GOWDY 86: ITS WHY WE PLAY THE GAMES

                                     HOUSTON ASTROS GOWDY 86 CHAMPS 

My memories of the 1986 season naturally include the Bill Buckner error and jubilant Mets enjoying their championship but they also include remembering Mike Scott mowing down the Mets in game 1 and game 4. So did the Mets just get lucky in the NL playoffs ?  Did they get lucky as Red Sox fans believe in the 86 World Series or were they one of the greatest teams of all time as Met fans like RJL believe ??

To answer these questions, I used the Inside Pitch baseball board game for the game engine and the Digital Diamond Board Companion as my scorecard and stat keeper.  The Google dice roller kept those pesky dice from jumping the table.  All three are excellent tools and Inside Pitch is pure fun and excitement. 

I wanted a format which was more than just a few playoff games or some simple tournament so I divided the teams into 3 divisions of 8 teams each and decided to use a variation of the King of the Hill format I came across watching a Kurt Bergland video.  In order to get to 24 teams, I had a short relegation tournament for Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and Seattle. The Cubs came out on top and joined the Central Division.  

The Eastern, Central and Western regional divisions disregarded the NL-AL setup and created some interesting story lines.  How would the Mets and Red Sox do in regular season matchups ?  How about the Mets and Yankees squaring off in Yankee Stadium or over at Shea Stadium where the RJL network was born in section 518 ??
How would the Cardinals, the 85 NL champs, with all their speed and Whitey ball fare against the Tigers, the 84 WS champs , with all those power bats ??  Who would stop the Astros over in the West ??  8 rounds of divisional play would decide which 6 teams would advance to the playoffs.

At the end of the regular season, Detroit ( 14-7) had the best record during the regular season and captured the Central Division championship.  The Phillies used a late season surge to edge out the Mets and the Orioles and capture the Eastern flag. Out in the West, Houston, San Francisco and San Diego ended the season in a 3 way tie.  Houston won the Western division given they had the best head to head record against the other two teams. 

With divisional champs Philadelphia, Detroit and Houston advancing to the playoffs, the remaining 3 playoff slots went to the 3 remaining teams with the best records.  Two slots went to the Mets and the Orioles but the Giants, Padres and Red Sox all tied for the last slot. After 2 rounds of a tie breaking round robin, the Giants won the final slot.  

6 teams entered a round robin tournament where they would play every other team once.  At the end of the round robin, the team with the most wins would be crowned as the Gowdy 86 champ. If more than one team had the most wins, they would repeat the process or go head to head for a 1 game playoff for the crown.

It took 15 games to decide the champion.  Each game was critical but the Giants seemed like the likely champ with a 3-0 record but back to back losses to the Phillies and the Astros opened the door for Houston to take the lead.  The Phillies had a chance to tie the Astros with a 4-1 record but the Mets downed Philadelphia 13-7 to hand the Houston Astros the Gowdy 86 crown.

Lance Parrish won the MVP award based on a point system which awarded the top 10 players points on where they finished  in various categories.  Jack Morris won the Cy Young award based on a similar process.  You can check out some stats at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTHTR_jcv-EkCeEmgjmmbFnfMD8be5eEBnAZ17OjnsjRzVyRZfukJhIVliz0aY1i02VWamVSVfhTHMv/pubhtml 



Gowdy65 is my next project.  One change in the format will be the King of the Hill format will involve all MLB 65 teams with a schedule which will have 9 rounds where every team plays at least one game.  No divisions, no AL-NL wall. Teams will have an initial order based on MLB65 wins.   I will start at the top and go down in rounds 1, 4 and 7, down and up in rounds 2, 5 and 8 and start at the middle and go down and up in rounds 3, 6 and 9.  Teams will be placed in the order of MLB 65 wins in round 1 and subsequent order will be based on wins and losses after each round with MLB 65 wins serving as the tie breaker.  I will provide reports on Gowdy65.

I hope you enjoy my posts. I certainly enjoy many of yours.  Keep on rolling.