Yankee4Life

Connie Mack He was known as “The Tall Tactician” and was baseball’s grand old gentleman for more than a generation. Statuesque, stately, and slim, he clutched a rolled-up scorecard as he sat or stood ramrod straight in the dugout, attired in a business suit rather than a uniform, a derby or bowler in place of a baseball cap. He carried himself with quiet dignity, and commanded the respect of friend and foe. Widely addressed by players and other officials as Mr. Mack, he and the Philadelphia Athletics were so closely linked for 50 years the team was often dubbed “the Mackmen.” Connie Mack’s Hall of Fame career spanned 65 major-league seasons as a player, manager, team executive, and owner. He posted 3,731 wins, a mark that exceeds any other manager’s total by more than 1,000 victories. He guided the Athletics to nine American League championships and won five World Series titles in eight appearances. He was the first manager to win three World Series titles, and the first to win consecutive titles two times. The valleys were as low as the peaks were high – he also endured a major-league record 3,948 losses, and his team finished last in its league 17 times. He built his dynasties with rising young players, won championships with the stars he developed, and then sold off those stars when he could no longer afford them. A journeyman catcher who offered more in the way of innovation and creativity than ability during an 11-year major-league playing career, Mack served as player-manager for the National League’s Pittsburgh (the city was actually known as “Pittsburg” from 1890 to 1911) Pirates for three seasons during the rollicking 1890’s, and then for four seasons for the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western League, which became the American League in 1900. In 1901, when the circuit declared it was a major league and began to invade Eastern cities, A.L. President Ban Johnson asked Mack to establish the Philadelphia Athletics. Mack managed the team through 1950, and was a team owner for the franchise’s entire 54-year existence. In the early years of the Athletics, Mack skippered some of the Deadball Era’s best teams, winning six A.L. pennants and three World Series in the league’s first 14 years, primarily with players he discovered on school grounds and sandlots and developed into stars. Faced with financial difficulties because of the onset of World War I and competition for players from the fledgling Federal League, he dismantled his dynasty and endured a decade of miserable finishes. As he advanced into his sixties, many sportswriters and fans suggested the game had passed him by. But he adjusted to the times, opened his checkbook to purchase rising stars from minor-league teams, and built a second dynasty by the end of the Roaring Twenties. That team won three straight A.L. championships (1929-31) and a pair of World Series titles, but suffered declining attendance as the Great Depression devastated Pennsylvania’s economy. A pragmatic businessman with no other streams of income other than his ball club, Mack felt forced to sell off his stars to more solvent teams. Once again, the Athletics tumbled to the bottom of the A.L. standings, where they would hover for most of the rest of their stay in Philadelphia. He believed that he would eventually build another winner, and took pride in his ability to discover and develop talented young players. “No other manager in the history of the game ever handled more young players and brought more of them to stardom and to fortune,” the New York Times observed in Mack’s obituary. “But it is probable that he will be best remembered for his sensational scrapping of championship machines… Mack moved on to Milwaukee, and became manager and 25 percent owner of the city’s Western League franchise. Majority owner Henry Killilea told the Tall Tactician, “You’re in charge. Handle the club as if it belonged to you. Engage the players you think will strengthen the team without consulting any directors of the club.” Mack skippered the Brewers for four seasons. A player-manager during the first three, he took his last turn in the field on September 4, 1899. “Once he gave up playing,” baseball historian Charles C. Alexander observed, “Mack had managed from the bench in street clothes. His high starched collar was basic male attire at the turn of the century, but many years later, long after it had become unfashionable, he would still be wearing one.” He would also carry a scorecard for the remainder of his career, waving it to send signals to his players on the field. He relied on his experience and his understanding of the skills of both his players and opponent players to position his fielders. BEGINNING OF HIS FIRST DYNASTY: Philadelphia finished 1½ games behind Ty Cobb’s Tigers in 1907 and a distant sixth in 1908. But during that season, Mack began to build his first dynasty, providing playing time for 21-year old second baseman Eddie Collins, 21-year old shortstop Jack Barry, and 22-year old third baseman Frank Baker.With the three youngsters in the starting lineup and the Athletics playing their home games at newly finished Shibe Park, Philadelphia finished second as the Tigers won their third straight pennant in 1909. The Mackmen returned to the top in 1910. Jack Coombs won 31 games, Bender 23, and the 34-year-old Plank won 16 as Philadelphia steamrolled first the American League, and then the Chicago Cubs, four games to one in the Fall Classic. Coombs won three games and Bender one to give Mack and Philadelphia their first World Series Championship. Coombs, Plank, and Bender combined to carry the Athletics to a second straight championship in 1911, and 20-year-old first baseman Stuffy McInnis stepped into the starting lineup, along with Collins, Barry, and Baker, to complete what would become known as “the $100,000 infield.” Once again, Mack squared off against McGraw’s black-clad Giants. This time, the Athletics prevailed as Baker hit two key home runs and earned the moniker of “Home Run” Baker; Bender won twice and Coombs and Plank each picked up a victory in the 4-1 Series. The Athletics slipped to third in 1912, but bounced back to finish 6 ½ games ahead of Walter Johnson’s Washington Senators in 1913. Once again the World Series matched Mr. Mack and Muggsy, and for the second time, the Athletics won, this time by a four-games-to-one margin as the 37-year old Plank out-dueled Mathewson in the finale and Bender won two more World Series games. With three World Series wins in four years, two over McGraw, Mack had earned his reputation as “The Tall Tactician.” Philadelphia cruised to its fourth A.L. title in five years in 1914 behind the $100,000 infield and the pitching of Bender, Plank, 21-year old Bullet Joe Bush, 23-year old Bob Shawkey, and 20-year old Herb Pennock. The Athletics, like their manager, were efficient. But as tranquil as the season was in Philadelphia, there were storm clouds on the horizon. World War I broke out in Europe, an event that shortened the 1918 season and reduced box office revenues. The Federal League began operations in eight cities, and its well-financed owners dangled cash in front of major leaguers. And like a cyclone, the Boston Braves, mired in last place on July 18, arose in the summer heat, stormed past the rest of the National League, and demolished the Athletics in a stunning World Series sweep. Mack later claimed his team lost because it had been splintered by the specter of Federal League money. Unwilling and unable to match the lucrative F.L. salaries, Mack watched the Federal League lure away Plank and Bender, released Coombs, who had missed two seasons because of illness and injury, and sold Eddie Collins to the White Sox because owner Charles Comiskey afford a high salary to keep Collins out of Federal League hands. In the early 1920s, as Mack neared and passed his 60th birthday, baseball writers and fans openly suggested that the old timer should surrender his spot on the bench to a younger man. But Mack was busy building his next dynasty. In 1929 the Athletics embarked on one of the greatest three-year runs in baseball history. Mack’s men won 313 games in that span, three A.L. pennants, and a pair of World Series titles. THE SECOND DYNASTY: The 1929 Athletics posted 104 victories, finished 18 games ahead of the Yankees, and crushed the Chicago Cubs four games to one in the World Series. Surprise Game One starter Howard Ehmke delivered a complete-game 3-1 victory, and the Athletics, trailing 8-0 in Game Four, rallied for ten runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to win, 10-8. Mack later called Ehmke’s performance “my greatest thrill.” 14 Cochrane, Foxx, Simmons, Dykes, Mule Haas, and Bing Miller all batted .300 or better; George Earnshaw, who Mack had purchased a year earlier from the minors, posted 24 wins, Grove 20, Wahlberg 18, and Rommel 12. Philadelphia won 102 games in 1930, finished eight games ahead of the runner-up Washington Senators and 16 ahead of the Yankees, and downed the St. Louis Cardinals four games to two in the Fall Classic behind a pair of wins each from Grove and Earnshaw, two homers each from Cochrane and Simmons, and a game-winner from Foxx. Grove won 28 games during the regular season and Earnshaw 22; Foxx homered 37 times and drove in 156 runs; Simmons hit 36 homers and drove in 165. In 1931 they were even better during the regular season. The Athletics posted 107 wins to finish 13 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees. Grove posted a 31-4 record, Earnshaw and Rube Walberg each won more than 20, Foxx hit 30 home runs, and Simmons hit 22. But Johnny “Pepper” Martin, the “Wild Horse of the Osage,” collected 12 hits, ran wild, and willed the Cardinals to victory in a seven-game Fall Classic rematch, the finale a 4-2 win at Sportsman’s Park. It was the last time that Mack managed a World Series game as the second Athletics dynasty ended much like the first. This time it was the Great Depression that devastated the city of Philadelphia’s economy. Attendance plummeted while the Athletics had the highest payroll in the league. Mack sold off his stars to owners with deeper pockets, and his team returned to the nether regions of the American League. Between 1935 and 1946, the Athletics finished last nine times in 12 years. Mack, who turned 75 after the 1937 season, missed the final 34 games of that campaign and 91 more games in 1939 because of illness. Though his legacy and career winning percentage had been eroded by the string of last place finishes, he was revered by those in the game, and the public. Shibe Park was renamed “Connie Mack Stadium” in 1953 and continued to house both the Athletics and the Phillies, who were still winning the battle of the box office between the two. The other A.L. owners, unhappy about their share of the low gates at Philadelphia – just 362,111 in 1953 and a paltry 304,666 in 1954 – urged the Macks to sell or move the team. The Macks resisted, but Roy and Earle were pressured by the New York owners to sell the team to Arnold Johnson, a Chicago vending machine magnate who owned the Yankees farm team in Kansas City. When Earle and Roy finally agreed to sell, the other AL owners unanimously voted to accept the deal. Upon hearing the news that the Athletics would move away from Philadelphia, the 91-year old Connie Mack collapsed. Connie Mack died in Philadelphia on February 8, 1956, at the age of 93 “of old age and complications from hip surgery.” Hundreds of fans, friends, former players, and baseball executives turned out for the funeral at his St. Bridget’s, his parish church. He was buried at Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Miller Huggins Miller Huggins was the Hall of Fame manager who led the New York Yankees to their first six American League pennants and three world championships, in the 1920s. He forged unique relationships with both Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and their star outfielder, Babe Ruth. One newspaperman wrote, “Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert saw in Huggins a man worthy of confidence, a man hung on the cross of propaganda, which was as cruel as it was false, and as unfounded as it was detrimental to the cause of the Yankees.” Huggins was also an accomplished second baseman in the Deadball Era, when he excelled despite being one of the smallest men to ever play the National Pastime. Underestimated as both a player and a manager, Huggins overcame great obstacles to excel. Baseball was his life, but ultimately the stress he experienced in it may have contributed to his premature death at age 51. Huggins played for three seasons (1901-1903) with St. Paul, which became a charter member of the American Association in 1902. The club’s player-manager, Mike Kelley, became one of Huggins’s closest friends. During that period, Huggins found time to study law at the University of Cincinnati, gaining his degree in 1902. “He [Huggins] was grievously handicapped by his lack of size,” wrote John Sheridan in the Sporting News. While databases list Huggins at 5’ 6” and 140 pounds, he was actually much smaller, around 5’ 1”-5’2” and 125 pounds. When John McGraw had a chance to acquire Huggins for his Baltimore Orioles in 1901, he declined to do so. “That shrimp?” he said to himself. “He’s too little to be of any use as a big leaguer.” Perhaps to compensate for his size, Huggins had a fierce and relentless determination to succeed and use his head to win. “Because he was so small and slight, he must overcome by clear thinking,” wrote Frank Graham, “obstacles that other players could surmount by force.” Huggins joined his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 1904 and began a 13-year career as a Major Leaguer, 11 as a regular. He led the National League in walks four times and stole 27 or more bases eight seasons. His career on-base percentage (a sabermetric number not used in his days) was a sparkling .382, with a season-best mark of .432 in 1913, at age 35. Huggins was a quiet man with simple tastes and did not socialize much. He liked to read and play billiards and pinochle. He had business interests, including ownership of a cigar store and roller-skating rink in his hometown. Even years later, he would visit rinks on his off-days. He impressed people with his sharp mind and baseball “smarts.” When he took the helm of the Cardinals, Harold Lanigan of the Sporting News called him “a deep little cuss, a thorough student of the national game.” And just a couple of years later, New York Giants manager John McGraw said, “There is no smarter man in baseball today than Miller Huggins.” Damon Runyon described Huggins in his first season the Yankees’ manager, as “a serious little man. If there is any streak of humor in him, it does not make itself manifest.” While Runyon wrote of Huggins’s cerebral and detached nature, he also noted the skipper’s quiet presence. “Mr. Huggins has a way about him in the baseball arbor which inspires the feeling that he knows his business.” It was Huggins who urged Ruppert to acquire Babe Ruth after the 1919 season. “Huggins had vision…Far-seeing judgment. He planned on a big scale,” said Ruppert. “I doubt if anybody except Huggins had the foreknowledge of just how predominant Ruth could become in the baseball world.” Huggins also understood what a great drawing card the Babe would be. “He pulls them in. He makes the turnstiles click,” said Huggins in Ruth’s first season in New York. The public “likes the fellow who carries the wallop. The fellow who can pound the ball is always the fellow that will win the hearts of the bleachers…Ruth appeals to everybody.” One of Huggins’s greatest strengths was his ability to size up a player, his potential and limitations. In December, 1920, the Yankees made one of their many trades with the Red Sox during the 1918 to 1923 time period. While the trades were later called “the Rape of the Red Sox,” they were considered quite fair and balanced when they were made. The key figures in this deal were thought to be the Yankees’ infielder Del Pratt and Boston catcher and future Hall of Famer Wally Schang. But Huggins was most interested in Boston pitcher Waite Hoyt, even though he had won only four games and had been hampered by injuries and his temperament. “Young Hoyt is a pitcher of infinite promise,” he declared. “I expect great things of him.” The future Hall of Famer would win 157 games for the Yankees. Herb Pennock was another example of Huggins’s personnel skills. When he acquired the lefty after a 10-17 1922 season with the Red Sox, the few people who noticed the trade panned it. In New York papers, it was called “the worst trade the Yankees ever made,” in which they had been “gypped,” with Huggins a “sap” for making such a deal. Pennock would also go on to a Hall of Fame career and win 162 games as a Yankee. And as early as 1927, Huggins wanted to acquire yet another Red Sox pitcher who seemed to be showing little, Red Ruffing. The Yankees would not acquire him until 1930, after he had posted a 39-96 record in Boston. He too would go on to a Hall of Fame career, with 231 wins for New York. Huggins, like his owner, wanted to win as much as possible. “It is our desire to have a pennant winner each year indefinitely. New York fans want championship ball, and the Yankees can be counted on to provide it. We are prepared to outbid other clubs for young players of quality.” Ruppert could not have said it better. The irony is that while losing almost made Huggins physically ill, his striving to win took a tremendous toll on his weak body. The Yankees fell behind the Athletics early in the 1929 season and were unable to make a pennant race with the emerging Philadelphia dynasty. Huggins showed up at Yankee Stadium with a red blotch under his left eye, which unnerved coaches and players. “Go see a doctor because I have a red spot on my face? Me? Who took the spikes of Frank Chance and Fred Clarke?” he retorted. On September 15, the Yankees faced the Cleveland Indians at home, and suffered two blows: Huggins with the infected and painful carbuncle on his cheek, and Waite Hoyt pulled from the game after Joe Hauser smacked a three-run homer. Huggins, shining a heat light on his carbuncle, asked Hoyt how old he was. Hoyt said he’d just turned 30. “Tomorrow, go down and get your paycheck. You’re through for the season. You just weren’t in shape. Get in good shape this winter, come down next spring and have the year I know you can have,” Huggins said. Everybody could see Huggins was exhausted—a young Yankee shortstop named Leo Durocher, a Huggins favorite, pleaded with his manager to take the rest of the season off—and a few days later, a run-down and worn-out Huggins left the team, and went to St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York’s Greenwich Village, with a bacterial skin infection on his cheek. It spread through his body, blood transfusions did no good, and he died just a few days after he entered the hospital. Eerily, he became the fourth Yankees’ manager who died prematurely in the 1920s. On May 30, 1932, the Yankees began a tradition that has continued to this day, by unveiling a monument by the center field flagpole, honoring their manager. Ironically, the Yankees could never retire his number. Huggins died before the Yankees began issuing uniform numbers.

Watching years of baseball documentaries about the 1955 baseball season and the Dodgers of that year and reading accounts from players who played during that time, the name Sandy Amoros would regularly be brought up. I don’t know how many times I have seen replays of him running toward the left field foul line at Yankee Stadium, right arm extended, and at the last possible second catching Yogi Berra’s fly ball that the quick-thinking Dodgers turned into a double play. It was the climatic play of the 1955 season and for Amoros having it take place in the seventh game of the World Series was the highlight of his career that ended five years later at the conclusion of the 1960 season. But that was one player, one play, that made up this exciting 154 game season and thanks to the endless talents of Jim825 and DennisJames71 the 1955 season mod is the latest compilation of their work added to an already impressive anthology of season mods already available on our website. Before I go on with the installation instructions with the mod I should point out that Dennis has already uploaded a uniform patch that addresses some minor uniform tweaks, so you may want to grab that after you download the mod. Install that patch with Kraw’s TiT program and you are good to go. To install this mod on your computer is a very simple and easy procedure. You will need a clean copy of Mvp (or right out of the box installation) with no mods on it. Extract the explodeme.exe file into the directory where you have your clean copy waiting and let Jim’s install do its job. Ok, now that we got all that out of the way you are ready to play the game. If you want you can now install the uniform patch that Dennis made but if you don’t want to just yet you can just get in and see what’s what. I have always told people in the shoutbox that these mods are very sneaky. Sure, they’re fun to play but if you don’t watch out you are going to learn a few things. I am far from being an expert on anything in here but when I am playing a Total Classics mod I have a piece of paper next to me and I write down the names of players I am not familiar with like starting pitcher Sam Jones of the Cubs in the game I am detailing here. I confess I never heard of him and after looking him up I found that he was a twenty-one game winner in 1959. I also found out something from one of the recording artists that was used in the mod but I will save that for later. One thing you will notice is that you’ll see the color blue just about everywhere in this mod. Blue in the background images and blue in the overlay because 1955 was Brooklyn’s year. The music chosen for the mod was to me a typical blend of 1950’s songs. I don’t know much about the artists from that time except for Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and of course Elvis. But I was vaguely familiar with all the artists that were picked for the mod except for someone named Georgia Gibbs who sung a forgettable song named “Tweedle Dee.” As is my custom I like to play a few games in each new mod to get a feel of it and almost every time I started the game I heard this song and I had to turn my speakers down until the game started because Tweedle Dee was not for me and if any kid out there has a grandparent that complains about the kind of music you have on your playlist then just have them listen to this song one more time and it should keep them quiet for awhile. As per custom, Dennis James made the uniforms for this mod. I have been admiring his work for quite some time now and I have to say that the work he does on the Total Classics mods stand out above all other things he has done and considering that he made yearly updates on uniforms and stadiums, his classic uniforms are above all my favorite. Especially check out the work on the Cleveland Indians uniforms contained in this mod because it is well worth the look. The New York Giants took a trip to Wrigley Field in Chicago to take on the Cubs in the exhibition game that I decided to play and as Mel Allen said in the Legend of the Booth mod the weather was “warm and pleasant.” Baseball back then must have been a pleasure to watch. No pitch counts, no designated hitter, no inter-league play, etc. Johnny Antonelli pitched for the Giants and he threw a six-hit shutout against the Cubs which really was not that hard just as long as you pitched around Ernie Banks. Antonelli was from my home town and every year the ball club would have a Johnny Antonelli night because he owned a tire dealership and was also a local boy who made good. I never met him but if I had I would have had a few dozen questions for him. That’s why I picked him to start the game for the Giants. You can see the results of the game by the screen shots below. Not a lot of people are familiar with his career and that’s the reason why I brought him up. There are a lot of players like Antonelli on each team and you’ll discover them for yourself when you take the time to play the mod. I want to thank Jim and Dennis for this mod and I encourage you to try this out for yourself and to please leave a nice comment for them to let them know their work is appreciated. Screenshots Here we go, our first look at Total Classics 1955. Between innings at Wrigley. The custom overlay and pitch selection for the 1955 mod.

Roy White Roy White was a quiet, graceful leader on the New York Yankees during a transitional period in the club's history. His strength of character and remarkable versatility enabled him to survive, and even excel, in the shark tank that is so often New York Yankee baseball. At a time when the great careers of Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris and Elston Howard were winding down, White broke into the majors and steadily evolved from speedy utility player to the team's cleanup hitter and one of its top sluggers. During White's early years the team was suffering its first down period in quite some time, though he stuck around long enough to help with the club's renaissance. White saw his first major league action on September 7, 1965, when he pinch hit for Al Downing in the seventh inning of the first game of a doubleheader. White drove a single up the middle, and a few batters later, scored his first major league run on a Tom Tresh single. In the second game, White started at second base, and went 2-for-5 with a double and another run scored. The 21-year-old remained with the club for the waning days of the 1965 season, and hit .333 in 14 games. By 1970, White had become a fixture in the middle of the Yankees batting order. All but one of his at-bats that season came from the third or fourth spot in the batting order. He filled the role of slugger nicely, batting .296 with 30 doubles, 6 triples, 22 home runs and 94 RBI. He also stole 24 bases and drew 95 walks, which helped him to a .387 on-base percentage. White finished third in runs scored in the American League, with 109. In July, he was named to his second straight All-Star game, and when the season ended, baseball writers placed him 15th in MVP voting. Perhaps the best assessment of White's balance and versatility came from his former teammate Mickey Mantle, who after the 1970 season wrote an article for Sport magazine that ranked White as one of the most underrated players in baseball. Mantle was particularly impressed with White's ability to do the important things that might not always show up in the box score, but which often contribute to winning the game. "People ask me: what happened to all the Yankee stars? I tell them that Roy White is as good a player as any of the old players we used to have." In support of his statement, Mantle noted that White "hit for power and average, walked a lot, and he also could steal bases, sacrifice, hit behind the runner, and play the field well." In a fifteen-year major league career, White played in 1,881 games, accumulating 1,803 hits in 6,650 at bats for a .271 career batting average along with 160 home runs, 758 runs batted in and a .360 on-base percentage. He ended his career with a .986 fielding percentage. An excellent defensive player, White led American League left fielders in fielding percentage for four consecutive years between 1968 and 1971.

George Sisler Arguably the first great first baseman of the twentieth century, George Sisler was the greatest player in St. Louis Browns history. An excellent baserunner and superb fielder who was once tried out at second and third base even though he threw left-handed, Sisler's primary asset was his left-handed swing, which he used to notch a career .340 batting average. From 1916 to 1925, Sisler batted over .300 nine consecutive times, including two seasons in which he batted better than .400, making him one of only two players in American League history (the other was Ty Cobb) to post multiple .400 batting marks. Though Sisler's greatest feats occurred in the years immediately following the end of the Deadball Era, by 1919 he had already established himself as one of the game's top young stars, placing in the top three in batting average every year from 1917 to 1919, and leading the league with 45 stolen bases in 1918. As war loomed on the national horizon in 1917 Sisler became a star. His grace around first base drew him accolades as one of the league's top defensive players. He was also an offensive star, finishing second in the league in hits, fourth in doubles and fifth in stolen bases in 1917, and third in hits in 1918 with a league-leading 45 steals. The national press took to calling him "the next Cobb." From 1919 to 1922, Sisler largely fulfilled that promise, as he batted .407 to win his first batting title in 1920, collecting 257 hits, a major league record that would last 84 years. He captured his second batting crown in 1922 with a .420 mark, which still stands as the third-best season average in modern baseball history. After the 1922 season, Sisler was given the inaugural American League Trophy as the league's MVP, voted on by a league-appointed panel of sportswriters. Sisler finished second in the league in stolen bases in 1919 and 1920, and led the league in 1921 and 1922. Though Sisler often ranked among the league leaders in doubles, triples, and home runs, he was primarily a place hitter, adept at finding the gaps in opposing defenses. Like Cobb, Sisler stood erect at the plate, and relied on his superior hand-eye reflexes to react to a pitch's location and lash out base hits. "Except when I cut loose at the ball, I always try to place my hits," he once explained. "At the plate you must stand in such a way that you can hit to either right or left field with equal ease." Unlike Cobb, who shifted his feet while hitting, Sisler was an advocate of the flat-footed swing. At the peak of his powers following his historic 1922 performance, Sisler missed the entire 1923 season with a severe sinus infection that impaired his optic nerve, plaguing him with chronic headaches and double vision. Though he was able to return to the field in 1924, when he also agreed to serve as manager of the Browns, Sisler was never again the same player. He batted .305 in 1924--below the league average--improved to .345 the following year, but then batted just .290 in 1926 with a .398 slugging percentage. Under his management, the Browns finished fourth in 1924 and third a year later. After falling to seventh place in 1926, Sisler was removed as manager, and later admitted that he "wasn't ready" for the post. In 1927, his last season with the Browns, he hit .327 and knocked out 201 hits. He was shipped to Washington before the 1928 season, but was traded to the Boston Braves early in the campaign. He finished his major league career in strong fashion, hitting .326 in 1929 and .309 in '30. After spending the 1931 campaign with Rochester of the International League and 1932 with Shreveport-Tyler of the Texas League, Sisler retired from baseball. He launched several private ventures, including a sporting goods company, and founded the American Softball Association. Sisler engineered the first lighted softball park, and that sport boomed throughout the 1930s. In 1939, Sisler was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the writers' panel, and was among the first four classes of inductees enshrined that summer.

Did you follow the directions that I wrote in the very first post of this thread? If you did there is no way your game would skip over these songs.