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.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1Drp1RQfg

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.

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.

there is no way to access it. I’m doing it game by game and saving the box scores to my computer

How do you access this tournament on the whatifsports site?  Thanks.

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)

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.  

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.