Cliff Mapes, MVP
The Yankees Surprising Star
Cliff Mapes, MVP
A few months ago, I read a criticism of single season replayers on a message board that shall remain nameless.
The critic said that there was no point in playing a single season replay. How could it be fun if everything turned out just like it was in real life?
Those who hold such views have likely never attempted one of these replays for themselves. Strange things happen all the time — and you never know what to expect next.
Cliff Mapes isn’t exactly a household name. From what I can tell, he started off 1949 as the fill-in player for Joe DiMaggio, who struggled with leg injuries all season long. Mapes’ brief online biography is mostly filled with his minor league herorics, and the members of SABR haven’t gotten around to writing a more formal biography for him yet.
And yet he is absolutely tearing it up in this replay.
Senators at Yankees, April 20, 1949
This game started off innocently enough. After taking another look at the Yankee lineup, I decided to lead off Phil Rizzuto and see what he could do. He rewarded my curiosity with a triple, right off the bat, showing just how important it is to have a great lineup.
A triple alone wouldn’t do it, though. The Yankees managed to give up 3 runs to Washington in the top of the 1st, starting off on the wrong foot. New York did come back with 3 in their half of the 1st, though, including a huge home run by Tommy Henrich, who in real life usually reserved his heroics for the late game.
The Senators put together 2 more runs in the next two innings. However, Mapes came up, and you can guess what happened next:
That’s right — Mapes has 3 home runs in two games this season. The Yankee Stadium faithful are starting to forget all about Joltin’ Joe.
A 6th inning Yogi Berra single scored Heinrich in the bottom of the 7th, and the Yankees took the lead for the first time in the game. Washington, however, tied the game at 6 all in the top of the 8th.
Drama
It stayed knotted at 6 until the bottom of the 9th. With two outs, Hank Bauer legged this one out:
Mapes was up next, and I had stars in my eyes. He grounded out this time, though, and we had extra innings on our hands.
Extra Innings
Bud Stewart doubled with two out in the top of the 10th, creating a big threat for the Senators. And then this happend:
Can you imagine seeing this in real life? A runner tries to advance from second to third on a passed ball with two outs in a tie game in the tenth — and is thrown out! This play would be all over Baseball Tonight, Twitter, YouTube, and everything else if it happend today. Simply amazing.
The Yankees managed to get Gene Woodling to second base with one out — but he, too, fell victim to trying to advance too quickly:
I suppose it was my fault for being too aggressive this time. Still, it certainly added to the drama of an already close and surprising game.
Those Bases on Balls
Washington’s extremely poor pitching staff finally caught up with them in the bottom of the 11th. Relief pitcher Mickey Haefner walked leadoff pinch-hitter Jack Phillips, and then promptly walked Phil Rizzuto.
That set up Heinrich with a chance to be the hero:
Taking a chance paid off for me this time.
All in all, this was an incredible game — yet again. I’ve had quite a few of these nailbiters early in this replay. If this is a sign of things to come, I’ll come out of it with a head full of grey.
Daniel, to each his/her own. With DMB, one can choose season replays or a variety of other options. My own personal preference is replays of seasons with either close pennant races or that were remarkable in some other way. In the first category were the American League seasons of 1920, 1922, 1926, 1934, 1940, 1949, and 1967. In the latter category were the 1908 AL season (the most pitcher-dominant season in the deadball era, which also had a tight three-team pennant race) and the 1930 AL season (the most batter-dominant season in MLB history).
For the most part, each season replicated individual batting performances quite accurately. The league standings were almost invariably tight, but not identical to real life. In the 1920 reply, for example, the White Sox won the pennant by 3 games over the Indians and 6 over the Yankees. In real life, Cleveland won by 2 games over Chicago and 3 over New York, largely because the White Sox suspended the 8 players implicated in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
In the 1922 replay, my favorite DMB experience, the Browns took the pennant by a game over the Yankees by winning a 15-inning playoff game. In real life New York won by a game over St. Louis.
In the 1967 replay, the Red Sox won the pennant by 2 games over the Tigers and 6 over the Twins. In real life the Red Sox won by a game over both the Tigers and Twins and 3 over the White Sox.
In the 1949 replay, the Red Sox won by 7 games over the Yankees. In real life, the Yankees won by a game over the Red Sox when NY swept a weekend series in Yankee Stadium over the Red Sox. But, the replay was tight going into September, with the Yankees a game up over the Red Sox. However, in September, Boston went 21-5 and New York 15-15.
The 1926 replay seemed to have been the greatest deviation from real life. In real life, there were no dominant teams. No team finished with a W-L percentage .600 or above. Instead, 6 of the 8 teams in the AL finished above .500. The Yankees won the pennant by 3 games over the Indians, 6 over the A's, 8 above the Senators, 9.5 ahead of the White Sox and 12 over the Tigers. In the replay, the White Sox, the 5th place team in real life, won the flag by one game over the A's, 7 over the Yankees, 8 above the Indians, and 12 over the Senators. Given how tight the race was in real life, this outcome wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. One explain for the replay outcome is the difference between real life and the simulation in one-run games. In real life, the Yankees were 30-23 and the White Sox 20-32 in one-run games. In the replay, it was almost the exact opposite. The White Sox went 37-14 and the Yankees 17-33.
So, all in all, my experience with season replays has been excellent. The results are hardly identical to real life, but close enough to be realistic. It has allowed me to relive some of baseball's most interesting pennant races. I think that's a testiment to the accuracy and baseball realism of DMB.