Kiner

Plus Roundup of April 24, 1949 Games

Kiner

The Bucs have been playing extremely well in this replay. They come into this Sunday afternoon game against the Reds with a 5-0 record, tied for best in the National League with the New York Giants.

I was curious to see how things compared with the real life 1949 Pittsburgh Pirates. I’ve been on an old newspaper kick lately, too, and so I went back to the virtual stacks to check out the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 25, 1949, page 16

Now, you need to remember that I’m using the as-scheduled schedule, not the as-played schedule. In real life, the Saturday, April 23rd game at Forbes Field was postponed due to wet grounds, causing a Sunday doubleheader. That’s right — the drama we had last time never could have happened in real life.

There’s something fun about this Pirates team. I don’t think they’ll be able to keep it up for the whole season, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Early Lead

In real life, the Pirates weren’t hitting well at this point. Don’t believe me? Just ask Al Abrams:

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 25, 1949, page 16

Nobody would complain about the lack of a plug these days, by the way. Guess Forbes wasn’t one of those “smart” ballparks.

In Diamond Mind Baseball, however, everything seems to be going Pittsburgh’s way. The Pirates broke this game open in the bottom of the third, when Pete Castiglione came up with two men on:

Pete came up with another chance in the 5th:

I realized as I was writing this that the Pirates didn’t start Castiglione at third base this early in the season:

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 25, 1949, page 16

Now, I guess I’ve got the advantage of hindsight, but it really does surprise me. Pete is better than Eddie Bockman without a doubt. This is one of the nice things about using your own lineups: you don’t have to make the same mistakes that they made in real life.

Cincinnati Strikes Back

These Reds were no pushovers.

Cincinnati scored 2 in the top of the 6th to start a comeback, capped off by Ted Kluszewski’s single:

I told you last time that the Reds should never have pinch hit for Kluszewski in the bottom of the 9th!

Virgil Stallcup came up in the top of the 7th inning in a game that was too close for comfort for the Pirates:

And we were tied, just like that.

Drama

This was one of those drama-packed games. The top of the 9th included a crazy call when Johnny Wyrostek tried to steal second:

There was no sign of an argument, though I think a good one could have been made. As it turns out, this was a pivotal play, one that wound up costing Cincinnati the ballgame.

You knew it was going to come down to Ralph Kiner with a chance to win it. And here it was, in the bottom of the 10th, still knotted at 3:

I can assure you that the Pittsburg fans weren’t jeering Ralph this time around.

I suppose I should have acknowledged Bill Werle, who struck out 7 in 10 innings, throwing only 118 pitches in the process. The Pirates have been hitting well, yes, but they’ve also been pitching extremely well. We’ll see how long this will hold up.

Results and Standings

Yankees 11, Red Sox 7: At Boston, the Yankees scored early and often, including this big blast by Yogi Berra in the 1st inning:

Vic Raschi joined the ranks of pitchers with 0 real life home runs who have hit one in a Diamond Mind Baseball replay a few innings later:

And, of course, our good friend Cliff Mapes added to his legend in the 8th, helping New York clinch the easy victory:

Watch the game here.

Browns 5, White Sox 3 (Game 1): At Chicago, St. Louis built a lead it never relinquished off Whitey Platt’s 3rd inning home run:

Browns 10, White Sox 4 (Game 2): At Chicago, the Browns took advantage of an early Chicago miscue:

Later, in the 4th, Platt came up again to put this one out of reach:

Tigers 3, Indians 0: At Cleveland, Hal Newhouser shut the Indians out on 9 hits, making it look easy. Watch the game here.

Athletics 12, Senators 8: At Washington, the Athletics destroyed Washington pitching, scoring 9 runs in the first 3 innings to coast to victory. Watch the game here.

Phillies 7, Dodgers 3 (Game 1): At Philadelphia, the Phillies took advantage of early Dodger miscues and poor Dodger hitting to demolish them in the first game of the doubleheader. See extended writeup here.

Phillies 3, Dodgers 0 (Game 2): At Philadelphia, the Phillies shut out the Dodgers, taking advantage of a foolish decision by Dodger management with the potential tying run at the plate in the top of the 9th. See extended writeup here.

Braves 4, Giants 3: At New York, the Giants suffered their first loss of the season. See extended writeup here. Watch the game here.

Cubs 2, Cardinals 1: At St. Louis, the Cubs win their first game of the season, despite being outhit and largely outplayed. See extended writeup here. Watch the game here.

Pirates 4, Reds 3 (10): See above.

The Cardinals have struggled a bit in the early season, and the Dodgers look terrible. Meanwhile, the Pirates look simply awesome, and the Giants and Braves have been surprisingly strong.