This site is to share events,simulated and historical,experienced and learned,during my re-creation of classic baseball seasons. See the links below for previous replays. And the memories are not just for the summertime as I am also replaying the NFL and AFL seasons of the Super Bowl era using Second and Ten Football.
The current baseball replays are 1968 and 1920 using Diamond Mind Baseball,and a 1968 AFL and NFL football replay. Enjoy!
As I prepared to write a post on the passing of legendary announcer Larry Munson of the University of Georgia,I surfed through the plethora of online tributes and obituaries. I came across this tribute compiled by the University. This video is better than anything I could have written. Anyone who watches this and bleeds Red and Black will get goosebumps and possibly well up with tears. For anyone else,I’m sorry if you don’t get it,but I hope there is another announcer in your life,past or present,who verbalizes and memorializes the passion you feel for your home team.
One of his overlooked radio calls,as possibly his finest,came from the final minutes of the 1997 UGA –Georgia Tech game. Tech scored a touchdown to take a 24-21 lead with 48 seconds remaining in the game. Munson summed it up (paraphrasing from my memory of listening to this call probably over 20 times) “And they just cut out our heart and the blood is pouring down North Avenue!”Graphic,yes. Over the top,yes…but that is how every Bulldog fan felt at that moment. It was a complete heartbreak. Miraculously,Mike Bobo and the Bulldogs engineered a furious 65 yard drive (aided by a pass interference call) and hit Corey Allen on an eight-yard pass with just eight ticks left on the clock. “Oh my,oh it couldn’t have happened! …and we just picked up our heart and stuffed it back in!”Munson summed up the game later,“Michigan State had rocked Penn State 49-7 but nothing has rocked like this one. Nothing. Has. Rocked. Like This One.”
See why UGA fans chose to turn down the television sound and turn on Munson: the final drive vs. Georgia Tech,2006. Larry was 84 years old on this call.
“Fifty years from now,some grandparent is going to remember him as the sports voice of their childhood. ‘Yes,’they’ll say to a grandson or granddaughter,‘[fill in the blank] is good,but you should have heard Larry Munson. He was absolutely the best.’”
- Verne Lundquist,CBS Sports
Larry Munson retired in 2008 after 42 years in the booth. His classic calls echo throughout campus each football Saturday in Athens,and they will continue to do so for years to come. Yes,I am biased. Herschel Walker is the greatest running back in college football history,and college football will never have an announcer with the passion of Larry Munson. Look at the sugar falling from the sky! Rest in Peace,Larry. This really feels like a death in my family.
Back on March 29,2011 in a post aptly titled For What It’s Worth,I listed my division and wild card predictions along with my picks for league superlatives. My team predictions were a disaster. I correctly selected Texas as AL West champions,and the Rays as the AL wild card. The problem with the Rays selection was that I chose the Red Sox as AL East division champs. As for the NL,I received the golden sombrero. My MVP and Cy Young predictions were no better. But with today’s announcement of the Rookie of the Year awards,I can boast of complete clairvoyant abilities. Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel and Tampa Bay’s Jeremy Hellickson are the 2011 Rookies of the Year,just as I declared on March 29,2011. [mic drop]
Cleveland Browns coach Blanton Collier announced Frank Ryan (above) will be replaced as the team's starting quarterback against the Steelers this week. Ryan frequently had defensive linemen draped on him this season as he has been sacked 17 times in the first 3 games.
Frank Ryan,who quarterbacked the Browns to a championship four seasons ago,has been displaced as Browns quarterback after a seven game losing streak dating back to last season. Coach Collier named Bill Nelsen as the starter this week. Nelsen will be making his debut against his former club,the Pittsburgh Steelers,who drafted him in the tenth round in 1963.
As for Ryan,he threw his seventh interception of the season in the waning moments of the Browns’13-10 loss to Los Angeles in Cleveland’s opening game on Sunday. Ryan was battered around by the Rams’front four throughout the game. He was sacked six times by the Rams,and seventeen times in three games this season. Ryan suffered a shoulder injury in 1965,and those seventeen sacks have re-aggravated the injury. For Ryan’s own sake and for the good of the team,Collier finally announced his decision after the loss to the Rams. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are both 0-3 trailing the surprise leaders in the Century Division,the 2-1 New Orleans Saints.
“The pilgrimage has gained momentum, take a turn (take a turn),take a turn (take a turn)” R.E.M.,1983
There are two camps of baseball simulation players from the 1970′s:APBA and Strat-0-Matic. Ask anyone who played a card-and-dice baseball game as a kid “which game did you play?”and one of those two companies is the likely answer. I spent two summers of my adolescence with APBA baseball cards and dice. In early adulthood,I returned to the computer version of APBA,and years passed by before I saw those cards and dice again. That is,until last Friday.
I stopped for a moment beside my car in a parking lot. I had completed my morning business and set out for every day errands —a trip to the bank and whatever else —or for an afternoon of more work. But a recollection erased the laundry list that was forming in my mind. The APBA Game Company had announced this summer they were leaving their long-standing home of Lancaster,Pennsylvania for a suburb known as Alpharetta,Georgia. Not too far from where I now stood. A few clicks and swipes on my phone revealed I now stood a mere twelve minutes by car from APBA Games. The chores and cares of every day were cast aside,and I turned the car in an opposite direction for a pilgrimage to honor those summer days.
Syracuse's Larry Csonka is tackled by the Packer defense in the 1968 Chicago Charities College All-Star Game.
In 1934,one year after creating baseball’s All Star Game,Arch Ward,sports editor for the Chicago Tribune,looked for a football equivalent of the All Star Game. The NFL was is its fledgling years and in need of some publicity. The result was a pre-season game that matched the defending NFL champion against a team of college all-stars. The game enjoyed initial success as it was the college game that held the public’s interest at the time. Red Grange and Sammy Baugh reached celebrity status during the playing days in college,not in the NFL. In 1947,the game drew an astounding 105,840 fans in attendance at Chicago’s Solider Field.
In the 1960′s,the game lessened in importance as salaries around the NFL increased. The College All Stars defeated the NFL champions (the AFL champion Jets and Chiefs did play this game in 1969 and 1970 respectively) nine times in the forty-one year history of the game (the game was not played in 1974 due to NFL player strike). The last victory was in 1963 as Wisconsin’s Ron VanderKelen led the collegians to a stunning 20-17 victory over Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers. Interestingly,VanderKalen was undrafted before the game,but received a contract offer from the Vikings after the game.
