C.C. Sabathia and Rene Miniel Squared off in a good old-fashioned pitcher's duel yesterday. In the most remarkable pitching performance of the year thus-far, Miniel allowed only three base-runners over ten innings. a single walk in the 10th inning to Carlos Pena; Lance Berkman reached on a Hanley Ramirez error in the 1st inning, and Miniel hit J.R. House with a pitch in the 6th inning. Sacramento skipper Troy Vogel rode Miniel to the limit, allowing him to come out for the 10th inning, but rather than risk injury to his starter, he made the call to the bullpen for the 11th inning.

INDIANAPOLIS - Two things remained the same in Kerry Wood's first start since a near no-hitter. The first of those things was walks. Wood started out wild, just as he was in his previous start. The results, however, were ugly. Gotham City was spotted a 4 run lead in the first, and things were looking bleak for the streaking Stallions. Those four runs came on a leadoff homer by Jeremy Hermida, along with three walks and two more hits in the inning, as Gotham City batted around.

INDIANAPOLIS - Kerry Wood had his A stuff, but fell short of a historic performance. An Indianapolis crowd of nearly 36,000 were on hand for Wood's gem. The first two batters of the game went down swinging. However, the next batter, former Stallion, Luis Gonzalez, drew the first of seven walks issued by Wood on the day. Every batter that came to the plate in the 2nd and 3rd innings went down on strikes, putting the strikeout tally at 8 K's.

The MGBC Inaugural Draft got underway this morning, as the London Monarchs used their first overall pick to select right fielder Shusui "Enigma" Kimura of Japan. The 23-year-old native of Seki is considered a five-star prospect with plus power to all fields. The Monarchs made their pick at 3:20 a.m. local time in the U.K., long after English baseball fans had gone to sleep.

The Dublin Celtic and GM Nathan Foster used the second overall pick to select starting pitcher Edgardo Pérez. The 25-year-old American is considered one of the top young pitchers available in the draft. The Tokyo Waves selected Cuban outfield sensation Reynaldo Aguilar with the third pick, while GM Charles Ho selected American hurler Freddy Ruíz for the Beijing Lions with the fourth overall pick.

The Phoenix Scorpions rounded out the top five by selecting infielder Jaime Lópes of El Salvador with the fifth pick. For pick-by-pick coverage of the draft, visit the Met League Café.

Oakland - Wily Mo Pena, relegated to backup status following two years as an Oakland starter, made a case for a more prominent role with a 10th inning walk-off home run Wednesday evening. The 366-foot shot, his first of the season, prevented the surging St Louis Pride from overtaking the Mules in the HL West standings.

With the launch of OOTP 10 and the mid-season point of the baseball year already upon us, the time has at last come for us to take the covers off of the Metro-Global Baseball Consortium (MGBC), the newest baseball league to be launched under the Met Leagues banner. The MGBC will operate quite a bit differently than the MBLS - and will be a truly global league, with teams competing from three different continents.

More details on the inaugural season of the MGBC can be found here.

PHILADELPHIA - It might be understandable if things seem a bit more bleak in the City of Brotherly Love this week. Fans and followers of the Philadelphia Veterans are still reeling from the loss of their franchise player, rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki, to a career-ending injury on Saturday. Ichiro hurt himself badly in the 2nd inning of the game at Veterans Stadium against the Sacramento Condors. He dove for a drive off the bat of Brian Dopirak, and immediately signaled that he was not OK after hitting the ground. Philadelphia wasted no time and rushed him to a hospital. Team officials were informed later that Suzuki had suffered a Broken Knee.

Lefty ace Barry Zito and centerfield prospect Robert Biron dominated the final week of a long and active MBLS preseason. The 30-year-old Zito was selected by the South Bronx Legends as the first pick in the 2009 MBLS Dispersal Draft following the contraction of eight MBLS teams this past offseason. Zito has a career record of 112-61 with a 3.34 ERA in seven Met League seasons with the Tampa Bay and Houston Broncos and is a three-time Hodges League All-Star.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Biron made history by being selected by the Los Angeles Bombers as the first pick of the 2009 MBLS Amateur Draft. Scouts regard Biron as a five-tool player who can play all outfield positions. He began the season playing center field for the Bombers Single-A affiliate in Houston.

The MBLS will begin the season with a new configuration of 16 teams, as eight teams will participate in each league. The Seattle Whales will be moving from the Hodges League West to the Johnson League West to accommodate the new league structure.