I was playing around with OOTP for the first time in awhile, and thought I'd tell you about the 1980 San Diego Padres.
No one really expected much of the Padres (all AI teams) going into the 1980 season. Historically they finished in 6th place of a 6 team division, and the OOTP preseason predictions weren't much better. Indeed, OOTP predicted a more or less historical Yankees/Royals/Phillies/Astros matchup.
As of May 1, the Padres were 18-2, easily destroying the Reds (12-7) and Astros (10-8).
It couldn't last of course. By June 1 they were 34-15, 7.5 games in front of Houston.
By July 1 they'd folded to 43-34, trailing Houston by 2 games and I thought, "Too bad."
Still, they hung on: August 1: 55-48, 2.5 games back. September 1: 72-60, 1 game back. A final surge put San Diego over the top with a 94-68 record, 4 games over Houston.
Onto the playoffs then, where they faced the Montreal Expos who, at 88-74, had barely held off the Phils and Cardinals by 4 games a piece. The Expos won the first two games 4-3 and 11-4, but the Padres battled back winning 6-2 and 1-0.
Game 5 then: After trading runs in the first two innings, San Diego scored in the third and fourth to hold a 3-1 lead. The Expos threatened in the eighth, making it 3-2, but the Padres prevailed.
This led to the World Series vs. the Yankees (100-62), who'd bested the Rangers (90-72) 3 games to 1. They split two games in Yankee Stadium, then the Padres took 2 of 3 at home. New York tied the series in Game 6 3-2.
With one game left these Padres had nothing to be ashamed of regardless of what happened. I think I'll let the boxscore speak for itself.
Definitely one of the coolest things I've seen with OOTP: A team that had no realistic chance winning the Series in 18 innings.
And in case you're curious:
