COVID-19 World Series Part II - The ALCS

For Part I
The first baseball cards I ever purchased were the Topps 1975 cards, from Pat & Jim's on Delta Avenue in Gladstone. It's still my favorite card style - I'm not alone in that opinion.

That set, like many in the 1970's had summary cards of playoff and World Series games. So I started making those too.

Game 1 was a late victory for me with Dave Bergman hitting a pinch hit home run.

Game 2 A Joe Morgan homer was the difference.

Game 3 was another close battle, but my squad took a 3 games to 0 lead and Rollie Fingers picked up his 3rd save.

With their backs to the wall Fergie Jenkins went on 3 days rest and kept Paul's team alive.

Vida Blue pitched a gem in game 5 to close out the series.

Rollie Fingers and his 3 saves made him the MVP of the ALCS, other options were Dave Bergman and his 2 pinch hit homers, Manny Sanguillen or Hank Aaron pacing the offense. But in 5 close games, the bullpen made the real difference.

COVID-19 World Series Part I

I dug my old Statis-pro baseball game out of the basement, figured out how to make player cards and challenged some friends and family to a championship series and world series.

I was originally thinking of all of us trying to come up with the greatest teams ever, but then decided my preference was our favorite players from out childhood, for the most part. We'd play the games over Zoom.

Teams were picked as starters only, then you pick a closer and get his bullpen from the season you chose and a bench from a particular team and season. We're playing national league rules so pitchers have to hit. And the intention was to play more 1970s style - no 14 man pitching staffs..

My Bother-in-law Paul chose his boyhood favorite 1969 Cubs. Joe Madden and I mostly chose of the players we liked from when we used to play Statis-Pro as kids. John Leonardi, went with a mix of great Tigers and great players from our time. I dpent most of a weekend trying to pick the best season for everyone's starters - after 1967 - so Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Al Kaline etc. we're mostly past their prime.

Through random draw we ended up with Paul and I in what I decided was the Altese-related League Championship Series (ALCS) and Joe vs. John in Non-Altese League Championship Series (NLCS)

Paul's Roster		My Roster		Joe's Roster		Leo's Roster
Randy HUNDLEY		Manny SANGUILLEN		Miguel CABRERA		Kirk GIBSON
Ernie BANKS		Hank AARON		Ivan RODRIGUEZ		Ken GRIFFEY JR
Glenn BECKERT		Joe MORGAN		Rickey HENDERSON		Barry BONDS
Don KESSINGER		Gary TEMPLETON		Andre DAWSON		George BRETT
Ron SANTO		Elliott MADDOX		Bill MADLOCK		Alan TRAMMELL
Billy WILLIAMS		Tony GWYNN		Lou WHITAKER		Ian KINSLER
Don YOUNG		Garry MADDOX		Al KALINE		Frank THOMAS
Jim HICKMAN		George HENDRICK		Derek JETER		Victor MARTINEZ
Al SPANGLER		Mike HEATH		Quintin BERRY		Rajai DAVIS
Willie SMITH		Larry HERNDON		Ramon SANTIAGO		Eugenio SUAREZ
Paul POPOVICH		Dave BERGMAN		Ryan RAYBURN		Don KELLY
Jim QUALLS		Darnell COLES		Gerald LAIRD		Bryan HOLADAY
Oscar GAMBLE		Johnny GRUBB		Don KELLY		Ezequiel CARRERA
Rick BLADT		Jim MORRISON		Danny WORTH		Danny WORTH
Nate OLIVER		Terry HARPER		Avisail GARCIA		Alex GONZALEZ
Bill HEATH		Bill BEAN		Jeff BAKER		Tyler COLLINS
Ken RUDOLPH		Jim WALEWANDER		Brandon INGE		Bruce SUTTER
Gene OLIVER		Scott LUSADER		Brad ELDRED		Dave GIUSTI
Bill HANDS		Dwight LOWRY		Omar INFANTE		Dave ROBERTS
Dick SELMA		Bob LOCKER		Andy DIRKS		Dennis LAMP
Don NOTTEBART		Darold KNOWLES		Aurelio LOPEZ		Donnie MOORE
Fergie JENKINS		Jim ROLAND		Bill SCHERRER		Jack MORRIS
Hank AGGUIRRE		Mark FIDRYCH		Bob GIBSON		Jim TODD
Jim COLBORN		Mickey LOLICH		Carl WILLIS		Justin VERLANDER
Joe DECKER		Mike NORRIS		Doug BAIR		Orel HERSHISER
Joe NIEKRO		Mudcat GRANT		Glenn ABBOTT		Paul REUSCHEL
Ken HOLTZMAN		Paul LINDBLAD		Max SCHERZER		Pedro MARTINEZ
Ken JOHNSON		Rollie FINGERS		Nolan RYAN		Pete BROBERG
Phil REGAN		Ron KLIMKOWSKI		Randy O'NEAL		Steve RENKO
Rich NYE		Vida BLUE		Roger MASON		Willie HERNANDEZ
Ted ABERNATHY				Ron GUIDRY
				Sid MONGE
				Willie HERNANDEZ

 You may notice some repeats. Leo picked Bruce Sutter as his closer and went with his best season so he got that entire Cubs Bullpen whinch Incuded Willie Hernandez, the same Willie Hernandez that Joe picked as his 1984 Tiger's closer. They also both picked mid 2010 Tigers as there benches so Don Kelly and Danny Worth make a couple appearances.

Next Post will go over the LCS. 

Second set of categories for Mike Madness

1 older

2 more socks in their personal sock drawer

3 higher zip code

4 lives further south

5 fewer pairs of shoes by your entrance

6 tv on higher channel

7 better celebrity that shares birthday (make your case)

8 longer street name

9 higher percentage of vowels in first and last name

10 higher sum of SSN numbers

11 higher number of phone chargers currently plugged in

12 more pets

13 fewer lights on

14 fewer social media accounts

15 more clocks still set to standard time

16 home with more windows

17 lives closer to a national park

18 more recently took a bath

19 closer to an outdoor basketball hoop

20 more house plants

21 more tp rolls (packaged)

22 more bottles of gin

23 number of books out - not in bookcases - in the room you're in

24 more juice containers

25 more American cheese slices

26 first name contains later letter in alphabet

27 fewer umbrellas in the home

28 more pictures of Mom and dad ON DISPLAY

29 lives closer to a named body of water on Apple Maps

30 has seen more of the competitors in person in 2020

Sent from my iPhone

Mike Madness

No NCAA tournament this year means no family pool. What should we do instead? 40 family members battle in random bracket with ridiculously random determinants for the winner:

follow along on the bracket here:           

Table capturing the determinants here:

Round	Location	Participant 1	score	participant 2	score	question
1	Rosemont Horizon	Kara	3	Sebastian	1	16 Who has lived in more states
1	Cow Palace	Augie	0	Andrew	650	5 Better finish in 2019 family basketball pool
1	Hinkle Fieldhouse	Caroline	2	Laura	2	18 age with the most factors
	overtime	Caroline	-81	Laura	-120	21 Further east
1	Carmichael Arena	Mary Jo	4	Paula	3	12 More couches via expert Cam
1	Carnesecca Arena	Amiya	1	Brandon	5	15 Has been to more countries
1	Pauley Pavilion	Maya	0	Sarah	0	14 More broken bones
	overtime	Maya	-65.3	Sarah	-78	25 closest to State Capital (capitol)
1	The Pit	Ethan	-49	Kathy	-66	4 Shorter
1	Frost Arena	Alastar	-147	Mike	70	8 closest to birthday to 11/24
2	Rosemont Horizon	Tara	-2	Kara	-1	27.1 fewer umbrellas
2	Rosemont Horizon	Anna	45	Melissa	42.3	19 Further North
2	Cow Palace	AJ	2	Andrew	2	24.1 more juice containers
	overtime	AJ	27	Andrew	31	16.1 more windows in home
2	Cow Palace	Andy	30	Aria	20	23 more teeth -disputed made into best of 3
	best 2 of 3	Andy	-169	Aria	-81	9 Birthday closer to 2/1
		Andy	-45	Aria	-3	13 age closer to shoe size
2	Hinkle Fieldhouse	Paul	-1	Caroline	0	14.1 fewer social media accounts
2	Hinkle Fieldhouse	Alyssa	85.1	Josh	89.5	22 Further West
2	Carmichael Arena	Sean	7	Mary Jo	65	1.1 who is older
2	Carmichael Arena	Jana	28	Matt	28	24 Fewer teeth
	overtime	Jana	5	Matt	6	6 longer middle name(s)
2	Carnesecca Arena	Kyle	30	Brandon	30	10.1 sum of SSN digits
	ovetime	Kyle	0	Brandon	8	28.1 more pics of mom and dad on display
2	Carnesecca Arena	Sue	68	Elliott	25	3 Taller
2	Pauley Pavilion	Noa	23	Maya	8	21.1 more packeged tp rolls
2	Pauley Pavilion	Jan	-66	Lizzy	-27	2 Younger
2	The Pit	Mason	4	Ethan	4	19.1 closer to outdoor hoop
	overtime	Mason	7	Ethan	3	30.1 seen more family in person
2	The Pit	Ann	0	Nick	309	17 higher finish in bowl pool
2	Frost Arena	Cameron	5	Mike	4	11.1 more phone chargers currently plugged in
2	Frost Arena	Charlotte	344	Ryan	177	10.1 higher house number
3	McNichols Arena	Kara	1452	Anna	NA	6.1 - higher TV channel
	false start	Kara	19	Anna	14	26.1 - first name contains a later letter
3	McNichols Arena	Andrew	0	Aria	1	7.1 - Better celebrity who shares birthday
3	Chicago Stadium	Caroline	0	Josh	1	12.1 - More pets
3	Chicago Stadium	Mary Jo	15	Matt	16	25.1 - more american chees slices
3	The Omni	Brandon	42.7	Sue	42.0723	4.1 Lives further south
3	The Omni	Noa	9	Lizzy	22	13.1 Fewer Lights on
3	Hartford Civic Ctr	Mason	0	Nick	0	22.1 More bottles of gin
	overtime	Mason	6	Nick	10	23.1 More books out in current room
3	Hartford Civic Ctr	Cameron	0	Charlotte	1	18.1 More recently took a bath
4	McNichols Arena	Kara	50	Aria	38	2.1 More socks in personal sock drawer
4	Chicago Stadium	Josh	53716	Matt	60115	3.1 Higher zip code
4	The Omni	Sue	45	Noa	44	9.1 Higher percentage of vowels in first and last name
4	Hartford Civic Ctr	Nick	2	Charlotte	3	29.1 Lives closer to named body of water
5	Old Gym, Old GHS	Kara	4	Matt	11	More houeplants
5	Old Gym, Old GHS	Sue	9	Charlotte	7	more letters in street name
6	Old Gym, Old GHS	Sue	3	Matt	1	best of 5

M vs Alabama prediction

As much as I would love for Michigan to beat Alabama tomorrow, I just don't think it's going to happen.

M 27
Alabama 45

Sent from my iPhone

Quick Trophy Update

Clemson was victorious over Ohio State Saturday evening in the Fiesta Bowl and will take the jiMpossible-sarcasMike Trophy with them to the National Championship game against LSU.

The trophy had been held by Big Ten teams since Penn State defeated Pitt last September, 27 straight wins within the conference.

Clemson has not held the trophy since losing to Syracuse in October of 2017.

LSU has not been in trophy possession since losing to Arkansas in November of 2007.

Alabama Prediction

Michigan 20

Alabama 40