And let's take a look at how things turned out for our Denver Brewers this year and what the World Series keys might be.
The Brewers are an offense first team. We led the MGL in almost every offensive category other than finishing 3rd in home runs and not being a very good base stealing or base running team. The Brewers outscored the Wolf Pack by exactly 100 runs this season. At first I thought this might be a product of different offensive environments in the league. But in fact, the SJL overall scored more runs than the MGL- by more than 200 runs. The MGL had a slightly higher batting average, but just barely (.264 to .261.) The Brewers just simply outscored everyone in 1974 and it wasn't close.
Pitching, on the other hand, which they say wins championships, was pretty average for the Brewers. The bullpen was strong and led the league in ERA until pretty late in the season, but still finished 3rd and was respectable. But the starting staff was not great. Then again, Harry Lyerly, who struggled the most, isn't even on the post-season roster and Hector Hard was only with the club for the second half of the season. Cheol-han Lee is still an ace, Steve Green had a very strong second half and finished with one of his finest seasons, and Erik Sloan was also very good down the stretch. Against the great left-handed batters of the Wolf Pack, Cheol-han and Steve Green will particularly be tested.
Then again, as I said, the Jacksonville park favors right-handed hitters and so, as it happens, does Denver's Centennial Stadium. And if Fidelity Financial is a pretty good hitters park, Centennial Stadium is a great hitters park.
The key for the Wolf Pack starters will be, of course, to get late into games, but even more it will be to neutralize the Brewers best right-handed hitters: Bobby Erbakan, Ryan Rodgers, and Mike Foster.
The Brewers also have home-field advantage in this series and that might be huge. The Brewers this season played to the tune of a .667 winning percentage at home this season with a more modest .568 on the road.
The Brewers had a bit of difficulty late in the season against left-handed starters, largely due to slumps by Bobby Erbakan and Chad Brown, but overall still had a better record against lefty starters than righties. With 3/4ers of the Wolf Pack rotation left-handers this could bode well for the Brewers.
Perhaps the key to the series for the Brewers is for Bobby Erbakan to break out of his recent slump and Mike Foster to not cool off from his recent hot hitting. If these potent right-handers with some pop can get things going against the left-handed Wolf Pack starters, things could work out very well for the Brewers. The Brewers will be hoping for an outcome something like 1970, when they defeated the Wolf Pack 4 games to 1 for their lone championship (and Jacksonville's lone World Series defeat) while the Wolf Pack will be looking for revenge.