Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

If anything I do have faith in Milt Pappas and Mike McCormick. Tonight my dynamic duo combined for a 6 hitter, allowing just one run. Pappas pitched the first seven innings to pick up the win, while McCormick came on for the last two innings. I probably haven't talked much about McCormick, but having someone at the end of the bullpen who can pitch 100 innings while striking out over 100 batters and an ERA under 2.00 has been great. He did tonight what he's been doing all year.

While the Reds won by 6, it didn’t feel like a blowout at all. It was 3-1 heading into the 8th inning, and the fact that we scored four runs late did little to comfort me those first seven innings.

The home run was our friend tonight though, with Joe Koppe, Earl Averill, Harmon Killebrew, Gus Triandos, and Larry Doby all hitting home runs. We had seven hits, and five home runs. All of our runs came on the long ball, but a win is a win and we're up in the World Series.

[NYY #23]

Today's game featured Harvey Haddix on the mound against the guy I've been trying to deal for, 25 year old Mudcat Grant. Mudcat was 13-3 last year with a 3.38 ERA, and 21-7 with a 3.36 ERA this year. I never was able to come up with a good enough package to acquire him though, but I got my revenge tonight.

Harvey Haddix didn't pitch great, but pitched well enough to win. He allowed 11 hits, but held the Sox to just three runs, two earned. A couple key double plays saved the game for him.

Harmon Killebrew hit his second home run of the series tonight, and the Reds won 6-3 as we head back home with a 2-0 series lead.

[NYY #23]

Tonight was Art Ditmar's turn to dominate, as he held the Reds to 5 hits and 1 run to pick up the victory. Ditmar was 12-6 with a 4.49 ERA this year, so I thought we could get to him, but we couldn't put anything together.

Whitey Ford was awful today, allowing 6 runs in 5 innings and the Red Sox got on the board early and often. Funk and Monzant combined for 4 scoreless innings of relief, but the damage was done and the Red Sox won 6-1 and we now lead the series 2-1.

[NYY #23]

Coming into Game 4 with Joe Margoneri on the mound I pictured things falling apart. Margoneri hasn't been the most consistent pitcher this year, and my big fear was dropping games 4 & 5 and heading on the road in a must win game 6. He's lost my confidence this year, but tonight I was pleasantly surprised after he pitched 8 1/3 solid innings.

Mickey Mantle's second inning home run put us up 3-0 and the Reds were able to hold on to a 5-2 victory and are now one win away from winning the World Series.

Mike McCormick came in during the ninth with one out to get out of a jam and pick up his second save of the series.

[NYY #23]

With Milt Pappas on the mound against Mudcat Grant I was expecting a pitching duel, and we did have one after both starters exited the game before the third inning was finished.

Pappas had a dreadful first inning where the Red Sox scored 5 runs, but I didn't know at the time they would be the last Red Sox runs of the game.

Harmon Killebrew singled home our first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning after Matty Alou walked and stole second. Earl Averill hit a two run home run in the bottom of the second, and Bobby Adams, in the game because of an injury exit by Gene Freese, hit a sacrifice fly as the Reds scored 3 in the second.

Earl Averill hit his second two-run home run in the 3rd and the Reds took a 6-5 lead, and that would be it for the scoring today.

Funk, Monzant, & McCormick sounds more like a law firm, but tonight they combined to pitch 7 shutout innings. For the World Series they combined for 14 shutout innings with 1 win and 3 saves.

[NYY #23]

After five years in Cincinnati my mission is complete and the Reds won the World Series, the 12th team on this journey, and the first with the new league file. It hasn't been bad in Cincinnati though, as we had four pretty decent years. The White Sox gave us fits in the World Series, but we snuck into the World Series for the third year in a row, and ended up beating the Red Sox.

We had a lot of "big names" come through Cincinnati, but their names exceeded their numbers for the most part. The Reds should have a pretty good core though moving forward, with 21 year old Milt Pappas looking like he'll be great. But their age is beginning to show, and they'll need a little bit of work to stay competitive.

Two players were elected to the Hall of Fame this year -

Enos Slaughter




Bob Feller



With the expansion era now among us and the Indians the worst team in the league it seems natural that I'll take over an expansion team next.

The choices -

1961 Angels
1961 Senators (Rangers)
1962 Colt 45's (Astros)
1962 Mets

I used random.org to choose my next destination with the teams number 1 though 4 (Angels =1, Mets =4) and the first number that came up 3 times would be my next destination.

The results were 4-1-4-1-3-1-4.

So that's that, and we'll pick up with the 1961 expansion draft running the New York Mets. That works out pretty well because I was the Angels from the beginning in round 1, and I've never run the Mets before.

Cincinnati Reds - 59-95 (.383) 40 GB
1956 - Cincinnati Reds 63-91 (.409) 20 GB (Season Score - 1)
1957 - Cincinnati Reds 86-68 (.558) 4 GB (Season Score - 58)
1958 - Cincinnati Reds 84-71 (.542) - GB (Lost World Series 4-1 to White Sox, Season Score - 34)
1959 - Cincinnati Reds 96-58 (.623) - GB (Lost World Series 4-3 to White Sox, Season Score - 81)
1960 - Cincinnati Reds 88-66 (.571) - GB (Won World Series 4-1 over Red Sox, Season Score - 78)

[NYY #23]

I thought I'd check in with the expansion draft to see how the Angels and Senators fared.

The Reds lost a few decent players, with Billy Klaus, Roberto Clemente, Larry Doby, and Bobby Shantz among the eight players that were drafted.

Sam McDowell and Dean Chance were the first two players drafted in the amateur draft.





I also never mentioned the Reds' Awards, which were limited to Manager of the Year and Gold Gloves for 2B Gene Friese, 3B Harmon Killebrew, and RF Matty Alou.

[NYY #23]

Checking in on the 1961 season as I sit this one out waiting for the Mets, the Orioles and Braves are leading the league, while the Reds sit in second 5 1/2 games out. I can't help but notice my former first baseman Gus Triandos hitting .345 with 31 home runs, or Roberto Clemente leading the AL with a .359 batting average. It's pretty amazing that the expansion Angels traded a 26 year old hitting .361 at the time to the Royals in exchange for a reliever, Dolan Nichols, who was 6-7 with a 4.71 ERA, at the age of 31.

I keep wondering what the AI is missing about Clemente, who is hitting .311 for his career with 79 home runs, and is decent defensively. Surely he's more valuable than a middle reliever that isn't even pitching well.

But Clemente will join Hank Aaron in Kansas City, who had a 20 game hitting streak this year and is hitting .307 with 14 home runs.

George Kell of the Red Sox picked up career hit number 2500, while Eddie Yost of the Twins got his 2000th hit.

[NYY #23]

With the playoffs over I've now officially taken control of the New York Mets. The Orioles won the 1961 World Series this year over the Milwaukee Braves 4 games to 2. The Braves won the National League by 4 games over the Reds.

Gus Triandos won the batting title in the American League with a .332 average, while his 39 home runs where second, and his 107 RBI were third. I can't help but think if the Reds had his 5.8 WAR instead of Bill Glynn's -0.5 WAR they might have repeated. Milt Pappas did pitch a no-hitter for the Reds this year.

Billy Pierce of the White Sox won his 200th career game this year.

Hal Newhouser was elected to the Hall of Fame this year.



Ted Williams was also elected to the Hall of Fame.



As I take the one day to get ready for the expansion draft, my first order of business with the Mets was to clean house of our coaching staff and scouting director. (I seriously don't know why they come into the league with a full staff - I didn't like any of them though.)

[NYY #23]

The New York Mets made history today with their first pick in the amateur draft, making Vinegar Bend Mizell the first New York Met. The 31 year old was 11-9 with a 4.68 ERA last year.

We paired him with Frank Sullivan who was 9-12 with a 4.09 ERA last year for the Red Sox. 29 year old Jim Bunning was our third pick, while 29 year old Charlie Rabe was our fourth pick taking pitchers with our first four picks.

I'll spare you the rest of the details, because quite honestly we just aren't that good, but I looked for guys that could somewhat pitch and guys that could play defense.

Our batters:




Out pitchers:



There isn't one keeper on the team though, so this will be a slow process.

[NYY #23]

Our first order of business was to fill out our staff, with our new scouting director Paul Craig, manager Lou Boudreau, bench coach Tony Pacheco, pitching coach Fernando Villegas, hitting coach Mike Russell, and trainer Jamie Walker. I feel bad for every one of them too, because they don't have much to work with either.

We offered every available free agent a contract, which was about 15, and at this point only catcher Gordon MacKenzie signed with the Mets. I didn't notice it at the time, but that means our catching duties will be handled by the MacKenzie brothers - Gordan and Eric (who I don't believe are actual brothers)

If every draft has a theme this one was how Tony Oliva turned into Denny Lemaster. Tony Oliva was the guy who I wanted to pick second overall, and I must not have clicked the draft player button before auto drafting to my next pick. So Denny Lemaster is now the man in New York, our "ace". The future which we'll build around, or something like that. I'm really not happy about our draft at all. I have a feeling that the Mets are going to have a historically bad offense.

SP Denny Lemaster
MR Gaylord Perry
MR Hank Fischer
MR Jack Lamabe
MR Cecil Butler
1B Tommie Aaron

[NYY #23]

I'd love to say I spent the offseason improving the team, but I don't even have the trade chips to do that. I did sign a bunch of free agents, who just may end up starting for the Mets. That doesn't make them good though.

The Mets did finish spring training with a 10-14 record, 4 games ahead of the Colt 45's. The preseason predictions also see us finishing 4 games ahead of Houston with a 57-105 record. Our pitching is predicted to be the eighth best in the league, while our offense is projected to be last in the league. Looks like we're predicted to be outscored 840-591.

It'll be a long year.

[NYY #23]

The Mets started off in last place with a 5-14 record, just 9 1/2 games out of first place.

Denny Lemaster has been pretty good so far with a 3.68 ERA, and about the only player on the team worth watching.

[NYY #23]

The wheeling and dealing starts. We shipped off 38 year old Gil Hodges and 34 year old pitcher Johnny Gray to the Giants in exchange for 31 year old catcher Ed Bailey and 27 year old reliever Eli Grba.

Our fans weren't happy we dealt Hodges, although he was hitting .038 so I'm not sure how they could have been too upset.

Despite not having the stamina we've thrown Gaylord Perry into the rotation, and he's been 2-4 with a 3.12 ERA as a starter. 6 starts and 34 2/3 innings isn't too bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he can hack it.

Bob Turley of the Orioles pitched a no-hitter this month, while Eddie Mathews of the Braves hit his 300th career home run.

[NYY #23]

At least our bullpen has the lowest ERA in the league. That's about the only positive on this team though as the Mets continue to take our lumps.

Al Rosen of the Orioles picked up the 2000th hit of his career.

[NYY #23]

The Mets made a trade with the Red Sox, sending SP Vinegar Bend Mizell, CF Harry Simpson, and LF Roy Sievers to Boston and getting back 23 year old shortstop Mike de la Hoz, 23 year old right fielder Vada Pinson, and 25 year old second baseman Julian Javier.

While Vinegar has pitched pretty well, we're trying to get younger and hopefully better any way we can.

The trade didn't pay immediate dividends though, as we were 4-25 in July. Jack Lamabe did go to the All-Star game though as our only representative.

But it's not about this year for the Mets, so if we can pick up a potentially valuable piece for the future I'm willing to sacrifice a couple of wins.

[NYY #23]

The Mets went 17-13 for the month, which was encouraging. We were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs though.

New addition Mike de la Hoz hit .328 for the month with 8 home runs, and hit for the cycle in a 7-6 win over the Phillies. Maybe we do have one keeper now.

[NYY #23]

The Mets wrap up year one with a 101 loss season, 37 games behind the Reds. At least we beat Houston by 11 games, and Houston was a rival this month. Jack Lamabe and Art Houtteman were each suspended in separate fights with the Colt 45's.

Richie Ashburn of the Phillies reached 2500 hits for his career, as did Duke Snider of the Dodgers. Joe Adcock of the Red Sox reached 2000 hits.

[NYY #23]

Year one is in the books, and not so surprisingly none of the Mets were honored with awards. Two players decided to retire rather than suffer with the Mets, 2B Bobby Adams and CF Jim Busby.

Our pitching coach left expectedly because he was signed to just a one year contract. His replacement at pitching coach was Jimmy Dykes, my former Reds manager. My scout also decided to retire after just one year with the team. He passed up on 3 years of his contract so he must have hated it in New York too. Jean-Louis Martineau was brought in as our new scout.

The Orioles defeated the Reds in the World Series 4-2.

The Mets picked third in the amateur draft, and our choice came down to Denny McClain, Dick Allen, Pete Rose, or Joe Morgan. We ended up taking Joe Morgan with our top pick. Our second round selection was right fielder Tommie Agee. Centerfielder Vic Davalillo was picked in the third round, outfielder Sam Bowens, catcher Ron Brand, and third baseman Ted Schreiber rounding out the draft.

We went with all offense in the draft because I think that's where we need the most help since we only managed to score 527 runs all year.

New York Mets - 0-0 (.000) - GB
1962 - New York Mets - 61-101 (.377) 37 GB (Season Score - 1)

[NYY #23]

The Mets began this year like we ended last year, with a 6-14 record, and currently sit in last place.

Gaylord Perry has started off poorly losing all four of his starts. Joe Morgan is hitting .200, and looks overmatched. Even our defense is playing poorly. Expansion baseball at it's best (or worst).