[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Finished up 1961 last night. Starting to really feel for the fans of the Alexandria Aces. 9 trips to the post season. No rings.. Aces fans watched their team dominate the regular season going 98-56. For most of the season the Aces were 9 to 10 games up on the second place Shreveport Captains, but over the last week and a half of the season the Captains would cut that lead in half. The Aces also watched MVP runner up Joe DiMaggio separate his shoulder during this same rough patch. The injury kept him out of the post season.

The wildcard series featured Biloxi (83-71) vs Shreveport (94-60). The Biloxi Cardinals lost to the Baton Rouge Artillery in the inaugural World Series in 1947. This was their first trip to the post season since. Shreveport was also making their 2nd trip to the post season. The Captains were World Series champs back in 1950. The Captains would dispatch the Cardinals in 5 games (4-1) for the right to face the Alexandria Aces in the World Series. 5 games was all the Captains needed to put the Aces away as well. Shreveport wins their second title.

Rookie of the Year: Mel Hall (Jackson) .277/.336/.461 23 HR 2.8 WAR.
Cy Young: Larry French (Lake Charles) 18-8, 1.98, 273 IP 10.7 WAR
MVP: Hank Aaron Alexandria .342/.369/.641 49 HR 11.8 WAR

Kluber and Verlander were Cy Young runner-ups.
DiMaggio finished second to his teammate Aaron in the MVP voting with Shreveport's Javy Lopez finishing 3rd.

Ah Javy Lopez.....the OOTP Gods have been sprinkling wonder dust on Mr Lopez for years now. What a stud. 1961 was clearly his best season, .303/.342/.614 50 home runs 113 RBI, 8.1 WAR.. Lopez has been now put together 5 straight all star worthy seasons. His 162 game averages according to OOTP, .285/.329/.529 41 HR 7.0 WAR. Javy has played his entire career for Shreveport. 1962 will be his 7th year.

Noteworthy retirements:

Pedro Martinez: 190-142, 2.92 144 ERA+, 2443 K's 1.14 WHIP 84.9 WAR. Pedro won 4 Cy Young awards, 1953, 54, 55 and 1957. He had one Gold Glove and won two World Series, 1953 and 1960. Pedro was 8-9 for Beaumont during the 1961 season, but tore his flexor tendon in his elbow on 08/03. He became a free agent on 11/03, but decided to hang up the spikes prior to the start of 1962. Martinez played his entire career for the Beaumont Crush. Martinez imported as part of the 1947 amateur draft. He pitched his first season at the age of 21 in 1948.

Barry Larkin: Debuted as part of the Southern Leagues inaugural draft at the age of 25. Barry played 14 years for the Birmingham Slammers and finished his career with 1 season for the Corpus Christi Beachbums. 4 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers, 4 times Champion, with a World Series MVP in 1948. Larkin also won a league MVP (1949) at the age of 27. His career: .278/.356/.412 139 HR 48.4 WAR.

That's a big ouchy for the Alexandria Aces fans. One of these years, they should break through, but you never know.

The Chicago Cubs only had one postseason appearance during Walter Johnson's eight year tenure with the club, and they lost in the 1958 NLCS to Bill Foster's Braves, who won it all against the New York Yankees that year. Opportunity missed (for the Cubs), and (possibly) forever gone, now that Johnson signed with the Red Sox during the free agent bonanza that was the 1959/1960 offseason. Unfortunately for Mr. Johnson, the Red Sox are not proving to be anymore worthy of his golden touch, as they've stumbled and staggered their way to a 67-80 record so far in 1960.

A baseball team is never just one player away though, so maybe there's still hope for the Cubs. There'd better be, as the only team that they're better than so far in 1960 is the South Siders. The Cubs are 62-85, while the White Sox are 60-87. The battle is on for the #1 overall pick in a draft that features Willie McCovey, Dennis Eckersley, Pud Galvin, Brett Butler, Pedro Guerrero, and Mike Moustakas. Probably the prize is Eckersley or McCovey, but Galvin could sneak in there too.

Can't wait to see all of these players you're talking about from your dynasty in mine. I had Barry Larkin debut in my inaugural season at 27, so I hear the pain/frustration of watching a great player get wasted by Inaugural Draft Madness, but messing around with player's ages might do more harm than good in my books. I've learned with this dynasty that there will be other HoFers to step into the breach, even if they aren't RL HoFers.

Wow!!! Javy Lopez looks like a God!!! Have yet to see him in my dynasty, but can't wait. Pedro looks like a HoFer to me despite the low win total. I've already mentioned, but he's the best pitcher I've seen yet, although with Johnson, Foster, Seaver around in my game, I'm not sure how long he'll have his crown.