Early Pitching Changes

When Things Just Go Wrong

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Take the Bum Out

Do you notice anything unusual about this boxscore?

Yes, I know – the Red Sox scored 6 in the top of the 7th, Ted Williams hit his first home run of the season, and Philadelphia used 6 pitchers in an awful performance.

The truth, though, is that there really isn’t much to see here. This isn’t the sort of game I would spotlight as a “game of the day,” nor is it the sort of game that you’d think much about if you were playing through a full season in instant mode.

However, what happened here was actually quite fascinating.

Joe Coleman’s Bad Day

Joe Coleman pitched horribly – much worse than you can tell from this report. His line was actually saved by Carl Scheib’s relief.

Now, I should slow down a bit. I should write a brief note to those who have never tried this kind of replay. You might look at 1949 and think that you’re going to spend most of your time playing around with Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, and the other star players.

The sad truth is that this simply isn’t true. Replays don’t work like that. You’ll spend the majority of your time trying to figure out the right (and “realistic”) way to use a bunch of players you’ve never heard of before.

That’s not to say that Coleman or even Scheib were nothing pitchers. On the contrary – Coleman was a mainstay of the Athletics’ staff in the late 1940s, and was even an All Star in 1948. Scheib shuffled between starting and relieving duty for 7 1/2 post-war years with the Athletics before ending his career with the Cardinals. These are the sorts of players that you learn about when you undertake this kind of project – the guys who time forgot.

And, well, Coleman just forgot how to pitch in this game.

The red-hot Red Sox offense had 4 base hits to start off the game, scoring 2 quick runs. Coleman than promptly walked Johnny Pesky to load the bases, which is when I knew I had a decision to make. I could either let Coleman continue to get shelled, or I could make a quick substitution and hope that Diamond Mind lets me start him again the next day.

Realism

Think that’s not realistic? Guess again.

It turns out that Coleman actually pitched twice with no rest in the real 1949.

In fact, thanks to Baseball Reference, we can get all sorts of information about his performances:

I’ve made a few edits for clarity. If you’re really curious, you can see all of Coleman’s 1949 appearances here.

Coleman went 8 innings in his April 30th start, winding up with the loss despite only giving up two runs. He pitched well and was under a lot of pressure throughout the game (which is what aLI and acLI purportedly tell us). And he then entered in the 6th inning of the first game of the doubleheader the next day, going 4 innings and earning the win.

Later, on August 12, he pitched a complete game – a 7-3 loss to the Yankees. I probably would have take him out early; then again, I’m not Connie Mack. He came in the very next day to pitch the 9th inning against the same Yankees giving up another run and damaging Philadelphia’s pennant chances (this would be cWPA, which is a really fun stat).

Win or lose, the lesson here is the same: pitchers in 1949 did appear with little to no rest.

Rain

Things became very interesting after Coleman was taken out. Scheib held the Red Sox in check, and the Athletics tried valiantly to muster some sort of offensive attack. And then, in the top of the 4th, things got interesting.

See that 81-minute rain delay in the boxscore? That’s where Scheib had to come out. His arm stiffened up – one of those nice little things that make these computer-based simulations so interesting, the sort of thing that you just don’t get with the older games.

This caused a crisis for the Athletics. Philadelphia didn’t have much of a bullpen in 1949. Scheib has good stamina ratings, but nobody else did. I had to make a move, and I had to make it quick.

Desperate Measures

On came Jim Wilson.

Now we’re talking obscurity. Wilson is the sort of player that only replayers like me would be familiar with.

Wilson had 2 appearances in the real 1949, going for a total of 5 innings. I needed to squeeze as much as I could out of him, though. You know what? He actually pitched quite well.

Things got really silly, though, when I realized that he had to bat in the bottom of the 4th. I couldn’t make a double substitution that made any sense to avoid the issue. Wilson, who only batted 3 times in the real 1949 and did absolutely nothing with his chances, had to come up to bat in a tight game.

And, well, this happened:

Hey, what are the odds?

Fun and Realism

It’s situations like this that make me love replaying so much. There’s a lot of realism here, even though the outcome wasn’t what we’d expect if we were sticklers for “just like real life.”

And, of course, it’s situations like this that you just don’t run into if you aren’t playing the games yourself.

Forum Roundup

• Without missing a beat, Mike Mathias has completed another day of 1934. Those hated Yankees keep beating Detroit.

• Mark Ruckhaus played two more games in his 1959 NPIII replay.

Thank you again for reading this edition of The Baseball Replay Journal. More fun to come – stay tuned!