Season III will be remembered as the league’s first expansion season.  For better or for worse, Frank decided to re-join the league.  And on a positive note, joining the league for the first time were both John Deodato and Eugene Cucinello.  John had been itching to join the league ever since he first heard the new league was forming.  And as soon as he returned from his exodus to Queens, he joined up.  Eugene decided that the time was right for his participation in the league, and this time he decided to forego draft night wiffle ball with Eggbert, and actually stuck by his decision to play.  This meant that the league would almost double in size, from four teams to seven, the most ambitious expansion to date.

Besides expansion, Season III may be also be remembered for a variety of other reasons.  It may be remembered for Eugene’s record 105 losses. It may be remembered for Willie Mays’ record (at the time) 55 homeruns. It may be remembered for Mike Easler’s astounding .647 slugging percentage.  Or it may be remembered as the season that featured the first-ever post-season sweeps. But for those of us that lived through it, it will always be remembered as “That Sutter Year.”  Bruce Sutter, that is.  And we will not necessarily remember it because of what Sutter did to us.  But rather for what Louis did to Sutter.

Up until Season III, the most innings a pitcher had ever thrown in one season was 352 (Dwight Gooden for Dan, in Season I).  In Season III, Sutter broke this record somewhere around game 32.  When the dust finally settled, Bruce Sutter had hurled an inconceivable 491 innings.  Wait a minute, I must have typed that wrong.  No, I didn’t.  491 innings.  More than 3 innings per game.  That’s a lot of innings even for a piece of cardboard.  For the first six seasons of the league the next-highest total was 359 (Sudden Sam McDowell for Eugene, also in Season III).  In Season VII, Dan tried to have Dennis Eckersley break this record.  But this proved to be a futile attempt, as Eck fell ten innings short.  Game after game, Louis showed little tolerance for his starting pitching and summoned Sutter from the bullpen.  Legend has it that Louis suffered tendinitis in his right shoulder, caused by continually waving in the reliever.  

Louis' pitching monotony did manage to get him back into the post-season.  John had no problem shaking off the Strato rust, and finished in second place.  Louis and John's playoff series featured a league first: for the first time a post-season series was swept.  Louis’ victory earned him his third straight World Series appearance.  Facing Louis, once again, would be Joe.  Joe won at least 90 games for the third straight season, which enabled him to win the divisional championship for the third straight season.  Joe-Louis 3, also ended in a sweep.  This time it was Joe who was cleaning up.  Joe’s World Series victory gave him a 2-1 edge in the three all-Agostino match-ups.