International League/Random Debut League - Page 7

David Watts · 10-23-2025, 10:10 AM

The two division winners advanced to the 1973 League Championship series. Louisville swept St. Paul in a series that was over before one could blink. Cedar Rapids defeated Birmingham 4 games to 1 to advance to the championship round.

The first game of the League Championship Series was a doozy. Pitching ruled the day in a big way in a game that would take 19 innings to decide. Neither team scored a run for 18 innings, before the visiting Redbirds pushed across 2 runs in the top of the 19th inning. Cedar Rapids would go quietly in the bottom half of the 19th, giving Louisville a 1 game lead in the series.

The Cedar Rapids bats would stay silent again in game 2 of the series. 28 innings without scoring a run. The home fans in Iowa were stunned to say the least. What happened to their teams ability to hit and score runs? Louisville fans meanwhile were loving it. The brooms weren't even in the closet yet from the wild card sweep and their Redbirds were out to a 2-0 series lead and the two wins came on the road to boot.

Game 3 in Louisville the Cedar Rapids Kernels bats arrived an then some. The Kernels scored 10 runs total in the game with the scoring getting under way when leadoff batter Bobby Murcer went yard for his 4th home run of the post season.

The Kernels would tie series at 2 games a piece by winning game 4. So far all the wins in the series have been by the road teams.

David Watts · 10-23-2025, 10:37 AM

Thinking I may do final expansion following the 1974 season. If I expand, my league will feature 18 teams with two 9 team divisions. I will probably add 2 more wild card teams to the fray, which will allow the 2 division teams to have a bye in the first round. The wild card teams will play a best of 3 in the top seeds home park. No off days. I love post season baseball, so even though I'm not a massive fan of wild cards in real life, I like them in my leagues, as it gives me more games to enjoy.

The team I will add to the Northern Division is the Great Lakes Loons. Since I grew up in Michigan, I will be moving the Loons to Saginaw instead their high class real life home in Midland.

As for the Southern Division expansion team, I haven't quite made up my mind yet. If by chance the Baby Cakes hat and jersey still come with OOTP 26, New Orleans is probably the front runner. Other choices are the Chattanooga Lookouts, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Gwinnett Stripers and the Montgomery Biscuits.

David Watts · 10-24-2025, 09:27 AM

The Louisville Redbirds are the 1973 International League Champions. This is the Redbirds second championship.

Tris Speaker once again is the leagues batting average leader. Speaker hit .387 on the season, as the season proved to be too long for him to sustain that .400 average.

Buck Freeman took home MVP honors in 73, ending Tris Speakers run of 7 straight MVP awards. Wonder if anyone will ever even come close to 7 straight again? That is a flat out amazing run. Freeman hit 49 home runs and drove in 119 with a 320+ average.

Jose Mendez won his 3rd Cy Young Award in a row and the 7th of his career. Mendez who reached 300 wins at age 39 also led the league in strikeouts.

Moises Alou and Lou Warneke were the two most notable players on the list of retirees. Alou had a long and productive career that saw him join the 3000 hit club in his final season. Warneke won well over 200 games, pitching most of his career as a starter, before moving to the bullpen, with a few good years in a closing role. Both are Hall of Famers in my book.

Goose Goslin and John Titus were this years inductees into the International League Hall of Fame.

Speaking of Hall of Fame, I'm really starting to get ticked that Al Oliver continues to come up short in the voting. 8 years now and still no induction. This year his total was around 67%. Oliver was just a steady and consistent player over his entire career. He is a member of the 3000 hit club. On the down side, he only managed around 48 WAR over his long career, so that could be why he's not getting the needed votes. He's also not to high in all the Hall of Fame ink and such factors.

David Watts · 10-24-2025, 09:39 AM

Started the 74 season. Simmed to June 1st as normal.

Hilton Smith is now a member of the 200 wins club.

David Ortiz now has 400 career home runs.

Jose Mendez got hurt during Spring Training and missed the first two months of the season. His first game pitched was on June 1st.

David Ortiz is off to an incredible start to the season. As of June 10th he's hitting a league best .393. Ortiz is 40 years old. He does have one batting title to his name, but I don't think anyone seen this coming at all. Will be interesting to see if he can stay hot all season.

David Watts · 10-25-2025, 12:15 AM

June 25th 1964, Jose Mendez strikes out Dan Driessen for strikeout number 4000 of his great career. Dude is a machine.

David Watts · 10-25-2025, 08:20 AM

07/01/1974 Fred Clarke gets hit number 3000. The 39 year old has a career .291 average with a .361OBP. Clarke has scored 1540 times and driven in 1319 runs. Clarke has 324 home runs and 75 career WAR.

David Watts · 10-28-2025, 11:02 AM

Oh my, we just rolled into September 1974 and Jose Mendez is really struggling. He did just pitch a gem in his last start, but that win only got him back to .500 on the year. It also lowered his ERA to just under 5. Was starting to wonder if Jose would ever show his age. He's 40 now, so the end may be near, but I'm pulling for a second wind.

The Peoria Chiefs are back on top of the Northern Division, but Wisconsion and Dayton are right on their heels.

The Biloxi Shuckers are leading the way in the Southern Division with the Memphis Redbirds close behind.

Bob Horner leads the league with 32 home runs.

David Watts · 10-28-2025, 08:14 PM

September 10, 1974 John Beckwith hits home run number 500 off of Dolf Luque. Beckwith is 38 years old. He missed all of 1973 due to injury and 1974 has turned out to be a miserable season for the veteran. He's hitting .183 with a .283 OBP good for an amazing -1.6WAR. That being said, the 500 home runs puts him among the power elite.

David Watts · 10-29-2025, 09:59 AM

Another player having his worst season ever is Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz is nearing the end of a 1st ballot Hall of Fame career that's seen him tally 3700+ hits. He looked like he just might finish his career with a .300 average, but the last few seasons lowered his career average to right around .295.

David Watts · 10-30-2025, 09:39 AM

The Biloxi Shuckers made their first post season appearance in 1974 by finishing in first place in the Southern Division. That first appearance was over in a hurry, as they lost 4 straight to the Cedar Rapid Kernels in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Peoria Chiefs beat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 4 games to 2 in the other first round series.

Peoria won the their third league championship, defeating Cedar Rapids 4 games to 2. Tris Speaker took home MVP honors in both of the Chief's playoff series, hitting 400+ for the post season. Carl Yastrzmski had a great post season as well, driving in runs in almost every game. It will be interesting to see if this is the last season for Yaz. I'm hoping he returns and gets some playing time, as he only lacks 12 home runs to reach 500.

Added the two expansion clubs before leaving for work this morning. The Great Lakes Loons in the Northern Division and the New Orleans Baby Cakes in the Southern Division. 1975 will be season 30 for the International League and we will celebrate it with 2 new teams and a expanded playoff setup.

David Watts · 10-31-2025, 10:19 AM

Glad to report that Al Oliver finally got inducted into the International League Hall of Fame. Took too long, but all is right in the end.

The expansion draft went smoothly. Surprisingly, the preseason predictions have the expansion New Orleans Baby Cakes finishing in second place in the Southern Division. I will believe it when I see it and maybe not even then. Meanwhile, the predictions have the Great Lakes Loons losing 118 games. Ugh!

The preseason predictions also have Nap Lajoie hitting .397. Anxious to see how close that prediction is.

Carl Yastrzmski is back for another season and he's in the starting lineup. Looks like he will have a shot at 500 home runs. He should reach 3800+ hits during the 75 season as well.

Jose Mendez also returned for another season.

John Beckwith retired with exactly 500 home runs.

Bill Veeck · 11-01-2025, 10:28 AM

How happy are you with the overall setup you employed and the way it’s turned out?

David Watts · 11-01-2025, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Veeck

How happy are you with the overall setup you employed and the way it’s turned out?

Pretty happy. This league is using only one subleague. My biggest regret is not being able to add a second subleague. Otherwise, I'm really liking the setup I'm using and the settings as well. This is the first time I've ever bought the game and simply played one league the entire time. I'm usually a stop and start over person.

David Watts · 11-02-2025, 02:38 PM

06/20/1975 Carl Yastrzemski nails his 500th home run against the Arkansas Travelers. Yaz is a hit away from 3800. He has an amazing 708 doubles and lacks 29 RBI from reaching 2000. Carl has scored 2053 runs over his 25 year career.

David Watts · 11-05-2025, 09:29 AM

Approaching 150 games played and the expansion New Orleans Baby Cakes are still in contention for a wild card. I don't think I've ever had an expansion team contend for the post season in their first year ever. The other expansion team, the Great Lakes Loons are performing much more expansion like, as they have 104 losses with roughly 12 games left to play.

Harry Davis and Bob Horner are in a heated race for he leagues home run title. Both have 41 home runs. Harry Davis has a .345 average and 104 RBI to go along with those home runs. Bob Horner is also the leagues RBI leader with 130+.

Harry Hooper has 50 stolen bases, needing only one more to set the new International League record

Teammates Nap Lajoie and George Sisler are battling it out for the leagues batting crown. Both are hitting in the .360 range. Over the last couple weeks the race has changed hands several times. Hard to believe their team the Tulsa Drillers aren't featured in the race for the post season.

Bob Gibson and Rube Waddell both have 19 wins to lead the league in that category. They are also one and two in terms of strikeouts with Waddell holding a hefty lead with 200+ on the year. Gibson has strung together 2 really solid seasons in a row at the age of 32 and 33, wining 18 in 74 and 19 so far in 75, I always expect Gibson to be flat out dominant when he appears in my random debuts, but so far that hasn't ever happened. Based on his real career he should have roughly six more seasons barring injury. Those six seasons are going to be huge in whether or not Gibson makes the Hall of Fame or not.

Craig Kimbrel has 40 saves, a new International League record.

After several mediocre seasons, Bob Dandrige has put it all together in 1975, hitting in the 340's and is sitting 3rd in the batting title race.

David Watts · 11-05-2025, 12:05 PM

Mentioned above that Harry Davis has 41 home runs. Davis also has 30 stolen bases. Can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure this makes Davis my very first 30-30 guy.

David Watts · 11-06-2025, 09:16 AM

Received word this morning that Carl Yastrzemski will be hanging up his spikes following the 1975 season. Yaz is a sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer. With one day left in the 1975 season Carl's team, the Peoria Chiefs still have a slim chance to nab the final wild card slot. Would be fun to see him get one more crack at the post season.

The new playoff system in place for 1975 is drawing jeers and cheers amongst International League fans. Some feel there are too many teams making the post season now and claim that the race for the post season is watered down because of it. Others love the fact that September has been one meaningful game after another, with as many as eight teams vying for the the four wild card slots. All 4 of the wild card slots have com down to the final day of the season.

Wisconsin won the Northern Division by sweeping the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the final week of the season. The Kernels demise continued as they then fell behind the Dayton Dragons in the standings, allowing the Dragons to clinch the 3rd wild card slot. Cedar Rapids still has a chance for the final wild card slot on the final day of the season.

The Memphis Redirds clinched first place in the Southern Division. Meanwhile, the Corpus Christi Hooks and the Arkansas Travelers nabbed wild card slots 1 and 2. The Hooks finished the season with 89 wins, one game better than the Travelers. Amazing thing is, the Hooks manager sat both Harry Davis and Mark McGwire on the final day of the season. The Hooks still managed to pull out the victory to nail down the top spot in the wild card race.

Bob Gibson nailed down his 20th victory in the final weekend of the season.

David Watts · 11-08-2025, 12:42 AM

Pretty cool. Mel Ott and Jim Thome both entered the league in 1949. Both players retired in 1970. Both enter the Hall of Fame together as part of the 1976 class. Love it.

David Watts · 11-09-2025, 05:53 PM

Carl Yastrzemski entered the league at the age of 20 in 1951. Over his first 2 seasons he would start a grand total of 16 games. He would then explode onto the scene in 1953, hitting .339 with 20 home runs, driving in 86 runs. From this season forward Yaz would hit above .300 for the next 8 seasons. In 1958, Carl would start 142 games, scoring 114 runs, drill 40 doubles, 35 home runs, while driving in 120 runs. He would win the batting title in 58 as well, hitting an amazing .394. He would also lead the league with a .491 OBP and in slugging pct .673. He finished the season with 11.0 WAR.

Yastrzemski started 3426 games during his career. Over 13185 at bats, Yaz would hit 294, .389, .474. He would finish his career with 109.2 WAR. Yastzemski finished his stellar career with 3874 hits, 728 doubles and 506 home runs. He scored 2109 runs and drove in 2019 runs.

Yastrzemski was a 17 time player of the week. A 10 time batter of the month. Carl would win one most valuable player award(1958). He picked up 2 Silver Slugger awards. Yaz won the league championship 3 times. He made the all-star game 13 times

Yastrzemski's teams (Corpus Christi and Peoria) played in the postseason 12 times. Yaz would play in 91 postseason games, totaling 331 at bats. He smacked 90 hits, 14 doubles, 2 triples and 15 home runs. He scored 49 times and drove in 53 runs. He hit .272, .370, 462 during postseason play.

JAWS--80.9
Black Ink--16
Gray Ink--201
HOF Standards--58
HOF Monitor--156

David Watts · Today, 10:46 AM

Ah the calm before the storm. The 1976 season is such a blah year in terms of offense, but one knows lurking in the very near future is the beast called 1977. Can't wait to see if the single season home run(58) record withstands 1977. We have some guys that can clearly give that record a run for the money. Mark McGwire, Cecil Fielder, Bob Horner, Harry Davis, Jim Gentile are the main guys that come to mind, but there will always be surprises along the way.

10-28-2025, 11:02 AM	#127
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Oh my, we just rolled into September 1974 and Jose Mendez is really struggling. He did just pitch a gem in his last start, but that win only got him back to .500 on the year. It also lowered his ERA to just under 5. Was starting to wonder if Jose would ever show his age. He's 40 now, so the end may be near, but I'm pulling for a second wind. The Peoria Chiefs are back on top of the Northern Division, but Wisconsion and Dayton are right on their heels. The Biloxi Shuckers are leading the way in the Southern Division with the Memphis Redbirds close behind. Bob Horner leads the league with 32 home runs. Last edited by David Watts; 10-28-2025 at 11:04 AM.

11-05-2025, 09:29 AM	#135
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Approaching 150 games played and the expansion New Orleans Baby Cakes are still in contention for a wild card. I don't think I've ever had an expansion team contend for the post season in their first year ever. The other expansion team, the Great Lakes Loons are performing much more expansion like, as they have 104 losses with roughly 12 games left to play. Harry Davis and Bob Horner are in a heated race for he leagues home run title. Both have 41 home runs. Harry Davis has a .345 average and 104 RBI to go along with those home runs. Bob Horner is also the leagues RBI leader with 130+. Harry Hooper has 50 stolen bases, needing only one more to set the new International League record Teammates Nap Lajoie and George Sisler are battling it out for the leagues batting crown. Both are hitting in the .360 range. Over the last couple weeks the race has changed hands several times. Hard to believe their team the Tulsa Drillers aren't featured in the race for the post season. Bob Gibson and Rube Waddell both have 19 wins to lead the league in that category. They are also one and two in terms of strikeouts with Waddell holding a hefty lead with 200+ on the year. Gibson has strung together 2 really solid seasons in a row at the age of 32 and 33, wining 18 in 74 and 19 so far in 75, I always expect Gibson to be flat out dominant when he appears in my random debuts, but so far that hasn't ever happened. Based on his real career he should have roughly six more seasons barring injury. Those six seasons are going to be huge in whether or not Gibson makes the Hall of Fame or not. Craig Kimbrel has 40 saves, a new International League record. After several mediocre seasons, Bob Dandrige has put it all together in 1975, hitting in the 340's and is sitting 3rd in the batting title race. Last edited by David Watts; 11-05-2025 at 09:30 AM.

11-09-2025, 05:53 PM	#139
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Carl Yastrzemski entered the league at the age of 20 in 1951. Over his first 2 seasons he would start a grand total of 16 games. He would then explode onto the scene in 1953, hitting .339 with 20 home runs, driving in 86 runs. From this season forward Yaz would hit above .300 for the next 8 seasons. In 1958, Carl would start 142 games, scoring 114 runs, drill 40 doubles, 35 home runs, while driving in 120 runs. He would win the batting title in 58 as well, hitting an amazing .394. He would also lead the league with a .491 OBP and in slugging pct .673. He finished the season with 11.0 WAR. Yastrzemski started 3426 games during his career. Over 13185 at bats, Yaz would hit 294, .389, .474. He would finish his career with 109.2 WAR. Yastzemski finished his stellar career with 3874 hits, 728 doubles and 506 home runs. He scored 2109 runs and drove in 2019 runs. Yastrzemski was a 17 time player of the week. A 10 time batter of the month. Carl would win one most valuable player award(1958). He picked up 2 Silver Slugger awards. Yaz won the league championship 3 times. He made the all-star game 13 times Yastrzemski's teams (Corpus Christi and Peoria) played in the postseason 12 times. Yaz would play in 91 postseason games, totaling 331 at bats. He smacked 90 hits, 14 doubles, 2 triples and 15 home runs. He scored 49 times and drove in 53 runs. He hit .272, .370, 462 during postseason play. JAWS--80.9 Black Ink--16 Gray Ink--201 HOF Standards--58 HOF Monitor--156 Last edited by David Watts; Yesterday at 09:39 AM.

10-23-2025, 10:10 AM	#121
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	The two division winners advanced to the 1973 League Championship series. Louisville swept St. Paul in a series that was over before one could blink. Cedar Rapids defeated Birmingham 4 games to 1 to advance to the championship round. The first game of the League Championship Series was a doozy. Pitching ruled the day in a big way in a game that would take 19 innings to decide. Neither team scored a run for 18 innings, before the visiting Redbirds pushed across 2 runs in the top of the 19th inning. Cedar Rapids would go quietly in the bottom half of the 19th, giving Louisville a 1 game lead in the series. The Cedar Rapids bats would stay silent again in game 2 of the series. 28 innings without scoring a run. The home fans in Iowa were stunned to say the least. What happened to their teams ability to hit and score runs? Louisville fans meanwhile were loving it. The brooms weren't even in the closet yet from the wild card sweep and their Redbirds were out to a 2-0 series lead and the two wins came on the road to boot. Game 3 in Louisville the Cedar Rapids Kernels bats arrived an then some. The Kernels scored 10 runs total in the game with the scoring getting under way when leadoff batter Bobby Murcer went yard for his 4th home run of the post season. The Kernels would tie series at 2 games a piece by winning game 4. So far all the wins in the series have been by the road teams.

10-23-2025, 10:37 AM	#122
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Thinking I may do final expansion following the 1974 season. If I expand, my league will feature 18 teams with two 9 team divisions. I will probably add 2 more wild card teams to the fray, which will allow the 2 division teams to have a bye in the first round. The wild card teams will play a best of 3 in the top seeds home park. No off days. I love post season baseball, so even though I'm not a massive fan of wild cards in real life, I like them in my leagues, as it gives me more games to enjoy. The team I will add to the Northern Division is the Great Lakes Loons. Since I grew up in Michigan, I will be moving the Loons to Saginaw instead their high class real life home in Midland. As for the Southern Division expansion team, I haven't quite made up my mind yet. If by chance the Baby Cakes hat and jersey still come with OOTP 26, New Orleans is probably the front runner. Other choices are the Chattanooga Lookouts, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Gwinnett Stripers and the Montgomery Biscuits.

10-24-2025, 09:27 AM	#123
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	The Louisville Redbirds are the 1973 International League Champions. This is the Redbirds second championship. Tris Speaker once again is the leagues batting average leader. Speaker hit .387 on the season, as the season proved to be too long for him to sustain that .400 average. Buck Freeman took home MVP honors in 73, ending Tris Speakers run of 7 straight MVP awards. Wonder if anyone will ever even come close to 7 straight again? That is a flat out amazing run. Freeman hit 49 home runs and drove in 119 with a 320+ average. Jose Mendez won his 3rd Cy Young Award in a row and the 7th of his career. Mendez who reached 300 wins at age 39 also led the league in strikeouts. Moises Alou and Lou Warneke were the two most notable players on the list of retirees. Alou had a long and productive career that saw him join the 3000 hit club in his final season. Warneke won well over 200 games, pitching most of his career as a starter, before moving to the bullpen, with a few good years in a closing role. Both are Hall of Famers in my book. Goose Goslin and John Titus were this years inductees into the International League Hall of Fame. Speaking of Hall of Fame, I'm really starting to get ticked that Al Oliver continues to come up short in the voting. 8 years now and still no induction. This year his total was around 67%. Oliver was just a steady and consistent player over his entire career. He is a member of the 3000 hit club. On the down side, he only managed around 48 WAR over his long career, so that could be why he's not getting the needed votes. He's also not to high in all the Hall of Fame ink and such factors.

10-24-2025, 09:39 AM	#124
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Started the 74 season. Simmed to June 1st as normal. Hilton Smith is now a member of the 200 wins club. David Ortiz now has 400 career home runs. Jose Mendez got hurt during Spring Training and missed the first two months of the season. His first game pitched was on June 1st. David Ortiz is off to an incredible start to the season. As of June 10th he's hitting a league best .393. Ortiz is 40 years old. He does have one batting title to his name, but I don't think anyone seen this coming at all. Will be interesting to see if he can stay hot all season.

10-25-2025, 12:15 AM	#125
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	June 25th 1964, Jose Mendez strikes out Dan Driessen for strikeout number 4000 of his great career. Dude is a machine.

10-25-2025, 08:20 AM	#126
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	07/01/1974 Fred Clarke gets hit number 3000. The 39 year old has a career .291 average with a .361OBP. Clarke has scored 1540 times and driven in 1319 runs. Clarke has 324 home runs and 75 career WAR.

10-28-2025, 08:14 PM	#128
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	September 10, 1974 John Beckwith hits home run number 500 off of Dolf Luque. Beckwith is 38 years old. He missed all of 1973 due to injury and 1974 has turned out to be a miserable season for the veteran. He's hitting .183 with a .283 OBP good for an amazing -1.6WAR. That being said, the 500 home runs puts him among the power elite.

10-29-2025, 09:59 AM	#129
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Another player having his worst season ever is Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz is nearing the end of a 1st ballot Hall of Fame career that's seen him tally 3700+ hits. He looked like he just might finish his career with a .300 average, but the last few seasons lowered his career average to right around .295.

10-30-2025, 09:39 AM	#130
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	The Biloxi Shuckers made their first post season appearance in 1974 by finishing in first place in the Southern Division. That first appearance was over in a hurry, as they lost 4 straight to the Cedar Rapid Kernels in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Peoria Chiefs beat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 4 games to 2 in the other first round series. Peoria won the their third league championship, defeating Cedar Rapids 4 games to 2. Tris Speaker took home MVP honors in both of the Chief's playoff series, hitting 400+ for the post season. Carl Yastrzmski had a great post season as well, driving in runs in almost every game. It will be interesting to see if this is the last season for Yaz. I'm hoping he returns and gets some playing time, as he only lacks 12 home runs to reach 500. Added the two expansion clubs before leaving for work this morning. The Great Lakes Loons in the Northern Division and the New Orleans Baby Cakes in the Southern Division. 1975 will be season 30 for the International League and we will celebrate it with 2 new teams and a expanded playoff setup.

10-31-2025, 10:19 AM	#131
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Glad to report that Al Oliver finally got inducted into the International League Hall of Fame. Took too long, but all is right in the end. The expansion draft went smoothly. Surprisingly, the preseason predictions have the expansion New Orleans Baby Cakes finishing in second place in the Southern Division. I will believe it when I see it and maybe not even then. Meanwhile, the predictions have the Great Lakes Loons losing 118 games. Ugh! The preseason predictions also have Nap Lajoie hitting .397. Anxious to see how close that prediction is. Carl Yastrzmski is back for another season and he's in the starting lineup. Looks like he will have a shot at 500 home runs. He should reach 3800+ hits during the 75 season as well. Jose Mendez also returned for another season. John Beckwith retired with exactly 500 home runs.

11-01-2025, 10:28 AM	#132
Bill Veeck Minors (Single A) Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 60	How happy are you with the overall setup you employed and the way it’s turned out?

11-02-2025, 02:38 PM	#134
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	06/20/1975 Carl Yastrzemski nails his 500th home run against the Arkansas Travelers. Yaz is a hit away from 3800. He has an amazing 708 doubles and lacks 29 RBI from reaching 2000. Carl has scored 2053 runs over his 25 year career.

11-05-2025, 12:05 PM	#136
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Mentioned above that Harry Davis has 41 home runs. Davis also has 30 stolen bases. Can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure this makes Davis my very first 30-30 guy.

11-06-2025, 09:16 AM	#137
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Received word this morning that Carl Yastrzemski will be hanging up his spikes following the 1975 season. Yaz is a sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer. With one day left in the 1975 season Carl's team, the Peoria Chiefs still have a slim chance to nab the final wild card slot. Would be fun to see him get one more crack at the post season. The new playoff system in place for 1975 is drawing jeers and cheers amongst International League fans. Some feel there are too many teams making the post season now and claim that the race for the post season is watered down because of it. Others love the fact that September has been one meaningful game after another, with as many as eight teams vying for the the four wild card slots. All 4 of the wild card slots have com down to the final day of the season. Wisconsin won the Northern Division by sweeping the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the final week of the season. The Kernels demise continued as they then fell behind the Dayton Dragons in the standings, allowing the Dragons to clinch the 3rd wild card slot. Cedar Rapids still has a chance for the final wild card slot on the final day of the season. The Memphis Redirds clinched first place in the Southern Division. Meanwhile, the Corpus Christi Hooks and the Arkansas Travelers nabbed wild card slots 1 and 2. The Hooks finished the season with 89 wins, one game better than the Travelers. Amazing thing is, the Hooks manager sat both Harry Davis and Mark McGwire on the final day of the season. The Hooks still managed to pull out the victory to nail down the top spot in the wild card race. Bob Gibson nailed down his 20th victory in the final weekend of the season.

11-08-2025, 12:42 AM	#138
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Pretty cool. Mel Ott and Jim Thome both entered the league in 1949. Both players retired in 1970. Both enter the Hall of Fame together as part of the 1976 class. Love it.

Today, 10:46 AM	#140
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 9,851 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Ah the calm before the storm. The 1976 season is such a blah year in terms of offense, but one knows lurking in the very near future is the beast called 1977. Can't wait to see if the single season home run(58) record withstands 1977. We have some guys that can clearly give that record a run for the money. Mark McGwire, Cecil Fielder, Bob Horner, Harry Davis, Jim Gentile are the main guys that come to mind, but there will always be surprises along the way.