Hero
Tigers at Naps, April 28, 1908
Hero
Every now and then a simulated game will be clearly superior to its real life counterpart. That happened with this one.
The Detroit at Cleveland game on April 28, 1908 wasn’t much to write home about:
The Long Road Back
Actually, I was worried that this one would wind up just as bad as the game was in real life. In fact, I was prepared to make a video all about how surprisingly bad the 1908 Cleveland Naps were playing in this replay.
Cleveland entered the bottom of the 8th inning down, 4-1. The hitters weren’t hitting, and everything was going wrong.
But that’s when it started.
Joe Birmingham came up with 2 men on and 2 men out in that bottom of the 8th, and suddenly hit double column gold:
All of a sudden, the Detroit lead was down to 1.
The bottom of the 9th featured more.
With one out, Josh Clarke walked, setting things up for Napoleon Lajoie:
Napoleon didn’t quite get it done, but he did get that tying run moved up into scoring position.
That set things up for George Stovall:
That tied it up — and we were headed for extra innings.
10th Inning
Detroit came very close to scoring.
With Sam Crawford on at first and one out, Claude Rossman came up for the Tigers:
That brought up Bill Coughlin, still with only one out:
That famous Skeetersoft “little e” system strikes again. Now the bases were loaded, and it looked like the Tigers couldn’t miss. Up came Red Downs:
I decided to bunt with Downs in hopes of avoiding an inning-ending double play — and that’s exactly what I got.
On we went to the bottom of the 10th. George Perring led things off for the Naps, and it was time for that “little e” again:
That set things up for Birmingham again:
I knew that Cleveland only needed one run, and so I decided to bunt to get that runner into scoring position.
There was one out now, and it was time for Bill Hinchman:
The “17” result changed to a “22” through NPIII’s automatic error randomizing system, allowing Perring to advance to third on the bad pickoff move. I’m not quite sure what Bill Donovan was thinking.
And, of course, Hinchman still had the rest of his at bat:
I decided that it would be better to walk Hinchman and get to the pitcher’s spot. A double play here would put the game into the 11th inning, after all.
Cleveland put Terry Turner up there as a pinch hitter:
Turner’s fly ball meant nothing, of course, since it was not deep enough to score Perring. There were now two men out, and it was up to Clarke again:
That was Donovan’s 4th walk of the game, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. And up to bat next was the legendary hero of the times:
Lajoie’s single won the game, ended Cleveland’s losing streak, and just might be what the team needs to turn things around in this replay.
I probably went a bit too long with Donovan in this one. Otherwise, I think it was a fairly well managed game on both parts.
And, yes, those left on base numbers are ridiculous. Feels like another 1949 game.