The Commissioner sat at his desk, head down and in his hands as he looked at the daily game reports his secretary had just delivered.

She stood in front of the desk, seeming to tower over her boss as she gently scolded him: "You knew this could happen.  You knew yourself, and others warned you as well."

"Joanie, I just don't need that right now."

"Yes, you do need to hear it.  It's not tough to figure out that this could happen with such small divisions."

"I know, I know.  I knew a team could drop to .500 and still lead their division.  But how in HELL do they lose 15 out of 16, and not ONE team in their division can catch up?  NOT ONE!"

"You're the one who said that this kind of thing would even out, that it would fix itself by the end of the season. It's just July. There's time."

"I don't know. Maybe it was ALL a mistake."

"Now, just stop that. Will you feel better if I call you Damon?"

"Not now, Joanie. Not ... um, yeah, that would help."

                        Current League Standings -- National Baseball League                       
                                           Regular season                                          

Team                            W    L   Pct      GB    L10  Strk Recent         RF   RA  Mgn  Mgc
                                                                                                  
Plains
Colorado Rockies               43   43  .500       -    1-9   L8  llllllllwl    370  397  -27   75
Texas Rangers                  41   45  .477       2    3-7   L1  lwlllwlllw    333  342   -9   79
Houston Buffaloes              37   48  .435   5 1/2    6-4   W4  wwwwlwllwl    348  405  -57   83
St. Louis Cardinals            36   49  .424   6 1/2    2-8   L2  llwllwllll    369  392  -23   84


7/8/1927, Col27-SD27, Padres Park
 
                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP
1927 Rockies           0  0  0  3  0  0  0  0  1     4  9  1     9  2
1927 Padres            0  0  0  2  1  0  1  0  1     5 13  1    10  1
 
Rockies              AB  R  H BI   AVG    Padres               AB  R  H BI   AVG
Hendrick          lf  4  0  1  0  .292    Falk              lf  5  1  2  0  .322
Woodall           c   5  0  0  0  .240    Terry             1b  5  0  3  0  .329
 O'Neil           c   0  0  0  0  .040    Simmons           cf  4  2  1  1  .327
Judge             1b  5  2  2  1  .305    Metzler           rf  4  1  1  1  .292
Barrett           rf  4  0  0  0  .293    Gillis            ss  3  0  1  0  .342
Butler            3b  3  1  1  0  .262    Gooch             c   4  0  1  0  .293
 Bush             p   0  0  0  0  .000     Henline          c   0  0  0  0  .269
Roush             cf  3  1  1  0  .301    Zitzmann          3b  4  0  1  2  .263
 Cullop           cf  0  0  0  0  .167    Beck              2b  3  0  0  0  .207
Friberg           2b  3  0  1  2  .194    Smith,R           p   1  0  0  0  .111
Flaskamper        ss  4  0  1  0  .253     Smith,G          p   1  1  1  1  .200
Benton            p   3  0  2  1  .257     Langford         ph  1  0  1  0  .407
 Wera             3b  1  0  0  0  .176     Appleton         p   0  0  0  0  .429
                     35  4  9  4           Carroll          p   0  0  0  0  .333
                                           Mueller          ph  1  0  1  0  .295
                                                               36  5 13  5
 
Rockies                          INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Benton                           6.0  8  3  2  3  2 109  66  3.19
Bush             L 5-3           2.1  5  2  2  1  0  34  20  3.93
                                 8.1 13  5  4  4  2 143  86
 
Padres                           INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Smith,R                          3.2  5  3  3  3  1  69  37  4.63
Smith,G                          2.1  2  0  0  1  1  40  21  2.82
Appleton                         1.0  0  0  0  1  0  17   9  4.15
Carroll          BS 4, W 9-5     2.0  2  1  1  0  0  25  17  2.52
                                 9.0  9  4  4  5  2 151  84
 
Col: Wera inserted at 3b in the 7th
     Cullop inserted at cf in the 8th
     O'Neil inserted at c in the 9th
SD : Langford batted for Smith,G in the 6th
     Henline inserted at c in the 9th
     Mueller batted for Carroll in the 9th
 
E-Butler, Smith,G. 2B-Terry(21). HR-Judge(4), Simmons(4), Smith,G(1).
RBI-Judge(47), Friberg 2(24), Benton(3), Simmons(38), Metzler(33),
Zitzmann 2(30), Smith,G(1). CS-Falk. K-Friberg, Benton, Zitzmann, Beck.
BB-Hendrick, Barrett, Butler, Roush, Friberg, Simmons, Metzler, Gillis, Beck.
GWRBI: Metzler
Edd Roush was injured for this game only
Larry Woodall was injured for this game only
Temperature: 76, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 7 MPH.