols was easily the top player on offense and was backed by Mike Lowell, Jeromy Burnitz, and Steve Finley

Overall, D-Town had the #1 BWB Power Index Rank in the entire Benchwarmer Baseball system.  Gorilla was at #11, so D-Town enters the series considered the favorite and gets home field advantage.