I added a new section to Game Central. It is a history of the various computers that I have had through the years. In addition to the stories, I have included some specifications of each system as well.

Computer Systems

Down three games to one, it was win or go home for the Richmond Slam. The pitching match-up for Game 5 was a rematch of Game 1: Angel Fleming vs. Dick Colbert. The Brooklyn Knights wasted no time as they scored quickly in the first inning. Singles by Stan Gelnar and Dick Moran were followed by a Dan Kelley home run to put the Knights up 3-0. Dick Colbert was frustrated as he walked the pitcher in the second. He paid for his mistake as Dick Moran hit a two-run home run. In the fourth inning, the Slam mounted their first real scoring threat. Erik Regalado drew a walk with one out. Ricky Agganis and Al Cochran had back to back hits and Richmond has its first run of the game. In the top of the fifth, the Knights extended their lead back to five runs thanks to hits from Hooks Goetz and Ted Pollet. After five innings, the score was 6-1 and Richmond was running out of time. In the seventh, Dan Kelley scored on another hit from Pollet. Later, the bases were loaded when Jeff Castino was called on to pinch hit for Fleming. Castino delivered a line drive single, which put Brooklyn up 8-1. The Knights hitters flexed their muscles one last time in the ninth. The NALB's version of "murderer's row" added four more runs. The primary damage was done by Erik Benton, Brooklyn's backup second-baseman who was in the game for defensive purposes. Benton proved that he can swing the bat as well with a three-run homer to right-center field. Sam Faust was on the mound in the eighth and ninth inning to lock down the win for the Knights.

Final score: Brooklyn 12, Richmond 1

The Brooklyn Knights are World Champions for the sixth consecutive year! They defeated the Richmond Slam four games to one.

Game 4 was viewed as a must win game for the Richmond Slam. Richmond sent Arnold Muniz to the mound to try and tie the World Championship Series up 2-2. His opponent was Ozzie Valera, the Game 4 starter for the Brooklyn Knights. Both pitchers pitched scoreless baseball through the first three innings. Things heated up in the fourth when Dick Moran hit a solo home run to start the inning. After a Detherage single, a Castino double, and a ground out RBI by Ted Pollet, the score was Brooklyn 2, Richmond 0. Detherage drew a base on balls in the sixth and scored when Hooks Goetz hit a home run, his eighth home run of the 2005 playoffs. The Slam narrowed the deficit to 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth. Brian Hamburg singled and Ricky Agganis doubled to bring him home. Richmond's hopes for a come from behind victory were erased in the eighth inning. Castino brought Detherage home for another run on a sacrifice fly. Yale Burns came to the plate with two men on base later in the inning. He drove in both runners with a triple. Gary Mccreery finished the damage for the inning by hitting a double and scoring Burns. That is how the score would remain. The Knights easily defeated the Slam 8-1. Brooklyn now leads the Series three games to one. They are within one win of their sixth consecutive World Championship.

Final score: Brooklyn 8, Richmond 1

The World Championship Series was tied 1-1 as it moved to Richmond for Game 3. For the three games in Richmond, the designated hitter was out and pitchers were in the lineup. A big point of discussion was who would start at first base for the Brooklyn Knights. Would it be super-slugger Jeff Castino, the Knights' DH who led the team in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored? Would it be Dan Kelley, the team's leading hitter who was red hot in September (.361 BA) and in the playoffs (.536 BA)? The Knights gave the nod to Castino, the team's starting first baseman from 2000-2004. The pitching matchup was Brooklyn's Fred Millard (27-2, 2.48 ERA) versus Richmond's Mario Fisher (6-9, 5.17 ERA).

The Knights wasted no time getting on the board. After a Detherage base on balls, Jeff Castino went deep to right field for a two-run home run. The very next batter, Hooks Goetz, followed up with a 435 foot blast to make the score 3-0. Ted Pollet drove in Kid Detherage in the third inning to extend the lead to 4-0. The Knights added three more runs in the fourth and it was a 7-0 game. In the bottom of the sixth, the Slam started to show some life. Erik Regalado drove in two runs and cut the lead to 7-2. The Knights scored two more runs in the seventh to make it a seven run lead once again. Brooklyn's bats were not done for the game. Castino drove in another run and Goetz came to the plate with the bases loaded. He responded with a grand slam to left-center. The game was now a 14-2 blowout. The Slam put up two more runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth but it was too little, too late. Adding insult to injury, Brooklyn scored yet again in the ninth with two more runs to make it 16-4.

Jeff Castino was the right choice to start at first base in Game 3. He stepped into the batter's box six times and delivered six hits. He hit a two-run home run in the first, singled in the third, hit an RBI double in the fourth, singled in the seventh, hit an RBI single in the eighth, and another RBI single in the ninth. Castino's incredible performance earned him player of the game honors.

Final score: Brooklyn 16, Richmond 4

The Brooklyn Knights faced the prospect of going down 0-2 if they could not win Game 2 of the World Championship Series. The pressure was placed on one of Brooklyn's ace starters, Dave Hambright. Joe Endicott was given the start for the Slam. Richmond was feeling good about achieving at least split in Brooklyn for the first two games. However, a two-game sweep would give them a lot of confidence heading back to Richmond for the rest of the Series.

As he did in Game 1, George Montgomery got the Slam on the board first with a solo home run in the top of the second. In the bottom half of the inning, Hooks Goetz and Dan Kelley drew two consecutive walks. The Knights were determined to play more aggressively than they did in Game 1 in which they failed to score a run. Goetz and Kelley successfully executed a double steal. Goetz scored the tying run on a Yale Burns ground out. In the fourth, Jeff Castino singled to lead off the inning for the Knights. With two outs and Castino on third base, Ted Pollet singled to score Castino. Ted Pollet later scored on a Gary Mccreery single to make it a 3-1 Brooklyn lead. Walt Suarez came on in relief for Endicott in the sixth. Ted Pollet doubled off of Suarez and later scored with some aggressive baserunning thanks to a Yale Burns single. The Knights extended their lead to 4-1. The bottom of the eighth started with a Castino double, his second hit of the game. The next batter was Hooks Goetz who promptly drilled the second pitch over the left field wall. His home run made it a 6-1 game. The Slam managed one run in the bottom of the ninth but failed in their comeback.

Final score: Brooklyn 6, Richmond 2

The North American League Baseball 2005 World Championship got underway in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Knights played host to the surprising Richmond Slam for Game 1. With 114 wins during the regular season, Brooklyn was an overwhelming favorite to win their sixth straight title. Richmond managed just 78 wins during the regular season, a record low for an NALB playoff team.

The Knights sent Angel Fleming to the mound to face Dick Colbert and the Slam. Richmond scored the first runs of the game in the top of the second. George Montgomery hit a solo home run to get things started. After three more singles in the inning, the Slam found themselves up 2-0. In the fourth inning, Fleming lost all control of his pitches. He hit Ricky Agganis to put him on base. Then with two outs, Fleming proceeded to walk three consecutive batters which drove in another run. Tracy Corkhill came on in relief to face Matty Byers. Byers hit a two-run single to give the Slam a 5-0 lead.

In the fourth and fifth innings, the Knights had baserunners but failed to mount any real threat. In the sixth, the Knights got singles from Goetz, Detherage, and Pollet to lead off the inning. Despite bases loaded and nobody out, Brooklyn was unable to score a run against reliever Walt Suarez. Brooklyn's offensive woes continued in the seventh. They had two men on but were not able to bring them home. Bris Clark came on to pitch the eighth and ninth for the Slam. He shut down the Knights and sealed the 5-0 win.

Final score: Richmond 5, Brooklyn 0

League 2 Series - Richmond Slam vs. Stade Maples

Game 1: Stade 4, Richmond 0
Game 2: Richmond 5, Stade 4
Game 3: Richmond 7, Stade 1
Game 4: Richmond 15, Stade 7
Game 5: Stade 9, Richmond 0
Game 6: Richmond 8, Stade 3

The heavily favored Stade Maples played host to the Richmond Slam for the first two games. The Maples sent staff ace Max Brown (20-4, 2.08 ERA) to the mound for Game 1. He did not disappoint. Brown was almost unhittable and pitched a three-hit shutout with no walks and eight strikeouts. In Game 2, Richmond jumped on Maples' pitcher Mario Fisher early. They scored four runs against him in the first inning and held on to win the game 5-4. The Slam seemed energized as the series moved to Richmond for Game 3. Once again, they struck early against Maples' pitching. The Slam scored an amazing seven runs against Chris Rodriguez and knocked him out of the game in the first inning. Richmond coasted the rest of the way behind strong pitching from Dick Colbert. Things went from bad to worse for Stade in Game 4. The Maples had no answer for the Slam hitters and were pounded in a 15-7 loss. Facing elimination, the Stade Maples turned once more to ace Max Brown for a win in Game 5. Brown delivered the goods by pitching seven shutout innings. Phil McGinn provided excellent relief pitching and nailed down a 9-0 win for the Maples. It was back to Stade for Game 6 and the Maples needed two wins to pull out the Series. It was not to be. Despite falling behind 3-0 early, the Slam came roaring back with timely hitting. It was Richmond's day as they won the game 8-3.

The Richmond Slam shocked the world by defeating the Stade Maples four games to two. They are headed to the World Championship Series for the first time since 2001.

League 1 Series - Cornfield Axemen vs. Brooklyn Knights

Game 1: Brooklyn 5, Cornfield 2
Game 2: Cornfield 9, Brooklyn 4
Game 3: Brooklyn 7, Cornfield 5
Game 4: Cornfield 1, Brooklyn 0
Game 5: Brooklyn 10, Cornfield 5
Game 6: Brooklyn 6, Cornfield 5

The Knights won the first game behind strong pitching from Dave Hambright. In Game 2, they were up 4-0 through seven innings and on their way to another win. However, Brooklyn's relief pitching struggled mightily and surrendered a total of nine runs in the eighth inning to blow the lead. The Series moved to Cornfield for Game 3. Cornfield had a 4-3 lead going into the eighth inning but some late heroics by Brooklyn gave the Knights their second playoff win. Hap Bedford pitched a great Game 4 for the Axemen to lead Cornfield back into the series with a 1-0 shutout. Game 5 was a slugfest that featured 28 hits in all. The Knights' hitters did most of the damage, however, and brought home the win. Game 6 was back in Brooklyn and featured a showdown between two lefties, John Watkins and Fred Millard. The game was tied 2-2 when the Axemen broke things open in the ninth inning. They added two more runs and sent closer Joe Pendarvis to the mound to save the 4-2 lead. However, the Knights forced extra innings with a Detherage two-run home run. In the top of the tenth, Dee Fletcher hit his second home run of the game, a solo shot to deep left field. Brooklyn refused to yield. They came right back in the bottom of the inning with a Ted Pollet single. That was followed by a stolen base from pinch runner Andy Carpenter. A wild pitch sent him to third and he scored the tying run on Gary Mccreery's infield single. Mccreery moved to second base on a ground ball and scored the winning run on a Dick Moran double.

It was over. The Brooklyn Knights defeated the Cornfield Axemen four games to two in a wild playoff series.

The NALB 2005 regular season ended with plenty of excitement. In League 1, there were no surprises as the Brooklyn Knights and the Cornfield Axemen clinched their respective divisions quite early. However, the division races in League 2 went down to the wire. After 162 games had been played, the Washington Allies and the Stade Maples were tied at 92-70. Likewise, the Richmond Slam and the Vancouver Wild posted identical records of 77-85. All of these teams fought down the stretch in late September and jockeyed for position. The Maples beat the Allies head to head for the final two games of the season to force a tie. The showdowns were set as the NALB scheduled a winner take all tiebreaker game for each division.

Stade and Washington took part in a slugfest. The game was tied 10-10 going into the ninth inning. The Maples fans went crazy as Paul Waddell pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth and hit a walk-off home run to win the game 11-10. The other tiebreaker game was no less exciting. Vancouver got on the board first and was up 2-0 after three innings. Richmond clawed back with a run in the fifth inning and another in the sixth inning to tie the game. Steve Jurewicz hit an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to put the Slam on top by the score of 3-2. Richmond's relief pitching held firm and that is how it ended.

So the League Series are all set. The Cornfield Axemen (87-75) will meet the Brooklyn Knights (114-48) and the Richmond Slam (78-85) will face the Stade Maples (93-70).