Update: April 28, 1950

I'm 10 days in to the 1950 APBA replay and I've already seen some trends developing.

The Philadelphia Phillies' 'Whiz Kids' team may be overrated, Brooklyn is a frustrating team to roll games for because you never know what kind of team will show up, the New York Yankees must have bats the size of telephone poles, Pittsburgh plays way above what the team actually did and the St. Louis Browns are a really, really bad team.

And most teams' pitching after the first two starters are pretty horrendous.

I've reached April 28, 1950, of the replay. I began playing with a frenzy, often rolling five or six games a day. But that pace tapered off; I got sick, work beckoned and the NCAA basketball tournaments tipped off — all things that took me away from the dice and game.

But, I still managed to get a few games in each day and by now I've got an indication of how this season may go.

Here's the standings as of April 28, 1950

AMERICAN W   L       NATIONAL W    L

New York      8    3        Pittsburgh        7    1

Detroit            7    2        Boston             7    4

Boston            7    5        Brooklyn         5    5

Chicago          5    5        Philadelphia     5    6

Washington    5    5        Chicago           3     4

Cleveland       4    5        New York       4     6

St. Louis         3    7        Cincinnati        3     5

Philadelphia    2    9        St. Louis          3     6

It's still very early in the season and, as is the case in all replays, some teams will get hot and others will embark on losing streaks. Surely, the Pirates can't finish in first place. The real Pirates finished dead last in 1950. Despite their blistering start, Ralph Kiner has hit only one home run for the team and that came in the first game of the season.

Stan Musial and Walker Cooper of the Boston Braves lead the National League with four home runs each, and Warren Spahn is pacing Boston with three victories already. On the inverse, the Phillies' less than stellar start may be attributed in part to pitcher Robin Roberts who has lost the three games he's started.

Over on the American League, New York players are clubbing balls out of Yankee Stadium at an insane pace. Johnny Mize leads everyone with seven home runs so far, Joe DiMaggio is second with five dingers and Yogi Berra has four home runs. The St. Louis Browns have a total of three home runs.

I'm almost afraid to say this here, but I am also keeping stats for the season. I've created a spreadsheet and am gradually entering game statistics. I say this apprehensively because every time I've done this before, my computer crashes. We'll see how this goes.

So, the season is underway and the NCAA tournament will soon conclude. The real baseball season begins within a week, so that will be a motivation to play games as well. I'm anticipating finishing this replay sometime in January. We''ll see if the Phillies pick up and if the Dodgers play as good as their player cards indicate they should be.

And we'll see if my computer keeps working.