CBA High Bridge Heaters

High Bridge is off to an underwhelming start at 40-44. Management is going to hold steady as the Heaters are still in 2nd pace in a division
that has been very competitive. We are confident that our offense will
raise its batting average and on base percentage to match the numbers
our players have produced in the past. We still have a good shot at the
division title as long as the power keeps coming. When we get all of our
main rotation starters rested, we'll be ready to go on a winning streak.

We are not ready or able to acquire much more than we have so will place
our confidence in our current roster to get the job done.

Our offensive allstar is J.D. Martinez with a .340 ba and 12 homers. On
the mound, the star is Ryu with an 8-3 record and 2.52 era.

I'm a vet of Strat-O-Matic. I've been teaching social studies for 30 years.
My favorite team is the Mets. Although, I'll be switching to the Royals if my Mets don't make the playoffs this year. I figure a Royals fan can root to lose fewer than 100 games. No pressure. I live in New York. I was born in the High Bridge section of the Bronx-ergo-the name of my team. I lived in the Bronx for 30 years until I got married and moved to Westchester

John Miller paid his dues in 2008. He was brought into CBA's structure by Wolfman Shapiro. He did a commendable job in maintaining Skokie with correctly formatted on time CM's each week with clear rotations. He often sent two a week, 1 for each team. A routine first started by Skokie on a regular basis. It had made a difference with Skokie making the playoffs 3 straight years and two Staub titles. The Staub title is prestige. It was the home of the Canadian teams and rivalries and was seen as stronger in early play. That has been dispelled by Clemente.

Miller then managed against the ever tough Jack Frost, who mounted a tough challenge with his first year playoff team Joliet. Miller and the Wolf eventually won a difficult series faced with difficult connection issues. Miller will take the High Bridge team into the Carter division where he will often face his former mentor and now foe, Wolfman Shapiro.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was a time of watching Matt Harvey dominate the national league; it was a time of watching him blow out his elbow. It was a season of acquiring draft picks; it was a season of Jose Iglesias kicking ass for someone else.

My strat-o-matic career started back in 1979 when I was 14. My first strat love was hockey. I remember playing the 1982 season over and over again with the amazing Gretzky. 1982 was a great year in strat for me because I had the great Milwaukee Brewers-Molitor, Yount, Cooper, Oglivie, Thomas, Gantner, Fingers, Vukovich.Now I'm trying to get high school kids to play and keep the tradition moving. It's hard to compete with Call of Duty! I remember those cold Fridays in January waiting outside Strat on opening day. I think I made about 15 visits in a row before it was easier to get the computer version mailed to me. The line moved slowly, but as long as we had a runner to get hot chocolate down the street, we were fine. We harassed every guy who got his set before us with a barrage of questions: What is Piazza's throwing arm? Does Sheffield crush lefties? Who the hell is Bif Pocoroba? Did you get to talk to Hal?

After getting the cards, we'd hide away in a bunker at an undisclosed location to cut up the cards and prepare for our same-day draft. By 1986, we were all experts on the importance of onbase percentage-years before it became popular.

I always went home smelling like onions and peppers from my Greek Chicken salad from the corner diner next to my buddy's Astoria apartment. It became as much of a draft day tradition as waiting on line in Glen Head.

I bet a lot of you guys were out there; we just didn't know each other yet. We should make an effort to get the league to make a road trip to Glen Head one year. Maybe rent a suite and have a GM meeting for rules and hot stove talk. Maybe have an old-fashioned face-to-face tournament with the cards.

But as traditions go, it is a far, far better league I'm in than I've ever been in before. It is a far, far better draft coming up than I can hope for. "Hope spring eternal!" And may this Spring once again bring hope to all of us who play strat baseball!

The Heaters will be looking to pick a few plums from the draft tree this March. We have very little left to trade, but will always entertain offers. We made a big splash in trading the up-and-coming Starling Marte. We had strength in OF and needed SP. The ad it ion 1st round pick may land us another SP in addition to new Heater Kyle Lohse.

We like our chances to chase the division title and expect nothing short of a wild card! Studs Werth and Byrd return to provide pop and steady Seager with pick-em with the best of them. Watch out for Charlie Blackmon; he will provide some entertainment. With Matt Harvey returning to the Mets in 2015, we look forward to a Heater Dynasty starting in 2016!

Good luck all in the 2015 season.

	RECORD			RUNS			BAT AVG		HOME RUNS
Team	WON	LST	PCT	TEAM	OPP	DIFF	TEAM	OPP	TEAM	OPP
HHC 2009	54	108	.333	695	931	-236	.249	.298	124	184
HHC 2010	70	92	.432	689	801	-112	.251	.273	116	169
HHC 2011	92	70	.568	699	591	108	.243	.236	125	131
HHM 2012	45	117	.278	461	793	-332	.219	.274	102	192
HHM 2013	64	98	.395	518	762	-244	.219	.259	155	217
HHM 2014	97	65	.599	780	607	173	.260	.246	208	117
Totals	422	550	.434	3842	4485	-643	.240	.265	830	1010