If anyone is ever looking for tournament ideas, I completed a fun solitaire one the other day.
I realized that I have a bunch of recent-era GO teams that I rarely ever play. (I prefer playing teams from 1990 and earlier.) So I took my 48 teams from 1993 to current, and divided them into three 16-team brackets of East, Central and West…
EASTERN
'93 Phillies
'94 Expos
'97 Marlins
'98 Braves
'98 Yankees
'00 Mets
'03 Marlins
'04 Red Sox
'07 Red Sox
'08 Phillies
'08 Devil Rays
'09 Yankees
'14 Orioles
'18 Red Sox
'19 Nationals
'24 Yankees
CENTRAL
'93 Blue Jays
'95 Indians
'98 Astros
'99 Rangers
'04 Cardinals
'05 White Sox
'05 Astros
'08 Cubs
'10 Twins
'11 Rangers
'11 Cardinals
'12 Tigers
'15 Blue Jays
'16 Cubs
'21 Blue Jays
'23 Rangers
WESTERN
'93 Giants
'97 Mariners
'98 Padres
'99 Diamondbacks
'01 Mariners
'01 Diamondbacks
'02 Giants
'02 Angels
'02 Athletics
'07 Rockies
'14 Giants
'15 Royals
'17 Astros
'19 Dodgers
'23 Diamondbacks
'24 Dodgers
To begin, I played three double-elimination tournaments. Some basic ground rules of mine: No DH’s (I find it’s way more entertaining for me when pitchers hit), three-man pitching rotations based on real-life IP during that season, relievers(*) can never pitch in more than two consecutive games and are limited to six outs per appearance, position players must have had 200 real-life PA’s in order to start, injuries can carry over (but to a max of two games).
As well, I now use GO’s recent Individual Fielding and Pitcher Fatigue options which add a ton of strategy to the games. I try to manage both teams fairly, making every attempt to help each win.
My three 16-team double-knockout tourneys ended like this:
EAST - '98 Braves defeated '08 Devil Rays in final
CENTRAL - '10 Twins defeated '95 Indians in final
WEST - '24 Dodgers defeated '97 Mariners in final
Those six teams then advanced to a pair of four-game, round-robin mini-tournaments. The results were:
Champs Division: (W-L)
Braves 4-0
Dodgers 2-2
Twins 0-4
Runners-Up Division: (W-L)
Mariners 3-1
Devil Rays 2-2
Indians 1-3
At that point, the Devil Rays and Indians were eliminated from the tournament.
The Braves then hosted the Dodgers in a one-game semi-final. Los Angeles won 1-0.
The Twins hosted the Mariners in a sudden-death quarter-final. Minnesota won 4-3 in 10 innings, eliminating the Mariners.
The Braves then hosted the Twins in a sudden-death semi-final. Atlanta won 2-1, eliminating Minnesota.
That set up a best-of-three championship showdown between the '24 Dodgers and the '98 Braves…
Game #1 - Dodgers won 4-1 by scoring two runs in the 7th inning and adding another pair of runs in the 8th. Game MVP Will Smith belted a big two-run homer in the 7th to erase a 1-0 deficit.
Game #2 - Braves squeezed out a 2-1 victory, scoring both their runs in the third inning. Game MVP Walt Weiss went 2-for-4. His double in the third helped start the winning rally.
Game #3 - Atlanta erupted for twelve hits and easily handled the Dodgers 8-4 to claim the title. Ryan Klesko went 2-4 with 4 RBI’s, while Chipper Jones went 3-4 and drove in a pair of runs.
Klesko was named the overall tournament’s Most Valuable Player, batting .388 with 4 HR, 12 RBI and a 1.188 OPS.
The Braves’ Tom Glavine was named Most Valuable Pitcher. He went 5-0 with an ERA of 1.41, striking out 29 with a WHIP of 0.63.
Tournament Batting Leaders:
Batting Average (min 40 PA’s) - Klesko ('98 Braves) .388; Crawford ('08 Devil Rays) .348.
Home Runs - Ohtani ('24 Dodgers) 10; Sorrento ('97 Mariners) 7.
RBI’s - Buhner ('97 Mariners) 19; Ohtani ('24 Dodgers) 14.
Stolen Bases - Ohtani ('24 Dodgers) 6; Four runners tied with 4.
OPS (min 40 PA’s) - Ohtani ('24 Dodgers) 1.310; Klesko ('98 Braves) 1.188.
Tournament Pitching Leaders:
W-L: Glavine ('98 Braves) 5-0; Johnson ('97 Mariners) 4-0.
ERA (min 25 IP) - Maddux ('98 Braves) 0.72 ERA; Glavine ('98 Braves) 1.41.
Strikeouts - Flaherty ('24 Dodgers) 40; Maddux ('98 Braves) 32.
Saves - Ligtenberg ('98 Braves) 4; Three relievers tied with 3.
WHIP (min 25 IP) - Johnson ('97 Mariners) 0.62; Glavine ('98 Braves) 0.63.
The tournament Batting Average was only .215. Which wasn’t really surprising, given that the majority of Starting Pitchers and Relievers were either A’s or B’s. Some C’s. D-pitchers rarely got into games, other than in mop-up roles.
The overall tournament ERA was 3.44, while the Fielding percentage was 97.9%
In the end, the tournament consisted of 110 games. Since I average a game a day, the entire project took about 3-1/2 months, lasting from early July until mid-October.
