2003 Astrology Awards Recap
View the 2003 FABL Lineups Here!
In 2003, the then-Florida Marlins became the first team to win the World Series twice while making the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They make up two of just seven World Champion Wild Card winners, including the very next year’s curse-breaking Boston Red Sox. Since then, we’ve gotten an additional Wild Card entry per league, which also led to the scheduled one-game playoff. As goofy as that concept is, it doesn’t hold a candle to starting extra innings with a runner on second base.
The Leo Lions took home the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League points crown in 2003, the second time in three years, making them the first sign to have multiple victories in this decade (from 0-9, of course). However, regardless who was at the top, the playoff pool would contain the same four teams for the next three seasons: Leo in the Fire division, Gemini in Air, Scorpio in Water, and Capricorn in Earth. I wonder if it wouldn’t have been more representative to do away with the four divisions and simply determine the playoff teams using two six-team leagues. But it’s a little late for that now.
Two Negative Polarity batters broke 3,000 points, so it seems logical to have them share the MVP award. Albert Pujols (3,113 points / 19.8 points per game) was still listed as an outfielder on his 2004 Topps card, although he hasn’t played another game another game on the grass since 2003. The Capricorn slugger finished second in real life National League MVP voting, while Scorpio outfielder Gary Sheffield (3,007 / 19.4) finished directly behind him in the race, his last year playing for the Braves.
The two front-runners for the Positive Polarity’s MVP are both Leos: first baseman Todd Helton (2,962 / 18.5) and then-shortstop Alex Rodriguez (2,894 / 18.0), who won the real-life American League MVP, and who would also go on to win the PP’s top award in the next two odd-numbered seasons. The third-place finisher in the PP was yet another Leo, real-life NL MVP Barry Bonds (2,665 / 20.5), which makes it no surprise how the Lions scored the most fantasy points in the league this year. In the interest of symmetry, the NP runner-up is Cancer Crabs first baseman Carlos Delgado (2,792 / 17.3).
2003 featured one of the all-time great seasons by a relief pitcher, Dodgers starter-turned-stopper Eric Gagne (2,916 / 37.9), who took home the NL Cy Young Award thanks to his 1.20 ERA and league-leading 55 saves. The Capricorn closer could easily have won the Negative Polarity’s version of the award, but I’m choosing to confine Gagne to the Reliable Reliever so that we can feature another great starting pitcher: Taurus’s Roy Halladay (2,772 / 77.0), who would win another NP CYA in 2010.
In the Positive Polarity, last place Aquarius fielded the best pitcher in the league, Jason Schmidt (2,644 / 91.2), who led the NL with a 2.34 ERA while pitching through a torn elbow tendon. Libra Keith Foulke (2,524 / 35.1) won the PP’s Reliable Reliever award, mirroring the AL Rolaids Reliever award he won in real life with Oakland. As far as rookies are concerned, Scott Podsednik (2,099 / 13.6) took the crown in the Negative Polarity, although he lost the real-life NL Rookie of the Year award to Capricorn hurler Dontrelle Willis (1,546 / 57.3). PP RoY winner Hideki Matsui (1,964 / 12.0) hardly has the resume you’d expect of a rookie, as he had already starred in the highest Japanese professional league from age 19 to age 28.
I mentioned above that it might be better to remove the concept of divisions in such a small, 12-team league. But what if we added MORE divisions instead? Next time I’ll examine what the FABL would look like with divisions based not on each sign’s element, but rather their essence.