Four managers came together once again for a face-to-face Season Ticket Baseball showdown, and this time we debuted a new team-selection process. We generated a list of all four-team sets from the same league-season where all four teams finished with winning percentages within 0.020 of each other (there were 133 such sets in the Season Ticket catalog), and then picked one of these fields at random. So, it's off to the 2000 National League for a double round-robin FTF tournament with no playoffs - winner takes all!
| Manager | Team |
|---|---|
| Seth Needle | 2000 St. Louis Cardinals (95-67) |
| Joe Costa | 2000 San Francisco Giants (97-65) |
| Bob Militello | 2000 New York Mets (94-68) |
| Scott Needle | 2000 Atlanta Braves (95-67) |
- 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, and pitchers may not pinch hit or pinch run unless they have a separate batting card
- 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
Once the managers had arrived at the tournament site and the lineups had been considered, the rotations weighed, and the competition sized up, the dice rolling began . . .
The Cardinal bullpen threw away a three-run lead in the late innings and the Giants accepted a one-run victory at Busch Stadium. St. Louis took an early 3-2 lead by scoring three times in the 4th, on two walks, a hit batsman and a two-run double from Edgar Renteria. But a two-run Barry Bonds homer in the 5th swapped the lead to San Francisco and it was still 4-3 for the visitors when the Cards came to bat in the 7th. Mike Matheny reached on a Jeff Kent error to start the inning and then Livan Hernandez, who had been overpowering outside of the messy 4th, walked the next two men to lead the bases with no outs. That brought Aaron Fultz out of the pen to face the STL lefties, and he got Jim Edmonds looking for the first out. But Will Clark was not so easily fooled, and he belted a Fultz tumbler into the right-field seats for a grand slam that put the Redbirds on top by a score of 7-4. The good vibes at Busch only lasted as long as it took for the Giants to pick up their sticks for the next half-inning, however. New hurler Matt Morris got the first out, but then completely lost the plot - two straight walks and a Bill Mueller single loaded the bases and pinch-hitter Armando Rios singled home a pair to make it a one-run game. Marvin Benard followed him with another single for two runs and a SF lead. Dave Veres came on to get out of the inning without further damage (including a second intentional pass to Bonds in two innings), but it was too late. The back end of San Francisco's relief corps was up to the task, as Felix Rodriguez struck out two in the 8th and Robb Nen pitched a hitless 9th in which St. Louis failed to hit the ball out of the infield. Clark finished with a gaudy 5-2-3-5 boxscore line, while Bonds and Bobby Estalella reached base three times each. San Francisco 8-12-1, St. Louis 7-7-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Marvin Benard's two-run single capped the late San Francisco comeback |
Tom Glavine pitched a three-hitter (walking just one) and Rafael Furcal reached base four times and stole two bases as the Braves stymied the Mets. Glavine didn't allow a hit until the 4th, and Melvin Mora's two-out RBI single in the 5th was the only blemish on his record; after that brief moment of weakness, the Atlanta lefty put away the final thirteen New Yorkers in order and finished with a flourish by whiffing three of the last four. Meanwhile, the Braves were scoring twice in the 1st thanks to a double-play grounder and a bases-loaded walk to Bobby Bonilla, once in the 4th on Brian Jordan's home run, another in the 6th on Robin Ventura's error with two men aboard, and a final run in the 7th on doubles from Andres Galarraga and Javy Lopez. Atlanta 5-9-0, New York (N) 1-3-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Rafael Furcal was a terror on the bases - two hits, two walks and two stolen bases |
For the second time in as many days, St. Louis couldn't hold a lead in the late innings as the Mets scored three times in the bottom of the 9th to steal the win. It was a tight, low-scoring affair most of the way as the two starters held sway; all of the early scoring came via the long ball, Fernando Tatis and Mike Matheny with solo shots for STL and Melvin Mora with a two-out, two-run shot in the 4th that knotted the game back up at two runs apiece. Leiter was then dominant in the middle innings, striking out seven of ten batters in one stretch, but he ran out of gas in the 8th. Jim Edmonds took him deep to give St. Louis the lead and, with Turk Wendell on for the Mets, Tatis hit his second of the game two batters later to make it 4-2. It stayed that way into the last of the 9th, with Dave Veres coming on to close it out for the Cards. That's not what happened. Veres hit Derek Bell with the first pitch of the inning, and then gave up RBI hits to Robin Ventura and Jay Payton to tie the score without having recorded an out. Mike James was asked to bail water out of the sinking boat, and he retired pinch-hitters Matt Franco and Timo Perez. Benny Agbayani then bounced one to the left of the mound, and James fumbled the pickup to put the potential winning run in scoring position for Edgardo Alfonzo. The New York second baseman lined a clean single into right field and Payton easily beat the throw from J.D. Drew for the walk-off win. New York (N) 5-9-0, St. Louis 4-6-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Edgardo Alfonzo walks it off in a disastrous bottom of the 9th for the St. Louis bullpen |
A six-run 7th inning that featured back-to-back-to-back home runs powered Atlanta to the win at Candlestick Park. It was the Giants who rode the four-base train early in the game, Barry Bonds homering with a man aboard in the 1st and again to lead off the 6th to give San Francisco a 3-0 lead. Shawn Estes had shut Atlanta down over the first six innings, allowing just three hits (although he walked four), but Dusty Baker opted to put that in the bank and bring in Doug Henry for the 7th. That did not work out very well at all; Henry allowed a walk and a single to the first two batters he faced, but looked as if he'd righted the ship when he retired the next two at the cost of just one run. But then the contact got loud - Quilvio Veras launched a three-run bomb to tie the score, and the embarrassment at that perhaps led Henry to lose concentration as he watched Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga follow with deep drives of their own. Miguel del Toro replaced henry, and he allowed two hits, a stolen base and a run in the two batters he faced before Alan Embree came in to end the inning with a whiff of Bobby Bonilla. The clubs swapped runs in the 8th, Ellis Burks hitting the sixth homer of the game, but the Giants would get no closer and John Rocker would pitch a Rocker-like 9th, putting two men on but striking out two including Marvin Benard for the final out. Atlanta 7-10-1, San Francisco 4-6-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Quilvio Veras' three-run homer turned the game around for Atlanta |
Armando Rios' pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the 7th cracked apart a tie game and gave San Francisco the edge they needed to defeat New York. There some shaky moments in the early going for both starting pitchers, as the Mets put together three hits and a walk to start the 2nd and score three times, while Ellis Burks hit a three-run homer in the 3rd to heal all of that damage for the Giants. Then things got very quiet - Reed and Reuter each retired twelve men in a row in the middle innings, and the score was still tied at three as the fans enjoyed the seventh-inning stretch. That would change in the bottom of the inning; Reed set the first two men down on ground balls to third base, but Bill Mueller singled to prolong the inning. Rios was asked to take up a bat in place of Rueter, and Reed stayed in the game to face him. It was one batter too many, perhaps, for the Mets right-hander as Rios drilled a low line drive down the right-field line and over the fence for two runs that put San Francisco in the driver's seat. Joe Nathan made it interesting in the 8th, putting the first two men on base but escaping with two ground balls and a strikeout of Mike Piazza, but Robb Nen blitzed through the 9th in order with a pair of Ks. San Francisco 5-7-0, New York (N) 3-5-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Armando Rios came off the bench in the 7th to deliver the game-winning home run |
A two-out double by Andres Galarraga gave Atlanta a 3rd-inning lead, and the pitchers combined to make that the final margin in a tight, narrow contest at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals took the lead with three singles in the bottom of the 2nd, but Benes got into hot water almost immediately in the top of the 3rd. With one out, Millwood singled, Rafael Furcal doubled him to third, and Quilvio Veras walked to load the bases with Braves. Chipper Jones hit a fly ball to center that was deep enough to score Millwood, and Galrraga followed with a two-base hit to left-center that sent Furcal across for the lead. The starters clamped down from there - Benes allowing two hits, and Millwood just one, over the next four innings - and it was down to the bullpens for the late innings. Atlanta got runners to second and third with two outs in the 8th before Britt Rheames fanned B.J. Surhoff, and St. Louis had two on with one away in their half of the inning before Rudy Seanez squirmed free with two ground balls. John Rocker came on for the bottom of the 9th, and this time there was no drama as he blew away pinch-hitter Will Clark to start the inning and then J.D. Drew to end it. Atlanta 2-8-1, St. Louis 1-6-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Andres Galarraga had two hits, including the eventual game-deciding double |
After the rest day, the action continued . . .
The Mets blew up a close game with nine runs over the final four innings to win at a canter in St. Louis. Mike Piazza's 1st-inning home run had given New York a 2-0 jump start, and they tacked on another in the fourth on two singles, but Fernando Vina ripped a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the 5th to make it just a one-run game in favor of the Metropolitans. Then all heck broke loose in the top of the 6th. Garrett Stephenson had been lifted after five decent innings, having retired fourteen of the last sixteen batters he'd faced after Piazza's dinger, and to say that new pitcher Britt Rheames didn't have it on the day would be an understatement. He walked two of the first three batters he faced, and hit the other, to load the bases with nobody out and then his defense let him down in a big way. Derek Bell rapped a grounder down to third base and Mark McGwire, positioned there in a desperate effort to inject some life into the Cardinal offense, skipped the throw home past Mike Matheny for a two-base error that score two runs. Robin Ventura was next, and he topped a dribbler down the third-base line which Matheny fielded and then also threw wildly to first for another two-run two-base error. At 7-2, things were looking bleak for the Cards, and insult was added to injury when the Mets piled four more runs onto the scoreline in the 9th inning (another STL error helping that along) to turn it into a bona fide rout. The beneficiary of all of this Cardinal largesse (and rest between innings late in the game) was Rusch, who finished off a five-hit complete-game performance. Piazza finished the evening 4-for-4 with four runs scored and three RBI. New York (N) 12-10-1, St. Louis 2-5-3. [box] [pbp]
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| Mike Piazza homers in the 1st on his way to a big day |
Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga combined to drive in seven runs, and Wally Joyner hit a big three-run pinch-hit homer as Atlanta out-slugged San Francisco. It looked as if crooked numbers would be the order of the day after the teams combined for four 1st-inning runs, but there was a period of relative quiet until the game entered the 6th with the Braves holding a 4-1 lead. In the top half of the inning, Terry Mulholland out the first two Giants aboard, and J.T. Snow greeted reliever Kerry Lightenberg with a three-run blast that tied the game. Unfortunately for the Giants, the bottom half of the inning would unfold in an eerily similar fashion; Mark Gardner was pulled after allowing the first two Braves to reach base, and Miguel del Toro served up a three-run homer to Joyner that put Atlanta back in control of the game. Chipper Jones followed three batters later with a two-run shot and it was quickly getting away from San Francisco. They rallied for two in 8th on Jeff Kent's homer, but Atlanta turned three walks into three runs in the bottom of the inning and Andy Ashby pitched a 1-2-3 9th with two strikeouts. Atlanta 12-13-0, San Francisco 6-11-1. [box] [pbp]
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| Wally Joyner gave Atlanta the lead for good with a pinch-hit homer |
The Giants rallied late in the game, scoring three times in the last two innings to clip the Mets in front of a disappointed Shea Stadium crowd. New York jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on Mike Piazza's second 1st-inning homer in two days and a three-run 3rd keyed by Todd Zeile's two-run single. But San Francisco fought back with two unearned runs in the 4th after Robin Ventura's error, and then drew three walks that led to a run in the 6th. In the 8th, the visitors finally took the lead for the first time; Turk Wendell got the first out of the inning but then allowed a walk, a stolen base, and consecutive RBI pinch-hits from Armando Rios and Marvin Benard as SF moved in front. J.T. Snow singled home an insurance run in the 9th and Joe Nathan and Robb Nen teamed up for two hitless innings of relief to lock up the win. San Francisco 6-9-0, New York (N) 4-8-3. [box] [pbp]
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| Robb Nen struck out Melvin Mora to end a perfect 9th inning and earn the save |
Andruw Jones hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Braves the victory in a wild finish at Turner Field. When the game began, it didn't appear as if Atlanta starter Tom Glavine was going to be in the same form that he had shown in his Round 1 start - the first three Cardinal hitters went single-walk-single and the visitors were ahead before Glavine had recorded an out. But the Massachusetts native worked his way clear of any further trouble, and his teammates got him even in the 4th when Chipper Jones homered with one out and no one on base. There wasn't much else happening for either team after that, and Glavine was especially frugal, retiring eighteen of nineteen Cards after the initial-inning trouble. In the 7th, though, the Redbirds managed to force another across against Glavine after a single, a Rafael Furcal error, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Fernando Tatis, but the STL pen again couldn't hold the lead. Atlanta got three hits in the 8th, Chipper singling home Wally Joyner to tie the game once again. That held into extra innings, and again it was St. Louis who drew first blood; a single and two walks loaded the bases with one out against Bruce Chen and Fernando Vina's grounder to first plated one score before Chen got out of the inning. In came Mike Timlin with the save in play, and Andres Galarraga welcomed him with a ground ball up the middle and into center field for a base hit. Jones was next, and erased the taste of his poor afternoon (0-for-3 with a GIDP) with a majestic fly ball to straightaway center field that kept going long after Jim Edmonds had room to pursue it, and the Braves had not only won the game, but had clinched the Showdown title with a round to spare. Atlanta 4-9-1, St. Louis 3-5-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Andruw Jones goes deep to win it in the 10th |
With the title sewn up perhaps the Braves relaxed a little bit in anticipation of the post-game celebration, and the Mets were ready to take advantage, scoring twice in the bottom of the 9th to tie and once in the 10th to win and get to .500 for the tournament. Atlanta made the most of a spate of Al Leiter wildness in the 2nd, turning two walks and two singles into two runs on a bases-loaded walk and a successful squeeze by Maddux. New York got one run in the 5th by stringing together three singles, but Maddux was tough again allowing only two other hits in his first seven innings of work. Things looked pretty grim for the Mets when Brian Jordan (three hits) homered to lead off the top of the 9th and give The Professor a two-run cushion, but the home team erased that deficit very quickly in the home half. Robin Ventura singled with one out, and Jay Payton brought them both around with a home run that just cleared the right-field fence. That was the end of the day for Maddux, and the game went to bonus baseball. In the bottom of the 10th, Mke Remlinger walked Edgardo Alfonzo to start the inning and was then replaced by Rudy Seanez. He walked Mike Piazza, then whiffed Todd Zeile for the first out but that was the last out he would get as Derek Bell lined a single to left and Alfonzo beat the throw home for the walk-off win. New York (N) 4-10-0, Atlanta 3-9-0 [box] [pbp]
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| Derek Bell's single in the bottom of the 10th won the game for New York |
Looking to avoid becoming the first winless team in Showdown history, St. Louis built a four-run lead over San Francisco and then barely survived another bullpen meltdown to avoid infamous immortality. J.D. Drew hit the ball out into the Candlestick Park seats as the second batter of the game to get them off to a good start and, while Ankiel was holding San Francisco to just one hit over the first seven innings while striking out nine, Jim Edmonds and Mark McGwire hit back-to-back homers in the 6th to make it a 3-0 game. That became 4-0 in the next inning after Fernando Vina tripled with one out and scored on Drew's base hit, and the decision seemed a near-formality. But there was still the small matter of a Cardinal bullpen which had racked up four of the team's five tournament losses. Faced with that level of fear and uncertainty, it was natural to leave Ankiel in the game as long as he was dealing, but that string ran out quickly in the bottom of the 9th. Calvin Murray doubled to lead it off, Bobby Estalella walked, and Barry Bonds hit his Showdown-record fourth homer of the tournament and it was suddenly a one-run game with three outs still remaining for SF. Dave Veres got the call this time, and got the first two men to face him, but the relief quickly turned to nerves as J.T. Snow and Rich Aurilia singled to put the tying run into scoring position. Bill Mueller couldn't deliver, however, grounding routinely to Edgar Renteria at short and the Cards finally had their win. St. Louis 4-9-0, San Francisco 3-6-0. [box] [pbp]
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| Dave Veres finally nails down the first St. Louis win |
Final Standings
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | RDiff | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 Atlanta Braves | 5 | 1 | 0.833 | 0.0 | 14 | 3-0 | 2-1 |
| 2000 New York Mets | 3 | 3 | 0.500 | 2.0 | 4 | 2-1 | 1-2 |
| 2000 San Francisco Giants | 3 | 3 | 0.500 | 2.0 | -5 | 1-2 | 2-1 |
| 2000 St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 5 | 0.167 | 4.0 | -13 | 0-3 | 1-2 |
The Braves out-hit and out-pitched everyone else (four of the top five hitters by OPS, and the top two pitchers by ERA) on their way to a fairly easy title. The games were not as high-scoring as one might have expected given the era and the teams involved, but having one-third of the game started by prime-era Glavine and Maddux probably didn't hurt. Bonds did Bonds things, there were three walk-off wins, and despite the Atlanta procession there was still some drama at the end as the Cardinals fought their own late-game demons to avoid an ignominious place in Showdown history. [Tournament stats]
1B: Andres Galarraga, 2000 Braves (3)
2B: Fernando Vina, 2000 Cardinals (2)
SS: Rafael Furcal, 2000 Braves (3)
3B: Chipper Jones, 2000 Braves (3)
Braves 1B Andrés Galarraga led the tournament in hits, runs and doubles, while recording the second-highest batting average (.480) and the second-highest OPS (1.376) in Showdown history, as the central cog in a Braves offense that led the tournament in almost every offensive category.
Showdown History
Showdown 4: Franchise favorites
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