1979 AL End Of June Report

He's not "cranked", he's just gone cuckoo!

As those of you have been following along know, I am re-replaying the 1979 baseball season with the APBA tabletop game. I played it the first time with my very first set, purchased in 1980, no tweaks, no options, just straight out of the box--and with 20-man teams! This time, I am using the newest reissue of the cards, my Orsino Board (which is listed just under the blog header among the stand-alone pages), error randomizer, trades, full rosters, and advanced pitching and fielding options. (I don't use the "playing it safe" base running option. Keep running, fatty!)

What follows are the standings and leaders as of the end of June, as well as notes in parenthesis about who the leaders were the first time around, in categories that I wrote down at the time. Here we go!

The Orioles rode a 22-8 June to creep within a game and a half of the Brewers, while the Angels smoked every pitching staff they encountered, as well as beating back the Rangers and Royals in head-to-head competition. However, the Rangers, like the Orioles, remain just a length and a half out. 

MIL  53-26  ----    (tie least times shutout 1) 
BAL  53-29   1.5  (best June 22-8. 44-15 since May 1.)
DET  43-35   9.5  (best 1-run record 15-6)
BOS  41-36  11    
NYY 40-39  13
CLE  30-47  22
TOR  29-53  25.5

CAL  49-31  ----
TEX  47-32   1.5  (most shutouts 11, best x-inn record 8-0)
KCR  42-37   6.5  (tie least times shutout 1)
MIN  40-38   8
CWS  36-42  12  (worst x-inn record 1-5)
SEA  36-42   21.5
OAK  24-57  25.5  (worst June 4-24, least shutouts 0, most times shutout 15)

(The first go-round, the Brewers led then, too, and by the same margin of a game and a half, but Boston was in second. Baltimore was 6 under .500. No AL team was more improved in the reissue than the Orioles. Minnesota led the west by 3.5 over Chicago, of all teams!)

Pitching and Defense.
Milwaukee has surrendered the least runs, 313. NY and Texas have given up 314. Oakland has coughed up 528 runs, 39 more than next worst Seattle. The Yankees have given up the least homers with 62; Seattle the most with 102. The Angels lead with 34 complete games to lead that category by 7. Detroit and Seattle have only 16 distance efforts. Texas and Minnesota lead with 22 saves each. Seattle is a distant last with just 5. The White Sox kick the ball the most (defense really was that team's bugaboo) with 76 errors. Clean-fielding team is KC with just 50 gaffes. The Yanks have turned the most DP's with 102; the Orioles the least with just 52. 

Offense
The Angels are a powerhouse, leading the loop with a gaudy 476 tallies. Oakland is last by a whopping 56 runs, at 269 runs scored. Surprisingly, the Blue Jays lead in doubles with 164; the A's are last with 88. Triples honors go to KC with their jackrabbits and fake turf, with 36. Boston has just 12. Baltimore leads the league with 122 round trippers; Minnesota is the 98-pound weakling with only 52. The Royals lead in both steals (111) and caughts (27). Boston lags with just 20 thefts. They join Toronto with just 10 caughts. Boston has grounded into 18 more DP's than anybody else, with 93; Texas gets doubled up the least, with 59. The exciting Tigers have walked it off 7 times, 5 of them in June. Toronto has no walk-offs at all. No team has more than 2 grand slams. Almost half the teams don't even have one. There have been 11 grand slams league-wide; they'll have to pick up the pace to match the actual league total of 50. 

Leader Board

"Like my pornstache?"

WINS: Flanagan-bal 14-2, Caldwell-mil 14-3, Frost-cal 12-4, Travers-mil 10-1, D.Martinez-bal 10-5, Ryan-cal 10-6 (Frost 14-3)

"Drub me!"

LOSSES: Huffman-tor 1-11, Gale-kc 4-11

"I complete me."

CG: John-ny 10, Wise-cle 10

Ryan-cal has 136 K's. He led with 124 the first time.

SHO: 6 tied with 3

"I wear a cape under my uniform! Wanna see?"

SAVES: Marshall-min 22, Kern-tex 19, Castro-mil 17, Hrabosky-kc 17, Lopez-det 16, Stanhouse-bal 16 (Marshall 17. Not sure why I had so many fewer saves the first time.)

"Watch me go from torrid to tepid!"

HR: Lynn-bos 31, Thomas-mil 27, Singleton-bal 26, Grich-cal 24, Jackson-ny 23 (Singleton 27) Fred Lynn, after absolutely terrifying pitchers in April, has slowly cooled, turning in a pedestrian 5 HR and 16 rbi in June. He is hitting .344. At this point the first time, he was at a gaudy .390. 

"I dreamed I was way out in front in my Maidenform bra!" 

RBI: Grich-cal 76, Singleton-bal 74, Lynn-bos 73, Baylor-cal 71, Thomas-mil 70 (Summers 81) Ha! Champ Summers! I didn't do trades the first time, so he was a Tiger from opening day. I'd forgotten he did this well, though. This time, he had 6 HR and 11 rbi for the Reds and has 8 HR and 20 rbi for the Tigers for a total of 14 HR and 31 rbi, a mere 50 off his former pace! :-P

RUNS: Lynn-bos 70, Baylor-cal 66, Murray-bal 64, Gamble-tex 63,Thomas-mil 61 (Lynn 79)

Every girl's crazy bout a sharp-dressed man!

2B: Lemon-chi 28, Rice, bos 28, Jackson-min 26, Bosetti-tor 25, Cooper-mil 25

3B: Bannister-chi 8, Molitor-mil 8, Whitaker-det 8

The car with the stuffed rabbit is just out of the frame.

STEALS: Wilson-kc 47, Leflore-det 41, Dilone-oak 27 (Cruz-sea 40)

"I meant to do that."

GIDP: Ford-cal 21, Hobson-bos 17, Randolph-ny 15 

"I got blistahs on my fingahs!"

ERRORS: Remy-bos 17, 4 tied with 15. Remy is a 2b-8, so this is surprising. 

JUNE HIGHLIGHTS
June 1: Brewers beat KC 21-7 with a 24-hit barrage. 40 hits total in the game.
June 9: Chambliss (ny) hits for the cycle at KC.
June 14: Baylor and Grich both hit 3 homers for the Angels in a 14-4 win at Toronto.
June 14: Juan Beniquez (ny) charges the mound and beats the shit out of Paul Hartzell (min) who had just grazed his uniform sleeve with a change-up. Easy there, Juan!
June 16: Cowens (kc) hits 3 homers in a win at Milwaukee.
June 19: Roy Smalley (min), snoozing along until then, goes 6-for-6 with 14 total bases, 5 runs scored, and 7 rbi as Twins belt out 21 hits in a 16-10 donnybrook win at Milwaukee. 
June 19: Not to be outdone, George Brett (kc) also goes 6-for-6 as KC goes berserk with 26 hits and a ten-run second inning in an absurd 18-0 win at Oakland. George winds up June hitting .316.
June 23: Jim Rice (bos) and Balor Moore (tor) beat the living daylights out of each other in a disagreement over which way the toilet roll should be placed. "Over!" BIFF! POW! "Under!!!" SMACK! Now, boys...
June 24: Guidry (ny) fans 13 Indians in a 6-2 win at the Stadium. The baker's dozen ties Rich Wortham's May 20th performance for the most K's in a game in the AL so far.

Easssyyyy, Juan!

 
Hope you enjoyed! NL soon!