I played SOM football, hockey and baseball growing up and decided to purchase a baseball game with a slew of old-timer teams as a Christmas present to myself. I came up with the idea to play a ‘best of the ‘60’s tournament’ with a double knockout format with teams being seeded by w-l record. WHAT A BLAST!

 

            Thirty games with 16 teams – not a grueling schedule but plenty of drama with the format. The ‘60 Pirates made it all the way to the semi’s where the defeated the ‘68 Tigers by a 4-1 margin to gain entry into the final. The ‘68 Tigers then went into the loser’s bracket where they hammered the ‘62 Dodgers by a 9-3 margin to earn a rematch against the Pirates.

 

            In the final, the Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 4th with a 3-run bomb by Willie Horton off of Bob Friend. The Pirates answer when Don Hoak hits a three-run homer off of Mickey Lolich in the sixth to tie it. Then Norm Cash’s solo HR in the top of the eighth off of Roy Face gives the Tigers a 4-3 lead but the Pirates continue to battle. Don McMahon surrenders a two-out solo shot by Dick Stuart that ties the game in the bottom of the eighth at 4! The drama continues in the 9th when Horton’s second homer of the game gives the Tigers a 5-4 lead! With a rematch looming on the horizon, the Tigers send in Daryl Patterson to finish it off. The bottom of the 9th sees Patterson retire Mazeroski and Smith before pinch-hitter Rocky Nelson delivers a two-out single. Bill Virdon then steps up and rolls a 4-10 on Patterson’s card which is HR 1-2, flyball rf B 3-20.

 

            THE ROLL IS A 2!

 

            Pirates win the game 6-5 and go 5-0 in the tournament!!!

 

Tourney all-star team:

C Burgess, PIT 6/15 RBI

1B Cash, DET 7/22 3 HR 10 RBI

2B Johnson, BAL, 8/17 3 RBI

SS Wills, LA 6/25, 7 SB’s

3B Hoak, PIT 4/18 1 HR, 6 RBI

OF Mantle, NYY, 7/15, 3 HR, 6 RBI

OF Clemente, PIT 10/20 zero hr’s or rbi but 6 runs

OF Horton, Det, 8/15 4 HR, 8 RBI

P Koufax, LA 2-0, 16.3 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 26 K, 5 BB

 

The road…

#2 PIT 5, ‘68 Cards 3

#13 PIT 4, ‘61 Yankees 2

#21 PIT 8, ‘62 Dodgers 3

#27 PIT 4, ‘68 Tigers 1

#30 PIT 6, ‘68 Tigers 5

           

 

 

            Mike “King Tut” Tuttle of Westboro, Mass., a 39-year Strat-playing veteran, reports a perfect game by lefty Geoff Zahn in a 1978 draft league. The lineup Zahn stifled included Jim Rice, Bob Watson, Dave Collins and Al Cowens. The win made Zahn 16-5 for the season.

 

 

 

            I just completed a bizarre computer football game. I played the 2007 Arizona Cardinals against the newly released Franchise All time Great Cardinals. It was a blow out with the 2007 Cardinals winning by the lopsided score of 49-7. Breaston ran back three kicks for TDs in the game. Two for 74 yards and the other for 89 yards. This is a Strat first for me. Kurt Warner also threw three TD passes.

 

Note: Bob Winberry of Strat-O-Matic has explained that the Franchice All Time Greats are not designed for play against standard Strat-O-Matic sets. In order to make a product that was playable on a meaningful level, the All Time Greats were normalized for play against each other, and ratings were adjusted to be framed within the context of the product. For example, a player who on defense might be a “6” when compared to the entire 1979 NFL pool of players might be a “4” when compared against a pool of All Time Greats. This allows for a wide variety of strategy choices when playing the game, and it also provides for separation of the hall-of-fame type player from the very good player. But it also means that it is not realistic to pit the All Time Greats against standard Strat-O-Matic seasonal cards.