27
August

Small-Time Golf Talks Baseball

by Craig Small

I remember as a kid growing up in New England that I could always count on my beloved Red Sox putting the same lineup on the field night after night, season after season. I knew I was going to see Jerry Remy, Rick Burleson, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, and for a few glorious seasons, Freddie Lynn. Late in the game I could expect to see Bob Stanley make his way in from the bullpen to keep the game from slipping away from the always shaking pitching staff. If the Royals were in town I knew I was going to see George Brett, Willie Wilson, Hal McRae, Frank White, and Dan Quisenberry. I think you know where I’m going with this. It’s a little strange being a fan in the new era of professional baseball.

I got home tonight in time to watch the Dodger game on my Roku box with the MLB package. I got it pretty much so I could watch Dodger games and listen to Vin Scully for however long he has left in the booth. Just his voice brings me back to my childhood watching the Game Of The Week on lazy summer afternoons with Scully and Garagiola calling the game. Listening to Scully call a game (on his own!!) is like getting to spend three hours a night with a loving grandfather regaling me with stories of the glory days of baseball. Tonight I got home in time to catch the first inning and see Adrian Gonzalez drill a three-run homer down the line into the right field bleachers. The camera scanned the Dodger dugout and I saw Josh Beckett, for years the rock of the Sox pitching staff, looking strange in Dodger blue. Look, I know things have changed. Hell, the Red Sox grabbed Gonzalez and Crawford by throwing boatloads of cash at them a couple of years ago and managed to get Beckett (and Mike Lowell) during one of the Florida (Miami) Marlins annual fire sales. Just two seasons after making headlines with the acquisitions of Gonzalez and Crawford, they’re both gone. I should be used to this by now. I’m not.

What brings this up? Well I go to see my parents every weekend and my dad and I usually find the time to get in a game or two of APBA Baseball. Tonight he was Texas and I was the Red Sox. We used the 2011 teams and I decided to give Beckett the start for old times sake. He pitched a hell of a game. Seven innings, two hits, no runs. Bard pitched the eighth, and Papelbon closed it out in the ninth. Ortiz homered in the seventh for a Red Sox 1-0 victory. As we were playing I looked at my lineup and something struck me, hard.

1. Ellsbury CF
2. Pedroia 2B
3. Gonzalez 1B
4. Ortiz DH
5. Youkilis 3B
6. Reddick LF
7. Scutaro SS
8. Drew RF
9. Varitek C

Starting Pitcher: Beckett
Relief: Bard
Closer: Papelbon

Of the twelve players that appeared in the game for me this afternoon only three are still with the major league team. THREE. Eight of them are now either retired or gone and one is in the minors. God, I miss Remy, Burleson, Rice, Evans, Fisk, and Yaz.

Oh, and you damn kids get off of my lawn!

6 comments

22
July

Ronnie is smiling right about now

cubs conv sat 053

Santo speaking at the 2008 Cubs Convention

 

I’m not an overly sentimental guy. I’ll admit it… when a famous baseball player gets sick or even passes on, it doesn’t hit me like it does some people.  But it was a little different with Ron Santo.

When Ron Santo died in 2010 from complications from diabetes (a condition he lived with his whole adult life), I felt it a little more.  I was also more than bit angry when he was denied entry to the Hall of Fame in the last years of his life.  I hate to use the “it’s a Cub thing, you wouldn’t understand” argument but being a Northsider fan since I could talk (in the days when players would stay with a team for more than five, six or in his case fourteen years), I remember watching Santo in his latter years.  His playing days are a good argument for the Hall but for me, his role as ambassador for the game give him the extra credentials for the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

Ron Santo was old school.  I think that is an understatement.  He was a homer, too.  That was what was endearing about him. Make no mistake, I don’t harbor any illusions about Santo being a brilliant voice broadcaster.  He wasn’t.  But he was the real thing.  In this day of slick analysts and smooth (and sometimes not so smooth) talkers with a mike in front of them, when Ronnie said something you pretty much knew it was coming from Ronnie.  Most importantly, Ron Santo was a baseball fan.

Despite the detractors out there, Ron Santo deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.  I’m glad he finally made it this weekend even though it was a couple years too late for him to enjoy it.

Yes, Ronnie is smiling now.

1 comment

20
July

The APBA Blog mail bag: Chuck Foley chimes in

Long time APBA fan Chuck Foley emailed The APBA Blog and I wanted to share his thoughts.  He has a couple of good points worth a look. With his permission, I’m posting his note in entirety. 

I have read with interest the blogs you are all posting. At the risk of boring you, I will write a brief intro of my APBA experience, so that you can better understand where I’m coming from.

I have played APBA baseball since 1967, and own 50 season sets (almost all of them purchased through APBA). I stopped buying them for awhile around 1985, and didn’t play at all for several years, and then happened across the computer game in 1994, at a toy store. I played that exclusively for a few years until my son was old enough to play the basic game. I purchased the 1997 season and played a few games with my son, and purchased a new Master Game, as well. But I was too busy for that, and gradually, I stopped playing the board game again.

Then came the convention in 2008 in Las Vegas, where I have lived for many years (yes, I missed the other conventions that were here). I wanted to go, so I dusted off the old boards and entered the competition. I discovered all over the "joy of the cards." The Basic Game, with whatever faults we can all find with it, is still the best way to enjoy a replay experience in baseball, in my humble opinion.

I have since purchased more sets, including a few through Ebay. My only concern is that it seems as if the hitting numbers are down too much on the modern seasons that APBA has made, including the Reprints.

For one example, compare Ken Griffey’s 1986 Yankee card to Ichiro’s 2006 card (I’m replaying the 1986 season, but only the Detroit Tigers’ schedule). I consider 1986 to be the "old" grading system, and 2006 would certainly represent the "new" grading system. Although Griffey hit .303 and Ichiro hit .322, Griffey’s card is clearly a better hitting card.

Both have 2 14′s, but:

Griffey has 3 "power" numbers at 66, 11, and 33, Ichiro only 2.

Ichiro does have 11′s at 15 & 25, while Griffey has only one 11 at 15.

But Griffey’s card has another 7 at 44 (Ichiro has an 8 there), and Griffey has 8′s at both 31 & 51, giving him 9′s at both 35 & 42, giving him a clear advantage over Ichiro, who has a 9 at 31, and is left with only one more 9 at 35, and a 13 at 42.

Griffey’s card is clearly a better hitting card, and he hit nearly 20 points lower. I believe APBA has over-compensated the pitching in recent years, not only by increasing the grade for pitchers (and some are questionable- does Adam Loewen really deserve a C rating for 112 IP and a 5.73 ERA? He does have a W in his wildness rating, so that might be the rationale for allowing a higher grade), but by also lowering the hit numbers for batters.

There are many other examples, and maybe I can outline some of them another time. If you have a chance, check out Mark Loretta’s 2006 card and see if you can imagine him hitting .285 with that card (teammate David Ortiz hit .287 and has a far superior hitting card).

Oddly enough, if you compare the seasons, they weren’t appreciably different. 1986 AL hitters batted .262 compared to .275 for 2006. The WHIP was 1.381 for 1986 and 1.414 for 2006, and the league ERAs were similar, 4.61 for 1986 compared to 4.56 for 2006. Those differences don’t account for the drastic variances in the hitters’ cards.

I will replay the Detroit Tigers’ 2006 season and I would like to incorporate some of the pitching changes that I hear re-players speaking of, but I don’t know what they are.

For example, what is the Coxx pitching system? Any help regarding pitching variations that have worked for the Basic Game would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Chuck Foley

Thanks Chuck for sharing your thoughts!

Have an opinion on the article?  Feel free to leave a comment if you wish!

2 comments