Each year I run a solitaire APBA tournament called the Nakatomi Plaza Memorial Tournament over the Holidays. Home games played at Roger Maris Field, away at the Coliseum in LA. Below is an outline of the tragedy remembered by this tournament.
This year I decided to use the Wilkin County Linemen set that I had the wonderful and skilled Howie Mooney create for me. For more details on this team see this blog entry: Chasing the Bashers
The Linemen are dominate by players from the 1980s and 1990s, especial 1991, and many of the HOFers are from this era, thus the trophy for this tourney was an M.C. Hammer bobber.
Bruce Willis threw the first pitch.
The HOF lineup:
Roto:
Shilling
Clemens
Mussina
Wakefield
Pen:
Hoffman
Wagner
Position:
1B Bagwell
2B Kent
SS Renteria
3B Sheffield
C Posada
LF Ramirez
CF Raines
RF Walker
DH Martinez
Bench:
Stairs (yes, he is on the ballot)
Mora
Drew (I saw him play for St. Paul many times)
Batting line up:
1. Raines
2. Walker
3. Bagwell
4. Martinez
5. Ramirez
6. Sheffield
7. Kent
8. Possada
9. Renteria
I ran a best of 51 game tourney and the Linemen won with a record of 25-20. Congrats to the Linemen! The afterparty at the local bar The Wilkin, had outstanding live music.
R.E.M took the stage first.
Followed by the master himself Glenn Campbell, backed my the Stone Temple Pilots.
A special salute was arranged for that killer Linemen outfield of Bo, Puckett, and Ichiro-knicknamed the "Ghost Riders in the Sky" for their ability to rob HRs on the wall.
The top of the lineup for the Linemen raked. Ichiro hit a scorching .370 against that staff and Puckett an outstanding .336-they really pushed the runs across and scored a lot of runs. Cal contributed with 17 Hrs over the series and clustered them towards the end to push the Linemen to the 25 win mark.
I use a custom unusual play card that indicates a "gold glove play" and Sabo was a rally killer at 3B, contributing 15 circus catch-and-throws at the hot corner. The custom card does not increase outs or probability of a 5-3, it just indicates a gold glove level play randomly, adjusted for fielding rating.
Ramirez was a victim of 7. Being asked what happened in the series, Manny was quoted in the press: "That F---ing guy out there with the goggles."
The M&M boys (Mauer and Morneau) hit for power, mostly doubles but really drove in the runs. Many times Ichiro or Puckett would cross home with Mauer or Morneau standing on second.
I use a custom unusual play card that indicates a "gold glove play" and Sabo was a rally killer at 3B, contributing 15 circus catch-and-throws at the hot corner. The custom card does not increase outs or probability of a 5-3, it just indicates a gold glove level play randomly, adjusted for fielding rating.
Ramirez was a victim of 7. Being asked what happened in the series, Manny was quoted in the press: "That F---ing guy out there with the goggles."
The M&M boys (Mauer and Morneau) hit for power, mostly doubles but really drove in the runs. Many times Ichiro or Puckett would cross home with Mauer or Morneau standing on second.
MVP: Ichiro
He hit .370, 8 gold glove plays, and stole 6 bases.
The HOF squad pitched well for the most part, holding the Linemen to an average of 5 RPG (removing some blowout outliers) and some HOF players underperformed like Sheffield and Ramirez hitting a paltry .223 and .222 respectively. Bagwell stole more bases than I expected (10) and Raines was constantly on base, putting pressure on the B stacked Linemen rotation and gave Tom Kelly a constant worry. T.K. went to his A* pen early and often.
One real highlight was Matt Stairs hitting a game-winning pinch hit home run in game 10, his trademark.
He was unavailable for play the next day with "flu-like symptoms."
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