What's Next?

I’ve reached that point in a replay where I look forward and think about what the next replay I’ll do. It’s not that I’m bored with the current project, but instead like to wonder what’s ahead.

I’ve recently passed the halfway mark of my 1965 APBA baseball replay. It’s probably one of the best seasons I’ve done in the 23 years I’ve been rolling the APBA baseball dice. I know I say this every time I do a replay, but this time it’s really true. This season is a combination of rolling for players that I grew up with watching and reading about, and it’s been a very close race so far.

So, looking ahead is not because of the boredom of the contests. Instead, and other APBA replayers can attest to this, it’s the sense of figuring out what the next adventure is. We all have more seasons tucked away in closets and shelves than we can play in a lifetime, but that doesn’t stop us from getting more.

And there are the other sports. I have three football seasons, including the 1976 season that my parents bought me for a Christmas gift and served as my initiation into APBA. I also have five basketball seasons that, while most couldn’t stand that APBA game because of its plodding nature, I loved to play it. I also have four hockey seasons.

In a perfect world, it’d be great to replay seasons while the real seasons were going on. Yesterday, Sunday, was the first real day of the NFL season. Watching the games on television stirs the interest in playing the football games. A month from Sunday, the NHL season begins and I’m already looking at my hockey cards and wondering which would be a good season to dive into.

And there are the scores of baseball seasons I have.

I tend to get fired up for a season when reading books, too. Whenever I read Henry Aaron’s “I Had a Hammer” biography, I want to roll a season during his career. The same thing happened when I read the Willie Mays biography by James Hirsch.

Of course, reading Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four” makes me want to start the 1969 season I have.

I once read the questionable book “Cobb,” by Al Stump. After finishing it, I immediately called APBA and ordered the 1919 season.  Each time I read Leo Durocher’s “Nice Guys Finish Last,” I have the urge to play 1947.

I also have Jonathan Eig’s “Luckiest Man” biography of Lou Gehrig. When I read that again, the 1927 season will beckon me.

Again, this is no indication of any boredom or sense of monotony with the 1965 season. I rolled a doubleheader yesterday afternoon between Cleveland and California that could have been a snorefest of a series, but I enjoyed the games a lot. Instead, it’s that sense of what’s next.

There’s the lure of APBA. What other game can keep us, as adults, interested in playing forever? I began APBA when I was a youngster of 16. Now, 45 years later, I’m still rolling the games, as excited as I was when I was that 16-year-old. We create our own league, our own world, when we do replays. Maybe it’s an escape from life. Lord knows we need one.

What better way to avoid hearing about Covid-19 for a while and not having to think about making the house payment again and dealing with health issues and trying to afford life than slipping away to 1965 or 1947 or 1927?

I think that’s the success of APBA. It’s a simple game that creates such complex emotions. It’s one of the few senses of wonderment I think we still have as we continue aging.

So, San Francisco is traveling to Philadelphia tonight. Bobby Bolin is on the mound for the Giants and Jim Bunning is tossing for the Phillies and could win his 10^th game in a July 9, 1965, contest. Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, both with 23 home runs in my replay so far, will headline the game. Johnny Callison has 20 homers for the Phillies. San Francisco is only 1.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League lead and it’s an important game.

It’s hard to be bored with those kinds of elements in an upcoming replay game. No, the look ahead is not due to apathy of this season. Instead, it’s a way to prolong the feeling of excitement and wonderment that we had when we first began rolling these games, oh so long ago.