1938 BBW Replay Opening Day

APBA BBW 6.0 is installed, the 1938 season disk is installed, and all the prep work is done, so it's time to start playing games. 102 non-carded players have been added, the league set-up is complete, and the non-game impacting updates have been made. ATMgr is configured and the opening day lineups are set as well as all the scheduled transactions that will occur throughout the season. The stadium backdrops are all in place as well, and so with all that, it's time to play. Philadelphia (AL) opened the 1938 season on April 18 with a game in Washington (box score), with President Roosevelt in attendance to throw out the first pitch. Both teams had sixteen hits in the game, but Washington came out ahead 12-8 thanks to a pair of three-run homeruns by Zeke Bonura and Buddy Lewis (inside the park). 

The big news of the 1938 pre-season was when Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis granted free agency to ~100 St. Louis Cardinals farmhands. St. Louis was the westernmost and southernmost franchise, and the Cardinals were the more successful of the two teams hosted there, they had built a large radio network throughout the Midwest and South, thus building up the fan base. They also had an expansive farm team structure, with many teams, and sometimes even multiple teams in a single league. This allowed Branch Rickey and the Cardinals to pick and choose who to promote while bottling up a large number of talented players that might otherwise be playing at the major league level.

 

The prize within this group was an eighteen-year-old St. Louis native by the name of Pete Reiser (Bio). St. Louis tried to broker a deal with Brooklyn whereas Brooklyn would sign Reiser and then trade him back to St. Louis, but once Brooklyn realized what they had they chose to keep him regardless. Reiser made his major league debut in 1940 and immediately set the league on fire. Unfortunately, Reiser's propensity for crashing into outfield walls resulted in injuries that limited Reiser's career

 

As part of the preparation activities, I try to do some level of research as to details that occurred during and around the season. While it doesn't strictly impact gameplay, it is always nice to absorb a little of the history of the league, the players, and the times. I did find and downloaded a free version of the 1938 Sporting News baseball Guide, plus I purchased a book: "Pennant Hopes Dashed by the Homer in the Gloamin'" (Amazon), a retrospective by Ronald Waldo of the Pittsburgh Pirates season and late season collapse. This book does what it says - it is a very Pittsburgh-centric story, not an overall 1938 season recollection, but it does provide a good overview of the day-to-day struggles … travel, injuries, personalities … all things that apply to any team that is together for an entire season.

 

Another link for replayers that I recommend is Charlton's Baseball Chronology. While it doesn’t comment on every game played, there is still plenty of baseball news and color to help fill in the day-to-day reality of the season in question. The site is not laid out particularly well and can be a bear to navigate, but the wealth of knowledge therein is good information for replayers.

 

When Bobby Doerr died in 2017 at the time he was both the oldest living player and the oldest living Hall-of-Famer as well as the last living play who played in the 1930's. I was curious, so I looked up to see if any players played in the 1940's that were still living (Link). Bobby Shantz made his first appearance in 1949, but the two oldest players made their debut in the early 1950's.

 

The war in Europe was still four years away, although wisps of smoke could be seen on the horizon. Many of the young men who played in 1938 served in the military during the war. Two players from the 1939 season were killed in combat (Baseball players who died in war (mlb.com)), but no one from 1938.

 

Links to the blog posts for my other replays are as follows:

 

https://rogers1901apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1911apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1920apbareplay.blogspot.com

https://rogers1930apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1941apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1949apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1957apbareplay.blogspot.com/

https://rogers1967apbareplay.blogspot.com

 

With all that being said, it's time to roll the dice (or whatever the BBW equivalent is). I am really looking forward to seeing what happens in this BBW replay. Have a great summer everybody and expect to see regular updates to this blog as the replay progresses.

 

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