1991 World Series recap

APBA friend Jim Caputo made a good point about the  last post about the completion of my 1991 APBA baseball replay. I alluded to the winner of the World Series between Pittsburgh and Minnesota in an upcoming Love, Life and APBA. I had meant to write the results last week,  almost immediately after the season review, but things got busy, life stepped in once again and, because I have limited internet service at home, it got put aside.

Jim compared the tease of the upcoming Series recap to a television show that "leaves the cliff hanger then gets cancelled.”

Sorry. But better late than never. So, here’s the recap of one of the better contests I’ve had in the 11  season replays I’ve done so far.

The Minnesota Twins made it to the Series by taking Toronto, four games to one. Pittsburgh beat Atlanta in six games.

The Series went seven games, but based upon stats alone, it should have been a sweep. One team batted .272, but lost, while the other hit a measly .174 and claimed the 1991 title. The hits came at the right time for the winning team and pitching really prevailed.

Only one game was a blowout, three were shutouts and three games went extra innings.

Here’s the recap:

GAME 1

Pittsburgh 1 Minnesota 0

Bobby Bonilla, serving as the Pirates’ DH in the Metrodome, hit a single, driving in Gary Redus in the fourth inning. Pirates’ pitcher Bob Walk went the distance, giving up five hits and striking out eight. The only threat posed by the Twins was a two-out triple by Shane Mack in the second inning. Scott Leius walked and then Greg Gagne flied out to end the inning. 

GAME 2

Minnesota 11 Pittsburgh 4

The Twins had been pretty schizophrenic during the season. Just as in the Series, Minnesota would score a ton of runs in one game and then the bats would go quiet in the next.  Chili Davis had two doubles and a home run, driving in three and Dan Gladden went four for five with two RBIs. Kirby Puckett also went three for four with three RBIs.

GAME 3

Pittsburgh 6 Minnesota 4, 15 innings

The game shifted to Pittsburgh and Andy Van Slyke took advantage of the home field. His one-out home run in the bottom of the 15^th off Steve Bedrosian gave the Bucs a 6-4 victory and a 2-1 lead in the Series. The teams were knotted, 1-1, after nine innings. Kevin Tapani held the Pirates to one hit in nine innings while Doug Drabek only gave up four hits to the Twins in eight innings.

What made this game remarkable was that the Twins scored two in the top of the 10^th on hits by Gagne and Gladden. The Pirates responded with a Barry Bonds triple that scored Bonilla and then a sac fly by Mike LaValliere to tie it. In the 13^th, Puckett bashed a triple, scoring Gene Larkin to take a 4-3 lead. Again, though, the Bucs answered with a two-out pinch hit home run by Orlando Merced. Pirates’ pitcher Bob Patterson, who is rated a D (the lowest rating for a pitcher in the basic APBA game) held Minnesota hitless in two innings for the win.

GAME 4

Minnesota 3 Pittsburgh 2, 10 innings
Puckett tied the Series at two games apiece with his two-out single in the 10^th to drive in Mike Pagliarulo. Rick Aguilera closed out the game for his only save of the seven-game set.

GAME 5

Pittsburgh 5 Minnesota 0

Walk held Minnesota to five hits in his complete game and hit a three-run homer in his victory. Three of the anemic Twins’ hits came with two outs and posed no threat. All five hits were singles.

GAME6

Minnesota 2 Pittsburgh 0

The Twins returned to Minnesota and Jack Morris shut down the Pirates, offering only three hits in the second, third and fourth innings. Mack hit a solo home run in the third and catcher Brian Harper drove in Davis in the sixth.

GAME 7

Pittsburgh 2 Minnesota 1, 10 innings

Yup. Pittsburgh won my 1991 APBA replay World Series. I began this season four years ago, mainly because I am a Twins’ fan and wanted to see if they’d win the Series just as they did in the real season. It all came down to a LaValliere single in the 10^th inning, driving in Gary Varsho. Stan Belinda got the save for Pittsburgh. The Pirates led 1-0 on a Jay Bell home run in the first inning. The Twins tied it in the bottom of the ninth with one out when Puckett drove in Gladden and hope swelled that the Twinkies would take the Series crown. Instead, a catcher nicknamed "Spanky" spanked a single to end the Twins' run.

Mack led the Twins, batting .360 with two home runs and five RBIs and Davis hit .333 with a home run and three RBIs. Gladden batted .320.

Pittsburgh, who batted .174 as a team, was led by Andy Van Slyke’s .259 average. He hit one home run and scored five runs.

It came down to pitching. Walk had two complete game shutouts for Pittsburgh and struck out 11.

The season is over and on to my 1947 replay, This one was one of the better endings that I’ve seen.

1991 Season Recap

It took three years and 364 days to complete, but my 1991 APBA baseball replay is over and the four teams that made my playoffs were the same four teams that were in the post season in the real world.

It was the longest I’ve taken to do a replay; life really stepped in and I realized for the first time in years that there were plenty of things to do other than being a dice-tossin’ loner. But, when I did find time to roll the game, it was worth the time.

It was an odd season, with Minnesota, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Atlanta each winning 100 games. The pennant races were over relatively soon. Atlanta’s nine-game lead over Cincinnati was the closest “race” of the year. But there were other elements that stood out. I did have a home run race that went to the last day in both leagues between Oakland’s Jose Canseco (53 HRs) and Seattle’s  Jay Buhner (52) in the American League and between Kevin Mitchell of the Giants (42), Andre Dawson of the Cubs and Darryl Strawberry of the Mets (both with 41).

Tom Glavine was amazing with is “A” rated pitcher’s card, winning 29 games for the Braves. That victory count, though, is somewhat inflated because the APBA set I have does not include every player who pitched for Atlanta that year. Couple that with my mentality akin to a 1950s manager who leaves pitchers in longer than usual and many of my replay results are skewed because of “over use.”

Jimmy Key of Toronto threw two no-hitters in the American League and Bob Tewksbury of the Cardinals and Doug Drabek of the Pirates each tossed a no-no.

So, here are the final standings:

AMERICAN LEAGUE
EAST                      W            L              GB
Toronto                104         58           --
Milwaukee         92           70           12
Boston                  84           78           20
Detroit                  82           80           22
New York            75           87           29
Baltimore            65           97           39
Cleveland            55           107         49

WEST                     W            L              GB
Minnesota          102         60           --
Chicago                 88           74           14
Seattle                  86           76           16
California             85           77           17
Kansas City         78           84           24
Texas                    74           88           28
Oakland               64           98           38

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST                      W            L              GB
Pittsburgh           106         56           --
St. Louis               96           66           10
New York            79           83           27
Chicago                66           96           40
Philadelphia       66           96           40
Montreal             58           104         48

WEST                     W            L              GB

Atlanta                 105         57           --
Cincinnati            96           66           9
Los Angeles        89           73           16
San Diego            81           81           24
San Fran.             70           92           35
Houston               60           102         45

Some observations:  One of the surprises was how bad Houston did. I didn’t keep stats  (I had them on an Apple laptop I used at my former newspaper job, but lost them all when I was laid off), but Tony Gwynn didn’t produce. In the real 1991 season, he batted .317. I’d be surprised if Gwynn hit .250 in the replay. The Astro’s relief corps of Al Osuna and Dwayne Henry were good, but getting save situations for those guys was tough for Astros.

Cleveland was abysmal, as seen by their record. The Indians lost two more games than they did in the real  1991season. Albert Belle was the only bright spot for that team with his 46 home runs.

The Cubs, whom I’ve taken an interest in during the past four years because of my Illinois sweetie (she often rolled Cubs’ games with me during the replay), had a decent end of the season; at one point Chicago was challenging Montreal for being the least in the East.

I began this one on Aug. 16, 2015. After a lot of changes in life, and nearly four years later, the season was completed, along with the playoffs on Aug. 15, 2019. But here’s a thing to consider about APBA. What other game can you finish after starting it four years prior?

I'm Back ...

… Or at least I hope so.

An observant APBA friend noticed it’s been nearly a year since I wrote anything on Love, Life and APBA Baseball (tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of absence), and that’s sad. I enjoyed writing these things and sharing ideas, game and season recaps and any observations I had while rolling the games.

But life stepped in the past year and the blog took a back seat. I began working two jobs a year and a half ago to make ends meet after I was laid off from my newspaper job of 20 years. I work seven days a week, pulling two 12-hour shifts on the weekend at a security guard job. I found work at a local newspaper for a while, but the stress of the job and the low pay didn’t cut it and three months ago, I got a new, better job. I come home, watch TV with Holly and then fall asleep on the couch a lot. 

When I am awake, Holly, my Illinois girl who moved here three years ago, and I continue to develop our own life with late jaunts to Wal-Mart, walks around the neighborhood and trips back to Chicagoland. We also just got a new young cat that takes time and energy. (No word yet if he's an APBA cat like a cat I had several years ago.)

There’s not much time for rolling games, let alone writing about them. And, in an effort to save some money, we cut the cable and internet from the home. I couldn't really access the blog site, or Facebook well. I do have access on my cell phone to the internet, but it’s hard writing spontaneous blog pieces on a tiny phone that has a limited data connection speed.  We’ve just added a “hot spot” to our phone to allow slow Wi-Fi at home, so I can start writing again.

So, now, 364 days after the last one, it’s time to start writing Love, Life and APBA Baseball again. I’ve been able to find some time to roll games; I finished the 1991 season replay the other day – one day before the four-year mark of when I began it. I’ll recap that season in the next post, but I’ll offer that in my playoffs, Minnesota beat Toronto, four games to one, and Pittsburgh edged Atlanta four games to two to meet in the World Series.

The Series went seven games and Game 7, like in the real Series, went into extra innings. More on that in a bit.

I’ve not completely quit writing. I’ve had two columns appear in the Duluth, Minn., News-Tribune paper recently. I pitched stories to their Op-Ed page just to be able to say I was in a paper near my northern Minnesota home town. And I should have an article in a veterans’ magazine coming out in the near future.

But at its peak, the blog was the most fun to write. The APBA readers got what I was saying and we shared a common bond of the experience of playing the game.

So, there’s lot more to write. I’ll do a recap of the 1991 season with standings, stats and outlines of the playoffs. And tonight, when I get off my weekend shift and I’m not too tired, I hope to roll a couple games of the 1947 season that I will do next. Hopefully, it won’t take four years to complete that.

Life changes, but APBA has still remained part of it, albeit a lessened role for a bit. Still, there are lots more stories to share in this blog.

I’m back.

*Also, please feel free to send any comments to my email since I don't have easy access to Facebook anymore. You can write to me at kenbobwrites@gmail.com.