Boston Leads the Pack in Mid-June

We are in mid-June 1978, and the Boston Red Sox (40-20) have won 11 of their last 12 games. The Red Sox currently hold a 5 game lead over the New York Yankees & 7 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's not like the Yankees & Brewers have not been playing great themselves. The Yankees have won 7 of their last 9 games, while the Brewers have won 11 of their last 15 games.

Jim Rice continues to tear the leather off the ball, batting .321 with 21 HR & 66 RBI through 60 games. Dennis Eckersley lost his first 4 decisions, but has now won 8 games since, while lowering his ERA to 2.81, while his teammate Mike Torrez (APBA Grade C-Y) is pitching like an 'A' pitcher & above, with a 8-1 record & 1.33 ERA.

The Texas Rangers who swept the Kansas City Royals in Texas (less than a week ago), had a chance to make more ground on the Royals, but squandered that chance by losing a pair in K.C. The Rangers have been incredibly frustrating to their fans, while being outscored 21-11 in the two games. The Rangers' starting pitching outside of Jon Matlack (6-6, 1.95 ERA) has been god awful, with no ERA lower than 5.04. Fergie Jenkins is 3-5 with a 5.68 ERA, and has ruined his few great pitching performances by staying in one inning too long, while spoiling the entire outing.

The Royals, who have won 4 straight, lead the A.L. West by 4.5 games, while the California Angels (who remain in 2nd place) seem to be going in the opposite direction, losing 4 straight. The Rangers are a disappointing 26-31, sitting in 5th place.

The second-year Toronto Blue Jays (16-41) went from bad to worse, by losing 18 of their last 22 games, while the team is now on pace for only 45 wins. Jays starter Jesse Jefferson is 0-9 while sporting a 5.83 ERA. The team's two bright spots in pitching has been Dave Lemancyzk (4-6, 3.88 ERA) and Tom Underwood (3-4, 3.61 ERA & 68 K in 77.2 IP).

Against the Ropes

I'm sure I am not the only one of late, that feels like he's a boxer that got his head bashed in by another boxer, barely standing on my two feet, leaning against the ropes.

Racial tensions are high, the country is fractured, and we are still in the middle of a pandemic.

I'm sorry it's been awhile since I have posted, but I do have some material on the way.

I am still working on the Brothers In Dice: 1978 MLB Replay with my brother Chris, while we are in mid-June for that replay. I have also been working on my new APBA project named AGBA, which I will explain soon enough.

My friend and former roommate at Ft.Gordon, John Lokka surprised me with a gift, by giving me a year subscription to the Society American Baseball Research. I can't thank him enough for believing in my writing, and for his friendship. We reunited after 20 years during a baseball game, last May, between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics at Comerica Park. He also found himself a wonderful girl in Katie, in which they will be marrying sometime soon, in which they are still trying to figure out what to do with all the Coronavirus restrictions and such.

The UAL Draft is coming up next month, but to be honest at the moment I am on the ropes if I want to do a season this fall. If you remember right, the UAL, is a mail-in league of 26 or 28 team league of owners all around the country. With there not likely being a 2020 MLB season, it means at some point the league will have to take a year off. It would be kind of nice, if we just do the draft, and take this fall/winter off (the time period we play seasons) in anticipation for a likely second wave of the virus this fall/winter, not to mention the election, Christmas, in which will likely be difficult to navigate through as it is.

I feel like lately the blog has not shown off my best stuff, and I'm hoping to be rolling again here shortly, plus while writing for the SABR as well.

Let's all keep our heads up, and keep rolling plenty of 66's.

1978 MLB Replay: 2 Months in the Books

My brother Chris and I, have made it to June 1978, with 2 months in the books. In this blog post, I will be sharing the standings & statistical leaders, plus disappointments and surprises from both leagues. I am playing the American League, while Chris is playing the National League. I have been playing with real-life starters and starting pitchers, while he is playing with exact starting lineups and starting pitchers.

The current American League standings are as follows, through June 1st.

The Boston Red Sox (31-19) had themselves a little hiccup recently, losing 6 of their last 10 games, but have been the overall favorite in the American League. The team is solid in all areas: hitting, pitching, relief & fielding, there is not much to not like on this club. 

Every time the New York Yankees get anything rolling their momentum would momentarily get tripped up, but I don't see them falling no lower than 2nd place. There seems to be a significant line in the sand in the A.L. East, in which Boston and New York are on one side, while the other teams in the division are on the other side. The other teams seem to have a serious flaw or two, that makes them hard to considerate a contender. Milwaukee, Baltimore & Detroit at times have their moments, but they certainly are not on the same level as the top two. 

In the A.L. West, the Kansas City Royals are currently on a 6-game winning streak, winning 8 of their last 10 games, while the California Angels have been sliding as of late. The Angels burst out the gate at 7-0, while going 18-7 through their first 25 games. Since then, the Angels are 9-12, with their lineup going mute, while their arms lately have been toughed up a bit. The division also features two surprises, the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. 

The Mariners between May 18th thru May 25th, had winning percentages ranging from .457 to .463, getting within a few games from a .500 record. They are still playing good compared to their real-life counterparts, who were 17-34 at the end of June 1st... In fact, I was 7 games ahead of the real team at one point. The Rangers in real-life finished in 2nd place tied with the Angels, and actually started out of the gate, 2-9... So when my Rangers started 4-7, it wasn't exactly the end of the world, but then right where the real Rangers woke up April 25th, my Rangers continued to struggle. On May 12th, the replay Rangers had an 8-18 record (compared to 14-12, 6 games behind real-life), before winning 7 straight games (winning 9 of their next 11), then lost 7 of 8 games. The Rangers still have time on their hands, and also a fairly newly acquired Bobby Bonds, while waiting on a later arrival in Johnny Grubb (who is currently playing with Cleveland).

The current National League standings, through June 1st.

Believe it or not Cub fans, but your real-life 1978 team was in first place at this point at 24-20. The Montreal Expos are right on track sitting in 2nd place, while the Philadelphia Phillies are shining early (compared to real team hovering at 22-21). The huge surprise in the National League are the St. Louis Cardinals (27-23), 9 games ahead of their real pace, while those Cards finished in 5th place at 69-93. The N.L. West is playing out the same, but the Atlanta Braves are playing even worse in the replay at 12-33 (.267 pct), all on pace for 43 wins if they don't improve at the rate that they are going.

Early on, the National League seems to have more teams that have the potential of making the playoffs, compared to that of the American League. Philadelphia, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Cincinnati & San Francisco all have a chance, compared to Boston, N.Y. Yankees, Kansas City and possibly California in the A.L. 

In the statistical leaders, stars such as Jim Rice and Eddie Murray started slow out of the gate, while some surprises out of the gate in Bruce Bochte, Jerry Remy & Gary Alexander are still sticking around. Rice as predicted is among all the production numbers, while hitting 15 HR & 50 RBI. Alexander hit 12 home runs in April, but has slowed down a bit of late. Bochte has 43 RBI already, compared to his 1978 total of 51. 

The National League hitters are as follows...

The Astros' Jose Cruz is having a solid all-around season, currently batting over .400 with a .410 mark, while also leading doubles (16), on-base percentage (.466) and OPS (1.112). The Reds' George Foster currently leads the majors with 18 HR & 52 RBI. 

Now onto pitching leaders...

The San Francisco Giants are certainly happy on acquiring Vida Blue in March from the Oakland Athletics. Blue leads in most National League pitching categories.

I hope that you all enjoyed this 1978 update, we are now a third through and excited to get June rolling here, and hopefully, hopefully we still have baseball in our nearby future...

Until then keep rolling 66's to kill the time, stay safe my friends!

Texas Lonesome

The Texas Rangers have been a very frustrating team to roll for in my 1978 A.L. Replay. As most of my readers know by now, my brother Chris and I, have been replaying the 1978 MLB Season, while he is replaying the N.L. side of the season. You can follow us on the APBA Between the Lines (Delphi Forum) by the handle "Brothers in Dice."

We both have reached June, and have both had our share of surprises this season. The Seattle Mariners were playing above-par, but have recently came back down to earth, as they have lost 6 of their last 7 games & sit at 21-29.

The Rangers started off slow at 8-18 (compared to 14-12) on May 12th, but then they posted off a league-best (tied) 7-game winning streak, until losing their 2nd game of a doubleheader against Seattle on May 19th, they would lose the next day, but bounce back to win two in a row. It should be noted that the real-life Rangers did start off 3-10 (Apr 8th-24th), and the replay Rangers were 5-8 at the point, 2 games ahead of pace.

At the end of May 22nd, the team was 17-20, much better than 10 days ago at that point. They had the Minnesota Twins for 3 more games (on road), Seattle for 2 games at home & 4 more games at home against the Twins again. So everything was pointing in a positive direction, but then everything went wrong...

Texas would go on to lose 7 of their next 9 games, while the Twins own a 6-2 record against the Rangers this season.  

The May 30th game only emphasized the frustration that comes with rolling for the Rangers. After losing the first two games by 1 run each, the Ramgers were looking to rebound in the third game and appeared to be doing just that. After Rangers starter Fergie Jenkins gave up 2 runs in the 1st inning, he recovered by allowing no earned runs (1 run on a Al Oliver) through the next 7 innings to advance to a Grade A-XZZ. The Rangers were leading 4-3 entering the top of the 9th. After the Twins' Rich Chiles grounded out to lead off the inning, the Twins went to their bench and called on Bombo Rivera to pinch-hit for Glenn Adams (who went 0-for-3), and Rivera would go to second-columns to record a double. Butch Wynegar followed by drawing a walk. With runners on 1st & 2nd, Rob Wilfong rolls a 15-11 for a RBI game-tying single & stolen base. Next batter after that, Hosken Powell rolls into second-columns and hits a two-run double, which would result in Jenkins exit. Paul Lindblad comes in to relief, gets Rod Carew to fly out for out number two, but would allow a RBI single to Roy Smalley (run was charged to Jenkins). Bases would eventually be loaded up for Chiles who kicked off the inning, but would fly out.

The Rangers surrendered 4 runs in the 9th, giving Jenkins a crooked-number in the boxscore on a game that he was pitching pretty good. This has been a bit of Jenkins story all season, a bad inning here-and-there, while being ate up by the home run ball (8 HR allowed). Jenkins is 2-4 with a 5.53 ERA as of May 30th.

The Rangers currently sit at 18-26 in last place, 10.5 games entering June 2nd. The real-life Rangers were 24-22, 6 games ahead of the replay mark. It's certainly not good, but considering that Jenkins should start pitching much better, and that the Rangers will acquire Johnny Grubb at some point in the summer, while the newly acquired Bobby Bonds is still finding his footing in his new threads, I still have faith that this team could become more competitive, and should get into the division hunt.

Grubb is currently hitting .331 with 6 HR & 32 RBI through 37 games for the 21-24 Cleveland Indians. Grubb ranks 4th in batting average & 4th in OPS (.969) in the American League, while his 32 RBI just missed the top 10.

Although the team is batting only .236, the team is batting nearly 30 points higher than it was during its first 26 games, with players like Jim Sundberg, Juan Beniquez & Richie Zisk heating up. Zisk is among the best hitters in the American League, batting .293 with 13 HR & 35 RBI this season.

Pitcher Jon Matlack has been getting betting run support and has improved his record to 4-6 with a 2.04 ERA & 46 K, to go along with his 5 complete games & 2 shutouts.

Seattle Continues to Surprise in 1978 A.L. Replay

The Seattle Mariners in my A.L. side of the 1978 "Brothers In Dice" MLB Replay, continues to surprise, as they are sporting a 21-25 record through 46 games.

Now most people may look at that and think that's not a good record, Shawn! Obviously they aren't even a .500 team.... but when you take in the fact that the Mariners are in their 2nd year of existence and they would go on to lose 8 more games than their expansion predecessor -- finishing 56-106 (.346).

The 1978 Replay Mariners currently have a .457 winning pct, and have lost 4 of their last games. They also started the season 3-9, while I came close a few times at getting them close to that .500 mark.

We are using real game starters, but I am doing the starting lineups as I see, as long as they are the real-life starters of those individual games. One of the obvious moves, was not having Leroy Stanton as the Mariners' clean-up hitter. Stanton came off an expansion season where he led the team with 27 HR & 90 RBI, while batting .275 with a .852 OPS. Unfortunately Leroy followed up that season with a lousy .182 batting average, 3 HR & 24 RBI.

Taking Stanton out of the cleanup slot for 30+ starts, really helps the overall production and flow of the lineup. Whenever Leon Roberts is in the starting lineup, I would plug him in the cleanup spot. Bruce Bochte has been mostly in the 3rd slot, sometimes cleanup, a couple times in the 5th slot.

Bochte is having an amazing season for my replay, batting .341 with 5 HR & 42 RBI in 46 games, while showing no signs of slowing down. I thought he would start coming down to earth around the 30-game marker, and for 8 games or so, I believe he was batting around .250, but then he heated back up. Bochte also has 18 doubles, which I believe is easily leading the American League right now.

I still have to play two more series, while doing about 6 teams' stats, but at the moment Jim Rice (106) and Bruce Bochte are the only two players over 100 total bases at the moment. Bochte is on par, if not playing better than Rice right now.

Bochte in real life batted .263 with 11 HR & 51 RBI -- Bochte is only 9 RBI from that through 46 games, and he still has 94 games to play.

The Mariners' Dick Pole (Grade D) is 5-1 with a 3.72 ERA (55.2 IP), getting touched up his last two outings... but his ERA was hovering around the mid-to-high 2.00 ERA's for awhile. In real life, he went 4-11 with a 6.48 ERA through 98.2 innings... so it appears that in my replay, he is going to outplay reality.

It should be mentioned that their bullpen has blown a combined 8 saves already, so we'll see how they goes moving forward... but at the moment it's all smiles in Seattle.

Jim Palmer Pitches No-Hitter into 10th & Loses Game

Series Recap: The Orioles came close to sweeping Minnesota in Game 2 & handing them a possible 5th straight loss. The Orioles' future Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer was pitching a no-hitter through 9 innings, but could get no run or hit support from his Orioles lineup. The Twins' Dave Goltz was putting on a masterpiece of his own, pitching in his 1st game since April 21st. Goltz allowed only 5 hits, 3 of those 5 his being two-hit doubles. Game 1 had 4 HR by the 2 teams combined, while Dennis Martinez won his 6th game of the year.

Game 2 No-Hitter Bid Breakdown (from Facebook): 

1978 A.L. Replay - MAY 16, 1978

The Baltimore Orioles (16-15) roll into Minnesota to face Rod Carew & the Minnesota Twins (14-20). The Match-up would be a battle of two Grade A-Y starting pitchers - Jim Palmer (entering with a 3-2 record & 3.23 ERA) for the Orioles, and Dave Goltz (3-0, 1.39 ERA), who is just returning from injury -- Pitching for the first time this month.

It ended up playing out as advertised, a battle of wits on the mound. Palmer from the get-go had no-hit stuff, while the Orioles were not doing much better against Goltz. 3 of Baltimore's 5 hits were two-out doubles, while their biggest opportunity may have been in the 7th, with Billy Smith hitting a one-out double, followed by Andres Mora drawing a walk. I'm kicking myself for not pinch-hitting for either Mark Belanger (although defensive 10) and catcher Dave Skaggs, since I am trying to stick heavily with actual games played for the replayed, but I thought even with their anemic cards that they could pull off a hit, or get Smith closer to the plate... but no cigar.

The game goes into the bottom of the 10th, and Roy Smalley breaks up the no-hitter with a double (11-6), while Mike Cubbage followed with a walk-off double (11-0, 36-6) to win the game for the Twins.

This is the 2nd no-hitter that I have had broken up in extras, the other was Nolan Ryan with the 1986 Astros in a 64-game tournament -- broken up by Don Baylor with a walk-off home run for the 1979 California Angels.

I have pitched close to 25 no-hitters in my life, while rolling one perfect game with Don Sutton in my BATS1 season.

Jim Palmer (3-3, 2.92 ERA, 2 CG) gets the loss, while Dave Goltz, not losing any of his stuff after the injury, remains perfect (4-0 in 5 GS, 3 CG, 2 SHO & 1.06 ERA) allowing only 5 earned runs through 42 1/3 innings.

Kicking off the New Year with 1978 A.L. Action!

I got to kick off the New Year with five games in my 1978 A.L. Replay (My brother Chris is replaying the N.L. side). Since I had to go into work early because of New Year's Eve (I work overnights), it meant that I would get off earlier the next day as well.

So after having some New Year celebration brownies with the wife... no, not those kind of brownies. It was time for me to dive back into my 1978 A.L. Replay. It's May 15th, and I already played the Yankees-White Sox & Athletics-Indians game the night before, which left the following games all pre-prepped and ready-to-go....

• Seattle (G.Abbott / D-Z) at Detroit (Slaton / C)
• Boston (Ripley / D-Z) at Kansas City (Gale / B-YW)
• Baltimore (De.Martinez / B-Y) at Minnesota (R.Erickson / C-YZ)
• Milwaukee (Travers / C) at Texas (Jenkins / B-XZZ)
• California (K.Brett / D) at Toronto (Garvin / D-Z)

The Seattle Mariners would go on to defeat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1, with Glenn Abbott having his best game of the season, allowing 7 hits, 1 run & 1 walk through 7 frames. Rupert Jones batted 3-for-5 with a triple, RBI & run. The Mariners (17-19) are currently 5 games ahead of their real-life pace, I believe the major factor is that Bruce Bochte (.336, 4 HR & 30 RBI) has had an amazing start to the season. Another reason, while I do play real-life starting lineup players and use real-life game starting pitchers -- I do make my own lineups with those actual starters. Case in point, I am in no way going to bat DH-Leroy Stanton in the clean-up slot, when he batted only .182 with 3 HR & 24 RBI in 93 games for the 1978 MLB Season, not to mention his piss-pour .514 OPS. 

The Tigers (16-12) have now lost 6 of their last 9 games. At the end of the day, Detroit is still in 2nd place, but are now 3 games back, after an 8-3 start. 

The 1st place Boston Red Sox entered the day with an American League best 22-11 record, but had to face the Kansas City Royals in K.C. with Allen Ripley on the mound. Ripley is now reflecting his Grade D-Z card, after a 1-1, 2.70 ERA start in his first 20 innings of work. The Royals would score 8 runs between the 5th & 7th innings, with Hal McRae's three-run homer breaking the game open 7-1, after the 6th. Tom Poquette's two-run single in the 7th would make it 9-1. 

Rich Gale made things a little too interesting for the Royals. The scoreboard may have reflected 1 run allowed through 8 innings, but he was far from perfect, and kept escaping big opportunities for Boston hitters. By the time the 9th inning came along, Gale's luck ran out, allowing a RBI triple to Jerry Remy, which was followed by back-to-back walks to Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski. With two outs, and the bases loaded, Carlton Fisk cleared the bases with a double. The Royals' skipper saw enough, and brought in Marty Pattin, in a non-save situation, 9-5 lead with a runner on second. Pattin would go on to strikeout Dwight Evans.

Gale (2-1, 4.57) would go on to earn the ugly win, allowing 11 hits, 5 earned runs & 7 walks, while striking out 4 players from Boston. Ripley falls to 1-3 with a 4.95 ERA. 

For Boston, it might be an encouraging sign to see Fisk go 2-for-4 with a BB, 3 RBI & SB during the game. The hits got his batting average over the .200 mark (now at .207), while he finally got over 10 RBI (11)... but his OPS is still just a smidge below .600 for the season.

The 3rd game of the morning was between the Baltimore Orioles (15-15) and the Minnesota Twins (14-19). Pat Kelly back in action for the Orioles, got things rolling early with his 1st home run of the season, a two-run blast off Roger Erickson, to make it 2-0. Doug DeCinces would hit his 12th home run of the season, a two-run homer, giving Baltimore a 4-0 lead through 6 innings. DeCinces' 12 home runs, trails only Oakland's Gary Alexander (13).... Yes, you read that correctly.

The Orioles' Dennis Martinez was cruising through seven shutout innings, getting a grade-bump to an Grade A in the process, but would get touched up in the 8th, allowing a lead-off single & stolen base to Rob Wilfong. Three batters later, Roy Smalley (with 2 outs) would smack a two-run homer, which was then followed up with a solo home run to Mike Cubbage. The game was suddenly 5-3 Orioles, but Martinez would finish the inning without allowing any more damage, while Don Stanhouse (3 blown saves this season) actually slammed the door for his 5th save. 

Smalley's home run is already his 7th of the season (through 34 games), while his 3 RBI now moved him past teammate Dan Ford (22) for the team lead in RBI (24). Smalley in real-life 1978 hit 19 HR & 77 RBI... The replay has him on pace for 33 HR & 112 RBI. 

The O's Martinez improves to 6-2 with a 3.42 ERA & 51 strikeouts through 68.1 innings, while Erickson has had no luck, falling to 1-7 with a 4.83 ERA.

The Texas Rangers defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3 -- Thanks to strong pitching by Fergie Jenkins. Jenkins allowed a two-run homer in the 1st to Sal Bando, then Bando tacked on another run in the 3rd with a sac fly, to give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead at the time... but Jenkins settled on down, not allowing another run through the next 6 innings, earning his 1st complete game victory of the season. The season has not been kind to Jenkins (2-1, 5.63 now) or the Rangers. The Rangers were 8-18 at the end of the day on May 12th, but has now won a season-best three straight games, lifting their record to 11-18. 

The Rangers in real-life actually started off slow with a 3-10 record, but then woke up and won seven straight games. The Rangers' hitters in the replay have finally been coming around with Al Oliver, Richie Zisk and others batting much better, and good things are on the horizon with Bobby Bonds arriving any day now (acquired from the White Sox in exchange for Claudell Washington). The real-life Rangers finished in 2nd place tied with the California Angels at 87-75. At the moment though, the A.L. West Division is between the Royals and the Angels, both at 19-12 at the end of the day. Angels lost, Royals won.

The Angels would lose to the sad Toronto Blue Jays (10-21). The Blue Jays scored 5 runs in the 1st inning, sending up 10 batters. Ken Brett was lousy, while other Grade D pitcher Jerry Garvin (1-4, 5.66 ERA) would win his 1st game of the season. Tony Bosetti who led off all season was moved down to the 6th slot for the game, and hit a two-run triple and RBI sac fly. The Angels have slowed down of late (particularly their lineup), losing 5 of their last 6 games, while in all 6 games they have scored 2 runs or less. 

That concludes a day of 1978 A.L. Replay action, I hope you enjoyed reading the latest. We still have a long way to finish 1978, but it's been a lot of fun so far.

Boston Bullpen Stellar for Red Sox in 1978 A.L. Replay

During my 1978 A.L. Replay (which coincides with my brother Chris' 1978 N.L. Replay / Brothers in Dice), the Boston Red Sox are on top of the American League East with a 13-6 record, while winning 8 of their last 9 games. The big reason for this, is their lights out bullpen, led by closer Bob Stanley.

The Red Sox' bullpen have logged 46 innings of relief already, which is due to some of the starting pitchers (particularly Dennis Eckersley) have been under-performing.

Here is the bullpen, by the numbers...

• 46 innings of work.
• 26 hits allowed.
• Only 8 earned runs allowed.
• 18 K / 12 BB
• 3-1 record
• 5 for 7 in Save Opportunities.
• .826 WHIP [Walks + Hits / Per 9 Innings]
• 1.57 ERA

Stanley (2-0, 0.50 ERA & 3 Saves) has been incredible through 18 innings, while some of his teammates have not been too shabby as well...

• Bill Campbell: 2 SV, 0.00 ERA in 6 IP.
• Tom Burgmeier: 1.04 ERA in 8.2 IP.
• Dick Drago: 1-0, 2.79 ERA in 9.6 IP.

The team's lineup started off slow during the season, especially Jim Rice, who was batting .224 (11-for-49) with no home runs & 8 RBI through his first 10 games, and has since been batting .475 (19-for-40) with 5 HR & 14 RBI.

With the lineup coming around, Boston appears to be the team to beat at this moment in the East, and possibly the American League. Even though Eckersley (Grade A-YZ) has had nothing but bad luck so far (0-4, 4.58 ERA), it has all balanced out with Mike Torrez (Grade C-Y) overachieving with perfect 4-0 record & 0.97 ERA through 37 innings, including 2 shutouts.

Bruce Almighty, Disco Dan & Alexander the Great

The Unusual Suspects: Bruce Bochte, Gary Alexander & Dan Ford.

Not to sound like a broken record player, for those that may not know, my brother Chris and I, are replaying the 1978 MLB Season through APBA Baseball. Chris is using the Master Board Game to replay the Senior Circuit, while I am playing the Junior side of things, using the Basic Board Game with Optional Fielding.

I just finished April 26th on the American League Schedule, and it's been nothing short of exciting.

Three hitters have stood out for the most part in the American League so far, and those three are not your usual big names such as a Jim Rice, Reggie Jackson or Don Baylor at the time. Those three players are Seattle's Bruce Bochte, Oakland's Gary Alexander & Minnesota's Dan Ford.

On the morning of the April 16th Sunday paper, Seattle's Bochte ranked at the top of nearly every offensive category in the American League. Bochte was 4th in batting average (.422), while leading the league in hits (19), runs batted in (16), doubles (5) -- which contributed to a 1.171 OPS [On Base + Slugging]. Bochte is still batting .333 with 20 RBI for the season, but has had no home runs in the last 10 days, while he is batting only .238 (10-for-42) during that span. 

Seattle has been doing much better than their real-life 1978 counterparts at his point, posting a 10-12 record, although it didn't start out all too well, with a 3-9 start... but have since won 7 of 10, while the team owns a 4-2 record against the California Angels. The same Angels that started the season undefeated at 7-0.

The Twinkies' Ford continues to hit above .300 with a a batting average of .345, while knocking in 19 runs, with a .822 OPS. Ford has slowed down slightly, batting .289 (11-for-38), since his .391 batting average on April 16th. Besides Rod Carew (.318 BA) & Dave Goltz (3-0, 1.39 ERA) though, I can't say anything else good about the Minnesota Twins who sit at 9-11, and feel like a much worse team than the record even reflects. Their pitching has been bad (4.80 team ERA).

Last, but certainly not least, is Gary Alexander of the Oakland A's. Alexander has only heated up since April 15th, by hitting .378 (14-for-37) with 7 HR & 16 RBI during the last 11 days. Alexander was batting .318 with 4 HR & 6 RBI entering April 16th. In real life 1978, Alexander started off hot for Oakland as well, earning a spot on the cover of The Sporting News, while he batted .283 with 5 HR & 10 RBI (1.038 OPS) through April 26th. His APBA batting average is certainly up (batting .356) while his HR & RBI doubles are twice as much verses real-life. 

Alexander's 58 total bases equals that of the next two highest total base leaders on the Athletics, combined in Gary Thomasson (32) and Mario Guerrero (26).

I think the truly remarkable thing about Alexander is that he hit 27 HR in 498 at-bats during 1978, between two teams, Oakland and the Cleveland Indians. He is well above that pace at the moment with 11 HR through 15 games (17 Oakland games), while in real-life he finished tied for 8th in HR. With his fast start in the APBA replay, he has a chance to win the HR title while playing for two teams possibly if he someone like Jim Rice under-performs. 

The only other time I was hitting home runs at a crazy clip would be during high school in my brother Jared's 1993 APBA league with Francisco Cabrera hitting 19 HR in 25 games... obviously, we were not sticking to replay rules and were playing a clear J-4 backup with a serious monster card.

Rice has heated up of late, with 3 HR during last 6 games (after none first 11 games), while Andre Thornton for Cleveland just had a 3 HR day that put his season total to 7, trailing Alexander in 2nd place. 

Very likely, Alexander will come back down to Earth, just like Bochte and Ford appear to be doing as of late. A long season has it's peaks and its valleys, it's ups and downs, with teams heating up and cooling off. Players do the same, and very likely Alexander will have his dips as well... but one thing is for sure, no one can ever take away his hot start to this 1978 A.L. Replay.

Batters can't have all the fun, here are three pitchers out-performing their cards as well...

• Dick Pole (SEA / Grade D): 3-1, 2.51 ERA, 17 K & 1.186 WHIP through 5 starts & 28.2 innings of work.

• Mike Torrez (BOS / Grade C-Y): 4-0, 0.97 ERA, 2 SHO, 14 K & 0.892 WHIP through 5 starts & 37 innings.

• Moose Haas (MIL / Grade D-KZ): 1-3, 3.24 ERA, 29 K & 1.160 WHIP through 4 starts & 25 innings. 

The Twenty-Two Inning Affair

I have been playing APBA for a very long time.

I have probably rolled between 20-25 no-hitters (which included one perfect game by Don Sutton), and maybe 7 cycles through about 30 years of playing the game.

I have had teams score 20+ runs in a single game, and I have had a handful of 10+ run innings. I have had pitchers strikeout 20+ in a game. David Cone comes to mind with my brother Jared's 1993 season, in which Cone struck out 23 through 11 innings of work.

Maybe two, three triple plays ever...

I recently rolled three consecutive games all ending in walk-off home runs in the UAL mail-in league that I am in, while I have had a team get 30 hits in a single-game. 

... but I am pretty confident that I have never rolled a game that went to 20+ innings until now. I believe I remember getting to the 19th, thinking this could go 20 innings, and then it ended with a game-winner in the 19th.

My brother Chris and I, are replaying the 1978 MLB Season. I am rolling the American League games, while he is playing the National League games. You can follow on the Delphi Forums through "Brothers In Dice".

This game was between the 8-5 Detroit Tigers and the 5-8 Chicago White Sox, on April 25th (which the real-life game also went to extras, but only half the distance of mine in 11 frames).

Here is my Delphi Forum write-up...

Game Recap: Good thing that this game started out as a day game, because this game rolled on deep into the evening.... The Detroit Tigers prevail in a 22-inning marathon that featured 15 different pitchers in this one. The White Sox never led at any point in this one, while both teams went scoreless for 12 straight innings (from the 9th through the 20th). The Tigers scored first in the 3rd inning, on a double steal, with Ron LeFlore stealing home (while Rusty Staub stole second).. A few at-bats later Steve Kemp hit an RBI double (scoring in Jason Thompson), but an aggressive Staub was thrown out (by LF Ralph Garr) trying for home. The White Sox scored on a RBI single by Eric Soderholm during the bottom of the 3rd, while Jorge Orta tied the game in the 4th on a sac fly. Top of the 6th, Ron LeFlore hits a two-run double off of Chicago starter Francisco Barrios, to give Detroit a 4-2 cushion, but the White Sox answered back with a run in the 6th, and Orta once again, tying the game, this time with a RBI double in the 8th (Tied 4-4).

As mentioned above, the next run would not come until the top of the 21st, The Tigers would have a runner in scoring position in Steve Kemp (reached on single), thanks to wild pitch (Rich Hinton), and fielding error by shortstop Greg Pryor, which all set up a go-ahead RBI single by Tim Corcoran, but a fielding error by the Tigers' shortstop Alan Trammell would put the White Sox in position to tie the game, 5-5, in the bottom of the 21st. Trammell's booted grounder, allowed Pryor to lead off the inning by reaching base, and after moving up to second on a 5-3 ground-out by Garr, Jorge Orta for the third time would tie the game up on a RBI single.

But it would be Orta's error (on a ball hit by Lou Whitaker) in the 22nd that would set the Tigers up for success. Rich Hinton loaded the bases with a walk to Jason Thompson, and then would walk (Kemp) which forced in the go-ahead run (Whitaker) to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead. Third Baseman Phil Mankowski's two-run single, would give the Tigers a three-run lead entering the bottom of the 22nd, in which the Tigers' Steve Baker would hold on for the win. Baker had to pitch 5 innings of relief, in which he allowed 1 unearned run, 2 hits & no walks, while striking out 5 Chicago batters. Orta in a losing effort collects 4 hits, 3 RBI, SF & BB in 8 at-bats. Mankowski had 4 hits in 11 at-bats for the Tigers.

HR: None

2B: Kemp (DET) 1 (1), Staub (DET) 1 (4), LeFlore (DET) 1 (4), Garr (CWS) 1 (1), Orta (CWS) 1 (4)

SB: LeFlore (DET) 1 (9), Staub (DET) 1 (1), Bonds (CWS) 1 (6), Lemon (CWS) 1 (1), Molinaro (CWS) 1 (1)

SF: Orta (CWS) 1 (1)

E: M.May (DET) 1, Trammell (DET) 1, Garr (CWS) 1, Orta (CWS) 1, Pryor (CWS)

WP: Proly (CWS) 1 (2), Hinton (CWS) 1 (1)

Stat Cruncher: Even more extraordinary than no home runs being hit in 22-inning affair, is the fact that no one hit into a double play all game, despite the fact that there was 35 total hits, 15 walks & 5 players reaching on errors.

3 Weeks Later

I have been very busy of late, but things are finally starting to slow down. It was probably the first time in a long time (or first time ever), that I only put out two posts for a single month. I still have many of the posts that I plan to do, as mentioned in my June 7th post.

I have not rolled any games via APBA in some time, I actually had a great jump start on the 1978 A.L. Replay, in which I got so far ahead that I was using a Microsoft Word file as a write-up queue. I was trying not to get ahead of my brother Chris on the National League side of the 78' MLB Replay. Now I only have a few write-ups in the queue, while he has passed me on games played, while he is almost two days ahead of me. It should be noted that the National League have two fewer teams, and that will mean less games overall for him to play.

My pace has slowed down incredibly from the rate I was playing at. As noted in my May 9th post (1978 Brothers In Dice: Out of the Gate), I rolled 47 games, including write-ups and stat-keeping between Easter (4/20) and May 9th. I have since rolled 41 games, have all the stats caught up, while needing to write about 5 write-ups. I have probably not rolled any games in almost three weeks, as well as not writing any blog pieces in that time as well.

The reason was the wear-and-tear of regular life, working 6 day weeks (which just got cut back down to 5 day weeks).

Also the fact that summer is starting to feel like summer, which means going out with the wife a little more to take advantage of the weather.

I have not been able to do anything with my Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League site (Wix site) since the season basically started, while just going through the motions by sending out C-Files and receiving F-Files -- without any special write-ups or sprucing up the league. I really hit the wall with that league, and had the commissioner keys dropped back into my lap, with no time on my hands.

Plenty to come, but it definitely should not be another three weeks until you hear from me again.

1978 Replay vs 1978 MLB - Standings April 15th

1978 Brothers in Dice: Out of the Gate

As I mentioned in previous post, my brother Chris Baier and I, are replaying the 1978 MLB Season together, with him playing the National League, and with me playing the American League. I have already rolled 47 games since Easter, and that involves about 38 games logged in the team-by-team statistics & write-ups for about 33 of those games (27 of those games reported on APBA's Between the Lines Delphi Forums.

So if you are following me on "Brothers in Dice: 1978 MLB Replay, A.L." on the Delphi Forums, don't read below -- Spoiler Alert!

Here is some of the action so far..

The American League East is already playing out as advertised with 6 teams all within 2 games from one another. At the moment, the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers lead the division with a 4-2 record.

The Tigers have just won their 3rd straight (winning their series finale against Texas, plus two straight against Toronto). The Tigers' Rusty Staub took a little bit to get going, but has been on fire during this streak, batting 7-for-13 (.538) with 3 HR & 10 RBI (He was 0-for-11 during the previous three games). The Tigers consistent leader has been Ron LeFlore, batting .444 with 12 hits, a HR & 4 stolen bases. 

The Brewers' lineup is just sick, it's pretty scary when Gorman Thomas is your 7th hitter in the batting order. The Brew Crew's Larry Hisle is currently tied for the American League with 4 home runs, while being tied with Oakland's Gary Alexander. Personally, I believe this Brewers team is the team to beat in the A.L. East, plus they have yet to plug Mike Caldwell into the rotation, who went on to win 22 games in 1978 with a 2.36 ERA while leading the league with 23 complete games. Caldwell did already win a game through 3 innings of relief in a big 8-6 victory over the New York Yankees.

Caldwell of course, did not win the A.L. Cy Young in 1978, any other year he may have, but he was against a man named Ron Guidry. The Yankees' Guidry (Grade A&C-KZ) for the most part has been spectacular his first two outings, he allowed only 2 hits & 1 earned run, striking out 9 in 9 innings against the Rangers in his season debut, while he was in cruise-control during his 2nd outing, until he stayed in a inning too long & got rocked for 4 runs in the 9th... 

Even so, his season totals are as follows -- 1-0, 3.06 ERA, 21 K & 11 BB (17.2 innings)... The walks are high, but he has only allowed 7 hits, which gives him an excellent 1.019 WHIP still. If you take away the 4-run 9th inning against the White Sox, he has a 1.08 ERA (2 ER) through 16.2 innings. 

The Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals kicked off the season in back-to-back games that went to extras. During the first game, Cleveland pitchers walked 11 Royals, but Kansas City kept stranding their men, leading to extras, but Al Cowens' RBI double in the top of the 11th helped the Royals defeat Cleveland. The next game went 15 innings, the Royals would be triumphant again, but once again K.C. should have put the game away earlier, as they had 16 hits, while Cleveland only had 5 hits!

If things couldn't get worse, both teams would go on to play someone else for their 3rd games, and both would still go to extras... again! This time K.C. losing to Baltimore through 10 innings, while Cleveland lost again, this time to Boston, 2-1. Cleveland lost all three of their first three games in extras, losing by no more than one run. 

Cleveland was only batting .180 through the first 4 games, while their pitching has actually been stellar in the ERA department, with a 1.76 ERA (particularly their starting pitching, 1.09 ERA).

The Boston Red Sox like the Milwaukee Brewers have a monster lineup, and although they are 3-3 and in excellent shape to compete for the division, it so far has not come by the hands of stars such as Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk & Fred Lynn -- who were a combined 8-for-51 (.157), while it has been the two men at the top of their order in Rick Burleson & Jerry Remy, who were a combined 15-for-28 (.536). Remy started the season with three consecutive games with 3 hits each, while he is still batting .423 through 5 games.

Over in the A.L. West, the California Angels were on 7th Heaven with their 7-0 start to the season, until getting blanked by Oakland, 6-0. Through their first 6 games, the Angels were batting .290, while their pitching was lights out with a 1.77 team ERA. They outscored their opponents, 40-11 (+29 Run Differential), even though they only hit 4 home runs. The team has already had three innings of 5+ runs, their biggest being an 8-run outburst in the 4th inning during their 3rd victory of the season, in a 11-0 shutout against Oakland. Bobby Grich has been heating up at the plate, which included a 4-for-5 performance that included a HR, 2 doubles, 5 RBI, 4 runs & a walk.

The Kansas City Royals have been trying to keep pace, and are currently in 2nd place with a 4-1 record. The Angels and Rangers in real-life finished 1978 in second place, and I believe that at the moment, the Royals and Angels should definitely be in the mix. The Texas Rangers in the meantime are not looking like a division contender one bit. They are worst off than the Indians, with a .151 batting average & lousy 5.87 team ERA. Jon Matlack (Grade A-YZ) is the only Rangers pitcher worth talking about, who is currently 0-2 with a 2.55 ERA & 11 strikeouts. 

Two players off to really hot starts, are Seattle's Bruce Bochte is batting .410 (16-for-39) with 2 HR & 13 RBI through 10 games, while Minnesota's Dan Ford is batting .429 (18-for-42) with no HR, but 15 RBI through 10 games. 

Quick Glance at the National League (through 23 games): On Chris's side, I do know that the St.Louis Cardinals opened the season by sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies. The New York Mets won a double-header against the Montreal Expos, to split series 2-2. The Atlanta Braves are off to a surprise 3-1 start, with Gary Matthews hitting his 2nd HR recently.

Brothers In Dice: 1978 Season Replay (Collaboration)

As I have mentioned in one of the prior blog posts, my brother Chris and I will be partaking in a APBA season replay of the 1978 MLB Season. Chris will be playing the National League, I will be playing the American League. 

We decided to do this project shortly after the New Year. 

We have went to a APBA Tournament together before... Chris was runner-up in the 1st Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament in Jackson, Michigan.

Four teams won 90+ games in the American League, all within 9 games or less of each other... even the 5th place Tigers won 86 games that season.

You can follow both of our projects regularly through the Delphi Forums at APBA Between the Lines.My topic is labeled "Brothers in Dice, 1978 Replay, A.L." and Chris' topic is labeled "Brothers in Dice, 1978 MLB Replay, N.L."... or just go to Advance Search, and type brothers in dice.

Highlights, coming soon...