by Scott Fennessy
Funny when the Beatles sing this phrase it’s a great song. Unfortunately when you hit that 23 with runners on the corners it just ended your game. For me the upside is that there is one less third baseman headed for the trainer’s room. I know it’s a different base situation, but given how many players I have on the DL I really don’t care for the number 23 at present. Sorry Ryno.
I have my own way of doing replays of rain outs, which is to start the game over with the next pitchers in the rotation going provided the game has not gone the minimum distance to be completed.
As I near the end of my 1905 replay I had perhaps one of the rarest streaks possible in APBA. While playing a game between the Browns and the White Sox I got to the second inning when the game was rained out. While I finished the make up without incident, here is a tip of the cap to Fred Pelty of the Browns, who hurls a 5 hitter and picks up his second win of the season.
The next game was a game featuring the hapless Senators and the marginally better Yankees. This was a rare series where the pitching matchups actually favored the Sens. They had a Casey Patten a B starter against Walter Clarkson a D starter. Patten had a no hitter through three and shortstop Joe Cassidy, who has really struggled with the bat this year had a double that was wiped out.
So the next game Washington had another B facing a D and in the 2nd inning, the game was rained out yet again. Once again Cassidy is the victim, having hit his third home run of the season. Needless to say I had to replay the game; sure enough the odds shifted New York’s way and the Senators send out a C pitcher against the Yankees ace Jack Chesbro, an A starter. And of course the Yankees crush the Senators 8-3. And my streak of games rained out ended with 3 of 5 games washed away.
So I ask those of you reading this, how do you handle rained out games? I am sure there are many ways. I look forward to your comments.
Most leagues and replays that I’ve been part of have disregarded the rainout and just called it a strike.
Most of us strive for realism but like you insinuate, rainouts are a waste of our time and a pain when it comes doing stats.
just my two cents.
That’s what I do. Just disregard it and consider it a strike.
I just got rid of them. They are, after all, just a waste of time and it is our game. I lumped all the error and unusual play numbers
together and use an additional roll to randomize the board number. This is weighted to the most common real life events (i.e. errors). In the event that an unusual play (which I’ve limited to #23)rather than an error comes up, one has to roll again and get a 66 in order to activate the “unusual play” board (36 different unusual plays). In the event of an activating 66, roll again to see which unusual play eventuates. Otherwise, it’s just a foul strike and the game goes on. After nearly 50 years and thousands of games we have eliminated rain outs and unusual plays are just that – unusual.
Hi Gary, and Tom in his post before yours. It’s an interesting thought. I wonder if you think maybe another option would be to call it a “delay” and both starters have to be pulled and the game continues.
That way you get the effect of a rain situation but with the added realism of what would happen to starters without wasting time on the delay.
I am sorry to say that it just never occurred to me to ignore the rain as until this stretch it usually only happens 2-3 times a year.
I think that because of the way APBA set up the cards during this era of their number generation and their way of having two error numbers to account for the significantly lower fielding percentages combined with their having lots of 23’s on cards was just an “unintended circumstance” regarding injuries and rainouts.
In our face-to-face league, we treat a rainout as a rain delay and the pitchers are pulled. This year I had a game with two rain delays! The relief pitchers were busy.
I had simply ignored the rain outs during my 1980 and 1981 season replays, just in the interest of time. But I like the idea of calling it a rain delay and pulling the pitchers. It will add a little more spice to the game as the bullpen even for a good team normally isn’t very deep allowing for more hitting and putting more onus on strategic changes later in the game.
@Scott – love the blog, keep going!
Hey there everybody! (In my Jack Brickhouse imitation voice) I am suprised how much of a response this got. Back when I started the article I was debating if it was a good idea.
I am glad to hear I am not the only person who does not like to re do the games, which admittedly I had never even thought about ignoring.
I think I like the idea about making it a delay the best. You get the inconvenience of a rainout for pitchers, but you don’t lose the stats and have to waste time restarting a game.