Season 38 (2056) - Doing the Thing (Discussion)

[JasonC23]

For the 12th time, Huntley has advanced to the Perfect League Series! After the 18- and 16-inning epics that were games 2 and 3, the Red Raiders won regular ol' 9-inning affairs in games 4 and 5, taking the Sub-League Series from the San Francisco Irish, 4 games to 1!

Huntley's opponent is yet to be determined; the Summit Dirigibles lead the AC Sub-League Series, 3-2, over the Flagstaff 49ers. Huntley's pitching staff would heartedly support a game 7, so here's hoping Flagstaff can extend that series to the max!

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

The only other AC team with Perfect League titles is a familiar one to Huntley; AC East resident and 2-time Perfect League champion Summit Dirigibles, who, back in 2049, finished 8 games behind the Red Raiders but then knocked them off in the Division Series in 5...

Fast-forward to 2056, and Huntley will have its chance for revenge, as they meet the Summit Dirigibles in the P448 Perfect League Series! Summit impressively dispatched the Flagstaff 49ers in 6 to advance to the series. The Dirigibles are going for back-to-back titles, as they won it all in 2055. The starting rotation features 2 pitchers with >7 WAR, Carl Hubbell and Tim Keefe, and Greg Maddux (37 saves) is the closer. The lineup, pictured below, is as impressive a collection of the awesome Negro Leagues card set as I've seen. The Red Raiders will face a stiff challenge; here's hoping home-field advantage helps!

[macacks]

The Warbirds blew a 4.5 game lead in September to the LA Rams (6X PL) to finish with a WC spot (130 wins)

WildCard win? check
Division win? Down 2-0 to those same LA Rams the Warbirds win 3 straight to Win!
Semi Final win? Once again the Warbirds win 3 Straight to advance to another PL final.

Have the 6 straight elimination game wins finally built the resiliency to win another PL title or are the Warbirds on borrowed time.

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

The Red Raiders will face a stiff challenge; here's hoping home-field advantage helps!

Spoiler alert...it did! Huntley has a 2-0 lead in the Perfect Series, with a 6-2 win in game 1 behind solid work from a (fully rested!) Ed Walsh (7.2 IP, 1 ER) and a homer off the bat of Yogi Berra, and a 2-1 10-inning win in game 2. Here is that fateful 10th inning...

[Magus978]

Of all the teams I have in perfect, I did not expect the Blitzkrieg Boppers to be the one that gets me to a perfect WS for the very first time. I thought Steelport would have done it, but once again they have their hearts broken in the playoffs.

Be that as it may, the Boppers are 1-1 in the WS against the megawhale Dallas Renegades, and I'm not liking my chances. The Boppers go as far as Curt Schilling, Eppa Rixey, and Van Mungo will take them, and with Schilling taking the loss in game 2, I don't feel like I can win. Just shows how vengeful RNGjesus can be. $150 on Steelport gets them an LCS loss to a team they probably should have beat, while $0 and no attention gets Blitzkrieg to the WS where they are a huge underdog.

Figure that one out, kids. I guess we go again next week?

[Orcin]

When you're hot... you're hot.

136-26 in the regular season, +601 run diff

We swept the first round and won the second round 4-1. Finals Game 4 was tied 0-0; Towers of the Dub pitcher Dave Stieb had a no-hitter through eight. Joe DiMaggio walked to lead off the top of ninth for the Colonels. Babe Ruth followed with a double to score Joe D from first. And... we won it 1-0 with only one hit, finishing a sweep of the finals.

[pappyzan]

2 FTP teams both going for their 1st PL title in P433. This is 0$ Senators 2nd shot at it, no idea on Fayetteville how many times they made WS in PL.

[JasonC23]

With an 8-6 win in game 3, Huntley was one game away from a sweep and evening its record in Perfect League Series to 6-6. But Summit won a pitcher's duel in game 4, 2-1 (Red Raiders' Roger Clemens: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, but the Dirigibles' Lefty Grove: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K), and then took game 5, 5-3, so back to Huntley we go...

[Magus978]

Wasn't meant to be. The Blitzkrieg Boppers lose in 5 games to the Dallas Renegades. I remain a member of the 0 PL title club.

[neugey]

FINALLY won my first World Series at any level with my main squad! Went 11-2 in the playoffs to get a Diamond series badge!

SO MANY big performances this season from Chaos Wolves players:
- 97 SP Lefty Gomez led the league with 2.10 ERA, 258 K's and 0.98 WHIP and won pitcher of the year
- 95 SP Jake Arrieta led the league with 20 wins
- 84 2B Mark Loretta led the conference with .345 batting average
- 95 CL Todd Worrell led the league with 49 saves
- 91 CF Lenny Dykstra won a gold glove

I'm celebrating by purchasing my first-ever perfect card for this team - fellow champ 100 3B Anthony Rendon. But really I'm still in disbelief, I thought it probably wasn't going to happen for me in OOTP 20!

[scott1964]

Down 3 games to 1 in the sub league series, we come back. Almost there for my first WS title with Trenton.

[One Great Matrix]

I finally made it through a postseason tournament without losing a series. I'm quite tired, so I'll do a follow-up post tomorrow and/or over in the New York Flyers dynasty thread.

Felt great to finally win the finals.

[JasonC23]

Having lost the previous 2 games in the Perfect League Series, cutting its series lead to 3-2, the Huntley Red Raiders found themselves in the bottom of the 8th inning of game 6 trailing the Summit Dirigibles by that same amount. John Clarkson had done his job, limiting the Red Raiders to 6 hits and 2 runs in his 6.0 innings of work, and Dwight Gooden had pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning. With Gooden back on the mound, Huntley's Luke Appling stood at the plate to lead things off.

After battling Gooden for 6 pitches, Appling took a close pitch on a 3-2 count and got the call. Norm Cash followed and worked a 4-pitch walk of his own, and the Red Raiders were in business. Barry Bonds hit into a fielder's choice, with Cash out at second and pinch runner Jackie Robinson advancing to third. With runners at the corners and 1 out, Christian Yelich swung at the first pitch and lifted a high fly ball to Cristobal Torriente in center field. The moment the ball settled into the glove, Robinson took off from third and slid home ahead of the throw to tie the game at 3!

Now with 2 outs, Bonds at first, and the game tied, George Brett came to bat. On the first pitch, Bonds took off and slid in ahead of the tag, stealing second! After Gooden threw another ball, Brett swung at the 2-0 pitch and laced a single into the outfield. Bonds raced home and beat the throw, giving Huntley a 4-3 lead! The Red Raiders would plate one more on an error on a Mickey Mantle fly ball, and suddenly, instead of 6 outs away from a game 7, the Red Raiders were 3 outs away from championship number 6!

Mariano Rivera was summoned from the bullpen to relieve Curt Schilling (8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K) to nail down the save and the championship. Josh Gibson faced him, but Rivera got him looking on a 2-2 pitch. Torriente grounded out on the first pitch, and Huntley was one out away! Buck Leonard wasn't going to make it easy, though; on the seventh pitch of his at-bat, he grounded the 3-2 pitch through the infield, and the Dirigibles had life. Jackie Robinson came to the plate, representing the tying run. Rivera pitched, Jackie swung and missed; strike one. Rivera threw; Jackie swung and missed; strike two. Rivera threw a third pitch...

...and Jackie swung and missed for a third time. The Red Raiders had done it!

Huntley's sixth title was truly a team effort, if the postseason awards were any indication. The Red Raiders claimed no Great Gloves and no Platinum Sticks; no Huntley relievers received any votes for the Reliever of the Year Award; and the highest a Red Raider placed in the MVP Award voting was sixth. The only category that reflected the Red Raiders' success was the NC Pitcher of the Year Award, which was won by Huntley's Rube Waddell (21-5, 2.53 ERA, 217.1 IP, 234 K, 172 ERA+, 6.6 WAR), with rotation mates Ed Walsh (18-3, 2.30 ERA, 231.1 IP, 228 K, 0.89 WHIP, 1.1 BB/9, 189 ERA+, 8.4 WAR) and Curt Schilling (19-5, 2.15 ERA, 217.2 IP, 212 K, 202 ERA+, 6.5 WAR) finishing second and third in the voting.

Congrats to all 2056 champions! On to 2057!

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

2 FTP teams both going for their 1st PL title in P433. This is 0$ Senators 2nd shot at it, no idea on Fayetteville how many times they made WS in PL.

Congrats to Fayetteville for winning their 1st PL title, 4 games to 2. Maybe next time for the 0$ Senators.

[waittilnextyear]

Oh, so close...

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks have turbo-charged their team over the previous few weeks, adding luminaries like 100 Cy Young, 100 Red Ruffing, 100 Curt Schilling, SE Vida Blue, SE Harry Brecheen, 98 Kevin Brown, 100 Bob Gibson, 100 Trevor Hoffman, 99 Yogi Berra, 98 Cap Anson, 100 Lou Boudreau, 100 George Brett, 100 Ripken Jr, 90 Ozzie Smith, and 100 Willie Mays. This powerful side were able to get by my Frogs (4 games, Division series) and also the San Diego Toros (7 games, Sub-League series). But, they came up just a bit short to the F2P Layton Calicos after taking a 3-2 lead in the 2056 PL Series. It was the Calicos' first PL title. The Ducks are still searching...

Just for the benefit of other F2P'ers that might be out there striving, here is Layton's whale-slaying roster:

C - Smoky Burgess (86) // Gabby Hartnett (90)
1B - Rod Carew (87)
2B - Chase Utley (94) // Phil Rizzuto (93)
SS - Johnny Pesky (84) // Dick Groat (78)
3B - Ken Boyer (93)
LF - Cody Bellinger (100, LIVE)
CF - Garry Maddox (87)
RF - Richie Ashburn (80) // Willie Mays (89)

Rotation: 97 Bender, 98 Hubbell, 95 Maddux, 96 Mussina, 95 Robin Roberts

See you all in 2057.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Congrats to all 2056 champions! On to 2057!

Welcome to the six-timers club! Now we are both chasing Orcin who has just ascended to the pantheon of seven-time champs.

[Westheim]

There are LITERALLY no words.

[dancariaz]

Back to back division wins for my team. To be fair both years I got lucky with my divisions, they were pretty weak. Unfortunately another early postseason exit in the division round, again losing the series 2-3.

SE Harry Brecheen had a nice season for me, he won the Cy Young award and was just dominant all season. He got a bit unlucky in the MVP voting where he finished 6 points behind the winner despite getting more 4 more 1st place votes.

btw: is the reliever award broken? This is the 3rd season in a row where I've seen a long reliever win the award despite having really dominant closers around. The winner had a 3,4x ERA in 130 something innings and there were 2 closers that finished with sub 1 ERAs and 30+ saves. Both didn't even come close to the long reliever in the voting.

[scott1964]

I went to bed up 3-2, and woke up this morning to a championship. Trenton's first in 9 tries.

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Westheim

There are LITERALLY no words.

What a mess.