Jim825

Total Classics 1955 By Jim825 & dennisjames71 In the end, the 1955 baseball season belonged to the Brooklyn Dodgers. After a heartbreaking string of near-misses that began in 1947, the Dodgers finally had their year, breezing to the pennant and nipping the Yanks in seven tough games to win it all. It was the most balanced Dodger team in years. Roy Campanella fully recovered from the hand injury that hampered him in 1954 and once again led Brooklyn, batting .318 with 32 home runs en route to a third MVP Award. Duke Snider belted 42 round-trippers with a .309 average and topped the league with 136 RBI and 126 runs scored. Don Newcombe rebounded from a poor season and pitched to a masterful 20-5 record, while Clem Labine was reliable out of the bullpen with 13 wins and 11 saves. Sophomore skipper Walter Alston had the Dodgers flying out of the starting gate. They won their first ten -- 20 of their first 22 -- and were ahead by 12-1/2 on July 4. Eddie Mathews's 41 homers weren't enough for the Braves and Willie Mays's 51 dingers and .319 average weren't enough for the Giants as the Dodgers won the pennant by 13-1/2 games over Milwaukee and 18-1/2 over New York . The Yankees and Yogi Berra, who won his third MVP, took a sixth American League flag in seven years. The Bronx Bombers, able to survive pitching problems with good years from Bob Turley and Don Larsen and with Mickey Mantle (a league-high 37 homers), held off Cleveland by 3 games with a 96-58 record. The Indians got 16 victories and a league-topping 245 strikeouts from Rookie of the Year Herb Score, but they lacked offensive punch and never really made a run for it. Far and away, the highlight of 1955 was the World Series. The Yankees took the first two games 6-5 and 4-2. The Dodgers came back in the next three: Campanella had three hits and three RBI, including a two-run homer, to give Brooklyn and Johnny Podres an 8-3 win in game three. Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Snider all homered in the following contest and Labine pitched the final four frames, as the Dodgers evened the Series with an 8-5 victory in game four. In game five, Snider hammered two more home runs and Sandy Amoros hit one, as the Dodgers won 5-3. The Yankees dominated the Dodgers in game six, winning 5-1 behind Whitey Ford's four-hitter. Podres took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth of game seven, but Billy Martin led off with a walk and then Gil McDougald bounced an infield single. Berra strode to the plate for the go-ahead run. He lofted a fly ball deep into the left field corner. Amoros made the catch with an outstretched arm at the last second, then got the ball back to the infield to double up McDougald. Podres completed the eight-hit shutout that, at long last, crowned the Dodgers World Champions. ------------------------------------------- The Total Classics 1955 mod brings you the sights and sounds of the 1955 baseball season. Besides rosters, portraits, uniforms and audios, the mod provides themed menu and loading screens, stadium select screens with actual stadium photos, 1955 jukebox music, 1950's batter walkup music and correct 1950's era stadiums for every team. The mod also includes OTBJoel's great Legends from the Booth audio. ------------------------------------------- *** INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS *** - After you download the total_classics_1955.7z file, double-click to open it. - Extract the contents of the file into a folder. - Double-click the explodeme.exe file - Find the location of a CLEAN (or patched) copy of MVP Baseball 2005 and click "Extract". - Allow the program to extract all of the new content. - Play the new Total Classics 1955 mod. NOTE -- You MUST use an "unlocked" profile in order to have access to the 1955 uniforms ------------------------------------------- *** VERSION HISTORY *** v1.0 Initial release