When it comes to player performances and APBA cards, it doesn’t get much better than this. This is Walter Johnson’s APBA based on his 1913 season with the Washington Senators.
At 25, Johnson was in already in his prime. In 1913, he lead the AL in pretty much every meaningful category including wins, ERA, CG, shutouts, IP, and strikeouts. He was rewarded with the rare A&B grade by APBA.
With 1.0 BB/9 IP, I’m wondering if he would now get APBA’s ZZ rating. Most likely he would making this card doubly effective.
| Year | Tm | W | L | G | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | WSH | 36 | 7 | .837 | 1.14 | 48 | 36 | 29 | 11 | 2 | 346.0 | 232 | 56 | 44 | 9 | 38 | 243 |
But that’s not the end of the story. Walter wasn’t a slouch with the stick and in 1913 he actually provided some Zambrano-esque offensive numbers in a fairly large sample size.
| Year | Tm | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | WSH | 55 | 141 | 134 | 12 | 35 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 14 | .261 | .293 | .433 |
The two homeruns combined with the six triples forced APBA to get creative. They ended up giving Johnson the 3-3-4 power combination. With runners on second, he should hit those 3s a couple times to get a couple times. With a relative low walk rate (for a normal player at least), it gives him some extra hit value. That’s why we see a .261 hitter with a 44-7.
One oddity: Johnson has his error number at 61 and instead he has a 53-23. He also has a 13-36. And in case you didn’t notice, he has just one 13.
Here’s some archived footage of Big Train warming up for the Senators:
Thanks Rich Z!
You are always welcome Tom! Anytime!
I always enjoy the older cards that use first column 2s, 3s and 4s. They have a bit more “character.”