Cash, Northrup homer as 68 Tigers roar past Mets!
The 1960's World champion tournament action replay, nostalgic baseball Strat-o-Matic..
Stormin' Norman Cash and
Jim Northrup both homered while veteran southpaw
Mickey Lolich 217-191 3.44 went the distance striking out 7 Mets, plus added 2 RBI's with his bat, as the 68 Detroit Tigers rolled to a 7-2 victory over the 69 Amazin' Mets of New York in their 60's tournament battle yesterday at Shea stadium. Lolich the clutch pitching hero and MVP of the 68 World series (RL) did it all in yesterday's April 3 game. Historically Mickey has always been a big game pitcher and always seems to rise to the occasion. "You can always count on Mickey giving you his best when you need it the most", Said the Tiger manager after the win in the clubhouse.Mickey always a decent hitter as pitchers go once hit a huge 2 run HR( the only career dinger of his career) in the World series. Mickey Chipped in with his bat, getting 2 crucial 2 two-out hits to drive in 2 RBI's. The Met's Hall of fame pitcher
Tom Seaver 311-205 wasn't his usual stellar self But, still pitched very good. I feel he was undeserving of the score. The game was closer than the score reflects. It looks as though The Tigers cruised to a 7-2 win. Even though the Mets out hit the Tigers 9-8 the Bengals made the most of their opportunities while New York just couldn't seem to get that big 2 out hit when they needed it. The W advances the Tigers to the next round in the losers bracket, They were put there by the 1965 LA Dodgers and pitcher
Claude Osteen's Complete game shutout 1-0. Despite
Earl Wilson's 1 hit performance. A 1st inning 2 bagger off the bat of
Jim Gilliam. But he was stranded on 2nd, then it was a No-hit ball game the rest of the way, The Bums sole run was a manufactured one at that. Wilson surrendered a run in the 2nd inning when
Lou Johnson was hit by pitch,
Johnny Roseboro bunted out to first, Johnson to 2nd, sacrifice, 1 out Johnson stole 3rd Then
Jim Lefebvre ( who's name I could never pronounce but was intrigued by him for it) flew to shallow left center,The speedy Johnson scored, 2 out, 65 Los Angeles 1 68 Detroit 0 that's how it stood for the rest of the game as both Wilson and Osteen were brilliant. For the Mets, Their first loss came at the hands of the other team left in the winner's bracket the 61
Yankees 5-0 Yankees big flies were hit by the 36-year-old
Yogi Berra,
Bill Skowron,& who else in 1961 record breaking Roger Maris. The Mets offense never got it going off Yankee pitching.So this loss to the Tigers marks the end of the road for the the Mets of 69, who just couldn't get any breaks or timely hitting, but did get good pitching. But, you can't win if you can't score, better luck next year.I have liked this Met team ever since they beat Baltimore in the series in 69. I was 12 and hated the Orioles for denying the Tigers the chance to play The Mets for real. But, have since forgiven them. They did have a very fine team in those years.The Earl Weaver years. I have to hand it to Strat-o-Matic baseball for making this PC game every bit as good as the board game I played for years. The results and tendencies of the players are very close to true life.Personally, I'm sorry to see any team go from this decade as it was my favorite decade for major league baseball. The Tigers will next face the winner between the 1966 Orioles and 67 Cards. Meanwhile, there are only 2 teams left in the winners' bracket. They are the 1965 LA Dodgers and the 1961 New York Yankees.
Sandy Koufax 165-87 2.76 ERA 49 war HOF will go to the bump for the Dodgers and the Yankees will send
Whitey Ford 236-136 2.75 ERA 57.3 war, HOF, to the hill for that game. The Final of both brackets is a best of 3 series. This Tigers/Mets game on Strat-o-Matic baseball can be seen here
68 Tigers vs 69 Amazin' Mets on youtube.I was faced with a Delima as I'm sure Mayo Smith did many games in those days, I have 4 good outfielders and am light in the stick dept. in the IF Mayo Smith started Mickey Stanley a gifted centerfielder and down to goodness athlete at shortstop in the 68 Series and it is regarded today as the 4th greatest managerial decision in world series history. But this time I took the opposite approach instead of Stanly at short I wanted him in CF he is a 1 with lots of range. So that left me with the Delima of Kaline or Northrup in right since we were facing a right-hander I took a look at Al's splits and they were not too overly impressive so I decided to play the percentages and play Northrup.He had 20 + HR's in 68, He responded with 1 HR and 2 RBI's so this time I was a winner but it could have just as easily backfired. I know 90% of managers would of went with Kaline. But, Northrup was a big part of the tiger team that year. He had 20+ HR's and over 90 RBI in 68 and it paid off this time.I am just mentioning it.Because there may be one or 2 wondering why Kaline didn't start.decisions come back and haunt me. But not this time. Plus I know most lefties throw a lot of groundball outs.So I needed a better SS I went with Matchick, he did drive in a run.He also played errorless shortstop way to go Tommy! Atta boy!
ERRORS- N.Cash, T.McGraw-2
DOUBLES- M.Lolich, B.Harrelson, D.Clendenon
HOME RUNS- J.Northrup, N.Cash
RBIs- J.Northrup, N.Cash, T.Matchick, M.Lolich-2, T.Agee, C.Jones
SACRIFICE FLIES- T.Matchick, T.Agee
WALKS- W.Horton-2, E.Charles, A.Weis
HIT BY PITCH- B.Freehan
STRIKE OUTS- D.McAuliffe, N.Cash-2, T.Matchick, T.Agee-2, D.Clendenon-2,
J.Grote, T.Seaver-2
GIDP- E.Charles, J.Grote
WILD PITCHES- T.McGraw
2-out RBI- J.Northrup, M.Lolich-2
RLISP 2-out- D.McAuliffe, J.Grote, B.Freehan, C.Jones
TEAM RISP- Bengals: 1 for 6 Amazins: 0 for 7
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