Both runs scored in the 7th, when starter 1965 Sam McDowell allowed three walks plus a ground out and sac fly.

Believe It or Don't!

"Listen to me. When that car rolls into that dealership, and that tank is bone dry, I want you to be there with me when everyone says, 'Kramer and that other guy, oh, they went further to the left of the slash than anyone ever dreamed!'" -- Kramer, from Seinfeld episode "The Dealership"

My team, after clinching a TOC championship this morning:



Believe It or Don't!

I don't think I've ever seen this before. Through 10 games in the 80M OG Twist theme, I have a player who's tied for 6th in hits with 17, despite the fact that he doesn't qualify for the batting title because he hasn't had enough plate appearances. He's started only 6 games but he's made the most of them, batting 17-for-28 (.607).

What makes this really unusual is that he's an "average" AAA batter. Well, maybe not quite average. He's actually 1957 Bobby Morgan, who in real life hit .207!

Believe It or Don't!

Update: In the very next game the rook went 3-for-5 with a double and HR. He's now 5th in hits with 20, just two behind the league leader. However, his batting average went down to .606 (and still not enough PA to qualify for the batting title).

More Believe It or Don't!

RL: hits .207
SIM: hits .606


seems legit

Bad But Not THAT Bad Dept.

In a 110M twist theme I'm in, 1963 Bob Friend ($7.8M as of the current update, with an ERC# of 2.47) just won a game in his 30th start.

In his previous 29 starts, he was at 100% each game and his PC was always reasonable (never above 110). His ERA in those 29 starts was 5.75 -- not great, but not awful either in a league where the average ERA is 4.33. What do you suppose his record was in those 29 starts?

If you said 0-19, you'd be correct!

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1958 Bill Fischer pitched in 48 games (37 innings) for my most recently completed open league team. He got slapped around for a 10.51 ERA.

Opponents hit a Ted Williams-esque .406 against him and he walked 4.54 guys per nine. His whip was 2.44.

He won 6 games and lost Zero.

In the month of August 1894, Sam Thompson drove in 61 runs...believe it or don't

Thompson had a .331 career batting average and was one of the most prolific run producers in baseball history. His career Run batted in (RBI) to games played ratio of .923 (1,305 RBIs in 1,410 games) remains the highest in major league history. In 1895, Thompson averaged 1.44 RBIs per game, and his 166 RBIs in 1887 (in only 127 games) remained the major league record until 1921 when Babe Ruth collected 168 (albeit in 152 games). Thompson still holds the major league record for most RBIs in a single month with 61 in August 1894 while playing for the Phillies. Manager Bill Watkins in 1922 called Thompson "the greatest natural hitter of all time."

Unlikely 9th Inning Drama Dept.

My team in a 100M theme league had a very fatigued pitching staff heading into the pm2 game, so I decided to start a Long B-type pitcher (ERC# 5.59) with no maximum pitch count, and in relief made available only two pitchers, a mop up (ERC# 7.80 and at 71%) and a closer (ERC# 2.47, and set to come into the game only in the 9th inning of a save situation -- on the one in a million chance we might need to protect a late lead). We also started our worst batters, including a 47% 2B batting and slugging .096 heading into this game. Oh, and the opposing SP's ERC# was 1.92.

Somehow we have a 9-1 lead in the top of the 5th inning. With one on and one out, Sparky decides to pull our starter and insert the mop up. Why? Who knows. Sparky, like Steve Carlton, does not speak to the press.

The mop up gets through the 5th unscathed, and we add one more run in the bottom of the inning to go up 10-1. That's funny, I'm thinking as I'm reading the play-by-play, but there's no way this weary mop up avoids a beating. And I'm right: in the 6th he gives up one run, in the 7th two runs, and in the 8th six runs. Heading into the bottom of the 8th we've still got a 13-10 lead, and somehow we score five more off decent pitching to boost that to an 18-10 lead. Remember that tired .096 hitting/slugging 2B? He contributes two hits (both doubles) to the cause.

Top of the 9th, the mop up is still in. He gives up three walks to open the inning, then a grand slam. It's 18-14, no one out. The mop up then gives up a double and another walk. At long last the closer comes in; he immediately gives up a single and a double. The score's now 18-16, runners on 2nd and 3rd, still nobody out.

The next batter grounds out to 3B, the runners do not advance. One out.

The closer strikes out the next batter. Two outs.

The final batter lines out to 3B. Three outs.

Game's over. Final score 18-16.

The winning pitcher is the mop up, whose line reads:

%	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC	ERA

71

3.2

12

15

15

6

3

4

118

22.74

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In a recently completed league (sorry, no box score), I had '79 George Brett, '85 Willie McGee, and '11 Jose Reyes hit back-to-back-to-back triples. Three triples in a row is rare, but later, in the same game, the same trio hit another trio of triples consecutively. Three consecutive triples, twice in one game, by the same three guys. All of this happened against legit 100% pitchers.

Believe It or Don't

Posted by crazystengel on 12/25/2016 1:36:00 PM (view original):
I don't think I've ever seen this before. Through 10 games in the 80M OG Twist theme, I have a player who's tied for 6th in hits with 17, despite the fact that he doesn't qualify for the batting title because he hasn't had enough plate appearances. He's started only 6 games but he's made the most of them, batting 17-for-28 (.607).

What makes this really unusual is that he's an "average" AAA batter. Well, maybe not quite average. He's actually 1957 Bobby Morgan, who in real life hit .207!

Believe It or Don't!

Update: In the very next game the rook went 3-for-5 with a double and HR. He's now 5th in hits with 20, just two behind the league leader. However, his batting average went down to .606 (and still not enough PA to qualify for the batting title).

More Believe It or Don't!

FINAL UPDATE: The rook's numbers fell off a bit after that hot start. After bursting out of the gates 20-for-33 (and a line of .606/.618/.788), he went 45-for-223 (a line of .202/.318/.251).

Believe It or Don't!

BS Win Dept.

I hand the ball to Bob Milacki for a start against a division rival. I set the Inning Availability of all my other pitchers to 9. Milacki's got a 125 target and maximum pitch count; I want him to go all the way.

An hour before the game sims a trade goes through, and I have a new AAA pitcher. He's got a 3 Effectiveness Rating, so it's mopup duty for the youngster. Under TPC and MPC I click "none."

Heading into our at-bats in the bottom of the 6th, Milacki's been roughed up a bit and we're down 5-2. With the bases loaded and no one out Milacki's pulled for a PH'er, which surprises me because I'm certain he's not close to his MPC (I find out later he's thrown only 90 pitches). We tie the game up and head to the top of 7th, at which point I almost fall out of my chair when I see who the new pitcher is: the rookie mopup!

Now it dawns on me that I never set his Inning Availability. And since the rookie's got no pitch count, he's going to be on the mound until at least the 9th inning, when the other pitchers will be available to enter the game. What a dope I am, and in a must-win game!

The rookie proceeds to give up some hits and walks but miraculously makes it through the 7th and 8th unscathed, and we enter the 9th leading 6-5. After getting a lead off out, he gives up a walk and is finally replaced by a real pitcher, who finishes the job. We win 6-5, with the rookie getting the W for 2.1 innings of shutout relief.

Believe It or Don't!

I'm pretty sure your opponent's hitters were not familiar with the AAA rookie. With no charts or history to rely upon, the opposition was somewhat flummoxed by his slow breaking ball which didn't always hit the strike zone (witness the two walks). His oddball sidearm style allowed him to work through the order once effectively. Sparky did a good job of pulling him just in time to avoid the old "wheels coming off" syndrome. Nicely done!

Here's a doozy. In an OL WS where I'm up two games to one and playing on the road at Kauffman Stadium, due to my crappy starting pitchers, i decided to start my high IP per game relievers (who are head and shoulders better than my reg season starting pitchers) for the rest of the series.

Mind you, the other team's batting average on the seaon against leftys was 30 points less than its average against rightys with virtually no OBP.

So with this in mind, first up was 1992 Dennis Rasmussen (a lefty and a pretty darn good pitcher) whom i chose to start game four. Now Rasmussen has been a lights out stud all season, appearing in 50 games with a 1.45 ERA and had given up only seven runs all season in 43 IP. Plus he was fully rested as he was at 100 percent. So what does he do in his biggest and most important apearance of the year?

He promptly gave up, would you believe, a whopping 16 runs in only three innings, while throwing 90 pitches. And despite my team having scored almost 1300 runs during the regular season, with 242 homers, we lose game four 28-0!!!!!!

Believe it or dont!

Snuffy Stirnweiss finishes the season with a .705 SLG and 28(!) triples at home (i.e. 81 games) in a non-gimmicky theme league. This was, of course, balanced out by a .401 SLG and 2 triples in 81 road games.

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"Well, This is Discouraging" Dept.

In December I gave each of my young sons their first SLB team. They love baseball, but don't know anything about the sim. I drafted some of their favorite players for them, set the pitch counts and rest settings, and said, "Have fun." Oh, and I put them in different Open Leagues, because they said, "If we're in the same one, that means we both can't win." I laughed and said okay, different leagues.

Both their teams won championships.

I've won one WS since December 2015. I've had a lot of teams since December 2015.

Believe It or Don't!