1950s Diamond Gems Tournament Preview

Editor’s note: The 1950 Tournament games are being played with Strat-o-Matic cards and dice. Injuries will only be used during the game when they occur. For this tournament, the rules include a three-man pitching rotation using the best lineups available.

All eight of the teams in this event competed in the World Series with four champions ready to battle in a 8-team bracket of the 1950s Diamond Gems Tournament.

This tournament is not seeded and the teams were paired randomly with a World Series winner matched up with a squad that won a league pennant. The home team will be determined by a coin flip.

The New York Yankees are represented twice in this event as the 1950 and 1956 squads claimed titles. The other two team that won the World Series are the 1954 New York Giants and 1957 Milwaukee Braves.

Teams hoping for perhaps a little bit of redemption as they fell in the Fall Classic are the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1954 Cleveland Indians and the 1959 Chicago White Sox.

Which team should be the favorite?

Many of the stars of the 1950s like Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Del Ennis, Bob Lemon and Luis Aparicio perhaps will determine the outcome of this tournament.

Check out the results from previous Diamond Gems Tournaments

1950s Diamond Gems Tournament

First Round Schedule

1950 New York Yankees at 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers
1954 Cleveland Indians at 1957 Milwaukee Braves
1956 New York Yankees at 1959 Chicago White Sox
1950 Philadelphia Phillies at 1954 New York Giants