Nerves of Steel
April 20, 1949 Part 3
April 20, 1949 Part 3
You learn something new every day, don’t you?
I didn’t realize this at the beginning, but Bob Feller was actually injured for the very first part of the 1949 season. I started Bob Lemon in the Indians’ first game without thinking much about it. In real life, Feller lasted two innings on opening day before being taken out with an injury. From The Sporting News:
This apparently created a pitching crisis of sorts in the Cleveland bullpen.
It’s unfortunately hard to read a lot of this article, though you get the idea. Cleveland was in trouble in real life due to these pitching injuries, and the World Champs in our replay are going to have to hope for some good pitching from unlikely sources to overcome these challenges.
Indians at Browns
This one started off with a massive offensive attack for the Browns. St. Louis roasted the young Mike Garcia from the start, scoring 5 runs in 2 innings and battering him around the park.
“Big Bear” Garcia, by the way, was making his first professional start. He had only one appearance in real life in 1948. The real life Garcia had an additional month before being thrown into the mix; his first start was this game in Philadelphia, in which he wasn’t able to record a single out. Hey – if a future three-time All Star had such a rocky first outing, you shouldn’t feel bad if things are rocky for you the first time you try them.
Anyway, Cleveland slowly started to come back, picking a few runs off of Red Embree here and there. Here’s a bit of trivia for you: Embree was a former Indians pitcher who was dealt away to the New York Yankees in December 1947, a year before the Indians won that famous World Series. He was less than effective for the Yankees in 1948, and wound up with these hapless Browns in 1949, after which he retired at only 31.
Cleveland pecked away, scoring one in the third, one in the fourth, and then one in the 8th. Then, in the top of the 9th, Embree found himself in trouble. Cleveland managed to get runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, down 5-3, with Larry Doby at bat.
I looked carefully at my options, and finally decided to pitch to Doby. Embree had other ideas, however, and promptly walked Doby on 5 pitches.
That brought up Lou Boudreau, and a defensive prayer from the Browns. We pulled in the infield and hoped for a ground ball.
Embree had only thrown 105 pitches to this point, pitching well despite the pinch he suddenly found himself in. I figured going to the St. Louis bullpen would be a suicidal move, and decided to go with my man, come what may.
Boudreau hit a line drive to left field that Whitey Platt handled nicely. One run scored, another runner went to third, and the score was now 5-4.
We brought the corners in and decided to pitch to Mickey Vernon, who I thought Embree might be able to induce into a double play. And, well, that’s exactly what happened:
Telling the defense to go for the double play instead of throwing home really requires a steady hand in this case. If Vernon legged it out we’d be tied, and who knows what would have happened from there – especially with the Browns’ bullpen.
If you’ve never played one of these baseball simulations before, you might think that they’re really hands-off, push-button type games. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are plenty of strategic decisions to be made, and some of the errors of omission (not taking the pitcher out) loom larger than the errors of commission (putting the wrong guy in there). The truth, though, is that there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a defensive strategy work in the late innings against a vastly superior team.
It’s games like this that have me hooked.
Forum Roundup
Two more from Mark Ruckhaus, including a dominating start by Sandy Koufax.