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World Series Day in the SABLE Face to Face League after the wildest Division series ever played

Posted: March 26, 2022 by datechguy in baseball
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For only the 4th time since 1985 and the first time in the 21st century I’ll be heading to the World Series in our face to face league as my Washington Nationals will face the well rested Colorado Rockies for all the marbles.

The Rockies who won their division by winning the final series against me two games to one made short work of the Cardinals sweeping them in three.

My path to the big game was more complicated.

Finishing in a three way tie for the two wild card berths as the B team I defeated the NYY 7-2 with Max Scherzer dodging bullets the entire way to get me the home spot in the wild card game. In that game Yu Darvish who was acquired at the cost of a 1st round pick early in the season pitched a complete game shutout to give me a chance at a pennant against a NY Mets that had only swept the season series against me this year but one that I had only managed two wins against in the three years since the league was revived.

It was a classic series

In game one I jumped to a 4-0 lead after two but starter Lance Lynn who had lost the wild card game the previous year was jumped on for three runs in the 5th to make it a one run game. Mets relivers Valdez shut me down the rest of the way while my bullpen bent but didn’t break TJ Antony getting out of a bases loaded one out jam in the 7th and after a 9th inning leadoff walk two big defensive plays kept the tying run on first.

Final Washington 5 Mets 4

Game two was a scoreless pitching duel into the 7th until Nolan Arenado singled in Anthony Rendon and a Molina Sac fly scored Lindor to give me a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the 8th Mookie Betts completely misplayed a Ramirez liner putting him on third where he scored on a Trey Turner ball that went to the warning track to make it a one run game. In the bottom of the 9th Jeffries allowed a one out walk and followed that with a two out walk a single loaded the bases bringing up Ramirez. With Washington about to go up 2 games to none he hit a shot deep into the hole at short that was just out of the reach of the diving Lindor and just like that the series was tied at once each

Final Mets 3 Washington 2

Game three in Washington started well for the Nats, Merrifield singled home Guriell in the 1st and promptly stole 2nd & 3rd with nobody out but Zac Gallen retired Betts, Rendon and Abreu in order to get out of the jam. Meanwhile Max Scherzer who dodged a bunch of bullets vs the Yanks was not so lucky giving up five runs in 2 2/3 innings including a monster 3 run shot to Trey Turner who had an incredible series. Meanwhile Valdez came in again with one outs in the 5th and after giving up a single that made it a one run game retired the next 14 in a row to make the Mets insurance run in the 6th superfluous.

Final New York 6 Nationals 4

Darvish came back for the do or die game and thanks to another big hit by Merrifield was staked to a 3-0 lead until Trey Turner once again hit a 3 run shot to tie things up in the 5th. That’s how it stayed till the top of the 12th when with runners on 1st & 3rd and two outs manager Gionet surprised everyone calling for the suicide squeeze. Josh Bell laid it down perfectly and everyone was safe so even when Washington turned the 6-4-3 double play to end the inning, the Mets were still only 3 outs away from a trip to the series.

They would only get one of them, Rendon and Betts would both walk to start the bottom of the 12th and with one out and the runners going pinch Hitter Didi Gregorius would smash a double down the line scoring them both and tying the series at 2

Final Nationals 5 NY 4 (12)

The rain clouds looked ominous for game five but they decided to try to get the game in anyways. That decision looked poor for NY when Betts and Hosmer went back to back to give Washington a 3-0 lead (they scored first in every game of the series) but with Lance Lynn finally finding his pitching groove giving up only one hit in 4 innings the sky opened up and the rain didn’t stop. The Game was called to be replayed the next day.

Washington surprised everyone by throwing Scherzer who had been roughed up the last time on three days rest while the Mets did the same with Gallen. Washington scored first on a single two wild pitches and another single to make it 1-0 but Acuna Jr.’s two run shot (his only big hit of the series) was enough to chase Scherzer in the third. The Mets went back to Valdez who had shut down the Nats in game 3 but it didn’t work out that way this time A solo shot by Abreu tied the game up and a critical error by Jeff McNeil led to another two run double by Gregorius followed shortly by a 3 run shot by Betts made it 7-2 and it looked like it was all over but the shouting .

It wasn’t Tejay Antone who had been excellent in relief came in with two on and one out in the 7th and after coaxing a force out to third gave up two walks and a double for three runs before the 3rd out was caught against the left field wall just short of giving away the lead.

Down by two the Mets started the 8th with a leadoff single when McNeil an excellent bat handler trying to make up for his 5th inning miscue hit a liner with the runner going that looked destined for left field but Lindor remembering the ball he couldn’t get to dove to his right to spear the liner and managed to get the ball to first to double off the runner. This turned out to be a critical play as the Jeffries arm stiffened up and he had to come out Rosentall was rushed in and threw a fat pitch for his first offering which was promptly deposited into the left field stands. 7-6.

Washington went quietly in the 9th and Trey Turner who already had 7 rbi’s in the series came up and put a 2-1 pitch into the gap to lead off the 9th. Alas what would have capped a sure MVP award for the series never happened as Trevor Rosentall decided to prove the wisdom of deadline trade that sent him to DC retiring the next three batters in a row for his 2nd save of the series and completing the biggest playoff upset in years.

Final Washington 7 Mets 6

Well my pitching staff isn’t well rested and Colorado who leads the season series against me 4-2 is but on the bright side my starting center fielder who was injured on the final day of the regular season has been cleared to play adding both power and defense to my lineup.

I’ll need it.

Big Dynasty Baseball League Updates Divisions down to the wire and new players welcome

Posted: March 11, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, Dynasty, dynasty baseball, gaming
Tags: , ,

Lots going on in the Dynasty Baseball leagues

The All time great league was won by the 1985 Cardinals who after staring the season slow roared into first and after beating the 1975 Reds in seven Swept the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks for the NL Pennant and the 2010 Rangers who beat the 61 Yankees in Seven for the AL Pennant

Josh Hamilton of the Rangers led all the majors with a .365 Avg while Willie McGee of StL led the senior circuit at .361 while also leading the majors with 238 hits. Derick Jeter of the 2009 Yanks led the AL with .232

Roger Maris hit 54 HR five more than Mickey Mantle to lead the AL, Hank Aaron’s 46 HR led the NL. Johnny Blanchard of the 61 yanks also had 46 HR and led the majors with 153 RBI’s while George Foster of the 75 Reds 140 RBI led the NL

On the mound John Tudor led the majors with a 1.83 ERA on his way to the NL Cy Young and while the 1999 Boston Red Sox finished last in the east at 71-91 Pedro Martinez won the AL Cy Young still lead the league in ERA 2.04 Wins (23 tied with Mike Cuellar of Balt, Greg Maddux led the majors with 24) strikeouts with 428 (Randy Johnson had 396 for Arizona to lead the NL) avg against .198 (Tudor led the majors at .195) and WHIP 0.90 with Tudor leading all with 0.88

Mantle took the AL MVP while McGee won NL honors.

the 1969 Continual Draft league is in its 1st season. We are playing 126 and things are pretty much settled in the NL but the AL things may be coming down to the wife here are the standings:

AL East

TeamWinsLossesPctGB
Cleveland Indians6248.564—–
Baltimore Orioles5651.5234 1/2
Washington Senators 5159.46411
New York Yankees4067.37420 1/2

AL West

TeamWinsLossesPctGB
Seattle Pilots6646.589—–
Minnesota Twins6448.5712
Oakland A’s5552.5128 1/2
Chicago White Sox4661.43017 1/2

NL East

TeamWinsLossesPctGB
New York Mets (daytraders)7636.679—–
Montreal Expos (Nos Amours)6149.55514
Pittsburgh Pirates5458.48222
Atlanta Braves3872.34537

NL West

TeamWinsLossesPctGB
Los Angeles Dodgers6743.609—–
Cincinnati Reds (cin city)5258.47315
St. Louis Cardinals 4663.42220 1/2
San Francisco Giants (Seals)4366.39423 1/2

The season will be finishing in 4 weeks and we are accepting expansion teams for next season if anyone is interested.

Our face to face 2020 league is a 30 game season and the final games are tonight

Lynn Division

TeamWinsLossesPctGBWCGB
New York Mets2010.667—–n/a
St Louis Cardinals1812.6002+ 1
New York Yankees1713.56720 1/2——
Tampa Bay Rays 525.16715elim

Dan Division

TeamWinsLossesPctGBWCGB
Washington Nationals 1611.593—– + 1/2
Colorado Rockies1611.593—–+ 1/2
Seattle Mariners1713.5671/2—–
San Diego Padres822.2679 1/2elim

Five teams make the playoffs, the two division winners and three wild card teams

The worst division winner faces the first wild card team with home field advantage

The best division winner faces the winner of a wild card playing game with the 2nd wild card team hosting the 3rd.

The Mets have clinched the Best Division winners spot and will host the winner of the wild card game

The Cardinals have clinched the 1st Wild card team and will face the winner of the Dan Division.

The Yankees and the Mariners have clinched at least a change to play in a wild card A-B-C round

There are three games left with the Nationals facing the Rockies tonight

IF Either Washington or Colorado sweep the other THEN

  1. the Winner wins the Dan division and hosts St Louis in round one of the playoffs
  2. The Yankees Host Seattle in the wild card game holding the tie breaker (2-1 regular season adv) with the winner facing the Mets in Round one.

If there is no Sweep THEN

  1. The winner wins the Dan Division and hosts St. Louis in round one of the playoffs
  2. The Loser is in a 3 way tie for the two wild card spots and an A-B-C system is used to determine who goes to the wild card game

the ABC system works like this

  • Team A hosts Team B The winner advances to the wild card game as the home team
  • Team C hosts the Lose The winner is the away team in the wild card game and the loser doesn’t make the playoffs

If Washington wins the series Colorado is Team C in the ABC game Team A is Seattle (5-3 vs others) team B is NYY (3-3) Col (4-5)

If Colorado wins the series Washington is team B in the ABC game Team A is NYY (4-2) Team C is Seattle (2-7) Washington (6-3) is tied with NYY but becomes team C because NYY won the season series 2-1.

It’s going to be a really exciting finish. I’m Washington Wish me luck.

Expansion teams are welcome for next season

A Funny Vic Power Story that Says a Lot About How Far We’ve Come

Posted: February 18, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, culture
Tags: , , ,

My wife bought me both Bill James Historical Abstracts for Christmas the 1985 and the 2003 edition. The newer one had a story about Vic Power the premiere defensive first baseman of the late 50’s and early 60’s that made me laugh out loud and when I repeated it told a story about how far we’ve come on race in the US.

Power was a very dark skinned Puerto Rican player who came up in the early 50’s just as the integration of baseball was taking place. He as I noted (and as his stats at baseball reference.com can tell you) was a spectacular fielding first baseman winning gold gloves every year from 1958-1964 a six time all star in four years (some years two AS games were played) who could hit a bit often in the top ten of hitting categories and leading the league in triples once.

He was also rather outspoken and outgoing and was considered by racists of the time “an uppity nigger” (FYI Bill James notes this reference without spelling the actual word saying “uppity n-word”. I don’t believe in this N-word bullshit. I prefer to quote the actual offensive words being used, even that most offensive of words: “Semprini” , because it’s proper for us to see things as they actually were. If you are offended by their use at that time, good you should be. If you are offended by me quoting said offensive language to illustrate it, may I suggest there are plenty of other blogs out there for the weak of heart to read, but I digress…) but Power didn’t care not let such people stop him. A great illustration of this came in a story that James told of him.

He stopped by a restaurant in Syracuse to eat and the waiter walked up to him nervously saying to him: “I’m sorry sir we don’t serve colored people in this restaurant.” Power didn’t miss a beat in his reply: “That’s all right, I don’t eat colored people.”

James doesn’t relate what happened next but I laughed so loud & hard when I read it that all the people in the lunch room turned to stare, but the most interesting thing came when I was heading back from break toward my work station.

I passed by the guards station and the guard on duty was a thirty year old fellow who I knew to be a baseball fan. I told him the story and he smiled at the punch line but it was his reaction to the words of the waiter that struck me.

It was utter amazement. I’m almost sixty and while not old enough to remember ever hearing that in person I’m old enough for such a thing to be not unfamiliar to me, but to him the very idea that a person might choose to deny service to a person because of their race was so foreign and unthinkable to him that he just couldn’t process it.

I can think of no more concrete sign that we have really moved forward on race than that.

1969 League Report: The Impossible 9th Inning Yanks at Twins game 2 with an Ironic Twist

Posted: February 10, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, Dynasty, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming
Tags: , ,

One of the things about the Dynasty Baseball game is that just about anything can happen which you consider that hundreds of game may be taking place at any single moment in time 24/7.

This was proved yesterday in the first series back of a player who had previously left the league but returned to take over his team when the player who had replaced him expressed an interest in drafting his own team next season, which is the fun of a draft league, rather than playing out the current one with a team someone else built even though it’s currently in first place and a very well built team.

The game started pretty normal with Yankee Ace Fritz Peterson (9-6) vs the Twins Gene Barbender (7-6) The Yanks struck first as rookie catcher Thurman Munson tripled to lead off the game and scored on a Jim Fregosi Sacrifice Fly that was just a few feet shy from going out making it 1-0.

The Twins stuck back in the bottom of the 2nd Tony Perez Led off with a single, Willie Mays drew a walk and Rich Reichhardt doubled into the gap scoring them both making it 2-1 Twins

The Yanks took the lead back in the 6th. Nate Colbert lead off with a homer to left to tie the game. Ron Fairly singled and Greg Nettles walked. Julian Javier hit into a force putting runners at 1st & 3rd with one out. Richie Hebner pinch hitting for the slumping Bill Sudakis, grounded into a force play beating out the throw to first allowing Fairly to score and it was 3-2 NY.

It stayed that way until the 9th when the most improbabile inning I’ve ever seen took place.

The trouble began for Lindy McDaniel, who came in for Barbender in the 8th, when 2nd baseman Joe Morgan booted Munson’s grounder. He moved to 2nd on a ground out by Fregosi at which point Jose Acria came in to run for him. Nate Colbert drove him in with a single for his 2nd RBI of the game and Ron Fairly followed with a double that scored Colbert all the way from first and now the Yanks had a 5-2 lead, but they weren’t done yet.

Ernie Banks then dropped the throw on a Craig Nettles grounder that should have been out 2 (or 3 if you consider the Morgan error. It was only his 2nd error of the entire season and the Yankees took advantage of that rare Banks miscue when Fairly was able to score on a Javier grounder making it 6-2.

They say trouble comes in threes and this was certainly the case for McDaniel as he dropped Banks throw to first that would have ended the inning on a slow roller by Richie Hebner for the 3rd Twins error of the inning.

Like Banks’ error it was his 2nd of the season and like Banks’ error it immediately paid dividends for the Yankees as Ken Henderson uncharacteristically deposited his next pitch deep into the right field stands for a 3 run shot which gave the Yankees a seven run lead going into the bottom of the 9th. A seemingly unassailable lead as noted by this chart on the odds of a Minnesota win going into the bottom of the 9th

Alas for the fans of the Bronx Bombers this is not football or Basketball or Hockey or even Soccer where there is a clock to run out. This is baseball which means that no matter how many runs you are ahead by going into the last of the 9th, you still have to record those final three outs to win.

Here’s what happened.

Ernie Banks started things with a single. The hot hitting Alex Johnson followed with a high chopper to 3rd which Acria now playing the hot corner made an excellent play on to get Johnson at first. Tony Perez Singled to left Banks stopping at 3rd and the Say Hay Kid came up with another single off Peterson to driving in Banks cutting the lead to six.

Reichhart hit the next ball right to 3rd and Acria forced Perez there.

The scene was now Mays on 2nd and Reichhardt at first with two men out and the score Yankees 9 and Minnesota 3. Fritz Peterson needed only one more out for a complete game victory when light hitting Joe Azcue came to bat for Lindy McDaniel

It was not to be

Azcue singled to right scoring Mays and sending Reichhardt to 3rd. New York Yankees 9 Minnesota Twins 4. Catcher Frank Fernandez followed with a single of his own scoring Reichhardt and sending Azcue to 2nd. Yankees 9 Twins 5. At this point Dick Radatz starting throwing in the pen as it improbably began approaching a save situation.

While he was getting loose John Kennedy added to the hit parade singling to center to load the bases and Joe Morgan whose initial 9th inning error had seemingly put the game on a path to defeat waited out an exhausted Peterson for a bases loaded walk making the game 9-6 and ending Peterson’s night.

Dick Radatz came in and despite the bases loaded situation only needed one out to give Peterson the win and him the save. Steve Howley came in to bat in place of the right handed Ernie Banks who had lead of the inning. He was hitting over .400 vs RHP but that didn’t intimidate Radatz who coaxed a slow grounder toward Acria who had already made one great play in the inning and had produced the 2nd out unassisted. it seemed the game was over…until Acria hurried the throw which got past Colbert. Azcue and Frenandez both scored and now the score was 9-8 on what should have been the final out of the game.

Radatz was still not worried even with the tying run at 2nd and the winning run at 1st. He still needed only one out and was determined to keep pinch hitter Lou Brock who came in to hit for Alex Johnson from driving in that tying run.

In that respect he would be successful as Brock would pop out to Colbert on a 2-2 fastball, however with the count 2-1 Joe Morgan broke for 3rd and Hovley Broke for 2nd. Catcher Jim Paglairtoni who came in to catch at the top of the inning rushed the throw trying to end the game. It sailed into the outfield for his 1st error of the season. Morgan dashed home with the tying run and Hovley made it to 3rd where he would be stranded to end the inning.

After 9 Yankees 9 Twins 9.

After that 9th inning the 10th was almost anticlimactic Twins Reliever Cecil Upshaw (W 3-1) would retire the Yanks in order in the top of the inning while Radatz (BS L 3-5) led off the 10th with a first pitch fastball and Tony Perez took that ball drove it 399 feet into the left field stands and the game was over.

Twins 10 Yankees 9.

This was quite a cap to an exciting finish. You won’t see a game like that often or at all but the real irony is this.

I mentioned at the start of this post that this was the first game back for the former manager/GM of the Twins who had left the league because he was frustrated at the computer game. He said the results were too improbable and would end up putting his team on auto in frustration. And here is his 2nd game back and what does he get, the most improbable game of the year.

That’s irony.

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