Four managers came together once again for a face-to-face Season Ticket showdown, bringing teams chosen from the legendary 1967 American League pennant race which saw four teams finish the season separated by just three games (three by a single game!). A double round-robin FTF tournament with no playoffs - winner takes all!
| Manager | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Costa | 1967 Boston Red Sox (92-70) |
| 2 | Norman Needle | 1967 Detroit Tigers (91-71) |
| 3 | Bob Militello | 1967 Minnesota Twins (91-71) |
| 4 | Scott Needle | 1967 Chicago White Sox (89-73) |
- 26-man roster, named prior to start of tournament
- Pitchers must have 15+ GS to start, any pitcher starting a game is ineligible to relieve
- Position players with less than 150 AB may not start; they are eligible to PH at any time, but may only stay in the game (or enter as defensive replacement) in 6th inning or later. Pitchers may not pinch hit or pinch run.
- Starting pitchers (i.e., no relief Stamina rating) who are not used to start may relieve with a relief Stamina equal to one-half their starting value (rounded down), but they can only be used (1) when the original starter hits a Fatigue of 4, or (2) the game is in extra innings
- Pitcher injuries will be ignored, and any other injuries are in force for the remainder of the current game ONLY; if a player is injured (or ejected), his replacement is not subject to limits specified above
- Season Ticket “Season Play” pitcher fatigue rules (page 28 of the Rules) will govern usage and in-game Fatigue; the “Pitching on Short Rest” rule will be in effect for pitchers who qualify.
- Designated hitter rule in effect for home games of DH-era teams
- No zombie runner in extra innings
- Games tied after twelve innings are recorded as ties in the standings
Earl Wilson dominated his former teammates and the Tigers rode Dick McAuliffe's grand slam to an easy win over the Sox and their Cy Young Award winner. Detroit got on the board int he 1st when McAuliffe led off with a single, took third on Bill Freehan's base hit and scored when Willie Horton singled. That was just the warning shot, however, for the big blow in the 4th. With two out, a man on first, and the bottom two slots in the Tiger lineup coming up, it appeared as if Lonborg would not be troubled in the inning; however, he walked both Ray Oyler and Wilson to load the bases, and McAuliffe made him pay dearly with a four-run four-base hit into the left-field seats. The Red Sox, meanwhile, could scratch out one hit - a Mike Ryan single in the 3rd - over the first six innings as Wilson set them down as fast as Boston could bring them up. Freehan homered with Al Kaline aboard in the 5th to make it 7-0 and Wilson coasted to the finish with a four-hitter and an emphatic start to the Showdown for Detroit. Detroit 7-10-0, Boston 0-4-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Earl Wilson was just too much for Boston |
Rich Rollins tripled twice and knocked in three runs, and the Twins barely withstood a late Chicago charge to win at Metropolitan Stadium. Three 2nd-inning singles gave the White Sox the early lead, but Gary Peters got into it up to his elbows in the the bottom of the 3rd inning when Tommy McCraw kicked Rod Carew's leadoff grounder and he then walked the next two batters to fill the sacks with no one out. A shallow fly ball got one out without damage but Tony Oliva singled home one run and, one out later, Rollins laced one to the outfield wall for three bases and three more runs. Jim Merritt then proceeded to shut the ChiSox down completely, retiring fifteen of the next seventeen batters, and Rollins again turned the three-base trick in the 8th before trotting home on Russ Nixon's sac fly. That seemingly unimportant run would turn out to be anything but, as Merritt faded badly in the 9th - Ken Boyer singled, and Tommie Agee (3-for-4) homered to pull back two runs before an out was recorded. After McCraw doubled one out later, Merritt was relieved by Jim Roland and he got the second out before Ken Berry hit him for an RBI single that put the potential tying run on base. That marker got to second when Nixon tried to back-pick Berry and threw the ball down the RF line, and that gave pinch-hitter Wayne Causey a chance to play the late-game hero. He hit the ball right on the screws, but also right at Zoilo Versalles at shortstop, and the line out ended both the comeback and the game. Minnesota 5-5-1, Chicago 4-10-2. [box] [pbp]
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| Rich Rollins clears the bases with the first of his two triples |
Joe Horlen silenced Detroit's power bats and a pair of late two-out RBI singles pushed the White Sox to their first win of the tournament. The two starters locked in an old-fashioned pitchers' duel through six scoreless innings, Horlen coaxing three double-play balls off the Tiger bats while Lolich was allowing just three hits and getting his own clutch GIDP after two of those hits came in succession in the 5th. In the bottom of the the 7th, the deadlock was finally broken when Ken Boyer led off with a double and scored on Tommy McCraw's two-out single. In the 8th, a lead-off hit by J.C. Martin and a walk to Ron Hansen set up Boyer for another bit of last-out lightning as he singled home Martin to make it 2-0. Horlen was going through the Tiger lineup like a hot pitch-to-contact knife through butter, meanwhile, and set down fourteen of the final fifteen (nine of them on ground balls) to slam the door on Detroit.. Chicago 2-7-0, Detroit 0-5-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Joe Horlen spins a five-hit masterpiece at the Tugers |
The other half of the field saw a similar start to their afternoon, as neither lineup could find a way to cross the plate through the first six innings. Both teams got a pair of 1st-inning walks, but failed to cash in, while the Red Sox wasted a one-out Mike Andrews double in the 3rd when Carl Yastrzemski was walked intentionally with two outs (his fourth walk in two games) and George Scott flew out to the warning track in right. Chance retired thirteen in a row at one stretch while his Twin teammates were finally grabbing the lead - Bob Allison led off the top of the 7th with a triple into the right-field corner at Fenway, and Cesar Tovar followed with an RBI double to the gap in left-center. Stange appeared to be on the ropes, but he retired the next two batters before Dan Osinski came on to get Zoilo Versalles for the final out of the inning. Minnesota threatened again in the 8th when Tony Oliva doubled with two away, but the Sox played copycat and gave Harmon Killebrew a free pass before retiring Allison for the third out. The Sox went to the bench in the bottom half, and it paid off. With one out, Jose Tartabull drew a pinch-hit walk after a long battle with Chance and Andrews took advantage of the resulting fatigue by jumping on a Chance fastball and dropping it into the netting atop the Green Monster to give Boston a 2-1 lead. Jim Roland came on in relief, Dalton Jones singled, Rod Carew mishandled a Yaz grounder, and Tony Conigliaro belted a double off the wall to cash Jones in as insurance. John Wyatt was handed the ball in the 9th for the Sox and he struck out two batters in a 1-2-3 inning that put the entire Showdown field at one win and one loss. Boston 3-5-0, Minnesota 1-4-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Mike Andrews turns the game around for Boston with a Fenway homer |
The Red Sox strike first against John when Yaz singles to left with two away and George Scott follows with a line-drive home run that clears the Wall in left. Two innings later, Mike Andrews draws a leadoff base on balls and it's Yastrzemski's turn to circle the bases as he deposits one deep into the RF stands to double the Boston lead to 4-0. After the Crimson Hose tack on another in 4th on Reggie Smith's RBI single, the Pale Hose strike back, scoring twice in the 5th on J.C. Martin's homer and once in the 6th when Tommie Agee doubles home Ron Hansen from first. But the Chicago bullpen can't hold the line - pinch-hitter Norm Siebern singles to lead off the Boston 6th, and Andrews drives one into the bullpen in right for the third two-run homer of the day for the Sox (and his second in two days) to stretch the score to 7-3. The visitors get a two-run pinch-hit homer from Ken Boyer in the 7th to make it a game again, but the back end of the Boston pen shuts them down without a hit over the final two innings to seal the deal. Tony Conigliaro had three of Boston's fourteen hits. Boston 7-14-0, Chicago 5-7-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Yaz watches his 3rd-inning home run leave the yard |
The Twins scored twice in the 9th inning to tie the game, then buried the Tigers under four 11th-inning runs to win a protracted affair at Briggs Stadium. The early going was dominated by Detroit, as they scored twice in the 2nd, on doubles by Bill Freehan and Willie Horton and an RBI single from Ray Oyler, and once in the 4th on Don Wert's run-scoring two-base hit. Denny McLain allowed just one Minnesota hit through the first five innings, before finally showing a crack in the 6th when Bob Allison's one-out long fly eluded Horton in left for a triple and MIN's first run. The Detroit relief corps got out of that inning, and was unblemished in the next two, before Fred Gladding was handed the ball in the top of the 9th and asked to protect the 3-1 lead. That lead lasted all of two batters - Cesar Tovar led off with a base hit, and Rich Rollins homered to tie the score before Gladding could record an out. The next twelve batters in the game went down in order as the scoreboard moved into extra innings, and Mike Marshall was on the hill as the 5th Detroit pitcher of the afternoon as Minnesota came to bat in the 11th. Marshall faced five men, and retired none of them - walks to Allison and Rollins, singles by Tovar and Russ Nixon, and a three-run double by Zoilo Versalles accounted for three runs, and a fourth scored on Ted Uhlaender's pinch single which greeted new pitcher Joe Dobson. Jim Ollom came on to pitch for the Twins in the bottom of the inning ,and the disheartened Tigers went down meekly on three successive fly balls to right field Minnesota 7-12-1, Detroit 3-6-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Zoilo Versalles rips a bases-loaded double in the 11th |
After the rest day, the action continued . . .
Three Tigers pitchers combined on a seven-hit shutout and the game-winning run scored on a squeeze play as Detroit edge Chicago. The White Sox had their chances to get to Sparma in the early innings, putting the leadoff man aboard three times in the first four frames, but couldn't find the clutch hit. (The two clubs would combine to go 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.) The Bengals decided that enough was enough, and small-balled their way to the game's first score in the 4th. Jim Northrup led off with a single, stole second, and went to third on Don Wert's base knock. With men at the corners and nobody out, but the bottom two hitters in the lineup coming to bat, the Tigers flashed the safety squeeze sign to Ray Oyler. He laid the ball perfectly down the third-base line, Northrup flashing past the rolling sphere on his way home, and Don Buford could only make the play at first base. Chicago got two men on in the 6th, but Tommy McCraw bounced into a 463 double play, and again in the 7th when Ron Hansen could only pop a foul ball to first. That gave Detroit a chance to cobble together an insurance run in the home 7th, on a walk, a groundout and two J.C. Martin passed balls on Hoyt Wilhelm knucklers. Fred Gladding pitched the final two innings for the home team and fanned three of the final four ChiSox for a painless end to the game. Detroit 2-4-0, Chicago 0-7-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Ray Oyler does it with the bat, squeezing home the game-winning run |
The Red Sox broke open a close game with three 8th-inning runs to take sole possession of first place in the standings. Minnesota got to Darrell Brandon quickly, Rod Carew starting the home 1st with a triple and scoring one batter later on Tony Oliva's sacrifice fly, but the Boston righty settled down to retire fourteen of the next fifteen Twins with the one exception coming on a Dalton Jones fielding error. Boston equalized on Tony Conigliaro's leadoff homer in the 4th, and then nosed into the lead when two singles and a a walk set up a pinch-hit sac fly by Jerry Adair. Once again the Boston bullpen was outstanding, pitching four scoreless innings of relief, and the Sox put the game away in the 8th when George Scott's double started a three-run inning that ended with Ken Harrelson's two-run pinch-hit double. Reggie Smith reached base four times in four trips to the plate for Boston. Boston 5-9-1, Minnesota 1-3-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Reggie Smith was a constant presence on the bases for Boston |
Merritt posted his second impressive pitching performance of the Showdown, allowing five hits and no walks, while Rod Carew delivered the key hit for the Twins. There had been a total of only three base hits through the first four innings of the contest when Cesar Tovar led off the Minnesota 5th with a single and stole second base; when Ron Hansen couldn't then come up with a Rich Rollins grounder, the Twins were in business. Zoilo Versalles hit one up the middle for a force at second, which scored Tovar to break the seal on the scorebook, and Jerry Zimmerman drew a walk before Merritt sacrificed the runners to second and third. That brought up Carew and the rookie lined a base hit that scored both runners and gave the visitors a three-run lead. Merritt was going to need nothing more - he retired seventeen of eighteen at one stretch and kept the White Sox from getting a single runner past first base for the entire afternoon. Minnesota 3-6-0, Chicago 0-5-2. [box] [pbp]
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| Jim earns a Merritt badge for a dominating performance |
As a result of their one-game lead and the state of various tiebreakers, Boston came into the game with the chance to clinch the Showdown title with a round to spare by defeating the Tigers and they handed the ball to Lonborg, who had been shelled (4 ip, 7 h, 7 r, 5 bb) by the same club just five days ago. The tall Californian didn't get off to the greatest start in this one, either, watching Jim Northrup whack the third home run off his pitching in less than six innings of work to get the scoring underway in the top of the 2nd. But, unlike the first game, the Boston bats had an answer for Wilson today - Lonborg singled with one out in the 3rd, Mike Andrews doubled, Dalton Jones hit a sacrifice fly, and George Scott followed yet another walk to Yastrzemski with a three-run homer to left that put the Sos up by a score of 4-1. The Tigers kept clawing against Lonborg, getting a run in the 5th on a double, deep fly ball and wild pitch, and another in the 6th on Al Kaline's solo shot, and it was a one-run game again. But Rico Petrocelli answered Kaline with a bases-empty job of his own to start the bottom of the 7th, and Lonborg powered to the the end by brushing aside the last eleven Tigers with four strikeouts. Dick Tracewski's routine grounder to Andrews found its way into Scott's glove for the final out, and a Boston championship was also in hand. Boston 5-9-0, Detroit 3-7-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Jim Lonborg strikes out eight Tigers on his way to the CG Showdown-clincher |
The White Sox had struggled to score for the entire tournament, but they got the bats going early in the finale. Tommie Agee hit a two-run blast in the 1st, and Don Buford did the same in the 3rd, as Chicago jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. Carl Yastrzemski homered in the 4th, but the ChiSox got that run back immediately when, with runners on the corners and two away in the bottom half of the inning, Stange got Horlen to swing at a third strike in the dirt, but the ball went through to the backstop and J.C. Martin scored from third. Tommie Agree doubled with one away in the 7th and Ken Berry drive him home with a single to right field to make it 6-1 and it looked like a comfortable path to victory for Horlen and Chicago. But an Al Weis error gifted Boston a run in the 6th, and then three singles and a throwing error by Jim O'Toole produced three more Boston scores in the 7th and it was suddenly a 6-5 ball game. Tommy McCraw homered in the home half of the 7th (Boston pitching allowed 9 of the 19 homers hit in the tournament) to give Chicago a little bit of breathing space, and Hoyt Wilhelm and Bob Locker then locked the door behind him with two frames of hitless relief work. Chicago 7-10-2, Boston 5-7-0 [box] [pbp]
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| Tommie Agee doubles and homers to lead the White Sox |
It was only fitting that such a low-scoring tournament end in a game with the lowest possible final score. Lolich and Chance battled for eight scoreless innings before Bill Freehan's two-out double in the top of the 9th scored Al Kaline with the game's first and only run as the Tigers squeaked out the win in Minnesota. Chance retired the first fourteen Tigers, and nineteen of the first twenty, while the Twins managed just three hits against Lolich in his seven innings of work. Tony Oliva reached third base with two outs in the 2nd, and Kline stood at third with two away in the 7th, but neither could be brought home and the game moved inexorably towards late-inning drama once again (the two clubs going eleven innings in their first tilt). Fred Gladding allowed a leadoff single to Bob Allison in the bottom of the 9th, and another hit to Oliva with two outs that put the tying run in scoring position, but Rich Rollins bounced into a force play that ended this one in regulation. Detroit 1-5-0, Minnesota 0-5-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Bill Freehan's 9th-inning double wins it for Detroit |
Final Standings
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | RDiff | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 RED SOX | 4 | 2 | 0.667 | 0.0 | 1 | 3-0 | 1-2 |
| 1967 Tigers | 3 | 3 | 0.500 | 1.0 | 2 | 2-1 | 1-2 |
| 1967 Twins | 3 | 3 | 0.500 | 1.0 | 1 | 1-2 | 2-1 |
| 1967 White Sox | 2 | 4 | 0.333 | 2.0 | -4 | 2-1 | 0-3 |
In the penultimate season before MLB was forced to lower the pitching mound because run scoring was grinding to a halt, the offensive environment for the tournament should come as no surprise - an aggregate slash line of 212/265/323 and a total of 76 runs scored in the twelve games. With Yaz, Scott and Conigliaro in the middle of the lineup Boston scored 40% more runs than did the next-highest offense, but their pitching also allowed the most runs, and three of the four teams finished with run differentials within two runs of dead even. (Early in their final game, Boston was looking like a good bet to win the Showdown with a negative run differential.) [Tournament stats]
1B: George Scott, 1967 Red Sox (4)
2B: Mike Andrews, 1967 Red Sox (4)
SS: Rico Petrocelli, 1967 Red Sox (4)
3B: Ken Boyer, 1967 White Sox (3)
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a 12-win player looks like. Red Sox LF Carl Yastrzemski hit .389/.577/.722 to lead the Showdown in all three categories as well as in homers, walks and runs scored, reached base fifteen times in six games, and drove a Boston lineup that lapped the offensive field in the tournament. Oh, and for good measure, he led all left fielders (and was second among all OF) in putouts in the field.
Showdown History
Showdown 2: 1964 National League pennant race
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