Team Preview: Tianjin Lions

Okay, I'm back in the saddle again. I'm happy I woke up at 4 AM to catch the Red Sox - A's game from Tokyo. It left me pretty groggy all day, but it was well worth the sacrifice. I had to leave for my Econ 432 class right after Manny Ramirez hit his 10th inning double, but, other than that, I was able to watch every pitch. Even though this is officially the shortest winter in the history of Major League Baseball, it feels like it's been the longest. I'm happy that baseball's back!

I've been busy with a bunch of other stuff lately. I've got to revise a paper for my Japanese History class, write another paper for my Economics class, do a bunch of reading for Japanese Political Science, and I still have a big project on the Confucian Analects for when I've got some spare time. But there's always room for DMB!

On to another team preview! Today it's the Tianjin Lions

Stadium
I've never been to Tianjin, I must admit. I've been close, though. Tianjin is a large city (third largest urban area in China, behind Beijing and Shanghai) just to the southeast side of Beijing. As the above map shows (click to view larger image, or see here), the two cities are extremely close to one another. Yet, Tianjin and Beijing are considerably different, featuring a different dialect (I'll admit, I'm no linguist; Wikipedia is my source for that) and I'm guessing some feelings of local pride. What ballpark symbolizes a large city overlooked by it's big, bad sister? You guessed it, Ebbets Field.

As usual, I renamed this ballpark, this time to Boxer Field, since the Boxers controlled Tianjin for quite some time in 1900.

Starting Pitchers
1. Curt Schilling
2. Stan Coveleski
3. Tommy Bridges
4. Charlie Hough
5. Sam McDowell
SS. Masaki Saito
SS. Mike Remlinger

If you haven't seen it yet (shame on you!), Curt Schilling has a wonderful blog here. It's much better than you'd expect -- he's quite a prolific writer, and he doesn't pull any punches. Come to think of it, I ought to stick it on the list of links. Curt's famous for his passion for APBA baseball, and I've heard that he plays Strat-O-Matic as well, though I can't remember the source. At any rate, there was a big article about him playing APBA in a Diamondbacks program I got back in 2001.

Stanley Coveleski is interviewed, of course, in Lawrence Ritter's classic The Glory of Their Times. He was the pitching hero of the 1920 World Series, and his older brother Harry is best known as "Giant-Killer" for beating the Giants three times in a week at the end of the 1908 season. That's another reason for you to hop on to the Diamond Mind forums and join our 1908 Co-op replay!

Relief Pitchers
Ken Sanders
Stan Belinda
Jeff Shaw

Starting Lineup
1. Barry Larkin, SS
2. Harry Davis, 1B / Fats Jenkins, RF
3. Willard Brown, CF / Norm Cash, 1B
4. John Beckwith, RF / Jud Wilson, 3B
5. Brian Downing, LF / Fred Clarke, LF
6. Tony Lazzeri 2B
7. Ivan Rodriguez C / Richie Ashburn, CF
8. Pie Traynor 3B /Ivan Rodriguez C

There's quite a few Negro Leaguers in the middle of this lineup, which ought to be interesting. Also, Brian Downing's primary position is listed as DH, but this is the wrong league for that.

Bench
Note: I'm not going to continue writing the positions for each bench player, since it takes up way too much time.
Wes Parker
Cesar Tovar
Kazuhiro Kiyohara
Roger Maris
Terry Turner
Derrek Lee
Phil Bradley

It probably doesn't make Kiyohara (who has 525 lifetime homers) or Maris feel good to have to ride the bench along the likes of Phil Bradley. Seriously, how did that guy get drafted?

Anyway, that's it for me tonight.

April 17th, 1908: Boston (NL) at Brooklyn

I'm back after a two day blogging hiatus. Hopefully I'll be able to post regularly this week, though I can't make any promises. We'll see how things work out.

As I write this, I'm watching the Red Sox - A's opening day game from Japan. There's nothing better during the early morning than a game on TV and a little bit of Diamond Mind! Anyway, that's my excuse for writing such a short entry.

April 17^th, 1908

BROOKLYN – The Boston Doves came out on top at Washington Park in 12 innings this afternoon, defeating the hometown Superbas, 4-3. Claude Ritchey was the hero for Boston, driving in Beaumont with two out in the top of the twelfth inning.

A stellar pitching performance by Irvin “Kaiser” Wilhelm was spoiled by two ninth inning doubles, one by Sweeney and the other by pinch hitter Kelley. Up to that point, the Kaiser’s spitball had the Doves fooled, and Wilhelm’s fifth inning run scoring sacrifice fly had been the difference.

The batting stars for the hometown Superbas were Phil Lewis, with a second inning shot over the canvas fence in right, and Harry Pattee, with a three-for-four offensive performance.

Click here for the boxscore.

Boxscores

If you thought posting on Yuku was bad, just try to post a boxscore on Blogspot. I'm going to keep opening Angelfire and Geocities accounts and uploading textfiles until I come up with a better solution. For some reason, fr33webhosting.com doesn't work with Internet Explorer. I'll never figure that one out. Anyone have any ideas?

April 16th, 1908: Boston (NL) at Brooklyn

It's been a nice, lazy Saturday thus far. I'm transferring my VHS copy of the '84 Cubs pennant-clinching game at Pittsburgh onto DVD, and I figured I'd play a quick 1908 Co-op game. Hopefully you can view the text file this time. I'm not sure what was wrong with the last one. I'm still searching for a good, reliable server to store these text files.

April 16th, 1908

BROOKLYN – John Hummel’s big blast in the 4^th inning broke open a 1-1 tie and sent the Superbas on their way to their first 1908 win. Hummel’s long smash came off a high George Ferguson curveball and was just enough to bury the Doves.

Brooklyn pitcher McIntyre worked around four walks to hold the Bostonites to one mere run, despite giving up ten base hits. Bill Dahlen lead the way for Boston, hitting safely three times in four attempts.

The game only appeared in doubt in the top of the 6^th inning. With one out and one on, Bowerman reached first on a fielder’s choice. The next two Boston batters then resisted swinging at McIntyre’s deceptive spitball, and before you knew it the bases were juiced. McIntyre then bore down, inducing Browne to hit a weak ground ball to third base to end the frame.

Both teams played a much better game in the field, as only one error was committed between the two.

Boxscore
Click here for the boxscore.

Team Preview: Shenyang Defenders

Most of you probably follow the newspapers, and probably already know about all the protests in Tibet, as well as the wave of violence that has spread through China. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Saturday's elections in Taiwan. Honestly, after doing a big research paper on cross-strait relations last semester, I hope that KMT candidate Ma Ying-chiu (馬英九) wins. If not, and if Taiwan keeps striding towards independence, I'd be wary about making any plans to travel there in the near future. To be honest, it's no coincidence that these riots in Tibet started just a week before the big elections in Taiwan. However, if Taiwan starts making strong strides toward independence, there won't be any peaceful resolution in sight.

Anyway, enough about politics. Let's get back to what really matters in life: baseball.

Today's team preview highlights the Shenyang Defenders. As you may or may not know, Shenyang is the capital city of Liaoning province in Northeastern China, right on the North Korean border. It was the sight of the famous Battle of Mukden during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war, was the sight of the infamous Mukden Incident in 1931, and was one of the last GMT cities to fall to the Communists. In that sense, I guess the name "Defenders" is fitting.

Ballpark

I can remember staring at this image of Fenway Park in the Diamond Mind brochure about 7 years ago, before my dad and I bought the game. It's probably my favorite ballpark image of all time. The Shenyang version of Fenway will be called Mukden Field.

Starting Pitchers
1. Kevin Brown
2. Orel Hershiser
3. Jack McDowell
4. Bob Ewing
5. Bill Dinneen
SS. David Wells
SS. Johnny Morrison
SS. Mitsuo Sumi

Interesting to see three modern pitchers in a row like that, all before deadball pitcher Bob Ewing. That wouldn't happen if we were simply using ERA. Sumi is also a modern era pitcher, with a pretty respectable 3.02 lifetime ERA and a nice 888-488 K-BB ratio.

Relievers
Mike Timlin
Shingo Takatsu
Arthur Lee Rhodes

The CM has Rhodes in the "closer" slot, despite the fact that he has only 30 lifetime saves. Takatsu has an interesting story: according to the Japan Baseball Daily website, in the 1996 All-Star Game he "Appeared as a pinch hitter ... to face Ichiro, who had taken the mound." Must have been one heck of an All-Star Game! Wish I could see a video of that at-bat.

Starting Lineup
1. Cool Papa Bell LF
2. Sam Bankhead SS / Roy White LF
3. Todd Helton 1B
4. Alec Radcliff 3B
5. Newt Allen 2B / Sam Crawford RF
6. Johnny Romano C
7. Reggie Sanders RF / Newt Allen 2B
8. Mike Cameron CF / Johnny Pesky SS

It's fitting that Pesky will play at Fenway Park in this league as well. Overall, this is another strong lineup, with quite a few former Negro League stars. Oh, and I absolutely love Roy White's 1975 Topps card. That's as iconic as baseball cards get.

Bench
Kazuto Tsuruoka 1B / 2B / 3B / LF / RF
Tommie Agee LF / CF / RF
Randy Velarde 2B / 3B / SS / LF
Yoshio Yoshida 2B / 3B / SS
Phil Nevin C / 1B / 3B
Henry Larkin 1B / LF / CF
Billy Rogell 2B / 3B / SS
Gus Triandos C / 1B

One wonders what Tsuruoka would have done had he not been drafted in February 1940. For a man who hadn't played professional baseball in years, he sure had a stellar 1946 season. You can read more about him here.

Anyway, that's it for me tonight.

April 14th, 1908: Boston (NL) at Brooklyn

I've chosen to play a few games for the 1908 DMB Co-op League that Sposfan set up. In-between watching college basketball and reading Taiwanese newspapers, I fit in a game this afternoon. I wrote up a quick blurb and attached the boxscore below, along with a few pictures. Hope you enjoy!

April 14^th, 1908

BROOKLYN – Through poor defense and absent-minded play, the Superbas handed the first game of the season to the Boston Doves, 4-2. The large crowd that turned up for this inaugural contest left empty-handed, their heads spinning with visions of runners left standing on the bases.

For a while, it seemed that the hometown Superbas would pull out with a win. But in the top of the 8^th, with the score tied 2-2, Bill Sweeney smacked a Nap Rucker fastball down the left field line. By the time Brooklyn left fielder Hummel came up with it, Sweeney was standing on third base. Frank Bowerman, the next Boston batter, battled ferociously, fouling off pitch after pitch until one of Rucker’s floaters failed to break. Bowerman’s single sent Sweeney home, and that decided the contest.

Boston twirler Irv Young had a masterful performance, spreading two runs out over 7 hits. Three errors by the Boston defense threatened to spoil his masterpiece, but Young remained true to the end, stopping Brooklyn rallies in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th innings.

Nap Rucker’s knuckleball baffled Boston for the most part. Save a first inning rally and Sweeney’s heroics in the 6^th and 8^th, Rucker sent ‘em down as soon as they got up. No less than 8 Boston batters struck out in the course of Rucker’s brave complete game.

Rucker’s efforts were spoiled by 5 Brooklyn errors and bonehead baserunning. Down by one, with one out and Al Burch on first in the bottom of the 8^th, John Hummel promptly ground into a double play. Why Burch wasn’t running on the play is anybody’s guess.

The two teams meet again on the 16th, as Brooklyn’s Harry McIntire faces George Ferguson.

Boxscore

I can't get the boxscores to format correctly on Blogspot (no surprise). You can view the boxscore here. Please let me know if this link doesn't work.

Team Preview: Seoul Blue Dragons

Well, it looks like BYU's basketball team just didn't pull it off tonight. It's been 17 years since BYU's won a single NCAA tournament game. I watched the end of the game in the basement of the student center on campus. I was surprised -- there were only 50 or so people there, and most of them seemed to be extremely casual fans. You didn't hear a peep out of them until a basket was made. Sure isn't like watching games at my house!

Ted Roethke asked if I was using the 2008 Koshien layout or not. I'm not. I'm using an earlier version of the stadium, though I can't remember which year it's from. It may be from the 1985 disk that's floating around somewhere. Thanks for the comment, though! Wish I knew more about creating park images.

Now onto the next team, the Seoul Blue Dragons, who are the lone Korea-based team in my league.

Stadium

I decided to use Three River's Stadium for Seoul, though for no good reason other than mixing up stadium styles. I renamed it Jamsil Stadium, to pay slight homage to the real ballpark in Seoul. I wish I had more information to create a replica of that park, but I don't speak Korean, and I can't find much English language literature on Korean baseball. Anyway, Three Rivers is another representative of the butt-ugly "cookie cutter" era of stadium building, as you probably already know, and that's really all I want to say. Seriously, the more I look at Wikipedia's picture of Jamsil Stadium, the more I wished I could recreate that park.

Starting Pitchers
1. Fergie Jenkins
2. Babe Adams
3. Tim Keefe
4. Andy Messersmith
5. Wilbur Cooper
SS. Mel Harder
SS. Jose Rijo
SS. Tsuguhiro Hattori
SS. Firpo Marberry
SS. Bob Stanley

If there were ever an argument for Diamond Mind updating its draft system, this would be it. 5 starters, and 5 players who are listed as spot starters. I'm not sure how the Computer Manager plans on managing this rotation, but it sure is set up strangely. I may have to do some manual editing before this season begins.

Hattori is another one of those incredible Japanese pitchers from the late 1940s. He wasn't exactly a great strikeout artist, but he had a pretty respectable ERA. Should be interesting to watch.

Relief Pitchers
Kenjiro Tamiya (also here)

Tamiya is the only relief pitcher not also listed as a spot starter. What's more,
he's really on this team for his offensive abilities, not as a true pitcher. Oh well.

Starting Lineup
1. King Kelly, C
2. Monte Irvin RF / Willie Keeler RF
3. Silvio Garcia SS / Mickey Mantle CF
4. Mickey Mantle CF / Carlos Delgado 1B
5. Eddie Yost 3B / Wade Boggs 3B
6. George Foster LF / Wally Yonamine LF
7. Andy Thornton 1B / Silvio Garcia SS
8. Bid McPhee 2B

Wally Yonamine was born in Hawaii, grew up in America (if I understand correctly), and was one of the more famous early foreign-born players in Japan. He also played for the San Fransisco 49ers in the 1950s. There's a great short biography of him here, and a website devoted to him here.

King Kelly is actually listed in the game as an outfielder, but is starting at catcher because the CM didn't draft a "real" catcher. He played a good percentage of his games in real life at catcher, so I guess it's okay.

Reserves
Shinichi Eto C / 1B / SS / LF
Toshizo Sakamoto 2B / 3B / SS / LF / CF / RF
John Valentin 2B / 3B / SS
Ray Boone 1B / 3B / SS
Hans Lobert 3B / SS
Jimmy Barrett LF / CF / RF
Brian Jordan LF / CF / RF

Well, that's it from me tonight. I'm looking forward to the beginning of the "real" season next Tuesday and Wednesday, at 6AM EST. I just might set my alarm early for those games!