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Chicago GM Steve Haugh had his team running extra laps after a series loss at home to a team with the worst record in the league. "Get your asses moving!" the eighth-year skipper screamed at his underperforming charges. The day was June 1, and the Chicago Colts had just lost two of three to the Florida Flamingos, putting a sad exclamation mark on a 4-8 skid that landed the club at 30-27 and a game out of the playoff zone at the end of May.

All that extra running must have paid off, because Chicago was the hottest team in baseball in June, posting a 20-7 mark and briefly joining the Los Angeles Outlaws atop the West Division. The Colts finished the month with an 11-1 run  that included sweeps of Havana, Manhattan, and Cleveland. In one six-game stretch, Colts pitchers allowed just four runs. Melido Perez (0.68 in last 3 GS) and Jamie Moyer (0.74 in last 3 GS) are the two hottest pitchers in the league. and fifth starter Charles Nagy (10-1, 3.34) is the owner of the best winning percentage.

With the league's best rotation (by ERA) and the league's top closer returning from the IL, the Colts may be the favorite to overtake L.A. and capture their first division pennant since 1979. Ivan Calderon and Albert Belle are on pace for 100-RBI seasons, sophoomore CF Marquis Grissom is hitting .348, UL Player of the Decade Alan Trammell is heading toward his eighth Willie Mays Award. After finishing just two games shy of the West pennant a year ago, all the pieces are in place for Chicago's return to playoff glory in 1991.

After a rocky .500 season a year ago and a 11-18 May, the Seattle Rainiers seem to be on the right track under first-year GM Sean Sturgess. The R's were 15-12 in June and climbed to 5th place in the West. Seattle ranks 2nd in batting and first in stolen bases, and their offense is getting a boost this year from sophomore second baseman Delino DeSheilds. The 32nd overall pick in 1990, DeShields leads the Rainiers with a .339 average, good for 8th in the league, and his 47 stolen bases are more than the next two guys combined. At Hudson Yards on June 28, it all came together for Delino. The 22-year-old popped up in his first at-bat, then proceeded to single, double, homer, triple his next four times up. Then, just for good measure, he added a single in the ninth to bring his batting line to 5-6 with three RBIs.

Former ace Don Robinson has rebounded from a couple off seasons and has a 8-3, 3.60 mark at the midway point. And relievers Mark Davis (2.73) and Doug Henry (2.77) had good first halves, though the bullpen as a whole ranks third from bottom in ERA.

As the B.C. Blizzards continue packing up in preparation for their move to God knows where, UL observers are still stunned.  What force could move an entire club, and to where may the Blizzards be moving?

Apparently the Canadian UL Players and IT Professionals Union, otherwise known as “CPU” (hey, it’s a Canadian union, and you’d expect a bit of strangeness from the Great White North) has been pressuring the League for more Canadian representation.  While there are three clubs in the minors (B.C., Quebec, Ottawa), TOR and MON are the only clubs at the UL level.  At a press conference in Vancouver, the CPU’s President, “Chicago” Steve Haugh, and the organization’s attorney, Fielding Mellish, expressed discontent at the current lack of Canadian teams.  Stated Mellish “It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”

Surrounded by other Canadian players currently in the League – Rob Ducey, Kirk McCaskill, Terry Puhl, Larry Walker, Steve Wilson – Mellish made it clear that the CPU was not playing around and further explained how the CPU had offered membership to French-born Charlie Lea, Steve Jeltz, and Bruce Bochy, who would represent the province of Quebec.

But where would Blizzards move?  It wouldn’t make sense to have the CPU pushing for more Canadian-based teams only to have the Blizzards end up in the US.  Griffins GM Holloway, at a presser in Conference Room B at UL HQ, was asked for his thoughts, and cryptically responded “I love hockey teams; I also love that Elton John album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, especially the third song ‘Benny and the Jets’”.

What the heck could that mean?  Hmmmmm……we’ll have to wait for announcement.