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1970 NLCS Game one of the NLCS was an 8-1 shellacking as Javier homered and drove in 3 runs. Brinkman and Yaz each added 2 RBI. Klages & Lauzerique combined on the one run shut down to take game one in SF. Game two was a tight, 1-0 game between Jenkins & Derrington until we broke it open in the 8th. McCovey, McCarver & Hebner all had RBI hits in the 4 run inning to push our lead to 5-0 and we would hold on to win it 5-2. Jenkins pitched 7 shutout innings. Game three was all set for the sweep following a gem from Tommy John that had us up 2-1 going into the 9th. Bill Champion got roughed up like a lost schoolgirl, as the Giants piled on five 9th inning runs to avert the sweep and win game three by a 6-2 score. In game four we messed Jim Kaat up big time. In a six run 4th inning, Brinkman hit a solo shot, Yaz hit a 2 run shot, and McCarver hit a bases load, 3 run double to spot us to a huge lead that Klages would have no trouble holding. We added 4 more runs in the 8th and despite a rocky 9th from Dennis Musgraves, we won 10-5 and closed out the series, earning ourselves a trip back to the World Series. We'll match up with the Yankees who, for the second straight year, made easy work of the White Sox, dispatching them in four games. This is pretty much the same Yankee team we're used to. Niekro & Ortega are 20 games winners, Dean Chance is their 3rd starter. Dillard smashes another 50 homers this year and Darrell Evans has become a legit force, posting a .306/42/110 line. |
1970 World Series The series opened at Yankee Stadium with a pitching battle between Fergie Jenkins and Phil Niekro that saw the game tied 2-2 after nine innings. In the top of the 10th, with 2 out and nobody on, Brinkman, Hebner and Carew delivered back to back to back singles off of Yankees close Bob Locker to give us a 3-2 lead. Bill Champion would shut the door in the bottom of the inning to give us a 3-2 win in game 1. In game two, Klages & Ortega faced off and this time it was the Yankees getting the better end of a tight contest, winning 3-2 behind 2 RBI's from Don Dillard. In game 3, back in Philly, Ron Hunt would set the pace for the Yankees as his three run homer off of Tommy John in the 2nd inning would give the Yankees a lead they would never relinquish en route to an 8-4 win. Hunt & Darrell Evans would each knock in 3 as Dean Chance was just good enough to hold us at bay and give the Yankees a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 would bring good and bad news for the fightin Phils. The good news, after Don Dillards 2 run homer off of Jenkins in the 1st inning, we would take the Yankees to the woodshed, exploding for 15 runs, 9 off of Yankee starter Phil Niekro in the first five innings. Mota and Javier would knock in 3 runs each. Brinkman & Hebner collected 3 hits each as we pounded them, 15-3. The bad news is that McCovey has a hip issue and he'll miss the next 3 days. Ooofah. Game 5 was another tight contest between Klages & Ortega, and once again the Yankees would come out on top. Solo homers by Corky Withrow and Tony Perez would help the Yankees to a 3-2 win. We had a big chance in the ninth with Mota on 3rd and 1 out but Javier couldn't get him in, Yaz was HBP and Paul Blair grounded out to end the game. We head back to Yankee Stadium down 3-2 and without McCovey for game 6. Game 6 was all about Dean Chance. Tommy John struggled, allowing 3 runs before being pulled after four innings and Dean Chance never took his foot off the brakes as he cruised to a complete game, 5 hit shutout as the Yankees won 4-0 and claimed the 1970 world title. Bleh. Not much I can say about it, their pitching bested our pitching in the tight games and Tommy John sucked a donkeys ding a ling. Not having McCovey for games 5 & 6 was obviously a huge deal but I can't complain over spilled milk, it is what it is and we done got beat. |
1970 MLB HITTING
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1970 MLB PITCHING
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1970 MLB STANDINGS
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AMERICAN LEAGUE (1970)1970 MLB AWARDS Code:
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* 1970 MLB CAREER MILESTONES * Willie McCovey, Phillies, 400th Home Run Camilo Pascual, Orioles, 3000th Strike Out Ralph Mauriello, White Sox, 300 Wins Frank Robinson, White Sox, 400th Home Run Harmon Killebrew, Braves, 500th Home Run Ralph Terry, White Sox, 250th Win Harvey Kuenn, Orioles, 2500th Hit Jim Bunning, Reds, 4000th Strikeout Neal Hertweck, A's, 2500th Hit Maury Wills, White Sox, 1500th Run |
1970 ACTIVE LEADERBOARD
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1971 Off Season Mota is asking for close to $200K a year. I don't want to do it but I've got to let him walk. Even with the new stadium opening up, we have Al Bumbry ready to play and it just doesn't make sense to invest so much in Mota. It's a big risk letting a perrenial .300 hitter at the top of your lineup walk, but it's one I've got to make. Danny Lazar gets $110K in arbitration. I may try and keep him if we can get that number down in contract talks but we lost over $700K this year and I've got to be careful about how many more seasons I hemorrhage money. I decide that we have the arms in the minors to move Lazar. We ship him to Texas for 24 year old catcher Johnny Oates and 24 year old 1B Roe Skidmore. Both those guys are good, ready to play prospects, not world beaters, but it's a good deal for Lazar. Tim McCarver is in the last year of his deal and he wants about $240K per year, right now I think that's way too rich but I'm not gonna move him, I'll let this season play out and see where we stand financially after a year in the Vet. Dick Simpson hits arbitration next year too so that's more cash we'll have to dole out. Two new additions to the starting staff this year as rookies Mike Caldwell & Don Durham step in. Rick Henninger had a semi decent year last year but both of these guys are better than him so he's headed to AAA. Al Bumbry takes over in Centerfield for the departed Manny Mota against right handers, and for at least this year, Paul Blair will man center against lefties, both me will start the year from the lead off spot but if they're sucking, we'll move em down. Johnny Oates is our new backup catcher, easily the best we've had since Buck Rodgers, and if our money situation doesn't improve he'll probably be taking over next year. So some only 4 changes to our roster but they're fairly big ones, I still think we're probably the class of the East but ya never know. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how our financials shake out. We have $1.1M in the coffers but we're projected to lose almost a million this year, hopefully more seats equals more revenue, we'll see. Let's get this baby shaking. |
1971 Season April- Well that was impressive. We went 23-4 in April. The pitching has been real good, only SP Don Durham is scuffling a bit. Our lineup is mashing it. Bumbry is hitting .403, Simspon is .365/19/29. Good start to the season. May- Wow. 46-10, 12 games up on the Mets. Tommy Johns 3.08 ERA is highest on the staff. We have five guys with over 40 RBI. June- 66-17, 20.5 games up on the Cubs. George Brett went 1st overall in the draft to the Brewers. Keith Hernandez went 2nd to the Astros. July- 83-26, RP Bill Zepp missed a couple of weeks with a strained knee. I want to lock Dick Simpson up long term before he hits arbitration. I agree to a 7 year deal worth $295K per year. It's a big one for sure, but I anticipate him moving into the 4 hole at some point in the next few seasons and he's going to be the cornerstone of the next era so I pretty much had no choice. This pretty much ensures that McCarver and Hebner will be gone after this year as they each want well into the $150K range and that's just too steep. August- 102-33, Don Durham missed a couple weeks with a hand issue. The level of healthy we've been is really a pleasant surprise. Ed Brinkman is having a remarkable year, he has a .296/26/106 line from the seven hole. September- We finish the year 118-44, winning the division by 34 games over the Cubs. We'll rematch the Giants, who bettered the Braves by 8 games, in the NLCS. In the AL, the Yankees won the East by 18 games over the Red Sox and the White Sox won a heated battle in the West by 4 games over the Royals & Rangers and 5 games over the Twins. So the Yankee and White Sox meet for the 3rd straight year in the ALCS. Dick Simpsons 49 homers were 2nd in all of baseball to only Harmon Killebrew and his 129 runs were 3rd. Julian Javiers 197 hits were good for 10th best in the league. The rub is that everyone hit so well and divided up the counting stats that none of them made the leaderboards but we crushed it as a team. I'll take it. Jenkins and Johns 22 wins were tied for 5th in baseball. Jenkins, John & Durham all had 2.59 ERA's to tie for 2nd in baseball. That's spooky. One shitty note heading into the playoffs is that Al Bumbry has a bum ankle and will miss two weeks, so his postseason availability is low. Don't know how I'll handle the lineup with him out. We'll see. Financially we did good. We lost $317K but it was much less than forecast thanks to big crowds all year. Our cash is getting lower though so it's not like I can rejoice and go spend, spend, spend, but that's to worry about later. Right now it's on with the playoffs. |
1971 Phillies Hitting
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1971 NLCS Game 1 was a wilder affair than you would imagine a battle of staff aces Dick Drago and Fergie Jenkins would be. The Giants got things rolling when Jack Hiatt doubled in two runs in the bottom of the 2nd to put the Giants ahead. We send 8 men to the plate in the top of the 3rd and RBI singles by Blair & Simpson, and an RBI groundout by McCovey gave us a 3-2 lead. The lead would be short lived however as Jenkins would again struggle in the 3rd. He loaded the bases and then allowed an run scoring single to Bobby Bonds and another 2 run single to Jack Hiatt as the Giants claimed a 5-3 lead. Things settled down until the 8th when McCovey popped a homer and Ed Brinkman singled in McCarver to tie the game at 5-5. The Giants would again answer back however, as pinch hitter Mike Andrews would smash a two run homer off of reliever Bill Zepp in the bottom of the 8th to give the Giants a 7-5 lead. We had a chance in the ninth, plating a run off of Giants closer Steve Simpson but came up a run short as San Fransisco took game one. Game two was another tight battle and once again the Giants stayed a step ahead most of the way. Fred Klages & Ron Keller matched up in this one that saw the Giants take a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning before we came up with a huge one. RBI singles by Hebner and Carew off of a tired Keller gave us a 3-2 lead that closer Bill Champion would make stand as we stole game two and send the series back to Philly even. We cruised in game 3 back at the Vet as Tommy John needed less than 100 pitches for a complete game win. Backed by homers from Brinkman & Hebner was rolled to a 4-1 win and put the Giants on the brink of elimination. Don Durham got his first postseason start in game four and it was a thing of beauty. He tossed eight shutout innings and Dick Simpson provided all the offense we needed with a 6th inning grand slam as we wrapped up the series with a 5-0 win. One sour note, Bill Champion came in to pitch the ninth and has elbow tendinitis, he'll miss about a week. We will meet the Yankees in the world series yet again, and it's pretty much the same team we've been facing. The Yankees dispatched of the White Sox in the ALCS for the 3rd straight year, this time it was a sweep. Time for us to get some payback. |
1971 World Series Niekro and Jenkins matched up in game one, and after allowing 3 straight hits and 2 runs to open the game, Jenkins was masterful. We rallied in the late innings and Fergie allowed only 1 more hit the rest of the game as we won it 4-2 and won the first world series game ever played at the Vet. We wasted no time getting things going in game two as McCovey hit a two run shot in the bottom of the 1st to put us up. He came up again in the 2nd with the bases loaded and put another one in the seats off of Dean Chance. That was way more than enough as we rolled to a 9-2 win. More bad pitching news as Jim Nyman came in in the 9th to get some work and messed up his hamstring, our lefty specialist is done for the year, bleh. Game 3 saw the christening of a new Mr. October as a tight affair between John & Tiant saw the game tied at 3-3 heading to the bottom of the ninth. Two of the Yankees runs came on solo homers from Darrell Evans. With 2 outs and nobody on, closer Bill Champion faced Evans, and you guessed it, surrendered a game winning homer to give the Yankees life. Dammit. Game 4 was pretty brutal. Don Durhams second postseason start didn't go nearly as well as his first. He allowed an RBI double to Corky Withrow and a 2 run homer to our old friend Johnny Briggs in the 1st inning to give Phil Niekro more than he need. Niekro didn't even allow a hit till the 7th inning en route to a complete game, 2 hit shutout. The Yankees won 5-0 and evened the series up. Game on. Game 5 saw Jenkins take the hill against Dean Chance, and the Yankees continued their momentum early. In the 2nd inning Tony Perez delivered an RBI single and Jake Gibbs popped a two run homer to put us in a precarious spot down 3-0. But if Evans was their hero in game 4, Yaz would be ours today. He delivered an RBI single in the 3rd and a 2 run double in the 5th to tie it. Then in the 6th, Richie Hebner would single in the go ahead run and Jenkins was in lock down mode from then on. In the ninth he allowed a leadoff double to Johnny Briggs but picked him off, struck out Tony Perez and got Darrell Evans to ground out weakly to 2nd, shutting the door on a huge 4-3 win to put us up 3 games to 2 heading back to Philly. In game 6, Klages and Tiant both grooved through 5 scoreless innings. But in the 6th we broke through on an RBI single from Javier, and a 2 run single from McCarver. We added two more in the 7th on RBI hits from Bumbry and Javier. Klages rolled to a complete game, 3 hit shutout as we closed out the Yankees 5-0 and won the series in six games. Sweet. |
1971 MLB HITTING
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1971 MLB PITCHING
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1971 MLB STANDINGS
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* 1971 MLB CAREER MILESTONES * Phil Niekro, Yankees, 250th Win Jim Kaat, Giants, 250th Win Joe Cunningham, Orioles, 3000th Hit Joe Cunningham, Orioles, 1500th Run Bob Gibson, Orioles, 350th Win Bob Gibson, Orioles, 4000th Strikeout Roman Mejias, Cubs, 2500th Hit Julian Javier, Phillies, 2500th Hit Roberto Clemente, Orioles, 3000th Hit Maury Wills, White Sox, 3000th Hit |
1971 ACTIVE LEADERBOARD
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1972 Off Season Richie Hebner gets $140K in arbitration. I break down and give McCarver $176K for 4 years. I just don't want to break this team up. Yaz, Javier, Blair & Nyman are all in the last year of their contracts. Blair & Nyman don't want a ton, but they want more than I think they're worth. We ink Javier to a 4 year deal worth $295K per year, just barely above what he's making now. Just gotta hope he's still producing 4 years from now. We sign Richie Hebner to a 7 year deal at $95K per season. He's producing, albeit from the 8 spot, he's young and he's improving. If he stays the course this is a real good deal. Yaz is another story, I'm going to have to break the bank to keep him, to the tune of close to $500K a season. Oy. I've got Gary Matthews and Greg Luzinski coming up, and if not this year, they'll both be ready by next year. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and let Yaz play out his contract this year and then let him walk. We sell Jerry Nyman to the Expos for $19K. He's pitched well for us, but we have a young lefty named Mike Pazik ready to go as our specialist, he's the only new addition to our pitching staff. We have some really good arms at every level as we've been able to restock our system nicely, so if we run into financial trouble we have the assets to get some cash, hopefully we wont need to do that though. As far as our lineup goes, McCovey is clearly entering the twilight of his career. He's 45 homers shy of 500 and I'd really like to get him there so I'm keeping him in the cleanup spot for now. Al Bumbry will play everyday, I think he's both earned it and can do it. This lineup is pretty deadly, so even if someone struggles, it shouldn't affect us too much. We have a plethora of prospects at AAA that are real close to being ready. Outfielders Gary Matthews & Greg Luzinski and 1B Joe Staton could all probably play well in the majors this year but should all be bonafide by the time next season rolls around. I'm thinking McCoveys time at 1st may be coming to an end sooner than I'd hoped. |
1972 Season April- 22-5, 3.5 games up on the Mets. Hebners .303 is our lowest BA. McCovey has 10 homers, Simpson has 10. Closer Bill Champion has an ERA over 8 but no loses and 4 saves. John & Durham have ERA's over 4 but Jenkins is 1.36 & 6-0. May- Grrrr. An amazing 46-11 record is tempered by the fact that Dick Simpson broke his ankle and will miss 3 month. Lou Piniella will take over in right field and rookie Greg Luzinski is called up. Javier is hitting .354. The pitching is spectacular, Jenkins is 10-1 and Klages is 10-0 June- 66-18, 12.5 games up on the Mets. McCoveys production has dropped off a lot but we're ok. Fergie is 14-2. Andre Dawson goes 1st to the Brewers. Dennis Eckersley 2nd to the Astros. Willie Randolph 3rd to the Pirates. Gary Carter & Ozzie Smith go 4-5 to Montreal and Cleveland. July- We're 83-25, 15.5 games up on a very good Mets team. McCovey missed a couple of weeks with a broken foot. Tim McCarver is out for a month with an Achilles issue. August- 106-29. Willie McCovey hurt his ankle and will miss a couple weeks, we call up rookie 1B Joe Staton to get some starts. We lock Johnny Oates up for 7 years at $24K, a real nice deal. September- Gahh, Julian Javier tweaks his knee and will miss most of September, he should be good for the postseason though. Rob Carew busts up his knee and is out over a month, probably to miss the postseason. Closer Bill Champion breaks his finger and will miss over a month, maybe the postseason. Bill Zepp takes over as closer. Come on already. McCoveys 32 homers puts him 9th best in baseball. Al Bumbry collects 210 hits and scores 137 runs, both top 5 in baseball. Jenkins leads the league in ERA and wins with 1.92 & 25. Mike Caldwell at 2.74, Fred Klages at 2.86 and Tommy John at 2.88 are all top 10 in ERA. Klages 20 wins are good for 10th. We lost another $500K this year but I'm not panicked. We'll play the Giants for the 3rd straight year in the NLCS. They won 109 games and won the West by 15 games over the Dodgers, they're very much the same team we've been facing. We'll be a little short as Rod Carew & Closer Bill Champion are out most of the postseason most likely, but our lineup is in tact for the first time since Simpson broke his ankle almost 4 months ago. In the American League, the 99 win Yankees won the East by 6 games over Boston. They'll take on the Twins, who won an epic AL West race by 1 game over the Rangers, 2 games over the Royals, and 5 games over the Angels and White Sox. The Twins are powered offensively by 3B Graig Nettles and his .320/29/114 line and Jose Tartabull & Felix Millan at the top of the order who combined to score 224 times this year. Insanely, their best starter is Randy Jones who's 4.13/17-11. |
1972 Phillies Hitting
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1972 NLCS We took game one 6-3 on the backs of homers from McCovey & Brinkman. Bumbry had 3 hits from the lead off spot as Jenkins bested Drago to give us one game lead. The bad news is that we lost Tim McCarver to a funky knee for about two weeks. We also lost Julia Javier for a few days with bursitis in his shoulder. I guess he is getting old. We had our chances in game two, but Keller bested Klages in a tight 3-2 victory to send the series back to Philly tied at a game a piece. All 3 Giants runs came off of a 3 run homer from Bobby Bonds. We came from 3-1 down in game four, scoring 3 times in the 6th inning, the big hit being a 2 run, 2 out double from Bert Campaneris. We added a couple of insurance runs in the 8th and Bill Zepp closed it out as Tommy John bested Jim Kaat and we won game three 6-4. Julian Javier is back tomorrow as we try and close it out. Mike Caldwell got the call in game four against Dick Drago and he was more than up to the task as he tossed 8 innings of shutout ball. Every regular but Javier had at least 2 hits. McCovey went 4-5 with a homer and 2 RBI, Bumbry went 3-5 with a homer and 3 RBI and Yaz added a shot of his own as we rolled to an 11-0 win and another trip to the World Series. In a bit of a shocker, after losing game 1 of the ALCS 8-2 to the Yankees, the Twins stormed back to take the next 3 games, including games 3 and 4 at Yankee Stadium. Felix Millan and Graig Nettles each hit .467 in the series and Nettles had 2 homers and 5 RBI in the four games. The Twins are baseballs feel good story this season, and a lot of people are rooting them on to topple the mighty Phillies. I honestly think I can knock this team around but it is the World Series and they're here for a reason, so who knows. |
1972 World Series I have no idea what happened in game 1. We scored two runs in each of the first 3 innings off of Jim Maloney and were cruising with a 6-1 lead behind Fergie Jenkins going into the bottom of the 6th when......they put together 7 straight hits off Fergie, the capper being a 3 run homer from Ossie Blanco to complete a frigging 8 run 6th inning to take a 9-6 lead. We would rally in the ninth but come up short as they took game 1 9-7. I've never seen him get knocked around like that. Bumbry and Brinkman each had 2 RBI for us. Game two was every bit as mystifying. Klages matched up with lefty Jim O'Toole and he just shut us down completely, tossing a complete game shutout to win it 1-0. The only run came on a first inning RBI single from Graig Nettles. We're down 2-0 heading back to Philly and we better get our heads out of our asses. Game three would see Tommy John on the hill trying to right the ship vs Randy Jones, and right the ship he did. John tossed a complete game 5 hitter en route to a 5-0 Phillies win highlited by a 3rd inning Dick Simpson grand slam. Now to keep it rolling. Rod Carew returns tomorrow. Game four was one for the ages as Mike Caldwell battled Jim Maloney. We jumped out in the first inning when Willie McCovey hit a 2 run homer. That lead would hold till the 6th when Mike Adams would a deliver a 2 run, game tying single. It would stay that way until the 14th inning despite both teams having good chances, including us having 1st and 3rd and no out in the 10th and not scoring, and them loading the bases in the 12th and coming away empty. It would finally end with 2 outs in the bottom of the 14th and the bases empty. Al Bumbry would park one into the left field seats for the walk off homer. We win 3-2 and the series is now tied. We also get Tim McCarver back tomorrow. Don Durham was fantastic in relief, tossing 5 shutout innings. To Be Continued...... Game five was a wild affair between Jenkins & O'Toole. The Twins got to our ace again, this time with an Ossie Blanco two run homer in the 1st inning. We cut it to 2-1 in the 6th when RBI's by Tony Oliva and Mike Adams put the Twins up 4-1 and fans in Minny were probably pooping their pants at the thought of coming home up 3-2. RBI hits by Javier, McCovey & Simpson tied the game just like that. In the bottom of the eighth, Brinkman & Bumbry would knock in runs off of O'Toole & Bill Campbell and we carried a 6-4 lead into the 9th inning. Our pen almost gave it up, but with 2 outs, 1 run in, and the bases loaded, Bill Zepp got Tony Oliva to fly out harmlessly to left as we held on to win it 6-5 and head back to Minnesota with a 3 games to 2 lead. As game 6 slowly wore away, so did the hopes of Twins fans. We scored twice in the 2nd inning, thanks in large part to two Errors. Then twice more in the 3rd with a little small ball. We lead 4-1 at that point and Klages would carry us into the ninth before leaving with 1 out. Pazik and Zepp would each record an out and we win game six 4-1 and clinch the World Series. The home crowd gave their team a standing ovation after we left the field, how sweet. |
1972 MLB HITTING
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1972 MLB PITCHING
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* 1972 MLB CAREER MILESTONES * Sandy Koufax, Indians, 4000th Strikeout Don Dillard, Yankees, 500th Home Run Fergie Jenkins, Phillies, 250th Win Luis Tiant, Yankees, 250th Win Jim Maloney, Twins, 3000th Strikeout Harmon Killebrew, 600th Home Run Juan Marichal, Rangers, 250th Win Joe Cunningham, Roberto Clemente & Maury Wills are all in the All-Time top 10 in hits. Harmon Killebrew is just 106 homers away from Babe Ruths record. |
1972 MLB STANDINGS
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1972 ACTIVE LEADERBOARD
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1973 Off Season Yaz, to be quite frank, was being a major cock in renegotiations. We kept agreeing to his demands and he kept asking for more. We finally got fed up and walked away from the table. Eff him. We let Paul Blair walk Closer, Bill Champion gets $80K in arbitration. I'm actually ok with that. We sell off 3 decent prospects, pitchers Randy Tate, Ed Plank and Greg Terlecky to the Brewers for $265K. Not ready to hand him 1B and having no place to put him, we send 1B Joe Staton to the Yankees for a couple of good, low level prospects in 19 year old RP Tom Hausman and 21 year old 2B Jorge Ortega. We extend backup SS Bert Campaneris at 6 years for $40K per season and closer Bill Champion for 5 years at $70K per. Middle reliever Dennis Musgraves wants much more than I think he's worth but I'm going to keep him this year and let him play out his contract. The big news is that we extend Tommy John for 6 season at $430K per season. It's a lot of money, but when we let Yaz walk I had to use that money to lock John up long term. Our pitching staff stays exactly the same, and I expect more of the same dominance. We are loaded with young arms in AAA. If anyone falters or gets injured we have at least 6 guys all just about ready. Gary Matthews joins the lineup in LF and he'll bat 2nd. Greg Luzinski joins the bench. We shouldn't have any trouble scoring runs again this year. We have a solid group of veterans at AAA and while our everyday prospects aren't quite as good as our pitching prospects we do have some good youth at the lower levels. With Tommy Johns deal we're way over budget this year. We have about $800K in cash and we're projected to lose $1.2M this year so that wouldn't be good. On the bright side we've beat projections our first two years in the Vet so hopefully we do this year too. If we do run into the trouble during the season I can always sell off a prospect or two. So ok then, let's get the ball rolling on 1973. |
1973 Season April- Well how about this, that Mets team looks to be aiming for us. We go 21-6 but are a game behind the Mets. The Mets are helmed by a strong starting staff of Don Sutton, Doyle Alexander and Mike Flanagan. On offense they're powered by youngsters Jose Cruz and Al Oliver and veteran power hitter Bill Roman. I don't expect them to hang with us all year, but it's nice to see some competition. We lost closer Bill Champion for two weeks with a sprained back. May- Hmmm, we finish May 42-12 and we're 3.5 games back. The Mets are an amazing 47-10. Dick Simpson and Tim McCarver are really struggling, both hitting under .235 though Simpson does have 12 homers. Gary Matthews is playing fine and Julian Javier is hitting .342. Mike Caldwells 4.75 ERA is a concern. We lost SP Don Durham for a few weeks with a broken foot. Heralded prospect Eric Reich took his place. On May 31st, at home against the Expos, Willie McCovey hit his 500th home run. June- We finish June 61-20 and STILL 3.5 games behind the Mets. We suffer a big loss when Julian Javier hurts his hip and will miss between 6-8 weeks. Rod Carew takes over at 2B. When Don Durham returns he takes Mike Caldwells rotation spot as Eric Raich has proven more than capable of starting. Our pitching has been great but our 4-5-6 hitters have struggled some. Robin Yount went 1st in the amateur draft to the Astros. Jack Morris went 2nd to the Brewers. July- We end the month 77-28, 5 games out. This is getting silly now, that team can't be this good. We actually closed to within half a game of them early in the month but they pulled away some now. Klages, John & Jenkins have the top 3 ERA's in baseball. Setup man Bill Zepp breaks his toe mid month and missed a couple of weeks. Willie McCovey sprained his finger near the end of the month and will miss a couple of weeks. Grrr. Dick Simpson moves to 1B and Lou Piniella takes over in RF. August- We end August 99-35, on a 10 game winning streak, and just half a game behind the Mets, this is clearly going down to the wire. McCovey and Javier return just as Piniella tweaks his knee and misses a few weeks. September- On September 15th we're a half game up. On the 22nd we're a half game back and Al Bumbry has effed his ankle up and is out for 3 weeks, garhhrh. Matthews moves to center and Piniella will play left. On September 27th we're 118-41 and a game behind the Mets. Our final 3 games are against the 49-110 Expos while they play the 86-73 Dodgers. We lost the 1st game of our series but so did they. We each won the 2nd game and on the final day of the season, Fergie Jenkins and Mike Pazik combine to throw 10 innings of shutout ball and an Ed Brinkman solo homer in the 10th inning gives us a 1-0 win in Montreal. At the same time, the Dodgers beat the Mets 6-2. So after 162 games it still isn't decided, we'll play the Mets tomorrow to decide the winner of the NL East. Jesus. Tommy John will match up with 24 game winner Reggie Cleveland in the one game playoff at Shea Stadium. We would score first in the top of the 3rd on a Lou Piniella RBI single, it was all downhill from there. A two run single from Bill Roman in the bottom of the 3rd would cap a three run inning to give them a 3-1 lead. They would add runs in the 4th and 5th to make it 5-1 and behind a racous home crowd, Reggie Cleveland would only allow a 2 run homer to Ed Brinkman the rest of the way. Their closer, Buddy Harris, shut us down in the ninth and the Mets won the game 6-3 and earned the 1973 National League East title. Super bleh. I'm extremely disappointed, but I'm not overly worried. We are getting older but I can't for the life of me imagine the Mets having another year like this one. I think this is just a situation where everything fell perfect for them. But then again, all I've done all year is underestimate them, and now they're in the playoffs and we're going home, so yeah. I still can't wrap my head around winning 120 games and not making the playoffs. In the divisional era no less. Dick Simpsons 33 homers tied for 6th best in baseball. Simpson with 120 and McCovey with 113 both were top 10 in RBI's. Gary Matthews placed in the top 10 in hits with 200 and runs with 126, Al Bumbrys 115 runs were good for 10th in baseball. Klages with a 1.97 ERA was best in baseball, Raichs 2.26 was 2nd and Johns 2.29 was 3rd. Jenkins 2.59 was 5th. Klages 25 wins tied for 3rd best in baseball and Tommy Johns 23 tied for 5th. One last note, our finances are really bad. We lost close to $700K this year and down to about $100K in cash so we will have to do some selling in the offseason. The Mets will take on the Braves in the NLCS. The Braves had a one game playoff of their own as they were tied with the Giants at 89-73 to end the regular season. The two played an insane 14-10 game at Fulton County Stadium to put the Braves into the playoffs. In the American League, The Yankees went 105-57 and bested the Red Sox by 6 games to win the East, while the West was again a blistering race that the Angels won by going 90-72 and bettering the White Sox by a game and the Rangers by 3 games. In fact the Twins finished in last place, 6 games out of first, that's how crazy that division was. 1973 Phillies Hitting
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1973 ALCS Mel Behney bested Tom Seaver in game one of the ALCS in California as the Yankees won it 5-2. Seaver only went 6 innings and the underdog Angels came up short in a game they really needed to get. Luis Tiant got the better of Catfish Hunter in game two as the Yankees pounded the Angels ace to the tune of 10 runs en route to a 10-2 win and 2-0 series lead. Catcher Lou Berberet homered and knocked in 3 runs and Dave May and Joe Staton each knocked in 2 runs. Game 3 back at Yankee Stadium was another lopsided affair as the Yankees chased Jim Palmer before he could get through the 6th inning, knocking him around for 8 runs as the Yankees went on to win the game 8-3 and complete the series sweep. Joe Staton has 2 more RBI and shortstop Billy Consolo collected 3 hits for the Yankees. |
1973 NLCS Game one of the NLCS in Atlanta saw the Mets chase Braves ace Nolan Ryan after only 4 innings as second basemen Tito Fuentes had 3 hits and 3 RBI in the Mets 6-1 win behind Don Sutton. Game two was a wild, sloppy affair as neither Doyle Alexander or Wenty Ford were very sharp, but the Braves took a 6-5 lead into the ninth and actually had two outs with nobody on before the Mets strung together five straight hits together and scored 3 times off of John Papa to steal and 8-6 win and head back to New York with a 2-0 series lead. The Braves would return the favor in game 3 as the Mets would enter the 9th inning with 4-3 lead but starter Reggie Cleveland couldn't make it stand, as Dave Cash doubled in the tying run to send it to extra innings where Clyde Mashore would homer off of Buddy Harris in the 10th and give the Braves life with a 5-4 win. Sutton and Ryan squared off again in game four, and once again the Mets would get the better end of it. First Baseman Bill Roman and Right Fielder Brian McCall would homer, and Sutton would go the distance in beating Ryan for a 2nd time in the series as the Mets won 4-2 and were on their way to the World Series. |
1973 World Series The Mets would take game one by a 2-0 score as Doyle Alexander hurled a complete game shutout. Luis Tiant would return the favor in game two as the Yankees won 1-0 to even the series as it headed to Shea Stadium. The bats would wake up in game three, and backed by Johnny Briggs two homers and five RBI, the Yankees won it 8-5 to take the series lead. Mel Behney would shut down the Mets in game four and Darell Evans became the first person to ever hit 4 home runs in a single world series game as the Yankees won it 6-0 and were on the cusp of a world title. Game five in the Bronx saw the Mets bats come alive as Jose Cruz belted 2 homers and shoddy Yankee defense led to Tiant being chased early as the Mets won 10-4 and sent the series back to Shea Stadium. Don Sutton put the Mets on his back in game six en route to a 3-1, series evening, victory. Sutton allowed only 3 hits in going the distance and forcing a game seven. Jose Cruz would homer to lead off the bottom of the 1st inning and that was all Doyle Alexander would need in game seven. He tossed a complete game shutout, allowing only two hits as the Mets bested the Yankees 1-0 and completed the comeback from 3-1 down to take the 1973 world title over their cross town rivals in a series that reignited old battle lines in New York sports fandom. |
1973 MLB HITTING
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1973 MLB PITCHING
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1973 MLB STANDINGS
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* 1973 MLB CAREER MILESTONES * Bob Locker, Yankees, 300th Save Frank Robinson, White Sox, 1500th RBI Don Dillard, Yankees, 1500th RBI Harmon Killebrew, Braves, 1500th RBI Harmon Killebrew, Braves, 1500th Run Steve Carlton, Reds, 3000th Strikeout Willie McCovey, Phillies, 500th Home Run Willie McCovey, Phillies, 1500th RBI Claude Osteen, Dodgers, 250th Win Julian Javier, Phillies, 1500th Run Ralph Mauriello, White Sox, 3000th Strikeout Tom Seaver, Angels, 3000th Strikeout |
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I approve this dynasty. Taking away the '45 series appearance, and then having Cubs lose to Sox in your fictional universe, would have been cruel and unusual. |
1974 Off Season Al Bumbry gets $160K in arbitration, ughh. Don Durham gets $189K in arbitration, double ughh. Dennis Musgraves wants about $60K a year to be a middle reliever. Sorry dude, but no. We let him walk. Mike Henninger will take over his short relief role. We've got some guys in the last year of their contracts that we need to work on. McCovey agrees to a 2 year deal worth $260K per, which saves us over $200K, so that's nice. Bleh, Ed Brinkman wants a big raise, from $72K to around $300K. He deserves it, but I just can't afford it. I work him down to a 4 year deal worth $255K per season. I think I'll regret that but whatever. Ed Bumbry agrees to a 7 year deal worth $135K per season. We have two young Starting Pitchers, Eric Raich who finished last year in the rotation and won ROTY, and Currence Lafayette who has the most awesome name ever, so we have to move or find new roles for Don Durham & Mike Caldwell. We send Don Durham to the White Sox for $183K. Mike Caldwell will step in as our new lefty short man and Mike Pazik will move to middle relief. Fred Klages is in his last year and he wants a raise to over $700K. Hate this quandry. I shop him but I don't think I can get near what he's worth. I'd love to resign him but that number would break my books. I guess I'll just let him play out the year. We send two decent pitching prospects, Hank Webb & Roger Weaver, to the Twins for $91K. We send 19 year old, pretty good pitching prospect Hal Dues to The Orioles for $259K. We send 20 year old, decent relief prospect Tom Hausman to the Astros for $146K. We send 21 year old left fielder Steve Henderson to the Tigers for $127K. He's a good prospect, borderline everyday player, we just don't have room for him. I'm starting to see the decline in Dick Simpson. He's 30 years old and owed $295K for the next four seasons. I fear I've got the beta version of Rob Deer on my hands here. I shop him and nobody is biting, oofah. I work out a deal with the Astros in which I'd send Simpson & catcher Jay Kleven to them in exchange for 25 year old pitcher Craig Endres. I need to do it now before it's too late so I pull the trigger. I turn around and ship Endres to Oakland for $69K. Greg Luzinski will get the gig in LF and Matthews will move to RF. This is pretty much a one year thing as youngster Jim Rice is burning through our system and should be ready to take over LF next year. So yeah, our pitching has turned over quite a bit, we have new 4th and 5th starters but I really like them both. Klages is in the last year of a deal and I don't think we'll be able to resign him. Our pen is probably a little weaker but should still be ok. We have a few nearly ready pitching prospects in the minors but the quality and depth has been depleted. Javier and McCovey are getting old, and Luzinski stepping into the 5th hole is a major unknown. I wont hesitate to insert Lou Piniella into LF if Luzinski struggles. I've elected to sit McCovey versus lefties, Luzinski will play 1B and Piniella will play LF. We have some decent prospects in the lower levels and the aforementioned Jim Rice will start the year in AA but it shouldn't be long before we move him up. In any event he's my future superstar that I see the next generation being built around. Our finances still aren't in great shape even though our payroll has come down some and we've added a lot of money. Most of the gains we made this off season will be gone through by the time the seasons over so we'll see where we're at then. One things for sure, i'm less sure of this team than any team I've had in a long while, but the starting pitching should still be great, and that's what wins, so on with the 1974! |
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Trying to see who the new sad sack franchises are. Cardinals, Indians, Pirates & Browns/Royals haven't won diddly in 30 years. Tigers have 1 pennant and the Reds have 1 title. |
Years since they last won anything. Cardinals 43, Pirates 27, Indians 20 and the Browns/Royals franchise NEVER won a pennant, a title or a raffle. Jeepers.
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1974 Season April- We finish April 18-9 and tied with the Mets, just 2 games ahead of the Cubs. Fred Klages has struggled some, as has the back end of our bullpen. The heart of my order has been heartless. Javier is .267, McCovey is .231 and Luzinski is .206. They have another month to right the ship or I'm going to have to mix things up. May- A not so great May leaves us 34-22 and 3.5 games out. Tim McCarver broke his foot in the middle of the month and missed two weeks. Eric Raich has been bad and Fred Klages has been worse. I move Klages to the back of the rotation to try and work things out and call up rookie Mike Krukow to take his spot in the rotation. I don't want to do it but I've got to send McCovey to the bench. He's hitting .223 with 3 homers, bleh. I call up rookie LF Jim Rice and insert him into the cleanup spot, Luzinski moves to 1B. I also promote 3B Richie Hebner into the 3 spot. He's paid his dues at the bottom of the order and he's a great hitter. Julian Javier moves down to the 6 spot. June- Well now. We crushed it in June, going 24-3 on the month to put us 58-25 with a 5.5 game lead on the Mets. Jim Rice is struggling but we're gonna stick with him, everyone around him is hitting nicely though. Matthews and Bumbry at the top of the order are like rocks for us. They each own an OBP over .400. The pitching was much improved as well. Krukow owns a 2.73 ERA, Raich and Lafayette are not pitching as well as I want them too but Jenkins and John are a combined 26-4. Paul Molitor went 1st overall to the Brewers. Eddie Murray went 4th to Baltimore. Lance Parish 7th to the Cubs, Dale Murphy 9th to the Padres. July- We're 76-33 and have an 8 game lead on the Mets. Tommy John hurt his shoulder mid month and will miss about 4-5 weeks. That's a blow. We don't have any real options so we move Klages back into the rotation. Jim Rice has really turned it on and our lineup is looking deadly again. August- We end the month 92-43, 5 games ahead of the Mets who refuse to go away. Julian Javier got his 3000th hit on August 4th at home against the Pirates. Fergie Jenkins won his 300th game on August 14th at home against the Mets. Tommy John was back for a stretch before he hurt his wrist and will be out another 3-4 weeks. September- We finish the year 112-50 and win the division by 11 games over the Mets. I knew it was a fluke. Some bad news, Ed Brinkman broke his hip in early September and is likely done for the rest of the year. Bert Campaneris has taken over at short. Gary Matthews was 2nd in baseball with 217 hits, coming one short of Al Gallaghers 218 for the Mets. Matthews 120 runs was good for 10th. Al Bumbry with 210 hits and 129 runs scored was top 10 in both those categories. Mike Krukows 2.03 ERA was best in baseball, Johns 2.44 was 2nd and Jenkins 2.88 was 6th. Jenkins 23 wins was good for 3rd best in baseball. Richie Hebner was perfect in the 3 hole, his line was .309/27/114 while Rice hit .303/14/64 in his shortened season. We'll play the 97-65 Braves in the NLCS. They'll be without Harmon Killebrew for the series as he has a bum knee at the moment. I think we're better than them but Nolan Ryan is a stud and any short series with him involved is dangerous. In the AL, the Yankees won the East with a 104-58 record, besting the Red Sox by 5 games. They'll take on the White Sox who won the West with a 98-64 record, bettering the Twins by 5 games. |
1974 Phillies Hitting
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1974 Batting Team G AVG AB H 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS R RBI SLG OBP1974 Phillies Pitching Code:
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1974 MLB HITTING
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1974 MLB PITCHING
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* 1974 MLB CAREER MILESTONES * Graig Nettles, Twins, 400th Home Run Nolan Ryan, Braves, 3000th Strikeout Jim Kaat, Twins, 300th Win Vada Pinson, Dodgers, 2500th Hit Fergie Jenkins, Phillies, 3000th Strikeout Fergie Jenkins, Phillies, 300th Win Julian Javier, Phillies, 3000th Hit Maury Wills, White Sox, 3500th Hit Willie McCovey, Phillies, 1500th Run Don Clendonon, Orioles, 2500th Hit Bob Gibson, Orioles, 400th Win |
Cardinals being a pile of suck? This universe is amazing.
Enjoyable read. Would be interested hearing who your first round pick is each year in addition to the top couple of selections. |
At some point I'll sit down and go through the picks and how they did. Just looking through it right now and it seems if you never made the majors, mogul removes you at some point, so some picks aren't showing up. Eh.
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1974 NLCS Jenkins & Ryan matched up in game one and the Braves would break open a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 4th with 4 runs on RBI hits from Joe Torre, Bobby Pfeil & Nolan Ryan. Ryan would go 8 innings, giving up a 5-3 lead to close John Papa in the 9th. We would load the bases in the 9th but Luzinski flied out to left to end the game and give the Braves a 5-3 win and a 1-0 series lead. In game two, the Braves would go up 4-1 after 5 innings before we came back with 2 runs in the 6th. Jerry Patterson would hold us there through 8 and once again in the 9th we would threaten off of John Papa, putting runners at the corners with 1 out before Rod Carew hit into a double play to end the game. They win 4-3 and lead the series 2-0. Our backs are against the wall as we head back to Philly. Mike Krukow & Wenty Ford matched up in game 3 and the Braves stayed hot by scoring in the first two innings to take a 2-1 lead. That score would hold till the 7th when they would chase Krukow and add 5 more runs of the next few innings off of our pen and win game 3 by a 7-2 score to complete the sweep. Well that sucked. What can I say, we lose a couple close games and that was that, another disappointing finish to our season. |
1974 ALCS The White Sox would get revenge for numerous ALCS losses to the Yankees by sweeping New York in 3 close games. In game one the White Sox would come from 4-3 down in the bottom of the ninth before scoring off of vaunted Yankees closer Bob Locker. The Sox would go on to win it in 16 innings on a walk off homer from George Hendrick. In game two, Jose Cardenal and Maury Wills would score a combined 4 times as Ron Guidry outdid Rick Reuschle to give the Sox a 7-5 win and a 2 game lead. In game 3, at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees would take a 5-3 lead into the 8th inning before the Sox would tie it on a 2 run homer from George Hendrick and go ahead on an RBI single by Bob Bailey. Enrique Rome & Vern Handrahan would close out the last two frames and the Sox completed the sweep. |
1974 World Series The White Sox would dispatch of the Braves in 5 games to win the 74' series. They would win game 1 on a Jose Cardenal two run shot in the eighth to break a 5-5 tie and win it 7-5. Game 2 was a slugfest 14-10 win for Chicago. Costen Shockley had 2 homers and 6 RBI and Byron Browne would homer and drive in 3 runs. Game 3 in Atlanta saw Don Durham pitch a gem for the Sox as he bested Wenty Ford en route to a 3-1 Chicago win and a 3-0 series lead. In game 4, the Braves took advantage of 4 1st inning walks off of Tom Griffin to grab a 3-0 lead and Nolan Ryan would make it stand as the Braves staved off elimination with a 3-2 win. Ron Guidry would take the hill for the White Sox in game 5 and he tossed a complete game, edging out Jerry Robertson and the Braves by a 3-2 score and taking the 1974 title. Costen Shockley & George Hendrick combined for 3 homers and 11 RBI in the series. |
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