1985 Illowa APBA League

Thunderchickens Win Big

In a story of Worst to First, Dennis Jennings took his 1984 Twin City Thunderchickens of 1984 and turned them around to first place finishers in 1985.  He did it in style breaking the all-time record for the best won-loss record for a season winning 115.  No other manager has won more than 105 games in a season.  He did that with the help of MVP Harold Baines who led the IAL in .slugging with 629 and was second in rbis with 139.  He also had help from Ryne Sandberg (.322, 18 triples) and Dwight Evans (132 rbis).  Ironically, there were no 20 game winners on Jennings' staff.  In fact, no pitcher won 18 or 19 either.  The wins were about as evenly distributed as possible.  Three won 17 and two won 16.

Once again though, it not the first place team that won the World Championship.  Third place Chicago Champions with Orel Hershiser (2.28 ERA), Mike Schmidt (41 HR), and Cal Ripken (.544 slg) who prevailed in the postseason. 

Hell's Kitchen Twelvetree outfielder Tony Armas made a run for the homerun crown but came up 10 short and ended up with 56.  He remains 14th on the all-time list today.

Green Rock Bomber pitcher Mike Witt won the Cy Young by virtue of his league-leading 21 wins and 2.63 ERA (second in the league).

A Season of Futility for the Mercenaries

But one aspect of 1985 that remains one of the most interesting is the Rob Taylor's Chicago Mercenaries record 36-126.  This loss total eclipses the next highest loss total, the Gehlen J's in 1979 who went 47-135, by nine games. 

To put it in perspective, my lowly Twin Lakes Fuzzy Monsters lost 100 games that year and were still 26 games ahead of the Mercs. 

What was the story behind that?  Honestly, I don't know all the details.  I can post the Mercs' roster for your perusal.

Tim Raines had a decent year at the plate and had good speed.  Kent Hrbek, Darryl Strawberry and Lance Parrish provided some power.  It's pretty obvious that the Mercs' downfall was its pitching.  Dave Stewart had the only halfway respectable ERA at 4.06 but was only good for 5 wins.  Chris Codiroli and Dennis Martinez did the team no favors by going a combined 5-35. 

A side note:  I see Rob ended up with Jeff Kunkel.  Tedd, I thought you were the one so high on him.  Oh yeah, that was Brad Komminsk ;-)

Those who look at the record books see that the Mercenaries rebuilding year did some good as they won the IAL championship in 1986.  More on that in the next Spotlight.

Rob, if you are out there, I'd love to hear some comments on this season.