Falcons Forum

The year began with what turned out to be a very successful draft night for Falcons GM Shohei. Handsome Jer and the Taxman made meaningful contributions to a Falcons squad that improved over their 2023 performance in many ways.

Finishing 23-13-2 was a one win improvement over last year, but an added tie rather than a loss moved our 2024 winning percentage over .600 which is more than I can say for Poutine's batting average. The retirement press conference backdrop awaits Poutine's pondering.

The high points: TWICE this season, the Falcons put together 6-game winning streaks, awarding them a free trip to the cooler after the sixth consecutive win. After an opening day loss to Broadway, a thorn in the Falcons' side all season, they put up seven straight wins to briefly be in first place in the President's Division. An 8-2-1 start to the season looked promising. To cap off the season, we bested the opening winning streak by ripping off eight in a row, winning every game we played in August. We finished off the season going 9-2-1.

The lows: There aren't as many low points as in some recent seasons. We only had 6+ signouts for 8 games this season, down from 19 last year. There was a 3-game losing streak in the middle, and three times we lost two consecutive games. Two of our players got ejected on separate occasions, and both times for spitting straight facts: the ump is always right, and the ball landed RIGHT THERE. Also: Ash's leg. OMG.

We set some team records this season, and not all of them were bad! A 39-run outburst in August versus the Expos set a team record for runs in a game, which again, wouldn't have been possible without the gracious Expos allowing the last inning to count despite running into the time limit. Cowboy beat his old Falcons record, hitting 17 triples (up from 15 last year), and widening the gap between him as the all-time Falcons leader, and second place. Shohei, living up to his nickname, likely pitched a majority of the innings this year (?), and on the offensive side set a team record with 77 singles, overtaking Junior Tennant's 2012 output. In a sentence you never thought you'd read, Beatty hit as many triples as Handsome Jer. The Falcons also, as a team, put up 689 runs, our best output since we won the President's Division in 2014 scoring a then-league-record 727. (Remembering some teams from that season: Xtreme Contracting, Direct Elevator, St. Louis Devils, Bradley Motors Shifters, Mayhem, Rebels... what even is this league anymore?)

All of this ends with the Falcons finishing in fifth place in the President's Division, and fifth overall in the league. No teams will move up or down in divisions for 2025, so we'll be back at this again next year.

The fifth place finish means playing on Friday of the playoff tournament this weekend, and frankly a 7:30 Friday game followed by noon Saturday beats "earning" a bye Friday night and having to play at 9am Saturday morning.

AWARDS SECTION

Here are your Falcons Regular Season statistical leaders:

ATTENDANCE AWARD: For the second year in a row, Cowboy was the main-stayest of mainstays on the squad, playing in all 37 games we played this year. He's now attended 60 straight regular season games, plus four playoff games last year. That's 64 straight, only 126 behind Iron Billy. I guess we know who will be taking over the cooler duties when Bill decides it's time.

On a side note here, guess who attended the LEAST amount of games this year? Before you say Miner Leaguer, understandable since he works literally 3 time zones away, take a boo at the stat sheet: Grahambo, who SAYS he likes us, was here less than half the time.

RUNS SCORED: Cowboy improved over last year slightly, scoring 83 runs from the leadoff position.

1B: As previously noted, Shohei made sweet love to first base this season, stopping off for a quickie 77 times, a team record.

2B: In a very close race, Barry Guerrero Jr topped the list of two-baggers at 24, edging out Cowboy.

3B: Cowboy, again. He hit more than twice as many triples as the next highest, putting up 17 to put his career total at 65.

HR: Beatty led the team in dingers, but only hit 13. I think it says a lot about the team that we put up so many runs but didn't have to rely on the long ball.

BB: No surprise here, but Barry Guerrero Jr took the most walks, as he tends to do in every season. Fourteen times his patience paid off. One time it didn't, and pointing didn't help.

TOTAL BASES: Cowboy in a runaway here. His 160 total bases were 25% more than second place.

BATTING AVERAGE: For the first time in a while, nearly everyone achieved the 77 PA needed to qualify for the rate stats. Unfortunately for Grahambo, he's the only one who didn't, so his .765 BA doesn't count to lead the team. Barry Guerrero Jr's .758 (at 60 years old!) wins.

ON BASE PERCENTAGE: Barry didn't need Graham's absenteeism to win here. He was on 77.4% of the time.

SLUGGING PERCENTAGE: Barry again! He led the way with 1.232

ON BASE + SLUGGING (OPS): If you've been paying attention, Barry won't surprise you here. But being the only Falcon with an OPS over 2.000 (2.006) at 60 years old might surprise you... if you don't know Barry.

RUNS BATTED IN: Batting cleanup has it's privileges. Beatty cashed a very nice 69 ducks this year.

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE PLAYOFFS

If you were to go by the standings only, every year Storm would walk through the playoffs. That clearly doesn't happen. Last year the fourth-place Crew walked away with the hardware. In fact, throwing out the COVID-shortened 2021 season, the last time the team that finished first in the President's Division won the playoff tournament was 2017. One of the best things about a tournament to determine the champion, rather than a series of series, is that anything can happen to derail a team's season so quickly, or rescue victory from the jaws of defeat. It's anyone's weekend. Can the Falcons overcome a winless season vs Broadway? Will they even have to? Does Storm walk right through? Can Duran keep the ball in the park from the leadoff spot? Will Todd wear a shirt for more than a couple hours each day? (no)

Come out and watch. And if you're eliminated, stay and watch. It's all really good ball. A fun party in the park all weekend, and the weather is supposed to be great.

See you all on the other side.

FALCONS' MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

In the tightest vote in recent memory, Cowboy came out on top as the Falcons' 2024 Most Valuable Player, and it's not hard to see why.

FALCONS' MOST SPORTSMANLIKE PLAYER

Being the beer guy has it's perks, and Bill deserves all of them. Keeping this team refreshed is a hard and sometimes thankless job. Also, Bill didn't get ejected from any games this season.

Congratulations to both our award winners, and good luck at the banquet!