Hall of Fame League

Beginning tomorrow, a Strat-O-Matic league consisting of 10 teams begins play. Each team (except one) is made up of Hall of Fame members (with three ringers added, which I'll explain later).

The teams have 9 batters and 6-7 pitchers on their roster, so the outcomes won't be based much on managing ability (sorry, Hal) but on the talent on the field.

The only "managing" I did was creating a batting order and a pitching rotation. The pitcher usage was set at "deadball" for all teams. If a pitcher had SP/RP on his card (as ALL the old guys do), then I marked them to relieve "as needed." If they were SP-only, I marked them to relieve "sometimes." A few teams have a RP-only guy, but some don't. There just aren't that many relievers in the Hall of Fame. For those teams, I changed the setting to "maximize" closer.

They will play a 162-game schedule, using the DH. Every team will use a ballpark of all 12's. I chose the best year's card for each player (although there are a few years I don't own: 1902, 1912, 1913, and 1924 - Hornsby was ticked).

I began by making HOF teams from decade groups. There's a team for 1900-1930, a team for 1930-1950, one for 1950-1970, one for 1970-1990, and one for after 1990. The card I chose for each player determined which team he was on. I also wanted a team of HOF snubs (Rose, Shoeless Joe, Bonds, Clemens, etc. - I even included ARod, because when he becomes eligible, he WILL be a snub). After making these 6 teams, I realized there were enough HOF players left over to roster 4 more teams. Those teams are NOT divided up by years, but just randomly put together - although I tried to balance them. Theoretically, those 4 teams should not be as strong as the original ones, but when you only take a guy's BEST year, sometimes that year is way better than the guy's overall career - so it might balance out. There are a number of HOF'ers who still didn't make a roster (Jim Rice and Lou Brock, for example).

Choosing a player's best year wasn't always easy. Some were, but lots of them gave me several equally worthy options. If it helped make a roster easier with regards to position or year, I took that into consideration. There are a few guys playing a little out of position. Frank Robinson, for example, will start at 1b for the FiftySixties. But then, breaking into an outfield of Mantle, Mays, Aaron, and Snider is tough to do. But hey, at least Robby has 1b on his card. He's even a 3! Duke Snider is the only player who will be playing a position that is not on his card. Since he and Mays and Mantle all played CF-only on their respective cards, I put Mantle at DH and Snider in LF.

The only exception to my HOF rosters is the NinetyAughts team. There just weren't enough HOF pitchers who pitched after 1990 to fill out a team. All I could come up with were Ryan (91), Eckersley (90), Maddux (95), and Glavine (92). So, to fill the roster out, I added two ringers: future shoe-in HOF'ers Randy Johnson (95) and Pedro Martinez (00). I also gave them Ken Griffey, Jr., who will be elected in 2016 but was needed to fill out this team.

Now, while I could play the entire league's schedule in a matter of seconds, that wouldn't be a lot of fun. So, my plan is to play a handful of games every day and blog the results. Here are the dates:

• Monday, July 7th - Opening Day
• Tuesday, July 15th - End of the first half of the season
• Wednesday, July 16th - The All Star Game of All Star Games
• Thursday, July 17th - Beginning of the second half of the season
• Friday, July 25th - End of regular season
• Saturday, July 26th - Playoff series between the 2nd and 3rd place teams
• Sunday, July 27th - The HOF World Series. This is also MLB's 2014 HOF Induction Ceremony day.

Below are the teams. I hope you enjoy reading thru these great names as much as I do.

DH/C/1B/2B/3B/SS/LF/CF/RF/P

New York PreThirties: L.Gehrig(27), M.Cochrane(30), G.Sisler(22), R.Hornsby(25), P.Traynor(30), H.Wagner(08), T.Speaker(22), T.Cobb(11), B.Ruth(21), J.McGinnity(04), C.Young(08), C.Mathewson(09), W.Johnson(15), P.Alexander(15), D.Vance(28)

Philadelphia ThirtyForties: J.Foxx(32), B.Dickey(36), S.Musial(48), C.Gehringer(36), G.Kell(49), L.Boudreau(48), A.Simmons(31), J.DiMaggio(36), T.Williams(41), L.Grove(31), D.Dean(34), L.Gomez(34), H.Newhouser(45), B.Feller(46), B.Lemon(48)

Brooklyn FiftySixties: M.Mantle(56), R.Campanella(53), F.Robinson(66), N.Fox(57), E.Mathews(54), E.Banks(58), D.Snider(54), W.Mays(54), H.Aaron(59), W.Spahn(53), E.Wynn(54), W.Ford(64), D.Drysdale(64), S.Koufax(65), B.Gibson(68)

Cincinnati SeventyEighties: G.Brett(80), J.Bench(70), R.Carew(77), J.Morgan(75), M.Schmidt(81), O.Smith(87), C.Yastrzemski(70), K.Puckett(88), A.Dawson(87), T.Seaver(71), S.Carlton(72), G.Perry(72), F.Jenkins(74), J.Palmer(75), R.Fingers(81)

Boston NinetyAughts: P.Molitor(94), C.Fisk(90), F.Thomas(94), R.Alomar(01), W.Boggs(91), B.Larkin(90), R.Henderson(90), K.Griffey(94), T.Gwynn(94), D.Eckersley(90), N.Ryan(91), T.Glavine(92), G.Maddux(95), R.Johnson(95), P.Martinez(00)

Baltimore Stars: J.Mize(39), R.Bresnahan(03), E.Murray(82), J.Robinson(49), B.Robinson(64), C.Ripken(91), J.Medwick(37), R.Ashburn(58), R.Jackson(69), M.Brown(06), C.Bender(10), R.Marquard(11), B.Grimes(20), T.Lyons(27), R.Ruffing(39), R.Roberts(54)

Chicago Legends: H.Wilson(30), G.Hartnett(37), W.McCovey(69), R.Sandberg(84), R.Santo(64), J.Cronin(38), B.Williams(72), L.Doby(50), H.Heilmann(23), J.Chesbro(04), A.Joss(08), R.Waddell(08), J.Haines(27), J.Bunning(67), D.Sutton(72), B.Sutter(77)

Detroit Idols: R.Kiner(51), Y.Berra(50), H.Greenberg(38), E.Collins(11), H.Killebrew(61), L.Appling(36), D.Winfield(84), L.Waner(28), P.Waner(36), E.Walsh(08), E.Plank(09), S.Coveleski(17), W.Hoyt(27), P.Niekro(67), H.Wilhelm(67), J.Hunter(72)

Pittsburgh Heroes: W.Stargell(73), G.Carter(82), B.Terry(30), N.Lajoie(01), F.Lindstrom(30), R.Yount(82), M.Ott(36), A.Kaline(59), R.Clemente(69), K.Nichols(04), V.Willis(06), E.Rixey(16), R.Faber(21), C.Hubbell(33), J.Marichal(66), R.Gossage(77)

St. Louis LeftOuts: E.Martinez(95), M.Piazza(97), M.McGwire(98), C.Biggio(97), A.Rodriguez(05), A.Trammell(87), B.Bonds(01), J.Jackson(11), P.Rose(69), E.Cicotte(17), J.Kaat(66), L.Tiant(68), J.Morris(81), L.Smith(83), C.Schilling(92), R.Clemens(05)