The first Four Teen B-Ball Conferences 8 Days Later- How Many have Lost?

     Here goes: 8 Days later, on November 20th, the teams have played more. 

    

    1) Atlantic Sun. 7 out of 12 squads have already lost. Update: All have lost! Austin Peay and Eastern Kentucky both have a 1 in the loss column. The rest have two or more. Bellarmine and West Georgia are 0-5 each! Do not to expect to see much of them come March...

    2) America East. 8 of 9 have lost. Tulane is 3-0! Wait: Tulane is not in this conference. No one called me out! Bryant and UAlbany Great Danes have each lost once. Maybe they were all defeated before... They are perfect losers, now, either way.

    3) Atlantic 10. 7 of 15 have lost, at least one. Updates: Only 3 perfect remain. If they hang on another week, it will be worth reporting who is left...Maybe. 

    4) Atlantic Coast (C). Only four of 18 have lost. UNC lost at Kansas, and it was close. New: Seven 0 columners remain now. How the week went, seven went down from the mighty conference of champions. Duke lost to Kentucky. Flagg is great, but he has his flaws.

    5) Big 12. 3 out of 16 have lost. Some consider this the best one in the land. (Go BYU!). And: Eight have lost now, so by my math five more joined the leger of losers. Sorry, Charlies! But again, champions do not have to be undefeated. People punched in the mouth can perfect and make great runs down the stretch. Even my Cougars. They are deep, and talented... But so are a few others in this conference alone. Of 16. Utah? Not so fast! 

    6) Big East. 3 of 11 have lost. Four are ranked, including the Huskies of UConn. (Go, anyone but them!) And currently: One more has lost, so there seven undefeated. Pretty good teams, including the dreaded Huskies of UConn. MAY THEY LOSE! Please. 

    7) Big Sky. 9 of 10 have lost. Remaining unblemished: Northern Arizona. Lumberjacks in the news: Nope. Lost a game. Thanks Stanford. You always have to be so superior. Big Sky not as sky high anymore. And this is November 20. Long months of winter to go. Many more losses to come. 

    8) Big South. 7 of 9 are marked. High Point and Longwood hanging around past the first week... But now: A mere half fortnight later, ... Whoa, yes! Panthers and Lancers hanging on, both 5-0.

    9) Big Ten. 4 of 18 have lost. Hoosiers, still perfect. Go IU! Fight, fight, fight! Beat Purdue. And Nebraska, why don't ya? Ze wealthy conference news: 7 remain. Without a loss, including IU. By some maths, that means a few lost in the interim. You do the math, smarty pants. Purdue lost to Marquette, in Milly Wau KAY. PS: Illinois is looking to lose to 'Bama as we speak. Oh, time.

    10) Big West. 8 of 11 are losers, but not out by a long shot. Unbeatens: Hawai'i, UC-Irvine, UC- Santa Barabara. Just because you lose early does not eliminate anyone. It is just fun and interesting to see how long all the undefeateds last. Indiana was the last perfect one in 1976! Lots of great teams since then. Update: The three Pacific Ocean types are all 4-0. Way to go! Shaka, brah.

    11) Coastal Athletic. 10 of 14 have lost. Remaining with 0 losses? Charleston, Drexel, Hofstra, and UNC-Wilmington. And as of November 20, this rainy Wednesday... Nope. All those above have a one in the L place. Sorry. What did you expect? Perfection past Turkey Day? Hah! Maybe next year, Huskies, Pride, and Cougars. NOT!!!

    12) Conference USA. 6 of 10 have lost. Almost there tonight...  Just the LA Tech Bulldogs left. Karl Malone might be proud... My teacher was a distant cousin of his. Calloway-Thomas. They are 4-0. Could be 30-0 before March... Nah, please. Please, my nene.

    13) Horizon League. 11 for 11 have lost! Two leagues to go. Who cares about this, anyway? I at least consider it entertaining. Now they all have at least two derrotas. That is Spanish for perdida. That last word has an accent over the first e, but I have not figured out how to do diacritics like that much in the last 10 plus years of blogging in this forum. Maybe in the next decade?

    14) Ivy League. 3 of 8 have lost. Not bad, brainiacs. All have... check that: the Columbia Lions! They are playing like Fierce Jungle Cats. Or Fierce, Savage Golden Felines of the Savannah, anyway. What if they were the best of all time? 6-0. Only 30 more to go, you never know...

    So the math is in: many fewer undefeateds a mere week and a day later. Like 30 in the first 14 listed?

    Play on, D-1 Men's teams...

Soto Surpasses 200 Career Homers at age 25: What Next, and Who Did He Pass?

    'Tis the season of Juan Soto, the winter of his maxing out his free agency, and making a lot of moolah. He is still young and very high up on most of the charts. I wish he would join, or re-join the Washington Nationals. If he joined my second favorite team, the Chicago White Sox, that would be grand.

    

    Not the Dodgers, not the Braves. No, no, and others no. Not the Phillies. Heavens, how many Hall of Fame Nats need to go there? 

    Today I was trying to remember a case when a great player waited to sign till near the end of the off-season, like deep into February. Was it Barry Bonds? Alex Rodriguez? I said Manny Ramirez. I don't know. I told a friend that talks baseball with me that I would Google it. I will. 

    Maybe now.

    Here is Soto's recent achievements by the end of 2024, the Yankees came up short against Los Doyers. It was a year. Kershaw did not play; he was hurt.

    Here is the near 200 club, all time.

    

371.	Buddy Bell (18)	201	10009	R	HR Log
	Juan Soto (7, 25)	201	4088	L	HR Log
	Gene Tenace (15)	201	5527	R	HR Log
374.	Rafael Devers (8, 27)	200	4215	L	HR Log
	Bill Freehan (15)	200	6900	R	HR Log
	Oscar Gamble (17)	200	5197	L	HR Log
	Josh Hamilton (9)	200	4350	L	HR Log
	Adam Lind (12)	200	5029	L	HR Log
	Don Mincher (13)	200	4726	L	HR Log
	Corey Seager (10, 30)	200	4442	L	HR Log
381.	César Cedeño (17)	199	8133	R	HR Log
	Jackie Jensen (11)	199	6080	R	HR Log
	Juan Uribe (16)	199	6715	R	HR Log
384.	Eric Hosmer (13)	198	6977	L	HR Log
	Barry Larkin+ (19)	198	9057	R	HR Log
	Justin Turner (16, 39)	198	6311	R	HR Log
	Rondell White (15)	198	5852	R	HR Log
388.	Michael Cuddyer (15)	197	6102	R	HR Log
	Dave Henderson (14)	197	5677	R	HR Log
	Dick McAuliffe (16)	197	7162	L	HR Log
391.	Cody Bellinger (8, 28)	196	4109	L	HR Log
	Cliff Johnson (15)	196	4603	R	HR Log
	Justin Smoak (11)	196	4750	B	HR Log
	Ken Williams (14)	196	5625	L	HR Log

    How much more will Justin Turner play after age 39? Former Dodger. Bellinger (age 28) is special. Seager, too. Age 30. Devers got pop. He's only 27. I would guess each of those four will be around till 2034, you think? Where will we be?

    I hope to talk about them later. Cuz, baseball is special. It may not be the most exciting, but it brings a special thing to us. Like Ohtani. Amazing prowess.

    Soto and Ohtani together? With Betts? Oy ve.

    Josh Hamilton on this list. A man of travails and hopes. I hope he is okay. Mincher and Tenace look like players before my time. I know about Ken Williams. I think. The later commentator? The Hawk?

Who did Bryce Harper pass in Home Runs in 2024? Well, at Least the Last Few

114.	Joe Adcock (17)	336	7305	R	HR Log
	Bryce Harper (13, 31)	336	7085	L	HR Log
116.	Robinson Canó (17)	335	9550	L	HR Log
	Darryl Strawberry (17)	335	6326	L	HR Log
118.	Moisés Alou (17)	332	7913	R	HR Log
	Bobby Bonds (14)	332	8090	R	HR Log
120.	Hank Greenberg+ (13)	331	6098	R	HR Log
	Derrek Lee (15)	331	7963	R	HR Log
	J.D. Martinez (14, 36)	331	6865	R	HR Log
123.	Shawn Green (15)	328	7963	L	HR Log
	Mo Vaughn (12)	328	6410	L	HR Log
125.	Jermaine Dye (14)	325	7214	R	HR Log
	Willie Horton (18)	325	8052	R	HR Log
	Justin Upton (16)	325	7649	R	HR Log
128.	Gary Carter+ (19)	324	9019	R	HR Log
	Lance Parrish (19)	324	7797	R	HR Log
	Carlos Santana (15, 38)	324	8780	B	HR Log
131.	Ron Gant (16)	321	7320	R	HR Log
132.	Vinny Castilla (16)	320	7384	R	HR Log
	Troy Glaus (13)	320	6355	R	HR Log
134.	Jay Bruce (14)	319	6642	L	HR Log
	Cecil Fielder (13)	319	5939	R	HR Log
	Prince Fielder (12)	319	6853	L	HR Log
	Andrew McCutchen (16, 37)	319	9156	R	HR Log

He tied Joe Adcock at age 31, for 114th all-time with 336 overall homers? Who was Adcock? He played till age 38 from 1950 to 1966. Started with the Reds for three years, then to the Milwaukee Braves, and finishing with the California Angels, with a touch of Minnesota. No, Cleveland. I guess in 1964 they were the LA Angels? Then California for two years. He had 38 homers in 1956, age 28. His second-best year was 35 long balls in 1961, the great year of Roger Maris.

    Maris should mean something to a few history buffs of baseball. Overall, not one of the career leaders, but was a bright star that out did the single-season record of the Babe. Was it 61 in '61? For the record, the great Maris hit a total of 275 in 11 years. A flash in the pan, as it were, but quite a flash. His second-best year was 39 in 1960, at age 26. 1961, what a season! He was seeing the ball, and must have peaked in strength. Maybe the pitchers were caught unawares, or the back up behind him were raking...

    Robinson Cano and Darryl Strawberry both played 17 years. The Straw man was huge with the Mets, especially 1986, and then the Dodgers. Cocaine may or may not have helped him on the field. Off the diamond, probably not. Oh, yeah, of course Darryl finished with the Yankees in 1999, helping them win two titles. He played in the outfield with my guy Tim Raines. Brief stint in San Fran in 1994 till the strike. That ruined a lot... for me, for everyone. Perhaps it ruined the Giants for a while.

    Cano ended his career with the Mets, Padres, and Braves in 2022, and that was it. Pretty good run.

    I'll let you look through the other names below. I know most of them as they are mostly in my lifetime. Lessee... Yeah, only Hank Greenberg was an oldie but goodie. He finished his Hall of Fame career in 1947. I saw all of the others play during the course of my half century of watching the game.

    Better than football, or soccer, in my opinion.