MAKING THE 'GO' SHOUTERS HAPPY (via Rob Swadosh)

Prat-Fall Classic: '62 Mets vs. '03 Tigers (Jayson Stark, 8/20/03, ESPN.com)

[W]ithout the '62 Mets, where would the 2003 Tigers be?

If it weren't for those '62 Mets and their legendary 40-120 record, think how many people out there would be calling the 2003 Tigers the worst team in modern history. And they wouldn't much want to hear about those 1935 Braves or 1932 Red Sox or '69 Padres.

But the great thing about this world we live in now is, we don't have to argue about this. We have computers. And they've got all the answers, right?

So we convinced the inventors of the best computer-simulation baseball game around, the geniuses at Diamond Mind Baseball, to simulate a seven-game "World Series" between Ol' Casey's '62 Mets and these 2003 Tigers.

We gave the Tigers home-field advantage -- based on the results of this year's All-Star Game, of course. We brought the Polo Grounds back to life (on a minimal budget, too), so the Mets could go home again. And because baseball in 1962 was a slightly different animal than baseball in 2003, Diamond Mind averaged out playing conditions over the last 48 years to make this fair. [...]

[N]ot surprisingly...a sensational and dramatic series...went right down to the final hitter in Game 7.

We won't spoil it for you, except to make this point: the player who puts away the last out was once given a boat for being the team's MVP, but asked, "Now what am I going to do with a cabin cruiser in the middle of Nebraska?" The point about baseball though is that a fan could watch and enjoy this series. Even their fans don't enjoy Bengals and Seahawks games unless they bet on them. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 20, 2003 5:20 PM