The Gauntlet: Final thoughts

68-and-1.

The Gauntlet was never intended to be competitive. It was an experiment in how dominant a team could possibly be. A lineup with a more than reasonable case for being the best that could be assembled, a pitching staff of Hall of Famers, and opposing teams literally handpicked for being weak.

Yeah, it lived up (or down) to expectations. Only the 1969 Montreal Expos -- kudos to Jerry Robertson and Coco Laboy -- kept the Legends from a perfect season.

I wanted this to be a quick league, and it was -- literally one month. I don't know that I'll try this format again, but as I wrapped up the league I started thinking of a twist in which I would replace one of the Hall of Famers in the lineup (position players) with each game. Perhaps some day in the future, with an updated Hall of Fame set (and thus even more pitchers) I'll try that.

If I do, one important note:  I wound up replaying three games because of ineligible pitchers under my rules. Either the rules were too complicated or I was insufficiently attentive to their ramifications. I vote for the latter.

Those rules: The Hall of Fame pitchers were divided into eras. No weak team was to face more than one pitcher from an era, and every era was to be represented in each week (until Week 10, when the WWII/Integration era was out of pitchers). Seems simple enough, but late in the first half of the season I was repeatedly trapped at the end of weeks with one era left to use and teams that had already faced that era.

My next project will be considerably longer, and in this format there were no standings and the interest was in the stats, the next will be without stats and in the interest will be in the standings. The 73 Least League will be about competition, not dominance.