Quote:
Originally Posted by David Watts
Oh man, Boog Powell just went 9-12 over his last 4 games to win the batting title. Boog hit .333, his teammate Vada Pinson hit .331 and Hank Aaron hit .330. Aaron and Powell both finished with 48 bombs. Vada Pinson finished the season with 42 home runs. 16 of those bombs came in the month of September.
Mobile hung on to win the I-10, earning home field advantage in the first round against Baton Rouge. Fort Worth (95-59) won the I-20, earned the 1st round bye.
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That's quite the finishing flourish to outright steal a batting title from the other two. 40 HR is an extreme rarity in my league. The last two seasons have seen Wally Hood Sr. hit exactly 40 both years...and that's it. I like it though as it keeps the HR from being cheapened like it was in the steroid era.
Mark McGwire just retired from my league with 585 career HR, and a .263/.370/.485/.854 slash line, good for a 141 OPS+ and a 142 wRC+. He's the only Hall-worthy player in his retirement class. Ryan J Braun is close, but falls just short for my taste. McGwire also had 1488 R, 2496 H, 1650 RBI, 1609 BB, 2154 K, 1 MVP, 5 GG, 9 ASG, 7 SS, 1 WS, and 1 LCS MVP. In my now 56 year league history only 9 players have had 50+ HR seasons (Mantle and McGwire twice including the only ever 60+ HR season by Mantle [63 in 1933], Reggie Smith, Mike Schmidt, Dave Kingman, Rocky Colavito, and Frank Howard - all HoFers or destined to be except Kingman). McGwire did it twice at age 23 and age 24 when he hit 51 and 53 HR. Interestingly enough in his age 32 through 35 seasons (4 consecutive seasons when he hit 245 of his RL HR in a "late career revival"), he "only" managed 137 HR, with seasons of 33, 35, 35, and 34 HR, and he only missed 20 games in those four seasons combined. He did manage a 42 HR season at age 38 in my game though.
There have been 84 40 HR seasons, so like I said, HR don't come cheap. They're earned. McGwire had the three that I mentioned. Mantle towers over all the rest in the single season HR record with 63. He also had 6 40+ HR seasons in total. Nobody else has hit more than 53 in a single season.