The most important statistic you can keep in your replay is the daily standings.
Maintaining daily standings sound easy. It is surprising, however, how easily one can transpose a number or flip-flop a win or a loss. Once an error occurs, it will continue replicate itself in your daily standings until you either locate and correct the error or, worse, fail to notice the error and wind up with inaccurate standings.
Believe me, from personal experience, when you record an error in your daily standings, count on spending a frustrating hour or two or so poring through your box scores and records to see where the error occurred.
So how do you keep the daily standings and how do you avoid (or correct) any mistakes?
Some suggestions:
- Record the daily standings in a separate notebook on a day-by-day basis.
- As you play a series, update the daily standings immediately after each game.
- At the end of each “month” of your replay, compare the cumulative pitcher’s won-lost record with the won-lost record in your daily standings. Also, compare the number of starts for each pitcher with the number of games each team has played. The number of pitcher starts must equal the number of games each team has played.
- After each series, record the win and loss in a team-vs-team box, which gives you a back-up system to ensure accuracy in the won-lost standings.
Next: A post-game protocol for recording replay information
Amen to all of this, Rod. I employ all of these tips, and I *have* been the aggravated person flipping back through weeks of games to find an error. Now I double check a lot more often, but always always always at month’s end as you suggest.
In my recent 1967 AL replay, I did end up with a mistake i couldn’t fix. My KC A’s had 162 starts but they only played 161 games. The mistake happened some time in September, but i couldn’t find it and finally just took a start away from Lew Krausse because I’m pretty sure it was him. He usually started, but did relieve sometimes and I had got in the habit of ticking both a game and a game started for him, and probably did it once when i shouldn’t have.
Anyway, I update my standings on a separate notebook after every game, as you suggest. Having the head-to-head records available is invaluable when an error has to be tracked down. Thanks for these articles!
Hi! I’ve been reading your website for a while now and finally
got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Houston Texas!
Just wanted to mention keep up the fantastic job!
Thanks so much for taking a moment to let me know that you like the info on the APBA Blog.
Wanted to pass along something that might save you a ton of time during a replay. It’s an abbreviated version of the Master Game boards that I developed that really speeds up play. It’s in black and white and has to be printed in 11 x 14, but it’s a huge time-saver. It includes all the 30 MG grades, where the hits fall, where the home run letters fall…saves a lot of wear and tear on the MG board and avoids having to look up everything. If you like it and want to try it out, you can email it to Office Depot or Staples and they can print it out and laminate it for you. Total cost is about $2.00…well worth the price.
I’ve not yet gotten to writing about this, but it will eventually bob to the surface.
Again, I am pleased to hear from you. I hope the info I am passing along makes sense. God knows, I have made every mistake in the past during replays, so I hope the information helps you speed through a replay quickly, simply, and error-free…and makes the entire experience more enjoyable.
RC
Rod,
Just a note of thanks for this series you’ve been doing! I’ve been able to pull some real practical tips out that have been helpful with my current “replay” – with the 1950s All-Decade set.
Hi Rod,
Once again good info. I have had this happen twice. Very frustrating indeed. I have shortened my check time frame to avoid this issue.