Legends of Cooperstown News-March, 2002

'Old Aches and Pains' Luke Appling
'Bald Billie' Barney
Walter 'Boom Boom' Beck
Bill 'Ding Dong' Bell
'Sleepy' Bill Burns
George 'Ug' Caster
'Prince' Hal Chase
Russ 'Daddy Long Legs' Christopher
Eddie 'Knuckles' Ciccotte
'Spittin' Bill Doak
'Turkey' Mike Donlin
'Laughin' Larry Doyle
Erv 'Four Sack' Dusak
'Bloody' Jake Evans
Bob 'Death to flying things' Ferguson
Bob 'Fats' Fothergill
Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham
Harvey 'the Kitten' Haddix
'Bad News' Odell Hall
Charles 'Piano Legs' Hickman
Johnny 'Hippity' Hopp
William Ellsworth 'Dummy' Hoy
Willie 'Puddin Head' Jones
'Baby Doll' Bill Jacobson

Set 7 is shaping up to be a key period for the playoff hopes of several teams and as the league enters it's final 32 games, it's anyone's guess as to who makes it or what the final standings will be. Several head to head matchups between teams will determine who is in or out and who takes the regular season crowns in the LOC American and National Leagues.

Anyone wishing to get on the waiting list for either the WLCO or the SLOC, e-mail me at [email protected] or Josh Raup at [email protected]. If you'd like a copy of the Japanese League All-Stars or the Negro League All-Stars so you can evaluate them yourself, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy.

Set 7 will be the played normally by the Home team versus the Visiting team's computer manager. Trades made now will take effect for set 8. The league trading deadline for players to be eligible for the playoffs has past, so any players involved in trades now will not be eligible for the post season.

Keep up the great work and keep having fun!

Phil

The Winter Legends of Cooperstown season enters it's final 32 games with rosters expanding to 35 and the pennant hopes of several teams riding on some key head-to-head matchups in sets 7 and 8. With 4 teams making the playoffs from each league, there are still very few teams that have been eliminated from post season competition. The team with the fourth best record from each league will play at team 3 in a 1 game playoff to determine who plays at the team with the second best record in each league. The winner of that series takes on the league's regular season champion in a best of 7 series. The two league winners then square off in an old time best of 9 World Series for the LOC title.
In the LOC American League, Missouri has widened it's lead to 7 games over Rochester and looks to wrap up the first ever LOC AL pennant soon, and 8 key games with the Live Oaks could close it out for John Wolfmeyer's Riverbats. Led by a balanced team offensively and defensively, Missouri has led the AL for most of the season. They have also put to rest the belief that power is the name of the game, as they have the fewest home runs of any team, yet they are in the race for home field advantage throughout the playoffs and World Series.
Follow the Boston Americans through set 6, with Tim Daniel's excellent Set 6 recaps. The Americans and Chicago Colts are battling for the last 2 playoff seedings, with Newark, Cleveland, New York and Washington still with playoff aspirations just a few games back.

The Summer version of the Legends of Cooperstown has completed it's inaugural draft and is set to begin it's first season on April 1st. The league has already seen some high profile names traded in the first week following the draft, such as Babe Ruth dealt in a 6 player deal in exchange for, among others, Hank Aaron and Saduharu Oh. Other deals involved Jimmie Foxx being dealt from Longwood to Glasgow in an 8 player deal that also involved the likes of Joe Cronin, Ernie Lombardi, Dolph Camilli and Tommy Heinrich. With activity like that and the interest so far, the Summer LOC is shaping up to be every bit as fun and entertaining as it's Winter League counterpart.
The SLOC features the same HOF 2000 set players, the hand created Negro League players and a past season...this year it is 1941...as it's counterpart league the WLOC, but there is an added new international twist. The league is welcoming in a team of 24 past Japanese League greats, led by all-time home run king Saduharu Oh. The SLOC also plans on inducting it's own Hall of Famers permanently into the set on a yearly basis and held it's first HOF induction voting, but no single player garnered the 75% vote block that is required to be admitted. The league also is welcoming new MLB HOF inductees Ozzie Smith, Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield and Bill Mazeroski into the HOF set as well this year. Plans are to create cards for any new HOFers that are inducted into Cooperstown each year.
Visit the official league website, join the mailing list or the league waiting list by e-mailing the SLOC Commissioner Josh Raup or the WLOC Commissioner Phil Trygar.

The National League is still a dog fight, with St. Louis and Kansas City tied atop the standings, 4 games ahead of Mountaintop. Scranton leads Kentucky and Brooklyn by a single game in the race for the final playoff spot in the NL with plenty of head to head matchups down the stretch to decide the outcome. Virginia and the New York Giants' playoff hopes are dimming and they would need to get red hot in the season's final 32 games in order to reach the post season.
The Perfectos are led by Ernie Banks, who's clutch hitting has been a season long run producer, and who's 34 home runs and 129 RBI are among the tops in the league. St. Louis has shaken off a slow start to the season to take the NL lead in the last 2 sets and they will be a force in the playoffs. A trio of Negro League stars have led Kansas City all season, with Cool Papa Bell's 21 Triples and 61 stolen bases, and Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith's 14 wins among the NL leaders. Brooklyn's Rogers Hornsby hopes to lead a Trolley Dodger playoff run, as he still holds Triple Crown aspirations (.373, 36-110).

The newest creation, a Latino all-time great team, including Jose Mendez, Luis Tiant Sr., Alfredo Cabrera, Luis Padron, Armando Marsans, Bernardo Baro, Franciso Coimbre, Pablo Mesa, Alejandro Oms, Lazaro Salazar, Omar Linares and many others, will be finished shortly.
Right after that, I will begin a second Negro League team, which will include more of the all-time greats, such as 'Cannonball' Dick Redding, Ted 'Double-Duty' Radcliffe, Newt Allen, Sam Bankhead, Tom 'Peewee' Butts, Piper Davis, Bingo DeMoss, Frank Duncan, Floyd 'Jelly' Gardner, Sammy T. Hughes, Clarence 'Fats' Jenkins, Lester Lockett, Oliver Marcelle, Dick Lundy, Buck O'Neil, Bruce Petway, Alec Radcliffe, Louis Santop, Ben Taylor, Frank Warfield, and many more.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome and any names, facts, etc. that you'd like to contribute are most welcome with these projects. They're meant to extend the value of the game of Baseball and Strat-O-Matic, through not just Major League History, but also the histories and backgrounds of the all-time players from other countries, who in a lot of cases did not have the opportunity to show their talents in the Major Leagues.

The Newark Eagles pulled off 2 trades just before the LOC Trading Deadline in an effort to bolster their chance at the playoffs. The Eagles first traded OF Al Kaline and 1B George Scott to the Cleveland Spiders in exchange for C Randy Hundley and OF Max Carey. Hundley will fill a role for the Eagles of filling in for regular catcher Roy Campanella, who is nearing his usage for the year. Kaline and Scott add a lot of power to the Spiders offense as they vie for the playoffs.
The New York Yankees and Newark made the final trade before the deadline, with the Yanks sending Freddy Lindstrom to the Eagles in exchange for SS Lou Boudreau. The move adds some versatility to the Eagles down the stretch and gives the Yankees another option at SS for the future.
There are still several deals being rumored in the league, but any players acquired now will not be eligible for the post season.

Charlie 'King Kong' Keller
Bill "Wagon Tongue' Keister
Ellis 'Old Folks' Kinder
'Good Time' Bill Lamar
Arlie 'the freshest man on earth' Latham
Sal 'the Barber' Maglie
Russ 'the Mad Monk' Meyer
Wally 'Peepsight' Moses
Hugh 'Losing Pitcher' Mulcahy
Ed 'the Only' Nolan
Joe 'the Gay Reliever' Page
Raymond 'Rip Radcliff
'Pistol' Pete Reiser
Harry 'Silk Stockings' Schaeffer
'Grunting' Jim Shaw
Bob 'the Gob' Shawkey
'Brewery' Jack Taylor
George 'Birdie' Tebbetts
Jim 'Abba dabba' Tobin
Virgil 'Fire' Trucks
Dixie 'the People's Choice' Walker
Lon 'the Arkansas hummingbird' Warneke
Julian 'Flop Ears' Wera
Ken 'Horse Face' Williams