1981 Update: Sept. 3

I’ve reached Sept. 3, 1981, in my APBA replay and with it comes the drama that us game players roll the dice for. The season ends on Oct. 4, 1981 — a month and a day from where I’m at now and I’ve developed quite a pennant race in the American League East.

It’s why we play this game.

In the actual baseball season, players went on strike during the summer of 1981 and each team lost about 50 or so games. The season was split and first half division winners played the second half division winners and in a sense, it was a precursor to the Wild Card games we now see. In my replay season, I didn’t have the strike and instead played each game out as if the season was intact.

And it’s playing out interestingly.

The New York Yankees led their division by three games on Aug. 9, but went into a tailspin and now are mired in fourth place, 3.5 games out of first place. Detroit briefly led the East Division, but the Tigers also free fell and are now in third.

Kansas City continues to lead the American League West and the Oakland A’s may be the biggest disappointment in my replay season.  Despite their good pitching and great home run barrage, they lose. A lot.

Montreal and Los Angeles vie for being the best team in baseball. The Dodgers could end up with four 20-game winners and Montreal should be arrested for felony theft what with the number of bases the Expo players have stolen so far. (Old baseball sportswriter cliché).

Eddie Murray leads all players with 43 home runs this season and Mike Schmidt leads the National League with 42. Rick Reuschel has gone 22-5 so far for the Yankees and Tom Seaver is 23-3 for the Reds.

With all that said, here are the standings as of Sept. 3, 1981:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST             W      L      WEST        W L

Milwaukee     80 55      Kansas City 86 48

Baltimore 79 55      California 82 53

Detroit            78 56      Chicago        76 58

New York 76 58      Texas             66 68

Boston           65 68      Oakland         65 70

Cleveland 60 74      Seattle            43 91

Toronto 45 91      Minnesota     39 95

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST         W     L        WEST           W L

Montreal      90 43       Los Angeles  90   43

Philadelphia 79   54       Houston        80 53

St. Louis      71 62       Cincinnati     78 55

Pittsburgh    61 73       San Fran.       57  76

Chicago       47 87       Atlanta          52 81

New York 46 87       San Diego   48   85