2041 SIMBL PLAYOFF REPORTS
SIMBL POSTSEASON HISTORY

CALGARY STUNS NORFOLK WITH SWEEP, WIN 2041 SIMBL COVETED CUP CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Calgary Clippers celebrate in a pile after defeating defending the SL champion Norfolk Buccaneers 2-0 in Game Four to sweep the 2041 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series and win the fifth Cup in franchise history and their first in 9 seasons.

Calgary teammates are presented the ever-elusive and 2041 SIMBL Coveted Cup after surprisingly sweeping the SL champion Norfolk 4-0 holding them to 5 runs in the four games and win the 2041 SIMBL championship which is the fifth in team history and join their other SIMBL CS titles in 2018, 2023, 2025 and 2032.

2041 SIMBL CS:
Calgary 4 Norfolk 0

2041 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series:
Game One: Calgary 7 Norfolk 3
Game Two: Calgary 6 Norfolk 1
Game Three: Calgary 6 Norfolk 2
Game Four: Calgary 2 Norfolk 0

2041 SIMBL CS MVP:
3B Ramiro Sanchez Calgary

WATCH 2041 SIMBL CS REPLAYS & HIGHLIGHTS HERE

2041 SIMBL CS GAME FOUR:

CALGARY 2 NORFOLK 0
Calgary Wins Series 4-0
WP: Jude Farrell (3-1 4.13 ERA) LP: David Perez (1-3 3.19 ERA) SV: Keith Patterson (3)
HR: Calgary: Ramiro Sanchez (5)
Player Of The Game: SP Jude Farrell Calgary
7.2 IP 4 H 0 R 0 ER 2 BB 3 K

Calgary Sweeps SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series

The season came to a crashing halt for the Norfolk Buccaneers when the Calgary Clippers beat them 2-0 today at Pirates Cove to sweep the SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series 4-0.

Fans in Calgary have already begun the celebration, and officials are expecting huge numbers when the championship parade takes place in a few days.

"Unbelievable for us, for our fans," an elated Clippers skipper Christian DeMarco said. "This team has worked as hard as any team ever. They deserve it. What these guys have done, they're going to enjoy for a long time."

This was the 5th championship for the Clippers.

After the game, Norfolk manager Brandon Popper was asked by reporters what it's like to lose in the SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series.

"You want the results to be different," he said. "They simply outplayed us, they deserve it. They beat us. They're the champions."

Calgary finished the season with a record of 93-69 and ranked first in the Union League Central.

Norfolk GM Brandon Popper ran the first three games of the 2041 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series on New Years Eve and shockingly the Calgary Clippers of GM Christian DeMarco held a surprising and commanding three games to zero lead on the SL champion Buccaneers.

When the holiday settled down along with me being sick calming down and not related to New Years, the concluding 2041 SIMBL CS Games 4-7 were run and Calgary stunned Norfolk with only the sixth sweep in the 37 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series and first since the 2034 season when Dallas swept Chicago and the 'Clips are the 2041 SIMBL champions.

Calgary's pitching staff stunned the second-highest scoring and powerful Norfolk offense holding them to only 5 runs in the four games.  

The Clippers win their 5th SIMBL championship which sits second in league history to San Diego's mammoth 11 titles.  It was the Clippers first championship in 9 seasons since their last in 2032 when they defeated Hawaii.

36 year-old long-time Clipper third baseman Ramiro Sanchez was named the 2041 SIMBL CS MVP.  Ramirez, a five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner, was the #8 overall pick by Calgary in the 2027 SIMBL Draft is in his 13th season manning third base for the Blue And Yellow and in his 12th full-time season and has hit 374 career home runs and is seeking to join the exclusive 400 career home run list with 26 more home runs next season which will be a contract season for the long-time Clipper.

Brandon's Bucs ended a 11-season postseason drought last season and made it to the SLCS before being ousted by eventual 2040 SIMBL champion Asheville.  The Bucs made it to two consecutive SLCS this season beating Sacramento in an incredible seven-game series won by Nyomo Yokata's 3-run walk-off home run to end the series.  Norfolk ended a 33-season franchise drought in getting to their first SIMBL CS since the well-documented and well-remembered former Pocatello Timberjacks became the only team in SIMBL history to comeback from a 3-1 series deficit in the SIMBL CS and stunned Texas in winning their only franchise title in 2008.

The two teams helped each other out without even knowing it and that they would meet as rivals for all the marbles in the 2041 SIMBL CS only months later at the time by consuming a blockbuster trade in June of this past season.  Norfolk sent MVP candidate Tony Harmon to the already potent Clippers offense while Calgary parted with who they planned on being a franchise cornerstone in 27 year-old outfielder Kevin Fitzgerald along with Top 100-rated prospect and 98-100 MPH-throwing SP Bernando Sanchez.

Both players had outstanding seasons with their new teams and were instrumental in helping them win in the regular and postseasons.  After the trade, the 31 year-old Harmon had a breakout and MVP season hitting .325 with 25 HR and 56 HR and an blistering OPS of .940 in 88 games with Calgary after the trade.  He finished as a serious 2041 MVP candidate by hitting .325 which was third in the entire SIMBL with 40 HR (4th in the SIMBL) 105 RBI and an outstanding OPS of .940 which was first in the UL and third in the SIMBL behind SL MVP candidate Boston's Hugh Gordon and Hawaii's young phenom Hector Colon.

Fitzgerald was also very impressive and critical in helping the Bucs advance to their first SIMBL CS in 33 seasons after trading away such a big offensive and defensive weapon like Harmon. "Fitz" hit .302 with 8 HR and 40 RBI and 46 SB in 89 starts after the trade.  Fitzgerald was also as stellar or more defensively in which he was one of the few outfielders in the SIMBL with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage and didn't make an error in 223 total chances and in 790.1 innings played and is a deserving candidate for a SL Gold Glove Award in this season's SIMBL GM Awards voting.

Both players were also instrumental in advancing their respective teams in the postseason as both were solid and came through in clutch situations when the best of the best rise to the top in the ever-unpredictable SIMBL playoffs.  

Harmon hit .297 with 2 HR and 14 critical RBI with a .796 OPS in 64 at bats.  Fitzgerald hit .264 with 4 HR and 12 RBI with 18 SB and a .679 OPS in his 72 postseason at bats.

Congratulations to Brandon on a great run and to all SIMBL GMs on yet another successful, fun and competitive 37th season of play in the SIMBL together. As we all know anything can happen in the SIMBL as Sacramento GM Jason Gregory's Giants went from the second-worst record in the SIMBL last season at 62-100 and gaining phenom SP Pablo Mendez with the #2 overall pick of last season's draft and turned things around in one season wining their first SL West title in 13 seasons and were one inning and an improbable Nyomo Yokata ninth-inning Game Seven series-winning 3-run homer from advancing to their first SIMBL CS in 15 seasons.

We now need all of your 2041 GM Awards ballots (both the StatsLab and Forum ballots) so we can put them into the file so we can progress ahead to our off-season.  It's one of the few requirements asked of all to be in such a league so please take 5-10 minutes and have some baseball fun and vote for your winners and let's be able to move ahead quicker.

The next SIM will be needing your team options either accepted or voided, your arbitration offers via export and the pending free agent class will be all announced with the next file.  If you need help in your player team options contact me and tell me who and what you want to do and with whom.  Also, this is the last chance for contract extensions so get all of these in via export ASAP.  You can find your team option players needed and your pending free agents HERE.

Since we didn't finalize our free agency compensation league discussion we still have to now figure out how to improve and overhaul it or get rid of for 2043.  The idea is good for compensating teams for lost players and it has been proven to help teams contend sooner then helpless and long rebuilds but we need to find a way to cut the requirements of what makes a Type A and Type B (Example: age, rankings in league, etc...) so we can reduce the amount of players deserving so the compensation round doesn't go 10-30 picks as the teams in the top of the draft who need and earned the chance at obtaining the top second round talent.

Again great season guys and you guys make the league what it is for us to have a little fun with.

The 2042 off-season SIM schedule will be announced shortly and posted on top of the SIMBL Front Page during the off-season as is tradition and we will be sending out daily emails for our daily off-season SIMs which we will run nightly until 2042 Opening Day.

We are on to SIMBL season 38 and let the off-season frenzy begin.  The season file has been rolled to the start of the off-season and new finances have been calculated and given to each team.  Remember to now export in your team options found in team emails, your arbitration offers and any last-minute free agent contract extensions.