1994 Summer Tournament Reaches World Series (Replay Zone – July 2013)

THE REPLAY ZONE – JULY 2013
 
By Jeff Polman
 
July ruminations from your trusty Strat-O-Matic replay addict. Check out my current 1938 replay blog at Dear Hank.
 
 
1994 Summer Tournament Reaches World Series!
 
After 77 games, the World Series contestants for my Best of ’94 Summer Tournament are finally set. The 12-2 juggernaut Montreal Expos, “managed” by Dave Kaufman will face the 12-4 Chicago White Sox, managed by mystery man “Joe C.” in the World Series, which will open at Tabletop Olympic Stadium this weekend. If you’re a member of the Strat Fan Forum you can follow all of the action at this link.
 
Here’s the directory of ’94 absentee managers, followed by capsule results of the first three rounds:
 
ORIOLES: Anthony Giacobbe (New York, NY)
ROYALS: Timothy Barry (Tampa, FL)

RED SOX: Darin Orenstein (Northridge, CA)
WHITE SOX: Joe C. (Chicago, IL)

TWINS: Michael Bates (Madison, WI)
YANKEES: Kevin Graham (Scranton, PA)

BLUE JAYS: Louis Tavalare (Lyndhurst, NJ)
INDIANS: Norman Brown (Brampton, Ontario)

PHILLIES: Bill Miller (Greenville, SC)
EXPOS: Dave Kaufman (Montreal, Quebec)

DODGERS: Paul Dylan (Poulsbo, WA)
ASTROS: Eric Westrom (Boise, ID)

GIANTS: Mike VanDerGoore (Pittsboro, IN)
BRAVES: Charles Tripp (Norton, OH)

METS: Rich Gapinski (Northeast Ohio)
REDS: William Daughtry (Union, NJ)

 
 
FIRST ROUND (home teams in CAPS)
 
Twins 5-10-0, YANKEES 4-6-1
YANKEES 7-16-1, Twins 1-4-0
TWINS 19-23-0, Yankees 3-8-2
Yankees 9-10-0, TWINS 0-9-0
Yankees 9-14-1, TWINS 3-9-0
YANKEES 4-11-1, Twins 1-6-1
Back-and-forth poundings, the series ultimately won with Yankees’ better starting pitching by Jimmy Key and Melido Perez, and far more extra base hits.
  
WHITE SOX 2-7-0, Red Sox 1-6-1
WHITE SOX 2-7-0, Red Sox 1-6-0
White Sox 6-8-0, RED SOX 0-4-2
White Sox 3-7-0, RED SOX 1-7-0
Talk about a near-whitewashing. Boston scores only three runs in the four-game sweep.
 
INDIANS 6-11-2, Blue Jays 4-7-2
Blue Jays 9-14-1, INDIANS 1-6-0
Indians 5-10-0, BLUE JAYS 1-6-0
BLUE JAYS 4-8-0, Indians 2-6-1
Indians 10-14-0, BLUE JAYS 0-3-1
Blue Jays 3-5-0, INDIANS 1-8-1
Blue Jays 5-7-1, INDIANS 3-7-3
Similar to the Twins/Yankees series: tons of hitting and virtually no starting pitching. Baerga and Thome homer in the Game Seven showdown, but Tribe makes three errors to cost them the game and series.
 
ORIOLES 3-6-1, Royals 2-6-1
Royals 9-12-0, ORIOLES 3-9-0
ROYALS 3-6-0, Orioles 1-9-3
ROYALS 4-12-0, Orioles 2-11-0 (10 inn.)
ROYALS 5-14-2, Orioles 4-9-1 (12 inn.)
Hard-fought, tight battles, with Orioles failing numerous times to cash runs in the last two extra inning games. Gary Gaetti and Mike MacFarlane with constant late clutch hits to help K.C. pull it out.
 
Mets 8-12-0, REDS 5-8-2
Mets 8-9-0, REDS 5-8-2
Reds 3-6-0, METS 2-8-0
Reds 7-12-0, METS 6-11-0
Reds 9-12-0, METS 6-9-0
REDS 4-13-0, Mets 3-9-1 (15 inn.)
Mets give the Reds more than they bargained for, and take series to an excruciating 15 innings in Game Six before Jacob Brumfield’s single wins it for Cincy. Ace Jose Rijo very ineffective in both of his starts.
 
PHILLIES 6-14-2, Expos 5-15-1 (13 inn.)
EXPOS 5-5-0, Phillies 3-8-2
Expos 6-11-1, PHILLIES 4-6-0
Expos 6-12-1, PHILLIES 2-10-2
Expos 5-11-1, PHILLIES 2-5-1
After a tough opening loss, Montreal runs the table on the Phils, but not without some drama. Mike Lansing’s bottom of the 9th walk-off homer gives them a comeback win in Game Two that gets them rolling.
 
ASTROS 5-11-0, Dodgers 2-5-2
Dodgers 4-13-1, ASTROS 3-5-0
Astros 6-10-0, DODGERS 3-7-1
DODGERS 6-7-0, Astros 5-11-0 (11 inn.)
DODGERS 6-6-0, Astros 4-7-1
Dodgers 8-15-0, ASTROS 6-6-1
Another great series, featuring six close games and a beauty of a Game Four, won on a Brett Butler walk-off homer against Todd Jones in the 11th inning.
 
Giants 3-4-1, BRAVES 1-7-1
BRAVES 3-12-0, Giants 1-7-1
GIANTS 3-6-2, Braves 2-11-1
Braves 6-9-1, GIANTS 0-4-0
GIANTS 5-8-1, Braves 3-5-2
Giants 7-9-1, BRAVES 5-8-1
Major upset. Bonds and Matt Williams do very little mashing, but Todd Benzinger is unstoppable for some reason, the Braves power hitters are helpless against John Burkett and William Van Landingham, and the Giants shock Atlanta in six games.
 
 
SECOND ROUND
 
YANKEES 7-10-1, Blue Jays 4-7-0
Blue Jays 28-29-0, YANKEES 4-10-1
Yankees 6-15-0, BLUE JAYS 5-10-0
BLUE JAYS 1-5-1, Yankees 0-5-0
Yankees 9-9-1, BLUE JAYS 7-8-0
YANKEES 8-9-0, Blue Jays 6-11-0
Yankees have similar issues they had with the Twins (i.e., stopping them from scoring) but prevail in six games despite 28 Toronto runs in Game Two and 11 Jay homers all told.
 
WHITE SOX 1-4-1, Royals 0-5-0
WHITE SOX 9-11-0, Royals 6-11-0 (11 inn.)
White Sox 8-11-0, ROYALS 1-6-1
ROYALS 5-11-0, White Sox 3-4-0
White Sox 7-13-3, ROYALS 4-8-1
More very fine Chicago pitching wins this in five, as K.C. loses the late inning clutch magic they enjoyed against the Birds. Tim Raines homers in the 8th inning of the finale to nail down the series win.
 
EXPOS 11-13-0, Giants 2-4-1
Giants 3-6-0, EXPOS 1-3-0
Expos 9-15-2, GIANTS 6-8-0
Expos 3-11-0, GIANTS 1-6-2
Expos 6-12-0, GIANTS 4-8-0
It’s a Moises Alou party! He goes 10-for-23 in the series (.435) with four homers, a double, two triples and ten RBIs. Bonds goes 1-for 13 in the first four games, then drives in all Giant runs in the finale with two homers, but it’s too little, too late.
 
REDS 2-6-0, Dodgers 1-5-0
Dodgers 8-14-1, REDS 7-15-1 (13 inn.)
Reds 12-12-1, DODGERS 4-11-2
Reds 5-8-0, DODGERS 1-8-0
Reds 6-16-1, DODGERS 3-7-1
L.A. gives it a valiant try, but Cincy’s versatile bats and deep bench are too much for their pitchers to handle. Game Two is probably the best game of the tournament thus far, with a huge pinch-hit homer for each team (Hernandez and Branson), gripping extra innings, and a game-winning hit in the 13th by the immortal Mitch Webster.
 
 
LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
           
White Sox 4-9-3, YANKEES 3-7-1
YANKEES 4-10-0, White Sox 0-4-0
Yankees 5-12-0, WHITE SOX 3-5-1 (10 inn.)
WHITE SOX 7-12-0, Yankees 4-6-2
Yankees 6-12-1, WHITE SOX 5-17-0
White Sox 5-11-0, YANKEES 3-8-2 (16 inn.)
White Sox 7-12-0, YANKEES 5-12-0
Ron Karkovice, after not being heard from the whole tournament, socks a three-run shot in the 8th off Steve Howe to win Game 7 and give Chicago the pennant! The evenly matched clubs go back and forth with wins until the final showdown, but it’s Game Five that fans will remember. After the Sox tie it up in the 9th with two runs, they go 16 innings, when Bernie Williams doubles in the game-winner. The Yanks then lead Game Six 3-1 when Robin Ventura clubs a 3-run shot off Melido Perez in the 6th to send it to the fateful Game Seven.
 
EXPOS 4-8-2, Reds 2-12-0 (10 inn.)
EXPOS 4-9-1, Reds 1-6-1
Expos 5-10-2, REDS 4-9-1
Expos 7-10-2, REDS 0-2-0
Butch Henry improves to 3-0 with a brilliant two-hit shutout in Game Four to finish off the surprising sweep. Moises stays red-hot, going 7-for-14 with a walk-off extra innings homer to win the opener.
 
So the Pale Hose will battle les Exponents to see which manager wins the $25 Strat gift prize! I’ll be back next month with all the World Series details.