To prevent myself from doing what I usually did in the past, trying to do too much too soon, I decided to just play as Manager for awhile. I then had to figure out who and when. Back in the late eighties I used to come home from work in time to hop on my exercise bike and catch the last half of the Cubs game if they were at home. So that was the who. For the when, I obviously wanted to be in an era when true baseball was being played, before the abomination that is the Designated Hitter <pauses to spit on the floor> came to the National League. And because my favorite Cubs player was Ryne Sandberg (who like myself has had to deal with prostate cancer) I decided to start in 1982, Ryno's rookie year with the Cubs.
For the first game of a new OOTP and a new season as manager for me, it certainly was exciting. Down by four runs by the bottom of the third, the Cubs came back in the top of the fifth with a two run homer by Fletcher and a solo homer by Ryno. Willis topped it off with a three run homer in the top of the seventh.
In my typical fashion I ended up going through five pitchers as my starter Jenkins started getting shelled early. Oh well, it's a long season. I just wonder what my AI General Manager is going to for some better starting pitching
, but in my fifth game I'm facing the Mets and a seventeen year old Dwight Gooden:
