1984 Detroit Tigers vs 1985 KC Royals 2nd round 80's Simulation

 Please excuse me, I am Still on my baseball binge at the moment. Have to finish what I started.For me, Baseball history is one place I know I'm getting the truth and I just find it damn interesting. There must be more folks out there like me. I am using 3 sim games for these sims, they are Strat-o-Matic, action PC, and Out of the Park 18. I began the seeding for the 1980's tournament in a different way than I was doing before. Instead of simming for spots I go by the teams regular season won-lost record and for this decade it went Like this;

1. 86 Mets   108-54  .667

 2.84 Tigers  104-58. 642

 3 .89 A's        99  63   611

 4. 83 Orioles    98 64.  .605

 5.88 Dodgers  98-67   .584

  6. 81 Dodgers 63-47 .573   Strike shortened season.

  7. 82 Cards     92- 70 .568

   8. 85 Royals   91 - 71.562

   8.. 80 Phillies 91- 71 .562

   10. 87 Twins   85 =77 .525

I will make another attempt with managing the Tigers but I'm thinkin' right now the  Tigers are one of the favored teams and that means more pressure! when you have an underdog it can be nice and loose when there are no expectations. Lol, it's just me, Then again the 68 bunch was just that good. lucky only goes so far. Couldn't ever expect to do it again but, gonna try like heck, this 84 Tiger team is probably better than most teams in this decade in my opinion. I'm partial though. Baseball is an any given day thing so we shall see.

Right now Looking at it,  going in, I am thinking the favored teams are either the Tigers, 89 Athletics or the 86 Mets. If I had to pick one team I would go with the Mets the A's have no weaknesses, great speed in front which kills, great pitching, power, and a solid bullpen. But, so do the Mets and I have always been a closet Mets fan ever since the days of Tom Seaver & Jerry Koosman. You never know in this game. That is one of the things that make it such a great game. Once the game starts you can throw all the plans out the window. I began in 1900 doing this tourney one decade at a time with all of the World series winners, to eventually have a Champions tourney. So far this is the list of the winners. 1900's  WB =Winners bracket          1907 Chicago Cubs (WB)  107 - 45 .704  Won 1900's tourney over the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates. 2 best Pitchers Orval Overall, Mordecai Brown. Featured the famous Tinkers to Evers to Chance DP combo.
1910's                      1913 Philadelphia A's   96 - 57 .627  (WB) Beat the 1910 A's in close finals.  Credit Wikipedia for most of the following for an expansion on any season just click here wikipedia - list of World Champions.
 Baseball historian Bill James ranked the 1913 incarnation of the Athletics' famous "$100,000 infield" as the best of all time in major league history (first baseman Stuffy McInnis, second baseman Eddie Collins, third baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker, shortstop Jack Barry). 2 best pitchers were named Chief Bender & Boardwalk Brown.
          
 1920's                     1925 Pittsburgh Pirates  95 - 58 .621  (LB)   The Pirates had three future Hall of Famers in their starting lineup: Max Carey, Kiki Cuyler, and Pie Traynor. Glenn Wright of the Pirates executed an unassisted triple play. He caught a line drive, touched second base and tagged the runner going back to first base. The Pirates upset the 1923 New York Yankees in the finals after being put in the loser bracket by the 28 Yankees early.I was really surprised the 27 Yankees were beaten twice I thought they would at least be in the finals, but their pitching faulted. They just were not deep enough there. Best Pitchers ; Lee Meadows, Ray Kremer. 

1930's                      1930 Philadelphia A's     102 - 52 .662    (WB) The A's had three Hall of Famers in their starting line-up: Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, and Al Simmons. Simmons won the AL batting title with a .381 average. Pitching ace Lefty Grove won the pitching triple crown.This was their last World Championship until 1972. Their Manager Connie Mack leads all other MLB managers with over 5,000 managerial victories.Note: The 1932 Yankees made a gallant effort winning 5 games in a row including a win over a very tough 36 Yankee team and the first game of the finals against the A's but lost by 1 run in game 2 to come just a hair short. I was pulling for them because it was the last chance for Ruth & Gehrig to be in the champions tourney.

1940's                  1948 Cleveland Indians (WB)      97 - 58 .628  The Indians went on to win its second (and, so far, most recent) World Series in franchise history, its first in 28 years. Sporting News ranked the 1948 Indians the 9th-best team ever.  The Indians made baseball history on July 9. In a game against the St. Louis Browns, with the Browns leading the Indians, 4–1, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Boudreau pulled his starting pitcher, Bob Lemon and brought Negro leagues legend Satchel Paige into the game.

The first batter Paige faced was Browns first baseman Chuck Stevens. Paige did not yet know the signs, and Stevens lined a single into left field. Jerry Priddy bunted Stevens over to second. Next was Whitey Platt, and Paige threw an overhand server for a strike and one sidearm for another strike. Paige then threw his "Hesitation Pitch", which puzzled Platt and led him to throw his bat forty feet up the third base line. Browns manager Zack Taylor bolted from the dugout to talk to umpire Bill McGowan about the pitch. Taylor argued that it was a balk, but McGowan let it stand as a strike. Paige got Al Zarilla to fly out and the inning was over. In the next inning, Paige gave up a lead off single to Dick Kokos. His catcher simplified his signals, and Paige got Roy Partee to hit into a double play. Larry Doby, the player who broke the American League's color barrier, pinch hit for Paige the following inning.

Paige got his first big league victory on July 15. This was accomplished the night after he pitched in an exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in front of 65,000 people in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. The victory came against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park. The Indians were up 5–3 with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of the second game of a double header. Paige got Eddie Joost to fly out to end the inning. Unfortunately, he gave up two runs the next inning when Ferris Fain doubled and Hank Majeski hit a home run. Paige buckled down and gave up only one more hit the rest of the game, getting five of the next six outs on fly balls. Doby and Ken Keltner would hit home runs in the ninth to give the Indians an 8–5 victory. This team is simply stacked no other way to put it. They will be tough to beat.  They beat a very good team itself in the finals the 1942 Cardinals. 

1950's                      1956 New York Yankees       97 - 57 .630 (WB)    With so many Yankees teams in every decade it is astonishing to me that this is so far the only Yankee team to win a tournament. The 50's must have been a dark period in baseball for fans who were not a Yankees fan. They had 5 teams in it. They had the likes of Mickey mantle, Yogi Berra, Bill Skowron, Whitey Ford, Johnny Kucks Casey Stengel was the manager and  Series featured the only no-hitter in Series play, a perfect game, delivered by the Yankees' Don Larsen in Game 5. The Yankees defeated the 1953 Yankees in the finals.

1960's  My favorite so far.  1968 Detroit Tigers     103 - 59 .636  1968 was known famously as the year of the pitcher. Detroit pitcher Denny McLain won the Cy Young Award and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player after winning 31 games. Mickey Lolich pitched three complete games in the World Series – and won all three – to win World Series MVP honors Denny McLain had a career season in 1968, he went 31–6 with a 1.96 (ERA), was an All-Star, won the Cy Young Award, won the AL Most Valuable Player Award, and won Game 6 of the World Series. He is the only pitcher since 1934 ( Dizzy Dean) to win 30 games in a season. Denny had to have been worn down by pitching 336 innings in the regular season, McLain's 1968 World Series performance was not as stellar. He lost Games 1 and 4 to NL Cy Young Award winner, Bob Gibson. McLain did, however, win the crucial Game 6 on just two days rest, holding the Cardinals to one run in a 13–1 victory.
The Tigers No. 2 starter, Mickey Lolich, allowed just 5 runs in three complete games, winning all three including the final and decisive game. Lolich also helped himself at the plate in Game 2 when he hit the only home run of his 16-year career. Lolich was given the World Series MVP Award for his performance. During the regular season, Lolich went 17–9 with 197 strikeouts and a 3.19 ERA. He was actually moved to bullpen briefly in August after a few poor starts, but returned to pitch well down the stretch. I managed the Tigers and I guess i was surprised that they were able to win it. I guess because I had no expectations even though the 45 Team went pretty far in the 40's tourney ( the 35 team went out in 2) But, the Tigers proved to be better than even I ( a die hard 68 fan) imagined they were. Put in the loser bracket in the 2nd round after being shut out by Sandy Koufax and the 1965 Dodgers 1-0 the Tigers were able to exact their revenge by beating the same Dodger team in the Loser bracket finals best of 3 5-0 and 1-0 the Ironic thing was that Earl Wilson pitched both the 1-0 loss and 1-0 win. Koufax was slated to pitch game 3 but didn't make it. Then the Tigers took out the WB champs the 1961 Yankees with relative ease.Needless to say I am very happy about that. 

1970's                                       1976 Cincinnati Reds  102 - 60 .630 No surprise here, The "Big Red Machine" was at the height of its power in the 1976 season, with four future Hall-of-Famers (Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Pérez, and manager Sparky Anderson), the future MLB all-time hits leader Pete Rose, and a notable supporting line up including Dave Concepción at shortstop,who hit over .500 in the tourney  was the MVP and Ken Griffey, César Gerónimo, and George Foster in the outfield.the Reds proved their Mettle when they were sent to the LB by the 1970 Baltimore Orioles losing a best of 3 2 games to 1 then promptly beat every team including their 1975 selves to get back to the finals to play the 1971 Pirates, who they swept to win the decade. Every team in this decade was a force to be reckoned with , the three-peat A's of 72,73,and 74 2 Great Yankee teams 77,78 and a very good 1970 Orioles team and 2 1971 and 1979 Pirate teams, this tourney was a lot of fun to play out. 

1980's to be determined...