A battle of Tribes...'48 vs '56

After the ’48 Indians massacre the ’56 Indians in game 1 of the series (Bob Feller besting an ineffective Early Wynn) the two teams trade 1 – 0 shutouts as Lemon '48 beats Lemon ’56 but Herb Score fans 11 to beat the 1948 World Champion Indians and journey man pitcher who had one good year in his career, which was 1948.

Joe Gordon and Larry Doby homered in the first game of the series with Doby’s blast coming in the top of the eighth off Sal (“the barber”) Maglie with  two runners on as the ’48 bunch tallied 6 times in the frame.  Sal then ( as his nickname would imply) promptly drilled the next batter, Ken Keltner, and was tossed from the game.

Jim Clouser

90 Reds sweep 95 Braves...Reds manager in shock !!!

Lou Piniella’s Reds storm in to Atlanta and get an improbable sweep of the 95 Braves.  Errors absolutely killed Atlanta. 8 errors for the series! The Nasty Boys played a big role as Norm Charlton picked up 2 wins and Rob Dibble 2 saves.

Thanks Joe for a great series.  

--submitted by Mike Hill--

FIRST SERIES: 69-Twins sweep 77-Halos

GAME 1 - Metropolitan Stdm
Ryan vs J.Perry
69-MIN 5, 77-CAL 3

Twins send 8 batters to the plate in the bottom of the 7th to score 3 runs and break a 2-2 tie.  Harmon Killebrew's 3 run blast accounted for all of the runs scored.  Starter Jim Perry gave up 3 in 7 1/3 innings to get the win.  Former Dodger Ron Perranoski nabs the save.

GAME 2
Tanana vs Kaat
69-MIN 7, 77-CAL 6 (10 inn)

The Halos scored 2 in the top of the 9th and were poised for victory, but Minnesota fought back in the bottom of the 9th to tie it on a Cesar Tovar (3-5) RBI single.  Tony Oliva (2-4) led off the bottom of the 10th with a walk off homer to cap the comeback.

GAME 3 - Anaheim Stdm
Boswell vs Hartzell
69-MIN 7, 77-CAL 1

The Twinkies finished off their 3 game sweep of the Halos with this one sided win.  After opening up the game with 4 in the top of the first Minn never looked back.  Dave Boswell (8IP/1ER) cruised to victory.  Everyone in Minnesota's lineup posted a hit except DH Charlie Manuel.  The Halos had just 3 hits on the day.

Mr. President(s). It's your (first) pitch

The first series played was between the 1969 Twins and the 1977 Angels.  Fittingly the first pitch was thrown out by President's Nixon and Carter.

1982 Cardinals - Whitey wins the big one !!!

St. Louis saw their first pennant in 15 years !  This team was built around speed and pitching.  Willie McGee and Ozzie made them go !  Mex's Gold Glove at 1B saved a lot of balls in the dirt.

Here are the players that I added to the set.  I originally did this for ARAIG, but it doesn't hurt to use them here as well :)

1975 and 1976 Big Red Machine

Arguably the best two year run of any franchise, but it could have all been for naught if the Red Sox held on to win game 7 in the '75 Fall Classic.  Up until that point they were labeled "the team that couldn't win the big one".  They lost the 70 and 72 fall classics and got upset by the Mets in the '73 NLCS.  Time was starting to run out on their date with destiny by 1975.  Fresh off their win over Boston they swept the Yankees in '76 to put a punctuation mark on their mini-dynasty !

Both rosters were amazingly the same for those two years, so I decided to use the 1975 SSPC set as the standard rather than mix and match the '75 and '76 Topps sets.

Here are the players I had to create:

1974 Dodgers - Traded Players Included !!!

The '74 Dodgers looked like World beaters until they ran into the dynasty A's in the World Series.  Beating out the Big Red machine to capture the NL West was no small feat.  This was Walt Alston's last pennant winner.  The nucleus was young and they would contend for close to a decade.

I added cards here for some key players that were missing from the original set.  I also decided to use the "TRADED" template for Jimmy Wynn and Mike Marshall, just like their original release...but I updated their photos to get rid of the Airbrush look.  For good measure I did airbrush Gail Hopkins' card !

1998 Yankees - Greatest Team Ever ???

Some folks think the 114-48 New York Yankees from 1998 were the greatest team ever.  The stampeded the AL during the regular season and went 11-2 in the post season.  The only trying time they had was in the ALCS vs the Tribe.  Down 2 games to 1 the Bombers found their mojo and won 3 straight to clinch the pennant.  The World Series turned out to be a clean sweep of the Padres.  In total they finished the season an incredible 125-50.  That's a winning percentage of .714 !

I decided to create a full set of UD Retro's from 1998 for the team.  I tried to use WS photos where I could.  Here are some of the key contributors in the set: