KOD 9 Award Winners

Special thanks to all of those who participated in the balloting.  The voting was exceptionally close.  For the first time in our league history we had a tie for one of the Awards.  Randy Johnson and Gary Bell will share the AL Cy Young Award.  I believe the only time that has happened was in 1969, when Mike Cuellar and Denny McLain shared the AL Cy Young Award.  Another first was Gary Sheffield's unanimous choice for NL MVP.  Sheff's Triple Crown season, another KOD first, made him a lock for the award.

1. NL MVP - Gary Sheffield 1992 San Diego Padres
2. AL MVP - Rocky Colavito 1958 Cleveland Indians
3. World Series MVP - Warren Spahn 1951 Boston Braves
4. AL Cy Young - Randy Johnson 1993 Seattle Mariners / Gary Bell 1958 Cleveland Indians
5. NL Cy Young - Don Drysdale 1964 Los Angeles Dodgers
6. FIREMAN - Bruce Sutter 1979 Chicago Cubs

Congrats to Terry Priest & the 1951 Boston Braves: KOD 9 Champions

Special Congrats to Terry Priest, who has just won his 1st King of Diamonds World Championship.  Terry has managed the Brave franchise since KOD6.  In his 4th season as a KOD manager, Terry took the 1951 Braves to the summit with a classic game 7 win over Dan Holm’s 1974 Chicago White Sox.

As if this is a shock to anyone who has been following the KOD9 World Series…Warren Spahn was named Series MVP.  In KOD’s first ever 7 game World Series, Spahn recorded 3 win (Games 1, 4 and 7) to defeat the Chisox and bring the Brave franchise it’s first KOD championship.  Spahn went 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in 27 innings worth of work.  Not only did Spahn win 3 and shut the door on the Chisox in game 7, but all 3 of his wins were complete games !  The great lefty carried his team to victory !

World Series GAME 7 – Braves 7, White Sox 2

BSN - Spahn (11-3, 2.97) vs CHW - B.Johnson (5-4, 3.62)

The two most magical words in World Series competition, "Game Seven".  Those words conjure up memories of Johnny Podres shutting out the Yankees to win Brooklyn's only championship, or Mazeroski's walk off homer again Ralph Terry of the Yankees.  It's those golden memories of game 7's that draw us baseball fans to the ballpark or the small screen in order to see which of our cardboard heroes will prevail.  This game 7 had a simple recipe.  The Chisox, who were coming off a 19-2 drubbing needed to start fast and hold the Braves under 2 runs.  That task would be put firmly in the hands of young Bart Johnson.  The Braves were playing their "trump card", which came in the form of one Warren Spahn.  Spahn had dominated the Chisox for victories in games 1 and 4.  If the Braves could score more than 2 runs there was an excellent chance they would be brining the KOD flag back to Beantown.

Popular opinion sided with the Braves, since they had the pitching matchup.  In game 6 the Chisox had the pitching matchup, but it did not play out according to plan.  Game 7 would pay according to plan.  After a scoreless opening stanza the Braves jumped all over Johnson in the top of the second and scored 3 huge runs.  Sid Gordon fanned to lead off the inning but 3 consecutive singles by Bob Elliott, Willard Marshall and Earl Torgeson accounted for the 1st run of the game.  Back to back wild pitches and a single by Roy Hartsfield accounted for the next 2 runs.  Boston was on their way, so was Bart Johnson.  Boston was on their way to a parade down Beacon Street.  Johnson was on his way to a shower.  Kuckleballer Wilbur Wood, who pitched so well in game 5, was brought in to stem the tide and get the final out of the inning.  It remained 3-0 until the 4th when Harsfield knocked in another big run by singling home Earl Torgeson from second. 

Boston would make it 5-0 when Sid Gordon singled home Sam Jethroe in the 7th.  The Chisox finally got to Spahn in the bottom of the 7th, but it was too little and most certainly 2 late.  After getting the first two batters out on bunts back to Elliott at third Spahn walked the next 2 (Dent & Santo).  With the runners moving switch hitter Ken Henderson lined a 2 run double to right to make it 5-2 and give some hope to the fans on 35th street.  Unfortunately for the fans at Comiskey the Braves would get back both of those runs in the top of the 8th when Sibbi Sisti tripled  with 2 out and scored on another Hartsfield single.  By this time Wood was gone and Cy Acosta was toeing the rubber.  Sam Jethroe singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd and Bob Addis singled to center to score Hartsfield and make it 7-2.  Spahn, who threw 122 pitches on the day, was back in his comfort zone with a 5 run lead.  The Pale Hose managed 1 base runner over the final 2 innings (a walk to Carlos May), as Warren Spahn closed out the series and was unanimously elected it's MVP.

Braves win series 4-3

World Series GAME 6 – Braves 19, White Sox 2

9/25-9/26 -  GAMES 6-7 @ Comiskey Park
BSN - Nichols (6-2, 3.08) vs CHW - Kaat (7-8, 3.18)
The Chisox and their fans entered this contest confident, and why shouldn't they have ?  With 20 game winner Jim Kaat on the hill vs journeyman Chet Nichols the cards seemed to be heavily in favor of the Southsiders.  During this KOD season Kaat's record stood at an even 7-7 going into game 6.  Kaat would have won 3 or 4 more if he had gotten decent run support.  Today he would need the Chicago Bears, not the White Sox' offense as the South Siders gave up a ghastly 19 runs in a hugely disappointing blow out loss.  Kaat himself yielded 5 runs in the 2nd inning and never lived to see the 3rd.  Bill Moran was brought on in relief and when he gave up 4 in the 4th Chicago's skipper, Dan Holm, made the decision to leave him in to  take one for the team, so his bullpen would not be depleted for the decisive game 7 that was now looming.  In a game where Boston posted 19 runs on 21 hits it's hard to find just one hitting star.  Every Brave starter had at least 1 hit.  Bob Elliot would have to be the standout, as he went 4 for 5 with 6 RBI and 2 home runs.  Chicago's lone scoring chance came off the bat of aged veteran Ron Santo, who hit a 2 run shot in the 7th to break up Nichols shutout.  With the series now tied at 3 apiece the advantage firmly swings to the side of the Braves who will be sending Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, who already has wins in games 1 an 4, to the hill.

Series tied at 3

World Series GAME 5 – White Sox 4, Braves 1

CHW - Wood (9-6, 3.71) vs BSN - Surkont (5-5, 3.14)
With the series knotted at 2 apiece, a game 5 victory would put the winner up 3 games to 2 with the series heading back to the Southside of Chicago.  That put a little "added pressure" on Brave starter Max Surkont.  WIth the game scoreless entering the the 5th the tension really began to mount.  Who would crack first ?  Who wanted it more ?  Answer:  Boston would crack first and from what our eyes tell us, the Chisox wanted it more.  The inning sure started harmless with pitcher Wilbur Wood and lead off man Pat Kelly both grounding out weakly to Sibi Sisti at short for the 1st two outs.  As easy as it was for Surkont to get those 2 outs, the all important 3rd out would prove  much harder to notch.  Sharp worked out a walk and Jorge "I hit righties good" Orta singled to put runners on 1st an second.  Dick Allen came up and turned on a 2-1 offering that just cleared the asteroid belt en route to Jupiter.  With that mighty clout the Chisox tooka 3-0 lead.  It would not end there as Ken Henderson singled and stole second, then scored on a Bill Melton single.  That would be all the runs the Chisox would need or get.  The Braves would make some hay in the 8th, but manage only 1 run when Sid Gordon singled home Sisti.  Wilbur Wood would go the distance and fan 6 to put the Chisox on the brink of the KOD Championship with the series heading back to the "Windy city".

Chicago leads series 3-2

World Series GAME 4 – Braves 4, White Sox 1

CHW - Kaat (7-7, 2.85) vs BSN - Spahn (10-3, 3.04)
After 2 scoreless innings the Chisox scored an unearned run off of Warren Spahn, who looked to be in big trouble. with runners on 1st and and 2nd and 1 out Dick Allen hit a hot smash to short that Sisti booted to load the bases.  Buddy Bradford, who starts occasionally vs tough lefties, put some good lumber on Spahn's 2-0 offering and hit one deep to left that Sid Gordon caught at the base off the wall.  Brian Downing trotted home with the first run of the game, but Spahn was ecstatic that it wasn't a game changing grand slam.  That would be Chicago's best chance to get to Spahn, who rises to the occasion in these big games.  Knowing his team needed a win to tie the series and avoid going down 3 games to 1 Spahn did exactly what he had to do.  He limited the  damage to 1 run and waited for his offense to come to life.  It took until the 5th inning for Boston to finally solve the riddle called Jim Kaat.  The crafty lefty, who some thought left his best years in Minnesota, has pitched well all year despite limited to no run support.  Today would be no different as his mates were relying on him to make 1 run stick.  Kaat's good, but he's no miracle worker.  Back to back RBI singles by Sisti and Cooper gave the Braves a 2-1 lead.  Kaat gave up 2 more in the 6th when Earl Torgeson pulled one just inside the foul poll.  Spahn  set the side down in order in the 7th and worked out of some moderate trouble in the 8th, before fanning Orta and Bill Stein to close out the game in the 9th and tie the series.

Series tied 2-2

World Series: GAME 3 - White Sox 3, Braves 0

GAMES 3-5 - Comiskey Park
CHW - B.Johnson (5-3, 3.33) vs BSN - Bickford (3-4, 3.96)
The series moved back east to Braves Field in Boston.  The mid 60's weather made it a perfect day for fall baseball.  Chicago opened the scoring in the top of the first when Vern Bickford served up a gopher ball to Jorge Orta, who never gets out vs righ handed pitching.  All the while Chisox starter Bart Johnson did his best Houdini impression by escaping trouble in all of his 5 innings of work.  Johnson was able to fan 5 Braves, which undoubtedly helped him escape damage.  Gossage was brought on in the 6th to replace Johnson after Chicago added 2 more runs to pad their lead to 3-0.  Lefty hitting catcher, Ed Herrmann, who was Chicago's most unsung heroes delivered another huge  RBI hit to score Dick Allen.  After Bill Melton walked, Bucky Dent executed the perfect squeeze play to score Ken Henderson.  On that play Herrmann slid into 3rd and looked to twist his ankle.  The trainers came out and sprayed him up with some ethyl chloride, which helped numb the pain and keep the star backstop in the game.  The Braves didn't put up much of a fight as Terry Forster came on for the final 2 innings to grab the save.  The win put the Chisox up 2-1 in the series, but they paid a huge price as post game X-rays showed that Herrmann broke his ankle and would be gone for the rest of the series.

White Sox take a 2-1 series lead