Spotlight on Stars

The Spotlight series will take a look at the career of each active manager in the league.

Stars (Stephen Arsenian) joined the league in 2004. Hailing from Paris, France, his addition made Hardball Heaven a truly international league.

There was a fair amount of skepticism that accompanied the addition of Stars. What could a Frenchman possibly know about American baseball? All skepticism was put to rest that first season as Stars finished the regular season in 2nd place with a very impressive record.

He repeated the feat in 2005 even though he spent the first few weeks of the season in dead last. With the championship vacated by the absence of Baseman Stars went on to claim the title. He has continued to be one of the top managers in the league setting a league record for single season wins with 156 in 2007. He narrowly missed winning his 2nd championship that year losing to REDS in the finals. Stars is the league leader for career winning % with .558.

As stated before Stars is from Paris, France where he enjoys a career in business administration. Like Baseman, Stars favorite team is the now defunct Montreal Expos. His favorite player is Bob Gibson. Below is a recap of Stars career based on Yahoo scoring.

Year	Playoff	Reg Sea	W	L	T	%	GB	Moves
2004	4	2	142	107	15	0.566	12.5	69
2005	1	2	134	111	19	0.544	8.5	58
2006	6	3	133	110	21	0.544	13.5	73
2007	2	1	156	93	15	0.619	-	59
2008	8	7	117	120	27	0.494	27.5	150
			682	541	97	0.558

After his record setting season in 2007, Stars posted his worst season since joining the league in 2008. His H-2-H record speaks for itself as only 3 teams have a winning record against him.

W=Wins against the listed team

	W	L	T	PF	PA
Squirrels	9	1	0	72	39
Champions	8	2	0	67	48
Hitters*	7	2	1	66	49
Baseman	5	3	0	50	37
Perjured*	5	4	1	64	47
Zonk	4	0	0	30	13
REDS	4	3	1	55	34
Ageless*	4	4	2	60	51
Halfway	4	5	1	52	59
Beagles*	3	2	1	33	33
Angels	3	3	0	38	30
Utica*	3	5	2	52	55
Plaz*	2	3	1	30	35
Panties	1	1	0	13	11
	62	38	10	682	541

*Indicates teams that have played under more than one team name

No doubt Stars wants to erase the memory of the 2008 season. Like Baseman, he would like to return to the glory days of those 1st couple of seasons. Unfortunately the parity in the league may have rendered the days of league supremacy for both of them a thing of the past.

Randy Stovall