Once again the Northern Division champions are the Peoria Chiefs in 1967. The Chiefs ran away with the division winning 110 games. That's 2 less than they won in 66, so it's clear that they're on a downward spiral
Tris Speaker had another MVP type season, but finished second in the batting title race to Bibb Falk.
The Arkansas Travelers outlasted Louisville, Birmingham and Corpus Christi to win the 1967 Southern Division title. Louisville and Birmingham nabbed the 2 wild cards.
Peoria defeated the Birmingham Barons 4 games to 2 in their series, while Arkansas knocked off the Louisville Bats in 6 games as well.
Arkansas holds a 1-0 lead in the League Championship Series
The home run title once again went to Fort Wayne's John Beckwith. Beckwith hit 48 home runs, giving him 101 over the last 2 seasons.
Can't wait to see if Mel Ott returns for the 68 season. I assume based on his performance in 67, that he surely will, but one never knows when it comes to the OOTP gods. If he returns it will be fun to see just how close he can get to reaching 700 home runs.
Towards the end of the 67 season, I tuned into a game that featured Rick Reuschel on the mound. Ricks been in the league for quite some time now, but I didn't realize he pitched long enough to lose 200+ games. If he sticks around a little longer, he has the chance to win 200+ as well. The ultimate innings eater. He's accumulated 60+ WAR over the course of his career.
Ad Lankford has emerged as one of the leagues most dominant pitcher in the last few years. He whiffed 300+ batters in 1967. Lankford didn't pitch his first game till he was 30 or 31 years old. Kind of cool to see Lankford(35+ now) emerge at as a star when most are just starting to wind down their careers. It will be interesting to see how many years the game allows Ad to keep on trucking.
Keep waiting to see if the Dayton Dragons will ever return to greatness. The Dragons won 2 International League titles in the very early years of the leagues existence. Since that time the Dragons haven't even sniffed the post season. There have been rumblings that the team may move to Columbus or Omaha, but I'm holding out hope that they stay put.