EOBHR

Game 123: Gee... what happened to the Kingdome now? Is it supposed to look like that?

Game 119: Angels distraught after being topped by slovenly Beaneaters!

Game 117: 'Great job, Rupe!' cheers the Pert girl!

Game 120: Jeff: 'Gee... I really feel like a brand new man after having this lucky good game at the dish!'

A typically comfortable EOBHR reader chair while physically visiting the EOBHR Members Only Club, which features climate control for a spherical area of 15 feet in all directions from the seat of the lounger... If you're reading this, then welcome: you're a member, since membership is based on EOBHR readership!

'Wow! This EOBHR afficianado must really be hungry, as we see one of our hundreds of lovely assistants hurrying his food and drink order to his lounge chair!

Game 121: Chalk up another good game for Dave Chalk!

1980 EOBHR REPLAY#37: DAY 10 A.L.

123  TO (4-6/T-last) 7-12-2-8  SE (6-3/2nd) 1-3-2-5

The Jays lead 3-0 when the T1st is complete, 5-0 by the T2nd, 6-0 by T3rd, 7-0 by T6th.  The Mariners' meek offense consists of 3 singles and 3 walks --

This must have been a wonderful, memorable experience for the fans in the Kingdome, who may have also been troubled as they tried to see the latest bad play by the Mariners -- having to dodge another heavy ceiling tile falling their way while they tried to keep track of the one-sided,hopeless game!

Jim Clancy, the Jay starter, was clearly the EOBHR Star of the Game with his utter shutdown of the M's, while the list of Blue Jay offensive contributors is long and diffuse.

Garth Iorg, younger brother of the better-hitting Dane Iorg of the Cardinals,  scores the 1st Toronto tally, scoring on a double by 26 year old 6'-3" Jay slugger Al Woods.  The 2nd run comes on a boot by M's C Jerry Narron of an Alfredo Griffin plate chopper (E2).  Then mediocre journeyman 'Steve 'Tooter' Braun fists a two out RBI in only his 2nd at bat in this replay.

In the 2nd, Garth Iorg shocks the Toronto fans watching the game on TV, as he lifts a 2-run HR into the RF seats, making it 5-0.  After all, Garth had only 2 homers in 222 real world 1980 at bats, and a career total of 20 in 2,450 career at bats!  Of course, part of the Kingdome's ultra-despicable-cheesiness was its 312' RF line and 331' LF line (if they were really THAT distance) with 'power alleys' only 360-'370' -- and which were deceptively marked much closer to the CF '405 sign rather than the foul-lines, to disguise the real closeness of the alleys.

And, yep, when 'Tooter' Braun lifts one just over the RF fence T3rd, to make it 6-0, you begin to realize that this is not a real MLB game in the true sense of the word.

Even Jay 165lb 2B Damaso Garcia clocks #4 (slugging way over his head)  into the nearby lousy seats off long reliever Mike Parrott B6th, who I'm sure is wishing he could fly back to whatever team he was traded from...That is, if they didn't give Parrott a wingcut to keep him where he is! 

Parrott kind of lost it pitching his 4th of 5 career seasons in the Kingdome, falling from 14-12/3.77 in real '79 to an outrageous 1-16/7.28 in '80... Probably one of the worst seasons ever recorded in MLB history... But in this game, save the Garcia homer, Mike allows only two other hits (both singles) in 6 great innings of long relief.

Baseball's worst nightmare

 122  MB (6-4/2nd) 2-8-0  MN (5-5/T3rd) 1-4-1

Moose Haas four-hits the Minnesotwins, and now stands at 3-0/0,33 after three starts.... That is, three CG starts/wins for Haas, one earned run, which came in this game, courtesy of a red-hot (.395) Twin Ken Landreaux triple. 

In fact, in the realworld early eighties, Moose Haas was going real strong: 16-15 ('80), 11-7 ('81), 11-8 ('82), 13-3 ('83). In this replay, Moose is way ahead of all the other pitchers in both leagues, his Earned Runs Prevented now at 10.2, easily tops in the replay.  ERPs are the CYA criterion.  10+ ERPs are often enough to be named Cy Young Award winner for a complete league or even the entire organization... And Moose has plenty of time to tack on some more ERPs... Or maybe get blown out a couple of times and be forgotten.

Sixto Lezcano (T2nd) and Paul Molitor (T7th) provide the Brew Crew's two runs, both on 2-out RBI doubles, T2nd, T7th!!

Moose:  'Moose Haas unheetable peaches'

121 DT (4-6/6th) 8-12-1-7  KC (7-3/2nd) 9-12-2-7

As the team lines indicate, this was one of the wilder games of this replay, with (usually multiple) runs scored in each inning except the 7th and the 8th, when the offenses appeared to have momentarily worn themselves out.

In the B6th the Royals, already ahead by one run, put up a 3-spot...All 3 tallies charged to the Tiger defense as UNEARNED.... Due, amazingly enough, to a flub by great Tiger 2B Lou Whitaker...

Royal reliever Rawley Eastwick, batting for himself, lays a one out 2-strike bunt to the left of the mound, and Tiger reliever Pat  Underwood fields the ball nicely and flips the ball to 2B Whitaker, who is running to cover 1st -- But then Sweet Lou can't find said bag with his foot once he receives the ball -- And usually unflappable, 'cool' Lou get's so spazzed out by his missing bag problem that, as he peers down to find it,  Whitaker drops the pellet just before his dancing feet finally hit paydirt, or the paybag if you like (E4)!

A one out run scores on this understandable misplay.... But when surprise batting star of the game, Angel 3B Dave Chalk (.333: 2-3/2BB/3R/2RBI)  drives a liner off the CF wall

....and then the red-hot Willie Wilson (23 for 46, or .500* in this replay after this single I'm about to mention) lines a ribbie single just out of the reach of Whitaker's great keystone partner, SS Allan Trammell

...it's suddenly working hours, 9 to 5, the Royals ahead, as 3 unearned Royal runs have pounded across the groaning plate due, sadly, to Whitaker's understandable running drop at 1st while he was trying to do too many things at once!

The man my brother and I used to call 'Heebie Jeebie' back (as in his effect on the opposing pitcher's or manager's peace of mind) when we were playing with the 1980 season during my rehab*-interrupted 1981: Richie Hebner, socks a last gasp 2-run homer for the Tiges in the T9th...to cut the score back to the thinnest possible margin imaginable... 

And potential glacial-speed tying run C Lance Parrish grounds his slow-moving way on to base on a last gasp choke (error) by Royal SS Rance Mullinik (a classic 'hitting infielder', now at .429 in this replay)!  Speedy Detroit tire-burner Ricky Peters replaces Lance ... but Trammell, great but not infallible as is true of all baseball players, grounds out against tough submariner Dan Quisenberry...who practially pitches from below the mound, as sometimes all you can only see is his air-tube bobbing above the ground.  

All this adding together to mean that the door can finally be closed on this game, the page can be turned, and we can revel of whatever Game 122 may bring... Maybe a rainout?   

*  Royals put the Quis on the Tigers at end, choking all the life out of the Bengal's bats

120 OA (3-7/T-last) 13-17-2-11  CW (5-5/4th) 5-9-1-5

Yes.  The A's who finished 2nd in the A.L. West of real 1980 are still stuck in a tie for last place in '80 EOBHR, even after battering the White Sox 13-5!  The franchise that used to also be called the Elephants, largely because they had an elephant emblazoned on their uni shirts, is having an elephant of a time trying to escape from the bottom of the standings and reach one of the top 3 guaranteed-Tourney slots (with a 4th place finish possibly being enough) in the A.L. West -- with only six games left in their replay season!  

At any rate, this game conveyed the impression that the A's were taking their comeback mission seriously, as they wallopped the 4th-place Chisox 13-5!  C Jeff Newman, a low batting average (.194 so far in '80 replay) but nonetheless potentially explosive hitter, was 3 for 6 with a double, a homer,  and 5 big RBI, garnering a coveted, silver-coated EOBHR Player of the Game Trophy!  

'Gee... I just don't know what to say,' Jeff said, as he hugged the tiny trophy in the locker room after the game...Before all the perspiration that coated Jeff after wearing the catcher's 'tools of ignorance' for nine long innings' plus also doing some extra baserunning due to his fine hitting, caused the cheap trophy to slip out of his hands and crash into tiny, dangerously sharp pieces on the floor, revealing its brittle, faulty construction. 

Jeff, blushing, trying not to chuckle: 'Gee, now I really don't know what to say even more...' was his kindly, evasive comment, adding: 'I hope that's not an omen of what's next for us in this extracuricular league...'

Rick Langford manfully went the distance on the mound for the A's win, with four of the five runs he allowed of the unearned persuasion.  Toss Bombgarten...excuse me, Ross Baumgarten was the loser on the hill for the Pale Hose, allowed 8 runs, all earned, in just 5 innings of explosive, backfiring work.

Grateful Jeff Newman:  Golly, I feel Jeff like a New man after having a lucky hitting day like that!    

119  BR (4-5/T5th) 6-16-1-10  CA (3-7/6th) 4-6-1-3

You might look at the team totals above and say... Gee whizskers! The Angels were so efficient they only left 3 men on base in the WHOLE game... Yet they still somehow lost 6-4.  How could that be? 

Well, the answer to this baffling puzzle is enough to make one forget about men LOB as a diagnostic -- usually looked upon as the more LOB, the more the team failed in the clutch. 

But in this contest, the Angels batted 6 for 31 with just 3 walks, but still grounded into 3 GDPs...  Meaning that often as soon as they got a man on, they erased him (or her -- no, I don't have to make that caveat here) themselves with one of those hard hoppers to shortstop (6-4-3) or second (4-6-3) or 3rd (5-4-3) or even 1st (3-6-3);  6-4-3; Tinker to Evers to Chance OR Rick Burleson to Jerry Remy to Tony Perez.  In fact each of these three twin-killings were of the most garden variety 6-4-3 or 4-6-3 types.

The seemingly inefficient Bosox left 10 on base, but despite more baserunners, grounded into fewer (two) DPs of their own.

Boston found themselves ahead 4-0 by the T4th on

*  Fred Lynn's (.281) T1st solo homer, his 1st of this '80 replay,

*  A run T3rd involving a  2nd Lynn safety, plus a failure of HOF 1B Rod Carew (E3; I should say HOF hitter; he was definitely not a HOF first-sacker!) to catch a throw from SS Fred Patek after Freddie fielded a Tony Perez grounder.  

Still not comfortable, the Red Sox  then  added a T4th sequence started by a part-timer Jim Dwyer leadoff double off Halo starter Frank Tanana, a Jerry Remy speed-enabled infield hit, plus a SS Patek bobble (E6) of a fellow shortstop Rick Burleson grounder. 

Fred Lynn continued the T4th rally with his 3rd hit of the game in just 4 stanzas, with Perez contributing the inning's RBI hit.  The score at 4-0, the Bosox rested their case...

But when the Angels bats seemed to be coming alive mid-game, the Beantowners quickly reopened their case T6th:  Fred Lynn (.281: 4-5/D/HR/2R/2RBI) creamed a one out RBI double over Angel LF Larry Harlow's head to safely put the game to bed...

As Boston P Mike Torrez, a perennial realworld winner despite mediocre ability/stats (3.96 career ERA.... but 185-160 record and 7 15+ win campaigns!)  thanks in part to having to pitch half his games in the daunting shadow of the easily accessible Green Monster, improved to 1-2/6.48 -- lasting 6 innings in this 6-4 Boston victory.

Angels Fed up + Fit to be Tied after What happened when Fred Up

117 NY (8-2/1st+2.5g) 5-10-0-6  BA (5-5/T3rd) 3-10-0-6

A B1st GDP struck by the great Eddie Murray has the effect of erasing some early Oriole offensive thrust, but then switch-hitting  Ken Singleton (.353) revives what's left of the inning by crushing a 2-run go-ahead homer to dead CF off lefty Yankee ace Tommy John.

However, red-hot Ruppert Jones (.375) quickly responds with his 2nd homer in only six at bats in this '80 replay, a 2-out 2-run game-tying blast T2nd. 

The score stays deadlocked 2-2 until the T5th, when Yank 1B Bob Watson lines a go-ahead double over 3rd base, following a 2-out Reggie Jackson single flicked into RF. 

However, in the B5th, the Orioles' fleet Al Bumbry draws the first walk allowed by Yankee starter Tommy John, then steals his 6th base of the '80 replay in 6 tries (and 14th of his EOBHR career) and scores on a game-tying ground single by Gary Roenicke.  3-3 ballgame.

But, as noted above, ex-Mariner/Padre phenom Ruppert Jones is a red-hot Yankee in this replay.... Rupe gets ahold of his 3rd dinger of this replay in 10 '80 replay plate appearances, which also includes 3 walks!   In the B6th, the Orioles look like once again they have quickly responded, when Doug Decinces pulls a hard double LF -- but maybe a little too hard and it got to LF Piniella too quickly  -- because potential tying run Rick Dempsey is gunned down at the plate!

Reggie Jackson adds an insurance homer two out T7th, and now has 4HR/12RBI/4BB and is now batting .353 in the 1st ten Yankee battles of this replay.

Tommy John wins his 2nd of this replay and now is 10-9 in his EOBHR career to date, which so far includes the '64 (Indians), '66-'69-'70 (Sox) and '76-'77 replays (Dodgers) plus of course this one.  Since each replay provides most of the teams 16-17 games of action, participation of a player in ten replays should provide stats something like that of a full 162 game season.  And, of course, in EOBHR, the Tourney games also count in the player's or pitcher's basic record.

Pert performance by Rupe!

Just a little reminder, as we, even moi, are becoming a bit older on a day by long hard day basis: 

Have you recently let your cat or dog or child or granny out or in, or done whatever you meant to do for whichever kind(s) of beings apply in your situation? 

And, have you recently visited and reviewed EOBHR's magnificent history....lounging in your own personally assigned and clearly/elegantly labelled plush easy guaranteed-imaginary chair?  (As you know, said chair-of-yours-forever-and-always will violently eject any fraudulent visitor/sittee -- except if the fraud is not that at all but an innocently overwhelmed, childlike first time visitor, who will be airlifted gently by lovely wing-ed angelic-style assistants to a chair in a nice, cozy spot lovingly prepared for just for them). 

Of course, any hacker or whacker who maliciously attempts to fraudulently sit in your special spot or that of any other earnest EOBHR reader will be immediately and imaginarily be fired off into hyper-oblivion, finding themselves slightly dazed and back where they were the moment before they decided to come and 'raise heck' at the seemingly endless world of Eobhria pronounced EE-YO!:BORE-IA. 

Now someone just said Forget it: I just had a really bad case of that...  But Eobhria as most of us know is simply a wonderful, theoretically imaginary, but real as the dickens to some, place in which you can endlessly enjoy (until you get sick of it) the world of EOBHR baseball simulation tales and stats.

....So always be careful  (if you're a repeat visitor) to check for the clearly marked electronic label on the back of the chair that 'sure looks like yours' or you otherwise believe is yours  to make sure it truly is such....It will flash 'Yes indeedy this IS your spot, pardner' in kindly greenish lights if you are in fact are in the right spot...Within the always awe-inspiring, vast, cavernous, seemingly endless, yet ironically and iconically cozy EOBHR archives....Where many daily find unparalleled personal comfort and blissful revery in re-reading the endlessly fascinating, stalwart, epic stories of baseball at its purest and grandest, as expressed in Replays #1 thru #37...with more always chugging down the pipeline to reality! 

And, while moving farther away from your PC, maybe even leaving it behind and heading to another room or outside, or just turning the darn PC off, usually does the trick for most...But if you experience trouble finding your way back out of EOBHRia, or feel you may have suffered an EOBHeRnia while there, perhaps pulling down a lengthy, slippery EOBHR tome from high on one of the vaulted golden bookshelves, one of our lovely etherial EOBHR reader escorts/aides will be happy to assist you!!  And for the many women followers of MLB and EOBHR...our handsome and polite staff of male aides is ready and at yer beck and call!  

Finally, any food that is offered to you, or which you request using the proper order slip, will of course immediately appear free of charge on the special slide-out 'chow tray' installed in each luxurious first-class chairs in the imaginary EOHBRia complex.  But large food orders may require waitress assistance, as they exceed the capacity of the 'chow tray' we have secretly inserted in the chair where you usually sit whiling away the hours -- However, any tipping, as well as any fresh behavior towards our lovely waitresses and handsome waiters for our growing female EOBHR addictience,  is strictly forbidden! 

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