Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

Three errors led to a pair of unearned runs by Baltimore, but Gaylord Perry pitched very well tonight, allowing just 4 hits and a walk in seven innings as he got the win. Looking back he was the guy that I pulled from the rotation after his rookie year because I didn't think he had what it takes to make it as a starter. I'm certainly glad I gave him another chance though.

Frank Robinson picked up 2 hits tonight, while doubling and scoring a run. Tony Oliva was 3-5 with a stolen base, and Vic Davalillo picked up a pair of runs.

Chris Short came in to pitch a hitless two innings for the save.

[NYY #23]

There certainly is nothing like a 15 inning World Series game to liven up the series. Unfortunately we came out on the losing end of the game, but hats off to the Orioles.

First, hats off to Mike de la Hoz who went 5-7 with 5 RBI tonight, including a second inning grand slam. The Mets jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, but the Orioles just wouldn't give up.

Down 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth the O's got to Chris Short who picked up the blown save.

When we scored in the 13th I thought the game was over, but the Orioles came right back in the bottom of the 13th to tie the game again.

The Orioles finally scored the winning run in the bottom of the 15th.

We had the early lead, and lots of opportunities picking up 16 hits, but the series is now tied at 1.

[NYY #23]

There really wasn't much to say about Game 3. Mel Stottlemyre gave up 8 runs in 6 2/3 innings while Don Drysdale shut down the Mets in a 10-3 blowout.

The Orioles now lead the World Series 2 games to 1.

[NYY #23]

The Mets jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and Phil Niekro pitched 8 strong innings before leaving the game with a 5-2 lead.

Chris Short came in to close the door on the Orioles - the same Chris Short with 64 saves the past two years. But four hits and a walk led to three Oriole runs and sent the game into extra innings.

The second extra inning game of the World Series went 12, with Mike de la Hoz hitting a walk off home run in the bottom of the twelfth, his second of the game. De la Hoz was 3-5 for the night with 4 RBI and is hitting .500 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI in the World Series.

It's all tied up once again.

[NYY #23]

It was another wild game as Fergie Jenkins picked up the win while hitting a home run. Jim Gentile added a solo shot.

Mr. October - Mike de la Hoz was 2-4 with a triple, 2 RBI, and a run scored.

The Mets are now just one win away from a World Series victory.

[NYY #23]

I really wanted to win Game 6, not wanting to take a chance in Game 7.

Gaylord Perry did his part with 7 strong innings, but Don Drysdale shut us down once again.

We managed just 5 hits all night, and our season will depend on Mel Stottlemyre, who you'll remember didn't instill confidence after his first World Series start. Hopefully our bats can pick us up against Nick Willhite, who was 15-11 with a 3.36 ERA in the regular season.

[NYY #23]

Mel Stottlemyre entered tonight's World Series game with a 10.80 ERA and needed to pitch a good game in the winner take all Game 7.

9 innings, 3 hits, and 10 strikeouts later Stottlemyre became the World Series hero after the shutout that won the World Series for the Mets.

Frank Robinson hit two solo home runs tonight as the Mets win the World Series in their fourth year of existence.

I'll be back to wrap up my time with the Mets before moving on to my next destination.

[NYY #23]

And now the big question is did I save before or after the game? It appears my laptop wasn't charging and my adaptor finally died. It powered down with the game up, so I won't know until I pick up a new adapter whether game 7 was valid or not. Hopefully I'll find one tomorrow.

Edit - Luckily I saved so everything is good, and I'm ready to move on from the Mets.

[NYY #23]

From expansion to World Series in 4 years the New York Mets became the 13th World Series champion. It's always fun to take a team from nothing and get to build them up. After three bad years things finally jelled this year, which was fun to see.

I expected a .500 team, but our pitching finally came together and we made a big improvement in year 4.

New York Mets - 0-0 (.000) - GB
1962 - New York Mets 61-101 (.377) 37 GB (Season Score - 1)
1963 - New York Mets 78-84 (.481) 14.5 GB (Season Score - 11)
1964 - New York Mets 74-88 (.457) 27 GB (Season Score - 1)
1965 - New York Mets 96-66 (.593) - GB (Won World Series 4-3 over Orioles, Season Score - 100)

[NYY #23]

Technically I'm breaking one of my rules as the Washington Senators finished with a 63-99 record, and the Yankees finished 64-98.

But with four original teams remaining I wanted to take advantage of the Yankees bad season to check off one of the four, and with only a game between the Senators and Yankees I figure it was worth it, especially because they have the extra challenge of being in bad shape financially. Maybe if this was the original Senators..

The Yankees feature a young rotation that features 19 year old Larry Dierker, 26 year old Denny Lemaster, 25 year old Mickey Lolich, and 21 year old Denny McLain.

While our rotation appears set, according to the OSA the Yankees have weaknesses at every other position but shortstop, with 19 year old Bobby Murcer hitting .255 as our starting shortstop last year.

I agree with their assessment on every position except left field, where 22 year old Lou Piniella hit .260 with 9 home runs last year.

Everyone else will be fair game as we try to upgrade the worst offense in the American League.

My first order of business is to fill my vacant scouting position and get ready for the Amateur Draft.

[NYY #23]

This amateur draft was going to be tricky because the Yankees didn't have a lot of budget room for our draft picks and both our budget and payroll is 20th out of 20 teams in the majors. Not very Yankee like.

With the second pick in the draft the Yankee selected centerfielder Rick Monday with 1B George Scott our first pick in the second round. 2B John Donaldson was our third round pick, with outfielder/first baseman Ron Stone picked in the fourth round, reliever Steve Carlton picked in the fifth round, with reliever Pete Magrini and left fielder Greg Sims our final pick.

I wish that we were getting Steve Carlton the 300 game winner, but he doesn't appear to have the stamina necessary.

New scout Barney Miller was brought aboard before the draft in a one year deal. I'm not crazy about him, but he was the best option.

[NYY #23]

It was a relatively quiet offseason as I was unable to make any deals with the Yankees due to our budget deficit of almost $400,000. I was careful to draft players who would sign for a slot bonus, or close to it, but that wouldn't cut it for our top pick Rick Monday. He held out for more money, and my owner approved the deal so all of our draft picks were signed.

Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to make any trades that made sense as I was unable to take on salary, and my payroll is already stripped to the core. With a payroll $300K less than the next highest team and almost half my payroll tied to my rotation and Murcer no deal really made much sense.

Hopefully we'll be able to put some fans back in the seats after a ten year low:

[NYY #23]

Pitching and defense has been key to the Yankees 10-5 start that sees us start off in third place, just a game behind the Twins. We've still got some holes, but with a strong rotation I think we're heading in the right direction.

Bobby Murcer won the Rookie of the Month after hitting .310 with 3 home runs, 15 RBI, and 9 runs scored.

Joe Adcock of the Red Sox hit the 500th home run of his career.

[NYY #23]

While the Yankees had a losing month going 14-16 we still are over .500 for the season with a 24-21 record and sit in third place, although we are 9 games out of first place.

Bobby Murcer won another Rookie of the Month Award after hitting .284 with 4 doubles, 5 triples, and 4 home runs with 18 RBI.

Our attendance is up 67% this year though, so I think we are heading in the right direction at least.

Harvey Haddix of the Reds won his 200th career game, while Eddie Mathews of the Braves picked up his 2000th career hit.

[NYY #23]

The Yankees returned to losing with a 11-19 month as we've fallen into eighth place, under .500, and 15 games out of first place.

Injuries struck this month as we lost starting third baseman George Banks and reliever Tug McGraw. While we need some help I expect the trade deadline to be quiet. We don't have enough chips to make a big deal.

Steve Bilko of the Cardinals collected his 2000th career hit and Eddie Yost of the Twins picked up his 2500th hit.

[NYY #23]

The Yankees broke even this month with a 15-15 record. Rick Monday had his first big month hitting .320 with 6 home runs and 17 RBI, earning the Rookie of the Month Award. Monday hit safely in 20 straight games during the month.

Denny McLain pitched a no-hitter this month in a 1-0 victory over the Washington Senators.

The All-Star team wasn't too kind to our pitching staff though, or are team in general. Our pitchers were shut out and Bobby Murcer was our only representative.

Ted Lepcio of the Red Sox picked up career hit number 2000.

[NYY #23]

The Yankees had another 15-15 month as we jumped into a tie for third place. The American League is really Minnesota and Cleveland - then everyone else as we sit 22 games back with the last place Angels just 7 games behind us.

Bobby Murcer won another Rookie of the Month Award after hitting .297 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI.

Don Drysdale of the Orioles beat the Yankees 5-2 this month for the 200th win of his career. Joe Adcock of the Red Sox picked up the 2500th hit of his career.

[NYY #23]

Well it only seems fitting that I passed on running the Senators who finished one game worse, and the Senators finished one game better than the Yankees.

It was an interesting season though, as the Indians went 102-60 to finish in second place to the Twins who went 104-58. The Twins will take on the Pirates who finished 93-69 in the World Series.

We've got a young team though, with the core of our offense (Bobby Murcer, Lou Piniella, George Scott, and Rick Monday) young. Even Sandy Alomar, Sr. and Jose Cardenal are young and didn't play too poorly. We've got a couple of holes, but I'm happy with the team.

Our owner passed away this month, and turned over control to his son. Unlike his father, Jorge Solis Jr is demanding and fiscally controlling. Since our budget and payroll is already the lowest in the league I'm not sure what that could possibly mean.

Rocky Colavito of the Cardinals picked up career hit number 2000.

[NYY #23]

As the Minnesota Twins celebrated their World Series win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Yankees began a cleansing process with our coaching staff, taking advantage of expiring personnel contracts and retirements. The only member of our coaching staff that remains is our team trainer.

Hank Bauer was brought aboard as our new manager, Jon Schmidt as our bench coach, Tony Pacheco as our pitching coach, Raul Hernandez as our hitting coach, and Sean Whitaker as our new scout.

We headed into the draft picking seventh and enough budget room where we could pick the best overall player in the draft available, if we were going to be frugal the rest of the draft. We selected catcher Johnny Bench with our number one overall pick, and I expect he'll be in pinstripes next year.

I also expect that we won't be able to sign any of our other draft picks, unless they are willing to except slot, so I tried to keep that in mind during the draft, but I'm 99% positive we won't be able to sign them all. The picks were left fielder Joe Rudi in the second round, relievers Don Shaw, Billy Wynne, and Alan Foster, followed by catcher Hank Izquierdo.

If we can sign Bench I'll be happy though as he'll help to plug a big need.

New York Yankees - 64-98 (.395) 35 GB
1966 - New York Yankees 77-85 (.475) 27 GB (Season Score - 3)

[NYY #23]

While the offseason isn't over yet, it is for the Yankees unless something unexpected happens. Johnny Bench agreed to a deal early, but both Joe Rudi and Alan Foster were holding out for more money.

I faced a tough choice, either making a trade to free up more money, or fail to sign them both. I had a deal all worked out that would have freed up some money, but it would have required trading both Denny Lemaster and George Banks. There would have been a small upgrade at third base coming back, but it was mostly a salary dump to sign Joe Rudi.

In the end I just didn't think it was worth it though, and passed on the deal. We'll take the compensation pick next year for our second round pick.