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Post by wildfire on Jun 22, 2011 8:01:11 GMT -4
Hopefully, my game will arrive today... I decided to go with a new Strat game with the HOF set over the Chikara set... I haven't played Strat since high school, so I'm pretty excited. I'm gonna do an 8 team league with a 30 game schedule (assuming it amuses me).... kinda like Havoc did, putting guys on the team they 'belong' on, with the pre-1900 and Negro league players filling in to make the positiions work. The Teams: East: NY Yankees Boston Brave Sox (Braves and Red Sox) Brooklyn Robins (Giants and Dodgers) Washington Senators (Washington/Baltimore/Minnesota) West: Pennsylvania Pirates (Philles/Pirates/A's guys from that era) Ohio Gamblers (Indians/Reds... probably the weakest team) St. Louis Browns (Tigers/St.Louis/A's from the KC/Oakland Era) Chicago Cub Sox (Cubs/White Sox) The teams split up interestingly... the Yankees and Brave Sox both have killer offense, but lousy pitching... or at least thin pitching. The Yankees interestingly had no real 3rd baseman... had to give them 'Home Run' Baker (he wouldn't play on the Philles team anyway) and Rizzuto at SS doesn't thrill me... so they're not perfect. I'm planning on using Ruth as the closer, I thought it would be amusing to do so.. we'll see how it works out. St. Louis should be pretty fun wit Ty Cobb and Lou Brock on the same team, while the Brooklyn will have Duke Snider and Willie Mays together, which is also very cool. St. Louis doesn't have alot of home run power, but could be pretty good in a dead ball sorta way. Boston has a log jam in the outfield/1st base spot, but no real Center Fielder (Aaron will probably play Center, as he did early in his career) I gave Ohio a few good Negro league guys, but I'm not sure that's gonna do it... funny how two teams that have been around from the beginning can have such a thin team... but maybe I'll be surprised. I might tweak a bit when I actually go through the cards, but probably not too much.. I'm pretty excited to play
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Post by wildfire on Jun 22, 2011 23:03:58 GMT -4
Got my stuff.. very cool. I couple 'old timer' comments: Love the stadium photo on the board.. I assume it's meant to be 'collectable' that way. I would have perhaps been asked what team I wanted (Pittsburgh wouldn't have been my pick) but it's very cool. Game looks the same as the one my dad had from the 80s.... the big change (and it's a great one) is a 20 sided die instead of a card deck with 1-20 on them.... I used to use one anyway (those little red cards were terrible), but it was nice to see they figured that out. My only disappointment was the super advanced charts are still on paper and not cardboard, but that's minor. They even give you elastics for the teams after you punch the cards. I made a change to my set up.. I but the Tigers with the Ohio Teams, and put all the A's guys with the Cardinals/Browns... seems to be more balanced that way. My 1st two games: New York 4, Brooklyn 1 WP: T.Seaver (1-0) LP: C. Mathewson (0-1) HR: Gehrig (1) Pretty much a pitchers duel. The Yankees scored 1st in the 2nd on a ground out by Yogi Berra.. set up by a one out Double by Roger Connor. The big momentum play was in the top of the 3rd when the Babe cut down Willie Mays to turn a sac fly into a double play (rolled a 20) after Mays tripled with 1 out. The Robins tied it in the 6th on a 2-out double by Snider, then a single by Mel Ott... Ott couldn't give them the lead in the 7th when he left guys on 2nd and 3rd. The game winner was a 3-run homer by Gehrig in the bottom of the 8th. New York 7, Brooklyn 5 WP: J.Chesbro (1-0) LP: J. Marichal (0-1) SV: Ruth (1) HRs: Snider (1), Ruth (1), Mantle (1) Dimaggio (1) Pretty wild one! It looked like it would be a Yankee romp early, with 3 runs in the 1st (Ruth's homer) then another in the 3rd after Marichal beaned the Babe (payback for the homer?) and Mantle doubled him in. The Robins eeked out a run in the 5th, but a 2 run Homer by Mantle in the 5th knocked Marichal out of the game. Chesbro seemed to wear down, and after an RBI single in the 6th by Roy Campanella, Duke Snider hit the Earl Weaver Special to make it 7-5. The benches nearly cleared when Ruth moved to the mound in the 8th and beaned Campanella in the forearm, forcing him to leave the game. With 2 on an no one out, Bill Terry grounded into a double play and killed the rally... allowing the Yankees to hang on for the win. Lots of good stats in this one... Mantle went 3 - 4 with 2 doubles and a homer, and Dimaggio added 3 hits (one a homer). In the losing effort, Jackie Robinson went 4 - 4, but somehow didn't score a run. Sandy Koufax in relief mowed the Yanks down, with 5 Ks in 3 innings and only 1 hit, a DiMaggio homer. Really fun games... I'm pleased I took the plunge to buy it
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Post by wildfire on Jun 24, 2011 20:19:55 GMT -4
A little payback for Brooklyn in Game 3:
Brooklyn 14, New York 2 WP: C.Hubbell (1-0) LP: W. Ford (0-1) HR: W. Mays (1), M. Ott (1), W. McCovey (1) M. Mantle (2)
Brooklyn chased Ford out of the game by batting around with 6 runs in the 2nd and never looked back.. they pounded out 19 hits all together... 4 for McCovey, 3 each for Zack Wheat and Bill Terry.
Hubbell Didn't have a great outing, giving up the 2 runs and 10 huts, but he didn't need to be any better.
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Post by wildfire on Jun 25, 2011 23:44:38 GMT -4
Game 1: Washington 6, Boston 5 (11 innings) WP: L. Gomez (1-0) LP: D. Eckersley (0-1) HR: J. Cronin (1), B.Leonard (1)
Wild game that kept going back and forth. Washington scored 2 in the first on a Double by Kirby Puckett, then Cronin's 3 run shot gave Boston the lead.
Washington tied it in the 4th, Boston took the lead in the 6th, then Washington tied it in the 7th.
The 8th was big.. the Senators scored to take the lead, and had 1st and 3rd with 1 out when Brooks Robinson grounded into a double play. Buck Leonard's solo homer sent the game to extra innings, where Tony Gwynn doubled in Robinson to win it.
Boston 7, Washington 6 WP: W. Spahn (1-0) LP: J.Palmer (0-1) SV: J.Clarkson (1) HR: T. Williams (1)
Spahn was great through 4, but an unearned run in the 5th seemed to break his momentum, barely escaped the 6th with only 1 run and hanging on to the 3-2 lead.
A 4 run 8th, keyed by a dropped fly ball by Frank Robinson made it seem as though the game was in the bag, but Spah ran out of gas, and nearly blew the 7-2 lead.
Frank Robinson and Kirby Puckett had 3 hits each for Washington... while 8 of 9 starters for Boston had hits.
Boston 13, Washington 5 WP: P.Niekro (1-0) LP: N. Ryan (0-1) HR: H.Aaron (1), J.Cronin (2), F. Robinson (1)
A comedy of errors for Washington, with 2 fielding errors, 2 passed balls, a wild pitch, and two men caught stealing. Ryan was amazing at times, but struggled with control, striking out 8 but walking 4 before leaving after 5 innings and giving up 7 Runs... 3 on Buck Leonard bases loaded double and 2 more when a throwing error by Ryan himself scored 1 run and set up two others.
Phil Niekro struggled, but didn't need to be that effective... he went the distance despite giving up 14 hits and 5 runs in a medicore outing.
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Post by wildfire on Jun 29, 2011 23:55:15 GMT -4
Detroit 3, Chicago 1 WP: B. Feller (1-0) LP: T. Brown (0-1) HR: A.Kaline (1), H. Greenberg (1), L. Boudreau (1)
The Cub Sox jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st when Hack Wilson knocked in Cap Anson, but that was all they could do against Feller, who scattered 9 hits.
Three Finger Brown had great stuff, but got victimized by the long ball.
Detroit 5, Chicago 4 WP: B.Lemon (1-0) LP: E. Walsh (0-1)
Chicago again jumped out to a lead... this time 2-0 on a Billy Williams 2-run double. The Tigers clawed their way back when Walsh's control deserted him in the middle innings, then took the lead on a Lou Boudreau single in the 8th. Bob Lemon retired the last 9 in order to get the complete game win.
Chicago 9, Detroit 3 WP: F.Jenkins (1-0) LP: H.Newhouser (0-1)
Ty Cobb stole a run in the first, stealing 2nd and 3rd after a lead off single, but the Cub Sox came roaring back behind Ryne Sandberg.
Sandberg nearly won this game by himself, with 6 RBIS. Some interesting stat things... Cap Anson had 3 doubles (hit just ahead of Sandberg), giving him an amazing 5 for the series. The bottom two hitters in the Cub Sox order, C. Torriente and Luke Appling, combined to go 1-4 with 6 runs scored, which was neat.
The Tigers had both Joe Morgan and George Kell get hurt in the series, so they'll be pretty shaky in the in field for the next 2 games.
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Post by wildfire on Jul 4, 2011 0:57:33 GMT -4
Pennsylvania 6, St. Louis 2 WP: S.Carlton (1-0) LP: B. Gibson (0-1) HR: W. Stargell (1), R.Jackson (1)
The Pirates jumped all over Gibson for 4 runs in the 1st Inning and never looked back. S. Carlton Struck out 7 for the complete game victory.
St. Louis 7. Pennsylvania 5 WP: S.Paige (1-0) LP: R.Roberts (0-1) HR: R.Hornsby (1), S. Musial (1), W. Wells (1)
Satch started the game with 6 shut out innings, striked out 7, but his control deserted him in the 7th, walking the bases loaded and allowing 3 runs on singles by Nap Lajoie and Billy Hamilton. Luckily, 3 Homers had given the Browns a 6-0 lead by then. The Pirates rallied in the 9th, scoring 2 and leaving the bases loaded before Schmidt struck out to end the game.
St. Louis 9, Pennslyvania 8 (12 Innings) WP: D.Dean (1-0) LP: L. Grove (0-1) HR: W. Stargell (2), R. Jackson (2)
No one really wanted to win this one. St. Louis went into the 9th with a 6-3 lead.. but Hunter couldn't finish the game. Rollie Fingers came in for the save, but failed.. giving up a double, single, then a 2-Run Homer to Willie Stargell to give the Pirates a 8-6 lead.
In the bottom of the 9th, George Sisler reached on Catches Interference... Rick Farrell doubled, then Ricky Henderson Tied the game as Adie Joss couldn't nail things down.
Neither team was able to follow up a rally in the 10th or 11th... Reggie Jackson blasted one over the Right Field fence with 2 out in the 12th to win it.
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Post by wildfire on Oct 17, 2011 17:45:18 GMT -4
Thought I'd do a mid season report: East: NY Yankees 11-4 Brooklyn Robins 9-6 Boston Brave Sox 8-7 Washington Senators 4-11 West Detroit Tigers 9-6 St. Louis Browns 9-6 Chiago Cub Sox 7-8 Pennsylvania Pirates 3-12 Top Hitters: C.Anson (chi) .424, 8 Doubles J.Gibson (Pen) .414 5 HR 15 RBI W.Boggs (Bos) .396 (.532 OBP) 2 HR 12 RBI J.Dimaggio (NY) .377 8 HR 16 RBI 19 Runs B.Ruth (NY) .310 9 HR 22 RBI 19 Runs H.Aaron (Bos) .349 5 HR 19 RBI M.Mantle (NY) .298 7 HR 18 RBI J.Rogan (Det) .417 (in only 10 games) 5 HR 15 RBI SLG 1.111, 1 Win and 2 SVs pitching Top Pitchers: S.Paige(St.L) 4-0 2.51 ERA 28 Ks P.Niekro (Bos) 4-0 3.31 ERA 3 CGs J.Bunning (Det) 3-1 3.19 ERA 2 CG 1 SHO B.Feller (Det) 3-1 2.15 ERA (leads League) Memorable Moments: Willie Mays and Josh Gibson have both had 3 Homer games... both lost Nolan Ryan had one of the strangest starts ever.. 5 inning, 10 strikes 10 walks, 2 hits (both solo homers) Lefty Gomez cleaned it up for him and got a 4 inning save in a 5-3 win. Joe Rogan had an amazing coming out party... he plays everywhere, so I was kinda using him as a utliity man, only had 3 at bats... until the 3rd series of the season against St. Louis. He had game winning hits in 2 of the 3 games... saved both said games, and went 9-13 with 2 doubles a triple, 2 homers and 9 RBIs.. crazy Main reasin the Cub Sox stink: Ernie Banks and Andre Dawson have combined to hit .115 (10-87) with 3 HRs and 7 RBIs... Banks is only playing still as the back up 3rd baseman because the starter, Judy Johnson, has made 6 errors in 9 games. D.Snider was having a similar year (3-34 at one point) but came back due to a Willie Mays injury to go 9 for his last 17. The offense (as Havoc said ) is a bit high, and there's not a whole lot of coaching to do in this style of teams, but it's really been a blast. I really think simplying a bit (I'm not using ballpark stuff) and the 20 sided die in place of those damn little red cards have really made the game awesome.
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Post by tyguy on Oct 17, 2011 21:02:03 GMT -4
You must be doing something wrong since the Pirates aren't winning, LOL. Good update.
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Post by wildfire on Oct 18, 2011 12:05:13 GMT -4
Heh... they've had really bad pitching.
Steve Carlton (whose actually won 2 of those 3) has a 6.41 ERA, Robin Roberts 5.40, and Eddie Plank 7.36. Maybe is more of the Pirates Pitchers in their heyday were in the HoF they'd be doin' better... I'd certainly give Bob Friend a start.. heck even John Candelaria couldn't be that much worse.
Offense wise, Gibson is carrying them. Mike Schmidt has been lousy (.125, no HRs before I benched him for Pie Traynor)... as has Wagner (.233) I didn't expect them to have a whole lot of power (all the good Pirates are from the dead ball Era)... and they just can't seem to get key hits.
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