Posts Tagged ‘sports’

1972 League Playoff Review Wild Card Round National League League Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates

Posted: September 29, 2024 by datechguy in baseball, Dynasty, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming
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The 2nd of our reviews of the upcoming wild card series. (Best of 3) the winner of this series will face the SF Giants in the Divisional Round (best of 5) The AL Writeup is here.

Cincinnati Reds 88-74 10 GB 3rd Wild Card

Offense: Last year the Reds underperformed this year this year they were 4th in the NL in HR (128) 3rd in Slugging (,383) 2nd in OBP (.325) & 1st in triples (53) led by Johnny Bench who was 2nd in both HR (34) and RBI (114) to Triple crown winner Billy Williams. Of course being 2nd in RBI’s is easy when you have Joe Morgan (135 walks) and Dick Allen (115) walks on base constantly. Morgan would lead the league with 122 runs and finish 2nd to Lou Brock with 53 stolen bases. Dick Allen would have 99 runs scored along with 30 HR of his own. Bobby Tolan would also score 102 runs thanks to 186 hits while stealing 30 more and young Bill Buckner would hit .307 with 10 triples (7th in league) only one behind teammate Ted Martinez tied for 3rd with 11. This is a big Red Offensive Machine.

Defense: The Reds were part of a 4 way tie for the best fielding percentage at .987 like Boston & St. Louis only comitting 83 errors all year. As much as Bench contributed offensively his record behind the plate was incredible 15 caught stealing in 15 attempts and only one passed ball and two errors in 912 chances over 1255 innings. In fact no person not even Lou Brock would steal a single base against the Reds this season. With no stolen bases against and only two passed balls you had to earn your bases against the Reds. Bobby Tolan who saved the 1969 WS for the Mets by robbing Pete Rose of a 9th inning double was excellent in Center. Meanwhile Al Kaline and Dick Allen would both put up great range factors at 1B Allen would move to 3B with the Ron Santo Trade to the Yankees putting up comparable numbers .961 Fielding over 920 innings. Joe Morgan’s .993 fielding percentage at 2nd kept the infield tight.

Pitching: This was the weak link of the team. Cincy’s 3.56 ERA was 12th in the Majors just ahead of the Washington Senators 3.64. Their 904 strikes were in the bottom 5 of the majors and teams hit .262 against them, only the Orioles and Cubs and KC were more generous with their total hits. On the bright side their 406 walks allowed were 2nd lowest in the NL and 4th best in the majors. Fritz Peterson was a legit ace going 22-8 with a 2.90 ERA in 282 innings his 1.28 walks per 9 innings 2nd best in the NL. Spaceman Lefty Bill Lee did fine work in the Bullpen saving 18 in 20 chances while going 6-5 and Pedro Borbon 8 saves in 11 chances wasn’t bad but Fred Gladding’s 4-9 and Bucky Brandon’s 1-6 and Steve Mingori’s 0-3 in saves is why the Reds didn’t clinch against StL till the final two weeks of the season.

Pittsburgh Pirates 91-71 2nd place NL Beta 17 GB 2nd Wild Card

Offense: Pittsburgh .256 team avg (2nd in NL 4th in majors) and .328 OBP (tops in NL 2nd in majors) meant a lot of men on base which is why Pit was 3rd in the NL in RBI’s 676 and just behind Cincy in HR (126). Hank Aaron’s 31 HR led a team that has six players with double figures in HR. He added 101 walks to allow others to drive him in. Rod Carew’s .341 avg (2nd in league) and .400 OBP (4th in league) on 201 hits and meant there was usually someone on base. Rennie Stennett’s .319 Avg didn’t hurt there either.

Defense: Defense was not a strong point for Pittsburgh winning 91 games despite the 3rd worst defense in the NL and the 3rd most past balls and errors in the Majors a bit of a surprise with a man as steady as Bill Freehan behind the plate but age caught up to him in the field as it did Aaron (19 errors) and George Scott (27 errors). Young Bill Russell’s 23 errors and .967 fielding at short was below avg but both Johnny Briggs (6 errors in LF) and young Jose Cruz (5 errors in center) made up for this by throwing out 7 and 9 runners from the OF respectively but Joe Lahoud surpassed them all throwing out 11 runners while committing no errors in 750 2/3 innings to augment his power at the plate.

Pitching: Pittsburgh gave up the 4th fewest hits and their teams 1.20 WHIP was tied for 4th best in the majors. This was due to Gaylord Perry being practically unbeatable going 22-10 in 302 1/3 innings (5th in NL) with an ERA below 2 (1.97 1st in NL). Bruce Kison (11-10 2.99) and Bill Singer (10-6 3.05) put up respectable numbers but it was Perry who carried the rotation. Meanwhile Mike Marshall came into his own saving 25 in 29 chances. In all Pittsburgh pen saved 44 games while blowing 15 just below 3/4

Season Series

Series 1 May at Cincy

In Game one Cincy got all they needed in the 1st on a Tolan leadoff single to start the inning and a Morgan double, Bench single and Rudi double off Bill Singer with two outs. A solo shot by George Scott off Milt Wilcox in the 2nd made it 3-1 and a two out 9th inning single by Davey Johnson put the Bucks within one but Don Gullett came in for Bill Lee and Struck out pinch hitter Ron Woods to solidify the victory.

The Pirates struck 1st in game two with a Hank Aaron 2 run shot off Paul Splitoff but Bench answered with a solo shot in the 2nd and the Reds took the lead in the 5th when Buckner stroked a 2 out single scoring Kaline & Martinez and grew the lead in the 7th with an RBI single from Splittorff and an RBI double by Buckner but Ron Woods made up for his failure in game one with a 3 run HR in the top of the 8th to tie it and Carew followed in the 9th with a 2 out two on single to give Pittsburgh the 6-5 lead off George Culver and MIke Marshall held the Reds to a single in the ninth thanks to a nice play by Ron Woods, not known for his range on a flare to Right

In the Rubber match Pit scored to in the 2 and 1 in the fourth off Dick Bosman while the Reds could only manage two unearned runs one off winner Bruce Kison and one off Closer Mike Marshall both made possible by Jose Cruz Miscues but that was all as the Pirates won 4-2

2nd Series June

The Reds took their revenge in Pittsburgh beginning with a pair of shutouts Splitorff in game one of a 5-0 route while 4 Reds pitchers kept the Pirates off the Board for 10 innings and finally scored 3 off of Mike Marshall in Relief of Gaylord Perry who had answered them scoreless inning for scoreless inning. A Tolan Triple and a Kaline Sac to score him made the 3-0 final. The Reds jumped to a 3-0 early lead off Bill Singer thanks to an Allen Homer But Woods, Aaron and Bill Russell all went deep in the 7th to tie things at four until Dick Allen doubled in one run and Rookie George Foster pinch hitting drove in a 2nd off of Mike Marshall for a 6-4 win

3rd Series Aug

Bill Singer finally managed a win off Cincy in game one when he shut out the reds over 8 1/3 on two hits while 2 RBI’s from Woods and another by Rennie Stennett in the first off Reds ace Friz Peterson were more than enough in their 5-0 win. Three Cincy Pitchers returned the favor in game two blanking the bucks who had to use five pitchers after Starter Brian Johnson had to be pulled in the 2nd with arm stiffness. Homers by Dick Allen and Joe Morgan added to the 8-0 rout for their 4th win in their last five meetings but the Pirates had the last laugh in game 3 as they blanked the Reds right Back with Ross Grimsley pitching five, Gary Ross pitching three and Mike Marshall getting his 3rd save vs the reds vs 2 losses. It was a 3rd inning solo shot off Wilcox by Scott and an RBI damage by Aaron off off off Mingori that accounted for the 2-0 win.

Series 4 Sept

The final series of year was the most competitive with Mike Marshall getting saves in game 1 & 3 neither Friz Peterson and Bill Singer batted it out to a 2-2 tie before Hank Aaron just beat Bench’s tag on a throw from Dave Martinez after a Rennie Stennett 8th inning single. In game 3 it was the Pirate bats bailing out Jim Barr who left the Reds with a 5-2 lead in the 2nd. A two out Carew single tied the game 5-5 while Hank Aaron’s three runs on the very next pitch from Mike Caldwell finished the job. In the middle game however the Bucks Ace failed in his 2nd attempt to get a win against the Reds as the Big Red Machine scored 3 in the first and then after Pittsburgh fought back to tie it in the bottom of the 9th they took advantage of a Bill Russell error in the 10th allowing Dick Allen and Joe Morgan to single in the winning runs off a game Gaylord Perry who went the 10 inning distance and a final rally which got the tying runs on with two outs in the 10th fell short.

Season Series even 6-6

This series I suspect will come down to who wins the Perry/Peterson Duel. Neither Ace managed a win vs the other team during the season. Both have good offenses but Cincinnati’s is so overwhelming that it’s hard to pick against them, but Pittsburgh has a legitimate closer so if they can get a lead they might hold it. However while Marshall had four saves vs the Reds he also lost a par. Despite this I have no faith in the Reds holding leads once acquired. I suspect as I said it will all come down to the first meeting between Peterson & Perry? Will one or both rise to the occasion? I really don’t know but I have to pick a winner so I’m going to give the edge to the team managed by the winningest manager in Dynasty history (2665 tournaments wins) and the player #1 ranked #1 all time in the game.

Pit 2-1

1972 League Playoff Review Wild Card Round American League California Angels at Boston Red Sox

Posted: September 28, 2024 by datechguy in baseball, Dynasty, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming
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The first round of our 1972 league playoffs kick off this week in a best of three series between the 2nd and 3rd wild card teams. The winner will face the top seeded NY Yankees in the Division series in round two (Best of 5):

California Angels 82-80 2nd in AL Alpha 29 GB 3rd wild Card

Offense: The Angels played pretty much .500 ball this season with a team that didn’t scare many people with their bats hitting .241 as a team despite Manny Mota being 2nd in the AL in hits (202) and hitting .314 (6th in the league) and walking even less (16th out of 20 MLB teams) hitting only 75 Home runs all season and finishing 14th in slugging although they had three players in the top 8 in the AL for Triples Mota with 10 (8th), Jerry Moralas 12 (tied 3rd) and Tommy McGraw who was 2nd with 13 and also 7th in OBP .374. Their most dangerous offensive player being Jose Cardinal who finished the season at .288 17 HR 107 RBI (4th in league) and 39 doubles (tied 5th) and 95 runs scored (7th)

Defense: A team with little offence needs solid defense and California certainly qualified in that score their .986 fielding percentage was tied for 5th in the majors and only .001 off the MLB lead and their 89 Errors were 6th in the majors. Bobby Valentine at 2nd (.984) Don Money at 3rd (.980) and Dave Concepcion (.980). The two weak links. 2nd Catcher Bill Plummer who let 10 of 11 baseruners steal on him and Cardinal whose 5 errors in right and .978 fielding percentages were a problem.

Pitching: Clay Carrol was lights out in the pen saving 28 in 31 chances with a WHIP of .092 (2nd in AL) but the starters ran hot at cold. Tommy John’s 2.46 ERA in 248 innings only produced a 15-14 record. Another innings eater was Tom Bradley who pitched 275 1/3 innings (6th in AL) but at a cost of 18 losses (tied 3rd in AL) against only 10 wins. The Ace of the team was Clay Kirby who led all American league pitchers with a .193 Avg against finishing with a 18-12 Record with a 3.33 ERA

Red Sox 86-76 3rd in AL Beta 14 GB 2nd Wild Card

Offense: Boston’s .256 avg and .326 OBP were both 3rd in the Majors and 2nd in the AL led by Carl Yazstremski whose .335 led the AL. Yaz also led the Majors with a .431 OBP and his .519 Slugging pct was good enough for 4th in the AL and top 10 in the majors. He was helped by Vada Pinson whose .311 avg (7th in AL (37 doubles (6th in AL) did their job and Rookie Carlton Fisk who managed 39 doubles of his own and Willie Davis whose 97 walks led the AL and Rico Petrocelli whose 24 Home Runs led the team (yet only drove in 67). Despite playing in Fenway they only managed 96 round trippers although their 244 doubles, no doubt aided by the green monster were good enough for 6th in the Majors and 2nd in the AL.

Defense: Boston .987 fielding percentage was part of a 4 way tie for the best in the majors and their paltry 83 errors were part of a 3 way tie for 2nd in the Majors (and 2nd in the AL) Fisk’s arm discouraged base stealing as he threw out 5 of the mere 12 who attempted to steal. Boston was one of three teams who allowed less that 10 SB all season (9). In the rest of the field things were just as good. Wes Parker only committed 4 errors in 1389 1/3 innings while helping to turn 100 DP getting to balls most fielders would not be able to touch while Rick Petrocelli only committed 7 errors at 3rd in 537 chances for an .987 fielding percentage while Vada Pinson committed only a single error in the OF primarily in Right while Willie Davis in center threw out 12 runners this season. One surprise down side was Left Fielder Carl Yazstremski who managed 6 errors as age seemed to catch up but was perfect at 1B when spelling Wes Parker.

Pitching: Boston’s team era of 3.52 was decidedly middle of the pack (0.02 behind California) Gary Nolan (16-9 2.72 ERA in 254 1/3 innings) Claude Osteen (16-18 3.72 ERA in 276 innings) and Rick Wise (17-14 3.11 in 272 1/3 innings) carried the workload with a rotation by committee Tom Timmerman, Lynn McGlothen, Ken Bret and John Curtis carrying the rest of the load. Boston lead the AL with 51 complete games. Nolan did lead the league with a 1.01 WHIP and was top 10 in avg against and was top 10 in ERA but the Bullpen as a whole managed only 24 saves in 35 chances with an aging Joe Horlen demoted to the pen with only a single start managing 8 saves in 10 chances (10th in league) but on the whole the bullpen was unremarkable.

Boston vs Calif head to head.

Series 1:

The Angels visited Boston in May losing two of three. In game one the Redsox gave Jim McAndrew his first loss 5-1 with Hector Torres, Horace Clarke and winner Gary Nolan (3-1) all singling with 2 men on in the 4th to provide all they needed. In game two Tommy John broke an Angels four game losing streak holding Boston to one run while Jerry Moralas’ 2 run shot off of Tom Timmerman did the job with insurance added later and Clay Carroll closing it out. Boston won the series however with a 6-4 win with Clarke and Torres again doing the damage to give Boston the lead in the sixth. Rick Wise pitched a complete game for the win.

Series 2:

The Sox came to California in Junes and Swept the angels away starting with a 9-2 blowout with Six Redsox hitters driving in runs off of Tom Bradly including winning pitcher Claude Osteen. Game 2 was closer as the Angels bailed out Tommy John with 2 out in the 9th to tie the game but the Sox started the top of the tenth with four straight single to drive in 1 and a two out single by Bud Harrelson driving in two more for the 6-3 final. Game three was a dual between Rick Wise and Clay Kirby but despite a one out Leroy Stanton single in the 9th driving for the 2nd day in a row to narrow it to 4-3 Rick Wise held on to win the duel.

Series 3

For the 2nd Time Tommy John held the Redsox to a single run and Carroll provided the save as the Angles won 3-1 thanks to a Rusty Torrez Home run off of Ken Brett in the 7th but Boston answered back the next day at Fenway with a 5-4 win with doubles by Carlton Fisk and Hector Torrez making the difference. In game 3 Claude Osteen who like his foe Tom Bradly would lose 18 on the season shut out the Angels who would win 2-0 helped by a rare key error by shortstop Dave Conception which put Fisk on first. Yaz singled him to 3rd and Petrocelli fly to the warning track in the August night sent him home.

Series 4

The last visit meeting of teams in September was again good luck for the hard luck Osteen. Tommy John only gave up a single run through seven but John Rooker gave up 3 more in the 8th including a 2 run HR by light hitting Doug Griffin so that when the Halos finally got two off of Osteen in the 9th it wasn’t enough. Game two went worse as three Sox pitchers combined for a shutout meaning that the paltry two runs that Jim McAndrew gave up was enough to cost him the game. Finally the Redsox scored three solo runs in the 1st three innings off of Bradley and added three more to double up California 6-3 despite RBI triples from both Money and Morales which couldn’t overcome homers by Pinson and Petrocelli

Season Series Redsox win 7-2

Boston’s offense clearly give them the advantage as both teams have excellent defense and middling pitching staffs, Boston’s strength in the rotation while California has a shut down closer. The question is can the Angels score enough runs to get to the Sox mediocre bullpen. I think the series will come down to Tommy John and Clay Kirby vs Gary Nolan and Rick Wise. But with the Bats Boston has I can’t see the Halos managing to break through.

My prediction Boston wins series 2-1

Under the Fedora: Jonah Goldberg and the New Rules, Pride Month Savings on Sports, The annual Business ritual, More Utilitarian Candidates, What Bread of Life Discourses?

Posted: June 3, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Trump, business, catholic, culture, election 2024, elections, politics, Sports, under the fedora
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This weekend Jonah Goldberg noted that a lot of people on the right were comparing Trump to Christ and weren’t taking into account the idea that he cheated on his wife with a porn star.

Well there are two things I’d like to say to that. While Jonah is of course free do disagree on the merits of either verdict the fact is we compare Trump to Christ because Trump we believe both were found guilty unjustly, not of sleeping around but of a completely made up bookkeeping felony, so like Christ he was unjustly found guilty. Nobody (with the possible exception of Laura Loomer) on the right compares Trump to Christ’s divinity.

Second while I do in fact find it plausible that a really rich guy decided to bang a porn star and tried to keep it quiet (frankly I’d hate to have my performance in bed judged by a professional) folks like me who under the old rules thought such things should be disqualifying were massively outvoted on said rules so until the left decides to go back to said rules we aren’t either.

We’re in the middle of a baseball season where the Redsox have a great crop of young players and at the end of a basketball season where the Celtics are in the finals with a solid shot of winning and least we forget the Pats have a new 1st round QB and an old Brady era vet to mentor him. All these things are strong temptations to have me pony up for one of various sports packages from NESN to MLB to NBA etc etc etc…

…and then June roles around and all the professional teams go out of their way to remind me that they are not on my side in the culture wars and suddenly radio and hitting a local bar/restaurant to watch a game rather then giving these guys my money becomes an attractive alternative.

My thanks to various leagues for helping me appreciate the joy of free sports.

Oh and the annual ritual of business shoving gay pride down our throats in the west while making it a point to avoid the same in the middle east continues as always, with BMW actually admitting what we all know that it’s all about the risk and reward of the mob.

Of course in a new years the Ghastly Tom Hagan math will catch up with the west and when it does the west will drop their pride campaigns faster than the Democrats dropped Israel

Speaking of a lack of principles there are quite a few GOP candidates who had been pushing their pro-life credentials in the past who suddenly find themselves willing to compromise on life to gain higher office.

Now there are no shortage of Democrats who run as republicans in red states or republican who run as dems in blue states to get power nor is there a shortage in either party of people whose primary principle is to advance their political power. And the reality is that given the number of honest men & women in politics you likely can’t get a majority without these sorts.

So when there is no other choice by all means elect them but keep such folks away from the true levers of party power because people willing to sell out their principles or their God will have little trouble selling you.

Finally episode one of the Chosen is available free and those who expected to see the aftermath of the feeding of the 5000 and the calming of the waters which closed last season might have been shocked to see they went back to Luke Chapter 1 to the Visitation as their lead.

Granted they decided to knock off John the Baptist in episode one but if there is one thing you could always be sure of in any protestant movie about Christ skips the 6th chapter of John once it reaches verse 26 the beginning of the bread to life discourses. The only exception being word for word adaptions of Gospel.

Given that The Chosen is a TV series rather than a movie there would have been more than enough time to include them but as Catholic as Jonathan Roumie is, he does not have creative control so the bread of life discourses had to go.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good episode and I liked the juxtaposition of the Canticle of Zachariah (the Morning Prayer of the Catholic Church) with the scenes of John’s end and the reaction to it but some things never change, and if you were expecting to see The Chosen break that mold you will be mistaken.

Oh and I’d watch it via the youtube live stream because the loading time of the app seems to be very slow likely due to the sheer number of people trying to watch it there.

Massachusetts Side Effects Patriots Edition

Posted: March 15, 2024 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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Well there’s been another round of layoffs and outright dismissals at my company. To my knowledge only one of my bosses and bosses bosses over the last year will be with the company ten days from now but since that doesn’t seem to impress anybody in terms of just how bad things are let me put it another way.

Driving to mass today I was listening to sports radio and they were talking about the various free agent signings in the NFL. When the Patriots had Tom Brady getting free agents was never a problem because the chance of going to a Superbowl was 50-50 every year and at worst it meant that later in life you could say “I played with Tom Brady!” Even with Bill Belichick here there was a slight draw in the idea that you would be playing with one of the greatest tacticians and the one of the top 3 winningest coaches of all time.

But both Brady and Belichick are now gone and now when I turn on the radio I hear about the competitive disadvantage that the Patriots have in signing free agents. There are quite a few locations that don’t have a state income tax which means that you have to offer a minimum of 5-6% more as a baseline just to be even with the other guy, but with the Millionaire’s surtax added on suddenly the price of a good free agent goes up so much that another team can outbid you without even trying.

It’s not just the business people who flee, it’s the people who don’t bother to come in the first place.

But hey as always we get the government we deserve. Good and Hard.

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