Injuries don’t happen too often in APBA Baseball. By my count, it occurs on five result numbers on all of the base situations not including the sacrifice and hit and run charts. That said, what do you do when a player gets injured according to the APBA boards?
All of the injuries occur on numbers 23, 37, 38, 39 and 41. Those are Unusual Play Numbers or as our league calls them, ‘funny numbers’. There are are a few oddball ones on the sacrifice charts as a result of a hit by pitch. Injuries will occur with a runner on second with a result number 19 as well as on a 14 with runners on second and third. There is an 18 with the bases loaded will get your batter plunked with bad results. Finally, as Scott points out to me, there is also a injury on the 18 when you hit and run with runners on first and third.
The obvious solution is to do what charts dictate. Most times one player is injured but in one case, two players are injured as in this case with runners on second and third:
39–Pop fly out; runners advance one base; PO-SS;
shortstop and leftfielder collide and are injured;
shortstop out next 3 games; LF out for 2 games
The charts specify that a player can be out for as much as six or seven games or simply the remainder of the game.
What are fans really doing?
I like that the APBA Company is adding this feature. However, many fans are adding their own twist on the APBA rules to fit their replay or league format. It turns out they have many ways of handling injuries in the APBA game. I did a quick poll on The APBA Blog Facebook page and here are top three ways we deal with them…
Play it per the boards
There is the simple solution, of course. Some simply play it as the boards dictate.
Out for the game
When a player is injured, some take him out for just that game. Why? Many APBA fans who do replays, use actual lineups and rotations so recovery from injuries is ‘built in’ to the system and will disrupt the flow of the replay. Replayer Joe Deauseault said:
Injury is just that game. Usage rules already account for games missed during the season.
This is how I handle injuries in my 1966 NL replay for the exact same reason. Like Joe, I use the actual lineups and rotations and using APBA’s system of injuries would disrupt that. For example, I’ve noticed that in my 1966 NL replay, Joe Morgan has not been playing since late June. A little research showed that Morgan injured his knee during batting practice.
Some have a system
Finally, some fans have a system they have designed to deal with injuries. For example, Randy Steinman has a system when an injury occurs:
- J-0 is out for rest of game only.
- J-1 or J-2 will miss next game, if applicable.
- J-3 or J-4 will miss next two games, if applicable.
The league I’m in has a slightly different example. The player is simply out the number of games of his J- number and J-0 players are just out for the game. The injury does not carry over into the next series.
I’m surprised that I didn’t hear anyone using the Injury Chart modification which has been around for a while. I searched for it but couldn’t find it so maybe it fell out of favor. I remember it being based on the J-factor and was similar to an APBA card with 36 results.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, very few fans outright ignore injuries on the APBA charts.
No right answer
Remember, there is no correct way to do this. You do what fits your replay or league. It depends on how much randomness you want in your project. You’re the Manager, as the iconic APBA ad implies.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my inquiry about this! I know injuries are a relatively rare occurrence but when they happen, they do have consequences.
Hi Tom,
In addition to my solution, which is to completely ignore the injury and play the game since I am using games played as a way to ensure I am not overusing players.
There IS an injury on the hit and run with runners on first and third:
Batter hit by pitch and is injured for remainder of game, filling the bases.
Thanks for catching that, Scott! That shows how often I hit and run with runners on first and third. ;)
That happend once and I forever stopped using hit and run.
An injury can happen on a 21 on at least one board situation I believe. And I’ve always loved injuries,especially when it happens in a replay so i can roll those dice and see how long I get to cover for an injured player. I’ve been like they since I was a kid. And I get real peeved when I go games and games without getting one. But my league I’m in does what most do just pull player fir that game unless he’s j-0 where he makes the die roll
Hi Erik, there aren’t any injuries on 21 on my 2013 boards but there is an ejection with the bases loaded if the defense is playing close.
thanks!
My own biggest issue with APBA injuries is that, due to the frequency at which each base situation can occur, certain players are way more likely to be injured than others. For example, third baseman will disproportionately receive injuries since they are the injured player when a Runner is on 2nd.
Because of that, any time I roll an injury, I roll on a chart to see which player is injured. There is an even chance for any player in the current batting team’s lineup to be injured and every player on the current fielding team. (18 total players with 36 APBA-style dice combinations just happens to work nicely here!)
Yes, this can absolutely mean a player is injured who was NOT involved in the play, but I’m fine with that. Sometimes, after all, a player is injured on a play, then stays in the game and doesn’t come out until the end of a half-inning or even several innings later. My imagination is to say something like “Well, it looks like the second baseman is leaving the game… He looked like he was running a little weird in his last at bat and apparently things are tightening up and he just can’t continue any more…”
For example, my Injury Assignment goes:
11 or 41 – Batting Team, #1
12 or 42 – Fielding Team, P
13 or 43 – Batting Team, #2
14 or 44 – Fielding Team, C
15 or 45 – Batting Team, #3
16 or 46 – Fielding Team, 1B
(You can probably figure out this pattern from here on out…)
Hi Chris, this is very interesting and probably much more realistic.
It would stop focusing injuries on shortstops and left fielders. :)
I am doing a 1908 season replay using the line ups for that day provided by retrosheet. There are couple of challenges on how to handle uncarded players and starting pitchers. There are times when the manager yanked the pitcher early as in the first inning and the relief pitcher finished the game. The yanked pitcher starts a game a day or so later. Now to injuries i take the player out for the rest of the game only. On the premise that player may have come out of another game early in the schedule.