Cooperstown Classic 2019

My rumble tournament is styled in part after the classic Royal Rumble of wrestling fame. I start with two teams who play each other, and then a new team enters, taking on the loser. After that it starts to resemble a King of the Mountain tournament, except that when a team loses Game 3 (because ‘three strikes and yer out!”), they are eliminated from the tournament.

For the Cooperstown Classics, I have settled on 10 teams. Each team has a starter at each position, three SPs, and a RP. Each team also gets a DH, although there are a couple of pitchers who end up as DHs. For this rumble I decided to shuffle the cards and draft. Team #1 filled their roster first, then Team 2, etc.

Naming the teams was fun. I decided in fantasy baseball style, each team would be named after one of the players: RAINES Supreme, PIAZZA Pies, Good FELLERs, FINGERS Lickin’ Good, DOERR Die, MANTLEpiece, LEMONheads, DEAN’s List, DAWSON’s Creek, and SLAUGHTERhouse 5.

Here are some of the storylines that took place during the tournament.

Raines Supreme: Talk about living up to your name. Raines Supreme started the tournament with 8 straight wins. They won Game 1 13-3 over Piazza Pies. They won a rematch with Fingers Lickin’g Good in Game 9 8-3 to get to 4-0. In Game 15, they eliminated Doerr Die in a rematch by a score of 10-3. And in Game 21, eliminated Lemonheads in another rematch by a score of 5-1. That was win #8. By the time they took the field for their 9th game, 7 of the 10 teams had been eliminated. Then the wheels came off. Raines Supreme dropped three consecutive games and ended up being the 8th team eliminated. They played more games than anyone, and ended up with the best record overall, but couldn’t take home the title. Jeff Bagwell was their hitting star going 16-50 (.320) with 7 home runs and 18 ribbies in 11 games. Mike Mussina went 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 36 innings. He also pitched the only shutout of the tournament in Game 3 against Good Fellers. Team Captain Tim Raines led the tournament with 4 stolen bases and 10 walks.

Piazza Pies and Dean’s List: We’re grouping these two together because they each went 0-3 in the tournament. They finished last and second-to-last in both batting average and earned run average. Piazza Pies hit .202 (9th) and pitched to a 7.92 era (10th). Dean’s List hit .194 (10th) and pitched to a 6.58 era (9th). Mike Piazza was bright spot hitting .333 with 5 ribbies. Dizzy Dean was 0-1 with a 10.13 era, walking 5 in 5 ⅓ innings.

Good Fellers: They went 1-3 and suffered with 4 hitters finishing below .200 (Eddie Mathews, Frank Thomas, Roberto Clemente, and Leon Day). Robin Roberts was shelled in hid only appearance, finishing with a 19.52 era. Red Schoenedienst was a lone bright spot batting .353. Bob Feller made 3 appearances going 1-1 with a 4.50 era.

Mantlepiece: Somehow, Mantlepiece went 1-3 despite a tournament best 2.59 era. That was in large part thanks to RP Hilton Smith who tallied a 0.77 era in 11 ⅔ innings in only 4 games. Of course, as a team they pitched 41 ⅔ innings in only 4 games. After losing Game 10 (their opening game) 4-1 to Doerr Die, they won Game 13 in 14 innings when Mickey mantle delivered a walkoff single. Their third game was an extra inning loss in Game 14, as they fell 4-3 to Doerr Die for the second time. Their tournament ended in Game 17 in a 2-1 loss to Lemonheads, the same team they beat in Game 13. Four games, three losses, three one run games. Mickey Mantle hit .235 with 2 homers and three ribbies.

Fingers Lickin’ Good and Lemonheads: Both of these teams finished 3-3. Fingers Lickin’ Good (FLG) was eliminated by Doerr Die in Game 11. Lemonheads played their first game in Game 13, and was eliminated by Raines Supreme in Game 21. Randy Johnson went 2-0 with a 2.40 era and 14 strikeouts in 15 innings for Lemonheads. Josh Gibson had 7 hits (2 homers) and 3 walks in 24 plate appearances for FLG, totaling 7 runs produced. Each team also knocked another team out of the tournament along the way. FLG knocked out Piazza Pies and Lemonheads eliminated Mantlepiece. The captains of these two teams played well. Rollie Fingers finished 5 games, with a 2.31 era and 2 saves. Bob Lemon, one of two pure-pitcher DHs in the tournament, hit .240 with a homer and triple in 25 ABs.

Doerr Die: One of only three teams to finish with a winning record, Doerr Die lived up to their name. They debuted in Game 7 eliminating Good Fellers. They lost their second game and won their third game. They knocked out Fingers Lickin’ Good in Game 11. They lost their next game, then became the first team to win when facing elimination in Game 14, when they scored the winning run in the 11th inning thanks to an error by George Brett with 2 outs. They finally lost in Game 15 to Raines Supreme. Willie Mays hit 6 home runs in 28 ABs and Jim Thome hit .435. Bruce Sutter was relentless, throwing 21 ⅓ innings in 6 appearances. He finished with a 1.69 era, 0.797 whip, and 1-1 with 2 saves. Bobby Doerr hit .286, but was the only player to hit two triples in the tournament.

Dawson’s Creek and Slaughterhouse 5: Fittingly, the tournament ended in Game 28 with the tournament’s only grudge match. These two teams met for the third time, and Dawson’s Creek ended up sweeping the three games. Slaughterhouse 5 eliminated Dean’s List and Raines Supreme, beating Raines Supreme twice. In fact, Game 27 was a win or go home game as both Raines Supreme and Slaughterhouse 5 faced elimination. Dawson’s Creek lost only one game, to the Lemonheads, on their road to the championship. Johnny Mize hit .407 with 6 ribbies and Mariano Rivera finished with a 1.65 era and retired the first 19 batters he faced in the tournament. Both played for Slaughterhouse 5. Al Kaline hit .522 for the champs with 12 singles in 23 ABs. John Smoltz had 3 saves in 4 appearances getting the final 9 outs for the win in Game 28. Enos Slaughter went 3-23 (.136) while Andre Dawson went 8-25 (.320) with 4 home runs and 9 rbi.

Game 28: The final game was a thriller. Slaughterhouse 5 needed to win to force a deciding Game 29. In the 6th inning they unloaded on Phil Niekro with 5 runs and 2 home runs in the 6th inning. Dawson’s Creek stormed back in the 8th, tying the game up when Andre Dawson hit a 3 run homer off Mariano Rivera. The game went into extra innings. In the 10th, Frank Robinson hit a solo home run off John Smoltz to give Slaughterhouse 5 a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the 10th, with one out, Dawson’s Creek delivered three consecutive singles, with Andre Dawson’s single (#3) scoring the tying run. With runners on 1st and 3rd (Kaline-Dawson), Ivan Rodriguez hit a soft grounder to 1B. Johnny Mize got the out, but his throw home was not in time and the ball game ended.

You can check out the stats on this Google Sheet: Just look for the tabs labeled ‘Rumble 19’