Great Moments in Strat – March 2013

GREAT MOMENTS IN STRAT
 
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Sixes and Sevens (and a record-smashing Nine)
 
         A pretty good day for the HOF Mickey Mantle in the Lucky Seven League (whose teams consist of Strat-O-Matic’s special HOF 2010, Baseball Heroes and Negro League players). Mantle collected 9 RBIs. His 4th Homerun was a Grand Slam. This is the 4th time I’ve had a 4 Homerun game. The others are ’61 Orlando Cepeda, ’87 George Bell, HOF Hank Aaron (in this project).
            Since Mantle drove in all of his teams runs I thought it was worth a look. According to the Sporting News Complete Baseball Record Book through the 1999 season the most RBIs in a game where a player accounted for all his teams runs was 8. George Kelley June 14th, 1924 and Bob Johnson June 12th, 1938. Baseball Almanac did not have that record listed.

         I believe Mantle may have broken a real MLB record.
Brian "Nitrous Oxide" Thompson
 
[Editor’s Note: As others who read Brian’s post on the stratfanforum noted, it’s appropriate that Mantle, who wore number 7, stars in the Lucky Seven League. Fewer know that Mantle’s first jersey number with the Yankees was 6. And, in this case, his four home runs all came off “Big Six” – Christy Mathewson.]
 
BOXSCORE: 1001 Omaha Royals At 1001 San Antonio Missions             9/2/2011
Mickey Mantle 4 Homeruns with a Grand Slam
 
 Royals             AB R H RBI AVG     Missions           AB R H RBI AVG
 G.Brett 3B          5 1 1 0 .296         R.Alomar 2B       4 0 2 0 .291 
 M.Carey CF        4 2 0 0 .252         D.Parker LF         3 1 0 0 .267 
 M.Mantle LF        4 4 4 9 .242         R.Palmeiro 1B     4 0 0 0 .234 
 L.Gehrig 1B        3 0 0 0 .268         J.Dimaggio CF     4 0 2 0 .227 
B-D.Mattingly 1B  0 0 0 0 .276         M.Ott RF            3 0 0 0 .236 
 J.Canseco RF       4 0 1 0 .246        T.Glaus 3B          3 0 0 1 .173 
 B.Dickey C         4 0 0 0 .315        C.Ripken SS         4 0 1 0 .230 
 L.Boudreau SS     4 0 0 0 .281        I.Rodriguez C       3 0 0 0 .250 
 S.Hughes 2B       4 1 2 0 .210        C.Mathewson P     2 0 2 0 .156 
 B.Singer P           2 1 0 0 .149        E.Rixey P            0 0 0 0 .000 
                                              A-C.Taylor PH         1 0 0 0 .316 
                                               C.Cummings P        0 0 0 0 .000 
                          — — — —                                     — — — —     
           Totals      34 9 8 9                       Totals      31 1 7 1
 
A-Pinch Hit For Rixey In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (1B) For Gehrig In 9th Inning
 
Royals………. 2 0 0 1 0 2 4 0 0 – 9 8 0
Missions…….. 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 7 2
 
Royals (72-68)           IP       H   R ER BB SO HR    ERA SCORESHEET
B.Singer WIN(14-7)    9       7   1   1   3   4   0       3.47 A1
Totals                      9       7   1   1   3   4   0
 
Missions (61-80)                    IP      H   R ER BB SO HR   ERA SCORESHEET
C.Mathewson LOSS(17-11)   6 2/3     6   9   8   2   3   4   3.28  A1 D3
E.Rixey                              0 1/3    0   0   0   0   0   0   6.99  D4 D4
C.Cummings                         2       2   0   0   0   0   0   3.40  D5
Totals                                  9       8   9   8   2   3   4
 
ATTENDANCE- 9,055 DATE- Friday, September 2nd 2011 TIME- Day
T- 1:41
LEFT ON BASE- Royals: 2 Missions: 6
DOUBLE PLAYS- Royals: 2  Missions: 2
ERRORS- T.Glaus, C.Ripken
HOME RUNS- M.Mantle-4(27th)
SACRIFICE HITS- B.Singer-2
WALKS- M.Carey, L.Gehrig, D.Parker, M.Ott, T.Glaus
STRIKE OUTS- G.Brett, L.Boudreau, S.Hughes, R.Alomar, T.Glaus, C.Ripken,
             I.Rodriguez
GIDP- J.Canseco, L.Boudreau, D.Parker
2-out RBI- M.Mantle-4
RLISP 2-out- C.Ripken-2, M.Carey-2
 
 
Mighty Joe in Strat Replicates Real Life
 
            I have experienced two no-hitters in my many years of rolling those bones, but NEVER a 4-home run game by one slugger – that is till the mighty Joe Adcock, the pride of Coushatta, Louisiana did it for the 1961 Milwaukee Braves at Comiskey Park versus the ‘61 White Sox of Chicago.
 
            “Billy Joe” Adcock was a right-handed horse at 6’4” and 210 hit 336 home runs with a .277 lifetime BA in a 17-year career mostly at first base. Joe Adcock was an outstanding basketball player and attended LSU in Baton Rouge on a hoops scholarship. In 1945-46, Joe led the SEC with a 18.6 ppg, paving the way for a kid 20 some odd years later named ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich! Adcock had never played baseball but decided to try out for LSU team, where he was scouted by the Cincinnati Reds who signed him NOT to play professional basketball. Joe’s best years were with the Milwaukee Braves (1953-62). Adcock is one of only three men to hit home runs into the Polo Grounds bleachers (H. Aaron and L. Brock also did it) and the ONLY man to hit a ball over the left field stands in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn! If Stan Musial was "The Man" in NYC what the heck did they call Mighty Joe? On 7/31/54 Joe Adcock hit 4 home runs in one game at Ebbets Field!
 
            Well, Strat replicates real life again. Playing good ole basic cards and dice, Adcock hit home runs off Early Wynn (2), Don Larsen, and Turk Lown in a 6-3 win by the Braves. Adcock pounded 4 homers in a row and missed a 5th at bat in the top of the 9th only because Henry Aaron struck out for out three of that inning. Joe Adcock – now there was a mountain of a man with that lumber in his hands.
                                                                                              Scott Acton, Hackettstown NJ
                                                                                       
 
Bombers Away
 
            Last night the 2012 Yankees belted 5 home runs in a row off Colby Lewis against Texas at Yankee Stadium. In all my years playing this game I have never seen that happen before.
 
 
Steve Jason
 
 
A Game and Series to Remember
 
            It was game five of a seven game series in the second round of the 2012 Delcal playoffs and Sheboygan, my team, was down three games to one to the mighty Zanesville Zeppelins. The Zeps finished with a league best 121 wins while Sheboygan finished with 85.  
 
            Zanesville opened the scoring in game five with a run in the top of the first on a Curtis Granderson home run. The Zeps had 322 during the season. The Indians responded with single runs in the 1st and 2nd on a Jeff Francoeur force play and a Derek Lee Sac Fly to take a 2-1 lead. Zeppelin Jim Thome tied the score at two with an RBI double in the 4th.  From that point neither team scored until the 15th.
 
            In the 15th after the first two Zanesville batters made out Ramon Castro singled and Dustin Pedroia doubled him home as Castro slid under the tag of Lou Marson. Zanesville led 3-2.  In the bottom of the 15th Sheboygan’s leadoff hitter Matt Joyce lined out. Mark Reynolds, who hit .154 for the series, followed with a singled.  Ben Zobrist, who hit .172 for the series, followed that with his only home run of the series and won the game 4-3. Amazing!
But, what was even more amazing is Sheboygan won game six 7-2 scoring 4 in the 8th and one in the 9th and won game seven 7-4 building a 5-0 lead and holding on to take the series.
Sheboygan advanced to the league championship round but lost 4 games to two to Damascus.
 
Mike Martin, Sheboygan, WI
Commissioner of the Delcal League