History of Baseball - OOTP19 version - Page 15

Tiger Fan · 08-05-2018, 11:26 PM

1968 WORLD SERIES GAME TWO
RED SOX GET "BENCHED" IN GAME TWO

Twenty year old catcher Johnny Bench was the hero of Game Two of the World Series as the young Cincinnati all-star homered twice and drove in 4 runs to pace the Reds to a 7-1 victory and a 2 games to none lead in the Fall Classic. The game was much closer than the final score indicated as the Reds blew it open with a 5 run outburst in the top of the ninth inning.

It was Bench, one of the large collection of great young catchers who have suddenly descended on baseball and include Boston's Carlton Fisk, that led the way on this day. Bench got the scoring started with sacrifice fly to plate Tony Perez with a run in the first inning and then hit a solo homerun in the sixth to put the Reds ahead 2-1. Bench's final at bat was a 2-run homer in the ninth that came two batters after Reds outfielder Frank Robinson hit a 3-run blast over the Green Monster to make it 5-1.

The Red Sox got bad news early as after allowing the first inning run, pitcher Jim Lonborg came up with an ankle injury suffered on the final play of the inning. It forced Lonborg, who was 19-8 during the season, out of the game and quite likely out of the series. Tom Murphy took over in relief and pitched 5 solid innings with the only run he allowed coming on Bench's first homer of the game.

Cincinnati starter Jim Maloney, making the 10th World Series appearance and 5th start of his career, kept Boston's powerful offense in check, allowing just 4 hits and 1 run in 7 and a third innings before giving way to the bullpen. The only Boston run came in the bottom of the sixth, after Bench had homered to make it 2-0 Cincinnati in the top half of the inning. Goerge Scott hit a 2-out pinch-hit single and moved to third on a Don Buford base hit. After Mike Andrews drew a walk from Maloney to load the bases, the Reds starter tried to get too fine with Carl Yastremski and walked him on a full count pitch to score a run. Maloney escaped the jam by getting Tony Conigliaro to fly out to centerfield and end the inning. Cincinnati bats lit up reliever Wilbur Wood in the ninth, turning a tight game into a laugher and giving the Reds their second win in as many games at Fenway Park.

Tiger Fan · 08-06-2018, 12:22 AM

1968 WORLD SERIES GAME THREE
BALK OFF WIN FOR REDS

Wilbur Wood allowed just 22 earned runs in 105 regular season innings this year. In 2/3 of an inning over 2 World Series appearances the Boston Red Sox relief ace has been charged with 5 earned runs and his walk-off balk cost the Red Sox game three of the World Series allowing Cincinnati to claim a come from behind 3-2 victory and a commanding 3 games to none lead.

For 8 innings Red Sox pitcher Keith LeNue kept the potent Cincinnati lineup in check as Boston built a 2-0 lead. LeNoue struck out Jim Wynn to start the ninth and was two outs away from a shut out victory. However, Johnny Bench followed with a double prompting Boston manager Joe Dykes to life LeNoue and give the ball to Wood, despite the fact the Boston closer was lit up in the ninth inning of game two.

The first batter Wood faced was Lee May and May deposited a 3-1 pitch over the right field fence at Crosley Field to tie the game. Next up was Art Shamsky and he lined a double and then moved to third on a Hal McRae ground out. There were two out and all Wood needed to do was retire pinch-hitter Bertrand Gladney and the Red Sox could go to extra innings and try and regroup. However, before the 1-2 pitch to Gladney, Wood committed a balk to allow Shamsky to jog home with the game winning run and suddenly what looked like a win to get back into the series was turned into a devastating loss that left the Red Sox with a seeminly insurmountable task of needing to win 4 straight games.

Wood did not take the loss in game two, but he entered the ninth inning trying to keep the Red Sox within a run and left 4 batters later with them down by 4. In game three he entered with one out in the ninth and a 2-0 lead and allowed the game to get away....a game the Red Sox seemed in complete control of before he entered the contest.

LeNouve pitched the game of his life in his World Series debut. The 32 year old was dominant through 8 and a third, fanning 7 and always getting the key ground ball he needed to get out of any sort of jam. His sucess this season has been a huge surprise for the Red Sox, going 16-7 with a 2.73 era after being acquired from the Yankees over the winter. LeNouve went 4-10 in his only season in New York after pitching 8 seasons with the Pirates. The real life LeNouve never advanced past AA in his two seasons of pro ball and I can find nothing about him in internet searches.

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second when Orlando Cepeda hit a two-out single and scored on Glenn Beckert's double and the lead doubled in the 4th thanks to 3-straight singles from Tony Conigliaro, Rico Petrocelli and Cepeda. Those would be the only runs Cincinnati starter Claude Osteen would allow in 8 innings of work before Billy McCool pitched a 1-2-3 ninth before the Reds heroics in the bottom of the inning.

Watching the game I had an awful feeling as soon as I saw the Red Sox pull LeNoue. He had thrown 118 pitches but I can't help but wonder if the game, and consequently the series, would have turned out differently had they left him in. LeNoue had struck out Lee May and induced a pop fly out as well as walked him once in the game. In regular season play they had faced each other twice and May was 1-for-2 with a single against LeNoue. The homerun was May's first ever at bat against Wood.

Meanwhile, May is making quite a case for being named MVP. The Reds slugger has hit 2 homers and drove in 6 runs while batting .462 in the series. He was the star of game one, had 2 hits in game two and his homerun in this game led to the Reds being able to pull out a victory.

Tiger Fan · 08-06-2018, 12:58 AM

1968 WORLD SERIES GAME FOUR
RED SOX STAY ALIVE WITH 3-0 WIN

Bob Turley and reliever Wilbur Wood combined on a 3-hitter as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 in Game Four of the World Series. Turley, the game one loser, pitched 7 and a third innings before giving way to Wood, who was the goat of the game three loss. Wood redeemed himself on this occasion, retiring all 5 Reds he faced for the save. The win is the first of the series for the Red Sox and keeps them alive as they trail 3 games to one.

All 3 Boston runs came off of Cincinnati starter Ray Sadecki. The Red Sox struck first in the top of the second inning when Rico Petrocelli led off with a double and moved to third on a slap single from Orlando Cepeda. After Glenn Beckert flew out to short right field, Carlton Fisk followed with a ground ball that looked like an inning ending doubleplay but the 20 year old Boston catcher hustled down the line and beat the relay throw to allow Petrocelli to cross the plate and put the Red Sox up 1-0.

Fisk added to the lead with his first career World Series homerun, a solo shot to lead off the fifth inning, and Fisk would also have a hand in the final Boston run. He drew a 1-out walk from Sadecki in the top of the 7th inning, moved to second on Bob Turley's sacrifice bunt and then, after Dick Hall relieved Sadecki, Fisk came around to score on a single off the bat of Don Buford.

Turley was the star of the game for the winners as he allowed just 3 singles while striking out two and walking two on the day. The only inning the Reds threatened to score was in the bottom of the second when Johnny Bench drew a lead-off walk and moved to third on a single from Lee May. The next batter, Art Shamsky hit a chopper back to Turley and the Boston pitcher was able to look Bench back before going to second base for the force. With one away Turley got Hal McRae to hit into an inning ending double play and he was out of his only jam of the contest.

Tiger Fan · 08-06-2018, 11:47 AM

1968 WORLD SERIES GAME FIVE
REDS WIN SERIES!

Frank Robinson's 2-run homer in the first inning was all the offense the Cincinnati Reds would need as they held the Boston Red Sox bats in check and won the World Series with a 3-1 victory at home in Game Five. Jim Maloney and two relievers combined to limit Boston to just 6 hits in the contest and give the Reds a 4 games to one series victory.

With Boston ace Jim Lonborg sidelined due to a game one ankle injury, the Red Sox gave the ball to rookie Tom Murphy. The 22 year old pitched well in relief of Lonborg in the Series opener but appeared to have a case of the nerves as he started Game Five. Murphy allowed 5 hits including Robinson's 2-run homer in the first inning and the damage could have been much worse had his teammates not provided some fine defense to get out of a bases loaded jam.

After the first inning, the youngster settled down and allowed just 6 hits the rest of the way along with 1 more run. That run came in the 6th inning and made the score 3-1 as Johnny Bench led off with a single, moved to second on Lee May's base hit and scored on a 1-out double by Hal McRae. Murphy beared down and got the final two outs without allowing the Reds to further increase their lead.

Boston's only run came in the fifth inning when they should have scored much more than the 1 run they got. With one out Don Buford singled and then Mike Andrews followed with a single. On that hit Buford ignored the third base coaches sign and started for third only to pull up when he realized he would not make it. After a rundown he was tagged out with Andrews remaining on first. Carl Yastremski then singled and Tony Conigliaro drew a walk to load the bases. Rico Petrocelli followed with another walk to plate Andrews but with the bases still loaded Orlando Cepeda struck out to end the threat.

Outside the fifth inning Boston would only get 3 other hits and just one in the final 3 and a third innings after Maloney was forced to leave with shoulder troubles. Cincinnati also lost shortstop Cesar Tovar early in the game when the 28 year old was hurt in a collision at second base. 20 year old rookie Dave Concepcion replaced Tovar in the Reds lineup.

Reds first baseman Lee May, who had at least one hit in every game of the series and batted .450 with 2 homers and 6 rbi's, was named the Series MVP.

The World Series win is the 4th in 9 years for the Reds, who also have 7 pennants in the last 11 seasons. For Boston, it was an unexpected trip to the Series for a club that finished 22 games out of first place a year ago. The game will change dramatically next season with the addition of 4 new teams and the introduction of the league championship series.

BadluckinOOTP · 08-06-2018, 04:35 PM

That's a heck of a celebration for Game 1, wonder what they did when they won the series?!

Tiger Fan · 08-06-2018, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadluckinOOTP

That's a heck of a celebration for Game 1, wonder what they did when they won the series?!

Good point but with the Green Monster in the background figured I couldn’t say game five

Tiger Fan · 08-06-2018, 09:42 PM

1969 EXPANSION DRAFT
PADRES MAKE PHOEBUS FIRST PICK

The San Diego Padres used the first pick of the expansion draft on a 26 year old pitcher who could be their number one starter for the next decade. Tom Phoebus was 18-7 with an American League leading 1.64 era in just his second major league season. The Baltimore Orioles were forced to expose Phoebus in the draft and he was one of 9 pitchers they lost. Others included 29 year old Jack Fisher (8-13, 2.62) to Montreal and relievers Sparky Lyle, age 24, and Ken Sanders, age 27 to Kansas City.

Pitching was the focus of the Padres as after Phoebus they selected 29 year old Bobby Bolin from San Francisco and 37 year old Larry Jackson from Cincinnati in rounds 2 and 3 before adding Al Downing from the Yankees in round seven. Those selections give the Padres far and away the best rotation out of the 4 expansion clubs. Here is the projected Padres rotation with last year stats:

Code:


# NAME		1968TEAM  AGE T  W-L     ERA   ACQUIRED
1 Tom Phoebus     Bal      26 R  18-7   1.64   1st rd pick
2 Bobby Bolin     SF       29 R  10-6   2.38   2nd rd pick
3 Larry Jackson   Cin.     37 R   9-17  3.33   3rd rd pick
4 Al Downing	  NYY	   27 L  13-11  2.98   7th rd pick
5 Joe Sparma      Det      26 R  13-10  2.68  27th rd pick

Like the Padres, the Montreal Expos also focused heavily on pitching in the expansion draft. Montreal had the 4th pick in the first round and the first pick in the second round and they selected a pair of starters in 30 year old Ray Washburn (8-14, 2.68) from St Louis and 26 year old Mel Stottlemyre (7-16, .327) from Philadelphia.

Kansas City focused much more on position players led by their first two picks in outfielder Jim Hickman and shortstop Luis Aparicio. The 31 year old Hickman spent most of last season in AAA where he hit 18 homers in 96 games for the Tulsa Oilers but he also hit 5 homers and batted .214 in 23 games with St Louis. The 34 year old Aparicio is a 5-time gold glove winner who batted just .212 for Los Angeles last season. 5th round pick Rich Reese, a 27 year old first baseman who made his major league debut with Detroit this past season, will also be heavily counted on to provide offense for the Royals.

The Seattle Pilots selected a couple of veteran pitchers early. Gary Peters (6-17) is a 31 year old lefthander who struggled in 24 starts for the Dodgers last year and he will join ex-Giant Ken T Johnson at the top of the Pilots rotation. The 35 year old Johnson was 10-8 in 1968. The Pilots also got closer Eddie Watt from Baltimore. Watt had 21 saves in 62 appearances out of the Orioles pen. Other players selected by Seattle include infielders Maury Wills, Cookie Rojas and Ron Fairly along with outfielders Adolpho Phillips and Ken Berry.

Below are the first 10 rounds of picks and the projected lineups at this stage for each expansion club.

Here are some other notable players who were selected after the 10th round:

ROUND 11
Seattle took 26 year old shortstop Don Kessinger from the Yankees while Kansas City grabbed reliever Sparky Lyle from Baltimore.

ROUND 13
Seattle took 27 year old reliever Eddie Watt from Baltimore.

ROUND 14
Montreal selected 30 year old Cincinnati catcher Don Pavletich. Seattle picked 30 year old 1B-OF Ron Fairly from the Dodgers.

ROUND 16
Montreal drafted 26 year old pitcher Fred Norman from Oakland

ROUND 17
Montreal selected 26 year old outfielder Mickey Stanley from Pittsburgh

ROUND 18
Seattle selected 36 year old infielder Maury Wills from Los Angeles

ROUND 20
Seattle selected 34 year old outfielder Roger Maris from Cleveland

ROUND 23
Seattle selected 25 year old pitcher Tom Burgmeier from Los Angeles

ROUND 26
San Diego selected 36 year old 1B-OF Mickey Mantle from the Yankees. Mantle is 14 homeruns shy of joining Ted Williams as the only players with 600 or more career homeruns. He is also 22 hits shy of 3000.

Tiger Fan · 08-09-2018, 01:35 AM

1968 AWARDS
KOUFAX SWEEPS NL AWARDS AGAIN

For the second year in a row Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax was named both the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. For Koufax it is the 5th time in his career he was named top pitcher and his fourth MVP award. The 32 year old lefthander dominated National League hitters by winning his 3rd pitching 'triple crown', leading the league in wins with a 21-10 record, era at 1.75 and strikeouts with 284. It was the 12th straight season Koufax led the NL in k's and is baseball's all-time leader with 3,400 career strikeouts after passing Walter Johnson (3,260) earlier this season.

Koufax was an unanimous winner of the Cy Young Award, earning all 24 first place votes. In MVP voting he earned 15 first place votes with Jim Wynn of Cincinnati finishing second in balloting. Here are the results of the NL Cy Young and MVP voting:

Code:


NL CY YOUNG AWARD VOTING
NAME		TM   1stPL  PTS
Sandy Koufax	LA    24    168
Bob Gibson	StL    0     96
Bill Singer	LA     0     79
Don Wilson	HOU    0     50
Tom Seaver	NYM    0     15
Ray Sadecki	CIN    0      7
Don Sutton	LA     0      2

NL MVP VOTING
NAME		TM   1stPL  PTS
Sandy Koufax	LA    15    282
Jim Wynn	CIN    5    219
Hank Aaron	ATL    4    217
Bob Gibson	StL    0    157
Pete Rose	SF     0    110
Joe Torre	ATL    0    105
Bill Singer	LA     0     98
Don Wilson	HOU    0     66
Frank Robinson  CIN    0     51
Tony Perez	CIN    0     26
Paul Blair	NYM    0     23
Ray Sadecki     CIN    0     16
Tom Seaver	NYM    0     13
Rusty Staub	HOU    0     11
Dick Dietz	SF     0      6
Don Sutton	LA     0      4
Johnny Bench	CIN    0      4
Gary Nolan      CIN    0      4
Fergie Jenkins  PHI    0      3
Jim Maloney     CIN    0      1

AMERICAN LEAGUE AWARD WINNERS

23 year old Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro was named the American League's Most Valuable Player in one of the tighest votes in history. Conigliario, who hit .304 in 154 games with 36 homers and 121 rbi's, narrowly outpointed teammate Rico Petrocelli (.301,21,86) for the award. The two helped lead the Boston Red Sox to their first pennant since 1963.

The Cy Young Award also went to a first time winner as Cleveland pitcher Denny Lemaster, who led the American League with 22 wins, was named the recepient. Here are the American League voting results for the two awards:

Code:


NL CY YOUNG AWARD VOTING
NAME		TM   1stPL  PTS
Denny Lemaster  CLE   21    159
Tom Phoebus     BAL    3     98
Sam McDowell    CLE    0     69
Dave McNally    BAL    0     42
Dean Chance     BAL    0     24
Fritz Peterson  NYY    0     14
Jim Lonborg     BOS    0      2

NL MVP VOTING
NAME		TM   1stPL  PTS
Tony Conigliaro BOS   10    262
Rico Petrocelli BOS   11    257
Reggie Smith    MIN    0    167
Reggie Jackson  OAK    0    155
Denny Lemaster  CLE    3    131
Orlando Cepeda  BOS    0    109
Rod Carew       MIN    0     74
Tom Phoebus     BAL    0     66
Sam McDowell    CLE    0     36
Sal Bando   	OAK    0     35
Mike Andrews 	BOS    0     35
Dave McNally    BAL    0     30
Willie Horton   DET    0     24
Don Lukaszewski CLE    0     11
Harmon Killebrew MIN   0     10
Mack Jones	CLE    0      6
Bob Allison     CLE    0      4
James Whaley	WSH    0      2
Dick Hogan  	CAL    0      1
Merv Rettenmund BAL    0      1

ROOKIE AWARD WINNERS

Oakland Athletics infielder Darrel Evans narrowly outpointed Boston catcher Carlton Fisk for the American League rookie of the year award. The 21 year old Oakland first baseman played in 154 games while batting .258 with 19 homers and 76 rbi's. He received 14 of a possible 24 first place votes with the other 10 going to Fisk. The Boston backstop played 133 games behind the plate for the Red Sox as a 20 year old, bitting .248 with 20 homers and 65 rbi's in helping the Red Sox to the World Series. Another catcher, 22 year old Joe Ferguson who was acquired by Washington from the Dodgers last winter, finished 3rd in the balloting.

The National League winner was Pittsburgh catcher Manny Sanguillen (.302,4,36). The 24 year old appeared in 131 games for the Pirates to finish ahead of 19 year old Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey.

Code:


AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR VOTING
NAME		TM   1stPL  PTS
Darrell Evans	OAK    14   100
Carlton Fisk   	BOS    10    92
Joe Ferguson	WSH     0    21
John Donaldson  MIN     0     3

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR VOTING
NAME		 TM   1stPL  PTS
Manny Sanguillen PIT   21    114
Steve Garvey	 LA     3     78
Ken Boswell	 NYM    0     14
Greg Luzinski    PHI    0      9
Nate Colbert     StL    0      1

METS DEAL ROOKIE BOSWELL TO DETROIT

A day after learning he finished 3rd in National League rookie of the year voting 22 year old second baseman Ken Boswell found out he was now a Detroit Tiger. The Tigers and New York Mets announced a 4 player deal with the center piece being 28 year old second baseman Dick McAuliffe moving from Detroit to the Big Apple. McAuliffe hit just .239 in 134 games for Detroit last season. An all-star in 1964, he has spent 7 seasons in Detroit, playing in 974 games and batting .246.

In return the rebuilding Tigers get 3 yound players including Boswell, who made his major league debut last season after 3 years in the Mets system. Boswell, who hit .265 with 6 homers and 35 rbi's as a rookie, is pencilled in as the Tigers everyday second baseman for 1969. Detroit also received 24 year old pitcher Jim McAndrew and 20 year old minor league catcher Michael Minister. McAndrew, a righthander, was 1-1 with a 4.91 era in 3 relief appearances with the Mets last season. He has been a starter in the minor leagues but will likely find himself in long relief in the big leagues. Minister spent the season, is third as a pro, at Marion of the Appalachian League where he won a gold glove and finished 3rd in league MVP voting last year.

There were several other minor trades through November 1st with the main ones seeing 24 year old minor league pitcher Steve Mingori go from the Reds organization to the White Sox in exchange for 38 year old reliever Louis Marini, who was 2-4 out of the Chicago pen in 1968 after being released by the Dodgers. The White Sox added more youth in acquiring a pair of minor league catchers in 22 year old Fran Healy and 17 year old Alan Ashby from the Indians for 32 year old middle infielder Julian Javier. Javier hit .264 for Chicago last season.

The White Sox continued their trading ways by adding 30 year old outfielder Manny Mota from Houston for 26 year old Mike Hegan. Mota, a veteran of 608 major league games, appeared in 79 games for the Astros last season and hit .278. He spent the remainder of the year at AAA Oklahoma City. Hegan, a first baseman/outfielder, also split the year between AAA and the majors. He appeared in 26 games for the White Sox and batted .293. In 86 career MLB games, Hegan is batting .266 with no homeruns.

PLENTY OF ACTIVITY AT BASEBALL WINTER MEETINGS

A number of big name players were dealt in a fairly hectic winter meeting period that saw 6 deals consumated. Hard to decide which was the biggest move but I will start with the deal that saw San Francisco send 33 year old outfielder Felipe Alou and minor leaguer Mike Kekich to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for 25 year old second baseman Mike Andrews. Andrews, who received some consideration for the AL MVP award after batting .297 and helping the Red Sox to the American League Pennant, heads west with Alou and minor league pitcher Mike Kekich going to Boston. Alou had a down year by his standards, hitting .272 while playing in 124 games. He had spent his entire major league career with the Giants, a total of 1,747 games and was a lifetime .277 hitter.

It is unclear where Alou fits in the Red Sox lineup as they already have Don Buford, Carl Yastremski and Tony Conigliaro in the outfield with Orlando Cepeda at first. Andrews was moved to make room from rookie George Scott at second base. Kekich, a 23 year old lefthander who has 1 career major league appearance, will get a shot at a spot in the backend of the Boston rotation. He has been traded 3 times the past month, going from the Dodgers to California for veteran reliever Al Worthington and then from the Angels to the Giants in a deal earlier this week.

The California-San Francisco deal saw the Giants sed Jose Cardenal to the Angels in exchange for 3 players. The 25 year old Cardenal was a gold glove winner for his work in centerfield in 1967. He hit .260 last year - his 7th season with the Giants, while stealing 33 bases. The deal cost the Angels the services of pitcher John Lytle, 34, who was 12-19 with a 2.72 era for California a year ago. The much travelled Lytle is 83-127 over a major league career that included stops in Pittsburgh, Houston and with the White Sox before joining the Angels prior to the 1967 season. Kekich and 25 year old minor league catcher Hal King also went to San Francisco in the trade.

Oakland made a surprising move as they dealt 23 year old pitcher Blue Moon Odom and veteran second baseman Clete Boyer to Cleveland in exchange for 30 year old reliever Ron Taylor and 17 year old minor league infielder Buddy Bell. I really don't know what the A's were thinking as they already had a deep bullpen with Rollie Fingers, Paul Lindblad and Diego Segui before adding Taylor and Odom, who was 11-8 a year ago, will be missed in the rotation. Boyer won't be missed as the 31 year old lost his starting job at second base to Felix Millan and hit just .177 this year. We have the foresight of knowing Buddy Bell will have a solid major league career ahead of him. He joins the franchise his dad Gus finished his 13 year major league career with in the sim. Gus played the final 14 of his 1,818 career major league games in Kansas City in 1962.

The other big deal saw the St Louis Cardinals send 30 year old outfielder Tony Oliva to Californai in exchange for 35 year old outfielder Tito Francona and 21 year old minor league pitcher Tom Bradley. Oliva, who spent just 1 year with St Louis after 6 seasons in Philadelphia, hit .266 with 13 homers and 54 rbi's in 156 games for the Cardinals. Francona, a 13 year major league veteran, also had a short stay with California as he was acquired at mid-season from Cleveland. Francona hit just .196 in 102 games with the Indians and Angels last year.

Tiger Fan · 08-09-2018, 11:14 PM

As I do each before each Hall of Fame vote, here is a look at the newcomers to the ballot. First up is Yogi Berra.

CATCHERS IN THE HALL

Surprisingly there are only 4 catchers in the Hall of Fame right now. They are Mickey Cochrane, Gabby Hartnett, Bill Dickey and Ernie Lombardi. The only position with less is third base, which also comes as a big surprise with Cecil Travis being the only third baseman in the Hall. We will look at that in the future but right now let's look at where Berra ranks in comparision with the other four catchers currently in the Hall of Fame and four others who are either still eligible or fell short of election.

Code:


CAREER TOTALS FOR HALL OF FAME CATCHERS

NAME		YRS	  G    H    HR  AVG  WAR   GG SS AS  MVP  WS  WSMVP
Mickey Cochrane 1923-38 1747 1912  120 .333  73.5   9  7  3   0    2   2
Bill Dickey     1925-44 2044 2423  210 .337  81.7   1 10 11   0    5   0
Gabby Hartnett  1921-41 2109 2330  248 .319  75.0   0  8  4   0    6   0
Ernie Lombardi  1927-48 2366 2502  252 .305  66.9   0  4 10   0    0   0 

Yogi Berra      1946-63 2099 2141  322 .280  62.7   6  4  8   0    1   0 first time eligble 
Sherm Lollar    1943-62 2213 2058  243 .267  65.2   8  5 13   0    1   0 2nd yr on ballot 67% last yr.
Rick Ferrell    1926-44 1882 1972   30 .295  51.8   9  0  3   0    2   0 failed to be elected 30% was high
Hank Severeid   1908-26 1902 1852   38 .271  42.2   7  2  0   0    1   0 never appeared on ballot
Wally Schang    1912-29 1785 1595   50 .291  64.2   4  7  0   0    1   0 failed to be elected 35% was high

GG-Gold Glove, SS- SilverSlugger, AS - AllStar, WS - World Series winner

Ernie Lombardi leads all catchers in career hits followed by Dickey and Hartnett with Berra fourth. Berra's 322 homers are far and away the most by a catcher with Lombardi ranking second with 252. Based on those numbers in the chart above Berra certainly belongs in that group.

Looking at these numbers certainly shows Berra is worthy of inclusion but it also futher strengthens the case for Sherm Lollar. Lollar narrowly missed induction last season so this might be his year but there are a number of worthy candidates, which might prolong his waiting period. It also makes me think Ferrell and Schang deserve consideration down the road from the veteran's committee.

YOGI BERRA

Although Berra began his career in the Yankee organization he never played for the Bronx Bombers in this universe. He started with the Wellsville Yankees of the PONY League in 1943 as an 18 year old, hitting .263 as a rookie. He would return to Wellsville the following season and, while his average did slip to .247, Berra would be named the top defensive catcher in the loop. In 1945, Berra once again found himself starting the season in the PONY League. The Yankees had a number of catching prospects they valued higher than Berra and appeared set at the position at the big league level with veterans Buddy Rosar and Aaron Robinson on the team and Frankie Hawkins and Woody Fair at AAA so Berra remained moored in the low minors.

After starting 1945 in Wellsville, Berra was moved up to Norfolk of the Piedmont League in late May, but after batting just .209 in 43 games and struggling to throw out base runners, in what would prove to be a terribly short-sighted move the Yankees released him on August 10, 1945. A week later the Philadelphia Athletics signed the then 20 year old and assigned him to Lexington of the North Carolina State League. Berra hit .447 in 11 games with Lexington and won the league's player of the week award in his first full week with the club. When Lexington's season ended he moved up to the Martinsville A's of the Carolina League and went 3-for-11 in 3 playoff appearances to help the A's win their league title. Once that series was done, Berra was promoted to AAA for the first time in his career and he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs for their International League playoff series, going 2-for-9 in two starts and winning another league playoff title.

He made his major league debut the following season as he won the Athletics starting job from incumbent Frankie Hayes and, aside from a couple of injury rehab stints, would remain in the major leagues until his retirement in 1963. Berra's major league debut came at home against the Yankees in April of 1946 and he went 1-for-3 in a 2-1 win at Shibe Park. Berra's first hit was a single in his first major league at bat off of Yankee veteran Spud Chandler.

Berra would appear in 119 games as a rookie with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1946, hitting .291 with 15 homers and he would finish 2nd to Washington pitcher Arden McCaskey in rookie of the year voting. McCaskey was 14-15 with a no-hitter in his rookie year but would disappear quickly, winning only 9 more games in his career.

The following season Berra would make the All-Star team for the first of 7 times in his career and win his first of 6 Gold Gloves. He would also claim 4 silver slugger awards with the first coming in 1948. He would remain the face of a fairly week Athletics club until the end of the 1951 season.

That off-season, just a week before 1952 spring training was to begin the Athletics and cross-town rival Phillies completed a 5-player trade that sent Berra to the National League. The 27 year old Berra was deemed expendable because the Athletics wanted to give more playing time to former Negro League star Roy Campanella, who joined the club in 1948 when the color barrier came down. Joining Berra in the deal was 22 year old minor league third baseman Buddy Reedy who, despite a 17 year pro career, never did make the major leagues. In exchange the Athletics received 26 year old third baseman Willie 'Puddin Head' Jones, who hit .270 the previous season and would go on to spend the next decade with the Athletics. The Phillies would also send two pitchers to the A's in the trade: 20 year old minor leaguer Roy Face, who would spend just one season with the Athletics but remains active now with the California Angels as a 40 year old and has 175 career saves with most coming for Cleveland, and 30 year old reliever Bob Savage who would pitch parts of 3 seasons for the Philadelphia/Kansas City A's.

It was a perfect fit for both Berra and the Phillies. He left a team that won just 55 games the year before to go to a club that had won 5 straight National League pennants and 4 consecutive World Series titles. The Phillies did that despite the lack of a dominant catcher and Berra fit that bill. Prior to him they used Carl Sawatski and for one saeason a 36 year old Walker Cooper as their number one receiver.

In his first year with the Phillies Berra would bat just .255, well below his average in the American League, but did smash 21 homers and play outstanding defense to help the Phillies win a 6th straight pennant. He would struggle in the World Series at the plate, batting just .095 but the Phillies won a 5th straight World Series beating the Yankees in 6. After finishing a disappointing third the following year, the Phillies rebounded by destroying the rest of the National League in 1954, winning 108 games and finish 20 games up on second place Milwaukee. Berra would miss nearly 2 months that season with an ankle injury but still managed to make the all-star team and bat .291 with 19 homers in 96 games. Philadelphia lost to Detroit in a 7 game World Series with Berra having another rough series at the plate, batting just .185 in the series.

There would be no more pennants for Berra but he did continue to be a fixture in Philadelphia, collecting his 300th career homer in 1961 and his 2000th career hit the following year. In July of 1963 the Phillies released him after his average that year, at age 38, plummeted to .205. He signed with the Cubs and appeared in 15 games for them, but hit just .138 and retired at the end of the 1963 season as the all-time leader in homeruns by a catcher with 322.

The real life Berra played 2120 games, batting .285 with 2150 hits and 358 homeruns. The sim Berra played 2099 games, with a .280 career average and had 2141 hits including 322 homers. In real life Berra went on to manage both the Yankees and the Mets. In the sim he is presently an unemployed bench coach so there is a chance he might make it as a manager in the game as well.

VERDICT- Just as in real life the sim Berra belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Tiger Fan · 08-11-2018, 12:48 AM

1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT
GENE CONLEY

Conley accomplished a lot in his relatively short 12 year major league career. He threw a no-hitter, won a World Series, a rookie of the year award and made 6 all-star teams while going 163-131 primarily with the Braves but also spent time with the Mets and Yankees. He never played a minor league game until an unsuccessful and brief comeback attempt in 1965 with the Gastonia Pirates.

Debuting with the then Boston Braves in 1951 at the age of 20, Conley went 16-17 and was named National League rookie of the year. He started the 1952 season with 4 wins in 6 starts including a 2-hit shutout before suffering a season ending torn rotator cuff injury. Fortunately, the injury did no long term damage and he returned early the following season and after going 14-10 in 1953 he would enjoy an outstanding 1954 season, making his first of 6 all-star appearances. He would also throw a no-hitter against an all-star loaded Phillies team that season.

Two years later he would throw a second no-hitter, this time against Pittsburgh. It would put Conley in very exclusive company as here is the complete list of players to throw multiple no-hitters in the major leagues:

Preacher Roe (3)
Walter Johnson
Eddie Plank
Early Wynn
Gene Conley
Jim Bunning
Mickey Lolich

While Conley never won a Cy Young Award, he did finish in the top 3 in voting 3 times with the first being 1956, the year the Braves won their first- and so far only - pennant since 1897. Conley started two games in a 7 game series win over the Yankees including game one when he pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings in a 3-0 win. He would take the loss in Game Six but the Braves would rebound to win the 7th game. It would be the only post-season action of Conley's career.

Conley was a 20 game winning in 1959 at the age of 28 but 3 years later the Braves made him available in the expansion draft and he was selected by the Mets 9th overall. He spent 1962 pitching primarily out of the pen for the Mets where he struggled and was subsequently released early the following season. The Yankees signed him and he finished out the 1963 season in pinstripes before retiring following the 1963 campaign to pursue a professional basketball career. Conley made a brief comeback with the Class A Gastonia Pirates in 1965, making 10 relief appearances before retiring for good.

The real life Gene Conley won 3 NBA titles with the Boston Celtics and a World Series with the Milwaukee Braves, going 91-96 in his MLB career.

VERDICT - Good career, especially considering he retired so young but not Hall of Fame worthy.

DEL CRANDALL

The battery-mate of Conley for over a decade with the Braves, Crandall appeared in 1509 career major league games. He played all but the final season of his career in a Braves uniform, joining Baltimore for the 1963 campaign. He made 5 all-star teams and won a pair of gold gloves while also being a part of the Braves 1956 World Series winning club.

In 1.509 career games Crandall was a lifetime .263 hitter with 1,368 career hits including 175 homeruns. The real-life Crandall was an 11 time all-star and won 4 gold gloves. He played 1,573 major league games, batting .254 for his career with 1,276 hits and 179 homeruns.

VERDICT - There is a shortage of catchers in the Hall but there are plenty better than Crandall on the outside looking in so he won't get my vote.

JOHN GAZDZIASKSI

The real life John Gazdziasksi spent 1 season in organized baseball, going 10-9 for the Mitchell Kernels of the Class D Nebraska State League in 1937. I could find nothing else about him.

In the sim he spent a decade bouncing around the minors including almost 7 years in AAA before getting a major league call-up in 1946 at the age of 28. During his tenure in the minors he pitched a no-hitter and also won two International League titles, an American Association title and an Ohio State League championship.

His debut with the St Louis Cardinals came with a relief stint on July 8, 1946 in a 6-4 loss to the Giants. He would pitch twice more in July before returning to the minors only to be recalled just before the 1946 season ended. Gazdziasksi's first career major league win actually came by pitching a scoreless 10th inning in Game Four of the 1946 series. He would also pitch 2 scoreless innings in Game Five as well but his Cardinals would lose the series to the Boston Red Sox in 6 games.

He would be on the Cardinals post-season roster the following season when they won the World Series but he did not pitch in the Fall Classic. The Cardinals would win again in 1959 but Gazdziasksi again did not pitch - this time due to a season-ending arm injury suffered in April of that year that would lead to his retirement at the end of the season.

Despite not reaching the majors until age 28, Gazdziasksi still managed to pitch 13 years in the big leagues before an arm injury ended his career at age 41. He was 92-106 over his career, spent entirely with the St Louis Cardinals.

VERDICT - A nice story to see him stick out a decade in the minors, get his first career victory in the World Series and pitch until age 41 but certainly not a Hall of Fame career.

Tiger Fan · 08-11-2018, 02:13 AM

1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

I talked about the shortage of catchers in the Hall of Fame and also mentioned third base was the least represented position with Cecil Travis being the only player who primarily manned the hot corner during his career to reach Cooperstown. Charlie Hollocher and his 3,073 hits along with 11 gold gloves is also in the Hall but he played more games at shortstop than he did at third base. Likewise, for Hall of Famer Frank 'Home Run' Baker who played more games at second than he did at third. I bring up the third base quesiton now because it is time to discuss the candidacy of Don Hoak.

The top third basemen to consider are not eligible yet as Eddie Mathews (2,198 hits, 539 HR), Ken Boyer (2,145 hits and 5 gold gloves) and Brooks Robinson (1,713 hits and 7 gold gloves) are still active.

Names you think should belong there like Pie Traynor, Vern Stephens and George Kell fell just short in this sim of posting the numbers required for the Hall.

If there is one name that belongs in the Hall it has to be Jimmy Collins. Collins played for the Braves from 1895 to 1908 in this sim, spending all but 3 of his 1,924 career games at third base. He won 2 World Series titles although they were in 1896 and 1897 and also claimed 6 gold gloves. He had 2,145 hits and was a career .290 hitter but his name has yet to ever appear on a Hall of Fame ballot. I would say he deserves consideration from the Veterans Committee at some point but beyond that we need to wait for Mathews, Robinson, Santo and Boyer to become eligible before swelling the ranks of third baseman in the Hall.

Now to the matter at hand, Don Hoak.

DON HOAK

Hoak played 1,539 major league games for the Dodgers, Tigers and Indians and was a member of 3 World Series winners while also making 3 all-star teams. He was signed as a second baseman at the age of 19 by Brooklyn in 1947 and would spend 4 seasons in the minors before joining the Dodgers briefly at the end of the 1951 season.

Hoak hit just .192 in 26 at bats for the Dodgers as a rookie and was back in the minors to start the 1952 campaign. In May of that year he was a throw in piece to a deal that sent him along with 26 year old outfielder Irv Noren from Brooklyn to Detroit in exchange for 3 time gold glove winning outfielder Johnny Groth.

Detroit was just the spot for Hoak as he was promoted and although he played sparingly, he did spend the rest of the 1952 season on the Tigers big league roster. With fellow young talent Pete Runnels pencilled in as the Tigers second baseman for the next decade, Hoak was shifted to third base and would spend the next 7 years playing that position for Detroit.

Included in that time were a couple of injuries that cost him playing time including missing one of the Tigers 3 World Series titles during that stretch. He struggled in the Series, batting just .222 in 7 career games but does have 3 rings to show for his efforts. He would also make 3 straight American League all-star teams between 1957-59.

In June of 1959 the Tigers acquired third baseman Jim Davenport from the Washington Senators in a trade that would see them part with an 18 year old pitching prospect named Mickey Lolich. The 25 year old Davenport would hit .368 in spot duty for the Tigers down the stretch in 1959 which prompted them to trade Hoak. Davenport would be an all-star in 1960 but never came close to duplicating his torrid hitting numbers of 1959.

As for Hoak, despite coming off 3 straight all-star season and hitting .299 as a 31 year old in 1959, he was traded to Cleveland for catcher Earl Averill and minor league pitcher George Burnett. Averill would spend 4 seasons in Detroit before moving on to Pittsburgh, where he remains as a 36 year old backup while Burnett took 4 seasons to become a major league regular but was 12-16 this past year for the Tigers.

Hoak spent the final 4 seasons of his career with the Indians. He would not make another all-star team but did hit well enough to win his third and final Silver Slugger award in his first year with the Tribe. He retired following the 1963 season finishing as a career .270 hitter with 1,496 hits and 99 homeruns.

The real life Don Hoak never played for Detroit but was ironically nicknamed 'Tiger'. He played 11 seasons for 5 National League clubs, batting .265 with 1,144 hits including 89 homeruns in his career. He won a pair of World Series titles and made 1 all-star team.

VERDICT- Solid player but by no means a Hall of Famer.

HARDY HOLT

Another of the guys who played just a couple years in the low minors in real life but stuck around the minors long enough to eventually get called up and fashion a decent major league career in the sim. His big real-life season was his first in the minors - 1946 when he went 23-7 for Zanesville of the Ohio State League after being signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. From his 2011 obituary I learned his given name was Elbert and after high school in Alabama he served as a flight mechanic in World War II. After the war, he returned to the Mobile area and while playing what he thought was a pick-up baseball game was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. It does not discuss why his pro career ended after 3 seasons, only mentioning he settled in the Zanesville area after his career.

In the sim he made his major league debut in 1949 and be on a pair of pennant winning Dodgers teams. He was a starter for his first 5 seasons but the arrival of Koufax and Drysdale bumped him to the pen for a few years before getting back in the rotation late in his career. He made his only all-star appearance in 1959 and would retire with a 110-125 career record at the end of the 1963 season.

VERDICT - Certainly not a hall of fame career.

JOSEPH JACKSON

Another Hardy Holt type story. The real-life Jackson pitched for 3 seasons reach as high as AA for the Memphis Peaches in 1948 before disappearing from baseball-reference. He spent his first two seasons with the Dayton Indians and was 28-29 during that time.

In the sim he made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1949 but did not become a regular until 1951 when he went 17-7 for the Indians and led the American League with a 1.92 era. He finished 3rd in Cy Young voting that year - teammate Mike Garcia won the award that season as the two helped the Indians win the American League pennant before losing the World Series to the Phillies in 6 games.

It would be the first of 12 straight double-digit win seasons for Jackson. The first 10 were with Cleveland and the final two came for the expansion Los Angeles Angels, who selected Jackson 15th overall in the 1960 expansion draft. The Angels released him in May of 1963 and he ended his career with a brief stop in Kansas City.

VERDICT - A very nice career with a 165-152 career record but not Hall of Fame worthy.

Tiger Fan · 08-11-2018, 01:17 PM

1969 HALL OF FAME CANDIDATES

CLEM LABINE

The righthanded pitcher spent 11 seasons with Detroit, saving 128 games with all of his 666 career major league appearances coming in relief. Originally signed as 17 year old by Brooklyn in 1944, the Dodgers released him after one unimpressive minor league season. After a year away from baseball, Detroit signed Labine at 19 and he went 11-9 with a 1.94 era for Jamestown of the PONY League. He worked his way thru the Tigers system and made his major league debut in 1950. Two years later he was the Tigers top reliever and would remain in their pen until his retirement following the 1963 season.

He played a role in 3 World Series titles with the Tigers and made his only appearance on the all-star team in 1961. His 128 career saves ranks 5th all-time and he is 17th all time in games pitched.

The real life Labine pitched in 513 games for the Dodgers, Tigers, Pirates and Mets with all but 38 of them in relief. He was 77-56 with 94 saves in his career.

VERDICT - He was one of the first pure closers in the game but others like Hoyt Wilhelm, Roy Face and Jack Russell belong in the Hall well before Labine.

STAN MUSIAL

No debate here. Musial is the all time leader in games played (3,425) and at bats (12,806) and his 4,172 career hits rank second only to Ty Cobb's 4,450. Musial is a 4 time American League MVP, won 4 gold gloves, 12 silver slugger awards, was a 16 time all-star. The only thing he didn't do was win a World Series. Musial joined the Washington Senators as a 21 year old in 1942 and remained with the organization until retiring as a Minnesota Twin following the 1963 campaign. He hit .364 in the 1949 Series, his only post-season appearance, but the Senators lost in 6 games to the Phillies.

A minor league free agent entering the game, he was signed by the Senators organization in 1938 as a pitcher, and went 19-5 with a 3.67 era for Charlotte of the Piedmont League. He also batted .300 and while he did pitch the following season he also played some outfield for the Class A Orlando Senators. Invited to main camp for spring training 1940, he earned a starting job in the Washington outfield and after batting .285 with 14 homers and 89 rbi's was named the American League rookie of the year.

Musial would win 3 batting titles including 1945 when he hit .400, a feat that has not been accomplished since. Musial only led the American League in homeruns once in his career but did hit 502, and sits 8th all time in round-trippers. He is the only player with 4000 hits and 500 homers and is joined by Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Mel Ott in the 3000 hit/500 homerun club.

The real-life Musial played in 3026 games, all with the Cardinals, and had 3,630 hits including 475 homeruns.

VERDICT- No doubt here. He is on my ballot and should be a lock for election.

TURN OF THE CENTURY FIRST TIME NOMINEES

There are 3 players who played primarily in the 1890s that are appearing on the ballot for the first time. I am not sure why, and none of them have careers worthy of consideration for the Hall but since they are on the ballot here is a quick look at each of them. None will get my vote and I would be surprised if any of the three get the minimum required to remain on the ballot for next year.

FOGHORN MILLER
Doggie 'Foghorn' Miller played for Pittsburgh from 1884-1897. He was a catcher who appeared in 1,335 career games, batting .261 with 1,371 hits. Miller never won an individual award in the majors but did hit .417 for St Paul of the American Association to win that league's batting title in 1899. The Pirates cut him loose after the 1897 season and he would play 4 years in St Paul and 3 with Buffalo of the International League before retiring following the 1903 season. His career hit total including the AAA leagues is 2,160. His given name was George but he got his nicknames for his dog breeding hobby and the loud voice he brought to the field.

PEACH PIE O'CONNOR
Like Miller, Jack 'Peach Pie' O'Connor was a catcher in the 1890's. He played for 5 different teams in the major leagues, appearing in 1,357 games, batting .278 with 1,483 career hits. He ended his career with two seasons with Mobile of the Southern Association.

The real life O'Connor spent much of his career with the Cleveland Spiders and played into his 40s. He was a player/manager for the Browns in 1910 and was involved in a scandal for trying to help Nap Lajoie win the batting title over Ty Cobb that year. He was fired for deliberately allowing Lajoie to get a hig in each of his at bats against the Browns in the final game of the season.

BILLY SHINDLE
Shindle, a third baseman, played 1,499 major league games. He joined Cincinnati in the inaugural draft I had in 1894 after playing for several teams prior to that point. He had 1,591 career hits and was a .270 lifetime hitter.
The real life Shindle was said to have amazing range at third base but his hands were not so good as he had a lot of errors - including a record 122 in 1890 which is tied with Herman Long (1889) for the all-time record for most errors by a major league in a season at any position.

Tiger Fan · 08-11-2018, 03:10 PM

1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

BILLY PIERCE

Pierce spent his entire 15 year career with the Browns/Orioles organization and was 221-164 with a pair of 20-win seasons. He won the Cy Young Award in 1952 after leading the league in starts with 36 and era (1.84) as he compiled a 19-12 record. Blessed with good health throughout his prime, Pierce made 7 all-star teams and won 6 gold gloves but he never appeared in a World Series as the Browns/Orioles were not very good for much of his tenure with the organization.

During his peak years from 1951-61 his team was on average 5 games under .500. In games Pierce got a decision they had a .587 winning percentage while they were .462 from 1951-61 when he did not factor in the decision. Where I am going with this is I wonder how much better Pierce's numbers could have been on a better team?

He was a Tigers prospect when he made his pro debut in 1945 at the age of 18 and went 16-8 with a 2.53 era in his first pro season with Jamestown of the PONY League and won that loop's top pitcher and MVP award. Midway through the 1946 season he hurt his back and missed two weeks. Immediately upon his return, which in hindsight might have been too early, he blew out his knee and was done for the season. At the end of the year, despite posting very impressive numbers at Jamestown and Rome before his injury, the Tigers released him.

For his age 20 season he was signed by the Browns and after going 16-11, 2.38 in two levels of minors in 1947 he made his major league debut the following season. A shoulder injury shut him for 6 weeks but he still appeared in 31 games out of the Browns pen that year. The shoulder injury cropped up again the following season and he missed time in 1949 and again in 1950, when he needed surgery and missed two months. That would be the last significant time he missed and for the next decade he would get 32-38 starts a season and was the ace of the Browns/Orioles rotation. A knee injury suffered late in the 1962 season would ultimately lead to his retirement the following year.

His consistency during his prime is amazing and his 221-164 record with 2062 career strikeouts warrant some consideration for the Hall of Fame. He was 211-169 in real life with 1,999 career K's.

VERDICT - Pitchers with somewhat comparable numbers that are in the Hall of Fame include Bob Feller, Hal Newhouser, Carl Hubbell and Dutch Leonard.

Code:


 COMPARABLE HALL OF FAMERS
NAME	          W   L     IP   Ks    WAR   CY  AS  WS JAWS
HAL NEWHOUSER	 213-145  3266  1900   80.2   3   8   0  78.3
CARL HUBBELL	 206-151  3285  1422   69.5   2   5   3  69.8
DUTCH LEONARD	 236-183  3701  1386   75.2   2   5   5  56.4
BOB FELLER	 255-198  4118  2528   78.2   0   6   2  68.4
    ON THE CURRENT BALLOT
Billy Pierce     221-164  3450  2062   72.1   1   7   0  73.0
Pete Alexander	 259-209  4161  1579   81.8   1   -   3  56.2
Harry Brecheen   215-189  3583  1707   58.2   3   7   0  67.8
Rube Marquard    267-234  4607  2293  103.5   1   -   0  85.0
Eddie Plank	 237-122  3282  1678   69.9   1   -   7  71.7
Warren Spahn     316-196  4670  2210  103.1   3   9   4  83.9
Doc White	 240-161  3759  1622   75.8   2   -   4  69.2
Cy Young	 341-269  5551  1790  129.3   0   -   0  79.9

Based on that I would have to rank Pierce the 4th or 5th best pitcher on my ballot behind fellow first time eligible Warren Spahn, Cy Young and Rube Marquard. Doc White, Pierce and Pete Alexander are all in the mix for the next spot as I would think Eddie Plank and his 7 World Series rings should be.

WARREN SPAHN

For a five year stretch the Philadelphia Phillies were the best team in baseball and Warren Spahn was the best player, winning two MVP awards and 3 Cy Young Awards during a stretch that saw him go 119-35 during the regular season and 5-3 in the World Series. Overall, Spahn finished his 19 year major league career with a 316-196 record and 2,210 strikeouts. He had 7 twenty-win seasons, was a 9-time all-star, won 4 World Series rings and 3 Silver Sluggers to go with his 3 Cy Young and 2 MVP awards. He also pitched a no-hitter.

Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Eppa Rixey are the only major leaguers to play their entire career after 1900 and win more games than Spahn. Even including the pre-1901 guys, Spahn is one of just 8 300 game winners in this universe.

He began his career in the Boston Braves system and was 3-0 in 13 appearances for the Braves over two seasons but when he was 23 and still primarily a minor league pitcher, the Braves sent him to the Phillies along with fringe major league reliever Pete Sivess in exchange for 29 year old outfielder Stan Spence. Spence would last just over a year in Boston before the Braves sent him to Brooklyn for Carl Erskine. Erskine pitched a decade for the Braves but went just 80-59 for his career. So the Braves basically gave up Spahn's 300plus wins for Carl Erskine.

The acquisition of Spahn, along with the emergence of Curt Simmons(290-173) and Robin Roberts (253-201) carried the Phillies to 4 straight World Series titles and 6 pennants in 7 years. Spahn would remain a Phillie until his retirement in 1963.

Spahn's 316-196 record in the sim fell short of his 363 real life wins. He did pitch until 1965 in real life and threw about 600 more real life innings. The real life Spahn won just 1 World Series title and a single Cy Young award.

VERDICT - He is in. No doubt he gets my vote and should be elected on his first ballot appearance along with Musial.

GENE WOODLING

The outfielder made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1942 and would spend 20 years in the mahor leagues with the Indians and Cubs. A .305 career hitter, Woodling led the National League in batting in 1953 when he hit .384 and would finish with 2,719 career hits - good to presently rank 44th all-time.

His best season was 1953 when, in addition to leading the NL in batting he was named MVP and had 30 homers and 102 rbi's - both career bests. Woodling was a 9-time all-star, won 3 Silver Slugger awards and a pair of gold gloves as well as being named American League rookie of the year in 1943. He appeared in 4 World Series with the Indians, winning in 1948. In 21 World Series games, he had 16 hits and batted .239.

Following the 1949 season, when the Indians feel to 6th place after being no worse than second in the previous 9 seasons, Cleveland dealt Woodling to the Cubs for 29 year old outfielder Andy Pafko. Pafko would play 3 seasons in Cleveland but failed to match the numbers Woodling was posting with his new club. The Cubs would never challenge for a pennant during Woodling's days there but he did enough at Wrigley that his is one of just 4 numbers retired by the organization: joing Earl Averill, Tony Lazzeri and Billy Hamilton.

VERDICT- An impressive career and some good numbers but I won't have room for him on my ballot this year. Joining Musial and Spahn as first timers on the ballot make it tough for Woodling, at least this season.

That concludes the profiles of first time nominees on the ballot. My votes will be next. As always if you have any thoughts feel free to let me know. The complete ballot is listed below as well.

Tiger Fan · 08-12-2018, 01:58 AM

MY HALL OF FAME BALLOT

I left off some names I would like to have included. Cap Anson is one but since he played his entire career before 1901 and only had 5 years of playing during the sim since I started in 1894 I decided to leave him for the Veterans Committee to decide on and made the decision to add Sam Rice and his 2,965 career hits to the ballot at the expense of Anson.

There were a few pitchers I wanted to have room for but couldn't fit them in my list of 10. They include Rube Marquard, Billy Pierce, Eddie Plank, George Uhle and Doc White. Marquard and Plank were on my last ballot but they, along with Anson, failed to make the cut this time.

There were a bunch of second baseman on the ballot but in the end I decided they all fall short of inclusion on my list. They include Bobby Doeer, Billy Goodman, Joe Gordon, Red Schoendienst and Tony Lazzeri.

Anyway, here is my ballot.

JaBurns · 08-12-2018, 09:19 AM

Uncanny how close Yogi Berra's real life and sim stats were for his career.
I think that goes under the category of "hitters hit" no matter where they play.

Tiger Fan · 08-12-2018, 01:00 PM

SPAHN AND MUSIAL JOIN HALL

The Hall of Fame ranks increased by two as Warren Spahn and Stan Musial will comprise the 1969 class. Spahn set a record by becoming the first candidate in the history of the hall to be named on 100% of the ballots. Musial was a close second with his name being selected by 99.0% of the voters.

Jimmie Foxx from the 1944 class, had held the mark for highest percentage of the vote when he was named on 99.4% of the ballots that season. Two years ago homerun king Ted Williams had his name appear on 99.2% of the ballots.

Spahn and Musial were the only 2 players to receive the required 75% needed for induction. Here are the results of the voting:

Code:


Warren Spahn		100%   INDUCTED HOF
Stan Musial		99.0%  INDUCTED HOF
Billy Pierce		66.0    1st year
Pee Wee Reese		61.5	8th year
Sherm Lollar		59.5  	2nd year
Yogi Berra		52.1	1st year
Ralph Kiner		40.1	5th year
Gene Woodling		35.3	1st year
Cy Young		33.0	38th year
Joe Gordon		31.7	12th year
Pete Alexander		26.2	37th year
Gene Conley		24.9	1st year
Eddie Plank		19.7	38th year
Gil Hodges		17.8	4th year
Heinie Manush		13.6	26th year
Cap Anson		13.6	38th year
Sam Rice		13.3	31st year
Harry Brecheen		12.6	9th year
Doc White		12.3	38th year
Sam Thompson		12.0	38th year
George Uhle		11.0	30th year
Rube Marquard		10.4	38th year
Red Schoendienst	 8.7  	2nd year
Lon Warneke		 8.7	20th year
Billy Goodman		 8.4	4th year
Del Ennis		 7.1	6th year
Tony Lazzeri		 7.1	24th year
Bobby Doerr		 5.5    11th year

DROPPED DUE TO RECEIVING LESS THAN 5%
Joseph Jackson		4.9
Howie Pollet		4.2
Bobby Shantz		3.9
Gus Bell		3.9
Bobby Thomson		3.2
Earl Torgeson		2.9
Clem Labine		1.9
Hardy Holt		0.6
Del Crandall		0.3
Don Hoak		0.3
Jack J O'Connor		0.3
Doggie Miller		0.3
John Gazdziasksi	0.0
Billy Shindle		0.0

CHARLESTON RECOGNIZED BY NEWLY CREATED VETERANS COMMITTEE

The Hall of Fame will get an additional inductee this season as a result of the announcement made by the newly created Veteran's Committee. The first player chosen by the new committee to be enshrined in Cooperstown will be legendary Minor and Negro League outfielder Oscar Charleston.

The committee was created to recognize old-time major leaguers who were overlooked by the regular Hall of Fame voting system as well as players from the Negro Leagues and independant minor league system that existed from the 1890's through the early 1930s. Charleston, who excelled in both, is an obvious first choice for the Hall.

Charleston began his pro career in 1915 when, barred by MLB because of baseball's color line, he joined his hometown Indianapolis Indians of the then independant American Association. He would spend 15 seasons in Indianapolis, helping the Indians win 4 league playoff championships and being named playoff series MVP on all 4 occasions. Charleston ranks among the American Association's career leaders in just about every offensive category and remains first in career homeruns, doubles and rbi's as well as second in hits. He led the league in batting average one season and in homeruns 5 times. While the league never handed out individual awards in that era (aside from playoff MVP) it is clear Charleston would have owned a lot of hardware had it done so.

In 1931, with the American Association close to alligning itself with Major League Baseball - something it would do at the end of the season - there was pressure for all of the AA teams to conform with MLB's stance on barring Negro players from the game so the Indians traded the then 37 year old Charleston to Little Rock of the Southern League. Charleston played just 37 games in the Southern loop and batted .404 to help the Travelers to the Southern Series (where he batted .393 in a 7 game loss to New Orleans) but he was not welcomed back the following season by Little Rock as that league, like the American Association, also gave up it's independant status to become affiliated with Major League Baseball.

Now 38 years old, Charleston had contemplated retirement but the Negro National League's Pittsburgh Crawfords convinced him to join their team for 1932. Charleston would go on to play 9 seasons with the Crawfords and help them win 2 Negro League World Series championships.

When he retired at the age of 46 Charleston had amassed the following numbers for his career. 2860 games played, 3,457 career hits including 265 homeruns. His career batting average was .330. He also played on 11 teams that made the playoffs, winning league championships with 6 of them while posting a .367 playoff batting average with 11 homers and 42 rbi's in 61 post-season games.

Charleston is an obvious first choice for the veteran committee. Unfortunately fans were robbed from seeing what he could have accomplished against the very best in the game but he now has a place amongst them.

Tiger Fan · 08-12-2018, 11:22 PM

1969 PREVIEW

A lot has changed as we prepare for the start of the 1969 season with the biggest news being the addition of divisions and an extra playoff round required to reach the World Series. The 4 new expansion teams are ready to begin play and one of them, the Kansas City Royals, had the third best spring training record at 19-11. The Royals trailed only Cleveland and Pittsburgh, who each won 20 games in the spring.

However, the prognosticators have the 4 expansion clubs - including the Royals - finishing with the 4 worst records in major league baseball this season.

Here is the predicted order of finish for each of the 4 divisions:

Code:


     AMERICAN LEAGUE
EAST		   WEST
Baltimore	Oakland
Cleveland	California
New York	Minnesota
Detroit		Chicago
Boston		Seattle
Washington	Kansas City

     NATIONAL LEAGUE
EAST		  WEST
Pittsburgh	Los Angeles
New York	San Francisco
Philadelphia	Cincinnati
St Louis	Houston
Chicago		Atlanta
Montreal	San Diego

Let's take a closer look at each division

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
The Baltimore Orioles pitcher got even better with the promotion of 23 year old Jim Palmer to the big leagues. Palmer was 14-4 between 2 minor league levels a year ago and joins the American League's best rotation that also includes Dean Chance (20-11), Dave McNally (16-9) and Milt Pappas (13-11). The offense revolves around Willie Mays, Boog Powell, Davey Johnson and Brooks Robinson.

Boston lost two starting infielders from last seasons pennant winning squad as 3B Glenn Beckert was taken by San Diego in the expansion draft and 2B Mike Andrews was dealt to San Francisco for Felipe Alou. Promising rookie George Scott will replace Andrews but the hole left be Beckert will be tougher to address. Pitching is always a question mark as it remains to be seen of Keith LeNoue and Jim Lonborg can match their impressive numbers from a year ago. Mike Kekich, a pick-up in the Alou deal, will be thrust into the rotation to start the season. The expectation is the pitching won't be as good and experts see the Red Sox falling to fourth place in the AL East this year.

The Cleveland Indians are expected to challenge Baltimore for the division crown. Despite losing 16 game winner Steve Hargan in the expansion draft the Indians pitching looks just as strong this year with the addition of Blue Moon Odom in a deal with Oakland to join a front-end of the rotation that includes Cy Young winners Sam McDowell and Denny Lemaster. The Tribe will also have a full year of Jim Fregosi, a mid-season pickup from California, at shortstop. Cleveland also added veteran infielders Julian Javier and Clete Boyer in off-season deals at the cost of some of their prospects.

Al Kaline dominated pitchers in the spring, batting .420, so the Detroit Tigers hope that is a sign of things to come this season. The reality is the Tigers are in a full scale rebuild and the 4th place prediction is overly optimistic in my opinion.

It is a changing of the guard for the New York Yankees as the Mickey Mantle era comes to an end. Mantle was left exposed in the expansion draft and selected by the San Diego Padres. There is a lot of young talent in New York led by Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer but the Yankees are a couple of years away from contending.

After a decade of awful baseball the Washington Senators might finally be showing signs of life. Highly touted 18 year old rookie Jeff Burroughs hit just .159 in spring training but that didn't stop the Senators from penciling him in their opening day lineup. Joe Coleman, Marty Pattin, Larry Gura and Bill Stoneman give the Senators some good young arms and their farm system, traditionally at the bottom of the league, is now ranked 10th out of the 24 teams.

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
The California Angels improved their outfield with off-season deals to add Jose Cardenal and Tony Oliva. If the pitching staff, led by Andy Messersmith, Jim McGlothlin and Clyde Wright, can hold up the Angels have a good shot at second place in the new West Division.

The only good news for White Sox fans is with the addition of two expansion teams to the division, Chicago should finish no worse than 4th place. The Sox have been in rebuild mode for a couple of seasons and have loaded up on prospects, but unfortunately most are mid-level players rather than potential stars. A couple of those prospects are counted on to contribute this year in Lou Piniella and Jim Nettles but the offense still revolves around 34 year old first baseman Norm Cash, who continues to produce despite the lack of a supporting cast. The rotation will feature a pair of 19 year olds in Bart Johnson and Doug Olson.

It will be a long season for each of the expansion clubs including the Kansas City Royals. There is excitement for the club after a 19-11 spring training and there are some pieces like young pitchers Clay Kirby, Doug Bird, Tug McGraw and Sparky Lyle, but the Roayls will be lucky to win 70 games.

The Minnesota Twins probably pose the biggest challenge to the division favourite Oakland Athletics. The Twins return most of the cast from their 1967 World Series winning squad although they did lost pitcher Camilo Pascual and catcher Jim Pagliaroni in the expansion draft. 22 year old Alan Foster, once the prize of the Dodgers deep collection of arms, will take Pascual's spot in the rotation and with the emergence of rookie 3B Craig Nettles, Joe Foy will move from the hot corner to behind the plate.

Experts figure this is the year the collection of young talent the Athletics has amassed takes them to the post-season. The A's have plenty of young bats led by Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rick Monday, Bert Campaneris, Darrell Evans and Gene Tenace. Pitching might be a concern especially with the news that Steve Hargan, who won 16 games for Cleveland a year ago, will miss the seasons with a shoulder injury. Hargan was acquired in early March from Montreal- who selected him in the expansion draft - for second baseman Dick Green.

The expansion Seattle Pilots went with veterans and will be lead by Maury Wills, Ron Fairly, Cookie Rojas and pitchers Gary Peters and Bo Belinsky. There are some prospects in the system such as Gorman Thomas, Marty Perez and Jim Slaton but this projects to be a rough year for the Pilots.

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
The Chicago Cubs have not had a team capable of contending for well over a decade and this year will likely not be any different. Outfielders Lou Brock and Billy Williams, along with 3B Ron Santo and pitcher Ken Holtzman are the best of a weak team.

The expansion Montreal Expos look to be in better shape than the 2 newcomers to the American League. The starting pitching doesn't look bad with Ray Washburn, Mel Stottlemyre, Grant Jackson and Camilo Pascaul but getting some offensive support might prove difficult.

The Mets seem finally ready to challenge for a playoff spot, especially if young starters Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan are ready to live up to their potential. Dick McAuliffe was acquired from Detroit to play second base and joins an offense that includes Cleon Jones, Paul Blair, Ken Singleton, Ron Swoboda and Bud Harrelson.

The Philadelphia Phillies strong pitching staff took a hit with the loss of Stottlemyre and Jackson to the expansion Expos but they still have Fergie Jenkins and Rick Wise.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the favourites to win the NL East. There is plenty of young offensive talent in Bobby Tolan, Al Oliver, Richie Hebner, Don Money and Manny Sanguillen as well as their leader Willie Stargell. Rookie Bob Moose joins a rotation that already includes Bob Veale, Luis Tiant and Woodie Fryman.

In my mind the Cardinals are very underrated. Their rotation consists of Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Denny McLain, Nelson Briles and Stan Bahnsen. Add youngsters Bernie Carbo, Jose Cruz, Nate Colbert and Ted Simmons to the mix and they have the potential to win the division.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
Clearly the toughest division in baseball with the Dodgers, Giants and Reds joined by the improving Astros and Braves.

Atlanta has Hank Aaron, Rico Carty and Joe Torre to carry their offense but the pitching, beyond Phil Niekro and Ron Reed is suspect.

The Cincinnati Reds have almost too many position players. They added 23 year 2B Davey Lopes in a trade with the White Sox over the winter but he will have to be content with a backup role as the infield features Lee May, Tony Perez, Cesar Tovar and Tommy Harper with Dave Concepcion joining Lopes on the bench. Cincinnati did nothing to address the big concern - lack of quality pitching - but they do have Ross Grimsley, Milt Wilcox and Don Gullett just a year or so away.

Houston has added rookie Ken Forsch to an already strong rotation and the offense is also very good led by Joe Morgan, Vada Pinson, Rusty Staub and Bob Watson.

Don Drysdale has been relegated to the pen but the Dodgers still have Sandy Koufax and the best pitching rotation in baseball which also includes Bill Singer, Don Sutton, Tommy John and Joe Horlen. Despite losing a record 18 players from their system in the expansion draft, the Dodgers remain the favourites to win a tight division.

San Diego probably has the best collection of talent out of the 4 expansion teams but they also have the misfortune of playing in the toughest division. The team also only has one minor league affiliate - in the Pioneer League so depth could be a big issue if they get hit with injuries. He will likely be restricted to a backup role but a big reason to watch the Padres is to see if ex-Yankee Mickey Mantle can reach 600 homers (he has 586) and 3000 hits (2978).

The Giants traded Felipe Alou to Boston for second baseman Mike Andrews. The move frees up a spot for Bobby Bonds to finally be able to play everyday. Bonds is joined by a full-season of Pete Rose - who was aquired from Cincinnati just prior to the all-star break last year. The backend of the rotation may be a problem but hard to find a better 1-3 than Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry and Bill Hands, who had a breakout 17-3 season a year ago.

PREDICTION - This will be a very competitive year but I am picking we will see a rematch of two years ago with a Minnesota-Los Angeles World Series with the Twins beating Cleveland and the Dodgers topping Pittsburgh in the LCS. I think the young Mets and Athletics will challenge but fall just short this year. Look out for both next season.

Tiger Fan · 08-13-2018, 11:45 PM

1969 ALL-STAR BREAK

There were not any real surprises at the all-star break as teams in contention were as expected. If I would consider any team a surprise club it would be the fact that the San Francisco Giants were running away with the National League West Division. At the break, the 65-33 Giants had the best record in the National League and were 9.5 games ahead of Cincinnati and 11.5 up on Los Angeles.

Pete Rose (.317,9,51) was having his usual strong season at the plate, although it seems unlikely he will win his 4th consecutive batting title thanks to Houston's Bob Watson. Bobby Bonds (.286,14,49), Willie McCovey (.270,15,35) and Dick Dietz (.309,11,50) were all hitting as was off-season pick-up Mike Andrews (.321,3,29) when healthy. Andrews missed nearly two months with a hamstring issue. Juan Marichal (13-4, 2.39) and Gaylord Perry (11-6, 2.51) anchored the rotation with Bill Hands (8-6, 3.20) and Gene Brabender (9-7, 2.85) also contributing. Thanks to Bonds' league leading 29 steals at the break the Giants have also incorporated speed into their offense.

Stop me if you have heard this one before. The Reds had the best offense in the National League but their pitching, particularily the bullpen was dreadful. If Ray Sadecki (11-1, 2.45) or Claude Osteen (15-4, 2.40) could pitch every day the Reds would be dominant especially with this batting order:

Code:

1 Tommy Harper	 3B  .277 13 50
2 Frank Robinson RF  .302 18 46
3 Tony Perez	 2B  .345 18 71
4 Jim Wynn	 CF  .259 16 64
5 Johnny Bench   C   .307 17 56
6 Lee May	 1B  .274 16 51
7 Cesar Tovar	 SS  .312  2 23
8 Art Shamsky	 LF  .235 10 34

The 3rd place Dodgers, of course, had the opposite problem. They always had great pitching although it was not quite as good as in previous years. Sandy Koufax (12-6, 1.91) and Bill Singer (12-3, 2.43) continued to shine but Don Sutton (8-7, 3.63) and Tommy John (7-8, 3.29) were not quite as effective. The bullpen was also a bit weaker than in previous years with co-closers Al Worthington and Clay Carroll having as many blown saves as they do saves at the break. Don Drysdale was awful in the pen and was released in May.

It was the LA offense that always came up short in previous years but this season they have moved up to the middle of the pack in the National League thanks to a monster first half from Frank Howard (.279,27,73) and rookie catcher Greg Goossen (.282,18,46). Roberto Clemente (.311,4,35) and Steve Garvey (.303,10,44) are also contributing. Injuries to infielders Ted Sizemore and Jim Lefebvre have hurt.

Houston and Atlanta have both taken a step back. The Astros are getting a big year out of 23 year old Bob Watson (.365,14,71), who leads the league in batting average but the Houston pitching has struggled. Pitching has also been a problem in Atlanta but the Braves did make deals last week with Montreal to add Mel Stottlemyre (6-11, 4.83) and with San Diego to get Tom Phoebus (4-14, 4.46). Hank Aaron (.300,14,43) and Joe Torre (.313,10,67) lead the offense.

In the East Division a strong July surge from the New York Mets, with 14 wins in their last 17 games, has vaulted them into first place in a tight battle with Pittsburgh and St Louis. The Mets have done it with great pitching, particularily from Jerry Koosman (13-4, 1.88), Tom Seaver (10-9, 2.40) and Dick Selma (8-2, 1.82). Nolan Ryan (6-6,3.46) was recently moved into the closer role and got a save in his first relief appearance. Despite ranking 8th in on-base percentage and runs scored, the Mets have so far been able to generate enough offense to get wins.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were forced to battle through season ending injuries to Bob Moose and Dock Ellis but their pitching has held up. Willie Stargell (.205,20,64) needs to bring his average up if they are going to win the division but Rickie Hebner (.286,10,36), Al Oliver (.314,7,27), Manny Sanguillen (.295,3,40) and Bob Bailey (.272,13,46) are all contributing.

With Bob Gibson (10-4, 1.88), Steve Carlton (9-6, 1.89) and Denny McLain (10-7,2.92) at the top of the rotation the Cardinals are set for pitching. Nate Colbert (.251,16,54) and Don Mincher (249,18,59) have carried the offense and Tim McCarver (.296,4,30) has filled in well in place of injured 19 year old Ted Simmons (.426,4,19 in 40 games) behind the plate.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
It looks like there won't be much of a pennant race in either American League division as both the Indians and Athletics have built large leads at the break. At 70-31, Cleveland has the best record in baseball thanks to both hitting and pitching. Sam McDowell (12-5, 2.81), Denny Lemaster (12-7, 2.30) and Blue Moon Odom (13-4, 2.38) take care of the pitching while Tommie Agee (.297,11,33), John Lowenstein (.324,28,66), Jim Fregosi (.290,8,42), Mack Jones (.251,10,59) and catcher Duke Sims (.260,15,47) are handling the offense. Bob Allison (.292,16,63) has missed 3 weeks with an injury but should be back soon.

Baltimore's 60-38 record would put them right in the thick of the race if they were in the West Division but the second place Orioles trail the Tribe by 8.5 games in the East. Boog Powell (.312,35,93) tailed off a bit in July but is still on a pace to hit close to 60 homeruns. He likely won't reach Joe Adcock's major league mark of 64 but he has a good shot to pass Johnny Mize's 1947 American League record of 51 homeruns.

Here are the list of 50+ homerun seasons

Code:


NAME		TEAM  YEAR  HR
Joe Adcock	PHI   1959  64
Ernie Banks	CHN   1956  60
Ralph Kiner	PIT   1948  55
Willie Stargell PIT   1965  54
Howard Murdeski PHI   1945  52
Frank Robinson  CIN   1959  52
Johnny Mize	PHA   1947  51
Ralph Kiner	PIT   1950  50
Jimmie Foxx	CLE   1932  50
Ted Williams	BOS   1942  50

The Orioles rotation has been outstanding with Dean Chance (10-6, 2.70), Dave McNally (10-6,2.64), Milt Pappas (11-5, 2.15) and rookies Jim Palmer (11-5, 2.83) and Jerry Johnson (8-3, 2.46). If there is a weak spot on Baltimore it would be the Orioles bullpen.

The Yankees have been a surprise thanks to great seasons for youngsters Thurman Munson (.345,6,39) and Bobby Murcer (.331,17,58) plus a career year out of Fritz Peterson (16-1, 1.81). Jim Bunning (12-7, 2.79) is rebounding nicely at 37 years of age after a down season a year ago.

Oakland has a 9.5 game lead on Minnesota with a big reason being the two clubs records against expansion teams. The A's are 22-5 vs the Royals and Pilots while Minnesota is just 15-10 so far. Oakland has thrived thanks to the best starting pitching and defense in the American League. Vida Blue (8-5, 2.30), Jim Nash (15-6, 2.77) and Chuck Dobson (10-6, 2.25) have made up for the season-ending injury suffered in spring training by Steve Hargan. The young offensive stars are contributing led by Sal Bando (.289,17,45), Reggie Jackson (.266,22,66) and Joe Rudi (.289,8,45).

Mickey Lolich (7-11, 3.87) is having a down year for the second place Twins but Jim Merritt (12-4, 2.58) has bounced back from a down year last season and Jim Kaat (11-6, 2.71) has been steady. 18 year old Bert Blyleven (3-3, 3.51) was recently called-up and inserted in the rotation. The Twins will need a strong finish from Reggie Smith (.301,12,68), Harmon Killebrew (.266,25,75) and Rod Carew (.292,5,37) if they are to catch Oakland.

The Seattle Pilots seem to be collecting future hall of fame candidates. First, Don Drysdale was released by the Dodgers and signed by the Pilots and then the Padres cut ties with Mickey Mantle. Drysdale is 3-3 with a 2.54 era in 8 starts with Seattle. He has a lifetime 211-106 record. Mantle was signed yesterday by the Pilots after San Diego released him at the end of June. He hit .200 with a pair of homers in 60 at bats for San Diego bringing his career totals to 2990 hits and 588 homeruns. Hopefully the Pilots give the 37 year old enough games to reach 3000 hits. I expect the 600 homerun plateau, only previously reached by Ted Williams (726 career HRs) is beyond Mantle's grasp.

NOTES - The only no-hitter thrown in the first half of the season was accomplished by Dick Drago of the Detroit Tigers. Drago fanned 9 while walking 3 for his first career no-hitter in a 2-0 Tigers win over Washington. On the season the 24 year old is 12-6 with a 3.52 era. Last year there were 5 no-hitters thrown including one by Tiger Gerry Arrigo vs Washington. The total matches 1907 when there were also 5 for the most no-hitters in a season.

3 HOMER GAME - On July 15th Adolfo Phillips of the expansion Seattle Pilots tied a long-standing American League record with 3 homeruns in a game against Oakland. The three homeruns in a game has been accomplished many times. Only once has a player hit 4 homers in a game and that was done by Jim Ray Hart of San Francisco in 1964.

22 INNING GAME-On June 11th the Mets and Giants played a 22 inning game in San Francisco. I have no way to determine if that was the longest game in major league history but my guess is it tied for the longest in the National League with another San Francisco game. The Mets-Giants marathon did allow 2 players to tie a record for most at bats in a game. The Giants won 8-7 as both lead-off men - Cleon Jones of the Mets and Matty Alou of the Giants had 11 at bats. Jones went 1-for-11 with 2 strikeouts while Alou was 3-for-11 with 2 rbi's including the game winner in the bottom of the 22nd. The Giants used 8 pitchers in the game while the Mets used 6.

Roberto Clemente of the Dodgers was the first to have 11 at bats in a game. It came on May 17, 1958 when the Dodgers scored 12 times in the 17th inning to beat the Cubs 17-5. Clemente had 5 hits. Cubs outfielder Lee Handley took the brunt of the damage, allowing 10 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks when he came in to pitch after his club fell behind 7-5. It was also the second game of a doubleheader so a long day for both pitching staffs.

In the Giants first 22 inning game, against Houston and won 10-6 by the visiting Giants on May 2, 1964 both Luis Zayas and Leon Wagner of the Giants each had 11 at bats. Each had a pair of hits in that game. Giants infielder Jim Ray Hart equalled another record by drawing 5 walks in that contest.

In what is believed to be the longest game in major league history the Tigers beat the Angels on the west coast 5-2 in a 23 inning game on May 29th last year. Jim Northrup of Detroit and Ed Kirkpatrick of California each had 11 at bats. Northrup had 4 hits while Kirkpatrick went 2-for-11 with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 23rd in a failed attempt to get the Angels back in the game after allowing Detroit to plate four in the top half.

MILESTONES - A pair of players reached the 300 homerun mark. On May 15th 34 year old Norm Cash of the Chicago White Sox hit #300 in a 12-7 loss to Detroit. Cash's milestone homer came of of Tigers starter Jim McAndrew. 27 year old Boog Powell of Baltimore hit his 300th career homerun on July 1st in a 10-0 win over the Yankees with George Culver on the mound for New York.

Tiger Fan · 08-14-2018, 12:39 AM

SEPTEMBER 1, 1969
AN ALL BAY AREA SERIES?

As the summer of '69 turned to autumn it was starting to look like baseball would not treat it's fans to multiple division races as the stretch drive began. All four clubs that led their respective divisions at the all-star break continued to set the pace as the calendar turned to September. Both West Division's seemed to be long over and there was plenty to celebrate in the Bay Area as the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics both appeared poised to end long post-season droughts. San Francisco fans had never been able to witness a post-season game involving their club....in fact you had to go all the way back to 1938 when the then-New York Giants last appeared in the post-season. The wait was nearly as long for the Athletics, stretching back through two other cities since the then-Philadelphia Athletics last won anything, way back in 1939. Of course fans in Oakland were only in their second season with the club that moved from Kansas City for the 1968 campaign.

On September 1st the Giants had the best record in baseball at 92-41 and led the hated Los Angeles Dodgers by 15 games in the National League West. The underappreciated Juan Marichal (19-4, 2.16) was enjoying probably the best year of his career. (It is hard to believe Marichal has just 1 all-star appearance to his name at age 31 with a lifetime 188-119 record). Gaylord Perry (15-8, 2.58), Bill Hands (13-8, 2.83), Gene Brabender (13-10, 2.91) and John Lytle (8-2, 2.91) round out the rotation while Phil Regan and Frank Linzy each had 11 saves.

Willie McCovey (.265,24,61), Pete Rose (.336,12,67), Bobby Bonds (.273,20,68), Bill Sudakis (.293,12,71) and Dick Dietz (.306,14,66) led the offense, which hasn't missed a beat despite Mike Andrews (.314,4,37) being limited to 53 games because of various injuries.

Across the bay the American League's Oakland Athletics had an 8 game lead on Minnesota in their division. Jim Nash (18-8, 3.00), Vida Blue (12-5, 2.24) and Chuck Dobson (12-8, 2.18) along with the American League's best defense are why the A's have allowed the fewest runs against in either league this season.

The A's even managed to survive a 5 week period without Reggie Jackson (.267,22,69) and have been without Felix Millan (.305,1,24) much of the season. Last year's rookie of the year Darrell Evans (.262,8,37) is out likely until the playoffs with a shoulder injury and Steve Hargan - a 16 game winner a year ago - has missed the entire season. Despite the injuries the A's have continued to win and they did get good news when Reggie Jackson suited up for the first time since just after the all-star break yesterday. Sal Bandon (.280,25,67), Gene Tenace (.224,17,52), Joe Rudi (.279,14,76), Rick Monday (.279,14,76) and Bert Campaneris (.251,6,43, 42 SB) have picked up the slack.

So before fans starting thinking about a Bay Area World Series there is a little matter of the new League Championship Series to contend with. Cleveland has slowed a bit but the Indians still enjoy a 4 game lead on Baltimore with a month to play while in the National League the New York Mets have a little more breathing room than they did a month ago - leading St Louis by 4.5 games and the Pirates by 5 games. The Mets seem in control but they have 7 games remaining against Pittsburgh and 4 vs St Louis in the final month. Likewise, the American League Indians still face Baltimore 6 times down the stretch so we may still have a race to follow yet.

Speaking of Baltimore, the homers have slowed a little for Boog Powell (.299,44,122) but he is still within shouting distance of Johnny Mize's American League record of 51. With a huge push he could perhaps catch Jimmie Foxx's 1932 American League record of 152 rbi's. The post-1900 major league mark in both homers and rbi's belongs to the Phillies Joe Adcock after a 64 homer, 160 rbi season in 1959.

While on the topic of homeruns, Atlanta's Hank Aaron surpassed the 500 mark with a homer off of Montreal's Jack Fisher on August 3rd. Aaron actually homered twice off Fisher in the game and sits at 503 for his career, including 22 this season.

MICKEY MANTLE WATCH - Looks like 3000 hits won't be happening. Mantle is batting just .118 since being signed as a free agent in July by the Seattle Pilots. He is 2-for-17 and now has 2,992 career hits. He has not homered with the Pilots so remains at 588 round-trippers. If Mantle doesn't retire I can't see him being signed anywhere next season.

scott1964 · 08-14-2018, 01:39 PM

Nice HOF write ups.

08-05-2018, 11:26 PM	#281
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1968 WORLD SERIES GAME TWO RED SOX GET "BENCHED" IN GAME TWO Twenty year old catcher Johnny Bench was the hero of Game Two of the World Series as the young Cincinnati all-star homered twice and drove in 4 runs to pace the Reds to a 7-1 victory and a 2 games to none lead in the Fall Classic. The game was much closer than the final score indicated as the Reds blew it open with a 5 run outburst in the top of the ninth inning. It was Bench, one of the large collection of great young catchers who have suddenly descended on baseball and include Boston's Carlton Fisk, that led the way on this day. Bench got the scoring started with sacrifice fly to plate Tony Perez with a run in the first inning and then hit a solo homerun in the sixth to put the Reds ahead 2-1. Bench's final at bat was a 2-run homer in the ninth that came two batters after Reds outfielder Frank Robinson hit a 3-run blast over the Green Monster to make it 5-1. The Red Sox got bad news early as after allowing the first inning run, pitcher Jim Lonborg came up with an ankle injury suffered on the final play of the inning. It forced Lonborg, who was 19-8 during the season, out of the game and quite likely out of the series. Tom Murphy took over in relief and pitched 5 solid innings with the only run he allowed coming on Bench's first homer of the game. Cincinnati starter Jim Maloney, making the 10th World Series appearance and 5th start of his career, kept Boston's powerful offense in check, allowing just 4 hits and 1 run in 7 and a third innings before giving way to the bullpen. The only Boston run came in the bottom of the sixth, after Bench had homered to make it 2-0 Cincinnati in the top half of the inning. Goerge Scott hit a 2-out pinch-hit single and moved to third on a Don Buford base hit. After Mike Andrews drew a walk from Maloney to load the bases, the Reds starter tried to get too fine with Carl Yastremski and walked him on a full count pitch to score a run. Maloney escaped the jam by getting Tony Conigliaro to fly out to centerfield and end the inning. Cincinnati bats lit up reliever Wilbur Wood in the ninth, turning a tight game into a laugher and giving the Reds their second win in as many games at Fenway Park. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-06-2018, 12:22 AM	#282
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1968 WORLD SERIES GAME THREE BALK OFF WIN FOR REDS Wilbur Wood allowed just 22 earned runs in 105 regular season innings this year. In 2/3 of an inning over 2 World Series appearances the Boston Red Sox relief ace has been charged with 5 earned runs and his walk-off balk cost the Red Sox game three of the World Series allowing Cincinnati to claim a come from behind 3-2 victory and a commanding 3 games to none lead. For 8 innings Red Sox pitcher Keith LeNue kept the potent Cincinnati lineup in check as Boston built a 2-0 lead. LeNoue struck out Jim Wynn to start the ninth and was two outs away from a shut out victory. However, Johnny Bench followed with a double prompting Boston manager Joe Dykes to life LeNoue and give the ball to Wood, despite the fact the Boston closer was lit up in the ninth inning of game two. The first batter Wood faced was Lee May and May deposited a 3-1 pitch over the right field fence at Crosley Field to tie the game. Next up was Art Shamsky and he lined a double and then moved to third on a Hal McRae ground out. There were two out and all Wood needed to do was retire pinch-hitter Bertrand Gladney and the Red Sox could go to extra innings and try and regroup. However, before the 1-2 pitch to Gladney, Wood committed a balk to allow Shamsky to jog home with the game winning run and suddenly what looked like a win to get back into the series was turned into a devastating loss that left the Red Sox with a seeminly insurmountable task of needing to win 4 straight games. Wood did not take the loss in game two, but he entered the ninth inning trying to keep the Red Sox within a run and left 4 batters later with them down by 4. In game three he entered with one out in the ninth and a 2-0 lead and allowed the game to get away....a game the Red Sox seemed in complete control of before he entered the contest. LeNouve pitched the game of his life in his World Series debut. The 32 year old was dominant through 8 and a third, fanning 7 and always getting the key ground ball he needed to get out of any sort of jam. His sucess this season has been a huge surprise for the Red Sox, going 16-7 with a 2.73 era after being acquired from the Yankees over the winter. LeNouve went 4-10 in his only season in New York after pitching 8 seasons with the Pirates. The real life LeNouve never advanced past AA in his two seasons of pro ball and I can find nothing about him in internet searches. Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second when Orlando Cepeda hit a two-out single and scored on Glenn Beckert's double and the lead doubled in the 4th thanks to 3-straight singles from Tony Conigliaro, Rico Petrocelli and Cepeda. Those would be the only runs Cincinnati starter Claude Osteen would allow in 8 innings of work before Billy McCool pitched a 1-2-3 ninth before the Reds heroics in the bottom of the inning. Watching the game I had an awful feeling as soon as I saw the Red Sox pull LeNoue. He had thrown 118 pitches but I can't help but wonder if the game, and consequently the series, would have turned out differently had they left him in. LeNoue had struck out Lee May and induced a pop fly out as well as walked him once in the game. In regular season play they had faced each other twice and May was 1-for-2 with a single against LeNoue. The homerun was May's first ever at bat against Wood. Meanwhile, May is making quite a case for being named MVP. The Reds slugger has hit 2 homers and drove in 6 runs while batting .462 in the series. He was the star of game one, had 2 hits in game two and his homerun in this game led to the Reds being able to pull out a victory. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-06-2018, 12:58 AM	#283
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1968 WORLD SERIES GAME FOUR RED SOX STAY ALIVE WITH 3-0 WIN Bob Turley and reliever Wilbur Wood combined on a 3-hitter as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 in Game Four of the World Series. Turley, the game one loser, pitched 7 and a third innings before giving way to Wood, who was the goat of the game three loss. Wood redeemed himself on this occasion, retiring all 5 Reds he faced for the save. The win is the first of the series for the Red Sox and keeps them alive as they trail 3 games to one. All 3 Boston runs came off of Cincinnati starter Ray Sadecki. The Red Sox struck first in the top of the second inning when Rico Petrocelli led off with a double and moved to third on a slap single from Orlando Cepeda. After Glenn Beckert flew out to short right field, Carlton Fisk followed with a ground ball that looked like an inning ending doubleplay but the 20 year old Boston catcher hustled down the line and beat the relay throw to allow Petrocelli to cross the plate and put the Red Sox up 1-0. Fisk added to the lead with his first career World Series homerun, a solo shot to lead off the fifth inning, and Fisk would also have a hand in the final Boston run. He drew a 1-out walk from Sadecki in the top of the 7th inning, moved to second on Bob Turley's sacrifice bunt and then, after Dick Hall relieved Sadecki, Fisk came around to score on a single off the bat of Don Buford. Turley was the star of the game for the winners as he allowed just 3 singles while striking out two and walking two on the day. The only inning the Reds threatened to score was in the bottom of the second when Johnny Bench drew a lead-off walk and moved to third on a single from Lee May. The next batter, Art Shamsky hit a chopper back to Turley and the Boston pitcher was able to look Bench back before going to second base for the force. With one away Turley got Hal McRae to hit into an inning ending double play and he was out of his only jam of the contest. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-06-2018, 11:47 AM	#284
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1968 World Series 1968 WORLD SERIES GAME FIVE REDS WIN SERIES! Frank Robinson's 2-run homer in the first inning was all the offense the Cincinnati Reds would need as they held the Boston Red Sox bats in check and won the World Series with a 3-1 victory at home in Game Five. Jim Maloney and two relievers combined to limit Boston to just 6 hits in the contest and give the Reds a 4 games to one series victory. With Boston ace Jim Lonborg sidelined due to a game one ankle injury, the Red Sox gave the ball to rookie Tom Murphy. The 22 year old pitched well in relief of Lonborg in the Series opener but appeared to have a case of the nerves as he started Game Five. Murphy allowed 5 hits including Robinson's 2-run homer in the first inning and the damage could have been much worse had his teammates not provided some fine defense to get out of a bases loaded jam. After the first inning, the youngster settled down and allowed just 6 hits the rest of the way along with 1 more run. That run came in the 6th inning and made the score 3-1 as Johnny Bench led off with a single, moved to second on Lee May's base hit and scored on a 1-out double by Hal McRae. Murphy beared down and got the final two outs without allowing the Reds to further increase their lead. Boston's only run came in the fifth inning when they should have scored much more than the 1 run they got. With one out Don Buford singled and then Mike Andrews followed with a single. On that hit Buford ignored the third base coaches sign and started for third only to pull up when he realized he would not make it. After a rundown he was tagged out with Andrews remaining on first. Carl Yastremski then singled and Tony Conigliaro drew a walk to load the bases. Rico Petrocelli followed with another walk to plate Andrews but with the bases still loaded Orlando Cepeda struck out to end the threat. Outside the fifth inning Boston would only get 3 other hits and just one in the final 3 and a third innings after Maloney was forced to leave with shoulder troubles. Cincinnati also lost shortstop Cesar Tovar early in the game when the 28 year old was hurt in a collision at second base. 20 year old rookie Dave Concepcion replaced Tovar in the Reds lineup. Reds first baseman Lee May, who had at least one hit in every game of the series and batted .450 with 2 homers and 6 rbi's, was named the Series MVP. The World Series win is the 4th in 9 years for the Reds, who also have 7 pennants in the last 11 seasons. For Boston, it was an unexpected trip to the Series for a club that finished 22 games out of first place a year ago. The game will change dramatically next season with the addition of 4 new teams and the introduction of the league championship series. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-06-2018, 04:35 PM	#285
BadluckinOOTP All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: OKC Posts: 1,534	That's a heck of a celebration for Game 1, wonder what they did when they won the series?! __________________

08-06-2018, 09:42 PM	#287
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 EXPANSION DRAFT PADRES MAKE PHOEBUS FIRST PICK The San Diego Padres used the first pick of the expansion draft on a 26 year old pitcher who could be their number one starter for the next decade. Tom Phoebus was 18-7 with an American League leading 1.64 era in just his second major league season. The Baltimore Orioles were forced to expose Phoebus in the draft and he was one of 9 pitchers they lost. Others included 29 year old Jack Fisher (8-13, 2.62) to Montreal and relievers Sparky Lyle, age 24, and Ken Sanders, age 27 to Kansas City. Pitching was the focus of the Padres as after Phoebus they selected 29 year old Bobby Bolin from San Francisco and 37 year old Larry Jackson from Cincinnati in rounds 2 and 3 before adding Al Downing from the Yankees in round seven. Those selections give the Padres far and away the best rotation out of the 4 expansion clubs. Here is the projected Padres rotation with last year stats: Code: # NAME 1968TEAM AGE T W-L ERA ACQUIRED 1 Tom Phoebus Bal 26 R 18-7 1.64 1st rd pick 2 Bobby Bolin SF 29 R 10-6 2.38 2nd rd pick 3 Larry Jackson Cin. 37 R 9-17 3.33 3rd rd pick 4 Al Downing NYY 27 L 13-11 2.98 7th rd pick 5 Joe Sparma Det 26 R 13-10 2.68 27th rd pick Like the Padres, the Montreal Expos also focused heavily on pitching in the expansion draft. Montreal had the 4th pick in the first round and the first pick in the second round and they selected a pair of starters in 30 year old Ray Washburn (8-14, 2.68) from St Louis and 26 year old Mel Stottlemyre (7-16, .327) from Philadelphia. Kansas City focused much more on position players led by their first two picks in outfielder Jim Hickman and shortstop Luis Aparicio. The 31 year old Hickman spent most of last season in AAA where he hit 18 homers in 96 games for the Tulsa Oilers but he also hit 5 homers and batted .214 in 23 games with St Louis. The 34 year old Aparicio is a 5-time gold glove winner who batted just .212 for Los Angeles last season. 5th round pick Rich Reese, a 27 year old first baseman who made his major league debut with Detroit this past season, will also be heavily counted on to provide offense for the Royals. The Seattle Pilots selected a couple of veteran pitchers early. Gary Peters (6-17) is a 31 year old lefthander who struggled in 24 starts for the Dodgers last year and he will join ex-Giant Ken T Johnson at the top of the Pilots rotation. The 35 year old Johnson was 10-8 in 1968. The Pilots also got closer Eddie Watt from Baltimore. Watt had 21 saves in 62 appearances out of the Orioles pen. Other players selected by Seattle include infielders Maury Wills, Cookie Rojas and Ron Fairly along with outfielders Adolpho Phillips and Ken Berry. Below are the first 10 rounds of picks and the projected lineups at this stage for each expansion club. Here are some other notable players who were selected after the 10th round: ROUND 11 Seattle took 26 year old shortstop Don Kessinger from the Yankees while Kansas City grabbed reliever Sparky Lyle from Baltimore. ROUND 13 Seattle took 27 year old reliever Eddie Watt from Baltimore. ROUND 14 Montreal selected 30 year old Cincinnati catcher Don Pavletich. Seattle picked 30 year old 1B-OF Ron Fairly from the Dodgers. ROUND 16 Montreal drafted 26 year old pitcher Fred Norman from Oakland ROUND 17 Montreal selected 26 year old outfielder Mickey Stanley from Pittsburgh ROUND 18 Seattle selected 36 year old infielder Maury Wills from Los Angeles ROUND 20 Seattle selected 34 year old outfielder Roger Maris from Cleveland ROUND 23 Seattle selected 25 year old pitcher Tom Burgmeier from Los Angeles ROUND 26 San Diego selected 36 year old 1B-OF Mickey Mantle from the Yankees. Mantle is 14 homeruns shy of joining Ted Williams as the only players with 600 or more career homeruns. He is also 22 hits shy of 3000. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-09-2018, 01:35 AM	#288
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1968 AWARDS KOUFAX SWEEPS NL AWARDS AGAIN For the second year in a row Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax was named both the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. For Koufax it is the 5th time in his career he was named top pitcher and his fourth MVP award. The 32 year old lefthander dominated National League hitters by winning his 3rd pitching 'triple crown', leading the league in wins with a 21-10 record, era at 1.75 and strikeouts with 284. It was the 12th straight season Koufax led the NL in k's and is baseball's all-time leader with 3,400 career strikeouts after passing Walter Johnson (3,260) earlier this season. Koufax was an unanimous winner of the Cy Young Award, earning all 24 first place votes. In MVP voting he earned 15 first place votes with Jim Wynn of Cincinnati finishing second in balloting. Here are the results of the NL Cy Young and MVP voting: Code: NL CY YOUNG AWARD VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Sandy Koufax LA 24 168 Bob Gibson StL 0 96 Bill Singer LA 0 79 Don Wilson HOU 0 50 Tom Seaver NYM 0 15 Ray Sadecki CIN 0 7 Don Sutton LA 0 2 NL MVP VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Sandy Koufax LA 15 282 Jim Wynn CIN 5 219 Hank Aaron ATL 4 217 Bob Gibson StL 0 157 Pete Rose SF 0 110 Joe Torre ATL 0 105 Bill Singer LA 0 98 Don Wilson HOU 0 66 Frank Robinson CIN 0 51 Tony Perez CIN 0 26 Paul Blair NYM 0 23 Ray Sadecki CIN 0 16 Tom Seaver NYM 0 13 Rusty Staub HOU 0 11 Dick Dietz SF 0 6 Don Sutton LA 0 4 Johnny Bench CIN 0 4 Gary Nolan CIN 0 4 Fergie Jenkins PHI 0 3 Jim Maloney CIN 0 1 AMERICAN LEAGUE AWARD WINNERS 23 year old Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro was named the American League's Most Valuable Player in one of the tighest votes in history. Conigliario, who hit .304 in 154 games with 36 homers and 121 rbi's, narrowly outpointed teammate Rico Petrocelli (.301,21,86) for the award. The two helped lead the Boston Red Sox to their first pennant since 1963. The Cy Young Award also went to a first time winner as Cleveland pitcher Denny Lemaster, who led the American League with 22 wins, was named the recepient. Here are the American League voting results for the two awards: Code: NL CY YOUNG AWARD VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Denny Lemaster CLE 21 159 Tom Phoebus BAL 3 98 Sam McDowell CLE 0 69 Dave McNally BAL 0 42 Dean Chance BAL 0 24 Fritz Peterson NYY 0 14 Jim Lonborg BOS 0 2 NL MVP VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Tony Conigliaro BOS 10 262 Rico Petrocelli BOS 11 257 Reggie Smith MIN 0 167 Reggie Jackson OAK 0 155 Denny Lemaster CLE 3 131 Orlando Cepeda BOS 0 109 Rod Carew MIN 0 74 Tom Phoebus BAL 0 66 Sam McDowell CLE 0 36 Sal Bando OAK 0 35 Mike Andrews BOS 0 35 Dave McNally BAL 0 30 Willie Horton DET 0 24 Don Lukaszewski CLE 0 11 Harmon Killebrew MIN 0 10 Mack Jones CLE 0 6 Bob Allison CLE 0 4 James Whaley WSH 0 2 Dick Hogan CAL 0 1 Merv Rettenmund BAL 0 1 ROOKIE AWARD WINNERS Oakland Athletics infielder Darrel Evans narrowly outpointed Boston catcher Carlton Fisk for the American League rookie of the year award. The 21 year old Oakland first baseman played in 154 games while batting .258 with 19 homers and 76 rbi's. He received 14 of a possible 24 first place votes with the other 10 going to Fisk. The Boston backstop played 133 games behind the plate for the Red Sox as a 20 year old, bitting .248 with 20 homers and 65 rbi's in helping the Red Sox to the World Series. Another catcher, 22 year old Joe Ferguson who was acquired by Washington from the Dodgers last winter, finished 3rd in the balloting. The National League winner was Pittsburgh catcher Manny Sanguillen (.302,4,36). The 24 year old appeared in 131 games for the Pirates to finish ahead of 19 year old Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey. Code: AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Darrell Evans OAK 14 100 Carlton Fisk BOS 10 92 Joe Ferguson WSH 0 21 John Donaldson MIN 0 3 NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR VOTING NAME TM 1stPL PTS Manny Sanguillen PIT 21 114 Steve Garvey LA 3 78 Ken Boswell NYM 0 14 Greg Luzinski PHI 0 9 Nate Colbert StL 0 1 METS DEAL ROOKIE BOSWELL TO DETROIT A day after learning he finished 3rd in National League rookie of the year voting 22 year old second baseman Ken Boswell found out he was now a Detroit Tiger. The Tigers and New York Mets announced a 4 player deal with the center piece being 28 year old second baseman Dick McAuliffe moving from Detroit to the Big Apple. McAuliffe hit just .239 in 134 games for Detroit last season. An all-star in 1964, he has spent 7 seasons in Detroit, playing in 974 games and batting .246. In return the rebuilding Tigers get 3 yound players including Boswell, who made his major league debut last season after 3 years in the Mets system. Boswell, who hit .265 with 6 homers and 35 rbi's as a rookie, is pencilled in as the Tigers everyday second baseman for 1969. Detroit also received 24 year old pitcher Jim McAndrew and 20 year old minor league catcher Michael Minister. McAndrew, a righthander, was 1-1 with a 4.91 era in 3 relief appearances with the Mets last season. He has been a starter in the minor leagues but will likely find himself in long relief in the big leagues. Minister spent the season, is third as a pro, at Marion of the Appalachian League where he won a gold glove and finished 3rd in league MVP voting last year. There were several other minor trades through November 1st with the main ones seeing 24 year old minor league pitcher Steve Mingori go from the Reds organization to the White Sox in exchange for 38 year old reliever Louis Marini, who was 2-4 out of the Chicago pen in 1968 after being released by the Dodgers. The White Sox added more youth in acquiring a pair of minor league catchers in 22 year old Fran Healy and 17 year old Alan Ashby from the Indians for 32 year old middle infielder Julian Javier. Javier hit .264 for Chicago last season. The White Sox continued their trading ways by adding 30 year old outfielder Manny Mota from Houston for 26 year old Mike Hegan. Mota, a veteran of 608 major league games, appeared in 79 games for the Astros last season and hit .278. He spent the remainder of the year at AAA Oklahoma City. Hegan, a first baseman/outfielder, also split the year between AAA and the majors. He appeared in 26 games for the White Sox and batted .293. In 86 career MLB games, Hegan is batting .266 with no homeruns. PLENTY OF ACTIVITY AT BASEBALL WINTER MEETINGS A number of big name players were dealt in a fairly hectic winter meeting period that saw 6 deals consumated. Hard to decide which was the biggest move but I will start with the deal that saw San Francisco send 33 year old outfielder Felipe Alou and minor leaguer Mike Kekich to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for 25 year old second baseman Mike Andrews. Andrews, who received some consideration for the AL MVP award after batting .297 and helping the Red Sox to the American League Pennant, heads west with Alou and minor league pitcher Mike Kekich going to Boston. Alou had a down year by his standards, hitting .272 while playing in 124 games. He had spent his entire major league career with the Giants, a total of 1,747 games and was a lifetime .277 hitter. It is unclear where Alou fits in the Red Sox lineup as they already have Don Buford, Carl Yastremski and Tony Conigliaro in the outfield with Orlando Cepeda at first. Andrews was moved to make room from rookie George Scott at second base. Kekich, a 23 year old lefthander who has 1 career major league appearance, will get a shot at a spot in the backend of the Boston rotation. He has been traded 3 times the past month, going from the Dodgers to California for veteran reliever Al Worthington and then from the Angels to the Giants in a deal earlier this week. The California-San Francisco deal saw the Giants sed Jose Cardenal to the Angels in exchange for 3 players. The 25 year old Cardenal was a gold glove winner for his work in centerfield in 1967. He hit .260 last year - his 7th season with the Giants, while stealing 33 bases. The deal cost the Angels the services of pitcher John Lytle, 34, who was 12-19 with a 2.72 era for California a year ago. The much travelled Lytle is 83-127 over a major league career that included stops in Pittsburgh, Houston and with the White Sox before joining the Angels prior to the 1967 season. Kekich and 25 year old minor league catcher Hal King also went to San Francisco in the trade. Oakland made a surprising move as they dealt 23 year old pitcher Blue Moon Odom and veteran second baseman Clete Boyer to Cleveland in exchange for 30 year old reliever Ron Taylor and 17 year old minor league infielder Buddy Bell. I really don't know what the A's were thinking as they already had a deep bullpen with Rollie Fingers, Paul Lindblad and Diego Segui before adding Taylor and Odom, who was 11-8 a year ago, will be missed in the rotation. Boyer won't be missed as the 31 year old lost his starting job at second base to Felix Millan and hit just .177 this year. We have the foresight of knowing Buddy Bell will have a solid major league career ahead of him. He joins the franchise his dad Gus finished his 13 year major league career with in the sim. Gus played the final 14 of his 1,818 career major league games in Kansas City in 1962. The other big deal saw the St Louis Cardinals send 30 year old outfielder Tony Oliva to Californai in exchange for 35 year old outfielder Tito Francona and 21 year old minor league pitcher Tom Bradley. Oliva, who spent just 1 year with St Louis after 6 seasons in Philadelphia, hit .266 with 13 homers and 54 rbi's in 156 games for the Cardinals. Francona, a 13 year major league veteran, also had a short stay with California as he was acquired at mid-season from Cleveland. Francona hit just .196 in 102 games with the Indians and Angels last year. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-09-2018, 11:14 PM	#289
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Hall of Fame Candidates As I do each before each Hall of Fame vote, here is a look at the newcomers to the ballot. First up is Yogi Berra. CATCHERS IN THE HALL Surprisingly there are only 4 catchers in the Hall of Fame right now. They are Mickey Cochrane, Gabby Hartnett, Bill Dickey and Ernie Lombardi. The only position with less is third base, which also comes as a big surprise with Cecil Travis being the only third baseman in the Hall. We will look at that in the future but right now let's look at where Berra ranks in comparision with the other four catchers currently in the Hall of Fame and four others who are either still eligible or fell short of election. Code: CAREER TOTALS FOR HALL OF FAME CATCHERS NAME YRS G H HR AVG WAR GG SS AS MVP WS WSMVP Mickey Cochrane 1923-38 1747 1912 120 .333 73.5 9 7 3 0 2 2 Bill Dickey 1925-44 2044 2423 210 .337 81.7 1 10 11 0 5 0 Gabby Hartnett 1921-41 2109 2330 248 .319 75.0 0 8 4 0 6 0 Ernie Lombardi 1927-48 2366 2502 252 .305 66.9 0 4 10 0 0 0 Yogi Berra 1946-63 2099 2141 322 .280 62.7 6 4 8 0 1 0 first time eligble Sherm Lollar 1943-62 2213 2058 243 .267 65.2 8 5 13 0 1 0 2nd yr on ballot 67% last yr. Rick Ferrell 1926-44 1882 1972 30 .295 51.8 9 0 3 0 2 0 failed to be elected 30% was high Hank Severeid 1908-26 1902 1852 38 .271 42.2 7 2 0 0 1 0 never appeared on ballot Wally Schang 1912-29 1785 1595 50 .291 64.2 4 7 0 0 1 0 failed to be elected 35% was high GG-Gold Glove, SS- SilverSlugger, AS - AllStar, WS - World Series winner Ernie Lombardi leads all catchers in career hits followed by Dickey and Hartnett with Berra fourth. Berra's 322 homers are far and away the most by a catcher with Lombardi ranking second with 252. Based on those numbers in the chart above Berra certainly belongs in that group. Looking at these numbers certainly shows Berra is worthy of inclusion but it also futher strengthens the case for Sherm Lollar. Lollar narrowly missed induction last season so this might be his year but there are a number of worthy candidates, which might prolong his waiting period. It also makes me think Ferrell and Schang deserve consideration down the road from the veteran's committee. YOGI BERRA Although Berra began his career in the Yankee organization he never played for the Bronx Bombers in this universe. He started with the Wellsville Yankees of the PONY League in 1943 as an 18 year old, hitting .263 as a rookie. He would return to Wellsville the following season and, while his average did slip to .247, Berra would be named the top defensive catcher in the loop. In 1945, Berra once again found himself starting the season in the PONY League. The Yankees had a number of catching prospects they valued higher than Berra and appeared set at the position at the big league level with veterans Buddy Rosar and Aaron Robinson on the team and Frankie Hawkins and Woody Fair at AAA so Berra remained moored in the low minors. After starting 1945 in Wellsville, Berra was moved up to Norfolk of the Piedmont League in late May, but after batting just .209 in 43 games and struggling to throw out base runners, in what would prove to be a terribly short-sighted move the Yankees released him on August 10, 1945. A week later the Philadelphia Athletics signed the then 20 year old and assigned him to Lexington of the North Carolina State League. Berra hit .447 in 11 games with Lexington and won the league's player of the week award in his first full week with the club. When Lexington's season ended he moved up to the Martinsville A's of the Carolina League and went 3-for-11 in 3 playoff appearances to help the A's win their league title. Once that series was done, Berra was promoted to AAA for the first time in his career and he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs for their International League playoff series, going 2-for-9 in two starts and winning another league playoff title. He made his major league debut the following season as he won the Athletics starting job from incumbent Frankie Hayes and, aside from a couple of injury rehab stints, would remain in the major leagues until his retirement in 1963. Berra's major league debut came at home against the Yankees in April of 1946 and he went 1-for-3 in a 2-1 win at Shibe Park. Berra's first hit was a single in his first major league at bat off of Yankee veteran Spud Chandler. Berra would appear in 119 games as a rookie with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1946, hitting .291 with 15 homers and he would finish 2nd to Washington pitcher Arden McCaskey in rookie of the year voting. McCaskey was 14-15 with a no-hitter in his rookie year but would disappear quickly, winning only 9 more games in his career. The following season Berra would make the All-Star team for the first of 7 times in his career and win his first of 6 Gold Gloves. He would also claim 4 silver slugger awards with the first coming in 1948. He would remain the face of a fairly week Athletics club until the end of the 1951 season. That off-season, just a week before 1952 spring training was to begin the Athletics and cross-town rival Phillies completed a 5-player trade that sent Berra to the National League. The 27 year old Berra was deemed expendable because the Athletics wanted to give more playing time to former Negro League star Roy Campanella, who joined the club in 1948 when the color barrier came down. Joining Berra in the deal was 22 year old minor league third baseman Buddy Reedy who, despite a 17 year pro career, never did make the major leagues. In exchange the Athletics received 26 year old third baseman Willie 'Puddin Head' Jones, who hit .270 the previous season and would go on to spend the next decade with the Athletics. The Phillies would also send two pitchers to the A's in the trade: 20 year old minor leaguer Roy Face, who would spend just one season with the Athletics but remains active now with the California Angels as a 40 year old and has 175 career saves with most coming for Cleveland, and 30 year old reliever Bob Savage who would pitch parts of 3 seasons for the Philadelphia/Kansas City A's. It was a perfect fit for both Berra and the Phillies. He left a team that won just 55 games the year before to go to a club that had won 5 straight National League pennants and 4 consecutive World Series titles. The Phillies did that despite the lack of a dominant catcher and Berra fit that bill. Prior to him they used Carl Sawatski and for one saeason a 36 year old Walker Cooper as their number one receiver. In his first year with the Phillies Berra would bat just .255, well below his average in the American League, but did smash 21 homers and play outstanding defense to help the Phillies win a 6th straight pennant. He would struggle in the World Series at the plate, batting just .095 but the Phillies won a 5th straight World Series beating the Yankees in 6. After finishing a disappointing third the following year, the Phillies rebounded by destroying the rest of the National League in 1954, winning 108 games and finish 20 games up on second place Milwaukee. Berra would miss nearly 2 months that season with an ankle injury but still managed to make the all-star team and bat .291 with 19 homers in 96 games. Philadelphia lost to Detroit in a 7 game World Series with Berra having another rough series at the plate, batting just .185 in the series. There would be no more pennants for Berra but he did continue to be a fixture in Philadelphia, collecting his 300th career homer in 1961 and his 2000th career hit the following year. In July of 1963 the Phillies released him after his average that year, at age 38, plummeted to .205. He signed with the Cubs and appeared in 15 games for them, but hit just .138 and retired at the end of the 1963 season as the all-time leader in homeruns by a catcher with 322. The real life Berra played 2120 games, batting .285 with 2150 hits and 358 homeruns. The sim Berra played 2099 games, with a .280 career average and had 2141 hits including 322 homers. In real life Berra went on to manage both the Yankees and the Mets. In the sim he is presently an unemployed bench coach so there is a chance he might make it as a manager in the game as well. VERDICT- Just as in real life the sim Berra belongs in the Hall of Fame. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-11-2018, 12:48 AM	#290
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Hall of Fame ballot 1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT GENE CONLEY Conley accomplished a lot in his relatively short 12 year major league career. He threw a no-hitter, won a World Series, a rookie of the year award and made 6 all-star teams while going 163-131 primarily with the Braves but also spent time with the Mets and Yankees. He never played a minor league game until an unsuccessful and brief comeback attempt in 1965 with the Gastonia Pirates. Debuting with the then Boston Braves in 1951 at the age of 20, Conley went 16-17 and was named National League rookie of the year. He started the 1952 season with 4 wins in 6 starts including a 2-hit shutout before suffering a season ending torn rotator cuff injury. Fortunately, the injury did no long term damage and he returned early the following season and after going 14-10 in 1953 he would enjoy an outstanding 1954 season, making his first of 6 all-star appearances. He would also throw a no-hitter against an all-star loaded Phillies team that season. Two years later he would throw a second no-hitter, this time against Pittsburgh. It would put Conley in very exclusive company as here is the complete list of players to throw multiple no-hitters in the major leagues: Preacher Roe (3) Walter Johnson Eddie Plank Early Wynn Gene Conley Jim Bunning Mickey Lolich While Conley never won a Cy Young Award, he did finish in the top 3 in voting 3 times with the first being 1956, the year the Braves won their first- and so far only - pennant since 1897. Conley started two games in a 7 game series win over the Yankees including game one when he pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings in a 3-0 win. He would take the loss in Game Six but the Braves would rebound to win the 7th game. It would be the only post-season action of Conley's career. Conley was a 20 game winning in 1959 at the age of 28 but 3 years later the Braves made him available in the expansion draft and he was selected by the Mets 9th overall. He spent 1962 pitching primarily out of the pen for the Mets where he struggled and was subsequently released early the following season. The Yankees signed him and he finished out the 1963 season in pinstripes before retiring following the 1963 campaign to pursue a professional basketball career. Conley made a brief comeback with the Class A Gastonia Pirates in 1965, making 10 relief appearances before retiring for good. The real life Gene Conley won 3 NBA titles with the Boston Celtics and a World Series with the Milwaukee Braves, going 91-96 in his MLB career. VERDICT - Good career, especially considering he retired so young but not Hall of Fame worthy. DEL CRANDALL The battery-mate of Conley for over a decade with the Braves, Crandall appeared in 1509 career major league games. He played all but the final season of his career in a Braves uniform, joining Baltimore for the 1963 campaign. He made 5 all-star teams and won a pair of gold gloves while also being a part of the Braves 1956 World Series winning club. In 1.509 career games Crandall was a lifetime .263 hitter with 1,368 career hits including 175 homeruns. The real-life Crandall was an 11 time all-star and won 4 gold gloves. He played 1,573 major league games, batting .254 for his career with 1,276 hits and 179 homeruns. VERDICT - There is a shortage of catchers in the Hall but there are plenty better than Crandall on the outside looking in so he won't get my vote. JOHN GAZDZIASKSI The real life John Gazdziasksi spent 1 season in organized baseball, going 10-9 for the Mitchell Kernels of the Class D Nebraska State League in 1937. I could find nothing else about him. In the sim he spent a decade bouncing around the minors including almost 7 years in AAA before getting a major league call-up in 1946 at the age of 28. During his tenure in the minors he pitched a no-hitter and also won two International League titles, an American Association title and an Ohio State League championship. His debut with the St Louis Cardinals came with a relief stint on July 8, 1946 in a 6-4 loss to the Giants. He would pitch twice more in July before returning to the minors only to be recalled just before the 1946 season ended. Gazdziasksi's first career major league win actually came by pitching a scoreless 10th inning in Game Four of the 1946 series. He would also pitch 2 scoreless innings in Game Five as well but his Cardinals would lose the series to the Boston Red Sox in 6 games. He would be on the Cardinals post-season roster the following season when they won the World Series but he did not pitch in the Fall Classic. The Cardinals would win again in 1959 but Gazdziasksi again did not pitch - this time due to a season-ending arm injury suffered in April of that year that would lead to his retirement at the end of the season. Despite not reaching the majors until age 28, Gazdziasksi still managed to pitch 13 years in the big leagues before an arm injury ended his career at age 41. He was 92-106 over his career, spent entirely with the St Louis Cardinals. VERDICT - A nice story to see him stick out a decade in the minors, get his first career victory in the World Series and pitch until age 41 but certainly not a Hall of Fame career. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-11-2018, 02:13 AM	#291
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Hall of Fame ballot 1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT I talked about the shortage of catchers in the Hall of Fame and also mentioned third base was the least represented position with Cecil Travis being the only player who primarily manned the hot corner during his career to reach Cooperstown. Charlie Hollocher and his 3,073 hits along with 11 gold gloves is also in the Hall but he played more games at shortstop than he did at third base. Likewise, for Hall of Famer Frank 'Home Run' Baker who played more games at second than he did at third. I bring up the third base quesiton now because it is time to discuss the candidacy of Don Hoak. The top third basemen to consider are not eligible yet as Eddie Mathews (2,198 hits, 539 HR), Ken Boyer (2,145 hits and 5 gold gloves) and Brooks Robinson (1,713 hits and 7 gold gloves) are still active. Names you think should belong there like Pie Traynor, Vern Stephens and George Kell fell just short in this sim of posting the numbers required for the Hall. If there is one name that belongs in the Hall it has to be Jimmy Collins. Collins played for the Braves from 1895 to 1908 in this sim, spending all but 3 of his 1,924 career games at third base. He won 2 World Series titles although they were in 1896 and 1897 and also claimed 6 gold gloves. He had 2,145 hits and was a career .290 hitter but his name has yet to ever appear on a Hall of Fame ballot. I would say he deserves consideration from the Veterans Committee at some point but beyond that we need to wait for Mathews, Robinson, Santo and Boyer to become eligible before swelling the ranks of third baseman in the Hall. Now to the matter at hand, Don Hoak. DON HOAK Hoak played 1,539 major league games for the Dodgers, Tigers and Indians and was a member of 3 World Series winners while also making 3 all-star teams. He was signed as a second baseman at the age of 19 by Brooklyn in 1947 and would spend 4 seasons in the minors before joining the Dodgers briefly at the end of the 1951 season. Hoak hit just .192 in 26 at bats for the Dodgers as a rookie and was back in the minors to start the 1952 campaign. In May of that year he was a throw in piece to a deal that sent him along with 26 year old outfielder Irv Noren from Brooklyn to Detroit in exchange for 3 time gold glove winning outfielder Johnny Groth. Detroit was just the spot for Hoak as he was promoted and although he played sparingly, he did spend the rest of the 1952 season on the Tigers big league roster. With fellow young talent Pete Runnels pencilled in as the Tigers second baseman for the next decade, Hoak was shifted to third base and would spend the next 7 years playing that position for Detroit. Included in that time were a couple of injuries that cost him playing time including missing one of the Tigers 3 World Series titles during that stretch. He struggled in the Series, batting just .222 in 7 career games but does have 3 rings to show for his efforts. He would also make 3 straight American League all-star teams between 1957-59. In June of 1959 the Tigers acquired third baseman Jim Davenport from the Washington Senators in a trade that would see them part with an 18 year old pitching prospect named Mickey Lolich. The 25 year old Davenport would hit .368 in spot duty for the Tigers down the stretch in 1959 which prompted them to trade Hoak. Davenport would be an all-star in 1960 but never came close to duplicating his torrid hitting numbers of 1959. As for Hoak, despite coming off 3 straight all-star season and hitting .299 as a 31 year old in 1959, he was traded to Cleveland for catcher Earl Averill and minor league pitcher George Burnett. Averill would spend 4 seasons in Detroit before moving on to Pittsburgh, where he remains as a 36 year old backup while Burnett took 4 seasons to become a major league regular but was 12-16 this past year for the Tigers. Hoak spent the final 4 seasons of his career with the Indians. He would not make another all-star team but did hit well enough to win his third and final Silver Slugger award in his first year with the Tribe. He retired following the 1963 season finishing as a career .270 hitter with 1,496 hits and 99 homeruns. The real life Don Hoak never played for Detroit but was ironically nicknamed 'Tiger'. He played 11 seasons for 5 National League clubs, batting .265 with 1,144 hits including 89 homeruns in his career. He won a pair of World Series titles and made 1 all-star team. VERDICT- Solid player but by no means a Hall of Famer. HARDY HOLT Another of the guys who played just a couple years in the low minors in real life but stuck around the minors long enough to eventually get called up and fashion a decent major league career in the sim. His big real-life season was his first in the minors - 1946 when he went 23-7 for Zanesville of the Ohio State League after being signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. From his 2011 obituary I learned his given name was Elbert and after high school in Alabama he served as a flight mechanic in World War II. After the war, he returned to the Mobile area and while playing what he thought was a pick-up baseball game was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. It does not discuss why his pro career ended after 3 seasons, only mentioning he settled in the Zanesville area after his career. In the sim he made his major league debut in 1949 and be on a pair of pennant winning Dodgers teams. He was a starter for his first 5 seasons but the arrival of Koufax and Drysdale bumped him to the pen for a few years before getting back in the rotation late in his career. He made his only all-star appearance in 1959 and would retire with a 110-125 career record at the end of the 1963 season. VERDICT - Certainly not a hall of fame career. JOSEPH JACKSON Another Hardy Holt type story. The real-life Jackson pitched for 3 seasons reach as high as AA for the Memphis Peaches in 1948 before disappearing from baseball-reference. He spent his first two seasons with the Dayton Indians and was 28-29 during that time. In the sim he made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1949 but did not become a regular until 1951 when he went 17-7 for the Indians and led the American League with a 1.92 era. He finished 3rd in Cy Young voting that year - teammate Mike Garcia won the award that season as the two helped the Indians win the American League pennant before losing the World Series to the Phillies in 6 games. It would be the first of 12 straight double-digit win seasons for Jackson. The first 10 were with Cleveland and the final two came for the expansion Los Angeles Angels, who selected Jackson 15th overall in the 1960 expansion draft. The Angels released him in May of 1963 and he ended his career with a brief stop in Kansas City. VERDICT - A very nice career with a 165-152 career record but not Hall of Fame worthy. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-11-2018, 01:17 PM	#292
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Hall of Fame ballot 1969 HALL OF FAME CANDIDATES CLEM LABINE The righthanded pitcher spent 11 seasons with Detroit, saving 128 games with all of his 666 career major league appearances coming in relief. Originally signed as 17 year old by Brooklyn in 1944, the Dodgers released him after one unimpressive minor league season. After a year away from baseball, Detroit signed Labine at 19 and he went 11-9 with a 1.94 era for Jamestown of the PONY League. He worked his way thru the Tigers system and made his major league debut in 1950. Two years later he was the Tigers top reliever and would remain in their pen until his retirement following the 1963 season. He played a role in 3 World Series titles with the Tigers and made his only appearance on the all-star team in 1961. His 128 career saves ranks 5th all-time and he is 17th all time in games pitched. The real life Labine pitched in 513 games for the Dodgers, Tigers, Pirates and Mets with all but 38 of them in relief. He was 77-56 with 94 saves in his career. VERDICT - He was one of the first pure closers in the game but others like Hoyt Wilhelm, Roy Face and Jack Russell belong in the Hall well before Labine. STAN MUSIAL No debate here. Musial is the all time leader in games played (3,425) and at bats (12,806) and his 4,172 career hits rank second only to Ty Cobb's 4,450. Musial is a 4 time American League MVP, won 4 gold gloves, 12 silver slugger awards, was a 16 time all-star. The only thing he didn't do was win a World Series. Musial joined the Washington Senators as a 21 year old in 1942 and remained with the organization until retiring as a Minnesota Twin following the 1963 campaign. He hit .364 in the 1949 Series, his only post-season appearance, but the Senators lost in 6 games to the Phillies. A minor league free agent entering the game, he was signed by the Senators organization in 1938 as a pitcher, and went 19-5 with a 3.67 era for Charlotte of the Piedmont League. He also batted .300 and while he did pitch the following season he also played some outfield for the Class A Orlando Senators. Invited to main camp for spring training 1940, he earned a starting job in the Washington outfield and after batting .285 with 14 homers and 89 rbi's was named the American League rookie of the year. Musial would win 3 batting titles including 1945 when he hit .400, a feat that has not been accomplished since. Musial only led the American League in homeruns once in his career but did hit 502, and sits 8th all time in round-trippers. He is the only player with 4000 hits and 500 homers and is joined by Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Mel Ott in the 3000 hit/500 homerun club. The real-life Musial played in 3026 games, all with the Cardinals, and had 3,630 hits including 475 homeruns. VERDICT- No doubt here. He is on my ballot and should be a lock for election. TURN OF THE CENTURY FIRST TIME NOMINEES There are 3 players who played primarily in the 1890s that are appearing on the ballot for the first time. I am not sure why, and none of them have careers worthy of consideration for the Hall but since they are on the ballot here is a quick look at each of them. None will get my vote and I would be surprised if any of the three get the minimum required to remain on the ballot for next year. FOGHORN MILLER Doggie 'Foghorn' Miller played for Pittsburgh from 1884-1897. He was a catcher who appeared in 1,335 career games, batting .261 with 1,371 hits. Miller never won an individual award in the majors but did hit .417 for St Paul of the American Association to win that league's batting title in 1899. The Pirates cut him loose after the 1897 season and he would play 4 years in St Paul and 3 with Buffalo of the International League before retiring following the 1903 season. His career hit total including the AAA leagues is 2,160. His given name was George but he got his nicknames for his dog breeding hobby and the loud voice he brought to the field. PEACH PIE O'CONNOR Like Miller, Jack 'Peach Pie' O'Connor was a catcher in the 1890's. He played for 5 different teams in the major leagues, appearing in 1,357 games, batting .278 with 1,483 career hits. He ended his career with two seasons with Mobile of the Southern Association. The real life O'Connor spent much of his career with the Cleveland Spiders and played into his 40s. He was a player/manager for the Browns in 1910 and was involved in a scandal for trying to help Nap Lajoie win the batting title over Ty Cobb that year. He was fired for deliberately allowing Lajoie to get a hig in each of his at bats against the Browns in the final game of the season. BILLY SHINDLE Shindle, a third baseman, played 1,499 major league games. He joined Cincinnati in the inaugural draft I had in 1894 after playing for several teams prior to that point. He had 1,591 career hits and was a .270 lifetime hitter. The real life Shindle was said to have amazing range at third base but his hands were not so good as he had a lot of errors - including a record 122 in 1890 which is tied with Herman Long (1889) for the all-time record for most errors by a major league in a season at any position. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-11-2018, 03:10 PM	#293
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Hall of Fame Ballot 1969 HALL OF FAME BALLOT BILLY PIERCE Pierce spent his entire 15 year career with the Browns/Orioles organization and was 221-164 with a pair of 20-win seasons. He won the Cy Young Award in 1952 after leading the league in starts with 36 and era (1.84) as he compiled a 19-12 record. Blessed with good health throughout his prime, Pierce made 7 all-star teams and won 6 gold gloves but he never appeared in a World Series as the Browns/Orioles were not very good for much of his tenure with the organization. During his peak years from 1951-61 his team was on average 5 games under .500. In games Pierce got a decision they had a .587 winning percentage while they were .462 from 1951-61 when he did not factor in the decision. Where I am going with this is I wonder how much better Pierce's numbers could have been on a better team? He was a Tigers prospect when he made his pro debut in 1945 at the age of 18 and went 16-8 with a 2.53 era in his first pro season with Jamestown of the PONY League and won that loop's top pitcher and MVP award. Midway through the 1946 season he hurt his back and missed two weeks. Immediately upon his return, which in hindsight might have been too early, he blew out his knee and was done for the season. At the end of the year, despite posting very impressive numbers at Jamestown and Rome before his injury, the Tigers released him. For his age 20 season he was signed by the Browns and after going 16-11, 2.38 in two levels of minors in 1947 he made his major league debut the following season. A shoulder injury shut him for 6 weeks but he still appeared in 31 games out of the Browns pen that year. The shoulder injury cropped up again the following season and he missed time in 1949 and again in 1950, when he needed surgery and missed two months. That would be the last significant time he missed and for the next decade he would get 32-38 starts a season and was the ace of the Browns/Orioles rotation. A knee injury suffered late in the 1962 season would ultimately lead to his retirement the following year. His consistency during his prime is amazing and his 221-164 record with 2062 career strikeouts warrant some consideration for the Hall of Fame. He was 211-169 in real life with 1,999 career K's. VERDICT - Pitchers with somewhat comparable numbers that are in the Hall of Fame include Bob Feller, Hal Newhouser, Carl Hubbell and Dutch Leonard. Code: COMPARABLE HALL OF FAMERS NAME W L IP Ks WAR CY AS WS JAWS HAL NEWHOUSER 213-145 3266 1900 80.2 3 8 0 78.3 CARL HUBBELL 206-151 3285 1422 69.5 2 5 3 69.8 DUTCH LEONARD 236-183 3701 1386 75.2 2 5 5 56.4 BOB FELLER 255-198 4118 2528 78.2 0 6 2 68.4 ON THE CURRENT BALLOT Billy Pierce 221-164 3450 2062 72.1 1 7 0 73.0 Pete Alexander 259-209 4161 1579 81.8 1 - 3 56.2 Harry Brecheen 215-189 3583 1707 58.2 3 7 0 67.8 Rube Marquard 267-234 4607 2293 103.5 1 - 0 85.0 Eddie Plank 237-122 3282 1678 69.9 1 - 7 71.7 Warren Spahn 316-196 4670 2210 103.1 3 9 4 83.9 Doc White 240-161 3759 1622 75.8 2 - 4 69.2 Cy Young 341-269 5551 1790 129.3 0 - 0 79.9 Based on that I would have to rank Pierce the 4th or 5th best pitcher on my ballot behind fellow first time eligible Warren Spahn, Cy Young and Rube Marquard. Doc White, Pierce and Pete Alexander are all in the mix for the next spot as I would think Eddie Plank and his 7 World Series rings should be. WARREN SPAHN For a five year stretch the Philadelphia Phillies were the best team in baseball and Warren Spahn was the best player, winning two MVP awards and 3 Cy Young Awards during a stretch that saw him go 119-35 during the regular season and 5-3 in the World Series. Overall, Spahn finished his 19 year major league career with a 316-196 record and 2,210 strikeouts. He had 7 twenty-win seasons, was a 9-time all-star, won 4 World Series rings and 3 Silver Sluggers to go with his 3 Cy Young and 2 MVP awards. He also pitched a no-hitter. Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Eppa Rixey are the only major leaguers to play their entire career after 1900 and win more games than Spahn. Even including the pre-1901 guys, Spahn is one of just 8 300 game winners in this universe. He began his career in the Boston Braves system and was 3-0 in 13 appearances for the Braves over two seasons but when he was 23 and still primarily a minor league pitcher, the Braves sent him to the Phillies along with fringe major league reliever Pete Sivess in exchange for 29 year old outfielder Stan Spence. Spence would last just over a year in Boston before the Braves sent him to Brooklyn for Carl Erskine. Erskine pitched a decade for the Braves but went just 80-59 for his career. So the Braves basically gave up Spahn's 300plus wins for Carl Erskine. The acquisition of Spahn, along with the emergence of Curt Simmons(290-173) and Robin Roberts (253-201) carried the Phillies to 4 straight World Series titles and 6 pennants in 7 years. Spahn would remain a Phillie until his retirement in 1963. Spahn's 316-196 record in the sim fell short of his 363 real life wins. He did pitch until 1965 in real life and threw about 600 more real life innings. The real life Spahn won just 1 World Series title and a single Cy Young award. VERDICT - He is in. No doubt he gets my vote and should be elected on his first ballot appearance along with Musial. GENE WOODLING The outfielder made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1942 and would spend 20 years in the mahor leagues with the Indians and Cubs. A .305 career hitter, Woodling led the National League in batting in 1953 when he hit .384 and would finish with 2,719 career hits - good to presently rank 44th all-time. His best season was 1953 when, in addition to leading the NL in batting he was named MVP and had 30 homers and 102 rbi's - both career bests. Woodling was a 9-time all-star, won 3 Silver Slugger awards and a pair of gold gloves as well as being named American League rookie of the year in 1943. He appeared in 4 World Series with the Indians, winning in 1948. In 21 World Series games, he had 16 hits and batted .239. Following the 1949 season, when the Indians feel to 6th place after being no worse than second in the previous 9 seasons, Cleveland dealt Woodling to the Cubs for 29 year old outfielder Andy Pafko. Pafko would play 3 seasons in Cleveland but failed to match the numbers Woodling was posting with his new club. The Cubs would never challenge for a pennant during Woodling's days there but he did enough at Wrigley that his is one of just 4 numbers retired by the organization: joing Earl Averill, Tony Lazzeri and Billy Hamilton. VERDICT- An impressive career and some good numbers but I won't have room for him on my ballot this year. Joining Musial and Spahn as first timers on the ballot make it tough for Woodling, at least this season. That concludes the profiles of first time nominees on the ballot. My votes will be next. As always if you have any thoughts feel free to let me know. The complete ballot is listed below as well. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-12-2018, 01:58 AM	#294
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	MY HALL OF FAME BALLOT I left off some names I would like to have included. Cap Anson is one but since he played his entire career before 1901 and only had 5 years of playing during the sim since I started in 1894 I decided to leave him for the Veterans Committee to decide on and made the decision to add Sam Rice and his 2,965 career hits to the ballot at the expense of Anson. There were a few pitchers I wanted to have room for but couldn't fit them in my list of 10. They include Rube Marquard, Billy Pierce, Eddie Plank, George Uhle and Doc White. Marquard and Plank were on my last ballot but they, along with Anson, failed to make the cut this time. There were a bunch of second baseman on the ballot but in the end I decided they all fall short of inclusion on my list. They include Bobby Doeer, Billy Goodman, Joe Gordon, Red Schoendienst and Tony Lazzeri. Anyway, here is my ballot. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-12-2018, 09:19 AM	#295
JaBurns All Star Starter Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Kelowna, British Columbia Posts: 1,266	Uncanny how close Yogi Berra's real life and sim stats were for his career. I think that goes under the category of "hitters hit" no matter where they play.

08-12-2018, 01:00 PM	#296
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	SPAHN AND MUSIAL JOIN HALL The Hall of Fame ranks increased by two as Warren Spahn and Stan Musial will comprise the 1969 class. Spahn set a record by becoming the first candidate in the history of the hall to be named on 100% of the ballots. Musial was a close second with his name being selected by 99.0% of the voters. Jimmie Foxx from the 1944 class, had held the mark for highest percentage of the vote when he was named on 99.4% of the ballots that season. Two years ago homerun king Ted Williams had his name appear on 99.2% of the ballots. Spahn and Musial were the only 2 players to receive the required 75% needed for induction. Here are the results of the voting: Code: Warren Spahn 100% INDUCTED HOF Stan Musial 99.0% INDUCTED HOF Billy Pierce 66.0 1st year Pee Wee Reese 61.5 8th year Sherm Lollar 59.5 2nd year Yogi Berra 52.1 1st year Ralph Kiner 40.1 5th year Gene Woodling 35.3 1st year Cy Young 33.0 38th year Joe Gordon 31.7 12th year Pete Alexander 26.2 37th year Gene Conley 24.9 1st year Eddie Plank 19.7 38th year Gil Hodges 17.8 4th year Heinie Manush 13.6 26th year Cap Anson 13.6 38th year Sam Rice 13.3 31st year Harry Brecheen 12.6 9th year Doc White 12.3 38th year Sam Thompson 12.0 38th year George Uhle 11.0 30th year Rube Marquard 10.4 38th year Red Schoendienst 8.7 2nd year Lon Warneke 8.7 20th year Billy Goodman 8.4 4th year Del Ennis 7.1 6th year Tony Lazzeri 7.1 24th year Bobby Doerr 5.5 11th year DROPPED DUE TO RECEIVING LESS THAN 5% Joseph Jackson 4.9 Howie Pollet 4.2 Bobby Shantz 3.9 Gus Bell 3.9 Bobby Thomson 3.2 Earl Torgeson 2.9 Clem Labine 1.9 Hardy Holt 0.6 Del Crandall 0.3 Don Hoak 0.3 Jack J O'Connor 0.3 Doggie Miller 0.3 John Gazdziasksi 0.0 Billy Shindle 0.0 CHARLESTON RECOGNIZED BY NEWLY CREATED VETERANS COMMITTEE The Hall of Fame will get an additional inductee this season as a result of the announcement made by the newly created Veteran's Committee. The first player chosen by the new committee to be enshrined in Cooperstown will be legendary Minor and Negro League outfielder Oscar Charleston. The committee was created to recognize old-time major leaguers who were overlooked by the regular Hall of Fame voting system as well as players from the Negro Leagues and independant minor league system that existed from the 1890's through the early 1930s. Charleston, who excelled in both, is an obvious first choice for the Hall. Charleston began his pro career in 1915 when, barred by MLB because of baseball's color line, he joined his hometown Indianapolis Indians of the then independant American Association. He would spend 15 seasons in Indianapolis, helping the Indians win 4 league playoff championships and being named playoff series MVP on all 4 occasions. Charleston ranks among the American Association's career leaders in just about every offensive category and remains first in career homeruns, doubles and rbi's as well as second in hits. He led the league in batting average one season and in homeruns 5 times. While the league never handed out individual awards in that era (aside from playoff MVP) it is clear Charleston would have owned a lot of hardware had it done so. In 1931, with the American Association close to alligning itself with Major League Baseball - something it would do at the end of the season - there was pressure for all of the AA teams to conform with MLB's stance on barring Negro players from the game so the Indians traded the then 37 year old Charleston to Little Rock of the Southern League. Charleston played just 37 games in the Southern loop and batted .404 to help the Travelers to the Southern Series (where he batted .393 in a 7 game loss to New Orleans) but he was not welcomed back the following season by Little Rock as that league, like the American Association, also gave up it's independant status to become affiliated with Major League Baseball. Now 38 years old, Charleston had contemplated retirement but the Negro National League's Pittsburgh Crawfords convinced him to join their team for 1932. Charleston would go on to play 9 seasons with the Crawfords and help them win 2 Negro League World Series championships. When he retired at the age of 46 Charleston had amassed the following numbers for his career. 2860 games played, 3,457 career hits including 265 homeruns. His career batting average was .330. He also played on 11 teams that made the playoffs, winning league championships with 6 of them while posting a .367 playoff batting average with 11 homers and 42 rbi's in 61 post-season games. Charleston is an obvious first choice for the veteran committee. Unfortunately fans were robbed from seeing what he could have accomplished against the very best in the game but he now has a place amongst them. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-12-2018, 11:22 PM	#297
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	1969 Preview 1969 PREVIEW A lot has changed as we prepare for the start of the 1969 season with the biggest news being the addition of divisions and an extra playoff round required to reach the World Series. The 4 new expansion teams are ready to begin play and one of them, the Kansas City Royals, had the third best spring training record at 19-11. The Royals trailed only Cleveland and Pittsburgh, who each won 20 games in the spring. However, the prognosticators have the 4 expansion clubs - including the Royals - finishing with the 4 worst records in major league baseball this season. Here is the predicted order of finish for each of the 4 divisions: Code: AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST WEST Baltimore Oakland Cleveland California New York Minnesota Detroit Chicago Boston Seattle Washington Kansas City NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST WEST Pittsburgh Los Angeles New York San Francisco Philadelphia Cincinnati St Louis Houston Chicago Atlanta Montreal San Diego Let's take a closer look at each division AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST The Baltimore Orioles pitcher got even better with the promotion of 23 year old Jim Palmer to the big leagues. Palmer was 14-4 between 2 minor league levels a year ago and joins the American League's best rotation that also includes Dean Chance (20-11), Dave McNally (16-9) and Milt Pappas (13-11). The offense revolves around Willie Mays, Boog Powell, Davey Johnson and Brooks Robinson. Boston lost two starting infielders from last seasons pennant winning squad as 3B Glenn Beckert was taken by San Diego in the expansion draft and 2B Mike Andrews was dealt to San Francisco for Felipe Alou. Promising rookie George Scott will replace Andrews but the hole left be Beckert will be tougher to address. Pitching is always a question mark as it remains to be seen of Keith LeNoue and Jim Lonborg can match their impressive numbers from a year ago. Mike Kekich, a pick-up in the Alou deal, will be thrust into the rotation to start the season. The expectation is the pitching won't be as good and experts see the Red Sox falling to fourth place in the AL East this year. The Cleveland Indians are expected to challenge Baltimore for the division crown. Despite losing 16 game winner Steve Hargan in the expansion draft the Indians pitching looks just as strong this year with the addition of Blue Moon Odom in a deal with Oakland to join a front-end of the rotation that includes Cy Young winners Sam McDowell and Denny Lemaster. The Tribe will also have a full year of Jim Fregosi, a mid-season pickup from California, at shortstop. Cleveland also added veteran infielders Julian Javier and Clete Boyer in off-season deals at the cost of some of their prospects. Al Kaline dominated pitchers in the spring, batting .420, so the Detroit Tigers hope that is a sign of things to come this season. The reality is the Tigers are in a full scale rebuild and the 4th place prediction is overly optimistic in my opinion. It is a changing of the guard for the New York Yankees as the Mickey Mantle era comes to an end. Mantle was left exposed in the expansion draft and selected by the San Diego Padres. There is a lot of young talent in New York led by Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer but the Yankees are a couple of years away from contending. After a decade of awful baseball the Washington Senators might finally be showing signs of life. Highly touted 18 year old rookie Jeff Burroughs hit just .159 in spring training but that didn't stop the Senators from penciling him in their opening day lineup. Joe Coleman, Marty Pattin, Larry Gura and Bill Stoneman give the Senators some good young arms and their farm system, traditionally at the bottom of the league, is now ranked 10th out of the 24 teams. AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST The California Angels improved their outfield with off-season deals to add Jose Cardenal and Tony Oliva. If the pitching staff, led by Andy Messersmith, Jim McGlothlin and Clyde Wright, can hold up the Angels have a good shot at second place in the new West Division. The only good news for White Sox fans is with the addition of two expansion teams to the division, Chicago should finish no worse than 4th place. The Sox have been in rebuild mode for a couple of seasons and have loaded up on prospects, but unfortunately most are mid-level players rather than potential stars. A couple of those prospects are counted on to contribute this year in Lou Piniella and Jim Nettles but the offense still revolves around 34 year old first baseman Norm Cash, who continues to produce despite the lack of a supporting cast. The rotation will feature a pair of 19 year olds in Bart Johnson and Doug Olson. It will be a long season for each of the expansion clubs including the Kansas City Royals. There is excitement for the club after a 19-11 spring training and there are some pieces like young pitchers Clay Kirby, Doug Bird, Tug McGraw and Sparky Lyle, but the Roayls will be lucky to win 70 games. The Minnesota Twins probably pose the biggest challenge to the division favourite Oakland Athletics. The Twins return most of the cast from their 1967 World Series winning squad although they did lost pitcher Camilo Pascual and catcher Jim Pagliaroni in the expansion draft. 22 year old Alan Foster, once the prize of the Dodgers deep collection of arms, will take Pascual's spot in the rotation and with the emergence of rookie 3B Craig Nettles, Joe Foy will move from the hot corner to behind the plate. Experts figure this is the year the collection of young talent the Athletics has amassed takes them to the post-season. The A's have plenty of young bats led by Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rick Monday, Bert Campaneris, Darrell Evans and Gene Tenace. Pitching might be a concern especially with the news that Steve Hargan, who won 16 games for Cleveland a year ago, will miss the seasons with a shoulder injury. Hargan was acquired in early March from Montreal- who selected him in the expansion draft - for second baseman Dick Green. The expansion Seattle Pilots went with veterans and will be lead by Maury Wills, Ron Fairly, Cookie Rojas and pitchers Gary Peters and Bo Belinsky. There are some prospects in the system such as Gorman Thomas, Marty Perez and Jim Slaton but this projects to be a rough year for the Pilots. NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST The Chicago Cubs have not had a team capable of contending for well over a decade and this year will likely not be any different. Outfielders Lou Brock and Billy Williams, along with 3B Ron Santo and pitcher Ken Holtzman are the best of a weak team. The expansion Montreal Expos look to be in better shape than the 2 newcomers to the American League. The starting pitching doesn't look bad with Ray Washburn, Mel Stottlemyre, Grant Jackson and Camilo Pascaul but getting some offensive support might prove difficult. The Mets seem finally ready to challenge for a playoff spot, especially if young starters Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan are ready to live up to their potential. Dick McAuliffe was acquired from Detroit to play second base and joins an offense that includes Cleon Jones, Paul Blair, Ken Singleton, Ron Swoboda and Bud Harrelson. The Philadelphia Phillies strong pitching staff took a hit with the loss of Stottlemyre and Jackson to the expansion Expos but they still have Fergie Jenkins and Rick Wise. The Pittsburgh Pirates are the favourites to win the NL East. There is plenty of young offensive talent in Bobby Tolan, Al Oliver, Richie Hebner, Don Money and Manny Sanguillen as well as their leader Willie Stargell. Rookie Bob Moose joins a rotation that already includes Bob Veale, Luis Tiant and Woodie Fryman. In my mind the Cardinals are very underrated. Their rotation consists of Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Denny McLain, Nelson Briles and Stan Bahnsen. Add youngsters Bernie Carbo, Jose Cruz, Nate Colbert and Ted Simmons to the mix and they have the potential to win the division. NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST Clearly the toughest division in baseball with the Dodgers, Giants and Reds joined by the improving Astros and Braves. Atlanta has Hank Aaron, Rico Carty and Joe Torre to carry their offense but the pitching, beyond Phil Niekro and Ron Reed is suspect. The Cincinnati Reds have almost too many position players. They added 23 year 2B Davey Lopes in a trade with the White Sox over the winter but he will have to be content with a backup role as the infield features Lee May, Tony Perez, Cesar Tovar and Tommy Harper with Dave Concepcion joining Lopes on the bench. Cincinnati did nothing to address the big concern - lack of quality pitching - but they do have Ross Grimsley, Milt Wilcox and Don Gullett just a year or so away. Houston has added rookie Ken Forsch to an already strong rotation and the offense is also very good led by Joe Morgan, Vada Pinson, Rusty Staub and Bob Watson. Don Drysdale has been relegated to the pen but the Dodgers still have Sandy Koufax and the best pitching rotation in baseball which also includes Bill Singer, Don Sutton, Tommy John and Joe Horlen. Despite losing a record 18 players from their system in the expansion draft, the Dodgers remain the favourites to win a tight division. San Diego probably has the best collection of talent out of the 4 expansion teams but they also have the misfortune of playing in the toughest division. The team also only has one minor league affiliate - in the Pioneer League so depth could be a big issue if they get hit with injuries. He will likely be restricted to a backup role but a big reason to watch the Padres is to see if ex-Yankee Mickey Mantle can reach 600 homers (he has 586) and 3000 hits (2978). The Giants traded Felipe Alou to Boston for second baseman Mike Andrews. The move frees up a spot for Bobby Bonds to finally be able to play everyday. Bonds is joined by a full-season of Pete Rose - who was aquired from Cincinnati just prior to the all-star break last year. The backend of the rotation may be a problem but hard to find a better 1-3 than Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry and Bill Hands, who had a breakout 17-3 season a year ago. PREDICTION - This will be a very competitive year but I am picking we will see a rematch of two years ago with a Minnesota-Los Angeles World Series with the Twins beating Cleveland and the Dodgers topping Pittsburgh in the LCS. I think the young Mets and Athletics will challenge but fall just short this year. Look out for both next season. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-13-2018, 11:45 PM	#298
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	All Star break 1969 1969 ALL-STAR BREAK There were not any real surprises at the all-star break as teams in contention were as expected. If I would consider any team a surprise club it would be the fact that the San Francisco Giants were running away with the National League West Division. At the break, the 65-33 Giants had the best record in the National League and were 9.5 games ahead of Cincinnati and 11.5 up on Los Angeles. Pete Rose (.317,9,51) was having his usual strong season at the plate, although it seems unlikely he will win his 4th consecutive batting title thanks to Houston's Bob Watson. Bobby Bonds (.286,14,49), Willie McCovey (.270,15,35) and Dick Dietz (.309,11,50) were all hitting as was off-season pick-up Mike Andrews (.321,3,29) when healthy. Andrews missed nearly two months with a hamstring issue. Juan Marichal (13-4, 2.39) and Gaylord Perry (11-6, 2.51) anchored the rotation with Bill Hands (8-6, 3.20) and Gene Brabender (9-7, 2.85) also contributing. Thanks to Bonds' league leading 29 steals at the break the Giants have also incorporated speed into their offense. Stop me if you have heard this one before. The Reds had the best offense in the National League but their pitching, particularily the bullpen was dreadful. If Ray Sadecki (11-1, 2.45) or Claude Osteen (15-4, 2.40) could pitch every day the Reds would be dominant especially with this batting order: Code: 1 Tommy Harper 3B .277 13 50 2 Frank Robinson RF .302 18 46 3 Tony Perez 2B .345 18 71 4 Jim Wynn CF .259 16 64 5 Johnny Bench C .307 17 56 6 Lee May 1B .274 16 51 7 Cesar Tovar SS .312 2 23 8 Art Shamsky LF .235 10 34 The 3rd place Dodgers, of course, had the opposite problem. They always had great pitching although it was not quite as good as in previous years. Sandy Koufax (12-6, 1.91) and Bill Singer (12-3, 2.43) continued to shine but Don Sutton (8-7, 3.63) and Tommy John (7-8, 3.29) were not quite as effective. The bullpen was also a bit weaker than in previous years with co-closers Al Worthington and Clay Carroll having as many blown saves as they do saves at the break. Don Drysdale was awful in the pen and was released in May. It was the LA offense that always came up short in previous years but this season they have moved up to the middle of the pack in the National League thanks to a monster first half from Frank Howard (.279,27,73) and rookie catcher Greg Goossen (.282,18,46). Roberto Clemente (.311,4,35) and Steve Garvey (.303,10,44) are also contributing. Injuries to infielders Ted Sizemore and Jim Lefebvre have hurt. Houston and Atlanta have both taken a step back. The Astros are getting a big year out of 23 year old Bob Watson (.365,14,71), who leads the league in batting average but the Houston pitching has struggled. Pitching has also been a problem in Atlanta but the Braves did make deals last week with Montreal to add Mel Stottlemyre (6-11, 4.83) and with San Diego to get Tom Phoebus (4-14, 4.46). Hank Aaron (.300,14,43) and Joe Torre (.313,10,67) lead the offense. In the East Division a strong July surge from the New York Mets, with 14 wins in their last 17 games, has vaulted them into first place in a tight battle with Pittsburgh and St Louis. The Mets have done it with great pitching, particularily from Jerry Koosman (13-4, 1.88), Tom Seaver (10-9, 2.40) and Dick Selma (8-2, 1.82). Nolan Ryan (6-6,3.46) was recently moved into the closer role and got a save in his first relief appearance. Despite ranking 8th in on-base percentage and runs scored, the Mets have so far been able to generate enough offense to get wins. The Pittsburgh Pirates were forced to battle through season ending injuries to Bob Moose and Dock Ellis but their pitching has held up. Willie Stargell (.205,20,64) needs to bring his average up if they are going to win the division but Rickie Hebner (.286,10,36), Al Oliver (.314,7,27), Manny Sanguillen (.295,3,40) and Bob Bailey (.272,13,46) are all contributing. With Bob Gibson (10-4, 1.88), Steve Carlton (9-6, 1.89) and Denny McLain (10-7,2.92) at the top of the rotation the Cardinals are set for pitching. Nate Colbert (.251,16,54) and Don Mincher (249,18,59) have carried the offense and Tim McCarver (.296,4,30) has filled in well in place of injured 19 year old Ted Simmons (.426,4,19 in 40 games) behind the plate. AMERICAN LEAGUE It looks like there won't be much of a pennant race in either American League division as both the Indians and Athletics have built large leads at the break. At 70-31, Cleveland has the best record in baseball thanks to both hitting and pitching. Sam McDowell (12-5, 2.81), Denny Lemaster (12-7, 2.30) and Blue Moon Odom (13-4, 2.38) take care of the pitching while Tommie Agee (.297,11,33), John Lowenstein (.324,28,66), Jim Fregosi (.290,8,42), Mack Jones (.251,10,59) and catcher Duke Sims (.260,15,47) are handling the offense. Bob Allison (.292,16,63) has missed 3 weeks with an injury but should be back soon. Baltimore's 60-38 record would put them right in the thick of the race if they were in the West Division but the second place Orioles trail the Tribe by 8.5 games in the East. Boog Powell (.312,35,93) tailed off a bit in July but is still on a pace to hit close to 60 homeruns. He likely won't reach Joe Adcock's major league mark of 64 but he has a good shot to pass Johnny Mize's 1947 American League record of 51 homeruns. Here are the list of 50+ homerun seasons Code: NAME TEAM YEAR HR Joe Adcock PHI 1959 64 Ernie Banks CHN 1956 60 Ralph Kiner PIT 1948 55 Willie Stargell PIT 1965 54 Howard Murdeski PHI 1945 52 Frank Robinson CIN 1959 52 Johnny Mize PHA 1947 51 Ralph Kiner PIT 1950 50 Jimmie Foxx CLE 1932 50 Ted Williams BOS 1942 50 The Orioles rotation has been outstanding with Dean Chance (10-6, 2.70), Dave McNally (10-6,2.64), Milt Pappas (11-5, 2.15) and rookies Jim Palmer (11-5, 2.83) and Jerry Johnson (8-3, 2.46). If there is a weak spot on Baltimore it would be the Orioles bullpen. The Yankees have been a surprise thanks to great seasons for youngsters Thurman Munson (.345,6,39) and Bobby Murcer (.331,17,58) plus a career year out of Fritz Peterson (16-1, 1.81). Jim Bunning (12-7, 2.79) is rebounding nicely at 37 years of age after a down season a year ago. Oakland has a 9.5 game lead on Minnesota with a big reason being the two clubs records against expansion teams. The A's are 22-5 vs the Royals and Pilots while Minnesota is just 15-10 so far. Oakland has thrived thanks to the best starting pitching and defense in the American League. Vida Blue (8-5, 2.30), Jim Nash (15-6, 2.77) and Chuck Dobson (10-6, 2.25) have made up for the season-ending injury suffered in spring training by Steve Hargan. The young offensive stars are contributing led by Sal Bando (.289,17,45), Reggie Jackson (.266,22,66) and Joe Rudi (.289,8,45). Mickey Lolich (7-11, 3.87) is having a down year for the second place Twins but Jim Merritt (12-4, 2.58) has bounced back from a down year last season and Jim Kaat (11-6, 2.71) has been steady. 18 year old Bert Blyleven (3-3, 3.51) was recently called-up and inserted in the rotation. The Twins will need a strong finish from Reggie Smith (.301,12,68), Harmon Killebrew (.266,25,75) and Rod Carew (.292,5,37) if they are to catch Oakland. The Seattle Pilots seem to be collecting future hall of fame candidates. First, Don Drysdale was released by the Dodgers and signed by the Pilots and then the Padres cut ties with Mickey Mantle. Drysdale is 3-3 with a 2.54 era in 8 starts with Seattle. He has a lifetime 211-106 record. Mantle was signed yesterday by the Pilots after San Diego released him at the end of June. He hit .200 with a pair of homers in 60 at bats for San Diego bringing his career totals to 2990 hits and 588 homeruns. Hopefully the Pilots give the 37 year old enough games to reach 3000 hits. I expect the 600 homerun plateau, only previously reached by Ted Williams (726 career HRs) is beyond Mantle's grasp. NOTES - The only no-hitter thrown in the first half of the season was accomplished by Dick Drago of the Detroit Tigers. Drago fanned 9 while walking 3 for his first career no-hitter in a 2-0 Tigers win over Washington. On the season the 24 year old is 12-6 with a 3.52 era. Last year there were 5 no-hitters thrown including one by Tiger Gerry Arrigo vs Washington. The total matches 1907 when there were also 5 for the most no-hitters in a season. 3 HOMER GAME - On July 15th Adolfo Phillips of the expansion Seattle Pilots tied a long-standing American League record with 3 homeruns in a game against Oakland. The three homeruns in a game has been accomplished many times. Only once has a player hit 4 homers in a game and that was done by Jim Ray Hart of San Francisco in 1964. 22 INNING GAME-On June 11th the Mets and Giants played a 22 inning game in San Francisco. I have no way to determine if that was the longest game in major league history but my guess is it tied for the longest in the National League with another San Francisco game. The Mets-Giants marathon did allow 2 players to tie a record for most at bats in a game. The Giants won 8-7 as both lead-off men - Cleon Jones of the Mets and Matty Alou of the Giants had 11 at bats. Jones went 1-for-11 with 2 strikeouts while Alou was 3-for-11 with 2 rbi's including the game winner in the bottom of the 22nd. The Giants used 8 pitchers in the game while the Mets used 6. Roberto Clemente of the Dodgers was the first to have 11 at bats in a game. It came on May 17, 1958 when the Dodgers scored 12 times in the 17th inning to beat the Cubs 17-5. Clemente had 5 hits. Cubs outfielder Lee Handley took the brunt of the damage, allowing 10 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks when he came in to pitch after his club fell behind 7-5. It was also the second game of a doubleheader so a long day for both pitching staffs. In the Giants first 22 inning game, against Houston and won 10-6 by the visiting Giants on May 2, 1964 both Luis Zayas and Leon Wagner of the Giants each had 11 at bats. Each had a pair of hits in that game. Giants infielder Jim Ray Hart equalled another record by drawing 5 walks in that contest. In what is believed to be the longest game in major league history the Tigers beat the Angels on the west coast 5-2 in a 23 inning game on May 29th last year. Jim Northrup of Detroit and Ed Kirkpatrick of California each had 11 at bats. Northrup had 4 hits while Kirkpatrick went 2-for-11 with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 23rd in a failed attempt to get the Angels back in the game after allowing Detroit to plate four in the top half. MILESTONES - A pair of players reached the 300 homerun mark. On May 15th 34 year old Norm Cash of the Chicago White Sox hit #300 in a 12-7 loss to Detroit. Cash's milestone homer came of of Tigers starter Jim McAndrew. 27 year old Boog Powell of Baltimore hit his 300th career homerun on July 1st in a 10-0 win over the Yankees with George Culver on the mound for New York. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-14-2018, 12:39 AM	#299
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,541	September 1, 1969 SEPTEMBER 1, 1969 AN ALL BAY AREA SERIES? As the summer of '69 turned to autumn it was starting to look like baseball would not treat it's fans to multiple division races as the stretch drive began. All four clubs that led their respective divisions at the all-star break continued to set the pace as the calendar turned to September. Both West Division's seemed to be long over and there was plenty to celebrate in the Bay Area as the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics both appeared poised to end long post-season droughts. San Francisco fans had never been able to witness a post-season game involving their club....in fact you had to go all the way back to 1938 when the then-New York Giants last appeared in the post-season. The wait was nearly as long for the Athletics, stretching back through two other cities since the then-Philadelphia Athletics last won anything, way back in 1939. Of course fans in Oakland were only in their second season with the club that moved from Kansas City for the 1968 campaign. On September 1st the Giants had the best record in baseball at 92-41 and led the hated Los Angeles Dodgers by 15 games in the National League West. The underappreciated Juan Marichal (19-4, 2.16) was enjoying probably the best year of his career. (It is hard to believe Marichal has just 1 all-star appearance to his name at age 31 with a lifetime 188-119 record). Gaylord Perry (15-8, 2.58), Bill Hands (13-8, 2.83), Gene Brabender (13-10, 2.91) and John Lytle (8-2, 2.91) round out the rotation while Phil Regan and Frank Linzy each had 11 saves. Willie McCovey (.265,24,61), Pete Rose (.336,12,67), Bobby Bonds (.273,20,68), Bill Sudakis (.293,12,71) and Dick Dietz (.306,14,66) led the offense, which hasn't missed a beat despite Mike Andrews (.314,4,37) being limited to 53 games because of various injuries. Across the bay the American League's Oakland Athletics had an 8 game lead on Minnesota in their division. Jim Nash (18-8, 3.00), Vida Blue (12-5, 2.24) and Chuck Dobson (12-8, 2.18) along with the American League's best defense are why the A's have allowed the fewest runs against in either league this season. The A's even managed to survive a 5 week period without Reggie Jackson (.267,22,69) and have been without Felix Millan (.305,1,24) much of the season. Last year's rookie of the year Darrell Evans (.262,8,37) is out likely until the playoffs with a shoulder injury and Steve Hargan - a 16 game winner a year ago - has missed the entire season. Despite the injuries the A's have continued to win and they did get good news when Reggie Jackson suited up for the first time since just after the all-star break yesterday. Sal Bandon (.280,25,67), Gene Tenace (.224,17,52), Joe Rudi (.279,14,76), Rick Monday (.279,14,76) and Bert Campaneris (.251,6,43, 42 SB) have picked up the slack. So before fans starting thinking about a Bay Area World Series there is a little matter of the new League Championship Series to contend with. Cleveland has slowed a bit but the Indians still enjoy a 4 game lead on Baltimore with a month to play while in the National League the New York Mets have a little more breathing room than they did a month ago - leading St Louis by 4.5 games and the Pirates by 5 games. The Mets seem in control but they have 7 games remaining against Pittsburgh and 4 vs St Louis in the final month. Likewise, the American League Indians still face Baltimore 6 times down the stretch so we may still have a race to follow yet. Speaking of Baltimore, the homers have slowed a little for Boog Powell (.299,44,122) but he is still within shouting distance of Johnny Mize's American League record of 51. With a huge push he could perhaps catch Jimmie Foxx's 1932 American League record of 152 rbi's. The post-1900 major league mark in both homers and rbi's belongs to the Phillies Joe Adcock after a 64 homer, 160 rbi season in 1959. While on the topic of homeruns, Atlanta's Hank Aaron surpassed the 500 mark with a homer off of Montreal's Jack Fisher on August 3rd. Aaron actually homered twice off Fisher in the game and sits at 503 for his career, including 22 this season. MICKEY MANTLE WATCH - Looks like 3000 hits won't be happening. Mantle is batting just .118 since being signed as a free agent in July by the Seattle Pilots. He is 2-for-17 and now has 2,992 career hits. He has not homered with the Pilots so remains at 588 round-trippers. If Mantle doesn't retire I can't see him being signed anywhere next season. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

08-14-2018, 01:39 PM	#300
scott1964 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Denver Posts: 5,561 Blog Entries: 19	Nice HOF write ups. __________________ This just feels more like waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. PETA.....People Eating Tasty Animals.