The season has been a good one,
although I am missing tossing the dice for the Minnesota Twins, my
favorite team. I realize Washington's American League team is the
precursor for the Twins, but it's not all the same. After playing the
1981 season, and compiling the horrible season for the Twins, I
embarked upon 1942 and now 1950. It'll be a good long while since
I've rolled a Twins game before I tackle 1991 next.
That said, 1950 has some drama and it
keeps me returning to the boards, cards and dice.
Here's the standings at the split,
which coincided with all games finished on July 5, 1950:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
W L GB
New York 51 25 -
Boston 49 30 3.5
Detroit 45 31 6
Cleveland 46 33 6.5
Washington 31 46 20.5
Chicago 31 47 21
St. Louis 31 47 21
Philadelphia 26 51 25.5
New York is trying to pull away, but
Boston hangs close. Earlier, the top four teams jockeyed for the
lead, but the Yankees won seven of their last 10 games to edge into
first. The pack is close, too. Chicago and St. Louis, while mired in
the cellar, exchange places daily, it seems.
As for stats, well, I quit keeping them
closely. I have less time and, sadly, I am lazy about that. I logged
them in the computer, but there's something about doing them by hand
that always appealed to me before. So, I keep the bare necessities of
stats still: Home runs, pitching wins, loses and saves and occasional
things like a player hitting three home runs in a game, or hitting
for the cycle. I keep all the game box scores, so someday, someday, I
may compile better stats.
However, I did run all the at bats for
Joe DiMaggio just to see how he stood. He's batting .325 with 20 home
runs and 70 RBIs. In the real season, the Yankee Clipper had 17 home
runs by July 5, 1950.
Ted Williams leads the American League
in batting with a .385 average (I did his season by hand, too). He's
also got 20 home runs and 66 RBIs.
I'm also tracking George Kell's
doubles. So far, he's hit 21 of them. In the real season, he has 22
at this point.
The National League is a dogfight. Here
are the standings
NATIONAL LEAGUE
W L GB
New York 45 34 -
St. Louis 43 33 .5
Brooklyn 43 34 1
Pittsburgh 41 34 2
Boston 41 35 2.5
Philadelphia 36 44 9.5
Chicago 33 41 9.5
Cincinnati 24 51 19
Stan Musial leads the Cardinals with
his .383 batting average, along with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs.
New York doesn't seem to have any real
statistical standouts. Bobby Thomson leads the Giants with 15 home
runs and Sal Maglie is 10-3 on the mound. They just finds ways to
win.
On the inverse, Philadelphia, which won
the real 1950 National League pennant, can't seem to get it together.
Delmer Ennis has 21 home runs and two Phillies' pitchers have won
nine games each. But they've lost close contests by a run or two and
their bullpen has blown some games. Their relievers are 5-12 so far.
Brooklyn really looks like the team to
win this. Don Newcombe is 13-2 at the break and has tossed a
no-hitter against Pittsburgh. Duke Snider has 19 home runs and Roy
Campenella has belted 17 dingers. Ralph Branca, who served up that
fateful home run to Bobby Thomson a year after this replay, has five
home runs.
As I turn the corner of the replay and
continue rolling on, the pace has picked up some. The games are
interesting and the pennant race in the National League keeps me
glued to the replay. Will it be an all-New York Series at the end?
Will the Whiz Kids of Philadelphia finally put it together and play
to their real potential? Will I survive more than two years without
rolling a game for the Twins?
I really like you blog. Great work. Maybe you had this in a post before, but I was wondering if you know the best ways/techniques to replay a season. I'm just getting back into APBA with my daughter (we've got a 16 team tournament going with the OFA set I picked up from eBay) and I'm thinking of replaying a season. I know many people do that, but how do they do it when rolling the basic game? Schedule, stats, etc. could be complicated if you don't have a plan. What out there can make things easier? Anyway, I was big into APBA in the 80s and I've decided to get back into it for many reasons. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteKevin, I take several days to begin a replay. I'll get the to-be-played schedules from retrosheet.org ... not the actual games played that lists the scores, but the schedule issued before the season begins. If you go to the website, on the main page there's a tab menu for "data downloads." Click on that and go to "Game Logs" and click that. It will give you day-by-day schedules for every team. I do it this way instead of replaying actual games played to avoid rain outs, etc. Every team will play 154 games or 162. I also handwrite the schedules for each team and then fill in scores when I play the games. This way, I can track any mistakes I make. (I often play games late at night and sometimes I get bleary thinkin'.) As for stats, I always intend to do them... I use a Works type program on the iMac computer I use, but I burn out. I do keep stats for pitching won/loss/saves and home runs after every game. There's a stats program you can download that I found on some APBA page that seems pretty good to use to compile stats. I love doing replays; I began playing baseball on Dec. 28, 1998, and have done 8 full seasons so far and am halfway through 1950. (That progress attests that I have no real social life). I'd advise starting a replay with a season that really resonates with you .. a season where your team fared well, or players you like did well. It'll make the replay more enjoyable. Good luck and thanks for reading this.
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