Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

It's my Senators theme team. [url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/atg2/team/team_other.html?user_id=109296[/url]

The name refers to the Irish theme for the league, but I think you would agree, at least thus far, it describes well how the team is performing. I used players from the Senators, the future Nationals[Expos] and the former Senators[Twins.] The league was set at 80 million, and I welcome your comments. Or taunting, as the case may be.

Well, being a Senators fan from way back, and given that most of my teams' names are the Senators (like Charlie with his Cardinals), I have played Senator themes a couple of times. Once, in a purist league, I had the '24 Senators. I came in 4th, losing 91 games. Once in a 1969 purist league, I won my division (with a losing record), and got beat in the Semifinals. Chief, although I love the Senators, your heart will be broken. They will reach into your chest cavity, like the dumb scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and they will just rip out your heart while it is still beating.

Quit while you are still alive and still safe. Don't give in to the temptation of playing the Senators (at least until we get a decent Walter card that truly reflects his performance! :wink: )

There are a number of players who actually played for the Senators available on other ATGII teams, including one crown jewel: Denny McLain. Other pitchers include Pete Richert, Claude Osteen, Camilo Pascual, Bob Humphreys, Darold Knowles and -- if you're using one of the Polos, Mike McCormick.

The hitters seem to have gone straight from DC/RFK Stadium to ATGII oblivion, but there are a few, including those who moved on to Minnesota, like Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew. Don Mincher and Curt Flood played with the Senators just before the move to Texas (remember, the Flood reserve clause lawsuit wasn't to avoid Washington, it was to avoid Philadelphia). And there's John Kennedy, available in ATGII as a $500K 3b-1 with no bat. And at SS -- Johnny Pesky, who finished up in Washington in 1954.

McLain would definitely be an upgrade over Walter, but it just would not be the Nats without the Big Train. He has been awful so far, unfortunately. Flood's fielding would be better in Center, but that would leave me more unbalanced toward righty hitters. I have never been a huge Pesky fan. I would have to gut my pitching to afford him. It would help me to rationalize getting Flood for Rice, though. But even these machinations seem unlikely to make a big difference. I like Harmon, but I am in Griffith anyway, and Judge and Prothro seem to make more sense in this context. It looks like a long season on the Potomac...a realistic result for the Nationals, as I think about it.

For the record, Chief, I was in no way suggesting roster changes -- Senators from any era are capable of screwing up without any help from me (and I should know -- I'm a long-suffering fan from 1961 until their untimely 1971 demise). As a Little Leaguer, I was even in the Bernie Allen Fan Club. That's rooting for an underdog's underdog. You know a baseball player is struggling when the first thing it usually says on the back of his Topps card is that he played football in college.

Anyway, I was just noting another class of available Senator -- the traded, mercifully or otherwise.

In ATG III the '69 Nats with Frank Howard, Mike Epstien, Del Unser and Eddie Brinkman's best seasons, Dick Bosman led the league in ERA and Darold Knowles should cost more than .5 and of course Teddy MF Ballgame as manager and pantyhose night!*

*Talk about getting Short-shifted
In other DC news - Heath Shuler is running for congress in NC