If you haven’t read the first two parts of this series, you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

I have assembled thirty of the greatest baseball teams imaginable. I have set ground rules and parameters for these teams and my wildest fantasies about allowing the greats of multiple generations to square off against one another. And now, it is time to see it play out.

A 162-game schedule, however, isn’t going to cut it. At least I don’t think it should–games shouldn’t be on back-to-back days if we are expecting pitchers (and to a lesser extent catchers, and to a lesser extent every other position) to play every single day. And thus, I want my fantasy league to be more like a football season.

I am a noted proponent of fewer games in regular seasons and fewer teams in postseasons because it adds a sense of urgency that a typical baseball game doesn’t have. It takes a week and a half of baseball to play enough games to have the same standings impact as one NFL game. While I am not this extreme, I do want to add stakes to every single game, to add a playoff-like intensity to every game in a league in which a matchup of the two worst teams in the league is still better than any baseball game that has ever actually happened, in terms of quality of players involved.

The NFL has 32 teams, but it once had thirty, so I looked to their schedule for inspiration. Luckily for me, until the 1999 addition of the newly formed Cleveland Browns, the NFL had a two conference, three divisions per conference, five teams per division structure–identical to what Major League Baseball has. So the AL correlates to the AFC, the NL correlates to the NFC, and the East, Central, and West divisions correlate to, well, the East, Central, and West divisions. Each team would play a 16-game schedule–two each against its four division opponents, four games against the same cross-conference division as the rest of your division, a game against each of the other two conference divisions, and a game against the other two teams in your conference that finished in the same place as you the year before. Since this league is new, for the sake of power-matching, I ranked each NFL division’s teams from best to worst based on World Series wins (worth two points in the formula) and World Series losses (worth one point in the formula), and lined them up with the 1997 NFL results. For instance, the New York Yankees led the AL East by this method. The New England Patriots won the AFC East in 1997. Therefore, the Yankees become the Patriots. I then pulled in the 1998 NFL schedule and replaced the Patriots with the Yankees, and did the same thing for the other 29 teams.

Now the question is how to play out these games, and the answer requires me to introduce the uninitiated to Bill James’s Log5 method of calculating win probability. The equation goes as follows: Home Team’s Win Probability=((Home Team’s projected winning percentage-(Home Team’s projected winning percentage*Road Team’s projected winning percentage))/(Home Team’s projected winning percentage+Road Team’s projected winning percentage-(2*Home Team’s projected winning percentage*Road Team’s projected winning percentage)). I’m sure you’re glad that I’ve presented this in a reader-friendly format, so let’s use inputs from the very first game on the schedule, one in which the Reds are the road team and the Pirates are the home team. The Reds are projected for 123.5493 wins and the Pirates are projected for 114.6712 wins. This makes their projected winning percentages, respectively, 76.265% and 70.7847%. If you input the numbers, this would give the home team a 42.9886246% chance of victory. But home field advantage in the regular season of Major League Baseball is 4%, so let’s give them that. I then used the random number generator function in Excel to generate a number between 0 and 1, and then used IF statements to tell me how the number generator picked every game, so that I didn’t have to deduce the winner of 240 games by hand.

I have no idea what the market is for seeing the winner of this league I invented in my head’s championship, much less the result of every single game in it. But I have the results so I might as well share them.

Week	Road	Home	Winner
1	Reds	Pirates	Pirates
1	Cubs	Cardinals	Cardinals
1	Diamondbacks	Dodgers	Diamondbacks
1	White Sox	Indians	White Sox
1	Phillies	Braves	Braves
1	Tigers	Royals	Royals
1	Twins	Brewers	Brewers
1	Padres	Rockies	Padres
1	Angels	Mets	Mets
1	Nationals	Marlins	Nationals
1	Red Sox	Rays	Red Sox
1	Blue Jays	Mariners	Mariners
1	Orioles	Giants	Giants
1	Rangers	Athletics	Rangers
1	Yankees	Astros	Astros
2	Mariners	White Sox	Mariners
2	Brewers	Tigers	Brewers
2	Reds	Cardinals	Cardinals
2	Dodgers	Padres	Dodgers
2	Athletics	Twins	Twins
2	Pirates	Rockies	Pirates
2	Mets	Diamondbacks	Diamondbacks
2	Indians	Cubs	Cubs
2	Blue Jays	Red Sox	Blue Jays
2	Royals	Orioles	Royals
2	Marlins	Astros	Marlins
2	Braves	Rangers	Braves
2	Nationals	Angels	Angels
2	Rays	Yankees	Yankees
2	Giants	Phillies	Giants
3	Rockies	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
3	Cubs	Pirates	Pirates
3	White Sox	Yankees	Yankees
3	Cardinals	Indians	Cardinals
3	Tigers	Red Sox	Red Sox
3	Rays	Orioles	Orioles
3	Mariners	Athletics	Mariners
3	Brewers	Reds	Reds
3	Phillies	Angels	Phillies
3	Royals	Twins	Royals
3	Astros	Rangers	Rangers
3	Mets	Nationals	Mets
3	Marlins	Braves	Braves
4	Cardinals	Dodgers	Dodgers
4	Astros	Phillies	Astros
4	Padres	Rays	Rays
4	Athletics	Mets	Mets
4	Nationals	Rockies	Rockies
4	Rangers	Marlins	Rangers
4	Twins	White Sox	Twins
4	Angels	Tigers	Angels
4	Diamondbacks	Giants	Diamondbacks
4	Pirates	Brewers	Brewers
4	Braves	Mariners	Mariners
4	Indians	Royals	Royals
4	Reds	Cubs	Reds
5	Red Sox	Orioles	Red Sox
5	Yankees	Padres	Yankees
5	Giants	Blue Jays	Giants
5	Dodgers	Diamondbacks	Dodgers
5	Cubs	Brewers	Brewers
5	Marlins	Phillies	Marlins
5	Mariners	Rays	Rays
5	Rangers	Nationals	Rangers
5	Braves	Reds	Braves
5	Mets	Astros	Astros
5	Angels	Athletics	Athletics
5	Pirates	Cardinals	Cardinals
6	Tigers	Indians	Indians
6	White Sox	Royals	Royals
6	Giants	Padres	Padres
6	Blue Jays	Rays	Blue Jays
6	Dodgers	Marlins	Dodgers
6	Phillies	Mets	Phillies
6	Athletics	Yankees	Yankees
6	Brewers	Nationals	Brewers
6	Orioles	Rockies	Rockies
6	Mariners	Rangers	Mariners
6	Astros	Angels	Angels
6	Diamondbacks	Braves	Braves
6	Red Sox	Twins	Red Sox
7	Cardinals	Cubs	Cardinals
7	Dodgers	Reds	Dodgers
7	Padres	Diamondbacks	Diamondbacks
7	Indians	White Sox	Indians
7	Phillies	Pirates	Pirates
7	Twins	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
7	Royals	Tigers	Tigers
7	Nationals	Braves	Nationals
7	Rays	Giants	Giants
7	Rockies	Red Sox	Red Sox
7	Mets	Mariners	Mets
7	Marlins	Brewers	Brewers
7	Orioles	Yankees	Yankees
8	Giants	Rockies	Giants
8	Pirates	Cubs	Pirates
8	Yankees	Red Sox	Red Sox
8	Royals	Cardinals	Royals
8	Diamondbacks	Orioles	Diamondbacks
8	Reds	Padres	Reds
8	Brewers	White Sox	White Sox
8	Twins	Astros	Astros
8	Indians	Rangers	Rangers
8	Angels	Mariners	Mariners
8	Blue Jays	Dodgers	Blue Jays
8	Tigers	Athletics	Tigers
9	Yankees	Rays	Yankees
9	Rockies	Diamondbacks	Diamondbacks
9	Astros	Indians	Indians
9	Nationals	Cubs	Cubs
9	Padres	Dodgers	Padres
9	Twins	Royals	Twins
9	Red Sox	Blue Jays	Red Sox
9	Braves	Phillies	Braves
9	White Sox	Tigers	Tigers
9	Pirates	Reds	Pirates
9	Orioles	Athletics	Orioles
9	Giants	Cardinals	Giants
9	Rangers	Angels	Rangers
9	Marlins	Mets	Mets
10	Rangers	Royals	Rangers
10	Padres	Pirates	Padres
10	Rockies	Brewers	Brewers
10	Rays	Red Sox	Red Sox
10	Diamondbacks	Yankees	Yankees
10	Indians	Twins	Indians
10	Cubs	Mets	Cubs
10	Braves	Marlins	Marlins
10	Phillies	Nationals	Phillies
10	Dodgers	Giants	Giants
10	Mariners	Astros	Astros
10	Athletics	Angels	Athletics
10	Blue Jays	Orioles	Orioles
10	White Sox	Reds	White Sox
10	Cardinals	Tigers	Tigers
11	Yankees	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
11	Rockies	Padres	Padres
11	Tigers	White Sox	Tigers
11	Orioles	Rays	Rays
11	Giants	Diamondbacks	Giants
11	Indians	Pirates	Indians
11	Mets	Phillies	Mets
11	Red Sox	Dodgers	Dodgers
11	Angels	Rangers	Angels
11	Royals	Mariners	Mariners
11	Cardinals	Braves	Cardinals
11	Reds	Twins	Reds
11	Marlins	Nationals	Marlins
11	Brewers	Cubs	Cubs
11	Astros	Athletics	Athletics
12	Rays	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
12	Mets	Braves	Mets
12	Cubs	Reds	Cubs
12	Cardinals	Pirates	Cardinals
12	Angels	Marlins	Angels
12	Brewers	Diamondbacks	Brewers
12	Twins	Tigers	Tigers
12	Nationals	Phillies	Nationals
12	Dodgers	Rockies	Dodgers
12	Orioles	White Sox	White Sox
12	Rangers	Astros	Astros
12	Athletics	Mariners	Athletics
12	Royals	Indians	Royals
12	Padres	Giants	Giants
12	Red Sox	Yankees	Red Sox
13	Tigers	Cubs	Cubs
13	Pirates	Marlins	Pirates
13	Diamondbacks	Rockies	Rockies
13	Twins	Indians	Indians
13	Nationals	Athletics	Athletics
13	Dodgers	Orioles	Orioles
13	Reds	Brewers	Reds
13	Rays	Royals	Rays
13	White Sox	Angels	Angels
13	Blue Jays	Yankees	Yankees
13	Padres	Red Sox	Red Sox
13	Mets	Cardinals	Mets
13	Phillies	Rangers	Rangers
13	Astros	Mariners	Astros
13	Braves	Giants	Braves
14	Rockies	Mets	Mets
14	Yankees	Tigers	Yankees
14	Mariners	Phillies	Mariners
14	Cubs	Twins	Twins
14	Marlins	Padres	Marlins
14	Rays	Diamondbacks	Diamondbacks
14	Angels	Orioles	Orioles
14	Giants	Dodgers	Giants
14	Blue Jays	Indians	Indians
14	Braves	Nationals	Braves
14	Athletics	Astros	Athletics
14	Red Sox	Rangers	Red Sox
14	Royals	White Sox	Royals
14	Brewers	Pirates	Brewers
14	Cardinals	Reds	Cardinals
15	Phillies	Dodgers	Dodgers
15	Rangers	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
15	Tigers	Reds	Tigers
15	White Sox	Twins	White Sox
15	Brewers	Cardinals	Cardinals
15	Yankees	Rockies	Yankees
15	Indians	Rays	Indians
15	Astros	Braves	Braves
15	Diamondbacks	Padres	Diamondbacks
15	Nationals	Mets	Mets
15	Mariners	Angels	Mariners
15	Pirates	Royals	Royals
15	Marlins	Athletics	Athletics
15	Orioles	Red Sox	Red Sox
15	Cubs	Giants	Cubs
16	Orioles	Blue Jays	Blue Jays
16	Reds	Phillies	Reds
16	Athletics	Braves	Braves
16	Rockies	Dodgers	Dodgers
16	Royals	Brewers	Royals
16	White Sox	Cardinals	Cardinals
16	Giants	Yankees	Giants
16	Indians	Tigers	Indians
16	Rays	Angels	Angels
16	Rangers	Mariners	Mariners
16	Mets	Marlins	Marlins
16	Diamondbacks	Cubs	Diamondbacks
16	Padres	Nationals	Nationals
16	Twins	Pirates	Twins
16	Astros	Red Sox	Astros
17	Pirates	White Sox	White Sox
17	Athletics	Rangers	Athletics
17	Reds	Indians	Indians
17	Yankees	Orioles	Yankees
17	Red Sox	Diamondbacks	Diamondbacks
17	Dodgers	Rays	Rays
17	Blue Jays	Padres	Padres
17	Cardinals	Brewers	Brewers
17	Cubs	Royals	Royals
17	Braves	Mets	Braves
17	Rockies	Giants	Giants
17	Angels	Astros	Angels
17	Mariners	Nationals	Nationals
17	Phillies	Marlins	Marlins
17	Tigers	Twins	Twins

Anyway, there is probably more of a market for seeing the league standings. So here are those.

	NL East	W	L			NL Central	W	L			NL West	W	L
1	Atlanta Braves	11	5		1	St. Louis Cardinals	10	6		1	San Francisco Giants	12	4
2	New York Mets	10	6		2	Milwaukee Brewers	10	6		2	Arizona Diamondbacks	10	6
3	Miami Marlins	7	9		3	Pittsburgh Pirates	7	9		3	Los Angeles Dodgers	9	7
4	Washington Nationals	5	11		4	Chicago Cubs	7	9		4	San Diego Padres	6	10
5	Philadelphia Phillies	3	13		5	Cincinnati Reds	6	10		5	Colorado Rockies	3	13
	AL East	W	L			AL Central	W	L			AL West	W	L
1	Boston Red Sox	12	4		1	Kansas City Royals	11	5		1	Seattle Mariners	10	6
2	New York Yankees	11	5		2	Cleveland Indians	10	6		2	Oakland Athletics	8	8
3	Toronto Blue Jays	9	7		3	Detroit Tigers	7	9		3	Texas Rangers	8	8
4	Baltimore Orioles	5	11		4	Minnesota Twins	6	10		4	Los Angeles Angels	8	8
5	Tampa Bay Rays	5	11		5	Chicago White Sox	6	10		5	Houston Astros	8	8

As you can see, the standings generally head in the direction one would anticipate, but there are some outliers. The team with Steve Carlton went 3-13 and the team with Kevin Appier won its division? But I asked for chaos and I got it. Unfortunately, the Log5 method doesn’t allow me to know what happened in these games–I assume the Royals were basically the early-2010s Orioles in terms of transcending run differential, but I don’t know that. I’m also not going to write completely fake wrap-ups of games that didn’t happen. Well, not all of them. I’ll do it for the playoff games. If you’ve been reading this series and are still interested in it, you might be the only person who cares about reading recaps, and you’ve earned them.

The first matchup of the league’s Wild Card round comes a matchup between two teams who tied for the NL Central crown–the Cardinals, division favorites who will host this game as technical division champions because they won both games against the other team, and the Brewers, who simply keep chugging along.  The Brewers have been carried by a quietly excellent starting pitcher in Ben Sheets, but the Cardinals remain somewhat heavy favorites, with a 68% chance of victory (note: home-field advantage gets a slight bump in the postseason, up to 4.2%). And while Ben Sheets was terrific throughout the postseason, the Cardinals offense jumped on him with the help of the murderous bats of Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, and Albert Pujols. The Cardinals get the victory.

The other NL matchup consists of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the one-man band who made a legitimate run at a tough NL West crown, hosting the New York Mets, a team with a pretty darn good starter of their own in Tom Seaver and five 5+ WAR position players–Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Darryl Strawberry. The Diamondbacks, thanks to Johnson and home-field advantage, enter the game as 62.3% favorites, but in this case, their lack of offensive firepower dooms them. With the offense able to scrape by enough and Seaver making the Diamondbacks bats look silly, the Mets win in an upset.

In the American League, the surprising AL West champion Seattle Mariners play host to the Cleveland Indians. The matchup, pitting Felix Hernandez against Bob Feller, turned out to be an offensive explosion. Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez struck for Seattle, but the relentlessness of the Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, and Jim Thome offensive attack was too much for the M’s to stifle. Perhaps if they’d gotten another couple years and thus the right to play Alex Rodriguez at shortstop, it would’ve made the difference. But in this case, the Indians, slight 54.5% favorites, get the win on the road.

The New York Yankees, thanks to the Boston Red Sox, were relegated to Wild Card weekend, where they played host to the division rival Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays had the advantage on the mound, but the Yankees had the advantage everywhere else, as that Yankees lineup has the ability to make even the great Roy Halladay look positively silly. The Yankees were 69.5% favorites for a reason. This game reminds me of the aughts matchups where the Patriots would beat the Colts despite the inferior quarterback due to their more stacked overall roster. I will not be accepting @-s at the time.

In the divisional round, the NL’s best team throughout the regular season, the San Francisco Giants, gets to host the team from the city they abandoned in 1957, the New York Mets. The Giants are loaded with New York Giants, and those guys came to play. More than anything, it was the Giants outfield taking care of the Mets. Tom Seaver held his own against the guy he played against (and briefly with, for the Mets), Willie Mays, but struggled against the mighty Barry Bonds and Mel Ott. The Giants were 67.7% favorites and they played like it, advancing the National League Final.

The other National League semi-final pitted the Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. And as great as Bob Gibson is and was, this night belonged to Greg Maddux, a man whose tenure in Atlanta, not unlike Randy Johnson in Arizona, was essentially entirely peak. Hank Aaron homered to give the Braves a 2-0 first inning lead, and this was all they would need, as they won the game, 2-1. While Yadier Molina nearly hit a go-ahead home run off Craig Kimbrel in the top of the ninth, the Braves were aided by the premier defensive center fielder of his era, Andruw Jones, robbing it and securing victory that the Braves were expecting, to the tune of 62.3%.

On the American League side, the heaviest favorites of the entire round were the Boston Red Sox, playing at home against the Cleveland Indians. The Red Sox were 70.7% favorites to win the game and advance to the AL Final, potentially to face the New York Yankees. But following a rousing speech from Jim Thome about how he never won a championship and how this game could get him a step further to finally winning something, the Indians rallied around their first baseman and won the game. Ted Williams attempted a similar speech, but he froze.

Nearly as big of favorites, despite being on the road, were the New York Yankees, facing off against the surprising Kansas City Royals. The Yankees were 67.4% favorites, and they showed it. The loaded Yankees lineup struck early and often, and only a late George Brett solo home run spared the Royals from being shut out in the game. With that, the final four was set.

The NL Final featured the Atlanta Braves on the road against the San Francisco Giants, and the game brought some of the sport’s greats to the forefront. The pitching matchup featured two all-time legends from very different eras–Greg Maddux against Christy Mathewson. Three guys who could credibly be considered the greatest outfielders of the integration era–Bonds, Mays, and Aaron, played. Oft-overlooked legends such as Eddie Mathews and Mel Ott had a chance to prove their legendary status. But it was Buster Posey who showed up the most critically for the Giants, outdueling his contemporary in Atlanta, Brian McCann, and controlling the Braves’ attempts to pull fast ones on the bases. The Giants win and secure a well-earned place in the Final, having come into the game as slight, 48.9% underdogs.

In the American League, the Yankees got to play host despite not having won their own division, and were somewhat heavily favored, with a 66.3% chance of victory. Tris Speaker struck early for Cleveland, but the entire Yankees outfield managed to batter Bob Feller. Although Babe Ruth initially struggled to catch up with Feller’s astonishing velocity, striking out and weakly grounding out in his first two at-bats, he crushed a grand slam in his third at-bat to knock Feller out of the game and allow the Yankees to cruise to victory.

The championship round positions two great teams on neutral ground (I am mentally placing the game at Dodger Stadium, for the simple fact that it is freakin’ gorgeous), the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. The Yankees are slight favorites, at 53.7%, but anything could happen. And it turned out to be a hard-fought game throughout. Both pitchers avoided walks but also got little in the way of strikeouts, which provided some advantage to the Giants, who had a decided edge in outfield defense. That said, Barry Bonds, going for his most consequential title of his career, was less effective than one might expect against Andy Pettitte, a pitcher who threw without the fear that allowed Bonds his greatest seasons. But that all changed in the ninth inning.

In the top of the inning, with the Yankees batting and the game tied at five apiece, Alex Rodriguez hit a bases-empty, two-out double. Next up came Babe Ruth, and while the ferocious slugger inspired fear in the heart of Giants pitcher Robb Nen, he did not go deep. He did, however, squib a single in front of Barry Bonds in left field, and Bonds’s throw home to get A-Rod trying to score the go-ahead run went wide, allowing Rodriguez to score and Ruth to advance to second on the throw. But then, the absolutely inexplicable happened. With Joe DiMaggio at the plate having taken two balls to start the at-bat, Babe Ruth broke for third base. Perhaps he was trying to catch Buster Posey napping, but Posey fired the ball in to George Davis, who applied the tag and ended the inning. The Yankees had the lead, but they couldn’t help but wonder if they’d done enough, especially with the Giants about to start their order over again.

In the bottom of the ninth, Mel Ott led off and singled, allowing Willie Mays, one of the most beloved superstars in the history of the sport, a chance to become the hero. But Mays swung at the first pitch from Mariano Rivera and lined out to Alex Rodriguez. Next up came Willie McCovey, who worked a 3-0 count before Rivera found control and threw consecutive strikes to get to a full count. On the sixth pitch, McCovey finally swung, but on a grounder to the left side. In the moment, the Giants seemed doomed–Derek Jeter would shuffle the ball over to Willie Randolph, who would fire it to Lou Gehrig to complete a game-ending double play. But Jeter, having felt pressure to avoid allowing a ball to go to his left, particularly against a lefty pull hitter like McCovey, cheated to his left upon McCovey’s swing, and while Jeter recovered in time to get to the ball, he bobbled it slightly. Jeter was able to flip the ball to Randolph, but his tardiness gave Mel Ott a chance to slide hard into Randolph and prevent a throw. No error, but the double play was so close. Two outs, the not particularly speedy tying run on first base, and Barry Bonds coming to the plate.

Barry Bonds, for all of his detractors, was also admired greatly as a player for his plate discipline. Say what you will about his ego, but his style of play didn’t actually reflect ego whatsoever–he would be happy to draw a walk in this situation. Mariano Rivera knew this, and he knew that he had just fallen behind 3-0 to the previous hitter. And Barry Bonds knew what Mariano Rivera would be thinking. And on the first pitch he saw, a relatively conservative cutter that would have been a strike callable from Mars without a swing, Barry Bonds cranked a ball deep into the right field bleachers. Barry Bonds, who never won a World Series, won the greatest baseball league in the history of mankind with a two-run, walk-off home run while playing at the home stadium of his greatest rival, hitting the ball over the head of arguably the greatest player in baseball history.

For his efforts, Barry Bonds was named Game MVP and because of his heroics, his 2021 Hall of Fame vote total rose all the way to 70%.