Roger's 1949 APBA Replay

Week five is in the books as the 1949 replay moves along. More than half of the teams have reached the 30 games level and the remainder will be there in a few days. Realizing it is early yet, but there are pennant races in both leagues as teams take turns beating up on each other and not letting anybody get too far ahead. Teams had gone through a period a few weeks ago where they were dropping players, and they appear to be going through another period right now. There have been different rules about cut down dates through the years and I am assuming this is somehow related. Vern Stephens The Boston Red Sox are still atop the AL. They are averaging more than seven runs scored per game and their pitching has held up so far. Cleveland is a good team and plays like it and they are second behind Boston for the number of homeruns hit. New York finally got its team ERA below 5.00 - no word from the Yankees on a return date for Joe DiMaggio yet, but the power numbers that were lacki...

Monday, May 16, 1949 We had a partial travel day a few days back, but there is only one game today as the AL games for the next few weeks will all be in the east, while the NL games will all be in the Midwest. There is one AL game today, but both of those teams will home tomorrow as visitors from the hinterlands will make their appearance. Washington (H) 6 Boston (AL) 1 Washington took their second in a row from Boston as three Red Sox errors led to three unearned runs. Catcher Al Evans went 3-for-3 and drove in two of the Senators runs, and Mickey Haefner (2-4) gave up a run in the first and then shut down Boston from there. Tuesday, May 17, 1949 Boston (AL) (H) 15 Chicago (AL) 5 Perhaps having lost two in a row to the last place Washington had provided a bit of a sting as Boston came out hitting today and took out their frustrations on Chicago. The story of the day was shortstop Vern Stephens hitting three homeruns (9, 10, 11) off three different pitche...

Week 4 is complete and if anything the pennant races, while it's still early, have continued to stay tight. Multiple teams in both leagues are within shouting distance of the top and none of the teams are giving any quarter. In the AL, homeruns, batting averages and ERA's continued to level off, but in the NL all three took a small jump this week. Regardless, this replay has been funtastic from the first pitch and there is certainly more fun to follow. Before Sunday's games, there were five NL teams that started the day with fourteen wins, and all five are looki Luke Appling ng back at their shoulder at the sixth place Brooklyn Dodgers who have started gathering steam. St. Louis currently sits on top with their good combination of starting, relieving, hitting, and defense. New York has good pitching and plenty of power, and they have used them both to good avail so far. Boston has shown good potential, but just lost first baseman Earl Torgeson for the rest of the ...

Monday, May 9, 1949 New York (AL) 9 Detroit (H) 4 With the score tied at 1-1 Phil Rizzuto stroked a two-out two-run single in the top of the seventh to give the Yankees their first lead, and then two batters later Tommy Henrich hit a two-run triple to blow it open. The Tigers tried to climb back into it, but Joe Page shut them down and then the Yankees scored three times in the ninth to put it out of reach. Boston (NL) (H) 8 Pittsburgh 7 (10) Both teams started out the game with three runs in the first, and in both cases all runs scored after two outs had been recorded. From there the game went back and forth, with both teams taking turns in the lead. The game finally went in extra's, and after having gotten two outs in the bottom of the tenth Pittsburgh reliever Bob Chesnes (0-3) walked the next two batters and then Al Dark singled home Pete Reiser with the game-winner. St. Louis (NL) 3 Brooklyn (H) 0 St. Louis first baseman Rocky Nelson hit the f...