A Tale of Two Cities

Teams in two cities are making impacts during the first month of my 1947 APBA baseball replay.  Boston and Philadelphia, two of the five cities then that featured teams in both leagues, are pretty much book-ending the standings so far.

The Boston Red Sox, fueled by Ted Williams’ amazing start (.429 8HR 20 RBIs), Tex Hughson’s 4-0 month on the mound and Robert Klinger’s three saves, have given the team the lead in the American League. The Sox are also serving notice to New York that the Yankees might not win the League by 12 games as they did in the real season.

Boston is now 14-6 for the year, 1.5 games ahead of both the Yankees and Detroit Tigers. Their National League counterpart, the Boston Braves are also challenging the lead with a 15-8 record. That’s good enough for second place behind the surprising St. Louis Cardinals’ 15-5 record so far. In the real 1947 season,  the Cards were 6-14 after 20 games and ended up in second place by season’s end.

The Braves had a seven-game winning streak in my replay and, after losing two to the Cardinals in their last series, they beat St. Louis, 6-2, in a quick game I was able to get in after stumbling home from work late last night.

The bats are carrying Boston. The Braves have only hit six home runs, with Robert Elliott’s two leading the team.  Pitching is the Braves’ forte, with Warren Spahn going 4-0 and Johnny Sain at 3-2 by the end of May 5. Outfielder Thomas Holmes leads Boston with 17 RBIs so far.

The Braves’ decent start is not that much of a surprise. Remember, a year later, the real 1948 Braves went to the World Series with the mantra “Spahn and Sain, and pray for rain.”The Red Sox finished third in the actual 1947 season, but if they continue to play like they have so far in this APBA replay, it should be a good American League race.

On the other end of the standings, the other city – Philadelphia is mired down, although the Phillies have had a sudden surge, moving out of last place by winning six of their last seven games after starting off losing seven of their first 11.

How the Phillies are doing it is a mystery. Catcher Andy Seminick has 20 RBis and five home runs, including a grand slam, but the rest of the team has been hit and miss. The team is similar somewhat to the 2011 Cardinals with various player stepping up at needed times. That’s by no means saying I think the Phillies will challenge for the League title. Schoolboy Rowe is 4-1 on the mound so far. It’ll take more the Rowe and Seminick to pace the Phils.

There’s no question the Philadelphia As are a struggling team. Ace Philip Marchildon is 1-4, Richard Fowler is 1-3 and Joe Coleman has yet to win a game in three decisions. Sam Chapman leads the As with two home runs and Barney McCosky has nine RBIs.

Two cities. Two directions. Meanwhile, a third city, New York, may have something to say as well. The Yankees are, well, they’re they Yankees. And the Giants are lurking behind Boston in the National League hoping to make some noise as well.

Two-Home Run Games

Other than Ralph Kiner, Johnny Mize and Ted Williams, the 1947 baseball season wasn’t really known for the long ball. In fact, only five players in the league that year hit more than 30 home runs. Four were in the National League.

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ left fielder Kiner and the New York Giants’ first baseman Mize tied with 51 each; left fielder Willard Marshall, also of the Giants, hit 36; and Walker Cooper, the Giants’ veteran catcher, hit 35 homers.

Williams led the American League with his 32 clouts.

It’s a far cry from recent seasons when players hitting 50 home runs are almost common. By comparison, the steroid-soaked 1998 season featured 32 players with at least 30 home runs.

The 1947 season is much tamer. For those not initiated with APBA games, the company creates cards for players. Rather than pictures, the cards contain numbers that are statistically based upon their actual season’s performance. If a player has the proclivity to strike out, there will be more “13s” on the card, numbers signifying strike outs. Home run hitters are given “1s,” “power numbers,”   that indicate home runs.

Ralph Kiner,left, and Johnny Mize

But, there’s something that happened in that era that I’ve taken notice while replaying the first month of the 1947 season with the APBA game.  I’ve had three players in the replay have two-home run games so far. I’ve reached May 4, a day when most of the teams are playing Sunday doubleheaders, and have had three players each hit two homers in a game.

Not a lot when comparing my replay to the real 1947 season. By May 4 in the actual year played, eight players had two-home run games and Mize had a three-home run outing. Two players to do this – Jeff Heath and Wally Judnich – were with the less-than-powerhouse St. Louis Browns.

In my 1947 replay, Cardinals’ catcher Del Rice was the first to hit two home runs in a game against Cincinnati. Of course, Ted Williams had to have his own time, belting two against hapless Washington on the way to his league-leading eight home runs for the season so far. And, the icon of home runs that year, Mize, hit two for me against Brooklyn.

It’s still early to see if the trend continues. I’ve only played about 160 games of a 1,232-game season, or 13 percent. Joe DiMaggio has gotten off to a slow start in my replay and is due for a big game. Mize and Kiner, with their power cards, are always a potential for multi-dinger games. The other night, Ron Northey hit a home run for the Cardinals early in a game I was rolling. Northey had a two-home run game on May 4 for the real Cardinals and I was waiting to see if he’d do it in the replay. He didn’t.

The 1947 season is a balance of home runs, clutch hitting and decent pitching. I’ll keep watch to see if others in my replay have multi-home run games. It’s yet another reason to play this game.

Being Pen-sive

The red and white die and the player cards are key parts of the APBA game. Actually, they are the most important aspects of the replay. Without them, for example, I’d never know if Ted Williams could bat .400 in my 1947 APBA baseball replay, if Bob Feller could strike out the side in the ninth inning of a close game or if the Yankees and Dodgers could each make it to the World Series.

But another vital element of the game is the pens we replayers use. You’ve got to have a decent writing utensil to record statistics, keep score and set up replays.

As a former news reporter for more than three decades, I’ve become an aficionado of pens. You can’t be hindered with a dragging ballpoint pen when scribing quotes from some fast-talking politician or from a poignant source in a spot news story. 

I first learned the importance of pens when covering football at a small Arkansas weekly newspaper. I used to rely on felt-tipped black markers. They were thin-pointed and easy to use, gliding over my notebook quickly. I covered one game in a blinding rain storm in the western edge of the state, though. The black ink, looking really nice when first on the page, began running when the notebook became soaked. The ink blurred and looked like those advertisements that depict cheap women’s mascara that runs when wet.  My story that week, alas, was pretty much devoid of any exciting game details and relied only on statistics provided by the coach the following day.

I also had to have pens that, after hastily jotting down comments, I could read later. Mike Huckabee was the fastest-talking governor of Arkansas. Jotting his quotes required a strong wrist, decent penmanship and an ability to transcribe hieroglyphics.

So, after years of using  pens in the workplace, I’ve become pretty particular with them.

And, because I have a tad bit of OCD, I use black and blue ink pens for different aspects of a replay. I’ll rely on a blue pen to create team pages. I’ll write every game the team plays – in the 1947 season, that’s 154 games – for each team. Then, when I play the games, I’ll write the scores in using black in. I also set up my stat pages, albeit somewhat limited, the same way. Blue ink for names, black ink for home runs, wins and saves. And this year, I’m including RBIs as well. In black ink.

I also use a pencil for compiling standings. That way I can erase team wins or losses after games and only change the standings page out after a month of games are replayed.

I’ve found that some of the cheaper pens are the best. I used to scamper to a Dollar General to buy college-ruled paper, index cards and pens when I planned to start a replay. Now, I head to three places for pens, and they are all free. 

I used to grab up pens whenever I visited a friend in the hospital near my home. The hospital kept a cup of blue pens near the entrance and I’d pick one up on the way in and one on the way out. Once, my friend had a lengthy stay there and I got a dozen pens that I’m still using.

My bank also has great pens. I’ve got several pens with a bear emblazoned on the side; the bank used to have a bear logo.

And the church I attend has great black ink pens that I pick up.

There is some guilt, though, in getting those pens. Each place has eyes watching. The hospital and bank have security cameras and the church, well… you know who’s watching there. But they are there for customers, so I rationalize. Call it APBA advertising akin to the billboards you see on outfield walls.

Replays are long ventures. You’ve got to have decent pens to make the journey a tad easier. You can grab the good ones up at churches, hospitals or banks … as long as they aren’t chained to a teller’s desk.

Replay Update: April 30, 1947

After whining here yesterday about not having any time to roll games, I went home last night, tossed two and completed the first month of the 1947 APBA baseball replay I’m doing. Actually, it’s not really a month since that season began on April 15. Make it half a month, but at least April is done and I’m getting a feel for how the season is going.

Each replay is a great learning experience. I just finished the 1991 season, a year full of home runs and high-scoring affairs. This year, it’s different. There are fewer home runs and more walks. And scores, for the most part, are lower as well, although I’ve had a few double-digit contests so far with 1947.

I’m also learning the players and their abilities. I knew most of the 1991 players from being alive during that real season. In 1947, other than a handful of stars on each team, I was relatively ignorant about the players then. That’s one of the fun parts of APBA. You see some of the tendencies of players as the season progresses.

So, with April games finished, here are the standings:

AL                  W      L   GB.
Boston            11    5    -
New York       11    5    -
Detroit           9       7    2
Cleveland      8       6    2.5
Chicago          7      9    4
St. Louis         7      9    4
Wshngton      5     10   5.5
Phil’phia         4     11   6.5

NL                   W      L    GB

St. Louis         11     3      -
Boston           12     5     0.5
New York        9     6     2.5
Brooklyn         8     7      3.5
Cincinnati       8     9      4.5
Chicago          5     10    6.5
Phil’phia         6    11     6.5
Pittsburgh      4    12     8

Ted Williams leads the American League with six home runs and is batting .414. His 16 RBIs are one behind league leader Phil Rizzuto of the Yankees.

Three New York Giants are tied with five home runs to lead the National League. They are Walker Cooper, Willard Marshall and Johnny Mize. Ralph Kiner of Pittsburgh has four home runs – the same number of wins as his hapless Pirates. I’m keeping RBI stats this year but, because I forgot who’s leading the National League and am at work now and have no access to my stats, I can’t list the NL RBI leader.

I’m also keeping detailed batting stats for the two signature players of that era: Williams and Joe DIMaggio. Williams has his above .400 average and Joltin’ Joe is hitting at a .349 clip. DiMaggio was the first player to drive in a run in my 1947 replay, but he’s been quiet since. He also has no home runs so far. In the real 1947 season, DiMaggio hit his first home run on April 20 against the Philadelphia As. He didn’t get his second homer until May 13.

Both the Yankees and Red Sox won their first four games of the replay and it looks like there’ll be a close fight the entire season between the two.  At the bottom of the American League, the Philadelphia As were shut out in three of the team's first four games, outscored 22-2.

As for team home runs, it’s a lot less than the teams that blasted away in 1991. So far, the Giants, with the trio of Mize, Marshall and Cooper, lead all teams with 22 homers. St. Louis is next with 16 and Pittsburgh has 15, anchored by Kiner and Hank Greenberg. The National League has 80 home runs total so far. 

The American League, led, surprisingly by Cleveland’s 11 home runs, has 67 total. Just as Boston and New York are tied in the American League, both teams are also knotted in total home runs with 10 each.

So, April is finished and now we head into May. It really looks like a good, fun season to replay.

Seven Days a Week

It’s hard to knock down many games in my 1947 APBA baseball replay while working seven days a week, but it’s a task I’m faced with. After I was laid off from my newspaper job two years ago, I fell back into a financial pit that I have feared since I was an adult.

I hired on at another newspaper and then in May took a job totally out of my career in order to make a living. And, I got a second job -- a part-time, weekender where I work 12 hours a day. There’s not much time to roll games unless I stay up late and, because I work seven days a week, I’m not as deft at staying awake much.
Ask my Illinois girl, Holly. We’ll be sitting on the couch at 9 p.m.  watching Dateline on NBC when she’ll turn to me to talk about the show.  I’m out, like one of the victims Keith Morrison is always profiling. All I need to complete the scene is a chalk outline ‘round my body, police tape sealing off the sofa and Morrison’s quirky dialogue. “He often rolled the dice in his baseball replay, but this time, the dice rolled him,” he’d say.

I’ve played the 1947 replay now for seven weeks and have rolled 128 games so far. That’s an average of 2.6 games a day. Not too bad, but there was a time when I could average half a dozen games each day. 

So, it’s tough to maintain the pace I like. When you can play five or six games a day, you really get the feel of the season and how it actually went day-by-day in the real world.

But, like I said so many times before, the game is always waiting for us. It’s a game that’s made the transition with us from childhood to adulthood and it’s remained a mainstay for us. No other game, I can say assuredly, has kept the popularity that APBA has through our lifetime.

And, on a side subject, although I don’t play the game as often as I’d like, it’s still there in some form. I was feeling kind of down and tired the other day at my weekday job. I strive to make money and to provide a decent life for Holly and, because I am somewhat a defeatist, I never feel I do good enough. But, a person who works in the same building as I and who also plays APBA, stopped in the office and asked how 1947 was doing. We talked about players and teams and, of course, Jackie Robinson and it perked me up. I have never met anyone else in person who plays the game. Here’s a guy who’s in the same building just one floor down. The game picked us both up and carried us through the day. I went home and rolled a few games and really enjoyed it.

Replays are an adventure meant to be enjoyed, not a task that has to be completed at a certain time. But there are so many games left ahead and each one contains something new to experience. Will Johnny “Big Cat” Mize and Ralph Kiner each hit 51 home runs in my 1947 replay like they did in real life? Will Ted Williams flirt with batting .400? Can the Red Sox challenge the Yankees, like they are doing now in my replay? Lots of questions that are hard to answer when working seven days a week.

Mow is Me

I declared my lawn mower dead a few weeks ago when I attempted to start it and it mocked me.

It did that slow “chug-chug-chug” noise like an evil chuckle before the engine quit. I tried pull starting it several times, raising blisters on my hand and nearly yanking my arm out of socket only to hear that chugging. The noise sounded like the mower was laughing. “Yeah, sure, you’re going to get this started,” it said. “Heh-heh-heh-heh.”

Half of my front yard was cut when the mower gave up the ghost. I tried repairing it. For some reason, I have a talent for fixing lawn mowers. I can’t balance a checkbook or tie my shoe normally, but I can repair a Briggs and Stratton small engine blindfolded. It’s like when God was dishing out the skills, he pointed at me and said “Lawn engine repair.” I would like to have bargained that my chosen talent could have been business savvy or professional athlete or some other money-making gift. However, negotiation, alas, was also not the talent I was deemed with, either.

I stood in the yard, looking at the half-mown yard (half-grassed?)  and realized I had no other option but to roll out a 70-year-old rotary mower to finish the job. For some reason, during Holly’s move  from Illinois to here, we were able to bring along her grandfather’s Scotts’ Silent  “reel mower.” The rotary mower, for those who are less than 90 years old, is the type with no engine. Blades rotate along the wheels’ axle, quietly clipping the grass. I think Pa on “Little House on the Prairie” was the last to use one.

It sounded good in theory. I actually embraced the idea at first. I wouldn’t have to buy gasoline, the job would be quiet and peaceful and there’d be a sense of accomplishment in some nostalgic form.  I could free myself from the shackles of subdivision standards and do away with the gas-powered tradition.

So, I rolled the rotary, or “clippy mower,” out and finished the yard. It was slow going and, because the blades were somewhat dull, it wasn’t the greatest cut. But at least the yard was finished and I thought I found something new to do.  I rationalized that I needed the exercise of pushing a heavy wheeled thing around the yard all evening.  Despite my sloth-like existence, I do like the concept of health. It may be somewhat ironic that I love watching the NBC’s “American  Ninja Warrior,” the television show that features constants running through a gauntlet that requires them to crawl hand-over-hand on some narrow beam or to swing on a bar and leap across a pool of water.  My Ninja moves including dragging myself out of the sunken couch in our living room, dodging the cat, weaving among his scattered toys and opening the refrigerator for my giant bottle of Pepsi. Me, a Ninja? None ya’ business.

The following week, I rolled the clippy mower out again. The yard had grown because of several rains and pushing the Scotts’ Silent was difficult. And it wasn’t silent. My noises of exertions and cursing rendered the product’s name moot. It was like pushing a plow through mud without a horse. I’d back up, rear up and go at again, only to clip two or three blades of grass.

I was the neighborhood show, too. I looked like an Amish person. All I needed was suspenders, a long beard and a better attitude than I had .

Some lawn care business guy stopped his truck by our yard to gaze at my work.

“Ain’t seen one of those in a long time,” he said, pointing at the clippy.

“Yeah, there’s a reason for that,” I replied.

I finished the yard in three days. Three days! I’d come home from work, change into the mowing clothes and tackle the yard, trying to get as much done before the light faded … both the sunlight and my own personal  light called my soul.

Finally, I realized my return to the days of yore was not going to work. Holly and I went to a local hardware store last week and I ended up buying a gas-powered mower and returned to the 21^st century. I cranked it up the next day and mowed the entire yard in 40 minutes. No one stopped to point at me and, as far as I know, the mower made no cutting remarks about me. (I know, dumb pun)

How does this all apply to APBA? Well, considering it took three days to mow a yard and adding in the prep time, the showering afterward and the general  tired malaise that followed each session, there was little time to roll games.  By the time I became civilized again, it was late and only enough time to roll a game or two in my 1947 replay before I had to go to bed, get up and do it all over again the following day.

On the day I breezed across the yard with the new mower, I got three or four games in.

Because it’s a Briggs and Stratton engine, I can repair it and keep it running for a long while. Mowing will no longer cut into APBA time.

Mowing.  It’s such a pain in the grass.

1947 Begins

Starting an APBA replay of a new season is always fun and interesting, and I think that’s why most of us do it. It takes dedication and determination to plow through an entire season, rolling the dice game by game, but it is also rewarding.

And, you can learn something along the way. Sure, we know about the “headliners” of whatever season we’re doing. We know all about the Ty Cobbs, Henry Aarons, Mickey Mantles, Barry Bonds et al.  Because APBA is an intellectual game, most of the players are also avid readers as well. I’m sure we’ve all delved into our share of baseball biographies and histories. But, there are also the other, less known players that pop up in a replay and, after rolling many games, we begin to learn their characteristics.
I began rolling 1947 about a month ago after finishing my four-year odyssey of the 1991 season. Based upon my own baseball likes and particulars, this may be the best season for me to replay.

Examples: I’m not one of those “managers” who replaces pitchers for every batter in the late innings. I’m still of the old school of leaving a starter in until he really gets into trouble and then, finally, bringing in a relief pitcher to mop up. I may end up using only three or four pitchers in a game, which works because the APBA company only designates cards for a certain amount of players. Generally, when you buy the basic set, you get nine to 11 pitchers on average. Subtract the regular starters and spot starters and you have three or four relief pitchers.

That said, in 1947, managers didn’t go to their bullpens that often.  New York Yankee pitchers completed 47 percent of the games they started that season. Brooklyn starters finished 42 percent of their contests.  Last year, the Yankees had one pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, complete a game. The other 161 games New York played in 2017 had at least two pitchers.

So, I can leave pitchers in longer and, because it’s that era, I don’t completely skew the game.

There were no designated hitters in 1947, so that lets managers have at least one more element of strategy. Despite my penchant for keeping pitchers in longer, do I pull a starter late in the game and pinch hit for him when it’s his turn to bat?

Home runs are at a premium. It’s not a slugfest like it is today. The National League’s 1947 home run hitters, Ralph Kiner and  Johnny Mize, each had 51 dingers to lead the league. That’s more than enough.  Ted Williams’ 32 home runs lead the American League.

Other interesting observations from 1947 include a lot of walks. Pitchers almost toss as many base-on-balls as they do strikeouts. In the first replay game for the Boston Red Sox, Williams had four walks. In his complete, 2-1, victory over the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller notched six walks to his 2 strike outs.

Scoring varies. In my replay, the St. Louis Cardinals clubbed Cincinnati, 17-0. A few games later, the Pirates edged the Reds, 2-0. Many games are pretty close and entertaining to the end.  In one contest, Brooklyn beat the Boston Braves in 17 innings when, with one out in Brooklyn, Pee Wee Reese singled in Dixie Walker who was on second for the win. Where else can you say something like that but APBA?

And here are a couple of other notes from the first month of the 1947 replay. Fitting, Joe DiMaggio had the first RBI of the season, leading his Yankees to a 10-4 win over the Washington Senators.  Thomas Henrich had a grand slam for the Yanks in that game, too.

Kiner hit a home run in his first game against Chicago. Willliams hit two home runs against Washington. Mize and Terry Moore also had two-HR games.

Williams leads the AL now with four home runs after games through April 27, 1947. Bill Nicholson of the Cubs also has four homers to lead the National League.

And there are a few surprises with the teams. The Cardinals lead the NL with an 8-2 record, 1.5 games ahead of the New York Giants and their 7-4 mark. The Dodgers, those Bums, are, surprisingly, only 5-6. In the American League, sparked by Williams’ early Triple Crown run of 4 HRs, 12 RBIs and .395 batting average, the Red Sox are 8-3 and lead the Yankees, who are 7-5. DIMaggio has yet to hit a home run, but is batting .370 and has seven RBIs.

It’s early in the season and anything can happen as the games progress. But so far, 1947 looks like a very interesting and enjoyable season to do.