GREAT MOMENTS IN STRAT
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A Replay Full of First-Time Events
Despite
having played Strat C&D Baseball for more than a
decade, my 2006 Marlins replay is my first serious replay of a team’s
full-season schedule. In a season of many personal “firsts,” Braves hurler
Jorge Sosa not only picked up a win while going 6 innings – giving up just 5
hits and 2 runs while punching out 6 – but in his two at-bats smacked home runs
each time. Pitchers had only hit a homers three or four other times total, so I definitely had never had one hit multiple
homeruns in the same contest.
Then, the
Giants’ Ray Durham and Randy Winn, who are a combined 75 years old, turned the
day after Memorial Day into Veterans Day, going a combined 9-for-10 while
leading the Giants to an 8-2 thrashing of the Marlins. Most impressive
was
I wrote earlier
about Scott Olsen’s early-season hitting success. I’m trying to keep
track of this as I am simply blown away by his hitting, even if it is
early. Here’s his updated line through mid-May: 10-for-15 (.667), 1-2B, 3
R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K.
Scott Dicken,
SOLO PLAY NOT SO LONELY AFTER ALL
As a
Canadian Strat-O-Matic fan, my first SOM game was hockey. This year, I decided I had to try the
original baseball game, dice and cards, and I’m certainly glad I did. I’ve played baseball myself for the past nine
years, and I can support all of SOM’s claims to
realism.
I held a
30-team solitaire draft when I first got the game, and with my Toronto Blue
Jays picked 30th and 31st, then 90th and 91st, and so on. I emerged with a powerful pitching staff and
bullpen, but a mediocre offense.
Today, I
had a game in Yankee Stadium that went into the 15th inning. “King Felix” Hernandez went eight innings,
giving up 10 hits but walking none and escaping with only two runs
against. The Yankee starter, Cha-Seung Baek, went the same
distance allowing only one run. Adrian
Gonzalez hit a solo jack in the top of the ninth for the Jays, but Hernandez
allowed a leadoff homer to Randy Winn so the score remained tied until the
fourteenth, when my team managed another run, only to have Francisco Rodriguez
allow the tying run in the bottom of the inning.
The
top of the fifteenth was filled with action.
Aaron Hill was hit by a pitch by reliever Todd Williams, got a good
lead, but, unbelievably, was thrown out by weak-armed catcher Victor Martinez. Matt Stairs strode to the plate, slapped a
single, and was followed by Dioner Navarro, a
defensive replacement for pinch-hitter Ross Gload,
who smacked a SINGLE**. I decided that,
with Hanley Ramirez 0-for-6 in the game, drastic measures were needed. With the infield back for a possible double-play,
Ramirez dropped down the suicide squeeze bunt to the pitcher. Matt Stairs came hustling down the line. The roll came up DEFENSE. After the adjustments, the split was 1-11
safe, 12-20 out. The dice came up...
2! With runners on first and second, Melky Cabrera lashed a SINGLE* past the infield, and closer
Jason Isringhausen was brought in to face Alexis
Rios, who showed his appreciation by smashing a bases-clearing double. As if this wasn’t enough, Adrian Gonzalez
followed up with a two-run homer, his second blast of the game. The win was particularly satisfying, because
my team had shown a frustrating inability to put up runs, leading to a 8-13 record to that point, including an 18-inning marathon
I had lost to the Baltimore Orioles only five days before.
Playing
Strat-O-Matic baseball in Canada can lead to some pretty lonely solitaire
games, but games like the one I played today always make up for the lack of
opponents.
Nathan Groot Nibbelink, Frankford, ONT
EXTRAS, EXTRAS! (Read All About Them)
I bought
the 2000 and 2002 seasons at the end-of-year sale, so they came with those
hundreds of additional players. I wasn’t going to do a replay, so they just sat
there in one of my boxes. Then, my dad and I (he has played over 27 short seasons)
decided to do a 10-team, 28-game season called the Additional Players League. It
was like playing with minor league players, but turned out to be the most fun
season I have ever had – truly awesome, breaking so many of my Dad's and my own
records.
Each team
drafted 12 position players, 4 starters, and 6 relief pitchers. My dad doesn’t
like using relief pitchers or bench players much, so we decreased the roster
size (he likes the old days where everyone pitched complete games). We split
the 10 teams into 3 divisions. The Pacific division had the Quakes,
Mountaineers, and Lumberjacks. The Central Division had the Mud Hens, Blues,
Mastodons, and Buffalos. The Atlantic Division had the Astronauts, Demons, and Meerkats. Dad had the 4 teams with "M" names.
The
league had a grand total of ONE Hall-of-Famer: Tony Gwynn (2000) was drafted by Astronauts. Other well-known
players were Rickey Henderson and Kenny Lofton (Demons), Richie Sexson (Quakes), Sandy Alomar Jr.,
Dante Bichette and Jason Schmidt (Mountaineers), Todd
Walker (Mud Hens), Angel Berroa (Blues), Bartolo Colon (Mastodons, the combination card from when he
won 10 games in each league), Jeremy Giambi and Flash
Gordon (Buffalos), the 2002 Francisco Rodriguez ( 0.00 ERA in 6 IP, 13 SO
from 2002) Jimmy Rollins, and Todd Hollandsworth
(Meerkats). It was fun playing with a bunch of guys
I've never heard of, like Clay Condrey and Mike Kinkade (Blues), Ozzie Timmons (Mastodons, had a .707
slugging %), and Roosevelt Brown (Mountaineers).
After
starting the season 1-5, the Astronauts took off and won 13 of the next 14
games. They had an 8-game winning streak, ended up 17-11 and won the Atlantic
division by 4 games over the Demons. The Quakes won the weak Pacific division with
a 14-14 record. The Central division was the fun one. At mid-season, the
Buffalos were the best team in the league at 10-4 with a league-leading 1000
runs (7.14 R/G), 40 doubles and 23 home runs, which also led the league.
Leadoff hitter Hal Morris was hitting .361 with 19 runs, which led the league. They had six all-stars (Morris, Alex Ochoa,
Israel Alcantara, Jeremy Giambi,
Luis Pineda, and Tom Gordon). That would all come to a screaming halt. The
Buffalos lost their last game before the all-star break, starting a 14-game
skid, the longest losing streak of the season. They scored just 65 runs in the
last 14 games and gave up 93. They had the second-worst pitching at the end of
the season with a 6.22 ERA. Morris scored just 5 times in the 2nd half, Giambi lost 72 points on his average, and the team ended
the season with four guys hitting under .230. Pineda went from a 3.27 ERA to
6.96 in just four more starts. Tom Gordon went from 0.00 ERA in 6.1 IP to 5.91
in just 4 1/3 more IP. The team at least ended the streak by winning the last
game of the season, but finished the second half with a 1-13 record, and 11-17
overall, after going 10-4. I had never seen such a downward turnaround.
The three
best teams still came from the Atlantic division, but only 2 could make it to
the playoffs. With 3 games left, the Blues were 18-7, the Mud Hens were 15-10,
and the Mastodons were also 15-10. The Mud Hens were both battling for the Wild
Card playoff spot and a shot at first if they could sweep the Blues in the
final series.
The Blues had MVP Mike Kinkade
(58-118, .492 BA, 29 RBI) and Cy Young Clay Condrey
(2.18 ERA, 7-0 record). Game 1 was a pitcher's duel between the Mud Hens’ Jaret Wright and the Blues' Paul Rigdon.
Tied at 2 and in the top of the 10th, Cliff Floyd of the Mud Hens hit a homer and
Rick White pitched a perfect 10th to give the Mud Hens the win. The Mud Hens also
won Game 2, scoring four in the first inning off Calvin Maduro,
getting a 4-for-5 day from Enrique Wilson and 12 strikeouts from starting
pitcher Matt Wise, improved his record to 6-1. That setup a classic Game 3: If the Blues win,
they are guaranteed a playoff berth. If the Mud Hens win, they win the division
because they would have winning records against the Blues and Mastodons. That
is plenty of motivation. The game went 11 innings, tied 4-4 for 6 innings. Bob Wickman pitched an amazing 5 perfect innings in relief and
Ben Broussard came through in the top of the 11th like he did throughout the
season with the two-run, game-winning double for the Mud Hens. .
More to come. Will
the Mastodons make a run at the post season? Will the Quakes get to the World
Series? What other kind of crazy things happened in this offense-happy season?
(To be
continued next month)
Eric Krentz,