Round 5 Season 12


Charlie-Keller-Featured-Card

The Hitters

Two of the surprise performers in the tournament thus far, Charlie Keller and Hall-of-Famer John McGraw have the top two seeds in this season. They’ll face HOFers Harmon Killebrew, and Max Carey, as well as Bob Johnson, John Kruk, George Foster, and Chuck Knoblauch. Given this lineup, I expect both power and speed. The top four finishers move on to Round 7.

Learn more about the Round 5 pitchers

Charlie Keller
Round One S19
Round Two
Round 3 S43
Round 4

W – L
97-57
BYE
108-46
BYE
John McGraw
Round One S2
Round Two
Round 3 S55
Round 4
W – L
105-49
BYE
95-59
BYE
Bob Johnson
Round One S40
Round Two
Round 3 S38
Round 4
W – L
85-69
BYE
86-68
BYE
Bob-Johnson-Card Baseballs Greatest Player Playoff
Harmon Killebrew
Round One S25
Round Two
Round 3 S38
Round 4
W – L
81-73
BYE
86-68
BYE
John Kruk
Round One S36
Round Two
Round 3 S10
Round 4
W – L
79-75
BYE
77-77
BYE
George Foster
Round One S54
Round Two
Round 3 S49
Round 4 S16
W – L
77-77
BYE
74-80
BYE
Max Carey
Round One S71
Round Two
Round 3 S1
Round 4 S17
W – L
88-66
BYE
70-84
80-74
Chuck Knoblauch
Round One S31
Round Two
Round 3 S61
Round 4 S17
W – L
76-78
BYE
65-89
80-74
Chuck-Knoblauch-Card Baseballs Greatest Player Playoff

The Results

It was a tough battle but McGraw held on to first despite losing his last 4 games. His lead was too large for the surging Charlie Keller nine to catch. The Big Red Machine’s George Foster acquitted himself well and is joined by Bob Johnson as they journey directly to Round 7. The others try their fortune in the Round 6 elimination seasons.

Season Highlights

  • John McGraw showed he wasn’t just one of the all-time great managers, leading all teams with an even .300 batting average, over 30 points ahead of the second-place Keller and Kruk. McGraw7 led the individual batters and 4 other McGraws were the only hitters to finish above .300.
  • The McGraw squad also played to type, drawing plenty of walks and having 6 batters with .400+ OBP.
  • Killebrew99 led the league lead in homers with 41.
Although Max Carey had a rough year overall, as the saying goes, “Speed Doesn’t Slump”
  • In a 27-inning marathon – enough for THREE games – Chuck Knoblauch outlasted John Kruk 7-6. I’ve included the box score below; check out that relief pitching! Bob Caruthers5 pitched 9 1/3 shutout innings before letting the winning run score and Frank Killen2 did himself proud with 10 innings of shutout ball.
  • The next night, Max Carey embarrassed George Foster with a 20-1 drubbing.
  • Two Charlie Kellers and Killebrew3 had 3-HR games. George Foster5 did it twice.
  • In a 17-2 slaughter of John Kruk, Keller5 and Keller99 each had 7 RBIs.
  • Knoblach8 had 6 stolen bases in a game.

    No-Hitters

    None

Tim Bruno

Tim has been a baseball fan for most of his life and has played a great deal of baseball and softball over the years. Although his playing days are long behind him, he remembers back when he was an extremely fast catcher with an extremely bad arm. He has been playing Strat-o-Matic baseball since he was 14. Tim is currently living in southwest France and writes A LOT about coffee at Procaffeination.com. He has also written Procaffeination: A Coffee Lover's Dictionary, which will be available soon. You can find out more about Tim's writing at TimothyBruno.com and if you want to contact him about the tournament, drop him an email at Tim@BaseballsGreatestPlayerPlayoff.com

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