“Black Cats and White Hats”
Statis-Pro Baseball ⚾️ Cards for the 1969 National League:
(A Merely Good Pennant Race Effort)
It’s probably useful to think of these Statis-Pro recreated teams as clones, to use a term from RPG rules. They are a new effort, but intended to augment Jim Barnes’ Sixties teams from Great Pennant races. They use his carding methodologies as determined through AI observation and calculation, rather than merely what was stated in the rules. They are what the 1969 National League might have looked like if he had included it with Great Pennant Races.
The 1969 National League offered the first taste of divisional play, and the two divisions, East and West, each had two distinct half-pennant races. In the East, Chicago dominated their group for 155 games and were well out in front for most of the year until mid- September when they finished by losing 17 of 25.
No one saw the New York Mets coming in the NL East. For the first seven years of their existence, the Mets had been under .500. They were still under .500 on Memorial Day in 1969. But behind their great starting rotation, the Mets caught fire. The Cardinals fell by the wayside, and New York and Chicago dueled into September.
The beneficiary of the Cubs’ September largess was the New York Mets, who by late summer were stringing long streaks of games where they refused to allow any runs at all. The deals that brought Al Weis, Tommy Agee and Donn Clendenon shored up spots in the lineup, but it was pitching that would make this Met team truly amazing. The great Tom Seaver was just 24-years-old and he ripped off a 25-7 record with a 2.21 ERA and won the first Cy Young Award of his Hall of Fame career. Jerry Koosman was a 17-game winner with a 2.28 ERA. Gary Gentry was a reliable third arm, making 35 starts and posting a 3.43 ERA. Don Cardwell and Jim McAndrew each started 21 games and had ERAs in the low 3s.
Hodges had a young fireballer named Nolan Ryan who spot-started and worked out of the bullpen. The 22-year-old finished with a 3.63 ERA. The bullpen was led by Ron Taylor (2.72 ERA) and Tug McGraw (2.24 ERA) and included quality work from Jack DiLauro who posted a 2.40 ERA. Cal Koonce’s ERA was up there at 4.99, but he logged 83 innings. Met pitching overall was the second-best in the National League, but by September it was the best staff in baseball.
By late September Jerry Koosman was throwing BBs.
By September 8, the Mets had closed to within 2 ½ games of the Cubs. And Chicago was coming to Shea for a monster two-game series. Koosman and Seaver were lined up to pitch. In the opener, an early home run from Agee gave Koosman the edge he needed to produce a 3-2 win. Seaver matched up with Cub ace Fergie Jenkins in a juicy pitching showdown on Tuesday. This was known as “The Black Cat Game”, and it turned into a rout. After the field appearance of the lucky feline, Clendenon hit a two-run shot, Agee and Boswell had two hits apiece, Seaver tossed a five-hitter and the Mets won 7-1. The margin was down to a half-game.
Over the next six games against the Expos and Pirates, Met pitching went to another level. They allowed just five runs combined over that stretch and won each game. The Cubs couldn’t pull themselves out of a death spiral. New York moved out to a 3 ½ game lead that they never lost.
Meanwhile, in the first year of this new format, Atlanta won what was easily the most compelling division race. That’s ironic, because the year this format ended—in 1993—Atlanta also won the most compelling race, before shifting into their current home in the NL East.
Atlanta made an early statement when they started the season by going 6-1 at home against San Francisco and Cincinnati. The Braves went on to sweep the Dodgers in early May, and took two of three from the eventual NL East champion New York Mets on the road. By Memorial Day, Atlanta was 26-13 and 3 ½ games ahead of the field. The Dodgers, Giants, and Reds were all closely in the rearview mirror.
St. Louis’ Loss was Atlanta’s Gain
A schedule stretch against good NL East teams in early summer slowed the momentum. Atlanta went 8-11 against St.Louis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. The Braves needed some help. Just before what was then a June 15 trade deadline, they got it. Atlanta traded for outfielder Tony Gonzalez. Over 89 games in a Brave uniform, Gonzalez would post a stat line of .354 OBP/.447 slugging percentage.
Atlanta bounced back when the schedule returned to their NL West rivals, and they won 12 of 18, mostly at home. They were 46-30, a half-game up, when a road trip saw things go sour. The Braves lost 11 of 18 on a trip that took them from the West Coast to Cincinnati.
The good news was that none of their divisional foes stepped up and took control. At the All-Star break, Atlanta’s 56-42 record was still enough for a one-game lead on Los Angeles and San Francisco, with Cincinnati four games out.
Late summer was the toughest part of the year. From late July up until an early Labor Day on September 1, the Braves only went 17-20 and slipped to fourth place. They were still only 2 ½ games out, but with three teams to catch, the margin for error was rapidly disappearing.
A big series win in Cincinnati helped stabilize the ship and set up a key four-game sequence from September 8-11. The Braves would host the Dodgers and Giants in consecutive two-game sets.
This crucial moment didn’t exactly start off well. Atlanta left twelve runners on base in the Monday night opener against Los Angeles, wasting a good combined effort from Stone and Pappas in a 2-0 loss. Tuesday night seemed to be following a similar pattern. Niekro was brilliant, but trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh.
The bats awoke in time. Aaron legged out an infield hit and then scored the tying run on Carty’s double. Atlanta scraped out another run in the 10th and won 2-1. Niekro went all ten innings. Thus awakened, the bats surged against San Francisco. Aaron and Carty each had two hits and a home run on Wednesday night. Upshaw tossed 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief and the Braves won 8-4. Aaron homered again on Thursday night in support of Reed. The game was tied 3-3 in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Mike Lum came up in Reed’s spot—he delivered a two-out/two-run RBI hit that delivered a 5-3 win.
The incomparable Henry Aaron
Atlanta used the momentum to sweep Houston on the weekend. They were back into first place, up 1 ½ on L.A. and San Francisco and plus-2 on Cincy.
The schedule flipped the next week, with consecutive two-game sets out west. This time, the Braves lost three of four to the Dodgers and Giants. But Atlanta quickly regained their footing by sweeping San Diego. Then the Braves delivered another sweep of the Astros. Atlanta was taking full advantage of their opportunities against non-contenders. Los Angeles had fallen by the wayside. Cincinnati was 3 ½ games back. With a week to go, only San Francisco, 1 ½ games out, was still in real striking distance.
The Braves would host the Padres on the weekend. On Friday night, Millan had four hits and Cepeda belted a grand slam. Atlanta won 10-4, but San Francisco held serve and kept the pressure on. Saturday was a particularly big day. Reed beat the Padres 4-2 behind two hits from Millan and a blast from Carty. The Giants lost. Atlanta’s magic number was down to two with three games left.
Atlanta got another 4-2 win on Sunday, but San Francisco’s victory kept the champagne on ice. The Braves and Giants both took Monday off. Atlanta was 2 ½ games up and had a two-game series at home with Cincinnati. If the Braves lost both, the Giants could pull even with a sweep of the lowly Padres and force a one-game tiebreaker. Niekro took the ball on Tuesday night and delivered another vintage performance. He still trailed 2-1 in the seventh. But Gonzalez came through. On a night when the midseason acquisition had four hits, he came up with the game-tying knock. A sacrifice fly from Carty gave Atlanta the lead.
The 3-2 cushion was handed over to the legendary Hoyt Wilhelm. Now 46-years-old and only doing marginal work, he got the three outs that clinched. Backup shortstop Bob Aspromonte fielded a groundball, threw to Cepeda and the Braves were NL West champs.
As far as the 1969 Braves season goes, the 93-69 run to the division title was where the dream ended. The 100-win Mets took out Atlanta in a sweep of what was then a best-of-five League Championship Series round. Brave pitching had a rough go of it, giving up 27 runs in the three games of the 1969 NLCS.
The more unfortunate news for Atlanta baseball fans is that this would be the last time they watched contending baseball for some time. The Braves slipped back under .500 in 1970. They didn’t return to serious contention until Torre came back—as manager, when they returned to the top of the NL West in 1982. For the Mets, history would prove more favorable, as they awaited their collision with the 109 game winning America League Champion Orioles in the World Series.
Fred Bobberts
Initial Date of Publication: October 1, 2026
