The Splendid Splinter Project - 17 May 1941

(This game was played as part of The Splendid Splinter co-op project to replay Ted Williams' .406 season of 1941.)

Bob Feller struck out ten Red Sox, but couldn’t get the big out when he needed it as Boston scored a run in the bottom of the 8th inning to nip the Indians by a score of 5-4. Cleveland greeted Boston starter Charlie Wagner rudely, leadoff batter Lou Boudreau doubling and Ken Keltner pinging one off the left-field wall one out later to score the game’s first run with only one out on the books. But the Sox answered with power in the 2nd, Jimmie Foxx and Jim Tabor drilling back-to-back blasts off Feller to put Boston into the lead.

The Splendid Splinter Project - 18 May 1941

(This game was played as part of The Splendid Splinter co-op project to replay Ted Williams' .406 season of 1941.)

Boston rallied from an early four-run deficit to take the lead in the 7th inning and hold on for a narrow 6-5 victory at Fenway Park. Detroit drew first blood in the 2nd when Lou Finney allowed Birdie Tebbetts’ single to get under his glove and roll all the way to the RF wall for an error, allowing Frank Croucher to score (although Tebbetts was thrown out at home attempting to take the same liberty himself). Back-to-back triples led to two more Tiger runs in the 3rd and, after Lefty Grove had hit a solo homer in the bottom half to get one run back, Detroit ripped three consecutive doubles in the 4th for two runs that gave them a 5-1 lead. (Of the ten hits allowed by Grove on the afternoon, six went for extra bases.)

The Splendid Splinter Project - 7 May 1941

(This game was played as part of The Splendid Splinter co-op project to replay Ted Williams' .406 season of 1941.)

Ted had another fine day - two singles, a stolen base, a run scored and a key defensive play - but it was Jimmie Foxx’s three-run homer in the 7th inning that lifted the Red Sox to victory in Chicago, despite some late heartburn. Boston took the lead in the 2nd when Foxx started the inning with a triple; he scored on Bobby Doerr’s double, and Jim Tabor’s single produced a second run. The home team threatened for the first time in the 5th, loading the bases with one out with the help of Tabor’s miscue, but Luke Appling hit a fly ball to medium left field which Williams caught and then threw home to erase Mike Tresh attempting to tag from third for an inning-ending double play.

1981-82 NHL Co-Op Replay: QUE at WPG (2-19-82)

19 February 1982: Lucien DeBlois scored four goals and Ed Staniowski turned aside 34 shots as Winnipeg thumped Quebec in Alberta. The Jets scored three unanswered goals in the first period, despite being outshot 14-11, with DeBlois tallying his first three minutes from the end of the period to give the home team a 3-0 lead. The 24-year-old winger picked up right where he left off after the break, scoring twice in the first ten minutes of the second to complete his hat trick, become the fifth 20-goal Jet of the season, make the score 5-0, and chase Dan Bouchard from the Nordique net. 

1981-82 NHL Co-Op Replay: BOS at DET (2-20-82)

20 February 1982: In a game in which the referees decided to pocket their whistles, the Bruins rode a four-goal opening period to a straightforward win over the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. The two teams got off to a cracking start, with three goals being scored in the first 4:20, but Detroit’s early 2-1 lead was a distant memory by the end of the period. Boston scored three times (Bourque, K. Crowder, Pederson) in the final eight minutes to take a 4-2 lead into the first intermission, and expanded that with the only goal (Kasper) of a relatively sedate second stanza. 

The Splendid Splinter Project - 12 May 1941

(This game was played as part of The Splendid Splinter co-op project to replay Ted Williams' .406 season of 1941.)

More Bank Shot Basketball

Three more semi-random matchups simulated with Bank Shot Basketball . . .

The Splendid Splinter Project - 29 April 1941

(This game was played as part of The Splendid Splinter co-op project to replay Ted Williams' .406 season of 1941.)

My first few days with Bank Shot Basketball

For some time now, I've been in the market for a full-play college basketball game. I had been a long-time customer of the now-departed Classic College and Pro Basketball, for which I own hundreds of teams purchased over the past 15-20 years, and its demise left a hole in my stable. Specifically, I wanted a full-play game that not only consistently produced current seasons but also had a large library of historical teams; I have a strong tendency towards historical gaming in the first place, and I expect this to only accentuate in the case of NCAAB as NIL and conference realignment move the sport towards one-year playing contracts and the diminution of long-standing rivalries.

Season Ticket Baseball Showdown 2 - Final Stats

Final Season Ticket Baseball Showdown team and individual statistics . . .

Season Ticket Baseball Showdown 2

Four managers came together once again for a face-to-face Season Ticket showdown, bringing teams chosen from the famous 1964 National League pennant race which saw four teams finish the season separated by just three games. A double round-robin FTF tournament with no playoffs - winner takes all!

1919 NL Players of the Week - 29 June

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the National League during the week of 23-29 June are as follows (boldface denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 29 June

Pirates 3, Cubs 2: Wilbur Cooper pitched eleven fine innings and Howdy Caton earned him a victory with a 12th-inning RBI single that ended a long afternoon in Chicago. The Cubs held a 2-1 lead into the 8th inning behind Hippo Vaughn, but Caton's two-out double scored Cliff Lee from second base to tie the game and eventually force extra innings. Chicago squandered Les Mann's one-out triple in the 11th, and the Pirates took advantage when they came up to hit. Cooper (9-3) drew a walk with two outs and Carson Bigbee legged out an infield single, before Caton hit a sinking liner to right that fell in front of Max Flack for a hit and allowed Cooper to come around to score for the lead. Having seen his horse expend himself on the bases, Fred Mitchell decided to lift him in favor of Earl Hamilton in the bottom of the 12th and this almost came back to haunt him. After two quick outs, the Cubs got two men on base before getting Flack to ground one to first base to retire the side. Mann had three hits for Chicago. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 28 June

Phillies 8, Robins 3: Irish Meusel and Gavy Cravath had four hits apiece, as Philadelphia pounded out fifteen hits to back Eppa Rixey in a win at Brooklyn. The Phillies busted open a close game with four straight singles in a 5th-inning rally that scored four runs to give PHI a 5-2 lead. After the clubs traded singe runs in the 8th, Cravath launched his League-pacing eleventh home run in the 9th, with Meusel on first base, to give the fragile Philadelphia pitching some margin for error. Rixey (1-1), despite an uncharacteristic five bases on balls on the afternoon, waltzed through an uneventful 9th inning to finish off the complete game. [box] [broadcast]

1919 NL - Games of Friday, 27 June

Reds 2, Pirates 0: Ray Fisher twirled a two-hitter and Heinie Groh and Larry Kopf delivered runs that allowed Cincinnati to come out on top of a pitching duel at Forbes Field. The Reds got off to a bright start, as Jake Daubert tripled with one out in the 1st and Groh immediately followed with an RBI single. Greasy Neale started the Cincinnati 7th with a three-bagger, and Kopf pushed him across with a fly ball to medium-deep center field. Fisher (6-8), meanwhile, was giving nothing to the Pirate batters - he retired the first nine and the final eight men, and allowed a runner into scoring position only twice. Carson Bigbee led off the 4th with a single and was bunted to second, and Billy Southworth singled and stole second to start the 5th, but Fisher got two groundouts in the first instance and two popups in the second to thwart the visitors on his way to facing only two batters over the minimum. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Thursday, 26 June

Cubs 7, Cardinals 6: Chicago somehow overcame six errors in the field, scoring once in the 11th inning to prolong the game and once in the 13th to win and salvage a doubleheader split at home. The visitors led 4-1 through five innings, Austin McHenry doubling home a pair, before the Cubs started to come into the game. A two-out double by Charlie Deal and an RBI single from Tom Daly scored one in the 6th and then Les Mann roped a three-run home run (3) in the following frame to jump Chicago into the lead for the first time. But McHenry tripled in the 8th and pinch-hitter Cliff Heathcote tied the game with a two-out single. Neither team threatened in the 9th, and it was off to extra frames. Pickles Dillhoefer reached on the sixth Chicago error of the game to start the top of the 11th, advanced on a single by pitcher Bill Sherdel, and scored the go-ahead run on Milt Stock's base hit with two away. But Sherdel (1-5) couldn't hold the fort in the bottom of the inning; Bill Killefer led off with a PH single, moved to second on a comebacker, and scored when Charlie Pick singled. The 12th inning was quiet, but the Cards got a runner to second with two away in the top of the 13th before Paul Carter (1-2) retired Dots Miller on a sharp line drive to third base. Sherdel retired the first two Cubs in bottom half, but Pick singled to keep the game going before Mann lined a ball into RCF gap that went all the way to wall for a game-winning triple. Pick had four hits, Mann had four RBI, and Lee Magee made three errors at shortstop for Chicago. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 25 June

Reds 4, Cubs 3: Manuel Cueto dropped a perfectly-executed bunt up the first base line to squeeze Larry Kopf across the plate with the run that completed a late comeback by the Reds against Chicago. The Reds trailed 3-2 in the 8th inning, having found the going tough against Hippo Vaughn (7-8), but Heinie Groh circled the bases for a home run with one out when his deep drive to center eluded Dode Paskert's grasp and rolled all the way to the center-field fence. In the bottom of the 9th, Kopf led off against Vaughn with another deep drive to the outfield, this one splitting Paskert and Max Flack while the Cincinnati shortstop motored all the way to third base. That brought up the Cuban outfielder, and the Reds weren't inclined to play passively; on the second pitch, Kopf broke for home and Cueto bunted the ball gently up the first base line where Fred Merkle (despite creeping in to guard against this very eventuality) could make only a perfunctory flip of the sphere towards home which was well late of the sliding Kopf. The late heroics made a winner out of Jimmy Ring (1-2), making his first start of the season, who pitched around twelve Cub singles. [box]

2025 College World Series replay - Day 5

Day 5 of the tournament will send a pair of teams home, and another pair on to challlenge the bracket leaders for a place in the Finals . . .

1919 NL - Games of Tuesday, 24 June

Robins 4, Giants 3: Shortly after watching New York tie the score on Larry Doyle's home run, Brooklyn pushed a man across in the bottom of the 8th inning to win at Ebbets Field. The visiting Giants had a 2-1 lead before Lew Malone's two-out, two-run double switched the lead in the Robins' favor in the 6th, but Doyle hit his fourth four-bagger of the season to lead off the top of the 8th and bring NY onto level terms once again. Zack Wheat started off the bottom of the inning against Fred Toney (2-4) with a single, and he got as far as third base with two outs after a pair of groundouts. This brought Malone to the plate again, and again he came through with two outs, singling Wheat home to put Brooklyn back on top. Leon Cadore (6-4) walked Ross Youngs to put the tying run on base with two away in the 9th, but the Giants' right-fielder was gunned down by Otto Miller trying to swipe his way into scoring position to end the game.  [box]

1919 NL - Games of Monday, 23 June

Pirates 9, Cardinals 2: Carson Bigbee had four hits in a game for the sixth time in the campaign and Vic Saier drove home four runs as Pittsburgh buried St Louis in the second half of their tilt at Robison Field. The Pirates led by a score of just 2-0 as the game headed into its fifth inning (one of those runs coming on Bigbee's 1st homer of the season), but Saier and Bigbee combined to stretch the lead in the 5th; Saier led off with a single, pitcher Frank Miller looped a base hit with one away, and Bigbee followed with an RBI single. Miller scored when Milt Stock couldn't field Casey Stengel's two-out ground ball. After the club exchanged runs, Pittsburgh piled up five singles in the 7th (Bigbee and Saier each collecting another) to score three more times to put the game away. Miller (5-3) allowed seven hits and walked none, while striking out six. [box]

1919 NL Players of the Week - 22 June

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the National League during the week of 16-22 June are as follows (boldface denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 22 June

Cubs 2, Robins 1: Pete Kilduff's pinch-hit single with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Fred Merkle from third base with the game-winning run and rewarded Hippo Vaughn with a win for his eleven innings of four-hit hurling. Vaughn and his opponent Jeff Pfeffer appeared to have early dinner plans in Chicago that evening, the way they were cutting through the batting lineups. Brooklyn scored in the 5th on a leadoff double by Ed Konetchy, a bunt and a sac fly, but the Cubs equalized in the 6th on a pair of leadoff singles and a sacrifice fly of their own. Vaughn (7-7) then retired fifteen straight Robins while Pfeffer allowed only three hits over the next five innings. That took the game to the 11th still knotted up at a run apiece, and Mack Wheat stopped Vaughn's unbeaten string with a double to start the inning. He has bunted to third by Pfeffer, but Ivy Olson slapped one right at third baseman Charlie Deal playing in on the grass and Wheat had to hold tight at third. Hi Myers drew a walk, but Jimmy Johnston got under one for an inning-ending fly ball to center. In the bottom half, Fred Merkle doubled with one away and Dode Paskert singled him to third base. The pfading Pfeffer (8-5) was replaced by Larry Cheney, and the relief man got Deal to foul out to the catcher for out number two. That brought Kilduff off the bench to hit for Fred Lear, and the infielder lined a pitch into left field that scored Merkle for the winner. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 21 June

Reds 7, Phillies 4: Cincinnati rapped out eighteen hits - Morrie Rath, Heinie Groh and Edd Roush amassing three apiece - and Ray Fisher pitched well enough to win as the Reds moved back into first place with a win at home. After Gavy Cravath had given the Phillies a quick lead with an RBI single in the 1st, Groh singled and stole second before Roush tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring single. In the 4th Gorh again got on base, with a leadoff walk, and stole the next base and this time Jimmy Smith was the one to drive him home. In the following frame, Cincinnati piled on Gene Packard (2-7) for three straight one-out singles that produced one run and Greasy Neale placed an exclamation point with a two-run triple that made the score 5-1. Fisher (5-8) was having his way with the visitors through six innings, allowing just one hit after Cravath's early RBI, but the Phils got to him in the 7th. The first three men singled, with Bert Adams' hit knocking in a run; Fisher got the next two men out, but Cy Williams doubled to score two more with two out and it was suddenly a one-run contest. Four singles in the bottom of the 8th produced two insurance runs for the Reds, and Fisher recorded strike outs for three of the final four outs to close strongly. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Friday, 20 June

Braves 6, Pirates 5: Boston scored a run in the 8th to tie, and a run in the 9th to win, a see-saw affair with Pittsburgh in The Steel City. After the Pirates had leapt to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on Casey Stengel's RBI triple, George Cutshaw's sac fly and Billy Southworth's solo home run (1), Boston came back with one in the 4th and three in the 6th to take the lead - five straight Braves singled off of Earl Hamilton after two men were out. The home team got right back on top in the bottom of the inning when the decision to intentionally walk Walter Schmidt to face the pitcher Hamilton backfired when both he and leadoff batter Carson Bigbee singled to score runs. Brooklyn tied the score again when Buck Herzog tripled to start the 8th and scored on Ray Powell's single, and then they finished the job against Hamilton (1-10) in the 9th. With one out Tony Boeckel singled, and Walt Tragesser (.182) then drove a two-bagger that was deep enough to score Bockel with the go-ahead run. Al Demaree (5-2) allowed the first two men in the bottom of the inning to reach, but Jack Scott came on to record two ground ball force outs to strand the potential tying run at third base. Bigbee and Southworth each had four of Pittsburgh's fourteen hits. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Thursday, 19 June

Cubs 3, Robins 2: Charlie Deal's single in the bottom of the 11th scored the winning run, with the benefit of a Brooklyn error, and enabled Chicago to withstand six of their own fielding miscues to win a close, mistake-filled affair at Weeghman Park. The Cubs got on the board first, in the 1st, on a single, two ground outs and a wild pitch and the clubs then traded runs in the 3rd with the Cubs retaking the lead on Max Flack's home run (3). Neither club could score again, despite Brooklyn getting some help from three Pete Kilduff errors, until the 8th when Tommy Griffith singled, stole second and took third on Bob O'Farrell's wild throw, and scored the tying run on Zack Wheat's sacrifice fly ball. There were two more Cub errors in the top of the 11th, but Speed Martin (3-2) got two outs in the air to keep the runners stuck on their bases, and the bats got it done in the bottom half. With one out, Kilduff singled, and he moved to second on a ground out. Dode Paskert's ground ball eluded the grasp of Ed Konetchy at first for another error to place Kilduff at third base and Deal then singled to shallow center to win the game for Chicago. Surprisingly, the nine errors in the game led to only a single unearned run, partly because the Robins hit only 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Otto Miller had three hits for Brooklyn and Flack had three for the Cubs. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 18 June

Robins 2, Cubs 1: Brooklyn could manage only two hits against Hippo Vaughn, but they both led to runs as the visitors finally found the winning edge in a tense contest in the top of the 9th inning. Three thousand fans were in the stands at Weeghman Park to see a much-anticipated pitching matchup between Vaughn and Jeff Pfeffer, who had combined to win thirteen games thus far in the campaign, and the star men did not disappoint. The first safe hit of the game came to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, when Vaughn lined one down the left-field line and off the wall for a two-base hit; after Max Flack ground out to second to move Pfeffer along, Charlie Pick hit a fly ball to Zack Wheat in left that was deep enough for the pitcher to tag up and score the game's opening tally. Les Mann followed with a single, but that was the last hit of the game until the top of the 6th. Ivy Olson took a Vaughn breaking ball in the shoulder blade to start the frame, and then made Chicago pay double by swiping second base on the first pitch to Jimmy Johnston. The Robin right fielder then grounded one up the middle and into center for a base hit that enabled Olson to come around and score the tying run. Chicago got two men aboard with one out in the home half of the inning, but Pfeffer got Dode Paskert to ground out and Charlie Deal to sky harmlessly to center to end the inning. Vaughn, meanwhile, was ripping through the Brooklyns, retiring nine in a row with seven groundouts to take the game into the 9th still deadlocked at one run apiece. Hi Myers was first up for the Robins, and his ground ball was thrown away by Bill McCabe at shortstop (CHI star SS Charlie Hollocher was out due to injury), putting Myers at second base. Wheat followed with a bloop that fell onto the grass in shallow center for a hit that sent Myers to third. The brought up Ed Konetchy and, with the infielders creeping in, the BRO first baseman dropped an exquisite bunt down the first base line with which Fred Merkle could do nothing but pick up and tag Konetchy while Myers slide home with the go-ahead run. Vaughn (6-7) got two ground outs to the drawn-in infield to limit the damage, but Pfeffer )8-4) allowed only a two-out walk in the the bottom of the 9th before retiring pinch-hitter Turner Barber to end the game. [box]

Season Ticket Showdown - Final Stats

Final Season Ticket Baseball Showdown team and individual statistics . . .

Season Ticket Baseball Showdown

Four managers came together for a face-to-face Season Ticket showdown, bringing teams chosen from the six clubs in the STB catalogue which won 100 games without making the postseason. A double round-robin FTF tournament with no playoffs - winner takes all!

1919 NL - Games of Tuesday, 17 June

Cubs 4, Giants 3: Chicago scored once in the 8th to tie, and once in the bottom of the 9th to beat the League leaders in front of a jubilant home crowd. After Larry Doyle had homered (3) off of Pete Alexander in the 2nd to put the Giants ahead, the Cubs jumped into the lead with a pair of runs in the home half of the 3rd. After a walk and a sacrifice, Max Flack singled home the tying run, and then Doyle fumbled Charlie Pick's ground ball for an error. After Red Causey got a fly out for the second out, Fred Merkle grounded a single into center field to score Flack and put the home side on top. The pitchers then pulled themselves on top of the game for stretch, aided a bit by reckless base running (two two-out CS) by the Giants and a fine defensive play in the top of the 7th when, with the bases loaded, Alexander fielded a ground ball off the bat of League-leading batter Lew McCarty and and flung it home to force Benny Kauff. Alexander then whiffed pinch-hitter George Kelly on a called third strike to put an end to the NY threat. In the next inning, however, the Gothams did get to Old Pete - Ross Youngs reached on Pete Kilduff's one-out error, and then the next two Giants singled to fill the sacks to bulging. Kauff then struck a two-bagger that scored two of the runners before Doyle was thrown at the plate attempting to clear the bases. Now faced with a deficit, Chicago got to work straightaway. Less Mann hit a leadoff single, moved up on a ground ball, and came around to score and tie the game on Dode Paskert's base hit. New York got two hits in the top of the 9th, but Alexander fanned a pair to keep them tied down. In the bottom of the inning, Kilduff worked a walk from Pat Ragan (1-1) and then Bob O'Farrell laid down a sacrifice bunt. McCarty fielded it in front of the plate and fired to second, but Kilduff beat the throw by an eyelash. PH Turner Barber bunted again, and that moved Kilduff to third where Flack picked him up with a fly ball to left that gave George Burns little chance to throw home in time to prevent the walk-off win by the Cubs. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Monday, 16 June

Pirates 2, Phillies 1: Walter Schmidt and Casey Stengel singled in 3rd-inning runs and Babe Adams made sure those were sufficient for Chicago to nick Philadelphia at Forbes Field. Adams (7-2) shut the Phillies down on just one hit over the first six innings, a two-out single by Irish Meusel in the 4th, but allowed a solo homer to Gavy Cravath (his circuit-pacing 9th) in the 8th and then had to pitch around a one-out Doug Baird single in the 9th to finish off his thirty-batter work of art. Frank Woodward (0-7) suffered the tough loss despite allowing only six hits, and Schmidt's two hits were the most on either club. [box]

1919 NL - Pitching Leaders through 15 June

Pitching leaderboards in the National League through the games of Sunday, 15 June . . .

1919 NL - Batting Leaders through 15 June

Offensive statistical Leaders in the National League through the games of Sunday, 15 June . . .

1919 NL Players of the Week - 15 June

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the National League during the week of 9-15 June are (boldface denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 15 June

Robins 5, Cardinals 0: Leon Cadore allowed only two St Louis singles and retired twenty-one straight men on his way to an easy win in front of the Cardinal crowd. Brooklyn pounded out thirteen hits (all singles as well), four of which came in succession to start the 4th inning and score the first two runs of the ballgame. One more in the 8th, and two in the 9th, provided some padding but none of that was going to be necessary with Cadore (5-3) whipping through the Cards like a blackjack dealer. He allowed a 1st-inning knock to Milt Stock, and STL didn't record another safe hit until Doc Lavan singled with two outs in the 8th. He walked no one, while fanning five and faced just thirty men on the afternoon. Jimmy Johnston drove in two runs for the Robins with a pair of hits. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 14 June

Giants 7, Cubs 0: Fred Toney throttled the Chicago Nationals on three singles and New York hitters teed off on League ERA leader Hippo Vaughn for thirteen hits in an easy Giant win at Weeghman Park. In what was was billed as a rematch of their legendary double no-hit matchup two seasons ago, Vaughn never really got to grips with the Giant offense. The visitors left runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings and then started the 3rd with three straight singles, and Larry Doyle's sac fly then opened the scoring. The Cubs got their first hit of the game when Max Flack led off the 4th with a single, but was almost immediately erased attempting to steal his way into scoring position. In the 5th, NY again touched Vaughn (6-6) for three straight base hits to begin the inning, and this time the Giants turned them into a crooked number - the third hit, from Benny Kauff, scored a run, Art Fletcher hit a sacrifice fly, and Lew McCarty tripled across a third to make it a 4-0 game. The Cubs got another single in the 7th, and a second from Flack in the 9th, but didn't come close to scoring against Toney (2-2) on either occasion while the Giants were padding their lead with three more runs in the late innings while the Cubs fell to pieces (three errors in the final three innings). [box] [broadcast]

1919 NL - Games of Friday, 13 June

Reds 9, Giants 4: Heinie Groh singled, tripled and drove in three to lead Cincinnati to a big win that salvaged the final game of their table-topping series with New York and pulled them back to within a game of first place. Things were not looking good for Cincinnati in the early going, as the Giants scored four times on five base hits in the first three innings off of Slim Sallee, George Burns scoring twice and Benny Kauff driving in two. But Sallee stopped the flow of runs after that, and the Reds began to claw their way back into the game. In the 5th a leadoff walk to Ivey Wingo set the table for RBI singles by Morrie Rath and Groh, and then the visitors fell apart in the 6th. A hit batsman and three Giant errors contributed to a four-run inning that gave Cincinnati the lead, and then three walks, another error, and Groh's two-run triple in the 9th put the game on ice. Jimmy Ring came on to relieve Sallee (5-1) in the 7th and pitched three scoreless innings to close out the game without heartburn for Pat Moran. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Thursday, 12 June

Pirates 10, Robins 2: Carson Bigbee had four hits and drove home four runs to lead a sixteen-hit Pittsburgh attack that overwhelmed Brooklyn at Forbes Field. The Pirates led 6-1 after four innings, with Bigbee already having a single, double, stolen base and RBI in his account; a three-run 8th inning in which he singled home two runs then put the game way beyond Brooklyn's reach. Frank Miller (4-2) used this support to good effect, allowing just single runs in the 4th and the 9th and walking no one while striking out three Robins. Bigbee was supported by three hits each from Casey Stengel and Walter Schmidt, and the Pirates also put on a fine display of scientific baseball, stealing three bases along with three successful sacrifices. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 11 June

Giants 2, Reds 0: New York won the second straight battle in the war for the top spot in the National League to move clear of the Reds by a full game, behind the shutout pitching of Ferdie Schupp and Jean Dubuc. The Giants scored first when Larry Doyle took a Dutch Ruether pitch in the hip to begin the 2nd, stole second, and scored when Art Fletcher singled two outs later. The clubs struggled to put the hurlers under pressure otherwise, and the score was still 1-0 when NY came to bat in the top of the 7th. Catcher Mike Gonzalez tagged Ruether for a two-base hit to lead off the frame, and Schupp sacrificed him to third base. Next up was George Burns, and he laced a base hit that doubled the Giant advantage with three innings left to play. Cincinnati got two hits in the the bottom of the inning but Jake Daubert and Heinie Groh each failed to get one home, and two hits and a walk in the 8th went for naught thanks to a GIDP from Greasy Neale and Dubuc retiring Ivey Wingo for the third out with two men aboard. The Reds made noise again in the bottom of the 9th, Daubert and Groh singling with two outs, but Edd Roush popped to short for the out that moved the Giants to the top tier of the NL. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Tuesday, 10 June

Robins 5, Pirates 2: Ernie Krueger hit a pair of home runs, the second of which broke tie in the 7th inning and pushed Brooklyn to a win in Pittsburgh. The Pirates took the early lead behind three 2nd-inning singles, Zeb Terry's knock scoring Walter Schmidt with the second and final run of the inning. But Krueger homered with two outs and the bases empty in the 5th and then, after the Robins had tied the game in the 6th on Ed Konetchy's RBI single, he followed Lew Malone's leadoff hit in the 7th with his fourth home run of the season to put the visitors in front. Jeff Pfeffer (6-4) held the Pirates to two hits over the final four innings to lock up the victory, while Earl Hamilton (1-9) suffered his League-leading ninth defeat. [box]

World Series Time Machine: 1971

The 1971 baseball season saw Hank Aaron become the third player in major-league history to hit 600 career home runs, Rick Wise pitch a no-hitter while hitting two long balls himself, an All-Star game in which six future Hall of Famers hit homers, and the end of the second incarnation of the Washington American League franchise. In the Fall Classic, the American League Baltimore Orioles (101-57) face off (again) against the National League Champion Pittsburgh Pirates (97-65) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Monday, 9 June

Reds 2, Robins 1: Rube Bressler's first run batted in of the season proved to be a big one, as his 4th inning triple drove in the score that made the difference in a tight Cincinnati victory in front of their home fans. The Reds took a 1st-inning lead when Jake Daubert and Heinie Groh singled, and Edd Roush's ground ball to first pushed Daubert across. Slim Sallee escaped a two-out, bases-loaded mess created by Larry Kopf's error in the 3rd by striking out Tommy Griffith and then Cincinnati extended their advantage in the 4th. With two outs Kopf made a start at balancing his ledger by making a safe hit, and the aspiring young two-way player Bressler came to the plate against Rube Marquard (2-3) with only one hit in his first nineteen at-bats of the campaign. But Bressler ripped a liner over the heads of Hi Myers and Zack Wheat and zipped all the way to third base as Kopf scored the second Cincinnati run. In the 6th, the first two Robins singled and Wheat drove one of them home with one out, but Sallee (4-1) got Ed Konetchy to bounce into a 643 double play that killed the inning and then proceeded to retire the next nine Brooklyn batters to close out the game. [box]

1919 NL Players of the Week - 8 June

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the National League during the week of 2-8 June are (boldface denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 8 June

Phillies 8, Cardinals 7: Fred Luderus hit a grand slam and two 9th-inning runs proved to be just enough for Philadelphia to eke out a victory in St. Louis for just their second win in the last ten games. Luderus' bases-clearing circuit clout was the key hit in a five-run 3rd inning that put the Phillies in front, even after the Cards had taken advantage of three consecutive Frank Woodward walks to score three times in the bottom half of the inning. Woodward (7 innings, 7 walks) again struggled to find the strike zone in the 4th, as three more free passes contributed to two St. Louis runs which brought the home club back to a 6-5 lead. Ed Sicking's RBI single in the 5th knotted the score again and the flow of runs was then staunched for a bit while the batsmen caught their breath. It was still 6-6 as the Phils came to bat in the top of the 9th, and Cy Williams drew a leadoff walk. After a sacrifice and a fly out, the lead run was still on second with two outs, but Gavy Cravath singled home Williams, moved up on a base on balls, and scored himself when Sicking (three RBI) again produced a run-scoring hit. Philadelphia took that two-run lead into the bottom of the inning, and needed it - a walk, passed ball and pinch-hit RBU single from Austin McHenry cut the lead in half, but Brad Hogg (1-4) got the final out by coaxing Burt Shotton into a routine fly ball to center. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 7 June

Robins 6, Reds 2: .Jimmy Johnston's three-run homer capped a four-run 7th inning that lifted Brooklyn to a win at Redland Field. The game was a tight, well-pitched affair through six innings, with the Robins holding a 2-1 lead despite not being able to record a hit against Dutch Ruether (3-2) after the 2nd inning. Four singles in the 1st had gotten the visitors two runs, and Cincinnati got one back in the 2nd when Edd Roush doubled and Greasy Neale singled him home. But the bats had gone quiet after that, with Ruether doing his thing and Sherry Smith retiring 17 of 19 at one stretch. In the 7th, though, the Robins touched Ruether for two hits that put runners on second ond third with nobody out; after Smith whiffed for the first out, Ivy Olson hit a tapper to the right of the mound which Ruether fielded and flung home, but the throw was late as Lew Malone slide home under the tag. Lee Magee grounded into a fielder's choice at the plate to cut down a second run, but Johnston followed with a deep drive over the head of the outfielders for his first four-base hit of the season and a 6-1 Brooklyn lead.  The Reds got one unearned run the the bottom of the 9th but Smith (3-1) finished off a six-hitter by getting Neale to ground out to first base for the game's last out. Ernie Krueger had three hits and a walk in four trips to the plate for the Robins. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Friday, 6 June

Cubs 4, Braves 3: Chicago scored once in each of the 7th and 8th innings to tie the game, and Charlie Pick then delivered a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the 9th to steal a win out from under Boston's nose. Boston sprang from the gate when Joe Riggert, Buck Herzog and Ray Powell went triple-double-single to start the game; the Braves scored twice in the inning to put Claude Hendrix onto the back foot right away. The clubs traded scores in the middle innings to make it a 3-1 game as the home team came to bat in the 7th, having managed only four hits against Dick Rudolph, and only one since the 2nd. Fred Merkle and Les Mann led off with singles, but Rudolph got the next two Cubs to sky out to right field. Turner Barber pinch hit for Hendrix and produced the two-out hit that scored a second Cubs run to close the gap to one run. In the 8th, Pick led off with a triple and scored the tying run when Charlie Hollocher followed with a single; Chicago had a chance to go on and take the lead, but couldn't capitalize when the next two batters singled as well but Dana Fillingim (2-4) came on to retire the side for Boston. Bill Killefer led off the bottom of the 9th with a base on balls and was sacrificed to second by PH Pete Kilduff. Max Flack could only pop up to third base, but the next hitter Picked him up with a drive between Riggert and Walton Cruise that sent Killefer home with the winning run. [box]

2024 NPB Japan Series

The Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) have come from a third-place regular-season finish in the Pacific League to the championship finals, while the Yomiuri Giants (77-59-7) were the Central League pennant winners. Will the most storied club in Japanese baseball history add yet another title to their long list of laurels, or will the suddenly hot upstarts taste champagne for the first time in nearly fifteen years?

Inside Pitch Advanced playtest: 1984 NLCS replay

With the newest iteration of Inside Pitch now out in the wild for beta playtesting, I thought it would be fun to see what's going on in developer Chris Davis' mind these days. Although I no longer play Inside Pitch regularly, it is a great sim and was a mainstay of mine for years, and Chris is always coming up with interesting design ideas. (His hockey and soccer games are still top-of-class for my money.) Since the 1984 Padres hold a special place in my memory bank - I spent the summer in San Diego doing nothing but watching baseball and playing the APBA MG after the family had moved West from Boston - I decided to give the game a spin by replaying the 1984 NLCS. So, once again, the NL East champion Chicago Cubs (96-65) will face off against the NL West Division champion San Diego Padres (92-70) . . .

2024 NPB Pacific League Climax Series, Final Stage

The Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) held the Fighters to just two runs in their First Stage two-game sweep, but now they must stare down the barrel of Nippon Professional Baseball's best offense - the regular-season Pacific League champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (91-49-3) scored more than a half-run per game more than the second-highest scoring team in the league. The Hawks, the first team to win 90 games in Japan's top league since the 2017 edition of the franchise, will be very heavily favored to return to the Japan Series for the first time since winning the last of their four straight NPB titles in 2020 . . .

2024 NPB Central League Climax Series, Final Stage

The Yokohama DeNA BayStars (71-69-3) look to turn their quick dispatch of the Hanshin Tigers in the First Stage into the momentum which they will need to overcome both the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants (77-59-7) and the traditional Final Stage handicap - all series games to be played at the Tokyo Dome, and needing to win four times in six games against the Giants to advance to the Japan Series as the representative of the Central League. 

2024 NPB Pacific League Climax Series, First Stage

Other than a late-season surge that saw the second- and third-place teams swap positions, there had not been much drama in the 2024 Pacific League pennant race - the Hawks went essentially wire-to-wire to run away from the PL pack, and the top three had been more or less decided by the 100-game mark. With the daunting task of upending the Hawks as a "reward", the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Tigers (75-60-8) and the Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) meet as ES CON Field in Hokkaido. The Fighters will enter the Series as heavy favorites, with both home-field advantage and an 18-6 record of regular-season dominance over the Marines . . .