All-Time Tourney Rules and Explanation
Here’s the first series of the first round of ReclinerGM’s Phillies’ All-Time Tourney. It’s a match-up of the #1 seed 1976 team and #8 seed 1980 team. The teams are obviously very similar, as the line-ups below show.
Let’s get to the game results, shall we?
Game 1: 1980 Phillies 4, 1976 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 1-0)
‘76 Bob Boone hits a 3-run HR in the 4th to put ‘76 ahead 3-1, but ‘80 Greg Luzinski counters with a 2-run shot in the 6th to tie it up at 3. Other than that, both ‘76 and ‘80 Carlton went relatively unblemished through 8 innings. However, in the 9th, ‘80 Larry Bowa hits a sac-fly to take a 4-3 lead, and Tug McGraw closed it out for the ‘80 squad. Both Manny Trillo and Greg Luzinski had 2 hits off Carlton for the ‘80 team.
Game 2: 1980 Phillies 5, 1976 Phillies 3 (10 inn.) – (1980 leads series 2-0)
The 1980 squad takes a commanding lead in this series after taking both games on the road. Both Dick Ruthven (’80) and Jim Kaat (’76) put up quality starts for their squads with Ruthven giving up 3 runs in 6.1 innings and Kaat surrendering 2 runs in 6 innings. The two big hits were ‘76 Mike Schmidt hitting a game-tying solo HR in the 7th, and Pete Rose hitting the game-winning 2-run single in the 10th off ‘76 Tug McGraw. ‘80 McGraw pitched the bottom of the 9th, getting his 2nd save of the series.
Game 3: 1976 Phillies 4, 1980 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 2-1)
‘76 wins a must-win, holding down the 1980 squad 4-3. Dick Allen killed a chance to blow the game open early for the ‘76 squad with a bases loaded double play in the 1st. In the 2nd, ‘76 Larry Bowa did his part, flying out with 2 outs and the bases packed again. Bob Walk did eventually implode, walking in a run, and throwing the ball away for another in the 4th. A Mike Schmidt RBI in the 7th gave ‘76 the lead for good as Ron Reed pitched the final 3 innings, not allowing a single baserunner for the long save.
Game 4: 1980 Phillies 9, 1976 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 3-1)
Finally an offensive explosion as the ‘80 squad made quick and easy work of ‘76 Larry Christensen. Gary Maddox led the way with 4 hits, while Bake McBride had 3 RBI, and Larry Bowa added 2. The 1980 team scored 8 runs on 11 hits in the first four innings and the game was over after that.
Game 5: 1976 Phillies 8, 1980 Phillies 1 – (1980 leads series 3-2)
‘76 Carlton spins a gem in this game, beating himself to keep the ‘76 squad alive. ‘76 Carlton pitched a complete game, giving up 1 run on 7 hits. On the offensive end, Dick Allen, Greg Luzinski and Jay Johnstone all had RBI doubles in the 1st inning, which was all Carlton needed.
Game 6: 1980 Phillies 9, 1976 Phillies 7 - (1980 wins series 4-2)
Mike Schmidt leads the way for the 1980 squad in the clincher, with a HR and 4 RBI. His home run came in a 7-7 tie in the 9th to take the lead for good. Greg Luzinski also contributed 3 RBI, including a 2-run double in the top of 7th to blow the game open before the ‘76 team came back with 4 in the bottom of the 8th to tie it up. Tug McGraw pitched a perfect 9th for his 3rd save of the series.
Summary
The #1 seed goes down as the 1980 team wins fairly easily 4-2. Greg Luzinski takes home the MVP honors, hitting .360 with 10 RBI for the series. Tug McGraw comes in 2nd with 3 dominant saves. Even though the 1980 squad won 10 less games in the regular season, they were clearly the better team in this series.
The updated bracket is as follows…
NEXT UP! Robin Roberts and the 1950 Phillies travel to the Baker Bowl to take on Pete Alexander and the 1915 Phillies.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Luzinski in CENTER and Maddox in RIGHT??? You are kidding right? “… 3/4 of the earth is covered by water, the other 1/4 covered by Garry Maddox”.
I just copied and pasted the line-ups from WhatIfSports – clearly a mistake on their part, and my part for not catching it. Will fix.
also – I simply don’t have the time to load up the box scores that WhatIfSports is creating because I would have re-format them all myself. But I have the data if anyone has any questions about a player’s performance in the sims.
Pete,
Whatever effort you are putting into it is appreciated, and the whole thing is fun, but when you had introduced the whole concept, I visited the site, and noticed the batting orders they offered were out of whack. I don’t think Schmidt ever hit second, and Crash Allen hit I wanna say 6th or 7th by then. I can’t even recall Bowa ever leading off, plenty of 2nd and some 8th, Cash was a perennial leadoff hitter. Kitty Kaat being 2nd in the rotation would have gotten Danny Ozark fired mid series. Bob Walk, who started Game 1 of the actual 80 series was okay to have in the rotation, but Marty Bystrom was 5-0 in September, an I can’ recall if he started a post season game. Walk, who did, maybe does Pirates TV only started Game 1 because of the Houston series depleting Phils ptchers of oxygen, let alone arm health. Good stuff all in all. Well, the 80s won, so why wouldn’t it be.
I trust the 15-50 will be played at night to help tv ratings. Give those centurions a little taste of after dark baseball. I hope the 50 entry is healthy and with Curt Simmons. He was in the military by season’s end, and they had a rash of injuries in the last 2 weeks.
Ken,
From previous thread……..“Connie Mack got away with murder in that series. He started Howard Ehmke in Game 1 against the Cubs. Ehmke was a very average pitcher who had a mediocore year, hadn’t started in weeks, that sort of thing. ”
I found this in a recap of the 1929 World Series on baseball-almanac.com:
The Athletics’ skipper shocked everyone after selecting Howard Ehmke, their seventh best pitcher, for the start in Game 1. The thirty-five-year-old veteran had a 7-2 record with an unimpressive ERA of 3.29. In a brilliant move, Mack had placed Ehmke in the stands at various games to study the Cub’s hitters anonymously. His strategy paid off as the surprise underdog went on to beat Charlie Root and Guy Bush in a 3-1 opening victory.
Granted it was the results that made it look like a brilliant move, but he had to have a strong feeling about it to make that decision and his gut proved to be right.
Also, Ehmke actually made 2 starts in the series. He also got the start in game 5 and although he didn’t pitch as well as he did in game 1, he ended up allowing only 2 ER in 12 2/3 IP (second only to Earnshaw’s 13 2/3 IP) in the series.
BTW, the statement I made about the A’s having had 2 dynastic runs in their history should have contained the qualifier, during their time in Philly., as they also had a 3rd when they won 3 consecutive titles from 1972 through 1974. Thanks for overlooking the omission.
KB-
I’ll check out the box scores for the other squads to make sure the line-up are correct (you can edit them yourself on the site)
Pete,
How do you access this tournament on the whatifsports site? Thanks.
bski-
there is no way to access it. I’m doing it game by game and saving the box scores to my computer
as they also had a 3rd when they won 3 consecutive titles from 1972 through 1974. Thanks for overlooking the omission. >>
Bski,
I stand to correct you again. Well, sort of. The A’s won 3 straight pennants from 88-90. Lost to LA (Gibson-Eck Game 1, swept the Giants in the earthquale series a year later, and then they got swept a year later again by the Reds. Three pennants is pretty dynastic to me.
Regarding Ehmke…did you read what you pasted…
and I quote…
<<The thirty-five-year-old veteran had a 7-2 record with an unimpressive ERA of 3.29.>>
Tell me we wouldn’t kill for a 3.29 ERA these days.
<<‘76 Bob Boone hits a 3-run HR in the 4th to put ‘76 ahead 3-1>>
Ya know, I can’t say enough good things about Bob Boone. Very classy, dependable player, just seems like a real quality person with a terrific resume.
That said, as much as these guys are idols, heroes, etc to us, they piss us off when they look at strike 3, ground into a double play etc.
That said…
When I read this..
<<‘76 Bob Boone hits a 3-run HR in the 4th to put ‘76 ahead 3-1>>
I have to chuckle. My friends and I used to call Boonie Bob “Cheap Thrills” Boone. I never saw a guy hit more homers that were just foul, screaming liners that were magnetized to the wrong side of the foul line, or gappers in the alley that were end of inning shots because the slow footed one would be thrown out at second by a country mile.
So when I read that he hit a clutch homer that changed the course of the game, I know I am reading from computer effects, and not reality. Leastwise, not the reality I saw.
All in all, thankful to have rooted hard for Boonie, and many many other Phils all these years.
Is anyone aware that when Crash Allen was with the Phils the first time around, he recorded a record? Here’s the sound if you’re interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1Drp1RQfg
Ken,
Your correction is noted, sort of (lol).
While I did not forget about the 72-74 Oakland A’s, just had Philly on the brain, I did forget about their 88-90 run———–Dave Stewart winning 20+ games in 4 consecutive years without ever winning a Cy, Bob Welsch getting a Cy he had no business being awarded (wins by a pitcher, ugh!), McGwire, Canseco, Weiss, Lansford, Eckersley, LaRussa, etc———-because I don’t consider them to be a dynasty.
No doubt it’s an impressive feat worthy of respect; puts them in the game’s upper class; just not enough for them to reach the elite level where I would confer the title of dynasty upon them.
I’d feel exactly the same way about our Phils if they were to make it to the World Series next year and come up short, duplicating the 88-90 A’s feat. Winning that second title in the 3-year period makes a big difference to me when we’re talking dynasties.
I did read that paragraph I posted about the 1929 World Series and you’re right that, on the surface, a 3.29 ERA ain’t too shabby, so I decided to do some checking.
Ehmke had a WHIP of 1.1152, an ERA+ of 129, but he only threw 54 2/3 innings. I used baseball-reference.com’s Play Index to search for how many other pitchers put up these numbers in at least this many innings in 1929.
There were 15 other pitchers who equaled or bettered Ehmke’s numbers (actually his ERA+, as nobody was close to his WHIP), 3 of whom were on the A’s: Lefty Grove (151 ERA+, 1.304 WHIP), Eddie Rommel (149 ERA+, 1.487 WHIP), and George Earnshaw (129 ERA+, 1.406 WHIP). The low IP is the wild card for Ehmke. No way to know how he would have fared had he thrown more innings.
Mack obviously used Ehmke sparingly———-1929 was for all intents and purposes his last year, as he only threw 10 innings in 1930 before hanging them up———-but he, also obviously, used him wisely, as Ehmke turned out to be a big contributor in that 1929 World Series .
Winning that second title in the 3-year period makes a big difference to me when we’re talking dynasties.>>
I agree. But within the terrific pattern of both the Philly and Oakland A’s (KC always sucked, they were like a Yankee farm club in their 12 odd years of exsistence), it ranks as a respectable entry to demonstrate the point of selling off marquee players only to be terrific a reasonably short time later. Maybe you aren’t aware that after 1974’s 3rd WS win, with the advent of free agency, Charlie Finley tried selling many of the stalwarts of that era. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who related to Finley the way Pete Rozelle related to Al Davis, forbade deals like Vida Blue and Joe Rudi being sold for a million dollars as not in the best interests of the game. This was right around the time of the first free agent class of 1975, a year before Reggie ended his Oakland time with half a season in Baltimore, and then signed with NYY for I believe 5 years, 3 million. A year or two later, Mike Schmidt was paid 550.000 by the Phils and the fans expected miracles. The A’s had a playoff team in 1981, but that was largely due to miraculous managing by Billy Martin, who had his starters throw complete games wherever possible. So eventually it was 15 years between great runs, a while, but 6 WS appearances in 18 years is awesome.
Regarding Ehmke’s 3.29, I can vividly recall in the 60s looking at the Sunday papers which listed all players and their aveages, and records. At that time, 3.29 was a little worse than mediocore, let alone back in 1929 when that was probably blatantly high. It’s just funny how the times have changed, and I would think 30-40 years from now there will be a unique something or other to that time. Part of the game’s charm, I suppose.