APBA Game Play Preferences

Often it comes up on the APBA Facebook Group... Do you play the Master Game of APBA Baseball, or the Basic Game?

Everyone has their reasons for each one, some love strictly one and not the other. Some are happy with the Basic, and aren't willing to give the other a try, due to things like more dice rolls and time (which is understandable). Some have created different hybrid versions as well, merging the two.

My entire APBA life, I have played the Basic Game, and until the summer of 2016, I never played with Optional Fielding. Now like coffee, I can't even imagine not playing without Optional Fielding... it gives realistic value to any sort of replay, and really ups the importance of players like Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker -- The 1984 Tigers not playing up to par? Play with Optional Fielding and they do very well.

I thought about these posts and discussions, and realized that in my entire time posting that I never really did a blog piece on what my preferences are, and why I prefer certain things. For those that may have been interested or curious in what I like, well here you go...

Basic or Master?

Like I mentioned above, I play Basic with Optional Fielding, while I have now been rolling my personal APBA projects with the APBA Baseball Error Card and Unusual Play Card (from the APBA Journal) since going to the Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament (ran by my friend Ron Emch).

I started playing Optional Fielding back in the summer of 2016, when my friend James Welch showed me quickly during that summer's Chicagoland Tournament how easy and showed me a quick way how to go about using it.

I currently play in the UAL (Ultimate APBA League), which is a cool mail-in league, although I wish they reconsider renaming the league to something else. In that league, we use the Optional Fielding, but I don't use the Error & Unusual Play Card for that league since it is not part of the league's rules. I always follow the league or tournament rules, even if its not exactly how I might play solitaire.

For my 1978 Replay with my brother Chris Baier, we are using actual game starting pitchers and position players. He is using a hybrid system, mostly basic for the National League side, while I am playing Basic with Optional Fielding, while using the Error & Unusual Play Card. You can follow us on the Delphi - APBA Between the Lines forum, under the label "Brothers in Dice." I first came up with "Brothers in Arms" like the Dire Straits song, and he said let's go with dice, which I agree sounds better and makes more sense.

Solitaire Tournament Play or Playing Teams from Different Eras

When I roll projects such as my Amazing April Tournament for example, the home team of that game plays under the rules that their team played under back during that time. For example, if the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers played the 2007 Boston Red Sox at Fenway, both teams are playing under the DH rule. If the 2013 Detroit Tigers are playing the 1968 Detroit Tigers, both teams' pitchers will hit. If those 2013 Tigers though played the 1984 Detroit Tigers at those 84' Tigers' home, back to the DH, and so forth.

I have seen people do their solitaire tournaments due one or the other, strictly DH or strictly pitchers hitting, but I don't recall seeing any doing what I prefer or at least in a real face-to-face tournament. If I was hosting my own face-to-face tournament, I feel the home team gets to play by its era's rules, plus the tournament would definitely have optional fielding and the Error Distribution Card & Unusual Play Cards.

Different Era Cards, for some projects, if a old era APBA 'A' pitching card (pre-K ratings) was to have the result '9' with Bases Empty, I record it as a strikeout instead of the new boards which it is now a ground out.

Another note on my Amazing April Tournaments, I usually go with the first 2 starters alternating from round to round. I have been also working on a tournament, The Tournament of Champions where at least the first 3 starters from each rotation gets work, and the rounds are broken down in series & not single-games.

Rolling Preference 

I used to hand roll, but since I use my arms a lot for my job, and the fact that I am getting older, my elbows started hurting with all the repeated motions. My wife bought me this beautiful dice tower featured in a post named "Rolling into the Holidays", and I now use that, plus dice don't go everywhere.

TOP SECRET -- Upcoming Future Project

Not to be unveiled yet, because this bad boy is going to be my baby... so much to the point, that I believe that this will be my APBA imprint in the community or what I will be known for, when its all said and done.

So with that in mind, I will not reveal the overall concept, although I did share it with my brother and one APBA friend.... shhhhhhh!!!! Which reminds me, you both need to stop by and sign some papers making sure that your lips remain sealed.

It doesn't mean that I won't let you know, what I plan to use for this project...

• The PAAL (Pottstown Area APBA League) Playing Boards.
• Optional Fielding.
• Designated Hitter Rule in effect for both leagues.
• Error Distribution Card & Unusual Play Card.
• Starter Fatigue Adjustment.
• Will be using a stolen base attempt system, which will involve pitchers' move to first, catcher's throwing arm & the stolen base ratings grade for players attempting to steal bases.
• Pitchers' HR allowance ratings (which are reflected on PAAL Boards).
• The Pitchers' Number Grades (not letters) for realistic results.
• APBA Brawl Chart

So the project will basically be using the PAAL Boards, which with the stolen base system and pitchers' numeral grades, will be much of a hybrid-game experience for this project. I am still on fence for ballpark effects, which overall is because I don't quite fully understand them, and may just be better off leaving that out.

I will say this, the PAAL Boards are necessary for this project, because there will be more talent among the rosters than there normally would be. The PAAL Boards is for a league that has 16 teams I believe. My league will have 28 teams.... and no it is not a BATS (Baseball All-Time Stars) project!

Anyways, these are some of my preferences, I am sure I left something out. I hope you enjoyed this article.

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.

A-P-B-A or APP-Bah?

I recently posted a meme that I created, using the trending 'Woman Yelling at the Cat' meme, and it of course created plenty of buzz on the APBA Facebook Group. Generating just under 175 likes & 75+ comments at the time of this post, I decided to also break down through the comments, the percentage of what is pronounced more.

Not surprisingly, the majority pronounce it APP-Bah, 68% of the time. I was thinking from the get-go that it had to be at least 2-1 in favor of APP-Bah, and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 75% if we were to do an overall poll from the 3,000+ members of the APBA Facebook Group.

Even the Wikipedia page for APBA Baseball, mentions the fact that it is pronounced "APP-Bah"...

I was also surprised to find out from one of my good APBA friends, Rob Spatz, who was from the Chicago area, that most of the Chicago APBA crowd, actually pronounces it A-P-B-A, or at least the Chicagoans that he knows.

So with that news, I joked that it is official then, Michigan has to be the capital of APP-Bah Baseball... Just kidding. I do know many in the Michigan thumb that have played, and my dad was part of a 20+ member league, and knew of a couple of the guys from his same school area that had leagues of their own. I know that it was definitely one of the grass roots states that got the company rolling at least in the 1950's that is.

I believe the company sold primarily to the Midwest market, it's pretty obvious when APBA Hall of Famer Dominick Provisiero does his APBA Roll-Call on the site, that an overwhelming amount of us from the Midwest plays the game. Michigan & Illinois leading the charge, and then Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana & Minnesota fall into place. The Midwest has also dominated the sites for the most APBA tournaments being hosted...

• Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament (Jackson, MI)
• Chicagoland APBA Baseball Tournament (Chicago, IL)
• Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament (Minnesota)
• Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament (Toledo/Maumee, OH)
• Wisconsin APBA Baseball Tournament (Milwaukee area, WI)
• Praireland APBA Baseball Tournament (Urbana, IL)
• Furniture City APBA Baceball Tournament (Grand Rapids, MI)
• Bath City APBA Baseball Tournament (Mt.Clemons, MI)
• Indy 500 APBA Baseball Tournament (Evansville, IN)

Other APBA hot spots include Pennsylvania (of course, being APBA's birthplace in Lancaster), plus Florida, California, New York... and Virginia. The rest of the country combined prove to be in the minority, with APBA fans sprinkled around outside of the APBA hot zone.

Recently, another APBA friend Shawn Kaufman and I were speaking of local markets that we have actually purchased the game. He mentioned Kay-Bee, I mentioned Toys R' Us (both companies went bankrupt & no longer exist). My brother Chris bought the 1995 Playoff / All-Star APBA Baseball Set off the shelves at the Traverse City Toys R' Us, while I saw that same set & maybe a current season set at a Wal-Mart in Augusta, GA while being stationed down there back in 1997.

The company now resides in Alpharetta, Georgia, the same state the National APBA Convention takes place.

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.

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...

Strike Ends, 1981 Tigers Start 2nd Half Hosting Jays

For my 1981 Tigers Season Replay, the 1981 Baseball Strike has just ended, while the Tigers begin the second-half of the 1981 MLB Season, hosting the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game series.

The Tigers won the first-half A.L. East Division title with a 37-20 record.

I had to debate a little over which starting pitcher to start the 2nd half with, Sparky Anderson (in real life) went with Milt Wilcox, then Dan Schatzeder & Jack Morris for remainder of Toronto series. I don't have Schatzeder for my 1981 APBA set (I have the bare minimum APBA set). I did decide to go with Wilcox as well, then Petry & Rozema to finish the series, so it would set up Morris, Wilcox & Petry to kick off the next series against the New York Yankees. 

Wilcox is located in the 2nd slot of my regular season rotation. I thought about being greedy in getting Petry (Grade B-Y) more shots at wins, since he already has 11 wins in just 57 Tiger games.

Game 1 (Game #58)

The Detroit Tigers just couldn't get anything going on 5 hits against Jim Clancy (Grade D), while squandering two men on base in both the bottom-half of the 1st & 2nd innings. Clancy got comfortable, while striking out 7 of the last 11 batters he faced, to finish with a 9 strikeouts and a shutout.

Kirk Gibson, in particularly, struggled against Clancy by striking out three times, in four hitless at-bats.

John Mayberry's three-run home run during the top of the 5th, cemented the Jays' 5-0 victory.

Game 2 (Game #59)

The Tigers' lineup made up with the Tigers' faithful, by jumping out to a 1st inning, 3-0 lead, with Alan Trammell and Steve Kemp drawing walks, while Kirk Gibson added a RBI single & Lance Parrish added a two-run single.

Trammell and Kemp would both draw back-to-back walks again during the bottom of the 3rd, as they would score on a RBI single by Gibson, and Parrish's grounding into a double play. Gibson would end the day on 3-for-4 hitting, 2B, 2 RBI & a run. Kemp walked three times, while scoring on all three times he was on base.

Short day for the Jays' newly-acquired Juan Berenguer - 3.1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 K & 6 BB.

Dan Petry won again! Petry now owns a 12-2 record with a 2.48 ERA through 16 starts this season. Petry allowed 5 hits, 3 walks & one earned run, while striking out 3 Jays in 7 innings of work.

Tigers beat Jays, 6-2

Game 3 (Game #60)

The Tigers scored 3 runs in the first 4 frames to make Tigers starting pitcher Dave Rozema (Grade D-Z) comfortable on the mound. Rozema's only run allowed came at the top of the ninth, with a solo home run to John Mayberry.

The Tigers' Lynn Jones (2-for-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI) & Richie Hebner (2-for-3, RBI) were the Tigers' leaders at the plate that day.

Kevin Saucier would collect his 15th save to secure the Tigers' 3-1 victory.

APBA Announces Greatest Teams of the Past IV!

Great news in the APBA Baseball world...

APBA has announced the release of Greatest Team of the Past IV!

Here are the National League teams representing this latest set...

• 1919 Cincinnati Reds
• 1922 New York Giants
• 1930 St. Louis Cardinals
• 1935 Chicago Cubs
• 1948 Boston Braves
• 1950 Philadelphia Phillies
• 1962 San Francisco Giants
• 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates
• 1980 Houston Astros

The American League Teams...

• 1911 Philadelphia Athletics
• 1921 New York Yankees
• 1922 St. Louis Browns
• 1933 Washington Senators
• 1948 Cleveland Indians
• 1959 Chicago White Sox
• 1961 Detroit Tigers
• 1969 Minnesota Twins
• 1978 Boston Red Sox
• 1993 Toronto Blue Jays

I'm really excited about the news for several reasons...

First off, it's been long overdue, the wait that is... plus now there is brand new excitement for this hobby, I think APBA has done a great job of late, in being active on plenty of new APBA products such as APBA Go, the yearly playoff team sets, reintroducing All-Star Team sets, and now the new GTOP IV & with all the recent activity by the company, I have a feeling that GTOP V may not be far around the corner.

Source, my friend Pastor Rich Zawadzki noted: 14 of the 20 single teams [from this set] have been out of print for a long time; Printed by APBA previously in the old World Series set (1921 Yankees & 1930 Cardinals) or GTOP (1911 A's, 1919 Reds, 1922 Giants, 1922 Browns, 1933 Senators, 1935 Cubs, 1948 Indians, 1948 Braves, 1950 Phillies, 1959 White Sox, 1962 Giants & 1974 Dodgers).

Only the 1961 Tigers, 1969 Twins, 1978 Red Sox, 1979 Pirates, 1980 Astros & the 1993 Blue Jays are new to the single teams fold. 

Rich has been instrumental in helping me acquire plenty of teams in the past, when he would notice them on eBay, he would message me the link. I have since put together a pretty solid APBA teams collection, nothing quite like his impressive collection though. 

Just recently I have tried to acquired the long sought-after 1922 Browns team, along with the 1930 Cardinals, 1950 Phillies & 1959 White Sox off of an APBA Facebook Group member who posted those available teams among other teams, I messaged him, also tagged his name, and got no responses... So naturally at the time, I was bummed out.

Then to read this morning that these teams are part of the Greatest Team of the Past IV, I was thrilled by this news.

Teams of GTOP IV that I already own...

• 1911 Philadelphia Athletics
• 1919 Cincinnati Reds
• 1948 Boston Braves
• 1948 Cleveland Indians
• 1962 San Francisco Giants
• 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates

This doesn't mean though, that these new GTOP IV sets might not be different, usually with reissued team sets, not to mention the fairly new 'K' and 'R' strikeout ratings, you will definitely get some new modifications. I do also remember that the GTOP sets, now also have the Master Card ratings on the cards as well... so I'm still thrilled to get these modified duplicates.

I'm pretty excited about this, and you should be too...

$40 for 20 great teams, to me that's quite a deal, I hope this means more GTOP sets to come, in the near feature.

Way to go, APBA!

Here is the link to the APBA Baseball store...

http://apba.stores.yahoo.net/apbabaseball.html

Alternate 1993 Regular Season Ends (A.L. East Season Report)

The Alternate 1993 Season has ended, before I go over the season highlights, let me remind all of you that this is a league if the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins never join... plus no Arizona or Tampa Bay franchises will come; It's a league without expansion.

This also means that the two division format that we were accustomed to in the 1980's is back.

First we'll start with the A.L. East Division Champion Cleveland Indians....

CLEVELAND INDIANS (104-58)

No Purple Hayes: Hayes with Indians.

The Cleveland Indians were supposed to still be a year or two away, they thought they would be competitive enough with the addition of Charlie Hayes (prior to the season) and they were right, as they heated up in June they decided that they were buyers & acquired starting pitchers Cal Eldred and Armando Reynoso, plus reliever Gene Nelson & Brian Bohanan added some much-needed pitching depth; The moves did cost them Paul Sorrento, who now plays for Texas.

Jose Mesa (A Grade 4-Z, the equivalent to a D-Z) won a surprising 20 games (8 losses) with a fine 3.55 ERA in 243.1 innings of work (134 K's); Eldred would go 19-13 with a 3.84 ERA & 192 K's, while Reynoso would go 18-11 with a 3.92 ERA. Jerry DiPoto was 5th in the American League with 27 Saves.

Albert Belle had an even bigger 'alternate' season than in real life; Belle hit 42 bombs with 136 RBI, while stealing 32 bases (making him part of the 30/30 club -- something he never accomplished in the Majors) instead of real-life career-high 23 stolen bases... his batting average was down from .290 to .272 though. Charlie Hayes batted .333 with 27 HR & 130 RBI, while Carlos Baerga was a stud with a .342 BA (3rd in the A.L.), 26 HR & 131 RBI; Kenny Lofton stole 85 bases, while collecting 212 hits & his speedy teammate Wayne Kirby nearly doubled real-life season with 11 HR & had 92 RBI (compared to 60 RBI in 1993) -- Kirby had 18 steals.

I believe offense was up all across the board (in the league) with second-half simulation and players only dealing with fatigue -- I did try to respectfully play part-time players as part-time players though... but as you noticed we will have some bloated numbers like three Indians having 130+ RBI each.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS (101-61, 3 GB / 2nd Place)

Only division winners move on, there is no wild card, and the Blue Jays will be one of two teams in the 'Alternate 1993' season not to move onto the post-season despite gathering 100+ wins (Atlanta Braves had 107 wins, but lost division to San Francisco).

The team started off so-so in the first-half of the season, looking nothing close to the actual dominance of the real-life 1993 team -- the pitching came around to catch up with the offense, and the team finished with an impressive +299 scoring differential.

The team's offense was led by Roberto Alomar in which all his numbers were up comparably to real-life, batting .320, 25 HR, 108 RBI, 206 hits with 138 runs, while stealing 75 bases! John Olerud and Paul Molitor's numbers slightly down; Olerud won the real-life batting title in 1993 with a .363 average... he would finish the season with a .336 AVG (6th) with 21 HR & 99 RBI, while Molitor batted .301 with 20 HR & 103 RBI. Rickey Henderson was right on cue, Devon White's power numbers were up (.307, 22 HR, 94 RBI with a .854 OPS) while Joe Carter (.221, 19 HR with .626 OPS compared to real-life .802 OPS) was considerably low, although he still knocked in 117 runs.

Tom Candiotti would be acquired from the Dodgers in exchange for Mike Timlin and Woody Williams; Candiotti would finish with 23 wins & help the Jays pitching staff settle down from its rough start -- team would finish with 2nd-best ERA in A.L. (3.67) to the White Sox. Pat Hentgen was great all-year around with 22-7, 2.64 ERA in 242 innings, while Juan Guzman would settle down, lowering his ERA to 3.55 while striking out 212; Todd Stottlemyre managed to collect 16 wins with 4.98 ERA. Their bullpen was strong all around, led by Duane Ward (25 SV, 1.46 ERA), Mark Eichhorn (1.90 ERA) & Danny Cox (5 W, 2.69 ERA).

The Blue Jays challenged the Indians in the end and past both Baltimore and Detroit in the standings, while being as low as 5th place at one point... but their late charge was not enough.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES (98-63, 6 GB / 3rd Place)

In a division that would end up featuring four teams with 90+ victories, the Baltimore Orioles were probably the favorite to challenge the Toronto Blue Jays for the division... Neither would end up winning the division though.

Baltimore got great production with the bats (Sporting a +211 scoring differential), Harold Baines finished 2nd in the A.L. Batting Title race, finishing with a .346 average, while being on par with his real-life HR & RBI numbers at 22 HR & 82 RBI -- his OPS was much higher (.968 OPS) which is impressive at age 34. Other vets stepped up in Harold Reynolds (.315 BA, 12 HR & 75 RBI -- compared to real-life 4 HR & .252 AVG) and Mike Pagliarulo (.313, 13, 74 RBI -- compared to 44 RBI in actual 1993). Add in strong seasons from Chris Hoiles (.291, 36 HR, 100 RBI) and Cal Ripken (.279, 30 HR, 120 RBI) and you would think the O's would win the division, but their pitching was another story....

Although they finished 5th in the A.L. in ERA (4.05), it was areas like Ryan Bowen in the rotation that hurt the ballclub; Bowen was drafted in the dispersal draft (he played for Florida in actual 1993), and should have been an improvement for Baltimore in the rotation, instead he finished with a horrible 6.18 ERA, while allowing 204 hits & 112 walks in only 163 innings (1.939 WHIP -- Ouch!).

Ben McDonald's ERA (4.34) was a run higher than actual life, while Jamie Moyer and Mike Mussina had strong seasons. The team's bullpen was strong as expected with Gregg Olson leading the A.L. with 36 Saves (1.48 ERA). 

DETROIT TIGERS (93-69, 11 GB / 4th Place)

The Detroit Tigers were a scoring machine in alternate 1993, and were a strong power lineup in actual 1993 as well; The team was better in the alternate version due to the addition of Jeff Conine and with Phillips and Trammell tearing it up. They were the only team to record over 1,000+ runs (1,069).

Tony Phillips would finish 4th in the batting race with a .340 batting average, while hitting 19 HR & 86 RBI with 222 hits (led league) & 151 runs scored! In real-life 1993, he only managed 7 HR, so the HR numbers were a bit surprising, while his OPS was also up from .841 to .926. Alan Trammell played the majority of the season, but not enough to qualify for the batting race -- he would bat .371 in the 7th slot through 113 games... Many forget that "Tram" actually had a .885 OPS that season while batting .328 as well -- his 'alternate' OPS was at .952 (with a .438 On-Base Percentage). Kirk Gibson (.284, 14 HR, 75 RBI & 23 steals) and Danny Gladden's (.286, 17 HR, 66 RBI) were slightly up from normal, to go along with Lou Whitaker (on par with .869 OPS).

Then add a huge season by Travis Fryman (.309, 30 HR & 140 RBI) to go along with Cecil Fielder, Mickey Tettleton, Jeff Conine & Eric Davis -- then you see why they have no problem scoring, the real problem was their pitching.

They added Jack Armstrong as an innings eater for the season (and he served simply as that), while they would land veteran star Frank Viola from Boston at mid-season. Most of the pitchers were all on par for what they actually did, but there was a considerable drop in David Wells' season (14-12, 6.26 ERA -- nearly two points higher than real-life); The only plus that comes from Wells is the fact that he led the A.L. with 8.8 K's per 9 innings. The Tigers' pitching highlight would be Mike Henneman, one of the best closers in baseball with his 34 Saves (3rd in A.L.) while sporting an impressive 1.76 ERA. 

Overall though the offense was not enough, while the team's pitching (5.11 ERA) ranked as the 4th worst in the American League -- ranking dead-last in the tough A.L. East. 

NEW YORK YANKEES (88-74, 16 GB / 5th Place)

The world always seems to be a better place when the Yankees come nowhere close to competing -- or at least to the rest of the baseball world that is. Despite their finish, they barely missed 90 wins in a tough division; They managed to go on the plus side for scoring (+50) and suffered losses due to lack of a bullpen while scoring most of their runs early -- Luis Aquino (18 SV) would only have a Save Opportunity percentage of 78.3 among relievers -- Poor Aquino's ERA was bloated at 6.31 & makes the choice of selecting him before the season, a poor choice by the Yankees. Lee Smith only managed 3 Saves (compared to 48 Saves) in the 'Alternate' Season.

Only two teams were worse than the Yankees in the A.L. in pitching, and that was the Detroit Tigers and the last-place Milwaukee Brewers.

Lonely Ace: Key won 27.3% of the Yankees victories with 24 wins. 

Jimmy Key would collect an impressive 24 wins to lead the American League in that category, meaning he won 27.3% of the Yankees' wins this season -- he also sported a sturdy 2.74 ERA (4th) with 211 strikeouts (6th). Scott Kamienecki would prove to be a plus, with 15 wins & 3.74 ERA, but Jim Abbott (like Wells for Detroit) was nowhere to be found -- with a lousy 8-14 record & 6.84 ERA!

The offense played really strong like the actual team did, Mike Stanley (.339, 20 HR & 75 RBI) and Paul O'Neill (.281, 30 HR & 110 RBI) led the way for the Bombers.

The Clemens saga finished earlier in the Alternative realm, Duquette sends the 'Rocket' packing.

BOSTON RED SOX (84-78, 20 GB / 6th Place)

If anything can be taken from this 6th place finish, it can be said that the Boston Red Sox made it as interesting as it could get for the little production to show for it. The team would enter the season with one roster & exit the season with a completely new roster; As the season moved on, Boston said goodbye to ace Roger Clemens, Frank Viola, Jeff Russell, and Mo Vaughn -- while saying hello to Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, J.T. Snow, Mike Stanton, Xavier Hernandez & Danny Bautista.

Eric Young and Daryl Boston joined the Red Sox prior to the season via free agency; Young's numbers were on par with his actual 1993 numbers (.262, 8 HR & .718 OPS) while his RBI numbers as a lead-off man was down to 26 from 42, while his steal numbers were up with 55 steals & a 75.3% steal success rate. For Boston (the player), his batting average was down from .261 to .217, while his HR (16) and RBI (55) were up. The Red Sox are not known historically for their speed, so they were thrilled to have landed Young prior to the season.

Andre Dawson's age is starting to show early, as his OPS (.677 in alternative) was down from its actual .738 mark, which had a lot to do with his low .243 Batting Average & .285 On-Base Percentage -- while the rest of the numbers match his 93' totals pretty closely.

The promise of John Valentin has shown early with 16 HR & 78 RBI & a solid .846 OPS.

Danny Darwin was the only starter to pitch from the beginning of the season on to the end, as he put up great numbers at Age 37 -- His numbers: 18-10, 3.42 ERA with 154 K's & 80 walks through 226.1 innings. Darwin's WHIP (1.189) was up from his A.L. best 1.068 WHIP in 1993 (Darwin also led the N.L. in WHIP in 1990 with 1.027).

MILWAUKEE BREWERS (54-107, 49.5 GB / 7th Place)

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Benito Santiago to a two-year deal, to help give the pitching staff more stability, in hopes to take the Brewers to the next level, they finished a surprise second last season with a 92-70 record. The deal would be a first-year bust, as Santiago's numbers were down all across the board from his real-life 1993 numbers -- batting only .200 with 6 HR & 31 RBI (his HR & RBI numbers were basically cut in half), while his .570 OPS was down .101 from real-life as well. 

If you want disappointment, you can find around every corner on this ballclub... Kevin Seitzer, after giving the 1992 team, a strong veteran leader with good supportive stats (.270 AVG, 142 hits & .704 OPS) would fall on his face, batting .219 (50 points lower from real-life), while he had a difficult time getting on base (.271 OBP compared to 93's actual .338 line). Kevin Reimer's batting average was down from .249 to .216.

There was some plus sides in the hitting area, with B.J. Surhoff showing some power (that we would see in his upcoming Baltimore days), doubling his real-life mark with 14 HR, but his batting average & OPS was down. Greg Vaughn hits the 100 RBI marker, with 31 HRs. John Jaha's batting average was up from .264 to .284, while hitting 22 HR & 66 RBI, while Robin Yount displayed more power than his actual 1993 season, hitting 16 long balls, while his OPS was up slightly to .719 for his final season; He ended his career with 259 home runs & 3,142 hits, and well on his way to Cooperstown.

The pitching was horrible, with two starting pitchers producing 17 losses each in Ricky Bones (6.22 ERA & 1.757 WHIP) and Jaime Navarro (6.36 ERA & 1.718 WHIP); Bones was so bad, that he gave up 300 hits & 40 HR in a single-season... 

I had to look up the real-life record, because I wasn't sure if I ever heard of a case of a pitcher allowing 300+ hits, the number sounds ridiculous, but I got my answers, it's not a record. The dead-ball record was John Coleman allowing 772 hits in a single-season (1883), he also has the earned runs allowed record with 291; The modern era record is owned by George Uhle, with 378 hits allowed in 1923. 

The team would trade their two best pitchers in pennant-race deals, with Cal Eldred going to Cleveland, and Jesse Orosco going to the Cardinals.

*** This wraps up the A.L. East ***

Just One of Them Games

ELITE EIGHT Action: In one of the most strangest games, or at least strangest endings to a game I ever had (or at least for some time).

A game between the 2002 Oakland Athletics at Fenway, against the 1946 Boston Red Sox -- This is the furthest Oakland ever got in tourney play, while Boston has duplicated its best, making it to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive tournament.

Early on, nothing seemed out of the norm, with Boston taking a early 2-0 lead, during the bottom of the 3rd on a RBI single by Bobby Doerr; Doerr scored the first run in the 2nd from second, on a RBI single by Johnny Pesky.

It would not be until the 7th inning, until the Athletics strike back, with an RBI single by David Justice and RBI double by Terrance Long -- Ramon Hernandez would get thrown out at home trying for the lead run on that play.

It would be the last run for either team for the next (almost) 10 innings.

Top of the 16th, with John Mabry on 2nd, Oakland's Terrance Long would hit a single to center, Mabry would try for home, but get thrown out with an amazing throw from Dom DiMaggio. Oakland would fail to score that Inning.

Bottom of the 17th, Cory Lidle on the mound for the A's (Oakland starting to run out of players) -- Ted Williams would draw a walk, and Dom DiMaggio would follow with a single, advancing Williams to third; With Oakland only having C pitchers left, and Rudy York at the plate -- Oakland would call on Jim Mecir (C-R), a righty vs righty... Making Mecir for this at-bat a Grade B-R, making Boston's chances a little tougher.

With no outs, runners on 1st & 3rd, Rudy York would roll a 64-37 -- "Runner on 1st out stealing 2nd; A-C PO-SS; other scores; * no score"; DiMaggio is out stealing second, but pulls off the play of the game by drawing attention to self, so that Ted Williams can win the game by stealing home!

Never, for all I can remember, have I ever had a walk-off steal.

Alternate 1993 at AS Break

Clemens has been grounded for most part in 93' -- until departing for more pleasant scenery at break.

The Alternate 1993 Project continues on...

To give you an idea of the pennant races, I will add pics of the standings as the season went on.

In early June (above), you can see that even the 5th place Boston Red Sox were playing pretty well at a .566 clip, while four teams were over .600. The American League West of course, was more deluded with Chicago leading the division at around 42 wins at this time.

Then came June 25th, and the Cleveland Indians started rolling, while the Tigers started sliding. The Tigers would eventually lose 8 straight here.

At the All-Star Break, this is where both leagues stand....

The Chicago White Sox start to stretch that division lead, breaking away from the Kansas City Royals. The Texas Rangers have dealt with injuries to their rotation, otherwise they would be more of a factor -- They picked up Armando Reynoso prior to the season (due to the Colorado Rockies not existing) and he made the rotation more stable, but have since traded him at the All-Star break to the Cleveland Indians.

The Indians suddenly buyers, acquired Cal Eldred from the low-functioning Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers also traded Jesse Orosco away for P-Allen Watson & a 3rd Round Draft Selection. Milwaukee added Mark Clark, a couple vets & a 1st Round Draft Selection, not to mention the fact that the Brewers are in for a solid pick at the end of the season.

The way the draft works is that it will have the players from the expansion teams (Colorado & Florida) and the players cut from other rosters, basically a free agent draft. Now, players such as Jeff Conine (who's with the Tigers) & Joe Girardi (Braves) will stay with those teams until their actual expansion team stints end, I want to say Conine's contract is through 1998 & Joe Girardi's is through the end of 1995.. Once those stints end, they go to the actual team they were with that year, so Girardi will be joining the New York Yankees in 1996.

The expansion team players in the 1994 free agent draft is new players that were not drafted from the 1994 teams, for example 1995 will be a big draft with Larry Walker (who joined Colorado in 1995) will be a free agent & probably the top selection -- which means early teams with a shot at him, would most likely be teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Diego Padres.

Here is the mid-season trades that went down, with one major blockbuster. I will explain these trades in more depth afterwards, keep in mind, that I tried for most part to trade as if I don't know what will happen in future on some of these. Some people would argue that the Brewers would get more for Jesse Orosco....

A) Orosco actually only has about 20 quality innings left for the season, so his worth to the Cards is not as big as it seems, he is also only under contract through 1994, then he would join his actual club in Baltimore in 1995.

B) Allen Watson, who the Brewers acquired will give the Brewers, who are in need of rotation pitchers some innings the next few years. Plus Milwaukee gets a 3rd Round draft selection, basically a prospect or vet signing to the mix.

The Cardinals only made the Orosco deal, which is strange considering they are on the Philadelphia Phillies' tail. The Cards have an excellent future, and don't want to break the bank, they just called up reliever Paul Kilgus, who is a grade 24*-X and has 28.2 innings or more to use. They flirted with the idea of making a deal for Gary Sheffield of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which Bernard Gilkey & possibly Ray Lankford were both involved, but they have Lankford through almost 2000, and the combination of those two players with Gregg Jefferies (currently batting .402) and Todd Zeile have the Cardinals wanting to stay put. Their starting pitching isn't great, they added Pat Rapp prior to the season, who's only perk was innings. St. Louis might make a small deal later....

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies, since they had a rough 1992, picked a valuable Bryan Harvey up for the season. Harvey was made closer, at first I thought of using him as a great set-up man for Mitch Williams... then realized that Harvey should be closer, this left Mitch even out of a set-up role, due to David West's strong 1993 season. Mitch has been in limbo, and as the All-Star break approached and as the Phillies watched some pennant chasers pick up some starting pitching, the Phillies called Houston & made a deal for Mark Portugal, who hits the free agent market at season's end. Houston gets Mitch Williams, along with Ben Rivera & infielder Alex Arias, who will be under contract through 1997 -- he provides good infield depth; Mitch ends up with Astros in 1994 anyways, so now he's under contract through 1994. The Astros would also deal reliever Xavier Hernandez for OF momentarily bench help in Bob Zupcic & a 3rd Round Draft selection,

TRANSACTIONS

• The Milwaukee Brewers trade RP-Jesse Orosco to the St.Louis Cardinals in exchange for P-Allen Watson & 3rd Round Draft Selection.

• The Cleveland Indians trade 2B-Jeff Treadway, RP-Heathcliff Slocumb, SP-Mark Clark & a 1st Round Draft Selection & 3rd Round Draft Selection to the Milwaukee Brewers for SP-Cal Eldred.

• The Toronto Blue Jays trade RP-Mike Timlin, P-Woody Williams & their 1st Round Draft Selection to the Los Angeles Dodgers for SP-Tom Candiotti & their 3rd Round Draft Selection.

• The Baltimore Orioles trade 3B-Leo Gomez, OF-Sherman Obando & IF-Manny Alexander to the San Francisco Giants for OF-Darren Lewis.

• The Detroit Tigers trade SP-John Doherty, OF-Danny Bautista, P-Mike Gardiner, RP-Buddy Groom & their 1st Round Draft Selection to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for SP-Frank Viola.

• The Philadelphia Phillies trade RP-Mitch Williams, SP-Ben Rivera & IF-Alex Arias to the Houston Astros in exchange for SP-Mark Portugal.

• The Boston Red Sox trade RP-Jeff Russell to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for RP-Mike Stanton, C-Greg Olson & Atlanta's 2nd Round Draft Selection.

• The Chicago White Sox trade RP-Scott Radinsky to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for RP-Carl Willis.

• The Houston Astros trade RP-Xavier Hernandez to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for OF-Bob Zupcic & Boston's 3rd Round Draft Selection. 

• The Cleveland Indians trade 1B/DH-Paul Sorrento to the Texas Rangers in exchange for SP-Armando Reynoso, RP-Gene Nelson & P-Brian Bohanon.

• The Boston Red Sox trade SP-Roger Clemens, 1B-Mo Vaughn & Boston's 1st Round Draft Selection (for 1995 Draft) to the California Angels in exchange for SP-Chuck Finley, SP-Mark Langston & 1B-J.T. Snow.

• The Atlanta Braves trade OF-Deion Sanders to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for OF-Roberto Kelly.

Now let's go to all the Boston Red Sox activity, the Red Sox headed into the break as sellers, but ended up as buyers with some excellent retooling for the future.

As I started the 1993 season, I looked over at the Boston roster, and went ughhhh...

Nothing exciting, Andre Dawson looks confused in an American League outfield, while Rob Deer is well-beyond his better Brewers years, plus Frank Viola is aging. So when the free agent draft came about they got speedster Eric Young and added vet Daryl Boston for pop & depth to the roster. Boston during the season got with 6 games of division lead, and now fell back to 12 games back... 

Boston's projected lineup prior to alternate 1993 season.

Boston's bench, rotation & bullpen.

The Detroit Tigers gave them two bullpen arms for next year (Buddy Groom and Mark Gardiner) and rotation help for this season at least in John Doherty (nothing special), but landed a 1st Round Draft Selection which will help, along with outfielder Danny Bautista, all for starting pitcher Frank Viola. 

The Atlanta Braves meanwhile, could use another bullpen arm, end up inquiring about closer Jeff Russell, who is under contract with Boston through 1994, but his only worth is the 93' season (since he is so-so in 1994). Boston has only Tony Pena behind the plate, and the Braves are not currently using Greg Olson, due to the addition of Joe Girardi before the season to go along with Damon Berryhill. Even though, Olson is done after 1993, he is productive enough to help with catching duties, definitely a step up from current backup -- Plus, Boston adds reliever Mike Stanton and another draft selection (Atlanta's 2nd Round Draft Selection) -- Boston would turn around and acquire Xavier Hernandez from Houston for cheap, who has same relief grade as Russell. 

Then things got really interesting, I looked at Roger Clemens with his Grade 6-X (worst in his career, or at least for sure at this point), and I started thinking about how Dan Duquette was probably festering over there in the corner & the fact that him & Roger hated each other. I looked at Boston's roster and thought... who can I package with Clemens that would bring in quite a bit, and at the same time make Boston not selling, but retooling with a shot at this season still?

I then fell onto the California Angels, what if Boston can land two big starting pitchers, and have them under contract for some time. Enter Chuck Finley & Mark Langston, Finley will be under contract through 1999, then I believe he joins Cleveland in 2000... while Langston will be under contract through 1997. 

It's a gutsy move, especially since Mo Vaughn is the other piece being sent to California. As we all know, California had Finley, Langston & later Ken Hill, but not much else in rotation for the rest of the decade -- but now they have value to trade down the road to get the pitching back & more. The Angels will have almost all of Mo Vaughn's great part of his early career (this time). Prior to the season they also signed Vinny Castilla, so his value only will go up.  Plus adding Mo Vaughn & Castilla to a lineup that will feature Tim Salmon, Darin Erstad, Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds, among others... Yowzers!

Sure, Clemens is only under contract through end of 1996, and they will be better years than 1993, but still on the downside 94'-96'; By the way, teams can bid for the players to resign with their team, if they trade players of that new team's liking -- For example, if the Angels can package some players or make the deal sweet for the Blue Jays in 1997, Clemens could stay in Anaheim; The Angels due to this trade, now have plenty of flexibility from now until then. 

The Red Sox and Angels swap first basemen in Vaughn and J.T. Snow. Snow brings glove to first for Boston, they will focus to make the team built on defense & pitching. Their starting pitchers for remainder of season will be Finley, Langston & Danny Darwin, plus a little left in the tank for Aaron Sele to make a push late in this season actually, while retooling the future. Eventually John Valentin & Nomar Garciaparra will blossom, and make this incarnation of Boston very interesting, and definitely more pleasant to watch.

Plus how does this trade look, involving WAR?

BOSTON

SP- Chuck Finley (through 1999) - 27.2

SP- Mark Langston (through 1997) - 9.8

1B- J.T. Snow (through 1996) - (neg 1.0)

CALIFORNIA

SP- Roger Clemens (through 1996) - 16.9

1B/DH- Mo Vaughn (through 2000) - 23.7

*Boston sends 1st Round Draft Selection for 1995 Draft

Boston's package is worth 40.6 WAR to California's 36.9; Boston gets more of the impact up front adding two B-Starters for this season to a pennant race, and the long contracts for Finley & Langston. Angels have a void in pitching for rest of decade, so that's where Boston throws in 1995's 1st Round Selection. Angels have plenty of time to acquire pitching to make the deal worth it, while Boston holds onto their 1st Round for 1994, plus the one that they acquired from Detroit, along with two 2nd Round selections (theirs & Atlanta's). 

So for Boston....

OUT

SP- Roger Clemens

SP- Frank Viola

1B/DH- Mo Vaughn

RP- Jeff Russell

OF-Bob Zupcic

1st Round Draft Selection (1995)

3rd Round Draft Selection (1994)

IN

SP- Chuck Finley

SP- Mark Langston

1B- J.T. Snow

RP- Xavier Hernandez

RP- Mike Stanton

SP- John Doherty

C- Greg Olson

OF- Danny Bautista

RP- Buddy Groom

RP- Mark Gardiner

1st Round Draft Selection (Detroit - 1994)

2nd Round Draft Selection (Atlanta - 1994)

The future looks better for both franchises in the aftermath.

Now back to the last couple of deals...

Atlanta trades Deion Sanders to the Cincinnati Reds for Roberto Kelly. Getting a case of deja vu? Indeed, this actual deal would go down in late May 1994 between the two franchises. The other trade may make Giants fans scratch their head, Darren Lewis was traded to Baltimore for Leo Gomez, Sherman Obando & Manny Alexander. The thing is Darren Lewis was sitting on bench & minors due to the Giants pickup of Chuck Carr prior to the season -- it was not a move to help the Giants now, but gives them flexibility in the future -- having Leo Gomez playing third (15 HR & .868 OPS in 1994 / 17 HR & .775 OPS in 1996), in case the Giants want to unload Matt Williams early, who is only under contract with Giants through 1996.

Tom Candiotti, returns to the Toronto Blue Jays in a trade that sent reliever Mike Timlin and pitcher Woody Williams to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Candiotti will help head the rotation this season, while stabilizing it the next few seasons; The Dodgers add bulk to the bullpen for a few years, plus a starter at end of the contract in Williams. 

... and that is all for now.

Alternate 1993: April 19th

The current standings of my Alternate 1993 Project (BBW Season); A league without further expansion, so no Colorado Rockies & Florida Marlins -- meaning no Arizona Diamondbacks & Tampa Bay Devil Rays as well.

Veryl

Veryl Lincoln, one of the original employees at APBA, just passed away this week. I think it's definitely good to know the names & faces that have helped made this game & company a success, thanks Veryl for doing your part, you obviously made an impact on people in the world of APBA.

Kevin Cluff from APBA - Between the Lines on Delphi Forums, also shared on June 17th.

VERYL LINCOLN (1945-2015)

"It is with great sadness that we learn longtime employee and APBA Legend Veryl Lincoln has passed away this morning. Many APBA fans' experiences were benefited by Veryl's dedication to the game he loved, and Veryl was inducted into the APBA Hall of Fame in 2002 for his immeasurable contributions. We will provide more details about his service as we receive them. Our condolences to his friends and loved ones; He will certainly be missed by the APBA Family"

Thanks Veryl, Let's roll some 66's for Veryl, gang! 

We Are (APBA) Family

Thanks to Ken Schultz on the APBA Facebook Group -- I now own the 1979 APBA Baseball Set. The set of course features the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates ("We Are Family") led by Willie "Pops" Stargell; It also features the American League Champion Baltimore Orioles, the California Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos (which Baseball critics have considered this Expos team, the best of the franchise), and other exciting teams such as the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox & Kansas City Royals.

I decided to do a 1979 APBA Tournament to break the cards in, using the lineups (for most part) suggested by the yellow APBA sheet, with guidance by Baseball Referrence.com . The League Champions (of course) have the top seeds in each of their league brackets, while their LCS competition are the #2 seeds -- so basically the Pirates & Orioles are #1 in their brackets, with the Angels & Reds being #2 seeds in their respective brackets. The rest of the teams I ranked using Baseball Reference's Pythagorean Records.

The American League rankings (after Baltimore & California)

3. Boston Red Sox

4. Milwaukee Brewers

5. New York Yankees

6. Texas Rangers

7. Minnesota Twins

8. Detroit Tigers

9. Kansas City Royals

10. Chicago White Sox

11. Cleveland Indians

12. Seattle Mariners

13. Toronto Blue Jays

14. Oakland Athletics

The National League rankings (after Pittsburgh & Cincinnati)

3. Montreal Expos

4. St. Louis Cardinals

5. Los Angeles Dodgers

6. Houston Astros

7. Chicago Cubs

8. San Diego Padres

9. Philadelphia Phillies

10. San Francisco Giants

11. Atlanta Braves

12. New York Mets

Due to the style of the brackets & the National League having fewer teams, the #3 Expos & #4 St. Louis Cardinals have first-round byes with the Pirates & Reds; The American League only has byes for its top two teams. It's interesting in real-life the Royals (#9) finished only 3 games behind the Angels, but according to their Pythagorean records, the Texas Rangers & Minnesota Twins were better teams, even the Detroit Tigers (who finished 18 games behind the Orioles, in 5th place - A.L. East) was ranked higher at #8.

All the rounds up to a certain point are in Best-of-Three series. I felt one game was just not enough, plus going through the difficulty of when to pitch the ace, and how often, every game of tournament, every other? The best-of-three scenario I think will work for a top three starters setup. Games 1 (and a possible Game 3) are hosted by the higher ranked team, one day of travel set in-between, there may be a scenario where someone pitches their ace again for Game 3 of the first round series, but know this he won't be ready for Game 1 of the next series -- forcing to stick with the top three starters setup.

This will only take a few weeks - tops! Good practice for the upcoming Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament in March. I already have most of the first round played & will be reporting the results soon. I will be looking forward to meeting Ken Schultz & many others, including a member of my Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League in Robert Mosher, who is in numerous leagues, plus enjoys playing other APBA sports as well. I will meet many new faces, while reuniting with friends Rich Zawadzki and Doug Schuyler. My youngest brother Chris will also be attending the tournament, which will be a cool experience as well.

Back to the whole Family theme though, just like the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1979 were, I feel our APBA community is very much the same. We happen to look out for one another, help each other out on APBA issues, or help APBA fans sell their season sets to other fans who are willing to help take them off their hands, instead of dealing with many of the eBay sellers who want an arm & leg.

We enjoy getting together for tournaments, forming new friendships, chatting & debating on APBA Facebook Group to the point that we are brothers -- APBA brothers, so yes...

We are Family indeed, in this case... We are APBA Family!

Post #400

The Phantastic Phillies of 1993 are rolling, as their bats once again explode.

Recently, The Boys of Summer Blog celebrated 25,000 hits on the site, now here we are with Post #400, which is not much of a post, but a quick update on 1993.

A few highlights from the Alternate 1993 Project

Greg Swindell & The Houston Astros had the undefeated Philadelphia Phillies on the ropes, as the Stros led 7-1 after 7 innings. Swindell left the game only allowing 4 hits & an earned run through seven, with 4 K's & 2 walks. The bullpen though would drop the ball, going through 4 pitchers, while the Phillies took advantage of two errors, one by Jeff Bagwell & Andujar Cedeno -- erupting for 12 runs in the 8th Inning. During the inning Darren Daulton smacked a Grand Slam off of Xavier Hernandez, plus HR's from Dave Hollins & Ricky Jordan. The Astros have to feel sick to their stomachs on this one, as they slip to 1-4, while Philly stays invincible at 5-0.

The Montreal Expos finally won improving to 1-4, but it's all for no gain in the standings with Philly's come from behind game against Houston.

The Atlanta Braves remain undefeated, holding off the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3, as Ron Gant hits his 6th HR of the season. Gant also has 12 RBI, while batting .500 through 5 games.

The New York Mets suffered a huge blow by losing Sid Fernandez for 40 games, he had to come out of the game after 2.2 innings, as starting pitcher Charlie Hough came in from the pen. The Mets later called on Dwight Gooden out of the pen for the 8th Inning, Gooden was coming off a two-hit, one-run, complete game against Houston on opening day -- Former Met Tim Teufel smacks two-run blast off Gooden. The Padres' closer Gene Harris comes in and blows the save opportunity as pinch-hitter Ryan Thompson hits a game-tying solo HR during top of 9th. Andres Galarraga hits a go-ahead RBI single for Mets in the 12th, but it's the Padres' Orestes Destrade that sends the game to victory with a walk-off two-run HR off of Jeff Innis. Padres win 7-6 (12 Innings).

The San Francisco Giants break up Jose Rijo's bid for a no-hitter & 3-0 lead in the 5th, as they pile on 7 runs in the bottom-half of the inning -- The Giants hold off the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3. The Giants move up to 2nd place alone at 4-1, passing the Dodgers at 3-2; The Reds are the only team in Major League Baseball still looking for their first victory (0-5).