After seven months of replaying the
1991 season with the APBA baseball game, I've finally finished the
games scheduled that year for the month of April. At this rate, I
should finish the replay in about four years — the slowest I've
ever completed one.
However, I have a good excuse for the
slower pace. I began this replay on Aug. 16. A week later, I called a
woman for the first time who I now call my Illinois girl and I have
fallen hard for her. I've written about all that here before;
frequent readers know the story.
All that to say it's hard replaying
games when you're traveling. I've made the 554-mile trip to north of
Chicago and then back to Arkansas eight times since Sept. 25 to visit
my Illinois girl, and I'm headed there again at the end of the week.
For years, I never used all my allotted days at the newspaper where I
work. Now I covet them and use them strategically so to visit her
whenever I can.
Such is long-distance love.
Still, I've been able to average
rolling about 1.3 games a day since I began the season. And it's been
good so far. Each of the actual divisional winners of 1991 are in
first place as I enter games for May 1. Atlanta, Pittsburgh,
Minnesota and Toronto each lead their respective divisions.
There have been some surprises.
Minnesota, my favorite team because I grew up in the state, is a fun
team to play games with. Kent Hrbek leads the American League with 8
home runs so far.
On the inverse, Montreal continues to
be horrible. They've won one game out of the 20 they've played during
April. They trail the Pirates by 14 games already.
Here are the standings as of April 30,
1991.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East W L GB
Toronto 14 7 -
Detroit 9 10 4
Milwaukee 9 10 4
Boston 8 10 4.5
Cleveland 6 11 6
New York 6 11 6
Baltimore 5 12 7
West W L GB
Minnesota 15 5 -
Kansas City 14 5 .5
Seattle 14 7 1.5
Texas 9 7 4
Chicago 9 8 4.5
California 7 13 8
Oakland 6 14 9
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East W L GB
Pittsburgh 15 5 -
St. Louis 14 7 1.5
Chicago 11 10 4.5
Phil'phia 11 10 4.5
New York 10 10 5
Montreal 1 19 14
West W L GB
Atlanta 13 5 -
Los Angeles 12 8 2
San Diego 11 10 3.5
Cincinnati 9 10 4.5
Houston 7 13 7
S. Francisco 6 14 8
The Twins are dominating with Hrbek's 8
home runs. Jack Morris is 5-0 as a starter for Minnesota and Scott
Erickson is 4-0. Jeff Montgomery leads the league with eight saves
for the Kansas City Royals
In the National League, New York Mets'
third baseman Howard Johnson's nine homers are tops and Matt Williams
has eight home runs for the Giants. The Cardinals' Bob Tewksbury is
5-0 and has paced the surprising St. Louis team.
So, the first month is over. May games
are up next and it will take a long while to finish the month, I'm
sure. Those trips to visit my Illinois girl take time, but it's well
worth it. And the APBA game, like it always has, will wait for me to
come back.
