Friday, February 8, 2008

Things Are Going Well For The Four Time Champions

With two rounds in the books, the Four Time Champions have shown their mettle and placed three teams in the round of sixteen at VEB's All-Time Sim Tournament. While the 1887 Browns stumbled and fell to the 1996 Cards in the first round, the 1885 and 1888 Browns won their second round series and join the 1886 Browns in the final sixteen.

After falling into despair after the 1888 Browns threw away a series clinching game against the 2004 Cards, I was glad to see them right the ship on the strength of another complete game victory by Silver King and win the series four games to one. I would think that King must be the tourney MVP at this point.

The 1885 Browns had a much tougher time with the 2000 Cards, with the series going the full seven games. The 1885 Browns could have swept the series but dropped game two in extra innings. The Cards came back to tie the series by winning game five 11-9 and game six 4-3. The Browns won game seven 5-4 when Curt Welch hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth and Bob Caruthers set down the Cards in order in the top of the ninth.

With the play-in phase of the tournament over, all the teams will be re-seeded, one to sixteen, based on winning percentage. This means that the 1885 Browns will be the number one seed in the tournament and the 1886 and 1888 teams should both be in the top half of the bracket. The Four Time Champs have done very well for themselves so far and with the way things are shaping up, I expect them to continue their success.

Do I expect one of the Browns teams to win the tournament? Not really. But I'd be shocked if they didn't place at least one team in the final four.

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