I asked ChatGPT to write a summary of a game between the ’27 Yankees (110-44) and the ’02 Royals (62-100). At first, it refused as it told me this would be impossible given the teams never faced each other. I got around this by asking it to pretend.
I tweaked the summary a couple of times — it first gave the save to Mariano Rivera, but after I told it that wasn’t possible, it turned the ball over to Wilcy Moore, who was in fact primarily a reliever for the Yanks. In a few more iterations, I asked it to provide more detail and to make it more exciting.
Here’s what it said:
In a thrilling inter-generational matchup, the 1927 Yankees took on the 2002 Royals at Yankee Stadium. The game featured a battle of aces, with Paul Byrd taking the mound for the Royals and Waite Hoyt starting for the Yankees.
The Yankees struck first blood in the bottom of the third inning when Earle Combs singled to center field and advanced to third on a Mark Koenig single. Babe Ruth then drove Combs home with a single to right field, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
The Royals responded in the top of the fourth inning when Mike Sweeney drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a groundout by Joe Randa. Carlos Beltran then hit a ground ball to third base, but a throwing error by Tony Lazzeri allowed Sweeney to score and tie the game at 1-1.
In the top of the fifth inning, Angel Berroa stepped up to the plate with two outs and hit a three-run home run to left field, putting the Royals ahead 4-1. The Yankee faithful were stunned as the upstart Royals threatened to upset the mighty 1927 squad.
But the Yankees would not go down without a fight. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Lou Gehrig drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on a double by Babe Ruth. With runners on second and third and nobody out, the Royals brought the infield in to try to prevent a run from scoring. Bob Meusel hit a ground ball to second base, but Carlos Febles couldn’t handle the play, and Gehrig scored to cut the Royals’ lead to 4-2.
The Yankees struck again in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Earle Combs hit a clutch RBI single to center field, scoring Bob Meusel and bringing the Yankees within one run of the Royals.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Royals clinging to a 5-4 lead, the Yankees staged a comeback. Babe Ruth led off the inning with a double to left field, putting the tying run in scoring position. Lou Gehrig then hit a ground ball to second base, but Carlos Febles made another error, allowing Ruth to score and tie the game at 5-5.
With Gehrig on first base, Bob Meusel stepped up to the plate and hit a walk-off two-run home run to right field, giving the 1927 Yankees a dramatic 7-5 victory over the 2002 Royals.
On the pitching side, Paul Byrd started strong for the Royals, allowing just one run through the first five innings. But the Yankees were able to rally against him in the later innings, ultimately forcing him out of the game after seven innings pitched. Jason Grimsley came in to pitch the eighth inning for the Royals, but he surrendered a crucial run to the Yankees, which set the stage for the ninth inning heroics.
Meanwhile, Waite Hoyt struggled early for the Yankees, giving up three runs in the first five innings, but he settled down and kept the Royals at bay for six innings. Wilcy Moore pitched three scoreless innings of relief for the Yankees and earned the win.
I fact checked it a little bit. For example Lazzeri played primarily 2B in 1927 but did have some games at 3B. Febles primarily was a 2B in ’02, and he did have 15 errors (he makes two in this hypothetical game). I don’t know if the batting order implied is realistic. I don’t think its summary of Hoyt’s pitching is that great; it says he “settled down and kept the Royals at bay for six innings”. But if Moore pitched the last 3 innings and kept them scoreless, Hoyt allowed 5 runs in 6 innings which I don’t think counts as keeping them at bay.
The summary somehow magically jumps from 4-3 to 5-4 without detailing why, but I did ask it to focus on the exciting moments (after I did this, it created a two-run walkoff homer by Combs, so points for that). But it does realistically note the Yankees as heavyweights and the Royals as underdogs and that the matchup would be “inter-generational”.
Also note that this isn’t a simulation of any kind of likely outcomes, but an attempt to use simple prompts to see what ChatGPT would produce. Just a fun little thing with AI I felt like doing.