Hitting the Wall

I had planned to begin the World Series in my 1947 APBA baseball replay today. It wasn’t that I was on any set schedule; the pace I had been playing during the past several months just seemed to indicate I’d be done with the season on Oct. 17 and ready to start the Series today.

But as of today, I still have 79 games left to play.

Three things happened in the past few months that changed the pace of play.

First, I’ve involuntarily changed my sleep habits. I often don’t go to bed until 3 a.m. I wake up at 7 a.m. to head to work. I’m tired. Now, when I get home, I crash on the couch and start passing out just after the local news ends at 6:30 p.m. This may be the oldest thing I’ve ever said so far, but there are days when I fall asleep before the final puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.

I awoke the other day in that neck-kinked, bleary-eyed stupor you get from nodding off. The Bachelor was on television. Our local news comes on the ABC station and it’s usually on that channel when I pass out. The Bachelor comes on at 7 p.m. When I woke and saw that, I thought maybe I was either still dreaming or I had died in my sleep and descended into hell. The program featured gang of guys pining for some plastic woman, trying to win her hand in marriage while out-drama queening everyone else. In the brief moment I saw the show, there were more guys crying there than in Brooklyn when Bobby Thomson hit the home run in 1951 to lead the Giants over the Dodgers.

So, there’s less time to roll APBA games when I’m in coma land.

Second, I now have monthly assignments for two magazines and a newspaper may soon pick up some of my stuff. I’m spending more time freelance writing, which is nice. I got three checks in the mail on the same day  a couple of weeks ago and for a brief moment felt like I wasn’t living in poverty. I need to keep doing that.

So, there’s less time to roll ABPA games when I’m in writing land, too.

And, finally, I’ve reached that point all replayers hit at some time during a full-season replay, albeit a tad later than I had hoped.

I hit The Wall. It’s hard to get motivated to play a Sept. 14, 1947, doubleheader between the Philadelphia As and Cleveland Indians when both teams have long be eliminated from pennant contention. Or a contest featuring the Phillies and the Cubs, or a clash between the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators. 1947 has been an entertaining season, though. After leading the American League for most of the season, the Boston Red Sox have slipped and the Yankees have taken over. New York is now 90-53, compared to Boston’s record of 88-57. The surprising Detroit Tigers are half a game behind at 87-57. It’s headed down to the last games of the season to determine the American League champion. Can the Yanks hold on? Will Boston have resurgence? Will the Tigers surprise everyone?

In the National League, St. Louis has all but wrapped up the crown. At 97-44, the Cards are 6 games ahead of Brooklyn. The Cardinals have 13 games remaining to play; the Dodgers have nine games left. St. Louis’ last nine games of the season are against Chicago and Pittsburgh – the two worst teams in baseball. Hand the Cardinals the National League pennant.

So, there’s reason to be motivated to keep playing and to roll many games to see how this turns out. Other teams are fun to play as well. Despite its 51-95 record, the Pittsburgh Pirates have Ralph Kiner and Hank Greenberg in the lineup. Kiner has been stuck on 51 home runs for several games now. That’s the number he hit in the actual season. Will Kiner’s bat hit at least one more in the remaining eight games to top his actual mark?

The Giants are another fun team. Bobby Thomson is having an amazing season with 34 home runs and 107 RBIs so far. Johnny Mize is trailing Kiner with 47 home runs and Will Marshall has 39 dingers. The Giants won’t have a record of above .500, but they’ll lead the league in home runs by a huge margin.

And of course, there’s the rivalry between Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. DiMaggio has a batting average of .353 and hit 20 home runs with 124 RBIs. Williams is leading the Triple Crown with a .367 average, 43 home runs and an astounding 175 RBIs.

The Wall takes time to overcome. We APBA replayers have all been there at some point and it often takes a jolt to the system to get back on track. Holly and I are headed to Chicago this coming week. Maybe when I return, I’ll find the spark to finish the season.

But it’s hard to keep the game pace going when I’m falling asleep on the couch or trying to build up a writing business. And then there’s time I have to spend watching to see if the winning Bachelor is the guy who cries the most.