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After struggling down the stretch the Arkansas Travelers put it all together and defeated the 99 wins Peoria Chiefs to earn a trip to the League Championship Series. Wally Berger hit 5 home runs to lead the Travelers past the Chiefs. Peoria, did win a championship 3 years ago, but they have to smacking themselves that they've only manage one title with how dominate they have been during the regular season.
In the other wild card series, Louisville took defeated the Birmingham Barons. Mel Ott hit one home run for the Barons, to up his post season home run total to either 27 or 28. Meanwhile, Baron's fans were not happy to see their manager pinch hit several times for Ott during the series. Especially, seeing that the guy hitting for him was often a useless slug. Peoria fans were just as angry to see their manager do the same to Buzz Arlett. Arkansas did it one time to Wally Berger as well. Looks like maybe their's a problem with the postseason AI trying to out think the room and in doing so, it's making stupid moves. Why it mainly involves the cleanup hitter is kind of strange.
Arkansas would defeat Louisville 4 games to 2 in the League Championship Series. The series was close through the first 4 games, but then the Travelers took over. Game 6 in Louisville ended up being a blowout giving the Travelers the title. Christian Yelich took home series MVP honors.
Rookie of the Year honors when to Lansing's Noodles Hahn
Cy Young obviously went to Hilton Smith. The Memphis Redbird finished 21-1 on the season. Smith now has 138 wins on his career. He's 32 years old.
MVP honors went to Peoria's Tris Speaker. Fans in Lansing were not happy with the decision as they felt their superstar DH, David Ortiz deserved the MVP trophy. Ortiz hit .349 with 34 home runs and 134 RBI. Speaker once again led the league with 9+ WAR. He hit in the .320's, scored and drove in plenty of runs, and hit 20+ home runs. He also took home Gold Glove honors at this position. In the end, I think the award went to the right guy.
The Draft
San Antonio earned the first pick in the 1969 draft. As we knew all season, since the Cedar Rapids Kernels failed to sign Greg Maddux prior to the 69 season, someone was going to be able to select a sure fire pitching superstar. Question was, would any other super studs join Maddux at the top of the draft. Well, me thinks the answer turned out to be a resounding YES, as Mr. Roberto Clemente made the list of players available for the draft. Now the question turned to, would the San Antonio Missions select Greg Maddux, the great pitching prospect, or Roberto Clement the incredible outfield prospect? Wisconsin fans were just as excited as Mission's fans, because they knew they were getting whichever player San Antonio passed on.
The pick........San Antonio chooses...........Roberto Clemente with the first pick in the 1969 draft. Wisconsin gets Greg Maddux. Now the question is, can San Antonio convince Clemente to sign?
Cedar Rapids the team that failed to sign Maddux last year, picked 3rd in the draft. They selected 3B Ken Caminiti. They also got a compensation pick, but I was rushing out the door for work this morning and forgot to check which player they selected.
I did finally check Tris Speaker's contract status last night. Speaker reupped with Peoria and is signed until 1975. If he stays healthy and keeps trucking, Peoria should be very good for some time forward. Question is, can they get over their post season hiccups.
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