Alternative Greatest Teams tournament

[messman]

That all makes sense. Digging the in-depth synopsis of games.
Another issue. When I created a historical exhibition using the 1906 Chicago Cubs, pitchers Orval Overall and Jack Taylor weren't on the roster! Even on the reserve roster there weren't any players. Any ideas why?

[messman]

I just deleted the 1906 Chicago series. I then setup another one with them.
Neither of the pitchers showed up again.....

[Skrabec1]

Are you using the normalized database to remove any differences between eras and seasons.

[ArquimedezPozo]

It may also have to do with what rosters you're using - neither player was on the Cubs at the start of the season, so if you're using start of season rosters they wouldn't show up. Use end of season, or WS rosters.

[Garlon]

With the 1906 Cubs the players you are not seeing on the team were acquired by trade during the season. When you create a league like this OOTP defaults to opening day rosters. I created a set of mods called By The Decade for OOTP 30 and had to go through the transactions of each team and import players that were not on the team at the beginning of the season.

Skrabec, the normalized DB does not account for difference between eras or seasons. It was only designed to provide park neutral statistics for players for that same season.

There really is no way to legitimately have these teams play each other without using Davenport Translations, which are what I used for the Baseball Greats rosters. For the By The Decade series I created I used teams during the same decade since the league rates for many statistics remained reasonably similar.

[messman]

That all makes sense. I remember that option when starting the series.

Garlon, do you know the answer with your baseball greats file to the question I posted above on how to control each game being played? Sim if I want, play if I want. I don't seem to get it when I go to functions and set those parameters.

What is the easiest way to import players? Say I went to the next year and grabbed Overall from '07 team and put him on '06 team.

Appreciate the help fellas. LOTS to learn with this game. I'm an avid DK Sports user and decided to try something different this spring/summer. Loving OOTP so far, but very intricate.Thanks for helping the newbie!

[ArquimedezPozo]

Pregame: 1906 settings, remember, so our pitchers are going on three days rest here. I talked about them both before Game 1, so I'll spare you that again here. But the setting couldn't be more dramatic: for the Nationals, a chance to beat the greatest regular season team of all time at home, and for the Cubs, a chance to keep the hope of an epic comeback alive. And remember that both of these pitchers were dominant in their first outing, the only run coming on a Victor Robles homer; we will see a similar low-scoring affair here?

Postgame: This is shaping up to be one of my favorite series of the tournament so far, and if you think about my phrasing there you'll be able to guess the outcome of this one. The Cubs will live to fight another day at West Side Park, but only barely, and not without a whole lot of effort and luck (good and bad). This one wasn't quite as dramatic as Game 3, but it gave it a run.

At the start, it didn't look like things were going to be dramatic at all: the Cubs dispensed with the anticipation and scored three off Scherzer in the top of the first. A Jimmy Scheckard single was followed by doubles from Frank Schulte and Harry Steinfeldt, the latter of which drove in two. Steinfeldt then came around on a two out single from C Johnny Kling (who both gaveth and tooketh away for the Cubs in this one). So Pfiester had a cushion to work with, and he started out the same way he had in Game 1: without baserunners. He didn't allow a hit until there were two outs in the fourth, when the Nats strung two singles together but stranded both runners, keeping the game at 3-0.

The Nats pushed one across in the 5th, when Trea Turner singled to score Yan Gomes, who had walked and been sacrificed to second by Scherzer. But CF Jimmy Slagle kept it there with an outstanding diving catch to end the inning and rob Adam Eaton of at least a single.

Then two more innings passed by, largely without incident, bringing the game into the 8th.

The Cubs got an opportunity for an insurance run handed to them on a platter when Harry Steinfeldt - whose 1st inning double had driven in the game's first two runs - tripled into the RF corner. But the Nats walked Chance in favor of Evers, and Evers rewarded the move by bouncing into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat. So the score was 3-1 going into the bottom of the 8th.

Trea Turner walked to open the inning, and after an Eaton fly out Pfiester served up a pitch that Howie Kendrick drilled down the 1B line for a double. Turner scored, and Kendrick took third on the throw to the cutoff man, just beating the relay. Then Anthony Rendon hit one squarely, lining it into center. But Jimmy Slagle, who had already made one clutch diving catch, delivered another here. And not only did he make the grab, he was so shallow, and up so fast, that Kendrick stayed at third. It looked for all the world like a game saver.*

Until Kling let a 1-2 pitch to Juan Soto past him. The Nationals scored the tying run, in the bottom of the eighth, on a passed ball. Soto struck out on the next pitch, but the damage was done and the lead was gone, heading into the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, Kling had a chance for retribution batting leadoff, but instead flew out to center. That brought Slagle up, and the CF continued his campaign to rescue the game by doubling hard down the RF line, then stealing third. So the Cubs once again had a man on third and only one out But they stranded him again too, as Tinker grounded out and Pfiester - who - again, maybe time for a pinch hitter here - struck out to end the inning. Pfiester did his job in the bottom of the inning, though, facing the minimum and bringing the game to extras.

In the top of the tenth, the Cubs finally broke through - the first time since the first, despite opportunities. Sheckard had started the action in that inning too, with a single; here he doubled to lead off, and went to third on Frank Schulte's bunt. And a third shot at a man-on-third-with-one-out situation would be the charm for the Cubs in the tenth, as Harry Steinfeldt delivered a single to but the Cubs up 4-3. They had a shot at more, as Chance followed up with a single and then stole second to put men on second and third, still with one out. But Evers and Kling both grounded out to end the threat, meaning that Pfiester - back on the mound for the tenth - had no room for error.

He didn't need any - his bottom of the tenth went 1-2-3 through Brian Dozier (hitting for Scherzer), Trea Turner, and Adam Eaton, tying the series and sending it back to Chicago for what promises to be a great finish, either way.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Game 5, West Side Park, Chicago, Illinois, 1906: Stephen Strasburg vs. Mordecai Brown, series tied 2-2.

Pregame: Here we go – the final game of what has been a tense and fun series. Will history repeat itself, with the Cubs losing to a team that’s inferior on paper when it matters most, and the Nationals shocking the world by taking down an all-time great? Or will Chicago complete an epic comeback from two games down to eliminate the upstarts and move on to Round 2? Will the home team lose every game in the series, as happened in 2019?

The pitching matchup tonight – Strasburg vs Brown – will be a repeat of Game 2, which was a great pitching duel like every other game in the series. The Nats won that game 3-0, but it was their last win of the series so far.

One more storyline to pay attention to: to this point, through four games, not a single reliever has pitched. Starters are 8-8 in complete games, though a couple have been pinch-hit for in last-ditch situations that wound up not extending the game. Will we see an all-CG series here?

Postgame:

Note: For whatever reason, when I loaded Game 5, the park model reverted to the default stadium rather than the beautiful West Side Park. I couldn’t reload it without losing the sim, though, so I stuck with it, which is why you see the default park in the gallery here.

In some ways, this was the least dramatic game of the series, though it was still a tight, close affair. That was due in large part to the fact that half the runs in the game were scored in the first inning, as Chicago went up 4-0 on a series of hits, errors, and passed balls that made for a busy but sloppy few minutes of baseball.

It began with three straight singles from the three S’s: Sheckard, Schulte, and Steinfeldt, which drove in one. Then Johnny Evers rolled a ball to short that should have been a double play, but SS Trea Turner mishandled the ball and everyone was safe, loading the bases again. A grounder to first from Johnny Kling scored a second run, which brought up Jimmy Slagle. Slagle had a great at bat, which was interrupted after the 0-1 pitch by a passed ball that scored another Chicago run. When it resumed, Slagle fouled off four 0-2 and 1-2 pitches until he finally found one he didn’t need to throw back, and lined it hard into right center to bring in the fourth and final run of the inning.

wpa_17-5The game was over at that point, though Washington tried hard to climb back. Against Brown, they scored once in the third when Anthony Rendon drove in Adam Eaton on a single; one in the fourth, the result of a Victor Robles double and an amazing two-out Stephen Strasburg single (Strasburg is actually one of the better hitting pitchers in the game, raking 11th, 12th, and 13th respectively in each of the slash categories); and the eighth, when Howie Kendrick walked, Rendon doubled, and Juan Soto brought him in with a grounder to second. But that was all the Nationals got off a strong Brown, who was actually a little worse than he’d been in Game 2, still going the full nine but allowing five more baserunners despite nine strikeouts. However, with the Cubs’ 5 runs (they scored another in the 7th on a Frank Schulte single driving in Sheckard on another series of plays that included a critical passed ball) Brown earned his first series win, and the Cubs their ticket to Round 2.

In the end, we did in fact accomplish something new here: not a single relief pitcher pitched in the entire series, which is pretty wild (though arguably, they should have at a couple points). Interestingly, the closest we’d come to that was the 1910 Athletics/2015 Blue Jays series: another with a century or more gap between the teams, played in the deadball era, where the modern club jumped out to a two game lead before blowing it and losing the final three straight. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Full series page: https://topteamstournament.wordpress...-chicago-cubs/

Also, I decided to switch some things around after looking through the teams list again for an earlier post. I replaced the 2018 Red Sox with the 1949 Red Sox, and the 2017 Astros with the 2019 Astros, because those teams both have higher WAR; in the Sox' case, really it's just an excuse to get Ted Williams in, and in the Astros case, it's more a reaction to the cheating scandal; the 2019 team isn't exactly clear, but it's not as obvious and shown as it has been with the 2017 club, and the 2019 club is arguably one of the greatest ever, certainly by WAR. I also switched the 1911 Giants - one of the "wild card" additions in the NL, and a third Giants team from the first ten years of WS era baseball - out in favor of the 1994 Expos, who if you prorate their WAR to a 162 season are the best team in Nationals/Expos franchise history, and deserve to be there.

[ArquimedezPozo]

It's been a busy week, but here are two recaps from two additional series:

2019 Houston Astros over 1974 Oakland A's, 3 games to none

1988 New York Mets over the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies (great little series here) 3 games to two

[pgd44]

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting

[ArquimedezPozo]

Oof. I've really fallen down on updating this thread. Here are the series that have been played since the above:

1982 Milwaukee Brewers vs. 1939 New York Yankees
A STUNNER of a series, and easily the biggest upset of the tournament, in which Cecil Cooper and Gorman Thomas together set down one of the ten greatest teams in baseball history.

2009 Colorado Rockies vs. 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers
The greatest Dodgers team ever doesn't disappoint against the second best Rockies team ever.

1998 San Diego Padres vs. 1905 New York Giants
Another heavy mismatch that ends with the better club winning.

2011 Milwaukee Brewers vs. 1994 Montreal Expos
The Expos finally get their payoff from a great but unfinished 1994 season, while the 2011 Brewers get... nothing.

2003 Florida Marlins vs. 1908 New York Giants
Another big mismatch, and probably the most boring series of the whole tournament to this point. An easy Giants win.

1977 Kansas City Royals vs. 1968 Detroit Tigers
A fun series, with two highly likable and dynamic ballclubs and lots of drama.

[ArquimedezPozo]

2019 Tampa Bay Rays vs. 1948 Cleveland Indians

Preview

Here’s our last 2019 team, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have been a consistently good team for over a decade now, and the first and latest excellent teams in their history – 2008 and 2019 – are both represented here. The 2008 team already pulled off a major upset, beating the 1984 Tigers earlier in the tournament; can the 2019 club do the same against the AL 7th seed 1948 Cleveland Indians?

The Rays were a team built on pitching, and are one of only five teams on the bracket who got more WAR from their pitchers than their hitters. The Rays have always been a pitching-based club, to be sure, but in 2019 they had ace Charlie Morton in top form: a 3.05 ERA (2.81 FIP) and 1.08 WHIP while striking out over 11 batters per nine and – in a year that shattered home run records across the league – allowing an MLB lowest 0.7 HR per nine. Behind Morton were Blake Snell, 2018’s Cy Young winner, who despite a far higher ERA than his award winning campaign was still effective, if unlucky: a 3.32 FIP was well below his 4.29 ERA while he actually struck out batters at an astounding 12.4 per nine rate (had Snell played a full season at that level, it would have been the ninth highest in history). Snell was unlucky, and also missed time due to elbow surgery in the offseason, but he was still a hell of a pitcher. After Snell were Yonny Chirinos, who was solid with a 3.85 ERA (4.44 FIP); and a collection of other starters who were cycled in and out in the absence of Tyler Glasnow (who had a fantastic season start before an injury that kept him from starting duties for the rest of the year).

On the offensive side, the Rays didn’t feature any big names but they did get some big production. The biggest bat in the lineup belonged to DH Austin Meadows, who the Rays had stolen from Pittsburgh in exchange for Chris Archer. Meadows looks like a star in the making, hitting .291/.364/.558 with 33 homers and a 142 wRC+ at age 24. Wily Adames provided exceptional defense at short, with additional production from Brandon Lowe, Tommy Pham, and 1B Ji-Man Choi (who I first encountered as a prospect while playing OOTP a few years back – he developed into a great hitter, though that was before PED revelations). So the Rays aren’t a team to slouch on.

But then, neither are the 1948 Cleveland Indians, the last Cleveland club to win a World Series. The Indians are one of the deadliest offensive clubs in the bracket, with 42 WAR from their hitters alone, and another 13.7 from their pitchers. The anchor of the lineup was SS Lou Boudreau, who also managed the club. Boudreau was 30 in 1948, and hit .355/.453/.534 with 18 HR and 34 doubles to win the 1948 AL MVP. Larry Doby, the first Black player in the American League, was in his first full season at age 24, hitting .301/.384/.390 with an excellent wOBA (weighted on-base average – the value of different types of getting on base) of .402. Joe Gordon hit 32 homers from second base, while 3B Ken Keltner had 31. This was a dangerous ballclub at the plate.

On the mound, over the full season, they weren’t quite as deep. But the top of the Indians’ rotation was as good as anyone’s: Bob Lemon had a Cy Yound caliber season (though there was no Cy Young in 1948); he placed 5th in MVP voting with a 2.82 ERA (3.54 FIP) and a league leading 1.22 WHIP, while throwing 10 complete game shutouts to lead the majors. Fireballer Bob Feller was just coming off back to back great seasons; ’48 wasn’t as kind, but he still won 19 with a 3.56 ERA (3.68 FIP) and 5.3 K/9, near the top of the AL. Gene Bearden’s 2.43 ERA was deceptive (a miniscule .242 BABIP helped him – his FIP was closer to 4) and the same was largely true of Sam Zoldak. But on July 9, the Indians debuted a rookie unlike any other, whose promise was a memory but who still gave the Indians an instant edge: 41 year old Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game, whose true ability will never be measured with MLB stats because of baseball’s color barrier. Paige, even at 41, was a sensation in Cleveland, pitching in 21 games, 7 of them as a starter. Of those seven, he pitched three complete games, two of which were shutouts. His 2.78 FIP was by far the team’s lowest, despite the presence of a couple of other Hall of Famers in their prime in the rotation. At 41. He would go on, by the way, to pitch intermittently in the bigs until 1965, when he threw three innings for the Kansas City Athletics at age 58. Naturally, he didn’t allow a run.

The Series

This was a clean sweep with the Indians heading to Round 2, but there were some interesting points in there.

Game 1 saw Bob Lemon go six while walking four, striking out four, and giving up four hits (all singles). Nothing like consistency. It was hardly dominant, but it was good enough, as the Indians had scored two runs behind him on an RBI triple from SS Lou Boudreau in the first and an RBI single by RF Allie Clark in the third, which scored Boudreau. So when Lemon exited, his team held a 2-0 advantage. But the first man out of the pen, Steve Gromek, allowed singles to four of the first five batters he faced in the seventh, tying the game at two. Gromek got out of that inning and then actually struck out the side in the 8th, though, to keep the Indians in it. And sure enough, in the bottom of the inning, Allie Clark singled with one out, and went to second on an error by 3B Yandy Diaz, where he was taken out for a pinch runner, Wally Judnich. C Jim Hegan doubled, scoring Judnich, and Doby singled; when the LF overthrew the ball trying to get Judnich, Hegan scored and Doby went to second. He scored in the next AB, when LF Dale Mitchell singled. The Rays went quietly in the ninth, and the Indians wrapped up Game 1 – a little more dramatically than the score might indicate.

Game 2’s score, however, did suggest drama – and drama there was. Cleveland jumped on starter Ryan Yarbrough for two over the first two innings (a Lou Boudreau RBI single in the first and homer by LF Eddie Robinson in the second), but for the second straight game the Indians simply clung to a 2-0 lead most of the way. In the seventh they added two more, when Allie Clark, Robinson, and Jim Hegan singled, doubled, and tripled (respectively), making the game 4-0 in the later innings. But Tampa Bay found life in the eighth, after Yarbrough walked and Tommy Pham singled. Austin Meadows hit a two run triple to make it 4-2 heading into the ninth. With two outs in the top of the ninth, the Rays again got going, loading the bases for Tommy Pham; the LF singled, but Eric Sogard held at third. Austin Meadows was exactly who the Rays wanted at the plate, and he did drive the ball deep to right on an 0-2 pitch from Bob Feller, but not deep enough: Bob Kennedy, who had come in as a defensive replacement for Allie Clark, settled under the ball near the warning track and put the game away.

Game 3 saw the immortal (and I almost mean that literally) Satchel Paige take the mound for the Indians against Yonny Chirinos. Paige didn’t exactly cruise, but he got through the first three innings unscathed. The Indians, meanwhile, had built up a two run lead, with Joe Gordon driving in Boudreau on a single in the first, and 3B Ken Keltner doing the same with Dale Mitchell on base in the third. But the fourth inning reshaped the game: the Indians broke loose in the top with four hits, the biggest being a bases loaded triple by Lou Boudreau and a follow-up two inning homer by Keltner. Those five runs put the Indians up 7-0 midway through the 4th. The Rays got a bit back on a collection of hits that added up to two runs, but it wasn’t enough as Cleveland kept pounding Tampa pitching. Chirinos had given up those first seven, but the Indians would add six more: two in the sixth and eighth, and one in the seventh and ninth. Joe Gordon was responsible for three of them with a pair of homers. Tampa Bay added two in the 8th on a Travis d’Arnaud homer, but the train had long left the station by that point. The Cleveland Indians swept the Rays away, and will now move on to face the 1982 California Angels in round 2.

Link to series page: https://topteamstournament.wordpress...eland-indians/

[ArquimedezPozo]

Round 1 is finished - hoping to do a better job posting here for Round 2! Here's the Round 2 preview post, which has links to all the series so far.

https://topteamstournament.wordpress...d-two-preview/

[ArquimedezPozo]

Round 2, Series 1: 1982 California Angels vs. 1948 Cleveland Indians

Game 1, Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio, 1948: Mike Witt vs. Bob Lemon, series tied 0-0.

Pregame:*a pretty excellent matchup here. Mike Witt was just 21 in 1982 and still ahead of his excellent if short prime, but he was effective nevertheless over 180 innings, striking out 4.3 per nine with a 3.51 ERA (3.25 FIP). On the other side, we've got Bob Lemon, a Hall of Famer who was one of baseball's biggest workhorses in the late 40s and early 50s - he led the AL in innings four times over that span, while putting up a consistently above average ERA/FIP and striking out more than 4 per nine, a solid figure for the era.

This will also be the first time we have a decent look at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium - I didn't get many good screenshots in the last series. I'm reluctantly putting them here due to to prevalence of pretty awful and racist Native American imagery - this is par for the course for the Indians over their history. The 1948 Cleveland logo is the worst of the bunch, and luckily that's not reproduced anywhere here.

Postgame:*This was a pretty great way to open Round 2 - a 13 inning duel with all kinds of twists, turns, and unexpected dramatic moments. If the rest of the series looks like this, it'll be the best one we've had.

California jumped to an early start in the top of the first - Lemon walked Rod Carew, who then advanced on a passed ball and came home on a Fred Lynn double. So not a great start for Lemon, though he got out of the first without further incident.

Cleveland, meanwhile, got all their offense in a third inning that went from improbability to improbability: a single from C Jim Heagan led off the third, and when Bob Lemon grounded a ball to first, Heagan went to second. But the ball got past 1B Carew; Lemon reached, while Heagan wound up at third. Larry Doby then grounded a ball into the no-man's land between the pitcher's mound, 1st, and third; it wasn't enough to make Heagan risk going home, but Doby managed an infield hit to load the bases. That brought up Boudreau, and of course he delivered: a sharp single into right scored both Heagan and Lemon to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead. Ken Keltner added on with another RBI single, and the inning closed with the Indians up 3-1.

That was the score all the way until the 9th; Witt held fast, as did Lemon. The Cleveland was largely excellent; he had to work out of a few jams - second and third with one out in the third, second and third with two outs in the seventh, a runner on second with one out in the 8th - but for those seven innings between the 1st and the 9th, not a single Angels batter crossed the plate. Witt, meanwhile, didn't allow another runner to reach second over the same span, completing 8 innings with only that third inning to mar the outing.

Lemon came out for the ninth, and promptly issued his fourth walk of the game to 2B Bobby Grich. Bob Boone replaced Grich on first after a fielder's choice for the first out, but Don Baylor - batting for SS Tim Foli - singled, putting men on second and third. Then Ron Jackson came out instead of Witt; he flew out, though, and Lemon was almost through it. But Rod Carew smashed a line drive that came within inches of exiting Cleveland Stadium's spacious left center field; instead, the aging 1B settled for a game tying triple with two outs in the ninth.

The game went on for four more innings. In the tenth, both teams threatened, but couldn't convert. Bob Lemon went 11 in a heroic effort, but in the 12th was lifted for a pinch hitter; Russ Christopher took over. For the Angels, it was Tommy John who took over in the 11th, getting the Indians 1-2-3 in both the 11th and 12th. But in the 13th, once Christopher got through the back of the Angels order, Ken Keltner and Joe Gordon each singled with no one out. PH Wally Judnich grounded out to first, moving the runners along; John got Eddie Robinson swinging for out two, and then Jim Heagan hit an easy grounder to first. John dashed to cover the bag, but the toss from Carew banged off his glove and rolled toward the Cleveland dugout. Heagan was safe, and Keltner came in to score the run that ended it - a stunning walk-off error in the 13th inning to finish off a tight and exciting Game 1.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Pregame:*It's impressive that a team that got most of its value from hitting can boast a pitcher like Bob Feller as its #2 starter, but here we are. Feller is a legendary Hall of Famer, a fireballer who in his early prime - including 1948 - regularly led the majors in strikeouts. He missed what would have been three of those prime years during World War II, as he - like so many ballplayers - served in the Armed Forces, but Feller barely missed a beat in his return, as 1946 was arguably his best season. Things started to trend downward after that, though, and in 1948, while he was still excellent - 3.56 ERA and 3.68 FIP with a K/9 of 5.3 - he was hit more regularly and with more damage than before. He was still good enough to be effective here, though.

He's facing Geoff Zahn who in 1982 was at the back end of a long and decent if not great career as a #3 guy. 1982 was a career year for him in terms of wins, and netted him the only Cy votes of his career, but was middling in other respects. Zahn was brilliant in Round 1 against the Orioles, though, going the full nine and allowing just four hits - can he replicate that here?

Postgame: he cannot.

Another Cleveland win, though with another late inning Angels comeback - this time, though, the Indians' lead was too wide to crawl back to, as good Cleveland hitting and*terrible Angels defense conspired.

Once again, the Angels got a 1-0 lead in the first courtesy of a Reggie Jackson sacrifice fly that scored Rod Carew. But once again, that was all they were able to collect for much of the game: Bob Feller held them to four hits while striking out five between the second and the seventh.

While he did so, Cleveland hitters went to town on Zahn. In the second, Allie Clark hit a 2 run homer to score Ken Keltner (who went 3-5 and drove the Cleveland offense in this one). The Indians never trailed after that point. California didn't exactly help itself, either: Cleveland's run in the third came as a result of a hit batsman to Dale Mitchell, who went to second on a wild pitch and scored when LF Brian Downing booted Lou Boudreau's single. Then in the fourth, Jim Hegan homered to make it 4-1; Zahn got quick outs on Feller and CF Larry Doby, but then gave up a double to Dale Mitchell, walked Lou Boudreau, and served up an RBI single to Joe Gordon. When Ken Keltner popped the ball to right, though, it looked like the Angels would make it out with just a four run deficit; instead, Reggie Jackson flat out dropped the ball, and Boudreau scored Cleveland's sixth run.

Five more Cleveland runs followed: in the seventh, Ken Keltner hit a solo shot, and then Eddie Robinson, with Allie Clark on base, added a two run blast to make it 9-1 Indians. Though the Angels got one back in the top of the 8th on an RBI single by Reggie Jackson, the Indians kept piling on, and the Angels kept helping them: this time, a Keltner single scored Boudreau - who had walked - and put Joe Gordon - who had singled - on second. A wild pitch from reliever Don Aase made it second and third, but Allie Clark popped out for out #2, and Eddie Robinson hit a grounder to first that should have put the inning away. But Carew booted it, Gordon scored, and the Indians ended the inning up 11-2.

The Angels made a go of it in the ninth, with Bobby Grich leading off with a homer, and Carew driving in the fourth and fifth runs on a double. A Reggie Jackson single scored Carew to make it 11-6, and it just kind of started to look interesting, when Boudreau finally pulled Feller in favor of Russ Christopher; the RP got Brian Downing to fly out and give Cleveland a 2-0 series advantage.

Game 3, we'll head to Angels Stadium in Anaheim during its stint as a dual-purpose stadium, before Disney installed the rock pile in center. If the Angels hope to win this one, they'll need to make some noise at home.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Game 3, Angels Stadium, Anaheim, California, 1982: Satchel Paige vs. Bruce Kison, Cleveland leads 2-0.

Pregame: I wrote pretty extensively about Satchel Paige in the Round 1 series for the Indians, so see that for more. Suffice it to say I'm pretty happy to watch "him" pitch here.

Bruce Kison spent most of his fairly average career with the Pirates, with up and down performance. He was at times brilliant, but most of the rest fairly run of the mill. In 1982, he began the season well but had a string of bad outings, got injured, and spent most of the season in the pen. He came back to the rotation with authority, though, and pitched very well in a losing effort to the Brewers in the ALCS.

This is the first seven game series we've seen, so a Game 3 with one team down 2-0 isn't *quite* as critical as it would be in a five game, but it's pretty close. If the Angels lose here, it's hard to imagine we'll see Cleveland Stadium again until Round Three. If they win, though... could be anyone's series.

Postgame:*We have our first genuine pitcher's duel of Round 2 - an taut nine innings in which the outcome was truly uncertain down to the very last AB.

First, a word about Satchel Paige: look, there are a billion things to hate about white supremacy, systemic racism, and just pure mean-spirited bigotry. Baseball is far down that list. But while I'm here, the*deep unfairness that kept a talent like Satchel Paige from having his career chronicled and remembered the way it deserved to is maddening. Paige made his MLB debut in 1948 at age 41, and was still fantastic. Imagine him in a full career? Imagine him blowing heat by Ted Williams, striking out the side against the Yankees, making AL hitters look ridiculous for two decades? But we've got what we've got. And what we got today was damn near a masterpiece.

Paige gave up a run early - not the first, as was the case in the previous games, but in he third, when light hitting 2B Rob Wilfong (the day's DH) dropped a 1-0 offering from Paige over the right center fence. It was the second hit off Paige; there would only be two more all game.

But Bruce Kison was more than up to the task: he matched Paige pitch for pitch, down the line. In fact, he was damn near perfect in the early going, allowing two hits in the first five innings with no runs and no walks. Only in the sixth, when Jim Hegan homered with one out, did a crack appear. But Kison shut the door on anything further in the sixth and seventh.

In the eighth, though, DH Wally Judnich drove a ball to the wall in left center, and hustled around for a triple. The next batter was Hegan, and he drove in his second of the game with a single to put the Indians up 2-1. Paige whisked through the 8th, and Ken Keltner added an insurance run with a solo shot in the top of the ninth, continuing his bid for series MVP.

With a 3-1 advantage, Paige went to work in the ninth. But he walked Bobby Grich - just the second walk of his outing. Downing replaced Grich at first on a fielder's choice, and then went to second on a Doug DeCinces single. Fred Lynn grounded a ball to second, cutting down DeCinces, but it
wasn't enough to turn two; Downing went to third.

And that's when Satchel Paige balked.

It's not really possible in a sim to tell what happened, but there it was. Brian Downing came in for the second run of the day for the Angels, and Lynn now stood at second representing the tying run. The Angels have made a habit of 9th inning scoring this series - coming into this game, six of their nine runs had been ninth inning runs, and so far this made it 7 of 10.

But they wouldn't get another: with Reggie Jackson at the plate, Paige bore down and got Mr. October to pop up to shortstop, ending the game. Another late inning disappointment for the Angels, and they now face a 3-0 deficit in this best of seven series. They need to win tomorrow to stay alive.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Pregame: The series isn't over, of course, but assuming that Cleveland does win it here (or in Game 5), I'll admit to being a little disappointed. I have grown to like the 1982 Angels here. But that's what will start to happen as we go on - lots of worthy and interesting teams are going to lose during this. And the 1948 Indians are plenty worthy and interesting too - for one thing, it's been good to see players other than Lou Boudreau shine here, given how much he dominated the Round 1 series. Ken Keltner in particular - currently in the driver's seat for a Series MVP - has been revelatory.

I do hope to see both Doug DeCinces and Larry Doby do a bit more in this game; DeCinces was the biggest offensive force for the 82 Angels and he's only got a couple of minor hits here, while Doby only has one. And honestly, no one talks about Larry Doby enough, but he was an offensive force from the #2 spot for the Indians, hitting .301/.384/.490 in his first full season, despite dealing with all of the crap that must have come from being the first black ballplayer in the American League.

So here's the matchup of the #4 guys: For Cleveland, it's Gene Bearden, who actually had a hell of a rookie year in 1948, leading the AL in ERA, though his 3.89 FIP (over 1.40 higher than his 2.43 ERA) suggests a lot of luck. And for California, it's Renko, who went 8 allowing three runs to close out the Angels' series against the 1966 Orioles in Round 1.

Postgame:*The Angels decided to do their scoring early in this one, and it paid off - we're getting a Game 5 at least.

For the fourth game in a row, the Angels scored first, this time dropping three on Gene Bearden in the first. A Bobby Grich walk, a Brian Downing single, and another walk to DeCinces loaded up the bases, and Bearden then walked Lynn to bring in one; Bearden did walk 4.2 per nine in 1948, so that's not outside the realm of possibility. Bob Boone brought Downing in with a sac fly to make it 2-0 and put DeCinces at third, and Ron Jackson did the same to make it 3-0. Steve Renko got into trouble in the first as well, loading the bases with one out, but he wriggled out of it, striking out Hegan and getting a ground out from Dale Mitchell.

Things got worse for the Indians in the second, as Rob Wilfong singled and Bobby Grich collected his second free pass. Downing struck out for the second out of the inning, but DeCinces finally delivered, drilling a 395 foot homer down the LF line to make it 6-0
Angels early on. That would turn out to be all they'd get, but it was enough, as Steve Renko kept Cleveland bats quiet, if not silent.

Cleveland scored one in the third when Doby tripled and came home on a wild pitch. They added another in the fifth on an Eddie Robinson single scoring Joe Gordon, and yet another in the seventh when Boudreau blasted a ball over the LF fence. But Renko didn't allow any more than that, going the distance.

A note, because the Game Log and Box Score might look weird: some kind of database error misidentified Cleveland RP Steve Gromek, who was from Macomb County, MI, as "Macomb County Steve" in the game. Like, that's his name - first name Macomb County, last name Steve. So Macomb County Steve did some strong work in relief, going 4 1/3 allowing just four hits and no runs. The Box Score just lists him as " . Steve" - which I probably find much funnier than anyone else, but such is life.

Anyway, on to Game 5 tomorrow, and a rematch of Bob Lemon and Mike Witt; may it be as entertaining as Game 1 was.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Game 5, Angels Stadium, Anaheim, California, 1982: Bob Lemon vs. Mike Witt, Cleveland leads series 3-1.

Pregame: Game 1 was excellent, with both pitchers holding the other team to three, but Lemon was the real star, going a full 11 innings and hanging on until his team could pull it out. If he does that again, Cleveland goes to Round 3. If Witt gets the upper hand, we go back to Cleveland for Game 6.

Postgame: Bob Lemon is a stud. For real. Cleveland is going to Round 3, and they have their ace to thank for it, going the complete nine innings, allowing just four hits (and three walks) and a single run in the eighth, when his team was already up 5-0. Lemon struck out six and got his second W of the series. His final line? 20 innings, three runs, 11 Ks, 2 W.

The Angels almost kept their streak of scoring first alive, when they got Bobby Grich to third on a walk and a single in the first. DeCinces hit a fly ball and Grich came home, but Dale Mitchell’s throw got there first; that would be the best chance they’d have against Lemon until the 8th. Lemon faced the minimum in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, allowing only a single baserunner – a walk to Bob Boone, who was subsequently erased on a double play. In the seventh, he got another baserunner, on a catcher’s interference of all things, but left him at first too.

wpa_33-5While Lemon was killing the Angels from the mound, they were killing themselves in the field. Everything was sloppy, and it cost them – in the fifth, Allie Clark scored Cleveland’s first run when Grich misfed a double play ball to SS Tim Foli; instead of ending the inning, it scored Clark and allowed Eddie Robinson to stay alive. A single put Robinson on third, and a wild pitch brought him home – two runs on two unforced errors. It was worse in the sixth – Ken Keltner homered, but that was Cleveland’s only clean run. Joe Gordon singled, and Eddie Robinson reached on another error by Grich. Jim Hegan then singled, scoring Gordon; Eddie Robinson tried to reach third, and Juan Beniquez’s throw blew past DeCinces, bringing Robinson home. Five runs, four of which scored because of Angel failures as much or more than Cleveland successes.

But they all still counted, and Lemon rolled into the eighth with a 5-0 lead. He gave one back, loading the bases on a walk and two singles (the first he’d allowed since the first); the next batter, Foli, grounded into a double play that scored the Angels’ only run. And that was it for the Angels, as Lemon closed out the eighth, worked around a Fred Lynn single in the ninth, and secured the last out on a pop fly by Bob Boone to advance the Indians and eliminate the Angels and their franchise.

Series page here

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by messman

That all makes sense. I remember that option when starting the series.

Garlon, do you know the answer with your baseball greats file to the question I posted above on how to control each game being played? Sim if I want, play if I want. I don't seem to get it when I go to functions and set those parameters.

What is the easiest way to import players? Say I went to the next year and grabbed Overall from '07 team and put him on '06 team.

Appreciate the help fellas. LOTS to learn with this game. I'm an avid DK Sports user and decided to try something different this spring/summer. Loving OOTP so far, but very intricate.Thanks for helping the newbie!

Not sure if your question about how to control each game has been answered yet or not.

If you want to play/watch each individual game, select a game to play. When OOTP takes you to the game preview screen, look at the game options menu in the very center of the screen. Scroll down towards the bottom. You will see the option (I'm at work, so can't give exact wording)to sim todays games in background. This is always set to "yes" by default. You want to change it to "no" Once you've set this to "no" the game you've selected will be the only game played and when you finish the game will return to the scores page and you can select another game to play.