Roger's 1949 APBA Replay

Week 20 is in the books so the season is 5/6's (83.3%) complete and teams are working through starting to close out season series against their opponents.  No real changes in the standings, although the big news of the week was that on Monday Washington was able to end it's 23 game losing streak. They went on to win two in a row and ended up with three wins on the week as they try to maintain their hold on seventh place over St. Louis (AL). Tomorrow is Labor Day and every team has a doubleheader awaiting them, so after tomorrow every team will be at least be at the 130 game mark except for New York (AL). Cass Michaels St. Louis still maintains an 8.5 game lead over second-place Brooklyn in the NL, with a magic number of 17. St. Louis has been in a bit of a lull lately but they still find ways to come out on top. Brooklyn has now scored more runs than St. Louis (719-710) and has allowed fewer runs than St. Louis (511-512) and they have opened a 3.5 game lead over third-...

Monday, August 29, 1949 Boston (AL) 5 Cleveland (H) 3 (GM 1) Boston starter Earl Johnson (4-0) made his first appearance in a month and limited Cleveland to only one unearned run through eight innings. Fritz Dorish pitched the ninth for the Red Sox and managed to make it interesting but finally got the third out with no further damage. Cleveland (H) 5 Boston (AL) 4 (10) (GM 2) Gene Bearden Boston outfielders gunned down two Cleveland runners at home plate early in the game, but Lou Boudreau singled home Joe Gordon in the tenth with the game-winner, Gordon just sliding in under the tag. Gene Bearden (6-8) picked up the win in relief to split the doubleheader. Detroit (H) 4 Philadelphia (AL) 2 Fifth place Philadelphia would like to move up on fourth place Detroit, but couldn’t get the job done today. The Tigers took an early 2-0 lead, but the Athletics soon fought back and tied the score at 2-2 in the top of the sixth. In the bottom half of the sixth ...

Week 19 is done and after a few more days every team will be below the 30 games remaining mark. In a few more days the schedule will move into September as well, so the replay continues to move along quite well. We have reached that point in the schedule where teams are starting to wrap up either home or road series against opponents and it won't be much longer before they start to wrap up their season series as well. Sam Chapman At the end of last week I figured I was heading into a more-or-less monotonous final quarter of the replay but after all, it is baseball and anything can happen, and often does. Besides a lot of unexpected wins and losses, the highlight of this week was a Perfect Game by Hal Newhouser over Washington, the third no-hitter of the season. In the AL Boston is riding a four-game losing streak. Their lead is still safely in double digits, but it is Cleveland who it sitting behind Boston in second place and not New York. Cleveland finally put toget...

Monday, August 22, 1949 There is only one game today as it is a travel day. The AL eastern teams are on a train to the Midwest while in the NL it is the Midwest teams heading east. There are not too many road trips left in this season and to won't be much longer before we see teams closing out their season series' against different opponents. Brooklyn 5 Boston (NL) (H) 3 Both teams scored a run in the first, but then the Boston defense committed four errors in the second inning and suddenly Brooklyn led 5-1. Jack Banta (7-1) and Vern Bickford (12-11) buckled down from there and six scoreless innings followed and Banta put down a late Braves rally attempt in the ninth and Brooklyn had the win. Tuesday, August 23, 1949 Notes: The New York Yankees announced they had purchased the contract of first baseman Johnny Mize from the New York Giants. Philadelphia (AL) 2 Chicago (AL) (H) 1 (10) The White Sox gunned down three Philadelphia runners at the p...