Update: July 21, 1942

I've reached July 21, 1942 in my APBA baseball replay and, as usual, good story lines are developing.

This replay has been a series of spurts and slowdowns. I'll play a lot of games, rolling dice into the wee hours and tracking scores for a while. Then, the pace slows and I may only play 1 or 2 games a day for a week before resuming the quicker pace. It's not burnout, but instead attention diversion, I guess. I watch football on television a lot now and that takes up time. I'm also reading more books on — of course — football.

But the game continue and with them come some intriguing points that make this game worth playing each day.

Here are the standings at the end of July 21, 1942:

AMERICAN LEAGUE W L GB

New York          57 33 –

St. Louis            56 36 2

Boston               51 39 6

Detroit               49 45 10

Cleveland          46 46 12

Washington       39 53 19

Chicago             36 53 20.5

Philadelphia      34 63 28.5

NATIONAL LEAGUE W L GB

St. Louis            62 25 –

Brooklyn           61 29 2.5

New York          48 42 15.5

Cincinnati         44 47 20

Chicago             41 52 24

Boston               42 54 24.5

Pittsburgh          39 52 25

Philadelphia      27 63 36.5

Ted Williams leads the Red Sox with 23 home runs and Charlie Keller of the Yankees is second with 17. Joe DiMaggio is having a slow season in this replay. He has 8 home runs and, although I haven't updated his statistics lately, it'll be a surprise if he's batting .300.

Denny Galehouse is 14-2 for the St. Louis Browns, a big reason why they are in second place in this replay. Charlie Wagner is 13-4 for the Red Sox, and Tiny Bonham is big for the Yankees with a 12-0 record.

In the National League, Max West continues to pace the Boston Braves with 21 home runs. He's tied for the lead with Brooklyn's Dolph Camilli. Mort Cooper has helped the Cardinals to the best record in the replay with a 15-5 record. Jim Tobin is 13-9 for the Braves and Curt Davis is 12-0 for the Dodgers.

Some of the story lines to have developed include the pitching of Cincinnati Reds' Johnny Vander Meer. He's had two games where he's struck out 15 batters. Pitching is horrendous for the Phillies. As of July 21, 1942, the team has four 10-game losers.

But the best story is the emergence of the Cardinals. In the real 1942 season, the Redbirds trailed Brooklyn after the All-Star break and at one point in August were 10 games behind the Dodgers. They caught Brooklyn, going 43-9 in the last 52 games.

In the 1942 replay I'm doing, St. Louis began early. They've won nine of their last 10 games, compared to Brooklyn going 4-6 in the same span. The Cardinals, who when July began, were 4 games behind when July began, have gone 24-3 in their last 27 games.

I'm about 60 percent finished with the season. There' a lot more baseball to be played, and more story lines to surely follow.