APBA Eclipse

APBA players who replay a full baseball season know it takes a long time to complete one, rolling game by game and ensuring each team plays 162 games, or 154 in the earlier seasons before 1969.

And there comes one day during each replay that really serves as a reminder of the length of the replay and the dedication needed to do this. Mine came yesterday, June 16. It’s the same date as the day I’ve reached for the games in the 1965 baseball season I’m on.

I call it the APBA eclipse—the point when the actual date coincides with the game date of whatever season I’m doing. During my replay of the 1991 season, which took four years, I experienced an APBA eclipse three times.

I thought I’d prolong the eclipse for a day and finish out games for June 16, 1965, last night and be ready for June 17, 1965, games on the same day 56 years later. But I failed to roll any games and the APBA eclipse occurred yesterday.

When I do replays, I set up team schedules based on the games they’re set to play, not the games that they really did play. Remember, there are no rainouts in my APBA games (although the game actually does have a dice roll outcome that does result in a rained out game). I play games based on the actual days. For instance, on June 16, 1965, all 20 teams played games. So, I play each game for that day and then move on to the next day.

I began this 1965 replay on Dec. 11, 2020, and I reached Game 610 when the eclipse happened. The actual season began on April 11, 1965. Obviously, I can’t play all games on the same days they were played in the real season. Often, all teams play on the same day, so that means there will be 10 games to roll for a day. Throw in Sunday or holiday doubleheaders and there could be up to 16 games in a day. I’m lucky to roll three or four games a day, so that means it’ll take at least three or four days of rolling games to finish out an actual day’s schedule.

It sounds confusing.

Tonight, June 17, I’ll roll a few games for June 16, 1965, but I’ll never catch up to the real date again. And that’s one of the drawbacks of doing replays, I guess. There are so many seasons to experience, and there are the other sports of basketball, hockey and football I’d love to replay as well. If I were independently wealthy and retired, I may find time to get more games in. I had thought of replaying each of the sports when they were in season, but that would take years to do one season for each sport and it would kill any momentum and continuity of a season replay.

One of the more fun aspects of doing a replay is watching the teams jostle positions in the standings and seeing teams develop. In this 1965 season, one of the main story lines is the play of the St. Louis Cardinals and how San Francisco is trying to catch them. Pittsburgh beat the Cardinals the other night, dropping the Redbirds into only a game and a half lead over the Giants.

So the APBA eclipse comes and goes. I’ll continue rolling the games, maybe getting a few in each night and rolling maybe a dozen during the weekend. Work, mowing the yard, trying to keep my side job of freelance writing developing and general life take time.

During each replay there comes the APBA eclipse reminder that these replays take a while to do. But it’s well worth the time.