WEEK 25 (thru Monday)

With the first round winding down, Jonathan Quick caught Badger Bob square on the chin with a 23 save, 4.6 point shutout, the judges scoring the opening round 8.4 to 2.0 in favor of the Central Red Army, GM Buker's team leading the battle for the H2H crown by 6.4 points with six rounds still to be contested in the marquee bout of the season.

Championship Match
The winner receives $100.00; the runner-up is awarded $70.00.

Badger Bob: 2.0
Central Red Army: 8.4­
Not only a meeting of two expansion teams but also a meeting of the two hottest teams in the league, the Central Red Army commandeering the early lead in what should be a point-heavy affair.

Consolation Match
The winner receives $30.00; the runner-up receives a pat on the back.

Wild Ducks: 2.0
Bluliners: 2.0­
Not only a meeting of two Original Six franchises but also a meeting of two teams that aren't necessarily playing their best hockey, the match knotted after Day 1 of the seven day week.

The Battle for the FHL Cup
Both the Bluliners and Badger Bob collected 2.0 points on Monday but the nod goes to Badger Bob, the Bluliners now with one less day to reel-in the Bobs and their 27.4 point lead.

The Bout for the Money
The Boulder Flyers potted 9.0 points and moved back into 4th place, now 13.0 points behind the 3rd place Central Red Army. The Wild Ducks stumbled out of the gate and now trail the $175.00-holding Army by 17.1.

The Scrap for the Laughing Bag
Just when you think the SC Cobras are going to get strapped with the Laughing Bag, wham-bam-thank-you-mam, the snakes are back in the hunt, a stiff 10.8 point Monday placing GM Murphy's never-say-die squad just 20.1 points in back of the Vegas Vipers.

LINK: Standings

No question Tampa Bay in the NHL and Central Red Army in the FHL hope Stamkos is able to play as early as Thursday. HUGE game with first place in the Atlantic Division up for grabs as Tampa Bay visits the Boston Bruins.

I, of course, have no clue about Stamkos' health. But if he is able to play, I think he'll give it a go since this is as close as a regular-season game can be in importance to a playoff game.

There is a rematch between the Bruins and Lightning in the final week -- next Tuesday -- in Tampa Bay. So the race for the top spot in the Atlantic Division is far from over.

But before the focus shifts to Tampa Bay at Boston on Thursday night, the Bruins have to worry about a BIG GAME tonight, finishing their western road trip in the 'peg against "The Captain" Blake Wheeler and the Winnipeg Jets.

The Jets may be one of the few teams in the NHL that have the size to put a physical hurting on the Bruins. Puck drop for that game is 8 p.m.

Puck drop for the first game of the night, Hurricanes at Devils, is 7 p.m.

Central Red Army and I live about two miles apart. B2 in city of Trenton. CRA in West Trenton section of Ewing Township. (The train station where I do the bulk of my local "rail-fanning" is 0.5 miles from CRA.)

So if this were real pro sports with two teams playing a series, there would be very little travel involved.

The best parallel example, I think, from pro sports history was when the New York Giants played the New York Yankees in the World Series, with the Giants' home Polo Grounds IV in upper Manhattan and the Yankees' home the original Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

It happened four times -- 1923, 1936, 1937 and 1951 -- with the Yankees, sadly, winning all four championships.

(The teams met two other times in the World Series when they shared Polo Grounds IV. The Giants, happily, won both championships -- 1921 and 1922. The original Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.)

The distance between the two was just over 1 mile, walking distance, with the Harlem River in between.

Below is an aerial photo that shows the short distance between Polo Grounds IV and the original Yankee Stadium. The view looks out past center field in Polo Grounds IV, which is right in the middle of the photo.



The Giants' clubhouse and the steps leading up to it are beyond center field in the small indentation. It was just to the right of the indentation, maybe 10 feet from the wall, that Willie Mays' made his immortal catch of a bomb that would have been a home in just about every other stadium at the time (with the possible exceptions being Tiger Stadium in Detroit and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh) hit by Vic Wertz of the Indians in the 1954 World Series (won by the Giants in a 4-0 sweep).

Polo Grounds IV was shaped like a horseshoe in the outfield. It was short down the foul lines -- 279 feet and 257 feet to left field and right field, respectively. But it had one of the deepest center fields in Major League Baseball -- 483 feet to the front of the clubhouse.



Polo Grounds IV also had a HUGE amount of foul territory behind home plate and beyond first and third base.

Lastly, a photo of the Mays catch. (What is REALLY STRANGE in the photo is that there is NO WARNING TRACK between Mays and the wall.)