61Yanks vs 76Reds (162 games!)

61Yanks vs 76Reds
(162 games!)
I am using an online simulator called Sim League Baseball by What If Sports. I am trying to be fair as far as 'running' the season. I am using the starters, for example, in rotation. The computer makes all the pitching changes, pinch-hitters, etc. As the season progresses, I will try to 'bench' players to make it realistic... I will probably only do this with the Yanks, but I might do it for the Reds too, also to try and be fair. Because Bill James is correct... at least on paper, the Reds DO have a far superior bench... Dan Driessen, Ed Bailey, Terry Crowley... rugged! But the Yanks DO have Johnny Blanchard. He was an ANIMAL. Maybe he wasn't Johnny Bench behind the plate (maybe? MAYBE?)... Or Griffey in RF (MAYBE?), or even George Foster in LF (MAYBE?)... But he matched Bench nearly homer for homer in only 249 ABs, and slugged over .600! He was in that salty line-up for a reason, and it wasn't just to spell Ellie, Roger, or Yogi. I have not started Blanchard yet... I think he pinch hit a few times (again, the computer handles all that). I WILL try to be fair. I am not trying to 'manage' either team. I am trying to let Ralph and Sparky do that. And guess what? They are! Sparky, so far, is Captain Hook, just like in real 1976 life! He uses his bullpen like he gets a travel allowance for mound trips! And Ralph Houk... it's basically 'starter-Arroyo'... or occasionally 'starter-Reniff-Arroyo'... the only time he deviates is if his starter gets rocked early... which as I said, has happened a few times with this raw, rugged Red lineup!And of course, the two teams travel back and forth between their respective stadiums. Maybe I will throw in a few neutral spots like the old Polo Grounds and the old Baker Bowl just for fun... but if I do that I will tell you.

After 16 games... The 61Yanks are 8-8. Oddly, so are the 76Reds. Two games have gone extra innings. And Bobby Richardson has won each with a game winning RBI hit (a walk off, but they did not use that term in 1961).With ten percent of the season gone, Maris, Mantle and Bill Skowron have 4 home runs each. Yogi and Ellie each have five doubles. I have not compiled any Cincy stats as yet, but they have shown a propensity in their wins to get away quickly with big first innings... they have chased even the great Whitey Ford, even in the Bronx, where they won on opening day, 14-7. I am not keeping batting averages, because it is too hard thus far... but it does seem like Ellie is getting lots of hits. He did bat .348! And he did finally win the MVP a couple years later.The most ridiculous thing I can say about this whole exercise, besides the fact that there is exactly no exercise whatsoever involved for me, is that I am finding myself FERVENTLY rooting the Yankees on! A fan forever!

61 Yanks vs 76 Reds (after 24 games)
Okay now... 15% of the season is in the books. Let’s see how we stand! Crap! The Yanks are 11-13! One thing I'm seeing... both teams are very streaky. The Yanks won five straight. Cincy answered back with four in a row and five out of six. Home field advantage? Forget it! The Yanks swept the Reds in Riverfront (so far we are playing three game series back-and-forth). I said to myself, "Oh, Goody! Now we are going back to the Bronx...” where the Reds returned the favor, sweeping NY... cuffing the great Whitey around in the process. Remember how I said Griffey wouldn't like YS so much? He must have read that. He knocked in four in one game to help the Reds win 10-5. The most galling Yankee loss came in Cincy, though. The Bombers had a 5-0 lead after two innings, but coughed it up late. Jim Coates got the BS (Amen!). In all fairness, he was victimized when Maris started the rally, dropping a lazy fly ball for a two-base error. All three runs Jim yielded were unearned. But this is where official scoring plays tricks on you. Yeah, Roger did drop the ball. But then... Coates walked the next guy, the tying run. And then George Foster hit a 3-Run bomb to win it for the Reds. So in my mind, Coates indeed owns and wears that loss, and yes, it was BS (Blown Save).As it happens, that was game number 24, at Riverfront. If Roger catches that ball or maybe if Coates doesn't walk that batter... the Yanks could be 12-12, instead of 11-13! If! IF! IF!Speaking of Roger... he is now leading the Yanks with 6 HRs. Mick hasn't hit any in eight games, but still is tied for second with Moose Skowron (4). Elston now has three, to go with his 6 doubles, tying him with that 36-year-old left-fielder, Yogi! Howard also seems to have a lot of ribbies, but I have not counted them up yet. Go Elston! C'mon Yanks! Wake up! Tighten up that 'D'! Represent the Sixties! Represent the Bronx! Maybe it's time to let Blanchard have a start. By the way, the 61Yanks do have a left-handed kid in the BP... Some kid named Al Downing. Throws hot left-handed smoke. But he's as wild as Koufax was back in Brooklyn... pitched only 9 innings all year, with twelve strikeouts AND twelve walks... what in the name of Rex Barney is going on here?!? Predictably, his ERA is/was 8.00. Maybe Larry Sherry could have a talk with this kid Downing... or maybe our own Bill Dickey... he still drops by once in a while, and look what he did for Berra AND Howard!

61 Yanks vs 76 Reds Update (60 games)
After 60 Games the Bronx Bombers (29-31) and The Big Red Machine (31-29) are virtually even! But it hasn't been that easy! Each team has gotten hot. Cincy has won 6 in a row. The Yanks have taken 5 straight. The Bombers split their first 20 games. Then the Reds won 14 of 20. It looked like the Yanks were going to be buried. Then the Yanks roared back, winning 13 of 20 to pull close again. Each team has swept in the other's park, as well as their own. Both teams have had trends. The Reds, early in the year, seemed to thrive on early knockouts... big first innings! They knocked out Whitey several times, even at the old stadium, where Death Valley does not seem to bother them. As the year went on, the Reds stopped winning early, and began winning late; pulling out several games in their last at bat... clutch hits... during their six game winning streak there were four straight games where no starter on either team figured in the decision! Sparky continued to be Captain Hook, but he even used Don Gullett in extra innings a couple times... and Don came away with victories! Conversely, the Yank bullpen went into a slump, where they coughed up several leads. Johnny Blanchard! Super Sub! Just like in 1961, Blanchard has been an animal. I've started him in LF, RF and behind the plate, to spell Yogi, Ellie and Mickey (Maris plays center, Blanch in right). I've played him three in a row at YS at one point, but only nine games all together; to keep things honest... he did have only 240 ABs in '61. Well, in my season, John has 4 HRs and 9 RBIs in 9 games! I had made a comment that Joe Morgan had a quick bat, and therefore would thrive in YS with the short porch, whereas Ken Griffey, for example, might not. I guess that pissed off Griff somehow, and he went into a Hack Wilson imitation mode. He did not hit a lot of homers (maybe I should say Tommy Davis 1962-63 mode). But Ken senior turned into an RBI machine, going on a tear Junior would be proud of. Try this: 32 RBI in his first 32 games... 39 ribbies in his first 40, and 45 RBI in 60 Games played so far. I don't know if this leads everybody because I am not tracking RBI for everybody. Foster, Bench, Maris and Mantle all seem to be getting their share... Morgan too, but I never thought of Ken Sr as an RBI man... a good hitter, of course. I find this kind of stuff interesting. I saw the Reds play, and thirty years later I have the "two" Reds teams of the '70s kind of merged in my mind. They were both dominant, but in different ways. But for example... I think of Griffey as a number two hitter, but I think he may have moved around as the Reds changed. I seem to remember the 70-71 Reds as Rose-Tolan-Bench... Tommy Helms in there somewhere. And I remember the 75-76 Reds as Rose-Griffey-Morgan-Foster-Bench. As I look at the actual stats of 1976, Griffey had 74 RBI... the same as Bench. Bench had an off year at the plate. I seem to remember Bench being banged up, but then tearing the actual 1976 NYY a new one in the World Series, which the Reds won four-zip. I also remember Sparky insulting the late Thurman Munson by telling a reporter not to compare him with Johnny Bench. No wonder Munson was 'mean'!

Okay, here comes my Munson rant! I am going to type from memory and fact check later, just to make a point. Yeah, I am a lifelong Yankee fan! But I am also a diehard Yankee fan! Listen youngsters... I know this is hard for you to conceptualize, but the Yanks have had some lean years. Between 1964 and 1976... That is, between Ellie Howard and Thurman, we had Jake Gibbs, Frank Fernandez and other forgettables behind the dish. No disrespect to these guys (Gibbs was a good QB at ol' Miss and helped develop some guy named Archie Manning... who in turn...), but when Thurman showed up, won the Rookie-of-the-Year, it was like the sun after a long, dark winter. I still have a memory, now distant, of the Yanks playing the Oakland A's on TV, and this kid Munson, who I had never heard of on TV. I remember Bert Campaneris, the great lead-off man for the A's, on first. Campy had over 400 lifetime stolen bases, and was always a threat at the top of that line-up. Well anyway, the pitch came, and suddenly Munson fired a snap-throw to first base...BANG! And just like that, Campaneris was dead... out from me to you... picked off, eating Yankee Stadium dirt and a first baseman's mitt full of baseball. I remember Bill James writing an article about Campaneris, saying that he was the first indication of daylight for the (then) Kansas City Athletics, of whom James was a childhood fan. Well, that day, watching that pick-off on WPIX-TV Channel 11 in NYC, I had the exact same feeling. It was electric. Who is this guy?Well, it turned out to be Thurman, who subsequently won the Rookie of the Year (one vote shy of unanimous), MVP, and two World Championships... and was selected as the first Yankee Captain since Lou Gehrig. And 1975 started a string of three consecutive .300-100 RBI years for Munson. He seemed to handle the pitching staff very well as I recall, won the MVP in 1976, and batted something like .529 in the '76 series... remember, I am doing this all from memory... maybe I'll check later. Anyway, Thurman finished his 10 year career (prematurely and tragically) with a .292 average and more than 700 RBI... mostly in a stadium that was death to right-handed hitters. Yes, Thurman's knees were shot by the time he was 30-32. But look at Johnny! He was 28 in 1976. I think his left shoulder was a mess (probably from blocking the plate). If his RIGHT shoulder had been a mess, I think the 76 Series would have been competitive. Sparky was right to praise his HOF catcher, who shut down Mickey Rivers and won games with clutch hitting and homers. But Sparky was dead wrong to run down Munson in the process. Thurman soon got two WS rings of his own though, while the Reds sat home and watched. Time marches on for all of us!I'll check the Thurman stats later.


Now back to 1961 and 1976!
Home Runs: Roger... 19, Mickey... 14, Yogi... 10 and Ellie... 10.

Highlights: Mantle hit for the cycle in game 50. Elston Howard had 2 HRs and 5RBI in game 53. And in game 49, Moose Skowron hit 2 bombs and drove in six to help Whitey Ford whitewash the Reds 12-0. Whitey threw a four-hitter, which he needed, because he has taken his lumps this season... he is 3-6 with loses of 14-7, 15-3, and 12-7. Ford also had a no-decision where he was staked to a 5-0 lead early and the bullpen could not hold on! I'll check back with you at the All-Star break! What am I saying? THESE are all-star games!

61Yanks vs 76Reds (81games)
Halfway!NY Yankees 37-44! (8-13 last 21!) Cincinnati Reds 44-37! (13-8 last 21!)
Roger Maris 26 HRS 75 RBI
Mickey Mantle 18 HRS 58 RBI
Ken Griffey 57 RBI

Well gang, over the last 21 games, the Reds are making Mr. Bill James look pretty smart. Both these squads are streaky bunches, but the Reds right now are playing more solidly. Both teams display lots of punch and power. But the Reds bullpen is making most of the difference. The Yanks BP has coughed up several leads. And even the Reds starters... they tossed back-to-back shutouts in Games 74-75, one of them by a fellow named Alcala, whom I don't even remember. Don Gullett has picked up a couple of victories out of the pen between starts. Both teams have had laughers, of course. The Yanks tore into the Reds in G79, a 19-4 pasting with the Mick hitting two HRs and driving in eight (8!). Cincy beat the Yanks 15-8 in G73... Morgan and Griffey with 4 RBI apiece. But most of the games have been close. The biggest surprise continues to be the travails of Whitey Ford (4-9). In some games he's turned a lead over to the bullpen only to watch them blow it late. But Whitey has also been hit hard a few times. Of the Yankee relievers, Tex Clevenger has by far the coolest name. He should be a country singer with a handle like that!

61Yanks vs 76 Reds 120 games!
Three-quarters of the season in the books!
NY 57-63. Cincinnati 63-57.

Roger Maris: 41HR 111RBI
Mickey Mantle: 27HR 88RBI
Whitey Ford: 8-13
Joe Morgan: 32HR 79RBI
George Foster: 24HR 97RBI
Ken Griffey 72RBI
Pedro Borbon 7-4

The bullpens continue to be the biggest difference. Lots of one-run games. A few extra inning battles... with the Reds seemingly prevailing in most of them. I'll check at the end of the season, but it seems like the Red's bullpen has won a lot of games. Of course, that's as much a testament to the Reds' clutch hitting. Generally when the Yanks win, they win big. Bill James is absolutely correct about Cincy's superior bench, and the Yank pitching staff being less than historic. Both squads get hot. New York won four straight at Yankee Stadium, and the Reds answered right back with a four game sweep at Riverfront. Individually, Maris homered in five straight games. Mantle drove in all five Yankee runs in G90 to help Whitey win a 5-0 shutout. For the Reds, it seems like George Foster has come through with lots of late game winning hits. The Yankee Stadium Death Valley is not fazing him at all. And Joe Morgan does seem to like the Stadium... he's out-homering the Mick! As you can see above, Roger is outpacing everybody.

1961 Yankees vs 1976 Reds...162 Games!
It's Final! The 1976 Big Red Machine has beaten the 1961 Bronx Bombers over the course of an entire 162 game season! I will write a detailed narrative of the highlights and lowlights of the long season soon. I shall also discuss once more the article Bill James wrote that precipitated this flight of fantasy in the first place... comparing the results shown by the computer simulation with Mr. James expert commentary. Even though I died hard as a Yankees fan, I was also proud of the way my boys fought... and I also admired the class that the Cincinnati Reds once again displayed.

Here are the results:
162 Games
New York 77-85
Cincinnati 85-77
20 G... NY 10-10 (20 game stretches)
40 G... NY 16-24 (6-14)
60 G... NY 29-31 (13-7)
81 G... NY 37-44 (8-13)
100G... NY 47-53 (10-9)120G...
NY 57-63 (10-10)140G... NY 68-72 (11-9)
162G... NY 77-85 (9-13)

Final Stats for key hitters:
Roger Maris... 57hr 142rbi
Mickey Mantle... 41hr 129rbi
Elston Howard... 23hr 104rbi
Yogi Berra... 25hr 100rbi
Johnny Blanchard... 9hr 32rbi (in only 30 games!)

Joe Morgan... 42hr 111 rbi
George Foster... 32hr 129rbi
Ken Griffey... 105rbi

Key Pitching:
Whitey Ford... 10-19
Ralph Terry... 15-11
Pedro Borbon 12-5!