20 years of Cleveland Naps

[CleBrownsfan]

To celebrate 20 years of FOOL-X I wanted to do a “20 years of Cleveland Naps” so here we go:

In 1961, a start of a new association of baseball that we all know as FOOL-X formed. The inaugural season didn’t go so well for the Naps as we only won 71 games but it’s what the OOTP gods handed to us, so we went with it. I was given a 26 year old pitcher in Tom O’Reilly who went on to have a HOF career so how can I complain.

The following year we played .500 but followed that with four years of losing records. We break the losing streak in 1967 winning 85 games and just missing the playoffs. We were only 3 games back from division winner Ann Arbor and lost in a three game playoff (0-2) to Virgina Surf. Unfortunately that was the closest we were to getting in the playoffs until 1975 when the pieces started to fit together.

In ‘75 we took a team anchored by 29 year old Ryan Cook, a solid OF and 40 year old veteran Tom O’Reilly and won 91 games - good enough for a second place and finally broke the 15 year drought of no post season appearances. Spring Lions beat us in the series 4-2 and went on to win the FOOL-X Classic.

We followed up in ‘76 with a disappointing 3rd place but still still competitive with 89 wins. Then came 1977 - the team had only one goal - our eyes were on the Classic. For the first time we felt like we had a solid enough team to get there, as 25 year old Jerome Tanguay and 22 year old Edgardo Gonzalez exploded on the scene as the next up and coming SP studs for the Naps. We win 93 games and take our first division title! We get to face Spring Lions again but this time won the series decisively - four games to one and we are in the Classic for the first time! We face Washington Freedom - a pitching oriented team who won 98 games. Freedom was just the better team and beat the Naps five games to two for the Classic trophy.

In ‘78 we win 86 games but wasn’t enough to get in the playoffs. In 1979 the Naps won a club record 96 wins - good enough for their second divisional title. We face power hitting (and power ballpark) NY Legends anchored by Ignacio Guerrero (who hit a season record 73 HR’s) in the 1st round. We take the 1st game but NY torched us taking the next four (thanks to Warren Hall) from us and then eventually winning the Classic.

To close out 20 years of Naps history - we trade 29 year old SP Tanguay to Washington in November of 1979 for some much needed prospects and we fail to make the playoffs winning only 79 games.

In the 20 years we are playing .486 ball winning 1577 while losing 1666. We’ve had 12 losing season to only 8 winning season. 96 is our team high in wins - while 63 wins in 1972 being our low point. 2 division titles and three playoff appearances. It took us 14 years from the inaugural season to make the playoffs. We have a profit of $106,766,931 in 20 years.


Best drafted player: 1964 - 18 year old IF Ryan Cook 1st round 2nd pick overall

Biggest Bust drafted player: 1967 Curt Fisher SP

Top 5 players in Naps history:

1) IF Ryan Cook
Drafted in 1964, started his 1st MLB season at the age of 21. Now the 12 time all-star veteran has been in the league for 14 seasons compiling 2756 hits (4th most in FOOL-X ) 435 HR’s (5th in FOOL-X) 1513 RBIs, 1800 Runs (tops in FOOL-X) 900 SB’s (tops in FOOL-X). He as also been the batter of the year 4 times. This 1st ballot Hall of Famer has 3 more years on his contract and plans on retiring a Nap.

2)SP Tom O’Reilly
Tom was 26 years old in FOOL-X’s inaugural season. He played in 19 of the 20 season of Naps history and finally decided to call it quits in 1979. In 19 years in the league he won 258 games (2nd in FOOL-X) with a 3.54 ERA. He’s 5th in FOOL-X history with 2860 K’s and also has 83 CG’s (3rd overall). Tom’s best season was 1966 going 21-7 with a 2.95 ERA - he also had 223 K’s with only 33 walks. Tom is also a 1st ballot HoF when the time comes.

3) LF Claudio Estrada
Estrada started playing in the big leagues in 1962 as a 21 year old kid. He played 11 season in Cleveland before playing his last three years in Ann Arbor. In the 11 season for the Naps he hit 424 Hr’s while finishing 2nd in FOOL-X’s history with 547 Hr’s. He is also 2nd in the leagues history with 1749 RBI’s. Estrada was part of a very solid OF the Naps had for several years.

4) OF Kevin Fitzgerald
Keven also came in the league as a young OF in 1962 at 20 years old. He played 10 season with the Naps before going to Balzac in 1972. Fitz had 1739 hits in the 10 years playing for Cleveland and finished with 2125 hits batting .284 lifetime. His best year came in 1963 as the 21 year old hit .345 with a Naps single season record 243 hits.

5) RF Glenn Patterson
Glenn had a lot of promise, drafted 3rd overall in the inaugural draft. He started his career in 1966 but only played in the league for six seasons. He accomplished a lot in his short career though. In ‘68 he hit a Naps single season record 52 HR’s and batted .349 for the year. The Naps had a very solid OF for several years with Petterson, Fitz, & Estrada.

PRESENT:
Naps have a nice core of players still in thier 20’s: 3B Ryzard Stariczack (29) C Woodrow Armstrong (24), IF Salvador García (23) SP Edgardo 'Massacre' González (26), SP Walter Ceriani (28) but we do have a lot of starters who are probably in there last couple years of being productive. I look forward to what records Ryan Cook can break as he is coming up to several milestones. We still look to be competitive in the next couple years and look to get some talent boost from the players in our minor league system.

FUTURE:
Our minor league system ranks 9th overall with the our best prospect (19th overall) Jesus Trevino who should be up with the bigs in the next year or two. We did trade away SP Jerome Tanguay to Washington last November for two prospects 2B Kojuro Hamana and 3B António Castro to help out the lack of talent in our minor league system. We haven’t really drafted that well as of late so our scouts are working hard to change that.

I look forward to see what the next 20 years have in store for us as we will look for our first title. Only three teams, including myself have yet to win one - Balzac and Mexico City are the others. Here is for the three of us getting a championship before the next 20 year in review!

[hyde4us11]

nice read, thanks for sharing.

[spleen1015]

Great job!

[CleBrownsfan]

Thanks - took a little longer than I wanted but it was fun digging in previous seasons...

[Alan T]

Nice! I read through some of it, but want to re-read when I get some free work time.

[Young Drachma]

Fun!