My buddy Brando and I settled down in his basement this afternoon to watch the Illinois-Ohio State football game and meanwhile play some APBA. As I mentioned this morning, he had chosen the 1930 Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers for us to play leaving me with the Windy City team.
I didn’t mind. The ‘30 Cubs may not have Dazzy Vance but they had plenty of hitting and their pitching wasn’t too bad either. The Cubs were pretty powerful up and down the lineup with the exception of the Clyde Beck/Les Bell platoon and possibly Footsie Blair (though even he did have a 44-7). The pride of the lineup was perennial drunk Hack Wilson who was good enough to get 1-1-5-5-6 with a 61-9 and 5 14s. Brando said “Imagine how well he could have played sober.” I retorted, “Probably not as well”.
Chicago pitching was fine with BYZ Pat Malone and BYZ Charlie Root heading up the rotation. A side note: We were playing with the re-release of the 1930 season. It seems to me Root was a C starter in the original release. Can someone verify this?
The ‘30 Dodgers of course, had Dazzy Vance, shining star of the National League. He was the only A in the NL in 1930 in memory serves. That was based on a unheard of real life 2.61 ERA that year so it was well deserved.
On top of that, the Dodgers possessed probably the most exciting APBA card among the two teams, maybe in the whole 1930 NL, Babe Herman. Herman who hit .393 in 1930 in real life received a superman card for his efforts. It’s a 1-3-5-6-6 with two 7s and two 10s. He has a 64-9.
On to the series. The rules were simple.
- APBA Basic Baseball Game out of the box.
- Five game series. Home-away was determined 2-2-1.
- Three man pitching rotation.
Game One
It was a pitcher’s duel between Dazzy Vance and Pat Malone as both complete their games. Footsie Blair (6 actual HR) was the unlikely hero and he hits a two-run homerun in the fifth inning to put Chicago ahead for good 3-2.
Game Two
Ray Phelps is on the mound for Dem Bums and Charlie Root goes for the Cubs. Both teams start scoring and Brooklyn takes a 6-3 lead by the fifth helped by Johnny Frederick’s two-run shot in the third. Going into the bottom of the ninth and down by a run, Cliff Heathcoate hits a walk-off pinch hit two-run homerun off ‘Sloppy’ Thurston to win the game.
Game Three
Down by two games, Brooklyn takes revenge against Chicago pitching in the worst way. In the seventh inning, they score 11 runs. The first nine batters hit safely in that inning as they go through three Chicago pitchers. Johnny Frederick hits another homerun in the game, this one a three-run dinger. Catcher Al Lopez goes 4 for 5 with a double and a rbi. Babe Herman was ejected arguing with the umpire but his replacement Ike Boone went 2 for 3 with a triple and three rbis. Final score 16-3.
Game Four
Another tight game with the Game One starters Malone and Vance back on the hill. Brooklyn does score four in the first four innings but Malone doesn’t give any more till he’s taken out in the eighth. Vance gives up a two-run homer to Hack Wilson and the next at-bat a homerun to Gabby Hartnett but again, those are the only runs he gave up. Babe Herman once again gets ejected arguing with the same umpire (a good example for why the Unusual Play Card might be useful).
The game goes into extras tied 4-4. In the bottom of the 11th, Johnny Frederick (big star for Brooklyn this series!) hits a bases loaded single off Guy Bush scoring Al Lopez to win the game.
Final Game
Ray Phelps and Charlie Root on the mound. Kiki Cuyler and Woody English, the first two batters in the lineup, score in the first inning on a single, triple and a ground out by Riggs ‘Ol Hoss’ Stephenson. That was pretty much all Root needed as he pitched a five hitter allowing just one run, an rbi double by Del Bissonette. Chicago hit four triples in the game (English, Les Bell, Footsie Blair, and Kiki Cuyler). Final score 3-1.
Chicago wins the series 3-2!
Well, Illinois may not have won their game (it was pretty painful to watch at times) but as Brando said, “At least there was some APBA played”.
hmm piece of trivia i just learned. Dazzy Vance was 39 in 1930 when he was a AYZ
also realized I should have called them the “Robins” not Dodgers (named after Wilbert Robinson). Oh well.