Brian Cavanaugh: 1993 Phillies Break my Heart Again

Brian Cavanaugh of The Bridesburg APBA League took on a solo replay project, one that involved his beloved Phillies.  Here’s his recap.  -Tom

I have never been more excited to play  a replay than I was to replay the 1993 Phillies season. This team is my all-time favorite Phillies team, even more than the 2008 team. As a life long Phillies fan, I grew up watching some pretty bad teams. I was too young in 1980 (3 years old) and 1983 (6 years old) to remember the thrill of a pennant chase. However, in 1993, I was 16 years old and experiencing winning baseball for the first time. Yes, there was distant second place finish in ’86 and the exciting 3rd place finish (I was at the game where they clinched 3rd place, you would have thought we won the world series). I fell in love with Macho Row and will probably always have a small crack in my heart because of what Joe Carter did.

My ’93 Phillies were an unstoppable offensive juggernaut during the regular season, steamrolling to what would be a franchise record 108 wins. There were times when it seemed like this team couldn’t lose. They just got on base so much and always seemed to come up with a clutch hit.

My heart break though came a bit earlier in my replay than in real life. The series that Tom Glavine dubbed "America’s team vs. America’s most wanted" did not play out as it did in real life. My Phil’s little engine that could ran out of gas and fell to Atlanta 4-2 in the N.L.C.S. I was positive that if I beat the Braves, the Phil’s would have also beaten Toronto and mend that crack in my heart just a little bit.

Just as in real life, Lenny Dykstra was the sparkplug leading the team in hits, at bats, batting average, doubles, stolen bases, walks and runs. Dave Hollins out performed his card and led the team with 43 HR’s and 116 RBI. Darren Daulton was a rock behind the plate hitting a career high 30 HR’s with 103 RBI.

Terry Mulholland was the ace posting a team high 20 wins and 3.36 ERA.The rest of the staff performed much like they did in real life, except that both Danny Jackson (5.26) and Ben Rivera (5.66) had considerably higher ERA’s. I loved playing with this team and it was kind of sad to put them back in the box. They have been retired and will now see play in future tournaments.

It’s now time to move on to another Phillies team to replay. Since my past replays have been with good Phillies teams (1950,’64,’93), I am going to try my hand with Nick Leyva’s disastrous 1989 team. That should be fun!!

1993 Phillies Stats

• Lenny Dykstra – .295, 18-66 (141 R, 136 BB)
• Mariano Duncan – 270, 14-75 (40 2bh)
• John Kruk – .282, 17-96 (108 R, 122 BB)
• Darren Daulton – .263, 30-103 ( 97 R, 89 BB)
• Dave Hollins – .257, 43-116 (110 R, 11 3bh)
• Jim Eisenreich – 281, 17-88 ( 10 more HR, 37 more RBI than real life)
• Milt Thompson – .218, 4-34
• Juan Bell – .208, 1-14 (couldn’t wait to get rid of him)
• Kim Batiste – .229, 5-18
• Wes Chamberlain – .266, 11-37 (top pinch hitter)
• Pete Incaviglia – .242, 17-61
• Ricky Jordan – .259, 7-31
• Mickey Morandini – .267, 2-49
• Todd Pratt – .284, 8-16
• Kevin Stocker – .277, 3-28
• Jeff Manto – .128, 0-0
• Terry Mullholland – 20-7. 3.36
• Curt Schilling – 15-7, 4.45 (actual 16-7, 4.02)
• Tommy Greene – 17-5, 3.87 (team high 193 K’s, actual 16-4, 3.42)
• Danny Jackson – 13-9, 5.26
• Ben Rivera – 13-6, 5.66
• Larry Anderson – 7-3, 2.57
• David West – 6-2, 2.94
• Mitch Williams – 4-2, 4.37, 43 SV
• Jose DeLeon – 3-3, 3.52
• Bobby Thigpen – 0-2, 9.62 (he was as useful to me as he was in real life)
• Brad Brink – 1-1, 6.23
• Paul Fletcher – 1-1, 9.00
• Kevin Foster – 1-2, 6.23
• Donn Pall – 1-1, 4.03
• Roger Mason – 3-0, 3.69
• Tim Mauser – 3-0, 2.83
• Mark Davis – 0-3, 5.09 (see above, Thigpen, Bobby)

Thanks for the recap, Brian.  Better luck next time with the Phillies!