One Year Into 1950 Replay

A year ago today, on March 7, 2014, I began the 1950 APBA baseball replay, rolling a game between Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The Pirates won, 5-3, and I embarked on the long journey that these replays take us on.

This one, however, is taking a bit longer. A year later, today, I finished another Cardinals' game. They beat Cincinnati, 3-2, in 10 innings when rookie outfielder Johnny Lindell (Correction: see comments below) slapped a single and drove in Stan Musial for the win. It was the 885th game so far of the replay.

In the past, I could knock out a season like this in nine or 10 months. There were only 16 teams in the league back then and each played 154 games. There were 1,232 games played in a full season replay and I used to play at a good clip.

But this time, I've averaged playing 2.4 games a day for the year. If I keep the same pace, I won't finish the 1950 season until mid July. The pace must be picked up a tad since there are many more seasons left for me to delve into.

I look back over this past year of replay and realize a lot had happened while I rolled the dice. My APBA cat of 8 years got sick and had to be put to sleep in January, which broke my heart. I completed five years of bankruptcy hell, emerging scarred but intact, I covered a year's worth of news for the newspaper where I work and I got baptized. It was a busy year and life sometimes interferes with the games.

And it's funny how we note the passage of time by playing a game with players from the past and a season that already has happened.

This 1950 replay has been a good one. It's not a burnout that's kept my pace slower than before. I've reached Aug. 13 in the season and the Yankees are beginning to pull away. Still, the American League is fun to watch. Joe DiMaggio is having a great season, there's Ted Williams for the Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers are doing their best to make it a pennant race, albeit a little later.

In the National League, the New York Giants have suddenly become the front runners. The team lurked in the middle for much of the season, behind the surprising Boston Braves and the equally shocking Pittsburgh Pirates. But they are fading and the Giants, behind Sal Maglie on the mound and the bats of Alvin Dark, Bobby Thomson and Hank Thompson, have taken the lead by three game now. I'll post a full update here soon.

So, I will continue on.

But the rate of play must quicken. I looked through my still unplayed seasons remaining to be replayed and caught a hard reality of mortality. If I maintain the pace I am on of 2.4 games a day, with 14 baseball seasons I left to replay, it will take me 27.88 years to play them all. That means I will have to live until 82 to finish every season I own. And that doesn't even take in consideration the basketball, football and hockey games I have as well.

The game has been with me since I was 17, and looks like it's here for a long time still.