1991 World Series recap

APBA friend Jim Caputo made a good point about the  last post about the completion of my 1991 APBA baseball replay. I alluded to the winner of the World Series between Pittsburgh and Minnesota in an upcoming Love, Life and APBA. I had meant to write the results last week,  almost immediately after the season review, but things got busy, life stepped in once again and, because I have limited internet service at home, it got put aside.

Jim compared the tease of the upcoming Series recap to a television show that "leaves the cliff hanger then gets cancelled.”

Sorry. But better late than never. So, here’s the recap of one of the better contests I’ve had in the 11  season replays I’ve done so far.

The Minnesota Twins made it to the Series by taking Toronto, four games to one. Pittsburgh beat Atlanta in six games.

The Series went seven games, but based upon stats alone, it should have been a sweep. One team batted .272, but lost, while the other hit a measly .174 and claimed the 1991 title. The hits came at the right time for the winning team and pitching really prevailed.

Only one game was a blowout, three were shutouts and three games went extra innings.

Here’s the recap:

GAME 1

Pittsburgh 1 Minnesota 0

Bobby Bonilla, serving as the Pirates’ DH in the Metrodome, hit a single, driving in Gary Redus in the fourth inning. Pirates’ pitcher Bob Walk went the distance, giving up five hits and striking out eight. The only threat posed by the Twins was a two-out triple by Shane Mack in the second inning. Scott Leius walked and then Greg Gagne flied out to end the inning. 

GAME 2

Minnesota 11 Pittsburgh 4

The Twins had been pretty schizophrenic during the season. Just as in the Series, Minnesota would score a ton of runs in one game and then the bats would go quiet in the next.  Chili Davis had two doubles and a home run, driving in three and Dan Gladden went four for five with two RBIs. Kirby Puckett also went three for four with three RBIs.

GAME 3

Pittsburgh 6 Minnesota 4, 15 innings

The game shifted to Pittsburgh and Andy Van Slyke took advantage of the home field. His one-out home run in the bottom of the 15^th off Steve Bedrosian gave the Bucs a 6-4 victory and a 2-1 lead in the Series. The teams were knotted, 1-1, after nine innings. Kevin Tapani held the Pirates to one hit in nine innings while Doug Drabek only gave up four hits to the Twins in eight innings.

What made this game remarkable was that the Twins scored two in the top of the 10^th on hits by Gagne and Gladden. The Pirates responded with a Barry Bonds triple that scored Bonilla and then a sac fly by Mike LaValliere to tie it. In the 13^th, Puckett bashed a triple, scoring Gene Larkin to take a 4-3 lead. Again, though, the Bucs answered with a two-out pinch hit home run by Orlando Merced. Pirates’ pitcher Bob Patterson, who is rated a D (the lowest rating for a pitcher in the basic APBA game) held Minnesota hitless in two innings for the win.

GAME 4

Minnesota 3 Pittsburgh 2, 10 innings
Puckett tied the Series at two games apiece with his two-out single in the 10^th to drive in Mike Pagliarulo. Rick Aguilera closed out the game for his only save of the seven-game set.

GAME 5

Pittsburgh 5 Minnesota 0

Walk held Minnesota to five hits in his complete game and hit a three-run homer in his victory. Three of the anemic Twins’ hits came with two outs and posed no threat. All five hits were singles.

GAME6

Minnesota 2 Pittsburgh 0

The Twins returned to Minnesota and Jack Morris shut down the Pirates, offering only three hits in the second, third and fourth innings. Mack hit a solo home run in the third and catcher Brian Harper drove in Davis in the sixth.

GAME 7

Pittsburgh 2 Minnesota 1, 10 innings

Yup. Pittsburgh won my 1991 APBA replay World Series. I began this season four years ago, mainly because I am a Twins’ fan and wanted to see if they’d win the Series just as they did in the real season. It all came down to a LaValliere single in the 10^th inning, driving in Gary Varsho. Stan Belinda got the save for Pittsburgh. The Pirates led 1-0 on a Jay Bell home run in the first inning. The Twins tied it in the bottom of the ninth with one out when Puckett drove in Gladden and hope swelled that the Twinkies would take the Series crown. Instead, a catcher nicknamed "Spanky" spanked a single to end the Twins' run.

Mack led the Twins, batting .360 with two home runs and five RBIs and Davis hit .333 with a home run and three RBIs. Gladden batted .320.

Pittsburgh, who batted .174 as a team, was led by Andy Van Slyke’s .259 average. He hit one home run and scored five runs.

It came down to pitching. Walk had two complete game shutouts for Pittsburgh and struck out 11.

The season is over and on to my 1947 replay, This one was one of the better endings that I’ve seen.

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?

I'm Back ...

… Or at least I hope so.

An observant APBA friend noticed it’s been nearly a year since I wrote anything on Love, Life and APBA Baseball (tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of absence), and that’s sad. I enjoyed writing these things and sharing ideas, game and season recaps and any observations I had while rolling the games.

But life stepped in the past year and the blog took a back seat. I began working two jobs a year and a half ago to make ends meet after I was laid off from my newspaper job of 20 years. I work seven days a week, pulling two 12-hour shifts on the weekend at a security guard job. I found work at a local newspaper for a while, but the stress of the job and the low pay didn’t cut it and three months ago, I got a new, better job. I come home, watch TV with Holly and then fall asleep on the couch a lot. 

When I am awake, Holly, my Illinois girl who moved here three years ago, and I continue to develop our own life with late jaunts to Wal-Mart, walks around the neighborhood and trips back to Chicagoland. We also just got a new young cat that takes time and energy. (No word yet if he's an APBA cat like a cat I had several years ago.)

There’s not much time for rolling games, let alone writing about them. And, in an effort to save some money, we cut the cable and internet from the home. I couldn't really access the blog site, or Facebook well. I do have access on my cell phone to the internet, but it’s hard writing spontaneous blog pieces on a tiny phone that has a limited data connection speed.  We’ve just added a “hot spot” to our phone to allow slow Wi-Fi at home, so I can start writing again.

So, now, 364 days after the last one, it’s time to start writing Love, Life and APBA Baseball again. I’ve been able to find some time to roll games; I finished the 1991 season replay the other day – one day before the four-year mark of when I began it. I’ll recap that season in the next post, but I’ll offer that in my playoffs, Minnesota beat Toronto, four games to one, and Pittsburgh edged Atlanta four games to two to meet in the World Series.

The Series went seven games and Game 7, like in the real Series, went into extra innings. More on that in a bit.

I’ve not completely quit writing. I’ve had two columns appear in the Duluth, Minn., News-Tribune paper recently. I pitched stories to their Op-Ed page just to be able to say I was in a paper near my northern Minnesota home town. And I should have an article in a veterans’ magazine coming out in the near future.

But at its peak, the blog was the most fun to write. The APBA readers got what I was saying and we shared a common bond of the experience of playing the game.

So, there’s lot more to write. I’ll do a recap of the 1991 season with standings, stats and outlines of the playoffs. And tonight, when I get off my weekend shift and I’m not too tired, I hope to roll a couple games of the 1947 season that I will do next. Hopefully, it won’t take four years to complete that.

Life changes, but APBA has still remained part of it, albeit a lessened role for a bit. Still, there are lots more stories to share in this blog.

I’m back.

*Also, please feel free to send any comments to my email since I don't have easy access to Facebook anymore. You can write to me at kenbobwrites@gmail.com.

Life Happens; 3 Years Into 1991

Three years ago this past Thursday, I began the 1991 APBA baseball replay I'm currently rolling and will probably be involved with for a while. If I have time after work tonight, I'll roll game 1,414 in the season, Milwaukee vs. Texas, and be about two-thirds through the season. It's the slowest I've ever progressed in a replay and I have plenty of reasons.

It's called life.

Since this season kicked off, I found love in northern illinois, lost a job I had for nearly 20 years, got two more jobs, bought a new air conditioner for the home, bought a new car, went to the emergency room for a health issue that's still giving me issues and got older.

It's part of the journey that these season replays take us on. While we roll the games and look at the past, we move into the future each day. We recreate something that has happened before as we play the games -- in my case something that occurred 27 years ago -- while forging ahead into new events. And maybe, somewhere down the road, I'll be replaying the 2018 season, replicating my future, which by then has become the past.

I tossed the first game on Aug. 16, 2015, in the quietness of my still home. It was a Sunday and I had spent the weekend getting the lineups and schedules ready. I planned to toss a few games to kick off the season before heading to bed.

A week later, I called a girl who lived just north of Chicago who I had met through a mutual friend. A month later, I drove up there to meet her and promptly fell head over heels. I drove up there 17 more times in about eight months. In June 2016, less than a year after this replay began, she moved to Arkansas with me. Suddenly, the games took a back seat. I had a life.

A month later, the air conditioner in the house conked out. It was a great way to welcome a northern girl to Arkansas: turn off the air and let the summer heat take hold. Then, two months later, I got pretty sick and ended up in the emergency room where doctors talked about kidney infections and possible cancer and organ issues and all. I've gotten much better, but there are still days when I feel pretty rough.

A car I had for eight years finally gave up the ghost and died in October 2016. Must have been all those drives to Chicago.

A year later, I was laid off of my newspaper job and took a huge financial punch to the gut. Since then, I've found another newspaper gig and I have a second job to help make ends meet. I've had nine days off since Feb. 24 and I feel that. I have learned to really, really hate the alarm clock, having to rely on to wake up each day.

But the game is still there and I can find some time to keep rolling. I can get a quick game or two in while Holly does the make-up and hair routine in preparation for going out. (Okay, guys, you know what I'm talking about. I can probably get a complete World Series replay done in the time it takes her to get ready)

Tomorrow morning, we'll load up head to Chicagoland again to visit my sweetie's mother, my 25th trip there since beginning this replay.

When I return, the game will be on the table waiting, just like it was when I came back from my first trip up there a month after I started the replay.

This season will be finished eventually and then 1947 is up next. I sound like I'm trying to knock out these games as fast as I can, and on one level that's true. I know they say that the journey is half the fun to the destination and I agree. This 1991 season, like all I've done in the past, is enjoyable. But as I get older the realization of mortality sets in more and I know I have many, many more seasons I'd like to do. And when I do replay those seasons, life will continue to happen.

1991 update: Aug. 5, 1991

Finally, I have gotten around to doing an update for the 1991 APBA baseball replay I'm doing. This is the slowest seasonal replay I've ever done. Usually, I can knock out a full season in about 18 months (or less if it's a pre-1969 divisional season). But I am soon to reach three years on this project. I began rolling the 1991 season on Aug. 16, 2015. I've picked up the pace of games a bit lately, but I still have a ways go to.

It's not because the season is boring. Instead, I've gotten a life. I've written about how life changes during a replay. We elect new presidents, some get new jobs, move away, buy new cars, have health issues, whatever. A lot has happened in my world just after I rolled the first at bat for this 1991 season. A week later, I headed for northern Illinois and those who've read this blog in the past know that story. Now, I'm a domesticated guy, going to the store with my sweetie to buy lotions and to look at bedspreads and towels and all. I could probably roll a complete game in the amount of time we stand at the fingernail polish section of Wal-Mart.

But, I still find a way to fit in a few games and still enjoy this season. And, like all other replays I've done, I'm finding personalities of teams are shining through.

First, the standings through Aug. 5, 1991

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East Division W   L   GB

Toronto       68    35     --
Milwaukee  56   49   11.5
Boston         55   50   12.5
Detroit         51    54   16.5
New York     44   58    21
Baltimore     41   63    26
Cleveland     32    72    35

West Division   W   L   GB
Minnesota        65    42    -
Seattle               62    44   2.5
California         56    49     8
Chicago             55    49    8.5
Kansas City      54     50   9.5
Texas                 47     55   15.5
Oakland            47     60    18

NATIONAL LEAGUE
East Division      W    L     GB
Pittsburgh           68    35     -
St. Louis              62    42   6.5
New York            56    48   12.5
Philadelphia       43     61   25.5
Chicago               41      63   27.5
Montreal             33      71   35.5

West Division    W    L    GB
Atlanta                 71     32      -
Cincinnati           60     43    11
Los Angeles         56    48    15.5
San Diego            53     52     21
San Francisco     42     62   30.5
Houston               38    66    33.5

And the leaders, so far:
American League
Home Runs: 40, Canseco, Oak; 34, Buhner, Sea; 30, Thomas, Chi
Wins: 17-1, Erickson, Minn; 16-7, Tapani, Minn; 15-7, Clemens, Bos
Saves: 20, Reardon, Bos; 19, Harvey, Cal; 19, Montgomery, KC
National League
Home Runs: 29, Mitchell, SF; 28, Dawson, Chi; 25, Strawberry, NY
Wins: 22-0, Glavine, Atl; 19-2, Leibrandt, Atl; 15-6, Tewskbury, StL
Saves: 24, Dibble, Cin; 22, Howell, LA; 18, Belinda, Pit

Two things stand out immediately. Check out Atlanta's pitching. Glavine and Leibrandt are a combined 41-2 for the Braves! It's hard to not run away with the division with that kind of record on the mound. The Braves have gone 12-3 in their last 15 games. Cincinnati won seven of its last eight games, but 11 games back in early August is a large hurdle to overcome. The only other interesting things about playing National League West teams is if Mitchell will get hot and start hammering home runs again like he did early on in the season and if Fred McGriff will pick it up for the Padres.

Pittsburgh looks like a lock to take the East as well. Montreal continues to be dismal, despite having some good players. They can hit and run, but, oh that pitching. There has been some hope for the Expos as of late. They've gone 5-5 in their last 10 games, better than that 3 for 10 stuff earlier in the season. I cannot understand the Mets this season. The team is overachieving, winning a lot of games in come-from-behind fashion. But, just when I think they may make a run, they fall apart. For instance, they've won one of their last seven games. Before that, they embarked on an eight-game winning streak. Pittsburgh has gone 7-3 in the Pirates' last 10 games, compared to St. Louis' 5-5 mark. The two teams still have eight games against each other and the late season could become interesting if the Pirates falter and St. Louis can put together a good streak.

Cleveland now has the distinction of being the worst team in the league, surpassing Montreal for futility. The Indians helped their downfall by winning only three of their last 20 games and are on a seven-game losing skid. Meanwhile, Milwaukee has gone 10-3. Detroit, which seemed to present a decent challenge in the East at the beginning of the season - fueled by Mickey Tettleton's bat - has won only two of its last 12 games. Boston has won two of its last 10, giving Toronto, basically, the free pass to the divison crown.

Minnesota and Seattle continue to play close. Just as the Twins began taking off and Seattle began slipping, the Twinks went 6-4 while the Mariners took eight of 10. The two teams will play each other six more times. It may be the best pennant race of the season.

So, I play on to see what happens. Will Canseco hit 61 or more home runs? He was hot for a while and then just stopped. Then, he hit one in early August, prompting speculation that he'd be back on track. He then struck out three times in that game. But, he hit two more on Aug. 4 against the Twins, bringing his tally to 40.

Will Glavine lose? Can he go 30-0? Will Montreal find a way not to lose 100 games? Will Ron Dibble save 50 games for the Reds?

A lot of questions still remain in this season and I'll begin getting answers as the season progresses - as long as I can stay out of the fingernail polish aisle for a while.

　

　

　

　

The Write Thing To Do

When I first entered the Arkansas school system I learned how impacting the written word was, and although it involved disciplinary action and the shame of my parents, it was an empowering moment.

Now, 44 years later and a career of writing, I think back on that time and where all this may have begun.

We had just moved from northern Minnesota to Arkansas in April 1974 and in a momentary lapse of reasoning, my parents decided to enroll me in the nearby rural school for the final six weeks of eighth grade. That way, they said, I could make friends early on and be prepared for the full school year the following fall. I tried to tell them that I would have to go through it all again in September, the 'new kid no one wants to deal with' routine.

I couldn't understand the Southern dialect and I am sure they had trouble with my clipped, Minnesotan, ya betcha. I was pretty much shunned as a nerd, a classification I held onto for most of my high schooling there. But, they could understand the written word and I found some success early on. My English teacher, a Southern belle of her own, would read my writing assignments to the class, saying they were good examples; my words sounded odd in her twang, but at least I was getting some validation.

So, I wrote more. And this is where I got into trouble. I was still somewhat miffed at having to have moved from Minnesota down to this rural, Ma and Pa Kettle country and I vented in writing.

I wrote a satirical travel brochure for the high school. "Come hitch your horse up to the post and come on in," I penned. I mentioned something about the Southern IQ being lower than a snake's belly and how there was no electricity in the school buildings and the only facilities were outhouses. I probably noted how everyone seemed related to everyone and how the graduating class of 33 (36 if you counted the babies the classroom mammas-to-be were totin' around) would hold its ceremony in a barn. Stuff like that.

A student read it and laughed and passed it on to someone else. Somehow, it ended up in the English teacher's hands. She didn't read it out loud. Apparently she didn't think it was an example of decent writing. Instead, she took it to the principal's office.

The principal then called my parents and we had a conference. "It's just a joke," I tried to reason. He didn't see the humor in it and planned to suspend me. My parents pled, saying if I missed any school, there'd be a chance I'd not be able to progress to the next grade due to my move from Minnesota so late in the school year. He rescinded, thinking an extra year of me would not fare well for him. Instead, they placed me on some type of probation.

"You won't be writing anything like that here again," he admonished.

The punishment was understood, but I also gained an insight into the impact of writing. I had caused an emotion, albeit not the greatest one for a nerdy, shy kid to endure. But, still, it was a learning experience and isn't that was school is all about?

A year later, I was still writing. While playing keep-away with some kid's hat, I accidentally knocked over a concrete statue in the middle of a schoolyard fountain. An angel atop the thing teetered and then fell, splitting in pieces; its wings clipped, its halo missing. I would have snuck away, but the fact that about 200 other kids spent the lunch break in the yard and saw me be stupid with Cupid, I couldn't. Instead, I fessed up to the same principal who scolded me earlier. I'm sure after dealing with me again, he checked to see that his Rolaids supply was replenished.

I was ordered to clean up the mess and later I wrote a story about it all. I wrote it like a police report, complete with the dry police officers' verbiage and made up accounts from Witness 1 and Witness 2. I gave it to a friend who, unbeknownst to me, gave it to the school newspaper advisor who, unbeknownst to me, published it in the paper. Later, again unbeknownst to me, she entered it in an Arkansas high school newspaper contest. I won third place in the state in feature writing.

Two extracurricular writings at the school, two reactions. The die was set. I was going to write.

I followed that path into journalism and for 36 years now, I've made a living (somewhat) by writing what others do and tell me.

Journalism is not as fun as the real writing all writers want to do. There's little choice in what we write at papers. Yesterday, for example, I wrote a feature obituary on the former owner of the newspaper where I now work, a piece on the state department of education's decision to no longer mandate journalism be a required elective in high schools, a follow up on a Hepatitis A investigation at a local restaurant and a feature on two people wanting to create a museum to honor the area's musical heritage. Interesting, but not very creative.

That's why I like writing on this blog for the past several years. There's always something to delve into when playing the APBA games. Stats, certain players, memories created by the game. And, I know that when I write here, I won't be up for any suspensions

Oh, Say, Canseco

There are times during APBA baseball season replays when some players far exceed their actual statistical performance, clubbing more home runs, having a far better batting average, winning more games on the mound then their real-life counterparts.

And there are times when they don't produce as well as expected and for whatever reason have stats lower in the game than they did in real life.

When I replayed the 1998 season, that steroid-laced slugfest between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, both performed even above their actual tallies. McGwire ended up with some inane tally of 76 or so (I'm not at home to check my past season stats). Even San Diego Padres outfielder Greg Vaughn outdid his real self in that replay, hitting more than the 50 he did in the actual season.

But when I rolled 1957, I anticipated a lot more from Mickey Mantle. He was coming off his Triple Crown season of 1956 and I expected his APBA card to reflect that. The cards, for those of you uninitiated in APBA games, are created based upon player's real hitting and fielding tendencies. A home run slugger in the real game will have a card that should produce a lot of home runs in the replay game. Inversely, a player with a ton of strikeouts, like, for instance, Rob Deer in the 1991 season, will have several "13s" on his card, the corresponding number to a whiff.

Then, there are also the times when APBA players perform outstandingly for part of a season and then "cool off" during another part. Think Reggie Jackson and that 1969 season of his. By July 31, 1969, he had 40 home runs in the real game and was on pace to beat Roger Maris' season record of 61 homers. But then his bat shut down. He only hit seven more home runs during the year.

That's happening with Jose Canseco in my 1991 replay currently underway. By May 31, 1991, in the replay, Canseco had 16 home runs. In June, he hit 15 more and at the All-Star break, he sat with 32 home runs. There was a time when I knew he'd hit a home run whenever I rolled the dice. A toss of "66," the universal home run result, would seem to show up constantly. Or, if someone was on base, Canseco's result would be a '5,' meaning a roundtripper in that situation.

But then his bat went quiet and now, as I reach July 31, 1991, Canseco has 35 home runs for the season. After hitting a home run on July 1, he didn't put one in the stands until July 15 - a two-week stretch with naught a clout. He's also batted .223 for the month of July. Before the All-Star break, and I've not tallied the stats and am only guessing based on observation, Canseco hit over .300.

All that to say, this is what drives this APBA game in our lives from childhood through adulthood. Most of us began playing the game at an early age, thrilled just to be holding the cards and feeling some slight, personal connection with our childhood heroes. It stuck with us, though, as we left that age of innocence and evolved into more adult skepticism, wariness and cynicism. That thrill is still manifested in the cards. We may be old and void of much of the youthful hope, but the cards still offer a spark of that.

If the cards played out exactly as the ballplayers did in real life, really, what would be the point of playing the game? There's always that outlier, that oddity of some player that stands out. Sure, the game is based on math and many players' replay stats will be similar to their actual seasonal numbers, but there's so much more. There's Canseco in a slump, Mantle not playing up to expectations, substitutes doing extraordinary things (for a while, it seemed whenever I put in Dave Bergman at first for the 1991 Detroit Tigers to give Cecil Fielder a rest, he'd go 3 for 5 with a home and double) and others excelling far beyond their statistical realms.

There's more than two months remaining in my 1991 replay. Will Canseco get hot again? Is Maris' 61 home runs still the record for the season (pre-2001 Barry Bonds)? Will some other player suddenly stand out for the rest of the season? It's why we keep rolling the games.