Benchwarmer Baseball - The Al Gore Cup

Second-Place Showdown

In honor of the 43rd President of the United States (heh, heh, heh), The Al Gore Cup is a forum for teams that finished second and most likely feel that they're more deserving than all of the other first-place teams to be in the championship bracket.

Teams are seeded 1-4 based on regular season records and play a best-of-seven semifinal round followed by another seven game series to crown the winner.

The winner receives a bonus of 1 million Benchwarmer Bucks. The runner-up gets 500,000.

The 2007 Entrants (in order of seeding):

Norwalk (79-71) - Finishing 2nd to Boar's Nest brings no shame.

D-Town (76-74) - Fought it out with Leucadia most of the season. Won this tournament last season.

San Francisco (76-74) - Division powerhouse in the early years, watched Oaxaca win for 3rd straight.

Nordeast (75-75) - Couldn't capitalize on Milford's sweep of Seattle - lost division by a single game.

Finals

Game

San Francisco vs. Norwalk

	R	H	E
San Francisco	3	6	1	Box
Norwalk	5	7	4	Box
WP - Zambrano (1-0) LP - Halladay (0-1) HR - none Norwalk leads 1-0

	R	H	E
San Francisco	3	10	1	Box
Norwalk	1	5	0	Box
WP - Cain (1-0) LP - Nor BP (0-1) HR - SF: Posada 2 (2) Series tied 1-1

	R	H	E
Norwalk	5	10	1	Box
San Francisco	2	4	1	Box
WP - Kazmir (1-0) LP - Mussina (0-1) HR - Nwk: Hafner (1), Guillen (1) Norwalk leads 2-1

	R	H	E
Norwalk	3	5	2	Box
San Francisco	7	12	0	Box
WP - Baker (1-0) LP - Danks (0-1) HR - Nwk: Dunn (1) Series tied 2-2

	R	H	E
Norwalk	4	9	0	Box
San Francisco	3	6	4	Box
WP - Blanton (1-0) LP - Washburn (0-1) HR - Nwk: Dunn (2) Norwalk leads 3-2

	R	H	E
San Francisco	5	10	1	Box
Norwalk	4	11	2	Box
WP - Halladay (1-1) LP - Nwk BP (0-2) HR - SF: Soriano 2 (2) Series tied 3-3

Extra Innings	R	H	E
San Francisco	5	8	1	Box
Norwalk	6	7	2	Box
WP - Nwk BP (1-2) LP - Cain (1-1) HR - SF: Fielder (1); Nwk: Guillen (2) Norwalk wins 4-3

Semifinals

Game

Semifinal One

Semifinal Two

	R	H	E
Nordeast	5	12	0	Box
Norwalk	6	8	0	Box
WP - Nrw BP (1-0) LP - Matsuzaka (0-1) HR - none Norwalk leads 1-0

	R	H	E
San Francisco	5	9	0	Box
D-Town	4	8	2	Box
WP - Halladay (1-0) LP - DT BP (0-1) HR - SF: Soriano (1), Kubel (1), Hawpe (1); DT: Thome (1), Bradley (1) San Francisco leads 1-0

	R	H	E
Nordeast	5	11	0	Box
Norwalk	8	10	0	Box
WP - Nrw BP (2-0) LP - Escobar (0-1) HR - Nord: Lee (1); Nrw: Tejada (1), Dunn (1) Norwalk leads 2-0

	R	H	E
San Francisco	7	6	0	Box
D-Town	4	4	3	Box
WP - Cain (1-0) LP - Garland (0-1) HR - SF: Abreu (1), Posada (1); DT: Pujols (1), DeRosa (1) San Francisco leads 2-0

	R	H	E
Norwalk	8	11	1	Box
Nordeast	7	10	0	Box
WP - Nwk BP (3-0) LP - Penny (0-1) HR - Nwk: Jackson (1), Hill (1); Nord: Rodriguez (1), Scott (1) Norwalk leads 3-0

	R	H	E
D-Town	7	11	0	Box
San Francisco	5	6	0	Box
WP - DT BP (1-1) LP - Mussina (0-1) HR - DT: Bradley (2); SF: Hawpe (2) San Francisco leads 2-1

	R	H	E
Norwalk	4	10	3	Box
Nordeast	7	12	1	Box
WP - Nord BP (1-0) LP - Danks (0-1) HR - Nwk: Guillen (1); Nord: Dye (1) Norwalk leads 3-1

	R	H	E
D-Town	8	11	1	Box
San Francisco	5	11	0	Box
WP - Bush (1-0) LP - Baker (0-1) HR - DT: Pujols (2), Thome (2); SF: Fielder 2 (2), Posada (2) Series tied 2-2

	R	H	E
Norwalk	3	5	3	Box
Nordeast	5	9	0	Box
WP - Arroyo (1-0) LP - Blanton (0-1) HR - Nord: Rodriguez (2), Sheffield (1) Norwalk leads 3-2

	R	H	E
D-Town	1	7	0	Box
San Francisco	5	9	0	Box
WP - Washburn (1-0) LP - Perez (0-1) HR - DT: Thome (3), Willingham (1) San Francisco leads 3-2

	R	H	E
Nordeast	2	8	0	Box
Norwalk	6	14	2	Box
WP - Zambrano (1-0) LP - Nord BP (1-1) HR - Nord: Rodriguez (3); Nwk: Guillen (2), Hill (2) Norwalk wins 4-2

	R	H	E
San Francisco	7	9	2	Box
D-Town	4	4	7	Box
WP - Halladay (2-0) LP - Wang (0-1) HR - SF: Fielder 2 (4) San Francisco wins 4-2