An old Passion is back along with a history lesson

                                            Update Finals 23 Yankees vs 25 Pirates
Welcome, to my current project, to play out every world series winner
in MLB history to find a champion.  I have to admit, I had no idea I would learn so many things as I delved into this era. But, when I delve into something I like to try to do my best to taste it,what it was like to live back then and I know I can't do that but I have discovered so much about this decade and still barley scratched the surface I know.This was my Father's era ,he was living in Detroit. Born in 1912 and in the 20's he was in his late childhood and teens, I always think about that. Along the way I have learned many things already about the history of the game, players that I never knew much about other than their names.World series teams,their victories and struggles. As well as what the world looked like back in the 1920's.

 I do my best to share with anyone who may be interested in these things like I do. By Trying to bring good baseball with the atmosphere it was played in at the time.I do that with pictures and videos of the past in the format of that decade.For example the videos I am doing for the period I am in , the 1920's I do the pre and post games with a radio voice. Just to try and add some flavor of a nostalgic atmosphere.

                                     1920'S CHAMPIONSHIP 1923 Yankees vs 25 Pirates

As for the tournament itself, I thought about different ways, to do it. That has morphed along the way. It could be done many ways like, one way I thought of was to take the first team from 1903 and the last team 2016 that won, and play them down like that in a huge tournament,or maybe a round robin, perhaps a short league season. finally deciding to go with a double loss elimination format but with series instead of games. But, came to the conclusion that playing long series would take too long. So from here out, it's going to be as fast and furious as can be done. I Could sim games, but I would rather play them out. So were going with a double loss elimination. with a, decade by  decade style. That way it shouldn't take much longer than a couple weeks.

 So I figured the best way to do it, would be to do every world series winner in a 10 team tournament for that decade. Plus that way I can try to bring a little flavor of that period in time along with it.
It should only take no more than a few weeks depending on how much free time I get to play it down.

I have to say I have learned so much already not just about baseball history but, things that were going on in that era. The 1920's were a fast and very lively time to say the least. That era ushered in modern times that we know today and was where the major transition from 19th to 20th century really began. It seems to me that it takes time for certain era's to really end and it does not really follow the calendar like one would think. Changes take longer.Here is what I mean, Do you feel any different in 2017 than you did in 1999? has society changed that much? Of course were all 17 years older and I'm getting thin on the spare decades these days but seriously I feel the same. There have been a few changes , but in the 2020's is when the real changes will start . Because the first 21st century babies will be 20. Major changes will go on. But,it will take 10 years.

The 1920's for example brought in city living more and the urban setting such as subdivisions along with the radio and automobile coming in to mainstream living along with  wearing the same clothes, due to advertising,  listening to the same music,electricity came to town big time. Vacuum cleaners and refrigerators  were necessities instead of luxuries, and everybody had to have a car. Henry Ford made that possible by making affordable cars. Like the Model A that cost $262.00 people went to work, assembly lines were humming away. Radio in it's infancy in the early part of the decade went from the 1 station in Pittsburgh to more than 500 by 1927. People started paying attention to celebrities like movie stars. ( why I'll never know) But The movies were a huge part of American life in the roaring 20's folks usually went to the show once a week to get out .Restaurants popped up, Gas stations,tire stores,auto parts,Chains soon came.Modern living was born. People had wealth and could buy mass produced products that were all made in the U.S.A.!  Why has that gone away?

                                                             Jazz & Dancing
 Flappers came in to being,a flapper was usually a young woman that enjoyed her new found freedoms and rejected with disdain "Appropriate behavior " the cliche of  what the religious bible thumping authorities said they were "supposed to act like". They smoked,danced,dressed sexy although what was considered sexy then would be conservative today (that envelope just has to keep getting pushed out) they did pretty much did what they wanted. Woman had just received new rights through the suffrage act, the right to vote plus being rewarded for the great job they did in the great war effort in the late teens.The days of dumb Dora were over! stylish clothing was worn, Dancing reigned supreme. Jazz music replaced ragtime & the Waltz, although those things were still around,ragtime enthusiasts claim  Jazz is considered another form of it but Jazz is it's own genre on to itself and along with the Blues still the only true American conception in Music.All popular music today is a direct descendant of either Jazz or the blues.The younger generation was just beginning to dictate style,fashion,music and what was the cats meow or in more modern terms hip.They started their own slang, dressed alike,talked alike,danced alike...Well you get it. Folks were doing the Charleston,Lindy Hop, black bottom, cake walk and crazy dance steps like the fast step. Art Deco was at it's peak.Surrealism was the going thing in art. Tailored suits were in vogue among the more affluent folks. A player was a club man or sheik thanks to Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks  the girls heart throb.The diaphragm was invented woman could play around without the worry of getting ,you know... but that's another story.

Flight went from the first flight in the early 1900's Wilbur Wright giving a friend a ride in 1908 to the first international airport in Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota. That just amazes me how fast the airplane has developed and how far it has come.Other countries looked to the U.S. for everything! The Term American ingenuity was born. What ever happened to that? But, that's another story too.


 Well, I've jabbered long enough. so, it's onward, to the 1920 to 29 championship. The 1923 New York Yankees were not the team I expected to emerge as the New York ball club that did . In fact, that team was the least likely I thought would emerge. but, I have not interfered at all just letting it play out to not have any sway. The 1923 Yankees coasted through the winners bracket. by defeating the 24 Washington Senators, This 25 Pirate team,sending them to the loser bracket and whipped the 27 Yankees without much difficulty. Made quick work of them . As for the Pirates they had to do it the hard way. The Pirates road was a bit tougher. They started out with a victory over the 28 Yankees,then they were sent to the loser bracket by this 23 team. Their first loser game was against the 21 giants,had fun with that one . The Buc's prevailed. Then they had a shoot out with a very good 1920 Cleveland Indians team,just narrowly beating them in a series that could have gone either way. 3 games to 2.
After that they was one team in their way to a rematch with this 23 Yankee squad. The 1927 Yankees. That the Pirates swept. So now they have one more tough team to get through. In The decade of the 20's, the road to the best team went through New York with them having 3 teams in the Tourney. In this rematch The Pirates are at NewYork, they have to beat them twice as where the 23 Yankees only have to win once. Can it be done? We will see. Game 1 will be Ray Kremer who was 17 and 8 in 1925 3.69 earned run average,  and pitching star of the 1925 world series.
on the hill for The new York ball club, Lefty herb Pennock  19 and 6 3.13 in 23.With 2 wins and a save in the 23 world series. For the Yankees of course, it was their first championship, of 27 titles to date.  for the Buc's 1925 was their 3rd of 5.

This Pirates team has never really received any mention when the subject of greatest team ever comes up as where the 27 Yankees often do. The team in 23 were just starting to make a name and Babe Ruth's star was on the rise. Lou Gehrig was just a youngster and still had not pipped Wally Pipp who has played very well hitting over .400 in the tournament so far. But in 25 the Pirates had 8 of their starting 9 hit over .300 and only one just under, at .298. so this is a hitting bunch. They have just a little bit better than above average pitching with no 20 game winners but rather had 5 pitchers winning 15 or more to 19. So they have depth.

I am gaming on 3 games. Gaming on more than one system is so that no one team can be over powered on one game and have an easier time. But, I have found that the games employed are very close in the regard of results. Both games Action PC and Out of the park are very good. Strat-o-matic is good too,but I lack teams in that game in the early days anyway, but expect to use it more when times become closer to current times. So,  without further adu I bring you the championship of the 1920's between the 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates and the 1923 New York Yankees.This Pirate team has won 4 games in a row, so they are hot right now. The 23 Yankees, have been hot as well. so it is going
to be interesting to see. How this goes. Anyway the game can be seen here. Having a blast with an old passion I have not indulged in a very long time. Thanks for making it this far with me. I found a list of 1920's slang on the Huffington Post so I copied it and will paste it here for anyone interested in the era that slang really had it's beginning.
As with any era, the 1920's had time period specific slang. Here is a sampling. It sure is the berries! Have a swell time, but make sure you don't upchuck!

Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing, idea
Berries - is attractive or pleasing; similar to bee's knees, As in "It's the berries."
Big Cheese - The most important or influential person. Same as big shot
Bluenose - An excessively puritanical person, a prude
Bump Off - To murder
Carry a Torch - To have a crush on someone
Cat's Meow - Something splendid or stylish; similar to bee's knees; The best or greatest
Cat's Pajamas - Same as cat's meow
Cheaters - Eyeglasses
Crush - An infatuation
Dogs - feet
Drugstore Cowboy - a guy that hangs around on a street corner trying to pick up girls
Dumb Dora - a stupid female
Fall Guy - victim of a frame
Flat Tire - A dull insipid, disappointing date. Same as pill, pickle, drag, rag, oilcan
Frame - To give false evidence, to set up someone
Gams - A woman's legs
Giggle Water - An intoxicating beverage; alcohol
Gin Mill - An establishment where hard liquor is sold; bar
Hard Boiled - a tough, strong guy
Heebie-Jeebies - The jitters
Hooch - Bootleg liquor
Hoofer - Dancer
Hotsy-Totsy - Pleasing
Jalopy - Old car
Joint - A club, usually selling alcohol
Keen - Attractive or appealing
Kisser - Mouth
Lounge Lizard - a guy that is sexually active
Moll - A gangster's girl
Neck - Kissing with passion
Pinch - To arrest
Pushover - A person easily convinced or seduced
Ritzy - Elegant (from the hotel)
Scram - Ask someone to leave immediately
Sheba - A woman with sex appeal (from the movie Queen of Sheba)
Sheik - A man with sex appeal (from the Valentino movies)
Speakeasy - An illicit bar selling bootleg liquor
Spiffy - An elegant appearance
Struggle Buggy - the backseat of a car. A parent's worst nightmare
Stuck On - Having a crush on
Swanky - Ritzy
Swell - Wonderful. Also: a rich man
Take for a Ride -To drive off with someone in order to bump them off
Torpedo - A hired gun
Upchuck - To vomit when one has drunk too much
Whoopee - To have a good time
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