A not-so-ordinary mid-season series.

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I’ve been playing OOTP Baseball on-and-off for many years. I never seem to get too deep in my fully fictional league before something else in life diverts my attention away from playing, but I always seem to come back with successive versions to restart my league and enjoy the experience.

And that’s where I was when I bought OOTP19, deciding to come back to playing after some time away and deciding to once again start my league from the beginning (because, honestly, the inaugural draft is really quite fun). I’ve upgraded to OOTP20, and have now made it through 4½ years of my league, acting as GM for one team and occasionally meddling with the others to drive an outcome I want to see.

Recently, a mid-season series between two of the teams was so captivating and exciting I wanted to share it thinking that, like some other baseball stories told here, you might enjoy the tale.

And so, I begin…

Prologue, Part I

Telling you about one series in the middle of the 1950 season of an eight-team, California-based baseball league seems like a short and uninteresting tale. And so, it would be, if we didn’t spend some time building up what brought us to this point.

In the late 1930s, a small group of entrepreneurs met in San Francisco to discuss an idea to expand their business fortunes. All were surviving the Great Depression without extreme distress, but not without impact to their existing businesses. Forming a baseball league, they thought, would provide the downtrodden masses a relatively inexpensive means of entertainment, and bring increased revenue and wealth to this group of men who dared to experiment with the idea.

And so, the formation of the California Baseball League began to take shape. Additional investors were found, and a handful of teams were signed on—teams in San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles were to be run by the founders, with an additional team in Sacramento invited in.

But then the war happened. And like much of things going on in America at that time, the formation of the league came to a screeching halt. Attentions diverted to the war effort, and until that job was done, there was no appetite for a brand-new baseball league.

The now four investors stayed in touch throughout the war years, and with the war victory close at hand, the opportunity to rekindle the baseball league idea re-emerged. The men worked feverishly to build the idea into reality in 1945, determining that this would be a serious league–not just a handful of teams playing each other, but a proper major league with quality stadiums, a serious, 120-game schedule, and even a development “minor” league to serve as a reserve squad and place to develop future talent.

From the four teams originally planned before the war, two additional teams were added before the inaugural season—one in Oakland, and a second in Los Angeles, which had the population density to accommodate two teams. Each team placed its development team nearby its parent location in smaller California cities like San Bernardino, Stockton, and San Jose. Now with 12 teams all in (6 in each of the major and development leagues), the newly formed California Baseball League (CBL) held its inaugural draft in the late winter of 1946.

All men between the ages of 18 and 30 were invited to participate and be one the lucky ones to get paid for playing America’s favorite sport. With 96 roster spots available for each organization, ample opportunity existed to be drafted, and the inaugural class of players ended up representing a wide range of skill sets, ages, and accomplishments. The league minimum salary was set at $5,000, ticket prices averaged about 95¢ and the owner’s projected they could clear in excess of $150,000 in their first year—if the people came.

And came they did. League-wide attendance (major league only) topped three million in 1946, a resounding success and proof that baseball could work in California. The owners were thrilled.

The league’s performance was divided in half that year, with three teams seriously vying for the inaugural title and the other three having little, if any hope, of being a contender. Ultimately, the Los Angeles Mustangs prevailed, winning the league pennant by a single game over their same-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels. The San Diego Kings, at four games back, was the third contender.

Nothing in particular stood out about the Mustangs that year other than perhaps a simple determination to win it all. Indeed, the Pythagorean record placed them in second place behind the Angels, who batted 10 points above the league average and had a league-best team ERA (3.06). Perhaps it was the long ball—the Mustangs hit 88 of them that year as team, only one behind the 3rd place Kings—or the dominance of starter Kenny Blakely, winning a record 83.3% of his games pitching from the middle of the rotation. In the end, it was probably little more than a combination of multiple factors all combining to put the Mustangs in the right place at the right time—the 1946 champions.

Even if 1946 wasn’t a memorable statistics year for the league, it did its job to make the CBL a successful going-concern and ensure that the league would survive into its following year. And, hey, not everything about the season was forgettable. Aubrey Davis, a starting pitcher for the Angels set many of the first pitching records with 32 games started—22 of them completed—and a league topping 21 wins, the only pitcher so far to eclipse 20 wins in a season. Eddie Perkins, a starting pitcher with the San Francisco Pacifics, was a strikeout master, managing an average of 6 of them per 9-inning game while amassing a still-record 165 Ks for the season. Perkins also managed to limit the number of walks per 9-innings to 2.2, also a league record, and finished the season with a well-earned 7.34 WAR.

Despite these outstanding pitching performance, the league’s Most Valuable Player award went to the Angel’s Clifford Moore, a consistent hit machine who finished the season with a .323 batting average, 161 hits, and 97 RBIs. Whether Moore was more deserving of the award than Davis or Perkins may be a matter of opinion, but spectacular season performances by pitchers continued to be overshadowed by their hitting counterparts, leading the league to separate the MVP award into the Batter-of-the-Year and Pitcher-of-the-Year Award for the 1950 season.

Prologue, Part II

The San Diego Kings, realizing the value of Perkins and feeling their pitching was the primary reason they were struggling to win the title, made a last-minute move to acquire him at the trade deadline, sending a solid utility player to the Pacifics in trade. Perkins was a solid add to the organization, but not enough to allow them to win in all in 1946. In the offseason of that year, the Kings again traded for a Pacifics starting pitcher in what might be the first “blockbuster” trade in league history. They sent star center fielder Dave Caldwell to the Pacifics in exchange for starter Robert Younce and minor leaguer William Byrd. In hindsight, while the Perkins trade was a big win for San Diego, the Younce trade was not. Although Caldwell didn’t have a spectacular season in 1946 (although he did set the league record in stolen bases with 26), his potential had not been realized, and he has been consistently ranked as the top CF—and a top ten player overall—every year since. Younce, on the other hand, was plagued by injuries and managed to only pitch 25 innings for the Kings in 1947 before the team cut their losses and traded him to the Angels at the end of the season. Byrd looked to be a worthwhile prospect—highly rated at the point the trade was made—but languished in the development league ultimately retiring from baseball in 1949 without ever playing in a major league game.

But it all worked out for San Diego in '47. Anchored by Perkins and Jim Herbst (whom the Kings had drafted in the inaugural draft), the Kings held a league-leading team ERA (3.51) and held opposing batters to a league-leading .245 batting average, 15 points below the league BA of .260. This effort was complimented by a core of solid hitters, most notably first baseman Bennie Burgoyne, a 6th round inaugural draft pick who had set the league record for most home runs in 1946 with 23, and topped it in 1947 with 34. That year, he also was the first person to drive in 100 runs, set the record for highest OPS at 1.023, and batted .324, second behind the Sacramento Sluggers first baseman Earl Rice who that year established the new BA record at .338.

As a team, San Diego cleared the fences 111 times that year, continuing their reputation as a power team. Their competitor in this statistic was not the reigning champion Mustangs, whose home run production dropped to 77 in 1947, but rather from the Sluggers, who, behind guys like Rice and right fielder John Conti, hit 108.

On paper, the Sluggers seemed like a powerhouse team, and indeed they challenged the Kings for dominance throughout the season. In the end, however, the Kings prevailed, winning the title by 4 games over the Sluggers. The 1946 champions, the Los Angeles Mustangs, managed only to come in fourth, 11 games behind the Kings and finishing with a sub-.500 record.

Eddie Perkins would dominate the records in 1947 in all of the categories he had won the previous season, including strikeouts (although 24 less than in 1946), WHIP, BB/9, K/9 and WAR. He also added lowest ERA at 2.46. However, Burgoyne would win the MVP award that year with a 6.1 WAR, narrowly beating out Earl Rice for the honor. As of this writing (mid-season 1950), Burgoyne’s 1947 performance still dominates the records books for home runs (34), total bases (274), and slugging percentage (.620).

The 1948 season with an important change in the roster rules. Previously, the CBL Development League (CBDL), which had a 96-game schedule, started about a month later than the CBL itself, and players from the development league could only be called up to the parent club if a corresponding player was sent down, placed on the IL, or released. With the 1948 season, the Development League’s scheduled start date was realigned to begin on the same date as that of the CBL, and, and the parent clubs were now allowed to expand their rosters by 4 players once the CBDL season had concluded. The year also saw teams yo-yo up and down the standings not dissimilar to 1947—except, that is, for the Kings, who maintained their dominance at the top of the pile. The defending champions repeated their title, winning 74 games and finishing well ahead of all contenders – 11 games over the 2nd place team, the Oakland Oaks. The Sluggers fell to 5th place, 20 games back, and the Mustangs to 6th, 22 games back. Both teams finished under .500 that year.

The Kings dominated in much the same way they clinched 1947—behind solid pitching from their key starting pitchers and solid hitting and home run production from the heart of their order. The 32-year-old Perkins went 15-6 across 31 games, again leading the league in strikeouts (although declining further to 133), WHIP, and WAR. Jim Herbst, himself turning 30 during the season, finished 16-5 and led the league in ERA at 2.05. At the end of the 1947 season, the trade-happy Kings added Aubrey Davis—star of the 1946 season—to their roster in an eight-player deal that divested them of the fragile Robert Younce, their inconsistent closer James Brakke, and a handful of prospects in exchange for Davis, infield prospect Allan Manning, and minor league starter Mike Carlin. While not as dominant as in the inaugural season, Davis was respectable nonetheless for the Kings in 1948, finishing, like his colleagues with a sub-3.00 ERA.

On the hitting side, the team was led by center fielder Lindel Heisson, a solid contact hitter whose 1948 season was quite similar to his 1947 season -- .322/.376/.487 with 14 home runs and 60 RBIs (v. .321/.392/.456 with 14 home runs and 69 RBI the prior season). Burgoyne’s stats were off from 1947, but solid: .289/.371/.525 with 27 home runs and 84 RBIs. George Shriver, the King’s everyday third baseman, cemented the 3-4-5 hitting group, hitting a season-leading 28 home runs. The 26-year-old Shriver was a solid defensive third baseman who had quietly been contributing to the Kings’ home run totals since the inaugural draft, hitting 15 and 20 of them in 1946 and 1947, respectively. In 1948 he seemed poised to challenge Burgoyne for the team’s (and league’s) home run champion, but failed to reach the record Burgoyne had set the year before.

These were not the only players of note in the league. Ira Glass, the 28-year-old left fielder for the Angels set a new season batting average of .359, an OBP of .443, and knocked in 157 runs, just a few shy of the all-time record. Earl Rice continued top production batting .328 and leading the league in OPS with .904. And John Conti, the Sluggers’ right fielder, continued to show solid production numbers, including walking a lead-leading 97 times. Conti’s biggest year, though, was yet to come.

While no pitcher had crossed the 20-win mark since Davis had done in in 1946, 15+ game winners were abundant. The Sluggers’ Bob Brinkley had 18 wins in 1947; the Pacifics Robert Thielen had 17 that same year. In 1948, the Sluggers’ Jim Sortino matched Herbst with 16 wins, although he had more losses and a higher ERA.

The clubs were doing well financially, too. Despite the league minimum being raised to $5,500 and the pay of top players approaching $20,000 a season, the owners were pulling it in. The Los Angeles Angels made over $225,000 in 1948; the San Diego Kings made about the same. Even the Oakland Oaks, which had a spotty performance record since the league’s first season, managed to net over $240,000 that year.

But all was not well everywhere. Poor attendance and financial mismanagement at the Mustang’s development team, the Long Beach Oilmen, caused the team to declare bankruptcy and result in the first movement or replacement of a team in the league’s history (a new team, the Bakersfield Bakers, would replace the Oilmen as the development arm of the Mustangs the following year).

More importantly, the Sacramento Sluggers finances were headed in the wrong direction. Despite doing well its first two seasons, profits were tight for the small-market team in 1948, amounting to just $35,000. Management blamed the disinterest of the locals, demonstrated by the struggle to fill the CBL’s smallest stadium. Indeed, the Sluggers managed to pull in less than 400,000 fans in 1948, the lowest in the league by more than 15%.

Other than these struggles, the league overall was quite healthy—and popular. The league managed to secure broadcast rights, bringing more revenue to the league’s teams. Attendance remained over 3 million, and the owners began to consider how to expand the league’s reach. Expansion plans were launched.

The thought was to expand reach to the next largest cities on the west coast—Portland and Seattle. Commensurate with this expansion the league would change its name from the California Baseball League to the West Coast Baseball League (WCBL). Details of the expansion were worked out during the 1949 season with plans to have the expansion teams in place for the start of the 1950 season.

Prologue, Part III

The 1949 season started with the two-time reigning champion Kings stumbling out of the gate, losing 12 of their first 15 games, including an 8-game losing streak the second week of the season. Sacramento, on the other hand, dominated the early part of the season, winning 21 of their first 26 and entering June solidly in first place with a .808 winning percentage.

By the middle of the season, the Sluggers showed no sign of slowing down, continuing to dominate over all other teams. Despite their record and sizzling performance from their stars Rice, Conti, and left fielder Roger Stirn, attendance at Rocco Fiddler Field, the Sluggers’ home field, remained laggard and the team was operating at a financial loss. Behind the scenes, ownership threatened to disband the team if they were not allowed to relocate to one of the league’s planned expansion cities. Fearing no other alternative, the league acquiesced, and the Sluggers announced their intention to move to Seattle after the 1949 season.

The announcement should have been expected to disrupt the clubhouse. The Sluggers’, still playing good baseball, didn’t play quite as good, and their record—and lead—started to slip. In San Diego, Bennie Burgoyne was recovering from a typical slow start to kick the Kings into high gear and send them shooting up the standings, while the Los Angeles Mustangs quietly got their act together to compete and the top of the pile again as well. When all was said and done, the seemingly unstoppable Sluggers missed what practically seemed a certainty to win the title in their now-final year in Sacramento, ultimately ending with a lackluster 67-53 record and a 3rd place finish. It would be the Mustangs, with a late season surge, who would again top the league. San Diego finished second, 2 games behind Los Angeles.

But not all was bleak with the Sluggers. John Conti finished the season with a .364 average, besting the high mark set by Ira Glass the year before. With high marks in OBP, Slugging Percentage, WAR, and Runs Created per 27 outs, Conti seemed poised to win the MVP award despite the Sluggers’ disappointing finish.

But he had stiff competition from the pitchers—this time from the Mustangs Roy Gottschalk, a hard working sinkerballer who the year before had led the league in losses (due more to lack of run support than by poor personal performance). With the team better behind him, Gottschalk led the league in wins with 19, ERA with 2.60 and with strikeouts with 134—the league’s first (and, so far, only triple crown). Gottschalk coincidentally tied Eddie Perkins’ 1946 season with a 7.34 WAR, still the highest achieved by any player in the league.

Yet, the award once again swung to the top batter, with Conti taking home the award. Frustratingly, Gottschalk didn’t even crack the top three vote getters.

And, with that, the fourth year and first chapter of the California Baseball League came to a close.

1950. Finally.

Then here we are. 1950. Our current season. And what a big one it’s been so far. After bowing to the pressure put on it by the Sacramento club, the league found itself scrambling to find another team so as to not have an odd number of teams in the league—a scheduling impossibility. It found its eighth team when Harold Wilson, an airplane parts manufacturer originally from Michigan, offered to host a club in his adopted city of Honolulu where he had moved shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and decided to stay. And so, the California Baseball League became the West Coast Baseball League (despite Hawaii not actually being on the west coast) with one relocated team now in Seattle (still operating as the Sluggers) and two new teams – one in Portland and the other in Honolulu. Some shifts were made in the Development League to accommodate the expansion and relocation, as some teams changed affiliations and others relocated to different cities.

Two other major events happened to start 1950. First, the expansion to eight teams caused the league to adjust its 120-game schedule to 128. Second, and most impactful, was that both new stadiums build in Portland and Seattle were built with lights—something no other league stadium, including the Hawaiian stadium had. The now-branded West Coast Baseball League was about to experiment with night-time play. Should it be successful, the other teams would surely follow.

The season started in a familiar way – the two-time and current champion Los Angeles Mustangs were predicted to repeat, with San Diego close behind. The Sluggers were expected to again finish third, with the remaining teams some distance behind the leaders. The Sluggers dismissed the projections quickly. The settled quickly into their new home—a beautiful new park with the largest seating capacity of any WCBL team at 15,500, lights for night play, and, perhaps most importantly, a city that had both the population and the interest to actually care about the team’s fortunes. The team was expected to immediately turn around its financial woes from a $30,000 loss in 1949 to a projected profit in excess of $150,000. Season tickets doubled—whereas they had barely sold 2,500 last season, Seattle fans rushed to buy more than 5,500 for the first season in their city.

The make-up of the team hadn’t changed much from their time in Sacramento. In fact, the starting position players were exactly the same as they had been in 1949, 1948, and with one exception, 1947 as well. Although their record had been inconsistent, there wasn’t much reason to change the team—the Sluggers led the league in two of the most important team statistics all three years – batting average (.295, .274, and .278) and hits (1269, 1176, and 1164) while holding title in at least two of the three years in OBP, SLG, and triples. On offense, this team had everything it needed to take the title—and save an ill-timed announcement, likely would have in 1949. What would stop it in 1950?

Pitching, perhaps. The Sluggers’ squad was adequate, if uninteresting. But the real threat came from the competition. The Mustangs, perhaps, but more likely from the perennial always-in-consideration San Diego Kings.

The Kings entered the 1950 season with a slightly different roster, though not in any of the key positions (players were subject to the reserve clause and could only leave the team if traded). Eddie Lavoie, a veteran second baseman acquired from the Mustangs in 1949, was brought in to shore up the middle infield, and Ellis Davis, a young center fielder called up from the Development League, filled the hole left by the starting outfielder given up to acquire Lavoie. Lindel Heisson, meanwhile, had been moved back to left field, a position he was better suited for than center.

The Kings vaulted out of the gate, taking first place immediately and maintaining well into late June. The Sluggers stumbled a bit in the first week of the new season (which now started in late April to accommodate the extra eight games), but quickly hit a stride to catch up and keep pace with the Kings. The Mustangs and the San Francisco Pacifics stayed not that far behind as well, leaving the Angels, the Oaks and the two expansion teams to round out the bottom of the pile.

An excellent push by both the Kings and Sluggers as the mid-season approached got us to where we are today, dear reader, and that for which all of this build up had brought us. At the historic half-way point (60 games), the Kings and Sluggers were tied for first place with identical 40-20 records. Both the Mustangs and Pacifics couldn’t keep up with the torrid winning pace of both teams (Seattle had won 19 of its last 22 whereas San Diego had won 17) and had fallen back to 6 and 7 games back, respectively.

It had been an exciting half for both of the leading clubs. In San Diego, 3B George Shriver was destined to prove to everyone he was a serious power hitter, knocking in 26 home runs when the series started. Were he to keep up that pace, he would finish the season not just surpassing, but absolutely shattering the previous record set by his teammate Burgoyne. He had also collected 64 RBIs (another season record he was set to smash) and was hitting nearly 65 points above his career average of .243. Burgoyne, however, was beginning to worry the fans. He had always been a slow starter, sometimes hitting in the low .200s until June, but this year was different. By mid-June he was hitting below .200 with only 9 HRs. At 24 years old, he was too young to be in decline—would the local star be able to recover from such a start?

Meanwhile, Jim Herbst was having a stellar season. The oft overlooked starter, who had a 54-30 career record to start the season, dominated early. Seven games and 45 innings into the season, Herbst had only given up 3 earned runs – earning him an amazing 0.60 ERA. By the time of the Seattle series, his record was 8-2 and his ERA had still not exceeded 2.00 – he was sitting at 1.72 going into the series.

The rest of the starting corps, including Perkins, Davis, and Aaron Costello, all pitched solidly as well, such that the team’s overall ERA was 2.37 in a year shaping up to be the year of the hitter (the league average ERA was 4.14). The starters themselves only allowed opposing batters to hit .230 against them (v. the league average .261).

In Seattle, the story belonged to the hitters. Entering the midseason series with San Diego, the Sluggers were hitting .311 as a team, and every player in the starting lineup had a batting average of .300 or more (save the pitcher—no DH here!). The highest of these was Earl Rice, hitting at .371 and aiming to taking the battle title if he could keep it up, followed by LF Roger Stirn, hitting at .335, and 3B Rob Campbell hitting at .331. The eight starting position players had over a .900 OPS combined.

And so, the stage was set for an excellent series. Would this be the predictor of how the season would finish? Would the dominant Kings lose their crown to the nomad Sluggers? Or would it all not matter if the Mustangs, shouting from the bleachers “Hey, we’re still here too!” managed a third title in five years?

Game One

Game 1- June 30, 1950. It was a cool day at Edison Memorial Park in San Diego; partly cloudy and 64 degrees. 11,379 fans were on hand – just slightly below stadium capacity of 11,500. The day’s contest would see the Kings’ Creighton Fultz face off against the Sluggers’ Jim Sortino. Fultz was a back-of-the-rotation starter who had spent much of the last two seasons moving between the Development League and the San Diego bullpen. After being returned to the parent club earlier in the month, Fultz languished in the bullpen for much of it but had recently been promoted back to starter. In his first start 5 days back against the expansion Hawaii Islanders, Fultz had pitched solidly, striking out 8 and giving up nothing but a single home run and earning his first win.

Sortino was more accomplished. The right-hander had been a decent, if not spectacular mid-rotation starter from the inception of the league. He had, however, the Sluggers’ worst record at 6-6, although all things considered he may have been their best performer when measured by WAR, for which he led all pitchers on the team.

On the other side of the field, Seattle brought their outstanding 8—as expected—to the lineup. Jack Carr, the 25-year-old right-handed center fielder would lead off, followed by 2B Jack Keil and the big three, Rice, Conti and Stirn. SS Bob Freeman, C Aaron Atkinson, and 3B Rob Campbell would round out the lineup, with Sortino batting last. As stated, this was a scary lineup. Any lineup where the 6-7-8 hitters are batting .322, .319, and .331 had to be taken seriously.

But San Diego wasn’t worried. They were playing on their home field and had a pretty solid lineup themselves. Ellis Davis, the Kings rookie center fielder would lead off. Davis was a speedster and a solid defensive fielder, but his prowess at the plate was still underdeveloped. 2B Eddie Lavoie batted second. The heart of the order was Burgoyne, Shriver, and Heisson. Burgoyne had recovered from his exceptionally cold start, bringing his batting average to .270 and earning him the most recent Player of the Week award after hitting .469 with 5 home runs and 17 RBIs. But Shriver, while looking to decimate the all-time home run record, was suffering through a recent slump, dropping his batting average about 20 points in the process and Heisson was hitting well below his career average of .310.

Bill Blackwood, a young right-handed outfielder called up during the 1947 season would bat 6th, followed by C Garrie Leslie, and SS Kinnon Phyllips, who had recently rejoined the team after a month-long stint on the injured list and a rehab assignment in Riverside with the King’s Development League team. Fultz would bat last.

The top of the 1st came and went in the blink of an eye. It took only 5 pitches to send the first three batters back to the dugout, despite one of them getting a single. San Diego would not make it as easy on Sortino, although after 6 batters they failed to score.

The 2nd was quick as well … a strikeout, a single, and two fly outs, then three straight outs in the bottom of the inning to send the game to the third. But no one managed any hits in that inning, nor in the fourth, and the teams entered the 5th tied at 0-0 with only 4 hits between them. Dangerous lineups meant nothing—this was an all-out pitcher’s duel.

But then the Sluggers struck. Roger Stirn hit a drive to left field that scored him a double, and Bob Freeman followed with an even longer flyball to deep center-right, scoring Stirn and earning himself a triple in the process. The third out was recorded, however, when Freeman was thrown out at home trying to score on a long flyball hit by Ralph Campbell, and the Kings escaped only one run down.

Though Garrie Leslie flied out, Kinnon Phyllips walked, and was sacrificed to 2nd by the pitcher Fultz. On the first pitch offered, Ellis Davis hit a single between the first and second basemen, and despite a great throw by RF Conti, Phyllips beat the tag to tie the game at one apiece. Lavoie grounded out to end the third.

The pitchers got back to work in the 6th, 7th, and 8th, allowing just 3 hits and no runs. Fultz shut the Sluggers down in the top of the 9th, three up and three down. Sortino, having run out of gas midway through the 8th had been replaced by reliver John Sharp, who completed the inning and kept the Kings from winning the game in the bottom of the 9th despite giving up 2 singles and a walk. The Kings left their winning run on third.

The magnificent defensive duel managed to drop everyone’s batting average and question whether the offenses were really worth all the accolades they had been receiving. And the game was headed to extra innings.

Fultz was replaced to start the 10th not by any of the Kings relief corps, but by fellow starter and team co-ace Eddie Perkins, who worked through four batters rather uneventfully. Sharp was his name in the bottom of the 10th setting down the batters in order on 10 pitches, even if most of them weren’t even in the strike zone.

The teams accomplished nothing in the 11th, 12th or 13th innings, despite a revolving door of relivers, pinch hitters and defensive replacements. Right-hander Joel Roeder, the Kings not-always-effective closer, had replaced Perkins in the 13th and faced Frank Keil to start the 14th. A ground ball to 2B ended his attempt. Earl Rice, who to this point had failed to record a hit, managed a double off of Roeder, but the next batter, a pinch hitter, struck out on three straight pitches. The Kings manager told Roeder to intentionally walk Roger Stirn with first base empty and 2 outs, although the fact that Stirn had a career .357 batting average against Roeder probably influenced the decision some too.

A long duel with SS Bob Freeman ensured. Roeder started with two balls outside the strike zone, before landing one inside that Freeman fouled off. A called strike, another ball, and two more fouled off pitches put the count at 3-2 before Freeman hit a routine grounder to Lavoie who tossed it to Kermit Jarrard (the backup 1st baseman now in the game for Burgoyne) to end the inning.

With the Sluggers’ reliever Thomas Beverly on the mound, Kings’ 3B Shriver smacked a deep ball to the outfield and ended up on second base, and when Heisson hit a long fly to right field, Shriver hustled to 3rd on the tag up. Bill Blackwood, up next, worked the count full, and hit a hard grounder in the 5.5 hole to bring Shriver home and secure the hard-fought victory of the home team. The home crowd, nearly all of whom stayed the 3 hours and 45 minutes it took to decide the contest, roared with delight. “This place sure got loud”, said Robert Holloway, the San Diego manager.

If game one was well worth the price of admission, those with tickets to game two had no reason to be jealous. Another excellent game would unfold the next day.

Game Two

July 1, 1950 was a bit nicer than the previous day – clear skies and 81 degrees, with a gentle breeze blowing on to center field. In this matchup, the Kings would send Jim Herbst to face off against the Sluggers’ Liam Greenan. Like Herbst, Greenan joined the league in its inaugural year and had spent all of his time with the Sluggers, although little about his record stood out. He had a varied career—a 9-15 record in 1946, a 16-8 record in 1947, and a 7-13 record in 1948. With an ERA of 4.45 he was far from an elite pitcher, but serviceable enough to maintain a role in the major leagues. Seattle had protected him in the expansion draft, and it was his turn to battle against the much more accomplished Herbst.

The Sluggers came with their same, unwavering starting lineup: Carr, Keil, Rice, Conti, Stirn, Freeman, Atkinson, Campbell and finally Greenan. The Kings shook things up a little. In response to the left-handed Greenan, they had Blackwood lead off, followed by Phyllips, Lavoie, Shriver, Heisson, and Burgoyne. Clay Lallier, the back-up catcher would start and bat 7th, followed by Ellis Davis, the previous day’s lead-off hitter. Herbst would bat last.

The Sluggers were up first – and retired in order on only 8 pitches. The Kings 1st inning was identical – 3 men up, 3 men out, also on 8 pitches. Everyone was swinging early with no gain.

Top of the 2nd. Conti strikes out. Stirn hits the first pitch for a single, but Freeman grounds into a double play. 3 men up, 3 men out – and again, only 8 pitches. If the game continued this way, not only would this be another pitcher’s duel, but there would be little need for the bullpen.

It took a few more pitches to retire the Kings in the bottom of the 2nd, but they were retired with nothing but a single from Bennie Burgoyne. The third went by, then the fourth. Threatening to score, the Kings sent Shriver home from 3rd on a single by Clay Lallier, but he was thrown out at home to end the inning, keeping the score at 0-0.

The 5th came and went. Then the 6th. Finally, in the top of the 7th, the game’s first run scored. A single to 3B Shriver by the Sluggers’ Bob Freeman allowed Roger Stirn to not just advance to third, but make it around to score on the throw to first. Stirn, in the last at bat, had hit a deep line drive double to put himself in scoring position.

Now down by one, the Kings responded in the bottom of the inning. A lead-off walk forced Greenan out of the game; he was replaced by Beverly, who had allowed the winning run in yesterday’s marathon. A sacrifice bunt and a single to Phyllips saw the Kings with the tying run on third and only one out. Beverly managed to get Eddie Lavoie to popup after fouling off 5 pitches, but the next batter, George Gunter, the unspectacular backup Kings third basemen who replaced Shriver in the top of the 7th, hit a massive drive to left-center, and turned on the gas to bag a triple and bring both baserunners home. A single by Heisson brought Gunter home, and a single by Burgoyne saw the Kings with a 2-run lead and two more baserunners. Beverly was allowed to pitch through, and, to his relief, Clay Lallier hit a fly ball to right field for the third out.

Now down by two, the Sluggers rallied in the top of he 8th. With Roeder on the mound, Seattle sent a pinch hitter up who promptly walked. Jack Carr knocked a single that allowed the runner to advance all the way to third, and, after throwing two balls to Frank Keil, Roeder hung a pitch that Keil sent 373 feet over the right field wall to bring three runs home and regain the Sluggers’ one run lead. With no outs and the powerhouse trio of Rice, Conti and Stirn up next, the San Diego skipper might have thought of replacing Roeder, but like his opposing counterpart, elected to leave his pitcher in. It paid off, and Roeder regained his composure to force three groundball outs. This was clearly not a series for the big hitters.

The Kings did not score in the 8th, and kept the Sluggers from scoring more in the 9th. Another well-fought and nearly dead-even contest looked like it would go the Sluggers’ way evening up the series and leaving quite unsettled the question of which of these teams was the strongest.

Switching Beverly for Ed Mitchell, the first San Diego batter was Eddie Lavoie, who after letting a ball go by, nailed the second pitch 370 feet over the right field wall in nearly the exact same spot as Keil’s home run. A trip around the bases and the game was once again tied with San Diego in control to win it. But Gunter could not replicate his last at bat, grounding out to the shortstop, and the next two batters failed to reach as well. This game, too, was going to extra innings.

If the fans were ecstatic, the teams were exhausted – mentally drained from these two intensely fought contests. One could be forgiven for thinking they were in a time warp as the 10th and 11th innings went by with little action. The top of the 12th produced nothing either – just 2 hits were managed since the Kings tied the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Intensity resumed in the bottom of the 12th which again saw John Sharp pitching for the Sluggers. Sharp walked Lindel Heisson on four straight balls, threw a wild pitch in the next sequence that allowed Heisson to take second, and then third on the groundout. Not willing to let his pitcher work through it this time, the Seattle manager lifted Sharp for Will Fulbright, a workhorse reliever for the Sluggers.

Sensing an opportunity, the Kings manager signaled the play. Clay Lallier stood in the box watching the first ball go by. Strike? No, ball. The second pitch popped foul behind the catcher. Another ball, and Lallier stepped out of the batter’s box. The manager changed the signal, and Lallier acknowledged. With the windup, Heisson broke from third, and Lallier squared away to bunt. The suicide squeeze was on!

The ball hit the ground and rolled to the right side of Fulbright, who barehanded it to the Seattle catcher as Heisson was sliding…the call from the ump…out! The squeeze play failed. Ellis Davis would groundout on the next at bat to end the inning. What a nail-biter!

San Diego changed the pitcher to start the 13th. Similar to their strategy the night before, they elected to use another of their starters in a relief role—this time Aubrey Davis. As might be expected from a starting pitcher facing a trio of replacement batters now stuck in the lineup, he sat all he faced in quick order.

Seattle was wearing down. The Kings seemed energized. Jarrard, once again in for Burgoyne, fouled off three straight pitches before driving a single through the right side of the infield. Blackwood was ordered to sacrifice Jarrard to second. Phyllips battled Fullbright to 3-2, and calmly allowed himself to be walked on a low pitch inside. Then Lavoie came up to bat. Maximizing the count to 3-2, he hit a flyball to straight away center, a routine catch for Carr. Phyllips, trying to get into better position took off from second, but Carr’s arm won the contest. Phyllips was thrown out at 3rd to end the inning.

Thus, the crowd of 11,393 found themselves watching another 14-inning game. With Davis still on the mound, the Sluggers struggled to get any baserunners, the lone runner having reached on a Davis’ error trying to field a little infield hopper. In the bottom of the 14th, the Sluggers copied the Kings strategy of using a starter in relief, and brought in Justus Decker, the Sluggers' 4th starter (at that time the most common rotation was only 4 men). He first faced Gunter, who singled on a fast groundball through the left side of the infield. Heisson followed and put one through on the right side. Gunter, a quick footed player and excellent baserunner, didn’t even consider stopping at second and found himself standing solidly on third. With men on the corners and no outs, Garrie Leslie ground out, but thanks to Heisson’s aggressive lead, he was able to advance the runner to second. Gunter remained at third.

Clay Lallier came to the plate having faced Decker only one other time and promptly took a ball outside. He sent the next pitch straight up the middle practically hitting Heisson as he broke for third and allowing Gunter to score for another 14-inning, pitching-dominated, 1-run victory. When a reporter told Kings manager that his team must be feeling pretty good about winning two grueling, nail-biting games, Holloway rebuffed the thought. “Our guys are never satisfied,” he said.

We can only speculate whether that sentiment was accurate or not, but it’s probable that extreme frustration and disappointment was the mood of the visitors. But there was still hope. As is the tradition in the league, all series are four games, so if Seattle could win the next two, they’d get back to even with the Kings and wait for their next chance to prove they were the team to beat, not San Diego.

Game Three

July 2, 1950 turned out much like July 1 – sunny and warm, but with a wind twice as strong as the day before, also blowing out to center. A similar sized crowd filled the stands to see game 3 of 4.

Seattle came, as always, with its standard lineup, though Clifton Black replaced John Conti, who was exhausted from the long contests, to start the game, causing a slight modification in the batting order. San Diego presented yet another lineup putting Davis back to lead off, Paul St. Pierre, the team’s usual RF, in the 2nd spot, then Burgoyne, Shriver and Heisson in a slightly different arrangement, followed by Phyllips and Leslie. Alan Manning would start at 2B and bat 8th; Eddie Perkins would pitch and bat 9th. At the time of the series, Perkins had only lost 3 games, was keeping his ERA below 3.00 and was looking again to be a top strikeout pitcher despite the fact that he was almost 35 years old. The Sluggers would counter with Charles Turner, a spring training call up having an up and down rookie year.

Batters came up and batters went down. The first three innings went as much of the series had—a few hits, but no runs. Seattle again scored first, in the top of the 4th with an Earl Rice grounder that scored Frank Keil but cost two outs. Fortunately for the Sluggers, they were the first two outs of the inning and thus the run counted.

And, yet, again, like some super triple déjà vu, the Kings answered in the bottom of the same inning when Kinnon Phyllips knocked in George Shriver to tie the game at one apiece.

The batters had found some groove and began to work the pitchers deep into their counts. In the top of the 5th, Aaron Atkinson forced Perkins to throw a ball on 3-2 and took first base. After a shrewd defensive play on an attempted sacrifice that knocked out the lead runner instead, Clifton Black made Perkins throw nine pitches before grounding out to first and pushing the previous batter, Ralph Campbell, to second. The pitcher Tuner put the ball in play on the next at bat, it fell in for a single just in front of the left fielder, and managed to score Campbell when Heisson overthrew Shiver guarding third. A flyout on the next at bat closed the half of the inning with the Sluggers again up by one run.

But this could not stand. After Manning ground out to start the bottom of the inning, the pitcher Perkins knocked a single to get on base. San Diego pitchers were having an unusual year at the plate. All of the principal starters were hitting above .200—Jim Herbst had been hitting over .300 until failing to record a hit in the last two games. Perkins was hitting .225 and had 4 RBIs, not a bad performance for an at bat that basically existed for the sole purpose to advance baserunners. Davis hit into a fielder’s choice, but with two outs, St. Pierre, absent for much of the series so far, nailed a 94-mph fastball into the left field bleachers to put the Kings on top by one.

Perkins kept the Sluggers from tying the game in the top of the 6th, and the Kings added another run in the bottom the inning. In an attempt to close the gap, Seattle got aggressive on the base paths in the 7th, but San Diego’s catcher threw Clifton Black out trying to steal second and Perkins forced a groundout on the same at bat to end the attempt.

San Diego, however, continued to slowly eat away at the Sluggers’ chances, when Bennie Burgoyne smacked his 16th home run—a solo shot—in the bottom of the 7th. With one run scored in each of the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings, San Diego was now 3 runs up coming into the closing innings.

Seattle, feeling desperate, tried to rally again. After a single by Carr and a long fly out retired Perkins from the mound, the Sluggers got some hope when Aaron Costello, the former starter now pitching from the bullpen, allowed the runner to advance on a wild pitch. With two outs and Earl Rice at the plate, Costello threw a 1-0 curveball that Rice cracked for a line drive into center field, and on the orders of the third base coach, Carr rounded third and headed for home. Though Davis’ throw was on target, it didn’t arrive in time, and Carr slid into home to inch the Sluggers one run closer. It’s as close as the Sluggers would get.

The rest of the game was routine, although a double and good baserunning in the top of the 9th had the Sluggers with a man on third and two-outs, still down by two runs. But a pinch hitter ground out to third base, and *poof*, Seattle’s hopes to tie the series became an impossibility.

The Kings seemed solidly in control, and while the fans might have hoped for Seattle to earn the runs so that they could see yet another extra innings game, the Kings roster was quite happy to see it end in regulation.

While much of the series had been pitching-dominant, the last game recovered some evenness to the series statistics. At the end of game 2, the teams were only hitting .234 combined over 28 innings of play; after the 3rd contest had been completed it was better, at .241, but well below the league average of .260.

But was it the pitchers who could take credit, or was it just simply a lack of hitting? Indeed, the pitchers had only recorded 30 Ks across the 219 outs recorded, but were generally under control, walking only 20 batters. Support for the latter argument—lack of hitting vs. outstanding pitching—was strongest when considering stranded baserunners. The two teams had left a whopping 42 of them on base across the three-game series.

These were not statistics you’d expect from a team with a collective batting average over .300 and another that routinely led the league in home runs by a wide margin. So, whether it was quality pitching that disallowed the batters to make good contact, a bizarre hitting slump impacting both teams, or some combination of the two, this was still some seriously good baseball.

And so, the final game of the series arrived. Although Seattle would leave San Diego with a series loss, it was still very much in their interest to salvage some dignity and avoid a series sweep. Could they accomplish the task?

Last Chance

July 3, 1950. While most of America was preparing for the upcoming Independence Day holiday, there was baseball to be played that afternoon in San Diego. The weather, always consistent in southern California, was again partly cloudy, 71 degrees with a soft breeze, although this time blowing in from right. Some people in San Diego may have thought their team proved everything it needed to prove against the Sluggers and stayed home. The attendance was the lowest it had been for the entire series at just over 11,000.

Given the use of starters in relief roles by both teams in earlier games, the normal pitching rotations had been messed up, and by coincidence, both skippers elected to return to the original series pitchers and start them on 3 day’s rest. Fultz v. Sortino. As would be expected, the starting lineups also matched that of game one except that the Sluggers decided to start Henry Carter in left instead of Roger Stirn. Would the outcome of this game match that of game one as well?

It seemed so. Save a couple of hits by the Kings, the first two-and-a-half innings went by quickly as each successive batter failed to reach first base. The Kings’ Shriver broke the ice in the bottom of the third with a long ball deep to center that, for the sake a few feet, would have been a three-run homer, but managed to bring one run and thus was credited with a sacrifice fly. Seattle countered the next inning with a nearly identical at bat when Henry Carter drilled a long ball to right center field scoring one baserunner, the difference being that the ball bounced of the wall to earn Carter a triple rather than a sacrifice and allow another batter to try and bring him home. But Bob Freeman grounded out to the shortstop and, once again, these two teams ended an inning tied.

The Sluggers threatened in the 5th when Fultz tired and was replaced by Robert Galati, a future starter called up to be part of the San Diego bullpen early in the season. Perhaps overconfident, Galati threw a wild pitch that allowed the runner on second to advance, then walked the batter to put men on the corners. But with two outs, a grounder to third was easily handled by Shriver who tossed it to second base for the force out.

The Kings scored again in the fifth, and Galati kept the Sluggers from tying the game through the next two innings. In the bottom of the 7th, a walk and a hit put men on 1st and 3rd with no outs, and the Sluggers’ manager pulled Sortino for John Sharp. Eddie Lavoie recorded the first out—a fly ball to center—that was deep enough to bring in the runner from third. With Burgoyne at bat, the Kings got aggressive and attempted to push the runner on first into scoring position with a steal, but Aaron Atkinson threw a laser and nabbed the runner. Burgoyne decided to make up for it by drilling the next pitch nearly 400 feet over the left-center wall. 4-1 Kings.

Down to their last six outs, the Sluggers appeared completely defeated. They managed two singles in the 8th, but failed to score. With Joel Roeder in to close the game out, John Conti, whose batting average had fallen 8 points over the course of the series, got a hit. Carter walked. Freeman got a hit. Bases loaded, no outs and hope returned to the Seattle squad.

Stirn was brought in to pinch hit for the catcher, Aaron Atkinson, despite Atkinson recording a hit in every game of the series and hitting .315 for the year. Against Roeder, however, he was 3-for-15 (.200) lifetime, and the Sluggers’ skipper must have liked the Stirn matchup better (Stirn was .357 against Roeder lifetime).

The move worked. Stirn hit the first pitch, a four-seam fastball in the center of the plate, down the right field line, earning an RBI and keeping the bases loaded. There were still no outs.

Ralph Campbell flied out too short to allow any baserunners to score. Harris Henderson pinch hit for Sharp. Henderson was an occasional backup infielder who had made the most of his limited opportunities, managing 9 hits in 28 bats to be yet another Sluggers batter with an average over .300. In response, the Kings replaced Roeder with Jack Vandermeulen, a 34-year old closer who had set the record for most saves in a season in 1946 and was acquired by San Diego to be their closer in 1949. But his best days appeared behind him, and after blowing more save opportunities than converting them, the Kings traded for Roeder, relegating Vandermeulen to more of a setup man than finisher. Left unprotected for the expansion draft, neither Hawaii nor Portland elected to take Vandermeulen and he remained on the Kings roster. The demotion appeared to motivate him, as this season he had an ERA under 2.00 and was allowing opposing batters to hit only .173 against him – a fantastic set of statistics. He had even managed to earn 4 saves across the 22 games he had been part of.

Vandermeulen easily won the battle with Henderson, getting him to pop-up to the infield dirt on a 2-2 pitch. With the bases loaded, Seattle was down to its last out.

But they were also back to the top of the order. Could Jack Carr extend the inning? Carr had been one point shy of the .300 club entering the series, but had only hit .211 during it.

It took one pitch to determine it. Perhaps overeager to win it for his team, Carr swung quickly on a 95-mph fastball, and sent a routine grounder towards third base. Shriver scooped it up, tossed it to Manning covering second for the force out, third out, end of game and end of series. The upstart contact hitting Sluggers, who had forced the league to let them pick the best of the expansion markets in search of a fanbase who would rally behind them as they aimed to win it all, learned that they weren’t all they thought they were cracked up to be just yet. The Kings would not give up their crown that easily.

Now having lost four straight, the Seattle team quickly gathered its equipment to catch the short hop flight to San Francisco where they’d finish their journey home on the Starlight overnight train. They’d face the Mustangs at home for their next series – the other two-time champions of this young league. Would Los Angeles prove to be as formidable an opponent?

The Kings, on the other hand, celebrated their sweep. Now having won five straight, they were scheduled to travel to Los Angeles to take on the struggling Angels who were 3 games under .500 but had won 7 of their last 10. Momentum, however, was with the Kings. When asked for commentary after the game, Holloway’s sentiment was direct and short. “I like the roll we’re on,” he said.