1995 Astrology Awards Recap
View the 1995 FABL Lineups Here!
When I think back on my past baseball fandom, the 1994 strike sticks out in my mind. But for whatever reason, I didn’t recall until doing research for this project (if it registered to me to begin with, as an 8-year-old) that the work stoppage extended into the 1995 season. Maybe that’s because the drama of a canceled World Series is more memorable than 18 missed games in April, but it’s still important to note that the statistical baseline of 1995 is smaller than your typical season.
Given that the season was roughly 10% shorter than usual, only one team scored more than 30,000 total fantasy points: the Earth Division leading Virgo Maidens. Not only that, but four of Virgo’s individual players accomplished something that has not been done since in the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League, sweeping all four major awards of the Negative Polarity. The closest any other sign has come was when Leo players won three of the awards in 2005. By contrast, the 1995 Sagittarius Archers - the top team in the Positive Polarity - didn’t have any astrology award winners on their roster (even though first baseman Mo Vaughn (2,459 / 17.6) won the real-life American League MVP).
The top overall NP point scorer was Cleveland outfielder Albert Belle (2,926 / 20.5), who would go on to share MVP honors with his Virgo teammate Ellis Burks the following year. Leading the Indians to the best record in the AL and a World Series appearance, Belle was the first player with 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season. Right behind him in fantasy points is NP Cy Young Award winner Randy Johnson (2,897 / 96.6), who was also the recipient of the real-life AL CYA. Pitching for the Mariners, The Big Unit led the league with a 2.48 ERA (2.08 FIP), a 1.045 WHIP, a 4.52 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 294 strikeouts.
While it’s a bit of a cop-out to label Japanese sensation Hideo Nomo (2,328 / 83.1) as a rookie, given that he had a five-year career in Nippon Professional Baseball before coming stateside, that didn’t stop him from winning the real-life National League Rookie of the Year award. Not only did he lead the league in strikeouts, but he set a Dodgers rookie record in the stat, thanks partly to his wacky deceptive windup. Rounding out the Virgo award winners is Jeff Brantley (1,556 / 27.8), who helped the Reds reach the postseason in his second year as closer. He would go on to lead the league with 44 saves in 1996, even though his team finished third in the standings.
Working backwards, the top Positive Polarity relief pitcher was Gemini Jose Mesa (2,194 / 35.4), the only reliever to crack the 2,000-point plateau, after saving an AL-record 38 straight games. Mesa helped Gemini to the most unlikely of FABL playoff berths: every team in the Fire Division outscored the top Air Division sign, which explains how a team that was ninth place in overall points made the final four. The Twins did sport the runner-up in the PP MVP race, as Frank Thomas (2,573 / 17.7) was second only to Leo left fielder Barry Bonds (2,705 / 18.8) in offensive points league wide. For reference, Capricorn Edgar Martinez (2,732 / 18.8) and Scorpio Dante Bichette (2,618 / 18.8) were the second- and third-place finishers in the running for Negative Polairty MVP.
The top overall scoring player in all of baseball in 1995 was Positive Polarity (and real-life National League) Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux (2,998 / 107.1). In fact, 1995 marked The Professor’s fourth consecutive Cy Young Award, a record at the time, which would later be broken by his 1995 CYA counterpart Randy Johnson. The fact that he came within two points of 3,000 even in a short season shows the remarkable talent level of the Aries ace. Behind him in the pitching ranks was Sagittarius Mike Mussina (2,329 / 70.0), with Capricorn David Cone (2,108 / 70.3) and Taurus Pete Schourek (2,075 / 71.5) finishing behind Johnson in the Negative Polarity.
That leaves just the Positive Polarity Rookie of the Year award, which goes to Hideo Nomo’s real-life Dodgers teammate Ismael Valdez (1,905 / 57.7) (incorrectly spelled “Valdes” on his 1996 Topps card). I don’t know where he and Nomo stand in terms of great rookie pitcher duos in history, but at ages 21 and 26, they’re probably one of the youngest. Other notable 1995 rookies include Cancer Crab Marty Cordova (1,910 / 13.9), Aries Ram Quilvio Veras (1,712 / 13.8), and a little-known Taurus Bull called Chipper Jones (1,840 / 13.1), who split his debut (non-cup-of-coffee) season between third base and left field.
Next time, we’ll return to the practice of divination, analyzing the link between the current sign (Leo) and the most famous fortune-telling deck of cards (the Tarot).