Roger's 1949 APBA Replay

Week 16 is done and the replay is not two-thirds complete. All the teams have passed the 100 games played mark, so we are at the two-thirds mark form that perspective as well. The regular Sunday doubleheaders seem to allow for the usual rainouts and days off for travel throughout the week while keeping the schedule on track without falling behind and having to scramble at the end to get the games in. After all, this is the 49th year of modern baseball so they might have figured out a few things by now. Johnny Pesky Boston might be able to occasionally get pushed around by some of the better AL competition, but they just pound the teams at the bottom of the standings which makes it hard for anyone to make a move up the standings. New York has won nine games in a row and has only made up two games on Boston in the last ten days. At this time in 1949 it was New York that had a six-game lead over Boston and the Red Sox did catch them, so I suspect there is some excitement left. Cl...

Monday, August 1, 1949 It's a new week and a new month, so let's see what happens. Cleveland 9 Boston (AL) (H) 1 It was billed as a pitcher's duel, but Mel Parnell (15-6) lost his control in the third inning and walked five batters before he was pulled. Cleveland took advantage of the Red Sox pitching woes and scored seven runs in the third and Bob Lemon (12-7) held Boston to only four hits for the win. Washington (H) 5 St. Louis (AL) 2 Sherm Lollar St. Louis catcher Sherm Lollar hit a two run homerun in the second to get St. Louis an early lead, but Eddie Robinson responded with a two run homerun in the fourth to tie the game and then Sherry Robertson hit his own two run homerun in the fifth and the Senators never looked back. Ray Scarborough (7-7) went all the way for the victory. New York (NL) 5 Chicago (NL) (H) 4 New York led 3-0 early, but Chicago came back with three in the third and then took the lead with one in the fifth. T...

Week 15 is complete and we move on to Week 16, the 2/3's point of the replay. If anything, the teams at the top of their respective leads have managed to segregate themselves from the teams in the middle, who in turn have started to separate themselves from the teams at the bottom. There is still room for shuffling and there are still a lot of games left to play - only one team has reached the 100 games mark, although all teams will be there in a few short days. Ellis Kinder Boston just had a thirteen game winning streak snapped and they continue to suck up all the oxygen in the room, not letting anybody else mount a serious rally. New York had climbed to within 5.5 games of Boston just last week, but continue to play well and now find themselves 9.0 games behind. Cleveland had gotten to within one game of New York to begin the week, lost that game, and then ended the week losing 3-of-4 to Boston. Detroit has players with three of the top five batting averages and three pi...

It's a Monday and it's a travel day. The AL Midwestern teams will spend the next few weeks roaming around the east coast, while in the NL the easternmost teams will be wandering the Midwest. There were actually two games played today, but the St. Louis at Brooklyn game was declared a tie ( Link ). Monday, July 25, 1949 New York (AL) (H) 2 Cleveland 1 (12) Both teams rushed back to get a head start on this week's games, with Cleveland finding themselves only a single game behind New York. It was a pitcher's duel, with Cleveland getting to Vic Raschi first when Mickey Vernon hit a solo homerun (#13, 46) in the sixth to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. It looked like Early Wynn might be able to get the shutout, but Bobby Brown singled home Phil Rizzuto with the game-tying run in the bottom of the eighth, and eventually, the game moved into extra innings. In the bottom of the twelfth, Snuffy Stirnweiss singled off Satchel Paige (2-3), was sacrificed to s...