Tuesday, October 03, 2006

AL Modern Division

We're back with the never-ending description of the teams!

The AL Classic division basically has all the DH teams. It's easier to group them together this way for gameplay purposes. Unfortunately, there are only 7 teams that used the DH, so after a coin flip the 1970 Minnesota Twins was selected to join them. Good thing, too, because the other choice, the 1970 Orioles would probably be running away with the division otherwise...

1995 Cleveland Indians: Great underrated team, who won 100 games in a strike-shortened year. Unfortunately for them, they provided the Atlanta Braves with their only World Series win of their 14-year run of success.

2001 Seattle Mariners: Hold the record for most wins in a season by an American League team with 116. Stopped by the Yankees in the ALCS that year, despite the presence of Edgar Martinez and Rookie of the Year (and MVP) Ichiro!

1970 Minnesota Twins: One of the all-time great bullpens, and a representative of the Minnesota teams that dominated the first years of the AL West (plus a young Rod Carew and Luis Tiant). Unfortunately, they ran into Baltimore in the playoffs and did not make the World Series.

1987 Toronto Blue Jays: Victims of one of the major collapses of recent times, losing their last 7 games to finish 2 behind Detroit. Still, the computer players should be able to shake that off.

1985 Kansas City Royals: The team that finally broke through and won the World Series with George Bretty, Willie Wilson, and the gang. I managed them last season, which was excruciating.

1982 California Angels: Winners of the American League West, they lost in the playoffs to the Brewers (a unique achievement!) after taking a 2-0 lead in a 5-game series. They'd signed a large number of all-stars to get there, including Doug DeCinces, Fred Lynn, Rod Carew, and this guy.

1990 Oakland A's: The Athletics cruised to the pennant, winning 103 games and crushing the Red Sox in the playoffs. The World Series was another story, though. Called the Bash Brothers in real life, they can't seem to hit in the Cloverland Leagues and have performed surprisingly poorly the last two seasons.

1977 Texas Rangers: Second place behind one of those Royals teams that didn't make it to the World Series, winners of 94 games. Bert Blyleven and Gaylord Perry are probably the most famous players on the team, though they did include at least two managers (Mike Hargrove and Jim Fregosi) a pefect game pitcher (Len Barker) and a guy named Bump.

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