Fall 1965, Update: Sept. 21

It’s the first day of Fall 1965 in my APBA baseball replay, if you consider the traditional date for the changing of seasons. If you’re more into the meteorological calendar, the actual day that Fall started that year, the Autumnal Equinox, came a day earlier on the 20^th.

Either way, to enact a seasonal metaphor for this replay, the Cincinnati Red are falling like maple leaves on a windy day, the Los Angeles Dodgers all but need to be raked into a bag and left on the curb and the Pittsburgh Pirates have suddenly shown hope like the last blast of warm air before winter approaches.

This one, APBA players, is heading into a fantastic finish.

Here are the National League standings for Sept. 21, 1965.

San Francisco       90     60    --

Pittsburgh             90     63   1.5

Cincinnati             89     62   1.5

St. Louis                88     63   2.5

Los Angeles          83     68   7.5

Philadelphia         76     75   14.5

Milwaukee            75     76   15.5

Chicago                 67     85   24

Houston               59     93    32.5

New York             40    112    51

The American League is down to two teams in the pennant race. Minnesota, with a league best record of 95-57, leads the Detroit Tigers and their 91-61 record by four games. The two teams won’t face each other for the rest of the season and Detroit has a seemingly easier schedule for their last 10 games. They play the Indians, White Sox and Senators while the Twins end their season with games against the hot Orioles, the Senators and the Angels.

Cincinnati began its fall by being swept by the lowly Mets. A trip home to face the Astros seemed like a potential winning salve, but instead the Reds shockingly lost both games of a doubleheader to Houston and since Sept. 1 have gone 7-13. Meanwhile, the Pirates, riding on Willie Stargell’s bat, went 16-3 during the same time.

San Francisco has taken the NL lead by going 16-7. Giant’s outfielder Willie Mays is making a strong case for the MVP award by hitting 10 of his league-leading 47 home runs so far in September. Mays batted .408 during the stretch, drove in 23 runs and scored 19 runs.

The Giants have two more games at Cincinnati before returning home for the rest of the season to host Milwaukee and St. Louis in three-game sets and then ending 1965 with four games against the Reds.

Pittsburgh appears to have the easiest schedule remaining with home and away series with both the Cubs and Mets.

I remember my first baseball replay 24 years ago. It’s hard to imagine it’s been that long ago, but I did the 1998 season, starting it on Dec. 28, 1998. Back then, I wasn’t into replays as much as I was just into rolling the games. If I recall correctly, the Yankees won the American League East by nearly 20 games and Texas crushed the West by about the same. There was no pennant race then.

This time, it could result in the closest finish I’ve ever had.

Will the Giants hang on? Will Cincinnati regain form and capitalize on Frank Robinson’s bat and their good pitching staff? Will Los Angeles somehow ever score runs and make it to the World Series like they did in the real 1965 season? Will the disappointing Milwaukee Braves play a spoiler role, facing the Giants and Dodgers in eight of their last 11 games?

This has been a fun season to replay since the start and it’s ending up as a great finish.

 

 

 

Streaks

Streaks seem to have more of an impact in baseball. Say the number “56” and baseball fans immediately know that’s the number of games of Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak.

The New York Giants won a record 26 games in a row in 1916 and 101 years later, the 2017 Cleveland Indians lost 22 straight for a streak record.

Dale Long (1956), Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1993) hold the record for hitting home runs in eight consecutive games and Orel Hershiser has the record for pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988.

Streaks are part of the game and it’s no different in the APBA replays we do.

Three winning streaks have played big roles late in my 1965 baseball replay; one has changed the lead in the tight National League pennant race as I approach the final two weeks of the season.

Streak One: Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles are foreshadowing their real 1966 World Series-winning team late in my replay. The Birds, who were consistently five to 10 games below .500 during the entire season, have reeled off 14 straight wins and moved from 7^th place at the start of September 1965 to half a game out of fourth behind the Chicago White Sox.

The Orioles’ bats haven’t been on fire during this streak – the team has a combined batting average of .241 and that’s not counting the pitcher’s appearances at the plate. Outfielder Russ Snyder leads the team during this run with a batting average of .361. Brooks Robinson has batted .322 during the 14-game streak. Despite batting .222, Boog Powell (whom I called “Booger” when I was a kid because his Orioles always seemed to beat my Twins) has two grand slam homers during the streak and third-string catcher Charlie Lau has two home runs in six at bats. The Orioles have seemed to capitalize on hitting at the right time because the hits don’t come that often.

Pitching, though, has been their mainstay. Dave McNally has three wins and a 1.39 ERA in the 14 games and Wally Bunker has pitched two complete game shutouts.

Streak Two: Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates won nine in a row before falling to Cincinnati, 8-3, on Sept. 12, 1965. They’ve since reeled off four more wins and host the Phillies next. They opened their winning run with a three-game sweep in Milwaukee and then took another three games in Cincinnati against the NL-leading Reds. They beat St. Louis 5-4 in 12 innings before returning to Pittsburgh where the Reds took them in the third game of the series. Pittsburgh has since swept the Cardinals and won their first game of a three-game set hosting Philadelphia.

Willie Stargell is the key in this streak. In the 14 games the Pirates went 13-1, he’s hit nine home runs and hit safely in all nine of the games of the Bucs’ first streak. The team is also clutch in extra innings. Before the streak(s), the Pirates were 3-6 in extra inning games. They won the three games that went 10, 12 and 13 innings in their two streaks.

Streak Three: New York Mets

The New York Mets are an ugly team. Currently, they are 38-111 for a grandiose winning percentage of .255. But for a three-game set in Shea Stadium from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16, 1965, they were world beaters.

The Mets, who opened the season on a 12-game losing streak and have lost at least four games in a row 13 times this season (including losing streaks of 12, 11, 9 and 8 games), beat the Reds in all three of their games.

In the first game, Ron Swoboda drove in Roy McMillan on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and pitcher Tom Parsons gave up only four hits in the 1-0 shutout. Reds pitcher Sammy Ellis, who is a contender for the NL Cy Young, struck out nine in his losing effort and dropped to 21-6.

In the second game, the Mets shut out the Reds again. Let me say that again. The Mets actually shut out the Reds in two straight games. This time, Johnny Lewis drove in Swoboda on a sacrifice fly in the second and Ed Kranepool scored on a passed ball by Reds catcher in the sixth inning. Ace Mets pitcher Al Jackson, desperately trying to avoid a 20-loss season, improved his record to 8-18.

And in the third game, New York held on to beat Cincinnati, 6-5. The Reds led 3-0 in the third and it felt like a usual Mets game. But the Mets scored one run in the bottom of the third and then four in the fourth on a conveyor belt of singles, a walk, a batter hit by a pitch and a sacrifice fly. Swoboda singled in his second RBI in the eight to give the Mets a 6-4 lead. Dee Johnson hit a home run for the Reds in the eight to cut the lead by one and crusty pitcher Roger Craig struck out pinch hitter Art Shamsky and Tommy Harper before getting Pete Rose on a popup to end the game.

The three losses for the Reds, coupled with a four-game sweep of the Astros by San Francisco (another streak), propelled the Giants into first place in the close National League.

With the streaks, the NL now looks like this: 1. San Francisco, 88-59; 2. Cincinnati 88-60; 3. Pittsburgh 88-62; 4. St. Louis 85-62, 5. Los Angeles 83-64.

The season wraps up in about two weeks. My wife is away on a visit with her aunt now, so the games come more frequently. I have my own personal streak going now, playing games in 17 consecutive days. (I used to play games every day for a year or so, but I was single and had no other life then).

Will there be more streaks? As the season closes, a three- or four-game winning streak could change everything.