Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Here is the final report on Our All Pathetic 96 loss league has finished it’s third season Here were the division results

AL East	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	GB
2009 Cleveland Indians	51	49	.510	—–
1996 Detroit Tigers	50	50	.500	1
1957 Washington Senators	47	53	.470	4
2010 Baltimore Orioles	40	60	.400	11

AL West	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	GB
1970 Kansas City Royals	55	45	.550	—–
1997 Oakland A’s	54	46	.540	1
2021 Texas Rangers	51	49	.510	4
2021 Pittsburgh Pirates	40	60	.400	15

If you like tight division races you LOVED the AL this season. Both races where three team affairs going into the 2nd to last series and both were decided in the final game with the two fighting teams with identical records. One note. The 1970 White Sox were supposed to be the 4th team in the AL West but a system error took place which would have required some teams game to be replayed. Rather than cancel games I took the only pathetic team from the base year (2021) available (Pittsburgh) and moved them to the AL West to substitute.

NL East	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	GB
2009 Washington Nationals	70	30	.700	—–
2002 Milwaukee Brewers	54	46	.540	16
2019 Miami Marlins	45	55	.450	25
1969 Montreal Expos	43	57	.430	27

NL West	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	GB
2012 Chicago Cubs	55	46	.545	—–
1982 Cincinnati Reds	54	47	.535	1
2015 Cincinnati Reds	50	50	.500	4 1/2
1993 San Diego Padres	42	58	.420	12 1/2

The National league had both the tightest and the loosest division races. The 2002 Brewers record would have put them in 1st place in any other division yet they finished 16 games back which is farther behind than any last place team in any other division. The lack of a wild card due to a 16 team league hurt them. Meanwhile not only was the NL west a three team race with six to go but it finished in a dead heat with the 1982 Cincinnati Reds winning their final two to tie the cubs forcing a one game regular season playoff game that went 13 innings before Tony Campana doubled in the go ahead runs.

League Championship Series

The Playoffs in the NL started with no surprise. The National who had gone 7-1 vs the cubs in the regular season shut then out in game one. The Cubs took an early lead in game two but nats tied it up in the 4th and it remained tied till then 8th and then the floor fell out on the Nationals season with the Cubs taking the lead and never looking back. The only time they trailed in the rest of the series was a run in the top of the first in game 3 which they answered with ten of their own closing out the Nationals in 4 games

2012 Cubs 3 games 2009 Nationals 1

In the American League you had two teams who had both won their divisions and it was hard fought. the 2009 Indians took game one 4-2 but the 1970 Royals answered back with a 7-4 win in game two but fate took a hand in game three when trying to protect a 2-0 lead in the fifth right fielder Lou Piniella injured himself diving for a ball in right. He would leave the game so when the 9th inning game and the Royals had closed within 3 due to Bob Oliver’s HR he could only watch as his replacement Bill Sorrell grounded to first as the Indians won 7-5. With Piniella’s bat out of the lineup the Indians would win game four shutting out the Royals on four hits closing out a series that could easily have gone either way

2009 Indians 3 games 1979 Royals 1 game

World Series

The last Indians Cubs world series was close and exciting and this one didn’t disappoint. Cleveland opened with an 8-2 win at Wrigley but the Cubs answered right back routing the tribe 9-4. The series went back to Cleveland and Jacobs field proved friendly as the Indians took game three 6-1 and game four 6-3. The Cubs facing elimination came back to win game five 7-5 and force the series back to the friendly confines of the ivy. Cleveland took an early 6-1 lead but the Cubs came back to make it 6-4 and a nasty feeling of deja vu came upon the denizens of Lake Erie. The tribe added an insurance run in the 7th but the Cubs put a pair of runners on in the 8th bringing the tying run at bat with only one out against Chris Perez who relieved Kerry Wood with one on and one out. Perez rose to the occasion striking out David DeJesus and coaxing a grounder from Starlin Castro to finish the eighth and after waling Joe Mather on a borderline pitch to start the ninth held on striking out the final two batters to bring Joy to Cleveland and to Lebron as the Indians finally had a World Series again!

So ends out All pathetic league 3rd season. It will take a pause as we finish the 2nd season of our draft league (1970) and start to prepare for 1971. If you have any interest in joining that league or in a special one season all year draft league that we might see in Feb let me know in comments.