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?