Saturday, June 29, 2024

RIP Orlando Cepeda - his debut pushes back Gerrit Cole vs 1914 Boston Braves

 


RIP Orlando Cepeda. It looks like our next Statis-Pro game will feature the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals, who will start Bob Gibson with his 1.12 ERA and then the No. 4 Starter Steve Carlton.

We had planned on our next game being Gerrit Cole and the 2022 Yankees against the 1914 Boston Braves and MVP Johnny Evers - the MVP that year with one home run and 31 sacrifice bunts :-). Evers was part of the Chicago Cubs famous double play combo until coming to Boston to deliver a world series sweep. New York Giant fans moaned in this poem about the three turning would be singles into double plays in a "Tinker to Evers to Chance" poem:

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,*
Making a Giant hit into a double-(play)-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance

We will play them because of the passing of the great Orlando Cepeda. Here is his card in the year the pitchers were so dominant that MLB then lowered the mound.

Ten years before this season when no one could hit in the entire league, he keas the league with 38 doubles as a rookie, then a few years later led the league with 46 homers. He twice led the league in being hit by pitch (14 and 12) and this season was hit 9 times.

 
Line-up      St. Louis 1968
LFLou Brock*
3BMike Shannon
CFCurt Flood
RFRoger Maris*
1BOrlando Cepeda
2BJulian Javier
CTim McCarver*
DH-benDal Maxvill
SSDick Schofield#
 Pitcher bats 1968
  
gm1Bob Gibson
gm2Steve Carlton

Friday, June 28, 2024

2-Game Box Score 1986 Mets vs 1998 Yankees

I am actually on a silent retreat Friday through Sunday so scheduled this blog for while I am gone and not playing any games. As mentioned in my previous blog, on Thursday the 1998 Yankees rallies late again, overcoming Sid Fernandez typical 6 innings of shutout dominance (I swear through six innings you always thought he would throw the Mets first no-hitter) with five hits in the 7th and 8th inning capped by a Paul O'Neill 2-run homer for the sweep.

Here is the line-score and box for both games.

On correction to yesterday's blog - the long drive at the end by Darryl Strawberry was caught by Tim Raines rather than Paul O'Neill. He came in as a pinch runner and stayed in right field.
 
Game 1                              123 456 78910 RHE
NY Yankees 1998000 000 0021 3130
NY Mets 1986200 000 0000 280
                 
Game 2123 456 789  RHE
NY Mets 1986100 100 000  270
NY Yankees 1998000 000 13x  470

The OPS for players is for the season they actually played, and the pitcher's OPS is actually the OPS for all pitchers batting that season. The Yankees hit .282 for the series while holding the Mets to .208, though the Mets had the only two homers. The box appears below a picture of the scoresheet.




Pos       NY Yankees 1998            OPS       ABRHRBIOther
SSDerek Jeter0.8648030 
LFDarryl Strawberry*0.8969000 
ph-dhChili Davis#0.8194010 
CFBernie Williams#0.9979240 
RFPaul O'Neill*0.88261122-run HR
3BScott Brosius0.8439130 
1BJorge Posada#0.8248011 
CJoe Girardi0.7036021 
2BChuck Knoblauch0.7657131gw-3b
PPitcher at bat0.3701010 
pr-rfTim Raines#0.7781000F9 final out
1BTino Martinez*0.8602111 
ph-prChad Curtis0.7141100sb
 Yankees total 7172060.282
        
PosNY Mets 1986OPS     
LFMookie Wilson#0.7759130 
CFLenny Dykstra*0.82291102b
1BKeith Hernandez*0.8599010 
RFDarryl Strawberry*0.8657122HR
dhKevin Mitchell0.8114111HR
3bRay Knight0.7758030 
CGary Carter0.77680202b
SSRafael Santana0.53960202b
2BWally Backman#0.7618000 
PPitcher at bat0.3482000 
phDanny Heep*0.7991000 
2BTim Teufel0.6930000 
LFLee Mazzilli# (+4) RN0.8481000 
prHoward Johnson#0.7870000 
LFGeorge Foster0.7180000 
 Mets total 7241530.208

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Strawberry Deep Drive off Rivera Ends 10th Inning ... Developing

Update! For the second game in a row the 1998 Yankees just rallied in their last at bat - with the 1986 Mets wasting a dominant 6 inning performance by Sid Fernandez. The game-winner was a 2-run homer by Paul O'Neill to give the Yankees a 4-2 win and 2-game series sweep.

 The New York clash did not disappoint.

Orlando Hernandez gave up a 2-run homer in the 1st inning to a 24-year-old Darryl Strawberry and then settled into shutout innings against Dwight Gooden to result in a Mets 2-0 lead going into the 9th inning. 

The Yankees had 9 hits off Gooden in 7 innings, but he struck out 10, was helped by two outfield assists at home plate, and most important in the first inning allowed the bases loaded he induced a ground back to the mound to end the inning with a 1-2-3 double play.

Jesse Orosco almost had the two inning save, but Chuck Knoblauch's RBI Hit and Run Triple was the key in the top of the 9th to force extra innings. After the Yankees scored in the top of the 9th to make it 3-2, but then the Mets had runners on 2nd and 3rd - with the speedy Mookie Wilson on 2nd with the potential walk off game winning run. 

However, Jorge Posada made two clutch defensive plays to keep the score 3-2, and he was only in the game because he moved from 1st base to catcher until a pinch runner came in for Joe Girardi. The game then ended with a deep drive for Strawberry that was caught in right field by Paul O'Neill to wrap the 3-2 Yankees win.





1998 NY Yankees Batters
Derek Jeter
Darryl Strawberry*
Bernie Williams#
Paul O'Neill*
Scott Brosius
Jorge Posada#
Joe Girardi
Chuck Knoblauch
Pitcher bats 1998
Chili Davis#
Tino Martinez*
Tim Raines#
Luis Sojo
Yankees Pitchers
Orlando Hernandez
Graeme Lloyd
Jeff Nelson
Mariano Rivera
 
1986 NY Mets Batters
Mookie Wilson#
Lenny Dykstra*
Keith Hernandez*
Darryl Strawberry*
Ray Knight
Gary Carter
Rafael Santana
Wally Backman#
Pitcher bats 1986
Lee Mazzilli# (+4) RN
Kevin Mitchell
Danny Heep*
Howard Johnson#
Mets Batters
Dwight Gooden
Jesse Orosco
Roger McDowell
Rick Anderson

Strawberry & Last Super Team (1998 Yankees) Face Strawberry and 1986 Mets

With the current day New York Mets taking sweeping a 2-game series from the New York Yankees, we put their exciting 1986 duo of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden up against the last truly Super Team - the New York Yankees of 1998. As you pull up the 60 great teams, you will see that Strawberry was even better when he played for the 1998 Yankees (.896 OPS, 18-25 home runs) than when he was with the 1986 Mets (.865, 24-27 HR).  

Below these cards you will see the explanation of the 12 Super Teams and 10 Great teams in the game - and not the adjusted Cht field which allows a few more hits for a Super Team Player based on some final calibrations (e.g. 88/86 means against lefties an 88 is turned into a single with runners advancing two based, and against a righty any 86-88 is the same - and these adjustments occur on the batter's card as well as the opposing pitcher's card.




No 21st century team has repeated the World Series title, since the New York Yankees won the last three titles of the 20th century with this 1998 team followed by champions in 1999 and 2000.

Skip this paragraph unless you are a stat geek - We set up a simple grading system to rank the teams in our all-time great Statis-Pro game. We took their winning percentage, added .020 for per consecutive World Series titles, and finally added the following based on their World Series (+.100 for 4-gaem sweep, +.090 for 4-3 win, +0.080 for 4-2, +.070 for 4-3 win, +0.050 for 3-4 loss, +0.040 for 2-4, +0.030 for 1-4, and +0.020 for making World Series but being swept.We have 12 teams we ranked as "Super" for scoring .775 or higher, 10 teams as "Great" for scoring .735 or higher, 53 as "Very Good," and then 5 teams were not that good but were included to one of the greatest teams of all time in the game.

The 16 teams in our Boston-New York Division are by far the toughest with an overall .757 and five of the 12 super teams:

Division           Super   Great  Very good  Player  Rating    Super Teams                                            
1. Boston-NY54700.757NYY 1927, 1939,1961,1998, NYG 1905
2. East321010.691PhA 1910, 1929, Pit 1909
3. Midwest211210.686ChC 1907, StlL 1942
4. West021310.652None
5. South211120.645Cin 1975, Bal 1970

The East and Midwest as the second strongest, virtually tied with the East bragging two Philadelphia A's teams and a Pirates team, and the Midwest bragging a Super Cubs and Cardinals team.

The West and South were much weaker than the other three, though the South did boast the two Super teams from the 1970s with the 1970 Orioles and 1975 Reds.

We made a slight adjustment in the Cht right/left platoon adjustments throughout the sheet, and keep in mind those numbers adjust both the batter and pitcher card 11-88 result.

The 1998 Yankees and 1986 Mets will be our next game, then we will play one more Boston-NY Division game before moving onto another division.  Here are the links to the starting batting line-up for each team.

Links to players in both starting line-ups.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Updated Instructions for Statis-Pro Baseball

Click here for links to the 60 all-time great Statis-Pro baseball teams. Each team has simplified rules listed under the players, so you can play a game you need nothing more than to print two teams, and get two 6-sided dice and two 8-sided dice of different colors. 

In addition to updating the sheets of players for the 60 all-time great teams, we added full game instructions on this google sheet.  The first sheet now contains all the batters for the 60 great teams, the second sheet contains all the pitchers, the third sheet has the instructions and the fourth and final sheet has the results of our games among the 60 great teams to date.

For those of you who don't use google sheet, the instruction page is pasted below. These instructions provide the option of playing with dice if you do not have Fast Action Cards and/or Out charts.

On very important note regarding Cht - This is the one number that impacts both the pitcher and batter card during an at bat. So if a batter has "12" that means an 11-12 becomes a strikeout on either card, etc. Meanwhile an 86 would mean any 86-88 becomes a single with runners advancing two based on either card.




If noone on base, score as a fly out to centerfield. 

If 20-sided die comes up with men on base, ignore the PB to who is in control and instead use the 2-12 roll to determine the following result. 

If 4-7, refer to the 11-88 roll on the batters card for a Clutch Batting (BD result). 

If no BD range appears on the card or sheet then: A result of "1B" on the batters card is instead a double with all runners scoring. A result of "2B," "3B,", "HR," or "Deep" is a home run.

 Any other result is a long foul fly ball and batter is still at bat. 

If the 2-12 roll was either 2-3 or 8-12, then there is a chance for a clutch defense play. 

Roll the two 6-sided dice again and refer to the error chart to see which player has a chance for a clutch defensive play then use this chart.






















Sunday, June 23, 2024

Whitey Ford Strikes Out 10, 1939 Yanks Rally in 9th Past Mets

 Pitching in his Cy Young year, Whitey Ford struck out 10 in a quality start, but for the second straight game the Yankees had to rally from behind in the 8th and 9th innings. To give an idea of how tough a feat 10 strikeouts was in past eras, Ford got the 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3 inning, while the other 10 pitches used by the two teams in two games registered a total of 15 strikeouts n 29 innings.

 In game 1 in Shea Stadium the Yankees put on a great rally for two runs in the 9th and the winning run on base, but the inning ended with Joe DiMaggio on deck and two on base in a 5-4 loss.However, this time they Yankees cut it to 3-3 in the 8th, and in the 9th inning the bench came through.  

Tommy Henrich pinch hit, walked and stole second base to start an inning to start the inning and later the Yankees had 2nd and 3rd with just one out to draw in the infield.  The hero was then Atley Donald, who hit what would have been a base clearing triple, but was scored a single since Henrich scored form third base and the Yankees won 4-3 to split the series with two 1-run games.
    
Game 1                                   123    456    789     RHE
1939 New York Yankees020 000 002 480
1961 New York Mets030 010 01  581
             0  
Game 2123 456 789 RHE
1961 New York Mets010 100 100 371
1939 New York Yankees100 000 111 470

Here are the combnied batting stats for the two games, followed by the pitching stats.

New York Mets 1969         AB     R    H     BI       BB       Other
LFCleon Jones81200sb
1BDonn Clendenon70202 
RFArt Shamsky*91110hr
CFTommie Agee80101 
2BKen Boswell*50103 
SSBud Harrelson#723002b,3b
CJerry Grote80110 
3BWayne Garrett*71120bb
PPitchers 1969 813002b
  67615460.224
        
 New York Yankees 1939ABRHBIBBOther
LFGeorge Selkirk*833012-2b
2BJoe Gordon80201sb
CFJoe DiMaggio70101 
RFCharlie Keller*80100 
3BRed Rolfe*50102 
CBill Dickey*60102 
1BBabe Dahlgren81200hr
SSFrankie Crosetti50000 
PPitchers 193940100sb
 Atley Donald*10100gw-rbi
 Joe Gallagher10100sb
 Bump Hadley00000 
 Tommy Henrich*121013b,sb
 Monte Pearson20000 
 Red Ruffing10010 
  65615180.231
 New York Mets 1969IPHRERBBK
G1Tom Seaver (W)8.774425
 Tug McGraw (S)0.310010
G2Gary Gentry6.342234
 Jack DiLauro1.721100
 Jim McAndrew (L)0.311120
 Totals17.3158889
        
 New York Yankees 1939IPHRERBBK
G1Bill Stafford (L)574422
 Hal Reniff210012
 Johnny James100011
G2Whitey Ford6.3633310
 Luis Arroyo0.700020
 Bud Daley (W)210001
 Totals171577916

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Seaver-McGraw Survive Rally with .381 BA DiMaggio on Deck

Tom Seaver and Tug McGraw fought through a Yankees 2-run rally in the 9th inning to escape with a 5-4 win with Joe DiMaggio and his .381 batting average sitting on deck and two men on base. Seaver, with an endurance rating of SR 18 (the number of innings as well as allowed hits, runs and walks allowed) was still at full strength when he took a 5-2 lead into the 9th inning. 

However, his bid for a complete game ended with 2 outs in the 9th when Bump Hadley had a pinch hit RBI triple to cut the lead to 5-3. McGraw came in needing just one out for the save, but the speedy sp:A) Joe Gallagher (who starts when a DH is used) greeting McGraw with a single to cut the lead to 5-4, then stole second and George Selkirk drew a walk to put the go ahead run on 1st base with good speed.  that put Joe Gordon up with a chance to tie the game with a single, and Joe DiMaggio sitting on deck with a .381 batting average with a chance to be a hero.

However, McGraw induced a fly out to left field to end the g and get the save and not give DiMaggio a chance to be the hero with one of the best cards in the entire game. Below is the previous of the game we did ahead of time, and below that is a photo of our scoresheet. If McGraw had faced DeMaggio and left the action on his card, there was more than a 50-50 chance the game would have been at least tied since he reached on all Random Numbers from 11-52, and all but three of those numbers being hits that likely would have scored multiple runs with speed on the bases and two outs.



Blog preview prior to Game

The third batter of our next all-time great game will feature Tom Seaver of the 1969 Amazing Mets facing Joe DiMaggio of the 1939 Yankees.  You can click to play your own free Statis-Pro baseball game, and pull up any of the 60 all-time great teams in this google drive. The three sheets include all batters, then all pitchers, then a list of all great teams and results and their home run ranges listed.

Note - if you scroll to the bottom, a couple of early home runs before we had to go back to work after 3 innings.

The 1939 Yankees Line-up includes George Selkirk* Joe Gordon Joe DiMaggio Charlie Keller* Red Rolfe* Bill Dickey* Babe Dahlgren Frankie Crosetti and the pitcher hits 9th..

In the bottom of the inning Bill Stafford for Yankees starts against Mets Line-up of Cleon Jones Donn Clendenon Art Shamsky* Tommie Agee Ken Boswell* Bud Harrelson# Jerry Grote Wayne Garrett* and the pitcher hits 9th.

The number under each results represents the top of the range on the numbers from 11-88, but it is a base 8 system so no numbers actually end in 9 or 0. Therefore the first batter, George Selkirk hits a home run on a 27-28, the number after his triple number of 26 but and since there is no 29 or 30, his home run range actually ends at 28.

We usually print out the sheets, but if you can't print we actually put the following excel cells on a screen and played the game while looking at the screen and subbing the line on the new pitcher when one comes in.

Not the pitcher at bat line. We are updating the sheet so that the pitcher at bat card is the result of the average of all pitchers at bat that season unless they have a specific batting card because they were a very good career batter. either pitcher on either of these teams has one of those cards. So any Yankees pitcher who bats in the game will get a single on an 11-22, 23 is a double, 24 is a deep drive that can be a HR, 25-41 is a strikeout, 41-44 is a walk and 45-88 should be an out. You never adjust a batter for platooning (left vs. right) and when a pitcher bats you skip the PB and go straight to the 11-88 random number on his card. 




Friday, June 21, 2024

Willie Mays 2nd HR in 2 Games Rallies NY Giants after Ortiz 3-run HR

David Ortiz's 3-run homer gave 2007 Boston Red Sox a 4-1 lead and chance for a sweep of the 2-game series, but the 1954 New York Giants rallied for three in the fifth and then Willie Mays hit his 2nd homer in two games, a 7th inning game-winner to make it 5-4.

The two teams start 1-1 in our 16-team all-time Boston-New York Division. We have four other all-time divisions, the East, Midwest, West and East, but so much of the history of baseball occurred in New York and Boston that we have one entire division of great teams from just those two cities.

The Boston Red Sox 1946 team with Ted Williams is in 1st due to a 2-0 record and the best run differential, while Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 are also 2-0. Six other teams in the set of all-time cards in the division and four teams still to be created later.

Here is the box score from the game, followed by the standings of all great Boston and New York teams.
 
Game 1 (HR 11-38)           123     456      789       R  H   E
2007 Boston Red Sox010210001572
1954 New York Giants000200000221
             
Game 2 (HR 11-58)123456789RHE
1954 New York Giants0100301005110
2007 Boston Red Sox0130000004103


Pos              New York Giants 1954          AB   R  H    BI     Other
LFMonte Irvin8010bb
3BHank Thompson*8200 
CFWillie Mays93432-HR
RFDon Mueller*82322b,w
CRay Katt9022 
DH-benDusty Rhodes*4000 
SSAl Dark7010 
1BWhitey Lockman*7020 
2BDavey Williams6000bb
PPitchers at bat00002-sac
PHBobby Hofman1000 
 Totals6771370.194
       
PosBoston Red Sox 2007ABRHBIOther
CFCoco Crisp#9110 
3BMike Lowell8110sf
DH-1BDavid Ortiz*9133HR
LFManny Ramirez8220 
1B-benKevin Youkilis4020 
2BDustin Pedroia82212-2b,bb
CJason Varitek#7120 
RFJ.D. Drew*80222b
SSJulio Lugo60102-sb,bb
PPitchers at bat3011 
PHJacoby Ellsbury*2100sb
 Totals7291770.236
     
New York Giants 1954         IP     H    R    ER    W     K      Dec
Johnny Antonelli (G1)4.774424L
Hoyt Wilhelm3.300024 
Windy McCall101000 
Sal Maglie (G2)4104403 
Marv Grissom300002W
Jim Hearn200001S
Totals181798414 
        
Boston Red Sox 2007IPHRERWKDec
Clay Buchholz (G1)722107W
Jonathan Papelbon100011H
Hideki Okajima100011S
Curt Schilling (G2)4.784415 
Javier Lopez1.300011 
Brendan Donnelly121101L
Manny Delcarmen210001 
Total181376417

Here are the standings in the division so far.
 
Team                     YearLScoreAllowStars (top 100 players of all time)                            
Boston Red Sox1946201755. Ted WilliamsTex Hughson
Brooklyn Dodgers195520221138. Jackie Robinson, 83. Roy Campanella, 95. Duke Snider
Boston Red Sox2007119763. David OrtizJonathan Papelbon
New York Giants195411792. Willie MaysJohnny Antonelli
New York Yankees19270211221. Babe Ruth & 6. Lou Gehrig
New York Yankees1961025177. Mickey MantleYogi Berra, 60. Whitey Ford
       
Yet to PlayYearWLScoreAllow 
Boston Braves19140000Johnny Evers*, Bill James
New York Mets1969000022. Tom Seaver, 42. Nolan Ryan
New York Mets19860000Darryl Strawberry*, Dwight Gooden
New York Yankees1939000016. Joe DiMaggioMarius Russo
New York Yankees1998000028. Derek Jeter, 31. Mariano Rivera
New York Yankees20220000Aaron JudgeNestor Cortes
       
Future TeamsYearWLScoreAllow 
Boston Red Sox1903000021. Cy YoungJimmy Collins
Boston Red Sox1915000036 Tris Speaker, 1 Babe Ruth
Boston Red Sox19860000Wade BoggsRoger Clemens
New York Giants1905000025. Christy MathewsonMike Donlin*
dddd