Redbirds take 2 of 3 from Friars

Game 1,

The first game of the series was a hum dinger as St. Louis got out to a quick lead by plating three runs in the first. San Diego rallied and pushed across three of their own in the sixth. Both teams were tied at the end of nine and therefore had to go into extra innings to decide the affair.  Ken Boyer smacked a 2 run homer in the 10 to send the Cardinals to victory. Cardinals 6....Padres 5(10 innings)

Game 2,

Bob Nieman was the star of the second game with a four hit performance and Alex Grammas added a homerun to lead St. Louis passed the Padres in San Diego.  Broglio earned his first victory for the Cardinals with Ron Kline notching the save. The loss went to Bruce Hurst (3-1). Cardinals 6...Padres 3.

Game 3,

San Diego was able to salvage the last game of the series despite only 3 hits off Cardinal pitching.  One of the hits was a 2 RBI single by Thomas Howard in the fifth inning.  Lefty Dennis Rasmussen was too much for the red bird batters, as the crafty lefty had them off balance all day.  Padres 2....Cardinals 1.

--submitted by Joey Scigliano--

Brooklyn reaches .500 by taking 2 of 3 from LA

GAME 1 - Ebbets Field

Ishii vs Podres

Brooklyn 5, LA 1

1955 World Series MVP Johnny Podres went the distance allowing just 1 run on 6 its, to get his 1st win of the season.  Brooklyn broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 6th with a 4 run outburst.  RBI's from Hodges, Cimoli and Campanella did the trick.

GAME 2

Perez vs Koufax

Brooklyn 6, LA 3

Young Sandy Koufax fanned 7 in 8 stellar innings of work in his first start on the hill this season.  Blessed with a golden left arm, Brooklyn's bonus baby needs to harness his control and trust his stuff like today.  Brooklyn countered an LA 1-0 lead with another 4 run outburst.  "Skoonj" (Carl Furillo) was bold with the bat going 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and a run knocked in to raise his season average to .452.  Hodges had 2 RBI's.  Jordan and Beltre had homers in a losing effort.

GAME 3 - Dodger Stadium

Craig vs Nomo

LA 8, Brooklyn 4

The stagnant LA offense finally got on track and teed off on Roger Craig to double up Brooklyn 8-4.  Heading into the bottom of the 6th LA held a tenuous 2-1 lead before Craig served up hits like Nathan's serves up Hot Dogs in Coney Island.  Shawn Green (2 homers) and Adrian Beltre (3 RBI's) combined to do the damage.  Cimoli went 3-4 for Brooklyn, but did not knock in or score a run.

Brew Crew sweeps Tigers

GAME 1 - County Stadium
Aguirre vs Augustine
Brewers 7, Tigers 4
Don Wert's RBI single with 2 out in the 7th tied the score at 4-4 and erased Jerry Augustine's chances for a win.  Larry Hisle led off the bottom of the 7th with a blast to put the Brew crew back up by 1.  Dick Davis' 2 run shot in the 8th gave Milwaukee a 3 run margin that they would take to the bank.  Eduardo Rodriguez, who blew the save by giving up an unearned run (Wert's single) got the win and Randy Stein, who pitched a perfect 9th got the save.

GAME 2
McLain vs Haas
Brewers 9, Tigers 4
Spot starter Moose Haas stunned even his manager by allowing just 1 run in 6 2/3 innings on the hill Haas fanned 7, while walking 2 and allowing just 4 hits.  Milwaukee had the long ball going once again as Gorman Thomas hit both his 7th and 8th of the season to knock in 4.  Oglivie and Molitor each had homers.  Molitor's 2 run shot in the 6th made it 7-1 and the Brewers were fastened to cruise to victory until Haas' replacement Bob McClure gave up 3 in the 8th to make it a 7-4 game.  Milwaukee answered right back with 2 more insurance tallies in the bottom of the 8th.  Dick Davis' pinch hit RBI single plated Thomas and Buck Martinez scored on a Molitor groundout.  Randy Stein loaded the bases in the 9th and Bill Castro, who earned his second save, had to come in for the final 2 outs to close it out.

GAME 3 - Tiger Stadium
Caldwell vs Lolich
Brewers 5, Tigers 2
Dick McAuliffe led off the bottom of the 1st with his 3rd roundtripper of the season and his second of the series.  McAuliffe's blast tied the game a 1 all.  Both teams exchanged runs in the 5th to keep the game knotted.  Both crafty lefties (Mike Caldwell and Mickey Lolich) were matching each other inning for inning with the pressure squarely on "the fat man" to be his team's stopper.  With 2 out and runners on 1st and 2nd Sexto Lezcano delivered a clutch RBI single to score Don Money and put Milwaukee up 3-1.  An RBI single by Lezcano in the 9th and a sac fly by Charlie Moore gave Caldwell a 3 run cushion, which made it easy for him to go the distance after being very economical with only 100 pitches thrown in anger.  Milwaukee moves to 11-3 and sits atop the AL West.  Detroit drops to 5-9 as manager Davis awaits their dormant lumber to come alive.

Friars take 2 of 3 from Jints

Polo Grounds, New York,

Game 1,

South paw Bruce Hurst was on his "A" game as he remains undefeated and ups his record to 3-0 on the infant season. Bruce surrendered 2 runs on 3 measly hits to accomplish his feat. Fred McGriff helped the offense with a short home run down the right field line. The ball traveled maybe 290 feet but well enough to clear the 272 foot wall in right.  Thomas Howard added two more hits and two RBI in the Padres triumph. Padres 4...Giants 2.

Game 2,

San Diego pitcher Dennis Rasmussen was injured early in the game and was relieved by Mike Maddux. Maddux pitched 3.1 innings of awesome long relief. He only surrendered one hit and no runs to earn his first win of the season.  Tony Gwynn banged out three hits and drove in two runs.  reserve infielder spelling second baseman Bip Roberts contributed three RBI and two hits.  Sal"The Barber" Maglie was not on his game as he was touched up for seven runs in five innings of work.  Padres 8....Giants 4.

Game 3,

Giant right hander Jim Hearn was too much for the Padre offense today. Hearn went the distance has he scattered five hits and allowed only one unearned run for the game.  Center fielder Bobby Thompson provided much of the offensive punch with two RBI on three hits.  Whitey Lockman contributed three safeties as well as New York salvaged the finale to prevent a sweep.  Andy Benes, the Padres starter falls to 1-2 despite a solid pitching performance.  Giants 6....Padres 1.

--submitted by Joey Scigliano--

Dem Bums take 2 of 3 from Stros

GAME 1 - Astrodome
McDevitt vs D.Roberts
Astros 6, Dodgers 1
A 1-1 tie after six blew up in Danny McDevitt's face when the 'Stros rang him up to the tune of 5 unanswered runs in the home half of the 7th.  Walks, errors and hit batsmen set the table for a bases clearing double by "the next Willie Mays", Cesar Cedeno.  Tommy Helms singled 2 batters later to cap off Houston's scoring.  Dave Roberts was rock solid allowing just 1 run in 6 innings.  Tom Griffin notched his second win in relief with a scoreless 7th inning.  Fred Gladding finished it off in a non save situation by posting 2 scoreless innings.

GAME 2
Drysdale vs D.Wilson
Dodgers 6, Astros 4 (10)
If you like see saw battles then this was one would have been an instant classic for you.  Brooklyn took a 1-0 lead on a Gino Cimoli single in the third.  An inning and a half later the Astros tied it up with a Lee May RBI single aided by a timely theft of second by Cedeno.  A two out knock by Johnny Edwards put the 'Stros up 2-1 after 6.  Brooklyn then went up by 1 in the top of the 7th courtesy of a 2 run single by Cimoli.  That lead was short lived as the Astros scored on a one hopper by the "Toy Canon" Jimmy Wynn that went off third baseman Pee Wee Reese's glove.  Houston looked to score on the previous AB when Cedeno (who else) single to center, but Roger Metzger was gunned down by a one hop throw off the carpet from Duke Snider.  Brooklyn once again took the lead in the top of the 9th on a 2 out RBI double by "The Quiet Man" Gil Hodges.  Clem Labine, in his second inning of relief looked to nail it down for the win, but with 2 out he gave up an RBI single to Jimmy Wynn to send the game into extra innings.  Junior Gilliam led off the 10th with a seeing eye single strategically placed between Tommy Helms and big Lee May.  Gilliam tried to steal second, but was gunned down easily by Edwards.  With all the attention focused on Gilliam, Sandy Amoros walked.  Duke Snider, who walked in 4 of his 5 previous plate appearances expected the Jim Ray to pitch around him like his predecessors.  Instead Ray threw him a hanging curve that Snider launched 363 feet over the right field fence to put Brooklyn up by 2.  Carl Erskine, who has battled arm trouble all season long, came on in the 10th to notch the save.

GAME 3 - Ebbets Field
Dierker vs Newcome
Dodgers 5, Astros 3
After getting burned the previous night before by Snider the Astros chose to give him an unintentional / intentional pass.  That brought up Gil Hodges, owner of 14 career grand slams.  It doesn't take a genius to predict what came next.  Hodges pulled a 0-2 offering by Dierker deep into the left field pavilion.  The first run of the inning came on a Cimoli ground out.  Don Newcombe was cruising until the top of the 6th when he gave up a 3 run tape measure shot (414 feet) to the Toy Canon, Jimmy Wynn.  Neither team would score the rest of the way.  Brooklyn went to Ed Roebuck, who pitched a scoreless 8th and Clem Labine, who did the same in the 9th for his 2nd save.

1960 St. Louis Cardinals vs. 2005 New York Mets

Game One - Curt Simmons vs. Jae Seo.

Bottom the ninth, game tied at 1. With one out, Carlos Beltran singles up the middle, steals second, and scores on Mike Cameron's double for a Mets' 2-1 walk-off win.

Game Two - Ray Sadecki vs. Pedro Martinez.

Who's the Man? Stan's the Man! Stan Musial comes off of the bench to hit a pinch-hit three-run homer to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 Cardinals' lead. Ernie Broglio pitches three shutout innings of relief behind Sadecki as St. Louis evens up the series with the 4-2 win.

Game Three - Bob Miller vs. Tom Glavine.

The teams move to Sportman's Park for Game Three and it is there where the Mets find their hitting shoes. The Mets get home runs from Mike Piazza, Kaz Matsui, Victor Diaz, David Wright and two from Jose Reyes, including an inside-the-park job; pounding out seventeen hits in support of Glavine in a 14-2 win. St. Louis loses starting pitcher Miller, just called up from the minors to an injury in the second inning and the Mets take advantage of three relievers.

Game Four - Steve Trachsel vs. Larry Jackson.

The Mets pound out fifteen more hits and get a homer from Piazza and two from Mike Jacobs and win their third game of the series by a score of 9-3. Trachsel makes his first start of the season as Mets' scheduled starter is called away for a personal matter, and pitches six strong innings to get the win.

--submitted by Chris Gotay--

Brew Crew takes 2 of 3 from O's

GAME 1 - Memorial Stadium
Sorensen vs Pappas
Brewers 7, Orioles 3
Both starters came out of the gate a bit shaky, but Sorensen (3-0, 1.00), righted his ship quicker.  In his defense, Sorensen didn't have much behind him as Sal Bando and Jim Wohlford booted balls that caused 2 unearned runs to score.  Sorensen, who made his second error of the season was not completely blameless in this fielding circus.  Still the Brewcrew is built around their bats.  Don Money's 3 run blast in the top of the 8th off of reliever Harvey Haddix turned this one run affair into an easy outing for Sorensen, who went the distance.

GAME 2
Caldwell vs Bunker
Brewers 3, Orioles 2 (11 inn)

Mike "the Yankee Killer" Caldwell nursed a 2-1 lead into the 9th when his manager played a hunch and went to the pen with runners in scoring position and 1 out.  Baltimore scored to tie the game up when Eduardo Rodriguez was incapable of holding down the fort.  Bob McClure came in to put out the fire, but the game was already tied at 2-2.  After a scoreless 10th the Brewers took the lead with a 2 out double by Sal Bando to score Sixto Lezcano.  McClure returned to the hill in 11th to set the O's down in order to get the win.  Baltimore pounded out 12 hits, but the nifty Caldwell tap danced in and out of trouble in 5 of the 9 innings he was on the hill.  Don Money (3-5, 1 RBI) continues to wield a hot bat as Milwaukee finds it tougher and tougher to keep him out of the lineup.

GAME 3 - County Stadium
Roberts vs Travers
Orioles 1, Brewers 0

The aging Robin Roberts pitched like it was 1950 and he was a young fireballer.  Roberts fanned 5 and gave up just 4 hits in 7 1/3 innings of work.  Harvey Haddix and Stu Miller (1st save) finished it up for Double R.  Bill Travers did a great job keeping the O's in check, allowing just 1 run in the 7th on a squeeze play executed to perfection by Jerry Adair.  For the second day in a row Bill Robinson had 3 hits for the O's, which bumps his season average up to .419.  Ben Oglivei, who got hurt for the second time in as many weeks missed another 3 games and looks to be back in Milwaukee's next series.

Brew Crew takes 3 of 4 from Royals

GAME 1 - County Stadium
Leibrandt vs Sorensen
Brewers 2, Royals 1
Lary Sorensen earned his second win of the season ith 9 stellar innings on the hill.  Subtract KC's unearned run in the top of the 7th and Sorensen has himself a shutout.  Milwaukee scored solor runs in the 6th and 7th to win this pitcher's duel.  Gorman Thomas hit his 4th homer in the 7t.  Don Money doubled home Paul Molitor in the 6th to account for all the scoring Sorensen would need.

GAME 2
Leonard vs Caldwell
Royals 5, Brewers 2

KC's Dennis Leonard nursed a 1 run lead until the top of the 8th when the Royals scored 2 insurance runs, which were very much needed.  The first 4 hitters in the Royals lineup combined to go 9-19 with George Brett and Steve Balboni both getting 2 RBI's.  Mike Caldwell had an off day for the Brew Crew, but still managed to eat up 8 innings.  Bye Bye Balboni hit his first homer of the season.

GAME 3 - Royals Stadium
Travers vs D.Jackson
Brewers 3, Royals 2 (11 inn)
When Bill Travers ran out of steam in the 9th Bill Castro was called upon to get the final 2 outs and preserve the victory, but instead he gave up a 2 out RBI double to Hal McRae, which tied the game a 2-2.  Gorman Thomas led off the top of the 11th with his 5th homer of the season off of reliever Steve Farr.  Moose Haas and Bob McClure combined to pitch a scoreless 11th to save the game for Castro, who wound up getting the win.

GAME 4
Augustine vs Gubicza
Brewers 5, Royals 3 (11 inn)

For the second day in a row it took 11 innings to get a finite decsion.  After both teams went scoreless over the final 5 frames of regulation and the 10th inning the Brewers scored 2 runs in the top of the 11th.  Dave May, who subbed for the injured Ben Oglive, went 3 for 5 with 2 doubles, including one in the 11th to score Larry Hisle.  Don Money's RBI single gave reliever Bill Castro a nice buffer to earn his first save of the season.

Bums and Fish split

GAME 1 - Ebbets Field
Moehler vs McDevitt
Dodgers 7, Marlins 6
Brooklyn's porous bullpen barely staved off a late inning charge by the Marlins, who scored 3 runs off of Roger Craig in the top of the 7th to make it a 7-6 game.  Old reliable Clem Labine gave up 2 hits in the 9th as fans held their breath on a Carlos Delgado warning track shot, which fell safely into Carl Furillo's glove.  Labine finally got out of the jam by getting Juan Encarnacion to ground weakly to third for a fielder's choice.  Dodger leadoff man Junior Gilliam was 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored.  Don "Popeye" Zimmer hit a 2 run shot in the bottom of the 2nd.  Charley Neal also had 2 RBI.  On the short side of the ledger Paul LoDuca and Miguel Cabrera went yard.

GAME 2
Burnett vs Drysdale
Dodgers 2, Marlins 0

Big D, Don Drysdale, fanned 8 and gave up just 5 hits en route to his second complete game shutout of the season.  Brooklyn scored solo runs in each of the first 2 innings.  Carl Furillo hit a 2 out homer in the bottom of the first to break the ice.  Gino Cimoli singled home Neal in the second in an inning extended by a Luis Castillo error at second.

GAME 3 - Dolphin Stadium
Newcombe vs Willis
Marlins 2, Dodgers 0
A dominating 8 shutout inning performance by Dontrelle Willis (6 k's / 0 BB) was finished off by a scoreless 9th from Todd Jones (3 sv).  Florida reversed their fortunes of the previous day with 4 consecutive singles from Lowell, Willis, Pierre and LoDuca, with the final 2 knocking in runs.

GAME 4
Podres vs Beckett
Marlins 2, Dodgers 1

Josh Beckett carried a no hitter into the 7th before giving up a 1 out single to aging Dodger captain Pee Wee Reese.  Beckett did walk 4 on the day, but was strategic enough to get out of trouble and not give up the big hit.  Brooklyn scored their lone run in that 7th inning via a sac fly from backup catcher Rube Walker.  Todd Jones struck out the side in the 9th for his 4th save of the season.  Florida scored solo runs in both the first and third innings.  Luis Castillo scored in the first on a Miguel Cabrera ground out.  Two innings later Cabrera singled home Juan Pierre, who led off the 3rd with a slicing double.

1967 Chicago Cubs - 87-74 (14 GB)

1967 Chicago Cubs - 87-74 (14 GB)

For 19 of the previous 20 seasons the hapless Cubbies did not finish over .500.  Then in 1966 they brought Leo Durocher back out of moth balls and he proceeded to do the unthinkable:  He made the Cubbies worse.  In fact he made them drop from 8th place to 10th and in the process dislodged the expansion Mets from their ownership of last place.  What many failed to realize was the fact that Leo the Lip had a plan.  1967 saw the Cubs rebound and win 28 more games than they did the previous season.  There was talent in both the major league and minor league level and Durocher was about to blend it into contention.  The Cubs shocked the North Side by rebounding from a slow start to stick with the Cardinals and eventually gain a share of the NL lead 3 times.  On July 24th the Cubbies stood atop the NL tied with the Cards, but then it all came crashing down thanks to a 7 game losing streak to start their annual August swoon.  The Cardinals meanwhile, went on an incredible run and won over 100 games and cruised to the pennant, but the Cubs had themselves a nice nucleus.

STRENGTHS:  3 future HOF'er in their every day lineup.  Ernie Banks (.276-23-95) showed no signs of slowing down since his shift from shortstop to first.  Billy Williams (.278-28-84) was a fixture in left field and Ron Santo (.300-31-98) was putting up Eddie Mathews numbers duing an offensively depressed era in baseball.  Lost in the shuffle was Adolfo Phillips (.268-17-70) seasons.  Phillips manned centerfield, stole 24 bases and angered Durocher so much he eventually wound up in Leo's dog house, which might have cost them the pennant 2 years later.

  

WEAKNESSES:  Other than Phillips, this team had almost no foot speed.  Having Ted Savage (.218-5-33) and Lee Thomas (.220-2-23) platooning in right field put a gaping hole in their lienup.

PITCHING:  24 year old Ferguson Jenkins was coming into his own as the team's ace (20-13, 2.80).  Rich Nye (13-10, 3.20) gave Durocher 205 innings.  The rest of the staff was a mix and match adventure.  21 year old rookie lefty Ken Holtzman was 9-0, 2.53 in his 12 starts after being called up.

BULLPEN:  The pen was solid, but not spectacular.  Chuck Hartenstein (9-5, 3.08, 10 sv) would be considered the closer.  Bill Hands (7-8, 2.46) saw more action (150 innings), but he was more valuable as a swingman than a pure reliever.  Former Red Sox fireball Dick Radatz (1-0, 6.56, 5 sv) was shot.  He started out as the closer, but was eventually replace by Hartenstein.

BENCH:  Zero pop on this bench.  In fact nobody hit higher than retread Al Spangler's .254.  Thankfully Randy Hundley caught 152 games, because backup John Boccabella hit just .171.

My buddy Jeff created the 1967 Cubs team set with some fantastic new photos.  Below are some of the key recreations that he made.