1981 FLOP Thread

[kaosfere]

In the bottom of the 11th, the Parasites send up José Muñóz to take the game home and put TC back on top of the series.

Christian Donogan leads off with a long 9-pitch battle before blooping past the thirdbaseman for a leadoff single. He's followed by Phil Wells, who takes the first pitch for a strike, waiting for the right one. Second pitch is a ball Third pitch is... GONE. Wells answers with a two-run homer of his own!

Lufkin is still behind 5-4, though. The fans are celebrating, but still know the situation. They need one more run.

TC's manager has seen enough, and pulls Muñóz. Replacing him is Miguel González. He is greeted by Don Reeves, who works a full count for a walk.
Victor Riós, who has mysteriously not been pulled for a pinch hitter, lays down a successful sac bunt, and González advances to second, then to third on a Kelly McCann ground out.

Man on third, two out, Eduardo Cortéz comes to the plate, fouls two off... and then pops a single and González scores! Unbelievable. The Linemen pulled a three-run rally of their own to tie the game back up!

The fans are going so nuts, they don't see Kevin Caulfield fly out to end the inning.

The game goes into the 12th, tied 5-5!

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Ick. This is to go up 3-2 for TC, right?

Yes, sir, it is. 5 games to win.

[kaosfere]

For the top of the 12th, Riós is finally pulled and replaced with Santiago Rivas. He and González both clamp down and the game becomes an incredibly tense pitchers' duel. The 12th goes down 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Ramon López leads off with a single in the top of the 13th, but three quick outs follow. Salvador Silva again tests Rivas in the top of the 14th by forcing a two-out walk... but the very next batter hits into a fielder's choice.

Bottom of the 14th? 1-2-3.
Top of the 15th? 1-2-3.
A two-out single in the bottom of the 15th goes nowhere, and we head into the 16th inning still tied 5-5.

[kaosfere]

Rivas still on the mound in the top of the 16th. It starts out like the several innings before with a quick ground out and fly out.

Tasan apparently choses this moment as the one in which Rivas has had enough, and brings in powerhouse Miguel Costales to close out the game.

The first thing he does? Intentionally walk Mitch Sanders. This is not all altogether terrible idea, as Sanders has 30 homers and a .867 OPS to his name this year. He is, however, a baserunning threat, and when Gregory Patterson grounds a single into right field, Sanders makes it all the way to third.

Salvador Silva's up. He's batting only .241 with 141 strikeouts this year, so Costales decides to go after him. The first pitch squeaks by for a ball, then, all at once, thousand of Lufkin hearts break, as Silva takes one deep, and drives in the third homer with men on base in extras.

Costales is yanked to a chorus of boos, and Claudio Ruíz comes out to close out the inning in three pitches.

González takes the mound once more in the bottom of the 16th, but he's facing the bottom of Lufkin's order, and they can get nothing going. Ground out, fly out, strike out, and the remarkable game ends, with Traverse City winning 8-5, and taking the series lead 3-2.

[kaosfere]

Traverse City 6, Lufkin 2
The Bugs put up a picket fence in this one, pushing a man across in each of 6 innings. The Linemen get swept out of Lufkin once again, and now trail the series 4-2. Traverse City can clinch at home.

[kaosfere]

Lufkin 2, Traverse City 4
The game is scoreless through five. Tony Flores gives Lufkin the first score with a solo homer in the top of the 6th, but John Cornett gives up two singles followed by another three-run homer, and Lufkin are crushed from that point on.

Lufkin put up a solid fight, but Traverse City had the extra oomph when it counted, and they win the FLOP World Series Main Event 5 games to 2.

[kaosfere]

******************************************************************************
*                    FLOP World Series of Baseball, 1981                     *
******************************************************************************

 1 Lufkin
 -----------------+
                  | 1 Lufkin
                  +-----------------+
 8 South Hill     |                 |
 -----------------+                 |
                                    | 1 Lufkin
                                    +-----------------+
 4 Tupelo                           |                 |
 -----------------+                 |                 |
                  | 4 Tupelo        |                 |
                  +-----------------+                 |
 5 Harwinton      |                                   |
 -----------------+                                   |
                                                      | 3 Traverse City
                                                      +-----------------+
 3 Traverse City                                      |
 -----------------+                                   |
                  | 3 Traverse City                   |
                  +-----------------+                 |
 6 Fortuna        |                 |                 |
 -----------------+                 |                 |
                                    | 3 Traverse City |
                                    +-----------------+
 2 Bozeman                          |
 -----------------+                 |
                  | 7 Tombstone     |
                  +-----------------+
 7 Tombstone      |
 -----------------+

[Young Drachma]

Boo...stupid AI.

[kaosfere]

Thursday, September 24th, 1981: FLOP Honors Outstanding Fielders
Good defense can be the difference between taking the championship and coming in second. The FOOL League of Offseason Play announced its top defenders at each position today. Here are the Golden Glove winners for 1981:


Pitcher: Domingo Trevino (Traverse City Parasites)
Catcher: Jim Hoffman (Tombstone Outlaws)
First Baseman: Gregory Patterson (Traverse City Parasites)
Second Baseman: Clarence Dotson (Tombstone Outlaws)
Third Baseman: Paul Parkinson (South Hill Anglers)
Shortstop: Gabriel Rodríguez (Tombstone Outlaws)
Left Fielder: Pedro Hernández (Tupelo Moonshiners)
Center Fielder: Neil Bancroft (Harwinton Hurlers)
Right Fielder: Garrett Sentner (Tombstone Outlaws)

[kaosfere]

Friday, September 25th, 1981: FOOL League of Offseason Play Selects Top Rookie
It was a good debut season for Gilberto Sestiaga as he dumbfounded FOOL League of Offseason Play batters to capture the Rookie of the Year for 1981.

He racked up a 8-8 record to rank as the league's standout rookie. The Tupelo hurler tossed 182.2 innings this season with 137 strikeouts and 52 walks as he compiled a 3.10 ERA. Teams got to him for 161 base hits as he held them to a .238 batting average.

[kaosfere]

Saturday, September 26th, 1981: Linemen Ace, Pitcher of the Year Winner
He's in the early phase of his career, but this past season Eric Reed performed like a veteran on the hill for the Lufkin Linemen and walked away with the FOOL League of Offseason Play Pitcher of the Year in the process.

The 24-year-old Linemen star fashioned a 17-2 won-loss record in 1981 with a 2.56 ERA. In 158.1 innings of work and 25 starts, Reed struck out 192 while giving up 126 hits and 22 walks. He held opposing batters to a .215 average.

[kaosfere]

Sunday, September 27th, 1981: 1981 Top Batter Picked
Hurlers third baseman Keith Brown was at the top of the heap in the FOOL League of Offseason Play this season and today he nabbed the Silver Slugger.

In 1981 he rang up 137 hits, 30 doubles, 4 triples, 34 home runs, 97 RBIs and 81 runs scored. All those numbers helped him to build his .305 batting average and .384 on-base percentage.

[kaosfere]

Ok, file's uploaded! Extension deadline is FOOL Classic time tomorrow night.

[Young Drachma]

Thanks kaos.

[Tasan]

Wow, nice. Stupid computer.

Another year, another top pitcher. Thats 3 for my team, with no repeats I believe. I just wish we could finish this thing off more often, 2nd is such a tease.

[kaosfere]

Extensions processed, FA file is up!

[Tasan]

FLOP?

[kaosfere]

FLOP!

[kaosfere]

Friday, October 30th, 1981
Lufkin Linemen: Signed free agent 1B K. Floyd to a 2-year contract worth a total of $3,108,000.
Tombstone Outlaws: Signed free agent CF P. Hedrick to a 2-year contract worth a total of $2,500,000.
Thursday, October 29th, 1981
Tupelo Moonshiners: Signed free agent MR A. Rojas to a 1-year contract worth a total of $83,000.
Tupelo Moonshiners: Placed MR A. Rojas on the active roster.
Tupelo Moonshiners: Signed free agent SP J. Hendrickson to a 3-year contract worth a total of $1,074,000.
Tupelo Moonshiners: Placed SP J. Hendrickson on the active roster.
Saturday, October 17th, 1981
South Hill Anglers: Signed free agent MR G. Pennington to a 2-year contract worth a total of $140,000.
Harwinton Hurlers: Signed free agent MR J. Martin to a 1-year contract worth a total of $2,139,000.
Saturday, October 10th, 1981
Harwinton Hurlers: Signed SP E. Rush to a 2-year contract extension worth a total of $122,000.
Harwinton Hurlers: Signed MR E. O'Brian to a 2-year contract extension worth a total of $970,000.

[kaosfere]

The rest is all AI moves. Stupid AI! PReparing the file now.

[kaosfere]

And... file's up! Be ready for Saturday!

[Tasan]

Well that sucked.

[kaosfere]

I'm concerned about the AI sucking up good FAs, and the general fact that half the league is artificial. I'm still not sure what to do about this. The idea of each of us running two teams is amusing, but I don't know if it's practicable. I think part of the problem is that the humans have only a very narrow window to make roster changes, whereas the AI have the whole window from the opening of FA to the start of the season when I turn it off.

Perhaps I could give the AI teams only a few weeks to perform their transactions? Does anyone think that could help?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

I'm concerned about the AI sucking up good FAs, and the general fact that half the league is artificial. I'm still not sure what to do about this. The idea of each of us running two teams is amusing, but I don't know if it's practicable. I think part of the problem is that the humans have only a very narrow window to make roster changes, whereas the AI have the whole window from the opening of FA to the start of the season when I turn it off.

Perhaps I could give the AI teams only a few weeks to perform their transactions? Does anyone think that could help?

That is what is done in FOOL. the AI teams only have a day or two at the start of each sim to make moves and then they are disabled from making moves

[Tasan]

Yeah what he said -----------^


Oh. Yeah, make sure you turn off AI moves like 3 days into free agency. If I'm not mistaken, its what Alan does in FOOL to limit AI moves. Each sim for FA, you turn it on for a couple of days so they can get some offers in, then turn it off again.

[kaosfere]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. That is exactly what I'll do for the next season.

(AI roster moves are off except during the FA sim)