2014 Washington Nationals: 96-66, 17 up

New manager Matt Williams took over a team that underachieved the past two seasons on the ancient Davey Johnson.  In 2012 they had the best record in the NL, but got bounced in the 1st round of the playoffs.  In 2013 they hovered around mediocrity most of the season and needed a late season surge just to finish with a respectible winning record.  2014 saw the team start slow.  They hovered around the .500 mark until early June (28-28), then took off and never looked back by lapping the rest of the NL East.  Another disappointing post season wouldn’t tarnish how well this pitching rich team did with a rookie manager.  All 5 starters won in double digits.  Former ace Gio Gonzalez (10-10, 3.57) was the worst of the bunch, which shows you just how strong this staff was.  Doug Fister (16-6, 2.41) pitched like an ace as well as homegrown talent Jordan Zimmermann (14-5, 2.66).  25 year old Stephen Strausburg (14-11, 3.14) fanned 252 in 215 innings (most on the staff) of work.  If you were lucky enough to get past the starters you had to deal with the strongest pen in the league.  Rafael Soriano had 32 saves.  When he wasn’t up to closing Drew Storen (2-1, 1.12, 11sv) was the man to do it.  Anthony Rendon (.287-21-83) had a breakout season replacing the oft injured Ryan Zimmerman at third.  Rendon carried this team at times with his bat, glove and legs (17 steals).  Denard Span (.302) was on base often, played a gold glove caliber centerfield and swiped 32 bags.  Shortstop Ian Desmond (.255-21-91) and 1st baseman Adam LaRoche (.259-26-92) rounded out one of the top infields in the game.  21 year old Bryce Harper struggled to stay healthy, but when he was in the lineup he played excellent defense and hit .273.

I added 19 cards to finish off this set.  This will be my second season managing the Nats.  In KOD20 I had a sub .500 year with them and finished in 2nd behind the eventual champion Phillies.

1973 Baltimore Orioles: 97-65, 8 up

The O’s won 97 games in 1973 and took the AL East crown by a hearty 8 games.  By mid May the team was 17-19 languishing in the middle of the pack.  Then like all Earl Weaver teams, they hit there stride and never looked back.  By mid September the had a double digit lead with neither Boston, nor Detroit able to muster up any challenge.  This was not your typical “sit back and wait for the 3 run homer” Earl Weaver team.  Instead they relied on the stolen base as 8 players finished in double figures for theft.  What might shock most folks was the fact that Don Baylor (32) had the most on the team.  Even 34 year old DH Tommy Davis swiped 11.  As usual the pitching was stellar.  Jim Palmer (22-9, 2.40) won his first of 3 Cy Young awards in 1973.  Mike Cuellar (18-13, 3.27) and Dave McNally (17-17, 3.21) were coming to the end of their great run, but they still had enough left in the tank to back up Palmer in the rotation.  22 year old Doyle Alexander (12-8, 3.86) won in double digits for the first time in his young career.  No one saved more than 9 games for Weaver, who relied heavily on his starters.  Grant Jackson was 8-0 with a 1.90 ERA as Weaver’s lefty closer.  Bob Reynolds (7-5, 1.95) was the righty closer.

The O’s had the misfortune of running into the defending champion A’s in the ALCS.  Oakland was in the midst of 3 straight World Championships, but they still needed all 5 games to get by Baltimore, who some felt was a stronger team on paper despite the fact that the A’s had three 20 game winners (Hunter, Blue & Holtzman).

Mark Nixon, a resident of Charm City and a lifelong O’s fan will return to pilot the team.  Mark is hot off his runner up finish in the 2014-15 sixty four team Holiday Festival Tournament.

There were 15 useable cards from the original set.  I replaced the Earl Williams, which was a horrible airbrush job and the Palmer (grainy).  I added 20 new cards (see below) to finish off the set.  Many of the pictures came from Jeff D’s (Kraveheart) 1973 series.  I modified his format into the traditional 1973 format.

Prelude to KOD 21

As part of the build up to KOD21 I will be posting the baseball card and photo updates that I’m working on.  Last season I took a bit of a hiatus from creativity and only worked on the teams that people requested.  That left about half the league w/out photos or cards.  I for one love the visual part of the game.  I need to have the right stadium backdrop and my players in correct uniform and cap adorning the field.  Thanks to Mark Nixon, Erik Nelson, Joe Pryweller and Bruce Thomas have been downloading the base set of photos.  They go through a full season of cards and d/l just the players who are on a specific team.  If a player is missing they will take his card or photo from the year before or after and send that along as well.  Once I get that I will then create cards for the “missing players” as well as the players that they found from different years.  Without their hard work this project doesn’t get done.

The first team that I’m going to post is Mark Nixon’s 1973 Orioles

The 1980 Astros...as seen through the prism of a Phillies fan (Erik Nelson)

Erik's e-mail to me was just too darn good that IMO I felt it was worth of it's own post:

Marc,
You mention the 1980 Houston Astros as one of the teams who were ecstatic making it to the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies.  Being a lifetime Phillies fan I was as excited as those people in Houston because the last time they had been in the world series was 1950 the year I became a Phillies fan but being 7 months old I didn't know it at the time.

I remember watching that 1980 series and arguably it was probably the greatest series ever played.  The series went the 5 games and all but the first game went extra innings.  Philadelphia won the first game but then lost the next 2 and were one game from elimination.  In fact they were actually 6 outs from missing the World Series being down 2-0 after 7 in game 4.  Philadelphia had been unable to score for the previous 16 innings having been shutout in game 3 1-0 in 10 innings.  Somehow, they finally broke through in the 8th to scratch out 3 runs to take a 3-2 lead into the 9th but couldn't hold it as the Astros tied the score to send the game into the 3rd straight extra inning game.  Philadelphia tied the series when they got 2 runs in the top of the 10th and McGraw got the save.

The 5th game was for all the marbles and the Astros had Nolan Ryan on the mound against Marty

Truly the best and most exciting series I have ever seen in my 65 years.  I had hoped to get the 80 Houston team to see if I could give them what they missed out in 1980 but Bill picked them one spot before me.  I'll just have to wait for another time.

Erik

Bystrom who no one had ever heard of before September when the Phillies brought him up for the month and he went 5-0.  Bystrom pitched well and when he was pulled in 6th inning the score was 2-2.  The Philadelphia bullpen came on and gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th and Houston was 6 outs away from the World series with Nolan Ryan on the mound and a 3 run lead.  Then the improbable happened, Ryan totally lost his focus, command or whatever you want to call it and became just an ordinary pitcher.  He gave up 3 consecutive singles to start the 8th and then a walk to make the score 5-3.  Ryan is lifted and Philadelphia scores another run on a FC to make the score 5-4.  When the next batter strikes out Houston can see its way out of a possible big Phillies inning.  But another single to tie the game and a 2 run triple gives the Phillies a 5 run inning and a 7-5 lead and suddenly I'm thinking World Series for my team.  But the Astros came back to tie the game off of McGraw scoring the runs with 2 outs.  Both teams went down in the 9th and for the 4th consecutive game it was going to extra innings to decide who was going to represent the NL in the Fall Classic.  With one out in the 10th Del Unser doubles but it looks like that will be as far as he gets after Houston gets the 2nd out.  Gary Maddux becomes the star of the game when he lines the first pitch into the left center field for an RBI double and 8-7 lead.  Dick Ruthven comes on and retires the Stros in order to send the heartbroken home town fans home and the Phillies onto the World Series and the eventual World Series Championship.

Welcome to KOD21 - Division Winners that did not make the World Series

I think back on the 45 years of divisional play in baseball and remember only a handful of the teams that came up short.  The 1970's KC Royals come to mind, because for 3 straight years they found different ways to come up short against the "Evil Empire".  Seeing Freddie Patek crying in the dugout left an indelible mark on an 11 year old kid who watched that full series on TV from his home in Brooklyn.  Watching a grown man cry from losing a baseball game really put thing into perspective.  Baseball mirrors life and vice versa.

This season we will have 28 teams competing for the ultimate goal of winning a KOD

championship.  My interest level has really peaked this year since I had the good, maybe bad, fortune of seeing each of these teams play live, since they all played during my lifetime.  Divisional baseball might have lessened the regular season a bit (more so after the Wild Card), but to have gotten to the post season and to have come up short made these teams just a bit tragic in their own way.  Some fan bases were probably ecstatic to have gotten there.  Compare and contrast the 1980 Astros and Yankees.  Both are represented in KOD21.  Astros fans were ecstatic to have reached their first post season after 18 years of being just another expansion team mired in mediocrity.  Yankee fans, on the other hand, had a veteran team that won 3 pennants and 2 championships just a few years back.  After winning 103 games in 1980, and getting swept by the Royals in he LCS (see there is redemption...KC fans), the Yankees fired their manager (the late Dick Howser).

Can't wait until March for 1st pitch.  Good luck to all !!!