Circuit Clouts
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Fernando Valenzuela shut down the Los Angeles Outlaws, Chicago's Erik Hanson and friends blanked the Havana Leones, and Washington and Denver both made heroic comebacks as the United League kicked off its 40th season on April 1, 1990. Fernando struck out 13 and allowed just four hits  in a 3-1 complete game win at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Washington's Dave Winfield hit a three-run homer in the ninth to spoil the first game in Florida Flamingos history at Ponce de Leon Stadium. And Sixto Lezcano came off the bench to hit a game-tying three-run homer when Joe Sambito and St. Louis were one strike away from victory.

OPENING DAY RESULTS

TOR 5, MAN 2
Cy Young winner Dwight Gooden fanned 10 in a complete game performance as the World Series runner-ups cruised to a 5-2 win. Wally Joyner smacked a two-run homer off Kelly Downs in the first inning and Howard Johnson had a pair of hits. Ryne Sandberg's two-run homer in the sixth were the visitors' only runs, and Roberto Kelly left the game with an arm injury that will wipe out the rest of April for him.

MON 2, SF 1
Chris Bosio outdueled Jose DeLeon, allowing just one unearned run, in a 2-1 nailbiter in GM Bryan Gryka's debut at Stade Olympique. With the scored tied 1-1 in the seventh, Bobby Bonilla delivered an RBI single to plate Kent Hrbek for the winning run.

BRO 9, CLE 4
The Superbas roughed up Tom Glavine and then destroyed Jesse Orosco, scoring nine runs in six innings to give Kevin Brown a more-than-adequate cushion. Ken Landreaux doubled and tripled, Andres Galarraga drove in three, and  Ken Griffey had an outfield assist in a well-rounded performance.

DET 5, BOS 4
Rookie Randy Tomlin overcame Opening Day jitters to prevail over Roger Clemens in his UL debut. Both hurlers were shaky early on, as Detroit took a 3-2 lead after three innings. Fred McGriff and Kevin Mitchell hit back-to-back RBI singles off Todd Stottlemyre in the seventh for the decisive runs. Kirby Puckett and Barry Bonds homered in the eighth, but the rally fell short. Detroit's Chris James and Boston's Milt Thompson each had three hits and DET 2B Craig Grebeck tripled in his UL debut.

ATL 3, LA 1
Fernando Valenzuela won Player of the Day honors with a 13-strikeout, 4-hit complete game. Tony Gwynn homered off Dave Beard on the second pitch of the game and Mark McGwire homered in the fourth. LA's 1-4 hitters were 1-16 with seven strikeouts in a total shutdown performance by Fernando.

CHI 2, HAV 0
Erik Hanson and two relievers  combined to shut out the visiting Leones on five hits in a 2-0 Opening Day victory at Comiskey Park. Ivan Calderon and pinch hitter Jack Howell drove in the only two runs of the game as Kevin Ritz took the hard-luck loss. Rob Dibble fanned two in the ninth for the save.

WAS 8, FLO 6
A packed house at the first UL game at Ponce de Leon Stadium witnessed a see-saw battle that had the rapturous crowd on its feet, then exiting in silence after a comeback by the visitors. Washington took a 4-0 lead off Frank Viola, but the Flamingos rallied, taking a 6-5 lead into the ninth, where Dave Winfield three-run shot off closer Stan Belinda decided the outcome. First overall pick Frank Thomas homered in his UL debut and 3B Felix Fermin had three hits for the hosts, while Lloyd Moseby homered and drove in three to complement Winfield's four-RBI day.

DEN 5, STL 4, 11 inn.
The defending World Series champions scored four off Denver ace Mike Mason, but the 14ers bullpen was untouchable and the hosts rallied for an amazing 5-4 comeback win in 11 innings.  Down to their last strike in the bottom of the ninth, trailing 4-1, Sixto Lezcano sent a 100-mph Joe Sambito fastball 399 feet to right to knot it up at 4-4.  Two innings later another pinch hitter, Julio Cruz, sent the Mile High Stadium faithful into hysterics with a game-winning single off Steve Howe to score Mickey Tettleton, who slide home safely under the throw from CF Lenny Dykstra. Rickey Henderson had three hits for the Maroons and Dave Schmidt tossed 5.1 shutout innings before all three relievers contributed to the meltdown.

SEA 8, KEY 7
Former Seattle GM Doug Aiton returned to the King County Multipurpose Dome Stadium for his debut as the expansion Keystone Starlings' GM. The hosts put up six runs off Starling ace Kirk McCaskill to hand starter Don Robinson an early lead that later expanded to 8-3. But Rainiers reliever Mark Lemongello made it interesting, allowing four runs in the eighth to make it a one-run game, as Brent Mayne and Jerome Walton both slapped two-run singles. Mark Davis and Victor Cruz then shut the door to secure the Seattle win. Seattle's 1-5 hitters had two hits apiece, and combined for all eight runs  and all eight RBIs. Wally Backman has three hits for Keystone, including a pair of doubles.

[Side note: Rainiers' fans multi-year effort to come up with a shorter name for the King County Multipurpose Dome Stadium has yielded no results. "KCMDS" was rejected by a fan vote during the offseason and no alternative names have been proffered.]

As the United League's fourth decade comes to a conclusion this year, the editors of Circuit Clouts conducted an analysis to identify the top teams of each decade. This is a four-part series that will conclude after the 1990 World Series.

The Franchise Power Index (FPI) awards points for regular season performance, deep playoff runs, and UL titles. The scoring scheme is adjusted for each era, based on the number of teams and the playoff structure, but winning the league championship is always given the most weight. [Note that the first UL season was 1951 so every “UL decade” ends with a year ending in 0.]

The Team of the ‘50s (1951-1960)

The league’s first decade was an era of few teams, and initially, no playoffs. The first six titles were determined solely by the regular season. The league expanded from 8 to 10 teams in 1955 and introduced the UL World Series in 1957 after splitting into two divisions. This introduced division pennant for the first time.

Two teams dominated the decade; the Washington Monuments and Brooklyn Superbas accounted for seven titles between them. The inaugural 1951 title, followed by three straight second-place finishes, got the St. Louis Maroons off to a good start, but their accomplishments were quickly eclipsed by the Willie Mays-led Monuments.

The UL’s first dynasty, GM Jay Kaplan’s Monuments won three straight titles in 1952-54 and added one more in 1956—and it wasn’t even close. Washington’s average margin of victory was 11 games, and only once did a team finish within 10 games of the champs. The only blemish in Washington’s amazing five-year run came in 1955, when Brooklyn opened a new ballpark and stole the title after the champs lost Cy Young winner Stu Miller midway through the season. Washington had one major advantage over Brooklyn in those early years: the single-table format did not require a playoff win, hence Washington was never exposed to the risk of a World Series upset.

Which brings us to the story of the Brooklyn Superbas. 1955 was a portent of things to come, as Brooklyn would soon win eight straight East Division pennants (1957-64), including four to finish the decade, and World Series wins in 1957 and 1960. Despite all this success, however, these years are remembered most—and not least by GM Glen Reed— for the ones that got away.

In 1958, the Screaming Bats won 17 more regular season games than the West Division winners, the Louisville Colonels. Yet Brooklyn was spanked 4-1 in the Fall Classic, with Bob Porterfield turning the tables on his former club with a pair of wins. Then in 1959, Brooklyn was 18 wins better than the San Francisco Spiders, a fifth-year expansion team that had its first winning season. The Superbas again entered the World Series as prohibitive favorites and again fell flat, this time losing in the most agonizing way imaginable: extra-inning losses at home in Games 6 and 7.

When it comes to assessing the UL’s first Team of the Decade, those Series losses loom large. Washington won four titles to Brooklyn’s three. Had Brooklyn won just one of those two series, they would have edged Washington for TOTD because they won more division pennants and had more high finishes. In the event, however, Washington wins Team of the Decade with Brooklyn a close second. Third place goes to the St. Louis Maroons, who won the 1951 title, first West Division title in 1957, and finished 2nd four times.

[Waffle House - Boston Beacons/Cleveland Barons. A founding franchise, the Beacons started their existence with seven straight losing seasons and relocated to Cleveland. Their sole third place finish (and only points in the index) came in 1960, the decade’s last year.]

TEAMS OF THE DECADE, 1951-1960
32.0 - Washington Monuments
27.0 - Brooklyn Superbas
19.0 - St. Louis Maroons