CFL Countdown: The End is Here

And so it comes to this: 

The 1950 New York Yankees have a record of 88-64 and two games left with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves.

courtesy baseball-refernce.com

Left to right: Rizzuto, Berra, Dimaggio, Lopat, Reynolds, Raschi, Coleman, Ford, Bauer, Woodling, Mize, and Byrne.

The 1954 Cleveland Indians own a record of 88-65 and will play the final game on the calendar against those very same Braves.

courtesy baseball-refernce.com

Left to right: Avila, Doby, Wynn, Lemon, Rosen, Garcia, Smith, Mossi, Narleski, Houtteman, Feller, Wertz

A tie at the end of the season would set up a best of three playoff.

Let's get to the games!

The Yanks send wildman Tommy Byrne (10-12) to the mound to face spot starter Bob Trowbridge (7-12) as the Braves' starter Gene Conley comes up lame in his last scheduled start of the year. Things look good for the New Yawkers as they score 2 in the second and another pair in the top of the third. Byrne, however, has trouble getting anyone out in the Milwaukee third, giving up 3 hits and 2 walks before yielding to Allie Reynolds. Big Chief Reynolds calmed things down but the Braves score 5 (including 3 on Hank Aaron's league-leading 45th HR) to take a 5-4 lead.

Yogi Berra sends the Yanks up again with a 2-run homer in the fourth and, for a while, it looks like those runs might be enough. Reynolds provides 5 innings of stellar relief but surrenders the tying run in the 6th, as Eddie Mathews doubled home Red Schoendienst. Meanwhile, a trio of Milwaukee relievers shut down the potent NY offense - Ernie Johnson, Juan Pizarro, and Don Mcmahon keep the Bombers scoreless through the 8th.  Joe Ostrowski comes on for the Yanks - he's got a league-leading total of 20 saves on the year. The Braves tee off on Ostro for 4 hits and Bobby Brown commits an error all good for 2 runs and an 8-6 lead. Don McMahon completes the 9th without incident and the Yanks go down to defeat.

WP: Don McMahon 7-2
LP: Joe Ostrowski 5-8

NY 88-65
CLE 88-65

Tied with one game left for each team in the season.

The Yanks' last game of the year was a laugher. They jumped on hard-luck Braves' hurler Lew Burdette (4-22) and his second-inning replacement Dave Jolly for 11 runs. Vic Raschi cruised into the 9th but needed last out help from Tom Ferrick. Final score 11-6.

WP: Vic Raschi 15-11
LP: Lew Burdette 4-23

Lew Burdette - wondering how it could have gone so wrong this year!

NY 89-65
CLE 88-65

Cleveland must win the final game of the season to force a playoff.

Ace Bob Lemon takes the mound for Cleveland while the Braves send 17-game winner Bob Buhl out to thwart the Indians. Lemon falters in the first, giving up 6 hits and 5 runs. This, combined with the fact that Cleveland is playing without their starting 2B (Bobby Avila), C (Jim Hegan), and LF (Al Smith) has quieted the visitors' dugout ... the season seems lost. 

But the game must go on and Cleveland shows signs of life: Wally Westlake doubles and scores in the second, Larry Doby triples home Hank Majeski in the third, and Al Rosen singles and scores in the 6th. Meanwhile, Lemon has regained his composure and pitches 6 innings, leaving for a pinch-hitter in the 7th on the wrong end of a 7-3 score. Things go from bad to worse as Red Schoendienst homers in the bottom of the 7th, putting Cleveland down by 5 with just two innings to go.


In the top of the 8th, the Indians come alive, getting to Buhl for a series of hits. Westlake homers, scoring himself and Vic Wertz. SS George Strickland walks and scores moments later when backup catcher Hal Naragon triples. Dave Philley doubles home Naragon and, when Doby singles him home, it's 8-8!! The Indians have improbably stormed back and are very much alive in the pennant race as we head into the final few innings.

Ace reliever Don Mossi retires the Braves in order in the bottom of the 8th and Ernie Johnson duplicates that effort, quieting the Tribe in the 9th. Tied at 8, we go to the bottom of the 9th in the final game of this remarkable season!

Mossi retires Billy Bruton and Hank Aaron and it looks like we're headed for extra innings. Slugger Eddie Mathews is pitched to carefully; he works a walk. Andy Pafko lifts a short fly to center which drops in; first and second with 2 outs. Mossi faces yet another Braves' slugger in Joe Adcock. When Adcock walks, it loads the bases for SS Johnny Logan.

Just two of the Braves Fence Busters
courtesy carboardconnection.com

Mossi, and Cleveland fans everywhere, couldn't have asked for a better situation - given the depth of the Braves' potent offense (three Hall-of-Famers, six players who, at some point in their careers hit 25 homers in a season, five of whom reached the 35-homer mark),  the prospect of facing Johnny Logan with the season on the line is pretty appealing. Mossi holds the ball and considers his good fortune.

Honestly .. one of the better pics available of the esteemed Mr. Mossi.

Bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, two out .... pennant on the line. An out extends the game, the season, and the hopes for Cleveland's fans. A hit, walk, or error ends it all with Cleveland one game back of the Yankees. A high-leverage moment, indeed.

Mossi reaches back and delivers to Logan. Logan drives it right back up the middle, past Mossi, between Majeski and Stickland and, as the ball bounces over second base, Eddie Mathews scores!!

Logan's Run ends the season and dashes Cleveland's hopes

Braves win, Cleveland loses, and the Yankees win the pennant!! And a season which took seven years to complete, ends on the very last roll. 

Final Standings:

YEAR	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	G.B.
1950	New York Yankees	89	65	0.578	0
1954	Cleveland Indians	88	66	0.571	-1
1962	Los Angeles Dodgers	81	73	0.526	-8
1957	Milwaukee Braves	72	82	0.468	-17
1962	New York Mets	38	116	0.247	-51

CFL Countdown - The End is Near

Home of the Braves, land of the free

Milwaukee's County Stadium will be the site of the final ten games of this magnificent season, with the top two teams - the 1950 New York Yankees and the 1954 Cleveland Indians - taking turns at the battered and beaten Braves of 1957. Here's how it will all wind up:

Yanks versus Braves for 1 game
Indians versus Braves for 2 games
Yanks versus Braves for 2 games
Indians versus Braves for 2 games
Yanks versus Braves for 2 game
Indians versus Braves for 1 game

The Indians and the New Yorkers come in with identical 85-64 records. Cleveland blew an opportunity to come in with a superior record but could only manage a split of their four-game series with the 1962 Mets who finished their season with a 38-116 record (.247). 

The Braves have staggered some (winning only 21 of their last 53 has turned a 48-42 record into a disappointing 69-75) and have been injured a lot. They've lost significant time to injuries in the past month of the season including Andy Pafko for 2 games, Wes Covington for 2, Warren Spahn for 6, Hank Aaron for 8, Eddie Mathews for 10, and switch-hitting 2B Red Schoendienst for 11 games. That's 35 games lost to four Hall-of-Famers!! Everyone's back off the DL, so the Braves, though tender, will have a full roster for the start of these important games.

Let's get to the games:

Yanks 5, Braves 4

Hank Bauer, happy to be here

Yanks' starter Vic Raschi got into a 2-0 jam after just two batters - Red Schoendienst doubled and was brought around by a Johnny Logan homer. Two subsequent errors went to waste as the Braves could not convert these early gifts into more runs. Pity, too, as Hank Bauer poled a 3-run homer in the third to give NY the lead. The teams traded runs and went into the 8th tied at 4.  Johnny Mize, New York's red-hot first-baseman, clubbed his 29th homer of the year for the lead . . .  and the win. 

WP: Vic Raschi 14-11
LP: Lew Burdette 4-21

YEAR	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	G.B.
1950	New York Yankees	86	64	0.573	0
1954	Cleveland Indians	85	64	0.570	-0.5
1962	Los Angeles Dodgers	81	73	0.526	-7
1957	Milwaukee Braves	69	76	0.476	-14.5
1962	New York Mets	38	116	0.247	-50

Indians 10, Braves 2

Bob Lemon knows something you don't know ... and he's not tellin'

Bob Lemon picked up his 16th win while battery-mate Jim Hegan clubbed his 26th HR of the year and drove in 4 runs. Cleveland scored early and often and drove Milwaukee starter Bob Buhl from the mound after 5 innings. With the win, the Yanks and Cleveland remained tied with 86-64 records.

WP: Bob Lemon 16-12

LP: Bob Buhl 17-8

Braves 6, Indians 3

Reaching back for that something extra: Warren Spahn!

To say that lefty Warren Spahn survived a shaky start wouldn't quite be right ... true, he gave up 3 runs in the first three innings but he was never comfortable on the mound. He surrendered 16 hits and 2 walks in his 9 innings of work and, magically, incredibly, walked away with a win. In so doing he became the league's first - and likely only - 20-game winner. Spahnnie also collected two hits and drove in a run.

WP: Warren Spahn 20-14

LP: Art Houtteman 10-6

YEAR	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	G.B.
1950	New York Yankees	86	64	0.573	0
1954	Cleveland Indians	86	65	0.570	-0.5
1962	Los Angeles Dodgers	81	73	0.526	-7
1957	Milwaukee Braves	70	77	0.476	-14.5
1962	New York Mets	38	116	0.247	-50

Yanks 6, Braves 2

Yanks 2, Braves 1

Hey Yogi! Whaddaya wanna do? I dunno, Phil... whadda you wanna do?

Eddie Lopat stymied the Braves on 6 hits in the first game while Whitey Ford hurled 8 shutout innings before yielding a solo run in the 9th inning of the second game as the Yanks swept their two games against Milwaukee. "The Scooter," Phil Rizzuto picked up 5 hits in the two games, three of them for extra bases.

WP: Eddie Lopat 18-8

LP: Gene Conley 8-5

WP: Whitey Ford 10-5

LP: Lew Burdette 4-22

Indians 5, Braves 3 (11 innings)

Indians 11, Braves 3

Three Hall-of-Famers and the CFL's Cy Young Award winner???

Cleveland came right back to match the Yanks' sweep. Mike Garcia pitched 10 strong innings for Cleveland and Bob Buhl pitched a beaut for Milwaukee. Cleveland's back-up RF Wally Westlake broke the deadlock in the 11th with his 20th homer of the year - his 4th hit of the day! The victory was a costly one, however, as the Indians lost their stalwart catcher (Jim Hegan) and their star second-baseman (Bobby Avila) to injuries which will keep them out of the lineup for the final few games.

Early Wynn then mesmerized the Braves, giving up just 4 hits (including a shutout-spoiling 3-run HR by Andy Pafko) in the complete-game, 11-3 rout. Given their injuries, the Indians wisely sat some of their regulars after getting a 10-0 lead after three innings. Unfortunately, it wasn't 100% effective; Al Smith, left-fielder and lead-off man, went down with yet another season-ending injury, leaving the Indians down by three starters, with just one game left. 

WP: Mike Garcia, 19-5

LP: Bob Trowbridge 7-11

SV: Ray Narleski (7)

WP: Early Wynn 12-15

LP: Warren Spahn 20-15

YEAR	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	G.B.
1950	New York Yankees	88	64	0.579	0
1954	Cleveland Indians	88	65	0.575	-0.5
1962	Los Angeles Dodgers	81	73	0.526	-8
1957	Milwaukee Braves	70	81	0.464	-17.5
1962	New York Mets	38	116	0.247	-51

The Yanks come in for two final games before Cleveland ends the season with one last game. New York, with two wins, can make that last game meaningless. 

After seven years of play, this league comes down to its final three games . . . 

Me and Lou - a 40-year Strat Relationship

This past July commemorated the 76-year anniversary of Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man" speech at Yankee Stadium. For the past several months, I've been thinking about Gehrig, his phenomenal 1927 season, and his equally impressive Strat-O-Matic card from that year:

This is the basic-only card originally available as part of Strat's spectacular 42-team, Old-timer set. I first purchased this set in 1972 or so and have bought the entire set two more times since then. The later purchases provided me with cards that had the by-now-standard black ink on white card printing, but the '72 purchase arrived with teams having the distinctive shade of blue ink shown above.

It's a great card from one of the best offensive seasons ever. A .373 batting average with 109 walks results in a near-.500 on-base percentage. The extra base hit barrage of 52/18/47 is a wonder to behold. And Strat's conversion of all that into a card is a thing of beauty - the solid HRs on 3-4, 3-5, and 3-6 are both rare and yet not-quite enough, necessitating a minor split on 3-7. Indeed, the "HOMERUN 1, DOUBLE 2-20" result provided me with one of my first hints as to the precision of Strat-O-Matic's work: it seems almost unnecessary and yet they included it to make...his...card... juuuust .... right. A truly epic season crafted into an aesthetically pleasing card. Plus, as a bonus, Lou's card was the only one of its kind (until some Strat policy changes years later): it was free of injuries. Every other player's card contained a result - often in the infrequent 2 or 12 slot for those who were regulars - that would injure a player for anywhere from a moment to a maximum of 15 games. But Lou, in the midst of a historic game-playing streak that would eventually reach 2130 straight games, was exempt from this probability. I loved that Strat understood that about Gehrig and created a card that respected - and captured - his achievement.

All of those aspects could be appreciated about that card as soon as it was delivered. But, now, after 40+ years of playing and handling, there are additional layers of appreciation ... layers that reveal the interaction of the ball-player and the game-player.

Take another look at the card. Notice the curve along the left-hand edge? That's where the card, along with its teammates in a lineup of nine, rested against the opposable-thumb muscle of my left hand. The right-hand side curves? Those are the slight impressions created by the slow carving of curled fingers that kept it in place, at bat by at bat, game by game, season by slowly-evolving season.

How 'bout them stains? There are two prominent ones, set diagonally across from one another. On the upper left, one can see the accumulation of dirt, grime, and oils deposited over eons as my left-hand thumb pushed down on the card, then pushed to the right when an at bat came to an end. The matching browning on the lower right-hand side is the same effect produced by the right-hand thumb finishing the transaction, retrieving the card and bringing it to the bottom of the 9-card lineup. Many of the cards from that set show these signs to some degree but Lou's card, always in the lineup, shows them to the greatest extent.

What you can't tell from the photo is the feel of the card. When they first arrive, the cards often stick together due to a slightly waxy finish. After a few games, a satisfying slip sets in and the cards move more freely. After a thousand games - and that is by no means an exaggeration in the case of this card - the card takes on a velvety smoothness and becomes noticeably slimmer as, tiny layer by tiny layer, a river-rock erosion takes place.

As I think about the sloughing of the card's outer layers over time, I can't help but think about the similar impact this action has had on my fingers ... we know our skin sheds its outermost layers and this constant sliding of fingers and thumbs against Strat cards must accelerate that process. Somewhere those atomic bits of skin and paper are mingling. Indeed, there must be a trail of such erosion, from the living room and kitchen of my parents' apartment in New York City to the dormitories of Syracuse University and the steady stream of the Boston apartments of my 20s and ultimately to the shared spaces with my wife in Vermont ... a 40-year trail of Strat detritus.

I never met Lou Gehrig, obviously; his untimely death in 1941 is part of the mythology of baseball and America. But, through Strat-O-Matic, I've had a relationship with him. While I have grown and changed over time, he has been constant, static, and unchanging while somehow also slowly altering - softening and slimming - through a lifetime of interactions. Our time together is evident on his card; one of the few cases where the impact of a relationship can be visualized.   

Lou Gehrig - a good man to hang out with
courtesy of sabr

Down to the Wire in the CFL!!

A league seven-years unfolding has come down to the final few games ... 

With just a handful of games left in a 154-game schedule, the Classic Franchise League standings look like this:

	CFL EXTENDED LEAGUE STANDINGS
	YEAR	TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT	G.B.
1	1954	Cleveland Indians	83	62	0.572	0
2	1950	New York Yankees	84	63	0.571	0
3	1962	Los Angeles Dodgers	76	72	0.514	-8.5
4	1957	Milwaukee Braves	69	75	0.479	-13.5
5	1962	New York Mets	36	110	0.247	-47.5

As in real-life, these Yankee and Indians teams from the 50s are quite well-matched. Each team features top-notch starting pitching (Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, and Eddie Lopat for NY, Bob lemon, Early Wynn, and Mike Garcia for Cleveland), excellent everyday players (Yogi Berra and Joe Dimaggio lead NY while Larry Doby and Al Rosen have taken turns carrying the Indians), and some terrific role players (a trio of first-basemen have clubbed a total of 35 HRS for the Yanks while Wally Westlake, Sam Dente, and Billy Glynn have made great contributions to Cleveland's record).  

Some highlights from each team:

- The Yanks fashioned a 16-game winning streak within a 19-2 window!

- Johnny Mize, one of NY's first-basemen, has been on a tear recently, homering at a Ruthian pace. He's currently hitting .322 and 25 HRs in 255 at bats have him slugging at a .690 rate.

Big Jawn, courtesy of sabr.org

- Whitey Ford, in limited action, has provided a 9-5 record on the mound to go along with a 2.83 ERA. Recently, he preserved Eddie Lopat's 17th victory against the 1962 Dodgers with a 2-inning save, stranding the tying run in the 8th inning.

Whitey, congratulated by the Ol' Perfessor

- In a critical game where the Yanks were in danger of falling three games behind the Indians, NY entered the bottom of the 9th trailing Cleveland 2-1. With Bob Lemon on the mound, things looked good for CLE. Second-baseman Jerry Coleman got things started with a single, just the 5th hit off Lemon all game. Yogi Berra then doubled Coleman to third, setting the stage for Joe Dimaggio. Joltin' Joe, near the end of his illustrious career, had just a bit more magic left in him, ending the game and Lemon's bid for a 15th win, with a 3-run homer.

Joe jolts it to end it
courtesy espn.com

- Bob Feller, at the end of his illustrious career, seems to be drinking from the fountain of youth! On top of recent hot streak, he's turned in these stellar performances: a 2-hit shutout of the Yanks and a complete-game, 2-1 victory over the all-world Sandy Koufax! Oh, and he homered in the shutout!

"I have no idea how I'm doing it!" says Bob
courtesy of cleveland.com

- Mike Garcia has been unhittable down the stretch, running his record to 17-5 while dropping his ERA to 2.31 on the season.

- Larry Doby has slugged 36 HRs, driven in 100 runs, and walked 83 times while playing a stellar CF.

Doby accepts congrats on #36

- Jim Hegan, topflight catcher for Cleveland, has stunned even the most ardent Indians fans by slugging 23 homers - twice the amount he popped in real life.

- Cleveland has 8 players with 10 or more home runs. SS George Strickland has 9 and their pitchers have also combined for 9. Power, up and down the lineup!

111-44, a .721 winning percentage

Stay tuned for updates on this race. The final ten games of the schedule feature the Yanks and Indians playing the 1957 Milwaukee Braves five times each. Should they be tied at the end of 154 games, there will be a 3-game playoff, with the first game played in New York and the remaining games in Cleveland.