Roger's 1949 APBA Replay

Week 3 is completed and the pennant races are all quite close. Most teams are right around the twenty game mark with others right behind. The number of homeruns is still high but are slowly but surely leveling off somewhat. Batting Averages and ERA's are still high also, but like the homeruns, they are leveling off as well. The pitching continues to recover after their Week 1 thumping as there were eleven shutouts in Week 3, including a pair of 1-0 games. In the three weeks completed there have been thirteen instances where a player has homered twice in a game, ten times where teammates have hit back-to-back homeruns, five grand slams, and six pinch-hit homeruns. This week saw the Giants Bobby Thomson , Willard Marshall , and Walker Cooper hit back-to-back-to-back homeruns off Pittsburgh's Bob Muncrief , although Muncrief shut down the Giants the rest of the way and Pittsburgh came back to win the game. George Kell In the AL Boston remains on top with their powerf...

Monday, May 2, 1949 It's a Monday and it’s the start of Week 3, so that means it's a travel day and there are no games scheduled. In looking through the schedule I see another Monday or two with no games scheduled, plus several that have only one game scheduled. Trains are still the primary mode of team transportation, and while I am sure the trains of 1949 are more modern and more comfortable than the trains of 1930, a train ride from St. Louis to or from anywhere on the east coast is still a long train ride. My guess is that baseball figured out it wasn't worth the effort of trying to have teams rush across the country and then try to squeeze a game in on the same day - get on the train Sunday evening, ride all night and part of the next day, get to your hotel, get some rest (or not) and be ready to go the next day. Conversely, both Sundays so far have featured multiple doubleheaders, and looking through the schedule ahead I can see that every Sunday features ...